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Employment is truly the chariot-wheel of the soul; without it we only drag weary existence along. The morning wore away; and the two months' vacation began to seem a little life-time, and all the days "dark and dreary."

Towards evening, to my delight and astonishment, Miss S. returned. "Get your bonnet and shawl," said she. "I could not go to Boston, and leave you here so lonely; I have come to take you to Brooklyn, to stop a little time with some friends;" and the last two weeks I passed at the delightful home of Mr. and Mrs. Emory, and Mr. Augustus Graham, a very interesting old gentlemen, if indeed it is at all proper to call a man old, merely because the frosts of many winters have blanched his locks and deepened the furrows on his brow, while he still retains the mental freshness of youth and all the acting excellence of half his years. Mr. Graham is a native of Edinburgh, educated in London; some fifty years since he came to New-York, where by his own industry and economy he has amassed a fortune which now in his declining years, he is distributing for the relief of the unfortunate and distressed, with a hand as liberal and free as the heart of benevolence and philanthropy could ask.

On our Nation's last birth-day, Mr. Graham presented to the Brooklyn Institute and Hospital the pretty sum of fifty thousand. Oh, who would not wish the power of dispensing good so freely? In a word, who would not like to be rich? Mr. Graham's apartments are caskets of choice books, paintings, engravings, &c. One day, speaking of Paris, he placed in my hands a little relic of the Bastile, which he procured as follows: Passing over the grounds, and finding nothing worth preserving, the guide took him around by the outer wall; where he spied, far up in a niche, a figure bereft of every limb that seemed breakable, save one finger, pointing in lone astonishment to the shades of misery which must ever haunt the grounds of the Bastile. Being a pretty good Benjamite, Mr. G. threw a stone and felled the finger to the ground. "Come," said the guide, "we had best be going from this place, or those guards will be after us." So Mr. G. pocketed quickly his well-earned relic, and walked away. The finger has on it the indenture of the nail and the little creases of the first and second joint, as perfectly as though chiselled but now.

Institution for the Blind.

MY GOOD FRIEND MR. D.: -- When I look over the past I cannot see that either in my letters or interviews I have ever added to your mind one pleasing thought, and yet you bear with me.

The veneration I ever feel for your worth and character so silence my words and restrain my actions, when in your presence, that I often think that you may with good reason suppose me wanting in the grateful love I should cherish for so valuable a friend. But believe me, Mr. D.; if your dear Augusta and Juliet were my own sisters, I could not love and esteem you more.

My remaining sight you probably value as little as I do; but this I do desire, to see the time when my eyes will cease to trouble me. I cannot arrange sentences sufficient for a letter, listen to an hour's reading, or practise the least, or spend an evening in conversation, but the morbid irritation in the nerves and muscles of my eyes becomes so painful as to keep me awake nearly the whole night. Three years I have submitted passively to the prescriptions and decisions of the faculty, never once lifting my voice approvingly or otherwise.

Last summer the advice of all the doctors was, "Go to the springs; showering and bathing will do more for you than medicine." But that was impossible. Others again urged me to return and try the water-cure in New-York. To that various objections wore raised; indeed I knew nothing of it myself until a friend gave it a very satisfactory trial. She has a miniature apparatus, douche and shower-bath in her own house, which I used some time last winter with much benefit both to my general health and eyes. Now, you see Mr. D. what I am at; I do very much wish to pass one week or two in the water-cure establishment somewhere in New-York. I have a conviction that it will both remedy my dyspepsia and consequent irritation of my eyes. May I make the experiment? I know it is expensive, but the twenty dollars you gave me I still have, and some beside, which I think will suffice.

My spirit sees no look of disapproval in your thoughts. However, you will tell me plainly what you think of it, and your words shall be my oracle; I will ask no other. Pray pardon me for troubling you, and believe that I only desire to know and do the right.

Stone Cottage, June, 1849.

***** AN Hour ago I bathed in the crystal waters that flow fast by the cottage door, then with Mary followed up their winding way, treading on the soft shadows of nightfall, which come to sleep among the bushes and flowers.

This afternoon we crossed the bridge up the hill road to the wood, and deep in its shade sat us down, and opened the book which Mary had brought to read. So every day, with my head pillowed in her lap, and her little hand on my brow, I beguile the hours which other wise were long and weary.