hundred times the writing of all these put together. Where is the wonder, that, on the verge of sixty, I am somewhat of a premature old man, with odds and ends of infirmities and ailments about me, which at times are a trial to the spirits, and a weariness to the flesh? But all the grumbling in the world would not mend the matter or help me, so I rub and drive on as well as I can." Bernard Barton did not believe in idleness, did he?

WORTHY WOMEN.

BY HANNAH MORE.

THERE is a large class of excellent female characters who, on account of that very excellence, are little known, because to be known is not their object. Their ambition has a better taste. They pass through life honoured and respected in their own small, but not unimportant, sphere, and approved by Him, "whose they are, and whom they serve," though their faces are hardly known in promiscuous society; if they occasion little sensation abroad, they produce much happiness at home. And when once a woman, who has "all appliances and means to get it," can withstand the intoxication of the flatterer, and the adoration of the fashionable-can conquer the fondness for public distinction-can resist the temptations of that magic circle to which she is courted, and in which she is qualified to shinethis is, indeed, a trial of firmness; a trial which those who have never been called to resist themselves, can hardly judge of the merit of resistance in others. These are the women who bless, dignify, and truly adorn society. The painter, indeed, does not make his fortune by their sitting to him; the jeweller is neither brought into notice by furnishing their diamonds, nor undone by not being paid for them; the prosperity of the milliner does not depend on affixing their name to a cap or a colour; the poet does not celebrate them; the novelist does not dedicate to

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hem; but they possess the affection of their husbands, he attachment of their children, the esteem of the wise and good, and, above all, they possess His favour, whom to know is life eternal.

FRAGMENTS FOR SPARE MOMENTS. WOULD YOU CHOOSE?

He is a presumptuous child that will choose his own rod —and an unreasonable Christian that will choose his own cross.

A GENTLE HINT.

Aristotle observing a proud, self-conceited, but empty youth, strutting along with an affected gait and lofty looks, stepped up to him and whispered these words into his ear—

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Friend, such as thou thinkest thyself to be, I wish I were!—but to be as thou art, I wish only to mine enemies !"

WE HAVE ONLY ONE TONGUE!

Zeno, hearing a young man speak too freely, told him— "For this reason we have only one tongue but two ears, that we should hear much and speak little!"

THREE THINGS A WIFE SHOULD BE, AND THREE THINGS A WIFE SHOULD NOT BE.

A wife, domestic, good, and pure,

Like snail should keep within her door ;

But not like snail, in silver track,

Place all her wealth upon her back!
Like a town-clock a wife should be,

Keep time and regularity;

But not like clock harangue so clear
That all the town her voice may hear.
A wife should be like echo true,

And speak but when she's spoken to ;
But not like echo, still be heard

Contending for the final word.

Young man! your bride should be like and unlike an

echo-a clock-and a snail.

J. Unwin, Gresham Steam Press, Bucklersbury, London.