practically, to thinking, and reading and writing, as the main employment of my life? or shall I again seek a more busy life, and going on patiently sowing and not hoping to reap, taking a bushel of falsehood for a grain of truth, casting my bread upon the waters, resume my work in India? Oakfield.

Toward all this external evil, the man within the breast assumes a warlike attitude, and affirms his ability to cope single-handed with the infinite army of enemies. To this military attitude of the soul we give the name of Heroism. Its rudest form is the contempt for safety and ease, which makes the attractiveness of war. It is a selftrust which slights the restraints of prudence in the plenitude of its energy and power to repair the harms it may suffer. There is somewhat not philosophical in heroism; there is somewhat not holy in it; it seems not to know that other souls are of one texture with it: it hath pride; it is the extreme of individual nature. Nevertheless, we must profoundly revere it. It is the avowal of the unschooled man, that he finds a quality in him that is negligent of expense, of health, of life, of danger, of hatred, of reproach, and that he knows that his will is higher and more excellent than all actual and possible antagonists.

It is a

But that which takes my fancy most in the heroic class, is the good humor and hilarity they exhibit. height to which common duty can very well attain, to suffer and to dare with solemnity. But these rare souls set opinion, success, and life at so cheap a rate, that they

will not soothe their enemies by petitions, or the show of sorrow, but wear their own habitual greatness.

If we dilate in beholding the Greek energy, the Roman pride, it is that we are already domesticating the same sentiment. Let us find room for this great guest in our small houses. The first step of worthiness will be to disabuse us of our superstitious associations with places and times, with number and size. Why should these words, Athenian, Roman, Asia, and England, so tingle in the ear. Let us feel that where the heart is, there the muses, there the gods sojourn, and not in any geography of fame. Massachusetts, Connecticut River, and Boston Bay you think paltry places, and the ear loves names of foreign and classic topography. But here we are; that is a great fact, and if we will tarry a little, we may come to learn that here is best. See to it only that thyself is here; and art and nature, hope and dread, friends, angels, and the Supreme Being, shall not be absent from the chamber where thou sittest. Epaminondas, brave and affectionate, does not seem to us to need Olympus to die upon, nor the Syrian sunshine. He lies very well where he is. The Jerseys were handsome ground enough for Washington to tread, and London streets for the feet of Milton.

There is no weakness or exposure for which we cannot find consolation in the thought, this is a part of my constitution, part of my relation and office to my fellow-creatures. Has nature covenanted with me that I should never appear to disadvantage, never make a ridic

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THE MERIT OF THE GREATEST MEN

ulous figure? Let us be generous of our dignity, as well as of our money. Emerson.

The spoken Word, the written Poem, is said to be an epitome of the man; how much more the done Work. Whatsoever of morality and of intelligence; what of patience, perseverance, faithfulness, of method, insight, ingenuity, energy; in a word, whatsoever of Strength the man had in him will lie written in the Work he does.

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Great honor to him whose Epic is a melodious hexameter Iliad. But still greater honor, if his Epic be a mighty Empire slowly built together, a mighty Series of Heroic Deeds, a mighty Conquest over Chaos. There is no mistaking this latter Epic. Deeds are greater than Words. Deeds have such a life, mute but undeniable, and grow as living trees and fruit trees do; they people the vacuity of Time, and make it green and worthy.

Carlyle.

If Wolsey had laid out in producing something which could have visibly endured to posterity the same intellect which he expended on the welfare of the England of his own age; if it had gone into books which we could ourselves read, or into pictures which we could see, or into any other of the secondary materials upon which the mind of a great man can impress itself, the visible greatness of the work produced would have taught us long ago to forget the petty blemishes on the surface of the workman's character. But so it is with human things. The greatest men

FUNDED IN THE LIFE OF MANKIND.

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of all, those men whose energies are spent not in constructing immortal mausoleums for their own glory, but in guiding and governing nations wisely and righteously, sink their real being in the life of mankind.

Westminster Review.

The merit of Albert the Courageous all lies safely funded in Saxon and German life to this hour.

THE END.

Carlyle.