Fairy Tales Utilised For The New Generation.

elaborate scarf , and the velvet coat , and the halo of SAvelldom may but cover the soulless and the sensual , the dissipated ancl the degraded , the hurtful and hopeless animal . Be wise ami wary then , oh British maidens . "Mothermine"I hear one saying

, , , " I really think that Mr . Montague meant something . " " My chyild , my OAVU chyild . " I listen to the parental reply , in those words of soothing wisdom so appropriate to our elders and our betters , " don't be too sure and if it be so , I think that Mr .

Higgins is the better ' parti , ' as he has a house in the town as well as a seat in the country , ancl Mr . Montague has nothing but his ' moustaches' and his expectations . Be careful my chyild , very , very careful . " SeA erest , but wisest , of parents ! And

Avhat does the fair Beatrice do ? Well , she marries dutifully and decorously Mr . Higgins ! When I saw her last she had a Pomeranian Spitz and two chubb y children , and a good-looking nurse in the carriage , and though a little given to " en bon point" was as charming and friendly

as ever . But here comes in a word of warning ; all marriages do not end so well—all " beasts" to Avhom young women give their " young affections , " do not turn out good-natured , warm-hearted , loving and true .

No ; many a poor girl has found that beneath the " Beast ' s" outside form was also , the " nature of the beast" as she has experienced to her cost , poor Beauty ! She might have taken the honest heart of Charles Hopeor the sound princi ples

, of Henry Maxwell , or the laughing philosophy of Hector Macgregor , or the pleasant presence of Jimmy Dalton , and here she has gone ancl chosen a "Beast , " 'a real beast bad in " form , " and worse in temper . Here she is condemned to

meanness , vulgarity , saA'agery and a " beast " as long as her " Aveird " shall last ! Let us remember then that money simply never made anyone happy in this world , and that marrying avowedly ancl deliberately for money is a folly and—yes—a sin .

They say that some marriages are made "in heaven . " Many , as we know , are purely of the earth , very earthy , indeed . It is indeed perhaps well for man , that he has for a feAV moments in this life , the

Fairy Tales Utilised For The New Generation.

soft delusions of the imagination , the bewilderment of hope , and the mirage of expectation . Therefore it is in my opinion very difficult to lay doAvu a law to-day , hard ancl fast , as to Avhere true affection begins , or a mercenary marriage ends .

But still Avhile I say all this do not suppose that I wish to forget what an old friend of mine used to call the necessary claims of " bread and butter , " far from it . Money no doubt has its use ancl its good , nay and its blessing when rihtly employed

g in this our Avorld—and is essential in one sense to our contentment and comfort in our hourly life . But when Aveighed in the balance of the human heart , of true affection , of mutual sympathy , of unbought love , it is literally as deceiving as the

" apples of Sodom , " and nothing but dust and ashes . HaA'e I not then found a moral after all ? I think that I have , and I beg to commend it to the notice of all , old ancl young , parents ancl daughtersspoony young men ancl

sen-, timental young Avomen , Beastsaud Beauties , AVIIO luckily for their own improvement and edification , are able to peruse , the kindly pages of our MASONIC MAGAZINE .

Odds And Ends Of Wit And Humour.

ODDS AND ENDS OF WIT AND HUMOUR .

A Lecture by Bro . EMRA HOLMES , at the Town Hall , Hadleigh , and the Working Men ' s College , Ipswich . PART II .

THE dry humour of the Scotch is of a similar character to that of the American writers , Artemus Ward and Josh Billings . Oliver Wendell Holmes ( the autocrat of the _ breakfast-table ) , another American comic writer and a poetis more like our

, own Tom Hood . Some of the sayings of Josh Billings are Avonderfully good , though their oft times apparent irreverence ancl profanity shock the daintier sense . Some of the American authors show a shocking familiarity with

Scripture , probably on account of their Puritan origin and language ; which to them seems quite proper , to us sounds simply blasphemous . What can be more irreverent than the saying of one of them