from giddiness, headache, and nausea; but these sensations soon disappear, and they cease to be evidently affected. In fact, it appears from statistical information, published in the "Annales d'Hygiène," that in France the health of the workmen exceeds that of the neighbouring population; but this must be attributed to the excellent arrangements adopted in these factories, which are all under the superintendence of the government, and to the superior profits and more regular lives of their inmates.

With reference to the influence on health of the habitual employment of the Virginian weed, whether as snuff, or as chewing, or smoking tobacco, the greatest difference of opinion prevails; and views on the subject are generally adopted from mere prejudice or individual habits and tastes. Thus we find some characterizing it as a most baneful poison, and others lauding it as the greatest luxury which man can possibly enjoy. It is very probable that its bad effects have been greatly exaggerated by several writers; but still its use is unnecessary and not required by man, and when employed in excess must lead to the most serious consequences, and it deserves to be banished from society, if merely to put an end to the filthy customs it creates.

When taken as snuff its effect is chiefly local, but sometimes it influences the whole system, producing giddiness and great prostration of strength, and in one instance was asserted to have been the cause of death. Dr. Cullen ascribes loss of appetite and dyspepsia to it; and Dr. Cheyne says that he is convinced that apoplexy is one of the evils in the train of the disgusting practice of taking snuff." It likewise gradually deadens the sense of smell and of taste; so that ultimately even the pinch of snuff itself ceases to produce its grateful stimulus. But independently of these considerations, and of the great expense of the indulgence in a pecuniary point of view, we must not forget the great loss of time consequent on snuffing. "Every professed inveterate and incurable snuff-taker," says Lord Stanhope, "at a moderate computation, takes one pinch in ten minutes. Every pinch, with the agreeable ceremony of blowing and wiping the nose, &c., consumes a minute and a half. One minute and a half out of every ten, allowing sixteen hours to a snuff-taking day, amounts to two hours and twentyfour minutes a day, or one day out of every ten. This amounts to thirty-six days and a half in a year. Hence, if the practice be persisted in forty years, two entire years of the snuff-taker's life will be dedicated to tickling his nose, and two more to blowing it."

The results of the continual chewing of tobacco are not so well known, as the habit is confined almost entirely to our navy. Smoking, perhaps, is the most generally deleterious custom. In boys and young men, who are making their first attempts to endure the bad effects of this absurd practice, we frequently observe all the symptoms following its internal administration, and several instances are on record in which it has proved fatal. A German

author states that, in his country, where it is carried to an awful excess, out of twenty deaths of men between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five, ten are caused by tobacco. Kotzebue also says, "In the Sandwich Islands it is so generally used, that children smoke before they learn to walk; and grown up people have carried the practice to such an excess, that they have fallen down senseless, and often died in consequence." The sallow, greenishyellow tint of those who pursue it to excess, their black teeth, fetid gums, impared vision, and disordered faculties, are sufficient indications of its injurious influence on the health in general. Besides, the great thirst it occasions must be satisfied with drink, and thus the tobacconist's shop is the portal of the gin palace, and this, we fear, but too frequently is the ante-room of Hell.

But if, notwithstanding all that has been said, any of those whom we are now addressing, shall hereafter persist in this foul habit, we would recommend moderation; and such reflections as are contained in the following old Scotch verses, which we append as a kind of morale to our subject:

Our youthful appetites thus stimulated, we did not require any very great teaching, in order to be initiated into all the mystical

signs made use of by our schoolfellows at the dinner table-we soon learnt what "rubs" meant, and soon considered that having our "parts" of bread rubbed in the gravy contained in the wooden platter was no bad thing, we became as anxious as any to bespeak the second picking of a bone that had fallen to the lot of a more fortunate brother," and we speedily ascertained the relative value of the seats at the table, knowing that the top boys could in a great measure monopolize all the little dainties, and, as is too often the case, allow might to usurp right.

I must not, however, fatigue my readers with too much detail; and apart from the usual monotonous course, there are few incidents in connexion with the Hertford School that I recal to memory. I recollect though, the intense interest manifested by all the boys as the August holidays approached; and this will be accounted for, on considering that it was the only time in the year at which they visited their friends. Their parents or guardians were required to write letters to the steward, requesting that their sons or protegées might be allowed to come home during the August vacation; and these letters as they arrived, were brought by the steward, or (as we used disrespectfully to call him) "Jackey," into the hall at the different meals. What feverish anxiety was manifested as the names of these boys were called over; and as they who were so highly favored as to have their names on the list took good care to proclaim their joy, and even to tantalize those who would have to pass their holidays within the sombre walls, the situation of the unlucky ones was rendered still more distressing. They did exercise great faith in the known kindness of their friends, and held out-buoyed up with hopetill the last; but they were doomed for disappointment. And some there were who were orphans, and who were under the control of guardians that could not feel for the fatherless boy; and many a silent tear they shed when gazing on their departing schoolfellows, as their memories reverted to those fondly loved ones, who would have welcomed their dearly cherished boys to the festive board and the homely roof; and they were bitter thoughts that urged them still to reflect on fond parents sleeping in the grave, who would have heartily sympathized with the many little sorrows and hardships they had to endure. Poor fellows; their's was a sad lot!

Our head grammar master, as I previously hinted, was a terrible one for flogging, and above all other lessons, he was exceedingly particular with the elements of the Latin language; once every week we had to decline the nouns, and repeat all the varied twistings and turnings of verbs deponent, auxiliary and irregular, &c. &c., and if we failed, even slightly, in our arduous performance, woe to us; 'twas but the work of a minute-hoisted and flogged, and all over, through constant practice performed in a most business-like manner; and the spectators in the class find

ing punishment so near, trembling and shaking, and anticipating a reception of the same dose. Under such circumstances, it would have been a difficult matter to have repeated the alphabet without hesitation; and so my readers may judge that with Latin verbs and syntax there was fine sport for our worthy master, and doubtless on account of the exercise and muscular action he had to endure, he was nearly as gratified as his scholars when the lesson was over, for I am sure he must have been thoroughly exhausted.

Like all schoolboys we had our particular friends, and attached ourselves to one or two who were prompted by the same inclinations and desires; and very pleasant it was to cheer each other in our lonesome journey, and together to anticipate the future, that never failed to conjure up to our gaze bright and enlivening visions. And no brighter prospect or better wish was possessed by the Hertford boys, than to be drawn amongst the number who were to be sent to the school in London, to which a portion was returned twice a year. True, we heard marvellous stories as to the prowess of these Londoners, and how they looked upon the little" snobs" with terrible contempt-true it was that rare tales reached us as to the horrible bumpings and thrashings they occasionally administered to sundry Hertford "chaps," according as their sovereign caprice moved them; but then there were such great privileges connected with the city establishment, that they quite overpowered all our dread; and therefore, when with several others it became my lot to enter the London school, our gratification was of no ordinary kind, and with far different feelings than when we entered, did we bid adieu to our Hertford domicile. The coaches once more merrily rumbled over the country roads, and speedily conveyed us to the great metropolis; every eye was directed anxiously down the streets through which we hastily passed; many boys stated their firm assurance that in every fresh thoroughfare at which we arrived was situated their father's home, and lustily asserted when in the very heart of the city, that the rows and terraces of Islington were rapidly passing before their view.

(To be continued.)

THE POETRY OF CAMPBELL.

The writings of this celebrated author belong to a class which very nearly approaches our conception of the purest and most perfect poetry. Such productions as "Gertrude of Wyoming," and the Pleasures of Hope," do not, indeed, at first strike with such force on the mind as the vehement effusions of some other poets;

but they are calculated to please more deeply, and to provoke more permanently those trains of emotion, in which the chief delight of poetry is found to consist. They may not be so loudly or so universally applauded; but their fame will probably endure longer, and they will be oftener recalled to mingle with the reveries of solitary leisure, or the consolations of real sorrow.

There is a kind of poetry, doubtless, as there are species of flowers, which can bear the hot sun and the ruffling winds of the world, and which flourish as fairly in the crowded saloons whither they are conveyed, as in the secluded repositories of their native woods. But there are others,-and these are the finer and the purer sorts, which expand their flowers only in the shade, and which never exhale their fragrance, but to those only who seek them amidst the peaceful shelter of the scenes which gave them birth. Hence is it that they blossom unnoticed and unadmired by the heedless and by the busy, who either will not employ the care, or do not possess the leisure, which is requisite to discover and to admire their hidden beauties. It is of these that Gray says

"Full many a gem of purest ray serene,

The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear ;
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air."

To these Mr. Campbell's poems may be compared, on account of the unassuming modesty, and the total absence of all straining after effect, which everywhere pervades them, although their transcendent beauty has rescued them from a like oblivion.

Mr. Campbell, indeed, may be considered as, perhaps, the most popular of our living poets; and why? Because that writer who possesses the greatest powers of fascination is not he who presents us with the greatest number of lively images or lofty sentiments, but he who most succesfully imparts his own impulse to the current of our thoughts and feelings. In this Campbell excels. Although his poetry is mostly confined to the occurrences of ordinary life, yet by the beauty of the sentiments which it discovers, and of the principles which it inculcates, it raises the mind above the common thoughts of life, gives it a respite from distressing cares, and awakens the consciousness of its affinity with all that is pure and noble The great tendency and purpose of poetry, and more especially of that to which we are now referring, is to lift the mind into a purer element, and to inspire it with deeper and more generous emotions. It reveals to us the loveliness of nature, recalls the freshness of youthful feeling, cherishes unquenched that fire which warmed the spring-time of our being, refines youthful love, spreads our sympathies over all classes of society, and, through the brightness of its prophetic visions, helps faith to lay hold on life eternal.