* * * * *

'It is told us, we should pray, "lead us not into temptation;"
and I agree. Yet I think it cannot be, that, with a good
disposition, and the means you have had to form your mind and
discern a higher standard, your conduct or happiness can be
so dependent on circumstances, as you seem to think. I never
advised your taking a course which would blunt your finer
powers and I do not believe that winning the means of
pecuniary independence need do so. I have not found that it
does, in my own case, placed at much greater disadvantage than
you are. I have never considered, either, that there was
any misfortune in your lot. Health, good abilities, and a
well-placed youth, form a union of advantages possessed by
few, and which leaves you little excuse for fault or failure.
And so to your better genius and the instruction of the One
Wise, I commend you.'

* * * * *

'It gave me great pleasure to get your last letter, for these
little impromptu effusions are the genuine letters. I rejoice
that man and nature seem harmonious to you, and that the heart
beats in unison with the voices of Spring. May all that is
manly, sincere, and pure, in your wishes, be realized! Obliged
to live myself without the sanctuary of the central relations,
yet feeling I must still not despair, nor fail to profit by
the precious gifts of life, while "leaning upon our Father's
hand," I still rejoice, if any one can, in the true temper,
and with well-founded hopes, secure a greater completeness of
earthly existence. This fortune is as likely to be yours, as
any one's I know. It seems to me dangerous, however, to meddle
with the future. I never lay my hand on it to grasp it with
impunity.'

* * * * *

'Of late I have often thought of you with strong yearnings of
affection and desire to see you. It would seem to me, also,
that I had not devoted myself to you enough, if I were not
conscious that by any more attention to the absent than I have
paid, I should have missed the needed instructions from the
present. And I feel that any bond of true value will endure
necessary neglect.'

* * * * *

'There is almost too much of bitter mixed in the cup of life.
You say religion i