Beatrice.

this touching little episode , how very "queer , " after all , say what we will , making and the marring of our " fortunes , " to use the language of the world , all that in fact constitutes the happiness of existence , the charm of home , the kind readers , arc the " pros and eons , " the " ups and clowns , the " it ' s and ands " of life , on how little here depend often cur happiness or our sorrow , the peace of tho present , the hope of the future . And hence , in ( he morbid

philosoph y of the hour , it is well , I think , to remind ourselves from time to time , that wo arc not , as the old tragedians liked to put it , under " inexorable fate ; " or that for us " perpetually annoying Furies" stand on the watch to punish and to upbraid , or that when stern Atropos snips for us our little thread of life , we are cast into immeasurable and unutterable and eternal gloom . I need not unci will not in these light pages enter into a heavy discussion as to what the Grecian tragedians really felt , believed , and taught . There was , probabl y , in the cultured and expanded minds of iEsehylns , Sophocles , and Euripides

illuminated to some extent b y the mysteries , a sort of belief in a superintending Divine Providence , an avenging and retributive Nemesis of good or evil for pure lives and for base lives . But there was also a sterner teaching of " fatalism " ¦ which we cannot , if we would , ignore ; there is a "stoicism" which , however p hilosophical "perse ' from a-purel y worldly and earthly point of view , is neither religious in theory , nor edifying in practice ; and to-day we hear men talking , and read much iu our serial literature , us if these gloomy views of

an effete superstition were still the great "factors " in the follies anel sfr . usoles of emancipated humanity . It is this mistaken view of things which leads to so much of the confusion , the errors , the vices of the hour . If it be true that on a very little hero hingesoftcn the happiness of a whole life , be it lom > - or be it short ; if it be the fact that we often may augment or diminish our individual pe ; ioe of mind by the merest trifles , so to sav , "om varatwelv speahiio- ; if th ' s be a strong proof of the m irtalify , the nucert lintv , the traisitoriness of hum m

life at the very best , and is a truth we too w'llingl y forget , it does not and cannot shut out the other as certain fact and truth , that all the while , plan as we will or strive as we may , we are over hero under tho superior control of an all-wise and omnicient Providence . What men call mostl y ohau .-e , fate , fortune , " good luck . " or " hard lines . " all this is , after nil , onl y the result ot ¦¦ erlain laws , overruled and directed b y T . G . A . O . T . U ., who , having accuratel y determined the limits of

good and evil , pain and pleasure , joy and sorrow here , will reward or punish us accordingly as we obey or disobey Mis Divine injunctions . And such is after all , of the " old , old story , " a truth new if old , and old if new , which deserves to be remembered and realized b y us all alike , be wo who we may . Many of the impatient struggles and useless complaints of us poor mortals of to-day , many of our impatient wrestlings with what cannot-be avoided and what must be for us and ours , would be given np , if only we would but think and act on the belief that we are all here , as we are " told in Loclo-e under the " all-seeing eye of God the most Hi gh , " and that whatever we

purpose or plan , hope or fear , essay or complete , all is before Him with whom " we have to do . " It is this great and grave truth , of a truth the greatest and the gravest , which lends such importance to life in all its parts aud details , might y or minute , normal or abnormal , and should warn us all how through' all these outer things we should seek" to pass on confidingly and courageousl y , trust-inoand triumphantly , to that felicity of our being , in which alone true rest , and true consolation , and true peace , and true satisfaction can . be found for unary

sojourning , suffering , dying man , in which love is perfected , affection purified ' and truth made firm for ever in the higher happiness of illuminating knowled ge and Divine goodness . I fear to some of ruv readers these words , homely as they are , and simple as the arc . in iv seem somewhat in ( he sermon line ; lint if so , let them aaeopt them kindl y as they are meant well . If my readers hive any interest left in the fortunes of Beatri- e and Co ., let theni look on to tho pages of the January number of the Masonic Magazine .