The Spring-time of Life,—the meeting-point of the child and the man,—the
brief interval which separates restraint from liberty,—has a warmth of
life, which Dr. Temple thus pictures with glowing eloquence. “To almost
all men this period is a bright spot to which the memory ever afterwards
loves to recur; and even those who can remember nothing but
folly,—folly, of which they have repented, and relinquished,—yet find a
nameless charm in recalling such folly as that. For indeed even folly at
that age is sometimes the cup out of which men quaff the richest
blessings of our nature,—simplicity, generosity, affection. This is the
seed-time of the soul’s harvest, and contains the promise of the year.
It is the time for love and marriage, the time for forming life-long
friendships. The after-life may be more contented, but can rarely be so
glad and joyous. Two things we need to crown its blessings,—one is, that
the friends whom we then learn to love, and the opinions which we then
learn to cherish, may stand the test of time, and deserve the esteem and
approval of calmer thoughts and wider experience; the other, that our
hearts may have depth enough to drink largely of that which God is
holding to our lips, and never again to lose the fire and spirit of the
draught. There is nothing more beautiful than a manhood surrounded by
the friends, upholding the principles, and filled with the energy of the
spring-time of life. But even if these highest blessings be denied, if
we have been compelled to change opinions and to give up friends, and
the cold experience of the world has extinguished the heat of youth,
still the heart will instinctively recur to that happy time, to explain
to itself what is meant by love and what by happiness.”[29]
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Footnote 29:
_Education of the World._
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