: SUNDAY READINGS IN PROSE AND VERSE. SELECTED AND EDITED BY J. E. CARPENTER, EDITOR OF "PENNY READINGS," "SONGS: SACRED AND DEVOTIONAL," FREDERICK WARNE AND CO. BEDFORD STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 2705. f. 55. SUNDAY READINGS. RICH AND POOR. [From "Nuts and Nutcrackers ". -an interesting little volume, full of harmless mirth and homely satire, and an admirable companion for a winter evening at home or a summer journey in a railway carriage.] "IF I was a king upon a throne this minute, an' I wanted to have a smoke for myself by the fireside— why, if I was to do my best, what could I smoke but one pen'orth of tobacco, in the night, after all?—but can't I have that just as asy? "If I was to have a bed with down feathers, what could I do but sleep there?—and sure I can do that in the settle-bed above." Such is the very just and philosophical reflection of one of Griffin's most amusing characters, in his inimitable story of "The Collegians"-a reflection that naturally sets us a thinking, that if riches and wealth cannot really increase a man's capacity for enjoyment with the enjoyments themselves, their pursuit is, after all, but a poor and barren object of even worldly happiness. As it is perfectly evident that, so far as mere sensual gratifications are concerned, the peer and the peasant stand pretty much on a level, let us inquire for a moment in what the great superiority consists which exalts and elevates one above the other. Now, without entering upon that wild field for speculation that power (and what power equals that conferred by |