"Me, too, thy nobleness has taught To master my despair; The fountains of my hidden life

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Are through thy friendship fair."

In full, the final and the most beautiful aspect of friendship is to find it as Coleridge did, a sheltering tree." How rare, how delightful, with what fine suggestions and im. pulses fruitful, the sight of two old men whose friendship has survived separation for half a lifetime, and who transmit, as if by a finer kind of tradition, the gift to their children and children's children. These are the golden threads that shine in the warp of the world's web, and make ordinary life a poem. - Argosy.

ABOUT INSURANCE.-Insurance is a subject in which the majority of men are interested as holders of policies on their persons or properties; but comparatively little is known of the history of this branch of commerce, or of the knotty questions in connection with it which have from time to time called for solution,

It is not easy to briefly explain the difference between insurance and assurance; but authorities lay it down that assurance relates to an event which is certain, and insurance to one that is uncertain, or may be only partly fulfilled. Thus, a contract to pay a sum of money at death or a given age would be an assurance; but one insures his house or ship, since he may suffer partial loss or none at all. But in practice the terms are treated as synonymous. The principle, again, that insurance is merely a distribution of loss, is not quite obvious when compensation comes from a company seeking a profit from its business : but it is so, the fortunate indemnifying the unfortunate. This is readily seen when mem. bers of a trade co-operate for mutual protection against, say, fire; and still more clearly when, as in the case of the canton of Zürich, compensation for loss by fire is given out of the public funds. Some corporations, especially of those connected with shipping, are their own underwriters, setting aside a certain sum as an insurance fund, and saving what they would otherwise pay in premiums. Thus, if the ordinary rate be ten per cent., the owners can afford to lose the whole of their property every ten years; and the practice has this to recommend it-more care is likely to be exercised in keeping vessels in a seaworthy condition.

Marine insurance, which is the oldest form, is of uncertain origin; but it was most probably familiar to the merchants of the republics

of Genoa and Venice; while its antiquity in this country is clearly set forth in the preamble to an Act of Parliament of 1601 appointing a Commission to adjudicate on disputes arising out of insurance. There we learn that "it has been time out of mind and usage among merchants, when they make any great adventure, to give some consideration of money to other persons to have from them assurance made of their goods, merchandises, ships, and things adventured, or some part thereof." In 1719 the Royal Exchange and London Assurance Companies were by royal charter given a monopoly of this branch of in. surance, except as against individual underwriters; and this monopoly, though contrary to the common law, was allowed to exist until 1825. In connection with maritime insurance, reference to Lloyd's cannot be avoided, it being by far the most extensive organization of the kind, insuring a very large proportion of British shipping, and possessing agents all over the world, whose duty it is to forward to London early intelligence of the arrival and sailing of vessels and of disasters. This great association of underwriters took its name from a coffee-house which in the time of Queen Anne stood at the corner of Abchurch Lane. The house was afterward removed to the vicin ity of the Royal Exchange, the underwriters going with it; but, later, they obtained rooms in the Exchange, where they are now housed.

Fire insurance comes next to marine in order of antiquity. Enforced or voluntary contributions to recompense sufferers from fire may be traced far back in history; but no attempt was made to treat the matter on business principles until after the Great Fire of London, In 1681 an office was opened for the purpose "at the backside of the Royal Exchange ;" the Hand-in-Hand was established in 1696; and several other companies soon followed. Scotland had its first fire office in 1720, Germany in 1750, and America in 1752, with Benjamin Franklin as one of the directors. The stamp duty on policies, which in 1816 amounted to three shillings for every hundred pounds insured, retarded the growth of the business; but in 1869 the tax was removed. Perhaps more caution is required in the conduct of this branch of insurance than of any other, the risks being not only of endless variety but subject to constant change. The safety of a private house is affected by the character of the occupants, its age, the illuminants used, the water-supply, and so on; while as regards business premises no year passes without dan

ger being discovered in some substance or circumstance to which hitherto no attention had been paid. A striking instance of the kind is that of flour-dust, which when mixed in certain proportions with atmospheric air has been found to be a powerful explosive. Arson by policy holders, again, is a source of serious loss; and unfortunately retribution does not always follow, as, unless convincing evidence can be procured, companies are unwilling to imperil their reputation for liberal dealing by a prosecution which is likely to prove abortive. A House of Commons Committee in 1867 received evidence that during the fourteen preceding years the proportion of suspicious burnings had risen from thirty-four to fifty-two per cent, of the total number; and a recent prosecution showed the existence of a gang which had for twenty five years made arson their business, one of them, who was known as "the Fire King." being alleged to have been concerned in five hundred burnings, and to have received in the shape of insurance some twenty-four thousand pounds.

In the seventeenth century it was customary for persons to insure their lives for short periods or against certain contingencies, and annuity societies began to gain a footing; but the first association to guarantee a sum of money at death was the Amicable, founded in 1706. One grave fault in the rules of this corporation-the equality of premium irrespective of age-was avoided by its successors, of which the earliest were the Royal Exchange and London Assurance, both incorporated in 1719. The Equitable, which commenced operations in 1756, broke new ground in issuing policies on joint lives and survivorships, and for fixed periods; but the data upon which all these offices worked were imperfect, no mortality tables being at the time available. For a long time the table constructed by Mr. Joshua Milne, from information supplied by a Carlisle doctor in 1787, was the generally accepted one; but that and others subsequently compiled have been rendered obsolete by tables prepared in 1869 by the Council of the Institute of Actuaries in conjunction with the principal insurance companies. Life offices are carefully looked after by the State, being required to deposit twenty thousand pounds with the Court of Chancery until their security is assured by the possession of a reserve fund of forty thousand pounds. Annual accounts, and at certain periods actuarial reports, have also to be presented to the Board of Trade; and various other precautions are

taken for preventing the formation of bogus companies and the continuance of companies whose solvency is doubtful.

Insurance against railway accidents dates from 1849, and against accidents generally from 1856. Many of the life offices have since taken up this business, which received an immense impetus from the Employers' Liability Act of 1880. Other branches are the guarantee of fidelity, and burglary and plate glass insurance. The first is an obvious improvement on the old system of personal security, under which the employé was obliged to lie under a compliment to one or more persons, of whose existence and solvency the employer had to periodically satisfy himself. The guarantee societies, too, are willing to give a collective bond for the members of a staff, arrangements being made in case of change to substitute one name for another; and all the premiums can be made payable on the same day. The offices which give security against burglary offer skilled advice as to the protection of premises, and lend men to guard unoccupied houses. Of course the rates of premium vary with the nature of the premises, and, in the case of shops, of the stock. Loss and damage may be insured against jointly or singly. The rate to cover damage only is a uniform one of two shillings per cent., except as regards jewellers' establishments; and those for loss range between two shillings and twelve and sixpence per cent.

As might be expected, a branch of business of so varied and complicated a character as insurance has occupied much of the time of the judiciary. Mr. C. F. Morrell, barrister-at-law, the author of a recently published manual on "The Law of Insurance," which is an excellent compendium of recognized authorities on the subject, and to which the writer of this article is largely indebted, cites a vast number of cases, many of them interesting. As regards misstatements in proposals, it has been decided that an error is not material unless the premium be affected, and that if a representation be substantially correct, the policy holds good. A single room in a building could not be "truly and accurately" described as a dwelling-house, but the discrepancy has been decided to be unimportant; as also the statement that no fires were kept, though one was occasionally lit in order to air the premises. Again, there is a difference between an actual equipment of sixteen men, eleven boys, nine guns, and six swivels, and an alleged one of twelve guns and twenty men; but the error

was not allowed to void the policy. But no reservation is permitted, as a man found to his cost when, a fire having broken out two doors away, he hurried off, and, without mentioning that occurrence, insured his premises. The fire broke out again two days later, spread to his place, and destroyed it; but the concealment deprived him of any claim upon the insurers. Similar decisions have been given as regards a life policy, where a person learned, after sending in his proposal, that he had a dangerous disease, but did not inform the insurance company; and where the insured failed to mention that a ship then engaged in peaceful pursuits had at one time been a celebrated Confederate cruiser.-Chambers's Journal.

THE SECRET OF THE FLOWERS.-What are flowers, these parts of plants rendered so conspicuous by their form and color? The poets call them the wedding-garments of plants, but afford us no answer to the question: Why do some of the daughters of Flora, for example, the grasses, the prime source of our food sup. ply, wear such inconspicuous wedding-garments, while others are decked in such brill. iant array, or exhale such delightful perfume? Scientific investigation has solved the riddle: there are numerous plants which can be fertilized only by the agency of insects which in their pursuits of food transfer the pollen of the anthers to the pistil. It is to attract these insects that flowers don their bright garb and exhale their perfume. Flowers are tavernsigns informing insects that here the table is with pollen and with nectar spread. The fact is now universally known; but simple and natural as it appears, it was first discovered only a century ago. Strange! There have been countless lovers of flowers for thousands of years, and not one of them had an idea of the purpose which the flowers served, until an observant German schoolmaster in his ramble through the environs of Berlin and Spandau had his attention awakened by observing the unwearied persistence with which the insects visited flower after flower-" caught nature in the act," indeed, and, in the year 1793, published his remarkable work, the title of which translated into English would be "The Discovered Secret of the Structure and Fertilization of Flowers." It was a work indicative of monumental industry, with twenty-six copper plates containing 1117 illustrations.

The German schoolmaster was Christian Konrad Sprengel, the son of a Brandenburger clergyman. After a first appointment as teach

er in a Berlin school, he was called (1780) to the rectorship of the Great School (now Gymnasium) at Spandau, where he collected and worked up the material of his famous work, an astonishing task, which even to-day excites the unqualified admiration of botanists. At that time the work brought Sprengel no honor. His love of flowers occupied so much of his time that he limited himself to only the most absolutely necessary of his rectorial duties. He died in complete obscurity April 7th, 1816, in his sixty-sixth year. Shortly before his death he published a short memoir entitled "The Utility of Bees," and the Necessity of Bee-Culture from a New Point of View," in which he drew, more precise y, the distinc. tion between wind-fertilized and insect-fertilized plants. He showed here experimentally the incapacity of insects to fertilize the flow. ers of currants, gooseberries, apples, violets, and others. These flowers are protected from the visits of insects by a small canopy of gauze.

The labors of Sprengel were practically disregarded; he experienced no recognition, and he did not even retain a single copy of his work. Charles Darwin was the first to bring Sprengel's "remarkable book" to light, and do full justice to the German schoolmaster. "He was ahead of his age," wrote Darwin, "and his discoveries lay long neglected." The seed which Sprengel sowed has, however, at length sprung up, and is every day bearing fresh fruit. His work is familiar to every botanist, and in the history of natural science his name is indelibly recorded. German botanists have not allowed the centennial of the appearance of Sprengel's works to pass unnoticed. Professor Dr. O. Kirchner and Dr. H. Potonic have also just published a popular centenary memorial work in Sprengel's honor, entitled "The Secret of the Flowers." May it be widely circulated, for few indeed are now aware of the life-struggles and laborious patience and energy, and keenness of observation, of the man who first detected and drew attention to the wonderful inter-relationship between flowers and insects. - Ueber Land und Meer (Stuttgart).

FORTITUDE.The epidemic of suicide of which we spoke recently still continues, and certainly a great part of the reasoning of those who apologize for it seems, like that of Mr. Ernest Clarke, to be based on the extraordinary assumption that we ought to have been given a choice whether we would live or not. How anybody could ever have lived at all, if it had

not been determined for him before he had acquired any power of choice or any of the faculties which are essential to choice that he should live, is not so much as even conceiv. able. The pretension that we ought to have had, before we existed, a choice given us between existence and non existence is a contradiction in terms. Nor is suicide-except to the materialist, who, sceptic though he be, perfectly well knows that it is a leap in the dark, which may conduct him to very much intenser forms of existence, no less than to nonexistence-in any sense a deliberate choice not to exist. It is only a rejection of existence under present conditions, and whether these conditions will be changed for the better or for the worse by this leap in the dark neither the professed sceptic nor any one else who has received no divine guidance as to the meaning and purpose of this life can possibly guess. What the suicide does know is only that by a Power over which he had-before his existence began-no control, he has been brought to a condition of what he is pleased to regard as intolerable suffering. Well, is that a reason for supposing that he will change his condition for the better by reject ing what that Power, together with his own use of the alternatives which life had opened to him, may have inflicted upon him? If he has been forced into suffering partly by what he had no choice about at all, partly by the deliberate uses he has since made of the power of choice that had been given him, where is the reason to suppose that he will be allowed to escape from suffering by the fiat of the same Power co-operating with an exercise of his own will which cannot but be described as blind, ignorant, and impatient? It is some. times said that a man who has chosen wrongly in relation to his career in life is not blamed but rather praised for renouncing that career in favor of one more adapted to his powers. No doubt. But in that case he chooses be tween careers of both of which he has the power to judge-one of them by his own experience, the other of them by all he can learn of it by observing the experience of others. That is not so at all when he renounces life itself, for he renounces it without having the least means of judging for what alternative he renounces it. It is not, as we have already said, a deliberate choice at all; it is a deliberate rejection of that which has been chosen for him, and which he has no reason at all to assume that he will be permitted to reject with out paying a penalty. If without choice of

We

his own he has, as he angrily declares, been compelled to live and suffer, it is surely the height of irrationality to assume that by any mere revolt of his own he can defeat the destiny he repudiates. It seems to us that even the sceptic, if he were a true sceptic, would not make the complaint that he has been compelled to exist in a condition which galls him, the ground of an inference that by a blind and violent attempt to throw the fetters off him, he will escape them. The true inference seems to be that he cannot fairly count upon escaping now what it was so completely beyond his own power to escape before. maintain that the true lesson of life to a thoroughgoing sceptic would be the wisdom of acquiescence. He has come into the midst of conditions, which he finds painful, partly under the control of a Power of which he positively boasts that he knows nothingthough with a little more patience and anxiety to know something, he might bave learned a good deal of its purposes--partly by his own very defective use of the opportunities which that Power opened out to him. What can be less reasonable than to infer that without any assent of that Power, and by a sheer act of blind revolt against it on his own part, he will better his condition? If the overruling Power be an infinite mind, then it is certain that its designs will have their way, and not be defeated by a mere mortal who kicks against the pricks. If it be not a mind, but a mere Fate, still, what Fate has caused once it may cause again, and cause in either a worse or a better form.

No fatalist can be otherwise than a fool who does not see that one of the first lessons he has to learn is- we will not say fortitude, for that implies something much higher -but at least endurance. He has become the sport of what he calls Fate, once, and he has found that the more impatient he is, the more blindly he struggles with his fetters, the more they gall him. Can any act be madder than to go into open rebellion, and try to escape by an act of his own will, what has bound him in galling chains without any consent of his own will? Of course, if he is foolish enough to think that he really knows now how to escape from a Power under the control of which he fell without so much as a glimpse of any chance of resisting it, he is hardly a rational being at all. These material forces, if they have produced an intolerable life once, are just as likely as not to produce them again. The true philosophy of fatalism is acquiescence

and self-adjustment to uncontrollable Power, and that, if not the germ of fortitude, is at least a beginning of that attitude of mind of which fortitude is the most perfect flower. The sceptic who chooses death rather than life, chooses he knows not what-chooses what even by his own admission may well prove to be a sort of life infinitely more painful than that which he has so violently rejected.

But may we not go a good deal farther even on the mere footing of the teaching of experience, and say that human nature has learned nothing which has added more to its general capacity and strength than the power of bearing pain calmly and well? Has anything great ever been done without it? It has been really the test, and not only the test but the discipline, of every kind of true and noble pur. pose. It is not merely that without this proving by pain, we should not know the noble purpose from the ignoble, but that even noble purpose becomes all the nobler, all the purer, for the pain through which it passes. It gains not simply in confidence that it is genuine, but in genuineness, by what it goes through. Cynics say that all motives are mixed, that there is no such thing as absolutely unmixed good or purity in human life. And they are more or less right. But what they fail to see is that these mixed motives are rendered less and less mixed, that these alloys are more and more purged away, by the discipline of pain suffered in the cause of whatever high element of devotedness these mixed motives contain, Surely, that ought to teach us, if noth. ing else teaches us, that there is a purpose, and a spiritual purpose, in all the suffering of human life, and not mere arbitrary will, still less mere chance at the bottom of it; and, in short, that our endurance should be something more than mere acquiescence and docile self adjustment to painful conditions, should be, indeed, true fortitude, in other words, willing submission to that which, if accepted with willing submission, purifies and ennobles man. Even the mere humanist can hardly question for a moment that those who have lent most fascination and significance to human history, those who have raised the aspirations, and often even seemed to be the inspira. tion, of the greater races, would never have attained to that position without passing through fiery trials which both tested and purified their aims, nor that they effected this by accepting with humility and even gratitude

the very conditions by which they were most sorely tried. Of course, it is true not only that men have no choice given them as to coming into existence, but that they can only rise to their full strength by accepting those conditions into which they are born, with something more than patience-with a ready and eager resolve to make the best of them, whatever they are. It is the faith in Providence, the faith in the high purposes of the Power which fixes us here, that alone gives us the strength to make the best of difficulties often very great, and sometimes appearing to be insuperable. But Christianity has raised this kind of fortitude into a sort of inspiration. It has taught that pain is one of the greatest and most supernatural of all the instruments employed in the moulding of our nature, and that the apparent paradox of gratitude for suffering, is in truth a paradox only to the natural and half-educated man. The very secret of fortitude is the belief in the truth of our Lord's saying to his apostles :"Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you." The area of divine choice is infinite, while that of human choice is in the strictest degree limited. As Providence keeps the consequences of death in its own hands, it is idle to say that it gives us the right to reject conditions which we do understand, and to launch ourselves into those of which we understand nothing. Christianity has always treated fortitude as one of its very highest and most characteristic virtues, and even the agnostic must admit that Christian fortitude-which is utterly inconsistent with suicide-has had a much grander effect in, developing human character than any kind of irritable and impatient revolt.-The Spectator.

THE "FORUM'S" REDUCTION OF PRICE.-The Forum, which its readers regard as the foremost of our periodicals, has reduced its price from $5 to $3 a year, from 50 to 25 cents a copy. This is the most noteworthy reduction in periodical literature that has taken place-perhaps that can take place. Magazines of fiction and adventure, the illustrated monthlies, were within everybody's reach even before the recent reduction in the price of some of them. But no periodical of the class of The Forum has ever been sold for 25 cents. It becomes the cheapest by half of all great reviews in the world, and it remains the largest of all our periodicals of its kind, and its character is in no way changed.