ier's home, and an alarm ......_Campbell._

* * * * *

_The Pyramids._--The Egyptians, according to Herodotus, hated the memory
of the kings who built the pyramids. The great pyramid occupied a hundred
thousand men for twenty years in its erection, without counting the
workmen who were employed in hewing the stones and conveying them to the
spot where the pyramid was built. Herodotus speaks of this work as a
torment to the people, and doubtless, the labour engaged in raising huge
masses of stone, that was extensive enough to employ a hundred thousand
men for twenty years, equal to two millions of men for one year, must have
been fearfully tormenting. It has been calculated that the steam engines
of England worked by thirty-six thousand men, would raise the same
quantity of stones from the quarry, and elevate them to the same height as
the great pyramid, in the short space of eighteen hours. It was recorded
on the pyramid, that the onions, radishes, and garlic, which the labourers
consumed, cost sixteen hundred talents of silver, which is equivalent to
several million pounds.

SWAINE.

* * * * *

The generality of mankind will not bear to be viewed too closely, or too
often: they lose their value on a nearer approach; which made the honest
countrymen say to his friend, who was boasting of a legacy bestowed upon
him by a person, into whose company he had accidentally fallen only once
in his life, "Ah, Jonathan, if he had seen thee twice, he would not have
left thee a farthing."

_Friendship._--Friendship is of so delicate and so nice a texture, so
defenceless against evil impressions, and so apt to wither at the least
blast of jealousy, that we may say with Horace,

Felices ter et amplius,
Quos irrupta tenet copula; nec malis
Divulsus querimoniis,
Suprema citius solvet amor die.
_Ode_ 13, _lib_. i.

"Happy, thrice happy they, whose friendships prove
One constant scene of unmolested love,
Whose hearts right temper'd feel no various turns,
No coolness chills them, and no madness burns.
But free from anger, doubts, and jealous fear,
Die as they liv'd, united and sincere."

* * * * *

The love between friends is certainly most harmonious when wound up to the
highest pitch; but at that very time, is in greatest danger of breaking:
and upon the whole, the strongest friendships may be compar