the wisdom of the world is folly, and therefore the study of the world tends more to vitiate, than to improve. The moralist assures us that crowds and scenes of amusement are not fit places for cool and mature deliberation; that ambition, avarice and a love of pleasure incessantly mislead us; that their passions produced a scenic representation of the world, while in retirement and at home, man is himself. not rare, it is not easy to describe the feelings of heartfelt joy that his presence spreads over a whole party. He is temperate in the extreme; but if he be master of the ceremonies, he is accustomed to send round the bottle more speedily than some guests could wish. In his conversation, however, there is nothing like display or formal leading. On the contrary, every body seems to speak the more that he is there to hear-and his presence seems to be enough to make every one speak delightfully. His conversation, besides, is for the most part of such a kind, that all can take a lively part in it, although, indeed, none can equal him. Bachelors' Journal. VARIETY. RAIL-WAYS.--On a well made road a horse will draw one ton in a cart weighing 7 cwt. or about 3,000 lbs. at the rate of two miles an hour. On a rail-way of the best construction he will draw at the same rate of travelling about 15 tons let us call this 30,000 lbs. for the convenience of round numbers. On a canal In life, there are a great variety of parts in which all are compelled to appear-but there are seasons also, when the world with all its varied scenes, may be shut out from the view, and the whole attention divided to the more noble part of man; and this would more frequently be the case, were it not that the heart is pre-occupied with the trifles of earth, which most emphatically perish with the using. The current of the soul moves in a contrary direction--the passions have fastened themselves around other objects. There are a thousand feelings, each of which if arrested and made the subject of reflection, would show us what is our character, and what it is likely to be. The smallest thing appears worthy of regard, if it is known to be the beginning of what is advancing to magnificence. The little streamlet hurrying down the rugged declivity,orgent-road, the draught of a horse is ten times, and ly winding through the vale, is an interesting object to an observer, when he is told that it is one of the sources of the largest river in the world. So the man of wisdom reflects with deep solicitude on every disposition and secret working of his mind, when he considers the endless progress on which he has entered, and the august destinies which are before him. SIR WALTER SCOTT. In private life, Sir Walter Scott is the delight of all who approach him. So simple and unassuming are his manners, that a stranger is quite surprised, after a few minutes have elapsed, to find himself already almost at home in the company of one, whose presence he must have approached with feelings so very different from those which a man is accustomed to meet ordinany men. There is on kind of rank, which we should suppose is so difficult to bear with perfect case, as the universal honored genius; but all this sits as lightly and naturally upon this great man, as ever a plumed casque did upon the head of one of his graceful Knights. Perhaps, after all, the very highest dignity may be more easily worn than some of the inferior degrees--as it has often been said of Princes. When Sir Walter sees company either at home or abroad, which is he will draw about 30 tons in a boat weighing 15 tons, or about 90,000 lbs. Hence, on a rail on a canal thirty times as great as on a good road. Now a rail-road costs about three times, and a canal about nine times as much as a good road; and it is probable that the expense of keeping them in repair is in proportion to the original outlay.-It is obvious, therefore, that if rail-ways come into general use, the expense of transporting commodities will be about two-thirds less than on the best roads. Phi. Ev. Post. FROM LONDON PAPERS. A lecture was given, on Friday, by Mr. Brockedon, at the Royal Institution Albemarle street, on a new method of projecting shot, invented by Mr. Sievier, the sculptor. It was stated by Mr. Brockedon that he was present at some of the experiments, and that one ounce of gunpowder, projected to the distance of 175 yards (point blank,) a ball of fourteen pounds weight, and it afterwards penetrated the earth three feet. In another experiment it fired a shot of eighteen pounds, with the same quantity of powder, and destroyed a large tree. The most extraordinary part of this invention was, that the shot is fired without a cannon, and it was mentioned by the lecturer that the saving in the weight, particularly in ship carriage, would be very considerable, as to fire a shot of 12 pounds in the ordinary way would require a cannon of 22 hundred weight, and a carriage of about 10 do.; whereas Mr. Sie vier's invention only required a stock bar of iron of about one hun dred weight. The mode of gunnery is not confined to any calibre, therefore any sized or shaped shot may be projected from the same stock. The lecturer also stated, that he had prepared, in a rough manner, a small model || A TALE OF TRUTH. On the plains of Stillwater, N. Y. lived a revolutionary veteran and his little family-a wife and an only son, a sprightly lad of sixteen. A small plot of ground amply served their limited wants; and a little all' it was -for, sheltered by a 6 snug little cot,' from wintry storms and summer's heat, fed by healthful industry, they passed along the vale of life in simple, 'sweet content.' Here, with an honest, grateful pride, did the old man behold his country rapidly rising in national piety and physical splendor, to a peerless rank among the kingdoms of the earth; and here he could have spent the few remaining days left for him, had not the death of his wife, and the future welfare of his son, opened a new and wide field of exertion. He knew that his much loved son was soon to be left in this mercenary world, without an earthly guardian and support, and he felt the imperious call of duty to see him settled in life, if possible, ere he should be gathered to his fathers. One plan alone seemed probable to succeed --which was to avail himself of a hitherto neglected military land title. This title covered a large tract somewhere in the eastern part of Kentucky: but, from the alteration of names, he was unable to tell the precise situation. He, however, resolved to search for it, at all hazards, and accordingly sold his trifling estate, settled his debts, and set forward on foot, with all the firmness of one inured to toil and hardships from infancy. For one moment we will paint to ourselves the lovely landscape, with its skirted forests-its gurgling rill-its lowing cow and bleating sheep--yonder hill, and, at its foot, the circumscribed cottage, the home of the old patriot, and near it the grave of his wife; then behold the father, son, and faithful dog bidding the whole a silent, lasting farewell! tions of his departed wife, and the first radiations from the sun of American liberty. Whatever excitement shook him internally, his features wore the aspect of firm, high resolve. Not so the son; in that grove, and by that babbling rill, he and his dog had gambolled away many a vernal holiday. In that dear native hut, oft had he beguiled a long winter's evening, by listening to his father's legends of the old war, or conned over and over his prayers, from the mouth of his sainted mother; he was now to leave them forevHis ingenuous soul withered at the thought. From this circle all his joys and sorrows sprung--beyond it, all was vacuity.-The fountain of youthful hope and buoyance was never closed, and tears flowed in their native exuberance as he turned and left the cottage of Stillwater Plains. er. They bent their way to the nearest branch of the Alleghany, on which they embarked in an open boat, penny less, and with a small store of eatables. One stormy evening in the month of November they tied their canoe to a tree, and made their way to the nearest dwelling, which proved to be that of an unfeeling planter. He turned a deaf ear to the claims of patriotic age, and shut the door upon our shelterless wanderers! Ingratitude overcame the veteran who had scoured the forest of '76, and but for his son, he would have sunk under the weight of his misfortunes. They passed the night in one of the planter's barns, hungry, wet, cold, on a bed of straw! At dawn of day our travellers set forward to the next village, and obtained a breakfast. They found themselves in Kentucky, on one of those extensive alluvian bottoms, peculiar to the great western rivers of North America. On taking his title to a lawyer, the old gentleman found to his astonishment that it was a wealthy plantation; and what must have been his feelings, on finding it occupied by the very same brutish nabob, who, the preceding evening, drove him and his suffering child from his door! The wretch in his turn was forced to beg, for he had not enough left to pay the rent which had been amassing for twenty years;-yet with more effect, for he was allowed to spend the remainder of his miserable days on a remote corner of the plantation. His life had been a series of cruelty and knavery, and his last crowning act was followed by the temporal beginning of an eternal retribution. QUIETING CONSCIENCE.-In a town, not many miles off, the sober part of it, in imitation of their neighbors of other towns, resolved to call a meeting for the purpose of considering the expediency of adopting the best measThe father was leaving the field of his glo- ures for the suppression of Intemperance. Aćry, and the remains of his partner; in these cordingly notice to this effect was given, and a two were associated the recollections of his meeting was convened. The meeting being dearest sublunary joys--the virtues and affec-organized, and the objects of it stated, by a venerable and very good sort of man, various resolutions were adopted. Among them was one which seemed to embrace the whole subject, as it would, it was supposed, put an entire veto upon the crying sin of intemperance. It is well known to the "wool growing" part of the community, that their sheep must be effectually washed, in order to cleanse the wool for the manufacturer, once a year. Now this is a laborious business; not only so, but a very wet and cold business, as the sheep should be washed early in the season, before the wool begins to fall. In consequence, the good people of the town, resolved, under heavy penalties, that they would, in no case whatever, drink any ardent spirits, save at the laborious cold and wet business of washing sheep. Not many days after it was observed that one of those who composed the aforesaid meeting was a "little the worse for liquor." He was charged with the fact; but he protested he had lived up to the very spirit and letter of the resolution. He was asked how that could be. Why, said he, I have a sheep in that pen which I regularly wash seven times a day! Berkshire Star. Married, In Charlton, by Rev. Mr. Turner, Mr. Joseph C. Allen, of Sturbridge, to Miss Hannah Brown. Mr. Henry Whiting, to Miss Almira Brown. At Jamaica, N. Y. John Winslow Whitman, of Boston, to Sarah Helen Power, of Providence, R. I. [He who has thus submitted to the power of the fair sex is editor of the Boston Bachelors' Journal; if such are the fruits of his preaching, we hope he will continue his labors, and, working by the rule of contraries, prevail upon some of his whilom bachelor brethren to go and do likewise.] Died, In Leicester, on the 17th inst. Miss Catharine H. Warren, aged 24. During a long and distressing illness, she manifested uncommon patience and resignation, and an unwavering confidence in the mercy of her Heavenly Father, as revealed in the gospel of his son. In Ward, on the 14th inst. Elizabeth G. Bancroft, daughter of Mr. Kendall Bancroft aged 4 years. In Shrewsbury, on the 26th ult. William Kerr, of Boston, aged 33 years. In Grafton, on the 11th inst. Cyrus Putnam, son of George W. Putnam, aged 19 years. In Sterling, on the 18th inst. Mr. Barnard W. Eddy, aged 42; On Sunday last, Mr. William Richardson, aged 45; Mr. Antepas Wheeler, aged 30; Mr. Edward Johnson, a soldier of the revolution. In Sutton, Mr. Elder S. Waters, aged 77. -Miss Sylvia Dodge, daughter of Mr. Josiah Dodge, aged 21. POETRY. TO A GROUP OF PLAYING CHILDREN. Laugh on while yet the rosy blush I Of childhood's morning tints your skies; To see your mirth and careless joys; A something upon every brow, And hopes and powers and feelings high; And sadly tend to earth again. And cherish'd fancies, one by one, Ye will not have the heart to play. You'll smile on childhood's thoughtless joy; And wish you had forever been A careless, laughing, happy boy. FROM THE NEW ENGLAND WEEKLY REVIEW. Earth with its bright and glorious things, Is hastening to decay- And Time, with swift and noiseless wings, Each scene of Earth shall fade-but love Mid the dark storms that round us rave, Religion, o'er the troubled wave, And kindles an undying flame, Unchilled by grief and care- There beauty blooms-and Sorrow's stings Know not to enter there : Earth its frail flowers shall fade-but love Reveals a better world above. 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 entitled to receive SIX copies. Letters, intended for THE TALISMAN; must be post paid to insure attention. THE Worcester Talisman. NO. 10. AUGUST 9, 1828. POPULAR TALES. THE FORTUNES OF MARTIN WALDECK. The attempt to kindle the fire with this last coal having proved as inaffectual as on the former occasions, Martin relinquished the hopeless attempt, and flung himself on his bed of leaves, resolving to delay till the next morning the communication of his supernatural adventure, to his brothers. He was awakened from a heavy sleep into which he had sunk, from fatigue of body and agitation of mind by loud exclamations of surprise and joy. His brothers, astonished at finding the fire extinguished when they awoke, had proceeded to arrange the fuel in order to renew it, when they found in the ashes three huge metalic masses, which their skill, (for most of the peasants in the Harz are practical mineralogists,) immediately ascertained to be pure gold. VOL. I. ty and oppression. Waldeck's character, always bold and daring, but rendered more harsh and assuming by prosperity, soon made him odious, not to the nobles only, but likewise to the lower ranks, who saw, with double dislike, the oppressive rights of the feudal nobility of the empire so remorselessly exercised by one who had risen from the very dregs of the people. His adventure, although carefully concealed, began likewise to be whisperered abroad, and the clergy already stigmatized as a wizard and accomplice of fiends, the wretch, who, having acquired so huge a treasure in so strange a manner, had not sought to sanctify it by dedicating a considerable portion to the use of the church. Surrounded by enemies, public and private, tormented by a thousand feuds, and threatened by the church with excommunication, Martin Waldeck, or, as we must now call him, the Baron Von Waldeck, often regretted bitterly the labors and sports of his unenvied poverty. But his courage failed him not under all these difficulties and seemed rather to augment in proportion to the danger which darkened around him, until an accident precipitated his fall. A proclamation by the reigning Duke of Brunswick had invited to a solemn tournament all German nobles of free and honorable descent, and Martin Waldeck, splendidly armed, accompanied by the two brothers, and a gallantly equipped retinue, had the arrogance to appear among the cavalry of the province, and demanded permission to enter the lists.-This was considered as filling up the measure of his presumption. A thousand voices exclaimed, We will have no cinder-sitter mingle in our games of chivalry.' Irritated to frenzy, Martin drew his sword, and hewed down the herald who, in compliance with the general outcry, opposed his entrance into the lists. A hundred swords were unsheathed to avenge what was in those days regarded as a crime only inferior to sacrilege, or regicide.Waldeck after defending himself like a lion, was seized, tried on the spot by the judges of the lists, and condemned, as the appropriate punishment for breaking the peace of his sov It was some damp upon their joyful congratulations when they learned from Martin the mode in which he had obtained this treasure, to which their own experience of the nocturnal vision induced them to give full credit.But they were unable to resist the temptation of sharing in their brother's wealth. Taking now upon him as head of the house, Martin Waldeck bought lands and forests, built a castle, obtained a patent of nobility, and, greatly to the scorn of the neighborhood, was invested with all the privileges of a man of family. His courage in public war, as well as in private feuds, together with the number of retainers whom he kept in pay, sustained him for some time against the odium which was excited by his sudden elevation, and the arrogance of his pretensions. And now it was seen in the instance of Martin Waldeck, as it has been in that of many others, how little mortals can foresee the effect of sudden prosperity on their own disposition. The evil dispositions in his nature, which poverty had checked and repressed, ripened and bore their unhallowed fruit under the influence of temp-ereign, and violating the sacred person of a tation and the means of indulgence. As Deep calls unto Deep, one bad passion awakened another; the fiend of avarice invoked that of pride, and pride was to be supported by cruel herald-at-arms, to have his right hand struck from his body, to be ignominiously deprived of the honor of nobility, of which he was unworthy, and to be expelled from the city. When he had been stripped of his arms, and sustained the mutilation imposed by this severe sentence, the unhappy victim of ambition was abandoned to the rabble, who followed him with threats and outcries, levelled alternately against the necromancer and oppressor, which at length ended in violence. His brothers, (for his retinue was fled and dispersed,) at length succeeded in rescuing him from the hands of the populace, when, satiated with cruelty, they had left him half dead through loss of blood, and through the outrages he had sustained. They were not permitted, such was the ingenious cruelty of their enemies, to make use of any other means of removing him, excepting such a collier's cart as they had themselves formerly used, in which they deposited their brother, on a truss of straw, scarcely expecting to reach any place of shelter ere death should release him from his misery. When the Waldecks journeying in this miserable manner, had approached the verge of their native country, in a hollow way between two mountains, they perceived a figure advancing towards them, which at first sight variety which is the zest of life, but would eventually resolve into one tedious round of monotony. Besides, they seem to be planted upon a medium among their fellow creatures, a half-way ground between youth and age; ever too old to assimilate with children, and ever too young even to be called old. AMONG the numerous classes, and diversity of conditions, of man, there is one grade, which, it must be readily acknowledged by every one, is very peculiar in itself. It is that class of beings, a kind of non-descript gentry, which is to be found in every part of most countries, and with a goodly portion of which "the land whereon we tread" is blessed. For one, I must acknowledge that I am somewhat in favor of a distinction of this kind. Without them, soseemed to be an aged man. But as he ap-ciety and the world would not possess that proached, his limbs and statue increased, the cloak fell from his shoulders, his pilgrim's staff was changed into an uprooted pine tree, and the gigantic figure of the Harz demon passed before them in his terrors. When he came opposite to the cart which contained the miserable Waldeck, his huge features dilated into a grin of unutterable contempt and malignity, as he asked the sufferer, 'How like you the fire MY coals have kindled?' The power of motion, which terror suspended in his two brothers, seemed to be restored to Martin by the energy of his courage. He raised himself on the cart, bent his brows, and clenching his fist shook it at the spectre with a ghastly look of hate and defiance. The goblin vanished with his usual tremendous and explosive laugh, and left Waldeck exhausted with the effort of expiring nature. But, perhaps, the chief circumstance which prepossessed me in favor of this class is, that one of its members has always been a most intimate friend of mine, although our ages are at variance. My heart had learned to love him in its earliest day. Youth, unknowing to the characters and distinctions of the world, will become attached, and cling with fondness, to the object from which it receives the most attention, and the attachments which are formed in that innocent and unsuspecting season, generally continue, not only until the The terrified brethren turned their vehicle attention is withdrawn, but through life. Many toward the towers of a convent, which arose a time, when, elated by the overflowing spirin a wood of pine trees beside the rode. Theyits of boyhood, I have been playing truant were charitably received by a bare-footed and in the streets, has he, not being shackled by long-bearded capuchin, and Martin survived the fetters of matrimony, and having no one to only to complete the first confession he had greet with smiles his return to his lonely dwelmade since the first day of his sudden pros-ling, taken me by the hand and led me to the perity, and to receive absolution from the very room in which he spent his time in conning priest whom, precisely on that day three human lore. Here he won my affections, and years, he had assisted to pelt out of the ham-changing his manner of entertainment with let of Morgenbrodt. The three years of pre-increasing age, from plumbs and sweetmeats carious prosperity were supposed to have a mysterious correspondence with the number of his visits to the spectral fire upon the hill. The body of Martin Waldeck was interred in the convent where he expired, in which his brothers, having assumed the habit of the order, lived and died in the performance of acts of charity and devotion. His lands, to which no one asserted any claim,lay waste until they were reassumed by the emperor as a lapsed fief; and the ruins of the castle, which Wal || up to poetry and politics, his "study" at length became my general resort in leisure moments. (There were many traits in his character which, I should denominate eccentricities. To see a person of his age, tipped with a dandy beaver when in the street, his head braced with the pinnacle of a dickey which would portend the rise of the Poland commodity, and cravat donned with the scrupulosity of a beau of twenty; and then to see him when in private, with confidential friends, so perfectly free and easy, so |