ANECDOTES AND SELECTIONS. Anecdotes and Selections. THE EYE OF AN EAGLE.-The eyes of all birds have a peculiarity of structure which enables them to see near and distant objects equally well, and this wonderful power is carried to the greatest perfection in the bird of prey. When we recollect that an eagle will ascend more than a mile in perpendicular height, and from that enormous elevation will perceive its unsuspecting prey, and pounce on it with unerring certainty; and when we see the same bird scrutinizing with almost microscopic nicety an object close at hand, we shall at once perceive that he possesses a power of accommodating his sight to distance in a manner to which our eye is unfitted, and of which it is totally incapable. If we take a printed page, we shall find that there is some particular distance, probably ten inches, at which we can read the words and see each letter with perfect distinctness; but if we move the page to a distance of forty inches, or bring it within a distance of five inches, we shall find it impossible to read it at all. A scientific man would, therefore, call ten inches the focus or focal distance of our eyes. We cannot alter this focus except by the aid of spectacles. But an eagle has the power of altering the focus of his eye just as he pleases; he has only to look at an object at the distance of two feet or two miles in order to see it with perfect distinctness. Of course the eagle knows nothing of the wonderful contrivance which God has supplied for his accommodation; he employs it instinctively, and because he cannot help it. The ball of his eye is surrounded by fifteen little plates, called sclerotic bones; they form a complete ring, and their edges slightly overlap each other. When he looks at a distant object, this little circle of bones expands, and the ball of the eye being relieved from the pressure, becomes flatter; and when he looks at a very near object, the little bones press together, and the ball of the eye is thus squeezed into a rounder or more convex form; the effect is very familiar to everybody; a person with very round eyes is near-sighted, and only sees clearly an object that is close to him; and a person with flat eyes, as in old age, can see nothing clearly except at a distance; the eagle by the mere will, can make his eye round or flat, and see with equal clearness at any distance. LOST STARS.-Like drooping, dying stars, our loved ones go away from our sight. The stars of our hopes, our ambitions, our prayers, whose light ever shines before us, leading on and up, they suddenly fade from the firmament of our hearts, and their place is left empty, cold, and dark. A mother's steady, soft, and earnest light, that beamed through all our wants and sorrows; a father's strong, quick light that kept our feet from stumbling in the dark and treacherous ways; a sister's light so mild, so pure, so constant, and so firm, shines upon us from gentle loving eyes, and persuading us to grace and good ANECDOTES AND SELECTIONS. ness; a brother's light, bright and bold and honest; a lover's light, for ever sleeping in our soul, and illuminating our goings and comings; a friend's light, true and trusty-gone out for ever? No! the light has not gone out. It is shining beyond the stars, where there is no night and no darkness for ever and for ever. Never call a man a lost man until he is buried in a hopeless grave. No man is lost upon whom any influence can be exerted; no man is lost to whom the offer of the gospel may be brought. It is but a few weeks since I sat by one of the purest and loveliest females, who was once degraded, but who is now at the head of a family highly respected and beloved. We are never to be discouraged. There is no man or woman so vile but God may bring them washed and saved to his kingdom. He who rears up one child to Christian virtue, or recovers one fellow-creature to God, builds a temple more precious than Solomon's or St. Peter's; more enduring than earth or heaven. It is not the painting, gilding, and carving that makes a good ship; but if she is a nimble sailor, tight and strong to endure the seas, that is her excellence. It is the edge and temper of the blade that makes a good sword, not the richness of the scabbard; and so it is not money or possessions that make a man considerable, but his virtue.-Parker. OLD LETTERS.-Is there anything sadder than the files of old family letters, where one seems to spell backward one's own future! The frail fabric of paper is still firm, while the strong hand that poured out upon it the heart's throbs of love, of hate, of hope, or of despair, is mouldering in the grave. Letters filled with anxieties, blessed perhaps in their realization; or hopes, defeated in their very accomplishment; letters soiled with professions of everlasting affection that exhaled with a few mornings' dews; and others, stamped with sincere love, that seems, as the time-stained sheet trembles in the hand, to breathe from heaven upon it; letters with announcements of births, to be received with a family all hail! and with the fond records of opening childhood-and then-the black lined sheet, and the hastily-broken seal, and the story of sickness and death; letters with gay disclosures of betrothals, of illimitable hopes and sweet reliance; and a little further down in the file, conjugal dissatisfactions, bickerings and disappointments; and perchance the history, from year to year, of a happy married love, tried and made stronger by trial, cemented by every joy, brightened all along its course with cheerfulness and patience, and home loves and charities; but even in this there is solemnity, for it is past. The sheaves are gathered into the garner, and on earth is nothing left but the seared stubble field !-Miss Sedgwick. ECCENTRIC DISLIKES.-It is impossible to account for the dislikes some people entertain; yet many instances are upon record of unaccountable antipathies. The Marquis de la Roche Jacquelin was undaunted in the field of battle, but could never help trembling at the sight of a squirrel. Cardinals Cardona and Darraffa, and Lady Henoge, THE FIRESIDE. one of the maids of honour to Queen Elizabeth, all swooned at the mere sight of a rose. There was once a family which entertained so great an aversion to apples, that the mere sight of one set their noses bleeding. The least particle of olive oil introduced into any dish has created fainting. A man of courageous disposition could not see a dog, no matter how small, without immediately shaking with apprehension. In 1844 a French soldier was obliged to quit the service, because he could not overcome his disgust to animal food. Mutton acted upon him as a poison. He could not eat it in any form. The peculiarity was supposed to be owing to a caprice, but the mutton was repeatedly disguised, and uniformly produced the same result-violent vomiting and diarrhoea. FRENCH CHARACTER.-De Tocqueville's skilful analysis of the French character is strikingly apposite just now :-"Indocile by disposition, but ever better pleased with the arbitrary and even violent rule of a Sovereign, than with a free and regular government under its chief citizens; now fixed in hostility to subjection of any kind, now so passionately wedded to servitude that nations made to serve cannot vie with it; led by a thread, so long as no word of resistance is spoken; wholly ungovernable when the standard of revolt is raised-thus always deceiving its masters, who fear it too much or too little; never so free that it cannot be subjugated; never so kept down that it cannot break the yoke; qualified for every pursuit, but excellent in nothing but war; more prone to worship chance, force, success, eclat, noise, than real glory; endowed with more heroism than virtue, more genius than common sense; better adapted for the conception of grand designs than the accomplishment of great enterprises; the most brilliant and the most dangerous nation of Europe, and the one that is the surest to inspire admiration, hatred, terror, or pity, but never indifference." LITTLE THINGS.-Little words are the sweetest to hear; little charities fly farthest, and stay longest on the wing; little lakes are the -stillest; little hearts are the fullest, and little farms are best tilled. Little books are the most read, and little songs the most loved. And when nature would make anything especially rare and beautiful, she makes it little-little pearls, little diamonds, little dews. Everybody calls that little which he loves best on earth. The Fireside. THE GOOD WIFE. SHE commandeth her husband, in any equal matter, by constantly obeying him. She never crosseth her husband in the spring-time of his anger, but stays till it be ebbing-water. Surely men, contrary to iron, are worst to be wrought upon when they are hot. THE PENNY POST BOX. Her clothes are rather comely than costly, and she makes plain cloth to be velvet by her handsome wearing it. Her husband's secrets she will not divulge. Especially she is careful to conceal his infirmities. In her husband's absence she is wife and deputy husband, which makes double the files of her diligence. At his return he finds all things so well, that he wonders to see himself at home when he was abroad. Her children, though many in number, are none in noise, steering them with a look whither she listeth. The heaviest work of her servants she maketh light, by orderly and seasonably enjoining it. In her husband's sickness she feels more grief than she shows. The Penny Post Box. -Fuller. WORK. WORK well done is twice done. Never mix up things; do one thing at a time; begin one thing and finish one thing,-make clean work as you go. Have order, system, regularity; a place for everything, and everything in its place. Whatever you do, do it well. A job slighted, because it is apparently unimportant, leads to habitual neglect, so that men degenerate, insensibly, into bad workmen. Training the hands and the eyes to do work well, leads individuals to form correct habits in other respects, and a good workman is, in most cases, a good citizen. No one need hope to rise above his present situation who suffers small things to pass by unimproved, or who neglects, metaphorically speaking, to pick up a halfpenny because it is not a sovereign. Everything in nature and grace is active, full of life and motion, on the wing. The sun, the moon, the sparkling heavens, the floods, the rippling brooks, and flowing founts; the birds warble on every tree in ecstacy of joy; the tiny flower, hidden from all eyes, sends forth its fragrance of full happiness; the mountain-stream dashes along with a sparkle and a murmur of pure delight. The object of their creation is accomplished, and their life gushes forth in harmonic work. O plant! O stream! worthy the admiration of the wretched idler. Idleness is the bane, the moth, the gangrene, the curse of life. "Dream not, but work! Be bold! be brave! Escape from tasks allotted! Thankful for toil and danger be Duty's high call will make thee flee The vicious-the besotted." FACTS, HINTS, GEMS, AND POETRY. Facts, Hints, Gems, and Poetry. Facts. If a few pieces of iron are dropped into water, which it is desirable to preserve, it will not become putridthat what makes water grow putrid is the oxygen in it, and that the iron draws off this oxygen. The caves of Malta are full of the bones of elephants, which indicates a very different state of things in times past. It is as much as man can do to subsist there now, after an immense quantity of earth has been carted over from Africa to cover the barren rocks. Dr. Leith Adams has been examining the fossils, and makes out three distinct forms: one of the average dimensions of existing African and Asiatic species, and two others, differing from each other not only in size, but also in other osteological characters; but both of comparatively small or dwarf character. A scientific lecturer on walking says his experiments show that one side of the body always tends to outwalk the other side. It is not possible when the eyes are shut to walk in a straight line for any length of time, and it will be found, where persons lose their way, that they almost invariably wander off to the right rather than to the left. The politics of courtiers resembles their shadows; they cringe and turn with the sun of the day. The poor man to whom we give a little, regrets us more sincerely than the rich heir to whom we leave all. The happiness of the tender heart from the wretchedness of others. is increased by what it can take away Noble sentiments being alike to the cultivated and to the rude; the former express, while the latter feel them. In private life no one ever interfered with other people's disputes but he heartily repented of it. Lamentation is the only musician that always, like a screech-owl, lights and sits on the roof of an angry man. Gems. The soldier wastes his strength who fights his shadow, Promises make friends, but it is performance that keeps them. If there were no trials to endure, the grace of God would be quiescent, and like a standing army in time of peace. "Judge not," saith the Lord; the justice of which is obvious, in a world where there are no innocent to judge the guilty. Contentment is a pearl of great price, and whoever procures it at the expense of ten thousand desires, makes a wise purchase. Those who doubt the blessing of religion because they can find no Christian who is perfect, might as well deny the existence of the sun because it is not always noonday. A rule of conscience for one's self, a code of morals for one's self, a religion |