teach,--with all their harshness, and all their repulsive severity of
form,--is the lesson of Self-Denial. Once armed with that, and manhood
is strong. The soul that possesses the consciousness of mastering
passion, is endowed with an element of force that can never harmonize
with defeat. Difficulties it wears like a summer garment, and flings
away at the first approach of the winter of Need.

Let not any one suppose, then, that in this detail of the country life
through which our hero is led, I would cast obloquy or a sneer upon its
simplicity, or upon its lack of refinement. Goodness and strength in
this world are quite as apt to wear rough coats as fine ones. And the
words of thorough and self-sacrificing kindness are far more often
dressed in the uncouth sounds of retired life than in the polished
utterance of the town. Heaven has not made warm hearts and honest hearts
distinguishable by the quality of the covering. True diamonds need no
work of the artificer to reflect and multiply their rays. Goodness is
more within than without; and purity is of nearer kin to the soul than
to the body.

----And, Clarence, it may well happen that later in life--under the
gorgeous ceilings of Venetian churches, or at some splendid mass in
Nôtre Dame, with embroidered coats and costly silks around you--your
thoughts will run back to that little storm-beaten church, and to the
willow waving in its yard, with a Hope that _glows_, and with a tear
that you embalm!




VIII.