ANECDOTES AND SELECTIONS. Throb on, strong pulse of thunder! beat And melt the chains of each! · Wild terror of the sky above, Weave on, swift shuttle of the Lord, The bridal robe of earth's accord, For lo! the fall of Ocean's wall! The poles unite, the zones agree, The tongues of striving cease; As on the Sea of Galilee The Christ is whispering, Peace! Anecdotes and Selections. EYE-SIGHT.-Milton's blindness was the result of over-work and dyspepsia. One of the most eminent American divines has for some time been compelled to forego the pleasure of reading, has spent thousands of dollars in vain, and lost years of time, in consequence of getting up several hours before day and studying by artificial light. His eyes will never get well. Multitudes of men and women have made their eyes weak for life by the too free use of the eye-sight in reading small print and doing fine sewing. In view of these things it │ is well to observe the following rules in the use of the eyes:-Avoid all sudden changes between light and darkness. Never begin to read, or write, or sew, for several minutes after coming from darkness to a bright light. Never read by twilight, or moonlight, or on a very cloudy day. Never read or sew directly in front of the light, or window, or door. It is better to have the light fall from above, obliquely over the left shoulder. Never sleep so that on first awaking the eyes shall open on the light of a window. Do not use the eyesight by light so scant that it requires an effort to discriminate. Too much light creates a glare, and pains and confuses the sight. The moment you are sensible of an effort to distinguish, that moment cease and take a walk or ride. As the sky is blue, and the earth green, it ANECDOTES AND SELECTIONS. would seem that the ceiling should be of a bluish tinge, and the carpet green, and the walls of some mellow tint. The moment you are instinctively prompted to rub the eyes, that moment cease using them. If the eyelids are glued together on waking up, do not forcibly open them, but apply the saliva with the finger-it is the speediest dilutent in the world; then wash the eyes and face in warm water.-Hall's Journal of Health. ROMAN CATHOLICISM.-The Rev. N. C. Burt, writing home from Rome, speaks thus of the attendance at the Catholic churches:"There seems to be very little reverence given here to the God of our salvation; but to the bones of saints, to the wood of the 'true cross,' to the handkerchief with which the brow of Christ was wiped, to the hole in the ground where was fixed the cross on which Peter suffered, to images and pictures of the Virgin, &c., abundant homage is given. In this capital of the Roman Catholic religion, this home of the Popes, with three hundred and eighty churches, the mass of the people, beyond question, are ignorant of the first principles of the Gospel, and are as truly heathen as were the Romans in the days of Augustus Cæsar. As to the ordinary week-day services, even in St. Peter's, they fail to secure the attendance of any but the performers. Vespers have been celebrated twice when I have been present-once with the music of organ and choir. And these only drew aside from sightseeing, for a moment, two or three French soldiers, and as many other visitors. In one church after another, which I have entered, at the hour of evening service, I would find the staff of priests all by themselves, howling away as if leading the devotions of a thousand people. It is a rare thing to see any one at the numerous confessionals. In all, I have seen probably six or eight women-never once a man. On the Sabbath, when I saw the Pope at St. Peter's-said to be the anniversary of the dedication of the church, and the services attended with the exhibition of some precious relics-there were only about three hundred persons present, of whom about one hundred were ecclesiastics and guards, one hundred strangers, and one hundred Romans." MUSIC A STIMULANT TO MENTAL EXERTION.-Alfieri often, before he wrote, prepared his mind by listening to music: "Almost all my tragedies were sketched in my mind either in the act of hearing music or a few hours after"-a circumstance which has been recorded of many others. Lord Bacon had music played in the room adjoining his study; Milton listened to his organ for his solemn inspirations; and music was even necessary to Warburton. The symphonies which awoke in the poet sublime emotions might have composed the inventive mind of the great critic in the visions of his theoretical mysteries. A celebrated French preacher, Bourdaloue or Massillon, was once found playing on a violin, to screw his mind up to the pitch, preparatory to his sermon, which, within a short interval, he was to preach before the court. Curran's favourite mode of meditation was with his THE FIRESIDE. violin in his hand; for hours together he would forget himself, running voluntaries over the strings, while his imagination, in collecting its tones, was opening all his faculties for the coming emergency at the bar.-Disraeli on the Literary Character. SELF-EXAMINATION.-Do you love God, and have you shown it by obeying His will? Do you love Jesus; is He your teacher and guide? Are you daily endeavouring to be mild, gentle, humble, and resigned like him? Do you love the worship of God's house, and the company of those who are truly desirous to be Christians? Are you prayerful, humble, ready to do good, and willing to communicate? Are you striving to be better, daily endeavouring to overcome your temper, your pride, and your worldly desires? If you can answer in the affirmative, then you have great cause for gratitude, and should still look to Him who alone can enable you to continué faithful to the end. -Fred. T. Gray. PRAYER.-Prayer draws all the Christian graces into its focus. It draws Charity, with her lovely train; Repentance, with her holy sorrows; Faith, with her elevated eyes; Hope, with her grasped anchor; Beneficence, with her open hands; Zeal, looking far and wide to bless; and Humility, looking at home-Hannah More. The Fireside. FAULT-FINDING. CHILDREN are more hurt by indiscriminate, thoughtless fault-finding than by any other one thing. Often a child has all the sensitiveness and all the susceptibility of a grown person, added to the faults of childhood. Nothing about him is right yet; he is immature and faulty at all points, and everybody feele at perfect liberty to criticise him from right to left, above and below, till he takes refuge in callous hardness, or irritable moroseness. A bright, noisy boy rushes in from school, eager to tell his mother something he has on his heart, and Number One cries out-"O, you've left the door open! I do wish you wouldn't always leave the door open! And do look at the mud on your shoes! How many times must I tell you to wipe your feet?" Now, there, you have thrown your cap on the sofa again. When will you learn to hang it up?" "Don't put your slate there; that isn't the place for it." How dirty your hands are! what have you been doing?" "Don't sit on that chair; you'll break the springs, bouncin'." Mercy! how your hair looks! Do you go upstairs and comb it." "There! if you haven't torn the braid THE PENNY POST BOX. off your coat! Dear me, what a boy!" "Don't speak so loud; your voice goes through my head." "I want to know, Jim, if it was you that broke up that barrel that I have been saving for brown flour?" "I believe it was you, Jim, that hacked the side of my razor." "Jim's been writing at my desk, and blotted three sheets of the best paper." Now the question is-if any of the grown people of the family had to run the gauntlet of a string of criticisms on themselves, equally true as those that salute the unlucky Jim, would they be any betternatured about it than he is? No: but they are grown-up people; they have rights that others are bound to respect. Everybody cannot tell them exactly what he thinks about everything they do. If every one did, would there not be terrible revelations ?-Mrs. Stowe. The Penny Post Box. CONQUERING THE DEVIL. ONE night at a late hour, Dr. Bentley was disturbed at his studies by a rattling sound among some wood, which, sawed and split, had been left by the teamster the afternoon previous, too late to be properly housed. He arose, went cautiously to the window, and saw a woman filling her apron with wood, which she hastily carried away. He resumed his seat, and commenced his study. Shortly after, the same noise occurred; and on looking out a second time he saw a similar operation-the woman filling her great apron to the utmost limits of her capacity. When she had gone, he returned to his book with tender pity in his heart for a destitution which sought relief in this lonely, dreary, not to say sinful, manner. By-and-bye he was startled by a heavy crash of falling wood, and, hurrying up to the window, beheld the poor woman casting the very dust of the wood from her apron. He remained motionless, his gentle heart filled with commiseration. She swiftly departed, and soon returned heavily laden with the wood, which she threw on the pile as if it were the "accursed thing.' The doctor's compassion and curiosity were now intensely excited. He followed her retreating figure till he discovered her residence, and thus ascertained who she was. What she was was no mystery to him. The last hour had shown him her virtue's lofty height. He called early the next morning on Mr. B, the wood dealer, and directed him to send half a cord of his best wood, sawed and split, to Mrs. but by no means to let her know from whom it came-which was readily promised. Mr. B- -'s teamster, who happened to be within - FACTS, HINTS, GEMS, AND POETRY. ear-shot, though out of sight, was not so bound, and, when he tipped the wood into the poor widow's yard, replied to her eager inquiry, who had sent it, by relating the conversation he had overheard. The conscience-stricken mother, feeling that her sin and repentance, in the lonely darkness of that midnight hour, were known and understood by another heart beside her own, hastened without delay to the house of the benevolent man, to express her gratitude and her sorrow, and with deep humility and bitterness told him the temptation to which her extreme poverty had reduced her, of breaking the eighth commandment. "Though my house was dark and cold, though my heart was wrung with anguish at the sight of my poor, shivering little ones, I could not keep it; my conscience would not let me." "I saw you "Say no more, my dear madam," said the good man. conquer the devil in two fair fights." Facts, Hints, Gems, and Poetry. Facts. England is four hundred and twenty miles long, and three hundred and sixty miles broad. This also includes Wales. Scotland is two hundred and eighty miles long, and one hundred and seventy-five miles broad. There are more inhabitants in Lon. don alone than in all Scotland. The Thames drains the southern part of England, the Trent the central part, the Ouse Yorkshire, and the Severn central Wales and some parts of the western counties of England. The principal mountain ranges of England are the Northern, the Cambrian, and the Devonian. There are forty counties in England, twelve in Wales, thirty-three in Scotland, and thirty-two in Ireland. Half the English counties are inland; many of the Scotch counties are made up of detached portions a considerable distance from each other, and vary greatly in size. Inverness is ninety-one times larger than Clack mannan. Hints. It is more pain to do nothing than something. It is easier to build two chimneys than to maintain one. The ignorant hath an eagle's wings and an owl's eye. The wife is the key of the house. He that marries late, marries ill. The house is a fine house when good folks are in it. He that learns a trade hath a purchase made. When all men have what belongs to them it cannot be much. Stay awhile, that we may make an end the sooner. No hair so small but hath its shadow. Two sparrows on one ear of corn make an ill agreement. An idle youth, a needy age. |