From the Edinburg Literary Journal. POPPING THE QUESTION
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the operation designated by the elegant phrase have selected for the title of my present lu- cubration. Much winding and caution, and previous sounding, is necessary when you have got favour to ask of great man. It is ten chances to that he tn1Ess 1t "t i,:a i--.si to consider your request eXhorbtant, and to make this the preteXt for shaking off what he naturally considers a cumbersome appen- dlage to his State-a man who has a claim upon his good offices. But this hazard is mo- thing in comparison with the risk you run in laying yourself at the mercy of a young gipsy, fonder of fun and frolic than any thing in life. Even though she loves you with the whole of her little heart, she possesses flow of spirits, and woman's ready knack of preserving ap- pearances; and though her bosom may heave responsive to your stammering tale, she will lure you on with kind complacent looks, un- | til you have told "your pitiful story," and then laugh in your face for your pains

 | It is not this either that meant to express. | Men are not towards because they see distinct | ly the danger that lies before them. When a person has coolness sufficient to appreciate l it's full extent, he has in general either self possession enough to back out of the scrape, 1 or, if it is inevitable, to march with due re- signation to meet his fate. In like manner, it is not that poor Pillgarlick, the lover, has clear notion (persons in his condition are rare | ly troubled with clear notons) of what awaits him, but he feels kind of choking about the neck of his heart, hang-dog inclination to go backwards instead of forwards, check, a sudden stop in all his functions. He knows not how to look, or what to say. His fine plan, arranged with so much happy enthusi | asm, when sitting alone in his arm m-chair, af- ter a>good dinner, and two or three glasses of Af | with his feet upon the fender, proves quite | limpracticable. Either it has escaped his memory altogether, or the conversation per | versely takes turn totally different from that | by which he hoped to lead the fair one from 1 indifferent topics to thoughts of tenderer complexion, and thus, by fine degrees, Che watching, all the time, how she was affected, in order to be sure of his bottom, before he | makes the plunge,) to insnuate his confess l sion, just at the moment that he knows 1t will

 be well received.

 | The desperate struggles and f1ounderinSs | by which some endeavor to get out of their | embarrassment are amusing enough. We re- member to have been much delighted the | first time we heard the history of the wooing of noble lord, now no more, narrated. His | lortlship was man of talents and enterprise, of stainless pedigree, and fair rent-roll, but the veriest slave of bashfulness. Like all timid and quiet men, he was very susceptible, and very constant, as long as he was in the habit of seeing the object of his affections dai- | ly. He chanced, at the beginning of an Ed l inburgh winter, to lose his heart to Miss -; and as their families were in the habits of in- tmacy, he had frequent opportunities of meet ing with her. He gazed and sighed inces- santly-a very Dumbiedikes, but that he had .la ba fol uad

 rywherc; he felt jealous, uncomfortable, sav- age, if she looked even civily at another; and yet, notwithstanding his stoutest resolutions notwithstanding the encouragement afforded him by the lady, a woman of sense, who saw

 what his lordship would be at, esteemed his character, was superior to girlish atft citation, and made every advance consistent with wo- manly delicacy-the winter was fast fading into spring, and he had not yet got his mouth opened. Mamma at last lost all patience; and one day, when his lordship was taking his usual lounge in the drawing-room, silent, or uttering an occasional monosylable, the good

 lady abruptly left the room, and locked the

 pair in alone When his lordship, on assay

 ing to take his leave, discovered the predca-

 ment in which he stood, adesperate fit of reso- lution seized him. Miss sat bending most

 assduously over her needle, deep blush on

 her cheek. His lordship, advanced towards her, but, losing heart by the way, passed on in silence to the other end of the room. He returned to the charge, but again without et- feet. At last, nerving himself like one about to spring powder mine, he stopped short be- fore her-ssMiss -, will you marry mel"

 "Wth the greatest pleasure, my lord, was the answer given in a low, somewhat timid,

 but unfalterng voice, while deeper crimson

 suffused the face of the speaker. And right good wife she made to him.

 Some gentlemen, equally nervous, and un-

 aided by such a discriminating and ingenious mamma, have recourse to the plan of wooing by proxy. This is a system which can by no means recommend If male agent be employed, there is great danger, that, before he is aware, he begins to plead for himself- Talking of love, even in the abstract, with

 woman, is a ticklsh matter. Emotions are awakened, which we thought were lulled to sleep for ever, and we grow desirous to ap-

 propriate to ourselves the pretty sentiments l which she so well expresses. A female go- between is less dangerous; but cannot con | ceive with what face man can ever address a woman as his wife whom he had not courage to woo for himself.

 Day, the philosopher, had freak ot etu- eating wife for himself. He got two orphan

 girls intrusted to his care, on entering into re-

 cognizances to educate and provide for them. One proved too mulish to make any thing of.

 The other grew up every thing he could have

 wished. And yet he gave up the idea of

 marrying her, because she one day purchas-

 ed handkerchief more gaudy than accorded

 with his philosophical notions. Of course, it never came to declaration. wish it had, that one might have seen with what degree ot

 grace man could divest himself of the grave