Blue, and crimson, and white it shines, Over the steel-tipped, ordered lines. The colors before us fly; But more than the flag is passing by. Sea fights and land fights, grim and great, Days of plenty, and years of peace, Stately honor and reverend awe; Live in the colors to stand or fall. Hats off! Along the street there comes A blare of bugles, a ruffle of drums; And loyal hearts are beating high. Hats off! The flag is passing by! BENNETT. No cheating or bargaining will ever get a single thing out of nature at half price. work. To be happy? must look and think. Do we want to be strong? We must RUSKIN. THE SPACIOUS FIRMAMENT The spacious firmament on high And spangled heavens, a shining frame, The unwearied sun, from day to day, Soon as the evening shades prevail, What though in solemn silence all - ADDISON. OUR DESTINY OUR OWN Our destiny is our own and it must be worked out — perhaps in fear and trembling - in our own way. If there be a cherished American doctrine, the controlling question must be: Is it right? If yea, then let us stand by it like men; if nay, have done with it and move forward to other issues. -WILLIAM MCKINLEY. THE TRUE USE OF WEALTH There is a saying which is in all good men's mouths, namely, that they are stewards or ministers of whatever talents are entrusted to them. Only, is it not a strange thing that while we more or less accept the meaning of that saying, so long as it is considered metaphorical, we never accept its meaning in its own terms? You know the lesson is given us under the form of a story about money. Money was given to the servants to make use of; the unprofitable servant dug in the earth, and hid his Lord's money. Well, we in our poetical and spiritual application of this say that of course money doesn't mean money - it means wit, it means intellect, it means influence in high quarters, it means everything in the world except itself. And do you not see what a pretty and pleasant come off there is for most of us in this spiritual application? Of course, if we had wit, we would use it for the good of our fellow-creatures; but we haven't wit. Of course, if we had influence with the bishops, we would use it for the good of the church; but we haven't any influence with the bishops. Of course, if we had political power, we would use it for the good of the nation; but we have no political power; we have no talents entrusted to us of any sort or kind. It is true we have a little money, but the parable can't possibly mean anything so vulgar as money; our money's our own. I believe, if you think seriously of this matter, you will feel that the first and most literal application is just as necessary a one as any other that the story does very specially mean what it says plain money; and that the reason we don't at once believe it does so is a sort of tacit idea that while thought, wit, and intellect, and all power of birth and position, are indeed given to us, and, therefore, to be laid out for the Giver, our wealth has not been given to us; but we have worked for it, and have a right to spend it as we choose. I think you will find that is the real substance of our understanding in this matter. Beauty, we say, is given by God - it is a talent; strength is given by God it is a talent; but money is proper wages for our day's work - it is not a talent, it is a due. We may justly spend it on ourselves if we have worked for it. And there would be some shadow of excuse for this were it not that the very power of making money is itself only one of the applications of the intellect or strength which we confess to be talents. Why is one man richer than another? Because he is more industrious, more persevering and more sagacious. Well, who made him more persevering and more sagacious than others? That power of endurance, that quickness of apprehension, that calmness of judgment, which enable him to seize opportunities that others fail-are these not talents? are they not, in the present state of the world, among the most dis tinguished and influential of mental gifts? And is it not wonderful that while we should be utterly ashamed to use a superiority of body in order to thrust our weaker companions aside from some place of advantage, we unhesitatingly use our superiorities of mind to thrust them back from whatever good that strength of mind can attain? You would be indignant if you saw a strong man walk into a theatre or a lecture-room, and, calmly choosing the best place, take his feeble neighbor by the shoulder and turn him out of it into the back seats or the street. You would be equally indignant if you saw a stout fellow thrust himself up to a table where some hungry children are being fed, and reach his arm over their heads and take their bread from them. But you are not the least indignant if when a man has stoutness of thought and swiftness of capacity, and, instead of being long-armed only, has the much greater gift of being long-headed -you think it perfectly just that he should use his intellect to take the bread out of the mouths of all the other men in the town who are in the same trade with him; or use his breadth and sweep of sight to gather some branch of the commerce of the country into one great cobweb, of which he is himself the central spider, making every thread vibrate with the points of his claws, and commanding every avenue with the facets of his eyes. You see no injustice in this. But there is injustice; and, let us trust, one of which honorable men will at no very distant period disdain to be guilty. In some degrees, however, it is indeed not unjust; in some degrees it. is necessary and intended. It is assuredly just that idleness should be surpassed by energy; that the widest influence should · be possessed by those who are best able to wield it; and that a wise man, at the end of his career, should be better off than a |