of the chalice, and the materials themselves are sometimes chemically changed, as it were, into something unknown before. Thus although all is old; all is new, in some degree, to every one; and to the uninstructed in the full extent. So much to prove that a novel may be new-now to show that although it is a fiction, it may be true. A novel is in its very nature a falsehood; yet if its author has the welfare of his fellow-creatures at heart, its substance and essence will be truth. A fable has been defined, "a feigned story intended to enforce some precept;" and a parable is said to be "a relation under which something else is feigned." But they are the same. They are both feigned stories, which ought to enforce truth: they are both "relations under which something else is feigned." And such is a novel. The author of the best code of moral law presented to man, taught many of his precepts by parables. He knew that he must attract and hold the attention, before he could instruct. A learned Divine once said, "When I see my congregation inclined to sleep, which sometimes happens of an afternoon, I could wish to read a novel to them instead of a sermon. Or, almost, to see a stage erected in my church, and a 'Morality' enacted, to awaken them to the truths I am in vain presenting from the pulpit." We learn from this, that the exertion of intellect necessary for receiving instruction is easier made when fasting than full-or, at least, that temperance facilitates thought. CONTENTS OF VOL. I. 3. 9. How to study law.-A change of destination 10. We return home,-Medicine and Theology in Vermont 11. We go to England, and what we did there . THIRTY YEARS AGO. CHAPTER I. A scene in the Park, and a walk on the Battery. "After your death you were better have a bad epitaph than their ill report while you live." "They'll take suggestions as a cat laps milk."-Shakspeare. "Nor numbers, nor example, with him wrought WHOEVER has been in the city of New-York, the great centre of the commerce of the western world, must remember the marble front of the hall of justice, or City Hall. Standing on the highest ground which the democratic system of filling up hollows by levelling hills, or lifting the low by removing the superfluity of the high, has left to the great commercial metropolis. Lifting its stainless face in the midst of catalpas and elms, poplars and sycamores, the pride of our forests, this structure, towers,-like the protecting genius of the land, inviting strangers to take shelter under the guardianship of law, and promising protection to the oppressed of all nations. It was on a fine day in the October of 1811, about the hour of noon, when the sun was shining bright and giving a dazzling lustre to the front of this building, that two gentlemen came from within, and descending the flight of stairs with the gay, elastic and careless step of youth, bent their way down the centre avenue of the enclosure, in eager conversation; only interrupted by occasional bursts of laughter. It was plain tha they were not of the tribe to which this building seems principally consigned the men of the law-there was not the hurried step, nor the thought-pressed brow; neither were they of the class of jurors dragged reluctantly from their own immediate affairs to pass upon the interests, or the lives, or liberties of others: nor were they litigious clients, filled with doubts and fears 1 of the law's uncertainty, or vexed by its delay-they were light and joyous as the day, (and what American knows not the beauty of an October day,) and appeared to defy or be unconscious of the existence of laws, judges, or jurors, except as their protectors from wrong. They were tastefully and fashionably dressed, and the shortest, who was not quite six feet in height, was a model of manly beauty; his companion was of the square herculean form, full six feet high, with the nose of a Roman Caesar, the eye of a Spanish contrabandista, and the complexion of a Circassian belle. The trees of the Park, for so the enclosure is called, were yet loaded with foliage, which the early frosts had changed from the uniform verdant livery of summer, to the motley brilliancy which distinguishes our autumnal scenery, presenting every tint from gaudy yellow to deep purple, through the intermediate shades of orange and scarlet; from the brightest golden hue, through various grades to the dusky brown, which denotes the speedy separation of the leaves from their parent stock, and return to that state in which they become its food. To such of the busy citizens as, in crossing this triangular pleasure-ground, find leisure to think of nature, this imperfect glimpse of the beauties of American landscape might recall other more variegated pictures; the scenery of our mountains, forests, and prairies: but these young men were not, at the moment our story begins, thinking of woods and wilds-the beauties of nature occupied their thoughts, but they were beauties of a higher order, though as fleeting as the changing foliage under which they loitered, laughed and lounged. They walked half-way down the centre avenue and stopped, as if without sufficient motive either to proceed or return; meanwhile the more Apollo-like gallant sported with a terrier dog that followed him, and who was addressed by the familiar appellation of Billy." After a few minutes of this wanton idling they, dog and all, bent their way again towards the hall of justice; appearing to look for some one to join them from thence, and they had nearly reached the portico when two very dissimilar figures came out of the front door of the theatre apparently from the box-office, and within view of the first-mentioned pair. The Park theatre, as we all know, being in its position opposite, or nearly so, to the hall of justice. 66 The walk to and from the hall took some minutes, notwithstanding that John Duncan, a Scotch traveller and A.B., says the enclosure we have praised only contains half an acre. ever our North-British friend should be condemned for his sins If |