Literature.

Look back to many a thrashing , as we can , still ive have no remembrance of such a phenomena , nor do we believe any urchin of our acquaintance will endorse Bro . Haye ' s description . Let us now turn to " The Mirage of Life , " and endeavour to give its story . The last four lines of the Introduction ends thus : —

" I came one clay upon a scroll hid in A secret drawer of my bureau ; 'twas writ AA ' ith a firm hand , tho' here and there a blur Told where a tear had fall ' u . This was its strain . " The writer of the scroll was sitting , musing by fireli g ht , when midni ght overtook him , ancl he places a chair for a skeleton" AVhose presence no one ivots of but myself , "

and gazes upon it" till my fear became A joy : my grief , gladness : like him who eats The fatal death , and fattens on disease . " Then , after " the cupboard skeleton" has taken himself oil ' , comes the retrospect of his childhood ' s charms . Then a picture of war . Next a landscape in harvest time , followed by the faces of those beloved in clays of yore , ancl" The tears stole to mine eyes , when in the flame

Soma dear friend ' s face shown full upon my view . " The scene , or rather the old familiar sport of faces in the fire , changes , and the beholder sees a tomb" The resting place of my heart ' s youthful eorc . " Lashed into madness at the si ght , he apostrophizes the " impalpable shades , " and upbraids them with their presence , asking them where the calm joy of heaven ' s fair courts is to be found ?

A voice from one of them tells him " there is no joy on earth ; it must be sought above ; " then , as his candle goes out , the ghosts or faces go out with it . After opening tbe window , and watching the

stars"I sat awhile and gazed upon the scene , So lovely in its tranquilncss , aud thought How puny man appears , compared to God . Ho who can move the hearts of crawling worms , And raise a mansion towering to the clouds , Cannot displace ; i star , nor force a wind To be his slave . "

Pacing around his room he describes it , and how in it he framed tales and legends , ancl in bis musing we have the first gleam of a bit of good description , thus : —• " I coursed mine eye o ' er all wild follies past , And lived the moments bitter back again , Like him who in a secret corner stores Portraits and locks of hair—ribbons of blue And divers colours—letters and odd

things—Remembrances of byegone , happy days , Round wliich a thousand waking memories cling Like bees around their queen . " We are then made acquainted with the fact , that the narrator cannot weep ; that his is "a statucd grief '; " and that he has always sought for joy , defining ivhat it is to him . Then there arc reflections on what constitutes the aim of men , and moralizations \

on Aolsey , Saladin , Poc , Byron , and Shelley , telling us his hopes were for fame , and how it came upon him iii the schoolroom ; and also when he joined , bis country ' s ( Scotland ) banners against Napoleon , how he captured ;_ standard , and received the Duke of Wellington's thanks , and found no joy in this . Ancl thus ends the first part of " The Mirage of Life . ' " Without going through the second partwhich is much

, very akin to the first , in being like Canning's kuifegrinder , "Story , God bless you , I have none to tell , sir , " and not offering any very particular beauties , wc turn to the " Masonic Song , " ancl present it to our readers , as a favourable specimen of Bro . Haye ' s powers and thoroughly JIasonie sentiments : — ' " The fleeting years that glide away Upon oblivion ' s wave

, Oft drop a wreath of heaven born bloom , To beautify the grave . So with our heart ' s fond memory will Keep green this festal night , And in the midst of coming cares , Entrance us with delight .

" The year that ' s past , has had a cloud Of glory o ' er it shed ; A thousand flowers have sprung to life . To elegise the dead . Our temple , with a friendly hand , Receives us to delight ; And after days will fond recall The pleasures of this night .

" Around are set our brethren staunch , In love responding bands ; For , ivhere tho square and compass gleam , Hands cling to brother hands . Ancl where the ever sleepless eye , Beams on with radiance bright , Each present Mason ivill remind The pleasure of this night . "

" The sun is dawning in the east—His beams shoot to the west : A star is glimmering in the sky Above the Mason ' s crest . Soon fail will feuds , fierce warfare ' s clang "Will cease the ear to fright ; But brother bands will join our hearts , As joined are ours to-night . "

" Old Time his watches still will ring , Till days and years arc gone ; And humble suppliants ive will kneel Before our Master ' s throne . As thro' the lone and dangerous vale AVe stumble without light , Our eyes will hail the glorious beams AA hieh pierce that dreary night .

"And when our work and warfare ' s o ' er , Oh , may the light of Heaven A halo shed around the path Lost in the mists of even ! So that , when to our Master bound . Our labours for requite , AA o may , within the Lodge on high , Forget death ' s gloomy night I "

Glancing our eye over the last page , wc caught sight of a line that would sorely puzzle a cockney ; it reads" Mortal , you may vain veil woe . " Such obscurity ancl alliteration spoil many of Bro . Haye ' s eilbrts . AVe cannot , close these remarks without a few words of advice to Brother Haye . What we have written lias been penned in

sober truth , for a reviewer has no right to import his oivn prejudice into a notice wliich his readers look to for the real state of the case , and glad as we should have been to have accorded to our brother unlimited praise , yet justice demands that our verdict be a true one . Offering this to our brother in a fraternal spirit , ive hope he will accept it as such , and j > ermit us to advise him for the future . If so , we would strongly counsel him to avoid obscurity ,

to narrate naturally , to condense considerably , to revise continually , and to study the laws of verse and metre . Let him not be deterred at this , for one of our most elegant poets , Gray , iu his Elegy in a Conning Churchyard , has left the well knoivn lines behind him in manuscript transposed as follows , in eacli ancl every case retaining the measure and the sense . It stands in the copy published as " The ploughman homeward plods his weary way ;" Gray ' s variations arc : —

" The weary ploughman plods his homeward way . The weary ploughman homeward plods his way . The ploughman , weary , plods his homeward way . The ploughman , weary , homeward plods his way . AVoary the ploughman plods his homeward way . AVeary tho ploughman homeward plods his way . Homeward the ploughman plods his weary way . Homeward the weary ploughman plods his way . Homeward the ploughman , weary , plods his way . The homeward ploughman weary plods bis way . The homeward ploughman plods his weary way . "

No doubt it may be said this is but changing tbe places of the words , and so it ' is ; but it shows to what length an author who feels a line fries how far his idea ivill bear improvement before he gives it to the world . _ Strongly advising our Brother Haye , who has no mean perception of the beautiful , and occasionally strikes out a brilliant idea , to polish his effusions carefullto frequentland rewrite

y , pause y often , we yet hope to see another volume , of what we may be ahlc fo call poems , from his pen ; and if he but takes our aclvice and improves , as ive are sure he can if he will but study , no one will hail his labours more genially ancl fraternally than ourselves .

XOTES OX LITERATURE , SCIENCE , AXD ART . AMONG the principal books in Messrs . Longman ' s new list of forthcoining works are ) : —Palleske ' s " ' Life of Schiller , " translated by Lady AValluce ; tho' third and fourth volumes of Capt . Brialmout's " Lift u *