Hist._

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THE GATHERER.

A snapper of unconsidered trifles.
SHAKSPEARE.

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HUMAN TIMEPIECE.

J.D. Chevalley, a native of Switzerland, has arrived at an astonishing
degree of perfection in reckoning time by an internal movement. In his
youth he was accustomed to pay great attention to the ringing of bells
and vibrations of pendulums, and by degrees he acquired the power of
continuing a succession of intervals exactly equal to those which the
vibrations or sounds produced.--Being on board a vessel, on the Lake of
Geneva, he engaged to indicate to the crowd about him the lapse of a
quarter of an hour, or as many minutes and seconds as any one chose to
name, and this during a conversation the most diversified with those
standing by; and farther, to indicate by the voice the moment when the
hand passed over the quarter minutes, or half minutes, or any other
sub-division previously stipulated, during the whole course of the
experiment. This he did without mistake, notwithstanding the exertions
of those about him to distract his attention, and clapped his hands
at the conclusion of the time fixed. His own account of it is thus
given:--"I have acquired, by imitation, labour, and patience, a movement
which neither thoughts, nor labour, nor any thing can stop: it is
similar to that of a pendulum, which at each motion of going and
returning gives me the space of three seconds, so that twenty of them
make a minute--and these I add to others continually."

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HISTORICAL FACT.

During the troubles in the reign of Charles I., a country girl came to
London, in search of a situation; but not succeeding, she applied to
be allowed to carry out beer from a brewhouse. These females were then
called "tub-women." The brewer observing her to be a very good-looking
girl, took her out of this low situation into his house, and afterwards
married her. He died, however, while she was yet a very young woman, and
left her a large fortune. She was recommended, on giving up the brewery,
to Mr. Hyde, a most able lawyer, to settle her husband's affairs; he,
in process of time, married the widow, and was afterwards made Earl of
Clarendon. Of this marriage there was a daughter, who was afterwards
wife to James II. and mother of Mary and Anne, queens of England.

ZANGA.

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