dust, while the wife is dunning him for money in front, and the children squalling aloud for food in the rear, but nil disperandum, he is soon through application and industry to become a member of the Club, where he will bring himself into notice, gain an appointment and supply the wants of his wife, and "famishing brood." These are the times when (in the words of Dr. Moore) "Difficulties and dangers strike out particles of Genius which otherwise might remain latent and useless." Certainly the examination previous to entrance is more than some heads can get through, but remember "the more the difficulty, the greater the praise," Lord Bacon affirms that "he that travelleth into a country, before he hath some entrance into the language, goeth to school and not to travel."

A General Officer writing to his son on the utility of languages says "an officer ought certainly to render himself master of the language of the country where he is about to make war; for without this knowledge he will be constantly liable to commit the greatest faults, it will not otherwise be in his power to communicate with the inhabitants, he cannot employ the best spies, and he will be compelled on the most delicate and important occasions, to make use of interpreters,

without whom he cannot stir a single step, and who perhaps seek every opportunity to betray him," but now having said so much on the utility of languages, allow me to give to the world the rules of this enlightened society. This Temple of Minerva.

The Sir William Jones' Club.

RULES.

1. We Subalterns in the Army being impressed with a desire to render every possible benefit to the service, have formed ourselves into a Club for the advancement of Oriental Literature, and we advise all Subalterns who desire Company especially married ones to leave off going to Mess, and smoking cheroots in order that they may become members of the club, and ornaments to society at large.

2. That no Subaltern shall be admitted a member unless he is able to interpret any part of the koran, preserving in the translation, the poetry of the original.

3. Married Subalterns who cannot afford to purchase books for study, or to pay a Moonshee, to be allowed credit for these articles from the funds of the Club, for not more than 3 LUNAR months; on default of payment at the expiration

of that period, the culprit to be ejected from the Club and a court of requests held instanter.

4. On the election of a member, he will give a dinner to the Club, but no Champagne or Claret is to be allowed as those liquors have a tendency to stupify the intellect.

5. The transactions of the Society to be published monthly and circulated to every member of the Club for which he shall pay ready money, if he has not coin with him he can borrow it from his butler, who is also to take some interest in the Club.

6. That when a member wishes to leave the room during a meeting of the Society, he shall proceed to the President, and ask his leave in Arabic, when the President shall say in an audible voice in Hindustani, Chul jao-Rookh-sut-hy. Simon Brilliant, president Edward Shallow, vice president. Ned Goosequill, secretary.

Subalterns.

POLYFHILUS.

January 20, 1844,

No. 10.

The Wheel of Fortune.

"If fortune as a niggard been to thee,

Devote thyself to thrift, not luxury

And wisely make that kind of food thy choice,
To which necessity confines thy price.

Well may they fear some miserable end,
Whom gluttony and want, at once attend;

Whose large voracious throats have swallow'd all,
Both land, stock, int'rest, and principal."

Dryden's Juvenal Satire, 11.

Lord Bacon remarks, "It cannot be denied but outward accidents conduce much to fortune; favour, opportunity, death of others, occasion fitting virtue; but chiefly the mould of a man's fortune is in his own hands." Fortune is represented in the heathen mythology, blindfold, and holding a wheel in her hand emblematical of her inconstancy, and what a fit emblem does this appear for such a delusive goddess; the slightest turn of that wheel has caused sorrow and despair to such an extent that death has been preferred in preference to life, and another turn has converted sorrow into joy, and caused man to forget the troubles and vexations of the past amid the luxuriant enjoyment of the present. Tis strange how fortune

differs in her treatment of mankind, she continually allows him to go on for years sipping honey from every flower, and living as it were in a terrestrial paradise, then, when he has attained the height of his earthly ambition, she suddenly forsakes him, and he now muses o'er joys which he possesses no more.

How beautifully has our great poet Shakspeare described this state of man in the character of Cardinal Wolsey, who says in his fall.

"The third day comes a frost, a killing frost
And when he thinks, good easy man, full surely
His greatness is a ripening, nips his root

And then he falls as I do."

Such was one who had attained the height of his ambition, honored by his sovereign, flattered by all, in grandeur equal to the greatest prince of the age, there he was dazzling in splendour till the wheel of fortune turned, his conscience would not permit him (or he did not wish) to consent to the divorce of Catherine of Arragon for the pleasure of his licentious patron, for which refusal he was hurled from the throne of prosperity, and stripped of all the favours of fortune; how many instances from history could be procured, to show the sudden rise and fall of fortune; Cincinnatus from the plough raised to the dictatorship to wield the helm of the mistress of the