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The Cosmorama, in Regent-street, consists of a series of views, at which you look through powerfully magnifying glasses. There are seven wellchosen pieces belonging to Asia and Africa; and on the other, seven pertaining to Europe and America.

The Naturorama, in Bond-street, is, as its name indicates, a most particular

FLORA had an eye of blue,

Gentle, languishing, and clearLips like roses dipp'd in dew,

Vermeil cheeks, and forehead whiteSuch a being of delight Poets sometimes bring us near.

Mary had a dark full eye,

And a cheek of healthy red; Brown her hue-good-naturedly Her lips were ever on the smile With expression free of guile; None her beauty captive led.

Flora knew she had a face

Lovely as mortal ever saw; She was vain, and every place

Where she moved, admirers came, Praised her beauty, spread her fame,Made her nod a sovereign law.

Mary of herself ne'er thought-
Never dream'd of fifty lovers;
For her sober reason taught

She could be content with one,
And her wishes never run
On a troop of idle rovers.

Flora, fond of coquetry,

Pitied none who sighed before her;

Open, generous, vain, or sly

humbug. Never grudged a shilling so much in my life; being a little vexed at finding myself so completely imposed upon. You are allowed to look through glasses at miserable models of places, persons, and landscapes; while two or three nasty people sit eating onions and oranges in a corner of the room.

(New Mon.)

THE CHOICE.

All who bowed she welcome gave,
Proud to hail a new-made slave-
A fresh suppliant to adore her.
Mary, simple creature! thought
Such a homage insincere ;
She all lovers set at nought,

But the youth who little praised,
Sighed and blushed, and slily gazed

If another eye was near.

Flora was a beauteous show,

Cold as marble was her heart;

Love her bosom never knew,

Passion she had never felt

When her warmest lover knelt,She was but a thing of art.

Mary had a bosom soft,

Beating fondness and good-nature; She would weep and sigh as oft

She met with woe or misery-
If her lover bent his knee,
Passion burn'd in every feature.

Who to choose would hesitate-
Between love or lifeless beauty?
Need I then my choice relate!
I despise the fairest face

That no sweet emotions grace-
I to Mary pay my duty.

(Lon. Mag.)

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BENEATH yon hedge I saw them stand,

The Gipsy held the maiden's hand;
And as its lines she paus'd to trace,
She gaz'd upon an anxious face.

I mark'd them both-the moon was high,
And pure and cloudless was the sky;
And as I listen'd in the shade,
The Sybil thus addressed the maid.
Maiden, thou would'st have told to thee
The secret of thy destiny;

Then on this palm now plac'd in mine,
For thee I'll read each mystic line.
'Tis a fair band—a fairer one
These aged eyes ne'er gaz'd upon;
But ́ah! these signs too well betray,
That clouds will cross thy summer's day!

This is the line of hope-and this
Should be the mark of love and bliss
But that it ends abruptly here-
Oh! maiden-thou hast much to fear.

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A dark ey'd man will cross thy way,
Tby guileless bosom to betray;
And he will use his honied tongue
To win thee-beautiful and young!

Maiden-what means that boding sigh?
Thou hast already met his eye;
Thy ear hath drunk his accents sweet,
Unconscious of their deep deceit.

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Weep not-weep not-but steel thy soul
Against deceitful Love's controul,

His power once rooted in thy breast,
Then farewell happiness and rest.

Maiden-my skill can only see
Thus far into thy destiny;

The rest remains conceal'd from view,
Behind yon canopy of blue.

THE

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BY JAMES HOGG, THE ETTRICK SHEPHERD.

HERE being no adage more generally established, or better found ed, than that the principal conversation of shepherds meeting on the hills is either about Dogs or LASSES, I shall make each of these important topics a head, or rather a snag, in my Pastoral Calendar, whereon to hang few amusing anecdotes; the one of these forming the chief support, and the other the chief temporal delight, of the shepherd's solitary and harmless life.

Though it may appear a singular perversion of the order of nature to put the dogs before the lasses, I shall nevertheless begin with the former. I think I see how North will chuckle at this, and think to himself how this is all of the shepherd being fallen into the back ground of life, (by which epithet he is pleased to distinguish the married state.) for that he had seen the day he would hardly have given angels the preference to lasses, not to speak of a parcel of tatted towsy tykes!

I beg your pardon, sir, but utility should always take precedency of pleasure. A shepherd may be a very able, trusty, and good shepherd, without a sweetheart-better, perhaps, than with

one.

But what is he without his dog? A mere post, sira nonentity as a shepherd-no better than one of the grey stones upon the side of his hill. A literary pedlar, such as yourself, Sir Christy, and all the thousands beside who deal in your small wares, will not believe, that a single shepherd and his dog will accomplish more in gathering a stock of sheep from a Highland farm, than twenty shepherds could do without dogs. So that you see, and it is a fact, that, without this docile little animal, the pastoral life would be a mere

blank. Without the shepherd's dog, the whole of the open mountainous land in Scotland would not be worth a sixpence. It would require more hands to manage a stock of sheep, gather them from the hills, force them into houses and folds, and drive them to markets, than the profits of the whole stock were capable of maintaining. Well may the shepherd feel an interest in his dog; he is indeed the fellow that earns the family's bread, of which he is himself content with the smallest morsel; always grateful, and always ready to exert his utmost abilities in his master's interest. Neither hunger, fatigue, nor the worst of treatment, will drive him from his side; he will follow him through fire and water, as the saying is, and through every hardship, without murmur or repining, till he literally fall down dead at his foot. If one of them is obliged to change masters, it is sometimes long before he will acknowledge the new one, or condescend to work for him with the same avidity as he did for his former lord; but if he once acknowledge him, he continues attached to him till death; and though naturally proud and high-spirited, in as far as relates to his master, these qualities (or rather failings) are kept so much in subordination, that he bas not a will of his own. Of such a grateful, useful, and disinterested animal, I could write volumes; and now that I have got on my hobby, I greatly suspect that all my friends at Ambrose's will hardly get me off again.

I once sent you an account of a notable dog of my own, named Sirrah, which amused a number of your readers a great deal, and put their faith in

my veracity somewhat to the test; but in this district, where the singular qualities of the animal were known, so far from any of the anecdotes being disputed, every shepherd values himself to this day on the possession of facts far outstripping any of those recorded by you formerly. With a few of these I shall conclude this paper.

But, in the first place, I must give you some account of my own renowned Hector, which I promised long ago. He was the son and immediate successor of the faithful old Sirrah; and though not nearly so valuable a dog as his father, he was a far more interesting one. He had three times more humour and whim about him; and though exceedingly docile, his bravest acts were mostly tinctured with a grain of stupidity, which show ed his reasoning faculty to be laughably obtuse.

about this; for, having to take away the lambs next morning, I knew I could not drive them a mile without my dog, if it had been to save me the whole drove.

The next morning, as soon as it was day, I arose and inquired if Hector had come home. No; he had not been seen. I knew not what to do; but my father proposed that he would take out the lambs and herd them, and let them get some meat to fit them for the road; and that I should ride with all speed to Shorthope, to see if my dog had gone back there. Accordingly, we went together to the fold, to turn out the lambs, and there was poor Hector sitting trembling in the very middle of the fold door, on the inside of the flake that closed it, with his eyes still steadfasily fixed on the lambs. He had been so hardly set with them after it grew dark, that he durst not for his life leave them, although hungry, fatigued, and cold; for the night had turned out a deluge of rain. He had never so much as lain down, for only the small spot that he sat on was dry, and there had he kept watch the whole night. Almost any other colley would have discerned that the lambs were safe enough in the fold, but honest Hector had not been able to see through this. He even refused to take my word for it, for he durst not quit his watch, though he heard me calling both at night and morning.

I shall mention a striking instance of it. I was once at the farm of Shorthope, on Ettrick head, receiving some lambs that I had bought, and was going to take to market, with some more, the next day. Owing to some accidental delay, I did not get final delivery of the lambs till it was growing late; and being obliged to be at my own house that night, I was not a little dismayed lest I should scatter and lose my lambs, if darkness overtook me. Darkness did overtake me by the time I got half way, and no ordinary darkness for an August evening. The lambs Another peculiarity of his was, that having been weaned that day, and of he had a mortal antipathy at the famthe wild black-faced breed, became ex-ily mouser, which was ingrained in ceedingly unruly, and for a good while his nature from his very puppyhood; I lost hopes of mastering them. Hec- yet so perfectly absurd was he, that no for managed the point, and we got impertinence on her side, and no baitthem safe home; but both he and his ing on, could ever induce him to lay master were alike sore forefoughten. his mouth on her, or injure her in the It had become so dark, that we were slightest degree. There was not a day, obliged to fold them with candles; and, and scarcely an hour passed over, that after closing them safely up, I went the family did not get some amusehome with my father and the rest to ment with these two animals. Whensupper. When Hector's supper was ever he was within doors, his whole set down, behold he was wanting! occupation was watching and pointing and as I knew we had him at the fold, the cat from morning to night. When which was within call of the house, she flitted from one place to another, I went out, and called and whistled on so did he in a moment; and then him for a good while, but he did not squatting down, he kept his point semake his appearance. I was distressed dulously, till he was either called off, or fell asleep.

See the Mountain Bard.

He was an exceedingly poor taker of meat, was always to press to it, and always lean; and often he would not taste it till we were obliged to bring in the cat. The malicious looks that he cast at her from under his eyebrows on such occasions, were exceedingly ludicrous, considering his utter incapability of wronging her. Whenever he saw her, he drew near his bicker, and looked angry, but still he would not taste till she was brought to it; and then he cocked his tail, set up his birses, and began a lapping furiously, in utter desperation. His good nature was so immoveable, that he would never refuse her a share of what he got; he even lapped close to the one side of the dish, and left her roombut mercy as he did ply!

It will appear strange to you to hear a dog's reasoning faculty mentioned, as I have done; but, I declare, I have hardly ever seen a shepherd's dog do any thing, without perceiving his reasons for it. I have often amused my self in calculating what his motives were for such and such things, and I generally found them very cogent ones. But Hector had a droll stupidity about him, and took up forms and rules of his own, for which I could never perceive any motive that was not even farther out of the way than the action itself. He had one uniform practice, and a very bad one it was; during the time of family worship, and just three or four seconds before the conclusion of the prayer, he started to his feet, and ran barking round the apartment like a crazed beast. My father was so much amused with this, that he would never suffer me to correct him for it, and I scarcely ever saw the old man rise from the prayer without his endeavouring to suppress a smile at the extravagance of Hector. None of us ever could find out how he knew that the prayer was near done, for my father was not formal in his prayers; but certes he did know,-of that we had nightly evidence. There never was any thing for which I was so puzzled to discover a motive as this; but, from accident, I did discover it, and, how ever ludicrous it may appear, I am certain I was correct. It was much

in character with many of Hector's feats, and rather, I think, the most outre of any principle he ever acted on. As I said, his great daily occupation was pointing the cat. Now, when he saw us kneel all down in a circle, with our faces couched on our paws, in the same posture with himself, it struck, his absurd head, that we were all engaged in pointing the cat. He lay on tenters all the time, but the acuteness of his ear enabling him, through time, to ascertain the very moment when we would all spring to our feet, he thought to himself, "I shall be first after her for you all."

He inherited his dad's unfortunate ear for music, not perhaps in so extravagant a degree, but he ever took care to exhibit it on the most untimely and ill-judged occasions. Owing to some misunderstanding between the minister of the parish and the session clerk, the precenting in church devolved on my father, who was the senior elder. Now, my father could have sung several of the old church tunes middling well, in his own family circle; but it so happened, that, when mounted in the desk, he never could command the starting notes of any but one (St. Paul's), which were always in undue readiness at the root of his tongue, to the exclusion of every other semibreve in the whole range of sacred melody. The minister, giving out psalms four times in the course of every day's service, consequently, the congregation were treated with St. Paul's, in the morning, at great length, twice in the course of the service, and then once again at the close. Nothing but St. Paul's. And, it being of itself a monotonous tune, nothing could exceed the monotony that prevailed in the primitive church of Ettrick. of pure sympathy for my father alone, I was compelled to take the precentorship in hand; and, having plenty of tunes, for a good while I came on as well as could be expected, as men say of their wives. But, unfortunately for me, Hector found out that I attended church every Sunday, and though I had him always closed up carefully at home, he rarely failed in making his appearance in church at some time of

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