SOCIETY.

"Without good company, all dainties

Lose their true relish, and, like painted grapes,
Are only seen, not tasted."

-PHILIP MASSINGER.

OCIETY and social intercourse, when of a proper kind, is a very important aid to human enjoyment. The man who has no society becomes morbid in his feelings and views, sharp, angular, and disagreeably peculiar in his opinions, grows self-conceited, and is apt to fancy himself and his things as the center of the universe in importance and value. And when, with these views, he attempts to make others and the things of others revolve around him. and his own affairs, he at once encounters an opposi tion which either frightens him back into deeper and closer retirement, or else arouses in him an honest but ill-grounded indignation, which makes him the laughing-stock of all with whom he attempts to deal. To such an one life becomes an entirely unsatisfactory, one-sided, and comparatively useless possession. Therefore, all should cultivate social relations, and thus give vent to the social instincts of their natures. It is good to have self and personal cares go into the background occasionally, and let the interests and

welfare of others come to the front. It is good to measure ourselves, our views, feelings, and achievements, by the lives and thoughts of those about us. There is also real culture and refinement to be gained in good society One gets the sharp angles and rough corners of his nature and manners taken off; he acquires a degree of self-confidence; he learns something of gentility and politeness by the action. and influence of social currents, just as stones on the sea-beach become round, smooth, and polished through the continued friction of dashing waves.

CHEERFULNESS

meets.

Says S. C. Goodrich: "Of all virtues, cheerfulness is the most profitable." It makes the person who exercises it happy, and renders him acceptable to all he While other virtues defer the day of recompense, cheerfulness pays down. It is a cosmetic which makes homeliness graceful and winning; it promotes good health, and gives clearness and vigor to the mind; it is the bright weather of the heart in contrast to the clouds of gloom and melancholy."

Young, bright, and healthful natures should not allow themselves to grow morose, churlish, and illnatured, by self-isolation from social enjoyments. On the contrary, they should cultivate a genial, cheerful spirit and temper. Such a spirit is of great price and of great power. In the "Merchant of Venice" the dramatist asks:

"Why should a man whose blood is warm within,
Sit like his grandsire, cut in alabaster?

Sleep when he wakes, and creep into jaundice
By being peevish?"

And to such a question, it may well be replied: "There is no need of it." Better far to cultivate a cheerful social nature, whose very presence carries sunshine with it wherever it goes. If there is no joy in the heart, no nobility in the soul, no benevolence and generosity in the mind, a person's whole character will soon grow as cold as an iceberg, hard as granite rock, and as bleak, barren, and arid as the desert of Sahara.

SYMPATHY.

There is no trait of human nature which is more precious and valuable than a quick and ready sympathy with the joys and woes of others, " rejoicing with those that do rejoice, and weeping with those that weep." Sympathy always marks the true man and the noble nature. And why should we not be sympathetic? The world is a unit in interests, and we all stand or fall together. "No man liveth unto himself, and no man dieth unto himself." Humanity is linked together by a thousand different cords, like the different parts of a body. The foot cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee, nor the hand to the head, I have no need of thee. Neither can any one man or woman, or any one class of men or women, stand apart and say to the rest of the world, I can get along without your help. We are all dependent upon one another for more comforts and pleasures than we realize, or even know of. Whittier truly

says '

"Like warp and woof, all destinies
Are woven fast,

Linked in sympathy, like the keys
Of an organ vast;

Pluck but one thread, and the web ye mar;
Break but one

Of a thousand keys, and the paining jar
Through all will run."

In fact, this power of social sympathy marks the line of broad distinction between mankind and the lower orders of being. "Though the lower animals have feeling," writes the eloquent Dr. Guthrie of Scotland, "they have no fellow-feeling. Have I not seen the horse enjoying his feed of corn when his yoke-fellow lay a-dying in the neighboring stall, and never turn an eye of pity on the sufferer? They have strong passions, but no sympathy. It is said that the wounded deer sheds tears, but it belongs to man only to divide by sympathy another's sorrows, and double another's joys. They say that if a piano is struck in a room where stands another unopened and untouched, he who lays his ear to that will hear a string within, as if touched by a shadowy spirit, sound the same note; but, more strange and more glorious, how the strings of one heart vibrate to those of another." Rev. Henry Clay Trumbull, preaching once in a prison, said in his sermon, that the only difference between himself and his hearers was owing to the grace of God. Afterward, one of the prisoners sent for him, and asked: "Did you mean what you said about sympathizing with us?" Being assured that the utterance was genuine, he said: "I am here for life, but I can stay more contentedly now that I

know I have a brother out in the world." It is said the man behaved so well afterward that he was pardoned, and that he died in the last war, thanking God to the last for the preacher's sympathy. "Happy then is the man who has that in his soul which acts upon others as April airs upon violet roots. Gifts from the hand are silver and gold, but the heart gives that which neither silver nor gold can buy. To be full of goodness, full of cheerfulness, full of sympathy, full of helpful hope, causes a man to move on human life as stars move on dark seas to bewildered mariners."

GOOD SOCIETY.

It is not enough to be simply social; in order to be happy, one must have a kind of society which elevates and ennobles, rather than that which depresses and destroys. 'Tis not society alone which blesses, but good society. In fact, it would be better to have none at all, than mingle with bad companions. For, just as the tree-frog is said to take on the color of whatever he adheres to for a short time, being darkgreen when found on green corn, and the color of white-oak bark when attached to that tree, so men and women generally resemble those with whom they associate. The river Thames in England is a sweet and pure river near its source, but before it gets through the city of London it has been loaded with sewers and drains so much as to become most foul and nauseating. It was intended that the river should purify the sewers, but instead of that, the sewers have corrupted the river. So it is with pure minds and morals, and bad company.