always made me and his other children feel that we were of the greatest importance. If I was cold when driving with him, he would wrap me in his own coat, and on smooth roads he always allowed me that greatest pleasure of small boys-to drive. If we went into the city, he was solicitous that I should have my food at regular hours, and was always as thoughtful and gentle as a woman in his care for me. He never seemed fretted nor impatient, although cares must have often weighed heavy on his mind, but always quiet, strong, and firm. GENERAL F. D. GRANT, in The Youth's Companion.

3. The table-cloth in Leonardo da Vinci's great picture of the Last Supper, and what Da Vinci did with it, are worth remembering just here. The picture has been engraved and copied all over the world, and most of my readers have seen reproductions of it, with the wonderful figures of Jesus and of St. John which are its crowning glories. But when it was first exhibited, it is said that everybody exclaimed, "How marvellous is the painting of the threads of the table-cloth!" until Leonardo, incensed that they should ignore in the picture what was really great, for something that was an insignificant detail, seized his brush and impetuously painted the details in the table-cloth all out. It was a fine lesson in proportion which we may recall to help us distinguish in any work between a mere ambition to excel, and an ambition to excel in what is worth doing. — BISHOP H. C. POTTER, in The Youth's Companion.

4. It is all nonsense to say that a boy cannot control his temper. Did I not see you the other day in a passion when working on the road? The other boys laughed at you, and you looked round and saw your best girl coming in a buggy, looking as sweet and cool as a rose after a shower, and in a second you were all smiles and took off your hat to her and felt a little ashamed of yourself

all that day. I know you remember that. No matter how angry you are, you can hold your tongue- when a stranger for whom you have great respect is present. If you can do it with this outside help, you can, if you try,

do it without it. - HENRY WALLACE: Letters to the Farm Boy.

5. You are likely, as you approach manhood, to put too little store by your mother's judgment. When a boy gets to be from sixteen to nineteen or twenty he is apt to speak lightly of women and try to break away from his mother's influence. She may not be as good a scholar as you think you are, may not know half as many things, but in all matters that affect character or life, your Uncle Henry would take her judgment offhand in preference to yours. When you get to know women better than you now do, you will find they have a very queer way of guessing at the rights of things and guessing rightnearly every time. A man reasons, a woman divines; a man thinks things out, a woman feels them out. Your mother is not infallible, nor yet perfect, but she is so nearly certain to be right about matters that affect your character and life, that you cannot afford to treat her intuitions lightly. If you do, you will make a mistake. -HENRY WALLACE: Letters to the Farm Boy.

6. San Juan is the only romantic spot in California. The country here for several miles is high table-land, running boldly to the shore, and breaking off in a steep hill, at the foot of which the waters of the Pacific are constantly dashing. For several miles the water washes the very base of the hill, or breaks upon ledges and fragments of rocks which run out into the sea. Just where we landed was a small cove, or "bight," which gave us, at high tide, a few square feet of sand beach between the sea and the bottom of the hill. This was the only landing-place. Directly before us, rose the perpendicular

How we were to get

height of four or five hundred feet. hides down, or goods up, upon the table-land on which the mission was situated, was more than we could tell. The agent had taken a long circuit, and yet had frequently to jump over breaks, and climb up steep places, in the ascent. No animal but a man or a monkey could get up it. However, that was not our look-out; and knowing that the agent would be gone an hour or more, we strolled about, picking up shells, and following the sea where it tumbled in, roaring and spouting among the crevices of the great rocks. What a sight, thought I, must this be in a southeaster! The rocks were as large as those of Nahant or Newport, but, to my eye, more grand and broken. Besides there was a grandeur in everything around, which gave almost a solemnity to the Scene: a silence and solitariness which affected everything! Not a human being but ourselves for miles; and no sound heard but the pulsation of the great Pacific! and the great steep hill rising like a wall, and cutting us off from all the world, but the "world of waters." DANA: Two Years Before the Mast.

7. When our means of observation of any natural fact fail to carry us beyond a certain point, it is perfectly legitimate, and often extremely useful, to make a supposition as to what we should see, if we could carry direct observation a step further. A supposition of this kind is what is called a hypothesis, and the value of any hypothesis depends upon the extent to which reasoning upon the assumption that it is true enables us to explain or account for the phenomena with which it is concerned.

Thus, if a person is standing close behind you, and you suddenly feel a blow on your back, you have no direct evidence of the cause of the blow; and if you two were alone, you could not possibly obtain any; but you immediately suppose that this person has struck you.

M

Now that is a hypothesis, and it is a legitimate hypothesis, first, because it explains the fact; and secondly, because no other explanation is probable; probable meaning in accordance with the ordinary course of nature. If your companion declared that you fancied you felt a blow, or that some invisible spirit struck you, you would probably decline to accept his explanation of the fact. You would say that both the hypotheses by which he professed to explain the phenomenon were extremely improbable; or in other words, that in the ordinary course of nature fancies of this kind do not occur, nor spirits strike blows. In fact, his hypotheses would be illegitimate, and yours would be legitimate; and, in all probability, you would act upon your own. In daily life, nine-tenths of our actions are based upon suppositions or hypotheses, and our success or failure in practical affairs depends upon the legitimacy of these hypotheses. You believe a man on the hypothesis that he is always truthful; you give him pecuniary credit on the hypothesis that he is solvent.

Thus, everybody invents, and, indeed, is compelled to invent, hypotheses in order to account for phenomena of the cause of which he has no direct evidence; and they are just as legitimate and necessary in science as in common life. Only the scientific reasoner must be careful to remember that which is sometimes forgotten in daily life, that a hypothesis must be regarded as a means and not as an end; that we may cherish it so long as it helps us to explain the order of nature; but that we are bound to throw it away without hesitation as soon as it is shown to be inconsistent with any part of that order. HUXLEY: Introductory Science Primer.

8. A college settlement worker has said that ordinarily thrift is "rather demoralizing, because it is so absorbing, so limiting, so selfish." If she means by thrift a mere

accumulation of money, one can but agree with her entirely, but fortunately thrift should not imply anything so sordid, and one does not have to subscribe to a theory that is "too narrow and too pessimistic for serious consideration." Genuine thrift is not inere saving, but rather "postponed consumption," a laying aside not for the purpose of hoarding, but in order to make a future purchase. The small boy who pointed to a penny bank and said with intense pride, "I banks there," would have been no better for his emotion if his conception of what money is had not got beyond the belief that it is a commodity to hold. The value to him of his bank was that he was learning that money is more useful at one time than at another, and that by depositing it in some safe place, free from the allurements of the candy or the cigarette shop, he was reserving it for a more profitable The whole secret of right thrift lies in the formula : Save wisely, so as to be able to spend judiciously in a time of need which will probably be greater than that of the present. MARY WILLCOX BROWN: The Development of Thrift.

use.

EXERCISE 38. (Written.) Examine the order of sentences in the paragraphs of your themes, and make any changes that will lend the paragraph greater coherence and, when appropriate, greater emphasis.

§ 7. Unity and Variety of Form in the Paragraph. It is often practicable to construct all the sentences of a paragraph on about the same pattern, thus allowing the reader's mind to progress with more ease than would be pos