was the message given to the Greeks of old. Long enough has that poor "self" of thine tormented thee; thou wilt never get to know it, I believe ! Think it not thy business, this of knowing thyself; thou art an unknowable individual; know what thou canst work at; and work at it like a Hercules2! That will be thy better plan.

3. By work foul jungles are cleared away, fair seedfields rise instead, and stately cities; and withal the man himself first ceases to be a jungle and foul unwholesome desert thereby.

4. Consider how, even in the meanest sorts of Labour, the whole soul of a man is composed into a kind of real harmony, the instant he sets himself to work! Doubt, desire, sorrow, remorse, indignation, despair itself, all these lie surrounding the soul of the poor day worker, as of every man ; but he bends himself with free valour against his task, and all these are stilled, all shrink murmuring far off into their caves. The man is now a man. The blessed glow of Labour in him, is it not a purifying fire, wherein all poison is burnt up, and of sour smoke itself there is made bright blessed flame?

5. Destiny, on the whole, has no other way of cultivating us. A formless chaos3, once set it revolving, grows round and ever rounder; ranges itself, by mere force of gravity, into regular courses; it is no longer a chaos, but a round compacted world. What would become of the earth did she cease to revolve? In the poor old earth, so long as she revolves, all irregularities are incessantly becoming regular.

6. Hast thou looked on the potter's wheel,-one of the most venerable of objects; old as the Prophet Jeremiah and far older? Rude lumps of clay, how they spin themselves up by mere quick whirling, into beautiful circular dishes. And fancy the most industrious potter, but without his wheel; reduced to make dishes, or rather shapeless botches, by mere kneading and baking!

7. Even such a potter would destiny be with a human soul that would only rest and lie at ease, that would not work or spin! of an idle unrevolving man the kindest destiny, like the most skilful potter without his wheel, can bake and knead nothing other than a botch; let her spend on him what expensive colouring or gilding she will, he is but a botch. Let the idle think of this.

8. Blessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other blessedness. He has a work, a life-purpose; he has found it, and will follow it. Labour is life; from the inmost heart of the worker rises the sacred life-essence breathed into him by Almighty God; from his inmost heart awakens him to all nobleness, to all knowledge, so soon as work fitly begins.

9. And then, patience, courage, perseverance, openness to light, readiness to own thyself mistaken, to do better next time-all these virtues in wrestling with the dim brute powers around thee, in ordering of thy fellows, in true honest work, and nowhere else, wilt thou continually learn.

10. And who art thou that braggest of thy life of idleness? Looking up, looking down, around,

behind or before, seest thou any idle hero, saint, or god? Not a vestiges of one. In the heavens, in the earth, in the waters under the earth, is none like unto thee. Thou art an original figure in this creation. One monster there is in the world-the IDLE MAN.

Carlyle, "Past and Present" (1795-1881).

1. "Know thyself" was the great maxim taught by Socrates, the most celebrated of the philosophers of ancient Greece.

2. Hercules, a fabled demigod of Greek and Latin mythology, was distinguished for his immense strength. and was the ideal hero of olden times. A man of great strength now is often said to be a man of herculean frame.

3. Chaos.-A Greek name given to anything in utter disorder. It is specially used to describe the original state of the earth when it was "without form and void." (Genesis i., 2.)

4. Jeremiah.-See Ch. xviii., vv.3-6. 5. Vestige. From Latin vestigium, a foot-track; that is, not the slightest trace is to be found.

LESSON XXXIX.

THE PARTING OF MARMION1 AND
DOUGLAS.

Not far advanced was morning day,
When Marmion did his troop array,
To Surrey's camp to ride;
He had safe-conduct for his band,
Beneath the royal seal and hand,
And Douglas gave a guide.

The ancient earl, with stately grace,
Would Clara3 on her palfrey place;
And whispered, in an under-tone,
"Let the hawk stoop, his prey is flown."
The train from out the castle drew;
But Marmion stopped to bid adieu :-

"Though something I might plain,” he said,
"Of cold respect to stranger guest,

Sent hither by your king's behest,

While in Tantallon's towers I stayed,
Part we in friendship from your land,
And, noble earl, receive my hand."

But Douglas round him drew his cloak, Folded his arms, and thus he spoke :

My manors, halls, and bowers shall still
Be open, at my sovereign's will,

To each one whom he lists, howe'er
Unmeet to be the owner's peer:
My castles are my king's alone,
From turret to foundation stone ;-
The hand of Douglas is his own,
And never shall in friendly grasp
The hand of such as Marmion clasp."

Burned Marmion's swarthy cheek like fire, And shook his very frame for ire, And-"This to me!" he said ;"An 'twere not for thy hoary beard, Such hand as Marmion's had not spared To cleave the Douglas' head! And, first, I tell thee, haughty peer, He who does England's message here, Although the meanest in her state, May well, proud Angus, be thy mate! And, Douglas, more I tell thee here, Even in thy pitch of pride,

6

Here in thy hold, thy vassals near,

(Nay, never look upon your lord,

And lay your hands upon your sword),——

I tell thee thou'rt defied!

And if thou saidst I am not peer

Fierce he broke forth :- -"And darest thou, then,

To beard the lion in his den,

The Douglas in his hall?

And hopest thou hence unscathed to go?—
No, by Saint Bride of Bothwell, no !---
Up drawbridge, grooms!-what, warder, ho!
Let the portcullis fall."

Lord Marmion turned,-well was his need,--
And dashed the rowels in his steed,
Like arrow through the archway sprung—
The ponderous gate behind him rung:
To pass there was such scanty room,
The bars, descending, razed his plume!

Sir Walter Scott was a celebrated novelist, born at Edinburgh, 1771, died 1832. He wrote a large number of novels in prose and verse.

1. Marmion.-Lord Marmion was an English soldier,sent on an embassy to the Scottish King, and by him put under the protection of Lord Douglas. Lord Douglas, at the request of his sovereign, entertained him, but refused to shake hands with him. Marmion was killed shortly afterwards at the battle of Flodden Field. 2. Surrey. The Earl of Surrey, who commanded the English army at the battle of Flodden Field, in the reign of Henry VIII.