Star.
London, England, 1830-10-08 00:00:00

SCINTILLIL

A WHIMSICAL INTRODVCTIOW.—BOSWILL, in his
Jounsal of a Tour, ite. relates that Cooke, the translator of Hesiod,
&v. introduced Foote to a club in the following singular manner :
" This is the nephew of the gentleman who was lately hung in chains
for murdering his brother !"
A WOMAN KHO HAD TWENTY-FIVE HVSBANDS!--
EVRLYN, in his Memoirs, mentions the case of a woman in the Nether-
lands who had been married twenty-five times, and who was then pro-
hibited from marrying again ; " yet it could not be proved," he says,
" that she had ever made any of her husbands away, though the sus.
picion had brought her divers times to trouble."
HERETICAL PARROT.—BEZE, in his History of the
Realisation in France, Geneva, 1580, informs us of a curious cir.
cumstance that occurred at Toulouse. A parrot that had been taught
to my Pi de la ewe! was arraigned before the Inquisition, there con.
damned, and publicly burnt by the executioner. What a theme for
the witty author of Part vert I
THE EGYPTIANS NOT BALD, AND welt.--The Egyp-
tians, if we believe 11E1m:torus, book iii. chap. xii. seldom went bald,
and the reason which he assigns is, that they shared their heads from
childhood, and thus hardened them in the sun. It is not easy to say
how a man with his head shorn, could ever become bald._

ORANGE TREES.—The orange trees of St. Michael go.
nerally attain the height of fifteen or twenty feet. The usual produce
of a good tree, in common years, is from 6,000 to 1,000 oranges. Sonic
instances of uncommon productiveness have occurred. Dr. Webster
mentions that a few years ago 26,000 oranges were gathered from one
tree, and 29,000 from another,!
EGGS PRESERVED 300 YEARS.—II is asserted, that in
the wall of a chapel near lauo Maggime,lbuilt more than 300 years
ago, three eggs imbedded in the mortar of the wall were found to be
quite fresh. It has long been known that birds' eggs brought from
America, or India, covered with a film of wax, have been hatched in
Europe after the wax had been dissolved by alcohol.
ANTIQUITY 01 THE MARINE COMPASS.—Du Hada,
In his History of China, adduces some evidence to show that the com-
pass was known and used in that country as early as the 22d cycle, or
1040 years before Christ; and the observation of Sir George Staunton,
in the Account of his Embassy to China, that the magnet is one of the
attributes of their Neptune, and is placed in one of the bands of the idol,
is not a little curious.

THE PIG-FACED LADY.—The story of the Pig-faced
Lady, so currently related, and occasionally so firmly credited, a few
years since, originated with a quarto pamphlet, printed in 1640,
titled, " The Hog-Faced Gentlewoman, called Mistress Tannakln
/Rinker, who was born at Wickham, a neuter tonne between the Em.
peror and the Hallander, scituate on the Rhine, and who can never re.
cover her true shape till she be married. Also relating the cause how
her mother came bewitched. With a wood.cut of the Lady and her
Sutter." It was sold in 1816, for seven guineas and a half !
ORIGIN OF CINDERELLA.—The following story, which
BURTON quotes from Man, is obviously the origin of one of outmost
popular nursery tales :—" Rodophe was the fairest lady, in her days.
in all Egypt; she went to wash her, and by chance (her
midge, mean while, looking but carelessly to her clothes) an eagle molt,
away one of her shoes, and laid it in Psammeticus, the King of -4yr....
lap, at Memphis: he wondered:at the excellency of the shoe and
pretty foot, but more argil. fades, at the manner of the bringing o:
it; and caused, forthwith, proclamation to be made, that she that
owned that shoe should come presently to his court; the virgin came.
and was forthwith married to the king."—Anatomy of Melancholy.
vol. ii. p. 404.
DUEL IN BALLooNs.—A very extraordinary duel tool.
place in Paris about —years since. 111. de Granpree and Al. Le Piqu.
having quarrelled about Mademoiselle Tirevit, a celebrated opera
dancer, who was kept by the former, but had been discovered in an in-
trigue with the latter, a challenge ensued. Being both men of elevated
mind, they agreed to fight in balloons. Each, attended' by:a second.
ascended his car, loaded with blunderbusses, as pistols could not be ex-
pected to be efficient in their probable situation. When they had
mounted to the height of about 900 yards, M. Le Pique fired his pin:
ineffectually ; almost Immediately after, the fire was returned by bl.
Gramme, and penetrated his adversary's balloon ; the consequence of
which was, its rapid descent, and M. Le Pique and his second wen.
both dashed to pieces on a house top, over which the balloon fell. The
victorious Granpree then mounted aloft in the grandest style, and de-
scended safe with his second, about seven leagues from the spot of
ascension !

CoLzalDGE.—With extensive learning, an unbounded
vigor of imagination, and the most ready command of expression both
in verse and prose, this author has been uniformly deficient in the per-
severance and the sound sense which were necessary to ,turn his exqui-
site talents to their proper use. He has only produced in a complete
state oue or two small pieces, and every thing else, begun on a larger
scale, has been flung aside, and left unfinished. This is not all : al-
though commanding the most beautiful poetical language, he has every
now and then thought fit to exchange it for the gratuitous pleasure o:
introducing whole stanzas of quaint and vulgar doggrel. These are the
passages which render learning useless, and eloquence absurd; which
make fools laugh, and malignant critics " dance and leap ;" but which
excite, in readers of taste, grief, and astonishment, as evidence of talent
Misapplied, and genius furnishing anus against itself to low-minded
entry.