orders, and do every thing as well as you can, and there is no fear of your coming on.-We have no idlers, no skulkers here, every one must be active and alert!" So saying, he left them.

"It was not long ere Tom found himself well enough to proceed on deck, and explore the general scene that was moving around him. He was anxious to observe the nature of a service to which he was a complete stranger; but Andrew, whether from indifference, reluctance, or real illness, remained below in his birth, pleading his inability to move from the pain of the bruises which he had received in his Newhaven battle. Amidst all the misfortunes that had lately befallen him, he had preserved his Horace, which now not only served as a companion to him in his hours of melancholy solitude, but acted as, a balm to his wounded mind, and a balsam to his sores, superior to any which the surgeon's mate could apply. As his prolonged confinement rather surprised the boatswain, who was informed by his attendant that the wounds in his head were completely healed, he paid him occasional visits to rouse him into action, and had invariably found him poring over a little book, which he read at the faint light of a small tallow candle, placed in a horn lanthorn. Wondering that a book of so diminutive a size could occupy him so long, and suspecting that he was "shamming Abraham," he one evening accosted him, after his usual salutation of Well, what cheer shipmate? in the following terms: "What! have you not overhauled that little book yet? Damn my eyes, there can't be much stuff in itOne, I think, might get through it in an hour or two, and here you have been at it every night for near a fortnight. Let's see what like it February 1812.

is." said he, snatching the book out of Andrew's hands, and opening it"O! I'm blasted if I understand one word of it!-What the hell is it?" said he, turning to Tom, who had just come down.

"It is Horace," answered Tom.

"Horrors!" exclaimed the boatswain, "what the devil has he to do with them?-Why, it's no wonder why you are melancholy, my lad! But we have horrors enough to grapple with here, without looking into a book for them, so I wou'd advise you to chuck it overboard, and come upon deck, and look at something else. Here's your messmate, who has been bustling about from morn to night, overhauling every thing he could set his eye on, and inquiring about every thing he did not understand. That's the way to make a good seaman, and, if I am not hellishly out of my reckoning, he'll make one very soon.Come, come! you must remain here no longer-the surgeon's mate tells me that devil a thing's the matter with you; so remember, I expect to see you to-morrow-morning on the main deck-there's no shamming Abraham here-every man must do his duty."

In the course of the narrative, we are introduced to the family of the neill has exhibited two opposite erTimbertones, in which Mr Macforce a taste for music, where it rors; one, that of endeavouring to does not exist, the other, that of checking it where it has been naturally implanted. The following family dialogue will afford a very good specimen of the manner in which this subject has been illustrated.

"She (the daughter) loved her book, her pencil, and her needle; but none of these were permitted to interfere with her musical tasks, as her mother, five or six timesa-day,bawled

out,

out, "Sit down to your piano, Arabella! you have been a great deal too long from it: Sit down to your piano, I tell you!"

"The girl at last became so harassed and worn out with this irksome and incessant toil, that, no longer able to endure it, she entreated her mother to release her from what was so unpleasant; but to no effect. "Would you give up a branch so indispensibly necessary for every young woman who has the least pretensions to genteelity and fashion?" exclaimed the sagacious mother. "Do you see one exception among all your intimates or acquaintance? and would it not be disgraceful to you, as well as to us, were you deficient in what is now considered as the most important and the most elegant part of female education? -Impossible!"

"It may be important to those who receive pleasure from it, and who are qualified to give pleasure to others," said Arabella; but that is not the case with me. I would not give one farthing for all the music in the world, nor can I expect to arrive at any perfection in it, when I have neither a voice sufficient to reach one octave, nor an ear to distinguish treble from common time."

“That's nothing," rejoined the judicious mother all this will come by practice. Your Master tells me so, and that a good Timeist can be made without a musical ear; and as for your voice, he says it is not yet nearly formed, but that years and daily practice will render it not only sweet but powerful!?

"Now what the Master says must be nonsense, mother," rejoined Arabella; "for there is Betsy Nightingale, who is much younger than I am, and who can with ease reach nearly three octaves, and has besides so nice an ear, that before her

first month of instruction was over, she could distinguish the smallest discord: But Betsy has a natural genius for music, and I have not, mother."

"Really, my dear," said Mr. Timbertone, (who all this time had been listening to the argument), "I cannot help thinking that what Arabella says is very just. Neither you nor I, you know, have the least taste for music, nor ever had a musical voice or ear in our lives; how then can we expect such qualities in our daughter? And since such gifts are not the portion of all, why should we strive against nature, and render the poor girl miserable for nothing?"

"Hold your tongue, Mr. Timbertone," said his wife, impatiently, "you know nothing at all of the matter. Will any body pretend to say that music is not to be acquired by practice alone, when every parent in Edinburgh gives it to their daughters without the least exception?-And pray, Mr Timbertone, what a pretty figure should we make, if our daughter was deficient in any branch of education, especially in one which is now universally admired, and considered as the very first accomplishment a young lady can possess? Suppose now, for instance, that we had an evening party: could we possibly avoid giving them an entertainment, which they all lay their account with-music, both vocal and instrumental? And should we not look very foolish, and very contemptible, Mr Timbertone, if instead of our own daughter contributing to this entertainment, we should be under the necessity of applying to the daughters of others, and consequently acknowledging to the whole company, that we had neglected to give Arabella what no mechanic's daughter in Edinburgh is ignorant of?-Impossible, Mr. Timbertone! We should be the

town

No, no, allow me to know these things better, if you please. I don't interfere in your business, Mr Timbertone, and I beg you may not interfere in any plans of mine for instructing Arabella, who must be educated as other young women of fashion are, without the exception

of one article.

“Very well, my dear," answered

Timbertone

very placidly,-"I shall not argue the point with you; but allow me just to observe, that what with musical instruments, musical books, and musical masters at half a guinea every three lessons, I am already out of pocket above L.250, and Arabella, by her own confession, not one bit the better for

it."

"You are much mistaken, Mr Timbertone," said his wife briskly" infinitely mistaken! Arabella can play over a difficult concerto - with considerable brilliance of fingering, her master tells me; and that nothing now is wanting but a little more time and experience to make her equal to any young lady in Edinburgh"

Another character, Peter Placid, is subsequently introduced; one frequently met with in the world;

easy, good natured, and a general favourite; but possessing none of that firmness and energy, which is necessary for an efficient discharge of the various duties of life, The bad effects of this disposition are exhibited on a variety of occasions, particularly in the education of his children, who are ruined by thoughtless and indiscriminate indulgence.

From this sketch, our readers may be enabled to form an idea of the nature and object of Mr Macneill's performance. It cannot be confounded with the ordinary class

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M

Literary Intelligence.

of a Treatise on the Miner

R JOHN MAWE, the author

alogy of Derbyshire, is about to publish a Narrative of his Voyage to the Rio de la Plata, and of his Travels in Brazil, during a period of six years, from 1804 to 1810. The principal part of this work relates to the interior of Brazil, where no Englishman was ever permitted to travel, and particularly to the gold and diamond districts, which the author investigated by order of the Prince Regent. From the high sanction under which he began the undertaking, and the lengtli of time

he

be expected to throw considerable light on a rich and extensive colony hitherto little explored, and, at present, highly interesting, as it is likely, through recent changes, to become the seat of the empire of our oldest and most faithful ally.

A splendid original work, delineating the Border-Antiquities of England and Scotland, is in great for wardness. The first part will be published on the 31st of March, and a part will be continued regularly every three months. It is intended to exhibit specimens of the Architecture, Sculpture, and other vestiges of former ages, from the earliest times to the union of the two crowns, accompanied with descriptive sketches and biographical remarks, together with a brief his torical account of the principal events that have occurred in that part

of Great Britain.

Mr. James Smyth, of the Custom-House, Hull, intends shortly to publish, in one volume octavo, a Treatise on the Practice of the Customs, in the entry, examination, and delivery, of goods and merchandize imported from foreign parts; with a copious illustration of the warehousing system, intended for the use of merchants, officers, and others, concerned in this branch of the business of the customs.

Mr. Bransby, of Ipswich, author of some useful publications on astronomy and geography, who has been an attentive observer of the comet of 1811, with the most accurate instruments, will, within a few days, publish a correct delineation of its path, and a full and distinct account of its elements, &c. In the plate will also be exhibited the path of he comet of 1807.

The Rev. J. Nightingale proposes to publish a Portraiture of the Roman Catholic Religion; or, an unprejudiced Sketch of the Histo

M. de Guignes, author of a Voyage to Pekin (3 vols. 8vo. with 1 vol. folio of designs and charts), has just prepared an answer to the critics who have attacked his History of that empire. He has also read to the Institute an historical exposition of Chinese astronomy, from the earliest times, until the year 1776; and, to crown his labours, he is now about to publish a Chinese Dictionary, under the sanetion of the French Emperor Napolean.

M. Charles Villiers, who has already obtained renown from the historical class of the French Institute, lately published a work in which he greatly praises the system of education pursued in the protestant schools in Germany, particularly those of Westphalia.

In the present age, when political metamorphoses succeed each other with such astonishing rapidity, the deaths and births of Universities are likewise become common events in Germany---those venerable institutions which in former times did not arrive at maturity in less then a century, and were never extinguished, except by great public convulsions, or by the decay of decrepitude.---The once-celebrated universities of Helmstadt, Altdorf, and Rinteln, have expired within about two years, and many others are fast approaching towards their dissolution! Ruehsz, one of the most assiduous professors of the University of Greifswald, says, in the preface to the fourth volume of his new History of Sweden: "The school of learning, of which I have

been