Aglae which every female ought to grave on her heart. We will quote a few

sentences.

"If women would, in early life, give themselves occupation; if they would consent to forget themselves, to fear praise, to make friends, and not to confound the desire to shine with the wish to please, every season of life would be happy. Let this be the lesson of your life. To be happy, we must be loved. You are beautiful while you avoid ostentation: at the same time never let your toilet be too much neglected; whether you are in the city or the country, always take that care which, without being a passion for dress, proves so well the propriety of mind in a female. Cultivate your mind; add every day to its extent; but remember that the conversation of the woman who knows the most, should still leave the impression that she is seeking information. Humility consoles the ignorant, and flatters those who think they can enlighten us. But above all, have charity, if you wish to be loved with an enduring affection. To find charity in others is the daily wish of all; to possess it is the charm of every age; a charm, without which, no virtue is complete; a charm that covers a multitude of faults."

The stories already named are translations: one from the German, the other the French. The next in our estimation is the two portraits. Perhaps the beautiful engraving accompanying it had some share in deciding our taste; for the story is not certainly as interesting as might have been wrought from such interesting materials. We think the translations better than the original articles. Neither can we say what we would wish to say in favor of the poetry. The only poem that pleased us much is "Stanzas. Suggested by a painting." Yet there are several others that may be called respectable.

"THE VISITOR." Another annual, and though differing somewhat in its literary character from those already noticed in the Magazine, it bears sufficient resemblance in appearance, to be classed with the Souvenirs. It is a very neat little book (the engravings are not included in this eulogy) and tastefully executed. The contents are mostly selections, and inculcating moral or religious sentiments. We think the plan of this work good, and that it is, in many respects, preferable to make a book for children thus, of selected pieces which have been approved by experienced judges, than trust to original sources for all the materials. It gives, moreover, a scope for greater variety, and short articles are much better relished and oftener read by children than long stories will be—and thus, truths intended to be illustrated and enforced, are more striking. A proverb will teach more wisdom, than a page of diffusive exhortation. Credit ought to have been given to authors whose writings are inserted.

We have quite a number of books on hand, particularly those designed for children and youth, but are compelled, for want of space, to defer the notices till next month. We have also several excellent poetic communications on hand, which the writers probably expected would appear in this number, a similar want of room has delayed their publication.

"But talking is not always to converse."

THE faculty of speech is one of the proudest prerogatives of man. He only, of all earth's inhabitants, is able to communicate his feelings and express his wants and wishes in a language perfectly intelligible to his species.

We are not however about entering into a learned disquisition concerning the structure of sentences, or an investigation respecting the formation of words, not even so far as to guess

Such

whether the first spoken were interjections or nouns. profound and useless inquiries should be left to those philologists who have time, if no other requisite, for the task, and who can therefore prepare a long article which, if it do not convince by its arguments, confounds by its intricacy. It is not the use but abuse of language we were intending to notice. And seldom has the latter been described in more appropriate language, or illustrated with greater skill and truth than in a poem entitled " Conversation," from which the line standing at the head of this article is extracted.

Truth is, in a remarkable manner, the essence of all Cowper's poetry. He wrote not so much to please as to reform; but yet while propriety in the descriptive, purity in style and piety in sentiment, have an admirer or an advocate, Cowper will be read, and what is better, esteemed. may follow the flights of a bolder or more empassioned writer with deeper interest, but we shall ever recur to his moral page as to a kind and good friend, whose advice, if followed, would have made us happier. Cowper is one of the few bards who has no stain on his poetic escutcheonhe never wrote a strain, or breathed a sentiment which virtue would condemn. And even when his censures are deservedly incurred, by folly or vice, they are breathed in the spirit of pitying reproof, and not like the angry execrations of misanthropic hate, or disappointed vanity. His only aim in attempting to make the world "sadder" appears to have been to make it better.

"Conversation" is the most satirical of all his poems, and yet the reader, who reflects for a moment on the incongruous gossip which makes up the noise of this talking world, will acknowledge its severity not only just but generous. There are few "peaceably disposed" persons but what have sometimes felt they could join with fervor in the following invocation:

"Ye powers who rule the tongue, if such there are,
"And make colloquial happiness your care,

"Preserve me from the thing I dread and hate!
"A duel in the form of a debate,

"The clash of arguments and jar of words,

"Worse than the mortal brunt of rival swords."

Nor can such rules as the following fail of meeting with approbation, even from those who do not take the trouble to follow them. Indeed it is much more difficult to prac

tice that habitual deference to the feelings and opinions of others which is the charm of politeness in conversation, than to praise politeness. The one requires only honied words, the other kind feelings and right principles. But hear Cowper's advice to disputants

"Discourse may want an animated-No!

"To brush the surface and to make it flow-
"But still remember, if you mean to please,
"To press your point with modesty and ease;
"The mark, at which my juster aim I take,
"Is contradiction for its own dear sake."

Story-telling is a very pleasing art in conversation if judiciously managed. Yet but very few succeed happily in that apparently easy department. What effort of the colloquial powers can seem easier than merely to relate something that we have seen, heard or read? No mental exertion is required, except that of the memory, the most simple of all our faculties of mind. But manner, manner is to the story-teller, "the first, second, and third requisite." And the possession of that manner in its perfection belongs only to those of a highly cultivated mind and taste, combined with a certain quality of intellectual acumen which can be defined by no single word except that of tact. The following are some of Cowper's rules and remarks on stories in conversation-and they are well worth remembering.

"A story, in which native humor reigns,
"Is often useful, always entertains;

"A graver fact, enlisted on your side,

May furnish illustration, well applied,

"But sedentary weavers of long tales

"Give me the fidgets and my patience fails,
"A tale should be judicious, clear, succinct,
"The language plain and incidents well linked:
"Tell not as new what every body knows,
"And, new or old, still hasten to a close;
"There, centering in a focus round and neat,
"Let all your rays of information meet."

We do not ask pardon for thus introducing quotations from a poet whose works are supposed to be familiar as household words to all those intelligent ladies who profess a taste for the chaste and refined in poetry. The truth is such supposition is incorrect. The flood of modern literature is overwhelming, if not annihilating the interest with which the bards of the last century used to be read. Yet few poetic writings are a more appropriate study for young ladies than the works of Cowper. In one particular excel