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I love not now, as I certainly was
when I vowed I did love you at first.
As our fentiments for each other are no
doubt the fame, the fame be our expref-
fions of them alfo. Then fay, Lady
Charlotte, with that fincerity which I
do, is it not your hope, as well as it is
mine, by thus fecluding ourfelves from
the world, in the old vulgar ftile of
Man and Wife, to enjoy the fooner-
what both of us, I am perfuaded, have
at heart-the pleasure of furviving each
other? Inclination, you know, is not
in our power to command; and mine,
Heaven knows, has long been eftrang-
ed from you.
"Tis a pity; and you, no
doubt, are forry for it alfo; but how is
it to be helped? Then mutually let us
continue to hate each other, with that
air of polite indifference, which we
have fo long practifed with fuccefs in
Town; and which is indeed one of the
moft diftinguishing characteristics of our
rank."

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"With all my heart, Sir," replied Lady Charlotte, with a heart ready to burit afunder, yet without feeming to be either furprized, or fhocked, at the brutal compofure of her husband, while he uttered this eloquent harrangue"With all my heart, Sir," replied the, you have anticipated mv very words. And to fhew you, Sir Charles, how much you are indebted to my conduct, know, that for thefe many, many, months paft, I have detefted, with as much cordiality as I have defpifed, you; without, however, betraying the smalleft fyftem of aught but fatisfaction to the world, or even to yourfelf. Contempt and hatred for the fame perfon feldom obtain a feat in one bofom; but, in mine, they both triumph with equal fway. Then pray reftrain not yourself on my account. Hunt, game, drink, from morning till night, and from night till morning-no reproach fhall you ever experience from me. Not more for my repofe than for your own, do I ever wish to behold you but as an object of fuperlative contempt

Nor did Sir Charles neglect her advice. Ever in pursuit of happiness but where happiness alone is to be found; in the joys of the bottle, thofe momentary joys, his every with began to center. But, with the fweets of Bacchanalian feftivity, fo largely did he drink f the empoifoned bitters, that at length,

forced to fubmit to the punishment of intemperance, he resigned, in the flower of youth, a life, which, indeed, he was not worthy to enjoy.

To add, that he left a widow difconfolate, and weeping for her lofs, would be to facrifice nature to improbability, and truth to fiction. No inwardly pleafed at the exit of an unworthy hufband, originally brought about, too, by a project from which he had hoped to fhorten her own days, the hour of Sir Charles's interment was the dawn of Lady Charlotte's felicity. With a light heart, the fet out in a coach-and-fix, the day following, for London; where, with charms, which even her past miffortunes could not impair, the happily arrived not three weeks ago.

Indeed, if Fame speaks true, already are preparations making for a fecond wedding; already is Lady Charlotte on the eve of receiving, in the arms of the gallant, the generous, the accomplished Colonel S- -, an ample atonement for all her fufferings. Envy and fpleen calumniate this ftep as precipitate; but candour and fenfibility, joined to a knowledge of the vices of her former, and the virtues of her future hufband, applaud it as juft, as laudable; while they agree that, bleffed with the affections of the most amiable of her fex, the Colonel will refpect, will cherifh her virtues; and render it the fupreme ftudy of his life to prove himself worthy of fo inestimable a prize.

That fuch hufbands as Sir Charles may exift but feldom, is devoutly to be wifhed. But fay, ye hapless fons of Diffipation and Libertinifm, is there no feature in the character refembling your own?" There is."-Then beware of matrimony. It is a ftate for which you have unqualified yourfelves, and which, however fraught with happiness to others, will be accompanied with endlefs mifery and difappointment to you.

Say, ye fmiling daughters of Innocence and Virtue, has Lady Charlotte been to blame?" Ah! no," you cry.

Then, fhould Fate ever deftine fuch a husband to either of you as the vile Sir Charles, be not provoked to disclaim that innocence, and that virtue; they are at once the fafe-guard, the ornament, the glory, of your fex. Feel your wrongs; but feel them like Lady Charlotte, with a patient magnanimity, a

fubmiffive

fubmiffive refignation ; and be affured that, like her, you will fooner or later receive, in one shape or other, that crown of felicity which you fhall have fo amply deferved.

"Auditafque memor penitus demittere

voces

"Sturnus, & Aonio verfæ certamine picæ ;

"Quique refert jungens iterata vocabula perdix,

cubili ." Stat. Sylv. lib. ii. eccl. 4.

Experiments and Obfervations on the Sing-Et que Biftonio queritur foror orba ing of Birds. By the hon. Daines Barrington, Vice Pref. of the Royal Society. [Concluded from page 421.]

THOUGH feveral birds have great

have no delicacy of fenfations, as the human finger hath; and therefore the very beft of them cannot be taught to exceed the infipidity of the upper part of the flute ftop of an organ, which hath not the modern improvement of a fwell.

They are also easily impofed upon by that most imperfect of all inftruments, a bird-call, which they often mistake for the notes of their own fpecies.

I have before obferved, that perhaps no bird may be faid to fing which is larger than a blackbird, though many of them are taught to fpeak: the fmaller birds, however, have this power of imitation; though perhaps the larger ones have not organs which may enable them, on the other hand, to fing.

We have the following inftances of birds being taught to speak, in the time of the Greeks and Romans, upon which we never try the fame experiment. Mofchus addreffes the nightingales and fwallows which were thus inftructed: Αδώνιδες, πασαι τε χελιδόνες,ας ποκ' εερπιν, Ας λαλειν εδίδασκε. Mofchi Idy!. iii. Pliny mentions both a cock, thrush, and nightingales, which articulated *:

"Habebant & Cefares juvenes tur"dum+, item lucinias Græco atque La"tino fermone dociles, præterea medi"tantes in diem, & affidue nova loquen"tes longiore etiam contextu."

Statius alfo takes notice of fome birds fpeaking, which we never attempt to teach, in this manner :

"Huc do&tæ ftipentur aves, queis, no-
bile fandi
"Jus natura dedit, plangat Phœbeius
ales,

NOTE.

* Lib. x. c. 21 and 42.

As we find, from these citations, that fo many different

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no local, and fort of birds have learn

a fparrow may be taught to sing the linnet's note, I fcarcely know what species to fix upon, that may be confidered as incapable of fuch imitations; for it is very clear, from feveral experiments before ftated, that the utmost endeavours will not be wanting in the bird, if he is endowed with the proper organs.

It can therefore only be fettled by educating a bird, under proper circumftances, whether he is thus qualified or not; for if one was only to determine this point by conjecture, one fhould fuppofe that a fparrow would not imitate the fong of the linnet, nor that a nightingale or partridge could be taught to speak.

And here it may not be improper to explain what I mean by birds learning to imitate the notes of others, or the human speech.

If the birds differ little in fhape or fize (particularly of the beak ), the imitation is commonly fo frong, that "Mire fagaces falleret hofpites "Difcrimen obfcurum,

NOTE.

Horat.

for,

|| Amongst the five birds mentioned in these lines of Statius, there are four which are never taught to speak at prefent, viz. the cock, the nightingale, the common and the red-legged Partridge.

§ It feems very obvious why the form and fize of the beak may be material; but I have alfo obferved, that the colour of a bird's bill changes, when in or out of fong; and I am informed that a cock feldom crows much but when his comb is red.

When most of the finch tribe are coming into fong, there is fuch a gradual change in the colour of their bill; thus, thofe of the chaffinch and linnet are then of a very deep blue, which fades

Ibid. The other turdus belonged away again when the bird ceases to be

to the Empress Agrippina,

in fong.

This

for, in fuch inftances, the paffages are not only the fame, but the tone.

Such was the event of the experiment I have before mentioned of the linnet educated under a vengolina.

In my experiment, however, of teaching the fparrow the notes of the linnet, though the fcholar imitated the paffages of its mafter, yet the tone of the fparrow had by no means the mellowness of the original.

The imitation might therefore be, in fome measure, compared to the finging of an opera fong by a black-guard, when, though the notes may be precifely the fame, yet the manner and tone would differ very mnch.

Thus alfo the linnet, which I heard repeat the words pretty boy, did not NOTE.

This particular fhould be attended to by the ornithologist in his defcription; because otherwife he supposes the colour of the bill to be permanent, which is by no means fo.

This alteration, however, rather seems to be the symptom than the cause of a bird's coming into fong, or otherwise; and I have never attended to this circumftance in the foft billed birds fufficiently to say whether it holds also with regard to them.

A very intelligent bird-catcher, however, was able to prognofticate, for three winters together, when a nightingale, which I kept fo long, was coming into fong (though there was no change in the colour of the bill) by the dung's being intermixed with large bloody fpots, which before was only of a dead white.

This fame bird-catcher was also very fuccefsful in his prefcriptions for fick birds, with regard to the ingredients of which he was indeed very myfterious.

He faid, that as he could not feel their pulfe, the circumstances which he chiefly attended to were their weight, as well as both the confiftence and colour of their dung.

He always frankly said what he expected from his prescriptions, and that if fuch and fuch changes did not foon take place, the cafe was defperate. He frequently alfo refused to prefcribe, if the bird felt too light in the hand, or he thought that there was not fufficient time to bring about an alteration in the

dung.

articulate like a parrot or a mino, though, at the fame time, the words might be clearly distinguished.

The education have therefore been fpeaking of will not give new organs of voice to a bird, and the inftrument itfelf will not vary, though the notes or paffages may be altered almost at pleafure.

I tried once an experiment, which might indeed have poffibly made fome alteration in the tone of a bird, from what it might have been when the animal was at its full growth, by procuring an operator who caponifed a young blackbrid of about fix weeks old; as it died, however, foon afterwards, and I have never repeated the experiment, I can only conjecture with regard to what might have been the confequences of it.

Both Pliny and the London poulterers agree that a capon does not crow, which I fhould conceive to arife from the muscles of the larynx never acquiring the proper degree of ftrength, which feems to be requifite to the finging of a bird, from Mr. Hunter's diffections.

But it will perhaps be asked, why this operation fhould not improve the notes of a neftling, as much as it is fuppofed to contribute to the greater perfection of the human voice.

To this I anfwer, that caftration by no means infures any fuch confequences; for the voices of much the greater part of Italian eunuchs are fo indifferent, that they have no means of procuring a livelihood but by copying mufic; and this is one of the reafons why fo few compofitions are publifhed in Italy, as it would starve this refufe of Society.

But it may be faid, that there hath been a Farinilli and a Manzoli, whose voices were fo diftinguifhedly fuperior.

To this I again answer, that the catalogue of fuch names would be a very fhort one; and that we attribute thofe effects to caftration, which should rather be afcribed to the education of these fingers.

Caftration commonly leaves the human voice at the fame pitch as when the operation is performed; but the eunuch, from that time, is educated with a view only to his future appearance on the opera ftage; he therefore manages his voice to greater advantage than those NOTE.

*Lib. x. c. 28.

whe

who have not fo early and constant inftruction.

Confidering the fize of many finging birds, it is rather amazing at what a distance their notes may be heard.

I think I may venture to say, that a nightingale may be very clearly diftinguished at more than half a mile +, if the evening is calm. I have alfo obferved the breath of a robin (which exerted itfelf) fo condenfed in a frofty morning, as to be very visible.

To make the comparison, however, with accuracy, between the loudness of a bird's and the human voice, a perfon fhould be fent to the spot from whence the bird is heard; I fhould rather conceive that, upon fuch trial, the nightingale would be diftinguished further than the man.

It must have ftruck every one, that, in paffing under a house where the windows are fhut, the finging of a bird is eafily heard, when at the fame time, a converfation cannot be fo, though an animated one.

Most people, who have not attended to the notes of birds, fuppofe that thofe of every fpecies fing exactly the fame notes and paffages; which is by no means true, though it is admitted that there is a general refemblance.

Thus the London bird-catchers prefer the song of the Kentish goldfinches, but Effex chaffinches; and when they fell the bird to those who can thus diftinguish, informs the buyer that it hath fuch an note, which is very well understood between them *.

Some of the nightingale-fanciers alfo prefer a Surry bird to thofe of Middlefex +.

NOTE.

+ Monf. de Buffon fays, that the quadruped, which he terms the Imarine, may be heard at the distance of a league. Ornith. Tom. I.

These are the names which they give to fome of the nightingale's notes: Sweet, Sweet jug, Jug sweet, Water bubble, Pipe rattle, Bell pipe, Scroty, Skeg fkeg fkeg, Swat Jwat fwaty, WhitLow whitlow whitlow, from fome diftant affinity to fuch words.

+ Mr. Henshaw informs us, that aightingales in Denmark are not heard till May, and that their notes are not fo fweet or various as with us. Dr. Birch's Hiftory of the Royal Society,

Thefe differences in the fong of birds of the fame fpecies cannot perhaps be compared to any thing more appofite, than the varieties of provincial dialects.

The nightingale feems to have been fixed upon, almoft univerfally, as the capital of finging birds, which fuperiority it certainly may boldly challenge: one reafon, however, of this bird's being more attended to than others, is, that it fings in the night.

Hence Shakespeare says, «The nightingale, if the fhould fing by day,

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"When every goofe is cackling, would "be thought

No better a musician than the wren."

The fong of this bird hath been defcribed, and expatiated upon, by several writers, particularly Pliny and Strada.

As I mult own, however, that I cannot affix any precife ideas to either of these celebrated defcriptions, and as I once kept a very fine bird of this fort for three years, with very particular attention to its fong; I fhall endeavour to do it the best juftice I am capable of.

In the first place, its tone is infinitely more mellow than that of any other bird, though, at the fame time, by a proper exertion of its musical powers, it can be exceffively brilliant.

When this bird fang its fong round, in its whole compafs, I have obferved fixteen different beginnings and closes, at NOT E.

Vol. III. p. 189. Whilft Mr. Fletcher (who was minifter from Q. Elizabeth to Ruffia) fays, that the nightingales in that part of the world have a finer note than ours. See Fletcher's Life, in the Biographia Britannica.

I never could believe, what is commonly afferted, that the Czar Peter was at a confiderable expence to introduce finging birds near Petersburgh; because it appears, by the Fauna Suecica, that they have in thofe latitudes most of the fame birds with those of England.

The woodlark and reedfparrow fing likewise in the night; and from hence, in the neighbourhood of Shrewsbury, the latter hath obtained the name of the willow-nightingale. Nightingales, however, and these two other birds, fing alfo in the day, but are not then distinguished in the general concert.

the fame time that the intermediate notes were commonly varied in their fucceffion with fuch judgment, as to produce a most pleasing variety.

The bird which approaches nearest to the excellence of the nightingale, in this refpect, is the fky-lark; but then the tone is infinitely inferior in point of mellowness: moft other finging birds have not above four or five changes.

The next point of fuperiority in a nightingale is its continuance of fong, without a pause, which I have obferved fometimes not to be less than twenty feconds. Whenever refpiration, however, became neceffary, it was taken with as much judgment as by an opera finger.

The skylark again, in this particular, is only fecond to the nightingale ||. NOTE.

I fhall here infert a table, by which the comparative merit of the British finging birds may be examined, the idea of which I have borrowed from Monf. de Piles, in his Cours de Peinture par Principes. I fhall not be furprized, however, if, as he fuggefts, many may difagree with me about particular birds, as he fuppofes they will do with him concerning the merits of painters.

As I have five columns inftead of the four which M. de Piles uses, I make 20 the point of abfolute perfection, instead of 16, which is his standard.

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I have made no mention of the bul. finch in this Table, which is commonly confidered as a finging bird; because its wild note, without inftruction, is a most jarring and disagreeable noise.

I have likewise omitted (b) the redstart (which is called by the French le

(a) Brit. Zool. p. 262.

(b) Il culo ranzo e' un ucello, (per quanto dicono) molto canoro, ma io tale non lo ftimo, Delle uova e' del nidi, P. 53.

4

+62

Roffignol de muraille) as I am not fufficiently acquainted withlits fong, though it is admired by many; I should rather conceive, however, with Zinanni, that there is no very extraordinary merit in the notes.

The London bird-catchers alfo fell fometimes the yellow-hammer, twite and brambling (c) as finging birds; but none of these will come within my definition of what may be deemed fo.

(c) They call this bird a kate,

And

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