seemed to me that she had laughed not a little in her day, had once been beautiful, and had occasionally given and taken a kiss. Her face, indeed, was like a palimpsest manuscript, from which, through the modern black, monkish copy of some Christian Father's homily, the half-effaced verses of an old Greek love-poet still peep out.

Heine, Reisebilder.

FAIRIES.

THE fairy elves their morning-table spread
O'er a white mushroom's hospitable head :
In acorn cups the merry goblins quaff

The pearly dews, they sing, they love, they laugh ;
Melodious music trembles through the sky,

And airy sounds along the greenwood die.

Walter Harte, A Simile.

FAIRIES.

THE fauns and sylphs, the household sprite, the moonlight revel, Oberon, Queen Mab, and the delicious realms of fairyland, all vanish before the light of true philosophy; but who does not sometimes turn with distaste from the cold realities of morning, and seek to recall the sweet visions of the night? Washington Irving, Bracebridge Hall.

FAIRY TALES.

OH! give us once again the wishing cap
Of Fortunatus, and the invisible coat
Of Jack the Giant-killer, Robin Hood,

And Sabra in the forest with St. George!

The child, whose love is here, at least, doth reap

One precious gain, that he forgets himself.

Wordsworth, Prelude.

FAIRY TALES.

O! SPIRIT of the days gone by-
Sweet childhood's fearful ecstasy !
The witching spells of winter nights,
Where are they fled with their delights?
When listening on the corner seat,
The winter evening's length to cheat,
I heard my mother's memory tell
Tales superstition loves so well :-
Things said or sung a thousand times,
In simple prose or simpler rhymes.
Ah! where is page of poesy

So sweet as this was wont to be?
The magic wonders that deceived,
When fictions were as truths believed;
The fairy feats that once prevailed,
Told to delight, and never failed:
Where are they now, their fears and sighs,
And tears from founts of happy eyes?
I read in books but find them not,
For Poesy hath its youth forgot :

I hear them told to children still,
But fear numbs not my spirits chill:
I still see faces pale with dread,
While mine could laugh at what is said;
See tears imagined woes supply,

While mine with real cares are dry.
Where are they gone? the joys and fears,
The links, the life of other years?

I thought they twined around my heart
So close that we could never part;
But Reason, like a winter's day,
Nipped childhood's visions all away,

Nor left behind one withering flower
To cherish in a lonely hour.

Memory may yet the themes repeat,
But childhood's heart hath ceased to beat
At tales which Reason's sterner lore
Turns like weak gossips from her door.

John Clare, Shepherd's Calendar.

FAIRY TALES.

O, L'HEUREUX temps que celui de ces fables,
Des bons démons, des esprits familiers,
Des farfadets, aux mortels secourables!
On écoutait tous ces faits admirables
Dans son château, près d'un large foyer:
Le père et l'oncle, et la mère et la fille,
Et les voisins, et toute la famille,
Ouvraient l'oreille à monsieur l'aumonier,
Qui leur faisait des contes de sorcier.
On a banni les démons et les fées ;
Sous la raison, les graces étouffées
Livrent nos cœurs à l'insipidité ;
Le raisonner tristement s'accrédite;
On court, hélas ! après la vérité ;
Ah! croyez-moi, l'erreur a son mérite.

Voltaire, Contes de Guillaume Vadé.

FRENCH FAIRY TALES.

I THINK it among the great honours to French literature, that one of its most original branches, fairy tales, is peculiarly its own. I believe the Children in the Wood,' 'Whittington and his Cat,' and 'Little Red Ridinghood,' are those only, of all our popular tales, which have an English origin. Now, the first rather belongs to our simple and beautiful ballad school; the next a utilitarian might have written as a good encouraging lesson of poverty rising into wealth—a

tale in the very spirit of la nation boutiquière; and as for 'Little Red Ridinghood,' the terror, the only feeling it is calculated to produce, is beneath the capacity of any critic past five years of age.

But look at the imagination, the vivacity, of the others : we read them in childhood for the poetry of their wonders, and in more advanced life for their wit; for they are the Horaces of fairyland. The French have the very perfection of short stories in their literature-little touches like the flight of a shining arrow. I remember one that began: 'There was once a king and queen, very silly people, but who loved each other as much as if they had been wiser, perhaps more.' Then again, speaking of some fairy portent : 'They could not at all understand it-therefore took it for something very terrible or very fine;' or again, 'The queen was for ever in an ill-humour, but had the best heart in the world.' We English have no word that translates that of persiflage; and for this reason, a nation only wants words for the things it knows-and of this we have no understanding. L. E. Landon, Romance and Reality.

FAITH.

FAITH is a certain image of eternity; all things are present to it; things past, and things to come, are all so before the eyes of faith, that he in whose eyes that candle is enkindled, beholds heaven as present, and sees how blessed a thing it is to die in God's favour, and to be chimed to our grave with the music of a good conscience. Faith converses with the angels, and antedates the hymns of glory: every man that hath this grace is as certain that there are glories for him, if he persevere in duty, as if he had heard and sung the thanksgiving song for the blessed sentence of doomsday.

Jeremy Taylor, Sermon on the Flesh and the Spirit.

FAITH.

OUR faith and persuasions in religion are most commonly imprinted in us by our country, and we are Christians at the same rate as we are English or Spaniards, or of such a family; our reason is first stained and spotted with the dye of our kindred and country, and our education puts it in grain, and whatsoever is against this we are taught to call a temptation. In the meantime, we call these accidental and artificial persuasions by the name of faith, which is only the air of the country, or an heirloom of the family, or the daughter of a present interest. Whatever it was that brought it in, we are to take care that when we are in, our faith be noble, and stand upon its proper and most reasonable foundation; it concerns us better to understand that religion which we call faith, and that faith whereby we hope to be saved. Jeremy Taylor, Sermons, xiii.

FAITH FIDELITY.

FAITH should be kept unbroken evermore,
With one or with a thousand men united ;
As well if given in grot or forest hoar

Remote from town and hamlet, as if plighted
Amid a crowd of witnesses, before

Tribunal and in act and deed recited ;
Nor needs the solemn sanction of an oath,
It is sufficient that we pledge our troth.

Rose-Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, canto xxi. st. 2.

FAITH AND HOPE.

Lo! two most goodly virgins came in place,
Ylinked arm in arm, in lovely wise,
With countenance demure, and modest grace,
They numbered even steps and equal pace ;