7TH REASON.-Great and small, trivial and important, are terms which depend for their meaning, in a great measure, on the prescience of the person who uses them. Thus to lay a log across a rail might seem a very slight matter to a person who knew nothing of locomotives; but to another better acquainted with steam-trains, would be regarded as "full of most dangerous hazard.” - 8TH REASON.-The real germ of life is always very minute, and, to those who measure value by size, exceedingly insignificant; but the worthless acorn cast into a field by a wandering boy, or trodden in the earth by an errant ox, may contain the germ of a future forest. 9TH REASON.-A very trivial circumstance may strike upon the hopes or fears of a man, and turn the whole current of his thoughts and feelings; as a stone falling into a stream may divert the water into a new channel. 10TH REASON. As the providence of God superintends and directs all things, the most important events are often brought about by the most inadequate means, in order to teach the world, that "it is not by might nor by power," but by the sovereign will of the Lord of Hosts. Thus the walls of the strong city of Jericho fell down merely at the blast of Joshua's trumpets. SIMILES.-A splinter in the finger may cost a man much pain, and even his life. The mustard seed (says our Lord) is the smallest of all grain, but produces the largest of all trees. A spark of fire falling from the pipe of a rustic on dry leaves, has been known to destroy huge forests. A worm in a "stick of timber" may cause the wreck of a giant ship; bring death to hundreds, and sorrow to thousands. If the elements of the air were combined together, instead of being mixed mechanically, they would generate most deadly poisons. Vessels have been lost at sea by mistaking a word for one of similar sound, as when "larboard" and "star B* board" are mistaken for each other amidst the roar of a tempest. HISTORICAL ILLUSTRATIONS.-Benson says, Napoleon's love for war was planted in his boyhood by the present of a small brass cannon from one of his juvenile friends.— Sketches of Corsica. As Josephine was going to the opera one day, General Rapp detained her a minute to arrange her shawl after the manner of the Egyptian women. By this trifle the life of Napoleon Buonaparte was saved, for the "infernal machine" exploded one minute too soon. Thus the fate of Europe depended on the fanciful adjustment of a shawl. The famous Rye-house plot in the reign of Charles II. was thwarted by a mere accident; for the house in which the king lodged happening to catch fire, he was obliged to leave Newmarket a few hours sooner than he intended; and the whole scheme of the conspirators was thwarted. The great London fire in 1799 was occasioned by a servant, who inadvertently dropped a spark from a candle on a cottage floor. And the fearful conflagration of the city in the reign of Charles II. is ascribed to a similar accident in a bake-office near London Bridge. The ambition of Marins and all its concomitant evils originated in a foolish prophecy, that "he should be seven times consul." The destruction of Athens was brought about by a jest: For some witty Athenian, struck with the pimply face of Sulla, called him "A mulberry pudding." The indignant Roman satisfied his vengeance by destroying the ancient and beautiful city. Brennus was prevented from storming the Roman citadel by the cackling of some sacred geese, who were disturbed by the tramp of the Gaulish besiegers. The invention of glass is generally ascribed to some Phoenician merchants, who lighted a fire on the sea-shore, and observed the vitrification of the sand after the fire had burnt out. The valuable invention of printing was discovered by a frolic humour of John Geinsfleish of Haerlem, who had cut his initials on a tree, and in an idle whim took an impression on paper. The siege of Troy commenced from a visit of Paris at the house of Menelaus, where he fell in love with Helen; eloped to Troy; was followed by the Grecian armament; and, after a siege of ten years, the city of Priam was burnt to the ground. . The history of Joseph Guy Fawkes and Lord Monteagle. Mons. Lafitte, the eminent banker of Paris, and one of the most conspicuous public men of the age, was originally a pauper; and ascribes the employment, which opened up to him his path of fortune and glory, to his picking up a stray pin in the streets of Paris. The theory of gravitation was suggested to Sir Isaac Newton by the accidental fall of an apple from a tree under which he was reclining in a fit of musing. QUOTATIONS.-Life is a bundle of accidents. A little spark kindles a mighty fire. Little neglect breeds great mischief. Those that with haste would make a mighty fire, A wee thing puts your beard in a bleeze. Cæsar says, "Accident has much to do with war;" but it has still more to do with scientific and political discoveries.-The Times. A very small incident will occasionally lead to the most brilliant results, and sometimes produce the most dismal misfortunes.-R. Chambers. What are usually termed trifles are no longer so, when there is a possibility of their taking a serious turn.-R. Chambers. "Trifles make perfection Michael Angelo used to say, and perfection is no trifle." Trifles make the sum of human happiness. Nuge seria ducunt. Parva scintilla excitavit magnum incendium. Eheu! quam brevibus pereunt ingentia causis.-Claudian. CONCLUSION.-Let us be careful in all our thoughts, and circumspect in all our ways. THEME XII. Mental stimulus is necessary for bodily exercise. INTRODUCTION.-Bodily exercise, taken for purposes of health, should be under the influence of an harmonious nervous excitement. 1ST REASON.-Exercise for health should be pleasant and agreeable But all exertion in opposition to the will is painful and offensive. : 2ND REASON.-Healthy exercise must be vital and energetic But all action in opposition to the will is only mechanical and lethargic. 3RD REASON.-Exercise to be healthy should be without fatigue of body or distress of mind: But all involuntary labour is wearisome and tedious. 4TH REASON.-Exercise for health should be easily performed: But constrained action must of necessity be difficult and distressful. 5TH REASON. Good temper is essential to healthy exercise: But whenever the will is violated, the temper is ruffled, and many evil passions are excited. 6TH REASON.-Exercise taken for health should be voluntary for the muscles are made by nature to obey the dictates of the will, and whenever the will is violated the health suffers. 7TH REASON. As no man can serve two masters without injury to both, so no person can wish one thing and do another without injury to the mind and body. 8TH REASON.-Healthy muscular action must be natural and not distorted: But so long as the will inclines the muscles one way, and some physical force constrains them another, their motions must be tortured and unnatural. SIMILES.-Exercise in violation to the will is like a wheel with a drag on. When a stick is bent by main force it will crack and break. A merry laugh is a real feast, but hysterical laughter is most distressing. No workman can plane his wood against the grain. A wheel well greased moves easily; so voluntary exercise is easily performed: But a stubborn wheel that needs greasing causes much mischief from friction; so bodily exercise, in violation to the will, produces injurious friction on the mind and body. Bodily exercise directed by mental stimulus may be compared to lightning running along a conductor: Whereas bodily exercise that is antagonistic to the will, is as injurious to the body as lightning to a house unprovided with a conducting rod, He who hunts two hares leaves one and loses the other: So he who takes exercise for health while his mind is otherwise occupied, must not expect to obtain his object. It is hard to swim against the stream. HISTORICAL ILLUSTRATIONS.-Addison, in the Spectator, tells us of a physician who brought a racket to an eastern despot suffering severely from constipation, and told him the remedy was concealed in the handle, and |