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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76874 ***
+
+
+
+
+
+                           THE PENNY MAGAZINE
+
+                                 OF THE
+
+             Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+ 15.]                   PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY.        [June 30, 1832
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+                         THE CAVE OF ELEPHANTA.
+
+ [Illustration: A view of a cave, with large statues and pillars and two
+                         people standing inside.]
+
+One of the earliest monuments of India that attracted the notice of
+Europeans was the excavation of Elephanta, situated in a beautiful
+island of the same name, called by the natives Goripura, or _Mountain
+City_. This island is in the bay of Bombay, seven miles from Bombay
+castle; it is about six miles in circumference, and composed of two long
+hills with a narrow valley between them.
+
+The island has taken its familiar name from a colossal statue of an
+elephant, cut out of a detached mass of blackish rock unconnected with
+any stratum below. This figure has had another on its back, which the
+old travellers call a young elephant, but which, as far as we can judge
+from the drawing of what remains of it, has much more probably been a
+tiger. The head and neck of this elephant dropped off about 1814, owing
+to a large fissure that ran up through its back. The length of this
+colossal figure, from the forehead to the root of the tail, was 13 feet
+2 inches; and the height at the head 7 feet 4 inches. The remains of
+this colossus stand about 250 yards to the right of the usual
+landing-place, which is towards the southern part of the island.
+
+After proceeding up the valley till the two mountains unite, we come to
+a narrow path, after ascending which there is a beautiful prospect of
+the northern part of the island, and the opposite shores of Salsette.
+“Advancing forward and keeping to the left along the bend of the hill,
+we gradually mount to an open space, and come suddenly on the grand
+entrance of a magnificent temple, whose huge massy columns seem to give
+support to the whole mountain which rises above it.
+
+“The entrance into this temple, which is entirely hewn out of a stone
+resembling porphyry, is by a spacious front supported by two massy
+pillars and two pilasters forming three openings, under a thick and
+steep rock overhung by brushwood and wild shrubs. The long ranges of
+columns that appear closing in perspective on every side; the flat roof
+of solid rock that seems to be prevented from falling only by the massy
+pillars, whose capitals are pressed down and flattened as if by the
+superincumbent weight; the darkness that obscures the interior of the
+temple, which is dimly lighted only by the entrances; and the gloomy
+appearance of the gigantic stone figures ranged along the wall, and
+hewn, like the whole temple, out of the living rock,--joined to the
+strange uncertainty that hangs over the history of this place,--carry
+the mind back to distant periods, and impress it with that kind of
+uncertain and religious awe with which the grander works of ages of
+darkness are generally contemplated.
+
+“The whole excavation consists of three principal parts: the great
+temple itself, which is in the centre, and two smaller chapels, one on
+each side of the great temple. These two chapels do not come forward
+into a straight line with the front of the chief temple, are not
+perceived on approaching the temple, and are considerably in recess,
+being approached by two narrow passes in the hill, one on each side of
+the grand entrance, but at some distance from it. After advancing to
+some distance up these confined passes, we find each of them conduct to
+another front of the grand excavation, exactly like the principal front
+which is first seen; all the three fronts being hollowed out of the
+solid rock, and each consisting of two huge pillars with two pilasters.
+The two side fronts are precisely opposite to each other on the east and
+west, the grand entrance facing the north. The two wings of the temple
+are at the upper end of these passages, and are close by the grand
+excavation, but have no covered passage to connect them with it.[1]”
+
+From the northern entrance to the extremity of this cave is about 130½
+feet, and from the eastern to the western side 133. Twenty-six pillars,
+of which eight are broken, and sixteen pilasters, support the roof.
+Neither the floor nor the roof is in the same plane, and consequently
+the height varies, being in some parts 17½, in others 15 feet. Two rows
+of pillars run parallel to one another from the northern entrance and at
+right angles to it, to the extremity of the cave; and the pilasters, one
+of which stands on each side of the two front pillars, are followed by
+other pilasters and pillars also, forming on each side of the two rows
+already described, another row, running parallel to them up to the
+southern extremity of the cave. The pillars on the eastern and western
+front, which are like those on the northern side, are also continued
+across the temple from east to west. Thus the ranges of pillars form a
+number of parallel lines intersecting one another at right angles--the
+pillars of the central parts being considered as common to the two sets
+of intersecting lines. The pillars vary both in their size and
+decorations, though the difference is not sufficient to strike the eye
+at first.
+
+All the walls are covered with reliefs (which are yet very little known
+for want of complete drawings), but are described as being in good
+proportion and producing rather a pleasing effect than the contrary. All
+the sculptures refer to the Indian mythology, and the temple seems to
+have been the special property of the god Siva, since he appears very
+frequently with his usual attributes. In one place we see him as half
+man and half woman, with one breast and four hands, in one of which he
+holds the snake.
+
+In Mr. Daniell’s Views in India (vol. v. pl. 7) we have a beautiful
+drawing of the northern front of the Elephanta cave, with its
+overhanging trees and shrubs. His eighth plate is that which we have
+above given. “The view is taken near the centre of the temple looking
+westward. The space between four of the pillars is formed into a small
+temple, sacred to Mahadiva (Siva), and has an entrance on each side,
+guarded by colossal figures.” “On the walls are several groups of
+figures in basso-relievo, evidently relating to the Hindoo mythology;
+many of them are of colossal dimensions and well executed. To the east
+and west are small apartments, decorated also in the same manner. This
+excavation is considerably elevated above the sea; the floor,
+nevertheless, is generally covered with water during the monsoon season;
+the rain being then driven in by the wind; a circumstance to which
+possibly its present state of decay is chiefly owing.”
+
+Larger excavations of this kind are found in the neighbouring island of
+Salsette. But these are far surpassed by the temples of Ellora, which
+are in the province of Hyderabad, about twenty miles north-west from
+Aurungabad, the capital, and 239 east of Bombay. It may be considered as
+near the centre of India. Here we have a granite mountain, which is of
+an amphitheatre form, completely chiselled out from top to bottom, and
+filled with innumerable temples; the god Siva alone having, it is said,
+about twenty appropriated to himself. To describe the numerous galleries
+and rows of pillars which support various chambers lying one above
+another, the steps, porticos, and bridges of rock over canals, also hewn
+out of the solid rock, would be impossible; and we recommend those who
+have the opportunity to look at Daniell’s designs, which will serve to
+give some idea of this wonderful place.
+
+The rock-cut temples of India are generally supposed to be of higher
+antiquity than pagodas[2] or temples, built on the surface of the earth.
+
+  ⁂ Abridged from ‘British Museum--Egyptian Antiquities.’
+
+-----
+
+Footnote 1:
+
+  Mr. W. Erskine, in the Bombay Literary Transactions.
+
+Footnote 2:
+
+  The word pagoda is a corruption of _Bhaga-rati_, “holy house,” one of
+  the several names by which the Hindoo temples are known.
+
+
+                         ---------------------
+
+
+                          THE WEATHER.--No. 3.
+
+Ben Jonson, in his play of ‘Every Man out of his Humour,’ has a
+character of which some examples may still be found, even in our own
+day. It is that of a credulous man, who relies implicitly on the
+_Weather Prophecies_ of the almanacs of his time;--and, his barns being
+full, resolves not to sow his ground, because the almanacs foretel
+
+                 “Rotten weather and unseasoned hours.”
+
+This species of credulity is probably not very often now carried as far
+as in the instance of _Sordido_, the dupe of the play;--but still there
+are some amongst us who will not cut their grass till they have seen
+what “Master Moore” says about the weather. In nine cases out of ten
+these superstitious confiders in an almost worn-out imposture, have in
+the end to exclaim with the miser of the old dramatist, “Tut, these
+star-monger knaves, who would trust ’em? One says, _dark and rainy_,
+when ’tis as clear as crystal; another says, _tempestuous blasts and
+storms_, and ’twas as calm as a milk-bowl. Here be sweet rascals for a
+man to credit his whole fortunes with[3]!”
+
+Now, let us see what the almanac oracle of the present time--“Francis
+Moore, Physician”--says about the weather, for June, 1832. He says, in
+one of his narrow columns which runs parallel with the calendar of the
+present month, “Variable, with thunder showers flying about. Some
+showers at intervals, attended with electrical _phenomena_, EVEN TO THE
+END.” Be it remembered that this prophecy is for _all parts_ of the
+United Kingdom--for England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland;--for the
+hilly districts and for the plains,--for the coasts and for the inland
+countries. A correspondent, who writes to us about the weather, very
+sensibly says, “Does it not often happen that they have many rainy days
+successively at Manchester, whilst not a drop falls at Leeds? How then
+can any man’s tables about the moon, or general rules for the weather,
+or the prophecies of almanacs, answer for both the hilly and level
+districts? The Cheshire men say that their rugged-topt hills knock out
+the bottoms of the clouds, and leave them as leaky as a sieve while
+passing over Manchester.” So much for the _universal_ application of
+these astrological predictions of the weather.
+
+But let us further examine this prophecy of Moore’s Almanac for the
+present month of June. There are some who impudently defend the
+publication of such predictions, as well as the predictions of political
+events which the same almanac contains;--and they say that the weather
+prophecies are only intended to give the average results of many years
+of actual observation, which make more impression upon the farmer’s mind
+in this form than if he were to refer himself to meteorological tables
+of the barometer, of the thermometer, of the hygrometer, and of the
+rain-gauge. Now, here is a prediction calculated to frighten the
+credulous agriculturist into a belief that the whole of June, throughout
+the country, will be unfavourable to hay-making:--“Showers at intervals,
+attended with _electrical phenomena_, EVEN TO THE END.” Electrical
+phenomena! This is a phrase as terrific as the obscurities of the
+ancient oracles. A phenomenon, as most of our readers know, is an
+appearance--anything made manifest to us in any way; and as electricity
+is doubtless one of the most important agents in producing particular
+states of the weather, rain and sunshine, wind and calm, heat and cold,
+may be equally _electrical phenomena_. But “showers at intervals,
+attended with electrical phenomena,” is a phrase naturally calculated to
+frighten the ignorant into a belief that the weather of June, “even unto
+the end,” will be rainy, attended with heavy storms; the most
+unfavourable state, because producing the greatest uncertainty and
+expense in the work of getting in the hay-harvest. This prediction was
+probably manufactured a year ago: it was printed in October last; and so
+far from giving a notion of what is the _average_ weather for June--the
+only matter upon which the prediction monger could possess the slightest
+information--he prophesies directly in the teeth of the best
+meteorological records; for it is a well-known fact that in June the
+average number of days on which rain falls is under twelve--the lowest
+number of any month in the year. June, therefore, is in general the most
+favourable month for hay-making, whatever exceptions there may be in
+particular years; of which “Francis Moore” could know no more beforehand
+than the most ignorant peasant whom he deludes.
+
+But let us look a little further at the prophecies of the
+Weather-Almanac. June being lost to the hay-farmer by the fear of “rain
+and electrical phenomena,” July is to make him happy “with fair and hot
+weather.” The hay-harvest therefore will be, if possible, deferred by
+the dupes onward to July. Now in July a continuance of rainy weather
+commonly happens about the middle of the month; and this periodical
+tendency to rain has given rise to the popular tradition of St. Swithin.
+Of course there are exceptions to this tendency; but in this, as in most
+cases, the popular error has some little foundation in truth. The
+chances, therefore, are that the farmer who, for fear of “electrical
+phenomena,” has let June pass over without cutting his grass, will find
+a very short interval between the beginning of July and the periodical
+rains of the middle of that month; and thus a great deal of national
+property may be destroyed, and the credulous individual’s capital
+expended in vain, because he has chosen to believe in a musty cheat, of
+which even the propagators of the deception are ashamed.
+
+We have endeavoured to show in a former Number (and we shall continue
+the subject in a future paper), that by the careful use of good
+instruments, some few facts may be established as guides in operations
+dependent upon the weather. In the place of these the observations of
+shepherds, fishermen, and others who have attended to the _passing_ and
+_local_ signs of winds, and clouds, and tints of the sky, and other
+omens, are not to be despised. These men are practical philosophers, who
+may fairly claim some accurate knowledge of the weather from day to day.
+They are much too sensible and honest to pretend to any power of
+predicting if it will be fair or foul weather, for a year, or a month,
+or even a week beforehand. Such a man has been described by the poet:--
+
+             ⸻“In his shepherd’s calling he was prompt,
+             And watchful more than ordinary men.
+             Hence had he learned the meaning of all winds,
+             Of blasts of every tone; and, oftentimes,
+             When others heeded not, he heard the South
+             Make subterraneous music, like the noise
+             Of bagpipers on distant Highland hills.”
+
+The late Sir Humphrey Davy, one of the most successful modern explorers
+of the secrets of nature, was not above attending to, and explaining
+the, “weather-omens” which are derived from popular observation. In his
+‘Salmonia’ he has the following dialogue between Halieus (a fly-fisher),
+Poietes (a poet), Physicus (a man of science), and Ornither (a
+sportsman):--
+
+
+“_Poiet_. I hope we shall have another good day to-morrow, for the
+clouds are red in the west.
+
+“_Phys_. I have no doubt of it, for the red has a tint of purple.
+
+“_Hal_. Do you know why this tint portends fine weather?
+
+“_Phys_. The air, when dry, I believe, refracts more red, or heat-making
+rays; and as dry air is not perfectly transparent, they are again
+reflected in the horizon. I have generally observed a coppery or yellow
+sun-set to foretel rain; but, as an indication of wet weather
+approaching, nothing is more certain than a halo round the moon, which
+is produced by the precipitated water; and the larger the circle, the
+nearer the clouds, and consequently the more ready to fall.
+
+“_Hal_. I have often observed that the old proverb is correct--
+
+          ‘A rainbow in the morning is the shepherd’s warning;
+           A rainbow at night is the shepherd’s delight.’
+
+Can you explain this omen?
+
+“_Phys_. A rainbow can only occur when the clouds containing, or
+depositing, the rain are opposite the sun,--and in the evening the
+rainbow is in the east, and in the morning in the west; and as our heavy
+rains, in this climate, are usually brought by the westerly wind, a
+rainbow in the west indicates that the bad weather is on the road, by
+the wind, to us; whereas the rainbow in the east proves that the rain in
+these clouds is passing from us.
+
+“_Poiet_. I have often observed, that when the swallows fly high fine
+weather is to be expected or continued; but when they fly low, and close
+to the ground, rain is almost surely approaching. Can you account for
+this?
+
+“_Hal_. Swallows follow the flies and gnats, and flies and gnats usually
+delight in warm strata of air; and as warm air is lighter, and usually
+moister, than cold air, when the warm strata of air are high, there is
+less chance of moisture being thrown down from them by the mixture with
+cold air; but when the warm and moist air is close to the surface, it is
+almost certain that, as the cold air flows down into it, a deposition of
+water will take place.
+
+“_Poiet_. I have often seen sea-gulls assemble on the land, and have
+almost always observed that very stormy and rainy weather was
+approaching. I conclude that these animals, sensible of a current of air
+approaching from the ocean, retire to the land to shelter themselves
+from the storm.
+
+“_Orn_. No such thing. The storm is their element, and the little petrel
+enjoys the heaviest gale; because, living on the smaller sea insects, he
+is sure to find his food in the spray of a heavy wave, and you may see
+him flitting above the edge of the highest surge. I believe that the
+reason of this migration of sea-gulls, and other sea birds, to the land,
+is their security of finding food; and they may be observed, at this
+time, feeding greedily on the earth-worms and larvæ, driven out of the
+ground by severe floods; and the fish, on which they prey in fine
+weather in the sea, leave the surface, and go deeper in storms. The
+search after food, as we have agreed on a former occasion, is the
+principal cause why animals change their places. The different tribes of
+the wading birds always migrate when rain is about to take place; and I
+remember once, in Italy, having been long waiting, in the end of March,
+for the arrival of the double snipe in the Campagna of Rome, a great
+flight appeared on the 3d of April, and the day after heavy rain set in,
+which greatly interfered with my sport. The vulture, upon the same
+principle, follows armies; and I have no doubt that the augury of the
+ancients was a good deal founded upon the observation of the instincts
+of birds. There are many superstitions of the vulgar owing to the same
+source. For anglers, in spring, it is always unlucky to see single
+magpies,--but _two_ may be always regarded as a favourable omen; and the
+reason is, that in cold and stormy weather one magpie alone leaves the
+nest in search of food, the other remaining sitting upon the eggs or the
+young ones; but when two go out together it is only when the weather is
+warm and mild, and favourable for fishing.
+
+“_Poiet_. The singular connections of causes and effects to which you
+have just referred, makes superstition less to be wondered at,
+particularly amongst the vulgar; and when two facts, naturally
+unconnected, have been accidentally coincident, it is not singular that
+this coincidence should have been observed and registered, and that
+omens of the most absurd kind should be trusted in. In the west of
+England, half a century ago, a particular hollow noise on the sea coast
+was referred to a spirit or goblin, called Bucca, and was supposed to
+foretel a shipwreck; the philosopher knows that sound travels much
+faster than currents in the air--and the sound always foretold the
+approach of a very heavy storm, which seldom takes place on that wild
+and rocky coast without a shipwreck on some part of its extensive
+shores, surrounded by the Atlantic.”
+
+
+We may not improperly conclude this paper with some lines which have
+been transmitted to us, as a production of the late Dr. Jenner, the
+discoverer of vaccination. We, of course, do not recommend an implicit
+reliance upon such _natural_ prophecies of the weather of the coming
+day. But, at any rate, whatever connected with this subject tends to
+open a man’s own eyes,--whatever excites in him the habit of observation
+and comparison,--is a benefit; whilst a reliance, on the contrary, on
+the unprincipled quackeries of the more popular almanacs which still
+disgrace our country, as well as every other prostration of the
+understanding before the shrine of ignorance, is the most deceptive of
+all states of the human mind, and the most likely to engender a train of
+other delusions which shut up the sources of real knowledge, and degrade
+the whole moral as well as intellectual character.
+
+
+                             SIGNS OF RAIN.
+
+ Addressed by Dr. Jenner, in 1810, to a Lady who asked him if he thought
+                         it would rain to-morrow.
+
+                The hollow winds begin to blow,
+                The clouds look black, the glass is low:
+                The soot falls down, the spaniels sleep,
+                And spiders from their cobwebs creep:
+                Last night the sun went pale to bed,
+                The moon in halos hid her head:
+                The boding shepherd heaves a sigh,
+                For see, a rainbow spans the sky;
+                The walls are damp, the ditches smell,
+                Closed is the pink-eyed pimpernel;
+                The squalid toads at dusk were seen
+                Slowly crawling o’er the green;
+                Loud quack the ducks, the peacocks cry,
+                The distant hills are looking nigh;
+                Hark, how the chairs and tables crack,
+                Old Betty’s joints are on the rack;
+                And see yon rooks, how odd their flight,
+                They imitate the gliding kite,
+                Or seem precipitate to fall
+                As if they felt the piercing ball;
+                How restless are the snorting swine,
+                The busy flies disturb the kine,
+                Low o’er the grass the swallow wings,
+                The cricket too, how loud she sings,
+                Puss on the hearth with velvet paws
+                Sits wiping o’er her whisker’d jaws:--
+                ’Twill surely rain, I see, with sorrow,
+                Our jaunt must be put off to-morrow.
+
+-----
+
+Footnote 3:
+
+  Every Man out of his Humour; Act iii. Scene 7.
+
+
+                         ---------------------
+
+
+                      THE BRITISH MUSEUM.--No. 4.
+
+                      [Illustration: The Musk-Ox.]
+
+We shall occasionally turn aside from the monuments of Art in the
+British Museum to notice some of the specimens in the collection of
+Natural History. Stuffed skins and skeletons are, of course, much less
+interesting, both to the scientific student of zoology and to the
+ordinary observer, than the living animal, retaining his natural habits,
+as far as they can be preserved, in a menagerie. But, at the same time,
+a stuffed skin affords a much better notion of the animated creature
+than the best drawing; and, in some cases, the living specimen cannot be
+procured, or kept alive, in this country. In such cases we are compelled
+to resort to such preserved specimens as that of the _musk-ox_, on the
+great staircase of the Museum.
+
+This specimen is very faithfully represented in the above wood-cut. The
+animal, of which this skin was once a part, was shot by some of the
+persons accompanying Captain Parry, in one of his expeditions to the
+Polar Seas; and was presented to the Museum by the Lords of the
+Admiralty. The appearance of the musk-ox, as the visitor will observe,
+is strikingly different from that of the common black cattle of Great
+Britain. Its limbs are singularly short,--its crooked horns are broad
+and flattened,--long thick hair covers the whole of its trunk, hanging
+down nearly to the ground,--and its short tail, bending inwards, is
+entirely hidden by the long hair of the rump and hind quarters. It will
+be noticed that the hair is particularly thick under the throat, looking
+something like a horse’s mane inverted. The adaptation of the structure
+of this animal to the frozen regions which he inhabits, offers one of
+the most striking illustrations of design which the natural world
+exhibits. The shortness of the creature’s limbs prevents that exposure
+of the trunk to the snow-storms and the cold, which would result from a
+greater elevation; whilst he is more effectually protected from the
+severity of the seasons by the dense mass of hair with which his whole
+body is covered, and which, in winter, becomes a thick woolly coat,
+beneath the long straight hair which forms his outer garment. The Author
+of the Appendix to Parry’s Second Voyage, in noticing the remarkable
+projection of the orbits of the eyes in this species, considers that
+their formation is necessary to carry the eye of the animal clear beyond
+the large quantity of hair required to preserve the warmth of the head.
+
+Thus protected from the inclemency of winter cold, the musk-ox remains
+the contented and happy inhabitant of the most barren and desolate parts
+of the earth. Within the Arctic Circle, in those almost inaccessible
+regions which lie nearest the North Pole, large herds of these
+quadrupeds are found, appearing to derive as much enjoyment from
+existence as the cattle who graze on the most luxuriant pastures,
+beneath a genial sky. They are not often found at a great distance from
+woods; but when they feed upon open grounds they prefer the most
+precipitous situations, climbing amidst rocks with all the agility and
+precision of the mountain-goat or the chamois. Grass, when they can get
+it, moss, twigs of willow, and pine shoots, constitute their food. The
+parts of the polar regions inhabited by the musk-ox are thus described
+in the Appendix to Parry’s Second Voyage:--
+
+
+“This species of ox inhabits the North Georgian Islands in the summer
+months. They arrived in Melville Island in the middle of May, crossing
+the ice from the southward, and quitted it on their return towards the
+end of September. The musk-ox may be further stated, on Esquimaux
+information, to inhabit the country on the west of Davis’ Strait, and on
+the north of Baffin’s Bay; as a head and horns and a drawing of a bull
+being shown to the Esquimaux of the west coast of Davis’ Strait who were
+communicated with on the 7th of September, were immediately recognized,
+and the animal called by the name of Umingmack. This is evidently the
+same with the Umimak of the Esquimaux of Wolstenholme Sound, who were
+visited by the former expedition, and of which nothing more could be
+learnt at the time from their description than that it was a large
+horned animal inhabiting the land, and certainly not a rein-deer. It is
+probable that the individuals which extend their summer migration to the
+north-east of Baffin’s Bay, retire during the winter to the continent of
+America, or to its neighbourhood, as the species is unknown in South
+Greenland.”
+
+
+Captain Franklin, in his Journey to the Polar Sea, has given the
+following account of the habits of this species:--
+
+
+“The musk-oxen, like the buffalo, herd together in bands, and generally
+frequent barren grounds during the summer months, keeping near the
+rivers, but retire to the woods in winter. They seem to be less watchful
+than most other wild animals, and when grazing are not difficult to
+approach, provided the hunters go against the wind. When two or three
+men get so near a herd as to fire at them from different points, these
+animals, instead of separating or running away, huddle closer together,
+and several are generally killed; but if the wound is not mortal they
+become enraged, and dart in the most furious manner at the hunters, who
+must be very dexterous to evade them. They can defend themselves by
+their powerful horns against wolves and bears, which, as the Indians
+say, they not unfrequently kill. The musk-oxen feed on the same
+substances with the rein-deer, and the prints of the feet of these two
+animals are so much alike, that it requires the eye of an experienced
+hunter to distinguish them. The largest killed by us did not exceed in
+weight three hundred pounds. The flesh has a musky disagreeable flavour,
+particularly when the animal is lean, which unfortunately for us was the
+case with all that we now killed,”
+
+
+The bulls of this species killed during Parry’s second voyage weighed,
+upon an average, about 700 lbs., yielding about 400 lbs. of meat; and
+they stood about 10½ hands high at the withers.
+
+On the staircase of the Museum are also stuffed specimens of a male and
+female Giraffe, or Camelopard, which were presented to the Museum by Mr.
+Burchell, the traveller in Africa. The living giraffe which was
+presented to George IV. in 1827, by the Pacha of Egypt, died in 1829.
+The other giraffe sent to the government of France, in 1827, is still
+living in the Jardin des Plantes, at Paris. It is impossible from a
+studied specimen to form an adequate idea of the grace and beauty of
+this remarkable animal; nor of the impression produced upon the senses
+by a creature of such enormous height lifting up its head to gather the
+tender leaves from branches three times as high as a tall man. Till the
+living giraffes were brought to England and France there was a general
+belief that the descriptions of this animal were partly fabulous. It is
+now established that the account which was given of this animal by Le
+Vaillant, one of the most amusing of travellers, who saw the animal in
+its native woods, is perfectly accurate. We copy the following
+description from his Second Voyage, as translated in ‘The Menageries,’
+Vol. I.:--
+
+
+“The giraffe ruminates, as every animal does that possesses, at the same
+time, horns and cloven feet. It grazes also in the same way; but not
+often, because the country which it inhabits has little pasturage. Its
+ordinary food is the leaf of a sort of mimosa, called by the natives
+_kanaap_, and by the colonists, _kameeldoorn_. This tree being only
+found in the country of the Namaquas, may probably afford a reason why
+the giraffe is there fixed, and why he is not seen in those regions of
+Southern Africa where the tree does not grow.
+
+
+                      [Illustration: The Giraffe.]
+
+
+“Doubtless the most beautiful part of his body is the head. The mouth is
+small; the eyes are brilliant and full. Between the eyes, and above the
+nose is a swelling, very prominent and well defined. This prominence is
+not a fleshy excrescence, but an enlargement of the bony substance; and
+it seems to be similar to the two little lumps, or protuberances, with
+which the top of his head is armed, and which, being about the size of a
+hen’s egg, spring, on each side, at the commencement of the mane. His
+tongue is rough, and terminates in a point. The two jaws have, on each
+side, six molar teeth; but the lower jaw has, beyond these, eight
+incisive teeth, while the upper jaw has none.
+
+“The hoofs, which are cleft, and have no nails, resemble those of the
+ox. We may remark, at first sight, that those of the fore feet are
+larger than those of the hind. The leg is very slender, but the knees
+have a prominence, because the animal kneels when he lies down.
+
+“If I had not myself killed the giraffe, I should have believed, as have
+many naturalists, that the fore legs are much longer than the hind. This
+is an error; for the legs have, in general, the proportion of those of
+other quadrupeds. I say in general, because in this genus there are
+varieties, as there are in animals of the same species.... His defence,
+as that of the horse and other hoofed animals, consists in kicks; and
+his hinder limbs are so light, and his blows so rapid, that the eye
+cannot follow them. They are sufficient for his defence against the
+lion. He never employs his horns in resisting any attack.... The
+giraffes, male and female, resemble each other in their exterior, in
+their youth. Their obtuse horns are then terminated by a knot of long
+hair: the female preserves this peculiarity some time, but the male
+loses it at the age of three years. The hide, which is at first of a
+light red, becomes of a deeper colour as the animal advances in age, and
+is at length of a yellow brown in the female, and of a brown approaching
+to black in the male. By this difference of colour the male may be
+distinguished from the female at a distance. The skin varies in both
+sexes, as to the distribution and form of the spots. The female is not
+so high as the male, and the prominence of the front is not so marked.
+She has four teats. According to the account of the natives, she goes
+with young about twelve months, and has one at a birth.”
+
+
+                         ---------------------
+
+
+                               THE WEEK.
+
+                        [Illustration: Flaxman.]
+
+July 4.--On this day, in the year 1715, was born at Haynichen, near
+Freyberg, in Saxony, the German poet, CHRISTIAN FURCHTEGOTT GELLERT.
+Gellert was not a man of the highest genius; but appearing at a
+favourable time, being animated by the finest spirit of benevolence and
+virtuous ambition, and possessing just the talents and character of mind
+suited to the task which he undertook, that of awakening the general
+body of his countrymen to a taste for literature, he produced as great
+and as gratifying an effect by his works as, perhaps, any writer that
+ever lived. His father was a clergyman, and he was originally intended
+for the same profession; but his first attempt in the pulpit convinced
+him that his constitutional timidity would probably prevent him from
+ever becoming an effective public speaker. He then resolved to devote
+himself to the instruction of his countrymen through the press. At this
+time Germany was almost destitute of a national literature. The country
+had given birth to many great scholars; and both classical learning and
+the abstruse philosophy of the middle ages were cultivated with zeal and
+success in its colleges. But scarcely any one had yet arisen to write
+for the people. This Gellert and a few of his friends resolved to do.
+Discarding all the repulsive technicalities of the schools, they
+proceeded to expound and illustrate the great principles of morality,
+metaphysics, and criticism, for the use of society at large, in a
+natural and popular style, such as was fitted to be intelligible and
+interesting to all. In this patriotic enterprise Gellert may be said to
+have spent his life. Every successive work which he produced was
+received with delight by Germany; but his celebrated ‘Fables’ were read
+with rapture by all classes of the population. One day a peasant
+appeared at Gellert’s door in Leipsic, with a waggon loaded with
+fire-wood. “Is it not here,” asked the man, “that Mr. Gellert lives?” On
+being told that it was, he desired to see the master of the house; and
+having been brought to him, “Are not you, sir,” he said, “the author of
+the ‘Fables?’” “I am,” replied Gellert. “Well then,” said the other,
+“here is a load of wood, which I have brought you, to thank you for the
+pleasure which your book has given to myself, my wife, and my children.”
+By such a heart as Gellert’s this was probably felt to be a more
+touching tribute to his powers than the plaudits of crowded theatres
+would have been. Another time he was standing in the workshop of a
+bookbinder, when a villager came in with a book in his hand. “Here,”
+said he, “I want this book strongly bound.” “Where did you pick up this
+book?” asked the binder. “I bought it in our town,” replied the
+delighted possessor of the treasure; “it has made the steward of the
+manor and the schoolmaster laugh till they have almost split their
+sides: I have a little boy, who is now a tolerably good reader; he shall
+read from this book to me in the evening, while I smoke my pipe, and I
+will go no more to the ale-house.” Even the war (commonly called the
+_seven years’ war_) which ravaged a great part of Germany from 1756 to
+1763, did not extinguish the popular enthusiasm for the writings of
+Gellert. When Leipsic was taken by the Prussians in 1758, a lieutenant
+of hussars found out the peaceable poet in his house, and not contented
+with thanking him warmly for the delightful books to which, he said, he
+owed so many pleasant hours, insisted, by way of more substantially
+testifying his gratitude, upon making him a present of a pair of
+pistols, which he had taken from a Cossack. Nay, the common soldiers
+themselves used to come, almost in regiments, to hear a course of
+lectures on moral philosophy, which he read in public about this time;
+and it is related that one man, having obtained leave of absence, turned
+a considerable way out of his road, on his journey homewards, in order
+to see, as he expressed it, that _honest fellow_, Mr. Gellert, _whose
+books had saved him from becoming a profligate_. The works of Gellert
+have been frequently printed in a collected form, and amount, in the
+fullest edition, to ten volumes duodecimo. He had been afflicted during
+the greater part of his life by bad health; and died on the night of the
+13th of December, 1769, in the fifty-fifth year of his age. Having
+lingered long in considerable pain, he remarked to the physician, a
+short time before his death, that he had not believed it would have been
+so difficult to die, and asked when the termination of his sufferings
+might be expected. When he was informed that another hour would probably
+release him, “God be praised,” he said; “still another hour!” and then
+lay in silent resignation, till the expected deliverance came. Germany
+lamented, with all the tokens of national grief, the loss of her amiable
+instructor; and medals and public monuments testified the admiration and
+gratitude of all ranks of his countrymen.
+
+July 6.--The birth-day of JOHN FLAXMAN, the late eminent sculptor, whose
+works have done so much to form the English school of design. Flaxman
+was born in 1755, in York, from whence he was removed in his infancy to
+London, where his father, who was a moulder of figures, subsequently
+kept a shop in the Strand for the sale of plaster casts. The father’s
+occupation, no doubt, contributed to call forth the genius of the son;
+but the boy very early began to give evidence of fondness for those arts
+to which his future life was devoted, and of singular taste and skill in
+the efforts of his uninstructed pencil. Like many more of the most
+distinguished cultivators of literature and art, he was prevented by the
+weakness and delicate health of his early years from mixing in the ruder
+sports of boys of his own age; and this, of course, gave him more time
+for solitary study. His father was not able to afford him the advantages
+of a regular education; but he rapidly acquired a great deal of
+knowledge by his own unaided efforts. When he was fifteen he was
+admitted a student in the Royal Academy. Here he was successful in a
+competition for the inferior honour of the silver medal; but on the
+contest for the gold one, Sir Joshua Reynolds, the President, awarded
+the prize to another. This was, perhaps, upon the whole, not an
+unfortunate incident for Flaxman, though he severely felt what he
+thought an injustice. His rival, notwithstanding his good fortune on
+this occasion, never rose to any distinction; but Flaxman, with the
+heroism of true genius, resolved to obliterate this defeat of his youth
+by future triumphs, of the glory of which no such decision should be
+able to rob him. And this resolution he nobly fulfilled. His first
+employment was given him by the Messrs. Wedgewood, the productions of
+whose porcelain potteries he embellished with designs that gave at once
+a new character to this branch of British manufactures. In 1782 he
+married; and five years afterwards proceeded to visit Italy, where he
+remained till 1794, studying the celebrated monuments of the fine arts
+with which that country abounds, and at the same time exerting his own
+pencil in the production of works which soon spread his fame over
+Europe. Having then returned to England, he was in 1797 elected an
+Associate, and in 1800 a Member, of the Royal Academy. After this he
+executed many great works in marble; and, as a lecturer, afforded some
+valuable contributions to the literature of his profession. For many
+years before his death his name ranked with the highest of the living
+artists of England. But we must refer the reader for an account of his
+performances to Mr. Allan Cunningham’s interesting life of him, lately
+published, or to the abstract of that memoir in the second number of the
+Gallery of Portraits. He died at his house in Buckingham-street, on the
+7th of December, 1826, in the seventy-second year of his age.
+
+
+                         ---------------------
+
+
+                    IMPROVEMENT IN SOCIAL CONDITION.
+
+The history of the United States of North America is, in some respects,
+one of the most instructive that we can turn to; because we are
+accurately acquainted with the origin of this social community, and are
+also enabled to trace its history in all its important facts, from the
+first establishment of the several colonies up to the present condition
+of the Union. Of all historical records none can be put in comparison
+with legislative enactments, as showing the condition of the people at
+any given period, and the degree of mental culture diffused among them.
+In the American States, even under their former colonial government,
+there were few men of any importance in the provinces who did not
+participate in some of the functions of government; and we may therefore
+consider the laws enacted at that period as indicative of the opinions
+held by the most influential classes.
+
+We happen to have before us an old collection of Virginia laws,
+entitled, ‘A complete collection of the Laws of Virginia, at a Grand
+Assembly held at James City, 23d March, 1662;’ a few extracts from which
+may not be uninteresting.
+
+There appears to be in this volume only one law about education, which
+prescribes the founding of a college “for the advance of learning,
+education of youth, supply of the ministry, and promotion of piety.” The
+law states how the money is to be raised; but as to its application
+nothing more is said, except that a piece of land is to be got, and,
+“with as much speed as may be convenient, housing is to be erected
+thereon for entertainment of students and scholars.” The _housing_
+department seems to have been the uppermost thing in the legislature’s
+thoughts; the providing of good teachers was a secondary consideration.
+
+There are several enactments about “rewards for killing wolves,” which
+at that time infested even the lower parts of Virginia. At the present
+day, owing to the increase of population, the wolf and other wild
+animals, though occasionally heard of, are but rarely seen even in the
+mountains, and seldom do any damage. The reward “for every wolf
+destroyed by pit, trap, or otherwise, is 200 pounds of tobacco.”
+
+Tobacco was the most common standard of value in Virginia at that time,
+as we see from this and numerous other instances, where fines, &c. are
+estimated at so many pounds of tobacco. Thus it is stated in enactment
+35, that “the court shall not take cognizance of any cause under the
+value of 200 pounds of tobacco, or twenty shillings sterling, which a
+private justice may and is hereby authorized and empowered to hear and
+determine.”
+
+The following recipe for good order is contained in an enactment,
+entitled ‘Pillories to be erected at each Court:’--“In every county the
+court shall cause to be set up a pillory, a pair of stocks, and a
+whipping-post near the court-house, and a ducking-stool;--and the court
+not causing the said pillory, whipping-post, stocks, and ducking-stool
+to be erected, shall be fined 5000 pounds of tobacco to the use of the
+public.”
+
+In those days the following provision was made for extending the
+elective franchise, which appears founded on a rational principle:
+“Every county that will lay out 100 acres of land, and people it with
+100 tytheable (taxable) persons, that place shall enjoy the like
+privilege” of sending a burgess. The burgesses, together with their
+attendants, were free from arrest, from the time of election till ten
+days after dissolution of the assembly; this privilege, however, was
+somewhat modified by several clauses. Every burgess was allowed during
+the sitting of the assembly “150 lbs. of tobacco and cask per day,
+besides the necessary charge of going to the assembly and returning.”
+This practice of paying legislators, which, in America, originated under
+the Colonial system, is still continued in the United States. It did not
+entirely cease in England until the reign of Charles II. Andrew Marvell,
+one of the burgesses of Hull, was the last member of the House of
+Commons who appears to have accepted the wages which all were entitled
+to receive.
+
+Among commercial restrictions we find an enactment prohibiting the
+planting of tobacco after the 10th of July, which was done for “the
+improvement of our only commodity tobacco, which can no ways be effected
+but by lessening the quantity and amending the quality.” That the former
+effect might possibly be produced by the enactment, without securing the
+latter, seems pretty certain. Another object that the government had in
+view was to compel the people to become silk-growers against their will.
+“Be it therefore enacted,” says the legislature, “that every proprietor
+of land within the colony of Virginia shall, for every hundred acres of
+land holden in fee, plant upon the said land ten mulberry-trees at
+twelve foot distance from each other, and secure them by weeding and a
+sufficient fence from cattle and horses.” Tobacco fines, as usual, were
+enacted in case the planting and weeding were not duly performed; and
+further, “there shall be allowed in the public levy to any one for every
+pound of wound silk he shall make, fifty pounds of tobacco, to be raised
+in the public levy, and paid in the county or counties where they dwell
+that make it.” This act was passed in 1662, and probably continued in
+force for a long time; but Virginia did not therefore become a
+silk-growing country, nor has it yet, though many parts are well adapted
+to raise this commodity. People, we presume, have hitherto found other
+things more profitable than silk.
+
+The following enactment has a most barbarous character about it, not
+unmixed with something extremely ludicrous as to the idea of the
+legislature trying to prevent women from talking: “Whereas many babbling
+women slander and scandalize their neighbours, for which their poor
+husbands are often involved in chargeable and vexatious suits, and cast
+in great damages:--Be it therefore enacted, that in actions of slander,
+occasioned by the wife, after judgment passed for the damages, the woman
+shall be punished by ducking; and if the slander be so enormous as to be
+adjudged at greater damages than 500 pounds of tobacco, then the woman
+to suffer a ducking for each 500 pounds of tobacco adjudged against the
+husband, if he refuse to pay the tobacco.”
+
+This old statute book of Virginia is full of enactments such as we have
+quoted; some exceedingly mischievous, and others very ludicrous. It
+would, however, be unfair to say that there are not also some good
+regulations in it. Were a history of our own or any other country to be
+written, founded on the legislative enactments and illustrated, whenever
+it was possible, by individual cases on record, we should then begin to
+have some idea of what history is. Instead of the splendours or the
+follies of a few who occupy the attention of the historian, we should be
+able to form a more complete picture of the condition of the whole
+community, and a more exact estimate of the progress which has been made
+in social knowledge.
+
+
+                         ---------------------
+
+
+                     THE LOSS OF THE ROYAL GEORGE.
+
+On the 29th of August, 1782, it was found necessary that the Royal
+George, a line-of-battle ship of 108 guns, which had lately arrived at
+Spithead from a cruise, should, previously to her going again to sea,
+undergo the operation which seamen technically call a _Parliament heel_.
+In such cases the ship is inclined in a certain degree on one side,
+while the defects below the watermark on the other side are examined and
+repaired. This mode of proceeding is, we believe, at the present day,
+very commonly adopted where the defects to be repaired are not
+extensive, or where (as was the case with the Royal George) it is
+desirable to avoid the delay of going into dock. The operation is
+usually performed in still weather and smooth water, and is attended
+with so little difficulty and danger, that the officers and crew usually
+remain on board, and neither the guns nor stores are removed.
+
+The business was commenced on the Royal George early in the morning, a
+gang of men from the Portsmouth Dock-yard coming on board to assist the
+ship’s carpenters. It is said that, finding it necessary to strip off
+more of the sheathing than had been intended, the men in their eagerness
+to reach the defect in the ship’s bottom, were induced to _heel_ her too
+much, when a sudden squall of wind threw her wholly on her side; and the
+gun-ports being open, and the cannon rolling over to the depressed side,
+the ship was unable to right herself, instantaneously filled with water,
+and went to the bottom.
+
+The fatal accident happened about ten o’clock in the morning; Admiral
+Kempenfeldt was writing in his cabin, and the greater part of the people
+were between decks. The ship, as is usually the case upon coming into
+port, was crowded with people from the shore, particularly women, of
+whom it is supposed there were not less than three hundred on board.
+Amongst the sufferers were many of the wives and children of the petty
+officers and seamen, who, knowing the ship was shortly to sail on a
+distant and perilous service, eagerly embraced the opportunity of
+visiting their husbands and fathers.
+
+The Admiral, with many brave officers and most of those who were between
+decks, perished; the greater number of the guard, and those who happened
+to be on the upper deck, were saved by the boats of the fleet. About
+seventy others were likewise saved. The exact number of persons on board
+at the time could not be ascertained; but it was calculated that from
+800 to 1000 were lost. Captain Waghorne, whose gallantry in the North
+Sea battle, under Admiral Parker, had procured him the command of this
+ship, was saved, though he was severely bruised and battered; but his
+son, a lieutenant in the Royal George, perished. Such was the force of
+the whirlpool, occasioned by the sudden plunge of so vast a body in the
+water, that a victualler which lay alongside the Royal George was
+swamped; and several small craft, at a considerable distance, were in
+imminent danger.
+
+Admiral Kempenfeldt, who was nearly 70 years of age, was peculiarly and
+universally lamented. In point of general science and judgment, he was
+one of the first naval officers of his time; and, particularly in the
+art of manœuvring a fleet, he was considered by the commanders of that
+day as unrivalled. His excellent qualities, as a man, are said to have
+equalled his professional merits.
+
+This melancholy occurrence has been recorded by the poet, Cowper, in the
+following beautiful lines:--
+
+                  Toll for the brave!
+                    The brave, that are no more!
+                  All sunk beneath the wave,
+                    Fast by their native shore.
+
+                  Eight hundred of the brave,
+                    Whose courage well was tried,
+                  Had made the vessel heel,
+                    And laid her on her side.
+
+                  A land-breeze shook the shrouds,
+                    And she was overset;
+                  Down went the Royal George,
+                    With all her crew complete.
+
+                  Toll for the brave!
+                    Brave Kempenfeldt is gone;
+                  His last sea-fight is fought;
+                    His work of glory done.
+
+                  It was not in the battle;
+                    No tempest gave the shock;
+                  She sprang no fatal leak;
+                    She ran upon no rock.
+
+                  His sword was in its sheath;
+                    His fingers held the pen,
+                  When Kempenfeldt went down,
+                    With twice four hundred men.
+
+                  Weigh the vessel up,
+                    Once dreaded by our foes!
+                  And mingle with our cup
+                    The tear that England owes.
+
+                  Her timbers yet are sound,
+                    And she may float again,
+                  Full charg’d with England’s thunder,
+                    And plough the distant main.
+
+                  But Kempenfeldt is gone,
+                    His victories are o’er;
+                  And he, and his eight hundred,
+                    Shall plough the wave no more.
+
+
+                         ---------------------
+
+
+_Strange Mode of curing a vicious Horse._--I have seen vicious horses in
+Egypt cured of the habit of biting, by presenting to them, while in the
+act of doing so, a leg of mutton just taken from the fire: the pain
+which a horse feels in biting through the hot meat, causes it, after a
+few lessons, to abandon the vicious habit.--_Burckhardt._
+
+
+                         ---------------------
+
+
+The Bedouins never allow a horse, at the moment of his birth, to fall
+upon the ground; they receive it in their arms, and so cherish it for
+several hours, occupied in washing and stretching its tender limbs, and
+caressing it as they would a baby. After this they place it on the
+ground, and watch its feeble steps with particular attention,
+prognosticating from that time the excellences or defects of their
+future companion.--_Burckhardt._
+
+
+                         ---------------------
+
+
+_Tremendous Earthquakes._--Earthquakes have caused many melancholy
+changes in Calabria; and every thing bears testimony to the cruel
+ravages occasioned by that of 1783. This frightful catastrophe, which
+has altered the aspect of these countries in an inconceivable manner,
+was preceded by the most appalling indications. Close, compact, and
+immoveable mists seemed to hang heavily over the earth: in some places
+the atmosphere appeared red hot, so that people expected it would every
+moment burst out into flames: the water of the rivers assumed an ashy
+and turbid colour, while a suffocating stench of sulphur diffused itself
+around. The violent shocks which were repeated at several intervals from
+the 5th of February to the 28th of May, destroyed the greater part of
+the buildings of Calabria Ultra. The number of inhabitants who were
+crushed under the ruins of their houses, or who perished on the strands
+of Scylla, was estimated at about 50,000. Rivers arrested in their
+course by the fall of mountains, became so many infected lakes,
+corrupting the air in all directions. Houses, trees, and large fields
+were hurried down together to the bottom of the deep glens without being
+separated by the shock: in short, all the extraordinary calamities and
+changes which can be effected by earthquakes were beheld at this
+deplorable period, under the various forms which characterize
+them.--_Calabria, during a Military Residence._
+
+
+                         ---------------------
+
+
+_Age of Sheep_.--The age of a sheep may be known by examining the front
+teeth. They are eight in number, and appear during the first year, all
+of a small size. In the second year, the two middle ones fall out, and
+their place is supplied by two new teeth, which are easily distinguished
+by being of a larger size. In the third year two other small teeth, one
+from each side, drop out and are replaced by two large ones; so that
+there are now four large teeth in the middle, and two pointed ones on
+each side. In the fourth year the large teeth are six in number, and
+only two small ones remain, one at each end of the range. In the fifth
+year the remaining small teeth are lost, and the whole front teeth are
+large. In the sixth year the whole begin to be worn, and in the seventh,
+sometimes sooner, some fall out or are broken.
+
+  ⁂ From ‘the Mountain Shepherd’s Manual,’ a useful little tract on the
+    nature, diseases, and management of sheep, being No. 24 of the
+    ‘Farmer’s Series,’ published under the Superintendence of the
+    Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.
+
+
+                         ---------------------
+
+
+_Anecdote of the late Honourable Henry Cavendish._-- One Sunday evening
+he was standing at Sir Joseph Banks’s, in a crowded room, conversing
+with Mr. Hatchett, when Dr. Ingenhousz, who had a good deal of pomposity
+of manner, came up with an Austrian gentleman in his hand, and
+introduced him formally to Mr. Cavendish. He mentioned the titles and
+qualifications of his friend at great length, and said that he had been
+peculiarly anxious to be introduced to a philosopher so profound and so
+universally known and celebrated as Mr. Cavendish. As soon as Dr.
+Ingenhousz had finished, the Austrian gentleman began, and assured Mr.
+Cavendish, that his principal reason for coming to London was to see and
+converse with one of the greatest ornaments of the age, and one of the
+most illustrious philosophers that ever existed. To all these high-flown
+speeches Mr. Cavendish answered not a word; but stood with his eyes cast
+down, quite abashed and confounded. At last, seeing an opening in the
+crowd, he darted through it, with all the speed he was master of; nor
+did he stop till he reached his carriage, which drove him directly home.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+ ⁂ The Office of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge is at
+                        59, Lincoln’s Inn Fields.
+
+                LONDON:--CHARLES KNIGHT, PALL-MALL EAST.
+
+  _Shopkeepers and Hawkers may be supplied Wholesale by the following
+                            Booksellers:--_
+
+ _London_, GROOMBRIDGE, Panyer Alley, Paternoster Row.
+ _Bath_, SIMMS.
+ _Birmingham_, DRAKE.
+ _Bristol_, WESTLEY and Co.
+ _Carlisle_, THURNAM; and SCOTT.
+ _Derby_, WILKINS and SON.
+ _Falmouth_, PHILIP.
+ _Hull_, STEPHENSON.
+ _Leeds_, BAINES and NEWSOME.
+ _Lincoln_, BROOKE and SONS.
+ _Liverpool_, WILLMER and SMITH.
+ _Manchester_, ROBINSON; and WEBB and SIMMS.
+ _Newcastle-upon-Tyne_, CHARNLEY.
+ _Norwich_, JARROLD and SON.
+ _Nottingham_, WRIGHT.
+ _Sheffield_, RIDGE.
+ _Dublin_, WAKEMAN.
+ _Edinburgh_, OLIVER and BOYD.
+ _Glasgow_, ATKINSON and Co.
+
+               Printed by WILLIAM CLOWES, Stamford Street.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+                          Transcriber’s Notes
+
+
+This file uses _underscores_ to indicate italic text. New original cover
+art included with this eBook is granted to the public domain. Itemized
+changes from the original text:
+
+ • p. 124: Added period after abbreviation “lbs.” in phrase “weighed,
+   upon an average, about 700 lbs., yielding about 400 lbs. of meat.”
+ • p. 125: Added period after phrase “Doubtless the most beautiful part
+   of his body is the head.”
+ • p. 126: Supplied missing letters in word “style” in phrase “in a
+   natural and popular style.”
+ • p. 126: Added period after phrase “the highest of the living artists
+   of England.”
+ • p. 128: Removed closing double quotation mark after phrase “under the
+   various forms which characterize them.”
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76874 ***
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+<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76874 ***</div>
+
+<div>
+  <span class='pageno' id='Page_121'>121</span>
+  <h1 class='c000' title='The Penny Magazine, June 30, 1832'>THE PENNY MAGAZINE</h1>
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c1'>
+<div class='nf-center c001'>
+    <div><span class='small'>OF THE</span></div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c1'>
+<div class='nf-center c001'>
+    <div><span class='large'>Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.</span></div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="full">
+<div class="masthead">
+<div class="masthead-right">[<span class='sc'>June</span> 30, 1832</div>
+<div class="masthead-left">15.]</div>
+<div class="masthead-centre">PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY.</div>
+<hr class="full">
+</div>
+
+<div>
+  <h2 class='c002'>THE CAVE OF ELEPHANTA.</h2>
+</div>
+
+<div class='illo-wide'>
+
+<div  class='figcenter id001'>
+<a href='images/the-cave-of-elephanta-full.jpg'><img src='images/the-cave-of-elephanta-inline.png' alt='A view of a cave, with large statues and pillars and two people standing inside.' class='ig001'></a>
+</div>
+
+</div>
+
+<p class='c003'>One of the earliest monuments of India that attracted
+the notice of Europeans was the excavation of Elephanta,
+situated in a beautiful island of the same name,
+called by the natives Goripura, or <i>Mountain City</i>. This
+island is in the bay of Bombay, seven miles from Bombay
+castle; it is about six miles in circumference, and
+composed of two long hills with a narrow valley between
+them.</p>
+
+<p class='c004'>The island has taken its familiar name from a colossal
+statue of an elephant, cut out of a detached mass
+of blackish rock unconnected with any stratum below.
+This figure has had another on its back, which the old
+travellers call a young elephant, but which, as far as we
+can judge from the drawing of what remains of it, has
+much more probably been a tiger. The head and neck
+of this elephant dropped off about 1814, owing to a
+large fissure that ran up through its back. The length
+of this colossal figure, from the forehead to the root of
+the tail, was 13 feet 2 inches; and the height at the
+head 7 feet 4 inches. The remains of this colossus
+stand about 250 yards to the right of the usual landing-place,
+which is towards the southern part of the island.</p>
+
+<p class='c004'>After proceeding up the valley till the two mountains
+unite, we come to a narrow path, after ascending which
+there is a beautiful prospect of the northern part of the
+island, and the opposite shores of Salsette. “Advancing
+forward and keeping to the left along the bend of the
+hill, we gradually mount to an open space, and come
+suddenly on the grand entrance of a magnificent temple,
+whose huge massy columns seem to give support to the
+whole mountain which rises above it.</p>
+
+<p class='c004'>“The entrance into this temple, which is entirely
+hewn out of a stone resembling porphyry, is by a spacious
+front supported by two massy pillars and two
+pilasters forming three openings, under a thick and
+steep rock overhung by brushwood and wild shrubs.
+The long ranges of columns that appear closing in perspective
+on every side; the flat roof of solid rock
+that seems to be prevented from falling only by the
+massy pillars, whose capitals are pressed down and
+flattened as if by the superincumbent weight; the darkness
+that obscures the interior of the temple, which is
+dimly lighted only by the entrances; and the gloomy
+appearance of the gigantic stone figures ranged along
+the wall, and hewn, like the whole temple, out of the
+living rock,—joined to the strange uncertainty that
+hangs over the history of this place,—carry the mind
+back to distant periods, and impress it with that kind of
+uncertain and religious awe with which the grander
+works of ages of darkness are generally contemplated.</p>
+
+<p class='c004'>“The whole excavation consists of three principal
+parts: the great temple itself, which is in the centre,
+and two smaller chapels, one on each side of the great
+temple. These two chapels do not come forward into
+a straight line with the front of the chief temple, are
+not perceived on approaching the temple, and are considerably
+in recess, being approached by two narrow
+passes in the hill, one on each side of the grand
+entrance, but at some distance from it. After advancing
+to some distance up these confined passes, we find each
+of them conduct to another front of the grand excavation,
+exactly like the principal front which is first seen;
+all the three fronts being hollowed out of the solid rock,
+and each consisting of two huge pillars with two pilasters.
+The two side fronts are precisely opposite to each
+other on the east and west, the grand entrance facing
+the north. The two wings of the temple are at the
+upper end of these passages, and are close by the grand
+excavation, but have no covered passage to connect them
+with it.<a id='r1'></a><a href='#f1' class='c005'><sup>[1]</sup></a>”</p>
+
+<p class='c004'>From the northern entrance to the extremity of this
+cave is about 130½ feet, and from the eastern to the
+western side 133. Twenty-six pillars, of which eight are
+broken, and sixteen pilasters, support the roof. Neither
+the floor nor the roof is in the same plane, and consequently
+the height varies, being in some parts 17½, in
+others 15 feet. Two rows of pillars run parallel to one
+another from the northern entrance and at right angles
+to it, to the extremity of the cave; and the pilasters,
+one of which stands on each side of the two front pillars,
+are followed by other pilasters and pillars also, forming
+on each side of the two rows already described, another
+row, running parallel to them up to the southern extremity
+of the cave. The pillars on the eastern and western
+front, which are like those on the northern side, are also
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_122'>122</span>continued across the temple from east to west. Thus
+the ranges of pillars form a number of parallel lines
+intersecting one another at right angles—the pillars of
+the central parts being considered as common to the
+two sets of intersecting lines. The pillars vary both in
+their size and decorations, though the difference is not
+sufficient to strike the eye at first.</p>
+
+<p class='c004'>All the walls are covered with reliefs (which are yet
+very little known for want of complete drawings), but
+are described as being in good proportion and producing
+rather a pleasing effect than the contrary. All the
+sculptures refer to the Indian mythology, and the temple
+seems to have been the special property of the god
+Siva, since he appears very frequently with his usual
+attributes. In one place we see him as half man and
+half woman, with one breast and four hands, in one of
+which he holds the snake.</p>
+
+<p class='c004'>In Mr. Daniell’s Views in India (vol. v. pl. 7) we
+have a beautiful drawing of the northern front of the
+Elephanta cave, with its overhanging trees and shrubs.
+His eighth plate is that which we have above given.
+“The view is taken near the centre of the temple looking
+westward. The space between four of the pillars
+is formed into a small temple, sacred to Mahadiva
+(Siva), and has an entrance on each side, guarded by
+colossal figures.” “On the walls are several groups of
+figures in basso-relievo, evidently relating to the Hindoo
+mythology; many of them are of colossal dimensions
+and well executed. To the east and west are small apartments,
+decorated also in the same manner. This excavation
+is considerably elevated above the sea; the floor,
+nevertheless, is generally covered with water during the
+monsoon season; the rain being then driven in by the
+wind; a circumstance to which possibly its present state
+of decay is chiefly owing.”</p>
+
+<p class='c004'>Larger excavations of this kind are found in the
+neighbouring island of Salsette. But these are far surpassed
+by the temples of Ellora, which are in the province
+of Hyderabad, about twenty miles north-west from
+Aurungabad, the capital, and 239 east of Bombay. It
+may be considered as near the centre of India. Here
+we have a granite mountain, which is of an amphitheatre
+form, completely chiselled out from top to bottom,
+and filled with innumerable temples; the god Siva
+alone having, it is said, about twenty appropriated to
+himself. To describe the numerous galleries and rows
+of pillars which support various chambers lying one
+above another, the steps, porticos, and bridges of rock
+over canals, also hewn out of the solid rock, would be
+impossible; and we recommend those who have the
+opportunity to look at Daniell’s designs, which will serve
+to give some idea of this wonderful place.</p>
+
+<p class='c004'>The rock-cut temples of India are generally supposed
+to be of higher antiquity than pagodas<a id='r2'></a><a href='#f2' class='c005'><sup>[2]</sup></a> or temples,
+built on the surface of the earth.</p>
+
+<div class='shrink'>
+
+<p class='c006'>⁂ Abridged from ‘British Museum—Egyptian Antiquities.’</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<hr class='c007'>
+<div class='footnote' id='f1'>
+<p class='c004'><a href='#r1'>1</a>. Mr. W. Erskine, in the Bombay Literary Transactions.</p>
+</div>
+<div class='footnote' id='f2'>
+<p class='c004'><a href='#r2'>2</a>. The word pagoda is a corruption of <i>Bhaga-rati</i>, “holy house,”
+one of the several names by which the Hindoo temples are known.]</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class='c008'></div>
+<hr class="divider">
+<div>
+  <h2 class='c002'>THE WEATHER.—No. 3.</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c003'>Ben Jonson, in his play of ‘Every Man out of his
+Humour,’ has a character of which some examples
+may still be found, even in our own day. It is that of
+a credulous man, who relies implicitly on the <i>Weather
+Prophecies</i> of the almanacs of his time;—and, his barns
+being full, resolves not to sow his ground, because the
+almanacs foretel</p>
+
+<div class='shrink'>
+
+<div class='lg-container-b'>
+  <div class='linegroup'>
+    <div class='group'>
+      <div class='line'>“Rotten weather and unseasoned hours.”</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+</div>
+
+<p class='c009'>This species of credulity is probably not very often
+now carried as far as in the instance of <i>Sordido</i>, the
+dupe of the play;—but still there are some amongst us
+who will not cut their grass till they have seen what
+“Master Moore” says about the weather. In nine
+cases out of ten these superstitious confiders in an
+almost worn-out imposture, have in the end to exclaim
+with the miser of the old dramatist, “Tut, these star-monger
+knaves, who would trust ’em? One says, <i>dark
+and rainy</i>, when ’tis as clear as crystal; another says,
+<i>tempestuous blasts and storms</i>, and ’twas as calm as a
+milk-bowl. Here be sweet rascals for a man to credit
+his whole fortunes with<a id='r3'></a><a href='#f3' class='c005'><sup>[3]</sup></a>!”</p>
+
+<p class='c004'>Now, let us see what the almanac oracle of the
+present time—“Francis Moore, Physician”—says about
+the weather, for June, 1832. He says, in one of his
+narrow columns which runs parallel with the calendar
+of the present month, “Variable, with thunder showers
+flying about. Some showers at intervals, attended with
+electrical <i>phenomena</i>, <span class='fss'>EVEN TO THE END</span>.” Be it remembered
+that this prophecy is for <em>all parts</em> of the United
+Kingdom—for England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland;—for
+the hilly districts and for the plains,—for the
+coasts and for the inland countries. A correspondent,
+who writes to us about the weather, very sensibly says,
+“Does it not often happen that they have many rainy
+days successively at Manchester, whilst not a drop falls
+at Leeds? How then can any man’s tables about the
+moon, or general rules for the weather, or the prophecies
+of almanacs, answer for both the hilly and level
+districts? The Cheshire men say that their rugged-topt
+hills knock out the bottoms of the clouds, and leave
+them as leaky as a sieve while passing over Manchester.”
+So much for the <em>universal</em> application of these astrological
+predictions of the weather.</p>
+
+<p class='c004'>But let us further examine this prophecy of Moore’s
+Almanac for the present month of June. There are
+some who impudently defend the publication of such
+predictions, as well as the predictions of political events
+which the same almanac contains;—and they say that
+the weather prophecies are only intended to give the
+average results of many years of actual observation,
+which make more impression upon the farmer’s mind
+in this form than if he were to refer himself to meteorological
+tables of the barometer, of the thermometer, of
+the hygrometer, and of the rain-gauge. Now, here is a
+prediction calculated to frighten the credulous agriculturist
+into a belief that the whole of June, throughout
+the country, will be unfavourable to hay-making:—“Showers
+at intervals, attended with <i>electrical phenomena</i>,
+<span class='fss'>EVEN TO THE END</span>.” Electrical phenomena! This
+is a phrase as terrific as the obscurities of the ancient oracles.
+A phenomenon, as most of our readers know, is an
+appearance—anything made manifest to us in any way;
+and as electricity is doubtless one of the most important
+agents in producing particular states of the weather, rain
+and sunshine, wind and calm, heat and cold, may be
+equally <i>electrical phenomena</i>. But “showers at intervals,
+attended with electrical phenomena,” is a phrase
+naturally calculated to frighten the ignorant into a belief
+that the weather of June, “even unto the end,” will be
+rainy, attended with heavy storms; the most unfavourable
+state, because producing the greatest uncertainty
+and expense in the work of getting in the hay-harvest.
+This prediction was probably manufactured a year ago:
+it was printed in October last; and so far from giving a
+notion of what is the <em>average</em> weather for June—the
+only matter upon which the prediction monger could
+possess the slightest information—he prophesies directly
+in the teeth of the best meteorological records; for it is
+a well-known fact that in June the average number of
+days on which rain falls is under twelve—the lowest
+number of any month in the year. June, therefore, is
+in general the most favourable month for hay-making,
+whatever exceptions there may be in particular years;
+of which “Francis Moore” could know no more beforehand
+than the most ignorant peasant whom he deludes.</p>
+
+<p class='c004'><span class='pageno' id='Page_123'>123</span>But let us look a little further at the prophecies of
+the Weather-Almanac. June being lost to the hay-farmer
+by the fear of “rain and electrical phenomena,”
+July is to make him happy “with fair and hot weather.”
+The hay-harvest therefore will be, if possible, deferred
+by the dupes onward to July. Now in July a continuance
+of rainy weather commonly happens about the
+middle of the month; and this periodical tendency to
+rain has given rise to the popular tradition of St. Swithin.
+Of course there are exceptions to this tendency; but in
+this, as in most cases, the popular error has some little
+foundation in truth. The chances, therefore, are that
+the farmer who, for fear of “electrical phenomena,” has
+let June pass over without cutting his grass, will find a
+very short interval between the beginning of July and
+the periodical rains of the middle of that month; and
+thus a great deal of national property may be destroyed,
+and the credulous individual’s capital expended in vain,
+because he has chosen to believe in a musty cheat, of
+which even the propagators of the deception are
+ashamed.</p>
+
+<p class='c004'>We have endeavoured to show in a former Number
+(and we shall continue the subject in a future paper),
+that by the careful use of good instruments, some few
+facts may be established as guides in operations dependent
+upon the weather. In the place of these the observations
+of shepherds, fishermen, and others who have
+attended to the <em>passing</em> and <em>local</em> signs of winds, and
+clouds, and tints of the sky, and other omens, are not
+to be despised. These men are practical philosophers,
+who may fairly claim some accurate knowledge of the
+weather from day to day. They are much too sensible
+and honest to pretend to any power of predicting if
+it will be fair or foul weather, for a year, or a month,
+or even a week beforehand. Such a man has been
+described by the poet:—</p>
+
+<div class='shrink'>
+
+<div class='lg-container-b'>
+  <div class='linegroup'>
+    <div class='group'>
+      <div class='line'>⸻“In his shepherd’s calling he was prompt,</div>
+      <div class='line'>And watchful more than ordinary men.</div>
+      <div class='line'>Hence had he learned the meaning of all winds,</div>
+      <div class='line'>Of blasts of every tone; and, oftentimes,</div>
+      <div class='line'>When others heeded not, he heard the South</div>
+      <div class='line'>Make subterraneous music, like the noise</div>
+      <div class='line'>Of bagpipers on distant Highland hills.”</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+</div>
+
+<p class='c004'>The late Sir Humphrey Davy, one of the most successful
+modern explorers of the secrets of nature, was
+not above attending to, and explaining the, “weather-omens”
+which are derived from popular observation.
+In his ‘Salmonia’ he has the following dialogue
+between Halieus (a fly-fisher), Poietes (a poet), Physicus
+(a man of science), and Ornither (a sportsman):—</p>
+
+<div class='shrink'>
+
+<p class='c003'>“<i>Poiet</i>. I hope we shall have another good day to-morrow, for
+the clouds are red in the west.</p>
+
+<p class='c004'>“<i>Phys</i>. I have no doubt of it, for the red has a tint of purple.</p>
+
+<p class='c004'>“<i>Hal</i>. Do you know why this tint portends fine weather?</p>
+
+<p class='c004'>“<i>Phys</i>. The air, when dry, I believe, refracts more red, or heat-making
+rays; and as dry air is not perfectly transparent, they are
+again reflected in the horizon. I have generally observed a coppery
+or yellow sun-set to foretel rain; but, as an indication of wet weather
+approaching, nothing is more certain than a halo round the moon,
+which is produced by the precipitated water; and the larger the
+circle, the nearer the clouds, and consequently the more ready to fall.</p>
+
+<p class='c004'>“<i>Hal</i>. I have often observed that the old proverb is correct—</p>
+
+<div class='lg-container-b'>
+  <div class='linegroup'>
+    <div class='group'>
+      <div class='line'>‘A rainbow in the morning is the shepherd’s warning;</div>
+      <div class='line'> A rainbow at night is the shepherd’s delight.’</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c004'>Can you explain this omen?</p>
+
+<p class='c004'>“<i>Phys</i>. A rainbow can only occur when the clouds containing, or
+depositing, the rain are opposite the sun,—and in the evening the
+rainbow is in the east, and in the morning in the west; and as our
+heavy rains, in this climate, are usually brought by the westerly wind,
+a rainbow in the west indicates that the bad weather is on the road,
+by the wind, to us; whereas the rainbow in the east proves that the
+rain in these clouds is passing from us.</p>
+
+<p class='c004'>“<i>Poiet</i>. I have often observed, that when the swallows fly high
+fine weather is to be expected or continued; but when they fly low,
+and close to the ground, rain is almost surely approaching. Can
+you account for this?</p>
+
+<p class='c004'>“<i>Hal</i>. Swallows follow the flies and gnats, and flies and gnats
+usually delight in warm strata of air; and as warm air is lighter,
+and usually moister, than cold air, when the warm strata of air are
+high, there is less chance of moisture being thrown down from them
+by the mixture with cold air; but when the warm and moist air is
+close to the surface, it is almost certain that, as the cold air flows
+down into it, a deposition of water will take place.</p>
+
+<p class='c004'>“<i>Poiet</i>. I have often seen sea-gulls assemble on the land, and
+have almost always observed that very stormy and rainy weather was
+approaching. I conclude that these animals, sensible of a current
+of air approaching from the ocean, retire to the land to shelter themselves
+from the storm.</p>
+
+<p class='c004'>“<i>Orn</i>. No such thing. The storm is their element, and the little
+petrel enjoys the heaviest gale; because, living on the smaller sea
+insects, he is sure to find his food in the spray of a heavy wave, and
+you may see him flitting above the edge of the highest surge. I believe
+that the reason of this migration of sea-gulls, and other sea
+birds, to the land, is their security of finding food; and they may
+be observed, at this time, feeding greedily on the earth-worms and
+larvæ, driven out of the ground by severe floods; and the fish, on
+which they prey in fine weather in the sea, leave the surface, and
+go deeper in storms. The search after food, as we have agreed
+on a former occasion, is the principal cause why animals change their
+places. The different tribes of the wading birds always migrate when
+rain is about to take place; and I remember once, in Italy, having
+been long waiting, in the end of March, for the arrival of the double
+snipe in the Campagna of Rome, a great flight appeared on the 3d
+of April, and the day after heavy rain set in, which greatly interfered
+with my sport. The vulture, upon the same principle, follows armies;
+and I have no doubt that the augury of the ancients was a good deal
+founded upon the observation of the instincts of birds. There are
+many superstitions of the vulgar owing to the same source. For
+anglers, in spring, it is always unlucky to see single magpies,—but
+<em>two</em> may be always regarded as a favourable omen; and the reason
+is, that in cold and stormy weather one magpie alone leaves the nest
+in search of food, the other remaining sitting upon the eggs or the
+young ones; but when two go out together it is only when the
+weather is warm and mild, and favourable for fishing.</p>
+
+<p class='c004'>“<i>Poiet</i>. The singular connections of causes and effects to which
+you have just referred, makes superstition less to be wondered at,
+particularly amongst the vulgar; and when two facts, naturally unconnected,
+have been accidentally coincident, it is not singular that
+this coincidence should have been observed and registered, and that
+omens of the most absurd kind should be trusted in. In the west of
+England, half a century ago, a particular hollow noise on the sea
+coast was referred to a spirit or goblin, called Bucca, and was supposed
+to foretel a shipwreck; the philosopher knows that sound
+travels much faster than currents in the air—and the sound always
+foretold the approach of a very heavy storm, which seldom takes
+place on that wild and rocky coast without a shipwreck on some
+part of its extensive shores, surrounded by the Atlantic.”</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p class='c003'>We may not improperly conclude this paper with
+some lines which have been transmitted to us, as a
+production of the late Dr. Jenner, the discoverer of
+vaccination. We, of course, do not recommend an
+implicit reliance upon such <em>natural</em> prophecies of the
+weather of the coming day. But, at any rate, whatever
+connected with this subject tends to open a man’s own
+eyes,—whatever excites in him the habit of observation
+and comparison,—is a benefit; whilst a reliance, on the
+contrary, on the unprincipled quackeries of the more
+popular almanacs which still disgrace our country, as well
+as every other prostration of the understanding before
+the shrine of ignorance, is the most deceptive of all states
+of the human mind, and the most likely to engender a
+train of other delusions which shut up the sources of real
+knowledge, and degrade the whole moral as well as
+intellectual character.</p>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c008'>
+    <div>SIGNS OF RAIN.</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<div class='shrink'>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+  <div class='nf-center'>
+    <div>Addressed by Dr. Jenner, in 1810, to a Lady who asked him if he thought it would rain to-morrow.</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+</div>
+
+<div class='lg-container-b'>
+  <div class='linegroup'>
+    <div class='group'>
+      <div class='line'>The hollow winds begin to blow,</div>
+      <div class='line'>The clouds look black, the glass is low:</div>
+      <div class='line'>The soot falls down, the spaniels sleep,</div>
+      <div class='line'>And spiders from their cobwebs creep:</div>
+      <div class='line'>Last night the sun went pale to bed,</div>
+      <div class='line'>The moon in halos hid her head:</div>
+      <div class='line'>The boding shepherd heaves a sigh,</div>
+      <div class='line'>For see, a rainbow spans the sky;</div>
+      <div class='line'>The walls are damp, the ditches smell,</div>
+      <div class='line'>Closed is the pink-eyed pimpernel;</div>
+      <div class='line'>The squalid toads at dusk were seen</div>
+      <div class='line'>Slowly crawling o’er the green;</div>
+      <div class='line'>Loud quack the ducks, the peacocks cry,</div>
+      <div class='line'>The distant hills are looking nigh;</div>
+      <div class='line'>Hark, how the chairs and tables crack,</div>
+      <div class='line'>Old Betty’s joints are on the rack;</div>
+      <div class='line'>And see yon rooks, how odd their flight,</div>
+      <div class='line'>They imitate the gliding kite,</div>
+      <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_124'>124</span>Or seem precipitate to fall</div>
+      <div class='line'>As if they felt the piercing ball;</div>
+      <div class='line'>How restless are the snorting swine,</div>
+      <div class='line'>The busy flies disturb the kine,</div>
+      <div class='line'>Low o’er the grass the swallow wings,</div>
+      <div class='line'>The cricket too, how loud she sings,</div>
+      <div class='line'>Puss on the hearth with velvet paws</div>
+      <div class='line'>Sits wiping o’er her whisker’d jaws:—</div>
+      <div class='line'>’Twill surely rain, I see, with sorrow,</div>
+      <div class='line'>Our jaunt must be put off to-morrow.</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<hr class='c007'>
+<div class='footnote' id='f3'>
+<p class='c004'><a href='#r3'>3</a>. Every Man out of his Humour; Act iii. Scene 7.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class='c008'></div>
+<hr class="divider">
+<div>
+  <h2 class='c002'>THE BRITISH MUSEUM.—No. 4.</h2>
+</div>
+
+<div class='illo-wide'>
+
+<div  class='figcenter id001'>
+<a href='images/the-british-museum-1-full.jpg'><img src='images/the-british-museum-1-inline.png' alt='' class='ig001'></a>
+<div class='ic002'>
+<p>[The Musk-Ox.]</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+</div>
+
+<p class='c003'>We shall occasionally turn aside from the monuments of
+Art in the British Museum to notice some of the specimens
+in the collection of Natural History. Stuffed
+skins and skeletons are, of course, much less interesting,
+both to the scientific student of zoology and to the
+ordinary observer, than the living animal, retaining his
+natural habits, as far as they can be preserved, in a
+menagerie. But, at the same time, a stuffed skin
+affords a much better notion of the animated creature
+than the best drawing; and, in some cases, the living
+specimen cannot be procured, or kept alive, in this
+country. In such cases we are compelled to resort to
+such preserved specimens as that of the <i>musk-ox</i>, on
+the great staircase of the Museum.</p>
+
+<p class='c004'>This specimen is very faithfully represented in the
+above wood-cut. The animal, of which this skin was
+once a part, was shot by some of the persons accompanying
+Captain Parry, in one of his expeditions to the
+Polar Seas; and was presented to the Museum by the
+Lords of the Admiralty. The appearance of the musk-ox,
+as the visitor will observe, is strikingly different
+from that of the common black cattle of Great Britain.
+Its limbs are singularly short,—its crooked horns are
+broad and flattened,—long thick hair covers the whole
+of its trunk, hanging down nearly to the ground,—and
+its short tail, bending inwards, is entirely hidden by the
+long hair of the rump and hind quarters. It will be
+noticed that the hair is particularly thick under the
+throat, looking something like a horse’s mane inverted.
+The adaptation of the structure of this animal to the
+frozen regions which he inhabits, offers one of the
+most striking illustrations of design which the natural
+world exhibits. The shortness of the creature’s limbs
+prevents that exposure of the trunk to the snow-storms
+and the cold, which would result from a greater elevation;
+whilst he is more effectually protected from the severity
+of the seasons by the dense mass of hair with which his
+whole body is covered, and which, in winter, becomes a
+thick woolly coat, beneath the long straight hair which
+forms his outer garment. The Author of the Appendix
+to Parry’s Second Voyage, in noticing the remarkable
+projection of the orbits of the eyes in this species, considers
+that their formation is necessary to carry the eye
+of the animal clear beyond the large quantity of hair
+required to preserve the warmth of the head.</p>
+
+<p class='c004'>Thus protected from the inclemency of winter cold,
+the musk-ox remains the contented and happy inhabitant
+of the most barren and desolate parts of the earth.
+Within the Arctic Circle, in those almost inaccessible
+regions which lie nearest the North Pole, large herds of
+these quadrupeds are found, appearing to derive as much
+enjoyment from existence as the cattle who graze on the
+most luxuriant pastures, beneath a genial sky. They are
+not often found at a great distance from woods; but
+when they feed upon open grounds they prefer the most
+precipitous situations, climbing amidst rocks with all the
+agility and precision of the mountain-goat or the chamois.
+Grass, when they can get it, moss, twigs of willow, and
+pine shoots, constitute their food. The parts of the polar
+regions inhabited by the musk-ox are thus described in
+the Appendix to Parry’s Second Voyage:—</p>
+
+<div class='shrink'>
+
+<p class='c003'>“This species of ox inhabits the North Georgian Islands
+in the summer months. They arrived in Melville Island in
+the middle of May, crossing the ice from the southward,
+and quitted it on their return towards the end of September.
+The musk-ox may be further stated, on Esquimaux information,
+to inhabit the country on the west of Davis’ Strait,
+and on the north of Baffin’s Bay; as a head and horns and
+a drawing of a bull being shown to the Esquimaux of the
+west coast of Davis’ Strait who were communicated with on
+the 7th of September, were immediately recognized, and the
+animal called by the name of Umingmack. This is evidently
+the same with the Umimak of the Esquimaux of Wolstenholme
+Sound, who were visited by the former expedition, and
+of which nothing more could be learnt at the time from their
+description than that it was a large horned animal inhabiting
+the land, and certainly not a rein-deer. It is probable
+that the individuals which extend their summer migration
+to the north-east of Baffin’s Bay, retire during the winter to
+the continent of America, or to its neighbourhood, as the
+species is unknown in South Greenland.”</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p class='c003'>Captain Franklin, in his Journey to the Polar Sea,
+has given the following account of the habits of this
+species:—</p>
+
+<div class='shrink'>
+
+<p class='c003'>“The musk-oxen, like the buffalo, herd together in bands,
+and generally frequent barren grounds during the summer
+months, keeping near the rivers, but retire to the woods in
+winter. They seem to be less watchful than most other
+wild animals, and when grazing are not difficult to approach,
+provided the hunters go against the wind. When two or
+three men get so near a herd as to fire at them from different
+points, these animals, instead of separating or running
+away, huddle closer together, and several are generally killed;
+but if the wound is not mortal they become enraged, and
+dart in the most furious manner at the hunters, who must
+be very dexterous to evade them. They can defend themselves
+by their powerful horns against wolves and bears,
+which, as the Indians say, they not unfrequently kill. The
+musk-oxen feed on the same substances with the rein-deer,
+and the prints of the feet of these two animals are so much
+alike, that it requires the eye of an experienced hunter to
+distinguish them. The largest killed by us did not exceed
+in weight three hundred pounds. The flesh has a musky
+disagreeable flavour, particularly when the animal is lean,
+which unfortunately for us was the case with all that we
+now killed,”</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p class='c003'>The bulls of this species killed during Parry’s second
+voyage <a id='tn-lbs'></a>weighed, upon an average, about 700 lbs.,
+yielding about 400 lbs. of meat; and they stood about
+10½ hands high at the withers.</p>
+
+<p class='c004'>On the staircase of the Museum are also stuffed
+specimens of a male and female Giraffe, or Camelopard,
+which were presented to the Museum by Mr. Burchell,
+the traveller in Africa. The living giraffe which was
+presented to George IV. in 1827, by the Pacha of
+Egypt, died in 1829. The other giraffe sent to the
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_125'>125</span>government of France, in 1827, is still living in the
+Jardin des Plantes, at Paris. It is impossible from a
+studied specimen to form an adequate idea of the grace
+and beauty of this remarkable animal; nor of the impression
+produced upon the senses by a creature of such
+enormous height lifting up its head to gather the tender
+leaves from branches three times as high as a tall man.
+Till the living giraffes were brought to England and
+France there was a general belief that the descriptions
+of this animal were partly fabulous. It is now established
+that the account which was given of this animal
+by Le Vaillant, one of the most amusing of travellers,
+who saw the animal in its native woods, is perfectly
+accurate. We copy the following description from his
+Second Voyage, as translated in ‘The Menageries,’
+Vol. I.:—</p>
+
+<div class='shrink'>
+
+<p class='c003'>“The giraffe ruminates, as every animal does that possesses,
+at the same time, horns and cloven feet. It grazes
+also in the same way; but not often, because the country
+which it inhabits has little pasturage. Its ordinary food is
+the leaf of a sort of mimosa, called by the natives <i>kanaap</i>,
+and by the colonists, <i>kameeldoorn</i>. This tree being only
+found in the country of the Namaquas, may probably afford
+a reason why the giraffe is there fixed, and why he is not
+seen in those regions of Southern Africa where the tree does
+not grow.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<div class='illo-wide'>
+
+<div  class='figcenter id001'>
+<a href='images/the-british-museum-2-full.jpg'><img src='images/the-british-museum-2-inline.png' alt='' class='ig001'></a>
+<div class='ic002'>
+<p>[The Giraffe.]</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+</div>
+
+<div class='shrink'>
+
+<p class='c003'><a id='tn-isthehead'></a>“Doubtless the most beautiful part of his body is the
+head. The mouth is small; the eyes are brilliant and full.
+Between the eyes, and above the nose is a swelling, very
+prominent and well defined. This prominence is not a
+fleshy excrescence, but an enlargement of the bony substance;
+and it seems to be similar to the two little lumps,
+or protuberances, with which the top of his head is armed,
+and which, being about the size of a hen’s egg, spring, on
+each side, at the commencement of the mane. His tongue
+is rough, and terminates in a point. The two jaws have,
+on each side, six molar teeth; but the lower jaw has, beyond
+these, eight incisive teeth, while the upper jaw has
+none.</p>
+
+<p class='c004'>“The hoofs, which are cleft, and have no nails, resemble
+those of the ox. We may remark, at first sight, that those
+of the fore feet are larger than those of the hind. The leg
+is very slender, but the knees have a prominence, because
+the animal kneels when he lies down.</p>
+
+<p class='c004'>“If I had not myself killed the giraffe, I should have believed,
+as have many naturalists, that the fore legs are much
+longer than the hind. This is an error; for the legs have,
+in general, the proportion of those of other quadrupeds. I
+say in general, because in this genus there are varieties, as
+there are in animals of the same species.… His defence,
+as that of the horse and other hoofed animals, consists in
+kicks; and his hinder limbs are so light, and his blows so
+rapid, that the eye cannot follow them. They are sufficient
+for his defence against the lion. He never employs his
+horns in resisting any attack.… The giraffes, male
+and female, resemble each other in their exterior, in their
+youth. Their obtuse horns are then terminated by a knot
+of long hair: the female preserves this peculiarity some
+time, but the male loses it at the age of three years. The
+hide, which is at first of a light red, becomes of a deeper
+colour as the animal advances in age, and is at length of a
+yellow brown in the female, and of a brown approaching to
+black in the male. By this difference of colour the male
+may be distinguished from the female at a distance. The
+skin varies in both sexes, as to the distribution and form of
+the spots. The female is not so high as the male, and the
+prominence of the front is not so marked. She has four
+teats. According to the account of the natives, she goes
+with young about twelve months, and has one at a birth.”</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<div class='c008'></div>
+<hr class="divider">
+<div>
+  <h2 class='c002'>THE WEEK.</h2>
+</div>
+
+<div class='illo-wide'>
+
+<div  class='figcenter id001'>
+<a href='images/the-week-full.jpg'><img src='images/the-week-inline.png' alt='' class='ig001'></a>
+<div class='ic002'>
+<p>[Flaxman.]</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+</div>
+
+<p class='c003'>July 4.—On this day, in the year 1715, was born at
+Haynichen, near Freyberg, in Saxony, the German poet,
+<span class='sc'>Christian Furchtegott Gellert</span>. Gellert was not a
+man of the highest genius; but appearing at a favourable
+time, being animated by the finest spirit of benevolence
+and virtuous ambition, and possessing just the talents
+and character of mind suited to the task which he undertook,
+that of awakening the general body of his countrymen
+to a taste for literature, he produced as great
+and as gratifying an effect by his works as, perhaps,
+any writer that ever lived. His father was a clergyman,
+and he was originally intended for the same profession;
+but his first attempt in the pulpit convinced him that his
+constitutional timidity would probably prevent him from
+ever becoming an effective public speaker. He then
+resolved to devote himself to the instruction of his countrymen
+through the press. At this time Germany was
+almost destitute of a national literature. The country
+had given birth to many great scholars; and both classical
+learning and the abstruse philosophy of the middle
+ages were cultivated with zeal and success in its colleges.
+But scarcely any one had yet arisen to write for the
+people. This Gellert and a few of his friends resolved
+to do. Discarding all the repulsive technicalities of the
+schools, they proceeded to expound and illustrate the
+great principles of morality, metaphysics, and criticism,
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_126'>126</span>for the use of society at large, <a id='tn-style'></a>in a natural and popular
+style, such as was fitted to be intelligible and interesting
+to all. In this patriotic enterprise Gellert may be said
+to have spent his life. Every successive work which he
+produced was received with delight by Germany; but
+his celebrated ‘Fables’ were read with rapture by all
+classes of the population. One day a peasant appeared
+at Gellert’s door in Leipsic, with a waggon loaded with
+fire-wood. “Is it not here,” asked the man, “that Mr.
+Gellert lives?” On being told that it was, he desired
+to see the master of the house; and having been brought
+to him, “Are not you, sir,” he said, “the author of
+the ‘Fables?’” “I am,” replied Gellert. “Well then,”
+said the other, “here is a load of wood, which I have
+brought you, to thank you for the pleasure which your
+book has given to myself, my wife, and my children.”
+By such a heart as Gellert’s this was probably felt to be
+a more touching tribute to his powers than the plaudits
+of crowded theatres would have been. Another time he
+was standing in the workshop of a bookbinder, when a
+villager came in with a book in his hand. “Here,” said
+he, “I want this book strongly bound.” “Where did you
+pick up this book?” asked the binder. “I bought it in
+our town,” replied the delighted possessor of the treasure;
+“it has made the steward of the manor and the schoolmaster
+laugh till they have almost split their sides: I
+have a little boy, who is now a tolerably good reader; he
+shall read from this book to me in the evening, while I
+smoke my pipe, and I will go no more to the ale-house.”
+Even the war (commonly called the <i>seven
+years’ war</i>) which ravaged a great part of Germany
+from 1756 to 1763, did not extinguish the popular enthusiasm
+for the writings of Gellert. When Leipsic
+was taken by the Prussians in 1758, a lieutenant of hussars
+found out the peaceable poet in his house, and not
+contented with thanking him warmly for the delightful
+books to which, he said, he owed so many pleasant
+hours, insisted, by way of more substantially testifying
+his gratitude, upon making him a present of a pair of
+pistols, which he had taken from a Cossack. Nay, the
+common soldiers themselves used to come, almost in regiments,
+to hear a course of lectures on moral philosophy,
+which he read in public about this time; and it is related
+that one man, having obtained leave of absence, turned a
+considerable way out of his road, on his journey homewards,
+in order to see, as he expressed it, that <i>honest fellow</i>,
+Mr. Gellert, <i>whose books had saved him from becoming
+a profligate</i>. The works of Gellert have been frequently
+printed in a collected form, and amount, in the
+fullest edition, to ten volumes duodecimo. He had
+been afflicted during the greater part of his life by bad
+health; and died on the night of the 13th of December,
+1769, in the fifty-fifth year of his age. Having lingered
+long in considerable pain, he remarked to the physician,
+a short time before his death, that he had not believed it
+would have been so difficult to die, and asked when the
+termination of his sufferings might be expected. When
+he was informed that another hour would probably release
+him, “God be praised,” he said; “still another
+hour!” and then lay in silent resignation, till the expected
+deliverance came. Germany lamented, with all the tokens
+of national grief, the loss of her amiable instructor; and
+medals and public monuments testified the admiration
+and gratitude of all ranks of his countrymen.</p>
+
+<p class='c004'>July 6.—The birth-day of <span class='sc'>John Flaxman</span>, the late
+eminent sculptor, whose works have done so much to
+form the English school of design. Flaxman was born
+in 1755, in York, from whence he was removed in his
+infancy to London, where his father, who was a moulder
+of figures, subsequently kept a shop in the Strand for
+the sale of plaster casts. The father’s occupation, no
+doubt, contributed to call forth the genius of the son; but
+the boy very early began to give evidence of fondness for
+those arts to which his future life was devoted, and of
+singular taste and skill in the efforts of his uninstructed
+pencil. Like many more of the most distinguished cultivators
+of literature and art, he was prevented by the
+weakness and delicate health of his early years from
+mixing in the ruder sports of boys of his own age; and
+this, of course, gave him more time for solitary study.
+His father was not able to afford him the advantages of
+a regular education; but he rapidly acquired a great deal
+of knowledge by his own unaided efforts. When he was
+fifteen he was admitted a student in the Royal Academy.
+Here he was successful in a competition for the inferior
+honour of the silver medal; but on the contest for the
+gold one, Sir Joshua Reynolds, the President, awarded
+the prize to another. This was, perhaps, upon the whole,
+not an unfortunate incident for Flaxman, though he
+severely felt what he thought an injustice. His rival,
+notwithstanding his good fortune on this occasion, never
+rose to any distinction; but Flaxman, with the heroism
+of true genius, resolved to obliterate this defeat of his
+youth by future triumphs, of the glory of which no such
+decision should be able to rob him. And this resolution
+he nobly fulfilled. His first employment was given him
+by the Messrs. Wedgewood, the productions of whose
+porcelain potteries he embellished with designs that gave
+at once a new character to this branch of British manufactures.
+In 1782 he married; and five years afterwards
+proceeded to visit Italy, where he remained till 1794,
+studying the celebrated monuments of the fine arts with
+which that country abounds, and at the same time exerting
+his own pencil in the production of works which
+soon spread his fame over Europe. Having then returned
+to England, he was in 1797 elected an Associate,
+and in 1800 a Member, of the Royal Academy.
+After this he executed many great works in marble;
+and, as a lecturer, afforded some valuable contributions
+to the literature of his profession. For many years before
+his death his name ranked with <a id='tn-livingartists'></a>the highest of the living
+artists of England. But we must refer the reader for an
+account of his performances to Mr. Allan Cunningham’s
+interesting life of him, lately published, or to the abstract
+of that memoir in the second number of the Gallery of
+Portraits. He died at his house in Buckingham-street,
+on the 7th of December, 1826, in the seventy-second
+year of his age.</p>
+
+<div class='c008'></div>
+<hr class="divider">
+<div>
+  <h2 class='c002'>IMPROVEMENT IN SOCIAL CONDITION.</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c003'>The history of the United States of North America is,
+in some respects, one of the most instructive that we
+can turn to; because we are accurately acquainted with
+the origin of this social community, and are also enabled
+to trace its history in all its important facts, from the
+first establishment of the several colonies up to the
+present condition of the Union. Of all historical records
+none can be put in comparison with legislative
+enactments, as showing the condition of the people at
+any given period, and the degree of mental culture
+diffused among them. In the American States, even
+under their former colonial government, there were few
+men of any importance in the provinces who did not
+participate in some of the functions of government; and
+we may therefore consider the laws enacted at that
+period as indicative of the opinions held by the most
+influential classes.</p>
+
+<p class='c004'>We happen to have before us an old collection of
+Virginia laws, entitled, ‘A complete collection of the
+Laws of Virginia, at a Grand Assembly held at James
+City, 23d March, 1662;’ a few extracts from which may
+not be uninteresting.</p>
+
+<p class='c004'>There appears to be in this volume only one law
+about education, which prescribes the founding of a
+college “for the advance of learning, education of
+youth, supply of the ministry, and promotion of piety.”
+The law states how the money is to be raised; but as to
+its application nothing more is said, except that a piece
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_127'>127</span>of land is to be got, and, “with as much speed as may
+be convenient, housing is to be erected thereon for entertainment
+of students and scholars.” The <em>housing</em> department
+seems to have been the uppermost thing in the
+legislature’s thoughts; the providing of good teachers
+was a secondary consideration.</p>
+
+<p class='c004'>There are several enactments about “rewards for
+killing wolves,” which at that time infested even the
+lower parts of Virginia. At the present day, owing to
+the increase of population, the wolf and other wild
+animals, though occasionally heard of, are but rarely
+seen even in the mountains, and seldom do any damage.
+The reward “for every wolf destroyed by pit, trap, or
+otherwise, is 200 pounds of tobacco.”</p>
+
+<p class='c004'>Tobacco was the most common standard of value in
+Virginia at that time, as we see from this and numerous
+other instances, where fines, &#38;c. are estimated at so
+many pounds of tobacco. Thus it is stated in enactment
+35, that “the court shall not take cognizance of any
+cause under the value of 200 pounds of tobacco, or
+twenty shillings sterling, which a private justice may
+and is hereby authorized and empowered to hear and
+determine.”</p>
+
+<p class='c004'>The following recipe for good order is contained in
+an enactment, entitled ‘Pillories to be erected at each
+Court:’—“In every county the court shall cause to be
+set up a pillory, a pair of stocks, and a whipping-post
+near the court-house, and a ducking-stool;—and the
+court not causing the said pillory, whipping-post, stocks,
+and ducking-stool to be erected, shall be fined 5000
+pounds of tobacco to the use of the public.”</p>
+
+<p class='c004'>In those days the following provision was made for
+extending the elective franchise, which appears founded
+on a rational principle: “Every county that will lay out
+100 acres of land, and people it with 100 tytheable (taxable)
+persons, that place shall enjoy the like privilege”
+of sending a burgess. The burgesses, together with their
+attendants, were free from arrest, from the time of election
+till ten days after dissolution of the assembly; this
+privilege, however, was somewhat modified by several
+clauses. Every burgess was allowed during the sitting
+of the assembly “150 lbs. of tobacco and cask per day,
+besides the necessary charge of going to the assembly
+and returning.” This practice of paying legislators,
+which, in America, originated under the Colonial system,
+is still continued in the United States. It did not entirely
+cease in England until the reign of Charles II.
+Andrew Marvell, one of the burgesses of Hull, was the
+last member of the House of Commons who appears to
+have accepted the wages which all were entitled to
+receive.</p>
+
+<p class='c004'>Among commercial restrictions we find an enactment
+prohibiting the planting of tobacco after the 10th of July,
+which was done for “the improvement of our only commodity
+tobacco, which can no ways be effected but by
+lessening the quantity and amending the quality.” That
+the former effect might possibly be produced by the enactment,
+without securing the latter, seems pretty certain.
+Another object that the government had in view
+was to compel the people to become silk-growers against
+their will. “Be it therefore enacted,” says the legislature,
+“that every proprietor of land within the colony of Virginia
+shall, for every hundred acres of land holden in
+fee, plant upon the said land ten mulberry-trees at twelve
+foot distance from each other, and secure them by weeding
+and a sufficient fence from cattle and horses.” Tobacco
+fines, as usual, were enacted in case the planting
+and weeding were not duly performed; and further,
+“there shall be allowed in the public levy to any one for
+every pound of wound silk he shall make, fifty pounds
+of tobacco, to be raised in the public levy, and paid in
+the county or counties where they dwell that make it.”
+This act was passed in 1662, and probably continued
+in force for a long time; but Virginia did not therefore
+become a silk-growing country, nor has it yet, though
+many parts are well adapted to raise this commodity.
+People, we presume, have hitherto found other things
+more profitable than silk.</p>
+
+<p class='c004'>The following enactment has a most barbarous character
+about it, not unmixed with something extremely
+ludicrous as to the idea of the legislature trying to
+prevent women from talking: “Whereas many babbling
+women slander and scandalize their neighbours, for
+which their poor husbands are often involved in chargeable
+and vexatious suits, and cast in great damages:—Be
+it therefore enacted, that in actions of slander, occasioned
+by the wife, after judgment passed for the
+damages, the woman shall be punished by ducking;
+and if the slander be so enormous as to be adjudged at
+greater damages than 500 pounds of tobacco, then the
+woman to suffer a ducking for each 500 pounds of
+tobacco adjudged against the husband, if he refuse to
+pay the tobacco.”</p>
+
+<p class='c004'>This old statute book of Virginia is full of enactments
+such as we have quoted; some exceedingly mischievous,
+and others very ludicrous. It would, however, be unfair
+to say that there are not also some good regulations in
+it. Were a history of our own or any other country to
+be written, founded on the legislative enactments and
+illustrated, whenever it was possible, by individual cases
+on record, we should then begin to have some idea of
+what history is. Instead of the splendours or the follies
+of a few who occupy the attention of the historian, we
+should be able to form a more complete picture of the
+condition of the whole community, and a more exact
+estimate of the progress which has been made in social
+knowledge.</p>
+
+<div class='c008'></div>
+<hr class="divider">
+<div>
+  <h2 class='c002'>THE LOSS OF THE ROYAL GEORGE.</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c003'>On the 29th of August, 1782, it was found necessary
+that the Royal George, a line-of-battle ship of 108 guns,
+which had lately arrived at Spithead from a cruise,
+should, previously to her going again to sea, undergo
+the operation which seamen technically call a <i>Parliament
+heel</i>. In such cases the ship is inclined in a certain
+degree on one side, while the defects below the watermark
+on the other side are examined and repaired. This
+mode of proceeding is, we believe, at the present day,
+very commonly adopted where the defects to be repaired
+are not extensive, or where (as was the case with the
+Royal George) it is desirable to avoid the delay of going
+into dock. The operation is usually performed in still
+weather and smooth water, and is attended with so little
+difficulty and danger, that the officers and crew usually
+remain on board, and neither the guns nor stores are
+removed.</p>
+
+<p class='c004'>The business was commenced on the Royal George
+early in the morning, a gang of men from the Portsmouth
+Dock-yard coming on board to assist the ship’s
+carpenters. It is said that, finding it necessary to strip
+off more of the sheathing than had been intended, the
+men in their eagerness to reach the defect in the ship’s
+bottom, were induced to <i>heel</i> her too much, when a sudden
+squall of wind threw her wholly on her side; and
+the gun-ports being open, and the cannon rolling over
+to the depressed side, the ship was unable to right herself,
+instantaneously filled with water, and went to the
+bottom.</p>
+
+<p class='c004'>The fatal accident happened about ten o’clock in the
+morning; Admiral Kempenfeldt was writing in his
+cabin, and the greater part of the people were between
+decks. The ship, as is usually the case upon coming
+into port, was crowded with people from the shore, particularly
+women, of whom it is supposed there were not
+less than three hundred on board. Amongst the sufferers
+were many of the wives and children of the petty
+officers and seamen, who, knowing the ship was shortly
+to sail on a distant and perilous service, eagerly embraced
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_128'>128</span>the opportunity of visiting their husbands and
+fathers.</p>
+
+<p class='c004'>The Admiral, with many brave officers and most of
+those who were between decks, perished; the greater
+number of the guard, and those who happened to be on
+the upper deck, were saved by the boats of the fleet.
+About seventy others were likewise saved. The exact
+number of persons on board at the time could not be
+ascertained; but it was calculated that from 800 to 1000
+were lost. Captain Waghorne, whose gallantry in the
+North Sea battle, under Admiral Parker, had procured
+him the command of this ship, was saved, though he was
+severely bruised and battered; but his son, a lieutenant
+in the Royal George, perished. Such was the force of
+the whirlpool, occasioned by the sudden plunge of so
+vast a body in the water, that a victualler which lay
+alongside the Royal George was swamped; and several
+small craft, at a considerable distance, were in imminent
+danger.</p>
+
+<p class='c004'>Admiral Kempenfeldt, who was nearly 70 years of age,
+was peculiarly and universally lamented. In point of
+general science and judgment, he was one of the first
+naval officers of his time; and, particularly in the art of
+manœuvring a fleet, he was considered by the commanders
+of that day as unrivalled. His excellent qualities,
+as a man, are said to have equalled his professional
+merits.</p>
+
+<p class='c004'>This melancholy occurrence has been recorded by the
+poet, Cowper, in the following beautiful lines:—</p>
+
+<div class='shrink'>
+
+<div class='lg-container-b'>
+  <div class='linegroup'>
+    <div class='group'>
+      <div class='line'>Toll for the brave!</div>
+      <div class='line in2'>The brave, that are no more!</div>
+      <div class='line'>All sunk beneath the wave,</div>
+      <div class='line in2'>Fast by their native shore.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class='group'>
+      <div class='line'>Eight hundred of the brave,</div>
+      <div class='line in2'>Whose courage well was tried,</div>
+      <div class='line'>Had made the vessel heel,</div>
+      <div class='line in2'>And laid her on her side.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class='group'>
+      <div class='line'>A land-breeze shook the shrouds,</div>
+      <div class='line in2'>And she was overset;</div>
+      <div class='line'>Down went the Royal George,</div>
+      <div class='line in2'>With all her crew complete.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class='group'>
+      <div class='line'>Toll for the brave!</div>
+      <div class='line in2'>Brave Kempenfeldt is gone;</div>
+      <div class='line'>His last sea-fight is fought;</div>
+      <div class='line in2'>His work of glory done.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class='group'>
+      <div class='line'>It was not in the battle;</div>
+      <div class='line in2'>No tempest gave the shock;</div>
+      <div class='line'>She sprang no fatal leak;</div>
+      <div class='line in2'>She ran upon no rock.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class='group'>
+      <div class='line'>His sword was in its sheath;</div>
+      <div class='line in2'>His fingers held the pen,</div>
+      <div class='line'>When Kempenfeldt went down,</div>
+      <div class='line in2'>With twice four hundred men.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class='group'>
+      <div class='line'>Weigh the vessel up,</div>
+      <div class='line in2'>Once dreaded by our foes!</div>
+      <div class='line'>And mingle with our cup</div>
+      <div class='line in2'>The tear that England owes.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class='group'>
+      <div class='line'>Her timbers yet are sound,</div>
+      <div class='line in2'>And she may float again,</div>
+      <div class='line'>Full charg’d with England’s thunder,</div>
+      <div class='line in2'>And plough the distant main.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class='group'>
+      <div class='line'>But Kempenfeldt is gone,</div>
+      <div class='line in2'>His victories are o’er;</div>
+      <div class='line'>And he, and his eight hundred,</div>
+      <div class='line in2'>Shall plough the wave no more.</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+</div>
+
+<div class='c008'></div>
+<hr class="divider">
+
+<p class='c003'><i>Strange Mode of curing a vicious Horse.</i>—I have seen
+vicious horses in Egypt cured of the habit of biting, by presenting
+to them, while in the act of doing so, a leg of mutton
+just taken from the fire: the pain which a horse feels in
+biting through the hot meat, causes it, after a few lessons, to
+abandon the vicious habit.—<cite>Burckhardt.</cite></p>
+
+<div class='c008'></div>
+<hr class="divider">
+
+<p class='c003'>The Bedouins never allow a horse, at the moment of his
+birth, to fall upon the ground; they receive it in their arms,
+and so cherish it for several hours, occupied in washing and
+stretching its tender limbs, and caressing it as they would a
+baby. After this they place it on the ground, and watch its
+feeble steps with particular attention, prognosticating from
+that time the excellences or defects of their future companion.—<cite>Burckhardt.</cite></p>
+
+<div class='c008'></div>
+<hr class="divider">
+
+<p class='c003'><i>Tremendous Earthquakes.</i>—Earthquakes have caused
+many melancholy changes in Calabria; and every thing
+bears testimony to the cruel ravages occasioned by that of
+1783. This frightful catastrophe, which has altered the
+aspect of these countries in an inconceivable manner, was
+preceded by the most appalling indications. Close, compact,
+and immoveable mists seemed to hang heavily over the earth:
+in some places the atmosphere appeared red hot, so that people
+expected it would every moment burst out into flames:
+the water of the rivers assumed an ashy and turbid colour,
+while a suffocating stench of sulphur diffused itself around.
+The violent shocks which were repeated at several intervals
+from the 5th of February to the 28th of May, destroyed the
+greater part of the buildings of Calabria Ultra. The number
+of inhabitants who were crushed under the ruins of their
+houses, or who perished on the strands of Scylla, was estimated
+at about 50,000. Rivers arrested in their course by
+the fall of mountains, became so many infected lakes, corrupting
+the air in all directions. Houses, trees, and large
+fields were hurried down together to the bottom of the deep
+glens without being separated by the shock: in short, all the
+extraordinary calamities and changes which can be effected
+by earthquakes were beheld at this deplorable period, <a id='tn-calabria'></a>under
+the various forms which characterize them.—<cite>Calabria,
+during a Military Residence.</cite></p>
+
+<div class='c008'></div>
+<hr class="divider">
+
+<p class='c003'><i>Age of Sheep</i>.—The age of a sheep may be known by
+examining the front teeth. They are eight in number, and
+appear during the first year, all of a small size. In the
+second year, the two middle ones fall out, and their place is
+supplied by two new teeth, which are easily distinguished by
+being of a larger size. In the third year two other small
+teeth, one from each side, drop out and are replaced by two
+large ones; so that there are now four large teeth in the
+middle, and two pointed ones on each side. In the fourth
+year the large teeth are six in number, and only two small
+ones remain, one at each end of the range. In the fifth
+year the remaining small teeth are lost, and the whole front
+teeth are large. In the sixth year the whole begin to be
+worn, and in the seventh, sometimes sooner, some fall out or
+are broken.</p>
+
+<div class='shrink'>
+
+<p class='c006'>⁂ From ‘the Mountain Shepherd’s Manual,’ a useful little tract
+on the nature, diseases, and management of sheep, being No. 24 of
+the ‘Farmer’s Series,’ published under the Superintendence of the
+Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<div class='c008'></div>
+<hr class="divider">
+
+<p class='c003'><i>Anecdote of the late Honourable Henry Cavendish.</i>— One
+Sunday evening he was standing at Sir Joseph Banks’s, in
+a crowded room, conversing with Mr. Hatchett, when Dr.
+Ingenhousz, who had a good deal of pomposity of manner,
+came up with an Austrian gentleman in his hand, and introduced
+him formally to Mr. Cavendish. He mentioned the
+titles and qualifications of his friend at great length, and said
+that he had been peculiarly anxious to be introduced to a
+philosopher so profound and so universally known and celebrated
+as Mr. Cavendish. As soon as Dr. Ingenhousz had
+finished, the Austrian gentleman began, and assured Mr.
+Cavendish, that his principal reason for coming to London
+was to see and converse with one of the greatest ornaments
+of the age, and one of the most illustrious philosophers that
+ever existed. To all these high-flown speeches Mr. Cavendish
+answered not a word; but stood with his eyes cast down,
+quite abashed and confounded. At last, seeing an opening
+in the crowd, he darted through it, with all the speed he was
+master of; nor did he stop till he reached his carriage, which
+drove him directly home.</p>
+
+<hr class='c010'>
+<div class='colophon'>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c011'>
+    <div>⁂ The Office of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge is at 59, Lincoln’s Inn Fields.</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c001'>
+    <div>LONDON:—CHARLES KNIGHT, PALL-MALL EAST.</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c001'>
+    <div><i>Shopkeepers and Hawkers may be supplied Wholesale by the following Booksellers:—</i></div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<div class='colophon-left'>
+
+<div class='lg-container-l'>
+  <div class='linegroup'>
+    <div class='group'>
+      <div class='line'><i>London</i>, <span class='sc'>Groombridge</span>, Panyer Alley, Paternoster Row.</div>
+      <div class='line'><i>Bath</i>, <span class='sc'>Simms</span>.</div>
+      <div class='line'><i>Birmingham</i>, <span class='sc'>Drake</span>.</div>
+      <div class='line'><i>Bristol</i>, <span class='sc'>Westley</span> and Co.</div>
+      <div class='line'><i>Carlisle</i>, <span class='sc'>Thurnam</span>; and <span class='sc'>Scott</span>.</div>
+      <div class='line'><i>Derby</i>, <span class='sc'>Wilkins</span> and <span class='sc'>Son</span>.</div>
+      <div class='line'><i>Falmouth</i>, <span class='sc'>Philip</span>.</div>
+      <div class='line'><i>Hull</i>, <span class='sc'>Stephenson</span>.</div>
+      <div class='line'><i>Leeds</i>, <span class='sc'>Baines</span> and <span class='sc'>Newsome</span>.</div>
+      <div class='line'><i>Lincoln</i>, <span class='sc'>Brooke</span> and <span class='sc'>Sons</span>.</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+</div>
+<div class='colophon-right'>
+
+<div class='lg-container-l'>
+  <div class='linegroup'>
+    <div class='group'>
+      <div class='line'><i>Liverpool</i>, <span class='sc'>Willmer</span> and <span class='sc'>Smith</span>.</div>
+      <div class='line'><i>Manchester</i>, <span class='sc'>Robinson</span>; and <span class='sc'>Webb</span> and <span class='sc'>Simms</span>.</div>
+      <div class='line'><i>Newcastle-upon-Tyne</i>, <span class='sc'>Charnley</span>.</div>
+      <div class='line'><i>Norwich</i>, <span class='sc'>Jarrold</span> and <span class='sc'>Son</span>.</div>
+      <div class='line'><i>Nottingham</i>, <span class='sc'>Wright</span>.</div>
+      <div class='line'><i>Sheffield</i>, <span class='sc'>Ridge</span>.</div>
+      <div class='line'><i>Dublin</i>, <span class='sc'>Wakeman</span>.</div>
+      <div class='line'><i>Edinburgh</i>, <span class='sc'>Oliver</span> and <span class='sc'>Boyd</span>.</div>
+      <div class='line'><i>Glasgow</i>, <span class='sc'>Atkinson</span> and Co.</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+</div>
+<div class='clear'>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+  <div class='nf-center'>
+    <div>Printed by <span class='sc'>William Clowes</span>, Stamford Street.</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+</div>
+
+</div>
+
+<div class='pbb'>
+ <hr class='pb c001'>
+</div>
+<div>
+
+<p class='c012'></p>
+
+</div>
+<div class='transcribers-notes'>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c1'>
+  <div class='nf-center'>
+    <div><span class='xlarge'>Transcriber’s Notes</span></div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c013'>New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the public domain. Itemized changes from the original text:</p>
+  <ul  class='ul_1'>
+    <li><a href='#tn-lbs'>p. 124</a>: Added period after abbreviation “lbs.” in phrase “weighed, upon an 
+    average, about 700 lbs., yielding about 400 lbs. of meat.”
+    </li>
+    <li><a href='#tn-isthehead'>p. 125</a>: Added period after phrase “Doubtless the most beautiful part 
+    of his body is the head.”
+    </li>
+    <li><a href='#tn-style'>p. 126</a>: Supplied missing letters in word “style” in phrase “in a natural 
+    and popular style.”
+    </li>
+    <li><a href='#tn-livingartists'>p. 126</a>: Added period after phrase “the highest of the living 
+    artists of England.”
+    </li>
+    <li><a href='#tn-calabria'>p. 128</a>: Removed closing double quotation mark after phrase “under the 
+    various forms which characterize them.”
+    </li>
+  </ul>
+
+</div>
+
+<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76874 ***</div>
+  </body>
+  <!-- created with ppgen.py 3.57e (with regex) on 2025-09-14 15:38:03 GMT -->
+</html>
+
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+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for eBook #76874
+(https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76874)