ers of the day. I occasionally meet him, and see for myself the
workings of his well-trained mind, and his generous and sanctified
spirit. I say to myself, I remember you, when you were only the germ of
what you are; but surely the man was bound up in the boy. I witness
nothing in your maturity which was not shadowed forth in your earliest
development.

Here again, let me trace the stream to its fountain--the effect to its
cause. This individual was the child of a discreet and faithful
Christian mother. She dedicated him to God in holy baptism, while he was
yet unconscious of the solemn act. She watched the first openings of his
intellect, that no time might be lost in introducing the beams of
immortal truth. She guarded him during his childhood, from the influence
of evil example, especially of evil companions, with the most scrupulous
care. She labored diligently to suppress the rising of unhallowed
tempers and perverse feelings, with a view to prevent, if possible, the
formation of any vicious habit, while she steadily inculcated the
necessity of that great radical change, which alone forms the basis of a
truly spiritual character. And though no human eye followed her to her
closet, I doubt not that her good instructions were seconded by her
fervent prayers; and that as often as she approached the throne of
mercy, she left there a petition for the well-doing and the well-being,
the sanctification and salvation of her son. And her work of faith and
labor of love were not in vain. The son became all that she could have
asked, and she lived to witness what he became. She lived to listen to
his earnest prayers and his eloquent and powerful discourses. She lived
to hear his name pronounced with respect and gratitude in the high
places of the Church. He was one of the main comforters of her old age;
and if I mistake not, he was at her death-bed, to commend her departing
spirit into her Redeemer's hands. Richly was that mother's fidelity
rewarded by the virtues and graces which she had assisted to form.
Though she recognized them all as the fruits of the Spirit, she could
not but know that in a humble, and yet very important sense, they were
connected with her own instrumentality.

Such has been the career of two of the playmates of my childhood. They
are both living, but they have been traveling in opposite directions,--I
may say ever since they left the cradle. And so far as we can judge, the
main reason is, that the one