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SATURDAY NIGHT IN THE MANSE.

It was seven o'clock, on a cold December evening, when the Reverend Mr Shaveall found the privacy of his Saturday night's preparatory lucubrations broken in upon, by the sudden call of an unexpected, though, for sundry reasons, and these not light, a scarcely unwelcome visitor-had he timed himself a little better. It was barbarous and ignorant; but barbarity is a thing too common now-a-days to be much wondered at; and ignorance is a crime happily within the pale of forgiveness. In both conclusions, the mind of Mr Shaveall acquiesced, as, in a hurried manner, he arranged the appearance of his outer man, unfortunately, at the moment, in rather a state of deshabille.

"Bless my heart," said the reverend gentleman, seizing the intruder's hand within both of his own, "I hardly knew you. Dear me, is it you, Mr John? I really did not anticipate this honour. So you have returned, have you? We have been a long time, Mr John, many lustra, without you. How many years-ay, years, is it since you were last in this part of the country? I don't think now-let me see- -that I have looked upon you since you passed this way, seven years ago, on your journey to Oxford. What a difference upon you since that time! then so little and

chubby, now so tall and handsome!

Like Pelion

to a wart.' There is not more difference between Bacchus and the Belvidere Apollo, (hem). Time has completely metamorphosed you, Mr John; and every way for the better."

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Why," said Mr John Oliphant, who had listened to the pastor's rhapsody with a good-natured smile on his face, and some little tickling of amusement," the time is sufficient to have made a Dennis O'Brien of me, although I had been as minikin-like as Sir Geoffrey Hudson. It may not have done this; but it has made a man of a stripling of sixteen, which, if I opine rightly, I happened to be at that precise period. I must return your compliments, and assure you, that I never saw you before looking better, Mr Shaveall, only a little rounder and rosier, ay?" added Mr John, facetiously, glancing first down on the nether person of the minister, and then to his fullblossomed cheeks.

"No, no,-Mr John; hard study and anxiety for my flock will keep me down as long as I live. I can scarcely believe your remark in this particular altogether sincere," said the reverend gentleman, looking serious; then adding, after a pause, "You have travelled, I believe, within this year or two, after finishing your studies-your classical studies I mean. to your studies of the manners living as they rise,' they can be but commencing yet: these are studies of perhaps equal importance, and scarcely less difficult. You know what the ethical Pope says,

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The proper study of mankind is man.'

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"Oh, ay,” replied Mr John; "I have travelled, and to what purpose is a problem. Bruce, you know,

sought the fountain of the Nile, the fluvius septemAluus' of the poets; Park wandered by the African Niger, dogging it in its wanderings, and determined to know its proceedings, like a catchpole with his eye on a pickpocket; while John Legh, M. P. chose to gaze, with admiration and damp feet, on the cataracts of Egypt. None of these things have I seen, nor intend 'Deo Volente.' Master John Oliphant preferred France and Italy for his money; and he has got quit of some of it, without farther extending his researches. As he has a lighter pocket, pray Heaven he may have obtained a solider head.'

"Ha!-ha!-ha!-Mr John, you are a tolerable wit-you are a bit of a wag, Mr John; very humorous, upon my word. Swift and Rabelais are not entirely dead while we have you among us, Mr John. Knowledge of the world sharpens the intellects and enlarges the comprehension; or, as Ovid says,

'Emollit mores, nec sinit esse feros.'

The Hull people, in commemorating the services on his tombstone that the great Andrew Marvell had rendered them, proclaimed to the world, that his mind was improved by education, study, and travel.'The same, without flattery, may be said of you, Mr John. The French, sir, must, by all accounts, be a lawless, godless, regardless, turbulent set of people; as fickle as mercury and as talkative as parrots. Commend me to the old proverb, Deep waters make the least noise.' Louis must be sorely put to it by them. As for the Italians, Mr John, I dare say you would lose none of your respect for the ancient Romans, in your observations on their modern descendants. They say that the inns are full of ver

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min-is such the case? That Neapolitan revolution was a terrible flash in the pan.”

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Why, sir, as Goldsmith's Mrs Rigmarole says, 'times on the whole are very much alike.' The French, with their scraping, bowing, politesse, affectation, petit-maitreism, philosophie, and trumpery, have their good among them as well as we have ourselves; and it would be more telling us that we were as careful of correcting our own faults, as forward in laughing at the foibles of our neighbours. • Two blacks' (as quoting proverbs seems the rage) never can make a white.' The Italians, though loose as the sands, and indolent as the Palus Meotis, can scarcely be called barbarians, when they have improvisatores, sculptoresque, pictores.' If a man were a Hottentot, the very breathing of their atmosphere, the very aspect of their country, should polish his rough corners, and teach him civilization. You have heard of Canova?"

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"For all that I know about Canova, they may be barbarous enough;

'Bello gerentes, prælio gaudentes Teutones;

but you will allow, that they have not the national spirit, the justice, the generosity, the devotedness, the nobility-I had almost said the Christianity of soul, which characterized the ancient Romans, when they had their Cicero in the senate and Cæsar in the field."

While the last of these words were dropping from his Nestorian lips, a slight tap was heard at the parlour door; and an old serving-woman entered, carrying a paper in her hand, with which she proceeded to

her master's chair. "Here is a paper, sir, that a poor woman gave me at the door; she begs, sir, that you will be so good as look at it. I dinna ken the woman, sir; I never saw her between the e'en afore, to my knowledge, sir; but, aiblins, you'll see from the paper the drift of her message. She seems a traveller, I think, sir."

"Very well, Jenny; you may go away. I shall let you know all the outs and ins of the matter in two minutes."

It was evident, unless we judge uncharitably, that, had the Minister been "by himself alone," the petition would have been returned unexamined; but a slight constraint on his own feelings had induced him to retain it, whatever issue might follow. With a demi-frown on his countenance, he opened it, remarking to his visitor, "Some petition for charity, now, I could swear. One is teased out of his senses by these beggarly creatures; 'earth's refuse, and its scum.' No spark of honest pride about them, Mr John; all dunghill knaves, that never forget their origin. Sloth, profligacy, and idleness, keep them in a pretty pickle."

After adjusting his silver spectacles to his nose, he proceeded to skim over the contents in a kind of short-hand style of reading, accompanied with a low monotonous murmur of the voice, as if a stray society of bees had taken up shop in his throat: then, with a see-saw of his head, he folded it up, saying to Mr Oliphant, "Just as I told you; a fine long-winded harangue, a very pathetic story of being burnt out; husband defunct; four starving children, the oldest but nine; can neither work nor want; together with

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