must except that formed by Aristotle, at the command of Alexander; as also a collection of natural curiosities formed by the Emperor Augustus. The principal cause of their being unable to form collections, must have arisen partly from their ignorance of the proper means of preserving such bodies as soon spoil or corrupt. They employed for that purpose either salt, wax, or honey. A SKETCH OF THE RISE OF MUSEUMS. THE term museum is derived from the There is no account of any collections during the middle ages, except in the treasuries of princes, where, besides articles of great value, curiosities of art, antiquities, and relics, there were occasionally found scarce and singular foreign animals, which were dried and preserved. Such objects were to be seen in the old treasury at Vienna; and in that of St. Denis were exhibited the claw of a griffin, sent by the King of Persia to Charlemagne, the teeth of the hippopotamus, and other things of the like kind. In later times, we find menageries were established to add to the magnificence of courts, and stuffed skins of rare animals were hung up as memorials of their having existed. Public libraries also were made receptacles for such natural curiosities as were from time to time presented to them. At a later period, collections of this kind began to be formed by private persons. The object of them was rather to gratify the sight than to improve the understanding; and they contained more rarities of art, valuable pieces of workmanship, and antiquities, than productions of nature. Private collections, however, appear for the first time in the sixteenth century; and there is no doubt that they were formed by every learned man who at that period applied to the study of natural history. About the same period, collections began to be formed in England; but not till the seventeenth century did the public derive any benefit from them, when Elias Ashmole left his valuable col lection of rarities, which he had in part inherited from the Tradescants, to the University of Oxford, upon the condition that they erected a building to receive it, which they consented to, and commenced it in the year 1679, and it was completed in 1683. It is known as the Ashmolean Museum. From that time to the present it has been continually receiving additions. The collection of Martin Lister was added to it, as also the manuscripts of Aubrey, Dugdale, and Wood, the collections of natural history of Dr. Plott, Edward Lloyd, and Borlare, the historian of Cromwell. From a list of the curiosities contained in this museum we select the following: they ought to be enabled to find at home. severe realities of observation to attach any value to such wild theories. He advised his young friend, "first to lay a solid foundation by ascending from these, to strive to reach the for his views by actual observation, and then, causes of things;" and there is reason to think that, by the aid of the whole Baconian philosophy, thus compressed by anticipation into a single sentence, he abandoned for a while his visionary inquiries. A taste for natural history has become more prevalent among all classes of society, as may be collected from the support given to the Zoological Society and other institutions of a similar nature. Our national museum has already felt the impulse given by the advancing knowledge of the people. Let us hope that, in a few In the year 1598, Kepler suffered persecuyears, it may rival those of the continent;pelled to quit Gratz; but, though he was tion for his religious principles, and was comand then we shall doubtless adorn our recalled by the States of Styria, he felt his scientific annals with names as great as situation insecure, and accepted of a pressing Buffon, Daubenton, Cuvier, and La- invitation from Tycho to settle at Prague, and marck. assist him in his calculations. Having arrived in Bohemia in 1600, he was introduced by his he ever afterwards received the kindest atten The British Museum, which will soon be one of the most splendid institutions of our metropolis, contains under its roof our national library, which is peculiarly rich in MSS.; a collection of Greek and Roman sculptures; Egyptian antiquities and sculptures; Terra Cottas and Roman antiquities; a splendid collection of coins and medals; a very fine collection of prints and drawings; as also the collections of natural history, which are at present very incomplete. This museum has now for a long time been accessible to the public on three days of every week; and we are much gratified to learn that great numbers have of late availed themselves of this privilege. ANCIENT ASTRONOMERS. NO. III. JOHN KEPLER. The skull of Oliver Cromwell, or a fragment of mortality supposed to be such; a jewel of gold, once belonging to King Alfred, found in 1639 in Newton Park, a short distance northward of the Isle of Athelney, in Somersetshire, where King Alfred found shelter when the Danes had overrun the country. The jewel is enamelled like an amulet, and in Saxon characters is circumscribed, "Alfred ordered me to be made." A figure sitting, crowned, appears on one side, probably Alfred himself, holding two lilies; on the other is a rudely-engraved flower. This relic was given to the University by Thomas Palmer, Esq., of Fairfield, Somersetshire, in 1718. A head of the bird called a Dodo, the species of which is extinct. Dr. Shaw, the celebrated naturalJOHN KEPLER was born at Wiel, in Wirtemist, discovered it in the museum, before berg, in 1571. He was educated for the which he considered the accounts of this church, and discharged even some of the extraordinary bird to be fabulous. Be- clerical functions; but his devotion to science sides a good collection of objects of nawithdrew him from the study of theology. tural history, there are also many Egyp- the celebrated Mæstlinus, he had made such Having received mathematical instruction from tian antiquities and a few good pictures. This is perhaps the earliest museum progress in the science that he was invited, in 1594, to fill the mathematical chair of Gratz, formed in England, and probably coeval in Styria. Endowed with a fertile imagination, with most of those on the continent; but his mind was ever intent upon subtle and inthey have left us far behind in the esta-genious speculations. In the year 1596, he blishment of institutions for the advancement and fostering of the arts and sciences. Private individuals have generally undertaken what could, perhaps, be only fully accomplished by the state. Our principal collections of natural history have been chiefly formed by the exertions and at the expense of private individuals; and, until within a very short period, our national collection was little better than a national disgrace. No country in the world has such opportunities of rendering her collections in natural history the most perfect of any. The power of England extends to the two hemispheres; her colonies are to be found in every part of the habitable globe; yet, with the greatest means, her museums are found to be the most defective, to such a degree that our writers on natural history are necessitated to go to Paris for that information which published his peculiar views in a work on the Harmonies and Analogies of Nature. In this he calls the great cosmographical mystery of singular production, he attempts to solve what the admirable proportion of the planetary orbits; and, by means of the six regular geometrical solids, he endeavours to assign a reason why there are six planets, and why the dimensions of their orbits, and the time of their periodical revolutions, were such as Coample, were inserted in a sphere, of which pernicus had found them. If a cube, for exSaturn's orbit was one of the great circles, it would, he supposed, touch by its six planes the lesser sphere of Jupiter; and, in like manner, he proposes to determine, by the aid of the other geometrical solids, the magnitude of the work was presented by its author to Tycho spheres of the other planets. A copy of this Brahe, who had been too long versed in the friends to the Emperor Rodolph, from whom tion. On the death of Tycho in 1601, he was appointed mathematician to the emperor, a situation in which he was continued during the successive reigns of Matthias and Ferdinand; but, what was of more importance to science, he was put in possession of the valuable collection of Tycho's observations. These observations were remarkably numerous; and, as the orbit of Mars was more oval than that of any of the other planets, they were peculiarly suitable for determining its real form. The notions of harmony and symmetry in the construction of the solar system, which had filled the mind of Kepler, necessarily led him to believe that the planets revolved with a uniform motion in circular orbits. So firm, indeed, was this conviction, that he made numerous attempts to represent the observations of Tycho by this hypothesis. The deviations were too great to be ascribed to errors of observation; and, in trying various other curves, he was led to the discovery, that Mars revolved round the sun in an elliptical orbit, in one of the foci of which the sun itself was placed. The same observations enabled him to determine the dimensions of the planet's orbit; and, by comparing together the times in which Mars passed over different portions of its orbit, he found that they were to one another as the areas described by the lines drawn from the centre of the planet to the centre of the sun, or, in more technical terms, that the radius vector describes equal areas in equal times. These two remarkable discoveries, the first that were ever made in physical astronomy, were extended to all the other planets of the system, and were communicated to the world in 1609, in his "Commentaries on the Motions of the Planet Mars, Brahe." as deduced from the Observations of Tycho Although our author was conducted to these great laws by the patient examination of wellestablished facts, his imagination was ever hurrying him among the wilds of conjecture. Convinced that the mean distances of the planets from the sun bore to one another some them with the regular geometrical solids, but inysterious relation, he not only compared also with the intervals of musical tones: an idea which the ancient Pythagoreans had suggested, and which had been adopted by Archimedes himself. All these comparisons were fruitless; and Kepler was about to abandon an enquiry of about seventeen years' duration, when, on the 8th March, 1618, he conceived the idea of comparing the powers of the different members which express the planetary distances, in place of the numbers themselves. He compared the squares and the cubes of the distances with the same powers of the periodic times; nay, he tried even the squares of the times with the cubes of the distances; but his hurry and impatience led him into an error of calculation, and he rejected this law as having no existence in nature! On the 15th May, his mind again reverted to the same notion, and, upon making the calculations anew, and free from error, he discovered the great law, that the squares of the periodic times of any two planets are to one another as the cubes of their distances from the sun. Enchanted with this unexpected result, he could scarcely trust his calculations; and, to use his own language, he at first believed that he was dreaming, and had taken for granted the very truth of which he was in search. This brilliant discovery was published in 1619, in his "Harmony of the World," a work dedicated to James VI. of Scotland. Thus were established what have been called the three laws of Kepler-the motion of the planets in elliptical orbits-the proportionality between the areas described and their times of description-and the relations between the squares of the periodic times and the cubes of the distances. TO THE EDITOR OF THE TOURIST. DEAR SIR, You will oblige myself, and a numerous December 28, 1832. THOMAS PRICE. "James Gilchrist, Esq. was indicted, for refusing and neglecting to supply the slaves of Richmond Estate, belonging to Will. Maxwell, Esq., of which he is Attorney, with a sufficient quantity of clothing and animal food, (salt fish, &c.), as provided by the 1st and 7th clauses of the Melioration Act. "Besides, Mr. Scotland, the Magistrate, to whom the complaint of the slaves of Richmond was referred by the Governor, and whose testimony was very short, and merely introductory, the only evidence, bearing upon the merits of the case was given by Mr. C. Sutherland, manager of the estate for four years up to the 14th of last May, and Mr. W. E. Ledeatt, who succeeded him on the 22nd of the same month. The relation of the movements of the planets to the sun, as the general centre of all their orbits, could not fail to suggest to Kepler that some power resided in that luminary by which these various motions were produced; and he went so far as to conjecture, that this power diminishes as the square of the distance of the body on which it was exerted; but he immediately rejects this law, and prefers that of the simple distances. In his work on Mars, The testimonies of these gentlemen, supported he speaks of gravity as a mutual and corporeal by the plantation journals, furnished proofs, which affection between similar bodies. He main-could not be refuted or resisted, that the complaints tained that the tides were occasioned by the of the slaves were too well founded. Indeed, Mr. moon's attraction, and that the irregularities of Gilchrist's counsel very properly admitted the dethe lunar motions, as detected by Tycho, were ficiency of provisions and clothing to the full exowing to the joint actions of the sun and the tent charged. earth; but the relation between gravity, as exhibited on the earth's service, and as conducting the planets in their orbits, required more patience of thought than he could command, and was accordingly left for the exercise of higher powers. The misery in which Kepler lived forms a painful contrast with the services which he performed to science. The pension on which he subsisted was always in arrears; and, though the three emperors, whose reigns he adorned, directed their ministers to be more punctual in its payment, the disobedience of their commands was a source of continued vexation to Kepler. When he retired to Sagan, in Silesia, to spend in retirement the remainder of his days, his pecuniary difficulties became still more harassing. Necessity at last compelled him to apply personally for the arrears which were due; and he accordingly set out, in 1630, for Ratisbon; but, in consequence of the great fatigue which so long a journey on horseback produced, he was seized with a fever, which carried him off on the 30th November, 1630, in the fifty-ninth year of his age.-Brewster's Life of Sir Isaac Newton. MELANCHOLY. Go-you may call it madness, folly; Oh! if you knew the pensive pleasure S. ROGERS. press some disapprobation of the Attorney General's mode of proceeding. "Sir,' replied Mr. Lee, I am His Majesty's Attorney General, and will conduct the cause in such manner as pleases myself. I will suffer no be interrupted.' man to interfere in my duties, and beg I may not The Hon. President afterwards, referring to the question which had been put by the Attorney General, asked, whether there was any proof that the crops had been appropriated to the payment of provisions previously bought, and to the purchase of further supplies as they were wanted. Answer, They have been used for the purposes of carrying on the estate. prise, that the Town Agent had not been brought "The Hon. President then expressed his surforward to prove the application of the produce. "The Jury retired about 5 o'clock in the evening, and on the re-assembling of the Court at 12 o'clock to-day (Thursday), returned their verdict, Guilty. the Crown,- "The Solicitor General moved an arrest of judgment. He went over the same ground which he had previously traversed before the Jury, namely the impossibility of Mr. Gilchrist's complying with the requisitions of the law, from the smallness of the estate was burdened; and repeated all his the crops, and the heavy incumbrances, with which former arguments. "The Attorney General protested against the motion, and informed the Court, that Judgment face of the indictment; and the Jury having procould only be arrested for error apparent on the discretion, but must pass judgment. nounced a verdict of Guilty, the Court had no "Mr. Otto Baijer, and others remarked, that the Attorney and Solicitor General were opposed as there was no legal gentleman on the bench, and to each other, the Court was involved in great difficulty. however, expressed any wish to that effect. "Mr. Scotland, the only professional gentleman "It appeared that from the 29th of April, 1831, when the defendant succeeded to the Acting At-offered to submit his opinion to the Court, if it met present, besides His Majesty's Officials, rose, and torneyship, on the decease of his elder brother, Mr. William Gilchrist, no clothing of any kind had been distributed to the negroes, up to the middle of last month, September.-Mr. Sutherland said, that about three weeks previous to the death of the above gentleman, osnaburgs were given out to the people, in the proportion of six yards to the great gang, and five to the weeding gang: but that was the arrear, due on the preceding Christ "The defence resorted to by the Hon. Solicitor "The opinions of the Members were then taken J. BLACK, Esq. Hon. R. W. NANTON, B. E. JARVIS. M. H. DANIELL, President." "This extraordinary Judgment of the Court, nullifying the solemn verdict of a Jury, has excited very general astonishment, and no small ferment among the inhabitants." The remarks of the Editor on this extraor "The case of the KING V. JAMES GILCHRIST, which will be found in our first page, is undoubtedly one of the most extraordinary acts of mal General, was, in the first place, to deny Mr. James dinary proceeding are entitled to grave con- incumbrances. "A conversation of some length then took place, in which several of the court engaged, particularly Messrs. Otto Baijer, and Ledeatt, at the close of which, the latter gentleman was understood to ex treatment of Slaves-of deliberate infraction of the law-and of fool-hardy perseverance in wrong doing that has ever occurred within our recollection in this island. Here is a case, then, which must bring the judicial authorities, and of course the Planters, (both good and bad, for unfortunately they cannot be separated,) before the tribunal of public opinion in England; and it would be difficult to guess where the subject will end, or to what extent the cause of emancipation will be promoted by a question which carries its own proofs upon the very face of it. "The defendant in this case is an elderly gentleman of the old school of colonial policy, and it is perhaps less fortunate for the reputation of the colony than from any other consideration, that he has been always moving in the highest circles, that he is a Magistrate, and what is more, that he has, for many years, been one of our Grand Jurors. "Of the Judges who acquitted the defendant three were planters, his acquaintance, and interested in rescuing him; and the fourth was their crony. On the motion being made for an arrest of judgment, it was emphatically demanded of the Attorney General by the Honourable Samuel Otto Baijer, whether the law gave the Court the power to entertain the motion? The answer was, "No" and the learned gentleman then added, that the only alternative for the defendant to adopt would be, after the pronouncing of judgment, to appeal to the seat of mercy for a remission of the penalty. "Of the Petit Jurors, who tried the case, eleven were white persons, and some of them planters, who might be supposed to have an extra feeling for the defendant, and yet they convicted him after a patient and mature consideration of the facts and the law. "Here is a capital handle for Mr. Buxton and the abolitionists. What stronger proofs do they require for urging the extinction of slavery than the facts now produced,-namely, a planter omitting, for a considerable time, to give his slaves the allowance prescribed by the local laws, and the very expounders of those laws-the Judges of the Courts in the colony-agreeing to divest the slaves of their just rights, by setting aside the verdict of a Jury, nullifying a statute law, for the protection of the rights of those slaves, and suffering a public delinquent to escape with impunity. Will it now be contended that the slaves ought not to have a protector employed by his Majesty's Government, and uninfluenced by colonial prejudice? or will it be said that the appointment of English Judges is not vitally necessary to protect the strong against the weak, and to mete out a fair measure of justice to every man? And while we are upon the subject of the administration of justice, let us look back to the case of John Grant, the Attorney and Manager of Russell's estate. On the 14th of March last, that gentleman appeared before Justices Black, Barnard, and Briggs, upon a charge of depriving the slaves of their allowance for ONE week, and the complaint being fully proved, he was compelled to pay the penalty of 10s. per head for every omission, amounting to £77 10s. agreeably to the very act under which Mr. Gilchrist was tried and convicted. In the recent trial the charge was also fully proved, and the defendant sinned not for one week, but for many months, and yet he escaped. It will be observed that Justice Black, who convicted John Grant, is the same Justice, Black, who released James Gilchrist. Is it not then a scandal upon the country that justice should be administered in such a manner? And who, after this, may not stint their slaves of their allowance with impunity? Is the precedent not established by judges of the land, that they shall go free? Truly, this is an alarming state of things, and the sooner we have the alteration in our judicial system the better, for many very weighty reasons. "Much has been said and written about the 'sleek, fat, well-fed slaves' of these colonies, as a set-off to what has been frequently reported to the contrary on the opposite side of the question— But what will Master M'Queen and his tribe say to this case? Will he carry it to England, and lay it before the Committee of the House of Commons, in his examination as the Delegate of the Island of St. Kitt's?-an appointment recently agitated in their House of Assembly. Or will he make it the subject of an epistle to his dear friend the Duke of Wellington? Ah, Jamie, Jamie! the Anti-Colonists have caught you for once, at least, without your breeches, and though you run no risk of a castigation such as Mannix gave to Charles, yet you may expect an unmerciful and deserved birching from the Aldermanbury folks. "One thing has been voluntarily admitted by the Counsel for the defendant, which is, that the plantation of Mr. Maxwell is without credit, and has not the ability to maintain its population. This being the case, it will afford another admirable handle to the Anti-Slavery party to push the subject of emancipation, on the ground that, where an owner cannot feed the slave neither ought he to | demand his services. "We must do the Attorney General the justice to say, that he used the best exertions in support of the prosecution, notwithstanding his being an old acquaintance of the defendant; and when, after the motion for the arrest of judgment was granted, the learned gentleman took up his hat, and was retiring with evident dissatisfaction, he was stop. ped by the court to know whether they should discharge the prisoner, he replied hastily that they had already pronounced an acquittal, and that he (the learned gentleman) had nothing more to do with the matter. The whole concern ended in a mockery of the King's justice and authority, and it would have been quite as well if the piece had been acted in our theatre, by Mr. Southwell's excellent company of performers." The misfortunes which arise from the concurrence of unhappy incidents should never be suffered to disturb us before they happen; because, if the breast be once laid open to the dread of the mere possibilities of misery, life must be given a prey to dismal solicitude, and quiet must be lost for ever.-DR. JOHNSON. If the existence of war always implies injustice, in one at least of the parties concerned, it is also the fruitful parent of crimes. It reverses, with respect to its objects, all the rules of morality. It is nothing less than a temporary repeal of the principles of virtue. It is a system out of which almost all the virtues are excluded, and in which nearly all the vices are incorporated.— ROBERT HALL. Happiness and comfort stream immediately from God himself, as light issues from the sun, and sometimes looks and darts itself into the meanest corners, while it forbears to visit the largest and the noblest rooms.-DR. SOUTH. NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS. Communications have been received from Mr. Subscriber, and R. S. Philipps, We give James Rees much credit for his verses, but we think them hardly suited to our publication. On what authority does the anecdote of our “Constant Reader" rest? In answer to the communication of E. the Editor begs to say, that though he felt it due to N. to insert his animadversion, and to himself to offer a few remarks in reply to it; yet being resolved, as far as possible, to close the columns of the Tourist against such controversy, he confined himself strictly to the remarks of his Correspondent, without entering upon the general question. He hopes this will be deemed sufficient to justify him in declining to insert E.'s letter, which is quite of a general character, and would necessarily elicit another reply. We received the verses alluded to by A. S. B., but we think they are not quite suited to the Tourist. BRANDY.-Declaration.-I, Published at the Office of the Tourist, 27, Ivy-lane, Pater, noster Row; sold also by Sherwood, Gilbert, and Piper, and all other Booksellers. SLAVERY. In a few days will be published, in one 8vo. volume, closely printed, price 8s., The Report from the Select Committee of the House of Commons, on the Extinction ef Slavery throughout the British Dominions; with a Copion Index. Witnesses examined: W. Taylor, Esq., Rev. John Burry, Rev. Peter Duncan, Rev. Thomas Cooper, Rev. John Thorp, Rev. W. Knibb, Hon. C. Fleming, Capta Esq., R. Scott, Esq., J. Simpson, Esq., W. Shand, Esq., C. H. Williams, W. Alers Hankey, Esq., J. D. P. Ogden, Rev. J. Shipman, Rev. R. Young, Rev. J. T. Barrets, W. Burge, Esq., M.P., J. B. Wildman, Esq., and others, Also, Full Report of the Discussion in the Assembly Rooms, at Bath, on the 15th of December, between the Rev. W. Knibb, and Mr. Borthwick, in which the accusations of the letter gentleman against the Baptist Mission aries in Jamaica are fulfy refuted. Price od. CHRISTMAS GIFT. Near a clear stream, that flow'd within a wood, To welcome home the friends she lov'd most dear- One trial given-Beauty shall succeed, And ROWLAND prove himself a friend in need! FOR FENDERS, FIRE-IRONS, KNIVES, &c. FAN AMILIES FURNISHING may effect att immense SAVING, by making their purchases, for ready money, at RIPPON'S OLD ESTABLISHED CHEAP FTENISHING IRONMONGERY WAREHOUSE, 63, Castle street East, Oxford Market, (At the corner of Castle-street and Wells-street,) where every article sold is warranted good, and exchanged if not approved of. Tea Urn, 30s.; Plated Candlesticks, with Silver Mountings, 12s. per pair; Ivory-handled oval-rimmed Table Knives and Forks, 40s. the set of 50 pieces; Fashionable Iron Fenders-Black, 18s. Bronzed, 21s.; Brass Fenders, 10s.; Green Fenders, with brass tops, 2s.; Fire Irons, 25. per set; Polished Steel Fire Irons, 4s. 6d. per set; Brass Fire Furniture, 5s. 6d. per set; Block-tin Dish Covers, Ss. 6d. per set; Copper Tea Kettles, to hold one galion, 78.; Bottle Jacks, 8s. 6d. ; Copper Warming Pans, 6. Pots, Is. 4d. each; Japanned Tea Trays, 1s.; Waiters, Brass Candlesticks, Is. 4d. per pair; Britannia-metal Tex 2s.. Bread Trays, 3d.; Japanned Chamber Candlesticks, with Snuffers and Extinguisher, 6d.; Snuffers and Tray. 61.; Black-handled Steel Table Knives and Forks, 2s. 90. the half-dozen; Copper Coal-scoops, 10s.; a newly invented Utensil for cooking Potatoes, superior to those boiled, steamed, or roasted, price 5s., ús., and 7s.; Copper Iron, and Tin Saucepans and Stewpans, together with every article in the above line, cheaper than any other House in London. For Ready Money only. M CAUTION TO THE PUCLIC. ORISON'S UNIVERSAL MEDICINES having superseded the use of almost all the Patent Medicines, which the wholesale venders have foisted upon the credulity of the searchers after health, for so many PATENTBRETT, of 109, Drury Lane, Wine and competition, have plunged into the mean expedient of partyears, the town druggists and chemists, not able to establish a fair faine on the invention of any plausible means of Spirit Merchant, do solemnly affirm and declare, that I do ing up a "Dr. Morrison" (observe the subterfuge of the ration; that I invariably vend the genuine PATENT not, and will not, in any case, practise deleterious adulte- double ), a being who never existed, as prescribing a "Vegetable Universal Pill, No. 1 and 2," for the express FRENCH DISTILLED BRANDY, so highly recom- purpose (by means of this forged imposition upon the pab mended by the faculty, and pronounced the "only known lic), of deteriorating the estimation of the “UNIVERSAL distillery; that my consumption of that article, in the orpure spirit in the world," precisely as I receive it from the MEDICINES" of the "BRITISH COLLEGE OF HEALTH." dinary course of trade, during the last four months, considerably exceeded 3,000 gallons; that counterfeits abound in every direction; but that in fact no other establishment in Dry-lane has ever been supplied by the patentee. Price, as at the distillery, 18s. per imperial gallon, retailed at 2s. 3d. per pint, and in sealed bottles, 38. 6d. each. Sample hampers of half a dozen of wine, 178.; of half a Cash on delivery of goods in London or the suburbs. dozen of spirits, 17s. 6d., package included. Conditions: changed if disapproved of; forfeited if inferior to sample. Country postage payable by purchasers. HENRY BRETT, 109, Drury-lane. N.B. 109. Nov. 30, 1832. Ex KNOW ALL MEN, then, that this attempted delasion must fall under the fact, that (however specious the pretence), none can be held gennine by the College but those which have "Morison's Universal Medicines" impressed upou the Government Stamp attached to each box and packet, to counterfeit which is felony by the laws of the land. Printed by J. HADDON and Co.; and Published by J. CRISP, at No. 27, Ivy Lane, Paternoster Row, where all Advertisements and Communications for the Editor are to be addressed. A FABLE FOR JUVENILE READERS. BY THOMAS PRINGLE, ESQ. [THE honey-bird, or bee-cuckoo (Cuculus Indicator), a bird somewhat larger than the common sparrow, is well known in Africa for its extraordinary faculty of discovering the hives or nests of the wild bees, which in that country are constructed either in hollow trees, in crevices of the rocks, or in holes in the ground. This bird is extremely fond of honey, and of the bee's eggs, or larvæ; but as it cannot, without assistance, obtain access to the bee-hives, nature has supplied it with the singular instinct of calling to its aid certain other animals, and especially man himself, to enable it to attain its object. This is a fact long ago established on the authority of Sparrman, Vaillant, and other scientific travellers in Southern Africa; and, in Father Lobo's Travels in Abyssinia, a similar account is given of the Moroc, a bird found in that country, of precisely the same habits, and apparently of the same family with the Cuculus Indicator of the Cape of Good Hope. With the habits of this curious bird I was myself acquainted during my residence in the interior of the Cape colony, and have often partaken of wild honey procured by its aid. It usually sits on a tree by the way side, and, when any passenger approaches, greets him with its peculiar cry of Cherr-a-cherr! cherr-a-cherr! If he shows any disposition to attend to its call, it flies on before him, in short flights, from tree to tree, till it leads him to the spot where it knows a beehive to be concealed. It then sits still and silent till he has extracted the honeycomb, of which it expects a portion as its share of the spoil; and this share the natives who profit by its guidance never fail to leave it. Sparrman states that the ratel, or honey-badger (gulo mellivorus), avails itself of the help of this bird to discover the retreat of those bees that build their nests in the ground, and shares with it the |