Mr. Kingsley's age and learning. To be with him was like reading one of his works. It strengthened and refreshed one. I always felt in his writings a certain open-air effect—it is the only expression I can use at all to convey my meaning. To turn from most writers to him, is, to my mind, like coming up on to a glorious breezy moorland, or in sight of the open sea. Sweet, and strong, and holy-the memory of his life will live with us who knew him, and teach us young men how to live, that we may, each in his own way, grow, as best we may, like unto him; and, if like him, then surely also ‘in favour both with God and man.

Though this paper treats of the writings and not of the biography of Charles Kingsley, yet it is impossible, in concluding, to omit a brief reference to the simple and touching story of the last few weeks of his life. It is enough to say that during those sad days,—when he was heart-broken at the prospect of a separation more dreaded than any other sorrow, we hear of no unmanliness or complaint, but a brave and unselfish control over feeling, and a strong trust in that perfect love which, as he had so long believed, is "Lord and King."

When the knowledge at length came to him that he was himself to take the great step into the unknown land, there was no fear, but calmness and peace, and a foretaste of that sight for which he had longed as the chief blessedness of the new and higher life, a nearer and less imperfect view of the infinite beauty, the infinite love of God.

So passed away from carth a good and noble man, and, let us also say, a great one. Whether his name

will or will not be remembered in future and distant times with the names of those whom posterity will delight to honour, is a matter of small importance; for he lived to serve mankind, not to establish his own fame. Had he been at liberty to devote his energies exclusively to literary work he would no doubt have earned for himself a higher place as an author; but

duty forbade that this should be his chief occupation, and he was loyal to duty in this, as all through his life. In one sense, the necessity for such self-denial on his part may have been a loss to mankind; but in another it was a large gain. The world needs great writers; but it also needs-and how much !—men who shall by a noble personal influence continually in exercise, help, and teach, and elevate their fellowmen; give them not only great ideas, but a high example too, and thus become instruments-known or unknown, acknowledged or despised, to them it matters little-instruments in no mortal hand, for the doing of that mighty work, the education of the human race. Such a one was Charles Kingsley, and we may say of him, as has been said of another labourer in the same field, and of all heroic souls like these:

To thee it was given

Many to save with thyself;
And at the end of thy day,
O faithful shepherd! to come
Bringing thy sheep in thy hand;
And through thee I believe

In the noble and great who are gone;
Fervent, heroic, and good;

Helpers and friends of mankind.

Servants of God! or sons

Shall I not call you ? Because

Not as servants ye knew
Your Father's innermost mind;
His, who unwillingly sees
One of His little ones lost.
Yours is the praise, if mankind
Have not as yet in its march
Fainted and fallen, and died!
Beacons of hope, ye appear!
Languor is not in your heart,
Weakness is not in your word,
Weariness not on your brow.

Ye alight in our van! at your voice,

Panic, despair, flee away,
Ye fill up the gaps in our files,
Strengthen the wavering line,
Stablish, continue our march
On, to the bound of the waste,
On, to the City of God!"

MARY L. COOKE.

MARK V.

WITH trembling fingers I essayed to touch
His garment's hem :-

Not Thy hands, Lord, that were for me too much;
More fit for them

Whose less unworthy clasp Thine own might meet
In friendship's sign.

I would not even dare to kiss Thy feet;-
Not Thee, but Thine,

I touched in fear and helplessness, when, lo!

Through the sick frame,

With its delicious and life-giving flow,

66

The healing came.

'Who touched My clothes?" I went with downcast look

And faltering tread

Daughter!"-that tender name the silence broke

"Be comforted."

And then the blessing-" Go thou hence in peace,

Faith makes thee whole."

The echo of those words will never cease

Within my soul.

I saw no crowd-I was alone with Him,
And He with me;

Brightness no clouds of earth could hide or dim,
Healed perfectly.

More than I sought, O, infinitely more
That touch bestow'd;

I craved one drop, and from His boundless store
A river flow'd.

Lord, there are some who would not even touch
Thy garment's hem;

They cannot reach so far, or dare so much;-
Draw near to them.

As midst the crowd of doubts and fears doth stand
Each trembling soul,

Stretch forth, O Lord, to such Thy living Hand,

And make them whole.

JANE BUDGE.

THOUGHTS CONCERNING THE LAND LAWS.

axiom that the love of a the root of its prosperity ;

IT may be taken as an people for their country is and that in the wealth and happiness of the populace consists that prosperity. No country can be long prosperous where the people are indigent and underfed, or are comparatively worse off in these respects than other neighbouring countries. It is hardly probable that a man who has no stake in his country can feel the same attachment to it as a man whose possessions are irremovable; or that a man whose property can be put into a carpet bag or a red pocket-handkerchief, would have the same inclination to die for his country as a man whose hearth and home are his own, and whose home is surrounded with the acres which had been tilled by his own hands.

Britain has for a century enjoyed pre-eminence in manufactures and commerce, hence her land laws have been neglected; but now America, France, Belgium and other countries, compete successfully with her in manufactures, and surpass her in the production of food; it is therefore necessary to consider our position, and to set our house in order, if we do not wish to see our people starving, our farmers ruined, or our nation become poor and depopulated.

I presume no one will dispute that our national land is necessary to maintain the national existence. The original elements were supposed to be earth, air, fire, and water. Without these man could not exist, and the first and most important of these is the earth-the basis of our existence from which we derive our food, upon which we stand, walk, dwell; but, strange