present enjoyments, and partly from an illusion by which imagination cheats us into a belief, that the future is to be better than the past, by some change of circumstances and fortune. Blest is his cottage where contentment reigns. Blest is his bosom where peace dwells.

But how many abandon known pleasures, for those which are fancied and unknown. They forget that they are now happy and might remain so. They forget that very often it is not the sweetest cup that is the most wholesome; that it is not always the clearest stream that is the most salubrious. Poison may be mingled with the sweetest beverage, and contagion and death concealed beneath the most transparent waters.

"How magnificent," said Al-Mohdi, as he stole early from the city, and wandered along the banks of the Tigris, "how magnificent is this capital of my father, Al-Mansur, the proud metropolis of the Moslem empire." It was morning, and the perfumes of the Arabian spices were wafted by the early breeze. Every thing around him seemed to court the smile of the youthful Al-Mohdi. The wealth of the East was riding in his harbour. Plenty rolled in her abundance upon him from every quarter. All was peace and tranquillity throughout his dominions. Not a heart in his empire but loved him; not a tongue but blessed him; not a knee that would not bend to pay him willing homage. The virtues of the prince had ennobled the hearts of his subjects. The effects of his pacifice disposition were visible in the quietude and tranquillity of those whom he governed.

As he wandered onward, he saw at a distance the cottages of the sleeping Arabs. On his right hand rolled the beautiful Tigris, and on his left, a herd of camels were cropping the luxuriance of the valley. Before him was a forest in all its wildness and luxuriance; and behind him the great, the majestic, the opulent Bagdad. Such was the prospect which ravished the eye of the transported Al-Mohdi. All was new, as it was delightful. He wandered onward unconscious whither he was directing his steps. He felt for once the happiness of being entirely disencumbered of the

retinue of his courtiers, who came daily, not to flatter and court his favour, but to pay him their willing homage, and proffer to him their best services. He was now out of hearing of the ceaseless hum of the busy city, which at this hour had begun to swarm with life. The sun had just shot his first mild rays athwart the horizon. Forgetful of the past and unmindful of the future, Al-Mohdi gazed with delight and admiration on every object presented to his eye. He contemplat-. ed with transport the scenery around him, and wondered that he should so long have remained ignorant of pleasures so fascinating, of enjoyment so exquisite. "Fool I was so long to suffer myself to be incarcerated in the royal palace of Irak; so long to be a slave to parasites and sycophants, who come to my table, partake of my bounties, and earn an extorted welcome by obsequiousness and flattery. Fool I was so long to deprive myself of enjoyment so invigorating, so innocent, so lasting.

The prince, enslaved to ambition, cherishing an insatiable desire for fame, and an unconquerable thirst for glory, is the prey of unceasing inquietude. His days are spent in the sickening splendor of a court, of which he is afraid. His nights are disturbed by waking and sleeping dreams of danger, or death. But yonder unambitious peasant knows not discontent. Allured by no false dreams of greatness, his mind is tranquil, and his peace undisturbed. Far removed from desire of renown, he lives greatly independent. The ceaseless hum and bustle of a city life do not break in upon his repose. Supplied with a competency, he thinks of nothing more than to thank that Power who bestows it. The benediction of heaven rests upon his mansion. Were I an inmate of such a family, never would I quit it for all the wealth of Persia, or all the honours of the caliphs of the Saracens! Solitude, how charming! Who cares for honours which we know to be not worth possessing. Who is the Grand Pacha of this whole empire? A wretched starvling seated on a gilded throne. Who are the learned men of the Moslems? A set of wretched inquisitive gapers after trifles. In my soul I despise them and royalty itself. Man! What is

he? How has Nature made him?

How does the

Prophet teach us? As you see yonder cottager before his door, free and independent." With such wild transport and enthusiasm did the youthful Al-Mohdi vent the emotions which heaved his bosom.

Thus onward he wandered, unconscious that he had any duty that day to perform; unmindful whither he was going or that he should ever wish to return; and wholly regardless of any danger which might lie before him.

He had now entered a dark and extensive forest, whose thickets shielded him from the intense heat of the sun, which now began to pour down his hotest rays, and shed abroad his brighest effulgence. Al-Mohdi gazed on every flower as if it had sprung up by enchantment; and listened to the purling brook, as he would listen to the music of heaven. He beheld with admiration the beautiful cascade as it glided down the rude declivity of the steep hill; and was almost petrified with astonishment at the sight and sound of the roaring cataract. He contemplated the scene with emotions of sublimity and grandeur. All things around him allured, enchanted, astonished. Having spent his youth in ignorance of the objects of nature, his bosom heaved with wild palpitation at scenes, which to another might not have afforded any peculiar interest or pleasure. He ran from place to place in search of new objects with which to gratify his curiosity.

[To be concluded in our next.]

NATURAL HISTORY OF THE EAGLE-AN EXTRACT.

In a clear sky, the royal eagle soars to a geat height, but he flies lower in cloudy weather. He rarely quits the mountains to descend into the plains; and his muscular force enables him to encounter the most violent winds. When Raymond had reached 'the summit of Mount Perdu, the highest of the Pyrenees, he perceived no living creature but an eagle, which passed above him, flying with inconceivable rapidity in direct oppo

When far

sition to a furious wind from the south-west. aloft, and no longer discernible by the human eye, its cry, which in that situation has been compared to the squeaking of a puppy, may still be heard; and such is the wonderful acuteness of its sight, that from the same elevation it will mark a hare, or even a smaller animal, and dart down on it with unerring aim. The male and female usually hunt together, and the mountaineers allege, that the one beats the bushes, and that the other pursues the started game. Each pair live in an insulated state, establishing their quarters on some high and precipitous cliff, at a respectful distance from others of the same species, and occasionally interrupting their silence by a sharp, piercing, and lugubrious cry. They are extremely tenacious of life, whence probably originated the eastern notion, that they possessed the power of renewing their youth. Keysler alludes to an individual, which lived a hundred and four years at Vienna, though in a state of confinement. Nor is it less remarkable for enduring abstinence, especially when deprived of exercise; for one, taken from a fox-trap, refused food for five weeks, when it was killed. Redi likewise informs us that he kept two alive, the one for twenty-eight, and the other for twenty-one days, without food. In old age, individuals of this species become more or less hoary, or partially of a pure white; and similar changes are induced by disease and protracted captivity or hunger. From their solitary and domineering habits, they keep all other birds of prey at a distance from their haunts, and delight in combats and rapine; but they seem to be averse to carrion, and to disdain the insults of weak and petty animals, attacking and bearing away lambs, kids, young gazelles, &c. Their strength chiefly resides in the beak, talons, and wings; and there is scarcely any animal that is a match for them, as they are capable of giving the most terrible annoyance without much danger to themselves, insómuch that a single flap of their wing has struck a man dead in an instant. Unless taken when quite young, they are scarcely to be tamed. In the depth of winter they sometimes descend from the mountains and take

refuge in the forests, as in those of Orleans and Fontainebleau. When they regale on their mangled prey, a dirty bluish liquor, secreted from peculiar glands, has been observed to ooze from the nostrils, and, flowing along the beak, to enter the mouth, where it may possibly assist in preparing the due concoction of the food. It would appear, however, from the experiments of Spallanzani, that their breath is not fœtid. In Scotland they are still destructive of deer, which they seize between the horns, and soon subdue by incessantly beating the harassed quadruped with their wings. In the island of Rume, according to Pennant, they have nearly extirpated the stags; and in Shetland they are general plunderers, robbing the rock-birds, especially gulls and cormorants, of their young. In the Orkneys, the nest of a pair has been observed on the same spot from time immemorial. Another pair seem to have once bred in Tintholm, one of the smallest of the Faroe islands, according to the testimony of Landt, who relates the following distressing incident. An eagle one day darted on an infant who was lying at a little distance from its mother, and carried it to its nest, which was placed on a rock so steep towards the summit, that the boldest bird-catchers had never ventured to climb it. The mother, however, contrived to ascend it; but she arrived too late, for the child was dead, and its eyes torn out. Again, in the year 1737, in the parish of Norderhougs, in Norway, a boy, upwards of two years of age, was running from the house to his parents, who were at work in the fields at no great distance, when an eagle pounced on him, and carried him off in their sight, in spite of all their screams and efforts. Anderson, in his History of Iceland, asserts, that in that island children of four or five years of age have experienced the same cruel fate; and Ray mentions, that in one of the Orkneys an infant of a year old was seized in the talons of an eagle, and conveyed about four miles to its eyry; while the mother, knowing the spot, pursued the bird, found her child in the nest, and took it home unhurt.