common of Barnes, which, at five, seems to have left London fifty miles behind. Nothing like a gallop on a beautiful Arabian in all desperate cases. If you have been refused by an heiress, when a Jew has advanced ten thousand pounds on the speculation—if you have been jilted by a beauty, after dancing with her for a week—if you have been thrown out by a petition to the House, after your election has cost your last acre-and then deliberate between a pistol and a gallop, I advise the latter.

Lorraine had ridden off a large portion of his irritation, but not all his regret. He threw the reins on the neck of the beautiful and panting creature, that had sped on as if by some instinct of his will, and rode slowly over the solitary heath. He was in that mood of all others when the mind fastens most readily on some chance object for its train of thoughts, when strong internal excitement gladly vents itself on any outward impulse. He had unconsciously paused on a slight ascent, on whose side stood the remains of a small but ancient well: its square walls were in ruins, and a few large but broken stones, some jagged and bare, others with little tufts of grass or a single yellow wild flower springing from them,-all spoke neglect and decay. The clear spring itself dripped over one fragment with a low murmur, whose monotony had all the sweetness of custom. The ear heard it, till it listened for the sound like a familiar thing. The well was filled with weeds, and the water wandered away, wasting its little current over too large a space, but still marked by a growth of brighter and fresher green. "And thus it is," thought Edward, "with all the works of men whether for beauty or usefulness, how soon they perish! One generation builds, that another may neglect, or destroy. We talk of the future-we look to it-we act for it. The future comes ourselves are forgotten-our works are ruins."

:

The sound of the bubbling water grew more distinct, as the ear became accustomed to its music: it reminded him of one very like it in Etheringhame Park. Both might have made the delight of either antiquary or poet. It wanted nothing to complete the likeness but the large old beach, under whose shadow he and his brother had passed so many mornings.

But it was a bad time for the recollections of boyhood. Lorraine's life had hitherto been one of enjoyment: it was as if Fate had, in one day's disappointments, avenged

the serenity of years. His brother, whom he had loved with the excusing, relying affection of a woman, had sacrificed his interest and betrayed his confidence, in the indolent irresolution of selfishness: the attachment of a life had been given up to avoid trouble. Then, the friend to whom he looked up the model in whose steps he proposed to follow-whom he had admired with all the enthusiastic admiration of youth-this friend had degraded himself in his eyes forever, denied his opinions, falsified his principles, and in a few hours placed the future in direct opposition to all that the past had held high or honorable. It is hard, very hard, for the heart to part with, at one struggle, those it has most loved and reverenced. A mist rose to Lorraine's eyes, only to be dissipated by another gallop.

Some twenty years after, it might be questioned whether he would have felt much. With regard to Lord Etheringhame, Edward made no allowance for domestic necessities. I remember once reading a somewhat unnecessary volume, in which a gentleman (single, I am sure,) remonstrated on the exclusion of females from power. He might have spared himself the trouble! Few women but have some lover, husband, brother, or son, over whom they contrive to exert a very fair portion of authority. Erive

As to Mr. Delawarr, another twenty years would have taught his youthful opponent that political opinions are, like most others, subject to change. A century or two ago, the best blood in the kingdom was spent in defence of the right divine of kings-and it was called heroic conduct; now it is to be shed in defence of the rights of the people and that is very heroic conduct too. I wonder what will be heroic conduct a century hence. Again: the Swiss guards of Louis XVI. were cut to pieces fighting under orders-every one talked of their bravery and their devotion; the Swiss guards of Charles X. have done precisely the same thing, and their own country talks of hanging the survivors. Ireland, last year, was to be a Prådise, if that peri, emancipation, was but sent there; now it is a wretched, degraded, oppressed country, unless the Union be dissolved! What ever will it be the year after? So much for any certainty of right in this world!

CHAPTER IX.

"As our life is very short, so it is very miserable.

*

"How few men in the world are prosperous! What an infinite number of slaves and beggars, of persecuted and oppressed people, fill all corners of the earth with groans, and Heaven itself with weeping prayers and sad remembrances! "Our days are full of sorrow and anguish, dishonored and made unhappy with many sins, amazed with fears, full of cares, divided with curiosities and contradictory interests, made airy and impertinent with varieties, abused by ignorance and prodigious errors, made ridiculous with a thousand weaknesses, worn away with labors, laden with diseases, daily vexed with dangers and temptations, and in love with misery. JEREMY TAYLOR.

JUSTICE has never been done to the merits of a wet day in summer-one of those days of wind and rain which fills the air with fragrance, for every fullblown flower has its sweet life fairly crushed out; when there is a good excuse for a fire-a fire being one of those luxuries for which, in England, we always expect a reason; when it is cold enough to make warmth pleasant, yet without freezing one side while the other is burning. It was just such a day as this when Lorraine went to take a farewell dinner with Mr. Morland. Alternate showers of raindrops or roseleaves had been blown in gusts against the windows all the morning ; but now the curtains were drawn, a warm red blaze came from the bright fire, and a softer and clearer light from the lamp, whose pure pale transparency is so prettily and fancifully compared by an American writer,* to a gigantic pearl illuminated. A mahogany table, like a dark mirror, was drawn close to the fire-Mr. Morland had an oldfashioned predilection for its polished surface; on it stood three or four rich cut glass decanters, "breathing of the sweet South," and a dark slender bottle, common enough in shape, but round which lingered the fragrance of burgundy. Two large armchairs were drawn on each side the fire place, in which sat Mr. Morland and his guest,

* Neale.

Mr. Morland." After all, I do not so much regret the delay this occasions in your entrance into public life—you are still too young.

Edward Lorraine.-" Are you not now speaking rather after the fashion of common prejudice? I am young, it is true; but I have outlived the pleasures of youth. I- 99

Mr. Morland. "But not its feelings. You are still credulous of good-still enthusiastic of impossibilities; you believe that the world may be set right-nay, that you are one of those predestined to assist in so doing."

66

Edward Lorraine. “I will not deny that I do think there is great room for improvement, and that very likely I am deceived in my own selfestimate-a common mistake, even with the most experienced; still, I am not prepared to admit that a cause can be injured by the devotion and industry given to it by even the humblest individual." Mr. Morland.-"I was thinking more of yourself. Have you not felt Mr. Delawarr's conduct very severely." Edward Lorraine." I have: I put my own personal interests quite out of the question; but I cannot forgive a man that I so respected and admired, for being the one to show me that my respect and my admiration were given to an acted part-not the real character."

Mr. Morland.- "Your own are my best arguments. Truly, you seem well prepared for disappointment, the falsehood, which will meet you at every turn of your future career. Mr. Delawarr has taken a step imperative to his own interests, and for which most convincing reasons may be assigned. I never knew any debatable point not maintained on both sides by unanswerable arguments; and yet you are angry that he has not thrown every advantage aside to enact your beau ideal of patriotic excellence."

Edward Lorraine.- "At this rate, then, your own interests only are to describe your circle of action?"

Mr. Morland. -"Not exactly; they must be a little rounded at the extremities, where they come in contact with those of others."

Edward Lorraine.-" Then you would have had me act in direct opposition to all I have been accustomed to regard as good and admirable, and accepted Mr. Delawarr's offers ?

Mr. Morland.- "Not exactly; the young man who acts

in early life contrary to his feelings, will, in after years, act contrary to his principles of right. I only wish you to draw from it a moral instability-to see the necessity, if you mean to carry your theories into action, of arming yourself with indifference of experience."

Edward Lorraine.-" We should, then, never act if we were so indifferent to the result."

Mr. Morland." And all the better for yourself if you never enter the gladiatorial arena of public life: you will sacrifice time, health, and talents; you will be paragraphed -probably pelted; you will die of an inflammation, or a consumption; and leave it a debatable point to historians, what was the extent of the injury you did your country.

Edward Lorraine." Nothing is so fortunate for mankind as its diversity of opinion: if we all thought alike— with you, for an example-there would at once be an end to all mutual assistance and improvement."

Mr. Morland.-"Do not be alarmed; there are plenty of restless spirits who will always be happy to take upon them all the affairs of the world.) Atlas was only an ingenious allegory."

Edward Lorraine.-"This infinite variety in men's minds the inate superiority of some, the equally inate inferiority of others has always seemed to me the great argument against the system of universal equality. There is no natural Agrarian law. Distinctions, from that universally admitted claim of a child to the acquisitions of a parent, become hereditary; they must first have been personal."

Mr. Morland.-" Of all the vain theories that philosophers ever set afloat is that of equality-especially mental. One man spends years in thoughtful study, and Columbus sets forth and discovers America; another man passes the same period, and then the learned doctor sends an elaborate essay to a society, stating that the last ten years of his life have been devoted to a laborious comparison of geese and turkies, which has produced in his mind the conviction that the goose is a calumniated bird, the turkey being infinitely more stupid."*

Edward Lorraine." A complete caricature on ornithological research; but do you know, I have often thought the pursuits of science the most satisfactory of

* Foreign Literary Gazette.