60. A True Life.

A true life must be simple in all its elements. Animated by one grand and ennobling impulse, all lesser aspirations find their proper places in harmonious subservience. Simplicity in taste, in appetite, in habits of life, with a corresponding indifference to worldly honors and aggrandisement, is the natural result of the predominance of a divine and unselfish idea. Under the guidance of such a sentiment, virtue is not an effort, but a law of nature, like gravitation. It is vice alone that seems unaccountable, monstrous, well-nigh miraculous.

Horace Greeley, New Hampshire, 1811-1872.

61. Washington.

While we commend the character and example of Washington to others, let us not forget to imitate it ourselves. The two great leading principles of his policy should be remembered and cherished. Those principles were,-first, the most complete, cordial, and indissoluble union of the States; and second, the most entire separation and disentanglement of our own country from all other countries. Perfect union among ourselves, perfect neutrality toward others, and peace, peace, domestic peace, and foreign peace as the result; this was the chosen and consummate policy of the Father of his country.

R. C. Winthrop, Mass., 1809—.

62. Genius.

It is nothing less than the possession of all the powers and impulses of humanity, in their greatest possible strength and most harmonious combination; and the genius of any particular man is great in proportion as he approaches this ideal of universal genius. Conceive of a mind in which the powers of Napoleon and Howard, Dante and Newton, Luther and Shakspeare, Kant and Fulton, were so combined as to act in perfect harmony; a mind vital in every part, conceiving everything with intensity, and yet conceiving everything under its due relations, as swift in its volitions as in its thoughts,-conceive of a mind like this, and you will have a definition of genius.

E. P. Whipple, Mass., 1819-.

63. Language.

Language is the amber in which a thousand precious thoughts have been safely imbedded and preserved. It has arrested ten thousand lightning-flashes of genius, which, unless thus fixed and arrested, might have been as bright, but would also have been as quickly passing and perishing as the lightning. Words convey the mental treasures of one period to the generations that follow; and laden with this, their precious freight, they sail safely across gulfs of time in which empires have suffered shipwreck, and the languages of common life have sunk into oblivion.

R. C. Trench, England, 1807-.

64. Fortitude and Perseverance.

The great art of life, so far as I have been able to observe, consists in fortitude and perseverance. I have rarely seen that a man who conscientiously devoted himself to the studies and duties of any profession, and did not omit to take fair and honorable opportunities of offering himself to notice when such presented themselves, has not at length got forward. The mischance of those who fall behind, though flung upon fortune, more frequently arises from want of skill and perseverance. Life, young friends, is like a game at cards; our hands are alternately good or bad, and the whole seems, at first glance, to depend on mere chance. But it is not so, for in the long run the skill of the player predominates over the casualties of the game. Therefore, do not be discouraged with the prospect before you, but ply your studies hard, and qualify yourselves to receive fortune when she comes your way.

W. Scott, Scotland, 1771-1832.

65. The Beautiful Unappreciated. Suppose that I were to visit a cottage, and to see its walls lined with the choicest pictures of Raphael, and every spare nook filled with statues of the most exquisite workmanship, and that I were to learn that neither man, woman, nor child ever cast an eye at these miracles of art, how should I feel their priva tion! how should I want to open their eyes, and to

help them to comprehend and feel the loveliness and grandeur which in vain courted their notice!

But every husbandman is living in sight of the works of a divine Artist, and how much would his existence be elevated, could he see the glory which shines forth in their forms, hues, proportions, and moral expression!

W. E. Channing, R. I., 1780-1842.

66. Eternity.

The flowers fade, the heart withers, man grows old and dies, the world lies down in the sepulchre of ages, but time writes no wrinkles on the brow of eternity. Bishop Heber, England, 1783-1826.

67. The Present Hour.

One of the illusions is that the present hour is not the critical, decisive hour. Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.

R. W. Emerson, Mass., 1803—.

68. Cheerfulness.

A cheerful temper, joined with innocence, will make beauty attractive, knowledge delightful, and wit good-natured. It will lighten sickness, poverty, and affliction, convert ignorance into an amiable simplicity, and render deformity itself agreeable.

Jos. Addison, England, 1672-1719.

69. Family Courtesy.

Family intimacy should never make brothers and sisters forget to be polite and sympathizing to each other. Those who contract thoughtless and rude habits toward members of their own family will be rude and thoughtless to all the world. But let the family intercourse be true, tender, and affectionate, and the manners of all uniformly gentle and consid. erate, and the members of the family, thus trained, I will carry into the world and society the habits of their childhood. They will require in their associates similar qualities; they will not be satisfied without mutual esteem and the cultivation of the best affections; and their own character will be sustained by that faith in goodness which belongs to a mind exercised in pure and high thoughts.

Silvio Pellico, Italy, 1789-1854.

70. Death.

When death strikes down the innocent and young, for every fragile form from which he sets the panting spirit free, a hundred virtues rise, in shapes of mercy, charity, and love, to walk the world and bless it. Of every tear that sorrowing mortals shed on such green graves, some good is born, some gentler nature comes. In the destroyer's steps there spring up bright creations that defy his power, and his dark path becomes a way of light to heaven.

Chas. Dickens, England, 1812-1870.