Alexandria gazette & daily advertiser. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1817-1822, 1821-11-01

such Exhibitions, human or OTutai.
IN. y. 1Hsr. Aduer.
Paris, A.g 90.
EXTRACT OF PRIVATE LETTER.
"a ludicrous, though painful, scene, to
one of the chief actors, took place lew
days ago at the Sapdin dos Plantss. A
gymnOtus elsctricus, OF electric eel, had
arrived, alive, and in good health, from
Surinam. The sausas and naturailsls
were all in motion, and fastened to the
Garden of Plants to see with their own
eyes, and to touch with their own hands,
this living electrical machine The great
or numbers were satisfied with single
touch and consequent shock; but one IN
fortunate Doctor, either urged by greater
zeal for science, or governed by more
Unsuitable curiosity, resolved to try the
utmost extent of the animals powers, and
seized it with both his hands, out had
quickly reason to repent bis temerity, for
he Immediately felt a rapidly repeated Sc
ries of the most violent ana successfully
increasing shocks, which forced him to
caper about in the most extraordinary
manner and to utter the most piercing
cries from the agony that he felt He
then fell into commissions in consequence
of which his muscles became SO contract
ed, or from some strange property in his
fish, it became impossible to delach the
animal from his grasp. In this situation
he remained a consder able time. and
would in all probability have expired un-
der the agony of his sensations, if some
one of the persons present had not sug-
gested the plunging of his hands in water,
when the eel Immediately dropped of.
He (the Doctor) has been ever since most
dangerously ILL.,"
LIrrLsxrss. every thing in the
present age looks small The Mechanic
Arts, with all the vigorous pxeTtlOns and
magni6cen, projects Of the modern', are on
ly humbly creeping up to that elevation
which they once held in Egypt j. 10 Greece.
Our modern works are pigmles, W compari-
son with the colossal figures aud temple OF
rhebes.
Uminuivsaess seems TO characterize the
times; and charge OF the ED that we are
not like our fathers IN length Ut years, or
bieness of bone, seems 10 be aDalogically
proved by tue size Ut those literary ddri!ngs
which are trembIlngly coutrasted with the
gigantic foIos of former times. An Epic
poem has shrunk iGto an Ode, ard bAYLE's
great dictionary 10 a pocket volume OF bio
era ply. The women themselves have esca-
ped from those sweeping psriphfrles called
Hoops, and the men have squrt BED them
selves into strait jackets and Whs!e'bons.
Language itself IL becoming ClIpt aud small,
l. when formerly the slave Docles grew gra-
duslly to Uioeie, y DiociesiaHHs. (by which
tine he attended himself to the empororsnIp
OF Rome and her vassal kingdoWl We now
convert Theodorus into The; Elizabeth inio
He.,, and Aa,arintha-tbat sweet smelling
Name, MISUNDERSTANDING OH these
important fdcts The conclusion may be drawn
Though we claim for 1t No novelty that the
German professor was not very much III the
wrong, who having sofiyocfority show o, that
the horizontal strata Of the earth have chang.
ed their position 10 an inclined plain, and
are gradually becoming perpendIculariy par
ailel, the whole earih-ex eonsequsntsa, has
become smaller, and lit is but step further
in the region of consequences] all that 10 IN
it, men women, animals and plants will
continue TO diminish al tnfaRaium.
Men will not study, because they are told
that
Little learning IS dangerous thing"
and more than liuie is entirely out OF the
question.
Poets are trying their eDdeavours to limit
their noble art, and bring il down from ITS
exalted height. Ne have the " Lake.
school" of poetry-!he "Cocknsy.sChooI"
Of poetry, and we observe in recent British
publication" the Leg Vt Mutton school" OF
poetry. The school Of poetry, however at
present (wi,h single eXceptlon,l appears
10 be the {" cant" school. As there IS cant
political. so there IS cant political. LoI
Byron has said 50, OF somebody else.
iCharie,lon Cosr,sr