g deductions of logic, the high purpose, the firm
resolve, the dauntless spirit, speaking on the tongue, beaming from the
eye, informing every feature, and urging the whole man onward, right
onward to his object,--this, this is eloquence; or rather it is something
greater and higher than all eloquence,--it is action, noble, sublime,
god-like action.

DANIEL WEBSTER.

* * * * *

TRUTH AT LAST.

Does a man ever give up hope, I wonder,--
Face the grim fact, seeing it clear as day?
When Bennen saw the snow slip, heard its thunder
Low, louder, roaring round him, felt the speed
Growing swifter as the avalanche hurled downward,
Did he for just one heart-throb--did he indeed
Know with all certainty, as they swept onward,
There was the end, where the crag dropped away?
Or did he think, even till they plunged and fell,
Some miracle would stop them? Nay, they tell
That he turned round, face forward, calm and pale,
Stretching his arms out toward his native vale.
As if in mute, unspeakable farewell,
And so went down.--'Tis something if at last,
Though only for a flash, a man may see
Clear-eyed the future as he sees the past,
From doubt, or fear, or hope's illusion free.

EDWARD ROWLAND SILL.

* * * * *

WORK.

1. What is wise work, and what is foolish work? What the difference
between sense and nonsense, in daily occupation? There are three tests of
wise work:--that it must be honest, useful and cheerful.

It is _Honest_. I hardly know anything more strange than that you
recognize honesty in play, and do not in work. In your lightest games, you
have always some one to see what you call "fair-play." In boxing, you must
hit fair; in racing, start fair. Your English watchword is
"fair-_play_," your English hatred, "foul-_play_." Did it never
strike you that you wanted another watchword also, "fair-_work_," and
another and bitterer hatred,--"foul-_work_"?

2. Then wise work is _Useful_. No man minds, or ought to mind, its
being hard, if only it comes to something; but when it is hard and comes
to nothing, when all our bees' business turns to spiders', and for
honey-comb we have only resultant cobweb, blown away by the next
breeze,--that is the cruel thing for the worker. Yet do we ever ask
ourselves, personally, or even nationally, whether our work is coming to
anything or not?

3. Then wise work is _Cheerful_, as a child's work is. Everybody i