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No greater beings live o'erhead than we,
We're Lord of Fate !-besides the boundless sea.'
Just at this very time, a hook with bait

Came slyly down and stopped his Lordly 1 prate,-
With greedy haste he clutched the baited hook,
And found, too late, that Sense o'er-matched his book,
The other saw him dragged above his head,
Then calmly swam, and reached his homely bed.
The end of Learning is to teach us Sense,—
To know, and learn to guard our littleness.
"Ah!" cried the other, "had you been less wise,
And thought you knew less of the skies,

You might have found your food at home, like me,
On soft mollusca, or on galatea;

For none but shallow fools will dare to boast!—
He knows the least, who thinks he knows the most;
For Wisdom never was by Learning bought,
True Knowledge lies in knowing we know nought!
" 'Here, the heart

May give a useful lesson to the head,

And Learning wiser grows without his books.
Knowledge and Wisdom, far from being one,
Have ofttimes no connection. Knowledge dwells
In heads replete with thoughts of other men ;
Wisdom in minds attentive to their own.
Knowledge, a rude unprofitable mass,

The mere materials with which Wisdom builds,
Till smoothed and squared, and fitted to its place,
Does but encumber whom it seems to enrich.
Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much,
Wisdom is humble that he knows no more."-Cowper.
"But these are foolish things to all the wise,

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,
And uttered such unheav'nly, monstrous things,

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
Religion's sigh from hypocritic groan;

You should have paused, when Banker, Lawyer skill
Baith were plied to make you sign yon will.

You might have guessed that when the Lawyer1 prayed,
And close beside your chair he ling'ring stayed,
Encouraged by the Banker's Janus face,
'Twas no for you they ran sae close a race.
How gently, too, the Trapper stroked your side,
Then looked aboon, wi' saint-like Peter's pride
When pulling out yon lang four-sheeted will-
Then kindly kissed you with a Judas' skill.
Ah, Willie, Willie, blinded you were there
To take for mastiffs such a wolfish pair;

It's no for nought when swooping gleds are whistling,
Nor yet when cats their backs and tails are bristling.
It's no for nought when Lawyers howl and pray,
And Bankers greet to sign your wills away;

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,
And canting hypocrites talk loud of libel.

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?
Or, was it each to grab a thousand pound,
Ere aqua vitæ laid you 'neath the ground?
Well did each bou, and say "Just as you please;"
The one was well named Trap, the other Squeeze!
Did you no see them wink wi' fox-like skill,
Syne grasp your hand to make you sign yon will;
Poor Willie, how you stared, when in your nieve
They squeezed the pen, when laughing in their sleeve;
And when they felt your hand, which aspen shook,
And spied your stupid, vacant, bedlam look.
How quickly then they vanished through the door,
With stifled laugh to hide their smothered roar;
Poor light Willie ! wi' what a wildered air
You viewed the exit of yon able pair!
Just like the sparrow in the hairy noose;
Fast by the leg, which struggles to get loose-
Poor thing! wi' gaping mouth you tried in vain
To break the spell which bound you like a chain.
You fluttered for a while, then panting lay,
Half dreaming sense and will were baith away.
And, as you gaped wi' a bewildered stare,
Your trim but vacant brother entered there;
He helped you up, but, as he helped, he fell-
(The weakest of the two, 'twere hard to tell).
At last, with many coughs and owlish stares,
With only sense to know the cash was their's;
John, with the sweeping of a Writer's skill,
Deemed Willie wrong in having signed his will.
Poor youths!-the two had little will to lose-
But God's own sacred fools-none dare abuse !
Next week, nor vain, this plotted will was known,
For Willie's trustees forced it to be shown;
And then, in faith, the damning proof was seen
That 'mid loud prayer the villain coils between.
A truth, alas! but often known too late,
Religion's cloak is oft the devil's bait!
Demanded was the will, and made to burn,
As if to shadow forth its framers' turn.

Fast from each face Religion's mask was torn,
And tardy Justice points with honest scorn;
The Free Kirk session had to brand the pair,
With just rebuke for mingling gold with prayer.
Beware of him who constant prates of God,
He'll pray and cheat you with a Judas' nod;
He will preside with glee at drinking balls,
And next night pray in your teetotal halls.
That Man is worst who seems most good,
And meets you in the smiling, praying mood;
But, at the last, if there is Hell for any,
"Twill be for him who prays, to rob a zany!

And now, my friends, from this dark deed beware-
You sign no Wills, nor Bills, through cant or prayer.

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.
Not to do as thou sayest is to unsay thy religion by thy deeds.
He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker.

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,
And, Andrew dear, believe me,
Ye'll find mankind an unco squad,
And muckle they may grieve ye:
For care and trouble set your thought,
Ev'n when your end's attained;
And a' your views may come to nought,
Where ev'ry nerve is strained.

"I'll no say men are villains a';

The real, harden'd wicked,

Wha hae nae check but human law,
Are to a few restricked;

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
To cheat you if he can.

His speech is but a veil, to hide

The deepness of his heart;
It covers envy, hate, and pride,
And hollow, selfish art.

While hailing every man a friend,
To think him so be slow;

Or, like the viper, in the end

You'll find you've nursed a foe.
Your only friend, my boy, is God,
Then put your trust in Him;
If sterling habits bear your load,
Like Elisha's1 axe you'll swim.

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.

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