encounter sympathy and
encouragement in return. Such is man, as he comes from the hands of his
maker.

Thus prepared, he is turned into the great field of society. Here he
meets with much that he had not anticipated, and with many rebuffs. He
is taught that he must accommodate his temper and proceedings to the
expectations and prejudices of those around him. He must be careful to
give no offence. With how many lessons, not always the most salutary and
ingenuous, is this maxim pregnant! It calls on the neophyte to bear
a wary eye, and to watch the first indications of disapprobation and
displeasure in those among whom his lot is cast. It teaches him to
suppress the genuine emotions of his soul. It informs him that he is not
always to yield to his own impulses, but that he must "stretch forth his
hands to another, and be carried whither he would not."

It recommends to him falseness, and to be the thing in outward
appearance that he is not in his heart.

Still however he goes on. He shuts up his thoughts in his bosom; but
they are not exterminated. On the contrary he broods over them with
genial warmth; and the less they are exposed to the eye of day, the
more perseveringly are they cherished. Perhaps he chooses some youthful
confident of his imaginings: and the effect of this is, that he pours
out his soul with uncontrolable copiousness, and with the fervour of a
new and unchecked conceiving. It is received with answering warmth; or,
if there is any deficiency in the sympathy of his companion, his mind is
so earnest and full, that he does not perceive it. By and by, it may be,
he finds that the discovery he had made of a friend, a brother of
his soul, is, like so many of the visions of this world, hollow and
fallacious. He grasped, as he thought, a jewel of the first water; and
it turns out to be a vulgar pebble. No matter: he has gained something
by the communication. He has heard from his own lips the imaginings
of his mind shaped into articulate air; they grew more definite and
distinct as he uttered them; they came by the very act to have more of
reality, to be more tangible. He shakes off the ill-assorted companion
that only encumbered him, and springs away in his race, more light of
heart, and with a step more assured, than ever.

By and by he becomes a young man. And, whatever checks he may have
received before, it usually happens that all his hopes and projects
return to him now with recruited strength. He h