gotten-forgotten because that Greece drew forth Cytherea from the flashing foam of the Egean, and in her image created new forms of beauty, and made it a law among men that the short and proudly-wreathed lip should stand for the sign and the main condition of loveliness through all generations to come. Yet still there lives on the race of those who were beautiful in the fashion of the elder world, and Christian girls of Coptic blood will look on you with the sad, serious gaze, and kiss your charitable hand with the big pouting lips of the very Sphinx. 2. Laugh and mock if you will at the worship of stone idols; but mark ye this, ye breakers of images, that in one regard the stone idol bears awful semblance of Deity-unchangefulness in the midst of change-the same seeming will and intent for ever and ever inexorable! Upon ancient dynasties of Ethiopian and Egyptian kings-upon Greek and Roman, upon Arab and Ottoman conquerors-upon Napoleon dreaming of an Eastern empire-upon battle and pestilence-upon the ceaseless misery of the Egyptian race-upon keen-eyed travelers-Herodotus yesterday, Warburton to-day—upon all and more this unworldly Sphinx has watched, and watched like a Providence with the same earnest eyes, and the same sad, tranquil mien. And we, we shall die, and Islam will wither away, and the Englishman, straining far over to hold his loved India, will plant a firm foot on the banks of the Nile, and sit in the seats of the Faithful, and still that sleepless rock will lie watching and watching the works of the new busy race, with those same sad, earnest eyes, and the same tranquil mien everlasting. You dare not mock at the Sphinx.-A. W. Kinglake. NOT ENOUGH TO BE SINCERE.-It is often said, it is no matter what a man believes if he is only sincere. This is true of all minor truths, and false of all truths whose nature it is to fashion a man's life. It will make no difference in a man's harvest whether he thinks turnips have more saccharine mat ter than potatoes--whether corn is better than wheat. But let the man sincerely believe that seed planted without plowing is as good as with, that January is as favorable for seedsowing as April, and that cockle-seed will produce as good a harvest as wheat, and will it make no difference? A child might as well think he could reverse that ponderous marine engine which, night and day, in calm and storm, plows its way across the deep, by sincerely taking hold of the paddlewheel, as a man might think he could reverse the action of the elements of God's moral government through a misguided sincerity. They will roll over such a one, and whelm him in endless ruin.-H. W. Beecher. THE POWER OF LANGUAGE.-The soul is like a musical instrument. It is not enough that it be framed for the very most delicate vibration, but it must vibrate long and often before the fibers grow mellow to the finest waves of sympathy. I perceive that in the veery's caroling, the clover's scent, the glistening of the water, the waving wings of butterflies, the sunset tints, the floating clouds, there are attainable infinitely more subtle modulations of delight than I can yet reach the sensibility to discriminate, much less describe. If, in the simple process of writing, one could physically impart to this page the fragrance of this spray of azalea beside me, what a wonder would it seem! And yet one ought to be able, by the mere use of language, to supply to every reader the total of that white, honeyed, trailing sweetness which summer insects haunt, and the Spirit of the Universe loves. The defect is not in language, but in men. There is no conceivable beauty of blossoms so beautiful as words-none so graceful, none so perfumed. It is possible to dream of combinations of syllables so delicious that all the dawning and decay of summer cannot rival their perfection, nor winter's stainless white and azure match their purity and their charm. To write them, were it possible, would be to take rank with Nature. Nor is there any other method, even by music, for human art to reach so high.--T. W. Higginson. DEMORALIZATION CONSEQUENT ON IRRELIGION.-Once let men thoroughly believe that secret crimes have no witness but the perpetrator; that human existence has no purpose, and human virtue no unfailing friend; that this brief life is everything to us, and that death is total, everlasting extinction; once let men thoroughly abandon religion, and who can conceive or describe the extent of the desolation which would follow! We hope, perhaps, that human laws and natural sympathy would hold society together. As reasonably might we believe that, were the sun quenched in the heavens, our torches would illuminate, and our fires quicken and fertilize, the creation! What is there in human nature to awaken respect and tenderness, if man be the unprotected insect of a day? And what is he more, if atheism be true? Erase all thought and fear of God from a community, and selfishness and sensuality would absorb the whole man. Appetite, knowing no restraint, and poverty and suffering having no solace of hope, would trample in scorn on the restraints of human laws. Virtue, duty, principle, would be mocked and spurned as unmeaning sounds. A sordid self-interest would supplant every other feeling, and man would become, in fact, what the theory of atheism declares him to be-a companion for brutes.-Channing. LIFE. The mere lapse of years is not life. To eat, and drink, and sleep; to be exposed to darkness and the light; to pace around the mill of habit and turn the wheel of wealth; to make reason our book-keeper, and turn thought into an implement of trade-this is not life. In all this, but a poor fraction of the consciousness of humanity is awakened; and the sanctities still slumber which make it most worth while to be. Knowledge, truth, love, beauty, goodness, faith, alone give vitality to the mechanism of existence. The laugh of mirth which vibrates through the heart; the tears which freshen the dry wastes within; the music which brings childhood back; the prayer that calls the future near; the doubt which makes us meditate; the death which startles us with mystery; the hardships that force us to struggle; the anxiety that ends in trust-these are the true nourishments of our natural being.-Anon. Joseph Addison, a distinguished scholar, poet, and essayist, was born in England in 1672, and died in 1719. Alexander William Kinglake, an English barrister and author, was born in 1802. His chief work is an admirable History of the Crimean War. Thomas Wentworth Higginson, an American author of established fame, was born in Cambridge, Mass., in 1823. His style is remarkably pure and beautiful. William Ellery Channing, a learned and eloquent divine and author, was born in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1780, and died in 1842. Cytherea, a surname of Venus, from her rising out of the ocean near the Island of Cythera. Herodotus, a celebrated Greek historian, was born 484 B. C., and died about 408 B. C. Ot' to man, pertaining to, or derived from, the empire of Turkey. LESSON XLVI. HASSAN, THE CAMEL DRIVER. BY WILLIAM COLLINS. Willliam Collins, an eminent English peer, was born in 1720, and died in 1756. About 1744 he went to London, where he suffered extreme poverty, but was relieved from utter wretchedness by a legacy of £2,000 left him by his uncle. His Ode on the Passions is the poem by which he is best known. One cruse of water on his back he bore, With desperate sorrow wild, th' affrighted man Thrice sighed, thrice struck his breast, and thus began: "Sad was the hour, and luckless was the day, When first from Schiraz' walls I bent my way! 2. "Ah! little thought I of the blasting wind, 3. "Ye mute companions of my toil, that bear In all my griefs a more than equal share! Here, where no springs in murmurs break away, |