with amazement, only hinting that they who lived longest would see most.

Sweet mother! A sort of superstitious woman withal, and not indisposed to believe in ghosts. She was never quite comfortable without a twig of rowan tree in the house, and could never comfortably begin anything new on a Friday. How glad too, the dear soul was when she had a good "first-foot" on New Year's morning, for that "foot" mysteriously hinted at the character and fortune of the whole year. When she and I were in special perplexity she would take a Bible, pray briefly, open it, and according to the passage which was next her right-hand thumb, she would interpret the will of Heaven. This, she said, was the habit of the good John Wesley, and what Wesley did was right. I cannot despise those traits of character, for they point to something deeper than themselves, and in my mother's case they pointed to a character of extraordinary depth and religiousness.

* By permission of Funk & Wagnalls, from "My Life and Teaching."

CORNELIA AND HER JEWELS

BY E. M. SEWALL

Tiberius and Caius Gracchus were the grandsons of the first Scipio Africanus, the rival of Hannibal. Their mother, Cornelia, was his daughter. She was a very remarkable person, good and clever, as well as beautiful and elegant. Her daughter Semphronia married Scipio Emilianus.

Cornelia took great pains to educate her children well, and as they grew up she became very proud of them. A lady one day came to pay her a visit, who was dressed very splendidly, and wore a great many jewels. Whilst they were talking together, she begged Cornelia to show her some of her ornaments. Cornelia sent for her sons, and when they appeared, she said, "These are my jewels, and their virtues are my ornaments." She had indeed much cause for satisfaction. Her sons were honorable, kind-hearted, handsome, and engaging. Their father had been famous for his uprightness and benevolence, and they were like him, especially Tiberius, the elder, who always took the part of oppressed persons, and was particularly desirous that the Romans should be less luxurious, and more strict in their manners and customs. His mother, we are told, thought so much of his talents and power, that she persuaded him to offer himself as a tribune of the people. "I am commonly called," she said, "by way of honor, the mother-in-law of the second Africanus. Why do they not call me the mother of the Gracchi?" She lived to have her wish fulfilled, but it brought her sorrow and desolation for the remainder of her days.

THE MOTHER OF THE GRACCHI

FROM PLUTARCH'S LIVES

Tiberius Gracchus, the grandson of Publius Sempronius and the father of Tiberius and Caius Grac

chus; who, though he was once honored with the censorship, twice with the consulate, and led up two triumphs, yet derived still greater dignity from his virtues. Hence after the death of that Scipio who conquered Hannibal, he was thought worthy to marry Cornelia, the daughter of that great man. Cicero, in his first book de Divinatione, passes the highest encomiums on his virtue and wisdom and relates this story:It is said that he once caught a pair of serpents upon his bed, and that the soothsayers, after they had considered the prodigy, advised him neither to kill them both, nor let them both go. If he killed the male serpent, they told him his death would be the consequence; if the female, that of Cornelia. Tiberius who loved his wife, and thought it more suitable for him to die first, who was much older than his wife, killed the male, and set the female at liberty. Not long after this, he died, leaving Cornelia with no fewer than twelve children.

The care of the house and the children now entirely devolved on Cornelia; and she behaved with such sobriety, so much parental affection and greatness of mind, that Tiberius seems not to have judged ill, in choosing to die for so valuable a woman. For though Ptolemy, king of Egypt, paid his addresses to her, and offered her a share in his throne, she refused him. During her widowhood, she lost all her children except three, one daughter, who was married to Scipio the younger, and two sons Tiberius and Caius. Cornelia brought them up with so much care, that though. they were without dispute of the noblest family, and

had the happiest genius and disposition of all the Roman youth, yet education was allowed to have contributed more to their perfections than nature.

In a little time those commons showed how deeply they regretted the Gracchi. They erected their statues in one of the most public parts of the city; they consecrated the places where they were killed, and offered to them all first-fruits according to the season of the year. Nay, many offered daily sacrifices, and paid their devotions there as in the temples of the gods.

Cornelia is reported to have borne all these misfortunes with a noble magnanimity, and to have said of the consecrated places in particular, where her sons had lost their lives, "That they were monuments worthy of them." She took up her residence at Misenum, and made no alteration in her manner of living. As she had many friends, her table was always open for the purposes of hospitality. Greeks and other men of letters she had always with her, and all the kings in alliance with Rome expressed their regard by sending her presents, and receiving the like civilities in return. She made herself very agreeable to her guests by acquainting them with many particulars of her father Africanus, and of his manner of living. But what they most admired in her was, that she could recount their actions and sufferings, as if she spoke of her sons without a sigh or a tear, and had been giving a narrative of some ancient heroes. Some, therefore, imagined that age and the greatness of her misfortunes had deprived her of understanding and sensibility.

But those who were of that opinion seem rather to have wanted understanding themselves: since they knew not how much a noble mind may, by a liberal education, be enabled to support itself against distress and that though in the pursuit of rectitude Fortune may often defeat the purposes of Virtue, yet Virtue, in bearing affliction, can never lose her prerogative.

The people honored Cornelia, not only on account of her children, but of her father. They afterwards erected a statue to her with this inscription:

CORNELIA THE MOTHER OF THE GRACCHI

MOTHERHOOD *

BY AGNES LEE

Mother of Christ long slain, forth glided she,
Following the children joyously astir
Under the cedars and the olive-tree,

Pausing to let their laughter float to her.
Each voice an echo of a voice more dear,
She saw a little Christ in every face.
When lo! another woman, passing near,

Yearned o'er the tender life that filled the place, And Mary sought the woman's hand, and said: "I know thee not, yet know thee memory-tossed And what hath led thee here, as I am led These bring to thee a child beloved and lost."

"How radiant was my little one!

And He was fair,

Yea fairer than the fairest sun,