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victim to the complaint, the candid physician does not, as in some other capital, attempt to mistify the friends, by remarking that "the patient was getting better, but caught cold and died." There are, seriously speaking, so few diseases of the chest, catarrhs and defluxions, and feverish colds in the Russian capital, that I was quite surprised on hearing consumption quoted as almost an epidemic complaint. Granville's Travels.

FRIENDSHIP.

Beware of those who on a short acquaintance, make you a tender of their friendship, and seem to place a confidence in you: 'tis ten to one but they deceive and betray you: however, do not rudely reject them upon such a supposition; you may be civil to them, tho' do not intrust them. Silly men are apt to solicit your friendship and unbosom themselves upon the first acquaintance; such a friend cannot be worth having, their friendship being as slender as their understanding; and if they proffer their friendship with a design to make a property of you, they are dangerous acquaintance indeed. Not but the little friendship of the weak may be of some use to you, if you do not return the compliment; and it may not be amiss to seem to accept those of designing men, keeping them, as it were, in play, that they may not be open enemies; for their enmity is the next dangerous thing to their friendship. We may certainly hold their vices in abhorrence, without being marked out as their personal enemy. The general rule is to have a real reserve with almost every one, and a seeming reserve with almost no one: for it is very disgusting to seem reserved, and very dangerous not to be so. Few observe the true medium. Many are ridiculously mysterious upon trifles, and many indiscreetly communicative of all they know.

MARRIAGES IN HOLLAND.-Marriages in Holland are merely civil obligations, which require no ecclesiastical sanction to give them validity. A week or two before the intended consumation, notice is given to the Burgomaster; the certificate of baptism, and the consent of the parents (when that consent is necessary) are deposited with the magistrate, and on the day fixed, the parties attend with their friends in the town hall, and the article of the code is read, which records the obligations of the matrimonial condition; then the Burgomaster asks in a loud voice, whether the parties consent to fulfil the matrimonial obligations, and on their answering "yes," or bowing the head in assent, he declares the marriage valid. The protestants sometimes proceed to the house of the Dominie, or minister, to ask his blessing and sometimes the Burgoniaster himself accompanies the civil ceremony with a word of advice, or a friendly benediction. As marriage is one of the sacraments of the Roman church,

the right is not completed, if the parties are Catholics, until the following Sunday, when they confess themselves, and partake of the Lord's Supper.

DIVORCES IN FRANCE.-The following is the system of divorce in France:-If either the man or woman wish to be divorced, they must give notice of it to the Prefect, and six months' time is necessary before it takes place; in the interim the necessary arrangements for the maintenance of the children are made, which are as follows-"The girls are generally consigned to the care of the mother, and the boys to the father; a very minute investigation takes place of the father's or mother's fortune, so that the children are certain of being provided for. If a man is rich, and is the party that sues for divorce, he must return half his wife's jointure, and settle a maintenance on her for life. If a woman sues for the

divorce, the wife must return every article or present she has received from her husband, even before marriage. The woman is not compelled, however, to maintain her husband after divorce, but must her children. If the father marries, and has heirs by his last marriage, the children by the former wife have the same claims to the patrimony as the others."

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MR. COBBETT'S BEAU-IDEAL OF A LABORER.-The following characteristic advertisement appears in Cobbett's Register:-"I want three or four laboring men for the winter, at three shillings per week, boarding and lodg ing in my farm house. They must be single men, young, stout, and know how to work upon a farm, and willing to rise early, to keep home steadily, and to be, at all times, sober. None need apply if they have lived a week,at any time, within forty miles of London. I prefer men from any part of Wiltshire, and from North Hants; but I object to no county, pro||vided the parties have not lived within the above distance of London, and have been in farm service, or farm work all their lives. In the spring the men may go away, if they like; and, indeed, they may quit my service whenever they like, I being at liberty to quit paying them when I like."

"N. B. No man need come, unless be have a smock frock on his budy, and nailed shoes upon his feet."

DR. PARR.-The rudeness of Dr. Parr to ladies was sometimes extreme. To a lady who had ventured to oppose him with more warmth of temper than cogency of reasoning, and who afterwards apologised for herself by saying "that it was the privilege of women to talk nonsense ;"-"No, madam,” replied Dr. Parr, "it is not their privilege, but their infirmity. Ducks would walk if they could; but nature suffers them only to waddle."

When we request the opinion of a friend upon any subject either relative to ourselves, or others, we should by no means rely upon its being always favorable to our wishes, or congenial with our own. It is truth we seek for, not compliment. We should therefore be prepared to hear it expressed without disguise,and be assured, those who have not sufficient independence to render, the candid decisions of their judgment on all occasions are not worthy of being consulted on any.-Bower of Taste.

The following highly poetical inscriptions, instead of the vulgar insignia of "boots and shoes," are to be found on the signs of two brethren of the craft of the metropolis:"Here's the man that wont refuse For to mend both boots and shoes; My leather's good, my charges just; Excuse me--I must not trust."

The next is more sublime; but as it has less of the business-like style than the former, we should be inclined to prefer the man of modest pretensions for our cobbler.

"Blow, O blow, ye gentle breezes, All among the leaves and treezes; Sing, O sing, ye heavenly muses,

And I will mend your boots and shoozes."

WINTER is much dreaded before it arrives, yet when it comes it brings many enjoyments. It gives a new impulse to the social feelingsfor the very cold that freezes a man's finger, seems to give a kindly thaw to his feelings.The little family circle is never so closely united and so happy in itself as in a winter evening, especially when the storm is beating upon the window, and he ought to be a happy man who listens while one of his little children reads, and watches his eyes sparkling when he reads of an act of magnanimity, or his lip curl in scorn, at baseness and ingratitude.

to the use we make of them, decide our happiness or misery for the rest of our lives.

EPITAPHS. The last vanities of men are

their epitaphs, and are often a surer proof of the pride of the living, than of the virtues of falsity is so inseparably united to man, that the dead. It should seem from hence, that it accompanies him even to the tomb, and triumphs over his ashes. The expense attending monumental erections is often only with a view to give credit to imposition; and eulogiums which are engraved on marble in honor of the deceased, are too often only a portrait of what we would wish they had resembled, rather than a faithful picture of what they had been.

YOUNG EAGLES. In one of the Crags of Ben Nevis, Scotland, two parent eagles were teaching two young birds the manoeuvre of flight. They began by rising from the top of a mountain, in the eye of the sun, (it was a bout mid-day, and bright for this climate.)--They at first made small circles, and the young birds imitated them; they paused on their wings, waiting till they had made their first flight, and then took a second and larger gyration, always rising towards the sun, and enlarging their circle of flight so as to make a gradually extending spiral. The young oues still slowly followed, apparently flying better as they mounted: and they continued this sublime kind of exercise, always rising, till. they became mere points in the air, and the young ones were lost, and afterwards their parents, to the aching sight.

Married,

In Greenwich on the 27th ult. by Rev. Joseph Bladget, Mr. Zeba Snow, to Miss Eliza Ann Warner, eldest daughter of Col. John Warner, all of Greenwich.

In this town Mr. Walter R. Bigelow to Miss Eliza Mower.

In Hallowell, Danforth P. Livermore, to Miss Eliza Spaulding.

In Brookfield, by Rev. Mr. Foot, Mr. Alfred Gilbert to Miss. Caroline Allen, all of Brookfield.

Died,

In North Brookfield, Oct. 25th, Mr. Judah Stevens, aged 74 years—a soldier of the revolution.

CHANCE. Chance is the prime minister of In Ward, on the 3d instant, Mrs. Anne Cafortune, and executes whatever that blind di- ry, wife of Recompense Cary, Esq. aged 62 vinity decrees with respect to mortals. It flies years. While engaged about the ordinary as swift as thought, and comes as unexpected- business of the household, her clothes accily as the thief by night. It sometimes sud.dentally took fire. Being alone at the time, denly raises us to honors, for which we should she was severely burnt before the flames were have never presumed to hope; and at other extinguished. She survived the accident sevtimes, hurls us from the summit of prosperity, || eral days and expired in great agony. into the gulf of irrevocable ruin. It sometimes In Oxford, Cyrene Augusta, only daughter suddenly presents occasions, which according || of Mr. John Mellish, aged 5 months.

POETRY.

From the New England Weekly Review.
ΤΟ

Yes, lady, thou wilt die.-That lip of snow
And that pale brow foretell thy early lot;
The wing of death is o'er thee-thou wilt go
Where broken hearts and blighted flowers

are not.

Thou art too beautiful to linger where

The rainbow brightens but to melt away, And the sweet sounds that wander on the air, But swell the dirge of sorrow and decay.

Yes thou wilt die.--Thy spirit soon will leave This dull cold exile for its place on high, And like a bright cloud on a summer eve,

Melt in the deeper glories of the sky;

Thy home will be where bluer skies are glassed

In brighter streams mid love's undying bow

ers,

And where the winds of ruin never passed, Nor serpents writhed round Passion's sweetest flowers.

Aye, thou wilt die-and I shall linger here,

When all the blossoms of the heart are fled, To muse on thee, and mourn with bitter tear The cold, the lost, the beautiful, the dead; And as life's stars in loneliness depart, Thy memory still amid the deepening gloom, Will shine upon the ruins of my heart, Like a lone fire fly on the midnight tomb.

MY WIFE, MY CAT, AND ME.
Let Winter come, with chilling look,
And strip the summer bower;
He cannot rob me of my Book,
Or philosophic hour:

Yes, let him come, with aspect chill,
The leaves strip from the tree,
There's three hat can be happy still:
My Wife-my Cat-and Me.

The storm may howl, the snow may fall,
The frost may glitter bright;

1 heed them not, while on the wall,
The hearth fire shows its light,

Nor care I how the winds may blow,
If from a dun I'm free,

For little will suffice you know,
My Wife-my Cat-and Me.

The fool may pleasure take in wealth,
I covet not his pelf;

He's richer who's a mind in health,
Who does not fear himself;

How sweet to hope for brighter days,
Though they should never be,
While warm we sit before the blaze,
My Wife-my Cat-and Me.

FROM AN ABSENTEE.
BY BARRY CORNWALL.
Let me wander where I will,
Thy sweet voice is near me still-
On thy dumb untrodden mountains-
In the silver-speaking fountains-

In the wandering winds that roam,
And never, never find a home-
In the sky-lark's merrier measure,
When she fills the morn with pleasure,

And by day, and in the night,
Thy soft eyes are my love-light,
While thy tender voice doth cherish
Hope to life, which else might perish.

O voice, which comes o'er land and seas!
O eyes, bright 'midst the tamarisk trees!
Why need I dream of vast emotion?
Of distant skies? of severing ocean?
'Midst toil and war, 'neath Indian suns,
"Midst deserts where no river runs,
What care I? Ye are shade and river-
Are hope-are joy which faileth never!

SACRED MELODY.

BY ALARIC A. WATTS.

There is a thought can lift the soul,

Above the dull cold sphere that bounds it

A star that sheds its mild control

Brightest when grief's dark cloud surrounds

it.

And pours a soft prevading ray, Life's ills may never chase away!

When earthly joys have left the breast,
And e'en the last fond hope it cherish'd
Of mortal bliss-too like the rest--

Beneath woe's withering touch hath perish'd
With fadeless lustre streams that light,
A halo on the brow of night!

And bitter were our sojourns here

In this dark wilderness of sorrow,
Did not that rainbow beam appear,
The heraid of a brighter morrow,
A gracious beacon from on high
To guide us to Eternity!

The Chinese cultivate many aquatic plants in the lakes, canals, pools and rivulets. Many of them are unknown in Europe, but are used for food by the Chinese.

WORCESTER TALISMAN. Published every other Saturday morning, by DORR & HOWLAND, Worcester, (Mass.) at $1 a year, payable in advance.

Agents paying five dollars will be enti tled to receive SIX copies.

Letters, intended for THE TALISMAN, must be post paid to insure attention.

GRIFFIN AND MORRILL....PRINTERS.

THE

Worcester Talisman.

NO. 20.

DECEMBER 27, 1828.

POPULAR TALES.

FOR THE TALISMAN.

"I would recal a vision that I dreamed
Perchance in sleep."

VOL. I.

bathed in the stream of Time, a river whose deep broad waters rolled noiselessly but unceasingly. She had formed an acquaintance with Sorrow, with Care and Affliction; she had met the meagre herald called Decay, and "Tired nature's sweet restorer" descended each of these had tended to tarnish her apwith silken wings and laid his hand upon my pearance. Combined together, they had stolweary eyes. Slumber, that delicious balm en her graces and she was an altered being.-that woos us from our troubles, folded me in Fear came with a watchful eye and a step as her downy arms, shielding me from all earthly silent as the summer wind; but he was formcares, and I was as if divested of mortaiity.ed so frail, and of su timid a temperament, Of things past, present and future, I was ignorant. My mind had become a subject to forgetfulness, and was shrouded by an impenetrable gloom. How long I remained in this state I cannot judge, but at length the darkness in which I was enveloped began to disperse,and the clear blue heavens,studded with their countless gems appeared bright and beautiful above me. Immediately upon coming to a state of perfect sensibility, I discovered that I was alone, winging a feeble flight through the depths of immensity. I be held that I had an inconceivable motion, but I knew not its origin. Onward, onward, onward seemed stamped upon me as my future destiny. Bright stars were glistening above, below, and around me, and my flight was among them. I discovered suns and passed by worlds that I knew not.After having thus wandered, seemingly without a guide, through a large portion of the immeasurable abyss, I felt my flight retarded, and a world opened to my view upon which I alighted; but I had forgotten that I was man, that I had ever inhabited any place but the unsubstantial fields of ether. I knew not the name of earth, and all the knowledge of myself was, that I existed. The spot upon which I found myself in this stranger world. | was a portion of a delightful valley, in which a numerous assemblage of beings, peculiar to this land, had assembled. I gazed at them with intense interest, and as they passed before me, some kind voice whispered their names into my ear.

that even the faint echoes of his own footsteps startled him and he fled as if to escape from himself. Joy rushed along with an elastic bound his eyes were sparkling and a heartfelt smile played upon his cheeks. Heedless of any impediment that might perchance be thrown before him, he hurried on in his glad career; but alas! how transient was that career, stumbling against an unseen object, which, as I learned, was placed in his path by an arrant damsel yclap'd Fortune who had gone before, he fell and disappeared from my sight. But, from the point at which he met his fate, a person, clothed in sable garments, arose, and I heard her moan. Her eyes were suffused with a flood of tears, and ever and anon she heaved a deep and long-drawn sigh, which pierced me to the heart. She seemed to be suffering beneath a burden that was ready to rend her bosom. This was Sorrow. She had walked but a few moments, when several damsels, beautiful in themselves,hastened to soothe her. Pity, with a tender and feeling expression of countenance, came forward and offered her assistance, and Sympathy whispered sweet and affectionate words in her ear. But still I discovered that she received no permanent relief from their aid, nor could she find any effectual remedy until she bathed in the passing stream of time. There was another who seemed not only sister to, but the same as Sorrow, known sometimes by the appellation of Affliction.-The only material difference between the two was, that the one was of a more incurable naThe first who passed was a being who came ture than the other. While one underwent with a buoyant and graceful step; long and the long and tedious ablution performed by flowing ringlets of auburn hair, waved about the stream of time, the other found almost her snowy neck, and her brow was as pure immediate relief in the restoring power of a and transparent as alabaster. Her name was kind and benignant, a peaceful and beautiful Beauty, her eyes were beaming with a lustre friend, known generally by the name of Reli native to themselves, and her lips were speak-gion. There was a glow in this fair maiden's ing with smiles. I beheld her again; she had countenance that shed a heavenly lustre upon

were scattered thickly, whose grateful perfume filled the air. A little cherub of beauty was playing upon its mother's knee, and it smiled with the smiles of its father. Virtue was their most forward and their principal attendant, and I saw her binding a wreath of evergreen flowers around them. I was convinced that,if they merited the name they bore, Sorrow, the sable-vestured maiden whom I had seen, must never venture under their bowers, and every one, whose disposition was not moulded and tempered to peace and tranquillity, must remain beyond its borders. This group was Happiness; yet, I was assured that it was nothing more than a picture conjured up by a fickle being called Imagination. 'Tis true, there might be a transitory existence of it, in reality; but all the opposing spirits which were attributes of the situation in which they were placed, were continually harassing them, pulling down their bulwarks, and entering upon their grounds; this was ruin to the existence of true Happiness. Another scene delighted me; a person wearing a serious but happy countenance, was seated beneath the spreading branches of a willow. He appeared to have but few inveterate enemies; there were many indeed with whom he would have cheerfully dispensed, but, if Sorrow trespassed upon his borders he suffered her to pass without giving any considerable pain; and did any other enemy appear he suffered them to pass as harmlessly as possible, considering that their conduct was ordained by Him who was the Author of them all. Vice however, let her appear before him in whatever form she might, always created uneasiness in his mind, and was totally rejected from his presence; his name was Contentment. Hatred stared me in the face, Anger darted by me with an impetuous motion, while lightning seemed flashing from his eyes, and his cheeks flaming with fire. Revenge, cool and meditating Revenge, buckled on his armor with composure, and rushed forward to commit some foul and hel

every object by which she was surrounded.-But it did not require very close scrutiny to discern that there were great and universal differences in opinion concerning her. Those who were best acquainted with her, found her kind, gentle, peaceable and lovely; while those, to whom she was a stranger, were continually uttering their dislike of her. To them she appeared to wear a dark and gloomy brow. Coldness was in her words, and she looked upon them with a chilly frown. These hurried from my presence, and Poverty, with a meagre form and tattered habiliments, came forward, relating a dismal tale and asking relief from those by whom he was surrounded.-I was not a little interested to observe the vast difference in manner with which his story was heard by those to whom it was addressed.Avarice, a cold and heartless wretch, with a mean and sordid mind, but whose coffers were overflowing with abundant riches, cast an indignant and unfeeling eye upon the sufferer, and bid him begone. Pride, a person of so despicable a character, as to be universally disliked, hastened by him with a haughty look, and self-important carriage, as if no suppliant was there. Humanity, who wore a mild and generous aspect, spread out his banners and received him under them with a willing heart. Charity, the deserving handmaid of Humanity, streched forth an open hand and freely gave a liberal gift to relieve the distressed. When the supplicant sufferer received the benevolent assistance of the two last mentioned, Gratitude walked up with a speaking smile, and rewarded the donors with a thousand heartfelt thanks. Shame, the stedfast attendant upon Guilt, was lurking behind, endeavoring to screen himself from the public gaze. Jealousy, an ugly fiend, with an envenomed weapon, was chopping through the tender roots of the green and beautiful tree of bliss,that had been flourishing under the fostering care of Love. I beheld him, with sorrow, engaged in his horrible purpose, but nothing could dissuade him from accomplishing the foullish deed. I looked through a long vista that and ill-fated deed. All the endearing accents, receded before me, and beheld a numerous the kind remonstrances of Love, the foster- train of beings, attendants with those whom I parent of the tree, availed not; he persevered have mentioned; but while I was eager to with untiring assiduity, until the noble tree trace the developments of their characters, a was undermined, and it fell, withered and de- person named False Friendship approached cayed, and finally crumbled to dust beneath me, but by his disgusting pretensions, and his the chill and palsying hand of Neglect. Jus- endeavors to ingratiate himself into my favor, tice brandished a glittering sword for the pur- he so disgusted me that I awoke, and discovpose of protecting the star-eyed maiden Inno-ered that it "was not all a dream." cence, and punishing that offspring of Sin, denominated Guilt, Indolence, a sluggish fellow, was slumbering upon a couch prepared by the hands of Lethargy, while Industry was intently engaged in some useful employment. Beneath a tall and waving sycamore, whose branches whispered to the passing zephyr, and in the shade of whose leaves, the songsters of a perennial summer-sky chanted their varying songs, two beings, whose hearts and souls were one, were seated. Every thing around them was luxuriance and fertility. Beds of flowers

WAR.

CLARENCE.

One great obstacle to the extinction of war, is the way in which the heart of man is carried off from its barbarities and its horrors, by the splendor of its deceitful accompaniments. There is a feeling of the sublime in contemplating the devouring energy of a tempest; and

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