THE Congregational Quarterly. WHOLE NO. LXXV. JULY, 1877. VOL. XIX, No. 3. SELAH BURR TREAT. It is always interesting to watch the unfolding of a human life, and to trace the steps of its growth, especially when that life is placed under conditions favorable to free, healthy, native development. A large part of our race never enjoy these conditions. When an elder son is born into one of the lordly homes of England, if he is destined to hold and enjoy the common lease of life, it is not difficult, in a general way, to cast his horoscope. It is wellnigh certain that he will fall under the great laws of hereditary rank and wealth and honors, and be shaped accordingly. He will move along the pathways trodden by his ancestors from generation to generation, and be nurtured on the same interests. There will be some range for the play of individuality; but his way is hedged in, and the outlines of his life, in an important sense, are predetermined. So, on the other hand, if a son is born into one of the humble peasant homes on that same lordly estate, he will never be likely to escape from his environments. As a usual fact, he will share the lot of his ancestors, will move through the same rounds of labor and bear the same burdens of poverty. But when a son is born into the free air of New England, especially in one of her rough and rocky hill towns, that man would be rash indeed who, at the birth of the child, should attempt to forecast his earthly career. Thousands of men are now living among us, in advanced life, who, whenever they look back along the way they have travelled, are a perpetual Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1877, by CHRISTOPHER CUSHING, in the SECOND SERIES.-VOL. IX. I |