Sketch of the Lite and Wanderings of He Barllant,

‘cseoeeescumenaarvarsnonen ifr eraracanacmacerrnens temas

uy¥|OW tenaciously does memory retain her
| hold on the pleasures of our early days!
The scenes, the events, and the people
in whom we then took delight, are ever
after remembered with peculiar satisfaction. And
this is especially, perhaps, the case with reference
to the books which afforded us entertainment then;
there are never any pages so fresh and so life-like
to our feelings as those. My readers may probably
recall to mind many such favourites of their youth;
it is the case with myself. Among others, I still
retain an agreeable reminiscence of Le Vaillant’s
Travels, a book which, it has been well remarked,
excels in the graphic power and life of its descrip-
tions—which give them, indeed, all the charm of
romance. His accounts of birds are such as could
only be supplied by one with whom it was a pas-
sion to follow them into their most secluded
haunts, and watch all their actions; while his per-
sonal narrative is a sincere and faithful record of