I wiped my face with that ill-fated handkerchief, which was still wet from the consequences of the fall of Xenophon, and covered all my features with streaks of ink in every direction. The băronet himself could not support the shock, but joined his lady in the general laugh; while I sprang from the table in despair, rushed out of the house, and ran home in an agony of confusion and disgrace which the most poignant' sense of guilt could not have excited.

ANON

"WELL

ELL,” exclaimed a young lady, just returned from school, "my education is at last finished !—indeed, it would be stränge, if, after five years' hard application, any thing were left incomplete. Happily, that is all over now; and I have nothing to do, but to exercise my various accomplishments.3

4

2. "Let me see!-As to French, I am mistress of that, and speak it, if possible, with more fluency than English. Italian I can read with ease, and pronounce very well; as well, at least, as any of my friends; and that is all one need wish for in Italian. Music I have learned till I am perfectly sick of it. But, now that we have a grand piano, it will be delightful to play when we have company; I must still continue to practice a little, the only thing, I think, that I need now improve myself in. And then there are my Italian songs! which everybody allows I sing with taste; and as it is what so few people can pretend to, I am particulary glad that I can.

.3. "My drawings are universally admired,-especially the shells and flowers, which are beautiful, certainly: besides this, I have a decided taste in all kinds of fancy ornaments. And then my dancing and waltzing,-in which our master himself owned that he could take me no further;-just the figure for it, certainly; it would be unpardonable if I did not excel.

1

Poignant, severe; pointed. So lil' o quies, words spoken alone or to one's self.3 Ac côm' plish ments, acquirements which add ornament or grace; what one has learnt.-* Grand piano (pe &' no), differs from a common piano in having three strings to each note, while the common piano has but two.

4. "As to common things, geography, and history, and poetry, and philosophy, thank my stars, I have got through them all! so that I may consider myself not only perfectly accomplished. but also thoroughly well informed.-Well, to be sure, how much I have fagged through!—the only wonder is, that one head can contain it all!"

"A

78. CONTRASTED SOLILOQUIES-CONCLUDED.

LAS!" exclaimed a silver-headed sage, "how nărrow is the utmost extent of human science!-how circumscribed' the sphere of intellectual exertion! I have spent my life in acquiring knowledge; but how little do I know! The further I attempt to penetrate the secrets of nature, the more I am bewildered and benighted. Beyond a certain limit, all is but confusion or conjecture; so that the advantage of the learned over the ignorant, consists greatly in having ascertained how little is to be known.

2. "It is true that I can measure the sun, and compute the distances of the planets; I can calculate their periodical movements, and even ascertain the laws by which they perform their sublime revolutions; but with regard to their construction, and the beings which inhabit them, what do I know more than the clown?

3. "Delighting to examine the economy of nature in our own world, I have analyzed the elements; and have given names to their component' parts. And yet, should I not be as much at a loss to explain the burning of fire, or to account for the liquid quality of water, as the vulgar, who use and enjoy them without thought or examination?

4. "I remark that all bodies, unsupported, fall to the ground and I am taught to account for this by the law of gravitation But what have I gained here more than a term? Does it convey to my mind any idea of the nature of that mysterious and

'Cir cum scribed', confined; limited. In tel lect' u al, relating to the mind.- Con ject' ure, an opinion without proof; supposition.-Compúte', calculate.--* Pe ri åd'ic al, at stated periods or intervals. —o An a· lyzed', separated into parts.—' Com pò' nent, composing; making up.

mvisible chain, which draws all things to a common centre? I observe the effect, I give a name to the cause; but can I explain or comprehend it?

5. "Pursuing the track of the naturalist,' I have learned to distinguish the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms; and to divide these into their distinct tribes and families: but can I tell, after all this toil, whence a single blade of grass derives its vitality?? Could the most minute researches enable me to discover the ex'quisite pencil that paints and fringes the flower of the field? Have I ever detected the secret that gives their brilliant dye to the ruby and the emerald, or the art that enamels the delicate shell?

6. "I observe the sagacity of animals; I call it instinct, and speculate upon its various degrees of approximation to the reason of man. But, after all, I know as little of the cogitations of the brute, as he does of mine. When I see a flight of birds overhead, performing their evolutions,' or steering their course to some distant settlement, their signals and cries are as unintelligible to me, as are the learned languages to the unlettered rustic: I understand as little of their policy and laws, as they do of Blackstone's Commentaries.

7. "But, leaving the material creation, my thoughts have often ascended to loftier subjects, and indulged in metaphysical' speculation. And here, while I easily perceive in myself the two distinct qualities of matter and mind, I am baffled in every attempt to comprehend their mutual dependence and mysterious connection. When my hand moves in obedience to my will, have I the most distant conception of the manner in which the volition is either communicated or understood? Thus, in the exercise of one of the most simple and ordinary actions, I am perplexed and confounded, if I attempt to account for it.

'Nåt' u ral ist, one who studies nature. Vi tål' i ty, power of maintaining life. Exquisite (êks' kwe zit), very fine or delicate.-*Spẻc' ulåte, think; reflect. Approx i må' tion, nearness; growing near.— Cog i tå tions, thoughts - Ev o lu' tions, motions that change their positions with regard to each other.- Blackstone wrote a work called "Commentaries on the English Law."- Met a phys' ic al, beyond nature; intellectual; relating to the science of the mind.-10 Volition (vofish' un), act of willing; act of forming a purpose or making a choice.

8. "Again, how many years of my life were devoted to the acquisition of those languages, by the means of which I might explore the records of remote ages, and become familiar with the learning and literature of other times. And what have I gathered from these, but the mortifying fact, that man has ever been struggling with his own im'potence,' and vainly endeavoring to overleap the bounds which limit his anxiou In'quiries?

9. "Alas! then, what have I gained by my laborious researches, but a humbling conviction of my weakness and ignorance? How little has man, at his best estate, of which to boast! What folly in him to glory in his contracted powers, or to value himself upon his imperfect acquisitions!"

JANE TAYLOR.

1.

WHO

79. THE DAYS THAT ARE GONE.

HO is it that mourns for the days that are gone,
When a noble could do as he liked with his own?

When his serfs,3 with their burdens well fill'd on their backs,
Never dared to complain of the weight of a tax?
When his word was a statute, his nod was a law,
And for aught but his "order" he cared not a straw?
When each had his dungeon and rack' for the poor,
And a gibbet to hang a refractory' boor?

2 They were days when a man with a thought in his pate
Was a man that was born for the popular hate;
And if 'twere a thought that was good for his kind,
The man was too vile to be left unconfined;
The days when obedience, in right or in wrong,
Was always the sermon and always the song;

When the people, like cattle, were pounded or driven,
And to scourge them was thought a king's license from heaven.

1Im' po tence, weakness; want of power.- Con vic' tion, settled opinion; belief. Sårfs, servants or slaves. Ståt' ute, a special law.Råck, an instrument of torture.- Gib' bet, a gallows on which a criminal is hanged.-7 Re fråct' o ry, stubborn; resisting authority; ungov ernable. Pound' ed, put into a pound, an inclosure for stray cattle; confined. Scourge (skerj) beat; whip.

3. They were days when the sword' settled questions of right, And Falsehood was first to monopolize Might;

When the fighter of battles was always adored,
And the greater the tyrant, the greater the lord;
When the king, who by myriads3 could number his slain,
Was consider'd by far the most worthy to reign;
When the fate of the multitude hung on his breath—
A god in his life, and a saint in his death.

4. They were days when the headsman1 was always preparedThe block ever ready-the ax ever bared;

When a corpse on the gibbet aye' swung to and fro,
And the fire at the stake never smolder'd too low;
When famine and age made a woman a witch,
To be roasted alive, or be drown'd in a ditch;
When difference of creed was the vilest of crime,
And martyrs' were burn'd half a score at a time.

5. They were days when the gallows stood black in the way,
The larger the town, the more plentiful they;
When Law never dream'd it was good to relent,
Or thought it less wisdom to kill than prevent;
When Justice herself, taking Law for her guide,
Was never appeased' till a victim had died;
And the stealer of sheep, and the slayer of men,
Were strung up together—again and again.

6. They were days when the crowd had no freedom of speech, And reading and writing were out of its reach;

When ignorance, stolid and dense, was its doom,
And bigotry swathed" it from cradle to tomb;
But the Present, though clouds o'er her countenance roll,
Has a light in her eyes, and a hope in her soul.
And we are too wise, like the bigots, to mourn
For the darkness of days that shall never return.

C. MACKAY.

'Sword (sord).—2 Mo nop' o lize, to get entire possession of.—3 Myr' iad, ten thousand; any great number.- Heads' man, an executioner ; one who cuts off heads.- Aye (å), always; forever.- Smol' der, burn and smoke without flame or vent.-' Mår' tyrs, witnesses, who sacrificed their lives for the truth.- Gallows (gål' lus).-'Ap pèased', satisfied.— "Stål' id, stupid; dull; heavy.-"Swathed', wrapped bound.