No such assassin: but a friend

Rather, peeped out to guard me, fit

For counsel, Common Sense, to wit,

Who said a good deal that might pass,—

Heartening, impartial too, it was,

Judge else: "For, soberly now,—who

Should be a Christian if not you?"

(Hear how he smoothed me down.) "One takes

A whole life, sees what course it makes

Mainly, and not by fits and starts—