[FRANCIS LIEBER, the eminent jurist and political economist, was born at Berlin, Prussia, Mar. 18, 1800. He took up his residence in the United States in 1827, and died in New York, Oct. 2, 1872. He was the author of many works of great and lasting value.] As the love of Romeo and Juliet elevated their souls above the strife of their houses, so can friendship elevate two hearts above the struggles of their time, though the individuals be even engaged in it; while those friends who happily walk the same path cheer and strengthen each other by their mutual example; and since essential confidence can exist between good men only, they propel each other in the path of virtue, for it is a primary law of all intercourse, that if two or more of the same inclination, pursuit or character,-good, frivolous or wicked-are brought in close contact with one another, in that same direction they will propel one another still more rapidly. Friendship must rest on mutuality, it is one of its essential qualities; for one of its requisites and blessings is the enjoyment of confidence-a luxury to good men; and Eschylus is right when he says that kings suffer one evil, they do not know how to confide in friends; while the reason that was given of Trajan's having friends is that he was a friend himself. TOUJOURS AMOUR. Prithee tell me, Dimple Chin, At what age does Love begin? Your blue eyes have scarcely seen Summers three, my fairy queen, But a miracle of sweets, Soft approaches, sly retreats, Show the little archer there, Hidden in your pretty hair; When didst learn a heart to win? Prithee tell me, Dimple Chin! "Oh!" the rosy lips reply, "I can't tell you if I try. 'Tis so long I can't remember: Ask some younger lass than I!" Tell, O tell me, Grizzled-Face, 293 "Ah!" the wise old lips reply, "Youth may pass and strength may die; But of Love I can't foretoken: Ask some older sage than I." EDWARD CLARENCE STEDMAN, b. 1833. SHAKING HANDS. [Edward Everett, LL.D., D.C.L., born at Dorchester, Massachusetts, 11th April, 1794; died at Boston, 15th January, 1865. Orator, politician, and miscellaneous writer. He was successively professor of Greek and literature in the Harvard University; editor of the North American Review; member of Congress, minister of the United States in England, and succeeded Daniel Webster as secretary of state. He was compelled by ill health to retire from public life in 1854. His works are: A Defence of Christianity; Orations and Speeches upon Various Occasions; Importance of Practical Bduca tion: The Mount Vernon Papers; and numerous contri butions to the North American Review and various magazines.] There are few things of more common occurrence than shaking hands; and yet I do not recollect that much has been speculated 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 a good deal, and I beg leave to offer a few remarks on the origin of the practice, and the various forms in which it is exercised. 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; and although I find frequently hering to them. I had two acquaintances, both estimable men, one of whom had been brought up in the pump-handle shake, and another 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 endeavoured 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 dia such phrases as jungere dextras hospitio, I do not recollect to have met with that of agitare dextras. 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 junction 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 natur-gonal-in which line they ever after shook. ally introduced. How long the practice may have remained in this incipient stage it is impossible, in the silence of history, to say; nor is there anything 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. But it was plain to see, there was no cordiality in it; and, as is usually the case with compromises, both parties were discontented. 3. The tourniquet shake is the next in importance. It derives its name from the instrument made use of by surgeons to stop the circulation of the blood in a limb about to be Without therefore availing myself of the amputated. It is performed by clasping the privilege of theorists to supply by conjecture hand of your friend, as far as you can, in your the absence of history or tradition, I shall pass own, and then contracting the muscles of your immediately to the enumeration of these forms: thumb, fingers, and palm, till you have induced 1. The pump-handle shake is the first which any degree of compression you may propose deserves notice. It is executed by taking in the hand of your friend. Particular care your friend's hand, and working it up and down, ought to be taken, if your own hand is as hard through an arc of fifty degrees, for about a and as big as a frying-pan, and that of your minute and a half. To have its nature, force, friend as small and soft as a young maiden's, and character, this shake should be performed not to make use of the tourniquet shake to the with a fair steady motion. No attempt should degree that will force the small bones of the be made to give it grace, and still less viva- wrist out of place. It is also seldom safe to city; as the few instances in which the latter apply it to gouty persons. A hearty young has been tried have uniformly resulted in dis- friend of mine, who had pursued the study of locating the shoulder of the person on whom geology, and acquired an unusual hardness and it has been attempted. On the contrary, per- strength of hand and wrist by the use of the sons who are partial to the pump-handle shake hammer, on returning from a scientific excurshould be at some pains to give an equable,sion gave his gouty uncle the tourniquet shake, tranquil movement to the operation, which should on no account be continued after perspiration on the part of your friend has commenced. 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 fingers got well enough to hold a pen. 2. The pendulum shake may be mentioned next, as being somewhat similar in character; 4. The cordial grapple is a shake of some but moving, as the name indicates, in a hori- interest. It is a hearty, boisterous agitation zontal instead of a perpendicular direction. of your friend's hand, accompanied with moIt is executed by sweeping your hand horizon-derate pressure, and loud, cheerful exclamatally toward your friend's, and after the junc- tions of welcome. It is an excellent travelling tion is effected, rowing with it from one side shake, and well adapted to make friends. It to the other, according to the pleasure of the is indiscriminately performed. 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 ad 5. The Peter Grievous touch is opposed to the cordial grapple. It is a pensive, tranquil junction, followed by a mild subsultary motion, a cast-down look, and an inarticulate inquiry after your friend's health. 6. The prude major and prude minor are nearly monopolized by ladies. They cannot be accurately described, but are constantly to |