And then, when the darkness had hidden his form,

And vainly he struggled, with hopeless endeavor:

How his shriek reached the shore, with the noise of the storm,

As the water rose high to enshroud him forever.

At length it clos'd o'er him-we heard his last groan,

In the anguish of death, as it roll'd to the shore

How dread! oh how dread! was that low, plaintive moan,

As it came to us mix'd with the tempest's wild roar.

The morn came at last-the sun rose serene,

The tide had gone down, and the tempest declin'd,-
And there where he died was the traveller seen,
Left bare by the waters, and bleach'd in the wind.

G. G. M.

ON MODERATION IN OUR PLEASURES.

From the Persian.

How oft does passion's grasp destroy
The pleasure that it strives to gain;
How soon the thoughtless course of joy
Is doomed to terminate in pain.

When prudence would thy steps delay,
She but restrains to make thee blest;
Whate'er from joy she lops away,

But heightens and secures the rest.

Wouldst thou a trembling flame expand,
That hastens in the lamp to die;
With careful touch, with sparing hand,
The feeding stream of life supply.

But if thy flask profusely sheds

A rushing torrent o'er the blaze,
Swift round the sinking flame it spreads,
And kills the fire it vain would raise.

INSTANCE OF EXTRAORDINARY MEMORY.

ANTONIO MAGLIA BECHI, an Italian, and librarian to the grand duke of Tuscany, was born at Florence, October 29, 1633. Such was the poverty of his parents, that they thought themselves happy in getting him into service of a man who sold herbs and fruit. Here he took every opportunity, though he could not tell one letter from another, to pore on the leaves of some old books that served for waste paper, declaring that he loved it of all things. A neighbouring bookseller, who observed this, took him into his service. Young Magliabechi soon learned to read; and his inclination for reading became his ruling passion; and a prodigious memory his distinguish. ed talent. He read every book that came into his hands, and retained not only the sense of what he read, but often all the words, and the very manner of spelling, if singular. To make trial of the force of his memory, a gentleman lent him a manuscript he was going to print. Some time after it was returned, the gentleman came to him, with a melancholy face, and pretended it was lost. Magliabechi being requested to recollect what he remembered of it, wrote the whole, without missing a word or varying the spelling. He was consulted by all the learned who proposed to write on any subject. a priest, for instance, was going to compose a panegyric on a saint, Magliabechi would tell him every author, to the number of an hundred sometimes, who had said any thing of that saint, naming the very book and page, and the very words. He did this so often, and so readily, that he came at last to be looked upon as an oracle; and Cosmo III., grand duke of Florence, made him his librarian, the most suitable office to Magliabechi's genius. In the latter part of his life, when a book came into his hands, he would read the title page all over, dip here and there in the preface, dedication, and prefatory advertisements, if there were any; and then cast his eyes on each of the divisions, sections, or chapters. After this he could tell at any time what the book contained.

If

Though Magliabechi must have lived a very sedentary life,

yet he attained to the age of eighty-one years. He died July 14, 1714, in the midst of the public applause, after enjoying, during all the latter part of his life, such an affluence as very few persons have ever procured by their knowledge or learning. By his will he left a very fine library collected by himself, for the use of the public, with a fund to maintain it; and the overplus of the fund to the poor. It had been usual for every author and printer to make him a present of a copy of every thing they published.

Though he was not an ecclesiastic, he would never marry. He was quite slovenly in his dress. He received his friends, and those who came to consult him on any point of literature, in a civil and obliging manner; though in general he had almost the air of a savage, and even affected it; together with a cynical or contemptuous smile. In his manner of living, he affected the character of Diogenes: three hard eggs, and a draught or two of water, were his usual repast. When any one went to see him, they most usually found him lolling in a sort of fixt wooden cradle in the middle of his study, with a multitude of books, some thrown in heaps, and others scattered about the floor, all around him; and this his cradle or bed was attached to the nearest pile of books by a number of cobwebs. At their entrance he commonly used to call out to them "not to hurt his spiders."

THOUGHTS ON QUACKS OF ALL DENOMINATIONS. BY M. VOLTAIRE.

PHYSICIANS live in great cities; there are few of them in the country. The reason of this is obvious. In great cities there are rich patients; and among these, debauchery, the pleasures of the table, and the gratification of the passions, give rise to a variety of diseases. Dumoulin, not the lawyer, but the physician, who was a no less famous practitioner, observed at his death, "That he left behind him two great physicians-regimen, and river water."

In 1728, one Villars told his friends in confidence, that his uncle, who had lived almost an hundred years, and who died only by accident, had left him a certain preparation, which had the virtue to prolong a man's life to an hundred and fifty years, if he lived with sobriety. When he happened to observe the procession of a funeral, he shrugged up his shoulders in pity: if the deceased, said he, had taken my medicine, he would not be where he is. His friends, among whom he distributed it generously, observing the condition required, found its utility, and extolled it. He was thence encouraged to sell it at a crown the bottle; and the sale was prodigious. It was no more than the water of the Seine, mixed with a little nitre. Those who made use of it, and were attentive, at the same time, to regimen, or who were happy in good constitutions, soon recovered their usual health. To others, he observed, "It is your own fault if you be not perfectly cured: you have been intemperate and incontinent; renounce these vices, and, believe me, you will live at least an hundred and fifty years." Some of them took his advice; and his wealth grew with his reputation. The abbe Pons extolled this quack, and gave him the preference to the Marischal de Villars: "the latter," said he, " kills men; the former prolongs their existence."

At length it was discovered that Villars's medicine was composed chiefly of river water. His practice was now at an end. Men had recourse to other quacks.

Villars was certainly of no disservice to his patients, and can only be reproached with selling the water of the Seine at too high a price. He excited men to temperance, and in this respect was infinitely superior to the apothecaary Arnoup, who filled Europe with his nostrums for the apoplexy, without recommending the practice of any one virtue.

I knew at London a physican, of the name of Brown, who had practised at Barbadoes. He had a sugar-work and negroes; and having been robbed of a considerable sum, he called together his slaves. "My friends," said he, " the great serpent appeared to me during the night, and told me, that

the person who stole my money should at this instant have a parrot's feather at the point of his nose." The thief immediately put his hand to his nose. "It is you," cried the master, "that robbed me; the great serpent has just now told me so." By this method the physician recovered his money. This piece of quackery is not to be condemned; but, in order to practise it, one must have to do with negroes.

Scipio, the first Africanus, a man in other respects so different from Dr. Brown, persuaded his soldiers that he was di rected and inspired by the gods. This piece of fraud had been long and successfully practised. Can we blame Scipio for having recourse to it? There is not, perhaps, a person who does greater honor to the Roman republic; but how. came it, let me ask, that the gods inspired him not to give in his accounts.

Numa acted better. He had a band of robbers to civilize, and a senate that constituted the most intractable part of them. And proposed his laws to the assembled tribes, he would have met with a thousand difficulties from the assassins of his predecessor. He adopted a different method. He addressed himself to the goddess Egeria, who gave him a code, sanctified with divine authority. What was the consequence? He was submitted to without opposition, and reigned happily. His intentions were admirable, and his quackery had in view the public good; but if one of his enemies had disclosed his artifice, and said, " let us punish an impostor, who prostitutes the name of the god's to deceive mankind," he would have undergone the fate of Romulus.

It is probable that Numa concerted his measures with great prudence, and deceived the Romans with a view to their advantage, with an address, suited to the time, the place, and the genius of that people.

Mahomet was twenty times on the point of miscarrying; but, at length, he succeeded with the inhabitants of Medina, and was believed to be the intimate friend of the angel Gabriel. At present, should any one announce himself at Constantinople to be the favorite of the angel Raphael, who is