that the family where he boarded conducted all their business by his proclama tion of time.

HAD VIRGIL READ THE BIBLE? Virgil says, in his third Georgic: Primus Idumæas referam tibi Mantua palmas. It has been contended, that by these Idumean palms, Virgil means the beauties of Hebrew poetry; and that, in his Pollio, he realized this transplantation, by bor rowing from Isaiah, and other Jewish bards, their applicable passages. The Alexandrian version of the Scriptures was accessible to Virgil.

PROPHETIC DREAM.

In February, 1786, professor Meier, of Halle, was sent for by one of his pupils, a medical student who lay danger ously ill. The patient told his doctor, that he should certainly die, having had warning dream to that effect. I wrote it down, he added, the morning after it happened, and laid it in a drawer, of which this is the key: when I am gone, read it over.

On the 4th of March the student died. Professor Meier opened the drawer of the writing-desk, in wirich he found this

narration:

"I thought I was walking in the church-yard of Halle, and admiring the great number of excellent epitaphs, which are cut on the grave stones there. Passing from one to another, i was struck by a plain tomb-stone, of which I went to read the inscription. With surprise I found upon it my own two forenames, and my surname, and that I died on the 4th of March. With progressive anxiety I tried to read the date of the year; but I thought there was moss over the fourth cypher of 178-. I picked up a stone to scrape the figures clean, and just as I began to distinguish a 6, with fearful pal. pitation I awoke."

Professor Meier related this anecdote in his lectures, as a proof of the influence of the mind in disease; this dream having caused its own fulfilment.

QUESTIONABLE MAXIM.

Dr. Hunter, of York, in his 286th maxim, says: Trade gives narrow notions, but wide possessions. Is this antithesis true? The word narrow is applied especially to two classes of notions: to those which respect pecuniary, and to those which respect religious, liberality. How does trade operate on these points?

If you want to have money given, or money lent, to an individual, or to a public purpose, the gift or the loan is more easily obtained of a tradesman than

of a country-gentleman of twice the pros perty. I appeal to every one who has been concerned in quests for charitable, political, or ornamental purposes. Pecu niary niggardliness is so little the trades man's sin, that the motto of his purse is rather: Lightly come, lightly go."

And now for religious liberality. There are ten tradesmen who will sign a petition for Catholic emancipation, for the repeal of the Test-act, for the naturalization of the Jews, or for withdrawing the Act of Uniformity,to one country-gentleman who will do it. The country-gentleman pros vides for his second son in the church, and is regularly overawed by the learning, and cowed by the alarms, of this ecclesiastic son. The church is always in daus ger in the opinion of a land-owner, and every injustice is to be perpetrated and perpetuated in order to preserve the monopoly of preferment among her sons. In this respect again, land, nɔt trade, gives narrow notions.

Let us conclude Dr. Hunter's maxim to be libellous and unfounded.

PROVIDENTIAL ESCAPE.

The following narration, which occurs in Plott's Staffordshire, p. 291, (folio, Oxford, 1686,) seems to have furnished one of our most popular poets with the fabie of a beautiful ballad.

"Among the unusual accidents that have attended the female sex, I may reckon narrow escapes from death: whereof I met with one justly mentioned with admiration by every person at Leek, that happened not far off the Black Meer of Morridy, which, though famous for nothing for which it is commonly reputed. so, as that it is bottomless, that no cattle drink of it, or birds settle on it, (all which I found false,) yet is so, for this signal deliverance.

"A poor woman was enticed hither, in a dismal stormy night, by a bloody ruffian, who had first gotten her with child, and intended, in this remote inhospitable place, to have dispatched her by drown ing. The same night, Providence so ordered it, there were several persons of low rank drinking in the ale-house at Leek; whereof one having been out, and observing the darkness, and other circum. stances of the weather, said to the rest of his companions, that he were a stout man who would venture, in such a night, to go to the Black Meer of Morridy. One replied that for a crown he would under. take it. The rest joining their purses, said he should have his demand. The bargain being struck, away he went on

bis

his journey, with a stick in his hand, which he was to leave in the earth there, as a testimony of his performance. Coming near the Meer, he heard the lamentable cries of a distressed woman begging for mercy; which, at first, put him to a stand: but being a man of great resolution, and some policy, he went boldly on, counterfeiting the presence of divers other persons calling Jack, Dick, Tom; crying Here! and the like, which being heard by the murderer, he left the woman, and fled; whom the other man found by the Meer-side, almost stripped of her clothes, and brought with him to Leek, as an ample testimony of his having been at the Meer, and of God's providence too."

THE DELuge.

One of your correspondents has twice, I will not say flooded us with the deluge, but foreshown it. There are two poems on the subject, which he should read. Ezra's Poem, commonly called the Book of Enoch, of which a copious account occurs in your Magazine vol. xi. p. 20.

This book was certainly a part of the Jewish canon in the time of Christ, and is the only source of orthodox mythology. (2.) Bodmer's Noah, of which Mr. Collier published a translation sufficiently good to supply materials for transplantation. This book, by referring the Deluge to a comet, happily allies philosophy with scripture.

SHAKESPEARE VINDICATED.

In the year 1270, the provinces of Stiria and Carniola were dependent on the crown of Bohemia. Rudolf, who became king of the Romans in 1273, took these provinces from Ottocar, the king of Bohemia, and attached them to the possessions of the house of Austria. The dependencies of a large empire are often denominated from the seat of government; so that a vessel sailing to Aquileia or Trieste, might, in the middle of the thirteenth century, be correctly described as bound for Bohemia. The shipwreck, in the Winter's Tale, is no breach of geography.

THE GOLDEN FISHES' PETITION:

ADDRESSED TO MRS. S. ENFIELD.

"TWAS night; and soft the moon-beams slept,

Where willows ever-weeping dipt

Their leaves, with silver lined;
STILLNESS, beneath the willow green
Sat, pensive guardian of the scene,
With Contemplation joined.

The eye of every flower was closed,
Each songstress of the wild reposca,
Save Philomel alone;

Whose mellow'd notes came full and clear
On pensive Stillness' listening ear,

Till tears would trickle down. Serenely smooth the placid stream, 'Received unbroken every beam

The moon unclouded gave;
Unnumbered plants, fantastic-wove,
Stood beauteous as a summer grove,
Beneath the lucid wave.
Aurelia, with her fins of gold,
Close to her spotted sides enrolled,

Slept in her oozy shade;
-When lo! in vision dread appears
A fierce gigantic man of years,

With scythe and drag.net clad.
With unrelenting plunge and roar,
He flung his net from shore to shore,
Then, with his scythe of death
Mowed down the forest of the stream,
Disturbed Aurelia's troublous dream,
And almost stopt her breath.

Quick from her broken slumber starting,
Swift through the wave, like arrow darting
She seeks some place of rest;
But soon observing all was still,
That neither drag-net, scythe, nor ill,
Her paradise opprest;

Her palpitating heart composes,
And close beneath a bank of roses,

She waits approaching day;
Resolved to tell her tale of woe,
And pity beg-where Pity's glow

Ne'er beamed one fruitless ray.

Soon seated on the flowery brink,
With Edwin, there to feel and think,
The beauteous mistress sees
With pleased and sympathetic mind,
Along the wave the fishes wind,
Or glide behind their trees.
Soft as the sound of distant fall,
A voice was heard-in name of all

That swimmed and glittered there;
Fair queen, that ownest this loved domain,
"Whose heart in Sorrow's melting strain,
Takes aye a tender share!
Ah! save us from the horrid fate
Prophetic vision has of late
<Denounced against our race;
Ah! save us from the net of death,
Ah! spare our forests underneath,
Rich comforts of the place.

• Beattie's Minstrel.

Here

• Here let us hide from scorching noon,
Thro' groves for food or pleasure run,
And slumber in the shade;
Here with our little fry repair,
To teach them oft our daily prayer:
"Heaven's blessings on thy head."
May disappointment never thwart,
The wishes of thy generous heart,

Thy house be good and great;
But should Affliction's scorching heat,
On you or them intensely beat,

Your's be the safe retreat!

་ The sheltering bower, the cool recess, " The approving mind, the home of bliss, The smile of Heaven's great King; Who reigns with universal sway, Whom men and fishes must obey,. Whom men and angels sing!

IN AFFLICTION.

ROLL on, roll on, ye heavy hours,

And set this heart at rest,

Yet let no selfish thought, ye Pow'rs,

Find place within this breast.
No-patient let me bear the ills,

By cruel men designed;
Nor let their malice triumph o'er
My firm unshaken mind.
My pallid cheek and hollow eye,

To them would pleasure give,
But all their malice I'll defy,

Determined still to live.

When these proud men shall have their turn,
And humbled be in mind,

Then thou poor foolish throbbing heart,
The triumph shall be thine:

Then wilt thou verify the poet's line,

IN IRREGULAR VERSE. PART I.

OH! what is life? a scene of toil and care,

A few short months of sad vicissitude, A wilderness beset with many a snare, An ocean with unnumber'd wrecks be. strew'd.

Toss'd by conflicting hope and fear,

The sport of adverse passions wild;
O'er this rough sea my course I steer,
By Fancy's syren voice too oft beguiled.
She gives the word, and visions fair

Transport the ravish'd mind,
And tempt its swelling powers to dare
The scorn or envy of mankind.
Her voice would fain arouse the soul

To brave the frowning steep that leads to fame,

To burst through every strong control,
And seize some laurel'd name!

Ah, vain illusion of the mind!

As Reason re-assumes her sway,
These towering projects melt away,

And leave the aspiring sout in chains confined.
MONTHLY MAC. No. 207.

In life's bright morning, childhood's tranquil

days,

Fancy first tried her young unpractised

art;

And pouring on my ear the breath of praise, By Hope caress'd, allur'd, and gain'd my heart.

Oh most deceitful, most enchanting pair!
Of all most faithless, and of all most fair!
So oft deluded by your artful wiles,

Why do I call you to my arms?
A dupe so oft to your bewitching smiles,
Why am I still enamour'd of your charms?
Past are the scenes that once deceived!

(Those scenes no more shall I behold,) When my fond youthful heart believed The tales that Hope and Fancy told. Oh what is life? how little to be loved, Denied the purest, sweetest, bliss on" earth!

Allow'd to feel, forbidden to be moved

By all the charms of beauty, sense, and worth.

Yet more to aggravate the pain

That keenly wounds the troubled breast, Led where domestic pleasures reign,

Where social peace resides a constang

guest.

Deeply the spirit sighs these joys to see ;
Unenvious sighs-Such joy is not for me!
Now o'er the rugged path of life,

Slowly I trace my solitary way;
While boding fears provoke a hateful strife,
And hopes deferr'd emit a sickly ray.
Yet, why was placid Sorrow drest

In charms that captivate the mind; And pour into the tranquil breast

A joy that mirth could never find?. Tired with perplexing trifles through the day,

Full oft I feel this fascinating power, Possess my thought'ul bosom while I stray Alone, at evening's sweetly solema hour. Oh! what is life? and wherefore was it given To this frail form, to earth and worms allied?

Child of the dust! why soar my thoughts to heaven?

Vex'd with the low pursuits of worldly

Much as I love the approving smile That sweetly beams from Virtue's eye; Yet dearer far the gentle voice That bids my fainting heart rejoice, Beneath the poison'd scourge of Calumny. Ye favour'd few, to whom are given

The heart and band to war with woe, Go on! oh most indulg'd by heaven!

Unenvied taste the transports ye bestow. My steps unnumber'd ills assail,

Vainly, alas! my hopes arise, Through dull Obscurity's heart-chilling vale My passage lies!

Forward I cast a doubtful gaze

Along the lonely dreary way;

All seems a vast, a wildering maze,

day.

Oh! what is life? a warfare that began

Soon as my infant-being first drew breath; And sin, the source of every ill to man, Will fight within me till I yield to death.

And all the ills I now deplore? When will my spirit rest in peace, A prey to grief and sin no more! (To be continued.)

MR. JONATHAN VARTY'S (LIVERPOOL), for Improvements in the Axle-trees of Carriages.

IN

N making the arm of the axle-tree, Mr. V. divides the bottom-half of the axle-tree into several parts, according to the weights intended to be carried. He then cuts out of the two upper-thirds, supposing the under-half to be divided into three parts, sufficient to take the bearing of those parts; so that the friction and weight rest only on the sixth part of the axle-tree. The bearing part is left larger or smaller, agreeably to the weight intended to be carried. In some cases two or more small rollers are fixed in recesses, cut for that purpose in the bottom of the axle tree. These rollers turn on their own axis in pieces of steel, or other hard metal; and in this case the bottom of the axle-tree must be flattened, in order to throw the weight on the rollers. A groove is then to be made, the length of the arm on the top side, with small holes through the axle-tree to admit of oil flowing through, to supply the axis of the rollers with sufficient moisture. In this case the box or bush must be made with a cap at the point or shoulder, or with caps both at the point and shoulder, to contain oil, as is frequently practised on different principles. The axlc-tree may, however, be supplied with oil through a pipe, nitroduced through the shoulder washer; at the upper end of which pipe, a can, cup,

4

or hollow ball, is to be screwed, to contain the oil. In certain cases, where the box or bush is a fixture, instead of cutting away the axle-tree, the alteration is made in the bottom-half of the box, in the same way as described for the axletree.

When horizontal axle-trees are used, the arm should be of the same size at the point as at the shoulder, and the wheel made perfectly upright, with out dishing.

MR. JOSEPH WARREN'S (AMERICA), for a new and improved Method of splitting Hides, and shaving Leather.

The operation to be effected by this invention may, in the absence of figures, be thus described: There are two cy linders of metal, or other hard substance, fluted or grooved longitudinally upon the surface of both of them, and connected by wheel-work, so as to more together by means of a winch, or any other first mover. These cylinders are set at a proper distance from each other by means of screws, and at each end of the upper cylinder there is a spring, which, by its re-action, causes the said cylinder to recede from the other when the screws just mentioned are turned back, A strait-edged knife is firmly secured in a metallic frame, which, when in its place, can be brought and applied so that the heads thereof shall be disposed in the angular space between the two cylinders, having the said edge parallel

to