O Radcliffe! thou once wert the charmer Of girls who sat reading all night; Thy heroes were striplings in armour, Thy heroines damsels in white. But past are thy terrible touches, Our lips in derision we curl, Unless we are told how a Duchess Conversed with her cousin the Earl. We now have each dialogue quite full Of titles--'I give you my word, My lady, you're looking delightful'; 'O dear, do you think so, my lord!' 'You've heard of the marquis's marriage, The bride with her jewels new set, Four horses, new travelling carriage, And _déjeuner à la fourchette_?' _Haut Ton_ finds her privacy broken, We trace all her ins and her outs; The very small talk that is spoken By very great people at routs. At Tenby Miss Jinks asks the loan of The book from the innkeeper's wife, And reads till she dreams she is one of The leaders of elegant life. T. H. BAYLY. LADY CONSTANCE ... guanoed her mind by reading French novels.--B. DISRAELI, EARL OF BEACONSFIELD. _Tancred._ NOVELS ARE SWEETS Novels are sweets. All people with healthy literary appetites love them--almost all women;--a vast number of clever, hard-headed men. Why, one of the most learned physicians in England said to me only yesterday, 'I have just read _So-and-So_ for the second time' (naming one of Jones's exquisite fictions). Judges, bishops, chancellors, mathematicians, are notorious novel-readers; as well as young boys and sweet girls, and their kind, tender mothers.--W. M. THACKERAY. _Roundabout Papers: On a Lazy Idle Boy._ EVERY MAN HIS DUE As a good housewife out of divers fleeces weaves one piece of cloth, a bee gathers wax and honey out of many flowers, and makes a new bundle of all, _Floriferis ut apes in saltibus omnia libant_,