For us the winds do blow,

The earth doth rest, heaven move, and fountains flow;
Nothing we see but means our good,

As our delight or as our treasure ;
The whole is either our cupboard of food

Or cabinet of pleasure.

The stars have us to bed:

Night draws the curtain which the sun withdraws;
Music and light attend our head;

All things unto our flesh are kind
In their descent and being; to our mind
In their ascent and cause.

Each thing is full of duty : Waters united are our navigation; Distinguished our habitation,

Below our drink, above our meat:

Both are our cleanliness. Hath one such beauty?
Then how are all things neat?

More servants wait on Man

Than he'll take notice of. In every path

He treads down that which doth befriend him,
When sickness makes him pale and wan.

Oh, mighty love! Man is one world, and hath
Another to attend him.

Since, then, my God, Thou hast

So brave a palace built, O dwell in it,

That it may dwell with Thee at last!
Till then, afford us so much wit

That, as the world serves us, we may serve Thee,
And both Thy servants be.

NOTES. GEORGE HERBERT was born of a good family at Montgomery Castle, in 1593. He was educated at Westminster and Cambridge. For some time he followed the court of Charles I., but he gave up all, and devoted himself to the life of a country parson. He died in 1632. Herbert's poems are full of originality and vigour, though often marred by quaint and even ridiculous conceits and figures.

EXERCISES.-I. Define,-Sphere, treasure, parrot, moon, tides, treasure, navigation, and befriend. 2. Paraphrase the first and second stanzas. 3. Give the general scope of the remainder of the poem.

AUTHORITY AND LAW.

Concerning, relating to.

Admitted, allowed or granted.
Ultimate, last or final
Regulated, kept in working order.
Enforced, made to be kept or
done.

Excess, in too great quantity.
Musician, a performer of music.
Acquire, to make one's own.
Appeal, to refer to another.

Community, persons acting under one rule.

Institutions, settled bodies of
persons.

Enlightened, having knowledge.
Annoy, to put to trouble.
Obstructs, hinders.

Distraction, drawing off the
attention.

Unyielding, not giving way to.

We have shown that our own reason and conscience are to a large extent our guides in determining what we should and what we should not do. We also said that in all countries and in all ages men have looked for a still higher guidance beside that found in each individual's own conscience and reason. These latter may be sometimes unable to decide for us, or they may mislead us, even in matters concerning ourselves alone.

But as men live together, a very large number of our actions affect our fellow-men; and it is therefore recognised on all hands that there must be an appeal beyond the individual to some admitted authority able to lay down a law of right and wrong for the community. And however opinions may vary as to the ultimate source of this authority, all are agreed that it is right and necessary

that certain persons or institutions should have the power both to make and to execute law. In other words, it is for the good of all that the passions and desires of men, if not kept in due order by the individual reason and conscience, should be so regulated by some power, governing for the common good. Such a power is the parent in a family, the head teacher in a school, and the sovereign ruler in a state.

If for instance, in a family, each individual acts in harmony with the teachings of an enlightened reason and a tender conscience, all may go well and smoothly. But we know that love of self, and the desire to possess present ease and enjoyment often overcome the teachings of reason and the scruples of conscience. In that case the individual has to submit to the law of the parent. It may be that this very law is received by the individual with satisfaction as a help and stay to his own weak will. In that case it is willingly and even cheerfully obeyed. But with others the law is disliked, and is either submitted to with an unwilling mind, or, being resisted, has to be enforced by the authority of the parent.

An exactly similar course is pursued at school. So long as the pupil acts as his reason and conscience dictate, so long school discipline is but an easy and welcome yoke. In fact, as he knows he is only required to do what is right, and the best to be done, he obeys the law of the school, the same as if it were a self-imposed law. But when a pupil refuses to yield this willing obedience, then the teacher, knowing that the good, not only of the one pupil, but of all in the school, is at stake, does not hesitate to enforce obedience.

And when we turn to the state, we see much the same thing, though with differences in the extent of the author

ity of the parent, of the teacher, and of the state. The parent has such a care for the welfare of his child in every way that he enforces right acting, not only when the action affects others, but when it affects himself alone. And nearly the same may be said of the really earnest teacher. He too, enforces habits of industry, neatness, and truthfulness, not only because the absence of these qualities would injure others, but because their presence benefits the pupil himself.

But the state, for reasons (that we cannot now enter upon, leaves each individual to himself so far as his actions cannot be seen to injure another. But when one acts so as to annoy or injure his neighbour, then the state, through the law of the land, comes in to enforce due regard to that neighbour's rights. Thus, so far as the law of the land is concerned, a man may drink to excess and remain drunken, in his own house; but if he goes out and annoys others, or, being incapable, obstructs the highway, he is laid hold of as an offender, and as such is punished. The reason of this is obviously, that in the first case the injury is mainly a personal, or at most only a family one; in the second case, it is a public one. And the state is bound to protect as far as possible, all its members.

We thus see how all people are placed under the guidance, first of something within themselves, and secondly of something outside themselves. It may be well, therefore now to see what happens when any or all of these are neglected or resisted. We have shown before how prosperity and happiness can only be attained in the family, the school, or the state, by obedience to rule. But too often, passion or selfishness gets the upper hand, and leads some to break through all law. In such cases,

it becomes the duty of the parent, the master, or the state-governor to compel obedience, and to punish the offender. But mark how in well nigh every case, this is done.

We will suppose a very young child has a drum. For a while the parent willingly, perhaps even joyously, listens to the thump, thump, thump of the little musician. But soon a friend calls, and serious business begins to be talked over; the noise of the drum now becoming a distraction, the child is told to put its toy by. He takes no heed of the command. Soon, therefore, the parent takes the drum, and locks it up for the remainder of the day. The issue here is simply this, the loss of some amount of liberty to act.

Again, a youth at school dislikes his arithmetic lesson, and will not apply himself at the appointed time sufficiently to master it. What happens? Simply this. The lesson neglected by the youth when all else were mastering it, has to be done by the idler when all his class-mates are their own masters and at their play. Here again the refusal to submit to wise law results in the loss of liberty.

Once more. One who is anxious to be rich, but averse to work, robs his neighbour in his haste to acquire. But here again, the result is that, sooner or later, he finds himself within the four walls of a prison. As he will neither be governed by his own reason and conscience, nor even by the law of his country, he is forced now to submit to the hard and unyielding material laws of iron and stone. Here, again, we find that he who tries to obtain an undue amount of liberty loses his liberty entirely.

EXERCISES.-I. Define,-Reason, conscience, recognised, execute,