de corail, par de petits scarabées écarlates, hémisphériques, piquetés de noir qui y cherchent presque toujours un asile? Qui est-ce qui peut reconnaître dans une rose sèche la reine des fleurs? Pour qu'elle soit à la fois un objet d'amour et de philosophie, il faut la voir lorsque, sortant des fentes d'un rocher humide, elle brille sur sa propre verdure, que le zéphyr la balance sur sa tige hérissée d'épines, que l'aurore la couvre de pleurs, et qu'elle appelle par son éclat et par ses parfums la main des passants. Quelquefois une cantharide, nichée dans sa corolle en relève le carmin par son vert d'émeraude; c'est alors que cette fleur semble nous dire que, symbole du plaisir par ses charmes et par sa rapidité, elle porte comme lui le danger autour d'elle et le repentir dans son sein.

Bernardin de S Pierre.

PRE-EMINENCE OF THE SOUL" OVER THE 66 INTELLECT."

And now observe, the first important consequence of our fully understanding this

:

pre-eminence of the soul will be the due understanding of that subordination of knowledge respecting which so much has been said. For it must be felt at once, that the increase of knowledge, merely as such, does not make the soul larger or smaller; that, in the sight of God, all the knowledge man can gain is as nothing but that the soul, for which the great scheme of redemption was laid, be it ignorant or be it wise, is all in all; and in the activity, strength, health, and well-being of this soul, lies the main difference, in His sight, between one man and another. And that which is all in all in God's estimate is also, be assured, all in all in man's labour; and to have the heart open, and the eyes clear, and the emotions and thoughts warm and quick, and not the knowing of this or the other fact, is the state needed for all mighty doing in this world. And therefore, finally, for this, the weightiest of all reasons, let us take no pride in our knowledge. We may, in a certain sense, be proud of being immortal; we may be proud of being God's

children; we may be proud of loving, thinking, seeing, and all that we are by no human teaching; but not of what we have been taught by rote; not of the ballast and freight of the ship of the spirit; but only of the pilotage, without which all the freight will only sink it faster, and strew the sea more richly with its ruin.

Ruskin.

IMPERFECTION.

Imperfection is in some sort essential to all that we know of life. It is the sign of life in a mortal body, that is to say, of a state of progress and change. Nothing that lives is, or can be, rigidly perfect; part of it is decaying, part nascent. The foxglove blossom,-a third part bud, a third part past, a third part in full bloom,-is a type of this world. In all things that live there are certain irregularities and deficiencies, which are not only signs of life, but sources of beauty. No human face is exactly the same in its lines on each side, noleaf perfect in its lobes, no branch in its sym

metry. All admit irregularity as they imply change; and to banish imperfection is to destroy expression, to check exertion, to paralyse vitality. All things are literally better, lovelier, and more beloved, for the imperfections which have been divinely appointed, that the law of human life may be Effort, and the law of human judgment, Mercy.

Ruskin.

IMPERFECTIONS.

Les plus grands ouvrages de l'esprit humain sont tres-assurément les moins parfaits.

Vauvenargues.

INTELLECT AND FEELING.

The work of intellect is posterior to the work of feeling. The latter lies at the foundation of the man; it is his proper self-the peculiar thing that characterises him as an individual. No two men are alike in feeling; but conceptions of the understanding, when distinct, are precisely similar in all-the ascertained rela

tions of truths are the common property of the

race.

Arthur H. Hallam.

THE BOW AND ITS OWNER.

Ein Mann hatte einen trefflichen Bogen von Ebenholz, mit dem er sehr weit und sehr sicher schoß, und den er ungemein werth hielt. Einst aber, als er ihn aufmerksam betrachtete, sprach er: Ein wenig zu plump bist du doch alle deine Zierde ist die Glätte. Schade!-Doch dem ist abzuhelfen, fiel ihm ein. Ich will hingehen und den besten Künstler Bilder in den Bogen schnigen lassen. Er ging hin; und der Künstler schnitte eine ganze Jagd auf den Bogen; und was hätte sich besser auf einen Bogen geschickt, als eine Jagd?

Der Mann war voller Freuden. Du verdienst diese Zierrathen, mein lieber Bogen !"-Indem will er ihn versuchen; er spannt, und der Bogen-zerbricht!

LIGHT AND SHADE.

Wo viel Licht ist, ist starker Schatten.

Lessing.

Goethe.