better than

nance and rage, that the inhabitants were completely reformed. When Dr. Johnson said of old Lord Townshend, "though a Whig, he had humanity," he meant to say that his lordship's actions were better than Actions his notions. A profoundly Christian man, notions. and very practical in his Christianity, once said to me of a certain set of prominent Americans, "Though infidels, there is this to say in their favor, - they are all philanthropists." That journey of life's conquest, in which hills over hills, and Alps on Alps arose, and sank, do you think you can make another trace it painlessly by talking? asks Ruskin. Why, you cannot even carry us up an Alp, by talking. You can guide us up to it, step by step, no otherwise - even so, best silently. It is the expressed opinion of Taine that in the matter of morals, words amount to noth- Words ing; in themselves, they are only so many nothing. more or less disagreeable sounds. It is the education precedent which gives them force and meaning. If this have lodged two or three sensible ideas in the boy's head, talk rationally to him; if not, as well attempt to strike sparks from a log of wood. You must address yourself to feelings which already exist, and no fine

amount to

Godwin's theory of

phrases can call them into life in a quarter of an hour. Dr. Thomson said of Godperfectibil win (who, in the full tide of his theory of perfectibility, declared he "could educate tigers"), "I should like to see him in a cage with two of his pupils."

ity.

LONG
Sermons.

St. Patrick's preaching.

To speak short, think long, is the advice of wisdom to speakers and writers. Can it be that Paley meant to enforce the admonition, when in one of his College Lectures he urged the clergy, if their situation required a sermon every Sunday, to "make one and steal five"? Though, so far as the English Church is concerned, a witty traveler has described the standard of the sermons in the Establishment to be, "twenty minutes in length and no depth at all."

Of all preachers, according to Joceline, St. Patrick was the most tremendous. He went through the four Gospels in one exposition to the Irish at a place called Finnablair, and he was three days and nights about it, without intermission, to the great delight of the hearers, who thought that only one day had passed. St. Bridget was present, and she took a comfortable nap, and had a vision.

and Diog

It was wisely observed by Swift that OLD AGE. every man desireth to live long, but nobody would be old. In one of Lucian's Dialogues of the Dead is reported a conversation between an old man and Diog- An old man enes. The philosopher, seeing all but enes. infants in tears, asks, in extreme surprise, whether life can exercise some spell or charm over mankind, so as to induce even the aged to deplore its loss. "What can be the cause of your sorrow?" says he to the old man. "You were, perhaps, once a sovereign?" "No." "At least a satrap?” "No." "A man of great wealth, then?" "No; nothing of the kind; only a beggar of fourscore and ten years, scarcely supporting life with a rod and line, childless, lame, and blind." "And having been such, you yet desire to live as such again?" "Yea, verily," replies the beggar, "for life is sweet, and death is dire and detestable." Lucian also reports an interview between Cerberus and Menippus as to Socrates, in Socrates. the same dark region. "Cerberus, I beseech you, by Styx, to inform me how Socrates behaved when he came down amongst you: I suppose, being a god, you can talk as well as bark, when you have a mind to it." "At first, Menippus," Cer

Seemed not

at first to

fear death.

A saying of Solon.

berus replied, "and whilst he was at a good distance, the philosopher never looked back, but advanced boldly forwards, seeming not to fear death in the least, and as if he meant to show his bravery to those who stood afar off from the centre of Tartarus;

but when he came into the cave, and found it all dark and dismal, and, to hasten him a little, I bit him by his poisoned foot, he cried like a child, began to lament his children, and writhed about."

It was Sir William Temple's opinion that life is like wine; who would drink it pure must not draw it to the dregs. "I abhor," said Emerson to Carlyle, "the inroads which time makes on me and my friends. To live too long is the capital misfortune." In his closing years, life appeared to Humboldt increasingly in the light of Dante's celebrated simile, as a race to death, an expression he loved to quote. At eightyeight he wrote to one of his friends: "Pray avoid living to so unusual an age.”

Solon used to say to his friends that a man of sixty ought never to fear death nor to complain of the evils of life. He might have said, further, that a man at that time. of life has already lived nearly twice his right, according to the average, and that

for so many years he has lived upon other people's time.

old age.

"I am," said Sydney Smith, "going slowly down the hill of life. One evil in one evil in old age is, that as your time is come, you think every little illness is the beginning of the end. When a man expects to be arrested, every knock at the door is an alarm. We are, at the close of life, only hurried away from stomach - aches, pains in the joints, from sleepless nights and unamusing days, from weakness, ugliness, and nervous tremors." "I suspect," he said, at another time, "the fifth act of life should be in great cities; it is there, in the long death of old age, that a man most forgets himself and his infirmities; receives the greatest consolation from the attentions of friends, and the greatest diversion from external circumstances."

"Youth," thought Souvestre, "is a forced apprenticeship, in which one's time, will, intelligence, everything, is the property of one's master. Our feet carry us well, but stir only at the word of command. Manhood imposes on us fresh duties at every instant; middle life increases the burden of our responsibilities; old age old age alone is really free. The world of which really free.

alone is