the ephemeral insects that arise from a turbid pool, have come forth from all the low places of life---and have spread a pestilential nuisance throughout all the haunts of society.

In the whole of these things there is a strong intermixture of the terrible and the ludicrous---insomuch that, if things were to stop where they now are, all that is past might yet be reverted to as a foolish mood into which the human mind had fallen for a time---even although it did threaten for a period to resolve itself into other moods, that might have been attended with ultimate misery. But the plot is only in its commencement---and it being the tendency of all such scenes to proceed from evil to worse -by the gradual and sometimes the sudden evolution of the elements of evil which enter into their general complexion of folly —it must be by some happy fatality which human wisdom is incapable of foreseeing, if the plot, as it proceeds, does not deepen in its horrors---and what has begun as a farce is not found in the end to have exhibited all the dreadful scenes of a wide spread and most lamentable tragedy.

May heaven avert the omen!

OLD TIMES COME BACK AGAIN.

THE similarity between the notions which prevailed generally in the minds of the community during the times of the civil wars, and those which have lately occupied the thoughts of men while the measure of reform was in agitation, has been often remarked-and could not escape the observation of those who have either any acquaintance with the past history of this country, or any knowledge of the affinities which certain orders of ideas, when once awakened in the minds of a people, have to certain others. But the following passages from Butler's Hudibras cannot fail to awaken a smile at the very identity of the language which seems to have been current during those two periods of national excitement.

The first passage is descriptive of the universal passion for reform, as it manifested itself during the time to which the poem relates-and of its influence over the minds of the very lowest orders of the community.

"When tinklers bawl'd aloud, to settle
Church discipline, for patching kettle :
No sow-gelder did blow his horn
To geld a cat, but cry'd Reform.
The oyster-women lock'd their fish up,
And trudg'd away, to cry, No Bishop.
The mouse-trap men laid save-alls by,
And 'gainst Evil Counsellors did cry.
Botchers left old clothes in the lurch,
And fell to turn and patch the church.
Some cry'd the Covenant, instead

Of pudding-pies, and ginger-bread.

And some for brooms, old boots and shoes,
Bawl'd out to purge the Common-house.
Instead of kitchen-stuff, some cry,

A Gospel-preaching Ministry.

And some for old suits, coats, or cloak,

No Surplices, nor Service-book.
A strange harmonious inclination

Of all degrees to reformation."

So much for the general passion for reformation-and the following passage from the same poem will be felt to be as literally true to the taste which has lately been manifested for carrying that passion into all conceivable-most discordant-and in many instances most ludicrous things.

"For when they came to shape the model,

Not one could fit another's noddle:
But found their light and gifts more wide
From fadging than th' unsanctify'd ;
While every individual brother
Strove hand to fist against another,
And still the maddest, and most crack'd,
Were found the busiest to transact;
For tho' most hands dispatch apace,
And make light work, (the proverb says,)
Yet many diff'rent intellects

Are found t' have contrary effects;
And many heads t' obstruct intrigues,
As slowest insects have most legs.

"Some were for setting up a king,

But all the rest for no such thing."

Some for the gospel, and massacres
Of spiritual affidavit-makers,

That swore to any human regence,
Oaths of suprcm'cy and allegiance;
Yea, tho' the ablest swearing saint,
That vouch'd the bulls o' th' covenant:
Others for pulling down th' high places
Of synods and provincial classes,
That us'd to make such hostile inroads
Upon the saints like bloody Nimrods:
Some for fulfilling prophecies,
And th' extirpation of th' excise;
And some against th' Egyptian bondage
Of holy days, and paying poundage :
Some for the cutting down of groves,
And rectifying bakers' loaves;
And some for finding out expedients
Against the slav'ry of obedience;
Some were for gospel-ministers,
And some for red-coat seculars,

As men most fit t' hold forth the word,
And wield the one and th' other sword.
Some were for carrying on the work
Against the Pope, and some the Turk:
Some for engaging to suppress
The camisado of surplices,

That gifts and dispensations hinder'd,

And turn'd to the outward man the inward;
More proper for the cloudy night

Of Popery, than gospel-light.
Others were for abolishing

That tool of matrimony, a ring

With which th' unsanctify'd bridegroom

Is married only to a thumb;

(As wise as ringing of a pig,

That us'd to break up ground, and dig}
The bride to nothing but her will,
That nulls the after-marriage still.
Some were for th' utter extirpation
Of linsey-woolsey in the nation;
And some against all idolizing

The cross in shop-books, or baptizing;
Others, to make all things recant

The Christian or sirname of Saint;

And force all churches, streets, and towns,

The holy title to renounce;

Some 'gainst a third estate of souls,
And bringing down the price of coals:
Some for abolishing black-pudding,
And eating nothing with the blood in ;
To abrogate them root and branches:
While others were for eating haunches
Of warriors, and now and then
The flesh of kings and mighty men:
And some for breaking of their bones
With rods of ir'n by secret ones:
For thrashing mountains, and with spells
For hallowing carriers packs and bells;
Things that the legend never heard of,
But made the wicked sore afraid of."

Hume has observed of Butler's poem, that there is not a more learned book to be found in any language; and Voltaire says, he never met with so much wit in one single book as in this. We may add, that this poem must have gained an additional value in the eyes of the present generation from the similarity of the scenes and modes of thinking which it describes, with those which

the strange vicissitudes of human history have again manifested within our own days—as it is further true, that many of the passages which used to be reckoned obscure or extravagant in the poem, must have become quite intelligible by means of the striking comment which has been attached to them by very recent occurrences. The fact is, the poem is not an obscure one-it being only necessary that the reader should enter into the peculiar spirit of the times when it was written, to perceive in it all the merit which its warmest admirers have ever attributed to it. To the reader of our own times there cannot be a richer treat—and it seems only strange that the periodical writers of the day have so seldom quoted it in illustration of their positions.