Each of the Four Numbers of "100 Choice Selections" contained in this volume is paged separately, and the Index is made to correspond therewith. See EXPLANATION on first page of Contents. The entire book contains nearly 1000 pages. 100 CHOICE SELECTIONS. No. 11 THE MOUNTAINS OF LIFE.-J. G. CLARK. There's a land far away, 'mid the stars we are told, 'Tis the land of our God, 'tis the home of the soul, Our gaze cannot soar to that beautiful land, And our souls by the gale of its gardens are fanned, And we sometimes have longed for its holy repose, Oh, the stars never tread the blue heavens at night, We are traveling homeward through changes and gloom, And our guide is the glory that shines through the tomb From the evergreen Mountains of Life. QQQ* "IF THINGS WAS ONLY SICH!"-B. P. SHILLABER. A seedy old beggar asked alms of me As he sat 'neath the shade of a wayside tree. He was beggared in purse and beggared in soul, As he sang a song, to a dismal pitch, With the burden, “ IF THINGS WAS ONLY SICH!" "If things was only sich," said he, "You should see what a wonderful man I'd be: "If things was only sich," said he, "I'd be lord of the land and lord of the sea; "If things was only sich," said he, "Rare wines I'd quaff from the far countree, I'd clothe myself in dazzling garb, I'd mount the back of the costly barb, And none should ask me wherefore or which- “If things was only sich,” said he, "I'd love the fairest and they'd love me; Yon dame, with a smile that warms my heart, Thus the old beggar moodily sung, And his eyes dropped tears as his hands he wrung. I could but pity to hear him berate, In dolorous tones, the decrees of fate, That laid on his back its iron switch, While he cried, “If things was only sich." "If things was only sich!"-e'en all And whether we're poor or whether we're rich, CULTURE THE RESULT OF LABOR.-WM. WIRT. The education, moral and intellectual, of every individual must be chiefly his own work. How else could it happen that young men, who have had precisely the same opportunities, should be continually presenting us with such different results, and rushing to such opposite destinies? Difference of talent will not solve it, because that difference is very often in favor of the disappointed candidate. You will see issuing from the walls of the same college-nay, sometimes from the bosom of the same family,-two young men, of whom the one shall be admitted to be a genius of high order, the other scarcely above the point of mediocrity; yet you shall see the genius sinking and perishing in poverty, obscurity, and wretchedness; while, on the other hand, you shall observe the mediocre plodding his slow but sure way up the hill of life, gaining steadfast footing at every step, and mounting, at length, to eminence and distinction, -an ornament to his family, a blessing to his country. Now whose work is this? Manifestly their own. Men are the architects of their respective fortunes. It is the fiat of fate from which no power of genius can absolve you. Genius, unexerted, is like the poor moth that flutters around a candle till it scorches itself to death. If genius be desirable at all, it is only of that great and magnanimous kind which, like the condor of South America, pitches from the summit of Chimborazo, above the clouds, and sustains itself at pleasure in that empyreal region, with an energy rather invigorated than weakened by the effort. It is this capacity for high and long-continued exertion, this vigorous power of profound and searching investigation, this careering and wide-spreading comprehension of mind, and those long reaches of thought, that "Pluck bright honor from the pale-faced moon, Where fathom-line could never touch the ground, This is the prowess, and these the hardy achievements, which are to enroll your names among the great inen of the earth. A CHINESE STORY.-C. P. CRANCH. None are so wise as they who make pretense Might have been drawn a thousand years ago, Two young, short-sighted fellows, Chang and Ching, Fell to disputing which could see the best; In front, where we the letters just may trace; Suppose we say to-morrow afternoon." Nay, not so soon," said Chang: "I'm bound to go So 'twas arranged; but Ching was wide awake: By those to whom the great Goh-Bang was dear."" |