INTRODUCTORY.

fashioned square building. A porch led into a narrow

transverse passage, dark as Erebus. . Immediately frontErher as we grow older our tastes change, or holy-ing the entrance was one flight of stairs, leading up to the days are much more insipid things than they used to family apartments, and another leading down to the celbe. We have heard---even in our water-drinking retire- lar. On one hand was the parlour, and on the other the ment—that there are people so habituated to brandy, as kitchen. On the evening of the New-Year, the gentles to have lost their “ wine palate.” Perhaps, from our feasted in the former, the servants and cottars in the addiction to every-day enjoyment, we have lost our holy- latter. The numerous children who surrounded the day palate. But no! if there be truth in our senses-in venerable matron, mistress of the establishment, formed taste, smell, hearing, sight, touch— the world without us a connecting link between the two happy parties. It is changed as well as the world within. Our own relish was difficult, from R's language, to guess wbother for bun is not so great as it used to be, but neither do he preferred the but or the ben. those who are now of the age at which its value is most The tea-table in the parlour seems to have been what correctly appreciated, approach the sacrifice with the many will consider a commonplace sort of ceremony, same awe-struck solemnity as impressed us in our youth. In a deep easy chair, beside a roaring fire, sat the old

Some of our good friends are of opinion that the man- lady, in her widow's weeds, her grey tresses braided ner in which holydays are now slabbered over is a sign across her brow beneath a cap of snow, her knitting in of the world's being in its dotage. People, they say, work her hands. Opposite sat a maiden daughter, the only now as a miser saves, for the slavish toil's sake. They do one left at home, spinning on a neat mahogany wheel of not look to the end_enjoying the fruits of their industry. diminutive size. The table was surrounded by the rest They' spatch a stolen and trembling joy, and then fall to of her children, with their wives and husbands, decorously work again, like slaves in the eye of a harsh task-master. eating their bun and drinking their tea. Their offspring, Others again maintain that the alteration to which we in“ number numberless," were racketing and rioting in have adverted, is a sign of the world's growing wiser. the background-all, save one quieter urchin, who sat Formerly, they say, it was with pleasure as with food, cowering between grandmother and the fire, his eyes to use a homely Scotch proverb, a either a hunger or a intently fixed upon her, amply rewarded for his abstiburst.” Men tasted of both seldom, and gorged them- nence from the noisy merriment by, an occasional pat on selves when a lacky windfall came in their way. In our the head. The conversation was commonplace enough, sager era, joy and grief, (or indifference,) toil and pleasure, The old lady did not join in it, but her blue eyes turned are more equably diffused through life-pleasantly and incessantly, with looks of gentle, though intense' love, profitably intermingled, like the fat and lean of beef- from one to another of the party. Her voice was only mixed up like sugar and lemon-juice, into a pleasing heard to remonstrate against any check upon the outrasavour. For our part, we agree with honest Sir Roger geous merriment of the younkers, and then there was a --that “ much may be said on both sides"--and shall, of music and a fineness in its tones, which (we beg our fair course, say nothing on either.

countrywomen's pardon) no Scotchwoman's voice ever A story may be more to the purpose. There is not possessed. much in it, but it serves to set the matter in the light Well, the "four-hours" was over, the early supper, with in which we view it better than any thing we could say. which the labourer's toil was daily closed, concluded, and

Once upon a time there was a good friend of ours, the children permitted to join the revellers in the kitchen. who, while a boy, had been in the habit of spending his We flatter ourselves that we bave given a tolerably aceuChristmas vacations at his grandmother's—as all boys rate copy of our friend's still-life picture. But we utterly ought—when they have one. Well, hers was one of despair of conveying the faintest impression of the scene those old-fashioned houses, in which servants grew grey of joyous bustle which succeeded. The word was given, as well as masters. There was obedience and respect on and away, with whoop and hollo, burst the elfish crew. the part of the domestics, but there was a homely fami- Scrambling, tugging, pushing, squeezing, squalling, laughliarity at the same time, which now-a-days we seldom ing, crying, scratching, scolding, they fermented in the see. The good old souls, who had witnessed and checked narrow passage, not a few of them stopped, in transitu, the childish pranks of two generations, could not look up by a descent to the subterranean regions. At length, to them with the same chilling sense of inferiority, as if with a few bruises, all forced a way into the kitchen. they had been freshly hired into the service of grown-up Rather an unwonted circumstance it was swept clean. ladies and gentlemen. The descendants of the house and A perfect bonfire was roaring up the wide chimney, and field domestics had sprung up into a goodly colony, and lighting up the scene, glanced back by the black windows, could not forget the days when they romped with the and the shining pewter and crockery ware.

At "ae young gentles, as if there were no difference between them. chimla lag" was seated a little old woman, who had been There was a perpetual under-current of this feeling the favourite waiting-maid of the old lady, and who now mingling in every thought and action, but on New Year's lived on a small pension in the neighbourhood. She bad Day its manifestation was most conspicuous

formed her manners, and even her language, upon her Often have we heard our friend expatiate in glowing mistress, with tolerable success, and piqued herself upon terms on' that homely festival.

her gentility. Right opposite was seated the old gardener, The mansion of his forefathers he described as an old. I who had been a gay soldier in his youth, and followed the

tail-piece to the fable. Our friend was one of those who concluded, because the household festival of the incipient year was no longer celebrated for him, that it no longer existed. This was a mistake. A family is kept together by its head. Whenever this knot is unloosed, the individual members are scattered never to re-anite, as surely as the seed shaken by the autumnal wind parts for ever from the tree. Each must become in turn the nucleus of a new family circle, or live lonely in the world. It is only from such as embrace the latter alternative, (frem choice or necessity,) that we hear complaints of the disre gard paid to the festivals of their youth. How can they share in or know of the sacrifices to the Lares, who be

deceased master of the house through blood and battle, but who was now cross and cantankerous as the snappish terrier that slumbered at his feet. He was conversing with a dry, lank, argumentative sort of a personage the grieve, who sat a little behind him, despotic over the punch-bowl. A third man, of their own age, diminutive and lively, was mixing his word every moment. The price of stots, the last Sunday's sermon, and arguments respecting the rights and duties of husbands and wives, were strangely mingled in their discourse. One of the farm lads, who could pinch a noise out of a fiddle, not unlike the faint squeak of a drowning kitten, was mounted on the summit of a box-bed in a corner" to gie them music was his charge." From fifteen to three-long themselves to no hearth? score, the assembled dependants of the family were dan- On looking over what we have penned, we incline t cing on the floor with more of energy than grace. Here suspect, that it is more sad than merry. So much the you might see a young couple standing apart from the better. We confess ourselves unable to weep over the rest, hand in hand, their eyes earnestly fixed on the dance, death-bed of the dying year. He is no object of love or glowing" celestial rosy red,” in the first, voiceless, timid, respect with us. Melancholy reflections, in which he bas o'er-brimming ecstasy of " calf-love." Not far from these no share, are necessary to impress us with that sobriety the diminutive form of my friend, (then eight or nine of deportment which befits our solemn position beside years of age,) conducting, with mock solemnity, a frowsy him. Poor fellow! there has been a mighty bustle mate dame of forty to her seat. Midmost of the throng, was about him in his time-some calling him worse than be a huge, clumsy ploughman, trying to dance down the cat- really was, some flattering him grossly. Time will witted cook, thumping the floor till the flag-stones threat-him justice, and chronicle his deeds in these words: ened to crack and crumble: The cold wind rushed in beneath the door-what mattered it! A roaring fire, strong drink, and hearts beating high with happiness,— they felt it not.

This is a long yarn, but the remainder shall be as brief as one of's sermons, when, having ascertained by his watch that he has already wrote as much as will occupy a decent time in the delivery, he winds it up, like Dr Johnson's Rasselas, with a "conclusion in which nothing is concluded."

IN THE YEAR 1831, PUPPIES AND KITTENS WERE LIT TERED BLIND, AND DROWNED AS USUAL

THE COINCIDENCE.
By Dr Memes.

"In guisa d'uom che pensa e piange."
PETRARCA.

DURING the campaign of 1809, among many turning brave," Napoleon lost a general officer of merit. His widow, then occupying a situation at court, solicitat and obtained permission to retire, in order to devote herself to the grateful consolation of educating her childre -a son still a child, and a daughter some years older. A small pension would have furnished but inadequate means had not the empress added a beautiful little residence a Reuil, under the amiable pretence of detaining near he an ancient friend. At Malmaison, too, her own ne ce bouring villa, the daughter was chiefly educated, wars soon afterwards Josephine had descended from a throne Accustomed thus, from earliest boyhood, to hear her name pronounced with benedictions, by the lips he most loves the son conceived for the empress an ardent attachment, strengthened by experience of personal kindness, and the promise, in time, of becoming one of her own pages i a gentle, though noble and somewhat enthusiastic nate it is not surprising that such a sentiment should have i«« outlived the hopes by which it had been nourished. Events hurried onwards his patroness was no e

On this topic was it R's delight to dwell, long years ago, when he and we were struggling manfully, side by side, to gain that footing in the world, so difficult of attainment for those who have no parents to lend them a helping hand. Poor fellow he at last grew faint, and, allowing himself to drift down, soon sunk. But to our tale. It so happened that a momentary relaxation in his official duties allowed him, in the winter of 17, to revisit his native district during the Christmas holydays. The anticipation was ecstasy for a month before; on his return, he never adverted to the subject. It was plain that he had been disappointed. On questioning him, he replied briefly, with a peremptory command never again to advert to the subject. All his youthful kinsfolk had, like himself, had their lot cast in strange places. His grandmother dwelt alone with her unmarried daughter. The old servants had died out,almost all the surrounding peasantry had emigrated, and strangers filled their places. Two little great-grandchildren, sent from India for their education, were on a visit at the house. The old lady could not leave her-Napoleon languished on a sea-girt rockchamber in the evening,-her daughter was occupied attending upon her. The little ones, not feeling quite at home with the stranger, slunk out of the parlour. R- was left to spend the night of his New Year alone. He extinguished the candles, and sat looking upwards at the fantastic play of the alternating light and shadow cast by the fire upon the roof. While thus engaged, he heard a faint laugh from the kitchen. It fell on his ear like the voice of a demon mocking the hearty roar which wont at such a time to burst from that place. He wept like a babe, he said, and we know he never held up his head again. While battling against adversity, with no one but ourselves, (that is, the Editorial I,) who were as ill furnished with friends as himself, to cling to, he had looked back to the home of his youth as a haven to which he might one day return. He did return, and found that it was no longer a home.

"But how does this tale of a tub' express your meaning?" Simply thus-since we must give the moral as a

"Eheu, qualis fortunæ terminus altæ fuit!” and the widow's son, now a high-spirited youth, as the most distinguished élève in the military college, bad jet received his commission. Still in his grateful base with unblemished loyalty to the Bourbon, there mingil a sacred remembrance of her who had been his mother sovereign and benefactress. He had passed a few weis with his family, and the evening prior to his departe

probably for years-from a home, the gift of her boasti he devoted to the duty he had often paid, of visiting tomb of Josephine in the village church of Reuil.

To the same solemn spot we have ourselves mir 4. pilgrimage, under circumstances a description of wh may aid in appreciating the situation and feelings (the young enthusiast. Nor will the recital be inapprop seeing that to an account of the impression left upon es mind, we are indebted for the substance of the pre narrative, related by one who had known the parties of

cerned. Our visit happened to be on a festival, and the Then, as one prompted by some inward uncontrollable hour of vespers approached. The day had been unsea- working, it flung its arms abroad, as if to clasp the inanisonably stormy, but evening had brought peace and the mate resemblance. refreshened landscape. Even the lonely woods of Mal- A death-like silence still prevailed. The shadowy maison looked rejoicingly in the declining beam. The hands were pressed together, and noiselessly and slowly calm and humid light thus shed abroad, streaming through withdrawn upon the bosom. This action, accompanied a window near, reposed with harmonious effect on the by a turning of the body, partially disclosed the person tomb within, and on the kneeling figure, where the of this secret intruder. His dress was an uniform, and chisel of Chantelier has not unsuccessfully portrayed on the breast the gems of various orders glistened for a the graceful benignity of the Empress of France. There moment in the evening ray. But the face-how shall was something inespressibly touching, yet soothing, in it be described! It seemed at once void-yet stamped the whole scene. The soft radiance, blending with the its stern and passionless image on the inmost soul ; dark cool sbadowing of the white marble, imprinted an almost -yet strangely recognisable, it showed like the countelife-like sweetness to the placid countenance; while the nance of some antique statue seen in deep shadow, whose gentleness of even, closing a tempestuous day, seemed as nobly chiselled contours, dim in the mass, are moulded an emblem of the trials and sOITOws of her eventful into half viewless symmetry by their own reflective life, and that state where troubles cease—where the weary lights. It was a visage, which is, and shall, throughare at rest. Nor were living sympathies absent. Though out all time, remain familiar in the love, the hate, or the years had elapsed since Josephine's resting-place bad admiration of all men ! been

“ Speak!” cried the youth, now roused to desperate

energy; “ Where all the good and great are laid "

“ Speak, in the name of Heaven !" The echo

of his own adjuration was the sole reply. Solitude and her memory, as appeared from various instances of re- twilight reigned within; nature without was reposing speet, yet dwelt in the veneration of the poor. The ser- in the cheerful glow of sunset. The sight re-assured vice now began-it was one in which the writer could him; but even on reaching home, the evident traces of not join, but he rose to depart, instructed more affect- his discomposure constrained him to reveal to his mother ingly than homily could teach, how abiding shall be the and sister what had occurred. “ The countenance," memorial of goodness, when all of worldly grandeur has replied the former, “is, indeed that of the emperor, but returned to its original nothingness.

the appearance resembles General Bonaparte." Prudence Similar might haply have been the reflections, and dictated secrecy; the young man commenced his military such the situation of the widow's son, except that he was duties, and the circumstances bad begun to fade from alone, with a mind yet more deeply impressed by his own the memory of all three, when intelligence reached peculiar reverence and nearer gratitude. The declining Europe of Napoleon's death. Then, indeed, they recolday still cast a clear light upon the tomb of his benefac- lected with awe and wonder that, on the evening of the tress, but a solemn twilight had begun to reign through- 5th of May, 1821, these occurrences had taken place in out the body of the church. In such an hour, and under the church of Reuil. About six o'clock on the same these circumstances, the sudden proximity of a stranger, evening, amid storm and tempest, Napoleon breathed his whose previous approach had been noteless and without last at St Helena! The time and toil-worn mantle in warning, might have awakened anxiety or even appre- which he had commanded at Marengo served as the pall hension, had not the thought arisen, that meditation had to shroud his lifeless remains. rendered him unobservant, and that the visitor must be Is the disembodied spirit, then, permitted to revisit one of those whom like feelings to his own induced often earth in lineaments palpable to human sense ? No. secretly to repair to the same spot. Yet was there some- Revelation assures us that the appointed means of grace thing undefined and startling in the person of the un- and improvement being all-sufficient for support and known, only partially revealed by a position, where the guidance in our journey Zionward, supernatural visitaillumination from the window waxed faint in the en- tions, of whatever kind, are unnecessary, and consegrossing and darker shadow of the wall. The stranger quently can never be admitted under our perfect dispenwore a military mantle, richly wrought in gold, save that sation. The preceding narrative, therefore, must be the embroidery was tarnished, and even partially re- regarded as merely an instance of illusion, singularly moved, as if by long or rude service. The face, turned coincident with events. In all examples, of which towards the monument, was concealed, and the head several are on record, were we in full possession of the covered with a military hat, without plume or ornament. various preliminary associations and accompanying cirThe form moved onwards with a slow and solemn step, cumstances, a rational explanation might questionless be he arms enveloped in the cloak, and, from the disposi- given. There is, however, something of melancholy Eion of the folds, crossed upon the breast.

interest in the scene. If the disincarcerated soul still The looks still fixed upon the tomb, the countenance retains any of its pristine affections,-if, in corporate continued averted from the apparently unnoticed specta- semblance, it could rest on the green earth-such would or, over whose mind a sensation of awe begun imper- be the spot of its earliest visitation. eptibly to steal. This involuntary sentiment changed nto amazement and dread, when, as the unknown adanced, the light gleamed brightly upon the horseman's

THE FALCON. oots and armed heelyet, as he strode along the paved hapel, not a sound broke upon the now appalling still

(On a Painting by Titian.) zess of the place. In the first access of an unearthly Cear there often is roused a courage, so to speak-an

The falcon is a noble bird, cuteness of observation, which, on reflection, appears And when his heart of hearts is stirr'd, really supernatural. It was under the force of the latter He'll seek the eagle, though he run eeling that the youth bent his whole faculties to the Into his chambers near the sun. resolve of witnessing the intents of this mysterious

Never was there brute or bird, hape. Advancing in front of the tomb, the shrouded Whom the woods or mountains heard, varrior, for such evidently was the personation, stood That could force a fear or care till the head drooping on the breast, as in deep and From him—the Arab of the air ! nelancholy retrospection. Remaining thus for a space, he form slowly raised its head in the attitude of gazing To-day he sits upon a wrist, teadfastly on the marble portraiture of the Empress. Whose purple veins a queen has kiss'd,

a

a

a

And on him falls a sterner eye

his fellow-student at St Andrew's, who was also a poet, * Than he can face where'er he fly;

and who, from kindred delights and sympathies, enjoyed Though he scale the summit cold

much of Ferguson's society. On the afternoon of a colOf the Grimsel vast and old,

lege-holyday, they took a walk together into the country, Though he search yon sunless stream

and, after perambulating many farms, and tripping with That threads the forest like a dream!

fraternal glee over field and hillock, they at last, being

desirous of a little rest, bethought themselves of calling Ah, noble soldier! Noble bird !

at a small farm-house, or pendicle, as it is named, on the Will your name be ever heard,

king's muirs of Denino. They approached the house, Ever seen in future story,

and were kindly invited to a seat by the rustic and honestCrowning it with endless glory?

hearted family. A frank and unceremonious conversaPeace, ho! The master's eye is drawn

tion immediately took place, in the course of which it was Away into the bursting dawn!

discovered, that a young person, member of the family, Rise, then, thou bird of birds, arise,

was lying ill of fever. The playful Ferguson instantly And seek thy quarry in the skies !

took it into his head, to profess himself a medical practiC. tioner ;-he started to his feet, begged to be shown to the

sick-bed; approached, and felt the pulse of the patient;

assumed a serious air ; put the usual pathological interSONNETS

rogatories; and pronounced his opinion with a pomp and From the Italian of Vincenzo Felecaja.

dignity worthy of a true doctor of physic. In short, he

personated his assumed character so perfectly, that his PROVIDENCE.

friend, Brown, though somewhat vexed, was confounded

into silent admiration of his dexterity. On leaving the Even as a mother o'er her children bending

house, however, Mr Brown expostulated with him on Yearns with maternal love; her fond embraces And gentle kiss, to each in turn extending,

the indefensibility of practising so boldly on the simplicity

of an unsuspecting family, and of misleading their conOne at her feet, one on her knee she places, ceptions as to the cure of the distemper, by a stratagem, And from their eyes and lips, or speaking faces,

on which, howsoever witty, neither of them could conTheir varying wants and wishes comprehending, To one a look, to one a word addresses,

gratulate themselves,
Even with her frowns a mother's fondness blending;
So o'er us watches Providence on high,

FERGUSON'S INCIPIENT DELIRIUM.
And hope to some, and help to others lends,
And yields alike to all an open ear;

That ardour and versatility of spirits possessed by pe: And when she seems her favours to deny,

Ferguson, of which we have just spoken, having been in

his latter days over-excited, either by immoderate indul. She for our prayers alone the boon suspends, Or, in denying, grants unproffer'd prayer.

gence, or by the irregularity of his habits of life, or perhaps by a constitutional proneness to disease, did, as is well known, at the last completely subvert his under. standing. It is difficult, even in sabe persons, to deter

mine where wit ends, and temporary reeling of the ims Here, on

gination begins; and, in the case of Ferguson, wbos No is left, to mark, in letters rude,

conceptions were ever so vivid, and whose wit was se earth did her tremendous jaws unclose, fantastical and irregular, it was difficult for his friend Where Syracuse, or where Catania stood.

to discriminate between his wit and his madnesstase Along the dreary margin of the flood, I seek but cannot find ye; bought appears

a boundary line between those of his days that were but

frolicsome and funny, and those that were desperately Save the deep gloom of sullen solitude, That' checks

and invariably delirious. The first occurrence that my step and fills mine eye with tears. 0, Thou ! whose mighty arm the blow bath dealt,

startled his comrades, and put them in aların for the

safety of his understanding, took place one day in the Whose justice gave the judgment, shall not I

High Street of Edinburgh, when Mr B- one of his Adore the power which I have seen and felt! Ye buried 'cities, rise from where ye lie,

friends, (who, I believe, is still alive) was standing ih

gaged in conversation with a knot of acquaintances Rise, that your stony skeletons may be A sad memorial to futurity,

Ferguson came running up, apparently in a state of high

perturbation ; and, accosting them familiarly, as he was G.

wont, acquainted them, that confused and perturbed 39

he was, it was a marvel that they saw him alive that ANECDOTES OF FERGUSON, BURNS, AND HIS

day at all. On questioning him, with a desire that ks SCHOOLFELLOWS.

should explain himself, he informed them that on the

night before he had met with some Irish students in the By the Author of " Anster Fair.”

street, with whom he had an altercation that led to a FERGUSON'S WAGGERY.

quarrel ; that they scuffled and buffeted each other fra

riously; that the combat deepened to deadly ferocity, ROBERT FERGUSON was remarkable for a flow of spirits when one of them, the bloodiest homicide of the troop, a and versatility of fancy, which was very agreeable to his last drew out a cutlass, with which he smote off his head comrades, and recommended him wherever he made his at one blow; that his head ran down the strand tres appearance. When at St Andrew's College, this vivacity bling and streaming blood for many paces; that, had it of temper was very conspicuous, and lent to his youthful not been for his presence of mind, he mast infallibis friendships somewhat of that enthusiasm which charac- have been a dead man ; but that, running instantly aftes terised those of his mightier brother-bard— Robert Burns. the head, decapitated as he was, he snatched it up, and At times, however, his playfulness, his versatile and in- replaced it so nicely on its former position, that the parts ventive vivacity, was apt to overshoot itself, and, by coalesced, and no man could discover any vestiges of detransgressing the line of justifiable indulgence, to verge towards that extreme which involves blame, and merits * Dr Brown, who was for thirty years rector of a considera some degree of exprobation. An instance of this was parish in the neighbourhood of London, was the author of a peu communicated to me by the late Rev. Dr James Brown, and cominendation of, Mr Pitt's plan of policy, then adaptele

called “Britain Preserved," written about 1793, in referent

ON THE RUINS OF CATANIA.

When one pot where stately cities l'ose,