on porte beaucoup d'étoles sur les robes de soie; les plus jolies sont en satin glacé, orné de gros papillons de nuances vives et variées. Pour le spectacle et les soirées, il y aura cette année un grand luxe de rubans. Les petites maîtresses ont abandonné pour leur négligée ces petits bonnets de lingères à rubans, qui imitaient maladroitement les bonnets habillés des modistes, qui servent de toilette aux grisettes. Anjourd'hui une femme élégante n'admet le ruban que dans ses bonnets de blondes les bonnets de lingères sont entièrement en mousseline ou organdi. Le bonnet négligée le plus coquet pour une jolie femme est à trois bouillons inégaux en organdi ou mousseline de l'Inde, forme toutà-fait à la juive; les babes du bonnet sont également en organdi; ce bonnet est simple et sans broderie. Les pantouffles d'une femme sont aujourd'hui eu velours doublé de satin blanc.

Selon toute apparence, le satin uni, le velours épinglé et le velours plein seront les seules étoffes employées cet hiver; les rubans de satin uni à grandes franges paraissent aussi destinés à orner nos chapeaux habillés; mais pour établir une transition marquée entre les rubans unis de cet été avec les rubans unis de fleurs à la saison d'hiver, on emploie pour les capotes négligées de l'automne de forts beaux rubans brochés de mille nuances variées; en attendant le satin, les étoffes sont le velours d'Afrique et de petites armures de deux nuances.

Les bouquets de petites plumes orneront les capotes demi-toilette; deux ou trois plumes seront posées sur les chapeaux habillés.

Les turbans auront probablement une vogue égale à celle de l'hiver dernier; les riches bonnets se feront à barbes de blonde:

Dans une maison recommendable, on emballait parmi de charmans articles qui faisaient partie d'une riche corbeille, un turban musulman en gaze brune brochée or et vert; ce turban, d'un style très sévère, m'a paru d'un excellent gôut; un fort joli chapeau, demi-évasé, en velours épinglé blanc, orné de trois plumes blanches panachées légèrement, d'une paille dorée et de rubans. de satin ottoman, glacés de mais à reflet d'or; sous la passe une demi-guirlande d'oreilles d'ours de satin blanc, panachée de bleu foncé; puis un bonnet très gracieux á la Rachel avec blonde gothique et le fond en tulle nouveau très léger, dit vent-tissé. Ce bonnet, garni sur le front d'une simple blonde légèrement soutenue, était orné, le long des joues, de petites roses et d'épis qui, se contrariant, montaient d'un côté et descendaient de l'autre ; ce bonnet me semble appelé à un succès de vogue.

Nous avons remarqué également dans ce joli magasin une capote en étoffe paille, ornée d'une touffe de cotonnier posée d'un manière nouvelle, et de rubans mandarin paille, brochée de paille foncée à reflets d'or; une jolie capote rose ornée d'une seule rose mousseuse et de rubans de satin rose, bordée de chaque côté d'un rangée de boutons de roses blancs; la calotte de cette capote était entourée d'un tulle de soie dentelé irrégulièrement et garnie d'une petite blonde gothique; sous la passe un petit bonnet de vent-tissé bouillonné, cachant une grosse rose.

Parmi les rubans de Tuvée, on cite le riche ruban musulman, éclatant de nuances brillantes: le beau ruban à roseaux; le ruban-dentelle à la Maintenon; le joli ruban triple frange; le ravissant satin-nacré le luissant gsze-sergée, le ruban espagnol et celui à torsades.

La mélusine et la lesbienne serviront à faire les chapeaux des merveilleuses.

En fait de robes nous ne saurions en vérité quelles façons signaler comme mode; on voit toujours force pélerines, mais on parle cependant de les abandonner.

Cet hiver on garnira beaucoup de redingottes avec de la passementerie. On dit ausai que l'on prépare en passementeries de riches garnitures en soie et en argent pour les toilettes de bal. Ces garnitures sont dans le goût espagnole.

Jusqu'à ce jour on avait négligé des étoffes pour les robes de toilette de jeunes personnes. On nous a parlé de quelques tissus admirables que nous saurons désigner dans le prochain article.

On garnit beaucoup de corsages de grandes toilette avec la mantille platte en dentelle gothique.

Les manches sont toujours très larges; mais l'empleur retenue sur le bras par des plis ou des poignets. Les jupes sont toutes longues.

Le velours Lamartine et le semi-cachemire (étoffe à turbans) feront fureur aux bouffes et à l'Opéra.

Des robes en poult de soie vert d'eau, brochées en noir, liserées en noir autour de la pélerine et du bas du jupon, sont une des premières nouveautés d'automne que nuos ayons remarquées.

A l'Opéra, nous avons remarqué que les écharpes en cachemire remplaçaient celles en gaze. Les écharpes de cachemire sont, pour la plupart, séparées en trois parties, formant trois couleurs différentes. Celle du milieu doit toujours être choisie de la nuance la plus favorable à la physionomie, puisqu'elle se trouve entourer le cou. Elles sont semées de petits dessins dans lesquels il entre beaucoup de noir.

Une robe, demi montante, était en mousseline blanche brodée au crochet. Les broderies formaient des colonnes de branches de muguets très-raprochées; chaque eolonne séparée par un intervalle de deux doigts complétement à jour. Cette robe, qui portait dans sa richesse un beau cachet d'antiquité, provenait d'une pièce de mousseline restée intacte au fond d'une corbeille de mariage, offerte, il y a quelque cent ans. Pour s'harmoniser avec cette étoffe, on avait garni le haut du corsage d'une double mantille en vieux point d'Allençon. L'ornement de cette toilette était un large velours vert, arrêté autour du cou par un camée antique, au-dessous duquel pendaient deux bouts de velours qui suspendaient un flacon à la Pompadour. Au bas des poignets, des velours de moyenne largeur formaient bracelets et étaient fermés par des camées. Sur la tête, deux bouquets de petites branches de lierre de chaque côté des joues. Tout cela allait à ravir sur de beaux cheveux blonds et une figure jeune et rosée.

Une autre robe de mousseline des Indes, toute unie, ouverte sur le devant et entourée d'une ruche de rubans de gaze roses. Sur les manches courtes, trois ruches semblables formant comme des arceaux. Des bouquets de roses pompons dans les cheveux. Encore une fois, tout cela très-gracieux sous son vieux type, rajeunie par un visage de dix-huit ans.

La saison s'avance, les beaux jours fuient, nous ne pourrons plus, dans peu, entretenir nos jolies lectrices des chapeaux d'étoffes, des pailles d'Italie, des légères pailles de riz, des fleurs charmantes, et des belles plumes qui sont sorties des magasins famés; d'autres nouveautés viendront remplacer celles de l'été.

MISCELLANEA.

Wonderful Eye.-At a place called Buch, near Versailies, lives a woman, the iris of whose eyes is divided into twelve sections, forming an exact dial, the figures resembling those on the small watches that are encircled in rings to wear on the finger; she was born with this peculiarity, and yet has the perfect use of her sight.

Invention of Balloons.-Montgolfier, besides being the inventor of ærostatic balloons, was the first who manufactured vellum paper in France. The accident which led him to the formation of balloons was curious enough. One day, in his paper-manufactory, he was boiling some wafers in a coffee-pot, which happened to be covered with a piece of paper in the form of a sphere, and this paper being full of steam, swelled and detached itself from the pot. Montgolfier was surprised, and repeating the experiment, the paper again ascended; this led him to calculate the effect of rarified air, which should be lighter than the atmospheric air—and hence the invention of ærostation.

American theory of Happiness.-There are two ways of being happy. We may either diminish our wants, or augment our means. Either will do-the result is the same; and it is for each man to decide for himself, and to do that which may happen to be the easiest. If you are idle, or sick, or poor, however hard it may be to diminish your wants, it will be easier than to augment your means. If you are active and prosperous or young and in good health, it may be easier for you to augment your means, than to diminish your wants. But if you are wise, you will do both at the same time, young or old, sick or well, rich or poor: and if you are very wise, you will do both in such a way as to augment the general happiness of society. Oriental Rhodomontade.When his innumerable armies marched, the heavens were so filled with the dust of their feet, that the birds of the air could rest thereupon. His elephants moved like walking mountains; and the earth, oppressed by their weight, mouldered into dust, and found refuge in the peaceful heaven.—Indian grant of Land, Asiatic Register.

Anecdote.-A small party of a Highland regiment had been despatched from the little village of to search for arms. They stopped at the cabin of a peasant, and demanded entrance. Poor Pat had a cow, a rare blessing. He was in the act of cleansing its miserable hovel, with a large three-pronged fork, when he observed the soldiers around his cottage. Irishmen generally act from the first impulse; and the first impulse of Pat's mind at this moment was self-preservation. He darted from the hovel, and with the long fork in his hand, dashed through the astonished soldiers, heading his course towards a neighbouring bog, bounded by the road over which we passed. The party pursued-Pat had gained an important point. The attention of the enemy was drawn off from his castle, and his little family had time to make arrangements for their safety. The pursuit was hot, but the retreat still more vigorous; the incumbrance of brogues was soon laid aside, and Pat, in his native phraseology, gained the bog in a jiffey. He was more fleet than his pursuers; but a stout, lengthy, brawny grenadier, as familiar with bog and mountain as the best Irishman in the province, had far outran his companions, and every moment gaining ground in the pursuit, was just within bayonet reach, when Pat, wheeling rapidly round, charged him with his long three-pronged fork in frout; the thrust was a home one, and the Highlander fell. Pat. who in all his varieties of life had rever seen the Highland costume before, gazed in surprise on his fallen enemy, addressing him in his native language."Though eshin, lhat augus gu neineg sheighmough yut S' Dioul un daugh viegh urth er maudin um eigh sheigh, augus taught amaugh gou dugh brieshtiegh:"-" Take that, and much good may it do you; you were in a devil of a hurry after me this morning, when you did not wait to put on your breeches."Narrative of the Irish Rebellion of 1798.

Elephants. One example of their sagacity was related to me by an officer of artillery, who witnessed the transaction. The battering-train going to the siege of Seringapatam had to cross the sandy bed of a river, that resembled other rivers of the Peninsula, which have during the dry season but a small stream of water running through them, though their beds are mostly of considerable breadth, very heavy for draught, and abounding in quicksands. It happened that an artillery-man, who was seated on the limber of one of the guns, by some accident

fell off, in such a situation that, in a second or two, the hind wheel must have gone over him. The elephant, which was stationed behind the gun, perceiving the predicament in which the man was, instantly, without any warning from its keeper, lifted up the wheel with its trunk, and kept it suspended till the carriage had passed clear over him. The attachment orfdislike of elephants to their keepers, according to the treatment they receive, is too well known to need illustration. I have myself seen the wife of a mohaut (for the followers often take their families with them to camp) give a baby in charge to the elephant, while she went on some business, and have been highly amused in observing the sagacity and care of the unwieldy nurse. The child, which like most children, did not like-to lie still in one position, would, as soon as left to itself, begin crawling about, in which exercise it would propably get among the legs of the animal, or entangled in the branches of the trees on which he was feeding; when the elephant would, in the most tender manner, disengage his charge, either by lifting it out of the way with his trunk, or by removing the im pediments to its free progress. If the child had crawled to such a distance as to verge upon the limits of his range (for the animal was chained by the leg to a peg driven into the ground), he would stretch out his trunk, and lift it back as gently as possible to the spot whence it had started and this without causing any alarm to the child, which appeared accustomed to the society and treatment of its Brogdignagian guardian.-Twelve Years Military Adventures.

The Foot of the Elephant.-The foot of this gigantic animal is still more tender than that of the horse. Many elephants are altogether incapacitated for service by diseases of the foot. brought on by injuries received in travelling. Is it not possible to invent a shoe which would serve both to strengthen and defend the foot? The great difficulty would be in fixing it on, as the elephant's foot, unlike that of the horse, is both round and soft in the sole; but, with the opportunities for study afforded by our menageries, it is not likely that ingenuity exerted in this way should long be unrewarded. The artist who may succeed in inventing shoes for the elephant, will confer a lasting and important obligation on some of the greatest countries in the world.-Ibid.

Halley's Comet.-This comet, appeared in 1531, 1607, 1692, 1759, having a period of somewhere about 76 years, which is not so great as the planet Uranus, whose time is about 83 years. The times of comets are very much affected by what are called planetary perturbations, which ought always to be taken into consideration in calculating their return. A little before the appearance of the comet of 1759, Clariaut determined the amount of these planetary perturbations to be so great as to cause the comet to exceed its reputed time by 618 days, and predicted its approach about the middle of April, 1759. It appeared on the 12th of March. But he had previously declared that he might have committed an error of a month. The appearance of the luminary was within the limits of the error he had supposed possible. No doubt all these circumstances are taken into consideration by the improved calculations of modern analysis, so that we may look with a considerable degree of certainty for the meteoric visitor. We were disappointed. however, in 1832, in one of these predictions. Of comets we know very little; it is probable they are highly electrified bodies, and may be instrumental in clearing the planetary sphere of its noxious properties, serving as a species of broom to the heavens, which, in figure they much resemble. There can be no doubt of their utility, whatsoever be the nature of it, Nature, however, profuse in her productive powers, seems, notwithstanding, to do nothing in vain; every thing is useful in its place; and, what is more, every thing seems to be indispensable.

66

Prejudice." The servile flattery of the ancients," says a reverend divine (Faber on the mysteries of the Cabiri), (translated the deified spirit of Cæsar into the Julium Sidus (or Julian Star); and a great astronomer of the present day, adopting the classical compliment without the classical impiety, has given the appellation of the Georgium Sidus (or George's Star) to the newly discovered planet."-We wonder how many hairbreadths of difference there are between the anWe cient classical impiety and the modern compliment. strongly suspect that, when both are analysed, they will be found not only to contain the same ingredients, but to be identically the same.

OR

No. 59.]

SKETCHES OF THE CONTINENT.

BERLIN.

THE manners of the king in his court, and in his intercourse with his subjects, are marked by great simplicity and moderation. All affairs in which he himself is personally concerned are regulated upon the most severe system of decorum and punctuality. His hours of repast are all fixed, and most accurately observed. No deviation of the most trifling nature takes place in the daily routine of his own household, which is indeed one of a magnitude much below what our ideas of regal splendour would require. The royal palace in Berlin, that at least in which the present king always lives, is the same he occupied in the lifetime of his father, and is very small. Its furniture are by no means of a costly nature, and every thing in the person and palace of Frederick William gives token of his mind being fixed upon more important objects than the empty trappings of royalty. To luxury and magnificence, in which other kings have been seen to place their chiefest glory, he appears perfectly indifferent, holding it by no means essential to dazzle the eyes of a well-educated people, in order to secure their respect to his person, or their obedience to his government.

There is, perhaps, only one amusement which the King of Prussia pursues with unceasing ardour, and with which he allows nothing to interfere. I refer to his taste for the theatre. Every evening he is in Berlin, he is present at one of the theatres in the city. There are two larger theatres and one smaller. To one of the larger ones he goes every evening, attended by members of his family, generally sitting in a private box, whilst the royal box, which is of large dimensions, and placed in the middle of the circle of boxes, is occupied by his suite, and often by his sons the princes. Three times in the week are given at the theatre-royal representa tions in the French language. To the French comedians the king is very partial, paying their salaries from his own purse. On the occasion of these representations he is alway present. On the other evenings, and particularly on Sunday evenings, he is at the opera-house, which is a very splendid theatre, though not very large when compared with the Italian opera-houses in Paris and London. The king retires before nine, even should the performances not be concluded, as he always takes his seat at supper at that particular hour, and receives the report of the officer on guard for the day on the royal watch.

The other public amusements in Berlin are not very numerous; but in the various public and private balls, is always afforded a sufficient antidote against ennui. There are few public balls which are considered genteel, or which ladies of the first fashion are accustomed to attend. There are during the winter monthly assemblies at Jager's, a famous restaurateur's, which are No. LIX. VOL. v.

[VOL. 5.

called Almack's Balls, and where there are ladies patronesses to decide upon the claims of the candidates for admission, who rival in the nicety of their discrimination the illustrious conclave who keep the world in awe in London. Here all the rank and fashion of Berlin assemble, and the exclusiveness of the company doubtless much enhances the joy and satisfaction of those fortunate enough to have passed muster. There are likewise a series of public balls, given about Christmas, in the concert saloon in the theatre-royal, which is certainly one of the most magnificent ball-rooms in the world. It is of immense size, and of very great height, with galleries quite round for such of the company as are spectators merely of the gay scene. of the gallery is set apart for the accommodation of the royal family, and particularly for that of the Princess Von Leugnitz, the wife of the king. His majesty mingles with the crowd, but generally retires very early.

Part

To these balls at the theatre the public is admitted by tickets, issued by the Graf Von Rader, the king's chamberlain, to whom all applications must be submitted. But this appears more to be a form than intended to render the balls very select. The exhibition, however, is certainly one of a very splendid description, and affords great gratification to a stranger in Berlin. Here you see the whole court of the king, together with the members of his family, mixed with the families of the respectable, though not perhaps the fashionable. burghers. And it is agreeable to observe the freedom of that intercourse which unites all ranks in an indiscriminate melée. This freedom is carried to an extent which we may consider rather outrageous. I have seen one of the king's sons waltzing with an actress of the French company, and the sisters Elsler, the famous danseuses, who were there, addressed in the most familiar manner by the king himself. Still there is a high gratification in the whole scene. A monarch mingling with his people in their amusements, unattended by a single emblem of his dignity, is both a singular and instructive spectacle. So far, indeed, do these balls appear to be strictly "burgerlich," that no military uniforms are worn at them. The king, his sons, generals, and officers, all appear as private individuals, and in plain clothes. Thus the very semblance of that power, which is in reality wielded by the king, is here removed, lest it might in any way mar the general satisfaction. To promote the amusements of the people has often been a scheme laid by bad princes to render less hateful the exercise of their despotism; but in the instance of Frederick William of Prussia no such manœuvre would be requisite, and there can be no doubt that he takes heartfelt delight in contributing to and beholding the practical happiness of his subjects.

These balls, therefore, gave me unmixed satisfaction, independently of the survey of the brilliant scene itself; and yet from the gallery the whole view was exceed