THE GATHERER.
Reading edition
Lines on finding a withered Primrose just before the opening of spring.
The primrose has gone ere the Summer’s bright beam Had enlivened the glade, or illumin’d the stream; It died ere a bud of the forest was seen, Or Spring had appeared in her tresses of green. It bloom’d in simplicity’s meekest of form, The spoil of the winds and the gust of the storm; Like the offspring of want on a pitiless shore, No hand to upraise it—no heart to deplore! It knew not the fostering smiles of a friend, Or the dew-drops of pity on sorrow that ’tend; In its solitude drooping, like one in despair, It shrunk ’neath the blast of the wintry air. In the wildness of nature unnoticed it grew, No solace or warmth from companions it drew; Forsaken—unpitied—unwept for—unknown, Like a child of the desert, it perished alone.
Robespierre.—Mademoiselle Gabarcos, the daughter of a Spanish banker, and one of the finest women of her time, married Talien, to save the life of her father. At the epoch of the 8th Fructidor, some deputies who had been placed on the proscription list by Robespierre, wished to delay the attack upon him in the Convention. Madame Talien, who had brought them together in her house, finding that they hesitated, addressed them in the following terms:—“Cowards, since you will not deliver France of this monster, you shall not live to see the destruction of your country, for I will immediately send him your names.” This bold declaration electrified them. Next day Robespierre ceased to exist.
W.G.C.
Who are “the uneducated?”—What is meant by uneducated, in a time when books have come into the world; come to be household furniture in every habitation of the civilized world. In the poorest cottage are books; is one book, wherein for several thousands of years the spirit of man has found light, and nourishment, and an interpreting response to whatever is deepest in him; wherein still, to this day, for the eye that will look well, the Mystery of Existence reflects itself, if not resolved, yet revealed, and prophetically emblemed; if not to the satisfying of the outward sense, yet to the opening of the inward sense, which is the far grander result. “In books lie the creative Phoenix’ ashes of the whole Past.” All that men have devised, discovered, done, felt, or imagined, lies recorded in books; wherein whoso has learned the mystery of spelling printed letters, may find it, and appropriate it.—Edinburgh Review.
A veteran dramatist now alive, distinguished for the oddness of his humour, being required to state his grounds of exemption from serving in the militia, actually wrote on the official paper, “Old, lame, and a coward!”
T. GILL.
Cogent Reasons.—Dr. Arbuthnot first began his practice at Dorchester, a situation where the air is salubrious, and the environs beautiful; but he staid no length of time there. A neighbour met him galloping to London, and asked him why he went thither? “To leave your confounded place, where I can neither live nor die.”
T. GILL.
The Foot.—Man is the only animal, in which the whole surface of the foot rests on the ground; and this circumstance arises from the erect stature which belongs exclusively to him.
The Brain.—The cavity containing the brain of a crocodile measuring thirteen or fourteen feet, will hardly admit the thumb; and the brain of the chamelion is not, according to the description of the Paris dissectors, larger than a pea.
The Tongue does not appear to be an indispensable organ of taste. Blumenbach saw an adult, and, in other respects, a well-formed man, who was born without a tongue. He could distinguish, nevertheless, very easily the tastes of solutions of salt, sugar, and aloes, rubbed on his palate, and would express the taste of each in writing.
Vulgar Error.—In Mr. Crabb’s Dictionary of General Knowledge, article, Pelican, we find it stated that the bird “has a peculiar tenderness for its young, and has been supposed to draw blood from its breast for their support.” We thought this error had long since been expunged from natural history, and lament to find it credulously quoted in a book of the year 1830.
Eyes.—Large animals have small eye-balls in proportion to their size: this is very remarkably the case with the whales, as might be seen in the skeleton of the gigantic whale lately exhibited in London. Those animals which are much under ground have the globe of the eye also very small, as the mole and shrew: in the former of these instances its existence was long altogether denied, and it is not, in fact, larger than a pin’s head.
Teeth.—The numerous teeth of crocodiles have this peculiarity of structure, that in order to facilitate their change, there are always two, (or sometimes three,) of which one is contained within the other.
Bills of Birds.—Of all bills the most extraordinary is that of the cross-bill, in which the two mandibles cross each other at a considerable angle, for this formation seems to be directly opposed to the natural purposes of a bill. The bird, however, contrives to pick out the seeds from the cones of the fir, and it is limited to that species of nourishment.
Barbel.—Captain Heaviside, of Egham Hythe, while fishing for Roach with No. 10 hook, in the deeps at Staines Bridge, a few days ago, hooked and landed a barbel; after playing him for one hour and three quarters, during which time he could not get a sight of him. The weight of this fine fish was exactly 11 lbs. 2 ozs.; he measured 2 feet 10 inches in length, and 1 foot 4 inches in girth.
C.H.
Impromptu on seeing the Monuments in St. Paul’s Cathedral covered with scrawled names.
Oh! for a curse upon his head Who dares insult the noble dead, And basely scrawl his worthless name Upon the records of their fame! Nelson, arise! thy country gave A heartfelt tear, a hallow’d grave: Her eyes are dry, her recreant sons Dare to profane thy mould’ring bones! And you, ye heroes of the past, Who serv’d your country to the last, And bought her freedom with your blood, Cornwallis, Duncan, Collingwood! Rise, if ye can, and mark the wretch Who dares his impious arm to stretch And scrawl upon the graves of those Who gave him freedom and repose! And can no rev’rence for the dead Ye heartless crew, no sense of dread To place your names on aught so high As e’en the tombs where heroes lie, Force you with horror to recede From such a sacrilegious deed? Go, spread it to the winds of heaven, That they, who to our isle have giv’n Their blood, their services, their breath, Sleep in dishonoured graves in Death. REX.
Eccentric Physician.—When Bailly, (physician to Henry IV. of France,) perceived he was about to die, he called his servants to him singly, and gave to each of them a portion, first of his money, then of his plate and furniture, bidding them, as soon as they had taken what he had given them, to leave the house, and see him no more. When the physicians came to visit him, they told him they had found his door open, the servants and the furniture removed and gone, nothing in fact remaining, but the bed on which he lay. Then the doctor, taking leave of his physicians, said, “Since my baggage is packed up and gone, it is time that I should also go.” He died the same day, November 5th, 1605.
P.T.W.
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