These halcyons may be
looked for with a little more assurance in that pure October weather
which we distinguish by the name of Indian summer. The day, immeasurably
long, sleeps over the broad hills, and warm, wide fields. To have lived
through all its sunny hours seems longevity enough. The solitary places
do not seem quite lonely. At the gates of the forest, the surprised man
of the world is forced to leave his city estimates of great and small,
wise and foolish. The knapsack of custom falls off his back with the
first step he makes into these precincts. Here is sanctity which shames
our religions, and reality which discredits our heroes.
* * * * *
From "Society and Solitude."
=_200._= THE POWER OF CHILDHOOD.
The perfection of the providence for childhood is easily acknowledged.
The care which covers the seed of the tree under tough husks and, stony
cases, provides, for the human plant, the mother's breast and the
father's house. The size of the nestler is comic, and its tiny
beseeching weakness is compensated perfectly by the happy patronizing
look of the mother, who is a sort of high reposing Providence toward it.
Welcome to the parents the puny straggler, strong in his weakness, his
little arms more irresistible than the soldier's, his lips touched with
persuasion which Chatham and Pericles in manhood had not.
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