him, and he fell at Fenella’s feet a fair-favored, fine, frank, freeman of the forest. Behold the fruits of filial affection.” A BEVY OF BELLES. The following lines are said to have been admirably descriptive of the five daughters of an English gentleman, formerly of Liverpool;— Minerva-like majestic Mary moves. Law, Latin, Liberty, learned Lucy loves. Eliza’s elegance each eye espies. Serenely silent Susan’s smiles surprise. From fops, fools, flattery, fairest Fanny flies. MOTIVES TO GRATITUDE. A remarkable example of the old fondness for antithesis and alliteration in composition, is presented in the following extract from one of Watts’ sermons:— The last great help to thankfulness is to compare various circumstances and things together. Compare, then, your sorrows with your sins; compare your mercies with your merits; compare your comforts with your calamities; compare your own troubles with the troubles of others; compare your sufferings with the sufferings of Christ Jesus, your Lord; compare the pain of your afflictions with the profit of them; compare your chastisements on earth with condemnation in hell; compare the present hardships you bear with the happiness you expect hereafter, and try whether all these will not awaken thankfulness. ACROSTICS. The acrostic, though an old and favorite form of verse, in our own language has been almost wholly an exercise of ingenuity, and has been considered fit only for trivial subjects, to be classed among _nugæ literariæ_. The word in its derivation includes various artificial arrangements of lines, and many fantastic conceits have been indulged in. Generally the acrostic has been formed of the first letters of each line; sometimes of the last; sometimes of both; sometimes it is to be read downward, sometimes upward. An ingenious variety called the Telestich, is that in which the letters beginning the lines spell a word, while the letters ending the lines, when taken together, form a word of an opposite meaning, as in this instance:— U nite and untie are the same—so say yo U. N ot in wedlock, I ween, has this unity bee N. I n the drama of marriage each wandering _gou T_ T o a new face would fly—all except you and I— E ach seeking to alter the _spell_ in their scen E. In these lines, on the death of Lord Hatherton, (1863), the initial and final letters are doubled:—