“He gives the winter’s snow her airy birth,
And bids her virgin fleeces clothe the earth.” 
SANDYS.

P.T.W.

* * * * *

MONKEYS AT GIBRALTAR.

Though Gibraltar abounds with monkeys, there are none to be found in the rest of Spain; this is supposed to be occasioned by the following circumstance;—­The waters of the Propontis, which anciently might be nothing but a lake formed by the Granicus and Rhyndacus, finding it more easy to work themselves a canal by the Dardanelles than any other way, spread into the Mediterranean, and forcing a passage into the ocean between Mount Atlas and Calpe, separated the rock from the coast of Africa; and the monkeys being taken by surprise, were compelled to be carried with it over to Europe, “These animals,” says a resident at Gibraltar, “are now in high favour here.  The lieutenant-governor, General Don, has taken them under his protection, and threatened with fine and imprisonment any one who shall in any way molest them.  They have increased rapidly, of course.  Many of them are as large as our dogs; and some of the old grandfathers and great-grandfathers are considerably larger.  I had the good fortune to fall in with a family of about ten, and had an opportunity of watching for a time their motions.  There appeared to be a father and mother, four or five grown-up children, and three that had not reached the years of discretion.  One of them was still at the breast; and although he was large enough to be weaned, and indeed made his escape as rapidly as the mother when they took the alarm, it was quite impossible to restrain laughter when one saw the mother, with great gravity, sitting nursing the little elf, with her hand behind it, and the older children skipping up and down the walls, and playing all sorts of antic tricks with one another.  They made their escape with the utmost rapidity, leaping over rocks and precipices with great agility, and evidently unconscious of fear.”

W.G.C.

* * * * *

THE SELECTOR,

AND

LITERARY NOTICES OF

NEW WORKS

* * * * *

THE GREAT WORLD OF FASHION.

Satire is the pantomime of literature, and harlequin’s jacket, his black vizor, and his eel-like lubricity, are so many harmless satires on the weak sides of our nature.  The pen of the satirist is as effective as the pencil of the artist; and provided it draw well, cannot fail to prove as attractive.  Indeed, the characters of pantomime, harlequin, columbine, clown, and pantaloon, make up the best quarto that has ever appeared on the manners and follies of the times; and they may be turned to as grave an account as any page of Seneca’s Morals, or Cicero’s Disputations; however various the means, the end, or object, is the same, and all is rounded with a sleep.