different sentiments.

Death has no terrors for me:

it is an event I always looked to with cheerfulness, if not with pleasure; and be assured, the subject of it is to me more grateful than any other. I am well aware I have but a short time to live; my mode of life has rendered it impossible that I should get rid of this fever. If I had lived as you do, eating heartily of animal food, and drinking wine, I might, perhaps, by diminishing my diet, be able to subdue it. But how can such a man as I am lower his diet, who has been accustomed for years to exist on vegetables and water, a little bread and a little tea? I have no method of lowering my nourishment, and therefore I must die.' Then, turning the subject, he spoke of his funeral ; and cheerfully gave directions concerning the manner in which he would be buried. Soon after he made his will; leaving as his executor a trusty follower, who had lived with him more in the capacity of a friend than of a servant, and whom he charged with the commission of bearing his will to England. Soon after this, a letter was brought to him from England, containing intelligence of the improved state of his son's health; stating the manner in which he passed his time in the country, and giving great reason to hope that he would recover from the disorder (insanity) with which he was afflicted. His servant read this letter

aloud; and when he had concluded, Mr. Howard turned his head towards him, saying, 'Is not this comfort for a dying father?' He expressed great repugnance against being buried according to the rites of the Greek Church, and begging Admiral Priestman to prevent any interference with his interment on the part of the Russian priests, made him also promise, that he would read the service of the church of England over his grave, and bury him in all respects according to the forms of his country. Soon after this last request he ceased to speak. Admiral Mordvinof came in, and found him dying very fast. They had in vain besought him to allow a physician to be sent for; but Admiral Mordvinof renewing this solicitation with great earnestness, Mr. Howard assented, by nodding his head. The physician came, but was too late to be of any service. A rattling in the throat had commenced, and the physician administered what is called the musk draught, a medicine used only in Russia in the last extremity. It was given to the patient by Admiral Mordvinof, who prevailed on him to swallow a little; but he endeavoured to avoid the rest, and gave evident signs of disapprobation. He was then entirely given over, and shortly after breathed his last."

Embalming.

Ir was the custom of the ancient Egyptians, as you may have read in the Bible, to preserve or embalm the bodies of their deceased friends, believing that after many thousand ages the soul would come back to retenant the body, in case the latter was preserved entire. Hence arose the custom of embalming, and the situation of the sepulchres in places not subject to the inundation of the river Nile. The light of the gospel has long since dispersed the gloom of such superstitious belief; but as an account of the manner in which these bodies were preserved, so that they have been enabled to brave time and defy corruption, is both curious and interesting, we have subjoined the following.

The manner of embalming among the Egyptians was as follows. A coffin was first prepared, the upper part of which represented the person of the deceased, and was generally adorned with paintings and embel

lishments suitable to his quality.

Preparations were then made for embalming the body, the price varying from a very small sum to about £300 sterling. An incision was first made in the left side, through which they drew all the intestines, except the heart and kidneys, and then washed them with palm-wine and other strong and binding drugs. The brains they drew through the nostrils with a hooked piece of iron, and filled the skull with astringent drugs. The whole body they anointed with oil of cedar, with myrrh, cinnamon, and other drugs, for about thirty days: by which means it was preserved entire, without so much as losing a hair, and even without any signs of putrefaction. It was then put into salt about forty days; so that when Moses says (Gen. i. 3.), "that forty days were employed in embalming Jacob," he must mean the forty days of his continuing in the salt of nitre, without including the thirty days spent in the other operations; so that in the whole they mourned seventy days in Egypt, as Moses likewise observes. Last of all, it was taken out of this salt, washed, and wrapped up in linen swaddling bands, dipped in myrrh, and rubbed with a certain gum, which the Egyptians used instead of glue, and then they restored the body to the relations, who put it into the coffin, and kept it in some repository, in their houses or in tombs made particularly

for that purpose. Strange infatuation! that the Egyptians, whose advancement in civilization is fully testified by their monumental remains, should be guilty of such debasing superstitions; but so it is; if men once forsake the precepts of religion, they become as sailors without a compass, as travellers without a guide.

The Gipsy Boy.

Oн lady! good lady, pray pity the fate

Of a poor wretched wand'rer, deprived of all joy; Oh, list his sad plaints, while he begs at your gate! But oh! your dog howls at the poor gipsy boy!

Cease, cease, cruel dog! I your pity implore;

'Tis my rags, I perceive, that your slumbers annoy; But can't I be honest, good dog, though I'm poor? Oh yes! I ne'er robb'd, though a motherless boy!

This coat, do but view it, so tatter'd and worn,

Three winters has shielded from rain and from snow; Though my poor naked feet are quite harden'd to horn,

Yet my bosom can feel the full weight of my woe!