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young lawyers, not thirty years of age, think that nisi prius, scire facias, &c„ are English expressions; and if you tell them that a knowl edge of Latin would make them appear more respectable in their profession, they will re ply that they are too old to think of learning Latin. . Boccacio, was thirty-five years of age when he commenced his studies in polite literature. Yet he became one of the three great masters of the Tuscan dialect, Dante and Petrarch be ing the other two. There are many among us ten years young er than Boccacio, who are dying of ennui, and regret that they were not educated to a taste for literature ; but now they are too old. Sir Henry Spelman neglected the sciences in his youth, but commenced the study of them when he was between fifty and sixty years of age. After this time he became a inost learned antiquarian and lawyer. Our young men begin to think of laving their se niors on the shelf, when they have reached sixty years of age. How different the present estimate put upon experience, from that which characterized a certain period of the Grecian republic, when a man was not allowed to open his mouth in caucuses or politicial meet ings, who was under forty years of age. Colbert, the famous French minister, at six ty years of age, returned to his Latin and law studies. Dr. Johnson applied himself to the Dutch language a few years before his death. Most of our merchants and lawyers of twenty-five, thirty, and forty years of age, are obliged to apply to a teacher to translate a business let ter written in the French language, which might be learned in a tenth part of the time required for the acquisition of the Dutch ; and all because they are too old to learn. Ludovico Monaldesco, at the great age of one hundred and fifteen, wrote thememoirsof his own limes —a singular exertion, noticed by Voltaire, who was himself one of the most remarkable instances of the progress of the age in new studies. Ogilby, the translator of Homer and Virgil, was unacquainted with Latin and Greek till he was past fifty. Franklin did not fully commence his philo sophical pursuits till he had reached his fif tieth year. How many among us, of thirty, forty and fifty, read nothing but newspa pers, for the want of a taste for natural phil osophy! But they are too old to learn. Accorso, a great lawyer, being asked why he began the study of law so late, answered, that indeed he began it late, but that he should therefore master it the sooner. This agrees with our theory,* that healthy old age gives a man the power of accomplishing a difficult study in much less time than would be neces sary to one of half his years. Dryden, in his sixty-eighth year, commenc ed the translation of the Iliad ; and his most pleasing productions were written in his old age. We could go on and cite thousands of ex amples of men who commenced anew study, struck out into an entirely new pursuit, eith er for livelihood or amusement, at an advanc ed age. But everv one familiar with the bi ography of distinguished men will recollect individual cases enough to convince him that none but the sick and indolent will ever say, “I am too old to study/ 1 INGENUITY DISPLAYED IN TRIFLES. In the sixteenth century, an Italian Monk, named Peter Almunus, comprised the Acts of the Apostles, and the gospel of St. John, within the circumference of a farthing. An artist endowed with equal patience, presented Queen Elizabeth with a bit of pa per, of the size of a finger naii, on which were written the ten commandments, the creed, and the Lord’s prayer, together with her Majesty’s name and the date of the year; all the letters of it were easily distinguished by means of a pair of spectacles, which this artist had himself constructed. The Iliad of Homer too, is to be seen writ ten upon vellum, and in so small a compass, that a nut shell contained it. Jerome Faba, an Italian priest, and a na tive of Calabria, exercised himself in an other species of industry, equally wonderful trom its difficulty. He finished a work of boxwood, w r hich represented all the mysteries of the passions, and might be put into the shell of a walnut. To him is likewise attrib uted a coach of the size of a grain of wheat, within which were to be seen a man and a woman, a coachman who drove it, and horses which drew it. These performances w r ere presented to Francis the Ist, and to Charles the fifth. Another artist constructed an ivory chariot which a fly covered with its wings, and a SIS IB El Qa aITIE IE A IE'T BIT 7B* ship also of ivory with its rigging complete. Paul Colomies, tells us somewhere, that he saw a goldsmith at Moulins, who had chain ed a living flea to a gold chain, which con tained fifty links, and did not weigh three grains. ©nr 13owl of }3uncl). JOHN BULL AND JOHNNY CRAPAUD. A DIALOGUE, Crap. Hola ! Jean Bull—arise ! awake ! And break your chains. Bull. I’ve none to break. Crap. What! feel you not your fetters ! Eh 1 Bull. Not I, indeed, man. Crap. Insense! The spectacle sublime of France, “Will it not tempt you to advance 1 Bull. Not in the path of Revolution. Crap. Slave to your laws and Constitution. lai Gloire, she has no charms for you. Bull La Gloire —La fiddlestick —pooh—pooh! Crap. You’ve no emeutes, like our “rand nation, la Europe to create sensation. Bull. You’re very right; we don’t allow Our rabble to kick up a row. Crap. You have no fetes —no triumphs gay. Bull. We’ve a contempt for children’s play. Crap. You have good pavements for the feet In your Pall Mall and Regent Street; But you make knives and razor-blades More cleverly than barricades. Bull. Our flag-stones we adapt, my friend, To what we think their proper end. Crap. Your lives are one dull round of quiet. Bull. Yes; we prefer that state to riot. Crap. You take no pride in arms and war. Bull. No ; ’tis a thing that we abhor, Resolved to fight on no pretence, Except when forced in self-defence ; But, once obliged to come to blows, We do our best to crush our foes. Crap. Bah ! it is plain that you pursue Business, not glory. Bull. Very true. Crap. Shake off the tyrant’s hateful yoke, Glowing with patriot’s fire. Bull. All smoke. Crap. Pursue, then, cotton-spinning race. Os common sense the courses base, Dead to all aspirations high, And great conceptions. Bull. All my eye ! THE MODEL DAUGHTER. Constantly she comes down to breakfast be fore the tea-things are taken away. She is always ready for dinner. She curls her own hair, and can undress herself without a serv ant. She is happy at home without going to a ball every night. She has not a head-ache when her papaasksher to sing. She “pract ises only when he is out. She does not have her letters addressed to the pastrycook’s, or make a postman of the housemaid. She does not read novels in bed. She dresses plainly for church, and returns to luncheon without her head cramfull of bonnets. She is not perpetually embroidering mysterious braces, or knitting secret purses, or having a Turkish slipper on hand for some anonymous foot in the Guards. Her fingers are not too proud to mend a stocking, or make a pudding. She looks attentively after the holes in her fath er’s gloves. She is a clever adept in prepar inggruel, white-wine whey, tapioca, chicken broth, beef-tea, and the thousand little house hold delicacies of a sick room. She is a ten der nurse, moving noiselessly about, whisper ing words of comfort, and administering med icine with an affection that robs it of half its bitterness. She does not scream at a leach, or faint at the sight of a black-beetle. She does not spin poetry, nor devour it in any great quantity. She does not invent excuses for not reading the debate to her father of an evening, nor does she skip any of the speech es. She always has the pillow ready to put under his head when he falls asleep. She can behold an officer with womanly fortitude without falling in love. She does not keep her mother waiting an hour at an evening party for “just another waltz.” She never contracts a milliner’s bill unknown to her pa rents —“she would die sooner.” She never stitched a Red Turk in her life. She soars above Berlin wool, and crying “one-two-tliree one-two-three” continually. She knows no thing of crotchets, or “ Woman’s Mission.” She studies housekeeping, is perfect in the common rules of arithmetic, and can tell pret ty nearly how many “long sixes” go to a pound. She checks the weekly bills, and does not blush if seen in a butcher’s shop on a Saturday. She is not continually fretting to go to Paris, or “dying” to see Jenny Lind, nor does she care much about “that love Mario.” She does not take long walks by herself, and come home saying, “she lost her way.” She treats her father’s guests with equal civility, making no distinction between the gentleman and the tradesman. She is not fond of pulling all the things over in a shop merely to “buy a packet of pins.” She can pass a Marchande de Mode’s without stopping. She never dresses in silks or satins the first thing in the morning, nor is she look ing out of the window, or admiring herself in the looking-glass all day long. She makes the children’s frocks, and plays a little at chess and hack-gammon, and takes a hand at whist occasionally,—“anythingto please her dear father.” Her grog, too, elicits he wann est encomiums from the old gentlemen who drop in. She does not send home “lovely” jewellery for her father to look at. She does not lace herself to death, nor take vinegar to make herself thin. She wears thick shoes in wet weather. She has a terrible horror of coquetting. She is kind to the servants, and conceals their little faults from their “Mas ter and Missus.” She never pouts if scolded, nor shuts herself up in her room to cultivate “ the sulks.” She is the pet of her “ darling papa,” and warms his slippers regularly on a winter’s night, and lights his candle before go ing up to bed. She is her mamma’s “ dear good girl,” as is sufficiently proved by her being intrusted with all the keys of the house keeping. There is terrible crying when she is married, and for days after her absence no thing is heard in the house but regrets and loud praises, and earnest prayers for the hap piness ol the Model Daughter. MAKING THE MOST OF THEM. Mr. Henry Russell, who is the Composer, according to his own account, of the original idea from which every piece of modern music has been pilfered, as well as of all the Ships on Fire, Manias, and Gamblers’ Wives that were ever known, has recently been adopting the capital idea of making the most of his au dience, by calling upon them to join in the choruses at his entertainments This is all very well as far as it goes; bipt if it should be carried a little further, and they should take to singing the solo parts as well as the choruses, the presence of Mr. Russell himself would become superfluous; his audience, be ing able to amuse themselves, would get on very well without him, and might keep their money in their pockets. We advise Mr. Henry Russell to think of this before he carries too far the principle of calling upon the public to entertain each oth er for the small consideration of .a cerlain num ber of shillings. We recommend him to keep himself rather more independent of his audi ence, and his audience more dependent upon him for the effect of his compositions. We shall have him next requesting the babies present to squeal, by way of heightening the horrors of the song of the “ Gambler’s Wife,” or the “ Ship on Fire,” or any other of the fifty songs in which a child in arms and its mamma, interchanging squeaks and sobs, are the principal characters, By this arrange ment, Mr. Russell would be sure of a general chorus at all events; for it is a rule of juven ile economy, that directly one infant begins to cry, every other infant present affords its vol untary contribution to the harmony. 3fcu)ofiapcr Analects. ENGLISH ARISTOCRACY. A number of English Aristocracy, both male and female having originated in America. We are able to instance but few, though there are many more English nobles, who directly, or indirectly have descended from Americus; and many Americans, now plain and sterling re publican, who can trace their lineage hack to some proud peerage of the British Kingdom. Lord Lyndhurst, the High Chancellor of England was born in Boston, Mass. The Marquis of Normanby, and the young noble man who traveled in this country by the ti tle of the Earl of Mulgrave, is descended from Wm. Phipps, the son of a plain farmer on the banks of the Piscataqua, now in the State of Maine. The celebrated circumnavigator Lord An son, whose capture of so many of the Span ish galleons obtained for him the title of “ Free hooting Anson,” once an inhabitant of Charleston, S. C. where his name is still giv en to a street, and a burgh, viz: Ansonburgh. The distinguished Admiral, Sir Charles Wa ger, was a New Port, R. I. boy. Another Admiral, Sir Isaac Coffin, was horn at Nan tucket, Massachusetts. Three of the grand daughters of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, and the daughters of Mrs. Catron of Balti more, are maried to Peers of the United King dom; one to the Marquis of Wellesly, broth er of the Duke of Wellington, and formerly Governor General of India; another to the Marquis of Carmaethen ; we do not recollect the title of the third. Lord Ashburton, the special envoy from the Court of St. James, and who was in this country at the time when Louis Phillippe was here, and met the late King of the French, in the Western part of the State of New York, the one going to, and the other returning from the Falls of Niagara, married Miss Bingham, of Philadelphia. At the South particularly there are many descen dants of the ancient families of Great Britain, and within one hundred miles of this place, are immediate or collateral descendants of the Duke of Argyle, the Earl of Cromartie, Lord Craven, the Earl of Marchmot, Sir John Yeamans, Sir Thomas Smith, Bart., Sir James Wright, Bart., Sir Edgerton Leigh, Bart., &c. &c. &c. We mention these facts, mere ly to shew how blended are the ties between the old and the new country ; not that we pride ourselves on any high ancestry, for the Revolution stamped purer and better patents of nobility than any creation of foreign Kings; and if we have aristocracy at all it is that born of the blood and throes of a great people casting offdespotism, and asserting independence. The humblest soldier of Bunker Hill or Yorktown is dearer to the American people than all the starred and gartered and titled nobles of Eu rope. Yet we respect rank when coupled with goodness; and we honor those whom their King or country have honored for real and exalted merit. t mm i BUSINESS CAPITAL. The word capital, as applied in the mercan tile sense to the trading fund which a mer chant, banker, company, or others adventure for the purpose of producing wealth in the way of business, is though a Latin word, de rived from the usage of our Savon ancestors, whose riches, like the Eastern Patriarchs, con sisted mostly in Hocks and herds, and who, not having gold or silver to pay their taxes, met them by payments of cattle and other live stock. Dr. Howell, in his history of the world observes “that in the writings of those Saxon times, and even in later periods, by the word pecunia. was often meant live stock or cattle, expressed by the words viva pecunia; and from their heads or capita , were framed the words capital , lapitale and capitalia , sig nifying goods moveable or immoveable, and the price and value of things, and what we now term catalla and chattels.” POLITICAL INTEGRITY. The borough of Hull in the reign of Charles 11, chose Andrew Marvell, a young gentle man of little or no fortune, and maintained him in London for the service of the public. His understanding, integrity, and spirit, were dreadful to the then infamous administration. Persuaded that he would be theirs for prop erly asking, they sent his old school-fellow, the Lord Treasurer Danby, to renew acquain with him in his garret. At parting the Lord Treasurer, out of pure affection , slipped into his hand an order upon the Treasury for £IOOO, and then went to his chariot. Mar vell looking at the paper calls for the Treas urer, —“ My Lord, I request another moment.” They went up again to the garret, and Jack, the servant hoy, was called.—“ Jack, child, what had I for dinner yesterday I” “Don’t you remember, sir? you had the little shoul der of mutton that you ordered me to bring rom a woman in the market.” “ Very right, child. What have I for dinner to-day?”— “Don’t you know', sir, that you hid me lay by the blade bone to broil 1 .' 1 ' I—“’Tis 1 —“’Tis so, very right, child, go away. My lord do you hear that? Andrew Marvell’s dinner is provided —there’s your piece of paper. I want it not. I know the sort of kindness you intended. I live here to serve my constituents; the ministry may seek men for their purpose; lam not one.” LETTERS IN THE ALPHABET. The Sandwich Island Alphabet has 12 let ters, the Burmese 19, the Italian 20, the Ben galese 21, the Hebrew, Syriac, Chaldee, Samar atin and Latin, 22 each, the French 23, the Greek 24, the German and Dutch 26 each, the Spanish and Slavonic 27 each, the Arabic 28, the Persic and Coptic 32, the Turkish 33, the Georgian 36, the Armenian 38, the Russian 41, the Muscovite 43, the Sanscrit and Japanese 50, the Ethiopic and Tartarian 202. FLAG OF THE UNITED STATES. The flag of the United States was first des ignated by congress, in a resolution, passed June 14, 1777. According to a resolution, it was to consist of thirteen horizontal stripes, alternate red and white; and the Union was to be thirteen stars, white, in a blue field, re presenting anew constellation. By an act of January 13, 1794, the stars and stripes were both to be fifteen in number, to take an effect from the first of May, 1795. This addition of two stars and two stripes, to the flag was owing to the admission of Ver mont and Kentucky into the Union, the for- 61