ock this occasioned to the affectionate heart and aspiring temper
of our friend Paul, it abated not his ardour in that field of science
which it seemed that the distinguished absentee had so successfully
cultivated. By little and little, he possessed himself (in addition to
the literary stores we have alluded to) of all it was in the power of
the wise and profound Peter MacGrawler to impart unto him; and at the
age of sixteen he began (oh the presumption of youth!) to fancy himself
more learned than his master.

CHAPTER IV.

He had now become a young man of extreme fashion, and as much repandu in
society as the utmost and most exigent coveter of London celebrity could
desire. He was, of course, a member of the clubs, etc. He was, in
short, of that oft-described set before whom all minor beaux sink into
insignificance, or among whom they eventually obtain a subaltern grade,
by a sacrifice of a due portion of their fortune.--Almack's Revisited.

By the soul of the great Malebranche, who made "A Search after Truth,"
and discovered everything beautiful except that which he searched
for,--by the soul of the great Malebranche, whom Bishop Berkeley found
suffering under an inflammation in the lungs, and very obligingly
talked to death (an instance of conversational powers worthy the envious
emulation of all great metaphysicians and arguers),--by the soul of that
illustrious man, it is amazing to us what a number of truths there are
broken up into little fragments, and scattered here and there through
the world. What a magnificent museum a man might make of the precious
minerals, if he would but go out with his basket under his arm, and his
eyes about him! We ourselves picked up this very day a certain small
piece of truth, with which we propose to explain to thee, fair reader, a
sinister turn in the fortunes of Paul.

"Wherever," says a living sage, "you see dignity, you may be sure
there is expense requisite to support it." So was it with Paul. A
young gentleman who was heir-presumptive to the Mug, and who enjoyed
a handsome person with a cultivated mind, was necessarily of a certain
station of society, and an object of respect in the eyes of the
manoeuvring mammas of the vicinity of Thames Court. Many were the
parties of pleasure to Deptford and Greenwich which Paul found himself
compelled to attend; and we need not refer our readers to novels upon
fashionable life to inform them that in good society the gentlemen