Procrastination was his right-hand adviser. Bankruptcy was introduced to him during our stay, and he was not long in scraping an acquaintance with Forgery, who speedily betrayed him to a dungeon. We proceeded, and saw Robbery most pitilessly exert himself on a victim; and, in the hollow of a secluded rock, we saw Murder, relentless Murder. We now entered the city. Here Pride, Pleasure, and Discontent, had been true to their engagements. Riot and Discord spread continual alarm. But suddenly, methought, the sky turned red; the stars appeared to fall from their spheres; the moon was black, and Nature groaned with anguish. The lightning flashed, the thunder roared, and Justice came descending from the skies. Solemnly she exclaimed, 'The nation and kingdom that will not serve me shall perish.' When she had uttered these words, Imagination left me, and I awoke. U. C. K. L'E.

EXTRACTS FROM THE COMMON-PLACE BOOK OF A LITERARY LOUNGER.-NO. V.

IMAGINATION.

THE brain of Paschal was so vitiated by passing his life in the laborious exercises of study, thought, and imagination, that certain fibres, agitated by incessant motion, made him perpetually feel a sensation, which seemed to be excited by a globe of fire being placed on one side of him; and his reason being overpowered by the disorder of his nerves, he could scarce banish the idea of the fiery globe being actually present. Spinello painted the devils expelled Heaven, and gave so fierce a countenance to Lucifer, that he was struck with horror himself; and during the remainder of his life, his imagination was continually haunted with the figure of that demon, upbraiding him with having made so shocking a portrait of him. There are many others, whom the force of genius, too much roused, has for ever hurried beyond the boundaries of truth. Gaspar Barlæus, who was at once an orator, a poet, and a phy

sician, was not ignorant of this danger, concerning which he admonished his friend Constantius Huygens; but being blind with regard to himself, he, by immoderate studies, so broke the force of his sensorium, that he thought his body was made of butter, and carefully shunned the fire, lest it should melt him; till, being at last tired of his excruciating fears, he leapt into a well. Peter Jurieu, formerly famous for his talent at disputing, by his labours in writing books of controversy, and expounding the apocalypse, so disordered his brain, that though he thought like a man of sense in other respects, he was firmly persuaded that the seven fits of the cholic, with which he had been tormented, were occasioned by a constant fight between seven horsemen that were shut up in his bowels.

RAZORS.

The term razor, as applied to the instrument that we shave with, is supposed to be derived from the word raze, to cut or pull down, to leave nothing standing. Razors are mentioned by Homer. Before English manufactures excelled in cutlery, Fosbroke says, razors were imported from Palermo in Italy, or rather Sicily.

NEEDLES.

Stowe says that needles were first sold in Cheapside in the reign of Queen Mary, and then they were made by a Spanish negro, who refused to discover the secret of his art. It will be recollected, that many Spanish artisans came over to England, on the marriage of Philip the Second with the said princess; so that we may fairly suppose the needle to be of Spanish origin. Needles were first manufactured in England in 1566, by Elias Grouse, a German.

RESTAURATEUR.

This term, so generally applied to tavern-keepers in France, and particularly to the cooks, took its name from a Parisian vintner, named Boulanger, the first to supply the public with soups, in the year 1765, placing over his door this verse from the Bible :-Venite ad me omnes qui stomacho laboratis, et ego Restaurabo vos! The bait took such effect, that others in the same line took

his example; and the restorative powers of their aliments, added to the singularity of the invitation to partake of them, occasioned their being distinguished by an appellation, which has since been indiscriminately applied.

EXTRAORDINARY DEATH OF A FLEMISH PAINTER.

Peter Peuteman was a good painter of still life; but the most memorable circumstance relative to this artist was the incident that occasioned his death.

He was employed to paint an emblematical picture of mortality, expressive of the vanity of the pleasures of this world, and of the shortness and misery of human life and, that he might imitate some parts of his subject with the greater exactness, he painted them in an anatomical room, where several skeletons were`suspended from the ceiling, and skulls and bones lay scattered about the floor. Here he prepared to take his designs, and either from some previous fatigue, or the intenseness of his study, insensibly fell asleep. This was on September 18, 1692, when an earthquake, that happened while he was dozing, roused him; and the instant he awoke he perceived all the skeletons in motion, and the loose skulls rolling about the room! Being totally ignorant of the cause, he was struck with such horror that he threw himself down stairs, and tumbled out into the street half dead. His friends took all imaginable pains to efface the impression made on his mind by this unlucky event: explaining the true cause of the agitation of the skeletons: nevertheless his spirits were affected in so violent a manner, that he never recovered his health, but died soon after at forty-two years of age.

ORIGIN OF THE WORD COWARD.

In the Anglo-Saxon times, the business of agriculture was abandoned to slaves or villains, and the lowest office about the farm was then, as now, that of cowward. Hence the reproachful term coward.

GOUT.

Kelly, who was afflicted with the gout, being told that the gout ensured its possessor a long lease of life, replied, If it be so, I am sure the lease is held at a rack-rent.'

THE most remarkable peculiarities of this animal, which is also called the ant-bear, are, a snout so disproportionate that its length makes nearly a fourth part of the whole figure, no teeth, a mouth so small as scarcely to admit the tip of a man's little finger, and a long cylindrical tongue, extending upwards of two feet, part of which he is obliged to bend back when he keeps it within his mouth. At a distance he looks like a large fox, for which reason some travellers call him the American fox, but no fox in the world has so large a bushy tail. It is generally two feet in length, almost flat, and covered on all sides with hair from fifteen to twenty inches long. When asleep he turns it upon his back, which it entirely covers, and it also defends him from the rain, to which he has a great dislike.

The method which the ant-eater adopts in order to procure its prey is very singular. When it approaches the ant-hills, with which the new continent abounds, it creeps slowly forward on its belly, using every precaution to keep itself concealed, till it come within a proper distance. It then lays itself down and thrusts out its long tongue across the path of the ants, and there lets it lie motionless for several minutes. The little busy insects, some of which are half an inch long, considering this as a worm, or piece of flesh thrown before VOL. I. June, 1830.

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them, issue forth, and swarm over it; but wherever they touch, they are immediately entangled in a kind of glutinous fluid, with which it is covered; and when the animal perceives a sufficient number collected, it draws in its tongue, and devours them in a moment. It continues to repeat this experiment till it has appeased its hunger after which, it retires to its hidingplace to repose; and thus the industry of an hour frequently yields it a sufficient supply for several days together.

The ant-hills here alluded to are sometimes five or six feet high, and so abundantly inhabited, as to afford sustenance to one of these animals for a considerable length of time.

When taken young, they are easily tamed and domesticated, when they will eat small pieces of meat, and crums of bread, from the hand, without fear or apprehension: when they drink, it is remarkable that they swallow only a portion of the liquor, while the remainder of it is returned through the nostrils. They commonly sleep in the day, and shift their station at night. Their flesh, though very coarse, tough, and unsavory, is frequently eaten by the native Americans and negroes; it would, however, be more to their advantage to preserve them alive, as the ants, which are very large as well as numerous in these parts, are a very great plague, and do a vast deal of mischief.

This creature is a very bad walker, and its pace is so slow, that a man can easily overtake it: the feet, however, are well calculated for climbing; and it grasps the limbs of trees, or other round bodies, with such violence, as to render it very difficult to disengage it.

Though the ant-eater avoids all its enemies with diligent care, and never provokes a combat with other quadrupeds, yet, when closely attacked, it has strength sufficient to defend itself from a large dog, or even the jaguar, or Brazilian cat. Like the bear, it first annoys its enemy with the claws of the forefeet, which are very terrible weapons, and then, lying down on its back,