STAR.

AUCKLAND, N.Z., SATURDAY, JANUARY 12, 1884.

RANDOM SHOTS.

[By Zamiel.]

Sonic write, a neighbour's name to lash, Some write—vain thought!—for needful cash, Some write to please the country clash,

And raise a'din. For me, an aim I never fash— 1 write for fun.

Most people have of late heard and read so much, and understood so little, about Federation and Annexation, that I can

imagine quite a chorus of voices singing

Federation is mv vexation ; French convicts twice as bad Annexation is botheration —

Enough to drive one mad! Those, however, who heard the able and lucid address by Mr Whitaker ou Tuesday night will now have fuller and clearer ideas on thor-e weighty subjects, and will be able to offer an intelligent opinion regarding them. I have no intention of discussing at length the rein •irk nf the speaker . but one part of his address specially attracted my attention. .Mr Whitaker seemed con cerned because the subject was not one with which the ladies of the audience would be in "sympathetic accord," and he accordingly offered an apology for the presumed dryness of his matter from the point of view of the fair sex. Astute though he i., I cannot help thinking Mr Whitaker made a grand mis take there. The ladies (blessthcir hearts !) are the most ardent advocates of Federa tion and Annexation, and the interest of these subjects never palls upon them. Are they not continually striving after the "federation" of families, by means of the match-making tactics in which they are so skilful. Do they not take part in many a "conference" (from which the press is carefully excluded), the object of which is to accomplish the ''annexation" of some susceptible youth's heart, or the conquest of an incorrigible bachelor ? Of course they do, and the ladies' " Federal Council" exer cises in social matters au autocratic and un limited sway I I speak not as the mouth piece of the ladies (holding myself all unfit for that high honour) ; but I am sure I utter their sentiments when I say that they took tha greatest interest in Mr Wliitaker's ad dress, and no doubt picked up from the veteran political strategist a "wrinkle" or two for their guidance in future operations.

That is a somewhat extraordinary society which has just been started under the title of the Auckland nationalistic Association. Most organisations which have had the goddess of Reason as their chief object of worship have been peculiar institutions; but so far as I can make out, this Auckland Society promises to havospecialpeculiarities of its own. Those übiquitous Star, re porters have ferreted out all about the con cern, and have supplied your readers with an account of the " true inward ness " of the movement in a splendid puff preliminary of the opening meet ing of tho Society, which takes place to-morrow (Sunday) evening. Just fancy what a rational Sunday night's entertain ment is promised—a regular "Feast of Reason." Various speeches are to be de livered, after which "Selections of vocal and instrumental music will be rendered, and it is probable that several of the mem bers of the Dramatic Company at present performing in the Opera House will also give valuable assistance in the shape of dramatic selections of a varied character." This is surely a sufficiently liberal method of inaugurating a movement which is doubt less designed with a view to uniting all sec tions of Freethinkers ; and there is nothing particularly irrational in the proposal to spend every Sunday night in like fashion, with the occasional mild dissipation of a " tea-fuddlo " to break the monotony.

But in the name of all that is rational, why has not the new Society hit upon an original idea or two for the conduct of their meetings ? Why do they borrow all their modus operandi from the irrational people on the other side of the way? In fifty churches in and around Auckland there are addresses delivered and vocal and instru mental music performed every Sabbath ; there arc Sunday-schools for the instruction of the young : and there are continual rounds of tea-fights (the latter, however, confined to week evenings). Surely those Rationalists —who by implication accuse all other people of being the votaries of Unreason —have made a bad start if they can show nothing to distinguish thorn from the surrounding heathen. Let me look more closely to see if there is not some point of distinction. Of course there is a distinction with a very great difference. Next to being a reason ing animal, man is a laughing animal, and the sect of Rationalist," mean to enjoy their Sundays. The. children nt their model Sunday-school are to bo amused as well as instructed, and the full-grown Rntionaliste^are to be regaled with ■" dramatic selections ot a varied character." The children will be taught a new version of the Fourth Commandment, " Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it jolly," and their parents and elders will laugh and grow rational and fat over a suggestive scene from " The Strategist" or "The Merry Wives of Windsor." It is expected there will be explosions of laughter and bursting of waistcoats at the meetings ; and as there are also to be de bates, "a strong body of ushers will be organised "to preserve order. Then, I sup pose if the ushers are not strong enough to maintain decorum, a body of police will be in attendance to assist them.

As the leaders of the movement appear to be rather lacking in originality or daring, I might suggest a few other " rational " ways of spending their Sabbaths. They ought to secure Donald Dinnie to dance the Highland .^Fling ; and, though Jem Mace has unfor "tunately left our shores, they might get a couple of local "light weights" to give a " scientific exhibition " before tho disciples of Brad-laugh and Ingersoll. A Maori " haka" would be a great attraction, in comparison with which a fashionable ball, with a special license in full swing, would be but a tame affair. Per haps I am too hasty and harsh, however, in condemning them for want of originality. I find your reporter has it that " the char acter of the (Sunday) morning meetings has not yet been determined.-" There is yet hope for the apostles of Reason ; it may be their intention to devote the morning to gymnastics or some other rational form of observance, and thus vindicate at once their originality and sweet reasonableness of mind. Quivivra verra!

On one or two occasions I have referred to the schemes and tricks of beggars to ob tain money. These persons, however, are not tho only ones who are guilty of lying and deceit in pursuit of their desires. loj

deed, it is possible to iind reasons in ex tenuation of their crime in many cases which is often attributable to their organisation, nurture, and training. But a case in con nection with a different class of persons, but agreeing in the main features that money was the object and deceit and sharp ness the moans, is worth detailing " for the benefit of whom it may concern." It was related on good authority. Some time ago a man went into a fruit shop in Newton in quest of a subscription towards a certain church building fund. Perhaps it was owing to the fact that the shop is kept by a person of that class usually termed "the weaker sex " that' the man tried to work the Oracle there ; but if such were the truth, he eventually found that the fruitress was not Suite as "green " as he had supposed, oven lough she kept a " green " grocer's shop. He succeeded, however, on this occasion in drawing forth a donation. So far, smooth sailing. A few months afterwards the same man made his appearance at the shop, and this time with plausible assertions asked for a subscription towards defraying a poor person's passage to Sydney. Whether he was successful this time, I forget.

Of course this kind of thing -wouldn't "wash" again, so the sharper devised an other plan. Some days after his second visit he rushed into the shop, all in a bluster, and said "Could you lend me a shilling? I have just had some things taken to my place, and have only a cheque in my pocket." The fruiteress looked "kind o' doubtful like," but gave the shilling, determining at the same time, however, to watch the man. Directly he left the shop she followed him carefully. The first place he visited was the next-door shop, after leaving which the lady went in and asked what the man's busi ness there had been. She was informed that he had got change of a shilling, and then followed him to his next place, which was a public-house on the opposite side of the road. Without any ceremony the fruiteress walked in, found the rogue in the act of raising a long pewter to his lips, and at once demanded her shilling. But the man said he had only Sd and a cheque in his pocket. Seeing that he was completely cornered, tho man suddenly said, "0, I know who'll change the cheque—Mr , the butcher in Symonds-street." "I'll go with you," said the lady ; and so she did, and, after some further trouble, succeeded in getting her shilling. The villain must have felt rather small at being thus beaten; but he may think himself lucky at getting off so lightly. I advise shopkeepers and people generally to beware of this class of being, and to mind who they give subscrip tions to.

That unsurpassed humorist, Charles Lamb, was wont to speak of woman's tongue as "the unruly member," and a young Auckland minister of smaller note designated this useful organ of speech the

" wind instrument." There have been re cently numbers of Police Court cases which prove beyond a doubt that Mr Cunningham was equally correct when he referred to the tongue in connection with a case between two neighbours—ladies—as the " pendulum of strife." The simple tongue-quarrel which engaged the mind of the Bench two weeks ago not only possessed a new feature, but was as amusing as Mr Doran when he presents a Christmas gift to a pretty child. The ladies in question had comfortable homes and good husbands; both lived in a green, suburban street, bearing the rustic name of Fernleigh, in the sunny slope of Ponsonby. They had been friends almost from childhood, and had known each other's first sweetheart before either were married. Two lawyers were engaged. Mr Cooper battled heartily for Mrs H., and Mr Oliphant stood like a Macgregor in defence of Mrs D. The battle waxed warm, and even hot for the season, but this was nothing in comparison to the " tide which turned in the affair* of women." It was tragedy and comedy combined, which in their turns caused laughter and tears. The complainant stated her case fairly. She was in the habit of looking out upon the water by moonlight in a dreamy mood. She heard 6trange utterances, somewhat sepulchral in tone, coming like the voice of Hamlet's father, from over the fence. She turned suddenly, when the words "Nelly o'Neil"startledher. "What,"sheexclaimed "that was my maiden name I dearie me; would that I were Nelly still." The voice rose, and a tongue clattered fasterandfaster. She looked, and a pair of opera glasses were upon the fence ; then there was a scream. " I never walked down the gully with Fife," tho familiar name of Mrs ll.'s sweetheart of fourteen years ago. Again was heard the voice, " I never ran about with Page ; I was never courted fay a police man who was hanged." It was too much, and Mrs H. called her husband to assist in crushing this spirit of slander. Jlrs H. fainted away on the verandah—the abuse was overpowering.

Nov." for the other side of tho picture. Defendant and her husband wero ex amined by Mr Oliphant, who looked as serious as old Lord Mansfield when about to pass sentence of death upon a poacher. I expected a sprinkling of Scotch humour from defendant's counsel, but no, the character of his client was at stake. With sweet assurance and lily white innocence Mrs D. told her artless story. She was talking to the cockatoo, and her husband being deaf, she was obliged to raise her voice to its highest pitch. Hor husband and she had a little quarrel, and she was saying, " Pretty Polly, how's Nelly O'Neill" She knew this would vex Frederick, for this was tho name of his old flame of Wanganui twenty years ago ; he did not like to hear that name. The husband said it was true ; the girl he left behind him was Nelly O'Neil; she had got married, after waiting patiently eighteen years for him; he would show the Bench Nelly's por trait. Mr Cooper: "Pray don't, or your lawful wife will tell the cockatoo." "Well," said this witness, "by a singular coincidence my neighbour across the street bore the same name as the girl w:ho won my early affections. The world at that time contained two Nellys of the , family of O'Neil, and when my dear wife was teasing me, through the cockatoo, Mrs H. accepted the parrot-talk as an insult to herself." It was. certainly a strange coincidence, but, wonderful as it was, the Court considered that although it was a row by proxy, it was intended as an insult to the lady across the way. It is gratifying to learn ; however, that the quarrel is over, and the ladies [ have resolved to live together ia harmony during the glad new year.

Does the reader remember a little story I gave some weeks ago, the chief point of which lay in a very clever definition of the word " cataclysm," said to have been given by Mr Wm. Swanson, M.H.R. for Newton 1

According to the story, the typical working man representative said he could not give the derivation of the word, but lie knew it meant "Holland Tommy." This curious though familiar phrase struck mo as curious, and I asked if anyone could help to under stand its etymology or history. A corres pondent draws my attention to a recently published book, " Words, Facts, and Phrases," by Eliezer Edwards, which con tains the following on the subject:—"ln some parts of England it is very common for an angry man to threaten another that he will ' play hell and tommy ' with him. It is thought that this is a corruption of ' Hal and Tommy,' and that the allusion is to Henry VIII. and his unscrupulous Minister, Thomas Cromwell, who seized and rilled the religious houses, and turned out their occupants to starve." This is at least a plausible theory of the origin of the phrase, but it strikes me there is nothing but conjecture to support it. If such wero indeed its origin, the phrase has an antiquity of about 350 years, and it Mould be strange if it has come down orally through these centuries and has not been preserved in its original shape, or even in transition form, in the works of drama tists or other writers. The suggestion of the phrase being corrupted from "Hal and Tommy " is by no means so improbable as that which is given of the origin of the ludicrous phrase, " All my eye and Betty Martin." It is related that when a British ship was in danger of being lost a number of foreign seamen betook themselves to their prayers. Among them was an Italian, who kept constantly repeating an invoca tion toSt.Martin— Ah, mild, LcatcMartin!" A British Jack-tar, overhearing him, said, with a loud guffaw, " Why, Bill, this cove says it's all my eye and Betty Martin !" The ship was saved from wreck ; so was the seemingly ludicrous prayer of the Italian sailor ; and the English language (or that portion of it which is to be found within the boards of the Slang Dictionary) was enriched by an expressive phrase. XXX The latest phase of "the native diffi culty " in New Zealand is of the serio-comic order. Simply put, it resolves itself into a difficulty which the chiefs experience in carrying on their time-honoured practice of polygamy. Wahanui, a chief of great " weight " and influence and wealth, is just now prostrated from the effects of a little domestic "difficulty" of that kind. Though already quite sufficiently married, the obese chieftain the other day took home a new wife to his harem, whereat the "boss" female lifted a war-club and flattened the old fellow's bump of amativeness with it. Even the Maori King, as I lately saw from the papers, has to succumb to the spread of European ideas among the native women, and submit to a . thrashing when he attempts any matrimonial pranks. All is fair in love and war; and the native ■women, who used to do brave deeds on the field of battle, are proving as valiant in the field of Cupid. More power to their strong right arm, says "Zamiel," and may they keep on in their civilising, humanising, and levelling career !

ORIGINAL POETRY.

BLIND.

They say the earth is green and fair, the skies are blue and bright. But oh! I never see the earth nor skies of azure light; I hear them talk of dasied fields of b ossom and of tree Till my young heart is like to break, for they arc not for mc. I feel the balmy breath of spring, I scent the flowers' perfume; I know the earth if bright and fair, the mines a world of gloom; Bim visions of spring's lovclines oft pass before my mind, I dream of things I never see, for I, alas ! am blind.

I hear the bleating of the flocks, the lowing of the herds, The barking of the shepherd's dog, the music of the birds; Tho tinkling o£ tbe brooklet's flow, so silvery and clear; The rustling o£ the forest trees falls softly on my ear. But, ah I I never see the herds, or watch the lambs at play. Nor mark the cloud aspiring lark upon his upward way. I cannot see the branches sway, the leaves dance in the wind ; The varied sounds alono I hear, Ah! pity me, I'm blind.

But tho' I never feast my eyes on Nature's varied charms, .Spring's gentle zephyr fan my check the genial sunlight warms. And there are other things that conies my spirit to rejoice— A father's kind and cheering words, a mother's loving voice ; My life is not all bitterness tho' often I rebel What God in wisdom hath ordained in ust surely bo well. Oh, Lord, I try to bear my cross, I try to be resigned. And when I murmer at my lot, forgive me, I am blind.

Oh Thou above, nlhime my soul, with Thy celestial light. And guide me thro' this darkened world to

realms where all is light; Oh grant me patience, faith, and hope, and courage to endure. The cares that press with double might upon the blind and poor. Oh bid all wild and vain regrets, all frantic longing cease— Allay the fever in my breast, and give my spirit peace; And when I stand before Thy throne, great Saviour of munk md. Then touch mc with Thy healing hand,andlwill not be blind. Thomas Shahv. Onehunga,

SUMMER IS COMING.

Summer is coming, sang Childhood sweet; Over the meadows skipped fairy feet. The grass will be green, the birds will sing; I'll listen all day to their carolling. The buds will blossom, and roses blow, And the golden days will come and go. Summer is coming. ..ing hopeful Youth, This beauteous world seems full of truth, All nature teems with myriad life. And crowns loom out far 'bove the strife ; Sing youth and lark in the morning's light. Age and nightingales sing at night. __\ Summer is coming, sang Manhood's pride. But dreams have been shattered, hopes have died; And the charm and grace of a home hath fled, God's best gifts 'mongst the silent dead. Fled are tho roseate hues of years. And the coming night wears a mist of tears. Summer is coming, sang Life's Decline, How the sunlight gleams on the white locks rime; Come; once again, oh, gilded youth I In the sere old ycarSj as a living truth ; All things shine out in a better light, " As the stars shine best at night." W.R. Auckland, November 6,1E83.

■■_.- God loves simplicity and sincerity, even though it may be mixed up with ignorance and weakness,: " When Israel was a child, then J lovedtmn."

THE WOOD FARM MYSTERY.

E-rtraordinary I-Jruiifcsta-tions.

Tiik good people of tho English midlands are much exercised just now about some strange "spiritual manifestations" in Shrop shire, The affair is being talked about through the length and breadth of Britain, and this morning the "Telegraph" gives the following special correspondent':, ex planation of the illusion :—

Gas, not ghosts, is the origin of the mystery which has puzzled the wiseacres of Shropshire and the contiguous counties for the past fortnight. The people of the dis trict for miles round do at this moment most implicitly believe that the extraordin ary manifestations described as having taken place at the Wood Farm. West

Lullingficld, a fortnight ago, are duo to supernatural causes, and probably many of them will continue to believe for the rest of their natural lives, this full and minute ex planation notwithstanding. It is already notorious that Fanner Hampson and his family were, on the morning of October 31 last, thrown into a state of consternation at finding the furniture of their house to be suddenly imbued with powers of locomo tion, and their astonishment was unbounded when, on what they believed to be the evi dence of their own eyesight, the hands of the eight-day clock in the kitchen sprung through its glass front, and immediately returning whence they came, slapped that unoffending chronometer sharply in tho face. Then, so it is said, the tire leaped out of the grate and burned the baby, and the chairs, linking arms, danced round and round the table, and the fire-irons, mount ing upon the dresser, cut a series of nimble capers, as if determined to add to the general confusion by a private exhibition of gymnastic ironmongery. All this and more was, until yesterday, credited notonly by Farmer Hampson and his wife, but by hundreds, and probably thousands, of folic who pride themselves upon their common sense. So intense has been their condition of credulity that they do not appear to have doubted a story put about by a local wag to the effect that on the afternoon of the re ported initial disaster the farmer, going out into his yard, beheld a trio of porcine choristers sitting up on their hams, and singing " God Save the Queen," under the directorship of a ring-nosed pig, beating time with a dibble. Such nonsense would seem too ridiculous to be credited but for the fact that the wildest rumours concern ing this affair have passed current here about as gospel truth. Even the rural police are said to havebeen thrown off theirbalance, and to have failed to account for the affair either as the result of personal inquiries or from " information received." Shrews bury town, up to its eyes in the business and pleasure of racing during the past week, has yet found time to gossip under its breath about the haunted farm and the strange goings on there. Shrewsbury, in deed, had a ghostly trouble of its own. For six whole months a gentleman and his family residing in the Cherry Urchard have been kept awake at nights by rappings on the wainscots and continual nocturnal ring ings of bells all over the house. They have, therefore, determined to change their habitation, hoping that the spirits may not be disposed to follow them into another parish.

During an interview yesterday morning with Colonel Edgehill, chief of the county police, that urbane official informed me that, though he was cognisant of the Wood Farm scare, yet no ono had instituted a criminal prosecution against any offender, assuming any offence to have been com mitted. It did not come within his province to interfere. Looked at from the spiritual istic point of view.he deemed the entire pro ceedings as beneath contempt. The good people of Shropshire, on the other hand, while implicitly believing that the furniture at the farm danced to the piping cf the Prince of the Powers of the Air, somehow— how is not even yet exactly explained— coupled the manifestations with the name of Emma Davies, nursegirl in the rustic establishment of Mr and Mrs Hampson. This Emma Davies is thought to bo a juvenile sorceress in league with the Evil One. Serious folk are ready to testify that they have seen her seated upon a cane-bot tomed chair floating about in mid-air, that at her approach buckets and brooms take to capering and curvetting like the roan horse observed by Sir Launcelot at the gates of " the dim rock city "in " The Idylls of the King," and a well know sectarian serial publication, in half calf, is reported to follow Emma about liko a dog. Subsequent to my interview with Colonel Edgehill, 1 visited Emma Davies at tho house of Dr. Cook,at Wem, whither on Sun day evening last she was removed from the cottage of her parents, labouring people at Wesson, in order that she might be under medical supervision. For it is a fact that the girl pretended to possess magical powers, and played all kinds of pranks with the chairs and tables in tho aforesaid cottage at Wesson. She made three-legged ftoois waltz round the room, and zinc pails hide in corners. Before describing what I saw and heard at Dr. Cook's, it will, however, be better to recount the evidence of Mr and Mrs Hampson, at Wood Farm. After a pleasant drive of fivo miles through the Shropshire lanes, I arrived at the West Lullington homestead, situated in a well wooded pastoral country dotted with ancient, half-timbered houses, many of them dating from the reign of Queen Eliza beth. The air was keen and bright, the ice lay an inch thick upon the ponds, their dull grey contrasting with the shining leaves of the frequent holly bushes, already bearing a grand crop of scarlet berries. If spirits were about in that beautiful frosty air, they lay concealed out of the glowing sunshine which flooded wood and meadow with cheery winter gladness. The Wood Farm consists of about fifty-five acres, partly arable, partly pasture, Mr Hampson's profits being prin cipally derived from his business of a maltster. His house is small, the ground floor consisting of a kitchen or keeping room, some loft, square, leading directly into a smaller compartment used as a scullery. Both he and his wife are young, of middle height and fair complexion. They were willing, and, indeed, anxious to afford me all the information they possessed. Mrs Hampson said that about a fortnight ago, one day in the morning, the fire leaped out of the grate in the parlour, set light to the sofa, and severely burned the face of her baby, lying in its perambu lator, in charge of the girl Emma Davies; and she showed me the child, which still retains a large ecar, as from a burn, on the

left cheek. Thereupon sue ran to fetch a neighbour, who also wunesseJ the coal shoot from the grate all over the room, and who is supposed to have wondered nt the furniture dancing about as if possessed by Lucifer, When Mr 1-la.nj-Son returned home in the afternoon he was told of what had occurred, and attribute..! the manifestations to natural cause-; not unconnected with the coal in the grate. His wife was, however, less sceptical. Emma Davies, who had a habit of falling asleep inopportunely and talking in her slumbers, was altogether a mysterious person, and in -Mrs Hampson's opinion was at the bottom of the trouble. Consequently the farmer's wife felt certain in her own mind that more disturbances would follow. Sure enough next day tho spirits renewed their visits. This time there was no lire in the parlour, but there was one in the kitchen leading out of it; the door between the two being open. Again the coal jumped out of the lire; once more the furniture gyrated about the floor; a little clock on tlis mantel shell i-ii-i.poJ down and flung itself upwards against the face of a big clock against the wall: and the sectarian serial already re ferred to threw itself off the table out of the window, smashing the window-frame nnd breaking five panes of glass. All this Mrs Hampson believed, aud, in spite of assurances to the contrary, still believes. How, she suggests, could it be 'other wise, bearing in mind Emma Davies'a habit of falling asleep when she should have kept awake, and that young person's strange power of causing the fur niture to tumble about the house? Besides Mr and Mrs Hampson, I saw at the farm a hind named Thomas Williams and Emma's fellow-servant, Prised.... Jane Evans—of whom hereafter. That the farmer and his wife were dreadfully fright ened is manifest from the fact that they sent Emma back to her parents and them selves (led the farm. They remained absent for a week, during which time the place has been visited by hundreds of curious sight seers from Shrewsbury, Wellington, and neighbouring towns, the majority of whom credit the idle and foolish rumours which attribute the explosions to the work of evil spirits.

To return to the house of Dr. Cook at Wem. There I saw Mr Mackoy, Dr. Cook's assistant, and an intelligent young lady, Miss Turner, the doctor's house keeper. I likewise saw and spoke with the girl Emma Davies, who, amid tears and lamentations, confessed in my presence and in that of Miss Turner and Mr Mackey that sho was an impostor. She showed us how she made chairs and buckets move about the room by the simple expedient of pushing them with her hands and feet. This mis chievous child is thirteen years old, and short for her age. . She has dull, tow coloured hair, blue eyes, a small forehead, a snub nose, fat cheeks, and weak chin. Nevertheless, she is, after her rustic fashion, a consummate actress. Her pretence of flinging the furniture about as if moved by unseen hands, was most skilful. She now avers that many weeks ago the hind Thomas Williams, a loutish fellow, having seen a strolling conjuror perform his tricks in a public house, showed tho girl Priscilla Evans how it was done, and that Priscilla had confided the secret to hor. Priscilla denies this, but Thomas confessed to me, with a grin on his vacuous countenance, that he might jhave told her " how to shift things for a joke." So much for the so called Shropshire mystery, which has dis turbed the repose of a wide district for an entire fortnight. The credulous rustics have unconsciously invented most of the ridiculous tales, scaring themselves with imagined terrors. For, as the hero in the Laureate's poem, "Maud," truly says, " Jack, on his ale-house bench, has as many lies as a Czar."

Best Thoughts of Best Hen.

A CHEERFCL disposition is the sunshine of

the soul. Character is the diamond that scratches every other stone. Hope is like the wing of an angel soaring up to Heaven, and bears our prayers to the throne of God. Religion is our life, being essential to our peace of mind, our support under the trials of life, and our fitness for the eternal world. If anyone speaks ill of thee, consider whether he has truth on his side ; and if so, inform thyself that his censures may not affect thee. Suminerfield said:—"Any man that would not be willing to circumnavigate the globe for tho purpose of saving one soul is unworthy of the name of Christian." Let tho young girl seek to adorn her beauty, if she be taught also to adorn her mind and heart, that she may have wisdom to direct her love of ornament in due moderation. We ought not to look bad:, unless it is ' _ derive useful lessons from past errors, a: I for the purpose of profiting by dear-bong ... . experience. Unless we are prepared to assert that all goodness culminates in ourselves and re cedes from others in exact proportion to their distance from us, wo must admit that our feelings ore large factors of injustice in the judgments that we are all of us only too ready to learn. 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 last day in the year. No innii has learned anything rightly until he knows that every day is dooms-day. Few companions are more delightful, as few also are more rare, than a sympathetic person. So many good qualities make up the ideal sympathetic nature —tact, un selfishness, knowledge of many subjects— that it is not wonderful that such gifted persons should be the exception, not the rule. Making the Best of Things.—lt is a merciful provision of nature that, when, great and sudden sorrow talis upon the soul, the blow, by its very force and swift ness, deadnes for a time the sensibilities, so that wo are allowed to realise only by slow degrees the full extent of our misery. This respite, brief as it is, gives the vital forces time to rally, tima enabling us to endure for weeks, it may be for months and years, whet otherwise w ou'.il have proved instantly fatal. \\ bile we are fighting against the inevitable, nature calmly accepts it, and, with or without our assist ance, endeavours to make the best of things as they are, modifying our needs so far as posrible to suit the now conditions circum stances have imjxjsed upon us.