allowance of twenty-five rupees a month, necessary for the keep of an elephant, I was told that these poor creatures, all but those in the immediate stables of his majesty, had, for some time back, owing to the dilapidated state of the finances, and the roguery of the commissariat, received only five. They had now given the wretched animal a cordial, and were endeavouring to raise it on its legs, but in vain. It groaned pitifully, but lay quite helpless, and was in fact a mountain of skin and bone." Some of the Mogul princes have maintained studs of a hundred elephants, to each of which was given a daily allowance of two hundred pounds' weight of food, together with ten pounds of sugar, and some rice, pepper, and milk; and in the sugar-cane season each elephant had daily three hundred canes.

THE ASS,

AS AN EXAMPLE OF PATIENCE.

To every reflecting mind, it must be quite evident that the minor troubles and vexations of life, as well as its more pressing and serious calamities, may be either lightened or increased by the temper of mind in which they are received. While some persons seem to take a perverse delight in magnifying their troubles, and are constantly looking on the dark side of every event; others, of a happier disposition, are endeavouring to bear the dispensations of Providence, and the cares of life, with a patient and contented spirit, and to find, if possible, some avenue of hope, and some cause of thankfulness in the midst of their trouble.

Great is the value of PATIENCE in a time of suffering and distress. Though it does not actually lessen pain, or ward off calamity, yet it enables the Christian sufferer, in a great measure, to preserve peace of mind ; it checks the rising of discontented thoughts, and forbids the utterance of hasty and complaining words.

But to persons of a hasty and unsubdued spirit, it may appear useless to praise the virtue of patience. It is one which they consider unattainable,

and almost undesirable; for they are under the mistaken idea, that to be patient under suffering, is to give way to evil, or to fall into a sort of indolent acquiescence in whatever befalls us.

Patience is, however, perfectly consistent with activity, and is often a powerful help out of trouble. While the patient man can take a calm and reasonable view of his distresses, and is sufficiently tranquil to make the best use of any alleviating circumstances, the fretful and impatient sufferer, by rebelling against his lot, and making hasty and inconsiderate efforts to escape from his misfortunes, only entangles himself the more closely in the web of adversity. Every one knows how important it is, in the case of disease and pain, that the mind of the patient be kept in a tranquil state, because the excitement of the passions would, undoubtedly, add to his distress and danger; and though there are forms of sorrow much more difficult to bear than bodily anguish, and though the stronger emotions of the mind will be powerfully awakened by the loss of friends, or of fortune, or of liberty; yet, in each and every case, happy are those Christians who can bear in mind, and put in practice, the scripture admonitions, "In patience possess ye your souls." "Add to your faith, patience."

To such persons it will be a pleasing task to observe how largely the Almighty has endued many of the lower animals with the quality thus enjoined as a duty on mankind. In the case of the brute creation, as well as among men, patience appears to be the great and only remedy for suffering, and for

injurious treatment placed within reach by the Divine hand.

In the lower animals, patience under injuries appears to be connected with ignorance of the power to take revenge. The goaded ox, for instance,

whose formidable horns might soon inflict death on his tormentors, is driven patiently to the slaughter; the noble horse, whose fleetness and strength might soon outmaster those who ill-use him, is quietly subservient to the whip and the load; the faithful dog, whose rage and hatred might destroy his owner, patiently endures cruelty and neglect. But among mankind, patience under injuries is of a nobler character, for it is connected with a full knowledge of all the ways and means of taking revenge. It is, in fact, a high and self-denying principle, only to be practised by those who have learned to follow the example of Him, who "when he was reviled, reviled not again, when he suffered, he threatened not."

Our present purpose is to deal with that lower degree of patience possessed by the inferior animals, to which, nevertheless, we owe our safety in their domestication, and from which many a lesson might be gained, and many a reproof received by the impatient and restless spirits among mankind. In no animal is patience more constantly exhibited, than in that humble, and despised, and over-worked creature, the Ass, whose very name has become the emblem of stupidity and ignorance, and whose claims to notice can scarcely be advanced without exciting the ridicule of thoughtless persons. This