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through the gratification of assuming an air of superiority in the character of benefactor.

The kindness of another order of temperaments is impulsive, whimsical and spasmodical; the effervescing exuberance of a pleasant state of mind; a transient excitement which quickly exhausts itself. Wearied of well-doing, these uncertain friends soon exclaim, "I've done enough!" Enough! as if a poor, feeble mortal, though he use his best energies for the promotion of his neighbor's welfare, can ever arrive at a period when, through the greatness of his deeds, he may fold his hands and say, "I've done enough!"

There is an old proverb which warns us that the last person from whom we should expect to receive a favor is the one upon whom we have liberally bestowed favors. And it is not unusual for persons to experience a positive aversion towards those who have done them great services; an aversion they struggle against, they are ashamed of, they despise themselves for entertaining, and yet are ever keenly conscious of feeling. Is not this very often the consequence of the manner in which the services have been rendered?

Nothing so thoroughly destroys the beauty of an act of kindness as the desire for, or even the expectation of, gratitude. And yet nothing is more common.

The poet Rogers tells us that "to bless is to be blest;" and true kindness instinctively communi-