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Parsimony A-la-mode.

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he ingle blinkin bonnilie,' but I shall conclude with letting you see that the use of a fire is likewise understood by the Oxonian bards;

In capacious chair

Of monumental oak and antique mould,

That long has stood the rage of conquering years

Inviolate,

Studious of ease, and provident, I place

My gladsome limbs ;

While the brisk fire conspires to genial joy. T. Warton:

If you give this letter a place in the Mirror, you may perhaps hear again from your very humble servant,

REUBEN BUTLER, Tertius.

Knocktarlitie, Sep. 1819.

Cornucopia.

Wit.-Wit is to good sense, what the shadow is to the substance. The first when it is not founded on the latter, may not unaptly be compared to a soap bubble, which amuses children, and which, by degrees, becomes more and more distended-for a moment reflects a few bright colours, and then bursts into its native air.

A Pun.-When it was observed by a grave critic that the Moon in the tragedy of Douglas did not move, one of the audience pleasantly answered, that being made of paper it was stationary.

A Toast.-A schoolmaster being called upon for a toast, gave the following; Addition to the friends of Britain, Subtraction to her wants, Multiplication to her blessings, Division among her foes, and Reduction of her debts and taxes.

Literary Punishment.-Dean Swift on having a book with a plentiful errata submitted to his perusal, strongly recommended its being sent to the House of Correction.

Bon Mot-Vegitative Coat-Singular Trait-Rough mode of Courting.

Bon Mot.-A simple fellow who held a situation in the Ro mish Church, wrote an account of what he expended in the following terms:

Item-Five-pence for combing the tail of St. George's horse.
Item-Ten-pence for cleaning the clothes of two saints.
Item-Twenty-pence for hanging up two angels.

Vegitative Coat.-An Irishman vindicated the shortness of his coat by insisting that it would be long enough before he got a

new one.

Singular Trait.-Mr Pennant tells us in his history of Hindostan, of an Indian monarch, that in giving audience to two ambassadors whom he foresaw would weary him with prolix harangues, he cut the first short with this sensible remark, "Be not tedious," says he, "time is short."

Rough mode of courting.-When Henry VIII. was dying he recommended to his executors to attempt by every means in their power, to bring about a marriage with his son Edward and Mary the young Queen of the Scots, and thus to unite the two kingdoms. In order to accomplish this the protector made war on Scotland, and published a long manifesto, stating the advan tage that this match would be to the kingdoms. Lord Huntly however smartly observed, that, "He disliked not the matchbut he hated the manner of wooing."

A good Bargain. An old continental soldier arrived at an inn and asked for a refreshment. The hostess set before him a bone of ham and a crust of bread. Her son who had been an

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officer, gave the poor fellow a shilling; and when he had done. picking of the bone bid hin march off. Soon after the old woman comes in to look for her pay. "Mother," says the officer, "what might the picking of the bone be worth?" Why, about One and Sixpence, these hard times." "Well, cries the humane son, I have made a good bargain, and saved sixpence, for I gave him a shilling to pick the whole."

A Curious Exchange-A trick was once played upon a Canadian by a soldier, who pretending to be an officer's sorvant,

Lord Mansfield and a Jew-Independence.

went up to a countryman just come into the market, and asked him what he had in his bag? the man answered, a "pig;" upon which the soldier said he could not tell whether it would suit his master, just by, but he would take it to him to look at, and leave a dollar till he came back. He accordingly took the pig into the barracks, and returned to the man soon after, saying he was sorry it would not do, and received his dollar back again.— The unsuspecting countryman placed his bag again in the cart, among his other articles, till an old gentleman came up and began to overhaul his provisions. "What have you in the bag there?" said he. A pig, sir"-"Let me look at it." The countryman laid hold of the bag, and the old gentleman opened the mouth of it, when a large tom cat, that had been gagged to prevent it crying, instantly sprung out, and made off with all speed towards the barracks, leaving the countryman and the old gentleman for the moment in the greatest consternation.

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Lord Mansfield and a Jew.-" Mr. Abraham," said Lord Mansfield, this man is your son, and cannot in the same bail bond." "He ish not, my Lord." 66 Why Abraham, here are twenty in court will prove it." "I will shwear my Lord he ish not. Take care, Abraham, or I will send you to the King's Bench." Now, my Lord, if your Lordship pleases I will tell you the truth." Well I shall be glad to hear the truth from a jew." My Lord, I wash at Amsterdam two years and three quarters, when I came home I findsh this lad! now the law obliges me to mantain him; and consequently he ish but my sm-in-law." "Well Abraham," rejoined Lord Mansfield, "this is the best definition of a son-in-law I ever heard."

66

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Independence. Independence is indeed a glorious thing: but what is Independence? Independence is not the privilege of abusing a Lord, or libelling a nation: it is not the privilege of satirizing the vices of others, without blushing to expose our ownl. In few words, independence is not the license of saying and doing what we will, but rather the power of saying and doing what we ought. It matters not that we are free from the dominion of others; if we are not masters of ourselves, we are still dependent.

Scottish Students.

Extracts from New Publications.

FROM PETER'S LETTERS TO HIS KINSFOLK.

SCOTTISH STUDENTS.

A person whose eyes had been accustomed only to such places as the schools of Oxford, or Sir Christopher Pegge's lecture room, would cer tainly be very much struck with the prima facie mean condition of the majority of the students assembled at the prelections of the Edinburgh (or Glasgow) professors. Here and there one sees some small scattered remnant of the great flock of dandies, trying to keep each other's high collars and stays in countenance, in a corner of the class-room; but these only heighten, by the contrast of their presence, the general effect of the slovenly and dirty mass which on every side surrounds them with its contaminating atmosphere: and upon the whole, nothing can be more distinct and visible, than that the greater part of the company are persons whose situation in life, had they been born in England, must have left them no chance of being able to share the advantages of an academical education.

*

Any young man who can afford to wear a decent coat, and live in a garret upon porridge or herrings, may, if he pleases, come to Edinburgh (or Glasgow,) and pass through his academical career, just as creditably as is required or expected. I am assured that the great majority of the students here, have seldom more than £30 or £40 per annum, and that very many most respectable students contrive to do with little more than half so much money.

Whatever may be thought of the results of this plan, there is no possibility that any man of good feeling should refuse his warmest admiration to the zeal, both of the children and the parents by whose exertions it is carried into effect. * * * * I question whether there can be imagined a finer display of the quiet heroism of affection and principle, than is afforded in the long and resolute struggle which the poor parents maintain the pinching penury and self-denial to which they voluntarily submit, in order that their child may be enabled to procure advantages of which themselves are destitute, and which, when obtained, cannot fail to give him thoughts and ideas such as must, in spite of nature, draw some line of separation between him and them. There cannot be a nobler instance of the neglect of self-a more striking exemplification of the sublimity of the affections. Nor can the conduct of the son himself The solitary and secluded life to

be deemed much less admirable.

Scottish Students.

which he devotes so many youthful years-the hard battle which he too, must maintain against poverty, without any near voice of love to whisper courage into his bosom-the grief which he must feel when compelled to ask that which he well knows will be freely, but which, he too much fears, will be painfully given ;-all these sorrows of poverty, united with those many sorrows and depressions which the merely intellectual part of a young student's existence must always be sufficient to createthe doubts and fears, which must at times overcloud and darken the brightest intellect that ever expanded before the influence of exertion-the watching and tossing of over-excitement the self-reproach of languor-the lightning of the heart strings—and the blank wanderings of the brain-these things are enough to complete the gloomy fore-ground of a picture which would indeed require radiance in the distance to give it any measure of captivation. And yet these things are not more, unless books and men alike deceive us, than are actually operating at this moment in the persons of a very great proportion of the young men whom I have seen at work in the class-rooms of B- and P—

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Without much prospect of any great increase of worldly goods, and without procuring to himself any very valuable stronghold of peaceful meditation, the Scottish student submits to a life of such penury and difficulty, as would almost be sufficient to counterbalance the possession even of the advantages which he has not. At the end of his academical career, he probably finds himself either a burden upon his relations, or providing for himself by the discharge of some duties, which might have been as well discharged without so expensive a preparation. Is it worth while to bear so much, in order to have a chance of gaining so little? As Mr. M'Leod says in Miss Edgeworth's novel,-"it may be doubted;" and yet perhaps it cannot be doubted without somewhat of a sin against the higher parts of our nature. But such sins we all commit often enough, both consciously, and unconsciously.

FROM THE HERMIT IN LONDON.

NATIONALITY OF THE SCOTS.

The love of country makes the Frenchman exclaim "Mon cher pays et mon premier amour!"-It draws from the Hibernian.

"With thee were the dreams of my earliest love,
Every thought of my reason was there!"

But the Scotsman's is an humble, yet more heartfelt lay. To him, his rocks his glens-his brecken-and his wild flowers, are the objects of his soul's devotion, and the subject of his dearest praise; and his lines flow from the deepest recesses of his affection, and form a happy contrast to their warmer imagery, as the following effusions of that hard of nature, Burns, clearly exemplify.

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