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in diameter. The fhell is tumid and inflated, and at the head largeft. It has an oblong clavicle in feveral volutions, pointed at the extremity, and the other extreme is a fhort roftrum. The whole furface is ornamented with elevated ribs, that are about twice as thick as a ftraw, and as diftant from each other as the thickness of four ftraws. The colour is a fine deep brown, variegated with white and a paler brown, in a manner furprizingly beautiful.

10. The extremely elegant argus is from The Argus the coaft of Africa, and is fometimes found in the Eaft-Indies. Its length, in a state of perfection, is four inches and a half; its diameter three. It is oblong and gibbous, has a wide mouth, and lips fo continued beyond the verge, as to form at each extremity a broad and fhort beak. The colour is a fine pale yellow, and over the body are three brown fafcia: but the whole furface, and thefe fafciæ, are ornamented with multitudes of the most beautiful round fpots, which refemble eyes in the wings of the finest butterflies. The limax inhabits this charming fhell. This creature is the fea-fnail.

11. The concha of Venus was the next The concha hell in this young lady's collection that en- of Venus. gaged my attention. One of them was three inches long, and two and a half in diameter. The valves were convex, and in longitudinal

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The Hammer Oyster.

direction deeply ftriated. The hinge at the prominent end was large and beautifully wrought, and the opening the fhell was covered with the most elegant wrinkled lips, of the most beautiful red colour, finely intermixed with white; thefe lips do not unite in the middle, but have flender and beautiful spines round about the truncated ends of the fhell. This fhell of Venus is an American, and valued by the collectors at a high

rate.

12. But of all the curious fhells in this wonderful collection, the hammer oyster was what I wondered at moft; it is the most extraordinary fhell in the world. It resembles a pickax, with a very short handle and a long head. The body of the fhell is in the place of the handle of the inftrument, and is four inches and a half long, and one inch and a half in diameter. What answered to the head of the pickax was seven inches long, and three quarters of an inch in diameter. This head terminates at each end in a narrow obtufe point, is uneven at the edges, irregular in its make, and lies crosswife to the body: yet the valves fhut in the closest and most elegant manner. The edges are deeply furrowed and plated, and the lines run in irregular directions. The colour without is a fine mixture of brown and purple; and within, a pearly white, with a tinge of

purple.

purple. This rare fhell is an Eaft-Indian, and whenever it appears at an auction is rated very high. I have known ten guineas given for a perfect one.

With a large quantity of thefe most beautiful fhells, which are rarely feen in any collections, and with all the family of the pectens, the cardia, the folens, the cylindri, the murexes, the turbines, the buccina, and every fpecies of the finest genera of fhells, Mifs Noel formed a grotto that exceeded every thing of the kind I believe in the world; all I am fure that I have feen, except the late Mrs. Harcourt's in Richmondfhire; which I fhall give my Reader a defcription of, when I travel him up those English Alpes. It was not only, that Mifs Noel's happy fancy had blended all these things in the wildest and most beautiful difpofition over the walls of the rotunda; but her fine genius had produced a variety of grotts within her grotto, and falling waters and points of view. In one place, was the famous Atalanta, and her delightful cave and in another part, the Goddess . and Ulyffes's fon appeared at the entrance of that grott, which under the appearance of a rural plainnefs had every thing could charm the eye: the roof was ornamented with fhell-work; the tapestry was a tender

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vine;

An image

and a re

Legend.

vine; and limpid fountains fweetly purled

round.

But what above all the finely fancied of Epictetus works in Mifs Noel's grotto pleafed me, was, markable a figure of the Philofopher Epictetus, in the centre of the grott. He fat at the door of a cave, by the fide of a falling water, and held a book of his philofophy in his hand, that was written in the manner of the antients, that is, on parchment rolled up clofe together. He appeared in deep meditation, and as part of the book had been unwrapped and gradually extended, from his knee on the ground, one could read very plain, in large Greek characters, about fifty lines. The English of the leffon was this.

The MASTER SCIENCE.

All things have their nature, their make and form, by which they act, and by which they fuffer. The vegetable proceeds with perfect infenfibility. The brute poffeffes a fenfe of what is pleasurable and painful, but flops at mere fenfation. The rational, like the brute, has all the powers of mere fenJation, but enjoys a farther tranfcendent faculty. To him is imparted the masterfcience of what he is, where he is, and the end to which he is deftined. He is directed by the canon of reafon to reverence the dig

nity of his own fuperior character, and never wretchedly degrade himself into natures to him fubordinate. The mafter science (he is told) confifts in having juft ideas of pleafures and pains, true notions of the moments and confequences of different actions and pursuits, whereby he may be able to meafure, direct or controul his defires or averfions, and never merge into miferies. Remember this, Arrianus. Then only you are qualified for life, when you are able to oppose your appetites, and bravely dare to call your opinions to account; when you have established judgment or reafon as the ruler in your mind, and by a patience of thinking, and a power of refifting, before you choose, can bring your fancy to the test of truth. By this means, furnished with the knowledge of the effects and confequences of actions, you will know how you ought to behave in every cafe. You will fteer wifely through the various rocks and fhelves of life. In fhort, Arrianus, the deliberate habit is the proper business of man; and his duty, to exert, upon the first proper call, the virtues natural to his mind; that piety, that love, that justice, that veracity, that gratitude, that benevolence; which are the glory of human kind. Whatever is fated in that order of incontroulable events, by which the divine power preferves and adorns

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