superiority of his education in this particular.
Moreover, the narrowness of the streets, combined
with an increase of population and traffic, has,
at last, reduced the municipal government to
the barbarous necessity of pulling down the
house of Benjamin Franklin. Number four is
headed A Safe Answer, and is rather a diffuse
account of some passages in the life of Reuben
Mitchell, the Quaker; how that he worked hard,
and made money, and married his master's
daughter, and bought up farms to such an
extent that the Society of Friends became alarmed,
believing he meant to monopolise all the land
in the country; and how that Friend Nahum
was deputed to ask Friend Reuben how many
farms he had; and how that Friend Nahum, after
much beating about the bush, at last requested
to know what he should say to Friends who
asked him how many farms Friend Reuben
Mitchell had; and how Friend Reuben, after a
long pause and silent calculation upon his
fingers, which excited Friend Nahum to frenzy,
replied, "In order to make the number neither
too large nor too small, it will be safest for thee,
when Friends next inquire, to tell them thee does
not know." Number five is upon Donati's
Comet, concluding with the following
apostrophe: "Return then, mysterious traveller, to
the depths of the heavens, never again to be
seen by the eyes of men now living! Thou hast
run thy race with glory, millions of eyes have
gazed on thee with wonder, but they shall never
look upon thee again. Since thy last appearance
in these lower skies, empires, languages,
and races of men have passed away; the
Macedonian, the Alexandrian, the Augustan, the
Parthian, the Byzantine, the Saracenic, the
Ottoman dynasties, sunk or sinking into the gulf
of ages. Since thy last appearance, old continents
have relapsed into ignorance, and new
worlds have come out from behind the veil of
waters. The Magian fires are quenched on the
hill-tops of Asia, the Chaldean seer is blind, the
Egyptian hierogrammatist has lost his cunning,
the oracles are dumb. Wisdom now dwells in
furthest Thule, or in newly-discovered worlds
beyond the sea. Haply when, wheeling up again
from the celestial abysses, thou art once more
seen by the dwellers on earth, the languages we
speak shall also be forgotten and science shall
have fled to the uttermost corners of the earth.
But even then this Hand, that now marks out
thy wondrous circuit, shall still guide thy course,
and then, as now, Hasper will smile at thy
approach, and Arcturus, with his sons, rejoice at
thy coming." The last paragraph is rather a
puzzler; it seems to hint that the next time
the comet comes it will only prowl about
"the uttermost corners of the earth," and the
words, "even then," would lead one to infer
that its course, under those circumstances, will
be attended with even more than ordinary
difficulties; but this is for the consideration of
astronomers. It would have been a kind attention,
while giving the comet information, to add
that in the newly-discovered world beyond the
sea (America?) where wisdom is now "located,"
the place of the Chaldean seer is filled by the
clairvoyant, and that of the Egyptian hierogrammatist
by the medium who writes nonsense
backwards and spells shockingly. But then the comet
travelled so fast that there was, perhaps, no time
to tell him more.

Numbers six and seven are both devoted to
"An Incursion into the Empire State," that is,
a journey into the State of New York, in
December, in which allusion is made to an invention
which might be introduced with advantage
on our English railways—to wit, sleeping-cars.
Number eight is entitled "The Parable against
Persecution," and is a very interesting paper.
It traces the history of this famous parable of
Abraham and the stranger who worshipped not
God, from its publication by Lord Kames, in
1774, to its quotation by Sydney Smith before
the mayor and corporation of Bristol, in 1829.
It was communicated to Lord Kames by Franklin;
after the publication of it by Lord Kames,
it was discovered in Jeremy Taylor's works, who
speaks of it as from "the Jews' Books;" it was
found in the Latin dedication to the senate of
Hamburg of a rabbinical work called the
"Rod of Judah;" and it was ultimately traced
to the "Flower-garden" of the Persian poet
Saadi. The parable is given entire as it came
from the hands of Franklin, thus:

       PARABLE AGAINST PERSECUTION.

1. And it came to pass after these things, that
Abraham sat in the door of his tent, about the going
down of the sun.

2. And behold a man, bowed with age, came from
the way of the wilderness, hanging on a staff.

3. And Abraham arose and met him, and said
unto him, "Turn in, I pray thee, and wash thy feet,
and tarry all night, and thou shalt arise early on the
morrow and go on thy way."

4. And the man said, "Nay, for I will abide under
this tree."

5. And Abraham pressed him greatly; so he
turned, and they went into the tent; and Abraham
baked unleavened bread, and they did eat.

6. And when Abraham saw that the man blessed
not God, he said unto him, "Wherefore dost thou
not worship the most high God, creator of heaven
and earth?"

7. And the man answered and said, "I do not
worship the God thou speakest of, neither do I call
upon his name; for I have made to myself a god,
which abideth always in mine house, and provideth
me with all things."

8. And Abraham's zeal was kindled against the
man, and he arose and fell upon him, and drove him
forth with blows into the wilderness.

9. And at midnight God called unto Abraham,
saying, "Abraham, where is the stranger?"

10. And Abraham answered and said, "Lord, he
would not worship thee, neither would he call upon
thy name; therefore have I driven him out from
before my face into the wilderness."

11. And God said, "Have I borne with him these
hundred ninety and eight years, and nourished him
and clothed him, notwithstanding his rebellion
against me, and couldst not thou, that art thyself
a sinner, bear with him one night?"

12. And Abraham said, "Let not the anger of the
Lord wax hot against his servant; lo! I have sinned;
lo! I have sinned; forgive me, I pray thee."