CII.-MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS. 1. ALL SORTS OF MINDS.-There is a strong disposition in men of opposite minds to despise each other. A grave man cannot conceive what is the use of wit in society; a person who takes a strong common-sense view of the subject is for pushing out by the head and shoulders an ingenious theorist who catches at the slightest and faintest analogies; and another man, who scents the ridiculous from afar, will hold no commerce with him who tests exquisitely the fine feeling of the heart and is alive to nothing else; whereas talent is talent and mind is mind in all its branches. 2. Wit gives to life one of its best flavors; common sense leads to immediate action and gives society its daily motion, large and comprehensive views its annual rotation, ridicule chastises folly and impudence and keeps men in their proper sphere, subtlety seizes hold of the fine threads of truth, analogy darts away in the most sublime discoveries, feeling paints all the exquisite passions of man's soul, and rewards him by a thousand inward visitations for the sorrows that come from without. God made it all. It is all good. We must despise no sort of talents; they all have their separate duties and uses; all the happiness of man for their object; they all improve, exalt and gladden life.-Sydney Smith. 3. A FITTING REBUKE.-" Having in my youth notions of severe piety," says a celebrated Persian writer, "I used to rise in the night to watch, pray and read the Koran. One night as I was engaged in these exercises my father, a man of practical virtue, awoke while I was reading. 'Behold,' said I to him, 'thy other children are lost in irreligious slumber while I alone wake to praise God.' 'Son of my soul,' he answered, 'it is better to sleep than to wake to remark the faults of thy brethren.' 999 4. ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE LIFE.-There is nothing short of revelation that more beautifully or satisfactorily proves the existence of an almighty Mind than the fewness and simplicity of the ultimate elements of animal and vegetable life. Thus, there are but four elementary principles essentially necessary, and but six generally employed, to form every variety of organic life: nitrogen, carbon, oxygen and hydrogen are the bases, to which sulphur and phosphorus may be considered supplementary. With these, infinitely varied in their atomic proportions, are built up not only the whole animal kingdom, but also every variety of the vegetable world, from wheat, the "staff of life," to the poison of the deadly upas tree. It is also worthy of remark that these four elemental principles are those also of which both air and water are composed, so that air and water may be considered in truth and fact as being the original elements of organic life.-Dr. Toulman. 5. MATERIALISM.-Mention has been made of the word "materialism." I hold a maxim on this matter which, personally, I have felt of exceeding consequence. It is time the truth had gone forth, to be held as a maxim for evermore, that in proportion to the depth of one's faith is the absence of uneasiness because of the difference of opinion. Materialism never arises from knowledge; it is, on the other hand, a certification of deficiency on the part of the mind cherishing it. It consists, not in the exposition of any positive knowledge, but in the dogmatic assertion that beyond the line of such knowledge there lies nothing more. 6. To deal with materialism, then, what is our course? Never to deny or undervalue truth distinctly laid down, but to deny that what is known is a limit; to deny that the system pretending to be everything is (whatever its special value) the everything it pretends; not to imagine that man ought not to study the laws of nature, but to show him that beyond these, toward the region of sunset, there are powers which made and sustain even the whole of nature's fabric-an august Being, even the Father of our spirits-with whom, though the seasons change and those stupendous orbs rest not in their courses, there is never variableness or shadow of turning.-Professor Nichol. 7. LIFE. Of all miracles, the most wonderful is that of life-the common, daily life which we carry with us and which everywhere surrounds us. The sun and stars, the blue firmament, day and night, the tides and seasons, are as nothing compared with it. Life, the soul of the world, but for which creation were not! It is life which is the grand glory of the world; it was, indeed, the consummation of creative power, at which the morning stars sang together for joy. Is not the sun glorious, because there are living eyes to be gladdened by his beams? Is not the fresh air delicious, because there are living creatures to inhale and enjoy it? Are not odors fragrant and sounds sweet and colors gorgeous, because there is the living sensation to appreciate them? Without life, what were they all? What were a Creator himself without life, intelligence, understanding, to know and to adore Him and to trace His finger in the works that He hath made? 8. MORAL AND PHYSICAL COURAGE.-At the battle of Waterloo, two French officers were advancing to charge a much superior force. The danger was imminent, and one of them displayed evident signs of fear. The other, observing it, said to him, "Sir, I believe you are frightened." "Yes," returned the other, "I am, and if you were half as much frightened you would run away." This anecdote exhibits in a happy light the difference between moral and physical courage, -between bulk and brains. "The brave man is not he who feels no fear, For that were stupid and irrational; But he whose noble soul its fear subdues And bravely dares the danger nature shrinks from." 9. PERFECTION NO TRIFLE.-A friend called on Michael Angelo, who was finishing a statue; some time afterward he called again; the sculptor was still at his work; his friend, looking at the figure, exclaimed, "You have been idle since I saw you last." "By no means," replied the sculptor; "I have retouched this part and polished that; I have softened this feature and brought out this muscle; I have given more expression to this lip and more energy to this limb." "Well, well," said his friend, "but all these are trifles." "It may be so," replied Angelo, "but recollect that trifles make perfection, and that perfection is no trifle." 10. THE MOST PRECIOUS POSSESSION.-I envy no quality of mind or intellect in others, be it genius, power, wit or fancy; but if I could choose what would be most delightful, and I believe most useful to me, I should prefer a firm religious belief to every other blessing; for it makes life a discipline of goodness, creates new hopes when all earthly hopes vanish, and throws over the decay, the destruction of existence the most gorgeous of all lights; awakens life even in death, and from corruption and decay calls up beauty and divinity; makes an instrument of fortune, and shame the ladder of ascent to Paradise, and, far above all combinations of earthly hopes, calls up the most delightful visions of palms and amaranths, the gardens of the blest, the security of everlasting joys, where the sensualist and skeptic view only gloom, decay, annihilation and despair.-Sir Humphry Davy. 11. THE TRUE LIFE.-The mere lapse of years is not life. To eat and drink and sleep, to be exposed to darkness and the light, to pace around the mill of habit and turn the wheel of wealth, to make reason our book-keeper and turn thought into an implement of trade, this is not life. In all this but a poor fraction of the consciousness of humanity is awakened, and the sanctities still slumber which make it most worth while to be. Knowledge, truth, love, beauty, goodness, faith, alone give vitality to the mechanism of existence. The laugh of mirth which vibrates through the heart, the tears which freshen the dry wastes within, the music which brings childhood back, the prayer that calls the future near, the doubt which makes us meditate, the death which startles us with mystery, the hardships that force us to struggle, the anxiety that ends in trust, these are the true nourishments of our natural being. 12. ENDURING INFLUENCE OF HUMAN ACTIONS.-We see not in life the end of human actions. The influence never dies. In ever-widening circle it reaches beyond the grave. Death removes us from this to an eternal world; time deter mines what shall be our condition in that world. Every morning when we go forth we lay the molding hand on our destiny, and every evening when we have done we have left a deathless impression upon our character. We start not a wire but vibrates in eternity, a voice but reports at the throne of God. Let youth especially think of these things, and let every one remember that in this world character is in its formation state; it is a serious thing to think, to speak, to act. ... SELECT ETYMOLOGIES.-Amaranth: G. amaran'tõs, unfading. Analogy: resemblance between one thing and another in some points; fr. Gr. an'a, similar to, log'os, word, ratio, proportion. Anecdote: orig., secret history; now, a short story ; Gr. aněkdŏ'tŎn, not given out; fr. a, without, ěk, out, and dõtön, given. Fragrant: L. fra'gro, to emit a smell.... Future: L. futu'rus, about to be; fr. es'se, to be. . . . Gorgeous: Norman F. gorgias, gaudy, showy. . . . Impudent: L. im'pudens, without shame; fr. im = in-, not, and pud'ens, modest; fr. pud'eo, to be ashamed; h., re-pudiate (in regard to married parties, to cast off or put away the opposite party) . . . Maxim: fr. L. max'ima (with senten'tia understood), the greatest sentence or sentiment, i. e., one carrying the greatest weight; max'imus being the superlative and major the comparative of mag'nus, great; h., magnify, magnitude, main, majesty, major, maximum. Meditate: L. med'itor, medita'tus, to muse or think upon; h., pre-meditate. . . Muscle: L. musculus, a little mouse, also a muscle; h., muscular. Palm: L. pal'ma; h., palmy, palmistry. Paradise: ... ... ... ... Gr. paradei'sos; fr. the Persian, and denoting a large inclosed park for the preservation of game. Physical: Gr. phu'sikos, conformable or agreeable to nature; fr. phu'sis, nature; fr. phu'ein, to bring forth; h., physician, physio-gnomy (gnōmōn, one who knows; h., the particular cast or expression of the face), physio-logy (logos, discourse), the science which treats of the vital actions or functions performed by the organs of plants and animals. . . . Ridiculous: L. ridic'ulus; fr. ri'deo, ri'sum, to laugh; h., de-ride, de-rision, risible. Subtile: L. sub'tilis; fr. sub, under, and te'la, a web; fr. tex'o, I weave. . . . Vibrate : L. vib'ro, vibra'tum, to set in tremulous motion; h., vibratory, etc. . . . Wonder: A. S. wondrian. The number of monosyllables in English (says De Vere) surpasses by far that of any other modern language, and this feature gives it a peculiarly direct and straightforward character, equally far from the courteously studied and indirect French and the lumbering, intricate German. In the following lines from Macbeth there are fifty-two words, and ot these fifty are monosyllables: "That is a step On which I must fall down or else o'erleap, |