MISCELLANEOUS.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume II, Issue 69, 1 July 1843, Page 276

MISCELLANEOUS.

Inhabitants of Norfolk Sound. — A more hideous set of beings, in the form of men -and women, I had never before seen. The fantastic; manner u\ which many of the faces of the men were painted, was probably intended to give them a ferocious appearance ; and some groups looked really as if they had escaped from the dominions of Satan himself. One had a perpendicular line dividing the two sides of the face ; one side of which was painted red, the other black ; with the hair daubed with grease and red ochre, and filled with the white down of birds. Another had the face divided with a horizontal line in the middle, and painted black and white. The visage of a third was painted in checkers, &c. Most of them had little mirrors ; before the acquisition of which, they must have been dependent on each other for those correct touches of the pencil which are so much in vogue, and which daily require more time than the toilette of a Parisian belle. The women made, if possible, a still more frightful appearance. The ornament of wood which they wear, to extend an incision made beneath the under lip, so distorts the face as to take from it almost the resemblance to the human ; yet the privilege of wearing this ornament is not extended to the female slaves, who are prisoners taken in war. Hence, it would seem, that distinctive badges have their origin in the most rude state of society. It is difficult, however, for the imagination to conceive more disgusting and filthy beings than these patrician dames. — Cleveland* a Narrative of Voyages mid Commercial Enterprise*. I'owbr obtained bt EiNDNESs. — The exercise of positive efficient benevolence towards inferiors, brings with it increase of the power which constitutes superiority. Of two men occupying a position of equality as regards others, the man who contributes most to the happiness of those others, will infallibly become the most influential ; will dispose of a greater quantity of service. He will strengthen his position by augmenting the number of his good deeds. Every benefit conferred on others will be prolific to himself. And the benefits conferred on others increase the power of others ; and the increase of power in the hands of those willing to do him service, is the increase of his own power. The compound interest brought to effective benevolence by deeds of benevolence, is happily limitless ; of the seeds scattered by the husbandry of virtue, few will turn out barren. — Bent ham's Deontology. Reading. — When the business of tnt "lay is over, how many men does the evening hour find comfortably seated in their easy chairs, reading to themselves, or to some fair friend, or happy group ! In how many pleasant homes, while the ladies are seated at their morning employments, or amusements, or whatever they may please to call them, does some glad creature read aloud, in a voice full of music, and marked by the sweetest emotion of a young pure heart, a lay of our mighty bards, or a story of one of our most cunning interweavers of the truth of nature with the splendour of fiction, or follow the wonderful recitals of our travellers, naturalists, and philosophical spirits, into every region of earth or mind ! Publishers may tell us, " poetry don't sell ; " critics may cry " poetry is a drug," thereby making it so with the frivolous and unreflecting, who are the multitude, — but we. will venture to say, that at no period were there ever more books read by that part of our population, most qualified to draw delight, and good from reading; and when we enter mechanics' libraries, and see them filled with simple, quiet, earnest men, and find such men now sitting on stiles in the country, deeply sunk into the very marrow and spirit of a well-handled volume, where he used to meet them in riotous and reckless mischief, we are proud and happy to look forward to that wide and formerly waste field, over which literature is extending its triumphs, and to see the benificent consequences that will follow to the whole community. — William Hovoitt in the Monthly Repository. Fertility of Lobsters' Legs. — The reproduction of several parts of lobsters, crabs, &c. is one of the remarkable phenomena in nature. That, instead of an organical part of an animal broken off, another shall rise perfectly like it, may seem inconsistent with the modern system of generation, which supposes the animal to be wholly formed in the egg. Yet has the matter of fact been well attested by fishermen, and particularly by Reaumur and Perrault, whose skill and exactness in such things will not be questioned. The legs of lobsters, &c. consist each of five articulations ; now, when any leg breaks by accident, as in walking, &c, which frequently happens, the fracture is always near the fourth articulation ; and what they thus lose is reproduced after some time, that is, a part of a leg shoots out, consisting of four articulations, the first whereof has two claws as before ; so that the loss is entirely repaired. If a lobster's leg be designedly broken off at the fourth or fifth articulation, reproduction always takes place ; but, if the fracture be made in the first, second, or third articulation, the reproduction is very rare, if things continue as they are. But, what is exceedingly surprising is, that they do not ; for, upon visiting in four days the lobster Maimed in these barren and unhappy articulations, all the other articulations are found broken off to the fourth ; and it is .suspected they have performed the operation on themselves, to make the reproduction of a leg certain. The part reproduced is not only perfectly like that retrenched, but also, in a certain space of time, grows equal to it. Hence we frequently see lobsters with their two big legs unequal, and that in all proportions. This shows the smaller leg to be a new^one. A part thus reproduced being broken, there is a second reproduction. The summer, the only season when the lobsters eat, is most favourable for reproduction, which is then performed in four or five weeks ; whereas, at any other season, it requires eight or nine months. The small legs, as also the horns, are seldom reproduced, and very slowly. The experiment is mostly with ease tried On the common crab. — Shaw'i Nature Displayed. Genius and Talent. — Genius must have talent as its complement and implement; just as in like manner imagination most have fancy. 'In short, the higher intellectual powers can only act through a corresponding energy of the lower. Profound Troth. — On every occasion in which virtue is exercised, if something is not added to happiness, somethiagis taken away from anxiety.