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relative to the new comedy of which M. de Blacas had already spoken to him. The minister in vain attempted to evade the subject; but at length he had to produce the rapport, and began to read it. I guessed," said his Majesty, "that it was the Famille Glinet'-read it." The minister tried to read something quite different from what he had written; but his confusion was too visible, and the King was not to be deceived thus; so at last, finding all attempts at concealment useless, he read aloud to the King the severe criticism he had written on the Royal performance, little guessing whose work he had been thus cruelly attacking. When he had finished, his Majesty took up the defence of the piece with skill and energy; the minister was, as you may imagine, soon converted to the King's opinion, and the piece was allowed to appear.

I heard the other day an anecdote which justifies the remark that "truth is often stranger than fiction." An old woman, a short time ago, on her death-bed, called her nephew, who was also her heir, and revealed to him that eight years before, she had gone to Paris to receive some money which was due to her-a sum of fourteen thousand francs received in bank-notes -she wrapped them up in an old newspaper, and placed them, with different other things, on the mantel-piece of the room of the inn where she was staying, while she sat down to write to her husband, to tell him she had recieved the money. The letter written, she determined that instead of trusting it to any one, she would put it herself in the post; and accordingly left the hotel, for the purpose. On going out, she left her key with the porter, with directions to light a fire in her room at eight o'clock. Towards half-past seven, whilst at the house of one of her acquaintances, it suddenly occurred to her that she had left her bank-notes on the mantel-piece at the hotel. She immediately returned in search of them, went up to her room, where the fire was lighted according to her directions; but the packet of bank-notes had disappeared. She rang. A young girl answered the bell; of whom she demanded who had lighted the fire. It was the girl herself. The owner of the bank-notes asked had she seen them. She answered in the negative. At last the master of the hotel was called, and the affair related to him. It then was proved that the only person who entered the room was the girl who lighted the fire. The master of the house had confidence in the girl's honesty; but as appearances were certainly against her, the whole affair was placed in the hands of the police, and the girl arrested. She was condemned, on her trial, to three years' imprisonment; but the money was not found after the expiration of the three years. The girl came to the house of the owner of the unlucky banknotes, reproached her as the cause of her ruin and dishonour: the old lady was touched: it occurred to her-supposing, after all, the woman was innocent! Her guilt had never been satisfactorily proved; nor had the strictest researches

been able to discover what she had done with the money she was accused of taking. At the time of her arrest she had been on the point of marrying an honest workman; and now she would have the greatest difficulty in placing herself in service again. Instigated by the desire to repair, as far as in her lay, the injury sle might have caused this young woman, the old lady determined to take her into her service, and try her; and never had she cause to regret having done so. She now revealed all to the nephew, expressing her full belief of the innocence of her servant, and desiring them always to retain her in the family, and not to reveal her secret. The next day the old lady died, leaving about two hundred thousand francs to her nephew.

The nephew came a short time ago to Paris, to pass a few months of the winter-season; he went to an hotel in the Rue du Helder, where he established himself very comfortably. One evening, after returning home, he heard, in the room adjoining that in which he was, the sound of voices and laughter. Evidently his neighbours were in high glee. Overhearing some words, his curiosity was piqued, and he approached the partition, in order to hear more distinctly (and yet there are some men who pretend to say that it is only women who are curious!). In this laudable attempt our hero discovered that there had formerly been a door of communication between the room he occupied and that in which his gay neighbours were enjoying themselves. The hole where the lock had been was filled up with sealing-wax, so that there was no chance of seeing through that; but his curiosity was excited, and in looking about he saw that there had been a space at the top of the door, which was stuffed up with old paper. He pulled it out, and his curiosity was gratified with a view of his next-door neighbours. His efforts being thus crowned with success he went to bed, and fell asleep. The next morning, wishing to remove the proofs of his curiosity, he took the packet of old newspapers, with the intention of replacing them; when in so doing, out fell the fourteen billet de mille francs, evidently those of his aunt. The master of the house was called. He remembered perfectly the circumstance. The servant was sent for: she recognised the room. The young man offered to make public reparation, and establish her innocence; but the poor woman preferred letting all the affair rest in oblivion. The story was forgotten, she said: why revive it? The young man handed her over the billets, which had been the cause of so much sorrow to her. After all, they were hardly earned.

But what a letter you have to wade though. My dear C―, next month I hope I shall have some good new pieces to tell you of; but au revoir.

Yours faithfully,

P

BACHELORS.-A bachelor, sick and solitary, in lodgings; and what can there be more forlorn, more neglected, more miserable on this round earth? An Indian dying amongst the brakes and bushes, alone, in the great solitude of the forest, where his enemies have struck him down; a wounded man who sees the condor and the vulture swoop over him in preparation for their living meal; a strayer from his caravan in the desert, with half-a-dozen Bedouins looking inquisitively at him-all these are very miserable positions for a man to be placed in; but a sick bachelor in London chambers is even worse off than they, for he has the solitude and the bird of prey, the skirmishers and the robber, all in one; and he is just as helpless as any of the more romantic heroes. God help the poor wretches! they learn the value of womankind sometimes.-Eliza Lynn.

Why do we think entire recovery from sorrow desirable? Why seek to efface, to ignore, if it were possible to forget, the affliction which is sent to sanctify our energies? When God strikes our goodly fabric to the earth, surely he does not always intend to begin forthwith to construct another out of the ruins. He would, perhaps, rather teach us to live without these earthly tabernacles, in expectation of that house built without hands, eternal in the heavens!-Story of a Family.

Good people sin in their virtues as well as bad people in their vices.-Miss Sewell.

THE APPEALS OF NATURE.-It is well when time and opportunity are given us to wander over the wide field of Nature, to look upon the clouds, and streams, and green meadows, and flowers. They bring their soothing influence to our spirits: they can remind us of the God who made the world, and who cared not only to create all these beautiful objects, but who has a daily, hourly regard for them, and feeds them with sun and rain from heaven, and with morn and nightly dews. That sunbeam which falls upon the hills, that gentle wind which sweeps the dry leaf before it, or that dew-drop glistening on the slender blade of grass, has not only its destined purpose in the economy of nature, but it has a beauty too, with which to delight our intellect. We pause to regard it, and our mental perception is not only quickened, but elevated. We learn to love grace, and beauty, and order, wherever we find them, and are acquiring continually ideas such as are unknown to those who look with careless eye on the natural world. There are multitudes to whom

these things appeal in vain. Their minds have never yet awakened to a perception of the beauty which lies amid their daily paths. And so the tree may wave ever so gracefully, and the wind whisper ever so musically, and no joy shall reach them, and no sweet memories linger either for sight or sound. Not thus coldly let us look on nature, which is the open book of God!—Anne Pratt's "Green Fields and their Grasses."

MARRIAGE has been termed a lottery; and looking at the short acquaintance on which it is often con

tracted, it is, in truth, little else. If a man, however, has made an imprudent, or, as in many cases it may be called, an unlucky choice, he has a resource-a miserable one though it be-in the dissipation of the world, or, if he be of a better mould of inind, in its business; but a woman stakes her whole

wealth of happiness in the purchase of the ticket, and if it arises a blank, she is ruined.

"There are travellers," observes the late Dr. Channing, the celebrated American philanthropist, "from that great city (London) who come to visit our Indians, but who leave at home a community as essentially barbarous as that which they seek, who, perhaps, have spent all their lives in the midst of it, giving it no thought. To these travellers, a house in one of the suburbs which they had just left, would be as strange a place as the wigwam of our own forests. They know as little what thousands of their own city suffer, to what extremities thortsands are reduced, by what art thousands live, as they know of the modes of life in savage tribes. How much more useful lessons would they learn, and how much holier feelings would be awakened in them, were they to penetrate the dens of want, and woe, and crime, a few steps from their own door, than they gain from exploring this new world!

THE VALUE OF FEMALE INDUSTRY. - At a dinner at Limerick, some short time back, Mr. Dargan, in reference to female labour, said, "I believe it a source of more value than any other branch of industry practised in Ireland. When I was in Belfast the other day, I was astonished to hear that two millions of money come to this country from the labour of these girls. There is no education of greater importance to females than the cultivation of habits of industry; in fact, there is not an act of their lives which is not improved by it; and if we needed corroboration upon the subject, we would find it in the reply of Madame de Stäel, when Napoleon Bonaparte asked her how he could make France a great nation. The reply was, Educate the mothers.""

MILTON tells us that Truth is as impossible to be soiled by an outward touch as the sunbeams.

CHILDHOOD'S TRUST.-"I asked God to take care of Johnny, and then I went to sleep," said a little boy, giving an account of his wandering in the wood. How sublime! how touching! Holy childhood! Let me sit at thy feet, and learn of thee. How dost thou rebuke me with thy simple faith and earnest love! Oh earth! what dost thou give us in exchange for its loss?-Rainbows that melt as we gaze; bubbles that burst as we grasp; dewdrops that exhale as our eye catches their sparkle. The warm heart chilled by selfishness, fenced in by doubts, and thrown back upon itself. Eye, lip, and brow, trained to tell no tale at the portal, of what passes within the temple. Tears locked in their fountain, save when our own household gods are shivered. The great strife, not which shall "love most," but "which shall be the greater;" and aching hearts the stepping-stones to wealth and power. Immortal, yet earth-wedded! Playing with shells upon the shore of Time, with the broad ocean trifles, forgetting to "ask God to take care of of Eternity before us. Careful and troubled about Johnny"-and so, the long night of death comes on, and we sleep our last sleep!-Fanny Fern.

MODERATE DESIRES.-Is that beast better that hath two or three mountains to graze on, than a little bee that feeds on dew and manna, and lives upon what falls every morning from the store-houses

of heaven, clouds, and providence? Can a man quench his thirst better out of a river than a full urn, or drink better from the fountain when it is finely paved with marble, than when it swells over the green turf? He that propounds to his fancy things greater than himself or his needs, and is dis

content and troubled when he fails of such purchases, ought not to abuse Providence, or blame his fortune, but his folly. God and nature made no more needs than they mean to satisfy; and he that will make more, must look for satisfaction where he can,Jeremy Taylor,

THE HERO'S CHILD, AND Other Poems, By Anna M. Debenham. (Hughes, Ave-Marialane, 1853):

"Poetry," says the authoress, in the first parágraph of her preface, "in so far as it is true, will find an echo in the hearts of others, and, despite metrical inequalities and mechanical imperfections, will live; but, however beautiful the imagery may be, or harmonious the verse, if it is merely the reflection of feeling, and not feeling itself, it will never rest in the mind, or waken our interest."

Now, while we are at one with Anna M. Debenham in believing that feeling and truth, and not the mere reflection of them, give life to poetry, that metrical harmony and natural music which, in fact, distinguish it from prose. Poetry cannot be perfect unless the rhythmical arrangement of the words is in strict conformity with the rules of versification. Wanting this, it is but dislocated rhyming. There may be poetical imagery, and all that constitutes the essential qualities of poetry as regards thought and imagination, in prose; but to make it poetry we must add the melody of rhythm and the music of measure. The only praise that can be conscientiously awarded to the effusions in the volume before us is, that they are of a moral character, and therefore perfectly harmless. The author possesses a love for versification, but is deficient in ear, and therefore strikes the harp with no accurate hand; nor do her essays betray imagination or fancy. A pious and Christian spirit pervades them; but of all classes of verse, there is none which more demands the higher excellencies of graceful melody, and select, if not original forms of thought, than devotional poetry. The Kebles and Montgomeries are rare in the land; nor does our author add a new chorister to the sacred band. It would be difficult to give the reader a better sample of her verses than the lines which follow:

we maintain that it cannot even exist without

"Then sunny banks for violets were search'd,

Till the quick rustling of dry withered leaves
Warn'd of the gliding snake, and but enhanced
Their value, as we shrinking started back,
And then with timid boldness gather'd more.
Then, tired and panting with our willing toil,
We'd form a garland of those flow'rets sweet,
To welcome the return of joyous Spring;
Or, resting on the margin of a pool,
Whose dark and stagnant waters were o'erspread
With a thick covering of living green,
We'd weave the pliant rushes in a crown,
To dignify the favourite of the day.

How fondly does the sear'd and anxious heart
Of manhood love to dwell upon the scenes
Of his first buoyant youth, and even now
The faint oppressive odour of the furze,
And the aroma of the spicy thyme,

Yield me unmix'd delight."-Vide page 135. THE HUMAN HAIR POPULARLY AND PHYSIOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. By Alexander Rowland. (Piper, Brothers, & Co., Paternosterrow.)- We confess to having taken up this work with some misgivings. A vision of a dry abstract volume occurred to us, and we opened it with apprehension; but having done so, the collected quite a repertoire of curious and interdifficulty was to lay it down. Mr. Rowland has esting information, of so varied and unhacknied a character as to render the volume, even in a literary point of view, a highly agreeable one. Beginning with Scripture history, the author has traced the various usages connected with the subject down to the present time; has dilated on the various modes of its arrangement and treatment-its geographical varieties and historical associations; and has scattered through the whole so many agreeable anecdotes and useful hints, that its perusal will amply repay the time bestowed in reading it :

"When I first commenced my inquiries," observes the writer, there was a remarkable paucity of materials to assist me in my illustrations and inresearches extended, I discovered in the field of vestigations; but gradually, year by year, as my continental and English literature, scattered through a variety of volumes of standard reputation among the medical profession, various incidental references, elaborate essays, curious facts recorded and novel theories advanced, which aided me materially in my elucidations. Delving into this explored mine I have been able to bring to light much that is curious and instructive, and which had long lain buried and hidden among the purely technical information with which it was surrounded. I have aimed at no elegant writing; but have contented myself with the simple narration of facts and opinions, interspersed with anecdotes bearing on the subject." This, then, is the history of the volume, which, as a compilation, evidences much industry, patient research, and considerable cleverness in its arrangement. In the chapter on "Scriptural notices of the Hair," the author observes:

"It was usual with the heathens to make vows tnat they would suffer their hair or their beards to grow till they had accomplished certain things. Civilis having taken arms against the Romans, vowed never to cut off his hair (which was of a red colour, and which, out of mere artifice, he wore

long-after the manner of the Germans) till he had defeated the legion (Tacitus Hist., lib. iv.) . . . The practice of shaving the head in token of great affliction and humiliation for sin, was common among the Hebrews, even as early as Job's day. (Job ch. i., V., xx.) Sometimes the mode of expressing sorrow was by plucking the hair out by the roots, or cutting off the beard. .. Lucian says that the Egyptians expressed their grief by cutting off their hair, on the death of their god Apis; and the Syrians, in the

same manner, at the death of Adonis. The idea seems to have been that mourners should divest themselves of that which was usually deemed most ornamental-an idea which lies at the foundation of mourning in all countries and all ages."

According to Mr. Rowland (and his authorities are excellently chosen) the practice of powdering the hair is of very remote antiquity :

"In the time of David, the hair was accounted a great ornament; and the longer it was, the more it was esteemed. They were in the habit of powdering it with dust of gold. Josephus informs us that such ostentation was in use amongst the Jews; for, speaking of the guard which attended Solomon, with long flowing hair about their shoulders, he says that "They scattered in their hair, every day, little particles of gold, which made their hair shine and sparkle by the reflection of the rays of the sun upon it.'. The Emperor Commodus, for one, is said to have powdered his hair with gold" -a fashion which, the author tells us, it has been attempted to revive in France. At Paris several belles have recently appeared, in the first boxes of the theatre, with their hair thus glitteringly powdered.

"There were five or six merveilleuses in gold and silver powder. It had a ravishing effect. They might have been called the Danæ powdered by Jupiter. The most remarkable of the brunettes, in gold powder, was Mdlle. Fould, a lady of the high

financial circle. The silver powder was most adora

bly wedded to the locks of that young and charming foreigner and Spanish blonde, Mdlle. Montijo, since become the Empress of the French."

said to Douglas Jerrold, 'I cannot imagine what makes my hair turn grey. I sometimes fancy it must be the essence of rosemary with which my maid is in the habit of brushing it. What do you think?' 'I should rather be afraid, Madam,' replied the distinguished dramatist, drily, 'that it is the essence of time!'"

Speaking of the treatment of the hair, Mr. Rowland reminds us, that oil has been used from the beginning to supply the deficiency of oleaginous secretions, and to increase and beautify the hair.

"Oil," he says, "if not applied too copiously, will keep the hair in curl during moist or damp weather, as well as in the ball-room, theatre, and other places of public amusement. Hair loses its curl when it imbibes moisture, and oil prevents this."

Few of our readers but have proved the effect of the author's incomparable macassar oil, in producing these results, and in imparting that smooth and brilliant appearance, which gives such elegance and beauty to this natural ornament of the human face. The use of perfumed oils amongst the Hebrews, as well as by the classic nations of antiquity, is well authenticated; and the practice seems so universal, as to resemble rather an instinct of nature's planting than a borrowed usage; it is as native to the aborigines of the Pacific Islands as to the toilets of the most sophisticated followers of fashion at home.

"Cocoa-nut oil," says Mr. Rowland, "is often scented with aromatic herbs at Tahiti, to be employed by the natives in anointing the hair and body. At the island of Tongatubu, small calabashes (fruit of Melodinus scandens) are filled with cocoanut oil, perfumed by the sandal-wood, or various sweet-scented flowers indigenous to the island." The chapters on the "Trade and Commerce" in human hair, and on Pigtails and Powder," are remarkably amusing, and contain much that will be new to the majority of readers; in the latter article there occurs the following paragraph, quoted from a recent writer :

:

"It is a great mistake to suppose that grey hairs are the natural indication of old age; such is not the fact. I have seen grey hairs in children not exceed ing six years old; and it is very common to see youth of both sexes with quite a mixture of grey hairs; and from twenty to twenty-five with heads that look as though seventy winters had passed over them. On the other hand," he remarks, "I am personally acquainted with a gentleman, over seventy years of age, who has not a grey hair in his head; proving conclusively that age has nothing to do with the absence of colouring-matter in the hair. Neither does it affect, in any perceptible manner, the vitality of the hair. An anecdote as to the cause of grey hair may be appropriately given here. At a private party in London, a lady, who though in the autumn of life, had not lost all dreams of its spring,

tions of nature, he had recourse to an opposite part of the frame, and placed his tail or cue upon his head. There was the thick braid of hair hanging down between the shoulders; the smaller tail tightly bound up with black ribbon; the loosely-tied tail; the tail of the courtier, with a bag attached to it; the short medical tail, the gentleman's tail, and military tail of all kinds; the most whimsical of which was that invented in the time of the Duke of York, which looking like a small riding-whip, and hanging between the shoulders, was supposed to ward off the cut of a sabre; but which caused so much pain and inconvenience when fastened to the hair, that officers frequently attached theirs to their caps or helmets; and a row of tails might be seen hanging up in the hall, while their owners were at dinner rejoicing in their freedom."

From the specimens we have given of the very agreeable manner in which Mr. Rowland has

"It seems to me," observes the reverend gentleman, "that no senatorial or other wisdom will ever devise any method better calculated to secure the education of the young in this country, where at

of the Council, namely, by means of a Central Board, successfully carried into operation by the Committee to lend due and judicious help to local endeavours in proportion to their own exertions. Give the adult the same advantage."

And he goes on to show how, with existing materials, an apparatus for the working out of this admirable scheme might be effected

NATIONAL ADULT EDUCATION. By the Rev. F. O. Morris, B. A.-(Groombridge and Sons, 5, Paternoster Row.)-In these days of sectarian prejudices, and bitter party bickerings, when men arise in the holy name of religion to throw impediments in the path of human progress, and because they cannot make all sects see alike, endeavour to quench the side-lights of knowledge, and leave the children of the poor in the thick darkness of ignorance, the sentiments of this essay, originally read before the "British Association for the Advancement of Science, at their Session at Hull, September, 1853," are not less creditable to the understanding of the writer as a teacher in the highest sense of the word, than to the wide heart and expansive mind of the man full (it is easy to perceive) of love to the Creator, and of gentle, kindly sympathies for humanity. As a naturalist, the reverend writer is well known; and the gentle tastes engendered by this charming study-a reflexion, as it were, of the beneficent spirit which in the course of it he has observed in all the ways and works of the Almighty's hands, with which his pursuits have made him so intimately and minutely acquainted, seem to pervade these pages-a desire for the happiness and improvement of his species--a wish to make all mankind partakers with himself of that wisdom whose ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths peace. A lover of Mechanic's Institutes, and of other societies for the diffusion of mental culture-perceiving the failure of one after another of these establishments, Mr. Morris comes forward with a plan for the projection of People's Colleges to supply the great body of the people with the daily acquirement of knowledge throughout life; the opportunity for advancement in which generally ceases for them at the time when it is most requisite and desirable.

tions to those already adopted by the sister institution for admission and inspection. It should be a source of example, advice, imitation, and communication. It might be amalgamated from various metropolitan bodies already in existence. It should be in connection with the Board of Trade, the Museum of Practical Geology, with the Government School of Mines and of Science, applied to the Arts, with a central school of design, for improving the arts of weaving, printing, decorating, building, and mouldthe' Educational Committee of the Government. ing; and above all, as already touched upon, with In short, if so it might be, I would have each and every institution for the advancement of learning and science, working together in harmonious cooperation as parts of one general scheme for the elevation of the people."

Nor would this amiable theorist debar women from the advantages of this great plan of National Adult Education. Incidentally he observes

tion likewise of the adult female population, whose "That something should be done for the educainfluence on the community at large no one can over-estimate. Two Colleges for such are, I believe, already established in London; and this beginning might be further advanced with and improved upon in various ways in this country. I do not hesitate to say, that while many women give ample proof that their mental powers are, in their way, fully equal to those of men, the ignorance of a vast proportion even of the upper classes is most deplorable." The following passage is pleasingly suggestive of the good which might accrue from the organization of this central plan :—

*

"Who can over-estimate the value to the large towns, of having in their turn scientific associations, off-shoots of the metropolitan one, established in them, on really good and permanent bases; foundations in fact acknowledged by, supported by, and connected with the government of the country! Every country town, nay, even the villages, should be encouraged in like manner," &c. &c. This truly excellent suggestion is followed by a sketch of the sort of building required, the mode of fitting it up, and the contents desirable for Nor are amusements the shelves and cases. forgotten; the music-hall and chess-room in