fortune, and if it be not true philosophy, it is something almost as efficacious. Ever since I have heard the story of my little Frenchman, I have treasured it up in my heart; and I thank my stars I have at length found, what I had long considered as not to be found on earth-a contented man. P. S. There is no calculating on human happiness. Since writing the foregoing, the law of indemnity, has been passed, and my friend restored to a great part of his fortune. I was absent from Paris at the time, but on my return hastened to congratulate him. I found him magnificently lodged on the first floor of his hotel. I was ushered, by a servant in livery, through splendid saloons, to a cabinet richly furnished, where I found my little Frenchman reclining on a couch. He received me with his usual cordiality; but I saw the gayety and benevolence of his countenance had fled; he had an eye full of care and anxiety. I congratulated him on his good fortune. "Good fortune?" echoed he; 'bah! I have been plundered of a princely fortune, and they give me a pittance as an indemnity.” Alas! I found my late poor and contented friend one of the richest and most miserable men in Paris. Instead of rejoicing in the VOL. II.-22 ample cempetency restored to him, he is daily repining at the superfluity withheld. He no longer wanders in happy idleness about Paris, but is a repining attendant in the antechambers of ministers. His loyalty has evaporated with his gayety; he screws his mouth when the Bourbons are mentioned, and even shrugs his shoulders when he hears the praises of the king. In a word, he is one of the many philosophers undone by the law of indemnity; and his case is desperate, for I doubt whether even another reverse of fortune, which should restore him to poverty, could make him again a happy man. BROEK: THE DUTCH PARADISE. T has long been a matter of discussion and controversy among the pious and the learned, as to the situation of the terrestrial paradise whence our first parents were exiled. This question has been put to rest by certain of the faithful in Holland, who have decided in favor of the village of BROEK, about six miles from Amsterdam. It may not, they ob serve, correspond in all respects to the description of the garden of Eden, handed down from days of yore, but it comes nearer to their ideas of a perfect paradise than any other place on earth. This eulogium induced me to make some inquiries as to this favored spot, in the course of a sojourn at the city of Amsterdam; and the information I procured fully justified the |