Polynesian., 1845-05-10

servant of Doctor Faustus, with some mis-.
si'ings as to his sufficiency of venom, was
allowed to try his hand in this capacity
Next aPpeard, likewise seeking a service,
the mysterious Man in Red, who had aided
6onaparte in his ascent to imperial mower,
lie was examined as to his qualifications BY
an aspiring politician, but finally rejected,
as lacking familiarity with the cunning tao.
tics of the present day.
People continued to succeed each other
WITH as much briskness as if Everybody turn
ca aside, out of the roar and tumult of the
CITY, to record here some want, or supcrhui-
~, or desire. Some had goods or posses
slons, OF which they wished to negotiate the
sale. A China merchant had lost his health
by a long residence in that wasting climate /;
ne very literally offered his disease, and his
wealth along with it, to any physician who
would rid him of both together.
"A soldier offered his wreath of %laurels for as
good a leg as that which it had cost him, on
the battlefield. One poor weary wretch de-
sired nothing but to be Accommodated with
any creditabIe method of laying down his
life; for misfortune and pecuniary troubles
had SO subdued his spirits, that he could no
longer conceive the possibility of happiness,
nor had the heart to try for it. Neverthe-
less, happening to overhear some conversa-
ton in the Intelligence Office, respecting
wealth to be rapidly accumulated by a certain
mode OF speculation, he resolved to live out
this one other experiment of better fortune.
Many persons desired to exchange their
youthful vices for others better suited to the
gravity OF advancing age; others, we are glad
to say, made earnest efforts to exchange vice
for virtue, and, hard as the bargain was,
succeeded in efecting it. But it was re-
markable that what all were the least willing
to give up, even on the most advantageous
terms, were the habits, the oddities. the
characteristic traits, the little ridiculous in
duIgences, somewhere between faults and
foliies, OF which nobody but themselves could
understand the fascination.
The great folio, in which the man O fIntell-
igence recorded all these freaks Of idle
hearts, and aspirations of deep hearts, and
desperate longings of miserable hearts, and
evil prayers of perverted hearts, would be
curious reading, were it possible to obtain it
for publication. Human character in its in
dividual NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. nature in the
mass-may best be studied in its wishes; and
this was the record Of them all. There was
an endless diversity Of mode and circum-
stance, yet withal such a similarity in the
real groundwork, that any one page of the
volume-whether written in the days before
the Flood, or the yesterday that is just gone
by, or to be written on the morrow that is
close at hand, or a thousand ages hence
might serve as a specimen Of the whole.
Not but that there were wild sallies Of fanta-
sy that could scarcely occur to more than
one mans brain, whether reasonable or lu-
natic. The strangest wishes-yet most in
cident to men who had gone deep into SCI
entitic pursuits, and attained a high intel
lcctual stage, though not the ~loftiest -
were, to contend with Nature, and wrest
from her some power, which she had seen
fit to withhold from mortal grasp. -
She loves to delude her aspiring students,
and mock them with mysteries that SCENE
but Just beyond their utmost reach. To
concoct new minerals-to produce new
forms Of vegetable life-to create an insect,
if nothing higher in the living scale-is a
sort of wish that has often r~evelled in the
breast of a man ofscience. An astronomer,
who lived far more among the distant worlds
Of space than in this lower sphere, recorded a
wish to behold the opposite side Of the moon,
which, unless the system Of the armament
be reversed, she can never turn towards the
earth. On the same page of the volume,
was written the wish Of a little child, to have
the stars for playthings.
The most ordinary wish, that was written
down with wearisome recurrence, was, of
course, for wealth, wealth, wealth, in sums
from a few shillings up to UNREASONABLE
thousands. But, in reality, thiS often repeat
ed expression covered as many different de-
sires. Wealth is the golden essence OF the
outward world, embodying almost every
thing that exists beyond the limits Of the