Gazette Of The United States

STOCKS

The ingenious author of a "History of the Earth and Animated Nature," concludes his Description of Birds with the ensuing neat and lively sentence.

I own I cannot take leave of this most beautiful part of the creation without reluctance. These splendid inhabitants of the air possess all those qualities that can soothe the heart and cheer the fancy; the brightest colours, the roundest forms, the most active manners, and the sweetest music. In sending the imagination in pursuit of these, in following them to the chirruping grove, the creaking precipice, or the glassy deep, the mind naturally lifts itself to the sense of its own situation. and, attentive to its little spot, almost forgot the task of describing them. Innocently to amuse the imagination in the dream of life is wisdom; and nothing is more that, by furnishing mental employment, keeps it for a while in oblivion of those stronger appetites that lead to evil. But every rank and state of mankind may find something to imitate in these delicate songsters, and we may not only enjoy the music but mend our lives by the contemplation. For their courage in defence of their young, and their assiduity in incubation, the coward may learn to be brave and the rash to be patient. To inviolable attachment of some to their companions may be lessons of fidelity, and the connubial tenderness of others, be a monitor to the incontinent. Even those that are tyrants by nature never perpetrate capricious destruction; and, unlike man, never inflict pain but when urged by necessity.