Alas! how soon this takes place! The joy of home would be perfect did not the thought of a speedy separation intrude. No sooner than the voice of childhood is changed, than separation begins to take place. Some separate for another world; some are borne by the winds and waves to distant lands; others enter the deep forests of the West, and are heard of no more;-- "Alas! the brother knows not now where fall the sister's tears! One haply revels at the feast, while one may droop alone; For broken is the household chain,--the bright fire quenched and gone!" What melancholy feelings are awakened within at the sight of a deserted home, in which loved ones once met and lived and loved; but from which they have now wandered, each in the path pointed out by the guiding hand of Providence. How beautifully does Mrs. Hemans portray this separation in the following admirable lines!-- "They grew in beauty side by side, They filled one home with glee; Their graves are severed, far and wide, By mount, and stream, and sea. "The same fond mother bent at night O'er each fair sleeping brow; She had each folded flower in sight-- Where are those dreamers now? "One midst the forests of the West By a dark stream is laid; The Indian knows his place of rest Far in the cedar shade. "The sea, the blue lone sea, hath one, He lies where pearls lie deep; He was the loved of all, yet none O'er his low bed may weep. "One sleeps where southern vines are dress'd, Above the noble slain; He wrapped his colors round his breast, On a blood-red field of Spain. "And one--o'er her the myrtle showers, Its leaves by soft winds fanned; She faded midst Italian flowers-- The last of that fair band. "And parted thus, they rest, who played Beneath the same green tree; Whose voices mingled as they prayed Around one parent knee!" It is thus in almost every household. The members may be divided into two classes,--the present and the absent ones. Who may not say of his family-- "We are not all here! Some are away--the dead ones dear, Who thronged with us this ancient hearth, And gave the hour of guiltless mirth. Fate, with a stern, relentless hand, Looked in and thinned our little band. Some like a night-flash passed away, And some sank lingering day by day, The quiet graveyard--some lie there,-- We're not all here!" The bereavements of home are diversified. The reverses of fortune constitute an important class of family afflictions, causing the habits, customs, social privileges and advantages of home to be broken up and changed. Many a family, which, in former days, enjoyed all the pleasures and privileges of wealth and social distinction, have now to struggle with cruel poverty, and receive from the world, scorn and ridicule and dishonor.