DEATH-BED.

dawning of immortal life in that childish soul! Farewell, beloved child! the bright eternal doors have closed after thee; we shall see thy sweet face no more. Oh! woe for them who watched thy entrance into heaven, when they shall wake and find only the cold grey sky of daily life, and thou gone for ever! Mrs. Stowe.

DEATH-BED-of the Just.

The death-bed of the just is yet undrawn
By mortal hand,-it merits a divine.
Angels should paint it,-angels ever there,-
There on a post of honour and of joy.
A death-bed's a detector of the heart;-
Here tired Dissimulation drops her mask:
Virtue alone has majesty in death. Young.

DEATH-BED-Repentance on a.

"Fool! fool! fool!" were the last words of one on his dying bed, who, it is to be feared, had procrastinated his repentance too long and too fearfully; while the humble Christian, sensible of a thousand failings and imperfections, still looks with the eye of faith on his Redeemer; and his soul, like the flight of an eagle towards the heavens, soars to the regions of everlasting happiness. Jesse.

Whatever stress some may lay upon it, a death-bed repentance is but a weak and slender plank to trust our all upon. Sterne.

DEATH-BED-Secrets of the.

It is a fearful thing to wait and watch for the approach of death; to know that hope is gone, and recovery impossible; and to sit and count the dreary hours through long, long nights, such nights as only watchers by the bed of sickness know. It chills the blood to hear the dearest secrets of the heart-the pentup, hidden secrets of many years-poured forth by the unconscious, helpless being before you; and to think how little the reserve and cunning of a whole life will avail when fever and delirium tear off the mask at last. Strange tales have been told in the wanderings of dying men; tales so full of guilt and crime, that those who stood by the sick person's couch have fled in horror and affright, lest they should be scared to madness by what they heard and saw; and many a wretch has died alone, raving of deeds the very name of which has driven the boldest man away. Dickens.

DEBT-Keeping out of.

"Out of debt, out of danger," is, like many other proverbs, full of wisdom; but the word danger does not sufficiently express all that the warning demands.

DEBT.

To one that is not callous, a state of debt and embarrassment is a state of positive misery; the sufferer is as one haunted by an evil spirit, and his heart can know neither rest nor peace till it is cast out. But as example is at all times more instructive than precept, a living writer shall describe his own feelings when beset with creditors, and may he prove a beacon to the thoughtless ones who are likely to fall into the same gulf.

Quiet was never my destiny. The first involvement multiplies itself at every move. It destroys the freedom of the intellect and the heart, and drives one into a state of mistiness, which seeks extrication by the very means which augment it. It encourages self-delusions for the sake of momentary peace; and, like inebriety, buys oblivion at the expense of quickly-succeeding pain and sickness. The creditor, who thinks himself sure of his debt at last, delights in giving credit, because he has his debtor at his mercy, makes his own usurious terms with him, and gorges on his blood. He who lives on credit does not dare examine bills; and the creditor charges according to the degree of his own wide conscience. Thus there is a difference of at least cent. per cent. in every article the debtor consumes; and two thousand pounds a-year with him, will not go so far as one in the hands of him who pays ready money, and looks to his accounts.

Pecuniary embarrassment weakens and chains the mind; and, perhaps, the worst effect of all is in the indignities to which it subjects its victim. There is no rule of life, therefore, more urgent than to avoid it; nor has a careless man the slightest suspicion of what may be the effect of overlooking a comparatively slight error. Bridges

DEBT-Miseries of.

Debt haunts the mind: a conversation about justice troubles it; the sight of a creditor fills it with confusion; even the sanctuary is not a place of refuge. The borrower is servant to the lender. A life at another man's table is not to be accounted for a life. It is mean to flatter the rich; it is humiliating to be the object of pity. To be the slave of unattainable desires is to be despicable and wretched. Independence, so essential to the virtues and pleasures of a man, can only be maintained by setting bounds to our desires, and owing no man anything. A habit of boundless expense undermines and destroys the virtues even in a mind where they seem to dwell. It becomes difficult, and at last impossible, to pay punetually. When a man of sensibility thinks of the low rate at which his word must henceforth pass, he is little in his own eyes; but

DESERT-Aridity of the.

The weary Arabs roam from plain to plain,
Guiding the languid herd in quest of food;
And shift their little homes' uncertain scene
With frequent farewell: strangers, pilgrims all,

As were their fathers. No sweet fall of rain
May there be heard, nor sweeter liquid lapse
of rivers, o'er the pebbles gliding by
In murmurs: goaded by the rage of thirst,
Daily they journey to the distant clefts
Of craggy rocks, where gloomy palms o'erhang
Th' ancient walls, deep sunk by toil immense,
Toil of the patriarchs, with sublime intent
Themselves and their posterity to serve. Dyer

So, where our wide Numidian wastes extend, Sudden th' impetuous hurricanes descend, Wheel through the air, in circling eddies play, Tear up the sands, and sweep whole plains away;

DESOLATION.

our aspiration after an object which we already secretly possess, It is thus than an intense anticipation transforms a real possibility into an imaginary reality. When such a tendency is decided in us, at each stage of our development a portion of our primitive desire accomplishes itself, under favourable circumstances, by direct means; and in unfavourable circumstances, by some more circuitous route, from which, however, we never fail to reach the Goethe. straight road again.

DESIRES-Insatiability of.

Every desire bears its death in its very gratification. Curiosity languishes under repeated stimulants, and novelties cease to excite surprise, until at length we cannot wonder even at a miracle. Washington Irving.

DESIRES-Shadows of.

The shadows of our own desires stand between us and our better angels, and thus their brightness is eclipsed. Dickens.

DESIRES-Use of.

The passions and desires, like the two twists of a rope, mutually mix one with the other, and twine inextricably round the heart; producing good, if moderately indulged; but certain destruction, if suffered to become inordinate. Barton.

DESOLATION-Gloom of.

From low to high doth desolation climb, And sinks from high to low along the scale Of awful notes, whose concord shall not fail. A musical but melancholy chime,

Which they can hear who meddle not with crime, Nor avarice, nor over-anxious care.

Wordsworth.

DESOLATION-of a House.
Such a house broke !
So noble a master fallen? all gone! and not
One friend to take his fortune by the arm,
And go along with him.
Shakspeare.
DESOLATION-of the Lone One.
Unhappy he! who from the first of joys-
Society-cut off, is left alone

Amid this world of death. Day after day,
Sad on the jutting eminence he sits,
And views the main that ever toils below;
Still fondly forming in the farthest verge,
Where the round ether mixes with the ware,
Ships, dim-discover'd, dropping from the clouds;
At evening, to the setting sun he turns
A mournful eye, and down his dying heart
Sinks helpless.
Thomson