That draught, whose charm, in Fortune's fairer day, And thus for you, sad Race, the mental eye A ray more bright than ever Science shed A holier strife, the conquest of the mind! May that proud field, that fadeless wreath be won; THE PROPHECY. THE western breeze, that softly blows, Now day's long-lingering glare is o'er, Are the light dance and festive song ; And tongues will tell what hearts can feel. Need envy not the fairest dame Whom Europe's courts and castles claim. And one stood there, of form most rare, Even where meet the fairest fair. The maiden's laughing eye reveal'd The mirth it strove to hide; An aged crone, till then conceal'd, Her form was bow'd with many a year, And haggard was her face; And well they knew in silent fear Who joy to work their tyrant's woe She gazed on her with hollow eye, She beckon'd her with ghastly hand, That look of stern command. "Lady," she said, and low and clear Hath nursed thee in the lap of ease. I would not that it could be mine. "While Josephine was but a child, it was prophesied by a negro sorceress that she should rise to the dignity of a queen, yet fall from it before her death."-Sir W. Scott. THE ART OF PLUCK*. "An Art which Nature teaches, not the Schools." WITH the works of imagination that float down the stream of literature, and bask their little hour in the sunshine of popular favour, we do not interfere; we care not to break a fly upon a wheel, and forbear to overwhelm with the terrors of our criticism the little barks, which by their very frailty appeal to our compassion. Neither do we feel ourselves called upon to expose the ignorant pretension or the tame mediocrity of those who write in a higher, or at least a duller strain. Such we leave to sink undisturbed into inevitable oblivion. When, however, a work appears attracting notice from its novelty, demanding consideration from the importance of its subject, and challenging investigation from the authority with which that subject is treated, it becomes our duty, in common with the other directors of public opinion, to submit it to the test of the severest scrutiny. Without further preface we proceed to a consideration of the Art of Pluck, happy that our verdict can be conscientiously favourable, and that it will be our task to point out excellencies rather than draw attention to defects: We shall not, however, confine ourselves to a critical examination of each separate part; but rather taking those general views of the subject, in which the author has been prevented from indulging by the strictly argumentative style to which he has limited his treatise. It is said that there are two animals only that can reach the summit of the Pyramids, the eagle and the • A New Art, teaching how to be Plucked, being a Treatise after the fashion of Aristotle; Writ for the Use of Students in the Universities. By SCRIBLERUS REDIVIVUS, 12mo. Oxford, Vincent. reptile. In the same manner academical distinction is obtained by the Pluck and the Graduate. To point out the superiority of the former to the latter would, we hope, in the present age of liberality, be superfluous. Still, in the spirit of Alexander's reply to Parmenio, the distinguished Pluck may say, "Were I not what I am, I might condescend to be a Double First." As to the Graduate, "A breath may make him as a breath has made;" and, besides, it is notorious, even beyond the walls of All Souls and of Magdalen, that "Worth makes the man, and want of it the Fellow." Still we do not deny them some degree of merit; they are doubtless wise after their generation, but how infinitely inferior is their principle of action! how grovelling their ambition! how cold their reward! Who can forbear an admiration, almost amounting to enthusiasm, when he sees one who can despise the empty honours of a college, and disdain to become "small by degrees"; who, instead of being a miserable satellite, sicklily reflecting the puny light of an examiner, at once shines forth an independent sun, blazing in all the plenitude of selfderived effulgence? Where shall we find a more noble example of heroism than in him who asserts his intellectual liberty in the very strongholds of oppression, and with no support but the confidence of idleness and the unflinching intrepidity of ignorance, beards the lion of erudition in his very den? These are the heroic champions of mental independence, and, as intellectual republicans, they will hold in the admiration of posterity a higher place even than political revolutionists. Such is the real grandeur of a Pluck; but we grieve to say, the excellence of this character has long been obscured, first, by those who, from their bigoted attachment to a rotten |