it into hollow glass;
Be the vials clean and dry,
Corks as sound as chastity;--
Years shall not impair the merit
Of the lively, gentle spirit.

Babylon's Sardanapalus,
Rome's youngster Heliogabalus,
Or that empurpled paunch, Vitellius,
So famed for appetite rebellious--
Ne'er, in all their vastly reign,
Such a bowl as this could drain.
Hark, the shade of old Apicius
Heaves his head, and cries--Delicious!
Mad of its flavour and its strength--he
Pronounces it the real Nepenthe.

'Tis the Punch, so clear and bland,
Named of Norfolk's fertile land,
Land of Turkeys, land of Coke,
Who late assumed the nuptial yoke--
Like his county beverage,
Growing brisk and stout with age.
Joy I wish--although a Tory--
To a Whig, so gay and hoary--
May he, to his latest hour,
Flourish in his bridal bower--
Find wedded love no Poet's fiction,
And Punch the only contradiction.

_Blackwood's Magazine._

* * * * *

NOTES OF A READER

DUELLING.

Two French officers resident at Kermanshaw, lately quarrelled; a
challenge ensued; but a reconciliation was effected; when the
incident drew forth the following natural and affecting remark from
a native:--"How foolish it is for a man who wishes to kill his
enemy, to expose his own life, when he can accomplish his purpose
with so much greater safety, by shooting at him from behind a rock."

* * * * *

SPINNING VIRTUE.

A young preacher, who chose to enlarge to a country congregation on
the beauty of _virtue_, was surprised to be informed of an old
woman, who expressed herself highly pleased with his sermon, that
her daughter was the most _virtuous_ woman in the parish, for "that
week she had spun sax spyndles of yarn."--_Sir W. Scott._

* * * * *

AT LINCOLN

There is a beautiful painted window, which was made by an
apprentice, out of the pieces of glass which had been rejected by
his master. It is so far superior to every other in the church,
that, according to the tradition, the vanquished artist killed
himself from mortification.

* * * * *

A great lawyer in the sister kingdom, when asked by the viceroy,
what Captain Keppel meant by his "_Personal_ Travels in India, &c."
replied, that lawyers were wont to use this word in contradistinction
to "_R