I MEAN to be a soldier, With uniform quite new; I wish they'd let me have a drum, I would go amid the battle With my broadsword in my hand And the music all so grand. My son my son! what if that sword And bid some loving father From his little ones depart! What comfort would your waving plumes And brilliant dress bestow, When you thought upon his widow's tears, And her orphans' cry of woe! I mean to be a cottage girl, And sit behind a rill, And morn and eve my pitcher there And welcome to my winter hearth Louisa, dear, a humble mind To check that mind from me; CAROLINE. I will be gay and courtly, And dance away the hours; No heart shall ache with sadness MOTHER. Oh, children! sad it makes my soul I cannot bear to chill your youth Yet humbly take what God bestows, THE ideas, as well as children, of our youth, often die before us; and our minds represent to us those tombs to which we are approaching, where, though the brass and marble remain, yet the inscriptions are effaced by time, and the imagery moulders away. The pictures drawn in our minds are laid on in fading colours, and, if not sometimes re freshed, vanish and disappear.- -LOCKE. Incredulity is not wisdom, but the worst kind of folly. It is folly, because it causes ignorance and mistake, with all the consequents of these; and it is very bad, as being accompanied with disingenuity, obstinacy, rudeness, uncharitableness, and the like bad dispositions; from which credulity itself, the other extreme sort of folly, is exempt. BARROW. UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE COMMITTEE OF GENERAL LITERATURE AND EDUCATION, APPOINTED BY THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. THE PURI INDIANS. THE level woody country to the north of the river Paraiba, in Brazil, is inhabited by a tribe of Indians, known by the name of Puris. The following account of their mode of life in their native forests is abridged from the Travels of Prince Maximilian, who visited Brazil about the year 1818. Having sent a messenger into the woods to announce his intention of visiting them, the Prince says, "Five men and three or four women, with their children, accepted the invitation to meet us. They were all short,-not above five feet five inches high; most of them, the women as well as the men, were broad and strong-limbed; they were all quite naked, except a few, who wore handkerchiefs round their waists, or short breeches, which they had obtained from the Portuguese. Some had their heads entirely shorn; others had their thick, coal-black hair, cut over the eyes, and hanging down in matted locks behind. In general, they have but little beard, which forms only a thin circle round the mouth, and hangs down about three inches below the chin. Round the neck, or across the breast and one shoulder, they had rows of hard black berries strung together, in the middle of which, in front, was a number of the eye-teeth of monkeys, ounces, cats, and other wild animals. They had other ornaments, which seemed to have been formed of the thorns of some shrub. The men carried in their hands long bows and arrows, VOL. I. which, as well as all their effects, they at our desire bartered for trifles. We informed them of our intention of visiting them in the woods, early the next morning, if they would receive us well. "We had scarcely left the house the next day, when the Indians were perceived coming out of the woods. We proceeded in their company back into the forest, and as we advanced, we found the whole horde lying on the grass. The group of naked brown figures presented a most singular spectacle: men, women, and children, were huddled together, and contemplated us with curious, but timid looks. They had all adorned themselves as much as possible; a few of the men, by way of ornament, had the skins of monkeys fastened round their brows. Some of the women carried their children by the help of bandages made of bark, which were fastened over the right shoulder, while others bore theirs on their backs, with the assistance of a band that crossed the forehead; in this latter manner they generally carry their baskets of provision when they travel. A number of the men and girls were much painted-they had red spots on the forehead and cheeks, and some had red stripes on the face; others black stripes lengthwise, and strokes running across, with dots between, on the body. Many of the little children were marked all over with spots like leopards. This painting seemed to be arbitrary and regulated by the taste of the individual. The females, in general, fasten a bandage 25 of bass or cord tightly round the wrists and ancles, in | reverence. "The bow of the Puris measures six feet and a half, and even more; it is smooth, and made of the hard tough dark-brown wood of a kind of palm. Their arrows are six feet long, and made of a firm knotty reed, feathered at the lower end, with beautiful blue or red feathers, or with those of the peacock pheasant. "When our curiosity was satisfied, we requested the savages to conduct us to their huts; the whole troop went forward, and we followed on horseback. The road led into a valley, and, at length, by a narrow path we reached the thickest part of the forest, and came suddenly on some huts belonging to these people; they are certainly some of the most simple in the world. The sleeping-net, which is made of bass, is suspended between two trunks of trees; to which, higher up, a pole is fastened across by means of a rope of a large kind of bind-weed, against which large palm-leaves are placed in a slanting direction on the windward side, and these are lined below with the leaves of the banana, &c. Near a small fire, on the ground, lie a few gourd-shells, a little wax, various trifles of dress or ornament, reeds for arrows, and arrow-heads, some feathers, and provisions, such as bananas and other fruit. The bows and arrows stood against a tree. "Fire is a prime necessary of life with all the Brazilian tribes, and they keep it burning during the whole of the night, since owing to their want of clothing they suffer severely from the cold, and it is also attended with the important advantage of scaring off wild beasts. "They are said to devour human flesh out of revenge, but as for their eating their own deceased relations as a token of affection, according to the report of some early writers, no trace of such a custom exists at present. They offered for sale large balls of wax, which they collect when gathering wild honey, and use in preparing their bows and arrows, and also in the manufacture of candles, which burn extremely well, and are made by wrapping a piece of cotton round a thin stick of wax, and then rolling the whole together. They set a high value on a knife, which they fasten to a string round the neck, and allow to hang down upon the back; it frequently consists of only a piece of iron, which they whet on stones, and keep very sharp. If you give them a knife, they generally break off the handle, and make another according to their own taste, putting the blade between two pieces of wood, which they bind together with a string. "Some writers are disposed to deny to these Amecan tribes all religious ideas, but among all that I visited I found evident proofs of the prevalence of some religious belief. The savages of Brazil believe in various powerful beings, the mightiest of whom they recognize in the thunder, by the name of Tupa or Tupan. Most of the Indians of South America have also a confused idea of a general Deluge." THE ANCIENT ENGLISH MINSTRELS. THE Minstrels seem to have been the genuine successors of the ancient Bards, who united the arts of poetry and music, and sung to tunes upon the harp, verses and poems of their own composing. It is well known what respect was shown to these Bards by the Britons: and no less was paid to the northern Scalds, as they called their Bards, by most of the nations of the Gothic race. Our Saxon ancestors, as well as their brethren, the ancient Danes, had been accustomed to hold men of their profession in the highest Their skill was considered as something divine, their persons were deemed sacred, their attendance was solicited by kings, and they were every where loaded with honours and rewards; in short, poets and their art were held among them in that rude admiration which is ever shown by an ignorant people to such as excel them in intellectual accomplishments. When the Saxons were converted to Christianity, in proportion as letters prevailed among them, this rude admiration began to abate, and poetry was no longer a peculiar profession. The poet and the minstrel became two persons. Poetry was cultivated by men of letters indiscriminately, and many of the most popular rhymes were composed in the leisure and retirement of monasteries; but the Minstrels continued a distinct order of men, and got their livelihood by singing verses to the harp at the houses of the great. There they were still hospitably and respectfully received, and retained many honours shown to their predecessors, the Bards and Scalds ; and, indeed, though some only recited the compositions of others, many still composed songs themselves, and all of them could probably invent a few stanzas on occasion. In the early ages, as is hinted above, this profession was held in great reverence among the Saxon tribes, as well as among their Danish brethren. This appears from two remarkable facts in history, which show that the same arts of music and song were equally admired among both nations. When our British king, the great Alfred, was desirous to learn the true situation of the Danish army, which had invaded his realm, he assumed the dress and character of a Minstrel; and, taking his harp, and only one attendant, he went with the utmost security into the Danish camp. Though known to be a Saxon, the character of a Minstrel procured him an hospitable reception: he was admitted to entertain the king at table, and stayed in the midst of the enemy's camp long enough to plan that assault which afterwards destroyed them. This was in the year 878. About sixty years after; a Danish king made use of the same disguise to explore the camp of our king, Athelstan. With his harp in his hand, and dressed like a Minstrel, Anlaff, king of the Danes, went among the Saxon tents; and taking his stand near the king's pavilion, he began to play, and was immediately admitted. There he entertained Athelstan and his lords with his singing and his music; and was at length dismissed with an honourable reward, though from his songs he must have been known to be a Dane. Athelstan was saved from the consequence of this stratagem by a soldier, who had observed Anlaff burying the money which had been given him, from some scruple of honour, or motive of superstition. "In Even so late as the reign of Edward the Second, the Minstrels were easily admitted into the king's presence, as appears from a passage in Stow, which also shows the splendour of their appearance. the year 1316, Edward the Second solemnized his Feast of Pentecost at Westminster, in the Great Hall: where sitting royally at the table with his peers about him, there entered a woman adorned as a Minstrel, sitting on a great horse, trapped as Minstrels then used, who rode round about the tables, showing pastime; and at length came up to the king's table, and laid before him a letter, and forthwith turning her horse, saluted every one, and departed." The subject of this letter was a remonstrance to the king on the favours heaped by him on his minions, to the neglect of his knights and faithful servants, Even so late as the reign of Henry the Eighth, the reciters of verses, or moral speeches learnt by heart, intruded without ceremony into all companies; not only in taverns, but in the houses of the nobility themselves. The Minstrels continued down to the reign of Elizabeth; in whose time they had lost much of their dignity, and were sinking into contempt and neglect. Yet still they sustained a character far superior to any thing we can conceive at present of the singers of the old ballads. When Queen Elizabeth was entertained at Kenilworth Castle, by the Earl of Leicester, in 1575, among the many devices and pageants which were exhibited for her entertainment, one of the personages introduced, was an ancient Minstrel, whose appearance and dress are minutely described by a writer present, in the following passage :— "A person, very meet seemed he for the purpose, of about forty years old, apparelled partly as he would himself. His cap off: his head seemly rounded tonster-wise: fair kembed, that with a sponge daintily dipt in a little capon's grease, was finely smoothed, to make it shine like a mallard's wing. His beard smugly shaven: and yet his shirt after the new trink, with ruffs fair starched, sleeked and glistering like a pair of new shoes, marshalled in good order with a setting-stick, and strut, that every ruff stood up like a wafer. A long gown of Kendale green, after the freshness of the year now, gathered at the neck with yellow gorget, fastened afore with a white clasp and a keeper-close up to the chin; but easily, for heat to undo when he list. Seemly begirt in a real caddis girdle; from that a pair of capped Sheffield knives hanging a' two sides. Out of his bosom, drawn forth a lappet of his napkin edged with blue lace, and marked with D for Damian, for he was yet but a batchelor. His gown had long sleeves down to the mid-leg, slit from the shoulders to the hand, and lined with white cotton. His doublet-sleeves of black worsted: upon them a pair of points of tawny chamlet, laced along the wrist with blue threaden poinents, a wealt towards the hands of fustian-anapes. A pair of red neather stocks, a pair of pumps on his feet, with a cross cut at his tocs for corns; not new indeed, yet cleanly blackt with soot, and shining as a shoeing-horn. About his neck, a red ribband suitable to his girdle. His harp in good grace dependent before him. His wrest tyed to a green lace and hanging by: under the gorget of his gown, a fair flaggon chain, pewter for silver, as a squire minstrel of Middlesex, that travelled the country the summer-season, unto fair and worshipful men's houses. From his chain hung a scutcheon, with metal and colour, resplendent upon his breast, of the ancient arms of Islington." The Minstrel, the author tells us, "after three lowly courtesies, cleared his voice with a hem; wiped his lips with the hollow of his hand, for 'filling his napkin, tempered a string or two with his wrest, and after a little warbling on his harp for a prelude, came forth with a solemn song, warranted for story out of King Arthur's acts." Towards the end of the sixteenth century, this class of men had lost all credit, and were sunk so low in the public opinion, that in the thirty-ninth year of Elizabeth's reign, a statute was passed by which "Minstrels wandering abroad," were included among "rogues, vagabonds and sturdy beggars," and were adjudged to be punished as such. This act seems to have put an end to the profession. [PERCY'S Reliques of Ancient English Poetry.] Ir is with flowers as with moral qualities; the brightcoloured are sometimes poisonous, but, I believe, never the sweet-smelling.- ·Guesses at Truth. LORD BACON. THE BIBLE. "There never was found in any age of the world either philosopher, or sect, or law, or discipline, which did so highly exalt the public good as the Christian faith." JOHN SELDEN, (called by Grotius) The Glory of England." There is no book upon which we can rest in a dying moment but the Bible." JOHN MILTON, the immortal Poet.“There are no songs comparable to the Songs of Sion; no orations equal to those of the Prophets, and no politics like those which the Scriptures teach." SIR MATTHEW HALE. "There is no book like the Bible for excellent wisdom, learning, and use." HONOURABLE ROBERT BOYLE. "It is a matchless volume, it is impossible we can study it too much, or esteem it too highly." JOHN LOCKE. To a person who asked this profound thinker which was the shortest and surest way for a young gentleman to attain to the true knowledge of the Christian religion, in the full and just extent of it, he replied,-"Let him study the Holy Scriptures, especially the New Testament; therein are contained the words of eternal life. It hath God for its Author; Salvation for its End; and Truth, without any mixture of Error, for its matter." SIR WILLIAM JONES."I have carefully and regularly perused the Holy Scriptures, and am of opinion that the volume contains more sublimity, purer mo rality, more important history, and finer strains of eloquence, than can be collected from all other books, in whatever language they may have been written." READER! Oppose these deliberate and disinterested opinions of some of the greatest men that ever lived, to the flippant sarcasms of free-thinkers, or rather non-thinkers. Clasp the BIBLE to your heart, believe its holy truths, obey its sacred commands, regulate your lives by its precepts, and die, resting on that Saviour whom the Scriptures reveal, as having "brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel." UPON THE SIGHT OF A TREE FULL-BLOSSOMED.-Here is a tree overlaid with blossoms; it is not possible that all these should prosper; one of them must needs rob the other of moisture and growth. I do not love to see an infancy over-hopeful; in these pregnant beginnings one faculty starves another, and, at last, leaves the mind sapless the too-frequent blossoms, that the rest may thrive, so it is and barren. As, therefore, we are wont to pull off some of good wisdom to moderate the early excess of the parts or progress of overforward childhood. Neither is it otherwise in our Christian profession: a sudden and lavish ostentation of grace may fill the eye with wonder, and the mouth with talk, but will not at the last fill the lap with fruit. Let me not promise too much, nor raise too high expectations of my undertakings; I had rather men should complain of my small hopes, than of my short performances. -BISHOP HALL. A FULL and clear river is, in my opinion, the most poetical object in nature. Pliny has, as well as I recollect, compared a river to human life. I have never read the passage in his works, but I have been a hundred times struck with the analogy, particularly amidst mountain scenery. The river, small and clear in its origin, gushes forth from rocks, falls into deep glens, and wantons and meanders through a wild and picturesque country, nourishing only the unculti vated tree or flower by its dew or spray. In this, its state of infancy and youth, it may be compared to the human dominant-it is more beautiful than useful. When the mind, in which fancy and strength of imagination are predifferent rills or torrents join, and descend into the plain, it becomes slow and stately in its motions; it is applied to move machinery, to water meadows, and to bear upon its bosom the stately barge;-in this mature state, it is deep, strong, and useful. As it flows on towards the sea, it loses its force and its motion, and at last, as it were, becomes lost, and mingled with the mighty abyss of waters. SIR H. DAVY. WILLIAM COLLINS, THE POET. But thou, O Hope! with eyes so fair, What was thy delighted measure? Still it whisper'd, promised pleasure, And bade the lovely scenes at distance hail! COLLINS was acquainted not only with the learned languages, but with Italian, French, and Spanish. He was fond of popular traditions; he delighted to take those flights of imagination which pass the bounds of nature, to gaze on the splendour of fictitious palaces, and to repose in Elysian gardens of his own creation. The latter part of his short life cannot be remembered but with pity and sadness. He languished for some years under that depression of mind which clogs the faculties without destroying them. He was for some time confined in a house for lunatics, and afterwards retired to the care of his sister in Chichester, where he died in 1756. A MONUMENT of exquisite workmanship, from which the above is taken, was erected by public subscription in Chichester cathedral, to the memory of WILLIAM COLLINS. The poet is represented as just recovered from a fit of phrensy, to which he was unhappily subject, and in a calm, reclining posture, seeking refuge from his misfortunes in the consolations of the Gospel, while his lyre and one of the best of his poems lie neglected on the ground. Above are two beautiful figures of Love and Pity entwined in each other's arms. The monument was executed by FLAXMAN, shortly after his return from Rome. Mr. Hayley, in speak of the deceased, thus concludes his epitaph : Who join'd pure faith to strong poetic pow'rs, Who, in reviving Reason's lucid hours, Sought on ONE BOOK his troubled mind to rest, And rightly deem'd the Book of GOD the best. WILLIAM COLLINS was born at Chichester on Christmas-day, 1720. His father was a respectable hatter. He was admitted a scholar of Winchester College in 1733, but although he stood first in the list of scholars to be received in succession at New College, Oxford, in 1740, he lost his election, there being no vacancy. This he considered the first misfortune of his life. He suddenly left the University after becoming a Demy of Magdalen College. He came to London about 1744, with many projects in his head, but possessed of very little money. He planned many works, but he pursued no settled purpose. His odes, some of which were composed at this time, particularly "The Passions," exhibit vast powers of poetry. There is an expression in the latter ode, which at once strikes to the heart. Though the measure is the same in which the characteristics of Fear, Anger, and Despair, are described, yet, by the judicious variation of the cadence, each has an expression appropriate to itself. Thus, after the image of Despair, With woful measures wan Despair,Low, sullen sounds his grief beguiled; A solemn, strange, and mingled air; 'Twas sad by fits, by starts 'twas wild! How beautiful beyond imitation is the animated picture of Hope: After his return from France, whither he had gone hoping to recover from his malady, a friend paid him a visit at Islington: there was then no wandering of mind discernible by any but himself; but he had withdrawn from study, and travelled with no other book than an English Testament, such as children carry to school. His friend took it into his hand, out of curiosity to see what companion a man of letters and a poet had chosen. "I have but one book," said Collins, "but THAT IS THE BEST." This interesting fact supplied Flaxman with the subject of the monument above. EGYPT IN CONNEXION WITH SACRED THERE are few countries in the world which have These inquiries, we have said, will amply recompense those who are disposed to pursue them, for it is almost impossible to move forward a single step in our researches, without discovering the most striking coincidences between the testimony of sacred and profane writers, and the singular confirmation offered by existing facts to the minutest details of Scripture, as regards the aspect, manners, customs, and physical character of this astonishing country. tion of Moses, that Egypt brought forth "by handIf, for example, we require a warrant for the asserfuls" in her seasons of plenty, and supplied its numerous population with treasures of corn that could not be gathered nor numbered for multitude, we have it on the united testimony of ancient and modern writers, and even in the present features of the land, hand of Heaven." If we would know how a country, "wounded and wasted though it be by the eternal naturally so fertile, could be subject to the famine under which it groaned in the days of Joseph, we find that its products are so far dependent on the have only to consult the same authority, and we shall annual overflow of the Nile, that a failure of this event would inevitably produce the greatest distress and misery. If we would know why the Israelites, during their affliction, could not make bricks without rious structures of that material still existing, and we straw, we have only to inspect a fragment of the vashall see the very "stubble" which cost them so |