" Extracts from the Portfolio of a Man of Letters. THE THE NAKED GOSPEL. HE Naked Gospel, a Socinian book of the last century, is ascribed in Atterbury's Remains to Dr. Bury, of Exeter College, who was ejected for this act of heresy. CERVANTES' WIFE. In 1584, Cervantes married Dona Ca. talina de Salazar, who brought him a fortune of near 60%. sterling (equal to 150l. or 2001. at present), which, according to the inventory, consisted of a vineyard, a garden, and a plantation of olive and almond trees, estimated at 371. and the remainder of household furniture, and the following articles, which may be inserted as matters of curiosity: 414419 2. 8 9 9 5 5 potent a conclusion; unless the pressing demand for representation had induced the author to use the new that was ready with the old that was known. BALTHAZAR MONCONYS. Monconys visited England in 1663, He had obtained the first introductions, with his pupil the duke of Chevreuse. was presented at court, and frequented the elevated circles. On his return to pied only two months. France he published his tour, which occu observance of Sunday. He describes a He notices already at Dover the strict danced first with his queen and then with ball at court, in which Charles the Second his mistress, Lady Castlemaine. The room was ill lighted with silver sconces. He attended a meeting of the Royal 14 0 Society, called on Hobbes and on Boyle. He dined with the Earl of Manchester. The first course consisted of eight dishes of roast meat, fowl, and boiled joints, with soup or pottage in the middle. The second course offered removes of smaller 3 size, pastry, fish, stags' tongues, and game. The third course, or dessert, offered sweet-meats and fruits. 2 C 8 ༤༤ 0.10 0 8 This fortune was to remain at her own disposal, and Cervantes settled on her 100 ducats, or about 12. being one tenth of all he possessed, which thousand ducats would at present be equivalent to between three or four hundred pounds sterling. coming to any decision: when the death of the culprit terminated their proceed. ings. The advocate Pelisson wrote a skilful defence of Fouquet, who was no doubt a defaulter, but who was pursued with a jealous and intolerant animosity by Colbert. Lafontaine, the fabulist, honourably adhered to the adversity of a nobleman who had done him service. The elegy on Fouquet's commitment, which begins, Remplissez l'air de cris, Dans vos grottes profondes, though not so fine a composition as Pope's APPARITION. Baronius relates, that the Platonist Marsilio Ficino made ан agreenient with bis friend Michael Mercato, that whichever died first should appear to the survivor and let him know the nature of the other world. Ficino died first. Not long after, Mercato heard a voice calling ‚to him, and, looking up, saw his friend Ficino sitting on a white horse; but, on Mercato's eagerly pronouncing his name, the spectres disappeared. This is a case of internal apparition, of imaginary visi on, well attested, and quite probable. DIVORCE. Aulus Gellins says, (l. iv. c. 3) that the first example of recorded divorce among the Romans was given by Canilius Roga, who, in the year 523 after the foundation of the city, repumated Ins wife for sterility. This the censor approved; and thus the precedent became law. The In the course of time other such expe. riments were tried with success. taking of priests orders, the captivity of a husband who had been absent five years, the notoriety of mental infirmities in either party, the sodomy of the busband, or the adultery of the wife, became legal grounds of divorce. These laws were too lax, and produced a licentious morality. The Christian clergy inveighed against them, but adopted an opposite extreme: Saint Augustin introduced into the Catholic church the absolute indissolubility of marriage. Our English laws partake more of Ca tholic severity than of Pagan looseness, and are stricter than those of the continental Protestants. Some inconveniences are felt. In all our sea-ports there are wives of sailors who are driven to lead immoral lives, because a five-years' deser tion does not dissolve the marriage tie. There are frequent cases of confirmed insanity, which surely ought to liberate the parties from each other. There are indelicate cases which might perhaps most expediently be veiled under a law for conceding all the privileges of widowhood after a five-years' desertion of his home by the husband, The absurdest of all causes assigned for divorce is perhaps that made choice of in the case of Audovere, wife of Chilperic, king of France. This queen was put away for having been godinother to her own child, which she was well enough to carry to the font. SIMILE. Talking with a fool is like walking with he is always to stop for. a cripple; FAMILY OF CERVANTES. In 1605, a gentleman was murdered in the street in which Cervantes resided, and, in consequence of the inquests which were made, we learn that in the apartments which were occupied in one of the houses in that street, there lodged Miguel de Cervantes, aged 57; Dona Catalina, bis wife; Dona Isabel de Saavedra, his natural daughter, spinster, 20 years of age; Dona Andrea, his sister, twice a widow, above 50 years old; her daughter, aged 28; Maria Cevallos, their only servant, aged 18. Cervantes, his daughter, his sister, and her daughter, were sent to prison, but the next day they were all released upon bail, although confined to their own house, from which confinement they were soon liberated. FERBER. The Courlander, John Jacob Ferber, published in 1776, at Mietau, an Oryctography of Derbyshire. This book contains a remarkably neat Mineralogical Survey of the Peak and its Neighbourhood. The author gives great praise to a watchmaker in Derby of the name of Whitehurst, and to a land-surveyor, or geo. grapher, of the name of Burdett, who facilitated his deep researches. He was introduced to Whitehurst by Dr. Franklin. An attached Vocabulary, which gives the German nomenclature of our English terms of art, remains useful to those geological inquirers who read the German mineralogists. FRENCH GENDERS. Some words in French are at the same time both masculine and feminine. An instance occurs in the name of the pusserculus nucis. The Frenclf dictionaries teach us to write, Un friquet male: and also une friquet femelle. ORIGINAL ODE, ORIGINAL POETRY. TO THE SONS OF BRITAIN AND AMERICA. Occasioned by the Commencement of Hostilities; By the REV. JOHN BLACK, Woodbridge. SONS of COLUMBIA, sheathe the sword! And BRITAIN stay thy vengeful hand! What profit can dire War afford? Why thus with hostile banners stand? Ah! think, if War spread wide his flame, Yet tears for each fill some fond eye! His might amidst the field's alarms; Reflect, how Commerce must decline, And in one language worship Heav'n: By hellish Hatred madly driv'n? Encroach not on each other's right, Let Justice lift aloft her scale! THE BROKEN VOW; When sweet roses cease to blow, But the youth has ceas'd to love! sky; The teeming earth, exerts her genial po w'rs, When youthful Spring salutes the cheer- And soft Favonius wakes his balmy gales, Pierc'd by thy flame, gay birds in every bow'r Feel thy approach, and hail thy sacred pow'r; Rapt into bliss by thy inspiring charms, O'erspreads the mountains and pervades the dales, The bow'ry mansions of melodious birds, And all things renovates from age to age. obey, Whose smiles from chaos called primæval day; Thee I invoke: possess me while I sing: to grace With all endowments to adorn his race; Armipotent, sole arbiter of wars, Bound by the eternal wound of love, reclines Tastes thy ambrosial lip, and sinks in joy. IIAIL, native vale! still to my bosom dear: Dear as the stream that mantles round my heart, Where Nature's complicated charms appear; Sad was the task from thy lov'd scenes to part. "Twas there the soul's primæ val spark I drew, First woo'd the Muse in the ambrosial grove, ON THE ROSE; Translated from the Greek of Anacreon. SONS of Joy! ere day's beam cluses Its refulgent course above, We'll crown Bacchus with the roses Of the beauteous God of Love. Let us now their garlands blooming Round our locks and temples twinez Whilst with smiles the bowl illuming, Here we quaff the nectar'd wine. Rose, bright gem of ruby splendour! Thou art Flora's darling care; Rose! thy od'rous leaves unfolding, With the Grace's band in hand. To thy temple then I'll go, And thy praise, in lofty measure, From my golden lyre shall flow. There, whilst thick o'ershadowing roses Round me wreath their chaplets gay, With my nymph, till evening closes, I will dance the hours away. Φίλος Διονύση. PATENTS PATENTS LATELY ENROLLED. Communications of Specifications and Accounts of New Patents, are earnestly solicited, and will always command early Notice. MR. GEORGE DOLLAND'S, (LONDON,) for E shall give an account of this in pended in gimbals as usual, with the addition of a spiral spring to each axis: these springs relieve the compass when any sudden or violent motion of the ship takes place. The compass card is so W words of speci- as to its vibrating fication, which are as follow:-" It illu minates the compass by prismatic reflection; it applies a lens between the eye of the steersman and the compass, by which the compass is magnified, and it adds springs to the compass. First there is a lantern composed of metal, to which is applied a prism: this lantern contains a lamp of the usual construction, and the prism reflects the light upon the face of the compass: the form and position of the lantern and prism can be varied, as circumstances may require. Secondly, the lens that magnifies the compass must be of such focal length as not to confine the steers nan to a fixed distance. Thirdly, the card of the compass is so constructed as to prevent the vibrations: this is obtained by a bar or false needle, placed at right angles to the needle. The point on which the card traverses is supported by two cylinders, in the interior of which is a spiral spring, for the purpose of preserving the point and securing the card in its place during the violent motion of the ship; and at each axis of the gimbals is a spiral spring; the use of these springs is to relieve the compass when the ship is greatly agitated." Among the observations of the patentee on his own invention are these: the advantages of this binnacle consists in the steadiness and equality of the light, which in the night is obtained by pristnatic reflection; the facility and security with which the lantern may be removed to an enclosed place to be trimmed, for which there is rarely any necessity, as the lamp will burn from twelve to fifteen hours; and, the lamp being enclosed in a lantern, the light cannot be blown out nor the oil spilled. The lens in the front of the binnacle, which magnifies the compass, enables the steersman to see the point dis tinctly; and, the whole apparatus being enclosed, the light is prevented from appearing in the night to any person except the steersman, and the weather from affecting the compass. The improvements relating immediately to the compass are as follows: it is sus 1 and it is suspended on a spiral spring act ing within two cylinders. By this suspension the point is preserved, and the card secured in its place, although the motion may be excessively violent. In connection with the above description of Mr. Dolland's invention, the reader should be referred to a patent on the same subject, taken out by Mr. Egerton Smith, of Liverpool, and of which an ac count was given in the Monthly Magazine about a year ago. MR. BENJAMIN MILNE'S, (BRIDLINGTON,) for an improved Double Bell and Gun Alarm. According to Mr. Milne's specification, and drawing attached thereto, there is a wooden box, about twenty-two inches long, and ten inches deep, shut up by two doors, which doors are thrown open by springs when the alarum goes off. Within is a blunderbuss, or any other weli constructed piece of fire-arins with a lock; a steel spring with two bells; an upright frame of cast iron, to which a long lever, trigger, and stamper, are screwed. By the falling of an iron stamper the gun and bells go off, and the doors are thrown open. The stamper is supported by a trigger, and the bells are hooked on in a hole in the side of the stamper near the brass knob; the trigger has a sinalier end, whereby the other end is raised to permit the end of the long lever to pass under it. There is an upright lever which supports the trigger, stamper, and bells; and small lines of whip-cord, or wire, are fastened to the lower extremity thereof, by which the alarm is discharged. To the middle of the stamper is fixed a brass knob, by which it is raised to the top of the box; there is a hole in the side in which to hang the bells. By means of a small iron bolt near the bottom of the lever, the long lever of the cast-iron frame will be secured in its place, and then the alarm cannot go off, either by accident or design. When the stamper falls an iron tumbler draws the gun trigger, a likewise the bolt, which is fixed on |