hatched a large brood of 'Mysteries.' The _Journal des Debats_ having published 'Mysteries of Paris,' the _Courier Francais_ is now publishing the 'Mysteries of London.' At Berlin no less than four different authors have published its 'Mysteries.' The 'Mysteries of Brussels' are being detailed in one of its journals. The 'Mysteries of Hamburg' have been exposed in print. At Vienna they are giving the 'Mysteries of Constantinople;' and a Paris newspaper promises in a short time the 'Mysteries of St. Petersburg.' Going on at this rate, there will soon be no 'Mysteries' in the world, and even the very word will become obsolete.' . . . '_The God of our Idolatry_' contains some home-thrusts at the national love of money, and not a few just animadversions upon the standard of respectability which obtains, in certain quarters, among us. HAMILTON and BASIL HALL'S experience in this regard seems also to have been that of our correspondent. The tendency of this standard, in a social and intellectual point of view, is very far from elevating. 'You are going to the dinner at ----'s to-day, of course,' said a lady with 'an eye to the main chance' to a friend of ours, the other day; 'the company will be composed of some of our most 'fore-handed citizens--all _heavy men_,' Our friend _did_ go to the dinner; and he found the guests as 'heavy' as their best friends could have wished them to be. . . . READING, in presence of a travelled friend, the proof of the admirable paper which opens the present number, we came to the passage which records the opinion of KEPLER, that 'the world is a vast animal, that breathes and reasons;' whereupon our listener remarked: 'No doubt of it; it _is_ an animal; I've seen its four-quarters myself!' It was a pun worthy of a butcher. . . . WE are not so _certain_ that the moral of '_The Independent Man_' is 'an unexceptionable one.' The 'Charcoal-sketcher' expresses the general opinion, we fear, in this regard: 'There's a double set of principles in this world, one of which is to talk about and the other to act upon; one is preached and the other is practised. You've got hold, somehow, of the wrong set; the set invented by the knowing ones to check competition and to secure all the good things for themselves. That's the reason people are always praising modest merit, while they are pushing along without either the one or the other. You always let go when any body's going to take your place at table; you always hold back when another person's wanting the last of the nice things on the dish. That's not the way; bow and nod, and show your teeth with a fascination, but take what you want for all that. This is manners--knowing the world. To be polite is to have your own way gracefully; other people are delighted at your style--you have the profit.' . . . THE reader will not overlook the '_Alligatorical Sketch_' in preceding pages. We begin to perceive how much the alligator has been slandered.