things which none can avoid, though many are content to endure them, without calling on all the world to bear witness to their sorrows.

Regard that poor, houseless, husbandless widow! Her good man died of the fever; her son was killed in battle; her patrimony was claimed by another; and now, she has enough in this dark world to make her heart ache, if she thought well to spend her time in gazing upon. it; but no she looks upwards, where you ought no! to look.

The glittering hopes that heaven bestows
Emerging from a cloud of woes

Shall yield a purer light;

So, when the world in darkness lies,
A thousand stars bedeck the skies,

And sparkle through the night.

In the cottage yonder, on the common, lives old Jasper Jenkins. Never had any man a prettier farm, nor a tidier wife, nor more industrious children; but his good dame sickened and died, his sons got into bad company, and his farm turned out to be a losing concern. But though old Jasper lives in that cot on the common, farm

E

less, wifeless, and childless, yet is there cheerfulness in his heart, and hope in his eye, for his eye and his heart are fixed on heaven.

And shall the widow, and the grey-headed old man, bear their heavier afflictions patiently, while you mope away your hours, and give way to melancholy on account of what deserves not the name of trouble!

Do, for very shame, if you have no better motive, get the better of your melancholy. If there be a spirit within you that would spurn what is unworthy; if there be a particle of gratitude for the manifold blessings with which you are surrounded; if you are not eaten up with selfishness, and unthankfulness, wage war with melancholy your heart shall then be lighter, your brow brighter, and the troubles which are around you shall vanish away.

The road of despondency, shrouded with gloom,
Is dark as the shadows which hang o'er the tomb.
Its pathways are broken, its ditches are deep,
And it ends in a precipice, sudden and steep.
The wretches that tread it gaze fearfully round,
Or gloomily walk with their eyes on the ground:
No fruit is e'er gather'd, no bud blossoms there;
'Tis the darkest of pathways that lead to despair.

When putting out the light of your lantern on a dark night will enable you to find your roadwhen carrying an additional burden will enable you the better to sustain the load which you have already on your back-when throwing down your oars will enable you to bring your boat to shore ; then, and not till then, will despondency dissipate the shadows which are around you, and melancholy lighten the troubles of your heart.

AN ODD CHAPTER.

EXPERIENCE has taught me what in time it will no doubt teach you, that if we form our opinion of persons and things by the names they bear, we shall often be most lamentably disappointed.

I had an uncle named Hardy, who could not bear the wind to blow upon him; and a cousin, Crouch, who was as unbending, as proud, and as fearless a fellow as any in England.

The greatest simpleton in the parish where I live is William Sage; everybody knows Lamb, the butcher, to be hard-hearted; and my worthy next-door neighbour, Mr. Young, is ninety-four next Bartlemas day.