straight in it. Verily, thou art
a solace to me, Jacob; and though young in years, I feel that in thee I
have received a friend, and one that I may confide in. Bless thee,
Jacob! bless thee, my boy! and before I am laid with those who have gone
before me, may I see thee prosperous and happy! Then I will sing the
_Nunc Dimittis_, then will I say, `Now, Lord, let thy servant depart in
peace.'"

"I am happy, sir," replied I, "to hear you say that I am of any comfort
to you, for I feel truly grateful for all your kindness to me; but I
wish that you did not require comfort."

"Jacob, in what part of a man's life does he not require comfort and
consolation; yea, even from the time when, as a child, he buries his
weeping face in his mother's lap till the hour that summons him to his
account? Not that I consider this world to be, as many have described
it, a `vale of tears'; No, Jacob; it is a beautiful world, a glorious
world, and would be a happy world, if we would only restrain those
senses and those passions with which we have been endowed, that we may
fully enjoy the beauty, the variety, the inexhaustible bounty of a
gracious heaven. All was made for enjoyment and for happiness; but it
is we ourselves who, by excess, defile that which otherwise were pure.
Thus, the fainting traveller may drink wholesome and refreshing draughts
from the bounteous, overflowing spring; but should he rush heedlessly
into it, he muddies the source, and the waters are those of bitterness.
Thus, Jacob, was wine given to cheer the heart of man; yet, didst not
thou witness me, thy preceptor, debased by intemperance? Thus, Jacob,
were the affections implanted in us as a source of sweetest happiness,
such as those which now yearn in my breast towards thee; yet hast thou
seen me, thy preceptor, by yielding to the infatuation and imbecility of
threescore years, dote, in my folly, upon a maiden, and turn the sweet
affections into a source of misery and anguish." I answered not, for
the words of the Dominie made a strong impression upon me, and I was
weighing them in my mind. "Jacob," continued the Dominie, after a
pause, "next to the book of life, there is no subject of contemplation
more salutary than the book of death, of which each stone now around us
may be considered as a page, and each page contains a lesson. Read that
which is now before us. It would appear hard that an only child should
have been torn away from its doting parents, wh