Serve God before the world: let Him not go
Until thou hast a blessing; then resign
The whole under Him, and remember who
Prevailed by wrestling ere the sun did shine;
Pour oil upon the stones, weep for thy sin,
Then journey on, and have an eye to heaven.

Mornings are mysteries; the first the world's youth,
Man's resurrection, and the future's bud,

Shroud in their births; the crown of life, light, truth,
Is styled their star; the stone and hidden food;
Three blessings wait upon them, one of which
Should move-they make us holy, happy, rich.

When the world's up, and every swarm abroad,
Keep well thy temper, mix not with each clay;
Despatch necessities; life hath a load

Which must be carried on and safely may;
Yet keep those cares without thee; let the heart
Be God's alone, and choose the better part,

THE RAINBOW.

Still young and fine, but what is still in view
We slight as old and soiled, though fresh and new.
How bright wert thou when Shem's admiring eye
Thy burnished flaming arch did first descry;
When Zerah, Nahor, Haran, Abram, Lot,

The youthful world's gray fathers, in one knot

Did with intentive looks watch every hour

For thy new light, and tremble at each shower!

And when thou doth shine, darkness looks white and

fair;

Forms turn to music, clouds to smiles and air;

Rain gently spends his honey-drops, and pours

Balm on the cleft earth, milk on grass and flowers.
Bright pledge of peace and sunshine, the sure tie
Of thy Lord's hand, the object of His eye!
When I behold thee, though my, light be dim,
Distinct and low, I can in thine see Him,

Who looks upon thee from His glorious throne,
And minds the covenant betwixt all and One.

JOHN LOCKE (1632-1704).—One of the most resplendent intellects which has ever dawned upon this planet was that of John Locke. He left to posterity his essay "On Human Understanding" and other great works which have enriched our literature in a monumental manner. Locke was the son of a gentleman of small fortune, and received his education mostly at Oxford. He had not been practicing medicine long before he was called to attend the Earl of Shaftesbury. He succeeded in relieving or curing this nobleman of a troublesome affection, and the patient, as is many times the case, became warmly attached to his physician; for years they were friends, and his fortune rose and fell with that of the Earl. He was forced at one time on account of political persecutions to fly to Holland for an asylum. While stopping in Holland, he was often compelled to remain hidden in the most secluded portions of the country to avoid detection and capture by relentless enemies. But when the Prince of Orange ascended the British throne he was allowed to return to his native England and live in comparative exemption

from disturbance of political strife and jealousy. We give some selections taken at random from his works, which will give the reader an idea of the profundity of this great physician's intellect:

"CHRISTMAS CEREMONIES AT CLEVES.

"About one in the morning I went a-gossiping to our Lady. Think me not profane, for the name is a great deal modester than the service I was at. I shall not describe all the particulars I observed in that church, being the principal of the Catholics in Cleves; but only those that were particular to the occasion. Near the high altar was a little altar for this day's solemnity; the scene was a stable wherein was an ox, an ass, a cradle, the Virgin, the Babe, Joseph, shepherds, and angels, dramatis personæ. Had they but given them motion, it had been a perfect puppet-play, and might have deserved pence apiece; for they were of the same size and make that our English puppets are; and I am confident these shepherds and this Joseph are kin to that Judith and Holophernes which I have seen at Bartholomew Fair. A little without the stable was a flock of sheep, cut out of cards; and these, as they then stood without their shepherds, appeared to me the best emblem I had seen a long time, and methought represented these poor innocent people, who, whilst their shepherds pretend so much to follow Christ, and pay their devotion to Him, are left unregarded in the barren

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wilderness. This was the show; the music to it was all vocal in the quire adjoining, but such as I never heard. They had strong voices, but so ill-tuned, so ill-managed, that it was their misfortune, as well as ours, that they could be heard. He that could not, though he had a cold, make better music with a chevy chase over a pot of smooth ale, deserved well `to pay the reckoning, and go away athirst. However, they were the honestest singing-men I have ever seen, for they endeavoured to earn their money, and earned it certainly with pains enough; for what they wanted in skill, they made up in loudness and variety. Every one had his own tune, and the result of all was like the noise of choosing parliament-men, where every one endeavours to cry loudest. Besides the

men, there were a company of little choristers. I thought, when I saw them at first, they had danced to the other's music, and that it had been your Gray's Inn revels; for they were jumping up and down about a good charcoal fire that was in the middle of the quire—this their devotion and their singing was enough, I think, to keep them warm, though it were a very cold night-but it was not dancing but singing they served for; for, when it came to their turns, away they ran to their places, and there they made as good harmony as a concert of little pigs would, and they were much about as cleanly. Their part being done, out they sallied again to the fire, where they played till their cue called them, and then back to their

places they huddled. So negligent and slight are they in their service in a place where the nearness of adversaries might teach them to be more careful."

"CAUSES OF WEAKNESS IN MEN'S UNDERSTANDINGS.

"There is, it is visible, great variety in men's understandings, and their natural constitutions put so wide a difference between some men in this respect, that art and industry would never be able to master; and their very natures seem to want a foundation to raise on it that which other men easily attain unto. Amongst men of equal education, there is great inequality of parts. And the woods of America, as well as the schools of Athens, produce men of several abilities in the same kind. Though this be so, yet I imagine men come very short of what they might attain unto in their several degrees, by a neglect of their understandings. A few rules of logic are thought to be sufficient in this case for those who pretend to the highest improvement; whereas I think there are a great many natural defects in the understanding capable of amendment, which are overlooked. and wholly neglected. And it is easy to perceive that men are guilty of a great many faults in the exercise and improvement of this faculty of the mind, which hinder them in their progress, and keep them in ignorance and error all their lives. Some of them I shall take notice of, and endeavor to point out proper remedies for, in the following discourse.