Our young countryman's quarter deck was twice swept of every one on it but himself and a single trumpeter, the only survivor of four who had been forgot playing on the poop, in the beginning of the engagement, and were mowed down one after another, without offering to stir from their place, or ceasing to blow their trumpets; although entirely drowned by the thunder of artillery, and groans of the dying; till on the firing slackening a little towards the end, the survivor was fortunately perceived by the captain, bringing such dismal sounds from his trumpet as made the captain smile amidst all the horrors that surrounded him, as he afterwards told us.

Two remarkable circumstances distinguished this action from all others fought during the war; the one was, that owing to the position of the ship, one side of the captain's white uniform, as well as that of his few surviving officers stationed in different parts of the vefsel, were dyed in a manner of a red colour, by the blood of their fallen companions, whilst the other was left clean, which had a singular effect, insomuch, that when he went with them on board his admiral after the engagement, the moment Greig perceived the barge drawing towards his ship, he exclaimed, "It is easy to distinguish the brave Elphiston and his officers, by their honourable livery." The other circumstance, almost equally uncommon, was the fhattered condition his fhip entered Cronstadt, to the surprise of some hundreds of British seamen, then lying in that port, who declared that the slightest breeze of wind, sufficient only to have heeled her a little, must have proved fatal; as fhe was pierced like a sieve, by some hundreds of

fhot, and long lay a spectacle for the curiosity of this city, and a monument of British courage.

Soon after the engagement, captain Elphiston was introduced to her majesty by count T. vice president, or first lord of the admiralty, and was graciously received and decorated with the fourth clafs of the order of military merit; but he must have been much flattered that day by the foreign ministers, and many of the great Russian nobility, desiring to be presented to him, as they politely termed it, to do honour to so brave an officer.

Upon this occasion, he assured your correspondent who had every information from him, consistent with modesty, (the rest is notorious,) that if he had been a few inches taller, he must have in all probability been killed, as a number of fhot struck an object in a direct line with his head, but a very little higher. The captain was a little delicate looking figure, with much animation and fire, rather fhorter than his father, and much slenderer. In honour of little great men be it said, that captain Crown, another British officer, the Lockhart of the north, is much about the same size.

His own fhip being rendered a perfect wreck, Elphiston was appointed to the command of that of the Swedish admiral,—a distinction he so well meritéd, and had got every thing ready for renewing his brilliant career, when it was stopped for ever by a malignant fever, which cut him off in the flower of youth, and gallant atchievements, in the arms of his young wife, left to deplore his lofs in the midst of thousands of mourners, if that can be any consolation in the moment of poignant grief.

ARCTICUS.

TO THE CROCUS.

UPRIGHT as are the thoughts of her I prize,
Second of flow'rs, though little canst thou boast
May charm the sight or gratify the smell,
I love thee! for of all this goodly scene
Which we behold, nought earlier than thyself
My soul remembers. In my boyish years
I've mark'd thy coming with incessant watch;
Oft have I visited each morn the spot
Wherein thou lay'st entomb'd; oft joy'd to see
Thy pointed tops just peering through the ground:
And, ah! fond fool! how often hast thou bar'd
Their tender sides, till thy too greedy love

Has kill'd the flow'rs its strange impatience strove
To hasten into bloom! So do not ye

Whom heav'n has blest with children; but beware
Lest ye expose your darling hopes too soon
To the world's fury, there to face the winds,
Whose bitter biting chills the weakly plant;
But shield them with your kind and fost'ring aid,
Till they have gather'd strength t'abide those frosts
That nip life's op'ning bud, else ye perhaps
May find your hopes all blasted, ev'n as mine. i

Ye much lov'd Crocuses, while mem'ry lasts,
I'll hold ye dear: for still ye fhall recall
My infant days! And, oh! how great's the bliss
To think on those! Oft does this soul enhale
The sweet remembrance, till the strong perfume
Tortures the sense: for say whate'er ye will,
And call to memory departed joys,
'Tis but a painful pleasure: in themselves
Our purest joys are intermix'd with cares;
But in the recollection of those joys,
The sordid dregs of intermingling care

Sink to the ground, while all the blifs sublim'd,
Is efsence pure too pregnant to be borne.

MYRA, A PASTORAL.

For the Bee.

O MYRA attend to the lay

Which Corydon sings in the fhade;

To pass the dull moments away
The Muses are Corydon's aid;

VOL; XV.

P. H.

They teach him to play on the reed,
Much wealth he can never obtain,
Yet careless of that, he can feed

His flocks, and the trifle disdain.

At the bottom of yonder green hill,
'Mongst woodlands so charming and sweet,
By the side of a murmuring rill

Stands Corydon's rural retreat :
No! pompous appearance or fhow,
This lowly retirement can boast,
To nature its beauties I owe,

And nature delights me the most,

The landscape is lovely around,
The riv❜lets glide gently along,
Attun'd to the musical sound

Of the woodlark and nightingale's song :
The bleating of flocks from the hill,
The humming of bees from their cell,
Amuse me with melody still,

Such melody nought can excell.

I walk by the whispering grove,

Where the zephyrs sound soft through the spray, I mourn with the amorous dove,

And join the sweet nightingale's lay:
These sounds are so mournfully sweet,
That mirth seems unpleasant to me,
I'd leave the fond thought with regret
Of indulging a passion for thee.

The pleasures that wait on the spring,
The flow'rs and the fair budding tree,
The joys that the summer can bring,
Are tastelefs when absent from thee:
From the warblers that sing in the grove
In vain does the melody flow,
But when with the maid that I love
'Tis enchantment wherever I go.

I covet not jewels and gold,

The rich I unenvied can see, No treasure on earth I behold, No jewel so precious as thee: With me to my cottage retire

Unburden'd with treasure and wealth,

Let love all our pleasures inspire

And live in contentment and health.

ON SINGULARITY OF RESEARCH. LITERARY OLLA. NO. VII. For the Bee.

"THERE is perhaps no one principle in human nature that leads to greater consequences, than the concentration of application to singular research.

But this, like every other principle, has occasionally strange and useless terminations, that may be called lusus naturæ in morals.

As an instance of this, I will present you with the result of a man's labour for three years, eight or nine hours a-day, Sundays not excepted, to determine the verses, words, and letters contained in the Bible.

Verses,
Words,
Letters,

31,173.

773,692.

3,566,480.

The middle and the least chapter is the 117th Psalm.

The middle verse is the 8th verse of the 101st Psalm.

Jehovah is named 6855 times.

The middle one of these Jehovahs is in second Chronicles fourth chapter and sixteenth verse.

The word and in the Bible is found 46,227 times.

The least verse in the Old Testament is in first Chronicles first and tenth verses.

The least in the New Testament, 11th chapter of John 35th verse.

I look upon this to be a very curious occurrence in the history of human nature, that there fhould have existed a man who, merely from the pleasure of employment, fhould have spent three years on such a task.