VALUE OF EXERCISE COMPARED WITH OTHER

STIMULANTS.

By a recent number of Chambers's Journal, we find the following remarks:-"The flesh of animals and fermented liquors being much more stimulative than fruit and farinaceous vegetable substances appear, and doubtless while the stimulant lasts a person is capable of much greater exertion under it, but the only sure way of permanently increasing the power of the muscular system, is by a natural and nutritious diet, along with judicious exercise. The node in which stimulants act, is, by exciting the nervous energy and quickening the circulation, and thus producing rapid transformation of the tissues throughout the whole structure; and while these changes are taking place, whether as the effect of animal food, fermented liquors, anger, madness, fever, or exercise, the muscular frame is (for the time) increased. But exhaustion constantly succeeds, and will invariably be in proportion to the degree and duration of their action. Exercise, however, is the only safe and legitimate stimulant in a normal state of the system, for it creates healthy demand for renewal, by promoting the re quisite decompositions of structure; while the others, destroy the balance between decay and reproduction, and thus lay the foundation of local or general disease. A striking example of the effects of exercise, in promoting the healthy circulation of the fluids, and thereby removing local disorders, has just come under notice, in the case of a young gentleman, who, after suffering severely from that distressing complaint, the tic-douloureux, has found entire relief from it in a regular attendance at a gymnastic establishment."

CURIOUS FACT.

BEES are geometricians, their cells are so constructed, as, with the least quantity of material, to have the largest sized spaces, and least possible loss of interstice. The mole is a meteorologist. The bird, called the nine-killer, is an arithmetician; as also the crow, the wild turkey, and some other birds. The torpedo and the ray are electricians. The nautilus is a navigator; he raises and lowers his sails, casts and weighs anchor, and performs other nautical acts. Whole tribes of birds are musicians. The beaver is an architect, builder, and wood-cutter; he cuts down trees, and erects houses and dams. The marmot is a civil engineer; he does not only build houses, but constructs aqueducts, and drains to keep them dry. The white ants maintain a regular army of soldiers. Wasps are paper manufacturers. Caterpillars are silk spinners. The squirrel is a ferryman; with a chip or piece of bark for a boat, and his tail for a sail, he crosses the stream. Dogs, wolves, jackals, and many others, are hunters. The black bear and the heron are fishermen. The ants have regular day labours. The monkey is a ropedancer.

HEAVING OF THE OCEAN.

HUMEROUS DESCRIPTION OF THE SCENE WHEN THE HEAVING OCEAN CAUSES STOMACHS TO HEAVE IN STRANGE CONFORMITY.

We have lots of land-lubbers on board-young agitators, fond of "intestine commotions," who are constantly "spouting"-maidens, whose bosoms "heave "-young clerks, who " cast up accounts -custom-house officers, who "clear out "-sharpers, given to "over-reaching "-Jews, who at the traffail," keep a passover lawyers, who take nothing" by their motion "-doctors, who have "sick visits "--choleric people, who cannot "keep down their bile"-bankrupts, who give up "all they have "-spendthrifts, who "keep nothing long "-idlers, who do nothing all day, but

"go up and down -men of business, exhibiting "bills of lading"

-swindlers, who "cut and run"-military men, who "surrender at discretion"-boys, that quarrel and "throw up at cards”—servants, that cannot "keep their places "-auctioneers, with their "going, going, gone!"-preachers, who say "they want but little here below, nor want that little long "-hypocrites, that make "long faces"-grumblers, that are "open mouthed"-babblers, that "keep nothing in "-painters, ever reluctant to shew their "palette' authors, that cannot conceal their "effusions"-printers, that never leave their " sheets;" and publishers, that first "puff," and then bring forth their "trash." In short, men of all sorts, "in one common mess." Lord, what fun it is, dear Jack, to see these creatures! Good Christians, they are, too, for they give and take, return all kindness with interest, charitable to a degree, for they give all they have, and strain a point to do their utmost. Candid souls! they "keep nothing back," but bring everything forward without any consideration for themselves.

THE PRESENT.

There is a good time coming boys!

And many a one has passed,
For each has had his own good time,
And will have to the last.

Then tarry not, oh! eager youth,

For fairer gales to blow,

But bear in mind the first of truths-
The best of time is now!

COUNSELLOR LAMB, an old man, when the present Lord Erskine was in the height of his reputation, was a man of timid manners, and nervous disposition, and usually prefaced his pleadings with an apology to that effect, and on one occasion when opposed in some cause to Erskine, he happened to remark that "he felt himself grow more and more timid, as he grew older." "No wonder," replied the witty but relentless barrister. Everybody knows the older a lamb grows, the more sheepish he becomes."

VOL. I.

66

OF HYM THAT HAD HIS GOOSE STOLE.

A MAN that had a goose stole from hym, went and complained to the curate, and desyred him to do so much as helpe that he had his goose again. The curate said he wolde. So on Sunday, the curate, as though he wolde curse, went up into the pulpit, and bade everybody sit down; so when they were set, he sayde" Why sat ye nat downe ?" "We be sit all redy," quod they. "Naye," quod the curate," he that did stale the goose, setteth nat." "Yes, that I do," quod he. "Sayste thou that," quod the curate. " I charge thee, on payne of cursing, to bring the goose home again."

TO A GENTLEMAN EXPLAINING THE LAW OF THE ROAD.

The law of the road is a paradox quite,

For when you are journeying along,

If you keep to the left you are sure to go right,
If you keep to the right you are wrong.

A DABBLER in literature and in fine arts, who prided himself on his knowledge and proper use of the English language, came upon a youngster sitting upon the bank of a mill-pond, angling for shiners, and thus addressed him :-" Adolescens, art thou not endeavouring to entice the finny race, to engulph into their denticulated mouths a barbed hook, upon whose point is affixed a dainty allurement." 66 No," said the boy, “ I am fishin'."

DR. LUCAS having, after a hard contest, carried the election for the city of Dublin, was met a few days after by a lady, whose family was very warm in the interest of the defeated candidate. Well, doctor," says she, "I find you have gained the election.” "Yes, madam." "No wonder, sir," was the reply, "all the blackguards voted for you." "No, madam, your sons did not," replied the doctor.

I DECLARE," said Aunt Betsey," he was the oddest creature that was ever put into a skin. He wa'nt like other men in any thing; he never eat his breakfast till the next day at noon!"

"ONE word more and I have done." How we dread to hear this expression at public meetings! It's always a sure sign that he is bracing up for a fresh start!

A POOR poet having written some doggrel verses to a young lady, in which he repeats the phrase, "I saw thee once;" she returned to him for answer, "that she would take care he never saw her again."

AN American court has decided that marriage contracts made on a Sunday, are valid, on the ground that they come under the head of "works of necessity and charity."

A SENSIBLE PRAYER.

THE Rev. E. G. Wood, at Fairfield, Indiana, after praying for the general government, prayed for the governor of the state, and thus for the legislature:-" And the Lord have mercy on our legislators. Spare their lives until they may return to their homes, and then put it in the hearts of the people to keep them there, and return men of temperate habits, and sentiments, who will do some good."

TRUE CHIVALRY.

No more in knightly tournament
May lover proudly bear,

The silken scarf, or emblem flower,

Bestowed by lady fair.

No longer must the fatal lance

Her spotless honour prove,

Nor high hearts stilled the offering be
Of chivalry to love.

No more beyond the rolling deep

Must true love prove its faith,

But bearing in its sacred name

A talisman of death.

No more must glory's wreath be won
Where death and danger meet,
Nor sword incarnadined in gore,
Be laid at beauty's feet.

But in life's bloodless battle field
To take a nobler stand,

To strive for victory among
The wisest of our land.

By prowess of the mind and heart

To gain a loftier place,

Be these the guerdon of his truth
Who seeks a lady's grace.

To self be not your gauntlets flung,

Ye heroes of the list!

Nor 'till your foe be quite o'erthrown,

The gallant strife desist.

A field more dread and glorious
Ne'er chivalry could meet,
And smiles of spirit loveliness
Your victory will greet.

A LADY, reading that a man had been sentenced to six months hard labour, for dog stealing, observed to a friend with a shudder, "Gracious! my love, what would certain of our sex have to endure for entrapping puppies!"

A LADY had all her cherries stolen in one night. The gardener was charging it on the robins. She was not to be "done" in that way, and replied "I guess they were two-legged robins!" Probability certainly favoured her conclusion.

WELLINGTON AND THE ENGLISH ARMY.

M. THIERS, in his recently published work, pays a tribute, not less honourable to him who gives, than to those who receive it, to the military genius of the great Duke and his gallant followers. It is as follows:-"The English army passed the Bidassoa on the 7th of October, 1813, and Pampeluna surrendered on the 31st. This was the most constant and the most hated of Napoleon's enemies in arms on the French soil, under the command of a General, who at once revived that uniformity of success which Marlborough, Talbot, Henry the Fifth, and the Black Prince, had already given to their country. There is no use in denying it; every circumstance considered, the Duke of Wellington was the greatest General, whom the late wars brought forth, for human contemplation. His mind was so admirably poized, notwithstanding the vivacity of his genius, that he was always equally ready and equally great on every occasion. He united the powerful conception of Napoleon's to the steady judgment of Moreau. Each of these mighty captains was, perhaps, in some degree, superior to Wellington, in his peculiarity to devise a plan on the battle field and change his whole order of battle, as he did at Marengo. Moreau may have understood better the management of a retreating army, before an exulting enemy; but the exquisite apprehension and intelligence of Arthur Wellesley, served him in a moment, and took at once the conduct and the measures which the occasion required. Many of our countrymen have contested his genius, but no man can deny to him the most equable judgment that ever shone forth in a great soldier. It is this admirable faculty, this discerning wisdom of the mind, which has misled all Europe, as to his genius, in the same manner, as it did, two centuries ago, in the case of the great Lord Bacon. Men do not expect to see in the same person, the active and the passive spirits equally great; nor does nature usually bestow such opposite gifts on the same man. In Napoleon, a steady judgment, and a patient endurance of calamity, were not the concomitants of his impulsive genius and tremendous activity in war. Moreau had all this passive greatness; but the Duke of Wellington, only, had united the two gifts. Nay, more, the noble army he had so long commanded, had gradually learned to partake of the character of their leader. No soldiers in the world, but the English, could have stood those successive charges, that murderous artillery, which they so bravely bore at Waterloo."

THE admiralty have determined that, in future, an acquaintance with the principle and application of the steam-engine, shall be deemed a necessary qualification for all midshipmen, before they can be allowed to pass for the rank of lieutenant.

Absence of occupation is not rest,

A mind quite vacant is a mind distress'd.