tion of the superior planets in Scorpio; 2ndly, less violent in the 33rd year after, in 1518, after a great opposition of the same planets in Scorpio and Taurus; and lastly, 33 years after, in 1551, after another conjunction of the same planets in Taurus, had exerted its malignant influence."

16. The Irish.-Strato gives the following account of the Irish in his time. "They are cannibals, and

feed on man's flesh to excess. They look upon it as a credit to eat the bodies of their dead parents, and scruple not to commit incest." Camden says, "They make no bones of raw flesh, after squeezing the blood out; to digest which, they drink usquebaugh. They let their cows' blood too, which, after it is curdled, they strew over with butter, and eat with a relish."

17.-French levity. Cæsar says, that the Gauls of his time were inclined to alterations of government, from national inconstancy and levity. Silius Italicus describes the modern Gauls more exactly. Vaniloquum Celtæ genus ac mutabile mentis.

April 12th, 1822.

"Sling a shilling or sixpence at the end of a piece of thread by means of a loop; then resting your elbow on a table, hold the other end of the thread betwixt your fore finger and thumb, observing to let it pass across the ball of the thumb, and thus suspend the shilling in an empty goblet; premising, however, that the shilling is properly suspended, you will observe, that when it has recovered its equilibrium, it will, for a moment be stationary: it will then of its own accord, and without the least agency from the person holding it, assume the action of a pendulum, vibrating from side to side of the glass; and after a few seconds, will strike the hour nearest to the time of day; for instance, if the time be twenty-five minutes past six, it will strike six; if thirty-five minutes past six it will strike seven; and so on of any other hour:-Observe your hand must be perfectly steady; and if you find it difficult to keep it in an immoveable posture, it is useless to attempt the experiment. It is necessary to remark, that the thread should lay over the pulse of the thumb, and this may in some measure account for the vibration of the shilling; but to what cause its striking the precise hour is to be traced, remains unexplained; for it is no less astonishing, than true, that when it has struck the proper number, its vibration

stanza.

TO THE EDITOR.

THEATRE-ROYAL, MANCHESTER.

FOR the BENEFIT of Mrs. M'GIBBON,

Monday Next, April 22nd, 1822, will be presented the celebrated Tragedy of ADELGITHA; or, the Fruits of a Single Error. After which an Interlude called THE BATH ROAD; or, the Londoner's Outwitted. The part of Ellen, (first time) Mrs. M'GIBBON, in which she will attempt the FAVOURITE COMIC SONG, called "NICE YOUNG MAK DENS." To conclude with the favourite Melo-Drame of THE WARLOCK OF THE GLEN. The part of Adela, Countess of Glencairn, (for that night only,) Mrs. M'GIBBON. and of Mr. ELAND, at the Theatre where Places for the -Tickets to be had of Mrs. M'GIBBON, 13, Oldham-street; Boxes may be taken.

medium of the Iris.

Methought I saw a wretch with hollow eyne
And cheek cadaverous and wond'rous thin,
With high protruding bones: And mo't be seen
His ghastly skull scarce cover'd by the skin!
And from his workshop, as I look-ed in,
Abominable stench did quick escape;
And poverty sat there, amid the din,
Who while the hungry wretch for food did gape,
From his ill-covered bones the scanty flesh did scrape!
The personification of poverty and her employment
are frightfully sublime-but let me not anticipate the
sages of the Green Dragon.
VAMPYRE POLIDORI.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

BOOKS PUBLISHED THIS DAY.

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the PLAIN of TROY, including an Examination of the Opinions of Demetrius, Chevalier, Dr. Clarke, and Major Rennell.

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We assure the fair members of the Chit Chat Club,' that we have no such motives as they impute to us: we shall return them their communication; but, must remark, that, in our opinion, the reason stated by them, for declining an interview, is not the real one.

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THE COOK'S ORACLE; containing Receipts for Plain Cookery on the most Economical Plan for private highly fuished Broths, Gravies, Soups, Sauces, Store Sauces, curately stated by Weight and Measure; the whole being the and Flavouring Essences: the Quantity of each Article is acresult of Actual Experiments instituted in the Kitchen of a Physician. The FOURTH EDITION; to which is added, ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY NEW RECEIPTS for Pastry, Preserves, Puddings, and an easy, certain, and economical process for preparing Pickles, by which they will be ready in a fortnight, and remain good for years. Revised. by the Author of "The Art of Invigorating Life."

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Printed for ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE and Co. Edinburgh; HURST, ROBINSON, and Co. Cheapside, London; and Sold by Bancks and Co.; T. Sowler; and Robinson and Ellis, Manchester.

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"We venture to prophecy, that the Cook's Oracle will be considered as the English institute of Cookery, and may ens."-Edinburgh Review, No. 69. well earn for its author the proud title of Apicius Britanni

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the circle of our rational enjoyments, and imparts a praise-worthy character to our happiness. In a word, taste is the quintessence of propriety, and the centre of all that is amiable and pleasing.

Genuine taste is the follower of truth, and the admirer of beauty; and beauty and truth include whatever is excellent in form or spirit. Easily to distinguish truth and beauty from their opposites, under all the possible diversity of circumstances in which they may be viewed is to possess a well-established, and vigilant taste; is to display a free and active discernment, and to evince the bounty of nature improved by the most laudable, because the most liberal of arts--the art of pleasing; for that taste is very imperfect which does not pervade and direct the exterior carriage, as well as the internal sentiments. To possess this two-fold excellence, and to exercise it in both its provinces, is to promote elegance, and to practice virtue; since, as fitness and beauty are concomitants in the natural, so are truth and beauty in the moral world.

It is one of the commendations of taste, that, like the cultivation of our judgment, its promotion demands the previous rejection of prejudice; that its attainment is incompatible with error and partiality; and that its essence is opposed to every feeling of impropriety, and every principle of injustice. It is on these grounds, that moralists insist on the false taste of the vicious. "True taste," say they, "cannot be reconciled with bad inclinations.

It regards them with disgust, and best displays its own pure nature, by its inherent aversion to irregularity and turpitude." This property of taste, even were it the sole feature of that attribute, would be its sufficient recommenda- tion; but if not an equal, it is a more obvious benefit that it confers, in directing our preference in matters of science, literature, and the polite arts. Not confined to its advantage as a moral guide--as a director in the choice of our companions and our pleasures--it includes or induces the love of refined gratification, the enjoyment of elegant literature, the admiration of excellence, in painting and sculpture, and, in a word, the whole circle of civilization, in the higher sense of the expression. Its principles, while they influence life and conduct, impart a delicacy to manners; and not only give a conciliating cast to the actions of business, but exalt the capacity for pleasure. It is in the absence, and only in the absence, of true taste, that absurdity prevails, and the rougher habits are indulged; that we deviate into those errors of demeanour, and that inferior choice of books, or company, of which our politeness is afterwards exhausted, and which our returning reason never fails to condemn.

་

Whether there be an eternal dissimilarity in the essence of human souls; whether they are invariable in their native powers, or exert themselves more or less vigorously in proportion to the strength or delicacy of the organs they animate; or whether the force of education, habit, or society, gives an inferior or superior turn to the mind, philosophy has never determined. It is, however, not less certain, that there is an immeasurable difference in the individuals of either sex, (whatever its real cause) than that some persons are distinguished by so many and such striking perfections, as almost to be elevated above the

rank of humanity. But, however great may be the natural capacity, toil and patience are necessary to reduce it to regularity, and mould it into beauty. But the price of acquired excellence is always high; and the mind that shrinks from the labour indispensable to valuable attainments, is deficient in the best of human energies. Nature, in leaving much to the achievment of art, even where she has been most liberal in her endowments, paid a compliment to the diligence on which she imposed the task of completing her gracious design. It is no slight happiness that the performance required on the part of the wellgifted, is so perfectly within their reach; and that, of the inappreciable acquisition of taste, few indeed need despair, who are wise enough to prize, and resolved to attain, the most elegant and generally useful of all human accomplishments.

MYRA, A Portrait.

B.

Myra was and is attractive. Her face and person are, without any claims to be called beautiful, fully entitled to the epithets fine and commanding.

As far as regarded her acquirements, every thing that could add a grace to person, a fascination to feature, or a charm to manner was cultivated with anxiety; while every thing that could confer superiority of thought, or propriety of feeling was neglected.

But, in the attainment of only exterior accomplishments, Myra again fell into a mistake. Even here, a tasteful mind would have been necessary to make a tasteful choice and a judicious arrangement. Myra possessed it not, and, acting merely from the dictates of the master feeling, vanity, she selected the most gaudy accomplishments, and even these she put on ostentatiously. She imagined that to become altogether irresistible, a certain-blandness of manner was necessary in the acquirement of it she was but a timid or min

cing imitator: no originality of taste or temper existing in herself, gave cadence to her words, or easiness to her motions; and the inevitable consequence was, that Myra adopted the mere surface and tinsel manner, for the real softness of feminine delicacy.

Hence her fine language is, to any intellectual ear, somewhat in the Mrs. Mal-a-prop from the tuning key; hence does she often

style ---hance her modulations seem borrowed

times mistake the dignity of the lady, for the sweep of the tragedy-queen.

Her mind was disposed by nature for the advantageous reception of the most useful and liberal ideas; her heart possessed all the incli-be magnificent; the air of her head, and the Her "How d' do, Mr."--when Myra would nations to amiability. ple evidence of an internal consciousness, nawhole manner accompanying it, is not the simturally acted upon and as naturally developing itself, but rather a studied effect got up for an occasion, whose highest praise may be, that it is very like nature, but whose well-earned censure must be, that it is not nature.

But the fairest work of nature may be marred by art. The tree which, in its native forest or solitary wild, would have spontaneously branched out into forms the most picturesque and beautiful, becomes a tame and insipid object, when fashioned by the hands of the gardener.

:

I have said Myra was attractive of course "she had the gift to know it." This could do no harm if there had existed in her youthful mind a corrective consciousness. Unfortunately for her, however, her system of early education was confined to the common-place round of boarding school attainment. The plain and wide distinctions between mere accomplishments and liberal acquirements was never pointed out to her view; no friendly tongue was near to whisper her, that beauty which comes by chance, unearned by exertion-unsought for-nay, unwished for-unwilled-although it may command involuntary praise, ought to exeite no real respect for its while, on the contrary, a cultivated mind and chastened feeling, invariably call on us to admire and reverence the person whose property they are, because we know them to be the result of "persevering and well-directed application."

possessor;

Vanity forms a considerable portion of the good and bad of every individual. The plainest woman shares it in common with the most attractive. That Myra inherited this dangerous quality, was not, therefore, her fault as a woman, but her misfortune as a human being.

But if not her fault, it was her still greater misfortune, that she possessed within herself no antidote to this bane of every thing simple and dignified. It was Myra's greatest misfortune that her mind was left a prey to its own devouring vanity, and her heart a passive victim to the tyranny of that mind.

The consequences followed naturally, and easily established themselves.

difference between Myra at a social fireside, Yet Myra can be natural. There is as much and Myra figuring in a drawing-room, or receiving the afternoon visit of "somebody," drapery, and the same woman in Queen as there is between a fine woman in Grecian Anne's ruffs, hoops, and stomacher.

In the former situation, Myra is easy without affectation,and often times capable of the Her mind occasionally gives proof of the expression of a naturally exalted feeling. strength and energy of its original construction, and her heart of the amiability of its texture; which not all the subtle interweavings of the world, have been entirely able to disguise.

But this, as I said, happens at the fire-side, and when " nobody" is by. Who shall speak of Myra's heart at two o'clock in the afternoon? Sometimes of an evening, it can indulge its own bent, while its master, the head, is completely disengaged; but during the busy hours of day, it is occupied, like every other slave, in sedulous attendance upon its tyrant. Then it dare do nothing but obey the orders, and discharge the duties imposed on it.

Thus Myra sometimes does a good-hearted, or says an innocent or ingenious thing: but it is more than probable, that by the next morning, vanity will whisper, that such and such are not done or said according to the rigid rules of bienséance; and, acting upon this all-powerful dictate, Myra will seek for an opportunity to give the lie to her own heart, and consequent pain to the hearts of others.

POETRY.

SONNET.

I dreamed-I saw a little rosy child,

With flaxen ringlets, in a garden playing; Now stopping here, and then afar off straying, As flower or butterfly his feet beguiled. 'Twas changed ;-one summer's day I step't aside, To let him pass: his face had manhood's seeming; And that full eye of blue was fondly beaming On a fair maiden whom he called "his Bride;' Once more ;-'twas evening, and the cheerful fire I saw a group of youthful forms surrounding, The room with harmless pleasantry resounding; And in the midst I marked the smiling Sire.The heavens were clouded;-and I heard the tone Of a slow moving bell ;-the white-haired man was gone!

TO A LADY WHO FROWNED.

Dispel the sad frown which encircles thy brow,
In its stead let a smile there be placed ;
Thy beauty I often have gaz'd on ere now,
And still pray it may not be effac'd.

A smile looks as cheerful as sun-beams in June,
While a frown but resembles a dull wintry noon!
The rose in its blossom is charming to view,
And the violets which bloom in their bed
Are lovely-but ah! my dear girl it is true,
That no nettle should there raise its head.
A smile looks as cheerful as sun-beams in June,
While a frown but resembles a dull wintry noon!
G. G.-M.

WOMAN.

Woman, dear Woman! in thy name,
Wife-Sister-Mother, meet;
Thine is the heart by earliest claim,
And thine its latest beat!

In thee the angel virtues shine ;-
An angel's form is given ;-
Then be an angel's office thine,
And lead the soul to heaven.

From thee we draw our infant strength ;-
Thou art our childhood's friend';
And when the man unfolds at length
On thee his hopes depend.

For round the heart thy powers have spun
A thousand, dear, mysterious ties !—
Then take the heart thy charms have won,
And nurse it for the skies!

PYTHIAS.

HYMN TO VIRTUE.

Ever lovely and benign,
Endow'd with energy divine,
Hail VIRTUE, bail! from thee proceed
The great design-th' heroic deed,
The heart that melts for human woes,
Valour, and truth, and calm repose.

Though fortune frown, though fate prepare
Her shafts, and wake corroding care;
Though wrathful clouds involve the skies,
Though lightning glare, and storms arise,-
In vain to shake the guiltless soul
Chang'd fortune frowns, and thunders roll.

Pile, Avarice, thy yellow hoard;
Spread, Luxury, thy costly board;
Ambition, crown thy head with bays;
Let sloth recline on beds of ease,
Admir'd ador'd; let Beauty roll
The magic eye that melts the soul,—
Unless with purifying fires

VIRTUE the conscious soul inspires,
In vain to bar intruding woe
Wealth, fame, and pow'r, and pleasure flow.

To me thy sov'reign gift impart,
The resolute unshaken heart,
To guide me from the flow'ry way
Were pleasure tunes her syren lay;
Deceitful path! where shame and care
The pois'nous shaft conceal'd, prepare ;
And shielded with thy gen'rous pride,
When fashion scoffs, and fools deride.

Ne'er let ambition's meteor-ray
Mislead my reason and betray
My fancy with the gilded dream
Of hoarded wealth and noisy fame;
But let my soul consenting flow
Compassionate of others' woe:
Teach me the kind endearing art
To bind the mourner's broken heart,
To heal the rankling wounds of care
And sooth the frenzy of despair.

So lovely Virgin, may I gain
Admission to thy hallow'd fane,
Where peace of mind, of eye serene,
Of heav'nly hue, and placid mein,
Leads, smiling, thy celestial choir,
And strikes the consecrated lyre.

TO THALIA.

Goddess of the dimpled smile,
In sweet laughter's robe array'd;
Whose fond charms so soft beguile
Thoughts that oft our spirits jade-
Tripping light the plain along-
Hark! I hear thy pleasing song.

Ye who slaves to cold-care made,
Direful ills and woes produce;
Ye with hands to foreheads laid

Vexing brains to little use:
Come, from all your sorrows flee,
Come, and laugh away with me.

Come, we'll skip the verdant ground, While the stream sweet music breathes, In the fairy dance we'll bound;

By the white-moon bind our wreaths: By the broad-leaf'd tree we'll sing, Pale care flies on outstretch'd wing.

Or upon the sea-beat shore,

Let us run the sportive maze;
While the waves with sullen roar,
On our joyous pastimes gaze;
All among the yellow sand,
Side by side, and hand in hand.

We'll not seek the black-wood's shade-
Thither grief, deep-brooding, glides:
We'll not seek the dreary glade-
Thither madness, shrieking, strides :
But upon the beach, along,
There we'll tune the merry song.
When the white-moon rises high,
When her shade at last shall go;
First, in frolic-chace we fly,

Then we sing the vespers low;
Then we swift prepare for flight;
Part, to meet again at night.

Manchester, April 15th, 1822.

S***N.

SCIENTIFIC NOTICES.

Mr. Applegarth is about to apply one of those inventions by which he proposed to improve Banknotes to book printing. His first experiment will be made on an Universal Catechist. As a book in question and answer, the monotonous effect of the page will be relieved by the questions being in red and the answers in black; as both colours are produced at the same instant by one machine, the volume will be a curiosity in typography.

ANTIDOTE FOR VEGETABLE POISONS.

E. Drapiez has ascertained by numerous experiments, that the fruit of Fewillea Cordifolia is a powerful antidote against vegetable poisons. He poisoned dogs by the Rhus Toxicodendron (Swamp Sumac), Hemlock, and Nux Vomica. All those that were left to the poison died; but those to whom the Fewillea was administered recovered completely, after a short illness.-American Paper.

HOOPING COUGH.

Dr. Archer, an American physician, says, relative to the cure of the hooping-cough by vaccipation, "I have vaccined six or eight patients that had the hooping-cough, and in every case it has succeeded in curing this most distressing disease. To arrest this afflicting disorder in its progress, I would recommend vaccination in the second or third week of the hooping-cough, i. e. when the symptoms of the hooping-cough are fully ascertained, then to vaccinate. Should the convulsive cough be violent, I should immediately vaccinate; being well assured that the distressing symptoms of the hooping-cough are checked by vaccine disease. The termination of the vaccine disease will be the termination of the hooping-cough."

A YOUNG TRAVELLER.

A strange little boy was one day brought before the magistrate at the police office, New York, reported on the watch returns as being a lodger. This extraordinary child, ten years of age, was very thinly clad, and but four feet two inches high, of delicate make, and weak eyes. On being asked by the magistrate who he was, and whence he came, he gave the following

account.

"My name is De Grass Griffin; I am ten years old; my father is a boatman in Killingworth, Connecticut; my mother left there last summer; she parted from my father; he don't take any care of me About four weeks ago I started from Killingworth for Philadelphia, to see my mother; had not a cent when I started; walked part of the way, and rode part. My sister, who is a married woman, told me in what part of Philadelphia I would find my mother. When I got there, I found that she was dead; I remained there, going about the town, about a week; I then started to come back. A gentleman in Philadelphia gave me a twenty cent piece, an eleven-penny bit, and a fivepenny bit; I have the twenty cent piece yet. I got into this town yesterday morning; had nothing to eat all day yesterday, till in the evening, when I got some clams at a little stand near the river. I calculate to start for home this morning, and to get a stage driver to give me a ride." Magistrate. "I will send you to the alms-house, over the way, that you may get your breakfast, and be taken care of." Answer.

"

Very well, but I wish to start on."

It was truly astonishing to behold such a child perform (in the depth of winter) a journey of upwards of two hundred miles, with such a trifle of money, without warm clothing, and the snow on the road nearly as high as himself. His deportment was mannerly; his answers prompt, clear, and brief; he appeared to feel no want, asked for nothing, nor made any complaint; but had perfect confidence in his own powers and ability to get to the end of his journey on his twenty cent fund. The decision and fortitude of this little destitute boy, might furnish a profitable example to many an irresolute and desponding individual of riper years.