are full of these quack Gospel advertisements. Now what must be the state of a minister's heart who craves such notoriety? and what must be the result to himself and his hearers of gratifying it?

THE HOOP QUESTION. A gentleman lately conversing with a lady friend, claimed that he could parodize on the hoop question any verse she might choose to repeat. She accordingly rehearsed the following verse from "The Old Sexton :"

Nigh to a grave that was newly made

Lean'd a sexton old on his earth-worn spade:
His work was done, and he paused to wait
The funeral train through the open gate:
A relic of by-gone days was be,

And his locks were as white as the foamy sea;
And these words came from his lips so thin,
"I gather them in, I gather them in."

Whereupon the graceless scamp took his pencil, and thus wrote on a scrap of newspaper lying by:

Nigh to a church that was newly made,
Stood a lady fair, and thus she said:

"Too bad, too bad; I here must wait

While they measure the breadth of this open gate;
Ah! it is only nine by sir, I see!

Too narrow, too narrow, alas! for me;"

And she sighed from her quivering lips so thin, "I cannot get in; I cannot get in!"

On the marriage of Reuben Wise to Matilda Cheevis :

At length she seized the proffer'd prize,
(A happy one, believe us,)
For matrimony made her Wise;
Before she was Miss Cheevis.

A Boston paper tells the following anecdote, in which the editor states a college "chum" of his was the principal actor:

H., a member of one of the classes, was distinguished not less for dry wit and sly waggery than for his address in evading the writing of themes, and in palming off the brain-coined currency of others as his legitimate "tender." One Monday morning he read a theme of unusual merit; but Professor A. "smelt a rat," and as H. finished and sat down in the pride of conscious innocence, asked, "Is that original, H. ?" "Yes, sir." "Are you sure of it?" queried the professor, doubtingly. "Why, yes, sir," replied H., with imperturbable gravity, and that paste-board countenance he always wore, "it had original over it in the paper I took it from !""

The following is a literal copy of the list of questions proposed for discussion in a debating club out West:

HOOD'S VERSION OF SPRING.

"Ham. The air bites shrewdly-it is very cold.
Hor.-It is a nipping and an eager air."-HAMLET.

"Come, gentle Spring! ethereal millness, come!"
O! Thompson, void of rhyme as well as reason,
How couldst thou thus poor human nature hum?
There's no such season.

The Spring! I shrink and shudder at her name! For why, I find her breath a bitter blighter! And suffer from her blows, as if they came From Spring, the fighter.

Her praises, then, let hardy poets sing.

And be her tuneful laureates and upholders, Who do not feel as if they had a Spring Pour'd down their shoulders!

Let others eulogize her floral shows;
From me they cannot win a single stanza.
I know her blooms are in full blow-and so's
The Influenza.

Her cowslips, stocks, and lilies of the vale,

Her honey-blossoms that you hear the bees at,
Her pansies, daffodils, and primrose pale,
Are things I sneeze at!

Fair is the vernal quarter of the year!

And fair its early buddings and its blowings-
But just suppose Consumption's seeds appear
With other sowings!

For me, I find, when eastern winds are high,
A frigid, not a genial inspiration;
Nor can, like Iron-Chested Chubb, defy
An inflammation.

Smitten by breezes from the land of plague,
To me all vernal luxuries are fables,
O! where's the Spring in a rheumatic leg,
Stiff as a table's?

I limp in agony-I wheeze and cough;
And quake with Ague, that great Agitator;
Nor dream, before July, of leaving off
My Respirator.

What wonder if in May itself I lack

A peg for landatory verse to hang on?Spring, mild and gentle!-yes, a Spring-heel'd Jack To those he sprang on.

In short, whatever panegyrics lie

In fulsome odes, too many to be cited, The tenderness of Spring is all my eye, And that is blighted!

WHAT WAS I SENT FOR?-An Emerald-islander made his appearance the other day at a general hardware establishment. He was evidently in a state of utter mystification. Turning to the counter, and scratching his head with an air of the utmost perplexity, he thus addressed the shopman:

"Why, thin, would your honor be plased to tell me what it is I was sint for?"

"That would be hard for me, my man. How on earth should I know what you were sent for?" "Ah, thin, wouldn't your honor try and make out for me, for the misthress'll be mad if I face home without it."

66 What is it like ?"

"Why, thin, on the top of it, 'tis for all the world like the face of a body after the smallpox."

"And what do you do with it?"

66

Why, the women puts it on their finger when they're working."

"O! a thimble, I suppose?"

"Yis, to be sure, that's jest what it is a thimble. See, now, how I couldn't think of its name!"

And so, having been supplied with the required article, he departed in triumph.

On another occasion the shop of a druggist and grocer was entered by a man in eager haste, exclaiming:

"Give me a pinnorth of bagpipes, as quick as you can!"

"I don't know at all what you want," replied the somewhat matter-of-fact shopman. "We don't sell bagpipes; and at all events, I can't tell what you mean by a pennyworth of a musical instrument."

"Ah, God bless you, an' give me the bagpipes, an' there's the pinny-an' don't be keeping me this way, or else I'll be late for the Macroom car."

What on earth do you want?" cried the

thoroughly perplexed shopman. "What is it for ?"

"Wisha, don't be delaying me this way, axing me what 'tis for; but give it to me out of hand, or the masther 'll be keeping the whole house awake to-night with the cough that he gets no ase from, only when he's sucking them same bagpipes."

"O" chimed in a bright-looking boy, the junior assistant, "I know what he wants-this Bath pipe, is it not, my good fellow ?" And so saying, he produced some sticks of a brown medicinal candy, well known in our locality as an excellent remedy for coughs.

"Ah, yes, that's the very thing! Sure I told you all along 'twas bagpipes I wanted!"

Beau Brummel was once sitting at a table with one Bligh, who was known to be insane. The Beau, having lost a considerable stake, affected, in his farcical way, a very tragic air, and cried out: "Waiter, bring me a flat candlestick and a pistol." Upon which, Bligh, who was sitting opposite to him, calmly produced two loaded pistols from his coat pocket, which he placed on the table, and said: "Mr. Brummel, if you are really desirous to put a period to your existence, I am extremely happy to offer you the means, without troubling the waiter." The effect upon those present may be easily imagined, at finding themselves in the company of a known madman, who had loaded weapons about him.

Memories of Gennesaret. By the REV. JOHN R. MACDUFF. (Carter & Brothers.) Mr. Macduff is the author of several evangelical volumes which have been published anonymously. Among them we may mention " Altar Stones," "Words of Jesus," "Footsteps of Saint Paul," and "Memories of Bethany," already favorably noticed in our pages. His name is now, with the volume before us, first given to the public. His aim has been, in pointed and practical style, to group together the varied scenes which give an undying interest to the shores of Tiberias, and he has succeeded in making an attractive and instructive volume. We copy a portion of the chapter entitled "The Sinking Disciple:"

Judging from his peculiar temperament, perhaps when the mysterious phantom form was first seen on the waters, Peter may have been the most cravenhearted of all. While the calin John, or the cool, cantious Thomas, may have looked their danger sternly in the face, he may have seen, in the shadowy figure, nothing but the spirit of the tempest, or the wings of the angel of death, and fled, cowering in terror, to the hold of the vessel. But no sooner does he listen to the comforting, "It is I," than shame and sorrow overwhelm him that he had been so "slow of heart," and in the very rebound from faithlessnees to newly awakened joy he resolves by an heroic act to atone for these moments of unworthy pusillanimity. "Lord!" says he, "if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water."

Even yet, however, his voice trembles as he speaks. Neither his faith nor his motives will bear rigid scrutiny. The very word with which he begins his bold and presumptuous request implies a secret doubt, "if it be thou."

covenant love, and to exclaim, with one who had alike nature, Providence, and grace in his eye when he penned his words: "The voice of the Lord is upon the waters. The God of glory thundereth. The Lord is upon many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful. The voice of the Lord is full of majesty.. The Lord sitteth upon the flood, yea the Lord sitteth king for ever. The Lord will give strength unto his people. The Lord will bless his people with peace."

But to return to the narrative: While there was doubt and misgiving on the part of Peter, in illustration of that strange union of opposites to which I have referred, there was in conjunction with these, boldness and presumption.

His own thought, doubtless, was to make an avowal of his faith; but what he did display was not faith, but a base counterfeit. It was a degenerate semblance and figure of the true. Rightly named, it was forwardness, fool-hardihood, the haughty spirit which is inevitably succeeded by a fall.

Let us always be careful to give things their proper designation. Let us be specially on our guard against looking at vice and virtue through a distorted mediun, giving the name of gold to what may, after all, be base alloy; confounding great heavenly principles with hollow semblances; calling evil good and good evil; putting darkness for light and light for darkness. How often do we hear revenge inisnamed honor; passion, spirit; prodigality, generosity; free-thinking, liberality; blasphemy, wit, and presumption, faith. In the case before us we may be apt, at first sight, to confuse and confound two feelings and emotions, in themselves widely different Peter in appearance is very magnanimous, nor do we deny (his Lord himself owns it) that there was in his bold deed a certain amount of faith and confidence in Christ's ability and power. So far his conduct was commendable; but there was more of the reverse, more of pride, ambition, rashness.

His faith in his Divine Master would have been tempered with a wiser discretion, and a kindlier regard for the feelings of others, had he simply joined with his fellow-apostles in inviting Jesus into their ship. But he lorded it over them. There was an implied assumption of superiority in the personal request, "Bid me." We could not even have quarreled with his conditional "if" had he put it in the form, "If it be thy will, Lord." But with a rashness similar to that which drew down an after rebuke, when unbidden he cut off the ear of Malchus, he utters, on his own authority, and more in the tone of a mandate than a proposal, "Bid me come." There is a struggle for preeminence, a craving to win the highest encomium from his Master, He would wish to make himself out the boldest and bravest of the apostle crew. It is the saying and the failing of a future occasion put in another form and other words, "Though all be offend ed, yet shall not I."

grassed; my command never having made a bad grass camp during the entire distance, until near the Colorado. It crosses the great desert (which must be crossed by any road to California) at its narrowest point. It passes through a country abounding in game, and but little infested with Indians.

Another interesting feature of this exploration, and not the least important, is the fact that it was accompanied by twenty-five camels and two dromedaries, of those brought from Asia, as described in THE NATIONAL for December. The question of the vast importance of these animals in crossing our American deserts may be considered as settled. The lieutenant says:

I may speak for every man in our party, when I say there is not one of them who would not prefer the most indifferent of our camels to four of our best mules.

In all our lateral explorations they have carried water, sometimes for more than a week, for the mules used by the men, themselves never receiving even a bucketful to one of them; they have traversed patiently with heavy packs, on these explorations, countries covered with the sharpest volcanic rock, and yet their feet to this hour have evinced no symptom of tenderness or injury. With heavy packs they have crossed mountains, ascended and descended precipitous places, where an unladen mule found it difficult to pass.

And again:

The camels performed this journey-in which there was a considerable space to be passed devoid of water or grass-without, in a single instance, exhibiting any sign of fatigue or distress, nor showing any signs of thirst. They kept pace easily with the teams, at an average rate of four miles an hour, though, when required, this rate could have been doubled without their suffering the least inconvenience..

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The Hasheesh Eater: being Passages from the Life of a Pythagorean. Carelessly written, "thrown off," the writer says, currente calamo," not likely to find many readers, and, therefore, not likely to profit the publishers; and, when read, not likely to profit the reader, we marvel what could have induced the Messrs. Harper to lend their imprint to a book like this. Hasheesh is the resin of Indian hemp, (Cannabis Indica.) Its effects, when taken internally, are somewhat similar to those produced by the use of opium. The writer professes to have indulged in it for a long time, and in this volume to record his sensations and feelings when under its influence. He assures us that his narrative "is one of unexaggerated fact." Very likely; and if a person intoxicated by any other means, French brandy for instance, should see strange sights and hear unearthly noises, and, pushing his "investigations," should bring on a fit of delirium tremens, no one would question the "fact" that he saw and heard snakes, goblins, demons, hissing, yelling, and howling in his ears. The only wonder would be that, when sober, the hallucination should be still strong enough to induce him to make his chimeras public.

Under the simple title of A Christian Memorial of Two Sisters, we have, from the press of Stanford & Delisser, a beautifully-printed little volume, touchingly commemorative of two of the most estimable ladies of our city. They were the daughters of the late Governor Jay, the first Chief Justice of the United States. Possessed, each, of an ample fortune, their efforts to do good were literally unceasing. The

elder is known to have given away in charity, in a period of little more than nine years, the sum of seventy-one thousand three hundred and ninety-seven dollars; and the donations of the other averaged from six to eight thousand dollars a year. The one died on the 13th of No-. vember last, and eight days afterward her sister followed. This memorial is put forth, not for the purpose of eulogizing them, but with the hope that others may be led to follow their example.

Biography of Elisha Kent Kane. By WILLIAM ELDER. This long-expected volume has at length made its appearance from the press of Childs & Peterson, Philadelphia. As a specimen of book-making, it is hardly equal to the promises held out in advanee by the publishers. With the limited materials at his command the author has succeeded in making an interesting sketch of the earlier portions of the life of the intrepid explorer. The latter part, upon which his fame will continue to rest, is written in the navigator's own inimitable journals.

In our last number we noticed, briefly, Mr. Parton's Life of Aaron Burr, of which a third edition has already been called for. It is indeed an attractive biography, and bating the one fault, a glaring one, to which we adverted, is highly creditable to the author's industry in the collection of materials, and his skill in the narration of facts. We copy a little episode in the strangely eventful life of Burr-his courtship and marriage-when nearly eighty years of age. It will be read with interest, not less for the graphic style of the narrator, than as another illustration of the adage, Truth is stranger than fiction:

There was a talk of cholera in the city. Madame Jumel resolved upon taking a carriage tour in the country. Before setting out she wished to take legal advice respecting some real estate, and as Colonel Burr's reputation in that department was pre-eminent, to his office in Reade-street she drove. In other days he had known her well, and though many an eventful year had passed since he had seen her, he recog nized her at once. He received her in his courtliest manner, complimented her with admirable tact, listened with soft deference to her statement. He was the ideal man of business-confidential, self-possessed, polite-giving his client the flattering impression that the faculties of his whole soul were concentrated upon the affair in hand. She was charmed, yet feared him. He took the papers, named the day when his opinion would be ready, and handed her to her carriage with winning grace. At seventy-eight years of age he was still straight, active, agile, fascinating.

On the appointed day she sent to his office a relative, a student of law, to receive his opinion. This young gentleman, timid and inexperienced, had an immense opinion of Burr's talents; had heard all good and all evil of him; supposed him to be, at least, the acutest of horrible men. He went. Burr behaved to him in a manner so exquisitely pleasing, that, to this hour, he has the liveliest recollection of the scene. No topics were introduced but such as were familiar and interesting to young men. His manners were such as this age of slangy familiarity cannot so much as imag ine. The young gentleman went home to Madame Jumel only to extol and glorify him.

Madame and her party began their journey, revisiting Ballston, whither, in former times, she had been wont to go in a chariot drawn by eight horses; visiting Saratoga, then in the beginning of its celebrity, where, in exactly ten minutes after her arrival, the decisive lady bought a house and all it contained.

Returning to New York to find that her mansion had been despoiled by robbers in her absence, she lived for a while in the city.

Colonel Burr called upon the young gentleman who