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All judgment in the games:
Where, twice, Diagoras hath bound
His brow with Rhodian flowers;
High chief, in twice twain contests
crown'd,

At wave-worn Isthmus' pass renown'd,
And twice at Armea's holy ground,
And Athens' craggy towers.

XIV. 2.

Him the brass-shield in Argos town,
And Thebes and Arcady have known;
Him too, the old Boeotian lists,

Egina and Pelléne,

Victor o'er all antagonists,

And six times crowned have seen,
Nor other tale doth Megara's stone,
Blazon with herald tongue.
Bless then, O Father, from thy throne
On Atabyrion's summit lone,
The measured hymn's harp-ruling
tone,

In Olympian triumph sung!

MOST ADMIRABLE CHRISTOPHER,

XV. 3.

And bless the man, that bore that
day,

By might of hand, the prize away;
Yea him with reverent honour grace,
From citizens and stranger race:
For not the flaunting paths of pride
His steps delight to tread,
His fathers' virtues are his guide,
He follows where they led.
Nor thou, the race in darkness hide,
From Dallianax that springs,
Since, through the brave Eratidæ,
With feast, and song, and joyaunce
free,

The festal city rings,
All-jubilant-but one short hour
May shift the summer scene,
And whirlwinds rave, with maddening

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As you have delighted many, if not most of your readers with your English versions of the flowers of the Greek Anthology, perhaps you may look with a favourable eye on the following attempt to present Campbell's Hohenlinden in a Latin dress.

It was not from any foolish hope of entering the lists with that most polished poet that the two versions were commenced, but to show practically to some very promising young scholars the difference between the harmony resulting from accent alone and the harmony resulting from the union of accent and quantity. I need not inform you that English poetry, independent of the meretricious aid of rhyme, is founded on accent alone, while Latin poetry requires a strict adherence to the rules of quantity as well as of accent. In short lyric poems I do not know whether we ought not to require as strict an observance of metrical rules as the Greeks and Romans, and some other nations whom it pleases Englishmen to regard as barbarians. Of this I am certain, that poems composed on such principles would, if equal in genius, soon consign all their predecessors to the vaults of all the Capulets. We have ceased to be " Bagaga," we are daily becoming more worthy of Homer's appellation of "goss avgwor;" and the ease with which every man, woman, and child can versify proves that something more difficult has to be achieved before we can justly claim to be masters of our own language. But as these observations naturally lead to a wide field of enquiry, I shall drop them for the present.

The version Number I. has been composed in the same metre as Campbell's stanza, with the exception that the fourth line is confined to two iambi and a cæsural syllable. To end the lines with monosyllables was impossible, from the genius of the Latin language.

The version Number II. is in strict Sapphic metre.

Relinqueret quum Phœbus Linden,

Nitebat nix intacta pede,

Qualisque nigrans ruit hyems,

Ruebat Iser.

I.

Sed quàm mutata rerum facies,
Quum nocte cecinere signa!
Ut ignis emicaret umbras

Fugare densas.

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THE MURDERING BANKER.

THERE are certain money-making associations, called Joint-Stock Banks, whose branches overshadow the land. No city, however large, no village, however small, can escape the colonizing assiduity of those wonderful establishments. The "Branch" is transplanted with inconceivable rapidity strikes root in an instant, and bears fruit from the moment it touches the soil. Railways and Joint-Stock Banks will assuredly, between them, turn old Scotland upside down. A railway through Drumshorlan Muir, with a train of fifty carriages, loaded, roof and body, with men and bales of goods, besides women, crockery, and other brittle ware;—a branch of the Great Western Bank, showing forth goodly leaves and blossoms at Inverary ;these, and a few other sights of our modern days, would have made Bailie Nicol Jarvie lose conceit of the Sant Market. What invocations he might have made to his "Conscience" it is not for us to say; nor, indeed, can we affirm with certainty, that the honest citizen would have retained conscience enough even to swear by; for who knows but he might have been like the rest of us, and have thrown off that and other heavy luggage, as being an encumbrance to the rapidity of what is called the Progress. The March of Mind is performed best without baggage. But with these great truths we have at present no concern. What we mean to assert, and at the same time to deplore, is, that all these newfangled establishments - Joint-Stock Banks, Railways, and Steam-Boat Companies will finally succeed in exterminating three very excellent things, Private Bankers, King's Highways, and Leith Smacks. Yes, the whole species of private banks will be destroyed; if, perchance, a specimen is preserved in the British Museum, he will be gazed on as we now look upon the Dodo,-by many treated as a fabulous bird altogether, by the generality believed to be a freak of Nature-a solitary instance, and not the representative of a widely-diffused species. Whoever, in travelling through a country town, saw a well-fed individual, about fifty years of age, standing

at the door of a large comfortablelooking house-his blue coat resplendent with bright brass buttons-his drab-coloured kerseymere shorts concluded by long gaiters of the same, with about three inches of snow-white stocking visible at the junction—a low range of building at one side of the mansion, pierced by one dingy window and one door of very massive appearance, with the words "Bank open from 10 till 3," in time-worn letters, above the lintel;-whoever has seen all this may congratulate himself that he has seen a sight which his posterity will look for in vain. That was the Private Banker.-But whoso travelling, whether through town or village, beholds a very elegant young man kissing his hand to the landlady's daughter, who is watching him from an upstairs window, as he steps into his gig, which the ostler has brought round to the door of the “Branch of the Joint-Stock Bank," and observes the jaunty air with which he handles the ribbons, the exquisite fit of his coat, and the gallant air with which his well-brushed hat is stuck on one side of his head ;-let the person who sees all this ponder well on the mutability of human affairs, for this is the District Manager, before whose star our fat friend in the kerseymere smalls "begins to pale his ineffectual fire." What the ultimate end of all these things will be is not our business; nor is it our intention to indulge in a treatise on the principles of banking, leaving that to our ingenious friend Mr Bell, whose Letter on the subject is admirably clear and convincing; nor do we intend to be didactic about monetary systems, or paper currencies, or average deposits, it being our uniform practice to deposit the whole of our worldly goods in our breechespocket, convinced, from long and melancholy experience, that every man is his own best banker;-but our object at this present writing is to give a faithful account of sundry adventures which befell the members of a banking family in the of Scotland, which (as Mathews used to have it) created a great sensation at the time.

At the hundred and twentieth page

of the second edition of Brookes's Gazetteer there is the following account of the town of .

66

:

is a considerable town, situated on the river, containing four thousand inhabitants, who are chiefly employed in the manufacture of cotton and woollen nightcaps. It has two churches, a prison, bridewell, and town-hall; the streets are wide and spacious; it is governed by a provost and four bailies; and its police consists of three watchmen and a town-crier." Having thus unquestionable authority for the spaciousness of the streets, we shall not dilate on the splendours of the houses composing them; we shall merely invite attention to the large white-washed mansion in the High Street, a little withdrawn within handsome iron railings-constituting "number twelve," and being undoubt edly the principal house in the town. The long low roof projecting over the prodigious expanse of white wall, pierced with innumerable small windows, is, we are informed, not in strict accordance with the rules of Grecian architecture; nor is it in much danger of being mistaken for the Gothic, but if we may be allowed to suggest the style to which it belongs, we should say it was "the comfortable." Lots of accommodation, with an air of snug retirement, were the characteristics of the mansion, and it was evident to a very superficial observer of such matters that it possessed a mighty advantage in its proximity, or, in fact, in its identity with the stout stone building at one side of it, which projected to the level of the street, and bore above its door the cabalistic words we have alluded to in the introduction, "BANK. Open from 10 till 3." An enquiring observer, on looking beyond the outside portal of this wing of the building, might have seen written, in large white letters, on an inner door," Pearie, Peat, and Patieson.' And if he had had as much wisdom as we give him credit for, he might have felt pretty sure that those were the names of the three partners. And his supposition would have been correct. That was the banking establishment of Messrs Pearie, Peat, & Patieson, the richest and best known bankers in the whole district of Scotland. The bank, in the course of the forty years of its existence, had gone through

many changes of name,-at first, it had been Patieson, Peat, and Pearie; then, on the death of the founder, the middle partner had taken precedence, while the nephew of the defunct had gone to the bottom of the list. On the demise of Mr Peat, the next partner succeeded to the honours, and at the time of the commencement of this narrative, the respective stations of the firm of Pearie, Peat, & Patieson were filled in the following manner. The main part of the large house, No. 12, was occupied by Mr Pearie, .now a gentleman of mature years, with a plump expression of body and feature, which told as plainly as words could have done, that he had all his life long been a prosperous gentleman. The sound of his voice, also, the short gruff method of expressing his opinion, something between a cough and a grunt, bore evidence to the same happy condition of his circumstances. Trade had indeed flourished-his consequence and dignity expanded in exact proportion with his bodily configuration-and an eye with any speculation in it, could see at a glance that one hundred thousand pounds at least were written in the swell of his waistcoat. Scrupulously brushed were his habiliments, snow-white were his stockings, and brightly polished his shoes, which latter articles of wearing apparel were ornamented with certain bright buckles, which rumour gave out as being heir-looms dedicated to the adornment of the head partner, and, indeed, by many people believed to be the palladium or tutelary influences of the bank itself. Scandalous people, who paid too little respect to dignities, have been known to wonder that Mr Pearie should indulge in such ostentatious vanities, especially as any smatterer in geometry, or, more properly speaking, in sarkometry, could not fail to perceive that the aforesaid swell of the waistcoat bad for many years deprived him of the pleasure of seeing the ornaments on his instep, unless with the assistance of a mirror. was equally evident that he still rejoiced in single blessedness, though in what particulars of shape or manner bachelorship becomes visible in a moment we are not qualified to decide; we merely state the fact in this particular instance; but no,-on second thoughts, we extend the remark to

It

mankind at large, viz. that the fact of matrimony or bachelorship is written so legibly in men's appearance, that no ingenuity can conceal it. On the tops of coaches, in the coffee-rooms of inns, nay, in pews at church, there is some inexplicable instinct that tells us whether an individual (name, fortune, circumstances totally unknown) be or be not a married man. Whether it is a certain subdued look, such as that which characterises the lions in a menagerie, and distinguishes them from the lords of the desert, we cannot tell; but that the truth is so we positively affirm; so, leaving these matters for a more searching enquiry at some future time, we return to the conditions of Mr Pearie. With regard to his relations to the other partners of the establish ment we have some difficulty in making them quite intelligible to a stranger, for during the partnership there had been so many intermarriages, that it required a considerable turn for genealogy to make out exactly what degree of relationship existed between them. When Mr Peat (who had married a sister of Mr Pearie, and whose father had been the husband of Mr Patieson's aunt) left his share of the business, in addition to his savings, to his only daughter, he committed the management of the young lady, her farms, and fortune, to the joint management of his two partners, who being both relations, both guardians, and both also partners of their young charge, fell into the very natural mistake of considering her as one of the hereditaments, whose beauty, youth, accomplishments, and floating capital were all to be laid out to the best advantage. Mr Patieson, however, had shortly afterwards died, and left his son sole heir of all his possessions, his place in the bank, the guardianship of his ward, and, incongruously enough, himself at the same time in the guardianship of Mr Pearie; an imperium in imperio, which might have had very dangerous consequences, had not the executive, in the hands of the senior partner, been at once very strict, and not very oppressive. Mary Peat, aged a little more than nineteen, "kept," as the phrase is, her guardian's house-her suite of rooms are those on the left hand of the entrance-door, where you see the rich gauze curtains, and the beautiful geraniums, and catch a glimpse, a little way back, of the top

She was

of a splendid harp; and proceeding from which you might occasionally hear delicious music, accompanied by as sweet a voice as it is safe to listen to, unless you have got pretty near your grand climacteric. what judges call "great" on the harp, and brought such sounds from her piano, and carolled Scotch ballads so simply, and looked so sweetly, that no one who listened to her music, or looked at her beautiful blue eyes, could doubt her powers of "execution." Mr Pearie himself was divided between his fondness for his own notes and hers-he used to sit in his armchair whole evenings listening to her performance, pretending to be asleep; for he would have considered it derogatory to his dignity, as "heed o' the hoose," to be pleased with Auld Robin Gray, or the Flowers o' the Fo rest. Charles Patieson, however, who had no such exalted considerations to restrain him, not only felt, but openly expressed the greatest delight in listening to his ward, or cousin, or partner, whichever you choose to call her

though there can be no doubt in which of these characters the young man would have preferred considering her himself. Yet there were obstacles, insurmountable obstacles, which resulted partly from the determined discountenancing of any thing of the sort by Mr Pearie,-partly from the unconquerable modesty of the young man-and principally from the apparent indifference, if, indeed, it was not altogether dislike, of the young lady. So poor Charles contented himself with loving her with all his heart and all his soul in secret-hearing her sing and speak every evening that he possibly could; and dreaming of her all night-a mode of proceeding which all who have tried it unite in pronouncing very unsatisfactory. A house, at the other side of the town, prettily situated on the bank of the river, reminded him continually, by its spacious size, so disproportioned to the necessities of a bachelor-of that very pleasing text which says man was not meant to live alone. What to him were the shrubbery walks-the long suites of rooms, the green-houses and conservatories?- Poor fellow! not all the grammarians, since the days of Priscian downwards, could have convinced him of the congruity of the substantive "blessedness," with the

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