He it was who originated a word often used in these days-"cosmopolite." For, being asked to what country he belonged, he said he was "cosmopolites "-a citizen of the world. He can hardly be called witty, although he had plenty of humor. He compared a rich but ignorant person to a sheep with golden fleece; and, when Plato defined man as a featherless biped, Diogenes sent him a plucked fowl by way of making fun of the definition. The humorists of his time found in Diogenes a rich subject for wit, and even to this day we make game of him, and cannot forgive his arrogance. There is much sadness in the words he uttered on entering a theater just as all the rest were leaving. "It is what I have been doing all my life," he said. In his old age, while on a voyage, he was captured by pirates and carried to Crete, where he was put up for sale as a slave in the public market. When asked by the auctioneer what he could do, he replied: "I can govern men; therefore sell me to one who wants a master." Xenaides, a wealthy citizen of Corinth, was so pleased by this reply that he immediately purchased Diogenes; and on his return to Corinth not only gave the philosopher his freedom, but turned over to him the education of his own children and the direction of his household affairs. "What sort of a man, O Diogenes, do you think the great Socrates?" some one asked. "A madman," was his reply. And he little dreamed that, when at last he should lay down his "very light burden of life," leaving to the "next poorer man" his well-worn wallet, cloak, and staff, he himself would soon come to be known as "the mad Diogenes." O, coasting Cats! my you nerves thrill Gis in your box you bounce and fly! If Jack and Jill down this hill Je Francis I think Gind they may feel constrained to say yours is quite a sudden way. That "SO MANY YEARS AGO." By H. A. OGDEN. GREAT-GRANDMA liked to tell us how, so many years ago, Said she: "My brother Ben and I were shy as we could be; "Then Ben's turn came. The general bent down and took his hand. 'In truth,' said he, my little man, you 'd make a soldier grand!' But Ben could only smile and stare, so very strange it seemed That this was General Washington, of whom so oft he 'd dreamedThe man who was so patient, so skilful, and so brave, That all the people looked to him their country's cause to save." As grandma ceased, we heard the tall old clock a-ticking slow, I saw that noble soldier who made the country free. Remember, then, his glorious deeds when you look up at me. |