"On me dit,

who is one of the principal characters. (said he, the first time he met her,) que nous sommes tous les deux dans votre roman déguisés en femme." Rubhières, the celebrated author of the work on the Polish Revolution, having said, "Je n'ai fait qu'un méchanceté de ma vie." "Et quand finira-t-elle ?” was M. Talleyrand's reply. "Genève est ennuyeuse, n'est-ce pas ?" asked a friend. "Surtout quand on s'y amuse," was the answer. "Elle est insupportable,' (said he, with a marked emphasis, of one well known; but as if he had gone too far, and to take something off of what he laid on, he added,) "Elle n'a que ce défaut-là." "Ah, je sens les tourmens d'enfer,” said a person, whose life had been supposed to be somewhat of the loosest. "Déjà ?" was the inquiry suggested by M. Talleyrand.—Brougham.

There is an anecdote recorded of Talleyrand, which shows that he not only could say witty things, but also could do them. Upon Charles the Tenth's death, he drove for a few days about Paris, carrying a piece of crape in his pocket; when he came by the neighbourhood of the Carlists, the crape was taken out and tied around his hat, and when he arrived at the quarter of the Tuilleries, he again slipped off the crape, and put it in his pocket.

STORY-TELLING.

I would advise all professors of the art of storytelling, never to tell stories but as they seem to grow out of the subject-matter of the conversation, or as

they serve to illustrate, or enliven it. Stories that are very common, are generally irksome; but may be aptly introduced, provided they be only hinted at, and mentioned by way of allusion. Those that are altogether new, should never be ushered in, without a short and pertinent character of the chief persons concerned, because, by that means, you may make the company acquainted with them; and it is a certain rule, that slight and trivial accounts of those who are familiar to us, administer more mirth than the brightest points of wit in unknown characters. A little circumstance in the complexion or dress of the man you are talking of, sets his image before the hearer, if it be chosen aptly for the story.-Steele.

LIFE.

Democritus was a wiser man than Heraclitus. Those are the wisest, and the happiest, who can pass through life as a play; who, without making a farce of it, and turning every thing into ridicule, consider the whole period from the cradle to the coffin, as a well-bred comedy; and maintain a cheerful smile to the very last scene. For what is happiness but a Will-o'-the-wisp a delusion—a terra-incognita-in pursuit of which thousands are tempted out of the harbour of tranquillity, to be tossed about, the sport of the winds of passion and the waves of disappointment, to be wrecked perhaps at last on the rocks of despair; unless they be provided with the sheet-anchor of religion-the only anchor that will hold in

all weathers. This is a very stupid allegory, but it was preached to me this morning by a beautiful piece of sculpture which I saw. A female figure of Hope has laid aside her anchor, and is feeding a monstrous chimæra. The care and solicitude of Hope in tending this frightful creature, are most happily expressed; and the general effect is so touching, that it illustrates Shakspeare's phrase of sermons in stones with great felicity.-Matthews.

ROGUES.

Few people think better of others than of themselves, nor do they readily allow the existence of any virtue of which they perceive no traces in their own minds; for which reason it is next to impossible to persuade a rogue that you are an honest man; nor would you ever succeed by the strongest evidence, was it not for the comfortable conclusion which the rogue draws, that he who proves himself honest, proves himself a fool at the same time.-Fielding.

INDUSTRY.

It is better to wear out than to rust out.—Cumberland. We must not only strike the iron while it is hot, but strike it till "it is made hot."-Sharp.

"WHAT'S IN A NAME."

There are not a few of the best and most humane Englishmen of the present day, who, when under the influence of fear or anger, would think it no great

crime to put to death people whose names begin with O or Mac. The violent death of Smith, Green, or Thomson, would throw the neighbourhood into convulsions, and the regular forms would be adhered to-but little would be really thought of the death of any body called O'Dogherty or O'Toole.-Sydney Smith.

COOKERY AND ASTRONOMY.

M. Henrion de Pensey, president of the Court of Cassation, expressed himself as follows, to three of the most distinguished men of science of their day: "I regard the discovery of a dish as a far more interesting event than the discovery of a star, for we have always stars enough, but we can never have too many dishes; and I shall not regard the sciences as sufficiently honoured or adequately represented, until I see a cook in the first class of the Institute."

NAPOLEON.

The most remarkable feature in the character of this strange being is his inconsistency; displaying as he does, at different times, the most opposite extremes of great and little-magnificence and meanness. This inconsistency, however, is sufficiently explained by his utter want of fixed principles of right and wrong. What can be expected of him who laughs at religion, and does not even possess a sense of honour to keep him steady in the path of greatness? Selfishness seems to have been the foundation

of his system, the only principle which he acknowledged; and this will reconcile all the apparent inconsistencies of his conduct. Every thing was right to him that conduced to his own interest, by any means, however wrong; and as his mind seems to have had the power of expanding with his situation, so it had an equal power of contracting again; and he could at once descend from the elevation of his throne, to the pettiest considerations connected with his altered condition, accommodating himself in a moment, to all the variations of fortune. In a word, he was the Garrick of the great stage of the world, who could play in the Imperial Tragedy-carrying terror and pity into all bosoms-and reappearing in the part of Scrub, in the after-piece, with equal truth and fidelity of representation. We might admire the equanimity of such a temperament, if we did not find it associated with such a selfish and exclusive attention to his own personal safety, as robs it of all claims to our applause. After all, he is a truly extraordinary being --a wonderful creature, furnishing the most curious subject for examination to those who, abstractedly from all the national and political feelings of the present time, can consider him merely as a singular phenomenon, an anomalous variety in the strange history of human nature.-Matthews.

NARROW-MINDED PERSONS.

A narrow-minded person has not a thought be yond the little sphere of his own vision. "The