be will certainly write again to him. Having transacted this most urgent piece of business, the client considers himself fairly entitled to a little gossip. He inquires whether this is true, and whether that is true, whether there are any grounds for such and such a rumor, and whether his solicitor has heard so and so. The lawyer tells him as much as he thinks right, and gets as much information out of his visitor in return as he can. Some country gentlemen, when out of humor, go, or are sent by their wives, to their lawyers to be put into a good temper again. A successful lawyer is generally a master in the art of improving people's tempers. His clients may enter his sanctum with gloomy faces, but will often come out smiling. He will tell them of a blunder committed by their bitterest enemy; or he will inform them that one or two people have been making inquiries about their unlet farms. He will shake his head and look incredulous about the supposed unlimited wealth of the neighbor of whom they are jealous, and he will hint in a mysterious way at troubles that are in store for that provoking family which always appears prosperous and happy. He has some pleasant little bits of gossip about the unpopularity of the parson, and the "high doings" that go on at the iron chapel of ease in the early mornings. There is a report, he says, that the Jesuits are about to buy one of the largest houses in the neighborhood, and he has heard that there has been a grand quarrel between two leading members of the United Methodists. He is generally very strong upon the underhand doings of "those rascally Dissenters," who, by the way, have an unholy habit of employing lawyers of their own. In most neighborhoods there is an old maiden lady of eccentric habits, a gentleman of strongly pronounced religious opinions, a scapegrace on the verge of ruin, and a man with a hobby. Of each of these the lawyer has a pleasant anecdote. A lawyer often acts also as a sort of confessor and director to his clients. One will confess that he has lost his temper and insulted an acquaintance, and will want help in propitiating the injured person; another will accuse himself of having lost heavily on the turf, and will want to know how to raise money without the knowledge of his parents; this man will have made a foolish promise, from which he wishes to recede, and that man will have written a libellous letter, from the penalties of which he is naturally anxious to screen himself. Many clients will con fess that they have been extravagant, and will seek to raise money on mortgage, while not a few will have exceeded their allowances and will require a temporary loan. It is needless to say that lawyers' visitors are not exclusively of the male sex. Most country solicitors have aged female clients who constantly call on them. The primary objects of their visits are usually to make codicils to their wills, leaving five pounds to some other antediluvian, or to inquire whether their legal advisers can recommend any perfectly safe investment that will make a return of fifteen per cent.- -a rate of interest which they hear is obtained by a relative living in the republic of Venezuela. The secondary object of their consultation is to find out whether that odious Miss Higginbottom is really going to be married to Dr. Goodenough, or whether Ghostly Manor has actually been let to an East-End pawnbroker. It must not be supposed that the time of a lawyer is entirely spent in agreeable conversation or entertaining gossip. He occupies a position of great responsibility, and his life is one of considerable anxiety and not a little drudgery. He has to wade through long, wordy deeds and documents, which have a dangerously soporific tendency while they require most shrewd and careful attention. One dull, and to lay eyes meaningless, sentence, among many dreary pages of a deed or settlement, may at some time or other lead to a Chancery suit, if it escapes his notice. As regards the profits of solicitors, although still very large, they are small in comparison with what they were when the principal lines of railway were being projected in England. Gossiping clients are often surprised at the length of their lawyer's bills; but, if they like to employ a professional man to spend his time in chattering to them, it seems but reasona ble that they should pay for it. It would be hard, indeed, if a country lawyer should not earn some profits when the wide nature of his functions is taken into ' consideration; for he has sometimes to serve in each of the following capacities conveyancer, law-stationer, land-agent, secretary, bookkeeper, newsvendor, polit ical agent, money-lender, railway agent, banker, and electioneering agent. Nor must it be forgotten that another cheerful occupation has lately been discovered for him—namely, that of serving long terms of imprisonment in her Majesty's gaols, when he has been executing what had hitherto been considered the recognized | is found in the old Homeric poems; we duties of a canvassing agent. From Chambers' Journal. THE origin of amber has always been obscured in a more or less deep halo of mystery. Pliny the naturalist wrote of it under its Greek name electron, as the fos sil resin of an extinct cone-bearing tree. Although these firs or pines became extinct at a period far anterior to all his torical time, it is certain that they lived in a later age and were of a higher organization than the giant forms of the semi-tropical carboniferous era, which were prototypes of the cypress-trees still existing in eastern North America. Professor Zaddach says the amber-producing trees must have grown on green sand beds of cretaceous soil forming the shores of estuaries where the lower division of the tertiary accumulated. And it is not only to these prehistoric forests that amber bears witness; for in this resin, fossilized by centuries of time, have been discovered nearly eight hundred different species of insects, mostly now extinct; and many specimens of the flora of that period, embalmed whilst still a living vegetation, which differ entirely from the fossil plants supplied by the brown coalbeds resting immediately above. On the Prussian coast of the Baltic Sea, mines are now worked to a depth of a hundred feet, where Professor Phillips found in a stratum of dark bituminous wood, forty feet thick, stalactites of amber; and round masses with pyrites and sulphate of iron in the coarse sand beneath. Indeed, the true home of amber is on the borders of that inland sea, the Ostsee of the Germanic and Scandinavian nations; and vast quantities are still thrown up in stormy weather, when the restless waves break in foam upon the shore, particularly on the seagirt promontory of Samland. It is found also at Cape Sable, in Maryland; and in insignificant quantities in Siberia and Greenland. In Britain, it is so rare as almost to be unknown, although small pieces have been discovered in the sandy deposit of the London clay at Kensington. But the most beautiful specimens of a varying purple shade have been torn from their far-away home in the classic isle of Sicily. The first record of this antique treasure read in the Odyssey of amber beads in a necklace of gold brought by a Phoenician merchant to the queen of Syra; and in the description of the palace of Menelaus, the mighty king of Sparta, it is said to shine like the sun or the moon in its splendor "of copper, of gold, of amber, and ivory." The Greek name for amber, electron, was occasionally also used in ancient times for a mineral composed of gold and silver, because its pale yellow color resembled amber. In those old days, amber was in great request for the imitation of precious stones by artificial staining, from its brilliant lustre and the ease with which it could be cut and polished. From changes induced by its fossilized condition, amber differs from other resins in respect of its peculiar hardness, and in being less brittle, and of greater electric action. Blazing like a torch when a light is applied, it was peculiarly adapted for use in religious ceremonies; and great quantities have alone been consumed in the unbroken worship of thirteen centuries at Mecca, that holy city of Arabia, which saw the birth of the Prophet, the dawn of the Mohammedan religion. There is a quaint fascination in this ancient town, the cradle of Mussulman traditions, where the Beitullah or house of God stands surrounded by colonnades, to which hundreds of thousands of weary pilgrims annually resort, crossing great sandy deserts, through hardships innumerable, to fulfil the command of the Prophet, that the faithful should stand at least once in their lives before the shrine at Mecca. They are enjoined to walk seven times round, prostrating themselves, and kissing reverently at each turn the great block of black basalt, now fixed in the north-east corner of the massive stone structure called the Kaaba; but at which, in a far different religion, the same strange rites were observed many centuries before the birth of Mohammed. If we could unweave the tangled web of centuries, we should probably find that the burning of amber was not the least amongst the rites and ceremonies of the past. It was strangely intermingled with the myths and legends of the ancient Greeks, and was largely used in the adornments of their temples, being laid, with other precious things, upon the sacred altars, where all costly gifts were thought acceptable to the gods. It is difficult now to realize the feeling of superstitious veneration with which amber has been regarded through successive civiliza tions, or the strange fantasies evoked by orated with arabesques, this dimly lighted its mystic properties which transformed city in the heart of Stamboul is full of it into a passion and a faith. Not only marvels and treasures. Through its narin the luxurious cities of Greece and row thoroughfares, camels and carriages in Rome, but under the great historic and horsemen force their way, amongst a dynasties of China, and amid all the dense throng of people of every nation extravagance of Oriental splendor, it was and type - Turks in muslin turbans, Peresteemed very precious. One of the gates sians in pyramidal bonnets of Astrakhan of Thebes, "the city of the hundred fur, Hebrews in yellow coats, with Greeks, gates," whose superb ruins, perhaps the Armenians, and running-footmen in gormost ancient in the world, now lie scat-geous liveries; and in this shifting crowd tered on both banks of the Nile, was, are dignitaries of the court, who spend Herodotus tells us, made of amber. Even perhaps fifty thousand francs on their pipe in the oldest of known sepulchres, the collections; and harem ladies, wrapped in British barrows, amber beads have been long white veils, who come for gray found along with pierced stone axes, ar- amber, gold-embroidered bags of musk row-heads, and other buried treasures. and sandal-wood, and the sweet-scented gums made by the women of Chio, which are all sold in the perfumery bazaar of this great Oriental fair. No doubt its value was enhanced by the curious electrical phenomena which it exhibits; for six hundred years before the Christian era, Thales of Miletus noticed that, when rubbed, amber or electron attracted light and dry bodies; in which remote observation lay the foundation of our modern science of electricity. It was believed to bear a charm against disease, and to possess the power of detecting the presence of poison. Pliny remarks upon its wonderful properties, and says: "True it is that a collar of amber beads worn round the neck of young infants is a singu: lar preservative against secret poison, and a counter-charm to witchcraft and sorceries." The same authority mentions that the price of a small figure in amber, however diminutive, exceeded that of a healthy living slave. In the reign of Nero, a Roman knight was sent with an expedition to the shores of the Baltic in search of this foreign treasure; and returned with thirteen thousand pounds of amber for the emperor, including a single piece which weighed thirteen pounds. The dull barbarians of that northern land, who were stirred to labor for this valued product of their stormy sea, could not comprehend the startling price paid for it, or its use in the great and unfamiliar world beyond the Alps. The best pieces of amber are now taken in the rough by Armenian merchants to Constantinople, where they are carved and chased and polished by the hand of the engraver, as mouth-pieces for pipes. In the pipe bazaar of the great Byzantine edifice which contains mosques, fountains, and a labyrinth of arcaded streets, each a separate bazaar are hidden away amber mouth-pieces of fabulous value, in every shade of color, lustrous as crystal, and set with diamonds and rubies. Supported by sculptured columns, and dec Thus we find that amber, little esteemed as it is at the present time in Europe, and although no longer the important source of wealth that it once was, still has a place in the luxury and religion of the East; and the dim records of its venerable history furnish us with many pic. turesque and poetic associations, whether we think of it in its early home amid archaic forests, or, as in classic loreThe sweet tears shed by fair Heliades, Apollo's daughters, From The Spectator. PROPHETIC MISANTHROPY. MR. FROUDE, as we have elsewhere shown, makes no sort of attempt to disguise, even if he does not give almost artificial emphasis to, the atrabiliousness of Carlyle's attitude towards human life. Indeed, Mr. Froude remarks with a sort of pride that probably Isaiah himself was not a very pleasant or accommodating companion, and intimates that in this respect prophets who denounce the shortcomings of their countrymen are apt to be very much alike. There is no comment on Carlyle to which his biographer refers oftener than his mother's, that Carlyle was gey ill to live with," and this peculiarity obviously strikes Mr. Froude as a most interesting personal feature, of which an honest biographer can hardly make too much. But if the prophetic faculty is supposed to include the power of really spurring man on to higher life and man selfishness and sin. He can dwell with a sort of satisfaction on any great human power like Mirabeau or Danton, or even Frederick, in spite of their infi delities to the highest light within them. But he cannot see the littleness and the superficiality of the world, its vanities and its follies, its weak devices for forgetting itself, its conventional beliefs in formulas, its tricks of self-deception, without a rage and fury which almost take him out of himself. And yet these quali ties are by no means the evidence of what is worst in man, they are, in fact, inseparable from his short sight and small store of feeling, are essential parts of that finite nature which religion is given us to deepen and strengthen, but by no means essential parts of that evil in us which conscience is given us to condemn, and to make us repent of in sackcloth and ashes. Carlyle's misanthropy seems to us to fall short of anything that can properly be called prophetic misanthropy, doubly, first, in not being directed straight to the true evil, the moral unfaithfulness at the root of what is most disheartening; next, in not being combined with any of that genuine love for man, in spite of all his weakness, nay, in consequence of all his weakness, which alone has power to cast out that weakness, and to make him conscious of the mighty stores of strength to which, if he will, he may yet have access. Intellectually Carlyle despised Irving, but Irving knew the secret of sapping the vanities of man far better than Carlyle. work, we doubt very much whether it be consistent with a nature of such unmixed aggressiveness as Carlyle's. Whether Isaiah was "gey ill to live with " or not, we do not know. We do know that not one of his great denunciations of the hollowness and self-sufficiency of the Jews of his time was unaccompanied by passages of sublime and heart-stirring encouragement, in which the strength of the Almighty arm to reach and bless his people, and his unfailing promise to uphold and strengthen those of them who should cling to him, are poured out in. speech that is less like mere words of any human tongue, than the breakers of the eternal love itself, as they touch and shatter themselves on "this bank and shoal of time." For ourselves, we had, we confess, always thought that this was part and parcel of the function of the prophet, that scathe and burn away the evil in man as he might, he must always have the power, and prove the power, to renew the fountains of that life which is pure, at least as effectually as to apply the scorching fire to that life which is impure. Carlyle appears to have failed utterly in this. For though his misanthropy is closely allied with prophetic wrath, though it is not hatred of that which is good in man, but of that which is petty and poor in man, still it is hatred of what is petty and poor even more than of what is evil in man, and it is wholly unaccompanied with vivifying and restoring life. He could say, doubtless, with Isaiah: "Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth; they are a trouble unto me; Carlyle once frankly admitted that there I am weary to bear them." But Carlyle was "a dark humor" in him, over the hardly ever goes on to say anything so working of which he had very little or no humble as, "Cease to do evil, learn to do control, and which was totally distinct well, seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, from the miseries of blue-devils or the judge the fatherless, plead for the widow." fretfulness due to ill-health. We believe Still less does he ever proceed from hum- that it was true self-knowledge which ble moral precepts to the renewal of the compelled this declaration. We can imliving spiritual forces. He never an-agine no other explanation of the painnounces to those whom he scourges that fully idle fury with which Carlyle raged "the people who walked in darkness had seen a great light, and that they that dwelt in the valley of the shadow of death, on them has the light shined." He had no name to proclaim, that was called "Wonderful, counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace," no "hiding-place from the tempest," no "shadow of a great rock in a weary land" to reveal to his hearers. His words are scorpions to what is poor and shallow in man, even more than to what is evil. He hates human pettiness and blindness, even more than he hates hu against the pettinesses, the superficialities, and the fine mesh of necessities which govern human circumstances — nay, gen. erally raged against them without touching any of those higher keys by which he might at least have stirred some deeper life for a season. He could not have believed that he would make politics more fruitful by raving against constitutional rules, habits, and conventions, any more than he could have believed that he would make social converse richer by raving against empty fashion and æsthetic teas. But "the dark humor never suffered not." but Carlyle prophet sent only to smite, and not to strengthen; a prophet of the purely destructive kind, whose function it was only to make us see through the conceits of modern civilization, but whose voice failed the moment you asked him for something wherewith to replace these conceits, something breathing the spirit of power and of love and of a sound mind. What Carlyle wanted was some true love for man for man in his insignificance, and yet his great capabilities. Of this he had hardly a grain. Flaming wrath for every sign of the smallness of the scale on which so much of man's nature is built, he had in abundance. And his "dark humor" must be said to have extended itself to the creative power which had sanctioned and tolerated this smallness of scale, and had decreed that only in the power of conscience and love can frail human beings grow into something nobler, and more worthy of eternal life. him to remit his useless and savage dia- called a "lower position; be Ca atti Ter lear disa of From The Saturday Review. THE LAST ENCYCLICAL. THE Encyclical Letter Etsi Nos addressed by the pope to the archbishops and bishops of Italy, the full text of which has now been published in the Tablet, is for many reasons a noticeable document. Like other utterances from the same quarter it requires to be read between the lines, and is perhaps more remarkable for what it omits and implies than for what it actually contains; but it entirely bears out on the whole the consistent impression created from the first by the public acts and words of Leo XIII. as to the spirit and aims of his policy. The Tablet, with characteristic caution, declines "to assume," as some of the Italian Liberal |