man drinks of water unmixed with bitterness, is that which gushes from him in the calm recess of domestic life. Pleasure may beat the heart into artificial excitement; ambition may delude it with a thousand dreams; war may eradicate its fine fibres, and diminish its sensitiveness; but it is only domestic love, based upon a catholic spirit, can render it truly happy. Patriotism, or love of country, is but an amalgamation of sympathies in brethren's hearts; not an inordinate attachment to any assignable object; as it is our participation in that whole spirit which has breathed in the breasts of that whole race of which we are sprung. It is the sympathy of race. How sacred the ties by which we are bound to our mother country! Think of the people, who, when upbraided with continually flying before Alexander, said,-"Let him pursue us to the tombs of our fathers, and he will then know whether we always fly." Such a palmy posture of affairs of a very happy home and country, is too good to last; a re-action is inevitable. It is, however, worthy of remark, all emigrants, with few exceptions, heave many a deep sigh for mother-country. Let any fresh influx of Anglo-Saxons arrive at Australia,—what tumultuous and multitudinous imaginings bubble up, and are put in an effervescent state. However, the emotional heavings (almost choky feelings) exhibited on the reminiscences of the days of yore,-of "auld lang syne,"during such meetings, are not to be painted by words. Our readers who have hearts will readily appreciate the true and brilliant line, "One touch of nature makes the whole world kin."

True, the mind takes its tone from its circumstances; no one path is at all times sunshine and flowers; shadings are occasionally a sine qua non. Patience, and shuffle the cards, and the sun breaks through the clouds, and flowers bloom for all. Wherever we are, we can readily believe if we are doing God's work, we shall get His wages. In any situation of life the amount of our happiness will probably be found to bear, in the long run, a pretty exact ratio to the heartiness with which we perform our duty. It is absurd to expect happiness, or hope for a harvest when no seed has been sown. Every man is the arbiter of his own destiny. The comedy, "Measure for Measure," in which the world chooses to act, is far away from our ideal. "An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth," in our humble opinion, is a very grovelling and low standard of morality; and let no person deceive themselves with the insane idea that they are bona fide Christians who do not return good for evil. Let us either act the Christian, or doff the Christian's livery.

"Act well your part there all the honour lies."

Let every man sweep before his own door, and the whole street will get swept. If the records of man are not found registered here, we must not be oblivious to the fact that Heaven has its account, as well as earth. No matter what insidious enemy poisons the ears of your real or pretended friends, you will come out sublimated and right at the final audit-the universal assize, when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed. Not until then shall we make the grand discovery that "the animosities are mortal, but the humanities live for ever."

U

The following colloquy is not bad :-"Do you profess religion?" "No, sir, I profess my faith, and practice my religion." The late Professor Wilson (who has rendered more services to a high order of literature than any other man, of amiable manners, of untarnished public and private character, and of cultivated mind, who, tory though he was, never mystified a subject to serve a purpose, and strange to tell, practised what he preached), remarks, “In every sermon I have written, and the number is not few, I have carefully avoided sub-divisions and practical conclusions; I have inspired a vital spirit through the whole composition. My sermons have been exhortations, extreme length, thirty minutes; they have in general been successfully preached to crowded congregations-little sleep and no snoring, and have pleased both town and country."

Our spiritual guides' contrarieties and wild extremes gave a handle to the celebrated Lord Bolingbroke in his Essay on Authority in Matters of Religion. Some have shewn a disregard to good works, and have talked of justifying faith alone, as the sole means of salvation, and in contra-distinction to good works; like the Scotch Presbyterian parson who assured his brethren from the pulpit— "that immorality had destroyed its thousands, but morality its tens of thousands." If a man gives demonstrative processes of good works, we should feel much indisposed to quarrel with his faith. There are fastidious and captious readers, veiled with a dim haze of coloured conventionalities; their intellectual horizon confined to themselves: such dissent from Pope's hackneyed couplet

"For modes of faith let zealous bigots fight,

His can't be wrong whose life is in the right."

As

Warburton was too severe: he told Bishop Hurd that his tailor had certain possessions in hell, and a very doubtful reversion in heaven. However, he was not remarkable for flexibility or toleration on any subject. Honour to whom honour; and give the most to those who lead the best lives, setting aside prejudice and caprice. It is the feeling, the sentiment that creates the faith; not the faith the feeling. It is not the sacrament that sanctifies, but faith in the sacrament. Selfishness in a mistake is the root of evil. GOD the sole foundation of truth and goodness; faith alone working by love can overcome the world. storm follows storm, and wave succeeding wave give additional hardness to the shell that encloses the pearl, so do the storm and waves of life add force to the character of man. If the world be worth winning, let us enjoy it; if it be to be despised, let us despise it from conviction. But the world is not to be despised, but as it is compared to something better. Company is in itself better than solitude, and pleasure better than indolence. Ex nihilo, nihil fit, says the moral as well as the natural philosopher. By doing nothing, and by knowing nothing, no power of doing good can be obtained. He must mingle with the world, who desires to be useful. Every new scene comprises new ideas, enriches the imagination, enlarges the power of reason by new topics of comparison. We are opposed to ascetic practices in every form: our views are in antagonism to all the cloistered contemplative mystics: our firm belief is, no man can be formed for heaven, except

by means of the world, even though it be a dragging through the world's wilderness in the struggle and battle of life. Whilst roughing it, our faith is tested; and this is the gauge by which the interior man knows whether he is advancing in holiness and meekness; going on from conquering and to conquer.

The religious devotees who have renounced the world for pious meditation (idiosyncrasies aside), are by no means agreeable personages. They are of a sorrowful temper, despising others, discontented, selfish, of a craven spirit, turning from offices of charity, "that hopeth all things, beareth all things." The world is any thing but their parish—if so, how do they dare or presume to call isolation Catholicism? excluding the very means of conjunction with heaven. May we ask our erring fanatical brethren, what is meant by loving one's neighbours as ourselves? What is this but breathing the spirit of universality or Catholicism? May we not understand the true meaning of these comprehensive words to mean doing right in every employment? Such a life, and only such a life, tends heavenwards; not so a life of piety without a life of charity. It is the first and last question with the Christian-"What is written in the law?" then-"How readest thou?" The truth of Heaven was never committed to a tongue, however feeble, but it gave a right to that tongue to announce mercy while it declared judgment. Elisha cleansed Naaman the Syrian of his leprosy, though he was a Syrian, and not only a foreigner, but an enemy to Israel. I think most clergymen diminish their own respectability and usefulness, by falling into indolent