of his son. His taste for reading and hearing of sermons had entirely forsaken him. Lost to all relish for business, he was continually getting into one scrape or other, till, in the progress of his depravity, he became so much "habit and repute a thief," that not a garden was broke into, nor a fowl stolen in the neighbourhood, but the poor old man had the painful mortification to see his son suspected, and his premises searched for the spoil. At last, as birds of a feather will naturally associate together, he fell into the company of, and got acquainted with, a notorious blackguard of the name of JACK DESPERATE, with whom having staid out one night, he quarrelled with his father on his return in the morning, and for sometime left the house; and although he was afterwards found out and brought back, the conduct of the wretch had such an effect upon the feelings of his parent that it threw him into a fever, from which he narrowly escaped with his life. So little, however, did the perverse cause of the illness of the poor old man lay it to heart, that he took the opportunity of the distress into which the house was thrown on the occasion, to make frequent predatory excursions into the country; and under the pretence of calling one Saturday at the house of SIMON FRISK to request him to inform his uncle next day how his brother was, he contrived to carry off SIMON's watch, which however was recovered by the owner who came up with him before he got home, and occasioned him a beating, still more severe, in consequence of a cutting reply he made to his pursuer in allusion to something he had said in the house of RICHARD on the Sunday the controversy took place. After the recovery of his father, which was considerably forwarded by the concealment of the misdeeds of his son, he was advised by his friends, and particularly by his brother, to whose house he was enabled to walk one day, when in a state of convalescence, as he valued his life, to endeavour by all means to get quit of the destroyer of his peace without delay; but when it was hinted that a man-of-war was the most likely situation where this could be accomplished with any hopes of permanent success, and that a press-gang was the only means of getting him removed to it, the poor man's firmness entirely forsook him, and the conflict betwixt natural affection and the imperious. Y 2 duty duty he owed to himself soon drove him into a state still more hopeless than that from which he had just recovered; but during the continuance of this state Toм procured for himself the identical situation to which a parent's heart could never have been brought to acquiesce; for being detected with some of his companions in robbing a gentleman's orchard, he had the offer either to go on board of a man-of-war or abide the issue of his trial, the former of which he preferred. In that situation he remained for some months, during which time he had several hair-breadth escapes, and was slightly wounded in an engagement, in which his compan ion, who went along with him, lost his life. His wound, however, soon healed, and he took the first opportunity af terwards to desert when ashore on a watering party. but took He did not at that time come home to up his residence in -, where, it appears, he soon soon found out his old companion in iniquity DesperATE, who now lived upon plunder; and Toм never having been brought up to any regular business, became a willing victim to the ruinous art, and suffered himself to be initiated into mysteries, to which he had already in some degree approximated. Instead, therefore, of the petty thief, behold BRAGWELL now become, (under the tuition of such an able master,) an expert house-breaker, a noted swindler, and daring highwayman! But the measure of his iniquity was soon filled up; for in an attempt to rob a house in the dead of night, he and his companion met with an unexpected resistance from a servant, who was killed in the scuffle when attempting to defend his master's property; and as only one shot was fired, and BRAGWELL's pistol was found discharged on the spot, there can be no doubt but TOM BRAGWELL has turned out a murderer! JACK DESPERATE made his escape, and is still at large, but as he is well known, and a large reward is offered for his apprehension, there is little doubt but justice will one day overtake him; meantime BRAGWELL, who was also advertised, and had been sculking for some time previous in our neighbourhood, has been taken up, and after being identified by the person who sold the pistol found on the premises, as the individual who purchased it from him, he has has been marched off by a party of soldiers, as I before observed, to jail, where he now lies to be tried for his life." After having furnished me with this mournful detail, several particulars of which the young men had learned from Tom himself while he lay in prison, I asked them when his trial was expected to come on, and how his poor father bore up under this severe affliction. They informed me, that his trial was to come on in a fortnight, and that his father, since his departure, was in the most deplorable condition imaginable. Sometimes, they observed, the old man will break out into the most frantic lamentations, taking the whole blame upon himself, for backing, with his solicitations, the request of his uncle for his son to go home with him on the fatal Saturday ; at other times he will sink into a thoughtful and musing at-titude, from which it is difficult to rouse him, in order to take as much food as is barely sufficient to preserve him in life; and his brother PETER, who had been in town seeing him only yesterday, had called and told DAVID, that the doctor said, he had every reason to believe, that the old man would not live to be informed of the last mo-ments of his son, as he was apparently sinking with increasing celerity under the load of his accumulated grief, and it was in vain to hope that any relief could be derived from medicine to a mind diseased like his. I could not help being greatly moved at this recital, and recollecting that I should be in soon after the trial, I dismissed my young acquaintances after giving DAVID a small testimony of my regard, and WILL CANDID a trifle of money to enable him to purchase the first volume of the Magazine for himself, and to take out the remainder of the numbers as they appeared; with the information that I had made up my mind to visit Tom BRAGWELL in jail, and learn something more of the eventful history of this unhappy youth from his own mouth, and that ere long they might again hear from me through the medium of your pages. You may therefore, gentlemen, expect soon. to be informed of the result of this affecting interview, and mean time, I remain, &c. March, 1814. Y 3. O...P.. The Book of Nature laid Open. (Continued from p. 219.) "How sweet to muse upon his skill display'd "Where greatness is to Nature's works deny'd, In a small space the more perfection's shown, INSECTS HAVE been reckoned by some among the more imperfectly formed of Nature's works; but in this most numerous class of animated beings * where shall we find a single instance in which this is made to appear? In all that prodigious variety that exist betwixt the Scorpion and the Mite, we certainly behold in the structure of insects abundant evidence of the most exquisite skill; and if by means of the microscope we extend our researches downwards through that minute order of beings, till we arrive at those invisible animalcules which are computed to be twenty seven *Of all productions in nature insects are by far the most numer. ous, and though at first sight herbs of the field seem to be the parts of organized matter produced in the greatest abundance, yet upon minute inspection we find every plant supporting a multitude of scarce perceptible creatures, that fill up the compass of youth, vigour, and age, in the space of a few days existence. In Lapland, and some parts of America, insects are said to be so numerous that if a candle is lighted they swarm about it in such multitudes that it is instantly extinguished. As insects are endowed with the various powers of creeping, flying, and swimming, there is scarce any place, however remote and secure, in which they are not to be found. It is the infinite number of these invisible animals that makes stagnating waters appear of so many different hues, as green, brown, reddish, &c. The itch is affirmed to be a disorder arising from irritations of a species of animalcules in the pustules. The white matter also which sticks to our teeth abounds with these creatures of different figures.What an argument for cleanliness to those little boys and girls who wish to avoid HEROD's fate, and not be eaten up of worms: seven millions of times smaller than the mite, the same evidences of wisdom and design present themselves in every gradation, and all ideas of imperfection cease*. Search the least path Creative Power has trod, It is not at all surprising then that such an accurate researcher into Nature's works as the excellent Mr BoYLE should observe “that his wonders dwelt not so much on Nature's clocks as her watches."-In several kinds of these creatures, invisible before to mortal eyes, it is not only easy to discover by means of a good magnifier, the external appearance of their mouths, their horns, their trunks, and other members, but the very motion of their heart and lungs! Now, as it has been remarked, as these little animals are discovered to be organised bodies, how fine and subtle must be the several parts that compose them? How difficult to conceive the extreme minuteness of the muscles necessary to the motion of the heart, the glands for the secretion of the fluids, the stomach and bowels for the digestion of the food, the fineness of the tubes, nerves, arteries, veins, and above all, of the blood, the lymph, and animal spirits, which must be infinitely more so than any of these! Here the utmost stretch of imagination is brought to the test, without being able to form any adequate conception; but these inconceivable wonders instead of conveying any idea of imperfection as to the skill of the artist, must, from what they make to appear, inspire the The microscope endues us as it were with a new sense, unfolds the amazing operations of nature, and displays to us wonders unimagined by former ages-Who, a thousand years ago, would have thought it possible to distinguish myriads of living creatures in a single drop of water? Or that numberless species of creatures should be made objects of vision, though so minute that a million of them are less than a grain of sand; yet these are among the wonders of the microscope!-See also note *, p. 159. The defects of art are easily discovered by the microscope; but the more narrowly We pry into, or scrutinize the works of nature by this instrument, the more the perfection of the inimitable artist is made to appear-Viewed by this glass the finest needle ever polished presents to the eye a blunt and rugged point; but the sting of a bee, however magnified, still retains all its original acuteness of termina tion. |