as a cashier, ruined his bank by
stealing money to enable him, for a while, to live in an elegant house
and support servants, equipages, silks and diamonds galore. For a time
he was the idol of the town, while he gave costly dinners and showered
his ill-gotten gains to embellish his favorite temple, and to build a
tower upon it to look down in contempt upon all the lesser shrines.

He barely escaped the sheriff at night-time, and fled beyond the seas,
leaving his showy family to poverty and the ill-concealed derision of
those who worshipped them while they were supposed to be rich.

Such as these made life very uncomfortable for me, and at the end of
my year, I left in disgust; never again to resume the profession in
which I had spent so many years of my somewhat checkered existence.
My life seemed a failure; I reflected long upon the question of the
Psalmist, "What is man?" and here are the answers which I culled from
many thoughtful poets, whose names are appended to their several
replies.

In this grand wheel, the world, we're spokes made all;--
(_Brome_.)

He who climbs high, endangers many a fall;--(_Chaucer_.)

A passing gleam called life is o'er us thrown,--(_Story_.)

It glimmers, like a meteor, and is gone.--(_Rogers_.)

To-morrow's sun to thee may never rise--(_Congreve_.)

The flower that smiles to-day, to-morrow dies--(_Shelly_.)

And what do we, by all our bustle gain?--(_Pomfret_.)

A drop of pleasure in a sea of pain.--(_Tupper_.)

Tired of beliefs, we dread to live without;--(_Holmes_.)

Yet who knows most, the more he knows to doubt.--(_Daniel_.)

Princes and lords are but the breath of kings.--(_Burns_.)

And trifles make the sum of human things.--(_More_.)

If troubles overtake thee, do not wail;--(_Herbert_.)

Our thoughts are boundless, though our frames are
frail.--(_Percival_.)

The fiercest agonies have shortest reign;--(_Bryant_.)

Great sorrows have no leisure to complain.--(_Gaffe_.)

One touch of nature makes the whole world kin,--(_Shakespeare_.)

For we the same are that our sires have been;--(_Knox_.)

Nor is a true soul ever born for naught,--(_Lowell_.)

Yet millions never think a noble thought.--(_Bailey_.)

Good actions crown themselves with lasting bays,--(_Heath_.)

And God fulfils Himself in many ways.--(_Tennyson_.)

The world's a wood in which all lose their way--(_Buckingham_.)

A fair where thousan