8. Hume's sophistry' on the subject of miracles' was, if possible, more perfectly answered than it had already been by Campbell. And in the whole lecture there was so much simplicity and force, pathos and energy, that not another word was uttered. An attempt to describe it, said the traveler, would be an attempt to paint the sunbeams.

9. It was now matter of curiosity and inqui'ry, who the old gentleman was. The traveler concluded that it was the preacher from whom the pulpit eloquence was heard; but no—it was the CHIEF-JUSTICE OF THE UNITED STATES.

"H

EAVEN lies about us in our infancy," says Wordsworth.' And who of us, that is not too good to be conscious of his own vices, has not felt rebuked and humbled under the clear and open countenance of a child?—who that has not felt his impurities foul upon him in the presence of a sinless child?

2. These feelings make the best lesson that can be taught a man; and tell him in a way, which all else he has read or heard never could, how paltry is all the show of intellect compared with a pure and good heart. He that will humble himself and go to a child for instruction, will come away a wiser man.

3. If children can make us viser, they surely can make us better. There is no one more to be envied than a good-natured man watching the workings of children's minds, or overlooking

1 Hume, David Hume, a distinguished historian and philosopher of Great Britain, was born at Edinburgh, Scotland, April 26th, 1711. Though a confirmed skeptic, his private character was excellent, and his death, which occurred in August, 1776, peaceful.

'Soph' ist ry, false reasoning. 'Mir' a cles, wonders or wonder. ful things; events or acts beyond, or contrary to, the laws of nature.

William Wordsworth, (wêrdz. wêrth), the distinguished English poet, born April 7th, 1770, and died April 23d, 1850.

their play. Their eagerness, curious about every thing, making out by a quick imagination' what they see but a part of-their fanciful combinations and magic' inventions, creating out of ordinary circumstances and the common things which surround them strange events and little ideal' worlds, and these all working in mystery to form matured thought, are study enough for the most acute' minds, and should teach us, also, not too officiously to regulate what we so little understand.

4. The still musing and deep abstraction,' in which they sometimes sit, affect us as a playful mockery of older heads, These little philosophers' have no foolish system, with all its pride and jargon,' confusing their brains. Theirs is the natural movement of the soul, intense with new life and busy after truth, working to some purpose, though without a noise.

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5. When children are lying about seemingly idle and dull, we, who have become case-hardened by time and satiety, forget that they are all sensation, that their outstretched bodies are drinking in from the common sun and air, that every sound is taken note of by the ear, that every floating shadow and passing form come and touch at the sleepy eye, and that the little circumstances and the material world about them make their best school, and will be the instructors and formers of their characters for life.

6. And it is delightful to look on and see how busily the whōle acts, with its countless parts fitted to each other, and moving in harmony.' There are none of us who have stolen softly behind a child when laboring in a sunny corner digging

1 Im ǎg`i na'tion, the image-making power; the power to create or form again an object of sense before noticed or seen.

2 Măgic, pertaining to the hid den wisdom supposed to be possessed by the Magi, or "wise men from the East" who brought gifts to the infant Jesus; seemingly requiring more than human power.

'I de' al, living only in fancy or imagination; imaginary.

Jargon, (jår'gon), senseless noise; confused talk.

Sa ti'e ty, excess of gratification, which excites loathing; fullness beyond desire.

'Har mo ny, agreement; just A csharp at the end; keen: adaptation of parts where all fit 815777,

together.

a liliputian' well, or fencing in a six-inch barn-yard, and listened to his soliloquies and his dialogues with some imaginary being, without our hearts being touched by it. Nor have we observed the flush which crossed his face when finding himself betrayed, without seeing in it the delicacy and propriety of the after man.

7. A man may have many vices upon him, and have walked long in a bad course, yet if he has a love of children, and can take pleasure in their talk and play, there is something still left in him to act upon-something which can love simplicity and truth.

8. I have seen one, in whom some low vice had become a habit, make himself the plaything of a set of riotous children with as much delight in his countenance as if nothing but goodnèss had ever been expressed in it; and have felt as much of kindness and sympathy toward him as I have of revolting toward another, who has gone through life with all due propriety, with a cold and supercilious bearing toward children, which makes them shrinking and still.

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9. I have known one like the latter attempt, with uncouth condescension, to court an open-hearted child, who would draw back with an instinctive aversion; and I have felt as if there were a curse upon him. Better to be driven out from among men than to be disliked by children. R. H. DANA.

II.

31. SCENES OF CHILDHOOD.

5

LONG years had elapsed since I gazed on the scene,

Which my fancy' still rōbed in its freshness of green-
The spot where, a school-boy, all thoughtless, I stray'd,
By the side of the stream, in the gloom of the shade.

'Lil'i pu'tian, diminutive; small. DEAN SWIFT wrote a work called "Gulliver's Travels," with the design of bringing into ridicule the extravagant stories of travelers, in which he describes the island of Liliput, whose inhabitants were only a few inches high. Hence the word Liliputian.

"Sol lil' o quy, a talking to one's self, when alone or in company.

Sym' pa thy, kindness of feel. ing toward sufferers; fellow-feeling. 'Su`per cil' i oŭs, everbearing; haughty; proud.

'E lapsed, slided. slipped, or glided by; passed away silently.

"Făn' cy, a picture of any thing formed in the mind; that power by which the mind forms an image or picture of something.

2. I thought of the friends who had roam'd with me there,
When the sky was so blue, and the flowers were so fair—
All scatter'd!-all sunder'd' by mountain and wave,
And some in the silent embrace of the grave!

3. I thought of the green banks, that circled around,
With wild-flowers, and sweet-brier, and ĕglantine' crown'd
I thought of the river, all quiet and bright

As the face of the sky on a blue summer night.

4. And I thought of the trees, under which we had stray'd,
Of the broad leafy boughs, with their coolness of shade;
And I hoped, though disfigured, some token to find
Of the names and the carvings impress'd on the rind.

5. All eager, I hasten'd the scene to behold,

Render'd sacred and dear by the feelings of old;
And I deem'd that, unalter'd, my eye should explore
This refuge, this haunt, this Elysium of yōre.

6. 'Twas ǎ dream!--not a token or trace could I view
Of the names that I loved, of the trees that I knew:
Like the shadows of night at the dawning of day,
"Like a tale that is told," they had vanish'd ǎway.

7. And methought the lone river, that murmur'd ălong,
Was more dull in its motion, more sad in its song,
Since the birds that had nestled and warbled above,
Had all fled from its banks, at the fall of the grove.

8. I paused; and the moral came home to my heart:
Behold how of earth all the glōries depart!
Our visions are baselèss; our hopes but a gleam;
Our staff but a reed; and our life but a dream.

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9. Then, oh, let us look-let our prospects allure'—
To scenes that can fade not, to realms that endure,
To glories, to blessings, that triumph sublime
O'er the blightings of change, and the ruins of time.

IN

III.

82. THE DEFORMED CHILD.

PART FIRST.

N my school-boy days, there lived an agèd widów near the church-yard. She had an only child. I have often1 observed that the delicate and the weak receive more than a common share of affection from a mother. Such a feeling was shown by this widow toward her sickly and unshapely boy.

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2. There are faces and forms which, once seen, are impressed upon our brain; and they will come, again and again, upon the tablet of our memory, in the quiet of night, and even flit ǎround us in our daily walks. Many years have gone by since I first saw this boy; and his delicate form, and quiet manner, and his gentle and virtuous conduct, are often before me.

3. I shall never forget,-in the saucinèss of youth, and fancying it would give importance to my bluff' outside,―swearing in his presence. The boy was sitting in a high-backed easy-chair, reading his Bible. He turned round, as if a signal for dying had sounded in his ear, and fixed upon me his clear, gray eye: that look! it made my little heart almost choke me.

4. I gave some foolish excuse for getting out of the cottage ; and, as I met a playmate on the road, who jeered' me for my blank' countenance, I rushed past him, hid myself in an adjoining corn-field, and cried bitterly.

5. I tried to conciliate the widow's son, and show my sorrow for having so far forgotten the innocence of boyhood, as to have my Maker's name sounded in an unhållowed' manner from my lips. My spring flowers he accepted; but, when my back was turned, he flung them away. The toys and books I offered to him were put aside for his Bible.