the source of their unhappy quarrel, that he could no longer entertain a doubt as to the nature of his brother's present reflections. A thousand tender associations were awakened by that endeared word; he reverted to the early days when they had no contention but for her affections, no rivalry but for the kind bounty which she was always ready to bestow upon each alike. Human nature could hold out no longer, and he gently tapped at the door which had hitherto kept them apart. "William," he said, "may I come in?" The voice of affection could not be mistaken. William opened the door in an instant, and, as if he had guessed intuitively the disposition of his brother, rushed into his arms. The next day saw the two brothers amicably proceeding in one vehicle to the family burial-place, where, in the grave of their father, they inhumed every bitter feeling they had ever entertained against each other; and at present, taught by the sufferings which they endured in their period of alienation, there is no pair of friends who take such pains to cherish each other's affections, or to avoid all means of converting them into gall. HINTS TO TALKERS. "Aye free aff hand your story tell."-BURNS. It is of no small importance to one who has to push his way in the world, that he should be able to express himself, on all occasions, in so ready and brief a manner as to run no risk of tiring the individuals upon whom he may be more or less dependent for the means of his advancement. There is unfortunately some difficulty in attaining a proper medium between a fluency of speech, which is apt to lead to an excessive and tiresome copiousness, and that languor and difficulty of expression, which equally tires, without giving nearly the same quantity of talk. The former fault is more generally an accompaniment of youth than of age, while the latter is most frequently found in old people. All such peculiarities are no doubt in a great measure involuntary, as being intimately dependent on the talents and character of individuals; yet that they are susceptible of correction, and may be partly avoided, if we are on our guard against them, is also very certain. : An undue loquacity most frequently arises from a precipitancy of temper, and from being too full of one's self. If persons afflicted from the former source were to check themselves into a sobriety of ideas, and cast about, a little before speaking, for the most straightforward and simply demonstrative phraseology, wherein to express what they had to say, they would soon cure themselves if those who err from vanity could only contrive, under beneficial advice, to pump a little of themselves out of themselves— if they would only be so good as observe that others have ideas to express, and perhaps a little desire of showing them off, as well as they they would also, we have no doubt, speedily lessen their malady. But, upon the whole, there is less annoyance experienced from this source than from the tedious twaddle, as it is called, of the duller kind of intellects; and a cure in the latter case is much more desperate. Yet there would be much less tiresome talk, and also less tiresome writing, if a few things were guarded against. A great deal, as every adroit talker and every experienced writer knows, lies in fixing an interest at the beginning only take care not to alarm at the offset by the prospect of a long story, and you may afterwards continue to speak or scribble as long, almost, as you choose. Every one may have remarked how distressing it is in church to hear the preacher lay out his discourse into heads-so much to be said on this point, so much on that; next, an application of the whole; and, finally, a few words (that is, as many as can be spoken in ten minutes) of exhortation. The idea of so many distinct parts in the composition causes it to look wearifully long from the very first, so that many lukewarm persons, who might otherwise have listened and caught some flying edification, think of nothing but how-in what posture-by what every-day subject of reflection within themselves-they may most easily pass the time. Neither preacher nor writer should ever say that he has any thing to say at all: he should begin with the subject itself, and never stop till it is exhausted. Two hours of attention may thus be obtained from many, who, if informed at the beginning that one was to be required for the purpose, would have refused to listen for a minute. So thoroughly does this hold good, that we have found ourselves deterred from proceeding with a story, on a shift taking place in the person of the narrator, or a distinct paper or document being introduced. A reader, indeed, should never know but that the article he is reading may end on the next page: the author is never sure of him till after he has been inveigled half way on. The slow garrulity of old age, even to those who are most disposed to reverence grey hairs, is sometimes dreadful. For a young and busy man of quick ideas to find himself suddenly arrested by a venerable friend, who has some trifling but intricate piece of business to transact, or some document to read, or some long and personal story to tell, is one of the most striking distresses that can arise in the wide amphitheatre of human misery. The very unpacking of the spectacles is enough to make one sink and die. First, there is the important face, primming itself for the developement of some superficial, but to it most mysterious and important, circumstance. Then the hand is put into the pocket, and—not the spectacles, but the spectacle-case, drawn forth. The clasp is deliberately undone ; the spectacles pulled out. You think the optical instrument is to be immediately put on. Not at all. It is laid down on the table, till the clasp is done again, and the case returned to the pocket. Then the spectacles are taken up-then a handkerchief is taken out to wipe them-then the process of wiping is carefully and slowly gone through -then the handkerchief is returned and, finally-Oh protracted misery!-they are raised to the nose, where they are, perhaps, fully adjusted, about ten minutes after being drawn from the pocket; that is to say, if they have not been delayed much longer in consequence of a fresh burst of preliminary explanation and preparatory fiddle-faddle. Oh, if these respectable old gentlemen would but consider how much unfledged youth has to do before he be equally well feathered with themselves-how fast his intellect naturally runs-how irksome to be thus chained to the dray, when he would like to bound forward with the chariot they would be heart-smitten with their cruelty, and from pity correct a fault to which every other kind of cure might be applied in vain. I was once walking along one of the long and empty streets in the west end of London, along with a young friend, who, like myself, generally resided in Edinburgh, but was now just returned from an extensive tour in the United States of America. Suddenly, my companion started, and seemed greatly alarmed, saying, hurriedly, “let us go down this side street!" I accompanied him in the direction he indicated, though I could see nothing in front to alarm him, nor indeed any object at all, except a welldressed middle-aged looking man, who was advancing from the opposite direction, and was still at a considerable distance. When we had reached a place of safety, as my friend called it, he gave me the explanation which he saw from my looks was required. "That gentleman,” said he, "whom we were just now about to meet, is a valetudinarian whom I had the misfortune to encounter in a coffeehouse when I was last in London. I do not think he is really very ill : only, like the most of Englishmen, he has perhaps been all his life in the habit of every now and then taking what they call a little medicine, and may have thus, perhaps, made himself ill in spite of himself. However, having fallen into conversation with the old gentleman one evening in the public room at our hotel, he began to give me such a recital of his many and complicated disorders, and of his various attempts to get quit of them, as made me almost as ill as he represented himself to be. I tried many expedients to cut him short, but was at length fairly obliged to take refuge in my bedroom. Nothing else would do. Now, the man would not perhaps be so very tiresome as he is, if it depended solely on what he has to say. But besides the tedium of his endless recital of clinical miseries, there is an unhappy dullness in his very voice, which proves by far the severest part of the affliction. If a sloth, for instance, were a beast of prey, which fastened upon you as a spider does upon a fly, and if it emitted a humming self-satisfied sound while sucking your blood, like a schoolboy at his bread and butter, your circumstances and sensations would, I dare say, exactly resemble mine when this man was pouring his prosey stream into my ears. I positively had to go to the opera next night, in order to restore my nerves to their wonted tone. Before that time, however, you may be sure I had taken care to shift my quarters, to prevent the possibility of falling in with the same man again. I did not see him any more, sir, till about a twelvemonth after, when, in turning the corner of a street in New York, I met him full in the face, and, of course, fell plump into his toils. After the slightest possible recognition, 'Oh, by the way,' said he, laying at the same time a finger like a grappling-iron aboard of my buttonhole, as I was saying when I saw you last, I got no good of Lignum's scorbutic drops. All stuff, sir. The irritation continued as bad as ever'-and so on he went, with his monotonous gummy voice, as if the time and space that intervened since our last rencounter had been as nothing in his estimation. Why, sir, there is a particular jest in Joe Miller, which I always used to think highly improbable, though certainly very droll. A gentleman, riding along a bridge one day, turned about to his servant, and asked if he liked eggs, to which, saith the chronicler, John answered Yes.' 'How?' said the gentleman exactly that day twelvemonth, at the same hour, when passing along |