THE SEA.

TELL me, ye naturalists, who sounded the first march and retreat to the tide, "Hither shalt thou come, and no further?" Why doth not the water recover his right over the earth, being higher in nature? Whence came the salt, and who first boiled it, which made so much brine? When the winds are not only wild in a storm, but even stark mad in an hurricane, who is it that restores them again to their wits, and brings them asleep in a calm? Who made the mighty whales, which swim in a sea of water, and have a sea of oil swimming in them? Who first taught the water to imitate the creatures on land, so that the sea is the stable of horse-fishes, the stall of kine-fishes, the sty of hog-fishes, the kennel of dog-fishes, and in all things the sea the ape of the land? Whence grows the ambergris in the sea? which is not so hard to find where it is as to know what it is. Was not God the first shipwright? and have not all vessels on the water descended from the loins (or ribs rather) of Noah's ark or else, who durst be so bold, with a few crooked boards nailed together, a stick standing upright, and a rag tied to it, to adventure into the ocean? What loadstone first touched the loadstone? or how first fell it in love with the North, rather affecting that cold climate than the pleasant East, or fruitful South or West? How comes that stone to know more than men, and find the way to the land in a mist? In most of these, men take sanctuary at occulta qualitas, (some hidden quality,) and complain that the room is dark, when their eyes are blind. Indeed, they are God's wonders; and that seaman the greatest wonder of all for his blockishness, who, seeing them daily, neither takes notice of them, admires at them, nor is thankful for them. Fuller.

A

A CLUSTER OF ARABIC PROVERBS.

THOUSAND cranes in the air are not worth one sparrow in the fist.
There are no fans in hell.

The man who makes chaff of himself will be eaten by cows.

If I were to trade in winding-sheets, my luck would make all men live.

THE WAR HORSE.

HAST thou given the horse strength hast thou clothed his neck with

thunder!

Canst thou make him afraid as a grasshopper? the glory of his nostrils is terrible.

He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his strength: he goeth on to meet the armed men.

He mocketh at fear, and is not affrighted: neither turneth he back from the sword.

The quiver rattleth against him, the glittering spear and the shield.

He swalloweth the ground with fierceness and rage: neither believeth he that it is the sound of the trumpet.

He saith among the trumpets, Ha, ha; and he smelleth the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.

Book of Job.

THE BOOK OF JOB.

I

CALL that, apart from all theories about it, one of the grandest things ever written with pen. One feels, indeed, as if it were not Hebrew ; such a noble universality, different from noble patriotism or sectarianism, reigns in it. A noble Book; all men's Book! It is our first, oldest statement of the never-ending Problem,-man's destiny and God's ways with him here in this earth. And all in such free flowing outlines; grand in its sincerity, in its simplicity; in its epic melody, and repose of reconcilement. There is the seeing eye, the mildly understanding heart. So true every way; true eyesight and vision for all things; material things no less than spiritual: the Horse," Hast thou clothed his neck with thunder ?” -he "laughs at the shaking of the spear!" Such living likenesses were never since drawn. Sublime sorrow, sublime reconciliation; oldest choral melody as of the heart of mankind ;--so soft, and great; as the summer midnight, as the world with its seas and stars! There is nothing written, I think, in the Bible or out of it, of equal literary merit.

Carlyle

I

SUMMER.

'M coming along with a bounding pace, To finish the work that spring begun;

I've left them all with a brighter face,

The flowers in the vales through which I've run.

I have hung festoons from laburnum-trees,
And clothed the lilac, the birch, and broom;
I've waken'd the sound of humming bees,
And deck'd all nature in brighter bloom.

I've roused the laugh of the playful child,
And 'tired it out in the sunny noon;
All nature at my approach hath smiled,
And I've made fond lovers seek the moon.

For this is my life, my glorious reign,

And I'll queen it well in my leafy bower;

All shall be bright in my rich domain;

I'm queen of the leaf, the bud, and the flower.

And I'll reign in triumph till autumn time

Shall conquer my green and verdant pride;

Then I'll hie me to another clime,

Till I'm called again as a sunny bride.