This cruel and senseless fashion has, at last, been declared “bad form.” No longer are birds to be worn in bonnets or hats; and the edict has gone forth, both in London and Paris, that those who wear them after this ukase are to be regarded as provincials who know no better. This resolution has been taken only just in time to save some small remnant of the race of Humming Bird, that “living flower,” and the Bird of Paradise. ――― Tom Hood’s “_Comic Annual_” for 1868 contained “The Spiritual Parnassus” by a Literary Medium. This consists of parodies on Lord Byron, Thomas Moore, and S. T. Coleridge, written by the late Mr. William Jeffery Prowse. The parody, or rather imitation of Coleridge’s style is admitted to be the best of its kind ever written, especially for its humorous description of the failings of the “Old man eloquent.” “Did you ever hear me preach, Charles?” asked Coleridge of Lamb one day. “I n-n-n-never heard you do anything else,” stammered Lamb in reply. “Coleridge was a marvellous talker,” said Samuel Rogers. “Wordsworth and I walked to Highgate to call on him, when he was living at Gillman’s. We sat with him two hours, he talking the whole time without intermission. When we left the house, we walked for some time without speaking. ‘What a wonderful man he is!’ exclaimed Wordsworth. ‘Wonderful indeed,’ said I. ‘What a depth of thought, what richness of expression,’ continued Wordsworth. ‘There’s nothing like him that I ever heard!’ rejoined I. Another pause. ‘Pray,’ inquired Wordsworth, ‘did you precisely understand what he said about the Kantian philosophy?’ R. ‘Not precisely.’ W. ‘Or about the plurality of worlds?’ R. ‘I can’t say I did. In fact, if the truth must out, I did not understand a syllable from one end of his monologue to the other.’ W. ‘No more did I.’”――_Table Talk of Samuel Rogers._ THE ANCIENT PHILOSOPHER. _By a Literary Medium._ It is an old philosopher, He stoppeth one of three:―― “By thy gleaming face and snowy hair, Now, wherefore stop’st thou me?” He held aloft a mystic scroll With the letters “S. T. C.!” “Subjectively, the Logos,” said, The aged man, says he, Explains the supra-sensual base Of all philosophee! “No doubt you’re right.” his friend replied, “But what is that to me?” “I shot the Albatross!” pursued The chatty veteran. “The deuce you did!” exclaimed his friend; “It was a daring plan! Who _was_ this Albert Ross? and who Are you, you rum old man?” “Your curiosity, young friend, It would be harsh to baulk, So you had better sit you down, Unless you’d rather walk, And I will read you passages From my own Table Talk!” He read to him for several hours, Concerning Church and Schism; Explained the spiritual sense Of the shorter Catechism; Revealed the esoteric truths Of Neo-Platonism;