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than 36 per cent. out of pocket, || passed upon us for proof; if we be not again put off with an "as was shown before."

besides the compound interest for the time, to say nothing of additions by deaths and failure of payment.

LANGUAGE.

It is certainly useful to have an appropriate word to express every distinct idea, whether simple or compound. A want of words for this purpose, and the consequent application of one word to different ideas, are common defects in languages; perhaps their greatest imperfection; and the source of much dispute, misconception, and false reasoning. Yet we are ever suffering many such words to fall into disuse, without introducing any equivalent words.

There is an inconvenience too in having the same verb to express an active and a neuter sense; or rather, an awkwardness. Where there are two verbs of the same meaning in this predicament, would it not be advisable, to employ one uniformly as the active, the other as the neuter? It would increase the precision and perspicuity of a language; and seems worthy the attention of writers, whose authority would be copied; but vanity or profit more frequently guides the pen than utility.

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MIGRATION.

In a sketch of the history of Egypt, by the learned Dr. White, inserted in Polwbele's Historical Views of Devonshire, vol. I. among some excellent remarks on the progress of civilization, the doctor, after taking it as generally admitted, that the remnant of the human race settled somewhere in Arabia after, the deluge, observes, "It is now also impossible to trace what were the causes which led them from Arabia into Egypt; whether war or conquest; or, what is most probable, their natural disposition to migration." But that they should be led by war or conquest, is an absurdity: for the first inhabitants could not go to make war upon a people that did not exist, or to conquer an uninhabited country. It is true, they might have been driven from Arabia by war with some other tribe, who wanted more room for their herds; but they would naturally spread themselves over the country, as their increasing numbers required greater extent of pasture, till they reached Egypt, without any disposition to migrate, other than was imposed on them by want of room.

IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING.

The Chinese are said to admire the beauty of writing more than of composition; so that an Englishman with a Chinese taste would prefer a poem of Tomkins or Langford, to one of Pope or Dryden. And is not this taste growing on us? Not only must our paper be woven and hot-pressed, but our types must be reformed. Not a

figure must raise his head above his fellows, or sink his tail below them; so that it is difficult to distinguish a 6 or a 9 from a nought, to say nothing of the cramped form of the rest. This is a real grievance; but printers quietly submit to the whims and caprices of type-founders, if they be not their guides; and readers cannot help themselves.

From his youth upwards he was much addicted to vices,

he

and was often guilty of forgery. Having some talents for irony, thereby produced many heats in his neighbourhood,

which he usually increased by blowing up the coals. This rendered him so unpopular, that when he found it necessary

to adopt cooling measures,

The tall has lately given way to his conduct was generally accompanied

his dwarf brother; and I presume
it is only on account of the num-
ber of the other letters of greater
length than their fellows, for it is
the case with twelve out of the
twenty-five, that these innovators
have been intimidated. Ere long,
no doubt, some bolder Procrustean
tyrant will arise, and lop them all
to his standard. When that has
been done, beware, ye Capitals!
beware, too, ye Stops and Spaces!
no doubt the beautiful uniformity
of the infancy of writing will re-
vive in print, and letter will suc-
ceed letter, equal in height, and
breadth, and distance, more regu-
lar than a line of soldiers at a royal
review dressed by the completest
Martinet of an adjutant, who rests
on such skill his hopes of heading,
like some of his predecessors, an-
other South American army.
that second golden age of letters,
it will again become a mark of dis-
tinction to be able to read, not an-
cient or foreign languages, but our

own.

In

INSCRIPTION ON A BLACKSMITH. Here cool the ashes of MULCIBER GRIM, (Late of this parish,) Blacksmith.

He was born in Seacoal-lane, and bred at Hammersmith:

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by a hiss!

Though he sometimes proved a warm friend,

he made it a constant practice

to strike while the iron was hot, regardless of the injury he might thereby do to others;

and when he had any matter of moment on the anvil,

he seldom failed to turn it to his own advantage.

Among the numberless instances that might be given

of the cruelty of his disposition, it need only be mentioned, that he was a means of hanging many of the innocent family of the Bells, upon a mere idle pretence of keeping

them from jangling;

and that he put many hearts of steel into the hottest flames,

merely (as he declared) to soften the obduracy of their tempers.

At length, after passing a long life in the commission of these black actions, his fire being exhausted,

and his bellows worn out,

be filed off

to that place where only the fervid ordeal of his own forge could be exceeded;

declaring, with his last puff, That man was born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward.

12

DESCRIPTION OF THE MOCKING-BIRD.
: From WILSON's American Ornithology.

AMONG the many novelties which the discovery of the western continent first brought into notice, we may reckon that of the mockingbird, which is peculiar to the new world, and inhabits a very considerable extent both of North and South America, having been traced from the states of New England to Brazil, and also among many of the adjacent islands. The species is, however, much more numerous in the states to the south, than in those to the north of the river Delaware, being generally migratory in the latter, and resident, at least many of them, in the former. A warm climate and low country, not far from the sea, seem most congenial to their nature: accordingly we find the species less numerous to the west than to the east of the great range of the Alleghany mountains in the same parallels of latitude.

nerally produces two broods in the season, unless robbed of her eggs, in which case she will even build

and lay the third time. She is, however, extremely jealous of her nest, and very apt to forsake it if much disturbed. It is even asserted by some of our bird-dealers, that the old ones will actually destroy the eggs, and poison the young, if either the one or the other have been handled; but I cannot give credit to this unnatural report. I know, from my own experience at least, that this is not always their practice, and have never witnessed a case of the kind above-mentioned. During the period of incubation, neither cat, dog, animal, nor man, can approach the nest without being attacked. The cats in particular are persecuted whenever they make their appearance, till obliged to retreat. But his whole vengeance is in an espeThere are particular situations cial manner directed against that to which this bird gives the prefer- mortal enemy of his eggs and young, ence for building his nest. A soli- the black snake. Whenever the tary thorn-bush, an almost impene-insidious approaches of this reptile trable thicket, an orange tree,cedar, are discovered, the male darts upon or holly-bush, are favourite spots, and frequently selected. It is no great objection with him, that these happen sometimes to be near the farmer's mansion-house. Always ready to defend, but never over anxious to conceal, his nest, he very often builds within a small distance of the house, and not unfrequently in a pear or apple-tree, rarely at a greater height than six pr seven feet from the ground. The female sits fourteen days, and ge

it with the rapidity of an arrow, dexterously eluding its bite, and striking it violently and incessantly about the head, where it is very vulnerable. The snake soon bécomes sensible of its danger, and seeks to escape; but the intrepid defender of his young redoubles his exertions, and unless his antagonist be of great magnitude, often succeeds in destroying him. All its pretended powers of fascination avail it nothing against the ven

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geance
of this noble bird. As the
snake's strength begins to flag, the
mocking-bird seizes and lifts it up
partly from the ground, beating it
with bis wings; and when the bu-
siness is completed, he returns to
the repository of his young, mounts
the summit of the bush, and pours
out a torrent of song in token of
victory.

notes, which are easily distinguishable by such as are well acquainted with those of the various song birds of America, are bold and full, and varied seemingly beyond all limits. They consist of short expressions of two, three, or at the most five or six syllables, generally interspersed with imitations, and all of them uttered with great em

The plumage of the mocking-phasis and rapidity, and continued, bird, though none of the homeliest, with undiminished ardour, for half has in it nothing gaudy or brilliant; an hour or an hour at a time. His and, had he nothing else to re-expanded wings and tail glistening commend him, would scarcely en- with white, and the buoyant gaiety title him to notice; but his figure of his action, arrest the eye, as his is well proportioned, and even song irresistibly engages the ear. handsome. The ease, elegance, He sweeps round with enthusiastic and rapidity of his movements, the ecstasy; he mounts and descends animation of his eye, and the in- as his song swells or dies away; telligence he displays in listening and, as my friend Mr. Bartram has and laying up lessons from almost beautifully expressed it,"he bounds every species of the feathered cre- aloft with the celerity of an arrow, ation within his hearing, are really as if to recover or recal his very surprising, and mark the peculia- soul, expired in the last elevated rity of his genius. To these qua- strain." While thus exerting himlities we may add that of a voice self, a by-stander, destitute of full, strong, musical, and capable sight, would suppose that all the of almost every modulation, from feathered tribes had assembled tothe clear mellow notes of the wood-gether on a trial of skill, each thrush to the savage scream of the bald eagle. In measure and accent he faithfully follows his originals; in force and sweetness of expression he greatly improves upon them. In his native groves, mounted on the top of a tall bush or halfgrown tree, in the dawn of dewy morning, while the woods are already vocal with a multitude of warblers, his adınirable song rises pre-eminent over every competitor.

The ear can listen to his music alone, to which that of all the others seeins a mere accompaniment. Neither is this strain altogether imitative. His own native

striving to produce his utmost effect, so perfect are his imitations. He many times deceives the sportsman and sends him in search of birds, that are perhaps not withia miles of him, but whose notes he exactly imitates. Even birds themsclves are frequently imposed upon by this admirable minic, and are decoyed by the fancied calls of their mates, or dive with precipitation into the depth of thickets, at what they suppose to be the scream of the sparrow-hawk.

The mocking-hird loses little of the power and energy of his song by confinement. In his domesti

| During this exhibition of his powers, he spreads his wings, expands his tail, and throws himself round the cage in all the ecstasy of enthusiasm, seeming not only to sing, but to dance, keeping time to the measure of his own music. Both in his native and domesticated state, during the solemn stillness of night, as soon as the moon rises in silent majesty, he begins his delightful solo, and serenades us the livelong night with a full display of his vocal powers,making the whole neighbourhood ring with his inimitable

cated state, when he begins his strains, it is impossible to stand by uninterested. He whistles for the dog; Cæsar starts up, wags his tail, and runs to meet his master. He squeaks out like a hurt chicken, and the hen hurries about with hanging wings and bristled feathers, clucking to protect her injured brood. The barking of the dog, the mewing of the cat, the creaking of a passing wheelbarrow, follow with great truth and rapidity. He repeats the tune taught him by his master, though of considerable length, fully and faith-melody. fully. He runs over the quiverings A certain anonymous author, of the canary and the clear whis- speaking of the mocking-birds in tlings of the Virginia nightingale the island of Jamaica, and their or red bird, with such superior ex-practice of singing by moonlight, ecution and effect, that the morti- thus gravely philosophizes and atfied songsters feel their own infe- tempts to account for the habit:-riority, and become altogether si- "It is not certain," says he, "whelent; while he seems to triumph ther they are kept so wakeful by in their defeat by redoubling his the clearness of the light, or by any extraordinary attention and vigilance at such times, for the protection of their nursery from the piratical assaults of the owl and the night hawk. It is possible that fear may operate upon them, much in the same manner as it has been observed to affect some cowardly

exertions.

lonesome place, while their mind is agitated by the terror of thieves or hobgoblins."

This excessive fondness for variety, however, in the opinion of some, injures his song. His exHis excellent imitations of the brown thrush are frequently interrupted by the crowing of cocks; and the warblings of the blue bird, which he exquisitely manages, are min-persons, who whistle stoutly in a gled with the screaming of swallows and the cackling of hens: amidst the simple melody of the robin, we are suddenly surprised by the shrill reiterations of the whip-poor-will; while the notes of the kill-deer, blue jay, martin, baltimore, and twenty others succeed, with such imposing reality, that we look round for the originals, and discover, with astonishment, that the sole per-shall therefore present the reader

former in this singular concert, is the admirable bird now before us.

If it would not seem invidious to foreigners, I might here make a comparative statement between the powers of the mocking-bird, and the only bird I believe in the world worthy of being compared with him, the European nightingale. I

with the opinion of a distinguished English naturalist and curious ob

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