JOHN HEYWOOD'S SCHOOL ATLAS, Royal 4to., containing 11 Maps; plain 1s., JOHN HEYWOOD'S JUVENILE ATLAS, Containing 20 Maps, plain 1s., coloured 2s. Outlines, and Lines of Latitude to the above, Is. each. THE FIRST OF A SERIES OF LECTURES DELIVERED IN THE FREE TRADE HALL, T BY THE REV. ARTHUR MURSELL, OCTOBER 2nd, 1864. "The Better Half." HE fact of our being together here again to-day is a proof we have not forgotten one another; a proof, I dare almost hope, that our mutual recollections are not unpleasant ones. I can speak for myself at all events as to that, and assure you that my presence on these boards again to day is owing to the kindly remembrances I have of your indulgent attention on past occasions, and a desire to renew associations which are very pleasant to me. But that is not all; if that were all we had better not be here. The actor who makes his comprehensive bow to boxes, pit, and gallery on the rising of the curtain may be content to put himself upon this footing of compliment and courtesy with his audience. But our business here is more real and earnest than his. We are glad to see each other again, and we cannot and ought not refrain from saying so;—that is satisfactory enough as far as it goes. But, the greeting over, and the shaking of hands got through, we have to turn our present interviews to vital account. I am right glad to see you;— and I am glad to take for granted from your crowding here again that you are not displeased to meet me ;-but if I dare cherish the hope that a real earnest purpose of truth-seeking, a living interest in the solid matters which form the moral of our meeting had brought you here, I confess my pleasure would be of a far deeper sort. My purpose is one of truth-telling ;—may I hope that your's is one of truth-seeking? Ah, my friends !-it is very little use our coming here and bidding one another God-speed, unless we have something of more quiet realness in our minds than the sensation of a crowd, or the variation of the usual routine of Sunday life. We have not to be together long; not many minutes this afternoon, not many Sabbath afternoons to come; let us, then, be in earnest, and let us be frank and faithful with each other while the chance is given us. I want to speak to you about life;-life in this world, as a preparation for life in a better;-and life, more especially as it touches the humbler toilers in the social mill who earn their bread by the sweat of their brow. This will, as usual, be the design of all our plain addresses, and God be thanked if one of you shall gain a wholesome hint which shall help you to live better and nobler lives than you have done before. With this design in view I propose to be guilty of the Irish course of commencing a series of addresses to Working Men by speaking to the workman's wife. After all, however, it is not quite so irrelevant as it may seem. There's many a man here this afternoon, I make no doubt, who never decides upon any thing without consulting his wife. There may be two or three who would deem it as much as their necks were worth to call their souls their own without first borrowing them, and the right to claim them from their better-halves. And there are many more who have wives so much shrewder and more strong-minded than themselves, and having the sense to see it, defer to them in matters demanding common sense, because they feel that it is the surest way of settling the thing wisely. Some are deprived of the exercise of independent judgment by the fear of the toasting-fork across their shoulders, or the still more intolerable belabourment of a curtain-lecture, pitched to the note of G sharp |