Pine apples far inferior to ours; even the grapes of Fontainbleau are inferior to those of our hot houses! Grange's and Owen's in Piccadilly and Bond Street, have a finer display than any I have met with at Paris. At breakfast they affect this hobby-horse: It is common to have a cup of coffee, without either milk or sugar, before they get up. Coffee always after dinner.-Religion almost confined to the ancienne noblesse. Every woman of rank or fashion in France has her right to receive company. The party naturally divides into two: the old ones play eards; the young ones dance and romp under the inspection of each married woman. BELLS. The Venetians pretend that they introduced bells at Constantinople, in the ninth century; but the oldest mention we can find in the Byzantine writers, is of the year 1040. DUELLING. There is scarcely any subject on which more discordant opinions are entertained than on that of duelling; and, whilst one party condemn it as a flagrant violation of all the laws both of God and man, others are contented to represent it as a necessary evil. Without, however, discussing at present the expediency of the practice, it appears that if an appeal must, in any case, be made to arms, the great object should be to place the champions on an equal footing, and prevent, as far as possible, the better cause from yielding to the more skilful combatant. In one single solitary instance has this been attained. On the borders of Austria and Turkey, where a private pique, or private quarrel of a single individual, might occasion the massacre of a family or village, the desolation of a province, and perhaps even the more extended horrors of a national war, whensoever any serious dispute arises between two subjects of the different empires, recourse is had to terminate it, to what is called "the custom of the frontier." A spacious plain or field is selected, whither, on an appointed day, judges of the respective nations repair, accompanied by all those whom curiosity or interest may assemble. The combatants are not re stricted in the choice or number ef their arms, or in their method of fighting, but each is at liberty to employ whatsoever he conceives is most advan tageous to himself, and avail himself of every artifice to ensure his own safety, and destroy the life of his antagonist. One of the last times that this method of deciding a quarrel on the frontiers was resorted to, the circumstances were sufficiently curious, and the recital of them may serve to illustrate what is mentioned above. The phlegmatic German, armed with the most desperate weapon in the world--a rifled pistol mounted on a carbine stock, placed himself in the middle of the field; and, conscious that he would infallibly destroy his enemy, if he could once get him within shot, began coolly to smoke his pipe. The Turk, on the contrary, with a pistol on one side and a pistol on the other, and two more in his holsters, and two more in his breast, and a carbine at his back, and a sabre by his side, and a dagger in his belt, advanced like a moving magazine, and, galloping round his adversary, kept incessantly firing at him. The German conscious that little or no danger was to be apprehended from such a marksman with such weapons, deliberately continued to smoke his pipe. The Turk at length perceiv ing a sort of little explosion, as if his antagonist's pistol had missed fire, advanced like lightning to cut him down, and almost immediately was shot dead. The wily German had put some gunpowder into his pipe, the light of which his enemy mistook, as the other had foreseen would be the case, for a flash in the pan; and no longer fearing the superior skill and superior arms of his adversary, he fell a victim to them both when seconded by artifice. THE AMAZONS, The attention of the learned has been for a long time fixed upon the existence of the Amazons; and the following result, deduced from the profound researches and extended investigations to which the subject has given rise, appears interesting and probable, and accords with the general tenor of history. An army of Sauromates haying traversed Caucasus and Colchis, penetrated into the lesser Asia, and established themselves on the banks of the river Thermodon; content with finding a plain which recalled to their minds the recollection of their country, and feeling, as the Greeks under Xenophon subsequently felt, apprehensive of not being able to pass the large rivers, such as the Halys, the Parthenius, and the Sangarius, these Nomades lived in the plain of Themiscyra, upon the produce of their flocks, and the booty which they acquired by pillaging their neighbours. In Scythia the women accompanied their husbands to war and to the chase, and were skilful in horsemanship and the use of the bow; here they guarded the shore. Some Greek sailors having met, fought with, and been conquered by them, reported these coasts to be entirely inhabited by women, who put every man who came amongst them to death; and hence arose the fables so prevalent in Greece. But that these pretended heroines at first took arms to avenge the death of their husbands, then to defend themselves, and at last to subjugate their neighbours; that they had attempted an expedition against Athens; and that their queen Thalestris had gone herself, or sent ambassadors, to the camp of Alexander,-is what, in defiance of the authority of many poets, philosophers, and historians of antiquity, we are no longer permitted to believe. We may remember the expres sion of Lysimachus, when Onerycritus read to him the history of Thalestris, with which he had embellished his work upon the exploits of Alexander-"Oh! where was I at that time?" said Lysimachus to him, smiling. It is worthy of remark, that the names of Menalippa, Hyppolita, &c. given to these Sauromatides, these Amazons, are all Greek names; although it is manifest that these women must have borne barbarian names and derived from the language which hey spoke. New Works. A member of the indefatigable Taylor Family, of Ongar, has produced a volume, called the Elements of Thought. It compresses, in good modern language, and in an inviting form, the theoretical and practical doctrines contained in Watts's "Improvement of the Mind," and in the same author's work on Logic; and, as Watts in substance will live for ever, so Mr. Taylor, in giving us his substance in a neat volume, has rendered an useful service to all studious and inquisitive persons. An Analytical Investigation of the Scriptural Claims of the Devil, and a similar enquiry into the meaning of the terms Sheol, Hades, and Gehenna, as used by the Scripture writers, by the Rev. RUSSELL SCOTT, of Portsmouth, which have been unavoidably delayed in passing through the press, will be published in the course of the present month. A History of a severe Case of Neuralgia, commonly called Tic Douloureux, will speedily be published, occupying the nerves of the Right Thigh, Leg, and Foot, successfully treated; with some observations on that complaint, and on its causes, as they vary in different individuals; by G. D. YEATS, M D. F. R. S. We seldom interfere with theological works of a controversial nature, but we gladly make an exception in favour of Letters addressed to the Calvinistic Christians of Warwick, by an UNITARIAN CHRISTIAN, written, as appears from its advertisements, by the REV. WM. FIELD. This treatise has certainly fulfilled its professed object of answering a few calumnious pages of some ignorant person of that place; but it is not to its local topics that we wish to call the attention of our readers. The author has taken the present occasion to give an outline of the history of his sect, and has supported all their distinguishing doctrines with much ability. In the list of Unitarians which he gives, containing many great names, we were at first surprised to see some included who are not generally supposed to have entertained those views, though the author seems to adduce sufficient authority for inserting them. Amongst the most eminent, we observe Whiston, Newton, Locke, Dr. Watts, Wm. Penn, and Bishop Law. The Unitarian sect is, we believe, at present increasing with great rapidity. In the author of the work in question it certainly possesses a very spirited and efficient advocate; and, if we find any thing in his pages to alloy the pleasure of perusing them, it is, perhaps, that sometimes the author is in danger of falling into that error which he blames so much in his opponents-uncharitable feeling. The Rev. WM. JAY has in the press, a new edition of his Short Discourses for LINES. Original Poetry. The late celebrated but unfortunate Pro fessor Porson being once solicited in company to give some jocular proof of his abilities, complied by producing the following lines.] FROM his brimstone bed, at break of day, A-waking the Devil is gone, To visit his snug little farm of the earth, He walked, and over the plain; And backwards and forwards he switch'd his long tail, As a gentleman switches his cane. And pray how was the devil drest, His coat was red and his breeches were He saw a lawyer killing a viper, On a dunghill beside his own stable, And the devil smil'd, for it put him in mind Of Cain and his brother Abel. An apothecary, on a white horse, Rode by on his avocations: "Oh! (says the devil,) there is my old friend, Death in the Revelations." He saw a cottage with a double coach-house, A cottage of gentility! And the Devil was pleased, for his darling vice Is the pride that apes humility. He stepp'd into a rich bookseller's shop, Says he, "We are both of one college, For I myself sat, like a cormorant, once, Hard by on the tree of knowledge." As he pass'd thro' Coldbath-fields he saw A solitary cell! And the Devil was charm'd, for it gave him a hint For improving the prisons of hell. He saw a turnkey in a trice Fetter a troublesome jade ; "Ah! nimble (quoth he,) do the fingers while How it cut its own throat, and he thought, with a smile, Of England's commercial prosperity. He saw a certain minister (A minister to his mind,) Like a very learned-clerk, He saw with consternation, On the Duke of York's horse Moses winning at Ascot Heath Races. At Ascot, when swift Moses won (A thing not done by slow fits!) * This gentleman had been very facetious whilst soliciting some proof of the Professor's poetical talents. SPIRIT OF THE ENGLISH MAGAZINES. BOSTON, SEPTEMBER 1, 1822. (London Time's Telescope for Sept. 1822.) September. SEPTEMBER, like the following month, boasts many fine days, at least till the commencement of the autumnal equinox on the 22d, when a change in the weather generally takes place. The mornings and evenings are cool, but possess a delightful freshness, while the middle of the day is pleasantly warm and open. The sportsman is an early riser, and does not fail to enjoy the incense-breathing morn,' in all her native freshness. There are but few, we fear, who the melodies of morn can tell ;' to such we would exclaim, in the language of Ramsay in the Faithful Shepherdess :- See the day begins to break, Many a note and many a lay. A morning's walk at this season is replete with gratification to the admirer of Nature's beauties. What a magnificent phenomenon is every day exhibited in the rising of the Sun! yet how common is the observation, that indolence and the love of sleep prevent a great part of mankind from contemplating this beauteons wonder of the creation! What numbers are there, in high 52 ATHENEUM VOL. 11. life especially, who prefer a few more hours of sleep to all the pleasures of a morning walk. This circumstance has been ridiculed with great propriety by Addison, in the Spectator. The unaccountable disposition in mankind to continue awake in the night, and sleep in the sunshine, has made me inquire, whether the same change has happened to any other animals? For this reason, I desired a friend of mine in the country to let me know whether the lark rises as early as it did formerly, and whether the cock begins to crow at his usual hour? My friend has answered me, That his poultry are as regular as ever, and that all the birds and the beasts of his neighbourhood keep the same hours that they have observed in the memory of man; and the same which, in all probability, they have kept for these five thousand years.' The same excellent author continues, in a more serious strain, Who would not wonder at this perverted relish of those who are reckoned the most polite part of mankind, and exchange so many cheerful mornthat prefer coal and candles to the Sun, ing hours for the pleasures of midnight revels and debauches? If a man were choose to live his whole time, if possi only to consult his health, he would ble, in daylight, and to retire out of the world into silence and sleep, while the raw damps and unwholesome vapours fly abroad, without a sun to disperse, moderate, or control them. For my own part, I value an hour in the morning, as much as common libertines do an hour at midnight. When I find myself awakened into being, and perceive my life renewed within me, and at the same time see the whole face of nature recovered out of the dark uncomfortable state in which it lay for several hours, my heart overflows with such secret sentiments of joy and gratitude, as are a kind of implicit praise to the great Author of Nature. The mind, in these early seasons of the day, is so refreshed in all its faculties, and borne up with such new supplies of animal spirits, that she finds herself in a state of youth, especially when she is entertained with the breath of flowers, the melody of birds, the dews that hang upon the plants, and all those other sweets of Nature that are peculiar to the morning. But it is impossible for a man to have this relish of being, this exquisite taste of life, who does not come into the world before it is in all its noise and hurry; who loses the rising of the Sun, the still hour of the day, and immediately upon his first getting up, plunges himself into the ordinary cares or follies of the world.' But it is not indolence and the love of sleep only that give rise to these observations. Beauty ceases to charm, and magnificence to strike, when the object, however perfect it may be, is become familiar to a mind unaccustomed to reflect on the order and harmony of the creation, and on those wonderful relations between all the objects of it which naturally lead the devout man to the contemplation of a First Cause, the Life, and Soul, and Energy of All. Hence we observe a kind of culpable inattention and indifference, even in these who are most habituated to rural scenes, and who, consequently, must enjoy the most frequent opportunities of admiring and contemplating the works of Nature. Satisfied, for instance, that the sun enlightens the world, and dispenses the most essential benefits to mankind, they have no solicitude to explore the cause of these wonderful effects. They view, every day, the most glorious object in Na ture, without one emotion of grateful pleasure, without one idea or reflection. How different the feelings of the poet, as expressed in these charming lines: Sweet is the breath of Morn, her rising sweet, with charm of earliest birds; pleasant the Sun, It is certain that we nowhere meet with a more glorious or more pleasing show of Nature, than what appears in the heavens at the rising of the Sun. The richest decorations, the most variegated and the most gorgeous scenery, that human fancy can imagine, must vanish into nothing when compared with a spectacle in which radiance and beauty are so pre-eminent. The oak begins to shed its acorns, and the beech nuts fall; both of which are termed mast. A luxurious pasturage is afforded for such hogs as are kept on the borders of forests, for about six weeks, from the end of September. The method of treating hogs at this season of migration, and of reducing a large herd of these ungovernable brutes to perfect obedience and good govern ment, is very curious. The mode pursued in New Forest is thus detailed : The first step the swine-herd takes, is to investigate some close sheltered part of the forest where there is a conveniency of water, and plenty of oak, or beech-mast, the former of which he prefers, when he can have it in abun dance. He fixes next upon some slight circular fence of the dimensions he wants; and, covering it roughly with boughs and sods, he fills it plentifully with straw or fern. Having made this preparation, be collects his colony among the farmers, with whom he generally agrees for a a shilling a head, and will get together a herd of 5 or 600 hogs. Having driven them to their destined habitation, he gives them a plentiful supper of acorns, or beech-mast, which he had already provided, sounding his horn during the repast. He then turns them into the litter, where, after a long journey, and a hearty meal, they sleep deliciously. 'The next morning he lets them look a little around them; shows them the |