and thinks they are of rare occurrence in that country, although the Aurora there assumes a great variety of tints; he moreover observes, that they are considered by the poor ignorant natives as ominous, and the forerunners of calamity. A regard to decency, and the common punctilios of life, has been often serviceable to human society. It has kept many a married couple unseparated, and frequently preserves a neighbourly intercourse, where love and friendship both have been wanting. ascertain the comparative strength of these blood-thirsty vermin, will be highly delight, ed with the harmony of the mechanical power of the spring that actuates the Machine intended to destroy them.-The Patentee candidly admits, in the specificationthat he borrowed the hint from the Venus Fly-Trap. then arises from a large opening in the cloud, a luminous train, or column, of which the motion is at first gentle and uniform, and which increases in size as it advances. The dimensions and duration of these columns vary considerably; their light is sometimes white, sometimes reddish, sometimes of a blood colour; and as they advance, their colours change, till they form a kind of arch in the heavens. When several of these columns, issuing from different places, encounter each other in the zenith, they intermingle with each other, and form, at their junction, a small thick cloud, which seems, as it were, to kindle, and sends for h a light considerably more brilliant than any of the An ingenious Artist has just obtained a separate columns. This light changes to patent for a trap for catching fleas. The green, blue, and purple; and quitting its naturalists, who have taken such pains to original station, it directs itself towards the south, in the form of a small bright cloud. When no more columns are seen to issue, the cloud assumes the appearance of the morning dawn, and insensibly dissipates itself. Sometimes the Aurora is formed and disappears in the course of a few minutes; at other times it continues the whole night; and one that was observed by Muschenbroek in 1734, lasted for ten days and nights successively. The lucid columns are often so transparent, that stars of the first and second magnitudes are visible through them; these also shine through the white border of the horizontal cloud, and sometimes, though rarely, through the opaque cloud itself. But many parts are so thin, that the smallest stars which are visible to the naked eye may be seen through them. A more beautiful spectacle than what is very frequently presented to us in these meteoric appearances, cannot easily be imagined; the spectacle is often grand and terrific, and is sometimes attended with a hissing, crackling noise, which rushes through the air, and is similar to a display of large fire-works. The hunters who pursue the white and blue foxes, on the confines of the icy sea, are often overtaken by these northern lights, at which times their dogs are so much frightened that they will not move, but crouch upon the ground till the noise has passed by them. Maupertuis observed a remarkable Aurora at Oswer-Zornea, which excited his admiration; an extensive region of the heavens towards the south appeared tinged with so lively a red, that the whole of the constellation Orion seemed to be dyed in blood. This light was for some time fixed, but it was soon in motion, and after having successively assumed all the tints of violet and blue, it formed a dome, the summit of which was near the zenith in the south-west. Its splendour was so great as not to be affected by the strong light of the moon. He adds, that he only observed two of these red northern lights while he was in Lapland, A gentleman, who already possesses some patents for ingenious inventions, has discovere a material for sheathing men of war, which will render them not only cannonball proof, but give such a repellant power, that the enemy's ammunition will return against their own ships with such redoubled force as cannot fail to sink them. In case of another naval war, the gentleman proposes patriotically, without reward, to impart his secret to the government. The same gentleman last summer, during discovered a plant (of which there is abunan excursion in accidentally dance,( the virtues of which bid fair to ruin all the surgeons, as every description of wounds are almost instantly healed by it. He made an experiment, by cutting off the the body with a single leaf only, the head bead of a very large rat. After rubbing was attracted instantly to the body; permanent adhesion took place; and in two minues, the animal run out of sight. PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY. JAMES G. BROOKS, Editor and Proprietor, No. 4 Wall-street, New-York. Subscriptions received by G. & C. Carvill, 108 Broadway-where communications may be left, or tranamitted through the post-office to the editor. No subscriptions received for a shorter term than one year. No letters or communications will be taken out of the Post Office, unless the postage is paid. Terms-Four dollars per annum, payable in advance” J. SEYMOUR, printer, 49 John-street. AND Phi Beta Kappa Repository. FIDE AC FIDUCIA. No. 15. NEW-YORK, DECEMBER 17, 1825. LITERARY. THE ENGLISHMAN IN FRANCE. "John Bull for pastime took a prance. VOL. I. were to be purchased, he asked the prices, and found every one doubled in his favour; this made him furious: at one place he was called mi-lord, which he considered as an increase of fifty per cent., at another he heard himself called goddem as he left the shop, at the third he attempted to expostulate in bad French, and the shopkeeper provokingly assured him that he did not un"THE devil is in Paris," said a country derstand English; he now crossed the Pagentleman from England, with whom I got lais Royal, and was accosted from a window acquainted at my hotel. "What is the mat- with veux-tu monter mon bel homme; (my ter, my good Sir?" inquired I. "Matter friend is particularly plain) and this he enough, as you shall hear," and he began deemed as a direct insult. He now was his lamentable catalogue as follows: In the about to take up his glass to examine some first place, he was insulted by a ragamuffin prints, and he found that it had been stolen at his outset in the morning, ridiculed, and from him; it was pendant to a black riblaughed at, and called bifteck aux pommes bon, so he determined to purchase a strong de terre, John Bull, Englishman-dog, and gold chain, and a new glass; he accordingly gros cochon (the last certainly a boar); entered a trinket shop, and after making a well, a little more compliance with French hard bargain, he put his hand in his pocket, dress might get over this. He next had to and discovered that his purse was absent; how cross from the church of St. Roch, and in ridiculous he appeared, how mortified! for endeavouring to gain the street which leads the shopmen looked at each other as much to the rue de Rivoli, a cabriolet drove furi- as to say, "what a take in ?"-they next ously past him, and at the moment that the eyed him suspiciously, as he departed blushservant cried out gare, he was bespattered ing like a young girl of fifteen. The next from head to foot, and his white Prince's shop, was, however, more complaisant, for, cord small-clothes and drab linen gaiters on his examining some gloves and silk were like the spotted leopard; he had to re- handkerchiefs, he was politely invited in, turn to dress, and was again laughed at in and when he observed that he had left his this humiliating state: he now d-d all ca- purse at home in his t'other inexpressibles, briolets, made a long soliloquy on the advan- one of the females in the shop replied, "cela tages of Great Britain, on the superiority of n'empêche pas," and assured him that they London, where there was a footpath of would send home any article which he might liberty for the prince and peasant equally; select. This set him a little to rights, and envy made him say, also, that it was the shabbiest thing in the world to see an officer with half-a-dozen decorations, sitting in full uniform in a noddy, and obliged to hold his feathered hat in his hand, because the machine was too low for him; and then to be covered with mud in the midst of summer from a black and putrid gutter, was a nation-him, and, after the usual bow, entered into al shame. ("Ay, there's the rub," thought conversation with him; but he asked him 1.) He was now once more rigged out, and in a suit of mourning, and he determined on going a shopping; and having gained information as to the prices of a number of articles which he thought he stood in need of, he called at the different shops where they he chose half-a-dozen pair of gloves, and as many handkerchiefs. He then went to the Tuilleries to muse on a bench, and to vent his spleen against a city, in which he had met with so many insults and misfortunes. He had not sat long in a retired spot, when a well-dressed man placed himself near so many questions, as to where he came from, how long he meant to remain in Paris, what his profession was, and the like, that he began to suspect that he had got into the company of a police spy, and as the 'squire is a little inclined towards radicalism, he felt quite alarmed, and had serious thoughts of quitting Paris that day; prefec- ling for a glass of brandy, he resolved to ture, the police, strong-rooms, prisons, meet, his accusers strong in his innocence. and the ghost of the Bastile haunted his They were two servants out of place, who heated imagination, and he felt extremely had found his reading-glass, and brought it uncomfortable in his seat; he tried, how-to the hotel in consequence of his having ever, to whistle away his apprehensions, and mentioned his loss at a public library; he gave such extraordinary answers to his paid liberally, and perspired like an ox. neighbour's interrogations as might have Putting his hand into his pocket for his made him pass for insane; "he was nobody snuff-box, he found a card in its stead, which --lived no where-knew nothing-was go- bis neighbour on the bench had placed there. ing no where, and had nothing to do." "Di- On the card these words were pencilled, able!" cried his neighbour; the squire did" Quand on ne prends pas de tabac, on n'a not like this diable at all. The Frenchman pas besoin de tabatière." (He who does not now fumbled in his pockets; could he be take snuff needs no snuff-box.) He now searching for a dagger or a pistol? the mo- packed up his clothes and took leave of me, ment was frightful, he would have given a exclaiming "Oh dear, oh dear, a man year's income to have been safely off, but is never safe or comfortable out of his own fear rivetted him to his seat; the place was country, never truly free, nor fairly and very private, although in sight of the most honestly protected by the laws." public walk; he thought to have indulged his melancholy alone, at his ease, and "Recubans sub tegmine fagi." VIRG. THE NOVELIST. THE SELLER OF HIMSELF. Strange merchandise! Old Play, WHEN I was residing at Milan, during How different was his position! Robbing now came into his head, and he was very near asking his neighbour if he was a poor gentleman, and if a double louis would be of use to him? this might save the rest of his property; (as in fumbling in his pockets, in his way to the garden, he found his purse lodged in the lining of his pantaloons); but then again, the sight of the gold might induce a desperado to demand it all; he at length determined on securing his pockets, my first continental tour, the remittances and on crying "murder!" should the well-which hitherto had been regularly forwarded dressed ruffian attempt any thing hostile. to me from England were, by some unacWhat a relief it was when he merely inform-countable accident, delayed much beyond ed him, in a very gentle tone, that he was the period at which I looked to receive searching for his snuff-box, and that he was them; and this procrastination was continudying for a pinch of snuff, but had left his ed so long, that I could not escape sensatabatiere at home; very true, thought the tions of a very uneasy nature. As the incautious Englishman, but mine is a gold stability of my health, and my general habone, and he might perchance take a fancy its, induced me to live in a private and seto it, or, whilst I was putting it in my pock-cluded manner, I had few acquaintances et, my purse might be conjured out of my with whom I was on a sufficient footing of fob, for the devil is in Paris. To make, intimacy to warrant me in requesting their therefore, all matters safe, he apologized for pecuniary aid until my own resources should not being a snuff-taker, otherwise he should have become available, even had I posseshave been happy to have offered a pinch to sed any inclination to make such a trial of Monsieur; Monsieur thanked him, and their good nature. My situation became drawing out a card from one of his pockets, daily more unpleasant, as I gradually perand a pencil from another, he began to make ceived the diminution of my stores. marks upon it. Day after day passed on. No answers The poor squire was now certain that the arrived to the letters which I addressed from man was either drawing his caricature, or time to time to my agent; and I was comtaking down his designation, in order to pelled to practise frugality, on a scale rather denounce him, and not liking either cir- repugnant to my ideas of personal comfort cumstance, he made a most confused and and convenience. But notwithstanding all precipitate retreat to the hotel; but he had my endeavours, and the cheapness of the not got up to his room before two ill-looking country, I was speedily reduced to a fearfellows came and described him to the wait- fully small sum; and I now severely reer, and requested to speak to him. To gretted that I had not carlier made preparleap the window was impossible, and to get ations for returning home, before the bareup the chimney was dirty and difficult; he ness of my finances rendered such a course now summoned up all his courage, and cal-impracticable. king, in the whole, a singularly-disjointed appearance." yet spoken, "was not the Doctor put to "By the way," said a third, who had not considerable inconvenience from the want of proper subjects to exhibit his demonstration on ?" deaths, or the great demand for bodies, "He was so; either from the paucity of they are become difficult to meet with, and are considerably advanced in price." At last, the only remaining coin which had yet lingered in my purse was expended. The horrors of want pressed upon me, and those horrors aggravated by the reflection tnat I was in a foreign country, and remote from all those sources of assistance which the occupier of his native soil can seldom be wholly destitute of. I had already disposed of my watch, and my few valuables which yet remained would not long afford me the necessaries of existence. I applied in vain for some situation, in which my daily exertions might at least procure for me the" pittance which is absolutely necessary for the maintenance of life. Few were inclined to employ a stranger, and my qualifications were not of a nature most useful to one who has to earn his bread by labour. Every day, every hour, brought new disappointments, and added to the mental torment I experienced. I began to despair. At last my funds were utterly exhausted. For two days I had tasted nothing, and my hunger began to be insupportable. Shame prevented me from soliciting charity, and there was but little chance that the claims of a stranger and a heretic would be much regarded, when so many good Catholics, natives of the place, were ready to engross the bounty of the charitably disposed. I gave myself up for lost, and endeavoured to behold with calmness the approach of death. I wandered about, and gazed long farewells upon every scene which I had selected as most beautiful and pleasing. that he had actually purchased from a I heard, do you know," said the first, living individual the reversionary post-obit of his body!" "What! and paid for it in præsenti.” Money down, I assure you," answered the informant. "Ridiculous-it cannot be !" "It is nevertheless a fact," rejoined another. old man, intends his son Signor Guiscard to "The Doctor, you know, who is an succeed him in his professional pursuits, and consequently calculates upon his successor enjoying the benefit of those deaths which may not happen to take place during his own period." cluded laughing at the Doctor's foresight. They went away as the last speaker con A new idea took possession of my mind. The torment of my raging hunger was insupportable, and in the state of nervous dejection which it induced, I lost all hopes of ever returning to my native land. Under the influence of these feelings, it occurred The evening was approaching, and as I stood to me, to procure the means of sustenance near the Cathedral, the glow of the sun, now for a short time, by treating with the Doctor fast declining, gave a rich tinge to its mar- Galigni, of whom I had heard, for the sale ble columns. The sky was all that poets of my remains after death. have dreamed or described of Italian skies; life clings to us with a grasp not the weakThe love of warm, deep, and placid; and the few gol-est, when we are nearest losing it; and beden clouds that fringed the horizon seemed to crown with their splendour the peaks of the dimly-shadowed Alps. Every outward object was tranquil and lovely; within, pain, and torment, and despair, racked my breast, and I sickened at the view of external beauty, as if it rose before me in mockery of my wretchedness. While I was thus stationed, I heard behind me the voices of some persons in conversation. 66 Were you at Dr. Galigni's last lecture?" said one. "No, I was not," answered another; "but I heard that he took the opportunity of bringing forward a new theory, on a point long disputed anong physiologists." "He certainly offered a theory, the hint of which, he omitted to mention, was borrowed from Leuwenhock." Ha! then our professor has been pirating is it even so ?" "Exactly; and he has decorated his thefts with curious embellishments of his own, ma sides, there was a possibility that something He was at home, and I procured admission to him without difficulty. Doctor Galigni was a little old man, of spare and meapomp and circumstance of learned affectagre appearance, altogether devoid of the tion. His head was enveloped in no artificial cloud of hair and powder, but the few gray hairs which were scattered over its otherwise bald surface, inspired a sort of affectionate reverence, which, however, was not increased or sustained by the expression of his countenance. Not that his features bited the index to a laborious and thoughtwere to be called disagreeable,-they exhiful mind, while the light of his sparkling eyes, deep sunk in their sockets, seemed towardly gnawed me, I hastily signed, and indicate penetration and quick apprehen- took the oath required; the silent physision. But yet there was a something in his cian jerked the money nearer to me, and whole physiognomy remote from the better closing the clasps of the thin folio, stamped feelings of our nature, conveying the idea on the ground, when a servant opened the that his was the cold-blooded love of sci- door, and I was ushered immediately to the ence, which exists for itself only, without street- door. studying or desiring to apply it to the bene- Possessed of my strangely-acquired gains, fit of humanity; there was a lurking selfish-1 hastened to an eating house, where I orness hung around the face, and dwelt in all dered something ready cooked, and sat its furrowed lines. At least I saw all this, down to my meal, (the first which I had though perhaps the peculiar circumstances partaken of for nearly three days,) and antiin which I stood, disposed me to look less cipated in a glance the luxury of satisfying favourably than I might otherwise have my hunger. But the enjoyment perished done upon an individual with whom I was in the grasp. One morsel I raised to my about to make so singular a compact. lips-swallowed it eagerly-and fell senseless on the ground. I believe a sudden relief from such wants, as I was afflicted with, has not unfrequently been attended with similar effects. When I recovered, I found myself lying on a small bed, in a dark and ill-furnished apartment. An old woman, in the character of a nurse, was sitting in the room, from whom I learnt my swoon had continued some time, that I had been let blood, and finally deposited in my present place of repose. I did not feel The room in which the professor of the healing art was sitting was furnished as became a man devoted to abstruse studies. Books, plates, papers and straggling memoranda, loaded the tables, and were scattered about the room with singular inattention to regularity, or convenient arrangement. But there was no ostentation of skulls and bones, and the apparatus which strikes the observation, and awakes the astonishment and awe of the vulgar. It is true the apartment was surrounded with cases of old, dark-col-inclined to sleep, and, therefore, in a short oured oak, and these lent a gloom to the place, and left it to imagination to conjecture the contents. time abandoned the couch on which I lay, and after remunerating in such sort as I was able the people of the house, for their care and attendance upon me, I left the place. Being thus introduced into the presence of the senior, I explained with some hesita- The loss of blood, and want of food, made tion the purport of my visit. He heard me feel weak. and nervously irritable. My me with indifference, and in silence; and as stomach was afflicted with a pain like burnI concluded, he opened a purse, from which ing, but without any appetite. I felt rather he took a moderate sum of money, which he a loathing of food; and I wandered about pushed towards me; at the same time open- the streets wretched and spiritless. Night ing the clasps of a thin folio, which appear- at length came on, and reminded me of the ed to be a receptacle for all kinds of miscel- necessity of a lodging, which I soon procurlaneous minutes, he wrote it on a blank ed in a mean, dirty house at the outskirts of page, and then handing it to me, pointed to the city. I flung myself on my miserable the bottom of the leaf, as expecting me to pallet, and, wearied and exhausted, fell place my signature. The writing thus sub-into a deep sleep, which continued till mornmitted to me contained, in effect, an agree- ing. ment empowering Gasper Sanchez Galigni, On rising, my first care was to provide plain meal, fearful of recalling the illness of |