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were constantly in his thoughts, but always under the aspect of hard materials admirably adapted to employ paupers and mend roads. He would sooner have expected briers and thistles to yield him corn than that quarries should supply instruction to a divine and magistrate. In the physical no less than in the moral world familiarity breeds contempt from his infancy he had beheld the petrified animals of distant ages laid open to the light of this living world by the blow of a hammer, and years before he grew to man's estate the disclosure excited in him equal emotion with a flaw in the stone.

3. Such is the usual fate of natural appearances with uninquiring minds. An officer in Anson's squadron showed a mirror to the Patagonians. As often as they caught the reflection of their faces, they stole nimbly round to discover who was hid at the back of the glass. A lecturer on the laws of light, who had appeared among them while their wonder was at the highest, would have found a breathless audience. In England, multitudes, who could tell little more than the savages of Patagonia, would hear him, if they listened at all, with chilling composure. An immemorial acquaintance with the effect makes them heedless of the cause. A striking advance in science always affords an illustration of the principle.

4. The discoveries in electricity, about the middle of the eighteenth century, excited hardly less sensation than the American war. The intelligence spread as if the electric fluid had been concerned in its propagation—everybody was in haste to study the laws and witness the experiments. A thousand pages of the book of nature, long since deciphered, remained unvalued and unread; the new page alone could stimulate curiosity. Electricity had its reign, and the crowd, to whom science was not a regular pursuit, dropped at once from wonder to indfferThe influence of novelty is not at all less conspicuous in letters than in science. The last ephemeral production of the day is sought with impatience, and the time-honored Classics-the heir-looms of literature-are left to cumber the shelves.

ence.

TACT VERSUS TALENT.-JMPERIAL MAGAZINE.

1. TALENT is something, but not everything. Talent is serious, sober, grave, and respectable. Tact is all that and more too; it is not a seventh sense, but it is the life of all the five; it is the open eye, the quick ear, the judging taste, the keen smell, and the lively touch; it is the interpreter of all riddles, the surmounter of all difficulties, the remover of all obstacles. It is useful in all places and at all times; it is useful in solitude, for it shows a man his way into the world; it is useful in society, for it shows him his way through the world. Talent is power; tact is skill. Talent is weight; tact is momentum. Talent knows what to do; tact knows how to do it. Talent makes a man respectable; tact will make him respected. Talent is wealth; tact is ready money. For all the practical purposes of life, tact carries it against talent ten to one.

2. Talent will produce you a tragedy that will scarcely live long enough to be condemned, while tact keeps the house in a roar, night after night, with its successful farces. There is no want of dramatic talent, there is no want of dramatic tact, but they are seldom together; hence we have successful pieces which are not respectable, and respectable pieces which are not successful. Take them to the bar, and let them shake their learned curls at each other, in legal rivalry. Talent sees its way clearly, but tact is first at its journey's end. Talent receives many a compliment from the bench, but tact receives fees from attorneys and clients. Talent speaks learnedly and logically; tact triumphantly.

3. Talent makes the world wonder that it gets on no faster; tact excites astonishment that it gets on so fast-and the secret is that it has no weight to carry, it makes no false step, it hits the right nail on the head, it loses no time, it takes all hints, and, by keeping its eye on the weathercock, is ready to take advantage of every wind that blows. Take them into the church. Talent is always something worth hearing; tact is sure of abundance of hearers. Talent conquers; tact con

vinces. Talent is an honor to the profession; tact gains hon

or from the profession.

4. Take them to court. Talent feels its weight; tact finds its way. Talent commands; tact is obeyed. Talent is honored with approbation; and tact is blessed by preferment. Place them in the senate. Talent has the ear of the house; but tact wins its heart, and has its votes.

Talent is fit for em

It seems to know every

ployment; but tact is fitted for it. thing, without learning anything; it needs no drilling; it never ranks in the awkward squad; it has no left hand, no deaf ear, no blind side. It puts on no looks of wondrous wisdom; it has no air of profundity, but plays with the detail of place as dexterously as a well-taught hand flourishes over the keys of the pianoforte.

5. It has all the air of common-place, and all the force and power of genius. Talent calculates slowly, reasons logically, makes out a case as clear as daylight, and utters its oracles with all the weight of justice and reason; tact refutes without contradiction, puzzles the profound without profundity, and without art outwits the wise. Set them together on a race for popularity, and tact will distance talent by half the course. 6. Talent brings to market that which is wanted; tact produces that which is wished for. Talent instructs; tact enlightens. Talent leads where no one follows; tact follows where the humor leads. Talent is pleased that it ought to have succeeded; tact is delighted that it has succeeded. Talent toils for a posterity which will never repay it; tact throws away no pains, but catches the passions of the passing hour. Talent builds for eternity; tact on a short lease, and gets good interest. In short, talent is certainly a very fine thing to talk about, a very good thing to be proud of, a very glorious eminence to look down from; but tact is useful, portable, applicable-always alert, marketable: it is the talent of talents, the availableness of resources, the application of power, the eye of discrimination, and the right hand of intellect.

THE GOOSE AND THE SWANS.-MOORE.

1. A Goose, affected, empty, vain,
The shrillest of the cackling train,
With proud and elevated crest,
Precedence claim'd above the rest.

Says she, I laugh at human race,
Who say geese hobble in their pace;
Look here!-the sland'rous lie detect;
Not haughty man is so erect.

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2. That peacock yonder! ah, how vain
The creature's of his gaudy train!
If both were stripped, I'd pawn my word
goose would be the finer bird.
Nature, to hide her own defects,
Her bungled work with finery decks;
Were geese set off with half that show,
Would men admire the peacock? No.

3.

Thus vaunting, 'cross the mead she stalks,
The cackling breed attend her walks;
The sun shot down his noontide beams,
The Swans were sporting in the streams;
Their snowy plumes and stately pride
Provok'd her spleen. Why there, she cry'd,
Again what arrogance we see!-

Those creatures! how they mimic me!

4. Shall ev'ry fowl the waters skim,

Because we geese are known to swim?
So saying, with extended wings,
Lightly upon the wave she springs;
Her bosom swells, she spreads her plumes,
And the swan's stately crest assumes.
Conempt and mockery ensu❜d,

And bursts of laughter shook the flood.

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Sprung forth, and thus the fool address'd:
Conceited thing, elate with pride!
Thy affectation all deride;

These airs thy awkwardness impart,
And shew thee plainly as thou art.
7. Among thy equals of the flock
Thou hadst escap'd the public mock,
And as thy parts to good conduce,
Been deem'd an honest hobbling goose.
Learn hence to study wisdom's rules;
Know foppery's the pride of fools;
And, striving nature to conceal,
You only her defects reveal.

AN EPITAPH ON A POOR, BUT HONEST MAN.
1. Stop, reader, here, and deign a look
On one without a name;
Ne'er enter'd in the ample book,

Of fortune, or of fame;

Studious of peace, he hated strife;

Meek virtues fill'd his breast;

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2. Quarter'd therewith was innocence;

And thus his motto ran;

"A conscience void of all offence
Before both God and man."

In the great day of wrath, tho' pride
Now scorns his pedigree;

Thousands shall wish they'd been allied
To this great family.

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