of the country. Mr. Beecher generally avoids doctrinal topics. He preaches the truth of to-day applied to the temptations, the errors, and the wants of to-day. His sympathy with nature, acute observation of men and things, remarkable analysis of character, apt illustration, mental elasticity, soul-strength, and affluence and power of diction, are equally apparent in his writings and his extemporaneous speeches. The preceding selection is adapted from "Norwood; or, Village Life in New England," a story which first appeared in "The New York Ledger" in 1867.

IV.

39. RIGHT USE OF WEALTH.

E are stewards or ministers of whatever talents are

Wentrusted to us. Is it not a strange thing, that while we

more or less accept the meaning of that saying, so long as it is considered metaphorical,' we never accept its meaning in its own terms? You know the lesson is given us under the form of a story about money. Money was given to the servants to make use of: the unprofitable servant dug in the earth, and hid his lord's money. Well, we, in our poëtical and spiritual application of this, say, that of course money doesn't mean money, it means wit, it means intellect, it means influence in high quarters, it means everything in the world except itself.

2. And do not you see what a pretty and pleasant come-off there is for most of us, in this spiritual application? Of course, if we had wit, we would use it for the good of our fellow-creatures. But we haven't wit. Of course, if we had influence with the bishops, we would use it for the good of the church; but we haven't any influence with the bishops. Of course, if we had political power, we would use it for the good of the nation; but we have no political power; we have no talents intrusted to us of any sort or kind. It is true we have a little money, but the parable can't possibly mean anything so vulgar as money; our money's our own.

3. I believe, if you think seriously of this matter, you will feel that the first and most literal application is just as necessary a one as any other that the story does věry specially mean what it says-plain money; and that the reason we don't at once believe it does so, is a sort of tacit' idea that while thought, wit,

1 Mět`a phor' iċ al, pertaining to or comprising a metaphor-a figure of speech in which a word is used to express what is similar, with

out the sign of comparison; as," that man is a fox."

2 Tăc' it, implied, but not expressed; silent.

and intellect, and all power of birth and position, are indeed given to us, and, therefore, to be laid out for the Giver-our wealth has not been given to us; but we have worked for it, and have a right to spend it as we choose. I think you will find that is the reäl substance of our understanding in this matter. Beauty, we say, is given by God-it is a talent; strength is given by God-it is a talent; position is given by God—it is a talent; but money is proper wages for our day's work-it is not a talent, it is a due. We may justly spend it on ourselves, if we have worked for it.

4. And there would be some shadow of excuse for this, were it not that the věry power of making the money is itself only one of the applications of that intellect or strength which we confess to be talents. Why is one man richer than another? Because he is more industrious, more persevering, and more sagacious. Well, who made him more persevering and more sagacious than others? That power of endurance, that quicknèss of apprehension, that calmnèss of judgment, which enable him to seize the opportunities that others lose, and persist in the lines of conduct in which others fail-are these not talent ?—are they not, in the present state of the world, among the most distinguished and influential of mental gifts?

5. And is it not wonderful, that while we should be utterly ashamed to use a superiority of body, in order to thrust our weaker companions aside from some place of advantage, we unhesitatingly use our superiorities of mind to thrust them back from whatever good that strength of mind can attain? You would be indignant if you saw a strong man walk into a theater or a lecture-room, and calmly choosing the best place, take his feeble neighbor by the shoulder, and turn him out of it into the back seats, or the street. You would be equally indignant if you saw a stout fellow thrust himself up to a table where some huǹgry children were being fed, and reach his arm over their heads and take their bread from them.

6. But you are not the least indignant if when a man has stoutness of thought and swiftness of capacity, and, instead of being long-armed only, has the much greater gift of being long

'Sa ga' cious, of quick perceptions; discerning and judicious; wise.

headed-you think it perfectly just that he should use his intellect to take the bread out of the mouths of all the other men in the town who are of the same trade with him; or use his breadth and sweep of sight to gather some branch of the commerce of the country into one great cobweb, of which he is himself to be the central spider, making ěvèry thread vibrate with the points of his claws, and commanding every avenue with the facets of his eyes. You see no injustice in this.

7. But there is injustice; and, let us trust, one of which honorable men will at no věry distant period disdain to be guilty. In some degree, however, it is indeed not unjust; in some degree it is necessary and intended. It is assuredly just that idleness should be surpassed by energy; that the widèst influence should be possessed by those who are best able to wield it; and that a wise man, at the end of his career, should be better off than a fool. But for that reason, is the fool to be wretched, utterly crushed down, and left in all the suffering which his conduct and capacity naturally inflict?-Not so. What do you suppose fools were made for? That you might tread upon them, and starve them, and get the better of them in every possible way?

8. By no means. They were made that wise people might take care of them. That is the true and plain fact concerning the relations of ěvèry strong and wise man to the world about him. He has his strength given him, not that he may crush the weak, but that he may support and guide them. In his own household he is to be the guide and the support of his children; out of his household he is still to be the father, that is, the guide and support of the weak and the poor; not merely of the meritoriously weak and the innocently poor, but of the guiltily and punishably poor; of the men who ought to have known betterof the poor who ought to be ashamed of themselves. It is nothing to give pension and cottage to the widow who has lost her son; it is nothing to give food and medicine to the workman who has broken his arm, or the decrepit woman wasting in sickness.

9. But it is something to use your time and strength to war with the waywardness and thoughtlessness of mankind; to keep the erring workman in your service till you have made him an unerring one; and to direct your fellow-merchant to the oppor

tunity which his dulnèss would have lost. This is much; but it is yět mōre, when you have fully achieved the superiority which is due to you, and acquired the wealth which is the fitting reward of your sagacity, if you solemnly accept the responsibility of it, as it is the helm and guide of labor far and near.

10. For you who have it in your hands, are in reälity the pilots of the power and effort of the state. It is intrusted to you as an authority to be used for good or evil, just as completely as kingly authority was ever given to a prince, or military command to a căptain. And, according to the quantity of it that you have in your hands, you are the arbiters of the will and work of the country; and the whole issue, whether the work of the state shall suffice for the state or not, depends upon you.

11. You may stretch out your scepter over the heads of the laborers, and say to them, as they stoop to its waving, "Subdue this obstacle that has baffled our fathers, put away this plague that consumes our children; water these dry places, plow these desert ones, carry this food to those who are in hunger; carry this light to those who are in darkness; carry this life to those who are in death;" or on the other side you may say to her laborers: 12. "Here am I; this power is in my hand; come, build a mound here for me to be throned upon, high and wide; come, make crowns for my head, that men may see them shine from far away; come, weave tapestries for my feet, that I may tread softly on the silk and purple; come, dance before me, that I may be gay; and sing sweetly to me, that I may slumber; so shall I live in joy and die in honor." And better than such an honorable death, it were that the day had perished wherein we were born, and the night in which it was said there is a child conceived.

13. I trust that in a little while, there will be few of our rich men who, through carelessness or covetousness, thus forfeit the glorious office which is intended for their hands. I said, just now, that wealth ill-used was as the net of the spider, entangling and destroying: but wealth well used, is as the net of the sacred fisher who gathers souls of men out of the deep. A time will come-I do not think even now it is far from us-when this golden net of the world's wealth will be spread abroad as the flaming meshes of morning cloud are over the sky; bearing with

them the joy of light and the dew of the morning, as well as the summons to honorable and peaceful toil.

14. What less can we hope from your wealth than this, rich men of our country, when once you feel fully how, by the strength of your possessions-not, observe, by the exhaustion, but by the administration of them and the power-you can direct the acts -command the energies-inform the ignorance-prolong the existence, of the whole human race; and how, even of worldly wisdom, which man employs faithfully, it is true, not only that her ways are pleasantnèss, but that her paths are peace; and that, for all the children of men, as well as for those to whom she is given, Length of days is in her right hand, as in her left hand riches and honor? Adapted from RUSKIN.

SECTION X.

I.

40. ANNABEL LEE.

T was many and

IT

many a year ago,

In a kingdom by the sea,

That a maiden there lived whom you may know

By the name of Annabel Lee;

And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.

2. I was a child and she was a child,

In this kingdom by the sea:

But we loved with a love which was more than love

I and my Annabel Lee;

With a love that the wingèd seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.

3. And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,

A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;

So that her highborn kinsman came,