We are favoured by Mr. Jewitt, the celebrated engraver, with blocks from a work we are publishing, of which full particulars will be seen in our advertising pages. It is termed the "LADIES' BOOK OF FANCY WORK," and each number being complete in itself, containing more than a dozen designs and full directions, so that a better manual for ladies in the country could hardly be procured.

The smoking cap, which we now illustrate, is worked in embroidery with netting silk. The design must be first marked on the cloth or velvet, and it must then be put in a frame and worked. The large block gives one pattern of the cap full size, and probably five repetitions of it will be required in the round. The round dots and spots, seen in various parts, are intended for cut black or green beads, which are introduced.

The only difficulty in working with shaded silk arises from the care required in matching the shade at the join. Plain silk, though not so fashionable, has a very good effect. Violet on green velvet, green or claret, blue, green, or rose on black, and green on violet, are among the prettiest combinations. The tassel should always correspond with the colours of the embroidery.

Braided caps are, of course, much more easily worked; when gold braid is used, the tassel also should be of gold bullion.

It is always better to procure the velvet or cloth ready marked than to mark it for yourself; as, from the great improvements that have recently taken place in printing, it is done without any possibility of the material being injured, and at a very trifling cost.

To make up a smoking cap, line the crown with common bed-tick and with silk; the head-piece should also be lined with tick to within an inch of the edge; and a little dimett, or fine wadding, is frequently run in the silk lining, to increase the warmth. It is finished with a cord round the head; and, if intended for travelling, small pieces to cover the ears may appropriately be added.

In consequence of the many complaints that have reached us of the difficulty of procuring materials in the country, as well as of understanding the terms used in our crochet, point lace, and other designs, we have prepared a pamphlet to be kept in the work-box, which will give all this useful information, and be sent, post free, to anybody who applies for it.

ANTI-MACASSAR-IN SQUARE NETTING.

MATERIALS.-The Boar's head crochet cotton, No. 4, of Messrs. W. Evans & Co., of Derby. Their knitting cotton, of the same number, for darning the cotton, and a bone mesh, No. 7.

To those of our friends who may not be acquainted with the mode of

doing square netting, the following directions will doubtless be acceptable.

Net one stitch on a foundation, and in this one do two; turn the work, net one stitch on the first and two on the next. Turn again, net one on every stitch but the last, in which do two, until you have up one side as many holes as are required for the design.

The next row is to be done without increase, and this forms the centre line diagonally down the anti-macassar. Now begin to decrease by netting two together at the last end of every row, until at last there are only two stitches, which you will net together.

Wash the netting, starch it lightly, and pin it out evenly to dry; then darn the pattern on it, either in a frame or by the hand.

If a border is to be made, it should be done before washing; but a fringe, which is the most ordinary trimming, may be added the very ast thing.

SELECTIONS FROM OUR SCRAP BOOK.

THE TOILET.

THERE are certain moralists in the world who labour under the impression that it is no matter what people wear, or how they put on their apparel. Such people cover themselves up-they do not dress. No one doubts that the mind is more important than the body, the jewel than the setting; and yet the virtue of the one and the brilliancy of the other is enhanced by the mode in which they are presented to the senses. Let a woman have every virtue under the sun, if she is slatternly, or even inappropiate in her dress, her merits will be more than half obscured. If, being young, she is dowdy or untidy; or, being old, fantastic or slovenly, her mental qualifications stand a chance of being passed over with indifference or disgust.-Chambers.

SYSTEMS.

Contrivers of systems on the earth are like contrivers of systems in the heavens; where the sun and moon keep the same course in spite of the philosophers. An attachment to a rigid system is dangerous. Luther once turned out the Epistle of St. James because it disturbed his system. -Rev. John Newton.

MUSIC.

That which I have found the best recreation, both to my mind and body, whensoever either of them stands in need of it, is music, which exercises at once both my body and soul; especially when I play myself; for then, methinks, the same motion that my hand makes upon the instrument the instrument makes upon my heart. It calls in my spirits, composes my thoughts, delights my ear, recreates my mind, and so not only fits me for after-business, but fills my heart at the present with pure and useful thoughts; so that when the music sounds the sweetliest in my ears, truth commonly flows the clearest into my mind. And hence it is that I find my soul is become more harmonious, by being accustomed so much to harmony, and so averse to all manner of discord, that the least jarring sounds, either in notes or words, seem very harsh and unpleasant to me.-Bishop Beveridge.

BOOKS FOR THE FIRE.

Young readers-you whose hearts are open, whose understandings are not yet hardened, and whose feelings are neither exhausted nor encrusted by the world. Would you know whether the tendency of a book is good or evil, examine in what state of mind you lay it down. Has it induced you to suspect that what you have been accustomed to think unlawful may after all be innocent, and that may be harmless which you have hitherto been taught to think dangerous? Has it tended to make you dissatisfied and impatient under the control of

others; and disposed to relax in that self-government without which both the laws of God and man tell us there can be no virtue, and consequently no happiness? Has it attempted to abate your admiration and reverence for what is great and good, and to diminish in you the love of your country and your fellow-creatures? Has it addressed itself to your pride, your vanity, your selfishness, or any other of your evil propensities? Has it defiled the imagination with what is loathsome, and shocked the heart with what is monstrous ? Has it disturbed the sense of right and wrong which the Creator has implanted in the human soul? If so, throw the book in the fire, whatever name it may bear on the title-page! Throw it into the fire, young man, though it should have been the gift of a friend; young lady, away with the whole set, though it should be the prominent furniture of a rosewood bookcase.-Southey.

NOTICES OF BOOKS.

"THE EIGHTH OF DECEMBER, MDCCCLIV: Some Account of the Definition of the Immaculate Conception of the Most Blessed Mother of God, with the Dogmatic Bull of His Holiness, and a Preface. By a Priest of the Diocese of Westminster." 12mo., pp. 80. Jones & Co.

THIS is a work which controversialists will no doubt read attentively, and with different motives. The preface is contained in about three pages; next follows, "The definition of the immaculate conception," under which head is contained "a complete and connected narrative" of the event. The papal bull commences on p. 36, and concludes on p. 77. It is given in the original Latin, and also in a very good English translation (on opposite pages). The book concludes with a short sermon, by St. Bernard (in Latin and in English). We shall probably have occasion to advert to this work again.

"THE TRIUMPHS OF PERSEVERANCE AND ENTERPRISE."

Darton & Co., Holborn Hill.

London:

"WHATEVER man has done man may do," is the appropriate motto of this book. It is an answer to the sickly, drawling spirit, wrapped up in idle sentimentality, which views all achievements as the result of inherited genius. It says, and says eloquently, that if man will dare he will achieve; that the heroes of history were industrious, painstaking, and, above all, persevering; that they owe more to the spirit of determina

THE GOVERNESS.

tion, to resoluteness of purpose, than to genius; that genius waits upon perseverance, is its handmaid, and becomes its co-worker. The man who stands before St. Peter's at Rome, and asks himself whether that splendid pile is most indebted to genius or to perseverance, must award the peon to the latter, when he remembers the accumulated difficulties with which Michael Angelo perseveringly battled for the long period of nineteen years! Truly the architect of Rome's greatest wonder was no ordinary man; he had an almost inspired genius, but without perseverance—such as all may imitate-St. Peter's never would have been completed. What would the musings of Columbus have resulted in unaccompanied by perseverance? Would America have been discovered by thinking and dreaming of the existence of a vast continent? Acting, doing, daring, persevering, won for Columbus a deathless name. We shall be very much astonished if those to whom we specially commend this book do not reap advantage from its perusal. Whoever the writer may be, he has succeeded in producing a book of which no one can read the first page without being led on, as if by a spell, until the last page is attained.

"FOOTSTEPS OF ST. PAUL." Cl. 8vo, pp. 416. Nisbet & Co. 1855. THE history of the Great Apostle of the Gentiles has been a fertile field of Scripture study from the earliest ages of Christianity; nor is this surprising, considering that, zealous as were the inspired Apostles who received their appointment of our Lord when He tabernacled with men on earth, yet St. Paul "laboured more abundantly than they all.” We have peculiar pleasure in calling attention to the invaluable work now before us; it is by the author of "The Morning and Night Watches," "The Faithful Promiser," &c., who has made judicious use of the many excellent works which have been written on the subject. In the preface he says:—

"He has to acknowledge his obligations to the following among other works :-Hewson and Conybeare's Life and Epistles of St. Paul' (London, 1852), especially in the opening chapters; the less known but able work of Mr. Lewin, Life and Epistles of St. Paul' (1851), frequent references to which will attest the amount of obligation; Cave's Lives of the Apostles' (1676); Stanley's Sermons and Essays on the Apostolical Age ' (1847); Heander's Planting of the Christian Church;' Olshausen on the Acts of the Apostles;' Stackhouse's 'History of the Bible' (1764); Benson's Planting of the Christian Religion' (1750); Barnes on the Acts; Horne's Introduction;' Blunt's 'Sermons on St. Paul;' Suetonius's Lives of the Cæsars;' Josephus's Wars and Antiquities; Kitto's Bible Cyclopædia.' Besides those, many books of travel, such as Kinneir's Travels in Asia Minor' (1818), Beaufort's Karamania' (1817), Eustace's Classical Tour in Italy' (Paris, 1837), &c. &c. While following, however, in the wake of