Whoever has read those delightful Irish articles, which give such éclat to the most fashionable and popular of British periodicals,—whoever has laughed or wept over those pages of mingled pathos and humour, its Irish sketches, or has chatted with Canova and Cammucini on the arts of Rome, in the same miscellany, would find those delineations cold and feeble, could he witness the superior animation, with which I heard them given, vivâ voce, at our own round table of ten. There, the narrators added to the raciness of Irish humour, the high finish of dramatic mobility, the tone, the look, the accent, which constitute the merit of a well-told tale, but which will not print. To judge of this natural gift in all its felicity, it were well to become the auditor of one, whom it is a boast to know,*-who, whether he tells his humorous Irish story round the festive board of his own paternal mansion in Kildare, or, in his pretty hotel in the Chaussée d'Antin, relates his anecdote, in French, rivalling the purisme of Madame de Genlis, to the delight of listening academicians, and the envy of professed beaux esprits, still most * P. L―n, Esq. of M- in the county of Kildare. VOL. I.

D

happily illustrates that description of a raconteur, which he who has left no subject untouched, and was himself the best of story-tellers, has bequeathed to posterity

"A merrier man,

Within the limit of becoming mirth,
I never spent an hour's talk withal.
His eye begets occasion for his wit,
For every object that the one doth catch
The other turns to a mirth-moving jest ;
Which his fair tongue (conceit's expositor)
Delivers in such apt and gracious words,
That aged ears play truant to his tales,
And younger hearings are quite ravished :
So sweet and voluble is his discourse."

ETERNITY.

A COLLECTION of the opinions and desires of individuals, respecting eternity, would afford good food for meditation. The desire for existence beyond the grave is an almost inevitable consequence of the organic desire to live in the flesh; yet few would relish an eternity of the life they now lead, or even consent to retrace the past. Horne Tooke was among these few, and was so satisfied with his mortal career, as to wish its repetition in a perpetually recurring series. One day at dinner, he said, "A little Brentford election-a little trial for high treason (though, on another occasion, he said he would plead guilty, rather than undergo a second speech from the Attorney General)—a little contest with Junius-a little everything, down to the hare upon the table."

This, however, was the sentiment of a man refreshed by good cheer, and enlivened by good wine; and the philosophy of the dinner-table is always suspicious. One must appeal from "Philip drunk to Philip sober," to come at the real opinion of the individual.

"L'esprit que tient du corps,

En bien mangeant, remonte ses ressorts ;"

but the tones of an overstrained instrument are always false; and the proverb of truth in wine' fails in its application to the instance in question. To judge with sang-froid of existence, the party must be neither full nor fasting.

HORNE TOOKE.

HORNE TOOKE used to tell a juvenile story to my husband, (who in his boyhood occasionally partook of the 'Diversions of Purley,') very illustive of the narrator. Horne, when at Eton, was one day asked by the master why a certain verb governed a particular case? he answered, "I don't know." "That's impossible !" said the master. "I know you are not ignorant, but obstinate." Horne, however, persisted, and the master flogged. After punishment, the pedagogue quoted the rule of grammar which bore on the subject, and Horne instantly replied, "I know that very well; but you did not ask for the rule, you demanded the reason." Here we have the perspicuity of the mature dialectitian, and the dogged obstinacy which would not yield a step to authority, and could purchase a victory at any expense of suffering. Opinions may change, but the man, in his leading characteristics, is at fifty what he is at fifteen.