No. 10. 



Beautiful Eulogium on a Wife. — Crows. 



315 



Beautiful Eulogium on a Wife. 



The celebrated Sir James Mackintosh, the 

 well-known English historian, who proves 

 himself in this instance, to have been no 

 less a chronicler of the heart's best affec- 

 tions than a writer of political facts, in a 

 letter to one of his learned friends, presents 

 the following beautiful delineation of the 

 character of his deceased wife — a woman, 

 who, from her husband's representation, 

 must have been such a one as the poet 

 Wordsworth described, when he wrote of 



" A perfect woman, nobly planned, 

 To warn, to comfort and command ; 

 And yet a spirit, still and bright, 

 With something of an angel light." 



"Allow me, in justice to her memory," 

 writes Sir James, "to tell you what she 

 was, and what I owed her. I was guided 

 in my choice only by the blind affection of 

 my youth, and might have formed a connec- 

 tion in which a short-lived passion would 

 have been followed by repentance and dis- 

 gust; but I found an intelligent companion, 

 a tender friend, a prudent monitress, the 

 most faithful wife, and as dear a mother as 

 ever children had the misfortune to lose. 

 Had I married a woman who was easy or 

 giddy enough to be infected by my impru- 

 dence, or who had rudely attempted to cor- 

 rect it, I should in either case, have been 

 irretrievably ruined ; a fortune in either 

 case, would, with my habits, have been 

 only a shorter cut to destruction. But I 

 met a woman who, by the tender manage- 

 ment of my weaknesses, gradually corrected 

 the most pernicious of them, and rescued 

 me from the dominion of a degrading and 

 ruinous vice. 



"She became prudent from affection; and 

 though of the most generous nature, she 

 was taught economy and frugality by her 

 love for me. 



" During the most critical period of my 

 life, she preserved order in my affairs, from 

 the cares of which she relieved me ; she 

 gently reclaimed me from dissipation ; she 

 propped my irresolute nature ; she urged 

 my indolence to all the exertions which 

 have been useful and creditable to me, and 

 she was perpetually at hand to admonish 

 my heedlessness and improvidence. To her 

 I owe that I am not a ruined outcast; to 

 her whatever I shall be. In her solicitude 

 for my interests, she never for a moment 

 forgot my feelings and my character. Even 

 in her occasional resentment — for which, I 

 but too often gave just cause (would to Hea- 

 ven that I could recall those moments !) she 

 had no sullenness or acrimony. Her feelings 



were warm and impetuous ; but she was 

 placable, tender and constant. She united 

 the most tender prudence with the most 

 generous and guileless nature, with a spirit 

 that disdained the shadow of meanness, and 

 with the kindest and most honest heart. 



" Such was she whom I have lost ; and I 

 have lost her when her excellent natural 

 sense was rapidly improving, after eight 

 years of struggle and distress had bound us 

 fast together, and moulded our tempers to 

 each other; when a knowledge of her worth 

 had refined my youthful love into friend- 

 ship, before age had deprived it of much of 

 its original ardor. I lost her, alas! (the 

 choice of my youth, and the partner of my 

 misfortunes) at a moment when I had the 

 prospect of her sharing my better days. To 

 expect that any thing on this side of the 

 grave can make it up, would be a vain and 

 delusive expectation. If I had lost the 

 giddy and thoughtless companion of prospe- 

 rity, the world could easily repair the loss; 

 but I have lost the faithful and tender part- 

 ner of my misfortunes ; and my only conso- 

 lation is in that Being under whose severe 

 and paternal chastisement I am cut down to 

 the ground." — Evening Transcript. 



Crows. 



Wilson, in his American Ornithology, 

 says that crows have been employed to 

 catch crows, by the following stratagem: — 

 A live crow is pinned by the wings down to 

 the ground, on his back, by means of two 

 sharp forked sticks. Thus situated, his cries 

 are loud and incessant, particularly if any 

 other crows are in view. These sweeping 

 down about him, are instantly grappled, and 

 held fast by the prostrate prisoner, with the 

 same instinctive impulse that urges a drown- 

 ing person to grasp at every thing within 

 his reach. The game being disengaged 

 from his clutches, the trap is again ready 

 for another experiment; and by pinning 

 down each captive successively, as soon as 

 taken, in a short time you will probably 

 have a large flock screaming above you, in 

 concert with the outrageous prisoners be- 

 low.* 



The same author mentions an agreeable 

 instance of attachment in a crow. "A gen- 

 tleman who resided on the Delaware a few 

 miles below Easton, had reared a crow, with 

 whose tricks and society he used frequently 

 to amuse himself. This crow lived long in 



* This method of catching crows is, I believe, prac- 

 tised in some parts of England to catch jays, who 

 make a most violent outcry when pinned to the 

 ground. 



