On the confines of earth 'twas permitted to rest,
And the depths of the ocean its presence confest.
'Twill be found in the sphere when 'tis riven asunder,
Be seen in the light'ning, and heard in the thunder.
'Twas allotted to man with his earliest breath,
Attends at his birth and awaits him in death;

It presides o'er his happiness, honour, and health,
Is the prop of his house, and the end of his wealth:
Without it the soldier, the seaman, may roam,

But woe to the wretch who expels it from home.
In the whispers of conscience its voice will be found,
Nor e'en in the whirlwind of passion be drown'd:
"Twill not soften the heart, and though deaf to the ear,-
"Twill make it acutely and instantly hear.

But in shade let it rest, like a delicate flower,-
Oh! breathe on it softly,-it dies in an hour.

The following by an unknown Latin writer, is of very ancient date:

Ego sum principium mundi, et finis seculorum;
Ego sum trinus et unus, et tamen non sum Deus.

ANAGRAM.

The ANAGRAM (Greek ana backwards and gramma, a letter) is the transposition of the letters of a word, or short sentence, so as to form another word, or phrase, with a different meaning. Thus, the letters that compose the word stone may be arranged either into tones or notes ; and (taking j and v as duplicates of i and u) the

letters of the alphabet may be formed into the words Styx, Phlegm, Quiz, Frown'd, and Back.

The English, German and other Gothic languages are but little calculated for this play of letters; for what metamorphoses can be made of such words as strength and schwarz? The Latin and its derivative tongues, having a greater proportion of vowels and liquids, are much more fitted for the purpose; and, although we do not know that the Romans ever made Anagrams, it seems to have been a favourite amusement among the idle Monks of the middle ages. Pilate's question, quid est veritas? (what is truth?) has been happily answered by the Anagram, Est vir qui adest,' It is the man who is before you.

D'Israeli, in the third volume of his "Curiosities of Literature," records a number of Anagrams, on which his "Monthly Reviewer" gives the following anecdote:

"In the Paper on Anagrams, the best of all is omitted; that with which Jablonski welcomed the visit of Stanislaus, King of Poland, and his noble relatives of the house of Lescinski, to the annual examination of the students under his care, at the gymnasium of Lissa. The recitations closed with an heroic dance, in which each youth carried a shield incribed with a legend of the letters contained in the words Domus Lescinia. After

a new evolution, the boys exhibited the words Ades incolumis: next, Omnis es lucida: fourthly, Omne sis lucida: fifthly, Mane sidus loci: sixthly, Sis columna Dei; and at the conclusion, I scande solium."

Anagrams were formerly (and perhaps are still) employed in Cypher-writing. Newton was in the habit of concealing his mathematical discoveries by depositing the principles in the form of Latin Anagrams; by which he might afterwards claim the merit of the invention, without its being stolen by others. At one period the French kings kept a regular salaried Anagrammatist, as the English still have a Poet Laureat. We are

apt to wonder at such a custom; but perhaps he was merely the Decypherer of the Government, whose office it was to carry on and to detect secret correspondence.

SIMILE.

A Simile (Latin simile, like) is the likening the subject, of which we speak, to another subject having some similarity, in order to render the description more forcible and perspicuous. In a strict sense, it differs from Comparison in which the subjects may have an obvious likeness. This figure is extremely frequent both in prose and poetry; and it is often as necessary to the exhi

bition of the thought, as it is ornamental to the language in which that thought is conveyed.

A writer in favour of Republican Governments, after remarking on the greater facility of their establishment in new than in old countries, adds,

"While other constitutions must submit to the modification of a thousand variable causes, that which is impressed on a primitive community may safely be the precise result of rigorous metaphysical principles. The more regular the government, in this sense of the word, the more it will combine prosperity with vigour, and with the ideal beauty of the sage. Praxitelles strikes the block of marble, and a Venus starts forth: but had a coarser hand already sculptured a Fury, who would have been able to chizel her into a Grace?"

The subjects here compared are of different kinds; but there exists a sufficient congruity in the metaphor to warrant the introduction of the Simile.

A Simile of a like kind, in which the workings of the mind are illustrated by visible objects, is employed by Parnel:

A life so sacred, such serene repose,

Seem'd heaven itself, till one suggestion rose:

That vice should triumph, virtue vice obey,
This sprung some doubt of Providence's sway.
His hopes no more a pleasing prospect boast,
And all the tenor of his soul is lost.

So, when a smooth expanse receives imprest
Calm nature's image on its watery breast,

Down bend the banks, the trees depending grow;
And skies beneath with answering colours glow:
But, if a stone the gentle sea divide,

Swift ruffling circles curl on every side;

And glimmering fragments of a broken sun,
Banks, trees and skies in thick disorder run.

We have distinguished between Simile and Comparison; but some writers on Rhetoric (and Dr. Blair among the number) have treated the two words as synonymous. If, however, the reader understand the meaning of his author, the minute distinctions of classifications are of

little consequence. "Comparisons," says Blair, "founded on philosophical discoveries, or on any thing in which persons of a certain trade only, or a certain profession, are conversant, attain not their proper effect. They should be taken from those illustrious, noted objects, which most of the readers either have seen, or can strongly conceive."

Nevertheless, soon after this warning was published, a Poet of the first class appeared, whose Similes were almost wholly of the de