6. That boy with the grave mathematical look
Made believe he had written a wonderful book,
And the Royal Society thought it was true!
So they chose him right in,-a good joke it was too!

7. There's a boy, we pretend, with a three-decker brain,
That could harness a team with a logical chain;
When he spoke for our manhood in syllabled fire,
We called him "The Justice," but now he's the "Squire."

8. And there's a nice youngster of excellent pith;
Fate tried to conceal him by naming him Smith;
But he shouted a song for the brave and the free,—
Just read on his medal, "My country,"
"" of thee!"

9. You hear that boy laughing'? You think he's all fun; But the angels laugh, too, at the good he has done? The children laugh loud as they troop to his call,

And the poor man that knows him laughs loudest of all!

10. Yes, we're boys',—always playing with tongue or with pen;

And I sometimes have asked, Shall we ever be men'?
Shall we always be youthful, and laughing, and gay,
Till the last dear companion drops smiling away'?

11. Then here's to our boyhood, its gold and its gray!
The stars of its winter', the dews of its May'!
And when we have done with our life-lasting toys,
Dear Father, take care of Thy children, THE BOYS!

AN IRISHMAN'S WIT.

A SHORT time since, as several persons were standing on a wharf at Liverpool, one of them slipped into the dock. An Irishman plunged into the water, and, after a severe struggle, rescued the person from the waves. When the man had recovered from his ducking, he took some change out of his pocket, and, selecting a sixpence, handed it to the Irishman. The latter looked an instant at the sixpence in the palm of his hand, and then slowly measured with his eye the individual whom he had rescued, and observing that he was a very thin, withered little man, he put the money into his pocket, and turned on his heel, saying significantly, "It's enough!"

LESSON LXXXIII.

A CHAPTER OF EPIGRAMS.

1. The Epigram, which is a pointed couplet or stanza, or any short poem in which the thoughts and expressions converge to one sharp point at the close, has had many epigrammatic definitions, from which we select the following:

"What is an Epigram ?-A dwarfish whole;

Its body Brevity, and Wit its soul."

2. The following describes the character of the epigram more fully:

"The point that in the ending finds a place,
We call the Epigram's peculiar grace ;-
Some unexpected and some biting thought,

With poignant wit, and sharp expression fraught."

3. But for brevity and wit combined, the following definition, in the form of a simile, translated from that celebrated Latin epigrammatist, Martial, who lived more than eighteen hundred years ago, must bear away the palm:

"An Epigram is like a bee-a thing

Of little size, with honey, and a sting."

4. The following good examples of Epigram will give some idea of the varieties of wit of which it is made the medium. The first is by Dean Swift.

5.

6.

On a would-be Wit.

You beat your pate, and fancy wit will come;
Knock as you will, there's nobody at home.

Satire on a poor Reader.

The verses', friend', which thou hast read', are mine'; But, as thou' read'st them', they may pass for thine'.

Satire on a bad Singer.

Swans' sing' before they die'; 'twere no bad thing
Should certain persons die before they sing.

7.

8.

Sarcastic Repartee.

Jack, eating rotten cheese, did say,
"Like Samson, I my thousands slay!"
"Yes," cried a wag, "indeed you do,
And with the self-same weapon too."

A witty Retort.

A haughty courtier, meeting in the streets
A scholar, him thus insolently greets:
"Base men to take the wall I ne'er permit !"
The scholar said, "I do"-and gave him it.

A PUNNING EPITAPH ON JOSEPH BLACKETT,
Who was both shoemaker and poet.-BYROM.

1. STRANGER! behold, interred together,
The souls of learning and of leather.
Poor Joe is gone, but left his all:
You'll find his relics in a stall.

His works were neat, and often found
Well stitched, and with morocco bound.

2. Tread lightly-where the bard is laid
He can not mend the shoe he made;
Yet is he happy in his hole,
With verse immortal as his sole.
But still to business he held fast,
And stuck to Phœbus to the last.

3. Then who shall say so good a fellow
Was only "leather and prunella ?"
For character-he did not lack it;
And, if he did, 'twere shame to "Black-it."

MIND AND MATTER.

The following is probably the best definition ever given of mind and mat"What is mind? No matter. What is matter? Never mind."

ter.

LESSON LXXXIV.

CHARACTER OF PERSONIFICATION.

[Analysis.-1. What is Personification?-2. A bold, but common figure.-3. The first, or lowest degree of it.-4. Second degree, with examples.-5. Description of a thunder-storm, by Byron.-6. Description of Mount Pelion.-7. Shakspeare's use of this figure in describing slander.-7, 8, 9. Natural Religion personified.-10. Where personifications of the second degree are most abundant.-11. Earth and Nature personified by Milton.-12. The third and highest degree of this figure. Where the first two degrees of this figure are employed. The third-when only to be attempted.13. Nature of all passions to struggle for expression. How they seek relief. Example of this third degree of personification, from Milton.-14. Eve's Address to Paradise. Paradise-its walks, shades, flowers, etc., personified by direct address.-15. Pride personified, by Pope.]

1. PERSONIFICATION is a figure by which we attribute life and action to inanimate objects; as when we speak of a raging storm, a deceitful disease, a cruel disaster, an obedient -ship, the angry ocean.

2. It is apparently a very bold figure of thought to speak of stones, and trees, and fields, and rivers, as if they were living creatures, and to attribute to them thought and sensation, affections and actions; and yet it is so common that it seems to be the natural language of imagination and passion.

3. In the first or lowest degree of this figure, some of the properties or qualities of living creatures are ascribed to inanimate objects, as in the examples already given, in which some epithet expresses the personification. Even when thus limited, this figure, when properly employed, adds much beauty and sprightliness to language.

4. We proceed a step farther, and in the second degree of this figure introduce inanimate objects as acting like beings endowed with life; as when we say, the ground thirsts for rain, the earth smiles with plenty: when, in speaking of the sun as a monarch, we say, "He looks in boundless majesty

abroad;" and also when we use language like the following: 66 The sea saw it, and fled; Jordan was driven back; the mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs." 5. Byron makes use of this figure in one of the grandest descriptions ever penned-that of a thunder-storm among the Alps:

I. THE ALPS PERSONIFIED.

"Far along,

From peak to peak, the rattling crags among,
Leaps the live thunder! Not from one loud cloud,
But every mountain now hath found a tongue,
And Jura answers through her misty shroud,
Back to the joyous Alps, who call to her aloud."

Childe Harold, Canto iii., 92.

6. When the poet, standing on the plains of Thessaly, and, looking up to Mount Pelion, hears the wind murmuring through the waving pines that crown its summit, how beautiful is the language of personification in which he paints the scene:

"And Pelion shook his fiery locks, and talk'd

Mournfully to the fields of Thessaly."

7. Shakspeare uses this figure, when, to describe the ef fects of slander, he imagines it to be a voluntary agent:

II. SLANDER PERSONIFIED.

"No, 'tis slander;

Whose edge is sharper than the sword; whose tongue
Outvenoms all the worms of Nile; whose breath
Rides on the posting winds, and doth belie
All corners of the world, kings, queens, and states,
Maids, matrons: nay, the secrets of the grave

This viperous slander enters."-Cymbeline, Act III., Sc. 4.

The following fine example, carried perhaps as far as is allowable in prose, will show the spirit and grace which this figure, when well conducted, bestows upon a discourse: