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1. The cock-pigeon may stand as a pattern to husbands, of a far more exalted species. This amiable bird does, in his way, give honour and assistance to his wife, as to the more elegant and more tender vessel. During the session of the hen upon her eggs, he has no objection to alleviating the rigours of her confinement, by kindly brooding on the nest, in her stead, as often as want of exercise, or of refreshment, inclines her to fly abroad. Nor will be quit his trust, until his mate's return: when he recommits the future family to her patient and affectionate care. After the young are hatched, he is very diligent in providing for his household. While the female keeps guard at home, he goes to market, or, if you please, sallies out in search of forage: which he distributes, with much impartiality and discretion, among his hungry offspring. Sometimes, the business of seeking provision devolves, by mutual consent, on the hen: in which case, if she happen to tarry out, longer than necessity seems to require, the male bird will go in quest of her; and express his displeasure by a significant chattering, and by mildly chastizing her with his bill. As much as to say: I know how to temper my tenderness, with a few grains of gentle authority. Why are you thus gadding about, and carelessly taking your pleasure, when you ought to be thinking on household affairs, and to be collecting a breakfast, or dinner, for the little folks at home? The female generally takes these conjugal expostulations very patiently and, after softly chattering, for a moment or two, in her own vindication, either pursues the business for which she set out; or flies back to the nest, if her husband chuse to take the office of caterer on himself. When they meet a few minutes after, they salute as affectionately as ever, and all their petty differences are forgot.

2. The swallow is an excellent house-wife, and has an high sense of cleanliness and decency. Hence, as her modest ambition aspires but to one apartment, which serves her

For chamber, and parlour, and kitchen, and hall;

she is very solicitous to preserve it extremely neat and unsullied. She therefore teaches her offspring so to arrange themselves, at certain times, as that every thing indelicate may fall over the outside of the nest, without any annoyance to the purity of the common habitation. The care she takes of her house, is the less to be wondered at, when we remember she was at the pains of building it herself. And her skill, as an architect, is admirable. Aware how much depends on laying a solid foundation, she places

the larger and stronger stubble at the bottom of the intended edifice; and disposes the slenderer and slighter materials upon that. The interstices are plastered up with mud: which, when hardened by the air and sun, is quite inoffensive to any of the senses, and answers every purpose of comfortable warmth. If the season proves so dry, that ready-prepared mud cannot be obtained; she remedies this inconvenience, by dipping the edges of her wings in some adjacent pond or brook, and then, shaking off the drops upon the ground, mixes the moistened dust into mortar with her bill, and conveys it to the place of destination. The style or form of the structure is nearly spherical: which figure is, at once, the most capacious, and the most durable. And she contrives the entrance with so much judgment, as equally to guard against the access of enemies and of cold,

3. If the wisdom and goodness of Providence are so eminent in the endowments of smaller animals; it may be reasonably expected that creatures, of larger size, and whose wants are consequently greater, should discover a proportionable extent of acuteness and sagacity. Hence the wild boar will whet his turks, before a combat: and the bull, when going to encounter an adversary, previously throws himself into such an attitude, either of attack, or defence, as may give him the best advantage over his antagonist. The lion seems to be sensible, that the track of feet so remarkable as his own, would expose him to a double inconvenience: it would serve the huntsman as a clue to his haunts, and put inferior beasts on their guard from coming in his way. The former might be ruinous to his personal safety: the latter would greatly curtail his means of subsistence. To obviate both those difficulties, he sheaths his claws, when he walks on a yielding soil; and contracts his feet into as narrow a compass as he can. This artful precaution frequently sets the hunter at a loss; and betrays many an unsuspecting quadrupede into a false and fatal security. The ichneumon, in order that he may become more hateful and formidable to his natural enemy the crocodile, will roll himself, all over, in mud: which often proves a better defence from the fury of so unequal a foe, than if the ichneumon was armed with weapons, or clad in a coat of impenetrable mail.

The Cretan bees, conscious of their natural inability to fly, with due steadiness and equipoise, when the wind is boisterous, have been observed to clasp a small piece of gravel, on each side, under their wings, that their light and slender bodies, thus judiciously. ballasted, might preserve a due weight, and maintain a power of

self-command. The heights and recesses in Mount Taurus are said to be much occupied by eagles; who are never better pleased, than when they can pick the bones of a crane. Cranes are very prone to cackle and make a noise; and particularly so, while they are flying. The sound of their voice rouses the eagles; who spring at the signal, and often make the talkative itinerants pay dear for their imprudent loquacity. The older and more experienced cranes, sensible of their besetting foible, and of the peril to which it exposes them, take care, before they venture on the wing, to arm themselves, each, with a stone, large enough to fill the cavity of their mouths, and consequently to impose inevitable silence on their tongues.

SELECT SENTENCES.

MANY of our mortifications arise from our mistaking each others propensities and capabilities. We want to make a silk purse from woollen yarn; and to hunt hares upon elephants; and finding this impracticable, we are vexed, and complain. Much of this would be avoided, if we justly considered men but as tools. An instrument, which has not sharpness enough for a razor, may have strength sufficient for a paring shovel; and that which has not hardness enough for an hammer, may have proper weight for a mallet. So that a tolerable judgment upon the different characters of mankind, may help us to work some agreeable or useful end, even out of the worst and coarsest materials.

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“THE business of life is to go forward," says Dr. Johnson : who sees evil in prospect, meets it in his way: but he who catches it by retrospection, turns back to find it. That which is feared may sometimes be avoided; but that which is regretted to-day, may be regretted to-morrow." We should, to be useful, decidedly condemu the indulgence of brooding over circumstances and events that thought cannot mend; because it unstrings the mind; and that once done, it is surprising with what rapidity all its peace unravels itself!-and how much it loses of the power of judging rightly on the mixed condition of human affairs.

METHINKS there is a certain pure and delicate pride, in an ingenuous nature, which tempts it to fall short, even of that praise it thinks is due, and which it languishes to bestow, lest it should be mistaken for adulation.

Q. Z.

Y-VOL. XVII.

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REVIEW OF LITERATURE.

Qui mimet quasi adjuvat.

MISCELLANEOUS.

The History of France, from the Year 1790, to the Peace concluded at Amiens, in 1802. By John Adolphus, Esq. F. S. A. 2 vols. Kearsley. Concluded from Page 33.

As the events which crowd on the pen of the historian, after the death of Louis XVI. render it impossible for us, even in the briefest mode of abstract, to give our readers any general idea of their variety or importance; we shall present them with an extract (which throws an additional light on an event considerably involved in obscurity; and, at the same time, exhibits a fair specimen of Mr. Adolphus's style and reasoning) and close our review of this valuable and entertaining history.

After narrating the siege and battle of Aboukir, and the total destruction of the Turkish army, he proceeds:

"This fortunate achievement terminated the military exploits of Buonaparte in Egypt. The ascendancy of his character, the celebrity of his name, and dextrous application of his talents to the purposes of maintaining his authority, were insufficient to prevent the formation of a formidable party in his own army, who would not be content to see the honour of France tarnished by his wanton barbarities, while the troops seemed doomed to be sacrificed to the pursuit of a 'conquest, which would never be thoroughly achieved, since every new success led only to the formation of more extravagant and diffusive designs. On Buonaparte's return from Syria, the physician, who had refused to administer poison, accused the general, in full assembly of the institute, of treason against the honour of France, her children, and humanity: he entered into the full of details of the poisoning of the sick, and the massacre of the garrison, aggravating these crimes by charging Buonaparte with previously strangling, at Rosetta, a number of French and Copts, who were ill of the plague; thus proving that this disposal of the sick was a premeditated plan, which he wished to introduce int● general practice. In vain Buonaparte attempted to justify himself; in vain he pleaded that he ordered the garrison to be destroyed, because he had not provisions to maintain them, or strength enough to guard them; and that it was evident, if they escaped, they would act against the French, since, amongst the prisoners, were five hundred of the garrison of ElArish, who had promised not to serve again ;* and that he destroyed the sick to prevent contagion, and save them from falling into the hands of the Turks. But these arguments, however specious, were refuted directly; and Buonaparte was at last obliged to rest his

• They had been compelled, in passing through Jaffa, by the commandant, to serve.

elefence on the positions of Machiavel. The members sat petrified with terror, and almost doubted whether the scene, passing before their eyes, was not illusion.

"The spirit of inquiry and resistance thus disclosed, and a conviction derived from the conduct of the troops at Acre, that a time might come when his commands would not be sufficient to secure general obedience, powerfully stimulated him to the accomplishment of the wishes he had always entertained of returning to France. To these motives were added, it is said, others arising from intelligence he had received of the victorious progress of the allies in Italy, and the eager desire he felt to attempt the re-establishment of the ascendancy of France, which the fortune of his arms had so greatly contributed to gain. When Buonaparte had fully resolved to quit his comrades, he prepared for the execution of his project with the utmost secresy, knowing that the slightest suspicion of his design must have proved fatal to him. He ordered Rear-admiral Gantheaume to equip, and keep in readiness for sailing, the frigates which remained in his possession, and to give notice the moment the combined British and Turkish quadron should quit the coast. The desired intelligence reached the general, at six o'clock in the evening; at nine he dispatched orders to those who were to accompany his flight, to hold themselves in readiness to set out at midnight to attend him in a tour in Lower Egypt. They were to meet him, it was said, on the coast; and each was furnished with sealed instructions, not to be opened till the moment of the rendezvous.

"Gantheaume had stationed in the road, at the distance of a league from the shore, two frigates, La Muiron and La Carère; and Buonaparte, having secured the military chest, and left sealed orders for General Kléber, repaired on ship-board, attended by a few confidential followers, leaving the army enraged, surprised, and despondent, to lament the miseries of their situation, and the perfidy of their chief. Among those whom Buonaparte favoured with permission to revisit France, were Generals Berthier, Andreossy, Lannes, Murat, and Marmont; and Monge and Bertholet, two of the savans who had attended the expedition. Their voyage was at first retarded by contrary winds, and was considerably lengthened by the necessity of steering close to the coast of Africa, which was considered as most likely to be out of the track of any European vessels, and least exposed to the dangers of pursuit. At length, however, they reached the port of Ajaccio, in Corsica; and shortly afterwards Buonaparte landed near Frejus, after being chased by a British squadron of superior force.*

"The next events which attended Buonaparte, would seem as if Fortune, in the utmost capriciousness of her reputed divinity, had endeavoured to exhibit to the world a splendid and extraordinary specimen of her power to elevate an individual, in defiance of circumstances, and in contempt of merit. It can scarcely be supposed possible, that a general, abandoning his army in such a situation, without even a pretext of orders, without the means of apprising go

* The events of the Egyptian expedition are derived from the narratives of Berthier and Sir Sydney Smith; the Epitome of military Events; Histoire par Desadoards; Histoire du Directoire Executif; History, &c. by Sir Robert Wilson; Cooper Willyams's Voyage, Dr. Wittman's Travels, and the Gazettes and State Papers.

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