being brought three hundred and sixty-five days nearer to the edge of his scythe?-Perhaps it may be urged, that these noisy vibrations are rather meant to salute the present than the past year, to celebrate a birth, not a death, to welcome the coming rather than to speed the parting guest; and that upon the accession of a new year, as of a new king, their brazen and cour tier-like loyalty finds more delight in the glory which is rising and full of promise, than in that which has just set and can bestow no more. The ancients divided their annual homage with a less obsequious selfishness. Janus, who stood between the two years, gave his name indeed to the first month; but he was provided with a double face, that, by gazing as steadfastly upon past as future time, he might inculcate upon his worshippers the wisdom of being retrospective as well as provident. But Janus was an ancient and a god; had he been a modern and a man, he would have known better ! However it may have been partially misapplied and wasted, the last year may still, perhaps, have materially advanced the sum of human happiness; and as it is impossible to solve this point by an examination of individual evidence, we will decide it by a show of hands. All you who are as much or more discontented with your present lot, than you were twelve months ago, please to hold up your hands.-Heavens ! what an atmosphere of palms, gentle and simple, fair and furrowed, cosmeticised and unwashed; what a forest of digits, some sparkling with diamonds, some unadorned, and a whole multitude cinctured with the wedding-ring!-You, on the contrary, who feel yourseves happier than you were-hold up your hands. Alack! what a pitiful minority! A few youths who left school at the last Christmas holidays, and an equal number of girls who, having dismissed their governesses, are to come out this season. Young and sanguine dupes, enjoy your happiness while ye may: I am not serpent enough to whisper a syllable in your ear that might accelerate the loss of your too fleeting paradise! THE TWO BRACELETS. A FARMER General, one Monsieur B Who dwelt in France when Louis held the throne, Except a wife,-(th' exception's large, I own), For she was fat as any Marchioness, And given to extravagance in dress. One day she bought a pair of bracelets-such It happen'd that the Queen was there that night, Soon to the box-door came a Page, attired One of the bracelets for a little while, Off went the sparkling bauble in a trice, She patiently expected its return; But when the Queen retired, and none was sent, A Lord in waiting soon confirm'd her fears: "Oh, that pretended Page I've often seen,A noted sharper,-has been such for years. Madam, you 're robb'd,―he came not from the Queen : Boiling with anger, Madam call'd her coach, She call'd upon the Provost for relief, And bade him send his men to catch the thief. Early next morn she heard the knocker's din; Who, with a mighty magisterial air, “Madam, a man is brought to our Bureau, And we are all anxiety to know Whether or not it is the one you lost; Wherefore I'll take the other, if you please, "Dear, Sir, I'm overjoy'd,-'tis mine, I'm sure ; Ten thousand thanks-I hope you'll trounce the spark, O! how she chuckled as she drove along, Arrived at the Bureau, her joy finds vent: Doubtless it matches with the one you have; "La! bless me, Ma'am, you 're finely hoax'd-good lack! I sent no Clerk, no thief have we found out, And the important little prig in black Was the accomplice of the page no doubt ;— Methinks the rascals might have left you one, But both your Bracelets now are fairly gone!" PATENTS AND PROJECTS EXTRAORDINARY! "Our victories only led us to farther visionary prospects; advantage was taken of the sanguine temper which success had wrought the nation up to." SWIFT. WHAT pigmies in intellect, however gigantic in stature, were those old rebellious Carbonari, the Titans, with their clumsy expedient of piling Pelion upon Ossa, and their hopeful project of taking the skies by escalade! It is the moderns, with their diminutive bodies and Titanian intellects, piling up one discovery upon another, and bringing all matter under the dominion of mind, who have climbed up, as it were, into the heavens, detected all the laws, motions, and distances of the celestial bodies, and brought the whole system of the universe as much within the grasp of our apprehension as if it were as tangible as the planisphere upon our table, by which it is represented in epitome. Having found for our moral lever what Archimedes wanted for his material one-a basis, we have performed what he threatened, by raising the world. When Queen Elizabeth told Bacon that his house was too small for him, he replied-" It is your Majesty who have made me too big for my house :" we are all of us in the same predicament with respect to the earth wherein we dwell; the majesty of our minds has made it too narrow for our full expansion. This paltry sphere was well enough in the outset of our career, but we have penetrated into all its secrets, |