pallid, withered things, in cellar or garret, here pass the cheerless hours through winter's cold and summer's dusty gloom. My only prospect is a wide expanse of tiles, sometimes even gay under the faint rays of a November sun. But at night, why at night, bright stars gleam, I know them well, such as used to shine over the old trees and older walls of Castle Conellan.

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Rigid abstinence maintains the lamp of life pure, clear, undefiled. I keep no fire, though it be cold at four i' the morn, an hour that never finds me slumbering, but briskly awake to life's great concerns.

"My principal outlay is for stationery. I have written essays, poems, chapters on history, and certain translations, besides editing classic authors with notes and emendations not a few. And wherefore? Why, thou beloved one, I have put them into the hands of booksellers, copying some such circular as the following:

K

Sir, I am desirous of employment for my pen. My expectations are limited, my wants few, my capacity for labour great. I am aware-I speak in all humility-of the infinite insignificance of a poor literary man, compared with individuals like yourself, dealers in the noblest productions of genius living or dead-productions which too often wear down the sands of life to realize! You procure, you part with them for a song. No matter; I too am willing, so far as in me lies, let the task be what it may. A crumb, however meagre, may well suffice for one who asks but what he earns, and cares little, as regards himself, how poorly life's banquet be spread.""

VII.

"Some looked hard, and shook their heads. Heard one rogue mutter to himself: 'Town filled with these damned Irish, professing everything,

fit for nothing.'

'One of the trade' prof

fered a trifle weekly, in consideration of translating the last French romance; getting up school and story books; editing religious publications to suit; preparing sermons for wooden divines, which printed cursive type, and done up in blue wrappers, did duty as manuscript; with my employer's newspaper puffs, and laudatory notices in a periodical in his interests. I was moreover to have an eye to the warehouse, fill up my leisure in making out catalogues, completing indexes, attending sales, and bringing home the books! The next had no ear for my application, but went on to state how he had been to C*, and what extensive orders the University had given him. A generous soul tendered victuals and a pallet over the store! As for the rest, they declined, with varying degrees of courtesy, my productions, one and all. It was plain, the question was not one of litera

ture, but of pounds, shillings, pence. Whywhy, indeed, incur risk, with unknown writers, when works of infinite merit were to be had for nothing! Enough; the children and 'children's children of a man of genius shall starve, while his glorious thoughts fill the pockets and recreate the hearts of thousands. Such the hideous contrast between imagination and reality!"

VIII.

"What thinkest thou, darling! I have become caterer to the mental appetites of this great city; in a word, reporter to the press. Nightly I frequent the house where it is assumed the business of the nation is carried on. Here I listen to effusions, pointless, witty, as the case may be. These, taken down in shorthand, and carefully transcribed, are consigned to the eternity of type.

-

"The reporters include a variety of characters, many of them Irish. Literary hodmen, they may be likened to their brethren in humble life. one conveys mortar, the other brains! helps to construct a house of clay; the other the towering fabric which comprises the history of England and of the world.

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One

'My associates are civil; they invite me to drink, and even to carouse: attentions I would fain decline. They are astonished at forbearance so opposed to their notions of enjoyment and the ends of existence. Seriousness they esteem folly, temperance a sort of suicide. Tut, man, why be melancholy? Need never dig your own grave-some one will be sure to do it for you.' A merry life, if short,' cry these joyous children of a larger growth.

"A gentleman was good enough to conduct me to places worthy of note. Palaces, monuments of the new and olden time, were passed over in