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Extracts from the Port-folio of a Man of Letters.

A SCOTTISH PRAYER.

N the year 1379, a dreadful pestilence

this kingdom, insomuch that whole families were swept away. During the height of this calamity, the Scots took the advantage to enter the land, and carried off great spoils in small parties; but durst not stay long for fear of infection. Asking some of the English the reason of so great a mortality among them, and being told that it came "by the grace of God," they therefore, by way of preservative, used every evening and morning the following prayer, or charm:-" God, and St. Mango, St. Thomas, and St. Andrew, shield us this day from God's grace, and the foul deaths that English inen die upon,"

DON SANCHO.

One of the grandees of Spain being at the consistory at Rome, the pope proclaimed him King of Egypt. The prince, hearing the applauses of the assembly, and not understanding the Latin langnage, asked his interpreter what it Deant. Sir," says he, "the pope has created you King of Egypt."" must not then be ungrateful," said he; "do you arise, and proclaim from me, the holy father Caliph of Bagdad."Mem. Vie. de Petrarch, vol. ii. p. 200.

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Norfolk. The organist of the cathedral of Norwich was to open the organ. He

arrived time, was

the crowd for his beau-like appearance, to which, being a young man, he had no objection. He ascended the organ. gallery stairs; made a most consequential bow to the builder, who bowed most respectfully in return; placed himself on the stool, adjusted his long rutiles, and drew out all the stops: stop diapason, open diapason, principal twelfth, tierce, cornet sesquialtia, trumpet, and regretted that there was not a clarion. After keeping the audience in suspense for a reasonable tine, his fingers déscended on the full chord of D. Not a note spoke; the organ was dumb. Enraged and disappointed at not producing the intended grand effect, he stamped most furiously, as a signal to the blower to administer that wind, without which an organ, like a windmill, is a body with out a soul. He had no doubt he heard the wind rushing into the chest, ready to be emitted most copiously; as grand music in an organ consumes a great deal of that necessary commodity. Again he struck the full chord of D. Not a sound was heard; the organ, again, was dumb. Being a man of genius, and rather a fanciful imagination, though he did not believe in the existence of Æolus, yet he began to think there had been a conspiracy against him. He stared at the builder in the utmost consternation,

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The builder, whose eye sparkled with Conceit, thus addressed him: "Don't be alarmed, sir, you have made a mistake."-"A mistake!" replied the terrified organist: "what mistake?"-"Why, sir, you have drawn all the stops.""To be sure I have; who ever heard of an organ's sounding when the stops were undrawn?"-"Oh, sir, that is very true; but my organ, sir, is differently constructed; when you wish it to sound, you must push in all the stops." -The organist, nstructed by this most eccentric and original builder, played as good a voluntary as the shattered state of his wits and nerves would allow; and never forgot the opening of the organ at Aylsham.

PAINTED GLASS.

The art of producing pictures of coJoured glass is exercised two ways: (1.) Plates of stained glass are cut into the shape of figures, and joined by leaden outlines; and on these plates a shading, is afterwards traced by the painter, which gives features to the faces, and folds to the drapery :-(2.) Vitrifiable colours are attached to plates of white glass, which are afterwards replaced in the oven, and thus converted into a transparent enamelling. The first sort of painted glass is cheaper; but the shading wears off by the insensible corrosion of the atmosphere. The second sort defies every accident, except fracture; but the colour of the figures suffers in the oven. For small objects the first sort, for large objects the second sort, as far as art is concerned, seems most adapted.

Many gentlemen of fortune are at this time fitting up their parish-churches with windows of painted glass. Armorial bearings are too often chosen as, the theme of decoration. These are proper in the vestibule, or guard-room, of a palace; but they do not excite ideas corresponding with the purpose of the temple. Figures of hovering angels, or personages included in the communion of saints, such as Adam, Eve, Euoch, Noah, Abra. ham, Moses, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, Judas Maccabæus, Jesus, and Paul, are better adapted for church-windows; be cause they may naturally be supposed to hover in our atmosphere, and to perch with delight on the parapet of the temples where their memory is cherished, and their actions are commemorated. If the circular chasm, which admits the rain of heaven into the pantheon of Rome, ere closed by a ceiling of painted glass,

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centrally representing an inaccessible glory, surrounded by festoons of cherubs and seraphs floating in varied attitudes of adoration, who would not enter the long-hallowed precinct with augmented awe and admiration?

Of our writers on glass painting, I know none earlier than Walter Geddes: "The Manner how to anneal or paint in Glass:" London, 1616.-Of our artists, I know none more excellent than Jervis, who executed the celebrated window at Oxford.

The application of painted glass in our▾ dwellings, to windows of rooms whose inside should be invisible, as water-closets, or to windows of rooms whose prospect is disagreable, which is often the case at the back of town-houses, is a luxury too much neglected.

In a Century of Epistics of Claud. Bart, Morisoli, printed at Dijon, in 1656, an attempt has been made to prove, from Seneca and Vopiscus Firmius, that the ancients were acquainted with the art of painting on glass. The oldest preserved specimens of the art are German, and of the eleventh century.—See Pezen's Treasury of Anecdotes, p. 131.-Albert Durer painted much glass.

SALAD-SAUCE.

Why do we pour over our lettuces a mixture of oil, vinegar, and mustard? The practice began in Judea; where, in order to render palatable the bitter herbs eaten with the paschal lamb, it was usual, (says Moses Kotsensis,) to sprinkle over them a thick slabby sauce called Karoseth, which was composed of the oil drawn from dates, or from pressed raisin-kernels, of vinegar, and of mustard. Maimonides adds a seasoning of salt and pepper, which shows that he had a good taste, and deserved to dress salad for the prince of the captivity.

ZENOBIA.

Gibbon, in the eleventh chapter of his first volume, has related with his im pressive critical eloquence, the political history of Zenobia. One question he leaves undiscussed: What was the personal religion of this heroine ?

The describers of the ruins of Palmyra assume, that the chief temple was dedicated to the sun. Even in this case the alternative occurs :-(1.) Were the sovereigns of Palmyra of the religion of the Persian empire, monotheists, who worshipped the sun merely as the emblem of God? or, (2.) were they ido laters, who, among other gods, worshipped preferably Apollo, Bel, or Ela

gabalus,

gabalus, by all which names the sun is said to have been called in Syria?

Basnage, in his history of the Jews, (vi. c. 15, § 19,) says positively, that Zenobia was (3.) a Jewess; resting chiefly on a passage of Trebellius Pollio, which shows, that she observed the directions given by Moses (Leviticus xv. 19-33) to married women. The passage is this: Cujus ea castitas fuisse dicitur, ut ne virum suum quidem sciret, nisi tentatis conceptionibus: nam quum semel concubuisset, expectatis menstruis continebat se, si prægnans esset; sin minus, iterum potestatem quærendis liberis dabat,

I contend, that she was (4.) an unitarian Christian.-These are my reasons:

I. All the Saracens, of whom Odenatus was king, remained, until the time of Mahomet, unitarian Christians; and though they acknowledged as prophets both Moses and Jesus, they neither adopted that dissection of deity into the Father and the Logos, which the Alexandrian school, nor that further dissection of deity, into Father, Logos, and Spiritus Sanctus, which the Roman school, ima. gined.

II. The Jewish manners of Zenobia do not prove, that she was not of the religion of her country; for the Jewish women who became Christians, did, nevertheless, persevere in the traditional neatness of their original sect.

III. Zenobia gave the bishopric of Antioch to Paul of Samosata, who was an avowed unitarian Christian, a follower of Artemon.

The testimony of Athanasius, who calls her a Jewess, is perhaps resolvable into one of those hyperboles of controversy, according to which Socinians are called Deists by the orthodox.

BIRTH.

Birth is of no other value than as it implies the advantages of education, connections, and behaviour;, and these, as they increase the powers of usefulness, and add to the pleasures of the community, are not to be cynically despised.

Yet, if a man without birth attains its privileges, and is learned, courteous, and benevolent, has acquired honourable friends and public confidence (possessing the merit to have gained them by his conduct, without the good fortune which stamped them his inheritance), he is entitled to a greater share of respect than pedigree could have bestowed; and is higher in the order of moral beings, than the name of any father could have placed him and if he should esteem himself

more upon his descent from an ancient family, than upon becoming the founder of a good one, he is a disgrace to whatever arms he may bear.

It has been observed in general, that people who do not possess the distinctions of ancestry or rank, are apt to value them most; and become so elated by any attentions they receive from men thus endowed, as to disregard all the worth they have witnessed, and all the kindness they have experienced, from persons of inferior extraction and lower order.

If only the ignorant and undiscerning paid this homage to adventitious circum stances, it would create little wonder; common minds are naturally dazzled by appearances, and influenced by opinions; but that men of abilities should alike be subject to this weakness, and equally be flattered by adinission into the society of those whom high titles and hereditary estates alone have set above them◄ selves, has excited the severest censures of the moralist. Without meaning to defend this abatement of intellectual dignity, perhaps some allowances may be made for human frailty, even in instances so mortifying to the pride of human reason. Men of genius, but more particularly men of taste, are endowed with finer perceptions than others: they have more imagination, more irritability. To such, coarse manners and the grossness of vulgar habits are peculiarly disgusting; and when they gain access to circles where every wish is anticipated which delicacy could form, and every want supplied which fastidiousness could create; where the desire to please, though inculcated by art, appears prompted by benevolence, and where the surrounding scenery is elegant and splendid; it re quires ascetic virtue rather than eminent talents, to remain unenchanted by the glare, and uninfluenced by the delusion.

All the arts excepting poetry, (and poetry of the higher order alone excepted,) have a tendency to strengthen the impressions of the senses, and consequently to weaken the powers of the mind.

The arts are chiefly cultivated in these societies; and the effect of novelty added to their bewitching nature, cannot but be great over men of exquisite orga nization.

Lycurgus, who meant to form an inflexible national character, was so aware of this tendency, that be banished the arts from the commonwealth; and their high degree of culture at Athens, intel

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woven with their attendant luxuries, has been considered as the origin of the declension of that city.

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But though this weakness he found with men of talents, it is not so with men of science: these are born with a patient temperament, (the proper soil for knowJedge,) and this is one reason that grandeur and, its appendages have little influence over them. There is also another: the objects of a philosophic mind are superior; reason and truth have a 'potent efficacy in bracing every faculty of the soul, and enlarging every power of the understanding; Men employed in deep researches, whether they dive into the properties of matter, watch the rcvolution of orbs, or study the solution of problems,are not very likely to be diverted

from their pursuits even by social entertainments, or convivial powers; much less to be dazzled by the dignity of pedigree, the glitter of pomp, or the elegances of address.

Fancy may seek for beauties to depicture, and wit for manners to delineate; but philosophy has no other aim than discoveries to instruct: Principibus placuisse viris non última laus est,* Her. Epist. 17. Lib. 1.

but it is the nature of men of science, to may be the sentiment of men of taste; behold birth, affluence, and splendor,

oculo irretorto.

Nor mean the praise, These deities of human-kind to please, FRANCIS,

ORIGINAL POETRY.

THE OAK.

"TWAS winter; and except a leaf
Yet trempling here and there,
December, icy-handed thief,
Had stript the forest bare.
Its tawny foliage strown around,
And silver'd o'er with sleet,
Profusely carpeted the ground,
And rustled to my feet;
When 'mid the solitary scene,

A rustic seat I sought,
And pensive, yet devoid of spleen,
Indulg'd a moral thought.
An aged oak with ample head,
And arms extended wide,
Part living, shiver'd part, and dead,
Rose tow'ring by my side.

A hoary rime its branches grac'd,
Resembling most a beard;
While, clasping its gigantic waist,
An ivy green appear'd.

Its rev'rend aspect fixt my eye;
I felt a pleasing awe;
A ruminating reverie,

Inspir'd by what I saw :
When Fancy, whose creative power

Can give to trees a tongue,
And furnish from their mystic lore
A sermon or a song,"
Employing all her magic here,
Gave language to an oak;
Which, thus admonishing my ear,
Intelligibly spoke:-

Vain mortal! wherefore dost thou come

My nakedness to see?

Why leave a comfortable home,

To moralize on me?

All rifled as I am and torn,

To taunt me com'st thou here?
Or dost thou come, with me to mourn
The exit of the year?

Whate'er thy motive, mortal, take
Instruction from a tree,

And condescend for once to make
Comparison with me.

If honour, join'd to length of days,
Thou fondly wouldst obtain,
Behold an object that pourtrays

At once, and proves them vain!
For monarch of the woods am I,

The mightiest of my name;
A monarch, not by courtesy,
But by a prouder claim.

Two cent'ries round their circles roll'd,
Ere I attained my prime;
Another, ere I waxed old,
Was register'd by Time.

Surviving still, though wounded strong,
I brave the wintry blast;
And many a man in years now young,
Will not behold my last.

Yet he whose all-destroying stroke
Lays men and forests low,
Will level me!- -Na more it spoke,
But ended with a bow.

"Will level me!" My muse records
The language o'er again;
Will level me!" Emphatic words!
Nor altogether vain.

For, musing as I homeward'turn'd,
I own it humbled me,

To think that I might liè inurn'd
Ere fell this aged tree.

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IN PRAISE OF COFFEE.

precious plant, of virtues rare!
List to the grateful muse's prayer,
Who oft has drawn from thee

Fresh inspiration and delight,
The beaming day, the blissful night,

I. U.

When thou set'st fancy free!*
Oh! may thy foliage, glossy-green,
Thy beauteous snow white leaves between,
And berries ruby-red,

Oh! may thy fairest shrubby form
Bloom far from chilling northern storm,
Thy cultivation spread !

*The flow of imagination often caused by drinking strong coffee, is certainly not so injurious as the tumultuous excitement pro, duced by some other stimulants. Yet, 'where its effect is a sleepless night, it cannot be supposed altogether innoxious. This, ́however, generally arises from drinking coffee, very strong, and without a due admixture of milk or cream. In the morning, or even after dinner, when duly proportioned to the other ingredients, it seldom fails to prove a salutary and grateful beverage, iar preferable to that of England (ten), or that of France (wine), in its various states of modification. But, be it remembered, that coffee drunk scalding-hot, and without due assistance from the dairy, must be productive of injury to the stomach; and that injury must necessarily extend itself throughout the system. --No errors are so fatal as errors in diet;, for this plain reason, that they so frequently recur.

Oh! may thy bright infusion steam
Where'er the sun extends his beam,

O'er all the favour'd earth:
And be thy berry still preferr'd,,
While, from narcotic tea deterr'd,

The muse shall sing thy worth!
With muscovado, sparkling pure,
And cream commix'd, thou might'st allure
Olympus' guests to drink.

O coffee! to the weary wight
Thus mingled, thou impart'st delight,
And all his sorrows sink.

By thee is fancy richly fed,

And languor scar'd, and clear'd the head,
And quicken'd every sense:
Thou bid'st the strain flow sweet and strong
Thy power impels the poet's song;
Then Aies each vapout dense

Ne'er can the herb of China vie
With thee; who soon shalt flourish high,
While Thea fades away:

She first excites, then sinks, the strength;
Shakes the fine frame, and, ah! at length,
Deforms the fairest day !*

O'er fermentation's deadly draught,
(Which ever brought, to him who quaff'd,
Destruction premature)

Coffee, 'tis thine to rise supreme:
Give me thy salutary, stream,

So fragrant, rich, and pure.
Jamaica, Oct. 1809.

A. R.

Tea is powerfully narcotic and stimulant; inducing either of these actions with more or less force, according to constitutional circumstances. The effects of tea, when used to excess (and it is difficult to mark the boundary) are a debilitated stomach, and an irritable disordered state of the whole structure: appetite sickens, clouds surround the head, the hand trembles, and the enfeebled frame acquires that distressing condition of alternate torpor and suffering, unsusceptible of. pleasure but "tremblingly alive" to pain, now

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common among all ranks, from the haughty duchess to the humble dame who at distance imitates her; and known by the appellation nervous. It is scarcely necessary to observe, that the enervating cup of Thea is not the only source of this inundation of disease: the factitious cravings and various. modes of gratification, eagerly pursued by the multitude, high and low, to suply, by mere sensation, the place of higher enjoyment, are unceasingly and success ully actise in the production of pain and disorganization.

Upon the whole, the effects of the strong infusion of tea are somewhat similar to those of alcohol, the product of fermentation; of which all the latoxicating liquors in common use among half civilized nations are merely modifications. The immedia e effects, however, of the latter, are more distressin.; and their remote effects more certainly and universally destructive of life.

THE

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