before I was perfeetly fledged, my mother was surprised in her nest by a wicked schoolboy, who grasped her so hard to prevent her escape, that she soon after died. He then took the nest with all that it contained, which he deposited in a basket; where I presently lost my three companions in misfortune, by change of food and unskilful management. I survived; and soon after I could feed myself, I was taken by my tyrant's mother, when she went to pay her rent, as a present to her landlord's daughter, a young lady who was extremely beautiful, and in the eighteenth year of her age.

My captivity now began to loose its terrours; I no longer dreaded the gripe of a rude urchin, whose fondness was scarcely less dangerous than his resentment. The confinement of a cage became habitual, and I imagined I could suffer no misery under the patronage of smiles and graces.

Such was my situation, when a young lady from London made a visit to my mistress, and greatly caressed me. To show my sensibility of her favours, I hopped upon her finger, and began to sing as soon as my song was ended, she turned to my mistress, and told her that the dear creature might be made absolutely the sweetest bird in the world, by only putting out its eyes, and confining it in a less cage. To this horrid proposal my mistress agreed, upon being again assured that my song would be very greatly improved; and the operation was performed the next day with a hot knitting-needle. I did not long suffer the mournful solitude of perpetual darkness; for a cat came

one night into the room, dragged me through the wires of my cage, and devoured me.

I was not displeased to find myself once more delivered from blindness and captivity, and still able to sport upon the breeze in the form of a cockchafer. But I had scarcely entered my new scene of existence, when a gentleman, in whose garden I was feasting on the leaves of a cherrytree, caught me; and turning to his son, a boy who had just been put into his first breeches, said, 'Here, Tommy, here is a bird for you.' The thoughtless boy received me with a grin of horrid delight; and, as he had been taught, immediately impaled me alive upon a corking-pin to which a piece of thread was fastened, and I was doomed to make sport for my young master by fluttering about in the agonies of death. When I was quite exhausted, and could no longer use my wings, he was bid to tread upon me, for I was now good for nothing ;a command with which he mercifully complied, and in a moment crushed me to atoms with his foot.

From a cockchafer I transmigrated into an earthworm, and comforted myself by hoping now to spend my life in peace, by escaping the notice of the most cruel of all creatures-man.

But I did not long enjoy this consolation. I was one morning disturbed by an unusual noise, and perceived the ground about me to shake. immediately worked my way upward to discover the cause; and the moment I appeared above the surface, I was eagerly snatched up by a man who had stuck a dung-fork in the ground, and moved it backwards and forwards to produce the effect

which now happened. I was put into a broken pan with many other associates in misfortune, and soon after disposed of to one of those inhuman monsters who delight in the treacherous and ignoble business of angling.

This inconsiderate trifler carried us next morning to the brink of a river; when I presently saw him take out one of my companions, and whistling. a tune, he passed a barbed hook through the whole length of his body, entering it at the head and bringing it out at the tail! The wretched animal writhed itself about on the bloody hook in torture which cannot be conceived by man, or felt by any creature that is not vital in every part. In this condition he was suspended in the water as a bait for fish, till he was swallowed by an eel together with the hook on which he was hung! While I was beholding this dreadful spectacle, I made many reflections on the great inequality between the pleasure of catching the prey, and the anguish inflicted on the bait. But these reflections were presently after lost, by my suffering death in the same agonies of which I had been a spectator.

There is not room to relate all that I have since suffered from the thoughtless barbarity of mankind, in the shapes of a cock, a lobster, an eel, and a pig. Let it suffice to say, that I suffered the same kind of death with those who are broken upon the wheel; I was roasted alive before a slow fire; I was skinned, and afterwards thrown while yet alive into a frying-pan; and I was scourged to death with small cords, to gratify the wanton appetite of luxury, or contribute to the merriment of the unthinking rabble.

Thus far I had written as amanuensis to an invisible dictator, when, my dream still continuing, I felt something tickle my wrist; and, turning my eye from the paper to see what it was, I discovered a flea, which I immediately caught, and killed by putting it into the candle!—At the same instant the flea vanished, a young lady of exquisite beauty stood before me: Thoughtless wretch!' said she, 'hast thou too changed the state of my existence, and exposed me to still greater calamities than any I have yet suffered? As a flea I was thy monitor; and as a flea I might have escaped thy cruelty, if I had not intended thy instruction, Publish, however, what I have communicated: if any man shall be reclaimed from a criminal inattention to the felicity of inferior beings, and restrained from inflicting pain by considering the effect of his actions, I have not suffered in vain.'

While I listened to this address my heart throbbed, and the effort I made to reply awoke me. Hawkesworth.

CASTLE-BUILDING.

ALNASCHAR, says the fable, was a very idle fellow, that never would set his hand to any business during his father's life. When his father died, he left him to the value of an hundred drachmas in Persian money. Alnaschar, in order to make the best of it, laid it out in glasses, bottles, and the finest earthen-ware. These he piled up in a large open base, and having made choice of a very little shop, placed the basket at his feet, and leaned his

back upon the wall, in expectation of customers As he sat in this posture, with his eyes upon the basket, he fell into a most amusing train of thought, and was overheard by one of his neighbours, as he talked to himself in the following manner : 'This basket,' says he, cost me at the wholesale merchant's an hundred drachmas, which is all I have in the world. I shall quickly make two hundred of it, by selling it in retail. These two hundred drachmas will in a little while rise to four hundred, which of course will amount in time to four thousand. Four thousand drachmas cannot fail of making eight thousand. As soon as by this means I am master of ten thousand, I will lay aside my trade of a glass-man, and turn jeweller. I shall then deal in diamonds, pearls, and all sorts of rich stones. When I have got together as much wealth as I can well desire, I will make a purchase of the finest house I can find, with lands, slaves, eunuchs, aud houses. I shall then begin to enjoy myself, and make a noise in the world. I will not, however, stop there, but still continue my traffic, till I have got together an hundred thousand drachmas. When I have thus made myself master of an hundred thousand drachmas, I shall naturally set myself on the foot of a prince, and will demand the grand vizier's daughter in marriage, after having represented to that minister the information which I have received of the beauty, wit, discretion, and other high qualities which his daughter possesses. I will let him know at the same time, that it is my intention to make him a present of a thousand pieces of gold on our marriage night. As soon as I have married the grand vizier's daughter, I will