There is no moral object so beautiful to me as a conscien-
tious young man ! I watch him as I do a star in the heavens :
clouds may be before him, but we know that his light is behind
them, and will beam again ; the blaze of others' prosperity may
outshine him, but we know that, though unseen, he illumines his
true sphere. He resists temptation not without a struggle, for
that is not virtue, but he does resist and conquer ; he hears the
sarcasm of the profligate, and it stings him, for that is the trial
of virtue, but he heals the wound with his own pure touch ; he
heeds not the watchword of fashion if it leads to sin ; the athe-
ist who says, not only in his heart but with his lips, " There is
no God," controls him not, for he sees the hand of a creating



RECOLLKCTIONS OF A SOUTHEEN MATRON. 59

God, and reverences it ; of a preserving Grod, and rejoices in it
Woman is sheltered by fond arms and guided by loving coun-
sel ; old age is protected by its experience, and manhood by its
strength ; but the young man stands amid the temptations of
the world like a self-balanced tower. Happy he who seeks and
gains the prop and shelter of Christianity.
