Shakespeare never out-talked his Hamlet, nor Bacon his Essays. Great writers are indeed best known through their books. For the knowledge that comes from books, I would claim no more than it is fairly entitled to. I am well aware that there is no inevitable connection between intellectual cultivation, on the one hand, and individual virtue or social well-being, on the other. "The tree of knowledge is not the tree of life." I admit that genius and learning are sometimes found in combination with gross vices, and not unfrequently with contemptible weaknesses; and that a community at once cultivated and corrupt is no impossible monster. But it is no overstatement to say, that, other things being equal, the man who has the greatest amount of intellectual resources is in the least danger from inferior temptations, if for no other reason, because he has fewer idle moments. The ruin of most men dates from some vacant hour. Occupation is the armor of the soul; and the train of Idleness is borne up by all the vices. I remember a satirical poem, in which the Devil is represented as fishing for men, and adapting his baits to the taste and temperament of his prey; but the idler, he said, pleased him most, because he bit the naked hook. To a young man away from home, friendless and forlorn in a great city, the hours of peril are those between sunset and bedtime; for the moon and stars see more of evil in a single hour than the sun in his whole day's circuit. The poet's visions of evening are all compact of tender and soothing images. It brings the wanderer to - his home, the child to his mother's arms, the ox to his stall, and the weary laborer to his rest. But to the gentle-hearted youth who is thrown upon the rocks of a pitiless city, and stands "homeless amid a thousand homes," the approach of evening brings with it an aching sense of loneliness and desolation, which comes down upon the spirit like darkness upon the earth. In this mood, his best impulses become a snare to him; and he is led astray because he is social, affectionate, sympathetic, and warm-hearted. If there be a young man, thus circumstanced, within the sound of my voice, let me say to him, that books are the friends of the friendless, and that a library is the home of the homeless. A taste for reading will always carry you into the best possible company, and enable you to converse with men who will instruct you by their wisdom, and charm you by their wit; who will soothe you when fretted, refresh you when weary, counsel you when perplexed, and sympathize with you at all times. XLV. BRINGING OUR SHEAVES WITH US. ELIZABETH AKERS. HE time for toil has passed, and night has come, TH The last and saddest of the harvest eves Worn out with labor long and wearisome, Last of the laborers, thy feet I gain, Few, light, and worthless, yet their trifling weight Full well I know I have more tares than wheat, I know these blossoms, clustering heavily, Therefore shall fragrancy and beauty be So do I gather strength and hope anew; XLVI. LINES TO A CHILD, ON HIS VOYAGE TO FRANCE, TO MEET HIS FATHER. WARE. HENRY WARE, JR., was born in Hingham, Massachusetts, April 21, 1794; and died September 25, 1843. He was a settled clergyman in Boston from 1817 to 1829, and afterwards professor in the theological school at Cambridge. He published many essays and discourses on moral and religious subjects, and a few pieces of poetry. He was a man of ardent piety, an earnest and excellent preacher, and always controlled by the highest sense of duty. His prose writings are marked by simplicity, directness, and strong religious feeling; and the few poems he wrote show poetical powers of no common order. The following lines originally appeared in the "Christian Disciple." Her flag streams wildly, and her fluttering sails O, 't is a thought sublime, that man can force To lend their untamed wings, and bear him on As 't were a common thing, thy soul unawed, Mid things so vast, and, rapt in deepest awe, Bends to the might of that mysterious Power, "T is wonderful!—and yet, my boy, just such Is life. Life is a sea as fathomless, As wide, as terrible, and yet sometimes Of glory and of joy. decked with every hue Anon, dark clouds Arise, contending winds of fate go forth, And thou must sail upon this sea, a long, To ride upon the waves, and catch the breeze, To station quick-eyed Prudence at the helm, Farewell, Heaven smile propitious on thy course, Of love paternal. - Yes, and more than this, XLVII. -EXECUTION OF MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS. LINGARD. JOHN LINGARD was born in Winchester, England, February 5, 1771; and died July 13, 1851. He was a clergyman of the Roman Catholic faith. The chief literary labor of his life was his "History of England," from the earliest period down to the revolution of 1688; the latest edition of which is in ten volumes, octavo. This work has taken a high and permanent rank in the historical literature of his country. The style is simple, correct, and manly, without being remarkable for beauty or eloquence. The chief |