round the room. The attendants quickly learn to distinguish the person of a reader, though with strangers, or with readers whose visits are few and far between, there may be occasional delays or mistakes. The daily average number of readers is about 220, mostly all of the "sterner sex," for the daily average number of ladies attending the rooms is not more than eight. The regular "literary man, who wishes to do "a good day's work," generally starts for the Reading-Room as soon after breakfast as he can. He thus arrives before the rooms become crowded, consults the folio volumes of catalogue without being jostled, gets his books without much delay, secures a good seat, with elbow" space, and falls to work as heartily as he may Towards the middle of the day the rooms become full, especially at certain seasons, and sometimes, though rarely in the new rooms, it is difficult to obtain a seat. ANIMAL MAGNETISM. NO. I. "Thou may'st bereave him of his wits with wonder." MUCH has, of late, been said and written concerning animal magnetism; and, not long since, a "nine days' wonder" was created by a series of magnetic experiments performed at the North London Hospital. No sooner were these experiments begun, than a great outcry was raised against the pretended science which they were intended to illustrate. Since that period, professional controversy has raged like a tornado among the metropolitan medical practitioners, whilst the thunders of literary criticism have been brought up as heavy artillery to aid in subduing a heresy which seems to set at nought the known laws of physical nature. Some critics, we apprehend, have directed their fire into empty space, because, for want of knowing anything of the matter in dispute, they had no object to aim at. Others have applied to a question involving, whatever be its merits, points of the highest science, the measure of their own limited philosophy. One of our contemporaries, distinguished by considerable literary talent as well as pretensions, warmly took up the arms of partisanship against animal magnetism, as it had done before against phrenology, and would do against any recent scientific discovery which did not accurately fit into the frame of its own understanding, or that of the literary coterie which supplies it with The general visitors of the Museum are not admitted into the Library rooms (with the exception of the noble room which contains the King's Library), on the plea that the mere sight of the backs of books could afford neither amusement nor instruction. The true reason is, that a crowd of visiters would completely obstruct the attendants in getting the books required for the readers. The Reading-room is therefore the medium through which the vast library of the British Museum is made available to the public. It is one of the chief fountain-heads of that great river of literature which rolls through the land. Hither come the critics, and the encyclopædists, and the artists, and the writers in periodical works; here they hunt over the remains of the past-critics. old manuscripts and old books, old prints and old maps; and though doubtless there may be some readers who may make as ingenious a use of their privilege as "Boz's" critic did-that is, to do an article on Chinese metaphysics, read under Chinese, and then under Metaphysics, and combine the information-there is no doubt that the Reading-Room of the British Museum is a very great public advantage. A FIGHT WITH A WOLF. MR. HOFFMAN, in his entertaining "Wild Scenes in the Forest and Prairie," tells a story of an encounter with a wolf, which he thinks worthy of being put alongside of old Putnam's famous adventure. John Cheney, a regular "backwoodsman," rose one winter's morning to examine his traps; "when, hovering round one of them, he discovered a famished wolf, who, unappalled by the presence of the hunter, retired only a few steps, and then, turning round, stood watching all his movements. I ought, by rights,' quoth John, to have waited for my dogs, who could not have been far off; but the creeter looked so sarcy, standing there, that though I had not a bullet to spare, I could'nt help letting into him with my rifle.' He missed his aim; the animal giving a spring as he was in the act of firing, and then turning instantly upon him before he could reload his piece. So effective was the unexpected attack of the wolk, that his fore-paws were upon Cheney's snow-shoes before he could rally for the fight. The forester became entangled in the deep drift, and sank upon his back, keeping the wolf only at bay by striking at him with his clubbed rifle. The stock was broken to pieces in a few moments, and it would have fared ill with the stark woodsman, if the wolf, instead of making at his enemy's throat when he had him thus at disadvantage, had not, with blind fury, seized the barrel of the gun in his jaws. Still the fight was unequal, as John, half buried in the snow, could make use of but one of his hands. He shouted to his dogs; but one of them only, a young untrained hound, made his appearance; emerging from a thicket, he caught sight of his master lying apparently at the mercy of the ravenous beastuttered a yell of fear, and fled howling to the woods again. Had I but one shot left,' said Cheney, I would have given it to that dog instead of despatching the wolf with it.' All this passed in a moment; the wolf was still grinding the iron gun-barrel in his teeth; he had even once wrenched it from the hand of the hunter, when, dashing like a thunderbolt between the combatants, the other hound sprang over his master's body, and seized the wolf by the throat. There was no let-go about that dog when once he took hold. If the barrel had been red hot, the wolf could'nt have dropped it quicker; and it would have done you good, I tell ye, to see that old dog drag the creeter's head down in the snow, while I, just at my leisure, drove the iron into his skull. One good fair blow, with a heavy rifle barrel, on the back of the head, finished him. The fellow gave a kind of quiver, stretched out his hind legs, and then he was done for.' After the experiments at the North London Hospital, which we readily admit to be as absurd as they are unsatisfactory, our contemporary, to create an opportunity for publishing his manifesto against animal magnetism, reviewed two works, one depreciatory of it, the other in its favour. The author of the first is an English surgeon; and the book is bepraised far beyond its deserts; the other emanates from the pen of a French physician, who professes to be an adept in animal magnetism to the fullest extent of its absurdities. The Englishman has performed his task with a very mediocre knowledge of the subject; the Frenchman knows a great deal more than really exists, and is ignorant of that which does exist. The Englishman's book is nothing better than fighting with the empty air; the Frenchman's is a weak and puerile production. Neither throws any new light upon either the absurdity or the rationale of animal magnetism; but both served the reviewer's purpose to work his will upon and denounce the quackery and imposture of a pretended discovery, which he, also, seems to know only by name, and is therefore unable to explain to his readers. We should scarcely have ventured the above remarks, did our contemporary, in his just indignation against the quackery he denounces, not lose sight of his philosophy. In great wrath, he deprecates being called upon to believe impossibilities." Now, what is an impossibility? The reply is, that, among other assertions equally absurd, the faculty is attributed to persons in a state of somnambulism, as it is strangely called, of seeing, when asleep and their eyes shut, objects presented to their abdomen, and reading the finest writing or print placed upon this part of their body. The expression of being called upon to believe impossibilities," is so far from the tone of true philosophy, that it would create an animus subversive of philosophy and inimical to research, discovery, and improvement in knowledge. The true line of argument would have been this:-The Creator has established fixed and immutable laws for the governance of all physical nature. Many of these laws are known to and understood by man; and the investigations of science have shown that, in her operations, nature never employs two means to produce the same end when one will suffice. Thus, a complicated piece of mechanism called the eye constitutes the sole organ of vision, and to it nature has applied the well-known laws of optics. From the eye, the nerve of vision conveys to the brain pictures of the objects which strike upon the retina, which is a nervous expansion placed there to receive them. Now, the abdomen has no retina, neither does it contain any nerve of vision to convey pictures to the brain, the faculty of doing so being given by nature to the eye only. It is evident therefore that no power of vision from the abdomen can exist, because its existence would be in opposition to a law of nature. It is true that some supporters of animal magnetism have alleged certain of its effects to be supernatural. Such explanation is not only absurd but contradictory; because, if animal magnetism exists at all, it must be common to all animals, at least of a particular description, and must therefore be the effect of a natural cause, and subject to fixed laws. Now the supernatural cannot proceed from the natural; and as nature, though her laws are multifarious, never impedes by one the operation of another, as is sometimes the case with human legislators,* those who pretend to see with the abdomen and to be the instruments of the other wonders attributed to animal magnetism, are impostors. omnes. We have broken a lance with our formidable and really gifted contemporary to show the spirit with which the discussions on animal magnetism have generally been conducted, "Ex uno disce The herd of less powerful scribes by whom it has been assailed, have pursued the same unsatisfactory course, without any attempt to elucidate the question, without any examination of facts or causes, without showing any inclination to discover whether or not there exist, commingled with absurdities which have made so much noise and seduced the imaginations of so many clever men that they are entitled to the test of careful investigation, any real materials of science,—and, if so, to separate the corn from the chaff. Such ought to have been the course pursued by every journal willing to hasten the progress of knowledge. The only observations really to the purpose appeared in that very clever medical journal "The Lancet ;" and the talent, pertinence, and acumen, displayed by Mr. Wakley in his test of the value of the experiments at the North London Hospital, are deserving of the highest praise. Unfortunately, "The Lancet," being a strictly professional paper, does not often fall in the way of unprofessional readers. After the first surprise occasioned by the novelty of the controversy, by the wonders announced as resulting from Dr. Elliotson's experiments, and by the angry sarcasms which this learned experimenter upon the effects of magnetic somnambulism elicited from its opponents-for more generally sarcasm has held the place of argument-the reading multitude, who collectively constitute the "common sense" of the country, began to ask this simple question, "What is animal magnetism?" It is known to every reading person that animal magnetism owes its discovery to a German physician named Mesmer, whence it also bears the name of Mesmerism. About the middle of the last century, Mesmer brought his discovery to France, where it excited a prodigious sensation. No period of French society was more favourable to its reception, no country in the civilised world better calculated for its success, or that of any other species of empiricism. At this time the political destinies of the French nation were placed under the despotic rule of the fifteenth Louis, one of the most profligate and least intellectually endowed of the line of monarchs said to descend from Charlemagne. The French people were then divided into two distinct orders, between which there existed a barrier of demarcation strong and ponderous as iron, towering to an immense height, and apparently seated upon secure foundations. The gates of this formidable structure were seldom opened, even for the admission of wealth or genius. On the inside were the patricians or nobles, a race claiming, as the privileges of high lineage, exemption from all the burthens of the state, whilst they exercised over the other part of the nation the powers arrogated by feudality. With the nobles were the clergy, with their immense wealth, their tithes, and other prescriptive exactions, the burthen of which fell upon the people. On the outer side of the barrier were the plebeians or people, who possessed the whole mass of learning, talent, industry, and virtue, existing throughout the land; but, like the Pariahs of Hindostan, they appeared a despised and degraded race. They were treated with contempt and oppression by the aristocracy, who compelled them not only to wear the chains of feudal power, but to support, unaided, the whole burthen of taxation, the whole weight of the fiscal measures considered necessary to carry on one of the most arbitrary governments that ever existed, and to meet the pecuniary exigences of their profligate king and his no less profligate minions. At this period, the upper ranks of French society were in so entirely artificial a state, that even the organs and faculties given by nature for the purposes of physical existence, were distorted and misused. In his dress, the French gentleman resembled a mountebank. The luxuriant curls that adorned a youthful head, * Among other laughable instances, we give the following. An Act of Parliament was passed some few years since, to authorise the rebuilding of a certain prison in this metropolis. A clause of the Act provides that the materials of which the old prison is formed shall be employed to build the new. A subsequent clause provides that the prisoners shall remain in the old prison until the new is built. were removed by the razor to be replaced by a full-bottomed periwig *. Upon the summit of this enormity was perched a small three-cornered hat; whilst a frill and ruffles of lace, a jewel-hilted sword, gold or silver embroidery upon a singularly grotesque form of coat and waistcoat, diamond knee and shoe buckles, and red-heeled shoes, compieted the attire. The dress of the ladies was still more monstrously absurd. An immense and heavy head-dress, towering to a height of more than a foot, and made solid by pads, to which the hair was cemented with powder and pomatum, placed the face of a short woman apparently near the middle of her person. The expense of the materials, and the time necessary to construct upon a lady's head an edifice secundum artem, made the hair-dresser's visits rather costly. The less wealthy among the high-born dames of the day avoided this expense, by rendering these visits as similar as possible to those of angels," few and far between." The consequence was, that vermin bred undisturbed in their padded, powdered, and greasy hair; and the vulgar epithet, "lousy," might, with justice, have been applied to many a fine lady in England as well as in France; for upon these French models were our English fashions formed, though the English fine gentleman, in his endeavours to ape the manners as well as the dress of the Frenchman, betrayed the instinct of the bear, rather than that of the monkey; and the English lady could never fit on with her dress what was termed the ease and grace of the Frenchwoman. Hoops of prodigious amplitude, stays that deformed the waist to a most unnatural degree of smallness, and shoes with narrow heels, four inches high, concurred, with the head-gear already described, in concealing, disguising, or distorting, the most lovely forms given by nature to woman. The This monstrously grotesque attire of both sexes was, however, in strict keeping with the tone, habits, and feelings, of what was termed "polished society;" polished, indeed, to such a degree, that no traces remained of the natural gem. Everything was the result of calculated affectation. An impudent strut was called an air of dignity; and the king was said to have an air of uncommon dignity by displaying that which, if shown by a peasant, would have been termed "awkwardness," and "rustic insolence." manners of the men, with an excessive exaggeration of politeness, and an assumption of wit and vivacity, were founded on the most consummate coxcombry and impudent self-conceit; those of the women, who exercised an apparently despotic sway over the other sex, were a mixture of the affectation of mawkish sensibility, and of the practice of shameless licentiousness, enhanced by unrivalled powers of light and easy conversation, possessed by both sexes, and to which the French language is peculiarly adapted. Religion was but a mockery: if its outward forms were observed, its reality was scoffed at even by high-born prelates; because vice had become the creature of fashion, from the example of a line of profligate rulers, who were said to be "the Lord's anointed." The mannerism of their affectation extended to the literature of the French, and to their fine arts, including their music. Nothing was submitted to the test of the feelings, all was measured by an artificial standard of convention, which elicited a false and unfelt enthusiasm, in which the voice spake, but the heart was mute. The keenness of sensual pleasures had worn off by extreme indulgence and misuse; and the nobles of France, young and old, were no longer excited by any of the ordinary pursuits and amusements then known. Extremely ignorantfor it was the fashion of the times to be so they had no intellectual resources to combat and destroy a phantom called ennui, which eternally haunted those whose senses had been blunted by excess of premature enjoyment. The whole object of the highest French society of this period was therefore to seek sensations by discovering novelties, to obtain excitement from new and extraordinary causes. Cheats and quacks found numerous patrons, and many young nobles betook themselves to mysterious pursuits, practising those chemical and physical mystifications which surprised the ignorant, and were coupled by the superstitious with magic and witchcraft. It was at such a time, and in such a state of society, that Mesmer appeared to practise animal magnetism, and exert its imputed curative power over all diseases. The singular nature *This fashion was originally derived from Louis XIV., miscalled, by his adulators, "Louis the Great." That monarch, on the loss of his hair, from old age, concealed his baldness under a huge wig, of a kind then recently invented. The courtiers, one and all, imitated their master, and wigs continued in fashion up to the end of the eighteenth century. of his pretended discovery, the mode of its application, and the mystery of its action, soon brought it into such vogue as to cause a frenzy of excitement. Its fame, and even its practice, extended to England, and the follies of animal magnetism were justly and successfully held up to public ridicule by Foote, and some of the other dramatists of the day. In England, however, it made no impression; and not one of our medical practitioners was induced to put its powers to the test. It therefore left our shores in disgrace, not to return until its late visit to the North London Hospital. Here we must close the present article. Next week we shall resunie the subject of animal magnetism, to our account of which the preceding observations must serve as an introduction. THE ASS WOURALIA. EVERY one who has read Waterton's Wanderings in South America, must remember the Wourali poison. This poison is compounded by the Indians, with many forms and great solemnity, of numerous ingredients, and they use it for killing game; for, strange to say, though it produces almost instant death, the flesh of animals killed by it may be eaten with perfect safety. The antidote to this poison is inflating the lungs of the injured animal with air; and if this be done immediately, and continued for a sufficient length of time, it is almost always successful. When Mr. Waterton was in the wilds of Guiana, he procured some of the Wourali poison; and when he returned to England, in 1814, he brought it with him to London, where experiments were tried with it on various animals. Among others was a female ass, which had been purchased of a London sweep, and which was then about three years old. On this ass the experiment was tried, by striking a spike dipped in the poison into the fleshy part of her shoulder. For a minute or two the ass stood quite still, as if stupified; then she attempted to move, but was unable to walk, and after staggering a few paces she fell. Her legs now became convulsed, her eyes dim, and in a few more minutes she was apparently dead. UNCLE ABEL AND LITTLE EDWARD. FROM "THE GIFT" OF 1839. WERE any of you born in New England, in the good old catechising, school-going, orderly times? If you were, you must remember my Uncle Abel; the most perpendicular, rectangular, upright, downright good man that ever laboured six days and rested on the Sabbath. You remember his hard, weather-beaten countenance,-where every line seemed to be drawn with a pen of iron and the point of if it were not best to be in a hurry about seeing; the circumspect a diamond; his considerate grey eyes, that moved over objects as opening and shutting of his mouth;-his down-sitting and uprising; all of which appeared to be performed with conviction afore-thought-in short, the whole ordering of his life and conversation, which was, according to the tenor of the military order -"to the right-about face-forward-march!" this good man had nothing kindly within, you were much mis Now, if you supposed, from all this triangularism of exterior, that taken. You often find the greenest grass under a snow-drift, and though my uncle's mind was not exactly of the flower-garden kind, still there was an abundance of wholesome and kindly vegetation there. It is true, he seldom laughed, and never joked—himself; but no man had a more weighty and serious conviction of what a good joke was in another, and when some exceeding witticism was dispensed in his presence, you might see Uncle Abel's face slowly relax into author with a certain quiet wonder, as if it was astonishing how an expression of solemn satisfaction, and he would look at the such a thing could ever come into a man's head. Uncle Abel also had some relish for the fine arts, in proof whereof I might adduce the pleasure with which he gazed at the plates in his family Bible, the likeness whereof I presume you never any of you saw-and he was also such an eminent musician, that he could go through the singing-book at a sitting, without the least fatigue, beating time like a windmill all the way. He had, too, a liberal hand-though his liberality was all by the rule-of-three and practice. He did to his neighbours exactly as he would be done by--he loved some things in this world sincerely -he loved his God much, but honoured and feared him more; he was exact with others, he was more exact with himself-and ex As this animal was young, and remarkably healthy, she was judged a proper object for trying the effect of the antidote; and as soon as she appeared quite dead, an incision was made in her wind-pected his God to be more exact still. pipe, to which, under the superintendence of Mr. Sewell (then of the London Veterinary College), a pair of common bellows was applied. The process of inflation had been carried on about two hours, when the ass partially raised her head, and looked round; but the working of the bellows being discontinued, she closed her eyes again, and seemed to relapse into a state of stupor. The process of inflation was then resumed, and, in about two hours more, the ass was sufficiently recovered to rise from the ground. Everything in Uncle Abel's house was in the same time, place, manner, and form, from year's end to year's end. The present Duke of Northumberland, then Earl Percy, was present at this experiment, and he felt so much interested in the fate of the ass, that he begged she might be called Wouralia; and he sent her down to Walton Hall, with a request to Mr. Waterton that she might be well taken care of. Every one who knows the kindness and benevolence of Mr. Waterton, and his ardent love for science, will readily believe that this request would be attended to. Wouralia, indeed, without any recommendation, must have possessed a strong interest in his eyes. Mr. Waterton had gone through hardships in search of the Wourali poison, which no one but himself could have sustained-for, perhaps, no other human being possesses so much activity of mind and body, united with such extraordinary perseverance—and, of course, he must have felt a deep interest in an animal on which the only known remedy for this deadly poison had been tried. Poor Wouralia did not immediately recover from the effects of the poison; but, in about a year, she became strong and healthy. At Walton Hall she experienced every happiness that her nature was capable of enjoying. She fed in the finest pastures during summer, and was well sheltered from the cold of winter; and she was never suffered to do any work. For five-and-twenty years Wouralia enjoyed this earthly paradise, till, on the 15th of February last, she died, without any disease, save apparently the natural exhaustion of old age. There was old Master Bose, a dog after my uncle's own heart, who always walked as if he were learning the multiplication table. There was the old clock, for ever ticking in the kitchen-corner, with a picture on its face of the sun, for ever setting behind a perpendicular row of poplars. There was the never-failing supply of yearly hollyhocks and morning-glories, blooming around the winred peppers and onions hanging over the chimney. There were the dows. There was the "best room" with its sanded floor, and ever-green asparagus bushes-its cupboard with a glass-door in one corner-and the stand with the great Bible and almanac on it, in the other. There was Aunt Betsey, who never looked any older, because she always looked as old as she could-who always dried her catnip and wormwood the last of September, and began to clean house the first of May. In short, this was the land of continuance. Old Time never seemed to take into his head to practise either addition, subtraction, or multiplication, on its sum total. This aunt Betsey aforenamed, was the neatest and most efficient piece of human machinery that ever operated in forty places at once. She was always everywhere, predominating over, and seeing to, everything, and though my uncle had been twice married, aunt Betsey's rule and authority had never been broken. reigned over his wives when living, and reigned after them when dead, and so seemed likely to reign to the end of the chapter. But my uncle's latest wife left aunt Betsey a much less tractable subject than had ever before fallen to her lot. Little Edward was the child of my uncle's old age, and a brighter, merrier little blossom never grew up on the verge of an avalanche. He had been committed to the nursing of his grandmama, until he had arrived at the years of indiscretion, and then my old uncle's heart yearned toward him, and he was sent for home. His introducthere such a contemner of dignities-such a violator of all high tion into the family excited a terrible sensation. Never was places and sanctities, as this very Master Edward. It was all in vain to try to teach him decorum. He was the most outrageously merry little elf that ever shook a head of curls, and it was She all the same to him whether it was "Sabba-day or any other day. He laughed and frolicked with everybody and everything that came in his way, not even excepting his solemn old father; and when you saw him with his arms round the old man's neck, and his bright blue eyes and blooming cheek pressing out by the bleak face of uncle Abel, you almost fancied that you saw spring caressing winter. Uncle Abel's metaphysics were sorely puzzled to bring this sparkling, dancing compound of spirit and matter into any reasonable shape, for he did mischief with an energy and perseverance that was truly astonishing. Once, he scoured the floor with aunt Betsey's very Scotch snuff, and once he washed up the hearth with uncle Abel's most immaculate clothes-brush, and once he spent half an hour in trying to make Bose wear his father's spectacles. In short there was no use, but the right one, to which he did not put everything that came in his way. But uncle Abel was most of all puzzled to know what to do with him on the Sabbath, for on that day Master Edward seemed to exert himself particularly to be entertaining. Edward, Edward, must not play on Sunday," his father would say, and then Edward would shake his curls over his eyes, and walk out of the room as grave as the catechism, but the next moment you might see pussy scampering in all dismay through the best room," with Edward at her heels, to the manifest discomposure of aunt Betsey, and all others in authority. At last my uncle came to the conclusion, that "it wasn't in natur to teach him any better," and that "he would no more keep Sunday than the brook down the lot." My poor uncle! he did not know what was the matter with his heart, but certain it was, that he lost all faculty of scolding when little Edward was in the case, though he would stand rubbing his spectacles a quarter of an hour longer than common, when aunt Betsey was detailing his witticisms and clever doings. But in process of time our hero compassed his third year, and arrived at the dignity of going to school. He went illustriously through the spelling-book, and then attacked the Catechism; went from "Man's Chief End" to "the Commandments in a fortnight, and at last came home inordinately merry, to tell his father he had got to "Amen." After this, he made a regular business of saying over the whole every Sunday evening, standing with his hands folded in front, and his checked apron smoothed down, occasionally giving a glance over his shoulder, to see whether pussy was attending. Being of a very benevolent turn of mind, he made several very commendable efforts to teach Bose the catechism, in which he succeeded as well as could be expected. In short, without farther detail, Master Edward bade fair to be a literary wonder. But, alas, for poor little Edward! his merry dance was soon over. A day came when he sickened. Aunt Betsey tried her whole herbarium, but in vain; he grew rapidly worse and worse. His father sickened in heart, but said nothing, he only stayed by his bedside day and night, trying all means to save him, with affecting pertinacity. "Can't you think of anything more, doctor?" said he to the physician, when everything had been tried in vain. Nothing," answered the physician. A slight convulsion passed over my uncle's face. "Then the Lord's will be done!" said he. Just at that moment a ray of the setting sun pierced the checked curtains, and gleamed like an angel's smile across the face of the little sufferer. He awoke from disturbed sleep. "Oh dear! oh, I am so sick!" he gasped feebly. His father raised him in his arms; he breathed easier, and looked up with a grateful smile. Just then his old playmate, the cat, crossed the floor. "There goes pussy," said he, "Oh dear, I shall never play with pussy any more." At that moment a deadly change passed over his face, he looked up to his father with an imploring expression, and put out his hands. There was one moment of agony, and then the sweet features all settled with a smile of peace, and "mortality was swallowed up of life." My uncle laid him down and looked one moment at his beautiful face; it was too much for his principles, too much for his pride, and "he lifted up his voice and wept." The next morning was the Sabbath,-the funeral day, and it rose "with breath all incense and with cheek all bloom." Uncle Abel was as calm and collected as ever, but in his face there was a sorrow-stricken expression that could not be mistaken. I remember him at family prayers bending over the great Bible, and beginning the psalm, "Lord, thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations." Apparently he was touched by the melancholy splendour of the poetry; for after reading a few verses he stopped. There was a dead silence, interrupted only by the ticking of the clock. He cleared his voice repeatedly and tried to go on, but in vain. He closed the book and knelt to prayer. The energy of sorrow broke through his usual formal reverence, and his language flowed forth with a deep and sorrowful pathos, which I have never forgotten. The God so much reverenced, so much feared, seemed to draw near to him as a friend and comforter, to be his refuge and strength, "a very present help in time of trouble." My uncle arose, and I saw him walk toward the room of the departed one. I followed, and stood with him over the dead. He uncovered the face. It was set with the seal of death, but oh! how surpassingly lovely was the impression! The brilliancy of life was gone, but the face was touched with the mysterious triumphant brightness which seems like the dawning of heaven. My uncle looked long and steadily. He felt the beauty of what he gazed on; his heart was softened, but he had no words for his feelings. He left the room unconsciously, and stood in the front door. The bells were ringing for church, the morning was bright, the birds were singing merrily, and the little pet squirrel of little Edward was frolicking about the door. My uncle watched him as he ran, first up one tree and then another, and then over the fence, whisking his brush and chattering just as if nothing was the matter. With a deep sigh, uncle Abel broke forth "How happy that cretur is! Well, the Lord's will be done." That day the dust was committed to dust, amid the lamentations of all who had known little Edward. Years have passed since then, and my uncle has long been gathered to his fathers, but his just and upright spirit has entered the liberty of the sons of God. Yes, the good man may have opinions which the philosophical scorn, weaknesses at which the thoughtless smile, but death shall change him into all that is enlightened, wise, and refined. "He shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and as the stars for ever and ever." VERSES, SENT BY A YOUNG LADY TO HER NEWLY-MARRIED FRIEND,* Wisdom soon will cease to warn her Whose delight is to betray,— To drive Friendship far away. All must yield, or else he'll scorn her; His mantle Friendship must prepare ;- Instals him quickly in her corner, Lest they pass poor Friendship by. *From the French of Beranger. PORTRAIT OF WASHINGTON. The best likeness of this great man, known to all travellers from the oddness of the material on which it is preserved, is to be seen here, (Mount Vernon,) sanctioned thus by the testimony of the family. The best likeness of Washington happens to be on a common pitcher. As soon as this was discovered, the whole edition of the pitchers was bought up, Once or twice I saw the entire vessel, locked up in a cabinet, or in some such way secured from accident: but most of its possessors have, like the family, cut out the portrait, and had it framed.-Retrospect of Western Travel. MARCH OF REFINEMENT. A cobbler living in Swan-street, Minories, thus pompously announced his calling:-"Surgery performed here upon old boots and shoes, by adding of the feet, making good the legs, binding the broken, healing the wounded, mending the constitution, and supporting the body with new soles. Advice gratis by B. Marks."- Newspaper Paragraph. THE AFRICAN RHINOCEROS. The black Rhinoceros, whose domains we seemed now to have invaded, resembles in general appearance an immense hog; twelve feet and a half long, six feet and a half high, girth eight feet and a half, and of the weight of balf a dozen bullocks; its body is smooth, and there is no hair seen excep. at the tips of the ears, and the extremity of the tail. The horns of concreted hair, the foremost curved like a sabre, and the second resembling a flattened cone, stand on the nose and above the eye; in the young animals the foremost horn is the longest, whilst in the old ones they are of equal length, namely, a foot and a half or more: though the older the rhinoceros the shorter are its horns, as they wear them by sharpening them against the trees, and by rooting up the ground with them when in a passion. When the rhinoceros is quietly pursuing his way through his favourite glades of mimosa bushes, (which his hooked upper lip enables him readily to seize, and his powerful grinders to masticate,) his horns, fixed loosely on his skin, make a clapping noise by striking one against the other; but on the approach of danger, if his quick ear or keen scent make him aware of the vicinity of a hunter, the head is quickly raised, and the horns stand stiff and ready for combat on his terrible front. The rhinoceros is often accompanied by a sentinel to give him warning, a beautiful green-backed and blue-winged bird, about the size of a jay, which sits on one of his horns.-Alexander's Expedition. CHARACTERISTICS. We were talking of the levity and gaiety of heart of the French, even under the severest misfortunes. This drew forth an anecdote, which had been related to him by Mr. Pitt. Shortly after the tragical death of Marie Antoinette, M. Perigord, an emigrant of some consequence, who had made Mr. Pitt's acquaintance at Versailles, took refuge in England, and on coming to London went to pay his respects in Downing-street. The conversation naturally turned upon the bloody scenes of the French Revolution; on their fatal consequences to social order; and in particular on the barbarity with which the unfortunate Queen had been treated. The Frenchman's feelings were quite overcome, and he exclaimed, amidst violent sobbing, "Ah Monsieur Pitt, la pauvre Reine! la pauvre Reine!" These words had scarcely been uttered, when he jumped up as if a new idea suddenly possessed him, and looking towards a little dog which came with him, he exclaimed, "Cependant, Monsieur Pitt, il faut vous faire voir mon petit chien danser " Then pulling a small kit out of his pocket, he began dancing about the room to the sound of his little instrument, and calling to the dog, Fanchon, Fanchon, dansez, dansez;" the little animal instantly obeyed, and they cut such capers together that the minister's gravity was quite overcome, and he burst into a loud laugh, hardly knowing whether he was most amused or astonished.-Life of Wilberforce. AN INDIAN LOVER. When Shaumonekusse visited the city of Washington, in 1821, the "Eagle of Delight" was the companion of his journey. Young, and remarkably handsome, with an interesting appearance of innocence and artlessness, she attracted the attention of the citizens, who loaded her with presents. Among other things, she received many trinkets; and it is said, that her lord and master, who probably paid her the flattering compliment of thinking her, when unadorned, adorned the most, very deliberately appropriated them to his own use, and suspended them from his own nose, ears, and neck. If she was as good-natured as her portrait bespeaks her, she was, no doubt, better pleased in administering to her husband's vanity, than she would have been in gratifying her own. Shortly after her return home, she died, and the bereaved husband was so sensibly affected by her decease, that he resolved to end his own life by starvation. With this view he threw himself on her grave, and for several days remained there in an agony of grief, refusing food, and repelling consolation. His friends, respecting his feelings, suffered him for a time to indulge his sorrow, but at last forced him away, and his immoderate grief became gradually assuaged.-History of the Indian Tribes of North America. THE BOOK OF PROVIDENCE. Does not every architect complain of the injustice of criticising a building before it is half finished? Yet, who can tell what volume of the creation we are in at present, or what point the structure of our moral fabric has attained? Whilst we are all in a vessel that is sailing under sealed orders, we shall do well to confide implicitly in our government and captain.Edinburgh Review. THREE GREAT FAults. "I remember his saying one day at the dinner-table at Rochetts, speaking of the year 1782, That was a memorable year for me. I committed three great faults about that time; I got knighted, I got married, and I got into parliament.""-Life and Correspondence of Earl St. Vincent. EGYPTIAN SCHOOL. At Boulac saw the Polytechnic School, formerly Ismael Pasha's Palace, a splendid establishment. The boys are neatly enough dressed, and, except the tarboosh and slippers, might pass for Europeans. They appeared, some of them that we saw, very quick and intelligent, and I am told that their examination surpasses most such in England in outward show, but it is all headknowledge. They apply to algebra and abstruse mathematics. Their benches, slates, &c. were quite European. The printing-press we also saw, and were much pleased. They print a paper every week, and we saw several books in hand; the Arabian Nights is just finished; the impressions are, some of them, beautiful. One venerable old savant, with spectacle on nose, appeared to be inspecting, and deeply immersed in, some old chronicle; suca an individual is much more striking and characteristic-looking in the handsome old Turkish dress he wore, with a reverend beard, than any dapper old European, in a snuffy brown coat out at the elbows, and glorying in unbrushed classic dust.-Lord Lindsay's Letters on Egypt. The duck-boats are certainly to be ranked among the curious singularities of the Chinese. They are large and roomy, with a broad walk extending round the covered parts a little above the surface of the water. If the Irishman may be said to give the best side of the fire to his pig because he pays the rent, surely the Chinaman may with equal propriety give the best part of his house to the accommodation of the ducks. They have the large apartments at the after-part of the boat, while the man with his family exist in a miserable hovel at the head. With which society to associate, it would require some little hesitation to decide; but perhaps the ducks would have the preference. In the morning, the doors are opened, and the birds wander round the house at their pleasure. When the sun is high, large inclined planes are let down at the sides of the boat; one towards the land, and the other towards the water. Up and down these steps the feathered bipeds travel at their pleasure, and take a cruise on land or water, but are prevented from proceeding too far by their anxious overseers. When it is time to retire the man gives a whistle, and at the sound every bird returns, and waddles back again into his warm, comfortable berth. When they are all on board, the stairs are hoisted to the horizontal position by means of a long bamboo lever, and everything is then made secure for the night. The proprietor of one of these boats is able to gain a livelihood by the care of these birds, which he watches with somewhat of the same kind of parental fondness as a hen over a brood of young ducklings just emerged from the shell.-The Fanqui in China. - CONTROVERSIES. Controversy is the safety-valve of theological zeal. The spirit of party is opposed to it, being too intolerant for discussion. Truth has always triumphed by means of controversy: she has grown powerless only where the sleep of lethargy has stolen upon the church. What is Christianity itself but a standing controversy with the infidel, the sensualist, and the formalist, the men of this world?-Eclectic Review. EXPOSURE TO THE SUN. There are few points which seem less generally understood or more clearly proved than the fact, that exposure to the sun, without exercise sufficient to create free perspiration, will produce illness, and that the (same) exposure to the sun with sufficient exercise, will not produce illness. Let any man sleep in the sun, he will awake perspiring, and very ill; perhaps he will die. Let the same man dig in the sun for the same length of time, and he will perspire ten times as much, and be quite well. The fact is, that not only the direct rays of the sun, but the heat of the atmosphere, produces abundance of bile, and powerful exercise alone will carry off that bile.Colonel Napier's Cefalonia. EDUCATION. Children should always be heard, and fairly and kindly answered, when they ask after anything they would know, and desired to be informed about. Curiosity should be as carefully cherished in children as other appetites suppressed.—Locke. CHARITY. "I fear," said a country curate to his flock-" when I explained to you in my last charity sermon, that Philanthropy was the love of our species, you must have understood me to say specie, which may account for the smallness of the collection. You will prove, I hope, by your present contribution, that you are no longer labouring under the same mistake.”—Tin Trumpet. London: WILLIAM SMITH, 113, Fleet Street. Edinburgh: FRASER & Co. Dublin: CURRY & Co.-Printed by Bradbury & Evans, Whitefriars. |
