"Now, Simeon, dear fellow, don't make a fool of yourself!" pruning we have got from hands kind and unkind, from our earliest days-but for the pruning we are getting from such It is at once apparent, that when some hands yet. Perhaps you have known a really kind and judicious friend, or even man who had lived for forty years alone. some judicious person who is not a kind And you know what odd shoots he had friend, says to you as you are saying somesent out; what strange traits and habits thing, "Smith, you're talking nonsense: he had acquired; what singular little ways shut up, and don't make a fool of yourhe had got into. There had been no one self;" this fact is highly analogous to the at home to prune him; and the little fact of a keen pruning-knife snipping off a shoots of eccentricity, of vanity, of vain shoot that is growing in a wrong direcself-estimation, that might have easily tion. And you may have seen a good been cut off when they were green and man, accustomed to dwell among those soft, have now grown into rigidity; woody who never dared to differ from him, look fiber has been developed; and if you were as if the world were suddenly coming to to try to cut off the oddity now, it would an end, when some courageous person said be like trying to lop off a tough oak to his face what many persons had frebranch a foot thick with a penknife. You quently said behind his back: to wit, that can not do it; if you were to succeed in he was talking nonsense. You may find doing it, you would thereby change the a house here and there, in which the gray whole man. Equally grown into rigid mare is the more energetic if not the better awkwardness with the man who has lived horse; where the husband has been cona very solitary life, the man is likely to strained by years of outrageous ill-temper be who for many years has been the pope to give the wife her own way; and where, of a little circle of admiring disciples, no accordingly, the mistress of the house has one of whom would ever contradict him, lived for thirty years without once being no one of whom would ever venture to told she did wrong. The tree, that is, say he judged or did wrong. In such a had never been pruned in all that time; case, not merely are the angularities, the and you may imagine what an ugly and odd ungainly shoots, not cut off: they are disagreeable tree it had grown. For peoactually fostered; a really good man ple who get their own way have nothing grows into a bundle of awkwardness and to repress their evil and ridiculous tendoddities, and stiffens hopelessly into them; encies except their own sense of propriand they greatly lessen his influence and ety; and I have little faith in the pracusefulness with people who do not know tical guidance of that sense, unless it be his real excellences. You can not read the reënforced and directed by the moral and life of Mr. Simeon, of Cambridge, without esthetic sense of other people. A tree, lamenting that there was not some kind when pruned, suffers in silence; no doubt, yet firm hand always near him, to prune it can not like being pruned: it would off the wretched little shoots of self-con-like to have its own way. But the prunceit and silliness which obscured in great measure the sterling qualities of the man. You may remember reading how on an occasion on which some good ladies had collected pieces of needle-work to be sold for a missionary purpose, he came to behold them. He skipped into the room, held up his hands in a theatrical ecstasy of admiration, and went through various ungainly gambols and uttered various wretched jokes, by way of compliment to the good ladies. I don't tell you the story at length: it is too humiliating. Now do you think the good man would ever have done this, had he lived among people who durst question his infallibility and impeccability? What a blessing it would have been for him had there been some one on such terms with him that he could say, ing of a human being, accustomed to his or her own way, is often accompanied by much moral kicking and howling. Such a person, in those years without pruning, has very likely got confirmed in many ridiculous and disagreeable habits; has learned to sit with his feet upon the mantel-piece; has come to use ungrammatical and ugly forms of speech; has grown into rubbing his nose, or twirling his thumbs, or making pills of paper while conversing with others: indeed there is no reckoning the ugly growths into which unpruned human nature will develop itself; and self-conceited and haughty and petted folk deliberately deprive themselves of that salutary tending and pruning which is needful to keep them in decent shape. There was once a man, who was much . given to advocating the admission of fresh | men as would be incredible. Of course, air-an excellent end. But of course in I am not going to do so. An old bachelor advocating it, the word Ventilation had of some standing, living in a solitary frequently to be used; and that man made house, with servants who dare not prune himself ridiculous in the eyes of all edu- him, and with acquaintances who will cated people by invariably pronouncing not take the trouble to prune him, must the word as Ventulation. For a long necessarily, unless he be a very wise and time, a youthful relative of that man suf- good man, grow into a most amorphous fered in silence the terrible annoyance of shape. I beg the reader to mark the listening to the word, thus rendered; and exception I make; for I presume he will there are few more irritating things among agree with me when I say, that in the the minor vexations of life, than to be class of old bachelors and old maids may compelled habitually, to listen to some be found some of the noblest specimens vulgar and illiterate error in speech. Per- of the human race. A judicious wife haps you have felt a burning desire to is always snipping off from her husband's prune a person, who talked of some moral nature, little twigs that are growtrouble being tremenduous; or who said ing in wrong directions. She keeps him he would rather go to Jericho as hear Dr. in shape, by continual pruning. If you Log preach; or who declared the day to say any thing silly, she will affectionately be that hot that he was nearly killed. Oh, tell you so. If you declare that you will the thought of such expressions makes do some absurd thing, she will find means one's nerves tingle, and one's hand steal of preventing your doing it. And by far toward the pruning-knife. But after long the chief part of all the common sense endurance, the youthful relative of the there is in this world, belongs unquestionman who talked about Ventulation, could ably to women. The wisest things a man stand it no longer, and ventured humbly commonly does, are those which his wife to suggest that Ventilation was the pref- counsels him to do. It is not always so. erable way of setting forth the word. You may have known a man do, at the Ah, the tree did not take pruning peacea- instigation of his wife, things so malicious, bly! Wasn't there an explosion of vanity petty, and stupid, that it is inconceivable and spite and stupidity! Was not the any man should ever do them at all. But youthful individual scorched with furious such cases are exceptional. sarcasm, for pretending to know better than his seniors, and for venturing to think that his betters could go wrong! From that day forward, he resolved that, however hideous the shoots of ignorance and conceit his seniors put forth, he would not venture to correct them. For there is nothing that so infuriates an uneducated and self-sufficient man of more than middle age, as the faintest and best-disguised attempt to prune him. "Are you sure that your data is correct?" said a vulgar rich man to an educated "Data ARE correct, I think you mean," said the poor man (rather hastily), before going on to answer the question. The rich man's face reddened like an infuriated turkeycock; and had there been a cudgel in his hand, he would have beaten the pruner upon the head. Yes-it is thankless work to wield the moral pruning-knife. poor man. Probably among the class of old bachelors you may find the most signal instances of the evil consequence of going through life with nobody to prune one. I could easily record such manifestations of silliness and absurdity in the case of such My friend Jones, when a boy of fourteen, went to visit a relative, a rich old bachelor. That relative was substantially a very kind person—that is, he gave Jones lots of money, and the like. But Jones, an observant lad, speedily took his relative's measure. The first evening Jones was with him, the old bachelor said, in a very cordial way, "Now, Tom, my boy, it is my duty to tell you something. You have been trained up to believe that your father" (a clergyman) "is an able and dignified person. It is right that you should know that he is a very poor stick." Jones listened, without remark, but with rather a scared face. It was a trial to the young fellow. It was a shock to his belief in things in general, to hear his father thus spoken of. And Jones, who is now a man, tells me that though he said nothing, he inwardly groaned, looking at his wealthy relative, "You're a horrid old fool." And in all the years that have passed since then, Jones assures me he has not in the least modified that early opinion. Now, don't you feel that no married. man would have so behaved? Even if he were such an ass as to begin to say such a thing to a little boy, don't you feel his wife (if present) would have taken care that the sentence was never finished? The same person began to tell Jones about the opera. And all of a sudden, to the lad's consternation, he burst out into some awful roars. Jones was terrified. He thought his relative had gone mad, or was suddenly seized by some unusual and terrible disease. But the old gentleman said, with great self-complacency, "That's just to give you some idea what the human voice is capable of!" Jones secretly thought that it gave him some idea what a fool an old gentleman might make of himself. I have heard of an extremely commonplace man who lived an utterly solitary life in London. He had gained considerable wealth; but he had nothing else to stand on; and he was not rich enough to stand on that alone. The worthy man has been in his grave for many years. Having heard that Mr. Brown had stated that he did not know him, he exclaimed: "He does not know ME! Well, there is no act of parliament to make people know about me. All I can say is, that if he does not know about me, he is an ill-informed man!" This was not a joke. It was said in bitter earnest. For when a young fellow who was present showed a tendency to smile at this outburst of selfconceit nursed in solitude, the young fellow was furiously ordered out of the room. Doubtless you have remarked, with satisfaction, how the little oddities of men who marry rather late in life, are pruned away speedily after their marriage. You have found a man who used to be shabbily and carelessly dressed, with a huge shirtcollar frayed at the edges, and a glaring yellow silk pocket-handkerchief, broken of these things, and become a pattern of neatness. You have seen a man whose hair and whiskers were ridiculously cut, speedily become like other human beings. You have seen a clergyman who wore a long beard, in a little while appear without one. You have seen a man who used to sing ridiculous sentimental songs, leave them off. You have seen a man who took snuff copiously, and who generally had his breast covered with snuff, abandon the vile habit. A wife is the grand wielder of the moral pruning-knife. If Johnson's wife had lived, there would have been no hoarding up of bits of orange peel; no touching all the posts in walking along the street; no eating and drinking with a dis gusting voracity. If Oliver Goldsmith had been married, he would never have worn that memorable and ridiculous coat. Whenever you find a man whom you know little about, oddly dressed, or talking ridiculously, or exhibiting any eccentricity of manner, you may be tolerably sure that he is not a married man. For the little corners are rounded off, the little shoots are pruned away, in married men. Wives generally have much more sense than their husbands, especially when the husbands are clever men. The wife's advices are like the ballast, that keeps the ship steady. They are like the wholesome though painful shears, snipping off little growths of self-conceit and folly. So you may see, that it is not good for man to be alone. For he will put out various shoots at his own sour will, which will grow into monstrously ugly and absurd branches unless they are pruned away while they are young. But it is quite as bad, perhaps it is worse, to live among people with whom you are an oracle. There are many good Protestants who, by a long continuance of such a life, have come to believe their own infallibility much more strongly than the pope believes his. An only brother amid a large family of sisters is in a perilous position. There is a risk of his coming to think himself the greatest, wisest, and best of men; the most graceful dancer, the most melodious singer, the sweetest poet, the most unerring shot; also the best-dressed man, and the possessor of the most beautiful hands, feet, eyes, and whiskers. And as the outer world is sure not to accept this estimate, the only brother is apt to be soured by the sharp contrast between the adulation at home and the snubbing abroad. A popular clergyman, with a congregation somewhat lacking in intelligence, is exposed to a prejudicial moral atmosphere. It is a dreadful sight, to see some clergymen surrounded by the members of their flock. You see them with dilated nostrils, inhaling the incense, directly and indirectly offered. It irritates one to hear such a person spoken of (as I have heard in my youth) as "the dear man," " the precious ""the man," or even, in some cases, man." It is a great deal too much for average human nature to live among people who agree with all one says, and "the sweet think it very fine. We all need "the ani- | ed himself, he ran away. Oh, what a sharp mated No :" a forest tree will not grow pair of shears in that moment pruned off up healthy and strong unless you let the certain shoots which had been growing in rude blasts wrestle with it and root it that little peer's nature ever since the firmer. It is insufferable, when any mor- dawn of intelligence! The awful yet saltal lives in a moral hot-house. And if utary truth was impressed, by a single lesthere be any thing for which a clergyman son, that there were places in this world ought to be thankful, it is if his congrega- where nobody cared for the Duke of Midtion, though duly esteeming him for his dlesex and Southwark. And perhaps that office and for his work, have so much good painful pruning was the beginning of the sense as to refrain from spoiling him by de- discipline which made that duke, as long ferring unduly to all his crotchets. Let as he lived, the most unpretending, admirthere be as few worsted slippers as possible able, and truly noble of men. sent him; no bouquets laid on his study table by youthful hands before he comes down stairs in the morning; no young women preserving under a glass shade the glove they wore in shaking hands with him, that it may be profaned by no inferior touch. Let the phrase dear man be utterly excluded. A manly person does not want to be made a pet of. And if there be any occasion on which a man of sense, bishop or not, ought to be filled with shame and confusion, it is when man or woman kneels down and asks his blessing. Pray, how much is the blessing worth? What good will it do anybody? Most educated men have a very decided estimate of its value, which would be expressed in figures by a round 0. One great good of a great public school, is the way in which the moral pruningknife is wielded there. I do not mean by the masters, but by the republic of boys. Many a lad of rank and fortune in whom the evil shoots of arrogance, self-conceit, contempt for his fellow-creatures, and a notion that he himself is the mightiest of mortals, has been fostered at home by the adulation of servants and cottagers and tenantry, has these evil shoots effectually shred away. You have heard, of course, how the Duke of Middlesex and Southwark came to his title as a baby; and grew up under the care of obsequious tutors and governors till he had attained the age to go to school. The first evening he was there he was standing at a corner of the playground with a supercilious air, surveying the sports that were proceeding. A boy about his own size perceived him, and running up, said, with some curiosity, "Who are you?" "The Duke of Middlesex and Southwark," was the reply. "Oh," said the other boy, with awakened interest, "there's one kick for the Duke of Middlesex and another for the Duke of Southwark;" and having thus deliver There are few people in public life who in this age are not promptly pruned, where needful, by ever-ready shears. If the shoots of bumptiousness appear in a chief justice, they are instantly cut short by the tongue of some resolute barrister. If a prime minister, or even a loftier personage, evinces a disposition to neglect his or her duty, that disposition is speedily pruned by the Times, speaking in the name of the general sense of what is fit. And indeed the newspapers and reviews are the universal shears. If any outgrowth of folly, error, or conceit, appear in a political man, or in a writer of even moderate standing, some clever article comes down upon it, and shows it up if it can not snip it off. And if a wise man desires that he may keep, intellectually and esthetically, in becoming shape, he will attentively consider whatever may be said or written about him by people who dislike him. For, as a general rule, people who don't like you come down sharply upon your real faults; they tell you things which it is very fit that you should know, and which nobody is likely to tell you but them. I have heard of one or two distinguished authors who made it a rule never to read any thing that was written about themselves. Probably they erred in this. They missed many hints for which they might have been the better; and mannerisms and eccentricities developed into rigid boughs, which might have been readily removed as growing twigs. A vain self-confidence is very likely to grow up in a man who is never subjected to the moral pruning-knife. The greatest men (in their own judgment) that you have ever known, have probably been the magnates of some little village, far from neighbors. Probably the bully is never developed more offensively than in some village dealer, who has accumulated a good deal of money, and who has got a number of the surrounding cottages mort- | each of us to be growing up into a higher gaged to him. Such is the man who is opinion of ourself; and then, all of a sudlikely to insult the conservative candidate, den, that higher estimate is cut down to when he comes to make a speech before the very earth. You are like a sheep sudan election. Such is the man to lead the denly shorn; a thick fleece of self-complaopposition to any good work proposed by cency had developed itself; something the parish clergyman. Such is the man to comes and all at once shears it off, and become a church-rate martyr, or an espe- leaves you shivering in the frosty air. cially offensive manager of Salem Chapel. You are like a lawn, where the grass had Such is the kind of man who, if he has grown some inches in length; till some children growing up, will refuse to let dewy morning it is mown just as close as them express their opinion on any subject. may be. You had gradually and insensiA parent can fall into no greater mistake bly come to think rather well of yourself, than to take the ground that he will never and your doings. You had grown to think argue with his children, nor hear what your position in life a rather respectable they may have to suggest in opposition to or even eminent one; and to fancy that any plan he may have proposed. For those around estimated you rather highly. children very speedily take the measure But all of a sudden, some slight, some of their parents, and have a perfectly mortification, some disappointment comes; clear idea how far their ability, judgment, something is said or done that shows you and education justify their assuming the how far you had been deceiving yourself. rank of infallible oracles. And it is infi- Some considerable place in your profesnitely better to let a lad of eighteen speak sion becomes vacant, and nobody thinks of out his mind, than to have him like a boil- naming you for it. You are in company er ready to burst with repressed views with two or three men who think themand feelings, and with the bitter sense of selves specially charged with finding a a petty and contemptible tyranny. Some- suitable person for the vacant office; they thing has already been said of women who name a score of possible people to fill it; acquire the chief power in their own but not you. They never have thought houses; whose husbands are cowed into of you; or possibly they refrain from ciphers; and whose infallibility is to be naming you, with the design of mortifying recognized throughout the establishment, you. And so you are pruned close. For under pain of some ferocious explosion. the moment, it is painful. You are ready At last, some son grows up, and resists to sink down, disheartened and beaten. the established despotism. Infallibility You have no energy to do any thing. You and impeccability are conceded no longer. sit down blankly by the fire, and acknowlAnd the thick branches, consolidated by edge yourself a failure in life. It is not many years' growth, are lopped off pain- so much that you are beaten, as that you fully, which should have gone when they are set in a lower place than you hoped. were slender shoots. Rely upon it, the Yet it is all good for us, doubtless. Few man or woman who refuses to be peacea- men can say they are too humble with it bly and kindly pruned, will some day have all. And, as even after all our mowings, to bear being rudely lopped. prunings, and shearings, we are sometimes so conceited and self-satisfied as we are, what should we have been had those things not befallen us? The elf-locks of wool would have been feet in length. The grass would have been six feet high, like that of the prairies. And the shoot of vanity would have grown and consolidated into a branch, that would have given a lop-sided aspect to the whole tree. There is one shoot which human nature keeps putting forth again, however frequently it is pruned away. It is self-conceit. That would grow into a terrible unwieldy branch, if it were not so often shred away by circumstances-that is, by God's providence. Every body needs to be frequently taken down-which means, to have his self-conceit pruned away. And what every body needs, most people (in this case) get. Most people are very frequently taken down. I mean, even modest and sensible people. This wretched little shoot keeps growing again, however hard we try to keep it down. There is a tendency in Happily, there is no chance of these things occurring. We seldom grow for more than a few days, without being pruned, mown, and shorn afresh. And all this will continue to the end. It is not pleasant; but we need it all. And we are all profiting by it. Possibly no one will |