The two leading candidates for President, at this time, are Henry Clay of Kentucky, and James K. Polk of Tennessee. * * * * * BENJAMIN CONSTANDT.--This celebrated French orator had a cat which was so great a pet that she attended him in the morning before he got up, followed him into his study after breakfast, and played and reposed where she liked. One day, when Constandt was expected to make an important speech in the chamber of deputies, his friends, finding that he was absent after his time from the arena, came to seek him at his house, and going into his study, found him quietly reading some book that had evidently nothing to do with the matter in hand; and when they told him that everybody was waiting for him, “What can I do?” said he; “look there; my cat is sleeping in the sun on the papers I have prepared for my speech, and till she wakes, how can I take her off them?” * * * * * IRISH WIT.--A poor Irishman, on entering a village in England, observed a board on the corner of the street, prohibiting public begging. He marched straight to the parsonage, and asked to see the minister; after a little hesitation the girl admitted him to the study. Pat immediately slipped up alongside the minister, and whispered into his ear, “Your reverence will please give me something in private, and bad luck catch me if I mention it.” Pat’s plan answered the purpose; the minister was amused at the poor starving fellow before him, and Pat retired from the audience, asking down blessings on the “minister, his wife and childer--good luck to the whole of them!” * * * * * He who would reap well, must sow well. [Illustration: _Monument to Dr. Watts._] Dr. Watts. There are few persons, whose names are recorded in history, to whom mankind are more indebted than Isaac Watts, the author of the Hymns for Infant Minds, and of the version of the Psalms in common use for sacred music. How many thousands of children have had their minds touched with religious emotions, by reading his juvenile rhymes! how many millions of grown up persons have had their piety elevated, by the influence of his sacred songs! This great and good man was born at Southampton, England, July 17, 1674. He displayed good talents at an early age, and wrote pleasing verses in his childhood. He was educated at London, and became in due time a Dissenting minister. Though his health was always feeble, he discharged his pastoral duties with zeal and fidelity, and found time to write many good books. Those we have already mentioned are the most celebrated, because they have proved to be the most extensively useful.