ACCIDENTAL HELPS. [PRICE 1d. forming the tunnel under the Thames from the shipworm, as he observed it perforate with its well-armed head the wood, first in one direction and then in another, till the arched-way was complete, and then daub over the roof and sides with a kind of varnish; by copying this work exactly, on a large scale, his great undertaking was accomplished. The story of the manner in which the accelerated motion of falling bodies was first suggested to Newton, is well known, as the result of a smart blow on the head from a small apple which fell from the tree beneath which he had retired to read. The art of portrait-painting is believed to have had its origin in accident: Corinthia, a young girl of Sicyon, discovered her beautiful lover asleep; the lamp, which burned beside him, cast the shadow of his profile on the wall: struck by the likeness, and inspired by love, she traced it, and thus produced the first specimen of the delightful art. Sounds that might be lost on common ears, have "THERE appears nothing more accidental," Sir Humphrey Davy observes, "than the sex of an infant; yet take any city or province, and you will find the relations of males and females unalterable ;" and notwithstanding all the casualties "that flesh is heir to," the bills of mortality give an average so exact of the deaths occurring at the different periods of existence, that there is a regular scale of calculation, by which life insurances, according to age, are effected. Nothing can seem more a matter of chance than the passing of the breeze which conveys the farina that matures the seed from one flower to another, nor than the means by which the seed is deposited in the situations most fit for its development sometimes scattered by the sudden bursting of the shell in which it is contained, sometimes dropped by flights of birds, and sometimes the feathery particles to which it is touches of sweet harmony" for the poet and the minattached borne on the wings of the wind; we know that strel; "the winds that pass heedlessly by," the muralthough all this would seem the result of chance, that muring of the rill, the sublime rushing in of the impeif any of the agents employed in the great work of nature tuous tide, or the wild storm as it sweeps along, are were to suspend operations, the consequences would be often the vehicles of inspiration; even the hammer of most disastrous to the human race; so that we are ready the blacksmith suggested a subject for one of Haydn's to admit their influence has been ordered by Providence. most charming compositions; from his cat walking over So in the unforeseen manner in which the most important the keys of his harpsichord, and sounding a few notes at national events have been brought to pass, and by which irregular distances, Scarlatti caught the idea of one of his the minds and pursuits of individuals have been influ- favourite fugues. Every variation of light and shade, enced, a higher power is evident than any over which we every movement in the object on which he looks, is sughave control, let us call it chance or what we may. gestive of some new conception to the painter, The child How often has the merest accident led to the most un- of a beggar stood as a model to Sir Joshua Reynolds as thought-of political changes and deadly feuds? How he painted, but the little creature, overcome by the often has the fate of battles been determined by some fatigue of remaining in the same posture, fell fast asleep; unexpected turn, which leaves the advantage of number the innocent looks, and the graceful attitude of the sleepand of skill in the distance? Some of the greatest disco-ing child, instantly called to his mind "the babes in the veries and happiest experiments in the various branches wood," and he sketched her likeness; but where to find of science have been made by chance. Nature indeed is profuse in hints, and men of genius know how to take them. It is said that Mr. Watt, the engineer, took the lobster's tail for his model when he was constructing pipes to convey water to Glasgow from the opposite side of the Clyde: the pipes were made to fit one into the other, like the joints of a lobster's tail, so that they might adapt themselves to the form of the bottom, when laid across the river. It has been stated that Mr. Brunel acknowledged that he had taken his first lessons for a model for the other babe was the difficulty; just then the child turned in her sleep, and, by an entire change of position in the head and person, furnished a most beautiful subject for the completion of his picture. It has often happened that what has cost hours of unavailing labour, has been effected in some unforeseen manner in a moment. An artist in vain tried to give the drapery, about which he was employed in his picture, the graceful folds which could alone satisfy him; vexed at his failure, he was about to put his painting away, when the servant entered the studio, and putting to rights such things as fell in his way, he threw his master's ample cloak across the stand-it fell into those graceful folds so much longed after by the painter, and he renewed his task with renovated spirit. We have heard of another, who, in despair of imparting the expression of the excitement and heat of the chase to the noble horse he was painting, flung his brush impatiently away,—it splashed upon the nostrils of the horse, and represented at once the foam, which was all that was required. "Her Courtiers." Thus, Horace in the house will prate, Thus at the bar, the booby Bettesworth, Though half-a-crown o'erpays his sweat's worth. There is nothing more interesting than meeting with the trifling incidents which so often have first brought genius into action. It requires but a touch to apply the match which kindles the fire. The great number of instances which pass upon the mind, makes such a selection as our limits alone permit somewhat difficult. Our The medical profession has been indebted to chance own artist, Wilson, deserves to be one of the first that we for some of its most valuable acquisitions; and there would mention; it was to relieve the tedious moments are few of its practitioners who do not find in their of waiting for his friend Zuccarelli, that he took up a daily practice the good or ill which it effects. A cele- pencil, and as he looked from the window sketched the brated physician, who was as remarkable for the deep landscape before him. When Zuccarelli came in, he interest which he took in his patients, as for his skill, looked over him, and asked him whether he had studied had been in attendance upon a very irritable old lady landscape. "No," replied Wilson. "Then apply yourself for some time, and had bestowed great attention on to it immediately, for you are sure to meet with the her case, and felt great anxiety to alleviate her sufferings; greatest success." It would appear too that Allan became all the means he could think of were tried, but the effect an artist by accident. When he was very young, one of which he sought to produce was not in his power, and his feet was so much burned that he had to be kept from he saw that she was gradually sinking. As he paid his school; his father, who could not bear idleness, said, accustomed visit one morning, he found her lying in "You can't go to school, and are losing the little you a state of stupefaction, and with every alarming symp- know-here, you idle rogue," added he with a smile, tom; he thought it right to apprise her friends that "take this bit of chalk and write on the floor." The boy her last hours were approaching; "My dear young lady," did as he was desired, but when he became tired of said he to her relation, who accompanied him to the writing, began to amuse himself by drawing figures, and room door, “I am sorry to tell you,-very sorry,—but though they were but rude attempts, the occupation your poor aunt cannot hold out for four-and-twenty | delighted him so much, that he constantly returned to it; hours." "And pray who told you that, and how dare he sketched houses, birds, and beasts, and even made you say it?" said the old lady, bouncing up with an representations of human beings. All this passed uneffort of strength that appeared quite supernatural, and heeded by his family, nor did they even suspect that they sitting bolt upright, "how dare you say it?" She was in were allied to one of so much genius, till a heavy coma violent passion, and as she vehemently held forth in plaint was made to his father by his schoolmaster, of abuse of her doctor, the excitement produced all that whom little Allan had sketched a striking likeness-the was necessary, the abscess, which had been the sole oddity of the old near-sighted man's figure, as he marched cause of her illness, broke from her exertion; she got im- consequentially through the room amongst his scholars, mediate relief, soon recovered, and lived for many years. wrapped in his tartan gown, and a long tassel dependPeople who are engaged in writing, and are at a loss ing from his tartan night-cap, while he brandished in on some point, have frequently been set right by his hand the rod with which it was his wont to do great something quite unexpected, when all their own en-execution. suggested a fitting subject for the young artist's deavours had been useless. It is told of Swift, that pencil; the laugh which the sketch occasioned amongst when writing some of his satirical lines, he was unable the boys, attracted their master's attention; the sketch to find a rhyme for Bettesworth: he sat over his desk, was found-the culprit was discovered-the indignation with his pen in his hand, puzzled and vexed, but no of the old man was greater of course from the truth of rhyme would come; in the midst of his perplexity, a the resemblance. When it was shown to Allan's father, porter, from his bookseller, with a large package of books, he was convinced of the ability, but reproved him for was shown into his study. Having laid down his load, he having insulted his master, and for having obliged him asked for payment for having carried it. As it had not to withdraw him from the school. "I could nae help it," been from any distance, Swift took out sixpence, said little David, "he looked sae queer. I made it like the man laid it upon the table, "Sure, that isn't what him, and a' for fun." It was from the listlessness of your reverence gives me for such a load, and my heart fatigue while waiting for his mother in the house of her fairly broke with it?" Swift maintained that it was confessor, that Vaucanson sauntered to the hall, not enough,—the man said he was entitled to half-a-crown, knowing what to do with himself; the uniform motion -Swift protested he should have no such thing,-the of the pendulum of the clock which stood there attracted porter said he must, and added, wiping his heated face, his notice, he went over to observe it more closely; "it's as little as my sweat's worth." Swift, in delight he became interested in its mechanism and guessed at this unexpected help, felt his heart open to the man, at what he could not see-he set himself to work, into whose hand he put the disputed half-crown. Could and, in process of time, produced a clock of his own he at that moment have commanded a king's ransom, workmanship--and so successful did he become in the he would gladly have paid it on demand: he turned to pursuit of mechanics, that an automaton, which played on his desk and wrotethe flute, was the fruit of his ingenuity. Often a book, taken up at random, with no other design than the turning rapidly over its pages, or casting on them a hasty glance, has been known to call forth energies and capabilities, whose existence was not known. Pennant, it is said, happening to open Willoughby's work on birds, became so fascinated by it, that he devoted himself to the study of natural history. And never yet was book opened, merely to pass the time, that produced such effects, as that which was handed to Ignatius Loyola, when he asked for an entertaining volume to divert his thoughts when he was confined with the wound which he had received at the Siege of Pampeluna. "The Lives of the Saints" happened to be the book brought to him; he became deeply interested in its contents, and was soon inspired with an earnest desire to found a religious order-how he succeeded the world itself knows. ROBERT WESTERN. THE magistracy or hall of judicature in which Mr. Boaseley usually held the scales of Justice, was a large and formal room, with a few ponderous straight-backed chairs ranged along the sides of the apartment. A writing-table, with a row of serious-looking volumes upon it, a few packets of papers tied with red tape, together with a profusion of letters strewn over its surface, comprised almost everything worthy of comment in this temple of justice. On the occasion of our introducing the reader into this provincial court-house, Mr. Beaseley was sitting in his chair, with his back to a large wood-fire that roared good-humouredly up the wide chimney, making a lusty chorus with the bleak December wind that grumbled and blustered round the house and over-head, as if bent on resisting the genial ascent of the hearty flame, that licked its wavy way upward in despite of his surly opposition, and between the two kept up a rumbling warfare in the capacious fluc. Mr. Beaseley, we said, sat with his back to the crackling fire, making calculations on his fingers, and looking abstractedly through the opposite window, on the shower of sleet and snow that drove past in incessant whirls; and kept up a ceaseless pelting on the large glass panes, as if knocking to be admitted to the cheery fire-side. Mr. Beaseley was aroused from his state of mental abstraction by his servant announcing that a poor woman who had called twice before, wished to see him, to obtain some relief. Mr. Beaseley gave order to have her shown up. clothes had struck a chill to her very blood-the wo undid the heavy latch, and closing the portal behind h.., stood again in the pitiless storm and unprotected way. Pulling the mockery of a shawl closer over her breast, she hurried quickly down the avenue that led from the magistrate's house, and had just reached the gates that opened on the village street, when a carriage, driven with speed, rapidly turned the angle; and before the driver, who kept his head down to shield his face from the violence of the sleet, could see the coming figure, or arrest his horses, the poor woman was dashed to the ground by the pole of the vehicle, and thrown several yards from the wheels into a pool of water that had collected at the park entrance. The carriage was instantly stopt, and a gentleman alighting, hastened forward, and raising the female from the ground, expressed, in the kindest manner, his regret and pain at the misfortune. "I am not very much hurt, thank you, Sir, only very frightened," she said, faintly, as the gentleman led her to the steps of the carriage. "Poor creature, she is wet through!" exclaimed a soft and sympathizing voice from the coach. "Where do you live, my good woman, and we will drive you home?" "Oh no, thank you, Madam! It is not very far, and I think I can walk now. Don't let me keep you in the rain, Madam! Thank you, I am better now." "Poor creature! I am sure she is hurt. Send for a surgeon, Charles, and let her be taken care of till I can visit her myself. To be out on such a day as this, and so thinly dressed! I am certain you are hurt?" "Oh dear no, Madam! I don't think the horse touched me at all; and I must go home to my poor husband. Thank you, Madam." "Then come to my house to-morrow at twelve, I wish particularly to see you. Mr. Chesterfield's, at the Elms. But are you sure you can walk ?” "Oh yes, thank you, Madam, quite well." "Do not forget Mrs. Chesterfield's wish to-morrow," added the gentleman, kindly, as he took out his purse; but after a moment's hesitation, as if fearing to hurt the poor woman's feelings, he returned it unobserved to his pocket; and repeating his lady's injunctions, stepped into the carriage, and was rapidly driven away in the direction of the magistrate's hall. Pressing her hand tightly on her side, and drawing her breath with short inspirations, for she was much hurt, though from delicate motives alleging the contrary, the poor woman slowly proceeded down the straggling street, and ultimately reached her miserable abode at the outskirts of the village. Pausing a moment at the door, she pulled the string that lifted the wooden latch, and crossed the dreary dwelling; and a more melancholy chamber than that she now entered penury never called "home." A patched and broken latticed window transmitted just enough of the cheerless December light to reveal, in chilling colours, the few dilapidated pieces of household goods that constituted the scanty furniture. The individual who presently entered the apartment, was a pale emaciated, female of five or six-and-twenty, but who, judged by her hollow and anxious countenance, would have well passed for forty. A thin calico dress hung wet and clinging to her ancles; her shoes, by long servitude, worn bare, were fastened by tapes across her On a stump bedstead in the nearest corner to the huge instep, and as she crossed the room left the broad marks chimney and long extinguished fire, sat the attenuated form of her feet upon the boards, while the water oozed at of a sick man, whose shrunk features and large lustrous every motion from the saturated leather. Round her eyes bespoke too plainly the ravages of disease and want. neck was pinned a scanty triangular shawl, that barely An old coat drawn over his shoulders, shielded his body hid her bosom, and only partially protected it from the from the keen wind that howled down the chimney, and invading storm. An old bonnet so large that it almost found a hundred mouths through the broken plaster and hid her shrunken features, completed the meagre habili-rifted door; whirling the sand upon the bricked floor in ments of this once neat and comely woman. After some questioning, in reply to which the poor woman explained that her husband was lying at home starving, and that the object of her application was to obtain more immediate relief than possible by the necessary slow legal process, she obtained from Mr. Beaseley a trifle of money, and an order for a gallon of flour. With a trembling hand and shivering frame-for her wet sweeping eddies round the room. Before him, on the drugget of the bed, rested an old tray, with a small chisel, knife, and file, a few chips of wood, and the carved figure of a king in armour, cut from a little block of the whitest ash. With his long, skinny fingers he had just set the finished workmanship upon the tray as his wife entered; and he turned his gratified gaze from his completed task, with mournful enquiry and affectionate solicitude, upon his drenched and not less miserable wife. "You are wet and cold, Mary, and there is no fire to warm you," said the husband mournfully, as with a deep sigh, he glanced at the few white ashes strewn over the broad hearth, as his wife divested herself of her shawl and bonnet. "I wish you had not gone, though God knows we have kept off the parish to the last! Would they do nothing? Well, it is not for myself I care-for my stay here is getting very short-but for you and"The Lord be good to us!" exclaimed the wife with sudden grief. "If I havn't lost the money the Squire gave me, and the order for the flour! Oh dear, oh dear! What a foolish creature I am. But I'll go back directly and look for it; I know I must have dropped them when I fell;" and wiping away the tears that gathered in her eyes, she began to refix her wet bonnet. "Don't be vexed Robert, I'm sure I shall find them. Oh, don't give way, I know we shall do better yet. Cheer up, Robert dear, and don't despair!" "Better yet!" replied the husband, with a bitter smile, that imparted a deeper ghastliness to his wasted features. "Yes, in heaven!" he added, solemnly. "The poor man's only comfort. Oh! heaven should be a lovely place, Mary, to give us heart to crawl through this hungry world to reach it! Take off your wet things, love, you shall not go out again to day. Take them off, Mary!" he continued, with gentle authority, as she shook out the little shawl, before throwing it over her neck. "Not again to day. There's bread enough for one meal more-sit down, and make a fire and dry yourself; young Knowles has given us a faggot, God bless him for it! up there in the chimney corner. Come, come, don't take on so. You couldn't help it, Mary dear, don't cry," he said soothingly, as his wife, obeying his wish, replaced her shawl and bonnet on the table, and sitting down on a low chair by the bed, wept bitterly at her misfortune, for she had calculated on buying a little tea, to cheer and comfort her sick husband; for with woman's true devotedness of heart, she only thought of him, and what might minister to his relief and benefit. "How did it happen? But never mind Mary, see, dear, I have finished them at last. Though God knows they are no use to us; for nobody here will buy them, though I am sure the wish I had to finish them, and your confidence, has kept me alive all the year. How do you like it now? That is the Christian king," and with a sad voice, and momentary gleam of pleasure in his hollow eye, the mechanic placed the last of a set of chessmen, that he had designed and executed himself, in her thin hand; making the two armies consist of a Christian and Saracen host; each piece being a perfect figure armed in respective costume, and executed with the utmost truth and delicacy. A turner and wood-carver by trade, Robert Western had long meditated completing a series of chessmen that should supersede the uninteresting figures in general use, and give a martial air to a purely military game. But while in health and constant employment, he had never found an opportunity of doing more than selecting choice pieces of wood, and making drawings of the several men, for Western possessed a natural genius for the pencil, and could depict the human form in all its attitudes with ease and grace. But the failure of his master in the county town, and the loss of all Western's savings, threw him at once into poverty and distress; and after in vain seeking work around the country, he at length settled in the village of Brookford, where for a while he continued to earn a scanty subsistence by working at the coarser branches of his trade; but at length this failed, and disease, long threatened, at last settled on his frame, and shut him out from all exertion. It was then, supported on his bed of sickness, that he beguiled the weary hours of pain and privation in the performance of his cherished object. One hope alone animating him through the weary twelvemonth of his silent toil; that the chessmen would sell when he was dead, and be a little legacy for his friendless wife and child. The task, though long, had been to the poor workman one full of interest, and he began to love the little warriors, as each grew into shape and martial bearing under his cunning fingers, with a feeling little less than filial. And now when he placed the last completed piece in his wife's cold hand, a tear of regretful sadness glistened in his eye, as the sweet solace of so many weary hours was brought to a perfected end. Oh, how very beautiful it is, Robert!" exclaimed his wife with real delight, contemplating the mail-clad king, and brushing a tear from her long eyelashes. "It is more beautiful than all the rest! Shall I wrap it up and put it by, Robert?" "When you have lit the fire and dried your gown, you shall put them all out upon the table, and let me look at them once more. It is very foolish, but I have grown so fond of them, and I should like to see them all together for the last time, for I know that I shall never look at them again. Don't cry, Mary dear, don't cry, or you will stain it with your tears. Light the fire, love, and warm yourself. Oh, God help us!" "He will, He will, Robert, if you will not despair!" ejaculated his affectionate wife, as she carefully set down the carved figure, and wiping her eyes, addressed herself to chop the wood and light the fire from the fuel so opportunely and charitably given them by a neighbour almost as poor and comfortless as themselves. Having completed her task, and given a more cheerful aspect to the dreary chamber by the ruddy flame from the ignited wood, she spread her wet garments before the blaze to dry, and seated in a corner of the chimney, recounted to her husband the result of her errand to the Justice, and narrated, as briefly as possible, the accident that had deprived her of the proceeds of her journey, for she had no doubt she had lost the money and paper when she fell; and ended by telling him of the wish expressed by Mrs. Chesterfield to see her in the morning. "And so, Robert," she went on, "I will take the chessmen and show them to her. Perhaps she may buy them, though God knows I would almost as soon sell myself, if it was not for the hope of getting you something nice to eat, and some medicine for your cough. And if I take the men, it won't look as if I went for charity, Robert." "Do as you like, Mary, though I have no hope of your success. We have been so often disappointed "Oh don't give way, Robert! I am sure better days will come. No, no, don't shake your head and look so sorrowful-better days for you, I mean, and you will be well again. Now, now, don't despair so!" and with a confidence she scarcely felt herself, she strove to instil a healthier tone into her husband's less sanguine heart. "There must be something very holy in your confidence, dear Mary, for it has had the power to keep me up for many months, for, without your trustful spirit, I should have given way long ago. God bless you for it! but I feel now, Mary, that to hope any longer is but an idle delusion. My only wish now, is, that when I am dead, you may be able to sell the men in some large town, and get enough--" "Don't talk of dying, Robert, or you will break my heart. If I don't sell them to do you good, I will never, never, part with them. Oh do not give up yet! hope a little longer; do, do, for my sake, and--But where is he, where's the child, is he asleep?" she enquired, suddenly rising from her seat and going to the bed. Western slowly turned down the drugget as she approached, and exposed a beautiful but pale-faced boy of two or three years old, nestled close by his father's side, and sleeping soundly. "He cried at first when you went out, and asked for dinner," said the husband, mournfully, as the mother knelt down and kissed the lips of her sleeping child;" "but I had not strength to get out and reach the bread, poor child! So I told him some little stories to divert his mind, and said that he should see all the men to-night; and then his little eyes grew heavy, and he laid his head upon my lap, and fell asleep, talking of the soldiers! Oh what a blessed thing is sleep to the poor and hungry! for, by it, they can cheat the craving stomach of a meal or two. See, dear, he is awake!" But we must hasten on, and will but merely direct the reader's mental eye once more to that abode of sickness, want, and cold: but where, such is the humanizing effect of art and beauty, there was much innate love and delicacy of soul. Upon the further extremity of an old table, drawn close to the bed, ranged in double files stand the mimic armies of the chessboard; and on the nearer end, the remnant of a stale loaf, a jug of warm milk and water, and a knife to part the limited allowance of their food. Father, mother, and child are seated on the bed, with pleasure gazing on the carved array, and one in infantine ecstasy, holding out its hands to clutch the tempting toys, and as they admire, eating the husky bread, and drinking, each in turn from the selfsame jug, the harmless diluent; while the wind and rain howls and beats against the lonely tenement, and the fitful blaze from the alternate flush and fall of the wood embers gives momentary light to the repast; making the raging winter that beats without, and the desolation brooding within, appear more stern and terrible. True to her appointment on the following morning, the mechanic's wife, with the prized chessmen, carefully folded in separate papers, and enveloped in a white napkin, repaired to the mansion of Mr. Chesterfield, and was instantly introduced to the benevolent mistress. Mrs. Chesterfield, with the tact that women only know, soon gleaned from the poor wife the concise history of their long privations, touching with innocent pride on her husband's skill, and ended by displaying before the amazed eyes of the lady, the proofs of it she had brought. Mrs. Chesterfield was no mean judge of art, and gazed with admiration and surprise on the costume, execution, and faultless symmetry of every figure, enhanced by the ivory whiteness and beautiful texture of the wood in which they were wrought; and calling in her husband, participated with him in his lavish delight and encomiums. While the poor woman, unable to suppress her joy that her husband's merit was at last appreciated, sobbed aloud from excess of pleasure. "These are, indeed, superior specimens of art!" observed Mr. Chesterfield, after a rigid scrutiny of every piece. "What does your husband require for them?" "Oh Sir!" replied Mary, speaking through her tears, "I have carried them to so many places, but nobody would offer me anything for them, that my husband said he would sell them all for a shilling a piece, if you wouldn't think it too dear; and there's the board he made long ago." "A shilling a piece, impossible! My poor woman, you must be dreaming!" "Well, then, Sir, what you please; for my husband is very ill, and I want to buy him some medicine," she replied, almost choking from revulsion of feeling. "You mistake me, my good creature; I mean to say they are too valuable to be sold without consideration; and for fear I should not be just to you, I will consult some friends as to what I should give-for I mean to purchase them-for the present here are ten sovereigns, and whatever price is put on them by my friends, I will pay you again. A man of your husband's genius must not be left in obscurity and want, I will send a physician to attend to him,-and now go home and come back on Monday for what I shall then be in your debt. Your husband shall not be neglected, depend upon it." Unable to speak her thanks, but grasping the gold in her hand with a nervous tenacity, the bewildered woman was led out of the room by the hand of the sympathizing Mrs. Chesterfield; and when she found herself again in the road, it was with the addition of a well-filled basket of wine and provisions. Casting her dimmed eyes to Heaven, and muttering a prayer of thankfulness, poor Mary turned in the direction of home, and ran with the speed of a chamois till the battered door and broken casement of her abode stood before her. The luxury of that moment, as she told out her treasure before her hectic husband, was worth a life's privation to enjoy. The sick man, unable to express the sense of struggling happiness, bent his head meekly on his chest, and groaned from the fulness of his soul; while his wife folding her arms round his neck, pressed his face to her bosom, and between hysteric tears and laughter, whispered, "I told you not to despair; I knew that better days would come, and that you would live to see and bless them!" Under the skilful hands of the physician, Western was soon restored to comparative health, and, aided by the patronage of Mr. Chesterfield, was in a few months removed to London, and a situation obtained for him as designer in one of the first houses in town; where he may still be found directing the energies of a large establishment, respected, prosperous, and happy; and daily thankful to his wife for that faith in the bounty of Eternal Providence, that under Heaven, had, through all the petulance of disease, and crush of poverty, kept a living principle of hope within his heart. Nor does his now restored and comely wife forget, in thankful prayers, her gratitude to God, for the courage that opposed so long her husband's gloom, and gave her power to prove the confidence that buoyed herself-Never to Despair! W. H. H. A BIRTH-DAY THOUGHT In heart, in mind, in deed, in thought- How strange, how sad, and yet how blest! Life's tinsel cheats my gaze no more I view things with a sterner brow- Awake, my soul! earth twines no wreath My mission here let me fulfil, Ah, thou who in yon realms of space First strewed those worlds, like drops of dew, To me give my appointed place, Teach me the work thou'dst have me do. No weak ephemeral of an hour, No breeze-borne bubble let me be, No useless weed; but a fair flower Which wafts some fragrance back to thee! C. G. |