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sons in the middle degree of our order of existence, I mean, on prudence in resisting expensive amusements: and, to make my meaning quite plain, I will tell you, that, when I was about sixteen years old, (I am now approaching that period of life which is commonly called the age of man) I had a great inclination towards theatricals, and going to plays, &c., which cost a great deal of money, and occasioned much loss of time. In the course, however, of a short period, I luckily took to a studious, stay-at-home turn, so that I began to think that the money I had been paying so frequently to see a play, was very foolishly spent: and I therefore made up my mind, for the next season (as they call it in London) for plays, to go to no more, but, on the nights I would have gone, to put the money I should have spent into a box until that season was ended: I was proof to my self-promise. I kept my word, which every one should in a good cause: and what was the consequence? Why, at the end of the season, when I opened my box, I found I had got so much money in it, that I was enabled to buy many useful and instructive books, by the perusal of which, I have derived pleasure, while in health and vigour, and comfort and satisfaction, when in affliction, which I might have stood in need of, had 1 not adopted the course I have stated, and, instead of it, have possibly become dissolute character, and, no longer respected by my friends; not to mention many much worse consequences. Yours, &c.

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F. S. E.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.

Question. What is the best manure for land?

Answer. Labour..

Q. What is the best medicine for the body? A. Industry.

Q. What is the best food for the mind? A. The love of our Maker.

Q. When are the poor rich, and the rich poor? A. When the rich have their treasure on earth, and the poor in heaven.

Q. What is always pursuing joy through the earth? A. Sorrow.

Q. Why is sorrow so often permitted to overtake joy? A. That we may learn to seek joy elsewhere. Q. Which is the only place where sorrow can never come? A. Heaven.

Q. What is the wisest lesson this world can teach? A. To learn to live above it,

Q. When is a man most deceived? A. When he deceives himself.

Q. Why is the devil so eager to conquer and to govern man? A. To people his dominions with new subjects.

Q. What is sleep most like? A. Death.

Q. How should we prepare for sleep? A. As we would for death.

Q. What is the best preparation for death? A. Faith in the atoning merits of Christ, and a holy life the fruit of that faith.

Q. What peace is that which the world can neither give, nor take away? A. The peace of God. Q. How is it to be found? A. By seeking it in the right place.

Q. Why do wicked men endeavour to deny Christ? A. Because they know that he will deny 'them.

Q. Why is the dried seed and withered root made to shoot into new life, the leafless tree clothed with new verdure, and the chrysalis revived in a more

* The grub in a state apparently lifeless beforç it becomes a butterfly.

beautiful and perfect state of existence? prove that man may rise from the dead.

A. To

Q. Why was man born into this world? A. To prepare for a better.

Ta.

ALEXANDER SELKIRK.

I BELIEVE almost every English reader knows, and has been delighted with that very interesting book, the "Adventures of Robinson Crusoe ;" and it carries with it such an air of truth, that few people, whilst they are reading it, can help supposing that it was written by a real Robinson Crusoe, who was really left alone for a number of years in his desolate island, and our young readers will, many of them, hardly thank us for telling them the plain truth, that this book was written in London by a regular author, Daniel De Foe, in the year 1719. It must not, however, be supposed that there has never been such a thing as a man living alone on a desolate island, for this really happened to Alexander Selkirk, and it is from his history that De Foe is said to have put together the adventures of Robinson Crusoe. "Alexander Selkirk was born in Scotland in the year 1680: he was a good navigator, and made several voyages to the South Sea, in one of which, having a quarrel with his commander, he was put ashore on the island of Juan Fernandez, with a few necessaries, a fowling piece, gun-powder and shot. Here he lived alone nearly three years, and was then taken off by Capt. Woods Rogers. During the time of his remaining on the island, he had nearly forgotten his own native language."

This event has also given occasion to the following beautiful verses of the poet Cowper. We are

to suppose them to be "spoken by Alexander Selkirk during his solitary abode in the desolate island of Juan Fernandez."

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I am out of humanity's reach,

I must finish my journey alone,
Never hear the sweet music of speech,
I start at the sound of my own.
The beasts that roam over the plain,
My form with indifference see
They are so unacquainted with man,
Their tameness is shocking to me.
III.

Society, friendship, and love,
Divinely bestowed upon man,
O had I the wings of a dove,
How soon would I taste you again
My sorrows I then might assuage
In the ways of religion and truth,
Might learn from the wisdom of age,
And be cheer'd by the sallies of youth.
IV.

Religion! what treasure untold,
Resides in that heavenly word!
More precious than silver and gold,
Or all that this earth can afford:
But the sound of the church-going bell,
These vallies and rocks never heard,
Ne'er sigh'd at the sound of a knell,
Or smil'd when a Sabbath appear'd.

V.

Ye winds that have made me your sport,
Convey to this desolate shore,

Some cordial endearing report

Of a land I shall visit no more.
My friends, do they now and then send
A wish, or a thought, after me?
Oh! tell me I yet have a friend,
Though a friend I am never to see.
VI.

How fleet is a glance of the mind !—
Compar'd with the speed of its flight,
The tempest itself lags behind,

And the swift-winged arrows of light.
When I think of my own native land,
In a moment I seem to be there;
But alas! recollection at hand
Soon hurries me back to despair.

VII.

But the sea fowl is gone to her nest,
The beast is laid down in his lair;
E'en here is a season of rest,
And I to my cabin repair.
There is mercy in every place,
And mercy, encouraging thought!
Gives even affliction a grace,

And reconciles man to his lot.

It has been said that "the man who is afflicted with an asthma can best tell the blessing of the free use of the lungs :" and, indeed, it is when we have lost our blessings that we begin to know their real value. We, who are in the midst of our friends and relations, and enjoy the comforts and advantages of social converse with our fellow-men, little know how to be thankful enough for so great a benefit, and we frequently, by our wayward tempers, make that a curse which God intended for a blessing. If we were left alone, on a desolate island, we should then feel what a happiness it would be if we had a friend to converse with and consult:

"To learn from the wisdom of age,

And be cheer'd with the sallies of youth."

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