And now--'tis snapt in twain!

Robin, a bachelor profest,
At love and lovers laughs,
And o'er the bowl with reckless jest,
His pretty spinster quaffs;
Then, whilst all sobbing, Janet cries
"She scorns the scornful swain!"
With angry haste her wheel she plies,
And--snaps the thread again!

[The Publishers have obligingly enabled us to present the reader with
three of the _smartest_ Cuts. The fun of these Cuts requires neither
note nor comment.

Altogether, we may recommend the _Offering_ as a really comic
companion.]

[Illustration: (Dandy Lion.)]

[Illustration: (Pursuit of knowledge under difficulties.)]

[Illustration: _Bob in_ for Eels.]

THE AMULET

[Is decidedly an improvement upon former years, and, taken altogether,
plates, prose, and poetry, is the best book of the present season.
The Editor, Mr. Hall, has judiciously maintained the original feature
of his plan--that of "considering attractive tales and beautiful poems,
however, essential to the interest and variety of the volume, as
secondary to that which conveyed information and led to improvement." He
then proceeds to enumerate a few of the papers to which he particularly
refers, which have appeared in former volumes of the _Amulet_; as
Dr. Walsh's Essay on Coins and Medals, illustrating the progress of
Christianity: accounts of the American Christians at Constantinople, and
of the Chaldean Christians, and a visit to Nicaea, by the same author:
the Rev. Robert Hall's Essay on Poetry and Philosophy: Mr. Coleridge's
Travels in Germany: An Essay on French Oaths, by Miss Edgeworth: the
Rev. W.S. Gilly's Narrative of the Albigenses: Mr. Ellis's Account of
the Austral Islands: Dr. Walsh's Account of the Aborigines of Canada;
and Mr. Macfarlane's Visit to the Seven Churches of Asia Minor.
These papers are entitled to special mention, and we think the Editor
justified in his estimate of them. In the volume for the present year
we have two contributions of this class; an Essay on Sneezing, a learned
paper, by Dr. Walsh; and the following]

* * * * *

HISTORY OF THE HOLY CROSS.[2]

_By Lord Mahon._

The supposed discovery of a religious relic, and the miracles attending
it, are events so common in Roman Catholic legends as to deserve but
little attention, even on the ground of curiosity; but the real changes
and vicissitudes of one of these relics, for twelve centuries after its
d