way they came in. So that in the right definition of names lies the first use of speech, which is the acquisition of science, and in wrong or no definitions lies the first abuse; from which proceed all false and senseless tenets, which make those men that take their instruction from the authority of books, and not from their own meditation, to be as much below the condition of ignorant men as men endued with true science are above it. For between true science and erroneous doctrines, ignorance is in the middle. Natural sense and imagination are not subject to absurdity. Nature itself cannot err; and as men abound in copiousness of language, so they become more wise or more mad than ordinary. Nor is it possible without letters for any man to become either excellently wise, or, unless his memory be hurt by disease or ill constitution of organs, excellently foolish. For words are wise men's counters they do but reckon by them but they are the money of fools, that value them by the authority of an Aristotle, a Cicero, or a Thomas, or any other doctor whatsoever, if but a man. — Miscellaneous Essays.

OCKING, JOSEPH, an English clergyman and novelist; born at St. Stephens, Cornwall in 1859. He was educated at Owens College, and in 1884 entered the Nonconformist ministry. His brother, SILAS KITTO HOCKING, a Methodist clergyman and novelist, was born at St. Stephens, March 24, 1850. He was ordained a minister in the Methodist Free Church in 1870, and after holding pastorates in Liverpool, Manchester and elsewhere, resigned from the ministry in 1896. He is a prolific writer of popular fiction. His works include Alec Green (1878); For Light and Liberty (1890); One

in Charity (1893); A Son of Rueben (1894); God's Outcast (1898); The Awakening of Anthony Weir (1901); and Gripped (1902).

The novels of Joseph Hocking include The Scarlet Woman (1899); The Purple Robe (1900); The Madness of David Baring (1900); Greater Love (1901); Lest We Forget (1902); The Story of Andrew Fairfax (1903); A Flame of Fire (1903); All Men Are Liars (1904); and The Coming of the King (1905).

The Coming of the King is a powerful historical romance having for its scene and period England at the time of the Restoration of Charles II. The Duke of York, afterwards James II, is strongly portrayed. The author's novels have been compared by The Spectator to Baring-Gould's, by The London Star to Thomas Hardy's, and by other journals to Hall Caine's; but they are one and all stamped with striking and original individuality, and it is not surprising that Mr. Hocking's books are welcomed by a large and ever-increasing public. A recent review says of The Coming of the King:

DURING THE RESTORATION.

This is the story of one Roland Rashcliffe, told by himself and setting forth a number of goodly adventures and dangerous escapades, knight errantry, and love requited at last. Roland's father having met with reverses in fortune through the fickleness of Kings, placed his faith in no man, neither Stuart nor Cromwell, and reared his only son to this way of thinking. So that when the Protectorate finally came to its end and Charles Stuart came back to England amid welcoming shouts, the elder Rashcliffe wisely shook his head and cautioned his son once more. However, what was not to be gained by loyalty might be had by threats, and so, having heard of

the existence of a marriage contract between Charles II. and one Lucy Walters, a girl of surpassing beauty, young Roland was dispatched with all haste in search of this paper, which was to be used by the Rashcliffes, elder and younger, to wrest favors from their King and the King's brother, James of York.

Naturally there are dangers surrounding the securing of this paper. Also the elder Rashcliffe had not counted on the Quixotic spirit of honor which flourished in the breast of young Roland. It was not for self-advancement that he sought these papers, but because he would have justice shown the eleven-year-old son of Lucy Walters. But this youthful enthusiasm was soon to be turned toward another object. To an inn near Bedford, which in turn was near Pycroft, the weird old estate where the precious paper was said to be, came Sir Charles Denman and a lady, said to be his wife, and who, in fact, answered to the title of Mistress Denman. Roland, seeing the signal of sorrow and distress in the lady's pale cheeks, swore to protect her even against her will: nearly forgot the precious papers in his zeal to keep her from harm, even gave up the chase for the papers altogether; endured imprisonment for two years, and finally rode down the lady's objections and carried her off, a willing captive, to the New World. All this, of course, after it had been proved that neither was she the wife of the wicked Sir Charles Denman nor had she attempted the murder of General Monk, afterward the Duke of Albemarle, for which she had been imprisoned.

All these things, of course, lead to complications in plenty. The book presents pictures of Charles II., his dissolute Court, and his bitter persecution of the Puritans and all followers of Cromwell, while, besides the Duke of York, afterward James II., John Bunyan, as an earnest preacher and victim of the King's wrath, finds his way into the tale.

OFFMAN, CHARLES FENNO, an American poet and novelist; born at New York in 1806; died

at Harrisburg, Pa., June 7, 1884. He entered Columbia College, but left without graduating; was admitted to the bar in 1827, but soon devoted himself to literature and journalism. He was the first editor of the Knickerbocker Magazine, and subsequently of other periodicals. In 1846 he became editor of the Literary World; but three years later a mental disorder incapacitated him for intellectual labor, and the last thirty years of his life were passed in seclusion. In 1833 he made a horseback tour in the Northwest, an account of which was published under the title of A Winter in the West. In 1837 he published Wild Scenes in Forest and Prairie, and in 1846 Greyslaer, a Romance of the Hudson. He published at various times volumes of Poems, a complete collection of which, edited by his nephew, was brought out in 1874.

A MORNING HYMN.

"Let there be light!" The Eternal spoke;
And from the abyss where darkness rode,
The earliest dawn of nature broke,

And light around creation flowed.
The glad earth smiled to see the day,
The first-born day came blushing in;
The young day smiled to shed its ray
Upon a world untouched by sin.

"Let there be light!" O'er heavens and earth, The God who first the day-beam poured,

Uttered again His fiat forth,

And shed the Gospel's light abroad.

And, like the dawn, its cheering rays
On rich and poor were meant to fall;
Inspiring their Redeemer's praise,
In lowly cot and lordly hall.

Then come, when in the orient first
Flushes the signal light for prayer;
Come with the earliest beams that burst

From God's bright throne of glory there.
Come kneel to Him who through the night
Hath watched above thy sleeping soul,
To Him whose mercies, like His light,
Are shed abroad from pole to pole.

'MONTEREY.

We were not many- we who stood
Before the iron sleet that day;
Yet many a gallant spirit would
Give half his years if then he could
Have been with us at Monterey.

Now here, now there, the shot, it hailed
In deadly drifts of fiery spray,

Yet not a single soldier quailed

When wounded comrades round them wailed

Their dying shout at Monterey.

And on - still on

our column kept

Through walls of flames its withering way; Where fell the dead, the living stepped, Still charging on the guns that swept The slippery streets of Monterey.

The foe himself recoiled aghast,

When, striking where he strongest lay, We swooped his flanking batteries past, And, braving full their murderous blast, Stormed home the towers of Monterey.