up with the emperor from a child, presuming upon his great interest, took an opportunity to lay before his sovereign the bad consequences which would inevitably ensue should he longer persevere in that unmanly and base course of life.  Mahomet, provoked at the Bassa’s insolence, told him that he deserved to die; but that he would pardon him in consideration of former services.  He then commanded him to assemble all the principal officers and captains in the great hall of his palace the next day, to attend his royal pleasure.  Mustapha did as he was directed; and the next day the sultan understanding that the Bassas and other officers awaited him, entered the hall, with the charming Greek, who was delicately dressed and adorned.  Looking sternly around him, the Sultan demanded, which of them, possessing so fair an object, could be contented to relinquish it?  Being dazzled with the Christian’s beauty, they unanimously answered, that they highly commended his happy choice, and censured themselves for having found fault with so much worth.  The emperor replied, that he would presently show them how much they had been deceived in him, for that no earthly pleasure should so far bereave him of his senses, or blind his understanding, as to make him forget his duty in the high calling wherein he was placed.  So saying, he caught Irene by the hair of her head, which he instantly severed from her body with his scimitar.

G.W.N.

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Select Biography.

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JUVENILE POETESS.

MEMOIR OF LUCRETIA DAVIDSON,

Who died at Plattsburgh, N.Y., August 27, 1825, aged sixteen years and eleven months.

[We hardly know how to give our readers an idea of the intense interest which this biographical sketch has excited in our mind; but we are persuaded they will thank us for adopting it in our columns.  The details are somewhat abridged from No.  LXXXII. of the Quarterly Review, (just published), where they appear in the first article, headed “Amir Khan, and other Poems:  the remains of Lucretia Maria Davidson,” &c., published at New York, in the present year.  Prefixed to these “remains” is a biographical sketch, which forms the basis of the present memoir, and from the Poems are selected the few specimens with which it is illustrated.—­ED.]

Lucretia Maria Davidson was born September 27, 1808, at Plattsburgh, on Lake Champlain.  She was the second daughter of Dr. Oliver Davidson, and Magaret his wife.  Her parents were in straitened circumstances, and it was necessary, from an early age, that much of her time should be devoted to domestic employments:  for these she had no inclination, but she performed them with that alacrity which always accompanies good will; and, when her work was done, retired to enjoy those intellectual and imaginative, pursuits in which