mental endowments of the French are of a more refined, those of the
English of a loftier, character. The French practise virtue for the sake
of reputation, and seek the reward of meritorious actions in popular
applause; the English practise it for its own sake, and seek no reward
but that which springs from the consciousness of rectitude. There is the
same relative difference in their vices as in their virtues. Both commit
crimes; the French from the love of gain, the desire of vengeance or
similar motives; but the English are often criminal for the mere sake of
committing crime. The French, like the people of other countries, often
commit crimes in the hope of escaping punishment, but the English
frequently commit crimes because they know they cannot escape
unpunished; so that the very severity of the law, which deters others
from crime, often operates as an additional stimulus on the English for
the commission of offences, "I would commit this offence," exclaims the
Frenchman, "if the law permitted it." "I would not commit this offence,
if it were not prohibited by law," is frequently the language of the
Englishman.--_Memoirs of Lewis Holberg_.

* * * * *


LEAVES AND FLOWERS, OR THE LOVER'S WREATH.


With tender vine-leaves wreathe thy brow,
And I shall fancy that I see,
In the bright eye that laughs below,
The dark grape on its parent tree.
'Tis but a whim--but, oh! entwine
Thy brow with this green wreath of mine.