behave dishonestly to another people, will behave dis-' honestly to each other also, and thus they never could be so prosperous and happy in their own city, if they were of a dishonest character. And thus it will always be found, by those who do wrong, in hopes of benefitting themselves, that it is very shortsighted policy to fight against the natural laws of the physical or the moral universe.

Owing to the folly and ignorance of most men upon this subject, society is so arranged, that it is sometimes impossible for one person to obey them in all particulars; but if each one will do his best, we may hope for a better state of things bye and bye.

C. W.

LESSONS FROM NATURE.

WINTER.-THE TREES.

LEAFLESS and grey beneath the wintry sky
Stand the mute trees, their green tongues all are fled
Before the freezing gale, or heaped they lie
Around the parent trunk, pale, soiled, and dead.

Yet still are tongues in every lichen grey,

With curious urn, that clothes the leafless forms.
Oh let us listen what those tongues will say,
As light they wave before December's storms.

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Hoary we hang, like Druid's grizzly hair;
Yet not deformities, nor made in vain

To flutter idly in the freezing air;

From each pale frond insects their focd obtain.

"We're not deformities. Observe us well;
Beauty and grace will in our forms appear;
And insect tribes within our close folds dwell,
Securely housed throughout the winter drear.

"Learn from our curious fronds, our tiny urns,
Which food and shelter unto insects give,
That wisdom only useless trifles spurns,

That good in many things o'erlooked may live."

THE BROOKS.

The brooks that in the spring time glittering ran,
Transformed to ice, as by enchanter's wand,
Ope a new page to skies all grey and wan,
And the bare trees that on their margin stand,

A page of loveliness. That pavement lies,

Pure, clear, and dazzling o'er the gliding brook, That steals beneath; a page whose beauty vies With any from the spring day's sparkling book.

Upon its banks each blade of withered grass
Glitters, with precious gems besprinkled o'er,
As if some fairy with long hoarded mass,

O'er grass and weeds had lavished the rich store.

And where the winter sun beneath its brink,
With warm ray melts the brooklet's icy floor,
There flock the shivering, thirsty birds to drink,
There meet the wildfowl from their summer tour.

Beauty and good in every page we read;

Beauty and usefulness fill all thy book;

Oh, what a lesson, would the thoughtless heed,
Of God's rich bounty, dost thou teach, O brook!

THE STONES.

Dark frowns the wintry sky, dark looms the moor,
The mountains stand in snowy mantles clad,
Loud ring our footsteps on earth's frozen floor;
Rocks! are your sermons, like the evening, sad?

A ruddy light across the pathway streams,

From village forge. Find we no sermon there, Where, drawn from the deep mine, that huge fire gleams? Does not that glowing mass God's love declare?

And that red heavy bar the smith's strong hand
Lays on the anvil, does not that, too, teach

God, who in wisdom made the solid land,

Gave man the skill its hidden depths to reach?

Stones, metals, minerals, proofs of God's great love,
Proofs of his love to man, ere man was made,
Preach to our hearts, unfilial doubts remove,
Show us our Father in his works displayed,

ALL GOOD.

Good the pale lichen, yielding insects food,
And beautiful the frozen brook to sight,
The merry ringing winter walk is good,

Good the warm fire, good all our home's delight.

Oh, Father! who hast made thy earth so fair,
And at creation blest, and called it "Good!"
All things thy constant providence declare,
All things upheld by love have ever stood.

WISE and honest English Shakespere,
What a hearty faith was thine!
Good, all good throughout creation,
Good in every thing does shine!
And our Milton, soaring Milton,
With his lofty theme sublime.
Shakespere, Milton, eyer youthful,
Sons of Freedom, sons of Time,
Ye were nursed in English freedom,
Thoughts and pens alike were free!
What can old, stern despotism.

What gagged slavery show like ye?
Sing your noble lays of freedom;
Sing them to the listening earth,
Till, awakening from their slumber,
Start her tribes to Freedom's birth.

J. A.

The key of the day and the lock of the night, is prayer.

One trouble sometimes makes us forget a thousand mercies.

If you would not have affliction visit you often, listen at once to what it teaches.

Every one has his day; or a time in which grace is offered him, and thus it behoves every one to pray against blindness of mind and hardness of heart.

THINK BEFORE YOU SPEAK. - Speaking without thinking, is like discharging a rifle without taking aim. You are sure not to hit the mark you sought, and in great danger of hitting something very wide of the mark.

PHILIP HENRY'S VOW.

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PHILIP HENRY was a celebrated Nonconformist Minister, one of the two thousand clergymen who left the Established Church through the passing of the “Act of Uniformity," which took place on Bartholomew-day, Aug. 24, 1662," and which obliged all clergymen to assent to certain doctrines and various prescribed beliefs and formulas, which it seemed to many of them impossible conscientiously to do. Philip Henry was a good, wise, and pious man, and it is related of him, that he used to teach his children the following words:

I take God to be my chiefest good and highest end. I take Christ to be my Prince and Saviour. I take the Holy Spirit to be my Sanctifier, Teacher, Guide, and Comforter. I take the Word of God to be my rule in all my actions, and the people of God to be my people in all conditions. I do likewise dedicate unto the Lord my whole self, all I am, all I have, and all I can do. And this I do deliberately, sincerely, freely, and for ever."

Every Sabbath evening each of them slowly repeated these solemn words, after their recitation in the catechism, he putting his amen to it, and sometimes adding, so say and so do, and you are made for ever." And never was there a family more amiable and distinguished for its piety.

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TEN RULES FOR LIVING.

1. Never put off till to-morrow what can be done to-day.

2. Never trouble another to do what you can do yourself.

3. Never spend your money before you have it. 4. Never buy what you do not want because it is cheap.

5. We never repent of eating too little.

6. Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly. 7. How much pain those evils cost us that never happen.

8. Take things by their smooth handle.

9. When angry, always count ten before you speak. 10. See that thine aim reacheth unto higher than thyself.

ONE evening-it was on the 28th of May-I took a solitary walk from Herne Bay to Herne church-yard. The tall grass among the graves wailed mournfully in the breeze, as if in lament for those who slept beneath. The rays of the declining sun falling on the tombstones cast long shadows around. I sat down; my thoughts wandered into the far-off past, and busy conjecture was afloat as to the ultimate destiny of those who had gone to their last earthly rest.

Aroused at length to a sense of the present, I approached the stile leading to May's Park; and there, bounded only by the limit of a hedge, what a contrast was presented to the scene I had been contemplating!