is the season when the seeds of
disquiet and unhappiness are sown in the soul. And in the most gifted
and sensitive souls these seeds are oftenest sown. Those of highly
poetic temperaments, of delicate and almost divine psychology, in whom
some little constitutional unbalance existed at the beginning of life,
and whose judgments developed slower than their passions, are often
those who drink the bitterest waters of life. Beautiful souls, sitting
in the shadow of self-gathered clouds! We pity and love them. We never
see one without longing to bless it. Oh, could they but know how
unbecoming such powers and virtues are, such gloominess and disquiet,
they would rouse themselves to the glories of a morning life, and,
shaking the dews of the night from their wings, would soar aloft in the
sunshine of wisdom and love. Having tasted the bitter waters of sorrow,
they may appreciate, perhaps all the better, the sweet nectar of life
which ought to flow from all our states of mind and outward actions. We
were not made for sorrow, but for joy. Our souls were not so delicately
wrought to be wasted in fear and melancholy. Our minds were not so
gifted to spend themselves on clouds and in darkness. Our hearts were
not so firmly strung to wail notes of grief and woe. This beautiful
world, so ever fresh and new about us, was not designed to imprison
self-convicted souls away from its sunshine and flowers. The bending
heavens arching so grandly over us, so studded with sparkling
joy-lights, and animated with the eternal cotillion of the skies,
invites to no such irreverent repining. Creation's wide field of
animated existence inspires no such moodiness and fretfulness of spirit.
It is all wrong; it is absolutely sinful. We have no moral right to make
ourselves or others so unhappy. We were made for happiness as well as
holiness. All life's duties and experiences, when properly understood,
are the steps that lead to the temple of eternal good. Disappointments
and crosses may come, but let them come; they bring their lessons of
wisdom. Failures may crush our hopes and stop us on life's way; but we
may gather up and go on again rejoicing in what we have learned. Toils
may demand our time and energies; let us give them; labor creates
strength and imparts knowledge. Others may use our earnings, and require
our care and support; let it be so: "It is more blessed to give than to
receive."

Our friends may die and leave our hearts and homes desol