TOWN v. COLLEGE.

The

Thursday, May 13th, the day appointed' for this match was as good a one as could have been desired. The light was good though not glaring, the weather not too hot, and the wind just sufficient to make shooting a little precarious, and judgment in aiming valuable. The town eleven, drawn mainly from the ranks of the 17th Wilts, with some assistance from the P.W.O.R.R.W.Y.C., could not conveniently meet before 4 o'clock; so they allowed the College to shoot first at 200 yds., who in return gave them first innings at 500. At the first range the M.C.R.C. scored 127, headed by Fenwick and Coates with the capital score of 16; the third round reached a total of 30, but none of the others were brilliant. Town followed, and their sighting shots appeared to indicate that they would fall far behind: but they improved rapidly, and ended with 116, only 11 in arrear. Proceeding to 500 they made a much more formidable show and gained 115 more, six of their men making good scores, notably Quarter-MasterSerg. Chate who has so often figured conspicuously in this match. The College had now 104 to get, and set about it with some doubts as to the result. At first things promised well, but when the 3rd round fell to 18 doubts became serious fears. For the last two rounds the state of the score was carefully concealed, and when added up, amid great excitement

66 Luxton

Humphreys

Serg. Bull

The Elevens dined together in the College Hall, when Mr. Chate promised the M.C.R.V.C. another match against the 17th Wilts alone.

NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY.
MEETING HELD MAY 14TH.

The following donations were announced, and thanks ordered to be given to the donors :

A model of a canoe and an ornament from the head of a canoe from the Fejee Islands, and two grass cloaks from New Zealand, by W. S. Bambridge, Esq.

A collection of minerals from the Botallack Mine in Cornwall, by - Borlase.

A specimen of Stigmaria from Forest of Dean, by Mrs. Jones.

Some Fossils from the Lias near Cardiff, by G. E. Manisty.

Specimens of Iron Pyrites, by G. C. Mansel.
Specimen of Malachite, by H. J. Verrall.

Collections of Coins, by Rev. C. Soames, Furneaux, and M. H. Smith.

M. H. GOULD, in proposing the motion, first of all dwelt on the principles of liberty, showing that in all social acts the law has power to control individuals, also giving reasons why education should come under that category.-Having proved this point he proceeded to deal with the objections which might be brought against the motion. 1. That to educate the lower classes would be dangerous. 2. That the voluntary system is preferable. 3. That the compulsory system would be a hardship to poor parents. Next he quoted the examples of Prussia and Saxony,

and contrasted their state of education with ours. He then suggested a system for the carrying out of compulsory education, and concluded by showing th importance of education to England at this time.

A. R. BAKER supported the motion.

R. S. BROWN, in supporting the motion, dealt with the question of secular and religious schools, showing that this difficulty was not insurmountable. He als said that an improved state of education would diminish pauperism.

A. De B. HOVELL insisted on the hardship that compulsory system would be to parents, and maintained that an education that was forced upon a nation would not produce much results. He also dealt with the statements about Prussia.

R. ROCKE divided his speech into four heads. 1. The principle was opposed to the true ideas of liberty 2. The system would not be successful in practice. 3. The example of Prussia was not a fair one for England, the government of Prussia being in fact a military despotism. 4. That general intelligence and material prosperity would spontaneously produce improved education.

W. S. DIXON-It is the duty of a government to provide education. That the voluntary system would be if practicable the best; but the statistics show that it must fail. The compulsory system ought therefore to be adopted as second best.

F. GILES Showed that a compulsory education would be likely to prevent improvident marriages, and that the population would thus be kept down and misery diminished.

C. HAWKINS opposed the motion, insisting on the loss of wages incurred, and the hardship to private schoolmasters.

M. H. Gould replied, dwelling chiefly on R. Rocke's objections.

The debate was spirited and successful.

R. S. BROWN and E. C. LAWFORD have been elected members of the Society.

THREE PICTURES.

FEW things are more dreary than a literary jog-trot round a Picture Gallery-a thing written to order and calculated neither to amuse nor edify. I hope that by briefly noticing three pictures (and no more) in this year's Academy, I may avoid falling into the same kind of mistake.

Your readers are no doubt aware that the Academy Exhibition is this year held for the first time in the very fine new set of rooms at Burlington House. Water-colours, engravings, and statuary, are all on the same floor as the main part of the exhibition. The rooms themselves are well-proportioned and well-lighted, and the whole collection looks a much more complete and dignified thing than it used to do in Trafalgar Square.

The first of my three pictures is by Armitage, No. 108; Armitage is a rising Associate: and the subject of this picture is "Hero placing the Beacon Light for Leander." The picture is a very uncommon one. Hero, a little over life size, is standing, with the right side turned toward you, a slight veil floating over her on the off side, and her full face looking hitherward out over the sea. She is on the top of the tower, and stands on plain slabs of white stone, with

PRICE 3d.

one shallow step on which is a dark plain pedestal supporting the iron framework for the lamp. Hero is in the act of raising the flaring lamp-one of the antique sort, a wick in a shallow vase of oiland placing it on the framework. She is no fragile, common place creature, but creates the impression of strength and resolution while intently fixed on the still distant objection of her devotion. The priestess is by no means lost in the lover-and the whole figure, attitude, and situation are thoroughly Greek; the face especially so, quite a remarkable bit of classical reproduction. The paleness of the figure and flare of the lamp are perfectly brought out against a deep blue night-sky for a back-ground with a few stars appearing.

The second picture is by Armitage also. It is the "Calling of James and John" on the Lake of Gennesaret, No. 365. This is a picture of much smaller size. The measurement would hardly exceed four feet by two and a half. The same intense character of colour prevails as in the "Hero"-It is sunset: the lake is stretching away into the distance, where it is skirted by a range of hills with the setting sunlight upon them. Quite in the foreground is a little point of land raised a few feet above the waterline. The boat has just put into this little headland; one of the two brothers is furling the single sail, the

other is seated in the bows, Zebedee is crouching by the mast. There is a fourth figure of a half-naked boatman, leaning over the yonder side down by the stern. John, James, and Zebedee are all facing this way. Zebedee is gazing with the open-eyed but stolid look of an old man who can no more feel surprise, but whose attention is arrested. John and James are better seen than described. They do not drop what work they have on hand, but with differing faces made like only by a community of first enthusiasm, they are entirely concentrated upon the nearest figure of three on the little headland. The two hinder ones are Peter and Andrew, men already advanced in years, one with a large bundle of necessaries, the other with a water jar or flagon over his shoulder. A little in advance, between these and the boat is The Lord. It is a representation worth going some way to see. The figure is in strong relief against the sky over the hills to the south, and the sunlight falls on it from behind. There is a slight bend forward, and one hand is held out a little; the general attitude is one of complete stillness, as though an order were being issued which it was perfectly natural to make, and which would quite certainly be obeyed.

The last picture is "Dr. Johnson's Penance in the Market Place," by Crowe, No. 768. The treatment is commonplace: but the occasion is so remarkable, and so little remembered now that biographies of our best men are too little read, that I will end this paper with a version of it. It was 1784, the last year of Johnson's life, when he was seventy-five years old, that he bethought him of a youthful offence against his father. In his boyhood his father had kept a bookstall in Uttoxeter Market-place, and on one occasion, being unwell, he had asked his son Samuel to go to market and keep the stall for him. But Samuel, being proud, met his father with a refusal. "I have therefore," he said, telling the tale of his penance the same day to a friend, "gone this day into the market-place of Uttoxeter, at the hour offullest business, and stood there uncovered for the space an hour, exposed to the jeers of the populace and the inclemency of the weather, and I trust that by this penance I have made some amends for this one only act of contumely against my father." The general treatment is, as we said, common: but the

figure of Johnson, on the lowest step of the market cross, would not soon be forgotten, as the story itsel ought not to be.

A MOTHER'S LOVE.

The fire burns bright, and its cheerful light
Is dancing about the room:

As the wan stars fly from the morning sky,
So flieth the twilight gloom.

And a lady fair is sitting there,

And watching the red flames dance,
And a rosy flush, like the morning's blush,
They throw o'er her countenance.

But her head is bowed, and a gloomy cloud
Of sorrow rests on her brow,
And her eyes are dim with weeping for him
Who sleeps where the salt tides flow.

Oft had she stood by the weltering flood,
To watch for his bark's white sail;
But the ocean woke, and its fetters broke,
When lashed by the cruel gale.

And the billows dark, they smote his bark,
As the woodman smites the pride
Of the forest green with his hatchet keen,
And she sank in the boiling tide.

A few there were, with the strength of despair
Who fought with the rushing seas,
And reached the strand of a friendly land,
But her son was not of these.

M.

The great waves swept o'er the place where he slept,
In the seaweed's strong coils bound;
The winds made moan for the widow's son,
And the sea-birds wailed around.

Her cheek grew pale when she heard the tale, And her quivering lips revealed

That the deadly dart had reached her heart, But the fount of tears was sealed.

She turned away from the mast-thronged bay,
And the lines of ocean foam;

She turned from those who mourned her woes,
And sought her desolate home.

And then, like a river whose swollen tides sever
Mountainous banks in their wroth,-

Like a desert steed in its headlong speed,—
The torrent of tears brake forth.

Like a bark that drifts thro' the yawning rifts

And hills of the furrowed sea,

When the stars are dim, and the storm-clouds swim Through the dark sky wearily.

She drifted away from the peaceful bay

And the haven of her rest,

With a mind distraught by passionate thought,
And an aching void in her breast.

Year after year on an icy bier

Was borne to its winter tomb,

But she saw not the light, would have led her aright, As she wandered in rayless gloom.

With anguish blind her maddening mind

Could only think of her son:

She could not frame the holy name,

And say," Thy will be done."

But see, as she sits, o'er her face there flits

A spasm of agony,

And the tears again her pale cheeks stain,
As she turns to the casement nigh.

Thro' the leaf-twined bars she looks to the stars,
And her pallid lips they part,

And a passionate cry shrills forth on high,
From the depths of a broken heart.

"My child, O my child!" That outcry wild
To the sheeny stars doth soar,
Like an eagle cleaves the misty wreaths
On the crest of a mountain hoar.

And silence again doth twine her chain

Of horror about the soul;

But lo! the stars pale, and the filmy vail
Of mist from the sky doth roll.

A glory of light floats down thro' the night,
From those orbs of quivering fire,

And a murmur doth come from the spangled dome,
Like the sound of a spirit-lyre.

O is it a dream, or a fitful gleam
Of the life beyond the tomb?

Or is it in trath a radiant youth,

Who bends from the cloven gloom?

Hath a mother's love such might above,
That the viewless own its power,

And wing their flight from the halls of light,
When earth's dark gloom doth lower?

A loving kiss of perfect bliss

On her pallid lips is pressed,

And she is aware of a voice at her ear,
That murmurs of deathless rest.

The sun from his rest, like a giant refreshed
With honey-hearted wine,

Leapt up, armed in gold, and an anthem was rolled
To the gates of his palace divine.

As a flame doth rise, to the azure skies
From the myriad voices of earth,
At the first faint beat of his hastening feet
Arose that carol of mirth.

The haunted gloom in that lonely room
Fled with the flight of night,
And the arrowy rays o'er the lady's face
Cast a glory of coloured light.

But she did not rise, and her mournful eyes
Were sealed with the seal of death;
That last long kiss, the crown of her bliss,
Had reft her of life and breath.

CHARACTERISTICS OF EARLY AS OPPOSED TO LATER LITERATURE.

It has often been maintained that the effect of a high civilization on the literature of a country is bad; that as a country gets older, as her material comforts and luxury increase, her literature loses its spontaneity and freshness, that its reality is proportioned in an inverse ratio to its refinement. How far this is true is a question that we can hardly answer in the present paper, and the assertion has only been quoted as expressing though somewhat roughly, the broad differences between early and late literature.

The first is spontaneous and natural: the second refined and artistic. The first is the literature of feeling, the second of thought. Not unfrequently of course these lines of difference are not preserved; and we may find late on in a country's history a writer completely imbued with the spirit of an earlier age and vice versù. But nevertheless, taking the aggregate of the writings in each period, we find running through each the characteristics hinted at above.

It will be well before proceeding to work out and illustrate these characteristics, to try to discover the main causes that produce them. When a people's life is still rude, and civilization, with the discoveries and inventions which follow in its train, has made but little progress, we find that what would be to us the