he who did not fast upon that day at Milan and Rome, both upon the same reason.

'Cum fueris Romæ, Romano vivito more ;

Cum fueris alibi, vivito sicut ibi;

("When at Rome live after the Roman manner; when elsewhere, follow the custom which there prevails ;") because he was to conform to the custom of Smyrna as well as Milan in their respective dioceses.' To conclude, it is useless to load the conscience with vain rules, to take oaths against eating meat or drinking wine, for where we do so we only lay a trap for ourselves to fall in ; but it is most useful to let conscience have free play, to consider what the end of life is, and why above us, yet in us, presides this mysterious judge, this secret spy which knows all our 'evil and corrupt affections;' and yet, blessed be God, knows our trials and our triumphs too.

OF MANLY READINESS.

Valour-The Workers in Life—The Norse-Man- Hamlet on Readiness--Procrastination-The Winning Moment-Making up ‘Minds'—Self-Help—Early Rising—Readiness.

ALOUR, which some will spell after the Roman fashion, 'Valor' (obliterating that which delicately marks the transition state from that tongue, in which we received the

word), signifies worth. Actually, it is value, which was once written 'valure,' and a valorous man was one who would win his way by worth and readiness, capacity, ability, boldness. A manly, ready man, first in war, first in love, and equal to the occasion, was the man to be esteemed. Not that fighting alone was ever to be solely commended. There could not produce enough come out of that!' says a quaint thinker. 'I suppose the right good fighter was oftenest also the right good forest feller

D

-the right good improver, discerner, doer, and worker of every kind; for the true valour, different enough from ferocity, is the basis of all: a more legitimate kind of valour, that showing itself against the untamed forests and dark brute powers of Nature, to conquer Nature for us.'

Truly, then, a valiant man is the true man, if we read this rightly. He is, according to the sound heraldic motto of a noble family, 'Ready, aye ready.' Whether to do or to die, it matters little to such a man, seeing that, in the battle of human life, each moment a valiant man goes forth, and lays down his life.

And this he does without thinking, in an honest, straightforward way, taking as his wages, for the most part, hard work and hard living, and looking straight into the future, without much hope of improvement. That is the case with most of us. On this little angleland-this piece of earth rescued from the yeasty waves of the Atlantic and German Oceans, blown over by chilling winds from the north-east, and watered with warm showers from the south-west-on this fragment, split from the rest of Europe, and shaped much like a scraggy leg of mutton, with Scotland for a knuckle end, there are, we will say, about nineteen millions of English men and women, and three millions of Scots; and of these twenty-two millions, nineteen at least work from day to day without much promise of making a fortune, yet content to see others possess houses and lands, horses and fine clothes. There may be a million of