KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



87 



Which know a greater power in God alone. 

 Most noble Woman ! Burning hearts, all scorch'd 

 With fiery thoughts from out their own wild 



breasts, 

 Have call'd thee vile; have stamp'd thy name 



with wrong; 

 Have dared to blast the garlands on thy brow 

 With stormy epithets, black as the grave. 

 These call thee fickle, selfish, heartless, frail ; 

 And shake their sapient heads, and smile to think 

 What willing dupes we are to trust in thee ! 

 They hate to hear thy laugh of innocence, 

 Because it 'minds them of the putrid thoughts 

 That ever gnaw their own world-wither'd hearts. 

 Alas ! 'tis true. Strong hearts do often weep 

 O'er wrongs by thee inflicted, and have sunk 

 Into the grave beneath thy frown. Cold words 

 From thee have brought dead winter on the soul, 

 That erewhile joy'd beneath thy summer smile. 

 But thou art Woman ! 'Tis thy broadest shield — 

 And yet thy highest title ! Who bends not 

 Before it ? Art thou not a sun to all 

 This giant-groping world ? A palm-tree well 

 In this great desert ? Come not thy kind words 

 Upon our throbbing hearts, as comes the oil 

 Upon the chafing billows of the deep ? 

 The heart of youth leaps high ; and his hot blood 

 Runs in a tumult, as he thinks of thee. 

 The old man utters dreamings of thy charms, 

 And softly croons o'er visions, of his youth, 

 When one kind face look'd up and shone on him. 

 The poor man finds his noblest trust, next God, 

 In his long-suffering and most loving wife. 

 The slave will clank his bodily or mental chains 

 Less loud when looking, 'neath the dancing curls, 

 Into the bright eyes of a daughter loved. 

 The rich think thee the gem most bright within 

 Their coronets — a magic pow'r most sweet, 

 To lure their troubled souls into the peace 

 That springs from Woman's all-enduring love. 

 The poet scales the heavens, and tracks the globe, 

 To link thy name with deathless images. 

 The painter speaks with thee on canvas. 

 Philosophy makes plain her driest laws 

 By illustrations of thy love and truth. 

 Diplomacy is turn'd into romance 

 When Woman pleads (and pleads not oft in vain) : 

 While thoughts most dear to our immortal souls 

 Are link'd with thee. Religion seems most fair, 

 When Woman wins the heart to thoughts of peace. 

 'Twas Woman shed on it its noblest light, 

 When Heav'n through her stoop'd. down to kiss 

 the world ! 



The Band of Hope Review, and 

 Children's Friend, for 1853. Par- 

 tridge and Oakey. 



This little serial is brought out under the 

 patronage of the Earl of Shaftesbury, and is 

 avowedly put forward for the purpose of 

 alluring youth from, the many immoral prints 

 which are everywhere disgracing our shop- 

 windows, and demoralising the minds of the 

 rising generation. 



The object of the work is good ; and 

 there is much useful matter in it. We are 

 not expected to be hypercritical, and there- 

 fore speak generally. It is well filled with 



attractive illustrations ; and these will, no 

 doubt, cause many a young person to fall in 

 love with it at first sight. Thus caught, the 

 moral maxims and precepts will next be 

 studied, — let us hope profitably so. The 

 volume costs but one shilling ! 



Ferguson's Rare and Prize Poultry. 

 Part 5. Culliford, Southampton Street. 



We have already spoken highly of this 

 publication, which proceeds well. The 

 present number treats of the Polish varieties 

 of fowl, and has two well-executed engravings, 

 — one representing a pair of black-crested 

 white Polands ; the other a pair of silver- 

 spangled Polands. 



The information given is valuable both to 

 amateurs and breeders ; and the work when 

 completed will be in general demand. 



The Angler's Almanac and Pocket- 

 Book for 1854. By A Practical 

 Angler. G-. Cox. 



The lovers of angling are herein furnished 

 with the elements of sport to their heart's 

 content. The eye and the ear are both pro- 

 vided for, — the former by tempting illustra- 

 tions of " heavy baskets 1 ' of fish ; the latter 

 by advice and instructions, which if followed, 

 ought to make them first-rate adepts. The 

 book is full of information, but we con- 

 fine ourselves to two short articles. The 

 first is 



ON THE SENSE OF HEARING IN FISH. 



When a very young but ardent disciple of the 

 " gentle Izaak," and when, to wind my way to the 

 side of one of our metropolitan canals by break of 

 day, was far more congenial to the senses than 

 now, — bricks and mortar and sulphurous vapor 

 having usurped the place of the verdant fields, 

 I was wont to traverse— it often puzzled my young 

 mind to know how far fishes could hear. I had it 

 frequently said at me that " pitchers had ears," 

 but I could never discover that fishes had the like, 

 although, young as I was, I fully appreciated the 

 importance of quietness in my favorite vocation, 

 and assiduously cultivated this very essential 

 attribute of a successful angler, but I must confess 

 that all my after experience has but confirmed my 

 youthful notions, that fish are scared more by 

 concussion of the earth or air acting on the water, 

 than by any direct influence of sound through the 

 water — probably electricity , that wonderful but lit- 

 tle-understood agent of the Great Author of all 

 constructions, may exert a power over the finny 

 tribe, which is denied to animals of a higher 

 grade. Certain it is there is no outward sign of 

 the organ of hearing; and as the density of the 

 element in which they live admits of, or conducts, 

 vibration or motion more readily than sound, it 

 appears to me that the popular notion of fishes 

 hearing, in the common acceptation of the term, is 

 but another " popular error." In " The Handbook 

 of Angling," by " Ephemera," there is a chapter 

 by Professor Wilson, devoted to the physiology of 

 fish, in which the learned writer seeks to establish 



