quent thoughts of his dissolution; and, as he was wont every year to note in his almanac, over against the day of his birth, the year of his age, so in this year, 1655, this note was found written with his own hand: "Now aged seventy-five years; my days are full." And presently after, in capital letters, "resignation;" from which we may gather that he now thought the days of his pilgrimage to be fulfilled, and that he now resigned up himself to God's will and pleasure. Not long before his death, going to Ryegate, I (writes the narrator) preached a sermon there, where this good bishop was present after church he was pleased to confer with me in private, (as it was usual with him so to do,) and he spake to this effect: "I thank you for your sermon. I am going out of this world; and I now desire, according to your text, (Col. iii, 12,) to seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God, and to be with him in heaven; of which," said he, "we ought not to doubt, if we can evidence to ourselves our conversion, true faith, and charity, and live in the exercise of those true graces and virtues with perseverance; mortifying daily our inbred corruptions, renouncing all ungodliness and worldly lusts; and he that is arrived at this habitual frame and holy course of life is the blessed and happy man, and may rejoice in hope of a glorious eternity in the kingdom of heaven, to receive that inheritance given by God to those that are sanctified." such a heavenly manner, as if, like Moses upon Mount Pisgah, he had then a prospect of the celestial Canaan. Next morning early he complained of a great pain in his side: a physician, being sent for, prescribed what he thought convenient in the case; but it could not thereby be removed, but rather increased more and more upon him, which he bore with great patience for thirteen or fourteen hours; but, his strength and spirits decaying, he wholly applied himself to prayer, and therein had the assistance of the countess's chaplain. Upon some abatement of the torture, he advised those about him to provide for death in the time of health, that then they might have nothing else to do but to die. Then taking leave of the Countess of Peterborough, by whom he had been so long and kindly entertained, and giving her thanks for all her kindness to him, with excellent spiritual counsel as a return for all her favors, he desired to be left to his own private devotions. After which, the last words he was heard to utter, (about one o'clock in the afternoon,) praying for forgiveness of sins, were these, viz.: "O Lord, forgive me, especially my sins of omission." So presently after this, in sure hope of a glorious immortality, he fell asleep, to the great grief and affliction of the said countess, who could never sufficiently lament her own and the Church's great loss by his too sudden departure out of this life. Thus died this humble and holy man, praying for his sins of omission, who was never known to omit his duty, or scarce to have let any time slip wherein he was not employed in some good action or other. So that all his discourse was of heavenly things, as if his better part had been there already, freed from the body and all terrene affections; and he seemed as if he were seriously considering his spiritual THE ROSE.-Professor Agassiz, in a lecstate, and making ready for his departure, ture upon the trees of America, stated a which he now shortly expected. But remarkable fact in regard to the family of since it had been usual with him to insist the rose, which includes among its varieon things of this nature when we were to- ties not only many of the beautiful flowers gether, and that he was at this time in which are known, but also the richest health, I did not believe that his change fruits, such as the apple, pear, peach, was so near as he presaged; yet he him- plum, apricot, cherry, strawberry, raspself had other thoughts, and it proved that berry, blackberry, &c.—namely, that no he was not mistaken; for on the 20th of fossils of plants belonging to this family March (the day he fell sick), after he had have ever been discovered by geologists. been most part of it, as long as he had This he regarded as conclusive evidence light, at his study, he went from thence to that the introduction of this family of visit a gentlewoman then sick in the plants upon the earth was coeval with or house, giving her most excellent prepara- subsequent to the creation of man, to whose tives for death, together with other holy comfort and happiness they seem especially advice, for almost an hour, and that in designed by Providence to contribute. BEARDS AND BARBERS. THERE HERE is scarcely any trade or calling which is not connected with a host of old fancies-forgotten haply in the bustle of the world, but recurring again and again in our quiet moments. Every article of dress, every fashion, every custom, every national peculiarity has its own particular history. Beards and barbers are no exception to the rule. In our childish days, ere the romance of the nursery had been laid aside for something of a more exciting interest; when the hero of giant-land, the redoubtable Jack, filled us with admiration of his courage and perseverance, and the most intense abhorrence of those huge specimens of manhood who were so cunningly outwitted and so dexterously slain; when we listened with tear-bedewed eyes to the dear delightful tale of Goody Twoshoes; when we followed in imagination the adventurous Ali Baba in the deeply and intensely mysterious forestcave, and almost trembled at the "Open Sesame;" when every feline animal became suggestive of the white cat, and of puss in boots; when we read of Whittington, and wondered whether bell-metal ever had encouragement for poor boys nowthen it was that a story about a beard fixed itself in our memory-a dark dismal drama of death and desolation all about Blue Beard and the beautiful Fatima. And when we exchanged romance for history, and read of kings and queens, and hardfought battles, and thrones set up, and empires thrown down, and read the record of our own loved-land, we could not fail to remember the Saxon band who held out against the Normans in the marshes of Ely, and wept in the streets of London over William Longbeard. Then, amid all the glories of the Arabian Nights-the Wonderful Lamp-the adventurous Sinbad -the Genii bottled up, like so much ginger-beer, and the palaces that sprang out of the ground, the turbaned heads, the flowing robes, and the rest of it, the Barber and his Seven Brothers stood out before the others, and the endless clatter of the prattling barber seemed ever in our cars. Beards and barbers are historical. In the days of old, the Tartars waged a long and bitter war with the Persians about the growth and management of the beard; many a stout hero bit the dust in defense of his beard, and the fearful struggle cost many valuable lives. No doubt the Greeks wore beards till the time of Alexander, who ordered them to be shaved, lest they should afford a handle for their enemies in the tug of war, and the old Greek barbers shaved every chin. The people of Italy did not begin to shave till four centuries after the foundation of Rome, when Ticinius brought over from Sicily a company of barbers, who became immediate favorites, and to be among the shaven was a test of respectability. Persons of standing had their children shaved by a person of the same or even greater quality, who, by performing the work of the barber, became the adoptive father of the person so shaved. The hair removed from the face was carefully preserved and consecrated to the gods! In solemn strains blind Homer tells of the white beard of Nestor, and amid all the heroism of the heroic story he does not forget the beard of old King Priam. And Virgil tells us of the beard of Mezentius, so thick and long that it covered all his breast. Socrates is called by Persius the bearded master; Pliny the younger talks of the white beard of Euphrate, a Syrian philosopher, and of the awe with which it inspired the people; Plutarch speaks of the long white beard of an old Laconian, who used to say, "Seeing continually my white beard, I labor to do nothing unworthy of its whiteness;" Strabo relates that the Indian philosophers called Gymnosophists were careful to have long beards to captivate the veneration of the people. The Jews esteemed the beard very highly; thus Hanun, king of the Ammonites, designing to insult David in the person of his ambassadors, cut off half their beards. The Hebrews wore a beard on the chin, but not on the upper lip or cheeks. Mourning was-and still is among the modern Jews-indicated by neglecting the beard; and intense grief, by plucking away the hair of the head and beard. To salute a man by touching his beard was the token of sincere respect. The Druids were accustomed to cultivate their beards, and permit them to grow to a great length; and they were no less celebrated for their white robes and silver knives, their religious services and metrical theology, than for their venerable beards. In ecclesiastical history we find that priests have fallen to loggerheads on the subject of beards; those of the Greek BEARDS AND BARBERS. Church adhering to beards, and those of Who has not heard of Robert of France, sure and certain pledge of safety? how "All the gold in the world cannot Czar Peter, in his most successful efforts for the civilization of his land, insisted on his subjects shaving their beards. Hair and the fashion of wearing it have ever been a matter of dispute. Loudly the Church denounced both flowing locks and flowing beards as "burdles of vanity;" but though it sometimes happened that a temporary reformation was effected, the old fashion came back again, and the gallants of the age in the lordly Strand or Paul's-walk, the Rialto of Venice, the public walk of Paris, the Grand Square of St. Peter at Rome, or the fashionable resorts of Madrid, still sported their flaunty locks and perfumed beards. But enough of beards; let us turn to the beard-trimming barber. It is an old trade. We find that out by the fact that it was introduced into Rome so many centuries ago, and even then that it had gained some high repute in Sicily. In England the barbers formed an ancient and honorable body. The company of Barber-Chirurgeons was incorporated by Edward the Fourth," but confirmed," says Howal, "by every king and queen since." It was first instituted by the good offices of one Thomas Morestead, who was one of the sheriffs of London, and barber to the kings Henry IV., V., and VI.; and his efforts to establish a company were continued by Jacques Fries, physician, and William Hobbs, barber to Edward IV., who, as we have seen, graciously granted their request. The barber's shop in those days was the resort of people above the ordinary level of society, who went to the barber either for the cure of wounds, or to undergo some surgical operation, or, as it was then called, to be "trimmed," a term which signified either shaving the beard or cutting and curling the hair. The shop was usually furnished with a lute, a viol, or some other musical instrument, that the patients or customers might beguile the time they had to wait before they could engage the services of the barber-surgeon. The pole, with its painted fillet of blue or red, indicated that the professor was a blood-letter, the ribbon representing the bandage, which, during the operation of bleeding, was twisted round the arm of the patient, and the pole itself a Brobdignagian specimen of the staff which he commonly held. Time works wonders. A change has indeed come over the trade of the barbersurgeon, and a wondrous difference exists between the old blood-letter surgeon of the past, surrounded by court gallants, and holding no small place in public estimation as a man of science and philosophy-and the cheap barber, with his pole, his jack-towel, his small looking-glass, his windsor chair, his copy of the weekly paper, his pictures of a bear, his birds,—| nearly all barbers have birds,—and his endless flow of intelligence and small talk. Talk!-all barbers talk. A word or two about the philosophy of shaving. The consideration of everything is philosophy now-from a star to a stone-and why not the philosophy of the razor? The fabrication of a good razor depends on so many circumstances and conditions,―the material, the art of forging, the hardening, and the temper,-that the artist himself, after he has exercised his utmost skill, can only select such instruments as he knows to be good by actual use. The razor which possesses the best edge should be selected—such as, upon looking along its edge, has little or no flat part when the action of the hone has taken place; and which, when drawn along the hand, appears keen and smooth. The original keenness of the edge will, of necessity, go off by use. It can only be restored by means of a good strop. The act of stropping produces a smooth edge; but, on account of the elasticity of the strop, this edge becomes round and obtuse in the angle formed by its faces. When this is the case it must be sharpened upon the hone. The principal instructions for whetting a razor are: 1, that it should be drawn lightly along the stone by repeated alternate strokes, with the edge foremost, and by no means backward and forward; 2, that the edge should be tried upon the hand after every two or three strokes, in order to ascertain the instant at which the operation is complete; 3, that the final edge be given by a stroke or two upon the strop. The edge of the razor is, in fact, nothing but a very fine saw. When in complete order, the razor should be for a moment or so immersed in hot water before shaving is commenced. There is some difference of opinion as to the application and use of soap. Sir John Chardin asserts that the great excellence of the Parisian barbers consists in the practice of using a thick hot lather of soap. Others, on the contrary, declare that the Chinese shave far better with the use of cold water and soap. Soap, they say, acts in a two-fold benefit to the shaver, it dissolves and removes perspiration, and lubricates the skin. Some operators place the razor flat on the face, and others raise it to a considerable angle. It is a very bad practice to press the razor at all against the face; and indeed, this cannot ADVENTURES IN THE SNOW IN GERMANY. be done with impunity, if a drawing stroke be used. The line of the motion of the razor itself should be very oblique to the line of the edge, and not at right angles to that line, as is commonly practiced; | this method is, indeed, so very effectual, as to require great care before it can be adopted, in the extreme, with perfect safety; but the same efficacy which endangers the skin, renders it easy and pleasant with regard to the beard. ADVENTURES IN THE SNOW IN W GERMANY. BY WILLIAM HOWITT. HEN snow comes the scene changes. The moment that it becomes trodden down hard on the roads, all the world is on sledges; sledges come forth from their year-long hiding-places, and stand before the houses ready to be hired. On the road are sledges of all sorts and sizes, from the largest to the smallest, from the smartest to the simplest. Some of them, especially in some of the chief cities, are very gay indeed. They are of various shapes, but resemble the bodies of chariots, phaetons, gigs, &c., set on sledge-bars. Some of them are very gaily, and others very gaudily painted, richly cushioned, and furnished with aprons of the shaggy skins of wild beasts, as bears, wolves, foxes, and deer. Their sledge-bars sweep up in a fine curve, and meet high before, bearing on their summit some figure-a pine-apple, a fir-cone, a lion's head, an eagle with outThe spread wings, or a human figure. horses are covered with cloths of gay colors, which are stitched all over with little bells, and bells are generally hung on the sledges too. Besides the handsome ones, many an old-fashioned affair comes forth, down to the bauer's or peasant's sledge, which is his old wicker-basket wagon-body, on a few poles rudely knocked together. Everything that is a vehicle of conveyance becomes a sledge. Wheel-barrows disappear, and become sledge-barrows. Everything that was before carried now becomes drawn. Tubs, baskets, bundles, all are on sledges, and are traveling the streets and roads. Every boy has his sledge, too, made of a few boards nailed together, on which he is flying down the hill-sides with the utmost velocity. Wherever there is a bit of a descent in a street, or in the country, down it are going little sledges with one But it is not only the children that de- The sledging-parties in the country are often still more lusty, if not so gay. The rich bauers, or farmers, in the upper Rhinelands, and other parts, are excessively fond of these excursions, and with sledges that will hold at least twenty people, will, in winter, drive about for whole days together. The gentry, in some parts of Germany, will, with much joviality, make use of the same capacious vehicles, and set on foot parties to some place of The trouble in the country to get resort. these together, and the ludicrous accidents that occur to them, afford subject of much |