CONVERSATION.

He was not very affable in his disposition, or apt to enter into conversation with those into whose company he was casually thrown. This was indeed an error in his conduct, arising less from pride-though of that feeling we do not pretend to exculpate him-than from a sort of bashful reluctance to mix in the conversation of those with whom he was not familiar. It is a fault only to be cured by experience and knowledge of the world, which soon teaches every sensible and acute person the important lesson, that amusement and information are to be derived from the conversation of every individual whatsoever, with whom he is thrown into a natural train of communication. We never found ourselves with the stupidest of all possible companions in a postchaise, or with the most arrant cumber-corner that ever occupied a place in the mail-coach, without finding, in the course of our conversation with him, we had some ideas suggested to us, either grave or gay, or some information communicated in the course of our journey, which we should have regretted not to have learned, and which we should be sorry to have immediately forgotten.

SCOTT.

SUNRISE IN THE APPENNINES.

THE stars were still burning brightly in the clear dark-blue heavens, as we ascended the Giogo on the following morning; but they soon, though gradually,

"Paled their ineffectual fires."

A sort of sapphire light fell like a shower on the eastern summits of the mountains, and ushered in the rising Sun, which ascended most gloriously, most awfully above those mighty elevations, where the sublimest spectacle of nature is most sublime. Many a salient point of bleached rock sparkled with refracted rays, and hung above the rolling vapours of the valleys beneath, like beacon lights on the ocean's verge; and many a changeful meteoric delusion cheated and charmed the eye, until the full burst of day dispelled every atmospheric mist and cloud, and left distinctly traced, and brightly gilt, the forests, turrets, and meandering rivers of the vast and various scenery which beautifies the descent into the valleys of the Arno.

LADY MORGAN.

POPULAR OPINION.

POPULAR opinion is that of the unintelligent, uninfluential classes, and in tranquil times generally follows and adopts public opinion; in times of turbulence only does it assume precedence.

Quarterly Review.

THE fool multitude that choose by show,

Not learning more than the fond eye doth teach,

Which pries not to the interior.

SHAKSPERE.

A 3

LIFE.

O, THERE are passages of life which lie
Each like a bright oasis in the heart,
The wilderness of years, standing apart
From noted action, daily history,
Unfelt, unseen, save by the inward eye
That with its sudden, vision makes to start
Him, whose they are, e'en in the very mart
Of men, that wonder at his ecstasy-
We are of two-fold spirits; and the one
Loves, like the under current of the sea,
Invisible a diverse course to run;

The other, with necessity its plea,

Commends us outwardly; 'tis thus they give

A world in which we walk—a world in which we

live.

Blackwood's Mag.

LOVE SONG.

The fountains mingle with the river,
And the river with the ocean,
The winds of Heaven mix for ever,

With a soft emotion

Nothing in this world is single;
All things, by a law divine
In one another's beings mingle-
Why not I with thine?

See-the mountains kiss high Heaven,
And the waves clasp one another,
No sister flower would be forgiven,
If it disdained its brother-
And the sunbeams clasp the earth,
And the moonbeams kiss the sea-
What are all these kissings worth,
If thou kiss not me?

SHELLEY.