of their minds. For these reasons in this island no one weeps, no one grieves at the death of another: but as soon as a person dies, the body is deposited in a certain place, where very large birds, destined by fate for that purpose, carry it away to another part of the island, and there devour it. Although these islanders are thirteen cubits high, they are very handsome, especially the women, who excel in softness, suppleness, and elegance of limbs. They are of a golden colour, of which, as we have said, the whole island participates, from its being opposite to the golden side of Mienmo.

This northern island, besides, is of all others the most agreeable. In it there is neither hot, nor cold, nor rainy season, nor is there any intemperance in the air. It contains no ferocious beasts, no serpents, nor poisonous insects, that infest the life of

man.

Its happy inhabitants require no houses, but live their whole lives safe and tranquil in the open air. Every where it abounds with the most beautiful trees, of a golden colour, from whence hang, in profusion and variety, the most delicious fruits, and the sweetest scented flowers. The same trees pour forth most shining gums, which serve the natives for perfumed ointments. The whole island flows with streams of sandal-wood water, in which the natives sport and swim. But although these northern islanders thus excel the others in happiness; they are inferior to those of the south in courtesy, prudence, and cunning.

Asiatick Researches, v. 6, p. 183.

A young peasant in Westmeath gave me the fol

P

lowing account of his family, which I believe is an epitome of the general state of the peasantry in a county not 30 miles from the metropolis. The boy was the eldest of seven children though scarcely twelve years old, and of course the only one able to labour; in the summer and harvest season he earned fourpence a day, his father worked for sixpence and eightpence a day through the year; they paid six pounds for an acre of oats, forty shillings a year for grass for their cow, and forty shillings a year for their cabin and a little ground for their potatoes; in winter, when the cow was dry, they lived upon oaten bread, and potatoes and salt. Engaged with the care of seven children, the mother could give little assistance except by spinning sometimes; and, out of the year's hire of the father, Sundays and holidays were deducted.

Owenson's Pat. Sketches of Ireland, v. 1, p. 106.

THE book of Helvetius, De l' Esprit, and Voltaire's poem of La Pucelle d'Orleans, were prohibited in Switzerland at the same time. A magistrate of Berne, after a strict search for those two works, wrote to the senate:- "We have not found in the whole province either wit or maid."

Madame Necker.

THE duke of Grafton being fox-hunting near Newmarket, a quaker, at some distance, upon an adjoining eminence, pulled off his hat, and gave a view holla! The hounds immediately ran to him, and being drawn off the scent, were consequently at fault, which so enraged the duke, that galloping

broad-brim.

up to the offender, he asked him in an angry tone, "Art thou a quaker?" "I am, friend," replied "Well then, (rejoined his grace) as you never pull off your hat to a christian, I will thank you in future not to pay that compliment to a for." Sporting Anecdotes, p. 112.

DEFINITION of a husband by his wife.-This lady composed the following vocabulary to express the character of a husband, from her own experience, and which proves how copious our language is on that article:-He is, said she, an abhorred, abominable, acrimonious, angry, arrogant, austere, awkward, barbarous, bitter, blustering, boisterous, boorish, brawling, brutal, bullying, capricious, captious, careless, choleric, churlish, clamourous, contumelious, crabbed, cross, currish, detestable, disagreeable, discontented, disgusting, dismal, dreadful, drowsy, dry, dull, envious, execrable, fastidious, fierce, fretful, froward, frumpish, furious, grating, gross, growling, gruff, grumbling, hard-hearted, hasty, hateful, hectoring, horrid, huffish, humoursome, illiberal, ill-natured, implacable, inattentive, incorrigible, inflexible, injurious, insolent, intractable, irascible, ireful, jealous, keen, loathsome, maggotty, malevolent, malicious, malignaut, maundering, mischievous, morose, murmuring, nauseous, nefarious, negligent, noisy, obstinate, obstreperous, odious, offensive, opinionated, oppressive, outrageous, overbearing, passionate, peevish, pervicacious, perverse, perplexing, pettish, petulent, plaguy, quarrelsome, queasy, queer, raging, restless, rigid, rigorous, roaring, rough, rude,

rugged, saucy, savage, severe, sharp, shocking, sluggish, snappish, snarling, sneaking sour, spiteful, splenetic, sqeamish, stern, stubborn, stupid, sulky, sullen, surly, suspicious, tantalizing, tart, teasing, terrible, testy, tiresome, tormenting, touchy, treacherous, troublesome, turbulent, tyrannical, uncomfortable, ungovernable, unpleasant, unsuitable, uppish, vexatious, violent, virulent, waspish, worrying, wrangling, wrathful, yarring, yelping, dog in a inanger, who neither eats himself nor will let others La Belle Assemblée, v. 3. p. 73.

eat.

PLUTARCH, in his life of Cato, the censor, speaks of a mule, that, having been long employed in the public labour, was set at liberty, and suffered to graze where he pleased: but the animal, apparently feeling regret at being quite useless, offered himself voluntarily to work, and marched at the head of the laden beasts, as if to excite and encourage them: this noble disposition being observed, it was ordered that the animal should henceforth be provided for life at the public expense.

Collectanea, p. 59.

In the year 1752, an English ship then at Guinea was obliged, on its departure, to leave the surgeon behind, his bad state of health not permitting him to continue at sea. While Murray, for that was his name, remained there in hopes of recovery, a Dutch vessel drew near the coast; put the blacks in irons, whom curiosity had brought to the shore; and instantly sailed off with the booty. The friends of the unfortunate sufferers, incensed at such base

treachery, instantly ran to Cudjoc (a black at whose house Murray lodged,) who stopped them at his door, and asked them what they were in search of" The white man, who is with you," replied they," who should be put to death, because his brethren carried off ours."-" The Europeans," answered the generous host, "who have carried off our countrymen, are barbarians: kill them whenever you can find them. But he who lodges with me is a good man; he is my friend; my house is his fortress: I am his soldier; and I will defend him. Before you can get at him, you shall pass over my body. O, my friends, what just man would ever enter into my doors, if I suffered my habitation to be stained with the blood of innocence?" This discourse appeased the rage of the blacks: they retired ashamed of the design which brought them there; and, some days after, acknowledged to Murray himself, how happy they were that they had not committed a crime, which would have occasioned them perpetual remorse.

Light Reading at Leisure Hours, p. 328.

THE enormous joints of meat which come to an English table are always roasted upon a spit as long as the old two-handed sword; these spits are now turned by a wheel in the chimney which the smoke sets in motion, but formerly by the labour of a dog who was trained to run in a wheel. There was a peculiar breed for the purpose, called turnspits from their occupation, long-backed and shortlegged; they are now nearly extinct. The mode of teaching them their business was more summary