Happiness Makes Us Better.

Mankind are always better for having been once happy; so that if you make them happy now, you make them so, twenty years hence, through the memory of it. Childhood, passed with a mixture of rational indulgence, under fond and wise parents, diffuses over the whole of life a coloring of calm pleasure, and, even in extreme old age, is the last remembrance that time can erase from the mind of man. No enjoyment, however inconsiderable, is confined to the present moment. A man is the happier through life for having once made an agreeable tour, or lived for any length of time among a pleasant people, or enjoyed any considerable interval of innocent pleasure; and it is more probably the recollection of their past joys that contributes to render the aged so inattentive to the scenes passing around them, and carries them back to a world that is past and scenes that can never be again restored.-SYDNEY SMITH.

The Way to Be Happy.

A hermit there was, and he lived in a grot,
And the way to be happy, folks said, he had got;
As I wanted to learn it, I went to his cell,
And when I came there, the old hermit said:
Well,
Young man, by your looks you want something, I see;
Now tell me the business that brings you to me.”

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The way to be happy, folks say, you have got; And wishing to learn it, I've come to your grot. Now, I beg and entreat, if you have such a plan,

That you write it me down, as plain as you can."
Upon which the old hermit, he went to his pen,
And brought me this note when he came back again:

"Tis being and doing and having that make
All the pleasures and pains of which mankind partake;
To be what God pleases, to do a man's best,
And to have a good heart, is the way to be blest."

BYRON.

The Reflection of Happiness.

Surely happiness is reflective, like the light of Heaven; and every countenance, bright with smiles and glowing with innocent enjoyment, is a mirror, transmitting to others the rays of a supreme and ever-shining benevolence. WASHINGTON IRVING.

HEALTH.

Take Care of Your Health.

Let me utter one practical word: Take care of your health. There have been men who by wise attention to this point might have risen to any eminence-might have made great discoveries, written great poems, commanded. armies or ruled states, but who by unwise neglect of this point have come to nothing. Imagine Hercules as oars man in a rotten boat. What can he do there but by the very force of his stroke expedite the ruin of his craft? Take care, then, of the timbers of your boat, and avoid

all practices likely to introduce either wet or dry rot among them. And this is not to be accomplished by desultory or intermittent efforts of the will, but by the formation of habits. The will, no doubt, has sometimes to put forth its strength in order to strangle or crush the special temptation. But the formation of right habits is essential to your permanent security. They diminish your chance of falling when assailed, and they augment your chance of recovery when overthrown.-TYNDALL.

Condensed Comments.

Take a walk to refresh yourself with the open air, which, inspired fresh, doth exceedingly recreate the lungs, heart and vital spirits.---HARVEY.

You will never live to my age without you keep yourself in breath with exercise.-SIR PHILIP SIDNEY.

The health of a community is almost an unfailing index of its morals.--MARTINEAU.

Health is the soul that animates all the enjoyments of life.--SIR W. Temple.

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THE HEREAFTER.

The Continuity of Life.

The continuity of life lifts the shadow also from another mystery-the lives that have been cut off in their prime. When one is richly endowed and carefully trained, and has come to the zenith of his power, his sudden removal seems a reflection on the economy of God's Kingdom. Why call this man to the choir celestial when he is so much needed in active service? According to Jesus, he has not sunk into inaction, so much subtracted from the forces of righteousness. He has gone where the fetters of this body of humiliation and embarrassment of adverse circumstances shall be no longer felt.

We must not think of him as withdrawn from the field. We must imagine him as in the van of battle. We must follow him, our friend, with hope and a high heart.— JOHN WATSON (Ian Maclaren).

The Two Mysteries.

We know not what it is, dear, this sleep so deep and

still;

The folded hands, the awful calm, the cheek so pale and

chill;

The lids that will not lift again, though we may call and

call;

The strange white solitude of peace that settles over

all.

We know not what it means, dear, this desolate heart

pain;

This dread to take our daily way and walk in it again. We know not to what other sphere the loved who leave

us go,

Nor why we're left to wander still, nor why we do not know.

But this we know: Our loved and dead, if they should come this day,

Should ask us, What is life?" not one of us could say. Life is a mystery as deep as ever death can be;

Yet, oh! how sweet it is to us, this life we live and see!

Then might they say, these vanished ones—and blessed is the thought:

"So death is sweet to us, beloved! though we may tell you naught.

We

'e may not tell it to the quick, this mystery of death; Ye may not tell us, if ye would, the mystery of breath."

The child who enters life comes not with knowledge or

intent;

So those who enter death must go as little children sent. Nothing is known! But I believe that God is overhead;

And as life is to the living, so death is to the dead.

JOAQUIN MILLER.