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TRANSLATION OF "QUID INDE?"

WHAT if the stateliest buildings were thine own?
What if the choicest fruits thy table crown?
If thou hast heaps on heaps of gold in store,
And each succeeding year still adding more?
What if thou hast the fairest, kindest wife,
To be the sweet companion of thy life?
If thou art blessed with sons, a large estate,
And all around magnificent and great;

What if thou'rt comely, valiant, rich, and strong,
And teachest others in each art, each tongue;
If thou hast numerous servants at command,
All things in store and ready to thy hand;
If thou wert king, commander of a nation,
Full thousand happy years, without vexation;
If fortune raised thee to the highest strain
Of grandeur, wealth and dignity—what then?
Soon, very soon, all ends and comes to nought;
Virtue alone's the greatest glory sought.
Obey th' Almighty's will; from hence arise
All happiness within; in this all lies.

D.

THE BIBLE IN SCHOOLS.

In its general influence over the minds of our children, and over the whole business of education, the Bible in our schools is invaluable. It is a constant habitual nourishment, an uninterrupted, systematic influence over tender minds at the most susceptible age-as steady, as cheerful, as healthful, as the light of the sun. In this way a great many children are blessed with the privilege of listening daily to the Word of God, who, alas! would never hear it read in the family; and this is one highly important reason for maintaining it. It brings the children even of the abandoned, the vicious, the worthless-of families where no family altar was ever dreamed of-to the daily recognition of a heavenly Father, and the daily table of that bread which He has provided for the soul.

EVENINGS WITH THE EDITOR.

EVENING THE SIXTEENTH.

Emm. I AM afraid I should never get through this closely printed book, Mr. Editor. People should print in more attractive type if they wish their works to be read.

Ed. Good rules bear exceptions, Miss Emmeline; and so far from dreading for you the misfortune of stopping half way in this small type volume, I venture to assert you could not stop till you had come to page 445.

Emm. Why? And what is the book?

Ed. The book is the PRIEST AND THE HUGUENOT,* and is so thrillingly written that he must be a cold-hearted being who does not feel conscious of a master's creative power in reproducing the past.

Aug. Is it not a novel? I thought you did not like novels ? Ed. It can scarcely be styled a novel, although there are few novels that equal it in its romantic interest. Truthfulness reigns supreme in M. Bungener's productions. Yet no writer imparts a more vivid reality to his impersonations. They are living creatures of flesh and blood. Whether we are in the presence of Majesty at Versailles, or listening to eloquent discourses in the Philosopher's Walk, or holding our breath in trembling suspense while the Huguenot braves with superhuman courage the frown of a monarch, we yield ourselves to the magic illusionthe illusion created by genius combined with truth.

Mrs. M. I suppose the title indicates the subject?

Ed. Yes; Popery and Protestantism are delineated in their most distinguished champions, and in their respective influence on men and manners. The Philosopher's Saloon is described as only a Frenchman could do it. The intimate connection between Popery, Infidelity, and Vice, is proved from history. We see also what those men were that Rome's merciless hate tracked like wild beasts, consigning them to the horrors of galley-life, or to the tortures which ended at the scaffold. There are some passages that, on account of their pathos, and their magnificence, force themselves on the memory. I refer to such as the Cevenol's narrative of his treachery; to Rabaut's visit to the tower of Constance; and to the interview of Bridaine with the Calas family. No reader could forget the struggle in the royal con

* London: Nelson; and Trubner.

science between the awful fidelity of the man of God and the steady serpent eye of the man of Loyola. Such passages as these show the power of the author to invest the stern religious teaching of history with more than the attraction of romance. Mrs. M. A wonderful thing in French literature, usually so immoral.

Emm. I really must try and encounter this terrible small print.

Ed. I advise you to make the attempt, it may do your good, if not your eyes.

Emm. Oh! Mr. Editor.

Ed. Oh! Miss Emmeline.

heart

Aug. Another fiction, Mr. Editor! and one which some newspaper has called "a truly romantic and gratifying story"a critique which almost frightens the author of POOR PADDY'S CABIN.*

Emm. Why?

Aug. Because certain abuses "have brought the very name of romance into disrepute."

Mrs. M. Deservedly so.

Aug. Nevertheless, it is the author's decided conviction that those feelings of the human heart which seek for and derive gratification from "a romantic story," though liable, like all others, to ruinous perversion, are in themselves a most interesting part of the combined rational and instinctive nature of man; and that it would be just as wise to seek their annihilation as that of the love and taste for music, or any other natural instinct which a gracious God has bestowed upon his creature as a source of grateful happiness and thankful enjoyment. And so, he does not feel that its designation as a romantic tale, is at all calculated to detract from its gravity as an humble effort to effect good.

Ed. Without settling this controversy, we had better examine into the merits of the story. I infer from the title that it is a sketch of Irish life.

Aug. It is; and its plan of construction was suggested to the author by "Uncle Tom's Cabin."

Emm. Oh, then it is a sort of companion exposure to that of slavery in America; showing I suppose, that Ireland has had as much oppression to groan under as Uncle Tom and his friends had.

Aug. Just so, only not in the sense you mean; not political oppression.

Emm. What kind then-religious ?

*London: Wertheim & Macintosh.

Aug. Yes, the intolerable thraldom of the priests. Really, I had no idea how complete and terrible this thraldom is till I perused this graphic story.

Emm. Is it true?

Aug. As true as Uncle Tom's Cabin. The author has so far followed in Mrs. Stowe's track, by combining undoubted facts by the string of a fictitious narrative. He has striven to draw a true picture of the real state of things in Ireland, and has avoided anything personal or harsh towards the Papists. When mischief can be traced to a system, it is comparatively indifferent who the agent is. Besides this general design, however, the author has attempted to show what the gracious dealings of the Almighty always are, and what the faith and conduct of real Christians ought to be, pursuing the path of duty however painful the immediate consequences, however seemingly hopeless the result. That such real Christians are, and have been, he has no doubt; and as little does he entertain, that all would be such, if all were governed by that simple and childlike regard and deep reverence for the Word of God, which he has endeavoured to exemplify in Poor Paddy and his family.

Mrs. M. And very well exemplified too; I was much pleased in reading this story, with the prompt and believing reference which Paddy and Maureen always make to the Bible. And I was also much pleased with the fair way in which the Papists are treated. This, in all controversy with them, should be most anxiously attended to. Rude, bitter attacks upon their false and idolatrous doctrines, are quite unlike the gentle temper that is of Christ, and are only calculated to arouse feelings in the breast of the poor Romanists correspondingly bitter and rude.

Aug. Do not forget that it has already reached a second edition, and by all accounts, appears likely to have a good "run." Emm. Here are two books which we have not yet had time to review-AGNES* and CAROLINE*. They are by the well known Jacob Abbott.

Ed. Their design is good; the development of the moral sentiments in early life, and thereby the gradual formation of character, shown to be determined by sympathy and the influence of example, rather than by formal precepts and didactic instruction. The working out of this design, as every one who knows the writings of this author will expect, is cleverly managed ; these little volumes contain scarcely any "sermonising;" they delineate the quiet scenes of happy domestic life in an unpretending manner, and are written on purpose to leave an impression

* London: Ward & Co.

on the young reader's mind, which shall be direct and powerful, although he may be unconscious of it. Such books should be more numerous than they are: and many of our writers for the young would do better to point a moral as Abbott does, than to preach a sermon, which is generally a dull one, and as generally skipped over.

Mrs. M. I have one objection to these books, and I am sorry to say it is a grave one; they are not evangelical enough. The great motive, love to Christ, is in the back ground, not prominent as it ought ever to be.

Ed. Can you illustrate your objection?

Mrs. M. Easily. Turn to Beechnut's story in AGNES, about the moral influences which effect a change of character: “Laura reformed herself spontaneously, Lucy was reformed by her father's counsels and advice, Marcia by rewards, Maria by punishment, while Mary was not reformed at all." As this story is intended to show the various ways by which faults are curable, there should have been some reference to the great inducement to virtue and uprightness-affection for the Saviour.

Ed. I agree with you, although I am sorry to have any fault to find with a writer who, in his adaptation to the habits of a child's mind, is so far in advance of his contemporaries.

Aug. Here is a "Tract for the Times," with a well sounding title, THE CROSS AND THE AGE; OR, THE NEW REFORMATION.* Does it repay perusal ?

Ed. It contains many solemn truths which ought to be carefully pondered by the Christian Church, although there is nothing very original in the way of stating them. The fact that it is written by "A Christian Layman," affords occasion for a wish that Laymen would take a more active share in the "defence of the Gospel;" and feel that they are called, as well as the Clergy, to "stand in the gap." The times summon auxiliaries of every kind, and in larger numbers, to flock to the standard of the Cross. We dare not risk the conflict by attention to mere punctilio. Whoever will help against the mighty, let him help, and let his fellow warriors bid him God speed!

* London: Seeleys.

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