."

* * * * *

LONDON.

_Literally translated from a Chinese Poem, by a Chinese who visited England
in 1813._

The towering edifices rise story above story,
In all the stateliness of splendid mansions:
Railings of iron thickly stud the sides of every entrance;
And streams from the river circulate through the walls;
The sides of each apartment are variegated with devices;
Through the windows of glass appear the scarlet hangings.
And in the street itself is presented a beautiful scene;
The congregated buildings have all the aspect of a picture.

In London, about the period of the ninth moon,
The inhabitants delight in travelling to a distance;
They change their abodes and betake themselves to the country,
Visiting their friends in their rural retreats.
The prolonged sound of carriages and steeds is heard through the day;
Then in autumn the prices of provisions fall,
And the greater number of dwellings being untenanted,
Such as require it are repaired and adorned.

The spacious streets are exceedingly smooth and level,
Each being crossed by others at intervals;
On either side perambulate men and females,
In the centre, career along the carriages and horses;
The mingled sound of voices is heard in the shops at evening.
During midwinter the accumulated snows adhere to the pathway,
Lamps are displayed at night along the street sides,
Their radiance twinkling like the stars of the sky.

* * * * *

Mozart was _rather vain_ of the proportion of his hands and feet--but not
of having written the Requiem or the Don Juan.

* * * * *

BURMESE DIGNITY.

Mr. Crawfurd, in his account of the _Embassy to Ava_, relates the following
specimen of the dignity of a Burmese minister. While sitting under an
awning on the poop of the steam vessel, a heavy squall, with rain, came
on.--"I suggested to his excellency the convenience of going below, which
he long resisted, under the apprehension of committing his dignity by
placing himself in a situation where persons might tread over his head, for
this singular antipathy is common both to the Burmese and Siamese. The
prejudice is more especially directed against the fair sex; a pretty
conclusive proof of the estimation in which they are held. His excellency
seriously demanded to know whether any woman had ever trod upon the poop;
and