an indurated heterogeneous fabric of many dates, and of no settled character, in which the man is imprisoned.  Then there can be enlargement, and the man of to-day scarcely recognizes the man of yesterday.  And such should be the outward biography of man in time, a putting off of dead circumstances day by day, as he renews his raiment day by day.  But to us, in our lapsed estate, resting, not advancing, resisting, not cooeperating with the divine expansion, this growth comes by shocks.

We cannot part with our friend.  We cannot let our angels go.  We do not see that they only go out, that archangels may come in.  We are idolaters of the old.  We do not believe in the riches of the soul, in its proper eternity and omnipresence.  We do not believe there is any force in to-day to rival or recreate that beautiful yesterday.  We linger in the ruins of the old tent, where once we had bread and shelter and organs, nor believe that the spirit can feed, cover, and nerve us again.  We cannot again find aught so dear, so sweet, so graceful.  But we sit and weep in vain.  The voice of the Almighty saith, “Up and onward forevermore!” We cannot stay amid the ruins.  Neither will we rely on the new; and so we walk ever with reverted eyes, like those monsters who look backwards.

And yet the compensations of calamity are made apparent to the understanding also, after long intervals of time.  A fever, a mutilation, a cruel disappointment, a loss of wealth, a loss of friends, seems at the moment unpaid loss, and unpayable.  But the sure years reveal the deep remedial force that underlies all facts.  The death of a dear friend, wife, brother, lover, which seemed nothing but privation, somewhat later assumes the aspect of a guide or genius; for it commonly operates revolutions in our way of life, terminates an epoch of infancy or of youth which was waiting to be closed, breaks up a wonted occupation, or a household, or style of living, and allows the formation of new ones more friendly to the growth of character.  It permits or constrains the formation of new acquaintances, and the reception of new influences that prove of the first importance to the next years; and the man or woman who would have remained a sunny garden flower, with no room for its roots and too much sunshine for its head, by the falling of the walls and the neglect of the gardener, is made the banyan[144] of the forest, yielding shade and fruit to wide neighborhoods of men.

SELF-RELIANCE

“Ne te quaesiveris extra."[145]

    “Man is his own star; and the soul that can
    Render an honest and a perfect man,
    Commands all light, all influence, all fate;
    Nothing to him falls early or too late. 
    Our acts our angels are, or good or ill,
    Our fatal shadows that walk by us still."[146]

* * * * *

      Cast the bantling on the rocks,
      Suckle him with the she-wolf’s teat;
      Wintered with the hawk and fox,
      Power and speed be hands and feet.[147]