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how short and uncertain is our life, how ridiculous therefore to be always bickering about trifles upon the journey? Can we help asking ourselves, whether our house is in order-whether, as we have enjoyed our friend's company upon earth, we are ready to follow him into an untried eternal region? Surely not. Such thoughts imperceptibly start up in our minds-let us give them a hearty welcome. When from the tomb of our friend, we turn to a monument reared by the hands of an afflicted parent over a darling son, cut off in the bloom of health and manhood, we are constrained to mingle our sighs with those of the afflicted relative, and to bow with humility to the mysterious events of Providence. When on another tomb we see the history of one, whose life was a continued scene of difficulty and distress-to whom health was a total stranger-and beyond whose reach the comforts of life were like the cup of Tantalus, always suspended, but yet never were within his grasp. We naturally reflect how happy an appointment is the grave, into which this poor wretch could enter and take refuge; where the wicked and the distresses of life cease to trouble, and where the frame of this poor man finds rest. The man who can enter a burial ground without being affected, without having his virtues matured, his disposition and conduct meliorated, must have a heart hard as adamant-callous as the flinty rock.

2d. Monumental spectacles tend to turn our thoughts to religion. Seeing, from the inscriptions of the tombs, death to be the lot of all, we naturally ask, is there no method of escaping? Or, can * we not turn to our advantage this doom which we cannot avoid? MEN should be thankful; this question by them can easily be answered. They know the grave is only a passage from this world

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to a better; that although here there is much difference of rank and opulence; that there, in that respect, all distinction ceases. They know, that unless the rich man has used his talents to advantage, the fretted vault which contains his corpse, and the monument erected with curious workmanship, to shew the rank of the possessor, will nought avail to soften the condemnation of a righteous God! On the other hand, they have the pleasure of reflecting, that the poor man, who has not a stone to tell where he lies, provided his alms and his prayers have gone up as a memorial before God, will be enriched with unfading honours. Can we possess such delightful intelligence without frequently dwelling upon it with rapture and delight?

3d. Monuments points to the evanescent nature of all earthly materials. The grassy hillock shews us human frailty, by telling us that it encloses a lifeless corpse, which once was an animated body. But the monument erected by survivors, to extend a little longer the memory of their departed friend, goes much further; and says, with emphatic language, not merely buman flesh and blood, but stocks and stones themselves, must yield to all conquering time. When the pyramid, or mausoleum, is first erected, it seems to tell the traveller its business is to perpetuate the memory of one deceased, and, that in spite of time and destruction, it will fulfil its duty; but a few revolving years shew its incapacity for its office. The hand of time gradually erases the name which was inscribed and the proud .memento at last sinks into oblivion.

Lastly. Monuments are tokens of respect from survivors towards their deceased relations. Every nation has some mode peculiar to itself of paying respect to its deceased members. In some places they innocently adorn the graves with flowers-in

others the bodies are burnt, but the ashes are carefully preserved. And I see no reason why we should abolish a custom seemingly innate in the human breast. To carry our friend to his grave, or otherwise to dispose of him, is what we must do, or else he would soon be disgustful: to leave him without a memorial is what we may do, but it would be disgraceful-it is, in fact, telling the world that we cared no more for our friend after he could do no more for us-but to place a neat tomb-stone over his grave, informing the passenger that we respected the departed person for his virtues, not from self-interest, it protests, that if wealth could have brought back his spirit, we would chearfully have resigned it; but since it cannot effect his return, we will pay him his last merited respect. It bespeaks gratitude and veneration on the part of relicts; and assures future generations in the best characters we have in our possession

That such men were,

And were most precious to us.

Hackney,

8th January, 1801.

7. F.

THE KING'S PLUME, OR AIGRETTTE.

THE HE magnificent plume worn by his majesty at St. James's, on the birth-day, is a present from the Grand Seignior, and arrived from Constantinople only in the course of the preceding week. An ornament of such extraordinary beauty, novelty, and splendour, attracted every eye, and hence we are enabled to present a description of it, which may be relied on as faithful, being the result of the combined observations of many who had an oppor

tunity, on that brilliant occasion, of examining it with minute and fixed attention.

Rising from the hat, to which it is affixed, the first part intended to meet the eye is a knot of brilliants, composed in a style of elegant simplicity. This serves as a root or basis from which the principal stems and supporters of the ornament, consisting of sprigs of laurel, and spiral branches of diamonds, spring up. A little above the knot is a superb crescent of brilliants, remarkable for their size and the fineness of their quality. Out of it rise five spiral branches of the same materials, and between each a sprig of laurel composed of diamonds. reaching to the same height as the spires; from the top of each branch is suspended a string of six diamonds as large as a pea; the fashion Indian cut drops; and beneath the crescent, strings of diamond, similar in quality and construction, and of the same number as those above, hang down from each of the exterior stems.

On each side of the crescent are two flags representing the colours of England and Turkey.-The English flag on each side is in front, and the Turkish appears on the back ground. The colours are represented by pink and plain diamonds; the standards are confined by a knot of small pink brilliants.

Over the flags and on the centre is the Imperial Crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland executed in small brilliants, with the most perfect accuracy and strict attention to the minutiæ of heraldry.

From the back of that part of the ornament which we have been just describing, springs up a bunch of heron's feathers. They are perfectly straight, not quite so broad as the ordinary feathers of a cock's tail, and about twelve inches long.

The colour is black, which is esteemed the most rare, and is peculiarly adapted to the display of the brilliants, for which, when viewed in some directions, they appear as a ground.

From thence it appears, that this ornament, an unique in magnificence, is a composition of parts of very different nature, comprising the plume, the cheling, and the bouquet. In this structure, the part immediately connected with the crescent is the bouquet, or, as this splendid article is called in Turkey, the Ottoman; and the crescent is designed as a basket, in which its beauties are arranged and unfolded.

The bunch of heron's feathers alone is estimated at 1000l. owing not so much to the scarcity of that bird, as the circumstance of its having only two such feathers in its plumage. The plume contains about an hundred of them. Of the value of the whole ornament we are not capable of forming an opinion, as, exclusive of the plume, it is composed entirely of jewellery, consisting of brilliants and diamonds of the first class and fine

ness.

LAVATER,

HE celebrated physiognomist, who lately died Tat Zurich, has been, for many years, one of

the most famous men in Europe.

He was an humble country clergyman of good education, a warm fancy, and a natural acuteness of discernment. His perspicuity of intelligence was associated with weakness of sensibility and imagination, not a little akin to those of J. J. Rousseau.

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