the fourteenth number Robert became a partner with his brother; and from that time the firm was known as W. and R. Chambers." In after years William noted as among the greatest pleasures of his life the receipt of letters indicating the advantages which had been received by the regular perusal of the Journal. Amongst others, the head-master of a large school near London wrote: "You sowed the seeds of my advancement forty years ago. In a village in Cambridgeshire there were five poor boys whose united wages amounted to seven and sixpence. One of them had given him off the stage-coach a Chambers' Journal. He read it and got four more to hear it read. I was one of them; and we agreed to take it weekly. But the difficulty was, how was it to be paid? for one shilling and sixpence a week would not afford literature. I was always presented with a halfpenny a week for the missionaries, and so were two others. The other two could not contribute; but as their share, they would walk seven miles to fetch it. For ten years we stuck together, and were able to do a great deal to educate ourselves. Now mark the result. I am the head-master of a large and important free school; another was till lately the head - master of Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School at Bristol; another became a clergyman; the fourth is now a retired builder; and the fifth is one of the largest sheep-farmers in New Zealand." Mr. William Chambers, in the jubilee year of the Journal, in speaking of its success, said that neither he nor his brother ever had a thought of transferring the publication to an outside publisher. The profits they made enabled them to carry on the undertaking without borrowing. The brothers had one invariable rulenever to give bills, and to pay for paper and everything else with ready money. The same rule was observed by the firm fifty years after its commencement. Another rule was, never to have anything to do with speculations outside of the legitimate business of the firm. "There in a few words," said Mr. William Chambers, "is the secret of the now large and prosperous concern of W. and R. Chambers." They were thus prevented from wasting time and thought in financial scheming, and could bestow without distraction all their attention upon their business. The brothers did not "play with Fortune, nor fritter away time with frivolities and personal indulgence." Young men of ambitious views," said Mr. William, "are apparently too much in the habit of treating their assigned work in the world as if it were a bit of passing amusement. It is, on the contrary, to be viewed as a matter of earnest and very serious concern." The Journal was only one of many publications which have made the names of W. and R. Chambers famous. "Information for the People," " Popular Library," "Miscellany of Useful and Entertaining Tracts," "Educational Course," "Book of Days," "Encyclopædia," "English Literature," and other works, demanding an army of workmen in their production, and which have been read wherever the English language is spoken, have made the names of William and Robert Chambers household words. As an indication of the success which the brothers Chambers achieved, it is only needful to say that William in 1849 purchased the estate of Glen-Ormiston, near Peebles; and that in 1859 he presented to the community of Peebles a large suite of buildings for purposes of social and intellectual improvement, comprising a hall for lectures, a public library of fifteen thousand volumes, a reading-room, and a museum and gallery of art, at a cost of £20,000. In 1865 he was elected Lord Provost of the city of Edinburgh, in which important position he used his influence to improve the sanitary condition of the city. In 1872, as a recognition of his important literary services and of his acknowledged acquirements, the University of Edinburgh conferred on him the degree of LL.D. . The moral of the life of the brothers William and Robert Chambers comes home to every young man who is just starting life. They have shown how, without fawning and flattery, it is possible to rise in the world; and that the means to do this is not chance or luck, but honest, resolute, hard work. They are distinguished examples of self-help; they have not only taught the philosophy of self-reliance, but shown by example the possibility of living cheerfully when surrounded by conditions of poverty, and not allowing immense success to spoil or destroy all that was noble and manly in their natures. While they had a proper interest in the commercial success of their various literary ventures, they had also a more important purpose-the production and circulation of healthy and instructive publications, by which the working-classes more especially might be provided with the means of culture, and inspired with the desire mentally and morally to improve their condition. Well do the lives of William and Robert Chambers confirm the poet's lines: "Man is his own star, and the soul that can XIV. The Companionship of Books. "A good book is the precious life-blood of a master-spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life."-MILTON. "Worthy books are not companions-they are solitudes; HE delights, the pleasures, the profitableness of life largely depend upon the choice and selection of companions. "Show me your associates and I will tell you what you are," has become an accepted maxim, of which continued experience proves the truth. There are few men who have not had, at some period of their lives, the opportunity of coming in contact with a very highly cultured man or woman, whose intellectual powers, great and brilliant as they may have been, were subordinated to a sweet and communicative disposition, which rendered their society a joy and a fascination. A day, an hour spent in such society, spreads an aroma over many subsequent days and hours, and, " like a thing of beauty," becomes "a joy for ever." The thought has often occurred, how much life would have been lengthened and its pleasures increased if the opportunity had been |