ring
precision, which call forth our wonder and admiration. Of these
remarkable qualities we have given abundant examples in the preceding
pages; and they are not without moral instruction. Elevated as our
minds are in the comparative scale of nature, we may still take
example from the diligence, the perseverance, and the cheerfulness,
which preside over the _Architecture of Birds._"

There are nearly eighty cuts in the present volume--many from
specimens, all from excellent authorities, and of any but common-place
character.

* * * * *

TOMB OF PAUL AND VIRGINIA.

Junior lieutenants and midshipmen, and others of the age of romance,
always make it a point to visit these tombs as soon as possible after
their arrival. If they can only get on shore for a few hours, they
hire or borrow horses, and proceed with all haste to the interesting
scene. On reaching the spot to which they are directed, they enter a
pretty garden, laid out with great care, and are conducted along a
walk bordered with bushes, bearing a profusion of roses, and having a
stream of the clearest water flowing on each side. At the end of this
walk the visiter sees a red, glaring monument, which he is told is the
tomb of Virginia; at the termination of a similar avenue, on
the opposite side of the garden, appears another monument, exactly
resembling the first, which is designated the tomb of Paul: a grove of
bamboos surrounds each. The traveller feels disappointed on beholding
these red masses, instead of elegant monuments of Parian marble, which
would seem alone worthy of such a purpose and such a situation. But
that is not the only disappointment destined to be experienced by him:
after having allowed his imagination to depict the shades of Paul and
Virginia hovering about the spot where their remains repose--after
having pleased himself with the idea that he had seen those celebrated
tombs, and given a sigh to the memory of those faithful lovers,
separated in life, but in death united--after all this waste of
sympathy, he learns at last that he has been under a delusion the
whole time--that no Virginia was there interred, and that it is a
matter of doubt whether there ever existed such a person as Paul! What
a pleasing illusion is then dispelled! How many romantic dreams,
inspired by the perusal of St. Pierre's tale, are doomed to vanish
when the truth is ascertained! The fact is, that these tombs have been
built t