The New-York Weekly Magazine, or Miscellaneous Repository Part 40

1100 _Their value is ten-fold._

[[Source:

Original: Apologues et contes orientaux, etc. 1784 by Francois Blanchet (1707-1784) and others.

Possible source: Burke's _Annual Register_ 1788 with full subt.i.tle "...extracted from Tales, Romances, Apologues, &c. from the French, in two vols."

Notes: "the figure 1 before the number 100... 1100"

The _Annual Register_ has the same words and numbers. Both seem like an error for "1000" (a cipher after 100).]]

_For the +New-York Weekly Magazine+._

THE BEGGAR;

A Fragment in Imitation of Sterne.

**** "We are poor ourselves!" exclaimed the lady of the house, "and have therefore nothing to give." Wretched being! methinks you receive none other alms from many people of fashion!

"He has had the a.s.surance to come to my door twice to-day. He might have known at the first denial, that a repet.i.tion would not make him a whit the better off."

"It might have been that when he came the second time he expected your ladyship was better disposed to give," said a gentleman present.--"Perchance he imagined the human heart could not remain so insensible to the woes of others," thought I, and it had nearly reached my lips, but prudence bade it go no farther.

She again began to ring in my ears a long string of invectives against the poorer cla.s.s of people, when I hastily took my leave. "For what purpose did Heaven form the rich with such unfeeling hearts?" asked my friend. "That they might be set up as a mark to others; and teach them the danger of riches."

The man was a few paces before us.

"Surely the lady finds, ere this, that we despise her contracted soul,"

said my companion. "You are mistaken in that point," said I; "this is not the only time I have been a witness of her narrow-mindedness.

I dined there some days since, with several other visitors: before the cloth was removed, I heard a slight rap at the door---no one attended to it---it seemed to foretell the approach of poverty--"

"What were the servants doing?" interrupted my friend.

"Their mistress had enjoined it upon them to attend to none but _fashionable knocks!_"

"Pray what are her _fashionable knocks?_"

"That I never learned. She has, no doubt, instructed her menials on that head."

"But go on with your story. I despise from my soul her baseness."

The man was a few paces before us.

"I sat opposite the entrance. In a few minutes an emaciated figure, cloathed meanly, but her dress clean, and adjusted in as neat a manner as possible, walked feebly along, until she reached the room-door; and then necessity compelled her to seek support from the posts. I could not behold the sight unmoved---"

We had now reached the beggar. We stopped. He held out his hat. I threw in something; my friend did the same. "May Heaven forever prosper your honours!" uttered the pauper. "Amen!" We both responded, and pa.s.sed on.

"If I had her riches what a deal of good would I do with it! The poor should not depart empty from my door."

"And perhaps," said I, "if you had double the wealth she is possessed of, your disposition would be similar to hers."

_New-York_, Sept. 1, 1796.

L. B.

CURIOUS ANECDOTE OF MR. HANDEL.

It was Mr. Handel's usual custom, when engaged to dine out with any n.o.bleman or gentleman, to take a little of something by way of refreshment, and to operate as a damper, that he might not display his vast powers as a gormandiser among people of puny appet.i.tes. For one of these previous dinners, or dampers, he ordered at the Crown and Anchor tavern a dozen large mackarel, a duck, and two roasted chickens. One of the waiters, judging from the quant.i.ty of victuals ordered, what number of people would probably be expected to dine, laid the cloth, and furnished the table with eight plates, &c. Mr. Handel arrived punctually at the hour he had named for the appearance of his repast, and was informed that none of the company were come, but himself; the landlord therefore humbly suggested to him that the dinner might be kept back, till some more of the company dropped in, "Company!" declaimed the dealer in harmony. "What company?---I expect no company! I ordered these few articles by way of relish for myself, and must beg to be excused from the intrusion of any company whatsoever!"

The _twelve_ mackarel were first introduced, and Mr. Handel paid his devoirs to each of them. He swallowed every one of them with the expedition of a real artist, and seemed almost equal to the task of swallowing the _twelve_ judges. The skeletons of the fish being then removed, in came the duck and the two chickens: the bones of all these were picked with great dexterity; the bill was called, and discharged, and after that the poor gentleman fasted for almost an hour and a quarter, when he repaired to the house of lord H--------n, to complete the dinner which he had began at the Crown and Anchor.

ON IMAGINATION.

The imagination is a quality of the soul, not only a brilliant but an happy one, for it is more frequently the cause of our happiness, than of our misery; it presents us with more pleasures than vexations, with more hopes than fears. Men of dull and heavy dispositions, who are not affected by any thing, vegetate and pa.s.s their lives in a kind of tranquility, but without pleasure or delight; like animals which see, feel, and taste nothing, but that which is under their eyes, paws, or teeth; but the imagination, which is proper to man, transports us beyond ourselves, and makes us taste future and the most distant pleasures. Let us not be told, that it makes us also foresee evils, pains, and accidents, which will perhaps never arrive: it is seldom that imagination carries us to these panic fears, unless it be deranged by physical causes. The sick man sees dark phantoms, and has melancholy ideas; the man in health has no dreams but such as are agreeable; and as we are more frequently in a good, than a bad state of health, our natural state is to desire, to hope, and to enjoy. It is true, that the imagination, which gives us some agreeable moments, exposes us, when once we are undeceived, to others which are painful. There is no person who does not wish to preserve his life, his health, and his property; but the imagination represents to us our life, as a thing which ought to be very long; our health established and unchangeable; and our fortune inexhaustible: when the two latter of these illusions cease before the former, we are much to be pitied.

THE VICTIM OF MAGICAL DELUSION.

_OR, INTERESTING MEMOIRS OF MIGUEL, DUKE DE CA*I*A._ Unfolding Many Curious Unknown Historical Facts.

_Translated from the German of Tsc.h.i.n.k._

(Continued from page 78.)

The stillness of eternal rest, and the horrors of corruption which were hovering around me, whispered audibly in my ear that this was not a residence fit for living beings. "Is my tutor here?" I enquired after a dreadful pause. The Irishman remained silent, "Hiermanfor! is my tutor here?"

"He is."

"Alas! then he is dead!" I stammered, staggering against a tomb-stone to support myself.

The face of the Irishman began to brighten up; he took me by the hand; "Come, my Lord, and convince yourself, that even on this spot, where common men behold nothing but death and corruption, the flower of life is blooming!" With these words, he led me round the corner of a small chapel, and I beheld what at first appeared to me the delusion of a dream, my tutor standing five paces distant from me upon a tomb; he was dressed in a white garment, and seemed to await me in tranquil expectation: "Antonio! my friend!" I exclaimed, quivering with joy, and flew with expanded arms to the tomb, but shuddered with horror when I grasped through an airy phantom, instead of embracing my friend.

"Don't be afraid, Miguel!" said the ethereal being without once opening his lips, or making the least motion, "I am no apparition from the other world. I am yet living; however, the more solid parts of my body are above 600 miles distant. My spirit has a.s.sumed this form in order to communicate her ideas to thee. Thou wilt at some future period comprehend this mystery if thou dost follow the directions of Hiermanfor. Young man, there exists a felicity upon earth more sublime than the love of women. Leave Amelia and hasten to Ma***d. Endeavour to break the abominable fetters whereby thy country is chained to the throne of a despot. Down into the dust with Vascon**llos, who has forged these chains, and encreases their weight every day. Thou shalt see me again when thy country is restored to liberty, and I will lead Amelia to thy arms. 'Till then, Miguel, farewell!"

The vision was not dissolved, nor did it sink into the ground, nor rise aloft, and yet it was removed in the twinkling of an eye. "Antonio, my friend!" I exclaimed, "if thy spirit is still hovering around me, tell me whether I may confide blindly in Hiermanfor?"