Bishop Hall said, " For every bad there might be a worse ; and when a man breaks his leg, let him be thankful it is not his neck." Into what insignificance a mis- fortune, we bewailed as unendurable, suddenly sinks when compared with the crushing calamity that desolates the home of a friend! The hill-fire, whose far-shining signal light warns an army of the approach of a foe, fades into a mere rush-candle when contrasted with the angry jets of liquid flame leaping from the heart of Vesuvius, and threaten- ing incalculable destruction. Beauty is heightened or eclipsed, size magnified or diminished, color changed, sound altered, the sense of pain or pleas- ure intensified or deadened, by contrast. We were once forcibly struck by the philosophy of a friend who had disciplined herself, whenever she was assailed by a crowd of tantalizing vexa- tions, or oppressive troubles, to compare her trials with the severer affliction of some greater mourner, and to ejaculate, mentally, " It might be worse ! With that reflection came a sense of thankfulness that she had been spared a superlative evil ; pa-