COWPER.

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Cowper, in his "Memoirs of his Early Life," gives an affecting instance of that mental enthralment which boys of sensitive parts are too often doomed to suffer in public schools, from the arrogance and cruelty of their senior schoolmates. "My chief affliction," he says, sisted in my being singled out from all the other boys, by a lad about fifteen years of age, as a proper object upon whom he might let loose the cruelty of his temper. One day, as I was sitting alone on a bench in the school, melancholy, and almost ready to weep at the recollection of what I had already suffered, and expecting at the same time my tormentor every moment, these words of the Psalmist came into my mind: 'I will not be afraid of what man can do unto me.' I applied this to my own case, with a degree of trust and confidence in God that would have been no disgrace to a much more experienced Christian. Instantly I perceived in myself a briskness of spirits and a cheerfulness which I had never before experienced, and took several paces up and down the room with joyful alacrity-his gift in whom I trusted. Happy would it have been for me, if this early effort towards the blessed God had been frequently repeated by me; but, alas! it was the first and last instance of the kind between infancy and manhood. The cruelty of this boy, which he had long practised in so secret a manner that no person suspected it, was at length discovered. He was expelled from the school, and I was taken from it."

SELF-TAUGHT MECHANIST.

A boy, of the name of John Young, now (1819) residing at Newton-upon-Ayr, in Scotland, constructed a singular piece of mechanism, which attracted much notice among the ingenious and scientific. A box, about three feet long by two broad, and six or eight inches deep, had a frame and paper covering erected on it, in the form of a house. On the upper part of the box are a number of wooden figures, about two or three inches high, representing people employed in those trades or sciences with which the boy is familiar. The whole are put in motion at the same time by machinery within the box, acted upon by a handle like that of a hand organ. A weaver upon his loom, with a fly-shuttle, uses his hands and feet, and keeps his eye upon the shuttle as it passes across the web. A soldier sitting with a sailor at a public house table, fills a glass, drinks it off, then knocks upon the table, upon which an old woman opens a door, makes her appearance, and they retire. Two shoemakers upon their stools are seen, the one beating leather, and the other stitching a shoe.

A cloth-dresser, a stone-cutter, a cooper, a tailor, a woman churning, and one teazing wool, are all at work. There is also a carpenter sawing a piece of wood, and two blacksmiths beating a piece of iron, the one using a sledge, and the other a small hammer; a boy turning a grindstone, while a man grinds an in

strument upon it; and a barber shaving a man. whom he holds fast by the nose with one hand.

The boy was only about seventeen years of age when he completed this curious work; and since the bent of his mind could be first marked, his only amusement was that of working with a knife, and, making little mechanical figures; this is the more extraordinary, as he had no opportunity whatever of seeing any person employed in a similar way. He was bred a weaver, with his father; and since he could be employed at the trade, has had no time for his favorite study, except after the work ceased, or during the intervals; and the only took he ever had to assist him was a pocket knife. In his earlier years he produced several curiosities on a similar scale, but the one now described is his greatest work, to which he devoted all his spare time during two years.

GUSTAVAS VASA.

One day when Gustavas was only between five and six years of age, as he was running among bushes, his preceptor, to deter him, told him to beware of some large snakes which infested them. He unconcernedly answered, "Then give me a stick, and I will kill them." His courage was tempered with the most noble generosity. A peasant bringing him a small pony, the young prince said to him, I will pay you immediately, for you must want money;" and pulling out a little purse of ducats, he emptied it into the peasant's hand.

At twelve, he spoke and wrote Latin, German, Dutch, French, and Italian, with the same fluency and correctness as the Swedish, besides understanding the Polish and Russian.

THE GRACCHI.

A Campanian lady, who was very rich, and fond of pomp and show, being on a visit to Cornelia, the illustrious mother of the Gracchi, displayed her diamonds and jewels somewhat osten. tatiously, and requested that Cornelia would let her see her jewels also. Cornelia dexterously turned the conversation to another subject, to wait the return of her sons who were gone to the public schools. When they returned, and had entered their mother's apartment, she, pointing to them, said to the lady, "These are my jewels; the only ornaments I admire."

HENRY IV. OF FRANCE. Henry IV. of France was educated in a very different manner from the princes of the present age. He was brought up in a castle at Bearn, which was situated among the mountains: his father would not suffer him to be clothed differently from other children of the country, and accustomed him to climb the rugged rocks, nourished him with brown bread, beef, cheese, and ale, and often made him walk out with his head and feet bare, even in the severest seasons. Henry, by being thus early inured to hardships,

was enabled to go into the army at an age that few other princes quit the nursery. Before he was sixteen, he was at the battle of the Hugonots, where he betrayed the utmost impatience to be in the midst of the action, and to signalize himself; but he was only permitted to be a spectator on account of his youth. In the next engagement, his intrepidity and courage could not be restrained, and scarcely equalled: in spite of the prayers and entreaties of his officers, he exposed his person to as much danger as the common soldier. By this means he not only inspired his men with admiration and love for his person, but was the means of infusing courage throughout the whole army, who were animated by his example.

MICHAEL ANGELO.

This great man from his infancy exhibited a strong inclination for painting, and made so rapid a progress in it, that he is said, at the age of fourteen, to have been able to correct the drawings of his master, Dominico Grillandaio. When he was an old man, one of these drawings being shown to him, he modestly said, "In my youth I was a better artist than I am now."

GENEROUS MIDSHIPMEN.

At the battle of Camperdown, a gallant little midshipman on board the admiral's ship went below to be dressed for a wound he had received in the cheek. Finding one of the sailors under the hands of the surgeon, "Pray, go on with that poor man's dressing, sir," said the youthful hero, "he has lost a limb; I have only got a slap in the face." The gash was deep, and the blood was gushing from it in torrents into the poor boy's mouth while he spoke.

Mr. Harriott, late magistrate of the Thames Police, was in his youth midshipman on board a ship of war lying at New York. A poor girl, whose mother kept a tavern at St. John's, Newfoundland, had been enticed away by an officer, who had brought her to England, and then deserted her. She passed over to Ireland, where she had some relations, but determined to return to America, and went in a brig filled with Redemptioners, that is, persons who redeem the price of their passage by the sale of their services for a certain term of years. This poor girl came to market for sale, when Mr. Harriott was there; and relating her unhappy tale, he purchased her from the captain, and sent her in a schooner to Newfoundland; where he afterward went himself, and was welcomed with tears of gratitude by the mother and the daughter.

IGNORANCE OF FEAR.

A child of one of the crew of his majesty's ship Peacock, during the action with the United States' vessel, Hornet, amused himself with chasing a goat between decks. Not in the least terrified by destruction and death all around him, he persisted, till a cannon ball came and took off

both the hind legs of the goat; when seeing her disabled, he jumped astride her, crying, "Now I've caught you." This singular anecdote is related in a work called "Visits of Mercy, being the Second Journal of the stated Preacher to the Hospital and Almshouse in the City of New York, by the Rev. E. S. Ely."

SCIENTIFIC SAGACITY.

In the winter of 1790, as a number of boys were skating on a lake in a remote part of Yorkshire, the ice happened to break at a considerable distance from the shore, and one of them unfortunately fell in. No house was near, where ropes or the assistance of more aged hands could be procured, and the boys were afraid to venture forward to save their struggling companion, from a natural dread, that where the ice had given way, it might give way again, and involve more of them in jeopardy. In this alarming emergency, one of them, of more sagacity than the rest, suggested an expedient, which for its scientific conception, would have done honor to the boyhood of a Watt or an Archimedes. He might probably remember having seen, that while a plank placed perpendicularly on thin ice will burst through, the same plank, if laid horizontally along the ice, will be firmly borne, and afford even a safe footing; and applying with great ingenuity and presence of mind, the obvious principle of this difference to the danger before them, he proposed to his companions that they should lay themselves flat along the ice, in a line one behind another, and each push forward the boy before him, till they reached the hole where their playmate was still plunging, heroically volunteering to be himself the first in the chain. The plan was instantly adopted; and to the great joy of the boys, and their gallant leader, they succeeded in rescuing their companion from a watery grave, at a moment when overcome by terror and exertion, he was unable to make another effort to save himself. Reader, excuse a tear of gratitude. The name of the boy saved was REUBEN PERCY.

LORD M-N.

When the present heir of the noble house of Wentworth was a boy, he generally spent the whole of his allowance of pocket-money as rapidly as most boys do, but happily in a very different manner. One day he asked a confidential servant of the family for a loan of money: this the man evaded, until he could get the consent of the noble earl, his father, deeming it highly improper to advance the money without his knowledge. When Earl F. was acquainted with the circumstance, he questioned the servant as to the manner in which his son spent the very liberal sum that was allowed him; and not being able to get a satisfactory answer, authorized him to lend his son the money, on condition that he was informed what was done with it. When the young lord heard the terms on which the servant offered to lend him the money, he was very

wayman, who dismounted, he pulled the money out of his pocket and strewed it about, and while the highwayman was picking it up, the boy jumped upon the horse and rode home. Upon searching the saddle bags, there were found twelve pounds in cash, and two loaded pistols.

ADMIRAL HAWKE.

It is recorded of this gallant admiral, that when he parted with his father on first going to sea, the latter exhorted him to behave well, adding, that "he hoped to live to see him a captain." "A captain!" replied the boy. "Sir, if I did not think I should come to be an admiral, I would not go at all."

SWEARING NOBLY REPROVED.

Prince Henry, the son of James II., of whose boyish days we have already given some notice, had a particular aversion to the vice of swearing, and profanation of the name of God. When at play, he was never heard to do so; and on being asked why he did not swear at play as well as others? he answered, that he knew no game worthy of an oath. The same answer he is said to have given at a hunting match. The stag, almost quite spent, crossed a road where a butcher was passing with his dog. The stag was instantly killed by the dog, at which the huntsmen were greatly offended, and endeavored to irritate the prince against the butcher; but his highness answered, coolly, "True, the butcher's dog has killed the stag, and how could the butcher help it?" They replied, "that if his father had been so served, he would have sworn so as no man could have endured." "Away!" cried the prince, "all the pleasure in the world is not worth an oath."

AN APT VERSION.

The late Dr. Adam, rector of the Grammar school, Edinburgh, was supposed by his scholars to exercise a strong partiality for such as were of patrician descent; and on one occasion was very smartly reminded of it by a boy of mean parentage, whom he was reprehending rather severely for his ignorance-much more so than the boy thought he would have done, had he been the son of a right honorable, or even of a plain Baillie Jarvie. "You dunce!" exclaimed the rector, "I don't think you can even translate the motto of your own native place, of the gude town of Edinburgh. What, sir, does Nisi Dominus frustra' mean?" "It means, sir," rejoined the boy smartly, "that unless we are lords' sons, we need not come here."

OSTIACK BOY.

A Russian was travelling from Tobolsk to Beresow. On the road he stopped one night at the hut of an Ostiack. In the morning, on continuing his journey, he discovered that he had lost his purse, containing about one hundred rou

bles. The son of the Ostiack, a boy about four teen years of age, found the purse while out hunting; but instead of taking it up, he went and told his father, who was equally unwilling to touch it, and ordered the boy to cover it with some bushes. A few months after, the Russian returned, and stopped at the same hut, but the Ostiack did not recognize him. He related the loss he had met with. The Ostiack listened very attentively; and when he had finished, "You are welcome," said he; "here is my son, who will show you the spot where it lies; no hand has touched it, but the one which covered it, that you might recover what you had lost."

INGENIOUS CURIOSITY.

Two boys chanced in a vacant hour to stray into the kitchen of a public house. They found a large blazing fire, and a box containing, as ap peared by the inscription, a Welch fairy, but no living creature besides. The boys, eager to view the dwarf, but by no means willing, or perhaps able, to pay for the sight, began to consult how they should contrive to get her out. Had they possessed the strength and agility of Phaedrus' eagle, they would probably have taken his method of opening inclosures. But they had no wings. The lock too being on the inside, they could not force the door; what could they do? They hit on a stratagem, which might have done honor to Polyænus. By joint efforts of strength, they moved the box so very near the fire, that the dwarf, from the increased heat, was obliged to open the door, and favor them, gratis, with her wished-for presence.

THE MARQUIS HOSPITAL.

This ornament to French science was a geometrician almost from his childhood. One day, being at the Duke of Rohan's, some able mathematicians were speaking of a problem of Pascal, which appeared to them extremely difficult; young Hospital ventured to say that he believed he could solve it. The company were surprised at what appeared to them presumption in a boy of fifteen, for he was then no more; and one of them said, in a sort of braggart tone, that if he could, he would give him the choice of the best book in his library. The boy accepted the challenge, and in a few days after, presented the solution, and claimed the promised prize; which, it need scarcely be added, was most cheerfully awarded him.

CLARA FISHER.

"A little body with a mighty heart." Since the period when the good fortune of Master Betty called forth a host of young Roscii and Rosciæ, and the Green-room was in danger of being converted into a nursery, the tide of public feeling has run violently against the exhibition of children on the boards of our great the atres. If, however, any circumstance was likely to make the public not only tolerate but ap

prove of the theatrical performance of children, it must be in the production of a piece suited to their tender years, and when talents are displayed, such as those of Miss Clara Fisher.

This child was born on the 14th of July, 1811, and from her earliest infancy exhibited an uncommon share of intellect. When an infant in arms, she took so much delight in music, that when certain tunes were played, the pleasure she felt was most striking; while, on the other hand, when any air to which she had taken a dislike was attempted to be introduced, she would cry and oppose the performance of it by every means in her power; an instance of acuteness of ear and taste rarely to be met with in an infant.

The first impulse for the stage that little Clara felt, was on seeing Miss O'Neill perform the character of Jane Shore. After her return from the theatre she began to show what impression Miss O'Neill's performance had made upon her mind, by imitating all she had seen that great mistress of the passions so recently exhibit; but infant-like, she blended the madness of Alicia, with the tenderness and distress of Jane Shore. These actions in a child under four years of age naturally excited pleasure and surprise in the family circle, and the applause bestowed by some private friends seemed to fix in her infant mind a love for the stage. Some time after she saw a comic dance at the Olympic Theatre, which gave her much pleasure; and the next evening her eldest sister accidentally playing the tune on the piano-forte, she, to the surprise of all, went through the dance correctly in the steps, and with all the action and grimace she had witnessed in the clown the night before.

The first appearance of Miss Fisher on the stage, was at Drury Lane Theatre, on the 10th of December, 1817, in Garrick's little comedy of Lilliput, to which many songs had been added, and the whole remodelled by Mr. D. Corri, whose pupils sustained the principal characters in the piece. The part of Lord Flimnap was assigned to Miss Clara Fisher, who astonished the audience by her extraordinary and various talents. "The staid gravity of her countenance," says one of the diurnal critics, "the solemnity of her utterance, and the studied precision of her walk, convulsed the audience with laughter. She afterward, assisted by her young friends, who sustained the minor parts of the drama, supported the character of RICHARD THE THIRD, from the tent scene to the death of the tyrant, and evinced a knowledge of the text, and an acquaintance with stage effect really surprising. She finally, in the character of a countryman, sang a comic song with a great deal of archness and humor.

After playing for some time at Drury Lane, Miss Clara Fisher was engaged at Covent Gar den, and appeared in the pantomime of Harlequin Gulliver, performing the character of Richard III., in which she had been so successful at the rival house. Some parts of her performance in this character were such as deserve a more than cursory notice. The manner in which she read

the letter in the tent scene, the sarcastic smile that accompanied her handing it to the messenger, as she repeated the lines:

"Jocky of Norfolk, be not too bold;

For Dickon, thy master, is bought and sold;" and then as she turned away, on saying,

"A weak invention of the enemy;"

was such as deservedly to draw down the most loud and reiterated acclamations.

The infant heroine has since visited some of the principal theatres in the kingdom, and sustained, with unrivalled success, the characters of Richard III., Shylock, Douglas, Bombastes, &c

HONESTY THE BEST POLICY.

A nobleman travelling in Scotland, about six years ago, was asked for alms in the high street of Edinburgh, by a little ragged boy. He said he had no change; upon which the boy offered to procure it. His lordship, in order to get rid of his importunity, gave him a piece of silver, which the boy conceiving was to be changed, ran off for the purpose. On his return, not finding

his benefactor, whom he expected to wait, he watched for several days in the place where he had received the money. At length the nobleman happened again to pass that way; the boy accosted him, and put the change he had procured into his hand, counting it with great exactHis lordship was so pleased with the boy's honesty, that he placed him at school, with the assurance of providing for him.

ness.

LOUIS XIII. OF FRANCE.

This prince, from his earliest years, had an aversion to reading, which he preserved to the last moment of his life. This was perhaps owing to the folly of his tutors, who had not sufficiently attended to his inclinations, and to those of boys of his age. They taught him the history of his own country, by making him read Fauchet's Antiquities, a book very dully written, and full of tedious dissertations. His mother, Mary de Medicis, in hopes of conquering his aversion to reading, made M. de Souvré, his tutor, one day give him a pretty severe flagellation. To this the prince submitted with great reluctance; and a few days afterward observing his mother salute him great respect, he said to her, "My good mother, I wish in future you would not courtesy so very low, but give me less flagellation

MORLAND.

The unfortunate George Morland gave very early indications of his genius: he used to draw objects on the floor; and when his father, who was a painter on crayons, stooped to pick up the scissors or the crayons which appeared on the floor, the laugh was often enjoyed against him. These, and a thousand other monkey tricks, made George the favorite child; his father saw the germe of future excellence in his own favorite art, and at the age of fourteen, he had him apprenticed to himself for seven years, during which