hence to New Orleans on the Mississippi. Several of the boats frequenting the metropolitan rivers are splendid vessels, and elegantly fitted up; but the most admired of them are scarcely such beautiful crafts as the North-river steamers. For besides the large size, and beautiful proportions of these vessels, no expense is spared in embellishing their cabins and dining rooms; and in addition to those below deck, some of them are provided with handsome deck-cabins, and over these again are galleries covered with tasteful awnings where the passengers may lounge or take exercise, and enjoy at the same time the summer breeze that is scarcely perceptible in the lower parts of the vessels. The most imposing view of New York is from the south. In sailing up the bay you have the islandssome of them fortified and garrisoned-in the foreground of the picture, the North and East rivers stretching off to the right and left; while the city is seen somewhat indistinctly through. "the forest of masts," and the various-coloured flags of all the commercial nations under the sun; the chief defect being that you behold the narrow end of the city, consequently leaving too much of the picture to be completed by an effort of the imagination. From the lofty heights of Long Island, near Brooklyn (which by-the-by is a respectable-sized city already), there is an extensive view of New York across East River; but from thence you look too much directly at the broad side of it, although some of the islands on the left are embraced in this view. The city of Philadelphia is seen to the greatest advantage by the traveller who approaches it from Trenton or Bordentown, by the route of the Delaware. For several miles before reaching the city, the banks of the river, particularly the right hand one, become both interesting and beautiful; while directly in front the buildings of the city are seen rising like an amphitheatre in the distance, with a moderate amount of shipping in the fore-ground, but sufficient to give it a commercial character. For awhile you discover no outlet for the noble stream down which you float,but as you approach nearer the city you find that the river, instead of continuing the same course, (which would take it directly through the heart of the city,) turns with a graceful sweep to the left, embracing a low grassy island, as it inclines to the flat shores of New Jersey. In this view of Philadelphia the ground ascends from the river just sufficiently to show the successive ranges of buildings rising one above the other; but there is but little diversity in the general appearance, there being but few edifices of an imposing character, and but two steeples or towers worth notice are seen "pointing to the skies." In this respect the approach to New York has the advantage, for there five or six buildings of this character are embraced in a distant view of that city. In the year 1810 those rival cities were nearly upon an equality as regards population; for at that date the census gave New York a population of 96,000, and Philadelphia 92,000 inhabitants; and taking into consideration the fact that in giving the population of the former city the whole of the inhabitants in the county of New York, that is, upon the island of Manhattan, are embraced,-probably the number of souls actually in the city did not outnumber those of Philadelphia. In 1820, according to the census, the population of Philadelphia had only increased to 102,000, while that of its rival had nearly reached 124,000. But during the intervening period it should be borne in mind that there had been a war of two or three years' duration between the United States and Great Britain, by which, there can be no doubt, the increase of | In 1830 the population was very much retarded. THE EMANCIPATION OF LUNATICS. FIVE and forty years ago, lunatics were enchained throughout Europe. Eighty lunatics at the Bicêtre, an asylum for insane persons at Paris, were unchained by Pinel, in 1794, and the general treatment was henceforth improved; thongs and scourges were no longer delivered out to the keepers; and the result was, that many before deemed incurable recovered, and that all the rest became quieter and more easily governed. France was the first nation to offer the spectacle of nearly three thousand lunatics kept in confinement (in and near Paris) without chains, without blows, and without unkind treatment. Honour to Pinel! who, first of all in Europe, raised his voice against these atrocities, and pointed out the excitements they produced, and contrasted them with the calm that ensued on kind and compassionate treatment. In England, and indeed throughout Europe, the same benign spirit has manifested itself, and America has practically enforced the same great lessons of philanthropy. In Dr. Woodward's elaborate Report of the State Lunatic Hospital at Worcester, United States, it is said that of 230 patients, only one was, at the time of the inquiry, in personal restraint, and that under a system of leniency," the furious and violent had become docile and quiet; the filthy and degraded, cleanly and respectful." The claims of the insane on their happier fellow-creatures are many and sacred. The effects of the varied forms of misery, of privation and neglect, of abandonment, physical and moral, are concentrated in the madhouse. Poverty there has done its worst: and man is reduced to a state from which, too often, there is no relief but death. It may be thought that madness, like death, knocks alike at the palace-gate, and at the labourer's hovel; but even more heavily and more darkly does the misery which it flings over devoted households Sudden accidents come upon the fall on the poor. working-man, too, in which a fall, a blow, a wound, immediately injures the brain, and incapacitates the honest labourer, yet in the prime of life, from all future profitable work: and who can see and talk to this victim of calamity, in the quiet moments and intervals of his malady, when his anxious thoughts turn with honest faith to his home, to his wife, to his children, without commiserating that ruined humble household: not forgotten, but no longer supported and defended by the unfortunate husband and father, who must linger out his life in an asylum! Insanity appeals to the heart on every side, and happily, every act of benevolence produces its palpable good; under kind management hope revives, even in the cell, and on the bed of straw, and smiles relight the faces of those before forlorn and dead to every joy: by soothing care the frantic outrage of the maniac is abated, and the unspeakable wretchedness of the melancholic diminished. Every word, every look of kindness, finds its way to some pained heart, and does its blessed office. The great end, too, of all these exertions, the restoration of mental power, is infinitely noble. The physician feels that to restore health of body is an elevated art, the value of which those best can appreciate who have ever wanted the blessing. The art of the mental physician is to restore alacrity of attention, readiness of memory, warmth of imagination, accuracy of judgment, and the power to will and to do; the loss of all which is the most grievous part of sickness. These principles are yet of recent acknowledgment, but of stability and truth; the blessed product of that enlightened and universal charity which, although it has not yet flourished equally in every age and clime, has its imperishable root in Christian institutions. [Abridged from the British and Foreign Medical Review.] COURTESY. AN ATHENIAN STORY. IN Athens, ere its sun of fame had set, Midst pomp and show the gazing crowds were met, Lo, where the wide extended Circus spreads, The seats were filled. But ere the shows began, Not so the Spartan youth, whose simpler school Of kindness! and whose honest souls preferred They in the Cirque had their appointed place, Then came the sentence of Reproof and Praise, "Th' Athenians learn their duty well: but lo! The Spartans practise what th' Athenians know!" The words were good; and, in a virtuous cause, They justly earned a nation's glad applause. But we have surer words of precept given, In God's own Book-the words that came from heaven: "Be kind." "Be courteoust." "Be all honour shown." "Seek others' welfare rather than thine own§." precious gifts of the Eastern sages on the birth of our Lord, is sufficient to prove the high estimation in which they were held at that time. Among the Greeks the use of perfumes was, in some measure, restricted by their laws, and they deemed it effeminate and luxurious to employ them. In the primitive ages there were no sacrifices offered to their gods, in which odoriferous trees and herbs did not largely enter. In later ages, the offering commonly consisted of frankincense, or some perfumes, but it was a long time before frankincense was used; in the Trojan war it was unknown, and instead of it the Greeks offered cedar and citron. The Spartans were not allowed to use baths and perfumed ointments, except on particular days of the year, for the river Eurotas was expected to supply the place of the former, and exercise that of the latter. The Greeks were in the habit of perfuming their wine with myrrh, origanum, aromatics, fruits, and flowers. The use of perfumes was carried to greater excess among the Romans; the stores of Arabia were exhausted through the extravagance of some of the emperors, and even among the soldiery the most ridiculous care was bestowed on the perfuming of their persons, their standards, ensigns, &c. Perfumes were also largely employed in their funeral rites. The pile on which the body of the deceased was laid, resembled an altar, except that it was much higher. There were four compartments rising above each other. The lowest contained straw; the second from the ground, flowers; the third, aromatic herbs and other odoriferous things; the fourth, or highest, the most precious clothes of the deceased. Liquors, ointments, and herbs of the choicest description, were likewise thrown on the corpse. Great importance and many virtues are ascribed to perfumes by our old herbalists, such as clearing the brain, enlivening the spirits, &c., and there can be no doubt that in many cases and constitutions, the fragrance of peculiar plants may have a cheering and refreshing effect. In close and confined situations, however, they may be expected to produce a contrary result, for abundant ventilation and perfect cleanliness are necessary to the wholesome and safe enjoyment of perfumes. The cheapness of our perfumery at the present day, allows the gratification derived from the use of fragrant oils and essences, to be much more generally attained than it could have been in former times. Herbs, drugs, and flowers, are made to yield their aromatic odours for our use. Among the former we may mention marjoram, sage, thyme, lavender, &c., while of drugs, frankincense, mace, cloves, benzoin, storax, and many others, are held in great esteem. Orange-flowers, jonquils, jessamine, roses, violets, and other fragrant flowers, are also largely employed, and thus, by a judicious use of some of these various essences, we may impart to our dwellings or our dress, the delightful odours of our favourite flowers, at any period of the year. Otto of roses, which is the most costly of all the perfumes, and the most powerful, is made in India, and very highly esteemed. It is said that the genuine otto is not prepared by distillation, but by putting a quantity of carefully picked roseleaves into a clean jar, or cask, with just enough water to cover them, and then setting the vessel in the sun for a few days. A scum forms on the surface of the water, which is removed by a piece of cotton, and is the valuable otto itself. Rose-water is distilled from fresh rose leaves gathered in dry weather, and when the flowers are in full perfection. The petals are carefully separated from the stalks and calyxes, and if a very fragrant water is required, the first product from them should be returned to the still and half its bulk | round friable pills. The musk bags, however, are drawn over. Rose leaves may be preserved for dis- sometimes cut open before they leave China, part of tillation by being salted; they will be found to retain the contents abstracted, and the deficiency made up their odour, and the water distilled from them will with dried blood, rolled up into pills to imitate the nearly equal that obtained from the fresh petals. If true musk. Other musk dealers leave the bags in a the bottles, in which rose-water is kept, are not per- damp place to increase their weight, and this injures fectly clean, it will turn sour, and indeed, with all the quality of the musk. It is sometimes greatly precautions, it is very apt to do so. Some persons, adulterated with spikenard, chocolate, aloes, nutmeg, on this account, have added a small quantity of spirit | storax, &c. of wine for its preservation, but it is not desirable to do so, since the stimulating property thus imparted, will render the rose water unfit for the use to which it is very frequently applied, namely, that of bathing the eyes. The essential oil of lavender constitutes a most agreeable perfume. The best is obtained by distillation of the flowers of the plant: where the leaves and stalks are added, the quality is inferior. Lavender water, as it is generally prepared, is not a distilled spirit, but an alcoholic solution of oil of lavender, to which other scents are occasionally added. The essential oil of orange-flowers is a very fine, delicate, and expensive perfume, often adulterated with inferior matters. The essential oils of bergamot, orange, and lemon, are obtained by expression from the peel. The bergamot is a fruit resembling both the orange and lemon, but it is of a larger size than either, and pro- | duces an abundance of oil. The oils of jasmin and tuberose are of so delicate a nature, as to be impaired by the most careful distillation. The perfumes of these flowers are, therefore, obtained from them by steeping the blossoms in perfectly inodorous fixed oil, which becomes imbued with their fragrance, and from which the odour may be transferred to alcohol, so as to form a spirituous essence. The essence of jasmin forms a much more pleasing perfume when mixed with other substances, than when used alone. Several of the perfumes here mentioned, enter into the composition of the muchadmired Eau de Cologne. The following recipe may be acceptable to such persons as feel disposed to prepare an imitation of it for their own use. Take an ounce of each of the following essences; bergamot, lemonpeel, lavender, and orange flower, half an ounce of essence of cinnamon, fifteen ounces of spirit of rosemary, the same quantity of spirituous water of melisse, with seven pints and a half of alcohol. Mix the whole together, and let the mixture stand for a fortnight. Then pour it into a glass retort, the body of which is immersed in boiling water, contained in a vessel placed over a lamp, while the beak is introduced into a glass reservoir. By keeping the water to the boiling point, the mixture in the retort will distil over into the receiver, which should be kept cold by being obtained a good substitute for Eau de Cologne, which in its pure and genuine state, is manufactured at one place only in the world, and that is Cologne, as the name of the water implies. The process by which the genuine article is made, still remains secret, although the principal ingredients employed have been discovered by analysis. There are three animal substances which greatly improve and strengthen other perfumes, though they are in themselves of such a penetrating and overpowering odour, as to be scarcely endurable; these are musk, civet, and ambergris. Musk is a concrete substance obtained from the muskdeer of the East, and also from the musk-rat, a native of America. It is imported in the natural bags in which it is found in the animal, about the size of a pigeon's egg. Genuine musk, from China, is of the colour of an old brown nutmeg, rolled up in little covered over with wet cloths. In this manner will be Ambergris comes from Holland, Africa, Brazil, and the East and West Indies, where it is found floating on the sea. It is an animal substance, supposed to be formed through disease, in the intestines of the spermaceti whale. That which is gray, very light, and easy to break, is the best. It is sold at an extremely high price, and is therefore the more frequently adulterated, but persons having once become acquainted with its peculiar odour, will not easily be imposed upon, and by melting a small portion of the substance, they will find the odour emitted to be a sufficient test of its genuineness. An alcoholic solution of this substance, called essence of ambergris, is sold by perfumers, and when used in small quantities with other perfumes, it yields a delightful perfume. Civet is a fragrant substance procured from the civet cat. It is of a yellow colour and unctuous consistence, but becomes brown by keeping. The odour, like that of ambergris, is not fit to be used alone : with other perfumes it is exquisite. The A small quantity of camphor greatly improves the fragrance of many perfumes, but either this, or the three last mentioned articles, will destroy the delicacy of the scent, if used in too great abundance. usual method of perfuming linen is to lay sweet bags in the drawers which contain it, and these may be filled with dried and pounded blossoms of any fragrant flowers, with the leaves of mint, balm, southernwood, ground ivy, laurel, hyssop, rosemary, marjoram, also dried and pounded spices reduced to a powder, orris root and fragrant balsams may be likewise added, and if agreeable to the taste of those who are to use the perfume, musk, civet, or ambergris, will give power and additional sweetness to the whole. It is recommended that sleeping apartments and bed linen be never perfumed, for owing to the comparative want of ventilation in those rooms, the practice is likely to prove injurious. We have thus described a few of the favourite per. fumes, but we are not by any means disposed to recommend a constant use of them; on the contrary, we may venture to say that persons who waft around them at every step, a degree of fragrance which Makes some sick, and others à la mort*, while they may be gratifying their own sense of smell, have forgotten the legitimate use of perfumes, and they show little consideration for those whose more delicate nerves can ill support such a tide of sweetness. Leaving it then to the taste and judgment of our readers to make a moderate and proper use of perfumes, as well as of the other materials for the toilette, and recommending them to abridge, as far as is consistent with neatness and propriety, the time devoted to the decoration of the person, in order that they may gain time for the adorning of the nobler mind we conclude the present series of papers. * CoWPER. DUELS are but illustrious murders. It is an imperious crime, which triumphs both over public revenge and private virtue, and tramples boldly upon the laws of the nation, and the life of our enemy. Courage thinks law here to be but pedantry, and honour persuades men that obedience here is cowardice.-MACKENZIE. GALLANT EXPLOIT IN 1745. ABOUT twenty years ago, a venerable and hale-looking peasant who could remember the irruption of the Jacobite clans in 1745, was fond of basking in the sun and, with the garrulity natural to old age, relating anecdotes of old times to such listeners as he could find in the gardens of his native parish, Cramond, situated on the firth of Forth about five miles north-west from Edinburgh. He said he was a "callant" that is, stripling, when the Highlanders crossed the country on their way to the Scotch metropolis, which, with the exception of the castle, surrendered at their approach. His father occupied at that time one of those small holdings, then so common, but which are now merged in the extensive parks and farms which now distinguish the Lothians. The invaders, he said, were an ill-clad and half-starvedlooking, but by no means ferocious soldiery; and, as a specimen of their manners, he related that a party of them happening to pass his father's door as his mother was busy at the churn, they entered, making signs for food and chattering Gaelic, and unceremoniously helping themselves to spoons, emptied the contents of the churn into their own stomachs. A pair of new Sunday shoes was also taken from a shelf, but on the principle that exchange was no robbery, a a pair of well-worn brogues, shoes rudely made of untanned hide, was left instead. But what the old man was fondest of telling was an exploit which gave no small proof of the courage and military skill of the young farmers of the parish. The "Pretender" before leaving Edinburgh on his romantic expedition into Derbyshire, wanted to increase his cavalry, and with this view sent parties, consisting chiefly of officers, to levy horses in the country round his head-quarters. One such party had arrived at Cramond, and had collected the best horses in the parish at a large square house in the centre of the village, into which they then went themselves to repair the fatigues of their search with a substantial dinner and probably somewhat overMeanwhile the young farmers copious potations. were resolved that their best horses should not be taken away without an attempt at rescue. The neighbourhood was by no means so favourable then as it is now, for the execution of such a project. It was then generally marked by the bareness which Dr. Johnson has done so much good to Scotland by satirizing. What is now the richly wooded-domain of Dalmeny Park, was then divided into about forty farms each distinguished by a few old trees. Barnbougle Castle, an ancient seat of the Mowbrays, once a powerful family in those parts, stood out in grim and lonely grandeur, approached by long avenues of oak now exhibiting symptoms of decay, and surrounded on three of its sides by a vast beach of dazzling brightness, from the quantity of minute bivalve shells cast upon it by the tide. Muirhouse, on the other side of the Almond, a beautiful stream which nearly bisects the parish, was then, as its name imports, a house on a moor, though now embosomed amid large and thriving trees and the richest cultivation. On the whole, instead of the leafy luxuriance which has been poured over the landscape by the hand of modern improvement, there was then so little cover to conceal the approach of an assailing party, that the Highlanders enjoyed their good cheer without the least apprehension of being interrupted. Bare, however, as the neighbourhood was, one spot presented an advantage of which the rescuing party speedily availed themselves. The precipitous banks of the Almond were then as now fringed and tufted with trees and bushes, among which the gallant farmers contrived to muster with what arms they could find, and sallying out from this rendezvous, they at once surrounded the house where the partisans of a dynasty for which they had no affection, were securely regaling themselves. So complete was their success that they disarmed and made prisoners of the whole party, sent them off in boats to his Majesty's sloop of war, the Fox, then lying in the Firth, and left not a man to return to Edinburgh and relate the mishap that had befallen the expedition. The horses were of course recovered. EARLY GRAY HAIRS. O'ER my head, e'er yet a boy, Care has thrown an early snow; Soothes the heart that beats below. Cheer the happy sons beneath. PENROSE. WHAT can limit the excursive flight of human curiosity? It dives into the bowels of the earth, explores the mine, and speculates on the formation of the world itself. The sea forms no obstacle to its career. It visits the equator and the poles, and circumnavigates the globe. Nor does. it take a cursory flight only, which seems merely to measure space,-it pauses to meditate and to inquire. There is not an animal that traverses the desert, there is not an insect that crawls on the ground, there is not a flower that blooms in the air, there is not a stone cast carelessly along our path, but it stops, and interrogates, and forces to declare its nature. You behold it scaling the heavens, measuring the magnitudes and distances of the celestial bodies, and even determining their weight. In short, every sound, every motion, every attitude attracts its attention. And shall man, while he thus casts an inquisitive eye on every thing around him, be incurious only about himself? Shall the lord of the lower world busy himself in acquiring a knowledge of the properties, habits, and functions of the beasts which perish, while he is careless about the qualities of that superior mind which has elevated him to the rank of their master, and which betokens a dignity and a destination far beyond the limits of their nature? Shall he immerse himself in the contemplation of corporeal beings, and never once inquire into the operations of that finer spirit which actuates himself, and makes him to be what he is?-YOUNG. WILD BEAST TAMERS. THE Van Amburghs of the present day are but disciples of an old-established school:-the posterity of the "Belluari" of the ancients. According to Pliny's report, there were men of this craft who tamed wild beasts so effectually as to lead them about with garlands of fig-leaves; and long before his time, as may be reasonably inferred from antique sculptures, in which Bacchus is represented riding in cars drawn either by igers, leopards, or panthers, the art of disciplining wild beasts must have been practised. One of the severest laws of Budhism enjoins its votaries "to feed an old sick tiger with their own blood;" whence some have concluded, that the Indians were in the habit of domesticating that animal. There can be no doubt that the Mexican priests were masters of this craft, and took much pains to fling an air of mystery over their appliances: for this purpose they prepared an ointment, of which the ashes of poisonous reptiles were a constituent part, and burned it upon the altars dedicated to their idols; these ashes were finely powdered in a mortar, and mixed with tar, hemlock, tobacco, and other narcotic drugs. The compound so obtained, endowed them, as they pretended, with the power of commanding lions and tigers to obey them. In Africa, too, the taming of wild beasts has long face, and howled with delight. The lioness evinced been practised. The Emperor of Morocco has large equal joy at his return; but the lion drove her back, open dens at Fez, where tigers and lions are tended angrily refusing to allow her to partake of the man's by Jewish keepers, who use nothing but a light cane caresses. Cassal, seeing that a contest was likely to to keep then under; and the Pashas of Egypt have ensue between the animals, entered their den, and lions domesticated in their Harem, a splendid speci-having allayed their rage against one another, caressed men of which was presented to the King of France and received their caresses by turns. He was accusin June last by Mehemet Ali. The Duke de Choiseul, tomed to walk into their cage whenever he listedminister to one of his predecessors, Louis the speak to the male or female alternately with great Fifteenth, had a favourite tiger-cat constantly in his kindness-flatter them by gentle arts, and stroke and cabinet; and there have been remarkable instances kiss them by the mane or neck: at his command they in the Botanical Garden at Paris of the extent to would separate and each retire to the distinct apartwhich the power, assigned to man over the brute ments allotted to them in the den, or they would lie creation, may be carried. down on their backs, stretch out their paws, and allow him to show their immense claws to the bystanders; or upon his giving them a sign they would instantly lie down upon their backs, throw out their paws, open their huge jaws wide and display their formidable masticators; the only reward he bestowed upon them for their obedience being a permission to lick his hands. An instance of this kind occurred in 1801 with respect to a lion and lioness which had been sent as a present from the Bey of Constantine to the French sovereign. Cassal, their keeper, being absent from illness, they were committed to the care of one of his colleagues: the change did not appear to affect the female, but her mate retired to the corner of his den, where he sullenly laid himself down, refusing his new attendant's good offices, and by his low, suspicious growl giving him pretty plainly to understand that he would be glad to dispense with his attendance. He seemed to entertain the same feeling towards his consort; at least, he ceased to take any notice of her. There was an expression of uneasiness and suffering about the lion, which indicated that he was sick, and none dared approach him. Cassal at last recovered sufficiently to be enabled to resume his duties, and being desirous to give his noble friend an agreeable surprise, crept softly up to the bars of his cage and laid his face beside them; as soon as the animal discovered him, he sprung from the back of the cage, stroked Cassal with his paws, licked his hands and Martin, too, was another famous tamer of wild beasts, and used to amuse his audience by driving tigers and lions to exasperation, and then showing how complete a mastery he had acquired over them even in their savage moments. This man had a young tiger, who used to skip about among the spectators, lick their hands, and play with a little girl of six years old whom he brought with him. He has escaped unscathed from his hazardous craft, and retired into domestic privacy upon its fruits. The feats of Van Amburgh, who was born at a little town in the county of Duchess, Kentucky, in July, 1811, are too fresh in the recollection of most of our readers to need any narrative from us. S. THE UNITED STATES' BANK, PHILADELPHIA. LONDON; Published by JOHN W. PARKER, WEST STRAND; and sold by all Booksellers. |