of the pasengers and entered one of the boats which surrounded us. We were distant from the shore about an eighth of a mile. The wind was blowing a gale and the sea running very high. We had reached about the middle of the intervening space, and were beginning to rejoice at the prospect of a comfortable shelter, when the health-officer, from the steam-vessel, hailed our boatman, ordering him, upon his peril, not to proceed. It seemed some form had been omitted; and, we were kept in the rain, and among the dashing billows, for more than half an hour. Thoroughly vexed at the officer's conduct, we began at last to approach the quay, cold, wet, and comfort. less. Various measures were suggested for bringing him to punishment. An Englishman begged that we would leave it to him, assuring us he was well acquainted with the temperament of the people. Soon after, the official barge approached, and in the prow sat our enemy with that air of superiority characteristic of underlings. With much curiosity we awaited the movements of our British companion. To our astonishment he doffed his hat, and said—addressing the officer-"Your name, sir, if you please." The rowers of the barge slackened their oars and gazed curiously upon their commander; his face was suffused with scarlet--" My name! my name!" he muttered fiercely, and impatiently waving to the oarsmen, they soon shot rapidly away. We looked to the English gentleman for an explanation. "Gentlemen” said he, "be assured I have wounded him to the quick; if I had parleyed with him, his pride would have been gratified; but by asking, in a ceremonious manner, for his name,

in the presence of his men, as if we disdained to do less than complain to his superior, I have both mortified and alarmed him. The formality of my manner has punished him more than words could possibly do." And so it proved. For, on landing, we found him pacing the wharf, and uttering his indignation and fears most violently; while ample apologies were proffered us from all quarters. I afterwards discovered that to bandy words with the lower classes of Italy, was but to waste one's breath and subject the patience to a great trial;-to meet them on their own ground and give them the advantage which the fluency of their language affords. They must be addressed by the language of manner, to which they are peculiarly susceptible. There is a power in manner. How finely Byron describes, in the bearing of Conrad

"that commanding art

That dazzles, leads, yet chills the vulgar heart."

Who that is susceptible to nature, will deny that the sway of manner consists in its truth? We speak of the impressive dignity of some of the Indian tribes; kings might strive to imitate it in vain. It is the gift of nature-the ennobling grace of the forest lords. The companionship of genius-when do we most perfectly realise it? When enthusiasm has led the gifted mind into such an outpouring that manner is forgotten, and every look and movement is instinct with soul. In aged persons and children-those who have lived too long to meditate effect, and those who, as yet, listen only to the inward oracle, we most frequently see the perfect spell of manner. What a world

of allurement is involved in the common phrase, an unaffected manner! Nothing is so delightful as what is spon. taneous. A frank expression of sentiment, a native manner, captivate; thrice happy when the latter is habitual. Memnon's image imparted not its mysterious strains except at the touch of the sunbeams, nor will manner yield its true witchery from any inspiration but that of the soul.

PET-NOTIONS.

OUR loving tendencies, like Bob Acres' valor, sometime ooze out, if not from the finger ends, yet in forms the most various and fantastic imaginable. All of us have our little oddities, minor loves and minor interests, objects trifling, and perhaps ridiculous in themselves, and yet were we at strict confessional, perchance, it would appear that these pet-notions are as much heart-binders as mightier things. For my part, I see nothing to be ashamed of in the minute eccentricities of our wayward hearts, restless minds, or fanciful idealities. I love to see human nature vindicate itself, however quaintly. It is a proof of the ethereal essence of the soul that when a man is entombed between four bare walls, he will, like poor Trenck, cherish amity with a dungeon mouse, or love, like Pellico, of prison memory, to minister to the pleasure of a spider. Pet-notions, like every other species of the immense family of notions, are highly reprehensible in their excess. When instead of serving their appropriate office of nooks for the play of our little amiable humors, they are made the sole fields for the free bound

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ing affections to revel in, then are pet-notions rendered stocks wherein to cramp and pervert humanity. I would fain believe that this is less the case than formerly. Here and there only in the wide world, I ween, may the woman now be found whose love has yielded up its sanctity, and become concentrated in a poodle-dog or a parrot. The pet-notions of our day, I take to be legitimate, and not seldom interesting. They are what they should be, tiny curious leaves, peeping out comically from among the more umbrageous foliage of our love-bowers.

Few things minister more generally and appropriately to the pet passions than flowers. Beautiful provision does Flora make for our little loves. I marvel not that many are touched with an universal affection for the entire contents of the goddess's cornucopia; and, like Horace Smith, merge in attachment to the delightful family their partiality for an individual member, and exclaim, with that fond bard,

"Floral apostles! that in dewy splendor

Weep without wo, and blush without a crime!
O may 1 deeply learn and ne'er surrender

Your lore sublime!"

But it is essential to a pet-passion that its objects should be petty and single, minute, and, as far as may be, unique. Accordingly those who love flowers at all, generally love, with especial affection, a particular species. Could the truth be known, I think the above-named Horace is partial to some bell-flower, he speaks so touchingly of the

"Floral bell that swingeth

And tolls its perfume on the passing air."