y, if you do not speak
peaceably unto me. All that I said before was only bravado,--just to
keep a bold front to the foe. I can confide to you under the rose, that,
though without are fightings, within are fears. Pope, was it, who used
to look around upon the missives hurled at him, and say, "These are my
amusement"? But they are not mine. I want you to _like_ me and be
good-natured. It is not that you must always agree with opinions, or not
take exception to what is exceptionable; it is only that you shall not
say things in a sour, cross, disagreeable way. Impale the bait on your
arming-wire, but handle it as if you loved it. Talk thunderbolts, if
necessary, but don't "make faces." The soft south-wind is very,
charming; the northwest-wind, though sharp, is bracing and healthful;
but your raw east-winds,--oh! chain them in the caverns of AEolia, the
country of storms.

Bear with me a little longer in my folly; and, indeed, bear with me, you
who are strong, for the sake of the weak. Many and many there may be to
whom the meat of your metaphysics is indigestible and unpalatable, but
who find strength and cheer in the sincere milk of such words as I can
give. To you who have already set your feet on the high places, that may
be but a bruised reed which is a staff to those who are still struggling
up. Do you go on churning the cream of thought, and salting down its
butter for future ages; I will spread it on thin for the weak digestions
of this. Let scarfs, garters, gold amuse your riper stage, and beads and
prayer-books be the toys of age, but wax not over-wroth, when you behold
the child, by Nature's kindly law, pleased with a rattle!

And after all, Dear Public, it is partly your own fault that I venture
to make still further draughts upon your patience. Though I have trimmed
my sails to opposing rather than to favoring gales, it is not because
the latter have been wanting. But a pin that pricks your finger attracts
to itself far more attention for the time than the thousand influences
that wrap you about only to soothe and delight. The reception that has
been harsh and unfriendly bears no manner of proportion to that which
has been genial and generous. So where you have given me an inch I take
an ell, and commission this bright morning--shine to bear to you my
thanks. For every kind word, whether it have come to me through the
highways or the by-ways, from far or near, from known or unknown, I pray
you receive my grate