of morality and natural physics. The profundity of their wisdom, the abundance of their entertaining information, enhanced by a forcible style and pleasant mode of conveyance, altogether enraptured me, and made me surrender up myself totally to them. It was through these conversations, and under the imposing majesty of the discourses delivered to me by my chief tutor, the Philosopher Anaxagoras, who delighted to develop to me the principles of being, and the phenomena of nature, that my mind, (though naturally elevated,) seemed to have become imperceptibly aggrandized.

Happy indeed was the climate I inhabited: the spring-tide of it is like the morning of a beautiful day: one not only enjoys the blessings which it brings, but those also which it promises. The day of which I speak was one of the loveliest of which the clime is capable: a pure and equal light, reposing sweetly upon all objects, seemed like the light with which the gods are crowned on Olympus. I became insensibly lulled into a kind of dreamy existence by the sound of trees agi. tating their leafy tops-the borders of Ilyssus, resonant with the melody of birds, and swarms of "the children of the golden hive," busily humming about thymy hymettus. I was aroused from my reverie by the sound of many approaching footsteps, and the mur mur of many glad voices. I waited expectingly, and at length a troop of youthful Athenians, crowned with flowers, and redolent of perfumes, passed by me, on their way to offer their festal gifts at a neighbouring altar, pouring as they went, sweet hymns on the fragrant winds. The clear light, while it illuminated their white vestures, brought out more conspicuously than all the rest of their attire, a golden "lettix," or grasshopper, which the whole company bore upon their heads. Though I had made myself acquainted with most of the mysteries and modes of worship of my own and of other nations, yet this symbol had escaped my nofice. Upon making inquiry as to the signification of this insect, I was informed that they carried it in remembrance of their race having had its beginning in the soil: that they considered themselves as the Autoch thons, or Aborigines of the world, and that they therefore wore it, in testimony of their origin. This explanation led me into a new train of thought: there seemed to me something repugnant to philosophy in the idea that my forefathers should have had their beginning in the soil, and indignant that my fellow-countrymen should assume or receive appellations conformable to such a conceit. This doctrine indeed afforded me very slender satisfaction, and appeared to me to affix a very improbable point to the beginning of the world.

At this time a great sensation was created

in the literary world of Greece, by a report spread abroad that the ablest philosopher of the day was about to produce a new book, (Aristotle de Colo,) treating on the constitution of the heavens. I was hereupon anxious indeed to know what the wisest of the philosophers determined about the beginning of the world, since it had escaped that a branch of his work touched upon this singular question. Judge how cruelly I was perplexed by the new hypothesis started by him-one which seemed to plunge me into much deeper gloom and darkness than the former grovelling opinion, when I found him maintaining that the world never had any beginning at all: an opinion which he endea voured to confirm with arguments of reason, and those apparently demonstrative, and wherein it seemed, upon the grounds assumed by him, (that of physical generation, and a primary or first matter, beyond which there was no band apprehended,) that his labours were rational, and even uncontroulable.

Zealous on this point, I penetrated still further into metaphysical subtleties, and engaged myself in forming new theories on this intricate subject: but I at length gave up the search bewildered, and found myself at the conclusion little wiser than at the outset.

Still it was a point on which I was resolved to know something more. From travellers who had visited Egypt, and others who had penetrated into the inhospitable Scythia, great accounts had been from time to time brought, of the wisdom of the priests of the one, and of the magi of the other country. I was rich and wealthy-what impediment was there then to my travelling in those regions. I determined finally to visit Egypt,— to contemplate the enormous Pyramids, which had already stood for ages, and which promised to last for the coming eternity. Surely I should there find an account to my satisfaction. Whether or not I would venture; and if unsuccessful there, I would then wrap my cloak around me, and set out in search of Scythia and her wisdom.

1 accordingly departed for Egypt. I need not tell of my emotions, as I sought this land of wonders; for they have often been expressed by abler tongues than mine. On inquiring of the dark-cowled priests of Ombos, I found that they also referred to their soil for their origin and antiquity. Not from chronology, or the records of time, did they attempt to deduce the origin of things, or deliver their own beginning, but they betook themselves to probabilities, and the conjectures of philosophy. I found that they were quite at a loss to account for the origin of men, but they were vehemently eloquent in pleading their antiquity from the fertility of their soil, showing that men must have first inhabited, where they were with most facility

sustained, and such a land they conceived their own to be. But this argument, deduced from the fertility of the soil, when I came to duly inquire into it, seemed to me rather to overthrow, than promote their antiquity: for their own country, whose fertility they so haughtily advanced, was in elder and ancient times neither firm or open land; but rather a vast lake, or part of the sea; and indeed, according to their own tradition, became a gained ground by the mud and alluvial matter brought down by the river, which settled by degrees into a firm land, and was in reality an accession of the earth, or tract of land acquired by the river.

But the Egyptians invented also another way of trial to prove which was the elder nation, and which had consequently the priority of beginning. Psamnitichus, their king, attempted this decision by a new and unknown experiment. He determined upon bringing up two infants with goats, in a place where they had never heard the voice of man, concluding that to be the ancientest nation, whose language should be first spoken. But king Psamnitichus did not go far enough back, for herein he forgot, that speech came by instruction, not by instinct-by imitation, not by nature.

Such then were the unsatisfactory reasons which I obtained from Egypt, concerning the beginning of the world. One resource was now only left me. There was another nation famed as highly for its learning as the Egyp tian, and who maintained their point with the same violence and prejudice as did the

descendants of Mizraim.

Transporting myself, therefore, to the bleak latitudes of Scythia, I addressed myself to those who were most distinguished for the profoundness of their attainments, and the sagacity of their understanding.

The Scythians, although a colder and a heavier nation, yet urged more acutely than the Egyptians, that theirs was the greater antiquity-that they were the beginners of the world. They deduced their arguments from the two active elements and principles of all things, fire and water: for, reasoned they, if of all things there was first an union, and that afterwards fire over-ruled the rest, surely that portion of earth which was coldest would first get free, and afford a place of habitation: but if, on the other hand, all the earth were first involved in the opposite power, namely, water, still those parts would surely first appear, which were most high and of most elevated situation: and such was

theirs.

I must confess, that this plausible exposition pleased me wonderfully at first: they were reasons which carried the palm of antiquity from the Egyptians: but yet it confirmed it not to the Scythians. But on graver consideration afterwards, I saw that

I was still no wiser than before, and that the beginning of the world was still to me a marvel, and a hidden mystery.

I once again returned to my native country. Walking again over, the fields of Greece, sporting in its vallies, enjoying its brilliant days and its delicious nights, I lost the sense of mortification and disappointment which the failure in my search had occasioned. Yet when at times the recollections of this theme come across my mind, the subject seemed to me so veiled and lost in such an authentic obscurity, that unless some supernatural power scatter the darkness, and lay open the yet concealed truth, men will still come to the end without having arrived at the beginning. W. ARCHER.

INGRATITUDE PUNISHED.

In the renowned city of Athens there were judges appointed to punish ingratitude, but the case happened so seldom, that they had no employment. They deemed it very irksome to go to court without having any cause laid before them, and at last suspended a bell, to be rung by those who had any employment for them. The bell hung a long time before any person had occasion to ring, so long, indeed, that some grass upon the side of the wall had entwined around the bell-rope. It happened about this time, that a man had an horse become so feeble by age, that he was unable any longer to work the stall to die, or to seek his food where he for his meat, therefore he turned him out of could find it.

The poor horse walked in a very disconsolate manner through the streets, as if he had foreseen that he would soon be starved to death. During his painful wanderings, he, by chance, approached the court-house of these judges, and perceiving the grass growing upon the side of the wall, he exerted his whole remaining strength to seize but it was in vain. He could not reach the it. He raised himself upon his hinder feet, grass, but only the rope, which, by pulling, he rung several times.

The judges coming, and seeing no person, bell. They inquired to whom he belonged, were convinced that the horse had rung the and were informed by the neighbours, that he belonged to no person, because his master had turned him off, being unable to work. The judges said, this is really a case which gratitude for this man to cast away a poor comes properly before us. It is cruel in

be permitted. They accordingly sent for the master, and made him pay a sum of money sufficient to maintain the horse during the evening of his days.

animal worn out in his service-it must not

ANECDOTES OF CELEBRATED PERSONS.

From German Works,

Louis XIV.-The grand monarque was noted for his imposing look. On one occa sion, however, as he was reviewing some of his troops, he was unable to put a soldier out of countenance, so stern and unbending was the man's gaze. "How is it," said the king, "that you dare thus look at me?" "Sire," replied the undaunted son of Mars, "none but the eagle can fix his eyes on the sun."

This man, from the fixed nature of his gaze, was surnamed "the Eagle."

Fontenelle.-This celebrated man lived to be a hundred years of age. A few months before his death he was at the theatre, when being accosted by an English nobleman, who professed to have come all the way from England on purpose to see him, he replied: "My lord, I have left you plenty of time"

Frederick II-His majesty, looking out of the window one day, saw a number of people reading a paper stuck against a wall. "Go and see," said the king to a page in waiting, "what those people are reading." "Sire," said the page, on his return, trembling with fear, "it is a satire on your person." "Indeed," replied his majesty, coolly; "just step down again, and put the paper more on a level with their visual or gans, I am afraid it is rather too high."

This monarch was of an exceedingly familiar turn of mind: "Come," said he, one day to the Abbé Raynal, who was presented to him, whilst surrounded by his generals, "Come, my good fellow, we are both old,

let us sit down and have a chat."

Reuchlin. The celebrated author of "De Arte Cabalistica," having reached a village where he was obliged to wait for his carriage at an inn, filled with drunken obstrepe rous peasants, hit upon one of the strangest plans for silencing such an assemblage, as was ever heard of. He called for a glass of water and a piece of chalk. With the latter he described on the table a circle surmounted by a small cross; on the right of this circle he placed the glass, on the left a knife, and in the very middle his book. and so began to read, at times uttering strange sounds. The peasants taking him for nothing less than a sorcerer, held their tongues in amazement, and Reuchlin was thus enabled to read for a

good half hour in peace, when at length his carriage came.

Montesquieu.-On leaving Rome, Montesquieu waited on the Pope, Benedict XIV, with the intention of taking leave. His holiness, desirous of conferring on the Savan some signal mark of his favour, said to him, "We grant you the permission to eat flesh on all fast days, and of our goodness extend

this favour to your posterity for ever." Montesquieu tendered his thanks to his holiness, and took his leave. The bishop who acted the part of chamberlain, conducted the author to an adjoining apartment, where the Pope's bull of dispensation was handed over to him, accompanied with the demand of a pretty considerable fee. Montesquieu having cast his eyes on the document, returned it to the donor, observing, that as the Pope was so righteous a man, he would not think of doubting his word, which he certainly would do, in taking the bull of dispensation.

Frederick II. was, on the occasion of his passage through a small town, accosted by several of the dignitaries of the place. One of these, stepping forward to deliver his speech, was most unceremoniously interrupted by a donkey a few feet off, which began to bray in a most unmusical strain. The king was unable to restrain his merriment, and laughing outright, exclaimed, "Do, I beg of you, each speak in your turn; it is impossible for me to understand you, if you will both talk together.”

Philip the Good.-As Philip, Duke of Burgundy, was walking through the streets of Bruges, he found on his path a drunken man, sound asleep. He had him removed and carried to the ducal palace, where having caused him to be stript of his rags, he was placed in one of the richest beds, with a costly night-shirt on his body, and a perfumed night-cap on his head. As may be supposed, the poor drunkard was not a little amazed when he awoke, to find himself in such strange circumstances-he was much more so when he saw several fine gentlemen approach him with low bows, inquiring what dress his highness would be graciously pleased to wear on that day. This question, of course, completed the poor fellow's astonishment; he was, he said, nothing more than a wretched cobbler-but it was all to no purpose, the attentions paid to him were redoubled, and he at length found himself compelled to submit to all their officiousness. When he was dressed, the transformed cob. bler was conducted in state to the chapel, to hear mass; at the end of which ceremony, he goodnaturedly allowed his hand to be kissed, which, however, as may be supposed, was not one of the fairest. After this pantomime, he was sumptuously fared, then taken for an airing in a superb chariot, then to the opera, and to wind up all, to a magnificent ball, where the most lovely creatures he ever beheld, vied with each other to please and to amuse him. A substantial supper followed the dance; bottie after bottle passed before the eyes of the enraptured cobbler, glassfulls after glassfulls followed each other in rapid succession down his throat; till at length, completely overwhelmed by liquor and ex. citement, he dropped off into a sound sleep,

during which he was once more reinvested in his old clothes, and carried to the spot whence he was conveyed to the Duke's palace. The next morning he could not find words enough to relate to his wife with sufficient effect, the delightful dream he had had. H. M.

ON THE INSTINCT AND INTELLIGENCE OF ANIMALS.

By Lord Brougham.* "BEGINNING with laying aside those actions of animals which are either ambiguous, or are referable properly to reason, and which, almost all philosophers allow, show a glim. mering of reason; and confining ourselves to what are purely instinctive, as the bee forming a hexagon, without knowing what it is, or why she forms it; my proof of this, not being reason, but something else, and something not only differing from reason in degree, but in kind, is from a comparison of the facts, an examination of the phenomena in each case-in a word, from induction. I perceive a certain thing done by this insect, without any instruction, which we could not do without much instruction. I see her working most accurately without any experience, in that which we could only be able to do by the expertness gathered from much experience. I see her doing certain things which are manifestly to produce an effect she can know nothing about; for example, making a cell, and furnishing it with carpets, and with liquid, fit to hold and to cherish safely a tender grub, she never having seen any grub, and knowing nothing, of course, about grubs, or that any grub is ever to come, or that any such use-perhaps, any use at all-is ever to be made of the work she is about. Indeed, I see another insect, the solitary wasp, bring a given number of small grubs, and deposit them in a hole which she has made, over her egg--just grubs enough to maintain the worm that egg will produce when hatched; and yet this wasp never saw an egg produce a worm, nor ever saw a worm-nay, is to be dead long before the worm can be in existence; and, moreover, she never has in any way tasted or used these grubs, or used the hole she made, except for the prospective benefit of the unknown worm she is never to In all these cases, then, the animal works positively without knowledge, and in the dark. She also works without designing any thing; and yet she works to a certain defined and important purpose. Lastly, she works to a perfection in her way; and yet she works without any teaching or experience. Now, in all this she differs entirely from man, who only works well, perhaps at all, after being taught who works with knowledge of what he is about-and who works, intending and meaning, and, in a word, designing to • Dissertation on Subjects of Science Connected with Natural Theology; 2 vols. Knight and Co.

see.

do what he accomplishes. To all which may be added, though it is rather, perhaps, the consequence of this difference, than a separate and substantive head of diversity, the animal works always uniformly and alike, and all his kind work alike; whereas no two men work alike, nor any man always, nay, any two times, alike. Of all this I cannot, indeed, be quite certain, as I am of what passes within my own mind, because it is barely possible that the insect may have some plan or notion in her head, implanted as the intelligent faculties are all I know is the extreme improbability of it being so; and that I see facts, as her necessary ignorance of the existence and nature of her worm, and her working without experience; and I know that, if I did the same things, I should be acting without having learned mathematics, and should be planning in ignorance of unborn issue; and I therefore draw my inference accordingly as to her proceedings."

We shall now quote a few facts relative to the sagacity of animals.

"In the forests of Tartary and of South America, where the wild horse is gregarious, there are herds of 500 or 600, which, being ill prepared for fighting, or indeed for any resistance, and knowing that their safety is in flight, when they sleep, appoint one in rotation who acts as sentinel, while the rest tinel walks towards him, as if to reconnoitre are asleep. If a man approaches, the senor see whether he may be deterred from neighs aloud, and in a peculiar tone, which coming near-if the man continues, he rouses the herd, and all gallop away, the sentinel bringing up the rear. Nothing can rangement, simple as it is. So a horse, bebe more judicious or rational than this arlonging to a smuggler at Dover, used to be laden with run spirits, and sent on the road unattended to reach the rendezvous. When he descried a soldier, he would jump off the highway, and hide himself in a ditch, and when discovered, would fight for his load. The cunning of foxes is proverbial; but I know not if it was ever more remarkably displayed than in the Duke of Beaufort's country; where Reynard, being hard pressed, search, found immersed in a water-pool up disappeared suddenly, and was, after strict to the very snout, by which he held a willow bow hanging over the pond. of a dog, which Serjeant Wilde tells me of The cunning as known to him, is at least equal. He used to be tied up as a precaution against hunting sheep. At night he slipped his head out of the collar, and returning before dawn, put on the collar again, in order to conceal his nocturnal excursions.* Nobody has more familiarity with various animals

* [There are numerous instances of similar sagacity in dogs: one will suffice:-A farmer, of Presteign, in Radnorshire, having had a number of sheep killed, was resolved on discovering the des

(besides his great knowledge of his own species) than my excellent, learned, and ingenious friend, the Serjeant; and he possesses. many curious ones himself. His anecdote of a drover's dog is striking, as he gave it me, when we happened, near this place, to meet a drove. The man had brought seventeen out of twenty oxen from a field, leaving the remaining three there mixed with another herd. He then said to the dog, "Go, fetch them ;" and he went and singled out those very three. The serjeant's brother, however, a highly respectable man, lately sheriff of London, has a dog that distinguishes Saturday night, from the practice of tying him up for the Sunday, which he dislikes. He will escape on Saturday night, and return on Monday morning. The serjeant himself had a gander which was at a distance from the goose, and hearing her make an extraordinary noise, ran back and put his head into the cage-then brought back all the goslings, one by one, and put them into it with the mother, whose separation from her brood had occasioned her clamour. He then returned to the place

whence her cries had called him."

THE ABOLITION OF THE GLA.
DIATORS AT ROME.

AN HISTORIAN informs us, that "the first Christian emperor may claim the honour of the first edict which condemned the art and amusement of shedding human blood, but this benevolent law expressed the wishes of the prince with reforming an inveterate abuse, which degraded a civilized nation below the condition of savage cannibals. Several hundreds, or thousands of victims were annually slaughtered in the great cities of the empire; and the month of December more particularly devoted to the combats of gladia tors, still exhibited to the eyes of the Roman people, a grateful spectacle of blood and cruelty,

Amidst the general joy of the victory of Pollentia, a Christian poet entreated the em. peror to extirpate, by his authority, the horrid custom which had so long resisted the voice of humanity, and of religion. The pathetic representations of Prudentius, the Christian troyer; and, accordingly, having secreted himself so as not to be seen by the enemy, yet to have a full view of the field, he took his station; and before morn had scarcely dawned, he saw Boxer enter the field, stealing alongside the hedge, and presently seizing one of the sheep by the throat, began to suck its blood: having satisfied himself, he returned home, cautiously followed by his master, who perceived him enter his kennel, place his fore feet on the collar to steady it, and then thrust his head in. This creature was a great favourite, being an invaluable yard dog, for, like some bibeds, although himself a culprit, he would allow no one else to rob within his domain.

The farmer hesitated for some time; at length public justice overcame private friendship; and Boxer was condemned to be shot.-Ed. M.]

poet, were less effectual than the generous boldness of Telemachus, an Asiatic master, whose death was more useful to mankind than his life. The rash master descended into the arena to separate the gladiators; but the Romans were enraged with the interruption of their pleasures, and overwhelmed the master with a shower of stones. The madness of the people, however, soon subsided; they respected the memory of Telemachus, who had deserved the honours of martyrdom, and, without a murmur, they submitted to the laws of Honorius, which for ever abolished the human sacrifices of the amphitheatre.

THE EMPEROR OF CHINA AND THE MERCHANT.

DURING the reign of an emperor of China, who was celebrated for the vigour and strictness of his justice, a viceroy of one of the provinces of that vast empire, that lay most remote from the imperial city, having wrongfully confiscated the estate of an honest merchant, and reduced his family to poverty; the poor man found means to travel as far as the emperor's court, where he obtained a letter to the viceroy, commanding him to restore the goods which he had taken so illegally. Far from obeying this command, the viceroy put the merchant into prison; but having the good fortune to escape, he went again to the capital, and threw himself at the emperor's feet, who treated him with great humanity, and gave orders that he should have another letter. The merchant wept at this resolution, and represented how ineffectual the first had proved; and the reasons he had to fear that the second would be as little regarded. The emperor, who had been stopped by this complaint, as he was going in great haste to dine in the apartment of one of his favourites, became a little discomposed, and answered with some emotion, that he could do no more than send his commands, and that if the viceroy refused to obey them, he told the merchant to put his foot upon the viceroy's neck. "I implore your majesty's compassion," replied the merchant, at the same time holding fast the emperor's robe, "his power is too mighty for my weakness; and your justice prescribes a remedy, which your wisdom has never examined." The emperor had, by this time, recollected himself; and, raising the merchant from the ground, said, " you are in the right: to complain of him was your part, but it is mine to see him punished. I will appoint commissioners to go back with you, and make search into the grounds of his proceeding; with power, if they find him guilty, to deliver him into your hands, you have taught me how to govern, you and leave you viceroy in his stead; for, since must be able to govern for me."-- W. G. C.