Berne, having previously given due notice; and, this being the last year of my residence abroad, my late father at my request granted me permission to return home by way of France, England, and Holland. Westen in like manner requested permission to do the same, but his father would neither agree to it nor send the needful money. Yet none the less did Westen determine on accompanying me to France, in hope that once there he might succeed in persuading his father; so that at the beginning of May we entered upon our journey."

They arrived, with various adventures, by way of Neuchâtel, the Jura Mountains, and Portarlier, at Besançon, whence he continues his narrative thus:-"As soon as we arrived we secured the two first and best places in the ordinary carosse of the country, which runs once a week from Besançon to Paris. These carosses are very commodious, with two seats behind, two before, and two on each side à la portière, also with a panier in front for portmanteaus. The vehicle was drawn by six horses, bigger and fatter than I ever saw either before or since. Now it so happened that two noble ladies who had possessions in Upper Burgundy, by name Madame d'Aubigni and her lady daughter, were going to Paris by this very carosse; but, being as it chanced the last who inscribed their names, they found themselves forced to occupy the two worst places, viz. those à la portière. But after that we had gone a certain distance, finding these ladies extremely affable for the mother was a discreet lady, and her daughter a witty, virtuous, and beautiful damsel of about twenty years of age-it grieved me that they upon so long a journey should be so inconveniently accommodated. Wherefore I proposed to Westen that we should offer them our own places; and, obtaining his consent, I proceeded-as Westen did not speak the French language-to convey our offer to the ladies. To which the elder of the two replied, 'No, Messieurs, your politeness is so great that we dare not accept of it without ourselves

to be demanded of you that you should on our account occupy inferior places, the first being yours by right.' Hereto I answered that they would show us a particular favour by accepting our proposal, for it was a thing we could not endure, to see such charming ladies seated so inconveniently in a coach. At last we persuaded them, and the mother said, Messieurs, I must avow to you that the Danish nation excels ours in politeness. But what shall we devise whereby in some degree to repay your kindness? Since you are foreigners, imperfectly acquainted with the customs of the country, and therefore liable to be imposed upon, will you permit me to undertake your ménage during the journey? I shall endeavour so to take charge of it that you will not have cause to be dissatisfied.' This proposal we then accepted with many expressions of thanks; and I can truly declare that she took such charge of us as if we had been her own children, and saved us the half of what our living would otherwise have cost. Of an evening when we reached an inn-and the inns are very elegant on the post-roads in France-she would at once look out a bedroom with two beds, one for them and one for us, whereupon we would lay our swords on the one bed and they their night-clothes on the other, by that securing them. Then she would proceed to the kitchen and select what we were to have for supper, giving directions how it was to be cooked: the which she also took care to do at the taverns where we dined, so that we always had good living and little to pay. In summá she took the same care of us as of herself, and most politely and familiarly held much intercourse with us. In the evening, when it was time to go to bed, she would request us to absent ourselves for a short space, after which, when we had returned to the chamber and laid ourselves also to rest, she would say, 'Messieurs, I wish you a good night; to-morrow, if it please God, we shall renew our conversation.' In the morning she would call out, 'Good morning, Messieurs; will it please you to

while we also get up?" Thus everything betwixt us was conducted with regularity, propriety, and familiarity.

Yet this familiarity was the cause of a certain difficulty into which I got on the subject of religion. For, happening one day to lose one of our travelling companions, a respectable man, whose journey was at an end,-we got in his stead for some hours a monk, a sharp fellow, who, on hearing that we were foreigners and Danes, put several questions to me about Denmark, he knowing very well that the Lutheran religion was the only one practised in our country, and that the government was absolute. Now, when this monk had left us, and they by his means had learned that we were Lutherans, the younger lady did attack us with might and main, saying: -Ah! Messieurs, how it grieves me to hear that such honnêtes gentilhommes, to whom we are so greatly indebted, should be so unfortunate as to call themselves Lutheran heretics! Ah! I beseech you, for the love of God and Mary and Joseph, and all the saints, forsake your errors and turn to the true religion, that you may be saved!' To which I replied: Mademoiselle, you mistake in your thoughts of the Lutherans: I assure you that they are orthodox evangelical Christians.'What, then, do you believe?' she inquired. Do you believe in the true Three-One God and in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who became man, and suffered death on the cross?' When I had given satisfactory answers to these questions, she inquired further, whether we believed that the Virgin Mary was the mother of Christ, and worthy of all adoration: item, that the Pope was sacred and infallible, &c. I replied that we certainly did believe the Virgin Mary to be the mother of Christ, and highly favoured among women; but that the Pope, being a man, could be infallible, we did not believe. 'O' quoth she, then you are in error after all.' Thus did she continue, probably at her mother's instigation, to assail me, and insisted on teaching me some prayers to the Virgin

heart; and, perceiving me to be so apt a scholar, she urged Westen and myself to accompany her and her mother to a Catholic priest in the next town we came to, in order to profess their religion. But I paid her the compliment of assuring her that, if any person in the world were able to convert me to the Catholic religion, she herself was that person, adding, that the matter was too important to permit any man at once to profess himself of another religion without being thoroughly grounded in it beforehand. They then requested us to visit them frequently in Paris, where there would be no lack of learned priests to give us the needful instruction. This we promised to do, yet not with the design of fulfilling our promise: neither did we fulfil it.

'Having arrived within a few miles of Paris, where the country is beautiful, with many splendid palaces and delightful gardens, there met us the carosse of the Duke of Noailles, with six horses and lackeys, to fetch Madame d'Aubigni and her daughter, who were related to the duke:1 and inside the carriage sat an old prior from a convent in Paris, who turned out to be Madame d'Aubigni's brother; so here we had to separate. Westen and myself took leave of both mother and daughter with all submission, much kissing of hands, and many expressions of thanks for the favours shown us. But Madame d'Aubigni said: My daughter, it is not right. that you take leave of these worthy Messieurs and Danish gentilhommes who have shown us so great civility, without bestowing on them a kiss.' Of this permission we were not slow to avail ourselves; after which, with fresh kissing

1 The original editor remarks: "These ladies were, doubtless, related to Françoise d'Aubigné, Marquise de Maintenon, whose niece, Amable Charlotte Françoise d'Aubigné, in 1698, married a Duc de Noailles. This is confirmed by the fact that Seidelin afterwards met them at Versailles. They probably belonged to the branch of Madame de Maintenon's family which proceeded from her uncle, Nathan d'Aubigné, whose descendants were for the most part in a comparatively humble walk of lifeone, for instance, was a priest, another a phy

of hands, we conducted the ladies to their carriage, where I thought the old prior regarded us with envious eyes. For the rest, we were glad, on religious grounds, that we had parted in kindness; and I must say that this was the only temptation for the sake of religion that I met with in all my travels.”

Here follows a long and lively description of Paris and his life there for four months. He attended Professor Jussieu's lectures on botany in the Jardin du Roi, and Geoffroy's on chemistry and materia medica. Falling in with a few fellow-countrymen of rank, he seems with their help to have looked on now and then from a safe distance at the doings of the great world. The queen was confined of twin princesses, on which occasion Seidelin saw the waters play at Versailles. Another time he got into trouble at Marley for fingering the embroidered curtains of Her Majesty's bed. He and his friend behaved like arrant cowards toward their fair proselytizing travelling-companion. They went, he tells us, to Versailles, on Whit Sunday, to see the king and the Knights of the Holy Ghost attend mass in the chapel, where it was said by Cardinal Fleury :- "When the mass was at an end, the king and the knights left the church, and we went after them, and then it came about that we met Madame d'Aubigni with mademoiselle her daughter, whereupon madame immediately cried out, Voilà nos gentilhommes Danois!' With that they got hold of us, and reproached us for not visiting them according to our promise. I excused myself by assuring them that we had forgotten their address, which they therefore repeated, and we promised that we should this time come without fail; but we never went."

In London our friend was astonished chiefly at the rapacity of the Custom House officers, out of whose hands it cost him nearly an "English guinea' to deliver himself, and at the loyal demonstrations which closed the solemnities of George the Second's coronation.

about the middle of the place (Westminster), there commenced these joyful shrieks, Vivat, God bless de Kingh, vivat, God bless de Queen!' whereat all the men swung their hats, and the women their white handkerchiefs; which sight so amazed me that I lost all countenance, forgot their Majesties, and all the grandeur, to gaze alone upon this; indeed, I may say it was the strangest sight I had seen in the whole world. Nay, I was well-nigh getting into trouble because of it, for I was so astonished that I forgot to swing my hat, so that one standing behind me gave me a poke in the back, and they all began to cry, Jacobite!' till I was fain to pull off my hat and swing it too."

He went home by way of Holland, and, after an absence of six years, set foot on his native islet, and, losing his father soon after his return, settled down to the inevitable successorship. At first he tried to resist, thought Nykjöbing a wretched little hamlet, and started negotiations for a change to the metropolis. But these failed, and he in consequence conceived such a spite against Copenhagen, that he would not go near it for fifteen years. Instead of that he married, and had plenty of children, and gave his excellent wife a great deal of trouble. Then he tried various speculations to give play to the energies which were so imperfectly taxed by the pursuit of pharmacy in Nykjöbing. He turned farmer and grazier and candle-maker, and what not. But his crops failed, and his cattle died, and the rats ate his tallow :-" and that was always the way with everything I tried besides my Apotheke." Apotheke." Trials of a worse sort came in due time. Children died, one son turned out ill, his own health grew infirm. Yet he was neither discontented nor unhappy, and indeed had no cause. From his arm-chair he doubtless often enough rehearsed to untravelling listeners the adventures of his youth beyond sea. Within a few months of his "golden wedding," he began the composition of his autobiography; but the long narra

though sprinkled here and there with quaint shadows, is not sufficiently remarkable to tempt us further. "I can now," he says, "neither walk nor drive, nor oftentimes lie, but must continually sit; never to mention my powers of mind and body, which are as good as entirely gone. Yet it pleaseth the blessed God to keep me in life; nay, He

is so gracious as at times to grant me some relief from pain. May He add this one favour more, and spare my beloved wife to close my eyes; and may He reunite us at last with the elect before His throne, to praise Him in a blessed eternity for all His mercy and faithfulness!"

Ir the value of an article is measured by its utility, it is scarcely possible to form a sufficiently high estimate of the value of iron. It has been one of the most powerful agents in promoting civilization; its uses and applications are far beyond all enumeration; and indeed it is difficult to conceive anything conducive to the happiness or advancement of mankind, with which iron has not to do in some way or other. This is truly the Age of Iron ;-and its production keeps steady pace with our rapid intellectual and physical progress. Steam, railways, the printing press, the electric telegraph, and almost all other inventions of importance have to thank iron for their success, and have, in return, stimulated and improved its production. Let any one try to picture to himself what we should do, and what we should be, without iron, and he will soon learn to appreciate its value.

Perhaps the most striking feature of the latest applications of iron is the immense magnitude of articles made of it. The hull of a first-class iron ship such as the Warrior is a marvel of manufacture; so is one of the huge modern armour plates; so is Sir Wm. Armstrong's 22-ton wrought-iron gun. But it is not always magnitude which determines utility. A needle is a more useful thing than a 600-pounder; and there is an application of iron which, though it deals with quantities still

interest to mankind. This is the use of iron as a medicine.

Physiologists tell us that the most important component of the blood, that grand element of the animal system, consists of certain particles called "red globules," and that these globules owe their colour and some of their most important properties to the presence of iron. The chief office of the iron is said to be to absorb oxygen from the air in the lungs, and to convey it, by means of the circulation, through the whole system, where it is detached from its vehicle of conveyance, and made to assist in the various physiological processes for which oxygen is so vitally necessary. Hence the difference in colour between arterial and venous blood. In the former the iron is highly oxidized, having a bright red colour; in the latter it has parted with oxygen, and has lost its brilliancy, till this is renewed by further exposure to atmospheric air. It is clear therefore that the presence of a certain quantity of iron in the blood is absolutely necessary to the healthy action of the system, and that, if the quantity falls short, disorder of some kind must ensue. And that this often does take place is well known; for diseases exist, whose name is legion, directly traceable to some form of what is called anæmia, or an impoverished state of the blood, consisting chiefly of a diminution of the proportion of the red globules, and of the

of hands, we conducted the ladies to their carriage, where I thought the old prior regarded us with envious eyes. For the rest, we were glad, on religious grounds, that we had parted in kindness; and I must say that this was the only temptation for the sake of religion that I met with in all my travels."

Here follows a long and lively description of Paris and his life there for four months. He attended Professor Jussieu's lectures on botany in the Jardin du Roi, and Geoffroy's on chemistry and materia medica. Falling in with a few fellow-countrymen of rank, he seems with their help to have looked on now and then from a safe distance at the doings of the great world. The queen was confined of twin princesses, on which occasion Seidelin saw the waters play at Versailles. Another time he got into trouble at Marley for fingering the embroidered curtains of Her Majesty's bed. He and his friend behaved like arrant cowards toward their fair proselytizing travelling-companion. They went, he tells us, to Versailles, on Whit Sunday, to see the king and the Knights of the Holy Ghost attend mass in the chapel, where it was said by Cardinal Fleury- "When the mass was at an end, the king and the knights left the church, and we went after them, 'and then it came about that we met Madame d'Aubigni with mademoiselle her daughter, whereupon madame immediately cried out, Voilà nos gentilhommes Danois!' With that they got hold of us, and reproached us for not visiting them according to our promise. I excused myself by assuring them that we had forgotten their address, which they therefore repeated, and we promised that we should this time come without fail; but we never went."

In London our friend was astonished chiefly at the rapacity of the Custom House officers, out of whose hands it cost him nearly an "English guinea to deliver himself, and at the loyal demonstrations which closed the solemnities of George the Second's coronation.

about the middle of the place (Westminster), there commenced these joyful shrieks, Vivat, God bless de Kingh, vivat, God bless de Queen!' whereat all the men swung their hats, and the women their white handkerchiefs; which sight so amazed me that I lost all countenance, forgot their Majesties, and all the grandeur, to gaze alone upon this; indeed, I may say it was the strangest sight I had seen in the whole world. Nay, I was well-nigh getting into trouble because of it, for I was so astonished that I forgot to swing my hat, so that one standing behind me gave me a poke in the back, and they all began to cry, Jacobite!' till I was fain to pull off my hat and swing it too."

He went home by way of Holland, and, after an absence of six years, set foot on his native islet, and, losing his father soon after his return, settled down to the inevitable successorship. At first he tried to resist, thought Nykjöbing a wretched little hamlet, and started negotiations for a change to the metropolis. But these failed, and he in consequence conceived such a spite against Copenhagen, that he would not go near it for fifteen years. Instead of that he married, and had plenty of children, and gave his excellent wife a great deal of trouble. Then he tried various speculations to give play to the energies which were so imperfectly taxed by the pursuit of pharmacy in Nykjöbing. He turned farmer and grazier and candle-maker, and what not. But his crops failed, and his cattle died, and the rats ate his tallow :-"and that was always the way with everything I tried besides my Apotheke." Trials of a worse sort came in due time. Children died, one son turned out ill, his own health grew infirm. Yet he was neither discontented nor unhappy, and indeed had no cause. From his arm-chair he doubtless often enough rehearsed to untravelling listeners the adventures of his youth beyond sea. Within a few months of his "golden wedding," he began the composition of his autobiography; but the long narra