Affected Senfibility. 448 unfeeling cruelty of thofe who deprive the fmalleft reptile, to whom nature has given breath, of that life which, though it appears contemptible in the eyes of the thoughtless, yet is fweet to the meanest animal-was fweet to thee, thou poor departed animalcule, Alas, that I muft now fay was fweet to thee! Did I poffefs the power of refufcitation, I would reanimate thy lifelefs corps,and cherifh thee in the warmest corner of thy favourite dwelling place.But adieu for ever; for my wifh is vain. Yet if thy fhade is ftill confcious, and hovers over the head it once inhabited, pardon a hafty act of violence, which I endeavour to expiate with the tear of fympathy, and the figh of fenfibility." Flendo turgiduli rubent ocelli, I am informed that the drawer of her writing table is full of elegies and elegiack fonnets on rats and mice, caught in traps; and on tomtits, and robin red breasts, killed by fchool boys. I remember to have heard a most pathetick elegy recited on the death of a red breaft, but can only recollect one pathetick Erotefis. "Who killed cock robin ?" There is alfo a fublime deification of an earth worm which fhe once accidentally trod upon, as fhe was endeavouring to refcue a fly from a fpider in the garden. concludes thus: But ceafe to weep-no more to crawl, It Elfts, toads, bats, every thing that has life, has a claim to her tendereft compaffion. And certainly her tendernefs to them does her honour; but the exceffive fenfibility which their flighteft fufferings feem to occafion, gives room to suspect that she is not without affectation. What is fo fingular and exceffive can scarcely be natural. Having heard and obferved fo much of her delicate feelings for the irrational creation, I was naturally led to make enquiries concerning her behaviour in the more interefting attachments of private life. I expected to find that— she, of course, Like the needle true,, Turned at the touch of joy or woe, And turning, trembled too. The following is the refult of my investigation, Her temper was fo various and violent that her husband was often obliged to leave his home in search of peace. I heard he had juft recovered from a fit of illness, during the whole of which fhe had seldom visited him, and fhewn no folicitude. She had fat weeping over a novel on the very day on which his fever came to the crifis, and the phyficians had declared his recovery dubious. On his recovery he had gone a voyage to the Eaft Indies, by her advice, for the improvement of his fortune. He took leave of her very affectionately; but fhe was dreffing to go and fee Mrs. Siddons in Califta, and could not poffibly spend much time in a formal parting, which was a thing the above all things detefted. But let it be remembered, the fainted away in the boxes on Mrs. Siddons' first entrance, before the actrefs uttered a fyllable. Two fine little boys were left under her care, without control, during their father's abfence. The little rogues had fine health and fpirits, and would make a noise, which fhe could not bear, as she was bufy in preparing to act a capital part in the Orphan, at a private theatre built by a man of fortune and fashion, for her own amusement. Affected Senfibility. amufement. She determined therefore to fend the brats to fchool. Indeed fhe declared in all companies, fhe thought it the firft of a mother's duties to take care that her children were well educated, She therefore fent them outfide paffengers by the ftage coach to an academy in Yorkshire, where fhe had ftipulated that they fhould not come home in the holidays; and indeed not till their father arrived; for she was meditating a new tragedy, under the title of the Diftreft Mother, or the Widowed Wife. A Though fhe was not very fond of her husband, who was a plain good man, without any fine feelings, and was difpleafed with her children, whose noife interrupted her ftudies, yet I took it for granted, that the who spoke fo feelingly of diftrefs, of benevolence, of humanity, of charity, and who fympathized with the poor beetle that we tread upon, could not but be profufely beneficent to all her fellow creatures in affliction who folicited her affistance; but I was here also greatly mistaken. workman in ftopping up her windows in confequence of the late commutation tax, fell from fcaffold three ftories high and broke his leg. The pallengers took him up, knocked at the door, and defired that he might be admitted till a furgeon could be fent for; but I heard her as I paffed by, declaring, in a voice that might be heard from the ftair cafe on which the stood quite to the end of the street-"He fhall not be brought here. We fhall have a great deal of trouble with him. Take him to the hofpital immediately; and fhut the door, d'ye hear, John." The paffengers, left time fhould be loft, hurried the poor man to a neighbouring 449 publick house, where the honeft landlord, with a pot of porter in his hand, and an unmeaning oath in his mouth, exclaimed, “ let him in ? aye, in welcome.-Here, Tom, fee him laid on my own bed, and let him have every thing neceffary; and if he never pays me it is no matter.-Come, here's to his getting well again foon-Poor man -1 warrant now he has a wife and family that muft ftarve till he gets about again-but they fhan't neither I will mention it to our club-they are all hearty ones, I know, and will fubfcribe handfomely." The truth was, that the man had a wife and family, as my landlord conjectured, and as is commonly the cafe. I heard that he went next morning to Belinda with a petition, drawn up very pathetically by a lawyer, who never gave any thing himself. Belinda had given orders to the fervants to fay the was not at home if any body should call that week. For, indeed, she was exceedingly engag ed in penning an elegy on the lap dog who had died of a looseness, and had intended to finish her address to the Dutchefs on the hardfhips of the labouring poor. was fatisfied with these enquiries, and began to lose my veneration for ladies and gentlemen of exquifite fenfibility, of delicate feeling, and the molt refined fentiment; believing firmly, that there is more good fenfe and true kindnefs in the plain motherly house wife who is not above her domestick duties, and in the honeft man of common fenfe, than in the generality of pretenders to more benevolent fenfations or finer feelings than belong to other people of equal rank, opulence and education. The 450 The Whistle.-Epitaph. When I faw another fond of popularity, conftantly employing himfelf in political buftles, neglecting his own affairs, and ruining them by that neglect, he pays, indeed, fays I, too much for his whif tle. The WHISTLE. A TRUE STORY. [Written by Dr. FRANKLIN, to his Nephew.] HEN I was a child, at feven years old, my friends on a holiday filled my little pockct with coppers. I went directly to a fhop where they fold toys for children; and being charmed with the found of a Whitle, that I met by the way, in the hands of another boy, I voluntarily offered and gave all my money for one. I then came home, and went whiftling all over the houfe, much pleafed with my Whitle, but dif. turbing all the family. My broth ers and fifters, and coufins, underftanding the bargain I had made, told me, I had given four times as much for it, as it was worth. This put me in mind what good things I might have bought with the reft of the money and they laughed at me fo much for my folly, that I cried with vexation; and the reflection gave me more chagrin than the Whittle gave me pleafure. This however was afterwards of use to me, the impreffion continuing on my mind, fo that often when I was tempted to buy fome unneceffary thing, I faid to my felf, don't give too much for the whifle-and fo I faved my money. As I grew up, came into the world, and obferved the actions of men, I thought I met met with many, very many who gave too much for the Whistle. When I faw one too ambitious of court favours, facrificing his time in attendance at levees, his repofe, his liberty, his virtue, and perhaps his friends, to attain it, I have faid to myself, this man gives too much for his whistle. OFF E If I knew a Mifer who gave up every kind of comfortable living, all the pleasure of doing good to others, all the esteem of his fellow citizens, and the joys of benevolent friendship, for the fake of accumulating wealth; poor man, fays I, You do indeed, pay too much for your Whistle. When I meet with a man of pleafure, facrificing every laudable improvement of the mind, or of his fortune, to mere corporeal fenfations, and ruining his health in the purfuit. Miftaken man, fays I, you are providing pain for yourfelf instead of pleafure, you give too much for your Whistle. If I fee one fond of fine clothes, fine houfes, fine furniture, fine equipages, all above his fortune, for which he contracts debts, and ends his career in prifon. Alas! fays I, he has paid dear, very dear, for his Whitle. When I faw a beautiful fweet tempered girl, married to an ill natured brute of a husband, what a pity it is, fays I, that fhe has paid fo much for a Whiftle. In fhort, I conceived that great part of the miseries of mankind were brought upon them by the falfe eftimates they had made of the value of things, and by their giving too much for their Whiffles, PITA FFERED for the monument of the Hon. JOB PRAY, who at the time of his decease was Meniber of the Honourable the Executive Council of Georgia, and during the late war a naval commander in the fervice Effay on Fafhion. fervice of the United States of America. Sunk at his moorings, On Wednesday the 29th of April, 1789, One, who never ftruck his flag, while he had A Shot in the Locker ; Who carried fail in chase, 'Till all was blue: In peace, whofe greatest glory was, A faggering top fail breeze ;In war, to bring his broad fide round to bear upon the enemy; And who, when fignals of diftiefs hove out, Ne'er ftood his courfe, F 451 ESSAY on FASHION. Still to their folid intereft blind, 'ASHION is a fubject of fo va rious a complexion, that it is extremely difficult to give a definition of it, that will leave any precife idea on the mind: Should we attempt to trace its fluctuations through different periods, remote from the prefent, and bring our enquiries down to modern times, we shall find ourselves involved in a circle, and be continually returning to the fame, or fimilar whims and abfurdities. So capricious and tyrannical is this fovereign director of the world, that almoft every perfon in the course of their life, upon the principles of felf defence, are neceffitated to rebel against its power to reject its control, and fooner or later themselves, govern and adjust their drefs and deportment by the light of their own reafon For experience teaches the reflecting mind, that life is not more than competent to far better engagements than wafting our time in facrificing at an altar erected by the most frivolous part of mankind. A flave to fashion is a moft paffive animal-it is acted upon by an agent more fickle than the wind and if it can be faid to have a mind, it is aptly described in the following lines. "Duft is lighter than a feather, "Is lighter far than feather,duft or wind.", The ufurpations of fashion are obvious in every rank of fociety: They defcend into the humble abodes of poverty, as well as claim the fupreme direction in the elevated walks of life. The buckle that hides the fhoe, and the coat without a back, are not confined to any class of citi zens-and fashion is the word, whether the cap is made of kenting, or of muilin at a guinea a yard. Following the fashion, however, is fometimes attended with difagreeable confequences: A young man loft the labour of application and attendance for an eligible fituation in an eminent mercantile house, merely by being two fashionable in his appearance-the principal 552 Singularities in various parts of Creation. ari ingenious, fprightly mind-but, I cannot fuppofe that a hufhand, children, or family, will ever be of fo much confequence to her, as the ornamenting her person, and always appearing as a model to the fashionable world but the expenfe! ah, there's the rub! the Indies have been drained to satisfy the cravings of fashion-and ftill fhe cries for more !" For though nature is contented with little yet fancy is boundless." TO THE EDITORS OF THE MASSACHUSETTS MAGAZINE. I have lately perufed Smellie's " Philofophy of Natural History," with which I am much pleafed, and beg leave to prefent the subsequent minutes as worthy_of_attenYours, tion. P. Z. SINGULARITIES in various parts of CREATION. 'HE moving plant, or hedyfarum cimens in the botanick garden of Edinburgh, furnishes the most astonishing examples of vegetable motion. It is a native of the Eaft Indies. Its movements are not excited by the contact of external bodies, but folely by the influence of the fun's rays. The motibns of this plant are confined to the leaves, which are fupported by long flexible foot ftalks. When the fun fhines the leaves move brifkly in every direction. Their general motion however is upward and downward But they not unfrequently turn almost round; and then, their foot stalks are evidently twifted. These motions go on inceffantly, as long as the heat of the fun continues: But they ceafe during the night, and when the weather is cold and cloudy. : The body of the Polypus confifts of a single tube, with long tentacula, or arms, at one extremity, by which it feizes small worms, and conveys them to its mouth. It has no proper head, heart, ftomach, or inteftines of any kind, This fimplicity of structure gives rife to an equal fimplicity in the economy and functions of the animal. The Polypus, though it has not the diftinction of fex, is extremely prolif ick. When about to multiply, a small furface of its body. This bud gradu- of |