TRIFLES AND CONSEQUENCES, 
Read the following and you will come 
to the conclusion that what are called tri¬ 
fles may produce serious results: 
Iv in the world of spirits the consequence 
of every trifling act of an individual shall 
be plainly visible to him, how great will be 
the remorse of those whose evil works and 
words are as numerous as the sands of the 
sea shore. Who is there that cannot trace 
back to the most trifling incident or acci- 
[For the Rural New-Yorker.J 
LIFE. 
BY L. WITHERED.. 
It ia a aad mysterious thing to live. 
We cannot trace our doom — 
We cannot tell what fearful things may be 
Between us and the tomb. 
At times, we tread our varied pathway here 
With light and car el 33 feet. 
No cloud of doubt, no shade of murky fear 
Darkens the moments Beet. 
And then we feel as though we would not care 
How lengthened were life’s chain. 
It seems the golden fetters we could wear 
Forever, without pain. 
But sorrow frequent comes, the friends we loved 
Are absent, changed or dead. 
Afflictions fall— woe’s vial is outpoured 
On our devoted head. 
And then we marvel much that we are doomed 
To suffer on so long, 
Bearing this weary burden, and its load 
Of bitterness and wrong. 
O, God forgive us, that we thus forget,— 
Life’s priceless boon was given, 
To aid and bless our fellow mortals here 
And flt our souls for heaven. 
Ida Pauxfibj.d. 
^’anc ciftci-£ 
Having light, we seek to impart it. 
life or drunkard’s grave become his portion. 
Some of our richest and most influential 
merchants—sons of farmers—can trace their 
coming to New Y ork to the meeting of a 
play-fellow in the street, or the running away 
of a colt, or perhaps, as in an instance we 
have heard of, the breaking of a bowl. 
Had these boys remained at home and. been 1 
farmers, how different would have been the 
situation of their families. Their daughters 
instead of flaunting in silks in Broadway 
and enjoying a seat at the opera, might 
have been, engaged in the more worthy 
operation of making butter and cheese. 
| Steamships that now form regular lines to 
different quarters of the globe, and affect the 
destiny of nations, would not have been built; 
wars might have been made or avoided, as 
subsequent circumstances have dictated. 
Thirty years ago two boys in New Hamp¬ 
shire quarrelled about a box of blacking. 
THE USEFUL MORE ENDURING THAN THE 
BEAUTIFUL 
- % ' 
its association which should meet quarterly, 
and the State its association which should 
meet annually, at such time and place as 
will accommodate the greatest number of 
persons employed iu teaching. 
These associations, where they have been 
sustained for any length of time have proved 
highly beneficial to their members, who 
have been made better and more successful 
instructors of the young. Many, notwith¬ 
standing the benefits that may be thus se¬ 
cured, stay away entirely from these meet¬ 
ings, or only occasionally attend, and then 
as idle spectators, and go away and fina 
fault, perhaps, because the exercises were 
not more interesting, when the reason they 
were not so, was as much their fault as 
anybody’s ? 
species are known. As you approach the 
limits of the temperate zone, shrubs and 
herbaceous plants appear—then the ever¬ 
greens, mingled with the birch and willow. 
Wheat scarcely comes to maturity—some 
of the more common garden vegetables are 
produced here at an altitude corresponding 
to the temperature of between 60 and 70 
degrees north latitude. 
The dwarf birch and willow are the trees 
nearest the snow region: the former seldom 
exceeds two feet in height, and the latter is 
still smaller. The reindeer moss grows be¬ 
yond this limit, proceeding north. As you 
approach the equator from the region of the 
dwarf birch, the common birch, the moun- 
i tain ash, and the Scotch fir, two or three 
| species of the willow, a species of the alder, 
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF PLANTS, 
sought the happiness of his fellow men 
rather than their glory, and linked his 
memory to some great work of national 
utility and benevolence. This is the true 
glory which outlives all others, and shines 
with undying lustre from generation to gen¬ 
eration— imparting to works something of 
its own immortality, and in some degree 
rescuing them from the ruin which over¬ 
takes the ordinary monuments of historical 
tradition, or mere magnificence. — Edin¬ 
burgh Review. 
thermometer falls one degree for every 300 
feet of ascent Hence an elevation of 15,- 
000 feet near the equator produces the 
same changes in the vegetable kingdom as 
the distance of 5,000 miles north of the 
equator on the level of the sea An eleva¬ 
tion of 7,000 feet in the tropics gives a 
temperature the same as that of France, 
which of 49 degrees north latitude. 
Humboldt, iu his travels iu 8. America, 
has given a sketch of the vegetation of the 
Andes, commencing in the torrid zone on 
the level of the ocean, and ascending to the 
region of “ eternal snow.” A condensed 
view of this sketch with the aid of the cut, 
will enable the reader to gain a very cor¬ 
rect idea of the distribution of plants,—re¬ 
membering always that altitude from the 
level of the sea produces the same effect 
upon climate and plants as traveling north 
or south to the equator. 
1. The Tropical Zone. This is called 
the region of palms, and extends from 
the level of the sea to 3,500 feet. Here 
grow in perfection the splendid palm family, 
the sugar-cane, the coffee plant, the tea 
plant, the orange, the lemon, the fig, the 
citron, the pine-apple and the banana; also 
BEAUTIFUL THOUGHT. 
“ There is but a breath of air, and a beat 
of the heart, betwixt this world and the 
next. And in the brief interval of painful 
and awful suspense while we feel that death 
is present with us, that we are powerless 
and he all powerful, and the last faint pulsa¬ 
tion here is but the prelude of endless life 
hereafter; we feel, in the midst of the stun¬ 
ning calamity about to befall us, that earth 
has no compensating good to mitigate the 
severity of our loss. But there is no grief 
without some beneficent provision to soften 
its intenseness. When the good and the 
lovely die, the memory of their good deeds, 
like the moonbeams on the stormy sea, light 
up our darkened hearts, and lend to the 
; surrounding gloom a beauty so sad, so sweet, 
j that we would not, if we could, dispel the 
I darkness that environs it.”— Geo. D. Pren¬ 
tice . 
BIBLICAL PRONOUNS. 
Luther pronounced pronouns to be the 
sweetest and most consolatory expressions 
to be found in the word of God. What, 
iu fact, more tenderly elevating than where 
the prophet Isaiah heralds peace and re¬ 
freshing to the people of Israel ? “ Comfort 
freshing to the people of Israel ? 
ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.” 
No longer the “Lord God, the Lord strong 
and mighty;” but “ your God,” and “my 
people.” And how marked the difference 
between saying, “ The Lord is a shepherd,” 
and “The Lord is my shepherd;” between 
the heathen, who acknowledges God as the 
Father of all things, and the ransomed of 
his well-beloved, who behold in the Lord, 
“ Our Father vvhich’is in heaven;” between 
“the Lord will hear me when I call upon 
him,” and “Lo, I am with you always, even 
unto the end of the world.” 
An Orange leaf, when certain conditions 
are present, if planted in a favorable soil, 
will send down roots, and is capable ol 
originating an entire tree. According to 
Mirandola, a leaf of the Bryophyllum, when 
simply laid on moist ground, strikes out 
roots, which soon penetrate the soil. 
“The Bible is a book worth more than 
all the other books which were ever printed.” 
—Patrick Henry. 
Humboldt, in his interesting, though 
almost too scientific “ Cosmos,” mentions a 
species of full-grown pines three-tenths of 
an inch in height; also another species three 
hundred feet in height, both natives of Cali¬ 
fornia and Mexico, 
Graves are but the prints of the footsteps 
of the angel of eternal life. 
