fight fo ftrange, and which fhewed, as he thought, fuch folly and infanity.---Be ashamed, young man, faid one who passed by, of your rudeness and ignorance. You now behold the greatest Philofopher of the age, Sir Ifaac Newton, investigating the nature of light and colours, by a series of experiments, no lefs curious than useful, though you deem them childish and infignificant.

COMPASSION TO THE POOR.

ITY the forrows of a poor old man,

PITY

Whofe trembling limbs have borne him to your door,

Whose days are dwindled to the shortest span,

Oh! give relief, and Heaven will blefs your ftore.

These tatter'd cloaths my poverty bespeak,
These hoary locks proclaim my lengthen'd years;
And many a furrow in my grief-worn cheek
Has been the channel to a flood of tears.

Yon house, erected on the rifing ground,
With tempting afpect drew me from my road;
For Plenty there a refidence has found,
And Grandeur a magnificent abode.

Hard

Hard is the fate of the infirm and poor!
Here, as I crav'd a morfel of their bread,
A pamper'd menial drove me from the door,
To feek a fhelter in an humbler shed.

Oh! take me to your hofpitable dome;
Keen blows the wind, and piercing is the cold!
Short is my paffage to the friendly tomb,

For I am poor and miferably old.

Should I reveal the fources of my grief,

If foft humanity e'er touch'd your breast, Your hands would not withhold the kind relief, And tears of pity would not be represt.

Heaven fends misfortunes; why fhould we repine?
"Tis Heaven has brought me to the ftate you fee;
And your condition may be foon like mine,
The child of forrow, and of misery.

A little farm was my paternal lot,

Then like the lark I fprightly hail'd the morn;
But ah! oppreffion forc'd me from my cot,
My cattle dy'd, and blighted was my corn.

My daughter, once the comfort of my age,
Lur'd by a villain from her native home,
Is caft abandon'd on the world's wide stage,
And doom'd in fcanty poverty to roam.

My tender wife, fweet foother of my care!
Struck with fad anguish at the stern decree,
Fell, ling'ring fell, a victim to despair,
And left the world to wretchedness and me.

Pity the forrows of a poor old man,

Whose trembling limbs have borne him to your door, Whose days are dwindled to the shortest span,

Oh! give relief, and Heaven will bless your ftore.

THE SPEAKER, BY DR. ENFIELD.

T

PARENTAL

AFFECTION.

HE white bear of Greenland and Spitzbergen is confiderably larger than the brown bear of Europe, or the black bear of North America. This animal lives upon fish, and feals, and is not only feen upon land in the countries bordering on the North Pole, but often on floats of ice, feveral leagues at fea. The following relation is copied from the Journal of a Voyage, for making Discoveries towards the North Pole.

EARLY in the morning, the man at the maft-head of the Carcafe, gave notice that

that three bears were making their way very fast over the ice, and that they were directing their courfe towards the fhip. They had, without queftion, been invited by the scent of the blubber of a sea horse, killed a few days before, which the men had fet on fire, and which was burning on the ice at the time of their approach. They proved to be a fhe-bear and her two cubs; but the cubs were nearly as large as the dam. They ran eagerly to the fire, and drew out from the flames part of the flesh of the fea horse, that remained unconfumed, and ate it voraciously. The crew from the ship threw great lumps of the flesh of the fea horse, which they had still left, upon the ice, which the old bear fetched away fingly, laid every lump before her cubs as the brought it, and dividing it, gave each a share, referving but a small portion to herself. As fhe was fetching away the laft piece, they levelled their

muskets at the cubs, and fhot them both dead; and in her retreat they wounded the dam, but not mortally.

It would have drawn tears of pity from any but unfeeling minds, to have marked the affectionate concern expreffed by this poor beaft, in the laft moments of her expiring young. Though fhe was forely wounded, and could but just crawl to the place where they lay, fhe carried the lump of flesh fhe had fetched away, as fhe had done others before, tore it in pieces, and laid it down before them; and when she faw that they refused to eat, fhe laid her paws first upon one, and then upon the other, and endeavoured to raise them up : all this while it was pitiful to hear her moan. When the found fhe could not ftir them, fhe went off, and when she had gotten at fome diftance, looked back and moaned; and that not availing her to entice them away, fhe returned, and fmelling round them, began to lick their wounds. She went off a fecond time, as before; and having crawled a few paces, looked again behind her, and for fome time ftood moaning. But ftill her cubs not rifing to follow her, fhe returned to

them