would desire, but in sufficient quantity to meet all of man's real needs. People actually become poor through thinking poverty, or perhaps we might say through thinking of the poor, personal self. He who at one time has lived on the low plane of personal ambition, devoting his energies to the acquisition of material wealth, and finally comes to realize the spiritual life finds in his new ambitions and activities that all things literally have become new. He no longer fears the future, for he is so conscious of the possession of real riches that he knows the needful things will always materialize. As it was well put years ago:

"Whate'er thou lovest man that to become thou must,

God if thou lovest God, dust if thou lovest dust."

If the mind is filled with love, with health and strength, then in time the outward man will surely express that which is inwardly possessed.

EYES and ears are bad witnesses to men having rude souls.Heraclitus.

IF a body could but anticipate repentance, and by that anticipation not transgress!-W. S. Maverick.

I TROUBLE myself less and less about what a book is; the main point is what it brings me, what it suggests to me.-Goethe.

SEASONS of calm meditation and of heartfelt devotion appear to be needful conditions, if we would richly attain that wisdom of which we read-"He who findeth me findeth life."-Charles B. Upton.

THE Greeks saw something divine in Nature-caught glimpses of naiads by the mountain streams, and of dryads hiding in the summer woods. Their ignorance was wiser than our cold reason, which disenchants Nature of love and life. But wiser still the conception which finds God, the universal Father, above all, through all, and in all.-James Freeman Clarke.

THE FAMILY CIRCLE.

Conducted by

FLORENCE PELTIER.

FOR THE CHILDREN.

"There was a stillness over everything,
As if the spirit of heat had laid its hand
Upon the world and hushed it; and I felt
Within the mightiness of the white sun
That smote the land around us and wrought out
A fragrance from the trees."

THE VIOLET AND THE CHILD.

"I am greatly surprised," said the little violet to herself upon awaking one morning, after a long, winter sleep. "Certainly, this is the most surprising thing I have ever known. Last night when I went to sleep, I was a full-grown violet, and the mother of three pretty baby flowers. To-day here I am with my head just enough above earth to know that I am really existing. Last night I was old; to-day I am young. Last night I was a mother; to-day I am a child. I have often heard of strange things happening; but this is the strangest thing I have ever heard."

It was on a winter evening that the violet had gone to sleep, the very first evening that winter had mantled the little garden in which she grew. And, when the cold came she had gradually become very numb, and had sunk into a deep sleep. Her sleep had lasted for many months, and, as we cannot measure the time of sleep, how was the little violet to know that she had been sleeping many months instead of just one night?

"Who is that little girl coming this way?" continued the violet. "I really believe it is Rosie Darling, the very same child that gives me water every day to drink. But no, it isn't possible! This child looks older than Rosie, and a great deal larger. One night couldn't possibly have made such a change in her."

The child came to where the violet grew, and gently moistened the new-growing flower. When she saw the tiny plant whose head was just peeping forth above the earth, she clapped her hands. in delight.

"Oh, I am sure that is a little violet," said Rosie. "It cannot be a weed, because it is growing in the violet bed."

"Now, that certainly isn't the same child," said the violet, appearing very much puzzled; "if it were, she ought to know me after seeing me so often. How thoughtless I must be getting! How should I expect her to recognize me since I have passed through such a dreadful change! I wonder if anything so remarkable has ever happened, like this, to anyone before?"

Rosie seated herself beneath a tree that grew near the violet, and closing her eyes began to doze, when she heard a voice say softly:

"I wish that little girl could talk to me."

Rosie opened her eyes and stared at the violet, and for the first time, she saw what a beautiful face the flower had. She had never noticed that a flower had a face, and you can imagine how surprised she must have been when she did realize it.

"Oh, what a sweet face you have, dear flower!" she cried joyfully.

The modest little violet blushed with delight, and dropped her pretty, sparkling eyes, and softly said:

"I am so glad that you can talk to me. I want you to tell me, oh, so many things! Last night, when I closed my eyes and went to sleep, I was the mother of three little violet children; but to-day I am a child, and I have no mother."

"Last night, when you went to sleep?" asked Rosie. "Yes, yes;" answered the violet.

"Last night you were not here." If not here, where?"

"That cannot be," said Rosie. "Oh, yes! I must have been. "Your head was not above the earth, and I am sure you must have been sleeping beneath the ground," Rosie replied. "Last night when I came to sprinkle the violet bed, I did not see you." "How strange it is," said the violet.

"Strange, indeed; but no, it is not strange at all," Rosie said thoughtfully. "I can see so clearly, violet dear, why you thought it was last night you slept. One winter evening, when the cold wind blew and the snow fell gently, I did not moisten your fair head as I had always done, but, instead I spread a cloth over you to shield you from the cold. But, when morning came I found you dead."

"The mystery is greater to me than ever. You say I did not sleep last night-that instead of sleeping I have been dead?" Today I live again. Is not that strange?"

Just then a great ugly eagle flew to the ground where Rosie and the violet sat. Said he, "Child, you and your flower friend seem very much perplexed. I am a fairy in a bird's disguise. May I not tell you what you wish to know?"

"You surely cannot be a good fairy," said Rosie, feeling very much frightened. "A good fairy would not take such an ugly form."

"Dear child," sighed the great bird, "those who are beautiful are not always good. Sometimes the one that repells us most possesses the purest soul. But come, get upon my back with your little friend, the violet, and I will take you up beyond the sun, where those, we on earth call dead, live again.”

Rosie seated herself upon the eagle's back, and taking the violet, away they flew. They journeyed far over the great blue sea, and high above mighty mountains. When at last they came to the sky they found the great sky-gate ajar; so they entered. They found themselves within a beautiful garden in which grew many flowers. The eagle stopped near a bed of violets, and Rosie climbed down from his back, and she and her little flower friend. went among the flowers.

"Oh, what joy!" exclaimed the violet; "these are my people." Suddenly from among the flowers three tiny voices called out in a rapture of delight: "Mother, mother!"

The violet rushed to her children, and nestling their heads upon her breast, wept with joy.

"Eagle," said Rosie, turning to the great bird, "how did the little violet's children come to live up here?"

"They were good when they lived on earth, and loved their mother. Their hearts were as pure as the dewdrops. The sun never shone upon three heads so free from evil thoughts. They loved all things, and all things loved them. They thought of God, and God welcomed them to His world. For all who love God, He loves, and they will live again in a world as fair as the world of the flowers," replied the eagle.

"And I, too?" asked Rosie.

"You and all," said the eagle. "There is a world for all of us." The eagle showed Rosie all the flowers, and told her how they had lived upon earth, and how good their lives had been. The violet talked with her children, and they told her that some day she would come to them, and stay always. She learned many things she had never known, and when parting with her children, her eyes were not filled with tears, although she knew that she must go back to earth.

"Some day we shall be together always," they said to her, and she was very glad.