useful life; who, suffering little short of martyrdom, from the
frequent attacks of gout, still devotes hours and days to his favourite
pursuit; uniting with his studies all the playfulness and vivacity of
youth.

_Quarterly Review._

* * * * *

WAR.

War! what miseries are heaped together in the sound!--What an accumulation
of curses is breathed in that one word. To us, happy in our insular
position, we have, within existing memory, known chiefly of war, its pomp
and circumstance alone; the gay parade, the glancing arms, the bright
colours, the inspiring music--these are what we see of war in its
outset;--glory, and praise, and badges of honour, these are what appear to
us as its result. The favourite son, the beloved brother, he who, perhaps,
is dearer still, returns to the home of his youth or of his heart, having
sown danger and reaped renown. Thus do we look on war. But ask the
inhabitant of a country _which has been the seat of war_, what is _his_
opinion of it. He will tell you that he has seen his country ravaged, his
home violated, his family ---- But no! the tongue recoils from speaking the
horrors and atrocities of war thus brought into the bosom of a peaceful
home. All the amenities and charities of domestic life are outraged, are
annihilated. All that is dearest to man; all that tends to refine, to
soften him--to make him a noble and a better being--all these are trampled
under foot by a brutal soldiery--all these are torn from his heart for
ever! He will tell you that he detests war so much that he almost despises
its glories; and that he detests it because he has known its evils, and
felt how poorly and miserably they are compensated by the fame which is
given to the slaughterer and the destroyer, because he is such!

_Tales of Passion._

* * * * *

THE NEWSPAPERS.

These square pieces of paper are the Agoras of modern life. The same
skilful division of labour which brings the fowl ready trussed to our doors
from the market, brings also an abstract of the

Votum, timor, ira, voluptas,
Gaudia, discursus,

which agitate the great metropolis, and even opinions, ready prepared, to
the breakfast tables of our remotest farms, ere the controversial warmth
has had time to cool. In the centre of this square, where you observe the
larger character, a public orator, "vias et verba locans," takes his daily
stand. One ma