90 THE LAWS OF SOCIAL INEQUALITY AND SUBORDINATION. 



which was removed, and the injury done the tree is thus com- 

 pletely effaced. 



It is precisely the same in the social world. Persons now in 

 easy circumstances, well remember the time when they were 

 starveling shoots. Did you not for years bravely battle with 

 the world under every possible disadvantage ? You gathered 

 energy and nerve from repeated conflicts, and at last a chance 

 presented itself; and then, in the popular but expressive lan- 

 guage of the day, you went ahead, and putting forth on all 

 sides, you did an immense business, giving employment to 

 hundreds of hands. And now, having acquired both property 

 and influence in the community, as from the summit of a rock, 

 you calmly contemplate the tempestuous sea which you have 

 escaped, and viewing others struggling in its raging waves, they 

 remind you that you were so situated years ago. They have 

 a claim on your sympathies. For years they have been poor, 

 unfriended, and unfortunate, although possessing both talent 

 and energy. You must be willing to do the kind and liberal 

 thing in such cases. Think how faint and shadowy are all the 

 artificial distinctions which have separated you from them. 

 Generosity is becoming the brave and magnanimous ; it is an 

 ornament which gives an additional lustre to their character. 



" It is twice blessed ; 



It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes ; 

 'Tis mightiest in the mightiest ; it becomes 

 The throned monarch better than his crown." 



If you do good deeds under such circumstances, and from 

 such motives, they will be to those whom you befriend, like 

 the morning star to the storm-tossed mariner, inexpressibly 

 beautiful. and cheering; for they will encourage in them the 

 hope of approaching day, and they will assuredly shine down 

 on you cheerily and brightly as the evening star at the sunset 

 of your life. 



Erratum. By an inadvertence in page 88, line 18, the ex- 

 pression "from buds" occurs instead of "from cells,' 11 



