laws of his nature or the laws of God, as man often did, but strictly followed the simple instincts he had received from the hands of the Creator of all things. Created by God's hands, he had a right from God to food, to liberty, and they had no right to deprive him of either. He alluded to the mute but earnest pleadings of the animal for that life, as dear to him as were their own, and the just judgment they might expect if in selfish cruelty and coldheartedness they took the life they could not restore again.

During the appeal the tears had started in the old man's eyes, and were fast running down his sunburnt cheeks. Every feeling of a father's heart was stirred within him, and he felt that God had blessed him beyond the lot of common men. His pity was awakened by the eloquent words of compassion and the strong appeal for mercy; and, forgetting the judge in the man and the father, he sprang from his chair (while Daniel was in the midst of his argument, without thinking he had already won the case), and turning to his eldest son, dashing the tears from his eyes, he exclaimed: "Zeke, Zeke, you let that woodchuck go!

XI. SAYINGS AND DOINGS.

I SING the hymn of the conquered, who fell in the battle of life— The hymn of the wounded, the beaten, who died overwhelmed in the strife;

Not the jubilant song of the victors, from whom the resounding acclaim

Of nations was lifted in chorus, whose brows wore the chaplet of fame

But the hymn of the low and the humble, the weary, the broken in heart,

Who strove and who failed, acting bravely a silent and desperate part,

Whose youth bore no flower in its branches, whose hopes burned in ashes away;

From whose hands slipped the prize they had grasped at, who stood at the dying of day

With the work of their life all around them,-unpitied, unheeded, alone,

With death sweeping down o'er their failure, and all but their faith overthrown.

While the voice of the world shouts its chorus, its pæan for those who have won

While the trumpet is sounding triumphant, and high to the breeze and the sun

Gay banners are waving, hands clapping, with thousands of hurrying feet

Thronging after the laurel-crowned victors, I stand on the field of defeat,

In the shadow, 'mongst those who are fallen and wounded and dying and there

Chant a requiem low, place my hand on their pain-knotted brows, breathe a prayer,

Hold the hand that is hapless, and whisper "They only the victory win

Who have fought the good fight, and have vanquished the demon that tempts us within;

Who have held to their faith unseduced by the prize that the world holds on high;

Who have dared for a high cause to suffer, resist, fight,—if need be, to die."

Speak, History! Who are life's victors? Unroll thy long annals and say

Are they those whom the world called the victors who won the success of a day?

The martyrs, or Nero? The Spartans who fell at Thermopyla's tryst,

Or the Persians or Xerxes? His judges, or Socrates? Pilate, or Christ?

XII.-TRAPPING A WITNESS.

THE prisoner being arraigned, and the formalities gone through with, the prosecutor, placing his thumb over the seal, held up the will and demanded of the prisoner whether

he had seen the testator sign that instrument, to which he promptly answered he had.

"And did you sign it at his request as a subscribing witness?"

"I did."

"Was it sealed with red or black wax?"

"With red wax."

"Did you see him seal it with red wax?” "I did."

"Where was the testator when he signed and sealed this will?"

"In his bed."

"Pray, how long a piece of wax did he use?"

"About three or four inches."

"Who gave the testator this piece of wax?" "I did."

"Where did you get it?"

"From the drawer in his desk."

"How did he light the piece of wax?"

"With a candle."

"Where did that piece of candle come from?"

"I got it out of a cupboard in his room." "How long was that piece of candle?"

"Perhaps four or five inches long."

"Who lit it?"

66 'I lit it."

"What with?"

"With a match."

"Where did you get the match?" "On the mantel-shelf in his room." "You did?"

"I did."

Here Warren paused, and, fixing his large blue eyes upon the prisoner, he held the paper above his head, his thumb still resting upon the seal, and in a solemn, measured tone, said:

66

Now, sir, upon your solemn oath, you saw the testator sign that will; he signed it in his bed; at his request you signed it as a subscribing witness; you saw him seal it; it was with red wax that he sealed it, a piece of two, three, or four inches long; he lit that wax with a piece of candle, which you procured for him from a cupboard; you lit that candle by a match which you found on the mantel-shelf?" "I did."

66

My lord-it is a wafer." The prisoner was convicted.

XIII. SHORT SELECTIONS.

HAPPINESS.

KNOW then this truth (enough for man to know):
"Virtue alone is happiness below."

The only point where human bliss stands still,
And tastes the good without the fall to ill;
Where only merit constant pay receives,

Is blest in what it takes, and what it gives;
The joy unequal'd, if its end it gain;
And if it lose, attended with no pain;
Without satiety, tho' e'er so blest,

And but more relish'd as the more distress'd;
The broadest mirth unfeeling folly wears,

Less pleasing far than virtue's very tears;
Good from each object, from each place acquir'd,
Forever exercis'd, yet never tired;

Never elated, while one man's oppress'd

Never dejected, while another's blest;

And where no wants, no wishes can remain,

Since but to wish more virtue is to gain.

IDLENESS.

THE keenest pangs the wretched find

-Pope.

Are rapture to the dreary void,

The leafless desert of the mind,

The waste of feelings unemployed.

-Byron.

REBELLION.

REBELLION! foul, dishonoring word,
Whose wrongful blight so oft has stain'd
The holiest cause that tongue or sword
Of mortal ever lost or gain'd!

How many a spirit born to bless

Hath sunk beneath that withering name,
Whom but a day's, an hour's success,
Had wafted to eternal fame!

As exhalations, when they burst
From the warm earth, if chill'd at first,
If check'd in soaring from the plain,
Darken to fogs and sink again;
But if they once triumphant spread
Their wings above the mountain-head,
Become enthroned in upper air,

And turn to sun-bright glories there.

-Moore.

TRUE REPENTANCE.

'Tis not to cry God mercy, or to sit

And droop, or to confess that thou hast fail'd;
'Tis to bewail the sins thou didst commit,
And not commit those sins thou hast bewail'd.
He that bewails and not forsakes them, too,
Confesses rather what he means to do.

-Quarles.

XIV.-EVILS OF GOSSIP.

I HAVE known a country society which withered away all to nothing under the dry rot of gossip only. Friendships once as firm as granite, dissolved to jelly, and then ran away to water, only because of this; love that promised a future as enduring as heaven, and as stable as truth, evaporated into a morning mist that turned to a day's long tears, only because of this; a father and a son were set foot