for that is the name of the phenomenon, then drew a paper from his pocket, and very unaffectedly began by scratching his skull, at which an ignorant titter was heard, and Miss Caustic addressing herself to me, flippantly cried,-" Well, I am agreeably disappointed, for I begin to think the man really has something in his head." A young lady by her side hinted that he was only pulling out verses with his nails, as a skull, like any other territory, must be ploughed to make it productive; but I silenced these stupid sarcasms by informing the sneerers that this species of application is particularly recommended to authors by Aretæus, and is a recorded poetical practice of such high antiquity, that it is presumed to have suggested the mythological allegory of Jupiter wounding his head in order to let out Minerva. Mr. Crump having cleared his throat by a loud hem! and spit upon the ground, at which Miss Caustic affected a ridiculous disgust, began with a loud voice to read his Evening, an Elegy. APOLLO now, Sol's carman, drives his stud Home to the Mews that 's seated in the West, And Customs' clerks, like him, through Thames-street mud, So from the stands the empty carts are dragg'd, Now from the slaughter-houses cattle roar, Knowing that with the morn their lives they yields, And Mr. Sweetman's gig is at the door, To take him to his house in Hackney Fields. Closed are the gates of the West India Docks. And I with other careless carmen flocks To the King's Head, the Chequers, or the Rose. They smoke a pipe-the shepherd's pipe I wakes, I, bless'd with learning, takes a pen and writes. Here there was such an unmannerly burst of laughter that Mr. Crump was unable to proceed, and several voices at once declared that it would be disreputable to the society to admit such ungrammatical compositions into their Album. Senseless objection! These are the very evidences of their genuineness, and I would no more have them removed, than would Martinus have wished to scrub the precious ærugo from the brazen shield, and invest it with a new polish. When Mr. Capel Lofft told us that he had merely corrected a few verbal inaccuracies in Bloomfield's early productions, their charm was at once broken, for we knew not the extent of these revisions, and what was wonderful in a peasant, would have been poor enough in a gentleman. As to Miss Caustic's assertion that Mr. Crump enquired of her, whether Mount Etna was to be spelt with a whipthong, (meaning diphthong,) I believe it to be a spiteful fabrication; and as to her pretended regret, that he would no longer be able to drive his cart straightforward, because I had completely turned his head, I consider it a mere impertinence. To the thoughts and descriptive parts of his elegy no objections can be urged; it is obvious that he paints from the life, and the allusion to the regular appearance of his master's gig at the door, so perfectly in accord with the punctual habits of that respectable tradesman, is a felicity of local truth which must come home to the bosom of the most careless reader. However, jealousy of a rising luminary prevailed; the remainder of the elegy, declared to be inadmissible, has gone to join the lost books of Livy and the missing comedies of Terence, and I esteem myself happy to have preserved the exordium, which I now confidently present to a candid and judicious public. In casting my eye over our Album, I venture to extract the following epigram and epitaph, from the pen of Mr. Skinner the Tanner : Here lies my dear wife, a sad vixen and shrew, If I said I regretted her, I should lie too. Were the subject of this inscription a stranger, I should scruple to circulate this couplet; but, as she was a particular friend of mamma's, who declares the character to be strictly merited, I hesitate not to give it publicity. From Mr. Schweitzkoffer's serio-comic epic, The Apotheosis of Snip, of which I promised you further extracts, I select for my present communication the description of the hero. "His lank and scanty hair was black, As broad and strong as Plato's; His teeth were indurated sloes; Then he 'd a nose-oh, such a nose !— As that which Slawkenbergius had,' Nor that recorded by the poet Whose owner could not reach to blow it; No, that was Ossa to a wart, For this was just as much too short. What was it like?—why nothing, save The mutilated Sphinx Egyptian, So flatten'd, that it neither gave Handle for blowing nor description. But if it had been turn'd about, It would have been a Roman. In short 'twas like the knave of clubs, Although there was a cavity And witnesseth by this indenture, Such dumpy legs, and bow knees, And Buckhorse an Adonis." As conjugal portraits should be always hung up in couples, I send you the drawing of his wife, with which I shall conclude at present, in the full assurance that the delineation of so tempting a creature will excite an intense curiosity for a further developement of her charms in future communications. His rib-(to judge by length alone, Two feet of which alarming space (Her chin was full a span); Beneath her nose's bridge would get. This rawboned nymph was christen'd Rose, Behold it here in miniature. She relish'd tea and butter'd toast, Better than being snubb'd and schooled. Than feast upon the roast she ruled; H. EDINBURGH GRADUATION-DAY. WEDNESDAY last was our Graduation-Day. However interesting this may appear to us, or to those who care any thing about the profession, it seems to attract very little notice on the part of the good people of the most excellent town of Edinburgh; and really, when one considers the plentifulness of doctors in those parts, it is impossible to feel any surprise at it. But to a student, particularly if he chance to be of a contemplative turn of mind, and addicted to dreaming, as I am, the day and the ceremonies thereof are full of interest, and even of solemnity. To me, when taking leave of my preceptors, the day seemed like that on which I took leave of my parents; and every act of disobedience, every impatient word, deed, and even thought with a thousand sins of omission, seemed to rise up before me as something for which I was to repent and weep bitterly. To those too, who have opportunities of knowing the materiel (as the French military writers say) of the medical students of Edinburgh, and what manner of young men from all quarters of the earth resort to that famous university for instruction in the noble art of medicine, and how devotedly industrious they must be and are, who feel something above the "hard and worldly phlegm" of those who are destined to slumber in everlasting oblivion, before they can present themselves for examination;-still more to those who look more closely than the crowd into the feelings of the "college lads" (as the Edinburgh mob denominate them) to those who mark how many of the best of them (for these are the most prone to despond) grow pale and sickly in their progress, how many give up the pursuit in despair, and how many even sink untimely, and even rapidly, into their graves;-to such it is a gratifying spectacle to see those who have got honourably through all that is required of them, receive the reward of their labour, care, and perseverance; of their daily fatigue and nightly anxiety;-and who, having given an earnest of all the industry, at least, that is called for in their profession, receive on this day their diplomas to practise it legitimately At twelve o'clock then, on the kalends of August, horâ locoque solitis, all our examinations being passed, and our immortal inaugural dissertations valiantly defended, we assembled in the lecture-room of the Materia Medica Professor,-that very room to which we had often resorted on cold, dark, wintry mornings, at the inclement and unjustifiable hour of eight, some of us with eyes smarting from studies too far prolonged into the night, and others with cruel headaches revenging irregularities prolonged in the morning. Not to dwell longer on past griefs, here we were once more-but in the full light of the happiest day of our lives:-here we robed, that is, we arrayed ourselves in black gowns (borrowed, it was said in a whisper, from another learned profession):-and then, two and two, we proceeded at a pace which was an odd mixture of the measured step of a procession and the "skipping of the heart," as somebody has (or has not) called it, and in a most unmerciful rain, to the old library. Many, particularly those of a dark complexion, dark eyes, &c. in short, of what we call the melancholic temperament, were inclined to consider the weather inauspicious; but those of the sanguine cast thought it the best wea ther they could possibly have, well-knowing that by such weather, in a great measure they must live. Nor is this altogether theoretical; I could prove, if I had time, that the wealth and respectability of physicians mainly depends on the dampness of the climate. In such countries as Italy and Spain, but particularly the latter, the rank of a physician is very little above that of a billiard-marker. Sed hæc hactenus. On entering the old library, we were arranged round it in two ranks, a long table being placed at the head of the room, with some very majestic arm-chairs, which were to be occupied by the principal and the professors. Whilst we were waiting for these personages, I had time to look round on my fellow-graduates ;—and if I saw among them some whom I should there have least expected "Write it not, my pen." The sparkling countenances of many of my friends were very amusingly contrasted with the hollow, care-worn, anxious, bilious faces they had carried about with them during the fearful months of the preceding winter, and of which the lines and the hue had become "deeper and deeper still," even unto the evening of the day of the primum periculum, which past, all their functions once more went on cheerily, and they were themselves again. I beheld the Scottish students, with the same imperturbable steadiness of person, and the same equivocal smile, which I had remarked for years at lectures. I saw the Irish, the same gay, idle, care-for-nothing fellows that they had been through all the vicissitudes of grinding. I saw the wealthy Indians of the West, with the same happy indifference to every thing but their appearance, which I had long remarked but never admired. Good Genevese, indefatigable Germans, and combustible Americans saw I too, thinking of their distant homes, and looking too happy for words. Lastly, I saw the English, looking, as usual, as if they feared that simple propinquity would force some coarse neighbour into acquaintance with them. And all these I contemplated for the last time. -never more to quarrel in my heart with the heavy smile of the studious and persevering Scot; with the hot-headed virtues and vices of the talented Hibernian; with the unqualified inanity of the rich and idle West Indian; or the supercilious solitude of the proud, but highminded and intelligent Saxon. In the old library, we awaited the principal and professors: the space without the bar was crowded by students looking through the vista of years to the same honours, and believing (alas! how unjustly!) us within to be without a care in the world:-here and there you might see above the heads of these, the face of a father fixed on one figure among the many, and rejoicing in the dignities of his son :-and in the remote corners, mounted on steps, or chairs, or even book-shelves, such was their exhilaration, (friends, flattering friends, looking forward to the joyous hour of dinner, when the new doctor's health was to be drunk in a bumper, and "prosperity to the Old University" in another. There was a gallery also, not as the newspapers say, 66 crowded with beauty and fashion," but silent, dusty, and deserted, with not one lady there to reward the actors with a smile, or in any way to temper the severity of the spectacle. An oath was now read by the Deacon of the Faculty, and taken by |