The Complicated Ceremony of Shaving

'A LOOKING-GLASS is a piece of furniture a great deal worse than useless. Looking at the face will not alter its shape or its colour; and perhaps, of all wasted time, none is so foolishly wasted as that which is employed in surveying one's own face.

Nothing can be of little importance if one be compelled to attend to it every day of our lives. If we shaved but once a year, or once a month, the execution of the thing would be hardly worth naming; but this is a piece of work that must be done once every day; and as it may cost only about five minutes of time, and may be, and frequently is, made to cost thirty, or even fifty minutes; and as only fifteen minutes make about a fifty-eighth part of the hours of our average daylight, this being the case, this is a matter of real importance. I once heard Sir John Sinclair ask Mr. Cochrane Johnstone whether he meant to have a son of his (then a little boy) taught Latin. "No," said Mr. Johnstone, “but I mean to do something a great deal better for him." "What is that?" said Sir John. "Why," said the other, "teach him to shave with cold water and without a glass." Which, I dare say, he did; and for which benefit I am sure that son has good reason to be grateful.

Only think of the inconvenience attending the common practice! There must be hot water. To have this, there must be a fire, and, in some cases, a fire for that purpose alone. To have these, there must be a servant, or you must light a fire yourself. For the want of these the job is put off until a later hour. This causes a stripping and another dress

ing bout. Or you go in a slovenly state all that day, and the next day the thing must be done, or cleanliness must be abandoned altogether. If you be on a journey, you must wait the pleasure of the servants at the inn before you can dress and set out in the morning. The pleasant time for travelling is gone before you can move from the spot. Instead of being at the end of your day's journey in good time, you are benighted, and have to endure all the great inconveniences attendant on tardy movements. And all this from the apparently insignificant affair of shaving!-" Advice to a Youth."

George Canning

The University of Gottingen

WHENE'ER with haggard eyes I view
This dungeon that I'm rotting in,
I think of those companions true
Who studied with me at the U-
niversity of Gottingen-

niversity of Gottingen!

Sweet kerchief, checked with heavenly blue,
Which once my love sat notting in!
Alas! Matilda then was true!

At least I thought so at the U

niversity of Gottingen

niversity of Gottingen.

Barbs! Barbs! alas, how swift you flew,

Her neat post-wagon trotting in!

Ye bore Matilda from my view;
Forlorn I languished at the U-

niversity of Gottingen-
niversity of Gottingen.

This faded form! This pallid hue!
This blood my veins is clotting in!
My years are many; they were few
When first I entered at the U-

niversity of Gottingen

niversity of Gottingen.

There, sweet, for thee my passion grew,
Sweet, sweet Matilda Pottingen!
Thou wast the daughter of my tu-
tor, law professor at the U-

niversity of Gottingen

niversity of Gottingen.

Sun, moon, and thou, vain world, adieu,
That kings and priests are plotting in.
Here, doomed to starve on water gru-
el, never shall I see the U-

niversity of Gottingen

niversity of Gottingen.

"The Rovers."

Frances Burney

Who Gave Us that Shove?

MADAME DUVAL was accompanied by Monsieur Du Bois. I am surprised that she should introduce him where he is so unwelcome; and, indeed, it is strange that they should be so constantly together, though I believe I should not have taken notice of it, but that Captain Mirvan is perpetually rallying me on my grandmamma's beau.

They were both received by Mrs. Mirvan with her usual good-breeding, but the captain most provokingly attacked her immediately, saying, "Now, madam, you that have lived abroad, please tell me this here: which did you like best, the warm room at Ranlagh, or the cold bath you went into afterward? Though, I assure you, you look so well, that I should advise you to take another dip."

"Ma foi, sir!" cried she, "nobody asked for your advice, so you may as well keep it to yourself. Besides, it's no such great joke to be splashed and to catch cold, and spoil all one's things, whatever you may think of it."

"Splashed, quoth-a! Why, I thought you were soused all over. Come, come, don't mince the matter; never spoil a good story; you know you had not a dry thread about you. 'Fore George, I shall never think on't without hallooing! Such a poor, forlorn, draggle-tailed gentlewoman!

poor Monseer French here, like a drowned rat, by your side!"

"Well, the worse pickle we was in, so much the worser in you not to help us; for you know where we were fast enough,