growing up around us, ministering to our comforts and
necessities, continually inmates of our dwellings, with whose
affections and nature we are as much unacquainted as if they were the
inhabitants of some other sphere. This feeling, arising from that kind
of reserve peculiar to the English character, does, I think, greatly
tend to prevent that mingling of class with class, that reciprocation
of kind words and gentle affections, gracious admonitions and kind
inquiries, which often, more than any book-education, tend to the
culture of the affections of the heart, refinement and elevation of the
character of those to whom they are addressed. And if I were to be
asked what is the great want of English society--to mingle class with
class--I would say, in one word, the want is the want of sympathy."

Act I. Sc. 2. After Clemanthe has told Ion that, forsaking all within his
house, and risking his life with strangers, he can do but little for their
aid, Ion replies:

"It is little:
But in these sharp extremities of fortune,
The blessings which the weak and poor can scatter
Have their own season. 'Tis a little thing
To give a cup of water; yet its draught
Of cool refreshment, drain'd by fever'd lips,
May give a shock of pleasure to the frame
More exquisite than when nectarean juice
Renews the life of joy in happiest hours.
It is a little thing to speak a phrase
Of common comfort, which, by daily use,
Has almost lost its sense; yet, on the ear
Of him who thought to die unmourn'd, 'twill fall
Like choicest music; fill the glazing eye
With gentle tears; relax the knotted hand
To know the bonds of fellowship again;
And shed on the departing soul a sense,
More precious than the benison of friends
About the honour'd death-bed of the rich,
{394}
To him who else were lonely, that another
Of the great family is near and feels."

The analogy is as beautiful as it is true.

H. M. BEALBY.

North Brixton.

Before this talented judge was advanced to the bench, he amused himself and
instructed his clients by occasional _metrical_ notes, of which the annexed
is a specimen. To make it intelligible to those whom it may _not_ concern,
I must add an explanation by the attorney in the suit, who has obligingly
placed the learned serjeant's notes at my disposal. This gentleman says:
"These notes are in the margin of a brief held b