And O, my father, linger not,
    In exile, from our hearth;
  Ah, this has been a cherished spot,
    To make us cling to earth.

  ’Tis where the youngest of the seven
    First drew his fleeting breath,
  Sweet cherished flower, the gift of heaven,
    To fill our blooming wreath.

  And saddened memories linger not
    Around each faded year;
  Oh, let it never be forgot
    Death hath not entered here.

  The shrine of many a fervent prayer,
    More loved than words can tell,
  Is passing to another’s care,
    And we must say, Farewell.

  But O, my father, hasten home,
    ’Tis in each loved one’s heart;
  Thy wife, thy children, bid thee come,
    And ne’er again depart.

  For me, my love shall ever twine
    Around thy future years;
  And my most fervent prayers be thine
    Amid this vale of tears,

  That when life’s busy cares shall cease—­
    Its feeble ties be riven;
  Thine honored head may rest in peace,
    Thy soul ascend to heaven.

* * * * *

Original.

FAMILY GOVERNMENT

It is generally admitted that there has been a lamentable declension in family government within a few years.  I propose to show some of the causes of this growing evil, and to point out the remedy.

1. Inattention and blindness to the faults of children.—­As a matter of course we cannot expect parents will restrain their children without observing their faults.  They must see an error before they can correct it.

It would not be strange if affection or love for our children should sometimes hide their faults, or that others should sometimes notice them before we do.  They are often, too, looked upon as trivial, as of small importance.  The mother of pirate Gibbs might have thought it very trivial that her little son should kill flies, and catch and torture domestic animals.  But it had its influence in forming the character of the pirate.  The man who finishes his days in state-prison as a notorious thief began his career in the nursery by stealing pins, or in the pantry by stealing sugar and cake, and as soon as old enough to look abroad, to take a little choice fruit from a neighbor’s garden or orchard.  The finished gambler began his career by the side of his mother, by taking pins stealthily from her cushion.  Children cannot do great things when young.  They have not the power.  Their powers and views are too limited to perform what may be called great deeds of wickedness.  Yet the grossly immoral usually begin their downward course in youth.  The germ of wickedness is then planted.  Time only matures what is thus begun.  Those trivial things which you suffer to pass without a rebuke, constitute the germ of all their future depravity.  The wickedness of youth differs from that of mature age rather in