the Legislature at its
late memorable session. The Assembly, at this epoch, was unusually
well-informed, and, having passed many other wise and wholesome
enactments, it crowned all with the Cat-Act. In its original form, this
law offered a premium for cat-heads (fourpence a-piece), but the Senate
succeeded in amending the main clause, so as to substitute the word
"tails" for "heads." This amendment was so obviously proper, that the
House concurred in it nem. con.

As soon as the governor had signed the bill, I invested my whole estate
in the purchase of Toms and Tabbies. At first I could only afford to
feed them upon mice (which are cheap), but they fulfilled the scriptural
injunction at so marvellous a rate, that I at length considered it my
best policy to be liberal, and so indulged them in oysters and turtle.
Their tails, at a legislative price, now bring me in a good income; for
I have discovered a way, in which, by means of Macassar oil, I can force
three crops in a year. It delights me to find, too, that the animals
soon get accustomed to the thing, and would rather have the appendages
cut off than otherwise. I consider myself, therefore, a made man, and am
bargaining for a country seat on the Hudson.

THE LANDSCAPE GARDEN

The garden like a lady fair was cut
That lay as if she slumbered in delight,
And to the open skies her eyes did shut;
The azure fields of heaven were 'sembled right
In a large round set with flow'rs of light:
The flowers de luce and the round sparks of dew
That hung upon their azure leaves, did show
Like twinkling stars that sparkle in the ev'ning blue.
--GILES FLETCHER

NO MORE remarkable man ever lived than my friend, the young Ellison. He
was remarkable in the entire and continuous profusion of good gifts ever
lavished upon him by fortune. From his cradle to his grave, a gale of
the blandest prosperity bore him along. Nor do I use the word Prosperity
in its mere wordly or external sense. I mean it as synonymous with
happiness. The person of whom I speak, seemed born for the purpose
of foreshadowing the wild doctrines of Turgot, Price, Priestley, and
Condorcet--of exemplifying, by individual instance, what has been
deemed the mere chimera of the perfectionists. In the brief existence
of Ellison, I fancy, that I have seen refuted the dogma--that in
man's physical and spiritual nature, lies some hidden principle, the
antagon