UNPUBLISHED LITERATURE. BY THE EDITOR. THE reader will please call to mind one thing which we said last month in regard to "scraps of unpublished literature" found on the blank leaves of school books. This, namely: "We are of opinion that these sentiments, when properly arranged, do truly exhibit not only the intellectual, but also the moral and religious history of the scholar's mind and heart even in the same way, and by the same philosophy as the history of a nation's poetry shows its development." So we now repeat. We brought our history of unpublished school-boy literature up to the first efforts of the "larger boys." We now proceed to the examination of a specimen which exhibits a certain one-sided development common to boys at a certain period in boyhood: Bobby Brown, his hand and pen, He will be good, but dear knows when. We do not at all like the spirit of these lines. We are sorry that it is so common with boys of a certain age to write them in their schoolbooks. The thoughtful reader will at once recognise in them a certain peculiar bravo spirit which is not at all beautiful in children. not like to see him write down his own name, in nick-name style. It is a bad sign when a boy, or a man, receives a nick-name. He ought to avoid giving occasion for it; and if some weakness or wickedness in him draws it upon him he ought to mourn over it in deepest shame. It is a NICK-name. The word nick, the reader no doubt knows, means in some languages, "the devil"—an evil spirit. A nick-name is a devil-name: that is, a name given by some evil-disposed person, and generally occasioned by some evil trait in the one who receives it, of which it is the mark. It ought to be regarded with earnest disapprobation; and it pains us to see the boy adopt it, and record it with his own hand. You say, perhaps, "Bobby" cannot be properly regarded as a nickname, because it evidently comes from Robert. Yes, you know it to be so derived; but pray, could you tell it from the words themselves. It is purely a nick-name; and there is no law of language by which it can be derived from Robert. We are sorry to see this boy adopt his nick-name; it sinks him in our estimation. You think it strange that we should so strongly censure this feature in the couplet. But hear us. The boy received a name in his baptism, Robert. That is his christian name. Before that he had only one name, and that was the name of his parents, the name in the flesh, the name in nature; but when he was christened he received another name, the name in grace. Every time he or others call him by his christian name, it is to remind him of the new relation he now sustains to Christ of which the name is the symbol and mark. This christian name is Robert; but see now the boy prefers his nick-name, his devil-name to his true christian name. He calls himself by this evil name, which is as much as to say he does not wish to be regarded as a christian, but names himself after the evil spirit. Are we not right in disliking, yea in being horrified at the spirit of the boy who can so deny his christian name. Say we not truly that no greater insult can be offered any one than to give him a nick-name. It is indeed to insult and mock his baptism, and deny to him a title to the highest and most honorable name which a mortal can bear. We say, then, that the boy whose taste falls in with this couplet is developing in an unlovely direction. If he does not change he may yet turn out to be, what is familiarly known as a rowdy. The elements of this character are evidently working in him. We already picture him to ourselves as somewhat rude in his manners and rough in his words. He may not yet fight or swear, but he begins to be uncourteous in some of his intercourse with other boys, and his words begin to show a great Ideal of the bold sauce-box. His eye and his cheek begin to lose that beautiful modesty which all good people love so much to see in children. He begins to delight in a slouching hat, and a swaggering air. He even sometimes answers rudely when his mother gives him tender and good advice. This, and more too, we expect to find in a boy who has so far lost his christian self-respect as to hear and even write with pleasure his nick-name. Again, we say, we are sorry to see this spirit growing in the boy. What is thus implied in the first line of the couplet, is fully brought out in the second. See how irreverently he speaks: He will be good, but dear knows when. In this line he even makes light of piety. It is only too true, what he here implies, that he is not now good. He acknowledges this, not humbly and sadly, as he ought to do; but lightly and carelessly. It seems to be the same as if he had said, "he will be good, but cares not when!" The boy, moreover, seems to have lost the feeling of his true relation to piety or being good. He looks upon it as something to come to him in the future. He forgets his vantage ground as he was placed upon it in the covenant in which he received his christian name. He forgets that he is to grow in grace, and vaguely expects some time or other to grow into it. God, through his christian name, says to him: You are mine by the covenant of grace, depart not from me. But he virtually says: I am not now God's, but I may become such in the future. Here is the very same spirit of frivolous unbelief and impiety which caused him to prefer his nick-name to his christian name. Look closely to the words: "He will be good." They contain a seed of serious evil. They are spoken in the spirit of presumption. They imply that his becoming good depends upon his own will-upon what he will choose to do in the future, rather than what has been done for him already. He does not seem to feel and acknowledge gracious influences before and behind him, upon which he is to fall back for strength, and hope, and safety, but in bravo style proposes to dash into his future history on the strength of his own will and resources. These lines belong evidently to that period which may be called full boyhood. There is not in them, either the innocent simplicity of the earlier, nor yet the earnest consideration of the later stage. They belong to that period which in ordinary cases of human development lies between ten and fourteen years. A most critical period of boyhood! A time when the mind and heart are receiving a bias which may, and which often does, determine the whole course of after life. I think I hear one of the young readers of The Guardian say: "That is my age I am in that period." Well, then be careful. Let me give you, my boy, a couplet for your school-book, which I will make myself, and which I have no doubt your mother will say is better than the other. Thus : Robert Brown, his hand and pen, What think you of that, my boy? It reads smoothly, it rhymes, well, and contains good sense. To begin to be a good man, is to begin to be a good boy. The poet has thus truly said "The child is father to the man." You study well what that strange line means. When you once get the true and full idea which it contains, then you will agree with me that the best thing you can do, my noble boy, is to think a great deal of Jesus who also was once a boy, to learn prayers and hymns about him, and long to be so gentle, innocent, as you know he was. Do not think, even if you are twelve years of age, that you are too big to say that beautiful little prayer: "Blessed Jesus, meek and mild, Pity my simplicity And make a pious boy of me." Here we must stop for this time, asking again the privilege of carrying on our history of unpublished literature next month. LUXURY OF THE ANCIENTS IN ROSES. To enjoy the scent of roses at meals, an abundance of rose leaves were shaken out upon the table, so that the dishes were completely surrounded. By an artificial contrivance, roses, during meal times, descended on the guests from above. Heliogabalus, in his folly, caused violets and roses to be showered down upon his guests in such quantities, that a number of them being unable to extricate themselves, were suffocated in flowers. During meal times, they reclined upon cushions stuffed with rose leaves, or made a couch of leaves themselves. The floor, too, was strewed with roses, and in this custom great luxury was displayed. Cleopatra, at an enormous expense, procured roses for a feast which she gave to Antony, had them laid two cubics thick on the floor as the banquet-room, and then caused nets to be spread over the flowers in order to render the footing elastic. Heliogabalus caused not only the banquet-rooms, but also the colonnades that led to them to be covered with roses, interspersed with lilies, violets, hyacinths, and narcissi, and walked about this flowery platform. THE FIRM RESOLVE. BY GINOSKO. THIS hour my better years "begin their date,” "New era" in my life. This crumbling dust, a day of balmy health No more shall know: soon the purple tide of lifeSo feeble now-shall cease its ebbing flow. -But my heart, Mysterious chamber of contending spirits!— Treasure forth, and strives, yet vainly strives, to fill A change Decided, firm, unfaltering withal, Not unobserved, nor wanting comment from Lips that speak no guile, shall mark my future course. So long by passion tossed at will, and often With resolution strong, And energy of soul unfelt before, I'll calmly take the arm of Him whose smile is life; He'll safely guide this weak, unskilful hand To wage successful war against my foes. Enrobed with armor from on high, I shall, by aid of him from whom my weapon comes, THE JUST MAN. THEY are not just because they do no wrong, ABUSE OF GENIUS. BY J. V. E. By the word genius we understand, in general, a man endowed with uncommon vigor of mind—and in particular, that peculiar structure of mind given by nature to an individual which qualifies him for a particular study, employment, or course of life. Any individual who exhibits an uncommon aptitude of mind or wit in any employment, or upon any subject, is called a genius. Bnt it is generally used with reference to a person's wit, skill, and aptitude in the arts and sciences, and also in mechanics. There are One person may be a genius in history, another in art, another in science, another in mechanics, another in trade, and so on. many persons who, perhaps, are but little known to the popular world, and yet are real geniuses. They have been raised and they move in rather secluded neighborhoods, pinched perhaps also by poverty, and hence have not come in contact with a stimulus to action or thought, and are consequently out of the reach of circumstances for the cultivation and display of their extraordinary talents. Doubtless for the want of proper circumstances and stimulus, many a bright and noble mind has been left to exercise its powers on unworthy subjects and in uncongenial toils. He A genius mostly reveals himself to the world by his originality. bursts forth in the scientific or mechanical world unexpected, like a wandering meteor, that startles men of skill and talent. Or he rises, slow and sure, by the power of thought, from the quiet glen, to stand with kings and the honorable. Such are the results of genius when properly directed. The genius of Franklin drew from the angry tempests, harmlessly, the subtle fluid which bursts forth in the thunderbolt. The genius of Fitch and Fulton enables us to plough the mighty deep at a rate unknown to the world before. The skill of genius has led us into the secret of sending news at lightning speed. It has given us machinery to spin our wool and cotton, to weave our cloth and linsey, to sew our garments, to seed our grain, to reap our harvests, to hull our wheat and shell our corn, to prepare our flour, to traverse the land at almost flying speed, to mount with the eagle into the first heaven, and to do many other wonderful things and works. Indeed every facility we have gained above our ancestors was not the work of dull, stupid minds, but the labor of geniuses-that is, by geniuses not made alone by nature, but made such by deep thought, constant labor, and unconquerable determination. Superior power and skill of mind has also written our histories, and thus presents before our minds, in panoramic view, the various events of men and nations. It has also perfected science, beautified the fine arts, and rendered mechanical skill more successful and valuable. It has set |