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VERSES TO THE POPPY, BY MRS CHARLOTTE SMITH.

HAIL, precious blossom! thou canst ease
The wretched victims of disease;

Canst close those weary eyes in gentle sleep
Which never open but to weep;

For, Oh! thy potent charm

Can agonising pain disarm;

Expel imperious mem'ry from her seat,
And bid the throbbing heart forget to beat.

Soul-soothing plant! that can such blessings give,
By thee the mourner bears to live!

By thee the hopeless die !
Oh! ever friendly to despair,"
Might sorrow's pallid vot'ry dare,
Without a crime, that remedy implore,

Which bids the spirit from its bondage fly,

F'd court thy palliative aid no more;

No more I'd sue that thou shouldst spread
Thy spell around my aching head,
But would conjure thee to impart
Thy balsam for a broken heart;
And by thy soft Lethean pow'r,
Inestimable flow'r!

Burst these terrestrial bonds, and other regions try.

AN EXTRACT FROM THE " TOMB OF CHARLOTTE,"
A poem by Mrs Horrel.

THE red breast oft is seen at evening hours,
Drefsing her grave with never-fading flow'rs;
And Philomel has near her built her nest,
And sings in mournful strains her soul to rest.
Sweet plaintive warbler of the feather'd throng!
To you such tender strains belong,

Still hover round this spot, and guard her bed.
Whilst Robin's mofs lies lightly o'er her head;
No nightly owl from ivy nest shall scream,
No goblins haunt this ever verdant scene,
But pearly drops descend from weeping dews,
And spring perpetual all her sweets diffuse.

CONCERNING THE ROAD TOWARDS PERFECTION.
La BWARDS

For the Bee.

Wisdom is the great and chief object: therefore get wisdom, get understanding: forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee: love her, and she shall keep thee, and bring thee to honour. [PROVERBS OF SOLOMON, THE SON OF DAVID, Chap 1V. ver. 5. 6. 7.]

KNOWLEDGE, whether in the form of history or science, is surely of great value to the intellectual nature of man; and the records of knowledge, preserved in literary compositions are, the principal means of communicating its benefits from age to age, and from one nation to another. An art by which this effect is produced, may no doubt be placed among the most effectual means of cultivating the faculties of man, of forwarding his progrefs, of extending the fruits of experience, and of augmenting the powers to be derived from a just notion and application of the laws by which human nature is governed.

The mere conceptions also of superior genius, and the sentiments which arise in such minds, whether fictitious or real, remaining with the people, in literary monuments of any denomination, must contribute to form the national character, and give to ordinary men, some participation of the sentiment and thought which took their rise from the exertions of a superior mind.

"The monuments of literature and arts produced in one age, remain with the ages that follow, and serve as a kind of ladder, by which the human faculties, mounting upon steps, which ages succefsively place, [arrive in the end at those heights of exquisite discernment, and elegant

April 3: choice, which, in the pursuit of its objects, the mind of [Principles of Moral and

man is qualified to obtain."

Political Science by Dr Adam Ferguson.]

"To the mind which is by nature endowed with a discernment of rectitude and truth, the experience even of evil may lead the way to what is good.

"Society, in which alone the distinction of right and wrong is exemplified, may be considered as the garden of God, in which the tree of knowledge of good and evil is planted, and in which men are destined to distinguish, and to choose, among its fruits." [Ibid.]

"In society the human mind must, as it were, draw the first breath of intelligence itself; or if not the vital air by which the celestial fire of moral sentiment is kindled, we cannot doubt but it is of mighty effect in exciting the flame; and that the minds of men, to use a familiar example, may be compared to those blocks of fuel, which, taken apart, are hardly to be lighted, but if gathered into a heap, are easily kindled into a blaze." [Ibid.]

"The affairs of society require the light of science, as well as the direction of a virtuous conduct, insomuch, that the recluse, by investigating the laws of nature, and the prin ciples which relate to the concerns of men, is no less employed for his country than the most active of its servants; or than those who are most occupied in discharging the functions of state." [Ibid.]

**** The reader who has selected these passages for the Bee, is prompt and warm to declare, that he thinks the philosopher from whose pen they come is well entitled to the furlough from society, the proper use of which he has both so handsomely made and explained. Dr Ferguson is a singular instance of a man's heart and genius warming and firing with a length of life.

However much the reader was pleased with the accuracy of his efsay on Civil Society, and his History of the Roman Republic, he thought they wanted that unction which he is happy to observe in his last great and useful publication.

The fifteenth and sixteenth sections of his second chapter, and the fourteenth of the third, are entitled to high commendation; the love of virtue and of humanity call for it; and from the depth of that solitude, for which the Doctor has endeavoured to obtain a patent, the reader desires to bestow it on the Principles of Moral and Political Sci

ence.

Ат

A NEW INVENTED IMPROVEMENT IN THE MACHINERY
OF COTTON MILLS.

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T a time when the succefs of our manufactures depends so much upon improvements in machinery, it is presumed that every information upon that subject will be acceptable to your readers.

William Kelley, of Lanark cotton mills, has invented a new method of erecting the great gear of mills for spinning twist, at less ex ence, and so as to require a smaller quantity of water to do the same work, than by any other method formerly practised; and it is so constructed, that any single drum and shaft can be stopped, without interruping the movements of a y o the other drums, on either side of the one stopped; and the manner of stopping is so simple, that it can be done with the greatest facility by the children employed in spinning at the drums.

The advantages of the above improvement are of conşiderable importance, as a reduction in the quantity of

water necefsary for these operations, must enhance the value of small streams to the proprietors; and the convenience of stopping a single drum of spinning, with its fbaft, is a vast saving of time, when compared with stopping a half floor of spinning every time that it is necefsary to stop a single drum and shaft, which is the case in the one mode generally in use, and no less than half the mill by the other method practised hitherto; and it is not the least pleasing part of the humane contrivance, of putting it in the power of those employed at each drum, instantly to stop the whole machinery connected with it, by which, accidents by entanglement will be timely prevented, whereas the time necefsary to do this, in the present way, puts it out of their power.

Since receiving the above, the Editor has seen a model thus constructed, and is satisfied that it will be found to be a great and important improvement, in respect of the following particulars.

1. As nothing but perpendicular axles are employed by this mode of construction, the great increased friction occasioned by using horizontal axles is entirely saved, by which means a proportional increased quantity of work will be performed by the same moving power.

2. As one drum only ever needs to be stopped when an accident happens to itself, instead of stopping thirty or forty in some cases, or five or six almost at the fewest, in the most improved machinery hitherto used, it follows, that in a given time, the stoppages in the machinery must be proportionally fewer, and the quantity of work performed in a given time, at the same expence, must be increased at the same rate.

3. As the stoppage of a great proportion of the machinery at one time must diminish the weight of the machine,

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