days of his death. During the latter part of his life, his mind was often disordered; yet at times it appeared to have resumed its full vigor, and he composed several songs, choruses, &c. From October 1758, his health declined very fast, and his appetite, which had been remarkably keen, failed. On the 6th April, 1759, his last oratorio was performed, at which he was present, and he died on the 14th. On the 20th he was buried in Westminister Abbey, where a monument was erected to his memory. With regard to his character, he was a great epicure; in his temper he was very haughty, but was never guilty of mean actions. His pride was uniform; he was not by turns a tyrant and a slave. He appears to have had a most extravagant love for independence; insomuch, that he would, for the sake of liberty, do things the most prejudicial to his own interest. He was liberal even when poor, and did not forget his former friends when he was rich. His musical powers are best expressed by Arbuthnot's reply to Pope, who seriously asked his opinion of him as a musician: "Conceive (said he) the highest you can of his abilities, and they are much beyond any thing you can conceive.”

NATURAL HISTORY OF THE GOLDEN EAGLE.

This bird is in length about three feet nine inches, and in breadth, eight spans. The bill is very strong, sharp, and crooked. The eye has four lids to cover or guard it from excessive light, and external injuries. The toes are covered with scales, and the claws are exceedingly strong and formidable. This bird is found in the mountainous parts of Ireland, where its fierceness has been observed to be so great as to attack a cat, dog, sheep, &c. It laying seldom more than two eggs, shows that Providence thus prevents too large an increase of what may prove offensive, if not destructive to the possessions of mankind. Some of these birds have been found in Wales.

The male engages in the maintenance of the young for the first three months, when the female undertakes and continues in this employment until the brood are capable of providing for themselves. The eagle flies the highest of all birds, and is therefore called the bird of Heaven. Bochart asserts, that it lives a century, and that they increase in bulk until the period of their death. Such is their thirst for rapine and slaughter, that they never drink any

other liquid but blood, unless they are sick. This king of birds is said to have only the swan among his subjects who dare resist him. All the others, and even the dragon, tremble at his terrific cry. Not contented with preying on birds, and the smaller beasts, the eagle will plunge into seas, lakes, and rivers, for fish. His sight is more acute than that of any other bird. He carries the young on his back to secure them from the fowler. His feathers are renovated every ten years, which greatly increases his vigor, as expressed in the beautiful simile of David, "Thy youth shall be renewed like that of the eagle." The eagle that would not quit the corpse of Pyrrhus, who had brought him up from a nestling, evinces this bird is capable of attachment and gratitude.

There are sixteen other sorts of eagles, namely, the sun eagle, bald eagle, ring eagle, black eagle, the osprey bird, crowned eagle, common cagle, white eagle, rough-footed eagle, emu, juan le blanc, Brazilian eagle, Oroonoko eagle, eagle of Pondicherry, Morpnas or Conguror eagle, Voltusine eagle.

WONDERFUL CONSTRUCTION OF THE EYE.

The eye infinitely surpasses all the works of the industry of man. Its formation is the most astonishing thing the human understanding has been able to acquire a perfect knowledge of. The most skilful artist could imagine no machine of that kind which would not be much inferior to what we observe in the eye. Whatever sagacity or industry he might have, he could execute nothing which would not have the imperfections necessarily belonging to the works of man. We cannot, it is true, perceive clearly the whole art of divine wisdom in the formation of this fine organ; but the little we do know is sufficient to convincé us of the infinite wisdom, goodness, and power of our Creator. The most essential point is for us to make use of this knowledge, weak as it is, to magnify the name of the Most High.

In the first place, the disposition of the external parts of the eye is admirable. With what intrenchment, what defence, the Creator has provided our eyes! They are placed in the head at a certain depth, and surrounded with hard and solid bones, that they may not easily be hurt. The eye-brows contribute also very much to the safety and preservation of this organ. Those hairs which form an arch over the eyes prevent drops of sweat, dust, or such things, falling from the forehead into them. The eye-lids are

another security; and also, by closing in our sleep, they prevent the light from disturbing our rest. The eye-lashes still add to the perfection of the eyes. They save us from a too strong light, which might offend us; and they guard us from the smallest dust, which might otherwise hurt the sight. The internal make of the eye is still more admirable. The whole eye is composed of coats, of humors, of muscles, and veins. The tunica, or exterior membrane, which is called cornea, is transparent, and so hard, that it can resist the roughest shocks. Behind that there is another within, which they call uvea, and which is circular and colored. In the middle of it there is an opening, which is called the pupil, and which appears black. Behind this opening is the crystal, which is perfectly transparent, of a lenticular figure, and composed of several little flakes very thin, and arranged one over another. Underneath the crystal there is a moist and transparent substance, which they call the glassy humor, because it resembles melted glass. The cavity, or the hinder chamber, between the cornea and the crystal, contains a moist humor, and liquid as water, for that reason called the watery humor. It can recruit itself when it has run out from a wound in the cornea. Six muscles, admirably well placed, move the eye on all sides, raise it, lower it, turn it to the right or left, obliquely, or round about, as occasion requires. What is most admirable is the retina, a membrane which lines the inside bottom of the eye. It is nothing but a web of little fibres extremely fine, fastened to a nerve or sinew which comes from the brain, and is called the optic nerve. It is in the retina that the vision is formed, because the objects paint themselves at the bottom of the eye on that tunica: and though the images of exterior objects are painted upside down on the retina, they are still seen - in their true position. Now, in order to form an idea of the extreme `minuteness of this picture, we need only consider, that the space of half a mile, that is to say, of more than eleven hundred yards, when it is represented in the bottom of the eye, makes but the tenth part of an inch.

I return thee thanks, O Lord God, for having formed my eye in so wonderful a manner. My soul acknowledges thy infinite power, goodness, and wisdom. Hitherto I had not considered my eyes as I should have done, that is, as a master-piece of thy hands, and as a demonstrative proof, that even the most minute parts of my body are not the work of chance, and that thou hast formed them for most useful purposes. Surely I am a faint image and likeness of THYSELF!

AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES.

BARROWS.

The various artificial hillocks or mounts, met with in many parts of the world, intended as repositories for the dead, are denominated, in ancient topography, Barrows. They are formed either of stones heaped up, or of earth. Of the latter, Dr. Plott takes notice of two sorts in Oxfordshire, England: one placed on the military ways; the other in the fields, meadows, or woods; the first sort doubtless of Roman erection, the other more probably erected by Britons or Danes. Monuments of this kind are also very frequent in Scotland. On digging into the barrows, urns have been found in some of them, made of calcined earth, and containing burnt bones and ashes; in others, stone chests containing bones and ashes; in others, bones neither lodged in chests nor deposited in urns. These tumuli are round, not greatly elevated, and generally, at their basis, surrounded with a foss. Some are formed of earth alone, others of stone covered with earth. In the former was found a coffin, made of six flat stones. They are too short to receive a body at full length: the skeletons found in them lie with the knees prest to the breasts, and the legs doubled along the thighs. On some of the corpses interred in Scotland, marks of burning were observed. The ashes, deposited in an urn which was covered on the top with a flat stone, have been found in a cell of one of the barrows. This coffin or cell was placed on the ground, then covered with a heap of stones, and that again cased with earth and sods. Both barrow and contents evince them to be of a different age from the former. These tumuli were in the nature of family vaults; and in them have been found two tiers of coffins. This practice appears to have been common both to Greece and Rome, and to have prevailed in a very early period of the world. Instances of this sort of interment are recorded by Homer, as well as by the Roman historians, who seem to have buried their deceased heroes in the same manner as the ancient Caledonians did theirs.

But barrows have not been peculiar to the old world. They are also found in great numbers in America. These are of different sizes, according to Mr. Jefferson's account; some of them constructed of earth, and some of loose stones. That they were repositories of the dead is obvious; but on what particular occa

so on.

sion constructed, is matter of doubt. Some have thought they covered the bones of those who have fallen in battle, fought on the spot of interment. Some ascribed them to the custom, said to prevail among the Indians, of collecting, at certain periods, the bones of all their dead, wheresoever deposited at the time of· death. Others again supposed them the general sepulchres for towns, conjectured to have been on or near these grounds; and this opinion was supported by the quality of the lands in which they are found, (those constructed of earth being generally in the softest and most fertile meadow grounds on river sides) and by a tradition said to be handed down from the aboriginal Indians, that when they settled in a town, the first person who died was placed erect, and earth put about him, so as to cover and support him; that when another died, a narrow passage was dug to the first, the second reclined against him, and the cover of earth replaced, and "There being one of these barrows in my neighborhood, (says Mr. Jefferson) I wished to satisfy myself whether any, and which of these opinions were just. For this purpose I determined to open and examine it thoroughly. It was situated on the low grounds of the Ravina, about two miles above its principal fork, and opposite to some hills, on which had been an Indian town. It was of a spheroidical form, of about forty feet diameter at the base, and had been of about twelve feet altitude, though now reduced by the plough to seven and a half, having been under cultivation about a dozen years. Before this it was covered with trees of twelve inches diameter, and round the base was an excavation of five feet depth and width, from whence the earth had been taken, of which the hillock was formed. I first dug superficially in several parts of it, and came to collections of human bones, at different depths, from six inches to three feet below the surface. These were lying in the utmost confusion, some vertical, some oblique, some horizontal, and directed to every point of the compass, entangled, and held together in clusters by the earth. Bones of the most distant parts were found together; as, for instance, the small bones of the foot in the hollow of a skull; many skulls would sometimes be in contact, lying on the face, on the side, on the back, top, or bottom, so as, on the whole, to give the idea of bones emptied promiscuously from a bag or basket, and covered over with earth, without any attention to their order. The bones of which the greatest numbers remained, were skulls, jaw-bones, teeth, the bones of the arms, thighs, legs, feet, and hands. A few ribs remained, some