in the moral world. No man stands alonenor high angel, nor child. All the beings "lessening down from infinite perfection to the brink of dreary nothing," belong to a system of mutual dependencies. All and each constitute and enjoy a part of the world's sum of happiness. No one liveth to himself. The destiny of the moral universe is affected by his existence and influence. The most obscure individual exerts an influence which must be felt in the great brotherhood of mankind. Should the hand say to the foot, "I have no need of thee," the world would stand still.

No human being can come into this world without increasing or diminishing the sum total of human happiness, not only of the present but of every subsequent age of humanity. No one can detach himself from this connection. There is no sequestered spot in the universe, no dark niche along the disk of non-existence, to which he can retreat from his relations to others where he can withdraw the influence of his existence upon the moral destiny of the world; everywhere his presence or absence will be felt; everywhere he will have companions who will be better or worse for his influence.

It is an old saying, and one of fearful and fathomless import, that we are forming characters for eternity. Forming characters!— whose? our own? or others? Both; and in

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that momentous fact lies the peril and responsibility of our existence. Who is sufficient for the thought? thousands of my fellow-beings will yearly enter eternity with characters differing from those they would have carried thither had I never lived. The sunlight of that world will reveal my finger-marks in their primary formations, and in their successive strata of thought and life. And they too will form other characters for eternity, until the influence of my existence shall be diffused through all future generations of the world, and through all that shall be future to a certain point in the world to come. As a little silvery, circular ripple, set in motion by the falling pebble, expands from its inch of radius to the whole compass of the pool; so there is not a child-not an infant Moses placed, however softly in his bulrush ark upon the sea of time, whose existence does not stir a ripple, gyrating outward and on, until it shall have moved across and spanned the whole ocean of God's eternity, stirring even the river of life and the fountains at which his angels drink.

"To be, or not to be," is that the question? No! we ARE; and whether we live or die we are the Lord's; we belong to his eternity, and henceforth his moral universe will be filled with our existence.

Elihu Burritt.

MARY'S DREAM.

THE days are shortening fast, Mary,
The nights are growing cold,
And sadder moans the fitful blast
Along the twilight wold:

Let's close the shutters tight, Mary,
And stir the brightening fire,
And thou shalt tell with warm delight
Old tales that ne'er can tire.

Yes! thou shalt conjure up again
The hopes that once beguiled
Our hearts, when first upon thy knee
Our little angel smiled ;

For tho' that knee, so supple then,
Be stiff and weary grown,
Ere long with him in heaven again
Will youth and health be known.

Well, I believe it all, dear John,
So come, sit down by me:

How sweet the faith that what has been

Of good will always be !

And doubly sweet to know, dear John,
Our child no more can die-
That I'm an angel's mother here,
Tho' he's beyond the sky!

I'll something tell to thee, dear John,
But not a tale of old;

I only learnt it yester night-
'Twas by that angel told!

He hover'd near me while I slept
A calm insensate sleep,

Tho' my soul a happier vigil kept
Than sense could ever keep.

And when he spake 'twas not, dear John,
In words like thine and mine :
His thoughts flushed forth in every look
So radiant and divine,

That all the charm of music's art,

Though not a tone, was there;
And O! it overfill'd my heart
With bliss beyond compare!

He said that though the sky above
Seems heaven and us between,
To angels there and those they love
It does not intervene :

That all they fix their hearts upon
No space from them can sever,
But what becomes with them as one
Is with them one for ever.

That all we realize by love

And faith of heaven on earth,
The means of intercourse will prove
With beings of nobler birth,

Till we, to higher natures wed,

Are won from this dull sphere,

No more the tear of grief to shed,
Or faltering move with fear!

And while communion thus he held-
My angel child with me-

A glorious vision I beheld,

No words can paint to thee;
For in a glow of holy light

Far purer than the sun,
The future lived before my sight
As all the past had done!

But what to me most wondrous seem'd,
In that new world so bright,

Was finding this world there redeem'd
From shadow into light:

The false like clouds away had pass'd
From the unchanging blue,

Yet thro' eternity to last,

The true remained the true.

And by that token blest is known
Thy truth, dear John, to me,
For there I bow'd before the throne

With our sweet babe and thee;
And O! a meet reward is thine

For all thy love and care,

For here though aged and weak I pine,
We both were youthful there!

Spencer T. Hall.

THERE is no pleasure in this world comparable to that which is felt in conversing with those in whose principles one has an absolute confidence, and whose general conduct so well exemplifies the excellence of them.

Mrs. Carter.