EN.

It is observed by a very pleasant writer, read nowadays only by the
brave pertinacious few who still struggle hard to rescue from the House
of Pluto the souls of departed authors, jostled and chased as those
souls are by the noisy footsteps of the living,--it is observed by the
admirable Charron, that "judgment and wisdom is not only the best, but
the happiest portion God Almighty hath distributed amongst men; for
though this distribution be made with a very uneven hand, yet nobody
thinks himself stinted or ill-dealt with, but he that hath never so
little is contented in this respect."

And, certainly, the present narrative may serve in notable illustration
of the remark so dryly made by the witty and wise preacher. For whether
our friend Riccabocca deduce theories for daily life from the great
folio of Machiavelli; or that promising young gentleman, Mr. Randal
Leslie, interpret the power of knowledge into the art of being too
knowing for dull honest folks to cope with him; or acute Dick Avenel
push his way up the social ascent with a blow for those before, and a
kick for those behind him, after the approved fashion of your strong New
Man; or Baron Levy--that cynical impersonation of Gold--compare himself
to the Magnetic Rock in the Arabian tale, to which the nails in every
ship that approaches the influence of the loadstone fly from the planks,
and a shipwreck per day adds its waifs to the Rock,--questionless, at
least; it is, that each of those personages believes that Providence has
bestowed on him an elder son's inheritance of wisdom. Nor, were we to
glance towards the obscurer paths of life, should we find good Parson
Dale deem himself worse off than the rest of the world in this precious
commodity,--as, indeed, he has signally evinced of late in that shrewd
guess of his touching Professor Moss. Even plain Squire Hazeldean takes
it for granted that he could teach Audley Egerton a thing or two worth
knowing in politics; Mr. Stirn thinks that there is no branch of useful
lore on which he could not instruct the squire; while Sprott the tinker,
with his bag full of tracts and lucifer matches, regards the whole
framework of modern society, from a rick to a constitution, with the
profound disdain of a revolutionary philosopher. Considering that every
individual thus brings into the stock of the world so vast a share of
intelligence, it cannot but excite our wonder to find that Oxenstiern is
popularly held to be rig