el._

2040

Youth is not the era of wisdom; let us therefore have due consideration.

--_Rivarol._

2041

He who pursues an idle wish
But climbs a tree to catch a fish.

--_Chinese._

2042

Best wishes! What avails that phrase, unless
Best services attend them.

--_Plautus._

2043

Wishing, of all employments, is the worst.

--_Young._

2044

You beat your pate, and fancy wit will come,
Knock as you please, there's nobody at home.

--_Pope._

2045

An eye witness outweighs others.

--_From the Latin._

2046

No greater woe
Can be, than to remember happy days
In misery.

2047

By telling our woes we often assuage them.

--_Danish._

2048

A fashionable woman is always in love--with herself.

2049

A WOMAN'S QUESTION.

Before I trust my fate to thee,
Or place my hand in thine,
Before I let thy future give
Color and form to mine,
Before I peril all for thee,
Question thy soul to-night for me.

I break all slighter bonds, nor feel
A shadow of regret:
Is there one link within the past
That holds thy spirit yet?
Or is thy faith as clear and free
As that which I can pledge to thee?

Does there within thy dimmest dreams
A possible future shine,
Wherein thy life could henceforth breathe,
Untouched, unshared by mine?
If so, at any pains or cost,
Oh, tell me before all is lost.

Look deeper still. If thou canst feel
Within thy inmost soul,
That thou hast kept a portion back,
While I have staked the whole,--
Let no false pity spare the blow,
But in true mercy tell me so.

Is there within thy heart a need
That mine cannot fulfil?
One cord that any other hand
Could better wake or still?
Speak now--lest at some future day
My whole life wither and decay.

--_Adelaide Anne Proctor._

2050

A WOMAN'S NOBLEST STATION.

Seek to be good, but aim