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as an ancient people had, Urim and Thummim 15—those oraculous gems on Aaron's breast-from which to take counsel, but we have the unchangeable and eternal principles of the moral law to guide us, and only so far as we walk by that guidance can we be permanently a great nation, or our people a happy people.

1 Coronet, a crown of an inferior kind worn on special occasions by princes and peers. (Lat. corona, a crown,) 2 Mitre, a sort of crown worn on very solemn occasions by cardinals and bishops of the Roman Catholic Church. (Lat. mitra, a kind of cap.)

3 Constitution, the system of govern-
ment of a nation.

4 Legislation, the art of framing
laws. The body of men that frame
the laws is called the legislature.
5 Statesmanship, the art of govern-
ing a nation or state.

6 Repudiate, disown; refuse to ac-
knowledge.

.

7 The most ancient, &c. Herodotus,
surnamed "the Father of His-
tory," flourished about B.C. 450.
* Profane historian, not a sacred
historian like the writers of the
historical books of the Bible.
history is divided into "sacred"
and "profane."

All

9 Scythians. They occupied the south of the country now called Russia.

10 Cimeter, same as scimitar; a sword
with a curved blade.

11 Mars, the god of war; from
"Mars" is derived martial.
12 Political power, power to deter-
mine to some extent the measures
of the government.
13 Without

affecting sensibly, without having a "sensible" effect, that is, a result which can be easily noticed.

14 The great Italian, Dante, flourished about A.D. 1300. He wrote the Divine Comedy, a sublime poem on Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise.

15 Urim and Thummim, twelve precious stones in the breastplate of the Jewish high priest; they are called "oraculous gems," because by their means, in some way unknown, the high priest was guided in the answers he gave when consulted as to the will of God in any proposed undertaking of national importance.

THE OLD CLOCK.

SOMEWHAT back from the village street
Stands the old-fashioned country-seat.
Across its antique portico 1

Tall poplar-trees their shadows throw;
And from its station in the hall
An ancient time-piece says to all:

"Forever-never!

Never-forever!"

ST. 6.

Halfway up the stairs it stands,

And points and beckons with its hands
From its case of massive oak,

Like a monk, who, under his cloak,
Crosses himself, and sighs, alas!
With sorrowful voice to all who pass:
"Forever-never!

Never-forever!"

By day its voice is low and light;
But in the silent dead of night,
Distinct as a passing footstep's fall,
It echoes along the vacant hall,
Along the ceiling, along the floor,
And seems to say, at each chamber-door:

"Forever-never!

Never-forever!"

Through days of sorrow and of mirth,
Through days of death and days of birth,
Through every swift vicissitude 2

Of changeful time, unchanged it has stood;
And as if, like God, it all things saw,
It calmly repeats those words of awe:
Forever-never!

66

Never-forever!"

In that mansion used to be
Free-hearted hospitality;

His great fires up the chimney roared;
The stranger feasted at his board;

But, like the skeleton at the feast,
That warning time-piece never ceased:
"Forever-never!

Never-forever!"

There groups of merry children played;
There youths and maidens, dreaming, strayed.
22

O precious hours! O golden prime,
And affluence of love and time!
Even as a miser counts his gold,

Those hours the ancient time-piece told :

"Forever-never!

Never-forever!"

From that chamber, clothed in white,
The bride came forth on her wedding night;
There, in that silent room below,

The dead lay in his shroud of snow;

And in the hush that follow'd the prayer,

Was heard the old clock on the stair:

"Forever-never!

Never-forever!"

All are scattered now and fled,
Some are married, some are dead;
And when I ask, with throbs of pain,
"Ah! when shall they all meet again?"
As in the days long since gone by,
The ancient time-piece makes reply:
"Forever-never!

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A LETTER ON THE EVILS OF SMOKING.

Newcastle,

January 16th, 1879.

DEAR SIR,

I regret that I am unable to attend your meeting on the 21st instant, the object of which is to devise measures, as far as possible, to put a stop to juvenile smoking.

The resolutions you propose to offer to the meeting may do some good; but they cannot be thoroughly effective so long as grown-up fathers perpetually indulge in smoking in the presence and knowledge of their

sons.

Lads and young men are by nature imitative, and full of emulation. They will imitate their fathers, because they think, naturally enough, it must be right to do so, and that it is clever to do as their fathers and other grown-up men do. They find it a nauseous and difficult task at first, but their emulation is fired to try and master the difficulty.

Strong, grown-up men, habituated to smoking, may not be conscious of much harm from an indulgence in the habit. But, nevertheless, in the end they will find out-in dyspepsia 2 and all its evils; in accelerated age; in loss of both mental and physical vigour, and in an enfeebled constitution-what a daily dose of narcotics poison has done for them.

But for lads and very young men to smoke is a far more serious, rapid, perceptible, and permanent mischief. Lads and very young men are growing-their bones and muscles and brain have to grow bigger. They require much and nourishing food to enable this natural

process to go on. Stop the adequate food, or its noarishing quality, and the bones and muscles and brain cease to grow. The lad becomes a stunted, undersized, sickly-looking, and feeble-minded young man; and as long as he lives that is his type of manhood.

The doctors will tell you that food, in order to be nourishing, must be well digested; that undigested food is rather harmful than otherwise, and destroys the appetite for more, for the stomach cannot get rid of that which is already in it. Digestion is partly a mechanical and partly a chemical process. The food is kept moving round in the stomach by a peculiar muscular action of the stomach itself, and thereby all parts of it are exposed to, and mixed up with, certain chemical agents which tend to dissolve and digest it. These agents are the saliva exuded' by certain glands of the mouth, and intended by nature to be mixed with the food while eating; and the gastric juices exuded by the coats of the stomach itself. It is a mere common-sense deduction, that if you excite the salivary glands by smoking, and spit out and waste the saliva which nature intended to assist in digesting the food taken, you partly destroy one of the chemical agents which is to digest it.

6

9

8

But that is not all; nicotine, the poison contained in the fumes of tobacco, partially paralyses the nerves of the stomach, acts violently upon its lining membrane

-so much so, as frequently to produce sickness in young men after smoking and thus partially destroys the proper supply of the gastric juices by the stomach, the other chemical agent that was intended by nature to perfect the digestion of the food. It does more than this; the same paralysing effect of the narcotic poison absorbed by the coats of the stomach, weakens and

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