"And whither wilt thou go ?

" said the jester.

"Into another world," said the lord.

“And when wilt thou come again? within a month?” "No."

"Never! and what provision hast thou made for thy entertainment whither thou goest? "

"None at all."

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"No!" said the jester. "None at all? Here, take thy staff, then. Art thou going away forever? Hast thou made no preparation for a journey from which thou shalt never return? Take my staff then, for I will not be guilty of such folly as this."

5.-GREATNESS.

1. ONLY moral greatness is truly sublime. The gladiator may discipline his sinews, and almost compete in strength even with his maddened adversary. And there are modern as well as ancient names, which awaken pity, if not contempt, for their owners, on account of the fearful perversion of their splendid talents. But when we read or hear of HOWARD, the illustrious philanthropist, the soul--debased as it may be-bends with instinctive homage, and feels as if a ray from his beatified spirit illumed and purified its purposes.

2. While NAPOLEON, like the fabled genii, traversed the affrighted earth, marked his footsteps with human blood, our own WASHINGTON rose like another luminary upon the dark and troubled scene of American politics, and with no marvelous intellectual ability, but in the tranquil might of moral majesty, he pursued the narrow path of duty, and blenched neither to the power of enemies, nor to the influence of affection. He had no noonday brightness, no declining splendor. His whole course

was light and glory; and he left a heavenly and perennial brilliancy on the national horizon.

6.-LIFE.

1. LIFE bears us on, like the current of a mighty river. Our boat, at first, glides down the narrow channel, through the playful murmurings of the little brook, and the windings of its happy border. The trees shed their blossoms over our young heads; the flowers on the brink seem to offer themselves to our hands; we are happy in hope, and we grasp eagerly at the beauties around us; but the stream hurries us on, and still our hands are empty.

2. Our course in youth and manhood is along a wider and deeper flood, and amid objects more striking and magnificent. We are animated by the moving picture of enjoyment and industry, which passes before us: we are excited by some short-lived success, or depressed and made miserable by some equally short-lived disappointment. But our energy and our dependence are both in vain. The stream bears us on, and our joys and our griefs are alike left behind us; we may be shipwrecked, but we cannot anchor; our voyage may be hastened, but it cannot be delayed; whether rough or smooth, the river hastens toward its home, till the roaring of the ocean is in our ears, and the tossing of the waves is beneath our heel, and the land lessens from our eyes, and the floods are lifted up around us, and we take our last leave of the earth, and its inhabitants; and of our further voyage there is no witness but the Infinite and Eternal.

7.-VULGAR WORDS.

1. THERE is as much connection between the words and the thoughts, as there is between the thoughts and the words; the latter are not only the expression of the former, but they have power to reäct upon the soul and leave the stain of corruption there.

2. A young man who allows himself to use profane

and vulgar words, has not only shown that there is a foul spot on his mind, but by the utterance of that word he extends that spot and inflames it, till by indulgence it will soon pollute and ruin the whole soul.

3. Be careful of your words, as well as of your thoughts. If you can control the tongue, that no improper words be pronounced by it, you will soon be able to control the mind and save it from corruption. You extinguish the fire by smothering it, or prevent bad thoughts bursting out in language. Never utter a word, anywhere, which you would be ashamed to speak in the presence of the most religious man. Try this practice a little, and you will soon have command of yourself.

XII. CATILINE TO HIS ARMY, NEAR FÆSULÆ.

BEN JONSON.

1.

I NEVER yet knew, Soldiers, that in fight
Words added virtue unto valiant men;

2.

Or that a General's oration made

An army fall or stand: but how much prowess,

Habitual or natural, each man's breast

Was owner of, so much in act it showed.
Whom neither glory nor danger can excite,
'Tis vain to attempt with speech.

Two armies wait us, Soldiers; one from Rome
The other from the provinces of Gaul.

The sword must now direct and cut our passage.
I only, therefore, wish you, when you strike,
To have your valors and your souls about you;
And think you carry in your laboring hands
The things you seek,-glory and liberty!
For by your swords the Fates must be instructed!
If we can give the blow, all will be safe;
We shall not want provision, nor supplies;
The colonies and free towns will lie open;
Where, if we yield to fear, expect no place,

Nor friend, to shelter those whom their own fortune
And ill-used arms have left without protection.

3.

4.

You might have lived in servitude or exile,

Or safe at Rome, depending on the great,

But that you thought those things unfit for men

And, in that thought, my friends, you then were valiant;

For no man ever yet changed peace for war

But he that meant to conquer. Hold that purpose.

Meet the opposing army in that spirit.

There's more necessity you should be such,

In fighting for yourselves, than they for others.
He's base who trusts his feet, whose hands are armed.

Methinks I see Death and the Furies waiting
What we will do, and all the Heaven at leisure
For the great spectacle. Draw, then, your swords,
And, should our destiny begrudge our virtue

The honor of the day, let us take care

To sell ourselves at such a price as may
Undo the world to buy us!

XIII.-SPARTACUS TO THE GLADIATORS AT CAPUA.

E. KELLOGG.

1. Ir had been a day of triumph in Capua. Lentulus, returning with victorious eagles, had amused the populace with the sports of the amphitheatre to an extent hitherto unknown even in that luxurious city. The shouts of revelry had died away; the roar of the lion had ceased; the last loiterer had retired from the banquet; and the lights in the palace of the victor were extinguished.

2. The moon, piercing the tissue of fleecy clouds, silvered the dew-drops on the corslet of the Roman sentinel, and tipped the dark.waters of the Vulturnus wîth a wavy, tremulous light. No sound was heard, save the last sob of some retiring wave, telling its story to the smooth pebbles of the beach; and then all was still as the breast when the spirit has departed. In the deep recesses of the amphitheatre, a band of gladiators were assembled; their muscles still knotted with the agony of conflict, the foam upon their lips, the scowl of battle yet lingering on their

brows; when Spartacus, starting forth from amid the throng, thus addressed them:

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3. Ye call me chief; and ye do well to call him chief who, for twelve long years, has met upon the arēna every shape of man or beast the broad empire of Rome could furnish, and who never yet lowered his arm. If there be one among you who can say, that ever, in public fight or private brawl, my actions did belie my tongue, let him stand forth, and say it. If there be three in all your company dare face me on the bloody sands, let them come on. And yet I was not always thus,—a hired butcher, a savage chief of still more savage men!

4. "My ancestors came from old Sparta, and settled among the vine-clad rocks and citron groves of Syrasella. My early life ran quiet as the brooks by which I sported; and when, at noon, I gathered the sheep beneath the shade, and played upon the shepherd's flute, there was a friend, the son of a neighbor, to join me in the pastime. We led our flocks to the same pasture, and partook together our rustic meal.

5. “One evening, after the sheep were folded, and we were all seated beneath the myrtle which shaded our cottage, my grandsire, an old man, was telling of Marathon, and Leuctra; and how, in ancient times, a little band of Spartans, in a defile of the mountains, had withstood a whole army. I did not then know what war was; but my cheeks burned, I knew not why, and I clasped the knees of that venerable man, until my mother, parting the hair from off my forehead, kissed my throbbing temples, and bade me go to rest, and think no more of those old tales and savage wars. That very night, the Romans landed on our coast. I saw the breast that had nourished me trampled by the hoof of the war-horse; the bleeding body of my father flung amidst the blazing rafters of our dwelling!

6. "To-day I killed a man in the arena; and, when I broke his helmet-clasps, behold! he was my friend. He