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Although men and women are in many respects so different, yet much of what applies to the one sex is equally true of the other. We may say of woman as of man that even though the comparison of a reed shaken with the wind may be in a sense true, still it is a reed which thinks.

Everyone may be great if he chooses. In fact, he is great unless he chooses to make himself small. He is great in his powers, great in his opportunities, in his privileges, in his blessings; he is small if he gives way to his passions, to prejudices, to temptation. To be a true man is more than to be a king, who is not a true man. The greatest glory is not to be master of others, but of oneself. To serve well is as honourable as to rule well. What is it which constitutes a man? It is not his rank, or his house, or his money, or his clothes, but his character. Moreover, at different ages we seem to be different beings. It is said that the child is father to the man. But this is by no means in all cases applicable. It is often difficult to believe that there is any relationship between them.

We might all so arrange our lives, if we cared to do so, that it might be said of us as of Cassio:

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He hath a daily beauty in his life.*

de, no doubt, is a great mystery. “Je suis né us savoir pourquoi, j'ai vécu sans savoir comment, et tners sans savoir ni pourquoi, ni comment.”**

-L'homme,” says Pascal, “est à lui-même le plus maux objet de la nature; car il ne peut concevoir & fue c'est que corps, et encore moins ce que c'est , et moins qu'aucune chose comment un corps Pre uni avec un esprit. C'est là le comble de sites et cependant c'est son propre être.”*** hough a man is an angel, he is an incarnate His higher nature imposes on him serious re

spies, his lower origin enjoins corresponding

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Both physically and morally we are at times

beatures.

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y living man is a visible mystery; he walks

peare, Othello.

born without knowing why, I have lived without Now, and I am dying without knowing why or how." is himself the most wonderful object in nature; for ot conceive the nature of his body, still less of his east of all how a body can be united with a mind. height of difficulty for him, and yet it is himself"

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between two eternities and three infinitudes."* though this is so, it is also true that our duty is plain, and we know well what conscience teaches.

It must be admitted that man is in one sense poor and weak and foolish. But yet he has weighed the earth, he has measured the height of mountains, sounded the depths of the ocean, ascertained the distances of the planets, the sun, and some of the nearer stars. He has weighed and measured the heavenly bodies, determined their movements and velocities, and even, most wonderful of all, has ascertained their chemical composition.

The mind no doubt may lift itself above the passions and impurities of earth, but it seems as impossible for the soul as for the body to free itself altogether from the limitations of our earthly existence, and raise itself altogether from earth to heaven. Yet we may do much, and if we do our best we may hope that we shall be, in the noble words of Milton: "Enflamed with the study of learning and the admiration of virtue; stirred up with high hopes of living to be brave men and worthy patriots, dear to God, and famous to all ages." * Carlyle,

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CHAPTER IV.

ASPIRATION.

e Sir James Stephen in a lecture to young said that he could put his suggestions in one

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But what should the

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aspirator de? Not to grasp at everything, and try to rise above everybody! That would be a very unworthy aim: but to raise oneself above oneself not above others, but as far as possible with others. profess to despise the good opinion of others, seldom deserve it. It is well to aim high lest we fall low. impossible not to commit errors, but it is quite posable to do one's best to prevent oneself from doing so. people seem to expect that opportunities should stead of their finding opportunities.

Sagustine long ago said that avarice and ambiaded by many as being innocent in them

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selves, though often leading to crime, but that so far from this being the case they were sins in themselves. This, no doubt, is true; but if used in this sense ambition must be taken to exclude the wish to rise to better things, and avarice cannot include the proper and legitimate desire, not to say duty, to provide for one's family.

What should our aspirations be? We must think of others as well as of ourselves. Being as we are citizens of a great Empire, we may well bear in mind the old Athenian oath: "I will not dishonour my sacred shield; I will not abandon my fellow-soldier in the ranks; I will do battle for our altars and our homes, whether aided or unaided; I will leave our country not less, but greater and nobler than she is now entrusted to me."

We may, and indeed we ought, to desire the respect of our countrymen and contemporaries, but the craving for glory is a temptation and a danger. "An inordinate passion for glory," says Cicero, "as I have already observed, is likewise to be guarded against; for it deprives us of liberty, the only prize for which men of elevated sentiments ought to contend. Power is so far from being desirable in itself, that it sometimes ought to be

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