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man taught a trade. The knowledge of God and the dignity of the human mission are hidden from the one by their ignorance, and from the other by their corruptions. It seems to me, that for the rich and powerful, the study of physical nature, and the exercise of a trade, are as necessary, as for our peasants, our workmen and wood-cutters, the knowledge of the French language is, or the study of the bible.

I had found the means of reconciling my literary tastes with the duties of the position imposed upon me,—it was to set up in type and print fragments of my favourite authors, sometimes translated by myself when they were in a foreign language; it was thus I commenced the study of German by the translation and printing of portions of Goethe's Herman and Dorothea."

M. Chasles then describes how, on one Saturday evening, he had left a favourite volume (the Daphnis of Gessner) in the printing office, and how his father wishing to take him in the country on the morrow, M. Chasles (unwilling to go without his favourite volume) went to the printing-office at seven o'clock on the Sunday morning. What follows I tell in his own words.

"When I arrived at the printer's two men were standing at the foot of the dark staircase, who eyed me with much curiosity. I paid little attention to them, and was descending, book in hand, when I perceived, through an open door of the squalid chamber of Jacques, a man wearing a police scarf leaning carelessly against the mantel-piece; I entered the chamber to inquire after a poor woman, a pensioner of my mother's. I was ignorant of the customs of life, or the

scarf would have told me what was the matter. Scarcely had I entered the room when I was seized by two men, who searched me. I was mute and cold with astonishment. The fixed and piercing eye of the adjutant of police rested on me; the portfolio which contained a plan of a tragedy I was composing, and on which I had in my youthful dreams built my hopes of immortality, was carefully packed up, sealed, and marked. They demanded my name, age, rank, and occupation. They wrote down with gravity all this important detail; and without condescending to tell me what they were going to do with me, or what they wished to learn from me, they ordered me to follow, and led me to the police office."

We must stop here; but you shall hear how they sent him to prison, and what he saw and what he felt there. Again we remind you that the writer is a Frenchman, and that his way of writing is different from ours; but we thought it better to let him tell his own tale in his own way. One thing our young friends will perhaps have noticed, and that is, what he says about going out on the Sunday with his father. This was no doubt on a journey of pleasure, which is a very common thing in France, where the sabbath-day is not regarded as in England. Popery, which is the religion of France, permits people to work, or dance, or go to balls or theatres, on the sabbath-day, which they do not remember to keep holy; and hence there is little preaching of the gospel, and less knowledge of the way of salvation by faith in the Great Saviour in that country than in this.

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THE SMUGGLER'S BOY.

You remember the tale of the "Three Smugglers." Here they are again. But as I have already told you what a smuggler is, I need not say more about them now than that

they generally pretend to be fishermen, living in retired and out of the way places on the sea coast, and go out with their boats on dark nights to Holland, Belgium, or France, for spirits and tobacco, which they buy at low prices, and sell secretly, when they get back again, without paying the heavy tax which our Government imposes on such articles. This is a dangerous employment, not only because they go out on dark nights on a rough sea, but because the Government Cutters, which are fast sailing boats with armed officers and men on board, are always on the look-out for them, like a sea police force to detect and capture them. Should they take them, as they often do, the cargo and the boat are seized, and the smugglers sent to prison.

Sometimes when one of the Queen's cutters meets with a smuggler's boat on the open sea, or on the shore when they are landing the cargo, a sharp conflict ensues; for the smugglers are desperate fellows, and will not be taken if they can help it. It is of one of these contests that I shall now tell you.

In a low cottage near the sea-side, three men were seated round the fire one winter night. They were roughly clad; each had a short pipe in his mouth; and spoke in low tones. One of them lived at the house, and had a wife and one little boy named John; the other two lived a little distance off. John's father had been a smuggler for many years, and many a dreadful tale could he tell of deadly combats with the

cutters.

These men were planning a voyage to Holland, and were laying down their plans to avoid the cutters, for the coast

guard were very watchful, and had some suspicion of them. They sat till late in the night, and then the fire having died out and their arrangements being all made, they separated.

Three days passed on, and John having heard his father tell his mother he was going on a voyage, begged very hard to go with him. At first his father refused; but as John still begged for permission, he at last gave consent. When night came, John, bidding his mother good bye, set off with his father to the place where the boat lay at anchor. Here he found the men busily engaged in preparing for the voyage. As it was late and John was tired with his long walk, his father took and lifted him into a hammock, and he was soon fast asleep.

When he awoke the next morning he found himself sailing over the wide blue sea, with no land in sight. For hours he leaned over the boat's side and watched the fishes as they rose to the surface or pursued each other through the waters. His father took but little notice of him, and he was left alone to amuse himself as he could; fortunately for him, one of the men had taken a dog on board with the odd name of "Bung." Between John and the dog there soon sprung up a mutual friendship, which passed the time away pleasantly. At length they arrived in sight of Holland, and were very soon at Amsterdam. While the crew were busily engaged in making purchases, John and his companion rambled about this large and curious town, which has three main streets, each of which has a canal running through it, with rows of trees on one side, and a very wide. carriage road on the other side. Nearly a quarter of a million of people live in

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