Be careful to make friends only of those who are worthy of the name. Love all that is good, and hate all that is evil in every man.

Let no man dare to say before you any sinful word, or slander of another; also suffer none to blaspheme against God or holy things, without immediately reproving them.

Fail not to render thanks unto God for His goodness to you, and thus you will be worthy to receive further marks of His favor.

Love your clergy and your holy men, especially those by whom God is most honored, and who preach and exalt His word.

To your father and your mother you owe all respect and obedience.

Be careful that the expenses of your household are within reasonable limits.

Finally, I bestow on you every blessing which a father can give his son. May God keep you from all evil, and give you grace ever to do His will; so that in the life to come, we may both unite to praise Him

without end. Amen.

[From the last will and testament of Louis IX., commonly called St. Louis. Born 1215; died August 25, 1270.] F. LAYARD.

DOUBLE AND MULTIPLE
STARS.

When the telescope was turned to the fixed stars, it was found that many of the larger stars had companions. The groups were classified as double stars, and were carefully stud

ied.

Double stars may be accounted for in two ways; either they are optically double, one star being so nearly behind the other that the two stars, seen in the telescope, produce, as is oftentimes the case, the effect of a double star; or the stars are close together and physically connected.

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Sir William Herschel investigated the subject for many years, and found tangible proof of the mutually circling motion of many of the double stars or binary systems. He announced in 1802 that they are physically related to each other, revolving round a common entre of gravity, and proving that the law of attraction holds sway in these remote orbs.

Observers have since pursued the study with marvellous results. More than 10,000 double stars have been catalogued.

It seemed impossible for many years to find the parallax of a single star, an essential element in determining its distance and consequently its mass. Bessel in 1838 found the parallex of 61 Cygni, and from it computed its distance to be seven light years, or that it takes seven years for its light to reach the earth.

This star, the nearest to the earth in the northern heavens, is a small fifth magnitude star in the Swan. Its components, nearly equal in size, are of the fifth and sixth magnitudes, shining with a white light tinged with yellow.

The components of many binary systems are of different colors. Beta Cygni, a double star, displays the exquisite combination of a topaz yellow and a sapphire blue.

Epsilon Lyræ is a quadruple star. It is called a naked eye double, since the eye just separates it into two components. These can be again separated, giving a double-double or quadruple star.

Sigma Orionis is a multiple star. Each of its two principal components is triple, and its leading member can be again divided into two stars. These seven minute telescopic objects are suns of great size and splendor, and are of every variety of color.

How complex the system, how

THE FRIENDSHIP OF BOOKS. Professor Drummond says: "To fall in love with a good book is one of the greatest events that can befall

us.

It is to have a new influence pouring itself into our life, to teach us to respire and refine us, a new friend to be by our side always, who, when life grows narrow and weary, will take us into his wider and calmer and higher world. Whether it be biography introducing us to some humble life made great by duty done; or history, opening vistas into the movements and destinies of nations that have passed away; or poetry, making music of all the common things around us, and filling the fields and the skies, and the work of the city and the cottage with eternal meanings-whether it be these, or story books, or religious books, or science, no one can be come the friend of even one good book without being made wiser and better. Do not think that I am going to recommend any such book to you. The beauty of a friend is that we discover him. And we must each taste the books that are accessible to us for ourselves. Do not be disheartened at first if you like none of them. That is possibly their fault, not yours. And search and search till you find what you like. In amazingly cheap forma few pence indeed-almost all the best books are now to be had; and I think every one owes it as a sacred

duty to his mind to start a little library of his own.

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This private libray may begin, perhaps, with a single volume, and grow at the rate of one or two a year; but these, well chosen and well mastered, will become such a fountain of strength and wisdom that each shall be eager to add to its store. Do not be distressed if you do not like timehonored books, or classical works, or recommended books. Choose for yourself. We have all different minds, and we are all at different stages of growth. Some other day we may find food in the recommended book, though we should possibly starve on it to-day. The mind develops and changes, and the favorites of this year, also, may one day cease to interest us. Nothing better indeed can happen to us than to lose interest in a book we have often read; for it means that it has done its work upon us and brought us up to its level, and taught us all it had to teach."

A SELF-MADE ASTRONOMER

Professor E. E. Barnard, of the Lick Observatory in California, is essentially a self-made astronomer. In boyhood he had barely more than a month's schooling. His mother attempted to supply the defects of his education. She taught him Greek, and did much to develop in him a passion for study.

He had to earn his living and began as a photographer's assistant in Nashville. The wages were small, but he was thrifty. He was also generous, and not infrequently had money to lend to friends in need. A com. panion after imposing upon his good nature several times, begged hard for a few dollars.

"I will leave this parcel as security," he said apologetically.

"I don't want security," replied

young Barnard. "Take the money and repay it when you can."

The borrower forgot to take away the parcel. Barnaid unwrapped it. It was a book—one of Dick's astronomical works. He sat up all night poring over its pages. It was a revelation of celestial scenery and systems of worlds that fascinated his imagination.

From that night he began to read everything he could find on astronomy. He bought a spy glass with an inch aperture, and spent hours on his roof star-gazing. He obtained at second hand the tube of a larger spyglass. He fitted an eye piece to one end, and sent to Philadelphia for an object glass. He kept at work in the photographer's shop, but his heart was among the stars.

Subsequently he procured a fiveinch glass. With this he discovered from his house top two comets in advance of all the professional astrono

mers.

There was commotion in the Vanderbilt University when it was known that an amateur in a photographer's gallery had seen in the heavens what the professors could not find with superior appliances. They invited Barnard to make use of their six-inch telescope. He rewarded them by discovering six comets in four years.

The Lick Observatory in California then enlisted his services. With the 36-inch refracting telescope, the largest in the world, he discovered eight comets, making a phenomenal record of 16 for ten years. He also discovered last August the fifth satellite of Jupiter. This feat made him famous among astronomers.

One of his discoveries was made accidentally. He was photographing a region in the Milky Way. He noticed a suspicious streak in his plate when developed. The next night the telescope revealed a comet.

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His early training in photography was not wasted. He devised a new method of photographing the nebulæ in the Milky Way by cloaking or veiling the bright stars, and thereby bringing out the intervening patches. His work in stellar photography has been essentially original.

His career, like that of Faraday, shows what a poor, uneducated boy can make of himself. There were fortuitous chances in his life, such as his early employment and the reading of Dick's book, but inherent force of character enabled him to gain worldwide distinction as a scientific investigator.

PUNISH THE DRUNKARD

MAKER.

Captain Wadsworth many years ago was in command of an American manof-war. In those days the rum ration was allowed to the men. Some of them not caring for it, sold their share to the drinkers; the consequence was drunkenness among some of the men, who were punished with a dozen blows of the "cat."

The same sailors

were flogged over and over again, all to no purpose. The captain saw the folly of that method of dealing with drunkenness, and a new idea struck him. He said:

"Jack, where did you get the liquor that made you drunk?"

"I bought it of Tom, sir; he doesn't drink."

To the boatswain: "Let Jack go; put Tom in his place, and give him a dozen well laid on !"

There was consternation among the crew; Tom was a teetotaller and a first-rate seaman. A dozen blows of the cat to him? Yes. Why? Because through him-bis indiscretion rather a sailor became drunk. Suffice it to say that after Tom's punishment there was not even one case of

drunkenness on board that ship. A dozen blows of the cat upon the right shoulders, not of the drunkard, but of the drunkard-maker, were a sudden and perfect cure to the great evil. Up to that day there was frequent flogging for drunkenness; after that day none. That is the principle of the Maine Law-punishment to the drunkard-maker, which is a sure and speedy cure.

TENNYSON'S LOVE OF THE BIBLE.

when thinking it into being, I can testify that the "Ancient Sage" sets forth his own views more fully than any of his other poems. How like a clarion his voice rang forth in these lines, which are a very gospel of hopefulness:

Cleave ever to the sunnier side of doubt

And cling to Faith beyond the forms of Faith!
She reels not in the storm of warring words,
She brightens at the clash of "Yes' and "No,"
She sees the Best that glimmers through the
Worst.

She feels the Sun is hid but for a night,
She spies the summer thro' the vinter bud,
She tastes the fruit before the blossom falls,

She hears the lark within the songless egg, She finds the fountain where they walled "Mirage."

are from her article:

My uncle always seemed to like best to talk about spiritual matters, and no clergyman was ever a more earnest student of the Bible, or a more impressive reader thereof. It used to be a treat to me to hear him recite one of his new poems, in that grand, sonorous voice of his, but it was a still greater delight to listen to his reading of a chapter of Isaiah, for then so thoroughly did he send his whole soul forth with his words that one was reminded of Bunsen's remark on F. D. Maurice's reading of the Church Service-"Such reading is in itself a sermon." He could not find words strong enough to express his love of and reverence for the sacred volume, and when his picture of old age, in the "Ancient Sage," was said to be like that by Solomon in Ecclesiasted, "I only wish it were," he replied: "I never could equal that description."

Yet surely that sublime poem is well worthy to have been written by the author of Ecclesiastes, and it must be studied attentively by all who desire to enter into the mind of Tennyson, for, from what he used to tell me

NESS?

Whether it be great or little depends entirely on the sort of men and women that it is producing. A sound nation is a nation that is composed of sound human beings, healthy in body. strong in limb, true in word and deed

brave, sober, temperate, chaste, to whom morals are of more importance than wealth or knowledge-where duty is first and the rights of man are second-where, in short, men grow up and live and work, having in them what our ancestors called the "fear of God." It is to form a character of this kind that human beings are sent into this world, and those nations who succeed in doing it are those who have made their mark in history. They are Nature's real freemer, and give to man's existence on this planet its real interest and value. Therefore all wise statesmen look first, in the ordering of their national affairs, to the effect which is being produced on character; and institutions, callings, occupations, habits and methods of life are measured and estimated first, and beyond every other consideration, by this test. The common

RELIGION is as necessary to reason as reason is to religion; the one cannot exist without the other. A rea

had been no God, mankind would have been obliged to imagine one.— Washington.

WALES AND ITS AFFAIRS.

BY OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENT.
The Liberal Lord Chancellor has

removed Judge Beresford from MidVales to an English district and has ppointed Mr. David Lewis, a Tory nd a churchman, to the post. He is a good lawyer and Welshman, so personally the appointment is welcomed, but there is much searching of hearts ecause young Liberal Welshmen ere passed over in the appointment. he Beresford appointment was made ome few years ago by the Tory Lord hancellor Halsbury, favorably known the "Lord High Jobber." The osensible reason for his removal to

England was to ensure a knowledge of Welsh on the Bench, which is now secured by the appointment of Judge Lewis, who has resigned the proud position of being the first Recorder of his native borough-Swansea. Mr. Bowen Rowlands, Q. C. M. P. for Cardiganshire, has been appointed Recorder. He is the most general

Welshman and most fluent advocate in Wales. Formerly a clergyman, he took to law with great success and may find himself soon elevated to a higher judicial position as Judge of the High Court.

Mr. Gee, the uncompromising advocate of Disestablishment and Disendowment, refers to the appointment of Mr. David Lewis in characteristic terms, thus: "The great appointment has given general satisfaction. It is of no great importance that Mr. Lewis is a Tory. The important point is that he is a skillful lawyer and a good Welshman. Welshman. We do not blame the advocates who appeared before Mr. Beresford to praise him; their tongues will be equally free in welcoming Mr. Lewis. They are lawyers. They can speak on the two sides of the question. They would speak on the third. side, were one to be had." Evidently Mr. Gee has not a very high opinion of lawyers as lawyers.

The marriage of Princess May to a Prince who must some day, if living, become Prince of our Principality, was a splendid national function. London was at its best. Londoners were in their most jovial, frolicsome mood, and the huge city with its teeming millions looked the picture of energy and strength. The wedding ring was made of Welsh gold. The Welsh boroughs contributed their presents; Swansea in particular sending a magnificent diamond crescent.