It is the pleasantest hour of all the twenty-four, the one before going to bed. It is difficult to say whether all girls find it so: there may be some heavy, dull spirits who think, with Miss Simpson, it is pleasanter to sleep, than to partake of the most intellectual conversation in the world. Be it so; to them we leave it, and turn with an appeal to those who think differently, to come forward and support our theory. How differently people talk then from what they do in the cold stormy daylight! how unreluctantly revelations are made that sensitive souls shrank from in the glare of noon-now flowing freely by the sympathising coal-fire! When Longfellow sung the Voices of the Night,' and Dr Cumming preached them, it was treading in old steps; tracing footprints, Kirke White, Young, Southey, Cowper, Byron, Montgomery trod before.

Was there ever poet rhymed that missed the celebration of its varied beauties? From the Faerie Queen' to the martial Bothwell,' or the 'Craigrook Castle,' of our own times-even the 'Mystic Maude'-one and all bow beneath its power. Things look differently under the new aspect: harsh lines soften down, and distance lends enchantment to many a bygone hour. 'Stratford Will' came nearer it than any, not more poetically, but more truthfully.

'The nightingale, if she should sing by day, When every goose is cackling, would be thought

No better a musician than the wren. How many things by season season'd are To their right praise and true perfection!' When I was young, a great many years ago, one of many sisters, we were addicted to one practice; and I never

knew one of us, though all so varied in tastes and dispositions, who did not thoroughly enjoy, and seek to carry it out. Let no one look alarmed; I am not going to advocate anything wrong -no breaches of decorum; I will not recommend rouging, or powder, or patching, or any female vanity, fashionable or obsolete; nor any setting at nought of reasonable authority. None of these, except some who differ from me may think I am urging the latter. No such thing; but gentlemen are a little captious sometimes, and say a thing is wrong, when they are only a little out of temper. Our home fashion was this: when we separated in the drawing-room, it was only to meet again we ladies, I mean by some one's bedroom fire, and enjoy, as we brushed our hair, a little feminine gossip. It was very pleasant, very lively, and very innocent. We talked, as all girls do, of life, love, and matrimony; of parties, people, and fashions; of jests and songs, in true womanly spirit; and, like the new members of the old beefsteak club, if we did not sing our song, each contributed at least a bon-mot. How my old grey hair stands up erect at the recollection, and my dim eyes are dimmer with the tears that start, as all those who lived and loved together rise before me. We were a gay set, and, like the Vicar of Wakefield's family, what was wanted in wit, was made up in laughter.' Those days are far away now; they lie behind, like the shadows of a dream. My nieces are growing into girls, who will do as we did, and would look on their maiden aunt as a sad check to their vivacity, if she came among them at that joyous hour.

The Wyndhams were still young,

young enough to enjoy the flowery paths of their lives when their steps led through such, and just old enough to have learned by experience what 'breasting the wave' might mean.

It was a change to them, their still life here, for hitherto theirs had been no idle one. In the 'world's broad field of battle, in the bivouack of life,' they, weak, timid women, had acted like heroes in the strife. There had been days of such gnawing care, such hope deferred, that many more years would have broken their spirits past all remedy; but He who fits the back to the burden, and tempers the wind to the shorn lamb, saw fit to give them that great blessing of peace in this happy home, and very thankful they were for every comfort they enjoyed, and very thoroughly was every boon appreciated.

It is bedtime with them, and they are in that bedroom whose windows look down on garden, river, and wood; and the moonbeams are falling through them, modulating, as it ever must, the tones of the speakers. They have touched on a good many favourite themes, and they have reached the point of the day's adventure where Mr Herbert's (their landlord) appearance in the wood had put to flight two young ladies, convicted of trespassing.

'So,' said Frances, that was the great and grand Mr Herbert we have been hearing of ever since we came here. I did not see anything remarkable about him at all.'

'Nor could we expect, in such a very hasty interview, to see much of any manner. But I must say, after the raptures Sir Stephen Norris goes into about him, one expects something a little above common individuals. At the same time, I question whether Sir Stephen has much discrimination.' 'Are you not glad, Margaret, that Mr Herbert makes so short a stay? I for one have no fancy to meet him again.' 'Yes; and I have been thinking you and I could easily avoid him during his visit to this neighbourhood. We must be constantly on our guard; but I think we can manage it.'

So the sisters chatted and laughed over their sketching expedition, and finally went to bed, with mighty resolves for their course of action on the morrow; which day arrived, as most

to-morrows are in the habit of doing, and was quite as bright and sunny as its predecessor had been. The bright sun mounts in the laughing sky;' and Mr Herbert, who had scarcely taken his sight off the Rectory and the gardens for five consecutive minutes, so intense and (I am obliged, though unwillingly, to write it) vulgar in his curiosity about the new family and all concerning them, rode round to the avenue gate, through it, and to the quaint entrance, for the purpose of making his formal call. Of course Dr Wyndham had made a point of being there to receive him and introduce him; of course Mrs Wyndham had made a point of being seated in the drawing-room, arrayed in one of those tasteful caps, the envy of Mrs Beckford's heart; but I regret exceedingly to be obliged to state, that their two elder daughters had neglected to follow their very excellent parents' very excellent example, and instead of making a point, as they did, to be present, were quite out of sight; which I confess was pointed too, though rudely done, considering Mr Herbert's visit was pre-announced.

Some minutes had elapsed, and Mrs Wyndham turned to her little daughter. Lucy, tell your sisters Mr Her

bert is here.'

A few minutes more, and Lucy had returned. Mamma, my sisters must be gone out. I have looked in every room for them.'

'Impossible, my dear; they were here this moment. Try the garden.'

A faint, very faint apology from Mr Herbert to the little one for the trouble he occasioned her, and she was gone again. This time through garden, orchard, and shrubbery, with the same result; and then to the drawingroom; where Mr Herbert, having retained his seat as long as compatible with good breeding, took his leave; his compliments to her daughters, and hoped he would be more successful on a future occasion,' &c.; while the vexed mother set off in pursuit of her truant children, of whom she was justly proud, and glad of an opportunity to bring into contact with refined people; for she feared they were getting somewhat mopish, and too much wedded to their darling books, pencils, and music; and besides, having been

ness.

Indeed, discipline is a puzzle, whatever be the age of the subject. Solomon and the old school thought a stout birch all that was requisite, if frequently and judiciously applied. Paterfamilias of to-day shrinks from the mere thought of bodily punishment, and lectures his infants on first principles. But this moral caning requires judgment and reflection, and it is troublesome to be continually playing the madhouse-keeper to your bairns, so that the stick has still its partisans; and as far as I, being a bachelor, can judge, it is perhaps the more effective system.

But, if it be so doubtful how to manage babes and bantlings, how far more so to deal with the human shoot at that age when it is neither man nor boy, but hobbody hoy-the very age at which it is sent to a university.

Now youth being prone to excess, and the excess of liberty being license -truisms, but necessary here-it cannot be maintained that the entire absence of any discipline is a good thing. But it depends on your definition of a university whether you think it a bad thing or not. At those situated in large mother-towns, where the students have their own lodgings, such discipline as a university could exercise is impracticable; yet I cannot say that I think the students of London and Munich are morally worse than those of Oxford or Bonn, but, if anything, perhaps better; while, on the other hand, I cannot deny that those of Paris are a very heaven-forsaken lot.

It remains, therefore, to compare the systems of little discipline and much discipline, and Bonn and Oxford present fair specimens of these. Now,

in the results there is very little difference, unless the balance be in favour of the German student. There is the same drinking, the same idleness. There is less immorality at Bonn, less obscenity; and if, on the other hand, there be less piety, there is not so much profanity.

The fact is, that the discipline at Oxford is neither one thing nor the other. Oxford is not purely a university. It partakes also of the characters of a beneficiary establishment—Anglicè, almshouse-and of a religious seminary. While its discipline is far too lax for those who are educated for the service of the Church, it is much too clerical for those who seek only a general preparation for the other professions. I shall give instances of this, in speaking of the compulsory attendance at chapel, and compulsory reception of the Holy Eucharist.

It is, in fact, impossible to lay down general rules for the discipline of youth. But it may be said of that age universally, that it will always act as you treat it. If you handle a young man as you would a boy, he will only add to the mischief and folly of boyhood the experience and deliberation of his growth. You must first give him your example. Who so imitative of the man as the youth? You must draw out his confidence. Who so leaning-so confiding? The cheek is still smooth, the womanly weakness still there. Grasp it, deal with it. Lastly, you must be open with youth; for who despises deceit so much? Once let him discover an underhand proceeding about you, and your power is gone.

The discipline of a German university is conducted by a university magistrate, in conjunction with the rector, the senate, and the deans of the faculties. The modes of correction are personal remonstrance, solitary confinement in the university lock-up,

of three days for minor, and not more than a month for graver offences, and lastly, expulsion. Where the last is inflicted, the student has the power of appealing, through a government commission, to the Minister of Instruction. At matriculation the student receives a ticket, tenable for four years, which is his certificate of studentship. By virtue of this he has a right to be tried in all matters by his university, and the civil magistrates must yield to those of the academy. At the same time, there are certain crimes as stealing, manslaughter in duels, and so forth for which he must be tried like any other private person, his connection with the university being for the time suspended. As a general rule, the police act in concert with the university, and a government commissioner decides all differences between them.

The principal offences which the government has to fear from the university are, of course, political, and it results from this apprehension that many other offences-particularly duellingare connived at or overlooked. There are stringent laws against large gatherings in public, and no large convivial meeting or procession can take place without the rector's permission, which is, however, readily granted. The inns and public places of resort are closed at 10 o'clock at night, and the students are not allowed to go about the town in large numbers after midnight. It is the rector's business to visit these resorts, and to look generally after the young men in their more public doings. The dean of each faculty, on the other hand, has to provide that each student attends the lectures regularly, and that his dress and general behaviour are of becoming sobriety. There is no punishment that I know of for single acts of drunkenness; and though a student may be expelled for continued or notorious excess, it may be difficult for either dean or rector to reach such cases. On the other hand, it must be remembered that the convivial meetings of these boys take place in public resorts-inns and beer-gardens and not in their own rooms, and their characters are therefore in every man's hand.

Among the enactments for preserving order, are those against appearing

in the streets in mask, carrying arms, and insulting the Philistines; offences to which German youths are by nature particularly prone. Morality is preserved to a certain extent by imprisoning the student who is found in a house of ill fame, by a three days' confinement for high play and gambling (fourteen days for keeping the bank), and by various regulations to prevent debt and extravagance. The statutes of 1818 (still in force) enact that no barber or wigmaker may give more than a month's credit; no tailor, shoemaker, bookseller, more than three months', or for a larger sum than 25 thalers (about £4). To insure this, the creditor has no legal means of recovery whatever, unless he applies within the six months, and the credit system is thus effectually put a stop to. But perhaps the most important enactments are those relating to the sham-duelling, with which these German boys are wont to amuse themselves.

Prejudiced Englishmen are constantly talking of the 'unmanliness' of these encounters, and cry up fistycuff, as a kind of divine institution, because, forsooth, in it we use the weapons that God has given us.' I shall be bespattered by the whole 'muscular' school, if I suggest that this savours a little of blasphemy, and that the superiority in mechanism, and inferiority in strength, which the human hand displays, as compared with the paws of the lower animals, is a proof that its Maker meant it as a tool rather than a weapon-the servant of the mind, but not of the passions. But let that pass. By what reasoning, I ask, can you show that a cut on the cheek or lip is less manly to give and receive, than a black eye or a broken nose? If you say that two young men may batter one another's faces into jellies without killing or being killed, and then make it up, and be better friends than ever, I answer, that the German student carefully protects with padding all the vital or dangerous parts, that fatal results are almost as rare among them as among ourselves, and that the duel, even when serious, is always followed by a cordial embrace. The same art, the same pluck, the same coolness and restraint of temper, the same fair play,