indulge in perpetual comment on their proceedings, and to delight in their having other pursuits than ours, are all based upon a thorough perception of the simple fact, that they are not we.

"Another rule for living happily with others, is to avoid having stock subjects of disputation. It mostly happens, when people live much together, that they come to have certain set topics, around which, from frequent dispute, there is such a growth of angry words, mortified vanity and the like, that the original subject of difference becomes a standing subject for quarrel; and there is a tendency in all minor disputes to drift down to it.

Again, if people wish to live well together, they must not hold too much to logic, and suppose that everything is to be settled by sufficient reason, Dr. Johnson saw this clearly with regard to married people, when he said, • Wretched would be the pair above all names of wretchedness, who should be doomed to adjust by reason, every morning, all the minute detail of a domestic day.' But the application should be much more general than he made it. There is no time for such reasonings, and nothing that is worth them. And when we recollect how two lawyers, or two politicians, can go on contending, and that there is no end of one-sided reasoning on any subject, we shall not be sure that such contention is the best mode for arriving at truth. But certainly it is not the way to arrive at good temper.

"If you would be loved as a companion, avoid unnecessary criticism upon those with whom you live. The number of people who have taken out judge's patents for themselves is very large in any society. Now it would be hard for a man to live with another who was always criticising his actions, even if it were kindly and just criticism. It would be like living between the glasses of a microscope. But these self-elected judges, like their prototypes, are very apt to have the persons they judge brought before them in the guise of culprits.

"One of the most provoking forms of the criticism above alluded to, is that which may be called criticism over the shoulder. Had I been consulted,' 'had you listened to me,' 'but you always will,' and such short scraps of sentences may remind many of us of dissertations which we have suffered and inflicted, and of which we cannot call to mind any soothing effect.

"Another rule is, not to let familiarity swallow up all courtesy. Many of us have a habit of saying to those with whom we live such things as we say about strangers behind their backs. There is no place, however, where real politeness is of more value than where we mostly think it would be superfluous. You may say more truth, or rather speak out more plainly, to your associates, but not less courteously, than you do to strangers.

"Again, we must not expect more from the society of our friends and companions than it can give ; and especially must not expect contrary things. It is somewhat arrogant to talk of travelling over other minds (mind being, for what we know, infinite): but still we become familiar with the upper views, tastes, and tempers of our associates. And it is hardly in man to estimate justly what is familiar to him. In travelling along at night, as Hazlitt says, we catch a glimpse into cheerful looking rooms with light blazing in them, and we conclude, involuntarily, how happy the inmates must be. Yet there is Heaven and Hell in those rooms, the same Heaven and Hell that we have known in others."

COMPANIONSHIP,

"Milverton. It is a sad thing to consider how much of their abilities people turn to tiresomeness. You see a man who would be very agreeable if he were not so observant: another who would be charming, if he were deaf and dumb: a third delightful, if he did not vex all around him with superfluous criticism.

You

"Ellesmere. A hit at me that last, I suspect. But I shall go on. have not, I think, made enough merit of independence in companionship. If I were to put into an aphorism what I mean, I should say, Those who depend wholly on companionship, are the worst companions: or thus, Those deserve companionship who can do without it."

INDIVIDUALITY.

"There is one thing that people hardly ever remember, or, indeed, have imagination enough to conceive; namely, the effect of each man being shut up in his individuality. Take a long course of sayings and doings in which many persons have been engaged. Each one of them is in his own mind the centre of the web, though, perhaps, he is at the edge of it. We know that in our observations of the things of sense, any difference in the points from which the observation is taken, gives a different view of the same thing. Moreover, in the world of sense, the objects and the points of view are each indifferent to the rest; but in life the points of view are centres of action that have had something to do with the making of the things looked at. If we could calculate the moral parallax arising from this, we should see, by the mere aid of the intellect, how unjust we often are in our complaints of ingratitude, inconstancy and neglect. But without these nice calculations, such errors of view may be corrected at once by humility, a more sure method than the most enlightened appreciation of the cause of error. Humility is the true cure for many a needless heartache."

But we could fill pages with such extracts, and must therefore leave the reader to enter into a contest with the book itself: we, in the mean time, looking desiringly for the second volume.

STORIES AND STUDIES FROM THE CHRONICLES AND HISTORY OF ENGLAND. By Mrs. S. C. Hall and Mrs. J. Foster. 2 vols. post 8vo. Darton & Co.

HISTORY is a necessary study for the young, and yet they do not take to it spontaneously. It is never found that when any pocket-money is to be spent that they think of purchasing a history of any kind, without it be that of "Martin the Foundling," and yet history is the very foundation of modern fiction. Children of a larger growth it must be confessed, have had recourse to romance to learn the leading facts of our nation's story, and others, besides Marlborough, have known no more of it than what they gleaned from Shakspeare's plays. To this agreeable medium have now been added the Waverley Novels, with collateral branches by Bulwer, James, and a long list. A taste so

universal and indestructible would tend to prove that the fault was not all on one side; and that the literary taste that revolted from the food offered to it was justified from the nature of the crude and dry pabulum. A long political History of England is like a treatise on chess or mathe matics to a person understanding neither. And a miserable curt abridgment, stuffed full of bald facts, such as battles, and the births and deaths of people, that a child, and indeed for that matter, a man, can have no interest in, except for some human interest to be raised for them, is enough to drive them for ever from such reading. This has long been felt, and many before the authors of the present volumes have endeavoured to throw the narratives of the chief events of history into an interesting form. To Sir Walter Scott, however, belongs the merit of having conquered the difficulty, and we are inclined to go further even than Thierry, the great French historian, and think that more than half of the real history of the period is to be found in "Ivanhoe." Certainly, if only one portion could be read, we think more true know ledge might be found of Richard Cœur de Lion's reign in the romance than in the professed history.

It must not, however, be conceived that every flimsy sentimental story, based on the historical fact, is of value. Such unwholesome verbiage is worse than unidealess history. If nothing but bare sticks can be had, let them be planted, and peradventure in a good soil they may fructify into truths. The present attempt is wanting in vigour. It is history cut out in fine woven paper. It is too fine; too pure for the genuine substance. Like some of our much-admired modern painters, all is so smooth, so glossy, so smug, that it loses its vraisemblance. It cannot be denied that there is a very delicate perception of the moralities: a fine sense of the heroic, but a want of boldness and breadth, that renders the stories and pictures weak and vague. Running through our history from Brutus even to Victoria, there is, however, much that must excite the attention of the young reader, and awaken an interest that will induce him to seek further information in the pages of the more regular historians; and, if properly inducted through the medium of the old chroniclers, probably induce a taste for this important branch of literature. We should indeed have said that the narrative is frequently carried on by means of quotations from the old chroniclers; and no scholastic reader need be informed how deeply their pages are imbued with human feeling. The illustrations of each monarch's reign are somewhat too brief, and the subjects are not selected in a very striking manner; nor is there any distinctive force either of remark or narrative. They however supply a want, and will, as we have already said, stimulate the curiosity of the young. After all, we do not know a more likely mode of interesting the young reader in his country's histories than giving him the historical plays of Shakspeare to read. A subsequent exercise might be correcting or verifying such errors of fact and date as occur.

The following extract is one of the best specimens of these illustrations of old times and crimes :→→

THE PROTESTANTS OF MARY'S DAY.

"Among the many English hearts whom the accession of Mary filled with terror and dismay, none beat more anxiously than did that of the Duchess of Suffolk, widow of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, and lately become the wife of Richard Bertic, a person of liberal education, but of very obscure birth, and danger of dangers !-a Protestant !!

"This lady was the daughter and heiress of the ninth Lord Willoughby; and her mother, a Spanish lady of high birth, had been maid of honour to Catharine of Arragon. But in the preceding reign she had made herself an object of hatred to Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, by an insulting display of her abhorrence for his hideous character, and her contempt for his religion. She now felt all the imprudence of this proceeding; she knew well that her high birth and splendid connections would be altogether insufficient to shield her from the vengeance of the remorseless prelate, and already beheld herself among the earliest victims of the misguided Mary's sanguinary decrees.

"Two chances of escape remained to her she must renounce her religion, or resign herself to a voluntary banishment from her native land, and it was the last that she resolved on. But those days were not as ours; it was not at her own good pleasure and in open day that the duchess might depart from the land where every hour threatened her with imprisonment, torture, and death; but in silence and secrecy, cowering beneath the shades of night, and in dread of discovery at every step, was she compelled to steal from her home, as though hurrying from the punishment of crime.

"A license for himself to leave England had already been procured by Richard Bertic, on the pretext of business demanding his presence in Flanders, and when news of his safe arrival on a foreign shore reached the duchess, she stole from her house in Barbican-a region that boasts few duchesses now-a-days-with her little daughter, not yet two years old, in her arms; and taking boat on the Thames, was thus conveyed to a port in Kent, where she embarked.

"But when already within sight of a less dangerous strand, the terrified lady was driven back by stress of weather, and after much peril compelled to put in to an English port. She fortunately found means to re-embark some few days after, and at length rejoined her husband at Santon, in the Duchy of Cleves.

"And here the harassed couple began to breathe, but no long time elapsed before they were again compelled to fly, by a discovery that the Bishop of Arras was on the point of sending them back to the tender mercies of his brother prelate, the Bishop of Winchester. It was on a dark October night that they were again driven forth, Bertic loaded with what valuables they could snatch up in their hurried escape, and the duchess carrying her child. Four miles through mud and rain did the desolate wanderers proceed on foot, the duchess in daily expectation of her confinement, and with difficulty dragging herself along.

"At length they gained the town of Wesel, but their appearance was so

Over

wild and wretched, that the innkeepers refused to receive them. whelmed by this last misfortune, the suffering lady sank exhausted: dragging her into a church porch, her husband then left her to make further efforts for procuring shelter; and here, in all the misery and desolation that surrounded her, did the unhappy duchess give birth to a son-afterwards that Lord Willoughby D'Eresby, whose name you will see making a brilliant figure in the reign of Elizabeth, from whom he wrung a reluctant and ungracious recognition of his rights. Of this event works more diffuse and more important than the slight sketch I am here giving you will inform you, in your more extended readings-our business is with his suffering mother. "Bertic was, meanwhile, seeking anxiously through the streets for the abode of a Walloon minister, to whom the duchess had shown kindness in England; and, hearing two students exchange a few words in Latin, he approached, and accosting them in that language, received a direction to the house he sought. Accompanied by the worthy pastor and his wife, Bertic now returned to his unfortunate lady, who was instantly conveyed with her infant to the parsonage, where all that the most grateful affection could devise was done for her comfort and restoration. Here she quickly recovered her health, and for some time remained in peace; a fresh alarm then obliged her husband to remove her into the dominions of the Palgrave, and the money and jewels they had brought with them being, after some time, exhausted, they were reduced to the most bitter distress.

"At this crisis a friend of the duchess made her situation known to the King of Poland, who invited her at once to his protection; the exiled family reached Poland through many dangers, and after many very narrow escapes. But once there, the accomplishments of Bertic soon gained the favour of the sovereign; a large domain was assigned to them by their princely protector, and here they lived in greate honoure and tranquillitie,' till the accession of Elizabeth permitted their return to their native land."

It should have been added, that tales as touching could be told of escapes from Protestant persecution in those times of " no toleration."

A GUIDE TO THE BIRTH-TOWN OF SHAKSPERE, AND THE POET'S RURAL HAUNTS. By George May. Fcap. 8vo. G. May.

THOUGH many guide-books and descriptions of Stratford-on-Avon are extant, we sincerely welcome the present well-timed addition. It conveys in a clear manner the present state of the remains associated with Shakspere's name; and we are glad to be reminded that so much still exists, though so much and such wilful waste has been made. The total destruction of the house in which the poet spent his last years, by the Rev. Mr. Gastrell, in 1759, can never be sufficiently deplored, and we were almost about to be uncharitable enough to say, sufficiently execrated. That would have been an undoubted memorial, and one with which the most vivid imaginings of the man could have been associated. There was the garden, as planned by himself, and the