Pure, strong, crystalline natures, carrying
down with them the light of blue skies and the freshness of free
winds to their place of toil, broadening and strengthening as
they went on, who can tell how they have refreshed the world, how
beautifully they have blended their being with the great ocean of
results? A brook's life is like the life of a maiden. The rivers
receive their strength from the rock-born hills, from the
unfailing purity of the mountain-streams.
A girl's place in the world is a very strong one: it is a pity
that she does not always see it so. It is strongest through her
natural impulse to steady herself by leaning upon the Eternal
Life, the only Reality; and her weakness comes also from her
inclination to lean against something,--upon an unworthy support,
rather than none at all. She often lets her life get broken into
fragments among the flimsy trellises of fashion and convention-
ality, when it might be a perfect thing in the upright beauty of
its own consecrated freedom.
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