sensations as to comfort the object in distress. In England benefactions are of a more general nature. Some men of fortune and universal benevolence propose the proper objects; the wants and merits of the petitioners are canvassed by the people; neither passion nor pity find a place in the cool discussion; and charity is then only exerted when it has received the approbation of reason.

A late instance of this finely-directed benevolence forces itself strongly on my imagination. The English and French have for some time carried on an expensive war; and several captives have been taken on both sides those made prisoners by the French have been used with cruelty, and guarded with unnecessary caution; those taken by the English, being much more numerous, were confined in the ordinary manner; and not being released by their countrymen, began to feel all those inconveniences which arise from want of covering and long confinement.

Their countrymen were informed of their deplorable situation; but they, more intent on annoying their enemies than relieving their friends, refused the least assistance. The English now saw thousands of their fellow-creatures starving in every prison, forsaken by those whose duty it was to protect them, labouring with disease, and without clothes to keep off the severity of the season. National benevolence prevailed over national animosity; their prisoners were indeed enemies, but they were enemies in distress: they ceased to be hateful when they no longer continued to be formidable: forgetting, therefore, their national hatred, the men who were brave enough to conquer were generous enough to forgive; and they, whom all the world seemed to have disclaimed, at last found pity and

redress from those they attempted to subdue. A subscription was opened, ample charities collected, proper necessaries procured, and the poor, gay sons of a merry nation were once more taught to resume their former gaiety.

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I think, however, the records of my own country can furnish a still nobler example of the triumph of benevolence in the treatment of the vanquished.

Hamti, the best and wisest emperor that ever filled the throne of China, after having gained three signal victories over the Tartars, who had invaded his dominions, returned to Nankin in order to enjoy the glory of his conquest. After he had rested for some days, the people, who were naturally fond of processions, impatiently expected the triumphant entry which emperors upon such occasions were accustomed to make. Their murmurs came to the emperor's ear; he loved his people, and was willing to do all in his power to satisfy their just desires. He therefore assured them that he intended, upon the next feast of the lanterns, to exhibit one of the most glorious triumphs that had ever been seen in China.

The people were in raptures at his condescension; and on the appointed day assembled at the gates of the palace with the most eager expectations. Here they waited for some time without seeing any of those preparations which usually precede a pageant. The lantern with ten thousand tapers was not yet brought forth; the fireworks which usually covered the city walls were not yet lighted. The people once more began to murmur at this delay, when in the midst of their impatience the palace gates flew open, and the emperor himself appeared, not in splendour or magnificence, but in an ordinary habit, followed by the blind, the maimed, and

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the strangers of the city, all in new clothes, and each carrying in his hand money enough to supply his necessities for the year. The people were at first amazed, but soon perceived the wisdom of their king, who taught them that to make one man happy was more truly great than having ten thousand captives groaning at the wheels of his chariot.

"Oh, if the selfish knew how much they lost,
What would they not endeavour, not endure,
To imitate, as far as in them lay,

Him who his wisdom and his power employs
In making others happy!"

Strokes of vivacity, witty, lively sayings. (Lat. vivo, I live.) 2 Benefactions, benefits conferred, deeds of kindness. (Lat. bene, well; factus, done.)

3 Canvassed, sifted thoroughly.

4 My own country, China, because a Chinese is supposed to be speaking.

5 Pageant, a gorgeous spectacle. 6 Ordinary habit, usual dress.

HANDSOME IS THAT HANDSOME DOES.

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[ANDSOME is that handsome does-hold up your heads, girls!" was the language of Mrs. Primrose when addressing her daughters. The worthy matron was right. What is good-looking, as Horace Smith remarks, but looking good? Be good, be womanly, be gentle,-generous in your sympathies, heedful of the well-being of all around you; and, my word for it, you will not lack kind words of admiration. Loving and pleasant associations will gather about you.

Never mind the ugly reflection which your glass may give you. That mirror has no heart. But quite another picture is yours on the retina' of human sympathy. There the beauty of holiness, of purity, of that inward

grace which passeth show, rests over it, softening and mellowing its features just as the calm moonlight melts those of a rough landscape into harmonious loveliness.

"Hold up your heads, girls!" I repeat after Mrs. Primrose. Why should you not? Every mother's daughter of you can be beautiful. You can envelop yourselves in an atmosphere of moral and intellectual beauty, through which your otherwise plain faces will look forth like those of angels.

Beautiful to Ledyard, stiffening in the cold of a northern winter, seemed the diminutive, smoke-stained women of Lapland, who wrapped him in their furs and ministered to his necessities with kindness and gentle words of compassion. Lovely to the homesick heart of Park seemed the dark maids of Sego, as they sung their low and simple song of welcome beside his bed, and sought to comfort the white stranger, who had "no mother to bring him milk and no wife to grind him corn."

Oh, talk as we may of beauty as a thing to be chiselled from marble or wrought out on canvas; speculate as we may upon its colours and outlines, what is it but an intellectual abstraction after all? The heart feels a beauty of another kind; looking through the outward environment, it discovers a deeper and more real loveliness.

This was well understood by the old painters. In their pictures of Mary, the virgin mother, the beauty which melts and subdues the gazer is that of the soul and the affections, uniting the awe and mystery of that mother's miraculous gift with the irrepressible love, the unutterable tenderness of young maternity-Heaven's crowning miracle with Nature's holiest and sweetest instinct.

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And their pale Magdalens, holy with the look of sins forgiven-how the divine beauty of their penitence sinks into the heart! Do we not feel that the only real deformity is sin, and that goodness evermore hallows and sanctifies its dwelling-place? When the soul is at rest, when the passions and desires are all attuned to the Divine harmony

"Spirits moving musically

To a lute's well-ordered law "—

do we not read the placid significance thereof in the human countenance ?

"I have seen," said Charles Lamb, "faces upon which the dove of peace sat brooding." In that simple and beautiful record of a holy life, "The Journal of John Woodman," there is a passage of which I have been more than once reminded in my intercourse with my fellow-beings: "Some glances of real beauty may be seen in their faces who dwell in true meekness. There is a Divine harmony in the sound of that voice to which Divine love gives utterance."

Quite the ugliest face I ever saw was that of a woman whom the world calls beautiful. Through its "silver veil" the evil and ungentle passion looked out hideous and hateful. On the other hand, there are faces which the multitude at the first glance pronounce homely, unattractive, and such as "Nature fashions by the gross," which I always recognise with a warm heart-thrill; not for the world would I have one feature changed; they please me as they are; they are hallowed by kind memories; they are beautiful through their associations; nor are they the less welcome that with my admiration of them "the stranger intermeddleth not."