warrant was obtained, and it is even said that the luggage of the youth was actually on board of a man-of-war, anchored in the river just below Mount Vernon. 3. At the eleventh hour the mother's heart faltered. This was her eldest born: a son whose strong and steadfast character promised to be a support to herself, and a protection to her other children. The thought of his being completely severed from her, and exposed to the hardships and perils of a boisterous profession, overcame even her resolute mind, and at her urgent remonstrances the nautical scheme was given up. 4. To school, therefore, George returned, and continued his studies for nearly two years longer, devoting himself especially to mathematics, and accomplishing himself in those branches calculated to fit him either for civil or military service. Among these, one of the most important, in the actual state of the country, was land-surveying. 5. In this he schooled himself thoroughly, using the highest processes of the art; making surveys about the neighborhood, and keeping regular field-books, some of which we have examined, in which the boundaries and measurements of the fields surveyed were carefully entered, and diagrams made, with a neatness and exactness as if the whole related to important land transactions, instead of being mere school exercises. 6. Thus, in his earliest days, there was perseverance and completeness in all his undertakings. Nothing was left half done, or done in a hurried and slovenly manner. The habit of mind thus cultivated continued throughout life; so that, however complicated his tasks and overwhelming his cares, in the arduous and hazardous situations in which he was often placed, he found time to do everything, and to do it well. He had acquired the magic of method, which of itself works wonders. WASHINGTON IRVING. When the American steamship Arctic came in collision with another steamship at sea, in the autumn of 1854, there was a youth, named Stuart Holland, stationed at the gun, to keep firing it, in the hope of attracting the attention of vessels at a distance, that they might come to the relief of the sinking vessel. Nearly all the crew deserted, leaving the captain and most of the passengers without a boat. But Stuart Holland kept at his post, and sank with the ship. "I saw him," says an eye-witness, " in the very act of firing, as the vessel disappeared." 1. THE thick fog baffled vision, But daylight lingered yet, Let in a rush of water: The good ship's doom was sealed. 2. And there were men and women And there were frightened seamen In vain the captain shouted; 3. But, hark! a gun is pealing Fast from that vessel's side; One true heart is revealing That Duty doth abide. O'er Death and all his host. The boy stands loading, firing, Unaided and untiring, If he may quit his post. 4. The ship sinks lower, lower,- CXXIX. GREAT RESULTS FROM SMALL BEGINNINGS. 1. ABOUT the year 1336, an obscure monk," in making some experiments, having put into a common mortar a mixture of saltpetre and other combustible materials, accidentally dropped into it a spark, when he was astonished to see the pestle fly off into the air. 2. This incident furnished two ideas: that of the increased power of gunpowder when confined, and that of its applicability to the propulsion" of heavy bodies. These two simple ideas, carried out into practice, produced guns, large and small, and revolutionized the entire system of war. 3. The vibration of the lid of an iron tea-kettle gave the first hint of the expansive power of steam. This hint, followed out through innumerable experiments, finally ended in the modern steam-engine, which is fast revolutionizing the mode of both land and water carriage. .EI 4. The first idea of our modern railways—and it is a very simple idea came from a mine near Newcastle, England. The plan occurred to some one of "laying rails of timber exactly straight and parallel ; and bulky carts were made with four rollers fitting those rails, whereby the carriage was made so easy that one horse would draw four or five chaldrons29 of coal." 5. Thus coal was conveyed from the mines to the bank of the river Tyne. This mode was in practice in 1676; how much earlier is not known to us, probably to no one; for, though a great idea, it was, like most other great ideas, thought of little account at the time of its origin. 6. Like Columbus's method of making an egg stand on the big end by jarring it so as to break the yolk, it was thought to be too simple to deserve any praise. Nevertheless, out of this simple idea sprang, one hundred and fifty years afterward, the modern railway. 7. It had been noticed, by chemists, that flame cannot be made to pass through a tube of small diameter. In the hands of Sir Humphrey Davy this fact grew into the miner's safety-lamp, which has saved the lives of thousands. 8. The magnet had been for centuries a plaything in Europe. At last its property, when freely suspended, of taking a north and south position, was noticed, and applied to navigation. This resulted in the discovery of America. 9. The power of the sun's rays to discolor certain substances had 'ong been known. In the hands of Daguerre this great fact grew into a most beautiful and perfect method of taking miniatures. 10. From Volta's simple pile to Morse's magnetic telegraph, what a stride! yet this stride is only the carrying cut into practice of certain very simple properties of galvanism and magnetism. 11. So we might go on to enumerate the instances in which a very simple ideä has ended in mighty results. It is too often the habit of unthinking people to look upon certain studies as useless, just as the ignorant looked formerly on the magnet as a plaything. But everything seems to have its use, could we but find it out. CXXX. CHARITY. 1. THOUGH I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. 2. Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. 3. Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. 4. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity. PAUL. CXXXI. SONG OF THE MOUNTAIN BOY. 1. I AM the mountain shepherd-boy! I catch the sun's first morning beams, 2. Here, in the torrent's native cell, |