"True-true" she said in low and sweetly ing equipped himself in this extraordinary manner, modulated tones, to which grateful love gave a tremor "true as the love, and the strength, and the honor of a courageous man ever were to a weak child, or a sorrowful woman, so true has thee been to me, John Carper; and whether thee save me, or I am slain like the wretched boy, whose body lies cold, and stiff, yonder, for the wild beasts to tear, thee will surely be blessed of God."

Carper had given her lip-room for this speech. He kissed the mouth, yet trembling with its last earnest word, and then calmly replied, still in a whisper,

"I have done nothing very great, or unusual, Nelly. He would be a poor Joe, indeed, that would let his sweetheart be carried off without following on her trail. But time is pressing. You must creep along with me; I will guide you, and I hope to be mounted and riding away with you before a rascal of them all, at the fire yonder, stirs. We will have our talk out, where we can do it without whispering. Draw your petticoats about your knees, and stoop low to the ground. Mind your business, Sharpnose."

he walked several times around his companion, as if not a little vain of his fine appearance. The sitting Indian, as if emulous of cutting a finer figure, took, from under his blanket, the frontal skin and horns of an ox, (one of the trophies from Joshua Blake's cattle pen,) and placing it upon his head, with the horns erect, and the skin hanging over his face, began to strut about with as vain a carriage as the other. Finally both again sat down, laughing with the suppressed Indian chuckle at the pantomime just accomplished.

[To be concluded in our next.]

THE POLICE OF PARIS.

FROM IK. MARVEL'S FRESH GLEANINGS.

The Municipal authority in the capital is the Prefect of the Department of the Seine, corresponding very nearly with the office of Mayoralty in the larger of the American cities. There is under him, a Council of Prefecture made up into different administrations, having cognizance of various public affairs ::-as for instance, of Roads and Public Works, of Public Instruction, of Departmental Taxes, of Post Offices, of the Poste aux Chevaux. Besides this, there belongs to each of the twelve Municipal arrondissements, correspond

Precisely at this instant a stir took place amongst the Indians at the fire. Carper pressed Nelly back into her leafy nest, placing a finger on her lips as he did so, and then, as noiselessly as a snake, crept away into the densest shade of the wood-his dog following, and imitating his caution. The noises at the camp-fire became louder, and it seemed presently that the whole Indian party were rising, and preparing for travel as if day had dawned. It could not yet be midnight. The hunter was puz-ing to the wards of our cities, a mairie, (mayor) zled, and, for the better discovery of what the movement portended, dragged himself around some distance, to a spot near the edge of the glade, from which he could see what passed. Lying amongst the roots of an oak, he looked out safely. The fire, crackling with fresh brush, gave out a strong The head of this department is the Prefect of light; as it grew brighter he placed his hand over of the Police, holding authority directly from the the shining eyes of his dog. In a few minutes he ministers of the crown. It is he, or some one of saw ten of the party, Girty one of them, leave the his thousand officials, that permits you to enter the fire, and set off down the bank of the stream, fully city,--it is he who permits you to stay in it, and equipped, and with the precision of step, and order he who permits you to leave it.

and two deputy mayors; these officers sit every day from two to four hours. But in addition to all this machinery of civil administration, and what comes more nearly under the eye of the stranger, is the Administration of the Police.

of march of warriors setting out on the war-path. He has control over the lodging-houses of the Their course led them near the bed of the Quaker-city,-over the porters, the hackmen, the boatmen, ess, and Girty, leaving the file, stooped for a mo- the draymen; he has an eye to the markets, that ment over it, then went on with his companions. weights are just, and that provisions are good:The two Indians left at the fire, seemed to have no he fixes the price of bread;-he controls bakers, purpose of again going to sleep. They sat for half and brokers, and baths;—he is the great conservaan hour talking, and occasionally kicking the ends tor of order, and it is he who makes the stranger's of the half-burned brush into the blaze. After way safe in any part of Paris by night or day. If spending so much time in this way, one of the two you drive a cabriolet, he tells you what is to be got up, and going to where the bundles had been paid; if you ride to the Opera, he tells you the placed, brought back one of them to the fire. He streets you are to pass through; if you lose your opened it and spread the contents on the ground. way, he puts you right; if you lose your money, He next singled out a little white night cap, and he finds it for you; if you break a law, he slips his stuck it upon his head; then he tied a shawl around arm into yours, and walks with you down to the his neck with great bows projecting in front. Hav- Palais de Justice; if you are trampled down in the

street, he plucks you up, and gives you over to | with four or five of his comrades ;-there is no need his surgeon; if you tumble into the Seine, he kindly of excuses or promises now;-the brawler goes out fishes you out, and carefully lays your body upon over benches and boxes. He is handed over to the one of the slanting tables in La Morgue. Sergent-de-ville. The Sergent-de-ville calls a carriage, and the brawler rides to the Palais de Justice.

This same omnipresent officer presides every other Friday over a council of health, held by the first physicians and surgeons; he gives to strangeroperatives their certificate of right to work at their respective callings. He has under him forty-eight commissaries—one in each of the quartiers, into which the twelve arrondissements are divided. These are the special heads of their districts, and their houses may be distinguished along the Rue St. Martin and Rue Richelieu at night, by a crim-button-hole, leans over from one of the boxes, and son lantern burning at their doors.

Nor is this all; under the Prefect, and under the commissaries, are two thousand sergents-de-ville, who wear broad military chapeaux, and a light sword, and may be seen at all hours of the day, on the Boulevards, in the Garden, and the dirty alleys of the Cité.

Nor yet is this all;--under the Prefect, and under the commissaries, and holding humbler place than the sergents-de-ville, are the Municipal guard— three thousand picked men on foot, and seven hundred horse. The first are stationed in all the theatres at night--they patrol the streets--they rescue the injured; and wherever there is a street disturbance, there you will see the black horse-hair plume of the mounted Municipal guard.

Perhaps the disturbance is more general. The soldiers try to arrest it; they press some down, they motion the others: but perhaps half the company are hissing and shouting so that the play can not go on. In this event-and it occurred during my last visit to Paris,—a plaio-looking gentleman, dressed simply in black, with a bit of ribbon in one

tells the audience, in a quiet way,-if the noise does not cease, he shall order the theatre to be cleared.

sistance-for the man in black, whom nobody knew There is no use in expostulation--still less in retill now, is a commissary of police--and in twenty minutes could order a thousand men upon the spot. The house was quiet in a moment, and the play

went on.

For a rogue-merely morally speaking, there is no safer place than Paris. He may offend against every law of God and man, so it be not written in the books of the Prefect de Police,-and he is secure, and he may hold his head with princes, and take the cushioned stalls at Notre-Dame, and dine at the Café de Paris, and rent the first loge at the Opera. But let him offend in the least the statutes, and there is no corner from Nôtre-Dame, to Mont Martre that can hold him. He may assume any

There are beside, hundreds of secret police in almost every station of life; and there are the disguise and change it as he will-those men in "officers of the peace" in their unsuspected citi-the cocked hats, and with the straight swords, and zen's dress. No portion of the capital is free from worse still-those men in plain suits, whom nothe presence of some officer of this mighty Police. body knows, will have their eyes and their hands Every theatre has its regular quota--every assembly has its spy.

upon him.

It is no use the going backward or forward, or talking about rank, or money, or position ;—he may as well march at once quietly down to the old Palais de Justice-walk straight into the courttake off his hat to the Commissariot, and ask politely for a room on the first floor, a bottle of old Macon, and a few pipes.

—You are going to the opera :-your carriage is stopped two squares from the Opera-house, by a horseman in a glittering helmet, with black plumes waving over it; he directs with his drawn sword the way the coachman is to take; the order has There is something in the constant surveillance been arranged and prescribed at the Prefecture of of such a police, not altogether reconcilable with Police. Arrived at the door of the theatre, three an American's idea of freedom; yet at the same or more of the mounted guard upon their black time is there a secret and indefinable charm, in feelhorses direct order upon driving away-it may failing and almost perfect. It makes up, indeed, & ing the presence and security of order,-order onsnow, or it may rain--it may be early or late-still great part of the luxury of Paris life,-this quie the stern-looking horsemen are there-their hel- tude amid all the gayety. Nor is it wholly the mets and swords glittering in the gas-light. You alight from your carriage, and a couple of the sergeants-de-ville are loitering carelessly upon the steps; they run their eyes half-inquiringly over you, as you enter. Each side the little ticket-box is stationed a soldier with musket,-two of the Municipal guard. You enter a passage sentinelled by another; and within, are three or four loitering at the doorways.

false serenity, which hangs like a summer atmos phere over the scenes of Boccacio's story; it is guarantied by arms, and the nicety of complete the gayest, and so to speak, most Cosmopolitan military organization. It gives a home feeling in city of the world :-and when I came back toward it from the great Eastern cities-there was a yearing at my heart, as if it was half a home; and I welcomed the broad chapeaux of the Sergents-deville, with a little of the same feeling, with which I welcomed, at a later day,-the high gateway, the wide branching elms, the gray porch-covered with its green, flowering creeper-of my country

Perhaps there is a slight disturbance; some brawler is in the house; in that event, the soldier at the door disappears a moment ;-he comes again home.

The mention of one will suffice; "On the Fishes eaten by our Saviour and his disciples, after his resurrection from the dead." His alleged belief in witchcraft has been derided, but this is evidently one of those subjects upon which he indulges his fancy rather than his reason, and to which he alludes in the preface to his most famous work: "There are many things delivered rhetorically, many expressions therein merely tropical, as they best illustrate my meaning and therefore to be taken in a soft and flexible sense, and not to be called unto the rigid test of reason."

There is an order of minds that cannot take life

There is something winsome as well as veneraThe "Letter to a Friend" is a noble offering of ble in the character of the true philosopher. He, personal sympathy and an eloquent illustration of as well as the poet, derives his charter from nature. religious philosophy. But the work that has the adThe term, in its best acceptation, not merely desig-vantage of voluntary, in distinction to professional, nates the adherents of a school of wisdom whether authorship, and that emanated most directly from Stoical, Platonic or Epicurean, but the man of lib- his consciousness, is the private compendium of ineral and inquiring mind, who habitually reasons upon dividual faith, which became renowned soon after facts and to whom the pursuit of truth is an in- being published under the title of Religio Medici; stinct, and its appreciation a keen delight. Next it is the most true and elaborate reflection of himto the great bards, this race of men engage the af- self; and we therefore adopt it as the basis of our fections; after the poetic, this phase of humanity remarks upon his character of philosopher-his nais most noble. Approaches to the character are to tive claim to which it amply sustains. be found in all good diarists and self-biographersfor such writings are but collections of personal in- in a jovial or compromising spirit; "nobler ever cidents and thoughts more or less rich in philoso- than their mood," some faith, hope or principle is phy. Montaigne is the prince of this species and needful to preserve their equanimity. They must old Burton a fine example-but autobiographies, see things as they are, pluck out the heart of each ingenuously composed, furnish the same kind of mystery, come face to face with truth though it be aliment, and betoken a like idiosyncrasy. Thus sad, condemnatory or hopeless. Poets escape outRousseau, Goldoni, Alfieri, Cellini and Boswell, ward evil through their imaginations, philosophers have contributed invaluable materials towards the by their reason. The one arrays reality in the science of life, by disclosing, with honesty and acu- hues of fancy, the other analyses it in the crucible men, pyschological histories. One of the most in- of thought, and through combination or inference teresting specimens of the genuine philosopher in attains comfort. Perhaps the most characteristic the annals of literature, is Sir Thomas Browne. resource of the latter is a settled conviction that His candor, scope and kindliness, united with benign, universal and inevitable laws obtain not only bravery of thought and originality of expression, in nature, but in the vicissitudes of human life and make his works attractive beyond any other of the the issues of human destiny. As the astronomer old English prose writers. The bulk of the wri- serenely confides in the starry evolutions and the tings of Sir Thomas Browne are curious rather mariner in the needle's inclination, the philosopher than of practical value; but their indirect utility is trusts to the wise and kindly results both of events greater than a casual view of their ostensible de- and action. He is comparatively patient at sucsign would suggest. A vast amount of quaint cessful charlatanism because his "faith is large in. knowledge, a vein of original speculation, and a time and that which shapes it to some perfect end." loftiness of conception as well as waywardness of He observes society not for its apparent and imfaney, fix the mind to the page whither the quaint mediate, but for its actual and ultimate tendencies. title attracts it. The "Enquiries into Vulgar Er- His calm eye pierces to the inward fact undimmed rors" are the result of years of observation and by the atmosphere of circumstances. He is a natstudy: "Christian Morals" form an epitome of re-ural eclectic, drawing from each system, character ligious maxims which would do credit to the best and party its truly desirable element and uniting of the old English Divines." "Urn Burial," suggested by the discovery of some ancient urns at Norfolk, in 1658, is an essay as remarkable for its accurate learning as for the melancholy charm with which his devout imagination invested the theme. "The Garden of Cyrus" is like an antique horticultural poem; and the very titles of the tracts and letters, breathe of eccentric genius.

VoL. XIV -23

them into a harmonious whole. In human intercourse he feels assured that genuine affinity, in point of fact, regulates society; in external occurrences he looks beyond the seeming fortune to the relation it bears to individual character; and for higher truth, strives by integrity and humble patience to keep ever in a recipient state.

"There is no liberty," says our author, "for causes

to operate in a loose and straggling way, nor any sive coterie, beyond which his sympathies or pereffect whatsoever but hath its warrant from some ceptions cannot wander. A certain foothold of universal or superior cause. It is we that are blind, conservatism is absolutely necessary even for the not fortune; because our eye is too dim to dis- the most speculative thinker. Whatever be the cover the mystery of her effects, we foolishly paint goal of thought it must have a starting point, and her blind, and hoodwink the providence of the beyond what is positive and defined in a philosoAlmighty. This cryptick and involved method of pher's data of belief, he has a faith of his own his providence have I ever admired, nor can I re- rather instinctive than specific-a vague perhaps late the history of my life, the occurrences of my yet actual trust in certain grand and universal prindays, the escapes of dangers and the hits of chance, ciples or ultimate results, which does not contrawith a Bezo las Manos to fortune, or a bare gra- dict but sustains the particular formula to which mercy to my good stars." he gives open allegiance. In truth it is this very The habitude of observation, the recognition of union of reliance upon broad principles and general the world as a suggestive as well as a merely views with the recognition of particular dogmas physical sphere; the consciousness of life as an which distinguishes the disciple from the sectarian experience full of significance is every where ob- in religion, the statesman from the partizan in polvious in Browne. "The world," he says, 66 was itics, the liberal from the prejudiced in society, and made to be inhabited by beasts, but studied and the truly philosophic from the pedantic in mind. contemplated by man; it is the debt of our reason we owe unto God and the homage we pay for not being beasts. The wisdom of God receives small honor from those vulgar heads that rudely stare about, and with a gross rusticity admire his works; those highly magnify him whose judicious inquiry they cannot bear the mind beyond the limits of the into his acts and deliberate research into his creatures, return the duty of a devout and learned admiration."

ness.

The spirit of inquiry and good powers of reasoning are not, however, the only essential qualifi cations of the philosopher. These may serve him in material acquisitions, but uninspired by high emotions, unquickened by imaginative perception,

actual. Like the dying Cleopatra, unless there be "immortal longings," philosophy is bereft of its hope. Sir Thomas Browne regarded his acquired "To raise so beauteous a structure as the world knowledge as the basis not the limit of research. and the creatures thereof, was but his art, but their His experiments foretold a yet more satisfactory sundry and divided operations with their predes- analysis. He found in character chiefly promise, tined ends, are from the treasury of his wisdom." in event discipline, in nature hints-all suggestive The philosopher's spirit of inquiry is as com- of more completeness and satisfaction. The best prehensive as it is habitual, ranging from science fact of his own consciousness was a supernal trust, to art, from life to nature, from books to conscious-a sense of glorious affinity. Hence his self-resHis pleasure is to generalize. When the pect, his disregard of the temporary, his instinetprinciple of a subject, the central point of a cha- ive repose upon the bosom of nature. He was an racter, the absolute significance of a number of aspirant, and therefore not only saw the footsteps circumstances is attained, he experiences a pro- of truth in his path, but sometimes caught glimpses found satisfaction. Truth is to the intellect what of her wings through an opening cloud. He conlove is to the heart-its food, object and inspira- fesses to so "abject a conceit of this common way tion; and they who thus seek and delight in her of existence, this retaining to the sun and the elerevelations are, by nature, philosophers. The zest ments," that he "cannot think this is to be a man or of life to them is to approximate to reality through to live according to the dignity of humanity." a wilderness of appearances, and in saying that they And again: "Since I was of understanding to best vindicate the integrity of the mind, we mean know we know nothing, my reason has been more that to them the mind is an instrument of useful- pliable to the will of faith. *Where the soul ness, happiness and honor-instead of a bewilder- hath the full measure and complement of happiness; ing gift, an aimless interrogation, or a mere lumber- where the boundless appetite of that spirit remains room of fragmentary ideas. A great characteristic completely satisfied, that it can neither desire adof the true philosopher is independence. He is dition nor alteration, that I think is truly heaven. above prejudice; and the habit of viewing every * I would not entertain a base design or an question in its connection with absolute truth opens action that should call me villian for the Indies; his mind to conviction however opposed to former and for this only do I love and honor my own soul, opinion. Indeed, the ostensible creed in religion and have, methinks two arms too few to embrace or school of literature, or party in politics to which myself." * He was conscious of an inlet of such men are attached, serve rather as vantage truth above reason, for he observes, "it is but atgrounds than limits-as the particular brigade in tending a little longer and we shall enjoy that by which the true soldier is enrolled is a convenient instinct and infusion which we endeavor at here by arrangement for eliciting his activity in the cause for which he wages battle, rather than an exclu

labor and inquisition."

Among the merely individual characteristics of

Sir Thomas Browne, was his love of music, of ern literature. We do not, however, so fully re-
which he says "there is something of divinity in alize the identity whenever evolved, of all true
it more than the ear discovers;" and his irrever- principles, and the innate resemblance of all phi-
ence for antiquity merely as such. There is much losophic observers of life and nature. It has
to confirm his fanciful idea of a "revived-self," or been well said that the Sermon on the Mount
re-appearance of forms of character. Are we not was an announcement, not a creation of truth.
often struck with the marvellous similarity between The pure in heart did not become blessed on ac-
intimate acquaintances and historical personages? count of the Saviour's benediction. It was and
Who has not known women whose brilliant wit is a great moral fact that they are so. Har-
and turn for the ambitious intrigues of social life, vey's theory of the circulation of the blood is
recalled the ladies of the Court of Louis XIV spoken of as a discovery; but the law, though un-
Some constitutions are decidedly oriental in their recognized, existed from the moment that a pulse
needs and aptitudes, though born in a northern lat- quivered in the wrist of Adam. We have spoken
itade. Tendencies for particular modes of life ex- of Sir Thomas Browne as a type of the genuine
hibit themselves under circumstances which breathe philosopher; and adapting the ingenious transcript
neither a memory or hope in the same direction. of his mind, written for private satisfaction at the
A single member of a family will develope traits age of thirty, first surreptitiously published in 1642*
wholly at variance with the manners and tone of to us as his creed, confession or theory of life, it
feeling around. These and similar instances seem is curious to note how many ideas which, within a
to point to an ancestral vein working itself oblique- few years, have become prominently embodied as
ly forth, to an Arethusa-like reappearance of some original-were noted by him as familiar and per-
quality of blood or gift of soul, that has long wan-sonal conceptions. The most cherished of the
dered under oblivious waters to incarnate itself at Swedenborgian doctrines brought comfort to his
a time and place the most unexpected. Therefore soul. We find a hint of the law of corresponden-
well says our philosopher," Every man is not him-cies in this passage: "The seven schools shall
self; there have been many Diogenes, and as many
Timons, though but few of that name; men are
lived over again."

never laugh me out of the philosophy of Hermes,
that this visible world is but a picture of the in-
visible, wherein as in a portrait, things are not truly
but in equivocal shapes, and as they counterfeit
some more real substance in that invisible fabric."
And that he recognised somewhat the new church
view of the spiritual world, is evident from such
observations as these: "I hold that the devil doth
really possess some men, the spirit of melancholy
others, the spirit of delusion others; that as the
devil is concealed and denied by some, so God and
good angels are pretended by others, whereof the
late detection of the maid of Germany hath left
a pregnant example.
I do think that

It is remarkable that the men whose relish for
books is the most keen-who read sympathetically,
not merely to store the memory and weave ties of
familiar and endearing association with beloved au-
thors-should invariably repudiate the idea of an
extensive library. One can name the volumes es-
sential to the comfort of such men as Hazlitt and
Shelley. Thinkers do not require books for the
information they convey so much as mental stimu-
lants and faithful companions. They can generate
ideas for themselves and take up a volume as they
torn to a friend, for the refreshment of sympathy many mysteries ascribed to our own inventions
or attrition of mind. Sir Thomas Browne fully have been the courteous revelations of spirits, for
shared in this love of the cream of literature, and those noble essences in heaven bear a friendly re-
was impatient at the multiplication of books. "Of gard to their fellow-natures on earth."

those three great inventions in Germany, there are "Therefore, for spirits, I am so far from denying two which are not without their incommodities, and their existence, that I could easily believe that not 'tis disputable whether they exceed not their use only whole countries, but particular persons have and commodities. 'Tis not a melancholy utinam their tutelary and guardian angels." His idea of of mine own, but the desires of better heads, that the nature of these beings is equally significant. there were a general synod; not to unite the in- "I believe they have an extemporary knowledge, compatible difference of religion, but for the bene- and upon the first motion of their reason do what fit of learning; to reduce it as it lay at first in a we cannot without study and deliberation; that they few and solid authors, and to condemn to the fire know things by their forms, and define by special those swarms and millions of rhapsodies begotten difference what we describe by accidents and proponly to distract and abuse the weaker judgments of erties; and therefore probabilities to us may be scholars and to maintain the trade and mystery of demonstrations to them.”

typographers." Lavater and Spurzheim have identified their Montaigne compares authorship with the act of memories with a theory of expression or natural pouring water from one vessel into another; and language. A speculative germ of this science was the reproduction of old materials in new forms is obviously in the brain of Sir Thomas Browne. illustrated by all the brilliant achievement of mod- *The Religio Medici.