will procure for you a stock of great thoughts, thoughts that will fill, stir, and invigorate and expand the soul. Seize, also, on the unparalleled aids furnished by steam and type in this unequaled age. The great thoughts of great men can now be procured at prices almost nominal. You can, therefore, easily collect a library of choice standard works. But, above all, learn to reflect even more than you read. Without thought, books are the sepulcher of the soul, they only immure it. Let thought and reading go hand in hand, and the intellect will rapidly increase in strength and gifts. Its possessor will rise in character, in power, and in positive influence.

-D. Wise.

LET others write of battles fought,

Of bloody, ghastly fields,

Where honor greets the man who wins,
And death the man who yields;
But I will write of him who fights
And vanquishes his sins,

Who struggles on through weary years
Against himself, and wins.

He is a hero staunch and brave
Who fights an unseen foe,
And puts at last beneath his feet

His passions base and low;

Who stands erect in manhood's might,

Undaunted, undismayed,

The bravest man who ere drew sword
In foray or in raid.

It calls for something more than brawn
Or muscle, to o'ercome

An enemy who marcheth not
With banner, plume, and drum;
A foe forever lurking nigh,

With silent, stealthy tread;
Forever near your board by day,
At night beside your bed.

All honor, then, to that brave heart!
Though poor or rich he be,
Who struggles with his baser part,
Who conquors and is free.

He may not wear a hero's crown,

Or fill a hero's grave,

But truth will place his name among
The bravest of the brave.

L. THE WORTH OF ELOQUENCE.

LET us not, gentlemen, undervalue the art of the orator. Of all the efforts of the human mind, it is the most astonishing in its nature and the most transcendent in its immediate triumphs. The wisdom of the philosopher, the eloquence of the historian, the sagacity of the statesman, the capacity of the general, may produce more lasting effects upon human affairs, but they are incomparably less rapid in their influence and less intoxicating from the ascendancy they confer.

In the solitude of his library, the sage meditates on the truths which are to influence the thoughts and direct the conduct of men in future times; amid the strife of faction, the legislator discerns the measures calculated, after a long course of years, to alleviate existing evils or produce happiness yet unborn; during long and wearisome campaigns, the commander throws his shield over the fortunes of his country, and prepares, in silence and amid obloquy, the means of maintaining its independence. But the triumphs

of the orator are immediate; his influence is instantly felt; his, and his alone, it is,

"The applause of listening senates to command,
The threats of pain and ruin to despise,

To scatter plenty o'er a smiling land,

And read his history in a nation's eyes."

"I can conceive," says Cicero, "of no accomplishment more to be desired than to be able to captivate the affections, charm the understanding, and direct or restrain, at pleasure, the will of whole assemblies." This single art, amongst every free people, has commanded every encouragement and been attended with the most surprising effects; for what can be more astonishing than that from an immense multitude one man should come forth, the only, or almost the only, man who can do what nature has made attainable by all? Or, can any thing impart to the ears and the understanding a pleasure so pure as a discourse which at once delights by its elocution, enlists the passions by its rhetoric, and carries captive the conviction by its logic.

What triumph more noble and magnificent than that of the eloquence of one man swaying the inclinations of the people, the consciences of judges, and the majesty of senates? Nay, farther: can aught be esteemed so grand, so generous, so public-spirited, as to relieve the suppliant, to raise up the prostrate, to communicate happiness, to avert danger, to save a fellow-citizen from exile and wrong? Can aught be more desirable than to have always ready those weapons with which we can at once defend the weak, assail the profligate, and redress our own or our country's injuries?

Apart from the utility of this art in the forum, the rostrum, the senate, and on the bench, can any thing, in retirement from business, be more delightful, more socially endearing, than a language and elocution agreeable and polished on every subject? For the great characteristic of

our nature, that which distinguishes us from brutes, is our capacity of social intercourse, our ability to convey our ideas by words. Ought it not, then, to be pre-eminently our study to excel mankind in that very faculty which constitutes their superiority over brutes?

Upon the eloquence and spirit of an accomplished orator may often depend, not only his own dignity, but the welfare of a government; nay, of a people. Go on, then, ye who would attain this inestimable art. Ply the study you have in hand, pursue it with singleness of purpose, at once for your own honor, for the advantage of your friends, and for the service of your country.

LI. TRUE FAITH.

OLD Reuben Fisher, who lived in the lane,
Was never in life disposed to complain;

If the weather proved fair, he thanked God for the sun,
And if it were rainy, with him 't was all one;
"I have just the weather I fancy," said he,
"For what pleases God always satisfies me.”

If trouble assailed, his brow was ne'er dark,
And his eye never lost its happiest spark.
"Twill not better fix it to gloom or to sigh,
To make the best of it I always shall try!
So, Care, do your worst," said Reuben with glee,
"And which of us conquers, we shall see, we shall see."

If his children were wild, as children will prove,
His temper ne'er lost its warm aspect of love;
"My dear wife,” he'd say, “don't worry nor fret;
"Twill all be right with the wayward ones yet;
'Tis the folly of youth that must have its way;
They'll penitent turn from their evil some day."
If a name were assailed, he would cheerily say:
"Well, well; we'll not join in the cry, any way;
There are always two sides to every tale,

And the true one at last is sure to prevail;
There is an old rule that I learned when a lad,-
'Deem every one good till he's proved to be bad.'

And when in the meshes of sin tightly bound,
The reckless and luckless poor mortal was found,
Proscribed, too, by every woman and man,
And put under rigid and merciless ban,

Old Reuben would say, with kind sympathy fraught,
"We none of us do half as well as we ought.”

If friends waxed cold, he'd say with a smile-
"Well, if they must go, Heaven bless them the while;
We walked a sweet path till the crossing ways met;
And though we have parted, I'll cherish them yet;
They'll go by their way and I'll go by mine-
Perhaps in the city ahead we shall join."

There were sickness and death at last in his cot,
But still Reuben Fisher in sorrow blenched not:
"'Tis the Father afflicts, let him do what he will;
What comes from his hand can mean us no ill;
I cheerfully give back the blessings he lent,
And through faith in the future find present content."

Then he lay on his death-bed at last, undismayed;
No terror had death at which he was afraid;

"Living or dying, 'tis all well with me,
For God's will is my will," submissive said he.
And so Reuben died, with his heart full of grace,
That beamed in a smile on his time-furrowed face.
-B. P. Shillaber.

LII.-LIGHT.

LIGHT is presented to us in ever-varying conditions, but it is always the same-there is a oneness in its essence after all. It is the same light that glistens on the wing of the fire-fly, and blazes on the ruddy hearth-stone, and sparkles