itself in another but not less repulsive form among the mature portion of these circles. A stiff and formal code is established, to regulate such larger assemblages as there may be, while often a frigid and artificial conventionalism seems to control even the most select intercourse of friendship. Conversation is the employment of the groups and parties; but, alas! what is the chief characteristic of that conversation? They begin with "news," and proceed to the canvass of reputation. The qualities of acquaintances and neighbors are discussed with metaphysical sharpness. The dissecting-knife of a cynical criticism is unsparingly applied to the characters of friends and associates. Defects, faults and vices of others are pointed out, with what is supposed to be unflinching conscientiousness; and the follies of those occupying superior social positions are searched for with inquisitorial rigor, and dealt with after a most scorching fashion. Domestic difficulties unfortunately dividing families of their own "sets," are scented by the delicate nostrils, and hunted down by the ravening appetites of too many who claim and receive credit for great sanctity. Scandal sup plies the stimulus, at many virtuous tea-parties, which dancing affords to the frequenters of the ballroom; and unlicensed gossip yields an ample com pensation to crowds whose scruples or whose means prevent their indulgence in fashionable recreations

PHARISAISM REPLACES TRUE RELIGION.

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Stern rebukes are administered to childish merriment by those who are too sour to be gay; while free issues of gentle and spontaneous feeling are checked and driven back upon the ingenuous heart, by callous indifference and puritanical and pharisaical egotism. That there is a fearful amount of illiberality, narrowness and cant, of contemptuous and scornful invective, of self satisfied and haughty condemnation, in the tone and conduct of the classes we are considering, no one well acquainted with them can for a moment doubt. Are not all these inimical to the true tone and right conduct of society? Are we to be united only as vultures in search of carrion; to revel upon putrid banquets? Is our only compact to be that of familiars of the Holy Office, to pry into the innermost sanctuaries and consciences of our friends and relatives, that we may expose their delinquencies, short-comings and crimes? Is society so established that the strong may hunt the weak, that those that are whole, needing not a physician, may cruelly taunt and maltreat those that are sick? that the wounded stag may perish by the antlers of his unhurt fellows Shall the sleek face palliate libel, or the demure, expression sanction slander? Can a professed regard for virtue justify bitterness of spirit, or the breadth of pharisaical phylacteries, atone for truculence of discourse? Nay, nay. Society is appointed for a sweet and holy office, and

human fellowship is ordained unto benign and manifold ministries; wit and wisdom, cheerfulness and mirth, frolic and lightness of heart, sweet temper and buoyant spirits, graceful speech and generous thought, should characterize the manners of mankind. We seek friends to be cheered, not criticised; we need sympathy, not potions of vinegar and wormwood. We come to the pure and the good to have our own views of goodness and purity freshened and vitalized ; that our drooping fainting spirits may be quickened and inspired. We want the hearty words and kindling sentiments accompanied by the vibrating tones which tell of real worth and real communion with virtue and holiness; not the hollow utterances of formalism, nor the discordant croakings which attest the ravages of spiritual dyspepsia. What we desire in society is, human beings with flesh and blood, mind and heart; with weaknesses and faults and yearnings; with sadness and glee, hope and buoyancy; with virtues and vices, the good and the bad inextricably involved. We desire bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh; partners in our want and woe, brothers in our high calling and destiny. This is what we desire; not perpendicular lines and sharp angles, mathematical figures, cold unrealities, or spectral apparitions. A man's best virtues must strike deep root in silence and solitude; but the tender shoot, the budding foliage, the expanding flower, the ripening fruit, must

THE POWER OF SYMPATHY.

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be nursed and vivified by the open air, the frequent dews, the early and latter rains, of social intercourse. The hearty pressure of a friendly hand, the kindly glance of a gentle eye, the soft and thrilling tone of a pleasant voice, have oftentimes power to nerve the soul about to sink into the yawning abyss of despair, for another struggle, perhaps for a victorious one, with fate. Who has not, in some lonely and critical hour of his existence, about to faint and perish beneath the crushing load of pain and trouble, seen what gracious power, what majestic strength, there is in human sympathy?

A prime and irrevocable law of our nature is that man cannot enjoy the unshared possession of any good. The moment he attempts exclusive selfish appropriation of it, its virtue departs; it ceases to be a benefit. As riches increase, they that shall be fed will also increase; and if the owner deny their claim, either his wealth will vanish from him, or its power to cheer and animate him will depart. Countless illustrations of the truth of the proposition might be derived from every department of our activity; I however, propose to confine my vindication to the statement of the provinces of intellectual and moral culture; for it is upon obedience to this law that these will mainly depend. If your reading and observation furnish you with a new fact; if by laborious study you have gained insight into a new truth, if

your eye has been gladdened by the vision of an unusually magnificent sunset, and your heart has responded to the gladness, if your soul has come into a more profound acquaintance with beauty and goodness, these, one and all, are to be communicated to your fellows, or they will cease to be a part of you. No man can either accumulate the knowledge of the phenomena and principles of science, or even become fully conscious of the richest revelations of his intuitional nature, who is content to lock these treasures within his own brain, and bosom. Truth, sentiment, beauty, all that the mind or heart can receive, may become ours upon the one indispensable condition of reproducing and communicating it. The refusal to put your thought into words and tell it to your neighbor will not only involve the loss of the thought itself, but probably in due time of the power by which thought is produced. Let a man cheerfully render what he has received; let him teach what himself has been taught; let him interpret perceptions and reflections, that others may be instructed and helped; and his education progresses; maturity of view as well as clearness of insight, balance of statement, and steadfastness of conviction shall hereby be gained. No man can be loyal to the deepest and noblest sentiments, affections and principles of his nature, unless he attempt to embody and set them forth in speech or writing for the service of his kind. It is upon these