_Effect of Music._--A Scotch bag-piper traversing the mountains of Ulster,
in Ireland, was one evening encountered by a starved _Irish_ wolf. In his
distress the poor man could think of nothing better than to open his
wallet, and try the effects of his hospitality; he did so, and the savage
swallowed all that was thrown to him, with so improving a voracity as if
his appetite was but just returning to him. The whole stock of provision
was, of course, soon spent, and now his only recourse was to the virtues
of his bagpipe; which the monster no sooner heard, than he took to the
mountains with the same precipitation he had left them. The poor piper
could not so perfectly enjoy his deliverance, but that, with an angry look,
at parting, he shook his head, saying, "Ay, are these your tricks? Had I
known your humour, you should have had your music before
supper."--_Bowyer's Anecdotes._
* * * * *
_Epitaph on Mr. Nightingale, Architect._
As the birds were the first of the architect kind,
And are still better builders than men,
What wonders may spring from a _Nightingale's_ mind,
When St. Paul's was produced by a _Wren._
* * * * *
_Poets._
The effects of disappointed love ......_Akenside._
Part of a lady's dress ................_Spencer._
What the ladies do, and a weight ......_Chatterton._
A manufactory, and a weight ..........._Milton._
The prayers of a glutton .............._Moore._
An indication of old age .............._Gray._
What a mortgage will do ..............._Cumberland._
The contributions of a miser .........._Little._
A troublesome companion ..............._Bunyan._
The soldier's home, and an alarm ......_Campbell._
* * * * *
_The Pyramids._--The Egyptians, according to Herodotus, hated the memory
of the kings who built the pyramids. The great pyramid occupied a hundred
thousand men for twenty years in its erection, without counting the
workmen who were employed in hewing the stones and conveying them to the
spot where the pyramid was built. Herodotus speaks of this work as a
torment to the people, and doubtless, the labour engaged in raising huge
masses of stone, that was extensive enough to employ a hundred thousand
men for twenty years, equal to two millions of men for one year, must have
been fearfully tormenting. It has been calculated that the steam engines
of England worked by thirty-six thousand men, would raise the same
quantity of stones from the quarry, and elevate them to the same height as
the great pyramid, in the short space of eighteen hours. It was recorded
on the pyramid, that the onions, radishes, and garlic, which the labourers
consumed, cost sixteen hundred talents of silver, which is equivalent to
several million pounds.