Having thus communicated to you this very curious and well-authenticated fact, I submit to your superior wisdom the propriety of eucouraging the breed of woolly horses and cows. There can be no reason why the same principle should not equally apply to cats and dogs, and other domesticated animals; and perhaps some patriotic member of your society may enlarge the sphere of his researches, and try the experiment of propagating a breed of woolly men and women; the obvious utility of which is too evident to make it necessary for me to enlarge upon it.

I am, sir,

With great respect,

Your very humble servant,

AGRICOLA.

INVOCATION TO FANCY.

DAUGHTER of Memory! nurse of Hope and Fear!
Where is thy haunt? what babbling stream beside,
(While airy warblings fluctuate on thine ear,
At shadowy moonlight, or still eventide)

'Mid fractured cliffs, in wood-embosomed dell,
Doth Fancy rove the visionary scene?
Or weave wild fictions in her secret cell,

While fairy groups dance lightly round their queen ?

In such a scene, methinks, at shut of day,

I've met thee, Fancy, glimmering glens among : What time I mutter'd many a boyish lay, Lingering and listening as I mused along :

What time o'er all the yellow moonbeam slept, And willowy sighs diffused a soothing sound, ('Twas where in solitude the willows wept)

And "all was silent, listening gloom around!"

In sooth, thou art a coy, retiring maid,

And seldom deign'st with mortal wight to dwell,
Save when thy darling child, as erst he play'd
By native Avon, lured thee from thy cell.

Oh wouldst thou take me to thy magic bower!
There might I frequent meet thy fond caress!
Forget low-thoughted life, with thee to soar,
Lapt in Elysium of ideal bliss!

VIRIDIS.

FAREWELL TO FANCY.

AWAY with Fancy, and th' unhallow'd strain
Of wonders wild, and witcheries of night;
Or fabled chief, and tower of Troy profane,
Or fairy land, and dance of moonshine sprite!

I woo the flattering dreams no more.

Be mine

The secret cell, remote from clamorous fray,
Where I may muse, on river's bank recline,
With book in hand, and reverend gown of gray.

Soft shall the vision be, but not of earth;
Full well I weep, all bliss is Fancy there :
But all of heaven shall be th' ideal birth,
Celestial shapes, and spirits passing fair.

Sometimes a tear on hopeless grief I'll lose,

And mourn o'er woes my heart in vain would heal; Or meditate, perchance, the moral muse,

Show truth how fair, and teach the breast to feel.

Or, wandering forth sometimes at eventide,
Wrapt, as was Isaac erst, in sacred theme,
I'll cull my simples from the mountain's side,
Or what the hedge supplies, or what the stream.

Or visit, now and then, the humble cot,
To cheer the dying, or prolong his span ;
The poor shall know my hospitable grot,
Strew flowers around, and bless the holy man.
FLOSCULUS.

STORY OF MARINO FALIERI,

DOGE OF VENICE.

and

THE circumstances related in the following narrative (from Sismondi's History of the Italian Republics) furnished the materials of one of Lord Byron's tragedies. Marino Falieri, Doge of Venice, elected in 1354, a man of seventy-six years of age, was married to a young beautiful woman, of whom he was extravagantly jealous. His suspicions were particularly excited by Michael Steno, one of the chiefs of the forty, or the criminal tribunal, whose attentions were, however, directed, not to the wife of the doge, but one of the ladies of her household. At a public festival, on the last day of the carnival, Falieri having observed some indecorum in the manners of this woman and Steno towards each other, ordered the latter to leave the assembly. Irritated by this command, Steno, following the first impulse of indignation, inscribed upon the ducal throne, in an adjoining apartment, two lines, reflecting upon the honour of the doge, and the fidelity of his wife. To a man of Falieri's jealous disposition, this was an insult of a most deadly nature. He recognised Steno as its author, and making his complaint to the Avogadors, denounced the offender before them. He expected the council of ten to avenge his injury with exemplary severity; but the Avogadors, instead of appealing to that tribunal, referred the cause to the forty themselves, of whom Steno was president. The impulse of resentment, the excitement of a festival, the licence authorised by a mask, which the culprit wore at the time, all these circum

stances were considered as extenuations of his fault, and Steno was only condemned to a month's imprisonment. The doge, more irritated by this indulgence than by the original affront, extended his hatred and desire of vengeance, not only to the forty, who had so slightly chastised the offender, but to all the order of nobility, who had evinced so little interest in his cause. There always prevailed amongst the people of Venice a secret feeling of enmity towards that nobility, which had deprived the nation of its rights, and gained exclusive possession of the sovereignty. This animosity was redoubled by the insolence of some young patricians. They availed themselves of the impunity afforded them by powerful friends, to dishonour the families of the citizens, by the seduction of their wives and daughters, and to insult the fathers and husbands whom they had thus injured. Israel Bertuccio, a plebeian, the chief of the arsenal, had received an affront of this nature. He carried to the doge his complaints against a gentleman of the house of Barbaro. Falieri, with many expressions of unavailing compassion, assured him that he never would obtain justice. "Have not I too," said he, "received a similar insult, and has not the pretended punishment of the offender only added to my dishonour, and that of the ducal coronet?" These juridical accusations were soon succeeded by projects of vengeance. Bertuccio introduced the principal malcontents to the doge; they held meetings for many successive nights in his presence, and in the ducal palace, and fifteen plebeians pledged themselves, with Falieri, to overthrow the government. The conspirators agreed that each of them should gain over forty friends, and hold them in readiness for action the night of the 15th April, 1355. But in order to ensure secrecy, it was resolved only to tell their associates that their assistance was required, to surprise and punish, by order of the government, the young noblemen, whose profligacy had excited the indignation of the people. The alarm-bell of St. Mark's, which could only be rung by order of the doge, was to be the signal for action.

The conspirators, however, were to admit no associates, but citizens distinguished by their hatred of the nobility, in order to secure the preservation of the secret which was thus partially confided to them. At the moment when the alarm-bell sounded, they were to spread a rumour, that the Genoese fleet was before the city; to direct their course from every quarter simultaneously towards St. Mark's place, to make themselves masters of its avenues, and to massacre all the patricians as they should arrive to the assistance of the senate. All the preparations were completed, and the secret of the conspiracy had been faithfully kept till the evening before its execution, when a furrier, named Bertrand, who had been chosen as one of the leaders to conduct his forty associates, learned some details respecting the conduct required of him, which did not seem to accord with the supposed orders of the government. He immediately disclosed to Nicholas Lioni, one of the council of ten, the conspiracy in which he had been thus unconsciously involved. Neither the one nor the other suspected the doge to be at the head of the enterprise, and both instantly repaired to his presence to make the disclosure. Falieri had neither the resolution nor the presence of mind necessary to avoid betraying himself; he alternately expressed his doubts of the circumstances disclosed to him, and declared himself fully acquainted with them, and prepared for the result. This inconsistency excited the suspicions of Lioni; he quitted the doge, to consult the council of ten, and laid before them the list of conspirators, with which Bertrand had furnished him. All were arrested in their houses, by order of the council. Guards were posted in the city, at all the belfries, and at the tower of St. Mark, to prevent the alarm being sounded. Many of the conspirators were put to the torture, and from their confessions it appeared that the doge was himself at the head of the association.

The tranquillity of the city was ensured, the criminals were seized, and the doge himself was guarded in his palace; but the council of ten did not consider itself as fully authorised by the constitution to sit in judgment