he declined. But on turning round and giving him a chance to communicate
with his receptacle, he quickly presented himself with the assurance
that now he thought he knew where a serpent might be lodged. The Indian
servants all devoutly believed in his skill; but it is impossible not to
be ashamed of Europeans, who adorn their books with marks of similar
gullibility.--_Abridged from Tait's Edinburgh Mag._

* * * * *




Notes of a Reader

* * * * *


RECREATIONS IN THE LAW.


Gentle reader, we are not about to direct your notice to the Temple
Gardens, the olden feasts in our Law Halls--through which men ate their
way to eminence--nor to prove that looking to a Chancellorship is
woolgathering--nor to invite you to the shrubby groves of Lincoln's Inn,
or to promenade with the spirit of BACON in Gray's Inn. All these may be
pleasurable occupations; but there is mirth in store in the _study_ of
the Law itself, which is not "dull and crabbed as some fools (or knaves)
suppose."

In a recent _Mirror_, (No. 540) this may have been made manifest to the