right place. Unless he is perfectly at ease in dealing with his verbal machinery, he can never give way to the spontaneous fertility and natural playfulness which constitute his title to social success. The most distinctive quality of a genuine talker is unpremeditated freshness. Charles Lamb complains that a Scotchman's thoughts are never seen in the course of formation, and he is fully justified in denouncing the tediousness of ready-made declamation. A stream of talk is always tiresome, for conversation ought to bubble up in unforeseen succession from distinct and copious springs. The thought of the moment has a kind of aerated briskness which is lost when it is stored in the memory for subsequent use. The half-truths, the whimsical paradoxes, the sudden transitions of an animated dialogue, are often as instructive as elaborate disquisitions, and they are infinitely more amusing. A talker of the highest order is exempt from the temptation of monopolizing attention, because he depends for inspiration on the independent and natural flow of the conversation. Confident in his ability to deal with all probable topics of discussion, he abstains from thrusting forward favorite hobbies of his own. The man of one subject, the prophet of a neglected truth, has no business in society. The platform and the pamphlet are his proper fields of action. In those regions Eolus may disport himself without annoyance to ordinary human beings. As it is not always practicable to avoid personal matters, the beginner will find it a useful rule to abstain from giving information which is not already familiar to his hearers, and, like a cautious advocate, he will seldom ask a question until he knows the answer. A new communication or an abrupt inquiry too often connects itself with painful associations. Gratuitous praise of any absent person frequently brings imperfect sympathies to light, and though goodhumored ridicule is more generally acceptable, it is unpleasant in a slightly satirical discourse to stumble unexpectedly on feel ings of serious dislike. It is not necessary that the subject of conversation should be intrinsically interesting, for the treatment is of more importance than the material. The tact which evades the prejudices of others, and consults their tastes, is naturally associated with the faculty of creating interest, and of directing it into new channels. The world in general is commonplace, prosaic, and uninventive; but an external impulse which forces it out of its ordinary grooves provides a not unwelcome excitement. Like painters and poets, masters of conversation refine and elevate those whom they have the opportunity of influencing, and they teach even decorous feebleness to catch occasional glimpses of the strange contrasts and combinations which are the recreations of a large and genial intellect. Even in dealing with the stupidest audience, deliberate condescension ought uniformly to be avoided. It may be necessary to be even exceptionally lucid, and, as it were, to speak in words of one syllable, but a wise and thoughtful man never permits himself to be silly. A vigorous understanding will succeed best in the exchange of prattle with young children, and there are gifted speakers who can even talk to a dog without offending the taste of the bystanders. The sum of the doctrine of conversation is to be natural, to be extemporaneous, to be gentle and self-possessed, and above all to be concise. Natural genius, aided by these and by similar precepts, may lead to an eminence in conversation which can seldom be attained before middle life. The accomplishment comes late, and it passes away early, for old men cease to be creative, and their memories are retentive of anecdotes, and oblivious of the frequency with which they have been repeated. The art of conversation seldom leads to permanent fame, and it is not even always rewarded by contemporary gratitude. The self-sacrifice which may be necessary in its cultivation is only repaid by the enjoyment of practising it, and by consciousness of the benefits which it confers on society. From The Examiner. Spiritual Conceits Extracted from the writings of the Fathers, the Old English Poets, etc. Illustrated by W. Harry Rogers. Griffith and Farran. the passages illustrated will entitle Mr. Harry Rogers almost to as much praise as his pictures. The trees of life and death, the Scylla and the Charybdis of poverty and riches, the trust in Divine help and the trust in a THERE is more thought in this beautiful man's own strength-represented by a cuChristmas book than is seen at a glance. riously literal picture of Thomas à Kempis' The central emblem on its singularly ele-image concerning "they who have built gant cover is of cross and crown; its cen- themselves nests in heaven" such strong tral thought is that through struggle against reminders of a divided choice open the volevil we attain to good, "If there be no ene-ume. Then follow emblems of past, present, my, no fight; if no fight, no victory; if no and future, succeeded by an emblem of man's victory, no crown." No cross, no crown is, pilgrimage; and an emblem of watchfulness therefore, the motto joined to the emblem interleaved between images of the Church on the title-page; and the frontispiece of and of the golden cup of Babylon. Before the volume develops from the cypher I.H.S. the pilgrim heavenward then lie the vices the cross wreathed with the crown of thorns of man and their perils. These are the and surmounted by the crown of glory, while subjects of the next twenty emblems, folwithin their outline are sketched the sym- lowed by an emblem to the words of St. bols of the scourging and crucifixion; the Chrysostom, "Cultivate thy soul. Cut spear, the nails, the sponge, the money of away the thorns, sow the word of godliness. betrayal, and the dice with which lots were Nurse with much care the fair plants of divine wisdom, and thou hast become a husbandman." Then follow the virtues, blended with truths of religion; "the Refuge" of the cross is followed instantly by "Peace;" then come "Regeneration," and the "Thirst for God as the hart for the waterbrooks." Comforts, thoughts, and tribulations of the Christian follow in thoughtfully devised succession. Upon the emblem of tribulation at last follows an emblem of glory, set to the words of Thomas à Kempis, "Suffer with Christ and for Christ, if thou desire to reign with Christ;" and all ends with a hymn in which the emblem is set to the words, by George Herbert : cast. The spiritual conceits which Mr. Harry Rogers represents quaintly and gracefully, but yet as literally to the eye as they are presented in the text of St. Augustine, Thomas à Kempis, St. Cyprian, St. Cyril, and such poets as George Herbert and Crashaw, are arranged into a hundred consecutive emblems, suggestive of the good fight of the Christian for eternal happiness. First he picks out ten passages suggestive of the distinct choice between good and evil that life offers; of the two paths open to the Christian. "God buildeth a Jerusalem; the love of the world builds a Babylon," says St. Augustine, and opposite the passage in which this is said stands Mr. Rogers' double emblem. Above is the tower and church of Jerusalem within the heart that lies under the cross. Below is the world, dressed with the emblems of its vanity-the fool's-cap and the peacock feathers, the "My joy, my life, my crown, And still it runneth mutt'ring up and down My joy, my life, my crown." In the execution of the emblems two money bag and the dice and cards that rep-things are noticeable. Mr. Harry Rogers resent the slippery chances of its sport. is known as perhaps our best designer of "Set your affection on things above, not on the traceries of delicate book ornament. things of the earth," is the text written under He has exchanged here the delicacy of his this. And so throughout, at the foot of the touch for a broader style, learnt in the school page that contains an emblem facing the of Albert Durer, but he retains all his taste conceit it embodies, lies always a text to as a designer. Apart from its meaning, complete its elucidation. It is evident that nearly every drawing pleases the eye as a much careful and wholesome thought has choice ornament by the arrangement of its been given to the preparation of this book; lines and shadows. And when we look to and the wise selection and arrangement of the meaning we observe the literalness with which conceits have been embodied. A con- its title. But, even then, book of conceits ceit being one of those more labored similitudes that differ from true imagery in not arising spontaneously from the natural fervor of expression, is in a strict sense bad literature. Nevertheless, the conceits of many wise old writers are too ingenious and well-meant to be displeasing or unprofitable. What is unnatural imagery in literature does not become better by literal translation into art; and until the whole earnestness and truth of this volume is felt, a hasty critic might object to the artist's work that it corresponds only too well with as it is, nobody, however hasty his glance, can well overlook the fact that the conceits are spiritual, that in their extremest quaintness there is always a sacred and genuine significance. One word more of praise is due to the book, and that belongs to its printers, Messrs. Whittingham and Wilkins of the Chiswick Press. Printed throughout in black-letter, with red initial letters, it is by far the most complete and beautiful specimen of modern black-letter we have ever seen. A NEW YELLOW PIGMENT.-Artists will be glad to learn that a new and important yellow pigment has just been introduced under the name of aureolin, which will be found to be a most valuable addendum to the pallette. It is of a splendid yellow color of rich and brilliant hue, and possesses the invaluable and longsought-for combination of qualities-brilliancy, permanency, and transparency. Its tints are very pure in tone, the lighter ones being extremely delicate and clear: to scientific men it is of interest, as being a nearer approach to the pure color of the solar spectrum than any other known yellow. Aureolin mixes well with all other colors, forming with blues a magnificent range of brilliant greens; and by the side of ultramarine and madder-red, it completes a triad of brilliant, permanent, and transparent primitive colors. It is absolutely permanent, being equally unaffected by long-continued exposure to the sun's rays or to the action of the impure gases which may contaminate the atmosphere. -London Review. opposait cette eau a l'objet qu'on voulait peindre. Bientôt l'eau, se congelant devenait comme une glace de miroir, ou l'image demeurait ineffaçable. On l'emportait ou l'ou voulait, et c'etait un tableau aussi fidèle que les plus poli glaces de miroir." The noble Fénelon, when he wrote the above, was far from thinking that such a fabulous wonder would one day be a sober reality.London Review. ELECTRICAL CURRENTS.-Professor Lamont, we learn from the Astronomische Nachrichten, has nearly brought his researches on terrestrial currents to a close, and has arrived at most remarkable results, having succeeded in proving that electrical currents on the surface of the earth are transmitted in a definite direction, and that a perfect correspondence exists between them and the variations of the magnet. The bearings of the facts established cannot at this moment be accurately estimated, but at all events electrical and magnetical researches will be put upon a new footing by them.-London Review. SPITE CARRIED TO ITS UTMOST MALIGNITY.-An ingenious friend of ours says he has discovered the secret of Nessus' Shirt. He says it was a shirt with all the buttons off. It was sent to Hercules purposely to annoy him, and the effect was, that every time he put it on, the absence of the buttons used to put Hercules into such a burning rage, that ultimately it was the death of him !—Punch. From The Examiner. Punch. Re-issue of Vols. 6 and 7 for 1844; The success that gives Punch rank as the one comic journal of this country makes it the standard for cheap imitation, and the series of penny comic journals that have come and gone during its life have been copyists as far as they could of its good manners as well as of its good humor and fun. It is hard to esti Two handsome double volumes of the monthly re-issue of Punch have been added to this capital library series since we last spoke of it. The shrewd and mirthful com-mate the extent or value of this kind of serment upon English political and social life for the years 1844 and 1845 opens as usual with the political summary now prefixed to each of the half-yearly volumes, together with such notes as will be necessary hereafter, and are partly necessary now, to recall to mind the incidents and follies of the day that Punch hit as they flew. The Volume for 1844, after the collection of Prize Prefaces in caricature of divers men of the day wise and foolish, is introduced by a list of the Peel cabinet, and a serious Political Summary with side references to caricatures based on the more prominent political events. Notes follow in which every jest that requires interpretation, whether among the pictures or the text, is interpreted by a resentment in a very few words of the fact upon which it was founded. In 1844 Punch had so far done one part of its service to the public that a reference to the editor of the Satirist in prison reminds us of the departed reign of libellous and filthy comic journals, Satirists and Paul Prys, whose end was hastened by the three-pennyworths of honest wit and wholesome fun that the writers and artists of Punch had brought into the field against them. Until the establishment of Punch there had been almost no such thing as a sustained serial of social and political caricature free from coarseness. The success of Punch not only demolished the old race of Prys and Satirists, but has, by its strong continuance, gone far to protect the public against their return with the old spirit in some other form. There has never been a line in Punch unreadable by woman or child. vice; but it is certainly true that the old rule has been reversed, and that in our cheapest form of light literature the comic efforts to amuse, are, however weak, more wholesome and inoffensive than the serious. Together with the humorous comments in these volumes upon two years of our political and social history, we have the late Mr. Gilbert Abbot-a-Beckett's Comic Blackstone, Mr. Thackeray's Jeames's Diary, his Punch in the East, his travelling Notes of Our Fat Contributor, and his various comic sketches of life at Beulah Spa and elsewhere as Punch's Commissioner. Here, too, is much of the best work of the late Douglas Jerrold, including the Complete Letter-Writer and Mrs. Caudle's Curtain Lectures. As a current comment on our social history, the volumes of Punch will have in their way as real, if not as grave, an interest to future students as the tomes of any serious historical compiler. The pencil sketches show the English year by year in their habits as they lived, and chronicle incidentally every shift and turn of outward fashion. Thus in a pleasant and handy volume one can recover the whole body of English gossip for a bygone year. To the shelves, then, of all household libraries not yet possessed of their enlivening store of wit and wisdom, we commend the volumes of Punch in this their complete reissue. They are rich in wholesome comic thought, and they are, we believe, the best repertory of comic sketches within the whole range of English and foreign literature. CAUTION TO WOOLGATHERERS.-To those MR. CHARLES DARWIN has prepared for pubEnglish steamers, who are attempting to run lication a small work, containing his experience the blockade of South America, we beg to repeat"On the Fertilization of British Orchids by the Spanish proverb :-Take care, in going in search of wool, that you do not return home fleeced.-Punch. means of Insects." It will form a sort of sequel to his work, the "Origin of Species." From The Eclectic Review. THE SAD SIDE OF THE HUMORIST'S LIFE.* who have enhanced the sweetness and the lustre of our literature we love as we love Charles Lamb. And to us that character We have often said there are few things has a sanctity which perhaps it may be diffito us more mysterious, we sometimes think cult for all our readers to forgive us for we may even say few things more solemn, feeling. We narrow-minded sectaries limit than laughter. The popular impression of our sympathies within so contracted a space, it, we believe, is, that it is something that that many who have unfortunately lived in has sin for a father, and folly for a mother, a distant fold cannot enlist our more sacred and the doctrine is supported by venerable and religious love. Yet Charles Lamb has authority, which says, "I said of laughter ours. His griefs make him most venerable that it is mad." That last sentence is per- to us. His frailties-we press our fingers haps what we even desire to maintain. on our lips when they are mentioned to us. That laughter has its spring in a certain We will not hear them spoken of but with kind of insanity we do not doubt. But it awe and with fear. His laughter is very flows out for healing the heart's wounds; solemn to us, it has a melancholy cadence: and thus, while the highest laughter cer- it is even like an ancient masque set to a tainly springs from roots of sadness and solemn music. sorrow, one might almost say that, as the heart must ache, its pains turn into experiences; and as they are uttered to the outer world, they become grotesquely mirthful, cheering the sufferer first in himself, and then in his audience. Thus Lord Shaftesbury's well known conclusion, that laughter is born of surprise, if true, as no doubt it is, is still only half the truth; it does not look far down into the roots of our nature. There is a wonderful affinity between the things of sorrow and the things of laughter, and mad merriment is sometimes, and often at no great distance, from the saddest fellowship with human tears. Heroism is a more common virtue than we believe it to be. Perhaps the greatest reason of our disbelief is that we have been, and are capable, most of us, of being heroes ourselves at a pinch. We are all heroes when we overcome that which threatens to overcome us; we are all heroes when we are able to chain some darling desire, or to say to some powerful passion, Be thou still-I disown thee. Charles Lamb, the poor East India clerk, with his thin, shivering, timidlooking frame and features-he was a hero: he gave himself no heroic airs-he affected nothing, and he spoke in no heroic tones; but he had that soul which could sustain itself in good convictions in spite of circum It is Thomas Hood, one of the kings of stances. This it is to be a hero. Those of laughter, who has so truly said,— "All things are touched with melancholy, There is no character in our English literature exactly like Charles Lamb-we have no humorist of so subtle and pensive and refined an order. There are few characters, * 1. The Works of Charles Lamb. In Four Volumes. Moxon. 2. Memorials of Thomas Hood. you who have read that big, but somewhat unprofitable book—the Life of Moore, may remember his sneers at Lamb. They met two or three times, but there could be but little affinity with each other. How could there be? If there was a footman among poets, Thomas Moore was the man. He was not a poet laureate, but what we may rather call a kind of poet lord mayor; he had an amazing love for the Mansion House, and the lace, and the gold chain, and especially the turtle soup. We don't think a man in our age, with any genius, could at all match him for the large capacity of appetite he had for these pleasant things. That literary exquisite, who could never dine comfortably unless he dined at least with a lord, descended to what he called "a singular mentions that once upon an occasion he concompany"-in fact, Rogers, Wordsworth, |