AN ASSAULT. Ir being reported that Lady Caroline Lamb, had, in a moment of passion, knocked down one of her pages with a stool, the poet Moore, to whom the story was told by Lord Strangford, observed -"Oh! nothing is more natural than for a literary lady to double down a page." "I would rather," replied his lordship, "advise Lady Caroline to turn over a new leaf." LONDON VIOLETS. Sweet violets! we might pass ye by unseen although so fair, Should fail to tell the sense and soul of something blest and true, Oh! freshly on the forest bank, or by the wide moor's edge The child of spring and loveliness peers out from turf and sedge, I know they spring not in the wold, that hands have toil'd and till'd; But cultivated virtues, too, a world-wide, welcome move; And while we hail the foster'd germs that wreathe the close heart's bowers, She leans against the stately wall, and white-faced houseless child Oh! if ye gaze until your own wax pale and mournful too, Learn charity! and as ye may, stretch out the hand of love Learn hope that all griefs labyrinth, contain some saving clue; ABOVE all things never despair. God is where He was. Heaven helps those who help themselves. IT is to live twice when we can enjoy the recollections of our former life. WOMEN are a great deal like French watches, very pretty to look at, but very difficult to regulate when they once take to going wrong. PRECOCITY OF INTELLIGENCE. HAVING watched the growth of the young mind a good deal, we are less and less in love with precocity, which is often mere manifestation of disease, the disease of a very fine but weak nervous organization. Your young Rociuses, and all your wonders of that kind, generally ended in the feeblest of common place. There is no law, however, precise and absolute in the matter. The difference of age at which men attain maturity of intellect, and even of imagination, is very striking. The tumultuous heat of youth, has certainly given birth to many of the noblest things in music, painting, and poetry; but no less fine productions, have sprung from the ripeness of years. Chatterton wrote all his beautiful things, exhausted all hopes of life, and saw nothing better than death, at the age of 18. Burns and Byron died in their 37th year, and doubtless the strength of their genius was over. Raffaelle, after filling the world with divine beauty, perished also at 37. Mozart, earlier. These might have produced still greater works. On the other hand, Handel was 48 before he gave the world “ assurance of a man." Dryden came up to London from the provinces, dressed in Norwich drugget, somewhat above the age of 30, and did not then know that he could write a single line of poetry; yet what towering vigour, and swinging ease, appeared all at once in "Glorious John." Milton had indeed written "Comus" at 28, but he was upwards of 50 when he began his great work. Cowper knew not his own might till he was far beyond 30, and his "Task was not written till about his 50th year. Sir Walter Scott was also upwards of 30 before he published his "Minstrelsy," and all his greatness was yet to come. PERFECTION. A YOUNG gentleman who has just married a little under-sized beauty, says " She would have been taller, but she is made of such precious materials that Nature could not afford it." ORIGIN OF ILL-ASSORTED MARRIAGES. THIS theory explains what would otherwise be inexplicable-the ill-assorted marriages, which are the subject of so much imbecile astonishment. An accomplished man commits his fate to an ignorant woman, a woman of refined sentiments interests her happiness to the keeping of a man of mere instinct; and all this often without any compulsion, arising from circumstances of fortune or station. The explanation is, that the accomplished man, a victim to the illusions of passion, invests his mistress with his own accomplishments; and the refined woman, her lover, with her own refinement; and their union takes place through mere mistake. Personal beauty, in like manner, is united to deformity; for there is limit to the power of this enchantment. VOL. I. I BOLD STROKE FOR A HUSBAND. LADY Isabel Finch, daughter of the late Earl of Winchelsea, was lady of the bed-chamber to the Princess Amelia. Lord Bath, one evening, having no silver, borrowed half-a-crown of her; he sent it her next day, with the gallant wish that he could give her a crown. She replied, that "though he could not give her a crown, he could give her a coronet, and she was ready to accept it." MILTON'S DESCRIPTION OF DEATH. The other shape, If shape that might be called, that shape, had none Or substance might be called that shadow seemed, THE LIKE-ON BEWAILING THE LOSS OF SIGHT. Seasons return, but not to me returns Day, or the sweet approach of even or morn, Of nature's works, to me expunged and raised, A GOOD NAME. ALWAYS be more solicitous to preserve your innocence than concerned to prove it. It will never do to seek a good name as a primary object. Like trying to be graceful, the effect to be popular will make you contemptible. Take care of your spirit and conduct, and your reputation will take care of itself. The utmost that you are called to do, as the guardian of your reputation, is to remove injurious aspersions. Let not your good be evil spoken of, and follow the highest examples in mild and explicit, self-vindication. No reputation can be permament, which does not spring from principle, and he who would maintain a good character, should be mainly solicitous to maintain a character void of offence towards God and towards man. "No man," says Mrs. Partington, "was better calculated to judge of pork than my poor dear husband was. When he was living, poor man, he knew what good hogs were, for he had been brought up among 'em from childhood." QUESTION." I am about courting a girl I have had but little acquaintance with, how shall I come to a knowledge of her faults?" ANSWER." Commend her among her female acquaintance." SIR ROBERT PEEL'S MENTAL DEFECTS. THUS gifted and thus accomplished, Sir Robert Peel had a great deficiency-he was without imagination. Wanting imagination he wanted prescience. No one was more sagacious when dealing with the circumstances before him; no one penetrated the present with more acuteness and accuracy. His judgment was faultless, provided he had not to deal with the future. Thus it happened through his long career, that while he was always looked upon as the most prudent, and the safest of leaders, he ever, after a prostrated display of admirable tactics, concluded his campaigns by surrendering at discretion. He was so adroit, that he could prolong resistence even beyond its term; but so little foreseeing, that often in the very triumph of his manœuvres, he found himself in an untenable position. And so it came to pass, that Roman Catholic Emancipation, Parliamentary Reform, and the abrogation of our commercial system, were all carried in haste or in passion, and without conditions or mitigatory arrangements. CHARACTER OF A GENT. He may carry a brace of partridges, but not a leg of mutton-he may be seen in the omnibus box at the opera, but not on the box of an omnibus-he may be seen in a stall inside the theatre, but not at a stall outside one-he may dust another person's jacket, but must not brush his own-he may kill a man in a duel, but he must not eat peas with his knife-he may thrash a coal-heaver, but he must not ask twice for soup-he may pay his debts of honour, but need not trouble himself about his tradesmen's billshe may drive a horse as a jockey, but he must not exert himself in the least to get his living-he must never forget what he owes to himself, as a gentleman, but he need not mind what he owes, as a gentleman, to his tailor-he may do any thing, or any body, in fact, within the range of a gentleman-go through the Insolvent Debtor's Court, or turn billiard marker, but he must never on any account carry a brown paper parcel, or appear in the streets without a pair of gloves. BE not scurrilous in conversation, nor satirical in thy jests; the one will make thee unwelcome to all company, the other pull on quarrels, and get thee hatred of thy best friends: as for suspicious jests, when any of them savour of truth, they leave a bitterness in the minds of those which are touched. I have seen many so prone to quip and gird, as they would rather lose their friend than their joke. Those nimble fancies are but the froth of wit. Lord Chancellor Burleigh. IT is as truly folly for the poor to ape the rich, as for the frog to swell, in order to equal the ox. A TYRANT'S HAPPINESS. DEMOCLES, the Sicilian, learnt that the life of a tyrant is not as happy as it appears to be! Democles, who was one of the courtiers of Dionysius the elder, frequently extolled the happiness of his master, surrounded by wealth and power. "Will you, then,” said Dionysius, "make trial of my felicity?" The offer was accepted, and Democles ushered into a room where the most magnificent repast was prepared; incense, perfumes, and slaves of the highest beauty, appeared in profusion. What followed? In the midst of all his pleasures he cast his eyes towards the ceiling, and perceived the point of a sword hanging by a single horse hair over his head,all his joy now vanished,-anxiety took possession of his mind, and he learned this useful lesson,—that even in the highest stations there is always something which corrodes our bliss, and renders us, in happiness, upon an equality with others. THE BIRTH OF THE NEW YEAR. Hark! upon the ear of morn, Clang the jocund bells to warn That the infant year is born Greet him merrily! Hail! to thee, thou fair new year! Hastily, right hastily, We have watched through midnight drear, To give thee welcome and good cheer, Benedicite! May the moments glide away Lightly, blightly, happily, May thy youth be fresh and gay, Sage thy prime, and thy decay Sweet and mellow be! We will do thee homage now, Freely, truly, loyally- We will prize thee, bright new year! And, like thy sire, thou die ! Thou shall bring us, day by day, Unto our home, on high! So that when thy end draws near, Sadly, slowly, solemnly We'll say, God rest thee, good old year! Thou wert the best that we knew here, Rest in eternity! |