the hawkers of husbands and wives, (for among us these articles are often cried up for sale,) and lastly, the hawkers of religions, moral, and political wisdom, all cry out at once, without tumult or confusion, yet so as to be heard in these days through the remotest corners of these islands....  If a peculiarly bloody murder has been tried, or if some domestic intrigue has produced a complicated love story, however offensive in its details, you will find our reading crowd stationary in that quarter, to enjoy the tragic stimulants of terror and pity.  We have also a modest corner of the square appropriated to the use of our posts; but like Polydorus’s ghost, they generally utter doleful soliloquies, which no one will stop to hear.

London Review.

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BEAUTY.

It is vain to dispute about the matter; moralists may moralize, preachers may sermonize about it as much as they please; still beauty is a most delightful thing,—­and a really lovely woman a most enchanting object to gaze on.  I am aware of all that can be said about roses fading, and cheeks withering, and lips growing thin and pale.  No one, indeed, need be ignorant of every change which can be rung upon this peal of bells, for every one must have heard them in every possible, and impossible, variety of combination.  Give time, and complexion will decay, and lips and cheeks will shrink and grow wrinkled, sure enough.  But it is needless to anticipate the work of years, or to give credit to old Time for his conquests before he has won them.  The edge of his scythe does more execution than that of the conqueror’s sword:  we need not add the work of fancy to his,—­it is more than sufficiently sure and rapid already.

Tales of Passion.

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PRE-AUX-CLERCS.

In 1559, the most frequented promenade in Paris was the Pre-aux-Clercs, situated where a part of the Faubourg St. Germain is at present.  The students of the university were generally in favour of the reformed religion, and not only made a profession of it, but publicly defended its principles.  They had been in the habit of meeting at this place for several years, and the monks of the Abbey St. Victor having refused to let them assemble in the Pre-aux-Clercs, a serious affair sprung out of the refusal, and several rencounters took place, in which blood was shed; the students, being the most numerous, carried their point, the monks resigned the field to them, and the Pre-aux-Clercs was more than ever frequented.  It became the grand rendezvous of all the Protestants, who would sing Marot’s psalms during the summer evenings; and such numbers giving confidence, many persons declared themselves Protestants, whose rank had hitherto deterred them from such a step.  Among such, the most eminent was Anthony of Bourbon, first prince of the blood, and, in right of his wife, king of Navarre.