to enjoy the delights of knowledge without that intellectual preparation essential in the very nature of things? Is not he, too, looking for a prize for which he has purchased no ticket?

It is necessary to the efficacy of all labor that it be spontaneous. No work is well done, whether in the workshop, the school, or the study, that is not done, as the sailors say, "with a will." And yet, we know not how it is, the very best way of inducing hearty and victorious exertion is to put oneself under the iron necessity of exertion. This is the way to awaken the energy of a slumbering will. Let him, therefore, who is resolved to vindicate the claims, and feed the appetite, of his mind, bind himself irrevocably to the task. A task it may be for a long while, but the time will come when it will be his privilege and pleasure, and he will be ready to declare with Fénélon that if the riches of the Indies were poured at his feet, he would not exchange for them his love of reading.

SPRING.

BY GEORGE JOHNSON.

HE fairest child of all the seasons,

THE

Loveliest one of all the year,

May, with all her flowers and blossoms,
And her bright sunshine is here.
Thousand lovely flowrets blooming,
Fill the air with sweet perfume;
Nature, bright, resplendent, smiling,
Bears no trace of Winter's gloom.

Sings again the little streamlet,

Waked from out its wint'ry sleep; Flows once more the quiet river, Bearing tribute to the deep.

Back have come the woodland songsters, From the far-off southern climes; Sounds again the green-clad forest,

With the merry warblers' chimes.

CUPID AND THE GRACES.

BY LEILA.

T is their summer haunt ;-a giant oak

I stretches its sheltering arm their
IT

Stretches its sheltering arm above their heads,

And midst the twilight of depending boughs

They ply their eager task. Between them sits
A bright-haired child, whose softly-glistening wings
Quiver with joy, as ever and anon

He at their bidding, sweeps a chorded shell,
And draws its music forth. Wondering, he looks
For their approving smile and quickly drinks
(Apt pupil!) from their lips instruction sweet,—
Divine encouragement! And this is "Love
Taught by the Graces" how to point his darts
With milder mercy and discreeter aim;
To stir the bosom's lyre to harmony,

And waken strains of music from its chords
They never gave before!

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