This last especially was the character
given along all the country-side to the Earl of Cairnforth.
His was not a sad existence; far from it. None who knew him, and
certainly none who ever staid long with him in his own home, went away
with that impression. He enjoyed what he called "a sunshiny life"--
having sunshiny faces about him; people who knew how to accept the sweet
and endure the bitter; to see the heavenly side even of sorrow; to do
good to all, and receive good from all; avoiding all envies, jealousies,
angers, and strifes, and following out literally the apostolic command,
"As much as in you lies, live peaceably with all men."
And so the earl was, in the best sense of the word, popular. Every body
liked him, and he liked every body. But deep in his heart--ay,
deeper than any of these his friends and acquaintance ever dreamed--
steadying and strengthening it, keeping it warm for all human uses, yet
calm with the quiet sadness of an eternal want, lay all those emotions
which are not likings, but loves; not sympathies, but passions; but
which with him were to be, in this world, forever dormant and
unfulfilled.
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