Let the reader look, and be assured that there is the strange spirit that has discovered and wrought all the fine shapes that he has been accustomed to look upon with wonder—­Claverhouse, and Burley, and Bothwell,—­Meg Merrilies and Elspeth—­the high and the low—­the fierce and the fair—­Cavaliers and Covenanters, and the rest—­presenting an assemblage of character that is absolutely unequalled, except in the pages of Shakspeare alone.  There is no other writer, be he Greek, or Goth, or Roman, who has ever astonished the world by creations so infinitely diversified.  The mind of the author appears so free from egotism, so large and serene, so clear of all images of self, that it receives, as in a lucid mirror, all the varieties of nature.

* * * * *

ON A GIRL SLEEPING.

  Thou liv’st! yet how profoundly deep
  The silence of thy tranquil sleep! 
    Like death it almost seems: 
  So all unbroke the sighs which flow
  From thy calm breast of spotless snow,
    Like music heard in dreams.

  Thy soul is filled with gentle thought,
  Unto its shrine by angels brought
    From Heaven’s supreme abode;
  Thy dreams are not of earthly things,
  But, borne upon Religion’s wings,
    They lift thee up to God.

Blackwood’s Magazine.

* * * * *

A species of fames canina is to be met with amongst schoolboys, which affects the juveniles most when most in health.  We remember a gentleman offering a wager, that a boy taken promiscuously from any of the public charity-schools, should, five minutes after his dinner, eat a pound of beef-steaks.—­Brande’s Jour.

* * * * *

THE GIPSY’S MALISON.

  Suck, baby, suck, mother’s love grows by giving,
  Drain the sweet founts that only thrive by wasting;
  Black manhood comes, when riotous guilty living
  Hands thee the cup that shall be death in tasting. 
  Kiss, baby, kiss, mother’s lips shine by kisses,
  Choke the warm breath that else would fail in blessings;
  Black manhood comes, when turbulent guilty blisses
  Tender thee the kiss that poisons ’mid caressings. 
  Hang, baby, hang, mother’s love loves such forces,
  Strain the fond neck that bends still to thy clinging: 
  Black manhood comes, when violent lawless courses
  Leave thee a spectacle in rude air swinging.—­

  So sang a wither’d Sibyl energetical,
  And bann’d the ungiving door with lips prophetical.

C. LAMB. Blackwood’s Magazine.

* * * * *

EPICURES.