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��THE AMERICAN SYSTEM.
��Christmas Eve; the stars shining brightly, the full moon sailing majestic- ally through a cloudless sky, clear and intensely cold ; snow everywhere, crown- ing lofty hill tops and covering with a mantle of white the lowly valleys ; cold, sparkling Christmas Eve. The morrow bade fair to be a lovely day — bright as Christmas ever should be. Perhaps Queen Luna shone down upon no hap- pier household in all the world than that of Deacon Gordon. A new house has been erected on the site of the burned cottage, handsomer and more commodi- ous, and furnished tastefully throughout. The money, principal and interest,
��amounting in all to nearly three thou- sand dollars, Samuel Black had paid over without a word, but with the in- ward conviction, let us hope, that " hon- esty is the best policy."
One month ago Deacon Gordon had sent for Ralph, and with tears in his eyes acknowledged his injustice, and at the same time had placed Fannie's hand in that of her lover, giving his full consent to their marriage, — and to-night, while the Christmas stars shine so brightly, and amid the best wishes of her numer- ous friends, sweet Fannie Gordon be- comes Ralph Carey's wife.
��FAVOBS, FAULTS AND FUTURE OF THE AMERICAN SYSTEM.
��BY C. C. LORD.
��The sentiment of domesticity owes much to America. The love ot home is strong in the human breast. It is con- firmed by a sense of absolute proprietor- ship. The privilege of a real home has induced many a stranger to seek the American shores. The possession of a home has encouraged a sentiment of true patriotism. The consciousness of domes- tic possessions is the basis of a nobler citizenship.
American citizenship has been truer for the sense of an individual coparce- nary interest. Men are truest to that from which they anticipate returns of in- dividual advantage. This sentiment is the stronger for the advantage of im- proved individual possibilities. To live and hope is greater than simply to live alone. The prospect of social elevation, confirmed in many instances by practi- cal example, has made many an Ameri- can citizen more zealous of his country's integrity and honor.
The honor of our land has been in- creased by the consciousness of the free- dom of moral and intellectual expression. The soul, released from fetters, expands
��her wings with alacrity. With its pow- ers in free play, human nature multiplies its proofs of nobler excellency till they are as many as the changes of the kalei- doscope. Forms of love and moulds of thought, like a multitude of blossoms upon one parent stalk, have been evolved to the enlargement of the scope of social benevolence and activity, from that life of freedom which is lived easiest on our own soil.
The favors of the American system are not more numerous than the faults that have arisen from its misinterpretation. Men have mistook a domestic privilege for an abnegation of all moral obligation to society. When ouce the strong man has built his house, he has shut the door and kept it barred against the ingress of social liberality. Men have fondled, feasted and fattened their own selfish- ness. The language of their lives is : " As for me and my house, we will serve ourselves." They love self, live for self, die for self; the world derives no benefit from them except it comes from their unavoidable external dependence upon it. They will do nothing for social mor-
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