But yesterday he guided slow

My downcast Jenny, vull o' woe,
An' then my little maïd in black,
A-walkèn softly on her track;
An' after he'd a-turn'd ageän,
To let me goo along the leäne,
He had no little bwoy to vill

His last white eärms, an' they stood still.'

Rev. William Barnes.

RETIREMENT.

'Here, even here, on Salisbury plain, with a few old authors, I can manage to get through the summer or the winter months, without ever knowing what it is to feel ennui. They sit with me at breakfast, they walk out with me before dinner. After a long walk through unfrequented tracks, after starting the hare from the fern, or hearing the wing of the raven rustling above my head, or being greeted by the woodman's "stern goodnight," as he strikes into his narrow homeward path, I can "take mine ease at mine inn," beside the blazing hearth, and shake hands with Signor Orlando Friscobaldo, as the oldest acquaintance I have. Ben Jonson, learned Chapman, Master Webster, and Master Heywood are there, and, seated round, discourse the silent hours away. Shakspeare is there himself, not in

Cibber's manager's coat. Spenser is hardly yet returned from a ramble through the woods, or is concealed behind a group of nymphs, fawns, and satyrs. Milton lies on the table as on an altar, never taken up or laid down without reverence. Lyly's "Endymion" sleeps with the moon that shines in at the window, and a breath of wind, stirring at a distance, seems a sigh from the tree under which he grew old. Faustus disputes in one corner of the room with fiendish faces, and reasons of divine astrology. Bellafront soothes Matheo. Vittoria triumphs over her judges, and old Chapman repeats one of the hymns of Homer in his own fine translation! I should have no objection to pass my life in this manner, out of the world, not thinking of it, or it of me, neither abused by my enemies, nor defended by my friends-careless of the future, but sometimes dreaming of the past, which might as well be forgotten.'

William Hazlitt.

THE ADVANTAGE OF EMPLOYING AN
AMANUENSIS.

A pedantic author told Sydney Smith that his ideas flowed more easily, and that he altogether composed better, when he employed an amanuensis. 'But are you quite sure,' said Sydney Smith, 'that he always puts down what you tell him?'

Dean

CONSOLATION.

was seated in a railway-carriage with a lady in deep mourning, when a roughish-looking man got in, and sat opposite to her. He regarded her long and curiously, and then said rather abruptly, 'In trouble, marm?' 'Yes, sir.' "Usband or parent, marm?' 'Neither, sir.' 'Son or daughter, marm?' 'Son, sir.' 'Army or Navy, marm?' 'Navy, sir.' 'Killed in action or died from natural causes, marm?' 'Killed in action, sir.' 'Got his chest, marm? 'cos you know you've a right to that, marm!' 'Yes, sir.' "Appy about his soul, marm?' 'Yes, sir.' 'Well, I guess if you've got his chest, marm, and you had a right to that, and you're 'appy about his soul,—not so much of a trial, marm.'

DIFFERENT NATIONS HAVE DIFFERENT
MODES OF INSTRUCTION, &c.

'In Britain's Isle, as Heylin notes,
The ladies trip in petticoats;

Which, for the honour of their nation,

They quit but on some great occasion.
There men in breeches clad you view,
They claim that garment as their due.

In Turkey the reverse appears—
Long coats the haughty husband wears,
And greets his wife with angry speeches
If she be seen without her breeches.

I mentioned different ways of breeding :
Begin we in our children's reading.
To Master John, the English maid
A horn-book gives of ginger-bread.
And, that the child may learn the better,
As he can name, he eats the letter.
Proceeding thus, with vast delight,

He spells and gnaws from left to right!'

Matthew Prior.

* These extracts are very pleasant, get 'Alma,' and read it, and you will find more delightful things than these.

PRIDE.

Lord Nobs was at least an arrogant man. Long after he had grown up he chanced to meet his old French schoolmaster. 'Do you remember, monsieur, that you once nearly had me flogged?' 'Ah, milor,' was the reply, 'that was the one flogging that you did always want.'

VANITY.

The Duke de Levi, a ridiculous man, had a picture painted of the Virgin Mary, and himself taking off his hat to her, the Virgin saying (as appeared by a scroll out of her mouth), Couvrez vous, mon cousin?

A FAITHFUL PAGE.

Nearly one hundred years ago, my grandfather, Captain William Locker, was at dinner, and a servantboy, lately engaged, was handing him a tray of liqueurs, in different-sized glasses. Being in the middle of an anecdote to his neighbour, he mechanically held out his hand towards the tray, but, as people often do when they are thinking of something else, he did not take a glass. The boy thought he was hesitating which liqueur he would have, and, like a good fellow, wishing to help his master, he pointed to one particular glass, and whispered, 'That's the biggest, sir.'

୧