doing; which no menace or peril can enthral, which is calm in the midst of tumults, and possesses itself, though all else be lost.

6. Finally, I call that mind free, which, conscious of its affinity with God, and confiding in his promises by Jesus Christ, devotes itself faithfully to the unfolding of all its powers; which transcends the bounds of time and death, which hopes to advance forever, and which finds inexhaustible power, both for action and suffering, in the prospect of immortality.

CHANNING.

CXXX.

ANECDOTES AND INCIDENTS.

1. KNOW BEFORE YOU SPEAK. There is a story of Sheridan having once apparently quoted a passage from a Greek poet in the House of Commons, when in reality he only uttered a gabble resembling Greek. An honorable gentleman who spoke after him fully assented to the application of the passage to the case in question. How ineffably ridiculous must that man have appeared when Sheridan disclosed the trick! This is a dishonor to which every one is exposed who, in any way, however slight or negative, affects to appear knowing where he is ignorant.

ΕΙ

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2. PERFECTION NO TRIFLE. A friend called on Michael An'gelo, who was finishing a statue; sometime afterwards he called again; the sculptor was still at his work; his friend, looking at the figure, exclaimed, "You have been idle since I saw you last." 166 By no means," replied the sculptor; "I have retouched this part, and polished that; I have softened this feature, and brought out this muscle; I have given more expression to this lip, and more energy to this limb.". "Well, well," said his friend, "but all these are trifles.". It may be so," replied Angelo, "but recollect that trifles make perfection, and that perfection is no trifle."

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3. TRUE GENEROSITY. Sir Philip Sidney, at the battle near Zutphen, displayed the most undaunted courage. He had two horses killed under him; and, whilst mounting a third, was wounded by a musket-shot out of the trenches, which broke the bone of his thigh. He returned about a mile and a half on horseback to the camp; and, being faint with the loss of blood, and parched with thirst from the heat of the weather, he called for drink. It was presently brought him; but, as he was putting the vessel to his mouth, a poor wounded soldier, who happened to be carried along at that instant, looked up to it with wistful eyes. The gallant and generous Sidney took the flagon from his

lips, just when he was going to drink, and delivered it to the soldier, saying, "Thy necessity is greater than mine."

4. MORAL AND PHYSICAL COURAGE. At the battle of Water loo, two French officers were advancing to charge a much superior force. The danger was imminent, and one of them displayed evident signs of fear. The other, observing it, said to him, "Sir I believe you are frightened."- -"Yes," returned the other, "I am; and if you were half as much frightened, you would run away." This anecdote exhibits in a happy light the difference between moral and physical courage.

The brave man is not he who feels no fear,

For that were stupid and irrational;

But he whose noble soul its fear subdues,

And bravely dares the danger nature shrinks from.

5. RELIGION THE CEMENT OF SOCIETY. Religion is the cement of all virtue, and virtue the moral cement of all society. A society composed of none but the irreligious could not exist. It is related that three German robbers, having acquired by various robberies what amounted to a very valuable booty, agreed to divide the spoil, and to retire from so dangerous a vocation. When the day which they had appointed for this purpose arrived, one of them was despatched to a neighboring town to purchase provisions for their last carousal. The other two secretly agreed to murder him on his return, that they might come in for one-half of the plunder, instead of a third. They did But the murdered man was a closer calculator even than his assassins, for he had previously poisoned a part of the provisions, that he might appropriate unto himself the whole of the spoil. This precious triumvirate were found dead together, — a signal instance that nothing is so blind and suicidal as the selfishness of vice.

SO.

6. HABITS OF OBSERVATION. -The ignorant have often given credit to the wise for powers that are permitted to none, merely because the wise have made a proper use of those powers that are permitted to all. The little Arabian tale of the dervis shall be the comment of this proposition. A dervis was journeying alone in the desert, when two merchants suddenly met him. "You have lost a camel," said he to the merchants. “Indeed, we have," they replied. - "Was he not blind in his right eye, and lame in his left leg?" said the dervis. "He was," replied the merchants. "Had he not lost a front tooth?" said the dervis.

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"He had," rejoined the merchants.

"And was he not

loaded with honey on one side, and wheat on the other?"

"Most certainly he was," they replied, “and as you have seen

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him so lately, and marked him so particularly, you can, in all probability, conduct us unto him.” My friends," said the dervis, "I have never seen your camel, nor ever heard of him, but from you." -"A pretty story, truly!" said the merchants; "but where are the jewels which formed a part of his cargo?" I have neither seen your camel nor your jewels," repeated the dervis. On this, they seized his person, and forthwith hurried him before the cadi, where, on the strictest search, nothing could be found upon him, nor could any evidence whatever be adduced to convict him either of falsehood or of theft. They were then about to proceed against him as a sorcerer, when the dervis, with great calmness, thus addressed the court:

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"I have been much amused with your surprise, and own that there has been some ground for your suspicions; but I have lived long, and alone; and I can find ample scope for observation, even in a desert. I knew that I had crossed the track of a camel that had strayed from its owner, because I saw no mark of any human footstep on the same route; I knew that the animal was blind in one eye, because it had cropped the herbage only on one side of its path; and I perceived that it was lame in one leg, from the faint impression which that particular foot had produced upon the sand; I concluded that the animal had lost one tooth, because, wherever it had grazed, a small tuft of herbage was left uninjured in the centre of its bite. As to that which formed the burthen of the beast, the busy ants informed me that it was corn on the one side, and the clustering flies that it was honey on the other."

7. GOOD ADVICE. —A certain khan of Tartary, travelling with his nobles, was met by a dervis, who cried, with a loud voice, "Whoever will give me a hundred pieces of gold, I will give him a piece of advice." The khan ordered the sum to be given to him, upon which the dervis said, "Begin nothing of which thou hast not well considered the end." The courtiers, hearing this plain sentence, smiled, and said, with a sneer, "The dervis is well paid for his maxim." But the khan was so well pleased with the answer, that he ordered it to be written in golden letters in several parts of his palace, and engraved on all his plate.

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Not long after, the khan's surgeon was bribed to kill him with a poisoned lancet, at the time he bled him. One day, when the khan's arm was bound, and the fatal lancet in the hand of the surgeon, the latter read on the basin, Begin nothing of which thou hast not well considered the end." He immediately started, and let the lancet fall out of his hand. The khan, observing his confusion, inquired the reason; the surgeon fell prostrate, confessed the whole affair, and was pardoned; but the conspirators

were put to death. The khan, turning to his courtiers, who had heard the advice with disdain, told them that the counsel could not be too highly valued which had saved a khan's life.

8. HUMOROUS RETALIATION. - A nobleman, resident at a castle in Italy, was about to celebrate his marriage feast. All the elements were propitious except the ocean, which had been so boisterous as to deny the very necessary appendage of fish. On the very morning of the feast, however, a poor fisherman made his appearance with a turbot so large that it seemed to have been created for the occasion. Joy pervaded the castle, and the fisherman was ushered with his prize into the saloon, where the nobleman, in the presence of his visitors, requested him to put what price he thought proper on the fish, and it should instantly be paid him. "One hundred lashes," said the fisherman, " on my bare back, is the price of my fish, and I will not bate one strand of whip-cord on the bargain." The nobleman and his guests were not a little astonished; but our chapman was resolute, and remonstrance was in vain.

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At length, the nobleman exclaimed, "Well, well, the fellow is a humorist, but the fish we must have; so lay on lightly, and let the price be paid in our presence." After fifty lashes had been administered, “ Hold, hold!" exclaimed the fisherman; "I have a partner in this business, and it is fitting that he should receive his share.". "What! are there two such madcaps in the world?" cried the nobleman. "Name him, and he shall be sent for instantly." "You need not go very far for him," said the fisherman; you will find him at your gate, in the shape of your own porter, who would not let me in until I promised that he should have the half of whatever I received for my turbot." "O, ho!" said the nobleman, "bring him up instantly; he shall receive the stipulated moiety with the strictest justice." This ceremony being finished, he discharged the porter, and amply rewarded the fisherman.

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CXXXI.

FERDINAND AND ISABELLA.

1. IT has been well observed of Ferdinand and Isabella that they lived together, not like man and wife, whose estates are in common, under the orders of the husband, but like two monarchs, strictly allied. They had separate claims to sovereignty, in virtue of their separate kingdoms, and held separate councils. Yet they were so happily united by common views, common interests, and a great deference for each other, that this double adminis

tration never prevented a unity of purpose and action. All acts of sovereignty were executed in both their names; all public writings subscribed with both their signatures; their likenesses were stamped together on the public coin; and the royal seal displayed the united arms of Castile and Arragon.

2. Ferdinand possessed a clear and comprehensive genius, and great penetration. He was equable in temper, indefatigable in business, a great observer of men, and is extolled by Spanish writers as unparalleled in the science of the cabinet.EI It has been maintained by writers of other nations, however, and apparently with reason, that he was bigoted in religion, and craving rather than magnanimous in his ambition; that he made war less like a paladin than a prince, less for glory than for mere dominion; and that his policy was cold, selfish, and artful. He was called the wise and prudent in Spain; in Italy, the pious; in France and England, the ambitious and perfidious.

3. Contemporary writers have been enthusiastic in their de scriptions of Isabella; but time has sanctioned their eulogies. She was of the middle size, and well formed; with a fair complexion, auburn hair, and clear blue eyes. There was a mingled gravity and sweetness in her countenance, and a singular modesty in her mien, gracing, as it did, great firmness of purpose and earnestness of spirit. Though strongly attached to her husband and studious of his fame, yet she always maintained her distinct rights as an allied prince. She exceeded him in beauty, per sonal dignity, acuteness of genius, and grandeur of soul. Com bining the active, the resolute qualities of man, with the softer charities of woman, she mingled in the warlike councils of her husband, and, being inspired with a truer idea of glory, infused a more lofty and generous temper into his subtle and calculating policy.

4. It is in the civil history of their reign, however, that the character of Isabella shines most illustrious. Her fostering and maternal care was continually directed to reform the laws, and heal the ills engendered by a long course of civil wars. She assembled round her the ablest men in literature and science, and directed herself by their counsels in encouraging literature and the arts. She promoted the distribution of honors and rewards for the promulgation of knowledge, fostered the recently-invented art of printing; and, through her patronage, Salamanca rose to that eminence which it assumed among the learned institutions of the age. Such was the noble woman who was destined to acquire immortal renown by her spirited patronage of the discovery of the New World.

IRVING