hold my head above water, it is all I can. I have injured myself by purchasing; I have been too liberal of my money.

10. "Indeed, I fear my heir will find my affairs in a worse situation than they are reputed to be. Ah! he will have reason to wish I had loved money more and land less. Pray, my good neighbor, where should I have that quantity of money the world is so liberal to bestow on me? Where could I possibly, without I had stolen it, acquire such a treasure?"

11. "Why, truly," said Adams, "I have been always of your opinion; I have wondered, as well as yourself, with what confidence they could report such things of you, which have to me appeared as mere impossibilities; for you know, sir, and I have often heard you say it, that your wealth is of your own acquisition; and can it be credible that, in your short time, you should have amassed such a heap of treasure as these people will have it you are worth? Indeed, had you inherited an estate like Sir Thomas Booby, which had descended in your family through many generations, they might have had a color for their assertions."

12. "Why, what do they say I am worth?" cries Peter, with a malicious sneer. "Sir," answered Adams, "I have heard some aver you are not worth less than twenty thousand pounds." At which Peter frowned. "Nay, sir," said Adams, "you ask me only the opinion of others; for my own part, I have always denied it, nor did I ever believe you could possibly be worth half that sum."

13. "However, Mr. Adams," said he, squeezing him by the hand, "I would not sell them all I am worth for double that sum ; and as to what you believe, or they believe, I care not a fig. I am not poor, because you think me so, nor because you attempt to undervalue me in the country, I know the envy of mankind very well; but I thank Heaven I am above them. It is true, my wealth is of my own acquisition. I have not an estate like Sir Thomas Booby, that hath descended in my family through many generations; but I know heirs of such estates, who are forced to travel about the coun

try, like some people in torn cassocks, and might be glad to accept of a pitiful curacy, for what I know; yes, sir, as shabby fellows as yourself, whom no man of my figure, without that vice of good nature about him, would suffer to ride in a chariot with him."

14. "Sir," said Adams, "I value not your chariot a rush; and if I had known you had intended to affront me, I would have walked to the world's end on foot, ere I would have accepted a place in it. However, sir, I will soon rid you of that inconvenience!" And so saying, he opened the chariot door, without calling to the coachman, and leaped out into the highway, forgetting to take his hat along with him; which, however, Mr. Pounce threw after him with great violence.

THE BRAMBLE.--BISHOP.

1. WHILE wits through fiction's regions ramble,
While bards for fame or profit scramble:
While Pegasus can trot, or amble:

Come what may come,-I'll sing the bramble.

2. "How now!" methinks I hear you say:
"Why, sir, is rhyme run mad to-day?"
-No, sirs, mine's but a sudden gambol;
My Muse hung hamper'd in a bramble.

3. But, soft! no more of this wild stuff!
Once for a frolic is enough;

So help us, Rhyme, at future need,
As we in soberer style proceed.

4. All subjects of nice disquisition,
Admit two modes of definition;
For everything two sides has got,-
What is it?and what is it not?

5. Both methods, for exactness' sake,
We with our bramble mean to take:
And, by your leave, will first discuss
Its negative good parts,-as thus ;-

6. A bramble will not, like a rose,

To prick your fingers, tempt your nose;
Whene'er it wounds, the fault's your own,
Let that, and that let's you, alone.

7. You shut your myrtles for a time up;
Your jasmine wants a wall to climb up;
But bramble, in its humbler station,
Nor weather heeds, nor situation;
No season is too wet, or dry,

No ditch too low, no hedge too high.

8. Some praise, and with reason too,
The honeysuckle's scent and hue;
But sudden storms, or sure decay,
Sweep, with its bloom, its charms away;
The sturdy bramble's coarser flower
Maintains its post, come blast, come shower;
And when time crops it, time subdues
No charms;-for it has none to lose.

9. Spite of your skill, and care, and cost,
Your nobler shrubs are often lost;
For brambles, where they once get footing,
From age to age continue shooting;
Ask no attention, nor forecasting;
Not ever-green; but ever-lasting.

10. Some shrubs intestine hatred cherish,
And, plac'd too near each other, perish;
Bramble indulges no such whim;
All neighbors are alike to him;

No stump so scrubby but he'll grace it;
No crab so sour but he'll embrace it.
Such, and so various negative merits,
The bramble from its birth inherits :
Take we its positive virtues next!
For so at first we split our text.

11. The more resentment tugs and kicks,
The closer still the bramble sticks;
Yet gently handled, quits its hold;
Like heroes of true British mold:
Nothing so touchy, when they're teas'd;
No touchiness so soon appeas'd.

12. Full in your view, and next your hand,
The bramble's homely berries stand:
Eat as you list,-none calls you glutton;
Forbear, it matters not a button.
And is not, pray, this very quality
The essence of true hospitality?
When frank simplicity and sense
Make no parade, take no offense;
Such as it is, set forth their best,
And let the welcome-add the rest.

13. The bramble's shoot, though fortune lay
Point-blank obstructions in its way,
For no obstructions will give out;
Climbs up, creeps under, winds about;
Like valor, that can suffer, die,

Do anything, but yield or fly

While brambles hints like these can start,
Am I to blame to take their part?
No, let who will affect to scorn 'em,
My Muse shall glory to adorn 'em ;
For as rhyme did, in my preamble,
So reason now cries, "Bravo! bramble !"

THE OTHER FIG.-J. HOGG.

1. SOME years since, when I knew too little of the world, and thought too sensitively of its slightest opinion, I supped with an author of eminence as a wit and a poet, in the company of men of wit and genius; and much mad mirth and high-exciting talk we had,-too mad and too high for me, who could only laugh, or wonder in silence, at so many brilliant imaginations, and watch the striking out of their fiery sparks of wit,

"So nimble and so full of subtle flame,

As if that every one from whom they came,
Had meant to put his whole wit in a jest,
And had resolved to live a fool the rest
Of his dull life."

2. It was after supper that a small basket of most mouthmelting figs was put on the friendly board, out of which, among other fingers, I was then moderate enough to deduct only one of its compressed lumps of deliciousness; but in a short time after this, music was proposed, and all the company left the supper-room for the music-parlor, with the exception, for two loitering moments, of the hospitable host and myself: it was in that short time that I fell from the heaven of my high exaltation, and proved myself "of the earth, earthy."

3. The basket of figs still stood before me: they were sweet as the lips of beauty, and tempting as the apples of Eden; and I was born of Eve, and inherited her " pugging tooth." It is no matter where temptation comes from, whether from Turkey or Paradise. Every man has his moment of weakness: I had two, and in those I fell. “I really must take the other fig," said I, taking it before the words were out. I had no sooner possessed myself of it than I blushed with the consciousness that I had committed some