the destroyer of kingdoms, and the founder of new states. We accompany diverse races as they rise from the primal state of savage isolation, or barbaric strife, to the founding of mighty empires, and the creation of far-reaching powers. We can thus trace, step by step, the infancy of new civilizations, watch their struggles and growth until they have performed their part, given their contribution to the development of the race, added their quota to the progress of man, and then behold them pass away, giving place to a higher state, to nobler aspirations, to purer morals, loftier faiths, and sweeter manners. Shut up in a little room we can witness the whole drama of man's history played on the vast stage of the world. All that he has thought and done from the earliest dawn of recorded time to our own day is enacted before us; and our hopes are strengthened, our faith deepened, in the great destiny yet awaiting mankind; in the higher, holier work yet to be done by those who have accomplished such mighty things, achieved such noble victories. Books which record the infallible and un

history of the past are the erring prophets of the future.

From the what

has been, they reveal the what will be, and show that

Through the ages one increasing purpose runs, And the thoughts of men are widen'd with the process of the suns. 99

Nor is this all. In their sacred pages the devout and earnest students of Nature have recorded the history of the earth, as well as the history of man. By their help we can be present at, and witnesses of, the beginning of things, and trace the course of nebulous masses forming into worlds, and through infinite changes carried on through infinite ages making themselves fit for the habitation of man. In this glorious process we can see, as it were, the fingers of God at work, and hear the shuttles of the mighty loom of time as they weave the awful veil behind which He conceals, and through which He reveals Himself to the eye of faith. We behold the ever-changing and never-resting growth and development of the material universe as each sphere rolls along its allotted path, and hear the music which even the smallest orb "in its motion sings, still quiring to the young-eyed cherubim," as Nature, the "Vicar of th' Almighty Lord," pursues

B

her wondrous work, and completes her predestined task. Step by step we follow the incandescent mass while the molten fire becomes less and less intense, and rocks and waters are formed, and the globe is slowly prepared for the appearance of vegetable and animal life. Then through the long eras of massive vegetation, and beings of monstrous bulk, which appear, fulfil their mission, and pass away, but with their trunks and bones help to make the world they quit ready for the era of more perfect forms and higher intelligence. By frost and fire, ice and water, storms and earthquakes, continents are formed, islands appear, mountains are raised, and valleys with rivers coursing along them, preparing and making ready the home for the man that is to be.. last he appears, and for ages more has to struggle with the elements by which he is surrounded before he can build himself a habitation, or lay the foundations of the great cities and mighty states with which he is to cover the face of the earth. We are taken to Nature's laboratory, and are witnesses of the chemical changes wrought in the elements with which she

At

works. "Never-hasting, never-resting," through eons added to eons, the building up of worlds goes on, and space is studded with habitations which in due time will be ready for the beginnings of life, and then through varied grades of being up to man, and it may be to even higher forms of existence than that which at present we know as the highest. Such is the marvellous record preserved for us in books. There we see the creation of worlds, as step by step has been revealed, and as step by step is still being revealed, the methods by which the Divine Will is made manifest to the student and investigator. And with this marvellous drama of creation, we see going on contemporaneously, the equally marvellous drama of destruction. Worlds- or rather orbs-still revolve through space which have fulfilled their destiny as the habitations of beings like ourselves, or of living things like those of which we have any knowledge. Our own world, our own glorious dwelling-place, with its vales of grace and beauty, its mountains of grandeur and glory, its rolling seas and babbling brooks, its bright green bosom

decorated with gems and jewels of infinite variety, and of every form of loveliness, sweetness, and beauty, its shady groves and impenetrable forests, its "brave, o'erhanging firmament," its "majestical roof fretted with golden fires," and all its wondrous forms of life, will pass away and be no more. With the seeds of life are everywhere mixed the seeds of death destruction waits upon the steps of creation, and

"Worlds on worlds are rolling ever,

From creation to decay;
Like the bubbles on a river,

Sparkling, bursting, borne away."

And it may be that long after man has disappeared from this part of creation which we call the earth, the story of his dwelling-place and of his doings thereon may still be preserved in his books.

Let us now turn from this high and lofty aspect in which books may be viewed, to their more individual and personal relations. "Books," said Charles Lamb, 66 are to me instead of friends." But books are friends, and what friends they are! Their love is deep and unchanging; their patience inexhaustible; their gentleness perennial; their forbearance unbounded; and their sympathy with