foot-bridge at Niagara Falls. When about one-third of the way across, he saw a lady stepping up from the carriage path to the sidewalk. She caught her toe against the edge, stumbled forward, and fell through the open iron work at the side of the bridge. She happened to be over the place where the broken rocks line the edge of the water. In her swift descent, she struck her head against one of the girders and was stunned; her body then turned over and fell across another girder. At this moment the clergyman came up. Looking over, he saw her body swaying gently, and evidently about to drop very soon to the awful rocks, over two hundred feet below. Without a moment's hesitation, he sprang out over the edge of the bridge, and, seizing one of the iron rods that supported the girder, he slid down, and then crept along the narrow girder till he reached the lady. Bracing himself with immense difficulty, he kept her from plunging into the abyss until help arrived, death beckoning to him from below, if he should lose his head for a single moment. At length a rope was lowered to him, and they were soon drawn up. That is a splendid example of physical Courage.

A higher type of Courage is that which enables us to endure pain. Endurance is a rarer quality than dashing Fearlessness. It was said that in the Franco-Prussian war, in 1870, the French soldiers were more brilliant in the on-rush than the Prussians, but they lacked endurance, and could not stand for long before artillery fire. This type of Courage is best seen in bearing pain. When Epictetus was a slave, his master was one day beating him. The poor slave said: "If you do not look out, you will break my leg." Presently the bone snapped. "There," said Epictetus, as calmly as before, "I told you you would break it." One of the most remarkable instances of the Courage of endurance is that of the defence of Cawnpore, in the days of the Indian Mutiny, by a handful of English troops, with their wives and children. For twenty-one days they endured untold agonies of exposure by a never-ceasing fire, of hunger, of thirst (sharp-shooters picking off any one who dared approach the single well in the camp), of the midsummer sun, of sickness, and of the unutterable foulness of their surroundings. The soldiers' wives showed even greater endurance than the men. Women generally have greater courage than men in the matter of bearing pain.

The highest type of Courage is that which is called Moral Courage, and is exercised about matters of right and wrong as they affect us individually. "It is shown by the man who pays his debts, who does without when he cannot afford, who speaks his mind when necessary, but who can be silent when it is better not to speak. It requires Moral Courage to admit that we have been wrong." It requires Moral Courage to stand being laughed at, although it is the sign of a wise man to be able to enjoy a laugh at his own expense. It requires Moral Courage to run the risk of losing one's popularity. Socrates was the greatest teacher of ancient times, and he was beloved by many of his pupils; but because his lofty teaching ran beyond the attainments and spirit of his age, he was condemned to drink the deadly hemlock. He died calmly, even joyfully, discoursing to his judges of the immortality of the soul. Galileo was imprisoned when seventy years of age, and, probably, tortured. He was content to suffer it, and refused to retract what he had proved to be scientific truth.

When we are laughed at or threatened with persecution of any kind, Courage bids us stand by our principles.

said Solomon. It is the part of wisdom to disregard being laughed at. When a boy lacks backbone, we say he is easily led, which means, easily led wrong. How we pity such a boy!

The highest Courage is that which leads men to sacrifice their lives of their own free will. Such was the courage of the soldiers and sailors of the Birkenhead. In one of the battles of the Peninsular War, a sergeant named Robert M'Quaide saw two French soldiers aim their muskets against a very young officer, sixteen years old. M'Quaide pulled him back behind him, saying: "You are too young, sir, to be killed," and then fell dead, pierced by both balls.

Courage is a very different thing from Recklessness, or Foolhardiness. An old proverb says: "Courage is the wisdom of manhood; foolhardiness the folly of youth." And Carlyle said: "The courage that dares only die is, on the whole, no sublime affair.... The Courage we desire and prize is not the courage to die decently, but to live manfully."

No. V. PURITY

Purity involves three things: (1) Clean language, (2) clean thoughts, (3) clean actions. They are put in this order because it generally happens among the young that impurity begins with hearing unclean language, and by imitating it. A little boy hearing others use foul language soon begins to use it himself, though he may not know its real meaning. Alas! it does not take long for him to learn the meaning of it also; and it is but a short step from foul language to impure thoughts and filthy actions.

Purity is one of the three heroic virtues; the others are Truth and Courage. In the age of chivalry men valued Purity above all things except Truth and Courage. Tennyson makes his hero say:

Purity is one of the most manly virtues. Impurity marks the coward and the sneak, because it is nearly always directed in thought or action secretly against those weaker than ourselves. In "Tom Brown at Oxford," one of Tom Brown's friends says: "I have been taught ever since I could speak that the crown of all real manliness is Purity." You may ask: "Why is it manly?" It is manly because it cannot be got without a hard struggle; the temptation to be impure in thought, if not in language, is one of the hardest temptations to overcome. A little boy may not feel it, but the older he grows the harder he has to fight against impurity in his heart, and in his life.

We must, first of all, guard against unclean language. There are some words which are merely filthy, without being immoral; both are bad, and the one leads to the other. Little boys often long to have other words to put into their language than they have learned at home, because they think the home language not strong enough or manly enough. In order to satisfy themselves that they are no longer children, they begin at school to copy the strong words of the boldest and most reckless of the boys they meet, and they quickly add to their vocabulary unclean and even immoral words, because such words seem to be the mark of manliness, and of personal independence of character. By the time that a boy begins to realize what such words really mean, he has already formed the habit of using unclean language, and a bad habit is the hardest thing in the world to get rid of.

Any one who thinks about the matter for a moment will admit that filthy