less-deserving but more fortunate companions, and thus feelings of malice and hatred are implanted in their hearts, to the lasting injury of their dispositions and characters.

29. MONEY.

Money is the most convenient of the various forms of property. With its aid we can go to a shop and purchase any particular kind of article we require.

Other kinds of property, such as houses, land, etc., generally have to be sold, and thus turned into money, before they can be made the means of obtaining something else. The values of houses, land, etc., are estimated at the amount of money they would sell for.

If a man had a horse worth two hundred pounds, and wished to have a house of the same value instead of it, it would be very unlikely that he would be able to exchange the horse directly for the house. In all probability the owner of the house would not want to have a horse. But the horse could be sold for money, and then the money could be employed to purchase the house. The owner of the house, if he wished to part with it, would readily sell it for money, because with that he could buy anything he required.

Thus money is the means or medium by which exchanges are made of different forms of property. By its aid a working man can exchange his labour, which is a form of property, for food, clothing, and lodging. He gives his labour to an employer, and receives money in return, and with that he is able to purchase food and clothing, and pay for the use of a house to live in.

Every commodity is not suitable to be used as money. Professor Jevons has specified seven qualities which should belong to any substance in order that it may be so employed. It should have intrinsic value, otherwise no one would take it in exchange for other commodities. It should be portable-that is, easily carried about from place to place. A third quality is

indestructibility, by which it is not easily liable to injury of demolition. A fourth is homogeneity, or the possession of a uniform quality throughout. It should likewise possess the property of divisibility without loss of value. Stability of value is another important qualification. The last quality is cognizability, necessary in order that persons may ascertain without difficulty whether it be genuine or not. An attentive examination will show that the precious metals possess these various qualifications to a far greater extent than any other substances.

In most civilized countries, money consists of pieces of metal called coins, and bearing inscriptions which point out to what nation each one belongs. The coins of Great Britain are made of gold, silver, and bronze, and are stamped with the image of Queen Victoria. The most valuable coins are made of gold, and are called sovereigns and half-sovereigns. A coin made of gold can be exchanged for a number of coins made of silver or bronze.

use.

In uncivilized lands, other and ruder forms of money are in Small shells called cowries are employed in some of these countries. In others, strings of beads or pieces of ivory are used.

For very large purchases, coins are sometimes inconvenient. Thus it would be very troublesome to pay a thousand pounds in gold or silver, because so many sovereigns would be heavy to carry, and would take a long time to count; and even then a mistake might be made. In cases of this kind, bank-notes made of paper are usually employed. These are not money, properly speaking, but only promises to pay money. The person who possesses a bank-note can take it to the bank which has issued it, and there receive the sum of money named on it. Bank-notes are of different values; five pounds, ten pounds, a hundred pounds, a thousand pounds, and various other sums of money are represented by them, and thus they are very convenient in paying large amounts.

30. LIGHT AND ITS USES.

Of all the material gifts which the Creator has bestowed on His creatures, perhaps the most wonderful, and certainly one of the most beneficial, is light. It was called into existence by the word of the Almighty when He commenced His six-days' work of creation, and has continued ever since to cast its genial influence on mankind, and enabled us to behold and admire the other works which have proceeded from the same beneficent

source.

The exact nature of light is still a matter of dispute among learned men, who have formed various theories on the subject. It is not known with certainty whether it is an actual substance or not. It is transmitted to us in rays, which always travel in straight lines. It may, however, be bent out of its course from one straight line into another by any object which it meets with in its passage. If it is thrown off from the surface of any substance, it is said to be reflected; but if it enters into the substance itself, and takes a different direction in consequence, it is then said to be refracted. Thus, light is reflected from the surface of a mirror, and is refracted in its passage through the air, water, and other fluids.

Light travels with almost inconceivable swiftness. Its velocity has been calculated by means of experiment, and ascertained to be at the rate of about 180,000 miles per second.

The great source of light with us is the sun. When the sun rises in the morning, it becomes light, and the day commences. After he has set in the evening it gradually becomes darker, most of the light leaves us, and the shades of night fall upon the side of the earth from which he has departed. The darkest night is not, however, quite destitute of light. Some of the light of the sun makes its way, by reflection or refraction, to our side of the world. The light of the moon comes from the sun by means of reflection. The planets also shine by the light which they receive from the sun. The fixed stars shine by their own light.

Without light we should not be able to see. Any object is rendered visible to us by means of rays of light which are reflected from the object and enter into our eyes. A person whose eyes cannot receive rays of light is blind. We can scarcely see anything on a dark night; and if the night were quite dark, we should be unable to see at all. A person in a dark cellar, where there is no light, finds it impossible to see any of the objects which surround him.

When the sun has departed, we obtain light and the power of seeing by means of lamps or candles. Our streets are lighted with gas. A new invention, called the electric light, appears likely to take the place of gas to some extent.

The beautiful art of photography is an example of the wonderful effects of light. Photography, as its name implies, is writing or drawing by means of light. When we look into a glass, we see an image or picture of ourselves drawn by rays of light. By the art of photography this image can be caused to remain, and thus a permanent picture of any person or object is obtained.

31. THE CHARACTER OF BRUTUS.

The character of Brutus, despite its many noble qualities, does not command our admiration. We are rather inclined to deplore that the wonderful gifts with which he was endowed should produce no better fruit than a mistaken life, spent in an effort which resulted neither in happiness to himself nor in benefit to his fellow-men. Out of the very greatness of his nature sprang the faults and mistakes which made his life a failure; and to him, and others like to him, we may apply the words of a great modern writer,--"With dim lights and tangled circumstances, they tried to shape their thought and deed in noble agreement; but, after all, to common eyes, their struggles seemed mere inconsistency and formlessness." And that it should be so is not surprising. If, notwithstanding the help afforded by religion, and the example and teaching of our

Divine Model and Master, we find it hard enough to avoid the danger of self-seeking and self-deception in our striving after what is noble and great, what wonder is there that others without this help should sometimes have confounded what they were with what they wished to be,-should have missed the line between disinterestedness and ingratitude, between laudable ambition and inordinate self-esteem?

That this latter failing was the vulnerable point in the character of Brutus, we have evidence in every scene of Shakespeare's great tragedy. Cassius plays upon it throughout the piece. We see instances of it in his intolerance of the opinion of others, and unquestioning reliance upon his own judgment when deciding against the murder of Mark Antony, in favour of the funeral oration, and later with regard to the movements of the allied armies. Again, this trait of his character shows itself in the warmth with which the slightest aspersion on his conduct is perceived and answered in a way that is inconsistent with his usual calmness and dignity. In the quarrel scene, Brutus maintains his self-possession until Cassius proclaims himself the better general; and a like sensitiveness may be observed a little later in the quickness of his retort—“ No man bears sorrow better!" And again, in the discussion previous to the battle, it is Brutus alone who shows himself personally insulted by Octavius' speech.

As a politician, he was undoubtedly inferior to Cassius. This was partly owing to the refinement of his nature, which shrank from measures which the coarser and bolder Cassius would have adopted without scruple; but there are, nevertheless, instances of narrowness of view and one-sidedness of judgment which seem inconsistent with his cultivated mind and undeniable talent. His ultra-republicanism, which ignored the existence of any redeeming point in a form of government of which he personally did not approve, is an example of this.

Of his virtues, little need be said. His uprightness, his constancy, his tenderness, his self-command, speak for themselves