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The interest we have taken ourselves in noting the ways of the above and other living specimens, we would fain excite in others; but, without further instances or argument about the matter, only let any body begin keeping insects, and, we answer for it, he will soon begin to like them. With keeping and liking must come of necessity increasing observation of their beautiful and wondrous formation, and yet more admirable instincts, exemplified especially in their constructive skill. With these brought daily beneath our eyes, can we do otherwise than raise our thoughts towards Him by whom these excellent endowments were bestowed on-what we shall certainly con sider no longer as the meanest of his creatures; and if we can say and feel that this is, to us, the result of keeping insectslaugh at us who will, it is a practice of which we need never be ashamed.

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"While out the hollowed root, with sweets inlaide,
The murmuring bee her daintie hoarde betray'de ;
Its sturdie side did brave the nippinge winde,
Where many a creepinge ewe moughte gladlie reste.
Warm comforte here to all and everie kinde,

Where hunge the leaf, well sprint with honey-dew,

Whence dropt their cups, the gamboling fairie knew."

WE have ascended to a lofty eminence, whence, as a spectator of London looking from the summit of St. Paul's, we are taking a bird's-eye view over a populous city. In the highways swarm a motley multitude, passing and repassing, some on business, others on pleasure. Some are employed in the

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erection of solid habitations-others are raising shady tents upon the spots of verdure with which, above all other capitals, this city abounds. Others, again, are weaving for their occupation large silken hammocks, or are rocked within them by the breeze, while they take refreshment or repose. Of these, some are now issuing from their luxurious abodes; and, as if the footways (although of wood), were too rugged for their tender feet, are laying down silken carpets on the ways they are about to tread. Yonder, on one of the smooth green areas, slowly advances a compact military-looking body, marshalled in files, dressed in uniform, and headed by a leader.

And now what have we here? A group, as it would seem, of pantomimic players, belonging to some strolling company. Truly, they are clever fellows in the art of posture-making. Ye Grimaldis of Greenwich, and balancers of St. Bartholomew! hide your diminished heads behind your baize drop-curtains! Ye are but bunglers in your trade!

Look at one of the performers. He grasps with his feet an upright pole, with which his body, extended horizontally, stiff and motionless, forms a right angle, of which both sides, instead of only one, look as if formed of wood. What prodigious strength of muscle! He looks like a cataleptic patient under the hands of a mesmeriser. See now one of his companions-head and feet nearly met upon the ground-back raised into an arch or Greek 2. This strange position would seem but a part of his walking-movement; for now, stretching

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forward, he plants, as it were, with his hands, another step; then drawing up his rear, brings feet and heel again almost together, and so progresses, looping as he goes, and measuring the ground he treads on. A third of his comrades, dressed in like manner, is sitting idle on a horizontal pole, raised a tremendous height above the ground. But now-powers of earth and air!-he throws himself off his station, and must be dashed to atoms! Not he! the rogue! for there he hangs suspended by a slender rope, mid-air, like "one that gathers samphire." Will he let himself drop, now, from that still fearful height, or has he yet more length of rope (hid nobody knows where) to let him down easy. By Jove! neither. He's climbing up again by the line to which he dangles and now he's reached the top-the place from whence he fell. Bravo! master tumbler! Bravo! most excellent posture-masters! You shall have our interest for a season at Vauxhall !

Contrasted with these, who seem the idlers of the city, we see, here and there, tottering under enormous burthens, and distinguished by their dingy hue, large heads and slender frames, some who appear the most laborious of all the labouring population. Occupying the lowest quarters of the metropolis, and emerging from underground, this class corresponds, apparently, with the subterranean dwellers of London and all great capitals-denizens of cellars and dark kitchens, and drudges of the community.

A POPULOUS COMMUNITY.

97

This, and much more, though nothing perhaps altogether new, is to be seen "under the sun" in the highways of this extensive city; and there are also other things (alas! not new either) going on in the shade and the bye-ways thereof. There murder is boldly stalking, or slily lurking. The strong are preying on the weak. Members of one society, nay, of one family, are openly attacking or secretly injuring each other; while greedy parasites are for ever preying on the substance of those by whom they live.

Now, shutting our eyes on the creations of Fancy, let us open them on the realities of Nature.-Where are we?-Our populous city, like Aladdin's palace, has disappeared, and in its stead stands, in solitary grandeur, a stately oak-tree. How! exclaims, perhaps, some plodding follower of our wandering lucubrations; have we been all this while led astray by pretended descriptions of what has no existence, save in the realms of imagination ?-By no means, we can assure you. We may have given, indeed, both to our structures and their inhabitants something of the form fantastic, such as is assumed by the boughs of yonder oak, as they mount in airy evolutions to the clouds; but like those, also, they rest on solid bases, and spring from vital roots. The oak itself, with certain of its usual occupants, has stood, in fact, for our opening sketch. The objects have been traced precisely as they exist. they exist. Let us

only fill up their outlines, and give to each a name, and we

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