unto the students of perpetuity, even by everlasting languages.

"The night of time far surpasseth the day who knows when was the æquinox? Every hour adds unto that current arithmetic, which scarce stands one moment.-Darkness and light divide the course of time, and oblivion shares with memory a great part even of our living beings. Who knows whether the best of men be known: or whether there be not more remarkable persons forgot than any that stand remembered in the known account of time?-The sufficiency of Christian immortality frustrates all earthly glory, and the quality of either state, after death, makes a folly of posthumous memory. But man is a noble animal, splendid in ashes and pompous in the grave, solemnizing nativities and deaths with equal lustre, nor omitting ceremonies of bravery in the infamy of his nature."

IN 1664, Dun was the name of the public executioner, and for many years he continued to be known by that name. A famous gentleman of that profession celebrated for the ease and celerity with which he fixed the fatal noose, is mentioned by Cotton, in Virgil Travestie :

Away therefore my lass does trot,

And presently an halter got,

Made of the best strong hempen teir
And, ere a cat could lick her ear,
Had tied it up with as much art

As Dun himself could do for his heart." Twelve years after, one Jack Ketch was advanced to the post of finisher of the law. This is now more than 140 years ago, but this gentleman has had the honour of giving his name to all executioners since his time. In the reign of Charles I. they were called Ketch, as appears by a political satire, written about that time :

"Till Ketch observing he was chous'd,
And in his profits much abus'd,
In open hal! the consul dunn'd,

To do his office or refund."

M. B. H.

SPIRIT OF THE

Public Journals.

DANISH BALLADS.

No. XI. of the Foreign Quarterly Review has furnished us with the following serious and comic ballads, from the Danish. They increase our obligations to the conductors of the above excellent work, and will doubtless add to the gratification of the reader :

AAGER AND ELIZA.

"TWAS the valiant knight, Sir Aager,
He to the far island hied,
There he wedded sweet Eliza,
She of maidens was the pride.
There he married sweet Eliza,
With her lands and ruddy gold;
Woe is me! the Monday after,
Dead he lay beneath the mould.
In her bower sat sweet Eliza,
Scream'd, and would not be consoled;
And the good Sir Aager listen'd,

Underneath the dingy mould.

Up Sir Aager rose, his coffin

Bore he on his bended back;
Tow'rds the bower of sweet Eliza
Was his sad and silent track.
He the door tapp'd with his coffin,
For his fingers had no skin;
"Rise, O rise, my sweet Eliza!
Rise, and let thy bridegroom in."
Straightway answered fair Eliza-
"I will not undo my door
'Till thou name the name of Jesus,
Even as thou could'st before."
"Rise, O rise, mine own Eliza !
And undo thy chamber door;
I can name the name of Jesus,
Even as I could of yore."

Up then rose the sweet Eliza,
Down her cheek tears streaming ran;
Unto her, within the bower,

She admits the spectre man.
She her golden comb has taken,
And has comb'd his yellow hair,—
On each lock that she adjusted

Fell a hot and briny tear.
"Listen now, my good Sir Aager!
Dearest bridegroom, all I crave
Is to know how it goes with thee
In that lonely place, the grave?"
"Every time that thou rejoicest,
And art happy in thy mind,
Are my lonely grave's recesses
All with leaves of roses lin'd.
"Every time that, love, thou grievest,
And dost shed thy briny flood,
Are my lonely grave's recesses

Fill'd with black and loathsome blood.
"Heard I not the red cock crowing?
I, my dearest, must away;
Down to earth the dead are going,
And behind I must not stay.
"Hear I not the black cock crowing?
To the grave I down must go ;
Now the gates of heaven are opening,
Fare thee well for ever moe!"

Up Sir Aager stood-the coffin
Takes he on bis bended back;
To the dark and distant churchyard,
Is his melancholy track.

Up then rose the sweet Eliza,

Full courageous was her mood,
And her bridegroom she attended
Through the dark and dreary wood
When the forest they had travers'd,
And within the churchyard were,
Faded then of good Sir Aager

Straight the lovely yellow hair.
When the churchyard they had travers'd,
And the church's threshold cross'd,
Straight the cheek of good Sir Aager
All its rosy colours lost.

"Listen, now, my sweet Eliza!
If my peace be dear to thee,
Never thou, from this time forward,
Pine or shed a tear for me.

"Turn, I pray thee, up to heaven

To the little stars thy sight: Then thou mayest know for certain How it fareth with the knight." Soon as e'er her eyes to heaven To the little stars she rear'd, Into earth the dead man glided, And to her no more appear'd. Homeward went the sweet Eliza, Grief of her had taken hold: Woe is me the Monday after, Dead she lay beneath the mould."

WHEN I WAS LITTLE.

Der var en Tid, da jeg, var meget lille. THERE was a time when I was very tiny, My dwarfish form had scarce an ell's length won; Oft when I think thereon, fall tear-drops briny, And yet I think full many a time thereon. Then I upon my mother's bosom toy'd me, Or rode delighted on my father's knee;

And sorrow, fear, and gloom no more annoy'd

me,

Than ancient Greek, or modern minstrelsy.

If smaller, then, the world to me was seeming,
Alas! much better was it in mine eyes;
For I beheld the stars like sparklets gleaming,
And wish'd for wings to make them all my prize.
When I, behind the hill the moon saw gliding,
Oft thought I (earth had then no mystery),
That I could learn, and bring my mother tiding,
How large, how round, and what that moon
might be!

Wond'ring I trac'd God's flaming sun careering,

Towards the west, unto the ocean bed;
And yet again at morn in east appearing,
And dying the whole orient scarlet red.

And then I thought on Him, the great, the gracious,

Who me created, and that beacon bright, And those pearl-rows which all heaven's arches spacious,

From pole to pole illuminate at night.

My youthful lip would pray in deep devotion,
The prayer my blessed mother taught to me;
Thy wisdom, God! thy mercy, shall the emotion
Of worship wake, and wake unceasingly.
Then prayed I for my father, for my mother-
My sister too, and all the family;

For unknown things, and for our wretched

brother,

The cripple, who went sighing, staggering by. They slid away-my childhood's days of plea

sure,

Away with them my joy and quiet slid; Remembrance but remains-and of that treasure

That I should be bereav'd, O God! forbid

THE LATE KING.

Let the thron'd and mighty, call

For worldly adulation. The pale dead Mocks him, who offers it; but truth, instead, O'er the reft Crown, shall say

"The King who wore

Wore it, majestically, yet most mild

Meek mercy bless'd the Sceptre which he bore;
Arts, a fair train, beneath his fostering, smil'd,
And who could speak of sorrow, but his eye
Did glisten with a tear of Charity?

Oh, if defects, the best and wisest have,
Leave them, for pity leave them-to that God-
That God, who lifts the balance, or the rod-
And close, with parting pray 'r, the curtain o'er
the grave."
W. L. BOWLES.

July 10.

The Selector;

AND

LITERARY NOTICES OF NEW WORKS.

INSECT TRANSFORMATIONS.

THE appearance of the second part of this volume of the Library of Entertaining Knowledge, enables us to add a few words on the entomological portion of the series. The investigations of the editor appear to have been conducted with unwearied diligence, and are brought up to the day, so as to illustrate the present state of knowledge upon this interesting department of natural history. A few extracts follow:

Cheese-hoppers.

Those who have, from popular associations, been accustomed to look with disgust at the little white larvæ common in cheese, well known under the name of hoppers, will be somewhat surprised to hear the illustrious Swammerdam say, "I can take upon me to affirm, that the limbs and other parts of this maggot are so uncommon and elegant,

and contrived with so much art and design, that it is impossible not to acknowledge them to be the work of infinite power and wisdom, from which nothing is hid, and to which nothing is impossible." But whoever will examine it with care, will find that Swammerdam has not exaggerated the facts.

The cheese-fly (Piophila Casei, FAL

IN OBITUM REGIS DESIDERATISSIMI, GEORGII IV.

Now that thine eyes are closed in death, and all The "glories of thy birth aud state," and power,

Are pass'd, as the vain pageant of an hour,
Ending in that poor corse, beneath that pall,
The tribute of a Briton's love I pay-
Not to the living King, but the cold clay
Before me:-

whitish wings, margined with black. It was one of those experimented upon fabric of which so much art, order, conby Redi to prove that insects, in the trivance, and wisdom appear, could not be the production of chance or rottenness, but the work of the same Omnipotent hand which created the heavens and the earth. This tiny little fly is ac

"The glories of our birth and state."

Bibl. Naturæ, vol. ii. p. 63.

instrument for depositing its eggs, in an ovipositor, which it can thrust out and extend to a great length, so that it can penetrate to a considerable depth into the cracks of cheese, where it lays its eggs, two hundred and fifty-six in number." I have seen them myself," says

Swammerdam, "thrust out their tails for this purpose to an amazing length, and by that method bury the eggs in the deepest cavities. I found in a few days afterwards a number of maggots which had sprung from those eggs, perfectly resembling those of the first brood that had produced the mother-fly. I cannot

but also take notice that the rottenness of cheese is really caused by these maggots; for they both crumble the substance of it into small particles and also moisten it with some sort of liquid, so that the decayed part rapidly spreads. I once observed a cheese which I had purposely exposed to this kind of fly grow moist in a short time in those parts of it where eggs had been deposited, and had afterwards been hatched into maggots; though, before, the cheese was perfectly sound and entire."

The cheese-hopper is furnished with two horny claw-shaped mandibles, which it uses both for digging into the cheese and for moving itself, being destitute of feet. Its powers of leaping have been observed by every one; and Swammerdam says, "I have seen one, whose length did not exceed the fourth of an inch, leap out of a box six inches deep, that is, twenty-four times the length of its own body others leap a great deal higher."+ For this purpose it first erects itself on its tail, which is furnished with two wart-like projections, to enable it to maintain its balance. It then bends itself into a circle, catches the skin near its tail with its hooked mandibles, and, after strongly contracting itself from a circular into an oblong form, it throws itself with a jerk into a straight line, and thus makes the leap. One very surprising provision is remarkable in the breathing-tubes of the cheese maggot, which are not placed, as in caterpillars, along the sides, but a pair near the head and another pair near the tail. Now, when burrowing in the moist cheese, these would be apt to be obstructed; but to prevent this, it has the power of bringing over the front pair a fold of the skin, breathing in the mean-while through the under pair. Well may Swammerdam denominate these contrivances "surprising mira.

Swammerdam, vol. ii. p. 69. † Bibl. Nat., vol. ii, p. 65.

cles of God's power and wisdom in this abject creature."

Hunting Spider.

Amongst the insects which spring upon their prey like the cat and the lion, the hunting spider (Salticus scenicus,) whose most commonly observed is the little it easily discovered on zebra stripes of white and brown render our windowders-even those which form websframes and palings. But all the spiare accustomed to spring in a familiar way upon what they have caught; and rican one (Mygale avicularia,) which when we are told of the gigantic Ameeven makes prey of small birds (Trochilid,) the necessity of extraordinary agility must be obvious; for these tiny the velocity of light-the eye, notwithstanding the brilliancy of their metallic colours, being frequently baffled in however, being three inches in length, tracking their flight. The spider itself, one and a half in breadth, and eleven inches in the expansion of its legs, is little less than the bird upon which it pounces.

birds are described to move with almost

Hybernation of Insects.

The number of insects, indeed, which hybernate in the perfect state are comparatively few. Of the brimstone butterfly (Gonepteryx Rhamni,) Mr. Stephens tells us the second brood appears in autumn," and of the latter," he adds, "many individuals of both sexes remain throughout the winter, and make their appearance on the first sunny day in spring. I have seen them sometimes so early as the middle of February."§ The commonly perfect state of the wings in such cases might, we think, lead to the contrary conclusion, that the butterfly has just been evolved from its chrysalis. Several other species, however, chiefly of the genus Vanessa, do live through the winter in the perfect state; but this, as far as general observation extends, can only be affirmed of the female. Yet will insects bear almost incredible degrees of cold with impunity. Out of the multiplicity of instances of this on record, we shall select two. In Newfoundland, Captain Buchan saw a lake, which in the evening was entirely still and frozen over, but as soon as the sun had dissolved the ice in the morning, it was all in a bustle of animation, in consequence, as was discovered, of myriads of flies let loose, while many still remained "infixed and frozen round." A still stronger instance is mentioned by I See Insect Architecture, p. 355. Illustrations, vol. i. p. 9.

Ellis, in which a large black mass, like coal or peat upon the hearth, dissolved, when thrown upon the fire, into a cloud of mosquitoes (Culicidae).*

It has been remarked by most writers upon the torpidity of warm-blooded animals, that cold does not seem to be its only cause, and the same apparently holds in the case of insects. Bees, indeed, which remain semi-torpid during the winter, may be prematurely animated into activity by the occurrence of some days of extraordinary mildness in spring; but, what is not a little wonderful and inexplicable, they are not roused by much milder weather when it occurs before Christmas-on the same principle, perhaps, that a man is more easily awakened after he has slept six or seven hours than in the earlier part of the night. Immediately after the first severe frost in the winter of 1829-30, we dug down into the lower chambers of a nest of the wood-ant (Formica rufa,) at Forest Hill, Kent, which we had thatched thickly with fern-leaves the preceding November, both to mark the spot and to protect the ants in winter. About two feet deep we found the little colonists all huddled up in contiguous separate chambers, quite motionless till they were exposed to the warm sunshine, when they began to drag themselves sluggishly and reluctantly along. Even upon bringing some of them into a warm room, they did not awaken into summer activity, but remained lethargic, unwilling to move, and refusing to eat, and continued in the same state of semitorpidity till their brethren in the woods began to bestir themselves to repair the damages caused by the winter storms in the outworks of their encampments.†

Crickets.

"Those," says the ingenious Mr. Gough, of Manchester, "who have attended to the manners of the hearth cricket (Acheta domestica) know that it passes the hottest part of the summer in sunny situations, concealed in the crevices of walls and heaps of rubbish. It quits its summer abode about the end of August, and fixes its residence by the fireside of kitchens or cottages, where it multiplies its species, and is as merry at Christmas as other insects in the dog-days. Thus do the comforts of a warm hearth afford the cricket a safe refuge, not from death, but from temporary torpidity, which it can support for a long time, when deprived by accident of artificial warmth -I came to the knowledge of this fact,' * Quarterly Review, April, 1821, p. 209. † J. R.

continues Mr. Gough, "by planting a colony of these insects in a kitchen, where a constant fire was kept through the summer, but which is discontinued from November till June, with the exception of a day once in six or eight weeks. The crickets were brought from a distance, and let go in this room, in the beginning of September, 1806; here they increased considerably in the course of two months, but were not heard or seen after the fire was removed. Their disappearance led me to conclude that the cold had killed them; but in this I was mistaken; for a brisk fire being kept up for a whole day in the winter, the warmth of it invited my colony from their hiding-place, but not before the evening: after which they continued to skip about and chirp the greater part of the following day, when they again disappeared; being compelled, by the returning cold, to take refuge in their former retreats. They left the chimney corner on the 25th of May, 1807, after a fit of very hot weather, and revisited their winter residence on the 31st of August. Here they spent the summer merely, and lie torpid at present (January, 1808) in the crevices of the chimney, with the exception of those days on which they are recalled to a temporary existence by the comforts of fire."‡

We repeat the value of the authorities in foot-notes, and urge this point as one of great merit and importance, which is no where so well attended to as in the "Entertaining Library.”

TABLE-WIT OF OTHER TIMES.

CERTAINLY the moderate, or to be frank, the immoderate excesses formerly allowed and practised by men of fashion, did not all debrute the character. What wit did they not engender! to what sallies did they not give birth! But alas! nights of conviviality and men of wit, ye are no more ye have vanished together! Fox, Sheridan, a hundred such have departed, and have left not a shred of their mantles behind. We have a few punsters extant, 'tis true-dry, crabbed jokers, who affect the play of humour, but who no longer send forth the sparkles of wit. It is thus, as in literature, the coldness of pedantry always succeeds to the warmth of genius, which it may mimick, but never rival.

But now we live in the nineteeth century, forsooth! we have grown refined; and half a pint of claret, the author of Reeve, Essay oz the Torpidity of Animals,

p. 81.

"Salmonia" tells us, is sufficient even for an angler. We have men of intellect, of information: we have dinners, that we would make brilliant, but where the remark is as fugitive as trifling, and as little tasted as the refined dishes that are made to pass under our eyes. One hopes, however, that intellects and spirits may brighten after the repast: but no, the guests preserve the well-bred apathy, that makes them resemble the iced and frosted confitures, that rise in piles before them; and as each gives vent, as opportunity allows, to his effort of intellect or extravagance, all seem perfectly agreed in despising the generous wine. Host and guest vie with each other as to which of them shall be most unconscious and careless of the position, fixitude, or plenitude of the bottle; and that fount of wit, finding itself neglected, may be said in revenge to have forgotten its ancient power of inspiration. The English at Home.

EDUCATIONAL errors.

We have volumes, and theories, and systems innumerable for educating the poor, and cultivating the intellect of beggars; but respecting the education of the better orders, of those on whom depends the government, the morals, and the taste of a nation, we have, no, not an essay worth mentioning. The science consists in living volumes, it will be said; and, as the law is supposed to exist in the common-placed brains of the judges, so education and its principles lie beneath the perruques of university doctors.-Ibid.

WORLD-KNOWLEDGE.

dered a virtue capable of covering the crime or weakness of being a philanthro→ pist. And to come down to the present day, know we not accomplished statesmen, high-born, sage, proof in talents and integrity, for ever repelled from influential station by want of popularity amongst their brother aristocrats, and this proceeding from no cause more deep, than an aversion to game-laws, and a disdain to be the slayers of pheasants?-Ibid.

We must live for our age and one may as well be ignorant of its language, as of the topics which interest it.

ONE OF THE LAST CENTURY.

LORD RATOATH had not lived, as far as the progress of ideas or opinions were concerned, beyond the year eighteen hundred-I might say, ninety- when France was still our model for polite society and fashionable manners. Chesterfield and Walpole were his authorities on these points: powers of conversation, habits of conviviality and of intrigue, were to him the first and indispensable requisites for seeking either fame, or fortune, or happiness;-honesty and virtue, (when either exceeded the strict line marked by honour) were set down by him as puritanical and vulgar. The careless generosity of Charles Surface ex

cited all his admiration and the "men of wit and pleasure about town," those the comedies of the first half of the cencharacters so admired and put forth in tury, were far preferred by him to the

sentimental and better-behaved heroes who came into vogue with the novels of the last half.-Ibid.

THE GAME LAWS.

How essential a part of gentility is the science of killing game; how popular, how English, are sporting habits and knowledge; and how indispensable a requisite the being a passable shot is to success in any path of British ambition, the highest or the lowest, whether it be the sublime of politics, or the beautiful of dandyism. We know, that when King William sought to regain the popularity which he had lost by his obstinate principles of toleration, his cabinet gravely advised him to visit Newmarket. Thus the love of a horse-race was consi

SPLENDID CORONATION OF THE QUEEN RANOVALO MANJAKA, THE SUCCESSOR OF RADAMA, LATE KING OF MADAGASCAR.

THE mourning for Radama ceased on

the 27th of May, 1829, after having continued for about ten months.

Her Majesty Ranovalo Manjaka was crowned on the 12th of June, in an assembly of upwards of fifty thousand of her people.

The following account of the ceremony was drawn up by an eye witness, well acquainted with the language and manners of the Madagasses.

At six P.M., on Thursday the 11th of June, fourteen cannon were fired to announce to the capital that her Majesty would be crowned on the following day.

At the dawn of day on Friday the 12th,