226 HALLOWED BY ASSOCIATIONS. 



cable not alone to material possessions, but to those higher acquisi. 

 tions which enrich the understanding and the heart. These are 

 rubbed away and lost by the sharp attritions of local change, until 

 one becomes a mere human boulder, the mechanical result of the 

 circumstances which have swept, tossed, and washed him hither and 

 thither, and left him lying helpless and supine, at the mercy of every 

 elemental and impulsive force. The steady and unchanged home- 

 stead, on the other hand, is the soil in which the dwellers are in- 

 fixed like the strong rocks, which laugh at the storms of life, and 

 successfully resist all violent and injurious change. 



HALLOWED BY ASSOCIATIONS. 



In process of time, there are transferred to such a spot and 

 made a part of it, innumerable associations, joyful or sad, but all 

 alike tender and endearing. The graves of forefathers and mothers, 

 the home-coming of brides, the departure of sons and daughters, the 

 birth and death of children all have left their traces on house and 

 furniture and soil. These dumb, material things are eloquent of all 

 the interests and emotions of the home circle. They bind its mem- 

 bers to the spot, or force them, if they wander, 



" To drag, with every step, a lengthening chain." 



Years afterward, indeed, when the family is extinct or scattered; 

 ,when the fences are fallen down, the hearth-stone cold and the house 

 a battered ruin; the footstep of a lonely stranger, treading there, is 

 repelled by unseen forces, and something says, 



" Ad plain as whisper in the ear, 

 The place is haunted." 



Haunted, indeed and forever, it is, by the undying ghosts of the pas- 

 sionate hearts that once dwelt and revelled there. 



So strong, so enduring, so imperishable is the influence of a 

 dwelling place. No doubt, some cannot have it. It is out of their 

 power to purchase and own their own dwellings. The necessity of 

 their pecuniary circumstances or local surroundings forces them to 

 rent and occupy, on such terms as they may, the hired tenements of 

 others. This is especially true of the working classes in the cities. 

 But even they may shun, as much as possible, removals from house 

 to house. They may select a modest dwelling, at a price so distantly 

 removed from the outer margin of their means as to promise perma- 

 nence of occupancy if they so choose, and stay there ; and this will 

 prove, in time, a tolerable substitute for ownership. Gradually, the 

 place will grow warm and dear to them. Should their pecuniary 

 circumstances solidly improve, then, instead of seeking another and 

 more eligible situation, let them take a long lease or the one they 

 now occupy, and proceed to renovate it in accordance with their 

 better tastes and larger abilities. This will give them that fixedness 

 of abode which is essential to home, and which no money expended 

 elsewhere can purchase. 



