THE MAGAZINE 



OF 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



MARCH, 1832. 



ORDINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 



Art. I. Fairy Rings. By John F. M. Dovaston, Esq. A.M., 

 of Westfeiton, near Shrewsbury. 



" 'T is very pregnant, 

 The jewel that we find, we stoop and take it. 

 Because we see it ; but what we do not see, 

 We tread upon, and never think of it." 



Measure for Measure. 



Sir, 

 The fair authoress of The Mummy well and wisely observes 

 that " There is an invincible feeling implanted by nature in 

 the mind of man, which makes him shudder with disgust at 

 any thing that invades her laws." To such who study and 

 esteem her laws, there cannot be a truth more triumphant. 

 Yet the unthinking mind of man not only indulges in, but 

 doats on, mysteries without meaning, and superstitions with- 

 out support. Some of these, indeed, in themselves innocent, 

 have, by the genius of poets, been made the vehicles of ele- 

 gant amusement, and allegorical instruction ; while others, 

 dismal and diabolical, have, by the cuiming of bigots, become 

 predatory on society, and blasphemous to Heaven. There is 

 a perverse propensity in unenlightened minds to embrace the 

 incomprehensible, and reject the obvious ; and millions at this 

 moment implicitly believe in Nixon's Prophecies, and those 

 of Moore's Almanack^ who smile with coarse incredulity at 



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