THE IMPORTANCE OF FOOD.—The question of food lies at the foundation of all other questions. There is no mind, no work, no health, without food; and just as we are fed defectively and improperly, so are our frames developed in a way unfitted to secure that greatest of earthly blessings—a sound mind in a sound body.—_Dr. Lankester._ KEEPING SECRETS.—A man is more faithful in keeping the secrets of others than his own; a woman, on the contrary, keeps her own secrets better than those of others.—_La Bruyere._ NOT A BAD MATCH. An attorney brought in an immense bill to a lady for some business he had done for her. The lady, to whom he had once paid his addresses, murmured at the charges. “Madam,” replied the limb of the law, “I wanted to convince you that my profession is lucrative, and that I should not have been a bad match.” WAYS OF THE WISE.—Philosophic-minded people hanker not after what is unattainable, are not inclined to grieve after what is lost, nor are they perplexed even in calamities. [Illustration: HEALTH IN THE KITCHEN-GARDEN. BY MEDICUS.] Of the thousand and one ills—the word “one” signifying “all the rest”—that afflict humanity, young and old, by far the larger proportion are what may be called chronic troubles. And I do not refer to any particular or decided form of illness, but when I say “chronic,” I mean the term to relate to people who are seldom overwell, who are easily tired, subject to fits of low spirits, have but small inclination for the exercise which they know they need, who have at times no pleasure in other folks’ society, and none in their own, whose stomachs are easily put out of order, who do not always sleep as well as they would wish to, whose systems are dry and irregular generally, who suffer at times from headache, at times from backache, and at times from aches all over. What a tremendously long sentence I have just written! It almost frightens me to look back at it. Well, this class of complainers—for if they do not complain to others they do so to themselves quietly, and have fancies that all the world is heartless and cold, and a dozen other things that “it didn’t houghter to be,” as the old charwoman said—this class, I say, are nearly always work-a-day girls; I do not refer altogether to manual labour, but to businesses that necessitate a good deal of mental thought and calculation. But many belong also to this class, who have nothing at all to do, and whose minds might be said to be preying on their constitutions.