unlucky pupil, instead of shaking his _own_ blundering head, in strict but unfortunate interpretation of his orders, took _that_ of Sir Christopher within his hands, shook it long and manfully, and then walked off with a look of exultation at having so exactly complied with his lesson.--_New Monthly Magazine_. WONDERFUL PECULIARITY IN THE ENGLISH CHARACTER! The French, however wretched may be their condition, are attached to life, while the English frequently detest life in the midst of affluence and splendour. English criminals are not dragged, but run to the place of execution, where they laugh, sing, cut jokes, insult the spectators; _and if no hangman happens to be present, frequently hang themselves_.--_Memoirs of Lewis Holberg_. * * * * * STANZAS. BY THE AUTHOR OF "FIELD FLOWERS," &C. (_For the Mirror_.) I smiled, for not a cloud was seen o'er the blue heaven's expanse, As summer's myriad insect tribe led on the winged dance; The gaudy butterfly was there ranging from flower to flower, And by its side the wild bee humm'd amid the woodbine bower. I sighed, for when I looked again the sky was overcast, The summer insect's winged dance was o'er, yet on I past, The gaudy butterfly was gone, the bee away had fled, While on each fairest, brightest flower the wasteful locust fed. Yet e'en this simple scene to youth a moral shall convey, Since thus full oft misfortune's clouds obscure life's summer ray; To-day we smile, for beauty smiles in all her spring-tide bloom-- To-morrow sigh, for beauty's bower has now become her tomb! H. B. * * * * * SELECT BIOGRAPHY. No. LVI. * * * * * GILBERT BURNS. Gilbert Burns was born about the year 1760. He was eighteen months younger than his brother Robert, Scotland's most gifted bard. With him he was early inured to toil, and rendered familiar with the hardships of the peasant's lot; like him, too, he was much subject to occasional depression of spirits, and from whatever cause, he had contracted a similar bend or stoop in the shoulders; his frame, like that of Robert, was cast in a manly and symmetrical mould. The profile of his countenance resembled that of his brother, and their phrenological developments are said to have been not dissimilar; the principal disparity lay in the form and expression of the eye, which in Gilbert was fixed, sagacious, and steady--in Robert, almost "in a fine frenzy rolling."