ment, condition, and my other more solid pleasures of Knowledge and reputation, I will enjoy, but no farther; and this I will carefully watch and examine, that I may not be deceived by the flattery of a present pleasure to lose a greater.

A regulated habit of looking beyond our immediate situations is justly considered the parent of all laudable enterprises. But the habit must be regulated, and strictly regulated, or it will become the source of miseries and crime. The secret for its regulation may be shortly expressed. He who pursues a future happiness, prosperity, or honour, by the right path, does not cast away the good in his possession, nor neglect the duties which lie before him; but he endeavours to shape them by slow degrees to that model of perfection which his feelings or his reason have set up. On the other hand, he who views some distant object of desire, without connecting it with his immediate obligations, neither attains the blessings within his reach, nor approaches a single step to the ideal good; he has cast away the link which connects the present with the future.

ADVANTAGES OF THE DIFFUSION OF KNOWLEDGE.-An intelligent class can scarce ever be, as a class, vicious; never, as a class, indolent. The excited mental activity operates as a counterpoise to the stimulus of sense and appetite. The new world of ideas; the new views of the relations of things; the astonishing secrets of the physical properties and mechanical powers, disclosed to the wellinformed mind, present attractions, which, unless the character is deeply sunk, are sufficient to counterbalance the taste for frivolous or corrupt pleasures; and thus, in the end, a standard of character is created in the community, which, though it does not invariably save each individual, protects the virtue of the mass.-Everett's Essay.

a strong hazel rod in a bent position. The moment the peg is moved the end of the rod which is held down flies up, and with it comes up the poor mole, dragged out of the earth which he has so ingeniously excavated, to be gibbetted without a chance of escape. The trap is very in spite of their human enemies. Mole-catchers, a plodsimple and effectual; but, somehow, the moles flourish ding, unscientific race, know little of their trade, which requires, the most accurate study of the habits of the animal. There was a Frenchman of the name of Le Court, (he died about two years ago,) a man of great knowledge and perseverance, who did not think it beneath him to devote his whole attention to the observation of the mole. He established a school for mole-catching; and taught many, what he had acquired by incessant perseverance, the art of tracing the mole to his hiding-place in the ground, and cutting off his retreat. The skill of this man once saved a large and fertile district of France from inundation by a canal, whose banks the moles had undermined in every direction. Le Court alone saw the mischief, and could stop it. Doubts have been entertained whether moles are really so mischievous to the farmer as they are generally supposed to be. It has been said that they assist the draining of land by forming their excavations, and that they thus prevent the foot-rot in sheep.

THE WEEK.

APRIL 15.-Palm-Sunday-The Palm, in the countries where it grows, has been the symbol of triumph in ancient and modern times. The triumph which is commemorated on this day is the peaceful entry of Christ into Jerusalem. This festival was observed with much solemnity in the Catholic times in England, and the people were accustomed to make a procession, bearing boughs of blossoming willow as most resembling the fan-like branches of the palm. An old writer on plants says, speaking of willow, "The blossoms come forth before any leaves appear, and are in their most flourishing estate usually about Easter, divers gathering them to deck up their houses on Palm-Sunday; and therefore the said flowers are called Palm." The date-palm is in

many respects one of the most valuable trees of the East, affording sustenance to an immense population, and cheering a sterile region by its beauty

THE MOLE

The Moles are beginning to throw up the earth, and to destroy the herbage of the light soils. What an extra ordinary animal is the mole! We constantly see his traces of destructiveness, but how difficult is it to track him to his hiding-place. And no wonder: his excavations are galleries of many feet in length, worked out by his snout and strong fore-paws, with all the skill and expedition of a human miner; and when he is alarmed he retreats to his citadel, and defies all enemies. The mole, as is well known to our country readers, is destroyed by a trap of peculiar construction, which is discharged by the little animal passing through it. The mole-catcher-in general a quiet old man, who passes the winter in making his traps in his chimney corner-comes forth at this season with his implements of destruction. His practised eye soon discovers the track of the mole, from the mound which he throws up to some neighbouring bank, or from one mound to another. It is in this track or run that he sets his trap, a few inches below the rurface of the ground. As the mole passes through this *tle engine of his ruin he disturbs a peg which holds down

[Date Palm, and Fruit.]

April 17.-The birth-day of Edward Stillingfleet, Bishop of Worcester, a most learned and able prelate, born at Cranbourne, in Dorsetshire, in 1635. Stillingfleet's greatest and best known work is his Origines Sacræ, or a Rational Account of Natural and Revealed Religion,' first published in 1672; a profound and eloquent performance. He is the author also of a considerable number of other works. He was promoted to the See of Worcester soon after the Revolution, and died on the 27th of March, 1699.

April 19.-Maundy Thursday.-Maundy is a corruption of the Latin word mando, to command. This

is the day on which the Saviour commanded his disciples | for the use of one family cannot accommodate more "to love one another." The acts of love and humility than one; these articles are in constant requisition; which he performed on that day used to be imitated by their possessor cannot admit his neighbours to share great monarchs of Europe, in washing the feet of the them with him. But the collection of books which we poor. A better imitation would have been to have ab- have supposed to be formed in the course of twenty stained from those many deeds of tyranny which disfigure years, at a cost of as many pounds, might be made the ancient annals of every kingdom. At the present to dispense its benefits among twenty families, without day, in England, the King's almoner at Whitehall dis- an individual belonging to any one of them being detributes silver pence to old and indigent persons on prived of any part of the advantage which he would this celebration. have enjoyed if he had been the only person by whom the books could be read. When so many families, then, can be found in the same place, disposed to join their contributions for this purpose, the complete command of such a collection by all of them is obtained at a very small cost to each. Instead of a pound a year, it is only a shilling; or, if they choose to pay annually a pound each, they have each of them access to twenty times more books in consequence of their union than they could have obtained the use of separately by the same expenditure. They will probably find it best to mix these two advantages-to subscribe, say fourth part of a pound, or five shillings, which will still procure them five times as much reading as the expenditure of the whole pound by each of them separately would have procured

April 20.-Good-Friday, being the anniversary of our Saviour's crucifixion, is the most solemn fast of the Christian Church. The Cross-bun, however, has long ceased in England to be the morsel by which the severity of the last days of Lent was mitigated. In the old time Lent was not "more honoured in the breach than the observance." We find from the household book of the Earl of Northumberland, which was kept in 1512, that throughout Lent, "beginning at Shrovetide and ending at Easter," the breakfast (a great meal in an ancient family) consisted, "for my Lord and my Lady," of "two pieces of salt fish, four herrings, or a dish of sprats," instead of the customary allowance at other seasons of "half a chine of mutton or a chine of beef;" and the food at a Lenten supper was equally meagre. The transgressors of Lent were subject to ecclesiastical discipline. Strype, in his Memorials,' records that a man did penance at St. Paul's Cross, in 1555, for attempting to sell two pigs ready drest during the fast.

THE LIBRARY.

"My Library

Was Dukedom large enough."-Prospero, in the Tempest.

Such are the advantages of union, here as in every thing else. But a farther improvement on popular libraries has been lately recommended and put in practice in some parts of the country, and chiefly in Scotland, by the exertions of Mr. Brown, of Haddington. If a poor man were every year, or every quarter, to exchange his tables and chairs and bedsteads for others of about the same value, he would make nothing of the operation except a THE cheapest of all enjoyments by far is that which great deal of trouble and waste of time. The articles is derived from books. We hold a library, therefore, which he received would not answer his purpose better to be among the fittest furniture of even the poorest than those which he parted with; he would not derive any man's cottage. A most important and cheering conmore accommodation from the strange furniture than he sideration in reference to this sort of furniture is, that might have done from that to which he had been used. the more the demand for books shall grow and extend But here again books have an advantage peculiar to itself the cheaper are they sure to be sold. The price themselves. When you have read through one collection, even of many new books, owing to the large sale upon another collection, consisting of different works, although which the publisher can now count by the increase of intrinsically of no greater value, has yet a much greater readers, is now so low, that for a few pounds, expended value to you; the information which the new books comin the course of as many years, at the easy rate of a shil- municate forms a positive addition to whatever knowledge ing or two at a time, almost as many volumes may be your mind has already stored up. Hence the idea of purchased, full of the most instructive and interesting itinerating, or travelling, libraries. Let us suppose that information, as a labouring man and his family have, in half-a-dozen contiguous villages in a particular district general, leisure to read and study. have each its small library, provided, in the manner already pointed out, by the united subscriptions of the inhabitants; if an arrangement be made that these six libraries shall consist of different works, and that the several collections, instead of remaining stationary, shall move about from one village to another, the body of readers in each village will obtain the use of six libraries at the cost of one. This principle may be applied, of course, either to enlarge the command of reading or to diminish the cost, or to produce partly the one effect and partly the other. It would probably be found the best plan to have a portion of each collection stationary; there being certain books, of general usefulness, or in great request, which it would be desirable to have everywhere always at hand.

Let but the small sum of one pound annually be expended in this way by a working man; and what a respectable stock of books might be collected in twenty years, gradually increasing as his family grew up. If the purchases were judiciously made, probably between one and two hundred of the most useful volumes in the anguage might be secured for this money. Many of them, indeed, would be second-hand copies; but, if they were in good condition, they would be no worse for that. Then, once purchased, this library would remain a valuable property for ever. Books, however much used, if they be only used properly, should never wear out. There are many volumes in the great public libraries of this and other countries, which have been in use for centuries, and yet are in as good condition as when they came from the press. It is only careless readers that destroy or injure books in using them.

In many situations a much more ample command of books may be obtained by the poorer classes for even much less than this cost, by a number of them joining together to maintain a common library. This is an advantage which books have over other articles of furniture. The same library might serve many families at the same time nearly as well as it could serve any one of them exclusively. The quantity of chairs and tables and other household goods which is required

But there is one great difficulty which both individuals and associations frequently feel in purchasing books. They are at a loss to know what books it is best for them to procure: or if they are anxious to procure a particular work, they do not know which is the edition that is likely, from its price or other recommendations, best to suit them. We propose in a series of short notices under our present title to lay before our readers, from time to time, such information as may assist them in the task of selection, in reference both to old and to new books. Without professing to go over the different departments of literature in any regular order, but rather seeking to

was a quarrelsome chap amongst us-his name was Joe D, and ne bullied and hectored poor Tom C― in a strange way. Tom bore it all patiently for some time, for he was a quiet, harmless fellow, and he perhaps bethought him that a quarrel would not do any good to his wife and children. At last Joe, who was filling out the mugs of beer, instead of handing Tom his allowance, threw it in his face. The poor fellow could not bear this-for, though goodnatured, he did not want spirit. He resented the insult. The other grew more saucy and savage, and at last he hit Tom a blow in the face. I am ashamed of myself, and of all the set, when I recollect how, for the love of mischief, we encouraged the quarrel, and got up to make a ring for two fellow-creatures to strive against each other like brute beasts. To it they went; in five minutes poor Tom received a blow in the stomach, and he never spoke afterwards. He fell down where the grass is cut away, and he breathed his last under the beech tree where the letters are carved. We carried him in our arms to the cottage ;-oh, that was a scene for his poor wife which I never, never shall forget! Joe fled the country ;-I saw him many years after, but he slunk along like a ghost, and I would much rather have died in my youth, like my poor fellow-woodman, than have borne about the fire which that man must have had in his heart. I do what I can to preserve the remembrance of poor Tom, as you see, for I am the last left of all who saw his frightful death. I have told my boys never to let the grass grow there when I am gone; maybe the sight of that lonely token of him may lead some to ask about it, as you have done; and the knowledge of the fatal effect of sudden quarrels may teach our children to live in peace with all

about them."

We have the Author's permission, in this and other extracts from The Flain Englishman,' to make such alterations of the original as may be deemed advisable.

PROTECTION OF TRADE.

[From a Correspondent.?

lation of the Canton Ticino lives entirely by smuggling foreign goods into Austrian Lombardy. The lakes Maggiore and Lugano, the waters of which are con sidered neutral, afford the smugglers great facilities. The efficiency of the protection afforded to home manufactures by prohibitory duties may be estimated by the fact that an insurance may be readily effected upon smuggled goods at a rate varying from 10 to 15 per cent. This fact is notorious in Austrian Lombardy. The results of the system are, loss to the government, which might derive a moderate duty on importation,-loss to the consumer who pays high for goods, which, after all, he must use, and loss to the country at large, which has to support a useless host of custom-house officers, and whose exports are limited by the trammels thus imposed on importation. Besides these evils, habits of fraud and contempt for the laws are fostered among the trading classes, and among the rural population of the border districts.

A MAN OVERBOARD

[From Capt. B. Hall's Fragments of Voyages and Travels. Second Series.]

66

sir, but I must do my duty." So saying, he drew the sleeve of his jacket twice or thrice across his eyes, and smothering his grief within his breast, walked to his station as if nothing had happened.

I REMEMBER once, when cruising off Terceira in the Endymion, that a man fell overboard and was drowned. After the usual confusion, and long search in vain, the boats were hoisted up, and the hands called to make sail. I was officer of the forecastle, and on looking about to see if all the men were at the station, missed one of the fore-top men. Just at that moment I observed some one curled up, and apparently hiding himself under the bow of the barge, between the boat and the booms. "Hillo!" I said, who are you? What are you doing here, you skulker? Why are you not at your station ?" "I am not skulking, sir," said the poor fellow, the furrows in whose bronzed and weather-beaten cheek were running down with tears. The man we had just lost had been his mess-mate and friend, he told me, for ten years. I begged his pardon, in full sincerity, for having used such harsh words to him at such a moment, and bid him go below to his berth for the rest of the THE Austrian government, like several other Conti- day. "Never mind, sir, never mind," said the kindnental governments, still adheres to the system of high hearted seaman, "it can't be helped. You meant no duties, amounting to prohibition, on foreign manufac-harm, sir. I am as well on deck as below. Bill's gone, tured goods. This is done with the intention of favouring home manufactures. Now mark the consequences! In 1817, an order came from Vienna, assimilating the custom-houses of Lombardy to those of the rest of the empire, and subjecting foreign manufactures to a duty of 60 per cent. on the value, equal, in short, to prohibition in most cases. Large buildings were soon after erected into manufactories, a few clever workmen engaged for a time, some pieces of calicoes, muslins, &c. woven and pompously exhibited, after which the manufacturer supplied himself with English, Swiss, and French cloths, by means of smuggling, which was carried on to an immense extent all along the vast line of fron-patrictic of naval institutions, the Marine Society, were tiers, the delivery being insured by companies established in the neighbouring states, and the pieces, marked with the imperial stamp, came out of the manufactories as home productions; the shops were full of foreign goods. Meantime, the custom-house receipts fell off one-half, custom-house officers and gendarmes were multiplied and maintained at a vast expense, whilst all along the frontier districts, there sprung up a proportionate array of smugglers, men who, by their perilous vocation, become familiar with violence and bloodshed, and by whom he peace of the country is continually endangered. The mock-manufacturers, if prosecuted, can show that they are able to make such and such pieces of the goods, "The captain of the forecastle, a tall, fine-looking, and unless taken in the act of smuggling, there are no hard-a-weather fellow, was standing on the shank of means of convicting them. The smuggling is carried the sheet-anchor with his arms across, and his wellon chiefly through the frontiers of Piedmont and Switzer- varnished canvas hat drawn so much over his eyes, that land, countries which have had the good sense to reject it was difficult to tell whether he was awake, or merely the protecting system. A great proportion of the popu-dozing in the sun, as he leaned his back against the

It

In the same ship, and nearly about the same time, the people were bathing alongside in a calm at sea. is customary on such occasions to spread a studding-sail on the water, by means of lines from the fore and main yard-arms, for the use of those who either cannot swim, or who are not expert in this art, so very important to all sea-faring people. Half a dozen of the ship's boys, youngsters sent on board by that admirable and most

floundering about in the sail, and sometimes even venturing beyond the leech-rope. One of the least of these urchins, but not the least courageous of their number, when taunted by his more skilful companions with being afraid, struck out boldly beyond the prescribed bounds. He had not gone much farther than his own length, however, along the surface of the fathomless sea, when his heart failed him, poor little man! and along with his confidence away also went his power of keeping his head above water. So down he sank rapidly, to the speechless horror of the other boys, who, of course, could lend the drowning child no help.