But alas! for the beef. The frogs are plentiful enough, but the beef is scant; the frogs are in the full alacrity of health and life, but the poor bullocks are in the full alacrity of disease and death; and if they can boast at all-and some folk boast of everything—it is that their carcases should be worth fourteenpence a pound at this season of the year.

What are the poor to do? They can't eat frogs or snails or curry; they can't get mutton, for that takes the bull by the horns; they can't eat pork-" pigs are looking upwards," more in faith than hope; and as to game, turkeys, geese, and the like, they fly so high that no one can get at them.

Well, we will have faith too, and trust that God in His good Providence will provide for us in some way. Partial evil is a general good; and so let the rich eat less and it will do them good, and the poor have patience, and they will see that "the Lord will provide," and turn the present dark days of adversity into a sunshine of prosperity in which both rich and poor may bask.

KING'S COLLEGE, LONDON,
October 16th, 1865.

PROFESSOR MARIETTE presents his compliments to the Proprietor of PETER PARLEY'S ANNUAL, and begs to state that having carefully examined the papers containing the translation of the French extract proposed for competition, he awards the first place to the one bearing as its motto "Macte novâ virtute, puer, sic itur ad astra."

Although the best among the number, that paper contains many · inaccuracies and defects of composition. Still Professor Mariette ventures to suggest that if the Proprietor intends to print it, it had better be left uncorrected.

TRANSLATION OF FRENCH LETTER IN PETER PARLEY'S ANNUAL FOR 1865,"

"Macte nova virtute, puer, sic itur ad astra."

Y SON,-"Flee youthful lusts, but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart." 2 Timothy ii. 22.

A friend who does not know thee, but who loves thee, is addressing himself to thee from a distant country. He is writing to thee from the foot of the Alps, in the presence of the eternal ice of Mont Blanc, and on the banks of the crystal lake, whence the

Rhone precipitates its waters towards France. The word which he addresses to thee is this: "Be God's ;"-let there be a consecration of thy youth to Him who saves His people; let the strength of thy life receive the unction and the renovation of the Holy Spirit. There is a life which thou shouldest shun, there is a life which thou shouldest pursue. Live, pursue, struggle, seek, acquire—but (do so) following a new direction, possessing a changed life. There are in the world phantoms of liberty, of joy, of truth. Shun all phantoms, and seek reality. My son, perhaps thou wilt pursue pleasure, joining thyself to bands of worldlings. Perhaps thou wilt pursue wealth, embarking in the ships of England, and going to seek it at the extremity of the earth. Perhaps thou wilt pursue glory, taking the arms of the soldier, and gathering {h} crowns in battles, in the direction of the majestic streams of India. Perhaps thou wilt pursue power, speaking in popular assemblies, or in the senate of thy nation. If it is there that thy principal labour lies, thou art lost.

her

his

My son, I am going to lay before thee four other treasures, which I invite thee to pursue. They are called Justice, Faith, Love, Peace.

I.

Flee youthful lusts, and pursue Justice.

Wait not for

My son, wait not for Justice to pursue thee. that day when, terrible and inevitable, divine Justice shall seize thee, stop thee, eompel thee to follow her, and precipitate thee into the place where there are weepings and gnashings of teeth. Pursue justice now, before justice reaches thee. Seek the justice which comes from faith; Christ is that justice. If thou clothest thyself with the

justice of Christ, thou shalt be covered with a cuirass which shall render thee invulnerable. At the day of the judgments of God, when the destroying angel shall come to gather together, and to punish all those who do iniquity, should his terrible sword come to smite thee, it would shiver in his hands, for it would have met the breastplate of the justice of Christ. And for thy part, unscathed and glorious, thou shouldest follow, with all the armies of heaven, Him who is seated upon a white horse, who has upon His head several crowns, and who is called the Word of God (Rev. xix. 11). Thou shouldest join His train, and shouldest enter with Him into the eternal tabernacle. My son, become by this justice, a child of God; let the leading-strings of childhood and of fear fall, and receive in thyself the spirit of adoption. In the midst of all the human ordinances which surround thee, contemplate the beauty of the ordinances of God.

Know that God, He who has created the heavens and the earth, and who has given His Son, calls thee, such as thou art, a worm of the earth, to know Him, to contemplate Him, to believe in Him, to imitate Him. Become an imitator of God. Let thy will merge itself in the will of God, and become identified with it. To have for one's will the will of God, that is liberty, that is glory. Clad in the justice of Christ, let nothing condemn thee. If sin, if injustice come upon thee, overwhelm thee, draw thee away to evil, immediately raise thyself with energy, recollect that thou belongest to God, loudly confess thy fault; by this confession separate thyself from thy sin, by this means obtain that God may pardon it and efface it, and, by a new measure of His Spirit, may make thee to bear abundantly fruits of conversion and of life!

II.

My son, flee youthful lusts, and pursue Faith. By faith I mean an immoveable confidence in the truth and the favour of God. We must "walk by faith, and not by sight. The just shall live by faith" (2 Cor. v. 7). Let faith be thy life. Pursue faith; seek its constant development in thy heart and in all thy actions. Alas! my son, if thou dost seek knowledge essentially, knowledge will wither thee and will chill thee. Remain immoveably attached to the springs of living waters, to the river of eternal love, which no one approaches and at which no one quenches his thirst except by faith in Jesus Christ. Hold in estimation always and above everything the true knowledge which has been communicated to thee. Remember that thou hast not seen God, but that thou hast known Him in His Son; that by faith thou dost honour Him, and dost love Him above all things, and that thou dost hope one day to see Him when thou shalt purify thyself even as He is pure. My son, do not deliver thyself up to the dreams of thine imagination. Imagination, with its golden wings, will bear thee over lands replete with splendour. But if thou hast not taken truth for thy girdle (Eph. vi.), the sun will wither thy wings, and these glowing dreams will become a frightful abyss which will swallow thee up. Dost thou wish to prevent thine imagination from misleading thee? Sanctify it by truth: the Word of God is truth. (St. John xvii. 17.) How many [are the] young men who have allowed themselves to be drawn away by the glowing visions of their youth, who have converted life into an enchanting poem, and who have then been unable to realize it, and have on the contrary fallen into the gulf, and have destroyed themselves in despair. Pursue faith; faith will never deceive thee.