ck of both is supplied, and the dangers and distresses of
the way repelled and overcome.

"The author hints, at the end of the second part, as if 'it
might be his lot to go this way again;' nor was his mind that
light species of soil which could be exhausted by two crops.
But he left to another and very inferior hand the task of
composing a third part, containing the adventures of one
Tender Conscience, far unworthy to be bound up, as it
sometimes is, with John Bunyan's matchless parable."

* * * * *

'Tis necessary a writing critic should understand how to write. And
though every writer is not bound to show himself in the capacity of
critic, every writing critic is bound to show himself capable of being
a writer.

_Shaftesbury Criticism_

* * * * *

NOTES OF A READER.

LACONICS.

(_From Maxwell. By Theodore Hook_.)

_Professional People_.

None of our fellow-creatures enjoy life more than the successful
member of one of the learned professions. There is, it is true,
constant toil; but there are constant excitement, activity, and
enthusiasm; at least, where there is not enthusiasm in a profession,
success will never come--and as to the affairs of the world in
general, the divine, the lawyer, and the medical man, are more
conversant and mixed up with them, than any other human
beings--cabinet ministers themselves, not excepted.

The divine, by the sacred nature of his calling, and the higher
character of his duties, is, perhaps, farther removed from an
immediate contact with society; his labours are of a more exalted
order, and the results of those labours not open to ordinary
observation; but the lawyer in full practice knows the designs and
devices of half our acquaintance; it is true, professional decorum
seals his lips, but _he_ has them all before him in his "mind's
eye,"--all their litigations and littlenesses,--all their cuttings,
and carvings, and contrivings. He knows why a family, who hate the
French with all the fervour of British prejudice, visits Paris, and
remains there for a year or two; he can give a good reason why a man
who delights in a well preserved property in a sporting country, with
a house well built and beautifully situated, consents to "_spare it_,"
at a reduced price, to a man for whom he cares nothing upon earth: and
looks at the world fully alive to the motives, and perfectly