that this grumbling habit, and the feeling from which it proceeds, are among the active causes of his progressive improvement. Discontented with his condition he seeks to improve it. Finding fault with the constitution of his country, he vigorously but wisely reforms it. He quarrels with his house, and he builds it in a better site and on a more commodious scale. The excellent Count Strzelecki observed, in his evidence before the Lords, "the Irish soon improve in the colonies; they become quite as grumbling as the English themselves." This observation displays a true knowledge of the national character. We love to believe that we are on the verge of ruin; and we readily attribute our supposed ruin to the legislature, or to the government of the day.—Edinburgh Review.

A GOOD STOMACH.

What an excellent thing did God bestow on man, when He did give him a good stomach.-Beaumont ́and Fletcher.

LOVERS OF LITERATURE.

Your true lover of literature is never fastidious. I do not mean the helluo librorum, the swinish feeder, who thinks that every name which is to be found in a title-page, or on a tombstone, ought to be rescued from oblivion; nor those first cousins of the moth, who labour under a bulimy for black-letter, and be

lieve every thing to be excellent which was written in the reign of Elizabeth. I mean the man of robust and healthy intellect, who gathers the harvest of literature into his barns, thrashes the straw, winnows the grain, grinds it at his own mill, bakes it in his own oven, and then eats the true bread of knowledge. If he bake his loaf upon a cabbage-leaf, and eat onions with his bread and cheese, let who will find fault with him for his taste-not I!—The Doctor.

VIRTUE IN A SHORT PERSON.

His soul had but a short diocese to visit, and therefore might the better attend the effectual informing thereof.—Fuller.

ENJOYMENT OF LIFE.

Ennui, wretchedness, melancholy, groans, and sighs, are the offering which these unhappy Methodists make to a Deity, who has covered the earth with gay colours, and scented it with rich perfumes; and shown us, by the plan and order of his works, that he has given to man something better than a bare existence, and scattered over his creation a thousand superfluous joys, which are totally unnecessary to the mere support of life.-Sydney Smith.

CLASSIFICATION OF NOVELS.

Novels may be arranged according to the botanical system of Linnæus. Monandria Monogynia is the

usual class, most novels having one hero and one heroine. Sir Charles Grandison belongs to the Monandria Digynia. Those in which the families of the two lovers are at variance, may be called Dioecious. The Cryptogamia are very numerous, so are the Polygamia. Where the lady is in doubt which of her lovers to choose, the tale is to be classed under the Icosandria. Where the party hesitates between love and duty, or avarice and ambition, Didynamia. Many are poisonous, few of any use, and far the greater number of annuals.-Southey's Omnia.

PAMPHLETS AND BALLADS.

Though some may make light of libels,* yet you may see by them how the wind sets; as take a straw, and throw it up into the air, you shall see by that which way the wind is, which you shall not do by casting up a stone; more solid things do not show the complexion of the times so well as ballads and libels.-Selden's Table-Talk.

ANCESTRY.

"The man who has not any thing to boast of but his illustrious ancestors," says Sir Thomas Overbury, "is like a potato-the only good belonging to him is under ground."

The duke of Somerset, surnamed the Proud Duke, and of whom it is related that he rode all

* Pamphlets.
3*

through Europe, without ever leaning back in his carriage, used to say, "that he pitied Adam, because he had no ancestors."

ELEGANCE

Is something more than ease; it is more than a freedom from awkwardnesss or restraint. It implies, I conceive, a precision, a polish, a sparkling, spirited yet delicate.-Hazlitt.

RICHARD L. EDGEWORTH.

The "Essay upon Bulls" is written much with the same mind, and in the same manner, as a schoolboy takes a walk: he moves on the straight road for ten yards, with surprising perseverance; then sets out after a butterfly, looks for a bird's nest, and jumps backward and forward over a ditch. In the same manner, this nimble and digressive gentleman is away after every object which crosses his mind. If you leave him at the end of a comma, in a steady pursuit of his subject, you are sure to find him, before the next full stop, a hundred yards to the right or left, frisking, capering, and grinning, in a high paroxysm of merriment and agility. Mr. Edgeworth seems to possess the sentiments of an accomplished gentleman, the information of a scholar, and the vivacity of a first-rate harlequin. He is fuddled with animal spirits, giddy with constitutional joy: in such a state, he must have written on or burst.-Sydney Smith.

VANITY OF HUMAN FAME.

An old woman in a village of the west of England was told one day that the king of Prussia was dead, such a report having arrived when the great Frederick was in the noonday of his glory. Old Mary lifted up her great slow eyes at the news, and fixing them in the fullness of vacancy upon her informant, replied, "Is a! is a! the Lord ha' mercy! Well, well! the king of Prussia! and who's he?" The "who's he?" of this old woman might serve as text for a notable

sermon upon ambition. "Who's he?" may now be

asked of men greater as soldiers in their day than Frederick and Wellington; greater as discoverers than Sir Isaac or Sir Humphrey. Who built the pyramids? Who ate the first oyster? Vanitas vanitatum! Omnia vanitas!-The Doctor.

FRENCH AND ENGLISH VANITY.

The vanity of a Frenchman consists (as I have somewhere read) in belonging to so great a country; but the vanity of an Englishman exults in the thought that so great a country belongs to himself. The root of all English notions, as of all English laws, is to be found in the sentiment of property. It is my wife whom you shall not insult; it is my house that you shall not enter; it is my country that you shall not traduce; and by a species of ultra-mundane appropriation, it is my God whom you shall not blaspheme! -England and the English.