It is no small thing to carry such a mind for three-score years under the glory of the heavens, through the glory of the earth, midst the majesty of the summer and the sanctity of the winter, while all things animate and inanimate rush in through open windows.

For one thus sensitively constituted every moment trembles with possibilities; every hour is big with destiny.

The neglected blow cannot afterward be struck on the cold iron; once the stamp is given to the soft metal it cannot be effaced.

Well did Ruskin say; "Take your vase of Venice glass out of the furnace and strew chaff over it in its transparent heat, and recover that to its clearness and rubied glory when the north wind has blown upon it; but do not think to strew chaff over the child fresh from God's presence and to bring the heavenly colors back to him--at least in this world." We are accountable to God for our influence; this it is "that gives us pause." Gentle as is the atmosphere about us, it presses with a weight of fourteen pounds to the square inch.

No infant's hand feels its weight; no leaf of aspen or wing of bird detects this heavy pressure, for the fluid air presses equally in all directions.