"The mind accustomed to expand its desires to the good of others, to rejoice in the prosperity of kindred, and to be happy only in their welfare, cannot easily contract itself to the narrow dimensions of solitude. It adheres to the remem : brance of those who shared while they formed its gratification; and the being who lives to mourn over the tomb of all who were dear in youth, is doomed to search in vain for the glittering promises of joy he wanders desolate through the crowded city; in the voice of mirth hears no enlivening sound, nor in the adornments of taste can discover the enjoyments of sense. To such withered bosoms should fate, or chance, restore one that can, in any degree, supply the void so coldly felt, so lamentably deplored, one that can sympathize yet not recal the sense of woe, who can present the rose deprived of a thorn, teach the lorn mind to forget itself and mingle in the pursuits of another, and touch that chord with bliss whose tones had long been silent-then the trembling heart revivifies, becomes conscious of the treasure it has discovered, enters once more into the interests of participation, and is no longer a self-condemned exile from the sympa thies and tenderness of reciprocal good offices. As a light on the dreary waste is hailed by the solitary midnight traveller, so the being who bas long wandered in the labyrinths of hopeless sorrow, blesses the friendly voice of an heavenborn consoler, who will approach the lonely dwelling, unintimidated by the aspect of adversity." Persons who visit remote regions are anxious to be acquainted with the means of preserving, in a similar manner, the dif ferent objects of nature's works, especially those which differ materially from those of our own climate; and this diversity is more to be found in birds and fishes than in the quadrupeds and of the preservation of the winged and fiuny tribe, this useful little work particularly treats. To the traveller it is particularly addressed, but those || who have much leisure at home, and are desirous of employing it in the investigation of nature, and are desirous also of forming a private museum, or cabinet, of natural curiosities, such will find it equally useful and valuable. The first article laid down is the care which should be essentially observed in taking off the skins of birds, while the method is scientifically and easily related; and which, by strictly attending to, will aid the operator in keeping the feathers clean, and preserving them in all their native beauty. The stuffing and other process to be observed, are given with equal care and ingenuity. When Mr. Bullock comes to treat of fishes, he directs, in a clear, concise, and easy manner, how to spread the fins, cut the gills, &c. The nets for taking insects, and the manner of laying down butterflies, are next stated; and we are informed of what many are ignorant of, in his treating on the subject of beetles, that if not put into separate boxes, they will destroy each other We are also informed by this experienced naturalist, that all shells are the finest and most beautiful that are taken with live fish in them. Plants and seeds Mr. Bullock preserves after the manner of that ingenious naturalist, Sir Joseph Bauks. To give our readers any extracts from a work which we ardently recommend them to purchase, would be useless; it being in itself a regular system on one subject, which, though extremely well written, cannot by mutilation afford any peculiar interest to the general reader. FRENCH LITERATURE. Alfred; or, A Kingdom Regained. Adorned with Cuts. A Romance. lu 2 vols. Paris. THE title of this work promises much: to describe the first character in the world in the most trying situation, that of virtue combating against misfortune, is as diffi. cult as it is interesting, in the hands of an able writer. Alfred had received from nature a soul of a superior kind: his mind was great, and he was endowed with courage, grace, and beauty; he had every perfection which constitutes a hero of romance, every quali fication requisite for a great King, and what is yet better, every virtue that can adorn a private citizen. At the age of twelve years, having heard a Saxon poem recited of which his mother was very fond, he immediately gave up his childish sports, and applied himself to those profound studies which afterwards occupied all his leisure hours to the close of his life. Driven from his kingdom by the Danes who then ravaged England, he never lost sight of hope, and never did he shew himself so truly great as in the midst of his misfortunes. History informs us that under the disguise of a simple husbandman, wandering from one county to another, he laboured incessantly to deliver England from her enemies. At length he beheld the bright beams of the day of victory; and the better to conceal himself from the machinations of his enemies, he disguised himself as a minstrel, and penetrated into their camp. The barbarians thronged around him, while he charmed them by the sweetness of his voice and led their senses captive by the superiority of his skill in music. An eye witness of the divisions amongst their troops, and their total want of discipline, he made a vow of delivering his country, and he kept the oath he made. A mild and magnanimous conqueror, he wished not to impose any other laws on the conquered than commanding them to embrace that religion whose chief attribute is forgiveness. From that period he gave himself up to his people, of whom he was at once the father, the preceptor, and the judge. We behold him, during the dark age of ignorance, establishing public education, and laying the foundation of the celebrated university of Oxford. The sea became covered with ships, temples to the God of Truth were erected, and new laws added to the power of the people, and insured at the same time that of the sovereign. He was the first poet of the age in which he lived; and victories more brilliant than those he achieved, have made us almost forget that he regained his throne by conquest; but his glory has lived through every reign; and in the midst of all that renown which a thousand succeeding warriors have gained since his time, Alfred has still been cited as the greatest monarch that ever reigned in Englaud. Such a subject can scarce afford any thing to the mere imagination of a romance writer. Here truth carries with it all the interest of fiction. The heroic festival of the Danes; their marvellous mythology; those indefatigable warriors, who made it their boast never to have slept under the roof of a house, nor drank their beer beside a fire; those Kings, who married shepherdesses, and died in singing the song of their country; the spectacle of those people who discovered America five centuries before the birth of Columbus; whose victories caused Charlemagne, as he was dying, to shed tears; and who conquered and laid waste, almost at the same time, France, England, Italy, and Greece: such is the romantic picture, and yet a true one, that the author had to oppose to the rising civilization of England, and to the truly heroic virtues of Alfred. The incidents that the writer has chosen are well put together, and add much to the romantic interest of the work. In his short Preface he tells his readers, that he "did not pretend to write an historical romance, but to trace out a romance on some principal fact recorded in history." We confess we do not perfectly comprehend the nicety of this distinction. Perhaps it was only a delicate manner of making us understand, without wounding the feelings of any individual, that he was not publishing one of those fashionable works, in which our great Kings are depicted as being the prey of all the minor passions; perhaps, also, he wished to shun the term of historical on his title page, that he might not put a lash into the hand of the critic. In his romance of Alfred we certainly find the hero rather of too feeble a character the author wished to please the ladies, and therefore he could not paint a hero without some amiable weaknesses; and he has rendered this favourite of wisdom, recorded as such by all historiaus, as much in love as a madman: in a word, his life of Alfred, is the life of a lover. Alfred loses his kingdom in trying to save his mistress: he hazards his throne, his people, his friends, his life, to the mere satisfaction of beholding her for one single moment. Descriptions, festivals, combats, funeral ceremonies, a thief reformed into an honest man, in order to establish his own fortune (which is daily seen in our intercourse with the world), the criminal punished in the midst of his triumphs, as we may behold every week at the theatre: such are the wonderful incidents with which this romance is replete, not to speak of a few historical anachronisms: notwithstanding these faults, there are many highly in teresting situations scattered through the work, and which compensate, in a great measure, for its errors. But one of the above-mentioned anachronisms is unpardonable how was it that Edwy, King of England, who ascended the throne in 951, was able, as he related his adventures, to make a quotation from Dante, who was not born till the year 1265? It must be confessed, that the monarch was, at least, gifted with uncommon prescience! WORKS IN THE PRESS. In the press, and will speedily be published, Astarte, a Sicilian tale, by the author of Melancholy Hours. Partridges's almanacks, that old geatleman roundly asserted, that he was living at the very time when Bickerstaff published an account of his death DETACHED THOUGHTS. RELIGION is a commerce established between God and man, wherein grace is employed on the part of God, and worship by mankind. of the mind, is to fight against the object The best means of calming the troubles that caused them. Adversity proves to us the value of our dearest friends. Women, though by nature timid, are always ardent admirers of valour in men: a renowned warrior will gain more favour from them than the most assiduous of their lovers, if he is a mere sighing swain. The certainty of being beloved, is a blessing a sovereign seldom knows. Even the esteem he creates, when it discovers itself, is often misconstrued into ambitious and in Speedily will be published, a poem, interested views. two parts, entitled Harvest; illustrated by an engraving. To which will be added, a few other poetical pieces, by Charlotte Caroline Richardson. Messrs. Longman and Co. will shortly publish, Antonia, a tale, with other poems, chiefly written in Malta, during the interesting period of the plague in that island. To singularity of circumstance and character, this work will be found to add much variety of composition. Early in March will appear, in octavo, the first volume of a complete translation of Ovid's Epistles, by E. D. Baynes, Esq. A faithful version of these elegant and empassioned epistles, has long been a desideratum in the literary world. ALMANACK MAKERS. FRANCIS MOORE has, according to his own confession, amused and terrified mankind with his prophesies and hieroglyphics | for the space of one hundred and seventeen years. John Partridge has been dead and buried more than once, if all the printed accounts of him may be believed. Vincent Wing, the maker of our sheet almanacks, who was born in 1619, was said to have been living in the year 1775. In one of Mankind are often deceived by prudence: and the fault lies not in prudence or mankind; for prudence has against her the uncertainty of what is to come, while the passions of mankind, more strong, and more adroit than she is, are the sole springs by which man is actuated. MUTABILITY OF HUMAN GREATNESS. In the year 1504, the master of the cethe Powers of Europe as follows:remonies of Pope Julius the Second ranked 1 Germany 13 Bohemia 14 Poland 16 Venetian Republic 18 Burgundy 5 Arragon 6 Portugal 7 England 8 Sicily 20 Brandenburgh 9 Scotland 10 Hungary 21 Saxony 22 Austria 23 Savoy Since this memorable period, what is now the proud imperial city of Rome, whose frown spread terror and dismay throughout the civilized world? Scarcely a speck in the scale of nations. The same question may be asked with regard to a majority of the kingdoms and principalities which at that period shone with splendour in the political constellation: and which have since bid farewell, a long farewell" to all their greatness. Neither Russia nor Prussia appears upon the list; they were at that time of too little consequence to assume a rank among civilized society. WALTHAM FOREST. LINES written on seeing the following jeu d'esprit in a handbill posted up in Plaistow, as a "Caution" to prevent persous from supporting the intended inclosure of Hainault or Waltham Forest, viz. "The fault is great in man or woman, "Who steals a goose from off a common; "But what can plead that man's excuse, "Who steals a common from a goose?!" Does he, who seems to plead a goose's cause, Not read, or not believe, his Maker's laws? Who says "Set not thy heart on worldly pelf, But love thy neighbour as thou lov'st thyself." Or may we gather from this smart excuse, He'd starve his fellow-creatures while he feeds a goose! THE PEARL. THE production of the pearl is one of those mysterious operations of nature which the ingenuity of man has not yet been able to unveil. The Arabs, with whom the pearl was an article of great traffic, entertained a notion, which they had from the Brahmins, that when it rained, the animal rose to the surface to catch the drops which turned into pearls. By some of the natives they are considered to be formed of certain mineral substances, carried to the banks of the river which is opposite to them; by It i a foreign nucleus. In the early ages of the Christian era, it would appear that the people who lived on the borders of the Red Sea, were acquainted with the method of forcing certain shell fish to produce pearls, as the Chinese, at present, do the Mytilus Cygneus, the swan muscle, by throwing into the shell, when it opens, five or six minute mother of pearl beads, strung on a thread. In the course of a year these are found covered with a pearly crust, which perfectly resembles the real pearl. supposed that if sharp pointed wires be thrust through the shells of certain species of muscles and oysters, the animal protects itself from being injured and galled, by throwing off a substance which coats them over with little round knobs, resembling pearls. Beckman tells us that “ Linnæus once showed him, among his collection of shells, a small box filled with pearls, and said- Hos unionis confeci artificio meo; sunt tantum quinque annorum, et tamen tam magni.' They were deposited," the Professor adds, near the Maja Margaritifera, from which most of the Swedish pearls are procured; the son, who was not, however, acquainted with his father's secret, said the experiments were made only on this kind of muscle, though Linnæus himself assured me, that they would succeed on all kinds." Dr. Stover, in his Life of Linnæus, informs us that the manuscript containing this valuable secret is in the possession of Dr. J. E. Smith, President to the Linnean Society in London. We do not believe that this gentleman has yet enriched himself by a forced breed of pearls. The information of the real pearl is still, we suspect, a profound mystery, and the wisest of us must be content, after all, to say, with Hussan the Mahomedan tra matter is." BIRTHS. The wife of Mr. G. A. Denne, of Kenningtonlane, of a son. others, they are supposed to be formed from dew-drops in connection with sun-beams, which was pretty nearly the opinion entertained by Pliny, and other ancient natural-veller, "that God alone knoweth how this ists of Europe. Some have thought them to be au accretion within the body of the animal of the superabundant matter which coats over the inside of the shell, called mother of pearl, and to which it is very common to find little knobs adhering, precisely like pearls, but not of clear water. Others again, among whom is Reaumur, By special license, at Lambeth Palace, by his consider them as the effect of disease or Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Right injury, like bezoars and other stones found Hon. Lord Clive, eldest son of the Earl and in various animals, pearls being generally Countess of Powis, to Lady Lucy Graham, third composed of amellæ, or coats, formed rounddaughter of the Duke and Duchess of Montrose. At Halifax, Nova Scotia, the lady of Captain Edward Chetham, C. B. of H. M. S. Leander, of a son. MARRIED. At St. George's the Martyr, Queen's-square, James Sadler, Esq. of Weyhill and Fort Morri son plantations in Jamaica, to Miss Kibblewhite, of Liddiard, near Wootton Bassett, sister to one of the Representatives returned for that borough. DIED. At Bently Priory, Stanmore, John James Hamilton, the Most Noble the Marquis of Abercorn. | So anxious was his Lordship to prevent the anxieties of his friends, that he forbade the domestics ever alluding to his illness in the slightest way. To prevent the parade of physicians attending him at his country seat, he constantly came to town to meet them in Stratford-place, three times a week. The fatal complaint existed in the stomach, said to be attended by an enlargement of the liver; he suffered much previous to his demise. The Marchioness and Lady Maria Ha milton, his daughter, were present. He was in his 62d year. At the house of a lady in Wimpole-street (Mrs. Thackeray), whom he was attending in child birth, Sir Richard Croft, Bart, the celebrated accoucheur. The circumstance attending the fate of this gentleman produced no ordinary sensation, as it was known that ever since the fatal termination of the accouchement of the amiable Princess Charlotte, Sir Richard had laboured under the most severe mental affliction. The unfortunate circumstance preyed upon his mind, and his friends had long observed symptoms of uneasiness that alarmed them, and which, probably, prepared them for the event that has happened. The inquest was taken at the house, No. 86, in Wimpole-street, before Thomas Stirling, Esq. and a Jury of neighbours. Sir Richard had been called in to attend the accouchement of Mrs. Thackeray, the wife of the Rev. Dr. Thackeray. The lady's labour was tedious, and her situation became so critical, that Sir Richard wished to have further medical advice and assistance. Another gentleman having been called in, it was their joint opinion that the result would prove fatal. This desperate aspect of the case was observed to have thrown Sir Richard into great agitation. An apart. ment in the floor above that occupied by Mrs. Thackeray, was appointed for the residence of Sir Richard. In this chamber there were two pistols. He retired to rest about twelve o'clock; about one o'clock Dr. Thackeray heard a noise apparently proceeding from the room occupied by Dr. Croft, and sent a female servant to ascertain the cause; she returned, saying she found the Doctor in bed, and conceived him to be asleep. A short time after a similar noise was heard; and on going in to his apartment a shocking spectacle presented itself. The body of the Doctor was lying on the bed shockingly mangled, both pistols were discharged, and the head of the unfortunate gentleman was literally blown to pieces.-The Jury returned a verdict finding that the deceased had destroyed himself while in a fit of temporary derangement. At the house of her sister, Miss Cotton, ip Wimpole-street, Mrs. Thackeray, who was a patient of the late Sir R. Croft. The child is perfectly well. Suddenly, at his seat, Ampthill-park, Bedfordshire, the Earl of Upper Ossory, in the 73d year of his age. Besides the Earldom of Upper Ossory (an Irish peerage), which had been for many years in the family of Fitzpatrick, he was a Peer of the United Kingdom, by the title of Baron Upper Ossory, of Ampthill. His Lordship had previouly represented the county of Bedford many years in the British Parliament, and had long held the important trust of Lord Lieutenant and Custos Rotulorum of the same county. He married in March, 1769, the Hon. Ann Liddel, daughter of the late Lord Ravensworth, and repudiated Duchess of Grafton, by whom he had two daughters, Ladies Ann and Gertrude Fitzpatrick. His Lordship was elder brother to the late General Fitzpatrick, M. P. who, had he survived, would have inherited the Peerages, which are now, we believe, become extinct. The late Earl of Upper Ossory was maternal uncle of the Marquis of Lansdowne and of Lord Holland, sisters of the noble Earl having married the fathers of these two noblemen respectively. At their Grace's seat, Belvoir Castle, the infant son of the Duke and Duchess of Rutland. At his house in Bedford-square, of an apoplectic fit, in the 78th year of his age, Sir William Fraser, Bart. F. R. S. and one of the Elder Brethren of the Trinity-house. Sir William was, at the moment of his decease, inquiring of his servant the cause of a smoke in the house, when be fell down in a fit, and instantly expired. The previous day he had been at the Prince Regent's levee in good health. He married his lady when fifty-six, by whom he had twenty-eight children, seventeen of whom are living, three sons and fourteen daughters. Two of the ladies were lately married. Suddenly, Mr. Hanwell, of Chancery-lane.He went on a visit of condolence to a friend at Newington Butts, and on his return, in passing the Magdalen Asylum, in Blackfriar's-road, he dropped down, and instantly expired. Suddenly, Mr. John Dawson, at his house in Crown-court, Trinity-lane, late of Chester, in his 30th year. He was in perfect health the day before his death, and ate a hearty dinner. At his house in Lincoln's Inn-fields, Sir Claude Champion de Crepigny, Bart. Receiver-General of the Droits of Admiralty, Director of the SouthSea House, &c. London: Printed by and for JOHN BELL, Proprietor of this MAGAZINE, and of the WEEKLY MESSENGER, Corner of Clare-court, Drury-lane. |