th men who
have vindicated their divine right to be held in the world's memory. Let
the master passion of the soul evoke undaunted energy in pursuit of the
attainment of one end, aiming for the highest in the spirit of the
lowest, prompted by the burning thought of reward, which sooner or later
will come."

We perceive that Michael Reynolds possesses one of the prime requisites
of success: he believes in the worth and dignity of his vocation; and in
writing this little book he has done something to elevate it in the
regard of others. To judge from some of his directions, I should suppose
that engineers in England are not, as a class, as well educated or as
intelligent as ours. Locomotive engineers in the United States rank very
high in intelligence and respectability of character.

MAJOR ROBERT PIKE,

FARMER.

I advise people who desire, above all things, to have a comfortable time
in the world to be good conservatives. Do as other people do, think as
other people think, swim with the current--that is the way to glide
pleasantly down the stream of life. But mark, O you lovers of inglorious
ease, the men who are remembered with honor after they are dead do not
do so! They sometimes _breast_ the current, and often have a hard time
of it, with the water splashing back in their faces, and the easy-going
crowd jeering at them as they pant against the tide.

This valiant, stalwart Puritan, Major Robert Pike, of Salisbury,
Massachusetts, who was born in 1616, the year in which Shakespeare died,
is a case in point. Salisbury, in the early day, was one of the frontier
towns of Massachusetts, lying north of the Merrimac River, and close to
the Atlantic Ocean. For fifty years it was a kind of outpost of that
part of the State. It lay right in the path by which the Indians of
Maine and Canada were accustomed to slink down along the coast, often
traveling on the sands of the beaches, and burst upon the settlements.
During a long lifetime Major Pike was a magistrate and personage in that
town, one of the leading spirits, upon whom the defense of the frontier
chiefly devolved.

Others were as brave as he in fighting Indians. Many a man could acquit
himself valiantly in battle who would not have the courage to differ
from the public opinion of his community. But on several occasions, when
Massachusetts was wrong, Major Pike was right; and he had the courage
sometimes to resist the current of opinion when it was swollen i