boards at which they sat, where youth and age, mingled together, in social merriment. I hear the sound of the voices ;-see the eye, the smile, which enlightened and gave animation to the scene, as if they actually existed; yet allall are gone!

"As friends decay, we die in part,

String after string, is sever'd from the heart;
Till loosened life at last-but breathing clay,
Without one pang, is glad to fall away.
Unhappy he, who latest feels the blow,
Whose eyes have wept for every friend laid fow,
Dragg'd ling'ring on from partial death to death,
And dying, all he can resign, is breath."

MARRIAGE.

THE marriage ties include an engagement for general affection, and benevolence, and these are to be paid whether the object of the choice prove better or worse than was expected at the formation of the contract, which becomes on this account the most important of all the acts of our lives; and we ought to ask ourselves before we form it, whether we shall be likely to perform the conditions in defiance of circumstances? whether we conceive ourselves likely to fulfil them in defiance of the infirmities of age, the irregularities of temper, and even the

defects of the heart? to do this is often difficult: but it is implied and therefore enjoined by the marriage vow. It really obliges us, indeed, to practise not only the easy virtue of loving them that love us, but the more difficult task of loving even them who perhaps love us not, and this, notwithstanding they may vex, offend, and injure us.

CALUMNY.

A HINT on such a subject as character will often do more than a written volume. It is a mode of attack that succeeds better than detail; for by this means we give imagination its full play, and thus render every subsequent impression deeper and more lasting besides, by the use of hints we are not amenable to any power, and of course whatever consequences may ensue, have nothing ourselves to apprehend.

THE FAMOUS GENERAL WALSTEIN

WAS intrepid in the field of battle; but he was an enthusiast, and bizarre, as the following story shews:

He was at Gross Meseritsch in Moravia, in 1625, and completely absorbed in laying the

plan of the ensuing campaign: his custom was to pass part of the night in consulting the stars. One of these nights being at his window lost in contemplation, he felt himself violently struck on the back. He turned himself round instantly, and knowing that he was alone and his chamber door locked, this warrior, bold as he was in battle, was seized with fright. He did not doubt but what this blow was a sign from heaven to warn him of impending danger. He fell into a deep melancholy: nor could any of his friends obtain his secret from him. His confessor, a capuchin, undertook to discover it, and had art enough to induce one of the pages of the gener alissimo to acknowledge, that, he being intent on playing one of his comrades a trick, had hid himself in the apartment to which Walstein had retired, and mistaking him for his object, he had struck him with all his might; but having found his error, while his master was examining the room, he jumped out of the window. The confessor pledged his word of honour to the page that no evil should befal him, on this account; and he thought himself happy in being able to quiet the trepidations of the general. But what was his despair when he heard Walstein order the immediate hanging of this rash youth! his orders were absolute, the gibbet was ready: the page delivered to the executioner,-in the very

presence of the general. The principal officers of the army were seized with indignation: the lower classes exclaimed against such barbarity: the miserable confessor threw himself repeatedly at the feet of this inexorable commander. The page had mounted the ladder, when suddenly the general cried out " stop !"-then with a voice of thunder he said to the page, "Well, young man, hast thou now experienced what the terrors of death are? I have served you as you served me: now we are quit."

REPARTEE.

THE Constable of Castile, when a very young man, was sent to congratulate his holiness Sextus V. on his elevation to the papal chair. The pope, sneering at the ambassador's youth, asked him "Whether there was a scarcity of men in his master's court, that he had sent an envoy who had not a beard ?" "If my master, “replied the proud Castilian, "had imagined that merit consisted in length of beard, he would have sent you a ram-goat."

CORONATION OF KING GEORGE III.

WHEN the king approached the communicn table, in order to receive the sacrament, he enVOL. 2.

quired of the archbishop, whether he should lay aside his crown. The archbishop asked the bishop of Rochester. The bishop did not recollect what had been done at the last coronation. At length the king determined within himself, that humility best became such a solemn act of devotion, and took off his crown, and laid it down during the administration.

This incident had an ominous character: throughout life the crown of George III. was laid down before the altar.

Buonaparte, when the pope offered to crown him, snatched the crown, and put it on his own head.

GEORGE STEEVENS.

of

THE following Inscription, from the pen Mr. William Hayley, is engraven on a monu. ment to the memory of George Steevens, the commentator of Shakespeare.

"In the middle aisle of this chapel lie the remains of George Steevens, Esq. who after having cheerfully employed a considerable portion of his life and fortune in the illustration of Shakespeare, expired at Hampstead, on the 22d of January, 1800, in his 60th year.

Peace to these reliques, once the bright attire
Of spirits sparkling with no common fire.