uses) was, in the young days of the opera, most
fair to see, most exquisite to hear—Henrietta
Sontag.

OLD FRIENDS.

THE old old friends!
Some changed; some buried; some gone out of sight;

Some enemies, and in the world's swift fight
             No time to make amends,

The old old friends—
Where are they? Three are lying in one grave;
And one from the far-off world on the daily wave
            No loving message sends.

The old dear friends!
One passes daily; and one wears a mask;
Another long estranged cares not to ask
            Where causeless anger ends.

The dear old friends,
So many and so fond in days of youth!
Alas that Faith can be divorced from Truth,
            When love in severance ends.

The old old friends!
They hover round me still in evening shades:
Surely they shall return when sunlight fades,
            And life on God depends.

THE MARTYR MEDIUM.

"AFTER the valets, the master!" is Mr. FECHTER'S
rallying cry in the picturesque romantic
drama which attracts all London to the Lyceum
Theatre. After the worshippers and puffers of
MR. DANIEL DUNGLAS HOME, the spirit medium,
comes Mr. Daniel Dunglas Home himself, in one
volume. And we must, for the honour of
Literature, plainly express our great surprise and
regret that he comes arm in arm with such good
company as MESSRS. LONGMAN and Company.

We have already summed up Mr. Home's
demands on the public capacity of swallowing,
as sounded through the war-denouncing trumpet
of MR. HOWITT, and it is not our intention to
revive the strain as performed by Mr. Home on
his own melodious instrument. We notice, by
the way, that in that part of the Fantasia where
the hand of the first Napoleon is supposed to
be reproduced, recognised, and kissed, at the
Tuileries, Mr. Home subdues the florid effects
one might have expected after Mr. Howitt's
execution, and brays in an extremely general
manner. And yet we observe Mr. Home to be
in other things very reliant on Mr. Howitt, of
whom he entertains as gratifying an opinion as
Mr. Howitt entertains of him: dwelling on his
"deep researches into this subject," and of his
"great work now ready for the press," and of
his "eloquent and forcible" advocacy, and eke
of his " elaborate and almost exhaustive work,"
which Mr. Home trusts will be "extensively
read." But, indeed, it would seem to be the
most reliable characteristic of the Dear Spirits,
though very capricious in other particulars, that
they always form their circles into what may be
described, in worldly terms, as A Mutual Admiration
and Complimentation Company (Limited).

Mr. Home's book is entitled, "Incidents in
my Life." We will extract a dozen sample
passages from it, as variations on and phrases of
harmony in, the general strain for the Trumpet,
which we have promised not to repeat.

1. MR. HOME IS SUPERNATURALLY NURSED.

"I cannot remember when first I became
subject to the curious phenomena which have
now for so long attended me, but my aunt and
others have told me that when I was a baby
my cradle was frequently rocked, as if some
kind guardian spirit was attending me in my
slumbers."

2. DISRESPECTFUL CONDUCT OF MR. HOME'S AUNT
    NEVERTHELESS.

"In her uncontrollable anger she seized a
chair and threw it at me."

3. PUNISHMENT OF MR. HOME'S AUNT.

"Upon one occasion as the table was being
thus moved about of itself, my aunt brought
the family Bible, and placing it on the table,
said, 'There, that will soon drive the devils
away;' but to her astonishment the table only
moved in a more lively manner, as if pleased to
bear such a burden." (We believe this is
constantly observed in pulpits and church reading
desks, which are invariably lively.) " Seeing
this she was greatly incensed, and determined
to stop it, she angrily placed her whole weight
on the table, and was actually lifted up with it
bodily from the floor."

4. TRIUMPHANT EFFECT OF THIS DISCIPLINE ON
    MR. HOME'S AUNT.

"And she felt it a duty that I should leave
her house, and which I did."

5. MR. HOME'S MISSION.
It was communicated to him by the spirit of
his mother, in the following terms: "Daniel, fear
not, my child, God is with you, and who shall
be against you? Seek to do good: be truthful
and truth-loving, and you will prosper, my child.
Yours is a glorious mission—you will convince
the infidel, cure the sick, and console the weeping."
It is a coincidence that another eminent
man, with several missions, heard a voice from
the Heavens blessing him, when he also was a
youth, and saying, "You will be rewarded, my
son, in time."  This Medium was the celebrated
BARON MUNCHAUSEN, who relates the
experience in the opening of the second chapter of
the incidents in his life.

6. MODEST SUCCESS OF MR. HOME'S MISSION.

"Certainly these phenomena, whether from
God or from the devil, have in ten years caused
more converts to the great truths of immortality
and angel communion, with all that flows from
these great facts, than all the sects in Christendom
have made during the same period."

7. WHAT THE FIRST COMPOSERS SAY OF THE
    SPIRIT-MUSIC, TO MR. HOME.

"As to the music, it has been my good fortune