marks, to wander a little from the line of thought we had entered upon,—in order to call attention to the universality or impartiality of the Divine goodness. We will now return to the point from which we digressed.
From infancy, let us follow now the life of man into childhood. How full of sports and delights is this period of existence! Childhood, we know, is commonly called the happiest time of life. How many have wished themselves back again to the "happy days of their boyhood." How does "fond Memory" love to dwell upon those early scenes, to tread again those joyous haunts, to recall those merry times,
"When the heart danced, and life was in its Spring."
"Childhood's loved group revisits every scene,
The tangled wood-walk and the tufted green.
Indulgent Memory wakes, and lo! they live,
Clothed with far softer hues than light can give.
The school's lone porch, with reverend mosses gray,
Just tell the pensive pilgrim where it lay;
Mute is the bell that rung at peep of dawn,
Quickening my truant feet across the lawn;
Unheard the shout that rent the noontide air,
When the slow dial gave a pause to care.
Up springs at every step, to claim a tear,
Some little friendships formed and cherished here;
And not the lightest leaf, but trembling teems
With golden visions and romantic dreams."[1]
It is true, indeed, that "indulgent memory," as the poet says, clothes the scenes of former days with "far softer hues" than those in which they really appeared at the time; yet it is also true that "golden visions and romantic dreams" do gild those youthful days, and that the heart does dance and sing in that spring-time of life, with a fulness of joyous glee, which is peculiar
