THE MAGAZINE 



OF 



NATURAL HISTORY- 



JANUARY, 1833. 



ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 



Art. I. Chit-chat. No. II. By John F. M. Dovaston, Esq. A.M., 

 of Westfelton, near Shrewsbury. 



" So water, trembling in a polish'd vase, 

 Reflects the beam that plays upon its face ; 

 The sportive light, uncertain where it falls, 

 Now strikes the roof, now flashes on the walls." 



Virgil. JEn. viii. 22. &c, trans. 



Scene — The library ', Westfelton. Time — After dinner. 



Dovaston and Von Osdat. 



Dovaston. 

 Stormy and loud, the wind roars among the labouring woods, 

 and howls through the trees in gigantic harmonies. 



Von Os. With now and then a double diapason in the 

 chimney-tunnels ; as though Polypheme of capacious mouth 

 accompanied the hailstone chorus over his Pan's-pipe of stu- 

 pendous reeds. 



Dov. I hope he will not cut any of them down to concert 

 pitch. 



Von Os. While here we sit snug and cheery ; a good fire 

 blazing beside us ; good liquor, nuts, and fruits, before us ; 

 and around us, in mute but intellectual array, multitudes of 

 the Mighty Dead. 



Dov. The Living, rather. Often when alone, I imagine a 

 Library like a cozie corner of Elysium ; where a select assembly 

 of the fanciful, the philosophic, the enlightened, and the 

 learned condescendingly administer to the instruction or 

 amusement of their less-gifted guests. 



Vol. VI.— No. 31. b 



