Notes On Literature, Science And Art.

dishness , we have from time to time most vigourously assailed . We have heard of that ' odious paper Tlie Dominie' —a stress of almost cannabalistic intensity being laid upon the descriptive adjectiveaud we have not been a bit offended , but

have grinned with pure delight , knoAving by this that the ' slings and arrows' of our armoury had done their work . Persistently and with an iteration almost tedious , but necessary , we have had our fling at those dishonest men Avho have

boug ht Avithout ever thinking of paying , who have lived in grand houses founded on fraud , or at best on unlawful speculation , ancl what do you think , dear readers , has been the consequence to us 1 Guess ! No you can ' t , you give it up 1 Well you may

do for only thinking of it is sufficiently incredible to make us strain our face into a preternatural length and breadth , before bursting out into a suffocating laugh at the impudence of those bankrupts . We have actually been cut by some of them !!!!

Fact ! Coldly and cruelly cut by debtors under the Bankruptcy Act . Ha ! ha The effect of this upon us has been to make us sadly and seriously contemplate a

' private arrangement ourself . We have not been perfect , and claim no more than honesty of purpose . Sometimes our advocacy of men and measures has been faulty , but we have never advocated Avhat Ave did not at the time honestly believe to be true and right . And we

believe it will be granted , whatever else criticism may say of us , that we have always been fearless , and whether it has been Capital or Labour , Money-bags or Penury , that has done wrong , or that has been unjustly treatedAA' 6 have spoken out

, a ' piece of our mind . ' We need say no more in the Avay of re-capitulation of what we have done . It is sufficient for us that we have had throughout , the approbation of the public , and of broad-minded friends , who have been capable and willing

to find and recognise good grain amongst the chaff , with which—in order to render it palatable to weak stomachs—it has been accompanied . " M . Melsons , of Paris , recommends small doses of Iodide of Potassium to be taken daily by all workmen whose calling requires them to handle lead or mercurial compounds , as this salt dessolves the mineral

poison imbibed by the system , and effects its removal . Ever since I knew anything whatever of the works of Shakspere , his delightful comedy of " As You Like It" has been an especial favourite of mine ; the woodland

scenes most of any ; and not the least of the undying characters that , for the last forty years at least , have charmed me alike in prosperity and adversity , is the melancholy Jaques ; for from every sentence that he utters I could preach a dozen lay

sermons , or write a score of essays . Take for instance , the Avell-known passage he addresses to the banished Duke , in the seventh scene of the second act •—

"A fool , a fool!—I met a fool i' the forest , A motley fool;—a miserable world !—As I do live by food , I met a fool ; Who laid him down and bask'd him in the sun , Ancl rail'd on lady Fortune in good terms ,

In good set terms , —and yet a motley fool . ' Goocl-mcrrrow , fool , ' quoth I . ' No , sir , ' quoth he , ' Call me not fool , till Heaven hath sent me fortune ' And then he drew a dial from his poke , And , looking on it with lack-lustre eye , Says very wisely , ' It is ten o ' clock : Tims may we see , ' quoth he , ' how the world

wags : 'Tis but an hour ago since it was nine ; And after one liour more ' twill be eleven ; And so , from hour to hour , we ripe cmd ripe , And then from hour to hour , we rot and rot ;

And thereby hangs a tale . ' When I did hear The motley fool thus moral on the time , My lungs began to crow like chanticleer . That fools should be so deep contemplative ; And I did laugh , sans intermission , An hour by his dial . —0 noble fool ! A Avorthy fool!—Motley's the only Avear . "

What a number of treatises might be written by Avay of g loss on this single speech of twenty-three lines . On fools alone one mig ht fill folios . And how the repeated mention of " the dial" which Touchstone drew " from his poke , " at once sets a contemplative mind a-thinking on the various modes of telling how time was passing both before and since , as well as in