ticm of long 1 years of labor. In heathen mythology it is said that the Goddess Minerva sprung from the head of Jupiter, at once full-grown and glorious; but character, like a g’rand edifice is of slow growth, as the builder lays brick after brick, stone after stone, erects beam after beam, so slowly and laborously, this character work advances. There is not an act of our lives, however small, not even a thought, that does not add a stone to that edifice. If it be a false stone an unworthy beam, we can no more take it out of our character, than we can take a stone out of the solid wall of a building. There it is and there it will stay, and it will weaken our whole character for all time. Some of the most atrocious characters in history were men of giant intellect. An invalid may be decked with jew els, but these import neither appetite, life nor streng-th. A monkey clad in silk and housed in a marble palace is but a monkey still. These outward trappings are but superficial and decorative, the mere guilding of life. What is needed is a genuine, solid, moral, character. This is the most val uable possession in this world. A man may be reputed wealthy and this may give him honor among men but world ly reputation is not character. His elevation in consequence of his wealth may have beneath it frauds and swindles, a foundation so decayed that he who occupies this seat which the world calls high, may some day fall so low that an an gels eye will not be able to penetrate the depth of his de scent. Character is not built of such materials, but of love, faith, hope, self-denial, truthfulness and patience ; —these, the underlying elements of a good character, like the sap' of a tree, run into every branch of life, shaping, coloring and giving direction to every part of it. Character and not circumstances make a man happy or miserable. Wealth, position in society, and education, are nothing but the scaffolding, The question of prime import ance does not concern the scaffolding, but how is the build ing getting on. There is a vast difference between the two.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers