explosive powers of inflammable air, when mingled with a certain portion of common air, made them dangerous, and not fit to be entrusted to children or domestics: in scientific hands, they were innocent. They would be very useful to burn during the night; for, besides the sparing of expense, the air of the chamber would not be impregnated with the phlogiston, and it would be without that brightness which proves an inconvenience to some persons. THE ST. LAWRENCE. There are not less than 2500 islands in the navigable waters between St. Regis, on the St. Lawrence, and Lake Superior: some of them contain from 10 to 100,000 acres. SINGULAR INCIDENT. The following remark offered itself to me when on a visit in Kent: I was contemplating part of its scenery. Some of the hills, although far inferior in point of height to Snowdon and Plinlimmon, in Wales, or to the Cheviot range in Scotland,-possess the appearance of an Alpine region. Nor do they seem to have lost the character and expression of such, if we may judge from one particular, that I have seen more birds of prey there than in any other part of England, Cornwall excepted. If I wanted materials for the amplification of this subject, one might be found in an incident that occurred at Wychling, at a little summer residence appertaining to Samuel Lewin, esq. A goldfinch was placed on the outside of a window, in a mahogany cage, with brass wires. There was nothing new or striking in this; but while the little songster was hop ping about, or singing, in its familiar, agreeable, and simple way, a frightful form of a different kind, that was flitting about in the air, descended with great velocity, pierced the skull of its little victim through the wires, and laid it breathless at the bottom of the cage. I never knew before such an instance of the daring of that inferior bird, the kite. NOTES TAKEN AT SEVE OR SEVRES, A single plate is valued at twenty guineas. The white clay (kaolin) is brought from both Limoges and Petunse, two filspars; and being ground by means of water-mills, and pounded and sifted, to get rid of impurities, is submitted to the labours of the modelJer. Painters have attained such ex cellence in their art, as renders them worthy of being academicians. The best artists are employed here. One is selected for his excellence in figures; another excels in battles; and the third in landscapes. The gilding is performed with wonderful art; and, in the distribution of this metal, the French must be allowed to excel. The famous Sevres blue is produced by means of cobalt; and all the other colours are vivid and rich in the extreme. LAST QUEEN OF FRANCE. Madame, the wife of Monsieur, (Louis XVIII.) was called by Camille, a French wit, and others, in terms very properly considered as rather familiar, if not coarse:-"La grosse femme du gros frere du Roi Louis.” LAW SAYINGS. "Optima est lex quæ minimum relinquit judici; optimus judex qui minimum sibi."-That law should be recorded and preserved as the best which leaves the least to the judge; and that judge is the best, the greatest master of his business, who leaves the least to himself. for it addresses itself to hostile feelIntolerance only sours the breast,ings and sympathies. It procures enemies to religion, without gaining it one friend; for, to use the conspiring testimony of another, “it is as impessible to subdue the mind by laws as it is to destroy a fortress by syllogisms." Truth will support itself, and what is false cannot be bolstered up by authority. I find, though I pretend not to account for it, that the French clergy expressed the same, or an equivalent meaning, when the Bishop of Rennes, in their name, said to Louis XIII. "We do not presume to root out the errors of the Protestants by force and violence."-Memoires du Clergé, &c. THOMAS HOLLIS. Mr. Hollis says (vol. i. p. 102,) that Mr. (afterwards Sir William) Temple, who appears to so great advantage in his compositions as an author, being both a man of business and of letters, acted originally in the capacity of a page to Oliver Cromwell. Mr. H. elsewhere justly remarks, that the remaining stream of an ancient and wholesome revolution-principle, began to be diverted into quite a different channel, in a very few months after the death of the second George. This assertion is founded in truth; for from that epoch a deluge of Tory sentiments has bas given an heterogeneous appearauce, a romantic cast, to the whole groundwork of our Constitution, as previously exhibited. Hinc illa lachryme. SUGAR. "Saccharum Arabia fert, sed laudatius India; est autem mel in harundinibus collectum gummium modo candidum, dentibus fragile, amplissimum nucis avellanæ magnitudine, ad medicinæ tantum usum."-Plin. Nat. Hist. xii. 8. During the Crusades, it appears to have been first used as food, during a scarcity, by Baldwin, second King of Jerusalem, on his march between that city and Laodicea: "At vero famem nonnibil levabant, arundines Melitas continuè dentibus tenentes quas Cannamellas composito ex cannå et melle nomine, vocant: sic ki, omninò a Tripolitanis et Cæsariensibus immenso ære necessariâ nacti Jerosolymam venire."-Malmesb. 81. MRS. ARMSTEAD, afterwards MRS. FOX, Was originally an orange-girl, and lived in or near Bishopsgate-street; she was seen and taken into keeping by Lord Bolingbroke, with whom she lived at Brooklands, and has been on the stage. My informant was a female, who had been much in her company, and was well acquainted with her history. From her I learned that Mrs. A. was very humble and becoming in her behaviour, in her family, and private societies, as well as in the world at large: has been seen to go to Chertsey in a post-chaise, and take in a sack of flour with her. According to my information, she had a culti vated mind; and it was added, "that she had got money by strange ways, but always laid it out with discretion." Mrs. A. was very charitable to the poor; to any that had lost a pig or a cow always gave a guinea; gives away coals during the winter. She lived at one time with Lord John Cavendish. FAMILY OF MANNERS. Old Manners, brother to the late Duke of Rutland's father, amassed a large fortune by well and truly performing the character of a gamester. To him the old Duke of Devonshire lost the great estate of Leicester Abbey. He is represented as an usurer in the "Rake's Progress." Happening to dine for the first time in Company with Lady Burlington, and his gown being rather rusty, she sup DEAN SWIFT posed him to be some clergyman of inferior note, and mortifled him greatly by taking no notice of him whatsoever. After dinner the Dean said, "Lady Burlington, I hear you can sing; come, sing me a song." The lady, being out of her turn, of course peremptorily refused; but, after telling her that he supposed he was taken "for some poor paltry English hedgeparson," he actually drove her from the table in tears. On seeing her ladyship next time, he said, "Pray, madam, are you as proud and ill-natured as when I saw you last?" To which she replied, with the greatest goodhumour, "No, Mr. Dean; I will sing for you now, if you please:" and from that moment he treated her with the utmost respect. SIR G. SONDES. Sir George Soudes, bart. had two sons, arrived almost at the age of manhood. Each had a suit of new clothes, made of the same cloth, and trimmed alike in every thing, except that, for distinction sake, and by way of pre-eminence, the elder had gold buttons, and the younger silver; for which the latter bore his brother such a grudge, that he barbarously murdered him in bed, by using first a cleaver, with which he split his skull, and then a stiletto, with which he stabbed him seven or eight times to the heart. After this bloody tragedy, he repaired to his father's bed-side, and narrated all the circumstances. He was immediately apprehended, committed to Maidstone gaol, and executed soon after. The unhappy father published a narrative of the melancholy trans action. HOLLAND Was originally an island, known by the name of Batavia. The rivers are much the same now as in the time of Tacitus:-"Rhenus apud principium agri Batavi, velut in duos amnes dividitur, ad Gallicam ripam latior et placidior; verso cognomento, Vahalem accola dicunt. Mox id quæque vocabulum ornetat Mosa flumine ejusque immensi ́ore cundem in oceanum effunditur."-How changed by commerce! KALMUCKS. Stewart, the walking traveller, told me that the Kalmucks extract from the milk of their mares two sorts of liquors; the former bears the name of koumiss, and the other is a kind of milk brandy. This latter they distil from སྐལ་ MRS. WOLSTONECRAFT AND MISS BLOOD. from the milk, after the cream is taken off. The alembic used in the process they heat with the dung of cattle, and especially of the dromedary; it gives a bright and clear fire, like turf. These liquors are very different, though prepared with the same materials. The koumiss is a sour milk, that has undergone a degree of vinous fermentation; it is precisely the same as the pinna, a favourite beverage with the Laplanders. The milk brandy is an ardent spirit, obtained from the koumiss by distillation. Sometimes the Kalmucks use cow's milk for preparing the koumiss; but mare's milk is preferred, as yielding three times the quantity of brandy. In making the koumiss, a portion of hot water is mixed with six times as much mare's milk, equally hot. For leaven, they throw into it a small quantity of old koumiss, and the whole is shaken together till the fermentation takes place. To render the same complete, artificial heat and shaking are indispensable. To the brandy extracted by distillation, the Kalmucks give the name of rack or racky. The word doubtless comes from arrack, a term used in India for fermented liquors. The rack of the Kalmucks, however, as a brandy, is both weak and ill tasted. These liquors (says Mr. S.) are prepared by the women, and, from the simplicity of their apparatus, we may infer the antiquity of the invention. The alembic is made of earth or coarse clay; a reed serves for the neck of the retort, and the receiver is coated over with wet clay, that the vapour may cool the sooner. These two ladies were not of feelcholy, "a worm i' th' bud, feeding on ings to sit in green and yellow melantheir damask cheeks;" nor yet quite ready to exclaim, with one of Dryden's heroines, -again I stand The jolliest spinster in the land. But conceiving that they had a right to procure husbands if they could, it so happened that they were both in love, at the same time, with Mr. Curtis, the botanist. They kept a school at Walham-green, while he lived about a mile nearer London, at Queen's Elm. Prompted by the affections of nature, the current of which it is hard to check, they were accustomed to visit him rather oftener than he could wish; the character and style of his avocations, as he was celebrated in his line, requiring all his time. This induced him to be frequently denied to them, though it was touching, tenderly, a sore part, for he liked their company very much, if his time would have permitted. But it seems they could not mould his feelings to their purposc. One day they happened to get access to him by means of a stratagem, indicative of attachment; but their male friend, on this occasion, might know too much,-as, after half an hour's intercourse, he observed, on their retiring, to a young artist then present, "These are two clever young women, and I acknowledge myself very much gratified with their company; but it is a pity they do not mend the holes in their stockings!" ORIGINAL POETRY. A DOMESTIC SKETCH. BY J. R. PRIOR. EVENING the time. The labours of the field Draws round the hemisphere a raven cloud; A With many a plaintive chord, struck in the harp When When death intrudes on earthly bliss! O come EPIGRAMMA. A quel pranzare e il dormir. INCUBUS BOTANICUS; OR, THE NIGHT-MARE OF LINNÆUS. I dreamt that I died, but that after my death The Earth was my body, the Air was my breath, Then Flora, who trampled me under her feet, And what's more, my olfactory senses to greet, And she call'd the gay Nymphs that attend in her train, In colours so variously drest, And, doffing the white shroud wherein I was lain, When she stamp'd, the blood flow'd up in my chest, dell, And the Nymphs as they danc'd, and sipp'd at the well, More blooming and fresher did grow. Galanthis the fair, in a robe of white, More modest than colourless snow, Was the first who footed, left hand and right, Daffodilla, the next, was a gaudy Miss, She stoop'd and she gave me a jealousy kiss, And nodded her head with a frown! For she view'd her fair rival step up by her side, Whom Narcissus would surely have pick'd for his bride, When bath'd in the morning dew; But she gave place, in the wav'ring round, To a Nymph of great power to lure, Amaryllis, whom all the fresh vallies resound With her fringes of crimson pure! Then Tulipa, gaudy coquette, kept rule, Who capriciously pays for such creatures. Chaste Viola next, so sweetly perfum'd, Stole lightly my bosom along; And was follow'd by Rosa, who blushing assum'd Now, all on a sudden, in a painted scarf, 'Twas the goddess Electra,* with auburn hair, Who, follow'd by thund'ring Bailiffs there, The concussion was sharp, and great was the smart, 1 first dreamt I was dreaming, and then with a start I awoke, and I rubb'd my eyes. I had doz'd, dear Selina, with thee on my breast, And thy fragrant breath, as we both caress'd, EPITHALAMIUM; POR DOCTER T. FORSTER. In Imitation of Catullus's "Epithalamium of Con vario color. The Electricity or Lightning. NOVELTIES OF FOREIGN LITERATURE. T is gratifying to observe the literary spirit of Italy still asserting its claims to distinction, in spite of the withering influence of a foreign despotism, more illiberal and arbitrary than any known among the ancients, extending its unhallowed authority over the press, and into the recesses of learning and the arts. From such works, however, as have been suffered to appear, very convincing proofs may be collected of that unsubdued character of literary and philosophical research, and the existence of that stifled love of liberty, which, "working together for good," will, we doubt not, ere long accomplish the emancipation of the finest country in the world. In addition to many original productions of very superior merit, which have frequently come under our notice, we have the pleasure to meet with an excellent translation of the works of our immortal hard, rendered in a tone of freedom and of power, calculated to give the Italians a noble opinion of the surpassing genius and worth of Shakespeare. It is from the hand of Signor Michele Michele Leon, who appears to have brought very high qualifications to the accomplishment of the great and laborious task in which he has been long and strenuously engaged. Sensible that he was encountering an author who was without a model, or an equal in any times, he appears to have felt the importance and grandeur of the la. bours and of the difficulties which he had to surmount. To meet these, he endeavoured to enter into the peculiar nature and character of the author's writings; and, like the Schlegels, to appreciate the leading features and the spirit of the age in which he lived. Despising, on such a subject, the shackles imposed at the dictation of the French, and the old Aristotelian schools, the translator, following the example of his great master, has dared to give free and full scope to the impulses of feeling and imagination, attaining something of the noble enthusiasm and magnificence of imagery, of language and versification, so characteristic of the original, instead of servilely following and rendering the text in the submissive strain of a tame interpreter. Did our limits here permit, it would be easy to give specimens that would perfectly justify the full measure of our praise; but these, with minute critical observations on their deserts, for which we entertain a hearty abhorrence, would serve to convey a very inadequate idea of the character and power of the entire version. Though the undertaking be as yet incomplete, sufficient earnest has been given, in the present volumes, that Signor Leoni will not disappoint the expectations already raised among the living poets and scholars of Italy. We are happy to observe, that a new edition of the Life and Actions of Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, has been newly undertaken at Milan, founded on a former publication in twelve volumes, from the pen of Bernardino Baldi da Urbino. We are already indebted for two volumes of the life of this celebrated statesman and commander, which had been al lowed since its first appearance, more than two centuries ago, to fall into comparative neglect, to the assiduous labours of Signor Perticari, though we are at the same time sorry to perceive that, together with the original work, they do not meet with that degree of approbation we might have expected from the Italian reviewers. According to their fiat, from which we dare not presume to appeal, it would appear that no historian adequate to the task has yet been found; no one at all eapable of doing complete justice to the distinguished merits of their great countryman: "As few princes had ever the good fortune to acquire the reputation of a Montefeltro, who united successful valour to true greatness of mind, and thus accomplished many noble and surprizing undertakings." The editor of this work, however, openly maintains the value of those labours which have brought to light the very rare and neglected life. of a distinguished character, whose genius and actions had such a marked influence on the age in which he lived. And, certainly, though very imperfectly executed, and abounding in all the blemishes of a weak and prejudiced writer, the voluminous production of Baldi, thus re-edited, must, nevertheless, possess powerful attractions to southern readers, from the very interesting nature and importance of the events which it commemorates. To judge, indeed, from its intrinsic qualities, and the merit of the execution, both on the part of the editor and the biographer, we are inclined to coincide in opinion with the Italian critic, that the life and actions of so distinguished a character have never yet been adequately treated, and that it still remains a desideratum to the Italians, which we trust the abundance of modern genius will ere long find occasion to supply. Another very interesting publication has lately appeared at Milan, from the pen of the able and learned Melchiore Gioja, an author whose writings have acquired a high reputation, having been wholly devoted to the elucidation of subjects connected with the public interests, and the information and prosperity of his fellow-countrymen. As a proof of the progress and triumph of modern science, as well as of literature in Italy, over the despotic principles every where attempted to be established, it will be enough to mention even the titles of those works, which, within a few years, Signor G. has himself presented to the public: these are, "1. A New View of the Sciences termed Economical.” “2. A Treatise on Rewards and Recompences." "3. The Elements of Philosophy.' "4. I Nuovo Galateo." "5. A Treatise on National Manufactures." “6. On the Means |