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We now learned that the exercises of the day were actually to commence. The business at the "neat and airy hall,' was merely a preliminary flourish-an anchovy for the delicate repast that was to follow. Accordingly, a member arose, and delivered, in good Miltonic blank verse, an eulogy on the life and writings of Linnæus, of which the following lines afford but a faint and imperfect specimen.

WHY, Some may ask, are we assembled here,*
On this particular twenty-fourth of May,
In preference to any other time?

I'll tell you why, ladies and gentlemen!
Because, upon this day, about this hour,
There was a great man born upon the earth.

GREATNESS means different things; and when applied
To things inanimate, has reference

To size; and thus we say, a louse is little,

And a rhinoceros is very great;

But, to the mind, when we apply the term,
It means a very different sort of thing.

HOMER was great: he wrote the Iliad,
Also the Odyssey: he is very dead.
O what a pity! VIRGIL too was great;
He flourished when Augustus reigned in Rome,
And wrote the Aeneid. He too has gone dead;
But when the weeds, of which some specimens,
Will shortly be presented, have choaked up,t
With their rank growth, his tomb, his name will live.

DEMOSTHENES and CICERO were great;

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And, tho' you'd scarce expect one of my age,'

To know the fact-fine pleaders in their day.

CESAR and ALEXANDER were great captains;

And I am great at making eulogies.

FRANKLIN was great: he brought the lightning down
Even from the clouds, and caught it on a spike,

Gliding down which, into a water trough,

He laughed to see the hissing thunderbolt,

Quenched and put out, like hot shot in a tub.‡

* See this poetry, done into prose, page 9th of the procès verbal, of the "celcbration at Flushing."

See page 13th, of the "celebration." Much valuable information, on subjects connected with natural history, may be found in the address, contained in that and the preceding pages; e. g. "William Tell, with an arrow, is reported to have shot from the top of his son's head, the apple placed there by Governor Grisler, and by that means saved his life," &c.

This idea is sublimely conveyed, in very elegant Latin, in a poem by M. Derrailly, which gained the prize at the ancient University of Paris. Summaque sulphureus jam turbo in tecta ruebat ; Excipit illum auro præfulgens ferrea cuspis.

FULTON was great: he made his steamboats go
Up the North River; and the Chancellor

Is great, who lets the others go along.

And great was SOLOMON; not so much because
He ruled in Jewry, as because he was
A gentleman particularly wise.

So was LINNEUs great. This is his birth-day;
And here I stand to speak his eulogy, &c.

The recitation of this poem was succeeded by rather a prosing account of a method of preserving hams, by immersing them in a concentrated solution of corrosive sublimate. The author assured us that bacon, preserved in this manner, will never be touched by any insect. He did not state whether he had tasted it himself: but as the design was rather to preserve the meat, than to prepare it for eating, perhaps he was right in not making the experiment. An elaborate disputation on that rare and beautiful plant, the Tripolium paradoxicum, or four-leaved clover, illustrated by a splendid transparency, sixty feet high, was received with immense applause. The. fair artist, Miss was elected Asocié libre by acclamation; and Misses who furnished the colours and varnish, were placed on the list of honorary members.

and

During the excitement produced at this period, a young lady unfortunately fell among a parcel of raspberry and gooseberry bushes; whence she was extricated by the prompt and chivalrous exertions of the same gentleman who formerly jumped into the Chesapeake bay, and rescued Miss from a watery grave, in a high sea, when the steamboat was going

at the rate of ten knots an hour.

An awful pause ensued. Another member arose, and after stating that he was totally unprepared, owing to his extensive. correspondence, and his numerous avocations, he drew from his pocket a curious manuscript, (something like Pope's autograph of the Iliad,) and commenced in a clear and manly tone the following

Discourse.

Ladies and Gentlemen-At the earnest solicitation of the dis、 tinguished personage who this day presides over our festival, I have reluctantly consented to deliver an address, explanatory of the objects of the society.

Detrudit rutilos vis imperiosa paratam

In foveam tractus; flammasque haud sponte sequaces
Subjectis sepelivit aquis-

Franklinius placido securus suspicit ore.

The birthday of Linnæus is a day of no ordinary moment: My enlightened audience will, doubtless, be gratified to learn, that the parent society at Paris have, at length, determined the true etymon of the name of the immortal Swede. His original name was Lin or Linn; but, as it is customary among the Scandinavians, to annex a Latin termination to the vernacular appellative, he is known to the learned world chiefly under the name of Linnæus. Memorable instances of this kind are not wanting in our own highly favoured city, (excuse my partiality; I ought to be a citizen of the world.) Thus we have Bogardus, Arcularius, &c. &c. altered from their primitives.

(applause). But not to exhaust the patience of my Fredonian brethren, I beg leave to refer them, for a more ample elucidation of this subject, to the 4th vol. second hexade of the Medical Repository; a work conducted for more than twenty years, by the person who now addresses you a work, allow me to add, which is characterized by that ornament of science, the illustrious Carl Bang of Dusseldorf, as an "opus mirabile, gaza magna Nature," and other equally flattering, and perhaps not undeserved compliments. This recals to my mind an elegant Latin epistle, addressed to me, on the same work, by the venerable and immortal Wepferius, of Breda : Noscitur Ungue Leo: sed tu clarissim' MITCHILLI Evadis docto, nobilis ingenio.

Ingenium doctum monstrarunt edita scripta,
Porro Hoc, ingenium nobile, laudat OPUS.

Laudat opus quivis Physeos scrutans bona Piscibus,
Quod de monstrosis, ut scribere perplacuit.

Sic pergens scriptis famam amplificare, citato,
Non tardo, scandes culmina celsa, gradu.*

(Three cheers from the ladies.)

*For the benefit of the country gentlemen, we subjoin a free translation of the above. Of course it is the only species of translation that should be tolerated in our free republic.

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The illustrious autocrat of all the Russias, in return for a copy of this work, has done me the honour of transmitting through the distinguished Count Nesselrode, and our highly respected minister, Mr. Pinckney, a splendid diamond ring, which was brought to this port by that experienced navigator Captain Josiah Barker, of the good ship Lady Gallatin.

(Bravo! from all parts of the Garden.) With regard to diamond, it is now supposed, from the experiments of the profound and accurate Silliman, that it may be obtained from the combustion of carbon. Some very ingenious and felicitous remarks, from the acute and distinguished Van Uxen, of Georgia, would, however, seem to render this doubtful. Science expects much from the future labours of these celebrated chemists of Fredonia.-(Applause.)

As an item of intelligence, I state, that our great and learned citizen, Captain Obed Peabody, of the smack "Ten Sisters," with a liberality worthy of his enlarged mind, has presented to the Cabinet, a most singular, and odd-shaped creature.* It is the siren of Carolina, respecting which, there is, at this moment, going on a memorable controversy, between the elaborate Cuvier of France, the erudite Rusconi, of Italy, and the highly gifted Screibers, of Vienna. The animal is a batracian reptile, or frog-formed crawler, and certainly possesses both the lungs of the mammalia, and the gills of the piscatory tribe. Of this, I satisfied myself by actual dissection, in the presence of those worthy and indefatigable anatomists, Doctors Trocar and Probang; and that accomplished fisherman, Mr. Sam Jones, of the Washington, late Bear market.-(Repeated acclamations.)

In connection with this subject, I may mention, that a new edition of our National Pharmacopeia, is now in the press of those modern Elzivirs, the Messrs. Collins. My fellow-citizens may be assured, that its prosodial and posological merits will only be excelled by its typographical accuracy.--(Tumultuous approbation.)

*Lege-creater.

A solemn fact 'tis ;

Lives in that work of gain and glory

His Medical Repository,

A noble fund of song and story;

Precept and Practice;

His volumes now may smile at fate,

Like Dwight's and Marshall's (church and state,)

For books are valued by their weight,

Since Tod's new taxes.

As I belong to the matter-of-fact men, I may mention, that the existence of tides in the great lakes of our continent, which has hitherto been overlooked or denied, is now clearly proved, through the industry of the honourable B. Stickney, of Ohio. The learned communication of that excellent citizen, to me, on the subject, may be found in that widely circulated, and valuable paper, the Commercial Advertiser, which reflects so much honour on the industry and talent of its accomplished editor, Mr. W. L. Stone."

The voice of the speaker was now so completely lost in the wild shouts of applause, that arose from every part of the garden, that it was impossible to hear a single syllable. Recollecting, very opportunely, a previous engagement to dinner in town, we forced our way through the excited multitude, and happily arrived at the steam-boat, just as she was on the point of returning to the city.

P. S. A gentleman, decorated with a cordon bleu and rosette, (a foreign nobleman, doubtless,)* informed us last evening, that we lost every thing by not remaining to the Symposium or dinner. We persuaded him to draw up an account for your next number. One joke, however, was so good, that he must excuse us for the plagiarism. The first toast given, was, “The health of Dr. S. L. M. the Lacepede of America." The Vice-President, in repeating it, made the following judidicious variation. "The health of Dr. S. L. M. the Velocipede of America." It is needless to add, that it was received. with a thundering burst of applause. F.

SONGS BY THE WAY.

The fact that classical education, in almost all the seminaries of the United States, is exceedingly imperfect, and that a young man, to have even a respectable acquaintance with the works of the ancients, must be self-taught, is too obvious to require illustration. One result, however, and a very striking one, is, that in the published poetical effusions of the young, of which so many have heretofore appeared, and been immediately forgotten, although indications of imagination, talent and study, have frequently been exhibited, the want of correct and precise ideas about the poor old Greeks and Romans, their mythology, his

*Our friend, F. has, doubtless, confounded a member of the Philharmonick, with a peer of the realm.-Ed.

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