objects of his atonement; that is, rather in faith than in love. And love, besides, is a habit, and cannot be attained without actual practice, which on so large a scale is impossible. We see then how absurd it is when writers (as is the manner of some who slight the gospel) talk magnificently about loving the whole human race with a comprehensive affection, of being the friends of mankind, and the like-such vaunting professions. What do they come to? That such men have certain benevolent feelings towards the world,-feelings, and nothing more-nothing more than unstable feelings, the mere offspring

of an

indulged imagination, which exist only when their minds are wrought upon, and are sure to fail them in the hour of need. This is not to love men, but to talk about love.

The real love of man must depend on practice, and therefore must begin by exercising itself on our friends around us, otherwise it will have no existence. By trying to love our relations and friends; by submitting to their wishes though contrary to our own; by bearing with their infirmities; by overcoming their occasional waywardness with kindness; by dwelling on their excellences, and trying to copy them—thus it is that we form in our hearts that root of charity which,

though small at first, may, like the mustard seed, at last even overshadow the earth. The vain talkers about philanthropy, just spoken of, usually show the emptiness of their profession by being morose and cruel in the private relations of life, which they seem to account as subjects beneath their notice. And we know, from the highest of all authority, that one can only learn to love God, whom one has not seen, by loving our brothers whom we do see.

Newman.

To a lady, who endeavoured once to vindicate herself from blame for neglecting social attention to worthy neighbours, by saying, "I would go to them if it would do them any good," Johnson said, "What good do you expect, Madam, to be able to do them? It is showing them respect, and that is doing them good." Boswell's Johnson.

The joys and loves of earth the same in heaven will be ; Only the little brook has widen'd to a sea.

Trench.

THE WEAK ARE FALSE.

"HE SHUTS HIS EYES AND THINKS NONE SEE."

As the verse noteth,

"Percontatorem fugito, nam garrulus idem est,"

an inquisitive man is a prattler; so, upon the like reason, a credulous man is a deceiver; as we see it in fame, that he that will easily believe rumours, will as easily augment rumours, and add somewhat to them of his own: which Tacitus wisely noteth when he saith, "Fingunt simul creduntque."

Quack and dupe are upper-side, and

Bacon.

under, of the self

Turn up your dupe

same substance; convertible personages. into the proper fostering element, and he himself can become a quack: there is in him the due prominent insincerity, open voracity to profit, and closed sense to truth; whereof quacks too, in all their kinds, are made.

Carlyle.

FORMS AND CEREMONIES.

CEREMONY keeps up all things; 'tis like a penny glass to a rich spirit, or some excellent water; without it the water would be spilt, the spirit lost.

There were some mathematicians that could with one fetch of their pen make an exact circle, and with the next touch point out the centre. Is it therefore reasonable to banish all use of compasses? Set forms are a pair of compasses.

Selden.

BUILDING.

HE that builds a fair house on an ill seat, committeth himself to prison. Neither is it ill air only that maketh an ill seat; but ill ways, ill markets, and, if you will consult with Momus, ill neighbours.

Bacon.

BETTER ONE'S HOUSE BE TOO LITTLE ONE DAY THAN TOO

BIG ALL THE YEAR AFTER.

IDLENESS.

La paresse, toute languissante qu'elle est, ne laisse

pas d'en être souvent la maitresse; elle usurpe sur tous les desseins et sur toutes les actions de la vie; elle y detruit et y consume insensiblement les passions et les vertus.

Rochefoucauld.

66 AN EMPTY SCULL IS THE DEVIL'S WORKSHOP.”

66

As of a man, so of a people. The unredeemed ugliness is that of a slothful people. Show me a people energetically busy-heaving, struggling, all shoulders at the wheel; their heart pulsing, every muscle swelling with man's energy and will-I will show you a people of whom great good is already predicable; to whom all manner of good is certain if their energy endure."

Carlyle.

When the master puts a spade into his servant's hand,

He speaks his wish by the action, needing no words to de

clare it :

Thy hand, O man, like that spade, is God's signal to thee, And thine own heart's thoughts are the interpretation thereof.

Mesnavi.