We that may lurk amongst the teeth. The we do not speak at all, for it is not conpurer the water that is employed for wash-versation, but slow prattle; too tinctured ing the teeth the better. with the germs of vice to be childish, but too silly for the utterance of men. speak of what bears the name of conversation amongst the reading and thinking portion of middle-class society, which is to be heard at social gatherings, at quiet dinner parties, and by the family tea-table. The conversation in these quarters is not equal to the personages; they are apt to descend below themselves for the sake of displaying incipient wit, imperfect knowledge, execrable powers of criticism, or for the achievement of some petty conquest in argument. Pity that many good societies should be marred by unbridled and untamed tongues. Pity that conversation is not everywhere made a matter of study, that men will not exercise as much care in speaking their thoughts as they do in writing them. To cleanse away portions of food adhering to the teeth, the toothpick should be used. Metallic toothpicks are objectionable. Those made of bone or quills are to be preferred. When teeth are found to be decayed, immediate attention should be paid to them. They more frequently indicate serious de rangement of the health than is imagined. Where teeth are already decayed, they can not be restored to their pristine integrity; but the decayed part may be removed, or the whole tooth may be extracted. The sooner this is done the better; for decay has an undoubted tendency to spread, and nothing is so disagreeable to other people as the breath of a person tainted with the faint odour of decomposing teeth. Decay of the teeth frequently comes on from long-continued indigestion, from exposure to cold, from a scrofulous habit of body, from eating and drinking very hot or very cold articles of diet. Now, in all diseases, prevention is better than cure. Persons should take care to avoid those states of the system, and those causes which are known to be favourable to the production of decayed teeth. (To be continued.) CONVERSATION. CONVERSATION ranks the high among social enjoyments. To converse well requires extensive knowledge, elegance of manner, command of temper, and a desire to please. He who cannot converse to the profit of the company, must listen for the profit of himself; though no one need preserve a stolid silence from excessive bashfulness or conscious inability. The smallest remark may be well-timed and elegantly uttered; the lightest observation properly pointed and emphasised, and the most trivial question put with modesty, grace, and elegance of expression. Yet, in middle-class society, how little really good conversation do we hear! How frequently personalities creep in; how one gives way to undue warmth when his religious and political principles are assailed; how another jests and puns upon the most serious subjects; or a third plays the pedant by the use of a string of technicalities, which he himself scarcely understands, to adorn his shallow learning and his imperfect judgment. Of that shallow talk in which the fast-going men of the day indulge-a drawling mixture of the quasi-fashionable and the idiotic Among the most glaring social blunders to be noticed under this head are, talking too much of ourselves. This is a blunder very commonly committed, and is as much a mark of vanity as want of sense. Really great men have never said much of themselves; therefore we may infer, by the converse argument, that he who indulges in talking of himself must be a really small man. In the whole of Shakspeare's plays and poems you do not gather enough of the poet's history to settle definitely the question whether he was lame or not, or even to fix, with any certainty, his opinions on political and religious subjects. He who talks much of himself is also apt to tell of the injuries he has sustained. This is a very common blunder, but a most unpardonable one. It is undignified to carry our woes about with us, and retail them out to others, saying how such-a-one has cheated us of money, how another has offered us an insult, and so on. If you cannot say something cheerful to your friend, keep at a distance, and let him enjoy at peace his own cogitations. What are your affairs to other people? keep your own counsel, and be not too ready to make confidants. If you are not to talk of yourself freely, so are you not to talk freely of others. I regret to have to confess here, that scandal, in some shape or other, is the bane of our English society, and needs as severe lashing now-a-days as it did when Sheridan wrote his wonderful comedy. Though when these pages meet the reader's eye he will perhaps be unwilling to own it, but I will still insist, that both sexes are universally addicted to this vice in some form or other; and that it is sheer vanity, or perhaps even shame, which prompts men to make the charge of scandal against females, while they repudiate any share in the guilt themselves. The shapes scandal takes are so numerous, that it is impossible here to attempt to define them. Let the reader reflect on this, and ask himself whether he has ever indulged in scandal, even in a mild form. Let my lady friends, too, ponder awhile, and next time they find the tongue running away in condemnation of an absent friend, sister, or brother, or in severe criticism on such and such a person's conduct, take the assurance that such conduct is unkind, unfair, mean, paltry, ungenteel. The quiet, half-expressed sneer is still more detestable, for it is more injurious, more insidious in its operation, more secret in its manner, and hence more discreditable to the utterer. A person who indulges in depreciatory remarks, insinuations, sneers, and the like, no matter though he thinks he has good grounds for them, is like the viper, which steals noiselessly on its unsuspecting victim, gives its sting in silence, and disappears. To slander, in plain terms, is better than to hint and insinuate, but both are evidences of a mean and contemptible mind. Contradictions are usually given too abruptly, and sometimes lead to wrangling, or if not noticed by the parties receiving them, are still apt to rankle and annoy secretly, and destroy the harmony which ought to prevail in an assembly of friends. It is equally absurd to make bets, or to strengthen a statement or argument by an offer of a bet in support of it. Such things are worthy only of the lowest rabble, and no man, making pretensions to the status of a gentleman, should descend to it. Oaths of all kinds are as ungentlemanly as they are wicked; and the frequent use of the condemnatory oath, as verb, adjective, and noun, both immoral and degrading. There are some men, of respectable position and pretensions, who are so barren of general intelligence that they can talk of nothing except their own business affairs. Such men are very worthless in social society, and we conjure the reader at all times to steer clear of conduct which so readily indicates vulgarity and emptiness. A tradesman will perhaps sit down at your table, and endeavour to entertain you with an account of sales and purchases; anon comes a thin-minded solicitor's clerk, who brings with him a string of appeals and motions; then an incipient author, who tells you of the immense mass of verses he has written for the behoof of cheesemongers and trunkmakers. Those who sit in such a company, and withhold, for decency's sake, the story of their own affairs, find that the evening has been utterly wasted, for not one spark of general intelligence, not one item of general information, not one coruscation of original humour has illuminated the dull round of these many wasted hours. I would sooner console myself with a newspaper, and read the list of bankruptcies and suicides, than listen to a man who indulged in descriptions of his own skill in trade, his losses and profits, or the thousand and one trifles which we all have to consider and remember, but which are of no interest to any but ourselves. 66 The affectation of wisdom is a very common vice amongst pseudo-students. For instance, Mr. Smallweed, who is really a well-informed man, is so conceited in this respect, that he cannot, when the subject of the conversation affords him opportunity, avoid interlarding his remarks with technicalities and remote allusions. He would not speak of finches or whales but under the Cuvierian terms of Fringillide or Cetacæ, or refer to the Canadian columbine, or the field pimpernel, but under their botanical names of Aquilegia Canadensis or Anagallis arvensis. Such terms are neither elegant nor appropriate in mixed society; and so far from causing the ladies to look up in astonishment at the profound learning of the speaker-an effect usually intended and wished for-they are more likely to indulge in a sly titter, and vote him a bore. This is the little learning" which Bacon terms a dangerous thing," and must be avoided by those who would cultivate good breeding, which is always more allied to simplicity of expression, and transparency of conduct, than to complicated technicalities, or dark mysterious doings. Another fault of Mr. Small weed is, that he never pays proper attention to another speaker; the music of his own voice is too great a charm for him, and he thinks it must have a sirenlike tone to others; so he rambles on till some wag asks him if he has a dictionary with him, when he drops into sulkiness, looks black, and is quieted for a time. While upon Mr. Smallweed's failings, let me refer to his habitual mode of referring to other persons, for this fault of his is very common to the civilized specimen of (to use his phrase) the anthropological animal. For instance, instead of saying, "My friend, Mr. Simpson, told me so-and-so," he invariably says, "Simpson told me so-and-so." A few short rules for conversation may here be useful; and I offer them in the fewest words possible, because I think that for those who wish to cultivate a polite bearing, and conserve the good feeling which usually accompanies gentlemanly conduct, a hint is alone sufficient. MANY of the traditions which still linger in remote places are still connected with the attempts at rebellion in 1715 and 1745. In those days many of the leading gentry of the Borders and parts of Scotland were obliged to retire into hiding, in caves, forests, and other wild and uncomfortable places. At that time, when superstition prevailed amongst many of the superior classes, and nearly all of the uneducated, particularly in country places, the circumstances of those unfortunate gentlemen caused many things to occur which were attributed to supernatural agency. Old buildings, woods, and other places, to which the supporters of the Pretender had fled for shelter, became peopled with apparitionsthe fear of which made the temporary dwellings of the fugitives comparatively safe, and caused it to be more easy for friends to communicate and supply them with food. During these troubles many of those who escaped the hands of the executioner, were, for the purpose of disguise, obliged to undertake the most ordinary employments. It is well known that the Earl of Perth worked for long as an ordinary pitman. 1. Do not talk too long together, for fear of tiring your hearers, and so as to afford others an opportunity of talking also. 2. Watch your listeners to be sure hat they are interested, and if they appear not to be, allow the conversation to take its own shape in some other channel. 3. If you observe a person about to make a remark, give him the opportunity by pausing and assuming an attentive and expectant countenance. 4. If you tell stories let them be short, pointed, appropriate, and without digression. 5. Avoid repetitions and hackneyed phrases. 6. Use as few gestures as possible; on a Frenchman gestures and grimaces sit very well, because they are natural to the people, but the English gentleman seldom indulges in pantomime, and never in mimicry. 7. Exercise your skill as a listener occasionally, and listen attentively and with appreciation. If you are a listener by nature, and hence not a talker, do not suffer yourself to become habitually dumb, or your society will be seldom acceptable. 8. Never anticipate a slow speaker, and avoid correcting another in his pronunciation. Friends, on very familiar terms, may correct each other occasionally, but not in the presence of a third party, and always in a quiet and respectful manner. 9. Do not give advice unasked. 10. Give a speaker respectful attention, and look him in the face while speaking. 11. Be not too free in speaking It may be worth while to glance briefly at your mind; remember that your mind may the particulars of the events which brought not be always right, and frankness of speech the young earl to an untimely end. Thomas is not to be commended, when its conclu- Forster, M.P. for Northumberland, with sions are built up by unsound reasoning on several gentlemen of the North, collected incorrect data; besides, by plain speaking a force at a place called Greenrig, where you may frequently wound a sensitive per- they were met by the Earl of Derwentwater son, and one, too, having quite as noble-his coach covered and surrounded by views of things as yourself. People who pride themselves on speaking their minds are generally very vain of their opinions, and forgetful of the old motto as to the good intentions with which a certain place is said to be paved. 12. Never burden ladies with arguments. They are very wise in dreading them as they do. 13. Treat females as becomes them, and indulge none of those vanities, so prevalent at the present day, of regarding women as inferior beings. 14. Swearing, coarse jokes, indecent anecdotes, slang phrases, and personal allusions are not uncommon, but not the less unprofitable, unreasonable, ungentlemanly, low, and reprehensible. At the present day, in Northumberland, there are few names more respected amongst the country people of the district than that of the Earl of Derwentwater, although it is now nearly a century and a-half ago since he met with an early grave. armed men. In coming from Dilston, the residence of the Earl, they drew their swords at Corbridge, and in that state marched from various places to Warkworth. As they advanced the numbers increased, and the chaplain of the Pretender's force tock possession of the ancient church at Warkworth, and issued an order for prayers to be offered up for the Pretender instead of the King. In this town, Mr. Forster, who was the appointed general, in disguise and by sound of trumpet proclaimed the Pretender as King of Britain. Intelligence of this was conveyed to Newcastle, which vigorously prepared for defence, Seven hundred of the keelmen of the Tyne offered their services at an hour's notice, and seven hundred men of the inhabitants came forward to defend the walls. The train bands, militia, &c., were assembled for review on Killingworth Moor, the same place where, in after years, the locomotive was perfected by George Stephenson. Large numbers of the regular army collected at Newcastle. The Earl of Scarborough, the Lord-Lieutenant of the County, and other gentlemen, also assembled; and a strong body, under General Carpenter, went northward, to attack the rebels, who retreated. After various marches, the rebels retreated to Lancaster, which General Carpenter besieged, and after a short resistance the town surrendered to the King. Then the noblemen and considerable officers were ber of friends, who travelled at night-time, resting during the day in places away from towns. White-smocks, near Durham, is still pointed out as the place where the body remained for a time, in order to avoid the City. About the year 1815, the place of the interment of the Earl of Derwentwater being a matter of much uncertainty, the vault at Dilston was broken open, and the body found in a complete state of preservation; it was easily recognised by the suture round the neck, and by the appearance of youth, and by the regularity of the features. After the lapse of a century the teeth were found in a perfect state. To the disgrace of all concerned, several of these were drawn by a village blacksmith, and sold for half-a-crown sent to London, and led handcuffed together through the streets to the Tower. When James, Earl of Derwentwater, was beheaded, on February 23, 1716, his death was a national matter of regret. It is reported to this day by the country people, that at the time of the execution strange sounds were heard and terrible sights seen; stars fell, great trees were blown down, and the river Derwent ran with blood. The Earl expressed a last wish to be buried with his ancestors at Dilston. This seems to have been denied to him; for it was ordered that he should be buried in the church-yard of St. Giles's, Holborn. Either a sham funeral took place, or else the body was afterwards removed, and was certainly carried by a num R each; and much of the coffin was carried away by the curious. A few years since, and it may be so at present, by passing a light attached to a long stick through the iron grating of the vault, the now-dilapidated coffin of the Earl could be seen. As is well known, the wide-spreading lands of the Derwentwater family were confiscated and applied to the uses of Greenwich Hospital; and the writer has seen the heir to those titles and vast wealth carrying a butcher's basket in the streets of Newcastle-on-Tyne. No man is rich whose expenditure exceeds his means; and no one is poor whose in-comings exceed his out-goings.-Haliburton. MOSQUE OF OMAR. GREAT MOSQUE OF JERUSALEM. THE engraving represents the Great Mosque at Jerusalem. It is built on the exact site of Solomon's Temple, and takes its name from its original founder, the Caliph Omar. It is a Turkish edifice, and is devoted to the worship of Mahomet. Titus having taken Jerusalem in the second year of Vespasian's reign, not one stone was left upon another of that Temple where Christ had done such glorious things, and the destruction of which he had predicted. When the Caliph Omar took Jerusalem, in 636 A.D., it appears that the site of the Temple, with the exception of a very small part, had been abandoned by the Christians. Said-Eben-Batrick, an Arabian historian, relates that the Caliph applied to the Patriarch Sophronius, and inquired of him what would be the most proper place at Jerusalem for building a mosque. Sophronius conducted him to the ruins of Solomon's Temple. Omar, delighted with the opportunity of erecting a mosque on so celebrated a spot, caused the ground to be cleared, and the earth to be removed from a large rock, where God is said to have con versed with Jacob. From that rock the new mosque took its name of Gameat-el-Sakhra, and became almost as sacred an object to the Mussulmans, as the mosques of Mecca and Medina. The Caliph El-Oulid contributed still more to the embellishment of El-Sakhra, and covered it with a dome of copper, gilt, taken from a church at Balbeck. In the sequel, the crusaders converted the Temple of Mahomet into a sanctuary of Christ; but when Saladin re-took Jerusalem, he restored this edifice to its original use. The form is an octagon, either side being seventy feet in width; it is entered by four spacious doors; the walls are white below, intermingled with blue, adorned with pilasters, but above, it is faced with glazed tiles of various colours. The interior is described as paved with gray marble; the plain walls are covered with the same material in white. It contains many noble columns, in two tiers. The dome is painted, and gilt in arabesque, whence depend antique vessels of gold and silver; immediately beneath it stands a mass of limestone, reported to have fallen from heaven when the spirit of prophecy commenced. On this sat |