throughout the British dominions, was at the height of his philanthropic career, he left on record words worthy to be treasured in every aspiring heart. "I thank God," says he, "that I have pursuits in life so deeply interesting as they proceed, and so full of promise in the magnitude of their results, that they deserve to absorb my whole being. I would not exchange objects in life with any living man.' Contrast that noble spirit with that of Frederick the Great, who, after suffering reverses and disappointments, thus revealed the bitterness of his heart, in spite of his boasted philosophy: "It is hard for a man to bear what I bear. I begin to feel, as the Italians say, that revenge is a pleasure for the gods. My philosophy is worn out by suffering. I am no saint like those we read of in the legends, and I will own that I should die content if only I could first inflict a portion of the misery which I endure.”

When Handel, the great composer, was thanked by an English nobleman for the entertainment he had af forded the people by his new oratorio, "The Messiah," he replied, "My lord, I should be sorry if I only entertained them; I wish to make them better."

That was a noble declaration which has come down to us through the centuries from Alfred the Great: "I have striven to live worthily, and left it on record."

To build a good character requires a spirit of earnestness. Said Dr. Arnold, the celebrated instructor: "I feel more and more the need of intercourse with

men who take life in earnest. It is painful to me to be always on the surface of things. Not that I wish for much of what is called religious conversation. That is often apt to be on the surface. But I want a sign which one catches by a sort of masonry, that a man knows what he is about in life. When I find this

it opens my heart with as fresh a sympathy as when I was twenty years younger."

On this subject Carlyle writes these earnest words:

Thy life, wert thou the pitifullest of all the sons of earth, is no idle dream, but a solemn reality. It is thine own! it is all thou hast to front eternity with. Work then like a star, unhasting yet unresting."

The building of character requires also manly independence; the determination to do right even it be unpopular. It requires strength of character to face ridicule and contumely, even if bidden by the unrelenting voices of conscience and duty.

Sidney Smith emphasizes this truth in these words: "I know of no principle which it is of more importance to fix in the minds of young people, than that of the most determined resistance to the encroachments of ridicule. If you think it right to differ with the times, and to make a stand for any valuable point of morals or religion, do it, however rustic, however antiquated it may appear; do it, not for insolence, but seriously and grandly, as a man wears a soul of his own in his own, and does not wait until it shall be breathed into him by the breath of fashion."

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Again, to build character requires a teachable spirit, one that will bear reproof if in the wrong. found student of human nature observes: perhaps no better test of a man's real strength of character, than the way in which he bears himself un der just reproof. Every man makes mistakes; every man commits faults; but not every man has the honesty and meekness to acknowledge his errors and to welcome the criticism which points them out to him. It is rarely difficult for us to find an excuse for our course, if it's an excuse we are looking for. It is, in fact, always easier to spring to an angry defense of ourselves than to calmly acknowledge the justice of another's righteous condemnation of some wrong action of ours; but to refuse to adopt this latter course, when we know that we are in the wrong, is to reveal to our own better consciousness, and often to the consciousness of others, an essential defect in our character. He is strong who dares confess that he is weak; he is already tottering to a fall who needs to bolster up the weakness of his personality by all sorts of transparent shams. It is not in vain that Scripture says: 'Reprove one that hath understanding, and he will understand knowledge;' for one of the best evidences of the possession of that discreet selfjudgment which stands at the basis of moral strength, and one of the best means of gaining it when it is lacking, is just this willingness to accept merited reproof, and to profit by it when accepted."

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One of the most brilliant intellects of this century has given this masterly exposition of the true strength of character: Strength of character consists of two things; power of will and power of self-restraint. It requires two things, therefore, for its existence; strong feelings and strong command over them. Now, it is here we make a great mistake; we mistake strong feelings for strong character. A man who bears all before him, before whose frown, domestics tremble, and whose bursts of fury make the children of the household quake, because he has his will obeyed and his own way in all things, we call him a strong man. The truth is, that is the weak man; it is his passions that are strong; he, mastered by them, is weak. You must measure the strength of a man by the power of the feelings he subdues, not by the power of those which subdue him. And hence composure is very often the highest result of strength. Did we never see a man receive a flagrant insult, and only grow a little pale and then reply quietly? That was a man spiritually strong. Or did we never see a man in anguish, stand as if carved out of solid rock, mastering himself? Or one bearing a hopeless daily trial remain silent and never tell the world what cankered his home-peace? That is strength. He who with strong passions remains chaste; he who, keenly sensitive, with manly power of indignation in him, can be provoked, and yet restrain himself and forgive-these are the strong men, the spiritual heroes."

WHAT READING WILL DO.

O for a Booke and a shadie nooke,
eyther in-a-door or out;

With the grene leaves whisp'ring overhede,
or the Streete cryes all about.
Where I maie Reade all at my ease,

both of the Newe and Olde;

For a jollie goode Booke whereon to looke,
is better to me than Golde.

-Old English Song.

HE habit of reading good books affords one of the greatest enjoyments of life. By reading, we can transcend time and space, and bring before us in review, the peoples and dynasties of the misty past.

We can summon before us their great men, we can listen to their words of wisdom, and learn the story of the achievements which made them immortal.

Says an eloquent writer: I go into my library, and, like some great panorama, all history unrolls before me; I breathe the morning air of the world, while the scent of Eden's roses lingers in it. I see the pyramids building. I hear Memnon murmur as the first morning sun touches him. I see the Sphinx when she first began to ask her eternal question. I sit as in a theater; the stage is time, the play is the play of the world.