uttered with no less vehemence, in the dialect of his country, "De'el split your wem, mon! if I get near you, I'll eradicate some of your masticators for you !"

A smart-looking girl, whose demeanour bespoke her a member of the frail sisterhood, and who I found occupied the first floor, had reached the door before any of the others, and opened it to me. She dropped a curtsy, and put on an alluring smile. But hearing that my visit was not to her, and being prevented by the appearance of the other lodgers from making it so, she withdrew in a pet; but as she turned round to retire to her apartment, she found her passage obstructed by those who were about her; upon which she cried out, "Pray, good folks, let me pass! It is I who have most reason to complain of the man's impertinence, which has obliged me, who am a first floor lodger, to make one among such creatures!!!"

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Marry, come up!" said an old woman, meanly dressed, "Good folks, indeed!-Though I am but a poor washerwoman, and live in the front garret, yet I think myself as good as you, Ma'am !-I'd have you to know, Ma'am, that I am a wife and an honest woman! And for all you lodge now, Ma'am, in a first floor, Ma'am, and I in an upper room, yet I shall have an habitation over my head when such verminas you, Ma'am, are obliged to lie in the street, Ma'am."

The disgraceful appellation made use of by the washerwoman rousing the ire of the courtezan, for even the most abandoned cannot bear to be

stigmatized, she turned round as she was re-ascending the stairs, and with a certain compression of the lips bedewed her opponent's face in a manner not altogether conformable to the rules of politeness. This was not to be borne, the lady of the suds flew like a tygress at the lady of the first floor, and instantly disrobing her of her French night-cap, tore away with it several of those ringlets, some natural, some artificial, which had been the means of seducing many a spruce apprentice.

A fierce encounter now ensued, which was well maintained, for a few minutes, by both combatants.

The French dancing-master, who had been frequently observed to come out of the courtezan's apartment, in consequence of his being engaged to give her now and then a lesson, could not behold his fair scholar attacked thus rudely without interfering; and could not help, on the present occasion, tapping the shoulder of the pretty impure, and now and then warding off a blow meditated by her stronger adversary.

This being observed by the Scotch dentist, who considered the Frenchman as his rival in the lady's good graces, he laid hold of so favourable an opportunity to avenge himself; and, without any ceremony, gave him such a box on the ear as made him reel again. The dancing-master in his own defence fell aboard the dentist, tooth and nail, and the confusion now became general. Nothing surely could exceed the satisfaction I felt at seeing the breeze I had thus kicked up among the Misses, Mr.'s and

Mrs.'s of the mansion, having its due effect, I laughed till my sides ached, and pleasure became almost pain.

My enjoyment of this diverting scene was, however, of no very long continuance, for the honest Hibernian, contrary to the natural propensity of the lower ranks of his countrymen, used his utmost endeavours to extinguish the flame I had kindled, and put an end to the affray; telling the fair combatants, "that black eyes and bloody noses were but ugly beauty spots;" he therefore advised them to give over; and when he had succeeded in that, he turned their attention to me, as the cause of that strife and confusion which had taken place; and, consequently, the proper object of their resentment. Finding things thus in a train for accommodation, I thought it prudent to slip away, and pulling the door after me, took to my heels; and yet so predominant was my turn for fun, that notwithstanding I knew that I run a risk of being well bastinadoed from the least delay, I could not help having another pull at the bells, and thundering once more at the knocker before I decamped. You may be sure I was not long in getting out of the street. An adjacent alley luckily presented itself, down which I ran with no little celerity, as I heard the pack I had roused in full cry after me, with the tall Irishman at their head. Nor did I abate my speed till I arrived at Peele's, when I congratulated myself on having escaped so well the consequences of my frolic.

I am, Sir, your's,

A LOVER OF FUN,

SOME CURIOUS FACTS IN NATURAL HISTORY.

Fontenelle has wisely cautioned us against being system makers in physics and natural history. We are not rich enough for that purpose, he was wont to say. Rather let us make many experiments, let us collect facts; some happy genius will perhaps at length appear, who, availing himself of the discoveries made before him, may be able to form a system; but hitherto our fund has not been rich enough.

There are facts in the natural history of animals which are exceedingly curious, Some of them,

we

are told, are fond of gold. When cocks or hawks see a grain of gold, they instantly swallow it, The same is recorded of ducks, Aldrovandus relates on this subject a story which discovers to us a marvellous secret for getting rich: A poor man, having once perceived some small grains glistening like gold, in the dung of certain ducks that fed along the side of a river, judged that these grains might proceed from the sand, which the ducks swallowed as they guzzled near the water's edge. Full of this thought he purchased several ducks, which he kept feeding about the river, and each night was careful to have a sheet extended on the ground in the place where the ducks retired. Every morning he visited the place, and found in his sheet a great quantity of gold. By this means he considerably enriched himself, and became the most opulent in his part of the country.

In ponds and moats about many houses in England, carp are sometimes caught of prodigious

size. It is pretended that, in the ditches that surround the castle of Fontainebleau, one of the King of France's palaces, there are carp of upwards of a hundred years old. But, if this fact be rejected, the white scales remarkable on several of them, and their slow motions, prove sufficiently that fish have their old age as well as men. Columella relates on this head, that, in his time, a certain fish was found in a pond of Cæsar, near Pausylipum, which had lived sixty years; and Gesner relates, that, in a pond in Swabia, near Hailbrun, they caught, in 1447, a fish that carried in its fins a ring with this inscription: I am the first fish the Emperor Frederic II. put into this pond, the 5th of October, 1203!' whence it may be concluded that this fish had lived upwards of 216 years. Count Aligny, possessed of an estate at Bouze, within a league of Beaume, in Burgundy, had an ass of about two years old, which was strong and vigorous. This animal went one day, according to custom, to feed in the morning in the park adjoining the house, and died in two hours after. As no sign of sickness had appeared in him, but, on the contrary, he was seen that day to bound and gambol in the park, they wanted to know what had been the cause of his death. He was therefore opened, and in his stomach were found one hundred and fifty young hornets, which were not half grown to their ordinary size, thirty of which were still alive. The animal, in brousing upon some herbs in the meadow, had eaten of a hornet's nest, wrapped up in moss; and these hornets had devoured in two hours the ass's stomach.

The Count, going to the park found there the remains of the nest, and several young hornets flying about it.

This Count's Lady was taken ill much about the same time with the small pox. She had a cat that did not leave her all the time of her illness; it lay constantly on her bed, and was fed well, having had the remains of all that was brought her to eat. It might be presumed from this treatment that the cat would grow very fat; but, though it slept almost continually, it became so poor, that it died in three weeks time, before even the Lady had recovered. None doubted but that it was the virus of the small-pox, which, having attacked the animal, had brought it so low, and caused its death. This observation makes probable what some authors say concerning the transmission of ailments to animals. We have been commonly assured that dogs catch the gout by lying in the same chamber with gouty persons.

There are, however, several facts which should be rejected, as contrary to the prescript of natural reason, and cannot have place but in the class of tricks and stratagems of dexterity, such as those related of the Chevalier Borry. That alchymist boasted that, after having expressed only by trituration the juice of any simple, and put it in a longnecked bottle, he could convert it into dry earth, which, by undergoing the heat of the bath, should shew the figure of the simple. The same way, by putting into his bottle the fresh earth of a burying-ground, he would make people believe that he had seen a thousand ghosts

and spectres. Those who amuse the public in different parts of Europe with recreations of experimental natural philosophy, perform this sort of resurrection or palingenesia by the means of a kind of glutinous colourless ink, with which they draw on paper the design of the flower or plant they desire to make appear. They shake on the paper some coloured earth, sand, or dust, reduced into a very fine powder. It is easy to conceive, that the drawing, being formed of a sort of glue, must remain coloured and exhibit the figure of the burnt plant. Sometimes they use filings of iron mixed up with the earth or ashes of the plant, and by means of a loadstone easily succeed in separating the filings, and making them assume the the form of the plant. All this is masked by several preparations and different dexterities of hand, which make this sight diverting enough; but mere amusement is the only benefit that can be had from experiments of this kind.

ANECDOTES OF SANTA TERESA.

(From Townsend's Travels.) Speaking of Avila, Mr. Townsend says;

Of the convents, the most remarkable are those of the Carmelites, one for nuns, the other for friars; the latter built upon the spot where S. Teresa was born; the former where she took the veil. In this, the principal thing, at present, worthy to be noticed, is a picture, by Morales, representing a dead Christ, in his mother's arms; of which nothing need be said after having named the painter, because all his works

have such peculiar softness and expression, that men have universally agreed in calling him divine. The Carmelites of Avila once possessed a treasure infinitely more valuable to them than all the pictures ever painted by Morales; this was the body of S. Teresa. It was originally interred at Alba, A. D. 1582, but three years afterwards it was secretly taken up, and conveyed to Avila, where it was not suffered long to rest; for the Duke of Alba finding all other expedients vain, made application to the Pope, and obtained an order for its

return.

The life of S. Teresa is peculiarly interesting. Her frame was naturally delicate, her imagination lively, and her mind, incapable of being fixed by trivial objects, turned with avidity to those which religion offered, the moment they were presented to her view. But, unfortunately, meeting with the writings of S. Jerom, she became enamoured of the monastic life, and quitting the line for which nature designed her, she renounced the most endearing ties, and bound herself by the irrevocable vow. Deep melancholy then seized on her, and increased to such a degree, that for many days she lay both motionless and senseless, like one who is in a trance. Hcr tender frame, thus shaken, prepared her for ecstasies and visions such as it might appear invidious to repeat, were they not related by herself, and by her greatest admirers. She tells us, that in the fervour of her devotion, she not only became insensible to every thing around her, but that. her body was often lifted up from the earth, although she endea

voured to resist the motion; and Bishop Yepez relates in particular, that when she was going to receive the eucharist at Avila, she was raised in a rapture higher than the grate, through which, as is usual in nunneries, it was presented to her. She often heard the voice of God when she was recovered from a trance; but, sometimes the devil, by imitation, endeavoured to deceive her; yet she was always able to detect the fraud. She frequently saw St. Peter and St. Paul standing on her left hand, whilst our Lord presented himself before her eyes, in such a manner, that it was impossible for her to think it was the devil; yet, in obedience to the church, and by the advice of her confessor, she insulted the vision, as she had been used to do the evil spirits, by crossing herself, and making signs of scorn. Once, when she had in her hand the cross, which was at the end of her beads, our Lord took it from her, and when he restored it, she saw it composed of four large gems, incomparably more precious than diamonds. She had his five wounds engraved upon them after a most curious manner; and he told her, that she should always see that same appearance—and so she did; for from that time, she no longer saw the matter of which the cross was made, but only these precious stones, although no one saw them but herself. Whenever devils appeared to her in hideous forms, she soon made them keep their distance, by sprinkling the ground with holy water. She had often the happiness of seeing souls freed from purgatory, and carried up to heaven; but she never saw

more than three, which escaped the purifying flame, and these were F. Peter, of Alcantara, F. Ivagnez, and a Carmelite friar.

It is acknowledged, that many of her friends, distinguished for their good sense and piety, after examination, were of opinion, that she was deluded by the devil; yet, such was the complexion of the times, that she was at last universally regarded as a saint. She had, indeed, every thing needful to conciliate the good opinion of her friends, and the admiration of the multitude. The gracefulness and dignity of her appearance, the softness of her manners, and the loveliness of her disposition-the quickness of her wit, the strength of her understanding, and the fire of her imagination-all her natural accomplishments receiving lustre from her exalted piety and zeal, from the sanctity of her life, and the severity of her discipline, conspired to establish her reputation, as one that had immediate intercourse with heaven.

It is curious, yet most humiliating, to see a person of this description, amiable and respectable as S. Teresa, deceived, and, with the best intentions, deceiving others. In this instance, we can readily account for the delusion, from the delicacy and weakness of her frame, the strength of a disturbed imagination, and the prevalance of superstition. But when we see men of the finest understandings, in perfect health, of different and distant nations, in all ages, treading upon the same enchanted ground, we can only wonder-for who can give any rational account of the aberrations of our reason? The history of mysticism, if well