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of flowers, and we dance under the shade of our trees, or retire to the woods to listen to the song of the birds ! Can your musicians sing more melodiously than our nightingale, blackbird, and linnet ?-no: I will not go to the city.

Eschinus.—Then take this gold, and with it supply all thy wants.

Menalcus.-Gold is useless to me. My fruit-trees, my little garden, and the milk of my goats, supply all my wants.

Eschinus.—How shall I recompense thy kindness, happy shepherd ? What wilt thou accept of me?

Menalcus.-Give me only the horn that hangs to thy belt. Horn is not easily broken ; therefore, it will be more useful to me than my earthen pitcher. The hunter, with a smile, took the horn from his belt, and presented it to the shepherd, who hastened back to his cottage, the abode of contentment and happiness.



Sugar was originally brought from India by the introduction of the plant Saccharum Officinarum.

Arabia,” says Pliny, “produces Saccaron, but the best is in India. It is a honey collected from reeds, a sort of white gum, brittle between the teeth, the largest pieces do not exceed the size of a hazel nut, and it is only used in medicine.” This cane was an article of commerce in very early times. The prophets Isaiah xliii. 24, and Jeremiah vi. 10, make mention of it. “ Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money," says the first; and the second, “To what purpose cometh there to me the sweet cane from a far country?" brought for the luxury of the juice, either extracted by suction, or by some other means. At first the raw juice was made use of; they afterwards boiled it into a syrup ; and, in process of time, an inebriating spirit was prepared therefrom by fermentation. Sugar was first made from the reed in Egypt; and thence the plant was carried into Sicily, which, in the twelfth century, supplied many parts of Europe with that commodity; and thence, at a period unknown, it was, probably, brought into Spain by the Moors. From Spain the reed_was planted in the Canary Islands, and in the Madeira by the Portuguese. This happened about the year 1506. In the same year, Ferdinand the Catholic, ordered the cane to be carried from the Canaries to St. Domingo. From those islands the art of making sugar was introduced into the islands of Hispaniola, and, abont the year

into the Brazils ; the reed itself growing spontaneously in both those countries. Till that time sugar was a most expensive luxury, and used only in feasts, and physical necessities.” Pennant's View of Hindostan.




(A philosophical reverie.)

An ingenious essayist, burlesquing the modern discovery, * that by a chemical process human bodies may be converted into spermaceti," indulges in a philosophical reverie on the appropriate purposes to which luminaries formed from them might be devoted. The relation, says he, between body and mind, though not particularly understood, is generally admitted ; and their reciprocal influence is universally felt. It is clear, therefore, that the previous character which each individual has sustained in life, should regulate the class of luminary in which he should posthumously shine. On this principal, the literary churacter might hope, that even his earthly part may, hereafter, illumine with grateful flame, the study of those pages which the labours of the mind had composed by the less brilliant glimmerings of the lamp.

Spendthrifts would be candles lighted at both ends; and a miser would continue to die as the snuff of a wick on a save-all.

A plain steady man, and a decent mould candle, might agree very well ; but a dirty fellow should be a drip tallow; and a mean scoundrel a farthing rushlight.

The hypocrite, the traitor to his friend, the seducer, and the man-of-self, would all be worthy candidates for the honour of illuminating one side of a dark lantern.

Lawyers, according to the use of the legal lights of their “ brief candle” in life, would either guide the dark way of the traveller from the friendly beacon, or puzzle him as “ ignes fatui," in the labyrinth.

Maidens, untimely torn from a world they had just begun to adorn, might still beam the purest ray from the virgin wax taper ; and the nuptial torch should be lighted, at the same instant, by the united and “wonted fires” of the happy wedded pair, who had shone an example of the holy flame.

Patriots and heroes would burn in frankincense, and still live grateful to their country; and the man of God might continue to enlighten the people from the watch-tower on high.


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Mr. S. Simpson, of New York, recites the following curious anecdote on the sagacity of birds.

During my residence at Wilton, early one morning, I heard a noise from a couple of martins, who were jumping from tree to tree adjoining my dwelling. They made several attempts to get into a box or cage, fixed against the house, which they had before occupied ; but they always appeared to fly from it with the greatest dread, and repeated those loud cries which first drew my attention. Curiosity led me to watch their motions. After some time a small wren came from the box or cage, and perched on a tree near it, when her shrill notes seemed to amaze her antagonists. After some time she flew away. The martins took this opportunity of returning to their cage, but their stay was short;

their diminutive adversary returned, and made them fly with the greatest precipitation. They continued maneuvring in this way the whole day, and, I believe, the wren kept possession during the night. The following morning, on the wren's quitting the cage, the martins immediately returned, took possession of their mansion, broke up their own nest, which consisted of twigs of different sizes, went to work, and, with more industry and ingenuity than I supposed they possessed, soon barricaded their doors. The wren returned, but could not re-enter. She made attempts to storm the works, but did not succeed. I will not presume to say that the martins followed our modern maxim, and carried with them a sufficiency of food to sustain a siege, or that they made use of the abstinence which necessity sometimes, during long and bad storms, might probably occasion, but they persevered for near two days to defend the entrance within the barricade ; and the wren, finding she could not force an entry, raised the siege, quitted her intentions, and left the martins in quiet possession, without further molestation.”

Mr. Myers, an American gentleman, who lately removed from Wilton to Philadelphia, observed the following singular instance of friendship among birds.

He sent for a large turkey-cock and hen, and a pair of bantams, which had been a long time in his yard, and which the family wished to preserve. Accordingly, after his departure, he had them brought home, and put with some other poultry that were then running in his yard. Some time after, as he was feeding the poultry from the barn door, a large hawk turned the barn, and suddenly made a pounce at the bantam hen; she immediately gave the alarm, by a noise which they generally make on such occasions, when the large turkey-cock, who was about two yards distance, and who, it is supposed, saw the hawk's intention, and the imminent danger of his old acquaintance, flew at the hawk with such violence, and gave him such a severe stroke with his spurs, as he was going to seize his prey, as to knock him from the hen to a considerable distance; aud the timely aid of this faithful auxiliary, the turkey-cock, saved the bantam from being devoured by the hawk.”


The following has been preserved relating to the Overture of Don Giovanni.—This original composition, which is on all hands admitted to be a masterpiece of genius and science, was begun and finished in one night. Mozart wrote the opera of Don Juan for the theatre at Prague, (1787). The songs, finales, in short, all vocal pieces of the work, had been finished, studied by the singers, and rehearsed ; nay, the last grand rehearsal took place, without the overture being even begun by the composer, although the public performance was fixed for the next day. Mozart's friends, his wife, and, above all, the manager, were in a state of alarm, easily to be conceived; they represented to him the ruinous consequences, to the theatre as well as to himself, which must result from an eventual disappointment, and conjured him not to blast his greatest work by so wanton a procrastination.

“I shall write the overture this afternoon ; I have it all in my head,” was the answer given to them. The afternoon came ; but Mozart, seduced by the fineness of the weather, took a trip into the country, and made merry, returned in the evening, and sat down to a bowl of punch, with some friends, who trembled at the idea of his situation. It was midnight before he left this jovial party, in a state so little calculated for mental exertion, that he determined to lie down for an hour, at the same time charging Mrs. Mozart to call him at the expiration of that time. The fond wife, seeing him in the sweetest slumber, and conscious of his power, suffered him to lie two hours, called him up, made a bowl of punch, his favourite beverage, put pen, ink, and staves before him, sat down by his side, and while filling the glass, entertained the composer with a number of laughable stories, in the telling of which she possessed a peculiar talent. Mozart listened with the greatest glee, and laughed till the tears trickled down his eyes. All at once the divine spark within him brightened into radiant fame, he felt “ full of the god,” and exclaimed, "Now is the time, Constantia ; now we are in trim for it." Showers of crotchets and quavers now gushed from the rapid pen. At times, however, and in the midst of writing, nature would assert her sway, and cause the composer to relapse into a nod or two. To these, it is generally pretended, the leading passage in the overture, turned, repeated and modulated into a hundred varied shapes, owed its origin.—The somnolent fits, however, soon gave way to the cheerful converse of Constantia, and the excellent punch which formed its accompaniment. The overture was completed before breakfast, and the copyists scarcely had time to write out the score. A rehearsal being thus out of the question, the orchestra played it at the public representation in the evening without previous trial, and it is no small eulogium on their talents to add, that the execution electrified the audience, who with thunders of applause called for a repetition.


At a review at Potsdam, the king was desirous of placing himself with his suite on an eminence, on which some female sutlers had erected their booths. These took it into their heads to dispute the ground with him-asserting, that it was convenient for selling their wares, that they had, in consequence, paid him his dues, and that he might see his puppets equally well from any other place. Some expressions which the king made use of upon the occasion offending these ladies, they addressed him in such forcible language that he soon made off, saying to his officers, “ It is laughable, that I, who make so many thousands of men move at my command, must give way to a couple of Billingsgates?"


(A fable.)

The sheep, finding herself a prey to the cruelty of other animals, came to complain to Jupiter, and to beg him to alleviate her misery. Jupiter received her graciously. “I see plainly, my good creature,” said he, “ that I ought to have furnished you with some weapon of defence ; but let us see what can we best do to supply the deficiency. I leave the choice to yourself. Shall I furnish your mouth with terrible teeth, or your feet with sharp claws ?" O ! no,” cried the sheep, I will have nothing in

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