As they were talking, Augustus, another boy, came by, and Hans ran Jaughing up to him, and said,'Only hear, Augustus! Frederick says the moon is no larger than a baking dish.'

The

'No?' replied Augustus. moon must be at least as big as our barn. When my father has taken me with him to the city, I have observed that the dome on the top of the cathedral seems like a very little ball; and yet it will contain three sacks of corn, and the moon must be a great deal higher than the dome.'

Now which of these three little philosophers was the most intelligent? I must give it in favour of the last-though Hans was most in the right, through the instruction of his master. But it is much more

honourable to come at all near the truth, by one's own reasoning, than to give implicit faith to the hypothesis of another.

DR. BASIL KENNET.

The late Rev. Basil Kennet was once chaplain in a man of war; and as his lot was to mess with his brother officers, he found they were so addicted to the impious and nonsensical vice of swearing, that he thought it not becoming his character to continue any longer among them, unless he could prevail upon them to leave it off; but conceiving, at the same time, that any grave remonstrance would have but little effect, he be thought himself of a stratagem which might answer his purpose.

One of the company having entertained the rest with a story agreeable enough in itself, but so interrupted and perplexed with damme! blood and wounds! and such like expletives, as made it extremely ridiculous, Mr. Kennet then began a story himself, which he made both entertaining and instructive, but interlarded it with the words bottle, pot, and glass, at every sentence.

The gentleman, who was the most given to the silly vice, fell a laughing at Mr. Kennet, with a great air of contempt.

Why,' said he, damme, doctor, as to your story, it is well enough ; but what the devil have we to do with your d d bottle, pot, and glass?"

Mr. Kennet very calmly replied, 'Sir, I find you can observe what is ridiculous in me, which you cannot discover in yourself-and therefore, you ought not to be offended at my expletives in discourse any more than at your own.'

'Oh, damme, parson,' said the officer, 'I smoke you; you shall not hear me swear another oath whilst I am in your company.'

INABILITY TO KEEP A SECRET.

Augustus Cæsar entrusted his friend Fulvius with a secret of some moment. He told it his wife-she related it to Livia, and from her it came again to her husband the emperor. The next morning Fulvius, as usual, attended to salute the emperor, using the customary term of Hail Cæsar!' Farewell Fulvius,' returned the emperor, which is what was said to the dying. Fulvius went home, and calling to his wife, 'Cæsar,' said he, knows I revealed his secret to you, and has sentenced me to die.' And you deserve it,' she replied, you ought to have known a woman's inability to keep a secret-but, however, I will go before you.' Having said this she stabbed herself. So much less pain is there to a woman in death, than in keeping a secret.

Original Poetry.

TO ELIZABETH SHELFORD.
Elizabeth! Elizabeth!

I love to hear thy little breath
With those sweet wanton warblings thrill,
Which lead as 'twere the soul at will.
I love to see thy seraph smile,
So fond, so fair, so full of guile;
To see thine eye's bright glance-to see
Thy buoyant, blameless revelrie.

Blossom of hope! I love to see
Thy joy thus innocent, thus free;
To gaze upon thy cherub face,
And with a high-wrought heart to trace
'Mid every feature opening fair,
The image of my lov'd one there.
Yes, e'en that thoughtless sigh which swells
Thy little breast my love propels.

Oh, may'st thou never, never know
The anguish of the torn heart's throe;
Oh, may'st thou never, never feel
The pangs of disappointed zeal;

THE SEA SHORE.
Eve closes o'er as fair a scene
As mortal eye might wish to greet;
The world of waters spreads serene,
And murmurs music wild and sweet.

I wander on the darkening shore,

The harmless waves my pathway sweep; One lonely sail skims distant o'er

The surface of the eternal deep. Oh, God! how beautiful! how grand The wonders of this solitude! How, at the still, yet stern command The spirit bows, becalmed-subdued! How exultation sinks to rest;

How passion dies before the spell; How human feelings fly the breast; And tears, nor joys, nor sorrows, swell.

And this, indeed, were bliss to me,

If one fair hand were press'd in mineThou star that shin'st in memory,

When all beside have ceased to shine; Even here thy calm and lovely light,

Where all to me is strange and wild, Still holds its influence pure and bright, By change and wonder unbeguiled.

No, no, though all of loveliness,

Where'er it turns, allures the eye, It cannot make thy beauty less,

Nor wake one faithless smile or sigh. With one bright hue too deeply dyed, By others e'er controlled to be, This heart all themes of joy beside, Tints with the passion'd thought of thee. Giulio.

MIRTH. -Sweet Mirth, thou art approv'd by all; By God and man. Thou'rt courted as the balm

Of ev'ry care, the smoother of each sorrow.

enamelled with the richest scented flowers, the birds of rainbow plumage mingled with man, of whom they had no reason to be afraid.

One night a dreadful storm came, and after the desired morning arose, to the horror of those on shore, the ship was not to be seen; whether she had been dashed to pieces on the rocks, or driven out to sea, their situation was equally hopeless, for they could not expect that thirty sickly hands could navigate a sixtyfour gun ship, but that she must perish.

The Commodore, whose motto was 'nil desperandum,' cheered up the men, and the long boat fortunately being on shore, they proceeded to deck her as a sloop, and try to make some inhabited place, even though it belonged to a Spanish enemy.

Three weeks of toil and regret had passed away, when the carpenter declared the long boat could not be made sea-worthy for one half of the crew to venture in, and all was despair. The man on the look out suddenly, at this awful period, called out,

a sail! a sail !'

The long-boat, such as she was, they instantly launched, and as many men as could crowd into her, approached the ship, which evidently was striving to reach the island, but could not, for her sails were all split, and she appeared a sinking wreck on the ocean.

Judge of their surprize, when they found it was their own ship; the gallant fellows on board had made shift to set some sails, and instead of bearing away for their own safety, beat up to Tinian, to save their shipmates: three had died of fatigue, and the remainder were obliged to be lifted out of the ship and carried on shore; they had suffered greatly-very little provision was on board, and neither spirits or wine; if the wind had not changed

and driven to the island, in twentyfour hours they must all have perished.

It is pleasing to observe that these gallant fellows met with their reward the ship being well-fitted and stored, and the crew recovered, they sailed and captured the Spanish galleon, for which every man received £800 prize money, and a pension from Government.

When the seas roll over the fair island of Malentis, and the sands of a poisonous desert occupy the site of Ninevah and Babylon, we would be foolish to enquire from what cause the isle of Tinian has, in less than a century, become a barren waste-all its verdure, its fruits, and flowers, and trees, have vanished, as if smote by fiery tempests-and it is now only resorted to by ships who may be in want of water, 'Sic transit gloria mundi.'

In the year 1784, a Scotch vessel bound to the whale fishery, was driven upon the western promontory of this faded isle, and dashed upon the rocks, where she was shivered to atoms. There were on board of her two young men, brothers in infancy their hopes and fears' were simultaneous, and at mature years they always sailed on board the same ship, having made choice of the sea for a profession, which then often led adventurers to sudden riches. They were on board this ill-fated vessel, and when she scattered her fragments amongst the boiling waves, they assisted each other, and succeeded in getting upon the wreck of a mast. For a whole night they were driven about at the mercy of the ocean; one wave would drive them towards the land, and the recoiling surge propel them again far away.

They were often washed from their hold, and recovered it againthe younger brother assisting the elder, who was hurt in his body by

the falling of the ship's wreck. At length, a heavy swell of the foaming surge drove them round a rocky point, and threw them, still clinging to the mast, lacerated, faint, and bleeding, upon the beach.

A gleam of hope, like a sun-beam in a wintry day, roused up the bold spirit of the younger,-he assisted his poor exhausted brother from the mast, and laid him just out of reach of the waves-his strength would not allow him to do more, and only the force of affection braced his slackened nerves to do thus much. He raised his hands to heaven and returned thanks for their escape, with that fervent and grateful adoration all men cherish towards providence when almost miraculously saved from peril and death.

His poor brother also, with dim eyes, raised his hands as he lay extended on his back, he attempted a prayer-no speech escaped him

it died away in murmurs on his pallid and quivering lips-his arm fell down-he cast a look on his brother—the hectic flush of love for the last time coloured his cheeks, and were instantly succeeded by the pale horrors of death that settled on his features he struggled, never to struggle again.

To describe the agony of the survivor is a task not to be fulfilled; alone on a desert island, he expect ed soon to follow his departed spirit

To a happier shore, Where peril, pain, and death, are felt no

more.

His knife was in his pocket, and after refreshing himself with the tasteless fruit of the prickly pear bush, he cut down its branches, which, sharpening to a point, he made use of to dig a grave beneath the shelter of a rock, in which he deposited the beloved remains, and watered the sod with bitter tears:

One day, gazing from the cliffs as usual with hopeless eye, he saw to the bay with palpitating heart a sail approaching, and hastened and tottering steps. The vessel had anchored, and when the sailors had landed they thought him a wild animal, so much was he disfigured, and totally naked: he had been eighteen months on the island, and every trace of humanity had faded from his once manly face and form. Overpowered by his feelings, he fainted on the beach; the sailors tenderly conveyed him on board, where

he found

A home to rest, a shelter to defend, Peace and repose, a Briton and a friend.

restored to health, and the rudest In a few days he was partially sailor melted with pity at his mournful tale; he got safe home to his native land, but before he left the spot carved on the surface of the rock his brother's name and the cause of his death.

Not a vessel to this period ever visits the island, but the crew proceed in procession to pay a visit to the Mariner's Grave.

IN DEFENCE OF SNUFF. When I squeeze powder up my nose, Why should you my whim oppose? Since you confess your gains arise From throwing dust in people's eyes.