,

glimpses of a remembered countenance, a dream, a word will often annihilate a vile intention, or unseal the fountain of the heart. A palm tree in England drew tears from an Eastern wanderer; and the native wisdom of Jeanie Deans led her to make her first visit to the Duke of Argyle, arrayed in a plaid, knowing his honor's heart "would warm to the tartan." And thus to the simplehearted maiden her rich and flowing hair was a crown of glory-the only circumstance that elevated her in her own estimation. And when the iron necessity of want came upon her, and she was a homeless orphan-when every thing had been parted with, and all appeals to compassion had failed, the spirit of the poor creature yielded to hunger, and she sold her hair. Before this sacrifice, she had resisted, with the heroism of innocence, the temptation to purchase food at the expense of honor. But when the wants of nature were appeased, and she went forth shorn of her cherished ornament, the consciousness of her loss induced despair, and she resigned herself hopelessly to a career of infamy.

Abundant hair is said to be indicative of strength, and fine hair, of susceptibility. In the hair are written_the_ stern lessons of life. It falls away from the head of sickness, and the brows of the thoughtful The bright lot of childhood is traced in its golden threads, the free buoyancy of youth is indicated by its wild luxuriance; the throe of anguish, the touch of age, entwine it with a silver tissue ; and intensity of spirit will there anticipate the snows of time. The hair of Columbus was white at thirty; and before that period, Shelley's dark waving curls were dash

ed with snow. In the account of the execution of the unfortunate Mary, the last touch of pathos is given to the scene when it is stated that as the executioner held up the severed head, it was perceived that the auburn locks were thickly strewn with grey.

Associations of sentiment attach strongly to the hair. Around it is wreathed the laurel garland of fame. · Amid it tremble the flowers of a bridal. Putting up the hair is the signal of womanhood. The Andalusian women always wear roses in their glossy black hair. The barbarous practice of scalping doubtless originated in a savage idea of desecrating the temple of the soul, as well as of gathering trophies of victory. The head is shaven by the monks in token of humility, and the stationary civilization of the Chinese is indicated by no custom more strikingly than that of wearing only a single cue, the very acme of unpicturesque. There were few more characteristic indications of a highly artificial state of society than the absurd style of dressing the head once so fashionable. Even at the present day, no part of female costume betrays individual taste more clearly than the style in which the hair is worn. To tear the hair is a true expression of despair, and the patriarchal ceremony of scattering ashes on the head, was the deepest sign of sorrow. How much the desolate grandeur of the scene on the heath, in Lear, is augmented by his "white flakes" that "challenge pity," and what a picture we have of Bas. sanio's love, when he says

"Her sunny locks

Hang on her temples like a golden fleece,

Which makes her seat at Belmont, Colchos strand,

And many Jasons come in quest of her.

The women at the siege of Messina, wrought their hair into bow-strings for the archers, and on a similar occasion in the Spanish wars, the females of a small garrison bound their hair under the chin, to appear like beard, and arranging themselves on the ramparts, induced the enemy to surrender.

Sampson's hair was singularly associated with his misfortunes, and the abundant locks of Absalom wrought the downfall of his pride. It is often a net to entrap the affections. The hair speaks to the heart. Laura's flying tresses haunted Petrarch's fancy :

"Qual Ninfa in fonti, in selve, mai qual Dea
Chiome d'oro si fino a l'aura sciolse ?"

That the hair may figure to a:lvantage in literature, the "Rape of the Lock," is an immortal proof. The Puritans cut it short and the cavaliers wore it luxuriantly. Human vanity displays itself nowhere more conspicuously than in the arrangement of the hair. When Benedict enumerates the qualifications required in a wife, he says in conclusion—" her hair shall be of what color it please God;"-alluding to the common custom of dyeing the hair. Bassanio, when moralizing on the caskets, utters a satire upon false hair;

"So are those crisped snaky, golden locks,

Which make such wanton gambols with the wind,
Upon supposed fairness, often known

To be the dowry of a second head,

The scull that bred them in the sepulchre."

Among the beautiful touches, alike true to nature and poetry, in Talfourd's Ion, is the language of the dying Adrastus to his newly-discovered son :

"I am growing weak,

And my eyes dazzle; let me rest my hands

Ere they have lost their feeling, on thy head,
Lo! Lo! thy hair is glossy to the touch

As when I last enwreathed its tiny curl

About my finger."

It is the surviving memorial of our physicial existence :

"There seems a love in hair, though it be dead

It is the gentlest, yet the strongest thread
Of our frail plant-a blossom from the tree,
Surviving the proud trunk; as if it said,
Patience and gentleness is power. In me
Behold affectionate eternity."

D'Israeli paints Contarini Fleming, the creature of passion, after his wife's death, as clipping off her long tresses, twining them about his neck, and springing from a precipice. Miss Porter makes Helen Mar embroider into the banner of Wallace, the ensanguined hair of his murdered Marion. Goldsmith's coffin was opened to obtain some of his hair for a fair admirer, and there is a striking anecdote of a man who was prevented from declaring love to his friend's betrothed, by recognizing on the hand he had clasped, a ring, containing the hair of his rival. With what a pathetic expressiveness does the Cenci" conclude:

Beatrice.

"Give yourself no unnecessary pain,
My dear Lord Cardinal. Here, mother, tie

My girdle for me, and bind up my hair
In any simple knot; ay, that does well.
And yours, I see, is coming down. How often
Have we done this for one another! and now
We shall not do it any more. My hood!

We are quite ready. Well, 'tis very well."

The dialogue between King John and Constance, is very significant :

King Philip." Bind up those tresses. Oh, what love I note

In the fair multitude of those her hairs!

Where, but by chance, a silver dross hath fallen,

Even to that dross ten thousand wiry friends

Do glue themselves in sociable grief;
Like true, inseparable, faithful loves,
Sticking together in calamity."

Constance. "To England, if you will.”

King Philip." Bind up your hairs.”

Constance. "Yes, that I will and wherefore will I do it?
I tore them from their bonds; and cried aloud,
Oh, that these hands could so redeem my son,
As they have given these hairs their liberty!
But now I envy at their liberty,
And will again commit them to their bonds,
Because my poor child is a prisoner."