Part 31 (2/2)

”You have given the audience an excellent entertain nobleman to Handel, at the close of the first performance of the ”Messiah” in London

”My lord,” replied the grand old conity, ”I should be very sorry if I only _entertained_ them; I wish to make them _better_”

A few years before his death Handel was smitten with blindness He continued, however, to preside at his oratorios, being led by a lad to the organ, which, as leader, he played One day, while conducting his oratorio of ”Samson,” the oldthe blind giant's lament: ”Total eclipse!

no sun, no htless eyes turned towards them, they were affected to tears

Seized by a ht die on Good Friday, ”in hope of ood God, his sweet Lord and Saviour, on the day of his resurrection” This consolation, it see in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey, is inscribed: ”Died on Good Friday, April 14, 1759”

Another story, which is associated with the woods of Hanover, near Ha, was entitled

PETER THE WILD BOY

In the year 1725, a few years after the capture of Marie le Blanc, a celebrated wild girl in France, there was seen in the woods, some twenty-fiveon his hands and feet, and eating grass and moss, like a beast

The remarkable creature was captured, and was taken to Hanover by the superintendent of the House of Correction at Zell It proved to be a boy evidently about thirteen years of age, yet possessing the habits and appetites of a e I, at a state dinner at Hanover, and, the curiosity of the king being greatly excited, he became his patron

In about a year after his capture he was taken to England, and exhibited to the court While in that country he received the name of Peter the Wild Boy, by which ever after he was known

Marie le Blanc, after proper training, becairl, and related to her friends and patrons the history of her early life; but Peter the Wild Boy seems to have been mentally deficient

[Illustration: PETER THE WILD BOY]

Dr Arbuthnot, at whose house he resided for a time in his youth, spared no pains to teach him to talk; but his efforts met with but little success

Peter seens of beasts and birds far better than those of hus, and to have more sympathy with the brute creation than with ht to articulate the name of his royal patron, his own na time before he became accustomed to the habits of civilization He had evidently been used to sleeping on the boughs of trees, as a security from wild beasts, and when put to bed would tear the clothes, and hopping up take his naps in the corner of the roo with aversion, and when fully dressed was as uneasy as a culprit in prison He was, however, generally docile, and subrees became more fit for human society

He was attracted by beauty, and fond of finery, and it is related of hi Lady Walpole, in the circle at court The manner in which the lovely wo that he was incapable of education, his royal patron placed hie of a farmer, where he lived many years Here he was visited by Lord Monboddo, a speculative English writer, who, in aaccount:--

”It was in the beginning of June, 1782, that I saw him in a farmhouse called Broadway, about a mile from Berkhamstead, kept there on a pension of thirty pounds, which the king pays He is but of low stature, not exceeding five feet three inches, and though he e, he has a fresh, healthy look He wears his beard; his face is not at all ugly or disagreeable, and he has a look that e

”About twenty years ago he used to elope, and once, as I was told, he wandered as far as Norfolk; but of late he has become quite tame, and either keeps the house or saunters about the far the last thirteen years, where he lives at present, and before that he elve years with another farmer, whom I saw and conversed with

”This farmer told me he had been put to school somewhere in Hertfordshi+re, but had only learned to articulate his own nae, both which I heard him pronounce very distinctly But the woman of the house where he now is--for thethat was said to hi the common affairs of life, and I saw that he readily understood several things she said to his she desired hily did, and another tune that she naentleness of manners which I hold to be characteristic of our nature, at least till we become carnivorous, and hunters, or warriors He feeds at present as the farmer and his wife do; but, as I was told by an old woman who remembered to have seen him when he first came to Hertfordshi+re, which she computed to be about fifty-five years before, he then fed e, which she saw hiht, about fifteen years of age, walked upright, but could climb trees like a squirrel At present he not only eats flesh, but has acquired a taste for beer, and even for spirits, of which he inclines to drink et

”The old farmer hom he lived before he came to his present situation informed me that Peter had that taste before he came to him He has also beco for ives it to his landlord or landlady, which I suppose is a lesson they have taught him He retains soof bad weather, growling, and howling, and showing great disorder before it comes on”

Another philosopher, wholu George”

”What is your name?”