overcoming evil. If the angry and revengeful person would only govern his passions, and light the lamp of affection in his heart, that it might stream out in his features and actions, he would soon discover a wide difference in his communion with the world. The gentle would no longer avoid him; friends would not approach him with a frown; the weak would no longer meet him with dread; children would no longer shrink from him with fear; he would find that his kindness wins all by its smile, giving them confidence and securing their friendship. Verily I say to you, that kindness is mightier than the conqueror; for the conqueror subdues only the body-K -KINDNESS SUBDUES THE SOUL1.

To the list of those bright names, whose title to the world's esteem rests on a foundation more immutable than that of either "king or kaisar," should be added that of the Cardinal Frederick Borromeo, archbishop of Milan, in the early part of the seventeenth century. The dispensations of his charity were co-extensive with the boundless range of his sympathies; nor did he lack that other "excellent gift," which St. Paul has so finely described by negatives; his humility, self-denial, and charitable construction of the words and deeds of others, were indeed carried to excess. With a princely revenue at his command, his diet was that of a hermit, and his garb a type of the simplicity of his pure and elevated character. Excepting the sum annually devoted to the patronage of literature, all his vast means were expended in benevolence. But it was more especially during the fearful famine of Milan, A. D. 1629-30, and the pestilence which followed hard upon the dearth, that the active beneficence of his nature was most prominently developed, that the law of kindness received a perpetual and practical illustration in the tenor of his daily acts, and secured for the good prelate the grateful affection of contemporaries, and the reverential regard of posterity. Ripamonti, Rivola, Tadino, Verri, and

to

many writers who flourished shortly after that terrible epoch, bear concurring testimony to the unwearying philanthropy and zeal of the venerable cardinal. While famine raged, he practised the most rigorous self-denial, in order that he might feed the famishing, distributed his alms in person, and secretly sheltered whole families of the poor within the archiepiscopal palace. When the pestilence prevailed, the Christian ardour of the prelate suffered no abatement, but, on the contrary, appeared to rise with the exigencies of the event. "He visited the pest-houses," says a recent Italian writer, " console the stricken and animate the attendants; he traversed the city, bearing succours to the poor, sequestered in their hovels, tarrying at their thresholds and beneath their windowsills, to listen to their moans, and breathe in exchange words of cheer and consolation. In fine, he lived in the midst of contagion, so that even to himself it ultimately became a marvel that he should have escaped unscathed." Such was the Cardinal Borromeo, and such the fitting actions of a life spent in obedience to the mandates of the law of kindness.(W.)

CHAPTER IV.

THE DISARMING FORCE OF KINDNESS.

"It is very true, as mother used to tell me, if you want to love people, or almost to love them, just do them a kindness, think how you can set about to make them happier, and the love, or something that will answer the purpose, will be pretty sure to come."-RICH POOR MAN, p. 11.

THE object of this chapter is to present an additional number of instances from the workshop of human life, to exhibit the power of kindness in subduing enmity and changing foes into friends. And it will be observed here, as in the last chapter, that these instances are not dreams, the mere outbreakings of fancy or falsehood; but they are tangible facts, as far beyond doubt as they are excellent in spirit.

It is well known that Quakers, or Friends, have adopted the non-resistance principle, or the law, "Overcome evil with good." The founder of Philadelphia, William Penn, was completely armed with the spirit of this principle. When he visited America, he came without cannon or sword, and with a determination to meet the Indians with truth and kindness. He bought their land, and paid them; he made a treaty with them, and observed it; and

he always treated them as men. As a specimen of the manner in which he met the Indians, the following instance is very striking. There were some fertile and excellent lands which, in 1698, Penn ascertained were excluded from his first purchase, and as he was very desirous of obtaining them, he made the proposal to the Indians that he would buy those lands, if they were willing. They returned for answer, that they had no desire to sell the spot where their fathers were deposited, but "to please their father Onas," as they named Penn, they said that he should have some of the lands. This being decided, they concluded the bargain, that Penn might have as much land as a young man could travel round in one day, "beginning at the great river Cosquanco (now Kensington), and ending at the great river Kallapingo (now Bristol);" and as an equivalent, they were to receive a certain amount of English goods. Though this plan of measuring the land was of their own selection, yet they were greatly dissatisfied with it, after it had been tried; "for the young Englishman chosen to walk off the tract of land, walked so fast and far, as to greatly astonish and mortify them. The governor observed this dissatisfaction, and asked the cause.

dians.

'The walker cheated us,' said the In

' did

you not

"Ah! how can it be?' said Penn: choose yourselves to have the land measured in this

way ?'

"True!' replied the Indians; but white brother make a big walk.'

"Some of Penn's commissioners waxing warm, said the bargain was a fair one, and insisted that the

Indians ought to abide by it; and if not, should be compelled to it.

66 6

Compelled!' exclaimed Penn: 'how can you compel them without bloodshed? Don't you see this looks to murder?' Then turning with a benignant smile to the Indians, he said: 'Well, brothers, if you have given us too much land for the goods first agreed on, how much more will satisfy you?'

"This proposal gratified them; and they mentioned the quantity of cloth and the number of fishhooks with which they would be satisfied. These were cheerfully given; and the Indians shaking hands with Penn, went away smiling. After they were gone, the governor, looking round on his friends, exclaimed, 'O how sweet and cheap a thing is charity! Some of you spoke just now of compelling these poor creatures to stick to their bargain, that is, in plain English, to fight and kill them, and all about a little piece of land1."

For this kind conduct, manifested in all his actions to the Indians, he was nobly rewarded. The untamed savage of the forest became the warm friend of the white stranger-towards Penn and his followers they buried the war-hatchet, and ever evinced the strongest respect for them. And when the colony of Pennsylvania was pressed for provisions, and none could be obtained from other settlements, which scarcity arose from the increasing number of inhabitants not having time to raise the necessary food-the Indians cheerfully came forward and assisted the colony by the fruits of their labours in hunting. This

1 The Advocate of Peace.

D