tlemen had once learned, they found very difficult to give up."

"Pardon me, madam," said he, with some emphasis, "gentlemen never learn it; boys learn, and gentlemen continue the practice."

The remark suggests the duty to mothers of influencing their sons upon this point. A strict prohibition is not counselled as the best way; but a mother's influence against it, her wishes and preferences, not commands, exerted mildly and gently and persistently, may have an effect for which the future man will feel most grateful.

We find a great difference in the writings of the French and English on this subject. The French wage constant war upon it, on paper, whatever their practice may be, whilst the English as warmly defend its use.

We confess to no little amusement in reading, lately, a French work, containing a tirade against "Le Tabac." After many severe strictures upon smoking, the author concludes by saying, "As for those who chew, they belong, generally, to the very lowest class of persons, of whom nothing need be said here!" Americans! what think ye of this French verdict? Could not our Senate Chamber or House of Representatives tell a different story?

An English work, now open before us, asserts, on the other hand, that tobacco is the cure of almost every earthly ill, the soother of suffering, the preserver of the temper, society to the lonely, wife to the bachelor, and

comfort for the sorrowful. It will thus be seen that varying opinions are held on the question on the other side of the water. In our land, we would refer to an article which lately appeared in one of our leading religious journals, strongly reprehending the use of tobacco by the clergy, as forming indolent habits, weakening the powers of concentration of thought, creating a great and wrong expense, lowering the spiritual tone of mind, and tending to irreverence by leading to the performance of the highest and most sacred duties, with the clothes still retaining the odor of the previous self-indulgence.

We were much struck with this article, and further reflection upon it led us to conclude that any reform in this habit must, in the first place, come from two classes,

- the clergy and the women of our country. Let the clergy teach by that most powerful of all agents, example; and let the mothers, as we have proposed, discourage the practice in their sons, and the thing would be done, or, at any rate, one great step would be taken towards checking the fearful extent to which it is at present carried in this land of liberty.

VI. THE HAND, AND ITS WORK.

THE hand-what wondrous wisdom planned

This instrument so near divine?
How impotent, without the hand,
Proud Reason's light would shine!
Invention might his powers apply,

And Genius see the forms of heaven,
And firm Resolve his strength might try;
But vain the will, the soul, the eye:
Unquarried would the marble lie,
The oak and cedar flout the sky,

Had not the hand been given.

The frost's ice-breath the seas may block,
An earthquake's arm the mountains shake,

The lightning's eye dissolve the rock,
The heaving breast of waters break

A pathway through the solid land:
No form that Nature's force could take
Such changes in the world would make
As doth the human hand.

Its slender palm the forest clears,
And sows the nurturing grain;
The harvest springs, the vine appears,
And pastures dot the plain

Where flocks and herds secure may lie:
Nor prowling beasts will venture nigh;
They feel their Maker's stern command,
And yield to man the cultured land.
Then cities lift their stately spires,
And orchards bloom, and household fires
Are kindled up with song and glee;

And art and taste their riches pour ;
And strong, swift ships have bridged the sea:
While nations meet on either shore,

Like neighbors stepp'd from door to door;

W

And savage hands, whose work was strife,
Now clasped in social compact, prove
Justice and peace may govern life,

If man his work perform in love.

HEN we consider the wonderful doings of the hand, as seen in the ruins of the Old World and its remaining monuments, does it not seem strange that heathen philosophy never attempted to deify it, and build temples to the God of Work? The idea never appears to have entered the minds of the wisest among the worshippers of images, that the hand, as the organ which created all the visible forms of those idols, was a greater power and more manifest providence than the things it made and they worshipped.

It was reserved for this nineteenth century to unveil the wonders of the Hand, as the Christian philosophy of Sir Charles Bell has done; and also to this age alone must be charged the idea that a Carlyle has embodied in his philosophy," Work is Worship!" This apothegm has been seized upon and read, effectively as some writers seem to think, in exalting the natural condition of the human race, and giving to men the independence and liberty which are now so much coveted.

And so work is considered as worship of the God of nature, and therefore the glory of man; and its results are exalted as the exponents of the true civilization of the people, in which our own nation leads the world. But these are not the teachings of Divine Revelation.

The Bible doctrine is, that whenever work is put before man, by the position and circumstances in which it has. pleased God to place him, let him do it honestly and faithfully, remembering, that, if done in His fear and favor, it exalts, never degrades. It is man's duty; and he should perform it as a duty, but not as worship.

Work is not worship, work is obedience; and whilst we should be thankful to God for so graciously uniting it with advantages, and so frequently mingling pleasures with it, we must always remember that the exemption from hard work is a blessing. What Agur's prayer comprises, "Give me neither poverty nor riches;" what the poet means by an "elegant sufficiency;" in short, gentility, was the normal state of mankind. The first man and the first woman were gentleman and lady by condition. No hard labor was required; only tendance, care, and pleasant help over what God had prepared for their enjoyment.

It was sin that brought HARD WORK on our race; and the necessity for this hard work on the "ground cursed for Adam's sake" (or sin), with the loss of Eden, and the favor of and intercourse with the Lord God, which was the privilege of Eden, that have led humanity in the downward road of misery, ignorance, and vulgarity. Read the first three chapters of Genesis: there you will find the true explanation of these enigmas.

Therefore, there is a real foundation in the nature of humanity for this superstructure of gentleness, or state of