People are seeking salvation from an unquiet spirit. They are perplexed and they long for peace. They are overburdened and they desire to be saved from weakness and faint-heartedness. There is a pathetic desire for whatever ministers to peace of mind. It is because people find the world too great and many-sided that they yield themselves so easily to any one who seems to reduce everything to simplicity. Wearied with its own speculations, the tired soul cries: "Tell me the old, old story. Tell it to me as you would tell it to a little child, so that I may repeat the very words, and in that find comfort and help.”

Samuel M. Crothers.

When I heard the learn'd astronomer,

When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,

When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,

When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lectureroom,

How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick, Till rising and gliding out I wander'd off by myself,

In the mystical, moist night-air, and from time to time

Looked up in perfect silence at the stars.

Walt Whitman.

MY STAR

Written when an open window at night furnished the writer habitually her only glimpse of the outer world.

A scrap of sky

Have I;

Great wealth it is to me,

Such glorious things

Therein I see.

The morning star
Comes from afar;

For me it shines so bright,
Brings me a heavenly light,
Sent from my Lord above,
That I may trust His love.

Mary Osgood.

There are too many humble people who wish to imitate the great, too many poor working men who ape the well-to-do middle classes, too many shop-girls who play at being ladies, too many clerks who act the club-man or sportsman; and among those in easy circumstances and the rich are too many people who forget that what they possess could serve a better purpose than procuring pleasure for themselves, only to find in the end that one never has enough.

Charles Wagner.

Happiness is to be found in congenial work, in a regular and well-spent life, in obscurity and retirement, in sound and true friendship, and especially in the love of a man and a woman who thoroughly appreciate each other.

Max O'Rell.

To gild refined gold, to paint the lily,

To throw a perfume on the violet,

To smoothe the ice, or add another hue

Unto the rainbow, or with taper light

To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish, Is wasteful and ridiculous excess.

Shakespeare.

It is more honourable to be content with few outward means, than with many; to be cheerful amidst privation, than amidst overflowing plenty. A poor man, living on bread and water, because he will not ask for more than bare sustenance requires, and leading a quiet, cheerful life through his benevolent sympathies, his joy in duty, his trust in God, is one of the true heroes of the race, and understands better the meaning of happiness than we, who cannot be at ease unless we clothe ourselves "in purple, and fare sumptuously every day," unless we surround, defend, and adorn ourselves with all the products of nature and art. His scantiness of outward means is a sign of inward fulness, whilst the slavery in which most of us live, to luxuries and accommodations, shows the poverty within.

William Ellery Channing.

The very simplicity and nakedness of man's life in the primitive ages imply this advantage, at least, that they left him still but a sojourner in nature. When he was refreshed with food and sleep he contemplated his journey again. He dwelt, as it were, in a tent in this world, and was either threading the valleys, or crossing the plains, or climbing the mountain-tops. But, lo! men have become the tools of their tools.