, at last, the meaning of their disappointment. And from
their experience, we too may learn, that we are placed here to be
not merely ideal artists, but actual toilers; not cadets of hope, but
soldiers of endeavor.

But there are disappointments in life that succeed reasonable
expectation; and these are the hardest of all to bear. I say the
expectation is reasonable; and yet, very possibly, the bitterness of the
disappointment comes from neglecting to consider the infirmity of all
earthly things. It is hard when, not dreaming, but trying our best, we
fail. It is hard to bear the burden and heat of the day, through all
life's prime, and yet, with all our toil, to earn no repose for its
evening hours. It is hard to accumulate a little gain, baptizing every
dollar with our honest sweat, and then have it stricken from our grasp
by the band of calamity or of fraud. It is hard, when we have placed our
confidence in man's honor, or his friendship, to find that we are fools,
and that we have been led in among rocks and serpents. And hard indeed
is it to see those who were worthy our love and our faith drop by
our side, and leave us alone. This dear child, the blossom of so many
hopes,--hard is it to see him die--to fold all our expectation in his
little shroud, and lay it away forever. We thought it had been he who
should have comforted and blessed us,--in whose life we could have
retraced the cycle of our own happiest experience,--whose unfolding
faculties would have been a renewal of our knowledge, and his manhood
not merely the prop but the refreshing of our age. This companion of our
lot,--this wedded wife of our heart,--why taken away now? She has shared
our early struggles, and tempered our anxiety with cheerful assurance.
She has tasted the bitterness; we thought she would have been a partner
of the joy. She has borne our fretfulness, and helped our perplexity,
and shed a serene light into our gloom; We thought she would have been
with us when we could pay the debt of faithfulness; when the cares of
business did not press and disturb us so. We thought it was she whose
voice, sweet with the music of old, deep memories, would have consoled
us far along; and that, in some calm evening of life, when all the
tumult of the world was still, and we were ready to go, we should
go--not far apart--gently to our graves.

Such are the plans that we lay out, saying of this thing and of that
thing, "We trusted that it would have been