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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11458 ***
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustration.
+      See 11458-h.htm or 11458-h.zip:
+      (http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/1/1/4/5/11458/11458-h/11458-h.htm)
+      or
+      (http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/1/1/4/5/11458/11458-h.zip)
+
+
+
+
+THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION.
+
+VOL. 14, NO. 403.] SATURDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1829. [PRICE 2d.
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+Fall of the Staubbath.
+
+
+[Illustration: Fall of the Staubbath.]
+
+
+In the poet and the philosopher, the lover of the sublime, and the
+student of the beautiful in art--the contemplation of such a scene as
+this must awaken ecstatic feelings of admiration and awe. Its effect
+upon the mere man of the world, whose mind is clogged up with
+common-places of life, must be overwhelming as the torrent itself;
+perchance he soon recovers from the impression; but the lover of Nature,
+in her wonders, reads lessons of infinite wisdom, combined with all that
+is most fascinating to the mind of inquiring man. In the school of her
+philosophy, mountains, rivers, and falls not only astonish and delight
+him in their vast outlines and surfaces, but in their exhaustless
+varieties and transformations, he enjoys old and new worlds of
+knowledge, apart from the proud histories of man, and the comparative
+insignificance of all that he has laboured to produce on the face of the
+globe.
+
+Few have witnessed the _Staubbach_, or similar wonders without
+acknowledging the force of their impressions. This Fall is in the valley
+of Lauterbrun, the most picturesque district of Switzerland. Simond,[1]
+in describing its beauties, says, "we began to ascend the valley of
+Lauterbrun, by the side of its torrent (the Lutschine) among fragments
+of rocks, torn from the heights on both sides, and beautiful trees,
+shooting up with great luxuriance and in infinite variety; smooth
+pastures of the richest verdure, carpeted over every interval of plain
+ground; and the harmony of the sonorous cow-bell of the Alps, heard
+among the precipices above our heads and below us, told us we were not
+in a desart." "The ruins of the mineral world, apparently so durable,
+and yet in a state of incessant decomposition, form a striking contrast
+with the perennial youth of the vegetable world; each individual plant,
+so frail and perishable, while the species is eternal in the existing
+economy of nature. Imperceptible forests of timber scarcely tinge their
+inert masses of gneiss and granite, into which they anchor their roots;
+grappling with substances which, when struck with steel, tear up the
+tempered grain, and dash out the spark." This may be an enthusiastic,
+but is doubtless the faithful, impression of our tourist; and in
+descriptions of sublime nature, we should
+
+
+  Survey the whole; nor seek slight fault to find,
+  Where Nature moves, and rapture warms the mind.
+
+
+    [1] Switzerland; or a Journal of a Tour and Residence in that
+        country, in 1817, 1818, and 1819. By L. Simond, 2 vols. 8 vo.
+        Second Edit. 1823 Murray.
+
+
+Each valley has its appropriate stream, proportioned to its length, and
+the number of lateral valleys opening into it. The boisterous Lutschine
+is the stream of Lauterbrun, and it carries to the Lake of Brientz
+scarcely less water than the Aar itself. About half way between
+Interlaken and Lauterbrun, is the junction of the two Lutschines, the
+black and the white, from the different substances with which they have
+been in contact.
+
+Simond says, "after passing several falls of water, each of which we
+mistook for the Staubbach, we came at last to the house where we were to
+sleep. It had taken us three hours to come thus far; in twenty minutes
+more we reached the heap of rubbish accumulated by degrees at the foot
+of the Staubbach; its waters descending from the height of the
+Pletschberg, form in their course several mighty cataracts, and the last
+but one is said to be the finest; but is not readily accessible, nor
+seen at all from the valley. The fall of the Staubbach, about _eight
+hundred feet in height_, wholly detached from the rock, is reduced into
+vapour long before it reaches the ground; the water and the vapour
+undulating through the air with more grace and elegance than sublimity.
+While amusing ourselves with watching the singular appearance of rockets
+of water shooting down into the dense cloud of vapour below, we were
+joined by some country girls, who gave us a concert of three voices,
+pitched excessively high, and more like the vibrations of metal or glass
+than the human voice, but in perfect harmony, and although painful in
+some degree, yet very fine. In winter an immense accumulation of ice
+takes place at the foot of the Fall, sometimes as much as three hundred
+feet broad, with two enormous icy stalactites hanging down over it. When
+heat returns, the falling waters hollow out cavernous channels through
+the mass, the effect of which is said to be very fine; this, no doubt,
+is the proper season to see the Staubbach to most advantage." Six or
+eight miles further, the valley ends in glaciers scarcely practicable
+for chamois hunters. About forty years since some miners who belonged to
+the Valais, and were at work at Lauterbrun, undertook to cross over to
+their own country, simply to hear mass on a Sunday. They traversed the
+level top of the glacier in three hours; then descended, amidst the
+greatest dangers, its broken slope into the Valais, and returned the day
+after by the same way; but no one else has since ventured on the
+dangerous enterprise.
+
+Apart from the romantic attraction of the Fall, the broad-eaved chalet
+and its accessaries form a truly interesting picture of village
+simplicity and repose. Here you are deemed rich with a capital of three
+hundred pounds. All that is not made in the country, or of its growth,
+is deemed luxury: a silver chain here as at Berne, is transmitted from
+mother to daughter. Dwellings and barns covered with tiles, and windows
+with large panes of glass, give to the owner a reputation of wealth; and
+if the outside walls are adorned with paintings, and passages of
+Scripture are inscribed on the front of the house, the owner ranks at
+once among the aristocracy of the country. What an association of
+primitive happiness do these humble attributes and characteristics of
+Swiss scenery convey to the unambitious mind. Think of this, ye who
+regard palaces as symbols of true enjoyment! and ye who imprison
+yourselves in overgrown cities, and wear the silken fetters of wealth
+and pride!--an aristocrat of Lauterbrun eclipses all your splendour, and
+a poor Swiss cottager in his humble chalet, is richer than the
+wealthiest of you--for he is _content_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+PSALMODY.
+
+(_To the Editor of the Mirror_.)
+
+
+In my paper of the 22nd of August, on this subject, I promised to resume
+it on my next coming to London, which has been retarded by several
+causes.
+
+In visiting the Churches of All Souls, and Trinity, the psalmody is by
+no means to be praised. It is chiefly by the charity children, the
+singing (or rather noise) is in their usual way, and which will go on to
+the end of time, unless by the permission of the clergy, some
+intelligent instructors are allowed to lead as in the Chapel of St.
+James, near Mornington Place, in the Hampstead Road. The author of the
+paper on Music, in your publication of the 6th of September, very fairly
+puts the question, "Why are not the English a musical people?" and he
+shows many of the interrupting causes. It may happen, however, that by
+cultivating psalmody in our churches and chapels, considerable progress
+may be made. The young will be instructed, and the more advanced will
+_attend_, and we know the power of _attention_ (the only quality in
+which Sir Isaac Newton could be persuaded to believe he had any one
+advantage in intellect over his fellow men.)
+
+It is much to be regretted that the poetry in which our Episcopal Psalms
+and Hymns are sung, is confined to the versions of Sternhold and
+Hopkins, and of Tate and Brady. The poetry of Sternhold and Hopkins is
+in general uncouth with some few exceptions. Tate and Brady have made
+their versification somewhat more congenial with the modern improvements
+of our language; but each confines himself to the very literal language
+of the Old Testament; Sternhold and Hopkins in this respect have the
+advantage of their successors, Tate and Brady; for the translations of
+Sternhold and Hopkins are nearer to the original Hebrew.
+
+The main object of my hope is, that the version of the Psalms now in use
+may be altered, or rather improved, in such a manner as to manifest
+their prophetic and typical relation to Christianity, to which in their
+present form so little reference is to be perceived by those "who should
+read as they run." A change or improvement in this respect would give a
+more enlivening interest in Psalmody. Dr. Watts has done this with great
+truth and effect, and the singing in the churches and chapels in which
+his version is in whole or in part introduced, proceeds with a more
+Christian spirit: and a vast improvement has sprung from this source, in
+the sacred music of those churches and chapels.
+
+To illustrate this part of my paper, let me refer to the version
+employed in several of the new churches, and to the version of Dr.
+Watts, in the spiritual interpretation of the 4th Psalm. In the version
+first referred to, the words are--
+
+
+  The place of ancient sacrifice
+  Let _righteousness_ supply,
+  And let your hope securely fix'd
+  On Him alone rely.
+
+
+Now in this version it naturally occurs to inquire _what righteousness_?
+The high churchman will content himself that it is a literal
+translation; but the way-faring man sees nothing of the atoning
+righteousness of Christ in this translation; but which according to the
+11th article of the Church of England, he reasonably looks for. Even
+the Unitarians refer to this and other parts of our translation of the
+Hebrew Psalms, as a justification of THEIR main principle of the unity
+alone in the godhead.
+
+Dr. Watts, a genuine Christian, believing in the union of the Father,
+Son, and Spirit, and manifesting this pure faith to the end of a
+well-spent life, gives the Christian meaning of this righteousness, in
+his version of the 4th Psalm:
+
+
+  Know that the Lord divides his Saints
+  From all the tribes of men beside,
+  He hears the cry of penitents
+  For the dear sake of Christ who died.
+
+
+Here the true typical and prophetic meaning of the Old Testament is
+given.
+
+The version used by the English church in the 5th Psalm is subject to
+the same observation as on the 4th.
+
+The church version is
+
+
+  Thou in the morn shall hear my voice
+  And with the dawn of day,
+  To thee devoutly I look up,
+  To thee devoutly pray.
+
+
+Dr. Watts, who gives the Christian meaning of this Psalm, translates or
+paraphrases thus truly:--
+
+
+  Lord in the morning thou shall hear
+  My voice ascending high,
+  To thee will I direct my pray'r,
+  To thee lift up mine eye.
+  Up to the hills where Christ is gone
+  _To plead for all his Saints_,
+  Presenting at his father's throne,
+  Our songs and our complaints.
+
+
+Psalmody, or the singing of sacred music, conducted by such a gracious
+and animated sense of the revealed word of God, must naturally be
+performed, as it must be ardently felt, in a different spirit--and this
+truth we perceive daily verified; but while a considerable portion of
+our clergy not only are strict in confining the singing to the last
+_version_, or to parts of Sternhold, and even prescribe the very dull
+old _tunes_ to be made use of, improvement in church music is not to be
+expected. I have before me a list of tunes, to which the organists of
+our churches and episcopal chapels are limited in their playing; and,
+what is singular, three of the chief clergymen of the churches confess
+they literally have no ear for music, and are utter strangers to what an
+_octave_ means, and yet their _authority_ decides.
+
+It is not intended to enter into any polemical discussion, as
+controversy is not necessary to the improvement of psalmody; but less
+than has been stated would not have shown the advantage to be acquired
+by the use of a more Christian sense to those who rely on Christ as
+their Redeemer. We know, from experience, how agreeable it is to the
+mind and senses to hear the praises to the Almighty sung by the proper
+rules of harmony, and with what spiritual animation the upright and
+sincere youth of both sexes unite in this delightful service.
+
+With these views, I respectfully submit to the clergymen of the new
+churches to pursue the course which receives such universal approbation
+in St. James's Chapel, Mornington-place, Hampstead-road. The simplicity
+and effect must be strong motives to excite their attention, and I hope
+to witness its adoption.
+
+CHRISTIANUS.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+THE THIEF.
+
+(_For the Mirror_.)
+
+
+  I tell with equal truth and grief,
+  That little C--'s an arrant thief,
+  Before the urchin well could go,
+  She stole the whiteness of the snow.
+  And more--that whiteness to adorn,
+  She snatch'd the blushes of the morn;
+  Stole all the softness aether pours
+  On primrose buds in vernal show'rs.
+
+  There's no repeating all her wiles,
+  She stole the Graces' winning smiles;
+  'Twas quickly seen she robb'd the sky,
+  To plant a star in either eye;
+  She pilfer'd orient pearl for teeth,
+  And suck'd the cow's ambrosial breath;
+  The cherry steep'd in morning dew
+  Gave moisture to her lips and hue.
+
+  These were her infant spoils, a store
+  To which in time she added more;
+  At twelve she stole from Cyprus' Queen
+  Her air and love-commanding mien;
+  Stole _Juno's_ dignity, and stole
+  From _Pallas_ sense, to charm the soul;
+  She sung--amaz'd the Sirens heard
+  And to assert their voice appear'd.
+
+  She play'd, the Muses from their hill,
+  Marvell'd who thus had stole their skill;
+  _Apollo's_ wit was next her prey,
+  Her next the beam that lights the day;
+  While _Jove_ her pilferings to crown,
+  Pronounc'd these beauties all her own;
+  Pardon'd her crimes, and prais'd her art,
+  And t'other day she stole--my heart.
+
+  Cupid, if lovers are thy care,
+  Revenge thy vot'ry on this fair;
+  Do justice on her stolen charms,
+  And let her prison be--my arms.
+
+W.H.H.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+SHAKSPEARE.
+
+(_To the Editor of the Mirror_.)
+
+
+In the Drama entitled _Shakspeare's Early Days_, the compliment which
+the poet is made to pay the queen: "That as at her birth she wept when
+all around was joy, so at her death she will smile while all around is
+grief," has been admired by the critics. In this jewel-stealing age, it
+is but just to restore the little brilliant to its owner. The following
+lines are in Sir William Jones's Life, translated by him from one of the
+Eastern poets, and are so exquisitely beautiful that I think they will
+be acceptable to some of your fair readers for their albums.
+
+T.B.
+
+
+
+TO AN INFANT.
+
+
+  On parent's knees, a naked new-born child,
+  Weeping thou sat'st, while all around thee smil'd.
+  So live, that sinking to thy last long sleep,
+  Calm thou may'st smile, while all around thee--weep.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+THE RUINED WELL.
+
+(_For the Mirror_.)
+
+
+  The form of ages long gone by
+  Crowd thick on Fancy's wondering eye,
+  And wake the soul to musings high!
+
+J.T. WALTER.
+
+
+  Where are the lights that shone of yore
+    Around this haunted spring?
+  Do they upon some distant shore
+    Their holy lustre fling?
+  It was not thus when pilgrims came
+    To hymn beneath the night,
+  And dimly gleam'd the censor's flame
+    When stars and streams were bright.
+
+  What art thou--since five hundred years
+    Have o'er thy waters roll'd;
+  Since clouds have wept their crystal tears
+    From skies of beaming gold?
+  Thy rills receive the tint of heaven,
+    Which erst illum'd thy shrine;
+  And sweetest birds their songs have given,
+    For music more divine.
+
+  Beside thee hath the maiden kept
+    Her vigils pale and lone;
+  While darkly have her ringlets swept
+    The chapel's sculptur'd stone;
+  And when the vesper-hymn was sung
+    Around the warrior's bier,
+  With cross and banner o'er him hung,
+    What splendour crown'd thee here!
+
+  But a cloud has fall'n upon thy fame!
+    The woodman laves his brow,
+  Where shrouded monks and vestals came
+    With many a sacred vow;
+  And bluely gleams thy sainted spring
+    Beneath the sunny tree;
+  Then let no heart its sadness bring,
+    _When_ Nature is with thee.
+
+REGINALD AUGUSTINE.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+A Siamese Chief hearing an Englishman expatiate upon the magnitude of
+our navy, and afterwards that England was at peace, cooly observed, "If
+you are at peace with all the world, why do you keep up so great a
+navy?"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE SKETCH-BOOK.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+WRECK ON A CORAL REEF.
+
+(_To the Editor of the Mirror_.)
+
+
+I take the liberty of transmitting you an authentic, though somewhat
+concise, narrative of the loss of the Hon. Company's regular ship,
+"Cabalva," (on the Cargados, Carajos, in the Indian Seas, in latitude
+16° 45 s.) in July, 1818, no detailed account having hitherto appeared.
+The following was written by one of the surviving officers, in a letter
+to a friend.
+
+A CONSTANT READER.
+
+The Hon. Company's ship, Cabalva, having struck on the Owers, in the
+English Channel, and from that circumstance, proving leaky, and
+manifesting great weakness in her frame, it was thought advisable to
+bear up for Bombay in order to dock the ship. Meeting with a severe gale
+of wind off the Cape, (in which we made twenty inches of water per
+hour,) we parted from our consort, and shaped a course for Bombay; but
+on the 7th of July, between four and five A.M. (the weather dark and
+cloudy) the ship going seven or eight knots, an alarm was given of
+breakers on the larboard bow; the helm was instantly put hard-a-port,
+and the head sheets let go; but before it could have the desired effect,
+she struck; the shock was so violent, that every person was instantly on
+deck, with horror and amazement depicted on their countenances. An
+effort was made to get the ship off, but it was immediately seen that
+all endeavours to save her must be useless; she soon became fixed, and
+the sea broke over her with tremendous force; stove in her weather side,
+making a clear passage--washed through the hatchways, tearing up the
+decks, and all that opposed its violence.
+
+We were now uncertain of our distance from a place of safety; the surf
+burst over the vessel in a dreadful cascade, the crew despairing and
+clinging to her sides to avoid its violence, while the ship was breaking
+up with a rapidity and crashing noise, which added to the roaring of the
+breakers, drowned the voices of the officers. The masts were cut away to
+ease the ship, and the cutter cleared from the booms and launched from
+the lee-gunwale. When the long wished-for dawn at last broke on us,
+instead of alleviating, it rather added to, our distress. We found the
+ship had run on the south-easternmost extremity of a coral reef,
+surrounding on the eastern side those sand-banks or islands in the
+Indian ocean, called Cargados, Carajos: the nearest of these was about
+three miles distant, but not the least appearance of verdure could be
+discovered, or the slightest trace of anything on which we might hope to
+subsist. In two or three places some pyramidical rocks appeared above
+the rest like distant sails, and were repeatedly cheered as such by the
+crew, till it was soon perceived they had no motion, and the delusion
+vanished. The masts had fallen towards the reef, the ship having
+fortunately canted in that direction, and the boat was thereby protected
+in some measure from the surf. Our commander, whom a strong sense of
+misfortune had entirely deprived of mind so necessary on these
+occasions, was earnestly requested to get into the boat, but he would
+not, thinking her unsafe. He maintained his station on the mizen
+top-mast that lay among the wreck to leeward; the surf which was rushing
+round the bow and stern continually overwhelming him. I was myself close
+to him on the same spar, and in this situation we saw many of our
+shipmates meet an untimely end, being either dashed against the rocks or
+swept over by the breakers. The large cutter, full of officers and men,
+now cleared a passage through the mass of wreck, and being furnished
+with oars, watched the proper moment and pushed off for the reef, which
+she fortunately gained in safety; they were all washed out of her in an
+instant by a tremendous surf, yet out of more than sixty which it
+contained, only one man was drowned. Our captain seeing this, wished he
+had taken advice, which was now of no use. Finding I could not longer
+maintain myself on the same spar, and seeing the captain in a very
+exhausted state, I solicited him to return to the wreck, but he replied,
+that since we must all eventually perish, I should not think of his, but
+rather of my own, preservation. An enormous breaker now burst on us with
+irresistible force, so that I scarcely noticed what occurred to him
+afterwards, being buried by successive seas. At length, after the most
+desperate efforts, I was thrown on the reef, half drowned and severely
+cut by the sharp coral, when I silently offered up thanks for my
+preservation, and crawling up the reef, waved my hand to encourage those
+who remained behind.
+
+The captain, however, was not to be seen, and most of the others had
+returned to the wreck and were employed in getting the small cutter into
+the water, which they accomplished, and safely reached the shore. About
+noon, when we had all left the ship, she was a perfect wreck. The whole
+of the upper works, from the after part of the forecastle to the break
+of the poop deck, had separated from her bottom about the upper
+futtock-heads, and was driving in towards the reef. Most of the lighter
+cargo had floated out of her. Bales of company's cloth, cases of wine,
+puncheons of spirits, barrels of gunpowder, hogsheads of beer, &c. lay
+strewed on the shore, together with a chest of tools. Finding the men
+beginning to commit the usual excesses, we stove in the heads of the
+spirit casks, to prevent mischief, and endeavoured to direct their
+attention to the general benefit. The tide was flowing fast, and we saw
+that the reef must soon be covered; we therefore conveyed the boats to a
+place of safety, and filling them with all the provisions that could be
+collected, proceeded to the highest sand-bank as the only place which
+held out the remotest chance of security. Our progress was attended with
+the most excruciating pain I ever endured, with feet cut to the bones by
+the rocks, and back blistered by the sun--exhausted with fatigue--up to
+the waist--sometimes to the neck in the water, and frequently obliged
+to swim. Seeing, however, that several had reached the highest
+sand-bank, lighted a fire, and were employed in erecting a tent from the
+cloth and small spars which had floated up, I felt my spirits revive,
+and had strength sufficient to reach the desired spot, when I was
+invited to partake of a shark which had just been caught by the people.
+Having set a watch to announce the approach of the sea, lest it should
+cover us unawares, I sunk exhausted on the sand, and fell into a sound
+sleep. I awoke in the morning stiff with the exertions of the former
+day, yet feeling grateful to Providence that I was still alive.
+
+The people now collected together to ascertain who had perished, when
+sixteen were missing: the captain, surgeon's assistant, and fourteen of
+the crew. We divided the crew into parties, each headed by an officer;
+some were sent to the wreck and along the beach in search of provisions,
+others to roll up the hogsheads of beer, and butts of water that had
+floated on shore; but the greater number were employed in hauling the
+two cutters up, when the carpenters were directed to repair them.
+
+By the time it was dark, we had collected about eighty pieces of salt
+pork, ten hogsheads of beer, three butts of water, several bottles of
+wine, and many articles of use and value; particularly three sextants
+and a quadrant, Floresburg's _Directory_, and _Hamilton Moore_; the
+latter were deemed inestimable. In course of time four live pigs, and
+five live sheep, came on shore through the surf.
+
+We first began upon the dead stock, serving out two ounces to each, and
+half a pint of beer for the day. Nothing but brackish water could be
+obtained by digging in the sand. We collected all the provisions
+together near the tent, and formed a kind of storehouse, setting an
+officer to guard them from plunder, to which indeed some of the evil
+characters were disposed; but as they were threatened with instant death
+if detected, they were soon deterred. The second night was passed like
+the first, all being huddled together under one large tent; the more
+robust, however, soon began to build separate tents for themselves, and
+divided into messes, as on board. A staff was next erected, on which we
+hoisted a red flag, as a signal to any vessel which might be passing.
+Every morning, to each mess, was distributed the allowance of two ounces
+per man, and half a pint of beer; if they got any thing else, it was
+what they could catch by fishing, &c. Of fish, indeed, there was a great
+variety, but we had few facilities for catching them, so that upon the
+whole, we were no better than half-starved. The bank on which we lived,
+was in latitude 16° 45 s. and about two miles in circumference at low
+water; the high tides would sometimes leave us scarcely half a mile of
+sand, and often approached close to the tents; and if the wind had blown
+from the westward, or shifted only a few points, we must inevitably have
+been swept away, as an encampment of fishermen had been, a short time
+previous from the same spot; however, Providence was pleased to preserve
+us, one hundred and twenty in number, to return to our native country.
+
+On the 13th the largest boat was repaired, and the officers thought it
+advisable to despatch her for relief to the Isle of France, distant
+about four hundred miles. The superior officers finding it impossible to
+leave the crew, dedicated the charge of her to the purser. We furnished
+him with two sextants, a navigation book, sails, oars, and log line. Six
+officers and eight men, who perfectly understood the management of the
+boat, joined him. He was directed to run first into the latitude, and
+then bear up for the land. On the 17th he arrived at the Mauritius, and
+on the 20th returned by his Majesty's vessels, Magician and Challenger.
+On the 21st we were taken on board, after being sixteen days on this
+barren reef, suffering great distress in mind and body. We all received
+the most humane attention from the captains of his Majesty's vessels,
+and on the 28th, we reached the Mauritius whence I returned to England.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+MANNERS & CUSTOMS OF ALL NATIONS.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+SINGING OF PSALMS.
+
+
+This has been a very ancient custom both among the Jews and Christians.
+St. Paul mentions this practice, which has continued in all succeeding
+ages, with some variations as to mode and circumstance; for so long as
+immediate inspiration lasted, the preacher, &c. frequently gave out a
+hymn; and when this ceased, proper portions of scripture were selected,
+or agreeable hymns thereto composed; but by the council of Laodicea, it
+was ordered that no private composition should be used in church; the
+council also ordered that the psalms should no longer be one continued
+service, but that proper lessons should be interposed to prevent the
+people being tired. At first the whole congregation bore a part, singing
+all together; afterwards the manner was altered, and they sung
+alternately, some repeating one verse, and some another. After the
+emperors became Christians, and persecution ceased, singing grew much
+more into use, so that not only in the churches but also in private
+houses, the ancient music not being quite lost, they diversified into
+various sorts of harmony, and altered into soft, strong, gay, sad,
+grave, or passionate, &c. Choice was always made of that which agreed
+with the majesty and purity of religion, avoiding soft and effeminate
+airs; in some churches they ordered the psalms to be pronounced with so
+small an alteration of voice, that it was little more than plain
+speaking, like the reading of psalms in our cathedrals, &c. at this day;
+but in process of time, instrumental music was introduced first amongst
+the Greeks.
+
+Pope Gregory the Great refined upon the church music and made it more
+exact and harmonious; and that it might be general, he established
+singing schools at Rome, wherein persons were educated to be sent to the
+distant churches, and where it has remained ever since; only among the
+reformed there are various ways of performing, and even in the same
+church, particularly that of England, in which parish churches differ
+much from cathedrals; but most dissenters comply with this part of
+worship in some form or other.
+
+HALBERT H.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+SKIMINGTON RIDING.
+
+(_To the Editor of the Mirror_.)
+
+
+Having noticed a description of an exhibition called "Skimington
+Riding," in the present volume of the MIRROR, and your correspondent
+being at a loss for the origin of such a title, allow me to observe,
+that it appears to me that it originated from a skimmer being always
+used (as I have heard from very good authority it is) as the leading
+instrument towards making the various sounds usual on such occasions. I
+think it, therefore, very probable it took its rise from the utensil
+skimmer, and would be more properly called Skimmerting Riding.
+
+_Dorset_
+
+FELIX.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+RECONCILIATION.
+
+
+At Lynn Regis, Norfolk, on every first Monday of the month, the mayor,
+aldermen, magistrates, and preachers, meet to hear and determine
+controversies between the inhabitants in an amicable manner, to prevent
+lawsuits. This custom was first established in 1583, and is called the
+Feast of Reconciliation.
+
+HALBERT H.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+ANCIENT SUPERSTITION RESPECTING FELLING OAKS.
+
+
+In the _Magna Britannia_, the author in his _Account of the Hundred of
+Croydon_, says, "Our historians take notice of two things in this
+parish, which may not be convenient to us to omit, viz. a great wood
+called Norwood, belonging to the archbishops, wherein was anciently a
+tree called the vicar's oak, where four parishes met, as it were in a
+point. It is said to have consisted wholly of oaks, and among them was
+one that bore mistletoe, which some persons were so hardy as to cut for
+the gain of selling it to the apothecaries of London, leaving a branch
+of it to sprout out; but they proved unfortunate after it, for one of
+them fell lame, and others lost an eye. At length in the year 1678, a
+certain man, notwithstanding he was warned against it, upon the account
+of what the others had suffered, adventured to cut the tree down, and he
+soon after broke his leg. To fell oaks hath long been counted fatal, and
+such as believe it produce the instance of the Earl of Winchelsea, who
+having felled a curious grove of oaks, soon after found his countess
+dead in her bed suddenly, and his eldest son, the Lord Maidstone, was
+killed at sea by a cannon ball."
+
+P.T.W.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+THE MODERN GREEKS
+
+
+Have preserved dances in honour of Flora. The wives and maidens of the
+village gather and scatter flowers, and bedeck themselves from head to
+foot. She who leads the dance, more ornamented than the others,
+represents Flora and the Spring, whose return the hymn they sing
+announces; one of them sings--
+
+
+  "Welcome sweet nymph,
+  Goddess of the month of May."
+
+
+In the Grecian villages, and among the Bulgarians, they still observe
+the feast of Ceres. When harvest is almost ripe, they go dancing to the
+sound of the lyre, and visit the fields, whence they return with their
+heads ornamented with wheat ears, interwoven with the hair. Embroidering
+is the occupation of the Grecian women; to the Greeks we owe this art,
+which is exceedingly ancient among them, and has been carried to the
+highest degree of perfection. Enter the chamber of a Grecian girl, and
+you will see blinds at the window, and no other furniture than a sofa,
+and a chest inlaid with ivory, in which are kept silk, needles, and
+articles for embroidery. Apologues, tales, and romances, owe their
+origin to Greece. The modern Greeks love tales and fables, and have
+received them from the Orientals and Arabs, with as much eagerness as
+they formerly adopted them from the Egyptians. The old women love always
+to relate, and the young pique themselves on repeating those they have
+learnt, or can make, from such incidents as happen within their
+knowledge. The Greeks at present have no fixed time for the celebration
+of marriages, like the ancients; among whom the ceremony was performed
+in the month of January. Formerly the bride was bought by real services
+done to the father; which was afterwards reduced to presents, and to
+this time the custom is continued, though the presents are arbitrary.
+The man is not obliged to purchase the woman he marries, but, on the
+contrary, receives a portion with her equal to her condition. It is on
+the famous shield of Achilles that Homer has described a marriage
+procession--
+
+
+  Here sacred pomp and genial feast delight,
+  And solemn dance and hymeneal rite.
+  Along the streets the new made bride is led,
+  With torches flaming to the nuptial bed;
+  The youthful dancers in a circle bound
+  To the saft lute and cittern's silver sound,
+  Through the fair streets the matrons in a row,
+  Stand in their porches, and enjoy the show.
+
+POPE.
+
+
+The same pomp, procession, and music, are still in use. Dancers,
+musicians, and singers, who chant the Epithalamium, go before the bride;
+loaded with ornaments, her eyes downcast, and herself sustained by
+women, or two near relations, she walks extremely slow. Formerly the
+bride wore a red or yellow veil. The Arminians do so still; this was to
+hide the blush of modesty, the embarrassment, and the tears of the young
+virgin. The bright torch of Hymen is not forgotten among the modern
+Greeks. It is carried before the new married couple into the nuptial
+chamber, where it burns till it is consumed, and it would be an ill omen
+were it by any accident extinguished, wherefore it is watched with as
+much care as of old was the sacred fire of the vestals. Arrived at the
+church, the bride and bridegroom each wear a crown, which, during the
+ceremony, the priest changes, by giving the crown of the bridegroom to
+the bride, and that of the bride to the bridegroom, which custom is also
+derived from the ancients.
+
+I must not forget an essential ceremony which the Greeks have preserved,
+which is the cup of wine given to the bridegroom as a token of adoption;
+it was the symbol of contract and alliance. The bride drank from the
+same cup, which afterwards passed round to the relations and guests.
+They dance and sing all night, but the companions of the bride are
+excluded--they feast among themselves in separate apartments, far from
+the tumult of the nuptials. The modern Greeks, like the ancient, on the
+nuptial day, decorate their doors with green branches and garlands of
+flowers.
+
+W.G.C.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+THE KING'S COCK CROWER.
+
+
+Among the customs which formerly prevailed in this country during the
+season of Lent, was the following:--An officer denominated the King's
+Cock Crower, crowed the hour each night, within the precincts of the
+palace, instead of proclaiming it in the manner of the late watchmen.
+This absurd ceremony did not fall into disuse till the reign of
+George I.
+
+C.J.T.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+HERRINGS.
+
+
+Yarmouth is bound by its charter, to send to the Sheriffs of Norwich a
+tribute of one hundred herrings, baked in twenty-four pasties, which
+they ought to deliver to the Lord of the Manor of East Charlton, and he
+is obliged to present them to the King wherever he is. Is not this a
+dainty dish to set before the King?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+CURING A SCOLD.
+
+
+Newcastle-Under-Line was once famous for a peculiar method of taming
+shrews: this was by putting a bridle into the scold's mouth, in such a
+manner as quite to deprive her of speech for the time, and so leading
+her about the town till she made signs of her intention to keep her
+tongue in better discipline for the future.
+
+HALBERT H.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE SELECTOR, AND LITERARY NOTICES OF NEW WORKS.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+PICTURE OF SHEFFIELD.
+
+_Sir Richard Phillips's Personal Tour, Part III_.
+
+
+Our extracts from the previous portion of this work, have forcibly
+illustrated the striking originality of its style, and the interesting
+character of its information.
+
+The present Part concludes Newstead, and includes Mansfield,
+Chesterfield, Dronfield, Sheffield, Rotherham, and Barnsley; and from it
+we extract the following facts, which almost form a _picture of
+Sheffield_.[2]
+
+    [2] The utility of such a Tour as the present is greater than may
+        appear at first sight. Londoners are so absorbed with the wealth
+        and importance of their own city, as to form but very erroneous
+        notions of the extent and consequence of the large towns of the
+        empire--as Liverpool, Manchester, &c.; find those who live in
+        small country towns are as far removed from opportunities of
+        improvement. The _social economy_ of different districts is
+        therefore important to both parties.
+
+
+"The drive from Dronfield to Sheffield is pleasant and picturesque. It
+is the dawn of a region of high hills, a fine range of which stretch
+westward into Derbyshire, while on every side there are lofty eminences
+and deep valleys. Sheffield opens magnificently on the right, and its
+villas and ornamented suburbs stretch full two miles on the eminences to
+the left. At two or three miles from Sheffield, the western suburbs
+display a rich and pleasing variety of villas and country-houses. On the
+left, the Dore-moors, a ridge of barren hills, stretch to an indefinite
+distance: and on the right, some high hills skreen from sight the town
+of Sheffield. At a mile distant, the view to the right opens, and from a
+rise in the road is beheld the fine amphitheatre of Sheffield; the sun
+displaying its entire extent, and the town being surmounted by fine
+hills in the rear. The wind carried the smoke to the east of the town,
+and the sun in the meridian presented as fine a _coup d'oeil_ as can be
+conceived. The approach was by a broad and well-built street, the
+population were in activity, and I entered a celebrated place with many
+agreeable expectations.
+
+"Sheffield is within the bounds of Yorkshire, but on the verge of
+Derbyshire, and was the most remarkable place and society of human
+beings which I had yet seen. It stands in one of the most picturesque
+situations that can be imagined, originally at the south end of a valley
+surrounded by high hills, but now extended around the western hill; the
+first as a compact town, and the latter as scattered villas and houses
+on the same hill, to the distance of two miles from the ancient site. It
+is connected with London by Nottingham and Derby, and distant from Leeds
+33 miles, and York 54 miles. Its foundation was at the junction of two
+rivers, the Sheaf and the Don; in the angle formed by which once stood
+the Castle, built by the, Barons Furnival, Lords of Hallamshire; but
+subsequently in the tenure of the Talbots, Earls of Shrewsbury. Three or
+four miles from this Castle, on the western hill, stood the Saxon town
+of _Hallam_, said to have been destroyed by the Norman invaders, on
+account of their gallant opposition.
+
+"The town was originally a mere village, dependant on the Castle; but
+its mineral and subterranean wealth led the early inhabitants to become
+manufacturers of edged tools, of which arrow heads, spear heads, &c. are
+presumed to have been a considerable part; a bundle of arrows being at
+this day in the town arms, and cross arrows the badge of the ancient
+Cutlers' Company of Sheffield.
+
+"The exhaustless coal seams and iron-stone beds in the vicinity,
+combined with the ingenuity of the people, conferred early fame on their
+products; for Chaucer, in alluding to a knife, calls it 'a Sheffield
+thwittel,'--whittle being among the manufacturers at this day the name
+of a common kind of knife. The increasing demand for articles of
+cutlery, and their multiplied variety have gradually enlarged the
+population of Sheffield to 42,157 in 1821; since which it has
+considerably increased, and may, in 1829, be estimated at 50,000. In
+1821, it contained 8,726 houses, and perhaps 500 have been built since,
+chiefly villas to the westward, while the compact town is about one mile
+by half a mile. The principal streets are well built, and there are
+three old churches, and two new ones lately finished, besides another
+now building.
+
+"Sheffield presents at this time the extraordinary spectacle of an
+immense town expanded from a village, without any additional
+arrangements for its government beyond what it originally possessed as a
+village. There is no corporation, not even a resident magistrate, and
+yet all live in peace, decorum, and advantageous mutual intercourse."
+
+
+_Religion._
+
+"Order is a moral result of religion in Sheffield. No town in the
+kingdom more universally exhibits the external forms of devotion, and in
+none are there perhaps a greater number of serious devotees. The largest
+erections in Sheffield are those for the service of religion, and they
+are numerous. Besides six old and new churches, adapted to accommodate
+from 10,000 to 12,000 persons, there are seventeen chapels for the
+various denominations of Dissenters, capable of affording sitting room
+for 12,000 or 15,000 more. Except the Unitarian Chapel, and perhaps the
+Catholic one, the doctrines preached in all the others, are what, in
+London, and at Oxford and Cambridge, would generally be called _Ultra_.
+
+"A spectacle highly characteristic of Sheffield, and exemplifying, at
+the same time the harmony of the several sects, is the juxtaposition of
+four several chapels, observable on one side of a main street; while
+nearly adjoining is the church of St. Paul. There are thus every Sunday,
+in simultaneous local devotion, the ceremonial Catholics, the moral
+Unitarians, the metaphysical Calvinists, the serious disciples of John
+Wesley, and the spiritual members of the establishment.
+
+"The whole of the places of worship afford accommodation for about
+12,000 Methodists and Dissenters, and about 9,500 of the Church
+Establishment. So that, if half go twice a day, and half once, 30,000 of
+the 50,000 inhabitants attend places of worship every Sunday."
+
+
+_Public Institutions._
+
+"There are the following institutions for the promotion of knowledge and
+science:--
+
+"1. A Permanent Library supported by the subscriptions of 270 members at
+one guinea each, and four guineas admission. The books are numerous;
+but, contrary to the practice of other similar institutions, books of
+Theology, and the trash of modern Novels, are introduced.
+
+"2. A Literary and Philosophical Society for lectures, and the purchase
+of apparatus, now very complete, supported by 80 proprietors, at two
+guineas, besides a still greater number of subscribers at one guinea per
+annum.
+
+"3. Two News-rooms, in which the London and Provincial papers may be
+read.
+
+"4. A Public Concert, supported by subscriptions, which amount to £700
+per annum, and of which Mr. Fritch, from Derby, is the present leader.
+
+"5. A Subscription Assembly held through the winter, but ill supported.
+
+"6. A Shakspeare Club, for sustaining the drama, consisting of 80
+members, who subscribe a guinea per annum, once a-year bespeak a play,
+and partake of a dinner, to which the sons of Thespis are invited.
+
+"7. An Infirmary on a large scale, and munificently supported.
+
+"8. Two Schools, in which sixty boys and sixty girls are clothed, fed,
+and educated.
+
+"9. A Lancasterian and a National School well supported, and numerously
+attended.
+
+"10. Sunday Schools attached to the twenty-three congregations, besides
+others.
+
+"11. A Society for Bettering the Condition of the Poor, in much
+activity.
+
+"12. Dorcas' Societies, connected with the churches and chapels, to
+assist poor married women during child-birth.
+
+"13. A Bible Society on the usual plan.
+
+"14. Two Medical and Anatomical Schools.
+
+"15. A thriving Mechanics' Library.
+
+"Several of these institutions rendezvous in a spacious building called
+the Music Hall. The concerts are given in the upper room, a suitable
+saloon; and beneath are the Subscription Library, the Commercial
+News-room, and the Museum of the Literary and Philosophical Society."
+
+
+_Manufactures._
+
+"The staple manufactures of Sheffield embrace the metallic arts in all
+their varieties. The chief articles are sharp instruments, as knives,
+scissors, razors, saws, and edge-tools of various kinds, and to these
+may be added, files and plated goods to a great extent, besides
+stove-grates and fenders of exquisite beauty. It is altogether performed
+by hand, therefore the fabrication may always be rendered correspondent
+with the demand, and may be arrested when the demand ceases. This
+confers a definite advantage on the manufactory, not enjoyed by other
+trades which operate in the large way. The result is mediocrity of
+wealth, and little ruinous speculation. At the same time, the sanguine
+expectations of manufacturers often lead them to overstock themselves,
+and as the demand has been, so they expect it always to be.
+
+"Sheffield employs about 15,000 persons in its various branches, and of
+these full one-third are engaged on knives and forks, pocket-knives,
+razors, and scissors. The rest are engaged in the plated trades, in
+saws, files, and some fancy trades. The following is an exact
+enumeration of the hands employed in the various departments two or
+three years since:--
+
+
+ "On table-knives                2,240
+  On spring-knives               2,190
+  On razors                        478
+  On scissors                      806
+  On files                       1,284
+  On saws                          400
+  On edge-tools                    541
+  On forks                         480
+    In the country                 130
+    In the plated trade nearly   2,000
+                                ______
+                       "About   10,549
+
+
+"Besides those who are employed in Britannia-metal ware, smelting,
+optical instruments, grinding, polishing, &c. &c., making full 5,000
+more.
+
+"There are full 1,700 forges engaged in the various branches of the
+trades, and of course as many fires, fixing oxygen to make their heat,
+and evolving the undecomposed carbon in active volumes of steam and
+smoke.
+
+"The place is usually described as smoky, but I thought it less so than
+the central parts of London. The manufactures, for the most part, are
+carried on in an unostentatious way, in small scattered shops, and no
+where make the noise and bustle of a single great iron works. Compared
+with them Sheffield is a seat of elegant arts, nevertheless compared
+with the cotton and silk trades, it must be regarded as dirty and smoky.
+
+"The steel and plated manufactures require much taste, and in some cases
+make a great display. Hence there were exhibitions of elegant products,
+not exceeded in the Palais Royal, or any other place abroad, and
+superior to any of the cutlers' shops in London. All that the lustre of
+steel ware and silver plate can produce, is, in Sheffield, exhibited in
+splendid arrangement, in the warerooms of some of the principal
+manufacturers. In particular Messrs. J. Rodgers and Sons, cutlers to his
+Majesty, display in a magnificent saloon, all the multiplied elegant
+products of their own most ingenious manufactory.
+
+"As proofs of their power of manufacturing, Messrs. Rodgers have, in
+their show-rooms the most extraordinary products of highly finished
+manufacture which are to be seen in the world. Among them are the
+following:--
+
+"1. An arrangement in a Maltese cross about 18 inches high, and 10
+inches broad, which developes 1,821 blades and different instruments;
+worthy of a royal cabinet, but in the best situation in the place which
+produced it.
+
+"2. A knife which unfolds 200 blades for various purposes, matchless in
+workmanship, and a wonderful display of ingenuity. Its counterpart was
+presented to the King; and that in possession of Messrs. Rodgers, is
+offered at 200 guineas, and is worthy of some imperial cabinet.
+
+"3. A knife containing 75 blades, not a mere curiosity, but a package of
+instruments of real utility in the compass of a knife 4 inches long, 3
+inches high, and 1-1/4 inches broad. It is valued at 50 guineas.
+
+"4. A miniature knife, enfolding 75 articles, which weigh but 7 dwts.,
+exquisitely wrought and valued at 50 guineas.
+
+"5. A common quill, containing 24 dozen of scissors, perfect in form,
+and made of polished steel.
+
+"These are kept as trophies of skill, in the perfect execution of which,
+the manufacturer considers that he displays his power of producing any
+useful articles of which the Sheffield manufacture consists. Mr. Rodgers
+obligingly conducted me through his various workshops, and I discovered
+that the perfection of the Sheffield manufacture arises from the
+judicious division of labour. I saw knives, razors, &c. &c., produced in
+a few minutes from the raw material. I saw dinner knives made from the
+steel bar and all the process of hammering it into form, welding the
+tang of the handle to the steel of the blade, hardening the metal by
+cooling it in water and tempering it by de-carbonizing it in the fire
+with a rapidity and facility that were astonishing.
+
+"The number of hands through which a common table knife passes in its
+formation is worthy of being known to all who use them. The bar steel is
+heated in the forge by _the maker_, and he and _the striker_ reduce it
+in a few minutes into the shape of a knife. He then heats a bar of iron
+and welds it to the steel so as to form the tang of the blade which goes
+into the handle. All this is done with the simplest tools and
+contrivances. A few strokes of the hammer in connexion with some
+trifling moulds and measures, attached to the anvil, perfect, in two or
+three minutes the blade and its tang or shank. Two men, the maker and
+striker, produce about nine blades in an hour, or seven dozen and a half
+per day.
+
+"The rough blade thus produced then passes through the hands of _the
+filer_, who files the blade into form by means of a pattern in hard
+steel. It then goes to the halters to be hafted in ivory, horn, &c. as
+may be required; it next proceeds to the finisher, to Mr. Rodgers for
+examination, and is then packed for sale or exportation. In this
+progression every table-knife, pocket-knife, or pen-knife, passes step
+by step, through no less than sixteen hands, involving in the language
+of Mr. Rodgers, at least 144 separate stages of workmanship in the
+production of a single pen-knife. The prices vary from 2_s_. 6_d_. per
+dozen knives and forks, to £10."
+
+(_To be concluded in our next_.)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+FUN.
+
+
+Monosyllables are always expressive, but seldom more comprehensive than
+in this instance. A thousand recollections of urchin waggeries spring up
+at its repetition. Our present example is "_Skying a Copper_," from Mr.
+Hood's _Comic Annual_, of which a copious notice will be found in the
+SUPPLEMENT published with the present number.
+
+
+A REPORT FROM BELOW!
+
+"Blow high, blow low."--_Sea Song_.
+
+
+  As Mister B. and Mrs. B.
+  One night were sitting down to tea,
+  With toast and muffins hot--
+  They heard a loud and sudden bounce,
+  That made the very china flounce,
+  They could not for a time pronounce
+  If they were safe or shot--
+  For memory brought a deed to match
+  At Deptford done by night--
+  Before one eye appear'd a Patch
+  In t'other eye a Blight!
+
+  To be belabour'd out of life,
+  Without some small attempt at strife,
+  Our nature will not grovel;
+  One impulse mov'd both man and dame,
+  He seized the tongs--she did the same,
+  Leaving the ruffian, if he came,
+  The poker and the shovel.
+  Suppose the couple standing so,
+  When rushing footsteps from below
+  Made pulses fast and fervent;
+  And first burst in the frantic cat,
+  All steaming like a brewer's rat,
+  And then--as white as my cravat--
+  Poor Mary May, the servant!
+
+  Lord how the couple's teeth did chatter,
+  Master and Mistress both flew at her,
+  "Speak! Fire? or Murder? What's the matter?"
+  Till Mary getting breath,
+  Upon her tale began to touch
+  With rapid tongue, full trotting, such
+  As if she thought she had too much
+  To tell before her death:--
+
+  "We was both, Ma'am, in the wash-house, Ma'am, a-standing at our tubs,
+  And Mrs. Round was seconding what little things I rubs;
+  'Mary,' says she to me, 'I say'--and there she stops for coughin,
+  'That dratted copper flue has took to smokin very often,
+  But please the pigs,'--for that's her way of swearing in a passion,
+  'I'll blow it up, and not be set a coughin in this fashion!'
+  Well down she takes my master's horn--I mean his horn for loading.
+  And empties every grain alive for to set the flue exploding.
+  'Lawk, Mrs. Round?' says I, and stares, 'that quantum is unproper,
+  I'm sartin sure it can't not take a pound to sky a copper;
+  You'll powder both our heads off, so I tells you, with its puff,
+  But she only dried her fingers, and she takes a pinch of snuff.'
+  Well, when the pinch is over--'Teach your Grandmother to suck
+  A powder horn,' says she--Well, says I, I wish you luck.
+  Them words sets up her back, so with her hands upon her hips,
+  'Come,' says she, quite in a huff, 'come keep your tongue inside your lips;
+  Afore ever you was born, I was well used to things like these;
+  I shall put it in the grate, and let it burn up by degrees.'
+  So in it goes, and Bounce--O Lord! it gives us such a rattle,
+  I thought we both were cannonized, like Sogers in a battle!
+  Up goes the copper like a squib, and us on both our backs,
+  And bless the tubs, they bundled off, and split all into cracks
+  Well, there I fainted dead away, and might have been cut shorter,
+  But Providence was kind, and brought me to with scalding water
+  I first looks round for Mrs. Round, and sees her at a distance,
+  As stiff as starch, and looked as dead as any thing in existence;
+  All scorched and grimed, and more than that, I sees the copper slap
+  Right on her head, for all the world like a percussion copper cap.
+  Well, I crooks her little fingers, and crumps them well up together,
+  As humanity pints out, and burnt her nostrums with a feather;
+  But for all as I can do, to restore her to her mortality,
+  She never gives a sign of a return to sensuality.
+  Thinks I, well there she lies, as dead as my own late departed mother,
+  Well, she'll wash no more in this world, whatever she does in t'other.
+  So I gives myself to scramble up the linens for a minute,
+  Lawk, sich a shirt! thinks I, it's well my master wasn't in it;
+  Oh! I never, never, never, never, never, see a sight so shockin;
+  Here lays a leg, and there a leg--I mean, you know, a stockin--
+  Bodies all slit and torn to rags, and many a tattered skirt,
+  And arms burnt off and sides and backs all scotched and black with dirt;
+  But as nobody was in 'em--none but--nobody was hurt!
+  Well, there I am, a scrambling up the things, all in a lump.
+  When, mercy on us! such a groan as makes my heart to jump.
+  And there she is, a-lying with a crazy sort of eye,
+  A staring at the wash-house roof, laid open to the sky:
+  Then she beckons with a finger, and so down to her I reaches,
+  And puts my ear agin her mouth to hear her dying speeches,
+  For, poor soul! she has a husband and young orphans, as I knew;
+  Well, Ma'am, you won't believe it, but it's Gospel fact and true,
+  But these words is all she whispered--'Why, where _is_ the powder blew'"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE NATURALIST.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+MODE OF DESTROYING EAGLES.
+
+
+In those parts of the Highlands of Scotland where eagles are numerous,
+and where they commit great ravages among the young lambs, the following
+methods are used for destroying them:--When the nest happens to be in a
+place situated in the direction of a perpendicular from the edge of a
+cliff above, a bundle of dry heath or grass inclosing a burning peat is
+let down into it. In other cases, a person is let down by means of a
+rope, which is held above by four or five men, and contrives to destroy
+the eggs or young. The person who thus descends takes a large stick with
+him, to beat off or intimidate the old eagles. The latter, however,
+always keep at a respectable distance, for powerful as they are, they
+possess little of the courage which has in all ages been attributed to
+them, being in this respect much inferior to the domestic cock, the
+raven, the sea-swallow, and a hundred other birds. Sometimes eagles have
+their nests in places accessible without a rope, and instances are known
+of persons frequenting these nests, for the purpose of carrying off the
+prey which the eagles carry to their young. A very prevalent method by
+which eagles are destroyed, is the following:--In a place not far from a
+nest, or a rock in which eagles repose at night, or on the face of a
+hill which they are frequently observed to scour in search of prey, a
+pit is dug to the depth of a few feet, of sufficient size to admit a man
+with ease. The pit is then covered over with sticks, and pieces of turf,
+the latter not cut from the vicinity, eagles, like other cowards, being
+extremely wary and suspicious. A small hole is formed at one end of this
+pit, through which projects the muzzle of a gun, while at the other is
+left an opening large enough to admit a featherless biped, who on
+getting in pulls after him a bundle of heath of sufficient size to close
+it. A carcass of a sheep or dog, or a fish or fowl, being previously
+without at the distance of from twelve to twenty yards, the lyer-in-wait
+watches patiently for the descent of the eagle, and, the moment it has
+fairly settled upon the carrion, fires. In this manner, multitudes of
+eagles are yearly destroyed in Scotland. The head, claws, and quills,
+are kept by the shepherds, to be presented to the factor at Martinmas or
+Whitsunday, for the premium of from half-a-crown to five shillings which
+is usually awarded on-such occasions.--_Edinburgh Literary Gazette_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+THE PIED OYSTER CATCHER.
+
+
+This separate and single genus of birds is seldom seen amongst the
+numerous descriptions of wild fowl, which, in the winter seasons, wing
+their flight to our marshes. The most striking part of the
+Oyster-catcher is its bill, the colour of which is scarlet, measuring in
+length nearly four inches, wide at the nostrils, and grooved beyond them
+nearly half its length: thence to the tip it is vertically compressed on
+the sides, and ends obtusely. With this instrument, which in its shape
+and structure is peculiar to this bird, it easily disengages the limpets
+from the rocks, and plucks out the oysters from their half-opened
+shells, on which it feeds, as well as on other shell-fish, sea-worms,
+and insects.
+
+W.G.C.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+BUTTERFLIES.
+
+
+The splendid appearance of the plumage of tropical birds is not superior
+to what the curious observer may discover in a variety of Lepidóptera;
+and those many-coloured eyes, which deck so gorgeously the peacock's
+tail, are imitated with success in Vanéssa Io, one of our most common
+butterflies. "See," exclaims the illustrious Linnaeus, "the large,
+elegant, painted wings of the butterfly, four in number, covered with
+small imbricated scales; with these it sustains itself in the air the
+whole day, rivalling the flight of birds, and the brilliancy of the
+peacock. Consider this insect through the wonderful progress of its
+life, how different is the first period of its being from the second,
+and both from the parent insect. Its changes are an inexplicable enigma
+to us: we see a green caterpillar, furnished with sixteen feet,
+creeping, hairy, and feeding upon the leaves of a plant; this is changed
+into chrysalis, smooth, of a golden lustre, hanging suspended to a fixed
+point, without feet, and subsisting without food; this insect again
+undergoes another transformation, acquires wings and six feet, and
+becomes a variegated white butterfly, living by suction upon the honey
+of plants. What has nature produced more worthy of our admiration? Such
+an animal coming upon the stage of the world, and playing its part there
+under so many different masks! In the egg of the Papilio, the epidermis
+or external integument falling off, a caterpillar is disclosed; the
+second epidermis drying, and being detached, it is a chrysalis; and the
+third, a butterfly. It should seem that the ancients were so struck with
+the transformations of the butterfly, and its revival from a seeming
+temporary death, as to have considered it an emblem of the soul, the
+Greek word _psyche_ signifying both the soul and a butterfly. This is
+also confirmed by their allegorical sculptures, in which the butterfly
+occurs as an emblem of immortality." Swammerdam, speaking of the
+metamorphosis of insects, uses these strong words: "This process is
+formed in so remarkable a manner in butterflies, that we see therein the
+resurrection painted before our eyes, and exemplified so as to be
+examined by our hands." "There is no one," says Paley, "who does not
+possess some particular train of thought, to which the mind naturally
+directs itself, when left entirely to its own operations. It is certain
+too, that the choice of this train of thinking may be directed to
+different ends, and may appear to be more or less judiciously fixed, but
+in a _moral view_, if one train of thinking be more desirable than
+another, it is that which regards phenomena of nature with a constant
+reference to a supreme intelligent Author. The works of nature want only
+to be contemplated. In every portion of them which we can decry, we find
+attention bestowed upon the minuter objects. Every organized natural
+body, in the provisions which it contains for its sustentation and
+propagation, testifies a care, on the part of the Creator, expressly
+directed to these purposes. We are on all sides surrounded by bodies
+wonderfully curious, and no less wonderfully diversified." Trifling,
+therefore, and, perhaps, contemptible, as to the unthinking may seem the
+study of a butterfly, yet, when we consider the art and mechanism
+displayed in so minute a structure, the fluids circulating in vessels so
+small as almost to escape the sight, the beauty of the wings and
+covering, and the manner in which each part is adapted for its peculiar
+functions, we cannot but be struck with wonder and admiration, and must
+feel convinced that the maker of all has bestowed equal skill in every
+class of animated beings; and also allow with Paley, that "the
+production of beauty was as much in the Creator's mind in painting a
+butterfly, as in giving symmetry to the human form."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+LADY MORGAN'S EGOTISM.
+
+
+We know, and posterity will say the same, that there was never such a
+paragon as her ladyship; that her house in Kildare-street, Dublin, will
+be to future ages, what Shakspeare's house in Henley-street,
+Stratford-upon-Avon, is now; that pilgrims from all corners of the
+civilized globe will pay their devotions at her shrine; and that the
+name of Morgan will be remembered long after the language in which she
+has immortalized it has ceased to be a living tongue. WE are not the
+persons to deny this; for WE are but too proud of being able to call
+ourselves her contemporary; but we do dislike (and her ladyship will,
+forgive us for saying so)--we do dislike the seeming vanity of
+proclaiming this herself. She _is_ a very great woman; an extraordinary
+woman; an Irish prodigy; popes and emperors _have_ trembled before her;
+all Europe, all Asia, all America, from the St. Lawrence to the Gulf of
+Mexico, ring with her praises; there never has been such "a jewel of a
+woman," as her own countrymen would say. She knows this, and we know it;
+and "our husband" knows it; every body knows it; then why need she tell
+us so a hundred times over in her "Book of the Boudoir?"
+
+There is another little circumstance which we would take the liberty of
+mentioning. It is, that she is much too scrupulous, much too delicate in
+naming individuals, _unless they happen to be dead_. When she mentions a
+civil thing said to her by a prince, a duke, or a marquess, we never get
+at the _person_. It is always the Prince of A----, or the Duke of B----,
+or the Marquess of C----, or Count D----, or Lady E----, or the
+Marchioness of F----, or the Countess of G----, or Lord H----, or Sir
+George I----, and so on through the alphabet. Now we say again, that
+_we_ have no doubt all these are the initials of real persons, and that
+her ladyship is as familiar with the blood royal and the aristocracy of
+Europe, as "maids of fifteen are with puppy-dogs;" but the world, my
+dear Lady Morgan--an ill-natured, sour, cynical, and suspicious world,
+envious of your glory, will be apt to call it nil fudge, blarney, or
+_blatherum-skite_, as they say in your country; especially when it is
+observed that you _always_ give the names of the illustrious _dead_,
+with whom you have been upon equally familiar terms of intimacy, at
+_full length_; as if you knew that dead people tell _no_ tales; and that
+therefore you might tell _any_ tales you like about dead people. We put
+it to your own good sense, my dear Lady Morgan, as the Duke of X----
+would call you, whether this remarkable difference in mentioning living
+characters, and those who are no longer living, does not look equivocal?
+For you know, my dear Lady Morgan, that Prince R---- and Princess W----,
+by standing for any body, mean nobody.--_Blackwood's Magazine_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+CURE FOR SUPERSTITION.
+
+We find the following curious anecdote translated from a German work, in
+the last _Foreign Quarterly Review_:--
+
+
+A poor protestant who had fallen from his horse and done himself some
+serious injury which had obviously ended in derangement, came to a
+Catholic priest, declaring that he was possessed, and telling a story of
+almost dramatic interest. In his sickness he had consulted a quack
+doctor, who told him that he could cure him by charms. He wrote strange
+signs on little fragments of paper, some of which were to be worn, some
+to be eaten in bread and drunk in wine. These the poor madman fancied
+afterwards were charms by which he had unknowingly sold himself to the
+devil. The doctor, he fancied, had done so before, and could only redeem
+his own soul by putting another in the power of Satan. "I know that this
+is my condition," said the poor madman, "by all I have seen and heard,
+by all I have suffered, by the change which has taken place in me, which
+has at length brought me to my present condition. All I cannot reveal;
+the little I can and dare tell must convince you. Often has my tormentor
+pent me up in the stove, and let me lie among the burning brands through
+the live long night. Then I hear him in my torment talking loud, I know
+not what, over my head. All prayer he forbids me, and he makes me tell
+whether I would give all I have or my soul for my cure. Then he speaks
+to me of the Bible; but he falsifies all he tells me of, or he tells me
+of some new-born king or queen in the kingdom of God. I cannot go to
+church; I cannot pray; I cannot think a good thought; I see sights of
+horror ever before me, which fill me with unutterable fear, and I know
+not what is rest; my one only thought is how soon the devil will come to
+claim his wretched victim and carry me to the place of torment." The
+poor creature had a belief that a Roman Catholic priest had the power of
+exorcism. The priest was most kind to the poor maniac, and tried to
+convince him of the power and goodness of God, and his love to his
+creatures. It need not be said that this was talking to the wind. In
+fine, he said, "Well, I will rid you of your tormentor. He shall have to
+do with me, and not with you, in future." This promise had the desired
+effect; and the priest followed it up by advising the maniac to go to a
+good physician, to avoid solitude, to work hard, to read his Bible, and
+remember the comfortable declarations of which he had been just
+reminded, and if he was in any doubt or anxiety, to go to his parish
+minister.
+
+         *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE GATHERER.
+
+  A snapper up of unconsidered trifles.
+SHAKSPEARE.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+ADDISON.
+
+
+A certain author was introduced one day by a friend to Mr. Addison, who
+requested him at the same time to peruse and correct a copy of English
+verses. Addison took the verses and found them afterwards very stupid.
+Observing that above twelve lines from Homer were prefixed to them, by
+way of motto, he only erased the Greek lines, without making any
+amendment in the poem, and returned it. The author, seeing this, desired
+his friend who had introduced him to inquire of Mr. Addison the reason
+of his doing so. "Whilst the statues of Caligula," said he, "were all of
+a piece, they were little regarded by the people, but when he fixed the
+heads of gods upon unworthy shoulders, he profaned them, and made
+himself ridiculous. I, therefore, made no more conscience to separate
+Homer's verses from this poem, than the thief did who stole the silver
+head from the brazen body in Westminster Abbey."[3]
+
+    [3] In Henry the Seventh's chapel.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+A furious wife, like a musket, may do a great deal of execution in her
+house, but then she makes a great noise in it at the same time. A mild
+wife, will, like an air-gun, act with as much power without being heard.
+
+L--W--R M.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+ST. MARTIN S LITTLE SUMMER.
+
+
+In _Time's Telescope_ for 1825, we are told that the few fine days which
+sometimes occur about the beginning of November have been denominated,
+"St. Martin's Little Summer." To this Shakspeare alludes in the first
+part of _King Henry the Fourth_ (Act. I, Scene 2), where Prince Henry
+says to _Falstaff_, "Farewell, thou latter spring! farewell,
+All-hallowen summer!" And in the first part of _King Henry the Sixth_,
+(Act I, Scene 2), _Joan La Pucelle_ says,
+
+  "Assign'd am I to be the English scourge--
+   This night the siege assuredly I'll raise:
+   Expect St. Martin's Summer, halcyon days,
+   Since I have entered into these wars."
+
+W.G.C.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+SCRAPS.
+
+(_For the Mirror_.)
+
+
+M.F. Cuvier has found that all marshy countries are remarkable for the
+small number of births in autumn, or the period when the influence of
+the marshes is most dangerous. Consequently, the marshes do not diminish
+the population by adding to the number of deaths alone, but by attacking
+the _fecundity_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+In Guiana balls are made of caoutchouc, for children to play with; and
+so elastic are they, that they will rebound several times between the
+ceiling and floor of a room, when thrown with some force.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+In turtles' eggs, the yolk soon becomes hard on boiling, whilst the
+white remains liquid: a fact in direct opposition to the changes in
+boiling the eggs of birds.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+WHEAT.
+
+
+There are 330 varieties and sub-varieties of wheat said to be growing
+in-Britain, perhaps scarcely a dozen of which are generally known to
+farmers.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+DUTCH BUTTER.
+
+
+Is made with cream alone, and is best preserved in casks or tubs, with a
+pickle made of salt, which is removed from time to time.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+SIAMESE COMMANDMENTS.
+
+
+The moral precepts of the Siamese are comprised in the following Ten
+Commandments:--
+
+1. Do not slay animals.
+
+2. Do not steal.
+
+3. Do not commit adultery.
+
+4. Do not tell lies nor backbite.
+
+5. Do not drink wine.[4]
+
+6. Do not eat after twelve o'clock.
+
+7. Do not frequent plays or public spectacles, nor listen to music.
+
+8. Do not use perfumes, nor wear flowers, or other personal ornaments.
+
+9. Do not sleep or recline upon a couch that is above one cubit high.
+
+10. Do not borrow, nor be in debt.
+
+    [4] The punishment for drinking wine is to have a stream of melted
+        copper poured down the throat; but wine is drunk, and all classes
+        feed upon flesh.
+
+     *       *       *       *
+
+
+ANNUALS FOR 1830.
+
+
+The Supplement published with the present number contains a Fine Large
+Engraving of the _Leaning Towers of Bologna_; humorous cuts from the
+_Comic Annual_; and interesting Notices and Unique Extracts from the
+_Keepsake, Landscape Annual, Forget-Me Not, Bijou, Emmanuel_, &c. and
+with No. 400, forms the SPIRIT OF THE ANNUALS FOR 1830.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+LIMBIRD'S EDITION OF THE
+_Following Novels is already Published_:
+
+                                     _s._     _d._
+Mackenzie's Man of Feeling            0        6
+Paul and Virginia                     0        6
+The Castle of Otranto                 0        6
+Almoran and Ham et                    0        6
+Elizabeth, or the Exiles of Siberia   0        6
+The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne    0        6
+Rasselas                              0        8
+The Old English Baron                 0        8
+Nature and Art                        0        8
+Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield        0       10
+Sicilian Romance                      1        0
+The Man of the World                  1        0
+A Simple Story                        1        4
+Joseph Andrews                        1        6
+Humphry Clinker                       1        8
+The Romance of the Forest             1        8
+The Italian                           2        0
+Zeluco, by Dr. Moore                  2        6
+Edward, by Dr. Moore                  2        6
+Roderick Random                       2        6
+The Mysteries of Udolpho              3        6
+Peregrine Pickle                      4        6
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Printed and Published by J. LIMBIRD 143, Strand, (near Somerset House,)
+London; sold by ERNEST FLEISCHER, 626, New Market, Leipsic; and by all
+Newsmen and Booksellers_.
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11458 ***