and the ring provided, but, at Solon's earnest request, the ceremony was deferred for a week, that he might fortify himself for the occasion.

The dreadful morning, however, camé at last, and Solon, drest in his best attire, prepared to meet his intended bride, with the feelings of a man just about to be turned off on the gallows. He again prayed for another week's respite, but Linton was inexorable, and enshrouding his friend in a voluminous cloak, hurried him into a post chaise, and was soon at the church door; nor was the lady long in making her appearance, accompanied by Miss Nancy Nixon, as bridesmaid. Solon looked on in mute astonishment, nor dared he raise his eyes towards his intended, till he heard the priest address him in an audible tone-" Wilt thou take this woman to be thy wedded wife?" He then ventured to raise ǹ s eyes, which met those of his fat, smiling inamo rata. The effect produced by the collision was

that of an electric shock. immediately afterwards his knees failed him, and every nerve was agitated in vain did his friend Jack push him forward, and tell him to behave "like a man," his courage forsook him, and taking one more glance at the proportions of his (lost) wife, whose eyes flashed fury, he felt himself inspired with the strength of a lion, and fled out of the church with the greatest precipitation. To describe the confusion that ensued would be impossible: all, excepting Mrs. Muggins, were rivetted to the spot, but she, with all the rage of a disappointed woman, notwithstanding her weight was little short of twenty stone, pursued the tailor with unremitting ardour, and so fierce was the chase, that the unlucky wight had nearly been captured. Thanks, however, to providence, Mrs. Muggins made a faux pas, and falling down, on the very eve of victory, Solon escaped for his life, without

once looking behind him; nor has he been since heard of, though his friend, Jack Linton, has travelled over half the globe in search of him. [ORIGINAL.]

THE INQUISITIVE GENTLEMAN

MR. JEDEDIAH EVERSEARCH lost his left eye in gratifying an excessive and unwearied thirst for information. It was sacrificed upon the shrine of knowledge. Other acts of self-devotion are upon record, of other great men, who have immolated themselves to further the advance of science. Guyon of Marseilles dissected and examined the body of a person who had died of the plague, for the purpose of ascertaining the nature of the disease; he purchased success with his life. A late French philosopher stifled himself with the fumes of charcoal, to learn the

effect upon the human system; and the eye of Mr. Jedediah Eversearch was pricked out by a needle, as it was applied to the key-hole of a buttery door, to discover the number of pies that had been baked for the New Year's Saturnalia. The house-maid heard his breathings at the aperture, and imagined he was listening to her culinary consultations with a fellow-servant. She stabbed at the ear, but extinguished the left eye of Jedediah for ever.

His parents, after mourning a due season for the loss of the darkened optic, consoled themselves with hoping that this accident would put a period to the troublesome inquisitiveness of their son. Futile anticipation! Jedediah was no sooner able to resume his peripatetic occupations, than he adorned his nasal protuberance with a pair of green spectacles, to conceal the deformity in his visage, and returned to the charge with redoubled fury. It seemed as if his