A Sketch of Philosophy [pp. 126-132]

THE' LA,DIES' REPOSITORY.
you're a likely boy. Yes, I'mI willin' if
your father is. Your father's a man with
grace in his heart more'n I ever got.
Brother Pettibone," said Job, turning to
his neighbor, " I've been thinkin' of
buildin' some of these new kinds of pens
for my sheep. Do you think I'll find
'em worth the expense?"
"Well, yes, brother Asher, I think
they'11 prove perfectly satisfactory. I
like mine first rate. I have n't suffered
any from the dogs since I've used that
pound."
"0, I did n't think any of your dogs
ever hurt my stock," said Job. "There's
always ill-favored stray curs hangin'
round to pester sheep. Well, brother
Pettibone, I'd like your advice about getting them pounds made. Seems like we
had a common interest now, the way these
young folks is talkin'."
"That's so," replied brother Pettibone,
smilingly.
And the young folks knew that the old
family feud had been burned up in the
fires at the railroad wreck, and that their
cause was won.
"How things have changed between
Asher's folks and Pettibone's folks," said
Abijah Pence to the threshers as those
heavy Arabs struck their noisy tent to
glide into the next neighborhood. "Ever
since I took that news of the railroad
mishap to Asher's, they can't be good
enough to each other. Mis's Pettibone
and Mis's Asher runnin' across the field
to see each other, and consultin'; and
Pettibone down at Asher's, bossin' sheeppens; and Jule over at Pettibone's walkin'
with Charley, and Job Asher sendin' to
town for dress goods and furniture, and
takin' kindly to Pettiblone's notions of a
wing to his old house,-why it does beat
all! Well,' let brotherly love continue!'"
And brotherly love did continue. A
little yielding to established prejudices, a
little graceful acknowledgment of another's good judgment, a less obstinate
putting forward of " I " and "mine," and
a common faith in and brotherhood under God, bridged over the old quarrel between these men, and made them hearty
helpers and appreciators of one another.
The news which came to Asher's, though
it came clothed terribly, was good news
of brotherly love; news of being kind,
one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving
one another, "even as God for Christ's
sake, hath forgiven you."
MARY HARTWELL.
A SKETCH OF PHILOSOPHY.
ERHAPS there never was a higher
expression of worldly wisdom than
those two words "Know thyself." Yet
we are placed in a world of such interesting mysteries; so many wonders of
sea, earth, and sky claim our attention,
that we are loth to leave this macrocosm,
open to sensation and perception, for the
microcosm ego,-that complex entity, at
the same time the observer and the thing
observed.
"Man," says Pascal, "is to himself
the greatest prodigy in nature; for he is
unable to conceive what is body, still less
what is mind; but least of all is he able
to conceive how a body can be united to
a mind."
Although in the study of this great
mystery we are shut out, as it were, from
our fellow-men, in that we are unable to
profit by their experience, and obliged to
take nothing that does not come directly
from consciousness; though we are unable at the time to analyze the thought,
feeling, or desire, and dependent upon
memory for the data,* perplexed and confused though we may be by reason of our
limited capacities and hopeless ignorance,
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