given us. We cannot become all that we are capable of becoming, or rightly fill the place which God assigns us, without intelligent and hearty co-operation with Himself. We have to do our best with ourselves and our surroundings. These are, so to speak, the raw material with which we have to deal, and in dealing with which we need all the light and all the help we can get. And in this respect we are highly favoured living in an age of great mental activity and in a land of freedom and of books. Above all, we have the Word of God and the Spirit of God. But to make the best use of all these helps we need thought and care, prayer and effort.

Keeping this great object in view: the making the best we can of ourselves, and doing the best we can with ourselves, what are the principal matters which demand attention? Are they not these: bodily health and mental and spiritual rectitude and progress? And first, bodily health is of very great importance: I need scarcely remind you that our independence, our happiness, and our usefulness much depend on our bodily health, so intimately connected are body and soul. And as a rule, the sound and vigorous mind is found in connection with a sound and vigorous body. There have been and are many apparent exceptions to this rule. We say apparent, for while acute and powerful minds are sometimes found associated with bodily feebleness and even disease, some of these have been at times the prey of fears and fancies,' subject to morbid states and periods of prostration, which in some cases, under the pressure of work and care, have ended in an utter breakdown or untimely death. A life in the open air, simple diet, and the exertion necessary to procure it, are sufficient to ensure the vigorous development and healthy condition of the

Mat

body; but the artificial sort of life which we have to live is, in most cases, clogged with conditions more or less prejudicial to health; and hence the need of constant care and effort to counteract the evil influence of our surroundings, in order to maintain even a comfortable degree of physical health and vigour. ters of food and raiment, of house ventilation, drainage and water supply, directly affecting as they do our budily condition, all require careful consideration. It is our duty to try to live as long and in as healthy and vigorous a condition as possible. Healthy organs only need suitable conditions in order to maintain healthy action. It is ours to supply them, to the best of our ability, with these conditions. But before we can do this we must know what they are: hence this is a very proper subject of study, especially for the young.

The elements of human physiology, the chemistry of common life, and the laws of health deducible therefrom, should undoubtedly form part of popular education. A vast amount of disease is preventable: since it results from ignorance, carelessness, or vice. Probably half the number of infants that die are the .victims of neglect or injudiciousness. The unhealthiness of very many of the working people of our great towns no doubt greatly contributes to their immorality. A low state of health brings on nervous irritability, depression of spirits, and a longing for excitements and stimulants which at the same time inflame the passions and weaken the will. Physical degeneracy is no unimportant part of the penalty which fathers and mothers entail on their children through their own disregard of the laws and conditions of health. A time may come, but it seems as yet very far off, when the habits, the occupations, and the entire surroundings of men will be brought into conformity with the as

certained requirements of the fullest. bodily and mental health.

The subject of mental improvement offers a wide field for remark. The mind like the body grows by what it feeds upon. Knowledge, using the term in its widest meaning, as including all our impressions and ideas, is the mind's food; and, as in the case of the body, care should be taken that the food provided be sufficient, various and suitable for the support of all its powers. I am not prepared to accept without qualification the often quoted adage that 'a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.' Provided the knowledge is real, and only taken for what it is worth, there is no danger in it, and there may be much service. It is surely better to know a little about many things, provided that little be accurately known, than to know nothing about them; and this is the alternative in the case of most. Books abound in our day, and public libraries place them-good, bad, and indifferent-within reach of nearly all who are able to use them.

Now, books may be read for the sake of information, for the gratification and culture of taste and sentiment, or for mere amusement. Each of these aims is legitimate, when pursued within due limits, limits prescribed by a regard to our duties and our circumstances. Without some knowledge of history much of our reading will be unintelligible; for most books contain references to historical personages and incidents. Parts of the Bible itself must be obscure or even meaningless to those who are altogether ignorant of ancient secular history; and who can read Milton, for instance, to any advantage, to whom the history and religion of the ancient world are a terra incognita? Some knowledge of modern history is necessary for an intelligent apprehension of Parliamentary debates and newspaper articles. An acquaintance with the history of the leading Euro

pean nations, especially during the last century, is almost essential to the formation of just views on public affairs.

Like causes produce like effects in the political as well as in the material world. History is said, and with a good deal of truth, to repeat itself. Hence it would be a happy thing for our country if the masses of its people, whose united will now moulds its policy and determines its action, instead of forming their judgments of political exigencies under the influence of the special pleadings of party newspapers, were able to look at the affairs of the nation in the light which the past ever sheds upon the present. But, more particularly, it behoves the young men of the present day to be thoroughly acquainted with the history of our own country. The last Reform Bill placed the preponderance of political power in the hands of the working classes. I am not about to discuss the propriety or impropriety of that step, but just to call attention to the fact. To the working classes belongs the shaping of the future of this great empire. They will determine its spirit and its policy. Its honour and prosperity are in their hands. How important then that those who have such responsibilities should understand them; that they should be well acquainted with the past experience of their country, with its struggles, its progress, its great men and heroic deeds; so that, having done their part in its affairs in the spirit of an enlightened patriotism, they may leave it to their children with its honour unsullied, its freedom unviolated, and its prosperity undiminished. The sentiment of one of Wordsworth's finest sonnets should be ever dear to the hearts of English

men:

'It is not to be thought of that the Flood Of British freedom, which, to the open

sea

Of the world's praise, from dark antiquity

Hath flowed, with pomp of waters unwithstood,

Roused though it be full often to a mood Which spurns the check of salutary bands,

That this most famous stream in bogs and sands

Should perish; and to evil and to good Be lost for ever. In our halls is hung Armoury of the invincible Knights of old:

We must be free or die, who speak the tongue

That Shakespeare spake.; the faith and mórals hold

Which Milton held.-In everything we' are sprung,

Of Earth's first blood; have titles manifold!'

Next to the story of a nation's life, in point of interest and value, comes the story of the lives of its worthiest men and women. To read a really good biography is one of the greatest of intellectual treats, but alas! it is one of the rarest. It is unfortunate that the task of preserving for future ages the memory of illustrious men, of enabling us to see them speaking and living in the midst of their cotemporaries and surroundings-a task requiring the combination of artistic perception and literary skill— should so often fall to the lot of those whose only qualification for the work seems to consist of admiration for the greatness and goodness that are gone. The best biographies introduce us to what is truly the best society and subject our spirits to its healthful and invigorating influences. Such books should not be chance acquaintances but choice companions.

Scientific reading, in popular forms, is now abundant and easily accessible; and no intelligent man ought in this day to be altogether ignorant of the leading facts and main outlines of the natural sciences, and of their bearing on the general welfare of mankind. Happy is the young man for whom some one of these has a special charm, for he can fly to it

from the worrying trivialities of life as to a cool and shady retreat · full of sweet health and quiet breathing.' Social science too, is deservedly attracting increasing attention from its direct connection with the wellbeing of civilized communities. It is beginning to have a literature of its own, which must be full of interest and guidance to all who are touched with the spirit of true philanthropy. But he has a very meagre and imperfect view of the function of books who thinks that the sole purpose of reading should be to get information. Knowledge is by no means the only thing to be acquired from books. There is something which is of even greater value than knowledge, however accurate and extensive, and that is a rightly formed, well-proportioned and complete character. To the formation of such character many influences must contribute, and of these many are furnished by books: books that tend to enliven the imagination, to improve taste, to fill the heart with noble sentiment, to widen and vary the mental view and to healthily stir and purify the passions. Such reading will do much to produce candour, tolerance and gentleness, and to remove the hardness, angularity, narrowness and roughness of mind and manner which are often found associated with much useful knowledge and strong practical sense.

The subject of Poetry, and works of imagination generally, deserves a paper to itself; but we must be satisfied now to dismiss it in a sentence or two. The highest poetry is nothing less than the truest philosophy touched into life by Genius and informed with the spirit of Beauty. The same may be said, in scarcely a less degree, of other forms of imaginative literature. Books of this sort, if judiciously used, are capable of largely ministering both to culture and pure enjoyment. But reading of this kind requires great care; for it is especially

in this department that worthless and even pernicious books abound. But it only needs a little enquiry to keep one right in this matter, for the authors of the best poetry and prose works of imagination (and nothing but the best should be read) are few, and their names and works are well known.

Finally, our duty to ourselves requires above all, and first of all, that we get and keep right with God through Jesus Christ His Son, by His grace, earnestly sought and faithfully used, and be ever pressing on to

complete conformity to His mind and will. To neglect to do this is the height and depth of folly, and makes transient and vain all other culture. True religion is a reasonable and manly thing. He is most a man who is most like God; for man was made in the image of God. True religion alone can form the basis of a right, good, noble, progressive character and life. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do His commandments.'

W. R. J.

It was a Saturday afternoon in November, fifty years ago. The town of Leeds and a wide area around it had for twenty-four hours been visited with an uncomfortable drizzle, the rain declining to come down in good earnest, but contenting itself with the persistent small dropping which, like the tears of a constitutionally fretful woman, is more depressing to an onlooker than the 'real, good cry' of the more energetic of the sex, freely indulged in and soon over.

Fifty years ago Leeds, though a busy manufacturing town, famed for the shrewdness and practical ability of its inhabitants, boasted few public buildings of interest and little architectural embellishment. The old parish church and the Cloth Hall, the

regular and intelligent was apt to be looked up to as an oracle by his neighbours.

Then the newspaper was held to be an index to a man's capacity, and as its contents were read in many a barber's shop and village smithy, impromptu debating clubs were held thereupon. James Bellaby, or Jim as he had been called with the single exception of the pronunciation of the name at the font, was, as he read, in a state of simmering indignation against the French, with whom our relations were less friendly than at present. The Napoleonic war had brought to some Englishmen a fictitious prosperity, but the great masses of the people were ground down by the increased taxation. Prior to that there had been bad harvests, SO that wholesome bread was scarcely to be obtained. The domestic troubles which brought to his shop a family with their best china, linen, silver spoons and watches for deposit, was too necessary to his prosperity to be deeply lamented. (He is a philanthropic medical man who rejoices sincerely over the improved sanitary condition of his professional area.) But the general distress of the United Kingdom was another matter. He had a heart to feel for that; and if any one had reminded him that such a state of things was beneficial to the branch of business which he cultivated, that view of the question would not have consoled him, as it was only his own personal success that in any way concerned him.

It is said that women give to units the sympathy they deny to thousands. James Bellaby, on the contrary, as he read his broad-sheet, and meditated the pro-pect for the poor during the winter, gave to the thousands the compassion he could not always spare for the unit. As he read he frequently ejaculated :

"H'm h'm! ha! A lot o' geese 'll

tell ye that ye can't, if ye're one o' theer oan soart, loase ye're hankercher or ye're pet spaniel, but the Lord above knaws an' cares. But if He does, then it seems to me as a matter o' coorse that Ile's too much ta'en up wi' theer small affairs of His "chozzen" to do onythin' for t' rest o' people. Talk o' what they reead i't book o' Natur'! if they'd read sich books o' human Natur' as are not shet up i' gowd an' silver clasps fra' ' common fooak, an' covered wi' velvet an' satin, they'd see enough to teach 'em that theer is no such God as they tell on; if theer happens be wun of ony other sooart. Things luik as if they were left to theersens to be as they bea; bud, if instead o' being etarnal they were created, why, as a matter o' coorse, theer must ha' beean a God; though I'll nooan believe He interferes much wi' this rahndabaht wuld! "that swarms loike a mitey cheas." If He did, things 'ud be moor evener, an' theer'd be less to find fau't wi'.'

Bellaby was wont to deliver himself in this fashion at the Sheep and Shears; and he never did so without feeling that, as a profound thinker and acute logician, he ought to command attention.

The frequently recurring formula, 'as a matter o' coorse,' bespoke a due sense of the relation of effect to cause; so he deemed it unanswerable."

Out of the mizzling fog there entered a woman with the step of a daughter of misery and the air of one who has been a curse to herself, yielding to temptation from within and inviting temptation from with