But if Slight Circumstances are the sources of some of our pleasures, they also occasion some of our distresses. It is a subject of hourly experience that the friendships of years are snapped in a moment. A slight circumstance converts affection into enmity; or, at least, chills it into indifference. Let me give an illustration. Barretti was always welcomed and praised by Johnson with affection and esteem; he called him the oldest friend he had in the world. Yet this intimacy of many years was overthrown by a little irony. Ten minutes destroyed the architecture of a life. Barretti, happening to call upon Johnson, was rallied with much mirth and enjoyment by his friend, upon the superior skill of Omai, a native of Otaheite, who had vanquished Barretti in several games of chess. Barretti was displeased, but Johnson continued his bantering ridicule, until Barretti, in a storm of indignation, snatched up his hat and stick, and hastening from the room, never called upon Johnson again. If Omai severed the acquaintance of Johnson and Barretti, he has recompensed the lover of poetry by the lines with which he inspired the tender heart of Cowper. The example of Barretti should not pass from the eye without leaving an impression upon the memory. General propositions, wrote Pope to Arbuthnot, are obscure, misty, and uncertain, compared with plain, full, and home examples; precepts only apply to our reason, which in most men is but weak; examples are pictures, and strike the senses. What Pope advanced as an apology for his satires may be employed in a different manner by the moral essayist.

There is another aspect under which Slight Circumstances deserve attention. D'Israeli mentions the influence of a vivid and warm intellect upon the minds that dwell near it. Genius diffuses an electrical atmosphere through a house. Thus we find Evelyn's son treading in the footsteps of his father, and his wife entering with delight into his horticultural pursuits. But attraction is equally powerful for evil and for good. A slight circumstance in household economy gives the tone to the conversation-imparts the colouring to the picture of domestic life. The father and mother truly grow up in their sons and daughters; for every child is an imitator, and every face he gazes upon is a mirror by which he shapes the expression of his own features. In the wonderful mysteries of life, the magic of example occupies a prominent place. It is a lamentable reflection, very familiar to all persons who take an interest in parochial education, that the lesson of the afternoon is frequently erased by the conversation of the evening; that the accents of prayer are drowned by the profanity of the parent. Hogarth's celebrated Progresses are only a series of Slight Circumstances put into action. I have already alluded to the pleasure afforded to us, or the interest excited, by Slight Circumstances in books: they form a charm in every poem. Spenser has not forgotten them: Una, in her wanderings in search of the Red-crosse Knight, after travelling over wide deserts without meeting any human object, discovers, at length, with rejoicing eyes, a pathway of trodden grass,

In which the track of people's footing was.

Asiat.Journ.N.S.VOL.36.No.141.

E

How touching is the allusion of Milton to the summer rose, in his blindness! That single note seems to revive all the music of his youthful imagination. The reader of Shakespeare is aware that the great dramatist produces some of his most surprising effects by the slightest circumstances. He opens the source of tears with one touch of his wand. For Slight Circumstances in description, read these lines from the Italy of Rogers. The poet having passed the day at Pompeii, twilight at length comes on; and while he stands where three ways meet, by the house of Pansa, a solemn silence hangs over the scene :—

But now a ray,

Bright and yet brighter, on the pavement glanc'd,
And on the wheel-track worn for centuries,

And on the stepping-stone from side to side,
O'er which the maidens, with their water-urns,
Were wont to trip so lightly. Full and clear
The moon was rising, and at once reveal'd
The name of every dweller and his craft.

That old wheel-track, seen in the moonlight, carries us into the city of the dead.

If we look to the sky above us, and survey the world around us, what a mysterious combination of Slight Circumstances environs mortality on every side! Frederic Schlegel has a very interesting observation :--" There are everywhere living elemental powers, hidden and shut up under the appearance of rigidity. The quantity of water in the air is so great, that it would suffice for more than one deluge; a similar inundation of light would occur, if all the light, latent in darkness, were at once set free; and all things would be consumed by fire, if that element, in the quantity in which it exists, were suddenly let loose." The surface of the earth is covered with loose masses, which are only restrained from universal motion by the power of friction. The star in the sky, the wave upon the ocean, and the flower under the hedge, have each and all their laws and their economy: Slight Circumstances to us, if we did not remember that all our knowledge is only a little chain of such circumstances. Nor let me forget, in reverting to Schlegel for a moment, the illustration which he furnishes of the influence of Slight Circumstances upon our future habits of thought. He visited Dresden when he was seventeen years old; and while pursuing his solitary studies in the Brüht-garden, he formed that attachment to classical antiquity which continued with him through life, and contributed so largely to his usefulness and his fame.

The light and shade of life are produced by Slight Circumstances; a little gleam of sunshine, a little cloud of gloom, usually give the tone and colour to its scenery. Let us begin with the light. How abundantly are objects of consolation scattered about our feet! Mungo Park, in his travels through the interior of Africa, was plundered by robbers at a village called Kooma. Stripped even of his clothes, he sat down in despair in the midst of a desert. The nearest European settlement lay at a distance of five hundred miles. His spirits drooped under the vivid sense of his desolation and distress.

* Whewell; Astronomy and General Physics, 247.

Still, his confidence in the providence of God had not entirely forsaken him; and he recollected that, even in the wilderness, there was the stranger's Friend. At this moment, the extraordinary beauty of a small moss, in flower, irresistibly caught the traveller's eye. The whole plant, he says, was not larger than the top of one of his fingers. He gazed with admiration upon the beautiful formation of the leaves. "Can that Being," thought Park, "who planted, watered, and brought to perfection, in this obscure part of the world, a thing which appears of so small importance, look with unconcern upon the situation and sufferings of creatures formed after his own image ?" The thought kindled his dying energies, and revived his fainting spirit. He started up, pursued his journey, and in a short time arrived at a small village. What slight circumstance could be more beautiful than this?

Thus the glad skies,

The wide-rejoicing earth, the wood, the streams,
With ev'ry life they hold, down to the flower

That paints the lowly vale, or insect wing

Waved o'er the shepherd's slumber, touch the mind,

To nature tuned, with a light flying hand

Invisible.

Let us now take an illustration of the shade. It has been remarked by philosophical writers, that the slightest annoyances in life are often the most painful. Ridicule stings more than injury. The Narrative of Humboldt† may supply an illustration. "How comfortable must people be in the moon!" said a Saliva Indian to Father Gumilla; "she looks so beautiful and so clear, that she must be free from moschettoes." We frequently hear exclamations of the same character in the walks of life. "Man never is, but always to be blest." Some slight change of situation or of employment would make us happy; and from the want of it we are miserable, and burn in perpetual

Wishing, that constant hectic of a fool.

Slight Circumstances are our moschettoes. Christianity remedies this fretfulness of the mind; it cools that tingling irritability of feeling, which urges us into scenes of frivolity for the mere purpose of change; it teaches us not only to endure the difficulties and annoyances that surround us, but to endure them with placid resignation. In whatsoever situation we may be placed, we are to be content. That one word carries a sermon within it.

Thomson; Spring, 877.

↑ Personal Narrative, t. iv. p. 91. Edit. 1821.

Young.

DIARY OF AN ASSISTANT SURGEON.

No. IV.

If there be any one station in the Madras presidency of unmitigated abominations, relieved by no single redeeming good quality, it is Bellary, the principal station in the Ceded Districts. The very aspect of the place is enough to produce" detestation at first sight;" it shows itself boldly, the very concentraction of heat, aridity, and disease.

My inclination would lead me to choose one of two things; either a very large station, such as Hyderabad, Nagpoor, and Bangalore, where you may live, in a great measure, "the world forgetting, by the world forgot;" or else a very small station, with only one's own regiment, which gives a character of domesticity to all the pursuits and intercourse of the small society. Bellary is neither one thing nor the other; it is neither a large station nor a small one; although of a mixed civil and military character. The good and evil of a station must be estimated in a two-fold relation, as positive and negative; and it may have both positive and negative good and evil. Of the positive good of Bellary, I could say but very little; that little, moreover, being not intrinsic but extrinsic, and consisting only in the worth and goodness of some of those individuals, who, however, season other places as well as this: of the negative good, I can say as little; that little being only that it is not so bad (to use an Hibernianism) as those that are worse. Of its positive evil, I might speak in extenso it is dreadfully hot and arid, subject to epidemic fevers, and periodical visitations of cholera; it is a long way from any port of arrival from Europe, and five or six days behind the presidency in the receipt of home news; all Europe articles are shamefully dear; if requiring change of climate, you must go from bad to worse before you can get better; it is the seat of a division command, and there is consequently a great deal of etiquette; it is a civil station, and there is consequently a good deal of foolish pride and vying; having one wing of a King's regiment and three native corps, with a company of artillery, there is a constant round of parties, and consequent expense; being unhealthy, half the regimental officers are absent on sick leave, and consequently regimental and general duty is onerous; and about every other year comes a terrible visitation of famine. This is my estimate of Bellary; let those who have found it otherwise speak of it otherwise.

Having brought the cholera with us to the confines of the station, we were not allowed to enter the cantonment for a week, until we were able to report "no case of the disease to have occurred for forty-eight hours." My connection with the th now ceased, and, in conformity with the order I had received from head-quarters, I reported myself to the officer commanding H.M.'s -th, the left wing only of which was quartered in that pandemonium, the fort; the right wing being at Belgaum.

There is a story told to this effect. A general came to review an Irish regiment, quartered at Athlone; the men were standing at attention, with shouldered arms, when the general, his staff, and the commanding officer, rode up in front of the line; the word, "present arms!" was given by the commanding officer; not a piece was moved, but every soldier stood as if he had heard not a word; the command was repeated, but not a movement was made; the general, astonished at such an unaccountable manifestation of passive mutiny, rode close to the centre of the line, and exclaimed, "Men! how is this?" upon which an old veteran sergeant stept out from the ranks, and capping, said,

"Plase your honour giniral, the raal truth is, that we aint on speaking terms with the curnil." Such was almost the state of things which I found existing in the left wing of the gallant -th when I joined it; at least, so far as the officers and the commanding officer were concerned. This latter individual was senior captain of the regiment, but a brevet lieutenant-colonel; he was a very stout, heavy man, from the "Land o'Cakes." As my connection with the regiment was but temporary, I meddled in nowise with the squabble, nor do I even know its cause or progress. Colonel did not hold the com

66

mand more than two months, when he was superseded by the arrival of who had been promoted to a majority in the-th from another regiment, but who was also a brevet lieutenant-colonel. Of this individual I might make a character; but I shall be content to leave him in the serene enjoyment of those honours which the Affghan campaign has heaped upon him. In days not very long gone by, when a junior regimental major, we called him Fusbos, and sometimes Long J-; the first from the length of his whiskers, the second from the length of his legs: Malvolio says, some are born great," was not; "some achieve great things," has not; 66 "some have greatness thurst upon them," has had. No one can say that is undeserving of his honours; he has been very fortunate; his career has had a tide which, by being taken at the flood, "has led on to fortune;" he is a living manifestation of the truth of the immortal poet's aphorism. His great failing is martinetship, to which he has oftentimes unnecessarily sacrificed the comfort of his officers, not so much of the men, at a time when ease and freedom from needless harassing were peculiarly required. Personally, has always been popular; he is brave, cool, and moderate, possesses considerable bon-hommie, and is really in private "a good fellow." I mention this because he has been somewhat harshly spoken of in some accounts of the recent campaign in Cabool.

About a fortnight after had joined us, I witnessed a singular exemplification of the bearings of regimental and brevet rank. It has been mentioned that we had two brevet lieut.-cols with the regiment-Colonel Fusbos, the regimental major, and Colonel the senior captain; of these two officers, the brevet rank of the last was senior. There were a few artillery-men quartered in the fort, in a part of the barracks, and occasionally doing a little garrison duty under the orders of the officer commanding the King's regiment, which is always quartered in the fort, the native regiments occupying lines in the cantonment, about two miles distance. One morning, Fusbos ordered the artillery men, about thirty, to attend parade along with the regi ment; accordingly, in due course, they mustered, and took up their place on the right of the line. Fusbos, punctual to the moment, came on the parade, and stood in front to cast his quick eye up and down the line; the quartermaster and myself were standing by the flag-staff, when, to our surprise, we saw Captain- brevet lieut.-colonel, step forth from his company, advance forward, turn round facing the line, and call out, looking towards the astonished Fusbos, "all officers to their places!" The thing was clear in a moment to every one present by the succeeding word, which he gave-" brigade, attention!" The fact was, that a brigade had been actually constituted by the simple addition of the few artillery-men, and the senior brevet rank superseded the superior regimental rank.

If Bellary is the most villanous station in Madras, the fort is the most detestable locality in Bellary. The character of most fortifications, cæteris paribus, is much the same; nor can a description of mere walls, scarps, covered ways,