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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14024 ***
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 14024-h.htm or 14024-h.zip:
+      (http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/dirs//1/4/0/2/14024/14024-h/14024-h.htm)
+      or
+      (http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/dirs/1/4/0/2/14024/14024-h.zip)
+
+
+
+
+THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION.
+
+VOL. 20, NO. 566.] SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1832. [PRICE 2d.
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: BOLSOVER CASTLE.]
+
+
+BOLSOVER CASTLE
+
+
+Bolsover is a populous village on the eastern verge of Derbyshire upon
+the adjacent county of Nottingham; and but a short distance from the
+town of Chesterfield. The Castle occupies the plain of a rocky hill that
+rises abruptly from the meadows. The building is of great extent, and,
+from its elevated situation, it is a landmark for the surrounding
+country.
+
+Bolsover has been the site of a castle from the Norman Conquest to the
+present time; but, of the first fabric of this description not a single
+vestige now remains. At the Domesday survey it belonged to William
+Peveril, lord of Derbyshire, in whose family it remained for three
+generations. King John, when Earl of Moreton, became the possessor of
+Bolsover; but, during his continuation with Longchamp, bishop of Ely, it
+became the property of that prelate. Subsequently it again reverted to
+John, who, in the eighteenth year of his reign, issued a mandate to
+Bryan de L'Isle, the then governor of Bolsover, to fortify the castle
+and hold it against the rebellious barons; or, if he could not make it
+tenable, to demolish it. This no doubt was the period when the
+fortifications, which are yet visible about Bolsover, were established.
+
+In the long and tumultuous reign of Henry III., this castle still
+retained its consequence. William, Earl Ferrars, had the government of
+it for six years: afterwards it had eleven different governors in twice
+that term. It is not necessary to trace the place through all its
+possessors. In the reign of Henry VIII. it was the property of Thomas
+Howard, the first Duke of Norfolk. On the attainder of his son, the
+castle escheated to the crown. Shortly afterwards it was granted to Sir
+John Byron for fifty years. In the reign of James I., Gilbert Talbot,
+Earl of Shrewsbury, was the owner of Bolsover. In the year 1613, he sold
+it to Sir Charles Cavendish, whose eldest son William, was the first
+Duke of Newcastle, a personage of great eminence among the nobility of
+his time, and in high favour at court.[1] He was sincerely attached to
+his royal master, Charles I., whom he entertained at Bolsover Castle,
+on three different occasions, in a style of princely magnificence.
+On the king's second visit here, where he was accompanied by his queen,
+upwards of 15,000_l_. were expended. The Duchess of Newcastle, in her
+Life of the Duke, her husband, says, "The Earl employed Ben Jonson in
+fitting up such scenes and speeches as he could devise; and sent for all
+the country to come and wait on their Majesties; and, in short, did all
+that even he could imagine to render it great and worthy of their royal
+acceptance." It was this nobleman who erected the edifice which is now
+in ruins. Mr. Bray, in his _Tour in Derbyshire_, observes: "This
+place was seized by the Parliament after the Duke went abroad, and was
+sold and begun to be pulled down, but was then bought by Sir Charles,
+the Duke's youngest brother, and so restored to the family."[2]
+
+The present castle was built at different periods. The north-east end,
+which was erected by Sir Charles Cavendish, about the year 1613, is the
+oldest. The interior of this portion is uncomfortably arranged. The
+rooms are small, and the walls are wainscoted, and fancifully inlaid and
+painted. The ceilings of the best apartments are carved and gilt, and
+nearly the whole of the floors are coated with plaster. There is a small
+hall, the roof of which is supported by pillars; and a star-chamber,
+richly carved and gilt. The only comfortable apartment, according
+to Mr. Rhodes, is now called the drawing room, but was formerly the
+_pillar-parlour_, from its having in the centre a stone column, from
+which springs an arched ceiling, while round the lower part of the shaft
+is a plain dinner-table, in the right chivalric fashion. From the roof
+of this building, to which the ascent is by winding stairs, the view
+extends "till all the stretching landscape into mist decays." The garden
+beneath is surrounded with a wall about three yards thick, and contains
+an old fountain of curious and expensive workmanship, which Dr. Pegge,
+(who was a native of Chesterfield, and wrote a history of Beauchief
+Abbey,) has laboured to prove very beautiful.
+
+Hitherto we have spoken but of that part of Bolsover Castle which was
+formerly denominated the Little House, to distinguish it from the more
+magnificent structure adjoining. This immense fabric, whose walls are
+now roofless and rent into fissures, was built by William, the first
+Duke of Newcastle, in the course of the reign of Charles II., but is
+said never to have been entirely finished. The interior walls are but
+bare stones; the door and window cases, and the different apartments,
+are of unusually large dimensions, the principal remaining apartment
+being 220ft. by 28: the entire western part, including the _Little
+House_ at the northern extremity, extends about 150 yards. The
+designs for the whole castle are said to have been furnished by
+Huntingdon Smithson, (an architect noticed by Walpole,) but he did not
+live to witness its erection. He collected his materials from Italy,
+where he was sent by the Duke of Newcastle for the purpose. Smithson
+died at Bolsover, in 1648, and was buried in the chancel of the church,
+where there is a poetical inscription to his memory, in which his skill
+in architecture is commemorated.
+
+The whole pile is now wearing away. Trees grow in some of the deserted
+apartments, and ivy creeps along the walls; though the ruins have little
+of the picturesqueness of decay. The best point of view, or north-west,
+is represented in the Engraving; a short distance hence lies the village
+of Bolsover.
+
+    [1] The duke was an important personage in the hostilities between
+        his soverign and the parliament. In 1642, he was appointed
+        general of all his majesty's forces, raised north of Trent,
+        with very full powers. He levied a considerable army at his own
+        expense, with which he for some time maintained the king's cause
+        in the north. He, however, possessed little of the skill of a
+        general, though he was a splendid soldier of fortune. He gained
+        a signal victory over Lord Fairfax, near Bradford, and some
+        others of less importance; but he was utterly defeated at
+        Marston Moor, after which he left the country in despair of the
+        royal cause. He resided for some time at Antwerp with his lady,
+        where they were frequently in much distress. On his return to
+        England, at the Restoration, he was received with the respect
+        due to his unshaken fidelity, and in 1664, was created Earl of
+        Ogle and Duke of Newcastle. He passed the remainder of his life
+        in retirement, devoting himself to literature, to which he was
+        much attached, and attending to the repair of his fortune.
+        He died in 1676, aged 84, and was buried with his duchess in
+        Westminster Abbey. His literary labours are now almost forgotten,
+        if we except his principal production, "A new method and
+        extraordinary invention to dress Horses," &c., which has obtained
+        much praise from judges in the art. Grainger quaintly remarks,
+        that "the Duke of Newcastle was so attached to the Muses, that
+        he could not leave them behind him, but carried them to the camp,
+        and made Davenant the poet-laureate, his lieutenant-general of
+        the ordnance." His second wife was Margaret, the imaginative
+        Duchess of Newcastle, who never revised what she had written,
+        lest it "should disturb her following conceptions," by which
+        means she composed plays, poems, letters, philosophical
+        discourses, orations, &c.; of these she left enough to fill
+        thirteen folio volumes, ten of which have actually been printed.
+        Lord Orford has drawn a curious picture of the literary
+        characters both of this lady and her husband. They were
+        panegyrised and flattered by learned contemporaries; for, in
+        those days flattery was well paid. It is, however, gratifying
+        to learn that the duchess derives infinitely more honour from
+        her fine character as a wife and mistress of a family, than
+        from either her literary productions or these panegyrics.
+
+    [2] Rhode's Excursions, Part iv.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+WITCHCRAFT AND SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION.
+
+(To the Editor.)
+
+
+As your journal is open to the elucidation of any facts or traditions
+connected with history, perhaps you will not consider the following
+attempt at the elucidation of a singular subject, unworthy of your
+pages. There is something pleasing in every successful attempt at
+tracing tradition to a rational and philosophical cause, an origin to
+which many of the most absurd and incredible may be referred.
+
+It was well known that to witchcraft was ascribed only the power of
+effecting the destruction of certain parts of the human body, and
+that some of the members could be protected against the effects of
+incantation. The spells of contra-incantation were often successfully
+exerted in the destruction of the human body, except in those parts
+previously rendered invulnerable. Jezebel was destroyed except her hands
+and feet, and the same fate is recorded of many other witches, or of
+those who suffered under the influence of malevolent spells.
+
+Might not the vulgar, in search of a cause for so singular a phenomenon,
+which has often occurred, as spontaneous combustion of the human body,
+find in the powers of witchcraft an easy solution? Grace Pitt who
+was burnt in this manner in Suffolk (recorded in the _Philosophical
+Transactions,_) was a reputed witch, and her death was assigned by the
+country people to the effects of contra-incantation; that her hands and
+feet (generally left untouched by this phenomenon) were not consumed,
+was attributed to the influence of her spell. Indeed, we may suppose
+that these _old ladies,_ who were distinguished by the respectable
+appellation of witches, gained that title by their excessive devotion to
+spirituous liquors, which, in every case that has occurred, have been
+found to predispose to spontaneous combustion, of the human body.
+
+Colchester.
+
+A. BOOTH.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE COSMOPOLITE.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+ANCIENTS AND MODERNS, OR THE TOILETTE OF MADAME DE POMPADOUR.
+
+(From the French of Voltaire.)
+
+
+_Mad. de Pomp._--Who may this lady be with acquiline nose and large
+black eyes; with such height and noble bearing; with mien so proud, yet
+so coquettish, who enters my chamber without being announced, and makes
+her obeisance in a religious fashion?
+
+_Tullia._--I am Tullia, born at Rome, about eighteen hundred years
+ago; I make the Roman obeisance, not the French, and have come, I scarce
+know from whence, to see your country, yourself, and your toilette.
+
+_Mad. de. P._--Ah, madam, do me the honour of seating yourself. An
+arm-chair for the Lady Tullia.
+
+_Tullia._--For whom? me, madam? and am I to sit on that little
+incommodious sort of throne, so that my legs must hang down and become
+quite red?
+
+_Mad. de P._--Upon what then would you sit?
+
+_Tullia._--Madam, upon a couch.
+
+_Mad. de P._--Ay, I understand--you would say upon a sofa; there
+stands one, upon which you may recline at your ease.
+
+_Tullia._--I am charmed to see that the French have furniture as
+convenient as ours.
+
+_Mad. de P._--Hah, hah, madam, you've no stockings! your legs are
+naked, but ornamented, however, with a very pretty ribbon, after the
+fashion of a sandal.
+
+_Tullia._--We knew nothing about stockings, which, as a useful and
+agreeable invention, I certainly prefer to our sandals.
+
+_Mad. da P._--Good heavens, madam, I believe you've no _chemise!_
+
+_Tullia._--No, madam, in my time nobody wore one.
+
+_Mad. de P._--And in what time did you live?
+
+_Tullia._--In the time of Sylla, Pompey, Caesar, Cato, Cataline; and
+Cicero, to whom I have the honour of being daughter: of that Cicero, of
+whom one of your _protegés_ has made mention in barbarous verse.[3] I
+went yesterday to the theatre, where Cataline was represented with all
+the celebrated people of my time, but I did not recognise one of them;
+and when my father exhorted me to make advances to Cataline, I was
+astonished! But, madam, you seem to have some beautiful mirrors; your
+chamber is full of them; our mirrors were not a sixteenth part so large
+as yours; are they of steel?
+
+_Mad. de P._--No, madam, they are made with sand, and nothing is more
+common amongst us.
+
+_Tullia._--What an admirable art! I confess we had none such! And oh!
+what a beautiful painting too you have there!
+
+_Mad. de P._--It is not a painting, but a print, done merely with
+lamp-black; a hundred copies of the same design may be struck off in a
+day, and this secret immortalizes pictures, which time would otherwise
+destroy.
+
+_Tullia._--It is indeed an astonishing secret! we Romans had nothing
+like it!
+
+_Un Savant._--(A literary man there present, taking up the discourse,
+and producing a book from his pocket, says to Tullia:) You will be
+astonished, madam, to learn, that this book is not written by hand, but
+that it is printed almost in a manner similar to engravings; and that
+this invention also immortalizes works of the mind.
+
+(The _Savant_ presents his book, a collection of verses dedicated to the
+Marchioness, to Tullia, who reads a page, admires the type, and says to
+the author:)
+
+_Tullia._--Truly, sir, printing is a fine thing; and if it can
+immortalize such verses as these, it appears to me to be the noblest
+effort of art. But do you not at least employ this invention in printing
+the works of my father?
+
+The _Savant._--Yes, madam, but nobody reads them; I am truly concerned
+for your father, but in these days, little is known of him save his
+name.
+
+(Here are brought in chocolate, tea, coffee, and ices. Tullia is
+astonished to see, in summer, cream and strawberries[4] iced. She is
+informed that such congealed beverages are obtained in five minutes,
+by means of the salt-petre with which they are surrounded, and that by
+continual motion, is produced their firmness and icy coldness. She is
+speechless with astonishment. The dark colour of the chocolate and
+coffee, somewhat disgust her, and she asks whether these liquids are
+extracted from the plants of the country?--A duke who is present,
+replies:)
+
+_Duke._--The fruits of which these beverages are composed, come from
+another world, and from the Gulf of Arabia.
+
+_Tullia._--Arabia I remember; but never heard mention made of what you
+call coffee; and as for another world, I know only of that from whence
+I came, and do assure you, we have no chocolate there.
+
+_Duke._--The world of which we tell you, madam, is a continent, called
+America, almost as large as Europe, Asia, and Africa, put together; and
+of which we have a knowledge less vague, than of the world from whence
+you came.
+
+_Tullia._--What! Did we then, who styled ourselves masters of the world,
+possess only half of it? The reflection is truly humiliating!
+
+The _Savant._--(piqued that Tullia had pronounced his verses bad,
+replies dryly:) Yes, your countrymen who boasted of having made
+themselves masters of the world, had scarce conquered the twentieth part
+of it. We have at this moment, at the further end of Europe, an empire
+larger in itself than the Roman:[5] it is governed, too, by a woman, who
+excels you in intellect and beauty, and who wears _chemises;_ had she
+read my verses, I am certain she would have thought them good.
+
+(The Marchioness commands silence on the part of the author, who has
+treated a Roman lady, the daughter of Cicero, with disrespect. The duke
+explains the discovery of America, and taking out his watch, to which is
+appended, by way of trinket, a small mariner's compass, shows her how,
+by means of a needle, another hemisphere is reached. The amazement of
+the fair Roman redoubles at every word which she hears, and every thing
+she beholds; and she at length exclaims:)
+
+_Tullia._--I begin to fear that the moderns really do surpass the
+ancients; on this point I came to satisfy myself, and doubt not I shall
+have to carry back a melancholy report to my father.
+
+_Duke._--Console yourself, madam, no man amongst us equals your
+illustrious sire; neither does any come near Caesar, with whom you were
+contemporary, nor the Scipios who preceded him. Nature, it is true
+creates, even at this day, powerful intellects, but they resemble rare
+seeds, which cannot arrive at maturity in an uncongenial soil. The
+simile does not hold good respecting arts and sciences; time, and
+fortunate chances, have perfected them. It would, for example, be easier
+for us to produce a Sophocles, or an Euripides, than such individuals as
+your father, because, theatres we have, but no tribunals for public
+harangues.[6] You have hissed the tragedy of Cataline; when you shall
+see Phaedrus played, you will probably agree that the part of Phaedrus,
+in Racine, is infinitely superior to the model you have known in
+Euripides. I hope, also, that you will agree our Molière surpasses your
+Terence. By your permission, I shall have the honour of escorting you to
+the opera, where you will be astonished to hear song in parts; that
+again is an art unknown to you.[7] Here, madam, is a small telescope,
+have the goodness to apply your eye to this glass, and look at that
+house which is a league off.
+
+_Tullia._--Immortal gods! the house is now at the end of the telescope,
+and appears much larger than before.
+
+_Duke._--Well, madam, it is by means of such a toy that we have
+discovered new heavens, even as by means of a needle, we have become
+acquainted with a new earth. Do you see this other varnished instrument,
+in which is inserted a small glass tube? by this trifle, we are enabled
+to discover the just proportion of the weight of the atmosphere. After
+much error and uncertainty, there arose a man who discovered the first
+principle of nature, the cause of weight, and who has demonstrated that
+the stars weigh upon the earth, and the earth upon the stars. He has
+also unthreaded the light of the sun, as ladies unthread a tissue of
+gold.
+
+_Tullia._--What, sir, is it to unthread?
+
+_Duke._--Madam, the equivalent of this term will scarcely be found in
+the orations of Cicero. It is to unweave a stuff, to draw out thread by
+thread, so as to separate the gold. Thus has Newton done by the rays of
+the sun, the stars also have submitted to him; and one Locke has
+accomplished as much by the Human Understanding.
+
+_Tullia._--You know a great deal for a duke and a peer of the realm; you
+seem to me more learned than that literary man who wished me to think
+his verses good, and you are far more polite.
+
+_Duke._--Madam, I have been better brought up; but as to my knowledge
+it is merely commonplace. Young people now, when they quit school, know
+much more than all the philosophers of antiquity. It is only a pity that
+we have, in Europe, substituted half-a-dozen imperfect jargons, for the
+fine Latin language, of which your father made so noble a use; but with
+such rude implements we have produced, even in the _belles lettres,_
+some very fair works.
+
+_Tullia._--The nations who succeeded the Romans must needs have lived
+in a state of profound peace, and have enjoyed a constant succession of
+great men, from my father's time until now, to have invented so many new
+arts, and to have become acquainted so intimately with heaven and earth.
+
+_Duke._--By no means, madam, we are ourselves, some of those barbarians,
+who almost all came from Scythia, and destroyed your empire, and the
+arts and sciences. We lived for seven or eight centuries like savages,
+and to complete our barbarism, were inundated with a race of men termed
+monks, who brutified, in Europe, that human species which you had
+conquered and enlightened. But what will most astonish you is, that
+in the latter ages of ignorance amongst these very monks, these very
+enemies to civilization, nature nurtured some useful men. Some invented
+the art of assisting the feeble sight of age; and others, by pounding
+together nitre and charcoal, have furnished us with implements of war,
+with which we might have exterminated the Scipios, Alexander, Caesar,
+the Macedonian phalanxes, and all your legions; it is not that we
+possess warriors more formidable than the Scipios, Alexander, and
+Caesar, but that we have superior arms.[8]
+
+_Tullia._--In you, I perceive united, the high breeding of a nobleman,
+and the erudition of a man of (literary) consideration; you would have
+been worthy of becoming a Roman senator.
+
+_Duke._--Ah, madam, far more worthy are you of being at the head of our
+court.
+
+_Mad. de P._--In which case, this lady would prove a formidable rival to
+me.
+
+_Tullia._--Consult your beautiful mirrors made of sand, and you will
+perceive you have nothing to fear from me. Well, sir, in the gentlest
+manner in the world, you have informed me that your knowledge
+(infinitely) transcends our own.
+
+_Duke._--I said, madam, that the latter ages are better informed than
+those which preceded them; at least no general revolution has utterly
+destroyed all the monuments of antiquity: we have had horrible, but
+temporary convulsions, and amid these storms, have been fortunate enough
+to preserve the works of your father, and of some other great men: thus,
+the sacred fire has never been utterly extinguished, and has in the end
+produced an almost universal illumination. We despise the barbarous
+scholastic systems, which have long had some influence among us, but
+revere Cicero and all the ancients who have taught us to think. If we
+possess other laws of physics than those of your times, we have no other
+rules of eloquence, and this perhaps may settle the dispute between the
+ancients and moderns.
+
+(Every one agreed with the duke. Finally they went to the opera of
+Castor and Pollux, with the words and music of which, Tullia was much
+gratified, and she acknowledged such a spectacle to be extremely
+superior to that of a combat of gladiators.[9])
+
+_Great Marlow, Bucks._
+
+M.L.B.
+
+    [3] Crébillon, author of Catalina.
+
+    [4] Groseilles, literally; gooseberries or currents; but we have
+        taken the liberty here, and elsewhere, slightly to deviate from
+        the original text, in compliment to English customs, tastes,
+        idioms, &c.
+
+    [5] Russia: whose Empress, Catherine II, is intended by the
+        succeeding sentence.
+
+    [6] The well-known poetic vanity of Voltaire must be taken into
+        full account, when he thus talks of the easiness of producing
+        a (modern) Sophocles, or an Euripides; perhaps he thought his
+        own tragedies equal, or superior to theirs; and for what follows,
+        the French national prejudice in favour of their own dramatic
+        writers, and which is far more laudable than the English
+        indifference to the interests of the drama, should be recollected.
+
+    [7] To "astonished" the author might almost have added alarmed, or
+        disgusted. The conversant in music, know that song in parts, i.e.
+        harmonized, is peculiarly distasteful to the ear unaccustomed to
+        it; song, in unison, is the natural music of savage man; harmony
+        is art; to be pleased with it therefore, implies a mind and
+        ear cultivated and refined. The same remark hold good with
+        instrumental music.
+
+    [8] We apologize to our zealous correspondent for omitting the
+        ingenious defence of War, contained in the Note to this passage.
+        Its insertion would involve ourselves in a war--we mean of
+        "words, words, words." As a private opinion, we admit the
+        argument of the defence; though it militates so strongly with
+        passion and prejudice that its insertion would be the war-hoop
+        for a whole community of peace-makers to break in upon our
+        literary _otium._ We wish to be the last in the world to feed
+        a popular fallacy on any subject; but in some respects the
+        argument employed in the journal quoted by M.L.B. is of too
+        general a description to controvert the error in the present
+        case. We must be courteous--though not of the court: ours is a
+        system of non-intervention in politics; ever, in matters of
+        literary dispute we do little more than "bite our thumb." It is
+        hoped our correspondent will rightly understand us; and so now,
+        like Mr. Peake's bashful man in the farce, we offer our apology
+        for having apologized. By the way, in the, newspapers is
+        advertised a pamphlet, containing an apology for its
+        publication.--ED, M.
+
+    [9] It is a pity that when Voltaire wrote this clever paper, Gas and
+        Steam were not in vogue to add to the "astonishments" of Tullia.
+        This would also most miraculously have assisted Madame de Genlis,
+        in that no less clever exposition of the wonders of nature and
+        art, the story of Alphonso and Thelismon.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+NEW BOOKS.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE YEAR OF WATERLOO.
+
+[In continuation of our extracts from the very amusing _Private
+Correspondence of a Woman of Fashion_ are the following incidents of
+this memorable era.]
+
+Return of Napoleon.--At half-past nine o'clock the secretary
+announced to us that Napoleon had entered Paris quietly, without
+pageantry or mark of splendid triumph, and was seated at supper in the
+vacated palace of Louis XVIII!--
+
+  "On that same throne where Henri great and good,
+  In glory sat--now sits this man of blood;
+  Yet let not prejudice debase my line,
+  As warrior, as statesman, let him shine,--
+  Through all the world his mighty name resound,
+  For arts of peace and deeds of arms renown'd:
+  Mark with what steady hand he rules the State!
+  Yet wants the stamp of _Virtue_ to be _Great_!"
+
+
+Thus did the French people permit his return without firing a gun in
+defence of truth, and of their legitimate sovereign, whom they had
+recalled to the throne of his ancestors _only ten months_ before!
+Our excellent friend, the minister, joined us soon after; but he was
+taciturn and thoughtful, and retired early. The next morning I
+determined to see Napoleon; but when our carriage arrived at the Pont
+Royal, thousands were collected there. Our servant advised us to descend
+and make our way on foot. The crowd civilly made way--they were waiting
+to see the review. An unusual silence prevailed, interrupted only by the
+cries of the children, whom the parents were thumping with energy for
+crying "Vive le Roi," instead of "Vive l'Empereur!"--which, some months
+before, they had been thumped for daring to vociferate! We proceeded to
+the Bibliothêque Royale: its outward appearance is that of an hospital
+or prison, its interior heavy and dark,--it was almost deserted.--Van
+Pratt still lingered there.--A Dutchman's phlegm tempered his emotions
+on the proceedings without; perhaps the repeated changes of government
+during his long life had diminished his interest in them. After showing
+me, with great complacency, much of the valuable possessions of this
+national collection of learning, splendid missals written on vellum,
+MSS. &c. &c. upon which my mind cannot now dwell, he recommended us to
+proceed to the review, to see which he had the good-nature to procure
+me admittance to the small apartment of a friend in the Tuileries; and
+from the window I saw and heard for the first time this scourge of the
+Continent,--his martial, active figure mounted on his famed white horse.
+He harangued with energetic tone (and in those bombastic expressions we
+have always remarked in all his manifestoes, and which are so well
+adapted to the French,) the troops of the divisions of Lepol and Dufour.
+There was much embracing of Les Anciens Aigles of the Old Guard--much
+mention of "_great days, and souvenirs dear to his heart_," of the
+"scars of his brave soldiers;" which, to serve his views, he will
+re-open without remorse, like the vampire of Greece. The populace were
+tranquil, as I had remarked them on the bridge. Inspirited by my still
+unsatisfied curiosity, I rejoined my escort, and proceeded to the
+gardens, where not more than thirty persons were collected under the
+windows. There was no enthusiastic cry, at least none deemed sufficient
+to induce him to show himself. In despair at not being able to
+contemplate his physiognomy at greater ease, I made my cavalier request
+some persons in the throng to cry "Vive l'Empereur!" Some laughed, and
+replied "Attendez un peu," while others advised us to desire some of the
+children to do so. A few francs thrown to the latter, soon stimulated
+their little voices into cries of the _loyalty of that day_, and
+Napoleon presented himself at the window; but he did not stand there
+in a firm attitude--he retired often, and re-appeared, standing rather
+_sideways_, as if wanting confidence in the disposition of our little
+assemblage. A few persons arrived from the country, and held up
+petitions, which he sent an aid-de-camp to receive. His square face
+and figure struck me with involuntary emotion. I was dazzled, as if
+beholding a supernatural being!--and then dismayed, as gazing upon one
+mortal like myself, but possessing such powers and capabilities of
+outraging humanity, and over-stepping the bounds of honour, good faith,
+and freedom's laws,--the laws of God and man! There is a sternness
+spread over his expansive brow, a gloom on the lids of his darkened eye,
+which renders futile his attempts to smile. Something of the Satanic
+sported round his mouth, indicating the ambitious spirit of the soul
+within!
+
+_The Day after the Battle of Waterloo._--June 19.
+
+British bayonets are victorious!--Napoleon's army a wreck,
+panic-stricken, flies before Wellington and Blucher! I will not forget
+your anxieties even in this moment of fatigue and agitation. The
+combined forces are covered with immortal fame; they have vanquished the
+_élite_ of Napoleon's empire, and those veteran generals most attached
+to his person and dynasty. They are in full flight, and we in glorious
+pursuit!--Ere this reaches you, the Allies will probably have entered
+Paris a second time within the year. We learnt that Napoleon had left
+the capital of France on the 12th: on the day of the 15th the frequent
+arrival of couriers excited extreme anxiety; and towards evening General
+Mufflin presented himself at the Duke's with dispatches from Blucher. We
+were all aware that the enemy was in movement, and the ignorant could
+not resolve the enigma of the Duke going tranquilly to the ball at the
+Duke of Richmond's:--his coolness was above their comprehension; had he
+remained at his own hotel, a panic would have probably ensued amongst
+the inhabitants, which would have embarrassed the intended movement of
+our division of the army.
+
+I returned home late, and we were still talking over our uneasiness,
+when our domestic distinctly heard the trumpet's shrill appeal to battle
+within the city walls, and the drum beat to arms. Ere the sun had risen
+in full splendour, I distinguished martial music approaching, and I soon
+beheld from my windows the 5th reserve of our army passing: the Highland
+brigade, in destructive warlike bearing, were the first in advance, led
+by their noble thanes, the bagpipes playing their several pibrochs; they
+were succeeded by the 28th, their bugles' note falling more blithely
+upon the ear. Each regiment passed in succession with its band playing,
+impatient for the affray and fearless of death, meeting the peaceful
+peasant's carts bringing sustenance for the living. Those of my
+acquaintance looked gaily up at the window--alas! how many of them were
+before sunset numbered with the dead;--Scotland's thanes, ere they had
+traversed the Bois de Soignies, and the Duc de Brunswick-Oels that
+evening at Quatre Bras, stimulating onward his valiant hussars, and too
+carelessly exposing his person.
+
+On the 17th the Duke of Wellington displayed his whole force to the
+enemy, and seemed to defy them to the combat--but in the evening retired
+upon Waterloo, and there reposed with some of his officers in the
+village, which lies embosomed in the Forêt de Soignies. Picton had
+fallen; each herald brought us tidings of a hero less, where all were
+heroes.
+
+That night was dreadful for the soldier and his horse. No sooner had
+darkness covered the earth, than a fearful tempest arose; it was awful
+for man and beast--for the houseless peasant and his children, who had
+been driven from their late peaceful habitations, and stood exposed to
+the pitiless storm, viewing in wild dismay their fields devastated, the
+spring produce of their gardens laid low in human gore! At early dawn,
+on the Sabbath,--that hallowed day, enjoined to be held sacred for the
+worship of God, and for rest to toil-worn animals--the British army
+beheld the _chevaleresque_ legions of the enemy, in all its superior
+numbers, ranged in order of battle on the rising ground. The sun at
+mid-day flashed its brilliant radiance over their military casques and
+arms. The cannonade then became general; the Duke of Wellington exposed
+himself like a subaltern; his personal venture in the strife excited
+anxiety; it was in vain that the officers of his staff urged him to be
+less conspicuous, that the fate of the battle hung upon his life: it
+was evident that he had determined to conquer or die: we knew it in
+Bruxelles, and we knew also that the Prince of Orange would succeed to
+the command in such a dread emergency; and although we did not doubt his
+Royal Highness's personal valour, we questioned much his experience in
+military tactics. In the streets every one demanded, "Will Blucher be
+able to advance?" and we were fully aware if that veteran General could
+not effect a junction with Wellington before eight o'clock that evening,
+all would be lost. At nine o'clock the two heroes mutually felicitated
+each other at the small _auberge_ of Genappe. But it was not till three
+o'clock in the morning that the word "Victory!" was proclaimed by an
+_affiche_ on the walls to the terrified population of Bruxelles!
+
+The Prince of Orange had been wounded early in that evening, after
+having in the morning disputed every inch of ground against the superior
+force of the enemy, and continued to fight like a valourous chevalier
+each succeeding day for his kingdom: he has fairly won it. May his
+future subjects record the fact in ineffaceable characters on their
+memory! The British army had faught thirteen successive hours; they
+halted, and to the fresh troops of the Prussians the task of pursuing
+the fugitive enemy was assigned: they gladly forgot all fatigue, in
+vengeful feeling and relentless retaliation against their former
+merciless and insulting invaders. The British moved forward this day,
+and will enter France to-morrow. Eight hundred lion-mettled and noble
+sons of Britain have fallen by the side of _thirty thousand_ of their
+own brave soldiers! It has been a dear-earned victory to England; a
+dread tragedy, in the small circumference of three miles! The veterans
+of the Peninsular campaign assert that those scenes of carnage were less
+cruel. This city, where pleasure so lately reigned, now presents only
+the images of death. _Vraiment nous respirons la mort dans les rues!_
+L'Hôtel-de-Ville, the hospitals, and some of the churches, are already
+occupied by the wounded; wagons full remaining in the streets, and many
+sitting on _the steps of the houses_, looking round in vain for
+immediate succour!
+
+Our escape has been mavellous, for Napoleon's plan was to penetrate to
+Bruxelles, and to surprise the Duke and his staff at the ball, when
+surrounded by the British _belles_; for he had his spies to report even
+the hour of our pastimes, and he reckoned upon a rise of the Belgians in
+his favour. For three days and nights we expected the enemy to enter;
+treachery reigned around us, and false reports augmented our alarms, as
+we knew the terrible numbers of the French forces. It was Bulow and his
+corps that protected us from that calamity. On the Saturday we took
+refuge within the city, from the scenes of horror before our villa.
+Baggage-wagons of the different regiments advancing--the rough chariots
+of agriculture, with the dead and the dying, disputing for the
+road--officers on horseback wounded! I spoke to one: 'twas Colonel
+C----, of the Scotch brigade; he replied with his wonted urbanity to my
+inquiries--gave me his hand--"I am shot through the body--adieu for
+ever!" He left me petrified with horror, and I saw him no more! One hour
+afterwards I sent to his apartment--the gallant veteran had expired as
+they lifted him from his horse!
+
+I could not abandon the Baroness and her children in such an hour; but I
+must ever gratefully recollect the kind offers of asylum made to me by
+my Belgian acquaintance, and for months, they said, had the battle been
+lost. It is truly pitiable to see the wounded arriving on foot; a musket
+reversed, or the ramrod, serving for a staff of support to the mutilated
+frame, the unhappy soldier trailing along his wearied limbs, and perhaps
+leading a more severely-wounded comrade, whose discoloured visages
+declare their extreme suffering;--their uniforms either hanging in
+shreds, or totally despoiled of them by those marauders who ravage a
+field of battle in merciless avidity of plunder and murder. These brave
+fellows, these steady warriors, so redoubtable a few hours since, are
+now sunk into the helplessness of infancy, the feebleness of woman, over
+whom man arrogates a power that may not be disputed, but whose solacing
+influence in the hour of tribulation and sickness they are willing to
+claim.
+
+The Belgian females are in full activity, acting with noble benevolence.
+They are running from door to door begging linen, and entreating that it
+may be scraped for lint; others beg matrasses.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+TRIBUTES TO GENIUS.
+
+The Cuts represent unostentatious yet affectionate tributes to three of
+the most illustrious names in literature and art: DANTE, and PETRARCH,
+the celebrated Italian poets; and CANOVA, whose labours have all the
+freshness and finish of yesterday's chisel. Lord Byron, whose enthusiasm
+breathes and lives in words that "can never die," has enshrined these
+memorials in the masterpiece of his genius. Associating Dante and
+Petrarch with Boccaccio, he asks:
+
+  But where repose the all Etruscan three--
+    Dante and Petrarch, and scarce less than they,
+  The Bard of Prose, creative spirit! he
+    Of the Hundred Tales of Love--where did they lay
+  Their tones, distinguish'd from our common clay
+    In death as life? Are they resolved to dust,
+  And have their country's marbles naught to say?
+    Could not their quarries furnish forth one bust?
+  Did they not to her breast their filial earth entrust?[10]
+
+
+[Illustration: (Dante's Tomb.)]
+
+
+Dante was born at Florence in the year 1261. He fought in two battles,
+and was fourteen times ambassador, and once prior of the republic.
+Through one fatal error, he fell a victim to party persecution, which
+ended in irrevocable banishment. His last resting-place was Ravenna,
+where the persecution of his only patron is said to have caused the
+poet's death. What an affecting record of gratitude! His last days at
+Ravenna are thus referred to by an accomplished tourist:[11]
+
+"Under the kind protection of Guido Novello da Polenta, here Dante found
+an asylum from the malevolence of his enemies, and here he ended a life
+embittered with many sorrows, as he has pathetically told to posterity,
+'after having gone about like a mendicant; wandering over almost every
+part to which our language extends; showing against my will the wound
+with which fortune has smitten me, and which is so often imputed to his
+ill-deserving, on whom it is inflicted.' The precise time of his death
+is not accurately ascertained; but, it was either in July or September
+of the year 1321. His friend in adversity, Guido da Polenta, mourned his
+loss, and testified his sorrow and respect by a sumptuous funeral, and,
+it is said, intended to have erected a monument to his memory; but, the
+following year, contending factions deprived him of the sovereignty
+which he had held for more than half a century; and he, in his turn,
+like the great poet whom he had protected, died in exile. I believe,
+however, that the tomb, with an inscription purporting to have been
+written by Dante himself, of which I have here given an outline, was
+erected at the time of his decease: and, that his portrait, in
+bas-relief, was afterwards added by Bernardo Bembo, in the year 1483,
+who, at that time was a Senator and Podestà of the Venetian republic."
+
+Byron truly sings:
+
+  Ungrateful Florence! Dante sleeps afar,
+  Like Scipio, buried by the upbraiding shore;
+  Thy factions, in their worse than civil war,
+  Proscribed the bard whose name for evermore
+  Their children's children would in vain adore
+  With the remorse of ages.
+  There is a tomb in Arquà; rear'd in air,
+    Pillar'd in their sarcophagus, repose
+  The bones of Laura's lover.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  They keep his dust in Arquà, where he died;
+    The mountain-village where his latter days
+  Went down the vale of years; and 'tis their pride--
+    An honest pride--and let it be their praise,
+  To offer to the passing stranger's gaze
+    His mansion and his sepulchre, both plain
+  And simply venerable, such as raise
+    A feeling more accordant with his strain
+  Than if a pyramid form'd his monumental fame.[12]
+
+
+[Illustration: (Petrarch's Tomb.)]
+
+"The tomb is in the churchyard at Arquà. Petrarch is laid, for he cannot
+be said to be buried, in a sarchophagus of red marble, raised on four
+pilasters on an elevated base, and preserved from an association with
+meaner tombs. The revolutions of centuries have spared these sequestered
+valleys, and the only violence that has been offered to the ashes of
+Petrarch was prompted, not by hate, but veneration. An attempt was made
+to rob the sarcophagus of its treasure, and one of the arms was stolen
+by a Florentine through a rent which is still visible."[13]
+
+The third Memorial is a red porphyry Vase containing the heart of
+Canova. It is placed in the great hall of the Academy of Arts at Venice,
+beneath the magnificent picture of the Assumption of the Virgin, by
+Titian. The vase is ornamented with ormoulu, and bears the inscription
+_Cor magni Canovae_, in raised gold letters. M. Duppa describes it
+as "a vase fit for a drawing-room, not grand, nor lugubrious: it is
+surmounted with a capsule of a poppy, which is a great improvement on a
+skull and cross bones."
+
+Canova was not only the greatest sculptor of his own but of any age.
+Byron says--
+
+  Such as the great of yore, Canova is to-day.
+
+
+[Illustration: COR MAGNI CANOVAE.]
+
+
+He was, in great part, self-taught. In one of his early letters, he
+says, "I laboured for a mere pittance, but it was sufficient. It was
+the fruit of my own resolution; and, as I then flattered myself, the
+foretaste of more honourable rewards--for I never thought of wealth."
+He wrought for four years in a small ground cell in a monastery. From
+his great mind originated the founding of the study of art upon the
+study of nature. His enthusiasm was perfectly delightful: he made it a
+rule never to pass a day without making some progress, or to retire to
+rest till he had produced some design. His brother sculptors, hackneyed
+in the trammels of assumed principles, for a time ridiculed his works,
+till, at length, in the year 1800, his merits hecame fully recognised;
+from which time till his death, in 1822, he stood unrivalled amidst the
+honours of an admiring world.
+
+
+    [10] Childe Harold, canto 4, st. lvi.
+
+    [11] Duppa--Observations on the Continent.
+
+    [12] Childe Harold, canto 4, st. xxxi, xxxii.
+
+    [13] Notes to Childe Harold, ibid.--See Engraving of Petrach's
+         House at Arquà, _Mirror_, vol. xvii, p. 1.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+THE HOME OF LOVE.
+
+
+  "They sin who tell us Love can die.
+  With Life all other Passions fly,
+  All others are but Vanity;--
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  "But Love is indestructible.
+  Its holy flame for ever burneth,
+  From Heaven it came, to Heaven returneth;
+  Too oft on earth a troubled guest,
+  At times deceived, at times oppressed,
+  It here is tried and purified,
+  And hath in Heaven its perfect rest."--SOUTHEY.
+
+
+  Thou movest in visions, Love!--Around thy way,
+  E'en through this World's rough path and changeful day,
+      For ever floats a gleam,
+  Not from the realms of Moonlight or the Morn,
+  But thine own Soul's illumined chambers born--
+      The colouring of a dream!
+
+  Love, shall I read thy dream?--Oh! is it not
+  All of some sheltering, wood-embosomed spot--
+      A Bower for thee and thine?
+  Yes! lone and lonely is that Home; yet there
+  Something of Heaven in the transparent air
+      Makes every flower divine.
+
+  Something that mellows and that glorifies
+  Bends o'er it ever from the tender skies,
+      As o'er some Blessed Isle;
+  E'en like the soft and spiritual glow,
+  Kindling rich woods, whereon th' ethereal bow
+      Sleeps lovingly awhile.
+
+  The very whispers of the Wind have there
+  A flute-like harmony, that seems to bear
+      Greeting from some bright shore,
+  Where none have said _Farewell!_--where no decay
+  Lends the faint crimson to the dying day;
+      Where the Storm's might is o'er.
+
+  And there thou dreamest of Elysian rest,
+  In the deep sanctuary of one true breast
+      Hidden from earthly ill:
+  There wouldst thou watch the homeward step, whose sound
+  Wakening all Nature to sweet echoes round,
+      Thine inmost soul can thrill.
+
+  There by the hearth should many a glorious page,
+  From mind to mind th' immortal heritage,
+      For thee its treasures pour;
+  Or Music's voice at vesper hours be heard,
+  Or dearer interchange of playful word,
+      Affection's household lore.
+
+  And the rich unison of mingled prayer,
+  The melody of hearts in heavenly air,
+      Thence duly should arise;
+  Lifting th' eternal hope, th' adoring breath,
+  Of Spirits, not to be disjoined by Death,
+      Up to the starry skies.
+
+  There, dost thou well believe, no storm should come
+  To mar the stillness of that Angel-Home;--
+      There should thy slumbers be
+  Weighed down with honey-dew, serenely blessed,
+  Like theirs who first in Eden's Grove took rest
+      Under some balmy tree.
+
+  Love, Love! thou passionate in Joy and Woe!
+  And canst _thou_ hope for cloudless peace below--
+          _Here_, where bright things must die?
+  Oh, thou! that wildly worshipping, dost shed
+  On the frail altar of a mortal head
+          Gifts of infinity!
+
+  Thou must be still a trembler, fearful Love!
+  Danger seems gathering from beneath, above,
+          Still round thy precious things;--
+  Thy stately Pine-tree, or thy gracious Rose,
+  In their sweet shade can yield thee no repose,
+          Here, where the blight hath wings.
+
+  And, as a flower with some fine sense imbued
+  To shrink before the wind's vicissitude,
+          So in thy prescient breast
+  Are lyre-strings quivering with prophetic thrill
+  To the low footstep of each coming ill;--
+          Oh! canst _Thou_ dream of rest?
+
+  Bear up thy dream! thou Mighty and thou Weak
+  Heart, strong as Death, yet as a reed to break,
+          As a flame, tempest swayed!
+  He that sits calm on High is yet the source
+  Whence thy Soul's current hath its troubled course,
+          He that great Deep hath made!
+
+  Will He not pity?--He, whose searching eye
+  Reads all the secrets of thine agony?--
+          Oh! pray to be forgiven
+  Thy fond idolatry, thy blind excess,
+  And seek with _Him_ that Bower of Blessedness--
+          Love! _thy_ sole Home is Heaven!
+
+
+_New Monthly Magazine_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+ORIENTAL SMOKING.
+
+
+In India a hookah, in Persia a nargilly, in Egypt a sheesha, in Turkey
+a chibouque, in Germany a meerschaum, in Holland a pipe, in Spain a
+cigar--I have tried them all. The art of smoking is carried by the
+Orientals to perfection. Considering the contemptuous suspicion with
+which the Ottomans ever regard novelty, I have sometimes been tempted to
+believe that the eastern nations must have been acquainted with tobacco
+before the discovery of Raleigh introduced it to the occident; but a
+passage I fell upon in old Sandys intimates the reverse. That famous
+traveller complains of the badness of the tobacco in the Levant, which,
+he says, is occasioned by Turkey being supplied only with the dregs of
+the European markets. Yet the choicest tobacco in the world now grows
+upon the coasts of Syria.
+
+What did they do in the East before they smoked? From the many-robed
+Pacha, with his amber-mouthed and jewelled chibouque, longer than a
+lancer's spear, to the Arab clothed only in a blue rag, and puffing
+through a short piece of hollowed date-wood, there is, from Stamboul
+to Grand Cairo, only one source of physical solace. If you pay a visit
+in the East, a pipe is brought to you with the same regularity that a
+servant in England places you a seat. The procession of the pipe, in
+great houses, is striking: slaves in showy dresses advancing in order,
+with the lighted chibouques to their mouths waving them to and fro;
+others bearing vases of many-coloured sherbets, and surrounding a
+superior domestic, who carries the strong and burning coffee in small
+cups of porcelain supported in frames of silver fillagree, all placed
+upon a gorgeous waiter covered with a mantle of white satin, stiff and
+shining with golden embroidery.
+
+In public audiences all this is an affair of form. "The honour of the
+pipe" proves the consideration awarded to you. You touch it with your
+lips, return it, sip a half-filled cup of coffee, rise, and retire. The
+next day a swarm of household functionaries call upon you for their
+fees. But in private visits, the luxury of the pipe is more appreciated.
+A host prides himself upon the number and beauty of his chibouques, the
+size and clearness of the amber mouth-piece, rich and spotless as a ripe
+Syrian lemon, the rare flavour of his tobaccos, the frequency of his
+coffee offerings, and the delicate dexterity with which the rose water
+is blended with the fruity sherbets. In summer, too, the chibouque of
+cherry-wood, brought from the Balkan, is exchanged for the lighter
+jessamine tube of Damascus or Aleppo, covered with fawn-coloured silk
+and fringed with silver.
+
+The hills of Laodicea celebrated by Strabo for their wines, now
+produce, under the name of Latakia, the choicest tobacco in the world.
+Unfortunately this delicious product will not bear a voyage, and loses
+its flavour even in the markets of Alexandria. Latakia may be compared
+to Chateau Margaux; Gibel, the product of a neighbouring range of
+hills, similar, although stronger in flavour, is a rich Port, and will
+occasionally reach England without injury. This is the favourite tobacco
+of Mehemet Ali, the Pacha of Egypt. No one understands the art of
+smoking better than his Highness. His richly carved silver sheesha borne
+by a glossy Nubian eunuch, in a scarlet and golden dress, was a picture
+for Stephanoff. The Chibouquejee of the Viceroy never took less than
+five minutes in filling the Viceregal pipe. The skilful votary is well
+aware how much the pleasure of the practice depends upon the skill with
+which the bowl is filled. For myself, notwithstanding the high authority
+of the Pacha, I give the preference to Beirout, a tobacco from the
+ancient Berytus, lower down on the coast, and which reminded me always
+of Burgundy. It sparkles when it burns, emitting a bright blue flame.
+All these tobaccos are of a very dark colour.
+
+In Turkey there is one very fine tobacco, which comes from Salonichi,
+in ancient Thrace. It is of a light yellow colour, and may be compared
+to very good Madeira. These are the choicest tobaccos in the world.
+The finest Kanaster has a poor, flat taste after them.
+
+The sheesha nearly resembles the hookah. In both a composition is
+inhaled, instead of the genuine weed. The nargilly is also used with
+the serpent, but the tube is of glass. In all three, you inhale through
+rose-water.
+
+The scientific votary after due experience, will prefer the Turkish
+chibouque. He should possess many, never use the same for two days
+running, change his bowl with each pipe-full, and let the chibouque be
+cleaned every day, and thoroughly washed with orange flower water. All
+this requires great attention, and the paucity and cost of service in
+Europe will ever prevent any one but a man of large fortune from smoking
+in the Oriental fashion with perfect satisfaction to himself.--_New
+Monthly Magazine._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+NOTES OF A READER.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+BUILDING A SCHOOL IN THE HIGH ALPS.
+
+[We find the following "labour of love" recorded by the Rev. W.S. Gilly,
+in his Life of Felix Neff, Pastor of the French Protestants in these
+cheerless regions. Its philanthropy has few parallels in the proud folio
+of history, and will not be lessened in comparison with any record of
+human excellence within our memory.]
+
+
+It was among the grandest and sternest features of mountain scenery,
+that Neff not only found food for his own religious contemplations, and
+felt that his whole soul was filled with the majesty of the ever present
+God, but here also he discovered, that religious impressions were more
+readily received and retained more deeply than elsewhere by others. In
+this rugged field of rock and ice, the Alpine summit, and its glittering
+pinnacles, the eternal snows and glaciers, the appalling clefts and
+abysses, the mighty cataract, the rushing waters, the frequent perils
+of avalanches and of tumbling rocks, the total absence of every soft
+feature of nature, were always reading an impressive lesson, and
+illustrating the littleness of man, and the greatness of the Almighty.
+
+The happy result of his experiments, made the pastor feel anxious to
+have a more convenient place for his scholastic exertions than a dark
+and dirty stable; and here again the characteristic and never-failing
+energies of his mind were fully displayed. The same hand which had
+been employed in regulating the interior arrangements of a church, in
+constructing aqueducts and canals of irrigation, and in the husbandman's
+work of sowing and planting, was now turned to the labour of building a
+school-room. He persuaded each family in Dormilleuse to furnish a man,
+who should consent to work under his directions, and having first marked
+out the spot with line and plummet, and levelled the ground, he marched
+at the head of his company to the torrent, and selected stones fit
+for the building. The pastor placed one of the heaviest upon his own
+shoulders--the others did the same, and away they went with their
+burthens, toiling up the steep acclivity, till they reached the site of
+the proposed building. This labour was continued until the materials
+were all ready at hand; the walls then began to rise, and in one week
+from the first commencement, the exterior masonry work was completed,
+and the roof was put upon the room. The windows, chimney, door, tables,
+and seats, were not long before they also were finished. A convenient
+stove added its accommodation to the apartment, and Dormeilleuse, for
+the first time probably in its history, saw a public school-room
+erected, and the process of instruction conducted with all possible
+regularity and comfort.
+
+I had the satisfaction of visiting and inspecting this monument of
+Neff's judicious exertions for his dear Dormilleusians--but it was a
+melancholy pleasure. The shape, the dimensions, the materials of the
+room, the chair on which he sat, the floor which had been laid in part
+by his own hands, the window-frame and desks, at which he had worked
+with cheerful alacrity, were all objects of intense interest, and I
+gazed on these relics of "the Apostle of the Alps," with feelings little
+short of veneration. It was here that he sacrificed his life. The severe
+winters of 1826-7, and the unremitted attention which he paid to his
+duties, more especially to those of his school-room, were his
+death-blow.
+
+[Neff then relates some preliminary arrangements.]
+
+Dormilleuse was the spot which I chose for my scene of action,
+on account of its seclusion, and because its whole population is
+Protestant, and a local habitation was already provided here for the
+purpose. I reckoned at first that I should have about a dozen élèves;
+but finding that they were rapidly offering themselves, and would
+probably amount to double that number, at the least, I thought it right
+to engage an assistant, not only that I might be at liberty to go and
+look after my other churches and villages, but that I might not be
+exposed to any molestation, for in France nobody can lawfully exercise
+the office of a schoolmaster without a license, and this cannot be
+granted either to a foreigner or a pastor. For these reasons I applied
+to Ferdinand Martin, who was then pursuing his studies at Mens, to
+qualify himself for the institution of M. Olivier, in Paris. It was a
+great sacrifice on his part to interrupt his studies, and to lose the
+opportunity of an early admission to the institution; nor was it a small
+matter to ask him to come and take up his residence at the worst season
+of the year, in the midst of the ice and frightful rocks of Dormilleuse.
+But he was sensible of the importance of the work, and, without any
+hesitation, he joined our party at the beginning of November. The short
+space of time which we had before us, rendered every moment precious. We
+divided the day into three parts. The first was from sunrise to eleven
+o'clock, when we breakfasted. The second from noon to sunset, when we
+supped. The third from supper till ten or eleven o'clock at night,
+making in all fourteen or fifteen hours of study in the twenty-four.
+We devoted much of this time to lessons in reading, which the wretched
+manner in which they had been taught, their detestable accent, and
+strange tone of voice, rendered a most necessary, but tiresome duty.
+The grammar, too, of which not one of them had the least idea, occupied
+much of our time. People who have been brought up in towns, can have no
+conception of the difficulty which mountaineers and rustics, whose ideas
+are confined to those objects only to which they have been familiarized,
+find in learning this branch of science. There is scarcely any way
+of conveying the meaning of it to them. All the usual terms and
+definitions, and the means which are commonly employed in schools, are
+utterly unintelligible here. But the curious and novel devices which
+must be employed, have this advantage,--that they exercise their
+understanding, and help to form their judgment. Dictation was one of
+the methods to which I had recourse: without it they would have made no
+progress in grammar and orthography; but they wrote so miserably and
+slowly, that this consumed a great portion of valuable time. Observing
+that they were ignorant of the signification of a great number of French
+words, of constant use and recurrence, I made a selection from the
+vocabulary, and I set them to write down in little copy-books,[14] words
+which were in most frequent use; but the explanations contained in the
+dictionary were not enough, and I was obliged to rack my brain for new
+and brief definitions which they could understand, and to make them
+transcribe these. Arithmetic was another branch of knowledge which
+required many a weary hour. Geography was considered a matter of
+recreation after dinner: and they pored over the maps with a feeling of
+delight and amusement, which was quite new to them. I also busied myself
+in giving them some notions of the sphere, and of the form and motion of
+the earth; of the seasons and the climates, and of the heavenly bodies.
+Every thing of this sort was as perfectly novel to them, as it would
+have been to the islanders of Otaheite; and even the elementary books,
+which are usually put into the hands of children, were at first as
+unintelligible as the most abstruse treatises on mathematics. I was
+consequently forced to use the simplest, and plainest modes of
+demonstration; but these amused and instructed them at the same time.
+A ball made of the box tree, with a hole through it, and moving on
+an axle, and on which I had traced the principal circles; some large
+potatoes hollowed out; a candle, and sometimes the skulls of my
+scholars, served for the instruments, by which I illustrated the
+movement of the heavenly bodies, and of the earth itself. Proceeding
+from one step to another, I pointed out the situation of different
+countries on the chart of the world, and in seperate maps, and took
+pains to give some slight idea, as we went on, of the characteristics,
+religion, customs, and history of each nation. These details fixed
+topics of moment in their recollection. Up to this time I had been
+astonished by the little interest they took, Christian-minded as they
+were, in the subject of Christian missions, but, when they began to have
+some idea of geography, I discovered, that their former ignorance of
+this science, and of the very existence of many foreign nations in
+distant quarters of the globe, was the cause of such indifference. But
+as soon as they began to learn who the people are, who require to have
+the Gospel preached to them, and in what part of the globe they dwell,
+they felt the same concern for the circulation of the Gospel that other
+Christians entertained. These new acquirements, in fact, enlarged their
+spirit, made new creatures of them, and seemed to triple their very
+existence.
+
+In the end, I advanced so far as to give some lectures in geometry, and
+this too produced a happy moral developement.
+
+Lessons in music formed part of our evening employment, and those being,
+like geography, a sort of amusement, they were regularly succeeded by
+grave and edifying reading, and by such reflections as I took care to
+suggest for their improvement.
+
+Most of the young adults of the village were present at such lessons, as
+were within the reach of their comprehension, and as the children had a
+separate instructor, the young women and girls of Dormilleuse, who were
+growing up to womanhood, were now the only persons for whom a system of
+instruction was unprovided. But these stood in as great need of it as
+the others, and more particularly as most of them were now manifesting
+Christian dispositions. I therefore proposed that they should assemble
+of an evening in the room, which the children occupied during the day,
+and I engaged some of my students to give them lessons in reading and
+writing. We soon had twenty young women from fifteen to twenty-five
+years of age in attendance, of whom two or three only had any notion of
+writing, and not half of them could read a book of any difficulty. While
+Ferdinand Martin was practising the rest of my students in music, I
+myself and two of the most advanced, by turns, were employed in teaching
+these young women, so that the whole routine of instruction went on
+regularly, and I was thus able to exercise the future schoolmasters in
+their destined profession, and both to observe their method of teaching,
+and to improve it. I thus superintended teachers and scholars at the
+same time.
+
+It is quite impossible for those who have not seen the country, to
+appreciate the devotedness to the Christian cause, which could induce
+Neff to entertain even the thought of making the dreary and savage
+Dormilleuse his own head quarters from November to April, and of
+persuading others to be the companions of his dismal sojournment there.
+I learn from a memorandum in his Journal, that the severity of that,
+winter commenced early. "We have been in snow and ice since the first of
+November, on this steep and rugged spot, whose aspect is more terrible
+and severe than any thing can be supposed to be in France." He himself
+was the native of a delightful soil and climate, and even some of the
+mountaineers, whom he drew to that stern spot, were inhabitants of a
+far less repulsive district, but had yet made it their custom to seek a
+milder region than their own, during the inclemency of an Alpine winter.
+To secure attendance and application, when once his students were
+embarked in their undertaking, he selected this rock, where neither
+amusement, nor other occupations, nor the possibility of frequent egress
+or regress, could tempt them to interrupt their studies:--and he had
+influence enough to induce them to commit themselves to a five months'
+rigid confinement within a prison-house, as it were, walled up with ice
+and snow.
+
+It was a long probation of hardship. Their fare was in strict accordance
+with the rest of their situation. It consisted of a store of salted
+meat, and rye bread, which had been baked in autumn, and when they came
+to use it, was so hard, that it required to be chopped up with hatchets,
+and to be moistened with hot water. Meal and flour will not keep in this
+mountain atmosphere, but would become mouldy,--they are, therefore,
+obliged to bake it soon after the corn is threshed out. Our youthful
+anchorites were lodged gratuitously by the people of Dormilleuse, who
+also liberally supplied them with food for fuel, scarce as it was,
+but if the pastor had not laid in a stock of provisions, the scanty
+resources of the village could not have met the demands of so many
+mouths, in addition to its native population.
+
+A note of the expenditure upon this occasion will excite some wonder in
+the minds of many readers, who are not aware how much good may be done
+at a small cost, when the stream of bounty is made to pass through
+proper channels.
+
+"Our disbursements for the adult school, including candles, ink, and
+paper, the salary of an assistant master, and food for the sixteen or
+seventeen students who came from a distance, did not exceed 560 francs
+(about 22_l._ 10_s._) for four months. Of this sum I can replace a
+little more than two-thirds, because some of the students have repaid
+their share of the expense, and even the poorest furnished their quota
+of bread. We did not provide commons for those who belonged to
+Dormilleuse, because they boarded at home."
+
+    [14] They have no slates in this country--nor in the valleys of
+         Piemont.--Two benevolent benefactors to the Protestant cause
+         in Italy, who wished to confer a benefit upon the schools of
+         Piemont, have enabled me to supply the Vaudois schools with
+         this useful and economical article.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE NATURALIST.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+NOTES
+
+Abridged from the _Magazine of Natural History_.
+
+
+[Illustration: (The Fern Owl, showing the greater length of the middle
+claw, and its provision for the peculiar posture of the bird.)]
+
+
+_Habits of the Fern Owl, by Rusticus_.--Beyond Godalming, on the Liphook
+road, is a great tract of barren heathy land: it stretches wide in every
+direction, and includes immense peat-bogs, and several large ponds. One
+particular district, called the Pudmores, is the favourite resort of
+the fern owl. In the daytime, while walking across the moor, you will
+every now and then put up one of these singular birds; their flight is
+perfectly without noise, and seldom far at a time: but of an evening it
+is far different; about twenty minutes after sunset, the whole moor is
+ringing with their cry, and you see them wheeling round you in all
+directions. They look like spectres; and, often coming close over you,
+assume an unnatural appearance of size against a clear evening sky. I
+believe its very peculiar note is uttered sitting, and never on the
+wing. I have seen it on a stack of turf with its throat nearly touching
+the turf, and its tail elevated, and have heard it in this situation
+utter its call, which resembles the birr of the mole-cricket, an insect
+very abundant in this neighbourhood. I have almost been induced to think
+this noise serves as a decoy to the male mole-cricket, this being
+occasionally found in the craw of these birds when shot. Those who may
+not be acquainted with the cry of the bird or the insect, may imagine
+the noise of an auger boring oak, or any hard wood, continued, and not
+broken off, as is the noise of the auger, from the constant changing of
+the hands. The eggs of the fern owl have frequently been brought me by
+boys: they are only two in number, greyish white, clouded and blotched
+with deeper shades of the same colour; the hen lays them on the soil,
+which is either peat, or a fine soft blue sand, in which she merely
+makes a slight concavity, but no nest whatever. The first cry of the
+fern owl is the signal for the night-flying moths to appear on the wing,
+or rather the signal for the entomologist expecting them.
+
+The migratory periods of this bird are not well ascertained; but I have
+known one shot Nov. 27th, 1821, and they had arrived April 28th, 1830.
+As there is scarcely a British bird of which so little is known, the
+following notes may be interesting:--It has been seen perched on the
+bar of a gate, not across, but according to its length, with the tail
+elevated; uttering its peculiar sounds; but when perching, as it often
+does, on the summit of a twig of oaken copse, it fixes upright, with
+the feet grasping the twig, and not sitting; just as the swift perches
+against a wall. One was killed in broad daylight, perched on the upper
+side of a sloping branch of considerable size; the head was uppermost,
+and it rested on the feet and tarsi, the latter being bare on the under
+surface for that purpose. Its attitude in this situation much resembled
+that of a woodpecker. One that was kept alive with its wing broken sat
+across the finger, like another bird. When about to take flight it makes
+a cracking noise, as if the wings smote together, after the manner of
+a pigeon.
+
+_Harbingers of Spring._--One of the earliest intimations of approaching
+spring is the appearance of the _Phalaena primaria_, and of one or two
+other moths, floating with expanded wings on the surface of ponds and
+still water. A butterfly, _Caltha palustris_, is commonly drawn forth
+from its winter quarters by one of the first warm and sunny days that
+happen to occur in the month of March: hence it has been termed _fallax
+veris indicium_, (the deceitful token of spring.) In the Isle of Wight
+it has been seen on the wing the 8th of January, 1805.--_Rev. W.T.
+Bree._
+
+_Ravages of the Beetle_.--Mr. Bree describes the _Scarabaeus
+horticola_ as "exceedingly destructive in gardens. Being on a visit
+in Staffordshire, in the month of June, I observed whole beds of
+strawberries (not hautboys) likely to prove nearly barren, though they
+had flowered copiously, and the season, was favourable for a crop. I was
+informed that the failure was owing to the fernshaws (the provincial
+name for the beetle), which are accused of eating the anthers and
+interior parts of the blossom. In the same garden my attention was also
+called to the ravages committed by this depredator on the apples, by
+gnawing holes in the young fruit; which consequently dies and falls of,
+or at least becomes much blemished. I was assured that the fernshaws had
+been detected in the fact; and I am rather disposed to think that the
+charge in both instances is well founded. I had long been aware of
+the insect's partiality for rosebuds and blossoms, which it greedily
+devours. In the north of England, where it is much used as a killing
+bait for trout, the insect is commonly known by the name of
+'bracken-clock,' a name of the same import with the Staffordshire term
+'fernshaw,' each signifying 'fern-beetle.'" Another correspondent
+says--_Scarabaeus horticola_, called "the chovy" in Norfolk, is
+there deemed very injurious to apple-trees, and other trees and plants,
+as it feeds both on leaves and all the parts of the flower. Chovies were
+abundant at Thetford, Norfolk, about ten years ago; but, as far as my
+experience has reached, always rare about Bury St. Edmunds. On the 9th
+of June, 1829, I saw one in the botanic garden of the last-named town,
+flitting about a flowering bush of the Provence rose.
+
+_Ink of the Cuttle-fish._--[By way of _addenda_ if not _corrigenda_ to
+our description of the Cuttle-fish, at page 104 of the present volume,
+we quote the following observations.]
+
+"When in danger, cuttle-fish are said to eject a copious black liquor
+through their funnel or excrementary canal, as a means of obscuring the
+circumfluent water, and concealing themselves from all foes:--
+
+  "Long as the craftie cuttle lieth sure
+  In the blacke cloud of his thicke vomiture."[15]
+
+
+This inky fluid is a very remarkable secretion, produced in a bag
+that lies near the liver, and sometimes even embosomed in it, and
+communicating with the funnel by means of its own excretory duct. The
+interior of the bag is not a simple cavity; it is filled with a soft
+cellular or spongy substance in which the ink is diffused. This has no
+relation or analogy with bile, as Munro believed; but it is a peculiar
+secretion, somewhat glutinous, readily miscible with water, and variable
+in point of shade, according to the species of cephalopode from which it
+comes; so that, as Dr. Grant remarks, a more intimate acquaintance with
+this character might be useful in tracing relations among the different
+species. The colour of the ink in Loligo sagittata[16] is a deep brown,
+approaching to yellowish brown when much diluted, and corresponds
+remarkably with the coloured spots on the skin of that species; but
+in Octopus ventricosus the colour of the ink is pure black, and it is
+blackish grey when diluted on paper. "The ink (_Edin. Phil. Journ._ vol.
+xvi. p. 316.) brought in a solid state from China has the same pure
+black colour as in the Octopus ventricosus, and differs entirely in its
+shade, when diluted, from that of the Loligo sagittata, as may be seen
+from specimens of these three colours on drawing paper. Swammerdam
+suspected the China ink to be made from that of the Sepia; Cuvier found
+it more like that of the Octopus and Loligo; but different kinds of that
+substance are brought from China, probably made from different genera of
+these animals, where they abound of gigantic size." At the present day,
+according to Cuvier, an ink is prepared from the liquor of these animals
+in Italy, which differs from the genuine China ink only in being a
+little less black. (_Mem._, vol. i. p. 4.) Davy found it to be "a
+carbonaceous substance mixed with gelatine;" but on a more careful
+analysis, Signor Bizio procured from it a substance _sui generis_
+[peculiar in kind], which he calls melania. "The melania is a tasteless,
+black powder, insoluble in alcohol, ether, and water, while cold, but
+soluble in hot water: the solution is black. Caustic alkalies form with
+it a solution even in the cold, from which the mineral acids precipitate
+it unchanged. It contains much azote: it dissolves in, and decomposes,
+sulphuric acid: it easily kindles at the flame of a candle: it has been
+found to succeed, as a pigment, in some respects better than China ink."
+(_Edin. Phil. Journ._, vol. xiv. p. 376.)
+
+    [15] "The ink secreted in this bag has been said to be thrown out
+         to conceal the animal from its pursuers; but, in a future
+         lecture, I shall endeavour to show that this secretion is to
+         answer a purpose in the animal economy connected with the
+         functions of the intestines." (Hume's _Comp. Anat._ vol. i.
+         p. 376.) Dr. Coldstream, in a letter to the author, detailing
+         the manners of Octopus ventricosus in captivity, says, "I have
+         never seen the ink ejected, however much the animal may have
+         been irritated." I have, however, been told by our fishermen,
+         that they have seen this species eject the black liquid, with
+         considerable force, on being just taken from the sea.
+
+    [16] Sir B. Sibbald says that the Loligo, or hose-fish, besides
+         its ink has another purple juice. (_Scot. Illust._ vol. ii.
+         lib. 3. p. 26.) I find no mention of this in any other author.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+LUXURIANCE OF NATURE.
+
+Upper Louisiana (we are told) has all the trees known in Europe, besides
+others that are here unknown. The cedars are remarkably fine; the cotton
+trees grow to such a size, that the Indians make canoes out of their
+trunks; hemp grows naturally; tar is made from the pines on the sea
+coast; and the country affords every material for ship-building. Beans
+grow to a large size without culture; peach trees are heavily laden with
+fruit; and the forests are full of mulberry and plum trees. Pomegranates
+and chestnut trees are covered with vines, whose grapes are very large
+and sweet. There are three or four crops of Indian corn in the year; as
+there is no other winter besides some rains. The grass grows to a great
+height, and towards the end of September is set on fire, and in eight or
+ten days after, the young grass shoots up half a foot high.
+
+P.T.W.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE GATHERER.
+
+
+_Annual Cost of a Private Soldier_.--The daily pay of a foot soldier is
+one shilling, with a penny for beer; the daily pay of a life-guardsman
+is _1s. 11-1/2d._ and the annual cost is _74l. 4s. 11d._ per man,
+besides horse and allowances, or _1l. 8s. 6d._ per week; dragoons, _56l.
+11s. 5d._ per annum, or _1l. 1s. 9d._ per week; footguards _34l. 6s._ or
+_13s. 2d._ per week; infantry, _31l._ per annum, or _11s. 10d._ per
+week. A regiment of horse soldiers, of about 360, officers and men, cost
+about _25,000l._ per annum. The wages of seamen in the Royal Navy are
+_2l. 12s._ per month, or _13s._ per week; and _1l. 12s._ or _8s._ per
+week more, are allowed for their provisions.--_Examiner._
+
+The _Morning Chronicle_ report of the examination of Mr. Horsley, the
+Governor of the Bank of England, has the following odd question:--"Is
+there any large proportion of London noses circulated by the Branch
+Banks?"--"There are none."
+
+_Convenient Deafness._--A few days since at the Court of Assizes,
+in Paris, a M. Lecluse, who was summoned on the jury, produced a
+certificate that he was deaf, and consequently unable to serve. The
+Advocate General was observing to the court, in no very elevated tone of
+voice, that the certificate was inadmissible, since it bore date so far
+back as June 24, 1813, when M. Lecluse immediately set him right by
+stating that the date was July 13, instead of June 24, 1813. This at
+once decided the question, as it proved the acuteness of his hearing,
+and the Court ordered him to be sworn.
+
+_Walnut Water._--Dr. Sully, of Wiveliscombe, a very eminent medical
+practitioner, in a letter to the editor of the _Taunton Courier_,
+has communicated the mode of preparing this article, which has been
+found so effectual a remedy in subduing nausea and vomiting:--"Take a
+quarter of a peck of walnuts at the time they are fit for pickling;
+bruise them, and, with four ounces of fresh angelica seeds, put them
+into an alembic, with a bottle of French brandy, and enough water to
+prevent empyreuma, or burning; distil from this mixture a quart, which
+is called walnut water, and administer a wineglass-full to the patient,
+to be repeated every half-hour till the vomiting ceases." Dr. Sully says
+that he communicated this recipe to Sir Astley Cooper and Mr. Abernethy,
+both of whom frequently used it in their practice, and that it has been
+prepared by a house in London for him for the last 40 years.--_Morning
+Herald_.
+
+_The first Review._--Reviews of books originated in the _Journal
+des Scavans_, projected by Dennis de Sallo, in 1664.
+
+_Hint to Tea Makers._--Put a small quantity of carbonate of soda
+into the pot along with the tea, and this, by softening the water, will
+accelerate the infusion amazingly. Should the water be hard, it will
+increase the strength of your tea at least one half.--_Mechanics'
+Magazine_.
+
+It is a curious fact, that the Chinese make no use of milk, either in
+its liquid state, or in the shape of curds, butter, or cheese.
+
+_Chairing Members of Parliament._--This custom was taken from the
+practice in the northern nations, of elevating the king after his
+election, upon the shoulders of the senators. The Anglo-Saxons carried
+their king upon a shield when crowned. The Danes set him upon a high
+stone, placed in the middle of twelve smaller. Bishops were chaired upon
+elections, as were abbots and others.
+
+_Illumination_ was formerly common not only upon occasions of joy,
+but even the return home of the master of the house. Some writers have
+contended, but evidently by mistake, that it was only a part of
+religious ceremonies. It is even mentioned in Ossian's Carthon, and
+obtained in the middle ages. The classical illuminations were made not
+only with lamps, but links, and wax flambeaux.
+
+_Lord Mayor._--The first Lord Mayor who went by water to
+Westminster, was John Norman, in 1453. Sir John Shaw, according to
+Lambard, was the first who rode on horseback, in 1501; but Grafton says,
+correctly, that they rode before. Sir Gilbert Heathcote was the last, in
+Queen Anne's time. Before building the Mansion-House, the first stone of
+which was laid Oct. 25, 1739, the Lord Mayor resided in the hall of some
+Company, hired for the term of the mayoralty.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Printed and published by J. LIMBIRD, 143, Strand, (near Somerset
+House,) London; sold by ERNEST FLEISCHER, 626, New Market, Leipsic;
+G.G. BENNIS, 55, Rue Neuve, St. Augustin, Paris; and by all Newsmen
+and Booksellers.
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14024 ***