The nobles fill'd the benches round, the ladies by their side, And 'mong them sat the Count de Lorge, with one for whom he sigh'd:

And truly 't was a gallant thing to see that crowning show, Valor and love, and a king above, and the royal beasts below.

2. Ramp'd and roar'd the lions, with horrid laughing jaws; They bit, they glared, gave blows like beams, a wind went with

their paws;

With wallowing might and stifled roar, they rolled on one another;

Till all the pit, with sand and mane, was in a thunderous

smother;

The bloody foam above the bars came twhizzing through the

air:

[there."

Said Francis, then, "Faith, gentlemen, we're better here than

3. De Lorge's love o'erheard the king, a beauteous, lively †dame, With smiling lips, and sharp, bright eyes, which always seem'd

the same;

She thought, "The Count, my lover, is brave as brave can be, He surely would do wondrous things to show his love for me; King, ladies, lovers, all look on; the occasion is divine;

I'll drop my glove, to prove his love; great glory will be mine."

4. She dropp'd her glove, to prove his love, then look'd at him, and smiled;

He bow'd, and in a moment leap'd among the lions wild: The leap was quick, return was quick, he soon regain'd the place,

[face. Then threw the glove, but not with love, right in the lady's "In faith,” cried Francis, "rightly done!" and he rose from where he sat;

"Not love," quoth he, "but vanity, sets love a task like that."

CXXXIII. THE BATTLE OF BLENHEIM.

FROM SOUTHEY.

1. Ir was on a summer evening,
Old Kasper's work was done,
And he, before his cottage door,

Was sitting in the sun,

And by him sported on the green,
His little grandchild Wilhelmine.

2. She saw her brother Peterkin

Roll something large and round,
Which he beside the rivulet,

In playing there, had found;

He came to ask what he had found,

That was so large, and smooth, and round.

3. Old Kasper took it from the boy,

Who stood expectant by;

And then the old man shook his head,
And with a natural sigh,

""T is some poor fellow's skull," said he,
Who fell in the great victory.

4. I find them in the garden,

For there's many here about;
And often when I go to plow,

The plowshare turns them out!
For many thousand men," said he,
"Were slain in that great victory:"

5. "Now tell us what 't was all about,"
Young Peterkin, he cries;
While little Wilhelmine looks up,
With wonder-waiting eyes;

"Now tell us all about the war,
And what they kill'd each other for."

6. "It was the English," Kasper cried,
"Who put the French to rout,
But what they kill'd each other for,
I could not well make out.
But every body said,” quoth he,
"That 't was a famous victory.

7. "My father liv'd at +Blenheim then,
Yon little stream, hard by ;

They burnt his dwelling to the ground,
And he was forced to fly;

So, with his wife and child, he fled,
Nor had he where to rest his head.

8. "With fire and sword, the country round Was wasted, far and wide;

And many a nursing mother then,

And new-born baby died;

But things like that, you know must be
At every famous victory.

9. "They say it was a shocking sight
After the field was won;

For many thousand bodies here
Lay rotting in the sun ;

But things like that, you know, must be
After a famous victory.

10. "Great praise the Duke of Marlbro' won,
And our young prince, Eugene."

Talent is

all that and life of all the

1. TALENT is something, but tact is everything. serious, sober, grave, and respectable: tact is more too. It is not a sixth sense, but it is the five. It is the open eye, the quick ear, the judging taste, the keen smell, and the lively touch; it is the tinterpreter of all riddles, the surmounter of all difficulties, the remover of all obstacles. It is useful in all places, and at all times; it is useful in solitude, for it shows a man into the world; it is useful in society, for it shows him his way through the world.

2. Talent is power, tact is skill; talent is weight, tact is momentum; talent knows what to do, tact knows how to do it; talent makes a man respectable, tact will make him respected; talent is wealth, tact is ready money. For all the practical purposes, tact carries it against talent ten to one.

3. Take them to the theater, and put them against each other on the stage, and talent shall produce you a tragedy that shall scarcely live long enough to be condemned, while tact keeps the house in a roar, night after night, with its successful

+farces. There is no want of dramatic talent, there is no want of dramatic tact; but they are seldom together: so we have successful pieces which are not respectable, and respectable pieces which are not successful.

4. Take them to the bar, and let them shake their learned curls at each other in legal rivalry; talent sees its way clearly, but tact is first at its journey's end. Talent has many a compliment from the bench, but tact touches fees. Talent makes the world wonder that it gets on no faster, tact arouses astonishment that it gets on so fast. And the secret is, that it has no weight to carry; it makes no false steps; it hits the right nail on the head; it loses no time; it takes all hints; and by keeping its eye on the weather-cock, is ready to take advantage of every wind that blows.

5. Take them into the church. Talent has always something worth hearing, tact is sure of abundance of hearers; talent may obtain a living, tact will make one; talent gets a good name, tact a great one; talent convinces, tact converts; talent is an honor to the profession, tact gains honor from the profession.

6. Take them to court: talent feels its weight, tact finds its way; talent commands, tact is obeyed; talent is honored with approbation, and tact is blessed by *preferment. Place them in the senate. Talent has the ear of the house, but tact wins its heart, and has its votes; talent is fit for employment, but tact is fitted for it. It has a knack of slipping into place with a sweet silence and glibness of movement, as a billiard ball insinuates itself into the pocket.

7. It seems to know every thing, without learning any thing. It has served an extemporary apprenticeship; it wants no drilling; it never ranks in the awkward squad; it has no left hand, no deaf ear, no blind side. It puts on no look of wondrous wisdom, it has no air of profundity, but plays with the details of place as dextrously, as a well-taught hand flourishes over the keys of the piano-forte. It has all the air of common-place, and all the force and power of genius.

CXXXV. THE VOYAGE OF LIFE: AN ALLEGORY.

FROM DR. JOHNSON.

1. "LIFE," says Seneca, "is a voyage, in the progress of which we are perpetually changing our scenes; we first leave childhood behind us, then youth, then the years of ripened manhood, then the better and more pleasing part of old age."

2. The perusal of this passage having excited in me a train of reflections on the state of man, the incessant fluctuation of his wishes, the gradual change of his disposition to all external objects, and the thoughtlessness with which he floats along the stream of time, I sank into a slumber amid my +meditations, and, on a sudden, found my ears filled with a tumult of labor, the shouts of alacrity, the shrieks of alarm, the whistle of winds, and the dash of waters.

3. My astonishment, for a time, repressed my curiosity; but soon recovering myself, so far as to inquire whither we were going, and what was the cause of such clamor and confusion, I was told that we were launching out into the ocean of life, that we had already passed the straits of infancy, in which multitudes had perished, some by the weakness and +fragility of their vessels, and more by the folly, *perverseness, or negligence of those who undertook to steer them; and that we were now on the main sea, abandoned to the winds and billows, without any other means of security than the care of the pilot, whom it was always in our power to choose among the great numbers that offered their direction and tassistance.

4. I then looked around with anxious eagerness, and first, turning my eyes behind me, saw a stream flowing through flowery islands, which every one that sailed along seemed to behold with pleasure, but no sooner touched, than the current, which, though not noisy, or +turbulent, was yet tirresistible, bore him away. Beyond these islands all was darkness, nor could any of the passengers describe the shore at which he first embarked. Before me, and on each side, was an expanse of waters violently agitated, and covered with so thick a mist, that the most perspicacious eye could see but a little way. It appeared to be full of rocks and whirlpools: