to young aspirants, as for the legal acumen and extensive knowledge, which had won for him a large share of the profits and honors of his profession. His associates now wondered to find him so rigidly exact in his trial of young Latimer's acquirements. "You were very severe on our young tyro to-day," said a brother lawyer, and one on whom early associations and similarity of pursuits, rather than of tastes, had conferred the privileges of a friend on Mr. Cavendish, as they walked together from the court-house. "I saw that he did not need indulgence, and I gave him an opportunity of proving to others that he did not--but I had another and more selfish reason for my rigid test of his powers." Mr. Cavendish spoke smilingly, and his friend was emboldened to ask--"And pray what selfish motive could you have for it!" "I wished to see whether he would suit me as a partner." "A partner!" "Yes--when a man has lived for half a century, he begins to think that he may possibly grow old some day, and I would provide myself with a young partner, who may take the laboring oar in my business when age compels me to lay it aside." "All that may do very well--I have some thought of doing the same myself; but I shall look out for a young man who is well connected. Connections do a great deal for us, you know, and we must always have an eye to the main chance." "I agree with you, but we should probably differ about what constitutes the main chance." "There surely can be no difference about that; it means with every one the one thing needful." "And what is, in your opinion, the one thing needful?" "Why this, to be sure," and Mr. Duffield drew his purse from his pocket, and shook it playfully. "A somewhat different use of the term from that which the Bible makes," said Mr. Cavendish. "Oh! let the Bible alone, and let me hear what you think of it." "Pardon me, I cannot let the Bible alone if I tell you my own opinions, for from the Bible I learned them." "It seems a strange book, I must say, to consult for a law of partnerships." "Had you a better acquaintance with it, Duffield, you would learn that its principles apply to all the relations of life. The difference between us is, that when you estimate man's chief object, or as you call it, his 'main chance,' you take only the present into view, you leave out of sight altogether the interminable future, with its higher hopes and deeper interests, and relations of immeasurably greater importance." "I find it enough for one poor brain to calculate for the present." "A great deal too much you will find it, if you leave out of your sum so important an item as the relations of that present to the future. Depend on it, Duffield, that he makes the most for this life, as well as for the next, of his time, his talents, and his wealth, who uses them as God's steward, for the happiness of his fellow-creatures, as well as for his own."