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villages; but having a desire of seeing the world, they forsook their companions and habitation, and determined to travel. Labour went soberly along the the road with Health on her right hand, who by the sprightliness of her conversation, and songs of cheerfulness and joy, softened the toils of the way: while Contentment went smiling on the left, supporting the steps of her mother, and by her perpetual good humour increasing the vivacity of her sister.

"In this manner they travelled over forests and through towns and villages, till at last they arrived at the capital of the kingdom. At their entrance into the great city, the mother conjured her daughters never to lose sight of her; for it was the will of Jupiter, she said, that their separation should be attended with the utter ruin of all three. But Health was of too gay a disposition to regard the counsels of Labour; she suffered herself to be debauched by Intemperance, and at last died in child-birth of Disease. Contentment, in the absence of her sister, gave herself up to the enticements of Sloth, and was never heard of after; while Labour, who could have no enjoyment without her daughters, went every where in search of them, till she was at last seized by Lassitude in her way, and died in misery."

THE SUN AND THE WIND,

The Sun and the Wind once had a dispute which of the two was the most powerful.

The Wind said "Do you pretend to compare with me? Do

not I tear up the tallest trees by the roots? do not I level palaces and towers in the dust? do not I raise the ocean iuto combustion-swell the billows to the size of mountains—and send whole fleets of ships with all their crews, to a watery grave ?”

"I grant" replied the Sun, "these are formidable powers; but they do not equal mine. I open the buds and the flowers, to make glad the heart of man. I cause the grass to grow. Every thing that you see through the whole world, that possesses either vegetable or animal life, owes its health and prosperity to me: were my life-giving influence withdrawn, they would all perish."

As the disputants were in the height of their argument, a traveller happened to pass along, with a large cloak wrapped about his shoulders. His path lay across a vast plain, where there was neither house nor tree that could shelter him from the inclemencies of the weather. The Sun and the Wind both agreed to settle their dispute by a trial on this traveller, which of them could first make him part with his cloak.

The Wind began with a terrible puff, that tore away the traveller's cloak from one of his arms. He, however, recovered his hold, and drew it closely round him. The heavens were now entirely darkened with clouds the day was turned into night the wind raged; he could scarcely keep his feet, or get forward one step, and he almost thought that he must lie down upon the ground, to preserve himself from the violence of the storm. The Wind, besides,

called to his assistance the rain, the hail, and the thunder; I do not know whether that was quite fair-the traveller had a terrible time of it; but, for all that the Wind could do, he only hugged his cloak closer about him.

It was now the Sun's turn to try. He burst out with his refulgent rays, and the clouds were scattered in a moment. Every thing was refreshed. The flowers seemed to smile-the beasts returned to their pasture-and the soft droppings from a few scattered bushes were inexpressibly agreeable: the drops glittered in the sunshine. As the Sun was determined to do his utmost, he made his beams hotter and hotter, till the traveller, who was at first exhilirated with his brightness, began to pant and sweat with the sultriness of the season. He loosened some of his buttons to relieve himself, and threw his cloak wide open. At last, he could bear it no longer; he cast it from him upon the ground; he sat down upon it, to try to cool himself, and the Sun was decisively the victor in the strife.

tion of the river bank, at once I beheld a great number of hillocks or small pyramids, resembling haycocks, ranged like an encampment along the banks. They stood fifteen or twenty yards distant from the water, on a high marsh, about four feet perpendicular above the water. I knew them to be the nests of the crocodile, having had a description of them before.

The nests, or hillocks, are of the form of an obtuse cone, four feet high, and four or five feet in diameter at their bases; they are constructed with mud, grass, and herbage. At first they lay a floor of this kind of tempered mortar on the ground, upon which they deposit a layer of eggs, and upon this a stratum of mortar, seven or eight inches in thickness, and then another layer of eggs, and, in this manner, one stratum upon another, nearly to the top. I believe they commonly lay from one to two hundred eggs in a nest: these are hatched, I suppose, by the heat of the sun; and, perhaps, the vegetable substances mixed with the earth, being acted upon by. the sun, may cause a small degree of fermentation, and so increase the heat in those hillocks. The ground, for several acres, about these nests shewed evident marks of a continual resort of alligators; the grass was every where beaten down, hardly a blade or straw was left standing; whereas, all about, at a distance, it was five or six feet high, and as thick as it could grow together. The female, as I imagine, carefully watches her own nest of eggs until they are all hatched; or, perhaps, while she is atOn turning a point or projec- tending her own brood, she takes

"Learn from this," said the Sun, to his blustering competitor, "that soft and gentle means will often accomplish what force and fury may in vain try to effect."

From this time the Sun was always admitted to precedence over the Wind; and Apollo, the charioteer of this great luminary, ranked among the heathen gods far before Æolus, the ruler of the tempests.

BALDWIN.

ALLIGATORS OF FLORIDA.

under her care and protection as many as she can get at one time, either from her own particular nest, or others: but certain it is, that the young are not left to shift for themselves; I have had frequent opportunities of seeing the female alligator leading about the shores her train of young ones, just as a hen does her brood of chickens; and she is equally assiduous and courageous in defending the young, which are under her care, and providing for their subsistence; and when she is basking upon the warm banks, with her brood around her, you may hear the young ones continually whining and barking, like young puppies. I believe but few of a brood live to the years of full growth and magnitude, as the old feed on the young as long as they can make prey of them.

The alligator, when full grown, is a very large and terrible creature, and of prodigious strength, activity, and swiftness in the water. I have seen them twenty feet in length, and some are supposed to be twenty-two or twenty-three feet. Their body is as large as that of a horse; their shape exactly resembles that of a lizard, except their tail, which is flat or cuneated, being compressed on each side, and gradually diminishing from the abdomen to the extremity, which, with the whole body, is covered with horny plates or squammæ, impenetrable when on the body of the live animal, even to a rifle ball, except about their head and just behind their forelegs or arms, where it is said they are only vulnerable. The head of a full grown one is about three feet, and the mouth

opens nearly the same length ; their eyes are small in proportion and seem sunk deep in the head, by the prominency of the brows; the nostrils are large, inflated and prominent on the top, so that the head in the water resembles, at a distance, a great chunk of wood floating about. Only the upper jaw moves, which they raise almost perpendicular, so as to form a right angle with lower one. In the fore part of the upper jaw, on each side, just under the nostrils, are two very large, thick, strong teeth or tusks, not very sharp, but rather the shape of a cone: these are as white as the finest polished ivory, and are not covered by any skin or lips, and always in sight, which gives the creature a frightful appearance in the lower jaw are holes opposite to these teeth to receive them when they clap their jaws together it causes a surprising noise, like that which is made by forcing a heavy plank with violence upon the ground, and may be heard at a great distance.

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But what is yet more surprising to a stranger, is the incredible loud and terrifying roar, which they are capable of making, especially in the spring season, their breeding time. It most resembles very heavy distant thunder, not only shaking the air and waters, but causing the earth to tremble; and when hundreds and thousands are roaring at the same time, you can scarcely be persuaded but that the whole globe is violently and dangerously agitated.

An old champion, who is perhaps absolute sovereign of a little lake or lagoon (when fifty less than himself are obliged to con

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themselves with swelling and roaring in little coves round about) darts forth from the reedy coverts all at once, on the surface of the waters, in a right line; at first seeming as rapid as lightning, but gradually more slowly, until he arrives at the centre of the lake, when he stops. He now swells himself, by drawing in wind and water through his mouth, which causes a loud sonorous rattling in the throat for near a minute, but it is immediately forced out again through his mouth and nostrils, with a loud noise, brandishing his tail in the air, and the vapour ascending from his nostrils like smoke. At other times, when swollen to an extent ready to burst, his head and tail lifted up, he spins or twirls round on the surface of the water. He acts his part like an Indian chief when rehearsing his feats of war ; and then retiring, the exhibition is continued by others who dare to step forth, and strive to excel each other, to gain the attention of the favourite female.

DESTRUCTION OF BOOKS.

(From Curiosities of Literature.)

It is remarkable that conquerors, in the moment of victory, or in the unsparing devastation of their rage, have not been satisfied with destroying men, but have even carried their vengeance to books.

The Romans burnt the books of the Jews, of the christians, and the philosophers; the Jews burnt the books of the christians and pagans; and the christians burnt

the books of the pagans and the Jews.

The greater part of the books of Origen, and the other heretics, were continually burnt by the orthodox party.

Cardinal Ximenes, at the taking of Grenada, condemned to the flames five thousand alcorans.

The puritans burnt every thing they found which bore the vestige of popish origin. We have on record many curious accounts of their holy depredations-of their maiming images, and erasing pictures. Cromwell zealously set fire to the library at Oxford, which was the most curious in Europe.

The most violent persecution which ever the republic of letters has undergone, is that of the Caliph Omar. After having it proclaimed throughout the kingdom, that the alcoran contained every thing that was useful to believe and to know, he caused to be gathered together whatever books could be found in the wide realms, and distributed them to the owners of the baths, to be used in heating their stoves and it is said that they employed no other materials for this purpose during a period of six months.

At the death of learned Peiresc, a chamber in his house, filled with letters from the most eminent scholars of the age, was discovered. Such was the disposition of his niece, who inherited his estates, that, although repeatedly entreated to permit them to be published, she preferred employing them to other purposes; and it was her singular pleasure to regale herself occasionally with burning

these learned epistles, to save the philosopher. expence of firing.

KING SOLOMON AND THE QUEEN

OF SHEBA.

The power of Solomon had spread his wisdom to the remotest parts of the known world. Queen Sheba, attracted by the splendour of his reputation, visited this poetical king at his own court. There, one day, to exercise the sagacity of the monarch, Sheba presented herself at the foot of the throne; in each of her hands she held a wreath of flowers, one composed of natural, the other of artificial flowers. Art, in the labour of the mimic wreath, had exquisitely emulated the lively hyes of nature so that at the distance it was held by the queen, for the inspection of the king, it was deemed impossible for him to decide, as her question imported, which wreath was the production of nature, and which the work of art. The sagacity of Solomon seemed perplexed; yet to be vanquished, though in a trifle, by a trifling woman, irritated his pride.

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son of David—he who had written treatises on the vegetable productions, from the cedar to the hyssop,' to acknowledge himself outwitted by a woman, with shreds of paper and glazed paintings! The honour of the monarch's reputation for divine sagacity seemed diminished; and the whole Jewish court looked solemn and melancholy. At length, an expedient presented itself to the king, and it must be confessed worthy of the natural

Observing a clus

ter of bees hovering about a window, he commanded that it should be opened; it was opened-the bees rushed into the court, and alighted immediately on one of the wreaths, while not a single one fixed on the other. The baffled Sheba had one more reason to be astonished at the wisdom of Solomon.

SELF-CONSEQUENCE.

There is nothing in the world that a man places so high a value upon, or that he parts with so reluctantly, as the idea of his own consequence. Amidst care, sickness and misfortune; amidst dangers, disappointments, and death itself, he holds fast this idea, and yields it up but with his last breath.

Happy indeed would it be, if virtue, wisdom, and superior abilities of doing good, were the basis of our consequence ; but the misfortune is, we are generally apt to place it in those very qualities for which the thinking part of mankind either hate or despise us. The man of pleasure derives his consequence from the number of women he has ruined; the man of honour, from the duels he has fought; the country 'squire from the number of bottles he can drink; the man of learning, by puzzling you with what you do not understand; the ignorant man, by talking of what he does not understand himself; my lady's woman, by dressing like a woman of quality; and my lady herself, by appearing in clothes unworthy of one of her house-maids.

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