IMPROVE YOURSELVES.

NOTWITHSTANDING the rapid march of intellect, the achievements of the past, and high hopes for the coming time, notwithstanding the cheap literature of the present day, lecture-halls, literary institutions, and public and private schools,—we are not yet up to our proper level. A fearful apathy in regard to social, moral, and intellectual elevation still prevails among the millions of our people. Unconscious of their misery, they remain, slumbering in indolence and sensuality. The press teems with knowledge in an attractive form. Science has caught hold of the hand of art, and they recommend each other. The pulpit and the chair are constantly filled, and yet we sleep. The school stands hard by the house of God in almost every hamlet. The bookseller's shop-window arrests the eye of every passer-by, and yet we sleep on. The cry is universal for cheap literature, and an extended elementary education; but is not the one very cheap, and the other already wide-spread, and still wider spreading every day. What is wanted now is a willingness to use the means we have. Sons of tradesmen, artisans, and mechanics, arose yourselves! Knowledge is cheaper than sinful and unmeaning pleasures. Fathers, awake, and begin your rising career! You have, almost without exception, more money than you spend thriftily and usefully; more time than you employ industriously; more talents than you use. You do not so much lack the means, as the taste and desire. The public lecture is cheaper than the evening carousal; the pence you squander would purchase you entertainment and instruction for every night in the year: but, alas! you do not care for it. Motives are numerous and at hand; but do you think? If so, there is hope. Consider, then, your responsibility. Ponder the weighty import of this consideration, and you will not long rest in slumber.

One other motive, however, though immensely inferior, is of itself sufficient to arouse those who are just awaking to action. It is this: the respect that a man of intelligence commands almost wherever he goes.

Can you fix your mind on a modest, intelligent man in your own neighbourhood, and contradict this? I have such a one in view at this moment; and I know he receives a welcome almost anywhere. Poor, and a daily labourer; his working-coat of fustian, and his "best" given to him twenty years ago; dependent upon the earnings of last week for the bread of this; with few books, but what he often borrowed and as oft returned; yet he has contrived to amass such a fund of ordinary and extraordinary knowledge upon common and uncommon subjects as to amaze those who meet him. Unused to polished society and elegance, his appearance and manners may create a smile, yet you cannot help honouring the man. Sons that have been bred in ease have turned aside and jeered when they saw him with hob-nailed shoes tread upon the carpet as if he were treading on thorns barefoot, afraid to set foot; but they have felt reverence for him when listening to his conversation; and heartily and penitently they shook his hand when leaving. Once, when in conversation, I told him that I was unacquainted with the biography and works of Pollok, (the Scottish Minister and poet,) and then he gave me such a viva voce review of his "Course of Time" as I shall never forget, with abundant quotations from its various parts. His Sundays he now devotes to village-preaching; and thus unknown, except in his own eircle, he labours for a rich reward. Emulate such men, and raise yourselves by using the means at hand.

ANECDOTE OF ANAXIMENES.

On one occasion, when Alexander the Great was marching with his army to encounter the Persians, his great ingenuity was overcome by the ingenuity of a man called Anaximenes. Alexander having arrived at the city of Lampsacus, which he was determined to destroy, in order to punish the rebellion of its inhabitants, Anaximenes, a native of that city, came to him. This man, who was a great historian, had been very intimate with Philip, Alexander's father; and Alexander also respected him, as he had been his (Anaximenes's) pupil. The

King, suspecting the business he was come on,-namely, to request him not to destroy his native city,-to be beforehand with him, declared, in express terms, that he would never grant his request. "The favour I have to desire of you," says Anaximenes, "is that you would destroy Lampsacus." The King, who generally carried his threatenings into effect, and was faithful to his word, could not do what he had determined, but did as he had promised; that is, he did not grant what Anaximenes requested. The result therefore was, that the city was not destroyed; and thus by the historian's ingenious device, his country was saved from destruction.

NEW BOOKS.

(Literary, Scientific, Educational.)

A new Edition of the Greek Text of the Gospels, with Prolegomena, Notes, and References, by the REV. H. C. ADAMS, M.A., (J. H. Parker,) is said by the editor to be for the use of schools and students for orders. For schools it may do very well, as the type is clear and the notes are simple; but to Wesleyan candidates for orders we should recommend something more adequate to their demand.

The Art of Elocution, by GEORGE VANDENHOFF, (Low,) is an American book, but not to be disdained by an English student. Elocution is treated as an essential part of rhetoric, and as-contrary to the opinion of Archbishop Whately, which Mr. Vandenhoff strenuously disputes-capable of being systematically taught. Some welldevised typographical contrivances exhibit the musical structure of sentences, and aid the student in developing the music of his voice. The book is clear, attractive, written in good style, and may be recommended to young men who desire to acquit themselves creditably as public readers or speakers.

The Annals of England; an Epitome of English History from Contemporary Writers, the Rolls of Parliament, and other Public Records, Vol. I., (J. H. and James Parker,) is not written for entertainment, but for instruction. The author, whoever he may be, has gone to the sources that are specified on the title-page, and transferred to his own pages, within small compass, the facts that he found recorded. The illustrations, also from original sources, are numerous and good, and notes are freely provided to compensate for the incompleteness or obscurity of the text. This first volume extends from B. C. 57, to the end of the reign of Richard II., A.D. 1399. It forms an excellent basis for the study of the History of England.

DR. ANTHONY GRANT, Archdeacon of St. Alban's, provides a popular and brief Historical Sketch of the Crimea, (Bell and Daldy,) that may be used with advantage as a key to the allusions to the geography and history of that peninsula which are now met with daily.

The Religious Tract Society puts forth a beautiful and useful little book on Magic, Pretended Miracles, Remarkable Natural Phenomena, and Remarkable Delusions. It is very seasonable, and should be read where the Mormon abomination is creeping into the neighbourhood, and where Popery shows itself.

The first Number of a serial called, The Excelsior Library, is on The Bible, (Shaw,) and promises well.

POETRY.

THE BLIGHTED TREE.

A LITTLE boy, with hasty step,
Ran to the garden-bower:
He loved mamma, and forth he ran
To pluck mamma a flower.
A lovely rose-tree eaught his eye,
As he was passing through:
Awhile he gazed upon each rose,

Then pluck'd the best that grew.

He waited not, nor cast one look
The damage done to see;

But hasten'd till he reach'd mamma,

And placed it on her knee.

From that day forth the rose-tree droop'd,

It bears no roses now;

That ruthless hand, too rudely stretch'd,

Has blasted every bough.

So death has enter'd many a home,

As John his rosy bower;

Awhile stood gazing on the group,

Then pluck'd the fairest flower.

Nor has that loved one fall'n alone,

The shock reach'd every heart;
Some follow'd hard, some follow now,
And all will soon depart.

T. B. D

LESSONS.

GEOMETRY.-Proposition 18.-Theorem.

IF from a point (D), within a triangle (B A C), lines are drawn to the extremities of any side (BC), they are together less than the sum of the other two sides (A B, A C) of the triangle, but contain a greater angle.

Produce one of the lines (BD) to meet a side of the triangle (A C); the other line (DC) is less than the sum of the produced part (DE) and a portion (EC) of that side, by Proposition 17: therefore the two lines (B D, DC) are together less than the sum of the B

E

whole produced line (B E) and that portion (EC): but the whole produced line is less than the remaining portion (AE) and its conterminous side (A B); hence, the whole produced line and the former portion (EC) are together less than the two sides (A B, A C) of the triangle; and, a fortiori, the two lines (B D, D C) are less than these two sides.

The angle (BDC) contained by the two lines is external and remote from an angle (BEC) which is itself external and remote from the angle (BAC) contained by the two sides of the triangle: hence, by Proposition 14, the first of these angles is greater than the second, the second than the last; therefore, the first is greater than the last.

By borrowing a little from algebraic notation, the demonstration will be briefer, and more intelligible.

DC <DE+E C, Proposition 17;

add BD to these unequals, then
BD+DC<BE+EC:

but BEBA+A E, Proposition 17;
add EC to these unequals, then

BE+EC<BA+AC:

hence BD+DC<BA+AC.

Again; the angle B D C is external to the triangle DEC; and the

angle D EC is external to the triangle BAE: hence

BDC > DEC> BAE or BA C, by Proposition 14.

Cor. 1. The straight line (A B) connecting any two points is less than any broken line (ACDE B), consisting of portions of straight lines, connecting these points. In other words, any side of a polygon is less than the sum of all the other sides,

C

E