obliterate every association, however slight, that might possibly remind him of the past. The former owner had but just passed out, his ashes were scarcely cold, and already his name was on the wane. Yet this is human nature. So trifling, in fact, is the gap caused by our absence in society, that there needs no patriotic Curtius to leap into it; it closes without a miracle the instant it is made, and none but a disinterested Undertaker knows or cares for whom tolls our passing bell. _Monthly Magazine._ * * * * * SPIRIT OF THE +PUBLIC JOURNALS.+ THE TOUR OF DULNESS. From her throne of clouds, as Dulness look'd On her foggy and favour'd nation, She sleepily nodded her poppy-crown'd head, And gently waved her sceptre of lead, In token of approbation. For the north-west wind brought clouds and gloom, Blue devils on earth, and mists in the air; Of parliamentary prose some died, Some perpetrated suicide, And her empire flourish'd there. The Goddess look'd with a gracious eye On her ministers great and small; But most she regarded with tenderness Her darling shrine, the Minerva Press, In the street of Leadenhall. This was her sacred haunt, and here Her name was most adored, Her chosen here officiated. And hence her oracles emanated, And breathed the Goddess in every word. She pass'd from the east to the west, and paused In New Burlington-street awhile, To inspire a few puffs for Colburn and Co. And indite some dozen novels or so In the fashionable style. * * * * * Then turning her own Magazine to inspect, She was rather at fault, as of late The colour and series both were new; But the Goddess, with discernment true, Detected it by the weight. She cross'd the Channel next, and peep'd At Dublin; but the zeal Of the liberty boys soon put her to flight. And she dropp'd her mantle in her fright, Which fell on Orator Shiel. Thence sped she to the Land of Cakes, The land she loves and its possessors; She loves its Craniologists, Political Economists, And all Scotch _mists_ and Scotch Professors. And chiefly she on McCulloch smiled, As a mother smiles on her darling child, Or a lady on her lover; Then, bethinking her of Parliament, She hasten'd South, but ere she went, She promised if nothing occurr'd to prevent, To return when the Session was over. _Blackwood's Magazine._ * * * * * CANNIBALISM.