CHARACTER IN FEATHERS. 



In this economically governed world the same 

 thing serves many uses. Who will take upon 

 himself to enumerate the offices of sunlight, or 

 water, or indeed of any object whatever ? Be- 

 cause we know it to be good for this or that, it 

 by no means follows that we have discovered 

 what it was made for. What we have found 

 out is perhaps only something by the way ; as 

 if a man should think the sun were created for 

 his own private convenience. In some moods 

 it seems doubtful whether we are yet acquainted 

 with the real value of anything. But, be that 

 as it may, we need not scruple to admire so 

 much as our ignorance permits us to see of the 

 workings of this divine frugality. The piece of 

 woodland, for instance, which skirts the village, 

 — how various are its ministries to the inhab- 

 itants, each of whom, without forethought or 

 question, takes the benefit proper to himself ! 

 The poet saunters there as in a true Holy Land, 

 to have his heart cooled and stilled. Mr. A. 



