Whenever the whole of one wing of a hospital is constructed and organized for convalescent and timid patients, they can and will be allowed, with scarcely any inconvenience to the internal government, more frequent and longer visits from sane and sensible conversers, than are now allowable. They will then have the benefit of what is much needed, a greater variety of sane companionship and its healthful influences, than the household, together with the ordinary restricted visiting, can ever possibly supply. When these influences are of a wise quality, they are mental medicines of heavenly value to the many who need them and ought to have them. * * * * * MORAL COURAGE.--In an address, entitled Human Happiness--see book notices--we find the following very straightforward definition and advice:-- "What do I mean by moral courage? I mean the energy and spirit to say and do what is right and true, _in a respectful and proper manner_, though it be unpalatable to some, or apparently against our own interest. I do not intend you to suppose that I am advising you needlessly to tell all you know concerning either yourselves or others, but that you should avoid, as much as in you lies, doing or saying anything which you would be ashamed to acknowledge, _if necessary to do so_; and then when you have committed errors and faults towards others, should not hesitate to own and correct them. Young ladies, this would be moral courage. Do not, I beseech you, forget what it is, and do not hesitate to practise it, for it is a beautiful quality; it will always promote your comfort, respectability, and happiness, and very often your immediate and best interests." * * * * * FLOWERS AND THEIR INFLUENCE.--The people of France pay much attention to flowers, and thus one of their best writers on Education, M. Aimé Martin, describes the effect of this taste:-- "In all countries women love flowers, in all countries they form nosegays of them; but it is only in the bosom of plenty that they conceive the idea of embellishing their dwellings with them. The cultivation of flowers among the peasantry indicates a revolution in all their feelings. It is a delicate pleasure, which makes its way through coarse organs; it is a creature, whose eyes are opened; it is the sense of the beautiful, a faculty of the soul which is awakened. Man, then, understands that there is in the gifts of nature a something more than is necessary for existence; color, forms, odors, are perceived for the first time, and these charming objects have at last spectators. Those who have travelled in the country can testify, that a rose-tree under the window, a honeysuckle around the door of a cottage, are always a good omen to the tired traveller. The hand which cultivates flowers is not closed against the supplications of the poor, or the wants of the stranger." * * * * *