have a touch of the same usage in our word fortnight. It might be well for us to make more account of our off hours. Whatever aids us in marking the apparent stages of time is useful. M. Huc, the missionary in China, one day asked a boy whether it was noon. The boy looked up to the sky, but the sun was obscured by clouds; then he took up a cat, and pushing back the eyelids, said, “It is not noon yet." Then he let the cat go. This may not be the convenient way of finding the hour, and a cat may not be available, even if we understood the timing of its eyes. We have the sun and should give heed to it. The old English measure was natural and good, "from daybreak to curfew." We must regard the mere-stone. There is much pathos in the comparison of the aged Ealdorman before the Northumbrian king: So seems the life of man, O king, as a sparrow's flight through the hall where a man is sitting at meat at wintertide, with the warm fire lighted on the hearth, but the chill rain-storm without." No: that is not true. Life is more than a sparrow's flight through a warm room, from wintry darkness to wintry darkness. It is a long period for living. In seventy years, in thirty years, there is space for a mighty passion, a sturdy force, for countless deeds moving to some grand achievement. Think how much one can do in a day, if he give his force to the doing. Multiply one day by the

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number in a year, and that by seventy, or thirty. We need to correct our estimates by such a reckoning; and this again by remembering how much we have known men to accomplish who were earnest and generous. Life is not short or small compared with eternity-but we have no right to compare it with eternity. Shall we not drink because our cup holds less water than the well? A man has a magnificent opportunity who can lay out his work for ten years even. He may not stay here ten years, but he does well to plan for it, and to make good use of whatever comes to him, though it seems to be only on "this bank and shoal of time." The daily result may not appear. Many days may go to preparation, then he reaches the consummation. and all things he has wrought are fulfilled. It is a remark worth thinking upon, that Farragut's whole life was a preparation for the victories which were won in an aggregate of less than six hours of actual fighting. But the getting ready must be a real discipline, and afterwards set to largest uses for an end higher than the beginning. What shall I do with my knowledge when I have paid for it? is a wholesome inquiry. Some are always getting ready without ever being ready. It was said of a theological student that he spent all his time getting up at seven o'clock in the morning. It was a good comparison, that some men begin their running

so far away from the leaping that their force is used up before they reach the bar. Do not make the run too long. Do not wait for second chances. Throw all the force into the first, accounting it the last. An opportunity never returns, though one resembling it may come up behind. Opportunity is correctly described as having its hair on the front of its head. We must catch it as it goes by, or our fingers will slip from the bare skull. It is related of one whose death had been prematurely announced, that he could obtain no redress except the proffer of the newspaper to start him again under the head of Births. Time and Nature make no such offer. It was timely warning, that in our youth we should not be drawing checks upon our future.. It is not well to mortgage manhood to meet the debts of youth. "Pay as you go," is a popular motto-for other people and for city governments. Each year has its own burden, proportioned to its own ability. A camel is patient until it has load enough. If more is added it complains; if more, it quickly rolls off the whole. That is its nature, nor is this confined to camels.

"Thus the whirligig of time brings in his revenges."

We must give to our purposes and our manners and methods free range. The strong men have been men of long vision. They sought results

beyond their own time. They could not meet them, but they could know them and be quickened and rewarded as they sent their thoughts in advance. It is thus that we make coming days serve us even here. Cicero asked, "What will history say of me six hundred years hence? I am more afraid of that than the chatter of my contemporaries." "I have had the year two thousand, and even the year three thousand, often in my mind," wrote Macaulay. This was Gladstone's estimate: "The last, the severest, the most awful judge, is the compensating award of posterity." It is a fine saying: It is a fine saying: "Immortality will come to such as are fit for it; and he who would be a great soul in the future must be a great soul now." Happily the future in its demands is not at variance with the present and its opportunities. It is easy to give advice; but some lessons have to be paid for at high charges. It is unfortunate that so often they come too late. Experience has been likened to a light in the stern of a boat; it shows the path the keel has made. If we can get the light in the bow it will be of more use. It is this which old men try to do for young men. When all is said, it remains that the young man must make up his own mind and go his own way. He prefers to do this; and it is well, if he have discretion. Each period has its own desires and tastes, and these are not always matched with the means they

need. The boy Thackeray wished the cake, but lacked the twopence to buy it. When he had earned the twopence he did not care for the cake. We must try to bring our needs and means together. We do well to begin early. General Armstrong's rule for the black boy was, to catch him before he catches himself. Now for the boy to catch himself before he is caught by his rival or his foe. The story of the spider and the fly may be read to advantage long after the beard has started. Let the youth keep himself in health and good manners, and his outlook is hopeful.

It is in

Time is to be known and esteemed. dispensable, but it is not bounded by the coast of this world. These are stirring words:

"One crowded hour of glorious life

Is worth an age without a name."

Instead of name there are other words which one could better write. These are heroic sentences, tragic in their sound; and while on the highway of life there is chance enough to be brave, startling heroism is not always demanded. On the whole, it is better to live for the truth than to die for it, if we can honestly live, and with full courage. "We live in deeds, not years," we keep saying it. But the deeds must have the years to stand in.

'We should count

time by heart-throbs." Certainly; but the heart