He laughed when I told him that having heard him so often declaim against vanity, and detect it so often in his friends, I began to suspect he knew the malady by having had it himself, and that I had observed through life, that those persons who had the most vanity were the most severe against that failing in their friends.  He wished to impress upon me that he was not vain, and gave various proofs to establish this; but I produced against him his boasts of swimming, his evident desire of being considered more un homme de societe than a poet, and other little examples, when he laughingly pleaded guilty, and promised to be more merciful towards his friends.

Byron attempted to be gay, but the effort was not successful, and he wished us good night with a trepidation of manner that marked his feelings.  And this is the man that I have heard considered unfeeling!  How often are our best qualities turned against us, and made the instruments for wounding us in the most vulnerable part, until, ashamed of betraying our susceptibility, we affect an insensibility we are far from possessing, and, while we deceive others, nourish in secret the feelings that prey only on our own hearts!

—­New Monthly Magazine.

* * * * *

THE GATHERER.

Canary Birds.—­In Germany and the Tyrol, from whence the rest of Europe is principally supplied with Canary birds, the apparatus for breeding Canaries is both large and expensive.  A capacious building is erected for them, with a square space at each end, and holes communicating with these spaces.  In these outlets are planted such trees as the birds prefer.  The bottom is strewed with sand, on which are cast rapeseed, chickweed, and such other food as they like.  Throughout the inner compartment, which is kept dark, are placed bowers for the birds to build in, care being taken that the breeding birds are guarded from the intrusion of the rest.  Four Tyrolese usually take over to England about sixteen hundred of these birds; and though they carry them on their backs nearly a thousand miles, and pay twenty pounds for them originally, they can sell them at 5_s_. each.

Braithwaite’s Steam Fire Engine—­will deliver about 9,000 gallons of water per hour to an elevation of 90 feet.  The time of getting the machine into action, from the moment of igniting the fuel, (the water being cold,) is 18 minutes.  As soon as an alarm is given, the fire is kindled, and the bellows, attached to the engine, are worked by hand.  By the time the horses are harnessed in, the fuel is thoroughly ignited, and the bellows are then worked by the motion of the wheels of the engine.  By the time of arriving at the fire, preparing the hoses, &c. the steam is ready.

Fisher, bishop of Rochester, was accustomed to style his church his wife, declaring that he would never exchange her for one that was richer.  He was a zealous adherent of Pope Paul III. who created him a cardinal.  The king, Henry VIII., on learning that Fisher would not refuse the dignity, exclaimed, in a passion, “Yea! is he so lusty?  Well, let the pope send him a hat when he will.  Mother of God! he shall wear it on his shoulders, for I will leave him never a head to set it on.”