“BIDE YOOR TIME” 
If thou in darkest days canst find 
An inner brightness of the mind 
To reconcile thee to thy kind ; 
Whatever obstacles control, 
Thine hour will come. Go on, true soul, 
Thou’ltwin the prize, thouTt reach the goal. ” 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
The Value of Vigorous Lines of Stirring Poetry. 
During my passage out to Ceylon, in 1844, on 
board the steam-ship Precurseur via the C;ipe, in some 
of the ship’s old magazines, Ijing about for the use 
of the passengers, I found the small scrap of beauti- 
ful poetry with which the last chapter concluded. 
It was never forgotten, but always remembered, and 
often repeated in many a trying and diflScult position. 
Its work may not jet be done, and the remembrance 
of what it has done may perhaps be still the means 
of inducing others to keep heart and courage, and if 
they cannot, under existing circumstances, ‘‘ go forward ” 
at all events hold “their own, ” don’t slide back ; they 
may, even, like the old planter, get into a quiet eddy, 
for a time, but take care that it is only for a time, 
and so “bide your time.” It is not generally, or 
perhaps not at all, thought so, but quiet eddies have 
often proved very useful places, and wdiy should they 
not be so still ? Being not altogether w ithout motion 
yourself, although it maj' be considered a useless one, 
still you are in action, you are not stagnant, and a 
stagnant position in any calling whatever is, in every 
sense, if possible, to be shunned and avoided. Besides, 
from the quiet eddy you see all that is going past, 
very probably a good many “ fine catches,” and you 
curse your hard fate, tliat you can’t get out of the eddy 
to catch a catch ! But stop a little, listen to the dis- 
tant roar and rush of water ; what is all this coming 
tumbling dowm ? A flood, or water-spout, has burst : 
a crisis, a crash in coffee planting ; on it comes carry- 
ing everything before it, and you are thankful you 
are in the quiet eddy ! Now is your time to get out 
of the quiet eddy and into the stream before 
the flood subsides and leaves you there, or rather “as 
you were.” 
But you must he careful not to get out too soon ; 
in that case, you will just be washed away in the 
current; neither must you put off too long, or the 
flood will go down, and leave you worse than before, 
for it will probably have washed you up higher and 
