"Ye azure tribes that rule the sea, To toast his native land." Swift o'er the waves the Nereids flew, Around the shores they sung "True Blue," A mighty bowl on deck he drew, Such drank the Burford's gallant crew, And such the gods shall drink. The sacred robe which Vernon wore Was drenched within the same; And hence his virtues guard our shore, And Grog derives its name. THE FORLORN HOPE. In John Dymmoks' Treatise of Ireland, written about the year 1600, and published among the Tracts relating to Ireland, printed for the Irish Archæological Society, vol. ii., is the following paragraph : Before the vant-guard marched the forelorn hope, consisting of forty shott and twenty shorte weapons, with order that they should not discharge untill they presented theire pieces to the rebells' breasts in their trenches, and that soodenly the short weapons should enter the trenches pell-mell: vpon eyther syde of the vant-guarde (which was observed in the batle and reare-guarde) marched wings of shott enterlyned with pikes, to which were sent secondes with as much care and diligence as occasion required. The baggage, and a parte of the horse, marched before the battell; the rest of the horse troopes fell in before the rearewarde except thirty, which, in the head of the rearelorne hope, conducted by Sir Hen. Danvers, made the retreit of the whole army.— P. 32. *Flag-ship at the taking of Porto-Bello. The terms rearelorne hope and forlorne hope occur constantly in the same work, and bear the same signification as in the foregoing. The late Dr. Graves wrote the following notice of the word in the Dublin Quarterly Journal of Medical Science, in Feb. 1849: Military and civil writers of the present day seem quite ignorant of the true meaning of the words forlorn hope. The adjective has nothing to do with despair, nor the substantive with the "charmer which lingers still behind;" there was no such poetical depth in the words as originally used. Every corps marching in any enemy's country had a small body of men at the head (haupt or hope) of the advanced guard; and which was termed the forlorne hope (lorn being here but a termination similar to ward in forward), while another small body at the head of the rere guard was called the rear-lorn hope (xx). A reference to Johnson's Dictionary proves that civilians were misled as early as the time of Dryden by the mere sound of a technical military phrase; and, in process of time, even military men forgot the true meaning of the words. It grieves me to sap the foundations of an error to which we are indebted for Byron's beautiful line The full of hope, misnamed forlorn. THE WANDERING BEE. High mountains closed the vale, Rooted, no insect fed, no bird awoke Their echoes, save the eagle, strong of wing; A lonely plunderer, that afar Thither towards those mountains Thalaba Advanced, for well he ween'd that there had Fate Destined the adventure's end. Up a wide vale, winding amid their depths, A stony vale between receding heights Of stone, he wound his way. A cheerless place! The solitary Bee, Seeking in vain one blossom, where to fix. Thalaba, book vi. 12, 13. This incident of the wandering bee, highly poetical, seems at first sight very improbable, and passes for one of the many strange creations of this wild poem. But yet it is quite true to nature, and was probably suggested to Southey, an omnivorous reader, by some out-of-the-way book of travels. In Hurton's Voyage to Lapland, vol. ii. p. 251, published a few years since, he says that as he stood on the verge of the North Cape The only living creature that came near me was a bee, which hummed merrily by. What did the busy insect seek there? Not a blade of grass grew, and the only vegetable matter on this point was a cluster of withered moss at the very edge of the awful precipice, and it I gathered at considerable risk, as a memorial of my visit. So in Frémont's Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, 1842, p. 69, he speaks of standing on the crest of the snow-peak, 13,570 feet above the Gulf of Mexico, and adds: During our morning's ascent, we had met no sign of animal life, except the small sparrow-like bird already mentioned. A stillness the most profound, and a terrible solitude, forced themselves constantly on the mind as the great features of the place. Here on the summit, where the stillness was absolute, unbroken by any sound, and the solitude complete, we thought ourselves beyond the region of animated life; but while we were sitting on the rock, a solitary bee (Bromus, the humble bee), came winging his flight from the eastern valley, and lit on the knee of one of the men. It was a strange place, the icy rock and the highest peak of the Rocky Mountains, for a lover of warm sunshine and flowers; and we pleased ourselves with the idea that he was the first of his species to cross the mountain barrier, a solitary pioneer to foretell the advance of civilization. I believe that a moment's thought would have made us let him continue his way un harmed, but we carried out the law of this country, where all animated nature seems at war; and seizing him immediately, put him in at least a fit place, in the leaves of a large book, among the flowers we had collected on our way. WEATHER RULES. Thomas Passenger, who dwelt at the Three Bibles and Star, on London Bridge, was very celebrated during the latter part of the seventeenth century for publishing popular histories and chapbooks. His shop seems to have been the principal place of resort for the hawkers who then supplied the provinces with literature. Many of the works which issued from his press are now very rare : one of the most curious, and, at the same time, the rarest, is The Shepherd's Kalendar; or, the Citizen's and Country Man's Daily Companion, &c. The contents of this book are of a very singular nature, it being a kind of epitome of the facts it was then thought necessary for a countryman to be acquainted with. A considerable portion of the work is occupied by remarks on the weather, and on lucky and unlucky days. We are informed, under the head "Observations on Remarkable Days, to know how the whole Year will succeed in Weather, Plenty," &c., that— If the sun shine clear and bright on Christmas-day, it promiseth a peaceable year from clamours and strife, and foretells much plenty to ensue; but if the wind blow stormy towards sunset, it betokeneth sickness in the spring and autumn quarters. If January 25 (being St. Paul's day), be fair, it promises a happy year; but if cloudy, windy, or rainy, otherwise : hear in this case what an ancient judicious astrologer writes: If St. Paul be fair and clear, Mists or hoar frosts on tde tenth of March betokens (sic) a plentiful year, but not without some diseases. If, in the fall of the leaf in October, many of them wither on the bows, and hang there, it betokens a frosty winter and much snow. Under "The Signs of Rain in Creatures" we have the following : When the hern or bitron flies low, the air is gross, and thickening into showers. The froggs much croaking in ditches and pools, &c., in the evening, foretells rain in little time to follow: also, the sweating of stone pillars or tombs denotes rain. The often doping or diving of water-fowl foreshows rain is at hand. TELEGRAPHING THROUGH WATER. Dr. Franklin, in 1748, thus wrote to his friend Peter Collinson of London : Chagrined a little that we have hitherto been able to produce nothing in this way of use to mankind, and the hot weather coming on when electrical experiments are not so agreeable, it is proposed to put an end to them for the season, somewhat humorously, in a party of pleasure on the banks of the Schuylkill. Spirits at the same time are to be fired by a spark sent from side to side through the river without any other conductor than the water; an experiment which we some time since performed to the amazement of many. A turkey is to be killed for our dinner by the electric shock, and roasted by the electric jack, before a fire kindled by the electrified bottle; when the health of all the famous electricians of England, Holland, France, and Germany, are to be drunk in electrified bumpers, under a discharge of guns from the electrical battery. LIFE AND DEATH. 1. To die is better than to live. I praised the dead which are already dead more than the living which are yet alive. Yea, better is he than both they, which hath not yet been, who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the sun-Eccles. iv. 2, 3. Great travail is created for every man, and a heavy yoke upon the sons of |