party; or, rather, changed into a vile collection of sloppy, dirty puddles, slowly trickling down the hillsides into the rush ing and rapidly swelling Aar. Alas! here was a wretched compromise between winter and summer; no snow, but also no verdure. The hillsides for many hundreds of feet have discharged their burden; the snow has slid off them in great sheets, forming small avalanches; the grass below is withered, and looks as though it had been scraped with a harrow. The icicles are rattling down by tons at a time off the black rocks' faces above the Reichenbach. Up in the Urbach Thal, beneath the giant cliffs of the Engelhörner, a perpetual cannonade is going on. The frost has been ornamenting them all winter through by its delicate lacework wherever a thread of water trickles across them in summer. Delicate as it looks it is massive enough in reality, and now it is descending in avalanches to the valley; and at every minute a small puff of powder is followed by a loud report, echoing far and wide along the flanks of the mountain. present to the minds of the inhabitants, and yet he imagines that where so much care is taken the danger can hardly be serious. Unfortunately we have heard within the last few days that at last the care has been fruitless. There were few more picturesque villages in the Swiss Alps than Meiringen, and it is dear upon many accounts to innumerable tourists. A large part of it is now a mere heap of ashes, and many families of an industrious population are homeless and ruined. Switzerland, too, is suffering like other places under the prevalent distress; and the woodcarving which is the staple employment of the valley is of course one which suffers very quickly where people have to retrench superfluous luxuries. The moral which some people will draw will doubtless be that the inhabitants of a valley exposed to the Föhn ought not to live in wooden houses, placed carefully end to end in the direction of the wind. It is certainly to be hoped that that reflection will suggest itself to whomsoever it may concern when In fact, the valley of Meiringen is a fun- the village is being rebuilt. But it may nel so placed that the Föhn blows down it also be worth saying that the present race from the Grimsel with peculiar vigor. has been only doing what its forefathers When it had been completely bared of have done for many generations, and that snow, it was only necessary to cross the it has certainly not been reckless in the low pass of the Brünig, which diverges at sense of neglecting any feasible precauno great angle but is protected by a moun- tions, except that of entirely rebuilding its tain ridge, in order once more to come into houses. And perhaps so thinking, they the unbroken reign of winter. But Meirin- may, if they are lucky enough to have sugen in the midst of winter is parched by the perfluous funds, bestow some slight fraghot wind; the roofs of the houses have dis-ment of them upon the sufferers from this charged their burdens of snow; every gut- very serious catastrophe. ter has become a stream; and the stranger imagines that the torrents which descend by the town and which the inhabitants have been embanking with laborious patience, are likely to overflow and cause fresh mischief. The real danger is of a different kind, and the traveller is soon informed of the fears of the inhabitants. If he walks into the street smoking, he is warned at once that to smoke during the Föhn is a punishable offence. If he asks for fresh bread at an inn where all other comforts are provided, he is told that the baker has not been allowed to light his fires whilst the dangerous wind is blowing. The village is, or rather was, constructed entirely of wooden houses, and when they are parched and a steady wind blowing, it is obvious that to set a stray spark flying may be in reality to set fire to a prepared train of touchwood. He acknowledges the reasonableness of strict regulations. He feels rather glad to get out of a place in which so constant a danger seems to be always From The Pall Mall Gazette. NOSTRADAMUS. ZADKIEL may have been deceived by the stars; but the reputation of Nostradamus, who charmed the leisure hours of Catherine de Medicis in her château of Chaumont, remains intact, if we are to believe his recent commentators, the abbe Thorné - Chavigny and M. Guillaudio. These gentlemen have recently been squabbling over the correct rendering of portions of the "Centuries" of the astrologer who left on record, contained in nine hundred and forty-six quatrains, all the remarkable events which were and which are to succeed each other between the years 1559 and 1999. The abbé, who has been a student of Nostradamus, has this advantage over his rival, that he can present certificates. In 1858 he published a work Nostradamus, too, predicted the inventions of Montgolfier (Montgaulfier, as he wrote the name), and the employment of a balloon at the battle of Fleurus; and in the same quatrain the plunder of the pope between "two rocks," Rome and Avignon. In the sixtieth quatrain the advent of Napoleon I. is thus foretold : on the "Centuries," showing that Napoleon | assassination" as la Corneille, which is cuIII. would strike his flag and fly to Lon- rious, considering that Charlotte Corday don; and he saw MacMahon between the was the grand-niece of Corneille. He also empress and the republic. So great was writes of the blood-stained statue tyrant his faith in the astrologer that he refused murdered and people praying. And no to believe the rumor of the marshal's sooner was Marat slain than statues and death in 1870. He immediately wrote: altars were erected to his honor all through "If dead and buried, he will rise again; France and people invoked the "blessed for he is the English chief, the English heart of Marat.' prince spoken of by the prophet, who is to sojourn too long and to have under his orders the princes of the blood and the marshals of France," etc. In 1870 the abbé, always by the light of the "Centuries," was able to announce the death of Victor Emmanuel, who would be followed to the grave by Pius IX.; that Leo XIII. would succeed Pius IX. in the lifetime of Henri V.; and that Muscovy would diminish Turkey and attempt to throw her back into Ásia. The abbé declares that the Archbishop of Rheims and the Bishop of La Rochelle both heard him say at Paris in 1867, à propos to the quatrains on the Universal Exhibition, "The Krupp cannon will take Paris." Having (as he says) announced a thousand extraordinary facts, the abbé Thorné Chavigny declares that he has acquired a greater authority than other commentators of the great prophet. What with the abbe and M. Guillaudin, we have a series of very remarkable interpretations, making every allowance for the ambiguous style in which prophecies are usually uttered. Not to go further back than the close of the last century and the commencement of the great Revolution, the commentators show us that Nostradamus saw in the heavens the whole of that tragedy, and predicted many of its how M. Emile Ollivier, on the 15th of July, more minute details. The fate of Louis 1870, in pronouncing the declaration of XVI., for example, is foretold in a remark-war with Germany, spoke of commencing able manner, the following quatrain alluding to the arrest of his Majesty and the royal family at Varennes: Le part solus mary sera mitré; The first line, being interpreted, means Un empereur naistra près d'Italie, Qui à l'Empire sera vendu bien cher. Diront avec quels gens il se ralie Qu'on trouvera moins prince que boucher. The prophet also read in the future the success of Bonaparte at Toulon, from which place he would drive a people that would afterwards be hurtful to him, and that his tyranny would last fourteen years. It lasted fourteen years five months and four days. From a simple soldier, Napoleon, born near Italy, and more of a butcher than a prince, was to become emperor, to be valiant in arms, and to vex the Church. To come down to still more recent events, Nostradamus foresaw the flight of Louis Philippe, and that he would repose at Dreux to see if the revolution would accept the regency. His remains now reIt will be remembered pose at that place. hostilities with a light heart. Nostrada mus predicted this and all that ensued in his eighth century, thirty-fourth quatrain, in these words: En grand regret sera la gent gauloise. Cœur vain, léger, croira témérité. Pain, sel ne vin, eau venin ne cervoise, Plus grands captif, faim, froid, nécessité. Nor did the captivity of the French army and its suffering from cold and hunger escape the astrologer. In quatrain 43 he describes the advent and the fall of Napoleon III. thus: Par le décide de deux choses bastards, By the death of two bastard things the archy and the republic of 1848. As regards the last line of the quatrain, "The nephew shall strike his flag in fear within Lectoyre," it will be remembered how Napoleon III., without consulting the commander-in-chief, General de Wimpffen, ordered the army to surrender. Lectoyre is the anagram of Le Torcy, a faubourg of Sedan. Nostradamus, too, caught a glimpse of M. Gambetta in his visions; for, after perceiving the downfall of the second empire, he beheld a "grand exercice conduit par Jouvenceau or a great undertaking led by a youth, and the armies surrendering to the enemy. M. Gambetta was thirty-two years of age when he assumed his dictatorship. He is called by the prophet Bragamas, which is the anagram of Rabagas with an m "too much. M. Thiers evidently troubled the visions of Nostradamus on many occasions. He alludes to him under the name of Hister (anagram of Thiers) in several quatrains. His election is thus foretold: will fall down, but he gives us an insight La liberté ne sera recouvrée, L'occupera, noir, fier, vilain, inique, Quand la matière du pont sera ouvrée D'Hister Venise faschée la Republique. M. Thiers became president before the territory was liberated or recovered, and, curiously enough, when in power he was often alluded to as the sinistre vieillard If we are to believe the great prophet (noir). He was proud, of low birth, if not the revolution is destined to end in 1881 unjust. The "pont" is an allusion to the -the year after the septennate of Margolden bridge built for the Germans to in- shal MacMahon was to have been brought duce them to retire, and Venice means the to a close. Can it be that M. Grévy will Legitimists being angry with the republic, not last more than two years? In the the Comte de Chambord having long in-death-throes of the revolution Paris is to habited that city. Nostradamus also beheld M. Thiers laying waste an unhappy republic, or putting down the Commune, for his sixty-fourth quatrain runs thus: La République misérable infelice, 66 The last two lines refer to the satisfaction of the Suevi or Germans at having taken so many French prisoners. In another quatrain Hister is described as encountering wild beasts, the Germans looking on quand Rin enfant Germain observera." Now, during the Commune the Germans occupied several of the detached forts round Paris, and they are popularly supposed to have indulged freely in champagne while observing the blazing capital. As concerns the future, Nostradamus not only assures us that the two towers of the Palais du Trocadéro and the new Opera be destroyed, and, according to the interpretation of M. Guillaudin, Lyons will then become the capital of France. The abbé Thorné-Chavigny, as a clerical, holds, however, in favor of Avignon. As he reads Nostradamus, Henri V. will disembark at Marseilles from a steamboat (“le feu, ou la vapeur, par des tuyaux mettra en mouvement le navire"), and will conquer Napoleon IV. MacMahon will offer his sword to the king. The Orleanists will efface themselves. There will be a revolution in Germany, and Alsace and Lorraine will raise the white flag. The English will be conquered and lose their preponderance at sea, Henri V. "driving those pirates from the waters." His Majesty will then restore to the thrones of Spain and Naples their legitimate Bourbon sovereigns; he will_pacificate Germany and terminate the Eastern question by capturing Constantinople and occupying Egypt. Added to this, Greeks, Arabs, From The Saturday Review. TROUSERS POCKETS. 59 ONE of the numerous cruel devices con Russians, Jews, and Protestants are to be | And were not the decrees of fate irrevocaconverted. There will be one fold under ble and our belief in Nostradamus and his one shepherd, peace on earth, and good- commentators unlimited, we might at once will to men. With regard to the Duc de begin to take precautions against an event Bordeaux, Comte de Chambord, or Henri which must be close upon us. V., the prediction of Nostradamus is curious enough. After forty years of exile he is to reign for forty years. He was driven into exile on the fall of Charles X. in 1830, and forty years later he returned to France (in 1871) and visited Chambord. Nostradamus probably thought that the Royalist Chamber of Bordeaux would have pro-ceived by women consists in sewing up the claimed the Restoration, but in this he was trousers pockets of boys who have a trick of in error; and it is now very unlikely that putting their hands into them. Such a Henri V. will reign, if he ever does reign, proceeding is doubly pleasing to women. for forty years. In 1881 he will be sixty First, it gratifies their instinctive love of years of age, and Mr. Thoms would never inflicting petty punishment; and secondly, hear of his reaching one hundred. At it affords them the indescribable pleasure the death of the king we are promised of depriving the opposite sex of a privilege another republic, without any 66 Terror," "and comfort exclusively its own. Trousers which will be replete with all the blessings of the mildest monarchy, the influence of the great king surviving him. In September, 1999, will come the end of the world, and the dead will rise from their graves. Two great prophets - Nostradamus and Malachi have therefore fixed the day of judgment at about the same period. The former specifies a date, while the latter In every nation, and in every stage of says that" the tremendous Judge will judge social progress, some special attitude of the people" when Petrus Romanus sits in semi-repose is adopted, which may perthe pontifical chair - the twenty-ninth haps best be described as a non-official pope, dating from Alexander VII. Leo "standing at ease." Thus the NeapoliXIII., alluded to by Malachi under the tan leans against a wall, the Spaniard folds motto "Lumen in calo" (probably because his arms, the Eastern sits cross-legged, and there is a comet in his coat of arms) is the the African squats. In the United States twentieth pope. The world is therefore to fingers seem to derive rest and refreshwitness the reigns of eight more pontiffs ment from whittling bits of stick, and the before the second Peter and last pope as-old Quakers found repose in twirling their cends the throne, and should any of them, like Pius IX., exceed the "years of Peter," the list may not be exhausted before the date given by Nostradamus. Nine teen pontiffs occupied the Holy See for two hundred and forty-four years; there remains ten to reign for one hundred and twenty. We may mention, in conclusion, that Nostradamus plainly predicts that London as well as Paris will be destroyed, that England will be the scene of a great social revolution, and that the Prince of Wales, much regretted by his mother, will fall fighting against the Socialists and a foreign foe. The prophetic quatrain runs thus: Le prince anglais, Mars à son cœur de ciel, pockets may not constitute the most romantic portion of what Americans call garmenture, but they not the less form a highly characteristic feature of the male costume of the period; and if poets have not yet immortalized them in verse, it is not from having failed to make much personal use of them. thumbs. The Cavalier rested his left hand upon the hilt of his sword, and thrust his right hand into his doublet, and in the days of the Regency one hand found repose beneath the coat-tails and the other recreation with an eye-glass. The favorite position of the First Napoleon was with one hand within his waistcoat and the other behind his back, and less distinguished personages seem to find consolation in twirling their moustaches, biting their nails, or even scratching their faces. It will thus be perceived that, while some attitudes of temporary indolence are graceful, others are very much the reverse. It must, however, be remembered that the inspired Watts assures us that the angel under whose patronage idle hands are placed is a of "mischief still" which he finds for them fallen one. To enlarge upon the varieties to do might not be easy, but it is less diffi cult to point out the places which he finds You knock your head and fancy wit will come; for them to put themselves in. We have artistic ground whatever; at the same described a few of the favorite attitudes of time honesty and a love of veracity compel other nations and other times than our us to allow that such a position is exown, and we may add that the special posi-tremely comfortable. There is a profane tion of ease dear to Englishmen in these saying that most things which are nice are days is to stand with their "idle hands" in either wrong, expensive, or unwholesome; their trousers pockets. It is true that the and we do not claim for the consoling pracfashion of habitually "wearing the hands tice in question that it can fairly escape in the trousers pockets" has long since from being placed in the first of these catepassed away with the peg-top trousers gories. The most celebrated authority on which made it exceptionally convenient; the subject of meditation gave it as his but, although no longer customary in opinion that there was no definite and exladies' society, the practice is still dear to clusive rule as to the position of body the Briton, and it is much indulged in when most conducive to that exercise; that men are emancipated from the company of some people could best meditate when the opposite sex. As all roads lead to standing, others when sitting, kneeling, Rome, so do all movements of the hands walking, and so on. If he had lived in of some men seem to lead eventually to our own day and county, we think he the sanctuary of their pockets, and be- would have added, "and Englishmen medtween these receptacles and their fingers itate most easily when they have got their there appears to be a strong natural affin- hands in their pockets." There were ity. When men had swords to rest one times when men had a habit of tapping hand upon and loose doublets into which their heads when short of ideas. As the to thrust the other, it was easy enough to old stanza has it: be graceful; but now that we have neither swords nor doublets, and are severely buttoned up, our trousers pockets are the only available crevices in our ungainly garments. We have not even easy gauntlets into which to slip our hands, and the gloves of the period are an occasion of constant torture and anxiety. The habit of placing our hands in our pockets is therefore a simple exigency of costume. With the exception of our faces and our hands, our whole bodies are clothed. As we cannot see the former, the only members which are apparently naked are our hands. Being generally gloved in public, they never feel well assured of their decency when uncovered, and so they instinctively seek their only available shelter. Then, again, Englishmen generally seem to regard their hands as inconvenient additions to their bodies, of which they are ashamed and of whose use they are ignorant. It is therefore an important consideration to find a place in which to stow away these ungainly incumbrances, and they like to keep them hidden in their pockets, ready, like their coppers or their pocket-knives, for any sudden emergency. We are well aware that there is little grace of curve or outline about a man standing with his hands in his pockets; that his attitude savors strongly of undue self-confidence, and that it may tend to his moral detoriation. Indeed we may say that we fully admit the custom of thrusting the hands into the pockets of the trousers to be gravely objectionable, and are quite unprepared to defend it upon any moral or In these days they search their pockets with an equally laudable motive, and, too often, with an equally futile result. We remember a well-known Oxford don who spent three-fourths of his waking existence in apparently searching for a fourpenny bit in his trousers pockets, which, up to the present date, there is no evidence of his having found. In his lectures, in his studies, at chapel, and in his walks abroad this employment seemed to refresh his mind and afford him considerable gratification, and most of his pupils will ever associate his memory with this inelegant habit. The same custom is much affected by many legislators, not so much in addressing the House as in the smoking-rooms and lobbies. The British bar, too, seems to derive much inspiration from it. Perhaps no men are so much addicted to tricks of manner as barristers, and, among other peculiar habits familiar to our law courts, that of placing the hands in the trousers pockets has been adopted by counsel until it has become quite a legal practice. The use of the trousers pockets as a depository for the hands is a custom which savors both of vulgarity and impudence. Under certain circumstances it both implies a slight and suggests defiance, and is almost more offensive than any other attitude that a man can take. On the other hand, it may be urged that there are times when it is perfectly admissible, as being suggestive of familiarity and friend |