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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76910 ***
+
+
+
+
+
+                           THE PENNY MAGAZINE
+
+                                 OF THE
+
+             Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+ 18.]                   PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY.         [July 14, 1832
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+                             THE COLOSSEUM.
+
+             [Illustration: Colosseum or Coliseum of Rome.]
+
+When the imperial power was firmly established at Rome, the sports of
+the amphitheatre were conducted upon a scale to which the Consuls of the
+republic had scarcely dared to aspire. Caligula, on his birth-day, gave
+four hundred bears, and as many other wild beasts to be slain; and on
+the birth-day of Drusilla, he exhibited these brutal spectacles,
+continued to the succeeding day on a similar scale[1]. Claudius
+instituted combats between Thessalian horsemen and wild bulls; and he
+also caused camels to fight for the first time with horses. Invention
+was racked to devise new combinations of cruelty. Many of the emperors
+abandoned themselves to these sports with as passionate an ardour as the
+uncultivated multitude. Sensuality debases as much as ignorance, because
+it is ignorance under another name. Claudius rose at daylight to repair
+to the Circus, and frequently remained, that he might not lose a single
+pang of the victims, while the people went to their afternoon meal.
+Sometimes, during the reigns of Claudius and Nero, an elephant was
+opposed to a single fencer; and the spectators were delighted by the
+display of individual skill. Sometimes, hundreds and even thousands of
+the more ferocious beasts were slaughtered by guards on horseback; and
+the pleasure of the multitude was in proportion to the lavishness with
+which the blood of man and beast was made to flow. The passion for these
+sports required a more convenient theatre for its gratification than the
+old Circus. The Colosseum was commenced by Vespasian, and completed by
+Titus (A. D. 79). This enormous building occupied only three years in
+its erection. Cassiodorus affirms that this magnificent monument of
+folly cost as much as would have been required for the building of a
+capital city. We have the means of distinctly ascertaining its
+dimensions and its accommodations from the great mass of wall that still
+remains entire; and although the very clamps of iron and brass that held
+together the ponderous stones of that wonderful edifice were removed by
+Gothic plunderers; and succeeding generations have resorted to it as to
+a quarry for their temples and their palaces; yet the “enormous
+skeleton” still stands, to show what prodigious works may be raised by
+the skill and perseverance of man, and how vain are the mightiest
+displays of his power when compared with those intellectual efforts
+which have extended the empire of virtue and of science.
+
+The Colosseum, which is of an oval form, occupies the space of nearly
+six acres. “It may justly be said to have been the most imposing
+building, from its apparent magnitude, in the world; the pyramids of
+Egypt can only be compared with it in the extent of their plan, as they
+cover nearly the same surface[2].” The greatest length, or major axis,
+is 620 feet; the greatest breadth, or minor axis, 513 feet. The outer
+wall is 157 feet high in its whole extent. The exterior wall is divided
+into four stories, each ornamented with one of the orders of
+architecture. The cornice of the upper story is perforated for the
+purpose of inserting wooden masts, which passed also through the
+architrave and frieze, and descended to a row of corbels immediately
+above the upper range of windows, on which are holes to receive the
+masts. These masts were for the purpose of attaching cords to, for
+sustaining the awning which defended the spectators from the sun or
+rain. Two corridors ran all round the building, leading to staircases
+which ascended to the several stories; and the seats which descended
+towards the arena, supported throughout upon eighty arches, occupied so
+much of the space that the clear opening of the present inner wall next
+the arena is only 287 feet by 180 feet. Immediately above and around the
+arena was the podium, elevated about twelve or fifteen feet, on which
+were seated the emperor, senators, ambassadors of foreign nations, and
+other distinguished personages in that city of distinctions. From the
+podium to the top of the second story were seats of marble for the
+equestrian order; above the second story the seats appear to have been
+constructed of wood. In these various seats eighty thousand spectators
+might be arranged according to their respective ranks; and indeed it
+appears from inscriptions, as well as from expressions in Roman writers,
+that many of the places in this immense theatre were assigned to
+particular individuals, and that each might find his seat without
+confusion. The ground was excavated over the surface of the arena in
+1813; a great number of substructions were then discovered, which by
+some antiquaries are considered to be of modern date, and by others to
+have formed dens for the various beasts that were exhibited. The
+descriptions which have been left by historians and other writers of the
+variety and extent of the shows, would indicate that a vast space and
+ample conveniences were required beneath the stage, to accomplish the
+wonders which were, doubtless, there realized in the presence of
+assembled Rome. We subjoin, from Messrs. Cresy and Taylor’s work, an
+interior view looking west, taken at the time when the arena was so
+excavated. It has since been filled up. The external view of this
+remarkable building is given as it existed in the time of Piranesi, in
+the last century.
+
+Gibbon, the historian, has given a splendid description, in his twelfth
+book, of the exhibitions of the Colosseum; but he acknowledges his
+obligation to Montaigne, who, says the historian, “gives a very just and
+lively view of Roman magnificence in these spectacles.” Our readers
+will, we doubt not, be gratified by the quaint but most appropriate
+sketch of the old philosopher of France:--
+
+“It was doubtless a fine thing to bring and plant within the theatre a
+great number of vast trees, with all their branches in their full
+verdure, representing a great shady forest, disposed in excellent order,
+and the first day to throw into it a thousand ostriches, a thousand
+stags, a thousand boars, and a thousand fallow deer, to be killed and
+disposed of by the people: the next day to cause an hundred great lions,
+an hundred leopards and three hundred bears to be killed in his
+presence: and for the third day, to make three hundred pair of fencers
+to fight it out to the last,--as the Emperor Probus did. It was also
+very fine to see those vast amphitheatres, all faced with marble
+without, curiously wrought with figures and statues, and the inside
+sparkling with rare decorations and enrichments; all the sides of this
+vast space filled and environed from the bottom to the top, with three
+or four score ranks of seats, all of marble also, and covered with
+cushions, where an hundred thousand men might sit placed at their ease;
+and the place below, where the plays were played, to make it by art
+first open and cleft into chinks, representing caves that vomited out
+the beasts designed for the spectacle; and then, secondly, to be
+overflowed with a profound sea, full of sea-monsters, and loaded with
+ships of war, to represent a naval battle: and thirdly, to make it dry
+and even again for the combats of the gladiators; and for the fourth
+scene, to have it strewed with vermilion and storax, instead of sand,
+there to make a solemn feast for all that infinite number of people--the
+last act of one only day.
+
+            [Illustration: Interior View of the Colosseum.]
+
+“Sometimes they have made a high mountain advance itself, full of
+fruit-trees and other flourishing sorts of woods, sending down rivulets
+of water from the top, as from the mouth of a fountain: other whiles, a
+great ship was seen to come rolling in, which opened and divided of
+itself; and after having disgorged from the hold four or five hundred
+beasts for fight, closed again, and vanished without help. At other
+times, from the floor of this place, they made spouts of perfumed waters
+dart their streams upward, and so high as to besprinkle all that
+infinite multitude. To defend themselves from the injuries of the
+weather, they had that vast place one while covered over with purple
+curtains of needle-work, and by and by with silk of another colour,
+which they could draw off or on in a moment, as they had a mind. The
+net-work also that was set before the people to defend them from the
+violence of these turned-out beasts, was also woven of gold.”
+
+“If there be anything excusable in such excesses as these,” continues
+Montaigne, “it is where the novelty and invention create more wonder
+than expense.” Fortunately for the real enjoyments of mankind, even
+under the sway of a Roman despot, “the novelty and invention” had very
+narrow limits when applied to matters so utterly unworthy and
+unintellectual as the cruel sports of the amphitheatre. Probus, indeed,
+transplanted trees to the arena, so that it had the appearance of a
+verdant grove; and Severus introduced four hundred ferocious animals in
+one ship sailing in the little lake which the arena formed. But on
+ordinary occasions, profusion,--tasteless, haughty, and uninventive
+profusion,--the gorgeousness of brute power, the pomp of satiated
+luxury--these constituted the only claim to the popular admiration. If
+Titus exhibited five thousand wild beasts at the dedication of the
+amphitheatre, Trajan bestowed ten thousand on the people at the
+conclusion of the Dacian war. If the younger Gordian collected together
+bears, elks, zebras, ostriches, boars, and wild horses, he was an
+imitator only of the spectacles of Carinus, in which the rarity of the
+animals was as much considered as their fierceness. Gibbon has well
+remarked, “While the populace gazed with stupid wonder on the splendid
+show, the naturalist might indeed observe the figure and properties of
+so many different species, transported from every part of the ancient
+world into the amphitheatre of Rome. But this accidental benefit, which
+science might derive from folly, is surely insufficient to justify such
+a wanton abuse of the public riches.” The prodigal waste of the public
+riches, however, was not the weightiest evil of the sports of the
+Circus. The public morality was sacrificed upon the same shrine as its
+wealth. The destruction of beasts became a fit preparation for the
+destruction of men. A small number of those unhappy persons who engaged
+in fight with the wild animals of the arena, were trained to these
+dangerous exercises, as are the matadors of Spain at the present day.
+These men were accustomed to exhaust the courage of the beast by false
+attacks; to spring on a sudden past him, striking him behind before he
+could recover his guard; to cast a cloak over his eyes, and then
+despatch or bind him at this critical moment of his terror; or to throw
+a cup full of some chemical preparation into his gaping mouth, so as to
+produce the stupefaction of intense agony. But the greater part of the
+human beings who were exposed to these combats, perilous even to the
+most skilful, were disobedient slaves and convicted malefactors. The
+Christians, during their persecutions, constituted a very large number
+of the latter class. The Roman power was necessarily intolerant; the
+assemblies of the new religion became objects of dislike and suspicion;
+the patience and constancy of the victims increased the fury of their
+oppressors; and even such a man as the younger Pliny held that their
+obstinacy alone was deserving of punishment. Thus, then, the imperial
+edicts against the early Christians furnished more stimulating
+exhibitions to the popular appetite for blood, than the combat of lion
+with lion, or gladiator with gladiator. The people were taught to
+believe that they were assisting at a solemn act of justice; and they
+came therefore to behold the tiger and the leopard tear the quivering
+limb of the aged and the young, of the strong and the feeble, without a
+desire to rescue the helpless, or to succour the brave.
+
+                    ⁂ Abridged from Menageries, vol. ii.
+
+-----
+
+Footnote 1:
+
+  Dion, lib. lix.
+
+Footnote 2:
+
+  The Architectural Antiquities of Rome, by E. Cresy and G. L. Taylor: a
+  work of equal accuracy and splendour.
+
+
+                         ---------------------
+
+
+                         SALE OF THE SPECTATOR.
+
+It is Addison’s friend Tickell who tells us that the sale of the
+‘Spectator’ sometimes amounted to 20,000 copies. The statement, however,
+is scarcely credible. In the tenth number of the work it is mentioned on
+the authority of the publisher, that the sale was already 3,000 a day.
+We question if it ever rose much higher than this. No. 445, which
+appeared on the 31st of July, 1712, was the last published without a
+stamp; and in it the writer (Addison) intimates that the price will in
+future be two-pence instead of a penny. Half of the addition was to pay
+for the halfpenny stamp, and the other half to compensate for the
+diminished circulation. A hope is at the same time expressed that the
+country may receive “five or six pounds a day” by means of this tax laid
+on the work. Even if this hope had been realised to its utmost extent,
+it would have implied a sale of only 2,880 copies. But in point of fact
+this appears to have been nearly the full circulation before the duty
+was put on; for, in No. 555, the concluding paper (of the first series)
+which is written and signed by Steele, the editor, the average produce
+of the tax is only rated as being then “above 20_l._ a week.” The sale
+must therefore have been only about 1,600 a day. And yet it seems to be
+intimated that it had for some time been rather recovering from the
+depression occasioned by the imposition of the tax: it was at first
+reduced, we are told, “to less than half the number that was usually
+printed before this tax was laid.” The circulation before the imposition
+of the tax, therefore, could not have greatly exceeded 3,000; and, such
+being its average amount, it seems scarcely possible that even on
+extraordinary occasions it should have ever risen to anything like the
+number mentioned by Tickell. At the time he wrote, however, the papers
+making the first four volumes had been reprinted and published in a
+cheaper form, and above 9,000 copies of each volume have been sold. This
+sale of the third and fourth volumes appears to have been effected in
+the course of the preceding three months; during which time, however,
+very few copies, if any at all, of the first and second volumes, would
+seem to have been disposed of. For, in No. 448, we are told that of
+these two volumes an edition of about 10,000 copies had already been
+carried off. It may be concluded, therefore, that this was the whole
+number which the demands of the public would be made to absorb. Many
+editions, however, of what extent we do not know, were sold in the
+course of the next twenty or thirty years. We have before us Tonson’s
+tenth edition, published in 1729; and his eleventh, dated 1733. There
+had been a new edition, therefore, about once in every two years since
+the first appearance of the work.
+
+It was probably this stamp duty which chiefly contributed to bring the
+‘Spectator’ to a close. In the number in which the rise of price is
+announced, considerable hesitation is expressed as to whether the
+publication should be continued or dropt, as it was understood many of
+the other penny papers would be. From a letter in No. 461, it appears
+that the ‘Spectator’ was the only one of these periodicals which had
+doubled its price; the others which survived contented themselves with
+merely charging their subscribers the additional halfpenny required to
+defray the tax. These, however, could not have allowed the retailers any
+additional profit concurrent with the additional price. On account of
+the increased price several coffee-houses had left off taking the
+‘Spectator.’ In No. 488 we have again a notice of complaints made by
+subscribers on account of this rise in the price of the publication. In
+a short time after this we find the writers evidently beginning to make
+preparations for concluding their work. The members of the club drop off
+one by one. In No. 513 the clergyman is laid on his death-bed. No. 517
+announces the death of Sir Roger; and No. 530 the marriage of Will
+Honeycomb. In No. 541 the Templar withdraws himself to study law. “What
+will all this end in?” says a letter in the next day’s publication; “we
+are afraid it portends no good to the public. Unless you speedily fix a
+day for the election of new members, we are under apprehensions of
+losing the ‘_British Spectator_.’” But the process of dissolution goes
+on. No. 544 communicates, in an epistle from himself, the transformation
+of Captain Sentry into a Squire; and, finally, No. 549 the removal of
+Sir Andrew Freeport by the same fate. Another week terminated the
+original series of the ‘Spectator,’ after it had continued to delight
+the public for about a year and three quarters. It was resumed about
+half a year afterwards, as a thrice-a-week publication; but the attempt
+is not understood to have met with the success by which it had formerly
+been attended; and the work was again laid down after it had continued
+for about six months.
+
+
+                         ---------------------
+
+
+                           AGE OF THE HORSE.
+
+The method of judging the age of a horse is by examining the teeth,
+which amount to forty when complete; namely, six nippers, or incisors,
+as they are sometimes called, two tushes, and six grinders on each side,
+in both jaws. A foal, when first born, has in each jaw the first and
+second grinders developed; in about a week the two centre nippers make
+their appearance, and within a month a third grinder. Between the sixth
+and ninth month the whole of the nippers appear, completing the _colt’s
+mouth_. At the completion of the first year a fourth grinder appears,
+and a fifth by the end of the second year. At this period a new process
+commences, the front or first grinder giving way, which is succeeded by
+a larger and permanent tooth, and between two years and a half and three
+years the two middle nippers are displaced, and succeeded by permanent
+teeth. At three years old the sixth grinder has either made or is about
+making its appearance. In the fourth year another pair of nippers and
+the second pair of grinders are shed; and the corner nippers, toward the
+end of the fifth year, are succeeded by permanent teeth, when the mouth
+is considered almost perfect, and the colt or filly becomes a horse or a
+mare. What is called the _mark_ of the teeth by which a judgment of the
+age of a horse for several years may be formed, consists of a portion of
+the enamel bending over and forming a little pit in the surface of the
+nipper, the inside and bottom of which becomes blackened by the food.
+This soon begins to wear down, and the _mark_ becomes shorter and wider,
+and fainter. By the end of the first year the mark in the two middle
+teeth is wide and faint, and becomes still wider and fainter till the
+end of the third year, by which time the centre nippers have been
+displaced by the permanent teeth, which are larger than the others,
+though not yet so high, and the mark is long, narrow, deep, and black.
+At four years the second pair of permanent nippers will be up, the mark
+of which will be deep, while that of the first pair will be somewhat
+fainter, and that of the corner pair nearly effaced. At this age, too,
+the tushes begin to appear. Between the fourth and fifth year, the
+corner nippers have been shed, and the new teeth come quite up, showing
+the long deep irregular mark; the other nippers bearing evident tokens
+of increasing wearing. At six years the mark on the centre nippers is
+worn out, but there is still a brown hue in the centre of the tooth. At
+seven years the mark will be worn from the four centre nippers, and will
+have completely disappeared at eight years from them all. It may be
+added, that it is the lower jaw of the horse that is usually examined,
+and which is here described. The changes of the teeth taking place in
+both jaws about the same time, but the cavity of the teeth in the upper
+jaw being somewhat deeper, the mark lasts longer, though the exact
+period is a matter of controversy. According to what may be considered
+good authority, however, it may be stated that at nine years the mark
+will be worn from the middle nippers, from the next pair at ten, and
+from all the upper nippers at eleven. During all this time the tushes
+(the extremities of which are at first sharp-pointed and curved) become
+gradually blunter, shorter, and rounder. For further information on this
+subject, the volume on the Horse, published by the Society, may be
+advantageously consulted.
+
+
+                         ---------------------
+
+
+                                TOBACCO
+
+  [Illustration: A tobacco plant, with several birds standing nearby.]
+
+Tobacco was introduced into Europe from the province of Tabaca in St.
+Domingo in 1559, by a Spanish gentleman, named Hernandez de Toledo, who
+brought a small quantity into Spain and Portugal. From thence, by the
+means of the French ambassador at Lisbon, Jean Nicot from whom it
+derived its name of Nicotia, it found its way to Paris, where it was
+used in the form of a powder by Catherine de Medici. Tobacco then came
+under the patronage of the Cardinal Santa Croce, the pope’s nuncio, who,
+returning from his embassy at the Spanish and Portuguese courts, carried
+the plant to his own country, and thus acquired a fame little inferior
+to that which, at another period, he had won by piously bringing a
+portion of the _real_ cross from the Holy Land. Both in France and in
+the Papal States it was at once received with general enthusiasm, in the
+shape of snuff; but it was some time after the use of tobacco as snuff
+that the practice of smoking it commenced. This practice is generally
+supposed to have been introduced into England by Sir Walter Raleigh; but
+Camden says, in his ‘Elizabeth,’ that Sir Francis Drake and his
+companions, on their return from Virginia in 1585, were “the first, as
+far as he knew, who introduced the Indian plant, called Tabacca or
+Nicotia, into England, having been taught by the Indians to use it as a
+remedy against indigestion. And from the time of their return,” says he,
+“it immediately began to grow into very general use, and to bear a high
+price; a great many persons, some from luxury, and others for their
+health, being wont to draw in the strong-smelling smoke with insatiable
+greediness through an earthenware tube, and then to puff it forth again
+through their nostrils: so that tabacca-taverns (tabernæ tabaccanæ) are
+now as generally kept in all our towns, as wine-houses or beerhouses.”
+No doubt the tobacco-taverns of Queen Elizabeth’s times were not
+unworthy predecessors of the splendid cygar divans of the present day.
+It appears from a note in the ‘Criminal Trials,’ vol i. p. 361, that in
+1600 the French ambassador, in his despatches, represented the Peers, on
+the trial of the Earls of Essex and Southampton, as smoking tobacco
+copiously while they deliberated on their verdict. Sir Walter Raleigh,
+too, was accused of having sat with his pipe at the window of the
+armoury, while he looked in at the execution of Essex in the Tower. Both
+these stories are probably untrue, but the mere relation of them by
+contemporaneous writers shows that they were not then monstrously
+incredible, and they therefore prove the generality of the practice of
+smoking at that time amongst the higher class of society. After a time,
+however, the practice of smoking tobacco appears to have met with
+strenuous opposition in high places, both in this country and other
+parts of Europe. Its principal opponents were the priests, the
+physicians, and the sovereign princes; by the former its use was
+declared sinful; and, in 1684, Pope Urban VIII. published a bull,
+excommunicating all persons found guilty of taking snuff when in church.
+This bull was renewed in 1690, by Pope Innocent; and, about twenty-nine
+years afterwards, the Sultan Amurath IV made smoking a capital offence.
+For a long time smoking was forbidden in Russia, under pain of having
+the nose cut off; and in some parts of Switzerland, it was likewise made
+a subject of public prosecution--the police regulations of the canton of
+Berne, in 1661, placing the prohibition of smoking in the list of the
+Ten Commandments, immediately under that against adultery. Nay, that
+British Solomon, James I., did not think it beneath the royal dignity to
+take up his pen upon the subject. He accordingly, in 1603, published his
+famous ‘Counterblaste to Tobacco,’ in which the following remarkable
+passage occurs:--“It is a custom loathesome to the eye, hatefull to the
+nose, harmfull to the braine, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black
+stinking fume thereof nearest resembling the horrible Stygian smoke of
+the pit that is bottomless.” But notwithstanding this regal and priestly
+wrath, the use of the plant extended itself far and wide; and tobacco
+is, at this moment, perhaps the most general luxury in existence. The
+allusion to the practice in the following lines, taken from the ‘Marrow
+of Compliment,’ written in 1651, seems to show the prevalence of smoking
+at that period:--
+
+                  “Much meat doth Gluttony procure
+                     To feed men fat as swine;
+                   But he’s a frugal man indeed,
+                     That on a _leaf_ can dine!
+                   He needs no napkin for his hands,
+                     His fingers’ ends to wipe,
+                   That hath his kitchen in a box,
+                     His roast meat in a Pipe!”
+
+
+                         ---------------------
+
+
+                               THE WEEK.
+
+                       [Illustration: Petrarch.]
+
+July 15.--_Saint Swithin._--Swithin, or Swithum, was a bishop of
+Winchester who died in 868. He was, if the tradition connected with his
+memory is to be believed, a man of sense; for he was above observing one
+of the vain distinctions which exist even in our own day. He desired
+that he might be buried in the open church-yard, instead of the chancel
+of the minster, where the great reposed; and Bishop Hall adds, that he
+wished his body to be laid “where the drops of rain might wet his grave;
+thinking that no vault was so good to cover his grave as that of
+heaven.” This was a wise and a Christian wish; for assuredly the desire
+that the worthless body shall be entombed beneath the sacred aisles
+where the living come to elevate their thoughts with the hopes of
+immortality, is a poor clinging of the soul to the perishable garment
+with which it is clothed. The wish of Swithin that his ashes should
+speedily mingle with the elements, and that the rains of heaven should
+water his grave, showed a humble and a truly religious mind. His monks,
+says the tradition, thought more highly of worldly distinctions; and
+therefore, upon the good bishop being canonized, resolved to remove his
+body from the common cemetery into the choir of their church. This was
+to have been done on the 15th of July; but it rained so violently for
+forty days that the design was abandoned. Mr. Howard, in his interesting
+work on the Climate of London, says, “The tradition is so far valuable
+as it proves that the summers in this southern part of our island were
+subject a thousand years ago to occasional heavy rains, in the same way
+as at present.” The popular superstition connected with St. Swithin’s
+day is expressed in a Scotch proverb:--
+
+               “Saint Swithin’s day, gif ye do rain,
+                For forty days it will remain;
+                Saint Swithin’s day, an ye be fair,
+                For forty daies ’twill rain nae mair.”
+
+Mr. Howard has taken some pains to ascertain how far the popular notion
+is borne out by the fact. In 1807, according to him, it rained with us
+on the day in question, and a dry time followed; and the same in 1808.
+In 1818 and 1819 it was dry on the 15th, and a very dry time in each
+case followed. The other summers, occurring between 1807 and 1819,
+appear to have come under the general proposition, “that in a majority
+of our summers, a showery period, which, with some latitude as to time
+and local circumstances, may be admitted to constitute daily rain for
+forty days, does come on about the time indicated by the tradition of
+St. Swithin.”
+
+July 20.--The birth-day of FRANCIS PETRARCH, one of the three renowned
+fathers of the literature of modern Italy. He was born in 1304, at
+Arezzo, in the Florentine territory, the same district which had the
+glory of giving birth to his immediate predecessor Dante, and also to
+the other member of the illustrious trio, his contemporary and friend
+Boccaccio. Petrarch’s father had been a notary in the city of Florence,
+but had, like Dante, been banished some time before the birth of his son
+in consequence of one of the political convulsions then so frequent.
+Being intended by his father for his own profession, he was sent to
+study first at Montpellier and afterwards at Bologna; but he soon became
+deeply smitten with the charms of the newly-revived literature of
+antiquity, Virgil and Cicero stealing most of the hours which were
+professedly devoted to more rugged pages. His father is related to have
+been so much displeased on discovering how his son employed his time,
+that he took his favourite authors from him and threw them into the
+fire. This severity, however, failed to make a lawyer of Petrarch. His
+father died when he was about two and twenty, and he immediately
+abandoned the law altogether. He then chose the church for his
+profession; but he never was ordained, although in the latter part of
+his life some valuable clerical preferments were bestowed upon him by
+the patrons whom he had gained by his poetical fame. The remainder of
+Petrarch’s life took much of its colour from an incident which happened
+to him in his twenty-seventh year, his meeting at Avignon, in Provence,
+with the celebrated Laura, whose name he has rendered in so many
+beautiful verses as immortal as his own. After the researches of a long
+succession of biographers and critics, all is still uncertainty as to
+who or what this lady really was. Many have even believed that Petrarch
+spent his life in pouring out his passionate rhymes to a mere ideal
+being, or vision of his imagination. The same obscurity hangs over the
+very existence of Laura as over that of Dante’s Beatrice. Several
+succeeding years were spent by the poet in wandering through Italy and
+other countries. He then retired to Vaucluse, a solitary retreat not far
+from Avignon, and it was during several studious years which he spent
+there that he composed his principal works. The most memorable event of
+his life after this was his coronation, in 1340, as poet-laureat in the
+Capitol of Rome. “Twelve patrician youths,” says Gibbon, “were arrayed
+in scarlet; six representatives of the most illustrious families, in
+green robes, with garlands of flowers, accompanied the procession; in
+the midst of the princes and nobles, the senator, Count of Anguillara, a
+kinsman of the Colonna, ascended the throne; and at the voice of a
+herald, Petrarch arose. After discoursing on a text of Virgil, and
+thrice repeating his vows for the prosperity of Rome, he knelt before
+the throne, and received from the senator a laurel crown, with a more
+precious declaration, ‘This is the reward of merit.’ The people shouted,
+‘Long life to the Capitol and the Poet!’ A sonnet in praise of Rome was
+accepted as the effusion of genius and gratitude; and after the whole
+procession had visited the Vatican, the profane wreath was suspended
+before the shrine of St. Peter. In the diploma which was presented to
+Petrarch, the title and prerogatives of poet-laureat are revived in the
+Capitol, after the lapse of thirteen hundred years; and he receives the
+perpetual privilege of wearing, at his choice, a crown of laurel, ivy or
+myrtle, of assuming the poetic habit, and of teaching, disputing,
+interpreting, and composing, in all places whatsoever, and on all
+subjects of literature. The grant was ratified by the authority of the
+Senate and people, and the character of citizen was the recompense of
+his affection for the Roman name.” After these honours he made other
+journeys to different parts of Italy, and also to Paris, in 1360, where
+he was received with great distinction. An archdeaconry in the church of
+Parma, a priory in the diocese of Pisa, and a canonry at Padua, were
+also bestowed upon him, as more substantial rewards of his merit and
+attestations of the public admiration. Our own Chaucer is supposed to
+have met with Petrarch either in 1368, at the marriage of Lionel Duke of
+Clarence with the daughter of the Duke of Milan, or more probably in the
+beginning of the year 1373, when he is supposed to have gone on an
+embassy to Genoa. At this interview Petrarch is thought to have
+communicated to the English poet the beautiful and pathetic tale of
+Griselda, which he had recently received from his friend Boccaccio, and
+had translated from the latter’s Italian into Latin. This translation,
+which Warton, in his History of English Poetry, inadvertently affirms
+never to have been printed, may be found in several of the old folio
+editions of Petrarch’s works. Petrarch, in a letter to Boccaccio, tells
+us, says Warton; “that on showing the translation to one of his Paduan
+friends, the latter, touched with the tenderness of the story, burst
+into such frequent and violent fits of tears, that he could not read to
+the end.”
+
+Petrarch spent the last four years of his life at the beautiful mountain
+village of Arquà, about twelve miles from Padua; and here he died
+suddenly, in all probability of apoplexy, on the 19th of July, 1374,
+having just completed his seventieth year. He was found that morning in
+his library, with his head resting on a book. Here, too, his remains
+were deposited and are still preserved. Many of our readers will
+remember Lord Byron’s fine lines on this subject:--
+
+         “There is a tomb in Arquà;--reared in air,
+          Pillared in their sarcophagus, repose
+          The bones of Laura’s lover: here repair
+          Many familiar with his well-sung woes,
+          The pilgrims of his genius. He arose
+          To raise a language, and his land reclaim
+          From the dull yoke of her barbaric foes:
+          Watering the tree which bears his lady’s name
+          With his melodious tears, he gave himself to fame.
+
+         “They keep his dust in Arquà, where he died;
+          The mountain-village, where his latter days
+          Went down the vale of years; and ’tis their pride--
+          An honest pride--and let it be their praise,
+          To offer to the passing stranger’s gaze
+          His mansion and his sepulchre; both plain
+          And venerably simple, such as raise
+          A feeling more accordant with his strain
+          Than if a pyramid formed his monumental fame.
+
+         “And the soft quiet hamlet where he dwelt
+          Is one of that complexion which seems made
+          For those who their mortality have felt,
+          And sought a refuge from their hopes decayed
+          In the deep umbrage of a green hill’s shade,
+          Which shows a distant prospect far away
+          Of busy cities, now in vain displayed,
+          For they can lure no further; and the ray
+          Of a bright sun can make sufficient holiday.”
+
+
+                         ---------------------
+
+
+         THE ADVANTAGES OF A TASTE FOR THE BEAUTIES OF NATURE.
+
+        [From Dr. Percival’s Moral and Literary Dissertations.]
+
+That sensibility to beauty, which, when cultivated and improved, we term
+taste, is universally diffused through the human species; and it is most
+uniform with respect to those objects, which, being out of our power,
+are not liable to variation, from accident, caprice, or fashion. The
+verdant lawn, the shady grove, the variegated landscape, the boundless
+ocean, and the starry firmament, are contemplated with pleasure by every
+attentive beholder. But the emotions of different spectators, though
+similar in kind, differ widely in degree: and to relish, with full
+delight, the enchanting scenes of nature, the mind must be uncorrupted
+by avarice, sensuality, or ambition; quick in her sensibilities;
+elevated in her sentiments; and devout in her affections. He who
+possesses such exalted powers of perception and enjoyment, may almost
+say, with the poet--
+
+         “I care not, Fortune, what you me deny;
+            You cannot rob me of free Nature’s grace;
+          You cannot shut the windows of the sky,
+            Through which Aurora shows her brightening face;
+          You cannot bar my constant feet to trace
+            The woods and lawns, by living streams, at eve:
+          Let health my nerves and finer fibres brace,
+            And I their toys to the great children leave:
+          Of fancy, reason, virtue, nought can me bereave!”
+
+Perhaps such ardent enthusiasm may not be compatible with the necessary
+toils and active offices which Providence has assigned to the generality
+of men. But there are none to whom some portion of it may not prove
+advantageous; and if it were cherished by each individual in that degree
+which is consistent with the indispensable duties of his station, the
+felicity of human life would be considerably augmented. From this source
+the refined and vivid pleasures of the imagination are almost entirely
+derived: and the elegant arts owe their choicest beauties to a taste for
+the contemplation of nature. Painting and sculpture are express
+imitations of visible objects; and where would be the charms of poetry,
+if divested of the imagery and embellishments which she borrows from
+rural scenes? Painters, statuaries, and poets, therefore, are always
+ambitious to acknowledge themselves the pupils of nature; and, as their
+skill increases, they grow more and more delighted with every view of
+the animal and vegetable world. But the pleasure resulting from
+admiration is transient; and to cultivate taste without regard to its
+influence on the passions and affections, “is to rear a tree for its
+blossoms which is capable of yielding the richest and most valuable
+fruit.” Physical and moral beauty bear so intimate a relation to each
+other, that they may be considered as different gradations in the scale
+of excellence; and the knowledge and relish of the former should be
+deemed only a step to the nobler and more permanent enjoyments of the
+latter.
+
+Whoever has visited the Leasowes, in Warwickshire, must have felt the
+force and propriety of an inscription which meets the eye at the
+entrance into these delightful grounds:--
+
+              “Would you, then, taste the tranquil scene?
+               Be sure your bosom be serene;
+               Devoid of hate, devoid of strife,
+               Devoid of all that poisons life:
+               And much it ’vails you, in this place
+               To graft the love of human race.”
+
+Now, such scenes contribute powerfully to inspire that serenity which is
+necessary to enjoy and to heighten their beauties. By a sweet contagion
+the soul catches the harmony which she contemplates; and the frame
+within assimilates itself to that which is without. For
+
+             “------Who can forbear to smile with nature?
+              Can the strong passions in the bosom roll
+              While every gale is peace, and every grove
+              Is melody?”
+
+In this state of composure we become susceptible of virtuous impressions
+from almost every surrounding object: an equal and extensive benevolence
+is called forth into exertion; and having felt a common interest in the
+gratifications of inferior beings, we shall be no longer indifferent to
+their sufferings, or become wantonly instrumental in producing them.
+
+It seems to be the intention of Providence that the lower order of
+animals should be subservient to the comfort, convenience, and
+sustenance of man. But his right of dominion extends no further; and if
+this right be exercised with mildness, humanity, and justice, the
+subjects of his power will be no less benefited than himself; for
+various species of living creatures are annually multiplied by human
+art, improved in their perceptive powers by human culture, and
+plentifully fed by human industry. The relation, therefore, is
+reciprocal between such animals and man; and he may supply his own wants
+by the use of their labour, the produce of their bodies, and even the
+sacrifice of their lives; whilst he co-operates with all-gracious Heaven
+in promoting happiness, the great end of existence.
+
+But though it be true that partial evil, with respect to different
+orders of sensitive beings, may be universal good, and that it is a wise
+and benevolent institution of nature, to make destruction itself, within
+certain limitations, the cause of an increase of life and enjoyment; yet
+a generous person will extend his compassionate regards to every
+individual that suffers for his sake; and whilst he sighs
+
+            “Even for the kid, or lamb, that pours its life
+             Beneath the bloody knife,”
+
+he will naturally be solicitous to mitigate pain, both in duration and
+degree, by the gentlest mode of inflicting it.
+
+I am inclined to believe, however, that this sense of humanity would
+soon be obliterated, and that the heart would grow callous to every soft
+impression, were it not for the benignant influence of the smiling face
+of nature. The Count do Lauzun, when imprisoned by Louis XIV. in the
+Castle of Pignerol, amused himself, during a long period of time, with
+catching flies, and delivering them to be devoured by a rapacious
+spider. Such an entertainment was equally singular and cruel, and
+inconsistent, I believe, with his former character and subsequent turn
+of mind. But his cell had no window, and received only a glimmering
+light from an aperture in the roof. In less unfavourable circumstances,
+may we not presume that, instead of sporting with misery, he would have
+released the agonized flies, and bid them enjoy that freedom of which he
+himself was bereaved?
+
+But the taste for natural beauty is subservient to higher purposes than
+these which have been enumerated; and the cultivation of it not only
+refines and humanizes, but dignifies and exalts the affections. It
+elevates them to the admiration and love of that Being who is the Author
+of all that is fair, sublime, and good in the creation. Scepticism and
+irreligion are hardly compatible with the sensibility of heart which
+arises from a just and lively relish of the wisdom, harmony, and order
+subsisting in the world around us; and emotions of piety must spring up
+spontaneously in the bosom that is in unison with all animated nature.
+Actuated by this divine inspiration, man finds a fane in every grove;
+and, glowing with devout fervour, he joins his song to the universal
+chorus, or muses the praise of the Almighty in more expressive silence.
+Thus they
+
+            “Whom nature’s works can charm, with God himself
+             Hold converse; grow familiar, day by day,
+             With his conceptions; act upon his plan,
+             And form to his the relish of their souls.”
+
+
+                         ---------------------
+
+
+                      DISTRICT SOCIETY OF BRIGHTON
+
+Among the numerous benevolent schemes and institutions formed by the
+wealthy to assist their poorer brethren, many may no doubt be found,
+which instead of being beneficial are pernicious in their
+effects--palsying the hand of industry, and destroying the sense of
+independence by mere almsgiving. All those societies, however, which
+give motives for industry, and which tend to create a sympathy and union
+between the two classes of those who have abundance and those who want,
+must be of moral benefit to both parties, and few can doubt their
+practical utility.
+
+The following is a slight sketch of a Society which appears eminently to
+combine the above advantages.
+
+About five or six years back “The District Society” was formed at
+Brighton, in consequence of the suggestions of that benevolent lady,
+Mrs. Fry. The purport of this association was, that its members should
+visit the poor at their own houses--affording them assistance where
+required, and encouraging in them habits of industry and frugality. The
+idea was eagerly seized by those of the inhabitants whose activity and
+influence were best able to promote this object, and in a very short
+time the society was established.
+
+This society is divided into three departments--the mendicity
+department--the relief department--and the department for the
+encouragement of frugality and saving. It is not our intention at
+present to touch upon the first or second of these, but to confine
+ourselves solely to the latter object.
+
+The town is divided into six districts, and each district into about
+twelve divisions. To each of these divisions a visitor is appointed, and
+this office is voluntarily undertaken by some benevolent individual. The
+number of ladies who devote themselves to this duty considerably exceeds
+that of the gentlemen. The recommendation most urged by the visitors is
+the exercise of frugality. The industrious poor are exhorted to save, at
+a time when they have the power of doing so--thus reserving to
+themselves the means of obtaining the enjoyment of such comforts as they
+could not otherwise procure, at periods when their exertions produce to
+them less profit. As an inducement to prefer the future good to the
+present gratification, a small addition from the funds of the society is
+made to the savings of individuals.
+
+The visitors receive deposits, however small--enter these sums in a
+book--and pay them over to the treasurer. The depositors feel that they
+may have their money at any moment they think proper to call for it,
+unchecked in their demand, save by the moral restraint which would
+prevent them from requiring it for vicious or wasteful occasions.
+Deposits are returned either in money or in such articles as are wanted
+by those receiving them, the small gratuity already noticed being always
+duly added. The number of depositors, and the sums deposited, have been
+gradually increasing. Many of these depositors have, at various times,
+candidly confessed to the visitors, that but for their interference and
+the facility thus afforded to them for saving, their money would have
+been spent on things useless in comparison with those comforts which
+frugality has enabled them to procure.
+
+Here then was a sum of money distributed among those who had a right to
+it--who were under no obligation to any one, farther than that which is
+incurred when others interest themselves in our welfare. While the
+depositors enjoy the comforts thus obtained, they feel, with a proud
+satisfaction, that these are not doled out to them by means of the
+poors’ rates, nor administered to them by the hand of charity, but are
+derived from their own savings, and result from their own industry,
+prudence, and forbearance.
+
+This feeling of independence thus called forth, raises man in the scale
+of being; and an institution which fosters or awakens this ennobling
+sentiment, offers, besides all other claims to merit, a sufficient proof
+of its great value.
+
+The above outline has been given in the hope that its consideration may
+prove of general utility.
+
+That class of labourers whose earnings are the least profitable,
+generally earn more in the summer than in the winter, while their
+expenses during the latter season are always the greatest. It is then
+during the former period that the prudent labourer would lay by to meet
+the increased demands at the latter time. If a person can only get
+twelve shillings per week during the winter months, and fourteen
+shillings per week during the summer, since he can live much better on
+twelve shillings per week in summer than on fourteen shillings per week
+in winter, he would act wisely to lay by two or three shillings weekly
+at the one time, and thus provide for the deficiencies of the other. But
+he may ask, how is this to be effected?--he has no “district society” in
+his neighbourhood--no kind visiting friend to remind him of the
+propriety of saving, and to receive his small deposits. The savings’
+bank is at some distance--it is inconvenient to send there--it requires
+time, and is therefore expensive to be constantly going there
+himself--in short, a thousand reasons will always suggest themselves as
+excuses for not doing at all what is not done with hearty good will. But
+to save money it must be put as much beyond our reach as possible--it
+will burn in our pockets, and will be got rid of somehow or other. What
+then is to be done? We remember when we were young possessing a small
+earthenware pot with only a slit in it for an opening, and so
+constructed that whatever was put in could not be got out again without
+destroying the pot. This was the receptacle for our spare money, and
+whenever any temptation was felt to spend the little savings, the
+circumstance of being obliged to break the jar previously to
+appropriating its contents, always induced us to pause for reflection.
+The result of such deliberation generally showed that the money was
+about to have been expended uselessly, and that it would be much better
+to leave the pot whole, and to go on putting in instead of taking out.
+The benefit of this prudent determination was ultimately reaped, at a
+time when it was most acceptable. We would recommend a plan somewhat
+similar to this to those who are desirous of constantly making small
+savings. A tin box might be made at a very small cost, with a lock and
+key to it, and a slit at the top, large enough to put any sized piece of
+money into it, and a piece of cloth so placed in the inside as to act
+like a valve, affording ingress, but not egress, to the coins. This box
+should be locked, and the key intrusted to some one to whom the
+possessor would not like to apply on trivial occasions. It should be put
+in a safe place, but where it might often meet the eye, and should be
+looked upon as a friend who will furnish a supply of extra comforts
+during winter time. But as it is not Fortunatus’ purse, which we read of
+in fairy tales as abounding with an exhaustless fund, it must receive
+its supply from the practice of self-denial, by withholding from oneself
+any unnecessary gratifications when the means of procuring them are at
+hand, and slipping the money that was to purchase these in the slit of
+the box.
+
+This box then may stand in lieu of a visitor of the District Society;
+and every time anything is put into it, it may be considered as a friend
+ready to afford its assistance in the time of sickness, in the hour of
+distress, or during those periods when expenses are greatest and wages
+least.
+
+
+                         ---------------------
+
+
+                                LYCIDAS.
+
+One of the most beautiful minor poems of Milton, though slightly obscure
+in some passages from the use of antiquated phrases, and in one instance
+strongly imbued with the author’s political feelings, is his Monody of
+Lycidas. This was written in Milton’s 29th year, on the occasion of the
+untimely death of his friend, Mr. John King, who was drowned in the
+passage from England to Ireland. The character of the poem is pastoral,
+it being assumed that the author and his lamented friend were brother
+shepherds:--
+
+       “For we were nurst upon the self-same hill;
+        Fed the same flock by fountain, shade, and rill.
+        Together both, ere the high lawns appear’d
+        Under the opening eye-lids of the morn,
+        We drove a-field, and both together heard
+        What time the gray-fly winds her sultry horn,
+        Batt’ning our flocks with the fresh dews of night
+        Oft till the star that rose, at evening, bright,
+        Toward Heav’ns descent had slop’d his west’ring wheel.”
+
+The complaint of the poet on the shortness of life, and the glowing
+reply of Phœbus to his lamentation, is one of the finest passages in the
+whole compass of English verse:--
+
+          “Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise
+           (That last infirmity of noble mind)
+           To scorn delights, and live laborious days;
+           But the fair guerdon when we hope to find,
+           And think to burst out into sudden blaze,
+           Comes the blind Fury with th’ abhorred shears,
+           And slits the thin spun life. But not the praise,
+           Phœbus reply’d, and touch’d my trembling ears;
+           Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil,
+           Nor in the glist’ring foil
+           Set off to th’ world, nor in broad rumor lies,
+           But lives and spreads aloft by those pure eyes,
+           And perfect witness of all-judging Jove;
+           As he pronounces lastly on each deed,
+           Of so much fame in heav’n expect thy meed.”
+
+But Milton’s soul was nourished with the hopes of the Christian, as well
+as excited with the ambition of the poet;--and thus the monody finely
+concludes with an eloquent expression of the only real consolation under
+every such calamity:--
+
+        “Weep no more, woful shepherds, weep no more,
+         For Lycidas your sorrow is not dead.
+         Sunk though he be beneath the wat’ry floor;
+         So sinks the day-star in the ocean bed;
+         And yet anon repairs his drooping head,
+         And tricks his beams, and with new-spangled ore
+         Flames in the forehead of the morning sky:
+         So Lycidas sunk low, but mounted high,
+         Through the dear might of him that walk’d the waves,
+         Where other groves and other streams along,
+         With nectar pure his oozy locks he laves,
+         And hears the unexpressive nuptial song,
+         In the blest kingdoms meek of joy and love.
+         There entertain him all the saints above,
+         In solemn troops and sweet societies,
+         That sing, and singing in their glory move,
+         And wipe the tears for ever from his eyes.”
+
+           [Illustration: Lycidas. From a design by Fuseli.]
+
+
+                         ---------------------
+
+
+That sanctity which settles on the memory of a great man, ought, upon a
+double motive, to be vigilantly sustained by his countrymen; first, out
+of gratitude to him, as one column of the national grandeur; secondly,
+with a practical purpose of transmitting, unimpaired, to posterity the
+benefit of ennobling models. High standards of excellence are among the
+happiest distinctions by which the modern ages of the world have an
+advantage over earlier, and we are all interested by duty as well as
+policy in preserving them inviolate.--_From a Memoir of Milton in ‘The
+Gallery of Portraits.’_
+
+
+                         ---------------------
+
+
+This liberty in conversation (fiction and exaggeration) defeats its own
+end. Much of the pleasure and all the benefit of conversation depends
+upon our opinion of the speaker’s veracity.--_Paley’s Moral Philosophy._
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
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+
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+
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+
+               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.
+Illustrations have been moved in some cases to natural breaks in the
+text. Itemized changes from the original text:
+
+ • p. 148: Added missing or misprinted “t” in “advantageously” in phrase
+   “may be advantageously consulted.”
+ • p. 148: Added missing or misprinted closing single quote after
+   “trials” in phrase “It appears from a note in the ‘Criminal Trials,’
+   vol i. p. 361.”
+ • p. 150: Capitalized “Capitol” in phrase “the title and prerogatives
+   of poet-laureat are revived in the Capitol” to match other
+   references.
+ • p. 150: Added semicolon after phrase “uncorrupted by avarice,
+   sensuality, or ambition.”
+ • p. 150: Added missing period after phrase “or become wantonly
+   instrumental in producing them.”
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76910 ***