The Atma-Bodha, "Knowledge of Soul," attributed to Sankara, is highly esteemed as an exposition of Vedantic doctrines. The following is an extract from it:

KNOWLEDGE OF SOUL.

Knowledge alone effects emancipation.
As fire is indispensable to cooking,
So knowledge is essential to deliverance.
Knowledge alone disperses ignorance,
As sunlight scatters darkness—not so acts;
For ignorance originates in works.

The world and all the course of mundane things
Are like the vain creation of a dream,

In which Ambition, Hatred, Pride and Passion
Appear like phantoms mixing in confusion.
While the dream lasts the universe seems real,
But when 'tis past the world exists no longer.
Like the deceptive silver of a shell,

So at first sight the world deludes the man
Who takes mere semblance for reality.
As golden bracelets are in substance one
With gold, so are all visible appearances
And each distinct existence one with Brahma
By action of the fivefold elements

Through acts performed in former states of being,
Are formed corporeal bodies, which become
The dwelling-place of pleasure and of pain.
The soul inwrapped in five investing sheaths
Seems formed of these, and all its purity.
Darkened, like crystal laid on colored cloth.
As winnowed rice is purified from husk
So is the soul disburdened of its sheaths
By force of meditation, as by threshing.
The soul is like a king whose ministers
Are body, senses, mind and understanding.
The soul is wholly separate from these,
Yet witnesses and overlooks their actions.
The foolish think the spirit acts, whereas
The senses are the actors; so the moon

Is thought to move when clouds are passing o'er it.

When intellect and mind are present, then
Afflictions, inclinations, pleasures, pains
Are active; in profound and dreamless sleep
When intellect is non-existent, these
Exist not; therefore they belong to mind.
As brightness is inherent in the sun,
Coolness in water, warmness in the fire,
E'en so existence, knowledge, perfect bliss,
And perfect purity inhere in soul.

The understanding cannot recognize

The soul, nor does the soul need other knowledge
To know itself, e'en as a shining light
Requires no light to make itself perceived.
The soul declares its own condition thus:
"I am distinct from body, I am free
From birth, old age, infirmity and death.
I have no senses; I have no connection
With sound or sight or objects of sensation.
I am distinct from mind, and so exempt
From passion, pride, aversion, fear and pain.
I have no qualities, I am without
Activity and destitute of option,
Changeless, eternal, formless, without taint,
Forever free, forever without stain.
I, like the boundless ether, permeate
The universe within, without, abiding
Always, forever similar in all,

Perfect, immovable, without affection,
Existence, knowledge, undivided bliss,
Without a second, One, Supreme am I."

That which is through, above, below, complete,
Existence, wisdom, bliss, without a second,
Endless, eternal, one-know that as Brahma.
That which is neither coarse nor yet minute,
That which is neither short nor long, unborn,
Imperishable, without form, unbound
By qualities, without distinctive marks,
Without a name-know that indeed as Brahma.
Nothing exists but Brahma, when aught else
Appears to be, 'tis, like the mirage, false.

SHAW, HENRY WHEELER (pseudonym, Josh Billings), an American humorist, born at Lanesborough, Mass., April 21, 1818; died at Monterey, Cal., October 14, 1885. About 1832 he entered Hamilton College, but soon left it and went West. For a time he worked on steamboats on the Ohio River, then became a farmer and afterward an auctioneer. In 1858 he settled at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., and began his humorous sketches for the newspapers. These did not, however, become popular until he adopted his method of spelling. His lectures, which he began in 1863, became as popular as his sketches. For many years before his death he was a regular contributor to the New York Weekly. His published works include Josh Billings, His Sayings (1866); Josh Billings on Ice (1875); Every Body's Friend (1876); Josh Billings's Spice Box (1881). In 1870 he began the publication of Josh Billings's Farmer's Allminax, which appeared annually.

"He was undoubtedly," says a writer in the New York Herald (October 15, 1885), "one of the quaintest writers of his time, and although his works are not likely to be immortal, they have been and still are widely read, and have afforded innocent mirth for thousands."

JOSH BILLINGS'S ADVERTISEMent.

I kan sell for eighteen hundred and thirty-nine dollars, a pallas, a sweet and pensive retirement, lokated on the virgin banks ov the Hudson, kontaining 85 acres. The land is luxuriously divided by the hand of natur and art, into pastor and tillage, into plain and deklivity, into stern abruptness, and the dallianse ov moss-tufted medders; streams ov sparkling gladness (thick with trout) danse through this wilderness ov buty, tew the low musik of the kricket and grasshopper. The evergreen sighs as the evening zephir flits through its shadowy buzzum, and the aspen trembles like the luv-smitten harte ov a damsell. Fruits ov the tropicks, in goldey buty, melt on the bows, and the bees go heavy and sweet from the fields to their garnering hives. The manshun iz ov Parian marble, the porch iz a single diamond, set with rubiz and the mother ov pearl; the floors are ov rosewood, and the ceilings are more butiful than the starry vault of heavin. Hot and cold

water bubbles and squirts in evry apartment and nothing is wanted that a poet could pra for, or art could portray. The stables are worthy ov the steeds ov Nimrod, or the stud ov Akilles, and its henery was bilt expressly for the birds of paradice; while somber in the distance, like the cave ov a hermit, glimpses are caught of the dorg-house. Here poets hav cum and warbled their laze-here skulptors hav cut, here painters have robbed the scene of dreamy landskapes, and here the philosopher diskovered the stun, which made him the alkimist ov natur. Nex northward ov this thing ov buty, sleeps the residence and domain ov the Duke John Smith; while southward, and nearer the spice-breathing tropicks, may be seen the barronial villy ov Earl Brown, and the Duches, Widder Betsy Stevens. Walls ov primitiff rock, laid in Roman cement, bound the estate, while upward and downward, the eye catches far away the magesta and slow grander ov the Hudson. As the young moon hangs like a cutting ov silver from the blu brest of the ski, an angel may be seen each night dansing with golden tiptoes on the green. (N. B. This angel goes with the place).-Josh Billings, His Works.

RATS.

Rats originally cum from Norway, and i wish they had originally staid thare.

They are about az uncalled for az a pain in the small ov the back.

They can be domestikated dredful eazy; that iz, as far as gitting in cupboards, and eating cheese, and knawing pie, iz concerned.

The best way to domestikate them that ever i saw is tew surround them gently with a steel trap; yu can reason with them then tu great advantage.

Rats are migratorious, they migrate wharever they hav a mind to.

Pizen iz also good for rats; it softens their whole moral naturs.

Cats hate rats, and rats hate cats, and-who don't? I serpoze thare iz between 50 and 60 millions of rats in Amerika (i quote now entirely from memory), and i don't serpoze thare iz a single necessary rat in the whole lot. This shows at a glance how menny waste rats thare iz. Rats enhance in numbers faster than shoe-pegs do by machinery. One pair ov helthy rats iz awl that enny man wants to start the rat bizziness with, and in ninety daze, without enny outlay, he will begin tew have rats tew turn oph.

Rats, viewed from enny platform yu kan bild, are unspeakibly cussed, and i would be willing tew make enny man who could destroy awl the rats in the United States, a valuable keepsake, say, for instance, either the life and sufferings of Andy Johnson, in one vollum calf bound, or a receipt tew kure the blind staggers.

REMARKS.

Fust appearances are ced tu be everything. I don't put all my fathe into this saying; i think oysters and klams, for instanse, will bear looking into.

If you want tew git a sure krop, and a big yield for the seed, sow wild oats.

Humin natur is the same all over the world, 'cept in New England, and thar it's akordin tu sarcumstances.