tural eloquence: yet, let him be wanting in respect for his own ability, or confidence in his powers, and what follows? His talents in the crowded court are unavailable; he is perhaps eclipsed by some junior possessing little merit beyond that of assurance; and his client's cause, along with his own reputation, are sacrificed at the shrine of modest diffidence. "I am very much inclined to doubt the powers of those who will give no specimen of them," is a remark of Sir Egerton Brydges. The world carries the matter beyond a doubt; and in such instances denies them altogether. The simple truth is, self-confidence makes ability available; the want of it renders talent comparatively useless. Nor is the display of it necessarily injurious. The author of "Pelham" has somewhere inquired,-How can we expect others to think well of us, if we (who best know ourselves) appear not to do so? There is much practical wisdom in this query, deduced as it is from the philosophy of the world, not of books. "The precept Know thyself,' observes Cicero, "was not only intended to obviate the pride of mankind, but likewise that we might understand our own worth."

But it may be asked,-Is it necessary that this confidence in a man's own resources be merely assumed and apparent, or should it constitute, de facto, the real genuine feeling of the individual's heart? If to doubt be the first legitimate step to knowledge, and if one step but lead to another, doubtless an individual in reference to his own state of intellectual attainment should ever act, in the closet, on the principle of thinking nothing done whilst aught remains to do; but, admitting this qualification, real self-confidence in life is assuredly indispensable. A man's entertaining such, not merely influences the opinions of others, but it actually leads to the possession of the very qualities only at first assumed, taking it for granted (for argument's sake) that it be not in the first instance real or natural to the person. "One of the best springs of generous and worthy actions," observes the 'Spectator," "is the having generous and worthy thoughts of ourselves." Amongst those worthy thoughts, self-confidence is not by any means the least; nor need it surely be added, that empty baseless conceit, and a trust in one's own laboriously acquired powers, are two things wide as the Poles.

Few persons conversant with the world have failed to remark that, in the race of life, men of moderate means and attainments frequently outstrip competitors endowed equally by the smiles of fortune, and the gifts of genius. It is told of Chancellor Thurlow, on being consulted by a parent as to the best means his son could adopt to secure success at the bar, that he thus addressed him:-"Let your son spend his own fortune, marry, and spend his wife's, and then go to the bar, there will be little fear of his failure." Whence this recommendation? The man of certain independent means, Thurlow's observation had taught him, does not lay his shoulder to the wheel as he who is urged on by the "res angusta domi," and hence, as the simple result, he is distanced. The illustration of this truth may be observed every day, particularly in the learned professions. As to men of genius, the experience of all ages renders lengthened argument superfluous to prove how little calculated they are to secure success in life. Rarely do we observe knowledge of mankind and extraordinary genius combined in one and the same individual; and yet how common is it for persons to express surprise at the possessors of the latter endowment failing in their worldly career,

overlooking altogether the fact that genius, to be practically useful, must not merely be endowed with wings whereby to fly, but legs whereupon to stand. Lacon well remarks, "Men who study books may know how things ought to be; but it is only they who study the world who know how things are." The children of genius, by their absorbing studies, and peculiar temperament, are not merely ill-adapted for the common duties of life, but they dislike its habits, and shun ordinary intercourse. Hence their unpopularity, their want of success. The mass of mankind sympathize not in their feelings, nor take pleasure in their society, for "men," truly remarks Zimmerman, " are all most pleased by observing a similarity of character, conduct, and thought to their own in others." Whether that be an assumed or real approximation of ideas probably signifies little, so that the latter be believed.

It has recently been made matter of question, whether caressing the world as a kind friend, or buffeting it as a spiritless ungrateful spaniel, is the more conducive to success in life.

It is related of Dr. Ratcliffe, one of the most popular medical men of his day, that being questioned, on his death-bed, as to his mode of obtaining the great public patronage he had enjoyed, he thus answered his friend," Use the world ill, Mead, and you are sure to succeed."

It ought, however, in justice to that world, to be added, that Dr. Mead pursued a totally different plan, and, if possible, succeeded better than Dr. Ratcliffe. Observation would lead us to think that each mode of conduct, affording men of talent scope for the display of their abilities, equally presents a mean of worldly advancement; but that, on the whole, he stands infinitely the better chance of success who, superadded to extensive acquirements, is possessed of conciliatory manners and an affable demeanour. How often, indeed, do we observe men endowed with little more than these latter qualities become eminent in their business or profession. So much so is this the case, that many have altogether questioned the benefit of great acquirements in the race of public competition; holding, that infinitely more depends on personal manner than on superior ability. On this point, however, we conceive they are in some degree misled by a specious fallacy; for, as Dr. Young has well remarked, although great acquirements do not necessarily secure eminence, still, as he who in a lottery possesses most tickets has the best chance of the prize, so he who has the greatest variety and extent of attainment has assuredly the greatest reason to expect success in any object he may have in view.

It is to us a source of regret that many young men entertain the idea that individual advancement in life depends as much on what is commonly called good fortune, luck, chance, &c., as on perseveringly following out correct preconceived principles of action. This mistake in worldly ethics has been fatal to the prosperity of thousands. It deters enthusiastic genius from soaring in her flights; it chills ordinary and industrious minds from untiringly following out their well approved plans; it affords temptation to the undecided to relax in their efforts; and, worst of all, it presents a plausible excuse for the inexcusable failures of the indolent and the vicious. We will not venture unqualifiedly to assert with Goethe, that "every man has his own fortune in his own hands, as the artist has a piece of rude matter, which he is to fashion to a certain shape;" but assuredly experience demonstrates, beyond the possibility

of a doubt, that more, very much more, of success or failure depends on the individual himself, than the world at large appear willing to believe. And if we wish to turn that world to our purposes, how otherwise can we learn its tendencies than by carefully studying its features, its modes of action, and its current thoughts? Man can never be understood by being analyzed in the secluded cloister, or the world's tide be estimated by abstract calculations deduced from the pages of philosophy. To know the world, we must be of the world; there must genuine experience be gathered and little can it be doubted that one year's active intercourse with the busy hum of man will do more to cultivating those qualities which further success in life, than a quarter of a century of abstract study and laborious thought. Well has the physically darkened, but mentally illuminated Milton written :

"Not to know at large of things remote

From use and subtle, but to know

That which before us lies in daily life

Is the prime wisdom."

It should ever be borne in mind, that success in life is not regarded by the wise man as an end, but as a mean of happiness. The greatest and most continued favours of fortune cannot in themselves make an individual happy; nor can the deprivation of them render altogether miserable the possessor of a clear conscience and well constituted mind. The sum of human enjoyment is not, cannot be, derivable from one source;-many circumstances must contribute to it. "One principal reason," remarks Bentham, "why our existence has so much less of happiness crowded into it than is accessible to us, is, that we neglect to gather up those minute particles of pleasure which every moment offers to our acceptance. In striving after a sum total, we forget the ciphers of which it is composed; struggling against inevitable results which we cannot control, too often man is heedless of those accessible pleasures whose amount is by no means inconsiderable when collected together. Stretching out his hand to catch the stars, he forgets the flowers at his feet, so beautiful, so fragrant, so various, so multitudinous." In conclusion, another most fertile source of human disappointment arises from having entertained views of life altogether incompatible with the imperfect character of human nature, or the declared end of our probationary residence on this earthly planet. "What is it," inquires Goethe," that keeps men in continual discontent and agitation? It is that they cannot make realities correspond with their conceptions, that enjoyment steals away from their hands, that the wished for comes too late, and nothing reached or acquired produces on the heart the effect which their longing for at a distance led them to anticipate."

A.

MEMOIR OF JAMES SMITH, ESQ.

(With a Portrait.)

FROM A CORRESPONDENT.

JAMES SMITH maketh not "his enemy his footstool," but is doomed instead to find a footstool for his enemy. The truth is, he has not a foe upon earth but Gout-a monster who, it must be acknowledged, gives some proof of his taste and relish for good company by making choice of such a subject. James Smith has, on the contrary, a countless collection of friends, amongst whom must be reckoned every individual reader, ancient or modern, lively or severe, of this honoured magazine, to which he has ever lent his countenance, although he never showed his face in it before. As "Grimm's Ghost," he has herein revisited the glimpses of the moon, once a month, for many years past; and now in his proper person, in his habit as he lives, neither grim nor ghostlike, he makes his appearance in the character of a very old acquaintance seen for the first time.

Genuine Smiths, like James, are not to be seen every day. He is not of the Smiths, Smithy. All who bear that name owe obligations to him and his brother Horace, who, in professional avocations and literary predilections and pursuits, have enjoyed a somewhat similar destiny, and who have been still more closely associated in life by a bond of mutual regard founded upon a consciousness of each other's moral worth. The father of these twin-contributors to the harmless gaiety of nations was Robert Smith, of the city of London, Solicitor to the Board of Ordnance. To this office James was appointed on the resignation of his father; and the solicitor's pen he continues to hold even now when he so sparingly plies the sage's or the satirist's. The paternal grandfather of the brothers was a certain Samuel, collector of the customs at Bridgewater; the grandfather maternal was James Bogle French, an opulent West India merchant, who resided in St. Swithin's Lane, London. In his capacity of special juror, this gentleman became acquainted with Lord Chief Justice Mansfield; and there is said to be a vivid recollection still existing in the mind of the subject of this memoir, that once upon a time in Highgate churchyard, the boyish head to whose whims and oddities in after life we are all so much indebted, was playfully patted by the awful hand of that celebrated judge. The mere touch of such a hand may, for aught that can be told, have exercised some control over the phrenological development of the youthful James; it may have made a durable impression, evanescent as was the pat, and decided his choice of the law as a profession; but this we are not certain of, and we leave the subject open to the curious speculator.

The two brothers were educated at the free-school at Chigwell, in Essex, under the Rev. Peter Thomas Burford-and Burford's panorama of learning was not spread before them in vain. The reader will remember that our present subject has appeared in some respects as an autobiographer as well as a poet, in some pleasant verses inserted in a recent number, commemorative of "Chigwell," and of the places and persons connected with his schoolboy experience. Any one of his easy and unaffected stanzas is worth all the prose that we could indite about his boyhood. The season of law, and the season of lyrics, could not