ZzrJL&jaiiiM 194 POSITION. VOL. VIII, Wcnlth may secure many an enviable position ; but he who courts her favors alone, will find her ever a fickle goddess. Today you may be her most favored subject, to-morrow banished from her doS minion. Who oases the security ot his position upon her caprice be it political or social, will find to his sorrow, sooner or later, that he is resting upon a sandy foundation. Knowledge may gain what wealth never can. For the world is ever charitable to him who may be the happy possessor of this jewel, for: "Man's genius flashes brighter Than tlio diamond of an Earl." Knowledge paves the way for the great est influence; she opens her poitals to the great mass of humanity through which they may pass out from darkness into the light; from the low and grovelling up to a higher plane of excellence and beau ty. She leads the mind out of bondage into freedom of thought; dispelling super stition for the exercise of reason; depend ing not upon blind assertion, but by pene trating investigation piercing into the hid den mysteries of tilings around, convert ing the narrow and selfish into broad and charitable beings, elevating, refining, en nobling until she has transformed the narrow and contracted minds into the broadest of intellects. But he who seeks to win his way through the world by Iter fostering Qare alone; who climbs to high eminence by no other thin the mighty power she places in his hands, will find that he yet lacks the true touchstone of greatness. The very element that makes him a man. What arc all the world's lion, ors, if, in gaining them, we loose the world's esteem ? It is character alone that elevates. What is the greatness of wealth, the glory of high rank and distinction, even the rev erence and esteem which knowledge may beget, in comparison with nobleness of character? The lives of many of our public men in whom we have placed the highest confidence, whom wc have been over willing to honor, reveal many a dark and defacing blot over which the world has kindly thrown the mantle of charity. Webster, the clnmpion of American rights and liberties, to satisfy an uncon querable ambition, sank so low in the scale of honor as to draw from the pen of Whitticr the most scathing rebuke. Burr worked his way to the second place in the gift of his country, only to fall to the degradation of a traitor, a victim to a jealous spirit, that could brook no superi or. If the veil of obscurity, that hides the actions of some of our present public offi cers could be lifted, it would reveal many a secret plot for bribing and theft; men selling their biithright ot honor and es teem for the mess of pottage of a few pal try dollars and a false and short-lived glory. To whatever eminence wc may attain, if, to attain it. wc have sacritlscd the greatest ol all manly virtues a noble character, we have failed. But, in keep, ing the character unsullied, we have more than conquered, though the world never hears of our existence ; for God and angels will give us glorious approval. Then, to attain to the highest position is but to live nobly, meeting manfully every obligation, fighting bravely against all obstacles, holding truth and its cause dearer than personal gain. "What Ik noblei-to Inherit Wealth, estate, and )rond degree There must be some other merit Higher yet than these forme! Something greater lar must enter Into life's majestic span, Fitted to create and centre True nobility in man! What is noble J That which place Truth in its enfranchised will J Leaving steps like angel's traces That mankind may follow still I K'en through Scorn's malignant glances Prove him poorest of his clan, lie's the Xoblf who advances Freedom and the cause of man."