when heard from the platform.  Their greatest spiritual danger is from the perpetual flattery of abuse to which they are exposed.  These lines are meant to caution them.

Saint Anthony the reformer.

His temptation.

     No fear lest praise should make us proud! 
     We know how cheaply that is won;
     The idle homage of the crowd
     Is proof of tasks as idly done.

     A surface-smile may pay the toil
     That follows still the conquering Right,
     With soft, white hands to dress the spoil
     That sunbrowned valor clutched in fight.

     Sing the sweet song of other days,
     Serenely placid, safely true,
     And o’er the present’s parching ways
     Thy verse distils like evening dew.

     But speak in words of living power,
     —­They fall like drops of scalding rain
     That plashed before the burning shower
     Swept o’er the cities of the plain!

     Then scowling Hate turns deadly pale,
     —­Then Passion’s half-coiled adders spring,
     And, smitten through their leprous mail,
     Strike right and left in hope to sting.

     If thou, unmoved by poisoning wrath,
     Thy feet on earth, thy heart above,
     Canst walk in peace thy kingly path,
     Unchanged in trust, unchilled in love,—­

     Too kind for bitter words to grieve,
     Too firm for clamor to dismay,
     When Faith forbids thee to believe,
     And Meekness calls to disobey,—­

     Ah, then beware of mortal pride! 
     The smiling pride that calmly scorns
     Those foolish fingers, crimson dyed
     In laboring on thy crown of thorns!

IX

One of our boarders—­perhaps more than one was concerned in it—­sent in some questions to me, the other day, which, trivial as some of them are, I felt bound to answer.

1.—­Whether a lady was ever known to write a letter covering only a single page?

To this I answered, that there was a case on record where a lady had but half a sheet of paper and no envelope; and being obliged to send through the post-office, she covered only one side of the paper (crosswise, lengthwise, and diagonally).

2.—­What constitutes a man a gentleman?

To this I gave several answers, adapted to particular classes of questioners.

a.  Not trying to be a gentleman.

b.  Self-respect underlying courtesy.

c.  Knowledge and observance of the fitness of things in social intercourse.

d. f. s. d. (as many suppose.)

3.—­Whether face or figure is most attractive in the female sex?

Answered in the following epigram, by a young man about town: 

     Quoth Tom, “Though fair her features be,
     It is her figure pleases me.” 
     “What may her figure be?” I cried. 
     “One hundred thousand!” he replied.