e day. He
begged to be borne nearer to the action; but his sight being dimmed by
the approach of death, he entreated to be told what they who supported
him saw; he was answered that the enemy gave ground. He eagerly
repeated the question, heard the enemy was totally routed, cried, "I am
satisfied!"--and expired--_Thackeray's Life of the Earl of Chatham_.

* * * * *

SYRIAN LOOKING GLASSES.

The Damascus blades are the handsomest and best of all Syria; and it is
curious to observe their manner of burnishing them. This operation is
performed before tempering, and they have for this purpose a small piece
of wood, in which is fixed an iron, which they run up and down the
blade, and thus clear off all inequalities, as a plane does to wood:
they then temper and polish it. This polish is so highly finished, that
when any one wants to arrange his turban, he uses his sword for a
looking-glass. As to its temper it is perfect, and I have nowhere seen
swords that cut so excellently. There are made at Damascus and in the
adjoining country mirrors of steel, that magnify objects like
burning-glasses. I have seen some that, when exposed to the sun, have
reflected the heat so strongly as to set fire to a plant fifteen or
sixteen feet distant!--_Broquiere's Travels to Jerusalem in 1432._

* * * * *

AUSTRALIAN PATRIOTISM.

A young Australian, on being once asked his opinion of a splendid shop
on Ludgate-hill, replied, in a disappointed tone, "It is not equal to
_Big Cooper's_," (a store-shop in Sidney,) while Mrs. Rickards'
_Fashionable Repository_ is believed to be unrivalled, even in
Bond-street. Some of them also contrive to find out that the English
cows give _less_ milk and butter than the Australian, and the
choicest Newmarket racers possess _less_ beauty and swiftness than
_Junius_, _Modus_, _Currency Lass_, and others of Australian turf
pedigree; nay, even a young girl, when asked how she would like to go to
England, replied with great _naivete_, "I should be afraid to go,
from the _number of thieves_ there," doubtless conceiving England
to be a downright hive of such, that threw off its annual swarms to
people the wilds of this colony. Nay, the very miserable looking trees
that cast their annual coats of bark, and present to the eye of a raw
European the appearance of being actually dead, I have heard praised as
objects of incomparable beauty! and I myself,