dron, while another is adding a joint of ribs of beef. In another plate, cooks are trussing the geese which are brought to them from the fattening cage. Two of these assistants are in the act of boiling geese in a cauldron, another in boiling a trussed goose over a grate, and blowing the fire of the stove beneath with a bellows, while a third appears to be salting or spicing some delicacy. The preparations for a great dinner on a sumptuous and extensive scale are evident from the tomb of Menoptha at Saccareh. Rossellini represents two cooks occupied, the one in moulding and the other in baking delicacies of a round and flat form, which beyond a doubt represent tartlets or patties, delicacies which seem to have been much in use among the Egyptians, and for which the modern pastry-cooks of Cairo are also famous. They appear often on tables laid out for dinner, intermixed with roast and boiled meats, and vegetables of all descriptions. A pastry-cook appears with a tray of these patties on his head, to which the symbol implying the arithmetical number one thousand (orientally, the man of a thousand tarts) is appended, no doubt with a view of signifying the large consumption of his trade. In one instance cooks are employed in forming dishes, apparently meat pies with raised crusts, in the shape of animals, rams, bulls, and geese, etc. Two bakers, also attached to the kitchen department, and under the superintendence of a chief baker (see Gen. xl. 16, 17), are working the dough with their feet, and going through the various operations of bread-making. Loaves of fancy bread' subsequently appear in various ornamental shapes, triangles, squares, circles, etc. The hieroglyphics near them intimate that they are made of barley, wheat, millet, etc. They are often seen piled in profusion amidst the various dainties of the banquet hall.

It does not appear that the Egyptians, at the era above stated, used dinner cloths for the festive board.' Slaves, however, are represented bringing napkins and water in vases to the guests. Ewers and basins for holding water, of elegant construction, appear sometimes on the tables. In one instance, a graceful youth, ornamented with sandals, and in a tasteful dress of Greek character, is bringing water to the guests in a golden and highly ornamented basin. He has an elegant ewer of spotted green porcelain, slung by a cord to his arm. Knives and spoons were used, but not forks. The dishes appear usually to have been

piled confusedly on the table, and vegetables, roast ducks, fruit, fish, meat, and bread, are placed together with little arrangement. There are instances, however, of more regular distribution. In one plate a table appears laid out systematically with tureens of soup or boiled meat; fish, roasted ducks, vegetables, and fruit, vases for wine, cups and goblets, are intermixed, and in the midst is an epergne (an ornamental basket of precious metals) with flowers in the fashion of modern banquet tables. Plates and dishes were certainly used by the Egyptians, inasmuch as Rossellini exhibits a side-board with dishes and plates, apparently of pottery, and of an elegant fashion, arranged upon it. Some of the tureens and covered dishes in the British Museum, which are made of pottery or porcelain, are of exceedingly tasteful forms. But the golden and jewelled banquet services of the Pharaohs are indeed magnificent in materials, form, and duration."

In heavenly flowers unfolding week by week;

The next world's gladness imaged forth in this:
Days of whose worth the Christian's heart can speak.

Eternity in time-the steps by which

We climb to future ages-lamps that light

Man through his darker days, and thought enrich,
Yielding redemption for a week's dull flight,

Wakeners of prayers in man-his resting bowers
As on he journeys in the narrow way,
Where, Eden-like, Jehovah's walking hours
Are waited for as in the cool of day.

Days fixed by God for intercourse with dust,
To raise our thoughts and purify our powers,
Periods appointed to renew our trust,

A gleam of glory after six days showers.

A milky way marked out through skies else drear,
By radiant suns that warm as well as shine;

A clue, which he who follows knows no fear,
Though briars and thorns around his pathway twine.

Foretastes of heaven on earth; pledges of joy
Surpassing fancy flights and fiction's story;

The preludes of a feast that cannot cloy,
And the bright out-courts of immortal glory.

BARTON.

I DID not like them, and I was sure that I never should like them. Their name was Wake; and they had recently come to live at The Grange, a small old-fashioned mansion, about a mile from our farm-house.

my

When I say 66 our "farm-house, I mean the dear old house in which I was born, and where I lived with parents and sister and two brothers, till I was twenty-five years old, and was married. Another quarter of a century has passed away since then.

I did not like the Wakes for several reasons. No, that

APRIL, 1867.

E

is not quite the right word, either; for reasons ought to be reasonable, and mine were not. I should rather say, therefore, that because of certain prejudices I took a strong dislike to our new neighbours. Some of these prejudices were so trivial that I am ashamed to mention them, and blush when I think of them now.

I looked upon the Wakes as usurpers. Before they came to live at The Grange, the mansion was in the ownership of the Drews; and the younger branches of the Drew family had been from childhood my particular friends. It was a personal injury and injustice done to me, therefore, (at least, so I felt it,) when the property was sold, and my friends had to find another home. It did not appease me at all to be told that Mr. Drew sold The Grange because he very sadly wanted money. It was nothing to me, by way of argument, that Mr. Wake gave a good price for the mansion, and that the money paid saved Mr. Drew from much trouble. How could a girl of eighteen be expected to know anything about such matters? All I knew, or cared to know, was, that Mr. Wake had turned out-that was the phrase-had turned out my friends from their old home; and that, as they went to live a long way off, I was thenceforward to be deprived of their society. And even when it was afterwards explained to me that the purchaser had behaved with much generosity and kindhearted consideration to the vendor, it made no difference to my feelings. It was a shame, I said, that the Wakes should have "turned out" the Drews.

And who were the Wakes? Why, it was no secret that Mr. Wake had been a tradesman, and had made money enough to retire from business, and to purchase a family mansion. Of course, there was no dishonour nor disgrace in that; but it was one of my prejudices in those days that a tradesman could not be a gentleman, but must necessarily be very low-minded, vulgar, ignorant, and (if rich) purseproud. I have found out my mistake since then; and I humbly and sincerely acknowledge it.

It may be said that a farmer's daughter, as I was, need Inot have despised any one for having successfully worked for a living. Those who say this, however, do not know how strong a contempt some farmers and their families used to have (is it so now I wonder?) for shopkeepers in general. This was the case in our farm-house. tradesman, who stood behind a counter, to have con

For a

sidered himself on equal terms with us, would not have been tolerated. It may be conceived, therefore, that we, none of us, looked with much complacency on the new owner of The Grange and his family. At any rate, I

know that I did not.

The greatest cause of offence given to me by the Wakes, however, was that they were "such very religious people, -or pretended to be." To be sure, there was nothing peculiar or fantastic in the sentiments they held. They are all to be found in the Bible; and I might have found them there, if I had chosen. But I did not choose to look; for I did not like the Bible. No doubt I acknowledged it to be true; but I had a strong prejudice against it, and against all who showed that they regarded it. Is this to be wondered at? Are we not told that "the carnal mind is enmity against God?" And mine was a carnal mind.

Have I any excuse to offer for this sad alienation of heart and head? None whatever now; though I thought I had then. I had heard of some who had made very high professions of godliness, who afterwards swerved from the faith. Therefore I preferred to think that all professing Christians were hypocrites. And since there had been, here and there, one who had dishonoured the gospel of Christ, I fostered the strongest prejudices against our new neighbours; for I was determined to believe that they were no better than others, but were probably a great deal worse. And if they were not, their conduct was a tacit reproof of mine and of others. We were essentially a worldly family, at our farm, although we paid a sort of respect to religion on Sundays. We followed worldly amusements and enjoyments, liked worldly society, and, when in trouble, had recourse to worldly consolations. This is not a pleasant confession to make, but it is a true one.

But though I did not like them, there seemed to be a kind of social obligation laid upon me to be civil to our new neighbours. People who live in the country, at an inconvenient distance from general society, have certain claims for neighbourliness which those who live in crowded cities. do not exactly feel; at least, I suppose they do not. They can choose their own friends and acquaintance out of the crowd. We are obliged to take such as come to hand, or to go altogether without, which is not a pleasant alternative. So, though I very much disliked the Wakes, I did not altogether refuse to have any knowledge of them.