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in which social forms and institutions are so plastic in the hands of wise and energetic men. By means of universal education and the perfect distribution of knowledge, we are laying the broadest possible basis on which the noblest structure may be raised, if we can only command the wisdom to build aright. The question, therefore, is, whether a whole people thoroughly educated and with the most perfect machinery for the diffusion of knowledge, though starting from a moderate condition of enlightenment, will outrun or fall behind other nations in which the few may be wiser, while the multitude is greatly more ignorant, and in which the forms of government and of social, organization are more rigid, and inaccessible to change or improvement. To answer this question will not cause much hesitation, at least in the mind of an American; and if we are not altogether what we think ourselves, the wisest and best of mankind, we may at least claim to be on the way to the highest improvement, with no serious obstacles in our path. OUR FRIENDS ABROAD. Two souls alone are friends of ours In all the British isles; Who sorrow for our darkened hours And greet our luck with smiles. "And who may those twain outcasts be Whose favor ye have won?" The first is Queen of England's realm, The other that good Queen's son. WAS HE SUCCESSFUL? 'Do but grasp into the thick of human life. Every one _lives_ it--to not many is it _known_; and seize it where you will, it is interesting.'--_Goethe._ 'SUCCESSFUL.--Terminating in accomplishing what is wished or intended.'--_Webster's Dictionary._ CHAPTER IX. DIAMOND CUT--PASTE. Elihu Joslin belonged to that class of knaves who are cowardly as well as unscrupulous. He never hesitated to cheat where he had an opportunity, trusting to his powers of blustering and browbeating to sustain him. When these failed, that is, when he encountered persons who were not imposed on nor intimidated by his swaggering, bullying mien, he showed his craven nature by an abject submission. From being an errand boy in an old-established paper house in the city, he had himself become the proprietor of a large business in the same line. He had but a single idea--to make money. And he did make it. His reputation among the trade was very bad. But this did not, as it ought to have done, put him out of the pale of business negotiations. Every merchant knows th
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