A Little Good Advice.

A LITTLE GOOD ADVICE .

I propose in the lolloAving article to offer a little good advice to all my friends AVIIO read these pages , especially the young . And they must be kind enough to

remember that these warnings of mine are gathered , so to say , from the accumulated experience of years , from the recollection of AA'hat I myself have Avitnessed , of what I myself have known during a longish career . For the Avriter of these lucubrations has to

confess the melancholy fact that he is no longer young , aud that time , which lias iveakened his once elastic step , and thinned his once flowing locks , has brought to him that sobering dose of

experience , which perhaps , nay , certainly is , very good medicine for us all to imbibe . AVhether , then , his opinions are worth anything or Avorth nothing , Avhether his observations are correct or incorrecthe

, commends them in all their outspoken plainness , and their sincerely good intentions , to the courtesy and criticism of his kindly readers . One of the most melancholy sights , I think we can often see here is , Avhen

a poor partridge or bare , from Avhich the feathers or the fur have fallen in a little cloud , Avings its flight , or skims over the ground avray , to carry its wound perhaps incurable , to some distant covert or lay ; ancl in a less

degree , the same remark applies to the poor moth perversely circling the fatal flame , until at last , singed or maimed , it escapes literally " ( ppel IAJJ trwl . " And if such common but natural sights arouse our " emotional sensations " ( to use a

pet and fine phrase of the day , Avhatever it may mean ) , what shall Ave say of those male and female bipeds of our OAVII " kith and kin , " and species

and acquaintance , AVIIO emerge from the " battues" of society and escape from the " ignis fatuus" of flirtation like Avounded partridges or singed moths ? Oli , incautious youth , what have you to do Avith such dangerous reefs and

treacherous quicksands as surround the fairy Island of our modern Circe ! Yesterday you Avere full of animation and brightness , Avith buoyant spirits and merry chaff , and here you are to-day dispirited , silent , moody , and morbid , dissatisfied Avith yourself , AA'ith some nameless being , and with everyone else in the Avorld .

You resemble a poor friend of mine whom I once found moping and melancholy , deeply depressed by some " gravis causa " of decided disappointment . AVhen I said to him , " Professor , Avhat ails you ? " he replied quite lugubriously ,

" Kitty has throivn me over . " " What then / ' I said to him , Avishing to be sympathizing and witty at the same time , " there are plenty of kittens and cats for the matter of that'besides , in the Avorldso cheer up . "

, " Tomlinson , " was his stern reply , " if you will chaff , chaff , but if you will be serious , be serious . I shall never recover from the bloAV . "

HOAV short-sighted Ave poor mortals be ! Seven years afterwards I met the learned man again , AAdio introduced me to his wife , Eose , and I Avas called upon to admire a little rosebud , which I of course said was the most perfect

little blossom I had ever seen ; and by this time , I doubt not , the olive branches round about that professorial table make up a baker ' s dozen . ]> To \ A , I have an opinion , Avhich I knoAV will not be popular with some , that it

is a great mistake to marry too young ; and that just now Ave are ticketing off our young men and young Avomen far too rapidly , and far too prematurely . Hence arise in my humble opinion , ill assorted couplesinconsiderate

attach-, ments , hasty matches , and unhappy marriages . For AA'hat , after all , is a more felicitous period of life than our Eng lish girlhood , with all its charms of gentle-