and water to serve another,” may have its origin in the trial by water and fire.

"Tenetur se purgare is qui accusatur, per Dei judicium scilicet per calidum ferrum, vel per aquam, pro diversitate conditionis hominum: vel per ferrum calidum si fuerit homo liber; per aquam, si fuerit rusticus.-Glanv. 1. 14. c. 1.

One cannot but be astonished at the folly and impiety of pronouncing a man guilty unless he was cleared by a miracle; and of expecting that all the powers of Nature should be suspended, by an immediate interposition of Providence, to save the innocent whenever it was presumptuously required.

De Uxore Rapta et Abducta.

In an action the husband may recover, not possession of his wife, but damages for taking her away; and by Stat. West i. 3. Ed. I. c. 13., the offender shall be imprisoned two years, and be fined at the pleasure of the king. Both the king and the husband may therefore have this action.

There is also an action against any one who may persuade and entice the wife to live separate from the husband, without a sufficient cause. The old law was so strict on this point, that if one's wife missed her way upon the road, it was not lawful for another man to take her into his house, unless she were benighted, and in danger of being lost or drowned: but a stranger might carry her behind him on horseback to market, to a justice of the peace for a warrant against her husband, or to the spiritual court to sue for a divorce.

66

Barristers, in the old law books, are styled Apprenticii ad legem," apprentices to the law, being looked upon as merely learners, and not qualified to execute the full office of an advocate, till they were of sixteen years' standing; at which time they might be called to the state and degree of serjeants, or servientes ad legem,"

66

THE BROKEN HEART.

WHAT brings a broken heart? Is it to mourn,
Loss of wealth, or worldly reputation ?
To foster care till on the vitals fed,

Corroding deeply gnaws the chords of life,

And sends the suff"rer to another world?
Is it to mourn

The loss of friends laid low by death
The only friend — the solace of one's days;
Without whose presence all appears a blank -
Perhaps the one whose heart and soul

framed

were

To soothe the cares of life and sweeten joys,
Cut down in loveliness—a blushing rose,
Or virtuous, humble, like some primrose flower,
That, quiet nestling on some mossy bank,
Sheds sweetest fragrance to the summer eve?
Is this the secret force which hurl'd the shaft,
And pierced to death the lonely broken heart?
Affection-'tis indeed a powerful word,
Embracing wide control in every breast,
And often swells to burst with mighty grief.
'Tis she who plants memorials of her love,
And fixes emblems on the silent grave,
The myrtle-tree or sweetly scented brier;
Or on the tomb the wreath of amaranth;
And she it is who, kneeling, worships three
The lifeless clay, once breathing fondest hopes.

Nay Time, which flits along with dusky wing,
O'ershadows all such cares-as mortals we,
So vanish these, as new creations rise.
Time may restore the loss of worldly wealth,

Gain approbation as the long-sought prize;
And deep repentance turn the profligate.
Time new affections and fresh hope inspires,
And thus we make our moves, by lapse of time,
From grief to joy, from joy to grief again.

But what's the broken heart? -Your own sad tears

Which falling fast bewail cold penury?

Or offspring mourning, orphan-like in grief
That melts the little heart and bids it cry
With anguish, which no guilt of his could bring ?
Is it a child adorned with lovely grace,
Beauteous in Nature's pure simplicity,

On whom the parents' fondest hopes were fixed,
Destroyed by the seducer, and left to mourn
Forsaken pledges and the world's cold frown.
What's the broken heart? The answer. - Nay;
That heart can never tell-till cease it may
And beat no more with sorrow, grief, and pain,
Therefore, reader, drop a tear, and pray
That you may never feel a Broken Heart.

"And they shall be one flesh."— Gen. ii. 24.

*

The sweet charities of life,- sympathy, affection, and benevolence are the blessings blended with sorrow, sickness. and infirmity; and from the restraints of temper and mutual forbearance we practise to each other, arise the kindness and goodwill which are the charms of social life. "Of Love there can be no less acknowledged, than that her seat is in the bosom of God, her voice in the harmony of the world; all things do her homage, the very least as feeling her care, and the greatest as not exempted from her power; both angels and men, and creatures of what condition soever, though each in different sorts and manners, yet all with uniform consent, admiring her as the mother of their peace and joy."— Hooker.

'Tis there He sits, the Just, the Good Supreme,
Propounds His laws, and harmonises all,

And leads the tribes of this diminished orb

Through scenes where sense or doubting reason fails.

"Sedea colà, dond' egli, e buono e giusto

Då legge al tutto; e 'l tutto orna, e perduce,

Souvra i bassi confin del mondo angusto,

Ove senso, o ragion non si conduce."-Tasso, cant. ix. sta. 5.

Page 19. — (b)
Job vi.

Job still justifies himself in his complaint. The deep-felt sense of the wrath of God is harder to bear than any outward afflictions.

He

Job reflects upon his friends for their censures. complains of having nothing offered to his relief, but what is in itself tasteless, loathsome and burthensome.

"Law" is Hooker's word.