LIGHT AT EVENTIDE. By E. G. CHARLESWORTH. I met an old man in my way; For many years the light of day Had been to him but memory; Poor, blind, half-deaf, and lame was he: My heart was bent to sympathize, I looked toward the dead closed eyes, Hopeful, by some apt words, a light To bring to mingle with his night. A falling tide was on the sand. Slowly, that he might understand, I said, “The ebbing tide, and then the flood; The darkest hour, then the dawn; Death, then——” Some inner sun’s streaks in his face Shone on this image of his case, And twice, with Faith and Hope’s sunshine, He brightly filled my shortened line— _Death, then the morn—Death, then the morn!_ * * * * * For though you might not be able to break or bend the power of genius—the deeper the sea, the more precipitous the coast—yet in the most important initiatory decade of life, in the first, at the opening dawn of all feelings, you might surround and overlay the slumbering lion-energies with all the tender habits of a gentle heart, and all the bands of love.—_Richter._ THE COOPER INSTITUTE. By the REV. J. M. BUCKLEY, D.D. Among the monuments and illustrations of the spirit of philanthropy—the noblest distinction between ancient and modern civilization—the Cooper Institute has stood for a quarter of a century, an object of interest proportionate to the intellectual and moral elevation of those who behold it. The early struggles, great success and marked mental progress of its founder, no less than a liberality as beautiful as it was then rare, invest his life with a peculiar charm. Nor did he retain his possessions until death loosened his grasp, employing in beneficence only that which he could no longer retain. Thus he became the ancestor of many who are their own executors. “May their tribe increase!” To these qualities was added a simplicity which made it impossible not to feel that Peter Cooper was a kind of universal “Uncle.” It pleased Almighty God in a providence, which was no strain upon faith, as it seemed preëminently in harmony with the sense of fitness, to allow him to live until he had seen the desire of his heart, and could not doubt either the perpetuity, the wisdom or the success of his plans for promoting the welfare of the people. To comparatively few philanthropists on so large a scale, has this privilege been vouchsafed; for most of them are old before their accumulations justify large responsibilities.