ensions are made by
men who profess to be guided by facts only, as if facts could not be
misconceived, or figments taken for them; and, therefore, one day, when
somebody was speaking of a person who valued himself on being a
matter-of-fact man, "Now," said he, "I value myself on being a
matter-of-lie man." This did not hinder his being a man of the greatest
veracity, in the ordinary sense of the word; but "Truth," he said, "was
precious, and not to be wasted on every body."

Lamb had seen strange faces of calamity; but they did not make him love
those of his fellow-creatures the less. Few persons guessed what he had
suffered in the course of his life, till his friend Talfourd wrote an
account of it, and showed the hapless warping that disease had given to
the fine brain of his sister.

AMERICAN VANITY.

We are not at all surprised at what in this country is most foolishly
called the conceit and vanity of the Americans. What people in the world
have so fine, so magnificent a country? Besides that, they have some
reason to be proud of themselves. We have given the chief features of
their eastern and inland territory; if the reader has any imagination
for ideas of this kind, let him picture to himself what will be the
aspect of things when the tide of population has crossed the long range
of the Rocky Mountains, and, occupying the valleys of the western coast,
has built other Bostons and New Yorks in the harbors of Oregon and
California. This tide of population is now advancing along a line of
more than a thousand miles, at the rate of eighteen miles a year; and
each year, as the population behind becomes larger, the number of new
settlers is increased, and the rate of advance is accelerated. This vast
crowd of ever-onward-pressing settlers is not formed of the same
materials as the inhabitants of an European province: that is, there are
not at its head a few intelligent, but delicately-brought-up men of
capital, while all the rest are ignorant laborers; but every one of
these pioneers of civilization can handle the ax and the rifle, and can
"calculate." If ever these magnificent dreams of the American people are
realized--and all that is wanted for their realization is that things
should only go on as they have been going on for the last two
centuries--there will be seated upon that vast continent a population
greater than that of all Europe, all speaking the same language, all
active-minded, intelligent, and w