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Debar a' side pretences;
And resolutely keep its laws,

Uncaring consequences.

The great Creator to revere

Must sure become the creature ;
But still the preaching cant forbear,
And ev'n the rigid feature :

Yet ne'er with wits profane to range,
Be complaisance extended;

An atheist's laugh's a poor exchange
For Deity offended!

When ranting round in Pleasure's ring,
Religion may be blinded;

Or if she gie2 a random sting,

It may be little minded;

But when on life we're tempest driven,
A conscience but a canker,

A correspondence fix'd wi' Heaven
Is sure a noble anchor !

Adieu, dear, amiable youth,

Your heart can ne'er be wanting!

May prudence, fortitude, and truth.
Erect your brow undaunting!

In ploughman phrase, "God send you speed,"
Still daily to grow wiser;

And may you better reck the rede3

Than ever did th' adviser!

ROBERT BURNS, one of the greatest of Scottish poets, was born in Ayrshire in 1759. His life was far from being commendable. Had he

1 atheist, one who denies that there is a

God.

2 gie, to give.

3 reck the rede, heed the counsel.

bent his energies to the purpose, he might have become eminent in almost any calling. Dissipation marred his work and shortened his life. He died in 1796. "The Cotter's Saturday Night" is regarded by many as one of his very best poems.

A LIBERAL EDUCATION

THOMAS H. HUXLEY

THAT man has had a liberal education, who has been so trained in youth that his body is the ready servant of his will, and does with ease and pleasure all the work that, as a mechanism, it is capable of; whose intellect is a clear, cold, logic-engine, with all its parts of equal strength and in smooth working order; ready, like a steam engine, to be turned to any kind of work and spin the gossamers, as well as forge the anchors of the mind; whose mind is stored with a knowledge of the great and fundamental truths of Nature and of the laws of her operations; one who, no stunted ascetic, is full of life and fire, but whose passions are trained to come to heel by a vigorous will, the servant of a tender conscience; who has learned to love all beauty, whether of Nature or of Art, to hate all vileness, and to respect others as himself.

Such a one and no other, I conceive, has had a liberal education; for he is, as completely as a man can be, in harmony with Nature. He will make the best of her, and she of him. They will get on together rarely; she as his beneficent mother; he as her mouthpiece, her conscious self, her minister, and interpreter !

as cet'ic, one entirely devoted to religious exercises.

Read not to contradict

and confute

nor to believe

and take for granted

nor to find talk

and discourse

but to weigh and consider

Sir Francis Bacon

As good almost kill
a Man as

kill a good Book.
Many a Man lives

a burden to the Earth but a good Book

is the precious Life-blood of a Master-spirit embalmed and

treasured up on purpose to a Life beyond life

John Milton

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