nfettered soul--that it is a _feeble soil_, which,
without the sweat of labor and the tears of sorrow, produces nothing
but the weeds of sin and the thorny briars of remorse? Have you
learned all this, and are you not a wiser and a better man? Let all
who have traveled for pleasure answer the question to themselves.

Truly your friend,

JOHN E. WARREN.

* * * * *

The Rev Henry Giles, in a lecture on "Manliness," thus designates
the four great characteristics which have distinguished mankind. "The
Hebrew was mighty by the power of Faith--the Greek by Knowledge and
Art--the Roman by Arms--but the might of the Modern Man is placed in
Work. This is shown by the peculiar pride of each. The pride of the
Hebrew was in Religion--the pride of the Greek was in Wisdom--the
pride of the Roman was in Power--the pride of the Modern Man is placed
in Wealth."

* * * * *

Carlyle and Emerson.--They are not finished writers, but great
quarries of thought and imagery. Of the two, Emerson is much the finer
spirit. He has not the radiant range of imagination or any of the
rough power of Carlyle, but his placid, piercing insight irradiates
the depth of truth further and clearer than do the strained glances of
the latter. A higher mental altitude than Carlyle has mounted, by most
strenuous effort, Emerson has serenely assumed.

* * * * *

AUTHORS AND BOOKS.

The Literature of Supernaturalism was never more in request than since
the Seeresses of Rochester commenced their levees at Barnum's Hotel.
The journals have been filled with jesting and speculation upon the
subject,--mountebank tricksters and shrewd professors have plied their
keenest wits to discover the processes of the rappings--and Mrs. Fish
and the Foxes in spite of them all preserve their secret, or at least
are as successful as ever in persuading themselves and others that
they are admitted to communications with the spiritual world. For
ourselves, while we can suggest no explanation of these phenomena,
and while in every attempted explanation of them which we have seen,
we detect some such difficulty or absurdity as makes necessary its
rejection, we certainly could never for a moment be tempted to a
suspicion that there is anything supernatural in the matter. Such
an idea is simply ridiculous, and will be tolerated only by the
ignorant, the feeble-minded, or the insane. Still