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