-it spoils thousands who might be clever greatest among our British poets, Shakspeare men. Not a few, and those the most promis- and Milton, both speak complainingly of their ing-children for example like Hartley Cole-"late spring." Their regrets were unneeded. ridge-require to be positively kept back, not Better, far better that it should be so, than urged onwards. In his pitiable case it was that the fruits, nipped and shrunk, should belie not the predominance of fancy in his child- the promise of the abundant blossom. Let hood that was unhealthy, but the unboyish each period of life wear its own garb, and play consciousness of self. Games at play with its own part. For old age there is rest,-perother boys would have been far better for severing activity for manhood, and for chilhim than to sit listening with greedy ears hood the grace and beauty and careless hapto the philosophers of the Lakes. The two piness which are peculiarly its own.

From The Spectator. GRAHAM'S JORDAN AND RHINE.*

sion; a variety of topics being touched more or less fully. Most of them have a relation to the present state of the East,- -as the rule of MR. GRAHAM is an Irish Presbyterian minis- the Turks, the religious and moral character ter, who was chosen by the General Assembly of the Oriental Christians, the prospects of of his church as a missionary to the Jews. In Russian success, or refer to the past, chiefly this capacity he has travelled extensively both in connection with Scriptural illustration. In in Europe and the East; his head-quarters Germany or the "Rhine" portion, the digresbeing, apparently, at Damascus and Bonn. sions are more numerous. There are, indeed, The title of his book is less descriptive than sketches of German manners and religion, suggestive of his subjects-Germany and the Jewish, Christian, and Rationalistic. A large East; for although he resided by the Rhine part of it, however, consists of moral and reand not a very long distance from the Jordan, ligious reverie or outpouring, intermingled those rivers only appear incidentally in his with Latin, German, and English poetry, as pages. well as theological and literary criticism.

Although the work is the result of travelling, Power, with a strong tendency to the artiit is far from being a book of travels. In the ficial and reiterative force of the platform, is "Jordan" portion, Mr. Graham takes up a sub- the literary characteristic of Mr. Graham. A ject-as Lebanon-describes the appearance good deal of what he has written will from its of the region, the character of the inhabitants, nature be chiefly attractive to persons of the the sects into which they are divided, and il-writer's religious views. Many of his Eastern lustrates both the country and its customs by sketches have little actual novelty, but obtain passages from Scripture; a personal incident an appearance of newness from the comparaoccasionally falling in. He then goes to Baal-tive form into which he throws them. As in bec; treating the ruined city in a similar way, other Oriental travellers, there is some contraand strikingly impressing upon the reader the diction in Mr. Graham's estimates of the gigantic cyclopean character of its ancient Turk, though upon the whole he inclines to structures. Damascus is the third, and as re- the darker view of things, as regards the Mogards the land of the Jordan the closing sub- hammedan; and the same with the Muscovite. ject. It is treated more fully than Lebanon He has, however, a more ready escape from and Baalbec. There is a sketch of Oriental dilemmas than many inquirers, for when he is urban life, in a comparison between an East- fairly nonplussed he casts the resolution upon ern and a Western city, as well as a picture Providence. The Jordan and the Rhine conof Damascus in its outward form and the man- tains a good deal of information upon many ners of its people. Under the title of the points, though overlaid with extraneous topies, Jewish Mission in Damascus, we have an ac- and often urged with needless iteration. The count of the Oriental Jews, the inherent dif- system of Oriental life-the moral and reficulties of converting them, and the general ligious character of the Orientals—the present troubles of a missionary. Oriental customs in state of feeling and opinion among the Jews opposition to European, connected with dress-the corruption of Christianity in the East, and the human body, closes the Jordan section of the book.

In all these chapters there is much digres

and its effect upon the Moslems and the Hebrews-with some good remarks on languages -are developed with a certainty and precision which only actual experience can give. *The Jordan and the Rhine; or the East and Independently of its merit, this account of the the West. Being the result of Five Years' Resi- Arabic language just now, when so many perdence in Syria and Five Years' Residence in Germany. By the Reverend William Graham, Mem-sons have gone or are going Eastward, and ber of the Royal Irish Academy, etc., etc. Pub- should have Oriental speech.

lished by Partridge and Oakey.

Difficult as Arabic may be, a few words will man may be saved in the religion in which he make shift.

Mr. Graham is a strong opponent of the Pope. In fact, a good many of his papers in the section of "The Rhine" are theological The following, after ten years' experience, disquisitions, or sharp attacks upon the Papafive years in the East and five in the West, is cy. In the East, he admits that practically the summary of Mr. Graham on the conversion the Greek is the worse of the two churches. of the Hebrews.

Indeed, throughout the entire East, the Greek |ty, (viz. stupidity,) and so constitutes him the priests are proverbial for ignorance, impudence, spiritual father of the community. In theory, the and stupidity. The bishop comes to a village, Greek Church may in some respects have the adselects one of the peasants-who is able to read vantage of the Papal; but in practice, in vigor, the service, baptize the children, anoint the sick, in everything that constitutes character, effici and bury the dead-lays his hands on him, com- ency, and respectability, she is far behind her. municates the electrical succession of apostolici

CEMETERY OF PERA.-On this grave-yard, SCARCITY OF PAPER.-A reward of £1,000 which covers the whole side of the hill, is the is offered by the proprietors of a well-known fashionable promenade of the fair Peraites; it is newspaper to any one who can suggest a plena place where hainals or porters resort to, to bask tiful supply of any product cheap enough to suin the sun, whenever there is any-where droves persede the material from which paper is now of donkeys are passing guests-and where the made. Without any arrière pensée, might I sugdogs have established a permanent settlement. gest that if a similar reward was offered to our cheThese dogs make their beds in the graves, and mists or manufacturers for a plan to reduce paper slumber in the shade of the turban-surmounted again to its primitive pulp, and then to discharge tomb-stones, which mark the last resting-places from it the printers' ink, the same end would be of the males among the true believers. Each obtained. The old monks, we are well aware, one of these wild dogs has his grave, which is his destroyed many valuable MSS. for the sake of peculiar property, and which he defends against the parchment upon which they were written. the invasion of some canine czar, anxious to in- In the present day there are tons of paper stain crease his territories. Puppies are born in the ed with productions of an ephemeral nature (ro graves, and there reared to mature doghood; turns to parliament, to wit, which might do duty and fierce combats take place, and many a over and over again with no loss to the public; wretched dog is torn to pieces by his savage as- on the contrary, there are few persons with even sociates; and from early dusk to the dawn of a moderate supply of printed material who would day, there is a howling and gnashing of tusks not be happy to contribute to the paper bleacher, among the cypress groves of this last resting-place saving both binding and shelf-room.-Correspon of the dead. You have some difficulty in making dent of the Builder. your way through the various groups of tombstones and trees, some falling and some fallen, which obstruct your path.

[This is done already, we think. -Living

Age.]

THE CLAIM OF A TAILOR for £9 due for

OVER-LEGISLATION. BY HERBERT SPENCER. clothes supplied, was resisted lately at the MaryReprinted from the Westminster Review. Chap-lebone County Court, upon somewhat curious man's Library for the people. John Chapman, grounds. The defendant, a man named King, Strand. did not deny the receipt or the value of the articles supplied, but raised a quibbling objection We are very glad to see this valuable essay re-founded on an obsolete statute of George I., enprinted in a cheap and durable form. There is acting "that no person in England shall make, no point on which the so-called educated classes sell, or sew on any clothes, buttons, or buttonmore require education or instruction than that holes made or bound with cloth, serge, camblets, treated in this book. The country is already se- or druggets, or any other stuff, under a penalty riously injured by over-legislation, and yet the of 40s. for every dozen buttons so made." The multitude, and not merely the unlearned multi-act further provided that no person could retude, but the educated and instructed multitude, cover the price charged for clothes made without professional men of all descriptions and men of buttons of gilt material, the object being to enbusiness continually demand new and more le- courage the "Brummagem" trade of the day gislation. Every ill that human nature is sub-As it was shown, first, that the aforesaid law, abject to they suppose can be cured by legisla- surd as it was, had never been repealed; and, tion. They are far more eager to be ruled and secondly, that the present plaintiff could not pregoverned than the lawmakers or the ministers, tend to have affixed the legal gilt buttons to the &c., are to rule and govern them. These dread the responsibility; the others have no sense of responsibility, and they are never tired of crying out for more laws. To correct their crroneous views or improper sentiments, Mr. Spencer's production will be very useful.-Economist.

coats supplied to the defendant, judgment was perforce given against him. The defendant af terwards announced, by the mouth-piece of his counsel, that he should, in due course, sue the plaintiff for the penalties enacted under the statutes in question.

From the North British Review.

rected, and that we may, oftener than we deem, be sailing on a wrong tack.

The book is in the form of fragments from

1. Un Philosophé sous les toits. Par M. EMILE SOUVESTRE. Paris, 1851. 2. The Attic Philosopher. By M. EMILE SOU-the diary of a man of fair education, and of VESTRE. (Translated.) London, 1854. very humble fortunes, such as may be found Reprinted by Appleton & Co. New York. in numbers, not only in Paris, but all over the THIS is one of the pleasantest and prettiest Continent, who lives solitary and contented in little books that has ever fallen into our hands. his garret, supporting himself in tolerable comIt is the more interesting and surprising as fort on the meagre salary of a subordinate having issued from the press of Paris; and, Government employé, content with poverty, after the vehement, diseased, and bacchana- and secure against indigence, watching the lian pages of Balzac, Eugene Sue, and Victor world around him with a cheerful and sympaHugo, is medicine to our scandalized morality, thizing smile, and enjoying the good things of balm to our wounded sensibility, rest to the life rather by contemplation than by actual wearied fancy, and positive refreshment to the participation. Unambitious and unstriving, irritated eye. To come to it after such read- too wise to risk that scanty stipend which moing is like the "crystalline fount" after the derate desires and skilful management have "feculent flood,"-like the "pure breezes of made into a competence for vaster but more morn" after the heated and morbific atmos-precarious gains, he finds that everything conphere of the hospital or the gaming-house-spires to teach him the same lesson-viz., in like the green fields and fresh vegetation of how small an apartment happiness may dwell, the country and the spring, after the glare and how cheaply that apartment may be furand fumes of a gaudy and gas-lighted theatre. nished. Observation, ever on the alert, preWe feel that we have escaped from intoxica- serves him alike from envy or repining: he tion to sobriety, from the vortex of passion to the peace of nature, from that which is simply noxious or revolting, to that which gives true pleasure and does real good.

sees from his attic window the luxurious furniture of one opposite neighbor, an actress or singer seized for debt, and her chamber rude ly dismantled; and the humble but always We rejoice to see that such a book can come neat room of another vis-a-vis, a sempstress seout of the heart of France-that such pictures cure in its plodding and unaspiring poverty. can still be relished there-that such a life as is He returns from a homely supper-the one here depicted can still be led there. For though festal banquet of the year-shared with a famthe tone of the book is pure, and all its senti-ily yet poorer than himself, and remembers that ments are humane, genial and gentle, it is as re- he left the unrefined but joyous circle with mote as possible from anything mawkish or the regretful ejaculation Déja! and he meets maudlin. It has nothing of the pastoral tender- the opulent lady who occupies the first floor ness, the overdone Arcadianism, which made of the house next his own, returning jaded the popularity of the Romance of Bernardin de and ennuyée from those gilded salons where no St. Pierre nearly as sure a sign of an unheal- joy is, and getting out of her carriage with thy state of the public mind as the profligate the yawning ejaculation, "Enfin !" On New novels that appeared at the same time, and di- Year's day, when it is customary in France, vided with it the favor of the reading world and indeed throughout the Continent, to visit of France. Nor has it any closer similarity friends and give or receive presents, our phito the Swiss love-stories, and pictures and losopher who had no friends, and was too poor praises of savage life, with which Rousseau to make presents, was sitting somewhat mooddazzled and delighted the fancy of the profli-ily in his garret, for his fire would not light, gate and sophisticated dames of Paris, in the the day was rainy and the wood was damp, heinous days of Louis XV. Its pathos is all there was no milk left for breakfast, and the natural; its sentiments are all genuine and pot of sweetmeat was quite empty. There is unforced-the reflections of a contented and a knock at the door, and a Paulette enters kind-hearted man who philosophizes from his a pale, thin, ill-dressed little girl, whose life he garret on the motley world beneath him, and had saved in a crowd two before. mingles with it in his own humble sphere. It indicates that there is still a portion of the "Il y a deux ans de cela; depuis, je n'avais heart of France sound and unperverted; and revu la petite qu'à de longs intervalles, et je l'avais what is more to our immediate purpose, mais Paulette a la mepresque oubliée ; moire des bons cœurs; elle vient an renouvellegives a very interesting glimpse into some of ment de l'année m'offrir ses souhaits de bonheur. those points of Continental life and character, Elle m'apporte en outre un plant de violettes en in which it has a marked superiority to our fleurs; elle-même l'a mis cu terre et cultivé; c'est own-peculiarities which it would be well if un bien qui lui appartient tout entier, car il a été we could transplant, and which incline us to conquis par ses soins, sa volonté et sa patience. certain uncomfortable misgiving that some of Ce présent inattendu, la rougeur modeste de la our aims and exertions may be sadly misdi-petite fille et son compliment balbutié dissipent

it

a

years

comme un rayon du soleil, l'espèce de brouillard The philosopher resolves to gratify his feelqui m'enveloppait le cœur; mes idées passent ings by making this poor family a New-year's brusquement des teintes plombées du soir aux present of their coveted stove. Accordingly teintes les plus roses de l'aurore. Je fais asseoir he gets an old one of his own repaired and Paulette, et je l'interroge gaiement.

put up in their room while all are absent at their daily work, and takes them besides a basket of wood out of his own winter provision, observing that the sacrifice will only oblige him to warm himself by walking, or by going to bed earlier than usual.

"La petite répond d'abord par des monosyllabes, mais bientôt les rôles sont reversés, et c'est moi qui entrecoupe de courtes interjections ses longues confidences. La pauvre enfant mène une vie difficile. Orpheline depuis long temps, elle est restée avec son frère et sa sœur, à la charge d'une vieille grand-mère qui les élevés de The above extract may serve as a specimen misère, comme elle a coutume de le dire. Cepen- of this little volume, and may explain wherein dant Paulette l'aide maintenant dans la confec- lies its charm. There is nothing remarkable tion des cartonnages, sa petite sœui Perrine com- in the events it relates, nothing brilliant in the mence à coudre, et Henri est apprenti dans une pictures which it draws; but an air of cheerimprimerie. Tout irait bien, sans les pertes et sans les chomages, sans les habits qui s'usent, ful and healthy serenity broods over every sans les appetits qui grandissent, sans l'hiver qui page, and bespeaks a mind that has penetrated oblige à acheter son soleil! Paulette se plaint the true secret of life, and harvested its richde ce que la chandelle dure trop peu et de ce que est wisdom. Probably, however, the real le bois coûte trop cher. La cheminée de leur cause of the pleasure which the book is calcumansarde est si grande qu une falourde y produit lated to convey arises from the contrast bel'effet d'une allumette; elle est si près du toit que tween its atmosphere of repose, and the feverle vent y renvoit la pluie, et qu'on y gèle sur ish and busy world in which we live, and from l'atre en hiver; aussi y ont ils renonce. Tout se the somewhat pregnant philosophical reflecborne désormais à un réchaud de terre sur lequel tions which its perusal irresistibly suggests. It cuit le repas. La grand'-mère avait bien parlé

d'un poéle marchandé chez le revendeur du rez-depicts the best and pleasantest features of de-chaussée; mais celui-ci en a voulu sept francs, Continental life, and makes us pause a while in et les temps sont trop difficiles pour une pareille dépense; famille s'est en conséquence résignée à avoir froid par économie."*

our breathless and unceasing race, to consider whether we might not with advantage both to soul and body, take a leaf out of our neighbor's book.

*During the two years I had only seen the child The extremes of character in civilized man at long intervals, and had almost forgotten her; are to be found in the Asiatic and the Ameribut Paulette has the memory of good hearts; and she comes at the expiration of the year to offer her can-the silent, dignified, placid, and stagnant wishes for my happiness. She brings me, besides, Mussulman-and the striving, pushing, restless, a bunch of violets, her own raising. They were progressive Yankee. Between these extremes made by herself entirely-by her own care, pa- lie the easy and joyous Celt, generally contented tience, and perseverance. This unexpected present, the modest blush of the little girl, and her with the passing hour, but often contented with stammering compliment, dissipated, like a ray of too little; the stationary and phlegmatic Gersunshine, the mist around my heart; my thoughts man of the south, cautious and unaspiring, frugal pass suddenly from the heavy dusk of night to the and complacent; the Norwegian, whose life brightest hue of sunrise. I make Paulette sit down, in most things resembles that of his Teutonic and cheerfully question her.

The child answered at first in monosyllables-brethren; the Swiss, who approximate nearer but soon our parts are reversed-and I only inter- to ourselves; and finally the British only a rupt by short interjections her full revealings. The few degrees less ambitious, insatiable, unrestpoor child leads a difficult life. Her parents have ing, and discontented than their western offlong been dead, and she and her brother and sister have remained under the care of their old grand- spring. In the appendix to the second part mother, who has, to use her own words, brought of Layard's Nineveh, there is a letter from a them up on want. However, Paulette assists her Turkish Cadi, so thoroughly Oriental in its now in card-work. Her little sister, Perrine, be- spirit, so exactly portraying those peculiar gins to sew; and Henry is apprenticed to a print- features of character in which the East differs ing office. All would go well, but for loss by waste, from the West, and so amusingly astounding or being out of work; but for clothes which wear out, and appetites which increase; but for the win- to men accustomed to look upon exertion, the ter which obliges them to buy their sun. Paul-acquisition of knowledge, and the progress of ette lamented that the candle burnt out too soon; and that wood was too dear. The chimney of the garret is so large, that a bundle of fire-wood in it produces an effect like a lucifer match. It is so near the roof, that the wind sends the rain into it, and they freeze on the hearth in winter, and so they have given it up, and confine themselves to an earthen chafing dish, upon which they cook their food. The grandmother has talked a good deal of a stove she had bargained about with the retailer on the ground floor; but he asked seven

wealth, as the great ends of existence, that we cannot do better than quote it. The traveller had astonished the weak mind of his Mussulman friend, by applying to him for some statistical information regarding the city and pro

francs for it, and times are too hard for such an expense-and the family has in consequence to resign itself to cold, out of economy.