CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, EDITORS OF "CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE," "CHAMBERS'S EDUCATIONAL COURSE," &c.

a few strides of the wall, when the horse's ideas corresponded with his master's, that he should not attempt it. Throwing himself suddenly upon his hocks, the careful animal succeeded in preventing any accident to himself by stopping on the right side of the barrier. This quick decision, however, did not hinder Mr Charles Olivier from enjoying a leap. The impetus had the effect of sending him in a straight line over the horse's ears-clean over the wall, like the stick of a rocket, head-foremost into a duck-pond on the opposite side.

Crash, splash, went the luckless horseman-quack, quack, quack, screamed the ducks. "Gracious me!" bubbled from the lips of Mr Charles Olivier, as he crawled from the water and the mire; "I-I-I never will see another fox-hunt as long as I breathe."

STEAM-CARRIAGES OF M. DIETZ.

ance of the extra wheels, which kept the engine in the
equilibrium. This principle does not indeed apply to
the carriages of the train; but as they are so con-
structed as to present little danger of upsetting, the
deficiency is of no importance; and if it were found to
be so, it would be very easy to extend the principle to
the whole of them. The power of returning without
danger from the sides of the road to the pavement, is
one of great value in France, for nine accidents out of
ten which happen in the ordinary coach-travelling,
arise from the difficulty of regaining the paré, without
losing the equilibrium. On many roads the paré is
too narrow for two diligences to run abreast, and when
they meet each other, one of the two, if not both, must
deviate a little from the centre. The paré is very
much rounded for the purpose of keeping it dry; and
in winter the sides of the road are loose and rotten, so
that the wheels sink several inches below the edge of
the paved portion of the road. The danger, therefore,
in regaining it is very great. If M. Dietz had not
obviated it by his ingenious contrivance, not only
would his machinery be subject to shocks, which would
render frequent repairs necessary, but the engine itself
would be very liable to upset.

THE attempts to run steam-carriages on common roads
in this country have generally failed in practice,
chiefly, we believe, from the injury caused to the ma-
chinery by jolting over the ordinary rough materials
of which our thoroughfares are composed, and the All the evidence, as far as goes, appears favourable
great expense for fuel. Lately, as we understand from to the invention of M. Dietz; but the proof of its
the newspapers, a steam-carriage, the invention of utility, as in all such cases, is still to be given by carry-
Colonel Macerone, has been successfully run in experi-ing the invention into practical and daily operation.
mental trips in the neighbourhood of London; and,
according to the French press, similar success has
attended the running of steam-carriages, the invention
of a M. Dietz, in the neighbourhood of Paris. While
attention is directed to this subject, it may be useful
to offer a few particulars respecting M. Deitz's car-
riages, from the Reports of the Academy of Sciences
and Academy of Industry.

M. Dietz's carriage has eight wheels, two of which are larger than the other six, and give the impulsion. The six smaller wheels rise and fall according to the irregularity of the ground, and at the same time assist in bearing the weight of the carriage, and in equalising its pressure, &c. The wheels, instead of having iron tires, are bound with wood, under which there is a lining of cork, in order still further to deaden the noise and prevent shocks which would otherwise derange the mechanism of the carriage. This wooden binding is secured by an iron circle, which does not touch the ground, and is so contrived as to be exceedingly durable. Another improvement of M. Dietz is a mechanism by which all the carriages of the train which are drawn by the engine (for he does not propose to carry either goods or passengers in the steamcarriage itself) are made to follow in the precise line of the wheels of the steam-carriage, which is so regulated by the six smaller or flexible wheels, acted upon by an endless pulley chain, that they describe any curve at the will of the conductor. Of the moving power of the engine, the report of the Academy of Industry says, "According to Colonel Macerone, whose calculations are not far from the truth, it appears certain, 1st, that to draw a weight along an iron railway, in a horizontal line, requires a force equal to a two hundred and fortieth part of the weight to be moved; 2dly, that to move this weight along a horizontal line, the force of traction must be carried to a twelfth of this weight; 3dly, that to move this weight upon a common road, with a rise of one foot in twelve, or eight degrees, which appears to be the greatest ascent accomplished by any of the diligences in France, the force of traction, whether on an iron railway or on common roads, must be augmented by one-twelfth of the total weight beyond what would be necessary on a horizontal line. It results, therefore, that it is not necessary on common roads to do more than double the power of traction for an elevation of eight degrees on common roads, whereas on a railway we must not merely double the primitive force, but add to it a power equivalent to a twelfth of the weight which is to be set in action. To fulfil the first condition, M. Dietz, proposing to draw only from thirty to forty thousand pounds, has made his engine of thirty horse power, calculating the power of traction of the horse at one hundred and fifty pounds at a speed of two hundred feet per minute; consequently, he has a force capable of surmounting every obstacle, and is at the same time able in case of necessity to double the power by a simple combination of pulleys."

THE RETURN.

[BY MRS HEMANS.]

"Art thou come with the heart of thy childhood back,
The free, the pure, the kind?"

So murmured the trees in my homeward track,
As they played to the mountain wind.
"Hast thou been true to thine early love?"
Whispered my native streams,

"Doth the spirit reared amidst hill and grove,
Still revere its first high dreams?"
"Hast thou borne in thy bosom the holy prayer
Of the child in his parent halls?"

Thus breathed a voice on the thrilling air,
From the old ancestral walls.

"Has thou kept thy faith with the faithful dead,
Whose place of rest is nigh?

With the father's blessing o'er thee shed?
With the mother's trusting eye?"

Then my tears gush'd forth in sudden rain,
As I answered-" Oh, ye shades!

I bring not my childhood's heart again

To the freedom of your glades!

I have turn'd from my first pure love aside,

Oh, bright rejoicing streams!

Light after light in my soul hath died,
The early, glorious dreams!

And the holy prayer from my thoughts hath pass'd,
The prayer at my mother's knee-

Darken'd and troubled I come at last,
Thou home of my boyish glee!

But I bear from my childhood a gift of tears,
To soften and atone;

And, oh, ye scenes of those blessed years!
They shall make me again your own."
-Works of Mrs Hemans.

ALL DIFFICULTIES MAY BE OVERCOME.
There are few difficulties that hold out against real

attacks; they fly, like the visible horizon, before those who advance. A passionate desire and unwearied will the cold and the feeble. If we do but go on, some uncan perform impossibilities, or what seem to be such to seen path will open upon the hills. We must not allow ourselves to be discouraged by the apparent disproportion between the result of single efforts and the magnitude of the obstacles to be encountered. Nothing good or great is to be obtained without courage and industry; but courage and industry might have sunk in despair, and the world must have remained unornamented and unimproved, if men had nicely compared the effect of a single stroke of the chisel with the pyramid to be raised, or of a single impression of the spade with the mountain to be levelled. All exertion, too, is in itself delightful, that he could hardly listen to a concert for two hours, and active amusements seldom tire us. Helvetius owns though he could play on an instrument all day long. The chase, we know, has always been the favourite amusement of kings and nobles. Not only fame and fortune, but pleasure, is to be earned. Efforts, it must not be forgotten, are as indispensable as desires. The globe is not to be circumnavigated by one wind. We should never do nothing. "It is better to wear out than to rust The report then goes on to enumerate the arrange-out," says Bishop Cumberland. "There will be time ments made by the inventor for the regular supply enough to repose in the grave," said Nicole to Pascal. of steam by the conductor, so as to increase or dimiIn truth, the proper rest for man is change of occupation. nish it instantaneously, according to the nature of the As a young man, you should be mindful of the unspeakground, and for checking the engine at its greatest are easily formed, and there is time to recover from deable importance of early industry, since in youth habits speed without shock or danger. In this description, fects. An Italian sonnet, justly as well as elegantly, however, there is little new to the English reader who compares procrastination to the folly of a traveller who has turned his attention to the construction of steam- pursues a brook till it widens into a river, and is lost in carriages on common roads in England. The great the sea. The toils as well as risks of an active life are merit of the invention of M. Dietz is avoiding the commonly overrated, so much may be done by the diliexpensive repairs which have hitherto been the gent use of ordinary opportunities; but they must not greatest obstacle to the use of steam-carriages on the always be waited for. We must not only strike the iron common roads in England. A commission from each while it is hot, but till "it is made hot." Herschel, the academy accompanied M. Dietz in one of his experi- great astronomer, declares that ninety or one hundred mental journeys from Paris to St Germain, and report hours, clear enough for observations, cannot be called an that it was performed at the rate of ten miles an hour, unproductive year. The lazy, the dissipated, and the and that the hill between the Pecq and St Germain, them in the course. They must bring down their fearful, should patiently see the active and the bold pass which is one of the steepest within twenty miles of tensions to the level of their talents. Those who have Paris, was ascended in less time than is occupied by not energy to work must learn to be humble, and should the diligence. They state, also, that when the steam- not vainly hope to unite the incompatible enjoyments of carriage was compelled to deviate from the paved indolence and enterprise, of ambition and self-indulgence. road to the unpaved sides, the return was accomplished I trust that my young friends will never attempt to rewithout difficulty or danger, by the ingenious contriv-concile them.-Sharp's Letters and Essays.

pre

EDITORIAL NOTE.
ORIGINALITY OF THE JOURNAL.

WE lately received a letter from Newcastle, contain-
ing, first, the general inquiry whether the articles at
the beginning of the various numbers of the Journal
were generally our own, and contained our own
opinions, or were copied, and, next, the special inquiry
(supposing we did not choose to answer the first), if
the article at the beginning of No. 445 were original.
Could there be any doubt more mortifying to a poor
labourer in the field of letters than what is here
expressed? For eight years and upwards we have
been leading a life of incessant toil, composing literary
articles of various kinds, some of them descriptive, in
a novel style, of society and manners in the middle
ranks, others philosophical and scientific, the very
least important being careful compilations, often from
not very accessible sources; and, after all, “a reader,”
a person who has perhaps seen every number of the
work as yet published, is not sure but that our very
best, or at least most elaborate, papers are taken
without acknowledgment from some other work. The
results of a lifetime spent chiefly in study, and in
industrious observation of human character, have
been diffused throughout the 450 numbers of this
work, not to speak of the many articles arising from
the special labour of the time when they were com-
posed; and, after all, it is surmised that the whole
work is as much a compilation as a school collection.
Three individuals spend nearly their whole time in
preparing the work, and there are occasional contri-
butions by others; many single papers requiring, for
the collection of information, the composition, and
the correction, three, four, and five days; and, when
all this pains is taken by so many persons to produce
a work sold far beneath any former standard of price,
the reader languidly asks if we ever give anything
original! If we were of the stuff to be disheartened
by anything, we might certainly be so on thus learn-
ing that our labours are only remunerative in a
business point of view, but do nothing in the way of
creating confidence or respect, so that merely because
we publish in a limited quantity at a limited price,
we are supposed capable of, week after week, and
year after year, holding forth selected matter with
the usual appearances of that which is original.

It is not of course likely that all our readers are under the very disrespectful impression which seems to affect our Newcastle correspondent. But, from other revelations made to us, we fear that it is the belief of a great number, or at least that many are habitually doubtful of the originality of many of the articles presented without marks of quotation in the Journal. For instance, we were lately asked by a lady in London, who reads our Journal regularly, “from what book of Mrs Hall's it was that we extracted her very pretty tales ;" and she was very much surprised to be told that the tales were original, being written expressly for our work, and paid for accordingly. It now therefore becomes necessary to reiterate a statement more than once made, that all the articles of the Journal are really and truly original composition, excepting in the comparatively rare instances where it is otherwise expressed in other words, every article is original which is not marked as extracted or selected circulation of the work (72,000) should banish the matter. A little reflection on the very extensive false notion that, because the Journal is cheap, it cannot be composed in any part of original matter: it ought to be seen that its cheapness, leading to such an extraordinary sale, is, above all other things, the reason for its containing original matter, and that of the best kind which money can procure in the country.

We trust that no one will do us the further injustice to suppose, from what is here said, that we are unduly might point to the whole history of this work, its anxious on the score of literary reputation. We being scarcely ever advertised, its rare allusions to its editors or writers, the anonymity of all its articles, and its unswerving adherence to its original plan, for proof that this has been a matter to which little attention has been paid. At the same time it could not but appear to us extremely hard, if a labour which, more than any other, exhausts the human energies, and which, to be pursued in an efficient manner, calls for nearly a complete denial of all those social pleasures which the humblest enjoy, were to pass for a long series of years altogether unappreciated by those who may be presumed to profit by it.

LONDON: Published, with permission of the proprietors, by W. S. ORR, Paternoster Row; and sold by all booksellers and newsmen.-Printed by Bradbury and Evans, Whitefriars.

DINBURGA

CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, EDITORS OF "CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE," "CHAMBERS'S EDUCATIONAL COURSE," &c.

ance of the extra wheels, which kept the engine in the a few strides of the wall, when the horse's ideas corresponded with his master's, that he should not at- equilibrium. This principle does not indeed apply to tempt it. Throwing himself suddenly upon his hocks, the carriages of the train; but as they are so conthe careful animal succeeded in preventing any acci-structed as to present little danger of upsetting, the dent to himself by stopping on the right side of the deficiency is of no importance; and if it were found to barrier. This quick decision, however, did not hinder be so, it would be very easy to extend the principle to Mr Charles Olivier from enjoying a leap. The im- the whole of them. The power of returning without petus had the effect of sending him in a straight line danger from the sides of the road to the pavement, is over the horse's ears clean over the wall, like the stick one of great value in France, for nine accidents out of of a rocket, head-foremost into a duck-pond on the ten which happen in the ordinary coach-travelling, arise from the difficulty of regaining the paré, without opposite side. losing the equilibrium. On many roads the paré is too narrow for two diligences to run abreast, and when they meet each other, one of the two, if not both, must deviate a little from the centre. The paré is very much rounded for the purpose of keeping it dry; and in winter the sides of the road are loose and rotten, so that the wheels sink several inches below the edge of the paved portion of the road. The danger, therefore, in regaining it is very great. If M. Dietz had not obviated it by his ingenious contrivance, not only would his machinery be subject to shocks, which would render frequent repairs necessary, but the engine itself would be very liable to upset.

Crash, splash, went the luckless horseman-quack, quack, quack, screamed the ducks. "Gracious me!" bubbled from the lips of Mr Charles Olivier, as he crawled from the water and the mire; "I-I-I never will see another fox-hunt as long as I breathe."

STEAM-CARRIAGES OF M. DIETZ.

EDITORIAL NOTE.
ORIGINALITY OF THE JOURNAL.

WE lately received a letter from Newcastle, containing, first, the general inquiry whether the articles at the beginning of the various numbers of the Journal were generally our own, and contained our own opinions, or were copied, and, next, the special inquiry (supposing we did not choose to answer the first), if the article at the beginning of No. 445 were original. Could there be any doubt more mortifying to a poor labourer in the field of letters than what is here expressed? For eight years and upwards we have been leading a life of incessant toil, composing literary articles of various kinds, some of them descriptive, in a novel style, of society and manners in the middle ranks, others philosophical and scientific, the very least important being careful compilations, often from not very accessible sources; and, after all, “a reader,” a person who has perhaps seen every number of the work as yet published, is not sure but that our very All the evidence, as far as it goes, appears favourable without acknowledgment from some other work. The to the invention of M. Dietz; but the proof of its best, or at least most elaborate, papers are taken utility, as in all such cases, is still to be given by carry-results of a lifetime spent chiefly in study, and in

THE attempts to run steam-carriages on common roads
in this country have generally failed in practice,
chiefly, we believe, from the injury caused to the ma-
chinery by jolting over the ordinary rough materials
of which our thoroughfares are composed, and the
great expense for fuel. Lately, as we understand from
the newspapers, a steam-carriage, the invention of
Colonel Macerone, has been successfully run in experi-ing the invention into practical and daily operation.
mental trips in the neighbourhood of London; and,
according to the French press, similar success has
attended the running of steam-carriages, the invention
of a M. Dietz, in the neighbourhood of Paris. While
attention is directed to this subject, it may be useful
to offer a few particulars respecting M. Deitz's car-
riages, from the Reports of the Academy of Sciences
and Academy of Industry.

THE RETURN.

[BY MRS HEMANS.]

"Art thou come with the heart of thy childhood back,
The free, the pure, the kind?"

So murmured the trees in my homeward track,
As they played to the mountain wind.
"Hast thou been true to thine early love?"
Whispered my native streams,

"Doth the spirit reared amidst hill and grove,
Still revere its first high dreams?"

"Hast thou borne in thy bosom the holy prayer
Of the child in his parent halls ?"

Thus breathed a voice on the thrilling air,
From the old ancestral walls.

"Has thou kept thy faith with the faithful dead,
Whose place of rest is nigh?

With the father's blessing o'er thee shed?
With the mother's trusting eye?"

Then my tears gush'd forth in sudden rain,
As I answered-" Oh, ye shades!

I bring not my childhood's heart again

To the freedom of your glades!

M. Dietz's carriage has eight wheels, two of which are larger than the other six, and give the impulsion. The six smaller wheels rise and fall according to the irregularity of the ground, and at the same time assist in bearing the weight of the carriage, and in equalising its pressure, &c. The wheels, instead of having iron tires, are bound with wood, under which there is a lining of cork, in order still further to deaden the noise and prevent shocks which would otherwise derange the mechanism of the carriage. This wooden binding is secured by an iron circle, which does not touch the ground, and is so contrived as to be exceedingly durable. Another improvement of M. Dietz is a mechanism by which all the carriages of the train which are drawn by the engine (for he does not propose to carry either goods or passengers in the steamcarriage itself) are made to follow in the precise line of the wheels of the steam-carriage, which is so regulated by the six smaller or flexible wheels, acted upon by an endless pulley chain, that they describe any curve at the will of the conductor. Of the moving power of the engine, the report of the Academy of Industry says, "According to Colonel Macerone, whose calculations are not far from the truth, it appears certain, 1st, that to draw a weight along an iron railway, in a horizontal-Works of Mrs Hemans. line, requires a force equal to a two hundred and fortieth part of the weight to be moved; 2dly, that to move this weight along a horizontal line, the force of trac

I have turn'd from my first pure love aside,
Oh, bright rejoicing streams!

Light after light in my soul hath died,

The early, glorious dreams!

And the holy prayer from my thoughts hath pass'd,
The prayer at my mother's knee-
Darken'd and troubled I come at last,
Thou home of my boyish glee!

But I bear from my childhood a gift of tears,
To soften and atone;

And, oh, ye scenes of those blessed years
They shall make me again your own."

!

ALL DIFFICULTIES MAY BE OVERCOME.
There are few difficulties that hold out against real

industrious observation of human character, have been diffused throughout the 450 numbers of this work, not to speak of the many articles arising from the special labour of the time when they were composed; and, after all, it is surmised that the whole work is as much a compilation as a school collection. Three individuals spend nearly their whole time in preparing the work, and there are occasional contributions by others; many single papers requiring, for the collection of information, the composition, and the correction, three, four, and five days; and, when all this pains is taken by so many persons to produce a work sold far beneath any former standard of price, the reader languidly asks if we ever give anything original! If we were of the stuff to be disheartened by anything, we might certainly be so on thus learning that our labours are only remunerative in a business point of view, but do nothing in the way of creating confidence or respect, so that merely because we publish in a limited quantity at a limited price, we are supposed capable of, week after week, and year after year, holding forth selected matter with the usual appearances of that which is original.

It is not of course likely that all our readers are under the very disrespectful impression which seems to affect our Newcastle correspondent. But, from other revelations made to us, we fear that it is the belief of a great number, or at least that many are habitually doubtful of the originality of many of the articles presented without marks of quotation in the

tion must be carried to a twelfth of this weight; attacks; they fly, like the visible horizon, before those Journal. For instance, we were lately asked by a lady 3dly, that to move this weight upon a common road, with a rise of one foot in twelve, or eight degrees, which appears to be the greatest ascent accomplished by any of the diligences in France, the force of traction, whether on an iron railway or on common roads, must be augmented by one-twelfth of the total weight beyond what would be necessary on a horizontal line. It results, therefore, that it is not necessary on common roads to do more than double the power of traction for an elevation of eight degrees on common roads, whereas on a railway we must not merely double the primitive force, but add to it a power equivalent to a twelfth of the weight which is to be set in action. To fulfil the first condition, M. Dietz, proposing to draw only from thirty to forty thousand pounds, has made his engine of thirty horse power, calculating the power of traction of the horse at one hundred and fifty pounds at a speed of two hundred feet per minute; consequently, he has a force capable of surmounting every obstacle, and is at the same time able in case of necessity to double the power by a simple combination of pulleys."

who advance. A passionate desire and unwearied will can perform impossibilities, or what seem to be such to the cold and the feeble. If we do but go on, some unseen path will open upon the hills. We must not allow ourselves to be discouraged by the apparent disproportion between the result of single efforts and the magnitude of the obstacles to be encountered. Nothing good or great is to be obtained without courage and industry; but courage and industry might have sunk in despair, and the world must have remained unornamented and unimproved, if men had nicely compared the effect of a single stroke of the chisel with the pyramid to be raised, or of a single impression of the spade with the mountain to be levelled. All exertion, too, is in itself delightful, and active amusements seldom tire us. Helvetius owns that he could hardly listen to a concert for two hours, though he could play on an instrument all day long. The chase, we know, has always been the favourite amusement of kings and nobles. Not only fame and fortune, but pleasure, is to be earned. Efforts, it must not be forgotten, are as indispensable as desires. The globe is not to be circumnavigated by one wind. We should never do nothing. "It is better to wear out than to rust The report then goes on to enumerate the arrange-out," says Bishop Cumberland. "There will be time ments made by the inventor for the regular supply enough to repose in the grave," said Nicole to Pascal. of steam by the conductor, so as to increase or dimi- In truth, the proper rest for man is change of occupation As a young man, you should be mindful of the unspeaknish it instantaneously, according to the nature of the able importance of early industry, since in youth habits ground, and for checking the engine at its greatest are easily formed, and there is time to recover from despeed without shock or danger. In this description, fects. An Italian sonnet, justly as well as elegantly, however, there is little new to the English reader who compares procrastination to the folly of a traveller who has turned his attention to the construction of steam- pursues a brook till it widens into a river, and is lost in carriages on common roads in England. The great the sea. The toils as well as risks of an active life are merit of the invention of M. Dietz is avoiding the commonly overrated, so much may be done by the diliexpensive repairs which have hitherto been the gent use of ordinary opportunities; but they must not greatest obstacle to the use of steam-carriages on the always be waited for. We must not only strike the iron common roads in England. A commission from each while it is hot, but till "it is made hot." Herschel, the academy accompanied M. Dietz in one of his experi- great astronomer, declares that ninety or one hundred mental journeys from Paris to St Germain, and report hours, clear enough for observations, cannot be called an that it was performed at the rate of ten miles an hour, unproductive year. The lazy, the dissipated, and the fearful, should patiently see the active and the bold pass and that the hill between the Pecq and St Germain, them in the course. They must bring down their prewhich is one of the steepest within twenty miles of tensions to the level of their talents. Those who have Paris, was ascended in less time than is occupied by not energy to work must learn to be humble, and should the diligence. They state, also, that when the steam- not vainly hope to unite the incompatible enjoyments of carriage was compelled to deviate from the paved indolence and enterprise, of ambition and self-indulgence. road to the unpaved sides, the return was accomplished I trust that my young friends will never attempt to rewithout difficulty or danger, by the ingenious contriv-concile them.-Sharp's Letters and Essays.

in London, who reads our Journal regularly, "from what book of Mrs Hall's it was that we extracted her very pretty tales;" and she was very much surprised to be told that the tales were original, being written expressly for our work, and paid for accordingly. It now therefore becomes necessary to reiterate a statement more than once made, that all the articles of the Journal are really and truly original composition, excepting in the comparatively rare instances where it is otherwise expressed-in other words, every article is original which is not marked as extracted or selected matter. A little reflection on the very extensive circulation of the work (72,000) should banish the false notion that, because the Journal is cheap, it cannot be composed in any part of original matter: it ought to be seen that its cheapness, leading to such an extraordinary sale, is, above all other things, the reason for its containing original matter, and that of the best kind which money can procure in the country.

We trust that no one will do us the further injustice to suppose, from what is here said, that we are unduly anxious on the score of literary reputation. We might point to the whole history of this work, its being scarcely ever advertised, its rare allusions to its editors or writers, the anonymity of all its articles, and its unswerving adherence to its original plan, for proof that this has been a matter to which little attention has been paid. At the same time it could not but appear to us extremely hard, if a labour which, more than any other, exhausts the human energies, and which, to be pursued in an efficient manner, calls for nearly a complete denial of all those social pleasures which the humblest enjoy, were to pass for a long series of years altogether unappreciated by those who may be presumed to profit by it.

LONDON: Published, with permission of the proprietors, by W.S. ORR, Paternoster Row; and sold by all booksellers and newemen.-Printed by Bradbury and Evans, Whitefriars.

CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, EDITORS OF "CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE,"
"CHAMBERS'S EDUCATIONAL COURSE," &c.

NUMBER 452.

"THE WORLD."

THERE is a great number of charges of old standing against the world, from which each accuser regularly excepts himself. For instance, it is a very censorious world. So you will find your friend Mrs Thompson calling it every day in her life, seeing that she is a widow upon whom many set eyes of watchfulness, lest some day she should steal unperceived into a second matrimonial engagement. Mrs Thompson does not recollect that she occasionally takes observations of the goings on of the Misses Smith, a band of young milliners, who live in a third floor opposite to her. Were you to call upon these same Misses Smith, you would probably find them also complaining that it is a censorious world-meaning that they feel themselves exposed to Mrs Thompson's observation, but altogether unconscious that they talk nothing but scandal for at least three hours every day. So also Mrs Thompson speaks of it as an evil-thinking world, the worst construction being put by it upon every thing that is not quite as clear as daylight. She means that she has heard of her attentions to Mrs Johnson, who has so many fine young sons, being misunderstood. She does not say anything of her having conjectured that her maid Sukey was keeping improper company, in consequence of seeing her walking one day with a young man, who proved to be her brother, a sailor newly returned from a long voyage.

All was well so long as he could give good entertain-
ments. He was then a man of some account. It was
a matter of pride to most to have it to say that they
had been at his parties. But now where were all
those swallow-like friends?-all gone! Alas, what
is friendship? he thought-

"A shade that follows wealth and fame,

But leaves the wretch to weep."

Mr Sandy did not remember that, after his friend
Major Tomkins lost nearly all his Indian fortune by
the failure of a Calcutta bank, and ceased to give
dinners, he almost forgot that there was such a person
in the world, although the major had oftener than
once insinuated how happy he should be to see him
and his daughters over a quiet game at whist.

The world is a very deceitful world. Mrs Higgins
became deeply impressed with this idea, when she
discovered that Miss Tims, who had come about her
as a friend for several years, and seemed sincerely
attached to her, made a practice of telling all her
secrets and ridiculing her in every point. Mrs
Higgins forgot that she had not a single friend about
whose faults she did not speak quite candidly, on all
occasions when they were not themselves present.
The world is also very envious. Mr Dobson, of the
Custom-house, found it so, when he ascended to the
dignity of comptroller, forgetting that he had himself
envied his predecessor in the office for the better part
of twenty years. The same sentiment was deeply im-
pressed on Mrs Dobson, when she heard that her new
gown of gros-de-Naples had been spitefully spoken of
by her old friend Mrs Pyne; Mrs Dobson being totally
oblivious that, during the days of her humbler fortune,
she had never seen a single dress of superior elegance
at church, which she did not think would be far more
suitable on herself than on the person who wore it.
Amongst all the bad qualities, however, that attach
to the world, in the eyes of all but the speakers, there
is none so much spoken of as its ingratitude. This is
one of the most notorious of its alleged failings. In-
stances are here out of the question. Ask any one
if he ever finds any gratitude on earth, and he will
answer in the negative, making only a mental excep-
tion in favour of himself, whom he believes to be
wholly incapable of so black an offence as that of
forgetting or wilfully overlooking a kind turn or bene-
faction from a neighbour.

The world is also a cold and heartless world. Every one becomes convinced of this, when, falling into a few trifling difficulties, he goes about making an endeavour to borrow a hundred pounds. Mr Peregrine Harmnone was in these circumstances, and thought he had nothing more to do than to call on his friends Wilson and Jackson for the amount. But his friends had no money to spare. He forthwith declaimed against the heartlessness of the world, altogether forgetting that, when poor Robson applied to him last year for a like favour, he found himself unfortunately very low in account with his banker. So also, when Mr Abraham Sandy, merchant in Liverpool, failed in business, and applied to a few houses with which he used to be on very good terms, for renewed credit, he found himself rather coolly received, and his orders civilly declined. Remembering how friendly the partners in all those cases had once been, he began to talk of the heartlessness of the world, never once adverting to the fact that, There surely is some strange falsity at the bottom not six months before, he had declined being a security of these common forms of speech. It is not, of course, for a credit to his own brother-in-law. Mr Sandy's to be denied that censoriousness, evil thinking, deceitdaughters, finding he was unable to recommence fulness, envy, and other such bad things, exist, and business, very properly resolved to be no burden to that to a considerable extent. It is also by no means him; but a year had not elapsed before they also uncommon to see reduced merchants sink in credit, began to talk of the coldness and heartlessness of the and impoverished families cease to be so much courted world, having found that, as family instructresses as they were in the days of their prosperity. But amongst strangers, they were not objects of so flat- the vices of censoriousness, deceitfulness, envy, &c., tering a regard as they had been when they were are faults which beset human nature in general; the thought to be young ladies of fortune, and dispensed impoverished decline into the condition of those who the hospitalities of their father's elegant home. It were always poor, by an irresistible tendency in our quite escaped the recollection of these young ladies social system; and if there is not much gratitude in that, when an orphan cousin of theirs came a few the world, may it not be owing to this that when years before to live with them, they had not been favours are conferred, there is usually an expectation more than sufficiently kind to her, always taking care of future deference, against which some principle to let gentlemen know that she was only a person common to all obliged parties hastens to rebel, and whom their father had been pleased to take into his which is therefore never to be satisfied? Such faults, house, because she had been left without a penny, and also taking specially good care that she never accompanied them to the balls at which they showed off amongst the gayest of the gay. Mr Sandy now lived in a poor lodging, where he was never visited by any of the friends who used to be delighted to wait upon him at his handsome villa two miles out of town. The world, he sighed to think, was but a summer friend.

as far as they are faults, attach to all. Let almost
any human being be in the circumstances proper for
bringing them out, and out they will come. They
are sentiments and acts liable to occur when human
beings are in a certain relation to each other, and
which no one can hope altogether to avoid. How
strange, then, for any one person to speak of them as
things attaching to all besides himself!

PRICE THREE HALFPENCE.

There are some other ways of talking of the world, which seem not quite free from similar absurdity. One often hears of its being difficult to "get on in the world." Now, the world is a common good, of which every person gets a share proportioned to his abilities, industry, the judgment he may have exercised in selecting a branch of employment, and the accidents of fortune to which he, like all other persons, is liable. If any individual, therefore, finds more than the usual difficulty, it must be from some inconsistency between these things and the extent of his wishes. He has had the same chance as the rest; his woes and weals, his fortunes and misfortunes, are exactly such as would have befallen any other person in precisely the same circumstances, and with precisely the same qualities as himself. He has therefore no right cause to find fault with the world, though it may be quite possible that, if he were carefully to inquire, he might find some in the history of his own actings with regard to circumstances, or his expectations and desires, as contrasted with what his abilities and fortune have brought to him. Again, it is not uncommon, when some instance of over-reaching is mentioned, to hear the remark, "Ay, it is the way of the world." There is here either a very loose observation of human nature, great prejudice, or an indifference to moral actions, for such things are only the way of a part of the world, and that but a small part, in most enlightened countries. Every one must have remarked how different minds consider the spirit of the world in various lights, according to the bent of their own nature. The ardent divine deems it a spirit indifferent to religion. The indifferent think it fanatical and bigoted. Morose and reserved persons consider it as given up to gaiety and frivolity. The gay are perpetually complaining that it is dull and stupid. The refined and unselfish think it sordid. No one of these suppositions is entirely true; they are only true in some part. They would never be affirmed as wholly true, were it not for certain habitual feelings in the minds of those who affirm them. The human mind is a cluster of various faculties, each of which seeks in the world for its appropriate gratification; and the employments of men are still more various than their faculties. Amidst such a bewildering variety of thoughts, desires, and actions, how can any one say that the spirit of the world is of any one special character whatever? Yet, attributing general characteristics to the world is a thing of daily Occurrence. We lately read somewhere, that if Walter Scott had not had the ambition to be a great man "of the world's kind," he might have ended his life more happily. What can be the meaning of this? How could any one be what is called great, without having the praises of a pretty large section (at least) of the world. If it were said that the great novelist aimed too exclusively at being a man of wealth and title, the remark would be just, for such certainly was a fatal ambition in Scott. But if this is what is meant by being a great man after the world's fashion, we would deny the justice of the remark. The admiration or greatness which Scott acquired by literature was so much more than any he could gain by merely being a baronet and the owner of an estate, that the two are not worthy of being spoken of in the same day. For one that would have admired the greatness of a Roxburghshire country gentleman, there must have been thousands to admire the unprecedented novelist. We would therefore deny that it was the world's kind of greatness which he aimed at, but only that of a limited class in a limited district.

Upon the whole, there is extremely little rationality in sweeping charges, or depreciatory expressions,