Chapter I: HAVE tried for a week, and vainly I seek

Words of wisdom to write to you here;
So, wishing you life free from sorrow and strife,
Nor wanting in friends and good cheer,
With health—perhaps wealth—
Love better than self,
And Truth, far the best, to the end;
Since content it maintains
While existence remains,
I subscribe myself, Truly, your friend.

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STRENGTH for to-day, in house and home,
To practice forbearance sweetly;
To scatter kind words and loving deeds,
Still trusting in God completely.

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A VOLUME of this kind, it is supposable, will be more or less frequently referred to, in future years, to revive fading recollections and recall pleasant associations; and, therefore, though it is so easy to moralize, it seems eminently fitting that helpful suggestions should accompany familiar autographs.

Let me say, then, that while in your youth a favorable combination of circumstances permits so much of happiness, the conditions of its enjoyment cannot always remain as now.

As the responsibilities, at present borne for you, shall come to rest on your own shoulders, and the darker shades of life’s history are unfolded, you will find the peace, which floweth like a river, only in the degree in which you resolutely perform every known duty; and, forgetting your own wants—whether fancied or real—devote your thoughts, as well as your energies, to making the society in which you move, happier for your being.

That you may indulge in no selfish ease; but bestow, as well as enjoy, a full share of the pleasures of time, and afterward receive a crown of glory, is the earnest wish of your friend—

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I WOULD that I could express my mind
To you, dear friend, in scribbling some rhyme;
But you know my failing as well as I,
And you’d better get another to try.

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THAT one who can work right on, quietly waiting for recognition, if it come: if not, yet right on, is the true nobleman.

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DOST thou know, love, that thy smile
Makes the whole world bright for me?
Just as sunrise pours a sudden
Purple glory on the sea.
Ah! had I that power, ever
Should the world look bright to thee.

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