habits, and what players call walking through their part. Disraeli affirms, plunder rules paramount. Well, if the knaves presume too far-what are undisciplined multitudes to the eye of a skilful captain? Let the storm blow, we will guide the blast. In this world, men must make use of men. Professional men, however, are not sufficiently early aware, that those who lead a life of constant unvarying devotion to one pursuit, gradually lose their relish for all other occupations, and become even indifferent to any relaxation. Medical men often painfully evince the truth of this remark. CHAPTER XVIII. BUSINESS, PLEASURE IN HARNESS-GREAT DUTIES PARAMOUNT.GUIZOT'S TOLERATION AND HIGH-MINDEDNESS.-A VENERABLE PRELATE'S OPINION OF SECTARIAN ZEAL. "Deceit is the strong but subtle chain which runs through all the members of society, and links them together; trick or be tricked is the only alternative, 'tis the way of the world, and without it intercourse would drop." "Business is indeed a discipline. Nevertheless, nothing is denied to welldirected industry." "Despair of all recovery spoils longevity, And makes men's miseries of alarming brevity." OCCUPATION cures one-half of life's troubles, and mitigates the remainder. Sloth yieldeth not happiness: the bliss of a spirit is action. What is business, but pleasure in harness? Sure enough, then, appetite, like charity, never faileth. It has been truly said, the life of a man of business gives his character a pretty hard trial. Not only does it exercise his sagacity and prudence, but it puts his integrity to the severest test. He is surrounded by the selfishness of trade; he sees men profit by cunning and fraud, and he is tempted to try his skill, a la Barnum, in artifice and deception. Every day his honesty is tried in some way; he is thrown back on his inward principles, and if his heart is hollow and deceitful, he will be sure to shew it. And that man has reason to thank God, who, having passed through a long course of business, with all its gamut of grievances,-through times of wild speculation and general bankruptcy,-goes down to the grave with the never-shaken consciousness of being "the noblest work of God"'-an honest man. Right is no horse to carry wrong on its back. He who can see others making money by false representations, and never stoop to these tricks of trade, is fitting his own pure mind for a world that is more worthy. A practice that is absolute and evident iniquity, can only be based on evil. And yet a man cannot escape these temptations. To do that he must needs go out of the world, become a monk, and retire into solitude: he might indeed avoid all danger by shutting himself up within the cells of a convent, and pass a life of lazy contemplation. But as before stated, the piety that is nursed in cloisters is of a sickly growth, compared with that which maintains its integrity amid strong inducements to evil. We re-assert, it is not the will of GOD we should retire apart to keep from contamination; spurning the common lot, meeting temptation as it comes, we are to form our character for eternity. Men ought to rejoice in a rigid discipline. The most heroic virtues in the human character are brought out in this struggle with inborn selfishness, and with the cowardly examples of the world. Men of brave hearts ought to welcome the conflicts and buffetings of life. Every victory they gain will make them stronger; as the tempest which rocks and tears the mountain oak, causes it to strike its roots deeper in the earth, and to lift higher its majestic arms towards heaven. Piety stretched beyond a certain point, is impiety; in the same way as extreme order becomes disorder. A theologian, as well as a politician should be as flexible in little things as he is inflexible in great things. In relation to the great and all-important question of education, our advocacy should be national, not sectarian. On this great vital question, independent thinkers must avoid the sterility of party antagonism, and labour honestly to support united and harmonious action among real friends of education in the country. The author's heart swells with indescribable emotion when he contemplates man as he is, and what he might become. The improvement of the genus homo grows with our growth. The world is a glorious habitation; but man made in the likeness and image of the Divine is far more glorious. As to the beauty of this world, every thing is coarse, hard, and unyielding to the plastic forces of the spirit; if so, then what must be the beauty of the spiritual world? Who can distrust mercy that manifests such love, whether we look inward, outward, or beyond? When our progress is in a right direction, it increases in a constantly accelerated ratio. This we know from experience. The more we know, the easier we learn; as the more living branches a tree possesses, the more blossoms and fruit it can bear. There will be no harmonious action among the friends of education, until this sterility of party antagonism is removed. Christianity is far short of having developed the fulness of its power. A looker-on, who sees most of the game of life, may well exclaim-"JESUS I know, and Paul I know, but who are ye?" The faith of most is nothing more than an indication of easy and good-natured credulity. The religion of the Anglo-Saxon is like that of the Samaritans described in the 2nd book of KINGS, believing in the omniscience of GOD, and the fashion of this world likewise; who feared the LORD, and served their own images: like that of the Judaising Christians who blended the doctrines and ceremonies of the Synagogue with those of the Church. Men called intelligent, may be seen any day asking their guide whether they may safely believe this, that, or the other. Conceive it if you can, imaginative reader, a man standing winking with both eyes in the full glare of a cloudless August noon, and inquiring deferentially of an obstructive theological friend, whether he is really justified in saying that the sun shines? We have before remarked, man is the maker of his own fortune; destiny is only another word for discretion; and the philosophy of life includes both. But if it be equally true that he is the maker of himself, of his own spiritual form, he is every day changing his features, and moulding his form after a heavenly or infernal model. Yes-the more we receive, and the more we shall have a capacity to receive. All beauty is from above, which is innocence; not a tittle do we tolerate of what is considered a sine qua non-viz., a sprinkling of the genial influence of hypocrisy. Every angel is the form of his own affection; and his beauty is in exact proportion to genuine innocence: and thus we may learn the way to become beautiful, is to become good. "But while he shuns the grosser joys of sense, |