Diary and Chronology. DATE. DAYS. DIARY. DATE. CORRESPONDING CHRONOLOGY. June 24 Tues. St. John the Bap- June 24 The nativity of St. John the baptist is kept on this tist. day, because he was the forerunner of our Saviour, and, by preaching the doctrine of repentance, prepared the way for the gospel. It is usual for the church to celebrate the festival of saints on the day of their death, but the feast of St. John is an exception to the rule, from the saint's having been sanctified in his mother's womb. 1497.-John Sebastian Cabot, the navigator, made the discovery of Newfoundland on this day. On his return from this voyage, finding himself neglected by Henry VII. he went to Spain, where he was furnished with ships and stores, and thereby enabled to effect the discovery of the Brazilian coast, and the river La Plata. 25 St. Prosper, of Aquitain, was the Secretary of Pope Leo I. by whom he was employed in the most important affairs of the church. He was a vigorous defender of the writings of St. Augustin, and is said to have died A. D. 465. 1314.-This day is the anniversary of the fight of 26 St. Vigilius was bishop of Trent. He was stoned 1775.-The severe fight of Bunkers Hill took place enemies. A 1820.-Died, J. Von Hager, the eminent professor of the Orieatal languages, at Pavia. He was well known by his writings on the literature and language of the Chinese. 28 St. Irenceus, bishop of Lyons, was martyred, and with him were massacred all the Christians of Lyons, A. D. 202, the beginning of the persecu, tion under Severus, 1811.-The surrender of the Spanish sea-port Tarragona, after enduring the utmost hardships, took place on this day, when marshal Suchet dishon. ourably suffered his army to sack and plunder the town and distressed inhabitants. 29 This saint was the first consecrated bishop of the Catholic church in the cathedral of Rome. 1190.-On this day Richard Cœur de Lion joined Philip Augustus, King of France, with his army on the plains of Vezelay. The forces of the two monarchs amounted to 100,000 men, who fol lowed their leaders to the Holy Land, to assist Frederick Barbarossa in the third crusade against the Infidels. 30 St. Paul was not one of the twelve, yet says Butler he is entitled to the honour of an apostle, from his conversion, great learning, and piety. He was beheaded A. D. 66. St. Paul is denominated as the apostle of the Gentiles. 1825.-Unfortunately drowned by venturing out of his depth, the Rev. Henry Kett, T. 64. He was the author of the Elements of Useful Knowledge a work which has passed through nine or ten e ditions, as well as several others of interest. THE SUBJECT OF THE EMBELLISHMENT Is the entertainment given by the Christian Magician in his sumptuous rocky caverns at Ascalon, to Ubald, and Charles the Dane, leaders of note in the Christian Army, when on their mission to effect the recovery of the lost knight, Rinaldo, who for a long period of time has been considered murdered, from the circumstance of his habiliments having been found pierced, rent, and bloody, by some of the soldiers when his loss to the camp was first made known, but who really had been seduced from the Christians by the ensnaring wiles of the powerful enchantress Armida. In the above design, the magician is supposed to be unfolding the practices resorted to by Armida, with regard to the lost Rinaldo. There native splendor dwells in every part, 'Tis time, what most imports should now be shown; To you in part Armida's arts are known: How to the camp she came, and thence con. The bravest champions, by her wiles betray'd. vey'd Full well you know that these, in bonds restrain'd, Th' insidious dame within her tower detain'd; And sent them guarded thence to Gaza's land, When fortune, in the way, releas'd their band. It now remains for me th' events to tell (As yet unknown) which since that time befell. Book XIV. THE INQUISITIVE GENTLEMAN. MR. JEDEDIAH EVERSEARCH lost his left eye in gratifying an excessive and unwearied thirst for information. It was sacrificed upon the shrine of knowledge. Other acts of self devotion are upon record, of other great men, who have im26-SATURDAY, JULY 5, 1828. molated themselves to further the advance of science. Guyon, of Marseilles, dissected and examined the body of a person who had died of the plague, for the purpose of ascertaining the nature of the disease; he purchased success with his life. A late French philosopher stifled himself with the fumes of charcoal, to learn the effect upon the human system, and the eye of Mr. Jedediah Eversearch was pricked out by a needle, as it was applied to the key-hole of a buttery door, to discover the number of pies that had been baked for the New Year's Saturnalia. The house-maid heard his breathings at the aperture, and imagined he was listening to her culinary consultations with a fellow-servant. She stabbed at the ear, but 'extinguished the left eye of Jedediah for ever. His parents, after mourning a due season for the loss of the darkened optic, consoled themselves with hoping that this accident would put a period to the troublesome inquisitiveness of their son. Futile anticipation! Jedediah was no sooner able to resume his peripatetic occupations. than he adorned his nasal protuberance with a pair of green spectacles, to conceal the deformity in his visage, and returned to the charge with redoubled fury. It seemed as if his thirst for seeing every thing, and every body, had increased with the loss of the left window of his brain. No hole or corner of the house escaped him. He was as well acquainted with every nook in the family mansion, as a rat with its hole. This acquaintance once attained, might be supposed to have satisfied the most curious inquirer But not so; Jedediah made his rounds as regularly each day, as do the gnomons of a town clock: searching drawers, trunks, and bandboxes; crevices, corners, and loop-holes, and more than once has he been nipped in the garret by the snaptrap, which lay in waiting, with its scraggy jaws, for the rats that caprioled about the attic of the old homestead in great numbers. Upon one occasion, he crept into a large butt, wherein was deposited the stock of potatoes, and was confined therein for four and twenty hours, by the servant's closing the lid, (which he supposed had been left open by mistake,) and securing it in the usual manner by a padlock. Jedediah asserted upon his egression thence, that he merely wished to count the farinaceous vegetables, to ascertain how much time would elapse before their consumption. The amusements of this fated being were in strict conformity with his unhappy propensity. He usually took his station, at a very early hour, near the head of State-street, and watched for every gentleman who wore green spectacles. These persons he pursued indefatigably, until he could compass their acquaintance and discover the origin of the defect in their visual organs; probably hoping to find some one who had suffered in the same cause with himself. At last, he became a perfect pest to all persons in green glasses; and a very general dispersion of them might be seen on 'Change, whenever Jedediah's uncouth figure presented itself. Indeed, it is a well-attested fact, that several wearers of those "blessings for the aged," abandoned them entirely, and carried pocket telescopes, to avoid his unremitted persecutions. But all was in vain; for Jedediah continually pursued these afflicted people, requesting the loan of a spy-glass, to discern some distant object, which his single organ could not compass without the aid of it. One little man, in a dreadnought coat and cocked hat, with a mouth like a rent in an oyster-man's lantern, and a nose resembling a seed cucumber, could alone bid defiance to the tormentor; and he glared so fiercely upon Jedediah, over his spectacles, from a pair of carnation eyes, that all attempts upon his privacy were completely baffled by the pugnacity of his physiognomy. Jedediah Eversearch had attained the age of thirty, without entering into hymeneal blessedness. He had, it is true, been several times "engaged;" but his predilection for the contents of work-bags, indispensables, and other little articles pertaining to a lady's paraphernalia, proved an insuperable bar to an union. It is well known, that ladies' have an invincible objection to a curious man; consequently, poor Jedediah was thrown out of Cupid's calendar," to make room for fragments of humanity, possessing a less ardent thirst for information. Repeated disappointments were severe blows to him, for he had a longing desire to become acquainted with the mysteries of the marriage state, but he bore the frustration of his hopes like a philosopher, returning after each successive dismissal, to his inquisitive researches with unabated eager ness. At last, however, he had the good fortune to encounter a lady, whose charms were rather "in the yellow leaf;" and who, preferring even the prying Mr. Eversearch to a longer search, consented to become his bride. It required all the art of an accomplished spinster of forty, to parry the questions of her intended spouse, touching her age. He considered his character at stake on the result, and made use of all the stratagie of a veteran in the inquiry, becoming quite fierce at each successive repulse. satisfied him by pleading to thirty-five; Finally, she and the delighted Jedediah, at the age of thirty-two, was buckled to the fascinating Miss Belinda Bendthebow. Amiable woman! let me here pay a passing tribute to another victim of "fatal curiosity." "Thine was the smile, and thine the bloom, Where hope might fancy ripened charms." But thou art no more; yet the willow and the wailing Eversearch nightly bend over thy resting place. As an impartial historian, I must allow that Jedediah was the "death of his wife." Like most ladies who have advanced in life previously to yielding to the gentle chains of Hymen, she had her "little peculiarities." The unfortunate husband was for ever transgressing. He cut off the tail of her lap-dog, to discover if the component parts were bone or cartilage; plucked and singed her favourite parrot, to compare the skin and pin-feathers with those of a chicken; and finally, filled her snuff-box with ground coffee, to learn what might be its effects upon the nasal organs. These and many similar experiments, embittered the union of Jededian and Belinda, and she soon sunk under her troubles. The husband was quite disconsolate at her loss, and wondered what could have carried her off so soon. Mr. Eversearch is now thirty-eight years of age, and as industrious and per-, tinacious as in his youthful days. I perceived him a few weeks since dodging an elderly gentleman in Washington-street, who wore a pair of antique silver buckles upon the knees of his velvet breeches; these symbols of the olden time had attracted the falcon giance of Jedediah, who doubtless, had determined to ascertain their antiquity; and I left him in full chase after their owner, whose uncomfortable elongation of countenance too plainly betrayed his suspicion that his pursuer had a design upon him. Perhaps it may be a philanthropic act 10 describe the apparel of this person, that the community may not be alarmed at any demonstration he may make to wards their pockets; as he frequently endeavours to ascertain the name of a passenger who interests him, by abstracting the corner of a handkerchief from its resting-place, that he may obtain a glimpse of the mark upon its corner. His hat is of a very dubious and suspicious character, varying between the Jackson broad brim, and the English conical; and proving a complete pozer to the prying politician. Its crown is low, and bears indubitable marks of having seen hard service; the rim is of the width of an apple-peel, and is worn down in front nearly to the crown, which defect was caused by the laborious burrowing of its owner into odd holes and cor ners. The body of his coat is of faded blue broadcloth; but the arms have been so often worn out by a thrusting into deep crevices, and so often replaced by new ones, that there is no congruity in colour between them, and the main part aforesaid. Most of the buttons upon this garment are wanting, Jedediah having twisted them off, to ascertain the name of the maker; consequently, the coat continually flies open, disclosing a vest resembling a patchwork bed-quilt. This article he succeeded in rescuing from his irreconcileable enemies, the rats, after a long and dubious struggle with them in their very dens. It was immediately repaired with great care, and it is now worn by him as a memento of a great and glorious victory. The small clothes of this eccentric gentleman are of the stoutest buckskin, and have suffered great and frequent decay at the knees, from the crawling habits of their owner, they are now patched and stuffed, and covered over with jointed copper plates, which Jedediah has informed me effectually resist friction. In direct opposition to the fashion of the times, Mr. Eversearch indulges in long boots and tassels. The threads of these ornamental appendages, he takes much delight in counting daily; indeed it is his favourite amusement, save that of enumerating the hairs upon the back of a dingy cat, which prowls about his paternal dwelling. The accomplishment of this latter feat appeared to me incredible; but he assured me, that by perseverance he had accomplished it several times; twice having shaved the back of the veteran mouser, to ascertain if the hairs would be renewed in equal number. I have thus endeavoured to give a feeble delineation of the exterior of this inquisitive gentleman. His moral and intellectual qualifications entitle him to Yes, there's a spell in twilight's hour, O'er which perchance our hearts have bled; Strange and mystic twilight, thou |