And men, taught wisdom from the past,

In friendship joined their hands,

Hung the sword in the hall, the spear on the wall,
And ploughed the willing lands;

And sang, "Hurrah for Tubal Cain!

Our stanch good friend is he;

And, for the ploughshare and the plough,
To him our praise shall be.

But while oppression lifts its head,

Or a tyrant would be lord,

Though we may thank him for the plough,

We'll not forget the sword."

MRS. CAUDLE'S LECTURE ON SHIRT BUTTONS. Douglas Jerrold.

THERE, Mr. Caudle, I hope you're in a little better temper than you were this morning. There, you need n't begin to whistle: people don't come to bed to whistle. But it's like you; I can't speak, that you don't try to insult me. Once, I used to say you were the best creature living: now, you get quite a fiend. Do let you rest? No, I won't let you rest. It's the only time I have to talk to you, and you shall hear me. I'm put upon all day long : it's very hard if I can't speak a word at night; and it is n't often I open my mouth, goodness knows!

Because once in your lifetime your shirt wanted a button, you must almost swear the roof off the house.

You

didn't swear? Ha, Mr. Caudle! you don't know what you do when you're in a passion. You were not in a passion, wer'nt you? Well, then I don't know what a passion is; and I think I ought by this time. I've lived long enough with you, Mr. Caudle, to know that.

It's a pity you hav'nt something worse to complain of than a button off your shirt. If you'd some wives, you would, I know. I'm sure I'm never without a needle-andthread in my hand; what with you and the children, I'm made a perfect slave of. And what's my thanks? Why, if once in your life a button's off your shirt-what do you say "ah" at? I say once, Mr. Caudle; or twice or three times, at most. I'm sure, Caudle, no man's buttons in the world are better looked after than yours. I only wish I'd kept the shirts you had when you were first married! I should like to know where were your buttons then?

Yes, it is worth talking of! But that's how you always

try to put me down. You fly into a rage, and then, if I only try to speak, you won't hear me. That's how you men always will have all the talk to yourselves: a poor woman isn't allowed to get a word in. A nice notion you have of a wife, to suppose she's nothing to think of but her husband's buttons. A pretty notion, indeed, you have of marriage. Ha! if poor women only knew what they had to go through! What with buttons, and one thing and another! They'd never tie themselves up to the best man in the world, I'm sure. What would they do, Mr. Caudle? -Why, do much better without you, I'm certain.

And it's my belief, after all, that the button wasn't off the shirt; it's my belief that you pulled it off, that you might have something to talk about. Oh, you're aggravat ing enough, when you like, for anything! All I know is, it's very odd that the button should be off the shirt; for I'm sure no woman's a greater slave to her husband's buttons than I am. I only say it's very odd.

However, there's one comfort; it can't last long. I'm worn to death with your temper, and shan't trouble you a great while. Ha, you may laugh! And I dare say you would laugh! I've no doubt of it! That's your love; that's your feeling I know that I'm sinking every day, though I say nothing about it. And when I'm gone, we shall see how your second wife will look after your buttons! You'll find out the difference, then. Yes. Caudle, you'll think of me, then; for then, I hope, you'll never have a blessed button to your back.

THE MANTLE OF ST. JOHN DE MATHA. John G. Whittier.

A LEGEND OF "THE RED, WHITE, AND BLUE.' A. D. 1154-1864.

A strong and mighty Angel,
Calm, terrible and bright,

The cross in blended red and blue

Upon his mantle white!

Two captives by him kneeling,
Each on his broken chain,

Sang praise to God who raiseth
The dead to life again!

Dropping his cross-wrought mantle, "Wear this," the Angel said;

"Take thou, O Freedom's priest, its signThe white, the blue, and red."

Then rose up John de Matha

In the strength the Lord Christ gave, And begged through all the land of France The ransom of the slave.

The gates of tower and castle
Before him open flew,

The drawbridge at his coming fell,

The door-bolt backward drew.

For all men owned his errand,
And paid his righteous tax;
And the hearts of lord and peasant
Were in his hands as wax.

At last, outbound from Tunis,
His bark her anchor weighed,
Freighted with seven score Christian souls
Whose ransom he had paid.

But, torn by Paynim hatred,
Her sails in tatters hung;
And on the wild waves rudderless,
A shattered hulk she swung.

"God save us !" cried the captain,
"For naught can man avail:
O, woe betide the ship that lacks
Her rudder and her sail!

"Behind us are the Moormen ;
At sea we sink or strand:
There's death upon the water,
There's death upon the land !”

Then up spake John de Matha:
"God's errands never fail!
Take thou the mantle which I wear,
And make of it a sail."

They raised the cross-wrought mantle,

The blue, the white, the red;

And straight before the wind off-shore
The ship of Freedom sped.

"God help us!" cried the seamen,
"For vain is mortal skill;
The good ship on a stormy sea
Is drifting at its will."

Then up spake John de Matha:

"My mariners, never fear!

The Lord whose breath has filled her sail
May well our vessel steer!"

So on through storm and darkness
They drove for weary hours;

And lo! the third gray morning shone
On Ostia's friendly towers.

And on the walls the watchers
The ship of mercy knew-
They knew far off its holy cross,
The red, the white, the blue.

And the bells in all the steeples
Rang out in glad accord,

To welcome home to Christian soil
The ransomed of the Lord.

So runs the ancient legend
By bard and painter told;
And lo! the cycle rounds again,
The new is as the old!

With rudder foully broken,
And sails by traitors torn,
Our country on a midnight sea
Is waiting for the morn.

Before her, nameless terror;
Behind, the pirate foe;
The clouds are black above her,
The sea is white below.

The hope of all who suffer,

The dread of all who wrong,
She drifts in darkness and in storm,
How long, O Lord! how long?

But courage, O my mariners!
Ye shall not suffer wreck,

While up to God the freedman's prayers
Are rising from your deck.

Is not your sail the banner

Which God hath blest anew,
The mantle that de Matha wore,
The red, the white, the blue?

Its hues are all of heaven-
The red of sunset's dye,

The whiteness of the moonlit cloud,
The blue of morning's sky.

Wait cheerily, then, O mariners,
For daylight and for land;
The breath of God is on your sail,
Your rudder in His hand.

Sail on, sail on, deep freighted
With blessings and with hopes;
The saints of old with shadowy hands
Are pulling at your ropes.

Behind ye, holy martyrs
Uplift the palm and crown;
Before ye, unborn ages send
Their benedictions down.

Take heart from John de Matha !-
God's errands never fail!

Sweep on through storm and darkness,
The thunder and the hail !

Sail on! The morning cometh,

The port ye yet shall win;
And all the bells of God shall ring

The good ship bravely in!

A PSALM OF LIFE.-H. W. Longfellow

TELL me not, in mournful numbers,
"Life is but an empty dream!”
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! life is earnest !

And the grave is not its goal; "Dust thou art, to dust returnest," Was not spoken of the soul.