fusing her, and Harlequin growing impatient at the delay of his union with his miftrefs, and proceeding to fome liberties which are difpleafing to her, she in the common phrafe wishes him hanged, which by a contrivance in the stage is immediately done, he being drawn up to a gibbet which rifes out of the ground.--But now induced with great fincerity to unwith this her defire, as the has before done by two other trifling wishes, her power becomes forfeited, and Manto appearing once more, infifts on Pantaloon's beftowing her on Harlequin, which he, from a confideration that all the conditions he himself had infifted on have been complied with, at last confents to do, and the fairy concludes the piece with a reflection of the impropriety there would be in trufting to mankind a power of enjoying whatever their different paffions might induce them to wish for. With regard to the merit of this piece, I shall not pretend to direct the public judgment. The language of it feems to be pure, correct, and elegant, and the ftrokes of fatire which form the principal bent of the author's defign, are many of them very keen, juft, and delicate.--There is, however, a barrenness of incident, and even the circumftance of the Wishes, on which the whole turns, seems not made fo advantageous an ufe of as might have been done.--The catastrophe is brought on in a hurry, and the incident of hanging Harlequin has a difguftful and horrid effect, and was justly pointed out in that light by a very confiderable part of the audi ence. The piece, however, had the valuable advantage of being tried before a moft fplendid, elegant, and at the fame time judicious audience; the warm approbation of which, fhewn to the fentimental parts of it, bear estimable witness to the merit of thofe parts, and from whofe dislike therefore of others, the author cannot justly make any appeal. Account of the Abbé Velly, Author of an Hiftory of France, on a new Plan. PAUL Francis Velly was born the 9th of April, 1709, in the province of Champagne. His father, who is still living, practises both furgery and phyfic; and, as if these two employments were not fufficient, or that he may be more useful, he is also a notary of no small practice, and, lastly, juftice of fix or feven parishes in his neighbourhood. A phyfician of Rheims, lately paffing near the place of M. Velly's refidence, called on him, and aftonished at fuch a variety of profeffions being exercifed to the general fatisfaction, by one man, wrote to an acquaintance of his, also a physician: "I have seen our brother Velly, who is phyfician, furgeon, notary and juftice, angel and lawyer, God and devil; and foon will no longer be any thing, confidering his great age, being on the wrong fide of eighty." The Abbé Velly was initiated into literature, at the college of the Jefuits, at Rheims; and fuch was his progrefs, that in less than four years he finished his humanity course; in October, 1726, he entered into that order, in which, as he often faid, he fpent fourteen delightful years, and quitted it in 1740. There the Abbé S Velly acquired a vaft ftock of erudition, and love of labour. He came to Paris in 1741, and, induced by a natural propenfity to enjoy the intimate conversation of his former brethren, accepted of a tutor fhip in the college of Louis Le Grand, When a proper opportunity offered of difengaging himself from the galling chains of that profeffion, he determined, against all formal obligations, to exert himself in procuring liberty and independency by the productions of his pen. His first piece was a tranflation of the endless Law-fuit, or the biftory of John Bull; a tranflation from the witty fatire of Dr. Swift's, on the long war, which was terminated by the peace of Utrecht. This little pamphlet was fuc ceeded by a very long-winded work. The Abbé was very well verfed in history; and though that of France has been the subjec of many able pens, he thought it might be exhibited in a new light, with regard to morals, ufages, laws, opinions, &c. a part no less entertaining than effential, yet neglected by most hiftorians, who amufe the reader only with military atchievements, and political intrigues. The two firft vclumes fucceeded beyond his bookfeller's hopes, and fuch a fingular fuccefs was no more home about more than they deferved. He is the first neighbourhood, he came eleven o'clock, and went immediately to The Abbé Velly had published fix volumes of his hiftory of France, and was about the feventh and eighth, when he was fuddenly taken off. He was very fanguine his face of a deep red, a pretty common symptom of a tendency to an apoplexy; accordingly, his friends often advised him to lose some blood, but, as he felt no indifpofition, he neglected that preCaution, and relied on an athletic fate of health, which had never failed him. On The 4th of September, of the last year, after dining moderately in the city, and spending the evening, without making any supper, at the houfe of a learned perfon in his I was immediately acquainted with this writer, and vifited him pretty often. He was very regular in his manner of living; and though, as noticed above, his conftitution was very fanguine, of gentle paffions, and a placid temper, fincere and fteady in friendship, unmoveable in the true principles of religion and morality, charming in his converfation, and amiable in his behaviour towards all ranks he was even of a fingular chearfulness, a quality not often united with such virtue and wisdom as in him: frequently laughing, and that very heartily and fuch are generally the most happy, most candid, and most estimable. : As the Abbé Velly, in his hiftory of France, with the account of the military atchievements, blends very judicious enquiries into the manners, laws, and cuftoms of that realm; I shall foon send you two of the first I meet with, and shall occafionally select them in chronological order, down to the present time, if approv» ed of. The NATURAL HISTORY of the EAGLE. AS the lion is of beafts, fo has the eagle ever been reckoned the king of birds; and for the fame reafons: as none of the feathered fpecies is fuperior in ftrength, infpires a greater terror into other animals, or excels him in natural fierceness, and the rapidity and elevation of his flight. These properties determined Caius Marius conful of Rome, in the 650th year of that city, to fupprefs the figures of the wolf, the minotaur, the wild boar and the horfe; and to fubftitute in their stead, at the head of the Roman legions, an eagle; as an emblem which included the meaning of all the reft, and which was more proper to excite ardour, courage, and emula tion, among the foldiers. With the fame defign, Ariftomenes caused one to be engraven on his shield. There are various kinds of these birds, and they inhabit in divers countries. Thofe in Europe are found near the Alps, and thofe of America chiefly in Virginia. The fpecies called the crowned eagle, from a tuft of feathers rifing in the form of a crest or crown on the head, is a native of Africa. The colours of each fort are likewife various. Thofe of Europe and America are of a chefnut brown, ruddy, and white. The plumage of the crowned eagle is more diverfified, consisting of a beautiful mixture of black, brown, and white, with a red breaft, and orange coloured circles round the eyes. They have a long hooked beak, fcaly legs, thick crooked talons, and are distinguished from the hawk by their bignefs, and from the vulture by the bill, which is black at the tip, and blue in the middle, though in fome yellow. The tongue does not terminate in a point like that of other birds, but is grifly, and almost fquare at the end. At its root are two hard points, like the iron ones of an ar row. Their eye is quick and threatning, a little funk in the head, and protected by the prominency of the forehead, refembling an eye-brow; underneath which is a hard and bony ledge, composed of feveral substances, joined and placed one above another like fcales. The ftomach fhews the voracity of this bird; for, when thoroughly inflated, it is two inches in diame. The bones are very hard, and have very little marrow in them. The blood is thick and fibrous, the bill, fharp, biting, and very corrofive. ter. This bird is fo voracious, that he ravages all the neighbouring places, which are fcarce fufficient to furnish him with prey neceffary for his fupport. Hence it is remarked, that two eagles are not to be found but at a great distance from each other. Ariftotle and Pliny fay, that the eagles chace their young ones not only out of the airies, or nefts, but even out of the country they inhabit, as foon as they are able to fly. They are not contented with the larger birds, as hens, geefe, and cranes, but pursue rabbits, hares, lambs, and kids, which they lift from the ground, and carry off. Ælian relates fomething still more extraordinary, which happened in the inland of Crete: "An eagle of prodigious fize attacked the bulls, with as much boldnefs as the weakest and most fearful animals; and his fury fupplied him with addrefs to overcome them. After placing himself between their horns, he tore their head with the strokes of his bill; frequently he beat out their eyes, or covered them with his wings, till the furious bull, after doing all in his power to free himself from his enemy, threw himself into a marsh, or over a precipice, when the eagle completed his death by tearing out his intrails, and made him his prey." As the eagle lives wholly on the flesh of fuch animals as he kills, fo he quenches Auguft, 1761. his thirft with their blood, and never drinks water but when he is fick. It is faid that the fwan is the only bird that can refift him, and that he frequently does it with fuccefs. An ancient author has left us an entertaining defcription of a fight between these two birds; but it ap pears rather to be founded on his own imagination than on truth. The whole has the appearance of fable: for all the other birds are afraid of the eagle to a fovereign degree; they quake and tremble at his cry; and even the dragon, when he hears him, takes refuge in his den. Nor are the fishes fafe from his rapacity. He perceives them at the bottom, as he skims over the fea or lakes; plunges immediately down with the rapidity of an arrow; and drags them to the bank, where he devours them. On this account, the Indians, according to Philoftratus, carried on a mortal war against him, thooting at him with poifoned arrows. He darts precipitate, and gripes the prey; Or, fixing on fome dragon's fcaly hide, Eager of combat, and his future feast, Bears him aloft, reluctant, and in vain Wreathing his fpiry tail. Rowe's Ulyffes The eagle is oftentimes as good as a game-keeper, fince many a gentleman's table is often fupplied with game of their providing for, till their young is able to fly, they carry provifion of all kinds to the airy, or neft, confifting of partridges, pheasants, woodcocks, hares, lambs, kids, fawns, or whatever prey the country affords. If the rock where the neft is built be not quite inacceffible, it is usual for the fhepherds to climb up to it, and take away the provifions from the young eagle while the old ones are abfent ; leaving the entrails of animals, or fome fuch food, in the room of what they take: and thus the table is furnished with the best of game, though perhaps deprived of a leg or wing, by the voracioufnefs of the parent G32 eagle, eagle, or their offspring. M. de Thou, in the memoirs of his life, tells us, that he himself once dined with a certain great man; and obferved with fome furprize, that all the wild fowls brought to table wanted a leg, wing, or other part, till he was informed they were taken from an eagle's airy in the neighbourhood. Mr. Ray mentions an eagle's neft, found near the river Darwent, in 1668, confifting of large fticks, one end whereof was laid on a rock, and the other on two birch trees. It was two yards fquare, and had a young eagle in it, with the carcaffes of one lamb, one hare, and three grygalli. And, it appears from Sir Robert Sibbald, that the eagle will fometimes seize even children; for he gives us an instance of one that took up a young child, at a place called Houghton-head, and carried it to its neft in Hoy, one of the Orkney inlands, four miles diftant; but being immediately followed by four men in a boat, who had obferved an eagle's airy in that inland, and knew the place perfectly well, they brought back the child unhurt, before the furious bird had begun his intended repaft. He had carried the child there, by fticking his talons in his cloaths only. Sharpness of fight is alfo a quality of the eagle, which fets him above all other birds. He feems even to be fenfible of that advantage, and to preserve it in his fpecies. As foon as his young begin to have ftrength, he turns them towards the fun, and makes them fix their eyes upon it; and if any one cannot bear the heat and force of the rays, he chaces him from the nest, as if he judged him unworthy of his protection and assistance; but attaches himfelf to the reft with remarkable affection, even to the expofing ing obftinately against all thofe who would take them from him. He is feen flutterIng in various ways, round his nest, to teach them to fly. He takes them afterward on his back, carries them higher at different times, quits them in the middle of his course, in order to prove them; and, if he perceives that they cannot as yet (upport themselves alone, and that they are in danger of falling, he darts himself below them with the greatest rapidity, and receives them again on his back, between his wide expanded wings. He is the only bird in whom nature has instilled this kind of inftin&t, which the Scripture has chosen as an expreffive symbol of the tenderness with which God protects his people in the wilderness : "The Lord's portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. "He found him in a desert land, and in the wafte-howling-wilderness: he led him about, he inftructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. "As an eagle ftirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings; "So the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no ftrange God with him. Deut. xxxii. ver. 9, 10, 11, 12." The reason why eagles, who have not the fibres of their eyes ftronger than other animals, can look so steadfastly on the fun, and fupport the fplendor of its rays fo eafily, is, because, they have two sets of eye-lids; the one is thin and fine, which they draw over the eyes when they look upon a luminous object, and which renders the glaring light much more fupportable; the other thick and clofe, with which they fhut their eyes entirely. By this means he rifes to that prodigious height fo astonishing to the beholder. The eagle thus prepar'd to mount the sky, To the fun's orb undazzl'd turns his eye, And fpurns the ground with awful dig nity; Exulting in his pride, he's pleas'd to view The feather'd tribe admiring where he flew. With failing ftrength they tempt the won d'rous height, But faint beneath the radiant load of light ; While he alone enjoys the fovereignfway, Alone fupports the fun's encreafing ray, Martin's Timoleon. The eagle fometimes carries his flight in the regions of the air to fuch an immenfe height, as tó vanish from our fight, notwithstanding his bulk and the length of his wings, which, when stretched out, are nine feet and more from the tip of one wing to the other; and from the extremity of the bill to that of the tail, the distance is three feet and upwards. Bochart tells us that this bird lives a century, and encreases in bulk to his death. If this be true, we may credit the relation of of Athenæus, who fays that eagles were carried by way of ornament at the triumph of Ptolemy, whofe wings were 20 cubits long; but we are in some doubt, notwithftanding, as to the truth of this point. From the ftupendous fwiftnefs of this bird, he has had the highest honours paid him by the poets. He is the armour-bearer of Jupiter, and is painted at the end of his fcepter. Ganymede was carried off by an eagle to ferve the gods with nectar; and the eagle always conveyed the fouls of heroes to heaven. Many other fables might be related to the fame purpose. The hand of Providence is particularly remarkable in the formation of the eagle's eye; for befides the two eye-lids, the eye itfelf is very ftrong, and he can difcover his prey at a great distance. This is taken notice of in the excellent book of Job: "She dwelleth and abideth on the rock, on the crag of the rock, and on the ftrong place from thence the feeketh her prey, and her eyes behold afar off. Job xxxix. 28, 29." It is agreed among all the learned and critics, that every ten years he renews his ftrength and youth. His feathers at the end of every fuch period become more He heavy, and lefs proper for flight. then approaches nearer the fun than ufual; and after being exceffively heated, he plunges immediately into the fea; his feathers fall off, and new ones fupply their place, which reftore him to his former ftrength. It is this, which perhaps David intended to exprefs in these words: "Thy youth fhall be renewed like that of the eagle." Ælian attributes to him a peculiar inftinct of gratitude. If he may be relied on, that eagle which Pyrrhus had brought up, and which followed him every where, was fo fenfible of the death of that illuftrious warrior, that he would not quit his body, or receive any nourishment: and another threw himself into the pile where the corpfe of him, who had kept him till that moment, was burning. Plutarch, in the life of Numa, relates, that Pythagoras had fo far tamed an eagle, that upon his pronouncing certain words, it would ftop in its flight, and come down to him. He also, in the life of Marius, fays, the eagle never lays more than two eggs at a time: but in this, it should feem, he muft have been mistaken; for Ruysch tells us, there was an eagle's neft found between more The firft is In Africa they reckon feven forts of eagles, all differing in fize, fhape, and colour. It is probable there are more; for at the Cape alone are four, which authors particularly describe. fimply called the eagle, of the ignoble kind, from their feeding upon fish and dead animals; the fecond is the duckeagle, whofe prey is chiefly ducks ; the third is termed the bone-breaking-eagle, from their carrying up the land-tortoifes a great height into the air, and letting them fall to break their fhells; and the fourth the fea-eagle, from living always near that element. Others add a fifth fort of eagles, called dung-birds; who, if they find an ox or cow laid down, fall upon the beaft in great numbers, make a hole in the belly of it with their bills and talons, and perfectly scoop out the infide of it, leaving but a bare skeleton covered with the hide. In Virginia are three forts of eagles. The largest is called the grey eagle; the fecond is the bald eagle; for the body and part of the neck being of a dark brown, the upper part of the neck and head Ggg 2. |