been made; that care should entirely possess his mind while living; that Tellus, or the earth, should receive his body when dead; and that Jupiter should dispose of his celestial essence according to his discretion. Thus was man made the property of care from his original formation; and discontent, the offspring of care, has ever since been his inseparable companion.

-BURTON.

THE HUSBAND AND WIFE, AND THE
BAD BRIDGE.

One pleasant morning one man and his wife started out to pay a visit to a friend, whose house was some miles distant from their own. They had not gone far before the woman remembered a bridge they had to cross which was very old and was said to be unsafe, and she began to worry about it. "What shall we do about that bridge?" she said to her husband. "I shall never dare to go over it, and we can't cross the river any other way. "Oh," said the man, "I forgot that bridge; it is a bad place. Suppose it should break through? We should be drowned!"" Or suppose you should step on a rotten plank and break your leg, what would become of me and the baby?" "I don't know," said the man, "what would become of any of us, for I could not work, and we should all starve to death." So they went on, worrying and worrying, till they got to the bridge, when, lo and behold, they saw that since they had been there last, a new bridge had been built, and they crossed over it in safety, and found they might as well have saved themselves all their anxiety.

OH LOOK NOT FOR TROUBLE.

Oh look not for trouble

That never may come,
Weave not a gloom curtain
To darken your home;
Nor draw from the future
Dread phantoms of woe,

To blight every season
Of comfort below.

Start never in despair
At a fear that may rise,

Nor let the heart leap

With its troublous cries"It cometh! it cometh! The shadow afar,

It cometh! it cometh!

And hideth Hope's star."

List not for a moment,

But turn from the voice, And seek for a joy

That shall bid you rejoice, You surely will find

In the present a light, To guide still your steps

In the pathway of right.

What is, let us bear

With the courage of Hope, Nor seek with the ills,

Of the future to cope; To-day with its burden Alone will we strive,

To-morrow perchance

We in comfort may thrive.

When blindly we grope

Thro' the mist from afar
And borrow care's pictures,
Joy's pathway to bar;
We are bearing a burden,
'Tis folly to share,
And in pity, the heart

Should such vain torture spare.

Sufficient to bear

Is the evil to-day ; O'ercome it we shall

With a spirit still gay. And looking above

For new strength for the strife,

In triumph we will walk

Through the pathway of life.

18. CHARACTER.

Money is not needful; power is not needful; cleverness is not needful; fame is not needful; liberty is not needful; even health is not the one thing needful, but character alone-a thoroughly cultivated will—is that which can truly save us, and if we are not saved in this sense, we must certainly be damned.

-PROF. BLACKIE.

The crown and glory of life is character. It is the noblest possession of a man, constituting a rank in itself, and an estate in the general good-will: dignifying every station, and exalting every position in society. It exercises a greater power than wealth, secures all the honour without the jealousies of fame. It carries with it an influence, which always tells; for it is the result of proved honour, rectitude and consistency-qualities, which, perhaps, more than any other, command the general confidence and respect of mankind.

-SMILES.

It is not wealth, not position nor culture, so much as character which wins. Strangely enough, those that seek the former to the neglect of the latter pay homage to character. There is that in good moral character that commands respect. Wealth and position and even culture, unattended by virtue, may excite contempt, while character, poor, untitled, ignorant attracts esteem.

I take individual character to be the highest embodiment of the human being the noblest heraldry of man. It is that which dignifies him, which elevates him in the scale of manhood, which forms the conscience of society, and creates and forms its best motive power. -SMILES.

Character depends, for the most part, on the possession of fixed principles firmly grasped and consistently pursued; of personal integrity and trustworthiness; of moderation in tone, temper, life, action, and transaction; of cautious and diligent attention to the duties of a station; of care in the selection of associates, and in the forming of intimacies; and of the upholding of a fearlessly consistent mode of life in daily habit and public conference. Character can rarely be put on as a varnish of life; it ought to be the very result of the growth and manifestations of the life within working towards the outward and observable.

-SAMUEL NEIL.

Actions, looks, words, steps form the alphabet by which you may spell characters.

-DR. H. HUNTER.

One trait of my character is thorough seriousness. I am indifferent about nothing that I undertake. In fact, if I undertake to do a thing, I cannot be indifferent.

-SIR ALEXANDER BURNES.

The highest of characters, in my estimation, is his who is as ready to pardon the moral errors of mankind, as if he were every day guilty of some himself: and at the same time as cautious of committing a fault, as if