I called to mind a letter he had
written me of what we had expected of our fathers. The ideal
father, the profoundly wise, provident, divinely tender and
benign, he is indeed the God of the human heart. How solemn
this moment of being called to prepare the way, to _make way_
for another generation! What fulfilment does it claim in
the character of a man, that he should be worthy to be a
father!--what purity of motive, what dignity, what knowledge!
When I recollect how deep the anguish, how deeper still the
want, with which I walked alone in hours of childish passion,
and called for a Father, often saying the word a hundred
times, till stifled by sobs, how great seems the duty that
name imposes! Were but the harmony preserved throughout! Could
the child keep learning his earthly, as he does his heavenly
Father, from all best experience of life, till at last it were
the climax: "I am the Father. Have ye seen me?--ye have seen
the Father." But how many sons have we to make one father?
Surely, to spirits, not only purified but perfected, this
must appear the climax of earthly being,--a wise and worthy
parentage.
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