"Sweet are the Uses of Adversity."
THE following will be the better appreciated by concealing the author's name: "And, as the longer you keep the canary bird in a darkened cage, the sweeter it will sing, so the more severe the discipline of the good man's experience, the sweeter the songs of his spirit-life. The gold that is refined in hottest furnace comes out the brightest, and the character moulded by intensest heat will exhibit the most wonderous excellencies. God's children are like stars, that shines brightest in the darkest night; like torches that are the better for beating; like grapes, that come not to the proof till they come to the press; like trees, that drive down their roots farther and grasp the earth tighter, by reason of the storm; like vines, that grow the better for bleeding; like gold, that looks the better for scouring; like glow worms, that shine best in the dark; like juniper, that smell sweetest in the fire; like the pomander, which becomes more fragrant for chafing; like the palm tree, which proves the better for pressing; like the camomile, which spreads the more as you tread upon it. "There is a flower, when trampled on,
Doth still more richly bloom,
And even to its bitterest foe
Gives forth its sweet perfume.
The rose that's crushed and shattered,
Doth on the breeze bestow
A fairer scant that further goes,
E'en for the cruel blow."