The tumult is not confined to the family concerned, but catches from yard to yard, and spreads to every homestead within hearing, till at last the whole village is in an uproar. As soon as a hen becomes a mother her new relation demands a new language; she then runs clucking and screaming about, and seems agitated, as if possessed. The father of the flock has also a considerable vocabulary; if he finds food, he calls a favourite concubine to partake; and if a bird of prey passes over, with a warning voice he bids his family beware. The gallant chanticleer has, at command, his amorous phrases and his terms of defiance. But the sound by which he is best known is his crowing; by this he has been distinguished in all ages as the countryman's clock or larum, as the watchman that proclaims the divisions of the night. A neighbouring gentleman one summer had lost most of his chickens by a sparrow-hawk, that came gliding down between a faggot pile and the end of his house, to the place where the coops stood. The owner, inwardly vexed to see his flock thus diminishing, hung a setting net adroitly between the pile and the house, into which the caitif dashed, and was entangled. Resentment suggested the law of retaliation; he therefore clipped the hawk's wings, cut off his talons, and, fixing a cork on his bill, threw him down among the brood-hens. Imagination cannot paint the scene that ensued; the expressions that fear, rage, and revenge, inspired, were new, or at least such as had been unnoticed before : the exasperated matrons upbraided, they execrated, they insulted, they triumphed. In a word, they never desisted from buffeting their adversary till they had torn him in a hundred pieces. AN ENGLISH WONDER OF COLD AND SNOW. There were some circumstances attending the remarkable frost in January, 1776, so singular and striking, that a short detail of them may not be unacceptable. The first week in January was uncommonly wet, and drowned with vast rains from every quarter: from whence it may be inferred, as there is great reason to believe is the case, that intense frosts seldom take place till the earth is perfectly glutted and chilled with water; and hence dry autumns are seldom followed by rigorous winters. January 7th.Snow driving all the day, which was followed by frost, sleet, and some snow, till the 12th, when a prodigious mass overwhelmed all the works of men, drifting over the tops of the gates, and filling the hollow lanes. On the 14th the writer was obliged to be much abroad, and thinks he never before, or since, has encountered such rugged Siberian weather. Many of the narrow roads were now filled above the tops of the hedges; through which the snow was driven into most romantic and grotesque shapes, so striking to the imagination, as not to be seen without wonder and pleasure. The poultry dared not to stir out of their roosting places; for cocks and hens are so dazzled and confounded by the glare of snow that they would soon perish without assistance. The hares also lay sullenly in their seats, and would not move till compelled by hunger; being conscious, poor animals, that the drifts and heaps treacherously betray their footsteps, and prove fatal to numbers of them. From the 14th the snow continued to increase, and began to stop the road waggons, and coaches, which could no longer keep on their regular stages: more especially on the western roads, where the fall appears to have been deeper than in the south. The company at Bath, that wanted to attend the Queen's birthday, were strangely incommoded: the carriages of many persons, who got in their way to town from Bath as far as Marlborough, after strange embarrassments, here met with a ne plus ultra. The ladies fretted, and offered large rewards to labourers if they would shovel them a track to London but the relentless heaps of snow were too bulky to be removed; and so the 18th passed over, leaving the company in very uncomfortable circumstances at the Castle and other inns. On the 22d the author had occasion to go to London through a sort of Laplandian scene, very wild and grotesque indeed. But the metropolis itself exhibited a still more singular appearance than the country; for being bedded deep in snow, the pavement of the streets could not be touched by the wheels or the horses' feet, so that the carriages ran about without the least noise. Such an exemption from din and clatter was strange, but not pleasant; it seemed to convey an uncomfortable idea of desolation: [GOTTHOLD EPHRAIM LESSING, poet and dramatist, was born at Camenz, Silesia, January 22, 1729; died at Brunswick, February 15, 1781. He was educated at the Fürstenschule of Meissen; studied theology at Leipsic, 1746-1748; and worked as a journalist and critic in Berlin, 1748-1752. Meanwhile he became deeply interested in the drama, published several successful plays, and in 1767 was made official playwright, and director of the Hamburg theater. From 1770 until his death he was librarian of the ducal library at Wolfenbüttel. The comedy" Minna von Barnhelm " (1765) was the first national drama of Germany, and the tragedy "Emilia Galotti" (1772) is considered his dramatic masterpiece, but the noble philosophic drama "Nathan the Wise" (1779) is the only one that lives. His masterpiece, however, is "Laocoön" (1766), a short fragment on the principles of art, which has been, and still is, of world-wide influence. His other works are: "Wolfenbüttelsche Fragmente" (1777), "Anti-Goerze" (1778), "Die Erziehung des Menschengeschlechts" (1780), and "Ernst und Falk" (1778-1780).] Scene: SALADIN's Palace. SALADIN and SITTAH his sister. Sittah Saladin His caravans through every desert toil, But come what may, let him be Jew or not, You would not, sister, take his wealth by force? By force? What mean you? Fire and sword? Oh no! But their own weakness? Saladin Sittah Bring the Jew here, as soon as he arrives. You look as if some contest were at hand. Saladin Sittah Saladin Sittah Saladin Sittah Ay! and with weapons I'm not used to wield. But paltry things, despised too much, are sure "Tis true! Your difficulty ceases; for a snare Implies an avaricious, cheating Jew, Why, then, And not an upright man. Then he is ours Without a snare. "Twill give us joy to hear How such a man will speak with what stern strength True, Sittah! 'twill afford me rare delight. Saladin Sittah What, then, need trouble you? For if he be, So I must, then, Sittah, I fear such fine-wrought filigree Oh, brother, have more courage in yourself! "Tis of the fellowship he feels ashamed, But of the cunning, never. Well, 'tis strange That women so delight to bring mankind Sittah- Sittah Saladin Saladin You did not mean to stay? Must I go? No, not with you, What! to listen? But in this neighb'ring chamber. Not so, my sister, if I shall succeed. Away! the curtain rustles he is come. Beware of lingering! I'll be on the watch. [While SITTAH retires through one door, NATHAN Cters at another, and SALADIN seats himself. SALADIN, NATHAN. Draw nearer, Jew-yet nearer - close to me! Fear, Sultan, 's for your foes. Nathan |