an unjustifiable one, and he was punished for it, by losing all the credit which his real ingenuity entitled him to. Notwithstanding this unfortunate declension, the mechanical shoemaker continued to indulge in his favourite pursuits. He turned his attention, among other things, to the construction of velocipedes, or horse-like machines, where the rider fulfils the double part of horse and horseman. On a machine of this order, consisting of two wheels, one behind and one before, with an intermediate bar, shaped like a saddle, in the centre, Spence once travelled between Edinburgh and Glasgow. He propelled himself by pushing his feet occasionally against the ground, and could keep up for a mile or two with a gig, going at a common pace. Although an unpractised person, from the narrow base presented by the wheels, could with difficulty balance himself on this machine even in a seated posture, Spence had acquired by practice such dexterity in managing it, that he could stand on the saddle on one foot, and with the other projected in the air as a balance, guide the engine down a declivity of nearly a mile in length, going all the while at a bounding pace. For some time he contrived to draw a little money by shewing this velocipede, and teaching people to ride on it, in a court-yard which he rented for the purpose. Another production of John Spence's ingenuity was a house-a wooden house, which he erected at Fountainbridge, a suburb on the south-west of the Scottish metropolis. This house was twelve feet square, and consisted of three floors, reckoning a cellar and garret under that denomination. Twelve posts or standards, each about four inches square, composed the solid supports of the building, and these were clad outside and inside with deals, forming the walls. The space between might be filled up with any loose stuffing to increase the warmth within. An excavation beneath formed a cellar. The roof was of wood, and a trap-stair led from the main floor to the garret. The materials of the house were bound together by long screw-bolts, where required. This house was perfectly portable. Spence took it down one morning, moved it on one cart for six miles, and had it up on the new site before night. He dwelt in it with his family for two years, and here one of his children was born. His wife kept a sort of fruit-shop in it, and people used to come from far and near to see the portable house.' The whole cost of it amounted to little more than L.30. He sold it to a person in Fife, and, for aught known to the contrary, it now forms one of the respectable habitations of that ancient kingdom. After various vicissitudes, John Spence settled down in Edinburgh in his old trade of a shoemaker, and the passion for mechanical invention remained till the last in as great force as ever, and, indeed, seemed only to have gathered strength with his increasing years. His attention, latterly, was directed chiefly to two objects. One of these was the invention of a reaping-machine; the other was the construction of skates for dry land: these lastmentioned machines were just skates, fixed upon little wheels, and they really answered the purpose wonderfully. Such are a few of the works of this untutored lover of the mechanic arts. Spence appears to us to have been a man who would have unquestionably distinguished himself under more favourable circumstances. As it happened, the pursuits to which his mind turned itself were unfortunately incompatible with the steady prosecution of the labours upon which his bread depended. He was, in short, one of those men whose fortune it is, seemingly, never to find inclination and interest pulling one way. Take him all in all, he presented a remarkable instance of a character stamped with such indelible force by nature, or by early direction of his mind to a particular object, that no circumstances whatever have the slightest impression in eradicating the original lineaments. ODE TO HOPE. BY DR JOHN MASON GOOD. O GENTLE Hope! whose lovely form Through dire despair's tremendous shade, The troubled spirit flies. Thy sight sustains his drooping powers, Then haste thee, Hope, and o'er my head, O give me, ere gay youth decline, LIFE: ITS APPARENT LENGTH OR BREVITY. LIFE appears long and tedious to the man who employs it ill-long and pleasant to him who employs it well. The pleasures of existence are indeed susceptible of extension, provided we apply ourselves diligently to the pursuits of knowledge. To some, a single day yields more 2 62 LIFE: ITS APPARENT LENGTH OR BREVITY. true enjoyment and lasting gratification than is gained by others during a series of years spent in sensual indulgence. The good that may be done in even such a little space of time as half an hour, is only conceivable by those whose minds are energetic in well-doing. There is a famous passage in the Alcoran, says Addison in the Spectator,' which looks as if Mohammed had been possessed of the notion we are now speaking of. It is there said, that the angel Gabriel took Mohammed out of his bed one morning to give him a sight of all things in the seven heavens, in paradise, and in hell, which the prophet took a distinct view of; and after having held 90,000 conferences with God, was brought back again to his bed. All this, says the Alcoran, was transacted in so small a space of time, that Mohammed at his return found his bed still warm; and took up an earthen pitcher-which was thrown down at the very instant that the angel Gabriel carried him away-before the water was all spilt. There is a very pretty story in the Turkish tales, which relates to this passage of that famous impostor, and bears some affinity to the subject we are now upon. A sultan of Egypt, who was an infidel, used to laugh at this circumstance in Mohammed's life, as what was altogether impossible and absurd; but conversing one day with a great doctor in the law, who had the gift of working miracles, the doctor told him he would quickly convince him of the truth of this passage in the history of Mohammed, if he would consent to do what he would desire of him. Upon this, the sultan was directed to place himself by a huge tub of water, which he did accordingly; and as he stood by the tub amidst a circle of his great men, the holy man bade him plunge his head into the water, and draw it up again. The king accordingly thrust his head into the water, and at the same time found himself at the foot of a mountain on the sea-shore. The king immediately began to rage against his doctor for this piece of treachery and witchcraft; but at length, knowing it was in vain to be angry, he set himself to think on proper methods for getting a livelihood in this strange country. Accordingly, 1 he applied himself to some people whom he saw at work in a neighbouring wood; these people conducted him to a town that stood at a little distance from the wood, where, after some adventures, he married a woman of great beauty and fortune. He lived with this woman so long, that he had by her seven sons and seven daughters. He was afterwards reduced to great want, and forced to think of plying in the streets as a porter for his livelihood. One day, as he was walking alone by the sea-side, being seized with many melancholy reflections upon his former and his present state of life, which had raised a fit of devotion in him, he threw off his clothes with a design to wash himself, according to the custom of the Mohammedans, before he said his prayers. After his first plunge into the sea, he no sooner raised his head above the water, than he found himself standing by the side of the tub, with the great men of his court about him, and the holy man at his side. He immediately upbraided his teacher for having sent him on such a course of adventures, and betrayed him into so long a state of misery and servitude; but was wonderfully surprised when he heard that the state he talked of was only a dream and delusion; that he had not stirred from the place where he then stood; and that he had only dipped his head into the water, and immediately taken it out again. The Mohammedan doctor took this occasion of instructing the sultan, that nothing was impossible with God; and that He, with whom a thousand years are but as one day, can, if he pleases, make a single day, nay, a single moment, appear to any of his creatures as a thousand years. Leaving the reader to smile at these fables, we shall only, by way of application, desire him to consider 'how different is the view of past life, in the man who has grown old in knowledge and wisdom, from that of him who has grown old in ignorance and folly! The latter is like the owner of a barren country, that fills his eye with the prospect of naked hills and plains, which produce nothing either profitable or ornamental; the other beholds a beautiful and spacious landscape, divided into delightful gardens, green meadows, fruitful fields, |