tress, tolerated by your lady. You have a wife for yourself, a mistress for your house and its friends, a lady for the world. Your wife will agree with you, your mistress will accommodate you, your lady will manage you. Your wife will take care of your household, your mistress of your house, your lady of appearances. If you are sick, your wife will nurse you, your mistress will visit you, your lady will inquire after your health. You take a walk with your wife, a ride with your mistress, and join parties with your lady. Your wife will share your grief, your mistress your money, and your lady your debts. If you are dead, your wife will shed tears, your mistress lament, and your lady wear mourning.-From the German.

MY MOTHER.

That was a thrilling scene in the old chivalric time-the wine circling around the board, and the banquet-hall ringing with sentiment and song-when, the lady of each knightly heart having been pledged by name, St. Leon arose in his turn, and, lifting the sparkling cup on high, said,—

"I drink to one

Whose image never may depart,
Deep graven on this grateful heart,

Till memory is dead;

To one whose love for me shall last
When lighter passions long have passed,
So holy 'tis, and true;

To one whose love hath longer dwelt,
More deeply fixed, more keenly felt,

Than any pledge to you."

Each guest upstarted at the word,
And laid his hand upon his sword,

With fury-flashing eye;

And Stanley said, "We crave the name,
Proud knight, of this most peerless dame,
Whose love you count so high."

St. Leon paused, as if he would

Not breathe her name in careless mood

Thus lightly to another,

Then bent his noble head, as though
To give that word the reverence due,
And gently said, "MY MOTHER!"

LETTER TO A BRIDE.

The following letter was written by an old friend to a young lady on the eve of her wedding day :—

I have sent you a few flowers to adorn the dying moments of your single life. They are the gentlest types of delicate and durable friendship. They spring up by our side when others have deserted it; and they will be found watching over our graves when those who should cherish have forgotten us. It seems that a past, so calm and pure as yours, should expire with a kindred sweetness about it, that flowers and music, kind friends and earnest words, should consecrate the hour when a sentiment is passing into a sacrament.

The three great stages of our being are the birth, the bridal, and the burial. To the first we bring only weakness-for the last we have nothing but dust! But here at the altar, when life joins life, the pair come throbbing up to the holy man, whispering the deep promise that arms each other's heart, to help on in the life-struggle of care and duty. The beautiful will be there, borrowing new beauty from the scene. The gay and thoughtless, with their flounces and frivolities, will look solemn for once. Youth will come to gaze upon the object of its secret yearnings; and age will totter up to hear the words repeated that to their own lives had given the charm. Some will weep over it as if it were a tomb, and some laugh over it as if it were a joke; but two must stand by it, for it is fate, not fun, this everlasting locking of their lives.

And now, can you, who have queened it over so many bending forms, can you come down at last to the frugal diet of a single heart? Hitherto you have been. a clock, giving your time to all the world. Now you are a watch, buried in one particular bosom, warming only his breast, marking only his hours, and ticking only to the beat of his heart-where time and feeling shall be in unison, until those lower ties are lost in that higher wedlock, where all hearts are united.

Hoping that calm and sunshine may hallow your clasped hands, I sink silently into a signature.

***

Moslem Wisdom.

SHREWD DECISION OF ALI, CALIPH OF BAGDAD.

IN the Preliminary Dissertation to Dr. Richardson's Arabic Dictionary the following curious anecdote is recorded :—

Two Arabians sat down to dinner: one had five loaves, the other three. A stranger passing by desired permission to eat with them, which they agreed to. The stranger dined, laid down eight pieces of money, and departed. The proprietor of the five loaves took up five pieces and left three for the other, who objected, and insisted on having one-half. The cause came before Ali, who gave the following judgment :-"Let the owner of the five loaves have seven pieces of money, and the owner of the three loaves one; for, if we divide the eight loaves by three, they make twenty-four parts; of which he who laid down the five loaves had fifteen, while he who laid down three had only nine. As all fared alike, and eight shares was each man's proportion, the stranger ate seven parts of the first man's property, and only one belonging to the other. The money, in justice, must be divided accordingly."

THE WISDOM OF ALI.

The Prophet once, sitting in calm debate,
Said, "I am Wisdom's fortress; but the gate
Thereof is Ali." Wherefore, some who heard,
With unbelieving jealousy were stirred;
And, that they might on him confusion bring,
Ten of the boldest joined to prove the thing.
"Let us in turn to Ali go," they said,
"And ask if Wisdom should be sought instead
Of earthly riches; then, if he reply

To each of us, in thought, accordantly,
And yet to none in speech or phrase the same,
His shall the honor be, and ours the shame."
Now, when the first his bold demand did make,
These were the words which Ali straightway spake:-

"Wisdom is the inheritance of those

Whom Allah favors; riches, of his foes."
Unto the second he said: "Thyself must be
Guard to thy riches; but Wisdom guardeth thee."
Unto the third:-" By Wisdom wealth is won;
But riches purchased Wisdom yet for none."
Unto the fourth :-"" Thy goods the thief may take;
But into Wisdom's house he cannot break."
Unto the fifth:-"Thy goods decrease the more
Thou givest; but woe enlarges Wisdom's store."
Unto the sixth :-"Wealth tempts to evil ways;
But the desire of Wisdom is God's praise."
Unto the seventh :-" Divide thy wealth, each part
Becomes a pittance. Give with open heart
Thy wisdom, and each separate gift shall be
All that thou hast, yet not impoverish thee."
Unto the eighth :-"Wealth cannot keep itself;
But Wisdom is the steward even of pelf."
Unto the ninth :-"The camels slowly bring
Thy goods; but Wisdom has the swallow's wing."
And lastly, when the tenth did question make,
These were the ready words which Ali spake:-
"Wealth is a darkness which the soul should fear;

But Wisdom is the lamp that makes it clear."

Crimson with shame, the questioners withdrew,

And they declared, "The Prophet's words were true:

The mouth of Ali is the golden door

Of Wisdom."

When his friends to Ali bore

These words, he smiled, and said, "And should they ask

The same until my dying day, the task

Were easy; for the stream from Wisdom's well,

Which God supplies, is inexhaustible."

MOHAMMEDAN LOGIC.

The laws of Cos discountenance in a very singular manner any cruelty on the part of females towards their admirers. An instance occurred while Dr. Clarke and his companions were on the island, in which the unhappy termination of a love-affair occasioned a trial for what the Mohammedan lawyers casuistically describe as "homicide by an intermediate cause." The following was the case: a young man desperately in love with a girl of Stanchis eagerly sought to marry her, but his propo

sals were rejected. In consequence, he destroyed himself by poison. The Turkish police arrested the father of the obdurate fair, and tried him for culpable homicide. "If the accused," argued they, with much gravity, "had not had a daughter, the deceased would not have fallen in love; consequently he would not have been disappointed; consequently he would not have swallowed poison; consequently he would not have died;—but the accused had a daughter, the deceased had fallen in love," &c. Upon all these counts he was called upon to pay the price of the young man's life; and this, being fixed at the sum of eighty piastres, was accordingly exacted.

THE ALEXANDRIAN LIBRARY.

Said Omar, "Either these books are in conformity with the Koran, or they are not. If they are, they are useless, and if not, they are evil: in either event, therefore, let them be destroyed."

Such was the logic that led to the destruction of seven hundred thousand manuscript volumes.

TURKISH EXPEDIENTS.

A Turkish testator left to his eldest son one-half of his seventeen horses, to his second son one-third, to his third son one-ninth of his horses. The executor did not know what to do, as seventeen will neither divide by two, nor by three, nor by nine. A dervise came up on horseback, and the executor consulted him. The dervise said, "Take my horse, and add him to the others." There were then eighteen horses. The executor then gave to the eldest son one-half,-nine; to the second sou one-third,-six; to the third son one-ninth,-two: total, seventeen. The dervise then said, "You don't want my horse now; I will take him back again.”