et the lamp smoke all you want to!"

"Aaron--" she began, just as she had begun that other night, "Aaron--"
but she didn't finish, and--Well, well, no matter; I guess you don't
want to hear any more, do you?

But sometimes I think, Johnny, when it comes my time to go,--if ever it
does,--I've waited a good while for it,--the first thing I shall see
will be her face, looking as it looked at me just then.

BUSY BRAINS.

A CHAPTER OF LITERARY ANECDOTE.

Of all working systems, the Mind seems most pertinacious in concealing
the method of its operations. "No admittance" is inscribed upon the door
of the laboratories of the brain. Approaching a psychological inquiry is
like entering a manufactory: curious to observe its ingenious processes,
we find that, though we may penetrate its court-yard and ware-rooms,
every precaution is taken by its polite proprietors to prevent our
interrogating its workmen or understanding its methods. The intellect
often displays proudly her works; she has the assurance to attempt to
answer questions about all things else in heaven and earth; but when her
life is the subject of inquiry, that life seems to elude her own
observation. We see in the evening sky stars so dim that the eye cannot
fix upon them; we only catch glimpses of them when we are looking at
some other point aside; the moment we turn the eye full upon them, they
are lost to our sight. This covert and transient vision is the best
which men have ever yet caught of the Mind, which they have studied so
long to know. The metaphysicians look directly at it, and to them it is
invisible, and they cannot agree what it is, nor how it moves. And when
we look aside at the anatomy and physiology of the human frame, or, on
the other hand, at the complex and endless variety of human actions and
human experience, we catch only a partial and unsatisfactory glimpse of
the soul which is beyond.

Thought, as we have suggested, will uncover to us almost anything sooner
than the secrets of its own power. It has explained much about the
conditions of rapid vegetation, and how to procure profitable crops from
the earth; but how little has it yet disclosed of the conditions which
secure vigorous thinking, and best promote the development of truth!

But some one may say: "I supposed that the conditions of mental activity
were well known; they are quiet, peace of mind, neither too much nor too
little food, and a subject which interests the feeli