a business, is a power for good in the community. No doubt there are such, but it is to be feared they are too few.

It would seem that there never was a time when the testimony to moderation, which in the rise of our Society was so marked a characteristic, needed so much to be revived as the present, nor one in which the difficulty of carrying it out was so great. The latter circumstance should call forth sympathy rather than censure from those whose lot in life has preserved them from being drawn into that vortex of business cares, which, it is to be feared, is endangering health, domestic leisure for family duties, and, above all, that recollectedness of mind so essential to spiritual health.

It would be uncharitable to assume that every one who conducts an extensive mercantile business, is out of the line of his duty, and is incurring a risk of his highest interests. On the contrary, there are no doubt many of these who lament the circumstances that make it a necessity to be so engaged, and who have, in that disapproval something of a safeguard. They will not be likely to adopt the means to allure custom which have of late been resorted to in some of our large cities, by which the tone of the public press is depreciated, and which are, to say the least, an offence to good taste. We may sometimes be obliged to pass through a very muddy street, but the careful pedestrian does not plunge through the thickest of the mire, but picks his way that he may contract as little soil as possible.

To "keep to moderation in trade or business" though not brought so often under review in our discipline meetings as some of our other testimonies, is, we believe a very important one and closely connected with that of moderation and simplicity in style of living, etc., and we have reason to believe that it would be cause of regret to many thoughtful religious people not of our communion, if this testimony of the Society of Friends should become a dead letter.

The settlement of a difficult and dangerous question between the United States and England, by the tribunal at Geneva, is held to have established a precedent of great value, and is justly regarded a true landmark of Christian civilization. Two great free peoples, acting through their authorized representatives were able to adjust their differences and make and accept satisfaction for supposed and real grievances, without loss of dignity.

Whether nations much less liberal in their systems of government may not also take refuge from carnage in international arbitration remains to be seen. Certainly, a military despot, flushed with success, and eager for conquest would not be likely to await calmly the result of such a deliberation as that of Geneva. Neither would a powerful nation, contending with a feeble one, feel inclined to submit the question of conquest to a council of this sort, to be decided on the principles of pure justice and accepted law. But passing by these more impracticable cases, we are able to note with deep satisfaction that at least fourteen cases may be enumerated, in which differences between States have been so adjusted since the year 1873.

To many who cherish high hopes of ultimate peace and law among the nations, the desire of the late President Garfield and his cabinet for the assembling of a general Congress of the States of the American Continent to arrange means for the settlement of any disputes that may hereafter arise between them by arbitration, was likely to lead to a result gratifying to the hopes of the friends. of peace. But the death of Garfield has postponed the noble movement, which is yet to be desired, and may yet find its consummation.

people in Russia and Western Poland. He was able by his judicious and earnest counsels greatly to benefit his people, inducing them, in many cases, to engage in useful productive labor instead of depending exclusively upon trade.

In 1854 we find Montefiore again in the Holy Land dispensing bounties in a time of famine. Then he visited the Turkish Sultan and obtained his permit to acquire land in Palestine on which a number of almshouses were erected for the refuge of stricken and impoverished Israelites. These are yet in

constant use and have been the means of sheltering many a helpless one.

The vigorous efforts of Sir Moses Montefiore in 1852 to procure the rescue of the Jewish boy Edgar Morlare of Italy who was stolen from his parents by ecclesiastical authority and hidden in a Roman convent, on the pretence that he had been baptized into the church in his infancy by a servant girl, are remembered by many. But they were quite unavailing, and the death of Lady Montefiore in 1862 left the now aged Sir Moses to finish his pilgrimage alone. He had now reached his eighty-ninth year, and his life since his bereavement has been signalized by redoubled benevolence. To Christian as well as Israelite his hand and heart were ever open. He plead availingly with Russ and Moor for justice and mercy for the oppressed; and Turkish potentates even were not deaf to his eloquent voice nor unresponsive to his helping

hand.

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He has lived to his hundredth year in constant observance of the noblest principles of Christian ethics, without any formal acknowledgment of the authority of Jesus Christ. Should not such a life teach selfdistrust and charity to Christendom, and must it not incite those whose success in trade has amassed great wealth around them, and who have been yet more enriched by high intellectual and moral gifts, to use benevolently their means and their powers and make the world happier and better for their having lived in it? We are indebted for most of the material of this sketch to an article by Zadel Barnes Gustafson, in Harper's Magazine, for

Eleventh month.

S. R.

HOT MILK AS A STIMULANT.-Of hot milk as a stimulant, the Medical Record says: "Milk heated to much above 100 degrees Fahrenheit loses for a time a degree of its sweetness and density. No one who, fatigued by over-exertion of body and mind, has ever experienced the reviving influence of a tumbler of this beverage, heated as hot as can be sipped, will willingly forego a resort to it because of its being rendered somewhat less ac

ceptable to the palate. The promptness with which its cordial influence is felt is surprising. Some portion of it seems to be digested and appropriated almost immediately, and many who now fancy that they need alcoholic stimulants when exhausted by fatigue will find in this simple draught an equivalent that will be abundantly satisfying and far more enduring in its effects."

HAECKEL ON THE BOMBAY PARSEES.

In his recent work, entitled "A Visit to Ceylon," Prof. Ernst Haeckel, of the University of Jena, describes a week in Bombay, in which he makes some interesting observations on the Hindoo Parsees. His wide and high intelligence makes his statements of special value to those who care to understand somewhat, a dignified oriental civilization which has many good points:

One of the most remarkable and important elements of the population is afforded in Bombay, as in the other great towns of India, by the Parsis or Guebres. Their number amounts only to about 50,000-not more than a twelfth of the whole population-but their indefatigable energy, prudence and industry have gained them so much influence that they play an important part in every respect. If, as is often done, we classify the Europeans in Bombay in one class, in contradistinction to all the other subdivisions of the mixed indigenous or native inhabitants, we find that the Parsis constitute a third important class, standing, as it were, between the other two. They are descended from those ancient Persians who, after the conquest of Persia by the Mohammedans in the seventh century, would not accept the new religion, but clung to that of Zoroaster. Being in consequence driven out of their own country, they first retreated to Ormuz, and thence dispersed over India. They marry only among themselves, keeping the race unmixed, and, irrespective of their peculiar costume, are recognizable at a glance among all the other races. The men are tall and stalwart figures with yellow-olive faces, generally somewhat heavily built, and far finer and stronger men than the feeble Hindoos. They dress in long full white cotton shirts and trousers. and wear on their heads a high black cap or tiara, something like a bishop's initre. Their expressive faces, and, not unusually, fine aquiline noses reveal energy and prudence, and at the same time the Parsis are saving and frugal, and, like the Jews among us, have managed to absorb large sums into their own hands. Many of the richest merchants of Bombay are Parsis, and they are also capital

hotel-keepers, ship-builders, engineers and artisans. Their domestic life and virtues are highly spoken of. The Parsi women are generally tall and dignified. Their expression discreet and resolute, their color yellowish, with the blackest hair and eyes. Their dress consists of a long gown of some simple but bright color-green, red or yellow. The children of wealthy Parsis are often to be seen out walking in dresses embroidered with gold or silver. Many of them live in handsome villas, like to have beautiful gardens, and by their easy circumstances excite the envy of the Europeans. At the same time the rich Parsis are often distinguished by their noble public spirit, and many have founded useful and benevolent institutions. Some have been raised by the English Government to the dignity of baronets, in recognition of their distinguished merits.

Another circumstance which has undoubtedly contributed in no small degree to the remarkable energy and success of the Parsis is that they have remained, to a great extent, free from the dominion of the priesthood. Their religion--the doctrine of Zoroaster-is in its purest form one of the loftiest of natural religions, and founded on the worship of the creative and preserving elements. Among these the first place must be given to the light and heat of the procreative Sun and its emblem on earth, Fire. 'Hence, as the sun rises and sets, we see numbers of pious Parsis on the strand at Bombay, standing, or kneeling on spread-out rugs, and attesting their adoration of the coming or departing day-star by prayer.

The religious ceremonies of the Parsis are, indeed, extremely simple, and in some measure based-like those of the Moslems-on sound sanitary principles, [as, particularly, their dietetic rules and numerous daily ablutions. Their stalwart bodies enjoy, in consequence, excellent health as a rule, and their bright and eager children make a much more pleasing impression than the pale-faced, languid European children who fade into debility in the overpowering heat.

The funeral ceremonies of the Parsis are a most remarkable usage. High up on the ridge of the Malabar Hill-indeed, on one of highest and finest peaks, where a splendid panorama of Bombay lies at the feet of the admiring spectafor, like the Bay of Naples from the summit of Posilippo-the Parsi community possess a beautiful garden full of palms and flowers. In this cemetery stand the six Dokhmas, or Towers of Silence. They are cylindrical white towers, from thirty to forty feet in diameter and about the same height. The inside is divided like an amphi

theatre, into three concentric circles, subdivided by radiating walls into a number of open chambers. Each of these division holds a body, those of children in the centre, those of women in the second'circle, and men in the outer one. As soon as the white-robed servants of the dead have received the corpse which the relatives have escorted to the cemetery, they carry it, accompanied by chanting priests, and place it in one of the open graves, where they leave it. Flocks of the sacred bird of Ormuz-the fine brown vulture-at once come down from where they have been sitting on the neighboring Palmyra palms. They fling themselves on the body inside the roofless tower, and in a few minutes the whole of the flesh is devoured. Numbers of black ravens finish off the slender remains of their meal. The bones are afterward_collected in the centre of the tower.

To most Europeans this mode of disposing of a corpse is simply horrible, just as in the classical times it was regarded as a peculiar mark of scorn to throw out a body to be food for the vultures. But to the student of comparative zoology it seems that it may, perhaps be more aesthetic and poetical to see the remains of one we have loved destroyed in a few minutes by the powerful beaks of birds of prey, or, like the Hindoos, to know that it is burnt to ashes, than to think of it as undergoing the slow and loathsome process of decomposition into "food for the worms" which is inevitable under the present conditions of European culture, and which is as revolting to feeling as it is injurious to health-being, in fact, the source of much disease. ever, what is there that dear habit will not do, and that mighty lever Propriety.

COMPOSURE.

How

Successful men are rarely contentious; contentious men are rarely successful. Friction is one of the greatest impediments to efficiency; and continual contention is coutinual friction. The men that are loudest in demanding their rights, are not the men who are most successful in getting them. Business men, I observe, rarely waste time in debate. They will sometimes very patiently discuss a project. But their object in such discussion is always to direct other's views, or to give their own to those who want them; rarely, if ever, to convince an opponent that he is wrong. That sort of debate they leave to the philosophers; who are of all men the most unphilosophical. In all great enterprises there is one head; or if there are two or three, there are two or three departments, mainly independent of each other. So strife is avoided. Even in transactions outside, the