NUMBER ELEVEN. CLINGING TO LIFE: INSOLUBLE PROBLEMS: PREMONITIONS OF A CONSUMPTIVE: SUNSHINE OF THE GRAVE: DEATH OF HON. SILAS HIGGINS: CALIFORNIA PILGRIMS: A 'LAID-UP' EAR: SUGGESTIVE EPITAPH: THE INNER LIFE' OF MAN: A NEW '- MILCH' COW: A VOICE FROM THE NURSERY: A CONDENSING CONVERSATIONIST: DOW AMONG THE TOMBS: A CITY SNOWSCENE: LARGE 'UNDERSTANDING ': WINTER IN THE COUNTRY: THOUGHTS ON KITES. SOME RS. NORTON, in 'The Child of Earth,' has beauti MRS fully illustrated the tenacity with which poor Hu manity clings to this shadowy existence : FAINTER her slow step falls from day to day: Make the warm air such luxury to breathe; Not while bright flowers around my footsteps wreathe. I am content to die - but oh, not now!' The spring hath ripened into summer-time- The glorious sun hath reached his burning prime: The bleak wind whistles: snow-showers far and near, Winter stalks on, with frozen mantle bound: PERHAPS two or three of the questions which ensue may be found difficult to answer. They are worse than Hood's Given C. A. B. to find Q.;' for in that case the student had only to get a cab, and take a pleasant ride to Kew, INSOLUBLE PROBLEMS. 241 near London, which was very easily accomplished, if we remember rightly: 'If three men work ten days on a fertile farm, what is the logarithm? 'If three men, one of them a colored man, and the other a female, set out simultaneously, which 'll get there first? Required also, from these premises, the time of starting, starting-point, destination, and the 'Natural Number' belonging to the other. 'Explanatory Note: X=0-B, the probable age of the parties multiplied into the distance travelled. 'Of what use is a compass without a needle, and which way does it point? 'Note: X=supposed use. S=South. 'What is the required length of a limited steel wire which runs the other way? 'Note-X+X+X other way.' In the solution of the problem, ‘As a General Thing, which will do the most Good?' an allegational formula' is given, which defies our types. The solution, however, it is but just to say, is as clear as the question itself. annex two or three others: We 'IN a large household neither father nor mother knew any thing. How was it with the family? 'Is a man ever justifiable in either case, and if So, which? Note.-2C= Both. 'Two men, unable to travel, set out on a journey, at different times, in company with a third in the same condition. For three hours the first two kept ahead of each other, when, a violent snow-storm arising, all three lost their way. What 's required? 'If a hard knot be tied in a cat's tail, which way, how long, and with what success, will she run after it? Also, who tied the knot?' The conditions of this last problem are extremely 242 PREMONITIONS OF A CONSUMPTIVE. เ vague: but we cannot help thinking that many minds have been disciplined' by mathematical problems which were of quite as much practical value as this, or any of the others which we have quoted. We beg leave to subjoin a few kindred questions, involving maritime law, the science of heat, scripture history, etc.: 1. SUPPOSE a canal-boat heads west-north-west for the horse's tail, and has the wind abeam, with a flaw coming up in the south: would the captain, according to maritime law, be justified in taking a reef in the stove-pipe without asking the cook?' 2. The chief property of heat is, that it expands bodies, while cold contracts them. Give a familiar example of this operation of a natural law. 'Yes, Sir: in summer, when it is hot, the day is long: in winter when it is cold, the day contracts, and becomes very short.' 8. How much did it cost per week to pasture NEBUCHADNEZZAR during the seven years that he was 'out on grass?' in Yes: the nasal organ is inHow beautiful is the face of THE water stood in our eyes, reader, (and it will stand yours, if you have a heart to feel,) as we perused the subjoined eloquent passage of a letter from a friend to whom our readers have often been indebted for amusement, entertainment, and instruction. What a startling picture it presents of the first approaches of that 'hectic,' 'phthisic,'' consumption,' or whatever be the favorite title PREMONITIONS OF A CONSUMPTIVE. 243 of that most wily and fatal foe, who in one hand presents the insidious olive-branch, and in the other conceals his inevitable sword, cutting down Youth in its blossom and Manhood in its fruit! For very many years, from twelve to two have been my hours of retiring, and my exercise has been nothing, or nearly so, during the day. One result has been, that I have read one half of the Greek and Roman classics, and feasted largely in modern literature. A parallel result has been, that owing to corporeal sluggishness and nervousness, the curse of the sedentary, I have no doubt reaped less pleasure and profit than I might have done from half that assiduity coupled with a due regard to the wants of the body. The final result is, that an iron constitution is now largely disorganized and from the constant presence of a dull, deep, stationary pain in my left side beneath the ribs, and fixed I fear upon the lungs, I begin to indulge in sad and deep forebodings. Often, when wakened by its painful urgency, I lie in the silence of the night, listening to my heart's deep beatings, and recall my early and yet unfilled dreams-dreams oh! how glorious!—and array before my unsated eyes this world, with all its lovely learning, and sweet poetry, and burning passion; and reflect how unfit I am to die, and try the conditions of a new existence, before I have fulfilled the duties and perused the mysteries of this, and then think of the wormy bed, and anticipate the hour |