the handwriting. Earnestly desirous of im ment, and laboring sedulously to that en still find, after a long interval, that we after all made little or no progress. ferring to what we have written during period, we discover some inequalities i merit of our chirography, and that we written better at one time and worse at ar owing to the state of our nerves, and th ing which we happened to have at the for what we were about, but the avera find to be the same, and we are annoy perceiving that our style of writing is su tially as at first. The reason of all this i we have adhered too much to preconceived of how letters should be formed, instead of ping or largely modifying them, and subst better, as indispensable preliminaries to t provement we court.

Order of Progress-About the first t people do when they emerge out of a sta barbarism is to improve their weapons of and defence; next they improve in their ing; next in dress; next in their habita next in morals; next in manners; next in

customs; next in laws; then in government; then in commerce; then in wealth; then in the arts; then in learning; then in intelligence; then in wisdom, and last in goodness.

Political Progress -The world is getting on so fast, that the only safe rule for a theorist to adopt, who wishes not to be distanced and left out of sight by the march of events and the progress of principles, is to start as a radical. Even so, unless he keeps pace with the advances of the time, and appropriates at least some of its "thick coming fancies," he will get to be thought of in a few years as tending to conservatism.*

* As indicating, within a brief space, the rapid progress of modern society, let me quote two passages, one from Motley's "Dutch Republic," describing the state of society in the twelfth century, and the other from Hume, giving a picture of the mode of living in England only three or four centuries ago.

Says Motley: "The number of slaves throughout the Netherlands was very large; the number belonging to the bishopric of Utrecht enormous. The condition of those belonging to laymen was much more painful. The lyf-eigere, or absolute slaves, were the most wretched. They were mere brutes. They had none of the natural attributes of humanity, their life and death were in their master's hands, they had no claim to a fraction of their own labor, or its fruits."

And Hume says: "Erasmus ascribes the frequent plagues in England in his time to the nastiness and dirt and slov

And yet, political progress, to be perma must be gradual. An unlooked-for triu attended by a measure of success beyond expectations of the most sanguine, has the effect as a signal and unexpected defeat bewilders, and finds us unprepared to mee exigencies to which it gives rise. one party has been thus ruined. sudden, and, for the moment, the most com revolutions upon record, were those of But they were also, and for the reason cated, the least permanent in their duration

enly habits among the people. The floors,' says h commonly of clay, strewed with rushes, under whi unmolested an ancient collection of beer, grease, frag bones, excrements of dogs and cats, and everything nasty. Hollingshed, who lived in Queen Elizabeth's gives a very curious account of the plain, or rather ru of living of the preceding generation. There was sca chimney to the houses, even in considerable towns; was kindled by the wall, and the smoke sought its w at the roof, or door, or windows: the houses were but wattling plastered over with clay; the people s straw pallets, and had a good round log under their h a pillow, and almost all the furniture and utensils w wood.'"

*The chase, formerly the pastime of kings and no 1848 became that of the people, with this differenc they had then kings themselves as the objects of the suit. Unfortunately for them, as the result disclosed, t imperfectly understood the rules of the noble sport to they were called, and allowed their game to escape

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Social Progress -The permanence of political progress, again, is in every instance determined by the measure and character of the social proIngress that has preceded or accompanies it. deed, notable events of every kind are of very great importance only so far as they are associated with, or tend to promote, social improvement. Science may achieve its miracles, and art its wonders; poetry may weave its numbers, and music enchant by its harmonies; but they are as nothing till yoked to the car of social progress, and made auxiliary to the great ends of enriching the poor, enlightening the ignorant, and elevating the degraded.

Ultimate of Progress- Probably the highest condition to which any community in the past has arrived, affords but a faint type of that loftier elevation to which society at large is advancing. Relieved from the prejudices that once enthralled his spirit, and victorious over the limitations that art and science will banish from the domain of his circumstances, the Man of the Future, invested with the graces of Apollo, the wings of Mercury, and the strength of Mars, will contrast with the Man of the Present as Hyperion to a Satyr."

OD has not made this our life of pre

tion altogether lovely, for then it wou too short, and hard to leave; nor yet altog pitiful, for then it would be too long, and to bear.

NAUTHORIZED punishment of cri itself a crime.

Capital Punishment - Lord Clarendon' mark that hanging is just the poorest u which a man can be put, is too temperate fails to express the intensity of disgust I towards this worst relic of a receding barba To vindicate the sanctity of human life by ing it is an outrage upon reason. The s cle of a human being dangling at the end gallows-rope is a degradation of humanity.

Eternal Punishment - We believe that power is without limit: why should we n lieve the same of his mercy?