a safer place to belong to, if a somewhat correct idea be formed as to what a house may frequently be made, but is not.

From the poorest to the richest we all require a home, and it is the lot of humanity to be subject to bricks and mortar, as well as to those other elements, domestic, social, and religious, from which evolves the daily life with our family and friends. The happiness of home-life is, we fear, too often wrecked by ignorance of the why and how the home should be, and may be, the reverse of that which too many make it. "It is not," many dolefully exclaim, "what I should wish it to be," but such people seem to forget that even though it may not perchance be in their power to rear for themselves their own house, it is nevertheless one of the heaven-born privileges of man that he has within him the wherewithal to make for himself his home. Granted that in certain cases, when times are bad and employment scarce, an otherwise fairly comfortable home may be transformed into one of carking care and want, eclipsing all that formerly was bright and hopeful in its midst; sickness and calamity in their many forms may suddenly swoop down, and at first sight it might appear to be harsh and unfeeling to point out in such cases that, perchance, the sufferers themselves are really the makers of even such homes. But while, on the one hand, if thrift and prudence had not given way to the too common practice of spending all that had been earned by working, and on the other, if care had been taken in the matter of sanitary house arrangements, cleanliness, and an avoiding of injudicious indulgence in eating and drinking, the disastrous outcome, which is the inevitable penalty each and all will sooner or later have to pay, might have been avoided. We fear that in the homes of many, the most elementary, but no less essential acquaintance with the fundamental principles of sanitary laws and personal hygiene are either unknown to, or disregarded by the man, and the simplest and most reliable methods of treatment to be adopted in the cases of little illnesses or untoward accident, are not heeded and practised by the woman. In too many cases, again, we assert, and our opinion is supported by common experience, the happiness, the social tone, the peace and contentment of many a home, is entirely within the grasp of the heads of a house; and a disregard of this fact is not only a falling short of an incumbent duty, but a wasting of a privilege, the acceptance of which would result in so much substantial good.

There is an element, a tone, which must lie somewhere between the two extremes of social and religious refinement and depraved and godless living, existing within the four main walls of every house, defining, as it does, the real nature of the home; and in these days, when those with leisure at their command, possessing the desire to do the "bountiful," and assist the homes of the poor with that pecuniary aid and religious advice

which is showered not unfrequently on the thankless heart and unappreciative mind, it may be well to remind those who engage themselves in such work of the importance of their self-imposed mission, and that it may be most advisable if some pondered deeply over the imagined soundness of their well-intentioned, but not always properlymatured, instructions. And foremost with such, it should surely be their bounden duty not to suffer any neglect in their own homes to give way to the excitement of wandering abroad for the good of others. We would say this in all kindness of spirit, but of all things that are certain in these days, one, the most certain of all, is that there is a spirit abroad of "looking out," to the neglect of "looking in," seeming, as it does to many, to be a most congenial occupation, and one sometimes made a very scapegoat for the weariness, unquiet, and discontentment of the home which is their own but in name. All of us are familiar with the well-known saying, “First look at home," and this may be heeded surely without pandering to the miserable feeling of personal selfishness; and it follows that, if this looking at our own home first be performed with a conscientious desire to correct all that may be really amiss there, the better then will one be prepared for looking at the homes of others. If the influence existing in our own home is not what it ought to be; if happiness, contentment, family unity and affection, and a religious and moral status be not properly maintained, it will be but labour lost to attempt to ameliorate the condition of other homes which are supposed to be less perfect than our own.

It was Washington Irving who said, in reference to the necessity of making a home happy, "it was the policy of the good man to make his children feel that home was the happiest place in the world; and I value this delicious home-feeling as one of the choicest gifts a parent can bestow." And because there are many little details connected with home-life which are so obvious that they are the less frequently touched upon, it must yet be admitted that there is room for many a little hint which may well come before our notice, and for which most of us will be all the better.

There are many, doubtless, who would lead a nobler life, both in their own home and abroad, striving to do what they can for those immediately connected with them first, and then "look out" towards others; but this idea of performance amounts to nothing owing to want of power to perform that which they would. And this want of power, except in particular cases of untoward circumstance, is perfectly self-created; they forget that work, in all its variety of form, is a privilege, and that the life of idleness, in the matter at least of not making a house and a home what it should be, cannot but result at last in an aimless existence of negation. Where a perfect bouse, and a home teeming with light-hearted joy and smiling contentment, the fruits of a holy life, can be made,

as it is quite possible in the vast majority of cases, surely it is a sinful neglect of our privileges not to aim at results which may be ours if we will; for though, what the lazy and indifferent might regard as tedious work to attempt-this perfecting of a house and a home-that very work will be found a refreshing and life-giving labour by the man or woman, boy or girl, who strives with righteous determination to conquer all difficulties, to level with the dust every obstacle, to lay under tribute one's best mental energies, to ensure for the home a life such as God intended to be a part of it. For surely it is that labour for the right and true, an unvarying display of disinterested love and affection towards members of our family, cannot fail to ensure for us a mental repose which, when the wearied physical frame shall no longer be capable of obeying the will, and we have toddled nearly to the bottom of the hill, will make us the better meet to enjoy an intensity of happiness at feeling that a work well done has secured for us the life well won.

It is, after all, the kindly act and thoughtful regard being continually alive amongst members of a household that cannot fail to ensure for them, individually, social comfort and continual cheerfulness, which results can hardly be looked for in the home where a lack of goodly sentiment and but luke-warm companionship exist. And, again, how often do we find that a house is perfect in all its appointments; its architecture and ornamentation correct and superb; a tone of complete refinement of design pervading floor, wall, ceiling, and furniture; but, nevertheless, there is lacking real home comforts and genuine home repose. It is a common remark, often heard, that a house is very beautiful, and nothing that the eye can rest upon seems to offend; but, nevertheless, we cannot somehow feel "at home" in it; and if we but take the trouble we need not go far to discover the causes, although, of course, these may vary in different instances. Too frequently a house is not a home, owing to the fact that practical comfort has been placed second to the desire for display and artistic magnificence, to say nothing of an arbitrary family régime, perchance insisted on, which may be as faulty as it is exact. That perfect order and punctuality in the matter of all domestic arrangements are great essentials, goes without saying; and if kindness, firmness, and justice be invariably shown towards servants, and if they be taught to feel an interest in all they have to do, and for all that belongs to a master and mistress, an amount of comfort will certainly follow which is in the power of a servant even to lessen in a home.

In several articles upon the subject of "Houses and Homes," we shall endeavour to throw out just those hints which may be available in various cases. In doing this, it will not be our intention to deal minutely with special phases of duty connected with home-life, either in reference to master, mistress, or servant; it will not fall

within our province to instruct the husband or the wife, as heads of a family, in any special duty, beyond giving a general exposition of sound and practical principles which, in their application, may work for good. But because we say this much, we are by no means prepared to admit that even in the case of those classes of people where education of an intellectual and moral description have placed greater privileges within their grasp, an effort to keep them alive to their duties and responsibilities is superfluous; in fact, in these days of high-pressure life and rush, it may be that the more wealthy, even with their apparently greater privileges and opportunities, have frequently greater need of a stimulus to remind them of neglected duties, of "a word in season" which may place before them little sins of omission and commission. It may not be reasonably supposed that even the mechanic and his wife, or the field-labourer and his wife beneath the cottage roof, have not in their case just as many valid reasons why they should realise the importance of family duties; for with them it is also a bounden duty, in respect of their own welfare and that of their children, to leave a something undone that is done, and to proceed on a course which to them hitherto has been an untrodden one. In fact, it must be the supremest wisdom that, in whatever position in life a human being may, by the will of God, be placed, that he should recognise the importance and privilege of his life's position, and strive conscientiously and cheerfully to fulfil all the duties of his lot. And without that firm mental conviction, which a right apprehension of religious principles will evolve, as to the carrying out of life's duties, the mere attempt in our own strength, aided only by the laws of a community and by our own conceptions of what is right or wrong, socially and morally, will ere long land us in a slough of despair at finding that with all our striving things are not somehow as we could wish; such efforts will be of the value of "shauchling shoon," only fit to be thrown away.

And does it not strike one, ever and anon, that in our own homes, and in the homes of others, there is an influence abroad acting upon each one of us, emanating from those with whom we come into contact? The individual influence which one human being exercises over another for weal or for woe, whether intentional or not, is really very great. We find in the vegetable world of God's creation this influence at work even for life or death there are trees and plants which, while, on the one hand, will thrive better and show a healthier life when growing side by side with others, the presence of which is not hurtful to them; so, on the other hand, there are certain trees and plants which develop but slowly, and in some instances cease to exist at all, when an uncongenial other growth is near by, the influence of which affects them detrimentally. And is it not thus, also, in the ordinary companionship of

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human life? There are some people we say that we cannot get on with;" their influence upon us is depressing; it not only frequently withers up within us all that is good and noble, and we do not feel to be our true selves, and it may be that if subject to such deleterious influence for any lengthened period we cease to develop at all, and at last wither and fade as the tree or plant alluded to before. And that this is so is known by common experience; also, we may well bear in mind that, while an unrighteous and evil influence will spread amongst all those brought within its 1adius, it cannot fail to bring forth in time that which, as rational human beings, we would fain avoid; so the life as it is in Jesus may, if we so will it, be made to well up and live in and among not only those nearest and dearest to us, but in and among all our acquaintance also. In the case of rich and poor, of young and old, this influence is but one example of the working of the manifold laws of God designed by Him for men's ultimate good. We are too often, maybe, unconscious of it; but it is, indeed, one example of the working out of the Will of the Maker of the countless laws which He has made to exist in each minute phase of that Divine creation which God Himself pronounced to be very good. Just as in the physical world, heat has a tendency to diffuse itself equally in all directions, so this influence, silent and unconscious as it at times is, acts and reacts in and upon the human family. We know that there are some substances which radiate heat better than others, and also that there are some substances which are better conductors of heat than others; so there are individuals in our midst who are constantly acting either as radiators, or as good or bad conductors of what we understand as human influence. And while we ourselves are acted upon, we must also be mindful of the fact that we act upon others. Again, just as the actual temperature of the woollen blanket on the child's cot is the same as that of a marble slab in the same room, but owing to the former being a bad conductor of heat and the latter a good conductor, the former seems warmer to the touch than the latter, the result of our touch producing a consciousness of sensation of warmth or cold by the influence which the one substance or the other has upon our structure, so it is that by coming under the influence of a bad conductor of what we know as good, as opposed to evil, we are often led to believe that there is really more good in that influence which looks warm and tempting; but it is not really so. And, again, our own influence coming into contact with that which looks cold and uncongenial, produces for us an experience that is chilling and unpleasant; but yet, as in the case of the apparently colder marble, we ourselves are partly the cause of its seeming so to

us.

The influence, then, which we sometimes find in a home, is not congenial to us because we are not so constituted that it can have a pleasing effect upon us; but if we remember that, were

the influence which we are accustomed to nurture within ourselves haply of a nobler, purer, worthier sort, that same influence which chills us might then warm us and instil within us the phase of experience we long for.

There is, again, in all homes the absolute necessity of bearing and forbearing, of showing charity towards those who differ from us in sentiment and opinion, unless, of course, that sentiment and opinion be absolutely wrong according to the dictates of axiomatic truth. There is the necessity of thinking of and for others before ourselves, of seeking for little acts whereby courtesy, kindness, and affection towards those with whom we are constantly living may be seen and felt, which will convert them towards us as good radiators of the love, sympathy, and affection which lies somewhere (though not always on the surface) within every human soul. And, of course, in dwelling upon the idea of that duty to ourselves and others which the very nature of human life demands, we must remember that this duty does not only refer to those paths outside and far away from the family ingle-side, although, unfortunately, with some its strict performance is maintained in the workshop, in the manufactory, in the office, and abroad, coupled, as it frequently is, with kindly bearing and courteous behaviour; while, in the house and in the home, home-duties are a thing seldom or never thought of, and but second-best manners and bearing are there displayed. To avoid the rift in the tuneful flute of home-life, may it not be well at all times to forbear from taking exception to every little matter of which we may not approve? If the motto, "bear and forbear," be the one which is seen to be practically exemplified by the heads of a home, by the well-to-do and by the poorer, it will then surely be found that an influence in that family for good will radiate itself, and act beneficially upon the children and even the serving hands. And, after all, may it not, in a certain sense, be good policy to exercise the spirit of forbearance towards others with whom we come in contact? for, as Shakespeare said, and said but too truly, use every man after his deserts, and who shall 'scape whipping?" And it was Abernethy who said, with equal truth, "If the peculiarities of our feelings and faculties be the effect of variety of excitement through a diversity of organisation, it should tend to produce in us mutual forbearance and toleration. We should perceive how nearly impossible it is that persons should feel and think exactly alike upon any subject. We should not arrogantly pride ourselves upon our virtues and knowledge, nor condemn the errors and weakness of others, since they may depend upon causes which we can neither produce nor easily counteract. No one, judging from his own feelings and powers, can be aware of the kind or degree of temptation or terror, or the seeming incapacity to resist them, which may induce others to deviate."

III.

10th October, 1859.

I AWAITED M. Polizzi's reply with an impatience which I strove unsuccessfully to restrain. I could not keep in one place; I made abrupt movements; I opened and shut my books noisily. One day I happened to knock down a volume of Moréri with my elbow. Hamilcar, who was washing himself, stopped short, and, with his paw behind his ear, gazed at me in indignant surprise. This tumultuous life, then, was what he must expect under my roof! Had we not tacitly agreed to lead a peaceable existence together? I had broken our compact.

"My poor companion," I answered, "I am the victim of a violent passion, which excites and overmasters me. The passions are enemies to repose, I admit; but without them there would be neither arts nor sciences in this world. Every one would dose through their days, and thou wouldst not be able to sleep all day long, Hamilcar, on a silken cushion, in the city of books."

I did not further expound the theory of the passions to Hamilcar, for my housekeeper brought me a letter. It bore the Naples postmark, and ran thus:

"MOST ILLUSTRIOUS SIR,-It is true that I possess the incomparable manuscript of the Légende dorée which has not escaped your learned attention. Reasons of the first importance make it absolutely impossible for me to let it leave my hands for a single day, for a single minute. I shall consider it a joy and an honour to let you see it at Girgenti in my humble abode, which will be embellished and illumined by your presence. In the hope of your speedy coming, therefore, I venture to call myself, honoured Academician, your humble and devoted servant, "MICHAEL ANGELO POLIZZI,

"Wine merchant and archæologist at Girgenti in Sicily."

Very well. Then I shall go to Sicily: "Extremum hunc, Arethusa, mihi concede laborem."

25th October, 1859.

Having made up my mind to go, and completed my arrangements, nothing remained but to tell my housekeeper. I confess that I hesitated long before announcing my project to her. I feared her remonstrances, mockery, reproaches, and tears.

"She is a good woman," I said to myself; "she is attached to me; she will wish to prevent me from going; and, God knows, when she wants anything, words, gestures, and cries cost her little. On this occasion, she will call to her

assistance the porter's wife, the floor polisher, the woman who cards the mattresses, and the greengrocer's seven sons; they will all kneel down in a circle at my feet; they will weep, and they will look so hideous that I shall yield in order to get them out of my sight."

Such were the terrible pictures, the diseased visions with which fear filled my imagination. Yes, fear, prolific fear, as the poet says, brought forth these monsters in my brain. For, I will confess the truth in these friendly pages: I am afraid of my housekeeper. I know that she knows that I am weak, and that deprives me of all courage in my struggles with her. These struggles are of frequent occurrence, and I invariably succumb.

But of course it was necessary to inform Thérèse of my intended journey. She came into the library with an armful of wood to make a fire, "a bit of a blaze," she said, "for the mornings are chilly."

I observed her stealthily, whilst she was squatted down with her head under the draughtboard of the fire-place. I don't know where my courage came from then, but I did not hesitate. I rose, and walking up and down the room:

"By-the-bye," said I, in an easy tone, with the swaggering air peculiar to cowards, “by-the-bye, I am going to start for Sicily."

Having spoken, I waited, feeling very anxious. Thérèse did not answer. Her head and her huge cap remained buried in the fire-place, and nothing in her person, as far as I could see, betrayed the slightest emotion. She stuffed paper under the logs and blew the fire. That was all.

At last I saw her face again; it was calm, so calm that it irritated me. Really, thought I, this old maid has no feeling. She lets me set out on a journey without even saying, "oh! Is it such a small matter for her, then, that her old master is to be away?

"Go, sir," she said to me at last, "but be back by six o'clock. We have a dish for dinner to-day which will not keep."

NAPLES, 10th November, 1859.

"Co tra calle vive, magne e lave a faccia."

I understand, my friend; for three centimes, I can eat, drink, and wash my face, all by the help of a slice of these water melons which you display on a little table. But western prejudices prevent me from taking advantage of this simple luxury. And how am I to suck water melons? I have enough to do to keep myself on my feet in this crowd.