"Yet why, immortal, vital spark!

Thus mortally opprest?

Look up, my soul, through prospects dark,
And bid thy terrors rest;
Forget, forego thy earthly part,
Thine heavenly being trust:-

Ah, vain attempt! my coward heart
Still shuddering clings to dust.

"Oh ye! who soothe the pangs of death
With love's own patient care,
Still, still retain this fleeting breath,
Still pour the fervent prayer :-
And ye, whose smile must greet my eye
No more, nor voice my ear,

Who breathe for me the tender sigh,

And shed the pitying tear;

"Whose kindness (though far, far removed)
My grateful thoughts perceive,
Pride of my life, esteemed, beloved,
My last sad claim receive!

Oh! do not quite your friend forget,
Forget alone her faults;

And speak of her with fond regret,

Who asks your lingering thoughts."

It is to be regretted, that so little is known of the private history of Mrs. Tighe. Surely the life of such a woman, whose virtues and talents alike adorned her, would supply many traits of interest, and many lessons of profit. Our information is too scanty. We have no means of knowing more concerning her than that she was the wife of an Irish gentleman of ancient family, Henry Tighe, Esq., of Woodstock, in the county of Kilkenny. The composition of poetry served to console the tedious hours of distressing and painful illness, which lasted for six years, and was borne with patience and submission. She died at Woodstock on the 24th of March, 1810, in the 37th year of her age." Her fears of death were perfectly removed before she quitted this scene of trial and suffering; and her spirit departed to a better state of existence, confiding with heavenly joy in the acceptance and love

of her Redeemer."

LUTHER'S TABLE TALK.

LUTHER'S "Table Talk" was published about twenty years after his death, by an editor, who stated that he had been often with Luther during the two last years of his life; and having taken notes of much which he had heard the great reformer utter, and being aided by the notes of another person, he had made up this collection of his sayings. A large portion of the work is of very apocryphal character. It was translated into English by a Captain Henry Bell, who tells a long and strange story respecting his procuring a copy of the book, and his translation of it. Two members of the Assembly of Divines, to whom, in 1646, it had been referred, by the House of Commons, to make a report on the translation, stated that they had found in it "many excellent and divine things," but also "withal many impertinent thingssome things which will require a grain or two of salt, and some things which will require a marginal note or preface." On this, the House of Commons, whose sanction and authority had been asked for the publication, refused, and it was published as a private speculation in 1652.

"No man," said Luther, "can calculate the great charges God is at only in maintaining the birds and such creatures, which in a manner are nothing, or of little worth. I am persuaded," said he, “that it costeth God more yearly to maintain the sparrows alone, than the whole year's revenue of the French king! What then shall we say of the rest of his creatures ?"-Luther's Table Talk, p. 158.

To

This is a specimen of the absurdity which is often attempted to be passed off as wisdom, under the stamp of a great name. reason after this fashion is to measure God by ourselves, and thus to lower our conceptions of the might and majesty of his character. All our ideas of the Deity must be relative, and drawn from what we see and know; but how sublime and simple is the Psalmist's image, "Thou openest thine hand, they are filled with good!" There is no idea of exertion involved-nothing about costing God any thing.

RECOLLECTIONS OF JOHN WILKES.

ONE of the most amusing things in that amusing and unique work "Boswell's Johnson," is the account given by the vivacious Scotchman, of how he contrived to get up an interview and acquaintance between Dr. Johnson and John Wilkes. "My desire," says Boswell, "of being acquainted with celebrated men of every description, had made me, much about the same time, obtain an introduction to Dr. Samuel Johnson, and to John Wilkes, Esq. Two men more different could perhaps not be selected out of all mankind. They had even attacked one another with some asperity in their writings; yet I lived in habits of friendship with both. I could fully relish the excellence of each: for I have ever delighted in that intellectual chemistry which can separate good qualities from evil in the same person.'

The manner in which Boswell contrived the meeting was as follows:-"My worthy booksellers and friends," says he, "Messrs. Dilly in the Poultry, at whose hospitable and well-covered table I have seen a greater number of literary men than at any other, except that of Sir Joshua Reynolds, had invited me to meet Mr. Wilkes and some more gentlemen, on Wednesday May 15 [1776]. 'Pray,' said I, 'let us have Dr. Johnson.' V'hat! with Mr. Wilkes? not for the world!' said Mr. Edward Dilly. Come,' said I, if you let me negotiate for you, I will be answerable that all shall go well.' 'Nay,' said Mr. Dilly, if you will take it upon you, I am sure I shall be very happy to see them both here.'

"Notwithstanding the high veneration which I entertained for Dr. Johnson, I was sensible that he was sometimes a little actuated by the spirit of contradiction, and by means of that I hoped I should gain my point. I was persuaded that if I had come upon him with a direct proposal, Sir, will you dine in company with Jack Wilkes?' he would have flown into a passion, I'd as soon dine with Jack Ketch!' I, therefore, while we were and would probably have answered- Dine with Jack Wilkes, sir! sitting quietly by ourselves at his house in an evening, took occasion to open my plan thus: Mr. Dilly, sir, sends his respectful compliments to you, and would be happy if you would do him the honour to dine with him on Wednesday next, along with me, as I must soon go to Scotland.' JOHNSON. 'Sir, I am obliged to Mr. Dilly, and will wait upon him.' BOSWELL. Provided, sir, I suppose, that the company which he is to have is agreeable to you JOHNSON. 'What do you mean, sir? what do you take me for? Do you think I am so ignorant of the world as to imagine that I am to prescribe to a gentleman what company he is to have at his table?' BOSWELL. I beg your pardon, sir, for wishing to prevent you from meeting people whom you might not like. Perhaps he may have some of what he calls his patriotic friends with him.' JOHNSON. Well, sir, and what then? what care I for his patriotic friends? Poh!' BOSWELL. I should not be surprised to find Jack Wilkes there.' JOHNSON. And if Jack Wilkes should be there, what is that to me, sir? My dear friend, let us have no more of this. I am sorry to be angry with you; but really it is treating me strangely, to talk to me as if I could not meet any company whatever, occasionally.' BOSWELL. ' Pray forgive me, sir; I meant well. But you shall meet whoever comes for me!' [The sly dog.] Thus I secured him, and told Dilly that he would find him very well pleased to be one of his guests on the day appointed."

Boswell, to his mortification, and the apparent failure of his artifice, found Johnson, on the day appointed, busily employed in "buffeting his books," covered with dust, and making no preparation for going abroad. "How is this, sir?' said I. 'Don't you recollect that you are to dine at Mr. Dilly's?' JOHNSON. Sir, I did not think of going to Dilly's-it went out of my head. I have ordered dinner at home with Mrs. Williams."" Boswell had some difficulty in overruling this arrangement; and at last had the satisfaction of hearing Johnson roar out to his black servant, "Frank, a clean shirt!" "When I had him fairly seated in a hackney-coach with me, I exulted as much as a fortune-hunter who has got an heiress into a post-chaise with him to set out for Gretna Green."

Boswell watched Johnson in Dilly's drawing-room. “I kept myself snug and silent, and observed him whispering to Mr. Dilly, Who is that gentleman, sir?'- Mr. Arthur Lee.' JOHNSON. Too, too, too,” (under his breath), which was one of his habitual murmurings. Mr. Arthur Lee could not but be very obnoxious to Johnson, for he was not only a patriot, but an American. And who is the gentleman in lace?'' Mr. Wilkes, sir.' This information confounded him still more; he had some difficulty to

Dinner was announced; and Wilkes contrived to seat himself beside Johnson. "No man ate more heartily than Johnson, or loved better what was nice and delicate. Mr. Wilkes was very assiduous in helping him to some fine veal. Pray, give me leave, sir-it is better here-a little of the brown-some fat, sir-a little of the stuffing-some gravy-let me have the pleasure of giving you some butter-allow me to recommend a squeeze of this orange; or the lemon, perhaps, may have more zest.' 'Sir, sir, I am obliged to you, sir,' cried Johnson, bowing, and turning his head to him with a look for some time of surly virtue, but in a short while of complacency."

For the rest of the table talk we must refer to the Life;' it is enough that Wilkes completely triumphed, and sent the Rambler' home full of good-nature; and bustling Boswell had the satisfaction of hearing Burke pronounce his scheme a 66 successful negotiation," and that "there was nothing equal to it in the whole history of the corps diplomatique.' Some time afterwards, Johnson thus spoke of Wilkes :-" Did we not hear so much said of Jack Wilkes, we should think more highly of his conversation. Jack has a great variety of talk, Jack is a scholar, and Jack has the manners of a gentleman. But after hearing his name sounded from pole to pole as the phoenix of convivial felicity, we are disappointed in his company. He has always been at me. But I would do Jack a kindness, rather than not. The contest is now over."

John Wilkes was the son of an eminent distiller in St. Johnstreet, Clerkenwell, London, where he was born Oct. 28, 1727. His father's house was noted for hospitality, and was the resort of many eminent characters in the commercial and political world. Early intercourse with such society gave to Wilkes the literary turn of mind by which he was so soon distinguished. He had the rudiments of his education at Hertford, was afterwards placed under a tutor in Buckinghamshire, by whom he was attended to the university of Leyden, where he became soon known for his ability. When he returned in 1750, he married Miss Mead, a rich heiress of Buckinghamshire.

Wilkes's first appearance in public was on the occasion of the general election in 1754, when he offered himself for Berwick, but was unsuccessful. He took his seat for Aylesbury in 1757, and was again returned in 1761.

John Stuart, the third earl of Bute, had the charge, or virtual direction, of the education of George the Third; and when his pupil ascended the throne in 1760, he maintained his influence over his mind. The secret influence of the favourite was the cause of the retirement of Pitt-the "great Earl of Chatham,”from office, and shortly afterwards, of breaking up the existing cabinet. Lord Bute was made first lord of the treasury, or prime minister, in 1762, an office which he did not hold above ten months. The period, however, was one of extraordinary political excitement. Lord Bute was one of the most unpopular ministers that ever held office. He professed the doctrine that ministers were not really the executive government, but literally only the official servants or instruments of the king; and by thus endeavouring to govern in the name of the king alone, he arrayed against himself and his feeble cabinet a powerful opposition amongst the great families in the country, as well as the nation at large.

There was a paper called the Briton,' in the interest of ministers; and Wilkes projected an opposition to it, which he called the North Briton,' a weekly periodical, which lasted from June 5, 1762, to Nov. 12, 1763. Churchill, the poet, "spendthrift alike of money and of wit," was employed by Wilkes to contribute to the pages of the North Briton;' and the character of the periodical was like that of its two principal writers, bold, careless, witty, clever, and profligate.

It was No. 45 of the North Briton' which was the cause of Wilkes being brought so prominently before the public, and becoming for a time one of the most popular political characters this country has produced. The particular cause of offence was a cutting comment on a speech made by the king to parliament; it would pass unnoticed in the present day, but at that time the publication of debates in parliament had not yet been tacitly sanctioned, and the pungent violence of Wilkes so exasperated ministers, that they proceeded against him in a summary way. In doing so, they were the cause of raising and settling an important constitutional question.

A "general warrant " (one in which the names of the parties to be arrested are not specified) was issued for the apprehension of

Wilkes loudly protested against the illegality of general war. rants, and stoutly resisted the authority of the messengers; and it was not till threatened with force that he went before Lords Halifax and Egremont, the secretaries of state, who committed him to the Tower, where for three days his friends were denied access to him. He appeared in the Court of Common Pleas by habeas corpus, where the judges unanimously pronounced the warrant illegal, and he was discharged. He was triumphantly cheered, and in the evening his victory was celebrated by bonfires, illuminations, &c. The printers who had been taken up under the general warrant, brought actions against the messengers that arrested them, and recovered heavy damages.

On Mr. Wilkes's return home from the Court of Common Pleas, he sent the following letter to the secretaries of state.

"In answer to your letter of yesterday, in which you take upon you to make use of the indecent and scurrilous expressions of your having found your house had been robbed, and that the stolen goods are in our possession; we acquaint you that your papers were seized in consequence of the heavy charge brought against you for being the author of an infamous and seditious libel. We are at a loss to guess what you mean by stolen goods; but such of your papers as do not lead to a proof of your guilt shall be restored to you; such as are necessary for that purpose, it was our duty to deliver over to those, whose office it is to collect the evidence, and manage the prosecution against you. "We are your humble servants,

"EGREMONT-DUNK HALIFAX.”

To this Wilkes returned a very animated reply, concluding, "I fear neither your prosecution, nor your persecution; and I will assert the security of my own house, the liberty of my person, and every right of the people,-not so much for my own sake, as for the sake of my English fellow-subjects."

When parliament met, the Chancellor of the Exchequer produced the papers against Wilkes and laid them on the table, and the forms having been gone through, Wilkes spoke as follows:

"Mr. Speaker, I think it my duty to lay before the House a few facts which have occurred since our last meeting; because, in my humble opinion, the rights of all the Commons of England and the privileges of Parliament have, in my opinion, been highly violated. I shall at present content myself with barely stating the fact, and leave the mode of proceeding to the wisdom of the House. On the 30th of April, in the morning, I was made a prisoner in my own house by some of the king's messengers. I demanded by what authority they had found their way into my room, and was shown a warrant in which no person was named in particular, but generally the authors, printers, and publishers of a seditious and treasonable paper entitled the North Briton, No. 45. The messengers insisted on my going before Lord Halifax, which I absolutely refused, because the warrant was, I thought, illegal, and did not respect me. I applied by my friends to the Court of Common Pleas for a habeas corpus, which was granted; but at

he proper office, which was not then open, it could not immeliately issue. I was afterwards carried by violence before the Earls of Egremont and Halifax, whom I informed of the orders iven by the Court of Common Pleas for the habeas corpus; and enlarged upon this subject to Mr. Webb, the solicitor to the Treasury. I was, however, hurried away to the Tower by another warrant, which declared me the author and publisher of a most nfamous and seditious libel, entitled the North Briton, No. 45. The word treasonable was dropped, yet I was detained a close prisoner, and no person was suffered to come near me for almost hree days, although my counsel and several of my friends denanded admittance in order to concert the means of recovering ny liberty. My house was plundered, my bureaux broken open, by order of two of your members, Mr. Wood and Mr. Webb, and all my papers carried away. After six days' imprisonment, I was fischarged by the unanimous judgment of the Court of Common Pleas, that the privileges of this House extended to my case. Notwithstanding this solemn decision of one of the king's superior courts of justice, a few days after, I was served with a subpoena pon an information exhibited against me in the King's Bench. I lost no time in consulting the best books, as well as the greatest living authorities, and from the truest judgment I could form, I thought that the serving me with a subpoena was another violation of the privileges of parliament, which I will neither desert nor betray, and therefore, I have not yet entered an appearance. I now stand in the judgment of the House, submitting with the utmost deference the whole case to their justice and wisdom: and beg leave to add, that if, after this important business has in its full extent been maturely weighed, you shall be of opinion, that I am entitled to privilege, I shall then be not only ready, but eagerly desirous to waive that privilege, and to put myself upon a jury of my countrymen."

In the debate, Mr. Martin, the secretary to the treasury, complained that the author of the North Briton had stabbed him in the dark. The same evening, Wilkes in a most insulting note thus concludes," To cut off every pretence of ignorance as to the author, I whisper in your ear, that every passage in the North Briton, in which you have been named, or even alluded to, was written by your humble servant." This produced an immediate challenge; they met in Hyde Park, when Mr. Wilkes was severely wounded, and with an excess of honour gave Mr. Martin back his letter, that nothing might appear against him in case of his death. The North Briton involved Wilkes in several personal quarrels, and among others he had a hostile meeting with Lord Talbot, which terminated without damage. When fit to be removed after his duel with Mr. Martin, he proceeded to Paris, and exiled himself nearly four years. In the mean time a message was sent to Parliament to proceed against him, and after a violent debate he was expelled, and No. 45 of the North Briton was ordered to be burned, which being attempted in front of the Royal Exchange, it was rescued by the mob with the scorching of a corner only. The Attorney-general also proceeded against him in the King's Bench for reprinting No. 45 of the North Briton. He was convicted and fined on two verdicts in the sum of 10007., and to suffer two years' imprisonment. Not appearing, he was outlawed. Part of his time abroad he employed in travelling in Italy. He returned to London in 1768, and in defiance of the tipstaffs, he offered himself to represent the city, but failed in the election. However, he immediately proceeded to Brentford, and was chosen member for Middlesex. The crowd assembled, was greater than ever was known, and it was remarked that no freeholder was intoxicated, and no violence of any sort committed; Brentford was illuminated, and the people on their return obliged London and Westminster to illuminate also. Some rioting occurred in consequence, but nothing serious happened. He shortly after surrendered to the King's Bench to suffer the sentence imposed on him; and in his confinement there seemed almost a contention amongst the public, who most should serve and celebrate him. Devices and emblems of all descriptions ornamented the trinkets conveyed to his prison. Every wall bore his name, and every window his portrait. In china, in bronze, in marble, he stood upon the chimney-pieces of half the houses of the metropolis, and he swung upon the sign-post of every village of every road in the environs of London. Gifts were daily heaped upon him, and it is said that 20,0007. were raised in a comparatively short time, to pay his debts and his fine, part of the money coming from various places in England, America, and the West Indies. He had an important triumph in having a

verdict with 4,0007. damages against Lord Halifax, for false imprisonment and seizure of his papers in respect of the general warrants; and a like verdict with 1,000. damages against Mr. Wood, secretary to the treasury. One important result of the struggle was, that general warrants were declared to be illegal by resolutions of both houses of Parliament.

Wilkes had the good luck, so to speak, of becoming the representative of several important questions. Following that of general warrants, came another, in which the people took an intense interest. When the new Parliament met, a crowd assembled round the King's Bench prison (there being a general impression that Wilkes would be allowed to take his seat), to conduct him in triumph to the House of Commons. The Riot Act was read, the people refused to disperse, the military were called out, one man was killed on the spot, and several wounded, some of them mortally. Coroners' inquests returned verdicts of wilful murder against the military, and several of the soldiers were tried; the government thanked the justices of Surrey, and granted free pardons to those who had been convicted; and Wilkes published an indignant commentary on the conduct of the government, in which he called the affair a "horrid massacre.' For this publication, and for his previous conduct, the House of Commons once more declared him incapacitated from sitting in Parliament. He was triumphantly re-elected, and his election was declared null and void; a third time he was re-elected, and though his opponent, Colonel Luttrell, had only 296 votes, while Wilkes had 1143, the House sustained the election of the former.

This was, in fact, a struggle between the people and the House of Commons-a struggle which greatly helped to evolve that spirit of bold political discussion, generated by the extraordinary party strife and aspect of affairs at the time. The ferment caused by the repeated elections and rejections of Wilkes agitated the kingdom; and made him appear a martyr to the violated rights of the British people.

During his imprisonment, Wilkes caused himself to be proposed as a candidate to fill a vacancy in the office of alderman in the city of London. As there had already been great fermentation on his account, and much more apprehended, a deputation undertook to remonstrate with Wilkes on the danger to the public peace which would result from his offering himself as a candidate on the present occasion, and expressed a hope that he would at least wait till a more suitable opportunity presented itself. But they mistook their man; this was with him an additional motive for persevering in his first intentions. After much useless conversation, one of the deputies at length exclaimed, "Well, Mr. Wilkes, if you are thus determined, we must take the sense of the ward." "With all my heart," cried Wilkes, "and I will take the nonsense, and beat you ten to one!" He was of course elected.

Shortly after he regained his liberty, he was involved, in his capacity of alderman, in a new contest. The officers of the House of Commons were ordered to take certain printers into custody, for publishing the debates; and three of them being apprehended, were brought before the Lord Mayor Crosby, and Aldermen Wilkes and Oliver, who not only released the printers, but bound them over to prosecute the messengers for assault and wrongous imprisonment. Crosby and Oliver were sent to the Tower; and the clerk of the city was ordered, at the table of the House of Commons, to tear out the leaves of the register on which the judgment of the magistrates was recorded. But Wilkes refused to obey the summons of the house, unless he were permitted to take his seat as member for Middlesex. The whole affair created tremendous excitement. The matter was allowed to drop; and from that time the debates have been regularly published.

In 1771, Wilkes was chosen sheriff; and it was he who first opened the galleries of the Old Bailey to the public. The city in 1772 presented him with a rich silver cup, embossed with the assassination of Julius Cæsar. Being again returned for Middlesex, he was allowed to take his seat without opposition. For a number of years he made an annual unsuccessful motion to have the record of his expulsion expunged from the journal of the House of Commons.

Wilkes gradually became in politics, as he expressed it himself, "an exhausted volcano." He rose to the highest civic honours, having been Lord Mayor in 1775, and elected Chamberlain in 1779. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society; and was at one time Colonel of the Buckinghamshire Militia. He received the thanks of the Privy Council for his activity during the riots of 1780. He died in his 71st year.

MR. WALTER HAMOND'S "PARADOX."

IN the account of Madagascar, in No. II. mention is made of Mr. Walter Hamond's "Paradox, proving that the inhabitants of Madagascar are the happiest people in the world." The great object of Mr. Hamond is to induce the people of England, by a tempting report of the riches, fertility, and fine climate of Madagascar, to colonise it; and so he goes in this roundabout way to accomplish his purpose. Praising the nakedness of the natives, he thus mourns over the evil propensity which leads people to wear clothes :

"As for ourselves, we are compelled (so miscrable and poore we are) to be beholden to the unreasonable creatures for our raiment, robbing one of his skin, another of his wooll, another of his hair,-nay not so much as the poor worme doth escape us, whose very excrements

we take to cover us withall, while they, in the mean time, are nothing

beholden unto us. Was nature a mother to them, and a stepdame to us? No; but as a kind and loving mother, she hath sufficiently provided for us. It is our own luxurious effeminacy that hath stripped us of our natural simplicity, and clothed us with the ragges of dissimulation. Let us consider the natural beauties of all the plants, fruits, and flowers: they have no artificial covering, yet they so far exceed man in beauty and magnificence (the lily in particular, truth itself hath spoken it) that Solomon in all his royalty was not arrayed like one of these." So far, Master Hamond; and just observe how he misapplies Scripture to clinch his nonsense! For "Truth itself," as he justly phrases it, did not bid us observe the "lilies of the field," for the purpose of inducing us not to care for raiment at all; but his words were addressed to those to whom was committed the great work of first propagating Christianity, in order to inspire them with that spirit of divine faith, which would lift them above anxious care about the necessities of life; and, doubtless, in a modified sense, they are applicable to Christians in all time. If Master Hamond had gone a little farther in his quotation, he would have confuted himself,-" Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?"

"have

Hamond was a surgeon, and therefore must have been, so far, an educated man; how could he utter nonsense which goes to the root of all trade and commerce-of nearly all that binds civilised society, or gives life to existence? Recollect, that nonsense was uttered two centuries ago-in 1640, and 1839 is a somewhat different period. But let us try him again. Here he quotes the old stuff about Diogenes. The natives of Madagascar, he says, not so many superfluous things as we have, and therein they are happy. When Diogenes came by chance into a fair, and saw so many toys and baubles to be sold, he brake out into these words: 'O how happy am I that have no want of any of these things!" And upon a time, to show how despicable unnecessary things are, he threw away his dish, because he saw another lap water out of the hollow of his hand."

Diogenes was a conceited fool, that thought himself a wise man ; yet there was a dash of the rogue in him, too. He went about Athens, "dressed in a coarse double robe, which served him as a cloak by day and a coverlet by night; and he carried a wallet to receive alms of food. His abode was a cask in the temple of Cybele. In the summer he rolled himself in the burning sand, and in the winter clung to the images in the street covered with snow, in order that he might accustom himself to endure all varieties of weather." But a far profounder philosopher than Diogenes told him that he saw his pride through his rags. Let us, however, return to Madagascar and Master Hamond. He has rather a shrewd hit here. Of the natives he says,

"We think them fools because they give us an ox for a few red beads. But suppose that they should see us give the price of twenty oxen for one white stone of the same bignesse, would not they laugh at our extreme folly? yet, when it is bought, they will not give you a calabash of milk for it."

We may dismiss Master Hamond, and his "Paradox," with one extract more. The "golden age" of which he here speaks, has been, in all time, a "Paradise of focls." The true golden age

has yet to come.

"The golden age so much celebrated by ancient writers, was not so called from the estimation or predomination that gold had in the hearts of men, for in that sense, as one said wittily,

'This may be truly call'd the age of gold:
For it both honour, love, and friends, are sold;'

but from the contempt thereof. Then love and concord flourished;

then rapine, theft, extortion, and oppression, were not known; whi happy age these people at this present enjoy. But when men beg to dig into the bowels of the earth, to make descents as it were do into hell to fetch this glittering oare from the habitations of dive and terrestrial goblins, with it came up contention, deceit, lying, swea ing, theft, murder, and all the seven capital sins; as pride, covetou nesse, wrath, gluttony, and the rest; so that we must needs confe that it had been happy for us if gold had never been known."

BANISHMENT OF THE FAIRIES.

"There never was a merry world since the fairies left dancing, an the parson left conjuring. The opinion of the latter kept thieves i awe, and did as much good in a country as a justice of peace."Selden-Table Talk.

stition, which kept the people in awe, is breaking up, and a dii THIS holds true of a country in a transition state, when super fusion of knowledge has not come to supply its place. Chaucer complains that even in his time the fairies had los their ground :

"In old time of the king Arthur,

Of which that Britons speken great honour
All was this land fulfilled of faerie ;
The elf queen, with her joly company,
Danced full oft in many a grene mead,
This was the old opinion, as I rede-
I speake of many hundred years ago,
But now can no man see no elves mo.

For now the great charity and prayers

Of limitours [begging friars] and other holy freres, That searchen every land and every stream, As thick as motes in the sunne-beam, Blessing halls, chambers, kitchens, and boures, Cities and burghes, castles high and towers, Thropes and barnes, sheep-pens and dairies, This maketh that there ben no fairies. For there as wont to walken was an elf, There walketh now the limitour himself." The limitour derived his name from being limited to beg within a certain district.

Sir Walter Scott, who quotes the above in his "Demonology," also quotes a ballad written by Dr. Corbet, who was bishop of Oxford and Norwich in the beginning of the 17th century. "A proper new ballad, entitled the Fairies' Farewell, to be sung or whistled to the tune of the Meadow Brow by the learned; by the unlearned to the tune of Fortune :

who, in the gentle moon-light of a summer night in England, amid "We almost," says Sir Walter Scott, "envy the credulity of those the tangled glades of a deep forest, or the turfy swell of her romantic commons, could fancy they saw the fairies tracing their sportive ring. But it is in vain to regret illusions which, however engaging, yield their place before the increase of knowledge, like shadows at the advance of morn. These superstitions have already served their best and most useful purpose, having been embalmed in the poetry of Milton and Shakspeare, as well as writers only inferior to these great

names.