lordship has called, because you can now accompany

me as my lyre."

Even

LIBEL-Law of a libel upon the law. under the tyranny of some of the Roman emperors, there seems to have been a greater latitude of speech and writing than is permitted by the laws of modern England. Adverting to the reigns of Trajan and Aurelius, Tacitus says " Rara temporum felicitate, ubi sentire quæ velis, et quæ sentias dicere licet."-" By the rare happiness of those days you might think what you wished, and speak as you thought."

LIBELLERS-Literary bravos, supported by illiterate cowards. If the receiver of stolen goods be worse than the thief, so must the purchaser of libels be more culpable than their author. As the peruser of a slanderous journal would write what he reads, had he the talent, so the actual maligner would become a malefactor, had he the opportunity and the courage." Maledicus à malefico, nisi occasione, non differt," says Quintilian." He who stabs you in the dark, with a pen, would do the same with a pen-knife, were he equally safe from detection and the law."

A libeller's mouth has been compared to that of a volcano-the lighter portions of what it vomits forth are dissipated by the winds; the heavier ones fall

back into the throat whence they were disgorged. The aspersions of libellers may, perhaps, be better compared to fullers' earth, which, though it may seem to dirt you at first, only leaves you more pure and spotless, when it is rubbed off.

LIBRARY-A precious catacomb, wherein are embalmed and preserved imperishably, the great minds of the dead who will never die.

"In the library of the world," says Champfort, "men have hitherto been ranged according to the form, the size, and the binding. The time is coming when they will take rank and order according to their contents and intrinsic merits."

LIFE-A momentary convulsion between two tranquil eternities;-an avenue to death, as death is the gate that opens to a new and more enduring life. Our tables and bills of mortality, within the last hundred years, show a remarkable and unprecedented increase in the average duration of human life; while our capacities for taking advantage of this prolonged term have, at least, been doubled within the term mentioned. The existence of a rational and improvable creature, is not to be measured by years and months, but by ideas and sensations-by what we can see, enjoy, learn, and accomplish during our pilgrimage upon earth, in which point of view every educated indivi

dual, is as a Methuselah when compared to his remote ancestors. Look how we have conquered space and time, and all the elements that surround us, making an impalpable vapour, in England alone, perform the work of many millions of men, and thus leading us to the cheering hope that iron and steam may eventually supersede, to a considerable degree, the employment of human and animal bones and muscles, so that the meanest artizan may have leisure for recreation and the culture of his mind. Consider how the pangs of separation are diminished and the affections solaced, by those facilities of rapid travelling which may be said to have almost brought the uttermost ends of the earth together, and to have made each nation participate in the advantages of all. Easy is it now for any man or woman to be a literal cosmopolitan. A week takes us to St. Petersburgh-four weeks to Grand Cairo a few months to the East Indies, or to any part of the world.

It is the activity of the mind, not the functional vitality of the body, that constitutes life. By the enlargement of our ideas, and the general diffusion of knowledge, consequent upon our increased powers of locomotion and comparison, we may condense a whole existence into a narrow compass of time, and enjoy a dozen such lives as were passed by the most enlightened of our ancestors. And yet, doubly precious as this state of being has become, how many are com

pelled to throw away life for a livelihood, et propter vitam vivendi perdere causas. Nevertheless, their

mere vitality, even in spite of their discontents, is an inexhaustible source of gratification, and might be rendered much more so, would they but contemplate it in the proper light. "Enjoy thy existence," says Jean Paul Richter, "more than thy manner of existence, and let the dearest object of thy consciousness be the consciousness of life."

Though nothing is so closely allied as life to death, no two things are so utterly different from each other.

The ancient Egyptians considered every part of the universe to be endowed with an inherent life, energy and intelligence; worshipping the active phenomena of nature, without discriminating cause from effect. They believed the elements themselves to be animated; and why should they not be ?-All of them have motion and a voice-the great constituents of vitality: and, if not themselves alive, they are all instinct with life.

Life has been compared to tragedy, comedy, and farce. It was reserved for Talleyrand to consider it as a one act piece. "I know not why the world calls me a wicked man," said Rulhière, "for I never, in the whole course of my life, committed more than one act of wickedness."- "But when will this act be at an end?" asked Talleyrand.

LIGHT-the new. It was said of Burns, that the light which led him astray, was light from heaven; a false and unguarded assertion, for no light from heaven can ever lead man astray. The spiritual new light is a Jack-o'-lantern, which sometimes lures its followers into quagmires and pit-falls; or it may be the glitter of gold, and the dazzling lustre of worldly greatness, by which they are lighted to dignities and high places. Of this latter we will cite an instance from the Life of Andrew Melville, by Dr. M'Crie: "When Cowper was made Bishop of Galloway, an old woman, who had been one of his parishioners, and a favourite, could not be persuaded that her minister had deserted the Presbyterian cause. Resolved to satisfy herself, she paid him a visit at the Canongate, where he had his residence, as Dean of the Chapel Royal. The retinue of servants, through which she had to pass, staggered the good woman's confidence, and being ushered into a room, where the bishop sat, she exclaimed- Oh, Sir! what's this?- and 6 ye ha' really left the guid cause, and turned prelate !'— Janet!' said the bishop, I have got a new light on this subject.' So I see,' replied Janet; for when ye was at Perth, ye had but ae candle, and now ye ha' got twa before ye.-That's your new light.'”

LIGHT-Like the circulating blood, which returns