The award of prizes is made with much ceremony at a public meeting of the Academy on a certain fixed day every year. One of the most eloquent members of the Academy is chosen to tell in an “oration” to whom, and why, the prizes for that year have been awarded. If all these “orations” could be collected and published, they would make one of the most inspiring books ever written. Part of each bequest is set aside to employ investigators to make thorough inquiries about each request for a reward. Such requests are never permitted to come from the person to be rewarded, nor from his family. Generally, the people in a small town or village send a joint petition to the Academy, requesting the reward for one of their members. Among the recent rewards is the characteristic case of Laurentine Armenjon, a girl from the mountains of Savoy. She is eighth in a family of fifteen children. When nine years old, her youngest sister was carried away by gypsies, and from grief and distress over this, the mother lost her reason. Ever since, now ten years ago, Laurentine has had charge of the brothers and sisters, older as well as younger; and of the bedridden demented mother besides, while the father is away in the fields toiling for his scanty living. A gift of one thousand francs was sent to one of the most remote islands of the South Pacific, to three nuns who are surely among the most heroic of living creatures. The Island of Mangareva, where they live, is a leper colony. It is not likely that one of these women will ever leave this lonely desolate spot, so far away from the land of their families and friends that news from home comes only once in six months. The nearest civilization lies forty days’ journey over the ocean. Many nuns have gone before these three to voluntary exile on this island, but they have all succumbed within a few years; one or two were driven insane by the very loneliness and desolation of the life. Though they knew this in advance, yet these three women from Brittany have consecrated the rest of their lives, be they long or short, to God’s service there. No prize is ever granted for one act of heroism; but every award is made to a person who has devoted years of patient service to some good cause. Moreover, the awards are rather aids than prizes, granted in order to enable the person awarded to carry on some good work to even greater usefulness. WILL OF LORD BACON Lord Bacon in 1625, bequeathed his soul and body to God, while his name and memory he left to men’s charitable speeches and to foreign nations and the next ages. WILL OF THE DUKE OF BRUNSWICK “To-day, the 5th of March, 1871, Hôtel de la Metropole, Geneva. “This is our Will or Testament,--We, Charles Frederic Auguste William, by the Grace of God Duke Sovereign of Brunswick and of Luneburg, &c., being in good health of body and mind, declare--