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progress in his studies, when, falling into bad company, he absented himself so long as to be fearful of returning home, and entered into a company of strolling players: finding, however, that his friends had heard where he was, and that without making him any offer of reconciliation they were taking measures to get him arrested, and confined, he enlisted as a soldier, and was marched to the frontiers of Spain. It was during the war of the succession, and his company was soon ordered upon duty in the seige of some town, which was making a very desperate resistance. An assault was to be given to one of the enemy's advanced bastions, but they sprung a mine in the very moment of attack, and blew up a considerable number of the assailants, and among them the whole of the company Destouches belonged to, except an old sergeant, and himself: "A moi la compagnie,” said the old serjeant, as soon as the shock was over, "rally round me," and gravely giving his orders to the only remaining soldier, joined another party in the attack, and then as gravely marched his command back to their quarters. Destouches had now seen enough of a soldier's life, and became a player again, then a writer of plays, and finally the manager of a company in some large provincial town, where he soon acquired a considerable fortune, considerable, for one who had begun the world with nothing, and who had been always more called upon to guard against the persecutions of his relations, than benefited by their assistance. It amounted to thirty thousand livres. In this situation he learned that his parents had lost the whole of their property by the failure of some commercial house, and hurrying away immediately to Paris, implored their forgiveness for his past conduct, and laid his fortune at their feet. It is for the honour of human nature, that actions of such exalted benevolence are sure to command the good will, and approbation of all who hear of them: a generous concern for the interests of others, and particularly for the interests of an aged parent, and still more particularly, if the parent's kindness

had been forfeited, and his protection withheld at an earlier period, awakens a tender sympathy in every bosom, and Destouches now experienced in all companies the effects of those affectionate sentiments which he had so handsomely exerted. France was then governed by the regent duke of Orleans, a prince of very dissolute manners, but a man of abilities, and a judge of merit, and it was by his particular desire, that Destouches, who had acquitted himself with credit in some inferior diplomatic agency, which his friends had procured for him, was appointed minister plenipotentiary to England. It was here that he contracted a marriage with a lady of great merit, but of no very distinguished family, and of no fortune, and thinking it best to conceal the step he had rashly taken, found himself exposed to a great many awkward circumstances and embarrassments, which had ultimately, however, no other effect than to enable him to write his very excellent play of the "Philosophe Mariè."

AMERICAN SCENERY-FOR THE PORT FOLIO.

DR. HOSACK'S BOTANIC GARDEN.

We have the pleasure of presenting in this number a view of the Botanic Garden of Dr. David Hosack, the professor of Botany in the medical school of New-York. It is engraved from a drawing of Louis Simond, Esq. of that city, a gentleman who, with a mind highly cultivated and alive to the beauties of Nature, possesses the talent of portraying her charms on canvas with taste and precision.

THE establishment, of which we have given a view, is distant three and a half miles from the city of New-York, and consists of about twenty acres of land. The ground was purchased by Dr. Hosack in 1801, with the patriotic view of supplying to his native city, what had long been a desideratum in a course of medical education, a botanic garden. At the

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View of the BOTANIC GARDEN at ELGIN inthe vicinity of the CITY of 1

NEW YORK.

time of the purchase, the land was exceedingly rough and broken; but by its present possessor it has been brought to a state of the highest cultivation and embellishment. Verbal description, in general, conveys but an imperfect idea of the objects intended to be described, but more particularly so when those are connected with scenes in what may be termed the rural department of Nature. To the eye alone

"The pomp of groves and garniture of fields"

must be presented. In our description, therefore, of this delightful spot, we shall confine ourselves solely to those arrangements in it, which have utility for their object.

This establishment is enclosed by a well-constructed stone wall, and within this enclosure is a belt of forest trees and shrubs with which the whole is surrounded. The interior is divided into various compartments well calculated to instruct the student in the science of botany by exhibiting to his view not only the plants which are used in medicine, but those which are cultivated by the agriculturist, and which are ememployed in the arts and in manufactures.

A nursery is also now forming by which our tables may be furnished with the choicest fruits of the earth, and a department is devoted to experiments upon the culture of such plants as may be advantageously introduced into this country but which are now annually imported from abroad. Elegant and extensive conservatories and hothouses have been erected, which experience has already shown are well constructed for the cultivation of plants from every quarter of the globe. Here already may be seen an assemblage of Nature's choicest productions from every climate and from every country. The language of a celebrated poet may with justice be here applied:

One cultivated spot there was that spread
Its flowery bosom to the noonday beam,
Where many a rosebud rears its blushing head,
And herbs for food with future plenty teem.

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