they have been confuted. This is not altogether to be explained by that spice of native vanity and obstinacy which lurks in the composition of the most ingenuous of us; but is to be accounted for by a law of the human mind in virtue of which a conviction is supported by the variety as well as by the force of the circumstances that lead to it. The logician has had very little to do with building up most of our well-defined views of men and things, and the mind unconsciously rebels against the authority of the arguer who professes to destroy what argument did not create. Of the pertinacity of many persons who make the mistake of thinking they are open to conviction there is of course a more vulgar explanation. But whatever be the reason of the thing, the fact is certain, that to be "open to conviction," in the sense in which people ordinarily use that expression, is to be possessed of a very rare virtue. I have a great respect for a man who possesses the virtue it not only shows a frankness and a modesty that delightfully contrast with the dogmatic impudence one sees so much of in

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these days of penny politics, but it is an evidence that the man has cultivated the logical faculty-to have done which it is not necessary that he should have fitted himself to be popularly called a scholar.

OUTSIDE AND INSIDE.

Every man who is not better than he seems is a hypocrite. No man leads a life the minute incidents of which are altogether blameless in his own eyes. An argument full of ineffable conceit, or idly adopted without consideration of its meaning, is sometimes put forth by religious doubters. They say, 'I do the best I can, I live according to the dictates of my own conscience; articles of faith are nothing to me, I am true to myself that is enough.' One might say to such a reasoner, 'Friend, you enjoy Heaven already—that is enough, truly.' But no such Heaven upon Earth was ever found. The best men and women who ever lived did not attain the supreme felicity of completely satisfying their own consciences. Their solemn convictions, their untold thoughts in comment on them

selves and on the world, are more worthy, more holy, more noble, at least less sophisticated, than their words and their acts, even when they are not deliberately purposing to do evil. The outside is the worst side of every honest character.

SUCCESS.

Success, like charity, covereth a multitude of sins; but all the mercenary maxims of the world are not together worth so much in helping forward in life happily him who is determined to win as "Do as you would be done by."

PERSEVERANCE.

Nothing gives a man more confidence in himself than the habit of perseverance. There is a good deal of self-confidence which has no other foundation than vanity, and there is a good deal which is merely the hopefulness that arises from elasticity of mind; but in each of these cases the individual is always liable to be taken aback by a sudden change of the wind. The habit of perseverance, how

ever, furnishes a man with an experience which is a shield against the terror of many mishaps.

A TORTUOUS COURSE.

The voyage of life is not a clear course through the open sea that a steamer might take without tack or bend from port to port: it includes some intricate navigation amongst islands and shoals, the doubling of capes and the threading of channels. The shipmaster should have nerve and knowledge and true charts, and, with all those requisites, much of the prosperity of the passage depends on wind and weather. It is wonderful how greatly the total happiness of a lifetime might be increased by a different disposition of the events of its history. Take all the pleasurable and all the painful circumstances of a person's life, and by arranging them in a new order you may convert a life of general disappointment into one of tolerable enjoyment, or one of the average kind into one supremely blest. This is an interesting point in the analogy between life and a voyage:

all winds are fair if they blow at the right time. But how seldom they do blow just when they would be most useful! how seldom we achieve success just when we most earnestly desire it! how seldom a pleasure comes to us when we should best appreciate it! Nay, does it ever happen that a great good comes to us the moment the wish for it is strongest ? Commonly the good we long for most and strive for hardest and ultimately acquire does not reach us till we have learnt to think comparatively lightly of it. The keen edge of the cook's appetite is lost when the meal is ready. I always pity men of one leading idea, the whole and sole object of life, for I am sure beforehand that in the long run they must be more disappointed than ordinary folks they give up a good deal of present enjoyment for something in prospect which is sure to lose more than half its charm before they can grasp it. The disappointed fox was not such a contemptible philosopher after all. I think it quite possible that when he found he could not reach the grapes he really did not value them so much as at first;-and,