Such an
Editor, could one be found or trained, need not expect to lead an easy,
indolent, or wholly joyous life,--to be blessed by Archbishops, or
followed by the approving shouts of ascendant majorities; but he might
find some recompense for their loss, in the calm verdict of an approving
conscience: and the tears of the despised and the friendless, preserved
from utter despair by his efforts and remonstrances, might freshen for a
season the daisies that bloomed above his grave.
* * * * *
From "The Crystal Palace and its Lessons."
=_167._= TRANQUILITY OF RURAL LIFE.
As for me, long tossed on the stormiest waves of doubtful conflict and
arduous endeavor, I have begun to feel, since the shades of forty years
fell upon me, the weary tempest-driven voyager's longing for land, the
wanderer's yearning for the hamlet where in childhood he nestled by
his mother's knee, and was soothed to sleep on her breast. The sober
down-hill of life dispels many illusions, while it developes or
strengthens within us the attachment, perhaps long smothered or
overlaid, for "that dear hut, our home." And so I, in the sober
afternoon of life, when its sun, if not high, is still warm, have bought
me a few acres of land in the broad, still country, and bearing thither
my household treasures, have resolved to steal from the city's labors
and anxieties at least one day in each week, wherein to revive as a
farmer, the memories of my childhood's humble home.
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