we hope for mercy, be of our own-not his; let us tremble for ourselves as we hear a voice saying, “Fear God, and keep his commandments.”—Professor Wilson's Essay on Burns. COLD IN PARIS. [FROM "PATCHWORK," BY CAPTAIN BASIL HALL.] BUT if summer in Paris is bad for man and beast, winter is even less bearable; at least the cold, which set in one winter while I was there, was such as I never remember to have seen in England, Scotland, or anywhere else. It was not a good, honest, bracing, moderate degree of cold, which you could temper out of doors by smart exercise, or subdue within by means of blazing fires. It seemed to defy every such device; being hard and dry, and so biting, merciless, and snarly, that there was no possibility of escaping its searching intensity. It subdued all mankind alike-natives and strangers, and at times entirely cleared the streets of people; leaving the capital like one of those mysteriously deserted cities in Hindoostan described by travellers in the East, which with all their palaces and temples complete, have been left for ages without a single inhabitant in them! I walked once, the day after Christmas, from end to end of Paris, and literally met only a stray gendarme or two. * * How the wretched coachmen manage to live at all in such weather as I have seen in Paris, is to me inconceivable; for even to the inside passengers the cold becomes at times so severe, that with all the contrivances they can think of -warm furs, hot-water bottles, great coats, boat cloaks, and shawls, they can scarcely go from one house to another, without being frozen to death; a fate which actually befel two poor sentries, and an unfortunate donkey, one bitter night of the winter alluded to. The soldiers were found at the hour of their relief, as it is called, with their muskets shouldered, standing as stiff and erect at their post at the palace gate, as when their corporal had planted them. The honest donkey was found standing across the path in the Boulevards at daybreak, with his tail straight on end, as rigid as a bar! In his death the poor old fellow retained his wonted look of patience and contentment so completely, that the people, thinking him still alive, drubbed him soundly as they passed, for being in the way. To return to the no less passive coachman. One can understand how an English jarvey manages by reiterated pots of porter, and perhaps a glass or two of gin, to keep the cold out of the stomach; but how the French drivers contrive, without malt liquor or strong waters, to sit on their boxes at night for two, three, four, or five hours on a stretch, apparently as insensible to the biting frost as if they were made of granite and not of flesh and blood, is utterly inconceivable. Still less is it comprehensible how their horses can stand for so many hours together, with iron shoes, on the cold ice and stones of those sadly mismanaged streets. AMERICAN VARIETIES.-No. I. At the theatre in Havanna, when a favourite actor or actress takes a benefit, she seats herself on the evening of her benefit near the entrance of the theatre, and his or her admirers give as much as they choose for admissionnever, however, less than the regular price. We should like to buy out Fanny Elssler's chance for her first night. The smallest bird of America is the humming-bird, and that of Europe the golden-crested wren. The smallest quadruped in the world is the pigmy mouse of Siberia. The most diminutive plant is the arctic raspberry, which is so small that a six ounce phial will hold the wholebranches, leaves, and fruit. There are thirty-two persons in Indiana, upwards of 100 years old. We think of moving there soon. "I'm losing flesh," as the butcher said when he saw a thief robbing his cart. The male of that well-known feathered biped, the hen, is said to be generally very lean about these times- cause they have been called upon so often to crow, that they are wore away to skeletons by the violent and prolonged exercise. You are who, for the want of a chair, was seated on the edge of a sharp set," as Joe said to the man at dinner, shingle. If we were to attempt to keep pace with the murders and suicides recorded throughout the country, we should have to print an extra for our editorials and the advertise ments. The eastern country alone can furnish of this class murders enough to fill the largest sheet. Mr. Saunders, an eminent builder of New Orleans, has mysteriously disappeared-nothing uncommon in these days. "Live and let live," as the criminal said to the hang man. CONSCIOUS BEAUTY.-As the sun in all his splendour exclaimed, "The glory of the world is rising." His wife, was peeping over the eastern hills, a newly married man who happened to be getting up, taking the compliment to herself, simpered out, "What would you say, my dear, if I had my silk gown on!" A western editor advertises for two journeymen and two devils, who can afford to work for nothing and treat him into the bargain. "You are determined to get me in a broil," as the chicken said to the gridiron. OUR TURN NEXT.-During the last two or three centuries, thirteen fixed stars have disappeared. A HIGHLAND OUTLAW.-DEFIANCE TO THE CIVIL POWERS. ABOUT the centre of Loch Quoich, under the shadow of two high mountain terraces, streaked with snow, is a small island, scarcely more than half an acre in extent, on which from the nearest mountain, and is as solitary as the heart are seen a few birch trees. It is about a quarter of a mile of hermit or recluse could desire. On this spot resides a Highlander, now old and stern, who bids defiance to all the civil powers, and lives a free denizen of nature. Some forty years ago, Ewan M'Phee, a fine, sprightly, athletic Highland lad, enlisted in a regiment of which led to believe, that he would soon be preferred in the his proprietor was an officer. He was promised, or was army. He went through his exercises with correctness and regularity, but preferment came not, and deliberately one day marched out of the ranks, and betook himself to the hills. His retreat was discovered, and two files of soldiers were sent to apprehend him. With the concurrence of the late Glengarry, Ewan was seized, handcuffed, and carried off a prisoner. As the party proceeded through Stratherick, the dauntless Highlander watched a favourable opportunity, made a tremendous leap over a precipice, and bounded off from his escort The party discharged their muskets after him, but without effect, and breaking off his handcuffs, by dashing against a rock, Ewan was again a free man among the wilds. He established himself on Lochiel's property in Corrybuie, an out-of-the world retreat, where he lived unmolested for many years, A FAMOUS FRENCH PICKPOCKET. * in which M. Rodde presented himself on the Place de la ORIGINAL POETRY. THE LAND OF BEAUTY. A LONE and melancholy spirit, Which warns the young how soon the charm Of youth must pass away. We never saw a rosebud die, Nor heard a yellow leaf Fall rustling from the autumn groves, And ill, I ween, his heart could bear Where youth is on each cheek. And there no leaf is sere, And there no autumns blight the bloom He sees the smiles of spirits pure, Like sunny waters play, On faces whose transcendent charms He sees with joy seraphic eyes And gladly knows no burning tear From lips whose every breath is tuned He longs to mingle with the blest, To hold communion chaste and high, And he would lure the lovely here, To veil their e anescent charms, And seek their glory there. For in that land where beauty blooms, From withering cares, and blighting time, VARIETIES. Speak of your friends kindly, and to them sincerely. Be sincere towards yourself, and you will be candid in your judgment of others. LONG COURTSHIPS.- In a late action for breach of promise of marriage in Ireland, Baron Pennefather, in summing up, observed to the jury, that he hardly ever knew long courtships to turn out well, and that whatever the lady might do to remain constant, the gentleman seldom did. The Jews bury their dead before the sun has gone down twice after the death, excepting among the most wealthy; and in those cases these few hours of interval sometimes are not sufficient to enable them to prepare the extensive funeral and mourning clothes which the family and relations require. TRAVELLING IN OTHER DAYS.-In 1703, when Prince George of Denmark went from Windsor to Petworth, to meet Charles III. of Spain, it appears that the journey, which is a distance of about forty miles, occupied fourteen hoursalthough those who travelled it did not get out, save when they were overturned or stuck fast in the mire, until they reached their destination. "We were thrown but once, indeed, in going," says the relator, "but his highness's body coach would have suffered very much if the nimble boors of Sussex had not frequently poised it, or supported it with their shoulders, from Godalming almost to Petworth. The last nine miles of the way cost us six hours to conquer them."-Annals of Queen Anne. HEBREW WOMEN.-Wherever the women of the Hebrews are to be found (and where are they not?) they still exhibit the type of that intellectual beauty which subdued Egypt and reformed the penal statutes of Persia; and their fine heads are cited by science as models of the highest moral conformation. Bright thoughts flash from their bright eyes, quick perceptions animate their noble lineaments; and if the force of circumstances is no longer directed to elicit the high qualities of an Esther or a Judith, the original of the picture, drawn by the prophet king, of the virtuous woman," whose price is above rubics," may be found among the Jewish women of modern as of ancient times; for "they eat not the bread of idleness," and "the hearts of their husbands trust in them." -Lady Morgan's "Woman and her Master." The reporter of the Stockport Chronicle, who is probably in a state of "single blessedness," gravely speaks of a married man, whose wife had "blessed him with fourteen children!" Young stenography will probably write less coolly on the subject when he is himself surrounded with seven brace of clamorous " "blessings!" A traveller stopped at an inn to breakfast, and having drunk a cup of what was given him, the servant asked, "What will you have, tea or coffee?" The traveller answered-" That depends upon circumstances. If what you gave me was tea, I want coffee. If it was coffee, I want tea. I want a change.” Several ladies' dresses have recently taken fire on railway trains, but it does not act as any prevention to their adopting that mode of conveyance. On the contrary, they seem to rejoice at the idea of "catching a spark." Some flowers absorb the rays of the sun so strongly, that in the evening they yield slight phosphoric flashes. May we not compare the minds of poets to these flowers, which, imbibing light, emit it again in a different form and aspect?— Lady Blessington. BEARDS.-About the reign of Mary beards were worn of a great length; those of Gardiner and Pole, in their portraits, are of unusuai dimensions; they were sometimes used as toothpick cases; the celebrated Admiral Coligny always wore his in his beard.-Ince's Outlines of English History. THE GREATEST MAN.-The greatest man is he who chooses the right with invincible resolution, who resists the sorest temptation from within and from without; who bears the heaviest burdens cheerfully; who is calmest in storms, and most fearless under menaces and frowns; whose reliance on truth, on virtue, on God, is most unfaltering.—Channing. LONDON: W. BRITTAIN, PATERNOSTER ROW. Edinburgh: JOHN MENZIES. Dublin: CURRY & Co. Glasgow: D. BRYCE. Printed by J. Rider, 14, Bartholomew Clo:e, London. CONDUCTED BY JAMES GRANT, AUTHOR OF "RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS," "THE GREAT METROPOLIS," &c. AND FRANCIS ROSS, FORMERLY SOLE EDITOR OF THE JOURNAL. ILLUSTRATIONS OF HUMANITY. No. XVIII. NEGRO CELEBRATION OF THE FESTIVAL OF SANTA ROSALIA. ST. ROSALIE, or, more correctly, in the Italian idiom, Santa Rosalia, was a virgin, beautiful as good, the niece of William the Good, a prince of the Norman line, who reigned in Sicily from 1150 to 1154. William the Good was succeeded by his son William the Bad, under whom the island became the scene of civil wars and all kinds of iniquities. The bad king's fair cousin, Rosalia, had from her infancy shown symptoms of sanctity; and in the sixteenth year of her age. seeing the wickedness of the world, she deserted it altogether, and retired to the solitary mountains. When she disappeared, in 1159, the people thought she had been taken to heaven: but it seems she had only retired to a mountain cave, and having been disturbed in it, she sought the summit of the lofty and rugged mountain Pellegrino, near Palermo, where she lived in a curious natural grotto or cave, until she died. Santa Rosalia died, of course, in the odour of sanctity; and between four and five hundred years afterwards, when Palermo was visited with a dreadful plague (in 1624), some man told the people how he had a vision, that the bones of the saintly virgin were lying unhonoured in the cave at the top of Pellegrino; and that if they were taken up with due reverence, and carried in procession three several times round the walls of the city, the plague would immediately cease. All this was done; the bones (that is, some kind of bones) were preserved in a richly inlaid silver box; the grotto was turned into a place of pilgrimage, having a chapel built at the mouth of the cave; and Santa Rosalia became the tutelar saint of Palermo. The annual celebration of the festival of Santa Rosalia is the grandest in Sicily; and the Sicilians say it is the grandest in the world. It takes place annually in the month of July, at the city of Palermo, and lasts five days. On the first day, a gigantic car, rising up like a tower, eighty feet high, is dragged forth, drawn by a long string of mules or oxen. In this car are seated a great number of musicians, and above them appears a massive silver statue of Santa Rosalia. A grand procession of ecclesiastics, soldiers, &c. &c. accompanies the car, which is taken through the chief streets of Palermo. It is usually splendid weather at the time of the annual celebration of the festival; and the five days of its duration are marked by extraordinary displays of rejoicing, festivity, and at the conclusion there are horse races. This Sicilian festival has been copied by Romish ecclesiastics, who have transplanted themselves and their superstitions from Europe to South America; and our engraving exhibits an amusing and ludicrous travestie of it by the negro slaves. To a thinking mind, the annual celebration of the festival in Sicily is a scene humbling enough, though there the enthusiasm of the people, (who devoutly worship the memory and image of the reputed holy lady) and the splendour of the affair, combine to diminish a feeling of contempt, or at least of regret. Besides, the festival is celebrated in the immediate locality of the place where the hermitic virgin is supposed to have lived her life of seclusion and sanctity. But its celebration in South America, and by the negroes, makes an absurdity exquisitely rich and grotesque, of which our engraving is a happy illustration. The exuberant buoyancy with which the negroes enter into any merry-making or holiday, is a wellknown characteristic; and here we have them in all the wild extravagance of delight. Mark the mock king and queen in the centre of the procession!-their sable majesties are beaming full of glorious gratification, and are sending out upon their subjects gracious and condescending smiles. Flowers are strewn in their path; two of their subjects are in mock prostration before them; another is firing a pistol in the air; behind them is the court; and as the procession of legal and noble personages advances, with banners and music, the air is rent by the shouts of the black multitude. The musicians in the foreground are worthy of special examination; and altogether the whole scene is exceedingly life-like and characteristic. "SHEPHERD, where's your pipe ?" said Miss Amantina Dowsabel Higgins, as she rambled forth one fine summer's morning into the grassy meads, all bespangled with daisies, amid which a purling stream meandered, while the air around was musical with the tinkling of sheepbells, the singing of birds, the humming of bees, and other repeated, in mellifluous accents, to a young countryman, pleasant soun is of rural life: "Where's your pipe?" she who, stretched at his length on the bank of the streamlet, appeared, by the look of bewilderment he turned on the fair questioner, to be utterly confounded and stricken dumb by the effulgent blaze of her charms, even as was the lout Cymon while gazing on Iphigenia. Suspecting this to be the case, and deeming that a confidence, the maiden for the third time sweetly lisped more familiar mode of expressior would inspire him with out the query, substituting, in the place of "Shepherd," the name "Corydon," which she doubted not was the youth's baptismal appellation, and received the following reply: 66 My name ain't Cory Dunn; he lives waggener wid left my pipe at home, cos I ain't got no baccur." Farmer Stubbles. My name's Tom Stiles, miss, and I Alas! what a shock this answer gave to the delicate sensibilities of Miss Amantina, a young lady of a highly nervous temperament, and possessing a heart of the most exquisite sensibility-absolutely overflowing with love and poesy. Of humble parentage but great expectations, the lovely maiden had passed her early years amid the bustle of a commercial city, and well was it for her that the locality chosen by her worthy and respectable progenitors for an abiding place happened to be in a back court, somewhat retired, and that a gentleman, philanthropically disposed, lived next door to her father's "easy shaving |