"
This was graven by the Lord in the marble tablets on Sinai, and has been
in turn graven on the countless millions of hearts that have beaten
"their short funeral marches" since that awful hour.
ALL SOCIETY
has at one time or another rested on the sustaining power of the father.
The patriarch, in ancient times, protected and sustained his dependents,
and, in return, received their entire allegiance, wielding over them the
power of life and death, and thus initiating the first form of human
government. Next came the cities where the government was formed by all
the fathers together in council, and our village and city legislators
are, to this day, called "the city fathers," although the reverence in
which so august a body was once held has departed with the silent flight
of the dignity of our modern convocations. Some one has said of
A FINE AND HONORABLE OLD MAN,
that he is in the childhood of immortality. "One's age should be
tranquil," says Dr. Arnold, "as one's childhood should be playful; hard
work at either extremity of human existence, seems to me out of place;
the morning and the evening should be alike cool and peaceful; at midday
the sun may burn, and men may labor under it.
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