No rule but uncorrupted reason knew ;
And, with a native bent, did good pursue:
Unforced by punishment, unawed by fear,
His words were simple, and his soul
sincere ;

Needless was written law when none opprest;

The law of man was written on his breast: No suppliant crowds before the judge appear'd:

No court erected yet, nor cause was heard ; But all was safe, for conscience was their guard-OVID.

This truly is the golden age: much honour cometh by gold.-PROPERTIUS.

AGE. The Honourableness of

Tell me what you find better, or more honourable than age. Is not wisdom entailed upon it? Take the pre-eminence of it in everything :-in an old friend, in old wine, in an old pedigree.-MARMION.

AGE.-The Iron

Hard steel succeeded; And stubborn as the metal were the men : Truth, modesty, and shame the world forsook ;

Fraud, avarice, and force, their places took. OVID.

AGE.-Middle

AGE.

As we advance from youth to middle age, a new field of action opens, and a different character is required. The flow of gay impetuous spirits begins to subside; life gradually assumes a graver cast; the mind a more sedate and thoughtful turn. The attention is now transferred from pleasure to interest; that is, to pleasure diffused over a wider extent, and measured by a larger scale. Formerly, the enjoyment of the present moment occupied the whole attention; now, no action terminates ultimately in itself, but refers to some more distant aim. Wealth and power, the instruments of lasting gratification, are now coveted more than any single pleasure; prudence and foresight lay their plan; industry carries on its patient efforts; activity pushes forward; address winds around; here, an enemy is to be overcome; there, a rival to be displaced; competition warms; and the strife of the world thickens on every side.-DR. BLAIR.

AGE. The Tendency of the

No one, who has paid any attention to the peculiar features of our present era, will doubt for a moment that we are living at a period of most wonderful transition, which tends rapidly to accomplish that great end to which indeed all history points -the realization of the unity of mankind. Not a unity which breaks down the limits and levels the peculiar characteristics of the different nations of the earth, but rather a unity the result and product of those very national varieties and antagonistic qualities.-- PRINCE ALBERT.

thing like a spiritual presence. He was so old; who could say how few the pulsations of his heart between him and the grave! But there he was with a meek happiness upon him; gentle, cheerful. He was not built up in bricks and mortar, but was still in the open air, with the sweetest influences about him;-the sky, the trees, the green sward, and flowers with the breath of God in them!-JERrold.

AGE. The Veneration of

The eye of age looks meek into my heart! The voice of age echoes mournfully through it! The hoary head and palsied hand of age plead irresistibly for its sympathies! I venerate old age; and I love not the man who can look without emotion upon the sunset of life, when the dusk of evening begins to gather over the watery eyes, and the shadows of twilight grow broader and deeper upon the understanding.-LONGFELLOW.

AGE AND YOUTH.

Crabbed age and youth
Cannot live together:
Youth is full of pleasance,
Age is full of care;

Youth like summer morn,
Age like winter weather;
Youth like summer brave,
Age like winter bare ;
Youth is full of sport,
Age's breath is short;

Youth is nimble, age is lame ;
Youth is hot and bold,
Age is weak and cold;

Youth is wild, and age is tame :
Age, I do abhor thee;
Youth, I do adore thee;

AGED.

O my Love, my Love is young! SHAKSPEARE.

The Duty of the

A material part of the duty of the aged consists in studying to be useful to the race who succeeds them. Here opens to them an extensive field, in which they may so employ themselves as considerably to advance the happiness of mankind. To them it belongs to impart to the young the fruit of their long experience; to instruct them in the proper conduct, and to warn them of the various dangers of life; by wise counsel to temper their precipitate ardour; and both by precept and example to form them to piety and virtue. Aged wisdom, when joined with acknowledged virtue, exerts an authority over the human mind,

Agriculture not only gives riches to a nation, but the only riches she can call her own.-DR. JOHNSON.

AGRICULTURE.-The Progress of

Agriculture still holds, notwithstanding the development of commerce and manufactures, a fundamental position; and, although time has changed the position which the owner of the land, with his feudal dependants, held, the country gentleman with his wife and children,-the country clergyman, the tenant, and the labourer, yet form a great and united family in which we gladly recognize the foundation of the social state.-PRINCE ALBERT.

AIR.-Bad

Inhaling bad air is drinking in death !— DR. DAVIES.

AIR. The Consumption of

Unlike other natural wants, our consump tion of air is not voluntary. The action of the lungs is like the oscillations of a pendulum. It is incessant: sleeping or waking, in sickness or in health; sitting, standing, or moving, it is maintained with a regularity and continuity quite independent of the will. Its suspension is the suspension of life.-DR. Lardner.

AIR-Described.

Air is the transparent, colourless, invisible, light, and attenuated fluid with which we are always surrounded. -DR. LARDNER.

AIR. A Lively Little

See the effects of a long piece of music at a public concert. The orchestra are breathless with attention, jumping into major and minor keys with the most ecstatic precision. In the midst of all this wonderful science, the audience are half devoured with ennui. On a sudden there springs up a lively little air, expressive of some natural feeling, though in point of science not worth a halfpenny; the audience all spring up, every head nods, every foot beats time, and every heart also; a universal smile breaks out on

ALCHYMIST.

every face; and every one agrees that music is the most delightful rational enjoy. ment that the human mind can possibly enjoy.-S. SMITH.

AIR.-The Pressure of

As it is everywhere present, it presses upon every substance with a weight equal to fifteen pounds per square inch. So that the pressure of air sustained by a man is equal to about fifteen tons! This seems to be a tremendous burden for every man to bear; yet it is not so much as felt. This is mainly owing to the elasticity of the human body, and the equal pressure of the air in all directions. In consequence of the former, if any part of the body is unusually oppressed, it gives way like the buffer of a railway carriage; and in consequence of the latter, the pressure from within counterbalances that from without.-Dr. Brewer.

It is easy to calculate its pressure upon the entire surface of the globe, which is two hundred millions of square miles; so that its pressure will be five thousand billions of tons! This certainly seems an enormous weight; but we must remember that everything on the earth is adjusted accordingly.— DR. BREWER.

ALARM.-The Effect of an

An alarm has an awfulness connected with it which no language can possibly describe. If it occur at night-time, whole families, and sometimes whole neighbourhoods, are alike disturbed and distressed by it.-E. DAVIES.

ALBUM.-The First

The first album, consisting of fragments written by various persons in a blank book, is said to have been kept on the Alps, in the monastery of St. Bruno. In this every traveller, at his departure, was asked to inscribe his name, and he usually added to it a few sentences of devotion, of thankfulness to his hosts, or of admiration of the scene around him.-LOARING.

ALCHYMIST.-The Death of an

'Twas morning, and the old man lay alone:

No friend had closed his eyelids, and his lips,
Open and ashy pale, the expression wore
Of his death-struggle. His long silvery hair
Lay on his hollow temples thin and wild,
His frame was wasted, and his features wan,
And haggard as with want, and in his palm
His nails were driven deep, as if the throe
Of the last agony had wrung him sore.
The storm was raging still. The shutters
swung

Screaming as harshly in the fitful wind,

ALCHYMY.

And all without went on-as aye it will, Sunshine or tempest, reckless that a heart is breaking, or has broken, in its change.

The fire beneath the crucible was out; The vessels of his mystic art lay round, Useless and cold as the ambitious hand That fashioned them; and the small rod, Familiar to his touch for threescore years, Lay on the alembic's rim, as if it still Might vex the elements at its master's will.

And thus had passed from its unequal frame

A soul of fire-a sun-bent eagle stricken From his high soaring down-an instrument Broken with its own compass. Oh, how poor

Seems the rich gift of genius, when it lies, Like the adventurous bird that hath outflown

His strength upon the sea, ambitionwrecked

A thing the thrush might pity, as she sits
Brooding in quiet on her lonely nest!
N. P. WILLIS.
ALCHYMY.-The Benefits Derived from

The pursuit of alchymy is at an end. Yet surely to alchymy this right is due that it may truly be compared to the husbandman whereof Æsop makes the fable, that when he died, told his sons that he had left unto them a great mass of gold buried underground in his vineyard, but did not remember the particular place where it was hidden; who when they had with spades turned up all the vineyard, gold indeed they found none; but by reason of their stirring and digging the mould about the roots of their vines, they had a great vintage the year following so the painful search and stir of alchymists to make gold, hath brought to light a great number of good and fruitful experiments, as well for the disclosing of nature as the use of man's life.-LORD BACON.

ALCOHOL.-The Nourishing Power of

The lessening in weight, or substance, is one of the most usual consequences of the approach of old age: it is a common symptom of the decline of life. The stomach either does not receive, or does not digest, food enough to replace that which is daily removed from the substance of the body. Weak alcoholic drinks arrest, or retard, and thus diminish, the daily amount of this loss of substance. They gently stimulate the digestive organs also, and help them to do their work more fully and faithfully; and thus the body is sustained to a later period in life. Hence poets have called wine "the milk of the aged:" and scientific philosophy

ALIEN.

owns the propriety of the term. If it does not nourish the old so directly as it nourishes the young, yet it certainly does aid in supporting and filling up their failing frames. And it is one of the happy consequences of a temperate youth and manhood, that this spirituous milk does not fail in its good effects when the weight of years begins to press upon us.-PROF. JOHNSTON. ALDERMAN.-The Derivation of the Term

This term is derived from the Saxon "ælder-man," formerly the second in rank of nobility among our Saxon ancestors, equal to the "earl" of Dano-Saxon. There were also several magistrates who bore the title of Alderman; and the Aldermanus totius Anglia seems to have been the same officer who was afterwards styled Capitalis Justiciarius Anglice, or Chief Justice of England.-LOARING,

ALEXANDRA.-A Welcome to

Sea-kings' daughter from over the sea,
Alexandra!
Saxon and Norman and Dane are we,
But all of us Danes in our welcome of thee,
Alexandra!

Welcome her, thunders of fort and of fleet!
Welcome her, thundering cheer of the

street!

Welcome her, all things youthful and sweet,
Scatter the blossoms under her feet!
Break, happy land, into earlier flowers!
Make music, O bird, in the new-budded
bowers!

Welcome her, welcome her, all that is ours!
Warble, O bugle, and trumpet, blare!
Flags, flutter out upon turrets and towers!
Flames, on the windy headland flare !
Utter your jubilee, steeple and spire!
Clash, ye bells, in the merry March air!
Flash, ye cities, in rivers of fire!
Welcome her, welcome the land's desire,
Alexandra!
Sea-kings' daughter as happy as fair,
Blissful bride of a blissful heir,

Bride of the heir of the kings of the sea,
O joy to the people and joy to the throne,
Come to us, love us, and make us your

own:

For Saxon or Dane or Norman we,
Teuton or Celt, or whatever we be,
We are each all Dane in our welcome of
thee,
Alexandra!
TENNYSON.

ALIEN.-The Duties of a

An alien ought to attend to nothing but his own business, never to meddle with the affair, of others, and least of all to pry into ine concerns of a foreign state.-CICERO,

ALIENATION.

ALIENATION.-The Evils of

This is a word of dark and sad import, and hence it is unutterably distressing to witness its actualization in the case of longattached friends, but chiefly in that of the members of a once united and happy family. The evils resulting from it often pass the boundaries of time, and influence the destinies of eternity!-E. DAVIES.

ALIMENT.-The Moral Effect of

The moral effect of aliment is clearly evinced in the different tempers of the carnivorous and the frugivorous animals: the former, whose destructive passions, like those of ignorant men, lay waste all within their reach, are constantly tormented with hunger, which returns and rages in proportion to their own devastation; this creates that state of warfare or disquietude which seeks, as in murderers, the night and veil of the forest; for should they appear on the plain, their prey escapes, or, seen by each other, their warfare begins. The frugivorous animals wander tranquilly on the plains, and testify their joyful existence by frisking and basking in the congenial rays of the sun, or browsing with convulsive pleasure on the green herb, evinced by the motion of the tail, or the joyful sparkling of the eyes, and the gambols of the herd. The same effect of aliment is discernible amongst the different species of man, and the peaceful temper of the frugivorous Asiatic is strongly contrasted with the ferocious temper of the carnivorous European.ROUSSEAU.

ALLEGIANCE-Over-Pressed.

Allegiance may be pressed too far, and rendered useless, just as a well-tempered sword may be shivered to pieces upon its own anvil.-DR. DAVIES.

ALLEGIANCE-a Principle.

Allegiance is a principle, and therefore is more excellent than loyalty, which is no more than a feeling or sentiment.

It may

and does exist under every form of government, but in well-conducted monarchies, this principle also assumes the form of loyalty, and in fidelity and obedience becomes warmly attached to the sovereign. -DR. WEBSTER.

ALLEGORIES.-The Use of

Allegories and spiritual significations, when applied to faith, and that seldom, are laudable; but when they are drawn from the life and conversation, they are dangerous, and, when men make too many of them, pervert the doctrine of faith. Allegories are fine ornaments, but not of proof.-LUTHER.

ALPS.

ALLEGORIST.-The Aim of an

The best thing, on the whole, that an allegorist can do, is to present to his readers a succession of analogies, each of which may separately be striking and happy, without looking very nicely to see whether they harmonize with each other.-MACAULAY.

ALLEGORY.-The Dwelling-place of

Allegory dwells in a transparent palace. -LEMIERRE.

ALLEGORY.-A Sophist's

The allegory of a sophist is always screwed; it crouches and bows like a snake, which is never straight, whether she go, creep, or lie still; only when she is dead, she is straight enough.-LUTHER.

ALLIANCES.-The Benefit of

Alliances do serve well to make up a present breach or mutually to strengthen those states who have the same ends.RUDYARD.

ALLY.-A Doubtful

It is better to have an open enemy than a doubtful ally.-NAPOLEON I.

ALPHABET.-The English

The twenty-first verse of the seventh chapter of Ezra. contains all the letters of the English alphabet, with but one exception.-E. DAVIES.

ALPHABET.-The Hebrew

The eighth verse of the third chapter of Zephaniah contains every letter, including finals, of the Hebrew alphabet, as well as every vowel sound, and also the different forms of the Sheva.-E. DAVIES.

ALPS. The Apocalyptic Splendours of the

I looked, and saw behind the dark mass of the Mole (a huge blue-black mountain in the foreground), the granite ranges rising gradually and grimly as we rode; but further still, behind these grey and ghastly barriers, all bathed and blazing in the sun's fresh splendours, undimmed by a cloud, unveiled even by a filmy fleece of vapour, and oh! so white, so intensely. blindingly white, against the dark-blue sky, the needles, the spires, the solemn pyramid, the transfiguration cone of Mont Blanc! Higher, and still higher, those apocalyptic splendours seemed lifting their spectral, spiritual forms, seeming to rise as we rose, seeming to start like giants hidden from behind the black brow of intervening ranges, opening wider the amphitheatre of glory, until, as we reached the highest point, in