seen. for speaking oracularly on the subject under notice. We are in constant and uninterrupted communication, and in free intercourse, with many persons whom we have never yet We write as freely to them, as they do to us. If we say we love them, we speak but the simple truth. They have said as much to us. And why not? If we were to meet to-morrow, there would be no shyness, no strangeness, no distance between us. This result is brought about by that indefinable chord of sweet sympathy, on which we touched emphatically in our earlier volumes. Some may connect these remarks with the professed "art of reading characters by the hand-writing;" but no such jugglery is A good guess," now and then, may bring grist to the mill of the hungry, "professor;" but he knows nothing of what WE are talking about. ours. 66 Letters truly have a voice, and it some times speaks softly, eloquently, lovingly, to those who can hear it; but no stranger," as Montgomery says, can "intermeddle" with such joys as these. Of letters generally, the same correct judgment may be formed. The mechanical action of the pen is seen on the paper. It is taken up for a purpose, and then laid aside. Cold, dry, formal missives reach us constantly. We reply to them as a matter of course; and having burnt them, at once cease to think of them and the writers. Selfish are the questioners, and as succinct are we in our replies. But such are not the letters of which we have been singing. These, even if burnt, have a (" correct copy" stamped upon a substance that is imperishable,- -our heart. The women of China, as in all other countries not blessed with Christianity, occupy a rank in society far inferior to that of the men. Nevertheless, their place in the social scale is higher, their influence greater, and their treatment better, than can be predicated of the sex in any other Asiatic nation. Of school education the mass receive none, though there are occasionally shining exceptions; but Gutzlaff ascribes to them the possession of a large share of common sense, and says that they make "devoted wives and tender mothers." The generality of Chinese ladies cannot boast of great beauty. They make a free use of rouge, and tune. this article is always among the presents to a bride on the occasion of her nuptials. The distinguishing marks of personal attractions among the Chinese, in a gentleman-are, a large person, inclining to corpulency, a full glossy face, and large pendent ears; the latter indicating high breeding and forforms are in them highly esteemed, having slender In females it is nearly the reverse, delicate "willow waists." The eyes are termed "silver seas." The eye-brows are frequently removed, and in their stead a delicately curved pencil line is drawn, resembling the leaf of the willow, "Lew shoo," a species of palm which is considered beautiful, and used metaphorically for "Pleasure." Hence the saying "deceived and stupefied by willows and flowers;" i. e. by dissolute pleasures. In what circumstances the "golden lilies," the known. The distortion is produced by turning the highest of personal attractions, originated, is not toes under the soles of the feet at birth, and confining them in that position by tight bandages, till their growth is effectually checked. bandaging is continued for several years, during which the poor child suffers the most excruciating tortures. This is no doubt an absurd, cruel, and wicked practice; but those who dwell in glass houses should not throw stones. It is not a whit worse, nay, I maintain that it is less irrational and injurious than the abomination of tight-lacing. disordered; and on the score of taste, if the errors No vital part is here attacked, no vital functions of Nature are to be rectified, and her graceful lines and proportions improved, I see not why the process of amendment may not be as reasonably applied to the feet as to the waist. Almost every family in China, however poor, has one daughter with the small feet. The Head-dresses of natural and artificial flowers are always worn. "No woman," says Sir George Staunton, "is so poor as to neglect, or so aged as to give up adorning herself in this manner.' culture of flowers for this purpose is a regular occupation throughout the country. The Wives are distinguished from unmarried females, by the latter allowing the hair near the forehead to hang down towards the eye-brows; while the former have theirs bound together upon the crown of the head. Among the accomplishments of Chinese ladies, chief places. The musical instruments are various music, painting on silk, and embroidery, hold the in kind and material, and a supply of them is held to be an indispensable part of the furniture of a lady's boudoir. Painting on silk is a very common recreation; and embroidery is an almost universal accomplishment. So much for the women of China. Let us now take a peep at a Chinese "spread." The ceremony attending an invitation to dinner is somewhat formal, and may be interesting to many of your readers. The invitation is conveyed some days before, by a crimson-colored ticket, on which is inscribed the time appointed; and the guest is entreated to bestow "the illumination of his presence." At other times, the phrase is, "I have pre pared pure tea, and wait for your company to converse.' The following description of a Chinese dinner, from the pen of Captain Laplace, of the French Navy, is given with so much of the characteristic vivacity of his countrymen, and so well conveys the first impression of a scene not often witnessed by Europeans, that I introduce it without further apology : The first course was laid out in a great number of saucers of painted porcelain, and consisted of various relishes in a cold state, as salted earthworms, prepared and dried, but so cut up that I fortunately did not know what they were until I swallowed them; salted or smoked fish, and ham, both of them cut into extremely small slices; besides which there was what they called Japan leather, a sort of darkish skin, hard and tough, with a strong, and far from agreeable taste, which seemed to have been macerated in water for some time. All these et cæteras, including among the number a liquor which I recognised to be soy, made from a Japan bean, and long since adopted by the wine-drinkers of Europe to revive their faded appetites or tastes, were used as seasoning to a great number of stews, which were contained in bowls, and succeeded each other uninterruptedly. All the dishes, without exception, swam in soup; on one side figured pigeons' eggs, cooked in gravy, together with ducks and fowls, cut very small, and immersed in a dark colored sauce; on the other, little balls made of sharks' fins, eggs prepared by heat (of which both the smell and taste seemed to us equally repulsive,) immense grubs, a peculiar kind of sea-fish, crabs, and pounded shrimps. Seated at the right of our excellent Amphitryon, I was the object of his whole attention; but, nevertheless, found myself considerably at a loss how to use the two little ivory sticks, tipped with silver, which, together with a knife that had a long, narrow, and thin blade, formed the whole of my eating apparatus. I had great difficulty in seizing my prey, in the midst of these several bowls filled with gravy; in vain I tried to hold, in imitation of my host, this substitute for a fork, between the thumb and the two first fingers of the right hand, for the chopsticks slipped aside every moment, leaving behind them the unhappy little morsel which I coveted. It is true that the master of the house came to the relief of my inexperience (by which he was much entertained) with his two instruments, the extremities of which, a few moments before, had touched a mouth, whence age, and the use of snuff and tobacco, had cruelly chased its good looks. However, I contrived to eat, with tolerable propriety, a soup prepared with the famous birds' nests in which the Chinese are such epicures. The substance thus served up is reduced into very thin filaments, transparent as isinglass, and resembling vermicelli, with little or no taste. At first I was much puzzled to find out how, with our chopsticks, we should be able to taste of the various soups which composed the greater part of the dinner, and had already called to mind the fable of the fox and the stork, when our two Chinese entertainers, dipping at once into the bowls with the little saucer placed at the side of each guest, showed us how to get rid of the difficulty. I confess I was never witness to this slovenly manoeuvre, as the Chinese tables are generally supplied with a species of spoon, of silver or porcelain, sufficiently convenient in shape. crowd of novelties presented an inexhaustible To the younger guests, naturally lively, such a fund of pleasantry; and, though unintelligible to the worthy Hong merchant and his brother, the jokes seemed to delight them not at all the less. The wine, in the meantime, circulated freely, and the toasts followed each other in rapid succession. This liquor, which to my taste was by no means agreeable, is always taken hot; and in this state it approaches pretty nearly to Madeira in color, as well as a little in taste; but it is not easy to get tipsy with it, for, in spite of the necessity of frequently attending to the invitations of my host, this wine did not in the least affect my head. We drank it in little gilt cups, having the shape of an antique vase, with two handles, of perfect workmanship, and kept constantly filled by attendants holding large silver vessels like coffee-pots. After all these good things served one upon the other, of which it gave me pleasure to see the last, succeeded the second course, which was preceded by a little ceremony, of which the object seemed to be a trial of the guests' appetites. Upon the edges of four bowls, arranged in a square, three others were placed, filled with stews, and surmounted by an eighth, which thus formed the summit of a pyramid; and the custom is to touch none of these, although invited by the host. On the refusal of the party the whole disappeared, and the table was covered with articles in pastry and sugar; in the midst of which was a salad coniposed of the tender shoots of the bamboo, and some watery preparations, that exhaled a most disagreeable odor. Up to this point the relishes, of which I first spoke, had been the sole accompaniment of all the successive ragouts; they still served to season the bowls of plain rice, which the attendants now, for the first time, placed before each of the guests. It must be remembered that this was a formal dinner; rice forms a much more integral part of an every-day meal. I regarded with an air of considerable embar rassment, the two little sticks, with which, notwithstanding the experience acquired since the commencement of the repast, it seemed very doubtful whether I should be able to eat my rice, grain by grain, according to the belief of Europeans regarding the Chinese custom. I therefore waited until my host should begin, to follow his example, foreseeing that, on this new occasion, some fresh discovery would serve to relieve us from the truly ludicrous embarrassment which we all displayed; in a word our two Chinese, cleverly joining the ends of their chopsticks, plunged them into the bowls of rice, held up to the mouth, which was opened to its full extent, and thus easily shovelled in the rice, not by grains, but by handsful. Thus instructed, I might have followed their example; but I preferred making up with the other delicacies, for the few attractions which, to my taste, had been displayed by the first course. The second lasted a much shorter time, the attendants cleared away everything. Presently the table was strewed with flowers, which vied with each other in brilliancy; pretty baskets, filled with the same, were mixed with and smallness and delicacy of hands. The plates which contained a vast variety of delicious carefully-cultivated and well-braided cuessweetmeats, as well as cakes, of which the forms so long in some instances as almost to trail were as ingenious as they were varied. Napkins upon the ground, and affording admirable steeped in warm water, and flavored with otto of handles" to an antagonist in a passionroses, are frequently handed to each guest by the form a curious subject of observation. The servants in attendance. This display of the pro-history of this singular appendage affords a ductions of nature and of art, was equally agree- remarkable illustration of those revolutions able to the eyes and the tastes of the guests. By the side of the yellow plaintain was seen the litchi, which sometimes occur in national taste and of which the strong, rough, and bright crimson skin manners. Previously to the conquest of their defends a stone enveloped in a whitish pulp, which, country by the Tartars, the Chinese perfor its fine aromatic taste, is superior to most of mitted the hair to grow over the whole head. the tropical fruits; when dried, it forms an excel- Shunche, the first of the Tartar emperors, lent provision for the winter. With these fruits issued an imperial edict, requiring the conof the warm climates were mingled those of the quered people to conform in this particular temperate zone, brought at some expense from the to the custom of their victors. So stoutly northern provinces; as walnuts, chesnuts, apples, grapes, and Pekin pears, which last, though their was this decree at first resisted, that many lively color and pleasant smell attracted the atten- of the nobles preferred death to obedience, tion, proved to be tasteless, and even retained all and actually perished by command of the conqueror. At the present day, however, the loss of this very badge of servitude is considered one of the greatest calamities, scarcely less dreaded than death itself. To be deprived of it is one of the most opprobrious brands put upon convicts and criminals. Those to whom nature has been sparing in respect to the natural covering of the head, supply her deficiencies by the artificial introduction and intermingling of other hair with their own, thus seeking to "increase it to a reputably fashioned size." the harshness of wild-fruits. At length we adjourned to the next room to take tea, the indispensable commencement and close of all visits and ceremonies among the Chinese. According to custom, the servants presented it in porcelain cups, each of which was covered with a saucer-like top, which confines and prevents the aroma from evaporating. The boiling water had been poured over a few of the leaves, collected at the bottom of the cup; and the infusion, to which no sugar or cream is ever added in China, exhaled a delicious fragrant odor, of which the best teas carried to Europe can scarcely give an idea. Other visits of ceremony are conducted with much pomp and formality. When a gentleman proceeds in his sedan to pay a visit, his attendants present his ticket at the gate, consisting of his name and titles written down the middle of a folded sheet of vermillion-colored paper, ornamented with gold leaf; and sometimes there is enough paper in one of these to extend across a room. According to the rank of the parties, the visitor and his host begin bowing at stated distances; though among equals the ordinary mode of salutation is to join closed hands. Only mandarins or official persons can be carried by four bearers, or be accompanied by a train of attendants. Soon after visitors are seated, an attendant brings in porcelain cups with covers, with a small quantity of fine tea-leaves in each, on which boiling water has been poured, and the infusion is thus drank without the addition of sugar or milk; fruits are also brought in on beautifully japanned trays. In some Chinese apartments there are broad couches, called "kangs," as large as a bed. In the centre of these, small tables are placed, about a foot in height, intended to rest the arm upon, or place teacups. On the conclusion of a visit the host conducts his guest to his sedan. Corpulency, and small, delicate, taper fingers, are much esteemed, as indications of gentility. Also a goodly rotundity of person, The Chinese put faith in the external developments of the skull, and are therefore, for the principal characteristics of a man in to a certain extent, phrenologists. They look his forehead, and of a woman on the back of the cranium. * Two curious billets-doux connected with the habits of the Chinese, will be found in another page. They are assigned a separate place, being from a different pen.-ED. K. J. PROGRESS OF EMIGRATION. WE HAVE MORE THAN ONCE OFFERED a few observations on this subject; and pointed out wherein we thought emigration beneficial, and wherein we thought it the reverse. We have shown who were really wanted abroad, and who amongst us had better remain at home. We hardly need say that our remarks were good-naturedly penned; although we fear little heed has been paid to them. Since then, a Mr. C. Hursthouse has launched a little tome on the subject; and from this we make one or two extracts well worth perusal : tion from this country was about 15,000 souls. A quarter of a century ago, the annual emigraIncreasing year by year as its benefits have become more felt, it has now reached nearly 360,000. Thus, at the rate of hundreds a day, the adven. turous and the sanguine, the unfortunate and the discontented, the desperate, the poor, and the needy, are stepping forth from our 'serried ranks,' to seek the free space and plenty of newer and less crowded lands. Here, perhaps, the thought may cross some mind that emigration, though inherently a good thing, may, like other good things, be carried to excess; just as a glass of old ale may strengthen a teetotaller, a gallon prostrate him. Undoubtedly they would be right. Emigration might be carried much too far for the interests of the mother country. For instance, if some 'dazzling diggings' were discovered at the Land's End, and three-fourths of Hastings emigrated there, the chief items in the next census might be the mayor and corporation, a few score elderly ladies and gentlemen, and some hundred blooming young women. In such case, Hastings would become as a city of the past. Rents in High Street would fall to cyphers, and strayed cattle graze unheeded in the market place. If the French landed, the' unprotected female' would fall the easy prize of war; and, without strong-minded women essayed the plough and spade, the fair fields and gardens of the suburbs might relapse into pristine wilderness. And similar over-emigration from the kingdom would produce similar sad effects. In emigration as in everything else, there is a judicious turning point-a wholesome mean.' A country, wanting people, is in a worse plight than a country wanting врасе. But this turning point we are far, very far from having reached. True, hundreds a day may leave us, but a thousand a day are born to us. True, emigrant-crowded ships may dot the channel; but we go through the land and see no signs thereof. And, whilst we count our paupers and beggars by hundreds of thousands, our criminals by tens-whilst our capital displays the astounding spectacle of a twentieth part of its population rising every morning without the means of getting the morning's meal-whilst the 'Song of the Shirt' remains a true song-whilst thousands of strapping young men (doing their sisters' work) are exhibited in shops selling tape and bobbin whilst an advertisement in the Times for an ac complished governess (where, as the family is serious, no salary will be given") is answered by 20 charming young ladies, anxious for the wretched post-whilst such telling facts as these are patent to the world, we have good assurance that emigration is not overpassing those wholesome limits, within which it is the certain source of national prosperity and individual well-doing, just as the sun is the certain source of light and heat. By the way, whilst hinting at emigration, we may just remark that murders at "the diggings" are now become so common that they almost cease to be recorded! If people will have gold, they must expect to pay dearly" for it. TO THE SKYLARK. BY THOMAS MILLER. WHITHER away! companion of the sun, Of floating silver, which appear to shun clouds Of loosened light, dost thou pour forth thy song? Descend, sun-loving bird, nor try thy strength thus long. Ethereal songster! soaring merrily, And echoing o'er the hill's wood-waving brow Along the flood, which back reflects the sky, And thee, thou warbling speck, deep-mirrored from on high. And thou hast vanished, singing, from my sight! So must this earth be lost to eyes of thine; Around thee is illimitable light: Thou lookest down, and all appears to shine Bright as above! Thine is a glorious way, Pavilioned all around with golden-spreading day. The broad unbounded sky is all thine own; The silvery sheeted Heaven is thy domain; No land-mark there, no hand to bring thee down, Glad monarch of the blue, star studded plain ! To thee is airy space far-stretching given; The vast unmeasured floor of cherubim-trod Heaven. And thou hast gone, perchance to catch the sound Of angels' voices, heard far up the sky, And wilt return, harmonious, to the ground; Then with new music, taught by those on high, Ascend again, and carol o'er the bowers Of woodbines waving sweet, and wild bee-bended flowers. "TIME AND CHANCE." Tox et præterea nihil-and the name SOME,-how many!-say that everything is the result of "chance." Fie! Every circumstance, however slight, is planned and or dained. At least, so say WE. Sir Walter Scott, walking one day along the banks of Yarrow, where Mungo Park was born, saw the traveller throwing stones into the water, and anxiously watching the bubbles that succeeded. Scott inquired the object of his occupation: "I was thinking,' answered Park, "how often I had thus tried to sound the rivers in Africa, by calculating how long a time had elapsed before the bubbles rose to the surface." It was a slight circumstance, but the traveller's safety frequently depended upon it. In a watch, the mainspring forms a small portion of the works, but it impels and governs the whole. So it is in the machinery of human life; a slight circumstance is permitted by the Divine Ruler to derange or to alter it; a giant falls by a pebble; a girl, at the door of an inn, changes the fortune of an empire. If the nose of Cleopatra had been shorter, said Pascal, in his epigrammatic and brilliant manner, the condition of the world would have been different. The Mahomedans have a tradition, that when their Prophet concealed himself in Mount Shur, his pursuers were deceived by a spider's web, which covered the mouth of the cave. Luther might have been a lawyer, had his friend and companion, Alexis, escaped the thunder-storm at Erfurt. Scotland had wanted her stern reformer, if the appeal of the preacher had not startled him in the chapel of St. Andrew's Castle. If Mr. Grenville had not carried, in 1764, his memorable resolution, as to the expediency of charging "certain stamp duties" on the plantations of America, the western world might still have bowed to the British sceptre. Cowley might never have been a poet, if he had not found the Fairy Queen in his mother's parlor. Opie might have perished in mute obscurity, if he had not looked over the shoulder of his young companion, Mark Otes, while he was drawing a butterfly. Giotto, one of the early Florentine painters, might have continued a rude shepherd boy, if a sheep, drawn by him upon a stone, had not attracted the notice of Ciambue, as he went that way. We trace the same happy influence of Slight Circumstances in the history of Science. Pascal was born with a genius for mathematical discovery. No discouragement could repress his eager passion for scientific investigation. He heard a common dinner-plate ring, and immediately wrote a treatise upon sound. While Galileo was studying medicine in the University of Pisa, the regular oscillation of a lamp, suspended from the roof of the cathedral, attracted his observation, and led him to consider the vibrations of pendulums. Kepler, having married a second time, and resembling, perhaps, the great Florentine astronomer in his partiality to wine, determined to lay in a store from the Austrian vineyards. Some difference, however, arose between himself and the seller with respect to the measurement, and Kepler produced a Treatise, which has been placed among the "earliest specimens of what is now called the modern analysis." The slight circumstance of Newton's observing the different refrangibility of the rays of light, seen through a prism upon a wall, suggested the achromatic telescope; and led to the prodi gious discoveries in astronomy. The motion of a speck of dust, it has been said, may illustrate causes adequate to generate worlds. In our common hours of reading, we are affected by Slight Circumstances. A page, a line, a word, often touches us in a large volume. Frederic Schlegel was preparing at Dresden, in the winter of 1829, a Lecture which he was to deliver on the following Wednesday; the subject was, The Extent of Knowledge to which the Mind of Man seems capable of attaining. It was between ten and eleven o'clock at night when he sat down to finish his manuscript. One sentence he had begun :-" But the consummate and the perfect knowledge"- -There the pen dropped from his fingers, and when the clock struck one, the philosopher, the orator, and the scholar, was no more. There is something solemn and even tremendous in that abrupt and mysterious termination-that dropping of the curtain upon the intellectual scenery which he was about to display to the eyes of his audience. "The consummate and the perfect knowledge" and lo! even while he is gazing through the glass darkly, the mirror of the intellect is clouded by a shadow still blacker, and the Angel of Death conducts him into a world where the consummate and the perfect knowledge can alone be found. The light and shade of life are produced by Slight Circumstances. A little gleam of sunshine, a little cloud of gloom, usually give the tone and color to its scenery. Let us begin with the light. How abundantly are objects of consolation scattered about our feet! Mungo Park, in his travels through the interior of Africa, was plundered by robbers at a village called Kooma. Stripped even of his clothes, he sat down in despair in the midst of a desert. The nearest European |