The artisans were twisting to and fro. 
  In idle-seeming convolutions; yet
  They never vanish’d with the ebbing surge,
  Till pellicle on pellicle, and layer
  On layer, was added to the growing mass. 
  Ere long the reef o’ertopt the spring-flood’s height,
  And mock’d the billows when they leapt upon it,
  Unable to maintain their slippery hold,
  And falling down in foam-wreaths round its verge. 
  Steep were the flanks, sharp precipices,
  Descending to their base in ocean gloom. 
  Chasms few, and narrow and irregular,
  Form’d harbours, safe at once and perilous,—­
  Safe for defence, but perilous to enter. 
  A sea lake shone amidst the fossil isle,
  Reflecting in a ring its cliffs and caverns,
  With heaven itself seen like a lake below.”

Montgomery’s Pelican Island.

* * * * *

THE GATHERER.

“I am but a Gatherer and disposer of other men’s stuff.”—­Wotton.

* * * * *

TAKING PHYSIC.

David Hartley eat two hundred pounds weight of soap to cure the stone, but died of that disease.  Bishop Berkeley drank a butt of tar-water.  Meyer, in a course of chemical neutralization, swallowed 1,200 pounds of crabs’ eyes.  In the German Ephemerides, the case of a person is described who had taken so much elixir of vitriol, that his keys were rusted in his pocket by the transudation of the acid through the pores of his skin; another patient is said to have taken argentum nitratum in solution till he became blue. Throw physic to the dogs!

* * * * *

MARRIAGE.

There are two cardinal points in a man’s life, which determine his happiness or his misery; these are his birth and his marriage.  It is in vain for a man to be born fortunate if he be unfortunate in his marriage.

* * * * *

PERVERSENESS OF FOREIGNERS.

“What a rum language they talk in this place!” said an English sailor the other day to his companion, who arrived a few days later than the speaker himself had done at Rochefort—­“Why, they call a cabbage a shoe—­(choux!)” “They are a d—­d set!” was the reply, “why can’t they call it a cabbage!”

* * * * *

In a newspaper, dated January 31, 1746, we find the following theatrical announcement:—­

“We are certainly informed that on Monday next, at the Theatre Royal, Drury-Lane, will be performed The Lying Valet, and that Mr. Steevens, at the particular desire of some persons of quality, is to act the part of Justice Guttle; in which character he will devour twelve pounds of plumb cake at three mouthfuls.”