My steps should thither turn; or, wandering far There would I bless His name who led me forth JAMES GRAHАМЕ. REV. JAMES GRAHAME was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in the year 1765. He studied law and practiced at the Scottish bar several years, but afterward took orders in the Church of England, and was successively curate of Shipton, in Gloucestershire, and of Sedgefield, in the county of Durham. Ill health conpelled him to abandon his curacy when his virtues and talents had attracted notice and rendered him a popular and useful preacher; and on revisiting Scotland, he died on the 14th of September, 1811. His works consist of "Mary, Queen of Scotland," a dramatic poem, published in 1801; "The Sabbath,” from which the above selection is taken; "Sabbath Walks," "Riblical Pictures," "The Birds of Scotland," and "British Georgics," all in blank verse. "The Sabbath" is the best of his productions. The poet was modest and devout, though sometimes gloomy in his seriousness. His prevailing tone, however, is that of implicit trust in the goodness of God, and enjoy nen in his 'creation. 7. MATERNAL AFFECTION. WOMAN'S charms are certainly many and powerful. The expanding rose just bursting into beauty has an irresistible bewitchingness; the blooming bride led triumphantly to the hymene al altar awakens admiration and interest, and the blush of her cheek fills with delight; but the charm of maternity is more sublime than all these. Heaven has imprinted in the mother's face something beyond this world, something which claims kindred with the skies, the angelic smile, the tender look, the waking, watchful eye, which keeps its fond vigil over her slumbering babe. 2. These are objects which neither the pencil nor the chisel can touch, which poetry fails to exalt, which the most eloquent tongue in vain would eulogize, and on which all description becomes ineffective. In the heart of man lies this lovely picture; it lives in his sympathies; it reigns in his affections; his eye looks round in vain for such another object on earth. 3. Maternity, ecstatic' sound! so twined round our hearts, that they must cease to throt ere we forget it! 'tis our first love; 'tis part of our religion. Nature has set the mother upon such a pinnacle, that our infant eyes and arms are first uplifted to it; we cling to it in manhood; we almost worship it in old age. 4. He who can enter an apartment, and behold the tender babe feeding on its mother's beauty-nourished by the tide of life which flows through her generous veins, without a panting bosom and a grateful eye, is no man, but a monster. He who can approach the cradle of sleeping innocence without thinking that "of such is the kingdom of heaven!" or see the fond parent hang over its beauties, and half retain her breath lest she should break its slumbers, without a veneration beyond all common feeling, is to be avoided in every intercourse of life, and is fit only for the shadow of darkness and the solitude of the desert. SCRAP BOOK. THERE 8. SHAKING HANDS. HERE are few things of more common occurrence than shaking hands; and yet I do not recollect that there has been much speculation upon the subject. I confess, when I consider to what unimportant and futile concerns the attention of writers and readers has been directed, I am surprised that no one has been found to handle so important a matter as this, and attempt to give the public a rational view of the doctrine and discipline. of shaking hands. It is a theme on which I have myself theorized considerable; and I beg leave to offer a few remarks on the origin of the practice, and the various forms in which it is exercised. 2. I have been unable to find in the ancient writers any distinct mention of shaking hands. They followed the heartier practice of hugging or embracing, which has not wholly disappeared among grown persons in Europe, and children in our own country, and has unquestionably the advantage on the score of cordiality. When the ancients trusted the business of salutation to the hands alone, they joined but did not shake them. 'Ec ståt' ic, ravishing; very delightful. 3. I am inclined to think that the practice grew up in the ages of chivalry,' when the cumbrous iron mail, in which the knights were cased, prevented their embracing; and when, with fingers clothed in steel, the simple touch or joining of the hands would have been but cold welcome: so that a prolonged junc tion was a natural resort, to express cordiality; and, as it would have been awkward to keep the hands unemployed in this position, a gentle agitation or shaking might have been naturally introduced. 4. How long the practice may have remained in this incipient stage, it is impossible, in the silence of history, to say; nor is there any thing in the Chronicles, in Philip de Comines, or the Byzantine historians, which enables us to trace the progress of the art into the forms in which it now exists among us. Without, therefore, availing myself of the privilege of theorists to supply by conjecture the absence of history or tradition, I shall pass immediately to the enumeration of these forms. 5. The pump-handle shake is the first which deserves notice. It is executed by taking your friend's hand and working it up and down, through an are of fifty degrees, for about a minute and a half. To have its nature, force, and character, this shake should be performed with a fair, steady motion. No attempt should be made to give it grace, and still less vivacity; as the few instances in which the latter has been tried have uniformly resulted in dislocating the shoulder of the person on whom it has been attempted. On the contrary, persons who are partial to the pump-handle shake should be at some pains to give an equable, tranquil' movement to the operation, which should on no 'Chivalry (shiv' al ry), a military dignity, founded on the services of soldiers on horseback, called knights. Ages of chivalry extend from the eleventh to the fifteenth century. In cip' i ent, beginning; commencing; early. PHILIP DE COMINES, lord of Argenton, born at Comines, in Flanders, in 1445, and died in 1509. He was a correct and distinguished historian of his own times.-Byzantine historians, a series of Greek authors whose works relate to the history of the lower Greek empire from the fourth century to the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks, and to the Turkish history until the end of the sixteenth century.-- Vi våc' i ty, liveliness, or sprightliness of temper or behavior.- Equable ('kwa bl), even; uniform.- Tranquil (trånk' wil) alm; undisturbed. account be continued after perspiration on the part of your friend has commenced. 6. The pendulum shake may be mentioned next, as being somewhat similar in character; but moving, as the name indicates, in a horizontal instead of a perpendicular direction. It is executed by sweeping your hand horizontally toward your friend's, and, after the junction is effected, rowing with it from one side to the other, according to the pleasure of the parties. The only caution in its use, which needs particularly to be given, is not to insist on performing it in a plane, strictly parallel to the horizon, when you meet with a person who has been educated to the pump-handle shake. It is well known that people cling to the forms in which they have been educated, even when the substance is sacrificed in adhering to them. 7 I had two acquaintances, both es'timable men, one of whom had been brought up in the pump-handle shake, and the other had brought home the pendulum from a foreign voyage. They met, joined hands, and attempted to put them in motion. They were neither of them feeble men. One endeavoring to pump, and the other to paddle, their faces reddened; the drops stood on their foreheads; and it was at last a pleasing illustration of the doctrine of the composition of forces' to see their hands slanting into an exact diagonal, in which line they ever after shook. But it was plain to see there was no cordiality in it; and, as is usually the case with compromises, both parties were discontented. 8. The tourniquet shake is the next in importance. It takes its name from the instrument made use of by surgeons to stop the circulation of the blood, in a limb about to be amputated. It is performed by clasping the hand of your friend as far as you can in your own, and then contracting the muscles of your thumb, fingers, and palm, till you have induced any degree of compression you may propose in the hand of your friend. Particular care ought to be taken, if your own hand is hard and big 1 Composition of Forces. It is a principle in mechanics, that when a body is influenced by two forces in different directions, as it can not obey both, it will move in a direction between the two, but nearer in a line with the greater force. - Di åg'o nal, a straight line drawn from angle to angle of a square. Tourniquet (tër' ne ket) as a frying pan, and that of your friend as small and soft as a young maiden's, not to make use of the tourniquet shake to the degree that will force the small bones of the wrist out of place. It is also seldom safe to apply it to gouty persons. 9. A hearty young friend of mine, who had pursued the study of geology, and acquired an unusual hardness and strength of hand and wrist by the use of the hammer, on returning from a scientific excursion, gave his gouty uncle the tourniquet shake with such severity as nearly reduced the old gentleman's fingers to powder; for which my friend had the pleasure of being disinherited, as soon as his uncle's finger got well enough to hold a pen. 10. The cordial grapple is a shake of some interest. It is a hearty, boisterous agitation of your friend's hand, accompanied with moderate pressure, and loud, cheerful exclamations of welcome. It is an excellent traveling shake, and well adapted to make friends. It is indiscriminately performed. The Peter Grievous touch is opposed to the cordial grapple. It is a pensive, tranquil junction, followed by a mild subsŭl'tory' motion, a cast-down look, and an inarticulate inqui'ry after your friend's health. 11. The prude major and prude minor are nearly monopolized by the ladies. They can not be accurately described, but are constantly to be noticed in practice. They never extend beyond the fingers, and the prude major allows you to touch even then only down to the second joint. The prude minor gives you the whole of the fore-finger. Considerable skill may be shown in performing these with nice variations, such as extending the left hand instead of the right, or stretching a new glossy kid-glove over the finger you extend. 12. I might go through a list of the gripe royal, the saw-mill shake, and the shake with malice prepense'; but these are only factitious combinations of the three fundainental forms already described, under the pump-handle, the pendulum, and the tour niquet; as the loving pat, the touch romantic, and the sentimental 3 Sub sůl' to ry, twitching; moving by sudden leaps or starts.—2 Prude (prod). Pre pense', aforethought; premeditated; contrived beforehand. Factitious (fak tish' us), unnatural; artificial |