TRANSLATION

TRANSLATION FROM THE MERCURE DE

FRANCE.

Observations on the manners and instincts of birds.

MARINE birds have their places of rendezvous, where they deliberate in common on the affairs of their republic. Their court of assembly is commonly some retired rock in the midst of the waves. We used to go, in the isle of St. Pierre, and seat ourselves on the shore, opposite to the little island, which the inhabitants have named Columbier, from its bearing the shape of a dove, and because they resorted thither in the spring season to gather eggs. We passed whole days and nights in studying the manners of the birds, which were collected together on that rock. Nights are full of the secrets of providence. The multitude of those birds was so great, that we could often distinguish their cries amidst the roaring of the most furious tempests. We then heard sounds, which no human ear had ever heard before. All those birds, like most others, which frequent the sea, have extraordinary voices. The ocean with its forests of coral, where the seawrack collects its moss, and the fucus its complicated threads, the ocean, which conceals a Flora in its deserts, and Zephyrs in its grottoes, possesses also its Philomelas.

At the close of day the curlew whistles on the summit of the rock; the billows, which roar in concert with her notes, expire in constant succession on the strand. It is a kind of harmony the most novel and the most melancholy, that one can ever hear. Never did the afflicted spouse of Ceix fill with more affecting strains the shores, which witnessed her misfortunes.

A perfect intelligence reigns in the capital of our marine birds. The young denizen, when first it sees the light, is precipitated by the parent into the waves, as the Gauls used to

plunge their infants, to harden them against the fatigues of
life. Couriers are constantly issuing from this Tyre to car-
ry dispatches to distant parts. Hence proceed those nume-
rous tribes, which, by order of Providence, are dispersed over
all seas and shores, to admonish mariners of the dangers,
which await them. Some place themselves forty or fifty
leagues from an unknown land. The pilot descries them at
a distance, like corks floating on the surface. Advertised
by this signal, he looks for a harbor, and is watchful for his
safety. Others, as the lumme,* canton themselves on rocks
just emerging from the sea, and, like vigilant sentinels, raise
during the night a melancholy cry, to drive away mariners
from the shore. Others also, by the whiteness of their plu-
mage, are monitory pharest over the blackness of the rocks.
This may
be ascribed to the same goodness of the Creator,
which has given a phosphoric quality to the froth of the sea,
and has caused this brightness to be increased by the vio-
lence of the tempest. How many vessels must be lost in
the darkness of the night, without these miraculous lanthorns,
lighted by providence on the rocks! All the accidents of the
ocean, all the chances of the calm and of the tempest are
predicted by the birds. The gull descends upon the desert-
ed flats ; covers her neck with her wing, buries one leg in
the plumage of her breast, and, supporting herself immova-
bly on the other, informs the fisherman of the instant, when
the tide begins its rise. The marine lark, by her soft and
melancholy cry, announces to him, on the contrary, the mo-
ment of its reflux. In fine the little procellaria seat them-
selves on the waves in the middle of the ocean. Faithful
companions of mariners, they follow the course of the ships,
and foretel approaching tempests. The sailor attributes to
them a sacred character; and exercises toward them a reli-
gious hospitality, when the wind forces them on board his
ship. In the same manner the husbandman venerates the
red breast, which foretels him of propitious days, and which
he affectionately receives into his thatched cottage during the
* Columbus pedibus palmatis indivisis. Linn. + Lanthorns.

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rigors of the winter. Thus do these unhappy men, placed in the two most perilous and difficult conditions of life, find friends prepared for them by Providence. They fall upon them at the very moment, when, exposed to a thousand evils, they seem abandoned by the whole world. They find in a feeble animal the counsel and encouragement, which they would seek in vain among their fellow men.

This reciprocal commerce of kind offices between birds and unfortunate men is one of those affecting traits, which abound in the works of God. Between the red breast and the laborer, between the procellaria and the seaman there is a striking similitude of manners and of destinies. Oh, how beautiful is nature to an uncorrupted mind, which seeks for wonders only for the sake of giving glory to the Creator.

In the early ages of the world, when man was ignorant and happy, it was by the flowering of plants, by the falling of the leaves, by the departure and the return of birds, that the peasants and the shepherds regulated their labors. Hence the art of divination among certain people. They sup

posed, that those animals, which predicted seasons and events, must be only interpreters of the divine will. The ancient poets and naturalists, to whom we are indebted for the little simplicity, which still remains among us, teach us how admirable was the manner of computation by these fasti of nature; and what a charm it spread over human life. GOD is a profound secret. Man, created in his image, is equally incomprehensible. It was then an ineffable harmony to see the periods of those days regulated by calendars as mysterious, as himself. The winds resounded the hours of his life, and the clouds wafted his destinies. Thus one could never lose sight of Providence, the legislator and rightful sovereign of those people, who were subject to no earthly prince. Satisfaction then prevailed in cottages. The old men were composed and happy in the last moments of life, and their parting benedictions consoled the hearts of their surviving friends.

In the tents of Jacob or of Boaz the arrival of a bird ex

cited universal commotion. The patriarch travelled through his fields at the head of his servants, armed with sickles. If the rumor was spread, that the young larks had been seen fluttering, upon the important news a whole people, trusting in GOD, who never deceives, commenced with joy the labor of the harvest. These friendly tokens, while they governed the concerns of the passing season, predicted also the vicissi tudes of that, which was to follow. Did the geese and the. teal appear in unusual numbers? They knew, that the winter would be long, Did the rook begin to build her nest in January? The shepherds expected in April the flowers of May. What do I say? They had even in their gardens excellent thermometers; and the bark of the liliacee,* more or less thick, predicted all the variations of the atmosphere. They imagined a correspondence between the marriage of a young maiden and the opening of a flower; and the old men, who died ordinarily in autumn, fell with the nuts and the ripe fruit.

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While the philosopher, curtailing or prolonging the year, announced the full moon for the new, and carried winter on to the turf of spring, the laborer had no cause to fear, that the astronomer, who came to him from heaven, would deceive him. He knew, that the nightingale would not mistake the month of frosts for that of roses; nor fill the winter solstice with the music of summer, Thus all the cares, all the amusements, all the pleasures of man in the pastoral state were written, not in the fallacious calendars of a sage, but on the infallible meridian of him, who is the centre of universal attraction; of him, who has traced the zodiac and the ecliptic; of him, who has calculated the hours of eter nity, and placed for a time in the center of the universe the golden dial of the sun,

* A species of the lily.

MEMOIR RESPECTING THE UNION OF THE SWISS CANTONS,

And their emancipation from the House of AUSTRIA.

[Concluded from page 252.]

IN tracing the progress of states the mind appears to

need some epochs or remarkable events, by which to form her estimate both of time and relative condition. Something of this kind is presented in the preceding notices of the Swiss. From the earliest account of the three cantons to the adventure of Tell may be considered one period. From that time to the league of Brunnen, which forms the basis of the Helvetic confederacy, we may calculate a second. The period, that follows, from this league to the reception of Berne, which formed the eighth canton, and completed the ancient union, we may term the third epoch. Some part of the fourth, extending to the convention of Stantz and the admission of a new member, we have alrea dy considered. From the last mentioned period to the reformation in religion will extend the fifth; and the sixth, from the reformation to the admission of the last member and completion of the Helvetic body, will conclude this me

moir.

The war, which terminated the life of Leopold, duke of Austria, continued after his death, and was pursued with fresh vigor by his sons. In vain the cities of the Empire endeavored to negociate a truce. Contests between nations of the same language and manners may be almost regarded, as a civil war; and of all enmities this is the most difficult to reconcile. Hence the unceasing activity, severity, and caution, which marked the mutual conduct of the Swiss and Austrians. Yet the advantage was generally on the side of the former; for they fought with the zeal of men, whose existence depends on courage. Their territories were grad