by the intrusion of a single harsh note. Therefore, conversation which is suggestive rather than argumentative, which lets out the most of each talker's results of thought, is commonly the pleasantest and the most profitable. It is not easy, at the best, for two persons talking together to make the most of each other's thoughts, there are so many of them. (The company looked as if they wanted an explanation.)

When John and Thomas, for instance, are talking together, it is natural enough that among the six there should be more or less confusion and misapprehension.

(Our landlady turned pale; no doubt she thought there was a screw loose in my intellect, and that involved the probable loss of a boarder.)

I think, I said, I can make it plain that there are at least six personalities distinctly to be recognized as taking part in that dialogue between John and Thomas:

Three Johns:

1. The real John; known only to

his Maker.

2. John's ideal John; never the real one, and often very unlike him.

3. Thomas's ideal John; never the real John, nor John's John, but often very unlike either. The real Thomas.

1.

Three Thomases: 2. Thomas's ideal Thomas.

3. John's ideal Thomas.

Only one of the three Johns is taxed; only one can be weighed on a platform balance; but the other

Let

two are just as important in the conversation. us suppose the real John to be old, dull, and illlooking. But as the Higher Powers have not conferred on men the gift of seeing themselves in the true light, John very possibly conceives himself to be youthful, witty, and fascinating, and talks from the point of this ideal. Thomas, again, believes him to be an artful rogue, we will say; therefore he is, as far as Thomas's attitude in the conversation is concerned, an artful rogue, though really simple and stupid. The same conditions apply to the three Thomases. It follows that, until a man can be found who knows himself as his Maker knows him, or who sees himself as others see him, there must be at least six persons engaged in every dialogue between two. Of these, the least important, philosophically speaking, is the one that we have called the real person. No wonder two disputants often get angry, when there are six of them talking and listening all at the same time.

A very unphilosophical application of the above remarks was made by a young fellow answering to the name of John, who sits near me at table. A certain basket of peaches, a rare vegetable, little known to boarding-houses, was on its way to me via this unlettered Johannes. He appropriated the three that remained in the basket, remarking that there was just one apiece for him. I convinced him that his practical inference was hasty and illogical, but in the meantime he had eaten the peaches.

In talking to any of the characters above referred to, one not infrequently finds a sudden change in the style of the conversation. The lack-luster eye,

rayless as a door-plate in August, all at once fills with light; the little man grows in stature before your eyes; you were talking with a dwarf and an imbecile you have a giant and a trumpet-tongued angel before you!

Gil Blas (zhel blä), hero of a famous im' be cile (sil), a weak-minded person.

romance.

THE DEATH OF SAMSON.

JOHN MILTON.

[The "Samson Agonistes " has a peculiar interest because it is supposed to reflect Milton's view of his own condition of life. An intellectual Titan, holding with clear discernment the faith of his divine vocation to show men the truth, Milton, in his old age, stood alone among men in the majesty of his strength. He was a blind Samson among the Philistines of a dissolute court, and was deserted by the time-servers of his own religious family. He would fain have the labors of his own life end in pulling down the pillars of the false temples of profligacy, dishonor, and untruth. We may therefore read his own aspirations in "The Death of Samson."— See Judges xvi, 23-30. ]

Immediately

Was Samson as a public servant brought,
In their state livery clad; before him pipes
And timbrels; on each side went armed guards,
Both horse and foot; before him and behind
Archers and slingers, cataphracts and spears.
At sight of him the people with a shout
Rifted the air, clamoring their God with praise,
Who had made their dreadful enemy their thrall.

He, patient but undaunted where they led him,
Came to the place; and what was set before him,
Which without help of eye might be essayed,
To heave, pull, draw, or break, he still performed

All with incredible, stupendous force,

None daring to appear antagonist.

At length, for intermission sake, they led him
Between the pillars; he his guide requested,
As overtired, to let him lean awhile

With both his arms on those two massy pillars,
That to the arched roof gave main support.
He, unsuspicious, led him; which when Samson
Felt in his arms, with head awhile inclined,
And eyes fast fixed, he stood as one who prayed,
Or some great matter in his mind revolved:

At last, with head erect, thus cried aloud:

66

Hitherto, lords, what your commands imposed
I have performed, as reason was, obeying,
Not without wonder or delight beheld:
Now, of my own accord, such other trial

I mean to show you of my strength, yet greater,
As with amaze shall strike all who behold."

This uttered, straining all his nerves, he bowed;
As with the force of winds and waters pent,
When mountains tremble, those two massy pillars
With horrible convulsions to and fro

He tugged, he shook, till down they came and drew
The whole roof after them with burst of thunder
Upon the heads of all who sat beneath-
Lords, ladies, captains, counselors, or priests,
Their choice nobility and flower, not only
Of this, but each Philistian city round,
Met from all parts to solemnize this feast.
Samson, with these immixed, inevitably
Pulled down the same destruction on himself;
The vulgar only 'scap'd who stood without.

THE PLEASURES OF HOME.

SIR JOHN LUBBOCK.

It may well be doubted which is more delightful to start for a holiday which has been well earned, or to return home from one which has been thoroughly enjoyed; to find one's self, with renewed vigor, with a new store of memories and ideas, back once more by one's own fireside, with one's family, friends, and books.

"To sit at home," says Leigh Hunt, "with an old book of romantic yet credible voyages and travels to read, an old bearded traveler for its hero, a fireside in an old country house to read it by, curtains drawn, and just wind enough stirring out of doors to make an accompaniment to the billows or forests we are reading of — this surely is one of the perfect moments of existence."

It is no doubt a great privilege to visit foreign countries; to travel, say, in Mexico or Peru, or to cruise among the Pacific islands; but still, in some respects, the narratives of observant early travelers, the histories of Prescott, or the voyages of Captain Cook are even more interesting; describing to us, as they do, a state of society which was then so unlike ours, but which has been much changed and civilized. Thus we may make our daily travels interesting, even though, like the Vicar of Wakefield's family, all our adventures are by our own fireside, and all our migrations from one room to another. We may indeed secure for ourselves endless variety without leaving our own homes.