al law
For stuccoing statements, to give them, forsooth,
A pleasanter face than is worn by the truth.

The end came at last. I was glad, I avow;--
As glad--well, as glad as the reader is now,
When he knows that I'll shortly be making my bow.
The company left, and I marched in the van,
A wiser, though hardly a happier, man.

Of course there are 'morals' attached to my poem,
Though it may be a difficult matter to show 'em.
Well, first (let me see, now), the foolishest passion
Of mortals is that for obeying the fashion.
It has been, and now is, a curse to humanity,
A sinful, ridiculous species of vanity,
The very quintessence of perfect inanity,
And is likely to lead to a 'moral insanity.'

A second we'll have, and I think that will do--
(You will probably not recollect more than two):
If you have any taste for the honest and hearty,
Don't go to a GRAND METROPOLITAN PARTY.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 12: See account of the 'Prince's Ball,' given in New York,
some time during the last century.]

DIARY OF FRANCES KRASINSKA;

OR, LIFE IN POLAND DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

PREFACE.

The following work is from the pen of Clementina Tauska, probably the
most celebrated among the female writers of Poland. Her talents and
judgment were so highly appreciated by her native country, that she was
appointed to the superintendence of all the Polish schools for young
ladies, as also to that of the large establishment at Warsaw devoted to
the education of governesses.

The Diary of Frances Krasinska paints in the most lively manner the
usages, manners, and customs of Poland during the eighteenth century,
and possesses the charm of childlike _naivete_, united to acute
observation and deep feeling. The authoress has seized upon all that is
peculiar and picturesque surrounding the heroine, and has laid bare
before us a woman's heart in all its strength and weakness, its love and
ambition, its joys and sorrows.

Frances Krasinska, the daughter of a noble house, was allied in various
ways during her life to many distinguished personages, whose names fill
a considerable space in the contemporaneous annals of Poland. Remarkable
for her beauty and intellect, she excited a passionate admiration in the
bosom of Charles, duke of Courland, prince royal, and son of the king of
Poland, Augustus III, elector of Saxony. This attachment, with its
consequences, awakened a lively interest, not