pirates, but they spared his life, and having succeeded in recovering a large debt, considered more than doubtful, from a foreign correspondent, he returned a comparatively wealthy man. On learning the residence of his family he proceeded thither, and was soon as happy as he deserved to be. D.

STANZAS ADDRESSED TO

THOUGH to-day we part in sorrow,
Though our eyes with tears fill now,
Happier days may dawn to-morrow,
And our eyes no tears may know.
Though a dark cloud now hangs o'er us
It may soon disperse away,
Show thee brighter scenes before us,
Teach thee to be once more gay.
What though sorrows now surround us,
Droop not thus a prey to grief;
Hope again shall smile around us,
And tell thee sorrow is but brief.

THE DEATH OF SPARTACUS.
THE battle closed around him dark,
And the victor's fearful yell
Smote on the Thracian hero's soul,
In thunder, as he fell.

The last rays of the parting sun

Shone o'er the field of death,
In splendid beauty seemed to mock
All those who slept beneath.

Their eyes saw not its bright decline,
Nor will its dawning see,

This earth, existence, joy, and grief,
For them had ceased to be.

No sound was on the field of death,
O'er it deep darkness crept,
Silence descended on the plain-
The mighty Thracian slept!

M. H. J.

M. H. J.

EXTRACTS FROM THE COMMON-PLACE BOOK OF A LITERARY LOUNGER.-NO. VI.

ENGLISH YEOMAN.

THIS proud title, like that of esquire, had once a very different signification from that now attached to it: each of them was associated with military service. Esquire is derived from escu, or bearer of a shield; and yeoman from yuw, or the bearer of a bow; for this instrument of war anciently bore the name of the wood of which it was made.

PASSAGE OF THE RED SEA.

A recent traveller, when at Suez, wished to ascertain if the sea there, as had been reported, was fordable at ebb tide. The consular agent and the Levantine writers assured him that it was not, but an Indian sailor undertook to walk across for a dollar. 'He proceeded,' says my author, slowly and steadily, his hands above his head, and in nine minutes he was at the other side of the Red Sea. On his return he told me what I knew to be a fact, that he had walked every step across, the deepest part being about the middle of the Gulf, when the water was up to his chin. I proceeded now to follow his course; I gave him another dollar to cross over before me, and as I was nearly eight inches taller than my guide, where his chin was in the water my long beard was quite dry."

PROGRESS OF CIVILIZATION.

In the reign of Henry the Eighth it appears, by the Chronicles, that knives were so uncommon, that every guest was obliged to bring his own to a dinner party. So late as the reign of Charles the Second carpets were unknown; the drawing-rooms of noblemen were strewed with rusbes; the king himself kept a litter of puppies in his bed-room, and it was only with King William that we acquired the cleanly habits of the Dutch.

EVE'S TEMPTATION.

Dr. Adam Clarke, in his learned comments on the Bible, has some curious observations on the serpent of Paradise. He endeavours to get rid of what some

deem a difficulty in the description; for instance, its talking to Eve, and walking before the curse was pronounced, without having at present the organs, or any remains either of those of speech or location. Dr. Clarke very learnedly and piously attempts to prove that it was not a serpent, but a baboon, which tempted our first mother: and his argument is, that the baboon has the organ of speech, albeit long disused moreover, that the serpent has no legs with which he could ever have walked, and the baboon has. The last argument is, that the serpent is not a cunning creature; and that the Hebrew word, nuchash, signifies not only a serpent but a baboon.

BRIDGES.

Bridges were originally called bows. Stow says, at Stratford by Bow is a bridge, the first that was built of stone in England. It was built by order of Queen Matilda, relict of Henry I. over the river Lea, and called Stratford Bow, from its arch, which was a piece of architecture then probably new to the British nation. It was built in 1087. It is related, that Queen Matilda, being closely pursued by her enemies, forded the river Lea below Old Ford, on which occasion, the waters being much out, some of her favorite attendants were drowned, and which afflicted her so much, that afterwards she caused the bridge above alluded to to be built over the said place.

DINNER HOUR.

Our ancestors must have been hungry fellows: the ancient Irish, we are told, dined before day-break, and in France it was usual to dine at nine o'clock in the morning, and to sup at four; after which, in Louis XII.'s time, they used to hunt in the park. Louis XIV. dined at twelve o'clock. Madame de Sevigné writes that she is dying of hunger, because dinner is not till Petrarch, in one of his sonnets, describes Laura sitting on a bench outside of the house. The hours of retiring to rest were early. The gate of the castle of the Percys used to be closed at nine o'clock, after which no ingress or egress was permitted.

one.

ANGLO-SAXON TEMPERANCE.

It was one of the regulations of the Anglo-Saxon church, that if a person eat any thing half-dressed, ignorantly, he should fast three days; if knowingly, four days. Perhaps as the uncivilized Northmen were, in their pagan state, addicted to eat raw flesh, the clergy of the Anglo-Saxons were anxious to keep their improved countrymen from relapsing into such barbarous

customs.

THE GLEEMAN.

The ancient gleeman was nothing more or less than a juggler. Strutt, describing the figure of one in an illuminated MS, says, We there see a man throwing three balls and three knives alternately into the air, and catching them one by one as they fall, but returning them again in rotation. To give the greater appearance of difficulty to this part, it is accompanied with the music of an instrument resembling the modern violin.

'One part of the gleeman's profession, as early as the tenth century, was teaching animals to dance, to tumble, and to put themselves into variety of attitudes at the command of their masters. Upon the twentysecond plate we see the curious, though rude, delineation, being little more than an outline, which exhibits a specimen of this pastime. The principal joculator appears in the front, holding a knotted switch in one hand, and a line attached to the bear in the other; the animal is lying down in obedience to his command; and behind them are two more figures, the one playing upon two flutes or flageolets, and elevating his left leg while he stands upon his right, supported by a staff that passes under his arm-pit; the other dancing. This performance takes place upon an eminence resembling a stage, made with earth; and in the original a vast concourse are standing round it, in a semicircle, as spectators of the sport.'

ANECDOTES OF DOGS.

"They are honest creatures.'-Otway.

We had been taxing our memory and our reading for anecdotes of the dog, when, fortunately, a most amusing volume on the subject, from the pen of Captain Thomas Brown, made its appearance. Our resources are, therefore, ample, for we shall not disdain to borrow from others; but, as naturalists have not agreed respecting the classification of these animals, we shall not pretend to be methodical in our arrangement: we undertake to deal only in anecdote, and shall very wil. lingly leave to others the task of explaining the origin of the dog. We shall not stop to inquire if his name is to be found in Adam's catalogue, or if the first of his race claimed the fox or the wolf for his sire. Cuvier thinks it must have been either: we think differently, and for this reason: the production of so useful an animal could not have been left to an unnatural conjunction. The dog has ever been the companion of man, and is the only friend on whom he can always calculate with certainty. In our state of civilization we can hardly estimate his value in ages of rudeness. Daniel hids us suppose that he never existed, and what then? VOL. 11. Aug. 1829..

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