10. The care of the great roads was committed to the districts through which they passed, and a large number of hands was constantly employed under the Incas to keep them in repair. This was the more easily done in a country where the mode of traveling was altogether on foot; though the roads are said to have been so nicely constructed, that a carriage might have rolled over them as securely as on any of the great roads of Europe. Still, in a region where the elements of fire and water are both actively at work in the business of destruction, they must, without constant supervision, have gradually gone to decay.

11. Such has been their fate under the Spanish conquerors, who took no care to enforce the admirable system for their preservation adopted by the Incas. Yet the broken portions that still survive, here and there, like the fragments of the great Roman roads scattered over Europe, bear evidence to their primitive grandeur, and have drawn forth the eulogium from a discriminating traveler, usually not too profuse in his panegyric, that "the roads of the Incas were among the most useful and stupendous works ever executed by man."

XC.-THE MOUNTAINS OF LIFE.

JAMES G. CLARK.

1. There's a land far away, mid stars, we are told,
Where they know not the sorrows of time:

Where the pure waters wander through valleys of gold,
And life is a treasure sublime ;

'Tis the land of our God, 'tis the home of the soul,

Where ages of splendor eternally roll,—
Where the way-weary traveler reaches his goal
On the evergreen mountains of life.

2. Our gaze cannot soar to that beautiful land,
But our visions have told of its bliss,

And our souls by the gale from its gardens are fanned
When we faint in the deserts of this.

Ard we sometimes have longed for its holy repose, When our spirits were torn with temptations and woes, And we've drunk from the tide of the river that flows From the evergreen mountains of life.

3. O! the stars never tread the blue heavens at night
But we think where the ransomed have trod.
And the day never smiles from his palace of light
But we feel the bright smile of our God.

We are traveling homeward, through changes and gloom,
To a kingdom where pleasures unchangingly bloom,
And our guide is the glory that shines through the tomb
From the evergreen mountains of life.

XCI.-ALL WE LOVE MUST DIE.

J. W. HANSON.

1. The trailing banners of sunset
Floated from earth away,

And the purple and gold and azure
Faded to dull, cold gray,
Proclaiming the death of day!
I looked on the vanishing picture
Passing from evening's sky,
And I heard the mournful lament
That so oft I have heard reply—
"All we love must die!"

2. By the seaside I heard the anthem, As the waves with endless moan

Chanted their miserere,

The sad, low monotone

That comes from the sea alone;

And in the heart of the forest

The pines' low, pensive sigh,

As the winds their solemn branches stirred

They ever made reply

"All we love must die!"

3. I have heard it from spring's first blossom,
From the earliest, youngest bloom,
And from summer's glorious radiance
Have caught that word of doom,
Proclaiming the coming tomb!
From autumn's clustering glories,
Leaves, flowers, and softened sky,
And as winter's tumultuous storm-winds
Have hurried swiftly by-
"All we love must die!"

4. The flushes that gild the morning,
The brightness that clothes the noon,
The evening's gliding shadows,
The coming and going moon,
All chant the same sad tune;
And the stars in their solemn courses,
As they look from the somber sky,
With pitiful eyes gaze on me

And ever sadly cry,

"All we love must die!"

5. From the tombs of the buried nations,
As they lie in their silent sleep,
The sound comes solemnly downward,
In tones that are low and deep-
Evermore low and deep.

From all who have gone before me,
And have laid life's burdens by,

I hear the same sad story,—

They lift the same sad cry—
"All we love must die!"

6. O, the brows that my lips are caressing O, the hearts that are knit to mine! O, the hands that mine are clasping! your pressure resign?

How can

Your pressure how can I resign?

On each cheek that I kiss it is written,

Each lip that to mine makes reply,

The hearts that I love, and the hearts that love me,

Utter the same sad sigh—

"All we love must die!"

7. There are graves holding holiest ashes,
And they tell me the same sad tale,
And at times, as my heart doth listen,
My cheek is with sorrow pale.

All sounds unite in a wail
That speaketh of vanished pleasure
That pass so swiftly by,
For all I fondly cherish,

Like shadows will quickly fly-
"All we love must die!"

8. Weary of earth's frail pleasures,
I list to the inner voice,
And a sound triumphant awakens,
And bids my soul rejoice-

My soul will with rapture rejoice!
Though the glories of earth shall perish,
They shall bloom again on high;
The plants that fade in the clime of earth,
In the garden of the sky,
Never can fade and die!

9. O, vanishing pictures of sunset!

O, sea's sad monotone !

O, forests and winds and flowers of earth!
Your voices with sorrow may moan—
Grief dwells on earth alone!

There the clouds ne'er weep on the landscape,
The sunlight is aye in the sky,

The flowers aye bloom, and the pictures,
In the glorious land in the sky,

Never can fade and die!

10. O, brows that from earth have vanished! O, hearts that have here grown cold!

Ye are now in the beautiful country,
Ye dwell in the Good Shepherd's fold;
Ye can never grow weary or old!

In that land I shall meet you and greet you,
We shall nevermore weep or sigh;

All we love shall be ours for ever,
And our beautiful home on high
Never shall fade and die!

XCII.-GOOD NATURE.

HENRY WARD BEECHER.

1. If there be one thing for which a man should be more grateful than another, it is the possession of good nature. I do not consider him good-tempered who has no temper at all. A man ought to have spirit, strong, earnest, and capable of great indignation. We like to hear a man thunder, once in a while, if it is genuine, and in the right way for a right man.

2. When a noble fellow is brought into contact with mean and little ways, and is tempted by unscrupulous natures to do unworthy things; or when a great and generous heart perceives the wrong done by lordly strength to shrinking, unprotected weakness; or when a man sees the foul mischiefs that sometimes rise and cover the public welfare like a thick cloud of poisonous vapors,—we like to hear a man express himself with outburst and glorious anger. It makes us feel safer to know that there are such men. We respect human nature all the more, to know that it is capable of such feelings.

3. But just these men are best capable of good nature. These are the men upon whom a sweet justice in common things, and a forbearance toward men in all the details of life, and a placable, patient, and cheerful mind sit with peculiar grace.

4. Some men are much helped to do this by a kind of bravery born with them. Some men are good-natured because they are benevolent, and always feel in a sunny mood; some, because they have such vigor and robust health that care flies off from them, and they really cannot feel nettled