edge of the rock, advanced courageously towards 'mournful procession. On the way Wharton the tiger, and struck his sword into the animal's breast. Enraged beyond all measure, the wild beast collected all his strength, and with a violent effort, fixing one of his hind legs upon the edge of the cliff, he seized Wharton by the thigh. That heroic man still preserved his fortitude; he grasped the trunk of a tree with his left hand, to steady and support himself, while with his right he wrenched, and violently turned the sword that was still in the breast of the tiger. All this was the work of an instant. The Indians, Frank, and myself hastened to his assistance; but Lincoln, who was already at his side, had seized Wharton's gun, which lay near upon the ground, and struck so powerful a blow with the butt end upon the head of the tiger, that the animal, stunned and overpowered, let go his hold, and fell back into the abyss. All would have been well had it ended thus; but the unfortunate Lincoln had not calculated upon the force of his blow; he staggered forward, reeled upon the edge of the precipice, extended his hand to seize upon anything to save himself but in vain. His foot slipped; for an instant he hovered over the gulf, and then was plunged into it, to rise no more! suddenly opened his eyes, but instantly closed them again, and lay as immovable as before. Towards evening we drew near our destination, and our Indian friends, when they saw our situation, expressed the deepest sympathy; but the whole tribe assembled round us, and uttered piercing cries of grief, when they learned poor Lincoln's unhappy fate. Yanna, the fair maiden whose heart he had won, burst into tears; and her brothers hastened away, accompanied by some other Indians, in search of the body. I remained with my wounded friend; he still lay apparently insensible to everything that passed around him. Towards morning sleep overpowered me. A song of lamentation and mourning aroused me. It was the Indians returning with Lincoln's body. Yanna was at the head of the procession. I hastened to meet them, but was glad to turn back again, when my eyes fell upon the torn and lifeless body of our young companion. The Indians had laid him upon the tiger's skins, which they had strewed with green boughs; and they now bore him to the burialplace of their tribe. Yanna sacrificed on his tomb the most beautiful ornament she possessed her long black hair—an offering upon the grave of him who had first awakened the feelings of tenderness in her innocent bosom. We gave vent to a shriek of horror, and then for a few minutes there was a dead and awful silence. When we were able to revert to our own condition, I found Wharton fainting upon On the third day, as I sat at Wharton's bed, the brink of the precipice. We examined his he suddenly moved; he raised his head, and wound, and found that he was torn in a dread- opening his eyes, gazed fixedly upon a corner ful manner, and the blood flowed incessantly of the room. His countenance changed in a from the wide and deep gash. The Indians most extraordinary manner; it was deadly collected some plants and herbs, the application pale, and seemed to be turning to marble. of which stopped the bleeding; and we then I saw that the hand of death was upon him. bound up the mangled limb, while poor Whar-"All is over," he gasped out, while his looks ton lay perfectly insensible. His breathing continued fixed upon the same spot. "There was thick and heavy, and his pulse beat fever- it stands!” and on saying these words, he fell ishly. It was now evening, and we were back and died.-From the Danish. obliged to resolve upon passing the night under the shelter of some cleft in the rocks. The Indians lighted a fire to keep the wild beasts from our couch; and, having gathered some fruit, I partook of a meal that was the most sorrowful of my life. No sleep visited my eyes that night. I sat at Wharton's bed, and listened to his deep breathing. It became always more and more hard and deep, and his hand grasped violently, as if in convulsive movements. His consciousness had not returned, and in this situation he passed the whole night. In the morning the Indians thought it would be best to bear our wounded friend back to the village we had left the previous day. They plaited some strong branches together, and formed a bridge to repass the gulf. It was a LAST WORDS. Gane were but the winter cauld, And gane were but the snaw, I could sleep in the wild woods, And cauld at my feet, And the finger o' death's at my een Or my mither sae dear: ALLAN CUNNINGHAM. LIFE. BY PHILIP JAMES BAILEY. Festus. This life's a mystery. The value of a thought cannot be told; But it is clearly worth a thousand lives Like many men's. And yet men love to live, Life's more than breath and the quick round of blood: The coward and the small in soul scarce do live. We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths; We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives It is the dead win battles. And the breath Of those who through the world drive like a wedge, Of sameness. But youth loves and lives on change Yet some will last to die out, thought by thought, Lucifer. The eye dims and the heart gets old and slow: The sun upon the thousand lands of earth. Some smiling-frowning some; their cares and joys CARNATION AND INSECTS. [Sir John Hill, M.D., born 1716, died 1775. He wrote numerous books treating of medicine, botany, natural philosophy, and natural history, besides several dramas and novels. The History of Mr. Lovell, The Adventures of a Creole, and Lady Frail, were his chief novels. He presented a copy of his great work, The Vegetable System, 26 volumes, to the King of Sweden, who invested him with the order of the Polar Star, or Vasa, and he thereafter assumed the title of Sir John.] The fragrance of a carnation led me to enjoy it frequently and near. While inhaling the powerful sweet, I heard an extremely soft but agreeable murmuring sound. It was easy to know that some animal, within the covert, must be the musician, and that the little noise must come from some little body suited to produce it. I am furnished with apparatuses of a thousand kinds for close observation. I instantly distended the lower part of the flower, and, placing it in a full light, could discover troops of little insects frisking and capering with wild jollity among the narrow pedestals that supported its leaves, and the little threads that occupied its centre. I was not cruel enough to pull out any one of them; but adapting a microscope to take in, at one view, the whole base of the flower, I gave myself an opportunity of contemplating what they were about, and this for many days together, without giving them the least disturb ance. Under the microscope, the base of the flower extended itself to a vast plain; the slender stems of the leaves became trunks of so many stately cedars; the threads in the middle seemed columns of massy structure, supporting at the top their several ornaments; and the narrow spaces between were enlarged into walks, parterres, and terraces. On the polished bottom of these, brighter than Parian marble, walked in pairs, alone, or in larger companies, the winged inhabitants: these from little dusky flies, for such only the naked eye would have shown them, were raised to glorious glittering animals, stained with living purple, and with a glossy gold that would have made all the labours of the loom contemptible in the comparison. I could, at leisure, as they walked together, admire their elegant limbs, their velvet shoulders, and their silken wings; their backs vying with the empyrean in its hue; and their eyes each formed of a thousand others, out-glittering the little planes on a brilliant. I could observe them here singling out their favourite females, courting them with the music of their buzzing wings, with little songs formed for their little organs, leading them from walk to walk among the perfumed shades, and pointing out to their taste the drop of liquid nectar just bursting from some vein within the living trunk here were the perfumed groves, the more than myrtle shades of the poet's fancy, realized; here the happy lovers spent their days in joyful dalliance;-in the triumph of their little hearts, skipped after one another from stem to stem among the painted trees; or winged their short flight to the close shadow of some broader leaf, to revel undisturbed in the heights of all felicity. Nature, the God of nature, has proportioned the period of existence of every creature to the means of its support. Duration, perhaps, is as much a comparative quality as magnitude; and these atoms of being, as they appear to us, may have organs that lengthen minutes, to their perception, into years. In a flower destined to remain but a few days, length of life, according to our ideas, could not be given to its inhabitants; but it may be according to theirs. I saw, in the course of observation of this new world, several succeeding generations of the creatures it was peopled with; they passed, under my eye, through the several successive states of the egg and the reptile form in a few hours. After these, they burst forth at an instant into full growth and perfection in their wing-form. In this they enjoyed their span of being, as much as we do years-feasted, sported, revelled in delights; fed on the living fragrance that poured itself out at a thousand openings at once before them; enjoyed their loves, laid the foundation for their succeeding progeny, and after a life thus happily filled up, sunk in an easy dissolution. With what joy in their pleasures did I attend the first and the succeeding broods through the full period of their joyful lives! With what enthusiastic transport did I address to each of these yet happy creatures Anacreon's gratulation to the Cicada: Blissful insect! what can be, Fed with nourishment divine, Dost neither age nor winter know; Thou retir'st to endless rest. While the pure contemplative mind thus almost envies what the rude observer would treat unfeelingly, it naturally shrinks into itself on the thought that there may be, in the immense us as we to the inhabitants of this little flower chain of beings, many, though as invisible to whose organs are not made for comprehending objects larger than a mite, or more distant than a straw's breadth-to whom we may appear as much below regard as these to us. With what derision should we treat those little reasoners, could we hear them arguing for the unlimited duration of the carnation, destined for the extent of their knowledge, as well as their action! And yet among ourselves, there are reasoners who argue, on no better foundation, that the earth which we inhabit is eternal. THE DOGS OF THE REGIMENT. The cannon-thunder booms and roars, The farmer fleeing hearth and home, The prudent miller, as he sees And o'er the fields, where war's fell tide Has ruin spread around, pounds. I now purchased an estate in the country; and my company was much courted The spent ball bounds with slackening speed, by the surrounding families, especially by such And rolls along the ground. And now as slower moves the ball, On murderous errand sped, See two that by the bounding mass To gleeful sport are led. The Regiment's Dogs, 'mid battles reared, Run up to gambol with the ball, They leap with it, and jump about, They tumble over-under it, With pure delight impressed, And labour hard to push it on, When now it comes to rest. Ye who have youthful hearts to lead "That habit second nature is, Is proverb old and true; Great is its power for good or ill Bad habits then eschew." -From the Dutch. THE BASHFUL MAN. BY JAMES SMITH. You must know, that, in my person, I am tall and thin, with a fair complexion, and light flaxen hair; but of such extreme sensibility of shame, that on the smallest subject of confusion, my blood all rushes into my cheeks, and I appear a perfect full-blown rose. Having been sent to the university by my father, a farmer of no great property, the consciousness of my unhappy failing made me avoid society, and I became enamoured of a college life. But from that peaceful retreat I was called by the deaths of my father and of a rich uncle, who left me a fortune of thirty thousand as had marriageable daughters. Though I wished to accept their offered friendship, I was forced repeatedly to excuse myself, under the pretence of not being quite settled: for often, when I have rode or walked with full intention of returning their visits, my heart has failed me as I approached their gates, and I have returned homeward, resolving to try again next day. Determined, however, at length to conquer my timidity, I accepted of an invitation to dine with one, whose open, easy manner left me no room to doubt a cordial welcome. Sir Thomas Friendly, who lives about two miles distant, is a baronet, with about two thousand pounds a year estate, joining to that I purchased; he has two sons and five daughters, all grown up, and living with their mother and a maiden sister of Sir Thomas's, at Friendly Hall, dependent on their father. Conscious of my unpolished gait, I have for some time past taken private lessons of a professor, who teaches "grown gentlemen to dance;" and though I at first found wondrous difficulty in the art he taught, my knowledge of the mathematics was of prodigious use in teaching me the equilibrium of my body, and the due adjustment of the centre of gravity of the five positions.Having acquired the art of walking without tottering, and learned to make a bow, I boldly ventured to obey the baronet's invitation to a family dinner; not doubting but my new acquirements would enable me to see the ladies with tolerable intrepidity; but alas! how vain are all the hopes of theory, when unsupported by habitual practice. As I approached the house, a dinner-bell alarmed my fears, lest I had spoiled the dinner by want of punctuality; impressed with this idea, I blushed the deepest crimson, as my name was repeatedly announced by the several livery servants, who ushered me into the library, hardly knowing what or whom I saw. At my first entrance I summoned all my fortitude, and made my new-learned bow to Lady Friendly; but unfortunately, in bringing back my left foot to the third position, I trod upon the gouty toe of poor Sir Thomas, who had followed close at my heels to be the nomenclator of the family. The confusion this occasioned in me is hardly to be conceived, since none but bashful men can judge of my distress; and of that description the number I believe is very small. The baronet's politeness by degrees dissipated my concern, and I was astonished to see how far good breeding could enable him to suppress his feelings, and to appear with perfect ease after so painful an accident. The cheerfulness of her ladyship, and the familiar chat of the young ladies, insensibly led me to throw off my reserve and sheepishness, till at length I ventured to join the conversation, and even to start fresh subjects. The library being richly furnished with books in elegant bindings, I conceived Sir Thomas to be a man of literature, and ventured to give my opinion concerning the several editions of the Greek classics; in which the baronet's opinion exactly coincided with my own. To this subject I was led by observing an edition of Xenophon in sixteen volumes, which (as I had never before heard of such a thing) greatly excited my curiosity, and I rose up to examine what it could be. Sir Thomas saw what I was about, and, as I suppose, willing to save me trouble, rose to take down the book, which made me more eager to prevent him, and hastily laying my hand on the first volume, I pulled it forcibly; but lo! instead of books a board, which by leather and gilding had been made to look like sixteen volumes, came tumbling down, and unluckily pitched upon a Wedgewood inkstand on the table under it. In vain did Sir Thomas assure me there was no harm; I saw the ink streaming from an inlaid table on the Turkey carpet. and, scarce knowing what I did, attempted to stop its progress with my cambric handkerchief. In the height of this confusion, we were informed that dinner was served up, and I, with joy, perceived that the bell, which at first had so alarmed my fears, was only the half hour dinner-bell. In walking through the hall, and suite of apartments to the dining-room, I had time to collect my scattered senses, and was desired to take my seat betwixt Lady Friendly and her eldest daughter at the table. Since the fall of the wooden Xenophon, my face had been continually burning like a firebrand, and I was just beginning to recover myself, and to feel comfortably cool, when an unlooked-for accident rekindled all my heat and blushes. Having set my plate of soup too near the edge of the table, in bowing to Miss Dinah, who politely complimented the pattern of my waistcoat, I tumbled the whole scalding contents into my lap. In spite of an immediate supply of napkins to wipe the surface of my clothes, my black silk breeches were not stout enough to save me from the painful effects of this sudden fomentation, and for some minutes my legs and thighs seemed stewing in a boiling caldron; but recollecting how Sir Thomas had disguised his torture when I trod upon his toe, I firmly bore my pain in silence, and sat with my lower extremities parboiled, amidst the stifled giggling of the ladies and the servants. I will not relate the several blunders which I made during the first course, or the distress occasioned by my being desired to carve a fowl, or help to various dishes that stood near me; spilling a sauce-boat, and knocking down a salt-cellar; rather let me hasten to the second course, where fresh disasters overwhelmed me quite. I had a piece of rich sweet pudding on my fork, when Miss Louisa Friendly begged to trouble me for a pigeon that stood near me: in my haste, scarce knowing what I did, I whipped the pudding into my mouth, hot as a burning coal; it was impossible to conceal my agony; my eyes were starting from their sockets. At last, in spite of shame and resolution, I was obliged to drop the cause of torment on my plate. Sir Thomas and the ladies all compassionated my misfortune, and each advised a different application: one recommended oil, another water; but all agreed that wine was best for drawing out the fire; and a glass of sherry was brought me from the sideboard, which I snatched up with eagerness; but, oh! how shall I tell the sequel? whether the butler by accident mistook, or purposely designed to drive me mad, he gave me strongest brandy, with which I filled my mouth, already fired and blistered. Totally unused to every kind of ardent spirits, with my tongue, throat, and palate as raw as beef, what could I do? I could not swallow; and clapping my hands upon my mouth, the cursed liquor squirted through my nose and fingers like a fountain, over all the dishes; and I was crushed by bursts of laughter from all quarters. In vain did Sir Thomas reprimand the servants, and Lady Friendly chide her daughters; for the measure of my shame and their diversion was not yet complete. To relieve me from the intolerable state of perspiration which this accident had caused, without considering what I did, I wiped my face with that ill-fated handkerchief, which was still wet from the consequences of the fall of Xenophon, and covered all my features with streaks of ink in every direction. The baronet himself could not support the shock, but joined his lady in the general laugh; while I sprung from the table in despair, rushed out of the house, and ran home in an agony of confusion and disgrace, which the most poignant sense of guilt could not have excited. |