ames Hycetas, whose opinion, he says, vas, that "the celerity of the earth's moion about its own axis, and otherwise, was he only cause and reason of the apparent evolutions of the heavenly bodies.' How useful the invention of telescopes as been to the astronomical observations f the moderns is particularly evident from heir discovery, that the planets revolve on heir axis, a discovery founded on the periodical revolution of the spots observed n their disks; so that every planet perOrms two revolutions, by one of which it carried with others about a common cene; and, by the other, moves upon its axis ound its own. Yet all that the moderns ave advanced in this respect, serves only confirm to the ancients the glory of being he first discoverers, by the aid of reason lone. The moderns in this are to the anents, as the French philosophers to sir saac Newton; all whose labours and traail, in visiting the poles and equator to etermine the figure of the earth, served nly to confirm what sir Isaac had thought f it, without so much as stirring from his loset. GRAVESEND. A MOTHER AND HER CHIldren. To the Editor. Rochester, Sept. 29, 1827. Sir,-On the beach at Gravesend yesterday orning, I saw a gaily dressed young female alking and fondling an infant in her arms, hom she called Henry; with a fine, lively, luff boy of about three years old running efore, who suddenly venturing to interrupt le gravity of a goat, by tickling his beard ith a switch, became in immediate anger of over-punishment from the proɔked animal. I ran to "the rescue," and ceived warm thanks for its achievement. fter the manner of mothers she kissed and colded her "dear Lobski," as she called e little rogue; and I involuntarily and quisitively repeated the appellation. "Sir," id she,—and she smiled—“ it is perfectly diculous; but his father and I so frequently ive him that name in joke, that we somemes let it fall when in earnest-his al Christian name is Robert." I laughed the whim, shook hands with young Lobski,” wished his mother good morning, it off by the first conveyance to London, ad wholly forgot my little adventure. -It was brought to my recollec tion this afternoon through an incident on the roof of a stage-coach, by which I was travelling to Rochester with several passengers; all of whom, except myself, alighted at Gravesend. One of them, a Londoner, a young man of facetious remark, let an expression or two fall, from whence I strongly suspected he was the husband of Lobski's mother. He had sat next to me at the back of the coach, and had been particularly anxious respecting the safety of a goose-whereon, as I learned, he anticipated to regale with his wife in honour of Michaelmas. Being left to pursue the short remainder of my journey alone, I was proceeding to change my place in the rear, for the box-seat, when I perceived a letter, with the direction so obliterated by friction, as to be undecipherable. There could not be a doubt that it had escaped from my late fellow-traveller's pocket; and as it seemed to have been left to me as an airloom, I took the liberty to examine the contents. It was from his wife; and in connection with my surmise, and with my beach-story, it furnished the strongest presumptive evidence that I had rightly conjectured his identity. He was an entire stranger to the driver; and I am scarcely sorry that the absence of all clue to his address at Gravesend, or in London, allows me a fair opportunity of laying before the readers of the Table Book a sprightly epistle, from a mother who leaves her home in the metropolis to visit Gravesend, as a watering place, with a couple of young children whom she loves, and with the pleasure of expecting and receiving an occasional pop-visit from her good man. COPY OF THE LETTER. Gravesend, Thursday aft. Dear Henry, We arrived here after a very pleasant voyage in one of the Calais steamers. Lobski, as usual, was, and is, quite at home. He really appears to be the flower of Gravesend. He spars with all the sailors who notice him, which are not a few-nods to the old womenhalloes at the boys, and runs off with their hoops-knocks at the windows with his stick-hunts the fowls and pigs, because they run away from him-and admires the goats, because they are something new. As we walk on the beach he looks out for anoner great ship"-kisses the little girls -thumps Mary-and torments me. young ones in the road call him "Cock Robin." He is, indeed, what E. D. calls "a tainted one." ! 66 The Upon first coming down I immediately N.B. Please to send me word the day of commenced inquiries about the bathing, the month, and what's o'clock. and found some who talked of mud-rubbing. No one gave it such a character as Mrs. E. -I met with a lady on the beach, who told me she had brought a little boy of hers down last year to be mud-rubbed; but after a month's stay his legs were no way improved-she then bathed him for a month, and the boy is a fine little fellow. I considered, as Lobski's legs really brought us here, it was best to bathe him at once; and accordingly paid 58. 3d. for a month, other wise it is 1s. each time. Since going in, which he took pretty well, considering the instantaneous plunge, he calls to me when he looks at the sea, "There is my tub, Ma." He was rather frightened, and thought he fell into the water, but not near so much, the guide says, as most children are. Harry is getting fatter every day, and very jealous of Bob when with me-but, out of doors, the little fellow glories in seeing Lubski run on before. They grow very fond of each other. Monday will be a grand day here in choosing the mayor, and at night a mock election takes place, with fireworks, &c.and this day month Greenwich-fair is held in the fields. The people here are any thing but sociable, and "keep themselves to themselves." The sailors are the most obliging, and very communicative-they usually carry Bob over any dirty place or so for me and, to tell the truth, I have almost changed my mind from a parson to a sailor. If you can, do come down on Sunday; but, by no means, empty-handed, or rather, empty-pocketed-my cash is now very low, though I have been as saving as possible. I find no alteration in the price of provisions except potatoes and milk-every thing else I think is as in London. I should like some pens, paper, and a book or two-for one, the Duchess D'Orleans' Court of Louis the XIV., I think it is-and any thing, as poor Mrs. says, wery amusing; for the evenings are "cursedly" dull-stopit's your own word-and as I have said it, it may relieve a little of this evening's ennui. Whatever you bring you can put into the little portmanteau, which I shall find very useful when we return. Bob and Harry send you a kiss apiece, and mine" I will twist up in a piece of paper, and bring with me when I come to town." This is a scribble-but Bob is asleep on my lap. I am, my dear Harry, Yours, very affectionately, ********* Can you, Mr. Editor, imagine any thing more expressive of loneliness, and desire for intelligence, than this young wife's capital N.B., with the execratory citation from her husband's vocabulary-or more sportively affectionate than the "twist up" of her kiss, with "Bob" Lobski asleep on her lap. I like a letter, and a letter writer of this sort mightily: one with a fearless and strong expression of feelingas in the epithet about the dull evenings, which a female can scarcely extenuate, except by such a confession and assignment to its right owner, implying its impropriety, as this female makes. How oddly, and yet how well, her fondness for reading and her domestic management collocatethe Memoirs of the Court of Louis XIV. and the price of provisions. How natural is her momentary hesitation between mudrubbing and bathing. Then the instant determination, so essential when there is no time to spare, marks such "decision of character!" even the author of the excellent essay on that noble quality would admire it. I presume that "Lobski" may be rickety; and I take this opportunity of observing, on the authority of a medical friend, that town-bred children, who ear profusely of sugar, and are pampered with sweets, usually are. Sugar has the effect of softening the bones, and causes the rickets it should form no part of the food of rickety children, or only in a small degree; and such children should be allowed and encouraged to eat common salt freely. To return however to the letter.-1 should really like to know the secret of the allusion respecting the "parson" and the sailor," so naturally called forth by the playful services of the tars; which, I have observed, are ever exerted on such occa sions, and remind one of the labours of Hercules with the distaff. Her account of Lobski's "animated nature" is so pretty and true a sketch of boyish infancy, th you may perceive the hand of the me ther in every line. In the anticipation of the mayoralty show and the fair, a the unsociableness of Gravesend society. think I can trace something of the womas I hope she may live to see her boys "go men and true," gladdening her heart fearless well-doing. She must look well Lobski-he's a "Pickle." It is in power of a mother to effect more ind formation of a child's early disposit than the father.. Some years ago my pen was employed to attempt the sketch of a Character, but apprehending that the identity might be too Strong and catch his eye, he was my friend, and a great reader of "periodicals"I desisted. I meant to say nothing illmatured, yet I feared to offend a harmless and inoffensive man, and I destroyed what had given me an hour's amusement. The reason no longer exists-death has removed him. Disease and a broken spirit, occasioned by commercial misfortunes and imprudences, weighed him down, and the little sphere in which he used to shine has lost its chief attraction. What a man he was!-of the pure, real London cut. Saint Paul's was stamped on his forehead. He was the great oracle of a certain coffee-house, not a hundred miles from Gray's Inn; where he never dined but in one box, nor placed himself but in one situation. His tavern dignities were astounding-the waiters trembled at his approach—his orders were obeyed with the nicest precision. For some years he was the king of the room-he was never deposed, nor did he ever abdicate. His mode of calling for his pint of wine, and the bankrupt part of the Gazette, had a peculiar character past describing. I have now and then seen a "rural," in the same coffee-room, attempt the thing-but my friend was 66 Hyperion to a satyr.". I have him in my eye now-traversing to the city and back-regulating his watch by the Royal Exchange clock daily; and daily boasting he had the best goer" in England. Like his watch, he was a curious piece of mechanism. He seldom quitted London, for he was persuaded every thing would "stand still " in his absence. It seemed, as though he imagined that St. Paul's clock would not strike-that the letters by the general post would not be delivered. Was he not What referee he was! He would tell you the price of stocks on any past day; and dilate for hours on the interesting details in the charters of the twelve city companies. He had a peculiar mode of silencing an antagonist who ventured to obtrude an opinion-by adducing a scriptural maxim, "Study to be quiet," and "mind your own business;" and now and then a few Latin mottos, obtained from the Tablet of Memory, would be used with great felicity. His observations were made in an elevated tone, they commanded attentionhe used to declare that "money was money;" that " many people were great fools;" and that " bankrupts could not be expected to pay much." After a remark of this kind he would take a pinch of snuff, with grave self-complacency, and throw his snuff box on the table with inimitable importance-a species of dignified ingenuity that lived and died with him. His medical panacea was a certain "vegetable sirup," whereon he would descant, by the hour together, as a specific for all human maladies, and affirm " your physicians and apothecaries-mere humbugs!" Then, he would astound the coffee-room by declaring he once bid the king of Spain £700,000 for the island of Porto Ricothis was his grandest effort, and if his ear ever caught the question "Who is he?" uttered by a country listener, his thrownback shoulders and expansion of chest betrayed the delight he felt, that his bounce had been overheard. Now and then, on a Saturday, he would break his city chains, and travel to "The Spaniard" at Hampstead for a dinner; but no argument or persuasion could get him to Richmond. His reply was always the same-" the hotels at Richmond employ too much capital," He was an economist. In his pleasantest humours, and he had few unpleasant ones, after dining with him I have sometimes importured him to pay the whole bill; his answer was peculiar and conclusive; "My good friend," said he, "if I had adopted the plan of paying for others, I might have kept company with all the princes and nobles in the land, instead of plebeians like you." His Sunday, till one o'clock, was passed in "spelling the newspapers;" after that he walked on the north side of Lincoln's Inn Fields, with his hands behind him, till three-he then entered Lincoln's Inn chapel, and returned to boiled beef and suet pudding at five, which were always brought they are far on the journey of life, and have Your brother cit, ABORIGENES. This word is explained in every dictionary, English, Latin, or French, as a general name for the indigenous inhabitants of a country; when in reality it is the proper name of a peculiar people of Italy, who were not indigenous, but supposed to have been a colony of Arcadians. The error has been founded chiefly on the supposed derivation of the word from ab origine. Never (except in Swift's ludicrous work) was a more eccentric etymology-a preposition, with its governed case, made plural by the modern final s! The university of Oxford, some years ago, added to this solecism by a public prize poem on the Aboriginal Britons. The most rational etymology of the word seems to be a compound of the Greek words, gos, and yivos, a race of mountaineers. So Virgil calls them, "- Genus indocile ac dispersum montibus altis." It seems more probable, that the name of the oldest settlers in Italy should have a Greek than a Latin derivation. The preceding remarks are by a late poet-laureate, Mr. Pye, who concludes by inquiring, what should we say of the etymologist who were to deduce the name of an ancient British tribe from the modern English? TASTING DAYS. To the Editor. Sir,-Few men enjoy, or deserve better living than the citizens of London. When CURIOUS SIGN. For the Table Book. "A little learning is a dangerous thing." So said Pope, and so say I. At Halton East, near Skipton-in Craven, the following inscription arrests the attention of every passer-by : WATKINSON'S ACADAMY Whatever man has done man may do. Also DEALER IN GROCERIES, &c. TIM. T · ORDERS TO MARCH. The following parody, on a stanza of the "Blue Bonnets over the Border," is put forth, as an advertisement, by a hatter, at Brighton, named March. March! March! has the best hats to sell, Try him, you'll find him no wily deceiver; Ragged and torn, or howe'er in disorder: Round hat or opera, March! March has the best hats_to_sell, & The Broom-maker's at Shirley Common, Surrey. A homely picture of a homely place, Where rustic labour plies its honest toil, And gains a competence. "mine host" of the "Swan" at West Wickham-the recognition was mutual; and being in search of an adventure, Í asked him for a direction to any little public-house within a mile or two, that was worth looking at on account of its antiquity and rustic appearance. He despaired of any thing" absolutely" of the kind in the neighbourhood; but, from his description of what he thought might be "something near it, we took a lane to the left, and soon came to the house. Like too many of our ancient churches it had been "repaired and beautified "-deprived of every thing venerable-and was as unpicturesque as the overseers of the reparations could make |