Year: 1869

cumstances, to whom heroism
seemed heritage, and to be noble
a natural way of living. But they
were SO IN spite of their poverty,
not because of it,. What they might
have been had the world done bet
ter by them, cannot tell; but, if
their minds had been enriched by
culture, the world had been the
gamer. When Christ said, Blessed
are they that suffer- he did not
speak of those who suffer from
want and hunger, and who always
see the Bastile looming up and
blotting out the sky of their future
Such suffering brutalizes. True
natures ripen and strengthen in
suffering; but it is that suffering
which chastens and ennobles-that
which clears the spiritual sight; not
the anxiety lest work should fail,
and the want of daily bread. The
beauty of Suffering is not to be read
in the face of Hunger


This is one side of the shield
one very truthful and important. I
kmow 1T, and thousands who have
wrestled with and vanquished
Destitution will unite in bearing like
testimony to Massey's. Poverty is
rugged mother, and Destitution
may teach us to bear with fortitude,
but not to live noblv and to lofty
ends. If in the hovel or hut we
learn that great lesson-the sum of
all knowledge-we learn it in spite
of circumstances, not by reason of
them. He who is doomed to anx-
ious, daily struggle for scanty daily
bread, is most unlikely to aspire to
aught higher and nobler than
physical comforts. There was sad
truth in the ragged. newsboy's re-
sponse to the philanthropist who
reproved his dishonesty in borrow
ing sixpence of a brother newsboy,
and coming up defaulter at the
appointed time Of payment. "You
should always make a point of
fulfilling every promise to the let
ter,'' said Philanthropy. "Yes, sill y
responded Mercury: ''but suppose
you're short, and can't p


All, many a man whose first step
downward on the ladder Of misfor
tune was simple Insolvency has
landed at the bottom in irre.leemable
Knavery. Indeed, an old NV
York merchant affiirms, as the
result of extensive observation, that
he has never known a man become
hopelessly bankrupt yet maintain an
unblemished reputation for integrity
This may be to sweeping; yet the
great truth that urgent need is one
main source of moral ruin cannot be
too deeply considered in our plans
of education. To send out you'll
into a world of struggle and tempta
ton unqualified to earn the means
of satisfying his legitimate wants, i.
to launch him on boiling current
hurrying swiftly toward the deadly
Niagara Of destruction. The frs
guaranty of youths integrity
through life may be good mora
discipline, resulting in the adoption
of correct principles; but the next
; essential to the support of this, is
that industrial skill or training
which will insure him, in the always
possible case Of failure in one
vocation, ready access to another
and SO guaranty him a fair liveli
hood against any but the remotest
contingency.


And herein is where our Ameri
can systems of Education are
destined eventually to impress the
civilized world, as more clearly
; comprising the great practical wan
Of each individual man or woman
who may need-in any pressing OF
remote event-the facilities of self
support; the chief of which, o.
more properly, the sum of which, is


many sidedmess; the ability, if one
thing fails, to turn, without hesi
tation or discontinue, to another
This is, happily, the tendency of ou7
best approved system of instruction
to-day.


), But, while Poverty has ats un
questioned and formidable perils
Wealth, too, has its dangers, differ
ent from those, but not less real
perhaps not formidable. OF these
will speak in continuation OF this
subject.