and his fons converfed and commerced with the nations, if the Hebrew was not the univerfal language in their time? If the miracle at Babel was a confufion of tongues, as is generally fuppofed, how did the holy family talk and act with fuch distant Kings and people? Illuminate me, thou glorious girl, in this dark article, and be my teacher in Hebrew learning, as I flatter myself you will be the guide and dirigent of all my notions and my days. Yes, charming Harriot, my fate is in your hands. Difpofe of it as you will, and make me what you please. You force me to fmile, (the illuftrious Mifs Noel replied) and oblige me to call you an odd compound of a man. Pray, Sir, let me have no more of those romantic flights, and I will anfwer your questions as well as I can; but it must be at fome other time. There is more to be faid on the miracle of Babel, and its effects, than I could dispatch between this and our hour of dining, and therefore, the remainder of our leisure till dinner, we will pass in a visit to my grotto, and in walking round the garden to the parlour we came from. To the grotto then we went, and, to the best of my power, I will give my reader a description of this fplendid room. oceans and rivers from all parts of the world, and pebbles, ftones, and ores of the greateft curiofity and worth. Thefe were all difpofed in fuch a manner, as not only shed a glorious luftre in the room, but fhewed the understanding of this young lady in natural knowledge. In one part of the grot were collected and arranged the ftony coverings of all the shellfish in the fea, from the ftriated patella and its several species, to the pholades in all their fpecies and of those that live in the fresh ftreams, from the fuboval limpet or umbonated patella, and its fpecies, to the triangular, and deeply ftriated cardia. Even all the land-fhells were in this collection, from the pomatia to the round-mouthed turbo. The most beautiful genera of the fea-fhells, intermixed with foffil corals of all the kinds,. with animal fubftances become foffil; and with copper-ores, agates, pebbles, pieces of the finest marmora and alabaftritæ, and the most elegant and beautiful marcafites, and chrystals, and fpars. These filled the greateft part of the walls, and in claffes, here and there, were fcattered, as foils to raise the luftre of the others, the inferior shells. Among the fimple fea-fhells, that is, those of one thell, without a hinge, I faw feveral rare rare ones, that were neither in Mrs. O'Hara's, nor in Mrs. Crafton's grottos in Fingal, as I obferved to thofe ladies (5). The fhells I mean are the following ones. (5) I had once a sweet little country house in the neighbourhood of those ladies, and used to be often at their gardens and grottos. Mrs. Crafton had the finest fhells, but her grott was dull and regular, and had no appearance of nature in the formation. She was a pious, plain, refined lady, but had not a fancy equal to the operation required in a fhell-house. The excellent, the polite, the well-bred, the good and unfortunate Mrs. O'Hara, had a glorious fancy. She was a genius, and had an imagination that formed a grotto wild and charming as Calypfo's. Her fancy did likewife form the garden (in which the grotto stood, near the margin of a flood) into a paradife of delights. Many a pleafing, folitary hour, have I paffed in this charming place; and all at last I faw in ruins; the garden in disorder-and every fine shell torn from the grotto. Such are the changes and chances of this firft ftate; changes wifely defigned by providence as warnings not to fet up our reft here: that we may turn our hearts from this world, and with all our might labour for that life which fhall never perish. ་ What ruined Mrs. O'Hara's grotto deprived me of my little green and fhady retreat. Charles O'Hara, this lady's husband, a ftrange man, from whom I rented my pretty farm, and tow hom I had paid a fine to lower the rent, had mortgaged it, unknown to me, to the famous Damer, and that powerful man fwallowed all. All I had there was feized for arrears of intereft due of Mr. O'Hara; and as I was ever liable to distraining, I took my leave of Fingall. Vol. I. D 1. The Fine fhells. Trumpet. 1. The fea-trumpet, which is in its perfect ftate nine inches long, an inch and half diameter at its mouth or irregular lip, and the opening at the small end about half an inch. The furface is a beautiful brown, prettily fpotted with white, and the pipe has fourteen annular ridges that are a little elevated, and of a fine pur ple colour. The Admiral. 2. The admiral is vastly beautiful, a voluta two inches and a half long, and an inch in diameter, at the head, from whence it decreases to a cone with an obtufe point. The ground colour is the brighteft, elegant yellow, finer than that of Sienna marble, and this ground fo variegated with the brighteft colours, that a little more than a third part of the ground is feen. Broad fafciæ, the most charmingly varied, furround it, and the clavicle is the most elegant of objects in colours, brightness and irregularities. There is a punctuated line of variations that runs in the centre of the yellow fafcia, and is wonderfully pretty. This beautiful East Indian fells at a great price.. The Crown Imperial. 3. The crown imperial is likewife extremely beautiful. This voluta is four inches long, two in diameter at the top, and its head adorned with a charming feries of fine tubercles, pointed at the extremities. The ground is a clear pale, and near the head and extremity of the fhell, two very beautiful zones run round. They are of the bright• eft yellow, and in a manner the most elegant, are variegated with black and white purple. It is an Eaft Indian. Letter. The Hebrew 4. The Hebrew letter, another voluta, is a fine curiofity. It is two inches in length, and an inch and a quarter in diameter at the top. It is a regular conic figure, and its exerted clavicle has feveral volutions. The ground is like the white of a fine pearl, and the body all over variegated with irregular marks of black, which have a near refemblance of the Hebrew characters. gant fhell is an Eaft Indian. 5. The white voluta, with, brown and blue and purple fpots. This very elegant fhell, This ele Voluta. The white whofe ground is a charming white, is found on the coaft of Guinea, from five to fix |