angularities of persuasion. She could argue till you were deaf, and would perversely do the most disagreeably devout things to provoke you; but she cannot stand the quiet, jolly, unargumentative assumption that you are all right, and she is a dear little thing. The best sort of women always think as their husbands do, if they have any sort of respect for them. If the husband is Blue, the wife thinks the House of Lords the finest institution under the sun; if he is Buff, she longs to protect the poor against an insolent aristocracy; if he is High, she is ready to drop a Baptist grocer at a moment's notice, and go to a good Churchman who sells bad tea; if he is Low, she would as soon go to a Bible meeting as have a new bonnet. There is something very fine and sweet in this adaptability of women, and it is one of the numerous drawbacks of Catholicism that, under that system, it is interfered with. A priest spoils the process. A woman is framed to obey, but she cannot obey two men at once, and she is apt to reserve her obedience for the one who can frighten her most, and over whom she has the least hold. by exposure to the taint of an artificial and thought with each other. But time and a diseased society. But sometimes there ap- silent good-humor will rub off any woman's pears in a family a run of sour and sodden virtues. The eldest brother is a prig, and the youngest is a sort of heaven-born prig-he carries the family type of bland, scholar-like, blissful inanity to such a prize-dahlia pitch of perfection. But, as a rule, the big brother nas got something much better than this to show. It is his self-reliance, his having and knowing that he has something in him, that tells on the family circle. Mr. Kingsley is an instance. Those who most doubt his sense. or taste must recognize in all his books the presence of a fine, manly feeling. There is no littleness in his writings. A brother predisposed by early associations to see things in the same way might very naturally and pardonably yield to the admiration excited by intimate association with so much that is straightforward and honorable. The similarity thus produced between two brothers, or two other near relations, often causes casual judges to do great injustice to the lesser one. They think that he is a mere feeble imitator, whereas it is one of the great bonds and props of family life that people who live together come naturally to look at things in the way in which the strongest and finest character has worked out the common family vein of thought. The certainty with which superiority and thoroughness of character will tell in family life ought to make the relations of the big members of the family to the little ones much simpler and pleasanter than they often are. Conscientious people are always worrying themselves about setting an example. The only example people ever really set is that exhibited by their being what they are. If men are honest and independent, those who live with them will know that they are, and There is an action of the husband on the wife which is exactly the same in kind, and which is one of the surest, though perhaps one of the least recognized, agencies in bringing about matrimonial happiness. If a husband has any decided opinions, and any strength of character, he is sure to bring his wife to think like him. If this were not so, what a wall of separation would divide mar-will be impressed with that knowledge more ried couples! whereas, in real life, it is one of the prettiest of sights to see a young wife innocently nestling into her husband's beliefs. It is not argument that works the change, but the silent weight of force of character operating in a sphere of circumstances that is the same to both alike. Religious differences would be the bane of serious couples, in these days of minor controversies, if this were not 80. The man might be Low, and the lady High, or vice versa, and they would always come one at a time out of their mental retreats, like the Jack and Gill in the toys that show the fluctuations of the weather, and never meet or have any friendly interchange of or less deeply according to the differences of if it were not so. As the readers of Mr. Henry Kingsley's book smile at the odd, solemn, and almost unconscious way in which he preaches his brother's gospel, they may notice, in his pages, if they will but reflect, an illustration of one of the great cardinal prin edifice. They will judge him and improve of course, and it would be a wretched world themselves according as they find him practically good or bad in matters where he is obliged to come before them. They can feel in a moment whether he is the sort of man that may be relied on at a pinch, and who will never cheat them, or shrink from the conflict when they try to cheat him. If he isciples that keeps society together, the prinworth looking up to, a big brother need never trouble himself to get the little brothers to look up to him. It will happen as a matter cumstances, strength of character in one ciple that, where there is a similarity of cirmember of a group induces a general similarity of opinion. ORIENTAL WELLS.-The well is usually built | serve as in use. It is a pity such a precaution on a spot in some degree elevated above the were not beacons, as do the levers to such wells neighboring fields, with one, two, or more levers, as are in universal practice.—Oriental Sports, inserted into forked posts, and moving on pivots vol. 1, p. 25. placed near its brink; the but-end of each lever is loaded with mud sufficiently to overpower the SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINE OF THE BRAHMINS. weight of an earthen or iron pitcher, when filled-The brahmins are enjoined to perform a kind with water. This pitcher being fastened to a of spiritual discipline, not, I believe, unknown rope, of which the part that touches the water is to some of the religious orders of Christians in made of green ox hides, as being less subject to the Romish Church. This consists in devoting rot than hemp, and suspended thereby from the a certain period of time to the contemplation of peak of the lever, the operator pulls down the the Deity, his attributes, and the moral duties peak until the vessel reach the water. When it of this life. It is required of those who practise is filled, he suffers the ever to act; and the this exercise, not only that they divest their loaded end, descending again, draws up the minds of all sensual desire, but that their attenpitcher, which empties itself into a reservoir, or tion be abstracted from every external object, channel, whence the water is conducted by small and absorbed with every sense, in the prescribed rills into an immense number of partitions, subject of their attention. I myself was once a made by a little raised mould. A person at- witness of a man employed in this species of tends to open each partition, in its turn, and to devotion, at the principal temple of Banaris. stop the water when the bed has received a suffi- His right hand and arm were enclosed in a loose cient supply. Thus each bed or partition is sleeve or bag of red cloth, within which he passed adequately watered. Some wells are worked the beads of his rosary, one after another, by a pair of oxen, which draw over a pulley, through his fingers, repeating with the touch of and raise, as they walk down an inclined plane, each, as I was informed, one of the names of a leather bag containing from twenty to forty God, while his mind labored to catch and dwell gallons at a time. This process is chiefly con- on the idea of the quality which appertained to fined from the month of November to that of it, and showed the violence of its exertion to atFebruary, when the corn, opium-fields, etc., are tain this purpose by the convulsive movements growing. of all his features, his eyes being at the same time closed, doubtless to assist the abstraction, Hastings, Letters prefixed to the Bhagvat Geeta. From the insecure manner in which these wells are generally finished, as well as from the looseness of the soil in many places, they rarely last long. In such cases the peasant digs others, without doing any thing to those which have fallen in. This is productive of considerable danger, not only to hunters, but to foot passengers; many of whom are precipitated into them. Several collectors of districts are very rigid in causing every old well to be distinguished by a pillar of mud, sufficiently high to be seen above the surface of the highest crops. These IT is a notable fact, that since the beginning of the war no fewer than forty different pamphlets and books, containing biographies of Garibaldi, have appeared in Paris. The cheapest of these works, which is sold at the price of ten centimes, has already been purchased to the extent of more than two hundred thousand copies. No. 795.-20 August, 1859.-Third Series, No. 73. SHORT ARTICLES.-The Sacred Handkerchief, 464. A Babe is a Mother's Anchor, 464. Holy Man and the Serpent, 464. Generous Chinese Merchant, 472. Agra, 472. Bees in the Caverns of Salsette, 504. Hindoo Princes and their Secret Chamber, 504. PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY BY LITTELL, SON, & CO., BOSTON. For Six Dollars a year, in advance, remitted directly to the Publishers, the Living Age will be punctually forwarded free of postage. Complete sets of the First Series, in thirty-six volumes, and of the Second Series, in twenty volumes, handsomely bound, packed in neat boxes, and delivered in all the principal cities, free of expense of freight, are for sale at two dollars a volume. ANY VOLUME may be had separately, at two dollars, bound, or a dollar and a half in numbers. ANY NUMBER may be had for 12 cents; and it is well worth while for subscribers or purchasers to complete any broken volumes they may have, and thus greatly enhance their value. MY PSALM. BY J. G. WHITTIER. I MOURN no more my vanished years, An April rain of smiles and tears, The west winds blow, and, singing low, No longer forward nor behind I plough no more a desert land, The manna dropping from God's hand I break my pilgrim staff, I lay The angel sought so far away The airs of Spring may never play Shall see its image given; The woods shall wear their robes of praise, And sweet, calm days in golden haze Not less shall manly deed and word The graven flowers that wreath the sword But smiting hands shall learn to heal, All as God wills, who wisely heeds Have marked my erring track- That more and more a Providence LIFE'S mystery-deep, restless as the oceanHath surged and wailed for ages to and fro; Earth's generations watch its ceaseless motion As in and out its hollow moanings flow; Shivering and yawning by that unknown sea, Let my soul calm itself, O Christ, in thee! Life's sorrows, with inexorable power, Sweep desolation o'er this mortal plain; Ah, when before that blast my hopes all flee, Between the mysteries of death and life Thou standest, loving, guiding-not explaining; We ask, and thou art silent-yet we gaze, And our charmed hearts forget their drear complaining! No crushing fate-no stony destiny! The many waves of thought, the mighty tides, The ground-swell that rolls up from other lands, From far-off worlds, from dim, eternal shores Whose echo dashes on life's wave-worn From Blackwood's Magazine. THE LUCK OF LADYSMEDE. CHAPTER I. THE VISIT AND THE VISITOR. considered as a charitable formula to express a very hearty feeling that the abbey, at any rate, was well rid of him, and that he was much better where he was. For indeed, what with paying the debts of one spendthrift nephew, and alienating the richest farm of the abbey for a mere nominal fine to another, and a very negligent management of his own and the general revenues, he had left a difficult task for his successor— difficult even to a man of shrewd business habits and stern economy; and Abbot Martin was hardly this. He liked the state and dignity of his office; and had that pardonable but mischievous pride in its old customs and hospitalities, which made him shrink from any real attempt at retrenchment. The tenants of the abbey had taken advantage, too, of the late abbot's mingled extravagance and carelessness, to commute for some small pecuniary assistance, when he most wanted money, the yearly rents and services of their holdings; and just when a strong will and a clear head were required, to reform abuses, reclaim lost rights, and break illegal leases, into the vacant abbacy, by royal writ, came excellent brother Martin, who could lay claim to no qualities of the kind, and was perfectly conscious of his deficiencies. IT wanted yet an hour to compline, when there came a low knock at Abbot Martin's chamber door. The good abbot was not asleep, yet he started at the sound. There lay a parchment-bound volume on the table, within reach, but it had formed no part of his studies that afternoon. Nevertheless, the abbot had been studying hard, and his brow had lines of care upon it, such as did not often show themselves on that open and goodhumored face. In fact, he had been engaged for some time before this interruption in that idlest of all studies,-thinking of his debts. Not that Abbot Martin had any special extravagance with which to charge himself, or that either his own private liabilities, or those of his house, were very formidable in amount; but he had succeeded to a revenue dilapidated by the negligence and waste of a long misrule of nearly forty years under Abbot Aldred, of whom the best thing that could be said was that he had been an excellent son, brother, uncle, cousin, and, in short, had done all that a man could do for his family in the way of patronage. The best lands of the abbey were held on the most favorable terms by such of his relations as had any turn for agriculture; the richest churches in the abbot's patronage were filled by secular priests who had the good fortune to be his nephews or brothersin-law; and some of the best-paid offices within the abbey walls were served by those humble members of the clan, who, remembering that they had an abbot of Rivelsby to claim kin with, had felt a decided vocation for the cloister. The late abbot had sunk his family surname, if there was one, in his monastic title; so that there was no tell-tale evidence of that kind to remind every one of their little family arrangements; but when Brother Martin had first come as a stranger from the pleasant meadows of Evesham to take possession of his new dignities, he had been constrained to express frequent surprise at the fruitful ramifications of his predeces-" Aperi,” said Abbot Martin, “in nomine "— sor's family tree, and the wonderful adaptation of its members to all the good things at the abbey's disposal. "Well! peace be with him!" was the worst that Abbot Martin had ever been heard to say; but it was generally It was merely vexing himself to no purpose therefore, when he sat down, as he had often done of late, to try to worm a way out of his difficulties: it was a sort of duty he set himself to discharge, as it were, without much hope of any practical result; and those with whom he might best have taken counsel-his prior Robert, and Hugh the seneschal-were kinsmen of Abbot Aldred, of blessed (and insolvent) memory; and having been appointed to their present positions through his influence, were not likely to take a very business-like view of the case. Though the good abbot started, then, when the summons at his door disturbed his cogitations, the interruption was rather a relief than otherwise. There is always a satisfaction in being interrupted in disagreeable duties, and being able to complain of it to ourselves as an interruption; conscience is satisfied, and indolence rejoices. But there is no need to go on with the abbot's Latin, which was none of the best at any time. It was one of his chaplains who entered, and made his reverence at the door. "A messenger, my lord, from Sir Godfrey |