tains, what was become of the lord Charles, his son; they told him, they knew not, but that they supposed him somewhere in the heat of action. Then the good old king, resolving by no means to disgrace his former victories, or to cancel the glory of his youth by a degenerate old age, said unto them :- 'Gentlemen, you are men, my companions and friends in this expedition; I only now desire this last piece of service from you, that you would bring me forward so near to these Englishmen, that I may deal among them one good stroke with my sword. They all said, they would obey him to the death, and lest by any extremity they should be separated from him, they all, with one consent, tied the reins of their horses one to another, and so attended their royal master into battle. There this valiant old hero had his desire, and came boldly up to the Prince of Wales, and gave more than one, four, or five good strokes, and fought courageously, as also did all his lords, and others about him; but they engaged themselves so far, that they were all slain, and next day found dead about the body of their king, and their horses' bridles tied together. Then were the arms of that noble king, (being the ostrich feathers, with the motto, "Ich Dien," signifying, I serve,) taken and worn by the Prince of Wales, in whose memory they have been ever since called the Prince's arms; being also from that time worn by his successors, the Princes of Wales, eldest sons of the Kings of England." AUTHORITIES. Barnes's Life of Edward the III.-Hume's England, vol. ii. EXTRAORDINARY INSTANCES OF ACUTENESS IN THE SENSES OF HEARING AND FEELING. The following interesting anecdotes are related by Dr. Abercrombie. In speaking of the blind, he observes; "There is something exceedingly remarkable in the manner in which the loss or diminution of one sense, is followed by increase of the intensity of others, or rather, perhaps, by an increased attention to the indications of the other senses. Blind persons acquire a wonderful delicacy of touch; in some cases, it is said, to the extent of distinguishing colours. Two instances have been related to me, of blind men who were much esteemed as judges of horses. One of these, in giving his opinion of a horse, declared him to be blind, though this had escaped the observation of several persons who had the use of their eyes, and who were with some difficulty convinced of it. Being asked to give an account of the principle on which he had decided, he said it was by the sound of the horse's step in walking, which implied a peculiar and unusual caution in the manner of putting down his feet. The other individual, in similar circumstances, pronounced a horse to be blind with one eye, though this had also escaped the observation of those concerned. When he was asked to explain the facts on which he formed his judgment, he said, he felt the one eye to be colder than the other. "Dr. Rush relates another instance, not less extraordinary, of acuteness in the sense of hearing. Two blind young men, brothers, of the city of Philadelphia, knew when they approached a post in walking across a street, by a peculiar sound, which the ground under their feet emitted in the neighbourhood of the post and they could tell the names of a number of tame pigeons, with which they amused themselves in a little garden, by only hearing them fly over their heads." AUTHORITY. Abercrombie on the Intellectual Powers, p. 52, 3. THE BLIND BOOKSELLER OF AUGSBURGH. Perhaps one of the greatest curiosities in the city of Augsburgh, is a bookseller, of the name of Wimprecht, who had the misfortune to be born blind, but whose enterprising spirit has enabled him to struggle successfully against the melancholy privation he is doomed to sustain, and to procure, by his industry and intelligence, a respectable and comfortable support for a large family, dependent upon him, His stock consists of more than 8,000 volumes, which are subject to frequent change and renewal. When he receives new books, the particulars of each are read to him by his wife, and his discrimination enables him to fix its value; he recognises it by his touch, at any future period, however distant, and his memory never fails him, in regard to its arrangement in his shop. His readiness to oblige, his honesty, and information on books in general, have procured him a large custom; and under such extraordinary natural disad vantages, he has become a useful and, probably, will become a wealthy member of the community to which he belongs. AUTHORITY. A London Newspaper. SOME PARTICULARS OF THE LAST YEARS OF THE LIFE OF HANDEL. "While in more lengthen'd notes and slow, In the beginning of the year 1751, Handel was which, upon con eyes, alarmed by an affection in his sulting the surgeon, he was told was a cataract. From that moment, his usual flow of spirits forsook him, and scarcely left him patience during that crisis of his disorder in which he might hope for relief. He had been prepared to expect a total privation of sight, but was led to entertain hopes that it might only prove temporary, and that, by an operation, it might be restored; when, therefore, a total loss of sight had taken place, he submitted to an operation, which was performed by Mr. Samuel Sharp, of Guy's Hospital. The repeated attempts that were made to relieve bim, were, however, fruitless; and he was at length told, that for the remainder of his days, a relief from pain in his visual organs, was all that could be hoped for. In this forlorn and dejected state, reflecting on his inability any longer to conduct his own oratorios, he called to his aid Mr. Smith, the son of his faithful copyist and friend, and, with his assistance, they continued to be performed, until the Lent season in which he died. They were got up, with no other omission in his own performance, than the accompaniment on the harpsichord; the rich flow of his fancy ever supplying him with subjects for extempore voluntaries on the organ, and his hand still retaining the power of executing whatever his invention suggested. It was a most affecting spectacle, to see the venerable musician, whose genius had so long charmed the ear of a discerning audience, led to the front of the stage, in order to make an obeisance of acknowledgment to the enraptured multitude. When Smith played the organ, during the first year of Handel's blindness, the oratorio of "Sampson" was performed, and Beard sang, with great feeling— "Total eclipse! No sun, no moon; The recollection that Handel had set these words to music, with the view of the blind composer, then sitting by the organ, affected the audience so forcibly, that many persons present were moved even to tears. The loss of his sight, and the prospect of his approaching dissolution, made a great change in the temper and general behaviour of Handel. He was a Y |