ent, he justly
regarded himself as a happy man, and was well satisfied with the world
he lived in.

Now, there is nothing more trying to the Christianity or the philosophy
which teaches the vanity of riches than a few hours' domestication in a
family where wealth is employed, not for purposes of ostentation, but
for the perfecting of home comfort and the gratification of refined
intellectual tastes; and as Mr. Stanton leaned back, slippered and
gowned, in one of the easiest of chairs, and began to look over
periodicals and valuable new books from which he had long been excluded,
he might be forgiven for giving a half sigh to the reflection that he
could never be a rich man. "Have you read this review?" said his
companion, handing him one of the leading periodicals of the day across
the table.

"I seldom see reviews," said Mr. Stanton, taking it.

"You lose a great deal," replied the other, "if you have not seen those
by this author--altogether the ablest series of literary efforts in our
time. You clerical gentlemen ought not to sacrifice your literary tastes
entirely to your professional cares. A moderate attention to current
literature liberalizes the mind, and gives influence that you could not
otherwise acquire."

"Literary taste is an expensive thing to a minister," said Mr. Stanton,
smiling: "for the mind, as well as the body, we must forego all
luxuries, and confine ourselves simply to necessaries."

"I would always indulge myself with books and periodicals, even if I had
to scrimp elsewhere," said Mr. Lennox; and he spoke of scrimping with
all the serious good faith with which people of two or three thousand a
year usually speak of these matters.

Mr. Stanton smiled, and waived the subject, wondering mentally where his
friend would find an elsewhere to scrimp, if he had the management of
_his_ concerns. The conversation gradually flowed back to college days
and scenes, and the friends amused themselves with tracing the history
of their various classmates.

"And so Alsop is in the Senate," said Mr. Stanton. "Strange! We did not
at all expect it of him. But do you know any thing of George Bush?"

"O, yes," replied the other; "he went into mercantile life, and the last
I heard he had turned a speculation worth thirty thousand--a shrewd
fellow. I always knew he would make his way in the world."

"But what has become of Langdon?"

"O, he is doing well; he is professor of languages in ---- College, and
I