LOUIS NAPOLEON'S FAITH IN A DESTINY.-The idea of a destiny, and his having a mission to perform, was throughout a fixed one in Louis Napoleon's mind. No disasters shook his confidence in his star, or his belief in the ultimate fulfilment of his destiny. This is well known to all who were intimate with him in this country after he returned from America, in 1837. Among other noble houses, the hospitality of which he shared, was that of the Duke of Montrose, at Buchanan, at Loch Lomond, and the Duke of Hamilton, at Brodrick Castle, in the island of Arran. His manner in both was, in general, grave and taciturn; he was wrapt in the contemplation of the future, and indifferent to the present. In 1839, the present Earl of W, then Lord B—, came to visit the author, after being some days with Louis Napoleon at Buchanan House. One of the first things he said was, "Only think of that young man, Louis Napoleon; nothing can persuade him he is not to be Emperor of France; the Strasburg affair has not in the least shaken him; he is constantly thinking of what he is to do when on the throne." The Duke of N- also said to the author, in 1854, "Several years ago, before the Revolution of 1848, I met Louis Napoleon often at Brodrick Castle, in Arran. We frequently went out to shoot together; neither cared much for the sport, and we soon sat down on a heathery brow of Goatfell, and began to speak seriously. He always opened the conferences by discoursing on what he would do when he was Emperor of France. Among the other things, he said he would obtain a grant from the Chambers to drain the marshes of the Bries, which, you know, once fully cultivated, became flooded when the inhabitants, who were chiefly Protestants, left the country on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes; and, what is very curious, I see in the newspapers of the day that he has got a grant of two millions of francs from the Chambers to begin the draining of these very marshes." All that belongs to Louis Napoleon is now public property, and those noble persons will forgive the author if he endeavors to rescue from oblivion anecdotes so eminently illustrative of the fixity of purpose which is the most remarkable feature in that very eminent man's character. Alison.

MISNOMERS OF THE DAY.

Miss Fortune's no fortune at all,
Miss Rich cannot muster a guinea,
Miss Little's a little too tall,

Miss Wise is completely a ninny.
Miss Black is as white as the snow,
Miss Green is as red as a cherry,

Miss Brown is rather greenish or so,

Whilst Miss White is as brown as a berry.

Miss Inchbald's a fine head of hair,

Miss Hare has got none on her noddle;

Miss Young is old, wrinkled, and spare,
Miss Lightbody scarcely can waddle;
Miss Heavyside bounds like a roe,

Miss Wild is grave, dull and uncheery;
Miss Still is accounted the go,

And Miss Grave is excessively merry.
Miss Sharp has got blunt, as they say,
Miss Dark is prodigiously bright;
Miss Night has been turned into day,
And Miss Day is to marry a knight.
Then here is a health to them all,

Good luck to them sleeping and waking;
If 'tis wrong a fair maid to Mis-call,

Yet there's surely no sin in Miss-taking.

FREDERICK THE GREAT saw one day from his window, a number of people reading a paper that was pasted up, and directed one of his pages to see what were its contents. The page, on his return, told him that it was a satirical writing against himself. "It is too high," said he, "go and take it down, and place it lower, that they may read it more at their ease."

THE HOUSE OF SAMUEL ROGERS.-For more than half a century a small house in a quiet nook of London has been the recognized abode of taste, and the envied resort of wit, beauty, learning and genius. There, surrounded by the choicest treasures of art, and in a light reflected from Guidos and Titians, have sat and mingled in familiar converse the most eminent poets, painters, actors, artists, critics, travelers, historians, warriors, orators and statesmen of two generations. Under that roof celebrities of all sorts, matured or budding, and however contrasted in genius or pursuit, met as on the table land where, according to D'Alembert, Archimedes and Homer may stand on a perfect footing of equality. The man of mind was introduced to the man of action, and modest merit, which had yet its laurels to win, was first brought acquainted with the patron who was to push its fortunes, or with the hero whose name sounded like a trumpet note. It was in that dining-room that Erskine told the story of his brief, and Grattan that of his last duel; that the " Iron Duke" described Waterloo as a "battle of giants; "that Chantrey, placing his hand on a mahogany pedestal, said, “Mr. Rogers, do you remember a workman at five shillings a day who came in at that door to receive orders for this work? I was that workman." It was there, too, that Byron's intimacy with Moore commenced over the famous mess of potatoes and vinegar; that M'me de Stael, after a triumphant argument with Mackintosh, was (as recorded by Byron) “well ironed ” by Sheridan, that Sydney Smith, at dinner with Walter Scott, Campbell, Moore, Wordsworth and Washington Irving, declared that he and Irving, if the only prose writers, were not the only prosers in the company.

It was through that window, opening to the floor and leading through the garden to the park, that the host started withr Sheridan's gifted grand-daughter on "The Winter's Walk" which she has so gracefully and feelingly commemorated. It was in the library above, that Wordsworth, holding up the orginal contract for the copyright of Paradise Lost (1600 copies for £5), proved to his own entire satisfaction that solid fame was in an inverse ratio to popularity; whilst Coleridge, with his finger upon the parchment deed by which Dryden agreed for the translation of the Æneid, expatiated on the advantages which would have accrued to literature, if "glorious John " had selected the Iliad and left Virgil to Pope. Whilst these and similar scenes are passing, we can fancy the host murmuring his well-known lines

"Be mine to listen; pleased, but not elate,
Ever too modest or too proud to rate
Myself by my companions, self-compell'd
To earn the station that in life I held."

This house, rich as it was in varied association, was only completed in 1801 or 1802; but the late owner's intimacy with men and women of note goes back to a long antecedent period. He had been, some years before, proposed at Johnson's club, as it is denominated still-by Fox, seconded by Windham, and (as he fully believed) blackballed by Malone. He had met Condorcet at Lafayette's table in 1789. In the course of a single Sunday at Edinburgh in the same eventful year, he had breakfasted with Robertson, heard him preach in the forenoon, and Blair in the afternoon, taken coffee with the Piozzis, and supped with Adam Smith. Edinburgh Review.

MISS BREMER beautifully expresses a good wife's duty: “If you will learn the seriousness of life, and its beauty also, live for your husband; be like the nightingale to his domestic life; be to him like the sunbeams between the trees; unite yourself inwardly to him; be guided by him; make him happy; and then you will understand what is the best happiness of life, and will acquire, in your own eyes, a worth with God and with man."

A TENNESSEE paper talks of a chap at Holly Springs who was so astonished at seeing a lady bring music from her piano, that after listening for a moment or two he withdrew his head and hallooed after his companion-" I say, Jim, jist come here; tarnation if here ain't a woman pulling music out of her chist!"

HOW TO BE HAPPY.-I will give you two or three good rules, says a distinguished writer, which may help you to become happier than you would be without knowing them; but as to being completely happy, that you can never be till you get to heaven.

The first is, "Try your best to make others happy." "I never was happy," said a certain king, "till I began to take pleasure in the welfare of my people; but ever since then, in the darkest day, I have had sunshine in my heart."

My second rule is, "Be content with little." There are many good reasons for this rule, "better is little, with the fear of God, than great treasures and trouble therewith." Two men were determined to be rich, but they set about it in different ways; the one strove to raise up his means to his desires, while the other did his best to bring down his desires to his means. The result was, the one who coveted much was always repining, while he who desired but little was always contented. My third rule is, "Look on the sunny side of things."

Look up with hopeful eyes,

Though all things seem forlorn;
The sun that sets to-night will rise
Again to-morrow morn.

The skipping lamb, the singing lark, and the leaping fish tell us that happiness is not confined to one place. God, in his goodness, has spread it abroad on the earth, in the air, and in the waters. Two aged women lived in the same cottage; one was always fearing a storm and the other always looking for sunshine. Hardly need

say which it was wore a forbidding frown, or which it was whose face was lightened with joy. LIFE A LIBRARY.-Life is a library, composed of several volumes. With some, those volumes are richly gilt; with others quite plain. Of its several volumes, the first is a Child's Book, full of pretty pictures; the second is a School Book, blotted, inked, and dog's-eared; the next is a Thrilling Romance, full of love, hope, ruin and despair, winding up with a marriage with the most beautiful heroine that ever was; then, there is the House-keeper's Book, with the butchers' and bakers' bills increasing every year; after that come the Day-Book and Ledger, swelling out into a series of many volumes, presenting a rare fund of varied information, and jingling like a cash box with money; these are followed up with a grave History, solemnly travelling over the events of the past, with many wise deductions and grave warnings; and last of all comes the Child's Book again, with its pages rather soiled, and its pictures by no means so bright as they used to be. To the above library is sometimes added the banker's book, and only to be met with in the richest collections.

A SWARM OF BEES.-B patient, B prayerful, B humble, B mild,

B wise as a Solon, B meek as a child,

B studious, B thoughtful, B loving, B kind,
B sure you make matter subservient to mind.
B cautious, B prudent, B trustful, B true;
B courteous to all men, B friendly with few;
B temperate in argument, pleasure, and wine;
B careful of conduct, of money, of time.
B cheerful, B grateful, B hopeful, B firm,
B peaceful, benevolent, willing to learn;
B courageous, B gentle, B liberal, B just,
B aspiring, B humble, because thou art dust;
B penitent, circumspect, sound in the faith;
B active, devoted; B faithful till death;

B honest, B holy, transparent and pure;

B dependent, B Saint-like, and you'll B secure.

POVERTY is the nurse of manly energy and heaven-climbing thoughts, attended by love, and faith, and hope, around whose steps the mountain breezes blow, and from whose countenance all the virtues gather strength. Look around you upon the distinguished men in every department of life who guide and control the times, and inquire what was their origin and what was their early fortunes. Were they, as a general rule, rocked and dandled in the lap of wealth?

Review of Current Literature.

1. THE LIFE OF THE VENERABLE SERVANT OF GOD, MONSEIGNEUR DUMOULIN Borie, Bishop of Acanthus, Vicar Apostolic of Western Tonquin, martyr. By Augustine Francis Hewit. New York: P. O'Shea. Baltimore: Murphy & Co.

No works contribute more to strengthen our faith and enkindle our devotion, than those which exhibit to our view the lives and actions of the faithful servants of God. Example has a powerful influence over us, even in our maturer years. When we see those who have gone before us becoming saints in the discharge, it may be, of the very avocations of life, which we are called on to discharge; when we see them strewing the pathway that leads to heaven with the flowers of every virtue, how great is the incentive they hold out to us to follow in their footsteps. In reading their lives we become familiar with the fact, which we sometimes forget, that they were men like ourselves, subject to the same trials, the same passions, the same temptations; and that if they became saints, it was not because they had any prerogatives superior to those possessed by ourselves, but because they possessed and practised superior virtues. They have bequeathed to us the legacy of their example; they have left behind them their footprints in the desert of life, and sweetly invite us to follow therein if we would gain the crown that awaits us on the shores of a blissful eternity.

We were led to these reflections from the perusal of the interesting and edifying life of the illustrious Dumoulin Borie, who, even in our own day, gloriously confirmed the doctrines he taught by the effusion of his blood, and obtained a martyr's crown as the reward of his heroism and his faith. The trials and sufferings endured by the holy martyr and his companions, in their noble efforts to spread the light of Christianity among the benighted inhabitants of the Celestial Empire, are conveyed in a style at once pleasing and entertaining. But the chief object of Father Hewit in preparing the work seems to have been to awaken the attention of the Catholic body of this country to the importance of the Catholic Missions-a subject that cannot be too strongly urged upon the attention of Catholics, at all times, and in every locality.

2. SCENES FROM THE LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. By the Rev. Titus Joslin. New York: P. O'Shea. Baltimore: Murphy & Co.

The little volume presents us with a collection of the choicest gems from the life of the Immaculate Queen of Heaven. It is intended especially for children, and its perusal cannot fail but to inspire their youthful hearts with love, respect and veneration for that amiable mother, and unite them more closely to her maternal heart.

3. THE PARADISE OF THE SOUL. By James Merlo Horstius; a new translation. New York: P. O'Shea. Baltimore: Murphy & Co.

This is another work from the same publishers, and embodies a most excellent devotion to the Most Holy Trinity. The prayers, instructions and meditations contained in it cannot be too highly recommended.

4. MANUAL OF PIETY for the use of Seminaries. Baltimore: Murphy & Co.

The object of this excellent little book is to aid the inmates of Seminaries to enter fully into the spirit of their rule, and to facilitate for them the practice of their daily exercises. It is admirably adapted to the end for which it is designed-containing a series of prayers, meditations, precepts and instructions, all tending to mould the mind and heart of the young aspirant to the sanctuary to the practise of those exalted virtues, which should adorn him, when he is called to stand at the altar of religion.

5. THE O'BRIENS AND THE O'FLAHERTYS: a National Tale, in two volumes. By Lady Morgan. Annotated by R. Shelton Mackenzie, D. C. L. New York: Redfield. Baltimore: Murphy & Co.

The national tales of Lady Morgan carry the reader through the darkest period of Irish history. They point disapprovingly to the sanguinary statutes framed and en

forced by British rule against the Catholics of Ireland-to the period when the exercise of Catholicity was held as a crime, the education of Catholic children a misdemeanorwhen the son of a Catholic was encouraged by law to betray his father, and the child rewarded by the ruin of his parent-when the house of God was declared a public nuisance; the priest proclaimed an outlaw; the acquisition of property by Catholics prohibited; the exercise of trades restrained; the Irish Catholic excluded from office or occupation in the state, the law, the army and municipal bodies-when the Catholic priest from his hiding place heard it proclaimed, "if a Catholic clergyman happens, though inadvertently, to celebrate marriage between a Catholic and a Protestant not previously married by a Protestant minister, he is liable by law to suffer death."

Though we are compelled to admire the boldness with which the fair authoress denounces the persecution of the Catholics of Ireland, and the flashes of her wit, still we would be very far from giving her works a general recommendation. They possess, beneath a fascinating style, passages of coarse morality, which render them objectionable, especially for the young.

6. LITTLE DORRIT. By Charles Dickens. Philadelphia: T. B. Peterson. Baltimore: Murphy & Co.

The name of the author is sufficient recommendation to this work. Few writers of fiction ever exhibited more intimate knowledge of human nature than Charles Dickens. Scott, Fielding, and others, have studied man in particular phases, but Dickens seems to have studied man in his general character. He shows himself familiarly acquainted with the secret springs of the human heart, and analyses its affections, its passions and its desires, with the utmost precision. His writings, moreover, are pure and elevated in their tone; he uses the form of fiction merely as a pleasing medium of conveying moral and philanthropic instruction. Little Dorrit is equal in style, in purity and in entertainment to any of his former writings, partaking largely of that beauty of conception and those deep touches of nature for which his works are so remarkable.

7. DICKENS' LITTLE FOLKS. New York: Redfield. Baltimore: Murphy & Co. This is a series of charming little books, suitable for youth, selected from the works of the same celebrated author; they are six in number. The first is from the "Pickwick Papers," under the title of "The Boy Joe and Sam Weller." "Sissy Jupe" and "The Two Daughters" are two exceedingly interesting stories. The fourth of the series, and perhaps the most entertaining, is "Tiny, Tim and Dot, and the Fairy Cricket," from the "Christmas Stories." "Dame Durden," and "Dolly Varden, the Little Coquette," complete the series.

We know of but few books of the kind, apart from those that are Catholic, which we can more freely recommend. They are entertaining, moral and instructive.

8. ROZELLA OF LACONIA; or, the Legends of the White Mountains. By J. W. Scribner. Boston: James French & Co.

This is a spirited and well written Indian story, abounding in thrilling incidents. The scene is laid in the vicinity of the White Mountains, and at a period when the early settlers were exposed to the attacks and fearful incursions of the savages.

A family of several persons is made captive by the Indians and led into the depth of the wilderness, and after enduring a long and painful captivity, the sufferers are rescued by their friends, under circumstances that awaken the deepest interest.

The book, however, is marred and deprived of all its merits in the estimation of every lover of truth, by the introduction of several passages casting the foulest imputations on the moral character of the Catholic missionaries who labored among the Indians on the borders of Canada about the period in which the author has laid his plot. The story he tells us about "Father Ralle " endeavoring to force a young Protestant lady, one of those captured by the Indians, to go to confession to him and then marry one of the chiefs, and on her refusal to order her to be bound in chains and cast into the dungeon beneath the chapel, is a sheer fabrication, an invention of his own perverted imagination. The slightest inquiry into Catholic principles and practices would have informed Vol. IV.-No. 12.

95