sits upon our lips, and is ready to drop out before we are aware; whereas, a lie is troublesome, and one trick needs a great many more to make it good.

Add to all this that sincerity is the most compendious wisdom, and an excellent instrument for the speedy dispatch of business. It creates confidence in those we have to deal with, saves the labor of many inquiries, and brings things to an issue in a few words. It is like traveling a plain beaten road, which commonly brings a man sooner to his journey's end than by by-ways, in which men often lose themselves. In a word, whatever convenience may be thought to be in falsehood and dissimulation, it is soon over; but the inconvenience of it is perpetual, because it brings a man under an everlasting jealousy and suspicion, so that he is not believed when he speaks truth, nor trusted when perhaps he means honesty. When a man has forfeited the reputation of his integrity, nothing will then serve his turn, neither truth nor falsehood.

Indeed, if a man were only to deal in the world for a day, and should never have occasion to converse more with mankind never more need their good opinion or good word, it were then no great matter (as far as respects the affairs of this world), if he spent his reputation all at once, and ventured it at one throw. But if he be to continue in the world, and would have the advantage of reputation whilst he is in it, let him make use of sincerity in all his words and actions, for nothing but this will hold out to the end. All other arts will fail, but truth and integrity will carry a man through and bear him out to the last.

-Archbishop Tillotson.

LXXXV. THE CITY OF THE LIVING.

IN a long vanished age, whose varied story
No record has to-day-

So long ago expired its grief and glory,-
There flourished, far away,

In a broad realm, whose beauty passed all measure, A city fair and wide,

Wherein the dwellers lived in peace and pleasure, And never any died.

Disease and pain and death, those stern marauders
Which mar our world's fair face,

Never encroached upon the pleasant borders
Of that bright dwelling-place.

No fear of parting and no dread of dying
Could ever enter there;

No mourning for the lost, no anguished crying
Made any face less fair.

Without the city's walls Death reigned as ever,
And graves rose side by side;

Within, the dwellers laughed at his endeavor,
And never any died.

Oh, happiest of all earth's favored places!
Oh, bliss to dwell therein!

To live in the sweet light of loving faces,
And fear no grave between!

To feel no death-damp, gathering cold and colder, Disputing life's warm truth;

To live on, never lowlier or older,

Radiant in deathless youth!

And hurrying from the world's remotest quarters,
A tide of pilgrims flowed

Across broad plains and over mighty waters,
To find that blest abode

Where never death should come between and sever Them from their loved apart;

Where they might work and win and live forever, Still holding heart to heart.

And so they lived, in happiness and pleasure,

And grew in power and pride,

And did great deeds, and laid up stores of treasure,
And never any died.

LXXXVI. THE NATURE OF ELOQUENCE.

WHEN public bodies are to be addressed on momentous . occasions, when great interests are at stake, and strong passions excited, nothing is valuable in speech farther than it is connected with high intellectual and moral endowments. Clearness, force, and earnestness are the qualities which produce conviction. True eloquence, indeed, does not consist in speech. It can not be brought from far. Labor and learning may toil for it, but they will toil in vain.

Words and phrases may be marshaled in every way, but they can not compass it. It must exist in the man, in the subject, and in the occasion. Affected passion, intense expression, the pomp of declamation, all may aspire after it, but can not reach it. It comes, if it comes at all, like the outbreaking of a fountain from the earth, or the bursting forth of volcanic fires, with spontaneous, original, native force.

The graces taught in the schools, the costly ornaments and studied contrivances of speech, shock and disgust men when their own lives, and the fate of their wives, their children, and their country hang on the decision of the hour. Then, words have lost their power; rhetoric is vain ; and all elaborate oratory, contemptible. Even genius itself then feels rebuked and subdued, as in the presence of higher qualities.

Then, patriotism is eloquent; then, self-devotion is eloquent. The clear conception, outrunning the deductions of logic, the high purpose of firm resolve, the dauntless

spirit, speaking on the tongue, beaming from the eye, informing every feature, and urging the whole man onward, right onward to his object, this is eloquence.

Webster.

LXXXVII.-SHORT SELECTIONS.

A SOLDIER.

FROM early youth war has my mistress been,
And though a rugged one, I'll constant prove,
And not forsake her now. There may be joys,
Which, to the strange o'erwhelming of the soul,
Visit the lover's breast beyond all others!
E'en now, how dearly do I feel there may!
But what of them? They are not made for me;
The hasty flashes of contending steel

Must serve instead of glances from my love,
And for soft-breathing sighs the cannon's roar.
-Joanna Baillie.

SORROW.

AMAZ'D he stands, nor voice nor body stirs;
Words had no passage, tears no issue found;
For sorrow shut up words, wrath kept in tears;
Confus'd effects each other do confound;

Oppress'd with grief, his passions had no bound;
Striving to tell his woes, words would not come,
For light cares speak when mighty griefs are dumb.
-Daniel.

SUCCESS.

Ir is success that colors all in life;

Success makes fools admir'd, makes villains honest;
All the proud virtue of this vaunting world
Fawns on success and power, howe'er acquired.

-Thomson

THE WISDOM AND GOODNESS OF GOD.

FOR wonderful indeed are all his works,
Pleasant to know, and worthiest to be all
Had in remembrance alwavs with delight;
K. N. E.-23.

But what created mind can comprehend
Their number, or the wisdom infinite

That brought them forth, but hid their causes deep?
These are thy glorious works, parent of good,—

Almighty, thine this universal frame,

Thus wondrous fair; thyself how wondrous then!
Unspeakable, who sit'st above these heavens,
To us invisible, or dimly seen

In these thy lowest works; yet these declare
Thy goodness beyond thought and pow'r divine.

-Milton.

PROCRASTINATION.

SHUN delays, they breed remorse;
Take thy time while time is lent thee;
Creeping snails have weakest force;
Fly their fault lest thou repent thee;
Good is best when soonest wrought,
Ling ring labors come to naught;
Hoist up sail while gale doth last,
Tide and wind stay no man's pleasure;
Seek not time, when time is past,
Sober speed is wisdom's leisure;
After-wits are dearly bought,

Let thy fore-wit guide thy thought.

-Robert Southwell.