His hair just grizzled,
As in a green old age.--Dryden.
The word _papa_, I believe, goes back, just as it is,
through all the languages, to the Sanscrit, and even beyond to the
unknown Aryan, the stock of our civilized tongues. The Pope is _papa_,
kind father, in Italian. How his name ever came to be twisted into the
ugly sound we hear in English is a problem, for the difference on the
feelings between the sounds of Pope, and _papa_, kind father, cannot
well be exaggerated. The kind father of a good man occupies an enviable
place in that man's thoughts. It is no passing admiration; that father
is no hero of to-day no study of to-morrow, no dim recollection when the
future shall have come--but an active exemplar, an honored memory, a
potent spur and stay combined--a spur to urge to all a man should do; a
stay to curb unwisdom's flying feet. That father has toiled in weariness
that his son might follow an easier path of life. Perhaps you now tread
that path. How carefully should your steps be taken; how earnestly you
should climb to reach the round which meets your self-denying parent's
gaze! With him there have come few paroxysms of delight in his labor. He
has not been endowed with that mysterious joy your mother has felt in
all your existence. He has delighted in you because he hoped you would
bring honor to his house; he would rather you had not lived than to see
you in a prisoner's cell--far rather. This could not be said of your
mother. She would be contented that you had lived at all, that you had
looked into her eyes and laughed. Your father has taken care of you,
dutifully. Repay him in kindness. "Honor thy father and thy mother, that
thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee."
This was graven by the Lord in the marble tablets on Sinai, and has been
in turn graven on the countless millions of hearts that have beaten
"their short funeral marches" since that awful hour.