EIGHTH YEAR PART I I. ON CHARACTER 1. When Stephen of Colonna fell into the hands of base assailants and they asked him in derision, "Where is now your fortress?" "Here!" was his bold reply, placing his hand upon his heart. It is in misfortune that the character of the upright man shines with the greatest luster, and, when all else fails, he takes his stand upon his integrity and his courage. 2. Every one is bound to aim at the possession of a good character as one of the highest objects of life. The true man acts rightly, whether in secret or in the sight of others. That boy was well trained who, when asked why he did not pocket some pears, for nobody was there to see, replied, "Yes, there was somebody; I was there to see myself, and I don't intend ever to see myself do a dishonest thing." We often hear it said that knowledge is power, but it is true in a much higher sense that character is power. 3. Francis Horner, of England, was a man of whom Sydney Smith said that the Ten Commandments were stamped upon his countenance. The valuable and peculiar light in which Horner's history is calculated to inspire every right-minded youth is this: He died, at the age of thirty-eight, possessed of greater influence than any other 3 private man, and admired, beloved, trusted, and deplored by all except the heartless and the base. 4. No greater homage was ever paid in Parliament to any deceased member. Now let every young man ask, How was this attained? By rank? He was the son of an Edinburgh merchant. By wealth? Neither he nor any of his relations ever had a superfluous sixpence. By office? He held but one, and that only for a few years, of no influence, and with very little pay. By talents? His were not splendid, and he had no genius. his only ambition was to be right. spoke in calm good taste, without any of the oratory that either electrifies or seduces. By any fascination of manner? His was only correct and agreeable. Cautious and slow, By eloquence? He 5. By what was it, then? Merely by sense, industry, good principles, and a good heart -- qualities which no wellconstituted mind need ever despair of attaining. It was the force of his character that raised him. There were many in the House of Commons of far greater ability and eloquence, but no one surpassed him in the combination of an adequate portion of these with moral worth. Horner showed what moderate powers, unaided by anything whatever except culture and goodness, may achieve, even when these powers are displayed amid the competitions and jealousies of public life. Selected. One by one thy duties wait thee; Learn thou first what these can teach. - A. A. PROCTER. II. ADVERTISEMENT OF A LOST DAY I. Lost! lost! lost! A gem of countless price, And graved in Paradise; Set round with three times eight 2. Lost where the thoughtless throng Leaving a sting behind; Yet to my hand 'twas given A golden harp to buy, Such as the white-robed choir attune To deathless minstrelsy. 3. Lost! lost! lost! I feel all search is vain; That gem of countless cost Can ne'er be mine again; I offer no reward, For though these heartstrings sever, 4. But when the sea and land Like burning scroll have fled, I'll see it in His hand, Who judgeth quick and dead; And when of waste and loss, That man can ne'er repair, What shall it answer there? MRS. SIGOURNEY. III. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS I. An Indian seldom jests. He usually speaks low, and under his breath. Loquacity is with him an indication of being a trifling character, and of deeds inversely less as his words are more. The young men, and even the boys, have a sullen, moody, and unjoyous countenance; and seem to have little of that elastic gayety with which the benevolence of Providence has endowed the first years of the existence of most other beings. In this general remark, we ought not, perhaps, to include the squaw, who shows some analogy of feeling to the white woman. 2. The men evidently have not the quick sensibilities, the acute perceptions, of most other races. They do not easily sympathize with enjoyment or suffering. Nothing but an overwhelming excitement can arouse them. They seem callous to all the passions but rage. Every one has remarked how little surprise they express for whatever is new, strange, or striking. True, it is partially their pride that induces them to affect this indifference - for, that it is affected, we have had numberless opportunities to discover. It is, with them, not only pride, but calculation, to hold in seeming contempt things which they are aware they cannot obtain and possess. But they seem to be born with an instinctive determination to be independent, if possible, of nature and society, and to con centrate within themselves an existence which, at any moment, they seem willing to lay down. 3. Their impassible fortitude and endurance of suffering, their contempt of pain and death, invest their character with a kind of moral grandeur. Some part of this may be the result of their training, discipline, and exercise of selfcontrol; but it is to be doubted whether some part be not the result of a more than ordinary degree of physical insensibility. It has been said, but with how much truth we do not pretend to say, that, in undergoing amputation, and other surgical operations, their nerves do not shrink, or show the same tendency to spasms, with those of the whites. · When the savage to explain his insensibility to cold called upon the white man to recollect how little his own face was affected by it, in consequence of its constant exposure, the savage added, "My body is all face." 4. Surely it is preposterous to admire, as some pretend to do, the savage character in the abstract. Let us make every effort to convey pity, mercy, and immortal hopes to their rugged bosoms. Pastorals that sing savage independence and generosity, and gratitude and happiness in the green woods, may be Arcadian enough to those who never saw savages in their wigwams, or never felt the apprehension of their nocturnal and hostile yell, from the depth of the forest around their dwelling. But let us not undervalue the comfort and security of municipal and social life; nor the sensibilities, charities, and endearments of a civilized home. Let our great effort be to tame and domesticate the Indians. Their happiness, steeled against feeling, at war with nature, the elements, and one another, can have no existence except in the visionary dreamings of those who have never comtemplated their actual condition. 5. It is curious to remark, however, that, different as |