Though your eyes be dim with weeping,
Tears like these are not from fear,
Trust to God's own holy keeping,
With your last kiss, all that's dear.
All lips that pray for us, all hearts that we rend
With parting, O father, to thee we commend,
Protect them and shield them from wrongs and despair.--H.

* * * * *


EQUANIMITY OF TEMPER.


Goodness of temper may be defined, to use the happy imagery of Gray,
"as the sunshine of the heart." It is a more valuable bosom-attendant
under the pressure of poverty and adversity, and when we are
approaching the confines of infirmity and old age, than when we are
revelling in the full tide of plenty, amid the exuberant strength and
freshness of youth. Lord Bacon, who has analyzed some of the human
accompaniments so well, is silent as to the softening sway and
pleasing influence of this choice attuner of the human mind. But
Shaftesbury, the illustrious author of the _Characteristics_, was so
enamoured of it, that he terms "gravity (its counterpart,) the essence
of imposture;" and so it is, for to what purpose does a man store his
brain with knowledge, and the profitable burden of the sciences, if he
gathers only superciliousness and pride from the hedge of learning?
instead of the milder traits of general affection, and the open
qualities of social feelings. I remember, when a youth, I was
extremely fond of attending the House of Commons, to hear the debates;