children will be elevated and benefited. Viewed in this light, good books are worth more than their weight in gold.

The value of knowledge, is seen in the present state of the world. Where do we see the most public happiness and virtue? Where do we see human rights respected, and every thing that adorns humanity most prevalent? It is not in those places where avaricious parents starve and belittle the minds of their children, by withholding the means of education, but in those communities where books are common, and intelligence widely diffused.

On the other hand where does vice, squalid miserey and poverty most prevail? It is those nations where ignorance of letters is common; where despots can rule over a people too ignorant to know, or to maintain their rights, and where books, or printed sheets are rarely seen.

In the family, also, a great difference is often seen, illustrating the superiority of knowledge over ignorance. The educated family have many sources of enjoyment more than those who are ignorant. They look at the starry heavens, and feel an elevation of mind in contemplating the stupendous works of the Deity; they turn to his works beneath, and see his wisdom and beneficence exhibited. By the aid of the printed page, they hold intimate communion with the noblest of the human race.

The members of an ignorant family may indeed look upward and view the shining stars, but it is with "a brute unconscious gaze." They

Look around them, but they know nothing of the wisdom, or laws, which govern the vast creation of God. They have no means or disposition to converse with the wise and good, but prefer low and groveling pursuits, to those which are noble and elevating.

SELECT SENTENCES.

Gather instruction from thy youth up, so shalt thou find wisdom till thine old age.

Knowledge is the treasure of the mind; discretion the key to it; and it illustrates all other learning, as the lapidary doth unpolished diamonds.

To hear the discourse of wise men delights us, and their company inspires us with noble and generous contemplations.

• Courteous behavior and prudent communication, are the most becoming ornaments to a young man ; with which he may be furnished by timely education, and the virtuous example of his parents and gov.

ernors.

Jeer not others upon any occasion. If they be foolish, God hath denied them understanding; if they be vicious, you ought to pity them, not revile them; if deformed, God framed their bodies, and will you scorn his workmanship? Are you wiser than your Creator? If poor, poverty was designed for a motive to charity, not to contempt; you can not see what riches they have within. Especially despise not your aged parents, if they be come to their second childhood, and be not so wise as formerly; they are yet your parents, your duty is not diminished.

He dug a pit and fell into it himself.
A wayward youth in mischief takes delight,
A trick to put one in a sorry plight,
He deeply digs a pit; covers it all o'er,
And he thinks he'll have him in his power;
But now, while he on this way is strolling,
Into his own trap, see now he's falling.

WE see here a mischievous boy falling into his own trap. In order to have what he supposes will be fine sport, he digs a pit, or hole, covers it over to appear like solid earth, hoping some one will step on to it and fall in. As he knew of several persons who would pass that way, he concealed himself near by, in order to enjoy the sport of seeing them fall into the pit.

Although some of the passers by came within an inch or two of the pit, yet it so happened that

none got into it, so that the young rogue's labor in digging, availed him nothing. It however happened that when pursuing a butterfly near the spot in the hurry of the moment, he forgot the pit he dug for another, and fell into it himself.

There is perhaps nothing with which mankind are better pleased with, in the way of justice, than to have a man fall into a trap which he had laid for another. So in the case of this mischievous boy. Although he might have broken his limbs and made himself a cripple for life, he would not have received the sympathy of others, but instead of it, it would have been a matter of gratification and rejoicing at his getting his just deserts.

The history of Haman, recorded in the book of Esther, is an illustration of the truth conveyed in the proverb. Because Mordecai the Jew would not bow, nor do reverence to Haman, this favorite of the king, out of revenge determined to destroy him, and all his people at once.

Haman erected a gallows fifty cubits high on which to hang Mordecai. Events, however, turned out differently from what he expected; instead of hanging the man he hated, King Ahasuerus ordered him to be hung on the gallows he had prepared for another.

In the case of Daniel at the court of Darius, is seen another illustration of the truth contained in the proverb. Daniel for his wisdom and integrity was preferred before the other princes of the empire. These nobles wishing to get Dan

iel out of the way, contrived a plan to have him destroyed. Feeling assured that he would worship his God at all hazards, they caused King Darius to make a decree forbidding any one to ask a petition of any man, or god, for thirty days except to himself, on pain of being cast into a den of lions. The end of this is well known. The Most High preserved the life of his faithful servant, while the conspirators against him were thrown into, and destroyed in the same den, or pit, in which they doubtless hoped to see the last of Daniel.

In more modern times, we have seen recorded many instances where those who have laid plans and snares for others, fall into their own trap, or have been punished by the same instruments of torture they designed for others.

When the French troops were in Spain, they took possession of a building of the Inquisition, a tribunal once quite common in that country.

Numerous instruments of torture were found by which they tried those whom they suspected of crime, in order to extort confession. Some were put to death in a most cruel manner. One way to destroy life, was to put the condemned into the arms of a female figure, which was so constructed that when it embraced its victim, it would be cut to pieces by means of small knives. When the soldiers discovered this infernal machine, they became exasperated. They seized the heads of the establishment, put them into the arms of the female figure, and by its horrid embrace they perished in the same manner in which they intended to execute others.