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Specimen of an American Newspaper for the year 4796. [vol. 10

I feel myself surrounded by thy presence." With rapturous emotion he snatched the flute, and the harp again responded, but gradually its tones became softer, till the melodious murmurs ceased, and all again was silent. Sellner's feeble frame was completely disordered by these tumultuous emotions; when he threw himself on his bed it was only to rave deliriously of the harp: after a sleepless night he rose only to anticipate the renewal of his emotions; with unspeakable impatience he awaited the return of evening, when he again repaired to Josephine's apartment, where, as before, when the clock struck nine, the harp began to play, in concert with the flute, and prolonged its melodious accompaniment till the tones gradually subsided to a faint and tremulous vibration, and all again was silent. Exhausted by this second trial, it was with difficulty that Sellner tottered to his chamber, where the visible alteration in his appearance excited so much alarm, that the physician was again called in, who, with sorrow and dismay, detected aggravated symptoms of the fever which had proved so fatal to Josephine; and so rapid was its progress that in two days the patient's fate appeared inevitable. Sellner became more composed, and revealed to the physician the secret of his late mysterious communications, avowing his belief that he should not survive the approaching evening. No arguments could remove from his mind this fatal

presage; as the day declined, it gained
strength; and he earnestly entreated,
as a last request, to be conveyed to
Josephine's apartment.
The prayer
was granted. Sellner no sooner reach-
ed the well-known spot than he gazed
with ineffable satisfaction on every ob-
ject endeared by affectionate remem-

brance.

The evening hour advanced; he dismissed all his attendants, the physician alone remaining in the apartment. When the clock struck nine Sellner's countenance was suddenly illumined, the glow of hope and pleasure flushed his wan cheeks, and he passionately exclaimed-“ Josephine, greet me once more at parting, that I may overcome the pangs of death." At these words the harp breathed forth a strain of jubilee, a sudden gleam of light waved round the dying man, who, on beholding the sign, exclaimed-" I come, I come, to thee," and sunk senseless on the couch. It was in vain that the astonished physician hastened to his assistance, and he too late discovered that life had yielded in the conflict. It was long before he could bring himself to divulge the mysterious circumstances which had preceded Sellner's dissolution; but once, in a moment of confidence, he was insensibly led to make the detail to a few intimate friends, and finally produced the harp, which he had appropriated to himself as a legcay from the dead.-New. Mon.

SPECIMEN OF A PROSPECTIVE NEWSPAPER.

The North American Luminary, 1st July, 4796.

A CELEBRATED professor of a clear and comparatively warm sea

chemistry has discovered a method of composing and decomposing the surrounding atmosphere, so that any farmer can, with the greatest facility, and at a small expense, avert rain, or produce it in any quantity necessary for the perfection of his crops.

The pro

fessor recently dispelled the clouds over the city of New York and its suburbs for the space of a week, converting the cold, damp weather of our winter into

son. By this useful contrivance, any mariner may allay the violence of a hurricane, or give the wind the direction and degree of force best suited to the objects of his voyage.

The corporation of Baltimore have subscribed a sum for erecting one of the newly-invented telescopes. It is to be liberally appropriated to the use of all the citizens, so that the meanest

* The origin of this name of Waterloo is now irrecoverably lost, unless it be a corruption of the terms water low, or low water, the bridge perhaps having been built at a spor of less depth than the contiguous parts of the river.

of about the same length, and curved at the extremity. It had four strings, extending from the extremity of the handle, beyond the middle of the instrument itself, and being held between the chin and the collar-bone by the left hand, was played on by the right with a bent stick, curved at the two ends, being drawn together with horse-hair. This we have no doubt is some species or description of that instrument so celebrated amongst the Europeans between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries under the name of fiddle or violin: for the Society of Antiquarians, in their last report, have given it as their decided opinion that the ancient fiddle, viola, violin, violincello, and bass viol, were merely different kinds of the same instrument; and they very ably refute Dr. Camden's conjecture that the violin of ancient Europe was an instrument of parchment and bells, played upon by the knuckles.-Vide Reports of the Antiquarian Society of New York.folio, vol.1783, p.860.*

The late voyage of Professor Wanderhagen to the moon took up a space of nearly seven months, but the present expedition, it is expected, will take up much less time. The body of the balloon will be filled with the new gas discovered by our chemist Dr. Etherly, and which is 800 times lighter than the lightest gas known to the ancient Europeans. The body of this balloon will not be circular, but a polygon, of an infinity of angles, and at each angle a pair of wings, all of which are worked with the greatest precision and facility, by the most simple but beautiful machinery. These wings at once create a draft, and determine the direction of the air at the will of the aeronaut, whose balloon is easily steered by a newly-constructed air-rudder. The boat of the balloon will contain twenty-five persons, and provisions for a twelvemonth. This boat has two immense self-acting wings, which, like a bird's, condense the air underneath the boat so as to assist in supporting

the machine. The boat itself will be covered with a paste made of the essence of cork, as a non-conductor of heat; and Professor Wanderhagen, having suffered so much from the cold in his previous voyage, will provide himself with a store of the " condensed essence of caloric," a cubic inch of which will keep up a brilliant light and an intense heat for four-and-twenty hours.

The new mechanical steam-coach left Philadelphia at eight in the evening of the 3d ultimo, and arrived at Parrysburg, Greenland, at noon on the 5th, a distance of 893 miles in 40 hours. It carried eighteen in, and twenty-seven outside passengers, besides a great quantity of luggage.

By the method of instruction which has been followed for nearly two centuries by the professors of our various universities, a gentleman is made thoroughly acquainted with literature, philosophy, and the sciences, in less than two years; but according to the new plan proposed by Professor Swift, the same perfection of knowledge may be acquired in less than twelve months.

Advertisement.-Shortly will be published, price two dollars, The Complete Farmer; shewing the art by which the earth is made to produce four crops in the year, and the crops preserved from any possibility of injury by season or weather.

In the press, and shortly will be published, price one dollar, A Description of the Patent Safety Machine, by means of which Dr. Boreum descended thro' the crater of a volcano, and discovered the cause of volcanic eruptions.

The present maturity of the medical science is beautifully displayed by the last report of our College of Physicians. By the assistance of the optical glasses which enable us to perceive minutely all the most secret functions of the animal economy, and the perfect state of

*The ancient fiddle, with its cognomen, or monosyllable præfixture, was, we fancy, a low instrument, very generally played upon by the vulgar. Professor Von Helmont conceives it to have been not a stringed, but a wind instrument; but this is little more than conjecture.

the various sciences relating to medicine, the modern physician is not only able to recover the human body from the various attacks of disease, but he is able to anticipate its causes, and to prevent its approach to a degree of moral certainty. But more even than this can be effected by the magic of modern science. The physician can prolong life to treble that time which was formerly considered its natural period of duration, and can at once render the human body secure from disease and free from deformity. Those medicines which with infallible security either totally prevent, or if not applied in time for prevention, will rapidly cure the gout, stone, phthisis, pulmonalis, and other disorders, are now known to all. But, does Nature make us feeble and diminutive, the physician calculates the means by which he can effect the accretion of particles to the various parts of our bodies, and thus render his patient perfect in symmetry. If our teeth are not to the model of perfection, they can be extracted without pain, and by taking those elements of which by analysis teeth are found to be composed, they may be regenerated, and during their growth they can be formed to the standard of ideal beauty. Is our vision imperfect, the medicines which are found to affect the size and colour of our eyes are applied, and in a week those organs are both beautiful and of perfect operation. Thus are we brought to a state free from disease, a state of longevity, in which our form and features have no model but that formed by our ideas of perfection and beauty.

The manner in which the numerous productions of the earth are now exchanged between man and man, is beautiful from the simplicity of its cause, and from the effect it has upon human happiness. It was a plausible theory amongst the ancients, that a statesman of wisdom should sit in his closet as in a focus of knowledge, to which should be brought all the returns of customhouses, with the various reports and data of commerce-that, weighing these in the balance of wisdom, he should be able to instruct corporate bodies as

you

well as individuals, as to the various channels into which their capital and industry should flow. From hence had arisen commercial treaties, bounties, drawbacks, imposts, licenses, &c. until the simple principles of trade were lost in the most complex and absurd systems of commercial polity. But the experience of ages has at length proved what the speculations of ingenious men had previously advanced, and man is now very properly left to direct his capital and labour according to his own knowledge and discretion. Is it not the height of impertinence for a statesman to say to him who enters a commercial city for the purpose of trade, "Sir, you shall not employ your capital according to your own knowledge and experience, but according to my conceptions of commerce: want to trade to the West; I think it better that trade should flow to the East, and I have therefore laid heavy duties, and even prohibitions upon western trade, whilst I will encourage eastern trade by drawbacks, bounties, and special immunities?" Thus every thing was forced out of its natural channel, and every country may be said to have been in a sort of peaceful siege. Now things are left to their own level. The common principles of demand and supply are now acknowledged to regulate markets much better than legislatorial calculations and interference.-. Human necessities and the common principles of our nature are found to constitute the best barometers of commercial policy, and individuals are permitted to trade with their wealth, according to their own knowledge and calculations. Thus we have no circuitous channels of communication— no licensing-bending-no unloading to load again, no entering one port as a passport into another, no waste of labour; man freely exchanges with man, and the bounties of Providence are diffused over the whole carth.

Last year, no less than.731 vessels sailed from Alaska, and the western coast of America, through the channels separating America from North Geor gia and Greenland. It is curious to reflect that the very existence of such a

DISCOVERY OF THE NORTH-WEST MAGNETIC POLE.