only the reputation of being an expert pyrotechnist of those flashy squibs and crackers which irradiate the dulness of White's bay window on a rainy day; a dining-out man, good enough to fill a place when Alvanley or Rokeby, Sydney or Sneyd,-were not to be had; and was then a wit among lords, as I am now a lord among wits.

My name, however, has become European. The critics, astounded by the vigour of my style and universality of my knowledge, have decided me to be, like Mrs. Malaprop's Cerberus, "three gentlemen in one;"—while the prattlers of May Fair, having been assured that I wear a gown, hail me as of epicene gender.

Sinking under the weight of such commendations, dear Public, I appear before you covered with blushes. Like some popular dancer summoned to the front of the stage by the thunders of your applause, I advance trembling lest the grace of my three bows of acknowledgment should be deteriorated by the pitiless

storm of bouquets pelting over my head; placing my hand on the spot where hearts are said to be, to abide your verdict.

Once fairly before you, however, the footlights of publicity blazing at my feet,-the chandeliers gleaming above,—and three tiers of beauty and fashion cheering me by their plaudits, the gods waiving their handkerchiefs, the pit its scruples, I feel the divinity stir within me !-My blushes subside !-Cis Danby is himself again!" my foot is on my native heath, and my name is Macgregor !"

Meanwhile I trust others are not as sick as myself of the sound of my name. The way in which society has been be-Cecilled for the last six months, is really overpowering. Multiform as the cloud of Polonius, I have been pointed out to myself at all the parties of the season,

Wearing strange shapes, and bearing many names!

Methinks there have been ten Cecils in the

field; and had I much faith in the doctrine

only the reputation of being an expert pyrotechnist of those flashy squibs and crackers which irradiate the dulness of White's bay window on a rainy day; a dining-out man, good enough to fill a place when Alvanley or Rokeby, Sydney or Sneyd,-were not to be had; and was then a wit among lords, as I am now a lord among wits.

My name, however, has become European. The critics, astounded by the vigour of my style and universality of my knowledge, have decided me to be, like Mrs. Malaprop's Cerberus, "three gentlemen in one;"-while the prattlers of May Fair, having been assured that I wear a gown, hail me as of epicene gender.

Sinking under the weight of such commendations, dear Public, I appear before you covered with blushes. Like some popular dancer summoned to the front of the stage by the thunders of your applause, I advance trembling lest the grace of my three bows of acknowledgment should be deteriorated by the pitiless

storm of bouquets pelting over my head; placing my hand on the spot where hearts are said to be, to abide your verdict.

Once fairly before you, however, the footlights of publicity blazing at my feet,―the chandeliers gleaming above,-and three tiers of beauty and fashion cheering me by their plaudits, the gods waiving their handkerchiefs, the pit its scruples, I feel the divinity stir within me!-My blushes subside !-Cis Danby is himself again!" my foot is on my native heath, and my name is Macgregor !"

Meanwhile I trust others are not as sick as myself of the sound of my name. The way in which society has been be-Cecilled for the last six months, is really overpowering. Multiform as the cloud of Polonius, I have been pointed out to myself at all the parties of the season,

Wearing strange shapes, and bearing many names!

Methinks there have been ten Cecils in the

field; and had I much faith in the doctrine

of wraiths and fetches, must long ago have died of consternation, under the influence of apparitions of " the Author of Cecil." Some week ago, I sat by myself at a Greenwich dinner which my other self was invited to amuse;and a deuced stupid fellow I was!

On the other hand, if proof against terrors of the Bodach Glas, I have run some risk of being bored to death by disclaimers of the authorship in question. Scarcely a scribbler about town but has essayed to prove to me, in nineteen sections of prose, that he was incapable of producing so silly a book as "Cecil," and that his Club accused him wrongfully ;-that "if he had stooped to write a novel, he trusted it would not have turned out quite so inartistical a production;

A mighty maze, and all without a plan! without plot,design,-arrangement, - and with very little moral!" One and all, in short, pride themselves on the conviction that they should have produced a Paternoster Row legi