arts of the
animal substances on which they prey. The perception of touch is said
to reside very delicately in the small bulbs at the base of the
mustachios.--_Wilson's Zoology_.

* * * * *

TEA AND TAY.

_From Blackwood's last "Noctes."_

_North_. As you love me, my dear James, call it not tea, but
_tay_. That though obsolete, is the classical pronunciation. Thus
Pope sings in the _Rape of the Lock_, canto i.

"Soft yielding minds to water glide away,
And sip with nymphs their elemental tea."

And also in canto iii--

"Where thou great Anna, whom these realms obey,
Dost sometimes counsel take, and sometimes tea."

And finally in the Basset Table--

"Tell, tell your grief, attentive will I stay,
Though time is precious, and I want some tea."

_Shepherd_. A body might think frae thae rhymes, that Pop had been
an Eerishman.

* * * * *

"MERRY ENGLAND."

The people of England, we fear, have at last forfeited the proud title
of "merry," to distinguish them from other and less happy, because more
serious, nations; for now they sadden at amusement, and sicken and turn
pale at a jest; so entirely have they forfeited it, that an ingenious
critic cannot believe they ever possessed it; and has set himself
accordingly to prove, that, in the old English, _merrie_ does not
mean merry, but sorrowful, or heart-broken, or some such
thing.--_Edin. Rev._

* * * * *

SYMPATHY.

There is a tear, more sweet and soft
Than beauty's smiling lip of love;
By angel's eyes first wept and oft
On earth by eyes like those above:
It flows for virtue in distress.
It soothes, like hope, our sufferings here;
'Twas given, and it is shed, to bless--
'Tis sympathy's celestial tear.

_Amulet._

* * * * *

MR. ABERNETHY

Was one day descanting upon the advantages of a public education for
boys, when he concluded by saying, "And what think you of Eton? I think
I shall send my son there to learn manners." "It would have been as
well, my dear," responded his wife, "had you gone there too."

* * * * *

ENGLISH BENEVOLENCE.

For several years previous to 1823, the crops in Ireland had been
scanty, particularly those of potatoes. In 1821 the potato crop was _a
complete failure_; and in 1822 it is impossible to tell,