And many a wizard well deserved the faggot for his faith: He trusted in his intercourse with evil, he sacrificed heartily to fiends,

He withered up with curses to the limit of his will, and was vile, because he thought himself a villain.

A GREAT mind is ready to believe, for he hungereth to feed on facts,

And the gnawing stomach of his ignorance craveth unceasing to be filled:

A little mind is boastful and incredulous, for he fancieth all knowledge is his own,

So will he cavil at a truth; how should it be true, and he not know it?

There is an easy scheme, to solve all riddles by the sensual, And thus, despising mysteries, to feel the more sufficient: For it comforteth the foul hard heart, to reject the pure nn

seen,

And relieveth the dull soft head, to hinder one from gazing

upon vacancy.

True wisdom, laboring to expound, heareth others readily; False wisdom, sturdy to deny, closeth up her mind to argu

ment.

The sum of certainties is found so small, their field so wide an universe,

That many things may truly be, which man hath not conceived:

The characters revealed of God are a strong mind's sole

assurance

That any strangeness may not stand a sober theme for faith. Ignorance being light denied, this ought to show the stronger in its view,

But ignorance is commonly a double negative, both of light and morals:

So, adding vanity to blindness, for ease it taketh refuge in a doubt,

And aching soon with ceaseless doubt, it finisheth the strife by misbelieving.

FAITH, by its very nature, shall embrace both credence and obedience :

Yea, the word for both is one, and cannot be divided. (25) For, work void of faith, wherein can it be counted for a duty; And faith not seen in work,-whereby can the doctrine be discovered?

Faith in religion is an instrument; a handle, and the hand to turn it;

Less a condition than a mean, and more an operation than a virtue.

A moral sickness, like to sin, must have a moral cure;

And faith alone can heal the mind, whose malady is sense. Ye are told of God's deep love; they that believe will love

him;

They that love him, will obey; and obedience hath its blessing.

Ye are taught of the soul's great price: they that believe

will prize it,

And, prizing soul, will cherish well the hopes that make it

happy.

Effects spring from feelings and feelings grow of faith:
If a man conceive himself insulted, will not his anger smite?
Thus, let a soul believe his state, his danger, destiny, re-
demption,

Will he not feel eager to be safe, like him that kept he prison at Philippi?

A mother had an only son, and sent him out to sea:

She was a widow, and in penury; and he must seek his

fortunes.

How often in the wintry nights, when winds and waves were howling,

Her heart was torn with sickening dread, and bled to see her boy.

And on cne sunny morn, when all around was comfort,

News came, that weeks agone, the vessel had been wrecked; Yea, wrecked, and he was dead! they had seen him perish in his agony:

Oh then, what agony was like to hers,-for she believed the tale!

She was bowed and broken down with sorrow, and uncomforted in prayer;

Many nights she mourned, and pined, and had no hope but death.

But on a day, while sorely she was weeping, a stranger broke upon her loneliness,

He had news to tell, that weather-beaten man, and must not be denied:

And what were the wonder-working words that made this mourner joyous,

That swept her heaviness away, and filled her world with praise ?

Her son was saved, is alive, is near!-O did she stop to question!

No, rushing in the force of faith, she met him at the door!

OF HONESTY.

*ALL is vanity which is not honesty ;-thus is it graven on the tomb;

And there is no wisdom but in piety; so the dead man

preacheth:

For, in a simple village church, among those classic shades Which sylvan Evelyn loved to rear (his praise and my de

light),

These the words of truth, are writ upon his sepulchre,

Who learnt much lore, and knew all trees from the cedar to

the hyssop on the wall.

A just conjunction, godliness and honesty, ministering to both worlds,

Well wed, and ill to be divided, a pair that God hath joined together.

I touch not now the vulgar thought, as of tricks and cheateries in trade;

I speak not of honest purpose, character, speech, and action: For an honest man hath special need of charity and prudence,

Of a deep and humbling self-acquaintance, and of blessed commerce with his God,

So that the keennesses of truth may be freed from asperities of censure,

And the just but vacillating mind be not made the pendulum of arguments:

For a false reason, shrewdly put, can often not be answered on the instant,

And prudence looketh unto faith, content to wait solutions; Yea, it looketh, yea, it waiteth, still holding honesty in

leash,

Lest, as a hot young hound, it track not game, but vermin. Many a man of honest heart, but ignorant of self and God, Hath followed the marsh-fires of pestilence, esteeming the a the lights of truth:

He heard a cause, which he had not skill to solve, and so received it gladly,

And that cause brought its consequence, of harm to an unstable soul.

Prudence, for man's own sake, never should be separate from honesty ;

And charity, for others' good and his, must still be joined therewith.

For the harshly chiding tongue hath neither pleasuring nor profit,

And the cold unsympathizing heart never gained a good.
Sin is a sore, and folly is a fever; touch them tenderly for

healing:

The bad chirurgeon's awkward knife harmeth spite of honesty,

Still, a rough diamond is better than the polished paste,That courteous flattering fool, who spake of vice as virtue : And honesty even by, though making many adversaries Whom prudence might have set aside, or charity have softened,

Evermore will prosper at the last, and gain a man great honor

By giving others many goods, to his own cost and hinder

ance.

FREEDOM is father of the honest, and sturdy Independence is his brother;

These three, with heart and hand dwell together in unity. The blunt yeoman, stout and true, will speak unto princes unabashed:

His mind is loyal, just, and free, a crystal in its plain integrity; What should make such an one ashamed? where courtiers kneel, he standeth ;

I will indeed bow before the king, but knees were knit for God.

And many such there be of a high and noble conscience, Honorable, generous, and kind, though blessed with little

light:

What should he barter for his freedom? some petty gain of

gold?

Free of speech and free in act, magnates honor him for bold

ness:

Long may he flourish in his peace, and a stalwart race around

him,

Rooted in the soil like oaks, and hardy as the pine upon the mountains!