VOL. 4.] Varieties-John Adams of Pitcairn's Island. Cursed by unlettered idle youth, distils PHILIPS. 83 prevent the possibility of the birds seeing the decoy-man; and as these birds feed during the night, all is ready prepared for this sport in the evening. The fowler, placed on the leeward side, sometimes with the help of his well-trained dog, but always by that of his better trained decoy-ducks, begins the business of destruction. The latter, directed by his well-known whistle, The taking of wild fowl commences, or excited forward by the floating hempby Act of Parliament, on the 1st of seed, which he strews occasionally upOctober, and the decoy-business is at on the water, entice all the wild-ducks the greatest height about the end of the after them under the netting; and as month. Great numbers of wild ducks soon as this is observed, the man, or his and other water-fowl are annually caught dog, as the fitness of opportunity may in the extensive marsh lands of Lincoln- direct, is from the rear exposed to the shire in this way. The decoys now view of the birds, by which they are in use are formed by cutting pipes, or so alarmed, that they dare not offer to tapering ditches, widened and deepened return, and are prevented by the nets. as they approach the water, in various from escaping upwards. They, theresemicircular directions, through the fore, press forward, in the utmost conswampy ground into very large pools, fusion, to the end of the pipe, into the which are sheltered by surrounding funnel, or purse nets there prepared to trees or bushes, and situated commonly receive them, while their treacherous in the midst of the solitary marsh. At guides remain behind in conscious sethe narrow points of these ditches, far- curity. Particular spots, or decoys, in thest from the pool, by which they are the fen countries, are let to the fowlers filled with water, the fowlers place their funnel nets from these, the ditch is covered by a continual arch of netting, supported by hoops, to the desired distance; and all along both sides, skreens formed of reeds are set up, so as to at a rent of from five to thirty pounds per annum; and Pennant instances a season, in which 31,200 ducks, including teals and wigeons, were sold in London only, from ten of these decoys, near Wainfleet in Lincolnshire. PITCAIRN'S ISLAND AND CAPT. BLIGH. narrative, he was much affected; said, From the Gentleman's Magazine, July 1818. MR. URBAN, he accompanied him on board the Bounty at Deptford, but he entered in AS your readers must have felt deep- the name of Smith; and this accounts ly interested in the short account rendered of Pitcairn's Island, by Lieutenant Shillibeer,* I presume the few lines in addition to this may not be unacceptable. for the name of Adams not being found in the Bounty's list of her crew; that he has a sister living, older than either, who is married to a decent Tradesman at Derby that he himself has a large Having been informed that John family. I said, "I sent for you to say, Adams, the last survivor of the Boun- if you will write to your brother in a ty's crew on the Island, had a brother, few days, I think I shall have the I desired to see him he called on me, means of transmitting it to him ; and is a waterman at Union Stairs, wears as you have a large family, will you let the fire coat of the London Assurance, your eldest son go out?" He thanked and is of course a steady character. me for the offer of sending the letter, On reading to him the Lieutenant's and willingly would have sent his son, * See Atheneum, vol, 2, p. 419. but an objection would lie with some 84 Varieties. [VOL. 4 body else. Now we all know who ter; we see it the ground-work of evthis somebody else is, and the influence ery good to man. Dolly has on Johnny Bull. The letter is gone-and with it several others; but when I reflect on the surprizing escape of Captain Bligh and his Barge's crew, and of the events that have followed, I am not surprized that the whole is a series of interesting cir cumstances. From the New Monthly Magazine, August 1818 THE FATE OF GENIUS. By what a strange fatality a great proportion of the writers of antiquity. were prematurely cut off from existence. Menander was drowned in the Adams's brother proceeded to say, harbour of Piræus, at a time of life when "We are natives of Hackney, and he had done enough for immortality, but were left orphans, being brought up while the powers of his mind were yet in the poor house." Here it was, then, unimpaired by age, and his genius suffithat they were taught the first princi- ciently ardent to do still more. Euripides ples of our holy religion; here they and Heraclitus were torn to pieces by learned, what it appears Adams in due dogs. Theocritus ended his career by time recollected, the Catechism he had the halter. Empedocles was lost in the been taught to repeat, that excellent crater of Mount Etna. Hesiod was Catechism which every child should be murdered by his secret enemies: Architaught also to say ;-and although we lochus and Ibycus by banditti. Sappho have been in the present day wondrous threw herself from a precipice. Eschywise in giving surprisingly quick in- lus perished by the fall of a tortoise. struction to children, yet, I must con- Anacreon (as was to be expected) owed fess, I cannot but feel partial to those his death to the fruit of the vine. Craold-fashioned habits, where the ground- tinus and Terence experienced the same work must have been carefully, atten- fate with Menander; Seneca and Lutively, and progressively laid. can, were condemned to death by a tyAnother observation I beg to sub- rant, cut their veins, and died repeating mit to your readers, that Adams adopt their own verses; and Petronius Ared and inculcated from that sublime and biter met a similar catastrophe. Luadmirable introduction to our service, cretius, it is said, wrote under the deone of the sentences, and that one the lirium of a philter administered by his most affecting and impressive. No mistress, and destroyed himself from its doubt, in his childhood, he was obliged effects. Poison, though swallowed unto attend with the other children of the der very different circumstances, cut poor, in this place at church: here then short the days both of Socrates and we may date the impression that was Demosthenes; and Cicero fell under made, and which, when he came again the proscription of the Triumvirate. to reflect seriously, occurred with full It is truly wonderful that so many men, force on his mind. And permit me to the professed votaries of peace and reask those who are in the habit of attend- tirement, should have met with fates so ing public worship in due time, what widely different from that to which the is the impression on our minds, after common casualties of life should seem sitting a few minutes in our Parish to expose them. Church in solemn silence, when the minister begins, and every soul rises, THE THREE EMBLEMS OF UNCERTAINTY. and hears him say: "I will arise, and In some dull and ill-written letters go to my Father!" When the mind re- by one Wickford, a singular passage flects on who said it, the occasion, and occurs. Speaking of English politics, our dutiful repetition of it; cold in- and the approach of the Princess from deed must be the heart of him, that England to Holland to espouse William does not glow with a "celestial fire." the Stadtholder, he observes : but this We see the effect in a poor ignorant depends on three things most uncertain, child; we see the benefits arising from viz. the wind, a woman's mind, and a a recollection of those feelings years af- British Parliament !" VOL. 4.] THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. honours would only have drawn down The Jewish doctors report that the vengeance; but the spirit of the peoTen Commandments were written in ple was not to be totally quenched, such a manner that not one single letter and the actions of this gallant officer more could have had place on the tab- were recorded in all the more secret and lets. It would be well if the laws of safer forms of memorial. A pillar in morality were so amply engraved on an open field near Stralsund, bore an the human heart as to preclude the inscription in German, of which the possibility of immoral thoughts finding following is a translation. The popuan entrance there. lar attention was too strongly attracted to it, and it was shortly removed. EMULATION. Aristotle has happily defined emulation to be a certain painful solicitude occasioned by there being presented to our notice, and placed within our reach, in the possession of those who are by nature our fellows, things at once good and honourable; not because they belong to them, but because they do not also belong to us. In modern practical systems of education, emulation is generally made the main spring, as if there were not enough of the leaven of disquietude in our natures without inOculating it with this dilutement. Emulation, by creating contention and envy, is a stimulant to the heart rather than the talents; and the effect of such a stimulant is commonly to cramp and dwarf the human mind: even allowing it all the success which has injudicious ly been ascribed to it, it will but purchase a little knowledge at the of virtue! CHARACTERISTIC TRAITS. expense INSCRIPTION. Who rests this nameless mound beneath, More nobly pour'd than when he di'd :- BOILEAU AND RACINE Praise no person's verses but their own. They assume the character of universal critics, and not a ballad escapes their censure. Their powers of versification are good, but their erudition very superficial. Boileau fancied he possessed a secret worth knowing in the composition of poetry; he always made the second line of his couplet before the first, ią order, as he said, to infuse greater energy and compression by confining the sense to narrow limits. It is, perhaps, the adoption of this plan which has given such epigrammatic turns to many passages in his writings. NATURAL HISTORY-WHALES. Extract of a letter from Stornaway, dated No fewer than 209 June 22,1818:---"I had a very fine sight here whales, called the bottle-nose, came into this yesterday afternoon. harbour, when a desperate battle ensued bearmed with axes, swords, and knives, so that tween them and the inhabitants of the place, I suppose very few of those extraordinary visitors escaped. I measured some of them this morning, above 20 feet long by 15 feet in circumference."---An immense schoal of Finners, very large whales, have also appeared in these northern seas. Are these phenomena connected with the disruption of the Greenland ices ?---Gent. Mag. I LOVE to rise at dawn of day, And in the woodlands wild to stray, To ramble thro' the verdant fields, ' I love to hear the warbling songs I love to view the cattle play And gambol o'er the mead ;--- I love to see the country's wealth :--- Yes, dearest maid, thy blessings fair, And glisten in the dew ;-- Thou bidd'st flocks, birds, and woods impart Depriv'd of thee, these pleasures fail, Or soothe the ling'ring day ;--- And in my walks attend; At morning's dawn, beside the rill, But thro' the tempest gleams that stately tow'r A giant height,on which the Sun-beams show'r From the Literary Gazette, Aug. 1818. "THROUGH!" A Seal having the device of an arrow piercing a cloud cut upon it, with the motto Through,' ocensioned the following lines from the pen of the German poet and soldier Korner. Lo yonder, wreathed in mist, In gloomy majesty, Black frowning cionds appear, While thunder rolls between. Shall crush you on the plain !--- The bright electric ball. In fell Destruction's sight--- That grow each flash more strong. Haste! deeds of speed employ, These, powerful, trembling not, The Hydra shall destroy. Will armour save alone? It may divert a blow, That threats to lay you low. Your efforts will await. Through the dense cloud it flies, The bow's whole strength demands To speed it t'wards the skies. *Supposed to refer to some of the Prussian. soldiery. VOL. 4.] "Through"---it is flown---it sails In sunbeams all serene, In azure fields of air Beyond this stormy scene! Our watchword and our sign, Original Poetry. Made tigers waltz, and breath'd soft airs "Through,' brothers, Through,' shall be Permitted scarce a morning call, To lead us from the field, By death to victory! Leave earth to vulgar souls, Heroes must look on high; No clods encumber them, "Through!" lies their lovely land-- The lightnings blaze below-- Above---their laurels grow! From the European Magazine. C. R. THE PROGRESS OF MUSIC. [By the author of "Legends of Lampidosa, &c."] N In ancient days, Taste was young, The dulcet Virginal she strung, Or stroll'd through alleys straight and dim, Of dwarfs and dames and barons old, In coif and bib the grandam yet Rejected Harpsichord !---with thee Now Taste is older, and the reign She taught strange fish a roundelay-- To Music's feast, with joyful hums, The exile Conversation comes; When gas and ladies' eyes illume The glories of the Concert-room*- * * * * * * * * 87 "Tis done---the final crash astounds-- Still triumph, Music !---still renew As sprigs and stones and wood-nymphs danc'à Bid waltzing nymphs stand still, and then From the Literary Panorama, July 1818. M'With park and wood surrounded wide, [INE be the Abbey's wild retreat, Where grass should form a verdant seat, Should own the painted windows light; The torrent rushing down the steep; Or watch the sun's expiring beam. We'd roam, nor fear the howling blast. And starry concave, would proclaim That other worlds should see our love, And sanctify the glorious flame! |