* * * *

FORTIFICATION.

The walls of Tenchira, in Africa, form one of the most perfect remaining
specimens of ancient fortification. They are a mile and a half in
circuit, defended by 26 quadrangular towers, and admitting no entrance
but by two opposite gates.

* * * * *

MEDIOCRITY, in poetry, is intolerable to gods and to booksellers, and to
all intermediate beings.

* * * * *

SONNET TO THE CAMELLA JAPONICA.

BY W. ROSCOE, ESQ.

Say, what impels me, pure and spotless flower,
To view thee with a secret sympathy?
--Is there some living spirit shrined in thee?
That, as thou bloom'st within my humble bower,
Endows thee with some strange, mysterious
power,
Waking high thoughts?--As there perchance
might be
Some angel-form of truth and purity,
Whose hallowed presence shared my lonely hour?
--Yes, lovely flower, 'tis not thy virgin glow,
Thy petals whiter than descending snow,
Nor all the charms thy velvet folds display;
'Tis the soft image of some beaming mind,
By grace adorn'd, by elegance refin'd,
That o'er my heart thus holds its silent sway.

_The Winter's Wreath._

* * * * *

PIGS.

One day when Giotto, the painter, was taking his Sunday walk, in his
best attire, with a party of friends, at Florence, and was in the midst
of a long story, some pigs passed suddenly by, and one of them, running
between the painter's legs, threw him down. When he got on his legs
again, instead of swearing a terrible oath at the pig on the Lord's day,
as a graver man might have done, he observed, laughing, "People say
these beasts are stupid, but they seem to me to have some sense of
justice, for I have earned several thousands of crowns with their
bristles, but I never gave one of them even a ladleful of soup in my
life."--_Lanzi._

* * * * *

TURKISH FIREMEN.

The firemen of Constantinople are accused of sometimes discharging oil
from their engines instead of water.

* * * * *

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

* * * * *

FLIES.

Cruelty to animals is a subject which has deservedly attracted
parliamentary investigation. It is not beneath the dignity of a
Christian legislator to prevent the unneces