SIR,

TO THE EDITOR OF THE BEE.

Ir the following stanzas meet your approbation, and would not disgrace your Miscellany, their insertion would much oblige your humble servant, M.

THE BLIND Boy.

PITY the wailings of the poor blind boy,
Bereft of ev'ry comfort of this life!
Of ev'ry sweet, of ev'ry little joy,

And still expos'd to all its bitter strife!
Ne'er have I wander'd from this humble cot,
For here my father and my mother liv'd;
But they are dead and sorrow is my lot,
Oh leave a little of the wealth you've sav'd!
No riches had my sire;-a lab'ring life

Procur'd a pittance to his children dear;
Three sons, a daughter, and a loving wife,
Divided all his love and all his care.

But heaven took him from our eager arms!

My mother pin'd;-the cause my father's death;
My brothers mix'd in wild war's rude alarms,
And for their country yielded up their breath!
But these were woes I bore with manly grief;
Oh hear my wailings, they your pity crave!
For now no hope, sad lengthen'd, gives relief!
No peace for me, but in the dreary grave!
My sister who was left with me alone,

My guide to pitying friends from door to door,
Was by a villain cruelly undone,

Who neither car'd for pity nor the poor!

Disease ensued. She rav'd and pin'd away
And still to heaven, complaining, pour'd her soul;
But dreary madness, growing night and day,
Confin'd her to the dismal cell, how foul!

Life runs apace, and all these ills I bear,

Nought can my ling'ring days from sorrow save;
The smallest pittance from your flowing chear,
Will keep a wretched victim from the grave.

Pity the sorrows of the poor blind boy,
Bereft of ev'ry comfort of this life!
Of ev'ry sweet, of ev'ry little joy,
And still expos'd to all its bitter strife!
VOL. XIV.

M.

t

VERSES TO THE POPPY, BY MRS CHARLOTTE SMITH.

1AIL, precious blossom! thou canst ease
The wretched victims of disease;

Canst close those weary eyes in gentle sleep
Which never open but to weep;
For, Oh! thy potent charm
Can agonising pain disarm;

Expel imperious mem'ry from her seat,
And bid the throbbing heart forget to beat.

Soul-soothing plant! that can such blessings give,
By thee the mourner bears to live!
By thee the hopeless die!
Oh! ever "friendly to despair,"
Might sorrow's pallid vot'ry dare,
Without a crime, that remedy implore,

Which bids the spirit from its bondage fly,

I'd court thy palliative aid no more;

No more I'd sue that thou shouldst spread
Thy spell around my aching head,
But would conjure thee to impart
Thy balsam for a broken heart;
And by thy soft Lethean pow'r,
Inestimable flow'r!

Burst these terrestrial bonds, and other regions try.

AN EXTRACT FROM THE "TOMB OF CHARLOTTE,"
A poem by Mrs Horrel.

THE red breast oft is seen at evening hours,
Drefsing her grave with never-fading flow'rs;
And Philomel has near her built her nest,
And sings in mournful strains her soul to rest.
Sweet plaintive warbler of the feather'd throng?
To you such tender strains belong,

Still hover round this spot, and guard her bed.
Whilst Robin's mofs lies lightly o'er her head;
No nightly owl from ivy nest fhall scream,
No goblins haunt this ever verdant scene,
But pearly drops descend from weeping dews,
And spring perpetual all her sweets diffuse.

CONGERNING THE ROAD TOWARDS PERFECTION.

For the Bee.

Wisdom is the great and chief object: therefore get wisdom, get understanding: forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee: love her, and she shall keep thee, and bring thee to honour. [PROVERBS OF SOLOMON, THE SON OF DAVID, Chap IV. ver. 5. 6. 7.]

KNOWLEDGE, whether in the form of history or science, is surely of great value to the intellectual nature of man; and the records of knowledge, preserved in literary compesitions are, the principal means of communicating its benefits from age to age, and from one nation to another. An art by which this effect is produced, may no doubt be placed among the most effectual means of cultivating the faculties of man, of forwarding his progrefs, of extending the fruits of experience, and of augmenting the powers to be derived from a just notion and application of the laws by which human nature is governed.

The mere conceptions also of superior genius, and the sentiments which arise in such minds, whether fictitious or real, remaining with the people, in literary monuments of any denomination, must contribute to form the national character, and give to ordinary men, some participation of the sentiment and thought which took their rise from the exertions. of a superior mind.

"The monuments of literature and arts produced in one age, remain with the ages that follow, and serve as a kind of ladder, by which the human faculties, mounting upon steps, which ages succefsively place, arrive in the end at those heights of exquisite discernment, and elegant

man is qualified to obtain."

choice, which, in the pursuit of its objects, the mind of [Principles of Moral and Political Science by Dr Adam Ferguson.]

"To the mind which is by nature endowed with a discernment of rectitude and truth, the experience even of may lead the way to what is good.

evil

Society, in which alone the distinction of right and wrong is exemplified, may be considered as the garden of God, in which the tree of knowledge of good and evil is planted, and in which men are destined to distinguish, and to choose, among its fruits." [Ibid.]

"In society the human mind must, as it were, draw the first breath of intelligence itself; or if not the vital air by which the celestial fire of moral sentiment is kindled, we cannot doubt but it is of mighty effect in exciting the flame; and that the minds of men, to use a familiar example, may be compared to those blocks of fuel, which, taken apart, are hardly to be lighted, but if gathered into a heap, are easily kindled into a blaze." [Ibid.]

"The affairs of `society require the light of science, as well as the direction of a virtuous conduct, insomuch, that the recluse, by investigating the laws of nature, and the principles which relate to the concerns of men, is no less employed for his country than the most active of its servants; or than those who are most occupied in discharging the functions of state." [Ibid.]

**** The reader who has selected these passages for the Bee, is prompt and warm to declare, that he thinks the philosopher from whose pen they come is well entitled to the furlough from society, the proper use of which he has both so handsomely made and explained. Dr Ferguson is a singular instance of a man's heart and genius warming and firing with a Tength of life.

181 However much the reader was pleased with the accuracy of his essay on Civil Society, and his History of the Roman Republic, he thought they wanted that unction which he is happy to observe in his last great and useful publication.

The fifteenth and sixteenth sections of his second chapter, and the fourteenth of the third, are entitled to high commendation; the love of virtue and of humanity call for it; and from the depth of that solitude, for which the Doctor has endeavoured to obtain a patent, the reader desires to bestow it on the Principles of Moral and Political Sci

ence.

A NEW INVENTED IMPROVEMENT IN THE MACHINERY
OF COTTON MILLS.

Ar a time when the succefs of our manufactures depends so much upon improvements in machinery, it is presumed that every information upon that subject will be accep

table to your readers.

William Kelley, of Lanark cotton mills, has invented a new method of erecting the great gear of mills for spinning twist, at lefs expence, and so as to require a smaller quantity of water to do the same work, than by any other method formerly practised; and it is so constructed, that any single drum and shaft can be stopped, without interruping the movements of a y o the other drums, on either side of the one stooped; and the manner of stopping is so simple, that it can be done with the greatest facility by the children employed in spinning at the drums.

The advantages of the above improvement are of conşiderable importance, as a reduction in the quantity of