To look upon thy way!

L.E.L.

The march of mind is progressing, and the once boasted "wisdom of our
ancestors" and the "golden days of good Queen Bess," are hurled with
derision to the tomb of all the Capulets. We regret that we cannot
chronicle a "Narrative of a first attempt to reach the cities of Bath
and Bristol, in the year 1828, in an extra patent steam-coach, by
Messrs. Burstall, or Gurney." The newspapers, however, still continue
to inform us that such vehicles are _about_ to start, so we may
reasonably expect that Time will accomplish the long talked of event.
Nay, we even hear it rumoured that the public are shortly to crest the
billows in a steamer at the rate of fifty or a hundred miles an hour!
and this is mentioned as a mere first essay, an immature sample of
what the improved steam-paddles are to effect--also in Time; who after
this can doubt the approaching perfectibility of Mars? Oh, steam!
steam! but this is well ploughed ground.

Art, science, and literature, also progress, and we almost begin to
fear we shall soon be puzzled where to stow the books, and anticipate
a dearth in rags, an extinction of Rag-Fair! (which will keep the
others in countenance,) the booksellers' maws seem so capacious.
Christmas with its rare recollections of feasting (and their _pendant_
of bile and sick headache) has again come round. New Year's Day, and
of all the days most "rich and rare," Twelfth Day is coming! But it is
in Scotland that the advent of the new year, or _Hogmanay_ is kept
with the most hilarity; the Scotch by their extra rejoicings at this
time, seem to wish to make up for their utter neglect of Christmas. We
may be induced to offer a few reminiscences of a sojourn in the north,