A LITERARY. SCIENTIFIC, AND INSTRUCTIVE FAMILY PAPER. 



Conducted by WILLIAM KIDD, of Hammersmith,— 



Author of the Familiar and Popular Essays on "Natural History;" "British Song 



Birds;" "Birds of Passage;" "Instinct and Reason;" 



" The Aviary and its Occupants," &c, 



"the OBJECT of our work is to make men WISER, WITHOUT obliging them to turn over folios and 



QUARTOS.— TO FURNISH MATTER FOR THINKING, AS WELL AS READING."— EVELYN. 



No. 7.— 1852. 



SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 14. 



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Or, in Monthly Parts, Price Id. 



ST. VALENTINE'S DAY. 



" Good morrow ! 'tis St. Valentine's Day, 

 All in the morning hetime ; 

 And I a maid at your window, 

 To be your Valentine." 



So sings the lovely Ophelia. How many 

 sweet, smiling, rosy countenances will echo 

 her song to-day ! 



There is something about this Saint's day 

 that liketh us well. We have been young — 

 are young even now — and feel more delight 

 than ever in watching the postman in his 

 harmless but important progress towards 

 " certain doors," where his presence to-day 

 is eagerly looked for. This is a day that 

 will be "big"— if not Avith the " fate of Troy," 

 yet with the fate of a great many lads and 

 lasses whose minds now " hang on doubt." 



As we have ourselves passed the Rubicon, 

 and got safely over the perils of the day, 

 what we now write is after the fashion of 

 Royalty, — " cum privilegM." Oh ! could we 

 but read each beating heart, closely nestling, 

 'twixt doubt and fear, behind many a window- 

 curtain on this " auspicious morn," as the 

 long-expected postman agitates the knocker 

 of the street-door ! We say — " Could we but 

 read it ! " But we can't. So we will 

 " imagine " it, faintly. 



It were useless to attempt to disguise the 

 fact,that many interchanges of private thought 

 do pass on this day, which would not have 

 "passed" had it been any other day in the year. 

 A kind of" poetical license," it would seem, is 

 tacitly granted by the good Saint on this par- 

 ticular occasion, from sheer pity ; and if young 

 folks are " backward in coming forward " 

 with their " little story," the fault is theirs — 

 not his ! The day once gone, has fled for 

 twelve long tedious months ; and such 

 " delays " give but too ample proof of their 

 being " dangerous." 



We say not this, to prompt anybody 

 "what to do," or "how to do it." No; 

 we speak of the Day as it is, and connect it 

 with the passing time. 



By the way, we see nothing to forbid our 

 recording a "little fact" connected with 

 " February 14, 1852," — the more especially 

 as this is " Leap Year." It is simply this : 

 We have been applied to by a certain amiable 

 swain — doubtful, modestly-doubtful, of his 

 own poetic powers, to improvise for him 

 something that will cause the heart of his 

 Dulcinea to " dissolve like a sunbeam." 

 This \s just in our line, — we love to " do the 

 pastoral ; " and we have " done " it ! A shaft 

 has sped from our bow, that will enter the 

 adyta and penetralia of that fair maiden's 

 heart. W r e only hope that our ardent swain 

 may himself get the credit of having penned 

 the " missive." If he does — and our hopes 

 of it are firm (we know his points), his " fate 

 is sealed ! " 



We confess to being nervous to-day — 

 nervous from the thought of the postman's 

 " rap V at the door of the house in question. 

 What would we give to be a little bird — 

 perched upon the shoulder of the fair arm, 

 whose possessor breaks the " killing" motto 



IMPRESSED BY OUR SEAL ! 



But we will now " dot down " a few par- 

 ticulars of this "righte merrie'day " of love, 

 mirth, and jollity, in which, from early asso- 

 ciations, we still take so lively an interest ; 

 and which We, as well as the Birds, consider 

 the lawful "beginning of the end." May the 

 end, in every case, prove as happy as the 

 beginning ! — H— e — m ! ! ! 



The gallant St. Valentine was " so cele- 

 brated for his love of charity," that the 

 custom of choosing " special loving friends " 

 is thence supposed to have originated. We 

 have not been able to discover whether the 

 said " Charity" was, or was not, the Christian 

 name of a lady, who lived contemporary 

 with the Saint : the virtue to which that 

 sobriquet has been given, strikes us as being 

 too cold to excite a flame in a sinner, let alone 

 a saint. 



Some naturalists are inclined to think it 

 is derived from the circumstance of birds 

 choosing each a mate on this day ; while 



Vol. I.— New Series. 



