spirit of selfishness and unwillingness to labor for others which such want of faith engenders, or from a want of self-reliance occasioned by the excess of government initiation and supervision which has so long existed in France. Whatever its cause, its influence may be observed in both small matters and great. Thus, a Frenchman sees a poor fellow hanging by the neck, and instead of cutting the cord, he goes off to inform the Commissary of Police. Millions of Frenchmen see their country invaded by the Prussians, or their capital seized by the Communards, and only a few hundreds, if any, volunteer for the liberation of either. Hence also it is that when an emergency arises, power passes readily into the hands of the exceptional man or men who have the audacity to grasp it.

But, on the other hand, there is a danger that many of the republican politicians will not realize the full measure of the responsibility which they have assumed. They must remember that it is their duty to build up, and not merely to destroy. They must endeavor to educate the people morally as well as intellectually, and not be content with mere material progress. The late Emperor was satisfied with the latter; and what was the result? The introduction of greater facilities for elementary education is a very important and necessary work, but it is not enough. Such education should, in our opinion, be made obligatory; and more instruction should be given in the higher schools concerning the geography, history, and resources of other countries. The ignorance of the French, as a people, upon these latter subjects is as surprising as their want of interest in everything occurring abroad; while their laws and jurisprudence, the comments of their press, and the action of their business men, often evince a very illiberal and stupid jealousy or distrust of foreigners. This should, if possible, be changed, and foreign ideas, inventions, enterprise, and capital be welcomed and protected. A few unenterprising people might suffer from foreign competition, but the nation at large would soon be immensely the gainer.

The bishops and priests of the Romish Church should be given to understand that they must confine themselves to their religious duties, and that they must exhibit the true spirit of religion in tolerance and charity; and further, that when they do

this, they may count upon not merely the protection but the hearty good-will and co-operation of the state. The spread of Protestantism should be encouraged, as furnishing men with a rule of action calculated to make them good and enlightened citizens, and also as providing an additional power of resistance against any future aggression on the part of Rome.

Marriages should be facilitated; first by diminishing, as far as possible, the trouble and expense of the formalities attending their celebration, and secondly, by making those provisions of the code which require the consent of parents or grandparents inapplicable in all cases where the party has attained the age of twenty-one years, and by repealing the laws which require the consent of the military or naval authorities to the marriage of an officer of the regular army, the gendarmery, or the marine. This would lead to an increase in the number of marriages and of legitimate children.

Divorce should also be re-established for sufficient cause, and without any invidious distinction between husband and wife. This would prevent much of the scandal and domestic infelicity which now exist, and enable many suffering and innocent people to recommence life with a greater prospect of happiness for themselves and their children.

And of course every effort ought to be made to reduce the number of men called into active service in the army, as well as the period of such service. It is marvellous that France can stand such a drain upon it as is occasioned by the withdrawal of so many of its citizens, in the very flower of their youth, from their various avocations and from the influences of home, and by depriving them of the desire and opportunity of marrying. In fact, the number of non-producers within its borders is far too great. Its tendency to impoverish the country is, however, counteracted by the industry of the women, and the habits of economy and saving which generally prevail.

The Republic must be careful not to alienate the property-holders, and others who are conservative either by nature, from education, or from interest, and who have naturally been somewhat alarmed by some of its measures, and still more so by the doctrines proclaimed by certain of its adherents. In particular should every suggestion having for its object to abolish

earth as much as I do, and who, while at school there, have studied other worlds and stars, then distant, as carefully as I have, nothing, as I say, can be more charming than to see at once all this play and interplay; to see comets passing from system to system, warming themselves now at one white sun, and then at a party-colored double; to see the people on them changing customs and costumes as they change their light, and to hear their quaint discussions as they justify the new and ridicule the old.

It cost me a little effort to adjust myself to the old points of view. But I had a Mentor so loving and so patient, whose range-oh! it is infinitely before mine; and he knew how well I loved earth, and if need had been, he would have spent and been spent till he had adjusted me to the dear old point of vision. No need of large effort, though. There it was, just as he told me. I was in the old plane of the old ecliptic. And again I saw my dear old Orion, and the Dipper, and the Pleiades, and Corona, and all the rest of them, just as if I had never seen other figures made from just the same stars when I had other points of view.

But what I am to tell you of is but one thing.

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This Guardian of mine and I-not bothered by time-were watching the little systems as the dear little worlds flew round so regularly and so prettily. Well, it was as in old days I have taken a little water on the end of a needle, and have placed it in the field of my compound microscope. I suppose, as I said, that just then there were several thousand solar systems in my ken at once -only the words "then,' there," and "once" have but a modified meaning when one is in these relations. I had only to choose the "epoch" which I would see. And of one world and another I had vision equally distinct-nay, of the blush on a girl's cheek in the planet Neptune, when she sat alone in her bower, I had as distinct vision as of the rush of a comet which cut through a dozen systems, and loitered to flirt with a dozen suns.

II.

In the experience which I describe, I had my choice of epochs as of places. I think scholars or men of scholarly tastes will not wonder when I say that in looking at our dear old earth, after amusing

myself for an instant with the history of Northern America for ten or twenty thousand of its years, I turned to that queer little land, that neck between Asia and Africa, and that mysterious corner of Syria which is north of it. Holy Land, men call it, and no wonder. And I think, also, that nobody will be surprised that I chose to take that instant of time when a great caravan of traders was crossing the isthmus-they were already well on the Egyptian side-who had with them a handsome young fellow whom they had bought just above, a day or two before, and were carrying down south to the slave-market at On, in Egypt.

This handsome youngster was Jussuf Ben Yacoub, or, as we say, Joseph, son of Jacob. He was handsome in the very noblest type of Hebrew beauty. He seemed eighteen or nineteen years old; I am not well enough read to know if he were. The time was early morning. I remember even the freshness of the morning atmosphere, and that exquisite pearliness of the sky. I saw every detail, and my heart was in my mouth as I looked on. It had been a hot night, and the sides of the tents were clewed up. The handsome fellow lay, his wrists tied together by a cord of camel's hair which bound him to the arm of a great Arab, who looked as I remember Black Hawk of the Sacs and Foxes. Joseph sat up, on the ground, with his hands so close to the other that the cord did not move with his motion. Then, with a queer trick, which I did not follow, and a wrench which must have been agony to him, he twisted and changed the form of the knot in the rope. Then, by a dextrous grip between his front teeth, he loosened the hold of the knot. He bit again, again, and again. Hurrah! It is loose, and the boy is free from that snoring hulk by his side. An instant more, and he is out from the tent; he threads his way daintily down the avenue between the tent ropes; he has come to the wady that stretches dry along the west flank of the encampment: five hundred yards more will take him to the other side of the Cheril-el-bar (the wall of rock which runs down toward the west from the mountains), and he will be free. At this moment two nasty little dogs from the outlying tent of the caravan-what is known among the Arabs as the tent of the warden of the route-sprang after him, snarling and yelling.

The brave boy turned, and, as if he had David's own blood in his veins, and with the precision of David's eye, he threw a heavy stone back on the headmost cur so skillfully that it struck his spine, and silenced him forever, as a bullet might have done. The other cur, frightened, stood still and barked worse than ever.

I could not bear it. I had only to crush that yelping cur, and the boy Joseph would be free, and in eight-and-forty hours would be in his father's arms. His brothers would be saved from remorse, and the world--

And the world-?

III.

the beautiful morning; there was the old hulk of an Arab snoring in his tent; there was the handsome boy in the dry valley, or wady; there was the dead dogall just as it happened—and there was the other dog snarling and yelping. I just brushed him down, as I have often wiped a green louse off a rose-bush; all was silent again, and the boy Joseph turned and ran. The old hulk of an Arab never waked. The master of the caravan did not so much as turn in his bed. The boy passed the corner of the Cheril-el-bar carefully, just looked behind to be sure he was not followed, and then, with the speed of an antelope, ran, and ran, and ran. He need not have run. It was two

He turned me quite round into the region which the astronomers called the starless region, and there showed me another series-oh! an immense and utterly uncountable series of systems, which at the moment seemed just like what we had been watching.

'But they are not the same," said my Guardian, hastily. "You will see they are not the same. Indeed, I do not know myself what these are for," he said, "unless I think sometimes they are for you and me to learn from. He is so kind. And I never asked. I do not know.”

All this time he was looking round among the systems for something, and at last he found it. He pointed out, and I saw, a system just like our dear old system, and a world just like our dear old world. The same ear-shaped South America, the same leg-of-mutton-shaped Africa, the same fiddle-shaped Mediterranean Sea, the same boot for Italy, and the same foot-ball for Sicily. They were all there. "Now," he said, "here you may try experiments. This is quite a fresh one; no one has touched it. Only these here are not His children - these are only creatures, you know. These are not conscious, though they seem so. You will not hurt them, whatever you do: nay, they are not free. Try your dead dog here, and see what will happen."

And Joseph? After an hour's running, he came to water, and bathed. Now he dared open his bag and eat a bit of black bread. He kept his eyes all round him; he ran no more, but walked, with that firm, assured step of a frontiersman or skillful hunter. That night he slept between two rocks under a terebinth-tree, where even a hawk would not have seen him. The next day he threaded the paths along the hill-side, as if he had the eyes of a lynx and the feet of a goat. Toward night he approached a camp, evidently of a sheik of distinction. None of the squalidness here of those trading wanderers, the Midianite children of the desert! Everything here showed Eastern luxury, even, and a certain permanency. But one could hear lamentation, and on drawing near one could see whence it came. A long procession of women were beating their arms, striking the most mournful chords, and singing-or, if you please, screaming in strains of the most heart-rending agoLeah and Bilhah and Zilpah led the train three times around old Jacob's tent. There, as before, the curtains were drawn aside, and I could see the old man crouched upon the ground, and the splendid cloak or shawl, where even great black

ny.