some time afterwards he called again: the sculptor was still at his work. His friend, looking at the figure, exclaimed, "You have been idle since I saw you last." "By no means," replied the sculptor; "I have retouched this part, and polished that; I have softened this feature, and brought out this muscle; I have given more expression to this lip, and more energy to this limb." "Well, well," said his friend, "but all these are trifles." "It may be so,” replied Angelo; "but recollect that trifles make perfection, and that perfection is no trifle." Longfellow says and the Spanish proverb tells us that, "By the road of By-and-by one arrives at the town of Never." Shakespeare says : "The flighty purpose never is o'ertook, Unless the deed go with it. There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Is bound in shallows and in miseries." "Now," is the constant syllable ticking from the clock of time. "Now," is the watchword of the wise. "Now," is on the banner of the prudent. Let us keep this little word always in our mind; and whenever anything presents itself to us in the shape of work, whether mental or physical, we should do it with all our might, remembering that "Now" is the only time for us. It is, indeed, a sorry way to get through the world, by putting off till to-morrow, saying, “Then I will do it." is ours, "then" may never be. No; this will never answer. 'Now "Trust no future, howe'er pleasant, Let the dead Past bury its dead; Heart within, and God o'erhead!" Never defer till to-morrow what can be done at the present time. If you have a lesson to learn, begin at once; by constant repetition you will accomplish it. If you wish to acquire any particular branch of education, you must be studious; by practice you will surmount many difficulties. Should you have an important duty to perform, never defer it; by so doing you may bring life-long trouble upon others. Be prompt in your actions; whatever you undertake try and fulfil. Never promise what you cannot perform. Learn punctuality and self-reliance; then there will be no occasion to rely on another's ability for help. When you have decided upon doing a thing, do it. Begin. Do not delay. Everything must have a commencement. The first weed pulled up in the garden, the first seed put into the ground, the first shilling into the savings bank, and the first mile travelled on a journey, are all very important things; they make a beginning, and thereby a hope, a promise, a pledge, an assurance, that you are in earnest with what you have undertaken. How many a poor, idle, hesitating, erring outcast is now creeping through the world, who might have held up his head and prospered, if, instead of putting off his resolutions of amendment and industry, he had made a beginning. A beginning, a good beginning, too, is necessary: "Had not the base been laid by builders wise, PATIENCE. EVERY man must patiently bide his time. He must wait, not in listless idleness, not in useless pastime, not in querulous dejection, but in constant, steady, and cheerful endeavour, always willing, "We no longer attribute the untimely death of infants to the sin of Adam, but to bad nursing and ignorance. "The granite hills are not so changeless and abiding as the restless sea. "In their struggle with the forces of Nature, the ability to labour was the richest patrimony of the colonists. "Coercion is the basis of every law in the universe—human or Divine. A law is no law without coercion behind it. "For the noblest man who lives there still remains a conflict. "We hold reunions not for the dead, for there is nothing in all the earth that you and I can do for the dead. They are past our help and past our praise. We can add to them no glory, we can give to them no immortality. They do not need us, but forever and forever more we need them. 66 Throughout the whole web of national existence we trace the golden thread of human progress toward a higher and better estate. "Heroes did not make our liberties, but they reflected and illustrated them. "The life and light of a nation are inseparable. "After all, territory is but the body of a nation. The people who inhabit its hills and valleys are its soul, its spirit, its life. In them dwells its hope of immortality. Among them, if anywhere, are to be found its chief elements of destruction. "It matters little what may be the form of national institutions, if the life, freedom, and growth of society are secured. "Finally our great hope for the future, our great safeguard against danger, is to be found in the general and thorough education of our people, and in the virtue which accompanies such education. "The germ of our political institutions, the primary cell from which they were evolved, was in the New England town, and the vital force, the informing soul of the town, was the town meeting, which for all local concerns was King, Lords, and Commons in all. "It is as much the duty of all good men to protect and defend the reputation of worthy public servants as to detect public rascals. "Be fit for more than the thing you are now doing. "If you are not too large for the place you are too small for it. "Young men talk of trusting to the spur of the occasion. That trust is vain. Occasions cannot make spurs. If you expect to wear spurs you must win them. If you wish to use them you must buckle them to your own heels before you go into the fight. "Greek is perhaps the most perfect instrument of thought ever invented by man, and its literature has never been equalled in purity of style and boldness of expression. "Great ideas travel slowly and for a time noiselessly, as the gods whose feet were shod with wool. "What the arts are to the world of matter, literature is to the world of mind. "Revenue is not the friction of a Government, but rather its motive power. "History is but the unrolled scroll of prophecy. "The world's history is a Divine poem of which the history of every nation is a canto and every man a word. Its strains have been pealing along down the centuries, and though there have been mingled the discords of warring cannon and dying men, yet to the Christian, philosopher and historian-the humble listener-there has been a Divine melody running through the song which speaks of hope and halcyon days to come. 66 'Light itself is a great corrective. A thousand wrongs and abuses that are grown in darkness disappear like owls and bats before the light of day. "Liberty can be safe only when suffrage is illuminated by education. "Parties have an organic life and spirit of their own, an individuality and character which outlive the men who compose them; and the spirit and traditions of a party should be considered in determining their fitness for managing the affairs of the nation." PERSEVERANCE. PERSEVERANCE is often not only a substitute for ability, but it is something more. Many a one of very ordinary capacity has by dint of the same valuable quality which enabled the tortoise in the fable to out-journey the hare, accomplished wonderfully greater things than another possessing superior abilities, but less perseverance. Great works are performed, not by strength, but by perseverance. We once had the curiosity to look into a little girl's work-box. And what do you suppose we found? We found not a single article complete; and, mute as they were, those half-finished, forsaken things, told us a sad story about that little girl. They told us that, with a heart full of generous affection, with a head full of useful and pretty projects, all of which she had both the means and the skill to carry into effect, she was still a useless child, always doing, but never accomplishing her work. It was not a want of industry, but a want of perseveRemember, it matters but little what great thing we undertake our glory is not in that, but in what we accomplish. Nobody in the world cares for what we mean to do; but everybody's eyes will be open by-and-by to see what men and women and little children have done. Shakespeare says— rance. : "Perseverance Keeps honour bright: To have done is to hang Quite out of fashion, like a rusty mail In monumental mockery. Take the instant way; Where one but goes abreast. Keep then the path; That one by one pursue: if you give way, Or, like a gallant horse fallen in first rank, |