of him-ventured to preach a sermon on the Duties of Royalty. The "Quarterly," "so savage and tar tarly," came down upon him in the most contempt. uous style, as "a joker of jokes," a "diner-out of the first water," in one of his own parases; sneering at him, insulting him, as nothing but a toady of a court, sneaking behind the anonymous, would ever have been mean enough to do to a man of his position and genius, or to any decent person even.—If I were giving advice to a young fellow of talent, with two or three facets to his mind, I would tell him by all means to keep his wit in the background until after he had made a reputation by his more solid qualities. And so to an actor: Hamlet first, and Bob Logic afterwards, if you like; but don't think, as they say poor Liston used to, that people will be ready to allow that you can do anything great with Macbeth's dagger after flourishing about with Paul Pry's umbrella. Do you know, too, that the majority of men look upon all who challenge their attention,-for a while, at least, as beggars, and nuisances? They always try to get off as cheaply as they can; and the cheapest of all things they can give a literary man-pardon the forlorn pleasantry!-is the funnybone. That is all very well so far as it goes, but satisfies no man, and makes a good many angry, as I told you on a former occasion.

-Oh, indeed, no!-I am not ashamed to make you laugh, occasionally. I think I could read you

Is na taman in

e de Castrated in

SUIS 27 SWnt me and the abJUSTPRS and encoure of wits as

to the ver al te faze Lie of those whom we pas deorive a tal mer hennes and then call There re roti Ÿr vxeren in this brie, seem to be premaning themeves for that smileless eternity to which they look forward by banking all gvery from ther bears and a joyousness from their countenances I meet one such in the street not unfrequently, a person of intelligence and edu cation, but who gives me (and all that he passes) such a rayless and chilling look of recognition.— something as if he were one of Heaven's assessors, come down to "doom" every acquaintance he met, -that I have sometimes begun to sneeze on the spot, and gone home with a violent cold, dating from that instant. I don't doubt he would cut his kitten's tail off, if he caught her playing with it. Please tell me, who taught her to play with it?

No, no!-give me a chance to talk to you, my fel Low-boarders, and you need not be afraid that I shal

nave any scruples about entertaining you, if I can do it, as well as giving you some of my serious thoughts, and perhaps my sadder fancies. I know nothing in English or any other literature more admirable than that sentiment of Sir Thomas Browne "EVERY MAN TRULY LIVES, SO LONG AS HE ACTS HIS NATURE, OR SOME WAY MAKES GOOD THE FACULTIES OF HIMSELF."

I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving: To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it, but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor. There is one very sad thing in old friendships, to every mind that is really moving onward. It is this: that one cannot help using his early friends as the seaman uses the log, to mark his progress. Every now and then we throw an old schoolmate over the stern with a string of thought tied to him, and look-I am afraid with a kind of luxurious and sanctimonious compassion-to see the rate at which the string reels off, while he lies there bobbing up and down, poor fellow! and we are dashing along with the white foam and bright sparkle at our bows;-the ruffled bosom of prosperity and progress, with a sprig of diamonds stuck in it! But this is only the senti mental side of the matter; for grow we must, if we outgrow all that we love.

Don't misunderstand that metaphor of heaving the

og, I beg you. It is merely a smart way of saying that we cannot avoid measuring our rate of move ment by those with whom we have long been in the habit of comparing ourselves; and when they once become stationary, we can get our reckoning from then. with painful accuracy. We see just what we were when they were our peers, and can strike the balance between that and whatever we may feel ourselves to be now. No doubt we may sometimes be mistaken. If we change our last simile to that very old and familiar one of a fleet leaving the harbor and sailing in company for some distant region, we can get what we want out of it. There is one of our companions;-her streamers were torn into rags before she had got into the open sea, then by and by her sails blew out of the ropes one after another, the waves swept her deck, and as night came on we left her a seeming wreck, as we flew under our pyramid of canvas. But lo! at dawn she is still in sight,-it may be in advance of us. deep ocean-current has been moving her on, strong, but silent, yes, stronger than these noisy winds that puff our sails until they are swollen as the cheeks of jubilant cherubim. And when at last the black steam-tug with the skeleton arms, which comes out of the mist sooner or later and takes us all in tow, grapples her and goes off panting and groaning with her, it is to that harbor where all wrecks are refitted, and where, alas! we, towering in our pride, may

never come.

Some

So you will not think I mean to speak lightly of old friendships, because we cannot help instituting Comparisons between our present and former selves by the aid of those who were what we were, but are not what we are. Nothing strikes one more, in the race of life, than to see how many give out in the first half of the course. "Commencement day" always reminds me of the start for the "Derby," when the beautiful high-bred three-year olds of the season are brought up for trial. That day is the start, and life is the race. Here we are at Cambridge, and a class is just "graduating." Poor Harry! he was to have been there too, but he has paid forfeit; step out here into the grass back of the church; ah! there it is:

"HUNC LAPIDEM POSUERUNT

SOCII MERENTES."

But this is the start, and here they are,-coats bright as silk, and manes as smooth as eau lustrale can make them. Some of the best of the colts are pranced round, a few minutes each, to show their paces. What is that old gentleman crying about? and the old lady by him, and the three girls, what are they all covering their eyes for? Oh, that is their colt which has just been trotied up on the stage. Do they really think those little thin legs can do anything in such a slashing sweepstakes as is coming off in these next forty years? Oh, this ter rible gift of second-sight that comes to some of us