As if the compatibility of mental cultivation with bodily labor and the equality and brotherhood of the human family were still open questions, depending for their decision very much on the production of positive proof that essays may be written and carpets woven by the same set of fingers! The truth is, our democracy lacks calmness and solidity, the repose and self-reliance which come of long habitude and settled conviction.

We have not yet learned to wear its simple truths with the graceful ease and quiet air of unsolicitous assurance with which the titled European does his social fictions.

As a people, we do not feel and live out our great Declaration.

We lack faith in man,--confidence in simple humanity, apart from its environments.
"The age shows, to my thinking, more infidels to Adam, Than directly, by profession, simple infidels to God." Elizabeth B.Browning.
TAKING COMFORT.
For the last few days the fine weather has lured me away from books and papers and the close air of dwellings into the open fields, and under the soft, warm sunshine, and the softer light of a full moon.

The loveliest season of the whole year--that transient but delightful interval between the storms of the "wild equinox, with all their wet," and the dark, short, dismal days which precede the rigor of winter--is now with us.