As to the multitude in the provinces and villages, they are occupied in assuring each other, that there will be first, three months of sultry weather (which will about last us till Christmas,) after which there will follow a season so inclement that the cattle will perish in the pastures. We read, in the poets of antiquity, of transformations of mortals into stars, without always being aware that relations of such events received countenance from the popular faith, which readily admitted that the celestial bodies were spiritual creatures, and in, particular instances, the blessed souls of departed men. Consistently with this faith, Democritus taught, that comets are the souls of heroes; and of this doctrine a shadow is discoverable, in Rome, so late as the era of Augustus. During the festival of Venus Genetrix, which was celebrated in that city within a few days after the murder of Julius Cesar, a comet appeared, and continued visible for several days. This comet was vulgarly believed to show that Cesar was received among the gods, and a star was in consequence placed upon the head of his statue, shortly afterward consecrated in the Forum*. Pliny mentions a sort of comet, with silver hair, so refulgent that the eye cannot bear to gaze upon it, and in which the image of a god, in human form, is visiblet; a description which, a more modern writer applies to the star seen by the Magi, supposing that star to have been the comet which appeared in the year 44 of the reign of Augustus, and in which, he tells us, there was the figure of an infant child, by which was typified the design of God to save mankind. John Bodin, a learned Frenchman of the sixteenth century, borrowed the doctrine of Democritus, and made it subservient to the purpose of corroborating and explaining the vulgar doctrine, That comets are forerunners of calamities. He maintained, that comets are spirits, which have lived on earth innumerable ages, and being arrived on the confines of death, celebrate their last triumph, or are recalled to the heavens, in the form of shining stars; and that these consummations are followed by famine, plague, and other evils, in punishment of cities and countries, by whom such pious rulers and chiefs as duly serve God are wickedly destroyed. Kepler, indulging a philosophical, more than theological reverie, imagined comets to be monstrous animals, generated in the celestial spaces, and went on to explain in what manner the air, by an animal faculty, engendered them. This philosopher described the * Plin. Hist. Nat. II. 23. + Fit et candidus cometes, argenteo crine, cieque humana dei effigiem in se ostendeus. Fromondus, Meteorol. III, 4. ita refulgens, ut vix contuere liceat, speHist. Nat. II, 22. planets planets themselves as animals which swam round the sun by means of certain fins, acting upon the etherial fluid, as those of fishes act upon water; and his theory of comets was only consistent with this system. (To be continued.) ORIGINAL LETTER FROM GEORGE ALEXANDER STEVENS. Yarmouth Gaol. DEAR SIR,-When I parted from you at Doncaster, I ima gined, long before this, to have met with some oddities worth acquainting you with. It is grown a fashion of late to write livesI have now, and for a long time have had, leisure enough to write mine-but want materials for the latter part of it. For my existence cannot properly be called living, but what the painters term still-life; having since February 13th been confined in this town gaol for a London debt. As a hunted deer is always shunned by the happier herd, so am I deserted by the company, my share taken off, and no support left; save what my wife can spare me out of her's. 'Deserted, in my utmost need, By those my former bounty fed.' With an economy, which till now I was a stranger to, I have made shift hitherto to victual my little garrison; but then it has been with the aid of my good friends and allies-my clothes.-This week's eating finishes my last waistcoat; and next I must atone for my error on bread and water. Themistocles had so many towns to furnish his table; and a whole city bore the charge of his meals. In some respects I am like him; for I am furnished by the labours of a multitude. A wig has fed me two days-the trimmings of a waistcoat as longa pair of velvet breeches paid my washer-woman, and a ruffled shirt has found me in shaving.-My coats I swallowed by degrees: the sleeves I breakfasted upon for weeks-the body, skirts, &c. served me for dinner two months.-My silk stockings have paid my lodgings, and two pair of new pumps enabled me to smoke several pipes. It is incredible how my appetite (barometer-like) rises in proportion as my necessities make their terrible advances. I here could say something droll about a stomach: but it is illjesting with edge-tools, and I am sure that is the sharpest thing about me. You may think I can have no sense of my condition, that while I am thus wretched, I should offer at ridicule: but, Sir, people constituted like me, with a disproportionate levity of spirits, are always - always most merry, when they are most miserable; and quicken like the eyes of the consumptive, which are always brightest the nearer a patient approaches to dissolution. However, Sir, to show that I am not entirely lost to all reflection, I think myself poor enough to want a favour, and humble enough to ask it.Here, Sir, I might make an encomium on your good nature, humanity, &c.; but I shall not pay so bad a compliment to your understanding as to endeavour, by a parade of phrases, to win it over to my interest. If you could, any night, at a concert, make a small collection for me, it might be a means of obtaining my liberty; and you know, Sir, the first people of rank abroad wil perform the most friendly offices for the sick: be not, therefore, offended at the request of a poor (though a deservedly punished) debtor. To Dr. Milner, P. M. Doncaster. AT G. A. STEVENS. T the outset of my speculations, I gave a sort of promise to my readers, or to that portion of them which I supposed to be of the inquisitive kind, that though I at that time preserved a profound silence on the subject of my condition, yet I might probably hereafter satisfy them whether I was solus, or blessed with a companion for life; and as I cannot doubt, that in consequence of this hint, many an inquiring eye has been cast on my subsequent papers, in hopes of finding a solution to this important mystery, to keep these anxious querists no longer in suspense, I will, by a candid relation of my love-adventures, endeavour to gratify this their laudable curiosity. About the twentieth year of my age, I was deeply smitten with the blue eyes and blooming cheeks of a delicate damsel, who, in the attire of the meek sisterhood, was accustomed to pass my window; the name of this charmer was Rachel Rigid, only daughter of Reuben and Ruth Rigid, of upright memory. Various were the devices I formed to assail the heart of this goodly maiden, but in vain; I was not one of the society of friends, and could not obtain an interview; and when I occasionally encountered her in the street, the projecting spout of her dove-coloured bonnet (emblem of the peace of mind and innocence of the wearer) afforded but a slight glance of her visage, and frequently baulked my hopes, when I had meditated by a look of tenderness to penetrate her gentle bosom. At length, I penned an epistle, glowing in every line with love, and filled with solemn protestations of fidelity: for several weeks weeks I waited, not without impatience, but received no answer; until one day a person enquired for me by name, and on his entering the room, I beheld the solemn figure of friend Rigid, who, with his broad beaver on his head, thus addressed me: Young man, since thou hast been led away by the unbridled desires of thy mind, and hast endeavoured to draw aside our daughter from the strait way in which she walketh, I would have thee to understand that she is not for thee, friend! but shall be given unto one of our own people, even unto Zachariah Zealous, who hath gained the maiden's affections. Farewell.' Having delivered this oration with a face of inflexible gravity, he turned on his heel and departed. The chagrin, occasioned by this disappointment, was not very severe or of long duration; at so youthful an age, impressions of this nature are frequently transient; and the elegant figure and animated countenance of a distant relation, to whom I was shortly after introduced, effaced from my brain every impression of the fair quaker. This young lady was in the bloom of life, and the charms of her person were only equalled by the sweetness of her disposition, and the beauties of a cultivated mind; these, united to polished manners, and a fortune by no means trivial, made her sought for by many; but to my unspeakable delight, as I then fondly imagined, she preferred me to some more apparently advantageous suitors; and I indulged in many a delightful reverie on the happiness that seemed to await me by an union with so amiable a partner; but, alas! these were vain hopes. Narcissa, like her namesake, so pathetically bemoaned by Young, possessed a very delicate frame; she was seized with a severe cold, followed by alarming symptoms of consumption, which rapidly increased, and the interesting fair one, who was lately glowing with health, became, in a few months, the tenant of the tomb!-But I forbear to dwell longer on a subject, which, at this distance of time, affects me but too sensibly. The alarm which my friends felt for my situation, in consequence of this severe stroke, induced them to advise a tour to the Continent; and, having passed some years abroad, I returned to my native land with greater renovation of health and spirits than might have been expected, though I seemed to have lost what, in my estimation, could alone have given the true zest to life; and am convinced that the tincture of seriousness which my disposition now exhibits, is the consequence of this calamitous event. Several years now passed, during which, though I felt a general admiration of the virtues and graces of my fair country-women, yet no lasting impression was made on me by any individual. My fiftieth year was approaching, and my heart remained insensible: at length, being invited by an old friend to pay him a visit in Yorkshire, I there met with a lady whose appearance and manners ap peared always most merry, when they are most miserable; and quicken like the eyes of the consumptive, which are always brightest the nearer a patient approaches to dissolution.-However, Sir, to show that I am not entirely lost to all reflection, I think myself poor enough to want a favour, and humble enough to ask it.Here, Sir, I might make an encomium on your good nature, humanity, &c.; but I shall not pay so bad a compliment to your understanding as to endeavour, by a parade of phrases, to win it over to my interest. If you could, any night, at a concert, make a small collection for me, it might be a means of obtaining my liberty; and you know, Sir, the first people of rank abroad wil perform the most friendly offices for the sick: be not, therefore, offended at the request of a poor (though a deservedly punished) debtor. To Dr. Milner, P. M. Doncaster. AT G. A. STEVENS. THE SPECULATOR.-No. IX. BY CLEMENT CLEARSIGHT. I will a round, unvarnish'd tale deliver Of my whole course of love.-SHAKESPEAR. T the outset of my speculations, I gave a sort of promise to my readers, or to that portion of them which I supposed to be of the inquisitive kind, that though I at that time preserved a profound silence on the subject of my condition, yet I might probably hereafter satisfy them whether I was solus, or blessed with a companion for life; and as I cannot doubt, that in consequence of this hint, many an inquiring eye has been cast on my subsequent papers, in hopes of finding a solution to this important mystery, to keep these anxious querists no longer in suspense, I will, by a candid relation of my love-adventures, endeavour to gratify this their laudable curiosity. About the twentieth year of my age, I was deeply smitten with the blue eyes and blooming cheeks of a delicate damsel, who, in the attire of the meek sisterhood, was accustomed to pass my window; the name of this charmer was Rachel Rigid, only daughter of Reuben and Ruth Rigid, of upright memory. Various were the devices I formed to assail the heart of this goodly maiden, but in vain; I was not one of the society of friends, and could not obtain an interview; and when I occasionally encountered her in the street, the projecting spout of her dove-coloured bonnet (emblem of the peace of mind and innocence of the wearer) afforded but a slight glance of her visage, and frequently baulked my hopes, when I had meditated by a look of tenderness to penetrate her gentle bosom. At length, I penned an epistle, glowing in every line with love, and filled with solemn protestations of fidelity: for several weeks |