racter. “ Most women," it is said, “have no character at all," and the remark is true enough; for they are so apt, chameleon-like, to take the hue of whatever they are approximated to, that they really have no characteristic which marks them as individuals. And yet, as the life of woman is not always one of pleasure,-as. she is called on both to do, and to bear the evils of life,

-to toil for those dear to her,—to nurse them in the hour of sickness and of death,—to go through physical sufferings that would terrify the stoutest-hearted man, and endure trials before which he would shrink appalled,—is it not needful she should have some principle of action, some sustaining power, some watchword to her own heart? Our great families have their motto; our sovereign can appeal to “God and my right;" why should not we too adopt and act out some such device? What encouragement there is in Essayez ; what a support in doubt and difficulty in “ Je fais mon devoir;" what consolation and nerve we might find in “Crescit sub pondere virtus;" and could the most loving and anxious mother desire for her

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child a motto more suggestive than “Fais ce que tu dois, advienne que pourra.” Let us suppose the adoption of such a device, and how simple a solution it would offer to every difficulty or temptation. Shall I do this? Will it be advantageous? “Do what is right, come what come may.” Who can calculate the influence on the life and destiny of a woman from some such phrase ever weighing on the mind !

I will give an illustration. Over the Weir at Sunderland there is a cast-iron bridge, bearing the motto, "Nil desperandum auspice Deo." A young girl walked over that bridge, and heard how the offer to place it there had been treated as an act of madness by the wiseacres of the town. Nevertheless, there was the noble bridge, spanning the broad river with its single arch, a standing monument that we need despair of nothing with God's favour. “Nil desperandum," she repeated to herself, as she returned home; “Nil desperandum shall be my motto;" for I should tell you that her life had been one of trial and vicissitude, and that difficulties of all sorts surrounded her path. For years of that

can fall

yirl's life she was surrounded by trouble, and amongst them were some of the greatest that

the lot of woman. Many a time would she have given up the struggle between ber and Fate; but still her eye would fall upon the seal which bore her motto, and in the darkest hour she was reminded, “Never desprair.” And years rolled on, and the firm faith and unremitting toil began to be crowned with

She who had lost all that could make life dear was once again surrounded by smiling, loving faces, and the beauties and joys of home. There are some that are taught by fear, and some by love and gratitude. Perhaps she was of the latter number, for as her motto was still before her eyes, and she thought still more of the bridge at Sunderland, she began to consider how little she had deserved the blessings that had fallen to her lot; and still daily, more and more, she felt that Divine protection which had caused her “never to despair.” “If I have

“ succeeded it has been by God's blessing," became the one prominent thought of her heart, and her motto, no longer the barren “Nil desperandum,” now could not fail to remind her still to seek that blessing, without which, though long unthought of, she must years ago have sunk beneath her troubles. And Life is still before her, and none know what events it may bear

upon its wings; but perhaps there is not one servant, or dependent, or friend, who does not feel, in all the transactions in which they come in contact, something of the same inspiriting motto which influences her own life. A happy day it was for her and for others when first she adopted the device

“Nil desperandum auspice Deo.”

And it should be the aim of every one in life to do all the good possible, with as little evil as may be. To all of us a certain influence is given, great or small, according to our position : to use that influence for good; to increase the happiness of others; to lighten the burden of the sorrowful; to sympathise in the joy of the happy; to live, in fact, for others, is the surest means of acquiring happiness ourselves. But to do this we must discipline alike the head, the heart, and the mind, so that whatever our destiny, we may be found equal to it, and may be at once able and willing to “do our duty in that state of life to which it shall please God to call us.”