Page:The Daughters of England.djvu/52

Rh never would have been fully known, had no such separation taken place.

It is possible the natural affection of the wife and the mother, in both these cases, may have been the same; yet, how different must be the state of their own feelings, and of those of their separate families, one hour after their departure! and not during that hour only, but during weeks, and months, nay, through the whole of their lives! for the specimen we have given, is but one amongst the many painful scenes which must perpetually occur in the experience of those who are habitually too late.

It is true, I have extended the picture a little beyond the season of early youth, but this was absolutely necessary in order to point out the bearing and ultimate tendency of this dangerous habit—a habit, like many of our wrong propensities, so insidious in its nature, as scarcely to tell upon the youthful character; while, like many other plants of evil growth, its seed is sown at that period of life, though we scarcely perceive the real nature of the poisonous tree, until its bitter root has struck too deep to be eradicated. It is, therefore, the more important, in all we purpose, and in all we do, that we should look to the end, and not awake when it is too late to find that we have miscalculated either our time, or our means.