The key of knowledge.—Bulwer.

No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting.-Montaigne.

- I see you read-all very right; we should begin life with books; they multiply the sources of enjoyment ;-so does capital;-but capital is of no use unless we live on the interest-books are waste paper, unless we spend in action what we get from thought. Action, action; that is the life of us.-Bulwer.

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It is manifest that all government of action is to be gotten by knowledge; and knowledge best by gathering many knowledges, which is reading.—Sir P. Sidney.

A negro having just learnt to read, wishing to give his countrymen an idea of a book, said, "My dear, gode broders, I hab de plezzure to inform y'all 'dat reading is de power of hearing wid de eyes insted of de ears."

Read not to cavil and find fault, not to agree and take for granted, but to weigh and consider.-Lord Bacon.

Reading makes a full man; writing an exact man; and speaking a ready man.-Lord Bacon.

Reading and Thinking.

It is good to read, mark, learn-but it is better to inwardly digest. It is good to read, better to think-better to think one hour than to read ten hours without thinking. Thinking is to reading (if the book read have anything in it) what rain and sunshine are to the seed cast into the ground, the influence which maketh it bear and bring forth thirty, forty, or a hundred fold. To read is to gather into the barn or storehouse of the mind; to think is to cast seed-corn into the ground to make it productive. To read is to collect information; to think is to evolve power. To read is to lay a burden in the bank; but to think is to give to the feet swiftness, to the hands strength. Yet we have a thousand or ten thousand readers for one thinker, as the kind of books sought after in circulating libraries bear witness.-Cameron.

Realities.

Real estate, real money, and a real good dinner-none of which can be realized without real hard work.

Reason.

The law of reason is founded in nature; it is universal, immutable, and eternal. It is subject to no change from any difference of place or time: it extends invariably to all ages and nations.

- Without reason, as on a tempestuous sea, we are the sport of every wind and wave, and know not, till the event hath determined it, how the next billow will dispose of us; whether it will dash us against a rock, or drive us into a quiet harbour.-Lucas.

-The faculty by which a man always justifies his own conduct. Some vain theorists have supposed that it was given to regulate our actions; but the uniform practice of mankind has proved that it is of no use but to vindicate what we do.

- Reason is the mistress in the soul's mansion; when she is present and upon the watch, all other senses are bridled, and each plays a befitting part. But no sooner does she forget her own dignity, than the human frame becomes a chaos, where every faculty is in its wrong position. Happy is he who obeys the counsels of such a mistress, and suffers her to sway the sceptre of his mind, as the ruler and governess of its throng of menials.

Refinement.

Too great refinement is false delicacy, and true delicacy is solid refinement.

Reflection.

An hour of solitude passed in sincere and earnest prayer, or the conflict with, and conquest over, a single passion, or "subtle bosom sin," will teach us more of thought, will more effectually awaken the faculty, and form the habit of reflection, than a year's study in the schools without them. -Coleridge.

Reform.

He that looks back to the history of mankind will often see that in politics, jurisprudence, religion, and all the great concerns of society, reform has usually been the work of reason slowly awakening from the lethargy of ignorance, gradually acquiring confidence in her own strength, and ultimately triumphing over the dominion of prejudice and

custom.

Religion.

The true spirit of religion cheers as well as composes the mind, it banishes indeed all levity of behaviour and dissolute mirth; but fills the mind with perpetual serenity, uninterrupted cheerfulness, and an habitual inclination to please others, and be pleased ourselves.

Religion is a sacred thing, and has been most horribly abused by such as have superadded their own invention, or those traditional fopperies received from our deceived and superstitious ancestors. I am satisfied that the Scripture is our only true faith.-Thomas de Laun.

'Tis religion that must give
Sweetest pleasure while we live ;
'Tis religion must supply
Solid comfort when we die :

After death its joys shall be

Lasting as eternity.-Barbauld.

Every religion is good that teaches man to be good, and I know of none that instruct him to be bad.

It is a great disgrace to religion to imagine it an enemy to mirth and cheerfulness, and a severe enactor of pensive looks and solemn faces. The true spirit of religion cheers as well as composes the soul. It is not the business of virtue to extirpate the affections of the mind, but to regulate them. -Quarterly Review.

-All hail, Religion! thou alone canst fire

Our kindling thoughts with views beyond the tomb;
To brighter plains by thee we dare aspire,

And snatch a foretaste of the world to come.—Maurice.

- To be furiously religious is to be irreligiously religious ; and it were better to be of no church than to be bitter for

What is Religion? "Speak the truth in love.”
Reject no good. Mind, if thou canst, thy lot.
Doubting, inquire-nor dictate till thou prove.
Enjoy thy own-exceed not, trespass not.
Pity the scorners of life's meanest thing.
If wrong'd, forgive—that hate may lose his sting.
Think, speak, work, get—bestow, or wisely keep.
So live, that thou may'st smile, and no one weep.
Be bless'd-like birds, that sing because they love;
And bless-like rivers singing to the sun,

Giving and taking blessings as they run;

Or soft-voiced showers, that cool the answering grove,
When cloudy wings are wide in heaven display'd,
And blessings brighten o'er the freshen'd sod

Till earth is like the countenance of God.

—This is Religion ! saith the bard of trade.—E. Elliott. -Religion is life's poesy. It breathes a living soul into the universe, and gives us everywhere a bright and loving spirit with which to hold sweet and mystic communings. On every object around it sheds a mellow light, and throws a veil over all the stern and forbidding features of reality. Bitter is the duty which raises the veil, and bids that mellowing light be withdrawn.

- When religion is made a science, there is nothing more intricate; when it is made a duty, nothing more easy.

-The first thing in religion is to refine a man's temper, and the second to govern his practice. If a man's religion do not this, his religion is a poor, slender thing, and of little consideration.-Whichcote.

"Remember Me."

"Remember me !"-however brief Those simple words may seem to be,— In hope or fear, in joy or grief,

Who hath not said "Remember me ? The Child, when first to school he goes, The Sire, who nursed him on his knee, Each, at that first sad parting knows

A thought which prompts "Remember me !"
The Soldier, though by glory steel'd,

Against full many a softening plea,
Will turn him from the tented field
Homeward, and sigh "Remember me !"
The Sailor, as he ploughs the deep,
At midnight on the star-lit sea,
Compell'd his lonely watch to keep,

Breathes the fond words, "Remember me!"
Far more appealing is their power,

In doubt and grief, than hope and glee;
And most affecting in the hour

Of death, one faint "Remember me !"
Wouldst thou their holiest form declare?
Turn to Golgotha-turn and see
The dying thief, and hear his prayer—
"In heaven, O Lord! remember me!"

Well may the heart this motto own,

Since Grace and Nature both agree;

Feeling's full gush, Thought's tenderest tone,
Find utterance in "Remember me !"

Remembrance.

'Tis done!-I saw it in my dreams :
No more with hope my future beams;
My days of happiness are few;
Chill'd by misfortune's wintry blast,
My dawn of life is overcast,

Love, Hope, and Joy, alike adieu!

Would I could add Remembrance too.-Byron.