recovered, and he required of me nothing more than that I should occasionally visit him. Some time after I observed, during one of my calls, that he was in a state of great dejection. The American war had broken out he had sent eight thousand pounds worth of goods to Boston, and the merchants there would not pay. He confessed to me that in a month a bill of exchange drawn by him would become due; that he could not pay it; and that if he did not, he was ruined. I would most willingly have assisted him, but it was out of my power; and reflecting that I owed my life to him, determined on sacrificing it for him. I imparted my wishes to the five Jews who had accompanied me from the Continent, and who all felt a regard for me, as I for them. We posted ourselves on the road, by which your Grace was destined to pass, and you, of course, recollect what occurred. I took out of your pocket-book 2,000l., and in your purse I found 1107. I wrote a letter in an unknown name, sending the preserver of my life the 2,0007. which he wanted, and stating that I should again apply for it as soon as I knew that he possessed so much. At that time I saved him; but the American troubles continued, and a week ago the unfortunate man died insolvent. During the interval that has elapsed since I saw your Grace, I have more than once had concerns in the lottery, and on the very day the manufacturer died, the wheel of fortune gave me 4,0007.

at

"Inclosed, therefore, you receive, my Lord, with interest, the sum of which I robbed you; and you will find 1,000l. beyond this, which I request you to send Have the goodness and condescension to inquire, at the same time, after a poor Jew, who was formerly attended, during illness, with hospitable attention by that kind family. With the rest of my lottery-profits I return to the continent, accompanied by my five countrymen. I swear to you, my Lord, by the God of our fathers, that not a pistol which we possessed was loaded when we attacked you. We were apprised of your journey; we knew that you carried with you a considerable sum; but no temptation should have induced us to injure you. "Spare yourself the trouble of a fruitless attempt to discover us. When this letter reaches you, we shall have been several days at sea. The God of our fathers preserve you!"

The Duke caused inquiries to be made respecting the woollen-manufacturer, as well as the poor Jew, and every word of the letter was confirmed. His Grace not only sent the unfortunate family all that

the letter contained, but provided for several members of it in other respects.

"I'd give a hundred pounds," said the Duke frequently, "if any man would shew me the face of that ugly Jew; and I'd give a thousand if any one would bring me the hideous fellow himself."

ON THE CUSTOM OF KISSING HANDS.

(For the Mirror.)

MR. MORIN, a French academician, has amused himself with collecting several historical notices of this custom, a summary of which I give for the benefit of those who have had, or not had, the honour of kissing his Majesty's hand.

This custom is not only very ancient and nearly universal, but has been alike participated by religion and society. To begin with religion. From the remotest times men saluted the sun, moon, and stars, by kissing the hand. Job assures us that he was never given to this superstition, xxxi. 26. The same honour was rendered to Baal, Kings i. 18. Other instances might be adduced.

We now pass to Greece, where all foreign superstitions were received. Lucian, after having mentioned various sorts of sacrifices which the rich offered the gods, adds, that the poor adored them by the simpler compliment of kissing their hands. This author gives an anecdote of Demosthenes, which shews this custom. When a prisoner to the soldiers of Antipater, he asked to enter a temple. When he entered, he touched his mouth with his hands, which the guards took for an act of religion. He did it, however, more securely to swallow the poison he had prepared for such an occasion. He mentions other instances.

From the Greeks it passed to the Romans. Pliny places it amongst those ancient customs, of which they were ignorant of the origin or the reason. Persons were treated as Atheists who would not kiss their hands when they entered a temple. When Apuleius mentions Psyché, he says, she was so beautiful that they adored her as Venus in kissing the right hand.

This ceremonial was associated with the earliest institutions of Christianity. It was a custom with the primeval bishops to give their hands to be kissed by the ministers who served at the altar.

This custom, however, as a religious rite, declined with Paganism.

In society, M. Morin considers the custom of kissing hands as essential to its welfare. It is a mute form which

expresses reconciliation, which entreats favours, or which thanks for those received. It is an universal language, intelligible without an interpreter, which, doubtless, preceded writing, and, perhaps, speech itself.

Solomon says of the flatterers and suppliants of his time, that they ceased not to kiss the hands of their patrons till they had obtained the faveurs which they solicited. In Homer we see Priam kissing the hands and embracing the knees of Achilles, while he supplicates for the body of Hector.

This custom prevailed in ancient Rome; but it varied. In the first ages of the republic it seems to have been only practised by inferiors to their superiors; equals gave their hands and embraced. In the progress of time even the soldiers refused to shew this mark of respect to their generals; and their kissing the hand of Cato when he was obliged to quit them, was regarded as an extraordinary circumstance at a period of such refinement. The great respect paid to the tribunes, consuls, and dictators, obliged individuals to live with them in a more distant and respectful manner; and instead of embracing them as they did formerly, they considered themselves as fortunate if allowed to kiss their hands. Under the emperors, kissing hands became an essential duty even for the great themselves; inferior courtiers were obliged to be content to adore the purple by kneeling, touching the robe of the emperor by the right hand, and carrying it to the mouth. Even this was thought too free; and at length they saluted the emperor at a distance, by kissing their hands in the same manner as when they adored their gods.

It is superfluous to trace this custom in every country where it exists. It is practised in every known country in respect to sovereigns and superiors, even amongst the Negroes and the inhabitants of the new world. Cortez found it established at Mexico, where more than a thousand lords saluted him in touching the earth with their hands, which they afterwards carried to their mouth.

Thus, whether the custom of salutation is practised by kissing the hands of others from respect, or in bringing one's own to the mouth, it is of all other customs the most universal. Mr. Morin concludes that this practice is now become too gross; and it is considered as a meanness to kiss the hand of those with whom we are in habits of intercourse; and he prettily observes, that this custom would be entirely lost if lovers were not soliaitous to preserve it in all its full power.

EDRIC.

ON SEEING AN ALOE IN
FLOWER LAST AUGUST.
(For the Mirror.)

PALE offspring of a hundred years,
Whom long expectancy endears;
A wish of childhood, a young thought,
In early fancy deep inwrought:
Fair stranger in a northern bower,
Thou tremulous and tender flower,
No human eye shall e'er behold
Thy bashful beauties twice unfold.
Stainless from any taint of earth,
Thou hast thy pure elaborate birth;
No hues but those of softest green
Are in thine airy blossoms seen.
From that stern bosom drawn alone,
That spreads for thee a starlike throne,
Then sees thy sudden growth arise,
And point unswerving to the skies.
Thy slender stem like flame aspires
To heaven, and prompts the silent pray'r
In him whose eye uprais'd admires
Thy beauty in the realms of air,
Where not a flowret bursts its sheath,
Till far above our fleeting breath
It drinks a purer gale, imbued
With sacred love of solitude.

Mus.

in this my present undertaking. It is the pass-word, the "open sesame," that must remove from before me all lets and mpediments-it is the charm that will alternately put to silence my imagination when it may be disposed to infringe on the office of my memory, and awaken my memory when it is inclined to sleep-in fact it is a monosyllable of infinite avail, and for which, on this, as on many other occasions, no substitute can be found in our own or any other language: and if I approve above all other proverbs that which says "there's nothing like the time present," it is partly because "the time present" is but a periphrasis for Now!

Now, then, the cloudy canopy of seacoal smoke that hangs over London, and crowns her queen of capitals, floats thick and threefold for fires and feastings are rife, and every body is either "out" or "at home" every night.-Now schoolboys do not know what to do with themselves till dinner-time-for the good old days of frost and snow, and fairs on the Thames, and furred groves, and skaiting on the canals, and sliding on the kennels, are gone by; and for any thing in the shape of winter, one might as well live in Italy at once! Now, (on the evening of twelfth-day) mischievous maid servants pin elderly people together at the windows of pastry-cooks' shops-thinking them "weeds that have no business there.". Now, if a frosty day or two does happen to pay us a flying visit on its way home to the North Pole, how the little boys make slides on the pathways for the lack of ponds, and, it may be, trip up an occasional housekeeper just as he steps out of his own door; who forthwith VOWS vengeance, in the shape of ashes, on all the slides in his neighbourhood-not, doubtless, out of vexation at his own mishap, and revenge against the petty perpetrators of it, but purely to avert the like from others!-Now Bond-street begins to be conscious of carriages_two or three people are occasionally seen wandering through the Western Bazaar-and the Soho ditto is so thronged, that Mr. Trotter begins to think of issuing another decree against the inroads of single gentlemen. Now linen-drapers begin to "sell off" their stock at fifty per cent. ander prime cost," and continue so doing all the rest of the year-every article of which will be found on inspection to be of "the last new pattern," and to have Deen I only had in that morning!". Now oranges are eaten in the dress-circle of the great theatres, and inquiries are propounded there whether "that gentleman in black," meaning Hamlet, "is

66

Harlequin?" And laughs and "La! Mamma's" resound thence, to the remotest corners of the house; and "the gods" make merry during the play, in order that they may be at leisure to listen to the pantomime! and Mr. Farley is consequently in his glory, and Mr. Grimaldi is a great man: as, indeed, when is he not? Now newspapers teem with twiceten-times-told-tales of haunted houses, and great sea-snakes, and mermaids; and a murder is worth a jew's-eye to them; for "the House does not ineet for the dispatch of business till the third of February." And great and grievous are the lamentations that are heard in the said newspapers over the lateness of the London season, and its detrimental effects on the interests of the metropolis:"-but they forget to add, "Erratum-for metropolis read newspapers."—Now Moore's Almanack holds "sole sovereign sway and mastery" among the readers of that class of literature ;-for there has not yet been time to nullify any of its predictions not even that which says we may expect some frost and snow about this period."-Finally-now periodical works put on their best attire the old ones expressing their determination to become new, and the new ones to become old; and the New Monthly Magazine in particular-which is both new and old, and which realizes in its performances the pretensions of all the others (!)—makes a point of putting forth the first of some pleasant series of papers (ecce signum!) which cannot fail to fix the wavering propensities of the most periodical of readers, and make him her own for another twelve months at least!-New Monthly Magazine.

THE INDIAN LOVER'S SONG.
Hasten, love! the sun hath set,
And the moon, through twilight gleaming,
On the mosque's white minaret
Now in silver light is streaming.

All is hush'd in soft repose,
Silence rests on field and dwelling,
Save where the bulbul to the rose
A tale of love is sweetly telling.
Stars are glittering in the sky,
"Blest abodes of light and gladness:"
Oh! my life! that thou and I

Might quit for them this world of sadness. See the fire-fly in the tope +

Brightly through the darkness shining, As the ray which heavenly hope

Flashes on the soul's repining.

Then haste! bright treasure of my heart!
Flowers around, and stars above thee,
Alone must see us meet and part,
Alone must witness how I love thee.
Oriental Herald.

*Indian Nightingale.

Grove, or thick cluster of trees.

SONG OF AN ARABIAN GIRL.
Ah! would I were in Araby!
For every splendour here I see,
Is far less lovely---far less fair

Than Nature's simplest treasures there.

There, 'mid the burning desert's waste,
The chrystal fount how sweet to taste;
The cooling shade of palmy tree
How welcome in bright Araby.

There the fierce sun shoots from his ray

A blaze of glory o'er the day;
And moon and stars at soothing night
Shed beams of softer, holier light.

But, ah! beyond e'en charms like these,
An Arab maiden's heart to please,
My love is there!---to him I'd flee,
And live and die in Araby.

CROSSING OF PROVERBS,

FROM AN OLD WORK.

Ibid.

Prov. The more the merrier.
Cross. Not so; one hand is enough in

a purse.

P. Hee that runnes fastest, gets most ground.

C. Not so; for then footmen would get more ground than their masters.

P. He runnes far that never turnes. C. Not so; he may breake his necke in a short course.

P. No man can call againe yesterday. C. Yes; he may call till his heart ake, tho' it never come.

P. He that goes softly, goes safely.
C. Not among thieves.

P. Nothing hurts the stomach more than surfeiting.

C. Yes, lacke of meat.

P. Nothing is hard to a willing mind.
C. Yes, to get money.

P. None so blind as they that will not

see.

C. Yes, they that cannot see.

P. There is no creature so like a man

as an ape.

C. Yes, a woman.

P. Nothing but is good for something. C. Not so; nothing is not good for any thing.

P. Every thing hath an end.

C. Not so; a ring hath none, for it is round.

P. Money is a great comfort. C. Not when it brings a thief to the gallows.

P. The world is a long journey.

C. Not so; the sunne goes it every day.

P. It is a great way to the bottom of the sea.

C. Not so; it is but a stone's cast. P. A friend is best found in adversity. C. Not so; for then there's none to be found.

P. The pride of the rich makes the labours of the poor.

RIDDLES.

Q. In words unnumber'd I abound,
In me mankind doth take delight;
In me much learning still is found,
Yet I can neither read nor write.
Answer. It is a booke printed or

written.

Q. With learning daily I am conversant, And scan the wisdom of the wisest man; With force I pierce the strongest argument,

Yet know no more than it had never

been.

A. It is a worm that eats through the bookes in a learned library.

Q. Full rich am I, yet care not who

Doth take away from me my wealth; Be it by fraud, I will not see,

Nor prosecute, though 't be by stealth. A. It is a coffer wherein great riches are laid up.

Q. Tho' I am pierced a thousand times,
Yet in me not a hole is made;

I notice give when Phoebus climbs
To drowsie mortals in their bed.
A. It is a window penetrated by the
light.

Q. I'm dragg'd along thro' dirt and mire,
O'er cragged stones and hills about;
And yet I neither faint nor tire,

But rather weary those that do't.

A. It is a coach drawn about by horses. Q. Five ribs I have, a breech and head, Four feet, and likewise a long tail: In smoke and fire I make my bed, And to do service never fail. A. It is a gridiron.

There that is quite a sufficient dose for one afternoon; but by the way of showing that we can fool it with the best of our country cousins, we will give one of our own

Q. Why is the Temple Church so much like Heaven?

A. There none are married, or in marriage given.

But

The church in the Temple was founded in the reign of Henry II., upon the model of that of the holy sepulchre at Jerusalem, and is extra-parochial. it would be better not to put this conundrum; for perhaps some unlucky Edipus might answer, because the TEMPLARS seldom go thither.

Ibid.