At home, not at home

204

Austrians in Italy, the

71

Earthquake, private

487

Autobiography of Mansie Wauch 106, 307 Edinburgh sessional school

22

A way to do better

487

Education of a young English gentle

406

A wedding at College

Elm, the

326

Bees, management of in South Ame

Etrucian vases

245

Evening party, an

155

rica

328

Execution of Charlotte Corday

376

Birth-day, the

233

Bloody deed, and desperately des

Extraordinary sang-froid

448

patched

189

Book-binding

327

Bookselling in England

368 Filial affection, curious

367

Botany

248 Flat roofs

366

Breakfast powder

287 Fops and foplings

241

Bridegroom's probation, the

Breguet, the watchmaker

Byron's last portrait

239 Forgery in France
408

French anecdote

92 From the Persian

206

248

487

For, ah! my heart how very soon
The glitt'ring dreams of youth are past!
And long before it reach its noon,
The sun of life is overcast.-Moore.

THE advantages of the accessibili-
ty of knowledge and instruction
to all orders of the community in Scot-
land are now so well known, and so ge-
nerally appreciated, that perhaps no-
body would venture altogether to de-
ny them. But while the beneficial
influence of this privilege on the
national character is apparent, and its
particular value to the middling and
lower classes, generally speaking, un-
deniable, it is attended with some
drawbacks, which, if not so consider-
able as to affect the general principle,
are yet of sufficient importance to
make us pause before we subscribe
to it. That it has sometimes tempted
the youthful mind from the satisfying
pursuits of humble life, to maintain
an ineffectual struggle in the world of
science and literature, and allured
many from comparative distinction
in the middle ranks, to obscurity and
poverty, and perhaps contempt, in a
higher sphere, are facts which are
strikingly illustrated in the "simple
annals" of our country. The follow-
ing sketch of a Scholar's life holds
up another beacon to the ambitious.
Andrew Malcolm was the son of
a respectable tradesman of that class,
which, in his country, is enabled, by
hard labour, to live decently and com-
fortably, and even, with good man-
agement, to lay up a little for the
evening of life. Andrew was born
1 ATHENEUM, VOL. 5. 2d series.

with an unfortunate deformity in his legs, which disqualified him for many of the more laborious employments of life. His frame, however, was in other respects vigorous, his constitution strong, and his countenance indicated, at a very early age, an intelligence which is often considered to belong to those who suffer from any physical incapacity. To this description of persons there attaches, in some districts of Scotland, a superstitious sentiment of respect, as beings who are endowed with a superiority of understanding, proportioned to their deficiency in bodily symmetry. It was perhaps some idea of this kind, added to his own prepossessions of his more than ordinary acquirements at the parish school, which induced Malcolm's parents to give him the advantage of an Academical education.

At both the Colleges in Aberdeen there is held, at the commencement of the Session, a competition, by the performance of Latin exercises, for a given number of bursaries. These are prizes of from five to fifteen pounds, which are paid annually to the successful candidates, during their attendance at College; and although they may appear to many but trifling incentives to literary exertion, they often prove very important aids to the slender finances of the less weal