eparation to receive him--sighs for his safe return, and welcomes
him home with those emotions of ecstatic joy, that cause him to forget
his past labors, toils and dangers. Is he stretched upon a bed of
pain? Unwearied she sits beside him, hushes every sound that might
interrupt his broken slumbers, and watches every breath he draws. She
whispers to him the soothing words of encouragement and consolation--
gives neither sleep to her eyes, nor slumber to her eyelids, but is
the guardian angel of his pillow.

When all human aid has failed--when the pulse beats faint--the once
sparkling eye grows dim and rolls faint and languid in its socket, she
stands mute and pensive at his dying bed. Her whole soul is absorbed
in the interest of the scene and rent with agony. She wipes the cold
sweat of death from his face, gazes with exquisite anxiety till the
last dreadlful struggle is over, and breathes to the throne of mercy
the prayer of affection for the repose of his spirit. And so feels the
kind husband over his companion, indulgent parents over their dying
children, and dutiful children over their parents.

But it is a lamentable circumstance, a painful consideration, that
there are too many unhappy divisions in the domestic circle. Yes, it
is a painful consideration indeed, that those, who are so nearly
allied to each other, should, even for one moment, indulge in feelings
of acrimony. It is but a short time, at longest, that we can be
together, and such unhappy divisions must render the parting scene, at
the bed of death, doubly painful. Thoughtless, giddy or oppressive as
we may be to those, who are near to us in life, while blooming health
is their lot, yet righteous heaven has so constituted our natures,
that the most painful reminiscences will force themselves upon the
mind when the injured object, to whom we have given distress, is upon
a dying bed. Every unkind word, every harsh treatment, the whole dark
picture our ungenerous conduct will present itself to the imagination
in all its naked woes. And be that dying one a parent, a companion, a
child, their very silence, as thy turn upon us a languid eye fading in
death, will harrow up every painful recollection. O! if we wish to
tread upon their graves with an unsullied conscience before heaven,
let us be of one mind, live in peace, and discharge, to them, those
sacred duties of kindness and affection, which the ties, that bind
them to us, enjoin.

This world is too m