An Allegory.

" Tes , replied I dubiously ; " but perhaps it is easier to follow a fashion than to follow one ' s senses . " " I don't know about its being easier , " said he ; " but it is certainly not quite so common as it might be . What other sense strikes you at the present moment ?" " Hearing , " I answered . " Good , " he answered ; " and when you hear that which is applicable to the purpose ,

you bear sense , and when you endeavour to follow it out you act sensibly . " " And when , " said I , bowing to him politely , " one coincides with that which is sense one agrees sensibly . " " Sensibly expressed , " replied he , smiling agreeably . " Can you tell me another of your senses ?" " Smelling" I answered .

, " Tes , " replied he ; " ancl when you smell a rat and don't go near it you smell sensibly . " I laughed pleasantly at this witticism , which showed I had a fund of humour within me .

" What other sense have you ?" " Taste , " I answered . " Tes , " replied he slowly , as if considering his words ; " but you cannot use taste sensibly unless you cultivate it assiduously , therefore I'll take you on to the next room and introduce you to my friend the Right Hon . Tastus . " Saying this , he conducted me into a room . The moment I entered it impressed me with a most pleasurable sense . I know now , though I did not at the time , that it was the sense of beauty which diffused itself about me .

The Right Hon . Tastus received me with a few words , which in a moment put me at my ease , that I did not feel as if I was talking to a stranger . My attention was attracted towards a beautiful case of ferns at the further end of the room . The Ri ght Hon . Tastus , observing my attention , asked me if I collected ferns , " It is , " said he , " the only natural thing in the room . The other objects you see about you—such as ornaments ancl pictures—are copies from nature . "

Every moment , as my eye caught view of some fresh object , the more charmed and pleased I became ; and when I tried to analyse why it shoidd be so , it seemed to be because everything harmonised and accorded with each other appropriately ancl harmoniously , ancl the thought couldn't help striking me , how much trouble ancl care must have been taken in arranging the different objects , and how incongruously they might have been placed in the hands of those who did not know how to use them—say , for

instance , in the hands of my friend the Right Hon . Sensus , who in spite of the sense of his maxims was somewhat common-place . Observing me looking at a cabinet containing a variety of beautiful things , he asked me if I knew how it was he had arranged them so effectively . On my replying in the negative , he said , — "Before I arranged this room I studied minutely one of the most beautiful ieces

p of scenery I could find . I dissected every shade and leaf and sunshine , and saw how one colour blended with another . It took me a long , long time before I could effect anything like that which I beheld in landscape , because mine were only attempts which sometimes aimed at too little and at other times at too much ; consequently there was no satisfaction in the result : it was only when I came to understand and ' appreciate the properties of a natural element I began to produce natural results , which I need

not tell you are the only true ones . " " Do you not think , though , " said I , " that one can produce natural effects without the study you say you had to undergo ?" " It is barely possible , " replied he ; " because when I refer to nature I allude to nature in a purely uncorrupted state . Not to impulses or effects prompted by bodily ideas , which may be good or bad , according to the constitution from which it emanates . " He spoke in pleasant , clear , vibrating tones , that I caught myself catching bis accentuation .