finest victuals that ever were seen, and when all was done, went into the bottle again Next day Mick

went to Cork and sold his plate, and bought a horse and cart, and began to show that he was making money; and they did all they could to keep the bottle a secret: but for all that, their landlord found it out, and came to Mick one day and asked him where he got all his money-sure it was not by the farm; and he bothered him so much, that at last Mick told him of the bottle. His landlord offered him a deal of money for it, but Mick would not give it, till at last he offered to give him all his farm for ever. So Mick, who was very rich, thought he'd never want money; and gave him the bottle. But Mick was mistaken: he and his family spent money as if there was no end of it; and, to make the story short, they became poorer and poorer, till at last they had nothing left but one cow; and Mick once more drove his cow before him to sell her at Cork fair, hoping to meet the old man again and get another bottle." Mick does meet the little old man again, and receives another bottle from him in exchange for his cow. Returning home in great glee, he at once begins to try the virtue of the bottle; the floor is swept, the table covered with a nice clean cloth, and then Mick sets his bottle on the ground and calls out, "Bottle! do your duty.” In a twinkling, "two great stout men with big cudgels issued from the bottle and belaboured poor Mick and his wife and all family, till they lay on the floor, when in they went again." As soon as Mick was recovered from the effects of his beating, he got up, and tucking the bottle under his coat, sets off to the house of his landlord. "Well, what do you want now?" "Nothing," says Mick, "only I've another bottle." "Oh ho is it as good as the first?" "A great deal better,

as I will show you, before these ladies and gentlemen." "Come along then," says the landlord. So Mick sets it on the floor, saying, "Bottle! do your duty," and sud-denly the landlord was tumbled on the floor; ladies and gentlemen, servants and all, were running and roaring and sprawling and kicking and shrieking. Wine-cups and salvers were knocked about in every direction, until the landlord called out, "stop these two devils, Mick Purcell, or I'll I'll have you hanged." They'll never stop," says Mick, "till I get my own bottle that I see up there on the top of that shelf." "Give it down to him," says the landlord-" give it down to him beforewe are killed." Mick put his bottle in his bosom; in jumped the two men into the other bottle, and he carried them home. home. After this Mick got richer than ever, and his son married his landlord's only daughter.*

66

From Clouston's Popular Tales and Fictions.

8. BEAUTY.

'Tis not a lip or eye we beauty call,
But the joint force and full result of all.

-POPE.

Nought under heaven so strongly doth allure,
The sence of man, and all his minde possesse,
As Beauties lovely baite, that doth procure
Great warriours oft their rigour to represse
And mighty hands forget their manlinesse ;
Drawne with the power of an heart-robbing eye,
And wrapt in fethers of a golden tresse,
That can with melting pleasaunce mollifye

Their harden'd hearts enur'd to bloud and cruelty.`

-SPENSER.

Beauty is an open letter of recommendation predisposing the heart to favour the person who presents it.*

-SCHOPENHAUER.

A pleasing figure is a perpetual letter of recom

mendation.

-BACON.

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever.

-KEATS.

How near to God is what is fair!

Which we no sooner see,

But with the lines and outward air

Our senses taken be.

-BEN JONSON.

From The Wisdom of Life, translated by Saunders.

Beauty unadorned is best.

Loveliness

Needs not the foreign aid of ornament,

But is, when unadorned, adorned the most. -THOMSON.

Tell me not of sparkling gems,
Set in regal diadems,-

You may boast your diamonds rare,
Rubies bright and pearls so fair;
But there's a peerless gem on earth,
Of richer ray and purer worth;
'Tis priceless, but 'tis worn by few-
It is, it is the heart that's true.

-ELIZA COOK.

The body's truest ornament consists

In knowledge of the truth; of sacred knowledge
The best embellishment is self-control;
Of self-control the garniture is courage,
Courage is best embellished by success."

*

-BHARAVI.

Oh, how much doth beauty beauteous seem,
By that sweet ornament which truth doth give!
The rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem,
For that sweet odour which doth in it live.

Beauty is not in the clothes.

-SHAKESPEARE.

-ARABIC PROVERB.

From Indian Wisdom by Monier Williams.

There cannot be a greater sign of a weak mind than a person's valuing himself, on a gaudy outside whether it be on the beauties of person, or the still vainer pride of fine clothes.*

A gaudy dress and gentle air
May slightly touch the heart;
But it's innocence and modesty
That polishes the dart.

Grave this moral on thy heart,

That Nature smiles for ever on the good,-
But that all beauty dies with innocence !

-PROF. WILSON.

What's a fine person or a beauteous face
Unless deportment gives him decent grace?
-CHURCHILL.

But it is well to know, that mere personal beauty, delightful as it is to contemplate, and enviable as is its possession, is only a small magnet compared to other and higher qualities of head and heart. A handsome person involves responsibility; demands, through the eternal fitness of things, an inward response, a harmonious whole. It is as if the Creator said to the creature: "See what I have done for you; do something for yourself."

Beauties in vain their pretty eyes may roll;

Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.

-POPE.

From Bewick's Select Fables.