Philos

political systems; you will find them wherever you turn. ophy has altered the directions it favored in the last century—it enters less into metaphysical inquiry; it questions less the relationships between man and his Maker; it assumes its practical character as the investigator of external nature, and seeks to adapt agencies before partially concealed to the positive uses of man. Here I leave you to your own bold researches; you cannot be much misled if you remember the maxim to observe with vigilance and inquire with conscientious care. Nor is it necessary that I should admonish the sons of religious Scotland that the most daring speculations as to nature may be accompanied with the humblest faith in those sublime doctrines that open heaven alike to the wisest philosopher and the simplest peasant. I do not presume to arrogate the office of a preacher; but, believe me, as a man of books and a man of the world, that you inherit a religion which, in its most familiar form, in the lowly prayer that you have learned from your mother's lips, will save you from the temptations to which life is exposed more surely than all which the pride of philosophy can teach. Nor can I believe that the man will ever go very far or very obstinately wrong who, by the mere habit of thanksgiving and prayer, will be forced to examine his conscience even but once a day and remember that the eye of the Almighty is upon him.

One word further. Nothing to my mind preserves a brave people true and firm to its hereditary virtues more than a devout though liberal spirit of nationality. And it is not because Scotland is united with England that the Scotchman should forget the glories of his annals, the tombs of his ancestors, or relax one jot of his love for his native soil. I say not this to flatter you, I say it not for Scotland alone. I say it for the sake of

the empire. For sure I am that, if ever the step of the invader should land upon these kindred shores-there, wherever the national spirit is the most strongly felt-there, where the local affections most animate the breast-there will our defenders be the bravest. It would ill become me to enter into the special grounds of debate now at issue, but permit me to remind you that, while pressing with your accustomed spirit for whatever you may deem to be equal rights, you would be unjust to your own fame if you did not feel that the true majesty of Scotland needs neither the pomp of courts nor the blazonry of heralds. What though Holyrood be desolate - what though no king holds.

revels in its halls? - the empire of Scotland has but extended its range, and, blended with England, under the daughter of your ancient kings, peoples the Australian wilds that lay beyond the chart of Columbus and rules over the Indian realms that eluded

the grasp of Alexander. That empire does not suffice for you. It may decay-it may perish. More grand is the domain you have won over human thought, and identified with the eternal progress of intellect and freedom. From the charter of that domain no ceremonial can displace the impression of your seal. In the van of that progress no blazon can flaunt before that old Lion of Scotland [pointing to the flag suspended opposite]. This is the empire that you will adorn in peace; this is the empire that, if need be, you will defend in war. It is not here that I would provoke one difference in political opinion,- but surely you, the sons of Scotland, who hold both fame and power upon the same tenure as that which secures civilization from lawless force, surely you are not the men who could contemplate with folded arms the return of the Dark Ages and quietly render up the haven that commands Asia on the one side and threatens Europe on the other, to the barbaric ambition of some Alaric of the North. But, whether in reluctant war or in happier peace, I can but bid you to be mindful of your fathers! Learn from them how duties fulfilled in the world become honors after death; and in your various callings continue to maintain for Scotland her sublime alliance with every power of mind that can defend or instruct, soothe or exalt humanity.

POETS CORNER, WESTMINSTER ABBEY

After a Photograph taken for The Werner Company. Reproduced by Permission.

ACAULAY and Sheridan are both buried in the Poets' Corner-not by accident but by right of having made a different application of the same gifts which made them orators. The clauses of Macaulay's orations often balance each other almost as exactly in musical time as the verses of his Lays of Ancient Rome. Many of the greatest orators of England and France were poets. No doubt the others could have been had they taken the pains.