To attain complex and difficult ends by simple means, whether in physics or politics, falls not to the lot of man.  What should we think of the man who should insist on having a simple watch, which should answer every object of that machine, and yet possess the simplicity of a sun-dial?  The artificer would naturally say to such a customer, “Sir, if you want a sun-dial, you can have a very cheap and a very simple one; but if you desire a watch, I shall be glad to learn how its operations are to be accomplished without complex mechanism.”

* * * * *

THE SELECTOR;

AND LITERARY NOTICES OF NEW WORKS.

* * * * *

A RUSSIAN WEDDING.

(From Dr. Granville’s Travels.)

Early one day in November, a kind young friend, the son of Mr. Anderson, the oldest English merchant in St. Petersburgh, whose attentions to me were unremitting, put a finely embossed card into my hands, on which was printed, in Russian characters, the following invitation, literally translated:—­

“Ivan Ivanovitch and Prascovia Constantinova Ivanoff humbly request the favour of your attendance on the marriage ceremony of their daughter Anna Ivanowna with Nicholai Demetrivich Borissow, and to the dinner-table, this November the 13th day, in the year 1827, at two o’clock in the afternoon.”

On the embossed border of the card, delicately edged with rose colour, the emblematic figure of Hymen was represented on the one side, standing under a palm-tree, between the sleeping dogs of fidelity, and inviting from the other side the figures of the bride and bridegroom.  I learned that the parties were wealthy Russian hemp-commission agents, and most excellent people; and as such an invitation promised to afford me an opportunity of witnessing the church marriage ceremony, of which I had read so many dissimilar accounts, I gladly accepted it.  At two, the friends of the parties assembled from all quarters in the winter church of the Annunciation, in the Vassileiostrow, where a great concourse of people had already collected round the choristers or chanters, who, in the most delightful manner imaginable, and in the fuga style, were singing hymns, mixing with skilful combination the sopranos and bass voices.  We beguiled half an hour in listening to their strains, waiting for the arrival of the bride.  In the meantime I surveyed the picturesque groups of people that kept gradually forming in various parts of the church, where the kaftaned Russian, with his well-caressed beard, mixed with the throng of young and good-looking females.  Some of the latter, dressed in the fashion of the country, their heads profusely ornamented with gold and embroidered veils; and others, according to the more attractive garb of the French, presented a striking contrast to many of the assembled men,