The higher the pitch of refinement, the less the fall of tears.
This is true of both sexes, but especially of men, and in men
in proportion to the fulness of their manhood. Children, of
whichever sex, cry at their own cross will, but the schoolboy
will hardly shed tears when he is flogged; the young man is
ashamed to weep when he is hurt by a fall, except into love;
while the full-bearded adult has completely triumphed over
feeling. All these statements are true with a difference among
nations, due to climatic, historic, or other influences. One of
the mysteries of tears is that tho, as the ministers of emotion,
they start to assuage sorrow, yet when a mighty grief strikes
us they withhold their relief. Petty troubles not only express
themselves, but are garrulous; the great are silent from sore
amazement. Friends, brothers, sisters and children can weep over
the pallid face, but the wife or mother looks on her dead with
wild, unmoistened eyes. Niobe is turned into stone; and, most
dreadful of all, she is conscious that she has been petrified
to her inmost soul.--J. T. L. PRESTON, _Atlantic
Monthly_.
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