ern limb of the moon
until the whole passed off from her western side.

This eclipse of the moon is caused by that planet's passing through
the shadow of the earth, projected far into space; and in proportion
to the proximity of the moon is the duration of the eclipse--so that
we who occupied the side of the earth to which the eclipse was
visible, really saw the moon darkened by the intervention of our own
shadow. How like life is this! How many thousands are daily condemned
for some apparent fault, which they have indeed acquired from those
who condemn. How many live and suffer in the shadow of those who
sneer--and persecute while they impart the cause. How many parents, by
their errors, keep the sunlight of Truth and Religion from their
children, and yet condemn them for the shadow which rests upon their
mind, and makes them objects of undesirable notoriety--profitless
members of the social circle.

Go and inquire of that heart-broken, condemned female, why she ceased
to be the light of the circle in which she was placed--and she will
answer that the very beings whom she was to bless, and from whom she
was to derive blessings, darkened her pathway by the interference of
injudicious kindness or ill-timed severity, and she became totally
eclipsed. Ask the youth who has just made shipwreck of his wealth and
his fame, and he will tell you that in passing through the shadow
which relatives and associates had thrown across his path, his eclipse
was so long that society had no patience to await his return to
light--no mercy for the obscuration which their ill-timed lenity to
others had made him suffer.

But the moon on the morning of the 13th September passed out of the
obscuration, and went on her course diffusing light to all, and
maintaining her supremacy, in apparent size and real lustre, above all
the stellar orbs. And thus it is with man. The shadow of misfortune or
error, of indiscretion, is always projected across his path--he is
liable with every change to suffer some obscuration, some diminution
of his brightness, some eclipse of that portion bestowed on man. Let
society wait--let him toil onward--let there be a little faith, a
little confidence, a little hope, and he will recover all he has lost,
he will emerge from the shadow that is upon him and be bright and
profitable as before. In the deepest obscuration of the full, or the
earthward face of the moon, when all but its bare existence seemed
blotted out, th