THE YOUTHS CABINET.

EDITORIAL TABLE-TALE.

POSTING UP THE BOOKS.
tL day long—it is now
night, by the way, and
our lamp has been
burning some hours—
we have been looking
over a large. heap of
manuscripts, sent, at different times, for
publication in the CaBINer. All day
long, we have been at work in this way,
and still there are a score or more of
letters, from different parts of the coun-
try, which, though they may have been
glanced at before, are still to be examined
critically. We have already found in
this heap, however, some very excellent
things, as well as some not so excellent,
and others quite indifferent. On the
whole, we like to examine the letters of
our little friends; it is one of the very
pleasantest of our tasks. We would
rather our correspondents would write
more than less. Still, there is pain con-
nected with every such general examina-
tion. We are obliged to decline publish-
ing so many of these favors, that it robs
us of some pleasure which we should
otherwise have. We don’t like to refuse
any bright-faced little boy or girl, who
knocks at the Canter door with a man-
uscript. But pain is never far off in this
world, when pleasure shows her face ;
and it would be vain and unreasonable to
suppose that this case should be an ex-
ception. Some of our readers, who oc-
casionally send us something for our
pages, seem to think that we are too
nice in our taste. They perhaps remind
us of what Pope said—that

 

“ Whoever thinks a faultless piece to see,
Thinks what ne‘er was, nor is, nor is to be,”

and wish we would fix our standard ata
lower point. We do assure all such, that
scarcely a week occurs in the whole year,
in which, on account of personal friend-
ship, or for some other reason, we are
not repeatedly and strongly tempted to
do just that thing. If our feelings, and

not our judgment—our heart, and not

our head—held the reins, we venture to
say that we should be lenient enough to
suit everybody on this continent, to say
nothing about the inhabitants of Eurepe,
Asia, Africa, and Australia. As it is,
however, and as it is likely to be, we
must not lose sight of the great aim,
which is, always to provide the best
things we can get, in the entertainments
we give our friends.

This preface will suffice, and with
many wi.] much more than suffice, to in-
troduce what follows, which is more par-
ticularly addressed to correspondents.

“The Sleigh Ride” is not accepted.
Poetry, of all other varieties of compo-
sition, should conform strictly to the
models of good taste. This fugitive does
not so conform. ‘Therefore it cannot
find a place in our pages.

The lines commencing, “ Look within
yon chamber rare,” are somewhat bet-
ter, but still too faulty, in our judgment,
to deserve the printer’s acquaintance.

A poetical article from m. J. is on file,
which is excellent, very excellent. So
is everything, in fact, from the pen of
this gifted writer. We are going to
keep her article a month or two, before
we publish it, as a little boy sometimes
keeps a nice cake that has been present-
ed to him, so as to enjoy the treat a long
time in anticipation, |

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