Youth keeps a diary, into which it pours a volume of "thought" that
seems a very mine of gems. Take up that chronicle at middle age and see
its weak and driveling character. Observe the almost total lack of one
idea that will aid you to some honorable end! And yet there is
something touching even in the great trust and confidence of childhood.
How sweet and true are the beautiful lines of Thomas Hood called "I
remember, I remember:
I remember, I remember,
The fir trees dark and high;
I used to think their slender tops
Were close against the sky;
It was a childish ignorance,
But now 'tis little joy
To know I'm further off from heaven
Than when I was a boy.
Dr. Watts lays down to youth that it should have a decent and agreeable
behavior among men, "a modest freedom of speech, a soft and elegant
manner of address, a graceful and lovely deportment, a cheerful gravity
and good humor, with a mind appearing ever serene under the ruffling
accidents of life." This programme of action is far beyond the reach of
a well-balanced adult, much further the inexperienced and untried mind
of younger life. But the character which should attain to such angelic
proportions would truly have a reverent place among men's memories.