But, alas! the sanguine writer was mistaken in supposing that at last gentlemen had found a something "of which they were capable." The days of knotting passed away before they had made any proficiency in it; nor have we ever heard that they have adopted any other branch or stitch of this extensive art. There is variety enough to satisfy anybody, and there are gradations enough in the stitches to descend to any capacity but a man's. There are tambour stitch--satin--chain--finny--new--bred-- ferne--and queen-stitches; there is slabbing--veining--and button stitch; seeding--roping--and open stitch: there is sockseam--herring-bone--long stitch--and cross stitch: there is rosemary stitch--Spanish stitch--and Irish stitch: there is back stitch--overcast--and seam stitch: hemming--felling--and basting: darning--grafting--and patching: there is whip stitch--and fisher stitch: there is fine drawing--gathering-- marking--trimming--and tucking. Truly all this does require some +nous+, and the lords of the creation are more to be pitied than blamed for that paucity of intellect which deprives them of "woman's pretty excuse for thought." Raillery apart, sewing is in itself an agreeable occupation, it is essentially a useful one; in many of its branches it is quite ornamental, and it is a gentle, a graceful, an elegant, and a truly feminine occupation. It causes the solitary hours of domestic life to glide more smoothly away, and in those social unpretending reunions which in country life and in secluded districts are yet not abolished, it takes away from the formality of sitting for conversation, abridges the necessity for scandal, or, to say the least of it, as we have heard even ungallant lordly man allow, it keeps us out of mischief. And there are frequent and oft occurring circumstances which invest it with characteristics of a still higher order. How many of "the sweet solicitudes that life beguile" are connected with this interesting occupation! either in preparing habiliments for those dependent on our care, and for love of whom many an unnecessary stitch which may tend to extra adornment is put in; or in those numberless pretty and not unuseful tokens of remembrance, which, passing from friend to friend, soften our hearts by the intimation they convey, that we have been cared for in our absence, and that while the world looked dark and desolate about us, unforgetting hearts far, far away were holding us in remembrance, busy fingers were occupied in our behoof. Oh! a reticule, a purse, a slipper, how valueless soever in itself, is, when fraught with these home memories, worth that which the mines of Golconda could not purchase. And of such a nature would be the feelings which suggested these well-known but exquisite lines:-- "The twentieth year is well nigh past, Since first our sky was overcast, Ah, would that this might be the last! My Mary!