most jealous juries of tradesmen, have ladies' hats must not be larger than borne ample testimony to the reasonableness of this modern extension of the wants of life, by the liberal allowance of necessaries which they have sanctioned in the tailors' bills of litigating minors.-The real and true test of a refined polity is not the gallows; but is to be found rather in such well-imagined insolvent laws, as discharge a maximum of debt with a minimum of assets; and rid a gentleman annually of his duns, with the smallest possible quantity of corporeal inconvenience. When luxuries become necessaries, insolvency is the best safety-valve to discharge the surplus dishonesty of the people, which, if pent up, would explode in dangerous overt acts of crime and violence; and it should be encouraged accordingly. "Barbaric the actual doorways of the country The importance and value of luxury being thus liberally stated, it is proper to bear in mind, that the more and the less is the great pivot, upon which all moral questions turn; and that in superfluities, as in all things else, a wise man will confine himself (in the words of my motto) to what is necessary. Although necessity is a conventional idea, that expands and contracts with circumstances, like the tent in the Arabian tales, which, when folded, would lie in the hand, but when opened, would shelter a large army; yet, after all, the thing itself has its limits, and must in some degree be determined by the physical conditions of the animal. There is a point at which the inconvenience of superfluities so far exceeds their utility, that luxury becomes converted into a perfect bore. What, for instance, but an annoyance, would be the most splendid feast, to a man whose stomach is already overladen with food? Human ingenuity may effect much; and the Romans, by means of emetics, met this emergency with considerable skill but on a more enlarged experience of general history, it must be conceded, that it is quite impossible where the shoe pinches, as he that to add one more superfluous meal to those already established by general usage. So also in matters of dress, There is, however, one point upon which I own myself a little sore; and in which, I do think, superfluities are carried to a somewhat vicious excess. I speak it with hesitation; but the matter has been to me a source of much inconvenience and discomfort. Let no one, therefore, imagine me an insufficient, because a prejudiced authority. After all, who so well knows wears it? The point to which I allude, and I beg the patience of the reader, is the vast increase of super fluities, which of late years have become primary necessaries in the appointment of a well-furnished house. Here, indeed, is a revolution; a revolution more formidable than the French and the American emancipation put together. We all remember the time when one tea-table, two or three card-tables, a pier glass, a small detachment of chairs, with two armed corporals to command them, on either side the fire-place, with a square piece of carpet in the centre of the floor, made a very decent display in the drawing, or, as it was then preposterously called, the dining-room. As yet, rugs for the hearth were not; and twice a day did Betty go upon her knees to scour the marble and uncovered slab. In the bed-rooms of those days, a narrow slip of carpet round the bed was the maximum of woollen integument allowed for protecting the feet of the midnight wanderer from his couch; and, in the staircases of the fairest mansions, a like slip meandered down the centre of the flight of steps. At that time, curtains rose and fell in a line parallel to the horizon, after the simple plan of the green siparium of our theatres; and, being strictly confined to the windows, they never dreamed of displaying themselves in front of a door. No golden serpents then twisted their voluminous folds across the entire breadth of the room; nor did richly-carved cods, heads and shoulders, under the denomination of dolphins, or glittering spread-eagles, with a brass ring in their mouths, support fenestral draperies, which rival the display of a Waterloo-house calico vender. Thus far, I admit, the change is an improvement. Nay, I could away with ladders to go to bed withal, though many a time and oft they have broken my shins. I would not either object to sofas and ottomans, in any reasonable proportion; but protest I must, and in the strongest terms too, against such a multiplication and variety of easy chairs, as effectually exclude the possibility of easy sitting; and against the over weening increase of spider-tables, that interferes with rectilinear progression: An harp mounted on a sounding-board, which is a stumblingblock to the feet of the short-sighted, is, I concede, an absolute necessity; and a piano-forte should occupy the centre even of the smallest given drawing-room," the court awards it, and the law doth give it,' -but why multiply footstools, till there is no taking a single step in safety? An Indian cabinet also, or a buhl armoire, are, either, or both of them, very fit and becoming; but it cannot be right to make a broker's shop of your best apartment. An inkstand, as large as a show twelfthcake, is just and lawful; ditto, an ornamental escrutoire; and a nécessaire for the work-table is, if there be meaning in language, perfectly necessary. These, with an adequate contingent of musical snuff-boxes, or molu clocks, China figures, alabaster vases and flower-pots, together with a discreet superfluity of cut-paper nondescripts, albums, screens, toys, prints, caricatures, duodecimo classics, new novels and souvenirs, to cut a dash, and litter the tables, must be allowed to the taste and refinement of the times., But surely some space should be left for depositing a coffeecup, or laying down a useful volume, when the hand may require to be relieved from its weight, or when it is proper to take a pinch of snuff, or agreeable to wipe one's forehead. Josses, beakers, and Sevres' vases have unquestionably the entrée into a genteel apartment; but they are not entitled to a monopoly of the locale; nor are Roman antiquities, or statues even by Canova, justifiable in usurping the elbow-room of living men and women. Most unfortunately for myself, I have a very small house, and a wife of the most enlarged taste; and the disproportion between these blessings is so great, that I cannot move without the risk of a heavy pecuniary loss by breakage, and a heavier personal affliction in perpetual imputations of awkwardness. Then, again, it is no easy matter to put on a smiling unquestioned. Ornaments, I admit, and indifferent countenance, whenever a friend, accustomed to some latitude of motion, runs, as is often the case, his devastating chair against a highpriced work of art, or overturns a table laden with an "infinite thing" in costly bijouterie. I have long made it a rule to exclude from my visitinglist, or at least not to let up-stairs, ladies who pay their morning calls with a retinue of children: but the thing is not always possible; and one urchin with his whip will destroy more in half an hour, than the worth of a month's average domestic expenditure. Oh! how I hate the little fidgeting, fingering, dislocating imps! A bull in a china-shop is innocuous to the most orderly of them. Why does not some wise draconic law banish them forever to the nursery ? are ornamental; and works of art afford intellectual amusement of the highest order. But then perfection is their only merit; and a crack or a flaw destroys all the pleasure of a sensible beholder. Yet I have not a statue that is not a torso, nor a Chelsea china shepherdess with her full complement of fingers. I have not a vase with both its handles, a snuff-box that performs its waltz correctly, nor a volume of prints that is not dogsear'd, stained, and ink-spotted. These are serious evils; but they are the least that flow from a neglect of the maxim which stands at the head of my paper. Perpend it well, reader; and bear ever in mind that, in our desires, as in our corporeal structure, it is not given to man to add a cubit to his stature. I am very tired; The general merit of nick-nacks is so "dismiss me,—enough.” HYMN OF THE CALABRIAN SHEPHERDS TO THE VIRGIN. BY L. E. L. A peasant group, whose lips are full of prayer DARKER and darker fall around The shadows from the pine, Hear us, sweet Mother! thou hast known The tenderness of tears. We pray thee first for absent ones, The distant, and the dear. The wandering minstrel, he who gave Kind Mother, let them see again Back to the home which, wanting them, Madonna, keep the cold north wind So that no withering blight come down And bid the sunshine glad our hills, Pray for us, that our hearts and homes Thy soft blue eyes are filled with tears, The soil of our unworthiness,- We know how vain the fleeting flowers, Before thine image sung. But wilt thou not accept the wreath We trust to thee our hopes and fears,— AN ADVENTURE IN CEYLON. Matura. I went on board between eleven and twelve o'clock of the day; and, as it was the month of July, with the Monsoon blowing in my favor with all its vigor, I had no doubt of reaching the place of my destination, though sixty miles off, before daylight of the following morning. With this idea, I had provided no sea-stock beyond a bottle of brandy, accidentally put into my hands, and a change of linen, with dressing utensils. You may judge of my disappointment, when day dawned, between five and six o'clock, as it does in that country, to find that we had overshot our port. It was impossible to land amidst the tremendous surf on that coast in the south-west Monsoon; and the Tandil, or master of the boat, who, by the way, was bound to Trincomalee, said, that all he could do was to land me in a small bite or bay called Pootanie, which was still some hours' sail a-head, and between fifty and sixty miles beyond the breakfast awaiting me at Hambantotte. This was rather serious to a man with a good appetite, who had tasted nothing from the day before at breakfast, in a part of the country quite uninhabited, excepting by a couple of men posted here and there, for the purpose of carrying the Tappaul. But I felt strong and vigorous; and the Kandyan cam You have often asked me for the particulars of the adventure of our friend H., in the Jungle of Ceylon, with the two Bears; and having lately had the circumstances related to me by our friend himself, I shall endeavor to conquer my habitual dislike to writing, while I impart them to you. In doing so I shall adhere, as nearly as possible, to the very words he used in his narration; and, as the whole is interesting, I have no scruple in making him commence with you, as he did with me, from the day before his hairbreadth escape. To those who never were in the country where the scene is laid, it is necessary to explain that the southern coast of Ceylon, from Tangalle stretching eastward to the province of Batticaloa, is a desart, with the single exception of Hambantotte, where a civil servant is stationed, for the superintendence and collection of the salt spontaneously produced along the coast. The character of the country varies, being sometimes deep sand, at others jungle and forest, and frequently large grassy plains. The inhabitants of this tract of country, of nearly two hundred miles, are so few, that it may be said to be abandoned entirely to elephants, buffaloes, wild hogs, and last, not least, abundance of leopards, as well as bears of a most ferocious race. Occasionally, a few runners are sta-paign had taught me to fast. I thought tioned in huts, from fifteen to twenty miles apart, for the purpose of transmitting such letters as Government may send by that route; and there is, moreover, an empty rest-house or two, merely sufficient to shelter the weary traveller from the rays of the sun. "I was proceeding," said our friend, "in the way of my duty, from Point de Galle to the Post of Hambantotte, on the south-east coast of the island, and had sent forward my servants and baggage by land, while I myself embarked in a native boat, called a dhoney, at the small bay of Belligham, half way between Point de Galle and 53 ATHENEUM, VOL. 2, 3d series. too, if I once got ashore, I should be able to find one or other of the Tappaul huts I have mentioned, and come in for a share of the currie and rice of its inmates. At a station, moreover, by name Pallitopanie, about half-way between where I was to be put ashore and Hambantotte, there was an English corporal, with a few native soldiers, in charge of a depot of salt. But to proceed. I was landed in a small canoe from the larger vessel. I took with me a black man, who was proceeding to Trincomalee with some trifling articles of merchandise, who said he could show me the hut in the a-shooting them; and though I had heard of instances of their attacking men, I had never on any occasion seen them that they did not run away on raising a shout or firing a shot. When I came near, one of them perceived me, and gave that angry cry, which all who have been accustomed to elephants know so well. I shouted and ran forward, but instead of taking to flight, as I expected, the one who saw me made out of the jungle after me. I had got past the herd, and I fled on my way with all the swiftness of which I was capable. He was overtaking me fast, however, and was not many yards from me, when I turned round, and threw my portmanteau at him. By special good fortune this arrested his progress, and he stopped as if to examine my kit. When I had got forty or fifty yards from him, I stopped also. Perhaps you will scarcely credit me when I say, that even then I was not afraid; but so it was, and I looked upon the affair more in a ludicrous than in any other light. I was determined not to give up my packet so easily, and I again shouted and ran back a few paces towards my friend. Upon doing so, be renewed his attack, and charged me a second time. This time I should have had a poor chance for it, but fortunately a small inequality of ground intervened, when he was close upon me, and I started to one side, stooping down as much as possible, while he passed onwards. I saw him bewildered at having lost me, while I skulked away as quickly as I could, and regained my road by a circuitous route. I had not proceeded much farther when the sun set, and in the very short twilight which follows in that climate, I perceived two animals come out of the jungle into the path, about 100 yards before me. In the uncertain light, I at first took them for the half-grown calves of wild buffaloes, an animal abounding in that part of the island, and they proceeded with their heads down towards a large tree by the side of the road I had to pass, where they began snuffing about the roots. neighborhood, where I could get one of the runners before-mentioned to be my guide, as well as to carry a small leathern case with a change of linen and dressing utensils. We had no sooner stepped on the beach, than the men in the canoe treacherously pushed off for their vessel, and my black friend threw himself at my feet, imploring me to let him go also, and that I should proceed far enough not to be seen, otherwise the men in the canoe would not be prevailed on to return for him; and, separated from his property on board the dhoney, he should be ruined. I granted his request; and, from a small distance, had the satisfaction of seeing him taken off by the people in the canoe, and of feeling myself alone in a desart, hungry, and without the means of procuring food, and even ignorant of the road, and, of course, with little chance of finding any of the letter-carriers or their huts. It was now drawing towards three o'clock, and with my little valize in one hand, and my brandy bottle, about half full, in the other, I went in search of the hut. After fruitlessly spending an hour in endeavoring to find it, I deemed it better, as the sun was fast descending, to turn my face towards the west, and to endeavor to reach the next station, Yallé by name, about sixteen miles distant, and where there was a rest-house. The country was a number of open plains of different sizes, divided from each other by extensive low jungles, interspersed with the large forest trees of the country. It was not without some difficulty that I could find the path; and my striking upon the right one I considered as particularly fortunate. I jogged on at a brisk pace, and all went well till about sunset, when I was aware of a herd of elephants in the jungle on each side of the path I had to pass. I could just see their backs occasionally above the bushes, and hear the small trees cracking and giving way on each side, as they walked through them, as a man would through a field of corn. These animals gave me but little uneasiness, as I had frequently been I was |