metal and saltpetre, but that he knew no more about horses than a mower of turf. Peter, who was standing near a medlar tree, struck the groom with a branch, and the mayor, thinking this a bad precedent, had him brought before the president of the society for assisting miners, who decided in favor of the plaintiff, and Peter was fined, and in consequence left his work. Peter's great friend was a boy of high principle, to whom he owed money. Peter took him to one side, and asked his help again. In a plaintive voice the boy said, that, being a minor, it was out of his power; but he thought that if Peter became a sailor he would do well, as he was a good rower, and had rowed often on the river by the side of which the great London road passes. Peter sighed, then roared with laughter, and said he might profit just as much by being a carpenter; for he knew what was meant by a rabbet of wood, and never confounded it with rabbit, an animal. The fact was, he might as well have tried to write an ode as to tell whether a vessel was a good sailer or a bad. He could not reckon how many knots an hour it would sail; and, if a mist had come on, he would surely have missed the port. It needed the knowledge of a prophet to know what should be done. At last a pact was made between the two. They made a sale of some of their clothes, packed up, and set off for London. By the time they arrived, they much needed some one who could have soled their shoes, or been a sewer of their torn clothes, which were not half as neat as those of a man who has been a sower of seeds in the field. But they had a staid look, and when they asked for employment at a shop where stationery was sold, it was given them. They stayed there willingly, and indeed have remained stationary up to this time. EXERCISE XVIII. The Isle of Wight is sometimes spelt like white, a color; but this is a mistake. Some think the name is derived from Guith, a Saxon word meaning division. Wight also means a person. The tide must have flowed between the island and the mainland, and vessels must have tacked about in the sea which divides it from France long before it was conquered by the Romans. Those were days when chiefs could not wield the sceptre alone, but met at the Druids' feasts, whilst cymbals sounded, and the natives assembled from the tracts of rough weald, thick as the wood through which the Indian tracks his way. The inhabitants knew nothing of the sacred symbol of Christianity. No bell had rung for a service, or tolled for a funeral. The wares then sold were few. The weal of the people depended on the wheel of the war-chariot. The music of the viol, or the amusement of a game like whist, by which men now seek to wile away time which they wist not what to do with, were little needed in a country where men had to whet their appetites by hunting, and yet wot not how wet they might be before they could get food. Ye who complain of the troubles of these wicked days, and think that in past times men passed through life as easily as through a wicketgate, consider how you would like to have believed the tales which were told by a witch or a Druid. Children, you may whine over your sorrows, and show the weal made on your backs by the schoolmaster's whip: yea, ye men may have wrung your hands in anger over the follies and the want of tact of those who call themselves Whigs and Tories, and may quarrel like our grandfathers, whose likenesses are drawn in full-bottomed wigs and worsted hose, and who drank wine as freely as we drink whey; but, if you will weigh the difference between a heathen and a Christian, you will own that heathen joys must have been rooted up as easily as the laborer hoes weeds out of the ground, and found to wither as flowers in a vial without water; and, while this was the case, and men were tied to earth, whither could they turn for comfort? EXERCISE XIX. WORDS OFTEN CONFOUNDED. The attendants of my sick friend were very diligent in their attendance; but it is said that, except he had been willing to accept the assistance of Mr. M., a surgeon, it would have been impossible for any one to effect any good. Two of the assistants of Mr. M. called the last day, but the servants would not accede to their request, that they might have access to the sick man's room. This was from an excess of zeal, and, in their adherence to their mas ter's wishes, they no doubt did exceed their duty. Since my friend's decease, divers reports have been spread as to the nature of his disease, and the physicians have given diverse opinions as to the remeIdies which should have been used. When doctors thus differ, it is difficult to defer to any one in particular; and, though we may show them outward deference, the fact that they do thus dissent from one another must make a difference in the estimation in which they are held. There is a very apposite saying as to the opposite opinions of medical men,— "Who shall decide when doctors disagree?" The surgeon, who is a man of decent ability, wrote a few weeks ago a short account of the case, to which he has since made an addition of several pages. It has already reached a second edition. Dr. G., who lives at the entrance of the alley, near the descent to the river, was once Mr. M.'s ally; but now he does not cease to laugh at him, and to seize every opportunity of making unkind allusions, and declaring that his mind is full of illusions, and that he did not understand the symptoms of my friend's illness, which was first brought on by eating unripe currants, The adherents to this opinion are numerous, and the degree of credit they have obtained is great. The current of public opinion is, I fear, against poor Mr. M.; for a foolish ballad has been composed against him, and a decree has been passed to prevent his being chosen as surgeon to the hospital when the election by ballot takes place. I forgot to say that my poor friend had taken care to insure his life, in order to ensure a provision for his children. EXERCISE XX. I was sitting yesterday near the fissure in the cliff, reading the only volume extant of an eminent writer upon the monetary system, when I was interrupted by the gambols of some ragged children, who were teasing the fisher, by using sticks as missiles with which to injure his fibrous net, the fibres of which seemed too weak to hold what he had caught. A monitory word stopped them, and I then began to talk to them. One little boy, who was eating a radish and some celery, looked ill; but I did not discover the extent of his illness, till I perceived that he had a reddish eruption on his face, caused by having used by mistake a liniment intended for mother. The lineaments of the child's face were sweet, and the expression ingenuous; indeed, his countenance reminded me of a statue by an ancient sculptor, whose sculpture is well known. I was inquiring where he lived, when a Roman-Catholic priest, with a missal in his hand, came up to me. He knew the boy, and told me that he belonged to a party of Irish emigrants, who were on their way to America, and whose auricular confession he was called upon to hear. He spoke in an oracular way upon the subject of emigration, and told me that the statutes of America are such as to encourage immigrants, who yearly make an irruption into their country, and finally settle there. So many poor let loose upon a spacious tract of country, without any person to track their course of life, must affect the |