The histories of ages past, or relations concerning foreign countries, wherein the manners of men are described, and their actions reported, afford us useful pleasure and pastime; thereby we may learn as much, and understand the world as well, as by the most curious inquiry into the present actions of men; there we may observe, we may scan, we may tax the proceedings of whom we please, without any danger or offence. There are extant numberless books, wherein the wisest and most ingenious of men have laid open their hearts, and exposed their most secret cogitations unto us; in pursuing them, we may sufficiently busy ourselves, and let our idle hours pass gratefully; we may meddle with ourselves, studying our own dispositions, examining our own principles and purposes, reflecting on our thoughts, words and actions, striving thoroughly to understand ourselves; to do this we have an unquestionable right, and by it we shall obtain vast benefit. Barrow.

There is no part of history so generally useful as that which relates the progress of the human mind, the gradual improvement of reason, the successive advances of science, the vicissitudes of learning and ignorance, which are the light and darkness of thinking beings, the extinction and resuscitation of arts, and the revolution of the intellectual world. accounts of battles and invasions are peculiarly the business of princes, the useful or elegant arts are not to be neglected; those who have kingdoms to govern have understandings to cultivate. Johnson.

HISTORY-Wisdom of.

If

Histories make men wise, and, in proportion as their minds are influenced by a natural love of their country, so they will always feel a desire to become more and more familiar with the most authentic accounts of its origin, progress towards civilization, and the circumstances which have led to its present import ance (or degradation) in the scale of nations. To trace with accuracy the gradual advancement of a country from primitive barbarism, darkness, and idolatry, to a state of refinement in the arts, learning, and religion, is the grateful task of the historian, but, perhaps, one of the

HOLIDAY.

most difficult that he can undertake; and there are but few who have succeeded in the attempt. Bacon

HOLIDAY-in the Country.
Alone, alone, let me wander alone!

There's an odour of hay o'er the woodlands blown ;

There's a humming of bees beneath the lime,
And the deep blue heaven of a southern clime
Is not more beautifully bright
Than this English sky with its islets white,
And its alp-like clouds, so snowy fair!—
The birch leaves dangle in balmy air;
And the elms and oaks scarce seem to know
When the whispering breezes come or go;
But the bonnie sweet-briar, she knows well;
For she has kiss'd them-and they tell!
And bear to all the west and south
The pleasant odours of her mouth.
Let me alone to my idle pleasure;
What do I care for toil or treasure?
To-morrow I'll work, if work you crave,
Like a king, a statesman, or a slave;
But not to-day, no! nor to-morrow,
If from my drowsy ease I borrow
No health and strength to bear my boat
Through the great life-ocean where we float.
Under the leaves, amid the grass,
Lazily the day shall pass,

Yet not be wasted. Must I ever
Climb up the hill-tops of endeavour ?
To-day I need a truce myself
From books and men, from care and pelf;
And I will have it in cool lanes,
O'er-arching like cathedral fanes,
With elm and beech of sturdy girth;
Or on the bosom of green earth
Amid the daisies;-dreaming, dozing,
Fallow, fallow, and reposing. Dr. Mackay.

HOLIDAY-The First.

Such a glorious afternoon! The capricious English summer was so kind that day to the child and her new friends! When Sophy's small foot once trod the sward, had she really been queen of the green people, sward and footsteps could not more joyously have met together. The grasshopper bounded, in fearless trust, upon the hem of her frock; she threw herself down on the grass, and caught him; but oh! so tenderly: and the gay insect, dear to poet and fairy, seemed to look at her from that quaint, sharp face of his with sagacious recognition, resting calmly on the palm of her pretty hands; then, when he sprang off, little mothlike butterflies, peculiar to the margin of running waters, quivered up from the herbage fluttering round her. And there in front lay the Thames, glittering

HOME-Comfort necessary in a. Bare walls make gadding housewives.

HOME-Conduct at.

Fielding.

The angry word suppress'd, the taunting thought;

Subduing and subdu'd, the petty strife,
Which clouds the colour of domestic life;
The sober comfort, all the peace which springs
From the large aggregate of little things;
On these small cares of daughter, wife, or
friend,

The almost sacred joys of home depend.
Hannah More.

HOME-Happiness of.

To be happy at home, is the ultimate result

of all ambition; the end to which every enterprise and labour tends, and of which every desire prompts the prosecution. It is indeed at home that every man must be known by those who would make a just estimate either of his virtue or felicity; for smiles and embroidery are alike occasional, and the mind is often dressed for show in painted honour and fictitious benevolence.

Johnson.

The road to home happiness lies over small stepping-stones. Slight circumstances are the stumbling-blocks of families. The prick of a pin, says the proverb, is enough to make an empire insipid. The tenderer the feelings, the painfuller the wound. A cold, unkind word checks and withers the blossom of the dearest love, as the most delicate rings of the vine are troubled by the faintest breeze. The misery of a life is born of a chance observation. If the true history of quarrels, public and private, were honestly written, it would be silenced with an uproar of derision.

Jesse.

Are you not surprised to find how independent of money peace of conscience is, and how much happiness can be condensed in the humblest home? A cottage will not bold the bulky furniture and sumptuous accommodations of a mansion; but if God be there, a cottage will hold as much happiness as might stock a palace. Dr. James Hamilton. HOME-The Happy.

It is just as possible to keep a calm house as a clean house, a cheerful house, an orderly house, as a furnished house, if the heads set themselves to do so. Where is the difficulty of consulting each other's weakness, as well as

HOME.

each other's wants; each other's tempers, as well as each other's health; each other's comfort, as well as each other's character! Oh! it is by leaving the peace at home to chance, instead of pursuing it by system, that so many houses are unhappy. It deserves notice, also, that almost any one can be courteous and forbearing and patient in a neighbour's house. If anything go wrong, or be out of time, or disagreeable there, it is made the best of, not the worst; even efforts are made to excuse it, and to show that it is not felt; or, if felt, it is attributed to accident, not design; and this is not only easy, but natural, in the house of a friend. I will i not, therefore, believe that what is so natural in the house of another is impossible at home; but maintain, without fear, that all the courtesies of social life may be upheld in domestic societies. A husband, as willing to

be pleased at home, and as anxious to please

intent on making things comfortable every day to her family as on set days to her guests, could not fail to make their own home happy. Let us not evade the point of these remarks by recurring to the maxim about allowances for temper. It is worse than folly to refer to our temper, unless we could prove that we gained anything good by giving way to it. Fits of ill-bumour punish us quite as much, if not more, than those they are vented upon; and it actually requires more effort, and inflicts more pain to give them up, than would be requisite to avoid them. Phillip

as in his neighbour's house; and a wife as

HOME-Influence of.

It was the policy of the good old gentleman to make his children feel that home was the happiest place in the world; and I value this delicious home-feeling as one of the choicest gifts a parent can bestow, Washington Irving.

In every clime the magnet of his soul,
Touch'd by remembrance, trembles to that pole!
For in this land of heaven's peculiar grace,
The heritage of nature's noblest race,
There is a spot of earth supremely blest―
A dearer, sweeter spot than all the rest,
Where man, creation's tyrant, casts aside
His sword and sceptre, pageantry and pride,
While in his soften'd looks benignly blend
The sire, the son, the husband, brother, friend.
Here woman reigns; the mother, daughter, wife,
Strews with fresh flowers the narrow way of life!
In the clear heaven of her delightful eye,
An angel-guard of loves and graces lie!
Around her knees domestic duties meet,
And fireside pleasures gambol at her feet.
Where shall that land, that spot of earth be
found!

Art thou a man?-a patriot ?-look around;
Oh thou shalt find, howe'er thy footsteps roam,
That land thy country, and that spot thy
home!
James Montgomery.

HOME of the Working Man. Resolve-and tell your wife of your good resolution. She will aid it all she can. Her step will be lighter and her hand will be busier all day, expecting the comfortable evening at home when you return. Household affairs will have been well attended to. A place for everything, and everything in its place, will, like some good genius, have made even an humble home the scene of neatness, arrangement, and taste. The table will be ready at the fireside. The loaf will be one of that order which says, by its appearance, You may cut and come again. The cups and saucers will be waiting for supplies. The kettle will be singing; and the children, happy with fresh air and exercise, will be smiling in their glad anticipation of that evening meal when father is at home, and of the pleasant reading afterwards. Helps.

HOME-Thine Own.

Be thine own home, and in thyself dwell;
Ion anywhere;

And seeing the snail, which everywhere doth

roam

Carrying his own home still, still is at home,
Flow (for he is easy paced) this snail;
Be thine own palace, or the world's thy jail.
Donne.

HOME-Pleasures of.

The first sure symptom of a mind in health,
Is rest of heart, and pleasure felt at home.
Young.
HOME-Returning.

'Tis sweet to hear the watch-dog's honest bark, Bay deep-mouth'd welcome as we draw near home;

'Tis sweet to know there is an eye will mark Our coming, and look brighter when we come. Byron.

HOMES-of England.

The stately homes of England,
How beautiful they stand!
Amidst their tall ancestral trees,

O'er all the pleasant land.

The deer across their greensward beand
Through shade and sunny gleam,

And the swan glides past them with the sound
Of some rejoicing stream.

The merry homes of England!

Around their hearths by night,
What gladsome looks of household love
Meet in the ruddy light!

There woman's voice flows forth in song,

Or childhood's tale is told,
Or lips move tunefully along
Some glorious page of old.

The free, fair homes of England!
Long, long, in hut and hall,
May hearts of native proof be rear'd
To guard each hallow'd wall!
And green for ever be the groves,

And bright the flowery sod,
Where first the child's glad spirit loves
Its country and its God!
HONESTY.

Mrs. Hemans.

Honesty!