RESPONSIBILITY.
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am afraid to undertake it; the responsibility is too great. I never incur a responsibility that can be avoided!" Such was the hesitating reply of one whom the popular voice pronounced kind of heart and blameless of life, when a friend suggested to her a charitable action not easy of accomplishment. The deed was one which necessarily would have entailed some trouble, demanded some exertion, and have been attended with some annoyance if its result proved unfortunate. But if a happy fruition crowned her efforts, her whole existence must have been pervaded with a sense of internal and lasting satisfaction, as the chosen instrument for such a noble work; one record would have been written upon her book of life, which could have conjured up consoling thoughts in her hour of bitterest sorrow; one memory would have been hers, that might have shed celestial light even upon her death-bed. And yet the dread of responsibility could make her shrink and turn aside, and try to forget that she might have lifted the burden from
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