' I 



SYMPATHY. id 



their shortcomings being forgotten, and accordingly smile at the 

 possible penalty of being shrewd at the expense of after humiliation. 

 But who, pray, need env}' such persons — who that has a warm and 

 sympathetic heart would stoop to untie their shoes, much less wear 

 them? There is one vocation, however, in which the fragance of 

 sympathy can always be found. It is intermingled with the daily 

 rounds of the Sisters of Charity whose lives are adorned with acts of 

 self denial, and deeds of fervent sympathy, making their profession so 

 grand and sacred that not a vestige of unmindi'ulness can be found 

 in their midst. There duties are too purely and lovingly performed 

 to be assailed by even bigoted sources, and their labors are, as they 

 should be, attended with results as gratifying as the development of 

 their faith is earnest and beautiful. "Last at the cross, and earliest 

 at the grave" has been truthfully said to symbolize the lines of 

 woman's devotion. Undoubtedly, sympathetic people are delightful 

 companions. They are sometimes called congenial, and would that 

 Ave had more of them. They should be in a majority instead 

 of its opposite, and their efforts ought never to to be disrupted 

 either by the civic law or the brutal multitude. The charm 

 they possess has a shelter in which the greatest of moral fac- 

 ulties is firmly enthroned. A most pleasing order of sym- 

 pathy, we may also mention is that interwoven with joyousness. 

 It may be traced to those who are ever forming with benevolent 

 deeds the foundation of everlasting moral monuments. Human 

 temperaments are nevertheless so varied that it need not appear 

 surprising that here and there may be discovered a radical in point 

 of sympathy, or a repudiator of all the essential traits of high charac- 

 ter. Some may say that it is impossible for a man to be destitute 

 of fellow feeling unless his senses have been benumbed by satanic 

 influences, or the exhibition of a desire to barter away his manhood 

 for some degrading habit; yet if the existence of hardened instincts 

 is justly suspected, it is yet necessary that a lively sympathy for the 

 welfare of even such a being, should be shown in some degree, as 

 sympathy ought to be considered in the light of a humane commod- 

 ity, the disposal of which is not circumscribed, but at the service 

 of any one in need of its soothing applications. Fortuuately there 

 are some whose lives are refined, sympathetic, innocent and harm- 



