blisses of life-the more sacred music that leads the soul to communion with God-it needs music-its poor cry aloud for music; they are tired of the inhar monious din of toil, and a few sweet notes bring with them hours of pleasure to the weary and world-forsaken.

Honor.

To be ambitious of true honor, of the true glory and perfection of our natures, is the very principle and incentive of virtue; but to be ambitious of titles, of place, of ceremonial respects and civil pageantry, is as vain and little as the things we court.

True honor, as defined by Cicero, is the concur rent approbation of good men; those only being fit to give true praise who are themselves praiseworthy. Anciently the Romans worshiped virtue and honor as gods; they built two temples, which were so seated that none could enter the temple of honor without passing through the temple of virtue.

The way to be truly honored is to be illustriously good. Maximilian, the German emperor, replied to one who desired his letters patent to ennoble him, saying, I am able to make you rich; but virtue must make you noble. Who would not desire the honor that Agesiaus, king of Sparta, had, who was fined by the Sphori for having stolen away all the hearts of the

people to himself alone? Of whom it is said that he ruled his country by obeying it. It is with glory as with beauty; for as a single fine lineament cannot make a fine face, neither can a single good quality render a man accomplished; but a concurrence of many fine features and good qualities make true beauty and true honor.

The Athenians raised a noble statue to the memory of Æsop, and placed a slave on a pedestal, that men might know the way to honor was open to all. The man of honor is internal, the person of honor an external; the one a real, the other a fictitious character. A person of honor may be a profane libertine, penurious, proud, may insult his inferiors, and defraud his creditors; but it is impossible for a man of honor to be guilty of any of these.

Among the ancient Greeks and Romans, in their best days, honor was more sought after than wealth. Times are changed. Now, wealth is the surest passport to honor; and respectability is endangered by poverty. "Rome, was Rome no more" when the imperial purple had become an article of traffic, and when gold could purchase with ease the honors that patriotism and valor could once secure only with difficulty.

There is no true glory, no true greatness, without virtue; without which we do but abuse all the good things we have, whether they be great or little, false or real. Riches make us either covetous or prodigal; fine palaces make us despise the poor and poverty; a great number of domestics flatter human pride, which

uses them like slaves; valor oftentimes turns brutal and unjust; and a high pedigree makes a man take up with the virtues of his ancestors, without endeavoring to acquire any himself.

It is a fatal and delusive ambition which allures many to the pursuit of honors as such, or as accessions to some greater object in view. The substance is dropped to catch the shade, and the much coveted distinctions, in nine cases out of ten, prove to be mere airy phantasms and gilded mists. Real honor and real esteem are not difficult to be obtained in the world, but they are best won by actual worth and merit, rather than by art and intrigue which run a long and ruinous race, and seldom seize upon the prize at last. Seek not to be honored in any way save in thine own bosom, within thyself.

"Honor and shame from no condition rise:

Act well your part, there all the honor lies."

Genius and Talent.

GENIUS is of the soul, talent of the understanding; genius is warm, talent is passionless. Without genius there is no intuition, no inspiration; without talent, no execution. Genius is interior, talent exterior; hence genius is productive, talent accumulative. Genius invents, talent accomplishes. Genius gives the sub

stance, talent works it up under the eye, or rather under the feeling, of genius.

Genius is that quality or character of the mind which is inventive, or generates; which gives to the world new ideas in science, art, literature, morals, or religion, which recognizes no set rules or principles, but is a law unto itself, and rejoices in its own originality; which admitting of a direction, never follows the old beaten track, but strikes out for a new course; which has no fears of public opinion, nor leans upon public favoralways leads but never follows, which admits no truth unless convinced by experiment, reflection, or investigation, and never bows to the ipse dixit of any man, or society, or creed.

Talent is that power or capacity of mind which reasons rapidly from cause to effect; which sees through a thing at a glance, and comprehends the rules and principles upon which it works; which can take in knowledge without laborious mental study, and needs no labored illustrations to impress a principle or a fact, no matter how abstruse, hidden, complex, or intricate. Differing from genius by following rules and principles, but capable of comprehending the works of geniusimitating with ease, and thereby claiming a certain kind of originality, talent is the able, comprehensive agent; while genius is the master director.

Genius is emotional, talent intellectual; hence genius is creative, and talent instrumental. Genius has insight, talent only outsight. Genius is always calm, reserved, self-centered; talent is often bustling, officious, confident. Genius is rather inward, creative, and angelic;

talent, outward, practical, and worldly. Genius dis dains and defies imitation; talent is often the result of universal imitation in respect to everything that may contribute to the desired excellence. Genius has quick and strong sympathies, and is sometimes given to reverie and vision; talent is cool and wise, and seldom loses sight of common sense. Genius is born for a particular purpose, in which it surpasses; talent is versatile, and may make a respectable figure at almost anything. Genius gives the impulse and aim as well as the illumination; talent the means and implements. Genius, in short, is the central, finer essence of the mind, the self-lighted fire, the intuitional gift. Talent gathers and shapes and applies what genius forges. Genius is often entirely right, and is never wholly wrong; talent is never wholly right. Genius avails itself of all the capabilities of talent, appropriates to itself what suits and helps it. Talent can appropriate to itself nothing, for it has not the inward heat that can fuse all material and assimilate all food to convert it into blood; this only genius can do. Goethe was a man of genius, and at the same time of immense and varied talents; and no contemporary profited so much as he did by all the knowledges, discoveries and accumulations made by others.

Talent is full of thoughts; but genius full of thought. Genius makes its observations in short hand; talent writes them out at length. Talent is a very common family trait, genius belongs rather to individuals; just as you find one giant or one dwarf in a family, but rarely a whole brood of either. Men of genius are