No greater beings live o'erhead than we, Came slyly down and stopped his Lordly 1 prate,- You might have found your food at home, like me, For none but shallow fools will dare to boast!— May give a useful lesson to the head, And Learning wiser grows without his books. The mere materials with which Wisdom builds, And I love Wisdom more than she loves me, My tendency is to philosophise On most things, from a tyrant to a tree; But still the spouseless virgin Knowledge flies. What are we? and whence came we? what shall be Our ultimate existence? what's our present? Are questions answerless, and yet incessant."—Byron. The fact is, the only true Friend to humanity is Faith, calm, implicit, and unbounded faith in God's power and will to carry us safely over the rickety bridge of Time, and land us within the precincts of that much-desired, muchdreamed of, much-caricatured, but unknown bourne, and ultimate resting-place of the higher qualities of man's nature. On the other hand, the only true knowledge is to know ourselves; and the only sound Wisdom is the Fear of God! for that is indeed the fountain-head of all true wisdom (or knowledge in any way deserving the name of such), and, if that fountain-head be not pure, every action of our life is, more or less, the mere emanation of a dirty, puddled stream. 1 "Man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them."-Eccles. ix. 12. THE SILLY ORPHAN'S WILL.. "There is, sure, another flood toward, and these couples are coming to the ark! Here comes a pair of very strange beasts, which in all tongues are called fools."-As you Like It. "God made him, and therefore let him pass for a man. In truth I know it is a sin to be a mocker."-Merchant of Venice. A "O, that I were a fool, I am ambitious for a motley coat."-As you Like It. "Th' Impostor, sure of his infatuate prize, Had more than once thrown off his soul's disguise, As ev'n across the desperate wanderings Of a weak intellect whose lamp was out, Threw startling shadows of dismay and doubt."-Lalla Rookh. Well, God give them wisdom that have it, and Those that are fools, let them use their talents."-Shakespeare. H! Willie lad, you should have better known You should have paused, when Banker, Lawyer skill You might have guessed that when the Lawyer1 prayed, It's no for nought when swooping gleds are whistling, It's no for nought when rich men court the poor, Nor sighing libertines appear demure; It's no for nought when knaves grip hard the Bible, For what did Judas kiss our Lord of old? But for the damning power and lust of gold! 1 "Jesus said, Woe unto you, ye lawyers! for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers. Woe unto you lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered.".. Luke xi. "Brother goeth to law with brother. Why do you not rather take wrong? Why do you not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?"-1 Cor. vi. What, think you, Willie made them pray so often? Was it your heart as weel as brain to soften? To melt it down wi' mock revival tears, By playing on your silly, vacant fears? Fast from each face Religion's mask was torn, And now, my friends, from this dark deed beware- The foregoing sketch just tends to prove that there are too many who prey upon mankind "like the sanctimonious pirate that went to sea with the ten commandments, but scraped one out of the table."-Shakespeare. "The adder is not the less deadly that he creeps under a stone."-Sir W. Scott. "O, would the deed were good, For now the devil, that told me I did well, Says, that this deed is chronicled in Hell."-Shakespeare. A FEW GOOD WORDS. COMMEND no man to his face; censure no man behind his back. Think nothing impossible which others have done. Be careful not to fall into sin: being fallen, not to lie in it. Be slow in believing ill of any one, slower in speaking of it. He who entertains thee with another's faults, will entertain others with thine. Be covetous of nothing, but of doing good. We may not expect a good old age will succeed a riotous youth. Let not the abuse of anything make thee condemn the thing. Do not defer the doing of that which must be done. Do nothing against thy word, and let thy word be regulated by God's Word. Make the Word of God the rule, and God Himself the pattern, of all thy actions. If man mistake thee, comfort thyself that God doth not. To wish thyself ever upon Earth is to wish thyself out of Heaven. PUT NOT YOUR TRUST IN MAN. "You'll try the world soon, my lad, "I'll no say men are villains a'; The real, harden'd wicked, Wha hae nae check but human law, But, och, mankind are unco weak, An' little to be trusted; If self the wavering balance shake, It's rarely right adjusted."- Burns. "Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide; keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom. For the son dishonoureth the father, the daughter riseth up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; a man's enemies are the men of his own house."--Micah vii. These words are also copied into the New Testament, and put into the mouth of Jesus by the writers of His Gospel. OUT not your trust in Man, my boy, PUT Put not your trust in Man; His tongue you'll find a false decoy His speech is but a veil, to hide The deepness of his heart; While hailing every man a friend, Or, like the viper, in the end You'll find you've nursed a foe. 1 "So he (Elisha) went with them, and when they came to Jordan, they cut down wood, but as one was felling a beam the axe-head fell into the water. and he cried and said, Alas, master, for it was borrowed. And the man of God said, Where fell it? and he showed him the place, and he cut down a stick and cast it in thither, and the iron did swim."--2 Kings vi. 4. |