Look at the delight with which two children find they have the same name.

They are friends from that moment forth; they have a bond of union stronger than exchange of nuts and sweetmeats.

This feeling, I own, wears off in later life.

Our names lose their freshness and interest, become trite and indifferent.

But this, dear reader, is merely one of the sad effects of those 'shades of the prison-house' which come gradually betwixt us and nature with advancing years; it affords no weapon against the philosophy of names.
In after life, although we fail to trace its working, that name which careless godfathers lightly applied to your unconscious infancy will have been moulding your character, and influencing with irresistible power the whole course of your earthly fortunes.