SONG, IN IMITATION OF THE OLD WRITERS. Things common are not sought. [From the same.] I LOVE the sun that shines on every flower; I love the flower that gives to all its sweets; Sweet the wan breeze that woos each waving bower: But did the sun by day and night aye warm, And did the warm breeze breathe through all the year, Nor very bright or sweet would they appear. And if those lips a thousand sweets disclose, They say my heart is cold, And never has for lady sigh'd; They say I'm solitary, and grow old Without a lover's joy, or father's manly pride. And let them say their will, And call me names, with scornful jeer; By heav'n, there's not a man among them still, VOL. VII. 69 How could I ask a maid To leave her high, ambitious aim, And share with me the dull and humble shade, I dont prefer to live A solitary in the crowd; Let me enjoy the smile a wife can give, When love performs the half of what it once has vow'd. But, O! avert from me The disappointed husband's sigh, Who finds too late, that woman's constancy Scarce lasts till other charms seduce her wand'ring eye. O, no, I cannot sue, For neither rank nor wealth is mine; The thought of thee, my girl, would pierce me through, NURUZ; OR THE LOVES OF THE ROSE AND THE NIGHTINGALE. [From the Asiatic Journal.] The following jeu-d'esprit has a reference to The Loves of the Rose and the Nightingale, an eastern allegory, founded on the reputed fondness of the bird for that flower in the vernal season. THE Nightingale a sonnet owes Where Echo, hid in thicket nigh, The youthful flowers, in spring-robes drest, DOMESTIC LITERATURE AND SCIENCE. A continuation of Burke's History of Virginia, by L. H. Girardin, Esq. is in the press. Mr. Burke's work, consisting of three volumes octavo, brings the history of Virginia, from the first settlement of it as a colony of Great Britain, to the year 1775. Mr. Girardin's work, which will form a large octavo volume of about eight hundred pages, will bring the history of that state to the peace of 1783. He is collecting materials for a separate work, which will be the sequel of the one last mentioned, and continue that history to the peace of Ghent. Doctor V. Seamen, of New York, bas published a discourse upon Vaccination, with remarks on the occasional prevalence of the small pox, and the measures necessary to prevent it. Mr. John Mellish has issued proposals for publishing by subscription, a six sheet Map of the United States, and contiguous British and Spanish possessions. This work will be accompanied by A statistical account of the United States, with topographical tables, and tables of distances; to which will be added, A description of the British and Spanish possessions. The price of the Map and Description to subscribers will be $10, payable on delivery. Eleazer Early has issued proposals for publishing Daniel Sturges's Map of Georgia, from actual survey. This map is stated to have been prepared with great labour and care by Mr. Sturges during the period of fourteen years in which he held the office of surveyor-general of Georgia. The map is so constructed as to give a view of the adjacent countries, particularly that part of South Carolina bordering on the state of Georgia, that part of the Mississippi territory which was the seat of the war with the Creek Indians, and a considerable portion of the Floridas. The price of this map to subscribers will be ten dollars. Darby's Map of Louisiana and the adjacent country is in the press. Wells & Lilly, of Boston, have republished Rhoda, a novel, from the London edition. "We have seldom," observe the critical reviewers, "had an opportunity of noticing a novel possessing such claims to approbation as the volumes before us. We deprecate the injurious consequences too generally produced in the female mind by this species of reading. But the work we are about to introduce to the attention of our readers, is not merely exempt from the ordinary objections preferred against publications of this description, but presents such numerous excellencies, and illustrates so sound a moral, that we recommend it to the perusal of all our female readers; particularly to those whose pretty faces and fascinating manners become dangerous possessions, from being the allies of vanity, irresolution and frivolity." After giving a general view of the incidents and characters, they conclude thus: "We have traced the leading outlines of this novel. The story conveys an instructive moral; and is related in language perfectly suited to this description of writing. The characters are all well drawn. That of Rhoda is a very just delineation of the weak and wavering disposition of a young female placed in so embarrassing a situation, moral rectitude on the one hand, and seductive pleasure and glittering ambition on the other. The follies and manners of fashionable life are faithfully described: and these again are well relieved by some ably conceived characters, in whom the beauty of virtue shines forth with resplendent freshness; forcibly impressing upon the worshippers of fashionable depravity the meanness as well as the criminality of their adoration." M. Correa de Serra is now giving a course of lectures on botany to the ladies and gentlemen of this city. 549 The publication of Mr. Cobbett's Weekly Political Register, in the United States, commenced on the 21st ultimo, at New York. The first number pub. lished there was No. 1. vol. XXX. written in England, on the 6th of January last. The work is to be continued weekly, as nearly as possible, and to consist partly of Mr. Cobbett's essays, which have been published in the corresponding numbers in England, with the addition of notes; but chiefly of original matter from the same pen, sent out from England in manuscript. FOREIGN LITERATURE AND SCIENCE. The following article has in it something extremely whimsical. The notion of a musical instrument five hundred feet in length, seems all but ridiculous; and yet if these wires really are affected by variations in the atmosphere, why may they not be rendered musical by means of proportionate length, thickness, composition of metal, or combination of metals? To say the least, the vigilance of such an instrument would be incessant. A man might lie in his bed, and receive notice by a recitutive of a change in the weather: he might gather from the sprightly tones of his monitor, better than from any watchman, the beautiful morning about to break on him; or he might infer from the melancholy tones of his wires, the probability of a wet day, and provide himself with clothing accordingly. What else?-let the reader surmise. "Not only animals and vegetables, but mineral bodies also are affected by the changes of atmospheric temperature. Metals are well known to expand or contract by such alteration; and in the 75th volume of Philosophical Transactions, general Roy has shown that the expansion of the steel pendulum of a clock is such, that every four degrees of the thermometer will cause a variation of a second per day in the going of a clock. Brass will be absolutely altered in ́its nature, merely by being suspended in a damp atmosphere. Madame Roland describes a very singular kind of harp, which she saw in a garden of M. Haz, letter. press founder at Basle, in Switzerland, which must have been made on this principle of expansion. It is composed,' she says, 'of fourteen wires closely disposed, fastened at one end to a pavillion, and at the other end to a wall at the extremity of the garden, and at the distance of about five hundred feet. The variations of the atmosphere excite the vibrations of these wires, and make them sound in a singular manner. In settled weather, constantly fair or constantly rainy, the instrument is silent. If any change is to happen; if any distant storm is rising, of which no appearance is yet perceived; if contrary winds are ready to contend for empire; the aërial music begins, and thus announces the revolu tions of its elements sometimes twenty-four hours beforehand.'” Benevolence.-Bible Society. The following extract shows that the plan and principles of modern Bible Societies are by no means absolute novelties, or things before unheard of:—why such benevolent institutions were not continued? is another question. The London Journal, Saturday, Feb. 24, 1721. "Our Petersburgh letters make mention, that the czar of Muscovy, has given orders for printing the Old and New Testament in the Russian language. The edition is to be made at Amsterdam, and a fair side left against every page for theological remarks, to be therein inserted by such divines as shall be ap pointed for that purpose. Each family is to buy one of these bibles, and some are to be sold at a moderate price, for the use of the poor. Would every prince fal low so laudable an example, and give their subjects a right to think for themselves in religious matters, the Romish communion would be greatly lessened, by there being but few left to believe the absurd doctrine of transubstantiation." Antiquities. Vienna, January 13.—The part of Istria belonging to the government of the Littorale, forming a part of Illyrium, and since the time of Augustus joined to Italy, contains numerous monuments of that brilliant period of the Roman empire, particularly in the formerly flourishing, now decayed town of Pola, and in the neighbourhood of Triest. The remains of the Roman amphitheatre at Pola have been frequently described, but insufficiently. Marshal Marmont set some workmen to dig round it, which procured some information respecting this monument of antiquity; but it was reserved for Mr. Peter Nobile, architect at Triest, to proceed so far this summer that as much has been discovered under ground as was before above it, and to prove the possibility of clearing the whole of this magnificent building from the rubbish, he has also, out of zeal for the arts, uncovered more of a temple of Augustus, and of a Roman gate, at Pola, and secured them as far as possible, in order to give the friends of antiquity a complete work upon the subject. The same Mr. Nobile has also drawn from the rubbish and from oblivion, the admirable aqueducts in the territory of Triest, that are also of Roman origin. He has set people to dig in above thirty places, and has discovered the whole line of the aqueduct from Triest to the source which supplied it with water. His imperial majesty has granted Mr. Nobile three thousand silver florins to continue the digging out of the Roman antiquities at Pola, and an equal sum to examine farther the antiquities in the neighbourhood of Triest. Government of Egypt. One of the best proofs which could be offered, perhaps, of the superior stability of the present government in Egypt to that of the Mamelukes which preceded it, is, that during the two years absence of the present Pasha in Arabia, accompanied by all the male branches of his family as military commanders, and nearly the whole of his army, the most perfect and undisturbed tranquillity has prevailed throughout the whole of the country, from the sea coast of the Delta, to the cataracts of the Nile; while it is known that under the government of the Mamaluke beys, the banks of the river were divided at every fifty miles into districts commanded by Arab sheiks and petty chieftains, continually at war, as well as that the reigning bey dared scarcely quit the citadel of Cairo before insurrection and tumult followed. The travels of Norden, Pocock, Niebuhr, Volney, and Savary, with all the still earlier writers on that country, give a picture of constant and general anarchy, and represent it as almost impossible to quit the banks of the river, or the edge of cultivation without being robbed and plundered, while the dress of a Christian was sufficient to draw down the insults of the lowest orders on the individual who wore it. At this moment, on the contrary, tranquillity and safety every where prevail; deserts are now passable, unattended and unarmed, which were not then to be crossed in safety without a large military escort, and the dress of an European has become the surest passport to obtain accommodation, protection, and respect. FRANCE. Points of public instruction and education. 1. That religion should form the essential basis of education. 2. That colleges and boarding-schools should not only be under the superintendence of the local authorities, but under that of the archbishops and bishops, who should have power to reform the abuses they may discover therein. 3. That the bishops should be empowered to augment the number of seminaries in proportion to the deficiencies of religious instruction, and the resources of the population and the dioceses. |