of the flesh, which please the grosser sense of man, and make him turn to her when he would scoff at them; and when one of these bright spirits leaves the light of truth, and falls into the sin of falseness or dishonor, it seems as though a sacred star went out which shone before, and left some little world in dreary darkness.

Nina dearly loved Tom Elmore before he began to speak so plainly of the passion to which he had no right ever to give expression. But now that he had done so, Nina knew him as unworthy of her confidence as he was of Charles's, and she felt sorry that her belief in his excellence had been so suddenly and so rudely dispelled, like a morning dream of heaven..

The next morning Nina rose late, for she felt unwell, and having taken breakfast in her room, went down to the parlor and found Tom there. She did not guess what he had come for; because she did not know any thing of the signs which belong to these occasions. But I do. When you see a gentleman sitting alone in a room, carefully dressed, not lounging so as to put creases into his waistcoat, which would look untidy, but sitting studiedly upright, with a pale face-except on the cheek, where excitement places little spots of crimson--and when you moreover observe this young gentleman twiddling his gloves about, and troubled with nervous twitchings of his upper lip, you may be sure that he is about to "propose," and nothing less. Nina, however, as I have said, knew nothing of all this.

She spoke coldly to Tom as she entered the room, and seated herself on a couch at the other end. But when Tom came and sat by her, and took her hand in his and spoke to her so kindly and so affectionately, Nina turned deadly pale and trembled in every limb.

"Nina, dearest Nina!" said Tom, and his voice sounded so sweet and clear that

there was nothing like it, thought Nina, in all the wide world. "Dearest Nina! you know, you must know, how dearly and how

fondly I do love you. Meek and modest as you are, you must feel your superiority over all other maidens, and you cannot therefore wonder if my heart, my whole sense and being bow before your charms-nay, not so much your beauty, dear, as before your goodness and sweet, amiable disposition-and own you for their mistress. Till I came here, dear Nina, I knew no love, though I had tried to love before; and since I have been here, I have not only loved, but I have worshipped you. In the fond dreams of my calm boyhood, when I fancied what my wife would be, when I should grow to have one, imagination never pictured such an one as you. Perfection thrice perfected, goodness made best, and purity most pure, are yours, and yours alone. And if, dear Nina, if I dare aspire to so much worth, if I presume to ask of Heaven and you a boon, which must confer such lustre on myself, 'tis not, 'tis not, indeed, because I think that I am worthy of the treasure which I crave; 'tis not because I deem myself quite able to appreciate its value; but I do, indeed, feel, dear Nina, that I can keep and guard it well; for I know that, by God's help, I will do all poor man can do to show the gratitude which must spring out of so much bounty. To say, dear Nina, that I will give my whole life up to your happiness is to say little; for what is it to devote to God's best," loveliest creature the few short days which God bestows? But giving these, dearest, I give all, though less than I would give if that my most were more. You speak no word, and give no sign that you are either vexed or pleased to hear me thus address you, and but that you tremble and are ashy pale, I still might wonder if you heard at all. If you are angered, tell me in one word that you are hurt, and add one more to say you pardon my too bold advance, and I will quit you, Nina, quit you now for ever, if in so sweet a nature there can live so harsh a wish, with cruelty enough to give it utterance."

Do you suppose he meant half of all this? I don't; that is, I do only to a cer

tain extent. All men say the same things, in other language, when they offer. They tell young ladies that their lives are to be passed in endeavoring to make their wives happy; that no cloud is to come over the sunshine of their joyous life, &c., &c.; and before they have been married a month, they expect their wives to sew on buttons, make pastry, and do other offices; at the slightest neglect of which these swearing and protesting lovers, having thrown off their summer skin and relapsed into the winter of marriage, grumble audibly. It is all very fine in romance, and sounds very well at the beginning; but there is a great deal of gold to be rubbed off the gingerbread before we ever come to the true state

of the case. This is, however, useless digression.

Nina had, in truth, remained perfectly silent while Tom spoke; but at length she raised her face, to put an end to his addresses, when her eye encountered the forms of her mother and aunt, who had entered the room unobserved by its excited occupants, and had heard the greater part of Tom's very unexpected proposal.

Mrs. Elhingham's face was as pale as Nina's. Aunt Stratelace's visage, on the contrary, was red and white in patches, according to the obstacles offered to the free .course of the blood, by certain bumps which obscured the beauty of that amiable lady; and on the whole, she looked, being in one of her hard humors, rather like a bachelor's button, of the red species, which was running to seed and wanted to be watered, or otherwise submitted to the influence of some softening and soothing agent.

When Nina looked up, her mother had in some measure recovered her surprise, and taking Aunt Stratelace's arm had turned to leave the room; as she did so, however, the pale, trembling girl, who but a moment before seemed about to sink under her emotion, rose at once to self-command, immediately she felt that she must depend for aid upon herself alone. left her seat upon the sofa, and standing

She

midway between Elmore and the door, called to her mother-and her voice was as firm then as ever it had been, as round, and as full, and as noble as woman's voice could be.

And you,

“Mother,” she said, “stop, I pray you! aunt, do not go! this is a scene that will please you, for it cannot fail to be too cruel for us all. You have heard you could not choose but hear-what Mr. Thomas Elmore, Charles Rightford's friend, has said to me but now. You, mother, know that I never gave encouragement that might lead on to this. You, aunt, should know it too; though it may pain you to confess as much. Hear, then, my answer, that you may repeat it truly, if you can, when next you write your scandal of the day. Mr. Elmore, you, a man whose powerful will and cultivated mind should place you far above this most dishonest action, what can I say to you? What can I, a poor, weak girl, tell you that can in any wise cause Truth to teach your mind how foul a spot this act has painted on your fame? Trusted by your friend, you would betray him; trusted by me, you would sink me to shame and sorrow by making me the partner of your crime. You can go forth into the world, and by fresh sin blot out the recollection of this mean, miserable trick; but I, a woman, with a woman's modesty, can do no worse and still remain a woman, for honor is the boundary of virtue, and you would have me barter mine for love-your love! No, no, it cannot be love which is thus based. Love ennobles and refines, exalts, lifts up above the common follies of an age, and does not stoop to add fresh sins to its full catalogue for after-times to wonder at."

While Nina thus spoke, Tom looked up into her face with a strange and singular expression, until at last he sank upon his knees before her and kept looking in her face silently but fixedly, like one in a trance; that is, only so far as perfect stillness might give him that appearance, for in his face there was a look of light and triumph

which it was startling to look upon. But Nina heeded not.

"You know," she said, "that I do not love Charles Rightford. You know I could not, for you have proved that love can be born only of esteem, and I have never seen him. Yet, I know that he is not unworthy, and having once pledged my word to him, I am his eternally, so long as he is worthy, unless by his own free release. But you thought I loved you. You perhaps tried to make me love you," and her lip quivered as she spoke; "but if you still hold that dream, banish it as madness, and renounce the hope. What may have been yesterday is gone; for esteem is incompatible with contempt, and you have made this displace that by your most shameful conduct."

And yet Tom did not look down; and, oh me! what an expression on his face! There seemed naught but joy, and love, and purest triumph upon every feature.

"Go, then," said Nina; "go from me now and for ever. I knew no passion till I knew you, and passion has brought with it sorrow that till now was ever a stranger to my heart. Go from me and tell Charles Rightford, if you can dare again to look upon his face, whether his betrothed prefers love to honor, happiness before honest pride."

A tear trickled down the manly cheek of Tom Elmore while Nina spoke, but no muscle moved, no light went off the smile of joy which curled around his parted lips. Strange man!

"Tell him," she continued, "as I will tell him, all. Let him feel how much I have deserved his silence-how much I have merited the world's false report when it linked my name with yours."

Aunt Stratelace winced very much, and

"Charles Rightford!" said her lover, speaking for the first time, as he sprang to his feet and showed her portrait and the locket with the dark hair in, which she had sent him, and twenty other tokens besides. "Your Charles Rightford, Nina, dearest; here to prove the falsehood of all those who dared to speak lightly of the world's best ornament. I sent for your aunt, intending that she should be present at this interview, and-"

But Nina could hear no more; with one loud scream she sank into his arms and fainted.

And, my gracious! what a piece of work there was! What with smelling-salts and crying, burnt feathers and congratulations, there never was such a scene any where. As for Aunt Stratelace, she was off in a coach and a jiffy, and was not heard of more for some years, when it was discovered by chance that she was living with a maiden cousin in Wales. It is but fair to add that she was never inquired for.

That Charles acted wrongly and with deception he could not deny; but a frank confession and a few airs on the piano set him all to rights very soon, and he was married in the following month.

It was not much more than a year afterwards that little Nina Rightford was born; she that plays skipping-rope so well, you know. But to this day Mrs. Elhingham prides herself on the sagacity with which she discovered in the soi-disant Tom Elmore a strong resemblance to old Rightford.

out and recommend a similar course to be pursued towards generations yet to come. If, however, the mind has been left to acquire information to itself, a differing, yet not quite so distinctive view may be entertained. The latter mind, unaided of teachers, may have acquired a rich fund of information, a clearer general perception, and yet without perceiving clearly the proper course to be pursued with youth. Evidently a change of system is called for in schools. The teacher should give more time to instruction, and less to the mere hearing of recitations. In other words, the scholar should not always be left to study alone. The latter may pore over passages hours together, commit to memory and repeat them correctly, get good marks for bright scholarship, and yet have not the least idea of that which he has pronounced. He may be taught to declare his principles, and yet truly possess none. The mind must resolve before it can realize; that done, it can find its own mode of expression, and will not be confined to mere parrot speeches. In such light then, educationally, the main thing to be taught is the proper method of educating one's self. For sooner or later the services of a teacher must be dispensed with; and if, after conveying the method "o reading and writing the language correctly," he will not direct his labors to the main point before named, the sooner his services are dispensed with the better.

Letters are the material of words, and words the material of sentences through which ideas are conveyed. The former, singly and combined, represent sounds. The latter have each a meaning. Hence in study we must master first the letters separate and in syllables; then words and their meaning. This done, the idea intended to be conveyed in a given sentence becomes a matter of perception. For in every sentence embodying a single word whose meaning we are not familiar with, there exists a barrier to perception, and hence our conclusions upon its import must necessarily Le at best a mere matter of guess-work. Learn the meaning

of each and every word, and then you may safely trust the sentence (if a true one) to speak for itself. Study then, to the selfstudent, comprises a diligent, systematic searching out of the nature and meaning of things, words, and terms met with though not yet comprehended; the keeping a vigilant watch upon his comprehension, that words and things pass him not by without impressing their meaning.

Teaching, to a teacher, should be the exercise of an active watchfulness over the mind of the scholar; noticing the impression that words and terms make thereon; a matter by no means difficult, requiring simply close observation, without which teachers are but useless things. By practice, every good instructor can single from a sentence read by a scholar each and every word contained therein which he does not readily comprehend. By giving a timely definition, or by directing the scholar to proceed no farther without investigation, he would thus in all probability lead him not only to master the lesson then before him, but also cause him to realize that the first, the essential lesson in self-education, is to pass nothing uncomprehended; that it is to study, search, and inquire; to master the doubtful points at once, that they may not hinder again. In this land, abounding in dictionaries, newspapers, and Bibles, as stapie commodities, there is and can be no excuse for palpable ignorance. The reading of one sentence from the daily papers, or from a book each day, and making it a matter of duty to learn thoroughly the meaning of every word contained therein, will in the course of a short time give to man or child a thorough command of language, and a perfect realization of the workings of his own brain. It is a great thing to comprehend one's own thoughts, but without language it is impossible to do so. With language, the self-student becomes learned in the estimation of the public. He becomes the promoter of the public weal, the benefactor of man, the bulwark of Republicanism.