famous invention."-"Nothing like it," replied Harry, "in the Marquis of Worcester's whole Century. A distinguished writer desires one of our noble families to-consider the name of Spenser the poet as the fairest jewel in their coronet. May we not extend the same remark to the ducal race, whose name will, by this discovery, be constantly in our mouths ?"-" Ay, and whose celebrity will thus be kept up, hot and hot," added Sir Peter. Egad, I'll drink their healths in a bumper, and take another slice upon the strength of it. One ought to encourage such ingenious improvements." 66 66 "I am afraid, Sir Peter, that the best side's all gone," said Mr. Blewett, with a whine of pretended regret, which had a prospective reference to the brokerage on the indigo. "That I beg leave to deny," retorted Harry, " for it is one of the Peptic precepts, that in politics and gastronomy, the best side is that where there is most to be got, and there are still a few slices left under the bone."-" If we had a good stimulating sauce now," said the Alderman, "I could still go on.”—“ But there," continued the nephew, 66 we are still nearly as deficient as we were in the time of Louis Quatorze, whose ambassador at London complained that he had been sent among a set of barbarians, who had twenty religions and only three fishsauces."-" Why, Billy," cried the Alderman to Blewett, " you seem as down in the mouth as the root of my tongue;-blue as your own indigo."-" That's a famous lot of Guatimola you have just received, Sir Peter, by the Two Sisters, Capt. Framlingham: may I call to take samples ?"--" We'll talk of that by and by, Billy meantime take a sample of port; help yourself." "He can't help himself, poor fellow,” said Harry," for the bottle's empty." The Baronet nodded to Rule, who instantly betook himself to a basket in the corner of the room, and began decanting another with mathematical precision. "Take care, Rule, it won't bear shaking; I have had it fourteen years in bottle."-" And port wine," observed Harry, "is like mankind-the older it gets, the more crusty it becomes, and the less will it bear being disturbed.”—“A little tawney," said the uncle, smacking his lips; "I doubt whether this is out of the right bin."-" No, sir," replied the nephew; "this seems to be out of the has been. Troja fuit:--but you have got some prime claret.' 66 Ay, ay, we'll have a touch at that after the cloth's cleared: but will nobody take another mouthful of the haunch? the meat was short, crisp, and tender, just as it ought to be.”—“ Capital!” ejaculated Rule with a momentary animation, succeeded by his habitual look of formality, "Then the table may be cleared," continued the Alderman: "but zooks! Harry, how comes it you never said grace before dinner ?"" You were in such a hurry, Sir, that you forgot to ask me: it was but last week you called me a scapegrace, and I may now retort the epithet."— "Say grace now, then, saucebox.' "I have not yet taken orders, Sir Peter."-" Yes you have, you have taken mine; so out with it." Harry compressed the benediction into five words---the cloth was removed--a bottle of Chateau Margaud was placed upon the table to his infinite consolation--the talk quickened with the circulation of the wine, and many good things were uttered which we regret that we cannot commemorate without travelling out of the record, as our subject ceased with the dinner, being expressly con fined to the "Memoirs of a Haunch of Mutton." WHAT LIFE TO CHOOSE. "Not to know at large of things remote Paradise Lost. "WHEN I look round upon the material world," says a Pagan writer," and observe the ineffable beauty and harmony of all its arrangements, the magnificent machinery of the heavenly bodies, the unerring precision with which they perform their majestic evolutions, as well as the regular succession of seasons and interchange of elements, by which the earth is maintained in undiminished splendour and fertility, I recognise on all sides the power and the presence of a benignant Deity: but when I direct my observation towards the moral world, and reflect that the creation, the object, and the final conclusion of all this glorious pageant, have been hitherto unrevealed to us, and threaten to remain involved in impenetrable obscurity; when I observe the confusion of principles, with the disorder, uncertainty, and darkness, that perpetually surround the destiny of man; when I see vice and irreligion triumphant and rewarded, piety and virtue oppressed and wretched, the mental and bodily anguish of innocent individuals, the perpetual struggle of nations to torment one another, with the general predominance of human and animal suffering in the endless alternations of destroyer and victim,-I am lost in astonishment at the contrast of the physical and moral systems, and in spite of myself relapse into scepticism and doubt." Authority that he possessed not has removed part of the difficulty, by revealing to us that the present is but a probationary existence-the prelude to another, in which all the inconsistencies and imperfections of which he complained will be finally adjusted and atoned upon immutable principles of right; but it must be confessed, that enough remains unexplained to harass and perplex the prying spirit. The origin and existence of vice and pain, the unmerited sufferings of animals, for whom we are not warranted in admitting a future state of retribution,--these, and many other insolvable points, which, like so many ignes fatui, are as sure to elude our grasp as to lead us into pitfalls and difficulties, will be altogether avoided by the wise man, who, fixing his attention upon the consolatory perfectness of the material world, and confiding in the benignity which pervades it, will patiently await the fulness of time when the same Spirit of goodness shall give a similar unity and completeness to the moral scheme of creation. Down to the minutest divisions of human occupa tion, it will be found that the men whose pursuits bring them in contact with inanimate nature, enjoy their avocations much more than those who are conversant with humanity, and all the modifications of the social and moral system. Champort observes, that the writers on physics, natural history, physiology, chemistry, have been generally men of a mild, even, and happy temperament; while, on the contrary, the writers on politics, legislation, and even morals, commonly exhibited a melancholy and fretful spirit. Nothing more simple: the former studied nature, the others society. One class contemplates the work of the great Being, the other fixes its observation upon the work of man: the results must be different. The Nymphs of Calypso, as they caressed and fondled the infant Cupid, became unconsciously penetrated with his flame; and if the power of love be thus subtle, that of hatred is, unfortunately, not less pervading. We cannot handle human passions, even to play with them, without imbibing some portion of their acrimony, any more than we can gather flowers amid the nettles without being stung. Into every thing human a spirit of party becomes insinuated, and self-love is perpetually forcing us to taste of its bitterness; but there is no rivalry with Nature; our pride does not revolt at her superiority,-nay, we find a pure and holy calm in contemplating her majesty, before which we bow down with mingled feelings of delight and reverence. Contrast this with the effects produced upon us by human grandeur and elevation. Hence the charm of solitude: it places |