While at Thornton Mr. Brontë steadily pursued his literary avocations, one of his books being a small volume entitled, 'The Cottage in the Wood, or the Art of becoming Rich and Happy.' This is an account of a pious family, consisting of an aged couple and a virtuous child, whose appearance and education qualify her for a higher position in the world than that of a cottager's daughter. Accident brings to their door a young man in a state of almost helpless drunkenness, whose habits are the most profligate and dissolute, as the sequel discloses; and the object of the book is to show the dire consequences of continued intemperance. The story is told in prose, but Mr. Brontë gives a poetical version of one event in the narrative. It is entitled, 'The Nightly Revel,' and possesses a dignity of its own. The following extract shows considerable improvement, in diction and verse, upon the style of his small volume published at Halifax, in 1811. For this reason it is well worth reproducing. 'Around the table polish'd goblets shine, Fill'd with brown ale, or crown'd with ruddy wine; Each quaffs his glass, and, thirsty, calls for more, Till maddening mirth, and song, and wild uproar, And idly fierce dispute, and brutal fight Break the soft slumbers of the peaceful night. 'Without, within, above, beneath, around, Ungodly jests and deep-mouthed oaths resound; Pale Reason, trembling, leaves her reeling throne, Truth, Honour, Virtue, Justice, all are flown; The sly, dark-glancing harlot's fatal breath Allures to sin and sorrow, shame and death. The gaming-table, too, that fatal snare, Beset with fiercest passions fell is there; Remorse, despair, revenge, and deadly hate, With dark design, in bitter durance wait, Till SCARLET MURDER waves his bloody hand, Gives in sepulchral tone the dread command; Then forth they rush, and from the secret sheath Draw the keen blade and do the work of death.' Mr. Brontë also, in 1818, before his appointment to Haworth, published his 'Maid of Killarney.' He had not been long at Thornton, where he went about the year 1815, when a considerable increase in his family added to his parental responsibilities. On his acceptance of the living, he probably enjoyed a larger stipend than at Hartshead, but the demands of a young family, perhaps, on the whole, made him a poorer man. There Charlotte Brontë was born in April, 1816; Patrick Branwell Brontë in 1817; Emily Jane Brontë in 1818; and Anne Brontë probably just before Mr. Brontë's removal to Haworth, which was on February 25th, 1820, as we are told by Mrs. Gaskell.