And the chance-guest, early departing, blesseth his kind stars, That on his humbler home hath brooded no domestic curse! Yet is that curse the fruit; wouldest thou the root of the evil? A kindness--most unkind, that hath always spared the rod; A weak and numbing indecision in the mind that should be master; A foolish love, pregnant of hate, that never frowned on sin; A moral cowardice of heart, that never dared command. [Illustration] A kingdom is a nest of families, and a family a small kingdom; And the government of whole or part differeth in nothing but extent. The house, where the master ruleth, is strong in united subjection, And the only commandment with promise, being honoured, is a blessing to that house: But and if he yieldeth up the reins, it is weak in discordant anarchy, And the bonds of love and union melt away, as ropes of sand. The realm, that is ruled with vigour, lacketh neither peace nor glory, It dreadeth not foes from without, nor the sons of riot from within: But the meanness of temporizing fear robbeth a kingdom of its honour, And the weakness of indulgent sloth ravageth its bowels with discord. The best of human governments is the patriarchal rule; The authorized supremacy of one, the prescriptive subjection of many: Therefore, the children of the East have thriven from age to age, Obeying, even as a god, the royal father of Cathay: Therefore, to this our day, the Rechabite wanteth not a man, But they stand before the Lord, forsaking not the mandate of their sire: Therefore shall Magog among nations arise from his northern lair, And rend, in the fury of his power, the insurgent world beneath him: For the thunderbolt of concentrated strength can be hurled by the will of one, While the dissipated forces of many are harmless as summer lightning. OF REST. [Illustration: "I"]