are at the best untoward circumstances, but we console ourselves with reflecting that they were inevitable.

66

We can look, however, with satisfaction at the list of our contributors, published and unpublished, and with real pleasure observe that one part, at least, of our intentions has been fulfilled, that, namely, of providing a new channel in which to guide the Etonian stream of literature."* We have now only to commit our numbers to the indulgence of the little world of our school-fellows, trusting that, in spite of all our defects, in spite of much that has been written carelessly, much that is deficient in style, in sense, in nonsense, THE KALEIDOSCOPE may not be totally forgotten, but that it may serve, in some measure at least, to beguile the leisure hours of a rainy afternoon.

One word more; a contributor, with whom the first appearance of this magazine was contrived, -who, by his humorous pen, and by his acts of friendship, aided in a great measure, its success,——

* See "Note by Editor," p. ix.

one, who was the love of all who knew him, and is the regret of all who loved him, has been, as it were but yesterday, "cropped in the bud of life;" untimely snatched from this scene of trouble, from the hopes, the wishes, the anticipations of his friends;—with him THE KALEIDOSCOPE might be said to have originated; with him it ends, and the editors seize this opportunity of paying a public tribute to the memory of HENRY RYCROFT.

A. J. ELLIS.

T. CHARLTON.

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE INTRODUCTION.

MR. EDITOR,

WHEN I saw the announcement of your bantling" The Kaleidoscope," at Mr. Ingalton's the other day, it occurred to me that I could furnish you with an introduction, since I had long had one on my hands, which I once intended to offer for the "Eton College Magazine," provided the proposed meeting had taken place, which you will find appointed at page 76 of that work. In consequence of my suggestions to that periodical having ended in smoke, I consider myself as an aggrieved and injured individual.

But since all legal means would be of course unavailing, I have determined to have my revenge, and by sending my introduction to you, to show the Editors of the deceased publication what a loss they sustained when they rejected

PAUL ELTON.

A

INTRODUCTION.

It is an old observation, rendered more trite by Dr. Johnson's having made use of it, that introductions are always awkward; that, when a writer presents himself and his work to the notice of the public, he is much at a loss in what manner with the greatest ease and elegance to express himself, to "embody and unbosom forth" his thoughts. Nor is this confined to authorship alone. When two persons are introduced to each other with a "Mr. Such-a-one, Mr. So-and-so; Mr. So-and-so, Mr. Such-a-one;" what awkward bows are, for the most part, made on either side, and how foolish each party looks for want of words to embody his ideas, or ideas to suggest his words.

This being an admitted case, we will suppose one of our readers ushered into a room, rendered dark by unclean windows, and in some places the substitution of a piece of brown paper for a pane of glass; where, at an inky desk, he beholds a tall, thin, gaunt figure, clothed in a rusty suit of black, sitting on a high stool, and writing so