of one's self for fools to gaze at; to rear mansions beyond our wants; to garnish them for display and not for use; to chatter through the heartless rounds of pleasure; to lounge, to gape, to simper and giggle -can wealth make vanity happy by such folly? But riches indeed bless that heart whose almoner is benevolence. If the taste is refined, if the affections are pure, if conscience is honest, if charity listens to the needy and generosity relieves them; if the public-spirited hand fosters all that embellishes and all that ennobles society — then is the rich man happy.

11. On the other hand, do not suppose that poverty is a waste and howling wilderness. There is a poverty of vice—mean, loathsome, covered with all the sores of depravity. There is a poverty of indolence - where virtues sleep and passions fret and bicker. There is a poverty which despondency makes a deep dungeon in which the victim wears hopeless chains. May God save you from that! But there is a contented poverty, in which industry and peace rule, and a joyful hope, which looks out into another world where riches shall neither fly nor fade.

12. This poverty may possess an independent mind, a heart ambitious of usefulness, a hand quick to sow the seed of other men's happiness and find its own joy in their enjoyment.

If God open to your feet the way to wealth, enter it cheerfully; but remember that riches bless or curse you, as your own heart determines. But if, circumscribed by necessity, you are still indigent after all your industry, do not scorn poverty. There is often in the hut more dignity than in the palace; more satisfaction in the poor man's scanty fare than in the rich man's satiety.

HENRY WARD BEECHER.

XXXVII. SELECTIONS FROM SHAKESPEARE.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (1564-1616) was born and died at Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. His mother, Mary Arden Shakespeare, was of one of the good families of the county. William was educated at the grammar school of Stratford. He was married at the age of 18 to Anne Hathaway, a woman eight years his senior. They were the parents of three children. At the age of 22 Shakespeare went to London, where he distinguished himself as an actor and playwriter. He however regarded Stratford as his home, and at the age of 48 he retired to Warwickshire to spend the remainder of his life in quiet retirement.

I. MUSIC.

MERCHANT OF VENICE.-Act V, Scene I.

DO BUT note a wild and wanton herd,
Or race of youthful and unhandled colts,
Fetching mad bounds, bellowing and neighing loud,
Which is the hot condition of their blood;

If they but hear perchance a trumpet's sound,

Or any air of music touch their ears,

You shall perceive them make a mutual stand,
Their savage eyes turned to a modest gaze,
By the sweet power of music: therefore, the poet
Did feign that Orpheus drew trees, stones, and floods;
Since naught so stockish hard, and full of rage,
But music for a time doth change his nature.
The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treason, stratagems and spoils;

The motion of his spirit is dull as night,
And his affections dark as Erebus:
Let no such man be trusted.

II. CHARACTER.

1. KING HENRY VIII-Act III, Scene II.

Wolsey. Cromwell, I did not think to shed a tear
In all my miseries; but thou hast forced me,
Out of thy honest truth, to play the woman.

Let's dry our eyes; and thus far hear me, Cromwell;
And, when I am forgotten, as I shall be,

And sleep in dull cold marble, where no mention
Of me more must be heard of, say, I taught thee;
Say, Wolsey, that once trod all the ways of glory,
And sounded all the depths and shoals of honour,
Found thee a way, out of his wreck, to rise in;
A sure and safe one, though thy master miss'd it.
Mark but my fall, and that that ruin'd me.
Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition:
By that sin fell the angels; how can man, then,
The image of his Maker, hope to win by it?
Love thyself last; cherish those hearts that hate thee;
Corruption wins not more than honesty.

Still in thy right hand carry gentle peace,

To silence envious tongues. Be just, and fear not:

Let all the ends thou aim'st at be thy country's,

Thy God's and the truth's; then if thou fall'st, O Cromwell,

Thou fall'st a blessed martyr! Serve the king;

And-prithee, lead me in:

There take an inventory of all I have,

To the last penny; 't is the king's; my robe,

And my integrity to heaven, is all

I dare now call my own. O Cromwell, Cromwell!
Had I but served my God with half the zeal
I served my king, he would not in mine age
Have left me naked to mine enemies.

2. HAMLET-Act I, Scene III.

Polonius. There; my blessing with thee!
And these few precepts in thy memory
See thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportion'd thought his act.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatch'd, unfledged comrade. Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel, but being in,

Bear't that the opposed may beware of thee.
Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice;
Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment.
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,

But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy;

For the apparel oft proclaims the man,

And they in France of the best rank and station
Are of the most select and generous chief in that.
Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all: To thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Farewell: My blessing season this in thee!

SHAKESPEARE.

XXXVIII. HORACE GREELEY'S RIDE TO PLACERVILLE.

ARTEMUS WARD (CHARLES FARRAR BROWNE) (1834-1867.) One of the first of American humorists was Charles F. Browne. His pen-name was "Artemus Ward." He was born in Waterford, Maine. His education was gotten from the village schools, and he began his work as a printer's boy. His first comic story- and essay-writing was done in Boston. Later he was a local editor in Toledo and in Cleveland, Ohio. He was afterward a humorous lecturer who became very popular, particularly in the West. He died of pulmonary disease at the age of 33. By his will he provided first for his mother; to near friends he left some legacies; his library he bestowed upon the best boy in the school of his native village, and the bulk of his property he left in trust to Horace Greeley with which to provide an asylum for printers.

(From "Artemus Ward: His Travels.")

1. WHEN Mr. Greeley was in California, ovations awaited him. at every town. He had written powerful leaders in the Tribune in favor of the Pacific Railroad, which had greatly endeared him to the citizens of the Golden State. And therefore they made much of him when he went to see them.

2. At one town the enthusiastic populace tore his celebrated white coat to pieces and carried the pieces home to remember him by.

The citizens of Placerville prepared to fête the great journalist, and an extra coach with extra relays of horses was chartered of the California Stage Company to carry him from Folsom to Placerville: distance, forty miles. The extra was in some way delayed, and did not leave Folsom until late in the afternoon. Mr. Greeley was to be fêted at seven o'clock that evening by the citizens of Placerville, and it was altogether necessary that he should be there by that time. So the Stage Company said to Henry Monk, the driver of the extra, “Henry,