into their power. Stromberg was in pursuit of you, even to the moment of my arrival in the mountains. Look at this," and he showed her the egg, bearing the motto; "To those who on his help rely, In time of trouble, God is nigh." "It is this egg which, under God, has been the means of bringing us together. For months past, I had sent squire after squire in search of you, but in vain. At length one, whose name is Egbert, returned after so long an absence that fears had been entertained of his safety. He had fallen down a precipice, and was at the point of death from starvation, when a young man discovered him in that frightful condition, satisfied his hunger, and presented him, in memory of his happy deliverance, with this egg, bearing a device so appropriate. No sooner had I seen it, than to my great surprise and joy, I recognized your hand-writing. We made for the dwelling of the stone-cutter in whose cottage Egbert had found an asylum, as fast as our horses could carry us; and under the guidance of the young man whom you relieved, I have found my way hither. If your heart had not suggested the idea of giving an entertainment to the children of the valley ;-if you had not thought of mingling instruction with their amusement, by means of the mottos inscribed upon the eggs;-and if my dear Frederic and Blanche had been less charitable towards the poor young stranger, this happy day might not yet have arrived. Thus it is that the most trifling act of goodness, performed in a pure and disinterested spirit, draws down the blessing of God upon the agent, even in this world. Remember this, my children, and be ever ready to do all the good in your power. Follow the example of your dear mother; relieve the afflicted; pity the distressed; be merciful, and you shall obtain mercy! Relying on the protection of your Maker, you will still continue to experience the fulfilment of that eternal truth, whereof our own history furnishes such a striking example. Reflect seriously on the events of this day; place your trust in God, and he will never forsake you. I will have this egg set in pearls and gold, and suspend it in a conspicuous place in the castle, as a memorial of the mercies of God, and an encourage ment to deserve them." As the evening now began to close in apace, the Count accompanied his wife to her residence in the valley; the children running before them a little in advance. On their arrival they found Egbert and Edward at the cottage, who had hastened to apprise Bertram of the happy return of his beloved master, and the tidings had already produced a sensible improvement in his health. Edward ran gaily forward to salute the lady and her children, and Egbert respectfully requested to kiss her generous hand, which had been the means, by God's help, of preserving his life. The Count tenderly embraced his old servant, and grasped with affection the hand of the worthy miller, who was there to welcome him, and offer his congratulations to the Countess. They all supped together at the Count's desire, and nothing was wanting to complete the happiness of the whole party. On the morrow, joy was at its height in the valley. The news that a great lord had arrived, and that this great lord was the husband of their kind benefactress, produced a great sensation in every family. Old and young were in motion towards the cottage, to pay their respects to the noble stranger. He received them with great cordiality; saluted the good folks with much kindness, and thanked them for all that they had done for his wife and children. "Indeed we have done nothing for her," they said, with tears in their eyes; "it is she who has loaded us with benefits." The Count conversed for a long time with the good people, and spoke to each of them separately; and all were affected with his affability and benevolence. before his departure he gave an entertainment to all the Count Lindenberg spent several days in the valley; and inhabitants. At the same table were seated the miller, the charcoal-burners, the Count's retainers, himself and his family. In the course of the evening he made presents to all his guests, and gave a handsome token of his regard to the miller. Edward and his family were not forgotten, a handsome provision being made for their future support. Martha continued in the service of the Countess. Before they departed, the Count addressed the children of the valley. "I do not wish," he observed, "that the residence of the Countess Rosalind among you should soon be forgotten; and every Easter there shall be an annual festival, at which coloured eggs shall form part of the entertainment. Independently of her deliverance from so great perils and afflictions, these eggs will remind you of a deliverance far more interesting and important, as it more immediately affects yourselves. This other deliverance, is the redemption of mankind from sin and from death, by that Saviour who trampled over both. The feast of Easter is therefore a feast of especial rejoicing; and its celebration ought to awaken, in the breast of every one, that Christian love which is the very essence of religion. As God has loved us, so should we love one another; and we know that the love of God towards us is greater than that of the most affectionate father to his children. Of this divine love, the egg given to you may be regarded as a striking emblem with reference to the words of our blessed Saviour: If a son shall ask an egg of any of you that is a father, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them which ask him ?'" (Matt. vii. 11.Luke xi. 12, 13.) LOVES OF THE POETS.-No. IV. THE LESBIA OF DRUMMOND. THE love of Drummond of Hawthornden, and the Lesbia of his poetry, was a beautiful girl, of the noble family of Cunningham. After a fervent courtship, he succeeded in securing her affections; but she died "in the fresh April of her years, and when their marriage day had been fixed." His grief on this event was so overwhelming, that he sunk at first into a total despondency and inactivity, from which he was with difficulty roused. He travelled for eight years, seeking in change of place and scene, some solace for his wounded peace. There was a kind of constancy even in Drummond's inconstancy; for meeting many years afterwards with an amiable girl, who bore the most striking resemblance to his lost mistress, he loved her for that very resemblance, and married her. Her name was Maria Logan. Drummond has been called the Scottish Petrarch. He tells us himself, that "he was the first in this isle who did celebrate a dead mistress,"—and his resemblance to Petrarch in elegance and sentiment, has often been observed. He has elegance, sweetness, and tenderness; but not the pathos nor the passion we might have expected from the circumstances of his attachment and his loss. He died in 1649. LEONORA D'Este. LEONORA D'ESTE, a princess of the proudest house in Europe, might have wedded an emperor, and have been forgotten. The idea, true or false, that she it was who broke the heart and frenzied the brain of Tasso, has glorified her to future ages; has given her a fame something like that of the Greek of old, who bequeathed his name to immortality, by firing the grandest temple of the universe. No poet, perhaps, ever owed so much to female influence as Tasso, or wrote so much under the intoxicating inspiration of love and beauty. The high tone of sentiment, the tenderness, and the delicacy, which pervade all his poems, which prevail even in his most voluptuous descriptions, and which give him such a decided superiority over Ariosto, cannot be owing to any change of manners or increase of refinement produced by a few years. It may be traced to the tender influence of two elegant women. He for many years read the cantos of his Gerusalemme, as he composed them, to the Princesses Lucretia and Leonora, both of whom he admired,—one of whom he adored. When Tasso first visited Ferrara, in 1565, he was just one and twenty; with all the advantages which a fine countenance, a majestic figure, (for he was tall even among the tallest,) noble birth, and excelling talents could bestow he was already distinguished as the author of Rinaldo, his earliest poem, in which he had celebrated (as if prophetically) the Princesses D'Este, and chiefly Leonora. When Tasso was first introduced to her at her brother's court, she was in her thirtieth year, a disparity of age which is certainly no argument against the passion she inspired. For a young man at his first entrance into life, to fall in love ambitiously-for instance, with a woman who is older than himself, or who is, or ought to be, unattainable--is a comTasso had formed in his own poetical mind, the most exalted idea of what a female ought to be, and unfortunately she who first realised his dreams of perfection was a princess-" there seated where he durst not soar." Leonora was still eminently beautiful, in that soft, artless, unobtrusive style of beauty which is charming in itself, and in a princess irresistible, from its contrast with the loftiness of her station, and the trappings of her rank. Her complexion was extremely fair; her features small and regular, and the form of her head peculiarly graceful. Ill health, and her early acquaintance with the mon occurrence. sorrows of her mother,* had given her countenance a languid and pensive cast, and sicklied all the natural bloom of her complexion; but "paleur qui marque une ame tendre, a bien son prix;" so Tasso thought, and this vago pallore," which vanquishes the rose, and makes the morn ashamed of its blushes," he has frequently and beautifully celebrated. Her eyes were blue; her mouth of peculiar beauty, both in form and expression. In his seventh sonnet, "Bella e la donna mia," he says it was the most lovely feature of her face: and in another, still finer, he styles this exquisite mouth "a crimson shell." Her accomplished and unhappy mother had early instilled into her mind a love of literature, and especially of poetry. She was passionately fond of music, and sang admirably. Leonora, to a sweet-toned voice, added a gift, which unless thus accompanied, loses half its value, and almost all its charm. She spoke well; and her eloquence was so persuasive, that we are told she had power to move her brother Alphonso, when none else could. Tasso says most poetically, that "eloquence played round her lips, like the zephyr, breathing over roses." With what emotions must a young and ardent poet have listened to his own praises from a beautiful mouth, thus sweetly gifted! and it may be added, that her eloquence, and the influence she possessed over her brother, were ever employed in behalf of the deserving and the unfortunate. The good people of Ferrara had such an exalted idea of her piety and benevolence, that when an earthquake caused à terrible inundation of the Po, and the destruction of the surrounding villages, they attributed the safety of their city entirely to her prayers and intercession. Leonora then, was not unworthy of her illustrious conquest, either in person, heart, or mind. To be summoned daily into the presence of a princess thus beautiful and amiable, to read aloud his verses to her, to hear his own praises from her lips, to bask in her approving smiles, to associate with her in her retirement, to behold her in all the graceful simplicity of her familiar life, was a dangerous situation for Tasso, and surely not less so for Leonora herself. That she was aware of his admiration, and perfectly understood his sentiments, and that a mysterious intelligence subsisted between them, consistent with the utmost reverence on his part, and the most perfect delicacy and dignity on hers, is apparent froin innumerable passages scattered through his minor poems-too significant in their application to be mistaken. Leonora knew as well as her lover, that a princess was no love-mate for a bard;" she knew far better than her lover, until he too was taught by wretched experience, the haughty and implacable temper of her brother. She was of a timid and reserved nature, increased by the extreme delicacy of her constitution: her hand had been sought by numerous princes and nobles, whom she had uniformly rejected, at the risk of displeasing her brother; and the eyes of a jealous court were upon her. Tasso, on the other hand, was imprudent, hot-headed, fearless, ardently attached. For both their sakes, it was necessary for Leonora to be guarded and reserved, unless she would have made herself the fable of all Italy; and in what glowing verse has Tasso described all the delicious pain of such a situation! now proud of his fetters, now execrating them in despair. In allusion to his ambitious passion, he is Phaeton, Icarus, Tantalus, Ixion. 66 A cruel, and as I think, a most unjust imputation, rests on the memory of the princess. She is accused of coldheartedness, in suffering her lover to remain so long imprisoned, without interceding in his behalf, or even vouch René of France, the daughter of Louis XII. She was closely imprisoned during twelve years, on suspicion of favouring the early reformers. safing any reply to his affecting supplications for release. | The excuse alleged by those who would excuse her, "that she feared to compromise herself by any interference," is ten times worse than the accusation itself. But though there exists, I suppose, no written proof that Leonora pleaded the cause of Tasso, or sought to mitigate his sufferings, neither is there any proof to the contrary. If then we do not find Leonora publicly appearing as the benefactress of Tasso, and using her influence over her brother in his behalf, is it not rather a presumption that she was implicated in his punishment? What comfort or kindness she could have granted under such circumstances, must have been bestowed with infinite precaution, and from gratitude and discretion, as carefully concealed. We know, that after the first year of his confinement, Tasso was removed to a less gloomy prison; and we know that Leonora died a few weeks afterwards; but what share she might have had in procuring this mitigation of his sufferings, we do not know, nor how far the fate of Tasso might have affected her so as to hasten her own death. * * cell, could have deigned to join this crowd of courtly 66 THE GUDE MAID'S CROSS. IN the year 1805, being on a sporting tour in the Highlands, under the care and guidance of my good friend Captain Daniels, whose rough-built rustic bothy teemed with all the luxuries of time and season, and glittered with all the spirit-stirring implements of that mimic warfare, "the chace"-it chanced upon a clear morning, towards the end of October, that a roving fit took me during the temporary absence of my Achates upon matters of moment with his man of law; far, far away About two years after the completion of the 'Jerusalem into the mountains, tripping over heath and heather-bell, Delivered,' and four after the first representation of 'The and breasting the exhilarating breezes from the chilling Aminta,' when all Europe rang with the poet's fame, regions of thick-ribbed ice," with no attendant save old Tasso fled from the court of Ferrara in a fit of distraction. Ranter for a companion, a tried Joe Manton on my His frenzy was caused partly by religious horrors and shoulder, and a well-filled flask of stinging Glenlivet in scruples; partly by the petty but accumulated injuries my pouch, flanked wi' a barley bannock "to fright exwhich malignity and tyranny had heaped upon him; haustion from the inward man." Thus accoutred, I partly by a long-indulged and hopeless passion; and with wiled away the day till eventide and the sinking sun these, other moral and physical causes combined, he fled warned me of home, and of the comforts of the Captain's to his birth-place, Torrento, to hide himself and his sorrows in cheering bog-pine fire, and having had of rambling "quanthe arms of his sister Cornelia, whom he had not met since tum suff.," shooting all I hit, and at all I saw, I turned their days of childhood. He resided with her for three my wearied steps towards the nearest bank of the winding years, the object of her unwearied and tender attention. It Tay, whose rapid stream I had still kept within mine eye, was on his return to Ferrara, (recalled, as Manso says, by to serve me in some sort as a Rosamond's clue to my (for the tenor of Leonora's letters,) that he was imprisoned as a the season) Highland home, whose door-stane it laved with lunatic in St. Anne's. They show to travellers the cell in its flood, and yet brooding, not with a pleasant feeling, on which he was confined. The inscription on the door lies, the "lang Scotch miles," when my good guardian genius like many other inscriptions. Tasso was not confined to spied for me a fisher's little coble, rolling 'neath easy sail this cell seven years; but here it was that he addressed towards the more southerly town of Scone, laden with its that affecting canzone to Leonora and her sister Lucretia, freight of haddies fresh, and springing salmon from the which begins "Daughters of Renée." (Figlie di Renata.) Loch. A hail soon brought it to the shore, and for "a He reminds them of the years he had spent at their side- sma' plack an' a bawbee" as 66 a consideration," I seated "their noble servant and their dear companion," and by my old canine compagnon de voyage at the bottom of the the commencing delicate and tender apostrophe, bespeaks boat, and throwing myself listlessly near him, I gazed in their compassion, by awakening the remembrance of their admiration on the setting sun, and listened with pure mother, like him so long a wretched prisoner. He was pleasure to the soothing murmuring music of the rippling after the first year, removed to a larger cell, with better waters, as they glided by the solitary bark, which conaccommodations. Here he made a collection of his smaller tained besides myself, old Jock Maine, or red Jock, as he poems, lately written, and dedicated them to the two was called, and a wee gillie of a bairn, that old Ranter, princesses. But Leonora was no longer in a state to be from his ragged shock head, and the manner in which he charmed by his verses; she was dying. A slow and cure- lay coiled up at the bottom of the craft, was for a moment less disease preved on her delicate frame, and she expired in doubt whether to address as one of his own species. in February, 1581, in the second year of Tasso's imprison-We passed many a lovely spot "in verdure clad," glit ment. Thus perished of a premature decay, she who had been for seventeen years the idol of the poet's imagination -the worship of the poet's heart. The love of Tasso for the princess Leonora, might have appeared in his own time something like the desire of the night-moth for the starbut what is it now? What was it then in the eyes of her whom he adored? How far was it permitted, encouraged, repaid in secret? This we cannot know, and perhaps had we lived at the time, in the very court, and looked daily into her own soft eyes,-practised to conceal, we had been no wiser. Yet one more observation. When Leonora died, all the poets of Ferrara pressed forward with the tribute of elegy and eulogium, but the voice of Tasso was not amongst the rest. He alone flung no garland upon the bier of her whose living brow he had wreathed with the brightest flowers of song. This is adduced by Serassi, as a proof that he had never loved her. Strange reasoning! as if Tasso, while his heart bled over his loss in his solitary tering like emeralds amid the sterility of the greater part of the surrounding scenery, each, with but few exceptions, known from some tale or tradition handed down from generation to generation, and rendered to "memory dear," from father unto son; and all of which, old Jock, with "nature's eloquence gifted," told and pointed out to me. One struck me more than all the others. It was of an old, rough-hewn stone cross, in as sweetly pleasant a spot as mortal eyes ever dwelt upon; and he called it the "Gude Maid's Cross." "In times long gone, a chieftain of much power, whose name and kindred had been lost in years, possessed the whole of the country for miles around. The clan of which he was the common father, was numerous and warlike; and from the station which he held, he was more frequently brought into contact with the southerns of Edinburgh and the borders, than Highland chiefs usually were, or cared to be. On his return from one of his excursions southward, he brought with him three gay gallants from the court to hawk, hunt, and prove the hospitality of a Scottish lord. One of them, the lightest, merriest, and youngest, so well charmed with his sojourn, made pleasant as it was, by the presence and beauty of his entertainer's only child, still lingered, long after the departure of his friends; and all saw, save him who alone could and would have interfered to prevent it, that the pride of their glens and the cherished daughter of their hearts looked to the stranger alone for her happiness, and leaned on him alone for her hope. Her hope was blasted! The long delayed period of departure came. The wish of the restless libertine had been fulfilled; he knew he had touched her pure and guileless heart; and though he feared to pursue the advantage he had gained over her to her ruin, he felt he had won her love. Eager for change, and ever seeking after novelty to gratify his vitiated appetite, he slighted the treasure he possessed, and hastened again to the thoughtless scenes of rioting and folly. Years passed on, and he returned not to the heath-covered valley. On again visiting the city, the chieftain learned to his surprise, that wretchedness and poverty had fallen on the man whose departure from his house, he knew not why, had withered his blossoming rose upon its stem; and with a feeling of kindness and honour which could not be too much commended, he sought him, to comfort and support him in his misery; however, he found him not, for, on the very day after he had arrived in Edinburgh, though wasted by disease, and broken by mental debility, the man he looked for had wandered of his own accord, away, none knew whither. Four years after, when a neighbouring chief applied for the maiden as a bride for his son, and her father had consented; for the first time in her life she refused to yield to his solicitations or commands. The young man, who really loved her, discovered that she visited much and long the hut of her fosterer, or nurse, which stood in the green spot mentioned; and he reported to her father, that she there saw to her disgrace and shame, an unknown lover. In a fit of passion the enraged parent rushed forth to the cottage, and bursting the slightlyfastened door, he found, that she had for more than four years nursed and tended, till her life's strength sunk under it, a hopeless, helpless, wasting idiot. Many weeks did not elapse ere they slept in the same grave; and the broken-hearted father, with his own hand, hewed the pile and placed it there, to commemorate for ever the strength and fervour of the "Gude Maid's" love. PENAL CODE OF CHINA. SIR GEORGE STAUNTON, the present member for Portsmouth, was the first European who, by overcoming the extraordinary difficulty of the Chinese language, was enabled to furnish to English readers a translation of the criminal laws of that singular people. In 1810 he published the "Ta-Tsing-Len-Lee, being the fundamental laws, and a selection from the supplementary statutes of the penal code of China, originally printed and published in Pekin, under the sanction of the Ta-Tsing, or present dynasty." Those laws contain some very curious provisions, which would at any time be interesting, and a portion of which, in the present state of our relations with China, possesses no little political interest. We subjoin a few extracts from the work. The honourable baronet closes his introduction with the following sentence, which will serve to show how favourable an impression he entertained respecting the inhabitants of China. He thinks it reasonable to conclude that "a philosopher who should survey this people with an enlightened and liberal indulgence, would probably find something to compensate the evils he had justly reprobated and lamented, and might' even have at last determined that a considerable proportion of the opinions most generally entertained by Chinese and Europeans of one another, was to be imputed either to prejudice or to misinformation; and that, upon the whole, it was not allowable to arrogate on either side any violent degree of moral or physical superiority." All attempts or offences against the government are punished with extraordinary severity, and the most remote attack on the person or dignity of the emperor is repressed with keen and vindictive jealousy. Persons convicted of treasonable practices are to be put to death by slow and protracted torture, and all their male relations in the first degree indiscriminately beheaded, their female relations sold into slavery, and all their connexions residing in the family relentlessly put to death. All persons who at any time presume to walk upon the roads set apart for the imperial journeys, shall be severely punished. If they intrude into the line of the imperial retinue they shall suffer death, and the same if they enter any apartment of the palace set apart for the use of his majesty, or any of his near relations. Workmen employed in the palace shall receive a passport on entering, and deliver it back on their return; they shall be regularly counted as they pass out before sunset, and if any one remain behind, he shall suffer death. These precautions show the feeling of insecurity which pervades the government of China. Another remarkable feature in this code is the frequency of corporal punishments. Minor offences of all descriptions, in every rank of society, from the highest officer of the state to the common pickpocket, are punished by a certain quantity of flagellation. The bamboo is the instrument used. In some particular cases the law allows the corporal punishment to be remitted by a fine at the rate of about thirty shillings for each blow. There is no explanation given of the mode of originating prosecutions; all persons who come to the knowledge of a crime are liable to severe penalties if they do not inform, and in cases of theft or robbery, the soldiery and the magistracy of the district are exposed to repeated floggings if they do not discover and convict the offender. All capital convicts are to be executed at a particular period of the autumn, and not sooner than three days after the emperor has transmitted his ratification of the sentence. Foreigners guilty of crimes within China are tried according to the common law of the empire. There is no proper hereditary nobility in China, except the descendants of some great Tartar princes. The emperor, however, can bestow nobility with a remainder to heirs male, to be resumed when he pleases. There is no ecclesiastical establishment in China, except the emperor and magistrates, who perform all public oblations. The religion of Fo is tolerated. To suppress ambition it is enacted, that if any person shall address the emperor in praise of the virtues or abilities of any high officer of state, that person shall suffer death. Almost every man is married as soon as he comes of age. Persons bearing the same family name, though not related, are whimsically prohibited from intermarrying. If the emperor's physician compound any medicine not sauctioned by established usage, he shall receive one hundred blows. If there be any dirt in his imperial majesty's food, the cook shall receive eighty blows; and if any dish shall be sent up without having been previously tasted, he shall receive fifty blows. If any unusual ingredient be put into the food, the cook shall receive one hundred blows, and be compelled to swallow the article. Every individual who does not dismount and make way when he sees an officer of government on the road, shall receive fifty blows. Robbery in the night is punished with death; in the day with one hundred blows and perpetual banishment. ORIGINAL POETRY. THE LOVER'S WISHES. FROM THE FRENCH OF VICTOR HUGO. OH, if there were on earth a spot With lilies and the jasmine sweet,- And sullen Evil vanquished flies; Of joy and bliss the eye can trace. A dream that heaven would seem to send, A dream where heart with heart doth blend; Oh, if there were a dream like this, And I could make it mine, love, In it, as in a nest of bliss, Should lie that heart of thine, love! G. DIRGE ON LOUISA, QUEEN OF PRUSSIA. She comes no more, she comes no more! She comes no more, with swan-like air, Whom knighthood worshipped, proud and free, Alas! her gentle reign is o'er, She comes no more, she comes no more! She comes no more, the longing wait VARIETIES. R.-1814. An ingenious Frenchman has invented a button in which the principle of nut and screw is applied, so that, without a stitch, buttons may be far more securely, as well as more speedily, put upon clothes than in the ordinary way; and those who have not souls above buttons may, if they please, have half-a-dozen suits of buttons to each suit of clothes, the top being screwed on to the shank. An eminent French statistical writer once took his station near the staircase, at a London ball, for the purpose of ascertaining the proportion of gentlemen who arranged their hair with their fingers before entering the room. He found them to average about twenty nine out of thirty; those who had least or most hair usually occupying most time.—Quarterly Review. ODDITIES OF GREAT MEN.-The greatest men are often affected with the most trivial circumstances, which have no apparent connexion with the effects they produce. A gentleman of considerable celebrity always feels secure against the cramp when he places his shoes on going to bed, so that the right shoe is on the left of the left shoe, and the toe of the right next to the heel of the left. Dr. Johnson used always, in going up Bolt court, to put one foot upon each stone of the pavement; if he failed, he felt certain the day would be unlucky. Buffon, the celebrated naturalist, never wrote but in full dress. Dr. Routh, of Oxford, studied in full canonicals. An eminent living writer can never compose with his slippers on. A celebrated preacher of the last century could never make a sermon with his garters on. A great German scholar writes with his braces off. Reiseg, the German critic, wrote his commentaries on Sophocles with a pot of porter by his side. Schlegel lectures, at the age of seventy-two, extempore, in Latin, with his snuff-box constantly in his hand; without it he could not get on. A BRITTLE GARMENT.-At the Polytechnic Institution, Regent street, London, there is exhibited one pound of glass, spun by steam into a thread 4000 miles long, and woven with silk into beautiful dresses and tapestry. INADEQUACY OF LANGUAGE.-Words are poor weapons. The most beautiful verses are those which we cannot express. The diction of every language is insufficient, and every day the heart of man finds, in the delicacy of his sentiments, and the imagination discovers in the impressions of visible nature, things which the mouth cannot embody for want of words. The heart and the thought of man are like a musician driven to play infinitely varied music on an organ which has but few notes. It is more advisable to be silent. Silence is a refined poetry at certain moments. It is felt by the soul and appreciated by God; and that is enough.-Lamartine. INSECTS IN CHALK.-Professor Ehrenberg has made some remarkable discoveries in the course of his various experiments on chalk. He found that a eubic inch possessed upwards of a million of microscopical animalcula: consequently, a pound weight of chalk contains above 10,000,000 of these animalcula ! From his researches it appears probable that all the strata of chalk in Europe are the product of microscopical animalcules, most of them invisible to the naked eye. Dr. Johnson once dined hotch-potch for dinner. with a Scottish lady who had a After the doctor had tasted it, she asked him if it was good. "It is good for hogs, ma'am," said the doctor. "Then pray," said the lady, "let me help you to a little more." A singular custom prevails at Gainsborough of giving away penny loaves on the morning of a funeral to whoever demands them; this custom has prevailed for so long a period, that the poorer inhabitants look upon it as a right. The fact cannot be too generally known, that if, when a chimney is built, the mortar with which it is to be plastered be mixed with salt, there will be no necessity for sweeping it, as in every damp spell of weather the salt deliquesces, and the soot will of course fall down. LONDON: W. BRITTAIN, PATERNOSTER ROW. Edinburgh: JOHN MENZIES. Dublin: CURRY & Co. Glasgow: D. BRYCE. Printed by J. Rider, 14, Bartholomew Close. |