106 THE EVENING PRIMROSE. 



How wonderful is the influence that sympathy 

 can exercise over some minds ! And yet it is dif- 

 ficult to define its precise character ; for it may 

 exist unseen, where a cold exterior veils its opera- 

 tions ; or it may be so counterfeited as to delude us 

 into a belief of its abiding, where, in reality, it 

 was never known. Besides, different ideas are at- 

 tached to the word, according to the feelings of in- 

 dividuals ; and when men will call that sympathy, 

 which merely conforms itself to their prevailing 

 humours, taking care not to cross the grain of their 

 inclinations, however wrong or dangerous they may 

 be. An invalid may have a particular liking for 

 something expressly forbidden by the physician : 

 and then he is the sympathizing friend, who will 

 smuggle the prohibited delicacy to the sick patient, 

 or overrule the opposition of more conscientious 

 advisers. Again, a Christian may be — and alas ! 

 there are few who are not — under the influence of 

 some besetting sin, which he conceives to be mere- 

 ly a harmless characteristic of his natural disposi- 

 tion, while to all others, it may evidently appear 

 most unlovely — unseemly — and inconsistent with 

 his profession. To him, that friend will seem the 

 most sweetly sympathizing, who affects not to per- 

 ceive, or helps him to frame excuses for, the reign- 

 ing corruption. But that in either of these cases, 

 the seeming kindness is real cruelty, we need not 

 tc be told. True Christian sympathy places its 



