was a Paganini in his way--a man never to be rivalled-and | mind, Paddy," we replied, "they can hear you often, but we who produced effects on his instrument previously unthought of, and which could not be expected. Paddy is simply an excellent Irish piper-inimitable as a performer of Irish jigs and reels, with all their characteristic fire and buoyant gaiety of spirit-admirable indeed as a player of the music composed for and adapted to the instrument; but in his performance of the plaintive or sentimental melodies of his country, he is not able, as Crump was, to conquer its imperfections: he plays them not as they are sung, but-like a piper. Yet we do not think this want of power attributable to any deficiency of feeling or genius in Paddy-far indeed from it :he is a creature of genuine musical soul; but he has had no opportunities of hearing any great performer, like that one to whom we have alluded, or of otherwise improving, to any considerable extent, his musical education generally: the best of his predecessors whom he has heard he can imitate and rival successfully; but still Paddy is merely an Irish piper-the piper of Galway par excellence: for in every great town in the west and south of Ireland there is always one musician of this kind more eminent than the rest, with whose name is justly joined as a cognomen the name of his locality. may never have another opportunity of doing so; so come along, and depend upon it you will be as happy with us as with the gentlemen at the Regatta;" and so we trust he was. In a few minutes after, we had Paddy croning old Irish songs for us, and pointing out all the objects of any interest or beauty on either side of the road, and this with a correctness and accuracy which perfectly astounded us. Is not that a beautiful view of Lough Corrib there now, Sir? That's St Oran's Well, Sir, at the other side of the road we are now passing. Is not that a very purty place of Mr Burke's ?" and so on with every feature on either side to the end of our day's journey at Oughterard. We kept Paddy with us for a fortnight, when we brought him safely back to Galway; and during that time, as well as since, we had frequent opportunities of observing his accurate knowledge of topographical objects, and his modes of acquiring it. Ask any questions respecting an old church or castle in his hearing, and ten to one he will give a more correct description of its locality, and a more accurate account of its size, height, and general features, than any one else. Speak of a mountain, and he will break out with some such remark But we are not going to write an article on Irish pipers, or as this" I discovered a beautiful spring well on the top of to sketch their general characteristics - we have no such that mountain, Sir, that no one before ever heard of." His presumption as to attempt any thing of the kind, which we knowledge of atmospheric appearances and influences is equally feel would be altogether abortive, and which we are sure will if not still more remarkable. He can always tell with the be so perfectly done for us by our own Carleton. We only nicest accuracy the point from which the wind blows, and predesire to present a few traits in the character of an individual dict with a degree of certainty we never saw excelled, the proof the species; and these after all are more relating to the bable steadiness of the weather, or any approaching change man than the musician. We are anxious, moreover, to let likely to take place in it. He is a perfect barometer in this our English, Continental, American, and Indian readers way, for his conclusions are chiefly drawn from a delicate perunderstand that all our pipers are not like "Tim Callaghan" ception of the state of the atmospheric air imperceptible to with his three tunes, of whom a sketch has been given by a others, and are rarely erroneous. On a fine sunny morning fair and ingenious contributor in our last number. Tim with when the lakes are smooth, the mountains clear, and the sky his three party tunes may do very well for the comfortable without a cloud, we remark to him that it is a fine morning. farmers in the rich lands of the baronies of Forth and Bargie" It is, Sir, a beautiful morning." "And we are sure of hav-Lord! what sort of ears have they?--but he would not be ing a fine day, Paddy," we continue. "Indeed I fear not, Sir; "the man," nor the piper either, "for Galway!" Paddy can the wind is coming round to the south-east, and the air is play not three tunes, but three thousand: in fact, we have thickening. We'll have heavy rain in some hours," or "beoften wished his skill more circumscribed, or his memory less fore long." Again, on a rainy morning, when everything retentive, particularly when, instead of firing away with some around looks hopelessly dreary, and we feel ourselves booked lively reel, or still more animated Irish jig, he has pestered for a day in our inn, we observe to him, "There's no chance us, in spite of our nationality, with a set of quadrilles or a of this day taking up, Paddy." But Paddy knows better, and galloppe, such as he is called on to play by the ladies and he cheers us up with the answer, "Oh, this will be a fine day, gentlemen at the balls in Galway. But what a monstrosity Sir, by and bye. The wind is getting a point to the north, -to dance quadrilles in Galway! Dance indeed: no, but the clouds are rising, and the air is getting drier. We'll have a drowsy walk, and a look as if they were going to their a fine day soon." grandmothers' funerals. Fair Galwegians, for assuredly you are fair, put aside this sickly affectation of refinement, which is equally inconsistent with your natural excitability, and with the healthy atmospheric influences by which you are surrounded. Be yourselves, and let your limbs play freely, and your spirits rise into joyousness to the animating strains of the Irish jig, the reel, and the country dance; so it was with your fathers, and so it should be with you. The power thus exhibited of acquiring such accurate knowledge of localities, and of atmospheric appearances and influences, without the aid of sight, affords a striking example of the capabilities beneficently vested in us, of supplying the want created by the accidental loss of one organ, by an increase of activity and acuteness in some other, or others. These capabilities are equally observable in the lower animals as in man; but their degree is very various in individuals But we are wandering, perhaps, from our subject, forget- of both species, being dependent on the delicacy of organizaful of our friend Paddy, of whose character, not as a piper tion and amount of intellectuality which the individual may but as a man we have yet to speak; and a more interesting happen to possess. Thus the power to supply the want of vision character in his way we have rarely met with a man de- by the exercise of other organs, is not given to every blind prived by fate of eyesight, yet by the light of his mind track- man in any thing like the degree enjoyed by the Galway ing his journey through life in one continued stream of sun- piper, who is a creature of the most delicate nervous organishine, beloved by many, and respected by all whose respect is zation, and a man of a high degree of intellectuality. Paddy worth possessing. We had heard enough of his possession is a genuine inductive philosopher, never indolent or idle, of the qualities which had procured him this respect, inde- always in quest of knowledge either by inquiry or experimental pendently of his musical renown, before we had met with him, observation, and drawing his own conclusions accordingly. to make us desire his acquaintance; and on a visit with some To observe his processes in this way is not only amusing but friends to Galway last year, we made an endeavour for two or instructive, and has often afforded us a high enjoyment. three days to get him to our hotel for an evening, but in vain. When Paddy comes to a place with which he has no previous He was from home on his professional avocations, and could acquaintance, he commences his topographical researches with not be found, till, on taking our way towards Connemara, we as little delay as possible, first about the exterior of the house, encountered a blind man coming along the road, who we at which he examines all round, measuring with his stick its once concluded must be the Galway piper; and we were right. length and breadth, and calculates its height; ascertains the It was Paddy Coneely himself, who had returned home for a situation of its doors and the number of its windows, and change of clothes, and was on his way back to Galway to makes himself acquainted with the peculiarities of their form spend the evening with a party of gentlemen by whom he was and material: he next proceeds to the out-offices, which he engaged to play during the Regatta. We could not, how- surveys in a similar manner, feeling even any stray cart, car, ever, conveniently return with him, and so we determined or wheel-barrow, which may be lying in the courtyard or barn, very wisely to carry him off with us; and this we were easily and determining whether they are well made or not. If a cow able to do by first making a seizure of his pipes, after which or horse come in his way, he will subject them to a similar we soon had him, a quiet though for a while a repining cap- examination, and, if asked, pronounce accurately on their "Oh! murdher, what will Mr K- and the gentle-points, condition, and value. Having satisfied himself with men think of me at all at all?" exclaimed Paddy, "Never an examination of all these nearer objects, if time permit he tive. then extends his researches to those more distant-as the roads, ascertaining their breadth, &c.; the neighbouring bridges, streams, rivers, and even mountains; the nature of the soil too, and state of the crops, are attended to. While we were sojourning at the hotel at Maam last year, we found him one sunny morning standing on the very brink of a deep river, about a quarter of a mile distant, and examining the construction of the arch of a bridge which crossed it. How he had got there we could not possibly imagine, for there was no other mode of reaching it than by a descent from the road of a bank nearly perpendicular, and eighteen or twenty feet in height. But our friend Paddy made light of it, and remarked that there was not the slightest danger of him in such explorings. On another occasion, being about to visit the island castle on Lough Corrib, called Caislean-na-Circe, Paddy expressed to us his desire to accompany us, as he said he never had an opportunity of seeing it. We took him with us accordingly; and there was not a spot on the rocky island that with the aid of his stick he did not examine, or a crumbling wall that he did not scale, even to places that we should have supposed only accessible to jackdaws. "Dear me, Sir," he exclaimed on our return, "but that's a mighty curious castle, and must be very ancient. I never saw walls in a castle so thick before, and how beautiful and smooth the arches were! I think they were a kind of grit-stone?" This was added inquiringly; and so they were red sandstone chiselled. But we are dwelling too long on these characteristics, forgetting that we have others to notice of greater interest; and of these perhaps the most eminent is his habitual, and, as we might say, constitutional benevolence. Of this trait in his character we heard many interesting instances, but our space will only allow us to notice one or two which we artfully extracted from himself. Having heard of his kindnesses to some of his neighbours who are poorer than himself, we had determined to make himself speak on the matter; and, accordingly, when passing through the village in which he resides, about two miles and a half from Galway, we remarked to him that some of those neighbours seemed very poor. "Indeed they are, Sir, very,” he replied; "they have been very badly off this year in consequence of the wet, the want of firing, and the dearness of potatoes," "And how," I rejoined, have they contrived to keep body and soul together?" Why, Sir, just by the assistance of those a little better off than themselves." Paddy would not name himself as their benefactor, so we had to ask him if he had been able to give them any aid, and then his ingenuousness obliged him to confess that he had: he had lent thirty shillings to one family to buy seed for their bit of ground, ten shillings to another to buy meal, and so on. "And will they ever pay you, Paddy?" we inquired. "Och! the creatures, they will, to be sure, Sir," Paddy replied in a tone expressive of surprise at the imputation on their honesty; but added in a lower voice, if they can; and if they can't, Sir, why, please God, I'll get over it; sure one couldn't see the creatures starve!" This was last year. In the present summer we had heard that Paddy's turf was all stolen from him shortly after-perhaps by some of the very persons whom he had assisted-and we were curious to ascertain how he took his loss. So we inquired, "How were you off, Paddy, for firing last winter?"" Very badly, Sir. I had no turf of my own, and was obliged to buy turf in Galway at four shillings the kish. It would have been cheaper to buy coal, only I don't like a grate, for the children burn themselves at it.' "And how did it happen that you had no turf of your own?" "Because, Sir, it was all stolen from me, after I had paid two pounds for cutting and drying it." "Did you ever," I inquired, "discover who were the robbers?" 66 Oh, yes, Sir," he replied. "And could you prove the theft against them ?" "I could, to be sure." "Did you prosecute them?" "Tut, tut, Sir, what good would that do me?" and Paddy added, in a tone of pity," the creatures! sure they were poor rogues, or they would not have taken every bit away.' "Well, then, Paddy," I inquired, "did you ever speak to them about it ?" "I did, Sir.' "And what answer or apology did they make?" "They said, Sir, that they wouldn't have touched it if they knew it was mine." "Did they ever return any of it?" Paddy replied with a laugh, "Oh, no!" Reader, are you richer in a worldly sense than Paddy Coneely? And if, as it is probable, you are so, let us ask you, do you just now feel an unusual warmth in your cheeks? If so, you need not be greatly ashamed of it, for believe us, there are many nobles in our land who might well feel a similar sensation on reading these anecdotes of the benevolence of Paddy Coneely. Paddy, like all or most genuine Irishmen, has a dash of quiet Irish humour and much excitability in his character, of which we must venture to give an instance or two. On a certain day, while Paddy was stopping at Mr O'Flaherty's of Knock-ban, the coachman, who was blind of one eye, was airing two horses, one of which was similarly wanting in a visual organ, and the other stone blind. A gentle man present remarking that here were four animals, two men and two horses, that had but two eyes among them, proposed a race, to which Paddy and the coachman assented. Paddy was placed upon the horse which could see a little, and the coachman got up on the blind one. Off they started with whip and spur, and to his great delight, Paddy won. This is one of the feats of which Paddy is most proud. Again We were standing in the kitchen at Maam one day, listening to Paddy telling his stories to a happy group of young people, when he was addressed by a middle-aged woman, who, from her imperfect knowledge of English, misunderstood him, and imagined that he was paying court to a blooming girl, and representing himself as an unmarried man. To his great surprise, therefore, Paddy heard himself attacked with terrific vituperation, in whole Irish and broken English, on the heinousness of his conduct. Before, however, she had got to the end of her oration, Paddy's face had assumed an expression which announced that he was determined to lend himself to her mistake, and carry on the joke. Accordingly, when he was allowed to reply, he rated her in turn upon her silly stupidity in supposing that she knew him-denied having ever seen her before declared that he was not Paddy Coneely at all, and never had heard of or seen such a person; and added, that "it was a shame for a woman with her two eyes to be so foolish." The woman looked at him for a while in mute bewilderment, and actually seemed to doubt the evidences of her own senses. But she gradually became satisfied of his identity, and, excited into a virtuous rage, she rushed out of the house, declaring that she would never stop till she told his wife-poor woman-of his misconduct! And she kept her word, for we actually met her at Oughterard in a couple of days after, on her return from Paddy's residence. We would gladly record some other instances of Paddy's humour, but our limits will not permit us; and we can only add a few words on one or two other traits in his character. We have already stated that Paddy, despite of his humble condition, and that loss of sight which would be deemed by most persons as one of the greatest of human calamities, is a happy man-a happier one we never saw. He is always singing-in sunny weather, sprightly airs, and in gloomy weather, pathetic ones; but he never looks or is sad, except when a tale of sorrow excites his pity, or when he is about to separate from friends. The calamity of want of sight he thinks of little moment, and inferior to the loss of any other organthat of hearing, in particular, which he considers as the greatest of all possible bodily afflictions. "I don't remember," said Paddy, "ever wishing for sight but once in my life; 'twas when I went to a horse race. I went with two friends, and somehow we got parted in the throng, and I could not make them out. There was a great deal of bustle and confusion, and I knew that the race would soon begin; and I was a long way from the starting-post, and had not any one to lead me to it. Dear, dear, said I, if I had my sight now, I might be able to hear the horses starting. Just then I heard some one calling Paddy, Paddy! It was one of my friends looking for me; and I think I never seen men so distressed when they found they had lost me. It was mighty pleasant; they never let me go all day after, and we were just in time to hear the horses start." We are, indeed, reluctantly constrained to confess that Paddy, notwithstanding his humanity, is, like many other benevolent men of higher grade, who are equally blind in this respect, an ardent lover of field sports, as an instance will show. We were seated at our breakfast in the hotel at Maam one morning, when our ears were assailed by a strange din, composed of the barking of dogs and the shouting of men. We started to the oriel window which commands a view of the road beyond the bridge for a mile or more, and the reader may judge of our astonishment when we saw Paddy Coneely hand in hand with Paddy Lee, one of our car-drivers from Clifden, racing at their utmost speed-Paddy throwing his heels twice as high in the air as the other both shouting joyously, and attended by a number of greyhounds and terriers, who barked in chorus and so they raced till they were out of sight. "What in the world," we inquired of our host, Rourke, is the meaning of that?" "It's Paddy and Lee, Sir, who have borrowed my dogs, and are gone off to course!" Perhaps it would amuse the reader to give him one of those instances-I could give him five hundred-of what the generality of people call disappointments, which has induced the happy state of mind I now enjoy, which enables me to conBut we must pull up in our own course, and not run Paddy template such crises as would throw any other person into down. Let us however add, for he is a favourite with us, that the utmost agitation, with the most perfect equanimity. Paddy is a temperate as he is a prudent man. We came to About four or five years ago, a very intimate and dear this conclusion, from the healthiness of his appearance and the friend suddenly burst in upon me while at breakfast one mornequanimity of his manner, in five minutes after we first sawing. He was almost breathless, and his look was big with him. 66 You don't drink hard, Paddy," we remarked to him. intelligence. "No, Sir," he replied; "I did once, but I found it was destroying my health, and that if I continued to do so, I would soon leave my family after me to beg; so I left it off three years ago, and I have never tasted raw spirits since, or taken more than a tumbler, or, on an odd occasion, a tumbler and a half of punch, in an evening since." We only desire to add to this slight sketch, that Paddy appears to be in tolerably comfortable circumstances-he farms a bit of ground, and his cottage is neat and cleanly kept for one in his rank in Galway. He has a great love of approbation, a high opinion of his musical talents, and a strong feeling of decent pride. He will only play for the gentry or the comfortable farmers. He will not lower the dignity of his professional character by playing in a tap-room or for the commonalty-except on rare occasions, when he will do it gratuitously, and for the sole pleasure of making them happy. We have ourselves been spectators on some of these occasions, and may probably give a sketch of them in a future number. P. A BIT OF PHILOSOPHY. DISAPPOINTMENT-pho! What is disappointment, I should like to know? Why should any body feel it? I don't. I did so at one time, however, certainly, and have a vague recollection of it being a rather unpleasant sort of feeling; but I am a total stranger to it now, and have been so for the last twenty years. 'Lucky fellow!" say you; "then you succeed in every thing?" Quite the reverse, my dear sir; I succeed in nothing. I have not the faintest recollection of having ever succeeded in any single thing, where success was of the least moment, in the whole course of my life. I have invariably failed in every thing I have tried. But what has been the consequence? Why, the consequence has been, that I now never expect success in any thing I aim at; and this again has produced one of the most delightful states of feeling that can well be conceived. In fact, the reader can not conceive how delicious is the repose, the placidity of mind, the equanimity of temper, the coolness, the calmness, the comfort, arising from this independence of results this delightful quiescence of the aspirations. It is a perfect paradise, an elysium. You recline on it so softly, so easily. It is like a down pillow; a bed of roses; an English blanket. I recollect the time when I used to fret and fume when I attempted any thing. How I used to be worried and tortured with hopes and fears, when I commenced any new undertaking, or applied for any situation! What folly! what absurdity!all proceeding from the ridiculous notion that I had some chance of success ! I Grown wiser, I save myself a world of trouble now. know that I need not look for success in any thing I attempt, and therefore never expect it. It would do you good, gentle reader, to see with what calmness, with what philosophy, I now wait the result of any effort to better myself in life. It is truly edifying to behold." Notwithstanding, however, this certain foreknowledge of consequences as regards the point in question, I deem it my bounden duty, both to myself and family, to make every effort I can for their and my own advancement; to try for every situation to which I think myself competent, and, therefore, I do so; but it is merely in compliance with this moral obligation, and from no hope whatever of succeeding; and the result has invariably shown, that to have given myself any uneasiness on the subject, to have entertained the most remote idea of success, would have been one of the most ridiculous things conceivable. What a triumph is mine in such cases! I suffer nothing—no distress of mind, no uneasiness, not the least of either: I am calm and cool, and quite prepared for the result, and sure as fate it comes" Dear Sir, I am sorry to say," &c, &c. never read a word beyond this. I 66 Well, Bob," said he, with a gleeful smile," here s something at last that will do you good." I smiled, and shook my head. 66 Well, well, so you always say," said my friend, who perfectly understood me; "but you cannot miss this time. I have just heard from a confidential friend that Mr Bowman is about to retire from business, and that he is on the lookout for a respectable person to purchase his stock in trade, and the good will of his shop, privately. Now, Bob, that's just the thing for you. You know the trade; you know, too, that Mr Bowman has realised a handsome fortune in it, and that his shop, where that fortune was made, has the best business in town." It Now, all this that my friend said was true, perfectly true. Mr Bowman had made a fortune in the shop alluded to. had by far the best run in town: it was crowded with customers from morning till night. But I felt quite confident that the moment I took the shop there would be an end of its prosperity. However, my friends prevailed. To please them, and to show that I was willing to do any thing to better my circumstances, I took the shop. I bought the stock and good will of the business, and entered on possession. My friends all congratulated me, and declared that my fortune was made. I knew better. However, to give the speculation fair play, a thing I thought due to it, I prevailed on Mr Bowman to forego the usual proceeding in such cases of advertising his retirement from business and recommending me as his successor, because I knew that if he did so, all chance of my doing any good would be instantly knocked on the head. Recommend me! Why, the bare mention of my name-any allusion to it— would be certain and immediate destruction to me. I knew that if the public was made aware that I had succeeded to the business, it would instantly desert the shop. Impressed with this conviction, I had the whole matter and manner of the transfer of property and interest in the shop managed with the utmost privacy and secrecy, my object being to slip unperceived and unobserved, as it were, into my predecessor's place, that the public might not have the slightest hint of the change. In order further to secure this important secret, I would not permit the slightest alteration to be made, either on the shop itself, or on any of its multifarious contents. I would not allow a box, or an article of any kind, not even a nail, to be removed or shifted from its place, for fear of giving the public the slightest clue to the fact of the shop's being now mine. As to my own appearance in it, which of course could not be avoided, I hoped that I might pass for a shopman of Mr Bowman's. All, however, as I expected, was in vain. The public by some intuitive instinct, as it seemed to me, discovered that I was now proprietor of the shop, and took its measures accordingly. On the very first day that I took my place behind the counter, I thought it looked shy at me. I was not mistaken. Day after day my customers became fewer and fewer, until hardly one would enter the shop. Being quite prepared for this result, I felt neither surprise nor disappointment, but shortly after coolly disposed of the shop, and all that was in it, to another party, who, as I wish every body well, I am glad to say, did, according to his own account, amazingly well in it, he declaring to me himself that it fulfilled his most sanguine expectations. It could not be otherwise, for, as I well knew would be the case, the moment I quitted the counter, and this person took my place, the stream of public patronage returned; customers came thronging in faster than he and two stout active shopmen could serve them. Now, in this affair, as in all others of a similar kind, my friends confessed that I had given the spec fair play, and that there was nothing on my part to which they could attribute the blame of failure. Unable to account for it, therefore, they merely shrugged their shoulders and said, "It was odd; they didn't understand it." Neither did I, good reader; but so it was. One rather odd feature in my case I may mention. Although I never actually succeed in any thing, I am always very near doing so very near getting every thing-within an ace, in almost every instance, of obtaining all I want. My friends are frequently bitten by this will-o'-the-wisp in my fortunes, and have fifty times congratulated me on the strength of its deceptive promises or successes, which of course are never realized. In reply to their congratulations on such occasions, I merely smile and shake my head; adding, perhaps, "Not so fast, my good friends; wait a bit and you'll see. I have been as near my mark a hundred times before." Perhaps the reader would like to glance at a case in point. I will present it to him: it is not yet three weeks old. I applied for a certain appointment in the gift of a certain board. Here is the reply of the secretary, who was my personal friend :—“ My dear Sir, I am exceedingly happy to inform you that your application, which was this day read at the board, has been most favourably received. Indeed, from what has passed on the subject, I may assure you of success, and beg to congratulate you accordingly. Your success would not perhaps have been quite so certain had Mr S been at home, as he would probably support his friend B., who is the only person you had to fear. But Mr S-, who is on the continent (at Carlsbad), is not expected for a fortnight, and cannot be here for a week at the soonest; so you are safe." "Well, then, now surely, Bob," said my friends to whom I showed this letter, "you cannot doubt of your success in this instance." "No, indeed!" exclaimed I, with the usual shake of the head and accompanying smile of incredulity; "never had less expectation from any thing in my life. Don't you see, Mr Swill be home in time, and will give his powerful interest to my rival ?" "Impossible, my dear sir; Mr S is at Carlsbad, and cannot be home in less than a week. Neither steam-boat nor railroad could enable him to accomplish such a feat." "No, but a balloon might; and depend upon it a balloon he will take, rather than I should get the situation. This he'll certainly do, although he knows nothing of what is going on." "There's the postman, my dear," said I with gentleness and equanimity to my wife, on the morning of the third day after the conversation above alluded to had taken place. 66 It is a letter from my friend Secretary Wilkins, to inform me that I have lost the situation of ; that Mr S-, performing miracles in the way of expedition, although not impelled by any particular motive, came home just in time to support his friend B., and, of course, to cut me out." It was precisely so. My dear Sir," began my friend's letter, "I am truly sorry to inform you"I read no more; not another word. It was quite unnecessary; I knew it all before. So, laying the letter gently on the table, I said with my wonted smile, "Exactly; all right!" Now, does the reader think that in this, or in any other similar case, I gave myself the smallest uneasiness about the result? Not I, indeed-not the smallest. I expected no success, and was not therefore disappointed. C. When old friendship breathed, and old kindness wreathed The cot and castle in kindred claim, And the tie was holy of service lowly, And Neighbour was a brother's name, And the streams of love and charity And kind welcome held the portal free And blessed from far rose that kindly star Where morn is sleeping, and dank dews weeping- There weep for generous hearts dwelt there, Each light and shade of joy and care With weary ray the eye of day Looks lifeless on their mouldering mound: Their pride is blighted!--but the sun ne'er lighted A happier home in his bright round. There smiles, whose light hath passed away, Bound young hearts fast; And hope gilt many a coming day Now long, long past. There was beauty's flower and manhood's power— Of breasts long mingled in the dust. There too the poor and weary sought His song the wandering harper brought, There lay rose lightly, and young eyes shone brightly, How with the same relentless speed The princely towers and pleasant bowers THE BEAUTIFUL IN NATURE AND ART.-In looking at our nature, we discover among its admirable endowments the sense or perception of beauty. We see the germ of this in every human being; and there is no power which admits greater cultivation: and why should it not be cherished in all? It deserves remark, that the provision for this principle is infinite in the universe. There is but a very minute portion of the creation which we can turn into food and clothes, or gratification for the body; but the whole creation may be used to minister to the sense of beauty. Beauty is an all-pervading presence; it unfolds the numberless flowers of the spring; it waves in the branches of the trees and the green blades of grass; it haunts the depth of the earth and sea, and gleams out in the hues of the shell and the precious stone; and not only these minute objects, but the ocean, the mountains, the clouds, the heavens, the stars, the rising and setting sun, all overflow with beauty. The universe is its temple, and those men who are alive to it cannot lift their eyes without feeling themselves encompassed with it on every side. Now, this beauty is so precious, the enjoyments it gives are so refined and pure, so congenial with our tenderest and noble feelings, and so akin to worship, that it is painful to think of the multitude of men as living in the midst of it, and living almost as blind to it, as if, instead of this fair earth and glorious sky, they were tenants of a dungeon. An infinite joy is lost to the world by the want of culture of this spiritual endowment. Suppose that I were to visit a cottage, and to see its walls lined with the choicest pictures of Raphael, and every spare nook filled with statues of the most exquisite workmanship, and that I were to learn that neither man, woman, nor child, ever cast an eye at these miracles of art, how should I regret their privation; how should I want to open their eyes; and to help them to comprehend and feel the loveliness and grandeur which in vain courted their notice? But every husbandman is living in sight of the works of a diviner artist; and how much would his existence be elevated, could he see the glory which shines forth in their forms, hues, proportions, and moral expression! I have spoken only of the beauty of nature; but how much of this mysterious charm is found in the elegant arts, and especially in literature? The best books have most beauty. The greatest truths are wronged if not linked with beauty, and they win their way most surely and deeply into the soul when arrayed in this their natural and fit attire. Now no man receives the true culture of a man in whom the sensibility to the beautiful is not cherished; and I know of no condition in life from which it should be excluded. Of all luxuries, this is the cheapest and most at hand; and it seems to be most important to those conditions where coarse labour tends to give a grossness to the mind. From the diffusion of the sense of beauty in ancient Greece, and of the taste for music in modern Germany, we learn that the people at large may partake of refined gratifications which have hitherto been thought to be necessarily restricted to a few.—Channing. small living beings; still retaining his power of swimming and diving, but accomplishing it by powerful exertions of his hinder legs, which serve him on land to effect his prodigious jumps, of which we may form an estimate by knowing that a man exerting as great a power in proportion could jump upwards of one hundred yards. He cannot, however, breathe under water; and though his skin, which possesses enormous absorbing powers, may contribute a portion of the necessary stimulus to his blood, yet he must breathe as we do by getting air into his lungs, and therefore, except when he is torpid from cold, he cannot continue any great length of time under water. Observe now his mode of breathing-see with what regularity his nostrils open and shut, while the skin under his throat falls and rises in the same order, for as he is without ribs or diaphragm, his mode of inspiration is not effected as ours is; but he takes air into his closely shut mouth through his nostrils, which he then closes, and by a muscular exertion presses the air into his lungs. Were you to keep his mouth open, he would be infallibly smothered. His tongue is one of his most striking peculiarities, for instead of being rooted, as in other animals, at the throat, it is fastened to his under lip, and its point is directed to his stomach. Nevertheless, this strange arrangement is well suited to his purposes, and his tongue as an organ of prehension is very effective. It is flat, soft, and long, and is covered with a very viscid fluid. When he wishes to use it, he lowers his under jaw suddenly, and ejects and retracts his tongue with the rapidity of a flash of light, snatching away a luckless worm or beetle attached, by the sein front of the lower jaw serves not only to aid mechanically in its ejection and retraction, just as we manage the lash of a whip, but it saves material in its construction, for it would require much greater volume of muscle to accomplish the same end posited as tongues usually are; and it has also the advantage of bringing the food into the proper place for being swallowed, without further exertion than that of its retraction. Look now at the splendour of the golden iris of his eyes, and his triple eyelids; see, notwithstanding the meagre developement of his head, as a phrenologist would say, his great look of vivacity; though his brain is small, his nerves are particularly large, and his muscles are accordingly possessed of more than ordinary excitability, which property has subjected his race to very many cruel experiments, at the hands of physiologists, galvanists, &c. Á favourite experiment was, by the galvanic action of a silver coin and a small plate of zinc, on the leg of a dead frog, to make it jump with more than the force of life. Should you be inclined to study his anatomy, you will find ample stores in the ponderous folios of old writers, who have so laboriously wrought out his story as to leave little to be accomplished by us. The frog, now abundantly dispersed over Ireland, was introduced into this country not much more than a century since by Doctor Gwythers of Trinity College; and in thus naturalizing this pretty creature, cold and clammy though it be, he did a service, for it contributes materially to check the increase of slugs and worms. I have often vindicated the frog from charges brought against him by gardeners. I have been shown a strawberry, and desired to look at the mischief he has done. I have pointed out, that the edge where he was accused of biting out a piece was not only dry, but smaller than the interior of the cavity, and it therefore could not be formed by a bite. I have then shown other strawberries with similar wounds, in which small black slugs were feeding; and I have cut up the supposed strawberry-devouring frog slain by the gardener, and shown in his stomach, with several earthworms, a number of little black slugs of the species alluded to, but not one bit of fruit: thus proving, I hope, that the cultivator of strawberries ought for his own sake to be the protector of frogs. A COMMON FROG! "COME along; don't stay poking in that ditch; it's nothing but a common frog," said a lively-looking fellow to his com-cretion before alluded to, to its tip. The insertion of the tongue panion; who replied, "True, it is only a common frog, but give me a few minutes, and I will endeavour to show you that it better deserves attention than many a creature called rare and curious. The fact is, that the history of what we call common animals, and see every day, is often very imperfectly known, though possessing much to astonish and instruct us. Come, sit you down on this bank for a few minutes, instead of pursuing your idle walk, and I will endeavour to excite your curiosity and powers of observation. If I do so by means of so humble an instrument as a common frog, I do better service than if I were to fix your attention by accounts of the mightiest monsters of fossil or existing Herpetology, as the part of natural history which treats of reptiles is called. See! I have caught him, and a fine stout fellow he is, for I perceive from his swelling chops he is a male. Let us now consider his place in the creation: it is in the tailless section of the fourth order of reptiles called Batrachians, and distinguished from the other three orders by the absence of scales on the skin, and by the young undergoing the most extensive changes of form, organic structure, and habits of life. You know, I presume, that frogs are hatched from eggs, or as they are called in mass, spawn, which is laid early in the year in shallow pools, and resembles boiled sago. The peasantry believe that as it is laid in more or less deep water, so will the coming season be dry or wet. This, however, like many other instances of supposed prescience in animals, does not stand the test of observation, for spawn is frequently laid where, when the weather proves fine, the water is dried up. Nevertheless, its position does in some degree indicate the state of the atmosphere, as, under the low pressure of air which precedes and attends rain, the spawn, owing to bubbles of air entangled in it, floats more buoyantly, and is fitted for shallower water than it could swim in under other circumstances. But to our subject. The product of this spawn is in every thing unlike the perfect frog we now behold. He commenced life with some twelve hundred in family, a tiny, fish-formed creature, with curious external gills, which in a short time became covered with skin; and he then breathed by taking in water at the mouth, passing it over the gills, and out at orifices on each side, just as we see in ordinary fishes. The circulation of his blood was also similar to that of those animals. His head and body were then confounded in one globular mass, to which was appended a long, flattened, and powerful tail; his mouth was small, his jaws suited to his food, which was vegetable, and his intestines were four times longer in proportion than they are now. After some time of this fish-like life, two limbs began to bud near to the junction of his body and tail-then another pair under the skin near his gills. His tail absorbed in proportion as his limbs developed, until, casting away the last of his many tadpole skins, and with it his jaws and gills, he emerged from the water a gaping, wide-mouthed, waddling frog,' to seek on land his prey, in future to consist exclusively of worms, insects, and other The frog is a good instance of the confusion that constantly arises from applying the same words to designate different animals in different countries. The common frog of the continent is the green frog (Rana esculenta), while our common frog is their red frog (Rana temporaria). The former is of much more aquatic habits than the latter, and is not known in Ireland. I once made an attempt to introduce it here, and when in Paris directed a basket of 100 frogs to be made up for me, giving special instructions that no common frogs were to be amongst them, which order I found on returning was obeyed as understood in that country, and not a single green frog was in my lot, though I intended to have none other. As articles of food there seems to be little difference, but |