happy physician at length restored the expiring female to the arms of her family. This is one of the few instances, in which a physician receives something more than his fee.

On another occasion, the inhabitants of a district in the neighbourhood of Agrigentum complained, that in the spring season for many years their olives had been blighted, and their crops on the ground mildewed and blasted: as he walked over their lands, Empedocles observed the geographical position of the place, and soon discovered, that it was particularly exposed to the north-east wind by an opening between two lofty mountains; he also remarked a more than common number of wild asses sufficient to eat up all the produce, disfiguring the landscape by their ragged ugly forms, and distracting every one's ears by their odious braying.

He directly ordered a large slaughter of these animals, their skins to be dried, and on lofty poles driven firmly into the ground to be sewn together and extended across the valley between the hills; by these means the crops of the fields were sheltered, and the evils they complained of ceased.

These, and other important benefits produced by the knowledge and sagacity of the philosopher, were cried out against by certain deep thinkers, as magic arts produced by unlawful intercourse and infernal aid; his friends and fellow citizens, equally extravagant in the opposite extreme of praise and exaggeration, magnified into the acts of a god what was evidently. the effect of superior capacity and good sense, and insisted on paying him divine honors.

It is at this period of the life of Empedocles, that critics and historians have not agreed; the general conclusion of the history is, that his head was, turned by their flattery, that he yielded to the delusion, confessed himself a deity, and declared, that he should quickly be taken up into Heaven, and quaff nectar with the Gods.

In order to make his adorers. believe that this ascension actually took place, and to prevent any discovery of his remains, the commonly received story proceeds to relate, that he threw himself into the flaming crater of Mount Etna, where his body was consumed to ashes, but that the force of the' fire threw out his iron sandals, which were afterwards found, accounted for

his absence, and led to a discovery of the manner in which he had voluntarily died.

The contrary opinion, supported by internal evidence, and a reference to the general character and life of Empedocles, and the usual manner in which men treat their benefactors,-the contrary opinion is, that Empedocles, finding his popularity declining, and his efforts to improve the citizens of Agrigentum opposed by selfishness and vice, observing, that if he conferred favors on a hundred persons he created ninety-nine monsters of ingratitude, wearied with unrequited labour, and mortified by malignant misrepresentation, he retired with silent indignation to a distant country, and closed his days among strangers, who having never experienced his kindness did not attempt to interrupt the tranquillity of his last moments.

Of the writings of Empedocles little that is certainly his remains; he was author of a long poem, consisting of many thousand verses, on Nature; somewhat similar to the Philosophical Chimeras of Lucretius, who praises, and probably had read the book; he also wrote on Medicine in verse and on the Persian War; of the three productions here mentioned only

fragments remain: a Treatise on Astronomy, which passes under his name, is of doubtful origin. He was a cotemporary with Sophocles and Zeno.

EN

NGLISH WOMEN.The following panegyric in verse was written on them nearly four-score years ago; a satirical veteran, who occasionally honors this collection with a perusal, insists, that it is no longer applicable.

In search of true beauty I was
led a long dance,
And travell'd through Italy,
Germany, France;

On the banks of the Seine I was A crowd of fair charmers all pleas'd to survey

merry and gay,

But their mirth it was pertness,

their joy in extremes, No delicate softness like the nymphs of the Thames.

The Alps I next crossed to see if perchance,

The Italians possess'd what I found not in France; Neither Venice, nor Rome, nor

Florence could boast

A girl to compare with our

Somerset toast;

Who modest and mild, wins.

our hearts with a sigh, And pleases the most by not seeming to try.

But

your trumpery sort like Jana

was struck with surprise, What the belles want in beauty

they make up in size:

If charms cou'd be measur'd like

Heidelberg wine,

For a quart on the Thames you've a tun on the Rhine.

arm.

"Our priest read his life out of a book he brought, which tells us that he was a saint even in swadling clothes, and was ob

I'll roam, Whilst we've modesty, beauty, and good sense at home.

This trait in biography, mentioned by a modern writer as an instance of ridiculous absurdity, was considered as gospel by the person I was conversing with, a countryman, whom I had hired as a guide to conduct me across an intricate country.

What the author laughed at my worthy associate verily and indeed believed; and if I had presumed to differ from him in opinion, I am convinced, would have left the heretic in the lurch.

I ventured to say," How could an infant know any thing of

feasts

feasts or fasts, or even distinguish one day of the week from another?" "Why a meeracle to be sure, and no greater wonderment to be made at it, than," &c. &c.

Here the rustic entered on some well-put arguments on the Eucharist, and other subjects; which, when I recollected his uncouth dialect, the state of his cloathing, and his position in life, very much surprised me.

Though not exactly agreeing in our tenets, I was pleased with his frankness, and when we parted, gave him a double fee, and an exhortation to be honest and sober.

"I hope, Measter, I shall, or I should expect that St. Nicholas would dra back my curtain at night."

Some months after writing this article, accident threw me into company with the priest who superintends the devotions" of the persons who assemble where I read the inscription; I found him a learned, affable, well-informed, and pious man, who takes considerable pains to perform his parochial duties conscientiously this accounts for the moral rectitude, as well as the implicit confidence of his parishioner.

Thus a biographic sketch of a saint, which confirmed a religious

latitudinarian in his scepticism, strengthened the faith, and improved the moral conduct of an humble believer; what one thought an incontestible beauty, the other viewed as a preposterous deformity.

"What do you think of that lady in the side box, who is resting her arm against the pillar?" said a doating lover, wishing to sound his friend concerning the object of his affections, to whom he had not yet introduced him.

"Do you mean the woman with a bandeau round her carrotty hair, and who squints so abominably?" was the reply.

The fond admirer was so disgusted, that he instantly stifled the subject, and endeavoured to conceal his chagrin; the companions soon separated, and a friendship of long standing became cold as charity.

The red hair, was a beautiful auburn in the lover's imagination, and the squint (abominable wretch for giving it such a name) was one of those enchanting looks which had robbed him of his heart.

He who pronounced the auburn tresses carrots, and the fascinating leer a squint, neither conscious of, nor meaning to give offence, was surprised at the future coldness of his friend, and

wonders