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warp and woof of every dream. This earth for ever embraces us with its inexorable climate; we receive the color of the thing on which we feed. Let woman tranquilly accept the lot which perfects her character, anticipating education rather than felicity; that word will be in current use only when the conditions of earth cease to environ us, and the well-disciplined soul enters the peaceful state where experience results in bliss.

Not to be tempted any farther by this prolific subject, let us accept a Christian application of it. "But one thing is needful";- that thing was the object of Mary's ambition, who received the commendation of her Lord, not because she flattered him by listening, nor because she thought the service of the house less important than his high discourse, but because her womanly nature yearned towards its perfected counterpart in him. Will woman consent to be led back again to the feet of Jesus, that this meagre and desolate age may be redeemned by the faith and heroism which were the chief consolations of his life, and the first triumphs of his ministry? Will women be again the first disciples of a Master who speaks to her nature as intimately, with as great assurance of recognition, as when in the garden he said to his sorrowing and bewildered friend," Mary!" Will woman accept the genuine mission which nature and revelation proffer to her, without which her own peculiar spirit would be objectless? Let her not imagine that her latent Christian powers share the felicity of instinct, to bless us unconsciously, to redcem us unawares, to charm us like her involuntary smiles. They wait within her, to be made perfect through suffering, slowly to as⚫sume the redemption from amid prayers and the unutterable longings of her spirit. They wait to be fixed and tempered by the trials appropriate to her sphere, to be converted into personal energy by her enlightened will. Before woman can bless us, she must bless herself with the faith of Mary, penetrated, for her own sake and for ours, with the conviction, that but one thing is needful. Let her give up the vanities which infest her varied lot, vanities of leisure, vanities of labor, wretched deferences to man's coarse spirit, unwomanly compliance with the husband's and the brother's egotism. She must open the long disused page of the beatitudes among us, for

manly energy riots among its husks, having dismissed the reproving meekness and poverty of spirit. Let woman offer them an asylum; let her rise and take the beautiful shape of a redeemer, and make the talk by the way-side, and the feasts and cares of home occasions, to spread again the Gospel peace abroad.

J. W.

ART. II. REFLECTIONS.

To terrify without punishing often does more than punishment could do to prevent offences. For there is always danger that punishment may excite more anger than fear.

Good deeds are most praised when they occasion most surprise. The liberal act of a miser is in every one's mouth, while that of a benevolent man may be hardly noticed. So that silence is often commendation.

A man cannot be a knave without being a fool.

Cowardice consists, not in having fear, but in yielding to it. In well-ordered minds, fear is the sentinel that wakes up courage.

Agitation of mind is more exhausting than application. A blunder often makes a precedent.

A weak mind is ambitious of envy; a strong one, of respect.

Slight differences often indicate great ones: aqua fontis is spring water; aqua fortis is nitric acid.

Common opinions often conflict with common sense; for reason in most minds is no match for prejudice, a hydra whose heads grow faster than they can be cut off.

Most of our opportunities are lost in gaining the experience which enables us to use the rest.

The poor man and the rich one travel the same road, the former with a little bag scantily furnished, the latter with a load of trunks heavy to carry and hard to keep.

When fame is infamously won

By higher natures, like Rousseau
And Byron, pandering to the low,

The sullied wreath is worse than none.

A man seldom has much leisure, if he is much inclined to use it.

How many men we meet who "might be" something, and how few who are!

The reward of ostentatious giving is importunate begging.

Popularity is gained by flattering prejudices, but respect by withstanding them.

Our prospects take their hue from our retrospects.

Those who have the fewest ungratified wants often have the most ungratified wishes.

A life of ambition is a race without rest.

The French say, "A wise man thinks before he speaks, but a fool after he has spoken."

They also say, "He who has a good son-in-law has gained a son; he who has a bad one has lost a daughter."

We ridicule others for their fears and failures, and then fear and fail like them in like situations; for many a path which looks smooth at a distance is found to be rough when we have to travel it.

Voltaire says that the secret of being tedious is to leave nothing unsaid.

Confusing what's clear and distorting what's true,
(Like mirrors that represent objects askew,)
Enables a writer to make people stare

At commonplace notions as if they were rare,
And dazzle sometimes, though he 's generally dull;

But his light only shines through a crack in his skull.

Change of time, like change of place, introduces men to new associates, and gives many persons an opportunity to become respected by outliving those who knew them when they were not respectable.

We know too little of most men's difficulties to know much of their deserts.

The condition of the world would be improved, if men were to think less of the dishonor of submitting to wrong, and more of the dishonor of doing it.

Outward troubles often act like blisters to alleviate inward pains and inaladies.

Every path that leads to good is intersected by a thousand that lead to ill.

How oft a sudden flood of fame
Departs as quickly as it came !
But, fed by many gentle rills,
Enduring fame its channel fills,
And widens to a quiet river,

Which flows unchanging and for ever.

How liable must written language be to inisconstruction, when spoken language is so often misunderstood! What proportion of men's "reasons" for acting were in their minds before they acted?

The infamy of ill-got gains

Long after they are lost remains.

Is not a melancholy man apt to err by considering vice and misery too much in the mass? The mass is frightful, but it is very widely distributed.

Most men must do what seems to them much, in order to accomplish what will seem to others little.

The man who renders up his breath,

In dying bids adieu to death.

The young often think fiction fact; the old often think fact fiction.

Who has not suffered "the greatest outrage ever committed"?

The most valuable knowledge comes from common experience, and lodges not in the memory, but in the understanding.

They pay too dear for fame or wealth,
Who pay in peace of mind or health.

In many cases, words are clear only to him who uses them. Is it strange, then, that a man's own speeches or writings should appear to him more expressive than those of others?

To complain is to confess weakness; and so men conceal their suffering and weariness. This makes society more agreeable, but also makes life seem to the young easier than it is.

How many a man, from love of pelf,
To stuff his coffers starves himself;
Labors, accumulates, and spares,
To lay up ruin for his heirs ;
Grudges the poor their scanty dole,
Saves every thing except his soul,
And always anxious, always vexed,
Loses both this world and the next!

Constant vigilance is required to prevent evil, but such vigilance is not consistent with a high degree of happi

ness.

Follies and blunders usually spring from constitutional defects requiring a lifetime to remedy.

If a man has popular talents, his mind is usually kept on tap and drained to the dregs.

Many distinguished men are despised for the arts which procure them distinction.

Much of "the evil of our lot" is the punishment of our misconduct.

Happiness depends not so much on means and opportunities, as on the capacity of using them. And this depends so much on experience and self-control, that the probability of happiness in old age is as great, to say the least, as it is in youth.

VOL. LVI.

If, when the body turns to clay

And mingles with the sod,
The soul, as Eastern sages say,
Is swallowed up in God,

Then man's a bubble on a river,

That breaks and disappears for ever,
And, mixing with the current, flows
Back to the ocean whence it rose ;

4TH S. VOL. XXI. NO. I.

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