in its turn, brings fever, indigestion, and depression, and makes the frame less able to withstand the attacks of any disease. A large proportion of the drunkenness and dissipation of various forms, so common, may be traced directly to this source. Its effect on the mind is bad. While producing instability of purpose, it is in time followed by a humiliating sense of inferiority. No man has a right to go through life, whatever his position may be, without honest, useful, and regular employment of some kind.

XX. KEEP A STIFF UPPER LIP.

THERE has something gone wrong,
My brave boy, it appears,
For I see your proud struggle

To keep back the tears.
That is right; when you can not

Give trouble the slip,
Then bear it, still keeping
"A stiff upper lip!"

Though you can not escape

Disappointment and care,
There's one thing you can do,-
It is, learn how to bear.
If when for life's prizes
You're running, you trip,

Get up, start again,

"Keep a stiff upper lip!"

Let your hands and your conscience

Be honest and clean;

Scorn to touch or to think

Of the thing that is mean;

But hold on to the pure

And the right with firm grip;
And though hard be the task,
"Keep a stiff upper lip!"

ONCE upon a time there lived an old gentleman in a large house. He had servants and every thing he wanted, yet he was not happy; and when things did not go as he wished, he was very cross. At last his servants left him. Quite out of temper, he went to a neighbor with a story of his distresses.

"It seems

to me," said the neighbor, sagaciously, "'t would be well for you to oil yourself a little." "To oil myself?"

Yes; and I will explain. Some time ago one of the doors in my house creaked. Nobody, therefore, liked to go in or out by it. One day I oiled its hinges, and it has been constantly used by every body ever since."

"Go home

"Then you think I am like the creaking door," cried the old gentleman. How do you want me to oil myself?" "That's an easy matter," said the neighbor. and engage a servant, and when he does right praise him. If, on the contrary, he does something amiss, do not be cross; oil your voice and words with the oil of love."

The old gentleman went home, and no harsh or ugly words were ever heard in the house afterwards. Every family should have a bottle of this precious oil; for every family is liable to have a creaking hinge in the shape of a fretful disposition, a cross temper, a harsh tone, or a faultfinding spirit.

XXI.-MAXIMS TO GUIDE A YOUNG MAN.

KEEP good company or none.

Never be idle; if your hands can not be usefully employed, attend to the cultivation of your mind.

Always speak the truth.

Make few promises.

Live up to your engagements.

Have no very intimate friends.

Keep your own secrets if you have any.

When you speak to a person look him in the face. Good company and good conversation are the very sinews of virtue.

Good character is above all things else.

Never listen to loose or idle conversation.

You had better be poisoned in your blood than in your principles.

Your character can not be essentially injured except by your own acts.

If any one speaks evil of you, let your life be so virtuous that none will believe him.

Always speak and act in the presence of God.

Drink no intoxicating liquors.

Ever live, misfortune excepted, within your income.
When you

retire to bed think over what you have done

during the day.

Never speak lightly of religion.

Make no haste to be rich, if you would prosper.

Small and steady gains give competency with tranquillity of mind.

Never play at any game.

Avoid temptation through fear that you may not withstand it.

Earn your money before you spend it.

Never run in debt, unless you see a way to get out again. Never borrow if you can possibly avoid it.

K. N. E.-15.

VALUE OF AMUSEMENTS.

THE world must be amused. It is entirely false reasoning to suppose that any human being can devote himself exclusively to labor of any description. It will not do. He must be amused. He must enjoy himself. He must laugh, sing, dance, eat, drink, and be merry. He must chat with his friends, exercise his mind in exciting gentle emotions, and his body in agreeable demonstrations of activity. The constitution of the human system demands this. It exacts a variety of influence and emotion. It will not remain in health if it can not obtain that variety. Too much merriment affects it as injuriously as too much sadress; too much relaxation is as pernicious as none at all. But to the industrious toiler, the sunshine of the heart is just as indispensable as the material sunshine is to the flower: both soon pine away and die if deprived of it.

XXII. SHORT SELECTIONS.

AMBITION.

He who ascends to mountain-tops, shall find

The loftiest peaks most wrapt in clouds and snow;
He who surpasses or subdues mankind

Must look down on the hate of those below.

Though far above the sun of glory glow,

And far beneath the earth and ocean spread,

Round him are icy rocks, and loudly blow

Contending tempests on his naked head,

And thus reward the toils to which those summits led.

But quiet to quick bosoms is a hell,

And there hath been thy bane; there is a fire
And motion in the soul which will not dwell
In its own narrow being, but aspire

Beyond the fitting medium of desire;

And but once kindled, quenchless evermore, Preys upon high adventure, nor can tire

Of aught but rest; a fever at the core,

Fatal to him who bears, to all who ever bore,

This makes the madmen, who have made men mad By their contagion, conquerors and kings,

Founders of sects and systems, to whom add Sophists, bards, statesmen, all unquiet things Which stir too strongly the soul's secret springs, And are themselves the fools to those they fool; Envied, yet not enviable! What stings

Are theirs! one breast laid open were a school Which would unteach mankind the lust to shine or rule.

-Byron.

BLUNTNESS.

THIS is some fellow,

Who, having been praised for bluntness, doth affect
A saucy roughness, and constrains the garb
Quite from his nature; he can't flatter, he!-

An honest man and plain, he must speak truth!

And they will take it, so; if not, he's plain.

These kind of knaves I know, which in this plainness Harbor more craft, and far corrupter ends,

Than twenty silly, ducking observants,

That stretch their duties nicely.

-Shakespeare.

BOOKS.

We never speak our deepest feelings;
Our holiest hopes have no revealings,
Save in the gleams that light the face,
Or fancies that the pen may trace.
And hence to books the heart must turn
When with unspoken thoughts we yearn,
And gather from the silent page
The just reproof, the counsel sage,
The consolation sound and true

That soothes and heals the wounded heart.

-Mrs. Hale.