So you will not think I mean to speak lightly of old friendships, because we cannot help instituting comparisons between our present and former selves by the aid of those who were what we were, but are not what we are. Nothing strikes one more, in the race of life, than to see how many give out in the first half of the course. "Commencement day" always reminds me of the start for the "Derby," when the beautiful high-bred three-year olds of the season are brought up for trial. That day is the start, and life is the race. Here we are at Cambridge, and a class is just "graduating." Poor Harry! he was to have been there too, but he has paid forfeit; step out here into the grass back of the church; ah! there it is:-- "HUNC LAPIDEM POSUERUNT SOCII MOERENTES." But this is the start, and here they are,--coats bright as silk, and manes as smooth as _eau lustrale_ can make them. Some of the best of the colts are pranced round, a few minutes each, to show their paces. What is that old gentleman crying about? and the old lady by him, and the three girls, all covering their eyes for? Oh, that is _their_ colt that has just been trotted up on the stage. Do they really think those little thin legs can do anything in such a slashing sweepstakes as is coming off in these next forty years? Oh, this terrible gift of second-sight that comes to some of us when we begin to look through the silvered rings of the _arcus senilis_! _Ten years gone_. First turn in the race. A few broken down; two or three bolted. Several show in advance of the ruck. _Cassock_, a black colt, seems to be ahead of the rest; those black colts commonly get the start, I have noticed, of the others, in the first quarter. _Meteor_ has pulled up. _Twenty years_. Second corner turned. _Cassock_ has dropped from the front, and _Judex_, an iron-gray, has the lead. But look! how they have thinned out! Down flat,--five,--six,--how many? They lie still enough! they will not get up again in this race, be very sure! And the rest of them, what a "tailing off"! Anybody can see who is going to win,--perhaps. _Thirty years_. Third corner turned. _Dices_, bright sorrel, ridden by the fellow in a yellow jacket, begins to make play fast; is getting to be the favorite with many. But who is that other one that has been lengthening his stride from the first, and now shows close up to the front? Don't you remember the quiet brown colt _Asteroid_, with the star in his forehead? That is he; he is one of the sort that lasts; look out for him! The black "colt," as we used to call him, is in the background, taking it easy in a gentle trot. There is one they used to call _the Filly_, on account of a certain feminine air he had; well up, you see; the Filly is not to be despised, my boy! _Forty years_. More dropping off,--but places much as before.