student, till at last he fixes on a goodly tome which he has long intended to peruse. "And for you, Mr. Francis ? Macaulay or Mahon?" "No, no. None of your dry stuff. Had enough of that before leaving school. Something fast or funny, if you please." And, from a long armful of verdurous volumes, which the librarian places on the counter, our aspirant selects "The Green Man at Dulwich."

The next is the friend-test. One evening, not long ago, in a large company, we had a good opportunity of trying it. There was a young lady in mourning, to whom we could not help observing several of the older people one after another attracted; first, our kind and sensible friend, Lady and then a German professor, and by-and-by a distinguished missionary; and from the length of time that each lingered beside her, and from the animation and earnestness with which they were conversing, we had no doubt that here was one who enjoyed the society of superior minds. And we had as little doubt that her cousin on the ottoman possessed no such affinities. Various attempts to relieve her isolation were effectually defeated by an ignorance in which there was no affectation, and an indifference which there was no effort to disguise; and it was not without a certain measure of amusement as well as admiration that we watched the perseverance of the good-natured German. But although, "as fishers try the lake with different flies,” he tried the mind of the fair one with the Crystal Palace and the Chiswick Fête, with Meyerbeer and Lamartine, with everything in water, earth, and air, no "rise" rewarded the assiduous angler; and it was a great relief to his benevolent mind when later in the evening he saw her and the daughter of his hostess exceedingly merry, though he surmised, too shrewdly, that it was at the expense of himself and others of the party.

Since then the cousins have accompanied some friends

A CONTINENTAL TOUR.

155

on a Continental tour, and a perusal of their first letters suggests another criterion, which we may call the travel-test. For reasons of our own we do not publish the journal of the more thoughtful tourist; though we are sorry for the reader, as he loses an admirable account of Belgium, with its cathedrals and belfries, its pictures and people. Crossing excepted, the other is to the following purport:

66

"Hotel Disch, Cologne, Friday, '54.

'My pet of pets, my own sweet Sally,-What an age it is since last week, when we parted at the London-Bridge Station! Since then I don't know where all I have been; but we have been to Brussels, and Antwerp, and Bruges. We have been to the top of a high tower, but I forget where it was; and we have seen Reuben's famous pictures at Antwerp. There is a very nice picture here by Benjamin, 'The Jewish Exiles at Babylon.' He and Reuben are the only two patriarchs whose works I have yet seen. But I do not think the old masters so clever as our own drawingmaster, M. We have also been to the Battle of Waterloo. I saw a lady there with a pink parasol and black net over it, the same as yours. At Waterloo we had a nice pic-nic in an orchard just made for the purpose.

"And now I think I have told you all our news.

Write

a long letter to the Poste Restante, Genève, Suisse,' and tell me how you are getting on with the fire-screen. Give my love to dear little Dash. Tell him to be a good dog, and to take care of damp feet in this frightful weather. I hope your mamma is better. Believe me," &c.

Another test on which we have great reliance is the church-test. Last Sunday we were staying with a friend in the country, and we heard from a stranger clergyman a very good sermon on Sabbath-observance. In the evening the discourse and the preacher were under discussion. Some

remarked the peculiarities of the minister's accent, and it was debated whether he was a native of Yorkshire or Cumberland; and the Cambridge student doubted whether he had ever been to College, as he pronounced the o in "Cleopas" long and the e in "Thaddeus" short. But Mr. C. asked if none of them had remarked the way in which he read the lessons:so expressive and emphatic had it been, that to him (Mr. C.) it had answered all the purpose of a commentary. The party next began to analyse the audience; what could have become of the B.s, and who those foreign-looking people were who are staying with the D.s, and how young E. seems always to walk home with Miss F.; till, we must confess, the conversation became very unlike a Sabbath evening. Here Mr. C. interposed and recalled some passages of the sermon, which it was too evident that we had all forgotten; and although most felt a little awkward, it was evident that the word in season had a good effect. To this propensity of Mr. C.—this seriousness and good sense-we ascribe his wonderful progress. In early life he was not so bright as some of his companions; but owing to his turn for the substantial and solid, there is now not one who comes near him in extent of information or soundness of judgment. And, what is still more important, his "faith and love grow exceedingly." In all our circle there is no one who within the same time has discarded so many failings and acquired so many excellences, nor one who has gained more of that ascendancy which is awarded to singleness of eye and purity of purpose.

REVIEW OF THE MONTH.

A VERY interesting exhibition is at present open in St. Martin's Hall, London. It contains specimens of the school apparatus of our own and other countries,-the globes, maps, books, drawing-models, magic-lanterns, &c., set forth by private enterprise or by different School Societies; with plans of school-buildings and play-grounds, so as to give an idea tolerably exact of the teaching appliances of modern Europe. To those who are commencing new schools or improving old ones, the information here collected is of priceless value, and many a costly blunder will be saved by a mere inspection of the results at which others have arrived. Even in the purchase of a pair of globes or a map of England, it is of some importance to be able to decide from actual inspection which is the cheapest and the best. In surveying the admirable suite of specimens from Norway, we could not help wishing that the "real" or objective system was more cultivated in the schools of Britain. To every schoolroom there might be attached a little museum, in which stuffed animals and curiosities of all kinds would soon accumulate, and to which the scholars themselves would find it a pride and a pleasure to contribute; and, as it is, we are sure that many a Norwegian peasant must have a better knowledge of natural history than most of our Oxford first-class men.

For our scientific readers there is good provision in Sir Roderick Murchison's "Siluria," and in Mr. Gosse's "Aquarium." Without the vivacity of Buckland, the literary tact of Lyell, or the poetry which Hugh Miller has expended on his romantic restorations of old worlds, Sir Roderick is

a pleasing writer; and to those who like to begin at the beginning, this volume describing the dawn of organie life will be a valuable possession. Nor to readers repairing to the coast can we suggest a companion more charming and instructive than the book in which Mr. Gosse records the wonders of the deep. To many the world here described will be a new discovery, and, as the admirable coloured illustrations amply prove, a world of exquisite beauty. In a thousand drawing-rooms we now see flourishing in the secure asylum of Wardian cases collections of ferns and other graceful forms of vegetative life which it is a refreshment to the eye to rest upon; and now, following out the simple directions for collecting and preserving marine curiosities which our accomplished friend has given, we doubt not but that the crystal tank will become the companion of the portable conservatory, and introduce the finny tribes to stranger scenes than those which they visited in the days of Deucalion. To those whose town-pent life or delicate health gives them little opportunity to range amongst the rocks and pools when the tide is low, we can imagine few enjoyments equal to that which they will find in a contrivance which is at once a botanic garden and a menagerie, without the expense of either.

Chevalier Van de Velde late of the Dutch Navy, has published two copious volumes of "Travels in Syria and Palestine." As yet we have only had time to look into them, and breathe for a few moments the spirit of elevated devotion with which they are pervaded. The Chevalier's main errand was to execute a topographical survey of the Holy Land, and we presume the result of his researches will be given in a chart more minute and elaborate than the maps now existing. For such a work, the learned officer possesses high qualifications, and we venture to predict that the researches of the Hollander will be found of a very different