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tion with more truth and clearness. And therefore I know that nothing of all that I can embrace in imagination belongs to the knowledge which I have of myself, and that there is need to recall with the utmost care the mind from this mode of thinking, that it may be able to know its own nature with perfect distinctness.

But what, then, am I? "A thinking thing," it has been said. But what is a thinking thing? It is a thing that doubts, understands, [conceives], affirms, denies, wills, refuses; that imagines, also, and perceives. Assuredly, it is not little if all these properties belong to my nature. But why should they not belong to it? Am I not that very being who now doubts of almost everything, who for all that understands and conceives certain things, who affirms one alone as true and denies the others, who desires to know more of them and does not wish to be deceived, who imagines many things sometimes even despite his will, and is likewise percipient of many as if through the medium of the senses? Is there nothing of all this as true as that I am, even although I should be always dreaming, and although he who gave me being employed all his ingenuity to deceive me? Is there, also, any one of these attributes that can be properly distinguished from my thought, or that can be said to be separate from myself? For it is of itself so evident that it is I who doubt, I who understand and I who desire that it is here unnecessary to add anything by way of rendering it more clear. And I am as certainly the same being who imagines; for although it may be (as I before supposed) that nothing I imagine is true, still the power of imagination does not cease really to exist in me and

to form part of my thought. In fine, I am the same being who perceives-that is, who apprehends-certain objects as by the organs of sense, since, in truth, I see light, hear a noise and feel heat. But it will be said that these presentations are false and that I am dreaming. Let it be so. At all events, it is certain that I seem to see light, hear a noise and feel heat; this cannot be false, and this is what in me is properly called perceiving (sentire), which is nothing else than thinking. From this I begin to know what I am with somewhat greater clearness and distinctness than heretofore.

Revised translation of PROFESSOR MACDOUGALL.

OF

THE GIBBONS.

the gibbons, half a dozen species are found scattered over the Asiatic islands, Java, Sumatra, Borneo, and through Malacca, Siam, Arracan and an uncertain extent of Hindostan, on the mainland of Asia. The largest attain a few inches above three feet in height, from the crown to the heel, so that they are shorter than the other manlike apes; while the slenderness of their bodies renders their mass far smaller in proportion even to this diminished height.

Dr. Salomon Müller, an accomplished Dutch naturalist, who lived for many years in the Eastern Archipelago, states that the gibbons are true mountaineers, loving the slopes and edges of the hills, though they rarely ascend beyond the limit of the fig trees. All day long they haunt the tops of the tall trees; and though, toward evening, they descend in small troops to the open ground, no sooner do they spy a man than

they dart up the hillsides and disappear in with the greatest ease and uninterruptedly the darker valleys.

All observers testify to the prodigious volume of voice possessed by these animals. M. Duvaucel affirms that the cry of the siamang may be heard for miles, making the woods ring again. So Mr. Martin describes the cry of the agile gibbon as " gibbon as "overpowering and deafening" in a room, and, "from its strength, well calculated for resounding through the vast forests." Mr. Waterhouse, an accomplished musician as well as zoologist, says, "The gibbon's voice is certainly much more powerful than that of any singer I ever heard." And yet it is to be recollected that this animal is not half the height of, and far less bulky in proportion than, a man.

Mr. Martin has given so excellent and graphic an account of the movements of a Hylobates agilis living in the Zoological Gardens that I will quote it in full:

"It is almost impossible to convey in words an idea of the quickness and graceful address of her movements; they may indeed be termed aerial, as she seems merely to touch in her progress the branches among which she exhibits her evolutions. In these feats her hands and arms are the sole organs of locomotion; her body hanging as if suspended by a rope, sustained by one hand (the right, for example), she launches herself by an energetic movement to a distant branch, which she catches with the left hand. But her hold is less than momentary; the impulse for the next launch is acquired; the branch then aimed at is attained by the right hand again, and quitted instantaneously, and so on in alternate succession. In this manner spaces of twelve and eighteen feet are cleared

for hours together without the slightest appearance of fatigue being manifested, and it is evident that if more space could be allowed distances very greatly exceeding eighteen feet would be as easily cleared; so that Duvaucel's assertion that he has seen these animals launch themselves from one branch to another, forty feet asunder, startling as it is, may well be credited. Sometimes, on seizing a branch in her progress, she will throw herself by the power of one arm only completely round it, making a revolution with such rapidity as almost to deceive the eye, and continue her progress with undiminished velocity. It is singular to observe how suddenly this gibbon can stop when the impetus given by the rapidity and distance of her swinging leaps would seem to require a gradual abatement of her movements. In the very midst of her flight a branch is seized, the body raised, and she is seen, as if by magic, quietly seated on it, grasping it with her feet. As suddenly she again throws herself into action.

"A live bird was let loose in her apartment; she marked its flight, made a long swing to a distant branch, caught the bird with one hand in her passage, and attained the branch with her other hand, her aim, both at the bird and at the branch, being as successful as if one object only had engaged her attention. It may be added that she instantly bit off the head of the bird, picked its feathers, and then threw it down without attempting to eat it.

"On another occasion this animal swung herself from a perch, across a passage at least twelve feet wide, against window, which it was thought would be immediate

ly broken. But not so: to the surprise of all, she caught the narrow framework between the panes with her hand, in an instant attained the proper impetus, and sprang back again to the cage she had left-a feat requiring not only great strength, but the nicest precision."

The gibbons appear to be naturally very gentle, but there is very good evidence that they will bite severely when irritated, a female Hylobates agilis having so severely lacerated one man with her long canines that he died, while she had injured others so much that, by way of precaution, these formidable teeth had been filed down; but if threatened, she would still turn on her keeper. The gibbons eat insects, but appear generally to avoid animal food. A siamang, however, was seen by Mr. Bennett to seize

ward him, I saw the little fellow taking the soap. I watched him without his perceiving that I did so, and he occasionally would cast a furtive glance toward the place where I sat. I pretended to write; he, seeing me busily occupied, took the soap, and moved away with it in his paw. When he had walked half the length of the cabin, I spoke quietly, without frightening him. The instant le found I saw him he walked back again, and deposited the soap nearly in the same place from whence he had taken it. There was certainly something more than instinct in that action: he evidently betrayed a consciousness of having done wrong both by his first and last actions." THOMAS H. HUXLEY.

OLDEN TIMES.

and devour greedily a live lizard. They THE COURTS AT ATHENS IN THE commonly drink by dipping their fingers in the liquid and then licking them. It is asserted that they sleep in a sitting pos

ture.

Duvaucel affirms that he has seen the females carry their young to the waterside and there wash their faces, in spite of resistance and cries. They are gentle and affectionate in captivity, full of tricks and pettishness, like spoiled children, and yet not devoid of a certain conscience, as an anecdote told by Mr. Bennett will show. It would appear that his gibbon had a peculiar inclination for disarranging things in the cabin. Among these articles, a piece of soap would especially attract his notice, and for the removal of this he had been once or twice scolded. "One morning," says Mr. Bennett, "I was writing, the ape being present in the cabin, when, casting my eyes to

HERE were ten courts of justice in

THERE

Athens. These ten courts were all painted with colors from which names were given them, and on each of them was engraven one of the first ten letters of the Greek alphabet, from which they are likewise called Alpha, Beta, etc. Such, therefore, of the Athenians as were at leisure to hear and determine causes delivered in their names, together with the names of their father and borough, inscribed upon a tablet, to the Thesmothetæ, who returned it to them with another tablet, whereon was inscribed the letter of one of the courts, as the lots had directed. These tablets they carried to the crier of the several courts signified by the letters, who thereupon gave to every man a tablet inscribed with his own name and the name of the court which fell to his lot, and a staff or

sceptre. Having received these, they were all admitted to sit in the court. If any person sat among the judges who had not received one of the aforesaid letters, he was fined. These judges, having heard the causes they were appointed to take cognizance of, went immediately and delivered back the sceptre to the Prytanes, from whom they received the reward due to them. This was termed the judicial fee. Sometimes it was an obol for every cause they decided, sometimes three obols, being sometimes raised higher than at others by the instance of men who endeavored by that means to become popular. No man was permitted to sit as judge in two courts upon the same day, that looking like the effect of covetousness; and if any of the judges were convicted of bribery, he was fined. The judges in all the courts were obliged to take a solemn oath by the paternal Apollo, Ceres and Jupiter the king that they would give sentence uprightly and according to law, if the law had determined the point debated, or where the law was silent according to the best of their judgments.

απο το

Of all the judicial courts that handled civil affairs, Heliæa was far the greatest and most frequented, being so called, ano 78 ȧ2Geodai, from the people's thronging together, or rather aл0 78 218, because it was an open place and exposed to the sun. The judges that sat in this court were at least fifty, but the more usual number was two or five hundred. When causes of great consequence were to be tried, it was customary to call in the judges of other courts. Sometimes a thousand were called in, and these two courts are said to have been joined; sometimes fifteen hundred or two thousand, and then three or four courts met together; whence it appears that the

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WIT

ITH this noble hot-blooded Gessler I celebrated the battle of Leipzig, then packed up my bundle and started in a huge carriage drawn by four horses, on which the trunks and baggage which the minister had left behind were loaded, along the road which leads to Schweidnitz and Goldberg, and thence going to the east through Lusatia to the Elbe. Journeying on toward Leipzig, I crossed the Elbe at Meissen. It was not possible to go by Dresden, for the French Marshal St. Cyr with thirty-five thousand men lay there, and the Russians, under Bennigsen, were besieging it. Here, in a little village not far from Mühlberg, I heard that Körner and his family were staying in a little inn, having escaped out of Dresden before the siege. I saw the good people, and we rejoiced together; and their first question to me was about their Theodor, whether I had not any news for them of the Lützowers. I was obliged to say, "No." They were in great anxiety, having heard rumors of fighting in Mecklenburg, and of their son being wounded. They gave me letters to their friends in Leipzig, and begged me to let them know immediately if I heard anything about their son. I had to write to them only too soon the sad message: "Your son has fallen by a ball, and lies buried in Mecklenburg, under the shadow of a German oak."

Alas!

Coming near Leipzig, I saw with my own

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THE NEW YEAR.

YET more and more he smiles upon

The happy revolution :

Why should we, then, suspect or fear
The influences of a year,

So smiles upon us the first morn,
And speaks us good as soon as born?
Plague on't! the last was ill enough:
This cannot but make better proof,
Or, at the worst, as we brushed through
The last, why so we may this too.
And then the next in reason should
Be super-excellently good;
For the worst ills, we daily see,
Have no more perpetuity

Than the best fortunes that do fall,
Which also brings us wherewithal
Longer their being to support

Than those do of the other sort.
And who has one good year in three,
And yet repines at destiny,
Appears ungrateful in the case,
And merits not the good he has.
Then let us welcome the new guest
With lusty brimmers of the best:
Mirth always should good fortune meet,
And renders e'en disasters sweet;

And, though the princess turn her back,
Let us but line ourselves with sack:
We better shall by far hold out
Till the next year she face about.

CHARLES COTTON.

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