My spectral figure, pinched by the rude gripe
of January, becomes as thin as that "dagger of lath" employed by the
vaunting Falstaff, and my mind, affected by the universal desolation of
winter, is nearly as vacant of joy and bright ideas as the forest is of
leaves and the grove is of song. Fortunately for my happiness, this
is only periodical spleen. Though in the bitter months, surveying my
attenuated body, I exclaim with the melancholy prophet, "My leanness, my
leanness! woe is me!" and though, adverting to the state of my mind, I
behold it "all in a robe of darkest grain," yet when April and May
reign in sweet vicissitude, I give, like Horace, care to the winds, and
perceive the whole system excited by the potent stimulus of sunshine....
I have myself in winter felt hostile to those whom I could smile upon in
May, and clasp to my bosom in June.
* * * * *
=_William Gaston,[46] 1778-1844._=
From "Essays and Addresses."
=_151._= THE IMPORTANCE OF INTEGRITY.
The first great maxim of human conduct--that which it is all-important
to impress on the understandings of young men, and recommend to their
hearty adoption--is, above all things, in all circumstances, and under
every emergency, to preserve a clean heart and an honest purpose.
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