He rests not here;-thy soul's delight
Attends where'er thy footsteps tread;
He watches in the depths of night,
A guardian angel round thy bed,
And still a father, fondly kind,

Loves the dear pledge he left behind;

Behold that pledge!-then cease thy tears to flow,
And in the mother's love forget the widow's wo.

PLANTING A NAIL IN HUAHINE.

WE have been told that the first nail ever seen in this island was taken from a boat at Raiatea. It was a spike-nail, and brought hither by its fortunate possessor as something of rare value. And so it proved, for he made no small gain by lending it out for hire, to canoe-builders, to bore holes in the sides of their planks. Afterwards, another lucky fellow got hold of a nail, and not knowing how such a thing came into existence, he shrewdly conjectured that it must have been formed by a process of vegetation. Wherefore, to propagate so valuable an exotic, he planted his nail in the ground, but waited in vain for the blade, the bud, the blossom, and the fruit. This man is still living, and has not heard the last of his speculation; being often reminded, to his no small chagrin, of the folly by which he acquired at least one piece of knowledge.

MODE OF MAKING CANOES IN THE SANDWICH

ISLANDS.

In the afternoon, as we were walking round the head of the beautiful harbour, we observed a man and woman stitching together the parts of a canoe, which had been previously shapen from planks of the bread-fruit, and fitted together. The thread used for this purpose is called nape by the natives; by the English, cinet. It is prepared from the fibres of the cocoa-nut husk, and platted into small cords, remarkable for strength and durability. Holes are bored, two and two, about an inch apart, with two feet distance between each two; these, in the pieces to be fastened together, being opposite each other, and wide enough to allow the cinet to be drawn three or four times through. The couple whom we saw at work, proceeded very deliberately; when the cinet was passed through a hole, it was pulled tight by means of a short stick, whereby a strong purchase was obtained; and while this was employed on one side, a stone was used on the other, to beat the cord flat, that it might lie close. A peg was then driven into the hole, to keep it from slackening, till another stitch had been taken; and the work was secured after the last stich in the same way by a pin, that filled up the hole, and wedged the end fast. In this

manner the largest canoes are built, or rather are manufactured; the numerous pieces of which they consist, being compactly held together by this kind of thread, which lasts as long as the timber itself, however exposed to the changes of weather, action of water, and ordinary wear and The joints are made to correspond as exactly as possible before the parts are sewed together, and they are afterwards caulked with the shorter fibres of the cocoa husk.

tear.

SIR WILLIAM JONES.

THE events of a man's life have frequently taken their first tinge from accident. On sitting one day near a pear tree in the yard of the boarding-house at Harrow, where he was at school, some of the fruit fell off, and there was a general scramble of the boys that were near the tree for it; poor young Jones had his thigh broke in the press, and was directly conveyed to bed, where he lay for a long time, and contracted a love of reading from the books that were brought to amuse him.

In the apprehension of modern times, Petrarch is the Italian songster of Laura and love. In the harmony of his Tuscan rhymes, Italy applauds, or rather adores the father of her lyric poetry; and his verse, or at least his name, is repeated by the enthusiasm or affectation of amorous sensibility. Whatever may be the private taste of a stranger, his slight and superficial knowledge should humbly acquiesce in the taste of a learned nation: yet I may hope or presume, that the Italians do not compare the tedious uniformity of sonnets and

P

elegies with the sublime compositions of their epic muse, the original wildness of Dante, the regular beauties of Tasso, and the boundless variety of the incomparable Ariosto.

In the eyes of Petrarch, and those of his graver contemporaries, his Italian verse was a frivolous amusement. His Latin works of philosophy, poetry and eloquence, established his serious reputation, which was soon diffused from Avignon over France and Italy: his friends and disciples were multiplied in every city; and if the ponderous volume of his writings be now abandoned to a long repose, our gratitude must applaud the man, who, by precept and example, revived the spirit and study of the Augustan age.

From his earliest youth, Petrarch aspired to the poetic crown. The academical honours of the three faculties had introduced a royal degree of doctor or master in the art of poetry; and the title of poet laureat, which custom, rather than vanity, perpetuates in the English court, was first invented by the Cæsars of Germany. In the musical games of antiquity, a prize was bestowed on the victor: the belief that Virgil and Horace had been crowned in the capitol inflamed the emulation of a Latin bard; and the laurel was endeared to the lover by a verbal resemblance with the name of his mistress.

The value of either object was enhanced by the difficulties of the pursuit; and if the virtue or pru