not, my father thinks, have found out; and placing him on the best seat vacant, told his daughters to go on with the duet; while Dr. Johnson, intently rolling towards them one eye, — for they say he does not see with the other, — made a grave nod, and gave a dignified motion with one hand, in silent approvance of the proceeding.

-

The doctor is indeed very ill-favoured! Yet he has naturally a noble figure; tall, stout, grand, and authoritative: but he stoops horribly; his back is quite round; his mouth is continually opening and shutting, as if he were chewing something; he has a singular method of twirling his fingers and twisting his hands; his vast body is in constant agitation, seesawing backwards and forwards; his feet are never a moment quiet; and his whole great person looked often as if it were going to roll itself quite voluntarily from its chair to the floor.

His dress, considering the times, and that he had meant to put on his best-becomes, for he was engaged to dine with a very fine party at Mrs. Montagu's, was as much out of the common road as his figure. He had a large, full, bushy wig, a snuff-coloured coat, with gold buttons, (or, peradventure, brass,) but no ruffles to his doughty fists; and not, I suppose, to be taken for a Blue, though going to the Blue Queen, he had on very coarse black worsted stockings. He is shockingly near-sighted; a thousand times more so than either my father or myself. He did not even know Mrs. 'Thrale, till she held out her hand to him, which she did very engagingly.

When the duet was finished, my father introduced Miss Hester Burney to him, as an old acquaintance, to whom, when she was a little girl, he had presented his Idler. His answer to this was imprinting on her pretty face, - not a half touch of a courtly salute, but a good, real, substantial, and very loud kiss. Beyond this chaste embrace, his attention was not to be drawn off two minutes longer from the books, to which he now strided his way; for we had left the drawing-room for the library, on account of the piano-forte. He pored over them, shelf by shelf, almost brushing them with his eyelashes, from near examination. At last, fixing upon something that happened to hit his fancy, he took it down, and, standing aloof from the company, which he seemed clean and clear to forget, he began without further ceremony, and very composedly, to read to himself, and as intently as if he had been alone in his own study.

Love, that watched my early years With conflicting hopes and fears; Love, that through life's flowery May Led my childhood, prone to stray; Love, that still directs my youth With the constancy of Truth, Heightens every bliss it shares, Softens and divides the cares, Smiles away my light distress, Weeps for joy, or tenderness: -May that love, to latest age, Cheer my earthly pilgrimage; May that love, o'er death victorious, Rise beyond the grave, more glorious! Souls, united here, would be One to all eternity!

When these eyes, from native night, First unfolded to the light, On what object, fair and new, Did they fix their fondest view? On my Mother's smiling mien; All the mother there was seen. When their weary lids would close, And she sang me to repose, Found I not the sweetest rest On my Mother's peaceful breast?

When my tongue from hers had caught

Sounds to utter infant thought,

Readiest then what accents came?

Those that meant my Mother's name.

When my timid feet begun,
Strangely pleased, to stand or run,
'Twas my Mother's voice and eye
Most encouraged me to try,

Safe to run, and strong to stand,
Holding by her gentle hand.

Time, since then, hath deeper made Lines where youthful dimples played; Yet to me my Mother's face Wears a more angelic grace: And her tresses thin and hoary, Are they not a crown of glory?

-Cruel griefs have wrung that breast,
Once my paradise of rest;

While in these I bear a part,
Warmer grows my Mother's heart;
Closer our affections twine;
Mine with hers, and hers with mine.
- Many a name, since hers I knew,
Have I loved with honour due;

But no name shall be more dear
Than my Mother's to mine ear.
-Many a hand that Friendship plighted
Have I clasped, with all delighted,
But more faithful none can be
Than my Mother's hand to me.

THE day I paid my visit to the Tower of London, I was accompanied by a young French nobleman; and he was highly amused at the pompous gravity of the men who exhibited the curiosities. Every time that a thumb-screw, toe

screw, leg-screw, nose-screw, or any other article, was pointed out to our inspection, with the unavoidable comment, - the Frenchman turned to me, and exclaimed-"Ah! here are the Spaniards yet!" This was repeated a great number of times; and I was really put to the blush, when I considered how very flagitious my countrymen had been. At last, we came to a room where we were shown something similar to the above taken from the French. I then turned to my companion, and retorted on him.

We had already given several shillings, and were coming away, when I perceived a board stuck up at the door, on which some words were written to the following purpose, or something like it: "It is expected that visitors will compliment the warden."

This was the cause of a very ludicrous mistake. My French companion was not very conversant with the English language, at the time, and having read the above inscription, most innocently took the thing in a literal sense. Accordingly, while the plump and grave warden was, in becoming silence, expecting the "compliment," the Frenchman,remarkable for politeness, — could not be neglectful of complying with what he conceived was enjoined by the inscription. He made, therefore, a graceful bow to the formal warden, and, in broken English, began to compliment the warden on his civil attentions. The man, addressed in this novel way, stared, for some time, in astonishment. A friend who was with us, burst out into laughter. — I did little less; and this tended to heighten the effect of the scene.

The warden, conceiving that it was a joke, and probably not being partial to such things, put on a most demure aspect. Indeed, he so far increased his natural stock of dull gravity, that he looked formidable. The Frenchman perceiving that his most elegant and well-bred compliments were received not merely with indifference, but had evidently offended, began to stare in turn, and ended, no doubt, by attributing the affair to his inexperience of the English tongue. But his understanding was soon enlightened. I slipped half-a-crown into the hand of the warden, which made him unbend from his rigidity; whilst a few words from my friend Stanley set our companion right concerning his strange mistake. "The mischief!" cried the young Frenchman smiling. "This is what the English mean by 'compliments !'”

As we retraced our steps, this scene afforded ample matter for comment and mirth. The Frenchman now and then

C There my dear grandmother, eldest of forms,
'Tended the little ones, and watched from harm,
Anxiously fond; though oft her spectacles
With elfin cunning hid, and oft the pins

Drawn from her ravelled stockings, might have soured
One less indulgent.-

At intervals my mother's voice was heard,
Urging despatch: briskly the work went on,
All hands employed to wash, to rinse, to wring,
To fold, and starch, and clap, and iron, and plait.
Then would I sit me down, and ponder much
Why washings were. Sometimes through hollow bowl
Of pipe amused me, blew and sent aloft

The floating bubbles; - little dreaming then
To see, Mongolfier! thy silken ball
Ride buoyant through the clouds,

so near approach

The sports of children and the toils of men.
Earth, air, and sky, and ocean, have their bubbles;
And verse is one of them: - this most of all.

A CHARACTERISTIC peculiarity in the private life of the French, is the influence exercised by women in matters of business. Women are entities in France! The law assigns them definite rights, and nature the inclination to maintain them. Their signature being indispensable in all family acts, they are consulted in the administration of matters which Englishwomen have as little the power as the inclination to control; and it rarely happens that the state of a man's lawsuits, estates, funds, or speculations, is not better understood by his wife than by himself. Book-keeping, in retail trade, is invariably the province of the woman; a shopwoman or female clerk, presiding at the desk, and receiving the money, while a shopman measures out the riband, or enlarges on the texture of a Fernaux shawl! At the theatres, the box-openers are invariably of the feminine gender; and a thousand masculine avocations dependent on the exercise of shrewdness, are executed by females; while scrubbing and rubbing, bed