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intention, as she said, of having a gossip. | travagances I may commit when I have So she might just as well resign herself and money at my command. We don't look at dismiss Marshall at the onset, to improve the value of the coin, we esteem it for what the shining hours,' meaning the moonlight, it will bring us. So with Mr. Ford, if I with the chief butler, or baker, or whoever regarded him standing on his own personal reigns at present in your fickle bosom." merits, I should shudder to be obliged to The butler, Miss Audrey! Well, I spend my life with an elderly man who has never; what will you make me out next? long passed all his romance, and in the days Why, he's nearly seventy! when he did possess it, would have perhaps bestowed it upon a - cook or serving-maid. No, no, Mr. Richard Ford individually is ignored and is only regarded by me as the medium by which I shall attain all I have ever desired and longed for."

"And a very suitable age for you," replied her mistress, laughing.

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No such thing, Marshall," exclaimed Captain Verschoyle; you are a great deal too good-looking to become a nurse yet; besides, what would that Devonshire landlady's sailor son say?"

Thank you, sir," said Marshall; "you know everybody doesn't care about setting the Prayer-book commandment - that you mustn't marry your grandfather-at defiance," and Marshall demurely bade them "Good night."

"That was a sly hit at you, Audrey." "Yes, I suppose so; Marshall has given me several hints as to the interest shown in the servants' hall regarding their master's wooing. By the way, what do you think of your brother-in-law elect?"

Brother-in-law elect!" echoed Captain Verschoyle; "why, you have not accepted him, have vou?"

"No; because he has not yet done me the honour to offer me his hand, and — shall we say?-heart; but, when that glory is laid at my feet, I intend to invest myself as quickly as possible with all the insignia of office which may belong to the dignity of Mrs. Richard Ford."

"Be serious, Audrey. Do you think the man means to ask you to be his wife ?"

"No; but the master of Dyne Court intends asking me to be the mistress, and I intend accepting. Don't look so grave, Charley; I have tried for matrimonial prizes far more distasteful than this man is to me, notwithstanding that he will caH me Ordrey" and sometimes hope I am "'appy.'

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But surely you must shrink from marrying him. Mark you, I am not speaking against the man, for I feel sure he is good at heart, and there is much to admire in the good sense which makes him above being ashamed that he has risen in life. But, Audrey, his age, his appearance, -oh! it seems such a dreadful sacrifice, — and for what?

"But, Audrey, don't tell me that your heart has never pictured any other life than one of endless frivolity and company?"

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Marry for love!" she said, scornfully; "love is very well in a novel on a rainy day, but how does it stand in reality ?"

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Audrey," said Captain Verschoyle, 'give up all idea of this marriage; you may yet meet with some one to inspire a different feeling."

"Never now: my heart is shoked up with other gods; love could not take root in such a stony soil; the first little storm would tear it up to wither and die. Moreover, I must say this is rather cool of you to take me to task for my admiration of Mammon, when you are at this very moment paying homage at the same shrine. Now then, it is my turn to cross-question. Do you really intend proposing to Miss Bingham ?"

"That is a question I have asked myself several times, and hitherto I have been unable to give any answer. She is a very nice girl, and I might become very fond of her, but I should never be in love with her."

"I think she would not say No to being Mrs. Verschoyle," said Audrey.

"I am not at all sure of that," replied her brother," but this I am sure of, that she will not break her heart if she is not asked, for all her timid yea-nayishness, she has a very decided preference for herself, and whoever she marries will never be anything but prince consort in her heart. Yet a man might do worse, and there is no reason why he should not love her for herself, for she is rather pretty and tolerably accomplished."

"Yes," interrupted Audrey, “that is her fault; you feel that you must always qualify everything you say of her, and consequently she has no positive character."

"Very unlike my sister there," laughed Captain Verschoyle.

"For what," she answered; "for all I hold dear. I dream of the entertainments I shall give, the people I shall gather round Oh! I know I like to have my own me here, the dress, the jewels, the car- way, and I daresay if I had fallen in love riages, the thousand and one delicious ex-it would have been with some weak amiable

creature, who deferred to me in all things, | last passage of arms, it should be successful, and was entirely guided by my opinion. and insure victory." And yet I detest men of that kind."

NEW MODE OF PURIFYING SUGAR. Mono-genous matters become insoluble and can be resulphite of lime is now being employed in the manufacture of sugar. The salt, which is nearly insoluble in water, is added to the crude canejuice, and the effect is said to be that the nitro

From The Spectator.

LONGEVITY.

have a true mind, a power of doing more than merely observe, and, at all events, THE only conclusion we can form from parrots, of all medium-sized birds, have Mr. Ray Lankester's clever essay on Lon- very little intellectual power. It is also gevity, to which the University of Oxford true that the parrot, as Mr. Lankester says, last year awarded a prize, is that we know has only been observed when domesticated, very little about the matter. Even the data that is, when his expenditure of his vital are very imperfect, and Mr. Lankester's capital has been artificially limited by man, own theory, though ingeniously worked out, when his food is provided, his exertions refails to satisfy us, and, as we suspect, to strained, and all external dangers carefully satisfy him, for after stating his hypothesis, removed. It is also true, at least as far as he makes an admission which covers a field our observation extends, that parrots are as large as the hypothesis itself. His main very free from "nervous " disturbance, that notion appears to be that the factors of lon- they are extremely bold, nearly as brave as gevity are "high evolution, that is, complex ravens, and though often vicious in temper, structure and large bulk," which together are very seldom irritable. But still, the involve the slow attainment of maturity, and parrot lives about fifty times as long as be create what may be called the capital of life, ought to do, and no possible care of a bu-and small expenditure of that capital, man being, however stupid, or however whether in the pursuit of subsistence or the placid, would enable him to keep alive for multiplication of the species. But he ad- 3,500 years. It would be a great convenmits that there must be something more, ience if we could so keep somebody alive, and, with Mr. Herbert Spencer, looks for it for we might make him chief historian, and in "the quantitative limitation of the keep the records of the world substantially germinal matter itself, varying in species. unbroken; but we can't and the point is, why? If it were not so, how can we account for We do not see that Mr. Lankester contrithe fact that a cow and a sheep, which start butes anything to the solution of that old from ova so identical in form and size, com- doubt, for his sentence about "quantitative posed probably of equal amounts of germi- germinal matter depending on species " only nal matter or protoplasm, subject as they resolves itself into the well-known fact that develop to the same external influences, a parrot is a tough little creature with a tenliving perhaps side by side in the same field, dency to live long, and gives no answer to yet differ in their inherited term of life, the question why it has that tendency. which appears to be, as nearly as can be Still less does his theory explain why of two guessed, about twenty years for the larger, families living in the same village and about and twelve for the smaller ruminant?" Is the same position in life, one should display not this equivalent to saying that some un- an hereditary tendency towards life, and known quantity most easily described as vi- another towards death, why popular opintality is the second determining cause of lon- ion should select one for insertion in life gevity, thus completely unsettling the dis- leases, and reject the other. It may be cussion, for nobody knows, or as yet can said that the short-lived family is the prey know, what the second cause is, or how of some transmissible but undetected disgreat its influence may be? It is certainly ease, and that explanation is so far satisvery great indeed, for although the whale factory; but then the point to be ascertained fulfils the conditions of high evolution and is not that, but the undetected yet transmislow expenditure, and lives, it is believed, sible strength which keeps the rival family for 300 years, and the elephant is of slow alive, the cause of the vitality they cergrowth, vast size, and slow expenditure, tainly enjoy. Mere freedom from disease and lives for a century or more, there are will not explain it, for it will not solve the some very remarkable instances in which question why a parrot, or a raven, or a the theory will not fit. A man, for in- goose should live so much longer than a hen stance, is certainly a bigger animal than a or a horse. Nor will the comparative "inparrot, and more complex in structure, yet tensity of life" help us much, though Mr. he does not live proportionably longer. It Lankester makes a good deal of it, attributis true that man has a mind, and a parrot ing to it the short lives of Americans, has comparatively none, for men habitually which are probably due to the fact that exaggerate the intelligence of birds, proba- the races inhabiting the Union have not bly because they almost alone among living yet become fully acclimatized on the New things can do something which man wants to do but cannot, fly through the air. We defer to better naturalists, but the raven is the only bird which ever appeared to us to

Continent. Western life is far more intense than Eastern, and the Western nations live longest, while man, whose life is of all animals the most intense, entirely surpasses

From The Spectator.

HANS BREITMANN AND HOSEA BIGLOW. which in humour are quite up to the standTHE new poems of Hans Breitmann,* ard of those which we have from time to time reviewed, naturally suggest a comparison with those of Hosea Biglow, the other great American humourist's fictitious hero; in other words, it is almost impossible not the humour of Mr. Lowell, to compare the humour of Mr. Leland with so many

the bull, whose life is perhaps least so, in [of all others of which human beings know his length of days. Is the cause a lower least. nervous organization? Well, negroes, Mr. Lankester, we see, disbelieves in the though they romance, as Mr. Lankester popular notion that the longevity of the husays, about their ages, certainly do live man race has of late years perceptibly inlong; but on the other hand, the men of creased. The truth seems to be that the Western Europe, whose nervous organiza- appliances of civilization, though they keep tion has been so intensified by civilization, the weak alive, do not arrest in any material are, on the whole, of all races the longest degree the decay which comes on all anilived. It is within the observation of the mals after their full maturity, a decay as litwriter that three families, numbering more tle explained or explicable as life itself. than a hundred persons, and of exception- What is it that after fifty begins to wear ally nervous and irritable organizations, are out, while up to fifty it had been either imalso exceptionally long-lived, so exception- pervious to the influence of time or had ally as to suggest what must be false, that been constantly renewed? We do not the condition commonly known as nervous- know, and till we know, physicists will do ness results from an overplus of vital ener- better to accumulate facts than to attempt gy. Has mind anything to do with the to weave the very few we know into a conquestion? Mr. Lankester quotes Dr. Guy's sistent hypothesis. statistics as tending to prove that the more distinguished members of professions are shorter-lived than the less distinguished; but it can hardly be that an overplus of mental energy tends to diminish longevity. Look at Lord Brougham and the life he led, and the biographies of a host of lawyers who have crowded three lives into one, and yet died octogenarians. Look, moreover, at the far broader fact that on the whole the lives of civilized men, and specially of the élite of civilized men, those who insure, are longer than those of the semi-civilized or savage. Mind would appear in their case to develop rather than restrict vitality. Has luxury any influence? Apparently not, for though we object entirely to any deductions on the point drawn from the biographies of European kings, the Royal caste constituting at most two families, Catholic and Protestant, yet English Peers live long, and are among men perhaps the most luxurious, though their luxury is not of hero, Birdofredum Sawin, almost as importhe effeminate kind. Is hard toil an ele- tant, who is a grasping, drinking, plunderment in the matter? Certainly, as regards ing, but not fighting, and still less sentianimals, horses being distinctly shorter lived mental Yankee of the 'cutest and Copperiwhen in work than when allowed their lib-est kind in the South. Each of these, erty; but among men, agricultural labour- Hans Breitmann and Birdofredum Sawin, ers, seamen, and negro slaves live quite as credit on the cause he took up; in each the long as other men, and we cannot admit with Mr. Lankester that the regularity of humour consists in a very large degree in any form of toil diminishes the drain which it the happy choice of dialect, and the familimakes upon vital energy. Bulk, as bearities of speech and thought and illustratween our two rival families, has certainly and in each again, humourous exaggeration tion which are at the writer's finger-ends; nothing to do with the matter, nor slowness of development, for they may be equal in and caricature play a most important part. those respects; and we are driven back once Yet nothing can well be more different in more upon inherited vitality, which is subject general effect than the humour of the Bigno doubt to some law, but to one which nei-low papers and of Hans Breitmann's ballads. ther Mr. Lankester nor any one else has yet inal - you can liken it to nothing else on Mr. Lowell's is in the strictest sense orig

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points have they of likeness, so many of difference. Mr. Leland's principal hero is a grasping, drinking, plundering, fighting, sentimental, German in the Northern Army. Mr. Lowell's, indeed, is an honest North

ern farmer, but then he has a subordinate

-in effect reflects a certain amount of dis

discovered. It would seem to be inextricably involved in the far greater problem, the Hans Breitmann in Church, with other Ballads. cause of life itself, the question, perhaps, By Charles G. Leland. London: Trubner.

forrard,

By bein' unannermous

- a trick you ain't quite up to Norrard.

A baldin hain't no more 'f a chance with
these new apple corers

Than folks's oppersition views aginst the
Ringtail Roarers;

They'll take 'em out on him 'bout East,
one canter on a rail

Makes a man feel unannermous ez Jonah in the whale."

Or this:

"I've noticed thet each half-baked scheme's

abettors

-a

earth. Mr. Leland's, though perfectly "But Jeff he hit upon a way o' helping on us original in conception, indeed, of his own sole invention, is yet in genius more or less borrowed from Heinrich Heine's wonderful mockeries. Again, Mr. Lowell's humour is all based on the deepest faith. In the grotesquest of his religious familiarities, you always see that it is not disbelief, but profound belief which makes him handle his subject so familiarly, like the belief which Father Newman says permits the Roman Catholics almost to joke about his saints and the Madonna. Mr. Leland's sarcasms are essentially of the mocking kind. He mocks at sentiment till he makes us feel as Heine makes us feel, as if all the emotions of huAre in the habbit o' producin' letters, man nature were weaknesses based upon Writ by all sorts o' never-heerd-on fellers superstition. He laughs at intellectual 'Bout es oridgenal es the wind in bellers; truth, at moral truth, at spiritual truth. I've noticed tu, it's the quack med'cines git, German transcendentalism is one of his fa(An' needs) the grettest heap o' stiffykits.', vourite themes of mockery; German fidelity another; German faith a third. As you The effect of all this Yankee dialect is to laugh over Hans Breitmann, — and no one express in the most marvellous way, with any sense of humour can help laughing way that no provincial English dialect over him, — you frequently feel that you (Yorkshire, or Lincolnshire, or Dorsetshire, are laughing, like Heine, at all that is or what you please to take) in the least worth living for, mocking at yourself for gives, the sense of familiarity, of the full your best thoughts, even more than for right to take liberties, with language which your worst. We could hardly assert, per- the Yankee feels. He is quite familiar with haps, that the humour of the Breitmann the words he uses, is not out of his depth in ballads is as great as that of the Biglow the least in using them; "unanimous" and papers, for the Biglow papers are almost certificates," and all such words, are just unapproachable in the overflow and rich- as familiar to him as any others, but he ness of their humour. But undoubtedly, chooses to make them suit his mouth instead the Breitmann ballads come very near them of suiting his mouth to them, and hence the in mere literary merit, while in all other re- easy, slovenly, undress fashion in which they spects they fall far short of the earlier work. come out; hence, too, the multitude of arThey show none of the deep practical sa- tificial nick-names, like "Ringtail Roargacity of the Biglow papers; none of their ers" in the above extract, like the multiprofound earnestness, none of their poetical tude of political nick-names, such as “Silver tenderness. At the same time, they have Grey Filmore Whigs," and so forth, and perhaps even more buoyancy, more animal hence, too, the cool adaptation of old Rospirits, and more of universal application, man and Greek names, Troy, and Corinth, being in reality satires on certain universal and Athens, to the oddest little villages. In elements in human nature, while the Biglow Mr. Lowell's dialect you see the Yankee papers are satires on the selfishness of a coolly kneading the language to suit the particular school of American politicians at most temporary exigencies of his mouth. a particular epoch. With Hans Breitmann the reason for the choice of dialect, like the dialect itself, is quite different. That chosen is the Pennsylvanian-German, skilfully moulded into guttural greediness and shibboleths of sentiment. Take this, for instance:

But to come to a more detailed comparison. Both Mr. Lowell and Mr. Leland (like Artemus Ward, and we imagine all other American humourists), we have said, have shown the most delicate feeling for the humour of dialect, — the new-made provincial idiom in which you see language in the act of being moulded fresh to the hand of a 'cute and careless generation. How free a use Mr. Lowell's heroes make, for instance, of the foreign words in the English language, and how happily they fit the 'cute Yankees who have recast them to their own purpose! Take this:

LIVING AGE.

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VOL. XVII. 745

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