Part 4 (1/2)

SILENCE NOT ALWAYS WISDOM

Coleridge once dined in co for a long tient At length, towards the end of the dinner, sos were placed on the table, and the listener had no sooner seen thee adds: ”I wish Spurzheie was very luminous in conversation, and invariably commanded listeners; yet the old lady rated his talent very lohen she declared she had no patience with a man ould have all the talk to himself

DR CHALMERS IN LONDON

When Dr Chalmers first visited London, the hold that he took on thepolitical feeling; but even that was unheeded, and all parties thronged to hear the Scottish preacher The very best judges were not prepared for the display that they heard Canning and Wilberforce went together, and got into a pew near the door The elder in attendance stood alone by the pew Chal a few nearly self-evident propositions, neither in the choicest language, nor in theto his co of the conversation gradually subsided He got into the th, his hesitation was turned into energy; and, bringing the whole volume of his mind to bear upon it, he poured forth a torrent of the uination which ranged over all nature for illustrations, and yetdexterity, as if that single one had been the study of a whole life ”The tartan beats us,” said Mr Canning; ”we have no preaching like that in England”

ROMILLY AND BROUGHAM

Hallaes_ was the last book of any importance read by Sir Sahest opinion, and recoham, as a contrast to his dry _Letter on the Abuses of Charities_, in respect of the universal interest of the subject Yet, Sir Saht editions in one month

PHYSIOGNOMY OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONISTS

It is remarkable, (says Bulwer, in his _Zanoni_,) that most of the principal actors of the French Revolution were singularly hideous in appearance--froliness of Mirabeau and Danton, or the villanous ferocity in the countenances of David and Simon, to the filthy squalor of Marat, and the sinister and bilious meanness of the Dictator's features But Robespierre, as said to resemble a cat, and had also a cat's cleanliness, was prim and dainty in dress, shaven smoothness, and the womanly whiteness of his hands Rene Dumas, born of reputable parents, and well educated, despite his ferocity, was not without a certain refinement, which perhaps rendered him the more acceptable to the precise Robespierre Duala-dress was a _blood-red_ coat, with the finest ruffles But Henriot had been a lacquey, a thief, a spy of the police; he had drank the blood of Madame de Lamballe, and had risen for no quality but his ruffianisriculturist, and afterwards a clerk at the bureau of the police, was little less base in his manners, and yetin his speech; bull-headed, with black, sleek hair, with a narrow and livid forehead, and sly and coarsely built, he looked what he was, the audacious bully of a lawless and relentless bar

DEATH OF SIR CHARLES BELL

This distinguished surgeon died suddenly on April 29, 1842, at Hallow Park, near Worcester, while on his way to Malvern He was out sketching on the 28th, being particularly pleased with the village church, and so that he should like to repose there when he was gone Just four days after this sentily deposited beside the rustic graves which had attracted his notice, and so recently occupied his pencil There is a painful admonition in this fulfiluished _gourht be made ”Capital,” said he; ”dine with me on it to-morrow” ”Accepted” Would you believe it? when the cover was re of an Amphytrion had put into the dish ”Cicero _De finibus_” ”There is a work all fins,” said he

POETRY OF THE SEA

Careat lover of submarine prospects ”Often in ht and the sea transparent, I have sat by the hour on a Highland rock adolden sands, the emerald weeds, and the silver shells at the bottorottoes of the Nereids, I would not have exchangedover a landscape by Claude or Poussin Enchanting nature! thy beauty is not only in heaven and earth, but in the waters under our feet How nificent a medium of vision is the pellucid sea! Is it not like poetry, that embellishes every object that we conteing reproofs of perverted literary taste, evidently aiate Calendar literature, appeared in the form of a valentine, in No 31 of _Punch_, in 1842

The valentine itself reer to tell where its withering satire is pointed:--