His virtues, being overdone, his face Too grave, his prayers too long, his charities That in his garments opened in spite of him, THE MISER. BUT there is one in folly farther gone, The laughing-stock of demons and of men, Holds wedded intercourse. Ill-guided wretch -Pollok. Thou mayst have seen him at the midnight hour- Of all God made upright, And in their nostrils breathed a living soul, Most fallen, most prone, most earthy, most debased; None bargain on so easy terms with Death. -Pollok. LXXIII.-SHORT SELECTIONS. A MERRY HEART. THE merry heart, the merry heart, In joy and sorrow still the same; It gives to beauty half its power, The nameless charm worth all the rest, If beauty ne'er have set her seal, TRIUMPH. NoT he who rides through conquered city's gate, At head of blazoned hosts, and to the sound Of victors' trumpets, in full pomp and state Of war, the utmost pitch has dreamed or found To which the thrill of triumph can be wound; Not he who by a nation's vast acclaim Is sudden sought and singled out alone, And, unsuspected of the multitude, The force of fate itself has dared defied, And conquered silently. Ah, that soul knows In what white heat the blood of triumph glows! LXXIV. THE WONDERS OF AN ATOM. ALL things visible around us are aggregations of atoms. From particles of dust, which under the microscope could scarcely be distinguished one from the other, are all the varied forms of nature created. This grain of dust, this particle of sand, has strange properties and powers. Science has discovered some, but still more truths are hidden within this irregular molecule of matter which we now survey than even philosophy dares dream of. How strangely it obeys the impulses of heat-mysterious are the influences of light upon it-electricity wonderfully excites it—and still more curious is the manner in which it obeys the magic of chemical force. These are phenomena which we have seen; we know them and we can reproduce them at our pleasure. We have advanced a little way into the secrets of nature, and from the spot we have gained we look forward with a vision somewhat brightened by our task; but we discover so much yet unknown that we learn another truth our vast ignorance of many things relating to this grain of dust. It gathers around it other particles; they cling together, and each acting upon every other one, and all of them arranging themselves around the little center, according to some law, a beautiful crystal results, the geometric perfection of its form being a source of admiration. It quickens with yet undiscovered energies; it moves with life; dust and vital force combine; blood and bone, nerve and muscle result from the combination. Forces which we can not by the utmost refinements of our philosophy detect, direct the whole, and from the same dust which formed the rock and grew in the tree, is produced a living and a breathing thing, capable of receiving a divine illumination, of bearing in its new state the gladness and the glory of a soul. -Hunt's " Poetry of Science." LXXV.-THE MODEL CHURCH. WELL, wife, I've found the model church! I worshiped there to-day! It made me think of good old times before my hairs were gray; The sexton didn't seat me away back by the door,- My deafness seemed to melt away; my spirit caught the fire; I tell you, wife, it did me good to sing that hymn once more; The preachin'? Well, I can't just tell all that the preacher said: The sermon was n't flowery: 'twas simple gospel truth; The preacher made sin hideous, in Gentiles and in Jews; How swift the golden moments fled, within that holy place; How brightly beamed the light of heaven from every happy face; Again I longed for that sweet time when friend shall meet with friend, "When congregations ne'er break up, and Sabbath has no end." I hope to meet that minister-that congregation, too- Dear wife, the fight will soon be fought-the victory be won; LXXVI. THE PERSONALITY AND USES OF A LAUGH. I WOULD be willing to choose my friend by the quality of his laugh, and abide the issue. A glad, gushing outflowa clear, ringing, mellow note of the soul, as surely indicates a genial and genuine nature as the rainbow in the dew-drop heralds the morning sun, or the frail flower in the wilderness betrays the zephyr-tossed seed of the parterre. A laugh is one of God's truths. It tolerates no disguises. Falsehood may train its voice to flow in softest cadences— its lips to wreathe into smiles of surpassing sweetness-its face but its laugh will betray the mockery. Who has not started and shuddered at the hollow "he-he-he!" of some velvet-voiced Mephistopheles, whose sinuous fascinations, without this note of warning-this premonitory rattlemight have bound the soul with a strong spell! Leave nature alone. If she is noble, her broadest expression will soon tone itself down to fine accordance with |