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my path. Let me tarry for a season, delight myself with their charms, and be borne on "flowery beds of ease." Others may labour, my spirit shrinks from the task; others have better abilities than I, let me watch their efforts; others respond to the call "Go, work in my vineyard," "I pray thee have me excused."

Occupy till I come,' " is the command of my Father, and I see I must not "sleep in enchanted bowers;" I have been an "unprofitable servant," and must redeem my time; working with my might before the darkness gathers, let my earnest cry be, "Lord what wilt Thou have me to do?"

"Occupy till I come." Again my spirit shrinks; sorrows have fallen upon me, clouds gathered over me, friends have been torn from my closest embrace, earth's bright visions all faded and deceived me; pain and suffering have wasted my frame, "the world is cold, and dark, and dreary." Let me go at once to the land of peace ; "hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest." There tears are wiped away, and mourning is ended; let me break these earthly fetters and enter into the blessedness of heaven. And a voice whispers, "Till I come, patiently endure, cheerfully toil; a long life is before thee, and rough is the way, but repine not nor murmur; the weary shall rest. If thine eye cannot pierce the gloom before thee, raise it above; if the tempest beats upon thine head, flee to the Rock of Ages;' persevere amid sorrow, disappointment, and woe! be faithful unto death,' and when I come I will give thee eternal life."

"Think not of rest; though dreams be sweet,

Start up and ply thy heavenward feet;

Never again thy loins untie,

Nor let thy torchlight faint nor die ;
Till, when the shadows thickest fall,

Thou hear'st thy Master's midnight call."

N

ECOMET.

WHAT THEN?

[THE following Latin lines were found written on the walls of Bologna, in Italy, some time ago. We will insert the best translation that reaches us.-ED.]

Si tibi pulchra domus, si splendida mensa;
Si species auri, argenti quoque massa;
Si tibi spousa decens, si sit generosa ;
Si tibi sunt nati, si praædia magna;
Si fueris pulcher, fortis, divesve;
Si doceas alios, in qualibet arte;
Si longa servorum, inserviat ordo;
Si faveat mundus, si prospera cuncta;
Si prior, aut abbas, si dux, si papa;
Si felix annos regnes per mille;
Si rota fortunæ te tollit ad astra;

Tam cito, tamque cito faciunt hæc, nihil inde:
Sola manet virtus, nos glorificabimur inde,
Ergo Deo pare, bene, nam tibi provenit inde.

quid inde?

quid inde?

quid inde?

quid inde?

quid inde?

quid inde?

quid inde?

quid inde?

quid inde?

quid inde?

quid inde?

CAN AND COULD.

ONCE upon a time, Could went out to take a walk on a winterly morning: he was very much out of spirits, and he was made more so by the necessity under which he found himself to be frequently repeating his own name. "Oh if I could," and "Oh that I were rich and great, for then I could do so and so."

About the tenth time that he said this, Can opened the door of her small house, and set out on an errand. She went down a back street and through a poor neighbourhood; she was not at all a grand personage, not nearly so well dressed, or lodged, or educated, as Could; and, in fact, was altogether more humble, both

in her own esteem and that of others. She opened her door and went down the street, neither sauntering nor looking about her, for she was in a hurry.

All on a sudden, however, this busy little Can stopped and picked up a piece of orange peel. "A dangerous trick," she observed, "to throw orange peel about, particularly in frosty weather, and in such a crowded thoroughfare;" and she bustled on till she overtook a tribe of little children who were scattering it very freely; they had been bargaining for oranges at an open fruit stall, and were eating them as they went along. "Well, it's little enough that I have in my power," thought Can, "but certainly I can speak to these children, and try to persuade them to leave off strewing orange peel."

Can stopped, "That's a pretty baby that you have got in your arms," she said to one of them, "how old is he?"

"He's fourteen months," answered the small nurse, "and he begins to walk; I teach him, he's my brother."

"Poor little fellow," said Can, "I hope you are kind to him; you know if you were to let him fall he might never be able to walk any more."

"I never let him drop," replied the child, "I always take care of my baby.'

up for

"And so do I;" And so do I;" repeated other shrill voices, and two more babies were thrust Can's inspection.

"But if you were to slip down yourselves on this hard pavement you would be hurt, and the baby would be hurt in your arms. Look! how can you be so careless as to throw all this peel about; don't you know how slippery it is ?"

"We always fling it away," said one.

"And I never slipped down but once on a piece," remarked another.

"But was not that once too often ?"

"Yes; I grazed my arm very badly, and broke a cup that I was carrying."

66

'Well, now, suppose you pick up all the peel you can find; and then go down the streets round about and see how much you can get; and to the one who finds most, when I come back, I shall give a penny."

So after making the children promise that they would never commit this fault again, Can went on; and it is a remarkable circumstance, that just at that very moment, as Could was walking in quite a different part of London, he also came to a piece of orange peel which was lying across his path.

"what

"What a shame," he said, as he passed on; a disgrace it is to the City authorities, that this practice of sowing seed, which springs up into broken bones, cannot be made a punishable offence; there is never a winter that one or more accident does not arise from it. If I could only put it down how glad I should be. If, for instance, I could offer a bribe to people to abstain from it; or if I could warn or punish; or if I could be placed in a position to legislate for the suppression of this and similar bad habits. But, alas! my wishes rise far above my powers; my philanthropic aspirations can find no

"By your leave," said a tall strong man, with a heavy coal sack on his shoulders.

his so

Could, stepping aside, permitted the coal porter to pass him. "Yes," he continued, taking up liloquy where it had been interrupted, "it is strange that so many anxious wishes for the welfare of his species should be implanted in the breast of a man, who has no means of gratifying them." The noise of a thundering fall, and the rushing down as of a great shower of stones, made Could turn hastily round. Several people were running together, they stooped over something on the ground, it was the porter; he had fallen on the pavement, and the coals lay in heaps about his head; some people were clearing them away,

others were trying to raise him. Could advanced and saw that the man was stunned, for he looked about him with a bewildered expression, and talked incoherently. Could also observed, that a piece of orange peel was adhering to the sole of his shoe.

"How sad," said Could; 66 now here is the bitter result of this abuse. If I had been in authority I could have prevented this; how it chafes the spirit to perceive, and be powerless. Poor fellow, he is evidently stunned, and has a broken limb-he is lamed, perhaps, for life. People are certainly very active and kind on these occasions: they seem preparing to take him to the hospital. Such an accident as this is enough to make a man wish he could be a king or a lawgiver; what the poet says may be true enough:

:

Of all the ills that human kind endure,

Small is that part which laws can cause or cure.

And yet I think I could have framed such a law, that this poor fellow might now have been going about his work, instead of being carried to languish for weeks on a sick bed, while his poor family are half starved, and must perhaps receive him at last a peevish, broken spirited cripple, a burden for life, instead of a support ; and all because of a pitiful piece of scattered orange peel!"

While Could was still moralizing thus he got into an omnibus, and soon found himself drawing near one of the suburbs of London, turning and winding among rows of new houses with heaps of bricks before them, and the smell of mortar in their neighbourhood; then among railway excavations and embankments, and at last among neat little villas and cottages standing in gardens, with here and there a field behind them. Presently they passed a large building, and Could read upon its front, "Temporary Home for Consumptive Patients." "An excellent institution," he thought

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