Of full performance, honour that, Of perfectness which is to be That mortal good can honour claim; Such honour, with a conduct wise Who can but half her love confer On him that cares for nought but her: Observed, he's safest that relies, For the hope she will not always seem, Strengthens, and yearns for brighter day, God, who may be well Bids sleep the meddling soul of man, Whereby, from his unweeting side, That chance one of her strange, sweet sex, Grows, more and more, by day and night, The one in the whole world opposite Of him, and in her nature all So suited and reciprocal To his especial form of sense, That, whereas, in its earlier day, It now finds (wondrous this, but true!) And the untried common; and, whereas I do not say Love's youth returns; Be grateful and most glad thereof. And henceforth very well may wait Of active and recipient Affections; what if all are both So that a careless word will make For ever. If, then, years have wrought For likeness, as none others can Without like process, shall this tree, The king of all the forest, be, Alas, the only one of all That shall not lie where it doth fall? Shall this most quenchless flame, here nurst By everything, yea, when revers'd, It cannot be ! The Scriptures tell And, 'gainst each word, to make it right, For men to make their hope more pure To tune it justly here! Beware The Powers and Princedoms of the Air, Which strengthens ether for the flight Exceeds our Earth's in like degree And is not rightly anything Without its burthen, whereas this, manu I HAVE said that there were hopeful ing among the foremost establishments in their respective trades. There are the patriarchs of French associative labour, the "jewellers in gilt," doing their quiet business of about 8,000l. a year, who date already since 1834. There is the great association of masons, numbering its hundred members, with a number of smaller associations in the building trades following in its wake; it has suffered during the past year through some ill-judged undertakings, but is seeking now how best to avail itself of the lessons of the past. There are the arm-chair makers and the joiners of the Cour St. Joseph, who have weathered all the tricks of their managers, and have never lost their reputation for good work. There are the chair-turners of the Rue Popincourt, with their vast workshops, abundant stock, and admirably solid wares. There are the file-makers, busy at work as ever on the patent which they have secured for themselves. There are the saddletree-makers of the Rue Pétrelle, one of the bodies in which employers and workers amicably coalesced. There are the jewellers-a different set from those above mentioned-brush-makers, lantern-makers, lamp-makers, a truly heroic band; umbrella and cane-makers, spectacle-makers, who unfortunately are said to be invaded by the mammonite spirit, and to be fast verging into a mere partnership. There are the tailors of the Rue Coq-Héron, a body, the existence of which was new to me, though dating, I believe, more than ten years back; at first such determined Proudhonists, that they endeavoured to do without capital or profit, charging cost-price to their customers, till a few failures to pay among the latter compelled them to be less absolute in their commercial principles; a somewhat singular set, who have kept studiously aloof from their associated brethren, but have, nevertheless, clung tenaciously together during the many years of imperial rule. To my great disappointment, I had leisure to see but a few of those even which I have named, though I might have had access to all of them had time allowed. Let me say at once, that for those who have no clue to them, they are not easy to find out. Few have been able to retain the outward name of "association;" most of them only bear towards the public the style of ordinary or commandite partnerships. Only those who are aware of the facts will know to look for the associated masons under the firm of "Bouyer, Cohadon et Cie.," or for the jewellers in gilt, under that of "Dreville, Thibout et Cie." Whilst if any visitor, unprovided with a trustworthy introduction, should attempt to make inquiry into these bodies, he has but himself and the Imperial régime to thank, if he finds himself received with coldness and distrust. For the very existence of these associations is, so to speak, a standing miracle. In the days of the first brutalities of the Imperialist reaction, there was scarcely one but had its manager thrown into prison, or obliged to take to flight for fear of arrest. Thanks, it is believed, to the interference of the supreme ruler himself, the period of active persecution has indeed passed away-but under what conditions! So long as the several associations keep to themselves as towards the public, hold little or no intercourse with others, make no show of their existence, make no effort to propagate their principles, or to educate their members, they are left unmolested, at least by the supreme government itself. But it is only within the last few months, that one of them which had, for a wonder, retained outside its premises the title of "Association fraternelle des...," was compelled by a new commissary of police, with much ill-language, to erase the obnoxious profession of brotherhood. All must be prepared, at any time, to receive the prying visits of this personage, on some such pretext as that of asking whether they have lately sent away any workmen. (This happened to one of them within a fortnight of my seeing it.) Although the emperor, personally, may not be unfriendly to them, they know well that, under the arbitrary Imperial régime, they are at the mercy of any hasty, spiteful, or over-zealous official; that their managers may be arrested and placed au secret, i. e., cut off from all communications, their books of business seized and carried off, long before any complaint could reach the fountain-head of power. And although, by the peculiar strength of their constitution and principles, they have, in many instances, been able to weather such a blow when it has fallen upon them, the dread of seeing the like recur acts with a paralysing force. The check placed upon the intellectual development of the people is not less cruel. Complaints are rife on all sides of the ignorance of the working. men; they themselves acknowledge it, bewail it. The workshops of the associations would seem to afford the very areas on which to supply the required |