ke Bulwer, he may make
failure after failure, before he gets the _entree_ to theatrical life,
but once there he will get past the portal and command success at last.
Experience and information will be acquired with more or less labor,
but he will get them at last, and then will be content to add his voice
to the last canon of theatrical conditions to success:

XVII. Stage experience, varied information, and talent, are the _sine
qua non_ of the dramatist who hopes for success.

FREDERICK WHITTAKER.

SAINT LAMBERT'S COAL.

Wild hordes had sacked the minster: scattered
Upon the broken pavement, lay
The crash of blazon'd windows, shattered
By barbarous knights in wanton fray,
Who wrought the wreck and went their way.

Across pale, pictur'd faces, gashes
Showed where their godless blades had thrust
Profane defiance; and with ashes
Strewn was the altar, and encrust
Was chalice, pyx, and urn with rust.

No lamp shed forth its sacred glimmer,
No incense breathed its hallowed fume;
And as the rudded eve grew dimmer,
Shadows as ghostly as the tomb
Wrapped choir and nave and aisle in gloom.

Anon athwart the murk came stealing
Far floatings of a chanted hymn,
Up-borne in gusto from floor to ceiling,
As faintly a procession dim
Out of the darkness seemed to swim.

Onward it wended--nor did falter,
Till from their midmost, one cried--"Who
Bethought him of the quenched altar?
Alas! how guide the service through?
Would God might light the lamp anew!"

"_Amen!_" came through the silence drifting:
And from the train, therewith, out stole
A little acolyte, who, lifting
His surplice hem, displayed a coal
That glowed, yet left the garment whole.

"_Christus illuminator!_" kneeling,
The astonied Bishop cried. "From whom
Can light else come? Thyself revealing.
Flash forth that faith to chase our gloom,
Which burns and yet doth not consume!

"Such faith is thine, O Lambert! Kindle
Thereat the altar-lamp, and let
Its lustre, henceforth, never dwindle!"
He took the coal, the light reset,
And there, they tell, 'tis burning yet.

MARGARET J. PRESTON.

ENGLISH TRAITS.

One of the earliest records of modern history in regard to the race
which peopled the old England and the New refers to its beauty.