THE LEGEND OF THE ROSF. Το ρόδον το των ερωτων. LADY, one who loves thee well, Sweeter than the Myrtle wreath, I was the Summer's fairest pride, Young Love, rambling through the Found me in my solitude, And trembling to the Zephyr's sighs; The living gem with raptured eyes, Weeping, to his Mother he The loves of the Rose and Nightingale are a frequent theme among the Öriental poets." You may place a hundred handfuls of fragrant herbs and flowers before the Nightingale, yet he wishes not, in his constant heart, for more than the sweet breath of his beloved Rose."-Jami. + CAMDEO, or CA'MA'DE'VA, the Hindoo Cupid, is represented as a beautiful youth, sometimes conversing with his mother and consort in the midst of his gardens and temples; sometimes riding by moonlight on a parrot or lory, &c. bow of sugar cane or flowers, with a string of Bees, and his five arrows, each pointed with an Indian blossom of a heating quality, are allegories equally new and beautiful.-Sir W. Jones. His But, placed upon my slender stem, The poison'd stings she pluck'd from them; And none, since that eventful morn, Has found the Flower without a Thorn. Yet, even the sorrows Love doth send, But more divine enchantments lend: Still in Beauty's sweetest bowers Blooms the Rose, the Queen of Flowers, Brightening with the sanguine stains, Borrow'd from celestial veins,And breathing of the kiss she caught From LovE's own lips with rapture fraught! SONNET. Of love, and love's delight no more I sing, Nor praise Eliza's soft bewitching eye, And sunny locks descending gracefully O'er that fair bosom, like an angel's wing Floating in light. Alas! the joyous string, That breath'd responsive to love's blissful sigh, Ill suits the heart, where hope and fancy die Like flowers untimely blighted in their spring. Yet doth the memory of those gentle days In its fix'd sadness soothe my darken'd mind, And tempt oft-times to meditate the lays In hours of happiness for Her designed.— Whose lovely image, neither fates unkind, Nor time, nor absence, from my breast can raze. SONNETS FROM PETRARCH. "Ne mai pietosa madre al caro figlio,” &c. O ne'er did mother to her son most dear, O ne'er did fond wife to her loved lord, With sighs between each anxious look and word, Counsel so faithful give, in doubt and fear; As she,-who, from her bright eternal sphere, Beholds me wandering through this world abhorr'd; While her heart vibrates to the accustomed chord, And angel eyes, suffus'd in Pity's tear, Express a mother's care, or chastely glow With more than wedded love-as she, tho' high In Heaven, directs me, in my course below, What in Life's wilderness to seek or fly; And only then, my heart has truce with The Eighth Daughter of J. L-g, Esq. last The hopes I most relied on, thwarted, The dictates of the bosom break ;- Who from thy glance could bear to part Cold, and unmoved-without revealing Some portion of the fond regret Which dimm'd my eye when last we met. Sweet bud of Beauty!--mid the thrillThe anguished thrill of hope delayed-Peril--and pain--and every ill That can the breast of man invade-No tender thought of thine and thee Hath faded from my memory! But I have dwelt on each dear form Till woe awhile gave place to gladness; And that remembrance seem'd to charm, Almost to peace, my bosom's sadness :— And now again I breathe a lay To hail thee on thy natal day. Oh! might the fondest prayers prevail For blessings on thy future years Or innocence like thine avail To save thee from affliction's tears, Each moment of thy life should bring Some new delight upon its wing! And the wild sparkle of thine eye,Thy guilelessness of soul revealingBeam ever thus as beauteously, Undimm'd-save by those gems of feelingThose soft luxurious drops which flow In pity for another's woe. But vain the thought!-it may not be !Could prayers avert misfortune's blight, Or hearts, from sinful passions free, Here hope for unalloyed delight, Then those who guard thine opening bloom Had never known an hour of gloom. No;-if the chastening stroke of Fate On guilty heads alone descended, Sure they would ne'er have felt its weight In whose pure bosoms, sweetly blended, Life's dearest social virtues move, In one bright linkless chain of love! Then since upon this earth Joy's beams Are fading-frail, and few in number, And melt-like the light-woven dreams That steal upon the mourner's slumber-Sweet one! I'll wish thee strength to bear The ills that heaven may bid thee share; And when thine infancy hath fled, And Time with woman's zone hath bound thee, If in the path thou'rt doom'd to tread Which smiles the showery clouds away, May Hope--Griet's Iris here below Attend and soothe thee on thy way, Till full of years--thy cares at restThou seek'st the mansions of the blest!Young Sister of a mortal Nine, Farewell!-perchance a long farewell! Tho' woes unnumbered yet be mine Woes Hope may vainly strive to quell I'll half unteach my soul to pine, So there be bliss for thee and thine! October 1817. PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. ROYAL SOCIETY. April 2.-A paper, by Mr Joseph Swan, was read, giving an account of a new method of making anatomical preparations. April 9.-A very important paper, by Sir H. Davy, was read, containing an account of a series of experiments on the combinations of phosphorus with oxygen and chlorine. April 16.-A paper, by Dr Granville, was read, on a particular malconformation of the uterine system of women, and on some physiological conclusions to be deduced from it. On the same evening a paper was also read, by Mr Pond, on the parallax of a Aquila, in which the author relates some late observations which he has made, which cause him to doubt the correctness of Dr Brinkley's conclusions on this subject. April 23.-Dr Wollaston communicated a paper by Dr Andrew Ure, entitled, New Experimental Researches on some of the leading doctrines of Caloric, particularly on the Relation between the Flasticity, Temperature, and latent Heat of different Vapours, on thermometrical Admeasurement, and on Capacity. April 30.-The reading of Dr Ure's paper was finished. May 7.-A paper, by Thomas Smith, Esq. was read, on the peculiarity in the construction of the fangs of poisonous serpents. A paper, by Thomas Greatorex, was also read, on the height of the mountains in the north of England, contained in a letter to Dr Young. His observations were principally directed to Skiddaw, and, by employing what appears to have been a very accurate process of geometrical measurement, he found its elevation to be 3,036 feet 3.5 inches. On the same evening a paper by B. Bevan, Esq. was read, consisting of the results of a registering rain-guage, kept at Leighton, in Bedfordshire, in 1817. We are informed that there were 614 hours of actual rain, that the average rate at which the rain fell was 68 of an inch in a day; the heaviest rain was on June 27, which was at the rate of nine inches per day. May 21.-A paper, by John Pond, Esq. was read on the different methods of constructing a catalogue of the fixed stars. A paper, by Lieut.-Colonel Lambton, was also read, consisting of an abstract of the results deduced from the measurement of an arc on the meridian, extending from 8° 10′ to 18° N. latitude, and in 78° E. longitude, running through Tinnevelly and Bengalore. GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Feb. 20. The reading of Mr Parkinson's paper, on the fossils found from the east of Dover to Folkestone, was concluded. Mr Fraser's notes on the Himalā mountains, accompanying a series of specimens, were read. LINNEAN SOCIETY. Of the papers read in the Society prior to April 21, we can only give the following bare list of titles. Nov. 4, and Dec. 2-A paper was read by the Rev. W. Kirby, entitled a Century of Insects, including several new Genera, described from the cabinet of the author. Dec. 16.-A Description of the Island of Tristan da Cunha, by Captain Carmichael, was read. Jan. 20, 1818.-The following communications were read: per Conclusion of Captain Carmichael's pa Observations on Solanum Tuberosum, and other plants, by A. B. Lambert, Esq, V. P. A letter from the Rev. R. Sheppard on the Ardea Major. A letter from the Rev. J. Skinner of Cammerton, near Bath, on the Coal Fossils in that neighbourhood. A letter from his Excellency De Witt Clinton, on a new species of Triticum, found near Rome, in the United States, Feb. 3.-Observations on Pelecanus Aquila, or Frigate-bird, by Ed. Barton, Esq. Feb. 17.-The continuation of the Rev. W. Kirby's description of new insects was read. March 3.-Observations on the Flora of Tristan da Cunha, by Captain Carmichael. March 17.-The following papers were read: A letter from Dr C. Meryan, on a fish mentioned by Dr Clarke in his travels, and on two others taken on the coast of Syria. Remarks on the genera Orbicula and Crania of Lamark, by Mr G. B. Sowerby. April 7-The commencement of a paper on the poison of fishes, by Dr D. J. H. Dickson, was read. April 21.-The communication from Dr Dickson, on the poison of fishes, was concluded. By the poison of fishes, Dr D. does not mean the serious, and sometimes fatal consequences arising from wounds inflicted by the spines of the sting ray and other species of fish; but those which result from eating certain fish, or parts of fish. The journals of many voyages present us with instances of sickness more or less violent, accompanied by intumescence of the body, and irritating eruptions of the skin, being the consequence of eating certain fish. Often the noxious quality appears to reside in a particular part, especially the liver and intestines, as appears from the circumstance of those persons alone, out of a ship's crew, being thus affected who have eaten these particular parts. It is a matter of common observation, that all fish are more wholesome and a more agreeable food before, than after spawning; the fish, in the former case, being in high health and vigour, but in the latter, being sick, emaciated, and their muscular fibre becoming remarkably flabby. The difference between these two states, which in the temperate European climates seldom amounts to more than a difference in the agreeableness of the fish, considered as an article of foud, often, in tropical climates, causes the same species to be in the one case a wholesome, and in the other case a very pernicious food. Again, certain species, especially in the West Indies, are observed at the same season to be wholesome in certain situations, and very much the contrary in others. Thus all the fish on the coast of Barbadoes are said to be safe food, even those which on the coasts of the other islands are deleterious. Examples also have occurred of a ship on one day falling in with a shoal of fish which proved perfectly wholesome, and on the very next day falling in with a second shoal of the same species which were found to be poisonous The cause of these differences it is not very easy to ascertain. The common test among seamen of the safety or hazard in feeding on any suspected or unknown kind of fish, is to put a piece of silver into the boiler, together with the fish, and if the silver acquires a coppery colour, the fish is considered as unwholesome. The coppery, or rather brassy colour thus produced, has probably been the reason why the flavour of fish in this state has been attributed to copper, with which they have been supposed to be infected by feeding on banks of copper ore. But the discoloration of the silver is probably owing to sulphuretted hydrogen, and it is a well known fact that the drainings of a copper mine are so peculiarly noxious to fish, that many lakes, formerly abundantly stocked, have been entirely depopulated by this very circum stance. Vegetable poisons swallowed by the indiscriminate voracity of this class of animals, have been considered as the cause of the occasional unwholesomeness of their flesh; and Dr Dickson is, upon the whole, inclined to adopt this opinion. LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE. THE Committee of the House of Commons, appointed to investigate the propriety of purchasing the library of the late Rev. Dr BURNEY for the British Museum, in their report strongly recommended the acquisition of so important an addition to the public treasures of literature. They stated that the value of the collection, as estimated by competent judges-Messrs Ellis, Baber, and Smith of the British Museum, Mr Richard Heber, the Rev. T. F. Dibdin, the Rev. J. Cleaver Banks, and Messrs Payne and Evans, booksellers, is L.14,500; but that the proprietor was willing to dispose of it for L.13.500. They therefore recommend the purchase, at the same time suggesting, that the annual grant to the Museum should for the time be suspended or reduced. The recommendation of the Committee has been adopted by the House, and the requisite sum voted for the purchase of the collection. It comprises, among other interesting articles, the manuscript copy of Homer's Iliad, formerly belonging to Mr Townley, supposed to be as old as the 14th century; two beautiful copies of the Greek Gospels of the 10th and 12th centuries; a complete collection of the dramatic literature of Greece, including every fragment and every comment; a series of English newspapers from 1603 to the present time, amounting to 700 volumes; a collection of between 300 and 400 volumes, 4to, containing materials for a history of the stage from 1660 to the present time, and particulars relating to actors and dramatists; and a collection of portraits of actors, authors, commentators, and other learned persons, from the latter part of Elizabeth's reign to the present time, amounting to 7000, of which 5000 relate to the stage. These, as well as many other articles described in the report, are not to be obtained from any other quarter, at least in such complete condition, and some not at all. Supposed Discovery of a Ship near the Cape of Good Hope.-A discovery has been lately made of a quantity of wood in a carbonized state, buried at some depth under the sand, about ten miles from Cape Town. From the appearance and position of pieces of timber, it has been supposed to consist of the frame-work of a large vessel; and as it is at a considerable distance from the sea, and bears every mark of having been in its present position for a very long period, many speculations have been formed concerning it. The evidence on this point appears, however, to be extremely vague and uncertain; and from the specimens of the wood which have been exhibited in this country, which appear to be in the state of brown coal, as well as from all the circumstances of the case, it is probable that it does not differ from the forests, or collections of trees which have been found buried in different situations, in consequence of some of the great revolutions which have formerly occurred on the surface of our globe. The Society of Arts has been for some time engaged in the investigation of various plans for the prevention of forgery. Desirous that the information collected should be as complete as possible, the Committee solicits the communication of plans in furtherance of this important object. It is not generally known that some very curious Memoirs of Lucien Bonaparte were printed in 1815. When, however, they were nearly ready, obstacles to their appearance arose; the publication was suspended, and the whole impression was eventually burnt. An agent of Lucien, it is presumed, indemnified the publisher, and obtained from him the sacrifice of his speculation, and the possession of the original manuscript. By what means this manuscript has again been suffered to see the light, we know not; but it is certain that a London bookseller has obtained possession of it, and that it is immediately to be published. A picture of Lord Guildford Dudley and Lady Jane Grey, in beautiful preservation, has lately been discovered in France, and is now in this country. It was painted by Sir Antonio Moore about 1550. Mr Finch, of Birmingham, has published some facts relative to what he calls a Pseudo-volcano, near the Bradley ironworks, in Staffordshire. The tract of ground is situated by the road-side from Birmingham to Wolverhampton, about half-way between Wednesbury and Bilston. It is mentioned by Plott, in his natural history of Staffordshire, as being on fire in 1686, when he wrote; and he says, that it was not then known how long it had been on fire. It then occupied a space of about eleven acres; but its ravages have since extended about one mile and a half in extreme length, and one mile in breadth. Whether the fire originated in accident, or from the sulphur contained in the coal and pyrites, it is not known; but it probably arose from the latter cause, as, at other pits, the small coal has taken fire on being exposed to the air. As the combustible matter is exhausted, the hand of cultivation requires its labour; and, even in parts where the fire is still, by carefully stopping the fissures, and preventing the access of air, different crops can be raised. A neglect of these precautions sometimes destroys half the produce, whilst the remainder continues flourishing. About two years ago, it began to penetrate through the floors of some houses: it produced great alarm, by appearing in the night; and four of the houses were taken down. It exhibits a red heat in this situation, and the smoke has forced its way through a bed of cinders forty feet in height. On the south it is arrested by beds of sand, which cover the coal formation in that part; and on the north-east it is impeded by cultivation. At first view, a stranger might suppose himself in a volcanic region. The exterior view of the strata, exposed by the falling in of the ground, presents a surface blackened by the action of fire, and presenting most of the porphyritic and trappean colours in high perfection. The cinder-dust on which you tread, the sulphureous vapours and smoke which arise from the various parts of the surface, and the feeling of insecurity which attend most of your footsteps, all combine to give a high degree of interest to the scene. The mineral substances found in this region are:1. Sulphur in small brilliant crystals, also massy and amorphous. 2. Mineral ter. 3. Coal, in some places only four feet from the surface. 4. Sulphate of alum. 5. Muriate of ammonia, combined with a small proportion of sulphate of ammonia. 6. Sulphate of zinc. 7. Sulphate of lime. Porcelain jasper. 9. Newest flætz trap, basalt or rowley-rag. The new German version of Shakespeare by Messrs Vos, the celebrated translators of Homer, Virgil, and other classic poets, is expected to form eight or nine octavo volumes. The first two or three were announced for publication in the month of May, and the work will be completed about the end of 1819. Sir John Byerley, a gentleman admir ably qualified by his various attainments, and by a critical knowledge of both languages, has undertaken a translation of Shakspeare into French. We hail the circumstance as auspicious to the fame of our British Bard, whose works have, by former translators, been so grossly abused and perverted. A member of the university of Oxford has attacked the calendar of this year for having placed Easter a week too early. This arrangement, however, is defended by some German writers, who have proved that the feasts of the calendar are regulated by the cyclical and not the astronomical calculation. Now, according to the for |