mortal greatness, and the delight afforded by a contemplation of the ineffable charms of nature, form the principal subjects. From thus communing with the inner man thou hast been somewhat unpleasantly aroused by a strong odour, not by any means resembling "the spicy gales of Araby the blest," acting upon those nerves which it is the wont and custom of medical practitioners to term the olfactories. Excited by this powerful effluvium, thou hast half unconsciously exclaimed with Trinculo, in a play called "the Tempest," writ by one William Shakspeare, "A very ancient and fish-like smell!" and looking up hast found thyself in that place, a great number of whose inhabitants follow the calling or avocation rendered honourable by its having been that of the Apostle Peter. Here thou hast doubtless observed, that the houses are not at all remarkable for regularity of size, or elegance of appearance, externally, though internally they may be, and, as in many cases we can vouch from personal experience, really are very comfortable and convenient domiciles, commanding from the back windows a delightful view of mud-banks, slimy pools and ditches, with other objects equally pic turesque and pleasing. Thou hast also noted that the streets, or rather street, for there is but one, the diverging passages being only entitled to be called lanes or alleys, is bestrewn with piscatory remains, whereof the shells of a certain species of Testacea, commonly known by the designation of oyster, form the most considerable portion. This, reader, is Strood, or Stroud as some writers have it; and our reason for recalling this place of an unsavoury odour to thy recollection, is that we may relate a story told by Master Lambard in his "Perambulations of Kent," premising, however, that we shall not adhere strictly to the words of that most veracious peripatetic, but handle the matter after our own fashion, enlarging upon the circumstances, and throwing in such reflections as may be suggested to us thereby, even as it is the practice of cooks, by means of seasoning and spicing, to make a dainty mess of that which were otherwise dry and unsatisfying. May the dish we are about to serve up, prove acceptable to the palate of thy understanding, and, if we may be allowed to indulge in a gustative metaphor, mayst thou devour it

with a relish!

It chanced upon a time, when the renowned Thomas a Becket had fallen into such disrepute with Henry II., as to be accounted an enemy to that monarch, as well as to the common weal, that he had occasion to pass through Strood on his way to Canterbury. Now it ever was, and we suppose it ever will be the fashion to "kick a lame dog," or, in more select parlance, to trample on the fallen; therefore, what should these amphibious mortals-these haulers of the net and casters of the line do, but hoot and revile this son of the Saracenic woman, to whom, on like occasions before, they had prostrated themselves with every outward sign of humility and devotion to the holy man who filled the highest offices in church and state. Lipworship, how numerous are your votaries compared to that of the heart! Falsehood and deceit, how mighty and extensive is your empire over the millions who people this ever-changing globe! Wealth and power, ye are idols set up in all public places, and who is there does not fall down before ye, abusing his high mind and immortal nature to do ye homage!

But not only was the humbled prelate greeted with words of insult and derision; stones were hurled against him, fish in a decayed state, and other dangerous and abominable missiles. Yet he rode on with a placid countenance, looking neither to the right hand nor to the left, like one in a state of utter peace with himself and all mankind; and when his armed attendants would fain have drawn their weapons to chastise these discourteous people, he rebuked

them, saying, "Nay, did not our Saviour suffer indignities and even death, and shall we scruple to undergo whatsoever it may please Him, whose servants we are, to inflict upon us ?"

It is a marvel such sweetness and gentleness of demean our did not move the hearts of these savage men to relent; but how can ye make a silken purse out of a sow's ear, or expect that a pearl of price cast before a herd of those unclean animals, will be duly valued and appreciated? At length, not having sufficiently satisfied their malice by the hurling of missiles and uttering derisive words, two of the men stepped forward, and while one seized the tail of the mule whereon Becket rode, the other with a pair of shears, caught from a tailor's board at haud, severed it close to the rump, thus depriving the poor animal of that useful, as well as ornamental appendage.

Then became the bishop exceedingly wroth, and pausing, and turning round, he thus anathematized the perpetrators of the cruel deed.

"Not for the insults ye have heaped on my head, O men of corrupt minds,-the windows of whose understandings are darkened, so that no ray of divine grace can illume your benighted souls! Not for the indignities wherewith ye have this day visited my unworthy person, do I now curse ye; but for the injury ye have inflicted on this poor unoffending creature, in depriving it of that, which was deemed by an all-wise Creator a fit and necessary appendage. In the holy name of Him to whose especial service I have dedicated myself; by the blessed rood, whereon are depicted his mortal likeness and sufferings, and before which the prayers of all good men are offered up; in the name of the Virgin Mother, holy and immaculate; of the Divine Spirit, and of the Almighty Father; in the name of the glorious apostles, of the saints, of the noble army of martyrs, of all beatified souls, and of him who sitteth in the papal chair at Rome, whose delegate I am, and by whose authority, derived from no earthly source, do I now act, I utterly excommunicate ye from the pale of the church! I invoke a malediction on ye! Cursed shall ye be-ye and the children that are born to ye throughout all generations. A mark of the divine displeasure shall ye bear! An unholy distinction shall fall upon ye! A tailed race shall ye become—a mock and a by-word to the rest of mankind! Scorned, hated, and despised shall ye be ad infinitum, yea, for ever, and for ever, and for ever! Even for this deed, which is malum in se, accursed in itself, do I now say unto ye, Anathema Maranatha! amen, and amen!"

Having delivered this denunciation with a passionate vehemence, offering a great contrast to his former unmoved and placid demeanour, the excited prelate moved on, while the cowled Austin friars who accompanied him, and the mitre and crosier bearers, and the two white vested singingboys, who acted as pages, with the armed lay brothers, who formed his body guard, responded in unison, "So be it! so be it!" And the deep sound swept across the river like a mournful wail, as though the genius of the place were pouring forth a lamentation at the evil about to fall on her misguided children.

"A merciful man is merciful unto his beast," saith the proverb, nor can we wonder that this act of unprovoked cruelty should have moved the arch-primate to exceeding anger; naithless the malediction he uttered, was such as to make one's hair stand on end with affright, like quills upon the fretted, or fretful porcupine, as we believe the beforequoted William Shakspeare hath it. It was a blessed thing to see such a patient forbearance under the insults offered to himself, and such a virtuous indignation at the grievous wrong inflicted on his faithful servant, manifested by one, who in his days of youthhood and early adolescence had

been remarkable for his pride and arrogance, and for the pleasure he took in bull-baiting, cock-fighting, and other equally cruel sports and pastimes, as such conduct would seem to prove that a great and salutary change had taken place in his mind; and Becket's way of life of late had been sufficiently austere, and his demeanour sufficiently humble to encourage such a belief. Yet are we inclined shrewdly to suspect that this show of sanctity and outward humility, was but a mask assumed for the better hiding his ambitious projects, and to disarm of their suspicion and resentment the numerous enemies, stirred up against him by the power and wealth he had acquired, the reckless manner in which he had used, or rather abused, that power, and the lavish way in which he had applied that wealth to projects of self-aggrandisement, or squandered it on his parasites and favourites, in many instances, men utterly worthless and disreputable.

"Judge not lest ye be judged," is the Divine commandment; yet we must be allowed to express an opinion, founded on the acts of his after life, that worldly desires and passions still strove within the breast of this seemingly holy man that though the waters were calm to the eye, there was a vortex beneath the surface, whirling and raging, so that he was right glad when a legitimate channel was discovered whereby he might give vent to the pent-up feelings of rancour and hatred within him; else wherefore the bitterness, the intense malignity of this denunciation? Sorely affrighted, ye may be sure, were the men of Strood at the terrible curse fulminated against them; for in those days of superstition, he on whom the thunders of the church fell, became like a blasted tree, cut off from his fellows, and deprived of all those manifestations of sympathy, and kind offices of affection, which were to him, even as the green leaves to his sylvan prototype, at once sources of nourishment and delectation. Now a priest is like another man; we judge him by his acts, and if his life be holy, so do we listen to him with reverence and edification; but if he practiseth not what he preacheth, it is vox et præterea nihil (a voice and nothing more). Even as the idle wind it passeth us by unheeded, or as soon forgotten, for we say, "Can men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles ?"

But then, those who ministered at the altars, and spake from the pulpits, however profligate might have been their lives, however weak their powers of comprehending and expounding the mysteries of religion, were looked upon by the multitude as almost superhuman, their words were oracles, to be listened to with fear and trembling, like that at Delphos, whereof the ancient writers do tell; they wrought by fear and not by love; converting the mild precepts of christianity into a code of laws, which, like that of the Athenian Draco, might well be said to have been "written in blood."

Eftsoons was the abode of these "marvels of humanity," surrounded by old and young, all anxious to obtain a view of the wonderful deformities. And now it began to be whispered, that as these twain were the principal offenders, to them alone did the words of the prelate apply; and forthwith their unpitiful brethren resolved to persecute, and drive from among them, the men on whom the shame and disgrace had fallen; thus imitating the corvus, or crow tribe of birds, of which it is said, that if one of their number be partly plucked of his feathers, painted white, or in any way rendered different from the rest, on him they will in continently fall and expel him from their society, driving him forth with buffetings and much ill usage, to seek a livelihood elsewhere. Alack! that the generality of mankind should so closely resemble these despiteful creatures, scorning and ill-treating those who are stricken by poverty, and other grievous visitations!

Thus was the living reproach removed from Strood, but not the memory thereof, which will remain as a stigma upon the place; yea, even to the end of time. And thus, O courteous reader! concludeth this most veracious chronicle, for which Master Lambard tells us he is indebted to Polydore Virgil. Now, had he quoted for his authority, him whose proper designation was Publius Virgilius Maro, always supposing it had been possible for this latter worthy to have known any thing of Thomas a Becket, or his times, we might have given credence to as much of the statement as pleased us, and rejected the remainder as the result of that dangerous licence in which poets are allowed to indulge; but, coming from so grave an authority, what can we do but swallow the whole, however indigestible it may prove?

What became of the two men who played this "naughtie pranke," and whether their children were similarly adorned as themselves, the chronicle saith not. We have taken great pains to visit, at fairs and other places of public resort, all exhibitions which promised a solution of this mystery. We have diligently inquired into the origin of every tailed specimen of humanity that hath come under our notice; but hitherto, without obtaining the desired information. We have cogitated deeply upon the question, as to whether the young ladies, with melodious voices, and long flowing hair, who sit upon rocks and lure unwary youths to destruction, and the finny gentlemen who blow conch-shells before the car of Neptune on state occasions, can be the veritable descendants of these men of Strood; the situation of the tail would seem to contradict this:-but it is vain to pursue the subject farther, until our means of informa tion are more ample. Any satisfactory conclusion we are enabled to come to, shall assuredly be made public.

VOCAL MUSIC CONDUCIVE TO HEALTH. IT was the opinion of Dr. Rush, that singing by young ladies, whom the customs of society debar from many other kinds of healthy exercise, is to be cultivated not only as an accomplishment, but as a means of preserving health. He particularly insists that vocal music should never be neglected in the education of a young lady; and states, that beside its salutary operation in soothing

the cares of domestic life, it has a still more direct and important effect. "I here introduce a fact," says Dr. Rush, “which has been suggested to me by my profession; that is, the exercise of the organs of the breast by singing, contributes very much to defend them from those diseases to which the climate and other causes expose them. The Germans are seldom afflicted with consumption, nor have I ever known more than one case of spitting blood amongst them. This, I believe, is in part occasioned by the strength which their lungs acquire by exercising them frequently in vocal music, which constitutes an essential branch of their education." "The music-master of our academy," says Gardener, "has furnished me with an observation still more in favour of this opinion. He informs me that he had known several instances of persons strongly disposed to consumption, restored to health by the exercise of the lungs in singing." In the new establishment of infant schools for children of three and four years of age, every thing is taught by the aid of song, Their little lessons, their recitations, their arithmetical countings, are all chanted; and, as they feel the importance of their own voices when joined together, they emulate each other in the power of vociferating. This exercise is found to be very beneficial to their health. Many instances have occurred of weakly children of two or three years of age, who could scarcely support themselves, having become robust and heathy by this constant exercise of the lungs." These results are perfectly philosophical. Singing tends to expand the chest, and thus increase the activity and powers of the vital organs. Musical World.

CAMP OF THE SNAKE INDIANS. EARLY in the morning I strolled into the Snake camp. It consists of about thirty lodges or wigwams, formed generally of branches of trees tied together in a conic summit, and covered with buffalo, deer, or elk skins. Men and little children were lolling abeut the ground all around the wigwams, together with a heterogeneous assemblage of dogs, cats, some tame prairie wolves, and other "varmints." The dogs growled and snapped when I approached, the wolves cowered and looked cross, and the cats ran away and hid themselves in dark corners. They had not been accustomed to the face of a white man, and all the quadrupeds seemed to regard me as some monstrous production, more to be feared than loved or courted. This dislike, however, did not appear to extend to the bipeds, for many of every age and sex gathered around me, and seemed to be examining me critically in all directions. The men looked complacently at me; the women, the dear creatures, smiled upon me; and the little, naked, pot-bellied children crawled around my feet, examining the fashion of my hard shoes, and played with the long fringes of my leathern inexpressibles. But I scarcely know how to commence a description of the tout ensemble of the camp, or to frame a sentence which will give an adequate idea of the extreme filth and most horrific nastiness of the whole vicinity; I shall, therefore, but transiently glance at it, omitting many of the most disgusting and abominable features. Immediately as I entered the village, my olfactories were assailed by the most vile and mephitic odours, which I found to proceed chiefly from great piles of salmon entrails and garbage which were lying, festering and rotting in the sun, around the very doors of the habitations. Fish, both fresh and half-dried, were scattered all over the ground, under the feet of the dogs, wolves, and Indian children; and others which had been split were hanging on rude platforms erected within the precincts of the

camp. Some of the women were making their breakfast of the great red salmon eggs, as large as peas, and using a wooden spoon to convey them to their mouths. Occasionally also, by way of varying the repast, they would take a huge pinch of a drying fish which was lying on the ground near them. Many of the children were similarly employed; and the little imps would also have hard contests with the dogs for a favourite morsel, the former roaring and blubbering, the latter yelping and snarling, and both rolling over and over together upon the savoury soil. The whole economy of the lodges, inside and outside, was of a piece with every thing else about them, filthy beyond description; the very skins which covered the wigwams were black and stiff with rancid salmon fat; and the dresses, if dresses they may be called, of the women, were of the same colour and condition, from the same cause. These dresses are little square pieces of deer-skin, fastened with a thong around the loins, and reaching about half-way to the knees; the rest of the person is entirely naked. Some of the women had little children clinging like bull-frogs to their backs, without being fastened, and, in that situation, extracting their lactiferous sustenance from the breast, which was thrown over the shoulder. It is almost needless to say, that I did not remain long in the Snake camp; for although I had been a considerable time estranged from the abodes of luxury, and had become somewhat accustomed to at least a partial assimilation to a state of nature, yet I was not prepared for what I saw here. I never had fancied any thing so utterly abominable, and was glad to escape to a purer and more wholesome atmosphere. - Townshend's Excursions in the Rocky Mountains, &c.

WHAT IS DEATH?

THE laws of nature are all directed by Divine wisdom, for the purpose of preserving life and increasing happiness. Pain seems, in all cases, to precede the mutilation or destruction of those organs which are essential to vitality, and for the end of preserving them; but the mere process of dying seems to be falling into a deep slumber; and in animals, who have no fear of death dependent upon imagination, it can hardly be accompanied by very intense suffering. In the human being, moral and intellectual motives constantly operate in enhancing the fear of death, which, without these motives in a reasoning being, would probably become null, and the love of life be lost upon every slight occasion of pain or disgust; but imagination is creative with respect to both passions, which, if they exist in animals, exist independent of reason, or as instincts. Pain seems intended by an all-wise Providence, to prevent the dissolution of organs, and cannot follow their destruction. I know several instances in which the process of death has been observed, even to its termination, by good philosophers; and the instances are worth repeating. Dr. Cullen, when dying, is said to have faintly articulated to one of his inmates, "I wish I had the power of writing or speaking, for then I would describe to you how pleasant a thing it is to die." Dr. Black, worn out by age and a disposition to pulmonary hemorrhage, which obliged him to live very low, while eating his customary meal of bread and milk, fell asleep, and died in so tranquil a manner, that he had not even spilt the contents of the spoon which he held in his hand. And the late Sir Charles Blagden, while at a special meal with his friends, Monsieur and Madame Berthallet and Guy-Lussac, died in his chair so quietly, that not a drop of coffee in the cup which he held in his hand was spilt. Sir Humphry Davy. ̧

LETTER-WRITING.

ONE of the most innocent and exquisite pleasures of this life is that of hearing from an absent friend. When we are suddenly reminded, by a letter, of one who is dear to us, and see our name in the well-known hand on the direction, a flash of delight pervades the whole frame; the heart beats with expectation, while the seal is being broken, and, as the sheet is unfolded, goes forth in full benevolence to meet the heart of the writer in the perusal of its contents. An epistolary correspondence between intimate and endeared connexions is a spiritual communion, in which minds alone seem to mingle, and, unembarrassed by the bodily presence, converse with a freedom, and fervour, and an eloquence rarely excited, and, perhaps, never more felicitously indulged in personal intercourse. Hence the chief charm of a letter, if the term may be so applied, is its individuality, as a message from one whom we love or esteem, according to the degree of kin or congeniality between us, sent expressly on an errand of kindness to ourselves. The consciousness that it was written to and for him, gives the receiver a paramount interest in its existence, as well as in its disclosures. To him, therefore, it becomes an object of affection; and none but himself, however some others may sympathise with the feelings, can enter into it with the same degree of ineffable emotion: that, indeed, is "a joy with which a stranger intermeddleth not.” In letter-writing, when the heart is earnestly engaged, the first thoughts in the first words are usually the best; for it is thoughts, not words, that are to be communicated; and meaning, not manner, which is mainly to be aimed at. The ideas that rise, and thicken as they rise, in a mind full and overflowing with its subject, voluntarily embody themselves in language the most easy and appropriate; yet are they so delicate and evanescent, that unless caught in the first forms, they soon lose their character and distinctness, blend with each other, and from being strikingly simple in succession, become inextricably complex in association, on account of their multiplicity and affinity. The thoughts that occur in letter-writing will not stay to be questioned; they must be taken at their word, or instantly dismissed. They are like odours from "a bank of violets "-a breath --and away. He that would revel on the fragrance, by scenting it hard and long, will feel that its deliciousness has eluded him; he may taste it again and again, and for a moment, but he might as well attempt to catch the rainbow, and hold it, as long to inhale and detain the subtile and volatile sweetness. He who once hesitates amidst the flow of fresh feelings and their spontaneous expression, becomes unawares bewildered; and must either resolutely disengage himself by darting right forward through the throng of materials, to recover the freedom of his pen, or he must patiently select, arrange, and array them, as in a premeditated exercise of his mind on a given theme.-Montgomery.

CURIOUS INSTANCE OF SPECTRAL
ILLUSION.

A YOUNG man of fortune, who had led what is called so gay a life, as considerably to injure both his health and fortune, was at length obliged to consult the physician upon the means of restoring at least the former. One of his principal complaints was, the frequent presence of a set of apparitions, resembling a band of figures dressed in green, who performed in his drawing room a singular dance, to which he was compelled to bear witness; though he knew to his great annoyance, that the whole corps de ballet existed only in his own imagination. His physician

immediately informed him, that he had lived upon town too fast and too long not to require an exchange to a more healthy and natural course of life. He therefore prescribed a gentle course of medicine, but earnestly recommended to his patient to retire to his own house in the country, observe a temperate diet and early hours, practising regu lar exercise, on the same principle avoiding fatigue; and assured him, that by doing so, he might bid adieu to black spirits and white, blue, green and grey, with all their trumpery. The patient observed the advice, and prospered. His physician, after the interval of a month, received a grateful letter from him, acknowledging the success of his regimen. The green goblins had disappeared, and with them the unpleasant train of emotions to which their visits had given rise, and the patient had ordered his town-house to be disfurnished and sold, while the furniture was to be sent down to his residence in the country, where he was determined in future to spend his life, without exposing himself to the temptations of town. One would have sup posed this a well-devised scheme for health. But, alas! no sooner had the furniture of the London drawing-room been placed in order in the gallery of the old manor-house, than the former delusion returned in full force!-the green figurantes, whom the patient's depraved imagination had so long associated with these moveables, came capering and frisking to accompany them, exclaiming with great glee, as if the sufferer should have been rejoiced to see them— 'Here we all are! here we all are!' The visionary, if I recollect right, was so much shocked at their appearance, that he retired abroad, in despair that any part of Britain could shelter him from the daily persecution of this domestic ballet.-Sir Walter Scott.

THE SCHOOLMASTER.

BY GEOFFREY CRAYON, GENT.

AMONG the worthies of the village, that enjoy the pecu liar confidence of Master Simon, is one who has struck my fancy so much, that I have thought him worthy of a sepa rate notice. It is Slingsby, the schoolmaster, a thin elderly man, rather threadbare and slovenly, somewhat indolent in manner, and with an easy good-humoured look, not often met with in his craft. I have been interested in his favour by a few anecdotes which I have picked up concerning him.

He is a native of the village, and was a contemporary and playmate of Ready-money Jack in the days of their boyhood. Indeed, they carried on a kind of league of mutual good offices. Slingsby was rather puny, and withal somewhat of a coward, but very apt at his learning: Jack, on the contrary, was a bully-boy out of doors, but a sad laggard at his books. Slingsby helped Jack, therefore, to all his lessons; Jack fought all Slingsby's battles; and they were inseparable friends. This mutual kindness continued even after they left the school, notwithstanding the dissimilarity of their characters. Jack took to ploughing and reaping, and prepared himself to till his paternal acres; while the other loitered negligently on in the path of learning, until he penetrated even into the confines of Latin and mathematics.

In an unlucky hour, however, he took to reading voyages and travels, and was smitten with a desire to see the world. This desire increased upon him as he grew up; 50, early one bright summer's morning, he put his effects into a knapsack, slung it on his back, took staff in hand, and called in his way to take leave of his early schoolmate. Jack was just going out with the plough: the friends shook hands over the farmhouse gate; Jack drove his team afield, and Slingsby whistled over the hills and far away,' and sallied forth gaily to seek his fortune.'