First I would give thee--nay, I may and will, Thoughts, memory, prayers, a sacred wealth unguessed, My soul's own glad and beautiful bequest, Conveyed in voiceless reverence, deep and still, As angels give their thoughts and prayers to God! Next I would yield, in service freely made, All of my days and years, thy needs to fill; To bear or heavy cross, or thorny rod, Glad of my bondage, deeming it most meet: Oh, mystery of love, as strange as sweet, That love from its own wealth should be repaid! Last, I would give thee, if it pleased thee so, And for thy pleasure, wishing it increased, My woman's beauty, heart and lips aglow; But this, dear, last--so soon its charm must fade, It is, indeed, of all my gifts, the least! MARY AINGE DEVERE. THE MODERN PYTHIA. The arraignment of Dr. Slade, the spiritual medium, before a London magistrate, on a charge of vagrancy, suggests the rather trite remark that "history repeats itself." Spiritualism is literally "as old as the hills." Lying in a manner dormant through long years, it has had its periodical outcroppings; as, when absolutely prohibited by an edict of Israel's first king, B. C. 1060; when it was abjured by the Council of Ancyra of Galatia, in A. D. 314; and again when ranking highest among the popular delusions of a people boasting of their civilization and culture, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and seventy-six. Having its foundations in truth, there have not been found wanting, in the remote past as in the present, unscrupulous persons ready to erect on those foundations the most stupendous frauds. The mental phenomena which have given rise to what is called spiritualism are daily exhibited in some form or other in the life and experience of almost every one. But the simplest and perhaps the most interesting method of exhibition is by means of the little toy called Planchette; a brief account of some experiments with which will best serve to illustrate the nature of the phenomena in question. The writer and a lady friend placing the tips of their fingers lightly on the board, the following words were traced on the paper upon which it was placed: "Have you courage for the future?" "Will you not faint by the roadside?" "You will be beset by foes within and without." "Lions in your pathway." "Hope and trust--trust--trust." On being asked to whom this applied, it answered: "The heart that needs it will understand." A question was then put by a bystander; but instead of answering, it went on as though continuing the former train of thought: "Hope and trust. You will have trials you know not of." And again, "Hope and trust." Here another question was put by a bystander, but instead of answer came the words: "You will find important letters awaiting you from home. Hope and trust." I then asked: "To whom are these words addressed?"