altogether deranged by the shock that sorely cracked the case,
and will work till the chain is run down, and then it will tick no
more;--Be it that tall, fair, lovely girl, so thin and attenuated that
all wonder she can walk by herself--that she is not blown away even by
the gentle summer breeze that wooes the hectic of her cheek--dying all
see--and none better than her poor old mother--and yet herself
thoughtless of the coming doom, and cheerful as a nest-building
bird--while her lover, too deep in despair to be betrayed into tears, as
he carries her to her couch, each successive day feels the dear and
dreadful burden lighter and lighter in his arms. Small strength will it
need to support her bier! The coffin, as if empty, will be lowered
unfelt by the hands that hold those rueful cords!

In mercy to our readers and ourselves, we shall endeavour to prevent
ourselves from pursuing this argument any further--and perhaps quite
enough has been said to show that Dr Kitchiner's assertion, that persons
who live in the country have firmer health and finer spirits than the
inhabitants of towns--is exceedingly problematical. But even admitting
the fact to be as the Doctor has stated it, we do not think he has
attributed the phenomenon to the right cause. He attributes it to "their
enjoying plenty of sound sleep." The worthy Doctor is entirely out in
his conjecture. The working classes in the country enjoy, we don't doubt
it, sound sleep--but not plenty of it. They have but a short allowance
of sleep--and whether it be sound or not, depends chiefly on themselves;
while as to the noises in towns and cities, they are nothing to what one
hears in the country--unless, indeed, you perversely prefer private
lodgings at a pewterer's. Did we wish to be personal, we could name a
single waterfall who, even in dry weather, keeps all the visitors from
town awake within a circle of four miles diameter; and in wet weather,
not only keeps them all awake, but impresses them with a constantly
recurring conviction during the hours of night, that there is something
seriously amiss about the foundation of the river, and that the whole
parish is about to be overflowed, up to the battlements of the old
castle that over-looks the linn. Then, on another point, we are
certain--namely, that rural thunder is many hundred times more powerful
than villatic. London porter is above admiration--but London thunder
below contempt. An ordinary hackney-coach beats