Where busy labour plies the oar,
And jostles in the crouded street.

Unhonour'd and unnotic'd there,

Thou shalt illume the lonely sky: Then why to these dull sons of care, Bright queen, dost thou so quickly fly?

Do these allure thee to the west ?

Dost thou prefer these scenes to me? Nor can a poet's woe-fraught breast Claim any privilege from thee?

The idlest of the idle train,

The meanest too, with heart forlorn, He pours to thee his lonely strain,

And gazes on thy parting horn.

He hails thee as a well known friend, A friend of past and better days; To thee his fond affections tend,

His sad heart lightens in thy rays.

But not for man's frail plaints her laws Shall constant nature e'er suspend, Or stop th' unintermitting cause,

Whence planets in their orbits tend.

Ah no! tho' once a hero's tongue Bade thee on Ajalon stand still, No wandering poet's feeble song

Can stay thee on thy western hill.

Unmindful of his ardent prayer,

Thou shalt thy steady course pursue, And to each clime alike shalt bear

Of light and joy proportion due.

Oh could I mount and soar with thee, Far, far above this world of care! And, sailing with thee o'er the sea, Look down upon the nether air!

Then, as upon the mimic sphere,

We'd trace each river's waving line, Each gloomy wood, each desart drear, Each long-drawn mountain's craggy spine;

And view where Europe roll'd beneath, Her plains to despot pow'r resign'd, Her streams so late distain'd with death, Nor sigh to leave the scene behind;

And where old Ocean heav'd below
In billowy pride his vast expanse,
Mark how his swelling waters glow,
As shifting moon-beams o'er them
dance.

*The author does not mean to depreciate the value of commerce, of whose importance to the national prosperity, when confined within its proper channel, he is fully sensible. His only aim is to protest against a mercantile spirit which has been so frequently manifested in the legislative deliberations of his country, where there have been found men, who, when the dearest interests of the nation are at stake, sit down calmly to calculate the expence of defending them, and who conclude when money is saved nothing is lost.

THE HYBERNATION OF SNAKES.

THEY awaken from their annual sleep in the first warm days of the spring; but what may appear singular is, that like oviparous quadrupeds, and almost all animals which pass the cold weather in a state of torpor, they awaken from it when the weather is colder than that which at the end of autumn was sufficient to keep them in activity.

It has been observed, that these different animals often retire, during the autumn, to their win

ter retreats, and begin to fall into a torpid state when the heat is equal to which revives them in the spring. Whence then proceeds this difference in the effects of the warmth of the spring, and that of autumn? Why does the same degree of heat towards the winter, produce a greater degree of activity in animals? It is because the warmth of the spring is not the only agent which then re-animates them, and restores life to their torpid bodies. At that season the atmosphere not only begins to be pervaded by a

genial heat, but it is also filled with a large quantity of the electric fluid, which is dissipated by the summer storms, and this is the reason why we never experience during the autumn such a number of tempests, or so loud claps of thunder, though the heat of the two seasons may be equal. This electric fluid is one of the greatest agents employed by nature to animate living beings. It is not therefore surprizing, that when it abounds in the atmosphere, animals already roused by this powerful cause, have occasion for nothing else to make them resume all their motions, but of a heat equal to that which would leave them in their state of torpor did it act alone. The greater part of animals which have a sufficiency of internal heat to prevent them from becoming torpid, and even man, experience this difference in the effects of the warmth of spring, and that of autumn..... Equal in other respects, they have all more vital force and internal activity in the beginning of spring, than on the approach of winter, because they are both equally susceptible of being more or less animated by the electric fluid, the action of which is much weaker in the autumn than in the spring.

A NEW MODE OF LUXURY.

By a traveller. ·

IN possession of an ample fortune, and willing to enjoy it according to his fancy, Mr. B......., an Englishman, purchased in Paris a magnificent house, but constructed on a small scale, where every thing the most refined luxury could suggest was assembled.

Mr. B....... had made it a rule to gratify his five senses to the highest degree of enjoyment of which they were susceptible. An exquisite table, perfumed apartments, the charms of music and painting;

every thing most enchanting that nature, assisted by art, could produce, successively flattered his sight, his taste, his smell, his hearing, and his feeling.

In a superb saloon, whither he conducted me, were six young beauties, dressed in an extraordinary manner, whose persons, at first sight, did not appear unknown to me it struck me that I had seen their faces more than once, and I was accordingly going to address them, when Mr. B......., smiling at my mistake, explained to me the cause of it.

I have, in my amours, said he, a particular fancy. The choicest beauty of Circassia would have no merit in my eyes, did she not resemble the portrait of some woman, celebrated in past ages: and while lovers set great value on a miniature which faithfully exhibits the features of their mistress, I esteem mine only in proportion to their resemblance to ancient portraits.

Conformably to this fancy, I have caused the intendant of my pleasures to travel over Europe, with select portraits, or engravings, copied from the originals. He has succeeded in his researches, as you see, since you thought you recognized these ladies on whom you have never before set your eyes; but whose likenesses you may, undoubtedly, have met with. Their dress must have contributed to your mistake: they all wear the attire of the personage they represent; for I wish their whole person to be picturesque. By these means, I have travelled back several centuries, and am in possession of beauties whom time had placed at a great distance.

Supper was served up. Mr. B....... seated himself between Mary, queen of Scots, and Anne Bullein. I placed myself opposite to him, having beside me Ninon de l'Enclos, and Gabrielle d'Estrees. We also had the company of the fair Rosamond and Nell Gwynn; but at the head of the table was a vacant elbow-chair, sur

IT is well known that captains Clark and Lewis, with a party of twenty men, are now performing a journey into the interior of Louisiana. Their attention being directed to exploring that country, as far as the western shores of the continent, and passing through numerous tribes of Indians, many of which are connected with, and in some instances tributary to, the Osages, it was sound policy to induce their chiefs to visit our cities. Here they may be considered as hostages for the safety of the American adventurers. Their countrymen will not, in all probability, attempt to surprize our party, while some of their principal chiefs are in our hands, and, before their return, captains Clark and Lewis will have accomplished the object of their expedition.

If these gentlemen find it hazardous to return by the way they proceeded, they will endeavour to procure a passage from the western coast of America to China. Several American vessels, trading for sea-otter skins, are known to be on the coast, and a passage to Canton will be readily procured. If this route is pursued, and they return home by the way of the Cape of Good Hope, captains Clark and Lewis will be the first persons who have circumnavigated the globe in a similar direction. The Scots traveller, Mr. Mackenzie, only passed from Canada to the western shore, peeped at the sea, and rashly returned very much in the track he went. But he accomplished all that could be expected of him, considering that he pursued a northern passage, for he never passed under the latitude of 45 in the first journey in 1789, and then he had not progres

sed in that latitude farther than Lake Huron, and saw the ocean, in lat. 52, 21, N., long. 123, 2, W., on the 22d July, 1793, while on his second journey. Mackenzie wished to divert the fur trade from the Americans, and it appeared to be of primary importance to him that the English should secure the head waters of the Mississippi, and by that channel transport their furs to the Atlantic ocean; and how far his government has endeavoured to second his views, by a late convention, remains to be seen.

Captains Clark and Lewis will direct their passage at least 15 or 20 degrees of latitude more towards the south, where it is expected the country will afford skins and furs in as great abundance as the northern regions of Canada. The tribes of Indians in Louisiana are more numerous. They kill much game. The rivers are larger, and communicate directly with the Mississippi. The Missouri is navigable more than a thousand or fifteen hundred miles from its junction with the Mississippi. The Arkansas river has been navigated nine hundred miles. Red river is a long, and highly important river, but its navigation is said to be in part obstructed by a considerable fall in the neighbourhood of Natchitoches. All these rivers empty their waters into the Mississippi. The tract of country about Red river is known to afford gold and silver mines, and large quantities of salt. The buffaloe, which abounds in Louisiana, as well as other animals, resort to the salt springs, and are killed by the hunters without much difficulty. It is said to be only nine hundred or a thousand miles from the mouth of the Ohio, on a due west course, to the Spanish mines of St. Pé, and the boundaries of Louisiana, on that side, are supposed to run not far from, if not across, these rich mines. The public have a right to expect important discoveries from the American travellers, and we shall wait in anxious suspense for their safe return.