And as her custom and her trade is,
Begins to sneer and flout the ladies;
And, first this insolent remarker,
Made envious comments upon Barker,
"A beauty! well as I'm a sinner,
I ne'er could find such beauty in her.
Here's Hesketh, too, indeed her face is
So sweet that it excels the graces,
But then her person and her figure,
Methinks should be a little bigger.
See, too, that awkward thing, her sister,
I'm quite astonished how I miss'd her;
With what an air the girl advances,
And only mind her country dances.

Here's Stawell, too, who bears the honour
Of fresh nobility upon her,

I swear, (and truth's I hope no treason,)

I never could divine the reason.

Bless me! what's here! I did not see

Wise Montagu, the Belle Esprit,

Who studies, reads, and writes, and talks,

The very Sappho of the walks.

Your humble servant sweet Miss Stone,
The child is wonderfully grown!
And little Watkins so demure,

I like those lips so grave and pure,
No better than the roguish smile,
That plays about the lips of Lisle.
I hate you all, and you shall soon,
Feel the sore lash of keen lampoon.
Lampoon! it charms me-I'll indite it,
And Dr. B―w shall write it."

Thus much she said: when strange to tell,
Truth rising from her sacred cell
In the deep bottom of the well,
(Where poets and physicians say,

She spends with health the live long day,)
Shed o'er the place that solemn splendour,
Which all her native beauties lend her.
Say, ladies, have you never been
Spectators of the magic scene?
Whether the fate of great Macbeth,
Or Harlequin's love, birth, or death;
When after many a thunder clap,
Grim witches vanish through the trap;
Or haply the confed'rate hags
Use broomsticks for aerial nags;
But whether they may sink or soar,
The beldames are beheld no more:

Thus, suddenly, by fair Truth banish'd,
Scandal, with her attendant vanish'd;
But how or where the fury flew,

Except the muse no creature knew.
Say, muse, how was it that we lost her?

Why, faith she slipt into the Gloucester,*

And putting a romantic dress on,

Sneak'd back to town with poor M- -n.

* Mail.

BRIDGES.

AMONG the chief architectural glories of London rank its bridges. Rome can boast of a finer church. Berlin a nobler museum. Paris incomparably grander palaces. But what capital of Europe can show seven such structures as span the waters of the Thames between Vauxhall and the Custom House ? Canova declared that it was worth a journey all the way from Rome to London only to see the Waterloo Bridge. Paris has a great number of bridges, it is true; but the Seine is a river considerably less wide and deep than the Thames. The same may be said of the Spree and its channels at Berlin: a stream too remote from the sea, to be affected by its tides. The Danube, at Vienna, is not a tidal river, yet the Austrian capital is content with a wooden bridge across it. As to the Rhine, though not much wider than the Thames, at Hungerford, for two or three hundred miles, it has no bridge nearer to its outlets on the German Ocean, than Bale, in Switzerland.

HENRY THE SECOND'S REIGN, A.D. 1172. THOMAS A BECKET was at one time a very distinguished person, and whose quarrels with King Henry were a subject of concern and interest even to many foreign potentates. Thomas à Becket was the son of a citizen of London, and was the first Anglo-Saxon who had arrived at any kind of eminence since the Conquest. He had early been remarked for his great abilities and for his attachment to the cause of the Empress Maude. When Henry came to the throne, he selected Becket as his favourite companion, and at length made him chancellor, thus placing him in the highest dignity in the kingdom, next to that of the Archbishop of Canterbury. He also confided to him the education of Prince Henry, his eldest son. Becket now indulged himself in every kind of luxury and magnificence. He never moved without a numerous train of servants; his dress was splendid in the extreme; he was profuse in his gifts; the luxury of his table and of his furniture was greater than had ever been seen before; and Fitzstephen, who was his secretary, and wrote the history of his life, states, as an instance of his extreme delicacy, "that in winter his apartments were every day covered with clean hay and straw, and in summer with green rushes or boughs, that the gentlemen who paid court to him, and who could not, by reason of their numbers, find a place at table, might not soil their fine clothes by sitting on a dirty floor."

Though Becket had been ordained a deacon, he considered himself more a layman than an ecclesiastic, and employed his leisure in hunting and hawking, and similar diversions. He also engaged in military affairs, and conducted 700 knights, at his own charge, to attend the king in his war in France. His house was a place of education for the sons of the chief nobility, and the

king was often present at the entertainments he gave. As an instance of the familiarity with which the king treated Becket, Fitzstephen tells us the following story :-" One day while they were riding together in the streets of London, they met a poor beggar shivering with cold. The king made the observation, that it would be a good deed to give that poor man a warm coat. The chancellor agreed, and added, You do well, sir, in thinking of such a good action.' Then he shall have one presently,' said the king; and seizing on the chancellor's cloak, which was of scarlet lined with ermine, he tried to pull it off. The chancellor not liking to part with it, held it fast, and the king and he were near pulling each other off their horses in the scuffle. At last Becket letting the cloak go, the king gave it to the beggar, who, you may be sure, was much astonished at such a scene, and such a gift.""

The power of the Church of Rome was at this time at its height, and the bishops in their zeal for the privileges of their order, had encroached so much upon the rights of both the king and the people, that they were masters of their own consciences. Henry, feeling the inconvenience of this Church's tyranny, had long meditated putting an end to it; and on the death of the Archbishop of Canterbury, he promoted Becket to fill his place, believing that he would be ready to forward the design of lowering the pride and power of the clergy. But no sooner was Becket established in his new dignity, than he seemed changed in character, as well as in condition. He renounced all his gay and active amusements, and was always seen with a book in his hand, or absorbed in deep meditation. He affected the greatest austerities; he wore sackcloth next his skin, and never changed it, till it was full of dirt and vermin; he ate nothing but bread, and drank water in which fennel had been steeped to make it nauseous; he lacerated himself with continual scourging; and he every day washed the feet of thirteen poor beggars. In short, he appeared to take satisfaction in inflicting on himself the severest and most ostentatious penances. His conduct towards the king was not less changed than his personal deportment and way of living. He withdrew from the intimacy with which Henry had treated him, and resigned the office of chancellor, saying he must now devote himself wholly to his spiritual functions. And so far was he from giving any aid to the king's plans of reform, that he set himself up as a strenuous supporter of the usurpations of the clergy. In all this conduct he was encouraged by the Pope; and Henry was thus kept in continual ferment for eight years. Henry was so disappointed and exasperated by this conduct, that forgetful of all former regard for him, at last, in a moment of great irritation, he unhappily exclaimed "Is there nobody that will rid me of this turbulent priest Henry, probably, had no sooner said these words, than he forgot But they were not forgot by some of those who heard

them.

them, and who thought that they should do the king an acceptable service by executing what they imagined to be his wish. Four gentlemen of his household set out immediately with the utmost speed from Baieux, in Normandy, where the king then was, to England. When they arrived at Canterbury, they demanded. admittance into the archbishop's palace. The servants, apprehensive of some evil design, obliged their master to fly into the cathedral, thinking that the sanctity of the place would protect him. But the assassins followed him; and, because he would not submit to be their prisoner, they slew him on the steps of the altar, as he knelt before it. When Henry heard of this murder, he was so much shocked and concerned that he shut himself up for three days, and refused to let anybody come near him. At last his attendants forced open the door of his room, and persuaded him to take some refreshment. The king afterwards caused a magnificent tomb to be erected for Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. He walked barefoot to the shrine, and permitted himself to be lashed by scourges as he knelt before it; and thus considered himself as fully absolved from all guilt which he might have incurred by being accessary to his death.

THE PLANETARY SYSTEM.

Fair star of eve, thy lucid ray,

Directs my thoughts to realms on high;
Great is the theme, (though weak the lay,)
For my heart whispers God is nigh.
The Sun, vigerant of his power,
Shall rend the veil of parting night;
Salute the spheres, at early hour,
And pour a flood of life and light.
Seven circling planets I behold,
Their different orbits all describe;
Copernicus these wonders told,

And bade the laws of truth revive.
Mercury and Venus first appear,

Nearest the dazzling source of day,
Three months compose his hasty year,
In seven she treads the heavenly way.
Next Earth completes her yearly course,
The moon as satellite attends;
Attraction is the hidden force,

On which Creation's law depends.
Then Mars, is seen of fiery hue;
Jupiter's orb we next descry,

His atmospheric belts we view,

And four bright moons attract the eye.

Mars soon his revolution makes,

In twice twelve months the sun surrounds:

Jupiter greater limit takes,

And twelve long years declare his bounds.

VOL. II.

I

With ring of light see Saturn slow,
Pursue his path in endless space;
By seven pale moons his course we know,
And thirty years that round shall trace.
The Georgium Sidus next appears,
By his amazing distance known:
The lapse of more than eighty years,
In his account makes one alone.

Six moons are his, by Herschel shewn,
Herschel of modern times the boast,
Discovery here is all his own,
Another planetary host!

And lo! by astronomic scan,

Three stranger planets track the skies,

Part of that high majestic plan,

Whence those successive worlds arise.

Next Mars, Piazzi's orb is seen,

Four years, six months, complete his round:

Science shall renovated beam,

And gild Pelarmo's sacred ground.

Daughters of telescopic ray

Pallas and Juno, smaller spheres,

Are seen near Jove's imperial day,

Tracing the heav'ns as in destin'd years.

Comets and fixed stars I see,

With native lustre ever shine;

How great, how good, how dreadful He,
In whom life, light, and truth combine.

Oh! may I better know his will,

And more implicitly obey;

Be God my friend, my father still,
From finite-to eternal day.

SOME years after Allston had acquired a considerable reputation as a painter, a friend shewed him a miniature, and begged he would give his sincere opinion on its merits, as the young man who painted it had some thoughts of becoming a painter by profession. Allston after much pressing, and declining to give an opinion, candidly told the gentleman he feared the lad would never do anything as a painter, and advised his following some more congenial pursuit. His friend then convinced him that the work had been done by Allston himself, for this very gentleman, when Allston was very young!

AN Irishman recommending a cow, said, "she would give milk year after year, without having calves: because," said he, "it runs in the breed, for she came of a cow that never had a calf."

DR. DE LA COUR, of Cork, having one day to reprove a counsel, rather unlearned in the law, told him he was a counsellor of necessity. Necessity!" exclaimed briefless, "what do you mean by that ?" "Why," replied the doctor, "you know, necessity has no law."