1X7 L 
ifprtwwrt. 
THE MOTHER'S PRAYER. 
Thet sleep. Athwart my white 
Moon-marbled casement with her solemn mein 
Silently watching o'er their rest serene, 
Gazeth the star-eyed night. 
My girl, sedate or wild 
By turns,—as playful as a summer breeze. 
Or grave as night on Star-lit Southern seas.— 
Serene, strange woman child. 
My boy, my trembling star 1 
The whitest lamb in April's tenderest fold, 
The bluest flower-bell in the shadiest wold. 
His fitting emblems are. 
They are but two, and all 
My lonely heart's arithmetic is done 
When these are counted. High and Holy one, 
Oh! hear my trembling call! 
I ask not wealth nor fame 
For these, my jewels. Diadem and wreath 
Soothe not the aching brow that throbs beneath. 
Nor cool its fever-flame. 
I ask not length of life. 
Nor earthly honors. Weary are the ways 
The gifted tread, unsafe the world's best praise, 
And keen its strife. 
I ask not that to me 
Thou spare them, though they dearer, dearer be 
Than rain to deserts, spring flowers to the bee, 
Or sunshine to the sea. 
But kneeling at their feet, 
While smiles like summer-light on shaded streams 
Are gleaming from their glad and sinless dreams, 
I would my prayer repeat. 
In rhat alluring land. 
The future—where, amid green, stately bowers, 
Ornate with proud and crimson-flushing flowers, 
Pleasure, with smooth white hand 
Beckons the young away 
From glen and hillside to her banquet fair,— 
Sin, the grim she-woif, croucheth in her lair, 
Ready to seize her prey. 
The bright and purpling bloom 
Of Nightshade and Acanthus cannot hide 
The charred and bleaching hones that are denied 
•Taper, and chrism, and tomb. 
Lord, in this midnight hour 
I bring my lambs to thee. Oh! by Thy truth. 
Thy mercy save them from Hi' envenomed tooth 
And tempting poison flower! 
Oh. Crucified and Crowned, 
Keep us 1 We have no shield, no guide, but Thee ! 
Let sorrows come—let Hope’s last blossom be 
By Grief's dark tempest drowned. 
But lead ns by Thy hand. 
Oh, gentlest Shepherd, till we rest beside 
The still, clear waters, in the pastures wide 
Of thine own sinless land! 
Written for Moore's Rural New-Yorker. 
SOMETHING AF*"'® 
While the gentle critics and reformers of the 
Rural are so much engaged upon that very 
discussible subject, Dress, it has sometimes 
occurred to your correspondent as rather 
strange, that one important article, viz., Caps, 
should not attract a passing notice. 
The subject in all its divisions might be 
WOMEN, LOOK HERE! 
If it were justifiable to use hard w'ords at all, 
the writer hefeof would think it excusable when 
he hears women complaining of all the ills con¬ 
ceivable, and sees them go into the streets, or 
out to walk with only thin shoes and thin cotton 
stockings on their feet, and know they have no 
adequate protection for their limbs. But that is 
not the worst feature. It is far worse to 6ce 
them scud their children out equally exposed. 
It is murder in the first degree. We happen to 
know some women who have recovered health 
by learning how to make themselves comfortable 
—how to clothe their persons so as to keep the 
temperature of all parts of the body uniform. 
And we have known scares of poor women who 
went prematurely to their last, rest because they 
never learned the comfort of being warmly clad. 
There are plenty of inhuman mothers left, who 
will sacrifice a child’s health in order that she 
may "look pretty,” or look as well as some¬ 
body’s else child does. There are very few days 
pass that we do not see illustrations of this 
criminal vanity that not only make our heart 
ache, hut bitter words come Into our mouth. 
Feeling thus, we want the women who read the 
Rural to carefully peruse the following from 
the pen of Dr. Dio Lewis : It is sound common 
sense. It is truth. 
"During the damp and cold season deficient 
dress of the feet and legs is a fruitful source of 
disease. The head, throat, and liver are perhaps 
the most frequent sufferers. The legs and feet 
are far from the central part the of body. They are 
not in great mass like the trunk, but extended 
and enveloped by the atmosphere. Besides, 
they are near the damp, cold earth. For these 
and other reasons, they require extra covering. 
If we would secure the highest physiological 
conditions, we must give our extremities more 
dress than The body. We men wear upon our legs, 
in the coldest season, hut two thicknesses of 
cloth. T le body has at least six. Women put on 
them for..’ thicknesses under the shawl, which, 
with it- various doublings, furnishes several 
more—t hen. Over ail, thick, padded furs; while 
the leg- have one thickness of cotton under a 
ballooL. 
"They constantly come to me about their 
headache, palpitation of the heart, and conges¬ 
tion of the liver. Yesterday one said to me, 
‘All my blood Is in my head and chest. My 
head and chc6t go bumpety-bump, my heart goes 
bumpety - hump.’ I asked, ‘ ITow are your 
feet ? ’ * Chunks of ice,’ she replied. I said to 
her, ‘If yon so dress your legs and feet that the 
blood can’t get dowu into them, where can it go ? 
It can’t go ont visiting. It must stay in the 
system somewhere. Of course the chest and 
head must have an excessive quantity. So they 
go bumpety-bump, and so they must go, unt il you 
dress your legs and feet in such a way that they 
fliall get their share of blood. In the coldest 
season of the year I leave Boston for a bit of a 
tour before the lyceum—going as far as Philadel- 
r. i-i il *Mf4W\cr wn-npvli vv> fKf* a 
overcoat, but I give my legs two or three times 
their usual dress. During the coldest whether 
men may wear, in addition to their usual drawers, 
a pair of chamois - skin drawers with great 
advantage. When we ride in a sleigh, or the 
care, where do we suffer? In our legs, of 
course. Give me warm logs and feet, and I’ll 
altogether too Comprehensive for the limits of hardly thank you for an overcoat.’ 
this sheet (not the Rural, hut the foolscap,) so “My dear madam, have you a headache, a sore 
POEMS UJWRITTEN. 
BY ALFF.H) TENNYSON. 
There are poems unwritten and songs unsung, 
Sweeter than any that frer were heard— 
Poems that wait for an aigol tongue, 
Songs that but long fora paradise bird. 
Poems that ripple throw at lowliest lives— 
Poem 6 unnoted and hiitien away 
Down in the sonls where the heantifhl thrives, 
Sweetly as flowers in tie airs of May. 
Poems that only the angels above ns. 
Looking down deep In 411 r hearts, may behold, 
Felt, though unseen, by the beings wbo love ns, 
Written on lives as in l|tte-rs of gold. 
Sing to my 60 ul the ewet^ song that thou liveet! 
Read me the poem thfct never was penned— 
The wonderful idyl of life that thou giveat 
Fresh from thy spirit, On, heantifhl frieud! 
-- 
Written for Moore's Rural New-Yorker. 
SOCIABILITY, 
It is often said of persons, in a complimentary 
way, that they are sociable, meaning that they 
are friendly and talkative; hut it depends some¬ 
what on the character »f a person’s speech, as 
well as Its quantity, whether their acquaintance 
is desirable or not. 
Persons may he ever so well meaning, hut if 
their conversation is only of the prevailing sick¬ 
ness. or the last horrible murder in the papers, 
unless you incline particularly to such kluds of 
entertainment, they will be likely to prove dull 
companions in the end. 
Or if an acquaintance is simply prosy, and 
talks with as dignified an air as if he fancied 
himself to he delivering a lecture on some 
moral subject, without any of the familiar lan¬ 
guage which makes intercourse with friends so 
charming, you will he as likely to go to sleep 
during his discourse as you would on the cars 
while they were in motion, and wake up when 
he stopped. Or, if your caller should happen to 
be one full of his or her own petty cares, who 
will treat you to a history of all their little vexa¬ 
tions, you will soon become tired, or irritable, 
or both; hut no matter, you must hew all their 
plans for the present and future whether you 
will or not. Sometimes, too, you will hear 
nothing but bits of flying gossip about people 
yon are not at all interested in from this kind 
of sociable people. But when a friend enters of 
ahont your own stamp, and you cannot speak 
without calling up a response from his mind, 
when your ideas and experiences correspond 
and your heart grows lighter with the friendly 
interchange of thought, you are enjoying one of 
the highest pleasures of social intercourse. 
Such hours need not ha counted among the 
vanishing pleasures, ’he recollection of 
fhero • uvih ever after, a. u. o. 
Elkhora, Wis., 1865. 
Reader, did yon ever sit by the table or 
fireside of an ungetalihie man or woman ? You 
thought of plenty of sensible things that might 
he said, to an ordinarily communicable sort of 
human being, and "fellow sojourner through 
this vale of tears," ami sighs and mutual de¬ 
pendencies, and relations; but to that stiff, stern. 
The charm of full-grown simplicity always 
gains by, and we believe even requires, contrast. 
We must be a little surprised at a man’s being 
simple before wo can value the quality in him. 
Thus the style and manners of royal personages 
are generally simple, and there are doubtless 
plenty of reasons to make this probable, and a 
thing to expect , but persons dazzled by the 
pomp and circumstance of greatness are de¬ 
lighted with this simplicity, which they con¬ 
found with humility, because it seems to them a 
striking contrast with slate add splendor. So 
with the aristocracy of intellect and genius. It 
appears a fine thing for a great author or thinker 
to he artless and unaffected; and we like it 
because, If lie chose to lie pretentious, we could 
only say he had more right to be so than his 
neighbors; but the truth is, these people have 
not really the temptations to pretense that 
others, their inferiors, have. Th<5 world allows 
them so distinguished a place that there is no 
ueed of them to struggle ami use effort in order 
to seem something higher and more important 
than they arc. It needs a reliance on self to be 
perfectly simplo in treating of self; and this 
reliance, us a conscious quality, it. is scarcely 
modest to bring forward unless the world has 
given its sanction to self-estimate.— .Saturday 
Review. 
READERS AND WRITERS. 
Reading without purpose is sauntering, not 
exercise. More is got from one hook on which 
the thought set ties for a definite end in knowledge, 
than from libraries skimmed over by a won¬ 
dering eye. A cottage flower gives honey to the 
bee, a king’s garden none to the butterfly. 
Youths who are destined for active careers, or 
ambitious of distinction in such forms of litera¬ 
ture as require freshness of invention or original¬ 
ity of thought, should avoid the habit of intense 
study for many hours at a ft retch. There is a 
point in all tension of the intellect beyond 
which effort is only waste of strength. Fresh 
ideas do not readily spring up within a weary 
brain: and whatever exhausts the mind not only 
enfeebles its power, but narrows its scope. We 
often see men who have over-read at college, 
entering upon life as languidly its if they were 
about to leave it. They have not the vigor to 
cope with their own generation ; lor their own 
generation is young, and they have wasted the 
nervous energy which supplies the sinews of 
war to youth, in its contest for fame or fortune. 
Study with regularity, at settled hours. Those 
in the forenoon are the best, If they can be se¬ 
cured. The man who bits acquired the habit of 
study, though for only one hour every day in the 
year, and keeps to the one thing studied till it is 
mastered, will be startled to sec the way he has 
made at the eud of a twelvemonth. He is sel¬ 
dom overworked who can contrive to he in 
advance of his work. If you have three weeks 
before you to icafn something Which 0 m<>n of 
average quickness could learn in a week, learn 
it the first week, and not the third. Business 
dispatched is business well done, hut business 
hurried is business ill done. In learning what 
others have thought, it is well to keep in prac¬ 
tice the power to think for one’s self; when an 
author has added to your knowledge, pause and 
consider if you can add nothing to his. Be not 
contented to have learned a problem by heart; 
try and deduce from it a corrollary not in the 
I propose to say nothing of the caps of military throat, palpitation of the heart, congestion of inapproachable, imnutculate presence, you dared hook. Spare no pains in collecting details be- 
herocs emblazoned with the symbols of war; the liver, or indigestion? Wear one, two or not utter a word. And so, for days and weeks, fore you generalize; hut it iB only when bciails 
nor of those eoquetish fantasies which are set three pairs of warm woolen stockings, and thick. an d perchance years, you live with this sublime are generalized that a truth is grasped. The 
jauntily over the curls of our fashionable belles; warm shoes, with more or less reduction in the frigidity, and * iavc no Interchange of thought, or tendency to generalize is universal with all men 
nor of baby caps, tiny and dainty; nor even of amount of dress about your body, and you will sediments, in common. who achieve great success, whether in art, liter- 
the mystical night cap—low he it spoken—but obtain the same relief* permanently that you ^ udl meu and women make homes less cheer- aturc, or action. The habit of generalizing, 
genuine, old-fashioned, grandmothers’ caps, of would derive temporarily from a warm foot-bath, ful and inhabitable than a house hewn from the though at first gained with care and caution, 
blessed memory. What has become of them ? " I must not forget to sav that a thin layer of £ rau it e ice of the arctic pole ! secure®, by practice, a comprehensiveness of 
How beautiful they were, how becoming! india-rubber cemented upon the boot-sole will Give m0 thc frailk > genuine, social face and judgment and a promptitude of decision, which 
How softly the snowy muslin or fleecy iacc was do much to keep the bottoms of our feet dry manners, before whom one may laugh and jest, seem to the crowd like intuitions of genius, 
adjusted over the silvery locks, aud how lovingly and warm." ‘ and in whose presence one may take a long And, indeed, nothing more distinguishes the 
the delicate blonde and tiny knots of ribbon _ *** _ breath, and wink occasionally. And such a face man of genius from the mere mau of talent, than 
nestled into and concealed the wrinkles of the LADIES SHOULD READ NEWSPAPERS 18 n0t lnconsi8lent with ,rue dignity ° f manner, the facility of generalizing the various details, 
faded cheeks, or &kady-worn brow, developin ' _ and nobility of soul; and It Is far easier and each of which demads the aptitude of a special 
that peculiar’venerable grace which needs none It is a great mistake, in female education to better to reverence thdr Ioyo than One talent; hut aU of which can be only gathered 
of the ornaments of youth to render it attractive, keep a vonngladv’s time and attention devoted ClXO apI)redato greatness and digidty, but Into a whole by the grasp of a mind which may 
. , ,, ... .... , from an uncomeatible, noncommittal statue, have no special aptitude for any.— Bulwer. in 
A grandmother without a cap — think of it! to only the fashionable literature of the day. , T , , ,. , „ _ ’ m y J ’ 
xr‘ v, - , - , , ‘ re c good Lord deliver me! ” Queechy. Blackwood. 
No sphere in which daughters and grand- you would qualify her for conversation, you 
daughters may exercise their taste iu plaiting must give her something to talk about—give 
folds of cambric or falls of lace; no tempting education with this actual world and its SIMPLICITY. BEAUTIFUL SWISS CUSTOM, 
"strings” for uncertain, baby fingers to clutch transpiring events. Urge her to read thc news- , 7 
at; no gilt box, containing the mystery of the r* a P c rs, and become familiar with the present * UERE is no gift of expression that tells more Tire horn of thc Alps is employed in the mourn 
" Paris cap,” stored away—not always safely— character and Improvement of our race. His- tbau B^mplicity in its right place. A simple tainous districts of Switzerland not solely to the 
beyond the reach of mischievous little hands, tor l’ '=> of some importance; but the past world ddci ot talking or writing is an engine Of power sound of the row call, hut for another purpose, 
Alas! the children of the proeent day will never i8 dead, and we have nothing to do with it. Our in good hands, enabling them to undertake tasks solemn and religious. As soon as the sun has 
know the significance of such memories. thoughts and onr concerns should he for the f° rh *ddon to the world at large. It even fits a disappeared in thc valleys, and it® last raya are 
Now thc writer is not one of those unhappy present world; to know what it is, and improve man for talkin ^ or ' vrilin ~ about himself, which j U st glimmering on thc snowy summit® of the 
individuals who have a standing quarrel with tbe condition of it. Let her have an intelligent on ^ P cracms endowed with the art of being mountains, the herdsman who dwells on the lof- 
dame Fashion. On the contrary, she has proved opinion, and be able to sustain an intelligent pblia > transparent and natural, ought ever to tie6t, takos his horn and trumpets forth—" Praise 
her devotion to the capricious goddess, by more conversation concerning the mental, moral, a ttcmpt. Simplicity, as we would view it here, God the Lord!” All the herdsmen iu tho ncigh- 
than one sacrifice of taste and convenience, political and religious improvement of onr times, ? 8 no means a merely moral or negative qual- borbood, take their homB and repeat the words. 
Besides, we all agree that within the last few ^ ct gilded annuals and poems on the centre- * ty ;, ** s0 * n 801,10 cases; hut It is then only This often continues a quarter of an hour, whilst 
years, the edicts of Fashion have accorded with ta, d e be kept a part of the time covered with noGced 01 a PI )rccla t c d lor It® suggesti venose, on all sides the mountains echo the name of God. 
the rules of common sense and comfort, much "weekly and daily journals. Let the whole family, Children do not admire each other's simplicity; A solemn stillness follows; every individual offers 
more frequently thau formerly hut while we 1DC ‘ U > women aud children—read the newspapers, hut we admire it in thorn, because what is uttered his secret pruyer on headed knees and uncovered 
acknowledge this, we must protest when she — Oodeg. without thought or intention in the child is full head. By this time it is quite dark, “Good 
lifts the snowy caps from our grandmothers’ -- ot meaning to us. It wa® more than a simple, it night! ” trumpets forth the herdsman on the lofti- 
heads, and violates the sanctity of their venera- A CURE FOR SCANDAL. was probably a stupid, little girl that kept rcit- e »t summit. "Goodnight!” is repeated on all the 
ble locks with appliances of lunar caustic, and T , , 77“ , , erating, e are seveu;’’ hut the words sug- mountains from the horns of the herdsmen and 
decks them with some trumpery coronet of ^ 01 "der to cure scandal, take of good nature gested deep meanings to the poet. The woeping the cleft® of the rocks. Then each lies dowu to 
velvet and gilt, as much out. of taste us would one . oamcCd of an berb ^ b - v the Indians a P 0 l°glzing at the sight of the Unfolding re * t . 
be a wig over the sunny curls of “sweet six- ‘‘““d-your-own-business," one ounce; mix handkerchief; “My tear* arc clean,” meant no-~- 
teen ” Is age falling into disrepute that all ts witb <l|X UtUe charlt y*for-others" and two or more thau the literal sense of hi® words; hut to A Capital “Maine Law.”—I noticed oeca- 
beautiful insignia is banished * Must three score thr “ SprigS ° f kewp * Jour-tongne ■- between the hearer they brought thought® of guileless sionally very long troughs which supplied the 
years borrow the adornment® of twenty to i - y0Ur teeth ’ ” fllmmer them to g eth6r in a vessel innocence and of other tears that do leave a road with water, and my companion said that 
it dignity ? Not so • not so • in this ^ ^ ^ caJlc d circumspection, for a short time, and It Main. After childhood no one can retain a sim- threedoliarsannuully were granted by the State to 
“ reform ” Let ns besiege the Court of Fair ^ wil1 he ,u for use. Application-The symptom plicity worthy of admiration without some Intel- one man in each school district, who provided 
until she restores the cap the most eraeefui "the 13 S >io!cnt itchin £ 1x1 thc ton K uo aad roof of the loctual power. The unconscious simplicity of a and maintained a suitable water trough by the 
most becoming, the most dignified article of Invariably take® place when you child, when childhood la jawt, is disagreeable and roadside, for the use of travelers,-a piece of 
feminine attire. Marie Estelle are in company with a spccios of animals called painful, and is never recognized without a shade intelligence as refreshing to me as the water 
Rockford. 111 ififa gossips. When you feel a fit of the disorder of pity or contempt.. itself. That legislature did not sit in vain. It 
If an old lady is very feeble and very rich her 
dutiful relatives are not apt to forget that great 
age and infirmity entitle one to every possible at¬ 
tention. 
In order to cure scandal, take of good nature 
one ounce; of an herb called by the Indians 
“mind-your-own• business,” one ounce; mix 
with “a little charity-for-others" and two or 
three sprigs of “ keep - your-tongne - between 
your teeth ; ” simmer them together in a vessel 
called circumspection, for a short time, and it 
will he fit for use. Application —The symptom 
is a violent itching in the tongue and roof of the 
mouth, which invariably take® place when yon 
are in company with a species of animals called 
gossips. When you feel a fit of the disorder 
coming on, take a toaapoonful ot the mixture, 
hold it in your mouth, which you will keep 
closely Bliut till you get home, and you will 
find a complete cure. Should you apprehend 
a relapse, keep a small bottle full about you, and 
repeat the dose on the slightest symptom. 
not utter a word. And so, for days aud weeks, 
and perchance yean-, you live with this sublime 
frigidity, and have no interchange of thought, or 
sentiments, in common. 
Such men and women make homes less cheer¬ 
ful and inhabitable than a house hewn from the 
granite ice of the arctic pole ! 
Give me the frank, genuine, social face and 
manners, before whom one may langli and jest, 
aud in whose presence one may take a long 
breath, and wink occasionally. And such a face 
is not Inconsistent with true dignity of manner, 
and nobility of soul; and it i® far easier and 
better to reverence their love than fear. One 
can appreciate real greatness and digidty, but 
from an uncomeatible, noncommittal statue, 
“good Lord deliver me! ” Queechy. 
» * ♦ — 
SIMPLICITY. 
There is no gift of expression that tells more 
than simplicity iu it® right place. A simplo 
stylo of talking or writing is an engine of power 
in good hand®, enabling them to undertake tasks 
forbidden to the world at large. It even tits a 
man for talking or writing about liim9eif, which 
only persons endowod with the art of being 
plain, transparent and natural, ought ever to 
attempt. Simplicity, as we would view it here, 
is by no means a merely moral or negative qual¬ 
ity. It is so in some cases; hut it is then only 
noticed or appreciated for Its suggesti venose. 
Children do not admire each other’s simplicity ; 
hut we admire it in thorn, because what is uttered 
without thought or intention in the child is full 
of meaning to us. It was more thau a simple, it, 
was probably a stupid, little girl that kept reit¬ 
erating, "We aro seveu;” hut the words sug¬ 
gested deep meanings to the poet. The weeping 
child, apologizing at the sight of the unfolding 
handkerchief, "My tear* are clean,” meant no 
more thau the literal sense of hi® words ; hut to 
the hearer they brought thoughts of guileless 
innocence and of other tears that do leave a 
stain. Alter childhood no one cuu retain a sim¬ 
plicity worthy of admifatl iu without some intel¬ 
lectual power. The unconscious simplicity of a 
child, when childhood is p^wt, is disagreeable and 
painful, and is never recognized without a shade 
of pity or contempt. 
Manly simplicity is intelligent, and knows 
what, it is about. And though, to win our 
respect, it must of course be real, It may and often 
Is only one side of a many sided character; that 
is, the quality may attach to purl and not to the 
whole of a man’s nature. 
fore you generalize ; but it iB only when hetail® 
are generalized that a truth is grasped. The 
tendency to generalize is universal with all men 
who achieve great success, whether in art, liter¬ 
ature, or action. The habit of generalizing, 
though at drat gained with care and caution, 
secure®, by practice, a comprehensiveness of 
judgment and a promptitude of decision, which 
seem to the crowd like Intuition® of genius. 
And, indeed, nothing more distinguishes the 
man of genius from the mere mau of talent, than 
the facility of generalizing the various details, 
each of which demads the aptitude of a special 
talent; hut all of which can be only gathered 
into a whole by the grasp of a mind which may 
have no special aptitude for any.— Bulwer , in 
Blackwood. 
BEAUTIFUL SWISS CUSTOM. 
The horn of thc Alps is employed in the moun¬ 
tainous district® of Switzerland not solely to the 
sound of the row call, hut for another purpose, 
solemn and religious. A® 6oon as the sun lia® 
disappeared in thc valleys, and il® last rays are 
just glimmering on thc snowy summit® of the 
mountains, the herdsman who dwells on the lof¬ 
tiest, tako6 his horn and trumpets forth—" Praise 
God the Lord! ” All the herdsmen in thc neigh¬ 
borhood, take their homB and repeat the words. 
This often continues a quarter ot an hour, whilst 
Oil all sides the mountains echo the name of God. 
A solemn stillness follows; every individual offers 
his secret pruyer on bended knees and uncovered 
head. By tlua time it is quite dark, “ Good 
night! ” trumpets forth thc herdsman on the lofti¬ 
est summit. “Goodnight!” is repeated on all the 
mountains from the horns of the herdsmen and 
the clefts of the rocks. Then each lies down to 
A Capital "Maine Law.” — I noticed occa¬ 
sionally very long troughs which supplied the 
road with water, and my companion said that 
th ree dollars unn ually were granted by the State to 
one man in each school district, who provided 
and maintained a suitable water trough by the 
roadside, for the use of travelers,—a piece of 
intelligence as refreshing to me as the water 
itself. That legislature did not sit In vain. It 
was an oriental act, which made me wish that I 
wan still farther down cast,—another Maine law, 
which I hope wo may get in Massachusetts. 
That State is banishing bar-roouis'from'.it® high¬ 
ways, and conducting the mountain - springs 
thither. — Thorcau'n Maine Woods. 
3 Written for Moore’s Rural New-Yoker. 
5 COVET NOT. 
1 - 
j BY RALPH RUSTIC. 
Does yonr neighbor’s domicile 
Far surpass, iu cost and skill, 
Your unostentatious cot ? 
| Covet not. 
r Has your neighbor glowing health, 
t Has he genius, has he wealth, 
Has ho blooming honors got ? 
Covet not. 
5 
Would you true contentment find, 
Would you have a healthful mind, 
Free from envy's leprous spot t 
Covet not. 
) 
, But there comes a voice sublime, 
Ringing like a silver chime: 
'•Best of gifts, sweet Charily, 
Covet ye.” 
’ Mich. University, Jan., 1865. 
i 
f Written for Moore’s Rural New-Yorker. 
THE ELASTICITY- OF LIFE, 
Tuerf. is much in every day life [which brings 
practically to view a most encouraging fact. 
Circumstances and experience seem interwoven 
with such an infinite number of finely wrought 
1 cords of extension, that a phase of life w r ill take 
< almost every aspect ere it, will ho destroyed. In 
other words, a cord of really ordered events will 
: stretch to an infinite length crc it will break. 
The study of human nature develops this truth 
as tlie main-spring of action. .Men build upon 
and around it as the ambitious astronomer clus- 
' ters myriad stars around the nucleus iu some 
! bright constellation. Hopefully trusting In social 
1 strength, society vigorously pressed her ear 
* along, and although thc wheels are sometimes 
1 cracked, the rails rusty, and the friction grates 
heavily upon the ear, sho rushes zealously on, 
believing thc circle is not closed up without 
some egress for escape from ev il, And it is best 
so. Dependent in his independence, man learns 
humility in its truest form. Encircled os he is 
1 by mortal relations, he is drawn into sight of his 
relation in that great circle, whose center Is the 
God of hosts. Thu child fostered by; parental 
care commits iu bis ignorance or folly an error. 
Docs banishment or condemnation tollow ? No, 
rather will the home circle close tighter around 
him, and every avenue for improvement is opened 
wide for the wanderer. A member of the hu¬ 
man family becomes sadly straightened, — does 
society brand him readily an outcast'? Nay, it 
has learned from experience thal a chain is never 
stronger than its weakest link — humanum cst 
err are—and. not until tho false one aims his blow 
i. at. t he very pillars of society’s stucture. will sho 
rise up in condemnation, nnd that for his own 
as well as for the public good. Yet let us not 
mistake. Life, Society, Human Nature aud God 
have claims on Purity, Honesty and Righteous¬ 
ness which can not be gaiusayed by [evil. The 
elasticity of life eon stretch not, wide enough to 
admit crime, persisted iu. Its laws arc too 
wisely rigid, to ever be perverted or deceived. 
With open arms for humanity, it cloaks itself 
against wilful depravity and libeled human na¬ 
ture. It seems ro bo the mind of Gon, expressed 
in the most emphatic manner, to encourage the 
discouraged, to strengthen the weak, to aid the 
erring and to redeem the lost. Human nature 
infused with a similar spirit makes room, by its 
laws, in God's world for the helpless, the erring 
and the outcast. Ah, blessed he that will, by 
whose power the elastic cord of life is made to 
measure and embrace tho weakest as well as tho 
strongest links of humanity . Mary Price. 
Adrian. Mich., 1806. 
NEED OF DIVINE AID. 
"Wale before me and he thou perfect.” Thus 
said God unto Abraham ; and by these words we 
arc instructed that to live in the presence of God 
is the way to perfection. Whenever wc depart 
from that way it is by loosing sight of God, and 
forgetting our dependence upon him. God is 
the light which we see, and the end to which we 
should aim. In all the transactions and differ¬ 
ent event® of life, we should consider only tin- 
order of his providence, and should maintain a 
sense of Ids presence iu the midst of 'all our 
affair*. "I will lift up mine eyes to]the hill®, 
from whence eomctU my help.” Depending 
upon our feet is not sufficient for our deliver¬ 
ance from the innumerable snares t hat surround 
us; the danger, indeed, is below, but the deliver¬ 
ance can only como from above; thither must wc 
raise our eyes to him from whom onr help comoth. 
We are continually encompassed by our enemies; 
nor are we, on account of our lnfimiitioe, iu less 
danger from within ; there is no hope for us hut in 
Jesus Christ, who ha® overcome the world for 
hlmaoif and for us ; hi® omnipotence Will support 
our weakness.”— Fmelon, 
A Happy Record.— I had been iu my class 
five years. Having come to tho close of the 
year, I asked my children what they were now 
going to offer to the Lord for a new year’s gift, 
when Annie, quite a little girl, said, "Teacher, 
I have given myself;” and another dear girl 
said she, too, was willing, if Christ would ac¬ 
cept her; they wore fifteen years old thou, and I 
introduced them to the church. I cannot now 
describe my joy when I brought my first sheaves 
to the Lord. I have been looking over the names 
of my scholars, and can count six now written 
in the church hook® below; I trust the rest will 
be found in the Book of Life above.” 
♦ »•+■- 
Being positive in judgment to-day is no , 
proof that we shall not he of a different opin¬ 
ion to-morrow. 
w* 
