Henry Comly purchased a tract of 500 acres in the west corner of Warminster township, a portion of it still remains in the family. We have no evidence that he ever lived there, but his son Robert did, and had a large family. His daughter Agnes married Samuel Shoemaker, tanner, of Hatboro. They were both worthy Elders of Horsham Meeting for many years. They had no children, but their house was a home for those who needed one. They lived together sixty-three Evan Lloyd, who came from Wales, pur-years. Samuel died a little previous to 1820 chased of Carpenter's estate a tract of 230 in the 96th year of his age, his wife survived acres, lying northeast of the Horsham Meet him several years. ing property and the Iredell property, and extending to the county line, now occupied by Lukens Comly, Comly Walton, and others.

"Where else, indeed," as Miss Cobbe well asks, “do we come upon clearer traces of the Solomon well bids the sluggard "go to the tender mercies of the Universal Father and ant, consider her ways and be wise. The his thoughtful provision for his children's industry and foresight of the ant, as well as wants than in these instincts, given to the of the bee and the beaver, give excellent les- dog to make him the friend of man, and enasons to man. In sympathy and love many ble his humble companionship to soothe the dumb creatures set a good example, an ex-aching and cheer the solitary heart? ample that may well be imitated by many

not say that, in these dumb companions God has placed beside us, in some sense, the emblems of what our own devotion might be to Him who is our Master. on whom we depend for all things and from whose hand we also ought to take our joys and chastisement with the same unswerving faith and grateful love."

Yes; we may look on these dumb servants of ours, who obey us so readily and trust us so unreservedly, not merely as servants, not merely as companions, but as monitors. If these brute creatures, with their small endowments, can exhibit such blamelessness, such diligent service, such gratefulness, such loving loyality and natural piety, how much more ought we, dowered as we are with reason, conscience, and souls, disciples of Christ, instructed by all the voices of nature and prophecy and inspiration, heirs of immortality, how much more thankful ought we to be to our Lord, how much more entire our consecration to all his laws, to every demand of his holy and perfect will!

being, for all our reasonable wants, we may use the lower animals, may even take their life. But here we must stop. Those cruel impulses of destruction which many men manifest have no claims to overweigh the brute's life and welfare. Man's gluttonness, tastes, and wanton desires have no claim. Here the rights of the brute come to the front. For however inferior the brute's claim to life be, however insignificant, comparatively, is its pain or suffering,-it is a nobler and a more valuable thing than these ignoble and cruel propensities which too often disfigure humanity. Animals are, as we are, sentient beings. Even the lowest have that claim on our sympathies; and many of them are possessed of faculties of thought and affection, of intellectual and moral qualities of no mean order. They came into existence independently of us; they were made by the same Creator as ourselves, made by him to be happy; and they have claims which must be regarded, as far as to respect their lives when no human want, but only wantonness, asks their destruction. And they have claims also that demand that when their lives be taken no unnecessary pain shall be inflicted. But if, because we have been given power superior to the animals, we use it, not to co

them happy with us, as far as may be, but abuse it to torture and destroy these creatures that he has made to serve us and be happy with us, then certainly we offend both against them and the common Creator of them and of us. I do not know how it seems to others, but for my part I cannot see how the man who steals out into the forest to take away the lives of the creatures who have their proper home there, without any excuse but sport, does not deserve to be called “a sneaking assassin.”

And one thought more. If beast and bird and fish are thus to be recognized as instructors and monitors of man, can it be still thought that they are creatures who have no rights that we are bound to respect? It must be confessed (to the shame of our Chris-operate with the common Father in making tianity) that they are too often thus treated. One of the most neglected parts of Christian instruction is that pertaining to our duties to these humble servants and comrades of ours. The sights of every-day life witness to the cruelties that these poor fellow-creatures of man receive at his hand. The drayman belaboring his overladen horses; the farmer torturing the calf, to give a more delicate hue to its meat; the corner loafer kicking, merely out of wantonness, the passing cur; the boy, stoning to death, for pleasure, the harmless frog, these are daily occurrences, attended with no legal penalty and little, if any, social disgrace. For the genteel huntsman to steal upon a flock of duck or partridge, and slaughter twice as many as he can eat or cares to carry away; or for the amateur sportsman to tether pigeons, that he may have the delight of shooting them the moment that at their release they joyously stretch their wings in flight, is considered rather a subject of boasting than of shame.

Now, of course, animal life has not for us that sanctity which pertains to human life. The claims and rights of the brute are inferior to those of men. Whenever there is a question between the existence of a brute and the existence of a man, or the pain of a brute and the pain of a man, then the brute must be sacrificed. Not only for our own life, but for our security, comfort, and well

It is one

Yes, cruelty to our dumb fellow-creatures is not merely an infraction of their rights, but works the degradation of our own humanity. As Cowper well said, I would not enter on my list of friends the man who needlessly sets foot upon a worm.” of the great laws of human nature that mercy begets mercy; and cruelty, cruelty. Our common law recognizes this tendency in its provision that no butcher shall be a jurymen in a murder trial; and, though the distinction is often invidious, yet in general it is true that he who is callous to the sufferings of animals will be likely to be callous likewise to the sufferings of his own race. Cruelty to animals is not merely a sin in itself, but a sin against all the instincts of tenderness and pure sentiment. It is demoralizing to the common manners of humanity.

There is an Oriental fable that once on a

EXTRACT FROM AN ADDRESS BY CHARLES B.
PURVIS, A.M., M.D., TO THE GRADUATING
CLASS OF HOWARD UNIVERSITY, THIRD
MONTH 6TH, 1883.

time the beasts, when pursued and killed by | shall go uncondemned before the tribunal of man, complained of it to the king of the Him without whom not a sparrow falleth to Jinns who ruled in that country. The king, the ground. therefore, summoned both men and beasts to appear before him and plead their cause. So, after a while, both were gathered before the king; and the men were cited to prove the claim which they made of being lords and masters over the beasts. First the men spoke of their upright and graceful form. But the beasts answered that each creature had its proper shape and form.

Then a Greek proclaimed how man excelled the beasts in all science and art and wisdom. But the bee answered back, showing how, without rules or compasses, they could build more perfect structures than man, and how they had well-ordered governments, and how they stored up provision for future offspring, and had no need of man, while he was dependent on them.

Then an Arab told of man's various kinds of food and fine clothing, his beautiful furniture, dancing, music, and other accomplishments. But the nightingale replied that as for music and beauty the birds were not inferior to man, and that all this variety of luxuries but overwhelmed men with trouble and torment, and worried them with the cares of money-getting; while the birds had to take no thought for food or clothing, but God gave them always enough. Much more talk of this kind was held, and the beasts seemed to have won. Then. rose up a sage and said: "God has promised us many blessings,-resurrection from the grave, entrance into paradise, the mansion of permanence, the house of rest, nearness to God. Can any animal attain to these things?"

Physicians, like other citizens, must possess an amor patriæ; they can be patriotic without being politically obtrusive. I know of no better way to show love for one's country than by directing our energies towards bringing about the best possible physical development of its citizens. Physicians are more than mere prescribers of physics, they are teachers, their education and training should enable them to speak advisedly upon all questions relating to the health and development of a people. Many writers think our climate has a deteriorating tendency. Hygiene, mental, moral and physical, is today receiving much attention, and I hope to see the scions of this school manifesting no ordinary interest upon these subjects, especially that of intemperance. We trust upon this one you will assume a positive position, that your trumpet will have no uncertain sound. There is no other habit among the people that is calculated to undermine them physically, intellectually and morally as this one.

I call your attention also to the growing abuse in the use of tobacco, especially among our children. It is a sad sight to witness the practices of the multitudes of the little boys who go daily to and from our public institutions for learning. There can be no perpetuity of our institutions; there can be no future for the race, if these practices, I may say crimes, go unchallenged and unchecked.

And the nightingale answered, "But for those who do evil among you, he has given many dreadful things; wherefore, you are Upon these subjects our school has pronot better off than those who neither hope for nounced opinions, and it is our desire that reward nor fear punishment." Then the sage our graduates shall be found to be equally replied, "Nay, but we are better off; for we as ultra. I need not, for the sake of awaktrust that even in the fierceness of God's ening you to a realizing sense of the imporwrath there is mercy, and that we may be tance of these subjects, remind you how these cleansed from our sins and come to dwell poisons affect the nervous system, how the with him at last." Then spake the king: mind becomes impaired and dwarfed, how "It is enough. The men are the masters, the mental vision becomes obscured, how the seeing that they have the hope of immor-physical system deteriorates, how diseases tality; but do ye, O men, be kind and just; incurable spring up, how they are transmitand ye, ye beasts, serve faithfully and well. ted from one generation to another, each in So it may be, perhaps, that ye also, seeing that ye make man's life perfect, may have some share of his gift and enjoy endless life with him whom ye serve."

Would that all men might hear the king's good counsel, and exercise their dominion on the earth in due gentleness and equity, mindful that in that future life that they hope for, no wrong, even to the humblest creature,

turn being less perfect than the preceding. I need not speak of the horrible sufferings of the individual who becomes a victim to these remorseless habits and abuses. I need not cite tales of woe, or paint pictures of the crimes, of the poverty, of the vices that exist in communities, or trace them to their origin, to make you realize your duty, and what you owe to man and to God. Our

profession cannot rank as a science if our | this trial and suffering was a part of the pathological researches do not enable us to needed discipline which is to raise him to the state physiological truths, which shall serve highest state. Now he feels that he has as a guidance and a protection for the people. power with God and man. The besetting temptation has been to him the "Face of God," and he has seen it and yet lives. In a recent discourse which we find reported

TEMPERANCE.

"While thankfully acknowledging the in

creased caution of medical men in recommending alcoholic stimulants, we venture afresh to call attention to the sad prevalence of intemperance among women, who too often plead that such stimulants have been ordered by the doctor; and are needed for their health. We would earnestly request that when it is considered absolutely need ful to order alcoholic remedies they may be prescribed in fixed doses, like any other medicine, and if possible not in the forms commonly used as beverages.

I copy from a London Medical Quarterly what may be of interest to some readers of Friends' Intelligencer, showing an awakened in the Christian Register, Wm. C. Gannett anxiety among English Friends on account points out the fact that man to-day may by of the growth of intemperance there.-E. the conquest of inherited tendencies to evil, "The members of the Women's Quarterly attain to higher levels as Jacob did. He Meeting of the Society of Friends for the district comprehending the counties of Berk-recognizes that the dogma of original sin, shire and Oxfordshire, held at Charlbury on having its origin in the transgression of our the 18th day of Eleventh month, 1882, desire first parents, was a hint of the great fact very respectfully to address the Medical Con- revealed by the discoveries of modern philosference assembled at Worcester. ophers, as to the gradual processes employed by the Creator in the perfecting of his work. Parents recognizing their responsibility for the tendencies transmitted through them, should gain in tenderness to the children in whom they see their own besetting sins reflected, and the knowledge of scientific truth will set free from gloomy superstition in regard to a malignant power, at war with the Creative Wisdom, struggling for the mastery. We come face to face with the fact of heredity, and appreciating the power of the enemy, may by resolute struggle for the mastery, rise up as by a ladder to a higher scale of being. It is not for a moment to be admitted that struggle is vain, and that we are to content ourselves with the plea that inherited tendencies and environments not only account for sin, but in a measure justify it. The Besetting Sin, if it conquers becomes a tyrant. Only to the Wrestler who is able to persevere, and strive unto the dawning does it become the Blessing and the Strength. The enemy becomes the friend and useful ally.

"Signed, in and on behalf of the Women's Quarterly Meeting,

"CATHERINE FARDON, Clerk."

FRIENDS' INTELLIGENCER. PHILADELPHIA, THIRD MO. 31, 1883.

WRESTLING.—The reverent student of the ancient sacred Scriptures, so precious to all generations of thoughtful pilgrims of the earth, finds in the story of the night struggle of the patriarch Jacob with a strong power which almost overcomes him, and which wounds and maims him, the teaching that "Wrestling is the condition of Blessing." He will not give over the conflict till he has at last extorted a blessing, and then he recognizes that in his sore strivings amid the darkness of the night he has gained the power of a conqueror, and is worthy of a grand new name, expressive of his added dignity and strength. He is now "Israel," "a Prince with God," for he has wrested a blessing from trial and suffering, and is enabled to see that

Temperance, Diligence, Fortitude, and Concentration are often born of the hard conditions of life. Where life is fortunate and the conditions are very easy the resulting character is too often lacking in the very qualities essential to all noble attainment. This habit of faithful effort, born of desperate struggle through some direful night of life, is often mistaken for the magical creative faculty which men call genius. But the greatest genius will continually insist that resolute endeavor and an abiding aspiration for loftier