animal, and in the attempt to tame it, I should find just that sort of employment which my case required. It was soon known among the neighbours that I was pleased with the present, and the consequence was, that in a short time I had as many leverets offered to me as would have stocked a 3paddock. I undertook the care of three, which it is

necessary that I should here distinguish by the names I gave them-Puss, Tiney, and Bess. Notwithstanding the two 4feminine appellatives, I must inform you that they were all males. Immediately commencing carpenter, I built them houses to sleep in; each had a separate apartment, the floor of which was cleansed every day, and thus kept sweet

and free from dirt. In the daytime they had the range of a hall, and at night each returned to his own bed, never intruding into that of another.

Puss grew presently familiar, would leap into my lap, raise himself upon his hinder feet, and bite the hair from my temples. He would suffer me to take him up, and to carry him about in my arms, and has more than once fallen asleep upon my knee. He was ill three days, during which time I nursed him, kept him apart from his fellows, that they might not molest him (for, like many other wild animals, they persecute one of their own species that is sick), and by constant care, and trying him with a variety of herbs, restored him to perfect health. No creature could be more grateful than my patient after his recovery; a sentiment which he most significantly expressed by licking my hand, first the back of it, then the palm, then every finger separately, then between all the fingers, as if anxious to leave no part of it unsaluted; a ceremony which he never performed but once again upon a similar occasion. Finding him exceedingly "tractable, I made it my custom to carry him always after breakfast into the garden, where he hid himself generally under the leaves of a cucumber vine, sleeping or chewing the cud till evening; in the leaves also of that vine he found a favourite repast. I had not long 'habituated him to this taste of liberty, before he began to be impatient for the return of the time when he might enjoy it. He would invite me to the garden by drumming upon my knee, and by a look of such expression as it was not possible to misinterpret. If this rhetoric did not immediately succeed, he would take the skirt of my coat between his teeth, and pull it with all his force. Thus Puss may be said to be perfectly tamed; the shyness of his nature was done away, and on the whole it was visible by many symptoms, which I have not.room to

enumerate, that he was happier in human society than when shut up with his natural companions.

Not so Tiney; upon him the kindest treatment had no effect. He too was sick, and in his sickness had an equal share of my attention; but if, after his recovery, I took the liberty to stroke him, he would grunt, strike with his forefeet, spring forward, and bite. He was however very entertaining in his way,-even his surliness was matter of mirth,--and in his play preserved such an air of gravity, and performed his feats with such a solemnity of manner, that in him too I had an agreeable companion.

Bess, who died soon after he was full grown, and whose death was occasioned by his being turned into his box, which had been washed, while it was yet damp, was a hare of great humour and drollery. Puss was tamed by gentle usage; Tiney was not to be tamed at all; and Bess had a courage and confidence that made him tame from the beginning. I always admitted them into the parlour after supper, when, the carpet affording their feet a firm hold, they would frisk, and bound, and play a thousand gambols, in which Bess, being strong and fearless, was always superior to the rest, and proved himself the "Vestris of the party. One evening, the cat being in the room, had the 10hardiness to pat Bess upon the cheek, an indignity which he resented by drumming upon her back with such violence that the cat was happy to escape from under his paws, and hide herself.

I describe these animals as having each a character of his own. Such they were in fact, and their countenances were so expressive of that character, that, when I looked only on the face of either, I immediately knew which it was. It is said that a shepherd, however numerous his flock, soon becomes so familiar with their features, that he can, by that indication alone, distinguish each from all the rest;

and yet, to a common observer, the difference is hardly 11perceptible. I doubt not that the same 12discrimination in the cast of countenances would be discoverable in hares, and am persuaded that among a thousand no two could be found exactly similar: a circumstance little suspected by those who have not had opportunity to observe it. These creatures have a singular sagacity in discovering the minutest alteration that is made in the place to which they are accustomed, and instantly apply their nose to the examination of a new object. A small hole being burnt in the carpet, it was mended with a patch, and that patch in a moment underwent the strictest 13scrutiny. They seem, too, to be very much directed by the smell in the choice of their favourites: to some persons, though they saw them daily, they could never be reconciled, and would even scream when they attempted to touch them; but a miller coming in engaged their affections at once; his powdered coat had charms that were 14irresistible. It is no wonder that my intimate acquaintance with these specimens of the kind has taught me to hold the sportsman's amusement in abhorrence; he little knows what amiable creatures he persecutes, of what gratitude they are capable, how cheerful they are in their spirits, what enjoyment they have of life, and that, impressed as they seem with a peculiar dread of man, it is only because man gives them peculiar cause for it.

Bess, I have said, died young; Tiney lived to be nine years old, and died at last, I have reason to think, of some hurt in his loins by a fall; Puss is 15still living, and has just completed his tenth year, discovering no signs of decay, nor even of age, except that he has grown more discreet and less frolicsome than he was. I cannot conclude without observing that I have lately introduced a dog to his acquaintance, a spaniel. I did it with great

caution, but there was no real need of it. Puss discovered no fear, nor Marquis the least symptoms of hostility.

There is, therefore, it should seem, no natural 16antipathy between dog and hare, but the pursuit of the one occasions the flight of the other, and the dog pursues because he is trained to it; they eat bread at the same time out of the same hand, and are in all respects social and friendly.

8

3

COWPER.

' diverting, amusing. 2 leveret, a young hare. paddock, an enclosure in which horses are kept when they are ill, and on other occasions. feminine, belonging to females. appellatives, names. "tractable, able to be handled, or managed; tame. 'habituated, used; accustomed. rhetoric, the art of persuasion. Vestris, Madame Vestris, a celebrated dancer. 10 hardiness, boldness. "perceptible, able to be perceived, or seen. 12 discrimination, distinction; difference. 13 scrutiny, close examination or search. 14 irresistible, not able to be resisted. 15 still living, Cowper wrote this on May 28th, 1784. 16 antipathy, a strong feeling of dislike.

SIR WALTER RALEIGH.

RALEIGH was born in Devonshire, in 1552, and educated at Oxford. When only eighteen years of age, he went to France as a volunteer in an expedition in aid of the 1Huguenots. At the age of twenty-seven he sailed to North America with the design of founding a colony there. This expedition was unsuccessful, and returning home, he distinguished himself by his courage and conduct as captain in Queen Elizabeth's army in Ireland. The next few years were spent at the court of the queen, with whom he became a great favourite. The spirit of enterprise was, however, so strong in him, that at the age of thirty-two he fitted out two ships at his own expense, and having received a 2 patent to take possession of lands to be discovered by him on the coast of North