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Hawke's Bay Times, Issue 1569, 21 April 1874, Page 192

An Old Lady recently refused a gift of a load of wood from a tree that had been struck by lightning, through fear that some of the “ fluid ” might remain in the wood, ami cause disaster to her kitchen stove. Irony.— Tummus: “ Well, Mrs Simpson, and how be it that milk in these parts are rose?” Mrs S.: “Why you see, Tummus, this late rise in coal hev caused hiron to go up so, that they hev riz the price of pumps i” Antiquity of the Scriptures— Few of us ever stop to think how old the Bible is. Yet “ the Scriptures arc believed by candid critics to contain the most ancient forms of truth now known to men.” With the aid of chrom logical tables, any one may easily make profitable comparisons between the antiquity of the books and that of other writings and events, The Scriptures contain the only authentic history of the world before the Flood. We find in the Pentateuch one or two stanzas of poetry composed in the antediluvian period. The Hebrew statutes were enacted a thousand years before Justinian reformed the Pioraau jurisprudence. In the Bible we have the record of chartered rights secured to the people more than two thousand years before the Magna Charta, What a sensation would be produced if the first chapter of Genesis should appear for the first time in one of the newspapers to-morrow! Yet there can be no doubt that chapter contains the oldest writing, twenty-five hundred years before the invention of printing. Xenophon’s record of the conversation of Socrates, in his Memorabilia, seems an old book to us, yet similar topics were discussed iu Ecclesiastes six hundred years before. The works of Tacitus, Plutarch, and QuinLilian arc not modern : yet the books of the New Testament arc older than they. As to the book of Job, its age is beyond conjecture. Those who make it as modern as they can are compelled to place its origin at least one thousand years before Homer. When Priam was King of Troy, Job was of remote antiquity. The name of Alexander has no modern sound for ns, yet when Alexander invaded Syria, the book of Job might have been read before him as the work of an author more time-honored than the name of Alexander is now. The writings of Confucius arc modern when compared with most of the Bible ; and the most that the Hindoos can justly claim for their sacred books, the Vedas, is that they were written five hundred years after the death of Moses. The Koran is a book fresh from the press compared with the Scriptures. — Ur. Upson, Genius and Business— lt has been a favorite fallacy with dunces at all time's, that men of genius arc unfitted for business, as well as that business occupations unfit men for the pursuits of genius. The unhappy youth who committed suicide a few years since because he had been “ born to be a man and condemned to be a grocer,” proved by the act that his soul was not equal even to the dignity of grocery ; for it is not the calling that degrades the man, but the man that degrades the calling. All work that brings honest gain is honorable, whether it be of hand or mind. The fingers may be soiled, yet the heart remain pure ; for it is not material so much as moral dirt that defiles; greed far more than grime, and vice than verdigris. The greatest have not disdained to labor honestly and usefully for a living though at the same time aiming after higher things. Thales, the first of the seven sages, Solon, the second founder of Athens, and Hypcratcs, the mathematician, were all traders. Plato, called the divine, by reason of the excellence of his wisdom, defrayed his travelling expenses in Egypt by the profits derived from the oil which he sold during his journey. Spinoza maintained himself by polishing glasses while he pursued his philosophical investigations. Liumcus, the great botanist, prosecuted his studies while hammering leather and making shoes. Shakespeare was a successful manager of a theatre, priding himself more upon his practical qualities in that capacity than on his writing of plays or poetry. Pope was of opinion- that Shakespeare’s principal object in cultivating literature was to secure an honest independence. Indeed he seems to have been altogether indifferent to literary reputation. It is not known that he superintended the publication of a single play, or oven sanctioned the printing of one, and the chronology of his writings is still a mystery.