the real cause; but we are incredulous: nothing can remove from our minds the idea, that a certain ban hangs over a certain class, which acts upon them exactly as the warmth of the hand does upon the bulb of the thermometer; it for the moment raises their expectations to blood heat; but like the mercury in the tube, they have their level, from which they cannot for any length of time be seduced.

pos

To conclude then, Sir, I would suggest that, if sible, some remedy be discovered for this lowering disease. I would have a physician consulted, in order to ascertain what "tonics" are advisable for raising the constitution in these patients. If this, however, has no effect, and the disease proves incurable; it only remains to advise those thus afflicted to spare the labour and time, which they spend over objects they have not the "luck," (my friend again admonishes me to prefix the 'p') to attain ; but especially to spare their undeserving joints and limbs, which besides being generally hurt in the struggle, have to sustain the additional injury of being considered the chief causes of the ill-success of their owner.

Π. Λ.

ANOTHER THOUGHT ON THE FAMINE.

I BASKED in Eastern climes, by old Euphrates tide,
Where Babylon once flourished in its splendour and its pride;
And though the spirit of the past, deserted and alone,
Brooded among the ruins, and the columns headlong thrown,
I found not solitude; the birds still chirped the shrubs among,
And the free winds the chorus joined in "fitful eddying song."

I stood in the far west country, where man had never been :
I stood alone, the sky was clear, the grass below was green;

The beasts they shunned me not, as yet they had not learnt to fear
The petty tyrant man, his puny might, his dart and spear-

I found not solitude, the sky, the trees, the very ground,
Spoke with the voice of nature in clear and truthful sound.

I stand in a small dwelling-place, within a city's walls,
The busy hum of thousands upon my ear loud falls :
And here real solitude I find, deserted and alone,

His children gone, his wife lying dead upon his own hearthstone;
O'er the cold embers broods a man, his heart is colder still,
No one to succour him remains-no kindred heart to thrill
With sorrow for his sorrow-- none to solace-no relief;
Oh! this indeed is solitude; he has drained the cup of grief.

ON ETON FRIENDSHIPS.

R. E.

"I have a friend-almost the only one

Who from our schoolboy days to life's full noon
Hath kept his heart unchanged and true to me,
Though many a year hath passed since last we met,
And more may pass before we meet again-

One friend, almost one only, faithful friend."
MOULTRIE.

It was discreetly and truly said by the great Lord Bacon, that "it is a mere and miserable solitude to want true friends, without which the world is but a wilderness; and even in this scene also of solitude, whosoever

the frame of his nature and affections is unfit for friendship, he taketh it of the beast, and not from humanity." No one, we suppose, will deny that friendship is one of the greatest blessings which God has left man; we mean true friendship, not those ephemeral connections, begotten by interest and bad principle one day, and perishing the next.

The voice of counsel, of warning, of reproof, of encouragement, and praise, all make their way to a man's heart with double force if they come from a friend; and herein does true friendship differ from that for which the world vainly claims that name; that the man of the world is your friend or your flatterer, only so long as you are basking in the doubtful sunshine of prosperity; for, as it was said of Timon when wealthy

"his large fortune

Upon his good and gracious nature hanging,

Subdues and properties to his love and tendance

All sorts of hearts :"

And when the fertilising showers of adversity fall upon man's uncultivated heart, to subdue it, and to teach him that he is but mortal, these pretended favourites leave him

"Who is not Timon's?

What heart, hand, sword, force, means, but is Lord Timon's?
Great Timon, noble, worthy, royal, Timon.

And when those means are gone that buy this praise,

The breath is gone whereof this praise is made;

Fast-won, fast-lost-one cloud of winter showers,

Those flies are couched."

On the other hand, the true friend does not abate his

love, whatever changes occur to the object of it; he is the same in sickness as he is in health-in adversity as he is in prosperity. And why?--because he founds his friendship on those principles, which the allpowerful finger of a poverty-despising world uplifted against him in scorn cannot shock.

In no place, perhaps, do friendships make such a lasting impression as at school, where a connection well chosen frequently lasts for life. One has often heard of the attachment of David and Jonathan, of Achilles and Patroclus: the most apparently extraordinary feature of which was, that in each case the disposition of the one was entirely at variance with the other. And so it is with boys. At Eton, for instance, you often see two fellows conning together, and agreeing perfectly well, whose tastes and pursuits are entirely different; and the reason is, that each, excelling in his own line, could assist the other. Two boys, of not very amiable dispositions, supposing each to be clever, or a good cricketer, or a first-rate foot-ball player, would soon fall out, by one claiming the superiority. By a fellow's first "con" at Eton, you can generally form a pretty clear idea of what he will be himself. We are not advocates, however, for dissimilar and ridiculous friendships;

non ut

Serpentes avibus geminentur, tigribus agni ;"

We do not wish that boys of entirely differing principles should be associated; because, of course, the bad will--nay, must--for such is a boy's pliant nature, corrupt the good; it is not different principles, but

different tastes or pursuits that are often profitably connected. We have received the following letters, as if in illustration of our views.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE ETON MAGAZINE.

SIR,-When I first came to Eton, my father asked a Fifth Form, whom we

a fellow of the name A

"knew at home," to take care of me.

a great hulking fellow, high in the boats, and during the whole time that I was at Eton with him he only spoke to me twice; once to send me to his room with a heap of books, and the other time to ask me "to put into the Derby." You may imagine, Sir, that this was taking very good care of me; for in one half I was flogged some half-dozen times, and never went to fagging without getting "licked." I was one of those luckless wights denominated green-horns, of whose unsuspicious temper cruel Fifth Form occasionally take advantage, by sending them to different shops up Eton, for "hot-water ices," " maps of the undiscovered islands," or, more frequently, "strapoil." Altogether I was somewhat roughly handled ; when one morning a fellow of the name of D

who messed with my master and boarded at the same tutor's, one day begged me off a licking, and repaid a lower boy, whom he caught bullying me, with interest. My protector was immensely popular in the school, in the eleven of foot-ball, and of Lower Club, and, besides, a clever fellow. He played in almost every game, whether in the cricket or foot-ball

G