iling, always
happy.'

'Mr. Meeker!'

The shrill voice of Arabella is heard.

Hiram groans in spirit.

'Don't you think you had better be wheeled to your room? You know I dine
out to-day.'

'I prefer to sit here. Tell Williams to come to me.'

* * * * *

The shadows fall thicker and faster.

Still Hiram Meeker sits by the window.

Despite my real inclination, I have a morbid desire to linger by his
side.

* * * * *

I hear the sharp ring of the prompter's bell! The curtain is about to
fall. I _cannot_ stay in the gloom alone with that man!--Good by to you,
Hiram!

* * * * *

I breathe again--in the cheerful streets, surrounded by bustling,
earnest, sympathizing humanity.

* * * * *

Reader, what think you? WAS HE SUCCESSFUL?

APHORISMS.

NO. II.

One may effect an _absolute insurance against all real evil_ by the
adoption of a single rule, i. e., _never to do anything against
conscience_. This must be applied in our treatment of ourselves, in body
and mind--especially the former; because there we are most apt to fail.
It must be kept strictly toward the soul, in view of its endless
welfare, and in all our relations to God and man. This, I admit, may not
save us from the invasions of apparent ill; but from the entire
_reality_ of evil, the security thus furnished is absolute. Conscience
is the voice of God in the soul; and no one truly obeying this voice
will meet with permanent harm. This rule, let us further observe, is
most needed where it is least likely to be regarded, i. e., in
circumstances where the voice of conscience is not so decided as in the
case of temptations to palpable vice. Our danger is often greatest,
where we have to resist only an obscure sense of right and wrong, in
seeking the lower gratifications of life. So much the more scrupulous
must we there be.

BENEDICT OF NURSIA AND THE ORDER OF THE BENEDICTINES.

Benedict of Nursia, the founder of the celebrated order which bears his
name, gave to the Western monasticism a fixed and permanent form, and
thus carried it far above the Eastern with its imperfect attempts at
organization, and made it exceedingly profitable to the practical, and
incidentally also to the literary interests of the Catholic Church. He
holds, therefore, the dignity of patriarch of the Western monks. He has
furnish