quietly in the brightness of a Sunday morning. The owner came forth from his little cottage; he was a wood-cutter by occupation, and spent the whole week at work in the woods. He had come into the garden to gather flowers to stick in his coat when he went to church. He saw the boy, and, breaking off the most beautiful of his carnations, gave it to him. Neither giver nor receiver spoke a word, and with bounding steps the boy ran home. And now, at a distance from that home, after so many events and so many years, the feeling of gratitude which agitated the breast of that boy expresses itself on paper. The carnation has long since withered, but it now blooms afresh. Douglas Jerrold, England, 1803-1857. 95. Rectitude. Let it be proclaimed in every school that there are original, immutable, and indestructible maxims of moral rectitude,-great lights in the firmament of the soul, which no circumstances can affect, no sophistry obliterate. That to this eternal standard every individual of the race is bound to conform, and that by it the conduct of every man shall be adjudged. Let it be proclaimed that dishonesty, fraud, and falsehood are as despicable and criminal in the most exalted stations as in the most obscure, in politics as in business. That the demagogue who tells a lie to gain a vote is as infamous as the peddler who tells one to gain a penny. Newton Bateman, New Jersey, 1822-. 96. Charity. The charities of life are scattered everywhere, enameling the vales of human beings as the flowers paint the meadows. They are not the fruit of study, nor the privilege of refinement, but a natural instinct. Geo. Bancroft, Mass., 1800-. 97. Energy. Nothing great or good can be accomplished without labor and toil. Motion is the law of living nature. Inaction is the symbol of death, if it is not death itself. The hugest engines, with strength and capacity sufficient to drive the mightiest ships across the stormy deep, are utterly useless without a moving power. Energy is the steam-power, the motive principle of intellectual capacity. It is the propelling force; and as in physics momentum is resolvable into velocity and quantity of matter, so in metaphysics, the extent of human accomplishment may be resolvable into the degree of intellectual endowment and the energy with which it is directed. A small body driven by a great force will produce a result equal to, or even greater than, that of a much larger body moved by a considerably less force. So it is with minds. Hence we often see men of comparatively small capacity, by greater energy alone, leave, and justly leave, their superiors in natural gifts far behind them in the race for honors, distinction, and preferment. Alexander II. Stephens, Georgia, 1812—. 98. June. This is the year's bower. Sit down within it. Wipe from thy brow the toil. The elements are thy servants. The dews bring thee jewels. The winds bring perfume. The earth shows thee all her treasure. The forests sing to thee. The air is all sweetness, as if all the angels of God had gone through it, bearing spices homeward. The storms are but as flocks of mighty birds that spread their wings and sing in the high heaven. Speak to God now, and say, "0 Father! where art thou?" and out of every flower, and tree, and silver pool, and twined thicket, a voice will come, "God is in me." The earth cries to the heavens, "God is here!" The sea claims Him. The land hath Him. His footsteps are upon the deep. He sitteth upon the circle of the earth. O sunny joys of the sunny month, yet soft and temperate, how soon will the eager months that come burning from the Equator scorch you! H. W. Beecher, Conn., 1813-. 99. My Library. In my garden I spend my days; in my library I spend my nights. My interests are divided between my geraniums and my books. With the flowers I am in the present; with the books I am in the past. into my library and all history unrolls before I breathe the morning air of the world while the scent of Eden's roses yet lingered in it, while it I go me. vibrated only to the world's first brood of nightingales, and to the laugh of Eve. I see the pyramids building; I hear the shoutings of the armies of Alexander; I feel the ground shake beneath the march of Cambyses. I sit as in a theater, the stage is time, the play is the world. What a spectacle it is! What kingly pomp! what processions file past! what cities burn to heaven, what crowds of captives are dragged at the chariot-wheels of conquerors! Alex. Smith, Scotland, 1830-1867. 100. True Reading. Reading without purpose is sauntering, not exercise. More is got from one book on which the thought settles for a definite end in knowledge, than from libraries skimmed over by a wandering eye. A cottage flower gives honey to the bee,-a king's garden none to the butterfly. Lord Lytton, England, 1805-1873. PART II-POETRY. 1. The Voyage of Life. Life is a sea,-as fathomless, As wide, as terrible, and yet sometimes Eventful voyage. The wise O! then be early wise! may suffer wreck, Learn from the mariner his skillful art To ride upon the waves, and catch the breeze, To station quick-eyed Prudence at the helm, Which, though it trembles as it lowly lies, Points to the light that changes not,-in Heaven. 6* Henry Ware, Jr., Mass., 1794-1843. |