But one rich argosy holds all my store— If harm befall that one, what comes of me? Must I in beggary wander evermore, Subsistence craving of cold charity? How should I bear to think upon the day When Fortune’s gifts were showered upon my head Would not my misery more heavy weigh. In view of happiness remembered? Then let me rather trust my life also, In that one ship where all my riches be, That wheresoe’er she goeth I may go, And toss with her upon the faithless sea. Then, if the tempest bow the sturdy mast, And horrid billows sweep the shuddering deck, When every help and every hope is past, Calmly I’ll perish with my treasure’s wreck. * * * * * EDITOR’S TABLE. THE PARTING YEAR. [Illustration] “Why sitt’st thou by that ruined hall, Thou aged earl, so stern and gray? Dost thou its former pride recall, Or ponder how it passed away?” “Know’st thou not me?” the deep voice cried: “So long enjoyed, so oft misused; Alternate in thy fickle pride, Desired, neglected, and accused! “Before my breath, like blazing flax, Man and his marvels pass away! And changing empires wane and wax; Are founded, flourish, and decay. Redeem mine hours, the space is brief, While in my glass the sand grains shiver; And measureless thy joy or grief, When time and thou shalt part forever.” WALTER SCOTT. The waning year is, to most minds, a season of reflection. And it is good to pause and think, occasionally; to glance along the receding vista of months, and review our actions ere too great a distance makes their memory indistinct. Time seems to linger on his journey, to pause by the crumbling ruins of earthly things, and point us to the past, that we may gather therefrom lessons of wisdom for the future. And now, as we stand on the verge of the parting year—as the last line in its record of events is about being written, it is but to obey the dictate of reason to let our thoughts run back. Time we cannot recall, nor change the past. What we have done is done forever. Then, why, it may be asked, turn our thoughts thitherward? Why not look in hope to the future? It is that we may look to the future with brighter hopes, made more certain through repentance and good resolutions.