diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'old')
| -rw-r--r-- | old/10332-8.txt | 1927 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/10332-8.zip | bin | 0 -> 40365 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/10332-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 79187 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/10332-h/10332-h.htm | 2635 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/10332-h/imgone.jpg | bin | 0 -> 36427 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/10332.txt | 1927 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/10332.zip | bin | 0 -> 40334 bytes |
7 files changed, 6489 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/old/10332-8.txt b/old/10332-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2f73440 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10332-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1927 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and +Instruction, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction + Volume XII. F, No. 325, August 2, 1828. + +Author: Various + +Release Date: November 29, 2003 [EBook #10332] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE, *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Sjaani and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + +THE MIRROR + +OF + +LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION. + + +No. 325.] SATURDAY, AUGUST 2, 1828. [Price 2_d_. + + +ALL-SOULS' CHURCH, LANGHAM-PLACE. + + +Vol. XII. F + +ALL-SOULS' CHURCH, + +LANGHAM PLACE. + + "Whoever walks through London streets," + Said Momus to the son of Saturn, + "Each day new edifices meets, + Of queer proportion, queerer pattern: +If thou, O cloud-compelling god, + Wilt aid me with thy special grace, +I, too, will wield my motley hod, + And build a church in Langham-place." + + "Agreed," the Thunderer cries; "go plant + Thine edifice, I care not how ill; +Take notice, earth. I hereby grant + _Carte blanche_ of mortar, stone, and trowel. +Go Hermes, Hercules, and Mars, + Fraught with these bills on Henry Hase, +Drop with yon jester from the stars, + And build a church in Langham-place." + + _London Lyrics-New Monthly Mag._ + +Among all our specimens of contemporary church-building, none has +excited more animadversion than _All-Souls'_, Langham-place, erected in +1822-1825, from the designs of Mr. Nash. Its general effect is +extraordinary and objectionable; but, unfortunately for what merit it +really possesses, many of its assailants have so far disregarded the +just principles of taste and criticism, as to go laboriously out of +their way to be profanely witty on its defects. Song and satire, +raillery and ridicule, pun and pasquinade, and even the coarseness of +caricature, have thus been let off at this specimen of NASH-_ional_ +architecture; whilst their authors have wittingly kept out any redeeming +graces which could be found in its architectural details. + +The principal features of the exterior were suggested by its situation, +it being placed on an angular plot of ground, between Langham-place and +Regent-street. To afford an advantageous view from either point, the +tower, which is circular, is nearly detached from the body of the +church, and is surrounded by columns of the modern Ionic order, +supporting an entablature, crowned by a balustrade, which is continued +along the sides of the church. Above the portico is a Corinthian +peristyle, the base of which is also that of a fluted cone, which forms +the spire, and is terminated in an acute point. The steeple is complete +in itself, and adapted to its situation, having the same appearance +which ever way it is viewed. This portion of the edifice has, however, +been more stigmatized than any other, although it has been pronounced by +persons of taste and accredited judgment to be the best steeple recently +erected. To our eye, the church itself, _apart_ from the tower, (for +such it almost is) is perhaps, one of the most miserable structures in +the metropolis,--in its starved proportions more resembling a +manufactory, or warehouse, than the impressive character of a church +exterior; an effect to which the Londoner is not an entire stranger. +Here, too, we are inclined to ascribe much of the ridicule, which the +whole church has received, to its puny proportions and scantiness of +decoration, which are far from being assisted by any stupendousness in +their details, the first impression of which might probably have fixed +the attention of the spectator. Indeed, the whole style of the tower and +steeple appears peculiarly illadapted for so small a scale as has here +been attempted. + +As we love "a jest's prosperity," we recommend such of our readers as +are partial to innocent pasquinade, to turn to the "Lyric," in a recent +volume of the _New Monthly Magazine_, commencing as above. It is too +long for entire insertion here, but its raciness will doubtless gratify +those who may be induced to refer to it. + + * * * * * + +TREMENDOUS RAINS. + +_(For the Mirror.)_ + +Like a low-hung cloud, _it rains so fast_, +That all at once it falls.--DRYDEN. + +There are two English proverbs relative to rain; the first is, "_It +rains by Planets._" "This the country people (says Ray) use when it +rains in one place and not in another; meaning that the showers are +governed by planets, which being erratic in their own motions, cause +such uncertain wandering of clouds and falls of rain. Or it rains by +planets--that is, the falls of showers are as uncertain, as the motions +of the planets are imagined to be." The second--"_It never rains but it +pours:_" which appears to be the case at present. In the year 553 it +rained violently in Scotland for five months; in 918 there was a +continual rain in that country for five months; a violent one in London +1222; again 1233, so violent that the harvest did not begin till +Michaelmas; 1338, from Midsummer to Christmas, so that there was not one +day or night dry together; in Wales, which destroyed 10,000 sheep, +September 19th 1752; in Languedoc, which destroyed the village of Bar le +Due, April 26th, 1776; and in the Island of Cuba, on the 21st of June, +1791, 3,000 persons and 11,700 cattle of various kinds perished by the +torrents occasioned by the rains. + +P. T. W. + + * * * * * + +CURIOUS SCRAPS. + +_(For the Mirror.)_ + +The first dissection on record, is one in which Democritus of Obdera, +was engaged, in order to ascertain the sources and course of the +bile.--It was the custom among the Egyptians, to carry about at their +feasts a skeleton, least their guests, in the midst of feasting and +merriment, should forget the frail tenure of life and its enjoyments. + +The most ancient eclipse upon record, was observed by the Chaldeans 721 +years before the Christian era, and recorded by Ptolemy. The observation +was made at Babylon the 19th of March.--In ancient days, for want of +parchment to draw deeds upon, great estates were frequently conveyed +from one family to another only by the ceremony of a turf and a stone, +delivered before witnesses, and without any written agreement.--It is +singular, that by the Doomsday Book, as quoted by Camden, there appears +to have been in Lincoln, when that survey was taken, no less than 1070 +"inns for entertainment."--Henry I., about the year 1125, caused to be +made a standard yard, from the length of his own arm, in order to +prevent frauds in the measurement of cloth. This standard is supposed to +have been deposited, with other measures, &c. in Winchester; he likewise +(it is said) ordered halfpence and farthings to be made round, which +before his time were square.--The Universities of Oxford and Cambridge +were first called "studia," or "studies."--Edward the Confessor received +yearly, from the manor of Barton, near Gloucester, 3,000 loaves of bread +for the maintenance of his dogs--In the reign of Edward III., only three +taverns might sell sweet wines in London; one in Cheape, one in +Wallbrook, and the other in Lombard Street.--Lord Lyttleton, in his Life +of Henry II., vol. i. p. 50, says, "Most of our ancient historians give +him the character of a very religious prince, but his religion was, +after the fashion of those times, belief without examination, and +devotion without piety. It was a religion that at the same time allowed +him to pillage kingdoms, that threw him on his knees before a relic or a +cross, but suffered him unrestrained to trample upon the liberties and +rights of mankind;" again, "his government was harsh and despotic, +violating even the principles of that institution which he himself had +established. Yet so far he performed the duty of a sovereign that he +took care to maintain a good police in his realm; which, in the +tumultuous state of his government, was a great and difficult work." How +well he performed it, we may learn even from the testimony of a +contemporary Saxon historian, who says, "during his reign a man might +have travelled in perfect security all over the kingdom, with his bosom +full of gold; nor durst any kill another in revenge of the greatest +offences, nor offer violence to the chastity of a woman. But it was a +poor compensation that the highways were safe, when the courts of +justice were dens of thieves, and when almost every man in authority, or +in office, used his power to oppress and pillage the people."--Towards +the close of the life of Henry IV., he kept the regal diadem always in +his sight by day, and at night it shared his pillow. Once the Prince of +Wales, whom Henry always suspected more than he loved, seeing his father +in a most violent paroxysm of disease, removed the crown from his bed. +The king on his recovery missed it, sent for his son, and taxed him with +his impatience and want of duty, but the prince defended his conduct +with such rational modesty, that Henry, convinced of his innocence, +embraced and blessed him. "Alas!" said Henry to his son, "you know too +well how I gained this crown. How will you defend this ill-gotten +possession?" "With my sword," said the prince, "as my father has done." + +Henry V. was, perhaps, the first English monarch who had ships of his +own. Two of these, which sailed against Harfleur, were called "The +King's Chamber," and "The King's Hall." They had purple sails, and were +large and beautiful. + +Party rage ran so high in 1403, that an act of parliament was found +necessary to declare, "Pulling out of eyes and cutting out of tongues to +be felony."--Dr. Rush, of Philadelphia, in his "Inquiry into the effects +of spirituous liquors on the human body, and their influence on the +happiness of society;" says, "Among the inhabitants of cities, spirits +produce debts, disgrace, and bankruptcy. Among farmers, they produce +idleness with its usual consequence, such as houses without windows, +barns without roofs, gardens without enclosures, fields without fences, +hogs without yokes, sheep without wool, meagre cattle, feeble horses, +and half clad, dirty children, without principles, morals, or manners." + +P. T. W. + + * * * * * + +_Shower of Sugar Plums_--Charles XI., attended by his court, had been +hunting in the neighbourhood of Carcassone. After the stag had been +taken, a gentleman of the neighbourhood invited the king to a splendid +dinner which he had prepared for him. At the conclusion of the banquet +the ceiling of the hall _suddenly opened_, a thick cloud, descended and +burst over their heads like a thunder storm, pouring forth a shower of +_sugar-plums_ instead of hail, which was succeeded by a gentle rain of +rose-water. + +_The Coin Guinea_--In the reign of king Charles II., when Sir Robert +Holmes, of the Isle of Wight, brought gold-dust from the coast of +Guinea, a guinea first received its name from that country. + +_A Motto_.--A constant frequenter of city feasts, having grown +enormously fat, it was proposed to write on his back, "_Widened at the +expense of the corporation of London."_ + +_Sedan-chairs and Hackney-coaches_.--Sir S. Duncombe, predecessor to +Duncombe Lord Feversham, and gentleman pensioner to King James and +Charles I., introduced sedan-chairs into this country, anno 1634, when +he procured a patent that vested in him and his heirs the sole right of +carrying persons up and down in them for a certain sum. Sir Saunders had +been a great traveller, and saw these chairs at Sedan, where they were +first invented. It is remarkable that Capt. Bailey introduced the use of +hackney-coaches in this year; a tolerable ride might then be obtained, +in either of these vehicles for four pence. + +_Heroism--Seward_, "the brave Earl of Northumberland," feeling in his +sickness that he drew near his end, quitted his bed and put on his +armour, saying, "That it became not a man to die like a beast," on which +he died standing; an act as singular as it was heroic. + +_Epigram on Epigrams._ +What is an epigram? a dwarfish whole, +Its body brevity, and wit its soul. + +W. H. H. + + * * * * * + +"THE MOUSE TOWER" + +A GERMAN LEGEND. + +(_For the Mirror_.) + +The bishop of Mentz was a wealthy prince, + Wealthy and proud was he; +He had all that was worth a wish on earth-- + But he had not charitie! + +He would stretch put his _empty_ hands to _bless_, + Or lift them both to _pray_; +But alack! to lighten man's distress, + They moved no other way. + +A famine came! but his heart was still + As hard as his pride was high; +And the starving poor but throng'd his door + To curse him and to die. + +At length from the crowd rose a clamour so loud, + That a cruel plot laid he; +He open'd one of his granaries wide, + And bade them enter free. + +In they rush'd--the maid and the sire. + And the child that could barely run-- +Then he clos'd the barn, and set it on fire. + And burnt them every one! + +And loud he laugh'd at each terrible shriek, + And cried to his archer-train, +"The merry mice!--how shrill they squeak!-- + They are fond of the bishop's grain!" + +But mark, what an awful judgment soon, + On the cruel bishop fell; +With so many mice his palace swarm'd, + That in it he could not dwell. + +They gnaw'd the arras above and beneath, + They eat each savoury dish up; +And shortly their sacrilegious teeth + Began to nibble the bishop! + +He flew to his castle of Ehrenfels, + By the side of the Rhine so fair; +But they found the road to his new abode, + And came in legions there. + +He built him, in haste, a tower tall + In the tide, for his better assurance; +But they swam the river, and scal'd the wall, + And worried him past endurance. + +One morning his skeleton there was seen, + By a load of flesh the lighter; +They had picked his bones uncommonly clean, + And eaten his very mitre! + +Such was the end of the bishop of Mentz, + And oft at the midnight hour, +He comes in the shape of a fog so dense, + And sits on his old "Mouse-Tower." + +C.K.W. + + * * * * * + +PRUSSIC ACID. + +(_For the Mirror_.) + +The circumstance of Montgomery's recent suicide in Newgate, has led me +to send you the following remarks upon the nature and properties of that +most violent poison, Prussic acid, with which the unfortunate man +terminated his existence. + +Were we to consider the constituent parts and properties of the most +common things we are in the habit of daily using, and their poisonous +and destructive natures, we should recoil at the deadly potion, and +shrink from the loathsome draught we are about to take. That which we +consider the most delicious and exhilarating portion of our common +beverage, porter, contains carbonic acid gas, commonly known by the +"spirit," and which the poor miners dread with the utmost horror, like +the Arabian does the destructive blast of the simoon. Oxalic acid, so +much the fear of those accustomed to the medicine--Epsom salts, is made +from that useful article, _sugar_, by uniting with it a smaller portion, +more than it has naturally, of oxygen gas. The air we breathe contains a +most deadly poison, called by chemists azotic gas, which, by its being +mixed with what is called vital air, (oxygen gas,) becomes necessary to +our existence, as much as the one (vital air or oxygen gas) would be +prejudicial without the other; and _Prussic acid_, the most violent of +all poisons, is contained in the common bitter-almond. But these most +destructive substances are always found combined with others, which +render them often perfectly harmless, and can be separated only by the +skill of the chemist. + +The Prussic acid (by some called hydrocyanic acid) is a liquid, +extracted from vegetables, and contains one part of cyanogen and one +part of hydrogen. It is extracted from the bitter-almond, (as has been +stated,) peach-blossom, and the leaves of the laurocerasus. It may also +be obtained from animal substances, although a vegetable acid. If lime +be added to water, distilled from these substances, a Prussiate of lime +is formed; when, if an acid solution of iron be added to this mixture, +common Prussian blue (or Prussiate of iron) is precipitated. The acid +may be obtained from Prussiate of potash, by making a strong solution of +this salt, and then adding as much tartaric acid as will precipitate the +potash, when the acid will be left in solution, which must be decanted +and distilled. + +Its properties are a pungent odour, very much resembling that of +bitter-almonds, with a hot but sweetish taste, and extremely volatile. +It contains azote, with which no other vegetable acid is combined; it is +largely used in the manufacture of Prussian blue. It is the most violent +of all poisons, and destroys animals by being applied to the skin only. +It is stated by an able chemist, that a single drop applied to the +tongue of a mastiff dog caused death so instantaneously, that it +appeared to have been destroyed by lightning. One drop to the human +frame destroys life in two minutes. + +But when chemically combined with other substances, its power is in a +great measure neutralized, and it becomes a valuable article, both to +the chemist as a test, and to the physician as a medicine. The Prussiate +of potash and iron will enable the chemist to discover nearly the whole +of the metals when in solution, by the colours its combination produces. +Dr. Zollekoffer says, that in intermittent fevers the Prussiate of iron +is in its effects superior to Cinchona bark, and says it never disagrees +with the stomach, or creates nausea even in the most irritable state, +while bark is not unfrequently rejected; a patient will recover from the +influence of intermitting and remitting fevers, in the generality of +cases, in much less time than is usual in those cases in which bark is +employed. S.S.T. + + * * * * * + +THE ANECDOTE GALLERY. + +VOLTAIRE. + +(_Continued from page 64_.) + +A certain Hungarian traveller, a man of consequence in his country, but +not particularly wise, had fruitlessly tried to be introduced, without +finding any one at Geneva, willing to undertake the task, as they were +all afraid Voltaire would be rude to him. A young man, who heard of +this, engaged to procure the stranger an interview with Voltaire; and on +the day appointed, contrived to have him conveyed out of town to a +good-looking residence, where well-dressed servants received him at the +door, and ushered him up stairs in due form. Here then at last he found +himself, as he thought, _téte-à-tete_ with Voltaire. The _malade de +Ferney_, personated by our young friend, was lying down on a sofa, +wrapped up in a damask robe-de-chambre, a night-cap of black velvet, +with gold lace, on his head, or rather on the top of an immense periwig, +_a la Louis XIV_., in the midst of which his little, sallow and +deeply-wrinkled visage seemed buried; a table was near him, covered with +papers, and the curtains being drawn, made the room rather dark. The +philosopher apologized in a hollow voice, interrupted by occasional fits +of coughing; he was ill _bien malade_, could not get up, begged the +stranger to be seated, asked questions about the countries he had +visited, made him tell his adventures, those of gallantry particularly, +and was himself most facetious, and most profanely witty. The Hungarian +delighted, and far more at ease than he had imagined possible, casting a +glance on the papers, ventured to inquire what new work? "Ah, +nothing!"--_le faible Enfant de ma Vieillesse--a tragedy_. "May I ask +the subject?" "The subject is wholly Genevan," replied Voltaire, "the +name, _Empro-Giro_, and the dramatis personæ _Carin-Caro, Dupins-Simon_, +and _Carcail Briffon, &c_." He then began to repeat, with great +animation, a number of passages, to which his visitor listened in +perfect raptures, but drew, meanwhile, a snuff-box from his pocket, and +began to look attentively on him and on a picture on the lid; thus +confronted with a portrait of Voltaire, and compared face to face, was a +trial for which our mimic was not prepared, and his courage nearly +forsook him, yet he kept up appearances, only coughing more, and ranting +on the high-sounding lines of his _Empro-Giro_. The Hungarian, not +undeceived by this close examination, replaced the snuff-box in his +pocket, declaring it to be the best likeness he had ever seen. He rose +at last, thanked his friend Voltaire, kissed his hand respectfully, and +went away, distributing to the servants he met on the stairs liberal +tokens of his satisfaction. These servants were the intimate friends and +companions of the chief actor, and one of them, his brother, unwilling +to carry the joke to the length of pocketing the money of their dupe, +they contrived to give him a dinner at a tavern, where he was made to +tell the story of his visit to Voltaire, and express his admiration of +the great man. The latter heard of this, was much amused, and desired to +see his double, told him he would make a bargain with him--half his fame +for half the tiresome visitors it procured him. + +The poet lived like a prince, but kept his accounts like a citizen; +knowing to a sous where his money went: a good deal of it was bestowed +charitably, for he was munificent, and certainly much loved in his +neighbourhood. One night, when _Tancrede_ was acting, and the court of +the chateau was full of carriages and servants, there arrived, as ill +luck would have it, a cask of the best chambertin that ever came from +Burgundy; his own people could not attend to it, and the cask remained +at his cellar door; the servants contrived to get at it, and while their +masters and mistresses were shedding tears at the tragedy, they sipped +the poet's wine. There was generally a supper after the play, where more +than once two hundred people sat down, and Voltaire had something to say +to every one of his guests. As the gates of the town are shut at night, +many of them usually remained in the _château_, poorly accommodated with +beds. One night as M. de B----, was groping in the dark, for a place +where he might lie down to sleep, he accidently put his finger into the +mouth of M. de Florian, who bit it. + +Voltaire kept company only with the aristocracy of Geneva; neither his +liberality nor his wit secured him the good-will of the patriots placed +out of the sphere of his influence; they only saw him a sham +philosopher, without principles and solidity; a courtier, the slave of +rank and fashion; the corrupter of their country, of which he made a +jest. _Quand je secoue ma perruque,_ he used to say, _je poudre toute la +republique!_ + +Whatever might be Voltaire's antipathy to the visits of strangers at his +_château_, he seems to have met with an equal specimen of that temper +from an Englishman. When in London, he waited upon Congreve, the poet, +and passed him some compliments as to the reputation and merit of his +works. Congreve thanked him; but at the same, time told Voltaire _he did +not choose to be considered as an author, but only as a private +gentleman, and in that light expected to be visited._ Voltaire answered, +_that if he had never been any thing but a private gentleman, in all +probability he had never been troubled with that visit._ He also +observes, in his own account of this affair, he was not a little +disgusted with so unseasonable a piece of vanity. + +The memory of Voltaire and Rousseau is still cherished by the French +people with great fondness; their busts or figures in bronze or plaster +are frequently met with, and remind one of _Penates_, or household gods. + +PHILO. + + * * * * * + + + + +POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS. + + +WITCHCRAFT. + +(_For the Mirror_.) + +--Why should the envious world +Throw all their scandalous malice upon me? +'Cause I am poor, deform'd, and ignorant; +And like a bow, buckled and bent together, +By some more strong in mischiefs than myself: +Must I for that be made a common sink +For all the filth and rubbish of men's tongues, +To fall and run into? some call me witch; +And, being ignorant of myself, they go +About to teach me how to be one; urging +That my bad tongue (by their bad usage made so) +Forespeaks their cattle, doth bewitch their corn, +Themselves, their servants, and their babes at nurse; +This they enforce upon me; and in part +Make me to credit it. _Witch of Edmonton._ + +The belief in witchcraft may be considered as forming a prominent and +important feature in the history of the human mind. It is certainly one +link of the degrading chain of superstitions which have long enslaved +mankind, but which are now quivering to their fall. The desire for power +to pry into hidden things, and more especially events to come, is +inherent in the human race, and has always been considered as of no +ordinary importance, and rendered the supposed possessors objects of +reverence and fear. The belief in astrology, or the power to read in the +stars the knowledge of futurity, from time immemorial has been +considered as the most difficult of attainment, and important in its +results. And by the aid of a little supernatural machinery, both +magicians and astrologers exercised the most unlimited influence over +the understandings of their adherents. An astrologer, only two or three +centuries since, was a regular appendage to the establishments of +princes and nobles. Sir Walter Scott has drawn an interesting portrait +of one in _Kenilworth_; and the eagerness with which the Earl of +Leicester listened to his doctrines and predictions, affords a good +specimen of the manners of those times. The movements of the heavenly +bodies, (imperfectly as they were then understood,) seemed to afford the +most plausible vehicle for these "oracles of human destiny;" and even +now, while we are tracing these lines, the red and glaring appearance of +the planet Mars, shining so beautifully in the south-east, is considered +by the many as a forerunner and sign of long wars and much bloodshed: + +These dreams and terrors magical, + These miracles and witches, +Night walking sprites, et cetera, + Esteem them not two rushes. + +Mankind are universally prone to the belief in omens, and the casual +occurrence of certain contingent circumstances soon creates the easiest +of theories. Should a bird of good omen, in ancient times, perch on the +standard, or hover about an army, the omen was of good import, and +favourable to conquest. Should a raven or crow accidentally fly over the +field of action, the spirits of the combatants would be proportionably +depressed. Should a planet be shining in its brilliancy at the birth of +any one whose fortunes rose to pre-eminence, it was always thought to +exert an influence over his future destiny. Such was the origin of many +of our later superstitions, which "grew with their growth, and +strengthened with their strength," till the more extensive introduction +of the art of printing partly dissipated the illusion. It has been +remarked, therefore, that the existence of the parent stock of the +subject more immediately under our consideration, witchcraft, may be +traced to a very remote period indeed. It is, however, needless to enter +into any remarks on those witches mentioned in the Scriptures. The +earliest dabbler of the _genus_, as a contemporary writer observes, is +said to be Zoroaster, thought to be the king of the Bactrians, who +flourished about 3,800 years ago, or A.M. 2000. He is supposed to have +been well versed in the arts of divination and astrology, and was the +origin of the Persian magi. "At his birth," remarks an old writer, "he +laughed; and his head did so beat, that it struck back the midwife's +hand--a good sign of abundance of spirits, which are the best +instruments of a ready wit." The _magi_ in Persia, the Brahmins in +India, the Chaldae in Assyria, the magicians of Arabia, the priesthood +of Egypt, Greece, and Rome, and the Druids of Britain, were all members +of a class which comprised astrology, omens, divination, conjuration, +portents, chiromancy, and sorcery; and all united in the pursuit of +enslaving mankind for the purposes of gain and power, with artfully +devised schemes, and a skilful series of impostures; and we can easily +imagine the influence they must have exercised over the minds of their +proselytes, when we bear in mind the effect produced by similar +contrivances in later days. The enchantress Theoris of Athens seems to +have been the first witch that had recourse to charms. Demosthenes uses +the terms both of witchery and imposture in speaking of her. This witch +was put to death by the Athenians--an accomplice having displayed to +them the charms, &c., by which she wrought her miracles. Our Saviour's +words, that _faith_ can remove mountains, are applicable particularly to +the supposed powers of witchcraft; and the influence of charms and +amulets in averting disease is well known. We have alluded, in our first +paper, to the trial of Rose Cullender and Amy Duny, at Norwich, for +witchcraft; and we now give the speech of Sir Thomas Browne, the +celebrated physician of that period, (1664,) to whom, in consequence of +defect in the proof, the case was referred, which was the cause of their +conviction. Sir Thomas Browne offered it as his opinion, "that the +devil, in such cases, did work upon the bodies of men and women, upon a +natural foundation, (that is) to stir up and excite such humours +superabounding in their bodies to a great excess, whereby he did, in an +extraordinary manner, afflict them with such distempers as their bodies +were most subject to, as particularly appeared in the children of +Dorothy Dunent, (one of the indictments against the prisoners being for +their bewitchment;) for he conceived that these swooning fits were +natural, and nothing else but that they call the mother, but _only +heightened to a great excess by the subtilty of the devil co-operating +with the malice of these, which we term witches, at whose instance he +doth the villanies_." + +The ceremony of initiation to the dreadful vocation and great powers of +witchcraft was attended with considerable form and mystery:-- + +----They call me hag and witch. +What is the name? When, and by what art learned? +With what spell, what charm or invocation, +May the thing call'd _familiar_ be purchas'd? + +The older and more ugly the performer in these appalling ceremonies, the +better. Some witches seem to have had the devil quite at their beck; but +his visits to most of them appear to have been "few and far between." +The convention (remarks John Gaule, an old writer) for such a solemn +initiation being proclaimed (by some herald imp) to some others of the +confederation, on some great holy or Lord's day, they meet in some +church, either before the consecrated bell hath tolled, or else very +late, after all the services are past and over. "The party, in some +vesture for that purpose, is presented by some confederate or familiar +to the prince of devills, sitting now in a throne of infernall majesty, +appearing in the form of a man, only labouring to hide his cloven foot. +To whom, after bowing and homage done, a petition is presented to be +received into his association and protection; and first, if the witch be +outwardly Christian, baptism must be renounced, and the party must be +re-baptised in the devill's name, and a new name is also imposed by him, +and here must be godfathers too ... But above all he is very busie with +his long nails, in scraping and scratching those places of the forehead +where the signe of the crosse was made, or where the chrisme was laid. +Instead of both which, he impresses or inures the mark of the beast (the +devill's flesh brand) upon one or other part of the body. Further, the +witch (for her part) vows, either by word of mouth, or peradventure by +writing, (and that in her owne bloode,) to give both body and soul to +the devill, to deny and defy God the Father, the Son, and the Holy +Ghost; but especially the blessed Virgin, convitiating her with one +infamous nickname or other; to abhor the word and sacraments, but +especially to spit at the saying of masse; to spurn at the crosse, and +tread saints' images under feet; and as much as possibly they may, to +profane all saints' reliques, holy water, consecrated salt, wax, &c.; to +be sure to fast on Sundays, and eat flesh on Fridays; not to confess +their sins, whatsoever they do, especially to a priest; to separate from +the Catholic church, and despise his vicar's primacy; to attend the +devill's nocturnal conventicles, sabbaths, and sacrifices; to take him +for their god, worship, invoke, and obey him; to devote their children +to him, and to labour all that they may to bring others into the same +confederacy. Then the devill, for his part, promises to be always +present with them, to serve them at their beck; that they shall have +their wills upon any body; that they shall have what riches, honours, +and pleasures they can imagine; and if any be so wary as to think of +their future being, he tells them they shall be princes ruling in the +aire, or shall be but turned into impes at worst. Then he preaches to +them to be mindful of their covenant, and not to fail to revenge +themselves upon their enemies, Then, he commends to them (for this +purpose) an imp, or familiar in the shape of a cat, &c. After this they +shake hands, embrace in arms, dance, feast, and banquet, according as +the devill hath provided in imitation of the supper. Nay, ofttimes he +marries them ere they part, either to himselfe, or to their familiar, or +to one another, and that by the Book of Common Prayer, as a pretender to +witch-finding told me, in the presence of many." After this they part, +and a general meeting is held thrice a year, on some holy day; they are +"conveyed to it as swift as the winds from the remotest parts of the +earth, where they that have done the most execrable mischiefe, and can +brag of it, make most merry with the devill;" while the "indiligent" are +jeered and derided by the devil and the others. Non-attendance was +severely punished by the culprits being beaten on the soles of the feet, +whipped with iron rods, "pinched and sucked by their familiars till +their heart's blood come--till they repent them of their sloth, &c." + +Many regulations were, however, to be observed after the above +initiatory ceremony, which we have given at length in consequence of its +singularity. There existed a community or commonwealth, of "fallen +angels" or spirits, with the various titles of kings, dukes, &c., +prelates and knights, of which the head was _Baal_, "who, when he was +conjured up, appeared with three heads, one like a man, one like a toad, +and one like a cat." The title of king conferred no extra power; indeed, +_Agares_, "the first duke, came in the likeness of a faire old man, +riding upon a crocodile, and carrying a hawk on his fist"--_Marbas_, who +appeared in the form of a "mightie lion"--_Amon_, "a great and mightie +marques, who came abroad in the likeness of a wolf, having a serpent's +taile, and breathing out and spitting flames of fire," and was one of +the "best and kindest of devills," with sixty-five more of these +master-spirits, enumerated in _Scot_, "appeared to be entirely and +exclusively appropriated to the service of witches," were alike +possessed of nearly similar power, and had many hundreds of legions of +devils (each legion 6,666 in number) at their command. + +There were stated times for each rank of devils to be called on, for +they aught not to be invoked "rashly or at all seasons;" and the +following extracts from Reginald Scot are fully explanatory of the +formalities to be observed on these occasions:-- + +"_The houres wherein the principal devills may be raised.--_A king may +be raised from the third houre till noone, and from the ninth hour till +evening. Dukes may be raised from the first hour till noon, and clear +weather is to be observed. Marquesses may be raised from the ninth hour +till compline, and from compline till the end of day. Countes, or +earles, may be raised at any hour of the day, so it be in the woodes or +fieldes, where men resort not. Prelates likewise may be raised at any +houre of the day. A president may not be raised at any hour of the day, +except the king, whom he obeyeth, be invocated; nor at the shutting in +of the evening. Knights from day-dawning till sun-rising, or from +even-song till sun-set. + +"_The forme of adjuring and citing the spirits aforesaid to +appeare_.--When you will have any spirit, you must knowe his name and +office; you must also fast and be cleane from all pollution three or +foure days before; so will the spirit be more obedient unto you. Then +make a circle, and call up the spirit with great intention, rehearse in +your owne name, and your companion's, (for one must alwaies be with +you,) this prayer following; and so no spirit shall annoy you, and your +purpose shall take effect. And note how thw prayer agreeth with popish +charmes and conjurations." + +The prayer alluded to (see _Scot's Discovery_, b. 15, c. 2) is of the +most diabolical and blasphemous nature. A contemporary writer observes, +that there is not the least doubt but that the witches of the olden time +observed all the formalities of these ridiculous and disgusting +ceremonies to the very letter. In later times, however, though the +formalities were quite simple, yet the hag of the sixteenth century +exercised her vocation with all its ancient potency. + +The broomstick has been the theme of many a story connected with this +subject:-- + + As men in sleep, though motionless they lie, + Fledged by a dream, believe they mount and fly; + So witches some enchanted wand bestride + And think they through the airy regions ride. + +But the reason of its possessing such extensive powers of locomotion, or +rather aërostation, is not generally understood. The witches either +steal or dig dead children out of their graves, which are then seethed +in a cauldron, and the ointment and liquid so produced, enables them, +"observing certain ceremonies, to immediately become a master, or rather +a mistresse, in the practise or faculty" of flying in the air:-- + + High in, air, amid the rising storm + ----wrapt in midnight + Her doubtful form appears and fades! + Her spirits are abroad! they do her bidding! + Hark to that shriek! + +In addition to the above, they possessed another very useful faculty, +for the transfer of the patent of which, I doubt not scores of +adventurers would have given a tolerable consideration. It is briefly +that of "sailing in an egg-shell, a cockle, or a muscle-shell, through +and under the tempestuous seas." + +From the length to which this article has extended, I must reserve an +account of witch-finders, charms, dreams, and confessions, &c. for the +next and concluding paper. VYVYAN. + + * * * * * + +Spirit of Discovery. + + * * * * * + + +_Paper from Straw_. + + +At a recent meeting of the Royal Institution, there were exhibited some +specimens of paper manufactured from straw, by a new process. + + +_Hardening Steel_. + + +From the observation of travellers, that the manufacture of Damascus +blades was carried on only during the time when the north winds +occurred, M. Anozoff made experiments on the hardening of steel +instruments, by putting them, when heated, into a powerful current of +air, instead of quenching them in water. From the experiments already +made, he expects ultimate success. He finds that, for very sharp-edged +instruments, this method is much better than the ordinary one; that the +colder the air and the more rapid its stream, the greater is the effect. +The effect varies with the thickness of the mass to be hardened. The +method succeeds well with case-hardened goods.-- _From the French_. + + +_Detection of Blood_. + + +A controversy has recently taken place in Paris, relative to the +efficacy of certain chemical means of ascertaining whether dried spots +or stains of matter suspected to be blood, are or were blood, or not. M. +Orfila gives various chemical characters of blood under such +circumstances, which he thinks sufficient to enable an accurate +discrimination. This opinion is opposed by M. Raspail, who states, that +all the indications supposed to belong to true blood, may be obtained +from, linen rags, dipped, not into blood, but into a mixture of white of +egg and infusion of madder, and that, therefore, the indications are +injurious rather than useful. + + +_Cedars of Lebanon_. + + +Mr. Wolff, the missionary, counted on Mount Lebanus, thirteen large and +ancient cedars, besides the numerous small ones, in the whole 387 +trees. The largest of these trees was about 15 feet high, not one-third +of the height of hundreds of English cedars; for instance, those at +Whitton, Pain's Hill, Caenwood, and Juniper Hall, near Dorking. + +_Leeches_. + +In the _Medical Repository_, a case is quoted, where some leeches, which +had been employed first on a syphylitic patient and afterwards on an +infant, communicated the disease to the latter. + +_Stinging Flies_. + +There is a fly which exteriorly much resembles the house-fly, and which +is often very troublesome about this time; this is called the stinging +fly, one of the greatest plagues to cattle, as well as to persons +wearing thin stockings. + +_Mont Blanc_. + +The height of Mont Blanc and of the Lake of Geneva has lately been +carefully ascertained by M. Roger, an officer of engineers in the +service of the Swiss Confederation. The summit of the mountain appears +to be 4,435 metres, or 14,542 English feet above the Lake of Geneva, and +the surface of the Lake 367 metres, or 1,233 English feet above the sea. +The mountain is, therefore, 15,775 feet above the level of the sea. + +_Bird Catching_. + +The golden-crested wren may be taken by striking the bough upon which it +is sitting, sharply, with a stone or stick. The timid bird immediately +drops to the ground, and generally dead. As their skins are tender, +those who want them for stuffing will find this preferable to using the +gun.--_Mag. Nat. Hist._ + +_Shower of Herrings in Ross-shire_. + +In April last, as Major Forbes, of Fodderty, in Strathpfeffer, was +traversing a field on his farm, he found a considerable portion of the +ground covered with herring fry, of from three to four inches in length. +The fish were fresh and entire, and had no appearance of being dropped +by birds--a medium by which they must have been bruised and mutilated. +The only rational conjecture that can be formed of the circumstance is, +that the fish were transported thither in a water-spout--a phenomenon +that has before occurred in the same county. The Firth of Dengwall lies +at a distance of three miles from the place in question; but no +obstruction occurs between the field and the sea, the whole is a level +strath or plain, and water spouts have been known to travel even farther +than this.--_Inverness Courier._ + +_Spanish Asses_. + +The Duke of Buckingham has, at his seat at Avington, a team of Spanish +asses, resembling the zebra in appearance, which are extremely +tractable, and take more freely to the collar than any of our native +species. + +_Drawing Instrument_. + +An ingenious invention of this description was recently exhibited at the +Royal Institution. A pencil and a small bead are so connected together +by means of a thread passing over pullies, that if a person, looking +through an eye-piece, will hold the pencil upon a sheet of paper, and +then, watching the bead, will move his hand, so that the bead shall +trace the lines of any object that is selected or looked at, he will +find that, whilst he has been doing this, he has also made a drawing of +the subject upon the paper; for the pencil and the bead describe exactly +the same lines, though upon different planes. Thus, a drawing is made, +without even looking at the paper, but solely at the object. + +_White Cats_. + +In a recent number we quoted from _Loudon's Gardener's Magazine_, that +"white cats with blue eyes are always deaf," of which extraordinary fact +there is the following confirmation in the _Magazine of Natural +History_, No. 2, likewise conducted by Mr. Loudon:--"Some years ago a +white cat of the Persian kind (probably not a thorough-bred one) +procured from Lord Dudley's at Hindley, was kept in my family as a +favourite. The animal was a female, quite white, and perfectly deaf. She +produced, at various times, many litters of kittens, of which, +generally, some were quite white, others more or less mottled, tabby, +&c. But the extraordinary circumstance is, that of the offspring +produced at one and the same birth, such as, like the mother, were +entirely white, were, like her, invariably deaf; while those that had +the least speck of colour on their fur, as invariably possessed the +usual faculty of hearing--" _W. T. Bree, Allersley Rectory, near +Coventry_. + +_Ultramarine_. + +A French journal announces a discovery of the method of making +Ultramarine, by which means the public are supplied with the article at +one guinea per ounce, the colour having hitherto been sold from two +guineas to two pounds ten shillings per ounce. + +_Indication of Storms_. + +Professor Scott, of Sandhurst College, observed in Shetland, that +drinking-glasses placed in an inverted position upon a shelf in a +cupboard, on the ground floor of Belmont House, occasionally emitted +sounds as if they were tapped with a knife, or raised up a little, and +then let fall on the shelf. These sounds preceded wind, and when they +occurred, boats and vessels were immediately secured. The strength of +the sound is said to be proportional to the tempest that +follows.--_Brewster's Jour._ + +_To preserve Wine in draught._ + +M. Imery, of Toulouse, gives the following simple means of preserving +wine in draught for a considerable time; it is sufficient to pour into +the cask a flask of fine olive oil. The wine may thus continue in +draught for more than a year. The oil spread in a thin layer upon the +surface of the wine, hinders the evaporation of its alcoholic part, and +prevents it from combining with the atmospheric air, which would not +only turn the wine sour, but change its constituent parts. + +_Union of the Atlantic and Pacific._ + +A letter from Amsterdam states, that the project of cutting a canal, to +unite the Gulf of Mexico with the Pacific Ocean, is about to be revived. + +_Vesuvius._ + +An eruption took place on the morning of last March 22nd. An eye-witness +writes "the cone of the mountain puts you in mind of an immense piece of +artillery, firing red-hot stones, and ashes, and smoke into the +atmosphere; or, of a huge animal in pain, groaning;, crying, and +vomiting; or, like an immense whale in the arctic circle, blowing after +it has been struck with several harpoons." + +_Bees in Mourning._ + +A correspondent in _Loudon's Magazine of Natural History_, states that +in the neighbourhood of Coventry, there is a superstitious belief, that +in the event of the death of any of the family, it is necessary to +inform the bees of the circumstance, otherwise they will desert the +hive, and seek out other quarters. + +_Rare Insects._ + +There exists in Livonia, a very rare insect, which is not met with in +more northern countries, and whose existence was for a long time +considered doubtful, called the _Furia Infernalis._ It is so small that +it is very difficult to distinguish it by the naked eye; and its sting +produces a swelling, which, unless a proper remedy be applied, proves +mortal. + +During the hay harvest, other insects named _Meggar,_ occasion great +injury both to men and beasts. They are of the size of a grain of sand. +At sunset they appear in great numbers, descend in a perpendicular line, +pierce the strongest linen, and cause an itching, and pustules, which if +scratched, become dangerous. Cattle, which breathe these insects, are +attacked with swellings in the throat, which destroy them, unless +promptly relieved. + + * * * * * + +SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS + + * * * * * + +MEN AND MONKEYS. + +Monkeys are certainly, there is no denying it, very like men; and, what +is worse, men are still more like monkeys. Many worthy people, who have +a high respect for what they choose to call the Dignity of Human Nature, +are much distressed by this similitude, approaching in many cases to +absolute identity; and some of them have written books of considerable +erudition and ingenuity, to prove that a man is not a monkey; nay, not +so much as even an ape; but truth compels us to confess, that their +speculations have been far from carrying conviction to our minds. All +such inquirers, from Aristotle to Smellie, principally insist on two +great leading distinctions--speech and reason. But it is obvious to the +meanest capacity, that monkeys have both speech and reason. They have a +language of their own, which, though not so capacious as the Greek, is +much more so than the Hottentottish; and as for reason, no man of a +truly philosophical genius ever saw a monkey crack a nut, without +perceiving that the creature possesses that endowment, or faculty, in no +small perfection. Their speech, indeed, is said not to be articulate; +but it is audibly more so than the Gaelic. The words unquestionably do +run into each other, in a way that, to our ears, renders it rather +unintelligible; but it is contrary to all the rules of sound +philosophizing, to confuse the obtuseness of our own senses with the +want of any faculty in others; and they have just as good a right to +maintain, and to complain of, our inarticulate mode of speaking, as we +have of theirs--indeed much more--for monkeys speak the same, or nearly +the same, language all over the habitable globe, whereas men, ever since +the Tower of Babel, have kept chattering, muttering, humming, and +hawing, in divers ways and sundry manners, so that one nation is unable +to comprehend what another would be at, and the earth groans in vain +with vocabularies and dictionaries. That monkeys and men are one and the +same animal, we shall not take upon ourselves absolutely to assert, for +the truth is, we, for one or two, know nothing whatever about the +matter; all we mean to say is, that nobody has yet proved that they are +not, and farther, that whatever may be the case with men, monkeys have +reason and speech. + +The monkey has not had justice done him, we repeat and insist upon it; +for what right have you to judge of a whole people, from a few isolated +individuals,--and from a few isolated individuals, too, running up poles +with a chain round their waist, twenty times the length of their own +tail, or grinning in ones or twos through the bars of a cage in a +menagerie? His eyes are red with perpetual weeping--and his smile is +sardonic in captivity. His fur is mouldy and mangy, and he is manifestly +ashamed of his tail, prehensile no more--and of his paws, "very hands, +as you may say," miserable matches to his miserable feet. To know him as +he is, you must go to Senegal; or if that be too far off for a trip +during the summer vacation, to the Rock of Gebir, now called Gibraltar, +and see him at his gambols among the cliffs. Sailor nor slater would +have a chance with him there, standing on his head on a ledge of six +inches, five hundred feet above the level of the sea, without ever so +much as once tumbling down; or hanging at the same height from a bush by +the tail, to dry, or air, or sun himself, as if he were flower or fruit. +There he is, a monkey indeed; but you catch him young, clap a pair of +breeches on him, and an old red jacket, and oblige him to dance a +saraband on the stones of a street, or perch upon the shoulder of Bruin, +equally out of his natural element, which is a cave among the woods. +Here he is but the ape of a monkey. Now if we were to catch you young, +good subscriber or contributor, yourself, and put you into a cage to +crack nuts and pull ugly faces, although you might, from continued +practice, do both to perfection, at a shilling a-head for grown-up +ladies and gentlemen, and sixpence for children and servants, and even +at a lower rate after the collection had been some weeks in town, would +you not think it exceedingly hard to be judged of in that one of your +predicaments, not only individually, but nationally--that is, not only +as Ben Hoppus, your own name, but as John Bull, the name of the people +of which you are an incarcerated specimen? You would keep incessantly +crying out against this with angry vociferation, as a most unwarrantable +and unjust Test and Corporation Act. And, no doubt, were an +Ourang-outang to see you in such a situation, he would not only form a +most mean opinion of you as an individual, but go away with a most false +impression of the whole human race. _Blackwood's Magazine._ + + * * * * * + +SONNET WRITTEN IN THE SPRING. + +How heavenly o'er my frame steals the life-breath +Of beautiful Spring! who with her amorous gales +Kissing the violets, each stray sweet exhales +Of May-thorn, and the wild flower on the heath. +I love thee, virgin daughter of the year! +Yet, ah! not cups,--dyed like the dawn, impart +Their elves' dew-nectar to a fainting heart!-- +Ye birds! whose liquid warblings far and near +Make music to the green turf-board of swains; +To me, your light lays tell of April joy,-- +Of pleasures--idle, as a long-loved toy; +And while my heart in unison complains, +Tears like of balm-tree flow in trickling wave, +And white forms strew with flowers a maid's untimely grave! +_New Monthly Mag._ + + * * * * * + +THE KING OF ARRAGON'S LAMENT FOR HIS BROTHER.[1] + +"If I could see him, it were well with me!" +_Coleridge's Wallenstein._ + +There were lights and sounds of revelling in the vanquished city's halls, +As by night the feast of victory was held within its walls; +And the conquerors filled the wine-cup high, after years of bright blood shed: +But their Lord, the King of Arragon, 'midst the triumph, wailed the dead. + +He looked down from the fortress won, on the tents and towers below, +The moon-lit sea, the torch-lit streets--and a gloom came o'er his brow: +The voice of thousands floated up, with the horn and cymbals' tone; +But his heart, 'midst that proud music, felt more utterly alone. +And he cried, "Thou art mine, fair city! thou city of the sea! +But, oh! what portion of delight is mine at last in thee? +--I am lonely 'midst thy palaces, while the glad waves past them roll, +And the soft breath of thine orange-bowers is mournful to my soul. + +"My brother! oh! my brother! thou art gone, the true and brave, +And the haughty joy of victory hath died upon thy grave: +There are many round my throne to stand, and to march where I lead on; +There was _one_ to love me in the world--my brother! thou art gone! + +"In the desert, in the battle, in the ocean-tempest's wrath, +We stood together, side by side; one hope was our's--one path: +Thou hast wrapt me in thy soldier's cloak, thou hast fenced me with thy breast; +Thou hast watched beside my couch of pain--oh! bravest heart, and best! + +"I see the festive lights around--o'er a dull sad world they shine; +I hear the voice of victory--my Pedro where is _thine?_ +The only voice in whose kind tone my spirit found reply-- +Oh! brother! I have bought too dear this hollow pageantry! + +"I have hosts, and gallant fleets, to spread my glory and my sway, +And chiefs to lead them fearlessly--my _friend_ hath passed away! +For the kindly look, the word of cheer, my heart may thirst in vain, +And the face that was as light to mine--it cannot come again! + +"I have made thy blood, thy faithful blood, the offering for a crown; +With love, which earth bestows not twice, I have purchased cold renown: +How often will my weary heart 'midst the sounds of triumph die, +When I think of thee, my brother! thou flower of chivalry! + +"I am lonely--I am lonely! this rest is ev'n as death! +Let me hear again the ringing spears, and the battle-trumpet's breath; +Let me see the fiery charger's foam, and the royal banner wave-- +But where art thou, my brother?--where?--in thy low and early grave!" + +And louder swelled the songs of joy through that victorious night, +And faster flowed the red wine forth, by the stars and torches light; +But low and deep, amidst the mirth, was heard the conqueror's moan-- +"My brother! oh! my brother! best and bravest! thou art gone!" + +_Mrs. Hemans.--Monthly Magazine._ + + * * * * * + +A SUMMER TOUR. + +If called upon to propose any summer's journey for a young English +traveller, (and it is a call often made with reference to continental +tours,) we might reasonably suggest the coasts of Great Britain, as +affording every kind of various interest, which can by possibility be +desired. Such a scheme would include the ports and vast commercial +establishments of Liverpool, Bristol, Greenock, Leith, Newcastle, and +Hull; the great naval stations of Plymouth, Portsmouth, Chatham, and +Milford; the magnificent estuaries of the Clyde and Forth, and of the +Bristol Channel, not surpassed by any in Europe; the wild and romantic +coasts of the Hebrides and Western Highlands; the bold shore of North +Wales; the Menai, Conway, and Sunderland bridges; the gigantic works of +the Caledonian Canal and Plymouth Breakwater; and numerous other +objects, which it is beyond our purpose and power to enumerate. It +cannot be surely too much to advise, that Englishmen, who have only +slightly and partially seen these things, should subtract something from +the length or frequency of their continental journeys, and give the time +so gained to a survey of their own country's wonders of nature and art. + +To the agriculturist, and to the lover of rural scenery, England offers +much that is remarkable. The rich alluvial plains of continents may +throw out a more profuse exuberance and succession of crops; but we +doubt whether agriculture, as an art, has anywhere (except in Flanders +and Tuscany alone) reached the same perfection as in the less fertile +soils of the Lothians, Northumberland, and Norfolk. Still more peculiar +is the rural scenery of England, in the various and beautiful landscape +it affords--in the undulating surface--the greenness of the +enclosures--the hamlets and country churches--and the farm houses and +cottages dispersed over the face of the country, instead of being +congregated into villages, as in France and Italy. We might select +Devonshire, Somersetshire, Herefordshire, and others of the midland +counties, as pre-eminent in this character of beauty, which, however, is +too familiar to our daily observation to make it needful to expatiate +upon it. + +Nor will our limits allow us to dwell upon that bolder form of natural +scenery which we possess in the Highlands of Scotland, in Wales, +Cumberland, and Derbyshire, and which entitles us to speak of this +island as rich in landscape of the higher class. In the scale of +objects, it is true that no comparison can exist between the mountain +scenery of Britain, and that of many parts of the continent of Europe. +But it must be remembered, that magnitude is not essential to beauty; +and that even sublimity is not always to be measured by yards and feet. +A mountain may be loftier, or a lake longer and wider, without any gain +to that picturesque effect, which mainly depends on form, combination, +and colouring. Still we do not mean to claim in these points any sort of +equality with the Alps, Apennines, or Pyrenees; or to do more than +assert that, with the exception of these, the more magnificent memorials +of nature's workings on the globe, our own country possesses as large a +proportion of fine scenery as any part of the continent of Europe.--_Q. +Rev._ + + * * * * * + +Notes of a Reader + + * * * * * + +HERODOTUS. + +Perhaps few persons are aware how often they imitate this great +historian. Thus, says the _Edinburgh Review_, "Children and servants are +remarkably _Herodotean_ in their style of narration. They tell every +thing dramatically. Their _says hes_ and _says shes_ are proverbial. +Every person who has had to settle their disputes knows that, even when +they have no intention to deceive, their reports of conversation always +require to be carefully sifted. If an educated man were giving an +account of the late change of administration, he would say, 'Lord +Goderich resigned; and the king, in consequence, sent for the Duke of +Wellington.' A porter tells the story as if he had been behind the +curtains of the royal bed at Windsor: 'So Lord Goderich says, 'I cannot +manage this business; I must go out.' So the king, says he, 'Well, then, +I must send for the Duke of Wellington--that's all.' This is in the very +manner of the father of history." + + * * * * * + +SPLENDOUR OF THE CHURCH OF ROME. + +"In the days of her power and importance, the church of Rome numbered +amongst her vassals and servants the most renowned spirits of the earth. +She called them from obscurity to fame, and to all who laboured to +spread and sustain her influence, she became a benefactress. Her wealth +was immense, for she drew her revenue from the fear or superstition of +man, and her spirit was as magnificent as her power. The cathedrals +which she every where reared are yet the wonders of Europe for their +beauty and extent; and in her golden days, the priests who held rule +within them were, in wealth and strength, little less than princes. For +a time her treasure was wisely and munificently expended; and the works +she wrought, and the good deeds she performed, are her honour and our +shame. She spread a table to the hungry; she gave lodgings to the +houseless; welcomed the wanderer; and rich and poor, and learned and +illiterate, alike received shelter and hospitality. Under her roof the +scholar completed his education; the historian sought and found the +materials for his history; the minstrel chanted lays of mingled piety +and love for his loaf and raiment; the sculptor carved in wood, or cast +in silver, some popular saint; and the painter gave the immortality of +his colours to some new legend or miracle."--All who have visited the +cathedrals and churches of the continent, or who have studied their +history at home, must acknowledge the truth and force of these excellent +observations. They are copied from an ably-written article on the +History of Italian Painting, in the second number of the _Foreign +Review_. + + * * * * * + +Frederick the Great, in a letter to Voltaire, says, "I look on men as a +herd of deer in a great man's park, whose only business is to people the +enclosures."--This is one of the _great men_ of history. + + * * * * * + +POTATOES. + +A few years after the discovery, potatoes were carried to Spain at first +as sweetmeats and delicacies. Oviedo says that "they were a dainty dish +to set before the king," Labat describes potatoes a hundred years ago, +as cultivated in Western Africa, and says of them, "_Il y en a en +Irlande, et en Angleterre_," and that he had seen very good ones at +Rochelle. + + * * * * * + +PAINTING + +Represents nature, or poetic nature at the most, and, therefore, +addresses itself as much as poetry does to the feeling and imagination +of man. Though it deals in nature exalted by genius, embellished by art +and purified by taste, still it is nature, still it makes its appeal to +the men of this world, and by them it is applauded or condemned. It +works for men, and not for gods; therefore every man, as far as his +taste is natural and sound, is a judge of its productions.--_For. Rev._ + + * * * * * + +LAVER. + +Such of our readers as are not addicted to epicurism may have been +somewhat puzzled at the display of "_Fine Fresh Laver_" in the Italian +warehouses and provision shops of the metropolis. The truth is, laver is +a kind of reddish sea-weed, forming a jelly when boiled, which is eaten +by some of the poor people in Angus with bread instead of butter; but +which the rich have elevated into one of the greatest dainties of their +tables. In Scotland, laver is called _slake_; and Dr. Clarke mentions +that it is used with the fulmar to make a kind of broth, which +constitutes the first and principal meal of the inhabitants. It is +curious to know that what is eaten at a duchess's table in Piccadilly as +a first-rate luxury, is used by the poor people of Scotland twice or +thrice a day. It is an expensive dish; but knowledge of this fact may +perhaps abate its cost. + + * * * * * + +GARDENS. + +Ferdinand I. of Naples prided himself upon the variety and excellence of +the fruit produced in his royal gardens, one of which was called +Paradise. Duke Hercules, of Ferrara, had a garden celebrated for its +fruits in one of the islands of the Po. The Duke of Milan, Ludovico, +carried this kind of luxury so far, that he had a travelling +fruit-garden; and the trees were brought to his table, or into his +chamber, that he might with his own hands gather the living fruit. + + * * * * * + +SNUFF. + +Even among the rudest and poorest of the inhabitants of Scotland, and at +a period when their daily meal must have been always scanty, and +frequently precarious, one luxury seems to have established itself, +which has unaccountably found its way into every part of the world. We +mean tobacco. The inhabitants of Scotland, and especially of the +Highlands, are notorious for their fondness for snuff; and many were the +contrivances by which they formerly reduced the tobacco into powder. Dr. +Jamieson, the etymologist, defines a _mill_ to be the vulgar name for a +snuff-box, one especially of a cylindrical form, or resembling an +inverted cone. "No other name," says he, "was formerly in use. The +reason assigned for this designation is, that when tobacco was +introduced into this country, those who wished to have snuff were wont +to toast the leaves before the fire, and then bruise them with a bit of +wood in the box; which was therefore called a _mill_, from the snuff +being _ground_ in it." This, however, is said to be not quite correct; +the old snuff-machine being like a nutmeg-grater, which made snuff as +often as a pinch was required. + + * * * * * + +Estimating the population of London and its environs at 1,200,000, its +proportion of paupers would amount to 100,000! + + * * * * * + +SCOTCH LIVING. + +Roast meat was formerly seldom seen among farmers in Scotland; and is +even now rare, compared with its use among the same class in England. +Less than half a century ago, a _mart_ was regularly bought or fattened +by the most respectable farmers, and even by many citizens. This was a +cow or ox killed and salted at Martinmas for winter provision; a custom +which, though not uncommon in England, perhaps, one hundred years ago, +has certainly not been followed, except in remote and sequestered +districts, or by very old-fashioned farmers within that period. + + * * * * * + +Falstaff's "Buck-Basket" has puzzled the commentators; but Dr. Jamieson +thus explains it:--_Bouk_ is the Scotch word for a lye used to steep +foul linen in, before it is washed in water; the buckbasket, therefore, +is the basket employed to carry clothes, after they have been bouked, to +the washing-place. + + * * * * * + +PLEASURES OF EGYPT. + +Sweet are the songs of Egypt on paper. Who is not ravished with gums, +balms, dates, figs, pomegranates, circassia, and sycamores, without +recollecting that amidst these are dust, hot and fainting winds, bugs, +mosquitos, spiders, flies, leprosy, fevers, and almost universal +blindness.--_Ledyard's Travels._--The same writer also says the people +are poorly clad, the youths naked, and that they rank infinitely below +any savages he ever saw. + + * * * * * + +There cannot be a more ill-boding sign to a nation, than when the +people, to avoid hardships at home, are forced by heaps to forsake their +native country.--_Milton._ + + * * * * * + +TOBACCO. + +As the devil is a deceiver, and hath the knowledge of the virtue of +herbs, so he did show the virtue of this herb, that by the means thereof +they might see their imaginations and visions that he hath represented +unto them. + + * * * * * + +WHISKY. + +From official documents it appears that long previous to 1690, there had +been a distillery of _aqua vitae_, or whisky, on the lands of Farintosh, +belonging to Mr. Forbes, of Culloden. + + * * * * * + +TRAVELLING INCENTIVES. + +If there be a sudden accession of fortune, the earliest use of it is in +passing over to the continent; if misfortunes occur, the first +suggestion is that of seeking solace in another land. The assumption of +the _toga virilis_ by our youth, may be practically translated, the +putting on of the travelling cloak. Marriage, instead of being the means +of more extended family union, is the plea for immediate separation; and +the newly-married pair drive from the church to the packet-boat. If the +elders of a family are snatched away by death, the first idea which +occurs to their successors, is that of distant removal from home. +Sorrows are not endured, but fled from; and misfortune becomes the +signal for dispersion to those who survive it.--_Q. Rev._ + + * * * * * + +Christoval Acosta, speaking of the _pine-apple_, says that "no medicinal +virtues have been discovered in it, and it is good for nothing but to +eat." + + * * * * * + +SMOKING. + +Joshuah Silvester questioned whether the devil had done more harm in +latter ages by means of fire and smoke, through the invention of guns, +or of tobacco-pipes; and he conjectured that Satan introduced the +fashion, as a preparatory course of smoking for those who were to be +matriculated in his own college: + +As roguing Gipsies tan their little elves, +To make them tann'd and ugly, like themselves. + + * * * * * + +LAW + +Must be kept as a garden, with frequent digging, weeding, turning, &c., +for that which was in one age convenient, and, perhaps, necessary, +becomes in another prejudicial.--_Roger North._ + + + + +THE GATHERER. + +"A snapper-up of unconsidered trifles." +SHAKSPEARE + + * * * * * + +THE WIFE'S COMPLAINT. + +Havard, the actor, (better known from the urbanity of his manners, by +the familiar name of Billy Havard) had the misfortune to be married to a +most notorious shrew and drunkard. One day dining at Garrick's, he was +complaining of a violent pain in his side. Mrs. Garrick offered to +prescribe for him. "No, no," said her husband; "that will not do, my +dear; Billy has mistaken his disorder; his great _complaint lies in his +rib_." + + * * * * * + +HOW TO SECURE A COACH. + +A facetious friend of Dr. Kitchiner's, on a very wet night, after +several messengers, whom he had despatched for a coach, had returned +without obtaining one; at last, at "past one o'clock, and a rainy +morning," the wag walked himself to the next coach-stand, and politely +advised the waterman to mend his inside lining with a pint of beer, and +go home to bed; for said he, "there will be nothing for you to do to +night, I'll lay you a shilling that there's not a coach out." "Why, will +you, your honour? then done," cried Mr. Waterman; "but are you really +serious, 'cause, if so be as you be, I must make haste and go and get +one." Being assured he would certainly touch the twelvepenny if he did, +he trotted off on his "nag a ten toes," and in ten minutes returned with +a leathern conveyance. + + * * * * * + +Epicure Quin used to say, it was "not safe to sit down to a _Turtle +Feast_ at one of the City Halls, without a _basket-hilted knife and +fork_."--Another of his quips was, "Of all the banns of marriage I ever +heard, none gave me half such pleasure as the union of ANN-CHOVY with +good JOHN-DORY." + + * * * * * + +ONION SOUP + +Is thought highly restorative by the French. It is considered peculiarly +grateful, and gently stimulating to the stomach, after hard drinking or +night-watching, and holds among soups the place that champagne, +soda-water, or ginger-beer, does among liquors. + + * * * * * + +Lobsters and crabs are in season from March till October; so that they +supply the place of oysters, which come in about the time lobsters go +out of season. Lobsters are held in great esteem by gastrologers for the +firmness, purity, and flavour of their flesh. When they find refuge in +the rocky fastnesses of the deep from the rapacity of sharks and +fishermen, they sometimes attain an immense size, and have been found +from eighteen inches to upwards of two feet in length. Apicius, who +ought to be the patron saint of epicures, made a voyage to the coast of +Africa on hearing that lobsters of an unusually large size were to be +found there, and, after encountering much distress at sea, met with a +disappointment. Very large lobsters are at present found on the coasts +of Orkney. Some naturalists affirm (Olaus Magnus and Gesner,) that in +the Indian seas, and on the wild shores of Norway, lobsters have been +found twelve feet in length, and six in breadth, which seize mariners in +their terrible embrace, and, dragging them into their caverns, devour +them. However this may be, the lobsters and crabs for being devoured are +best when of the middle size, and when found on reefs or very rocky +shores. + + * * * * * + +THE INVISIBLE HAIR. + +A monk was showing the relics of his convent before a numerous assembly; +the most rare, in his opinion, was a hair of the Holy Virgin, which he +appeared to show to the people present, opening his hands as if he were +drawing it through them. A peasant approached with great curiosity, and +exclaimed, "but, reverend father, I see nothing." "Egad, I believe it" +replied the monk, "for I have shown the hair for twenty years, and have +not yet beheld it myself." + + * * * * * + +CURIOSITY CURED. + +A servant travelling, was bothered by a super-curious person, who, after +several indirect attempts to discover whence he came, or whither he was +going, at last popt the question plainly, "Are your family +_before_?"--"No."--"Oh! you left them _behind_, I suppose?"--"No" +"No?"--"No, they are on _one side_!" + + * * * * * + +TO GROW A SHOULDER OR LEG OF MUTTON. + +This art is well known to the London bakers. Have a very small leg or +shoulder; change it upon a customer for one a little larger, and that +upon another for one better still, till by the dinner hour you have a +heavy, excellent joint in lieu of your original small one. + + * * * * * + + +_Printed and Published by J. LIMBIRD, 143, Strand, London; sold by +ERNEST FLEISCHER, 626, New Market, Leipsic, and by all Newsmen and +Booksellers._ FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 1: The grief of Ferdinand, King of Arragon, for the loss of +his brother, Don Pedro, who was killed during the siege of Naples, is +affectingly described by the historian Mariana. It is also the subject +of one of the old Spanish ballads, in Lockhart's beautiful collection.] + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, +and Instruction, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE, *** + +***** This file should be named 10332-8.txt or 10332-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/3/3/10332/ + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Sjaani and PG Distributed Proofreaders + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS," WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Each eBook is in a subdirectory of the same number as the eBook's +eBook number, often in several formats including plain vanilla ASCII, +compressed (zipped), HTML and others. + +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks replace the old file and take over +the old filename and etext number. The replaced older file is renamed. +VERSIONS based on separate sources are treated as new eBooks receiving +new filenames and etext numbers. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + +EBooks posted prior to November 2003, with eBook numbers BELOW #10000, +are filed in directories based on their release date. If you want to +download any of these eBooks directly, rather than using the regular +search system you may utilize the following addresses and just +download by the etext year. + + http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext06 + + (Or /etext 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00, 99, + 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90) + +EBooks posted since November 2003, with etext numbers OVER #10000, are +filed in a different way. The year of a release date is no longer part +of the directory path. The path is based on the etext number (which is +identical to the filename). The path to the file is made up of single +digits corresponding to all but the last digit in the filename. For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: + https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL + + diff --git a/old/10332-8.zip b/old/10332-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2d001eb --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10332-8.zip diff --git a/old/10332-h.zip b/old/10332-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e8d61cd --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10332-h.zip diff --git a/old/10332-h/10332-h.htm b/old/10332-h/10332-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4e8f3c0 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10332-h/10332-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,2635 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?> +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> +<head> +<title>The Mirror. No. 325</title> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" /> +<style type="text/css"> +body { font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; + background-color: #ffffff;} +a:link {color:#000000} +a:visited {color:#000000} +a:hover {color:#000000} + +</style> +</head> +<!-- Converted to HTML for the Gutenberg Project by Sjaani --> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and +Instruction, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction + Volume XII. F, No. 325, August 2, 1828. + +Author: Various + +Release Date: November 29, 2003 [EBook #10332] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE, *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Sjaani and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + +</pre> + +<table width="80%" align="center"> + <tr> + <td> + <h1 align="center">THE MIRROR</h1> + <h3 align="center">OF</h3> + <h2 align="center">LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION.</h2> + <h3 align="center">No. 325.] SATURDAY, AUGUST 2, 1828. [Price 2<i>d</i>.</h3> + <h3 align="center">ALL-SOULS' CHURCH, LANGHAM-PLACE.</h3> + <h3 align="center">Vol. XII. F</h3> + <div align="center"><img src="imgone.jpg" alt="All-Souls Church, Langham Place" width="300" height="470" /> + </div> + <h3 align="center">ALL-SOULS' CHURCH, LANGHAM PLACE.</h3> + +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.25em;">"Whoever walks through London streets,"</span><br /> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">Said Momus to the son of Saturn,</span><br /> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.25em;">"Each day new edifices meets,</span><br /> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">Of queer proportion, queerer pattern:</span><br /> +If thou, O cloud-compelling god,<br /> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">Wilt aid me with thy special grace,</span><br /> +I, too, will wield my motley hod,<br /> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">And build a church in Langham-place."</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.25em;">"Agreed," the Thunderer cries; "go plant</span><br /> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">Thine edifice, I care not how ill;</span><br /> +Take notice, earth. I hereby grant<br /> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;"><i>Carte blanche</i> of mortar, stone, and trowel.</span><br /> +Go Hermes, Hercules, and Mars,<br /> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">Fraught with these bills on Henry Hase,</span><br /> +Drop with yon jester from the stars,<br /> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">And build a church in Langham-place."</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 2.25em;"><i>London Lyrics-New Monthly Mag.</i></span><br /> + +<p>Among all our specimens of contemporary +church-building, none has excited +more animadversion than <i>All-Souls'</i>, +Langham-place, erected in 1822-1825, +from the designs of Mr. Nash. Its general +effect is extraordinary and objectionable; +but, unfortunately for what +merit it really possesses, many of its assailants +have so far disregarded the just +principles of taste and criticism, as to go +laboriously out of their way to be profanely +witty on its defects. Song and +satire, raillery and ridicule, pun and pasquinade, +and even the coarseness of caricature, +have thus been let off at this +specimen of NASH-<i>ional</i> architecture; +whilst their authors have wittingly kept +out any redeeming graces which could be +found in its architectural details.</p> + +<p>The principal features of the exterior +were suggested by its situation, it being +placed on an angular plot of ground, between +Langham-place and Regent-street. +To afford an advantageous view from either +point, the tower, which is circular, is +nearly detached from the body of the +church, and is surrounded by columns of +the modern Ionic order, supporting an +entablature, crowned by a balustrade, +which is continued along the sides of the +church. Above the portico is a Corinthian +peristyle, the base of which is also +that of a fluted cone, which forms the +spire, and is terminated in an acute point. +The steeple is complete in itself, and +adapted to its situation, having the same +appearance which ever way it is viewed. +This portion of the edifice has, however, +been more stigmatized than any other, although +it has been pronounced by persons +of taste and accredited judgment to be the +best steeple recently erected. To our eye, +the church itself, <i>apart</i> from the tower, +(for such it almost is) is perhaps, one of +the most miserable structures in the metropolis,—in +its starved proportions more +resembling a manufactory, or warehouse, +than the impressive character of a church +exterior; an effect to which the Londoner +is not an entire stranger. Here, too, we +are inclined to ascribe much of the ridicule, +which the whole church has received, +to its puny proportions and scantiness of +decoration, which are far from being assisted +by any stupendousness in their details, +the first impression of which might +probably have fixed the attention of the +spectator. Indeed, the whole style of the +tower and steeple appears peculiarly illadapted +for so small a scale as has here +been attempted.</p> + +<p>As we love "a jest's prosperity," we +recommend such of our readers as are +partial to innocent pasquinade, to turn to +the "Lyric," in a recent volume of the +<i>New Monthly Magazine</i>, commencing as +above. It is too long for entire insertion +here, but its raciness will doubtless gratify +those who may be induced to refer to it.</p> + +<hr style="width: 35%;" /> + +<p><strong>TREMENDOUS RAINS.</strong></p> + +<p><i>(For the Mirror.)</i></p> + +Like a low-hung cloud, <i>it rains so fast</i>,<br /> +That all at once it falls.—DRYDEN.<br /> + +<p>There are two English proverbs relative +to rain; the first is, "<i>It rains by +Planets.</i>" "This the country people +(says Ray) use when it rains in one place +and not in another; meaning that the +showers are governed by planets, which +being erratic in their own motions, cause +such uncertain wandering of clouds and +falls of rain. Or it rains by planets—that +is, the falls of showers are as uncertain, +as the motions of the planets are imagined +to be." The second—"<i>It never rains +but it pours:</i>" which appears to be the +case at present. In the year 553 it rained +violently in Scotland for five months; in +918 there was a continual rain in that +country for five months; a violent one in +London 1222; again 1233, so violent that +the harvest did not begin till Michaelmas; +1338, from Midsummer to Christmas, +so that there was not one day or +night dry together; in Wales, which destroyed +10,000 sheep, September 19th +1752; in Languedoc, which destroyed +the village of Bar le Due, April 26th, +1776; and in the Island of Cuba, on the +21st of June, 1791, 3,000 persons and +11,700 cattle of various kinds perished +by the torrents occasioned by the rains.</p> + +<p>P. T. W.</p> + +<hr style="width: 35%;" /> + +<p><strong>CURIOUS SCRAPS.</strong></p> + +<p><i>(For the Mirror.)</i></p> + +<p>The first dissection on record, is one in +which Democritus of Obdera, was engaged, +in order to ascertain the sources +and course of the bile.—It was the custom +among the Egyptians, to carry about +at their feasts a skeleton, least their guests, +in the midst of feasting and merriment, +should forget the frail tenure of life and +its enjoyments.</p> + +<p>The most ancient eclipse upon record, +was observed by the Chaldeans 721 years +before the Christian era, and recorded by +Ptolemy. The observation was made at +Babylon the 19th of March.—In ancient +days, for want of parchment to draw +deeds upon, great estates were frequently +conveyed from one family to another only +by the ceremony of a turf and a stone, +delivered before witnesses, and without +any written agreement.—It is singular, +that by the Doomsday Book, as quoted +by Camden, there appears to have been +in Lincoln, when that survey was taken, +no less than 1070 "inns for entertainment."—Henry +I., about the year 1125, +caused to be made a standard yard, +from the length of his own arm, in order +to prevent frauds in the measurement of +cloth. This standard is supposed to have +been deposited, with other measures, &c. +in Winchester; he likewise (it is said) +ordered halfpence and farthings to be +made round, which before his time were +square.—The Universities of Oxford and +Cambridge were first called "studia," or +"studies."—Edward the Confessor +received yearly, from the manor of Barton, +near Gloucester, 3,000 loaves of bread for +the maintenance of his dogs—In the +reign of Edward III., only three taverns +might sell sweet wines in London; +one in Cheape, one in Wallbrook, +and the other in Lombard Street.—Lord +Lyttleton, in his Life of Henry II., vol. +i. p. 50, says, "Most of our ancient +historians give him the character of a very +religious prince, but his religion was, +after the fashion of those times, belief +without examination, and devotion without +piety. It was a religion that at the +same time allowed him to pillage kingdoms, +that threw him on his knees before +a relic or a cross, but suffered him unrestrained +to trample upon the liberties and +rights of mankind;" again, "his government +was harsh and despotic, violating +even the principles of that institution +which he himself had established. Yet +so far he performed the duty of a sovereign +that he took care to maintain a good +police in his realm; which, in the tumultuous +state of his government, was a +great and difficult work." How well he +performed it, we may learn even from +the testimony of a contemporary Saxon +historian, who says, "during his reign a +man might have travelled in perfect security +all over the kingdom, with his bosom +full of gold; nor durst any kill +another in revenge of the greatest offences, +nor offer violence to the chastity of +a woman. But it was a poor compensation +that the highways were safe, when +the courts of justice were dens of thieves, +and when almost every man in authority, or +in office, used his power to oppress and pillage +the people."—Towards the close of +the life of Henry IV., he kept the regal +diadem always in his sight by day, and +at night it shared his pillow. Once the +Prince of Wales, whom Henry always +suspected more than he loved, seeing his +father in a most violent paroxysm of disease, +removed the crown from his bed. +The king on his recovery missed it, sent +for his son, and taxed him with his +impatience and want of duty, but the prince +defended his conduct with such rational +modesty, that Henry, convinced of his +innocence, embraced and blessed him. +"Alas!" said Henry to his son, "you +know too well how I gained this crown. +How will you defend this ill-gotten +possession?" "With my sword," said the +prince, "as my father has done."</p> + +<p>Henry V. was, perhaps, the first English +monarch who had ships of his own. +Two of these, which sailed against Harfleur, +were called "The King's Chamber," +and "The King's Hall." They +had purple sails, and were large and +beautiful.</p> + +<p>Party rage ran so high in 1403, that +an act of parliament was found necessary +to declare, "Pulling out of eyes and cutting +out of tongues to be felony."—Dr. +Rush, of Philadelphia, in his "Inquiry +into the effects of spirituous liquors on +the human body, and their influence on +the happiness of society;" says, "Among +the inhabitants of cities, spirits produce +debts, disgrace, and bankruptcy. Among +farmers, they produce idleness with its +usual consequence, such as houses without +windows, barns without roofs, gardens +without enclosures, fields without fences, +hogs without yokes, sheep without wool, +meagre cattle, feeble horses, and half clad, +dirty children, without principles, morals, +or manners."</p> + +<p>P. T. W.</p> + +<hr style="width: 35%;" /> + +<p><i>Shower of Sugar Plums</i>—Charles XI., +attended by his court, had been hunting +in the neighbourhood of Carcassone. +After the stag had been taken, a gentleman +of the neighbourhood invited the +king to a splendid dinner which he had +prepared for him. At the conclusion of +the banquet the ceiling of the hall <i>suddenly +opened</i>, a thick cloud, descended +and burst over their heads like a thunder +storm, pouring forth a shower of <i>sugar-plums</i> +instead of hail, which was succeeded +by a gentle rain of rose-water.</p> + +<p><i>The Coin Guinea</i>—In the reign of +king Charles II., when Sir Robert Holmes, +of the Isle of Wight, brought gold-dust +from the coast of Guinea, a guinea first +received its name from that country.</p> + +<p><i>A Motto</i>.—A constant frequenter of +city feasts, having grown enormously fat, +it was proposed to write on his back, +"<i>Widened at the expense of the corporation +of London."</i></p> + +<p><i>Sedan-chairs and Hackney-coaches</i>.—Sir +S. Duncombe, predecessor to Duncombe +Lord Feversham, and gentleman +pensioner to King James and Charles I., +introduced sedan-chairs into this country, +anno 1634, when he procured a patent +that vested in him and his heirs the sole +right of carrying persons up and down in +them for a certain sum. Sir Saunders had +been a great traveller, and saw these chairs +at Sedan, where they were first invented. +It is remarkable that Capt. Bailey introduced +the use of hackney-coaches in this year; +a tolerable ride might then be obtained, in +either of these vehicles for four pence.</p> + +<p><i>Heroism—Seward</i>, "the brave Earl +of Northumberland," feeling in his sickness +that he drew near his end, quitted +his bed and put on his armour, saying, +"That it became not a man to die like a +beast," on which he died standing; an +act as singular as it was heroic.</p> + +<p><i>Epigram on Epigrams.</i> +What is an epigram? a dwarfish whole,<br /> +Its body brevity, and wit its soul.<br /> +</p> +<p>W. H. H.</p> + +<hr style="width: 35%;" /> + +<p><strong>"THE MOUSE TOWER,"</strong></p> + +<p><em>A GERMAN LEGEND.</em></p> + +<p>(<i>For the Mirror</i>.)</p> + +The bishop of Mentz was a wealthy prince,<br /> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">Wealthy and proud was he;</span><br /> +He had all that was worth a wish on earth—<br /> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">But he had not charitie!</span><br /> +<br /> +He would stretch put his <i>empty</i> hands to <i>bless</i>,<br /> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">Or lift them both to <i>pray</i>;</span><br /> +But alack! to lighten man's distress,<br /> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">They moved no other way.</span><br /> +<br /> +A famine came! but his heart was still<br /> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">As hard as his pride was high;</span><br /> +And the starving poor but throng'd his door<br /> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">To curse him and to die.</span><br /> +<br /> +At length from the crowd rose a clamour so loud,<br /> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">That a cruel plot laid he;</span><br /> +He open'd one of his granaries wide,<br /> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">And bade them enter free.</span><br /> +<br /> +In they rush'd—the maid and the sire.<br /> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">And the child that could barely run—</span><br /> +Then he clos'd the barn, and set it on fire.<br /> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">And burnt them every one!</span><br /> +<br /> +And loud he laugh'd at each terrible shriek,<br /> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">And cried to his archer-train,</span><br /> +"The merry mice!—how shrill they squeak!—<br /> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">They are fond of the bishop's grain!"</span><br /> +<br /> +But mark, what an awful judgment soon,<br /> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">On the cruel bishop fell;</span><br /> +With so many mice his palace swarm'd,<br /> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">That in it he could not dwell.</span><br /> +<br /> +They gnaw'd the arras above and beneath,<br /> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">They eat each savoury dish up;</span><br /> +And shortly their sacrilegious teeth<br /> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">Began to nibble the bishop!</span><br /> +<br /> +He flew to his castle of Ehrenfels,<br /> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">By the side of the Rhine so fair;</span><br /> +But they found the road to his new abode,<br /> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">And came in legions there.</span><br /> +<br /> +He built him, in haste, a tower tall<br /> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">In the tide, for his better assurance;</span><br /> +But they swam the river, and scal'd the wall,<br /> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">And worried him past endurance.</span><br /> +<br /> +One morning his skeleton there was seen,<br /> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">By a load of flesh the lighter;</span><br /> +They had picked his bones uncommonly clean,<br /> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">And eaten his very mitre!</span><br /> +<br /> +Such was the end of the bishop of Mentz,<br /> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">And oft at the midnight hour,</span><br /> +He comes in the shape of a fog so dense,<br /> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">And sits on his old "Mouse-Tower."</span><br /> + +<p>C.K.W.</p> + +<hr style="width: 35%;" /> + +<p><strong>PRUSSIC ACID.</strong></p> + +<p>(<i>For the Mirror</i>.)</p> + +<p>The circumstance of Montgomery's recent +suicide in Newgate, has led me to +send you the following remarks upon the +nature and properties of that most violent +poison, Prussic acid, with which the unfortunate +man terminated his existence.</p> + +<p>Were we to consider the constituent +parts and properties of the most common +things we are in the habit of daily using, +and their poisonous and destructive natures, +we should recoil at the deadly potion, +and shrink from the loathsome +draught we are about to take. That +which we consider the most delicious and +exhilarating portion of our common beverage, +porter, contains carbonic acid gas, +commonly known by the "spirit," and +which the poor miners dread with the +utmost horror, like the Arabian does the +destructive blast of the simoon. Oxalic +acid, so much the fear of those accustomed +to the medicine—Epsom salts, is made +from that useful article, <i>sugar</i>, by uniting +with it a smaller portion, more than it +has naturally, of oxygen gas. The air +we breathe contains a most deadly poison, +called by chemists azotic gas, which, by +its being mixed with what is called vital +air, (oxygen gas,) becomes necessary to +our existence, as much as the one (vital +air or oxygen gas) would be prejudicial +without the other; and <i>Prussic acid</i>, +the most violent of all poisons, is contained +in the common bitter-almond. But +these most destructive substances are always +found combined with others, which +render them often perfectly harmless, and +can be separated only by the skill of the +chemist.</p> + +<p>The Prussic acid (by some called hydrocyanic +acid) is a liquid, extracted from +vegetables, and contains one part of cyanogen +and one part of hydrogen. It is +extracted from the bitter-almond, (as has +been stated,) peach-blossom, and the +leaves of the laurocerasus. It may also +be obtained from animal substances, although +a vegetable acid. If lime be +added to water, distilled from these substances, +a Prussiate of lime is formed; +when, if an acid solution of iron be added +to this mixture, common Prussian blue +(or Prussiate of iron) is precipitated. The +acid may be obtained from Prussiate of +potash, by making a strong solution of +this salt, and then adding as much tartaric +acid as will precipitate the potash, +when the acid will be left in solution, +which must be decanted and distilled.</p> + +<p>Its properties are a pungent odour, very +much resembling that of bitter-almonds, +with a hot but sweetish taste, and extremely +volatile. It contains azote, with +which no other vegetable acid is combined; +it is largely used in the manufacture of +Prussian blue. It is the most violent of +all poisons, and destroys animals by being +applied to the skin only. It is stated by +an able chemist, that a single drop applied +to the tongue of a mastiff dog caused +death so instantaneously, that it appeared +to have been destroyed by lightning. +One drop to the human frame destroys +life in two minutes.</p> + +<p>But when chemically combined with +other substances, its power is in a great +measure neutralized, and it becomes a +valuable article, both to the chemist as +a test, and to the physician as a medicine. +The Prussiate of potash and iron will +enable the chemist to discover nearly the +whole of the metals when in solution, by +the colours its combination produces. Dr. +Zollekoffer says, that in intermittent fevers +the Prussiate of iron is in its effects +superior to Cinchona bark, and says it +never disagrees with the stomach, or creates +nausea even in the most irritable state, +while bark is not unfrequently rejected; +a patient will recover from the influence +of intermitting and remitting fevers, in +the generality of cases, in much less time +than is usual in those cases in which bark +is employed. S.S.T.</p> + +<hr style="width: 35%;" /> + +<p><strong>THE ANECDOTE GALLERY.</strong></p> + +<p><strong>VOLTAIRE.</strong></p> + +<p>(<i>Continued from page 64</i>.)</p> + +<p>A certain Hungarian traveller, a man +of consequence in his country, but not +particularly wise, had fruitlessly tried to +be introduced, without finding any one +at Geneva, willing to undertake the task, +as they were all afraid Voltaire would be +rude to him. A young man, who heard +of this, engaged to procure the stranger +an interview with Voltaire; and on the +day appointed, contrived to have him +conveyed out of town to a good-looking +residence, where well-dressed servants received +him at the door, and ushered him +up stairs in due form. Here then at last +he found himself, as he thought, <i>téte-à-tete</i> +with Voltaire. The <i>malade de Ferney</i>, +personated by our young friend, +was lying down on a sofa, wrapped up in +a damask robe-de-chambre, a night-cap +of black velvet, with gold lace, on his +head, or rather on the top of an immense +periwig, <i>a la Louis XIV</i>., in the midst +of which his little, sallow and deeply-wrinkled +visage seemed buried; a table +was near him, covered with papers, and +the curtains being drawn, made the room +rather dark. The philosopher apologized +in a hollow voice, interrupted by occasional +fits of coughing; he was ill <i>bien malade</i>, +could not get up, begged the stranger to +be seated, asked questions about the +countries he had visited, made him tell +his adventures, those of gallantry particularly, +and was himself most facetious, +and most profanely witty. The Hungarian +delighted, and far more at ease than +he had imagined possible, casting a glance +on the papers, ventured to inquire what +new work? "Ah, nothing!"—<i>le faible +Enfant de ma Vieillesse—a tragedy</i>. +"May I ask the subject?" "The subject +is wholly Genevan," replied Voltaire, +"the name, <i>Empro-Giro</i>, and the dramatis +personæ <i>Carin-Caro, Dupins-Simon</i>, +and <i>Carcail Briffon, &c</i>." He +then began to repeat, with great animation, +a number of passages, to which his +visitor listened in perfect raptures, but +drew, meanwhile, a snuff-box from his +pocket, and began to look attentively on +him and on a picture on the lid; thus +confronted with a portrait of Voltaire, +and compared face to face, was a trial for +which our mimic was not prepared, and +his courage nearly forsook him, yet he +kept up appearances, only coughing more, +and ranting on the high-sounding lines of +his <i>Empro-Giro</i>. The Hungarian, not +undeceived by this close examination, replaced +the snuff-box in his pocket, declaring +it to be the best likeness he had +ever seen. He rose at last, thanked his +friend Voltaire, kissed his hand respectfully, +and went away, distributing to the +servants he met on the stairs liberal tokens +of his satisfaction. These servants were +the intimate friends and companions of the +chief actor, and one of them, his brother, +unwilling to carry the joke to the length +of pocketing the money of their dupe, +they contrived to give him a dinner at a +tavern, where he was made to tell the +story of his visit to Voltaire, and express +his admiration of the great man. The +latter heard of this, was much amused, +and desired to see his double, told him +he would make a bargain with him—half +his fame for half the tiresome visitors it +procured him.</p> + +<p>The poet lived like a prince, but kept +his accounts like a citizen; knowing to +a sous where his money went: a good +deal of it was bestowed charitably, for he +was munificent, and certainly much loved +in his neighbourhood. One night, when +<i>Tancrede</i> was acting, and the court of +the chateau was full of carriages and servants, +there arrived, as ill luck would +have it, a cask of the best chambertin +that ever came from Burgundy; his own +people could not attend to it, and the +cask remained at his cellar door; the +servants contrived to get at it, and while +their masters and mistresses were shedding +tears at the tragedy, they sipped the +poet's wine. There was generally a supper +after the play, where more than once +two hundred people sat down, and Voltaire +had something to say to every one +of his guests. As the gates of the town +are shut at night, many of them usually +remained in the <i>château</i>, poorly accommodated +with beds. One night as M. de +B----, was groping in the dark, for a +place where he might lie down to sleep, +he accidently put his finger into the +mouth of M. de Florian, who bit it.</p> + +<p>Voltaire kept company only with the +aristocracy of Geneva; neither his liberality +nor his wit secured him the good-will +of the patriots placed out of the sphere of +his influence; they only saw him a sham +philosopher, without principles and solidity; +a courtier, the slave of rank and +fashion; the corrupter of their country, +of which he made a jest. <i>Quand je +secoue ma perruque,</i> he used to say, <i>je +poudre toute la republique!</i></p> + +<p>Whatever might be Voltaire's antipathy +to the visits of strangers at his <i>château</i>, +he seems to have met with an equal +specimen of that temper from an Englishman. +When in London, he waited upon +Congreve, the poet, and passed him some +compliments as to the reputation and +merit of his works. Congreve thanked +him; but at the same, time told Voltaire +<i>he did not choose to be considered as an +author, but only as a private gentleman, +and in that light expected to be visited.</i> +Voltaire answered, <i>that if he had never +been any thing but a private gentleman, +in all probability he had never been +troubled with that visit.</i> He also observes, +in his own account of this affair, +he was not a little disgusted with so unseasonable +a piece of vanity.</p> + +<p>The memory of Voltaire and Rousseau +is still cherished by the French people +with great fondness; their busts or figures +in bronze or plaster are frequently met +with, and remind one of <i>Penates</i>, or household +gods.</p> + +<p>PHILO.</p> + +<hr style="width: 35%;" /> +<h2>POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS.</h2> + +<p><strong>WITCHCRAFT.</strong></p> + +<p>(<i>For the Mirror</i>.)</p> + +—Why should the envious world<br /> +Throw all their scandalous malice upon me?<br /> +'Cause I am poor, deform'd, and ignorant;<br /> +And like a bow, buckled and bent together,<br /> +By some more strong in mischiefs than myself:<br /> +Must I for that be made a common sink<br /> +For all the filth and rubbish of men's tongues,<br /> +To fall and run into? some call me witch;<br /> +And, being ignorant of myself, they go<br /> +About to teach me how to be one; urging<br /> +That my bad tongue (by their bad usage made so)<br /> +Forespeaks their cattle, doth bewitch their corn,<br /> +Themselves, their servants, and their babes at nurse;<br /> +This they enforce upon me; and in part<br /> +Make me to credit it. <i>Witch of Edmonton.</i><br /> + +<p>The belief in witchcraft may be considered +as forming a prominent and important +feature in the history of the human +mind. It is certainly one link of +the degrading chain of superstitions which +have long enslaved mankind, but which +are now quivering to their fall. The +desire for power to pry into hidden things, +and more especially events to come, is +inherent in the human race, and has always +been considered as of no ordinary +importance, and rendered the supposed +possessors objects of reverence and fear. +The belief in astrology, or the power to +read in the stars the knowledge of futurity, +from time immemorial has been considered +as the most difficult of attainment, +and important in its results. And by +the aid of a little supernatural machinery, +both magicians and astrologers exercised +the most unlimited influence over the understandings +of their adherents. An astrologer, +only two or three centuries since, +was a regular appendage to the establishments +of princes and nobles. Sir Walter +Scott has drawn an interesting portrait of +one in <i>Kenilworth</i>; and the eagerness +with which the Earl of Leicester listened +to his doctrines and predictions, affords a +good specimen of the manners of those +times. The movements of the heavenly +bodies, (imperfectly as they were then +understood,) seemed to afford the most +plausible vehicle for these "oracles of +human destiny;" and even now, while +we are tracing these lines, the red and +glaring appearance of the planet Mars, +shining so beautifully in the south-east, +is considered by the many as a forerunner +and sign of long wars and much bloodshed:</p> + +These dreams and terrors magical,<br /> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">These miracles and witches,</span><br /> +Night walking sprites, et cetera,<br /> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">Esteem them not two rushes.</span><br /> + +<p>Mankind are universally prone to the +belief in omens, and the casual occurrence +of certain contingent circumstances soon +creates the easiest of theories. Should a +bird of good omen, in ancient times, perch +on the standard, or hover about an army, +the omen was of good import, and favourable +to conquest. Should a raven or crow +accidentally fly over the field of action, +the spirits of the combatants would be +proportionably depressed. Should a planet +be shining in its brilliancy at the +birth of any one whose fortunes rose to +pre-eminence, it was always thought to +exert an influence over his future destiny. +Such was the origin of many of our later +superstitions, which "grew with their +growth, and strengthened with their +strength," till the more extensive introduction +of the art of printing partly dissipated +the illusion. +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.75em;">It has been remarked, therefore, that</span><br /> +the existence of the parent stock of the +subject more immediately under our consideration, +witchcraft, may be traced to a +very remote period indeed. It is, however, +needless to enter into any remarks on those +witches mentioned in the Scriptures. +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">The earliest dabbler of the <i>genus</i>, as a</span><br /> +contemporary writer observes, is said to +be Zoroaster, thought to be the king of +the Bactrians, who flourished about 3,800 +years ago, or A.M. 2000. He is supposed +to have been well versed in the arts +of divination and astrology, and was the +origin of the Persian magi. "At his +birth," remarks an old writer, "he +laughed; and his head did so beat, that +it struck back the midwife's hand—a +good sign of abundance of spirits, which +are the best instruments of a ready wit." +The <i>magi</i> in Persia, the Brahmins in +India, the Chaldae in Assyria, the magicians +of Arabia, the priesthood of Egypt, +Greece, and Rome, and the Druids of +Britain, were all members of a class which +comprised astrology, omens, divination, +conjuration, portents, chiromancy, and +sorcery; and all united in the pursuit of +enslaving mankind for the purposes of +gain and power, with artfully devised +schemes, and a skilful series of impostures; +and we can easily imagine the +influence they must have exercised over +the minds of their proselytes, when we +bear in mind the effect produced by similar +contrivances in later days. +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">The enchantress Theoris of Athens</span><br /> +seems to have been the first witch that +had recourse to charms. Demosthenes +uses the terms both of witchery and imposture +in speaking of her. This witch +was put to death by the Athenians—an +accomplice having displayed to them the +charms, &c., by which she wrought her +miracles. Our Saviour's words, that +<i>faith</i> can remove mountains, are applicable +particularly to the supposed powers +of witchcraft; and the influence of charms +and amulets in averting disease is well +known. +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">We have alluded, in our first paper, to</span><br /> +the trial of Rose Cullender and Amy +Duny, at Norwich, for witchcraft; and we +now give the speech of Sir Thomas +Browne, the celebrated physician of that +period, (1664,) to whom, in consequence +of defect in the proof, the case was referred, +which was the cause of their conviction. +Sir Thomas Browne offered it +as his opinion, "that the devil, in such +cases, did work upon the bodies of men +and women, upon a natural foundation, +(that is) to stir up and excite such humours +superabounding in their bodies to +a great excess, whereby he did, in an +extraordinary manner, afflict them with +such distempers as their bodies were most +subject to, as particularly appeared in the +children of Dorothy Dunent, (one of the +indictments against the prisoners being +for their bewitchment;) for he conceived +that these swooning fits were natural, and +nothing else but that they call the mother, +but <i>only heightened to a great excess +by the subtilty of the devil co-operating +with the malice of these, which we term +witches, at whose instance he doth the +villanies</i>."</p> + +<p>The ceremony of initiation to the dreadful +vocation and great powers of witchcraft +was attended with considerable form +and mystery:—</p> + +----They call me hag and witch.<br /> +What is the name? When, and by what art learned?<br /> +With what spell, what charm or invocation,<br /> +May the thing call'd _familiar_ be purchas'd?<br /> + +<p>The older and more ugly the performer +in these appalling ceremonies, the better. +Some witches seem to have had the devil +quite at their beck; but his visits to most +of them appear to have been "few and +far between." The convention (remarks +John Gaule, an old writer) for such a +solemn initiation being proclaimed (by +some herald imp) to some others of the +confederation, on some great holy or +Lord's day, they meet in some church, +either before the consecrated bell hath +tolled, or else very late, after all the services +are past and over. "The party, in +some vesture for that purpose, is presented +by some confederate or familiar to the +prince of devills, sitting now in a throne +of infernall majesty, appearing in the +form of a man, only labouring to hide his +cloven foot. To whom, after bowing and +homage done, a petition is presented to be +received into his association and protection; +and first, if the witch be outwardly +Christian, baptism must be renounced, +and the party must be re-baptised in the +devill's name, and a new name is also +imposed by him, and here must be godfathers +too ... But above all he is very +busie with his long nails, in scraping and +scratching those places of the forehead +where the signe of the crosse was made, +or where the chrisme was laid. Instead +of both which, he impresses or inures the +mark of the beast (the devill's flesh brand) +upon one or other part of the body. +Further, the witch (for her part) vows, +either by word of mouth, or peradventure +by writing, (and that in her owne bloode,) +to give both body and soul to the devill, +to deny and defy God the Father, the +Son, and the Holy Ghost; but especially +the blessed Virgin, convitiating her with +one infamous nickname or other; to abhor +the word and sacraments, but especially +to spit at the saying of masse; to +spurn at the crosse, and tread saints' +images under feet; and as much as possibly +they may, to profane all saints' +reliques, holy water, consecrated salt, wax, +&c.; to be sure to fast on Sundays, and +eat flesh on Fridays; not to confess their +sins, whatsoever they do, especially to a +priest; to separate from the Catholic +church, and despise his vicar's primacy; +to attend the devill's nocturnal conventicles, +sabbaths, and sacrifices; to take him +for their god, worship, invoke, and obey +him; to devote their children to him, and +to labour all that they may to bring +others into the same confederacy. Then +the devill, for his part, promises to be +always present with them, to serve them +at their beck; that they shall have their +wills upon any body; that they shall +have what riches, honours, and pleasures +they can imagine; and if any be so wary +as to think of their future being, he tells +them they shall be princes ruling in the +aire, or shall be but turned into impes at +worst. Then he preaches to them to be +mindful of their covenant, and not to fail +to revenge themselves upon their enemies, +Then, he commends to them (for this purpose) +an imp, or familiar in the shape of +a cat, &c. After this they shake hands, +embrace in arms, dance, feast, and banquet, +according as the devill hath provided +in imitation of the supper. Nay, +ofttimes he marries them ere they part, +either to himselfe, or to their familiar, or +to one another, and that by the Book of +Common Prayer, as a pretender to witch-finding +told me, in the presence of many." +After this they part, and a general meeting +is held thrice a year, on some holy +day; they are "conveyed to it as swift as +the winds from the remotest parts of the +earth, where they that have done the most +execrable mischiefe, and can brag of it, +make most merry with the devill;" while +the "indiligent" are jeered and derided +by the devil and the others. Non-attendance +was severely punished by the culprits +being beaten on the soles of the feet, +whipped with iron rods, "pinched and +sucked by their familiars till their heart's +blood come—till they repent them of their +sloth, &c."</p> + +<p>Many regulations were, however, to be +observed after the above initiatory ceremony, +which we have given at length in +consequence of its singularity. There +existed a community or commonwealth, of +"fallen angels" or spirits, with the various +titles of kings, dukes, &c., prelates +and knights, of which the head was <i>Baal</i>, +"who, when he was conjured up, appeared +with three heads, one like a man, +one like a toad, and one like a cat." The +title of king conferred no extra power; +indeed, <i>Agares</i>, "the first duke, came +in the likeness of a faire old man, riding +upon a crocodile, and carrying a hawk +on his fist"—<i>Marbas</i>, who appeared +in the form of a "mightie lion"—<i>Amon</i>, +"a great and mightie marques, who +came abroad in the likeness of a wolf, +having a serpent's taile, and breathing +out and spitting flames of fire," and was +one of the "best and kindest of devills," +with sixty-five more of these master-spirits, +enumerated in <i>Scot</i>, "appeared to +be entirely and exclusively appropriated +to the service of witches," were alike possessed +of nearly similar power, and had +many hundreds of legions of devils (each +legion 6,666 in number) at their command.</p> + +<p>There were stated times for each rank +of devils to be called on, for they aught +not to be invoked "rashly or at all seasons;" +and the following extracts from +Reginald Scot are fully explanatory of +the formalities to be observed on these +occasions:—</p> + +<p>"<i>The houres wherein the principal +devills may be raised.—</i>A king may be +raised from the third houre till noone, +and from the ninth hour till evening. +Dukes may be raised from the first hour +till noon, and clear weather is to be observed. +Marquesses may be raised from +the ninth hour till compline, and from +compline till the end of day. Countes, +or earles, may be raised at any hour of +the day, so it be in the woodes or fieldes, +where men resort not. Prelates likewise +may be raised at any houre of the day. +A president may not be raised at any +hour of the day, except the king, whom +he obeyeth, be invocated; nor at the shutting +in of the evening. Knights from +day-dawning till sun-rising, or from even-song +till sun-set.</p> + +<p>"<i>The forme of adjuring and citing the +spirits aforesaid to appeare</i>.—When you +will have any spirit, you must knowe his +name and office; you must also fast and +be cleane from all pollution three or foure +days before; so will the spirit be more +obedient unto you. Then make a circle, +and call up the spirit with great intention, +rehearse in your owne name, and +your companion's, (for one must alwaies +be with you,) this prayer following; and +so no spirit shall annoy you, and your +purpose shall take effect. And note how +thw prayer agreeth with popish charmes +and conjurations."</p> + +<p>The prayer alluded to (see <i>Scot's Discovery</i>, +b. 15, c. 2) is of the most diabolical +and blasphemous nature. A contemporary +writer observes, that there is not +the least doubt but that the witches of the +olden time observed all the formalities of +these ridiculous and disgusting ceremonies +to the very letter. In later times, +however, though the formalities were +quite simple, yet the hag of the sixteenth +century exercised her vocation with all its +ancient potency.</p> + +<p>The broomstick has been the theme of +many a story connected with this subject:—</p> + +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">As men in sleep, though motionless they lie,</span><br /> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">Fledged by a dream, believe they mount and fly;</span><br /> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">So witches some enchanted wand bestride</span><br /> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">And think they through the airy regions ride.</span><br /> + +<p>But the reason of its possessing such extensive +powers of locomotion, or rather +aërostation, is not generally understood. +The witches either steal or dig dead +children out of their graves, which are +then seethed in a cauldron, and the ointment +and liquid so produced, enables +them, "observing certain ceremonies, to +immediately become a master, or rather a +mistresse, in the practise or faculty" of +flying in the air:—</p> + +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">High in, air, amid the rising storm</span><br /> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">----wrapt in midnight</span><br /> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">Her doubtful form appears and fades!</span><br /> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">Her spirits are abroad! they do her bidding!</span><br /> +<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">Hark to that shriek!</span><br /> + +<p>In addition to the above, they possessed +another very useful faculty, for the +transfer of the patent of which, I doubt +not scores of adventurers would have +given a tolerable consideration. It is +briefly that of "sailing in an egg-shell, a +cockle, or a muscle-shell, through and +under the tempestuous seas."</p> + +<p>From the length to which this article +has extended, I must reserve an account +of witch-finders, charms, dreams, and confessions, +&c. for the next and concluding +paper. VYVYAN.</p> + +<hr style="width: 35%;" /> + +<p><strong>Spirit of Discovery.</strong></p> + +<hr style="width: 35%;" /> +<br /> + +<p><i>Paper from Straw</i>.</p> +<br /> + +<p>At a recent meeting of the Royal Institution, +there were exhibited some specimens +of paper manufactured from straw, +by a new process.</p> +<br /> + +<p><i>Hardening Steel</i>.</p> +<br /> + +<p>From the observation of travellers, that +the manufacture of Damascus blades was +carried on only during the time when the +north winds occurred, M. Anozoff made +experiments on the hardening of steel instruments, +by putting them, when heated, +into a powerful current of air, instead +of quenching them in water. From the +experiments already made, he expects +ultimate success. He finds that, for very +sharp-edged instruments, this method is +much better than the ordinary one; that +the colder the air and the more rapid its +stream, the greater is the effect. The +effect varies with the thickness of the +mass to be hardened. The method succeeds +well with case-hardened goods.— +<i>From the French</i>.</p> + + +<p><i>Detection of Blood.</i></p> + + +<p>A controversy has recently taken place +in Paris, relative to the efficacy of certain +chemical means of ascertaining whether +dried spots or stains of matter suspected +to be blood, are or were blood, or not. +M. Orfila gives various chemical characters +of blood under such circumstances, +which he thinks sufficient to enable an +accurate discrimination. This opinion is +opposed by M. Raspail, who states, that +all the indications supposed to belong to +true blood, may be obtained from, linen +rags, dipped, not into blood, but into a +mixture of white of egg and infusion of +madder, and that, therefore, the indications +are injurious rather than useful.</p> +<br /> + +<p><i>Cedars of Lebanon</i>.</p> +<br /> + +<p>Mr. Wolff, the missionary, counted on +Mount Lebanus, thirteen large and ancient +cedars, besides the numerous small +ones, in the whole 387 trees. The largest +of these trees was about 15 feet high, not +one-third of the height of hundreds of +English cedars; for instance, those at +Whitton, Pain's Hill, Caenwood, and +Juniper Hall, near Dorking.</p> + +<p><i>Leeches</i>.</p> + +<p>In the <i>Medical Repository</i>, a case is +quoted, where some leeches, which had +been employed first on a syphylitic patient +and afterwards on an infant, communicated +the disease to the latter.</p> + +<p><i>Stinging Flies</i>.</p> + +<p>There is a fly which exteriorly much +resembles the house-fly, and which is +often very troublesome about this time; +this is called the stinging fly, one of the +greatest plagues to cattle, as well as to +persons wearing thin stockings.</p> + +<p><i>Mont Blanc</i>.</p> + +<p>The height of Mont Blanc and of the +Lake of Geneva has lately been carefully +ascertained by M. Roger, an officer of +engineers in the service of the Swiss Confederation. +The summit of the mountain +appears to be 4,435 metres, or 14,542 +English feet above the Lake of Geneva, +and the surface of the Lake 367 metres, +or 1,233 English feet above the sea. The +mountain is, therefore, 15,775 feet above +the level of the sea.</p> + +<p><i>Bird Catching</i>.</p> + +<p>The golden-crested wren may be taken +by striking the bough upon which it is +sitting, sharply, with a stone or stick. +The timid bird immediately drops to the +ground, and generally dead. As their +skins are tender, those who want them for +stuffing will find this preferable to using +the gun.—<i>Mag. Nat. Hist.</i></p> + +<p><i>Shower of Herrings in Ross-shire</i>.</p> + +<p>In April last, as Major Forbes, of +Fodderty, in Strathpfeffer, was traversing +a field on his farm, he found a considerable +portion of the ground covered with +herring fry, of from three to four inches +in length. The fish were fresh and entire, +and had no appearance of being +dropped by birds—a medium by which +they must have been bruised and mutilated. +The only rational conjecture that can be +formed of the circumstance is, that the fish +were transported thither in a water-spout—a +phenomenon that has before occurred +in the same county. The Firth of Dengwall +lies at a distance of three miles from +the place in question; but no obstruction +occurs between the field and the sea, the +whole is a level strath or plain, and water +spouts have been known to travel even +farther than this.—<i>Inverness Courier.</i></p> + +<p><i>Spanish Asses</i>.</p> + +<p>The Duke of Buckingham has, at his +seat at Avington, a team of Spanish +asses, resembling the zebra in appearance, +which are extremely tractable, and take +more freely to the collar than any of our +native species.</p> + +<p><i>Drawing Instrument</i>.</p> + +<p>An ingenious invention of this description +was recently exhibited at the Royal +Institution. A pencil and a small bead +are so connected together by means of a +thread passing over pullies, that if a person, +looking through an eye-piece, will +hold the pencil upon a sheet of paper, +and then, watching the bead, will move +his hand, so that the bead shall trace the +lines of any object that is selected or +looked at, he will find that, whilst he +has been doing this, he has also made a +drawing of the subject upon the paper; +for the pencil and the bead describe exactly +the same lines, though upon different +planes. Thus, a drawing is made, +without even looking at the paper, but +solely at the object.</p> + +<p><i>White Cats</i>.</p> + +<p>In a recent number we quoted from +<i>Loudon's Gardener's Magazine</i>, that +"white cats with blue eyes are always +deaf," of which extraordinary fact there +is the following confirmation in the _Magazine +of Natural History_, No. 2, likewise +conducted by Mr. Loudon:—"Some +years ago a white cat of the Persian +kind (probably not a thorough-bred +one) procured from Lord Dudley's at +Hindley, was kept in my family as a favourite. +The animal was a female, quite +white, and perfectly deaf. She produced, +at various times, many litters of kittens, +of which, generally, some were quite +white, others more or less mottled, tabby, +&c. But the extraordinary circumstance +is, that of the offspring produced at one +and the same birth, such as, like the +mother, were entirely white, were, like her, +invariably deaf; while those that had the +least speck of colour on their fur, as invariably +possessed the usual faculty of +hearing—" <i>W. T. Bree, Allersley Rectory, +near Coventry</i>.</p> + +<p><i>Ultramarine</i>.</p> + +<p>A French journal announces a discovery +of the method of making Ultramarine, +by which means the public are +supplied with the article at one guinea +per ounce, the colour having hitherto +been sold from two guineas to two pounds +ten shillings per ounce.</p> + +<p><i>Indication of Storms</i>.</p> + +<p>Professor Scott, of Sandhurst College, +observed in Shetland, that drinking-glasses +placed in an inverted position +upon a shelf in a cupboard, on the +ground floor of Belmont House, occasionally +emitted sounds as if they were +tapped with a knife, or raised up a little, +and then let fall on the shelf. These +sounds preceded wind, and when they +occurred, boats and vessels were immediately +secured. The strength of the +sound is said to be proportional to the +tempest that follows.—<i>Brewster's Jour.</i></p> + +<p><i>To preserve Wine in draught.</i></p> + +<p>M. Imery, of Toulouse, gives the following +simple means of preserving wine +in draught for a considerable time; it is +sufficient to pour into the cask a flask of +fine olive oil. The wine may thus continue +in draught for more than a year. +The oil spread in a thin layer upon the +surface of the wine, hinders the evaporation +of its alcoholic part, and prevents +it from combining with the atmospheric +air, which would not only turn the wine +sour, but change its constituent parts.</p> + +<p><i>Union of the Atlantic and Pacific.</i></p> + +<p>A letter from Amsterdam states, that +the project of cutting a canal, to unite +the Gulf of Mexico with the Pacific +Ocean, is about to be revived.</p> + +<p><i>Vesuvius.</i></p> + +<p>An eruption took place on the morning +of last March 22nd. An eye-witness writes +"the cone of the mountain puts you in +mind of an immense piece of artillery, +firing red-hot stones, and ashes, and +smoke into the atmosphere; or, of a +huge animal in pain, groaning;, crying, +and vomiting; or, like an immense +whale in the arctic circle, blowing after it +has been struck with several harpoons."</p> + +<p><i>Bees in Mourning.</i></p> + +<p>A correspondent in <i>Loudon's Magazine +of Natural History</i>, states that in the +neighbourhood of Coventry, there is a +superstitious belief, that in the event of +the death of any of the family, it is necessary +to inform the bees of the circumstance, +otherwise they will desert the +hive, and seek out other quarters.</p> + +<p><i>Rare Insects.</i></p> + +<p>There exists in Livonia, a very rare +insect, which is not met with in more +northern countries, and whose existence +was for a long time considered +doubtful, called the <i>Furia Infernalis.</i> +It is so small that it is very difficult to +distinguish it by the naked eye; and its +sting produces a swelling, which, unless +a proper remedy be applied, proves mortal.</p> + +<p>During the hay harvest, other insects +named <i>Meggar,</i> occasion great injury +both to men and beasts. They are of the +size of a grain of sand. At sunset they +appear in great numbers, descend in a +perpendicular line, pierce the strongest +linen, and cause an itching, and pustules, +which if scratched, become dangerous. +Cattle, which breathe these insects, are +attacked with swellings in the throat, +which destroy them, unless promptly relieved.</p> + +<hr style="width: 35%;" /> + +<h2>SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS</h2> + +<hr style="width: 35%;" /> + +<p><strong>MEN AND MONKEYS.</strong></p> + +<p>Monkeys are certainly, there is no denying +it, very like men; and, what is +worse, men are still more like monkeys. +Many worthy people, who have a high +respect for what they choose to call the +Dignity of Human Nature, are much +distressed by this similitude, approaching +in many cases to absolute identity; and +some of them have written books of considerable +erudition and ingenuity, to prove +that a man is not a monkey; nay, not so +much as even an ape; but truth compels +us to confess, that their speculations have +been far from carrying conviction to our +minds. All such inquirers, from Aristotle +to Smellie, principally insist on two +great leading distinctions—speech and +reason. But it is obvious to the meanest +capacity, that monkeys have both speech +and reason. They have a language of +their own, which, though not so capacious +as the Greek, is much more so than the +Hottentottish; and as for reason, no man +of a truly philosophical genius ever saw +a monkey crack a nut, without perceiving +that the creature possesses that endowment, +or faculty, in no small perfection. +Their speech, indeed, is said not to be +articulate; but it is audibly more so than +the Gaelic. The words unquestionably +do run into each other, in a way that, to +our ears, renders it rather unintelligible; +but it is contrary to all the rules of sound +philosophizing, to confuse the obtuseness +of our own senses with the want of any +faculty in others; and they have just as +good a right to maintain, and to complain +of, our inarticulate mode of speaking, as +we have of theirs—indeed much more—for +monkeys speak the same, or nearly +the same, language all over the habitable +globe, whereas men, ever since the Tower +of Babel, have kept chattering, muttering, +humming, and hawing, in divers ways +and sundry manners, so that one nation +is unable to comprehend what another +would be at, and the earth groans in vain +with vocabularies and dictionaries. That +monkeys and men are one and the same +animal, we shall not take upon ourselves +absolutely to assert, for the truth is, we, +for one or two, know nothing whatever +about the matter; all we mean to say is, +that nobody has yet proved that they are +not, and farther, that whatever may be +the case with men, monkeys have reason +and speech.</p> + +<p>The monkey has not had justice done +him, we repeat and insist upon it; for +what right have you to judge of a whole +people, from a few isolated individuals,—and +from a few isolated individuals, too, +running up poles with a chain round their +waist, twenty times the length of their +own tail, or grinning in ones or twos +through the bars of a cage in a menagerie? +His eyes are red with perpetual weeping—and +his smile is sardonic in captivity. +His fur is mouldy and mangy, and he is +manifestly ashamed of his tail, prehensile +no more—and of his paws, "very hands, +as you may say," miserable matches to +his miserable feet. To know him as he +is, you must go to Senegal; or if that be +too far off for a trip during the summer +vacation, to the Rock of Gebir, now +called Gibraltar, and see him at his gambols +among the cliffs. Sailor nor slater +would have a chance with him there, +standing on his head on a ledge of six +inches, five hundred feet above the level +of the sea, without ever so much as once +tumbling down; or hanging at the same +height from a bush by the tail, to dry, or +air, or sun himself, as if he were flower +or fruit. There he is, a monkey indeed; +but you catch him young, clap a pair of +breeches on him, and an old red jacket, +and oblige him to dance a saraband on +the stones of a street, or perch upon the +shoulder of Bruin, equally out of his +natural element, which is a cave among +the woods. Here he is but the ape of a +monkey. Now if we were to catch you +young, good subscriber or contributor, +yourself, and put you into a cage to crack +nuts and pull ugly faces, although you +might, from continued practice, do both +to perfection, at a shilling a-head for +grown-up ladies and gentlemen, and sixpence +for children and servants, and even +at a lower rate after the collection had +been some weeks in town, would you not +think it exceedingly hard to be judged of +in that one of your predicaments, not only +individually, but nationally—that is, not +only as Ben Hoppus, your own name, +but as John Bull, the name of the people +of which you are an incarcerated specimen? +You would keep incessantly crying +out against this with angry vociferation, +as a most unwarrantable and unjust +Test and Corporation Act. And, no +doubt, were an Ourang-outang to see you +in such a situation, he would not only +form a most mean opinion of you as an +individual, but go away with a most false +impression of the whole human race. +<i>Blackwood's Magazine.</i></p> + +<hr style="width: 35%;" /> + +<p><strong>SONNET WRITTEN IN THE SPRING.</strong></p> +<p> +How heavenly o'er my frame steals the life-breath<br /> +Of beautiful Spring! who with her amorous gales<br /> +Kissing the violets, each stray sweet exhales<br /> +Of May-thorn, and the wild flower on the heath.<br /> +I love thee, virgin daughter of the year!<br /> +Yet, ah! not cups,—dyed like the dawn, impart<br /> +Their elves' dew-nectar to a fainting heart!—<br /> +Ye birds! whose liquid warblings far and near<br /> +Make music to the green turf-board of swains;<br /> +To me, your light lays tell of April joy,—<br /> +Of pleasures—idle, as a long-loved toy;<br /> +And while my heart in unison complains,<br /> +Tears like of balm-tree flow in trickling wave,<br /> +And white forms strew with flowers a maid's untimely grave!<br /> +<i>New Monthly Mag.</i></p> + +<hr style="width: 35%;" /> + +<h2>THE KING OF ARRAGON'S LAMENT FOR HIS +BROTHER.<a name="FNanchor1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1"><sup>[1]</sup></a></h2> +<p> +"If I could see him, it were well with me!"<br /> +<i>Coleridge's Wallenstein.</i></p> +<p>> +There were lights and sounds of revelling in the vanquished city's halls,<br /> +As by night the feast of victory was held within its walls;<br /> +And the conquerors filled the wine-cup high, after years of bright blood shed:<br /> +But their Lord, the King of Arragon, 'midst the triumph, wailed the dead.<br /> +<br /> +He looked down from the fortress won, on the tents and towers below,<br /> +The moon-lit sea, the torch-lit streets—and a gloom came o'er his brow:<br /> +The voice of thousands floated up, with the horn and cymbals' tone;<br /> +But his heart, 'midst that proud music, felt more utterly alone.<br /> +And he cried, "Thou art mine, fair city! thou city of the sea!<br /> +But, oh! what portion of delight is mine at last in thee?<br /> +—I am lonely 'midst thy palaces, while the glad waves past them roll,<br /> +And the soft breath of thine orange-bowers is mournful to my soul.<br /> +<br /> +"My brother! oh! my brother! thou art gone, the true and brave,<br /> +And the haughty joy of victory hath died upon thy grave:<br /> +There are many round my throne to stand, and to march where I lead on;<br /> +There was <i>one</i> to love me in the world—my brother! thou art gone!<br /> +<br /> +"In the desert, in the battle, in the ocean-tempest's wrath,<br /> +We stood together, side by side; one hope was our's—one path:<br /> +Thou hast wrapt me in thy soldier's cloak, thou hast fenced me with thy breast;<br /> +Thou hast watched beside my couch of pain—oh! bravest heart, and best!<br /> +<br /> +"I see the festive lights around—o'er a dull sad world they shine;<br /> +I hear the voice of victory—my Pedro where is <i>thine?</i><br /> +The only voice in whose kind tone my spirit found reply—<br /> +Oh! brother! I have bought too dear this hollow pageantry!<br /> +<br /> +"I have hosts, and gallant fleets, to spread my glory and my sway,<br /> +And chiefs to lead them fearlessly—my _friend_ hath passed away!<br /> +For the kindly look, the word of cheer, my heart may thirst in vain,<br /> +And the face that was as light to mine—it cannot come again!<br /> +<br /> +"I have made thy blood, thy faithful blood, the offering for a crown;<br /> +With love, which earth bestows not twice, I have purchased cold renown:<br /> +How often will my weary heart 'midst the sounds of triumph die,<br /> +When I think of thee, my brother! thou flower of chivalry!<br /> +<br /> +"I am lonely—I am lonely! this rest is ev'n as death!<br /> +Let me hear again the ringing spears, and the battle-trumpet's breath;<br /> +Let me see the fiery charger's foam, and the royal banner wave—<br /> +But where art thou, my brother?—where?—in thy low and early grave!"<br /> +<br /> +And louder swelled the songs of joy through that victorious night,<br /> +And faster flowed the red wine forth, by the stars and torches light;<br /> +But low and deep, amidst the mirth, was heard the conqueror's moan—<br /> +"My brother! oh! my brother! best and bravest! thou art gone!"<br /> +</p> +<p><i>Mrs. Hemans.—Monthly Magazine.</i></p> + +<hr style="width: 35%;" /> + +<p><strong>A SUMMER TOUR.</strong></p> + +<p>If called upon to propose any summer's +journey for a young English traveller, +(and it is a call often made with reference +to continental tours,) we might reasonably +suggest the coasts of Great Britain, +as affording every kind of various interest, +which can by possibility be desired. Such +a scheme would include the ports and +vast commercial establishments of Liverpool, +Bristol, Greenock, Leith, Newcastle, +and Hull; the great naval stations +of Plymouth, Portsmouth, Chatham, +and Milford; the magnificent +estuaries of the Clyde and Forth, and of +the Bristol Channel, not surpassed by +any in Europe; the wild and romantic +coasts of the Hebrides and Western Highlands; +the bold shore of North Wales; +the Menai, Conway, and Sunderland +bridges; the gigantic works of the Caledonian +Canal and Plymouth Breakwater; +and numerous other objects, which it is +beyond our purpose and power to enumerate. +It cannot be surely too much to +advise, that Englishmen, who have only +slightly and partially seen these things, +should subtract something from the +length or frequency of their continental +journeys, and give the time so gained to +a survey of their own country's wonders +of nature and art.</p> + +<p>To the agriculturist, and to the lover +of rural scenery, England offers much +that is remarkable. The rich alluvial +plains of continents may throw out a +more profuse exuberance and succession +of crops; but we doubt whether agriculture, +as an art, has anywhere (except in +Flanders and Tuscany alone) reached the +same perfection as in the less fertile soils +of the Lothians, Northumberland, and +Norfolk. Still more peculiar is the rural +scenery of England, in the various and +beautiful landscape it affords—in the undulating +surface—the greenness of the +enclosures—the hamlets and country +churches—and the farm houses and cottages +dispersed over the face of the country, +instead of being congregated into +villages, as in France and Italy. We +might select Devonshire, Somersetshire, +Herefordshire, and others of the midland +counties, as pre-eminent in this character +of beauty, which, however, is too +familiar to our daily observation to make +it needful to expatiate upon it.</p> + +<p>Nor will our limits allow us to dwell +upon that bolder form of natural scenery +which we possess in the Highlands of +Scotland, in Wales, Cumberland, and +Derbyshire, and which entitles us to +speak of this island as rich in landscape +of the higher class. In the scale of objects, +it is true that no comparison can +exist between the mountain scenery of +Britain, and that of many parts of the +continent of Europe. But it must be remembered, +that magnitude is not essential +to beauty; and that even sublimity +is not always to be measured by yards +and feet. A mountain may be loftier, or +a lake longer and wider, without any +gain to that picturesque effect, which +mainly depends on form, combination, +and colouring. Still we do not mean to +claim in these points any sort of equality +with the Alps, Apennines, or Pyrenees; +or to do more than assert that, with the +exception of these, the more magnificent +memorials of nature's workings on the +globe, our own country possesses as large +a proportion of fine scenery as any part +of the continent of Europe.—<i>Q. Rev.</i></p> + +<hr style="width: 35%;" /> + +<p><strong>Notes of a Reader</strong></p> + +<hr style="width: 35%;" /> + +<p><strong>HERODOTUS.</strong></p> + +<p>Perhaps few persons are aware how often +they imitate this great historian. Thus, +says the <i>Edinburgh Review</i>, "Children +and servants are remarkably <i>Herodotean</i> +in their style of narration. They tell +every thing dramatically. Their <i>says hes</i> +and <i>says shes</i> are proverbial. Every person +who has had to settle their disputes +knows that, even when they have no intention +to deceive, their reports of conversation +always require to be carefully +sifted. If an educated man were giving +an account of the late change of administration, +he would say, 'Lord Goderich +resigned; and the king, in consequence, +sent for the Duke of Wellington.' A +porter tells the story as if he had been +behind the curtains of the royal bed at +Windsor: 'So Lord Goderich says, 'I +cannot manage this business; I must go +out.' So the king, says he, 'Well, then, +I must send for the Duke of Wellington—that's +all.' This is in the very manner +of the father of history."</p> + +<hr style="width: 35%;" /> + +<p><strong>SPLENDOUR OF THE CHURCH OF +ROME.</strong></p> + +<p>"In the days of her power and importance, +the church of Rome numbered amongst +her vassals and servants the most renowned +spirits of the earth. She called +them from obscurity to fame, and to all +who laboured to spread and sustain her +influence, she became a benefactress. Her +wealth was immense, for she drew her +revenue from the fear or superstition of +man, and her spirit was as magnificent as +her power. The cathedrals which she +every where reared are yet the wonders of +Europe for their beauty and extent; and +in her golden days, the priests who held +rule within them were, in wealth and +strength, little less than princes. For a +time her treasure was wisely and munificently +expended; and the works she +wrought, and the good deeds she performed, +are her honour and our shame. +She spread a table to the hungry; she +gave lodgings to the houseless; welcomed +the wanderer; and rich and poor, and +learned and illiterate, alike received shelter +and hospitality. Under her roof the +scholar completed his education; the historian +sought and found the materials for +his history; the minstrel chanted lays of +mingled piety and love for his loaf and +raiment; the sculptor carved in wood, or +cast in silver, some popular saint; and +the painter gave the immortality of his +colours to some new legend or miracle."—All +who have visited the cathedrals and +churches of the continent, or who have +studied their history at home, must acknowledge +the truth and force of these +excellent observations. They are copied +from an ably-written article on the History +of Italian Painting, in the second +number of the <i>Foreign Review</i>.</p> + +<hr style="width: 35%;" /> + +<p>Frederick the Great, in a letter to Voltaire, +says, "I look on men as a herd of +deer in a great man's park, whose only +business is to people the enclosures."—This +is one of the <i>great men</i> of history.</p> + +<hr style="width: 35%;" /> + +<p><strong>POTATOES.</strong></p> + +<p>A few years after the discovery, potatoes +were carried to Spain at first as sweetmeats +and delicacies. Oviedo says that +"they were a dainty dish to set before +the king," Labat describes potatoes a +hundred years ago, as cultivated in +Western Africa, and says of them, "<i>Il y +en a en Irlande, et en Angleterre</i>," and +that he had seen very good ones at Rochelle.</p> + +<hr style="width: 35%;" /> + +<p><strong>PAINTING</strong></p> + +<p>Represents nature, or poetic nature at +the most, and, therefore, addresses itself +as much as poetry does to the feeling and +imagination of man. Though it deals in +nature exalted by genius, embellished by +art and purified by taste, still it is nature, +still it makes its appeal to the men of this +world, and by them it is applauded or +condemned. It works for men, and not +for gods; therefore every man, as far as +his taste is natural and sound, is a judge +of its productions.—<i>For. Rev.</i></p> + +<hr style="width: 35%;" /> + +<p><strong>LAVER.</strong></p> + +<p>Such of our readers as are not addicted +to epicurism may have been somewhat +puzzled at the display of "<i>Fine Fresh +Laver</i>" in the Italian warehouses and +provision shops of the metropolis. The +truth is, laver is a kind of reddish sea-weed, +forming a jelly when boiled, which +is eaten by some of the poor people in +Angus with bread instead of butter; but +which the rich have elevated into one of +the greatest dainties of their tables. In +Scotland, laver is called <i>slake</i>; and Dr. +Clarke mentions that it is used with the +fulmar to make a kind of broth, which +constitutes the first and principal meal of +the inhabitants. It is curious to know +that what is eaten at a duchess's table in +Piccadilly as a first-rate luxury, is used +by the poor people of Scotland twice or +thrice a day. It is an expensive dish; +but knowledge of this fact may perhaps +abate its cost.</p> + +<hr style="width: 35%;" /> + +<p><strong>GARDENS.</strong></p> + +<p>Ferdinand I. of Naples prided himself +upon the variety and excellence of the +fruit produced in his royal gardens, one +of which was called Paradise. Duke +Hercules, of Ferrara, had a garden celebrated +for its fruits in one of the islands +of the Po. The Duke of Milan, Ludovico, +carried this kind of luxury so far, +that he had a travelling fruit-garden; and +the trees were brought to his table, or +into his chamber, that he might with his +own hands gather the living fruit.</p> + +<hr style="width: 35%;" /> + +<p><strong>SNUFF.</strong></p> + +<p>Even among the rudest and poorest of +the inhabitants of Scotland, and at a period +when their daily meal must have been +always scanty, and frequently precarious, +one luxury seems to have established +itself, which has unaccountably found its +way into every part of the world. We +mean tobacco. The inhabitants of Scotland, +and especially of the Highlands, are +notorious for their fondness for snuff; and +many were the contrivances by which +they formerly reduced the tobacco into +powder. Dr. Jamieson, the etymologist, +defines a <i>mill</i> to be the vulgar name for a +snuff-box, one especially of a cylindrical +form, or resembling an inverted cone. +"No other name," says he, "was formerly +in use. The reason assigned for +this designation is, that when tobacco +was introduced into this country, those +who wished to have snuff were wont to +toast the leaves before the fire, and then +bruise them with a bit of wood in the +box; which was therefore called a <i>mill</i>, +from the snuff being <i>ground</i> in it." This, +however, is said to be not quite correct; +the old snuff-machine being like a nutmeg-grater, +which made snuff as often as +a pinch was required.</p> + +<hr style="width: 35%;" /> + +<p>Estimating the population of London +and its environs at 1,200,000, its proportion +of paupers would amount to 100,000!</p> + +<hr style="width: 35%;" /> + +<p><strong>SCOTCH LIVING.</strong></p> + +<p>Roast meat was formerly seldom seen +among farmers in Scotland; and is even +now rare, compared with its use among the +same class in England. Less than half a +century ago, a <i>mart</i> was regularly bought +or fattened by the most respectable farmers, +and even by many citizens. This was a +cow or ox killed and salted at Martinmas +for winter provision; a custom which, +though not uncommon in England, perhaps, +one hundred years ago, has certainly +not been followed, except in remote and +sequestered districts, or by very old-fashioned +farmers within that period.</p> + +<hr style="width: 35%;" /> + +<p>Falstaff's "Buck-Basket" has puzzled +the commentators; but Dr. Jamieson +thus explains it:—<i>Bouk</i> is the Scotch +word for a lye used to steep foul linen in, +before it is washed in water; the buckbasket, +therefore, is the basket employed +to carry clothes, after they have been +bouked, to the washing-place.</p> + +<hr style="width: 35%;" /> + +<p><strong>PLEASURES OF EGYPT.</strong></p> + +<p>Sweet are the songs of Egypt on paper. +Who is not ravished with gums, balms, +dates, figs, pomegranates, circassia, and +sycamores, without recollecting that amidst +these are dust, hot and fainting winds, +bugs, mosquitos, spiders, flies, leprosy, +fevers, and almost universal blindness.—<i>Ledyard's Travels.</i>—The same writer +also says the people are poorly clad, +the youths naked, and that they rank infinitely +below any savages he ever saw.</p> + +<hr style="width: 35%;" /> + +<p>There cannot be a more ill-boding sign +to a nation, than when the people, to +avoid hardships at home, are forced by +heaps to forsake their native country.—<i>Milton.</i></p> + +<hr style="width: 35%;" /> + +<p><strong>TOBACCO.</strong></p> + +<p>As the devil is a deceiver, and hath the +knowledge of the virtue of herbs, so he +did show the virtue of this herb, that by +the means thereof they might see their +imaginations and visions that he hath represented +unto them.</p> + +<hr style="width: 35%;" /> + +<p><strong>WHISKY.</strong></p> + +<p>From official documents it appears that +long previous to 1690, there had been a +distillery of <i>aqua vitae</i>, or whisky, on the +lands of Farintosh, belonging to Mr. +Forbes, of Culloden.</p> + +<hr style="width: 35%;" /> + +<p><strong>TRAVELLING INCENTIVES.</strong></p> + +<p>If there be a sudden accession of fortune, +the earliest use of it is in passing over to +the continent; if misfortunes occur, the +first suggestion is that of seeking solace +in another land. The assumption of the +<i>toga virilis</i> by our youth, may be practically +translated, the putting on of the +travelling cloak. Marriage, instead of +being the means of more extended family +union, is the plea for immediate separation; +and the newly-married pair drive +from the church to the packet-boat. If +the elders of a family are snatched away +by death, the first idea which occurs to +their successors, is that of distant removal +from home. Sorrows are not endured, +but fled from; and misfortune becomes +the signal for dispersion to those who +survive it.—<i>Q. Rev.</i></p> + +<hr style="width: 35%;" /> + +<p>Christoval Acosta, speaking of the +<i>pine-apple</i>, says that "no medicinal virtues +have been discovered in it, and it is +good for nothing but to eat."</p> + +<hr style="width: 35%;" /> + +<p><strong>SMOKING.</strong></p> + +<p>Joshuah Silvester questioned whether +the devil had done more harm in +latter ages by means of fire and smoke, +through the invention of guns, or of tobacco-pipes; +and he conjectured that +Satan introduced the fashion, as a preparatory +course of smoking for those who +were to be matriculated in his own college:</p> + +As roguing Gipsies tan their little elves,<br /> +To make them tann'd and ugly, like themselves.<br /> + +<hr style="width: 35%;" /> + +<p><strong>LAW</strong></p> + +<p>Must be kept as a garden, with frequent +digging, weeding, turning, &c., for that +which was in one age convenient, and, +perhaps, necessary, becomes in another +prejudicial.—<i>Roger North.</i></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 35%;" /> +<a name="THE_GATHERER."></a><h2>THE GATHERER.</h2> + +<p>"A snapper-up of unconsidered trifles."<br /> +SHAKSPEARE</p> + +<hr style="width: 35%;" /> + +<p><strong>THE WIFE'S COMPLAINT.</strong></p> + +<p>Havard, the actor, (better known from +the urbanity of his manners, by the familiar +name of Billy Havard) had the +misfortune to be married to a most notorious +shrew and drunkard. One day +dining at Garrick's, he was complaining +of a violent pain in his side. Mrs. Garrick +offered to prescribe for him. "No, +no," said her husband; "that will not +do, my dear; Billy has mistaken his disorder; +his great <i>complaint lies in his +rib</i>."</p> + +<hr style="width: 35%;" /> + +<p><strong>HOW TO SECURE A COACH.</strong></p> + +<p>A facetious friend of Dr. Kitchiner's, +on a very wet night, after several messengers, +whom he had despatched for a +coach, had returned without obtaining +one; at last, at "past one o'clock, and a +rainy morning," the wag walked himself +to the next coach-stand, and politely advised +the waterman to mend his inside +lining with a pint of beer, and go home +to bed; for said he, "there will be nothing +for you to do to night, I'll lay you +a shilling that there's not a coach out." +"Why, will you, your honour? then +done," cried Mr. Waterman; "but are +you really serious, 'cause, if so be as +you be, I must make haste and go and +get one." Being assured he would certainly +touch the twelvepenny if he did, +he trotted off on his "nag a ten toes," +and in ten minutes returned with a leathern +conveyance.</p> + +<hr style="width: 35%;" /> + +<p>Epicure Quin used to say, it was "not +safe to sit down to a <i>Turtle Feast</i> at one +of the City Halls, without a <i>basket-hilted +knife and fork</i>."—Another of his quips +was, "Of all the banns of marriage I ever +heard, none gave me half such pleasure +as the union of ANN-CHOVY with good +JOHN-DORY."</p> + +<hr style="width: 35%;" /> + +<p><strong>ONION SOUP</strong></p> + +<p>Is thought highly restorative by the +French. It is considered peculiarly grateful, +and gently stimulating to the stomach, +after hard drinking or night-watching, +and holds among soups the place +that champagne, soda-water, or ginger-beer, +does among liquors.</p> + +<hr style="width: 35%;" /> + +<p>Lobsters and crabs are in season from +March till October; so that they supply +the place of oysters, which come in about +the time lobsters go out of season. Lobsters +are held in great esteem by gastrologers +for the firmness, purity, and flavour +of their flesh. When they find refuge +in the rocky fastnesses of the deep +from the rapacity of sharks and fishermen, +they sometimes attain an immense +size, and have been found from eighteen +inches to upwards of two feet in length. +Apicius, who ought to be the patron saint +of epicures, made a voyage to the coast of +Africa on hearing that lobsters of an unusually +large size were to be found there, +and, after encountering much distress at +sea, met with a disappointment. Very +large lobsters are at present found on the +coasts of Orkney. Some naturalists affirm +(Olaus Magnus and Gesner,) that in the +Indian seas, and on the wild shores of +Norway, lobsters have been found twelve +feet in length, and six in breadth, which +seize mariners in their terrible embrace, +and, dragging them into their caverns, +devour them. However this may be, the +lobsters and crabs for being devoured are +best when of the middle size, and when +found on reefs or very rocky shores.</p> + +<hr style="width: 35%;" /> + +<p><strong>THE INVISIBLE HAIR.</strong></p> + +<p>A monk was showing the relics of his +convent before a numerous assembly; the +most rare, in his opinion, was a hair of +the Holy Virgin, which he appeared to +show to the people present, opening his +hands as if he were drawing it through +them. A peasant approached with great +curiosity, and exclaimed, "but, reverend +father, I see nothing." "Egad, I believe +it" replied the monk, "for I have +shown the hair for twenty years, and have +not yet beheld it myself."</p> + +<hr style="width: 35%;" /> + +<p><strong>CURIOSITY CURED.</strong></p> + +<p>A servant travelling, was bothered by +a super-curious person, who, after several +indirect attempts to discover whence he +came, or whither he was going, at last +popt the question plainly, "Are your +family <i>before</i>?"—"No."—"Oh! you +left them <i>behind</i>, I suppose?"—"No" +"No?"—"No, they are on <i>one +side</i>!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 35%;" /> + +<p><strong>TO GROW A SHOULDER OR LEG OF MUTTON.</strong></p> + +<p>This art is well known to the London +bakers. Have a very small leg or shoulder; +change it upon a customer for one a +little larger, and that upon another for +one better still, till by the dinner hour +you have a heavy, excellent joint in lieu +of your original small one.</p> + +<hr style="width: 35%;" /> +<br /> + +<p><i>Printed and Published by J. LIMBIRD, +143, Strand, London; sold by ERNEST +FLEISCHER, 626, New Market, Leipsic, and +by all Newsmen and Booksellers.</i> +FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor1">[1]</a> The grief of Ferdinand, King of Arragon, +for the loss of his brother, Don Pedro, who was +killed during the siege of Naples, is affectingly +described by the historian Mariana. It is also +the subject of one of the old Spanish ballads, in +Lockhart's beautiful collection.</p> +<br /> + +</td></tr></table> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, +and Instruction, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE, *** + +***** This file should be named 10332-h.htm or 10332-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/3/3/10332/ + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Sjaani and PG Distributed Proofreaders + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS," WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Each eBook is in a subdirectory of the same number as the eBook's +eBook number, often in several formats including plain vanilla ASCII, +compressed (zipped), HTML and others. + +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks replace the old file and take over +the old filename and etext number. The replaced older file is renamed. +VERSIONS based on separate sources are treated as new eBooks receiving +new filenames and etext numbers. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + +EBooks posted prior to November 2003, with eBook numbers BELOW #10000, +are filed in directories based on their release date. If you want to +download any of these eBooks directly, rather than using the regular +search system you may utilize the following addresses and just +download by the etext year. + + http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext06 + + (Or /etext 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00, 99, + 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90) + +EBooks posted since November 2003, with etext numbers OVER #10000, are +filed in a different way. The year of a release date is no longer part +of the directory path. The path is based on the etext number (which is +identical to the filename). The path to the file is made up of single +digits corresponding to all but the last digit in the filename. For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: + https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL + + + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/old/10332-h/imgone.jpg b/old/10332-h/imgone.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9ae6b47 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10332-h/imgone.jpg diff --git a/old/10332.txt b/old/10332.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..58a09f8 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10332.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1927 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and +Instruction, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction + Volume XII. F, No. 325, August 2, 1828. + +Author: Various + +Release Date: November 29, 2003 [EBook #10332] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE, *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Sjaani and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + +THE MIRROR + +OF + +LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION. + + +No. 325.] SATURDAY, AUGUST 2, 1828. [Price 2_d_. + + +ALL-SOULS' CHURCH, LANGHAM-PLACE. + + +Vol. XII. F + +ALL-SOULS' CHURCH, + +LANGHAM PLACE. + + "Whoever walks through London streets," + Said Momus to the son of Saturn, + "Each day new edifices meets, + Of queer proportion, queerer pattern: +If thou, O cloud-compelling god, + Wilt aid me with thy special grace, +I, too, will wield my motley hod, + And build a church in Langham-place." + + "Agreed," the Thunderer cries; "go plant + Thine edifice, I care not how ill; +Take notice, earth. I hereby grant + _Carte blanche_ of mortar, stone, and trowel. +Go Hermes, Hercules, and Mars, + Fraught with these bills on Henry Hase, +Drop with yon jester from the stars, + And build a church in Langham-place." + + _London Lyrics-New Monthly Mag._ + +Among all our specimens of contemporary church-building, none has +excited more animadversion than _All-Souls'_, Langham-place, erected in +1822-1825, from the designs of Mr. Nash. Its general effect is +extraordinary and objectionable; but, unfortunately for what merit it +really possesses, many of its assailants have so far disregarded the +just principles of taste and criticism, as to go laboriously out of +their way to be profanely witty on its defects. Song and satire, +raillery and ridicule, pun and pasquinade, and even the coarseness of +caricature, have thus been let off at this specimen of NASH-_ional_ +architecture; whilst their authors have wittingly kept out any redeeming +graces which could be found in its architectural details. + +The principal features of the exterior were suggested by its situation, +it being placed on an angular plot of ground, between Langham-place and +Regent-street. To afford an advantageous view from either point, the +tower, which is circular, is nearly detached from the body of the +church, and is surrounded by columns of the modern Ionic order, +supporting an entablature, crowned by a balustrade, which is continued +along the sides of the church. Above the portico is a Corinthian +peristyle, the base of which is also that of a fluted cone, which forms +the spire, and is terminated in an acute point. The steeple is complete +in itself, and adapted to its situation, having the same appearance +which ever way it is viewed. This portion of the edifice has, however, +been more stigmatized than any other, although it has been pronounced by +persons of taste and accredited judgment to be the best steeple recently +erected. To our eye, the church itself, _apart_ from the tower, (for +such it almost is) is perhaps, one of the most miserable structures in +the metropolis,--in its starved proportions more resembling a +manufactory, or warehouse, than the impressive character of a church +exterior; an effect to which the Londoner is not an entire stranger. +Here, too, we are inclined to ascribe much of the ridicule, which the +whole church has received, to its puny proportions and scantiness of +decoration, which are far from being assisted by any stupendousness in +their details, the first impression of which might probably have fixed +the attention of the spectator. Indeed, the whole style of the tower and +steeple appears peculiarly illadapted for so small a scale as has here +been attempted. + +As we love "a jest's prosperity," we recommend such of our readers as +are partial to innocent pasquinade, to turn to the "Lyric," in a recent +volume of the _New Monthly Magazine_, commencing as above. It is too +long for entire insertion here, but its raciness will doubtless gratify +those who may be induced to refer to it. + + * * * * * + +TREMENDOUS RAINS. + +_(For the Mirror.)_ + +Like a low-hung cloud, _it rains so fast_, +That all at once it falls.--DRYDEN. + +There are two English proverbs relative to rain; the first is, "_It +rains by Planets._" "This the country people (says Ray) use when it +rains in one place and not in another; meaning that the showers are +governed by planets, which being erratic in their own motions, cause +such uncertain wandering of clouds and falls of rain. Or it rains by +planets--that is, the falls of showers are as uncertain, as the motions +of the planets are imagined to be." The second--"_It never rains but it +pours:_" which appears to be the case at present. In the year 553 it +rained violently in Scotland for five months; in 918 there was a +continual rain in that country for five months; a violent one in London +1222; again 1233, so violent that the harvest did not begin till +Michaelmas; 1338, from Midsummer to Christmas, so that there was not one +day or night dry together; in Wales, which destroyed 10,000 sheep, +September 19th 1752; in Languedoc, which destroyed the village of Bar le +Due, April 26th, 1776; and in the Island of Cuba, on the 21st of June, +1791, 3,000 persons and 11,700 cattle of various kinds perished by the +torrents occasioned by the rains. + +P. T. W. + + * * * * * + +CURIOUS SCRAPS. + +_(For the Mirror.)_ + +The first dissection on record, is one in which Democritus of Obdera, +was engaged, in order to ascertain the sources and course of the +bile.--It was the custom among the Egyptians, to carry about at their +feasts a skeleton, least their guests, in the midst of feasting and +merriment, should forget the frail tenure of life and its enjoyments. + +The most ancient eclipse upon record, was observed by the Chaldeans 721 +years before the Christian era, and recorded by Ptolemy. The observation +was made at Babylon the 19th of March.--In ancient days, for want of +parchment to draw deeds upon, great estates were frequently conveyed +from one family to another only by the ceremony of a turf and a stone, +delivered before witnesses, and without any written agreement.--It is +singular, that by the Doomsday Book, as quoted by Camden, there appears +to have been in Lincoln, when that survey was taken, no less than 1070 +"inns for entertainment."--Henry I., about the year 1125, caused to be +made a standard yard, from the length of his own arm, in order to +prevent frauds in the measurement of cloth. This standard is supposed to +have been deposited, with other measures, &c. in Winchester; he likewise +(it is said) ordered halfpence and farthings to be made round, which +before his time were square.--The Universities of Oxford and Cambridge +were first called "studia," or "studies."--Edward the Confessor received +yearly, from the manor of Barton, near Gloucester, 3,000 loaves of bread +for the maintenance of his dogs--In the reign of Edward III., only three +taverns might sell sweet wines in London; one in Cheape, one in +Wallbrook, and the other in Lombard Street.--Lord Lyttleton, in his Life +of Henry II., vol. i. p. 50, says, "Most of our ancient historians give +him the character of a very religious prince, but his religion was, +after the fashion of those times, belief without examination, and +devotion without piety. It was a religion that at the same time allowed +him to pillage kingdoms, that threw him on his knees before a relic or a +cross, but suffered him unrestrained to trample upon the liberties and +rights of mankind;" again, "his government was harsh and despotic, +violating even the principles of that institution which he himself had +established. Yet so far he performed the duty of a sovereign that he +took care to maintain a good police in his realm; which, in the +tumultuous state of his government, was a great and difficult work." How +well he performed it, we may learn even from the testimony of a +contemporary Saxon historian, who says, "during his reign a man might +have travelled in perfect security all over the kingdom, with his bosom +full of gold; nor durst any kill another in revenge of the greatest +offences, nor offer violence to the chastity of a woman. But it was a +poor compensation that the highways were safe, when the courts of +justice were dens of thieves, and when almost every man in authority, or +in office, used his power to oppress and pillage the people."--Towards +the close of the life of Henry IV., he kept the regal diadem always in +his sight by day, and at night it shared his pillow. Once the Prince of +Wales, whom Henry always suspected more than he loved, seeing his father +in a most violent paroxysm of disease, removed the crown from his bed. +The king on his recovery missed it, sent for his son, and taxed him with +his impatience and want of duty, but the prince defended his conduct +with such rational modesty, that Henry, convinced of his innocence, +embraced and blessed him. "Alas!" said Henry to his son, "you know too +well how I gained this crown. How will you defend this ill-gotten +possession?" "With my sword," said the prince, "as my father has done." + +Henry V. was, perhaps, the first English monarch who had ships of his +own. Two of these, which sailed against Harfleur, were called "The +King's Chamber," and "The King's Hall." They had purple sails, and were +large and beautiful. + +Party rage ran so high in 1403, that an act of parliament was found +necessary to declare, "Pulling out of eyes and cutting out of tongues to +be felony."--Dr. Rush, of Philadelphia, in his "Inquiry into the effects +of spirituous liquors on the human body, and their influence on the +happiness of society;" says, "Among the inhabitants of cities, spirits +produce debts, disgrace, and bankruptcy. Among farmers, they produce +idleness with its usual consequence, such as houses without windows, +barns without roofs, gardens without enclosures, fields without fences, +hogs without yokes, sheep without wool, meagre cattle, feeble horses, +and half clad, dirty children, without principles, morals, or manners." + +P. T. W. + + * * * * * + +_Shower of Sugar Plums_--Charles XI., attended by his court, had been +hunting in the neighbourhood of Carcassone. After the stag had been +taken, a gentleman of the neighbourhood invited the king to a splendid +dinner which he had prepared for him. At the conclusion of the banquet +the ceiling of the hall _suddenly opened_, a thick cloud, descended and +burst over their heads like a thunder storm, pouring forth a shower of +_sugar-plums_ instead of hail, which was succeeded by a gentle rain of +rose-water. + +_The Coin Guinea_--In the reign of king Charles II., when Sir Robert +Holmes, of the Isle of Wight, brought gold-dust from the coast of +Guinea, a guinea first received its name from that country. + +_A Motto_.--A constant frequenter of city feasts, having grown +enormously fat, it was proposed to write on his back, "_Widened at the +expense of the corporation of London."_ + +_Sedan-chairs and Hackney-coaches_.--Sir S. Duncombe, predecessor to +Duncombe Lord Feversham, and gentleman pensioner to King James and +Charles I., introduced sedan-chairs into this country, anno 1634, when +he procured a patent that vested in him and his heirs the sole right of +carrying persons up and down in them for a certain sum. Sir Saunders had +been a great traveller, and saw these chairs at Sedan, where they were +first invented. It is remarkable that Capt. Bailey introduced the use of +hackney-coaches in this year; a tolerable ride might then be obtained, +in either of these vehicles for four pence. + +_Heroism--Seward_, "the brave Earl of Northumberland," feeling in his +sickness that he drew near his end, quitted his bed and put on his +armour, saying, "That it became not a man to die like a beast," on which +he died standing; an act as singular as it was heroic. + +_Epigram on Epigrams._ +What is an epigram? a dwarfish whole, +Its body brevity, and wit its soul. + +W. H. H. + + * * * * * + +"THE MOUSE TOWER" + +A GERMAN LEGEND. + +(_For the Mirror_.) + +The bishop of Mentz was a wealthy prince, + Wealthy and proud was he; +He had all that was worth a wish on earth-- + But he had not charitie! + +He would stretch put his _empty_ hands to _bless_, + Or lift them both to _pray_; +But alack! to lighten man's distress, + They moved no other way. + +A famine came! but his heart was still + As hard as his pride was high; +And the starving poor but throng'd his door + To curse him and to die. + +At length from the crowd rose a clamour so loud, + That a cruel plot laid he; +He open'd one of his granaries wide, + And bade them enter free. + +In they rush'd--the maid and the sire. + And the child that could barely run-- +Then he clos'd the barn, and set it on fire. + And burnt them every one! + +And loud he laugh'd at each terrible shriek, + And cried to his archer-train, +"The merry mice!--how shrill they squeak!-- + They are fond of the bishop's grain!" + +But mark, what an awful judgment soon, + On the cruel bishop fell; +With so many mice his palace swarm'd, + That in it he could not dwell. + +They gnaw'd the arras above and beneath, + They eat each savoury dish up; +And shortly their sacrilegious teeth + Began to nibble the bishop! + +He flew to his castle of Ehrenfels, + By the side of the Rhine so fair; +But they found the road to his new abode, + And came in legions there. + +He built him, in haste, a tower tall + In the tide, for his better assurance; +But they swam the river, and scal'd the wall, + And worried him past endurance. + +One morning his skeleton there was seen, + By a load of flesh the lighter; +They had picked his bones uncommonly clean, + And eaten his very mitre! + +Such was the end of the bishop of Mentz, + And oft at the midnight hour, +He comes in the shape of a fog so dense, + And sits on his old "Mouse-Tower." + +C.K.W. + + * * * * * + +PRUSSIC ACID. + +(_For the Mirror_.) + +The circumstance of Montgomery's recent suicide in Newgate, has led me +to send you the following remarks upon the nature and properties of that +most violent poison, Prussic acid, with which the unfortunate man +terminated his existence. + +Were we to consider the constituent parts and properties of the most +common things we are in the habit of daily using, and their poisonous +and destructive natures, we should recoil at the deadly potion, and +shrink from the loathsome draught we are about to take. That which we +consider the most delicious and exhilarating portion of our common +beverage, porter, contains carbonic acid gas, commonly known by the +"spirit," and which the poor miners dread with the utmost horror, like +the Arabian does the destructive blast of the simoon. Oxalic acid, so +much the fear of those accustomed to the medicine--Epsom salts, is made +from that useful article, _sugar_, by uniting with it a smaller portion, +more than it has naturally, of oxygen gas. The air we breathe contains a +most deadly poison, called by chemists azotic gas, which, by its being +mixed with what is called vital air, (oxygen gas,) becomes necessary to +our existence, as much as the one (vital air or oxygen gas) would be +prejudicial without the other; and _Prussic acid_, the most violent of +all poisons, is contained in the common bitter-almond. But these most +destructive substances are always found combined with others, which +render them often perfectly harmless, and can be separated only by the +skill of the chemist. + +The Prussic acid (by some called hydrocyanic acid) is a liquid, +extracted from vegetables, and contains one part of cyanogen and one +part of hydrogen. It is extracted from the bitter-almond, (as has been +stated,) peach-blossom, and the leaves of the laurocerasus. It may also +be obtained from animal substances, although a vegetable acid. If lime +be added to water, distilled from these substances, a Prussiate of lime +is formed; when, if an acid solution of iron be added to this mixture, +common Prussian blue (or Prussiate of iron) is precipitated. The acid +may be obtained from Prussiate of potash, by making a strong solution of +this salt, and then adding as much tartaric acid as will precipitate the +potash, when the acid will be left in solution, which must be decanted +and distilled. + +Its properties are a pungent odour, very much resembling that of +bitter-almonds, with a hot but sweetish taste, and extremely volatile. +It contains azote, with which no other vegetable acid is combined; it is +largely used in the manufacture of Prussian blue. It is the most violent +of all poisons, and destroys animals by being applied to the skin only. +It is stated by an able chemist, that a single drop applied to the +tongue of a mastiff dog caused death so instantaneously, that it +appeared to have been destroyed by lightning. One drop to the human +frame destroys life in two minutes. + +But when chemically combined with other substances, its power is in a +great measure neutralized, and it becomes a valuable article, both to +the chemist as a test, and to the physician as a medicine. The Prussiate +of potash and iron will enable the chemist to discover nearly the whole +of the metals when in solution, by the colours its combination produces. +Dr. Zollekoffer says, that in intermittent fevers the Prussiate of iron +is in its effects superior to Cinchona bark, and says it never disagrees +with the stomach, or creates nausea even in the most irritable state, +while bark is not unfrequently rejected; a patient will recover from the +influence of intermitting and remitting fevers, in the generality of +cases, in much less time than is usual in those cases in which bark is +employed. S.S.T. + + * * * * * + +THE ANECDOTE GALLERY. + +VOLTAIRE. + +(_Continued from page 64_.) + +A certain Hungarian traveller, a man of consequence in his country, but +not particularly wise, had fruitlessly tried to be introduced, without +finding any one at Geneva, willing to undertake the task, as they were +all afraid Voltaire would be rude to him. A young man, who heard of +this, engaged to procure the stranger an interview with Voltaire; and on +the day appointed, contrived to have him conveyed out of town to a +good-looking residence, where well-dressed servants received him at the +door, and ushered him up stairs in due form. Here then at last he found +himself, as he thought, _tete-a-tete_ with Voltaire. The _malade de +Ferney_, personated by our young friend, was lying down on a sofa, +wrapped up in a damask robe-de-chambre, a night-cap of black velvet, +with gold lace, on his head, or rather on the top of an immense periwig, +_a la Louis XIV_., in the midst of which his little, sallow and +deeply-wrinkled visage seemed buried; a table was near him, covered with +papers, and the curtains being drawn, made the room rather dark. The +philosopher apologized in a hollow voice, interrupted by occasional fits +of coughing; he was ill _bien malade_, could not get up, begged the +stranger to be seated, asked questions about the countries he had +visited, made him tell his adventures, those of gallantry particularly, +and was himself most facetious, and most profanely witty. The Hungarian +delighted, and far more at ease than he had imagined possible, casting a +glance on the papers, ventured to inquire what new work? "Ah, +nothing!"--_le faible Enfant de ma Vieillesse--a tragedy_. "May I ask +the subject?" "The subject is wholly Genevan," replied Voltaire, "the +name, _Empro-Giro_, and the dramatis personae _Carin-Caro, Dupins-Simon_, +and _Carcail Briffon, &c_." He then began to repeat, with great +animation, a number of passages, to which his visitor listened in +perfect raptures, but drew, meanwhile, a snuff-box from his pocket, and +began to look attentively on him and on a picture on the lid; thus +confronted with a portrait of Voltaire, and compared face to face, was a +trial for which our mimic was not prepared, and his courage nearly +forsook him, yet he kept up appearances, only coughing more, and ranting +on the high-sounding lines of his _Empro-Giro_. The Hungarian, not +undeceived by this close examination, replaced the snuff-box in his +pocket, declaring it to be the best likeness he had ever seen. He rose +at last, thanked his friend Voltaire, kissed his hand respectfully, and +went away, distributing to the servants he met on the stairs liberal +tokens of his satisfaction. These servants were the intimate friends and +companions of the chief actor, and one of them, his brother, unwilling +to carry the joke to the length of pocketing the money of their dupe, +they contrived to give him a dinner at a tavern, where he was made to +tell the story of his visit to Voltaire, and express his admiration of +the great man. The latter heard of this, was much amused, and desired to +see his double, told him he would make a bargain with him--half his fame +for half the tiresome visitors it procured him. + +The poet lived like a prince, but kept his accounts like a citizen; +knowing to a sous where his money went: a good deal of it was bestowed +charitably, for he was munificent, and certainly much loved in his +neighbourhood. One night, when _Tancrede_ was acting, and the court of +the chateau was full of carriages and servants, there arrived, as ill +luck would have it, a cask of the best chambertin that ever came from +Burgundy; his own people could not attend to it, and the cask remained +at his cellar door; the servants contrived to get at it, and while their +masters and mistresses were shedding tears at the tragedy, they sipped +the poet's wine. There was generally a supper after the play, where more +than once two hundred people sat down, and Voltaire had something to say +to every one of his guests. As the gates of the town are shut at night, +many of them usually remained in the _chateau_, poorly accommodated with +beds. One night as M. de B----, was groping in the dark, for a place +where he might lie down to sleep, he accidently put his finger into the +mouth of M. de Florian, who bit it. + +Voltaire kept company only with the aristocracy of Geneva; neither his +liberality nor his wit secured him the good-will of the patriots placed +out of the sphere of his influence; they only saw him a sham +philosopher, without principles and solidity; a courtier, the slave of +rank and fashion; the corrupter of their country, of which he made a +jest. _Quand je secoue ma perruque,_ he used to say, _je poudre toute la +republique!_ + +Whatever might be Voltaire's antipathy to the visits of strangers at his +_chateau_, he seems to have met with an equal specimen of that temper +from an Englishman. When in London, he waited upon Congreve, the poet, +and passed him some compliments as to the reputation and merit of his +works. Congreve thanked him; but at the same, time told Voltaire _he did +not choose to be considered as an author, but only as a private +gentleman, and in that light expected to be visited._ Voltaire answered, +_that if he had never been any thing but a private gentleman, in all +probability he had never been troubled with that visit._ He also +observes, in his own account of this affair, he was not a little +disgusted with so unseasonable a piece of vanity. + +The memory of Voltaire and Rousseau is still cherished by the French +people with great fondness; their busts or figures in bronze or plaster +are frequently met with, and remind one of _Penates_, or household gods. + +PHILO. + + * * * * * + + + + +POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS. + + +WITCHCRAFT. + +(_For the Mirror_.) + +--Why should the envious world +Throw all their scandalous malice upon me? +'Cause I am poor, deform'd, and ignorant; +And like a bow, buckled and bent together, +By some more strong in mischiefs than myself: +Must I for that be made a common sink +For all the filth and rubbish of men's tongues, +To fall and run into? some call me witch; +And, being ignorant of myself, they go +About to teach me how to be one; urging +That my bad tongue (by their bad usage made so) +Forespeaks their cattle, doth bewitch their corn, +Themselves, their servants, and their babes at nurse; +This they enforce upon me; and in part +Make me to credit it. _Witch of Edmonton._ + +The belief in witchcraft may be considered as forming a prominent and +important feature in the history of the human mind. It is certainly one +link of the degrading chain of superstitions which have long enslaved +mankind, but which are now quivering to their fall. The desire for power +to pry into hidden things, and more especially events to come, is +inherent in the human race, and has always been considered as of no +ordinary importance, and rendered the supposed possessors objects of +reverence and fear. The belief in astrology, or the power to read in the +stars the knowledge of futurity, from time immemorial has been +considered as the most difficult of attainment, and important in its +results. And by the aid of a little supernatural machinery, both +magicians and astrologers exercised the most unlimited influence over +the understandings of their adherents. An astrologer, only two or three +centuries since, was a regular appendage to the establishments of +princes and nobles. Sir Walter Scott has drawn an interesting portrait +of one in _Kenilworth_; and the eagerness with which the Earl of +Leicester listened to his doctrines and predictions, affords a good +specimen of the manners of those times. The movements of the heavenly +bodies, (imperfectly as they were then understood,) seemed to afford the +most plausible vehicle for these "oracles of human destiny;" and even +now, while we are tracing these lines, the red and glaring appearance of +the planet Mars, shining so beautifully in the south-east, is considered +by the many as a forerunner and sign of long wars and much bloodshed: + +These dreams and terrors magical, + These miracles and witches, +Night walking sprites, et cetera, + Esteem them not two rushes. + +Mankind are universally prone to the belief in omens, and the casual +occurrence of certain contingent circumstances soon creates the easiest +of theories. Should a bird of good omen, in ancient times, perch on the +standard, or hover about an army, the omen was of good import, and +favourable to conquest. Should a raven or crow accidentally fly over the +field of action, the spirits of the combatants would be proportionably +depressed. Should a planet be shining in its brilliancy at the birth of +any one whose fortunes rose to pre-eminence, it was always thought to +exert an influence over his future destiny. Such was the origin of many +of our later superstitions, which "grew with their growth, and +strengthened with their strength," till the more extensive introduction +of the art of printing partly dissipated the illusion. It has been +remarked, therefore, that the existence of the parent stock of the +subject more immediately under our consideration, witchcraft, may be +traced to a very remote period indeed. It is, however, needless to enter +into any remarks on those witches mentioned in the Scriptures. The +earliest dabbler of the _genus_, as a contemporary writer observes, is +said to be Zoroaster, thought to be the king of the Bactrians, who +flourished about 3,800 years ago, or A.M. 2000. He is supposed to have +been well versed in the arts of divination and astrology, and was the +origin of the Persian magi. "At his birth," remarks an old writer, "he +laughed; and his head did so beat, that it struck back the midwife's +hand--a good sign of abundance of spirits, which are the best +instruments of a ready wit." The _magi_ in Persia, the Brahmins in +India, the Chaldae in Assyria, the magicians of Arabia, the priesthood +of Egypt, Greece, and Rome, and the Druids of Britain, were all members +of a class which comprised astrology, omens, divination, conjuration, +portents, chiromancy, and sorcery; and all united in the pursuit of +enslaving mankind for the purposes of gain and power, with artfully +devised schemes, and a skilful series of impostures; and we can easily +imagine the influence they must have exercised over the minds of their +proselytes, when we bear in mind the effect produced by similar +contrivances in later days. The enchantress Theoris of Athens seems to +have been the first witch that had recourse to charms. Demosthenes uses +the terms both of witchery and imposture in speaking of her. This witch +was put to death by the Athenians--an accomplice having displayed to +them the charms, &c., by which she wrought her miracles. Our Saviour's +words, that _faith_ can remove mountains, are applicable particularly to +the supposed powers of witchcraft; and the influence of charms and +amulets in averting disease is well known. We have alluded, in our first +paper, to the trial of Rose Cullender and Amy Duny, at Norwich, for +witchcraft; and we now give the speech of Sir Thomas Browne, the +celebrated physician of that period, (1664,) to whom, in consequence of +defect in the proof, the case was referred, which was the cause of their +conviction. Sir Thomas Browne offered it as his opinion, "that the +devil, in such cases, did work upon the bodies of men and women, upon a +natural foundation, (that is) to stir up and excite such humours +superabounding in their bodies to a great excess, whereby he did, in an +extraordinary manner, afflict them with such distempers as their bodies +were most subject to, as particularly appeared in the children of +Dorothy Dunent, (one of the indictments against the prisoners being for +their bewitchment;) for he conceived that these swooning fits were +natural, and nothing else but that they call the mother, but _only +heightened to a great excess by the subtilty of the devil co-operating +with the malice of these, which we term witches, at whose instance he +doth the villanies_." + +The ceremony of initiation to the dreadful vocation and great powers of +witchcraft was attended with considerable form and mystery:-- + +----They call me hag and witch. +What is the name? When, and by what art learned? +With what spell, what charm or invocation, +May the thing call'd _familiar_ be purchas'd? + +The older and more ugly the performer in these appalling ceremonies, the +better. Some witches seem to have had the devil quite at their beck; but +his visits to most of them appear to have been "few and far between." +The convention (remarks John Gaule, an old writer) for such a solemn +initiation being proclaimed (by some herald imp) to some others of the +confederation, on some great holy or Lord's day, they meet in some +church, either before the consecrated bell hath tolled, or else very +late, after all the services are past and over. "The party, in some +vesture for that purpose, is presented by some confederate or familiar +to the prince of devills, sitting now in a throne of infernall majesty, +appearing in the form of a man, only labouring to hide his cloven foot. +To whom, after bowing and homage done, a petition is presented to be +received into his association and protection; and first, if the witch be +outwardly Christian, baptism must be renounced, and the party must be +re-baptised in the devill's name, and a new name is also imposed by him, +and here must be godfathers too ... But above all he is very busie with +his long nails, in scraping and scratching those places of the forehead +where the signe of the crosse was made, or where the chrisme was laid. +Instead of both which, he impresses or inures the mark of the beast (the +devill's flesh brand) upon one or other part of the body. Further, the +witch (for her part) vows, either by word of mouth, or peradventure by +writing, (and that in her owne bloode,) to give both body and soul to +the devill, to deny and defy God the Father, the Son, and the Holy +Ghost; but especially the blessed Virgin, convitiating her with one +infamous nickname or other; to abhor the word and sacraments, but +especially to spit at the saying of masse; to spurn at the crosse, and +tread saints' images under feet; and as much as possibly they may, to +profane all saints' reliques, holy water, consecrated salt, wax, &c.; to +be sure to fast on Sundays, and eat flesh on Fridays; not to confess +their sins, whatsoever they do, especially to a priest; to separate from +the Catholic church, and despise his vicar's primacy; to attend the +devill's nocturnal conventicles, sabbaths, and sacrifices; to take him +for their god, worship, invoke, and obey him; to devote their children +to him, and to labour all that they may to bring others into the same +confederacy. Then the devill, for his part, promises to be always +present with them, to serve them at their beck; that they shall have +their wills upon any body; that they shall have what riches, honours, +and pleasures they can imagine; and if any be so wary as to think of +their future being, he tells them they shall be princes ruling in the +aire, or shall be but turned into impes at worst. Then he preaches to +them to be mindful of their covenant, and not to fail to revenge +themselves upon their enemies, Then, he commends to them (for this +purpose) an imp, or familiar in the shape of a cat, &c. After this they +shake hands, embrace in arms, dance, feast, and banquet, according as +the devill hath provided in imitation of the supper. Nay, ofttimes he +marries them ere they part, either to himselfe, or to their familiar, or +to one another, and that by the Book of Common Prayer, as a pretender to +witch-finding told me, in the presence of many." After this they part, +and a general meeting is held thrice a year, on some holy day; they are +"conveyed to it as swift as the winds from the remotest parts of the +earth, where they that have done the most execrable mischiefe, and can +brag of it, make most merry with the devill;" while the "indiligent" are +jeered and derided by the devil and the others. Non-attendance was +severely punished by the culprits being beaten on the soles of the feet, +whipped with iron rods, "pinched and sucked by their familiars till +their heart's blood come--till they repent them of their sloth, &c." + +Many regulations were, however, to be observed after the above +initiatory ceremony, which we have given at length in consequence of its +singularity. There existed a community or commonwealth, of "fallen +angels" or spirits, with the various titles of kings, dukes, &c., +prelates and knights, of which the head was _Baal_, "who, when he was +conjured up, appeared with three heads, one like a man, one like a toad, +and one like a cat." The title of king conferred no extra power; indeed, +_Agares_, "the first duke, came in the likeness of a faire old man, +riding upon a crocodile, and carrying a hawk on his fist"--_Marbas_, who +appeared in the form of a "mightie lion"--_Amon_, "a great and mightie +marques, who came abroad in the likeness of a wolf, having a serpent's +taile, and breathing out and spitting flames of fire," and was one of +the "best and kindest of devills," with sixty-five more of these +master-spirits, enumerated in _Scot_, "appeared to be entirely and +exclusively appropriated to the service of witches," were alike +possessed of nearly similar power, and had many hundreds of legions of +devils (each legion 6,666 in number) at their command. + +There were stated times for each rank of devils to be called on, for +they aught not to be invoked "rashly or at all seasons;" and the +following extracts from Reginald Scot are fully explanatory of the +formalities to be observed on these occasions:-- + +"_The houres wherein the principal devills may be raised.--_A king may +be raised from the third houre till noone, and from the ninth hour till +evening. Dukes may be raised from the first hour till noon, and clear +weather is to be observed. Marquesses may be raised from the ninth hour +till compline, and from compline till the end of day. Countes, or +earles, may be raised at any hour of the day, so it be in the woodes or +fieldes, where men resort not. Prelates likewise may be raised at any +houre of the day. A president may not be raised at any hour of the day, +except the king, whom he obeyeth, be invocated; nor at the shutting in +of the evening. Knights from day-dawning till sun-rising, or from +even-song till sun-set. + +"_The forme of adjuring and citing the spirits aforesaid to +appeare_.--When you will have any spirit, you must knowe his name and +office; you must also fast and be cleane from all pollution three or +foure days before; so will the spirit be more obedient unto you. Then +make a circle, and call up the spirit with great intention, rehearse in +your owne name, and your companion's, (for one must alwaies be with +you,) this prayer following; and so no spirit shall annoy you, and your +purpose shall take effect. And note how thw prayer agreeth with popish +charmes and conjurations." + +The prayer alluded to (see _Scot's Discovery_, b. 15, c. 2) is of the +most diabolical and blasphemous nature. A contemporary writer observes, +that there is not the least doubt but that the witches of the olden time +observed all the formalities of these ridiculous and disgusting +ceremonies to the very letter. In later times, however, though the +formalities were quite simple, yet the hag of the sixteenth century +exercised her vocation with all its ancient potency. + +The broomstick has been the theme of many a story connected with this +subject:-- + + As men in sleep, though motionless they lie, + Fledged by a dream, believe they mount and fly; + So witches some enchanted wand bestride + And think they through the airy regions ride. + +But the reason of its possessing such extensive powers of locomotion, or +rather aerostation, is not generally understood. The witches either +steal or dig dead children out of their graves, which are then seethed +in a cauldron, and the ointment and liquid so produced, enables them, +"observing certain ceremonies, to immediately become a master, or rather +a mistresse, in the practise or faculty" of flying in the air:-- + + High in, air, amid the rising storm + ----wrapt in midnight + Her doubtful form appears and fades! + Her spirits are abroad! they do her bidding! + Hark to that shriek! + +In addition to the above, they possessed another very useful faculty, +for the transfer of the patent of which, I doubt not scores of +adventurers would have given a tolerable consideration. It is briefly +that of "sailing in an egg-shell, a cockle, or a muscle-shell, through +and under the tempestuous seas." + +From the length to which this article has extended, I must reserve an +account of witch-finders, charms, dreams, and confessions, &c. for the +next and concluding paper. VYVYAN. + + * * * * * + +Spirit of Discovery. + + * * * * * + + +_Paper from Straw_. + + +At a recent meeting of the Royal Institution, there were exhibited some +specimens of paper manufactured from straw, by a new process. + + +_Hardening Steel_. + + +From the observation of travellers, that the manufacture of Damascus +blades was carried on only during the time when the north winds +occurred, M. Anozoff made experiments on the hardening of steel +instruments, by putting them, when heated, into a powerful current of +air, instead of quenching them in water. From the experiments already +made, he expects ultimate success. He finds that, for very sharp-edged +instruments, this method is much better than the ordinary one; that the +colder the air and the more rapid its stream, the greater is the effect. +The effect varies with the thickness of the mass to be hardened. The +method succeeds well with case-hardened goods.-- _From the French_. + + +_Detection of Blood_. + + +A controversy has recently taken place in Paris, relative to the +efficacy of certain chemical means of ascertaining whether dried spots +or stains of matter suspected to be blood, are or were blood, or not. M. +Orfila gives various chemical characters of blood under such +circumstances, which he thinks sufficient to enable an accurate +discrimination. This opinion is opposed by M. Raspail, who states, that +all the indications supposed to belong to true blood, may be obtained +from, linen rags, dipped, not into blood, but into a mixture of white of +egg and infusion of madder, and that, therefore, the indications are +injurious rather than useful. + + +_Cedars of Lebanon_. + + +Mr. Wolff, the missionary, counted on Mount Lebanus, thirteen large and +ancient cedars, besides the numerous small ones, in the whole 387 +trees. The largest of these trees was about 15 feet high, not one-third +of the height of hundreds of English cedars; for instance, those at +Whitton, Pain's Hill, Caenwood, and Juniper Hall, near Dorking. + +_Leeches_. + +In the _Medical Repository_, a case is quoted, where some leeches, which +had been employed first on a syphylitic patient and afterwards on an +infant, communicated the disease to the latter. + +_Stinging Flies_. + +There is a fly which exteriorly much resembles the house-fly, and which +is often very troublesome about this time; this is called the stinging +fly, one of the greatest plagues to cattle, as well as to persons +wearing thin stockings. + +_Mont Blanc_. + +The height of Mont Blanc and of the Lake of Geneva has lately been +carefully ascertained by M. Roger, an officer of engineers in the +service of the Swiss Confederation. The summit of the mountain appears +to be 4,435 metres, or 14,542 English feet above the Lake of Geneva, and +the surface of the Lake 367 metres, or 1,233 English feet above the sea. +The mountain is, therefore, 15,775 feet above the level of the sea. + +_Bird Catching_. + +The golden-crested wren may be taken by striking the bough upon which it +is sitting, sharply, with a stone or stick. The timid bird immediately +drops to the ground, and generally dead. As their skins are tender, +those who want them for stuffing will find this preferable to using the +gun.--_Mag. Nat. Hist._ + +_Shower of Herrings in Ross-shire_. + +In April last, as Major Forbes, of Fodderty, in Strathpfeffer, was +traversing a field on his farm, he found a considerable portion of the +ground covered with herring fry, of from three to four inches in length. +The fish were fresh and entire, and had no appearance of being dropped +by birds--a medium by which they must have been bruised and mutilated. +The only rational conjecture that can be formed of the circumstance is, +that the fish were transported thither in a water-spout--a phenomenon +that has before occurred in the same county. The Firth of Dengwall lies +at a distance of three miles from the place in question; but no +obstruction occurs between the field and the sea, the whole is a level +strath or plain, and water spouts have been known to travel even farther +than this.--_Inverness Courier._ + +_Spanish Asses_. + +The Duke of Buckingham has, at his seat at Avington, a team of Spanish +asses, resembling the zebra in appearance, which are extremely +tractable, and take more freely to the collar than any of our native +species. + +_Drawing Instrument_. + +An ingenious invention of this description was recently exhibited at the +Royal Institution. A pencil and a small bead are so connected together +by means of a thread passing over pullies, that if a person, looking +through an eye-piece, will hold the pencil upon a sheet of paper, and +then, watching the bead, will move his hand, so that the bead shall +trace the lines of any object that is selected or looked at, he will +find that, whilst he has been doing this, he has also made a drawing of +the subject upon the paper; for the pencil and the bead describe exactly +the same lines, though upon different planes. Thus, a drawing is made, +without even looking at the paper, but solely at the object. + +_White Cats_. + +In a recent number we quoted from _Loudon's Gardener's Magazine_, that +"white cats with blue eyes are always deaf," of which extraordinary fact +there is the following confirmation in the _Magazine of Natural +History_, No. 2, likewise conducted by Mr. Loudon:--"Some years ago a +white cat of the Persian kind (probably not a thorough-bred one) +procured from Lord Dudley's at Hindley, was kept in my family as a +favourite. The animal was a female, quite white, and perfectly deaf. She +produced, at various times, many litters of kittens, of which, +generally, some were quite white, others more or less mottled, tabby, +&c. But the extraordinary circumstance is, that of the offspring +produced at one and the same birth, such as, like the mother, were +entirely white, were, like her, invariably deaf; while those that had +the least speck of colour on their fur, as invariably possessed the +usual faculty of hearing--" _W. T. Bree, Allersley Rectory, near +Coventry_. + +_Ultramarine_. + +A French journal announces a discovery of the method of making +Ultramarine, by which means the public are supplied with the article at +one guinea per ounce, the colour having hitherto been sold from two +guineas to two pounds ten shillings per ounce. + +_Indication of Storms_. + +Professor Scott, of Sandhurst College, observed in Shetland, that +drinking-glasses placed in an inverted position upon a shelf in a +cupboard, on the ground floor of Belmont House, occasionally emitted +sounds as if they were tapped with a knife, or raised up a little, and +then let fall on the shelf. These sounds preceded wind, and when they +occurred, boats and vessels were immediately secured. The strength of +the sound is said to be proportional to the tempest that +follows.--_Brewster's Jour._ + +_To preserve Wine in draught._ + +M. Imery, of Toulouse, gives the following simple means of preserving +wine in draught for a considerable time; it is sufficient to pour into +the cask a flask of fine olive oil. The wine may thus continue in +draught for more than a year. The oil spread in a thin layer upon the +surface of the wine, hinders the evaporation of its alcoholic part, and +prevents it from combining with the atmospheric air, which would not +only turn the wine sour, but change its constituent parts. + +_Union of the Atlantic and Pacific._ + +A letter from Amsterdam states, that the project of cutting a canal, to +unite the Gulf of Mexico with the Pacific Ocean, is about to be revived. + +_Vesuvius._ + +An eruption took place on the morning of last March 22nd. An eye-witness +writes "the cone of the mountain puts you in mind of an immense piece of +artillery, firing red-hot stones, and ashes, and smoke into the +atmosphere; or, of a huge animal in pain, groaning;, crying, and +vomiting; or, like an immense whale in the arctic circle, blowing after +it has been struck with several harpoons." + +_Bees in Mourning._ + +A correspondent in _Loudon's Magazine of Natural History_, states that +in the neighbourhood of Coventry, there is a superstitious belief, that +in the event of the death of any of the family, it is necessary to +inform the bees of the circumstance, otherwise they will desert the +hive, and seek out other quarters. + +_Rare Insects._ + +There exists in Livonia, a very rare insect, which is not met with in +more northern countries, and whose existence was for a long time +considered doubtful, called the _Furia Infernalis._ It is so small that +it is very difficult to distinguish it by the naked eye; and its sting +produces a swelling, which, unless a proper remedy be applied, proves +mortal. + +During the hay harvest, other insects named _Meggar,_ occasion great +injury both to men and beasts. They are of the size of a grain of sand. +At sunset they appear in great numbers, descend in a perpendicular line, +pierce the strongest linen, and cause an itching, and pustules, which if +scratched, become dangerous. Cattle, which breathe these insects, are +attacked with swellings in the throat, which destroy them, unless +promptly relieved. + + * * * * * + +SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS + + * * * * * + +MEN AND MONKEYS. + +Monkeys are certainly, there is no denying it, very like men; and, what +is worse, men are still more like monkeys. Many worthy people, who have +a high respect for what they choose to call the Dignity of Human Nature, +are much distressed by this similitude, approaching in many cases to +absolute identity; and some of them have written books of considerable +erudition and ingenuity, to prove that a man is not a monkey; nay, not +so much as even an ape; but truth compels us to confess, that their +speculations have been far from carrying conviction to our minds. All +such inquirers, from Aristotle to Smellie, principally insist on two +great leading distinctions--speech and reason. But it is obvious to the +meanest capacity, that monkeys have both speech and reason. They have a +language of their own, which, though not so capacious as the Greek, is +much more so than the Hottentottish; and as for reason, no man of a +truly philosophical genius ever saw a monkey crack a nut, without +perceiving that the creature possesses that endowment, or faculty, in no +small perfection. Their speech, indeed, is said not to be articulate; +but it is audibly more so than the Gaelic. The words unquestionably do +run into each other, in a way that, to our ears, renders it rather +unintelligible; but it is contrary to all the rules of sound +philosophizing, to confuse the obtuseness of our own senses with the +want of any faculty in others; and they have just as good a right to +maintain, and to complain of, our inarticulate mode of speaking, as we +have of theirs--indeed much more--for monkeys speak the same, or nearly +the same, language all over the habitable globe, whereas men, ever since +the Tower of Babel, have kept chattering, muttering, humming, and +hawing, in divers ways and sundry manners, so that one nation is unable +to comprehend what another would be at, and the earth groans in vain +with vocabularies and dictionaries. That monkeys and men are one and the +same animal, we shall not take upon ourselves absolutely to assert, for +the truth is, we, for one or two, know nothing whatever about the +matter; all we mean to say is, that nobody has yet proved that they are +not, and farther, that whatever may be the case with men, monkeys have +reason and speech. + +The monkey has not had justice done him, we repeat and insist upon it; +for what right have you to judge of a whole people, from a few isolated +individuals,--and from a few isolated individuals, too, running up poles +with a chain round their waist, twenty times the length of their own +tail, or grinning in ones or twos through the bars of a cage in a +menagerie? His eyes are red with perpetual weeping--and his smile is +sardonic in captivity. His fur is mouldy and mangy, and he is manifestly +ashamed of his tail, prehensile no more--and of his paws, "very hands, +as you may say," miserable matches to his miserable feet. To know him as +he is, you must go to Senegal; or if that be too far off for a trip +during the summer vacation, to the Rock of Gebir, now called Gibraltar, +and see him at his gambols among the cliffs. Sailor nor slater would +have a chance with him there, standing on his head on a ledge of six +inches, five hundred feet above the level of the sea, without ever so +much as once tumbling down; or hanging at the same height from a bush by +the tail, to dry, or air, or sun himself, as if he were flower or fruit. +There he is, a monkey indeed; but you catch him young, clap a pair of +breeches on him, and an old red jacket, and oblige him to dance a +saraband on the stones of a street, or perch upon the shoulder of Bruin, +equally out of his natural element, which is a cave among the woods. +Here he is but the ape of a monkey. Now if we were to catch you young, +good subscriber or contributor, yourself, and put you into a cage to +crack nuts and pull ugly faces, although you might, from continued +practice, do both to perfection, at a shilling a-head for grown-up +ladies and gentlemen, and sixpence for children and servants, and even +at a lower rate after the collection had been some weeks in town, would +you not think it exceedingly hard to be judged of in that one of your +predicaments, not only individually, but nationally--that is, not only +as Ben Hoppus, your own name, but as John Bull, the name of the people +of which you are an incarcerated specimen? You would keep incessantly +crying out against this with angry vociferation, as a most unwarrantable +and unjust Test and Corporation Act. And, no doubt, were an +Ourang-outang to see you in such a situation, he would not only form a +most mean opinion of you as an individual, but go away with a most false +impression of the whole human race. _Blackwood's Magazine._ + + * * * * * + +SONNET WRITTEN IN THE SPRING. + +How heavenly o'er my frame steals the life-breath +Of beautiful Spring! who with her amorous gales +Kissing the violets, each stray sweet exhales +Of May-thorn, and the wild flower on the heath. +I love thee, virgin daughter of the year! +Yet, ah! not cups,--dyed like the dawn, impart +Their elves' dew-nectar to a fainting heart!-- +Ye birds! whose liquid warblings far and near +Make music to the green turf-board of swains; +To me, your light lays tell of April joy,-- +Of pleasures--idle, as a long-loved toy; +And while my heart in unison complains, +Tears like of balm-tree flow in trickling wave, +And white forms strew with flowers a maid's untimely grave! +_New Monthly Mag._ + + * * * * * + +THE KING OF ARRAGON'S LAMENT FOR HIS BROTHER.[1] + +"If I could see him, it were well with me!" +_Coleridge's Wallenstein._ + +There were lights and sounds of revelling in the vanquished city's halls, +As by night the feast of victory was held within its walls; +And the conquerors filled the wine-cup high, after years of bright blood shed: +But their Lord, the King of Arragon, 'midst the triumph, wailed the dead. + +He looked down from the fortress won, on the tents and towers below, +The moon-lit sea, the torch-lit streets--and a gloom came o'er his brow: +The voice of thousands floated up, with the horn and cymbals' tone; +But his heart, 'midst that proud music, felt more utterly alone. +And he cried, "Thou art mine, fair city! thou city of the sea! +But, oh! what portion of delight is mine at last in thee? +--I am lonely 'midst thy palaces, while the glad waves past them roll, +And the soft breath of thine orange-bowers is mournful to my soul. + +"My brother! oh! my brother! thou art gone, the true and brave, +And the haughty joy of victory hath died upon thy grave: +There are many round my throne to stand, and to march where I lead on; +There was _one_ to love me in the world--my brother! thou art gone! + +"In the desert, in the battle, in the ocean-tempest's wrath, +We stood together, side by side; one hope was our's--one path: +Thou hast wrapt me in thy soldier's cloak, thou hast fenced me with thy breast; +Thou hast watched beside my couch of pain--oh! bravest heart, and best! + +"I see the festive lights around--o'er a dull sad world they shine; +I hear the voice of victory--my Pedro where is _thine?_ +The only voice in whose kind tone my spirit found reply-- +Oh! brother! I have bought too dear this hollow pageantry! + +"I have hosts, and gallant fleets, to spread my glory and my sway, +And chiefs to lead them fearlessly--my _friend_ hath passed away! +For the kindly look, the word of cheer, my heart may thirst in vain, +And the face that was as light to mine--it cannot come again! + +"I have made thy blood, thy faithful blood, the offering for a crown; +With love, which earth bestows not twice, I have purchased cold renown: +How often will my weary heart 'midst the sounds of triumph die, +When I think of thee, my brother! thou flower of chivalry! + +"I am lonely--I am lonely! this rest is ev'n as death! +Let me hear again the ringing spears, and the battle-trumpet's breath; +Let me see the fiery charger's foam, and the royal banner wave-- +But where art thou, my brother?--where?--in thy low and early grave!" + +And louder swelled the songs of joy through that victorious night, +And faster flowed the red wine forth, by the stars and torches light; +But low and deep, amidst the mirth, was heard the conqueror's moan-- +"My brother! oh! my brother! best and bravest! thou art gone!" + +_Mrs. Hemans.--Monthly Magazine._ + + * * * * * + +A SUMMER TOUR. + +If called upon to propose any summer's journey for a young English +traveller, (and it is a call often made with reference to continental +tours,) we might reasonably suggest the coasts of Great Britain, as +affording every kind of various interest, which can by possibility be +desired. Such a scheme would include the ports and vast commercial +establishments of Liverpool, Bristol, Greenock, Leith, Newcastle, and +Hull; the great naval stations of Plymouth, Portsmouth, Chatham, and +Milford; the magnificent estuaries of the Clyde and Forth, and of the +Bristol Channel, not surpassed by any in Europe; the wild and romantic +coasts of the Hebrides and Western Highlands; the bold shore of North +Wales; the Menai, Conway, and Sunderland bridges; the gigantic works of +the Caledonian Canal and Plymouth Breakwater; and numerous other +objects, which it is beyond our purpose and power to enumerate. It +cannot be surely too much to advise, that Englishmen, who have only +slightly and partially seen these things, should subtract something from +the length or frequency of their continental journeys, and give the time +so gained to a survey of their own country's wonders of nature and art. + +To the agriculturist, and to the lover of rural scenery, England offers +much that is remarkable. The rich alluvial plains of continents may +throw out a more profuse exuberance and succession of crops; but we +doubt whether agriculture, as an art, has anywhere (except in Flanders +and Tuscany alone) reached the same perfection as in the less fertile +soils of the Lothians, Northumberland, and Norfolk. Still more peculiar +is the rural scenery of England, in the various and beautiful landscape +it affords--in the undulating surface--the greenness of the +enclosures--the hamlets and country churches--and the farm houses and +cottages dispersed over the face of the country, instead of being +congregated into villages, as in France and Italy. We might select +Devonshire, Somersetshire, Herefordshire, and others of the midland +counties, as pre-eminent in this character of beauty, which, however, is +too familiar to our daily observation to make it needful to expatiate +upon it. + +Nor will our limits allow us to dwell upon that bolder form of natural +scenery which we possess in the Highlands of Scotland, in Wales, +Cumberland, and Derbyshire, and which entitles us to speak of this +island as rich in landscape of the higher class. In the scale of +objects, it is true that no comparison can exist between the mountain +scenery of Britain, and that of many parts of the continent of Europe. +But it must be remembered, that magnitude is not essential to beauty; +and that even sublimity is not always to be measured by yards and feet. +A mountain may be loftier, or a lake longer and wider, without any gain +to that picturesque effect, which mainly depends on form, combination, +and colouring. Still we do not mean to claim in these points any sort of +equality with the Alps, Apennines, or Pyrenees; or to do more than +assert that, with the exception of these, the more magnificent memorials +of nature's workings on the globe, our own country possesses as large a +proportion of fine scenery as any part of the continent of Europe.--_Q. +Rev._ + + * * * * * + +Notes of a Reader + + * * * * * + +HERODOTUS. + +Perhaps few persons are aware how often they imitate this great +historian. Thus, says the _Edinburgh Review_, "Children and servants are +remarkably _Herodotean_ in their style of narration. They tell every +thing dramatically. Their _says hes_ and _says shes_ are proverbial. +Every person who has had to settle their disputes knows that, even when +they have no intention to deceive, their reports of conversation always +require to be carefully sifted. If an educated man were giving an +account of the late change of administration, he would say, 'Lord +Goderich resigned; and the king, in consequence, sent for the Duke of +Wellington.' A porter tells the story as if he had been behind the +curtains of the royal bed at Windsor: 'So Lord Goderich says, 'I cannot +manage this business; I must go out.' So the king, says he, 'Well, then, +I must send for the Duke of Wellington--that's all.' This is in the very +manner of the father of history." + + * * * * * + +SPLENDOUR OF THE CHURCH OF ROME. + +"In the days of her power and importance, the church of Rome numbered +amongst her vassals and servants the most renowned spirits of the earth. +She called them from obscurity to fame, and to all who laboured to +spread and sustain her influence, she became a benefactress. Her wealth +was immense, for she drew her revenue from the fear or superstition of +man, and her spirit was as magnificent as her power. The cathedrals +which she every where reared are yet the wonders of Europe for their +beauty and extent; and in her golden days, the priests who held rule +within them were, in wealth and strength, little less than princes. For +a time her treasure was wisely and munificently expended; and the works +she wrought, and the good deeds she performed, are her honour and our +shame. She spread a table to the hungry; she gave lodgings to the +houseless; welcomed the wanderer; and rich and poor, and learned and +illiterate, alike received shelter and hospitality. Under her roof the +scholar completed his education; the historian sought and found the +materials for his history; the minstrel chanted lays of mingled piety +and love for his loaf and raiment; the sculptor carved in wood, or cast +in silver, some popular saint; and the painter gave the immortality of +his colours to some new legend or miracle."--All who have visited the +cathedrals and churches of the continent, or who have studied their +history at home, must acknowledge the truth and force of these excellent +observations. They are copied from an ably-written article on the +History of Italian Painting, in the second number of the _Foreign +Review_. + + * * * * * + +Frederick the Great, in a letter to Voltaire, says, "I look on men as a +herd of deer in a great man's park, whose only business is to people the +enclosures."--This is one of the _great men_ of history. + + * * * * * + +POTATOES. + +A few years after the discovery, potatoes were carried to Spain at first +as sweetmeats and delicacies. Oviedo says that "they were a dainty dish +to set before the king," Labat describes potatoes a hundred years ago, +as cultivated in Western Africa, and says of them, "_Il y en a en +Irlande, et en Angleterre_," and that he had seen very good ones at +Rochelle. + + * * * * * + +PAINTING + +Represents nature, or poetic nature at the most, and, therefore, +addresses itself as much as poetry does to the feeling and imagination +of man. Though it deals in nature exalted by genius, embellished by art +and purified by taste, still it is nature, still it makes its appeal to +the men of this world, and by them it is applauded or condemned. It +works for men, and not for gods; therefore every man, as far as his +taste is natural and sound, is a judge of its productions.--_For. Rev._ + + * * * * * + +LAVER. + +Such of our readers as are not addicted to epicurism may have been +somewhat puzzled at the display of "_Fine Fresh Laver_" in the Italian +warehouses and provision shops of the metropolis. The truth is, laver is +a kind of reddish sea-weed, forming a jelly when boiled, which is eaten +by some of the poor people in Angus with bread instead of butter; but +which the rich have elevated into one of the greatest dainties of their +tables. In Scotland, laver is called _slake_; and Dr. Clarke mentions +that it is used with the fulmar to make a kind of broth, which +constitutes the first and principal meal of the inhabitants. It is +curious to know that what is eaten at a duchess's table in Piccadilly as +a first-rate luxury, is used by the poor people of Scotland twice or +thrice a day. It is an expensive dish; but knowledge of this fact may +perhaps abate its cost. + + * * * * * + +GARDENS. + +Ferdinand I. of Naples prided himself upon the variety and excellence of +the fruit produced in his royal gardens, one of which was called +Paradise. Duke Hercules, of Ferrara, had a garden celebrated for its +fruits in one of the islands of the Po. The Duke of Milan, Ludovico, +carried this kind of luxury so far, that he had a travelling +fruit-garden; and the trees were brought to his table, or into his +chamber, that he might with his own hands gather the living fruit. + + * * * * * + +SNUFF. + +Even among the rudest and poorest of the inhabitants of Scotland, and at +a period when their daily meal must have been always scanty, and +frequently precarious, one luxury seems to have established itself, +which has unaccountably found its way into every part of the world. We +mean tobacco. The inhabitants of Scotland, and especially of the +Highlands, are notorious for their fondness for snuff; and many were the +contrivances by which they formerly reduced the tobacco into powder. Dr. +Jamieson, the etymologist, defines a _mill_ to be the vulgar name for a +snuff-box, one especially of a cylindrical form, or resembling an +inverted cone. "No other name," says he, "was formerly in use. The +reason assigned for this designation is, that when tobacco was +introduced into this country, those who wished to have snuff were wont +to toast the leaves before the fire, and then bruise them with a bit of +wood in the box; which was therefore called a _mill_, from the snuff +being _ground_ in it." This, however, is said to be not quite correct; +the old snuff-machine being like a nutmeg-grater, which made snuff as +often as a pinch was required. + + * * * * * + +Estimating the population of London and its environs at 1,200,000, its +proportion of paupers would amount to 100,000! + + * * * * * + +SCOTCH LIVING. + +Roast meat was formerly seldom seen among farmers in Scotland; and is +even now rare, compared with its use among the same class in England. +Less than half a century ago, a _mart_ was regularly bought or fattened +by the most respectable farmers, and even by many citizens. This was a +cow or ox killed and salted at Martinmas for winter provision; a custom +which, though not uncommon in England, perhaps, one hundred years ago, +has certainly not been followed, except in remote and sequestered +districts, or by very old-fashioned farmers within that period. + + * * * * * + +Falstaff's "Buck-Basket" has puzzled the commentators; but Dr. Jamieson +thus explains it:--_Bouk_ is the Scotch word for a lye used to steep +foul linen in, before it is washed in water; the buckbasket, therefore, +is the basket employed to carry clothes, after they have been bouked, to +the washing-place. + + * * * * * + +PLEASURES OF EGYPT. + +Sweet are the songs of Egypt on paper. Who is not ravished with gums, +balms, dates, figs, pomegranates, circassia, and sycamores, without +recollecting that amidst these are dust, hot and fainting winds, bugs, +mosquitos, spiders, flies, leprosy, fevers, and almost universal +blindness.--_Ledyard's Travels._--The same writer also says the people +are poorly clad, the youths naked, and that they rank infinitely below +any savages he ever saw. + + * * * * * + +There cannot be a more ill-boding sign to a nation, than when the +people, to avoid hardships at home, are forced by heaps to forsake their +native country.--_Milton._ + + * * * * * + +TOBACCO. + +As the devil is a deceiver, and hath the knowledge of the virtue of +herbs, so he did show the virtue of this herb, that by the means thereof +they might see their imaginations and visions that he hath represented +unto them. + + * * * * * + +WHISKY. + +From official documents it appears that long previous to 1690, there had +been a distillery of _aqua vitae_, or whisky, on the lands of Farintosh, +belonging to Mr. Forbes, of Culloden. + + * * * * * + +TRAVELLING INCENTIVES. + +If there be a sudden accession of fortune, the earliest use of it is in +passing over to the continent; if misfortunes occur, the first +suggestion is that of seeking solace in another land. The assumption of +the _toga virilis_ by our youth, may be practically translated, the +putting on of the travelling cloak. Marriage, instead of being the means +of more extended family union, is the plea for immediate separation; and +the newly-married pair drive from the church to the packet-boat. If the +elders of a family are snatched away by death, the first idea which +occurs to their successors, is that of distant removal from home. +Sorrows are not endured, but fled from; and misfortune becomes the +signal for dispersion to those who survive it.--_Q. Rev._ + + * * * * * + +Christoval Acosta, speaking of the _pine-apple_, says that "no medicinal +virtues have been discovered in it, and it is good for nothing but to +eat." + + * * * * * + +SMOKING. + +Joshuah Silvester questioned whether the devil had done more harm in +latter ages by means of fire and smoke, through the invention of guns, +or of tobacco-pipes; and he conjectured that Satan introduced the +fashion, as a preparatory course of smoking for those who were to be +matriculated in his own college: + +As roguing Gipsies tan their little elves, +To make them tann'd and ugly, like themselves. + + * * * * * + +LAW + +Must be kept as a garden, with frequent digging, weeding, turning, &c., +for that which was in one age convenient, and, perhaps, necessary, +becomes in another prejudicial.--_Roger North._ + + + + +THE GATHERER. + +"A snapper-up of unconsidered trifles." +SHAKSPEARE + + * * * * * + +THE WIFE'S COMPLAINT. + +Havard, the actor, (better known from the urbanity of his manners, by +the familiar name of Billy Havard) had the misfortune to be married to a +most notorious shrew and drunkard. One day dining at Garrick's, he was +complaining of a violent pain in his side. Mrs. Garrick offered to +prescribe for him. "No, no," said her husband; "that will not do, my +dear; Billy has mistaken his disorder; his great _complaint lies in his +rib_." + + * * * * * + +HOW TO SECURE A COACH. + +A facetious friend of Dr. Kitchiner's, on a very wet night, after +several messengers, whom he had despatched for a coach, had returned +without obtaining one; at last, at "past one o'clock, and a rainy +morning," the wag walked himself to the next coach-stand, and politely +advised the waterman to mend his inside lining with a pint of beer, and +go home to bed; for said he, "there will be nothing for you to do to +night, I'll lay you a shilling that there's not a coach out." "Why, will +you, your honour? then done," cried Mr. Waterman; "but are you really +serious, 'cause, if so be as you be, I must make haste and go and get +one." Being assured he would certainly touch the twelvepenny if he did, +he trotted off on his "nag a ten toes," and in ten minutes returned with +a leathern conveyance. + + * * * * * + +Epicure Quin used to say, it was "not safe to sit down to a _Turtle +Feast_ at one of the City Halls, without a _basket-hilted knife and +fork_."--Another of his quips was, "Of all the banns of marriage I ever +heard, none gave me half such pleasure as the union of ANN-CHOVY with +good JOHN-DORY." + + * * * * * + +ONION SOUP + +Is thought highly restorative by the French. It is considered peculiarly +grateful, and gently stimulating to the stomach, after hard drinking or +night-watching, and holds among soups the place that champagne, +soda-water, or ginger-beer, does among liquors. + + * * * * * + +Lobsters and crabs are in season from March till October; so that they +supply the place of oysters, which come in about the time lobsters go +out of season. Lobsters are held in great esteem by gastrologers for the +firmness, purity, and flavour of their flesh. When they find refuge in +the rocky fastnesses of the deep from the rapacity of sharks and +fishermen, they sometimes attain an immense size, and have been found +from eighteen inches to upwards of two feet in length. Apicius, who +ought to be the patron saint of epicures, made a voyage to the coast of +Africa on hearing that lobsters of an unusually large size were to be +found there, and, after encountering much distress at sea, met with a +disappointment. Very large lobsters are at present found on the coasts +of Orkney. Some naturalists affirm (Olaus Magnus and Gesner,) that in +the Indian seas, and on the wild shores of Norway, lobsters have been +found twelve feet in length, and six in breadth, which seize mariners in +their terrible embrace, and, dragging them into their caverns, devour +them. However this may be, the lobsters and crabs for being devoured are +best when of the middle size, and when found on reefs or very rocky +shores. + + * * * * * + +THE INVISIBLE HAIR. + +A monk was showing the relics of his convent before a numerous assembly; +the most rare, in his opinion, was a hair of the Holy Virgin, which he +appeared to show to the people present, opening his hands as if he were +drawing it through them. A peasant approached with great curiosity, and +exclaimed, "but, reverend father, I see nothing." "Egad, I believe it" +replied the monk, "for I have shown the hair for twenty years, and have +not yet beheld it myself." + + * * * * * + +CURIOSITY CURED. + +A servant travelling, was bothered by a super-curious person, who, after +several indirect attempts to discover whence he came, or whither he was +going, at last popt the question plainly, "Are your family +_before_?"--"No."--"Oh! you left them _behind_, I suppose?"--"No" +"No?"--"No, they are on _one side_!" + + * * * * * + +TO GROW A SHOULDER OR LEG OF MUTTON. + +This art is well known to the London bakers. Have a very small leg or +shoulder; change it upon a customer for one a little larger, and that +upon another for one better still, till by the dinner hour you have a +heavy, excellent joint in lieu of your original small one. + + * * * * * + + +_Printed and Published by J. LIMBIRD, 143, Strand, London; sold by +ERNEST FLEISCHER, 626, New Market, Leipsic, and by all Newsmen and +Booksellers._ FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 1: The grief of Ferdinand, King of Arragon, for the loss of +his brother, Don Pedro, who was killed during the siege of Naples, is +affectingly described by the historian Mariana. It is also the subject +of one of the old Spanish ballads, in Lockhart's beautiful collection.] + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, +and Instruction, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE, *** + +***** This file should be named 10332.txt or 10332.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/3/3/10332/ + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Sjaani and PG Distributed Proofreaders + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS," WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Each eBook is in a subdirectory of the same number as the eBook's +eBook number, often in several formats including plain vanilla ASCII, +compressed (zipped), HTML and others. + +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks replace the old file and take over +the old filename and etext number. The replaced older file is renamed. +VERSIONS based on separate sources are treated as new eBooks receiving +new filenames and etext numbers. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + +EBooks posted prior to November 2003, with eBook numbers BELOW #10000, +are filed in directories based on their release date. If you want to +download any of these eBooks directly, rather than using the regular +search system you may utilize the following addresses and just +download by the etext year. + + http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext06 + + (Or /etext 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00, 99, + 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90) + +EBooks posted since November 2003, with etext numbers OVER #10000, are +filed in a different way. The year of a release date is no longer part +of the directory path. The path is based on the etext number (which is +identical to the filename). The path to the file is made up of single +digits corresponding to all but the last digit in the filename. For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: + https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL + + diff --git a/old/10332.zip b/old/10332.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..07adb84 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10332.zip |
