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DIALOGUE BETWEEN TWO FAYS.

Time-Midnight.

Now the silver lamp of night,
O'er the wilds diffusing light,
Bids the fairy tribes advance,
Leading up their mazy dance :
'Mid an abbey's fallen pride,
Near a murm'ring rivulet's side:'
Bland and Lupin (generous souls)
Quaffed their acorn midnight bowls;
Free from deep corroding care,
Jocund were the Elfin pair.
And as cups to freedom tend,
Lupin thus addressed his friend :-
From what scenes of tragic woes,
From what base invet'rate foes,
We, poor mortals, oft have freed,
Let us now relate.

BLAND.

Agreed.

LUPIN.

When glad autumn's genial hand
Crown'd the produce of the land,
A farmer's crop was seen to blaze,
In air, the curling smoke to raise,—
Colin struck with poignant grief,
Sought in vain the wish'd relief:-
Thought he saw his hopes expire
'Mid the fatal crackling fire.
Seated on the mountain's height,
I from far beheld the sight,
And descending in a shower,
Quickly quenched the flaming power,
Happy Colin feared no more,
Safe he saw his little store.

BLAND.

O'er Silvano's aged head

Time its hoary frost had shed,
Whilst his lovely daughter's praise

Blest the swain's declining days-
Near her father's rural seat,
In a cool and mild retreat,

Stood a lucid sheety lake,
Hidden by a fragile brake.—

Thither in an evil hour,

Led by some malignant power,

Fair Florella (hapless maid)

Through meandering paths had strayed.

Hanging o'er the wat❜ry space,

Long she view'd the finny race;

When the faithless brink gave way,
Quick betrayed to foaming spray,
Her sweet form and radiant bloom,
Had been a victim to the tomb,

Had not I, benignant fay,
Clad in form of faithful Tray,
Dragg'd the sinking maid ashore
And preserv'd a parent's store.

LUPIN.

On a joyous festive night

By the glow-worm's splendid light,
Our elfin choir was brisk and gay,
Jocund rang the roundelay,
Suddenly shrill plaintive cries,
Reached our ears, and rent the skies,
Skimming o'er the verdant mead,
Soon I viewed the place of need;
Saw the cruel murderer's knife
Raised against a mortal's life-
Shouting loudly from behind
I appalled the coward's mind,
Struck with terror and dismay
Swift the villain fled away.

BLAND.

For Dorinda, peerless dame!
Strephon felt and own'd a flame,
Happy swain! his suit's approved,
Which the purest passion moved :-
But in vain, the tender pair,
Wished through life their joys to share,
Gray haired av'rice stepped between,
Stern forbade the nuptial scene.
Joyless Strephon's pensive breast
Ne'er had felt its wonted rest,
Had not I beside his door
Dropt the miser's hidden store.
Soon the marriage knot was tied
Happy swain! and happy bride!

LUPIN.

Where the rock's indented form,
Braves the fury of the storm,
A fond couple free from care,
Came to breathe the evening air.
Riding on a furious blast

O'er the blooming nymph I cast,
Bore her head-dress far away,
Fixed it on the hawthorn spray;
Quick the sympathizing swain
With the fair, sped o'er the plain,
Soon restored her loss again,
But the rock was seen no more
Where they joyous stood before,
Falling from its awful steep
It was buried in the deep.

BLAND.

Hark, the village cock from far
Hails Aurora's radiant car;

Haste ye elfin tribes away,

Quickly flee th' approach of day,

Nature's laws forbid our stay.

THE PUBLIC-ALL THE WORLD-AND EVERY BODY.

SIR,

As you appear to listen to the applications of correspondents, who have no other view of appearing in print, than that they may acquire knowledge, I consider your magazine as particularly useful to men, who, like myself, have but little intercourse with the world, and yet would fain be thought to live in it. In defiance of all our endeavours our ignorance shews itself, and we betray ourselves by a want of what may be of little use any where else, but in the gay circles is indispensable. Happy therefore is it that in repositories like yours, we may confide our questions with a certainty, that they will be received without reproach, and answered without the haughtiness of superiority. It is this consoling thought which inclines me to lay before you certain words and phrases for explanation, which are often repeated in my hearing without being defined, and which I am as often obliged to repeat without understanding. Now, although the politeness of good company screens every man from giving the meaning of his expressions, and although asking a man for the sense of his words be tantamount to calling him out; yet as I am frequently in dread lest some rude visitant should take such a liberty with me, I am very desirous of your kind assistance for the purpose of being prepared for the trying moment.

But

The first of these unexplained phrases which occurs is, THE PUBLIC. I am obliged, in common with my fellow-subjects, to make use of this phrase, but have never been able to attain any precise meaning for it. And, by the by, my chief reason for proposing this and other difficulties to you is, that I strongly suspect this proceeds from my own ignorance, as I find that other people, not my superiors in some things, use this phrase upon every occasion, and with great ease and fluency. But you will allow that my ignorance may admit of some apology, when I tell you in what various shapes this public appears. Sometimes "the public" are extremely averse to a new tax, and at other times have bestowed their approbation upon a new fashion. Now that the public are here one and the same aggregate of individuals appears to me extremely doubtful, because the grievous tax proposed is a farthing upon a pint of beer, and the fashion universally adopted is a velvet collar to the coat. It is evident, from this instance only, that there are two publics, one of which attends to the necessaries, and the other to the luxuries of life. again, the public, although in its etymology, indicating a being of great extent, has been, to my knowledge, contained in the small space of a coffee-room, from whence I have known a politician depart, and on visiting his patron in power, inform him of what the public said of his lordship's measures. On another occasion I have known a projector, who had some grand scheme in agitation, go no farther than the distance of three or four streets before he returned, quite satisfied that it would take with "the public." Nay, I have known an author stop the press, which was about to finish his work, until he should consult a friend "as to how the public would like it," and yet when the work appeared a few days afterward, the public condemned it. But if I have been puzzled to understand who or what the public is, I have been still more at a loss to comprehend the meaning of three little words, which apparently are far more intelligible all the world. Ask what these mean, of a simple-taught man like myself, and he will tell you-Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, in

cluding Terra Incognita, &c. or to save himself that trouble, he will hold up Guthries' Grammar, and hum the first line of the old 100th psalm, and aver that all the world must mean All people that on earth do dwell." Alas! what gothic stupidity would such a man display! Sir, I have known, in the course of the present winter, all the world inclosed in a suite of rooms not a hundred feet long by twenty-five broad. A little more

extended, I have seen all the world in a theatre, and I can remember the last year; for several weeks all the world went every night to see Tom and Jerry. So mighty a thing does all the world appear in sound, and so little a thing is it in reality-nay, it was but the other day all the world went to hear a certain preacher, and next day all the world witnessed a boxing match near Worcester; so that we have as many worlds as publics, and a very good treatise might be written on the plurality of such worlds. There is another phrase which comes near this, and perhaps originally was the same, I mean EVERY BODY. Every body, though as undefinable and invisible as the former, has great power and influence, and what he says must be true; yet, like the former, so various are every body's employments, that it is not easy to conceive what he is, unless he be a universal genius and can assume the gentleman, and the clown, the man of learning, and the ignoramus at pleasure. Sometimes every body goes out of town, and yet, if there be any exhibition in town we find every body there in the twinkling of an eye. This moment every body is in the park, and the next every body is on the Steyne at Brighton. Such locomotive powers are wonderful. Not less the curiosity with which he prys into the secrets of families. Some times every body is talking of Miss Jenkin's marriage, and at other times every body blames Miss Tomkins for parting with her maid. Among persons concerned in furnishing the externals of fashion, every body, of course, must be a personage of some consequence. If you consult your tailor or mantua-maker, you are sure to have recommended to you what every body wears. But here again is a strange exercise of caprice, and the authority of every body is turned against a fashion as quickly as for it. A few nights ago a lady of the first quality, declared in public company that she could have ordered such a dress, but that her woman dissuaded her, because every body had it. To artists, every body must be allowed to have some weight. A gentleman sits for his picture, it is brought home, shewn to half a dozen friends, and immediately every body says it is a great likeness. On the markets, likewise, every body has a great influence, and my butcher made an apology for an extraordinary charge for a particular joint, because every body ran upon it, which appeared to me the more remarkable, because I had been told not an hour before, by an eminent banker, that every body was distressed for want of money. This is one of those contradictions which perplex me much, and you will suppose I am not greatly relieved by hearing that every body complains of the scarcity of provisions, while my physician tells me that every body eats too much.

Now, Sir, repeated experience has convinced me, that if the Publicall the world and every body, are to be taken in their literal meaning, one of two things must follow, either that I am often concerned in matters which never entered into my thoughts, or that I am a kind of nonentity, making no portion, either of the public-all the world—or every body; but I trust the resolving of these paradoxes to your more able correspondents, who, I hope, will be able to shew whether, in most cases, every body is .even so much as-ANY BODY.

AUREAS, OR THE LIFE AND OPINIONS OF A SOVEREIGN. Written by Himself. 12mo. G. Wightman.

IN this age, which has been productive of so many royal authors, it is probable that some, into whose hands this book may fall, will take it up with eagerness, expecting it to be the work of a mighty monarch, perhaps a member of the holy alliance. If such are mistaken, it is not a necessary consequence that they must be disappointed. The sovereign is not a prince, but the legal representative of twenty shillings; and if he does not treat of the fate of empires, nor expose the secrets of cabinets, he makes many shrewd remarks, and supplies amusement combined with instruction, whilst relating "the life, character, and behaviour," of those amongst whom he circulates.

The connexion subsisting between the successive owners of a piece of money, is so slight, that it must exclude any thing like a plot, whose intricacies are to be unravelled. A succession of events, quite independent of each other, and frequently of a sort to have eluded the observation of every less privileged spectator, is the only kind of narrative that could be produced under such circumstances. Such is the nature of the work before us, which is strictly moral, and carefully represses bad and inculcates good principles.

We may take our extracts from almost any part of such a book. For the first we will present the picture of a wealthy tradesman, long habituated to gaming, but whose heart has not lost all the kindlier feelings of nature, returning home at a late hour from one of those sinks of perdition, so fitly called HELLS, he found a poor woman sitting on some steps near his own door, whose weeping infant loudly proclaimed its own and parent's wants. Moved at their distresses, he gave her a piece of money, and directed her to a neighbouring public house, where she might obtain protection for the night. On her arrival there, she found the piece which she had supposed a shilling, to be a sovereign: Though poor, she was honest, and resolved to suffer rather than avail herself of the mistake of her benefactor. Her integrity procured her the charitable assistance of the landlady, and permission to sit by the fire with her baby till morning, when she went to the house where she had seen Mr. Gizzard enter. As he made his appearance in his working dress, he was so much altered by it, that she did not recollect him, but addressed him in broad Scotch"I'll be muckle obleeged til you, Sir, and you'll tell the gentleman of the hoose I'se want a word wi' him."

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Well, my good woman, I am the owner of the house.”

"O, ma conscience! that canna be fac, Sir: the gentleman who cam in at this door lat yester-night, had on a braw blue coat, and buttons as bright as gold, and you have on a blue gingham frock and white brat."

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Well, well, notwithstanding that, I am the identical person; so what have you got to say?"

"Only, Sir, that you should be more carefu' o' your siller; for when you in your gudeness intended to gie me a shelling, ye mad a mistak, ye ken, and gied me a bit gold; and if ye will exchange it for a shilling now, I'se be muckle obleeged til you, Sir! Whist, whist, my bonnie Charlie! what are ye greeting for, bairn?"

Jeremiah drew the back of his band across his eyes, as she offered him the coin, my metallic body, on which he had engraved, with the point of a penknife, the figure of a pigeon, for poulterers never deal in doves. On seeing this token, he said, "Little did I think, when I amused myself with sketching this dove, that

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