of a new-born infant.-It appeared to have been dead a day or two, and was beginning to putrefy at the time I saw it. It was seen by a great number of the military lying in that part of the island, none of whom had ever seen or heard of the like before. On mentioning the circumstance to some of the natives, I was told, that several fish of the same kind had at different times been cast upon their coast. This was all the information they could give. I should be very thankful if any of your numerous correspondents could in a future number, favour me with the name or history of this class of aquatic beings. Your constant Reader, ANECDOTE OF COLLINS AND A COUNTRYMAN. 66 6 ANTHONY COLLINS, who has generally been considered a Free Thinker, one day met a plain countryman going to church. "Where are you going?" said the philosopher. 'To Church, Sir.' “What do you do there?" "I worship God, Sir.' Pray is your God great or little ?" 'He is both, Sir.' | "How can that be?" Why, he is so great that the heaven of heavens cannot contain him, and he is so little that he can dwell in my heart.'-Collins afterwards declared, that this simple observation of the countryman had more effect upon his mind, than all the volumes he had perused, written by the learned doctors. ATRONOMICAL OCCURRENCES FOR OCTOBER.-BY AN OBSERVER. THE Sun enters Scorpio on the 23d, at fifty-eight minutes past eleven in the morning. The Moon is new on the 7th; enters her first quarter on the 15th; she is full on the 21st; and enters her last quarter on the 28th. She is in her apogee on the 5th, and in her perigee on the 28th. She will pass Venus on the 3d, Mercury and Ceres on the 7th, Mars on the 9th, the Georgian planet on the 13th, Jupiter on the 18th, and Saturn on the 20th. Mercury is in his superior conjunction on the 1st, and sets on the 31st at sixteen minutes past five in the evening. He is in aphelio on the 23d. From his unfavourable position he will not be visible this month. Ceres is in conjunction with the Sun on the 2d. She is too near the Sun to be visible at the beginning of this month, but from the favourableness of her position she will be discovered about the 17th, under the five stars in triangle of the Virgin, about seven degrees from the fourth of this constellation. She is directing her course to the second of the Balance; Mars sets on the 1st at thirtyseven minutes past six in the evening, and on the 31st at twenty-nine minutes past five. From his unfavourable position he will not be visible this month. The Georgian planet sets on the 1st at fifty-six minutes past eight in the evening, and on the 31st at five minutes past seven. We shall see him near the same spot, about five degrees from the twelfth of the Archer above him to the east. Jupiter sets on the 1st at ten minutes past four in the morning, and on the 31st at two minutes past two. He is seen under the twenty-first of the Waterbearer, moving slowly under it from east to west. Saturn is in opposition to the Sun on the 2d, and he sets on the 31st at sixteen minutes past four in the morning. He is seen at first almost directly under the fourth of the Fishes, receding slowly to the west. Venus is a morning star, rising on the 1st at fifty-eight minutes past one, and on the 31st at fifty-four minutes past two. She is in her greatest elongation on the 8th, and in her ascending node on the 18th. She is first seen under the second of the Virgin, and she passes it on the 5th. She continues her course under the five stars in triangle of this constellation, passing under the seventh on the 12th, and the third on the 16th. She then directs her course between the tenth and eleventh of the Virgin, passing the first on the 28th. DIALOGUE BETWEEN MERCURY, AN ENGLISH DUELLIST, AND A NORTH DUELLIST.-Mercury, Charon's boat is on the other side of the water; allow me, before it returns, to have some conversation with the North American Savage, whom you brought hither at the same time as you conducted me to the shades. I never saw one of that species before, and am curious to know what the animal is. He looks very grim.-Pray, Sir, what is your name? I understand you speak Eng lish. be undone by his death. So I am well revenged; and that is a comfort. For my part I had no wife. I always hated marriage. S.-Mercury, I won't go in a boat with that fellow. He has murdered his countryman, he has murdered his friend. I say, I won't go in a boat with that fellow, I will swim over the river; I can swim like a duck. MERCURY.-Swim over the Styx! it must not be done; it is against the laws of Pluto's empire. You must go in the boat, so be quiet. S.-Do not tell me of laws; I am a SAVAGE.-Yes, I learned it in my childhood, having been bred up for some years in the town of New York; but before I was a man, I returned to my countrymen, the valiant Mohawks; and having been cheated by one of yours in the sale of some rum, I wished never to have any thing to do with them afterwards. Yet with the rest of my tribe, I took up the hatchet for them in the war against France, and was killed while I was upon a scalping party. But I died very well satis-savage! fied; for my friends were victorious, and before I was shot I had scalped seven men, and five women and children. In a former war I had done still greater exploits. My name is the Bloody Bear: it was given to me to denote my fierceness and valour. D. Bloody Bear, I respect you, and am much your humble servant. My name is Tom Pushwell, very well known at Arthur's. I am a gentleman by birth, and by profession a gamester, and a man of honour. I have killed men in fair fighting, in honourable single combat; but I do not understand cutting the throats of women and children. S.—Sir, that's our way of making war. Every nation has its own customs. But by the grimness in your countenance, and that hole in your breast, I presume you were killed, as I was myself, in some scalping party. How happened it that your enemy did not take off your scalp? D.-Sir, I was killed in a duel. A friend of mine had lent me some money; after two or three years, being himself in great want, he asked me to pay him; I thought his demand an affront to my honour, and sent him a challenge. We met in Hyde park; the fellow could not fence: I was the most adroit swordsman in England. I gave him three or four wounds; but at last he ran upon me with such impetuosity that he put me out of my play, and I could not prevent him from whipping me through the lungs. I died the next day, as a man of honour should, without any snivelling signs of repentance; and he will follow me soon, for his surgeon has declared his wounds to be mortal. It is said that his wife is dead of the fright, and that his family of seven children will I value no laws. Talk of laws to the Englishman; there are laws in his country, and yet you see he did not regard them, for they could never allow him to kill his fellow-subject in time of peace, because he asked him to pay a debt. The English cannot be so brutal as to make such things lawful. M.-You reason well against him. But how comes it that you are so offended with murder: you who have massacred women in their sleep, and children in their cradles? S.-I killed none but my enemies; I never killed my own countryman; I never killed my friend. Here, take my blanket, and let it come over in the boat, but see that the murderer does not sit upon it or touch it; if he does, I will burn it in the fire I see yonder. Farewell. I am resolved to swim over the water. M. By this touch of my wand I take all thy strength from thee. Swim now if thou canst. S. This is a very potent enchanter. Restore me my strength, and I will obey thee. M.-I restore it; but be orderly and do as I bid you, otherwise worse will befall you. D.-Mercury, leave him to me, I will tutor him for you. Sirrah, Savage, dost thou pretend to be ashamed of my company? Dost thou know that I have kept the best company in England? S.-I know thou art a scoundrel! Not pay thy debts! kill thy friend who lent thee money, for asking thee for it! Get out of my sight, or I will drive thee into the Styx. M.-Stop, I command thee. No violence. Talk to him calmly. S.-I must obey thee.-Well, Sir, let me know what merit you had to introduce you into good company. | him draw his sword in the combat What could you do? D.-Sir, I gamed, as I told you.Besides that, I kept a good table.-I ate as well as any man in England or France. S.-Eat! Did you ever eat the chine of a Frenchman, or his leg, or his shoulder? There is fine eating! I have eaten twenty.-My table was always well served. My wife was the best cook for dressing man's flesh in all North America. You will not pretend to compare your eating with mine. D.-I danced very finely. S.-I will dance with thee for thy ears. I can dance all day long. I can dance the war dance with more spirit and vigour than any man of my nation; let us see thee begin it. How thou standest like a post! Has Mercury struck thee with his enfeebling rod? or art thou ashamed to betray thy awkwardness? If he would permit me, I would teach thee to dance in a way that thou hast not yet seen. I would make thee caper and leap like a buck. But what else canst thou do, thou bragging rascal? D.-Oh, heavens! must I bear this? What can I do with this fellow? I have neither sword nor pistol; and his shade seems to be twice as strong as mine. M.-You must answer his questions. It was your own desire to have a conversation with him. He is not wellbred, but he will tell you some truths which you must hear in this place. It would have been well for you if you had heard them above. He asked you what you could do besides eating and dancing? D.-I sung very agreeably. S.-Let me hear you sing your death-song, or the war-whoop. I challenge you to sing;-the fellow is mute.-Mercury, this is a liar.--He tells us nothing but lies. Let me pull out his tongue. D.-The lie given me!—and, alas! I dare not resent it. Oh, what a disgrace to the family of the Pushwells! M.-Here, Charon, take these two savages to your care. How far the barbarism of the Mohawk will excuse his horrid acts, I leave Minos to judge; but what excuse can the Englishman plead? The custom of duelling? An excuse this, that in these regions cannot avail. The spirit that made against his friend, is not the spirit of honour; it is the spirit of the furies, of Alecto herself. To her he must go, for she has long dwelt in his merciless bosom. S.-If he is to be punished, turn him over to me. I understand the art of tormenting. Sirrah, I begin with this kick on your breech. Get you into the boat, or I'll give you another. I am impatient to have you condemned. D.-Oh my honour, my honour, to what infamy art thou fallen! DIALOGUES OF THE DEAD. Eulogy on an Article signed O—x. MR. EDITOR, THE especial purport of this note is to express my admiration of an article which appeared in your numbers for June, July, and Aug. last, entitled "View of the general Ignorance concerning the Human Mind," and signed O-x. I communicate my sentiments also, from the hope that it will be the means of inducing those who have read it but slightly, to study it more intensely; for it breathes a spirit honourable to its author, as entertaining as edifying, abounding with information beneficial to the social compact, and inspiring men with disgust and pity at those petty efforts of dissimulation and craft, which spring from a too inordinate degree of selfishness, or a distorted ambition to be thought superior in the discernment of character. I beg your pardon, for soliciting admission to your columns for this indifferent eulogium, on the author of that piece, because its excellencies merit much more. I am, with respect, Aberdeen, 12th July, 1820. J. L. ILLUSTRATION OF DEUTERONOMY "LIFE for life, eye for eye, tooth for ceived: but it means, I shall give him | world, and declared his belief in Uniwhat satisfaction an eye shall be tarianism." judged to be worth." That this opinion is erroneous in regard to "life," the Book of God itself bears witness, pointing out not only that life is to be forfeited in cases of murder, but also the manner in which the punishment is to be inflicted: and that the commonly received opinion of retaliation, in regard to the other particulars, is correct, the following incident sufficiently warrants us in believing. An officer in the navy informed me, that in the course of the late war he was in a sea-port town in Asia, which was partly peopled with Chinese, who had a chief of their own nation, in subjection to the native governor of the place. The governor had a collection of wild beasts, which a Chinese viewing a little too closely, had one of his eyes torn out by the claws of a large animal of the cat genus, that was kept in one of the cages. The man made speedy appli- | cation to the chief of his nation, demanding the penalty of the law against the animal; which consisted in doing that injury to it, which it had inflicted on the man. The governor did not attempt to deny the justice of the demand thus officially presented to him; but rather than a favourite animal should be thus mutilated, he ordered it to be shot. J. POLPERROC. On the Unitarianism of Dr. Watts. MR. EDITOR, In the defence or recommendation of opinions, on any subject, it is no uncommon manoeuvre, nor is it one that is not generally attended with some effect, to produce a list of great and learned men who have espoused and supported them. The people known by the name of Unitarians, (some among them at least,) seem to be well aware of the effect which it produces: my reason for thinking so is, that I so often have heard the following circumstance brought forward to recommend their system:-" Dr. Watts, that very learned and pious man, who, the greater portion of his lifetime, believed in the doctrines of Trinitarians, and wrote much in defence of them, perceived his error before he left this or I do not mean at all to question the veracity of the statement; nor do I mean to insinuate any thing hostile to the good intentions of those concerned; only I would just remark, that there is another circumstance which perhaps has escaped their observation, which, perhaps, they have forgotten; viz.-Dr. 'Watts, the greater portion of his lifetime, considered himself a human being, but discovered the great error under which he had so long been labouring, before his decease; for he found that, instead of being a man, he was nothing more nor less than aTEA-POT! and dreaded going through any narrow opening, lest by accident he should knock his spout off! Persons have been much staggered at hearing, that a man who searched so much for the truth as Dr. Watts, at last declared in favour of Unitarianism, from their not knowing the circumstance just stated; which needs no comment, to show how much dependence we ought to place in the declarations he made in his dotage. Liverpool, August 8, 1820. ALPHEUS. ANECDOTE OF MICHAEL ANGELO. WHENEVER Michael Angelo was meditating on some great design, he closed himself up from the world. Why do you lead so solitary a life?" asked a friend. "Art,” replied the sublime artist,"art is a jealous god, and requires the whole and entire man." ANECDOTE OF LA CAILLE. LA CAILLE was the son of a parish clerk. At the age of ten years, his father sent him every evening to ringthe church-bell of the village in which they resided; but the boy always returned home late. His father was angry, and beat him; but still he returned an hour after he had rung the bell. The father suspecting something mysterious in his conduct, watched; and one evening saw him ascend the steeple, and remain there an hour. When the unlucky boy descended and saw his father, he trembled like one caught in a theft, and on his knees confessed that the pleasure he took in surveying the stars from the steeple, was the real cause of detaining him, from home. As the father was not | And we may truly say, that the faith born to be an astronomer, like the son, of the Christian, "is wholly from he flogged him severely. The youth God," as follows:-God is the author was found weeping in the streets, by of the gospel testimony, record, wita man of science; who, when he dis-ness, or report; which is the good covered in a boy of ten years of age a news of salvation to be proclaimed passion for contemplating the stars at unto all men. God also is the author night, who had found an observatory of all that accumulation of evidence, in a steeple, and had shewn a resolu- which he designed as confirmations of tion to persevere in spite of such ill the truth of the gospel report; such as treatment, concluded that the seal of all the miracles wrought by our Lord nature had impressed itself on his ge- Jesus Christ and his apostles; the renius. Relieving the parent from the surrection of our Lord from the dead; son, and the son from the parent, he his ascension into heaven; the extraassisted the young La Caille in his ordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit on passionate pursuit, and the event com- the day of Pentecost; and subsequent pletely justified his anticipation. miracles by the apostles; and also the destruction of Jerusalem, and dispersion of the Jews. God also has constituted man a reasonable creature, endued him with faculties to render him able to understand the revealed will of his Maker; and if man does not receive or believe the gospel testimony now, upon the evidences recorded with it, eternal misery will be JUVENIS. REPLIES TO QUERIES. Reply to a Query on Animal Spirits. In answer to a question inserted col. 367, on this subject, B. F. Hopkins gives the following reply. The ancients divided spirits into three kinds; namely, animal, vital, and vegetative; and though the moderns class them under the general term animal, yet the former method appears the more unexceptionable. However, if the phrase " Animal Spirits," be applied only to the juices resident in animal bodies, the expression is legitimate, and consequently attended with no impropriety. the consequence. With a view to prove the above to and others, I will subjoin a few pasthe satisfaction of H. B. of Liverpool, sages only from the same apostle John, believe, and we are told how faith was in which passages men are said to produced upon their minds-which was by the force of evidence accompanying the divine testimony; but here let me request H. B. not only to read the verses referred to, but also their In our former volume, col. 995, a connections.-John ii. 11,22,23.-iii. 2. question was proposed by H. B. of—iv. 39, 41, 48, 53.—vii. 31.—x. 41, Liverpool, respecting Faith. Having 42.-xi. 4, 15, 42, 45. and xii. 11. heard many disputes on this impor- After a due attention to these pastant subject, the proposer wished to sages, the reader will meet with numecall the attention of some able corre- rous others in the New Testament of spondent to its elucidation; namely, like import. whether Faith is wholly from God, or wholly from man? Answer to a Query on Faith. moor. 66 Those passages by the apostle Paul, Eph. ii. 8. and Phil. i. 29. with Colos. To this question, we have received ii. 12. are not opposite to what I have the following reply by J. T. of Oaka-stated. In the two first, the apostle is alluding more particularly to salvation than to faith, as we see by the words preceding each passage; and Colos. ii. 12. has a reference to the resurrection of Christ by the power of God, as the greatest evidence of the truth of the gospel. See Dr. Chandler and Dr. Macknight, on these last passages. Reply to a Query on the Aspiration of It is true there are 66 many disputes" not only on the subject of Faith," but also on the nature of Faith. The nature, or the definition of faith, is that credit which we give to a report or proclamation, whether human or divine, when it comes attested with sufficient evidence,—so, I understand the beloved apostle John, in his first epistle, verse 9. ;-and in the gospel according to the same apostle, x. 37, 38.-xii. 37, 38. xiv. 11.-xv. 24. and xx. 30, 31. No. 20.-VOL. II. the letter H. In answer to H. H.'s query, col 368, I beg leave to observe, that e 3 G |