SKATING, A FINE ART.
Tr is impossible to compass Nature's vast design, but it is certain that some of our multiform contrivances war greatly with her primitive beneficent purpose. Unquestionably man is better made for swimming, boating, singing, dancing, hunting, and other de-
lightful reareatives, than for many of the sedentary occupations to which civilization has devoted him. Among intellectuals his ter- restrial supremacy is undoubted ; and among animals too he is truly the "Admirable Crichton," in whatever walk he affects, whether sportive or destructive, of the bee, the beaver, the tiger, or jackal If he apes the &mite tribe—tries to excel in agility or grimace, Punch, pantomime, or posture-making--behold him at Astley's, or • in the ballet, and he outshines. The birds in the air, and the fishes in the sea, he cannot compete with ; but take him on the frozen ele- ment, and none can be his parallel : at least, such was our impression on observing last Monday a glacial performer on the Serpentine. But how describe the evolutions of this superb gymnast? What alphabet, Greek or Roman—what numerals, hieroglyphic, or ma- thematical line—would depict his infinite variety ? His Ss and 9s were beautiful ; but his concentric circles innrie the bystander giddy. After witnessing his gambols through an entire round of • conic sections—ellipse, hyperbola, cycloid, and parabola—that which most fixed all in sublime amazement was, when, having collected the needful momentum, he darted onward, with the force of an eagle on its prey, in a long waving line, pioneering his way with out- stretched arm, and on one let: almost a furlong's distance. After seeing several repetitions of surprising feat, we went away, in- voluntarily excbliming, "What a wonderful work is Man r
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