quick  eye  of  the  affectionate  daughter  perceive  the  least
shadow  that  rests  on  faces  so  dear  ?  Yet  she  is  aware
that  to  believe  her  a  participator  would  add  to  their
pain,  and  therefore  appears  as  unconscious  as  they
would  wish  her  in  reality  to  be.  As  their  footsteps  die
away,  how  fades  that  bright  smile  that  afforded  them
such  pure  pleasure,  while  her  busy  mind  hurries  over  all
possible  sources  of  their  distress,  and  perhaps  fastens  on
a  cause  greater  than  the  true  one.  Day  after  day,  she
watches  each  shade  of  expression  on  their  countenances,
and  a  frown  on  her  father's  brow,  or  pensiveness  in  her
mother's  eye,  adds  to  the  heaviness  of  her  heart,  from
her  incapability  to  afford  comfort  or  relief.
Or,  it  may  be,  health  has  been  refused  to  some  dear
member  of  the  family  circle.  Who  feels  more  keenly
for  the  sufferings  of  the  poor  invalid,  than  the  tender-
hearted sister?  Is  it  nothing  to  watch  the  bodily  anguish
of  those  we  love,  —  to  know  that  the  happiness  of  all
who  are  nearest  and  dearest  to  us  is  bound  up  in  one
frail  life,  and  then  mark  the  wasting  form  and  failing
strength  ?

If  sympathy  may  thus  be  the  cause  of  sorrow,  expe-
rience must  teach  even  the  young  many  a  bitter  lesson.
Variously  clad,  the  skeleton  still  dwells  in  every  man-
sion. The  unworthiness  of  those  whom  nature  teaches
us  to  cherish  with  untiring  affection  is  a  source  of  incal-
culable misery.  This  sorrow  asks  not  pity  from  the
world,  and  may  be  hid  beneath  forced  spirits  an-d  a  gay
smile,  or  betray  itself  in  the  careworn  cheek  and  sunken
eye.  While  sin  reigns,  this  spring  of  unhappiness  will
exist,  and  religion  only  can  remove  its  bitterness.
