great seal, he would What is it to us that

the great seal before he obtained it. So much the better. If nature had not stamped him with her never have obtained that of England. the Chancellor's wig was in his head, long before his head was in the wig? We know that they fit one another admirably, and that is enough. Lord Brougham has experienced the usual fate of reformers-gross ingratitude; but what can he expect, when he provokes all by his superiority to all, in virtue as well as talent? His disinterestedness is a reproach to the sordid, his prudence to the destructives, his determined spirit of reform to the conservatives; and because he is too independent and lofty to belong to any party, he is outrageously abused by all. This cry confused-" Of owls and monkeys, asses, apes, and dogs,"" full of sound and fury, signifying nothing," obscures his lustre about as much as the baying of wolves, or the cackling of goslings, darkens the moon. he does not immortalize them by his notice, as Pope did his contemptible detractors, what will posterity know of the serpents and geese who combine to hiss at him? There are savages who, in an eclipse of the sun, endeavour to drive away the interceptor of their light, by the most hideous clamour they can raise. The enemies whom the Chancellor has thrown into the shade, have tried a similar experiment; but, strange to say, they still remain eclipsed!

If

In my high opinion of Lord Brougham, I have sometimes been too prone to fatigue my friends with his praises; a tendency which, upon one occasion, elicited a pun bad enough to be recorded. My assertion, that he was the greatest man in England, being warmly contested, I loudly exclaimed, "Where is there a greater?"-"Here!" said the punchmaking T. H., with a look of exquisite simplicity, at the same time holding up a nutmeg grater.

CHANGE-The only thing that is constant; mutability being an immutable law of the universe.

"Men change with fortune, manners change with climes,
Tenets with books, and principles with times."

CHARACTER-Individual.-A compound from the characters of others. If it be true that one fool makes many, it is not less clear that many fools, or many wise men, make one. The noscitur à socio is universally applicable Like the chameleon, our mind takes the colour of what surrounds it. However small may be the world of our own familiar coterie, it conceals from us the world without, as the minutest object, held close to the eye, will shut out the sun. Our mental hue depends as completely on the social atmosphere in which we move, as our complexion upon the climate in which we live.

Nevertheless, it must be admitted that it is sometimes profitable to associate with graceless characters. A reprobate fellow once laid his worthy associate a bet of five guineas that he could not repeat the creed. It was accepted, and his friend repeated the Lord's prayer. "Confound you!" cried the former, who imagined that he had been listening to the creed, "I had no idea you had such a memory. your five guineas!"

There are

CHARITY—The only thing that we can give away with

out losing it.

"True charity is truest thrift,
More than repaid for every gift,
By grateful prayers enroll'd on high,
And its own heart's sweet eulogy,
Which, like the perfume-giving rose,
Possesses still what it bestows."

Charity covereth a multitude of sins, and the English are the most bountiful people upon earth! The best almsgiving, perhaps, is a liberal expenditure; for that encourages the

industrious, while indiscriminate charity only fosters idlers and impostors. The latter is little better than mere selfishness, prompting us to get rid of an uneasy sensation. Sometimes, however, we refuse our bounty to a suppliant, because he has hurt our feelings; while the beggar who has pleased us by making us laugh at his buffoonery, seldom goes unrewarded. Delpini, the clown, applied to the late king, when Prince of Wales, for pecuniary assistance, drawing a lamentable picture of his destitute state. As he was in the habit of thus importuning his Royal Highness, his suit was rejected. At last, as he met the Prince coming out of Carlton house, he exclaimed-"Ah, votre altesse! Ah, mon Prince! if you no assist de pauvre Delpini, I must go to your papa's bench!" Tickled by the oddity of the phrase, the Prince laughed heartily, and immediately complied with his request.

CHEERFULNESS-"The best Hymn to the Divinity," according to Addison, and all rational religionists. When we have passed a day of innocent enjoyment; when "our bosom's lord sits lightly on his throne;" when our gratified and grateful feelings, sympathising with universal nature, make us sensible, as John of Salisbury says, that “ Gratior it dies, et soles melius nitent,”- -we may be assured that we have been performing, however unconsciously, an acceptable act of devotion. Pure religion may generally be measured by the cheerfulness of its professors, and superstition by the gloom of its victims. Ille placet, Deo, cui placet Deus.-He to whom God is pleasant, is pleasant to God.

CHESS-A wooden or ivory allegory. Sir William Jones, who claims the invention of this game for the Hindoos, traces the successive corruptions of the original Sanscrit term, through the Persians and Arabs, into scacchi, echess -chess; which, by a whimsical concurrence of circumstances, has given birth to the English word check, and even a name to the Exchequer of Great Britain. In passing through Eu

rope, the oriental forms and names have suffered material change. The ruch, or dromedary, we have corrupted into rook. The bishop was with us formerly an archer, while the French denominated it alfin, and fol, which were perversions of the original eastern term for the elephant.

The ancient Persian game consisted of the following pieces :

In process of time, the Persian names were gradually translated into French, or modified by French terminations. Schach was translated into Roy-the King; Pherz, the Vizier, became Fercié-Fierce-Fierge-Vierge; and this last was easily converted into a lady—Dame. The Elephant Phil was altered into Fol or Fou; the Horseman became a Cavalier or Knight, while the Dromedary, Ruch, was converted into a Tour, or Tower, probably from being confounded with the Elephant, which is usually represented as carrying a castle. The foot-soldiers were retained by the name of Pietons, or Pions, whence our Pawns.

In its westward progress, the game of chess adapted itself to the habits and institutions of the countries that fostered it. The prerogative of the King gradually extended itself, until it became unlimited: the agency of the Princes, in lieu of the Queen, who does not exist in the original chess-board, bespeak forcibly the nature of the oriental customs, which exclude females from all influence and power. In Persia, these Princes were changed into a single Vizier, and for this Vizier the Europeans, with the same gallantry that had

prompted the French to add a Queen to the pack of cards, substituted a Queen on the chess-board.

We record the following anecdote, as a warning to such of our male and married readers as may be in the perilous habit of playing chess with a wife. Ferrand, Count of Flanders, having constantly defeated the Countess at chess, she conceived a hatred against him, which came to such a height, that when the Count was taken prisoner at the battle of Bovines, she suffered him to remain a long time in prison, though she could easily have procured his release.

CHILD-Spoilt-An unfortunate victim, who proves the weakness of his parents' judgment, much more forcibly than the strength of their affection. Doomed to feel by daily experience, that a blind love is as bad as a clear-sighted hatred, the spoilt child, when he embitters the life of those who have poisoned his, is not so much committing an act of ingratitude, as of retributive justice. Is it not natural that he should love those too little, who by loving him too much have proved themselves his worst enemies?-How can we expect him to be a blessing to us, when we have been a curse to him? It is the awarded and just punishment of a weak over-indulgence, that the more we fondle a spoilt child, the more completely shall we alienate him, as an arrow flies the farther from us the closer we draw it to our bosom.

As a gentle hint to others similarly annoyed, we record the rebuke of a visiter, to whom a mother expressed her apprehension that he was disturbed by the crying of her spoilt brat." Not at all, Madam," was the reply; "I am always delighted to hear such children cry."—" Indeed! why so?" -"Because in all well-regulated families, they are immediately sent out of the room."

CHRISTIANITY-Primitive.-" "There hath not been discovered in any age," says Lord Bacon, "any philosophy,