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monument inspired a muse; that the of a few days. I do not at this moment feel precisely in a mood to reveal it; and, indeed, were I otherwise disengaged, the extraordinary crowd and bustle beneath my window, would have the effect of destroying the requisite composure. About five minutes since, precisely at half-past six o'clock, a small phaeton was brought round to the door of this hotel, and a servant made his appearance to arrange it for his superior's accommodation. Neither the vehicle, nor the horses, nor the servant could be said to have any such external mark or air of distinction as should attract attention, yet so it happened, that two or three artisans returning, as their garb and grimed countenances denoted, from the workshop, stopped to observe the preparations which the groom was making; another, and another, and another added themselves to the company, and possessed me with a notion that the coming forth of some distinguished traveller was expected. I was about pulling the bell, when a housemaid and waiter appeared at the door of my apartment to inquire if a little "doggie" had taken shelter there. I inquired whose was the phaeton; it belonged to the lady who had sent in quest of her dog, and so little of political consequence was attached to her coming and departing, that even her name was not known. "A sma' matter," the woman said, "can rise a stoure in Glasgow when wark is done." I can well believe her : there is a crowd now in the street through which constables, I should think from their dress, are making way for two quiet looking ladies advanced in years, proprietresses of the vehicle to which the multitude has been gathered,) as dense and as extended, although not so vociferous as you have ever seen before your great "counsellor's" abode, impatiently awaiting the moment when he is to issue forth on a procession day.

How easy it must be for one who possesses popular powers, and who is not scrupulous in their application, to rouse into pernicious excitement the passions of a population like this-so disengaged from the attractions of home, "empty, and swept and gar

nished" for the spirit of innovation. By the way, has it ever occurred to you, as a proof of the inferiority of modern eloquence, that it can scarcely boast a single instance of such a success as, Virgil's well-known comparison teaches us, must have been of frequent occurrence among the ancients. The comparison for Father Neptune's calming the rude seas is that of a good and eloquent man tranquillising the passions of an infuriate people. The similitude would not have been selected by a taste and judgment such as Virgil's, were such exercises of power infrequent.—Otherwise it would have been unserviceable. We have scarcely any specimen of eloquence which has told when the prejudices or passions of the audience were opposed to it. Indeed modern orators have an excuse with which, because of the courtesy of ancient mobs, the great exemplars of their art were not furnished. To speak against the roaring of the sea was a sufficient practice for Demosthenes. The assemblies which were to witness his triumphs were not more boisterous or uncivil than the ocean, but what storms or seas, what sound of winds and waters could fortify the champion or advocate of an unpopular cause against the hootings and the cat-calls (and the cats one might add amidst the various missiles of annoyance) in which a multitude in these days discharge their anger upon an obnoxious orator, and pronounce his platform a pillory.

But to come down from antiquity and eloquence to the crowd only now dispersing beneath my window-think what temptations are presented to illdesigning men of ability in the facilities afforded by the habits of our manufacturing population, and how important it is that the dangers which follow as the natural consequences of wealth and enterprise should be carefully observed and counteracted. "In reviewing the circumstances of a large manufacturing community," says writer in the Encyclopædia Britannica, in an Article on Glasgow,* *"this melancholy consideration forces itself on the mind-that the discoveries in mechanics, and improvements in the various processes of production, intended by nature to increase the sum

Suppl. Encyc. Brit.

a

of man's comforts, should, in the way the affairs of the world are conducted, terminate always in lowering his condition. The end seems to be every where sacrificed to the means; and we find manufactures valued, not as they enable those employed in them to add to the amount of their enjoyments, but as they serve to increase the general revenue of the country." To my thinking it seems of more importance to influence well the character of the artizans' enjoyments than to increase their amount. To inspire a taste for what is good and purifying cannot but be accounted of far greater moment than to afford facilities of enjoyment; and I can never be persuaded, that to doubt, if the Sabbaths were made a delight to the great mass of our population, the days of labour would be brightened and gladdened by felicities not alien from those which had consecrated their Sabbath. All facilities should be afforded to the population of our towns to join in Sabbath worship-all permitted allurements should be adopted to give the worship its most prevailing interestadvantage should be taken of the opportunities of imparting, with all the aids which can recommend it, a knowledge of Christian principle, and every effort made that that principle should be come the guard upon human passion and the motive to action; and, inasmuch as the population of great manufacturing

towns are exposed to graver perils, and subjected to the influence of more deteriorating practises than are encountered where men are less crowded, less familiar with the gratifications of a coarse luxury, more frequently calmed by solitude, more sensible to the pure charities of home, so should the advocacy of religion be more strenuous as its power is more resisted, and its persuasions less furthered by local and incidental advantages.

It is gratifying to observe, that the evils arising from the neglects of former days, seem to have been, for some time past, in process of being remedied. You see churches of late erection, in places where you learn that much injury was inflicted because they were but lately reared. The legislators of all countries and times seem to have been aware that there is something like an appetite for religion in every human mind-the legislators of all countries seem to have acted upon it, except those of modern England, who, at one time, appeared to have adopted the notion that when men were collected in towns, they became divested of religious instincts, and resigned public worshipas a matter in which they could take no interest, and had no concern-to be reckoned among the luxuries of the wealthy.

A. W.

ARCHERY.

FROM THE FRENCH.

Half vext that she had failed so long, And sure that something must be wrong, Young Cynthia took her Tom apart "Why do my arrows miss ?" Tom sighs, "Because they speed not from your eyes, And yonder target's not my heart.”

HINTS FROM HIGH PLACES-No. III.

Music, hark!

Portia.-
Nerissa. It is your music, madam, of the house.
Por. Nothing is good I see without respect:

Methinks it sounds much sweeter than by day.
Ner.-Silence bestows the virtue on it, madam.
Por. The crow doth sing as sweetly as the lark,
When neither is attended; and, I think,
The nightingale, if she should sing by day,
When every goose is cackling, would be thought
No better a musician than the wren.

I stood one day in the Bookseller's Gate, a name which designates, I know not for what reason, the entrance to the southern transept of one of the most venerable of those Gothic edifices that have escaped the scythe of time and the fury of sacrilegious zeal at the close of the last century. The sun was declining, and his beams seemed to sleep among the saints which, crowded row above row in the receding span of the Gothic arches, smiled in the mellow hues of time beneath the influence of the holy light. The richness of sculptured stone, already dyed in the tints of centuries, and seen steeped in the molten gold of a continental sunset, is not to be painted or described— such blendings and shadings are as much beyond the reach of the pencil as the pen, and it is only in the mind of the observer that they are to be found faithfully represented. The gate, thus enriched with every natural and artificial beauty, was raised by several steps from the rugged pavement, and hemmed in on all sides except the south-west by incongruous, fantastic piles of building, raised to the height of six or even seven stories, and painted of the most gaudy colours. Huge roofs, rising with sufficient perpendicularity to afford in some places room for two tiers of windows, were surmounted by chimnies of such gigantic proportions, as to appear emulous of the towers of the cathedral, and threw a gloom on the narrow way below, which was certainly not relieved by the hue of the Acheron

Merchant of Venice.

that flowed along its course, increasing its infernal contents at every house.

It was Sunday; but those who have passed that sacred day on the continent need not to be informed that the bustle and business of life was going on with an activity by no means diminished by the immunities (or duties) of the day, and that its ordinary occupations and amusements were only pursued with less laborious assiduity, or in a gayer garb.

The little shops were most of them open. On the left a manufacturer of shoes was plying, not the awl and waxend, but the saw, plane, and gouge. The shoes were of wood, and as each sabot was turned finished from his hand, he hung it up to form one of the row that dangled from the wire across his window. To the right a baker's shop displayed the fancy of the boulanger within, in uncouth loaves of every shape and size. Crowns, fishes, basaltic columns piled his shelves; but in larger quantities the "great bread" spread the vast length of its ridgy back along the counter. Next door old gentlemen sat and devoured their six sous' worth of politics with all their spectacles, while their coffee cooled untasted beside them. Presently a roar of sabots swelled down the alley, and a dozen of urchins appeared just broke loose from lecture, and followed by a man in a sable cassock, with white bands and a three cornered hat, having a book under his arm, and an unwieldy umbrella in his hand. Women in the fantastic costume of the country,

were seen from the topmost stories spreading their gaudy lingerie forth in the air, or below on the unhewn pavement, clothed in it, and surmounted by the huge extinguisher which, in defiance of taste, convenience, and "march of intellect," still raises the laugh of civilized mankind against the goodly dames of haute Normandie. This headgear is so extraordinary that it deserves a more particular description. A framework, stiffened with wire or whalebone, rises from the head, in some instances to the height of three feet, tapering to narrow dimensions at the top: upon this is stretched a piece of blue or pink stuff, puffed out above into a small ball: over this is placed a thin net, divided behind, where its extremities extend with much stiffening in the form of butterflies' wings, edged all round with the wealth of the wearer in many yards of rich and broad lace. Some ribbons placed immediately below the head of the frame-work completes the edifice. I have no doubt many of my readers have entered the cathedral church of St. Patrick in our Irish metropolis by the small door leading from "Mitre Alley," and having close to one of its posts the stone raised by Swift in memory of his servant. Such will probably recollect that in a niche on their left, before they enter the nave, is preserved a fragment, said to have been the top of the spire which was plunged in days of yore-ball and all many feet below the pavement of the street, by a fall from its exalted situation. This may give them an idea, though an inadequate one, of the bonnet Cauchois. To those of the sister island who have not seen this relic, and who may happen to feel jealous that they are not furnished with an example, I have only to say, that I can not do more than I have done, and that if they are prevented by national antipathy or other causes from making personal inspection of the original, I counsel them strongly to come across the channel, and visit St. Patrick's as soon as ever the western window is repaired. They have no antipathy to us I am sure, and we shall take care that they shall not have to complain of want of hospitality. They shall see "cead mille faltaigh" written in every countenance, and we shall feel pride in exhibiting not only, our Normandy cap, but, a little farther on, our chapel, our

monuments, and, above all, our choir. But more of this anon. I have wandered from the Bookseller's Gate, and hasten back to it, with apologies for my absence.

The dames I had been describing were not equally unlike the rest of their sex in other respects. The tongues of all were at work, and in the high shrill tone that grates so much upon the stranger's ear, they were gossiping, bargaining, and scolding with the utmost vehemence. At every stand, where vegetables were displayed as well as water-melons, pears, and grapes, the dispute waxed warm upon a difference between buyer and seller to an amount not describable in British currency, probably about the fifth part of an halfpenny. But I shall not attempt to detail the various sounds and sights that struck upon my eye and ear as I stood in the gate. They were full of animation and novelty, even to the clack of the sabots on the pavement, and the cry of the marchand de limonade.

As I was quietly enjoying the outlandish bustle, the little wicket which led into the body of the church was opened by an old peasant who was issuing forth, and there fell upon my ears so hideous and gloomy a strain of music from within, that I started with the idea that a message from the other world had come to interrupt me. I had not heard it before, from the circumstance of the little gate and the door in which it is inserted being both lined thickly with stuff, I believe to prevent the worldly sounds I have been describing from intruding upon the orisons of the devotee within. Having returned the respectful salute of the old man, I opened the door and entered myself. The temple was almost deserted-the solemn gloom of evening had begun to settle over the tombs of Rollo and Cœur de Lion.-Objects below were indistinct; and it was only above, among the capitals and arches, that the rainbow-colouring of the pictured windows yet lingered. As my eye ran along the vast floor, a worshipper appeared here and there kneeling motionless against a chair, and a servitor, distinguishable through the twilight by his white-edged bands, stole across with a hasty and noiseless step. A monotonous chaunt came from the chancel, where in the oaken seats were

ranged about a couple of dozen priests, having each of them a short transparent surplice over his cassock, and a high black cap on his head. A few boys in red vestments attended, and they were all singing, with the accumpaniment of a bassoon, and led by one of their own body, who stood before a ponderous eagle-desk, at opposite sides of which, in two folios, the chaunts lay concealed from vulgar eyes within the mystery of counterpoint. Ever and anon as this personage turned the desk, so as to have a different book opposite to him, the dismal howl (for I can call it nothing else) was renewed with increased intonation, and then died gradually away again. The notes which were sung were confined to three or four, and the peculiar wild effect observable in Irish (and I believe Scotch) airs, from the occasional introduction of a minor cadence, was produced more than once. The service seemed to be carried on in the form of verses, like a litany, and each stanza was managed with a crescendo and a dimuendo that had a strange and unearthly sound. As I continued to gaze, the figures of the performers and worshippers, and the architecture of the building grew less distinct; but still the same dreary tones reverberated along the groined roofs, and came back in echoes through the aisles. I took a chair, and placed myself in a niche at the entrance of one of the side chapels that appeared to be empty, and listened dreamily to the dirge from the chancel. On it went sweeping, and swelling, and dying, like gusts of wind, and again resuming its doleful cant. Presently the deep voices were silent, and after a pause, the thin pipe of a child resumed the subject, and wailed drearily as it lost itself in the undefined vastness of the building. Again it was taken up by the whole choir, and rose on high, and rung along the trembling roof. Louder and more loud grew the strain, and more and more energetic waxed the sacerdotal performers. The colossal eagle was turned with violence backwards and forwards, and the great book pored over with greater earnestness as the dimness of the light rendered its contents less visible. The high conical black caps were snatched from every head, and the pale faces of the band thrown upward with manifest

enthusiasm, while their distended mouths showed that each bore his part cordially in the impassioned chaunt. The bassoon was blown till the cheeks of the performer lost all traces of humanity. Madness glared in the gestures and demeanour of all, while the increasing darkness magnified their forms to unearthly dimensions, and gave an awful extent to the precincts of religion. I could not move, nor take my eyes from off the rapt crew, nor close my ears to the awful, rolling, ringing strength of the sonnd. Its intensity was redoubled, and shakes and cadences were added; for as one voice would swell above the rest, it ran through the compass of its notes, and turned and thrilled and quavered till another with new breath burst over it like a thunder-clap, and assumed the lead for itself. At such a moment the arms of the inspired chorister were tossed with frantic desperation towards heaven, and his whole form writhed with the contortions of a sybil. Each seemed to vie with the other in these convulsive movements, and heaved, and stamped, and swelled, and dashed himself about, and rolled against his brethren, till the whole mass tossed to and fro like an ocean disturbed by a mighty wind. Forward and backward they weltered, and shouted amain, and tossed their censers on high, and waved their silver crosses round and round, and dashed them against the oak-work and pillars, in time to their hideous music.

How long this continued, I know not. I remained rivetted to my seat, with my mouth open, and suffering under too much bewilderment of mind to note the lapse of time. At length, however, it began gradually to subside. Singer after singer having executed a flourish more wild and unearthly than ever, dropped exhausted into his stall, and the censers swung more slowly and measuredly in the hands of the boys. Echo begun to be heard between the bursts, and, in the pauses, the sound of footsteps traversing the flagged floor. At length the voices were reduced to a comparative whisper, and my senses were taking a moment's repose, when a sound more distant and of another kind roused them again to attention. It came from the farthest end of the nave, and the solemn and subdued purity of the first

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