The Sun.
London, England, 1837-12-25 00:00:00

70

GOOD THINGS

The English newspapers have lately exhibited a number
of wonderful accounts, taken from those of America. But
they have not yet reprinted all the extraordinary matters
that are to be found in the transatlantic journals. They
have neglected stories enough to make a work as large as
the biography of Munchausen. As it would be a subject
of regret that such statements should be forgotten for want
of a due portion of notice, the Bristol Mercury notices a
few of the most remarkable.
SENSIBILITY or A BRICIL—As a boy was walking by
the side of a house the other day, he accidentally trdd
upon a beetle, and passed on, leaving it in appearance half
dead. In a short time after, a loose brick was shaken by
the wind from a chimney exactly above the spot where the
beetle was lying. Finding itself free and unsupported, it.
descended towards the earth, as other bricks usually do in
similar circumstances. But as it approached the beetle,
on which it was apparently about to fall, it suddenly stepped,
as if deterred by concern from hurting it ; and, strange to
relate, it continued suspended in the air till the insect su.c-
ceeded. in crawlin fom under it, and then completed its
fall without farther hesitation. Wed
have never heard of

any brick in England possessing like insensibility.
QUICK COMPOSITION.—It rarely happens that we .I.Tve
to relate so remarkable an instance of expeditious writing,
as one which has recently come to our knowledge. ith*
—, of —, lately began a novel at sunset. He wrote
as if inspired. His thoughts flowed with the most
amazing rapidity. His hand hurried over the
paper soo
swiftly, that he himself could not see it move. Before
o'clock at night he had completed his work, when he went
to bed, an slept soundly till eight, at which hour he com-
mitted the manuscript to Mr. —, the bookseller, who
consignedit instantly to the press. Such facility of com-
position has never been exhibited by any of the Johnsons,
Burkes, or Southeys, of the mother-country. It is calcu-
lated that this gentleman may produce thirty thousand
novels every year, being about eight a day, without denying
himself any reasonable recreation.
EXPEDITIOUS TRAVELLING.—A steam-engine has re-
cently been constructed by a gentleman of this neighbour"
hood, by which carriages are drawn along a railway with
such expedition, that the eye cannot catch them in their
transit. The passengers enter the carriages, and are !eit_
down at their journey's end, before the moment in which
they entered them is concluded. They find themselves
in the place in which they wished to be, without being at
all able to conjecture how they could arrive at it. t
challenge Booby Bull, Esq., to produce any thing Wl'

to this.
BOILED PIG.—At a certain feast lately, it was resolved
to boil a pig whole. But some wicked wag, after the hair
was taken off, seized an opportunity to smear it with India
rubber. The consequence was, that after the pig had been
in the cauldron 6 hours, the water had made no impression
on it. When the carver stuck his knife into it, it started
up and ran away. Yet it had certainly been killed before
it was put in the pot, but it is conjectured that the hot
water had such an effect on it as to renew the vital heat,
so that it required only the prick of the knife to remind 4
that it was alive. Such susceptibility of re-animation is
not inherited by the pigs of any country but our own.
SINGULAR BALLOONING.—AS Mr. Jonathan was as-
cending in his balloon last week, it was assailed by two
currents of air, running in different directions, the one be-
neath, and the other above ; the one of which drove the
car upwards, and the other the balloon downwards. The
car was no sooner hoisted up than it was driven down
again, and the balloon was no sooner down than it
was hoisted up. Ia this manner the balloon and
car continued to spin over and over, like a tumbler on
a stage, for seven days and two hours, at the end of which
time, Mr. Jonathan descaded unhurt. He felt no incon-
venience from the whirling after the first five minutes ; and
having stocked his car with abundance of provisions, he ate
them with as much ease and zest, as if lie had been on firm
land. His sensations, indeed, were so pleasing, that be
thinks of waking another excursion in the same direction,
to see if he can meet with the same currents of air, and be
whirled round in the same manner again. We question if
any English aeronaut will be found of equal intrepidity.
ADVANCE OF SCIENCE.—A gentleman has recently in-
vented an instrument for communicating a knowledge of
trigonometry. It is called the trigonometrical pop-gun,
and is warranted to inject a knowledge of the subject in
less time than can be specified. A professor of moral
philosophy has also brought to perfection a medicine, by
which any man, whose imagination predominates over his
reason, may, on taking a few drops of it, find his reason re-
stored to her proper power and dignity, and imagination
trampled under feet. We should like to hear of inventions •
of equal utility coming from the other side of the Atlantic.
ELECTRIFYING A GARDEN.—A market gardener,!whose
trees had been suddenly withered by drought, after re-
volving many schemes for their restoration, at last thought
of employing an instrument-makar in the neighbourhood to
construct an electrical machine for the purpose. An ap-
paratus of great size and power was accordingly completed•
and brought to bear on the south-west corner of the garden.
The effect produced was such, that, though the piece of
ground was a hundred acres in extent, the animating power
spread through it in an instant, and before the third shock
had been given the trees were all budding and blooming as
they appear in the month of May. We recommend si
similar experiment to any of our English friends who maY
suffer in a similar way.