*THE PULPIT' is a pine-clad cliff on the bank of the river. It is an old custom to make a bow to the parson on passing this place.

LIGHTS AND SHADOWS OF FASHIONABLE LIFE.

BY PETER SCHEMIL,

'ICH habe gesehen, was (Ich weiss das) ich nicht würde geglaubt haben auf ihre Erzählung.' TREVIRANUS, TO COLERIDGE.

'I have seen what I am certain I would not have believed on your telling.'

NUMBER FIVE: IN WHICH MRS. SMITH DESCRIBES THE 'VIRTUOUS INDIGNATION SOCIETY' OF BABYLON THE LESS; MRS. TRIPPE'S ACCOUNT OF MRS. VAN DAM'S PROPOSED RE-UNION WITH HER HUSBAND: THE GENTLEMAN IN BLACK SHOWS THE SAD CONSEQUENCES SHOULD THE EXAMPLE OF ZACCHEUS BE ADOPTED BY THE PEOPLE OF BABYLON: CITES THE PROBABLE EFFECTS IN CHANGE ALLEY,' AND IN THE CIRCLES OF MRS. SMITH'S FASHIONABLE FRIENDS. MRS. SMITH MAKES A DISCOVERY AS TO THE PURSUITS OF THE GENTLEMAN IN BLACK, WHO CLAIMS THE PATERNITY OF FOURIERISM.

THE Gentleman in Black, having replaced the volume on the shelf of the library, stood for a moment ranging his eye along the shelves; when, as if a thought had presented itself, he turned toward Mrs. Smith, who was herself occupied with the design she had formed, how best to direct the conversation to discover who her guest was; and after a slight embarrassment, in which both seemed to participate, as if their thoughts had been perhaps discovered, he politely led the lady to her seat, and resumed his own.

The Gentleman in Black once more filled the goblets, one of which he manipulated as before, and handing it to Mrs. Smith, bowed, as if expecting her to drink her glass with him; this, however, she quietly declined; but the Gentleman in Black, saying his drinking the wine of his own goblet would depend on her pledging him, she bowed acquiescence, and reached to take the glass, which by some inconceivable carelessness on her part, she again upset. There seems some fatality in all this,' said Mrs. Smith; and although I have no pledge to violate, my nerves seem determined to play me false to-night.'

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It is indeed very strange,' replied the Gentleman in Black, looking suspiciously around the room. 'Allow me the pleasure of refilling your goblet.'

'Oh, no! I will not tempt my fate farther!' said Mrs. Smith, with one of her sweet smiles.

The Gentleman in Black was evidently disconcerted; but after drinking the wine in his own goblet, he renewed the conversation by inquiring, if the author of the volume of sermons which was lying before him on the table, was the parsonic-looking gentleman who seemed so devout and devoted to the highly-dressed lady in the black velvet dress, so richly endowed with diamonds?'

'No, indeed! You have hit upon a very different character, I assure you. That was the Rev. Dr. UPJOHN, a distinguished divine among us, who is considered most eminently Rubrical.'

However that may be,' replied the Gentleman in Black, with a smile, I think there 's no question of his being very rubicund.' 'Yes,' said Mrs. Smith, with a gay laugh, 'that is unquestionable; and can you tell me how it is that Rubricity and rubicundity should be so inseparable?'

It is very certain they are,' replied the Gentleman in Black; and I presume it arises from the universality of the rule, that those who prescribe fasts to others, in order to preserve that due equilibrium which is a law of nature, replenish their own stomachs while they keep others empty, so that the average is thus preserved. May I ask who was the lady?'

Is it possible that you do n't know Mrs. VAN DAM? She would be greatly offended to suppose it possible that she was unknown by any one of my guests! Mrs. Van Dam is, as you must have seen, a very distinguished personage, who aspires not only to High Church in religion, but high rank in society. Indeed, she has been for the last three weeks, so my dear Mrs. Trippe assured me, going the rounds of her cliques, expressing her doubts and anxieties whether it would do to accept the invitation to my party; and has thus canvassed the upper circles pretty extensively, and excited the several VIRTUOUS INDIGNATION SOCIETIES no little by her earnest questionings with those disposed to accept, and her earnest expression of her fears to those who had accepted; so that there was for awhile much dubiety with them whether nine out of every ten invited would accept or decline; but finding the WORTHS and the SCHUY LERS, and other independent members, were not to be intimidated, and that the current was setting in my favor, she relinquished the effort, and made a virtue of necessity, conferring upon me the distinguished honor of her own acceptance, and securing for me at the same time the light of the countenance of the Rev. Dr. UPJOHN, whom the wicked world calls her shadow.'

VIRTUOUS INDIGNATION SOCIETIES! I am acquainted with very many societies, but I have never before heard of these.'

'Is it possible! I assure you these societies are very numerous among us,' replied Mrs. Smith, and exist not only in our cities, but in all our towns and villages. They consist of those alarmingly proper persons who deem themselves the conservators of public morals and guardians of the public peace. They meet twice a week, or oftener, and two are deemed a quorum for the transaction of the business of the society: their meetings are held usually at each other's houses, but may be held at the opera-house, or the church, or indeed wherever and whenever the opportunity shall present itself. They do not always take this distinctive apellation, but sometimes are known as 'The Select Sewing Circle,' or the 'Moral Reform Society,' or some such cognomen; but by whatever title they are known, they become the most formidable of all inquisitors, each of whom, like the celebrated COUNCIL OF TEN, have their Lion's-Mouths always open to receive all manner of missives and rumors, to the injury of their own peculiar and dear five hundred friends.'

May I ask how they carry into effect their mandates?' inquired the Gentleman in Black.

'Oh! unhappily, this is no difficult task, inasmuch as they are banded together to carry into effect their dreaded determinations. Of the most active and efficient of these in our city, none can exceed my own especial and dear friend Mrs. Trippe, whose sagacity and satire can never be over-tasked in this labor of love, and whose zeal sometimes, finding itself unsupplied with the necessary victims to be broken on the wheel of the Virtuous Indignation Society, has often, with unsurpassed skill, managed to use up the several members constituting the venerable Council of Ten themselves, of whom Mrs. Van Dam has assumed the Dogess-ship; placing them, like another Phalaris,* in the Brazen Bull they have created for others, and blowing up the flames with her own mouth; so that she has become quite a formidable personage, and has fairly succeeded, from their very dread of her, in obtaining her position in the first circles of Babylon the Less, and which few dare question; and it is only once in a while that the Van Tromps and Van Dams venture to leave her and her fair daughters at home, as in the instance of Katrine Van Tromp's fancy-dress ball.

'Now, the labors of the several Virtuous Indignation Societies were especially directed to prevent Col. Worth and his lady and lovely daughter from accepting my invitations; and their prompt and polite acceptance was of the first importance to me; their presence to-night did me infinite service.'

May I ask if the young lady whose graceful contour and beautiful bust made her 'the observed of all observers,' and to whom De Lisle seemed so willing to attach himself, is the heiress of the Worths of whom you speak?'

'Yes, De Lisle is evidently attracted that way, and I am almost certain her coming has aided me in securing so distinguished an honor as his presence. He is eminently talented, and is so sought for by the Van Dams and Van Tromps, and all of that set, that it was quite a triumph for me to have secured him. What did think of Grace Worth? How did she impress you?'

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'I assure you, my dear Madam, I was every way prepossessed in her favor, by the modesty, almost timidity, of her demeanor; so entirely free from all art and mannerism; her face, too, has that sweet aspect of simplicity which is the surest index of purity of heart, and which no art can create; and yet her bearing had in it an air of reserve that would have been hauteur, were it not for the unaffected purity and sweetness of her air and countenance.'

It is true, she is deemed, I believe, somewhat reserved; but to

*PERILLUS, the Athenian, having cast a brazen bull for PHALARIS, the tyrant of Sicily, with such cunning that the offenders put into it, feeling the heat of the fire under it, seemed not to cry with a human voice, but to roar like a bull! When he came to demand a recompense for his pains, by order of the tyrant, he was put into it, to show proof of his own invention.

'PERILLUS, roasted in the bull he made,
Gave the first proof of his own cruel trade.'

OVIDI SABELL EXCEP. L. 10, ca. 4.

me she has this evening shown the most perfect and even affectionate kindness, and made every effort to relieve me from the embarrassments by which I was surrounded; and all this, I am sure, was in her the natural expression of sympathy-the most precious and acceptable. To the Colonel and his excellent lady I am under infinite obligations for their kind attentions to me at the moment when they were most needed. Indeed, I don't believe I could have preserved my self-possession, but for these manifestations of kindness and sympathy.'

And do you so soon forget those of Mr. DE LISLE?' said the Gentleman in Black, with a smile.

'Oh no! and if I could, I would confer on him the highest reward, and which I am sure he would deem such, by securing for him the preference she has unconsciously to herself won from him.'

'You know them intimately, then? I thought they were unknown to you before this evening, except as members of the upper circles of this city.'

And so they all were.'

Indeed? And how do you gain all this insight into the secrets, which are usually kept so close, of persons seen this evening for the first time?'

'Ah!' replied Mrs. Smith, with earnestness, and a glance which made the Gentleman in Black tremble with emotion, there are beams of light which reveal the recesses of the soul, and such a glance I saw flashing in De Lisle's face from the depths of his heart, and of which I am sure he was himself as unconscious, as I know the beautiful girl must have been, upon whom it was bestowed.'

Pardon me, Madam, if I inquire how you can be so certain of this, and how was it that you only should happen to see it? These very modest, lovely girls have wonderful tact in not seeming to see what after all they have most perfectly observed.'

It was a glance,' replied Mrs. Smith, 'from the eye of Mr. De Lisle, as he stood behind Miss Worth, whom he led up toward me, and was excited by his admiration of her affectionate kindness, as she approached me with a smile of sympathy in my misfortunes caused by the shower of sperm from those vile candles, and of which Grace had a full sprinkling upon her beautiful shoulders. I told her there was no one but herself who could receive such a powdering without a contrast invidious to their skins. A poor compliment, I confess, but which she received with the most cheerful air of satisfaction, as if she was willing that any thing should be a full compensation of her share of the general calamity.'

The reverend Doctor UPJOHN did not bear his share of powder with the same equanimity,' the Gentleman in Black replied, smiling significantly.

"So it seemed; and I thought Mrs. Van Dam was more distressed at the small stream down the back of his coat, than at the cup-full she so justly received upon her own rich dress.'

I was just at his elbow when the revered Doctor received his effusion, and though it was not unlike the holy oil poured on the