This moved the officer, a delay arose, the irons were dispensed with, and the captive in the dungeon of Seringapatam was spared to become its conqueror, and, for a time, its master.

I will give you now a different case. Sir Walter Scott told it to a friend. There was a boy in his class at school, who always stood at the top, nor could the utmost efforts of young Scott displace him. At length he observed, when a question was asked this boy, he always fumbled with his fingers at a particular button on the lower part of his waistcoat; and the removal of this was, therefore, determined. The plot was executed, and succeeded too well. When the boy was again questioned, his fingers sought again for the button, but it could not be found. In his distress he looked down for it, but it was not to be seen. He stood confounded, and Scott took possession of his place, which he never recovered. The wrong thus done was, however, attended, as it always must be, with pain. "Often," said Scott, "in after life the sight of him smote me." Heartily did he wish that this unkind act had never been done.

Let it be constantly remembered, that we are not left to act as we please;-the rule is of the highest authority: "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them," Matt. vii. 12. "If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God, whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God, love his brother also," 1 John iv. 20, 21.