purify themselves, and get their strength of waves fully together for due occasions. (2) Rivers in this way are just like wise men, who keep one side of their life for play, and another for work; and can be brilliant, and chattering, and transparent when they are at ease, and yet take deep counsel on the other side when they set themselves to the main purpose. (3) And rivers are just in this divided, also, like wicked and good men; the good rivers have serviceable deep places all along their banks that ships can sail in, but the wicked rivers go scoopingly, irregularly, under their banks until they get full of strangling eddies, which no boat can row over without being twisted against the rocks, and pools like wells which no one can get out of but the water-kelpie that lives at the bottom; but, wicked or good, the rivers all agree in having two sides.

THE BROOK.

(1) I steal by lawns and grassy plots,
I slide by hazel covers;

I move the sweet forget-me-nots
That grow for happy lovers.

(majestic

(2) I slip, I slide, I gloom, I glance,
Among my skimming swallows;
1 make the netted sunbeam dance
Against my sandy shallows.

(3) I murmur under moon and stars
In brambly wildernesses;
I linger by my shingly bars;
I loiter round my cresses;

(4) And out again I curve and flow
To join the brin.ming river,

For men may come and men may go,
But I go on forever.

A FABLE JUDGES IX.: 8-15.

(1) The trees went forth on a time to anoint a king over them; and they said unto the olive tree, Reign thou over us. (2) But the olive tree said unto them, Should I leave my fatness, wherewith by me they honor God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees? (3) And the trees said to the fig tree, Come thou, and reign over us. (4) But the fig tree said unto them, Should I forsake my sweetness, and my good fruit, and go to be promoted over the trees. (5) Then said the trees unto the vine, Come thou, and reign over us. (6) And the vine said unto them, Should I leave my wine, which cheereth God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees? (7) Then said all the trees unto the bramble, Come thou, and reign over us. (8) And the bramble said unto the trees, If in truth ye anoint me king over you, then come and put your trust in my shadow; and if not, let fire come out of the bramble, and devour the cedars of Leb

anon.

THE SOURCES OF THE NILE.

(1) It would at first sight appear that the discovery of the lake sources of the Nile had completely solved the mystery of ages, and that the fertility of Egypt depended upon the rainfall of the equator, concentrated in the lakes Victoria and Albert; but the exploration of the Nile tributaries of Abyssinia divides the Nile system into two proportions, and unravels the entire mystery of the river, by assigning to each its due share in ministering to the prosperity of Egypt.

(2) The lake-sources of Central Africa support the life of Egypt, by supplying a stream, throughout all seasons, that has sufficient volume to support the exhaustion of evaporation and absorption; but this stream, if unaided, could never overflow its banks, and Egypt, thus deprived

of the annual inundation, would simply exist, and cultivation would be confined to the close vicinity of the river.

(3) The inundation, which by its annual deposit of mud has actually created the Delta of Lower Egypt, upon the overflow of which the fertility of Egypt depends, has an origin entirely separate from the lake-sources of Central Africa, and the supply of water is derived exclusively from Abyssinia.

(4) The two grand affluents of Abyssinia are the Blue Nile, and the Atbara, which join the main stream respectively in N. lat. 15° 30 and 17° 37'. (5) These rivers, although streams of extreme grandeur during the period of the Abyssinian rains-from the middle of June until September-are reduced during the dry months to utter insignificance; the Blue Nile becoming so shallow as to be unnavigable, and the Atbara perfectly dry. (6) At that time, the water supply of Abyssinia having ceased, Egypt depends solely upon the equatorial lakes, and the affluents of the White Nile, until the rainy season shall have again flooded the two great Abyssinian arteries. (7) That flood occurs suddenly about the 20th of June, and the grand rush of water, pouring down the Blue Nile and the Atbara into the parent channel, inundates Lower Egypt, and is the cause of its extreme fertility.

(8) Not only is the inundation the effect of the Abyssinian rains, but the deposit of mud that has formed the Delta, and which is annually precipitated by the rising waters, is also due to the Abyssinian streams, more especially to the river Atbara, which, known as the Bahr el Aswat (Black River), carries a larger proportion of soil than any other tributary of the Nile; therefore, to the Atbara, above all other rivers, must the wealth and fertility of Egypt be attributed. (9) It may thus be stated: The equatorial lakes feed Egypt, but the Abyssinian rivers cause the inundation.

USE PLAIN LANGUAGE.

(1) What do you say? (2) What? (3) I really do not understand you. (4) Be so good as to explain yourself again. (5) Upon my word, I do not! (6) O! now I know you mean to tell me it is a cold day. (7) Why did you not say at once, "It is cold to-day?" (8) If you wish to inform me it rains or snows, pray say, "It rains," "It snows;" or, if you think I look well, and you choose to compliment me, say, "I think you look well." (9) "But," you answer, "that is so common and so plain, and what everybody can say." (10) Well, and what if everybody can? (11) Is it so great a misfortune to be understood when one speaks, and to speak like the rest of the world?

(12) I will tell you what, my friend-you do not suspect it, and I shall astonish you-but you, and those like you, want common sense! (13) Nay, this is not all; it is not only in the direction of your wants that you are in fault, but in your superfluities; you have too much conceit; you possess an opinion that you have more sense than others. (14) That is the source of all your pompous nothings, your cloudy sentences, and your big words without meaning. (15) Before you accost a person, or enter a room, let me pull you by the sleeve and whisper into your ear, "Do not try to show off your sense: have none at all; that is your cue. (16) Use plain language, if you can; just such as you find others use, who, in your idea, have no understanding; and then, perhaps, you will get credit for having some.”

THE WINTER PALACE OF ICE.

(1) Down swept the chill wind from the mountain peak, From the snow five thousand summers old;

On open wold and hill top bleak

It had gathered all the cold,

And whirled it like sleet on the wanderer's cheek;

It carried a shiver everywhere
From the unleafed boughs and pastures bare;
The little brook heard it and built a roof, at
"Neath which he could house him, winter-proof;
(2) All night by the white stars' frosty gleams

He groined his arches and matched his beams;
(Slender and clear were his crystal spars)
As the lashes of light that trim the stars;
He sculptured every summer delight
In his halls and chambers out of sight;
Sometimes his tinkling waters slipped
Down through a frost-leaved forest-crypt,
Long, sparkling aisles of steel-stemmed trees
Bending to counterfeit a breeze;

(3) Sometimes the roof no fretwork knew
But silvery mosses that downward grew;
Sometimes it was carved in sharp relief
With quaint arabesques of ice-fern leaf;
Sometimes it was simply smooth and clear,
For the gladness of heaven to shine through, and
here

He had caught the nodding bulrush-tops
And hung them thickly with diamond drops,
That crystalled the beams of moon and sun,
And made a star of every one ;)

(4) No mortal builder's most rare device
Could match this winter-palace of ice;
'Twas as if every image that mirrored lay
In his depths serene through the summer day,
Each fleeting shadow of earth and sky,
Lest the happy model should be lost,
Had been mimicked in fairy masonry
By the elfin builders of the frost.

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