“‘By the bright waters now thy lot is cast;
Joy for thee, happy one! thy bark hath past
The rough sea’s foam;
Now the long yearnings of thy soul are stilled.
Home! Home! thy peace is won, thy heart is filled;
Thou art gone Home.’”
A RIGHT PURPOSE IN LIFE.
In order to the realization of any true and practical life-purpose, three great elements seem to be necessary: to inquire for yourself, to act for yourself, and to support yourself. Miss Hessel was deeply conscious of the fact that while brutes are impelled by instinct to the course proper to their realm and nature, she was endowed with rationality, that she might act upon choice, and, though she might often not have it in her power to choose the place where to act, she could always choose how to act in it. It is not given to many to be doers of what the world counts great actions; but there is noble work for all to do. As the author of the “Christian Year” has well sung:—
“If, in our daily course, our mind
Be set to hallow all we find,