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It makes no difference, in looking back five years, how you have been dieted or dressed; whether you have been lodged on the first floor or the attic; whether you have had gardens and baths, good cattle and horses, have been carried in a neat equipage or in a ridiculous truck these things are forgotten so quickly, and leave no effect. But it counts much whether we have had good companions in that time-almost as much as what we have been doing. It is certain that there is a great deal of good in us that does not know itself, and that a habit of union and competition brings people up and keeps them up to their highest point; that life would be twice or ten times life if spent with wise and fruitful companions." Few thoughtful men but have experienced and realized the promptings to higher thoughts and to a better life by the discourse of a gifted preacher or lecturer! What an influence such a man would have if he were always in our company! Not only would our language be improved, no unimportant matter,- but the world would assume new aspects, life would become more real, and we should become more earnest.

But this is not the highest service of friendship. In the dull and dark days of life, when sorrows encompass us and trials disturb and torment, the true friend, with sympathetic solacement, divides our cares and carries half our burdens. Lord Bacon said: "A principal fruit of friendship is the ease and discharge of the fulness of the heart, which passions of all kinds do cause and induce. We know diseases of stoppings and

suffocations are the most dangerous in the body; and it is not much otherwise in the mind. You may take sarza to open the liver, steel to open the spleen, flower of sulphur for the lungs, castoreum for the brain; but no receipt openeth the heart but a true friend, to whom you may impart griefs, joys, fears. hopes, suspicions, counsels, and whatsoever lieth upon the heart to oppress it, in a kind of civil shrift or confession." Not less truthfully does this master of wisdom say: "Communicating of a man's self to his friend works two contrary effects, for it redoubleth joys and cutteth griefs in halves; for there is no man that imparteth his joys to his friend but he joyeth the more, and no man that imparteth his griefs to his friend but he grieveth the less. So that it is, in truth, of operation upon a man's mind of like virtue as the alchemists used to attribute to their stone for man's body-that it worketh all contrary effects, but still to the good and benefit of nature. But yet, without praying in aid of alchemists, there is a manifest image of this in the ordinary course of nature: for, in bodies, union strengtheneth and cherisheth any natural action, and, on the other side, weakeneth and dulleth any violent impression; and even so is it of minds."

"Friendship is power and riches all to me;
Friendship's another element of life.
Water and fire not of more general use
To the support and comfort of the world
Than friendship to the being of my joy.
I would do everything to serve a friend."

But it may so happen that congenial friendships cannot be formed, and all the delightful communion and

intercourse which is the characteristic of true companionship cannot be obtained. There then remains the companionship of the thoughts; and if these are rightly cultivated, rightly tended and matured, their owner can truthfully say: "My mind a kingdom is." In that kingdom a wise man will disport himself, finding in his cultured thoughts the satisfactions and enjoyments which make life full of peaceful contentment. To wisely govern the thoughts, it is needful that there should be purpose and intention-a subject upon which the mind is fixed-to acquire knowledge or to solve a problem; so that in the spare hours and moments, which all men have, the mind may be fully occupied. It has been said, with some degree of truth, that life is only endurable and enjoyable in proportion as it is active and busy. This is eminently true of the mind. If it is permitted to be vacant, empty, and unused, a most important part of life's duty is neglected, and one of life's greatest enjoyments missed. It is evident from the slightest reflection that there is a voluntary power by which the mind can be controlled and directed; and it is also not less evident that when the power is not exerted, when the mind is relinquished to itself, to any external impression or casual association, it becomes profitless and frivolous. Its culture and wise direction are not less a duty than any outward obligation; and when it is so trained the result will be the satisfaction which ever follows the conscientious discharge of the commands. laid upon rational and immortal beings. The knowledge attained during life, so enjoyable in its pursuit, and the (744)

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source of so much satisfaction when possessed, we may well believe we shall carry with us into another sphere of existence. Southey says: “Affections well placed and dutifully cherished; friendships happily formed and faithfully maintained; knowledge acquired with worthy intent; and intellectual powers that have been diligently improved, are the talents which our Lord and Master has committed to our keeping;-these will accompany us into another state of existence as surely as the soul in that state retains its identity. and its consciousness."

The companionship of husband and wife is fraught with blessings or wretchedness; it may be the source of untold joys or of great misery. Upon the proper selection of a wife, in harmony with the tastes, employments, and pursuits of her husband, social home-happiness depends. It has been said that marriage is insipid, or vexatious, or a happy condition. The first condition is caused by two persons being joined together who have no mutual genius or taste, but who marry at the suggestion of friends because the marriage may be what is called "convenient." The vexatious life is induced by the marriage of two persons of quick temper and resentment, and who pass their days in mutual recrimination. The happy marriage results from the union of two persons who make choice of each other without special regard to fortune or beauty, and who will the more tenderly love each other when visited by adversity or sickness.

"I know the sum of all that makes a man-a just man-happy,
Consists in the well choosing of his wife;

And then well to discharge it, does require
Equality of years, of birth, of fortune:
For beauty being poor, and not cried up

By birth or wealth, can truly mix with neither."

This happy choosing of a wife-the selection of a life-long companion-has its results in harmony and happiness. "The privilege of living and associating with a person who knows how to think, and is not afraid to think, is inestimable; and nowhere is it felt more profoundly than in the intimate companionship of wedded life." In ordinary companionship, in the interchange of friendship, there is always mutual forbearance in the reception and expression of opinion. Unless a similar course is adopted by life-long companions, not only is the charm of union and communion lost, but it will be replaced by vexatious opposition, which will do much to destroy the charm and aroma of married life. Frederika Bremer said wisely: "Many a marriage has commenced, like the morning, red, and perished like a mushroom. Wherefore? Because the married pair neglected to be as agreeable to each other after their union as they were before it."

"When souls that should agree to will the same,
To have one common object for their wishes,
Look different ways, regardless of each other,
Think what a train of wretchedness ensues!"

It is quite true that all home happiness and sweet companionship in married life is made or marred by the wife. She is the arbiter and controller of her husband's happiness just as she wills is her home the abode of joy and peace-the haven where her husband finds rest