VISIONS.

BLUE eyes gazing so wistfully,
What does your fancy show?
Come, wee maiden, and tell it me-
Tell, for I fain would know.

Woods where pretty birds always sing,
Children may always play;

Fields where buttercups always spring,
Butterflies dance all day.

Elfin realms where the fairies dwell;
There you can understand

All that rabbits and sweet birds tell-
Oh! such a wondrous land.

'There whatever you ask for comes;
Tables with dainties spread,
Pears and apples and purple plums,
Strawberries ripe and red.

There no rain ever comes or dark,

But, when the twilight falls,

Lamps are lit with the glow-worm's spark,
Flooding the lustrous halls.

'Halls all bright with a thousand gleams,
Flashed from the jewels rare,
Pearl and ruby and diamond beams,
Precious beyond compare.

'Never lessons the whole day long,

Nobody scolds or cries,

All is laughter and joy and song
There in my paradise.'

ALPHA.

HOLY DAYS IN PARADISE.

THEIR haven lies beyond th' recurring tide
Of this world's calendar,

The rolling years that fret this nearer side
Are from that shore afar.

Time's ebb and flow hears there the Peace, be still,'
And a great calm falls at th' Almighty Will.

Thus far, no further shalt thou come. So stays
Time's flood beside a grave;

The voyage over, through earth's troublous days,
Here the last darksome wave

Rolls back, and lo! a quiet passage cleft
Through waters on the right hand and the left,

To Lands of Promise. There, mid pastures fair,
And waters that are still,

Our blessed ones heed not the passing year,
Nor need its days fulfil.

Yet sure there is, amid their perfect rest,
Remembrance of earth's purest joys and best.

Earth's best and purest joys; for what are they
But glimpses from above?

And thus 'tis sweet to think the festal lay

That celebrates His love,

Whose care is over all-both here and there-
Echoes from this dim world to that bright sphere.

Is there caught up with notes of worthier praise,
(For there earth's taint is not).

And thus methinks our Christian Holy Days
Are not by them forgot.

Hours when such holy thoughts to man are given,
Are not, we surely feel, unmarked in Heaven.

Though from the glad home throng at Christmas-tide
Dear ones are gone for ever,

The far-off Land seems near where they abide,
While naught can mar or sever

The unity of praise. Christ's holy birth

Is hymned with joy on high-with peace on earth.

And even the awful days of Holy Week,

With solemn hours and dim,

Part them not from us. "Tis the Lord we seek,
And they are near to Him.

No sorrow touches them for evermore,

Yet the same griefs we weep for, they adore.

So glorious Easter, sweet Ascension-tide,
And Whitsun festival,

And all bright days that with the seasons glide
And memories fair recall,

Like openings are earth's twilight glades among-
We see the City's light and hear its song.

Therefore (to us such wondrous grace is given)
With high angelic throng,

And all the blessed company of Heaven,
We join in holy song.

No longer parted while we meet in praise,
Most sweetly near on these our Holy Days.

C. M. PREVOST.

DEBATABLE GROUND.

Is hero-worship injurious, either to the worshipper or the worshipped?

THIS debate has been very popular. A great number of papers have been sent in. It does not, however, appear to Chelsea China that there are very many things to say on the subject, as the same remarks recur in most of the papers. She will set first Pellegrina's definition of it, which she thinks very good.

'I define hero-worship as an enthusiastic admiration for real or supposed goodness in another, free from the personal elements of love, or family affection, or hope of reciprocity, therefore as truly felt for the dead as for the living.'

Chelsea China would like to substitute the word 'superiority' for "goodness' in this extract as covering a wider ground; but she considers that the impersonal element in hero-worship, the fact that it cannot look for a return, is what differentiates it from all other relations of the feelings. For it is worship, the upward look to a being higher than the looker.

It is a sort of starlight unto sunlight' as compared to the more mutual relations, pure and high, bright and fascinating; but, if unalloyed and unmixed, a little mystical and cold. Or so it seems to many, for it is not every one who is capable of retaining the feeling for a hero personally known; natures that find satisfaction in it must be high-toned and romantic, and perhaps not always the most tender. Of course, a hero may also become a friend or a lover, a mutual relation may spring up between him and his worshipper, or it may not. But the hero-worship can only be one-sided.

Now Chelsea China does not think that worship of a dead or unknown hero, though it may confuse a person's opinions, can bring much disturbance into his or her life. Of course, to a man in public life, public relations are personal, and it must be admitted that some great leaders of thought have had an influence on their generation which has made differing from them as hard as differing from an actual friend; but, as a general rule, what may be called public hero-worship is tolerably safe. But when the brave soldier with his Victoria Cross, the devoted clergyman giving his life to save souls, or the original or learned teacher who opens new worlds, are personal friends, and it must be remembered that the qualities which

create hero-worship are relative as well as absolute, what of that ideal, star-shiny feeling then?

Chelsea China thinks that if the separate one-sided character of hero-worship could be fully understood-if it could, in fact, be more generally recognised as one of the feelings of life-a greater number of people, especially if they practised reticence of expression, might enjoy with safety, and without misunderstanding, its peculiar and elevating pleasures. The brooks see but one moon, but the moon sees many brooks' should be the motto of the hero-worshipper; and if, as she may well be, to her great good, she is a heroine worshipper also or instead, she will not find the saying useless, even if she has the joy of becoming her heroine's friend. The danger of confusing hero-worship with other forms of affection, is not what has most struck the debaters, and most of their warnings, as to exaggeration of feeling and preferring persons to principles, will speak for themselves. Silly and gushing friendships do not appear to Chelsea China to be hero-worship at all.

The fear of disappointment is insisted on by several, and, as to this, Chelsea China would like to say a word. Of course, an unworthy or false hero, like a false or unworthy lover or friend, is a great misfortune, and there is nothing to do but to bear the discovery. Life has, in that way at least, gone wrong.

But as to out-developing your hero, if there is such a word, outgrowing him, ceasing to agree with him, feeling that in some things you know more or better, the soul that therefore ceases to think him heroic, is not capable of true hero-worship at all. Dwarfs sitting on giants' shoulders see farther than giants.' They do, but those who bear them up are giants still.

The advantages given of hero-worship may be summed up as leading outward, and leading upward.

The disadvantages as leading in some way astray, or as leading to disappointment.

As to the hero himself, the upshot appears to be, that if he is truly heroic, he will be rather humbled than injured by the sense of his influence; but that the worship will act as a kind of test in laying hold of his weak points, if he has any, as most 'earthen vessels' have. Eyebright and Rustic consider it injurious to both parties.

Alys' instance does not appear to Chelsea China to be hero-worship at all.

K. E. T. balances the arguments. W. quotes 'Thank God for a well-placed attachment, even if disappointed.'

Eleanor and F. McLean, good for the worshipper and bad for the worshipped.

E. C., Ithuriel, Blackbird, Ethedred, Willie, Nancy Lee, Chichester Cross, Golden Gown, Speedwell, all consider it beneficial both to the hero and to his worshippers.

Flittermouse.-As to the worshipper himself; all real, honest hero