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hind them when they die and women also ought to have a part of what their parents and kindred leave, whether it be little, or whether it be much; a determinate part is due to them. And when they who are of kin are present at the dividing of what is left, and also the orphans, and the poor; distribute unto them some part thereof; and if the estate be too small, at least speak comfortably unto them. And let those fear to abuse orphans, who if they leave behind them a weak offspring, are solicitous for them let them therefore fear God, and speak that which is convenient. Surely they who devour the possessions of orphans unjustly shall swallow down nothing but fire into their bellies, and shall broil in raging flames. God hath thus commanded you concerning your children. A male shall have as much as the share of two females; but if they be females only, and above two in number, they shall have two third parts of what the deceased shall leave; and if there be but one, she shall have the half. And the parents of the deceased shall have each of them a sixth part of what he shall leave, if he have a child; but if he have no child, and his parents be his heirs, then his mother shall have the third part. And if he have brethren, his mother shall have a sixth part, after the legacies which he shall bequeath, and his debts be paid. Ye know not whether your parents or your children be of greater use unto you. This is an ordinance from God, and God is knowing and wise. Moreover ye may claim half of what your wives shall leave, if they have no issue; but if they have issue, then ye shall have the fourth part of what they shall leave, after the legacies which they shall bequeath, and

the debts be paid. They also shall have the fourth part of what ye shall leave, in case ye have no issue; but if ye have issue, then they shall have the eighth part of what ye shall leave, after the legacies which ye shall bequeath, and your debts be paid. And if a man or woman's substance be inherited by a distant relation, and he or she have a brother or sister; each of them two shall have a sixth part of the estate. But if there be more than this number, they shall be equal sharers in a third part, after payment of the legacies which shall be bequeathed, and the debts, without prejudice to the heirs. This is an ordinance from God and God is knowing and gracious. These are the statutes of God. Men shall have the pre-eminence above women, because of those advantages wherein God hath caused the one of them to excel the other, and for that which they expend of their substance in maintaining their wives. The honest women are obedient, careful in the absence of their husbands, for that God preserveth them, by committing them to the care and protection of the men. But those, whose perverseness ye shall be apprehensive of, rebuke; and remove them into separate apartments, and chastise them. But if they shall be obedient unto you, seek not an occasion of quarrel against them for God is high and great. And if ye fear a breach between the husband and wife, send a judge out of his family, and a judge out of her family: if they shall desire a reconciliation, God will cause them to agree; for God is knowing and wise.

WINE FORBIDDEN.

O true believers, surely wine, and lots, and images, and divining arrows, are an

abomination of the work of Satan; therefore | defraud! Do not these think they shall be avoid them that ye may prosper. Satan seeketh to sow dissension and hatred among you, by means of wine and lots, and to divert you from remembering God, and from prayer will ye not therefore abstain from them?

THE LAST JUDGMENT.

When the heaven shall be cloven in sunder; and when the stars shall be scattered; and when the seas shall be suffered to join their waters; and when the graves shall be turned upside down; every soul shall know what it hath committed, and what it hath omitted. O man, what hath seduced thee against thy gracious Lord, who hath created thee, and put thee together, and rightly disposed thee? In what form he pleased hath he fashioned thee. Assuredly. But ye deny the last judgment as a falsehood. as a falsehood. Verily there are appointed over you guardian angels, honorable in the sight of God, writing down your actions; who know that which ye do. The just shall surely be in a place of delight; but the wicked shall surely be in hell; they shall be cast therein to be turned, on the day of judgment, and they shall not be absent therefrom for ever. What shall cause thee to understand what the day of judgment is? Again, What shall cause thee to understand what the day of judgment is? It is a day whereon one soul shall not be able to obtain

anything in behalf of another soul: and the command, on that day, shall be God's.

FALSE MEASURE.

Woe be unto those who give short measure or weight who, when they receive by measure from other men, take the full; but when they measure unto them, or weigh unto them

raised again, at the great day, the day whereon mankind shall stand before the Lord of all creatures? By no means. Verily the register of the actions of the wicked is surely in Sejjin.

THE SUN.

By the Sun, and its rising brightness; by the moon, when she followeth him; by the day, when it showeth his splendor; by the night, when it covereth him with darkness; by the heaven, and him who built it; by the earth, and him who spread it forth; by the soul, and him who completely formed it, and inspired into the same its faculty of distinguishing, and power of choosing, wickedness and piety: now is he who hath purified the same, happy; but he who hath corrupted the same, is miserable. Thamud accused their prophet Saleh of imposture, through the excess of their wickedness: when the wretch among them was sent to slay the camel; and the apostle of God said unto them, Let alone the camel of God; and hinder not her drinking. But they charged him with imposture; and they slew her. Wherefore their Lord destroyed them, for their crime, and made their punishment equal unto them all and he feareth not the issue thereof.

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ing in error, and hath he not guided thee | ness, yet which alone is faithful to them, into the truth? And did he not find thee needy, and hath he not enriched thee? Wherefore oppress not the orphan: neither repulse the beggar: but declare the goodness of thy Lord.

Translation of GEORGE SALE.

whose sweet affections require not the stimulus of prosperity or fame, the lure of accomplishments or the tribute of flattery, but which are constant to us in distress and console us even in disgrace!

BENJAMIN DISRAELI (Earl of Beaconsfield).

PARENTAL LOVE THE TRUEST LOVE.
HE course of existence too generally

THE

N

THE SHIPWRECK.

teaches to us all that mournful truth I vain the cords and axes were prepared,

that, after all, we have no friends that we can depend upon in this life but our parents. All other intimacies, however ardent, are liable to cool; all other confidence, however unlimited, to be violated. In the phantasmagoria of life the friend with whom we have cultivated mutual trust for years is often suddenly or gradually estranged from us, or becomes, from painful yet irresistible circumstances, even our deadliest foe. As for wo

men, as for the mistresses of our hearts, who has not learnt that the links of passion are fragile as they are glittering, and that the bosom on which we have reposed with idolatry all our secret sorrows and sanguine hopes eventually becomes the very heart that exults in our misery and baffles our welfare? Where is the enamored face that smiled upon our early love and was to shed tears over our grave? Where are the choice companions of our youth, with whom we were to breast the difficulties and share the triumphs of existence? Even in this inconstant world what changes like the heart? Love is a dream, and friendship a delusion. No wonder we grow callous; for how few have the opportunity of returning to the hearth which they quitted in levity or thoughtless weari

IN

For now the audacious seas insult the yard;

High o'er the ship they throw a horrid

shade,

And o'er her burst in terrible cascade.
Uplifted on the surge, to heaven she flies,
Her shattered top half buried in the skies,
Then, headlong plunging, thunders on the
ground:

Earth groans, air trembles and the deeps re-
sound;

Her giant bulk the dread concussion feels,
And, quivering with the wound, in torment
reels;

So reels, convulsed with agonizing throes,
The bleeding bull beneath the murderer's

blows.

Again she plunges. Hark! a second shock
Tears her strong bottom on the marble rock!
Down on the vale of death, with dismal

cries,

The fated victims, shuddering, roll their eyes
In wild despair, while yet another stroke
With deep convulsion rends the solid oak,
Till, like the mine in whose infernal cell
The lurking demons of destruction dwell,
At length, asunder torn, her frame divides,
And, crashing, spreads in ruin o'er the tides.

WILLIAM FALCONER.

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HEN I think of the time, and call back to my mind the grandeur and beauty of those almost uninhabited shores; when I picture to myself the dense and lofty summits of the forest, that everywhere spread along the hills, and overhung the margins of the stream, unmolested by the axe of the settler; when I know how dearly purchased the safe navigation of that river by the blood of many worthy Virginians; when I see that no longer any aborigines are to be found there, and that the vast herds of elks, deer and buffaloes which once pastured on these hills and in these valleys, making for themselves great roads to the several salt-springs, have ceased to exist; when I reflect that all this grand portion of our Union, instead of being in a state of nature, is now more or less covered with villages, farms and towns, where the din of hammers and machinery is constantly heard; that the woods are fast disappearing under the axe by day and the fire by night; that hundreds of steamboats are gliding to and fro over the whole length of the majestic river, forcing commerce to take root and prosper at every spot; when I see the surplus population of Europe coming to assist in the destruction of the forest and transplanting civilization into its darkest recesses; when I remember that these extraordinary changes have all taken place in the short

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period of twenty years,-I pause, wonder, and, although I know all to be fact, can scarcely believe its reality.

Whether these changes are for the better or for the worse, I shall not pretend to say; but, in whatever way my conclusions may incline, I feel with regret that there are on record no satisfactory accounts of the state of that portion of the country from the time when our people first settled in it. This has not been because no one in America is able to accomplish such an undertaking. Our Irvings and our Coopers have proved themselves fully competent for the task. It has more probably been because the changes have succeeded each other with such rapidity as almost to rival the movements of the pen. However, it is not too late yet; and I sincerely hope that either or both of them will ere long furnish the generations to come with those delightful descriptions which they are so well qualified to give of the original state of a country that has been so rapidly forced to change her form and attire under the influence of increasing population. Yes; I hope to read, ere I close my earthly career, accounts from those delightful writers of the progress of civilization in our Western country. They will speak of the Clarks, the Croghans, the Boones, and many other men of great and daring enterprise. They will analyze, as it were, into each component part, the country as it once existed, and will render the picture, as it ought to be, immortal.

JOHN JAMES AUDUBON.

WILFULNESS.

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FROM THE GERMAN OF GOETHE.

HE man who brooks no self- | The grateful force of drugs, one cure re

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Not the first simplest duty Drink water."-" Water! No, not I! No

of all men

To make wise choice of food

and drink, which he,

As being free from brutish

bonds, should do

Freely and wisely; but we

see him rather,

Even as a child, the slave to every taste

That lords his palate. He disdains to mix His wine with water, and with hasty gulp Swills all strong drinks and high-spiced

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You are a doctor; my disease you know, And you should know the cure, and how to

come

So softly with the cunning of your craft;
But you but shame the art which you pro-

fess

By drugs that work more pain than the disease."

Who could believe such brainless talk from men? And yet we hear it!

Translation of JOHN STUART BLACKIE.

LIFE.

LIFE is too short to waste

In critic peep or cynic bark, Quarrel or reprimand:

'Twill soon be dark; Ay! mind thine own aim, and God speed the mark!

RALPH WALDO EMERSON.

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