Thibodaux Minerva

Elegant Extract.-The grandeur of man's nature turns to insignificance all outward distinctions. His powers of intellect, of love, of knowing God, of perceiving the beautiful, of acting on his mind, on onward Nature, and on his fellow creatures-these are glorious prerogatives. Through the vulgar error of undervaluing what is common, we are apt, indeed, to pass these by as of but little worth. But as in the outward creation, so in the soul, the common is the most precious.

Science and art may invent splendid modes of illuminating the apartment of the opulent; but these are all poor and worthless compared with the common light which the sun sends into our windows, which he pours freely, impartially, over hill and valley, which kindles daily the eastern and western sky; and so the common lights of reason, and conscience, and love, are of more worth and dignity than the rare endowments which give celebrity to a few. [Channing.