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His ready smile a parent's warmth expressed;
Their welfare pleased him, and their cares distressed;
To them his heart, his love, his griefs were given,
But all his serious thoughts had rest in heaven.
As some tall cliff that lifts its awful form,

Swells from the vale, and midway leaves the storm,
Though round its breast the rolling clouds are spread,
Eternal sunshine settles on its head.

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HONESTY is often recommended to those who seem mor especially to need the recommendation, by the common saying that "honesty is the best policy." This maxim is to a certain extent true and borne out by experience. The dishonest man is continually undermining his own credit; and not only iscredit the first requisite for obtaining the conveniences of life which can be bought or hired, but all our social blessings, arising from the confidence, esteem, and love of our fellowmen, depend essentially on good faith. Our conscience and our reason fully approve of a state of things that should secure the enjoyment of property, of confidence, esteem, and affection, to him who alone deserves them. So far, then, the common saying, that honesty is the best—that is, the most profitable,— policy, has a good foundation both in experience and in sound reason. But, like all the other current doctrines of expediency which commend virtue not for its own sake, that is, on account of the happiness which is found in the exercise of virtue, that common saying, too, which makes honesty an instrument of policy, is untrue and mischievous in some of its most important bearings and consequences.

In the first place, those who are in the habit of considering honesty the most profitable line of conduct are apt to look

upon virtue, in general, as a matter of policy to value it solely or chiefly in proportion to the price it will bring in the market. This habit of calculating the interest of virtue undermines the moral sensibility, and, by degrees, unfits the selfish calculator for that deep satisfaction, arising from the simple consciousness of rectitude, which the truly honest man does not hesitate to purchase with the loss of all the advantages which the most successful policy could have secured.

But besides the immoral tendency of this economical view of virtue, it is not consistent with facts, with experience, that honesty is always the best, the most successful, policy. He is not always the most successful merchant who in no instance deviates from the strict principles of honesty; but rather he whose general way of doing business is so fair and equitable, that he can, without much danger, avail himself of some favorable opportunity to make his fortune by a mode of proceeding which would have ruined his credit if he had been so impolitic as to make this successful deviation from duty the general line of his conduct. Again, he is not always the most prosperous lawyer who never undertakes the defence of a cause which his conscience condemns; but rather he who never undertakes a cause so palpably unjust, that it cannot be gained even by the most skilful and artful management; while the power of making a bad cause appear good, when discreetly employed, is apt to enhance, rather than degrade, his professional character. Again, he is not always the most influential politician who never deviates from the straight path of political justice; but rather he who goes upon the common principle that "all is fair in politics," provided he does not become guilty of any such dishonesty as will not be pardoned by his own party. In the same way he is not apt t be the most popular divine, who, regardless both of the praise and of the censure of men, declares the whole counsel of God, as it stands revealed to his own mind; but rather he who regards the signs of the times as much as the hand

writing of God, modifying the plain honesty of apostolic preaching with a politic regard to the likes and dislikes, the passions and prejudices, of men.

I believe, then, that experience does not verify the common saying, that honesty is the best—that is, the most profitable— policy. It is so in most cases, but not in all. Hence those who recommend honesty on the ground of its being the best policy, advise men to act from a motive which, in some, perhaps the most important cases, may lead them into dishonesty. Steal no more! Cease to do evil! Learn to do well! These are the simple precepts addressed to the consciences of men, without leaving it to their discretion to decide in what cases they may do evil, if in all others they do well. If you compare this simple doctrine of Scripture and of conscience, which enjoins honesty because of its intrinsic excellence, with the doctrine of worldly wisdom, which recommends honesty as the most profitable policy, and if you put both maxims to the test of experience, you will know by their fruits which is of God and which of man. In those cases where honesty is in part the worst policy, the man who is virtuous for virtue's sake will choose to endure all the evils connected with the performance of duty, rather than the simple consciousness of guilt; while in all those cases in which honesty turns out to be the best policy, the joy of acting right, without regard to the consequences, exceeds every other reward.

LXVI. THE ATMOSPHERE.

QUARTERLY REVIEW.

THE atmosphere rises above us, with its cathedral dome, arching towards the heavens, to which it is the most familiar synonyme and symbol. It floats around us like that grand object which the apostle John saw in his vision a sea of glass like unto crystal." So massive is it, that, when it begins

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to stir, it tosses about great ships like playthings, and sweeps cities and forests to destruction before it. And yet it is so mobile, that we have lived years in it before we can be persuaded that it exists at all; and the great bulk of mankind never realize the truth that they are bathed in an ocean of air. Its weight is so enormous that iron shivers before it, like glass; yet a soap bubble sails through it with impunity; and the tiniest insect waves it aside with its wing.

It ministers lavishly to all the senses. We touch it not; but it touches us. Its warm south wind brings back color to the pale face of the invalid; its cool west winds refresh the fevered brow, and make the blood mantle in our cheeks; even its north blasts brace into new vigor the hardy children of our rugged clime.

The eye is indebted to it for all the magnificence of sunrise, the full brightness of midday, the chastened radiance of the "gloaming," and the "clouds that cradle near the setting sun." But for it the rainbow would want its "triumphal arch,” and the winds would not send their fleecy messengers on errands round the heavens. The cold weather would not shed its snow feathers on the earth; nor would drops of dew gather on the flowers. The kindly rain would never fall, nor hail storm nor fog diversify the face of the sky. Our naked globe would turn its tanned and unshadowed forehead to the sun, and one dreary, monotonous blaze of light and heat dazzle and burn up all things.

ness.

Were there no atmosphere, the evening sun would in a moment set, and without warning plunge the earth in darkBut the air keeps in her hand a sheaf of his rays, and lets them slip slowly through her fingers; so that the shadows of evening gather by degrees, and the flowers have time to bow their heads, and each creature space to find a place of rest, and nestle to repose. In the morning, the gairish sun would at once burst from the bosom of night, and blaze above the horizon; but the air watches for his coming, and sends at first one little ray, to announce his approach, and then

another, and by and by a handful; and so gently draws aside the curtain of night, and slowly lets the light fall on the face of the sleeping earth, till her eyelids open, and, like man, she "goeth forth again to her labor till the evening."

LXVII-THE SEASONS IN CANADA.
SIR F. B. HEAD.

[From The Emigrant, a collection of Canadian sketches and incidents.]

HOWEVER deeply prejudiced an Englishman may be in favor of his own country, I think it is impossible for him to cross the Atlantic without admitting that in both the northern and southern hemispheres of the new world, nature has not only outlined her works on a larger scale, but has painted the whole picture with brighter and more costly colors than she has used in delineating and in beautifying the old world,

The heavens of America appear infinitely higher, the sky is bluer, the clouds are whiter, the air is fresher, the cold is intenser, the moon looks larger, the stars are brighter, the thunder is louder, the lightning is vivider, the wind is stronger, the rain is heavier, the mountains are higher, the forests bigger, and the plains broader.

In the continent of North America, the climate, comparatively speaking, regardless of latitude, is both hot and cold; and thus, for instance, in Canada, while the summer is as roasting as that of the Mediterranean, and occasionally as broil ing as that of the West Indies, the winter is that of the capitals of Norway and Sweden; indeed, the cold of the Canada winter must be felt to be imagined; and when felt, can no more be described by words than colors to a blind man or music to a deaf one.

The four seasons of the year in Canada exhibit pictures strikingly contrasted with each other.

In the summer, the excessive heat, the violent paroxysms of thunder, the parching drought, the occasional deluges of

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