went to live with Susan, but Susan's house was small, And she was always a-hintin' how snug it was for us all; And what with her husband's sisters, and what with childr'n three, 'Twas easy to discover that there wasn't room for me. An' then I went to Thomas, the oldest son I've got, For Thomas's buildings 'd cover the half of an acre lot; But all the childr'n was on me-I couldn't stand their sauce And Thomas said I needn't think I was comin' there to boss. An' then I wrote to Rebecca, my girl who lives out West, And to Isaac, not far from her-some twenty miles at best; And one of 'em said 'twas too warm there for any one so old, And t'other had an opinion the climate was too cold. So they have shirked and slighted me, an' shifted me about So they have well'nigh soured me, an' wore my old heart out; But still I've borne up pretty well, an' wasn't much put down; Till Charley went to the poor-master, an' put me on the town. Over the hill to the poor-house-my childr'n dear, good-bye! Many a night I've watched you when only God was nigh; And God'll judge between us; but I will always pray That you shall never suffer the half I do to-day. When kindness, love, and concord may be ours. MONEY. GEORGE HERBERT. Money, thou bane of bliss, and source of woe, I know thy parentage is base and low: Sure thou didst so little contribute To this great kingdom, which thou now hast got, Then forcing thee, by fire he made thee bright: Man calleth thee his wealth who made thee rich: And while he digs out thee, falls in the ditch. TRIFLES. HANNAH MORE. Since trifles make the sum of human things, BEN NEVIS. JOHN KEATS. We climb, we pant, we pause; again we climb: While toiling up the immeasurable height GOLDEN THOUGHTS. WHICH FURNISH A THEME FOR REFLECTION, AND A TEXT FOR MENTAL DISCOURSE. Labor: Excellence is never granted to man but as the reward of labor. It argues, indeed, no small strength of mind to persevere in the habits of industry without the pleasure of perceiving those advantages which, like the hands of a clock, whilst they make hourly approaches to their point, yet proceed so slowly as to escape observation -Reynolds. Laughter: Laughter, while it lasts, slackens and unbraces the the mind, weakens the faculties, and causes a kind of remissness and dissolution in all the powers of the soul; and thus far it may be looked upon as a weakness in the composition of human nature. But if we consider the frequent reliefs we receive from it, and how often it breaks the gloom which is apt to depress the mind and damp our spirits, with transient, unexpected gleams of joy, one would take care not to grow too wise for so great a pleasure of life.—Addison. Life: We talk of human life as a journey; but how variously is that journey performed! There are those who come forth girt, and shod, and mantled, to walk on velvet lawns and smooth terraces, where every gale is arrested and every beam is tempered. There are others who walk on the Alpine paths of life, against driving misery and through stormy sorrows over sharp afflictions; walk with bare feet and naked breast, jaded, mangled, and chilled.—Sidney Smith. Mother: The love of a mother is never exhausted, it never changes, it never tires. A father may turn his back on his child, brothers and sisters may become inveterate enemies, husbands may desert their wives, wives their husbands, but a mother's love endures through all; in good repute, in bad repute, in the face of the world's condemnation, a mother still loves on and still hopes that her child may turn from his evil ways and repent; still she remembers the infant smiles that once filled her bosom with rapture, the merry laugh, the joyful shout of his childhood, the opening promise of his youth, and she can never be brought to think him all unworthy.—Washington Irving. Memory: Memory is the only paradise out of which we can not be driven away.—Richter. 'Tis memory alone that enriches the mind by preserving what our labor and industry daily collects.-Watts. Memory is the power to receive again in our minds those ideas which, after imprinting, have disappeared, or have been laid aside out of sight.— Locke. Nature: The works of nature will bear a thousand views and reviews; the more frequently and narrowly we look into them the more occasion we shall have to admire their beauty.-Atterbury. Nature, the handmaid of God Almighty, doth nothing but with good advice, if we make researches into the true reason of things.-James Howells. It is a great mortification to the vanity of man that his utmost art and industry can never equal the meanest of nature's productions either for beauty or value.-Hume. Novelty : Novelty is the great parent of pleasure.—South. Novelty has charms that our minds can hardly withstand.-Thackeray. Obstinacy: Obstinacy in opinions holds the dogmatist in the chains of error, without hope of emancipation.— Glanville. Opinion: No liberal man would ever impute a charge of unsteadiness to another for having changed his opinion. -Cicero. Opinion is, when the assent of the understanding is so far gained by evidence of probability that it rather inclines to one persuasion than to another, yet not altogether without a mixture of uncertainty, or doubting -Hale. OGRES. WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY. A I dare say the reader has remarked that the upright and independent vowel, which stands in the voweltist between E and O, has formed the subject of the main part of these essays. How does that vowel feel this morning?-fresh, good-humored, and lively? The Roundabout lines, which fall from this pen, are correspondingly brisk and cheerful. Has anything, on the contrary, disagreed with the vowel? Has its rest been disturbed, or was yesterday's dinner too good, or yesterday's wine not good enough? Under such circumstances, a darkening, misanthropic tinge, no doubt, is cast upon the paper. The jokes, if attempted, are elaborate and dreary. The bitter temper breaks out. That sneering manner is adopted, which you know, and which exhibits itself so especially when the writer is speaking about women. moody carelessness comes over him. He sees no good in anybody or thing; and treats gentlemen, ladies, history, and things in general, with a like gloomy flippancy. Agreed. When the vowel in question is in that mood, if you like airy gayety and tender gushing benevolence—if you want to be satisfied with yourself and the rest of your fellowbeings: I recommend you, my dear creature, to go to some other shop in Cornhill, or turn to some other article. There are moods in the mind of the yowel of which we are speaking, when it is ill-conditioned and captious. Who always keeps good health, and good humor? Do not philosophers grumble? Are not sages sometimes out of temper? and do not angel women go off in tantrums? To-day my mood is dark. I scowl as I dip my pen into the inkstand. Here is the day come round-for everything here is done with the utmost regularity: - intellectual labor, sixteen hours; meals, thirty-two minutes; exercise, a hundred and forty-eight minutes; conversation with the family, chiefly literary, and about the housekeeping, one hour and four minutes; sleep, three hours and fifteen minutes (at the end of the month, when the Magazine is complete, I own I take eight minutes more); and the rest for the toilet and the world. Well, I say, the Roundabout Paper Day being come, and the subject long since settled in my mind, an excellent subject-a most telling, lively, and popular subject-I go to breakfast determined to finish the meal in 934 minutes, as usual, and then retire to my desk and work, when-oh, provoking! Here in the paper is the very subject treated, on which I was going to write! Yesterday another paper which I saw treated it--and of course, as I need not tell you, spoiled it. Last Saturday, another paper had an article on the subject; perhaps you may guess what it was-but I won't tell you. Only this is true, my favorite subject, which was about to make the best paper we have had for a long time; my bird, my game that I was going to shoot and serve up with Auch a delicate sauce, has been found by other sports men; and pop, pop, pop, a half-dozen of guns have banged at it, mangled it, and brought it down. "And can't you take some other text?" say you. All this is mighty well. But if you have set your heart on a certain dish for dinner, be it cold boiled veal, or what you will, and they bring you turtle and venison, don't you feel disappointed? During your walk you have been making up your mind that that cold meat, with moderation and a pickle, will be a very sufficient dinner: you have accustomed your thoughts to it; and here, in place of it, is a turkey, surrounded by coarse sausages, or a reeking pigeonpie, or a fulsome roast-pig. I have known many a good and kind man made furiously angry by such a contretemps. I have known him to lose his temper, call his wife and servants names, and a whole household made miserable. If, then, as is notoriously the case, it is too dangerous to balk a man about his dinner, how much more about his article? I came to my meal with an ogre-like appetite and gusto. Fee, faw, fum! Wife, where is that tender little Princekin? Have you trussed him, and did you stuff him nicely, and have you taken care to baste him and do him, not too brown, as I told you? Quick! I am hungry! I begin to whet my knife, to roll my eyes about, and roar and clap my huge chest like a gorilla; and then my poor Ogrina has to tell me that the little princes have all run away, whilst she was in the kitchen, making the paste to bake them in! I pause in the description. I won't condescend to report the bad language, which you know must ensue, when an ogre, whose mind is ill regulated, and whose habits of self-indulgence are notorious, finds himself disappointed of his greedy hopes. What treatment of his wife, what abuse and brutal behavior to his children, who, though ogrillons, are children! My dears, you may ncy, and need not ask my delicate pen to describe, the language and behavior of a vulgar, coarse, greedy, large man, with an immense mouth and teeth, which are too frequently employed in the gobbling and crunching of raw man's meat. And in this circuitous way you see I have reached my present subject, which is Ogres. You fancy they are dead or only fictitious characters-mythical representatives of strength, cruelty, stupidity, and lust for blood? Though they had seven-leagued boots, you remember all sorts of little whippingsnapping Tom Thumbs used to elude and outrun them. They were so stupid that they gave in to the most shallow ambuscades and artifices; witness that well-known ogre, who, because Jack cut open the hasty-pudding, instantly ripped open his own stupid waistcoat and interior. They were cruel, brutal, disgusting, with their sharpened teeth, immense knives, and roaring voices! But they always ended by being overcome by little Tom Thumbkins, or some other smart little champion. Yes; they were conquered in the end there is no doubt. They plunged headlong (and uttering the |