is
supposed, was better acquainted with books than any man who has yet
lived, declared that of all man could do or make here below, by far the
most momentous, wonderful, and worthy were the things we call books.

HELP OTHERS.

If any members of your family have the love of books, aid them in
satisfying it. Such are the salt of the earth. They are the blazed trees
in the dark forests of the present generations, to mark out that course
which shall, in future ages, be the highway of the whole world.

FRIENDSHIP.

The friend thou hast, and his adoption tried,
Grapple him to thy soul with hooks of steel.--Shakspeare.

I praise the Frenchman, his remark was shrewd,
"How sweet, how passing sweet is solitude!"
But grant me still a friend in my retreat,
Whom I may whisper "Solitude is sweet!"--Cowper.

"Whatever the number of a man's friends" says Lord
Lytton, "there are times in his life when he has one too few." "Life,"
says Sydney Smith, "is to be fortified by many friendships." Says Bishop
Hare: "Friendship is love without its flowers or veil." "A faithful
friend is the true image of the Deity," said Napoleon, who never
believed he had a true friend not a born fool. "A friend loveth at all
times," says the Bible. Says Herr Gotthold: "with a clear sky, a bright
sun, and a gentle breeze, you will have friends in plenty, but let
fortune frown and the firmament be overcast, and then your friends will
prove

LIKE THE STRINGS OF THE LUTE,

of which you will tighten ten before you find one that will bear the
stretch and keep the pitch." "What an argument in favor of social
connections," says Lord Greville, "is the observation that by
communicating our grief we have less, and by communicating our pleasures
we have more." Horace Walpole has given clear expression to one of the
chief pleasures of friendship:

"OLD FRIENDS

are the great blessings of one's latter years. Half a word conveys one's
meaning. They have memory of the same events, and have the same mode of
thinking. I have young relations that may grow upon me, for my nature is
affectionate, but can they grow old friends? My age forbids that. Still
less can they grow companions. Is it friendship to explain half one
says? One must relate the history of one's memory and ideas; and what is
that to the young but old stories?" "Fast won, fast lost," says
Shakspeare. Says Dr. Johnson: "If a man does not make new acquaintance