The houses are mostly painted white and yellow, which contrasts well with the red roofs. Canals run side by side with most of the streets, and bridges are abundant. In niches at the corners of the streets are images of the Virgin Mary and the Crucifixion, sometimes covered in with glass and a lamp in front. On Saints' days these are all decorated with banners, &c.

Just outside the town I saw, one Sunday morning, a religious. procession composed of men and girls dressed in white, carrying banners and images. After them came the priests chanting, men carrying lighted candles, and boys swinging incense, then followed the populace. The road along which they marched was strewn with rushes and flowers.

Sunday in Belgium is very different to Sunday in England; the shops are open almost the same as any other day; the people go to the Cathedral, pay for a chair, listen while the priests chant, kneel or stand when the bell rings, and go out when they please. They are continually coming and going, on the principle, we suppose, that "half a loaf is better than no bread." The Belgians are always very polite; it is the custom for gentlemen to raise their hats when they meet, and on entering or leaving a shop they always pay the same mark of respect to the shopkeeper.

The town was originally fortified by ramparts, a canal running all round it. It was entered by means of swing bridges and gates; these gates are still standing, but are not used. That the bridges are still swinging I can testify, having frequently had to wait while boats passed through.

Before the introduction of railways the canals were used for conveying passengers from one part of the country to another; the boats were of a large size, fitted with cabins, and drawn by three horses, with a postillion. Along the sides of the canals are a great many windmills. Dogs are used extensively in the towns to draw small carts and hand-carts, they are generally harnessed underneath the hand-cart, the man guiding it by the handle; oxen are also used for drawing, especially in the country districts. Some of the heavy carts are very peculiar, only having three wheels, two large ones at the back and a small one at front; there are no shafts, but merely a thin rod on one side, the horse being guided by a single rope rein. The poorer class of inhabitants, and the country people generally, speak Flemish only; all dress in blue, both men and women, and wear wooden shoes, which are hollowed out of a solid piece, and, as they have no fastenings to keep them on, considerable practice is necessary to be able to walk and run, without the risk of them coming off. In the streets of the towns the women wear long black cloaks with hoods, with which they cover their heads in cold weather, and white caps are worn in place of bonnets. Lace making is carried on at Bruges to a large extent, and it is a very pretty sight to see the women engaged in this trade sitting outside their houses, and to watch their nimble fingers. Wherever you go, the first person you meet will be sure to be a priest, the next will be a soldier, and the third a gendarme;

these latter know everybody, and everybody's business. They do not allow anyone to remain long in the town without ascertaining who he is, and where he comes from. The soldiers are not a very fine body of men, being generally of small stature. Every young man, unless he can find a substitute, has to serve three years, from the age of nineteen to twenty-two. At dinner we met a young Belgian who was endeavouring to find a substitute, and offering fifteen hundred francs. He was travelling on business, and did not want to relinquish it.

It

The annual fair or "Kermesse" was held during our stay. commenced, as all their festivities do, on Sunday. In the evening there was a grand torchlight procession, in which all the sunday schools from the neighbouring towns were represented. Each school was accompanied by a band, and the children, who carried torches and Chinese lanterns, were all dressed in fancy costumes. There were also large wagons, gaily decorated with flowers and foliage, containing a number of children in white dresses, who held aloft various symbols of education, such as globes, maps, &c. Then came an imitation castle, having four turrets, covered with lighted candles, and under the archway of the castle sat a girl dressed as a queen, her hand resting on the mane of a lionintended, we presume, for the emblem of Belgian Independence.

One of the peculiarities of this country is the method of reckoning distances by time, instead of by miles, &c. as with us, three miles being allowed to the hour.

In concluding this account of my autumn trip, I am painfully aware of its disjointed character and its obvious defects; but, being anxious to respond to the Editor's appeal for assistance as regards the illustrations, I availed myself of this opportunity to make my maiden effort in etching and composition. Under these circumstances I must beg, and shall doubtless receive the reader's indulgence.

F. R.

To his haunts on the reedy mere,

And the kingfisher fledged like the summer sky
When clouds are flush'd with rainbow dye,

Admiring, loitered near.

But the witching face,

And breathing grace

Revealed when Lucy came,

Convinced the flower of its simple race,

And it shrank abashed in the leaves' embrace
With head hung down for shame.

C

BORN FEBRUARY 23RD, 1795. DIED JUNE 16TH, 1881.

Ir the mere acquisition of great wealth by means of perseverance, tact, and thrift, were the only feature in the life of Sir Josiah Mason that his biographers had to record, his name would, for that reason alone, stand out prominently in that long list of illustrious men which is at once the pride and boast of Englishmen; for, regarded merely in its aspect of commercial success, it must never be forgotten that in the accumulation of his vast fortune, he assisted in creating and firmly establishing those two great sources of industry which have now become staple trades of Birmingham, and give employment to thousands of our operatives, viz., the manufacture of steel pens and electro-plated ware. We are not of those who affect to despise wealth, and who would fain persuade the world that, granted certain negations, the art of making money is one to be easily acquired; still less are we of those who would bow down and worship the golden calf in the modern guise of a Sir Gorgius Midas. But we can discriminate between the man who, having amassed great riches by perseverance and self-denial, makes it the study of his declining years how so to dispose of that wealth as to confer the greatest possible benefits and blessings on his fellow creatures, and to prevent those benefits from being misdirected or abused in years to come; and the man who, in like manner blessed or cursed with great possessions, ignores utterly and entirely the wants and sufferings of his fellow men; sees in his wealth only the means of self-gratification, and in spite of his glorious opportunities lives a useless life, dies unloved, and leaves the world not one whit the better for his existence.

We do not intend, even if space permitted, to recapitulate the incidents of the life of Sir Josiah Mason. The press has already made them known far and wide. Some future Samuel Smiles will certainly embody them in some future volume of "Self-help," for beyond doubt his history proves once again that fact is ever more wonderful than fiction. What episode in the regions of romance could be more wonderful than the contrast between the beginning and the close of his life. Then-the penniless little cake-boy, trudging through the streets of Kidderminster. Now the donor, to his adopted town, of property to the value of nearly half a million sterling. Then-obscure and unknown; now-of world-wide fame; honoured by his fellow citizens; knighted by his Sovereign, and loved by the hundreds of fatherless children for whom he has provided a home.

Every man, and every successful man especially, has his detractors, and Josiah Mason was no exception to the rule. But whatever may be the personal animus in some isolated cases, Birmingham, at any rate, has good reason to be grateful to one who has endowed her with such noble and enduring Institutions as the Science College and the Erdington Orphanage.

THE DEVIL IN THE DRAMA, FROM JOB TO FESTUS.

Two incidents, or ideas, taken from the Holy Scriptures, have been fruitful in causing literary reproductions in after ages. One is from the Old, and the other from the New Testament. The latter being from the words of Christ, who, as He went to His crucifixion, said to a certain man, "Tarry thou till I come." As Christ has never yet returned (although Paul expected him even in his lifetime), that Jew is supposed by many to be still wearily waiting either for the fulfilment of the promise or for his own decease.

This idea, as is well known, served as the plot of Eugene Sue's novel of "The Wandering Jew;" and Bulwer has also made use of it in two or three of his works.

The incident in the Old Testament is where Satan appears before God and asks permission to try the faith of Job. It is in this book that we find the first appearance of Satan in the literature of this world; and it is in this dramatic poem that we first meet with the idea of Satan attacking the loyalty of man to God, and leading him into sin.

I do not intend, in this paper, to enter into a theological disquisition, but I may say in passing, that I look upon the serpent of Genesis as a different personage from the devil, and a more modern creation, introduced probably by Ezra the scribe, after the captivity; and not in any way connected with the story of Moses or forming an object of his belief. Besides, judged by the words "The serpent beguiled me," and the decree "On thy belly shalt thou go," he is not a devil at all in the ordinary sense of the term.

Not anywhere throughout the books of Moses can you get the idea of a devil; Moses knew him not, not even as Job knew him, as a minister of God-the tempter or prover-carrying on the rougher kind of work in his government. The Jews never speak of, or manifest any knowledge of a devil. The Book of Job is not Jewish, but Arabic; and the devil of the New Testament "who goeth about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour" was quite unknown to them.

This belief in a devil is a growth, and a combination of beliefs. If you take my first drama, the Book of Job, and examine the devil there, you will find he is far from being the malignant creature described later on. Still, that Satan, combined with the serpent, and the prince of evil from other faiths, had grown into a personified evil principle, a belief in which has prevailed down to our own days, is beyond all question.

In the time of Queen Elizabeth, lived Marlowe, who wrote a play called "The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus." It would appear that there really was a character in the middle ages who took the name of