more justly be described as out of his judgment than out of his senses. His senses, indeed, have nothing to do with the matter, except in being more or less affected, as it may happen, by the failure of the understanding."

"I can't pretend to resist your reasoning on this point.'

ing to impoverish it. By the same rule we ought to banish from the language the appropriate phrases, stable, kennel, sty, granary, scullery, laundry, and in their place say, horse-house, dog-house, hoghouse, grain-house, dish-washing-house, clothesdressing-house; and so on.''

"I cannot deny that there is much force in all this; but surely I need not tell you that it is in vain to interfere with fashion in these matters?"

Again, a Scotchman is challenged for saying, I'll cause my friend to join me in this undertaking.' The Englishman tells him he ought to say make, "Yes, but I will interfere with fashion; at least instead of cause. But cause is in this case a much I will show you where I think fashion is wrong. clearer and more correct phrase than make. The I think her so in more respects than in the rejection Scotch have a phrase of their own, which is better of valuable words. Sometimes she makes gross still; they say, 'I'll gar my friend; but as this corruptions in words which the so-called vulgar is not in court, I'll say no more about it. So also continue to use correctly. For example, we have we see 'To follow out a train of reasoning,' adduced now nettle-rash for the nettle-rush; the scarf-skin as a Scotticism in the grammatical books, while it for the scurf-skin; changes utterly indefensible. is impossible for me to find the least objection to it, The epidermis is entitled to the denomination of or to discover the superiority of the equivalent Eng- scurf-skin, from its being the depository of those lish phrase, To trace out,' &c. In bread and milk, minute scales which we recognize as scurf. Scarf, and bread and butter, there may be some slight ad- signifying a loose vestment, can obviously have no vantage over the contrary collocation, in which the concern in the case. The disease of rush is liable Scotch indulge; but what preference there is in the to that term, by reason of its being a thing that vinegar and pepper, for pepper and vinegar, or pen, rushes out. The word rash, in such a case, is mere ink, and paper, for paper, pen, and ink, I cannot nonsense. There are many such corruptions; and perceive or imagine. Neither can I see any advan-I can imagine no class more worthy of reprobation, tage in sugar-basin over sugar-bowl; indeed, the utensil is generally much more like a bowl than a basin, and certainly our associations regarding bowls are more pleasant than those regarding basins. The head of the table, the foot of the table, I grant, are inappropriate phrases for what they are applied to but can it be said that the English phrases, top of the table, bottom of the table, are more suitable?"

"Oh, but custom is everything in these cases. We constantly say, top of the table; sugar-basin; pen, ink, and paper; and so forth; and therefore any departure from these rules appears awkward." "Yes, but the question is, whose customs are to be observed? You do not consider the Frenchman guilty of a solecism because he speaks of surveying a man from foot to head-why, then, a Scotchman for similar peculiarities?"

seeing that they take their rise with those who, from their superior education, might be expected to be the guardians of the language."

So let the debate end. After all, language must ever be full of anomalies. Taking its rise during the ignorance of a people, it must necessarily involve many improprieties, too deeply woven into the texture to be separated. By and by, literature comes to steady and preserve it. Yet, even after that, a natural tendency to new phrases is perpetually seen at work amongst almost all classes; right or wrong, they force their way into recognition. Grammarians, being for the most part only finical about their little rules, fail in general to apprehend the natural forces which give birth to the expressions which they condemn as uncouth and wrong. Almost all those expressions could be shown to take form from some laws or plans of thought to which our minds are subject. So also do they treat such peculiarities as those called Scotticisms on too narrow a basis; not only failing to see the laws of thought at the bottom of them, but entirely overlooking the fact, that the people of the various Anglo-Saxon provinces, having come from different portions of the cradle-country in Teutchland, differences in their forms of speech may rather be mere diversities, than things standing in the relation of a standard and a departure from it.

SONNET.

LIGHT dwells with shadows! mountains frown o'er vales!

"Well, if you are content to be aliens in language, I suppose you may be excused." Thank you. I see the joke. But I am not done yet. There are some of these reprobated phrases which seem to me rather to be rejoiced in than otherwise. For instance, a Scotchman uses enow as an adjective for enough. "There are enow of potatoes to serve us all.' This, I humbly submit, is a positive gain in language, seeing that it gives us the special word for the special idea. So also it is well for the Scotchman to have swatch for a pattern or sample, as applied to cloth, both pattern and sample being in use to express other ideas. The airt of the wind, for the direction of the wind, seems greatly preferable; both because it is a peculiar word, and because it refers to the point from which the wind comes. So also to airt a business, to be airt in it-that is, to guide a business, or have a share in directing it-seem good and eligible phrases. Allow me here to quote an anonymous writer of the last century. We are taught on no Feel most the blasts that in their wake pursue; account to make use of the word byre, to denote a Love's sweetest strain some long-lost joy bewails; house appropriated to the keeping of cows. In its The toil of many is the gain of few. stead we are taught to say cowo-house, or stable, Our fairest hopes, to full fruition grown, whichever we please. But if I use the word stable, In forms substantial lose ideal grace, I force a word which has a precise and appropriate And, as we seek to clasp in our embrace meaning—namely, a house for keeping horses-to The full robed image, it hath turned to stone! express another meaning, which tends only to occa-Thus fade our joys! and, as long as years roll on, sion ambiguity and mistake; and if I use cow-house, Their shadows measure our declining sun! it is certainly a degradation of the language, tend

Rocks have their bases hidden from our view;
The lightest airs precede the heaviest gales;
The hottest suns provoke the earliest dew!
Ships which shake out their white-winged spreading

sails

Sharpe's Magazine.

Translated for the Boston Atlas, from the French of Mery. CARDAN, THE BIGAMIST-FOUNDED ON FACT. BEFORE the road of Toulon, and on the western slope of that ridge of mountains which unite the peak of Coudon with the gorges of Ollioules, are to be seen, on each side, the most charming country-houses in all Provence. They all have the same view-the sea, the road, the vessels-and, in short, the most varied and smiling tableaux. In the warm and pleasant season, the families assemble on the terraces of these little villas, to recover themselves somewhat from the overwhelming heat of the day, by the fresh evening breezes that blow from the

sea.

The first stars, on the evening of the day of St. John, 183-, were just appearing above the grey and naked ridge of Coudon, when, in the silence of the country, was heard the roar of a cannon, which was prolonged, in echoes, from the hill of Lamalgue into the depths of Ollioules. An electric movement of terror kept pace with the echoes, and disturbed the enjoyments upon one of the most lovely summer nights.

Everywhere on the terraces, where the young men and young ladies were conversing, was heard the cry, A galley slave has escaped! It seemed as if each family expected each moment to see dropping down among them a tiger, with a human face, escaped from the menagerie of the arsenal of Toulon.

Had any observer been able to follow, with his eye, this alarm, as it spread from face to face, on the evening of St. John's day, he would have remarked, perhaps with surprise, the serenity of one family, seated under a trellis, between the harbor and the mountain of Six-Tours. This feeling of security on the part of these few, amid the general terror, was easily explained. Mme. de Mellan and her daughter Anna had arrived only a few days before, from New York, in order to arrange an important family affair; and had hired a pretty country house, a short distance from the sea and from the high road. An old domestic and two Creole servant girls were seated on the terrace with these two ladies, when the discharge of the cannon was heard. No one being able to explain to these strangers this signal of alarm, they regarded it as a very natural incident in a military city, and did not even suspend their conversation.

man in the galley slave. This night, Cardan only wore his coarse pantaloons; he had thrown away his vest among some nettles. Active and vigorous, he bounded along more like a bird, or a panther, than with the deliberate steps of a man. Having arrived under the large trees about the house of Mme. de Mellan, he surveyed the ground with that subtle instinct such as nature gives to a wild beast; and climbing, like a monkey, along a pole that was leaning upon the back-side of the house, he entered the chambers of the first story, and, in the course of five minutes, he had, in the darkness, seen al. and visited all, as if he had been lighted either by his red locks or his eyes.

If men like him would turn to good account the powerful faculties he devoted to evil, the human race would be soon regenerated. Cardan found a pile of a few crowns in a secretary; he folded them in the first piece of paper that rattled under his hands. He contented himself with this small sum. which was sufficient for his urgent wants, and sprang at a single bound into the garden-at the earliest dawn he had reached the volcanic peak of Evenos, which blends with the clouds the lava of its extinct volcano. There he purchased some castoff clothes of a shepherd and some sheep, and by some goat paths, stick in hand, he descended into the plains of Bausset. Knowing that a highway always leads to some large town, Cardan followed the long path that winds from the chapel of St. Annie to the plain of Cuges, and on his way he saluted the gendarmes who were conducting some refractory recruits; sailors on leave of absence, soldiers arriving from Africa, mountebanks, organ-grinders, in short, all the curious mixture of the foot passengers that people the road between Toulon and Marseilles. He entered, aided by the night, into Marseilles, after having abandoned his sheep, and hired a modest room in the rue de Baignoir, where lodge travellers, especially those who journey on foot. Upon unrolling his crowns by the light of his lamp, he discovered that the envelopes consisted of two letters, and he began to read them from idleness. This reading, began in accident, soon contracted the muscles of Cardan's face, and gave to it a singular expression. He rose, his face bent down, his eyes fixed, his hands closely pressed, like a bandit, habituated to crime, and who, by some sudden inspiration, has discovered the means of committing a new crime. Even knaves have their It chanced that the convict who had escaped sudden illuminations, and in their brain, ever in acturned his steps towards the country-seat occupied tivity, an infernal plan will burst forth, with all its by Mme. de Mellan. He was a man who had left black and infernal snares. These two letters were behind him a name made conspicuous in the Pande- very long. One was dated from the Isle of Bourmonium of crime. It was the noted Cardan, con- bon, the other from the Cape of Good Hope. They demned for the crimes of bigamy and forgery. He would take up too much space to give here; it will had been employed two months in sawing the iron be sufficient to analyze them in a few words, and to ring that bound him to his comrade; and one day, reduce them to the most simple meaning. The rewhile the latter was sleeping in the sun, in the capitulation will be brief. Mme. de Mellan, a dock-yard of Mourillon, Cardon broke the last link widow for eighteen months, had left New York, of the ring, and escaped. His comrade, after a where she had lost her husband, and retired to short sleep, concealed himself from the vigilance of Europe, after an absence of twenty years. The the guard, in a cellar filled with beams and planks, desire once more to see her own country, had little in order to escape, in turn, at some propitious mo- connection with this voyage. M. de Mellan, a nament. But he was discovered the next day. It tive of Britanny, was indebted for his great fortune was not until night that they discovered the escape to his noble friend, M. de Kerbriant, a gentleman of Cardan. This notorious galley slave was then ruined by the revolution, and never indemnified. thirty years of age. He had spent four in the gal- M. de Kerbriant had an only son, named Albert. leys. His tall and well-shaped figure, his easy This young man, having nothing to hope by way of manners, his pale and haughty face, all proved him inheritance from a poor family, had early devoted a criminal, who had been accustomed to good com- himself to the duties of a sailor. Unfortunately he pany, before the red vest, which levels all distinc-did not possess that robust health that is demanded tions of rank, had concealed the respectable gentle- by the service of the sea. M. de Mellan, on his

lessly, and even within the reach of the skilful hand of an adept, their Napoleons and Spanish piasters. Cardan, who at need could make his fingers invisible, while changing two louis at one of these exchange offices, carried off two rolls, with all the skill of a professor of slight of hand, or of an Indian juggler. With this acquisition he felt strong enough to conquer Peru. The accomplice of Cardan was named Valentine Proghere; he preserved only his surname upon becoming the valet of Cardan, who had himself become M. Albert de Kerbriant. The mission which Proghere received was very difficult to execute, notwithstanding the luminous instructions he received from the mouth of his master. He was to repair as a forerunner to the country seat of Mme. de Mellan, and adroitly to examine the ground, before he could commence their scheme with safety to its author.

death-bed, made his last will, regulating the mar- | as their Parisian confreres; they display too careriage of his daughter with the son of his benefactor, on conditions so generous, that they nobly discharged his debt of gratitude. The widow, Mme. de Mellan, blindly yielded to the dying wishes of her husband; she entered upon a correspondence with Albert de Kerbriant, and found in this young man an eagerness, quite natural, to fulfil the testamentary clause in the will of the father of Anna. It was then agreed that the two families should meet at Toulon, about the month of July, the time at which Albert de Kerbriant would arrive from Pondicherry in a state vessel, and that the marriage of the young naval officer and Anna should be celebrated without delay. Mme. de Mellan and her daughter had arrived the first at this rendezvous, arranged across the ocean. A small note attached to one of these letters announced the death of M. de Kerbriant. This was not in the hand-writing of his son Albert, and was post-marked Nantes.

Proghere, clad as the confidential servant of a Cardan, after a long meditation, conceived one of good house, set out for Toulon; and, having arrived those extravagant ideas which the genius of evil in that city, he embarked on board a small boat and alone can cause to succeed, by the aid of infernal descended before the country seat of Mme. de Melcombinations. In the first place he did not at once lan, a little before sunset. He played his part to change his mean apparel, for fear lest a too sudden perfection. He announced to the two ladies that metamorphosis might compromise him in the eyes M. Albert de Kerbriant had arrived at Nantes in of the innkeeper-he transformed himself piece by a merchant vessel, from the Cape of Good Hope piece, buying and putting on his new dress gradu--that the fatigues of the voyage had compelled ally. He then lodged in a more fashionable hotel, him to obtain his dismissal sooner than he had intaking care not only to disguise the color of his tended, and that he had returned from the Indies a hair, and his complexion, but also his shape, his simple citizen, independent of military service, and manners, and his voice. Sure now of being able determined to fix his residence according to the to dodge the bloodhounds of the police, he began to choice of the de Mellan family. look for a worthy associate in one of those dens, which disgrace all great cities, concealed in its most frightful quarters.

Lavater and Gall are but children compared with a galley slave, escaped from Toulon. The latter, in recognizing one of his peers, is endowed with a sixth sense, the distinguishing of crime. Cardan observed in one of those rum-holes in old Marseilles, a young man, about twenty-five or thirty, of a pale and nervous countenance, with eyes of a dull green, having in the nonchalance of his manners, all the symptoms of a dread of labor, and in his look the reflection of bad passions. The dress of this person announced, under his tatters, a certain ease acquired by idleness. Each part of his dress had played its part in the hands of a famous tailor, at a date forgotten by the Journal des Modes. But what, above all, betrayed an extreme misery and incurable idleness, was one of those large, coarse cravats, whose coarse, greasy folds so ill disguise the missing shirt.

Cardan soon united himself, by aid of a few glances into the sympathies, with this man, and it was not long before he found in him one of those organizations almost too indolent for crime, and which can be pushed into guilt only by the external influence of some ruling power. Yet the skilful galley slave employed several days in sounding this man, before he elevated him to the dignity of an accomplice; and when he believed that he might trust in him, after a few largesses of five franc pieces, he unveiled his plans to him. From that moment one of these two wretches was a blind slave, and the other a sovereign master.

During this interview, Proghere stood upon the terrace, ready to spring at three bounds into the fields, if the least gleam of mistrust should appear on the face of the ladies. This precaution was unnecessary. Mme. de Mellan was a kind woman, who had passed all her life in a patriarchal family in the new world. She gave implicit faith to all that this pretended servant of her future son-in-law told her, and in the extremity of her joy, she tenderly embraced her daughter, already much moved at the idea of so precipitate a marriage.

The next day, at three in the afternoon, a loud sound of wheels and the cracking of a postilion's whip, announced the arrival of a post-chaise along the main avenue to their country seat.

"It is M. de Kerbriant, my master," said Proghere; "I recognize his chaise."

A young man, clad in black, and of a most distinguished mien, sprang lightly from the chaise upon the terrace, and, as if suffocated by his emotion, he pressed the hand of Mme. de Mellan to his lips. Cardan was so wonderfully disguised, that Proghere was, for the moment, alarmed, for he did not recognize him.

The fugitive galley slave bowed to Mlle. Anna, and addressed to her this set speech, which he had been preparing during his ride of fourteen leagues.

"I bless the memory of your father, that generous man, who has chosen me for his son-in-law; but I am happy to say to you, mademoiselle, that, after my voyage round the world, it is you, of all others, whom I would have chosen for my companion for life, to-day."

These words were followed by a long silence, In order successfully to conduct his enterprise, which always follows profound emotions; but when Cardan needed a larger sum of money than that they had given up to sad remembrances a reasonwhich he had stolen from the secretary of Mme. de able time of silent grief, their conversation gradually Mellan, and which was besides nearly exhausted. assumed a gay and lively air, especially at mealThis obstacle was soon overcome. The money-time. Cardan, in the eyes of the ladies, manifested changers of Marseilles are not quite so impregnable an excellent tact, by speaking of everything except

his marriage. He gave accounts of his voyage, which he had studied out the evening before on a map of the world, mingling with his recital all the nautical terms of the sailor, which he had found in books upon such subjects. At the end, he assumed a melancholy attitude and accent, and said:

"I have travelled over five thousand leagues. I have visited all the different quarters of the globe; I have seen all nations, and I have ascertained, by this experience, equal to that of old age, though given to a young man, that happiness, if it exist at all, can only be met with in the midst of domestic duties, far from the world, and in a retired family, composed of relatives and friends."

Mme. de Mellan pressed the hands of Cardan, and her pantomine expressed the gratitude she felt at hearing such beautiful sentiments from the lips of her son-in-law.

By a skilfully managed transition, Cardan induced his intended mother-in-law to form a resolution that was very important for him. He related some pretended contentions which he had had at Nantes with some young officers, his former comrades, who had just reproached him with what they called his desertion, in terms sharp enough to provoke an affair of honor.

66

I cannot refuse my mother-in-law the first favor she asks of me; so let us go."

In the preparations for their departure that were made by Cardan and the worthy widow it was agreed that Proghere, the pretended valet-de-chambre, should remain in the country house to take care of the baggage and the little domestic affairs that required looking after, and that they should leave him the necessary money to meet these expenses.

The next morning, before day-break, Mme. de Mellan, her daughter, and the galley slave, set out by post for Marseilles. Cardan procured in the city a passport for Spain, and a few days after, he alighted with the two ladies, his victims, at the hotel of the Asturias, in Barcelona.

The annals of crime present few instances, in which the incredible forms so prominent a part. But if these events had not been so extraordinary, we should not have thought of relating them.

Two weeks after the departure of Mme. de Mellan, Albert de Kerbriant landed on the wharf of Toulon, near the city hall, and without taking time to change his clothes, which he had worn from India, he hastened in quest of Mme. de Mellan. At the office of the post they directed him to her country house, and our mariner leaped on the first horse he could hire, and set off at the gallop.

"I do not fear a meeting of this kind," he added, every one knows; but it is always distressing to cross one's sword with old friends, who view my Coming from India, with the bright perspective resignation so unjustly. I prefer to leave them of an unexpected rich marriage, to touch the ground, leisure to reflect upon their proceedings When to see the house in which the lovely young unknown my commander, who knows me, shall be returned lady resides, all these can happen together but once, to a port of France, he can plead my cause for me and certainly nothing can be more pleasant. Albetter than I can myself; so I have fully resolved bert experienced much emotion at sight of that not to show myself in Toulon, and thus avoid vex- Italian trellis; through the vine leaves which covatious meetings that may have deplorable conse-ered it, he caught a glimpse of fair hair and white quences. If my mother-in-law consents, we will make a short journey into the interior, either to Italy or Spain, whichever she may prefer, and when we shall have returned to France, I shall have been already justified by my comrades from India, and my unjust friends in Nantes will only have excuses to offer me."

muslin. It was no doubt his future bride, his
happiness, his all. He sprang from his horse at
the extremity of the avenue, and arriving at the
terrace, much agitated, he pronounced the name of
Mme. de Mellan and his own.
A group of ladies
and gentlemen rose at these words of self-introduc-
tion in silence, and their looks of astonishment
seemed to question this new comer, whom no one
knew.

For the moment, bewildered by this strange reception, Albert de Kerbriant supposed he must have mistaken the house, and he excused himself:

All this was said in a tone so natural and so simple, that it would have deceived even the most experienced. The good and simple Mme. de Mellan was so much alarmed, especially for her daughter's sake, at the idea of these quarrels of honor, that she was the first to propose abandoning the city, where her son-in-law had too many acquaintances not to find an enemy and an unjust duel. Even the country, in which she lived in retirement, was no guarantee against her maternal alarms, as all the neigh-directions." boring residences were inhabited by families of sailors, who exchanged visits during the evenings of the pleasant weather.

"Pardon me, ladies, if I have made a mistake. There are so many country houses on this plain, without streets and numbers, that I may have taken this for another. Yet I had the most particular

A middle-aged lady replied to the young sailor: "Perhaps you are not mistaken, sir; we have lived in this country house but about a week. Mme. de Mellan lived here before us; the farmers have so told me, and they will inform you of the same."

"Has Mme. de Mellan then returned to the city?" inquired the young man, seized with a presentiment of evil.

66

No, sir, she set out in a post chaise, with her daughter and son-in-law."

Cardan manifested no eagerness to leave immediately the country about Toulon, but this well counterfeited calmness only redoubled the fears of Mme. de Mellan, who felt compelled even to force her future son-in-law to take a voyage. Drawing the galley slave apart, she said to him, pointing to Anna: This poor child is very timid; she dares not look you in the face. You must travel some time together, in order to give her a little courage; nothing strengthens an intimacy so much as a jour-may. ney; you are old friends at the end of a month. Her son-in-law, or rather the young man who You and I are independent of every one, are we not? You can marry my daughter in Spain or in Italy, as well as in France, or anywhere else. Let us then put our minds at rest and set out."

Cardan bowed in the manner of one who resigned himself, and said:

"Her son-in-law!" exclaimed the sailor in dis

is to marry her daughter Anna."

Albert de Kerbriant made a strong appeal to his moral strength, ashamed to let his emotion be seen by strangers, composed his face, assumed a calmness, and said:

"Excuse me, madame, if I enter into particu