the boat was rowed by a crack waterman, who observing that the dog was getting on the man's back, and might, by keeping his head immersed, soon cause him to be drowned, skilfully dived the boat under the General, that he might get into the boat and shake off the dog. Thus the most expert swimmer in England had nearly been drowned by the best swimmer among dogs.

Mr C. has himself swum a mile and a half. He thinks that, if a man jumps off a coach, he should not jump off behind, but jump off in front, because he then moves in the direction of the current of air caused by the motion of the coach.

July 27. DONICAN has only the £400 a year pension from Government, but begged that Mr C. would accept £40, if such a sum would be of use to him, in return for the many acts of kindness, which the General had received from Mr C., but he declined taking it.

CXLIX. Slander.

"The following is a striking instance, and an alarming proof, that calumny and slander will one day grievously afflict the conscious mind :—A clergyman, with whom I had lived much in friendship, always ready to shew him every proof of civility, and for whom I had much esteem, after an absence of a twelvemonth or more, sent me a line that he was then in a dangerous state, apprehensive of a speedy death. I flew to my friend with all zeal and speed, and found him as it seemed in a very dangerous way. Almost as soon as he saw me, he burst into tears, and clasping my hands vehemently, said, 'Oh, my dear Doctor, I could not die in peace without seeing you, and earnestly imploring your pardon; for amidst all the seeming friendship I shewed, I have been your bitter enemy,-I have done

all I could on every occasion to traduce and lessen you, envy, base envy alone, being my motive; for I could not bear the brilliancy of your reputation, and the splendour of your abilities. Can you forgive me?' I was shocked, but with great truth told him to be perfectly at ease; that he had my most sincere forgiveness. I did all I could to soothe his mind. He recovered, and surely must ever be my friend! Would to God what he then suffered, may be a warning to him, and to all, how they indulge such diabolical passions, which being most opposite to the God, who is Love, cannot but sooner or later woefully distract the heart!"

THE REV. DR WM DODD's Thoughts in prison, p. 118.

CL. AN ARABIC ELEGY BY MIR MOHAMMED HUSAIN

BEFORE HIS JOURNEY.

Never, oh! never shall I forget the fair one, who came to me with timid circumspection :

Sleep sat heavy on her eyelids, and her heart fluttered with fear. She had long marked the dragons of her tribe (the sentinels), and apprehended no danger from them:

She had laid aside the rings, that used to grace her ankles, lest the sound of them should expose her to calamity:

She deplored the darkness of the way, which hid from her the morning star.

It was a night, when the eye-lashes of the moon were tinged with the black powder (alcohol) of the gloom;

A night in which thou mightest have seen the clouds like camels, eagerly gazing on the stars.

While the eyes of heaven wept on the bright borders of the sky,

The lightning displayed his shining teeth with wonder at this change in the firmament;

And the thunder almost burst the ears of the deafened rocks.

She was desirous of embracing me, but through modesty declined my embrace.

Tears bedewed her cheeks, and, to my eyes, watered a bower of

roses.

When she spoke, panting sighs blew flames into my heart.

She continued expostulating with me on my excessive desire of travel.

"Thou hast melted my heart," she said, “and made it feel inexpressible anguish.

Thou art perverse in thy conduct to her, who loves thee, and obsequious to thy guileful adviser.

Thou goest round from country to country, and art never pleased with a fixed residence:

One while the seas roll with thee, and another while thou art on the shore.

What fruit, but painful fatigue, can arise from rambling over foreign regions?

Hast thou associated thyself with the wild antelopes of the desert, and forgotten the tame deer?

Art thou weary then of our neighbourhood? O! woe to him who flies from his love!

Have pity at length on my afflicted heart, which seeks relief, and cannot obtain it."

CLI. Sonnet.

Take, oh take those lips away,
That so sweetlye were forsworne,

And those eyes, the breake of day,

Lights, that do misleade the morne :

But my kisses bring againe,

Seales of love, but seal'd in vaine :

Hide, oh hide those hills of snowe,
Which thy frozen bosom beares,

On whose tops the pinkes that growe,
Are of those that April wears :
But first set my poor heart free,
Bound in those icy chains by thee.

The first stanza of this little Sonnet, which an eminent Critic (Bishop Warburton in his Shakespeare) justly admires for its extreme sweetness, is found in Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, A. 4, Sc. 1; both the stanzas are preserved in Beaumont and Fletcher's Bloody Brother, A. 5. Sc. 2. Sewel and Gildon have printed it among Shakespeare's smaller poems, but they have done the same by 20 other pieces that were never writ by him; their book being a wretched heap of inaccuracies and mistakes: it is not found in Taggard's old edition of Shakespeare's Sonnets reprinted by Lintot. Reliques of Ancient Poetry, Vol. I, 2nd Ed., p. 227.

CLII. EPITAPH.

By fond affection to thy friends endear'd,
By worth ennobled, and by all rever'd,
Go, gentle Spirit to the realms above,

And share with Angels thy Redeemer's love.

CLIII. Remarkable Instance of Fecundity, from a curious monumental Inscription.

It startles us at first thoughts to find, that the world has been peopled by the descendants of a single pair of the human species. The fecundity of the human species is certainly great;

its numbers would undoubtedly have been greater, were it not for the mortality occasioned by epidemical diseases, war, famine, and accidents of all kinds. But as the increase of the brute and vegetable kind would bear no proportion to the human species, were it not for these sceming calamities; we find the divine mercy illustrating itself even in its punishments; and with a fatherly tenderness, thinning the human species, that the remnant of them might meet a sufficient supply of the necessaries of life. Should our species he exempted from these catastrophes, and should the brute creation increase in proportion, there would then be substituted another want, which we do not feel at present, there would be too great scarcity of vegetables to supply both the species. But this evil is prevented by subjecting both species to violent deaths, the rational to the devastations of war, and the irrational to the supply of the calls of our hunger. Thus Partial ill is universal

good; and Whatever is, is right.

The possibility of peopling the world by one pair of the human species, and the kindness of our heavenly Father in making the instances of great fecundity scarce and remarkable, employed my thoughts, when I saw the following inscription at the cathedral of Lincoln, which I here transmit to you.

"Here lyeth the body of Michael Honywood, D. D. who was grandchild, and one of the THREE HUNDRED and SIXTYSEVEN persons that Mary, the wife of Robert Honywood, Esq, did see, before she died, lawfully descended from her (that is) 16 of her own body, 114 grandchildren, 228 of the third generation, and 9 of the fourth."- Mrs. Honywood died in the year 1605, and in the 78th year of her age.

CLIV. Alliteration.

The late Mr Pitt, the translator of Virgil, exhibited a striking