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APRIL, 1837. 


THE ANALYST ; 


‘ 


A 


QUARTERLY JOURNAL, 


OF 


Rieti SCIENCE, LITERATURE, 


NATURAL HISTORY, AND THE FINE ARTS. . 


EDITED BY W. HOLL, Esa, F.G.S., 
AND 
NEVILLE WOOD, Esa., 


(AUTHOR or -* BRITISH SONG BIRDS,” ““ORNITHOLOGIST’S kK,” &e.) 


Be London : 
SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, AND CO., 


ae i wat HALL COURT; 


WHYTE &, CO. EDINBURGH ; M‘PHUN, GLASGOW; zt 


BARLOW, DRAKE, BIRMINGHAM; GBAPEL, LIVERPOOL ; BANCKS AND CO... 

MANCHESTER} DEIGHTON, STRATFORD, RIDGE, D‘EGVILLE, WORCESTER: |. 
JEW, GLOUCESTER; H. DAVIS, CHELTENHAM; EDDOWES, SHREWSBURY 3 

SHARPE, WARWICK; H. BELLERBY, MARSH, YORK; RODFORD AND SPE-_ 
PHENSON, J. NOBLE, GODDARD AND BROWN, HULL; NICHOLLS, STAN- 
FIELD, HURST, WAKEFIELD; CURRIE AND BOWMAN, NEWCAS AON: 
TYNE; T. BROOKE AND-CO., C. WHITE, STAFFORD, DONCASTER; GAL- 
PINE, SELBY ; RAY, BARNESLEY, DEWHIRST, RETFORD; PALIA 9 EF- 
WORTH ; AND ALL BOOKSELLERS IN TOWN AND COUNTRY. — ta 


- Pater Four SHILLINGS. 


Ply 


rs Barlow. Printer, Birmingham, 


CONTENTS. 


PAG 
Remarks on Elementary Education, by James Simpson, Esq., Advocate ..,........ iia 3 
List of Remarkable Plants found growing in the Vicinity of Birmingham in 1836 ... 20 
Roman Antiquities discovered in Worcestershire ...........02.0460 ahi ae Sia PR 29 
Antonio's Love Song, or Don Quixote’s Reverie...............:- nee bncisitaiwn Ait 33 
On the Present State of the Opera in London ................c0.2046 ieevec tenon neat: 39 
An Historical View of the Character of Fisher, Bishop of Rochester..................... 49 
"Fhe Doctor's: & Sheth. ssc5cccse 095, c sant ovne ban cd eltepcoatanar teas davis, cavavdssh yea tanben pena: 67 
Sketches of European Ornithology ; Gould's “ Birds of Europe”...........000ecceccseeee 71 
Some Remarks on the Philosophy and Observances of Shakspeare ................cc.e000- 83 
An Account of two new Crustacea from the Transition and Carboniferous Strata; 
(Illustrated by a Lithographic Drawing ) ...0..ssceccsccesesccececteccssascaccseenseusdecte 85 
Remarkable Cures effected by Gruntinetdes sean ay. VP  e e ppt EAN Oe bs ntiucrvaxexaere 89 
, Fe@ansh “Dyers -@ SECU. ios. seuctgaininas reac tvases apsan saad Tank Web enepanrcucsmind ene Cotas 91 
Proccedings of Provincial Societies .......... EGDUSe MORE bAt tan scuqcoes Macbsa vgadevey vax cure Sere) rie 98 


anchester Natural History Society—York Philosophical Institution—Don- 
caster Lyceum—Chester Mechanics’ Institution. 
Critical Notices of New Publications ........ Pe akis Meee wae vonke tions pcok Hos os «sce Aaase co ociuahe 106 
The Romance of Nature, by Louisa Ann Twamley ; Beauties of the Country, 
by Thomas Miller—National Education, its present state and prospects, by F. 
Hill—Hewitson’s British Oology_Bittuingham and its Vicinity, as a manu- 
facturing and commercial district, by W. Hawkes Smith—-Mundi et Cordis, De 
Rebus res iternis et Temporariis, Carmina—The Fallacy of the Art of Phy- 
sic as Tau hit in the Schools, by S$. Dickson, M.D.—The Ornithological Guide, 
by C. T. Wood—Wanderings and Excursions in North and South Wales— 
Simpson’s Philosophy of Education—The Harmony of ee with Scrip- 
ture, by W. Scott ;-An Examination of Mr. Scott’s Attack on Combe’s ‘* Con- 
stitution of Man,” by H. C. Watson—Doubleday’s Nomenclature of British 
Birds—Two Lectures on Modern English Literature, by the Rev. R. Jones, 
D.D.—The Naturalist’s Library—Sacred Philosophy of the Seasons, by the 
Rev. H. Duncan, D.D.—The Physiology of Digestion, by- Andrew Combe, 
M.D.—A Practical View of Homeeopathy, by J. Simpson, M.D.—Homeeopa- 
thy Examined, by Robert Verity, M.D.—A History of British Quadrupeds, 
by Thomas Bell, F.R.S.—Report of the Committee of the Birmingham Philo- 
sophical Institution, for 1836—The Cheltenham Annuaire—Murray’s New 
Edition of the Works of Lord Byron—Sir William Jardine’s Magazine of Zo- 


ology and Botany. 
Fine Arts *Mrisic.V ocals: Irtstenimental ork nc occ, ccwcucghoauns scravgebescucess sat ckgsa dienes 156 
Correspondence | ...;..-. Ay oa Gas oy BEB a dad cee eGR aa nk EAE Oe Sak N AANetven cethaseets x ceees awakes 158 

. On the Deposits of Superficial Gravel in the counties of Chester, Stafford, 

‘Worcester, and Warwick—On the Application of Barbarous Corruptions of La- 

tin Words as English Names. . 
Miscellaneous Communications ........... Lib even EAS GEN USE SE wry cEE eee ye SUMED Ce A De ree pay 160 
Extracts from Foreign Journals ............+. fhe Sooepas e Cuaron ae seer Scone Sorina Belfi hte Sl 164 

Zoology—Botany—Geology—Mineralogy— Miscellaneous. 

Obituary of Sctentific Mei i6.. 65.06, 4.c Rt Opt a eareies ia 05 ee avseabeo yl on fetin ese sm cdigvitee 171 
Literary Tiiteliioence....., cvsvercs tive vaeabanesspenqcchiecupdistipvaasesesss thegehe ou seeesiss an eges 173 
Select List of New Publications ......6....cccceccdecscvccedscessdecdecsecees DE, seccae ctor cs cues 173 
Metecrolowital Reporte. ics. i. 5. ceieatasnk- \enay sou} areee lor axabed ei ta nny EO Capnaaed uel o Ay sh 174 


NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS. 


An Essay “On Circumstantial Evidence,” by W. Wills, Esq.; “ Observations on 
Swainson’s Views on Nomenclature ;” and Mr. Levison’s paper ‘On Phrenology and 
Physiognomy,” in our next. : ze nee ee 

e shall be happy to comply with the request of P. Q., by inserting directions for pre- 

serving objects in the several branches of Natural History, if correspondents possessing 
a thorough practical knowledge of the art will favour us with communications on the sub- 
jet aie, “Ty ies wi . 
: We have been reluctantly compelled to omit, from want of space, an account of the pro- 
ceedings of the Herefordshire, Warwickshire, and Norwich Natural History Societies, the 
Liverpool Literary and Séientific Institution, and the Birmingham Philosophical Institu- 
tion: The report of the Manchester Mechanics’ Institution reached us too late for inser- 
tion in the present number, but we will give in our next an epitome of the proceedings 
of this society, which, in point of importance, ranks the first in the Provinces. 

A parcel awaits “ Musicus” at our Publishers. é 

Many thanks to Mr. S., of Twickenham, for his letter; we believe he will find it most 
convenient to procure The Analyst through his usual bookseller. = 

In reply to the several communications we have received relative to the difficulty of 
procuring The. Analyst, we have only. to observe that if the London booksellers will’ apply 
‘to Messrs. Simpkin, Marshall, & Co., they will be invariably supplied with copies. =~ 

Erzara.—Page 52, note t, line 13, for scimus read “sumus.” Page 53, note +, add 
“ See Coleridge’s Life of Bishop Fisher ;” and likewise at page 61, after the marked quota- 
tion. 


s Animals, from 


Coai-fieid . 


(dee Page 


T 


ime --stone, and 


€ 3 
¥ ah 


THE ANALYST; 


QUARTERLY JOURNAL 


OF 


SCIENCE, LITERATURE, 


NATURAL HISTORY, AND THE FINE ARTS. 


EDITED BY 
WILLIAM HOLL, Esa., F. G. S., 
- AND 


NEVILLE WOOD, Esa., 


(AUTHOR OF “BRITISH SONG BIRDS,” “ ORNITHOLOGIST’S TEXT BOOK,” &c.) 


VOL. VI. 


LONDON : 


_ SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, & CO. 
WHYTE & Co., EDINBURGH; BARLOW, BIRMINGHAM. 


1837. 


THE ANALYST. 


ON ELEMENTARY EDUCATION. 
By James Simpson, ApvocaTe.* 


ELEMENTARY or primary education is that training of the 
faculties and communication of knowledge which ought to be im- 
parted to every human being, from birth to the age of fourteen, 
without distinction of sex, rank, or condition in life. In no branch 
of human affairs have notions been more limited and erroneous 
than in this. The cause is, want of the requisite knowledge of the 
human constitution, bodily and mental, the improvement and right 
direction of which are, in its widest sense, sound education. Intel- 
lectual education solely, and that most defective in kind and degree, 
has hitherto engrossed the attention of the teacher of the young, 
while moral education is a novelty in society. Yet Locke and 
Milton, above a century and a half ago, conceived and expressed 
the opinion that moral training is paramount in importance, and 
ought to take the precedence of intellectual, which is chiefly useful 
as aiding the other more important branch in its grand object, the 
improvement and ultimate perfection of human happiness. Edu- 
cationists are beginning to miss this vital branch of instruction: 
they find no institutions for it until infant schools were established. 
These have demonstrated its reality as a part of education, and, yet 
more—its practicability. 

But the omission of moral education is only one symptom of 
that disease of ignorance on the great subject which afflicts society. 


* Author of the “ Philosophy of Education, with its application to a sys- 
tem of popular education as a natural system.” Second Edition. 


4 ON ELEMENTARY EDUCATION. 


That ignorance itself must be removed. The human being, to be 
educated, must be understood in all the parts of his constitution, 
and his education—which is but another term for the improvement 
of that constitution—will follow in the necessary relation of cause 
and consequence. A correct physiology of body, and a true analysis 
of mind, must then be the very basis of a sound system of educa- 
tion. The first has been wellnigh attained, but the analyses of 
mind with which we have been presented by various and conflicting 
metaphysical systems are clearly inadequate to the desired end. 
These have all mistaken the modes in which the mind acts, for the 
faculties, the operations, and the powers of mind. Thus aétention, 
perception, conception, consciousness, &c., were long taught as fa- 
culties, while they were terms for the mere working of faculties. 
To other and more fortunate philosophers it occurred to go in quest 
of powers to manifest attention, perception, conception, &c. They 
found these powers in the practical philosophy of every-day life— 
in the pages of the biographer, the novelist, the dramatist, and the 
poet ; and observed that such writers owe their popularity to the 
just and true pictures of human nature which the adoption of these 
very impulses and faculties, as belonging to man, gaye to their 
works. The same philosophers have connected these faculties 
with the physiology of the brain. Educationists, however, without 
inquiring into the truth of this alliance, have adopted the facul- 
ties themselves, and have thereby thrown a degree of light on the 
subject of education—have given it a system and a practical appli- 
cation, which have made it, compared with what it was, even in 
the best period of the older philosophy, another, a better, and a 
higher thing. 

The teacher ought intimately to know and handle this new 
and powerful implement—this sound philosophy of human nature. 
He should never lose sight of the physical, animal, moral and intel- 
lectual nature of his pupil. He should have a competent know- 
ledge of the structure and functions of the various parts of his body, 
so as to know how to train its powers and increase their vigour, as 
a condition of health and longevity. He should enumerate and 
know the uses of his animal tendencies, as well as their abuses— 
vice and crime. He should be familiar with the nature and func- 
tions of his moral feelings, and have reliance on the influence of 
their right guidance to human happiness. Finally, he should know 
and distinguish all the intellectual powers, both for the acquisition 
and use of knowledge. The body is divided into parts or systems ; 
namely, the system of the bones, the muscles, the blood-vessels, 


ON ELEMENTARY EDUCATION. dD 


the absorbents, the brain and nerves, the lungs, the stomach and 
viscera, &c. The structure and functions of all these ought to be 
familiar to the teacher, and in an elementary way explained to his 
pupils. The conditions of their sound and healthy action—in 
other words, of bodily health and comfort—should be made plain ; 
and the miseries arising from the abuse of any of them. 

Studies like these were thought to belong to medical education 
alone. This is a grievous error, and one which is visited by much 
severe suffering. In ignorance of what they do, multitudes ruin 
their health, and if they are not hurried to early graves, drag on a 
life of wretchedness. These consequences would not follow ; human 
beings would have longer life, would cease to see one half of their 
offspring cut off before two years of age, and would be relieved from 
much suffering, by very simple lessons on the structure and func. 
tions of the human body. ‘‘I do not mean that every one shall 
become his own physician,” said a writer on the subject, “ but I 
would save every man from being his own destroyer.” 

The mind—that portion of man which feels and thinks—is com- 
posed of, or rather acts by, distinct primitive faculties: These may 
be classed as follows :—Feelings and intellect, inferior feelings 
and superior feelings, knowing faculties, reflecting faculties. There 
is no better definition of a faculty of mind than a power to perceive, 
to reflect, or to feel in a particular way. The faculties are instine. 
tive and innate, and may be called—even the highest of the reflect- 
ing powers may—human instincts. The inferior feelings are so 
called because their objects are lower, and because they are common 
to man and the inferior animals. They include the propensities 
necessary to the existence, continuation, safety, and physical com- 
fort of the species. Such are the instincts of love of life, of food, of 
sex, of the young, courage to repel danger, love of property, of self, 
of estimation, of resentment, and caution or fear.* All these facul- 
ties are given to man for use, and, as God’s work, are good. The 
abuse of them essentially constitutes vice and crime. This is the 
- law in the members which wars against the law in the mind. 
Moral education will therefore regulate, but not repress these feel- 
ings; will confine them to their own useful and necessary sphere, 
but will prevent them from going beyond it. 


* The reader will perceive that the faculties here enumerated are those 
which are admitted to be natural and innate in man by the phrenologists, 
although, for the benefit of those who have not as yet turned their attention 
to the subject, the terms of ordinary parlance are adopted by Mr. Simpson, 
instead of the phrenological nomenclature.—Eps. 


6 ON ELEMENTARY EDUCATION. 


The superior feelings include the moral sentiments by excellence ; 
those which lead man to love his neighbour, to respect his neigh- 
bour’s rights, and to love, obey, and adore his God ; in terms, bene- 
volence, justice, and veneration or piety. The exercise of these 
three feelings constitutes natural ethics. Actions are good or evil 
according as they agree or disagree with their dictates. It consti- 
tutes, not less, the ethics of christianity, which, as Bishop Butler 
has said, is a republication of the ethics of Nature—is the law in 
the mind with which, according to the apostle, the law in the mem- 
bers wars, but to which is given, both by Nature and Scripture, a 
supremacy and control, the exercise of which is justice. This, in 
scriptural language, is ‘‘ to do justly, to love mercy, and walk 
humbly with God.” Moral education, then, will exercise and im- 
prove these three high controlling powers, and thereby elevate the 
character. To the higher feelings likewise belong firmness or 
endurance of purpose, hope, ideality, fur the beautiful and sublime, 
the ludicrous, and imitation. Both the inferior and superior feel- 
ings are emotions, and are also desires leading to acts for their gra- 
tification. 

Intellectually the knowing faculties acquire knowledge. They 
include the five senses, the power of observing existencies and 
events, or things that are and things that happen, under one or 
other of which categories all our knowledge must be found. Intel- 
lectual education will improve the senses, as the informants of the 
mind of certain qualities of matter, and cultivate and start the ob- 
serving powers with the knowledge of the external world and its 
changes. Lastly, the reflecting powers compare and deduce, or rea- 
son upon the knowledge with which the knowing faculties are 
stored. Every human faculty has its relative object in external 
Nature, to the quality and constitution of which it is beautifully 
adapted. : 

From the sketch now given of man’s constitution in body and 
mind, it will at once appear that the teacher of youth should know 
and communicate to his pupil a knowledge of the relations which 
exist between that constitution and the creation in which man is 
placed. He will find that creation is in the most harmonious rela- 
tions to man’s nature—that as light is related to the structure of 
the eye, air to the ear, to the lungs, and the blood, so are human 
appetites and sentiments to their respective objects. The three-fold 
division of elementary education into physical, moral, and intellec- 
tual, offers itself at once to the mind when satisfied of the truth of 
the foregoing observations. The three departments will proceed 


ON ELEMENTARY EDUCATION. 7 


together, beginning with the very commencement of our being. 
Physical education should actually commence before birth, prospec- 
tively, in the temperate and healthful habits of the mother, the 
avoidance by her of stimulants, physical and moral, the tranquil 
exercise and engagement of all her faculties. Much evil results 
from an opposite course, and great is the responsibility. From the 
moment of birth, that the being may possess a vigorous frame of 
body and the concomitant sound health—without which every spe- 
cies of moral and intellectual exercise is cramped and frustrated— 
he must be subjected to such processes of management, and after- 
wards trained to such habits of food, muscular exercise, cleanliness, 
and respiration of fresh air, as have been ascertained to conduce to 
health and strength. 

Moral education will, as above stated, ccmmence at the same 
time with physical. For the sake of himself and society, man 
must be habituated, from the dawn of consciousness and feeling, 1o 
_ the moderate activity and proper regulation of the inferior feelings 
of our nature ; and gradually to the due exercise of the moral sen- 
timents of mercy, justice, and truth towards his fellow beings, and 
veneration towards his Almighty Creator and the objects of his 
faith. In time, as his intellectual faculties develope themselves, he 
ought to be instructed in the theory and impressed with the higher 
functions of that morality in which he has been previously trained 
and exercised. 

Intellectual education, beginning almost at birth, in the proper 
direction of the senses and observing powers, will proceed elemen- 
tarily; in exercising the human powers and storing them with that 
knowledge of Creation and the nature of things which all sane hu- 
man beings were intended, by the very endowment of their minds 
with the necessary powers, to acquire. 

Physical, moral, and intellectual education, then, for all ages, 
from birth to fourteen years, may be said to have three periods, 
when different degrees of it will be applicable ; namely, cradle edu- 
cation, infant education, and juvenile education. 

CravLE EpvucaTion is new in practice, and new even as a 
term. The nurse must here be the educator ; and it concerns soci- 
ety and human happiness more than is at first apparent that nurses, 
including mothers, should be fitted, more than they have ever been, 
for this delicate and important office. Many an infant is sent to its 
grave by ignorance in its nurse of those simple organic laws ne- 
cessary to its safety and comfort, which may be easily known and 
practised. A large proportion of the children born in this country 


8 ON ELEMENTARY EDUCATION. 


die before two years of age. This was not intended by Nature ; 
it does not happen in the inferior tribes, and must arise from some 
grievous error or ignorance in man. Food, air, exercise, tempera. 
ture, sleep, ablutions, skilfully managed, ought to produce better 
results. Many a child, moreover, is ruined in temper and disposi. 
tion in an ignorant nurse’s arms. If it be naturally irascible, it 
is injudiciously fretted and provoked ; if petulant and revengeful, it 
is told to beat the floor on which it falls, the table it has run 
against, or any person or thing that comes in its way. It is care- 
fully taught to scold, and stamp, and rage, and it is pacified by hav- 
ing its wide-open mouth stuffed with sugar. By this last act 
another lesson of evil, and one which is a deep source of human 
woe, is inculcated ; it is made a selfish politician before it can utter 
an intelligible word: it grows up violent, revengeful, and artful, 
turning upon aud rending most cruelly the repentant parent, who, 
changing her plan, in vain endeavours to whip out what she her- 
self put in, and which, far beyond her management, will vent 
itself upon a really injured society. 

Nurses must, therefore, be educated to train all the human feel- 
ings, and their earliest manifestations ; to remove the causes which 
excite the inferior, to divert from their paroxysms when these 
chance to occur ; never exhibiting their activity in their own man- 
ner or expression of countenance, which cught always to be mild 
and cheerful ; to direct the earliest dawn of observation to its most 
attractive objects; and last, not least, to regulate the child’s habits 
in food, air, exercise, and sleep, so as to nourish both body and 
mind. At two years of age, or as soon as the child can walk-alone, 
he, or she, should be entered at an infant school. This should con- 
sist of not fewer than forty or fifty pupils, in order to obtain the 
advantage of a variety of dispositions for mutual exercise in the 
little community. The school-room should be large, lofty, and 
well-ventilated and warmed, and the value of all these advantages 
early and constantly impressed upon the pupils. There they shouid 
find a teacher and his wife—for no kind of colleagues are better 
fitted for co-operation—quick, intelligent, fond, children-loving, 
cheerful, and amusing ; with whom it is impossible to connect fear, 
or anything but love and attachment ; for on these two last the 
whole system is based. In a roomy play-ground should be arranged 
all the means of exercise, by safe and judicious gymnastics, such as 
the circular swing, &c. Refinement and taste will be cultivated by 
accustoming the pupils to flower borders, fruit trees, and even orna- 
ments, which they will respect, and not, as is now done by chil- 


ON ELEMENTARY EDUCATION. 9 


dren, deface and destroy. In this play-ground—which is in truth 
the school, the school-room being a mere accessory—the intercourse 
should be left as free as is consistent with the most careful observ- 
ance by the teacher, who will watch all the minutest out-breakings 
of selfishness and passion, or failures in justice, truth, and honesty. 
Into all such matters, however trifling, the teacher should minute- 
ly, patiently, and temperately inquire ; distinguish, in the presence 
of all the school, the right from the wrong, instead of the present 
practice, in nursery quarrels, to knock together the heads of the 
combatants, and there finish the matter. By this last rude and in- 
discriminating practice all moral distinctions are confounded, and 
the same mode of arranging, or rather deranging, human affairs in 
after life perpetuated. In the play-ground, where fruit, and flowers, 
and ornaments are respected by the youngest child, pets—the more 
helpless the better—should be kept, and gentleness and kindness 
to animals, with an utter absence of cruelty, practised and enforced. 

The intellect should be trained by an early and minute exercise 
of the faculties enumerated above, by observing material objects and 
their qualities; in other words, the REAL system—the most radi- 
cal revolution which has yet taken place in intellectual education— 
should be commenced and be steadily pursued as long as the pupil 
remains at school. Of the first suggestion of the real system, Pes- 
talozzi had the glory, for there is no higher term for its merit. 
Deshaye has made it familiar by his Lessons on Objects, which 
should be the text-book of every infant-school teacher and every 
mother of a family. It is divided into seven series, with from 
fifteen to twenty lessons in each, and conveys a thorough knowledge 
of material objects in their external features, qualities, and uses, 
and last, what is for after study, their chemical and mechanical 
changes. For example, the first lesson is on the aspect and obvious 
qualities of glass. ‘The substance is put into the pupil’s hands, its 
transparency, brittleness, &c., made evident to him, and these words 
pronounced, read, and spelled by him as exhibited in printed cards, 
or written with chalk on a black board. By this means, reading, 
and ultimately writing, is incidentally and almost insensibly attain- 
ed. In the second lesson something is exhibited different from 
glass, though resembling it in one or two qualities: for example, 
India rubber. It is not brittle, but tough; not transparent, but 
opaque, though it is elastic. It is also combustible and odorous ; 
all which terms are learned as words incidentally ; so that by the 
time the whole seven series are finished, the child can read. The 
first four series are enough for the infant school; the remaining 

VOL. VI.—NO, XIX. B 


eo 
10 ON ELEMENTARY EDUCATION. 


three go into more complicated qualities and combined relations, 
and are, therefore, more adapted for the advanced or juvenile 
school. 

Besides a knowledge of objects, with their qualities and uses, 
much useful information may be communicated, such as easy arith- 
metic by tangible objects, the simpler geometrical figures, the ele- 
ments of Geography, and even History, with an endless variety of 
amusing and instructive matters, which may all be selected to be of 
value as preparatory for more advanced education, and future life.* 
But let it never be forgotten, that all this may and must be attained 
without TASKING or FATIGUING the infant pupil. The following 
is an extract, on this vital point, from Chambers’ Infant Educa- 
tion :— 

« This section ought not to be concluded without a caution, the 
omission of which might cause infant education to become an irre- 
mediable evil instead of good to its innocent objects. We learn 
from physiological observations, too numerous and accurate to admit 
of doubt, that the brain, the instrument of the mind, is in infancy 
imperfectly developed, unconsolidated, and subject, in its own sub- 
stance, to serious disease, as well as to be the cause of other diseases, 
by being overtasked.. Now this overtasking is an error into which 
infant-school teachers are very apt to fall in the intellectual depart- 
ment of the training. They cannot, they suppose, give enough of 
lesson exercise, or advance their pupils too fast and too far ‘ in their 
learning. Parents, they say, expect it, and have not learned to 
appreciate anything else ; and to their ignorant prejudices they are 
forced to yield. This is a grievous, often a fatal error. We refer 
to what has been said in our introductory matter, on the secondary 
importance of intellectual to moral, and even to physical, training, 
at that early age. It ought to be secondary in the time allotted to 
it and the attention bestowed upon it. It should not task the me- 
mory, or have in it the slightest character of Jabour for any of the 
faculties. Conversant with objects more than words, it should be 
little more than a better directed and more systematic exercise of 
the senses and the simple observing powers—those the child would 
engage in if left to himself. It ought all to be amusement, not 
study or exertion. If the knowledge is gained, it should be as easi- 
ly gained as if picked up spontaneously by the way. It may be 


* I may here recommend, as guides in infant education, Wilderspin’s 
work on the subject, and the number of Chambers’ Educational Course, en- 
titled Infant Education, equally suited to the infant school and the nursery. 


£ 


il 
ON ELEMENTARY EDUCATION. Bi 


asked, how does such light study agree with the numerous lessons — 
arranged and referred to in this and the previous section? Our 
answer is two-fold. A small and easy portion of these lessons is 
given at any one time ; for the total is the work of four years ; and 
there is none of them which may not be imparted by insensible 
degrees, without approaching to labour or going beyond amusement. 
In most infant schools, the tz-door occupations, we think, bears tvo 
large a proportion to the owt, or, in bad weather, to the in-door re- 
creation. The common practice is an hour’s lessons and a quarter 
of an hour’s play, alternately.* We should wish to see the chil- 
dren, for a much larger proportion than this, in the play-ground. 
However alternated, HALF THE TIME OF SCHOOL OUGHT UNQUES- 
TIONABLY TO BE SPENT IN PLAY. There is no time for moral ex- 
ercise in the brief intercourse of ten minutes’ play, cut short by the 
hand-bell. The teacher, too, is insensibly led to devote himself to 
the intellectual teaching as primary, and to slur over the moral and 
physical exercise as secondary. ‘This he has another temptation to 
do ; the intellectual is the only exhibitable training. The teacher’s 
ambition to show off the children’s attainments, which, to gratify 
his own vanity, perils the bodies and minds of his pupils, ought to 


be unsparingly put down by the directors of an infant-school,t and 


* Such an allotment of their time cannot fail to be more or less prejudici- 
al to children so young and tender. A better plan would undoubtedly be 
exactly to reverse the periods here alluded to.. The excess of in-door study 
in infant schools has called forth much just reprehension from the opposers 
of such institutions.—Eps. 

+- This observation is equally applicable to the system adopted in semi- 
naries for adults, where half-yearly exhibitions are “ got up” at the sacrifice 
of the pupil’s health, and to the total neglect of a sound and useful education 
adapted to his wants in after life.. In a majority of schools, the pupils are 
almost exclusively occupied, for one or two months, in committing to memory 
Greek or Latin plays, or entire eclogues of Virgil, who would gaze with 
vacant wonder if asked to enumerate the component parts of the air they 
breathe—to explain the motions of the heavenly bodies——or elucidate the 
most simple and beautiful of the organic laws. But this classical display of 
erudition answers the purpose for which it is intended: first, it gratifies the 
vanity and excites the astonishment of the parents, who, in most cases, have 


long since buried their crude and imperfect knowledge of the classics in 


oblivion ; secondly, it tends to render them blind or indifferent to the deplor- 
able ignorance of their children in every other branch of knowledge; and, 
thirdly, it ministers to the ambitious views of the master, who considers his 
fortune made if one tithe of his pupils distinguish themselves at the Univer- 
sity. ‘The film is now happily removed from the eyes of the intelligent por- 
tion of the community, and this barbarous system of “our fore-fathers” 
is about to be abandoned, in spite of the vigorous efforts that have been 
made by bigoted and narrow-minded advocates to uphold it.—Eps. 


~ 
12 ON ELEMENTARY EDUCATION. 


' forsworn by the teacher himself. There are too many Books for 
Infants. Infants require no books. Good books for infants’ teach- 
ers are what are wanted; and these will tell them that they 
cannot give the children too much of the play-ground and its 
exercises, mingle too much with them there, or too much 
observe, and regulate, and guide, the dispositions which they 
manifest in their play-ground intercourse. We recommend to 
any infant-school teacher to be possessed of a copy of the 
work of an American writer, Dr. Amariah Brigham, On the 
Influence of Mental Cultivation and Excitement upon Health. 
In nearly every word of that admirable little work we cordially 
concur. No teacher can read it, and continue blindly to overtask 
the infant brain. It is a work which, properly understood, will not 
discourage infant schools, but prevent their abuse and perversion— 
will not supersede that early training of the dispositions without 
which they never will be trained at all, but will guard that para- 
mount object from being rendered of less effect, by a course inju- 
rious, and often destructive, to the mind itself. We also recommend 
another American work, Dr. Charles Caldwell’s Thoughts on Phy- 
sical Education, a discourse delivered to a convention of teachers in 
Lexington ; and Dr. Andrew Combe’s Physiology as connected with 
the Preservation of Health, and also his Physiology of Digestion.* 
These four works should be the constant companions of every in- . 
fant-school teacher. It may here be briefly noticed that Dr. Brigh- 
am justly holds that the exercise of the moral faculties or feelings 
is unattended with the dangers attending excessive intellectual 
labour, provided always that over-excitement and every thing that 
rouses selfish passions, such as rewards offered to emulation, or 
punishments addressed to fear, are carefully avoided.” 

The foregoing extract is followed, in the same treatise, by a sec- 
tion entitled, “‘ Prevention of prejudices, fallacies, tyrannies, cruel- 
ties, unfairnesses, selfishnesses, bad habits, &c.” The section is 
thus introduced :—* There is no part of the infant system more im- 
portant than the field for watchfulness and exertion indicated by 
this title. There are no greater moral evils, or causes of evil, than 
that title enumerates. It is by judicious infant training alone that 
they can be warded off, and society defended from their conse- 


* We beg to add our tribute of praise to the excellence and practical utili- 
ty of the productions of the three talented physicians here mentioned ; those 
who have not perused these works are not a little in arrear of the times, and 
should, without loss of time, become acquainted with their contents.—Eps. 


# 


—_ 


ON ELEMENTARY EDUCATION. 13 


quences. It is not meant here to specify every prejudice, bad feel- 
ing, or bad habit, which obstructs and deranges human affairs. A 
few only are enumerated as examples. Others will occur to an 
enlightened and moral teacher: and there are no points in the 
whole range of his labours where his reiterated Jessons and illustra. 
tions will do so much good. He ought to vary the manner in 
which he presses this preventive moral teaching upon his pupils ; 
he should attract them by anecdotes and examples; lead them by 
precepts, interrogatories, exercises; and ever and anon renew the 
subject during their total attendance at school, till habits of think- 
ing and acting, the reverse of the unfavourable here referred to, 
shall have taken fast hold of their minds. The benefit to another 
generation of steady and unceasing attention to this one depart- 
ment of the infant school teacher’s duties is incalculable. Here, 
then, follows a sub-section upon each of the following moral evils ; 
and their anticipation and prevention is recommended in the very 
threshold of education. The love of war, and passion for military 
glory—national self-sufficiency and antipathy—religious bigotry 
and intolerance—fa]se sayings—self-sufficient and false judgment 
—the spirit of contradiction—exaltation of every thing connected 
with self—conceited deprecation—pride and vanity defeat their 
own end—jealousy, grudging, envying, detracting—obstructing 
and injuring competitors—want of candour—tyranny, annoying 
the imbecile, provocation—derision—frightening—practical jokes, 
witches, ghosts, &c.—superstitions—the gambling spirit—cruelty 
and antipathy to animals—destroying inanimate things—stone- 
throwing—nuisances and nastinesses—want of consideration for 
others, and of civility—evil speaking and gossiping—pleasure in 
exercising the benevolent and just sentiments—prudential atten- 
tions and maxims—temperance.” 

Exercise on all these points for four years, when the mind is 
pliant and youthful confidence strong, would work a change on so- 
ciety, even in one generation, almost beyond the calculation of those 
who view that society only as it is now disfigured. 

We have reason to know that the practical working of well-con- 
ducted infant schools is entirely satisfactory. In the appendix to 
the first and second reports of the Edinburgh Model Infant School, 
published in 1832 and 1835, are a series of incidents which occur- 
red in the school and in the intercourse of the infants, which demon- 
strate that kindness to companions and to animals, and honesty and 
truth are practically exemplified, not in a few instances, but gener- 
ally ; and that cleanliness and refinement, respect for ornament, 


z 


14 ON ELEMENTARY EDUCATION. 


attachment to the teachers, and other excellent dispositions, are 
established as the characteristics of the place. Numerous letters 
from the parents speak, in terms of unbounded gratitude, of the 
change produced in their children, and of the comfort and pleasure 
they enjoy in their society when they return from school, instead of 
the wearisomeness of their former company. Objections to the infant 
education system, all of which were founded on ignorance of its 
nature, are now fast disappearing. I have not heard of any objec- 
tions worth more than enumeration.* The system, it is said, tasks 
the infant brain before it is consolidated, and will send the preco- 
cious, more especially, to early graves. I have already given a solemn 
caution that the infants should never be tasked ; but that all their 
intellectual exercises should be light amusement, and instruction as 
an accessory. The objection is reasoning from the abuse against 
the use of such institutions. Dr. Brigham’s work was laid hold of 
by the opponents of infant schools and by their supporters at one 
and the same time; by the former as an instrument wherewith 
to demolish infant education, by the latter as a guide to regulate 
and improve them. 

Again, we have from many persons an admission that infant 
schools suit the labouring classes very well, but that no mother 
above that rank would or should part with her infant to be trained 
in a public school. She is the natural guide of the finfant’s first 
feelings, and conductor of its early education. Now what, in most 
cases, will the mother do? She commits the child, for many more 
hours than are demanded by the infant school, to a nursery-maid— 
a creature utterly without education, and often with the very worst 
habits. Even if the mother kept the child beside herself, the most 
intelligent and excellent mothers will be the first to admit that 
they cannot it siegsomenss train their own nursery morally. The 
mother wants the element of numbers, a variety of dispositions. 
This alone is an answer to the objection which admits of no reply. 
She cannot give that unremitting and systematic attention which 
infant education requires ; she must delegate ; and to whom can 
she do so more beneficially than to the enlightened, mild, and prac- 
tised conductors of that well-regulated nursery—as it was called by 
Lord Jeffrey—an infant school; where warmth, air, exercise, health, 


* Dr. Caldwell, in his excellent Thoughts on Physical Education, expresses 
himself averse to the infant school system. We think, however, that his 
views on this subject proceed from a want of a practical knowledge of such 
institutions, and of their aim and objects.—Eps. 


aga 


ON ELEMENTARY EDUCATION. 15 


safety, are all in better hands than they can be at home.* I would 
advise the formation of an infant school of the middle and higher 
classes in each neighbourhood, to which the children may easily be 
sent and sent for, while their nurse’s hands would be liberated for 
some hours for other avocations. To this course things will come 
when prejudice gives way, because it will then be seen that they 
must. 

At six years old the pupil will join the juvenile school, and 
remain for the rest of the period of elementary education, namely, 
till fourteen at least, and a year or two longer if convenient or ne- 
cessary. Here the real system, and the verbal incidentally, will be 
continued ; all instrumentary branches will be taught; useful 
knowledge fitting for life inculcated; and the elements of science 
practically acquired. The sum total of elementary education during 
this period is so admirably concentrated in the prospectus of the 
educational course of bookst now in course of preparation by those 
benefactors of their species the Messrs. Chambers, of Edinburgh, 
that I cannot do better than extract the following passage from that 
document :— 

*« ]. Reading, at least in his own tongue; 2. writing; 3. arith- 
metic; and 4. grammar, etymology, and composition. That he 
may enter life with a mind informed respecting that Creation of 
which he is a part, and that society of which he is a member, and 
qualified as well as may be to perform the part which will fall to 
his lot, he must be acquainted with at least the elements of the fol- 
lowing kinds of knowledge: 1. Geography, or the surface of the 
earth; 2 Geology, or the structure of the earth ; 3. Botany, or 
the vegetable productions of the earth ; 4. Zoology, or the animals 
of the earth ; 5. Meteorology, the phenomena of the atmosphere: 
6. Chemistry, the composition of the substances of the material 
world, and the changes which are produced by the action of these 
substances upon each other; 7. Natural Philosophy, the mechanical 
powers and relations of the material world; 8. Geometry, the sci- 


* We fear that, at present, many mothers who admitted the truth of this 
would be unwilling to part with their darlings out of their house, just at the 
time when their maternal feelings—phrenologically, Philoprogenitiveness— 
experience the most intense gratification in nursing, perhaps spoiling, their 
beloved offspring.—Eps. 

+ Seven numbers are already published, and the demand for them has 
been very great. They are—JInfant Education, Introduction to the Sciences, 
Rudiments of Chemistry, Elements of Plane Geometry, English Language and 
Literature, History of Britain and Ireland, Elements of Drawing and Perspective. 


16 ON ELEMENTARY EDUCATION. 


ence of measurement ; 9. Astronomy, the relation of our globe to 
the other component parts of the vast system of Creation; 10, An- 
thropology, including Phrenology, or the physical, moral, and intel- 
lectual nature of man, with reference to the preservation of health 
and the attainment of happiness; 1]. Political Economy, the pro. 
duction and distribution of national wealth; 12. the history of 
nations and countries, ancient and modern, especially those in which 
the pupil is most interested—of their literature, eminent men, 
resources, &c.”* 

By means of the Incidental Method, several branches can be 
taught together, not only without hindering, but aiding each other. 
Grammar may be taught incidentally with reading, while reading 
is taught incidentally with realities. Rewards and punishments 
will be found unnecessary under such a system. These are address- 
ed to the inferior and selfish feelings, and are the greatest possible 
impediments to moral training. Perhaps the rewards are the worse 
of the two. The punishment degrades the punished individual, but 
the reward excites the selfishness. of the whole school. In the old 
system of tasks of useless words, and tedious and repulsive objects 
of study, these stimulants were indispensable; but when education 
shall suit and, in suiting, delight every faculty, they will remain a 
solecism in education, and scarcely be historically believed. 

Objections and incredulity may be expected here, as well as on 
the subject of infant schools. It will be asked, is it intended or 
expected that the education now described shall atu be given by 
fourteen years of age? It is intended and expected, I answer, be- 
cause it has been accomplished. Much is done, and without over- 
tasking, at the infant school. At six years old the pupils leave a 
well-conducted infant school much better informed and more ac- 
complished in the instrumentary branch of reading than we find 
them, under the old system, at ten or even twelve years of age. 
This is great gain. But the juvenile school endures eight years, 
and no one accustomed to see the waste of time and, what is more, 
of mind, under the old errors, is in a condition to estimate the 


* To this list, although we are aware that little more than a taste for the 
fine arts could be attained by the inmates of infant schools, we would add 
Music, both vocal and instrumental, as tending materially to refine and ele- 
vate our nature, and, if properly taught, opening a wide and never-failing 
source of pleasure to its cultivators. In this department the Singing Master 
(see Analyst, v., 334) will be the best guide. Nor should Poetry, Painting, 
and Sculpture, by any means be overlooked, excepting where the talents re- 
quisite for such pursuits are decidedly deficient.—Eps. 


ON ELEMENTARY EDUCATION. 17 


amount and the quality of training and knowledge which may be 
given in these precious years. ‘Those who say that to teach science 
at that early age is to give a mere smattering, judge from what 
would at present be the result if the listless victims of Latin and 
Greek were to have science superadded to their other tastes, with 
the short portion of time which would be spared for it on the one 
hand, and the superficial attention which school-boys habitually 
pay to anything that is taught by their present instructors. But 
when the dead languages, and all other languages but the vernacu- 
lar, are rigidly excluded from disturbing the important years of ele- 
mentary education—when study from the infant-school upwards has 
been made, not irksome, as it now is, but delightful, as it it may be and 
ought to be, divested of fear of punishment, divested of the distract- 
ing selfishness of honours, prizes, and captivating the faculties with 
the rich food which a wise and benevolent Creator intended for 
them, and, be it marked, especially suited to them in the natural 
activity of their energies, we shall hear no more of smattering, but 
shall see even middling talent master of all the useful knowledge, as 
concentrated in the prospectus already quoted, by fourteen vears of 
age, and fitted for ulterior education and the business of life—a 
striking contrast to the Latinists and Grecians at the same age, 
who, for all useful purposes in life, are like creatures dropped from 
the moon.* 

The elements of Chemistry and Mechanics have been practi- 
cally taught to the youth of both sexes in Edinburgh, by Dr. Bos- 
well Reid. The experiment has been made on boys taken indiscri- 
minately from the different schools, and young ladies from an ex- 
tensive ladies’ seminary ; and, although the study was engaged in 
over and above the ordinary pursuits of the pupils, the results were 
completely satisfactory, and give promise of still greater success 
when scientific studies shall have a more important and systematic 
place in elementary education. 

Again, it is asked is this thorough elementary education to be 
given to ALI, without modification according to different turns of 
mind and degrees of talent? I answer, To ALL, because all have 
the faculties to which it is addressed, and all were intended to use 
these faculties in gaining an acquaintance with the creation in 


* Until views like these be adopted, and, what is more, acted upon by 
every one engaged in the instruction of youth, we see no reasonable prospect 
of attaining that success in education which can alone effect a sensible im- 
provement in the human race.—Ens. 

VOL. VI.—-NO, XIX. Cc 


18 ON ELEMENTARY EDUCATION. 


which they are placed. An average capacity for this purpose is 
possessed by all persons who are not mentally defective. No doubt 
the acquisitions will be made in different degrees, according to apt- 
ness to learn and retentive power to remember ; but all will gain 
something, and the general intelligence will be advanced. Ulterior 
education will take its character from the line in life which it is 
intended the pupil shall follow. This ought, of course, to be chosen 
according to the particular bent of mind—in other words, the re- 
lative power of particular faculties. 

Are FEMALES to be educated to the same extent as males? My 
answer is by another question—-Why not? The faculties must 
determine the education, and, unless it can be shown that these 
differ in the male and female human being, the question is answer- 
ed in the affirmative. Nay, it concerns society even more that 
those who are the first imparters of knowledge and trainers of fa- 
culties should be themselves well-informed and thoroughly trained. 
But I would go further—I would have the two sexes educated 
together. While no evil can result from this—for they never can 
be more safely together—much good in mutual encouragement and 
refinement will be attained. The female pupils as well as the 
males will, moreover, have the benefit of the best male instruction, 
females assisting and communicating to their own sex needle-work 
and other strictly female branches. This plan has been pursued, in 
Lancasterian and other large schools of both sexes, with marked 
success, 

Last of all, it will be asked, is it intended that a complete ele- 
mentary education shall be given to all classes, including the 
WORKING CLASSES ?—It is so intended. An elementary education, 
equally extensive in its quantity and excellent in its quality, should 
be given to the child of the day-labourer as to that of the peer ; 
and till the time shall come that this is realized, the condition of the 
working classes will not be improved, for this alone will enable 
them to improve their own condition. But, it will be replied, how 
can the working classes continue their children at school till they 
are fourteen ?—They need, and will have, their labour earlier. In 
the unfrugal and intemperate habits which want of education ren- 
ders so prevalent among that class, every aid to the scanty means is 
laid hold of eagerly by the half-starving families, and the labour of 
the very infant is put in requisition. This is a most injurious 
course, arising from a deep-seated social vice. “The young should 
not be engaged in regular labour till fourteen: neither their mus- 
cular frame nor nervous energy is in the required condition. The 


e 


ON ELEMENTARY EDUCATION. 19 


parents ought, by their own exertions—so far assisted by their 
children as in no respect to interfere with their school hours, by far 
the most important to them, and the best preparative for future 
prosperity and happiness—to be perfectly competent to support the 
whole family ; if they are not, by all their exertions, and by the 
utmost frugality and temperance, there is social disease somewhere, 
but there is none that may not be discovered and removed. I am 
merely pointing out the best course, not modifying my views to 
meet prejudices, or giving way to prevailing errors. No child, till 
fourteen, ought to be for a less period in school every day than four 
hours ; and there would remain sufficient time for that degree of 
moderate and wholesome labour which the parents ought reason- 
ably to demand. 

The silly objections to over-educating the working classes, as it is 
called, are now only urged by the nedeicated: Instead of indispos- 
ing them to labour, the great lesson which a knowledge of man and 
his relation to Creation will teach them, that labour is no evil and 
no degradation, and, above all, that it is called for by Nature and 
necessity, will render them more willing as well as more intelligent 
labourers, will induce them to abridge their own hours of labour, 
and employ their leisure in the enjoyment of the superior faculties, 
intellectual and moral, which would not have been given them if 
they had not been intended for human happiness.* Some vital 
changes in social institutions are called for to allow an improved 
education to produce all its beneficial effects ; but these are changes 
from ignorant and, therefore, hurtful errors to cover truth, and 
truth is ever attended with blessings in its practical application. 
Education will facilitate those changes even by that partial diffu- 
sion which, in spite of vicious institutions, will follow from a natu- 
ral over the established system. There will long be a force disturb- 
ing the progression, drawing back the machine, but there will be 
two steps onward for one retrograde; gain will be made on the 
whole, and in a future and more favoured generation it will be all 
gain together. 

I must reserve the vital subject of the TRAINING OF TEACHERS 
—of proper normal establishments—for another number of the 


* This is precisely the state to which we should like to see the labouring 
classes brought,—namely, to a proper sense of their own rights and import- 
ance. To such a condition they will assuredly come, and the arrival of it 
will be materially hastened by the spread of knowledge amongst all classes, 
(lespite the narrow-minded opposition which vainly endeavours to maintain 
arbitrary superiority.-Eps. 


fe 


20 REMARKABLE PLANTS FOUND GROWING 


Analyst. I would only here remark that the immensely improved 
elementary education advocated in the foregoing pages will call 
teachers of very superior qualifications into that field of labour, and 
elevate the character of that most useful class of men to the rank it 
ought to hold, namely, that of a fourth learned profession. It is 
despised now, because, from its intellectual poverty, it is not worthy 
of a higher estimation. 

I have thus sketched, much more briefly than the important sub- 
ject merits, a SYSTEM OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION. A plan for 
its realization—in the establishment of a minister of public instruc- 
tion, a board of commissioners, subordinate boards, normal schools, 
and an infant and juvenile school in every parish of the empire— 
may yet afford matter for much future discussion. 


[Our thanks are due to our talented correspondent for the able and im- 
partial manner in which he has treated the important subject of the above 
paper. Were views such as these generally admitted, and universally prac- 
tised, the benefit to future ages would be incalculable. We feel convinced, 
with Mr. Simpson, that schools, on however good a general plan, must fail 
in their objects unless the teacher has a thorough knowledge of human na- 
ture—in other words, unless he be a good phrenologist. His learning may 
be great, his intentions good, but still he may fail as an instructor; and we 
hold that schools and instructors will be alike useless and pernicious as long 
as any one set of faculties is cultivated to the partial or entire exclusion of 
all others. In fine, to be aware what are the primitive faculties that belong 
to man, and hence to know what studies are fitted for him, ParENonocy 
must be our guide, our sure and never-failing instructor —Eps. } 


REMARKABLE PLANTS FOUND GROWING in rue 
VICINITY or BIRMINGHAM In rue year 1836. 


“ Qualis apes zestate nova per florea rura 
Exercet sub sole labor.”—Vinre., dneid, lib. i., 430. 


As one of the objects of the Analyst is to register and make 
known to the public the personal observations of individuals in the 
-various branches of Natural History, perhaps a few notices of the 
habitats of some of the less common of our native plants found 
growing, during the year 1836, in the neighbourhood of Birming- 


IN THE VICINITY OF BIRMINGHAM. 21. 


ham, may not be without interest. to many of its readers, and espe- 
cially to those who, in common with the writer, are fond of the 
study of indigenous Botany.* 

I need scarcely observe that the extensive changes which have 
taken place in Birmingham and its enyirons during the last forty 
years, or since Dr. Withering published the last edition of his 
Systematic Arrangement of British Plants, make it an object of some 
interest to ascertain which of the localities of plants that gentle- 
man’s long residence near this town enabled him to point out still 
exist, and which modern improvements have destroyed. 

Birmingham Heath and Washwood Heath—where, in Dr. 
Withering’s time, the rambles of the botanist were rewarded by 
Hypocheris glabra, Vaccinium oxycoccos, or Eriophorum vaginatum 
—now exist as heaths only in name. Houses, canals, and the 
murky steam engine, cover the place where “ once the wild flower 
smiled ;’ the busy hum of men has long succeeded “ the buzzing 
wing of the drowsy Dorr,” even in spots as yet unconscious of the 
march of bricks and mortar. The labours of agriculture have 
swept away almost all the gleanings of the botanist: the Common 
Potato (Solanum tuberosum) now occupies, far more profitably, 
the place of its noxious congeners, Solanum dulcamara and S. ni- 
grum (the two Nightshades) ; while the slender Sea Cabbage 
(Brassica oleracea) has been doomed, “ ’neath the gardener’s 
plastic art,” to undergo more metamorphoses than ever. Proteus 
tried or Ovid sang. 

The crowding host of Savoy, Cauliflower, and “‘ Cabbages of low 
degree,” up to that greatest among the Anakim of culinary vege- 
tables, “‘ the Caesarean Cow Cabbage,” oppress the groaning soil,— 


‘¢ In square battalion rang’d, line after line 
Successive ;” 


* It may be as well to notice that the united committee of the Birming- 
ham Botanical and Warwickshire Floral Societies, at a meeting held in the 
early part of the present year, offered a prize medal for “the best hortus 
siccus of native plants, correctly named, with their local habitation, collected 
within ten miles of Birmingham, from the Ist of August, 1835, to the Ist of 
August, 1836.” Having myself previously formed the design of botanizing 
the neighbourhood of Birmingham, this notice was an additional excitement 
to exertion; and I was enabled to collect, though the season was on the 
whole an unfavourable one, about three hundred and twenty phzenogamous 
plants and ferns, for which collection the botanical committee awarded me 
the prize medal. . 


92 REMARKABLE PLANTS FOUND GROWING 


and every clod of earth within a circle of not less than twenty 
miles in circumference, if it can do nothing better, must “ maintain 
its Cabbage.” 

Even the “ stubborn glebe” of Moseley Common has been par- 
tially subdued by the ploughshare, and waving fields of grain pro- 
claim the victory ; and the gouty pedestrian who starts from the 
centre of the busy circle to take a country walk, and enjoy the 
wildness of Nature, long before he regains the haven of “ his own 
elbow chair,” will find that it is “‘ no joke.” 

But, great as is the change around us, it is a change which not 
even the most enthusiastic lover of Nature can for a moment behold 
with regret ; it has probably promoted the happiness of thousands 
of human beings; and if the man who has caused one blade of 
grass to grow where none grew before, may justly be said to have 
conferred a substantial benefit on his species ; surely the numerous 
agricultural improvements—to say nothing of the commercial— 
which, during the last half century, have been made in the neigh- 
bourhood of Birmingham, cannot be contemplated without feelings 
of the highest pleasure. 

As, however, the obvious consequence of this alteration of the 
natural face of the country has been to render useless for the pur- 
pose of reference eight out of every ten of the localities assigned to 
plants by Dr. Withering and the authors of the Botanist’s Guide, 
I trust no apology is necessary for attempting to point out to the 
collecting botanist the “local habitations” of some of the rarer 
native plants found growing wild in the vicinity of Birmingham 
during the last summer; and I shall notice each species in the 
order of the natural arrangement, as simplified in the recently pub- 
lished Catalogue of British Plants, by Professor Henslow, of Cam- 
bridge ; without, however, following in all cases the titles or termin- 
ology of the orders as adopted in that work.* 


DIVISION I—VASCULARES, or COTYLEDONE. 


Cxiass I.—DicoryLEDONEs. 


Orver, Ranuncutace%.—Thalictrum flavum, Yellow 'Thalick ; 
bank of the Tame, below Hamstead Mill; Perry Barr. Anemone 
nemorosa, Wood Anemone ; a field at Upper Saltley, crossed by a 


* A Catalogue of British Plants, arranged according to the Natural System, 
with the Synonyms of De Candolle, Smith, Lindley, and Hooker. By the Rev. 
J. 8S. Henslow, M.A., Professor of Botany gin the University of Cambridge. 
Second Edition, pp. 61. Cambridge, 18365. 


IN THE VICINITY OF BIRMINGHAM. 23 


foot-path into Garrison Lane. Of the Genus Ranunculus I found 
nine species, few of them rare in this neighbourhood :—Ranuncu- 
lus flammula, Lesser Crowfoot ; ditches in Garrison Lane, and 
Coleshill Pool. &. hederaceus, Ivy-leaved Crowfoot ; old gardens 
near the Pershore road ; meadows near Vaughton’s Hole. This 
plant, though rare in some localities, is very common around Bir- 
mingham. 

Orver, Nympumace®.—Nuphar lutea, Yellow Nuphar ; in a 
Jane leading from Nechell’s Green to Washwood Heath. 

Orper, Papaverace®.—Papaver dubium, Smooth-headed Pop- 
py; a bank near Aston Church. Chelidontum majus, Common 
Celandine ; a bank near Perry Barr Park.—(Cuass XIII., Linn.) 

OrpverR, Fumarracem.—Corydalis lutea, Yellow Corydalis ; an 
old wall in Edgbaston Lane. Fumaria officinalis, Common Fumi- 
tory ; bank at Aston, and Nechell’s Green.—(C. X VIL., Linn.) 

Orver, CrucirER&.—Nasturtium terrestre, Marsh Cress ; bank 
of the stream near Duddeston Mill. N. amphibium, Amphibious 
Cress ; canal near the Aqueduct, Erdington road. Arabis thaliana, 
Common Araby ; a dry bank at Saltley. Cardamine amara, Bitter 
Lady’s-smock ; edge of a stream in a meadow near Moseley Park. 
C. hirsuta, Hairy Lady’s-smock ; bank in Garrison Lane, near the 
Brick-kilns. C. pratensis, Meadow Lady’s-smock ; ditches near the | 
same place. Lepidum campestre, Mithridate Pepperwort ; a bank 
at Washwood Heath, also near Castle Bromwich.—(C. XV., Linn.) 

Orver, Resepace®.—Reseda luteola, Dyer’s Rocket ; plentiful 
among the coal pits, near the road-side between Oldbury and Dud- 
ley.—(C. XI., Linn.) 

Orper, ‘PotyeaLtacem.—Polygala vulgaris, Common Milk- 
wort ; Coleshill Bog.—(C. XVII., Linn.) 

Orper, SILeENACEm.—Silene inflata, Bladder Campion; Erd- 
ington road; Saltley, common. 

OrpvER, ALSINACEH.—Arenaria rubra, Purple Sand-wort ; road 
side near Bordesley Green; canal bridge at Aston. A. serpyllifolia, 
Thyme-leaved Sandwort ; a dry bank at Aston. A. trinervis, Plan- 
tain-leaved Sandwort ; a shady Jane near the Rail-road at Alum 
Rock, Upper Saltley. Cerastium aquaticum, Water Chickweed ; 
on rubbish near Moseley Park.—(C. X., Linn.) 

OrvpeR, Mantvacea —Malva moschata, Musk Mallow ; Edg- 
baston Lane, opposite the gates of Moseley Park: not rare around 
Birmingham.—(C. XVI., Linn.) 

Orver, Hyrericacem.—Hypericum pulchrum, Upright St.- 
John’s-Wort ; a meadow near Moseley Park. H. quadrangulum, 


24 REMARKABLE PLANTS FOUND GROWING 


Square-stalked St.-John’s-Wort ; same place. H. humifusum, Trail- 
ing St.-John’s-Wort ; a bank at Castle Bromwich ; Garrison Lane 
—(C. XVIII., Linn.) 

OrpDER, GERANIACEH.——Geranium dissectum, Jagged-leaved 
Crane’s-bill; a bank at Little Bromwich. Erodium cicutarium, 
Hemlock Storkbill ; a dry bank about two hundred yards beyond 
Aston Mill.—(C. XVI., Linn.) 

Orver, Linacem.—Linum catharticum, Purging Flax ; Moseley 
Common.—(C. V., Linn.) 

ORDER, Cadet casas acetosella, Wood Sorrel ; bank in 
Garrison Lane.—(C. X., Linn.) 

Orver, Fasacem.—Genista tinctoria, Dyer’s Greenwid; a 
a meadow near Selly Hall Park ; a lane at Elmdon, near the Hall. 
Cylisus scoparius, Common Broom ; a bank at Saltley. Ononis 
arvensis, Hairy Rest-harrow ; Saltley, corner of the Coleshill road. 
Melilotus officinalis, Yellow Melilot ; road side, Bordesley Green. 
Lotus corniculatus, Bird-foot Trefoil; a bank near Harborne 
Church.—(C. XVIL., Linn.) 

ORDER, Rosacea. —Rubus ideus, Raspberry Bramble ; waste 
ground behind Aston Church, near the river; in a hedge at Upper 
Witton. Potentilla nemoralis (Tormentilla reptans, Eng. Flora), 
Creeping Tormentil; Edgbaston Lane, near Avern’s Mill.—(C. 
XII., Linn.)—Alchemilla vulgaris, Common Lady’s-Mantle; a 
meadow about five hundred yards beyond Vaughton’s Hole, crossed 
by a foot-path to Moseley Park. Sanguisorba officinalis, Great 
Burnet ; same place as 4. vulgaris, also in a meadow near Small 
Heath Turnpike ; common in meadows on the Edgbaston side of 
Birmingham.—(C. IV., Linn.) 

OrveR, OnaGracie.—Epilobium parviflorum, Small-flowered 
Willow Herb; near King’s Norton. LE. tetragonum, Square- 
stalked Willow-herb; at the back of Mr. Rotton’s house, Spark- 
brook.—(C. VIITI., Linn.)—Circwa lutetiana, Common Chanet ; 
a shady lane leading from Bromwich Old Forge to Sandwell Park, 
the seat of the Earl of Dartmouth.—(C. IT., Linn.) 

Orver, Lyruracim.—Lythrum salicaria, Purple Lythrum ; 
side of the Tame, Perry Barr.—Variety Foliis ternis, caule hex- 
agono, Three-leaved Lythrum; near the same place.—(C. XI., 
Linn.) 

Orver, Umpritacem.—(Mnanthe jfistulosa, Common Drop- 
wort ; brook-side, Yardley. Torilis infesta, Spreading Hedge- 
parsley ; near Oldbury. Charophyllum temulentum, Rough Cicely ; 
near Alum Rock, Upper Saltley. 


IN THE VICINITY OF BIRMINGHAM. 95 


Orper, Caprironiace®.—Viburnum opulus, Common Guelder ; 
Coleshill Bog.—(C. V., Linn.) 

Orper, RusiaceEm.—Of the genus Galium I found six species : 
—Galium mollugo, Hedge Bedstraw ; a bank near Sandwell Park. 
G. saxalile, Heath Bedstraw ; Castle Bromwich Heath. G. cru- 
ciatum, Crosswort Bedstraw ; a meadow at Saltley, near the rail- 
road. G. verum, G. palustre, and G. aparine ; the other three 
species are common.—(C. IV., Linn.) 

OrpER, VALERIANACEX.—Valerianella olitoria (Fedia, Eng. 
Fi.), Corn Salad ; a Jane near Aston Church. Valeriana dioica, 
Marsh Valerian; a meadow about five hundred yards beyond 
Vaughton’s Hole, crossed by a foot-path to Moseley Park. V. offi-— 
cinalis, Common Valerian, variety & of the English Flora ; on a 
high bank at Sturchley-street, near King’s Norton.—(C. IIIL., Linn.) 

OrveEr, Composirm.—Centaurea scabiosa, Greater Knapweed ; 
border of a wheat-field at Perry Barr. Carduus nutans, Musk 
Thistle ; banks at Aston and Nechell’s Green. C. pratensis, Mea- 
dow Thistle; the bog below Coleshill Pool. C. ertophorus, 
Wooly-headed Thistle; grounds near Dudley Castle. Tragopo- 
gon pratensis, Yellow Goat’s-beard ; new road to King’s Nor- 
ton, three miles from Birmingham. Lactuca muralis ( Prenanthes, 
Eng. Flora), Ivy-leaved Wall-lettuce ; back of Church’s steam 
carriage manufactory, Bordesley Green. Hieracium sabaudum, 
Broad-leaved Hawkweed ; a bank at Bordesley Green. H. umbel- 
latum, Narrow-leaved Hawkweed; abundant in a lane leading 
from the Bee Hive tavern to the Golden Cross ; not rare around 
Birmingham. Conyza squarrosa, Ploughman’s Spikenard; near 
Dudley Castle. Tanacetum vulgare, Wild Tansy ; banks of the 
Tame, near Hamstead Mill. Senecio sylvaticus, Mountain Ground- 
sel; a high bank in Garrison Lane.—(C. XIX., Linn.) 

OrpEeR, CAMPANULACER.—Jasione montana, Annual Sheep’s- 
bit; near Sutton Wood, also in a lane at Aston leading to the 
Golden Cross. Campanula trachelium, Nettle-leaved Bell-flower ; 
plentiful in the shady lanes between Perry Barr and Great Barr.— 
C. patula, Spreading Bell-flower ; along the right bank of the 
turnpike road between Well’s Green and Elmdon, five and a half 
miles from Birmingham, in profusion; I have found it no where 
else in this neighbourhood.—(C. V., Linn.) 

Orver Ericacra.— Erica tetraliz, Cross-leaved Heath ; Coles- 
hill Bog, Sutton Coldfield—(C. VIIL., Linn.) 

Orper, Apocynacem.—Vinca major, Greater Periwincle ; road 
from Castle Bromwich to Coleshill Heath. V. minor, Lesser Peri- 

VOL. VI.—NO. XIX. D 


26 REMARKABLE PLANTS FOUND GROWING 


wincle ; near the back of Church’s steam carriage manufactory, in 
the lane leading to Alum Rock, Upper Saltley.—(C. V., Linn.) 

Orper, Genriacem.—Chlora perfoliata, Perfoliate Yellow- 
wort ; the grounds about Dudley Castle.—(C. VIII., Linn.) 

OrveEr, Boracinacex.—Echium vulgare, Viper’s Bugloss ; plen- 

tiful on the ruins of Dudley Castle. Symphytum officinale, Com- 
mon Comfrey ; near the Aqueduct in the Erdington road, near the 
gate of Perry Barr Park. g. S. patens, Purple Comfrey, a bank 
behind Perry Barr Park. Lycopsis arvensis, Small Lycopsis; a 
bank at Castle Bromwich ; at Saltley, corner of the road to Castle 
Bromwich. Myosotis versicolor, Variegated Scorpion-grass ; a dry 
’ bank at Nechell’s Green, near Aston. Cynoglossum officinale, Com- 
mon Houndstongue ; a bank at Castle Bromwich. 

OrverR, SoLaANnacEx.—Alropa belladonna, Deadly Dwale ; left 
hand side of the court yard of Dudley Castle, close to the wall, 
August 3, 1835. July 26, 1836, I found the only two plants I 
know of, cut off close to the root, but fresh shoots were springing 
from the old stems. Verbascum thapsus, Great Mullein ; Sandwell 
Park. V. nigrum, Dark Mullein ; plentiful in a lane leading from 
Tower Hill farm, Perry Barr, into the old Walsall road.—(C. V., 
Linn.) 

OrvER, ScROPHULARIACEH.—Digitalis purpurea, Purple Fox- 
glove; banks at Castle Bromwich. Linella* cymbalaria, Ivy- 
leaved Toad-flax ; on the ruins of the keep at Dudley Castle. Me- 
lampyrum pratense, Yellow Cow-wheat ; Sutton Park, near the 
Waggon road. Bartsia odontites, Red Bartsia, and a variety with 
white flowers; Green Lanes, near Small Heath turnpike.—(C. 
XIV., Linn.)—Veronica montana, Mountain Speedwell; a shady 
bank on the right of the road from Saltley to Stichford, nearly 
opposite Mr. Marshall’s, at Alum Rock. V. scutellata, Narrow- 
leaved Speedwell ; on the bog below Coleshill Pool. V. anagailis, 
Water Speedwell ; swampy ground near the bridge at Yardley. 
V. officinalis, Common Speedwell; a bank in the Harborne road, 

‘nearly opposite the lane leading to the Botanic Garden. V. arven- 
sis, Wall Speedwell ; Birmingham Heath, near the new church.— 
V. agrestis, Procumbent Speedwell, and V. hederifolia, Ivy-leaved 
Speedwell, are both common on the new soil of the rail-road em- 
bankment at Saltley. I collected three more species, all of very 
common occurrence.—(C. II., Linn.) 


" Linaria was engaged in Ornithology long before the introduction of the 
term into Botany.—Eps. 


IN THE VICINITY OF BIRMINGHAM. 27 


Orper, Lamiac1®.—Scutellaria galericulata, Common Skull- 
cap; side of the canal near the Aqueduct, Erdington road. Me- 
lissa calamintha ( Thymus calamintha, Eng. Flora), Common Cala- 
mint ; a bank at Saltley, a little beyond the cottages. Nepeta cata- 
ria, Hedge Catmint ; near the farm yard, Tower Hill, Perry Barr. 
Lamium galeobdolon (Galeobdolon luteum, Eng. Flora), Yellow 
Weasel-snout ; a bank near Vaughton’s Hole; nearly opposite the 
arch through the embankment of the Birmingham and London rail- 
road, near Saltley. Leonurus cardiaca, Hedge Liontail; in a 
narrow shady lane, among Nettles, at the back of Perry Barr Park. 
Galeopsis tetrahit, Common Hemp-nettle ; banks at Saltley, Ne- 
chell’s Green, and in the Halesowen road.—(C. XIV., Linn.) 

OrpEeR, Primutace®.—Lysimachia nemorum, Wood Loose- 
strife ; a bank in Garrison Lane, opposite the row of Poplars ; also 
in ameadow near Moseley Park. L. nummularia, Creeping Loose- 
strife ; a lane near Alum Rock, Upper Saltley.—(C. V., Linn.) 

OrperR, PLumBAGINACEs.— Littorella lacustris, Plantain Shore- 
weed ; Coleshill Pool, plentiful.—(C. XXI., Linn.) 

OrvER, PoiyconacEm.—Polygonum amphibium, Amphibious 
Persecaria ; in the stream midway between Avern’s Mill and the 
Pebble Mill, Edgbaston. Polygonum lapathifolium, Pale-flowered 
Persecaria ; the fresh soil of the embankment of the rail-road, near 
Saltley.—(C. VIII., Linn.) 

Orver, Urricacr®.—Uritica urens, Small Nettle ; a bank at 
Saltley, opposite the Coleshill road. Humulus lupulus, Wild Hop ; 
a hedge near Sparkbrook.—(C. XXI. and XXII., Linn.) 


Ciass II].—MonocotyLEDONEs. 


OrveEr, Orcu1pacex.—Orchis morio, Green-winged Orchis, and 
O. latifolia, Marsh Orchis ; a meadow near Small Heath turnpike. 
—(C. XX., Linn.) : 

OrpeER, JuNCACExZ.—Juncus squarrosus, Heath Rush ; Coleshill 
Bog. J. bufonius, Toad Rush ; a damp lane between Sturchley- 
street and King’s Norton. J. lampocarpus, Shining-fruited Rush ; 
the same place——(C. VI., Linn.) 

OrpEerR, ALISMACEX.—Sagillaria sagittifolia, Common Arrow- 
head ; near the mill-dam, Perry Barr Park.—(C. XXII., Linn.)— 
Butomus umbellatus, Common Flowering Rush; the brook in Edg- 
baston lane, near Avern’s mill—(C. IX., Linn.) 

OrvEer, Aracex%.—Lemna polyrhiza, Greater Duckweed ; a pit 
near Saltley Hall.—(C. II., Linn.)—7Zypha latifolia, Great Reed- 
mace ;. stream in Soho Park.—(C. XXL. Linn.) 


28 REMARKABLE PLANTS FOUND GROWING, &c. 


. Orver, Cyprracem.—FEleocharis palustris, Creeping Spike- | 
- rush; Coleshill Pool, Pebble Mill Pool, and the stream near 
Vaughton’s Hole. Scirpus sylvaticus, Wood Clubrush; side of 
the brook nearly opposite Avern’s mill, Edgbaston Lane. Lrio- 
phorum angustifolium, Narrow-leaved Cotton-grass ; Coleshill Bog. 
—(C. IIL, Linn.)—Carea stellulata, Prickly Sedge; Coleshill 
Bog. C. panicea, Pink-leaved Sedge; same habitat—(C. XXL., 
Linn.) 

OrpER, GraMINACEx.—WNardus stricta, Common Matgrass ; 
Sutton Coldfield, a little beyond the new Catholic College— 
(C. III., Linn.) * 


DIVISION IIl.—CELLULARES. 


Cuass III.—AcoryLEponEs, or CRYPTOGAMZ. 


ORDER, Finicacem.—Aspidium lobatum, Close-leaved Shield- 
fern; a bank at Saltley. 4. spinulosum, Prickly-toothed Shieldfern ; 
a shady bank in Garrison Lane, opposite the row of Poplars. Asple- 
nium ruta-muraria, Wall Spleenwort ; an old wall at Sandwell 
Park; Aston Park wall, side next the lane leading to Witton.— . 
Blechnum boreale, Northern Hardfern; Moseley Common, near 
the new road ; Coleshill Bog —(C. XXIV., Linn.) 

In this list I have probably inserted the names of some plants 
which may be considered common, while, on the other hand, I have 
omitted others of more rare occurrence. This must unavoidably hap- 
pen: plants which are scarce in one locality are very often common 
in another, and to decide in all cases when a plant may be deemed 
rare, and when common, is no easy matter. I have purposely 
admitted a few which are by no means generally rare, though, from 
local circumstances, they happen not frequently to be met with 
around Birmingham—such as Nuphar lutea and Anemone nemorosa 
—merely for the direction of young collectors, whose botanical 
rambles may be circumscribed to the immediate neighbourhood. 
Limited as the collection was to the observations of one summer, it 
can excite no wonder that this selection is not more extensive ; 
many plants were not in bloom when I happened to visit their lo- 
calities, and I hope, by future additions, to make it much more ex- 
tensive. 

It possesses one merit, however, which a botanist will not consi- 
. der a trivial one: not one plant is inserted on “‘ hearsay ;” every 
specimen was collected from the station where it grew by myself. 


Birmingham, Dec. 21, 1836. W. Ick. 


29 


ROMAN ANTIQUITIES DISCOVERED IN 
WORCESTERSHIRE. 


By Jasez Auutiss, Esa. 


Since my paper on Roman antiquities, &c., discovered in the 
city and county of Worcester (an abridged account of which appear. 
ed in vol. iv., p. 85, of The Analyst), further discoveries have been 
made at the Kempsey Gravel Pit,* where five or six more cists for 
burial by cremation have been found, and which were roofed with 
clay and broken pebbles. One of them was of an oval shape, near 
three yards long, two yards broad, and about five feet deep in the 
gravel. The others were smaller and not quite so deep. Some of 
the latter merely contained black ashes ; others contained ashes and 
fragments of red-earth pottery, made in the Roman mode (the mouth 
of one of the urns is twenty-eight inches in circumference) and 
the greatest cist contained black ashes and a large broken pan of 
coarse materials like those made by the ancient Britisht, and judging 
from a segment of the pan, it was three feet in circumference. Out 
of this cist there was a passage into a smaller one. A fragment 
found in one of the cists has a small handle situated at the shoulder 
part of it, the bow of which is only. large enough to admit the lit- 
tle finger, and the side of the fragment is partly indented for the 
purpose. 

As great alterations are occasionally made at the site of the above- 
mentioned Roman camp, I will endeavour to give an account of it 
from its present relics; fearing that, in a few more years, almost 
every vestige of it will have past away. 

The west vallum lay on the ridge of ground, or r precipice, skirt- 
ing the flat on the east side of the Severn. The north end of 
it commenced at the back of the garden belonging to the Parsonage 
_ Farm-house, and ran in a line from thence to within about 15 yards 


* This gravel-pit, the property of Joseph Smith, Esq., is situated in a 
ploughed field, called the Moors, on the ridge or precipice of ground, out 
of floods way, which skirts the flat on the east side of the river Severn, and 
lies between that river and the village of Kempsey, near the northern side 
of a vallum, which by many writers is described as a Roman camp, and with- 
in the site of the southern end of which camp, Kempsey church stands. 

+ In my previous account, I suggested that there formerly might have 
been a tumulus over the cists at Kempsey; but that only applied to those 
cists which I considered were ancient British or Romanized British cists, 
and not to those which were purely Roman. 


30 ROMAN ANTIQUITIES 


of the south-west corner of Kempsey church-yard, where it bowed 
round into such corner. Judging from a measure lately made 
by footsteps, this vallum was about 200 yards long. 

The south vallum appears to have run along the south side of the 
church-yard, and was about 90 yards long. 

The east vallum ran along the east side of the church-yard, and 
other property, and through the garden of Gore Cottage into the 
orchard behind, and was about 200 yards long. 

The north vallum ran from the above-mentioned orchard to the 
north-west corner of the garden of the Parsonage Farm-house (from 
whence we set out), and was 180 yards long, or thereabouts. The 
rounded corner, and such other part of it as lies in Gore Cottage or- 
chard and garden, is still very perfect, and measures 26 yards across; 
but as it is a mound of gravel, I fear it will ere long share the fate 
of the rest of this northern vallum,which within these few years has 
been levelled by the parochial authorities for road materials.* 

The Roman coin which I referred to in my previous paper, as 
having been found in the gravel-bed at Kempsey, is since ascer- 
tained to be one of Nero; and the previously undeciphered one, 
found at Powick, is a Claudius Gothicus. Some of those found 
in Britannia-square, Worcester, in the foundation of the supposed 
circular tower or fort, are of Decentius, Magnentius, and Claudius 
Gothicus. The others discovered there are principally of the Con- 
stantine family as before described.t It is worthy of remark, that the 
above foundation was of new red sandstone, like that in the quarries 
at Ombersley or Holt, and such stone was most probably brought 
by the Romans down the river from one or other of those places: 
in corroboration of this I lately received a letter from Dr. Prattin- 
ton of Bewdley, wherein he says that, some years ago, he found 
several specimens of Roman pottery of the finest sort in the parish 
of Ombersley, and had the sanction of his late excellent friend, the 
discoverer of the extensive villa at North Leigh, in Oxfordshire, as 
to the probability, if not certainty, of there having been a Roman 
residence in the neighbourhood. 


* Since I wrote the above, the rounded corner which lies in the above 
garden has been partly, and will soon be completely, demolished. 

+ Britannia-square lies upon the ridge of ground, out of floods way, exact- 
ly opposite Cinder Point, on the east bank of the Severn, where a Roman 
foot-blast for smelting iron-ore is supposed to have been situated, as described 
in my former paper, under the head Yarranton. Although the finding of 
Roman coins in a particular locality is not sufficient proof of its having been 
a Roman station, yet when we consider all the corroborative faets in the 
above case, the evidence appears to amount almost to a demonstration. 


DISCOVERED IN WORCESTERSHIRE. 31 


I have Roman coins of Probus and Gratian, and also an undeci- 
phered one, which are said to have been lately found in an excavat- 
ed mass of soil upon which some old tenements stood, in a street 
called Dolday, in this city. In The Stranger’s Guide to Worcester, 
by Ambrose Florence, p. 13, the above ancient part of the town is 
noticed as follows .—‘ In the corporation book, called Liber Legum, 
made in the reign of Henry VII., it is ordered that all ‘ Walshe 
catell’ coming to be sold, be brought to Dolday.” 

Camden, in his Britannia, vol. ii., p. 352, edit. 1790,* says— 
*«'Worcester was probably founded by the Romans, when they 
built cities at proper interyals on the east side of the Severn, to 
check the Britons on the other side of that river. It formerly 
boasted Roman walls. It has now a tolerably strong wall.” 

In Britton'’s History and Antiquities of Worcester Cathedral, pub- 
lished in 1835, it is stated that “Dr. Stukeley, who appears to 
have visited the city and several other places in this part of Eng- 
land, in 1721, and afterwards published an account of his antiqua- 
rian researches in his Itinerarium curiosum, says—‘ no doubt but 
this was a Roman city, yet we could find no remains but a place in 
it called Sudbury, which seems to retain in its name some memori- 
al of that sort..”t+ To this Mr. Britton added—* This place is 
now called Sidbury{—evidently a corruption of South-bury or 
borough. Since Camden, Stukeley, and Green wrote their respec- 


* Vide, also, Andrew Yarranton’s Work, intitled, England’s Improvement 
by Sea and Land, &c., (the first part of which was published in 1677, and the 
second in 1698), and Chambers’s Biographical Illustrations of Worcestershire, 
title, Yarrington. 

+ Bishop Lyttleton was also of that opinion. Dr. Nash, in the absence of 
the late discoveries, raised considerable doubts, in his History of Worcester- 
shire, as to Worcester having been a Roman station, as he did not think 
Yarranton’s account was sufficiently conclusive. 

+ Upon a culvert, a few years back, having been made about thirty or 
forty yards long in Sidbury street, just outside where the city-gate stood, 
a pebble pavement was found all along the line, about six feet deep in the 
earth. The like was also discovered in the adjoining lane leading out of 
Sidbury, by the back of St. Peter’s church, to the china factory ; but I should 
think this pavement was not Roman, but of a more modern date, and buried, 
perhaps, at the time of one of the conflagrations of this city, for the ground 
in that quarter has been considerably raised since the above church was 
built, as the steps down into that ancient edifice sufficiently indicate. It 
was at the above spot in Sidbury where Charles II. escaped from the Crom- 
wellites, aided by a waggon, which crossed the gate-way, and which was 
laden with ammunition, according to Dr. Bates’s account in his Troubles of 
England, and with hay, according to the History of Dr. Nash. 


32 ROMAN ANTIQUITIES 


tive works, a vast mound of earth—the keep of the ancient Norman 
castle on the south side of the cathedral—has been entirely taken 
away ; and some Roman antiquities were found, in 1833, at or near 
its base: viz., an urn or jug of red earth with a handle; coins of 
Vespasian, Caligula, Nero, Tiberius, Adrian, Antoninus Pius, &c. ; 
and in a field near Upper Deal was discovered another Roman urn, 
containing twenty copper coins of Carausius.” 

** The real extent of the ancient castle cannot now be ascertain- 
ed, but the lofty mound, called the keep, and its ditches, &c., occu- 
pied an area of between three and four acres. The apex of the 
keep mound measured more than eighty feet above the high-water 
mark of the Severn, which flowed close to its western base.” 

In addition to the above-mentioned discoveries of remains at the 
Castle-hill, I have to observe that a workman some time ago 
brought me a small fragment, which, from its weight, he fancied 
was gold. He stated that he dug it out of the gravel, near the cen- 
tre of the bottom of the above hill, during its demolition. I sub- 
mitted this substance to an experienced Chemist, who, upon analiza- 
tion, found it to be exactly the same in quality as what is called 
** patent yellow,” the mode of making which is set forth in Mr. 
Gray’s work on Pharmacology. Now, if the Castle-hil] really was 
thrown up by the Romans, and the workman’s above account was 
true, it may reasonably be inferred that the paint in question was 
of Roman manufacture ; but it has been surmised that the above 
hill, or the greater part of it, was made of the earth which was ex- 
cavated upon the laying of the foundations and crypt of the cathe- 
dral. 

With respect to that splendid and probably ancient British tumu- 
lus, called Cruckbarrow-hill, which is situated between two and 
three miles eastward of Worcester, it is very likely that the Ro- 
mans used it as a watch or signal station, in the line of the Old 
Hills and Malvern Hill, on the south-west, and of the Storage, 
Suckley,* Ankerdine, Berrow, Woodbury, and Abberley Hills on 
the west and north-west. This hill is of an oval shape, and mea- 
sures 512 yards round within the ring fence at the base, and about 
180 yards round the crown. I take it this was partly a natural hill, 
and that it hada tail lying eastward, which was pared down to- 


* That part of the Suckley chain, called the Round Hill in Alfrick, has a 
very tumulus-like appearance: the whole of the above range is rather mi- 
nutely described in my pamphlet On certain curious Indentations in the Old 
Red Sandstone of Worcestershire and Herefordshire, &c. &c., published in 1835. 


ANTONIO’S LOVE SONG, &c. 33 


gether with any other excrescences, and the materials placed upon 
the head. There is gravel at the apex: this I lately saw where 
a hole had been dug. It is veryrrobable that this mound was 
formerly called Cruck-burrow hill, the word burrow being of Sax- 
on derivation, and meaning a place fenced or fortified. If, however, 
it really is a barrow, I presume that it is the largest in the king- 
dom. As the Berrow Hill is of a very oval shape, it is more than 
probable that its sides were also pared down by the aborigines of 
our island; for there are lines of intrenchment round it near the 
top, in the same manner as at Wood-bury Hill. 

Under all the circumstances detailed in this and my previous 
paper, I submit that doubts can no longer exist of there having been 
either Roman camps, stations, or forts at Worcester, Powick, and 
Kempsey, and probably also at various other places in this beautiful 
county. 


Catherine Villa, Near Worcester, 
Feb. 1, 1886. 


ANTONIO'S LOVE SONG; on, DON QUIXOTE’S 
REVERIE.* 


* As a madman fancies every one mad but himself, a patient with vertigo 
that every object is going round, so man, in the pertinacity of ignorance, 
transforms truth into error, by a blind supposition that truth is with him 


only.”+ 


Tuov flower of chivalry ! incomparable man! I see thee sitting 
elbow to elbow with thy incomparable Squire; thy tarnished mail, 
with more rust on it than dishonour, brushing against the rough 
hose of thy antithesis—that emptier of wine-skins and flesh-pots— 
Sancho the first and the last—the Sir John of his class. I see thee; 
the inverted trough giving repose to the finest Caballero in La 
Mancha and all Spain to boot, side by side, ‘‘ cheek by jowl” with 


* See vol. i. 
+ The Would-Be; old copy, p. 57. 
VOL. VI.-—NO. XIX. E 


* 34 ANTONIO’S LOVE SONG; 


that broad faced incarnation of humour, inimitable Sancho, without 
thought of high degree or knightly bearing ; thy spirit too fond to 
be unkind even though Amadis himself should reprove thee for thy 
familiarity. I see the swarthy goatherds sitting round their skins 
and acorns, looking on thee with dull admiration and wonder; I 
see the amorous Dapple fondling in vain with the neck of his com- 
panion in arms, the good steed Rozinante, who is too nearly famish- 
ed to be unchaste. Admirable pairs ! 

There is no noise to disturb the solitude ; the light long branches 
of the cork trees wave themselves over thee as a canopy. The pic- 
ture is made. The flesh-pots are empty; the goatherds pour the 
acorns before their guests. Taking one between his finger and 
thumb, the knight breaks forth, “happy times and happy ages, 
those to which the ancients gave the name of ‘ golden,’ when 
meum and tuum were sounds unknown in the universal benefac- 
tion.” The knight’s sorrowful tones yet breathe the last words 
of the golden age. The goatherds listen, admiring the manner 
of their guest. The knight holds an acorn between his finger and 
thumb ; the images of that blissful period which his imagination 
had recalled, yet filled his mind—a thousand creations float around 
him—not as a mere dream, but the delightsome realities of the mo- 
ment ; for to him all was reality in the shadowy realms of fancy— 
a moonlight of the mind, when real existencies are lost in the gi-~ 
gantic shadows which they cast, not beheld as shadows, but incor- 
porated in the object. 

The talismanic acorn is still held between his finger and thumb, 
when the rough tones of the goatherd shock his sensations and dis- 
pel the dream. The knight looks up—the acorn falls to the ground. 
“That your worship, Signor Knight-errant, may the more truly 
say that we entertain you with a ready good will, we will give you 
some diversion and amusement by making one of our comrades sing, 
who will soon be here.” The tinkling sounds of a rebeck are heard 
in the distance :—Antonio, welcome. A rustic lover is Antonio; 
‘a very intelligent lad and deeply enamoured, and, above all, can 
read and write, and plays on the rebeck to your heart’s content.” 
Antonio sits himself down upon a little green mound, under the 
spreading branches of an old oak, and tunes his rebeck with a sin- 
gular good grace. The broad, good-humoured faced Sancho sets 
himself more at ease on his haunches ; he fixes his eyes on the sus- 
pended wine skin. God bless thee, thou simple-minded Squire— 
thou who art lost in the delights of hope and ease! Antonio, thy 
song: Antonio sings of love—what the acorn was to the knight’s 


OR, DON QUIXOTE’S REVERIE. 35 


reverie of the golden age, Antonio’s song was to the following 
waking dream ; for the knight was so singular in his character that 
he lived rather in his own thoughts than by outward observation, 
and, by a strange deceptio visus, saw everything as he wished 
everything to be. The rough tones of Antonio’s voice were soft- 
ened by the bell-like tinkle of the rebeck: what he wanted in 
knowledge he made up by the plaintiveness of his manner. The 
knight composes himself to listen ; he places his broken helmet on 
the grass ; his long, scanty, and slightly-grizzled hair, parted in the 
middle, falls on each side his high intellectual brow. The upper 
part of his face bespeaks a character of almost feminine benevvlence, 
but the slight curl of his moustachioed lip shews an heroical con- 
tempt of danger. His features are lighted by his imaginations of 
knights and ladies fair, of joust and tournament, of all the bright 
heraldry of honour. The knight attends—Antonio sings of love: 
the good knight thinks of his ladie—he wanders in the green 
arcades of Toboso—he hears every note, but Antonio and his 
rebeck are forgotten—the goatherds are forgotten—Sancho is 
dead: Don Quixote sees only the peerless Dulcinea. He at 
once grows young and handsome as Chilates—he springs from 
the back of Rozinante, a more noble animal than Cyd’s Ba- 
bieca—he kneels at the feet of the peerless Dulcinea—she smiles 
upon him—she binds his arm with a bracelet of her own golden 
hair—he gazes on her with the fascination of a lover, the devotion 
of a worshipper, and the purity of a knight—heavenly emanation, 
“the high heavens that with your divinity divinely fortify you 
with the stars; but ere he could proceed he is struck to the 
ground by an invisible power—Urganda, the sorcerer, seizes on the 
peerless Dulcinea and bears her away—her cries die away like the 
breath of the evening breeze—in vain he laments her loss, in vain 
he calls on the delight of his soul. He springs upon his steed—the 
last beams of the sun glitter on his armour as he passes into the in- 
extricable mazes of a wood. He wanders on, with no other sup- 
port than what his own thoughts afford him, and is saved from de- 
spair only by the sight of the bracelet of his Dulcinea. 

The knight revives as if touched by a charm; he braves the 
desert, and defies the storm that beats around him. Thus he pursues 
his devious and uncertain course, and, after overcoming innumera- 
ble dangers, approaches the castle of the dreadful sorceress Pinti- 
quiniestra. ‘The Don kisses his bracelet: as he passes the black 
towers of the castle not a sound is heard, not an object appears. 
At length he meets with a little old woman, whose hobbling legs 


~ 


36 ANTONLOS LOVE SONG; 


can scarce save her from the tread of his beast, Rozinante. She 
turns and looks upon him: Sir Knight, be good, Sir Knight ; 
I am old, Sir Knight ; the storm comes on, Sir Knight ; help me, 
good Sir Knight! She would have fallen had he not have reached 
forth his hand and aided her to rise; she springs into the saddle 
with a shriek, Rozinante bounds forwards, the barbican drops, 
the portcullis flies up, and they enter the castle of the enchantress 
Pintiquiniestra. 

Welcome, my love, to the festal halls of Pintiquiniestra ! laughs 
the old hag. Welcome! Welcome! reverberate a thousand echo. 
ing laughs. Upheld by a hidden spell, the knight follows the hag 
through gloomy passages and arcades whose leaves are seered and 
dry ; as the thick wind moves them they rattle like dead men’s 
bones. They now stand before a door that seems studded with a 
thousand lurid stars; in an instant it flies open, and the knight 
enters a saloon where a thousand black marble columns support the 
ceiling, on which shine the same kind of stars, but so distant that 
more than the general outline of the hall cannot be seen ; grim 
shades of giants seem to wander through the mighty space: the 
knight’s spurs elank (and echoing clank) across the marble tiles. 
They stand before a door wherein a thousand brilliant gems sparkle 
—music floats around and fills the air—the giant shades are seen 
no longer, but light and voluptuous forms bewilder the knight’s 
senses. Suddenly a thousand silver notes harmonious blend in one 
burst of ravishing melody. ‘The knight nearly sinks overpowered 
on the marble-based couches on which beauteous damsels recline in 
all the voluptuousness of sense, their charms covered but not con- 
eealed. He gazes on the bracelet, and revives. 4 

The old hag has disappeared, and in her place a Nubian slave 
beckons him on. At doors of sapphire the slave pauses—they fly 
open—the Nubian is gone, but on each side of the saloon are a 
row of black slaves motionless as statues on their pedestals ; their 
eyes glare on the knight, who still advances. Welcome! Wel- 
come! mutter a thousand tongues. The dauntless knight advances 
boldly towards a light that seems far off; he reaches the door, 
narrow and small, with only one burning gem in the centre. It 
grows brighter and brighter, until almost insupportable ; it seems 
consumed by its own fires. He passes on—he is joined by a lovely 
form, who floats noiselessly before him. They stand before a 
row of silver pillars; as the fairy throws her hand from right to 
left, a streak of blue light glitters on the columns—it grows brighter 
and brighter—suddenly they divide, half sinking into the earth—the 


se 


OR, DON QUIXOTE’S REVERIE. 37 


knight shades his eyes with his hand, for the flood of light was, at 
first, blinding—he enters, and the columns close—he stands alone. 
On a throne of crystal and ever-varying gems sat the fatal en- 
chantress Pintiquiniestra ; the light of her face darkens the eye of 
the knight, but he shrinks not; a row of fairy forms stand on 
each side of the throne, and with golden harps tune the loves of 
Pintiquiniestra ; while the dull sound of falling waters adds to the 
charm, and fills the knight with delicious sensations. There are no 
lamps in the saloon, but from every side shine gems radiant as the 
stars, that glance their lights into one vast lucid mirror, wherein 
myriads of rays ever burning, concentrated, are reflected in one 
burst of light upon the throne of the enchantress, who gazes on it: 
Confused, but not dismayed, the knight advances. As he stands at 
the foot of the throne, a fairy transparent sylph, more beautiful 
than mortal creation, presents him with a crystal goblet of wine ; 
he touches it with the cross-hilt of his good sword, and it flies into 
a thousand stars. Pintiquiniestra frowns and the hall grows dark. 
She stands up and beckons him to advance ; he gazes for a moment 
on the bracelet of his Dulcinea, and ascending the steps of the 
throne is seated by her side. Her hand that touches him is white 
as the marble roof of the hall, but as cold as the coffin’s lead. She 
gazes upon the knight, but her glance burns with other fire than 
that of love. The fairies sing the delights of love, but the strain 
is wild as the blast. Pintiquiniestra, rising, beckons the knight; 
they pass through a crystal door into a garden—an Eden of plea- 
sure surrounds him—flowers of every hueand fruit of every clime, 
but the odour was that of dead and decaying leaves. Pintiquinies- 
tra leads him to a bower; she smiles in the full effulgence of 
her charms. Sir Knight, all that thou see’st is thine, wilt thou but 
wed me. The Don starts, and, making the sign of the Cross, cries 
** Sorceress, avaunt! I dread not thee, but, by this good sword, 
will deliver the peerless Dulcinea from thy power.” An earth- 
quake shakes the garden into one wild wilderness of wood and rocks 
—the palace of Pintiquiniestra dissolves like the fabric of a dream. 
As the knight rubs his eyes the roar of a dragon startles him from 
his reverie, and, turning round, he lays his hand on the huge, rough 
head of Sancho, who lies snoring on his shoulder. ‘‘ Master of 
mine,” quoth Sancho, ‘think you that a man goes to sleep for the 
pleasure of waking?” ‘No, Sancho,” replies his master, “ but 
that I took thy head for that of the dragon of the giant Freston, 
and truly thy noise was almost as horrible.” 

Antonio had finished his song, and, with the goatherds, had de. 


38 ANTONIO'S LOVE sonGc; &c. 


parted. The last beams of the western sun lights the pallid brow 
of the Knight of the Sorrowful Figure as he seizes his helmet, and, _ 
mounting Rozinante, leaves the place of wine-skins and flesh-pots, 
love-song and reveries. 

“Sancho,” said Don Quixote, checking the eagerness of Rozi- 
nante that he might the better discourse with his squire—“ Sancho, 
dost thou believe in dreams—waking dreams?” “I know not,” 
replied Sancho, “ what your worship means by waking dreams, but 
if I do not believe in dreams I am no knight’s squire ; and would 
you, sir, but give me your ear—”’ “Give thee my ear, Sancho! 
that were an ungenerous gift, since that uncourtly knight whom I 
defeated has already deprived me of one.” “I mean, sir,” quoth 
Sancho, “ your attention ; I would tell you, sir, a dream of mine 
when I was by the side of Mary Gautierez, my wife, that was as true 
as she herself can testify, and swear to. I went to bed—” ‘ Never 
mind that, Sancho,” said Don Quixote, “the dream.” ‘ Well, then, 
your goodness, I dreamed Mary Gautierez, my wife, was beating 
me, and, waking in a fright, found it was but too true, for she was 
thrashing me for a fault no thrashing could cure me of.” ‘‘ Enough, 
Sancho,” said the knight—“ It was enough, indeed, sir, and I wish 
every dream of mine may prove as true, and I shall soon light upon 
another company of goatherds, flesh-pots, and wine-skins, all of 
which I dreamed of when your worship woke me for sleeping on 
your worship’s shoulder.” ‘ Sancho,” said Don Quixote, rather 
sorrowfully, ‘I have been in the enchanted castle of Pintiquinies- 
tra, and have saved the peerless Dulcinea from the power of her 
enemies.” Sancho opened his mouth as if about to laugh, but see- 
ing the melancholy face of his master, he restrained himself, and 
asked where the beauteous Dulcinea had been left. ‘ That’s a 
thing,” replied the knight, “I cannot well inform thee of, inas- 
much as I do not know myself.” ‘ Master of mine,” said Sancho, 
if this is not a waking dream I don’t know what is; for nobody in» 
their senses could have so mad a sleeping dream.” ‘I am inclined 
to suspect so myself, Sancho, but I do not the less believe that it is 
a prophetic vision which is allowed to prepare me for the dangers 
which lie before us.” ‘“‘ Say, rather, before you, sir,” quoth Sancho, 
“ for if dreams of sorcerers and dead men’s bones are to come to pass, 
I would rather be drubbed by my ‘ crooked rib,’ Mary Gautierez, all 
my life through ; but if dreams with your worship are ever to come 
true, I beseech you, Sir, to dream of nothing but flesh-pots and 
wine-skins.” ‘‘ Sancho, thou art an incorrigible feeder.” “ Any 
thing, as it may be,” muttered Sancho, “ but meat for magicians,” 
and so they rode on. 


39 | 


ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE OPERA 
IN LONDON. 


THE opera season in London is to me ever attended with feelings 
of humiliation, inasmuch as it exhibits the weak part of a great 
nation. All that money unaccompanied by knowledge can procure 
is, at this establishment, to be found in abundance. To obtain the 
first singers of Europe sums are lavished which no other nation 
would dream of expending ; yet compare the performances with 
those of Vienna, Berlin, and Frankfort! A musician will at once 
perceive that the arrangements in these cities are dictated by a per- 
fect acquaintance and familiarity with every part of the art ; 
whereas in London, provided the manager can secure a Pasta or a 
Grisi, he is completely satisfied, and remains indifferent respecting 
the (to him) unimportant points—the character of the music, the 
precision of the orchestra, and the efficiency of the chorus. But the 
fault cannot justly be said to rest entirely with him while the public 
continue in a state of musical ignorance which renders them inca- 
pable of discovering the most glaring faults and obvious deficiencies 
in these important particulars. 

The tickets are ten shillings and sixpence, and the performance 
takes place three days in the week during the season, and yet only 
three or four trashy operas are to be heard, and these, with the ex- 
ception of the first-rate singers, indifferently performed ; whereas 
in the greater number of the German capitals a seat in the boxes 
may be obtained for two shillings and sixpence; such singers as 
Fischer, Achter, Schmezer, and Dobler, and occasionally Schreder 
Devrient, Wild, and Haitzinger, are either permanently engaged 
or fill the gast-rolle ;* the best operas, ancient and modern, are 
given during the whole of the year. The orchestra, likewise, not 
only contains the best performers to be procured in the town, but 
is always under the direction of a man of superior talent, as Spon- 
tini at Berlin, and Juhr at Frankfort, while the choruses, half as 
numerous again as our own, are well trained and effective. 

Reasoning from these facts, what other conclusion can we arrive 
at, but that this striking difference originates, on the one hand, 
from a complete acquaintance with the principles and objects of the 
art, while on the other there exists an absence of knowledge and a 


* Literally, guest part, or part taken by one who is unattached to the es- 
tablishment of the place. The guest usually sustains the principal character. 


40 ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE OPERA IN LONDON. 


total disregard of both? A person tolerably conversant with mu- 
sical science, if he have mixed much in society, must be aware of 
the ignorance and presumption which may be said almost univer- 
sally to prevail on the subject ; in fact, it is scarcely hazarding too 
much to affirm that a larger portion of nonsense is uttered in con- 
versation respecting Music than on any other topic. In proof of 
this assertion, I have myself repeatedly heard Mozart called heavy, 
Haydn dull, Rossini sublime, Beethoven’s Fidelio very mediocrey 
Bellini’s Puritani the most beautiful music in the world ; in short, 
I have been doomed to hear nearly all the great composers abused, 
while the inferior were lauded to the skies. Good singers are de- 
cried when the piece they select happens to be beyond the compre- 
hension of their self-constituted judges; bad music is pronounced 
delightful when well performed ; merits are condemned as faults, 
and defects exalted into beauties. 

But, it may be inquired, why so desirous of enlightening us P— 
If we are pleased with bad music, and bored by that which is good, 
we have surely a right to the enjoyment of our own opinion and 
taste, while we leave you to the free and undisputed enjoyment of 
yours. True ; but if it be possible to point out a mode by whicha 
diminution of expenditure may be effected, and, at the same time, 
the gratification which you derive from Music incalculably aug- 
mented, will you not allow the attainment of these two important 
objects to be a subject worthy of consideration ? 

We have been denominated a nation of shopkeepers; as regards 
Music, however, our trading propensity cannot be said to have been 
successfully exercised or our schemes wisely planned ; it is not a 
very business-like habit to expend largely, and passively to accept 
in return commodities of inferior quality. Now what adequate 
compensation, what profit, let me ask, does a lady herself derive 
from the consumption of three or four hours daily at the piano 
forte, during a period of ten or twelve years? or in what degree 
are her parents and friends remunerated for the time, attention, 
and money, expended to procure for her this highly-valued privi- 
lege? She has been taught to scramble through some half-dozen 
difficult concertos, and a proportionate number of airs, with varia- 
tions, divertimentos, &c., written in the prevailing taste of the 
day ;* and it is to this fashionable ‘ accomplishment” that she has 


* This reminds us of the dancing-master in the Provincial Sketches, who 
began his musical instructions with “ Hooke’s Lessons” and ended with the 
“ Battle of Prague,” as the swummum bonum of the art! mutatis mutandis ; 
this, we fear, is too often the case in the present day.—Eps. 


ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE OPERA IN LONDON. 4] 


been allowed to sacrifice that precious time which ought either to 
have been devoted to the acquisition of useful knowledge, or to lay- 
ing in a stock of health and strength indispensable to the fulfilment 
of the arduous duties of life. 

This erroneous course, however specious in appearance, cannot 
even succeed in obtaining for its victim the applause on which she 
calculated ; the concertos, however well adapted to show off a con- 
summate master at a concert, are sadly misplaced when attempted 

y an amateur in the drawing-room, and the minor pieces are ge- 
nerally of so slight a texture as to be voted completely passées 
within a few short months of their publication. The ill-executed 
concertos weary, and the rondeaux, &c., have been heard to satiety 
on every barrel-organ. What is to be done? A collection of su- 
perior music is placed before her, or she is requested to take a part 
in a duet; but, alas! she dare not venture upon untried ground ; 
music which she has not learned with her master is to her a sealed 
book. In theoretical knowledge she is still more lamentably defi- 
cient than in the practical ; with the origin of the common chord, 
the diatonic scale, and the minor mode, she has no more acquaint- 
ance than with the laws of harmony or counterpoint. The proba- 
bility, moreover, is that she has never even heard the names of 
composers who have been with justice considered as the Raphaels 
and Michael Angelos of the art. 

Inferior models having been invariably placed before her, she is 
alike ignorant, theoretically and practically, of all that constitutes 
excellence in music ; and the more perfec the composition the less 
qualified will she be found to understand or appreciate its merit. 
Under these disadvantageous and disheartening circumstances, she 
will either abandon the pursuit in despair or confine her practice to 
a miniature collection, in her own hand-writing, of the prettiest 
and newest waltzes. A favoured few may, no doubt, be found to 
whom this description of the usual routine of a musical education 
will be inapplicable, but it cannot reasonably be expected that these 
exceptions should be capable of producing any perceptible effect on 
public taste. 

It will, I presume, be readily conceded that the mind of a person 
thus educated can be but slenderly provided with the knowledge 
requisite to form a correct judgment of a performance so complicated 
as that of a grand opera. 

The gentlemen auditors may, in general, be said to be in a still 
more benighted state than the ladies: can it, then, be a subject for 

VOL. VINO, XIX. F 


42 ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE OPERA IN LONDON. 


marvel, is it not rather to be expected, that an opera should stand 
or fall, not according to its own intrinsic merits, but according to 
the perfection of voice and execution, and that its fate may even 
depend on the face and figure of the prima donna? Can it, under 
these circumstances, excite surprise that the Puritani should, night 
after night, attract crowded and admiring audiences, while Spon- 
tini’s Vestale, Winter’s Opferfest, Meyerbeer’s Robert le Diable, 
and even Weber's Oberon, proved failures at the time they were 
produced, and are now nearly forgotten. Good music may un- 
doubtedly, in some instances, meet with a favourable reception from 
the public—for instance, Beethoven’s Fidelio; but the success of 
this opera may fairly be attributed to the splendid performance of 
Schreder Devrient, and subsequently to the equally excellent re- 
presentation of a striking character by Malibran. But for these 
lucky accidents this opera might probably have been laid on the 
shelf with the others ; the attraction lay in the singer and the ac- 
tress, not in the music. Pasta performs in Norma and Anna Bole- 
na, and immediately the demand for these two dullest of dull operas 
becomes universal. Malibran holds the mirror up to Nature in the 
Somnambula, and the call for the opera becomes so urgent that the 
publishers find considerable difficulty in supplying the requisite 
number of copies. ‘The same observations may be applied, with 
equal truth, to the Puritani; it owes its success, in a great mea- 
sure, to the performance of Grisi, Tamburini, Rubini, and Lablache. 
Had any of the highly-extolled operas been presented to the public 
with a piano-forte accompaniment previous to their performance, 
the music-sellers would not have been remunerated for the expense 
of publication. 

A musician can form as perfect an idea of a cumposition from 
looking over the score, as he would be enabled to do by playing it 
or hearing it performed. It would be, perhaps, requiring too much 
to expect that amateurs should attain the knowledge and experience 
requisite to enable them thus to judge ; but it surely is compatible 
with the time usually allotted to this study, to expect that, from a 
good arrangement, with the voices in score and the instrumental 
parts compressed into a piano-forte accompaniment, they should be 
competent to pass a correct judgment in regard to the style of an 
opera, and its fitness for public performance. A really efficient 
musical education would enable the public to appreciate the intrin- 
sic value of an opera, independently of adventitious circumstances ; 
it-would render them capable of criticising its merits and defects 
more justly after having studied it at the piano, than the present 


Dy 2 ea ee 
1 eal + 


ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE OPERA IN LONDON. 43 


frequenters of the opera are competent to do after having heard it 
performed during the whole season. 

Without entering at this moment into detail as to the precise 
system of instruction which would qualify the student to criticise 
correctly, I would take leave to suggest that the first step in the 
reform of musical education should be the abandonment of the per- 
nicious custom of allowing masters to give to their pupils chiefly 
their own compositions, instead of forming their taste by an early 
acquaintance with the great models in each style. Every piece 
which is played, may be supposed to exert some degree of influence 
on the taste of the pupil; and should her practice have been con- 
fined either to the compositions of her instructor, or to the fashion- 
able music of the day, she can only derive that scanty portion of 
pleasure from the study which their inferiority is capable of pro- 
ducing. In lieu of this meagre fare, would it not prove a more 
profitable, as well as more agreeable course, to introduce the pupil 
to the history and progress of Music, from the time of Josquin de 
Prez to the present day ?—to explain the difference between the 
styles of the church, the opera, and the chamber, and to introduce 
her to the works of the greatest masters in each department ?* In 
order to accomplish this plan, it is by no means necessary that a 
young lady should devote a large portion of time to the study of 
church music or oratorios : judiciously selected specimens will be 
amply sufficient to impress her mind with tangible ideas of the 
meaning of the terms sublime, beautiful, ornamental, grand, pa- 
thetic, &c. 

Her instrument being the piano-forte or harp, her practice should 
be chiefly among the classical composers for these instruments.t A 


* “Tt is certain that ifthe art is to remain an art, and not to be degraded 
into a mere idle amusement, more use must be made of classical works than 
has been done for some time past.” If the Somnambula, Puritani, &c., are 
classical works, then, indeed, the art is in no danger of this degradation, in 
England at least.—Eps. 

+ A familiarity with the higher walks of the art is not, in our opinion, to 
be acquired by the study of a few specimens, however judiciously selected, 
but is the result of an investigation and comparison of the different means 
by which this higher walk isattained. If, then, this familiarity be so desira- 
ble, we think that a certain and not an insignificant portion of the time of 
study should be allotted to this hitherto neglected department. We see no 
reason why a young lady should not be able to appreciate, according to their 
respective merits, Hosanna to the Son of David, as well as one of Mozart’s 
sonatas. We grant it will be long ere she can even find equal pleasure in 
them; but until she sees in the former one of the sublimest monuments of 


+ 


44 ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE OPERA IN LONDON. 


familiarity, however, with the higher walks of the art will ever 
prove of the greatest advantage to the performer, because it is on 
these models that the inferior styles are founded. I would also par- 
ticularly recommend the study of the piano-forte works of the great 
vocal writers who have composed for that instrument ; Mozart, 
Haydn, Beethoven, Himmel, Weber, Hummel, ought to be as fa- 
miliar as the more fashionable and more flimsy compositions of the 
day. 

The pupil should likewise be instructed in the elements of har- 
mony, and the theory of sound: a knowledge of the former would 
accelerate the progress in execution, and give facility in playing at 
sight ; while the Jatter, by demonstrating the connexion of Music 
with Nature, would impart an interest to the subject which can 
never be experienced by those who learn in the usual parrot-like 
manner. Theory* and practice should never be separated; but 
each employed as an illustration of the other, instead of the absurd 
method commonly pursued of postponing the study of the theory to 
the finishing period of musical education, when the probability is 
that it will not be undertaken at all. The idea that children soon 
forget the names and properties of chords, originates in the irration- 
al practice of teaching thorough-bass as a distinct branch, as an 
affair of semibreves, minims, and hard names to be committed to 
memory, but having no connexion with the music they are in the 
habit of practising. Were the instructor, in the course of his les- 


musical genius, and in the other a happy union of the beautiful and orna- 
mental styles,she may have rapidity of execution, facility of playing at sight, 
even from score, and a cultivated taste, yet that taste, to be brought to per- 
fection, requires still further cultivation.—Eps. 

* What is commonly termed the theory of Music, is, we humbly conceive, 
no more theory than the art of executing a passage properly on any instru- 
ment. In acquiring a practical knowledge of Music, we can consider no one 
as having finished his studies unless his knowledge of composition be equal 
to his powers of execution; the one being as much a matter of practice as 
the other. Nor will the initiation of the pupil into the mysteries of the 
“ harmony of the 6th,” or the “ resolution of the discord of the 4th,” at all 
assist him in putting a correct base to an air, or in writing the parts of a 
psalm tune. The greatest masters never studied the rules as they are found 
in bouks, but derived them from the works of classical composers; and this, 
we maintain, is the true method in which a knowledge of these rules and the 
power of applying them is to be gained. Were this plan adopted, how 
thuch time, fatigue, and disgust might be spared on the part both of instruc- 
tor and pupil, to say nothing of the more rapid progress, and the far deeper 
knowledge of the resources of the art which would be the inevitable conse- 
quence of such a course._-Eps. 


ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE OPERA IN LONDON. A5 


sons, to familiarize the pupil with the application of the rules pre- 
viously studied, and, instead of the idle practice usually adopted of 
correcting individual notes, were he to take the trouble of saying 
“‘ harmony of the 6th,” “ resolution of the discord of the 4th,” &c., 
the learner would recognize in the music she was playing an organ- 
ized plan, not an arbitrary succession of notes, which she is at liber- 
ty to alter at pleasure. The laws of rhythm, accent, emphasis ac- 
companied by rules for proper phrasing, if judiciously and familiar- 
ly explained and illustrated, could not fail to produce a beneficial 
and lasting impression. Dry detached rules may be learned as an 
irksome task, and speedily forgotten ; it is the application and pro- 
perly-demonstrated practical utility of the rules which will uncon- 
ciously take hold of the mind, and remain there ready for future » 
use. 

A knowledge of the scales of instruments most commonly em- 
ployed in modern music, as well as the passages best adapted to 
them, and their use in the orchestra would not only prove in itself 
a highly interesting and pleasing study, but would give to the stu- 
dent the additional advantage of being able to understand and to 
appreciate orchestral music—a department too much neglected in 
this country, although Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Spohr have 
clothed some of their finest conceptions in the sinfonia for a full 
band, and in the quartet for stringed instruments. 

The study of intonation and the rules of singing, has been recom- 
mended even to those who have no, intention of pursuing that de- 
lightful art practically, solely with the view of improving the ear, 
and giving a correct idea of the manner in which slow movements 
ought to be performed on the piano-forte: this knowledge is also 
indispensable to the critic of vocal compositions and performances. 

These remarks, although slight and hasty, may prove not wholly 
unsuccessful in directing attention to the errors and defects of mu- 
sical education as at present conducted ; under a proper system it 
would embrace a wide extent; indeed, it may be affirmed that a 
perfect acquaintance with each particular department of this little 
understood and, therefore, lightly-esteemed science would suffice to 
occupy a life: my desire is to persuade those who consume time 
and money solely on the gilded toy execution, to add to flexibility of 
_ finger and manual dexterity an acquaintance with the principles on 
which the art is founded, and thus to increase largely their own 
enjoyment, while the taste of the public will be raised to a higher 
standard, and our performances no longer remain, as at present, 
subjects of derision to foreigners: Conceiving that it may prove 


46 ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE OPERA IN LONDON. 


more generally useful to enter into the discussion of particulars 
than to reason on abstract principles, I will proceed to give my im- 
pressions on the present state of the opera in England ; requesting 
the indulgence of the musician, to whom I may appear to pass su- 
perficially over matters demanding a deeper and fuller investigation, 
while I may possibly weary the general reader on points to which 
he feels a total indifference. 

When Spontini, on his return from England, was requested to 
publish, in one of the musical journals at Berlin, an account of the 
state of music in this country, he replied that the art was at so low 
an ebb in England that he considered it unworthy the trouble of 
criticism ; and this opinion has been spread pretty widely on the 
continent by other foreign musicians of equal celebrity. Although 
I admit that there is ample ground for censure, I cannot but con- 
sider this sweeping condemnation as more severe than we actually 
deserve ; but, accustomed as the Germans are to a high degree of 
excellence with a comparative dearth of means, they are naturally 
astonished to find mediocrity in a city which affords, perhaps, 
greater facilities for the attainment of musical excellence than any 
other. Now we, on the contrary, are apt to flatter ourselves that 
our opera presents a model of perfection, and to look down on the 
German houses as deficient in that important desideratum a prima 
donna. The truth would seem to lie between these conflicting opi- 
nions, each country possessing advantages not to be found in the 
other, although the sole impediment to our capability of exhibiting 
the united excellencies of both may fairly be attributed to the in- 
ferior amount of musical knowledge possessed by the English pub- 
lic. Criticisms of a high order may, indeed, be found in Baker’s 
Quarterly Musical Journal, the Spectator, &c.,* but these publica- 
tions are either unknown beyond the circle of the professionally 
musical world. or are unintelligible or uninteresting to the public 
at large. Perhaps it may not be considered as too sanguine to in- 
dulge the hope that the following remarks, appearing in a periodi- 
cal so deservedly popular and so generally interesting as the Ana- 
lyst, may attract the attention of those who, if not altogether, have 
it largely in their power to remedy the defects, and remove the 
stigma under which we now labour. 

In regard to the orchestra, the foreign critic is instantly and for- 


* We hope that in Music our own Journal will, in future, be found de- 
serving of that praise which, in its other departments,—without vanity be it 
spoken—it has obtained from those whose praise is most valuable.—Ens. 


a 


ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE OPERA IN LONDO . 47 


cibly struck by a want of precision, not only in the time, but in the 
observance of pianos, fortes, and crescendos ; he feels the absence of 
that thorough understanding which, in the best German orchestras, 
pervades the whole, from the conductor and leader down to the 
drum. This want of understanding is the reason why, in a band 
containing so many first-rate musicians, we seldom hear a passage 
well-executed in piano by the whole band ; the fortes thus necessa- 
rily lose much of their effect, and long crescendos are scarcely at- 
tempted. Yet listen when they accompany one of Pasta’s or Ru- 
bini’s arias, or when they play the introductory symphony! It is 
the beau ideal of elegant and graceful instrumental execution, and 
surpasses any accompaniment I have had an opportunity of hearing 
on the continent. 

When an orchestra of upwards of fifty performers executes pas- 
sages where all its powers are brought into play, they cannot pos- 
sibly succeed in expressing the meaning of the composer if they 
have not undergone much previous training, and if the eye of a 
skilful conductor is not constantly upon them. This preliminary 
training is not requisite when ten or a dozen of the most consum- 
mate masters, on their respective instruments, in the constant habit 
of playing together, have to execute the simple symphonies and ac- 
companiments to modern Italian airs. Mori, Lindley, Dragonetti, 
Nicholson, and Willman, require no prompting in their respective 
parts, and they, moreover, enjoy the inestimable privilege of accom- 
panying constantly the finest singers in the world. 

No orchestra can excel in the performance of difficult music if 
the conductor is not au fait in reading a full score at sight, and ca- 
pable of instantaneously detecting the most trifling inaccuracies in 
the performance ; it is equally indispensable that he should be per- 
fectly master of the manner in which every style ought to be exe- 
cuted. The Italians are seldom adepts at making out a score ; their 
knowledge of composition is usually superficial, and they are easily 
satisfied in regard to execution. It is a fact perhaps not generally 
known that Italian orchestras are incapable of getting through even 
the notes of such operas as Der Freischulz, Robert le Diable, &c., 
not only from the difficulty of the keys in which they are written, 
but on account of the precision required in the performance of the 
concerted pieces ; to Italians any other music but that of their own 
country and time is as an unknown tongue. In these circumstances 
we discover one great disadvantage under which our opera has long 
laboured, namely, that the conductors have been, with few excep- 
tions, Italians. Were a German musician of eminence to be ap- 


48 ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE OPERA IN LONDON. 


pointed to this most responsible post, it is easy to foresee that the 
orchestra would speedily undergo a marked change for the better, 
and, consequently, the public taste would improve in the same pro- 
portion. The objection that a German would be incapable of en- 
tering into the spirit of Italian music, is entirely void of foundation ; 
he who is able to appreciate Beethoven and Weber may be supposed 
competent to understand the superficial merits of Rossini and Bel- 
lini ; of this capability no further proof need be adduced than the 
manner in which the works of this school are got up in Germany. 

A German would be invaluable in drilling the chorus, the state 
of which is, at present, a national disgrace ; Italians appear to con- 
sider precision in this department as totally unconnected with the 
effect of an opera: to give an instance, the choruses in Marino 
Faliero were, last season, drawled out in a manner which could 
only have been the result of negligence. The precision and spirit 
with which the German companies, when in England, gave the 
most difficult choruses, excited general admiration; yet the idea 
never appeared to occur that it would be desirable to introduce this 
much-needed improvement into our own chorus. In selecting a 
German conductor, care should undoubtedly be taken to avoid ap- 
pointing a bigotted adherent of the modern crabbed school of Spohr, 
Ries, Marschner, &c. No censure is here intended to be passed on 
these great masters themselves ; it can only attach to those who, 
with Rinck and many others, have adopted the defects without the 
beauties of their style. From the observations which I have had 
an opportunity of making on the characters of the different schools 
of Germany, I am inclined to think that Vienna and Prague are 
the most likely to furnish musicians in all respects suited to the 
office. 

One of the most glaring errors in our establishment remains to 
be noticed—an error proceeding in some measure from the persons 
to whose control it has been committed. I allude to the fact that, 
within the last five years, the performances have, with some few 
exceptions, such as Don Giovanni and Medea, consisted exclusively 
of the works of one school ; viz., that of Rossini and his followers. 
I must now take leave of the reader for a season. In my next 
paper I will endeavour, by an impartial survey of the merits of 
these composers, to ascertain how far they are entitled to this 
exclusive preference over the masters of all other times and coun- 
tries. 

Yi 
( To be continued ). 


a af 


> 


49 


AN HISTORICAL VIEW OF THE CHARACTER OF 
FISHER, BISHOP OF” ROCHESTER. 


“T love Fisher; you have taught me to hate Harry the Eighth more 
than ever.”—-Dnr. Parr.* 


Aumosrt every learned foreigner of the present day who has di- 
rected his researches to English history, has animadverted upon the 
disposition of Protestant writers to exaggerate the merits of Henry 
VIII. and unduly to soften his crimes; while another main impres- 
sion is, their disparagement of those personages who had the rare 
magnanimity to oppose his arbitrary dogmas in church and state. 
It is quite impossible not to attach this charge of partiality to the 
historian of the Reformation, Bishop Burnett, however loud and 
frequent may be his vauntings that truth was the sole end and ob- 
ject of his labours. This celebrated author may be said to have 
given the impulse, to have set the tone to this favourite and fashion- 
able principle. In exemplification of this remark, take his delinea- 
tion of the characters of Cranmer, Cromwell, and Fisher. Surely 
he might have done ample justice to the two former without at- 
tempting to throw a cloud over the venerable virtuest of the latter. 
We do not blame him for his lavish praises upon the two great in- 


* See Butler’s Reminiscences, vol. ii., p. 227. 

+ So unconscious, however, does Burnett appear of making his readers 
more acquainted with the faults than with the excellencies of Fisher, that he 
does not scruple to say, “ I seem to write like one that intended to raise his 
character rather than to depress it.”—Hist. of the Reform., v. iii., part 2., p.519. 
Now it must strike a man of plain understanding to be rather a novel me- 
thod of exalting Fisher’s character, to affirm that “he was much addicted to 
the superstitions in which he was brought up.”—Hist. of the Reform., v. i., 
p- 708: and, again, “ his charity was burning indeed. He was a merciless 
persecutor of heretics, so that the rigour of the law under which he fell was 
the measure that he had measured out to others.”—Hist. of the Reform., v. i., 
part 2, p. 439. “ Call you that backing of your friends? A plague upon such 
backing.” Moreover, it may be observed, that a less partial historian, if he 
had occasion to couple the names of Fisher and More in the same sentence, 
would not have passed over the merits of the former in the slighting man- 
ner Burnett has done, as if there were no elements of greatness or goodness 
in his composition, however true it may be that the reputation of the latter 
still shines with undiminished brightness. “The taking so many lives, 
particularly Fisher’s and More’s, the one being extreme old, and the other 
one. of the glories of his nation, for probity and learning, &c. &c.”—Preface 
to the Hist. of the Reform., p. xvi. 

VOL. VI.—NO. XIX. G 


50 AN HISTORICAL VIEW OF THE CHARACTER 


struments of the Anglican Reformation, we blame him only that 
with his avowed reverence for historical impartiality, he should 
have spoken so lifelessly and*coldly of that truly apostolical man 
the Bishop of Rochester, Cardinal, as the papists style him, of the 
Holy Church of Rome; whose nobleness of principle, unalterable 
purity of action, disinterestedness, and generosity of soul, should at 
least have been described with fairness and liberality, if they did not 
command his willing admiration.* 

One would have imagined, from its being so demonstrable that 
Henry could not find hatred enough in his heart, or punishment 
enough on earth,t for that inflexibly honest prelate, our upright and 
conscientious historian would, as often as the name of Fisher pre- 
sented itself to his notice, have penned not a few sentences of moral 
reprobation upon those hellish inmates of Henry’s breast which 
may be called his household gods. But from the manner in which 
he glides over the monstrous iniquity of his sentence, the hasty and 
superficial reader might be led to suppose, that Burnett was as ig- 
norant of it, as of the mighty powers of steam ; whereas, to those 


* The qualities of his head and heart were such, as at one time to extort 
from Henry himself this high compliment to them: addressing Cardinal 
Pole, he said, “Se judicare me nunquam invenisse in universa peregrina- 
tione mea, qui literis et virtute cum Rofferne esset comparandus.”—Apol. 
Poli., p. 95. 

+ The brutal malignity of Henry did not, according to Pole, cease with 
the life of Fisher, but extended itself towards his remains :—“ Itaque cum 
post carceris miseriam quindecim mensium spatio perpessam produci eum 
fecisset, capite, plecti jussit. Nec vero hoc satis, nisi mortui corpus omni 
contumelize objiceret, quod nudum prorsus in loco supplicit ad spectaculum popu- 
lo relinqui mandaverat, ad quod nemo accedere audebat tyranni metu, preter 
eos qui contumeliz causa accederent, vel qui mortuo indumenta detraxe- 
rant.”—-Apolog., p. 96. There is a detailed account of the treatment of Fish- 
er’s dead body, in Dr. Hall’s, or, more correctly writing, Dr. Bailey’s Life of 
Fisher, from which any one might justly conelude that the English people 
were not then emerged from savagery, even to a semi-civilization.—p. 210. 
But what I shall now state on the authority of the Roman Catholic histo- 
rian, Dodd, will transcend the belief of the present age, and can be received 
by the vulgar only, whose credulity is always probable :—“ After the expo- 
sure of Fisher’s head for fourteen days upon London Bridge, it was thrown 
into the Thames, in consequence of a report that rays of light were observed 
to shine around it.”—Church Hist., v.i., p. 161. Hall, more modest in his 
reference to this miracle, though ready enough to give it a welcome admis- 
sion, contents himself with saying, that “ the face was observed to become 
fresher and more comely day by day, and that such were the crowds collect- 
ed together to look at it, that almost neither cart nor horse could pass.”— 
Life of Fisher, p. 212. 


OF FISHER, BISHOP OF ROCHESTER. 51 


who know such a suspicion to be ill-founded, he stands exposed to 
the full force of the accusation, that he purposely shunned details, 
lest he should be obliged to make his hero “a hissing and a curse,” 
not being quite prepared to affirm, with the sycophant of old, that 
“every act of a ruler must be just.’’* ! 

The great intellect of his fellow prisoner and sufferer, Sir Thomas 
More, the public and conspicuous part which he had so long and 
early acted,t have helped to obscure the fame of Fisher, although 
several distinguished Protestant{ writers have cited him as an ex- 
ample of sanctity, purity, and charity, and extolled him for his 
warm devotion to the cause of letters. Admirably well does he de- 
serve their commendation in both respects. His appointment to 
the see of Rochester originated from a feeling on the part of Henry 
VII., shared, if we are to believe their biographers, by sovereigns 
of a later period, though not keeping a sufficiently firm hold upon 
their minds to urge them, like that monarch, to atong for the mis- 
chievous effects which have resulted from preferring the unworthy 
to the worthy. In writing to his mother, the Countess of Rich- 
mond, the king confesses that he had ‘ promoted many a man un- 
advisedly ; and I wolde now,” he proceeds, ‘make some recom- 
pencon to promote some good and vertuouse men ;” and he, there- 
fore, desires to appoint her confessor, Master Fisher, “ for none 
other cause but for the grate and singular virtue that I know and 
se in him as well in conyng and natural wisdome, and specially for 
his good and vertuouse lyving.”§ 

This striking fact alone ought to have painted the Bishop of Ro- 
chester, in Burnett’s eyes, as one of those truly pious Roman catho- 
lies deserving of the reverence of posterity. It would also have been 
asafe duty to have shewn, in strong colours, Fisher’s love and encou- 


* Tlav ro roux dev Uae rov xourouvros Iizasov.—Plut. Opera, Franc., 1599, v. i., 
p- 639. Such was the languag€ with which Anaxarchus consoled Alexander 
for the murder of Clytus. 

+ Even when “a bearded boy,” as Wolsey styled him, his eloquence was 
so commanding as a public speaker, that he prevailed on the House of Com- 
mons to withhold a grant of money to the crown. See the history of his 
brilliant life, by Roper, his son-in-law ; Singer’s edit, p. 12. 

~ See Fuller, Strype, Wharton, Collier, Hume, &c. &c. “ All,” say the 
authors of the Biographia Britannica, “acknowledge that he was a sober 
_ man, pious, temperate, charitable, and an encourager of letters.” 

§ See the letter in the Appendix to the Funeral Sermon of Margaret 
Countess of Richmond, edit. 1708, p. 41. Mr. Butler, therefore, is evidently 
mistaken when he says, that Henry VIII. raised him to the see of Roches- 
ter.— Historical Memoirs of the English Catholics, v. i., p. 169. 


52 AN HISTORICAL VIEW OF THE CHARACTER 


ragement of letters, so splendidly illustrated by his patronage* of 
Erasmus, and by his effectual persuasions to the ‘‘ venerable Mar- 
garet,” as Gray styles hert, to found Christ and St. John’s Colleges 
at Cambridge, together with a professorship of divinity in each of 
the universities, and other scholastic endowments.{ As a further 
proof of Fisher’s literary tastes and predilections, it may be men- 
tioned that, in his sixtieth year or upwards, according to Erasmus,§ 
he entered upon the difficult study of the Greek language then re- 
vived in England ; for we learn from venerable Bede that it had 
been introduced into England, half a century before his own time, 
by Theodore, whom Pope Vitalian had appointed archbishop over 
the infant Anglo-Saxon churches. Fisher also, in his noble ardour 
for the promotion of classical or ancient literature, sent down, in 
his capacity of Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, Richard 
Croke, to become there the successor of Erasmus as instructor in 
the Greek tongue ;|| while we have another instance of his natural 


* Erasmi Epist., London, 1642., p. 353 ; and Butler’s Life of Erasmus, pp. 
65, 118. 

+ See his Ode for Music. But Margaret was not only a zealous patroness 
of literature, but an authoress herself. In Ballard’s Memoirs of several La- 
dies of Great Britain, who have been celebrated for their Writings, the compo- 
sitions of the mother of Henry are enumerated: while so great was her re- 
ligious enthusiasm, that she declared if the princes of Christendom would 
unite together for the purpose of marching against their common enemy, the 
Turks, she would willingly follow them in the humble capacity of laundress 
to the camp.—See Camden’s Remains, edit. 1665, p. 271. 

+ “ His whole study,” observes Dodd, ‘‘ was to put her upon such under- 
fakings as became her exalted station and his own character. By his per- 
suasion, she founded the noble colleges of Christ and St. John, in Cambridge, 
and Fisher greatly contributed to the expence of enlarging and completing 
the latter. According to a statement, which is not so well known as it de- 
serves to be, the Master and Fellows of the latter college transmitted to him 
a letter in the darkest hour of his troubles; which, regardless of its drawing 
upon their heads the vengeance of Henry, attests, in the most undisguised 
manner, the affection and reverence with which they still locked to this 
single-hearted benefactor of letters. One passage in it reflects everlasting 
honour upon that college, while it forcibly points out for our instruction, that 
wealth well spent is sure, one way or other, to reap its due reward :—“ Tu- 
um est eritque quicquid possumus. ‘Tui omnes scimus erimusque toti. Tu 
nostrum es decus et presidium tu nostrum es caput ut necessario quzecun- 
que te mala attingant ea nobis veluti membris subjectis acerbitatem infe- 
rant.”—Harl. M.S., No. 7030, p. 230. 

§ Erasmi Epist., 522, 526, 

|| See Hallam’s Introduction to the Literature of Europe, in the eighteenth, 
seventeenth, and sixteenth centuries, p. 120. 


“4 °r es ie ein en ee 
¥ 


OF FISHER, BISHOP OF ROCHESTER. 53 


propensity for the interests of learning in his forming one of the 
best libraries in the kingdom. Of this repository of knowledge 
there is so interesting a notice, by a biographer of the Bishop, that 
we shall give it in his own words. ‘‘ He had the notablest library 
of bookes in all England, two long galleries full ; the bookes were 
sorted in stalls, and a register of the names of every body at the 
end of every stall. All these his bookes, and all his hangings, 
plate, and vessels for hall, chamber, buttery, and kitchen, he gave, 
long before his death, to St. John’s College, by a deed of gift, and 
put them in possession thereof, and then, by indenture, did borrow 
all the said hookes and stuff, to have the use of them during his 
life; but at his apprehension the Lord Cromwell caused all to be 
confiscated, which he gave to Moryson Plankney, of Chester, and 
other that were about him, and so the college was defrauded of this 
noble gift.”* : 

The writings of the Bishop against the Lutheranst display the 
powers of his extensive learning and his acuteness as a polemical 
divine, while his pulpit discourses, however devoid of attraction 
now, were considered as models of eloquence by his cotemporaries, 
and to have done honour to his agé. Had all his works come down 
to us, for he was a most voluminous writer, we might conclude, 
from the vehement admiration expressed of them by one of 
those cotemporaries, that each of his productions approximated 
so closely to excellence as to challenge the homage of posterity. 
But though the specimens left will not justify this sanguine augury 


_ of his eulogist, yet, from the following curious reference to his lite- 


rary labours, he seems, from the fullness of the mind or the desire 
of instructing mankind, never to have been happy without his un- 
tiring pen. ‘ In his lifetime he wrote many famous and learn- 
ed treatises with great diligence, whereof none came to light, 
because he lived not to finish them. But myself have seen 
diverse of them, and some other I have heard of by report of 
good and credible persons. And it was once told me by a re- 
verend father that was Dean of Rochester many years toge- 
ther, named Mr. Phillips, that on a time in the days of Edward 


* Harl. MS., 7047, p. 17. 

+ Those writings of his which are extant, were published separately in 
England, and printed collectively at Wurtzburg in one volume folio, 1593. 
Upon the title of one of them, Pro damnatione Lutheri, charity, justice, and 
impartiality must all combine in actuating us to set a mark of reprobation, 
however much Fisher might deem it a sacred duty to promulgate and record 
his detestation of opinions considered by the Romish communion as heretical. 


54 AN HISTORICAL VIEW OF THE CHARACTER 


VI., when certain commissioners were coming toward him to search 
his house for books, he for fear brent a large volume which this 
holy Bishop had compiled, containing in it the whole story and 
matter of the divorce, which volume he gave him with his own 
hand a little before his troubles; for the loss whereof the Dean 
would many times after lament, and wish the book whole again, 
upon condition that he had not one grote to live on. Many other 
of his works were consumed by the heretickes, which, shortly after 
his death, swarmed thick in every place and grew into great autho- 
rity, doing thereby what themselves listed. And it has been re- 
perted by a good old priest called Mr. Buddle, who, in his youth, 
wrote many of his books for him, there came to him on a certain 
time in the aforesaid King Edward’s days, a minister, by authority 
of him that then occupied the See of Rochester, and took from him 
as many written books and papers of this holy man’s labors and 
travell as loaded a horse, and carried them to His Majestie; they 
were all afterward brent, as he heard say by the maister minister 
andthe mann. This Mr. Buddell was then parson of Cockston, in 
Kent, not far from Rochester, where he yet liveth, a very old man, 
and declareth many notable things of the austere life and vertue of 
this holy man.”’* . 

Enough, however, of his writings remain to prove him one of 
the ablest controversialists of his day. But the general reader, we 
suspect, will prefer the following extract from his funeral sermon 
on the noble Princess Margaret to any we might select out of those 
erudite tomes, not merely because it affords the best specimen of his 
English style, but as proving how well the memory of his royal 
benefactress is entitled to the respect of the wise and good of suc- 
ceeding ages. Speaking, indeed, with reference to this eulogy as a 
composition, we are almost inclined to compare it, from the modern 
turn and structure of some of its sentences, to the good English 
which is conspicuous in his fellow martyr’s Life of Edward V. 
“She was bounteous and lyberal to every person of her knowledge 
or acquaintance. Avarice and covetyse she most hated, and sor- 
rowed it full moche in all persons, but specially in ony that belong- 
ed unto her. She was of syngular easyness to be spoken unto, 
and full curtayse answere she would make to all that came unto 
her. Of mervayllous gentyleness she was unto all folks, but spe- 
cially unto her owne, whom she trustede and loved ryghte tenderly. 
Unkynde she wolde not be unto no creature, ne forgetfull of ony 


* Harl MS., 7047. 


ll A” es a ee and 
we han ores 


OF FISHER, BISHOP OF ROCHESTER. 55 


kyndness or servyce done to her before, which is no lytel part of 
veray nobleness. She was not vengeable ne cruell, but redy anone 
to forgete and to forgive injuryes done unto her, at the least desyre 
or mocyon made unto her forthe same. Mercyfull also and pyteous 
she was unto such as was grevyed and wrongfully troubled, and to 
them that were in poverty or sekeness, or any other mysery. She 
had, in a manner, all that was praysable in a woman, either in soul 
or body.”* 

Fisher passed through the extremes of fortune, he stood the test 
of dangers, temptations, and sacrifices, with the same heroic coy; 
stancy as More; he manifested that temper of concentrated resolu- 
tion in prison, at the tribunal, and on the scaffold, which marked 
the bearing of those whose names are most conspicuous in the annals 
of the Reformation ; and there was that composed dignity in his 
character which rendered him equally indifferent with More to the 
plaudits of his countrymen. It is, then, a subject of censure that 
Burnett should have evinced such reluctance to give this martyr of 
the Romish church,t of whom, from his saint-like qualities, she 
may be justly proud, his due rank among the ancient worthies of 
the realm, especially as there was not an atom of that lust of self- 
aggrandisement or power which is so emphatically called, in the 
History of his own Times, the besetting sin of the churchman. 
For when offered, by Henry VIII., at one time the see of Ely, and 
at another that of Lincoln, each of which was treble in value to his 
own, his memorable answer was, “ Others may have a larger in- 
come, as for me I shall not change my little old wife, to whom I 
have been so long wedded, for a wealthier ;’{ and upon being told 
that Paul III.,§ in testimony of his great merits, and of his follow- 


* There is a reprint of this interesting discourse, in 1708, by Baker, the 
Cambridge antiquary. 

+ Fuller has been styled “a man of praises ;” but the quaint old historian 
was not so imbued with the fashionable liberality of this generation, as to 
bestow them upon an individual whose religious faith differed in several re- 
spects so widely from his own, unless the whole life of such a person was, in 
his opinion, a copy to be admired. Speaking then of Fisher, he says, “He 
was generally pitied for his age, honoured for his learning, admired for his 
holy conversation. Besides it was not worth while,” he adds, “to take away 
his life, who was not only mortalis, as all men, and mortificatus, as all good 
men, but also moritwrus, as old men, being past seventy-six years of age.” — 
Church Hist., b. v., sect. 3. 

t See Fuller, 201, 203. 

§ In following Burnett, a late respectable Historian is evidently mistaken 
when he says “that Clement VII. bestowed that honour upon him.”—See 


56 AN HISTORICAL VIEW OF THE CHARACTER 


ing so firmly and resolutely his convictions in the face of all conse- 
quences, had conferred upon him the high dignity of a cardinal, he 
calmly replied, “If the red hat were lying at my feet I would not 
stoop to pick it up, so small a value do I set upon it.’’* 

O! what a rebuke, what an admonition, is there in the first of 
these sayings, to that extreme selfishness and spirit of worldliness 
which have marked the conduct of many a succeeding prelate, and 
of which we have saddening glimpses in our own remembrance, 
and which, it must be confessed, have left an intensely painful 
fgeling upon the humble-minded Christian, while they have called 
forth protesting voices among the people, even against the episco- 
pate itself. Now a reverend historian of the present day, whose 
protestant predilections are quite as strong as those of Burnett, is 
not afraid to make this ample and generous admission, that. “ we 
cannot fail to respect the man who would never exchange his small 
bishopric of Rochester for more valuable preferment.”¢ If there be, 
then, still those among our first order of priesthood who are tempt- 
ed to cast a wistful look upon a wealthier see—to feel a desire of 
accumulation beyond what Christianity prescribes—and thus to 
cling to mammon while professing to serve the church—let them 
shut their eyes, and think of Bishop Fisher’s truly evangelical de- 


Carwithen’s History of the Church of England, v. i., p. 143. This Pope died 
on the 26th of September, 1535, and Paul created Fisher a Cardinal, in a ge- 
neral promotion, on the 21st of May, 15—.—See Wharton, Contin. Hist. Roff- 
Angl. Sacr. 1. 

* The bitter brutal jest which Henry passed upon this offer, might lead 
one to suppose, that Fisher had earnestly sought to obtain this papal present: 
— Let the Pope send him a hat when he will; but by God’s mother he 
shall not wear it on his shoulders then, for I will leave him never a head to 
set it on.” Now, from the fact of Fisher’s having been named to the purple 
before the intelligence of his condemnation could have been brought to Rome, 
it is quite manifest that this appointment was not made “sorely to vex and 
irritate Henry,” but out of respect to his talents and virtues, and steady at- 
tachment to the Papal see, of which he had always been the inflexible and 
uncompromising advocate. “ Finally, the said, Machon writeth, that he, ex- 
postulating with the Bishop of Rome for that he had made the Bishop of 
Rochester a Cardinal, knowing him to be the person whom your Grace fa- 
voured not, and had most worthily deserved your Grace’s highe indignation. 
The said Bishop of Rome answered, that he had not doon it for any dis- 
pleasure unto your Highness, but only for that he thought him, for his 
singular lerning and good lyving to be a personne most mete to be present 
in the general Counsail, there to have his ayde and assistence in suche doubts 
as might arrise.”__MS. Harl., Baker, 7030, p. 206. 

+ See Short’s Sketch of the History of the Church of England, v. i., p. 147. 


OF FISHER, BISHOP OF ROCHFSTER. _ 57 


claration. ‘‘'To die shamefull} rich,” as Burnett phrases it, “ was 
an unholy wish,” he tells us, “‘ that possessed many a bishop in his 
day,” and which, no doubt, produced a most injurious effect upon 
the best interests of our pure scriptural and apostolic church. 
But in these times of strong political excitement, when the motives as 
well as the actions of our mitred ecclesiastics are severely, minutely 
criticised and examined, ‘‘ when there is no charm in the name of a 
bishop,” when he is no longer regarded as a sacred abstraction—al- 
though he is, according to the theory of certain of our clergy, from 
his residence being a palace, his cathedral seat a throne, his crosier 
a sceptre, his mitre a crown, to be invested with a sort of regal in- 
accessible elevation of rank—the heavings of the public mind would 
be so general, the tide of popular odium would run so strong, 
against these money-amassing propensities, that no prelate, however 
inordinate might be his affection of money, would venture to shock 
our moral vision by giving to religion this hue and colour of earth- 
liness. For he must know little of the signs and tokens of the 
present age who could expect to find a due reverence paid to his 
order, should he fail to carry into féll efficiency any one of the con- 
ditions on which the payment of that reverence is founded. These 
are still truths of vital importance, though the “ ecclesiastical com- 
missioners of England,” by so far equalizing the revenues of bishops 
as almost to set aside the practice of translations from one diocese to 
another, have contributed, in no small measure, to put an end to all 
_unhallowed strife for pelf. For performing this excellent service, 
and for lessening the immoderate incomes of Canterbury, London, 
and Durham, we fervently ejaculate, God speed their labours! The 
ecclesiastical commission, noisome as it has become to many of our 
dignitaries, will, in the foregoing respect, be like the carcase of 
Sampson’s lion, the means of conveying much purifying and 
strengthening alimert, not only to the church, but to Christianity 
itself. 

In these remarks, the bigot may fancy that he espies the taint of 
heresy. Be it enough, then, to tell him, we hold as firmly as he 
can the truth of the apostolical succession* and of primitive tradi- 


“ The Epistles addressed by St. Paul to Timothy and Titus, are decisive 
evidence of the apostolical sanction to the existence of a three-fold order of 
the Ministers of the Gospel. “ We may, I believe, state confidently” says 
Dr. Shuttleworth, “that from the days of the Apostles until the early part 
of the sixteenth century, notwithstanding the multitude of discussions which 
took place on other points, no large community of Christians existed, in 
which the respective grades of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons were not 


VOL. VI.—NO. XIX. H 


58 AN HISTORICAL VIEW OF THE CHARACTER 


tion ;* enough to tell him, we are quite as much opposed as he to 
that school of divinity called liberal or latitudinarian, although, un- 
like him, we indulge in no harshness, bitterness, or severity, against 
those whose religious opinions are different from our own. Under 
this influence of a degree of similarity of sentiments between us, 
we may pass with some as papists in disguise, seceders from pure 
protestantism, and favourers of the undue claims and _ pestilent 
errors of the church of Rome. Our earnest wish to do justice, as 
impartial critics, to the character of Bishop Fisher—to shew how 
completely it is stamped with the seal of the Christian virtues of 
humility and self-denial—may, we say, bring upon us these accu- 
sations ; but those who know how essentially protestant have been 
the complexion of our religious opinions in all our writings, how 
unfeigned, undisguised, and unalterable, our attachment to episco- 
palian protestantism, will smile at any such ill-founded reproaches ; 
nevertheless, we would have no one think that we had imitated the 
example of Bishop Gunning, who, as Burnett tells us, “ by setting 
himself with great zeal to clear the church of Rome from idolatry, 
made many suspect him as inclined to go over, though he was far 
from it.” Returning, then, to the subject which has occasioned 
this digression: Burnett, instead of expressing all the admiration 
and respect which this noble example set by Fisher to other bishops 
demands, contemplates it with that freezing indifference which will 
not allow him to bestow even one cold sentence of approbation. 
For in reference to a determination which places the character of 
Fisher in so venerable a light—which so beautifully exemplifies the 
feelings of a Christian bishop of the primitive times—our historian 
thinks it sufficient to remark that “ he followed the rule of the pri- 
mitive church, which never changes for a better.”+ That the His- 
tory of the Reformation does equal credit to the talents and industry 
of Burnett will be readily allowed by all competent judges, but no 
satisfactory excuse can be made for his withholding praises so justly 
due, and thus sinking the character of the historian into that of the 
common polemic, because the Bishop of Rochester lived and died in 
the Romish communion, because he held the same faith which a 


acknowledged and retained.”—p. 14. See his excellent Sermon On the Vo- 
luntary Principle not recognized by the Primitive Church. 

* Mr. Keble has discussed this much debated point in a most masterly 
manrer, in his recent Sermon, entitled, “ Primitive Traditions recognized in 
Holy Soripture.” We earnestly recommend it to the attention of the young 
theological student. 

+ History of the Reform., v. i., p. 708. 


OF FISHER, BISHOP OF ROCHESTER. 59 


Fenelon and a Pascal afterwards professed. Surely, then, the sub- 
stantial worth and excellence of Fisher should have beat down 
those prejudices which concentrated Burnett’s religious likings 
within a narrow circle, instead of loving Christians as Christians, 
and not those only who agreed with him in judgment.—But to pro- 
ceed to the notice of those events which, it may be said, directly 
brought this venerable prelate to a merciless account. 

On the 21st of February a bill of attainder was brought into the 
House of Lords* against Elizabeth Barton, the Holy Maid of Kent, 
then a nun professed in the priory of St. Sepulchre, at Canterbury, 
and likewise against those ecclesiastics who had given credit or 
countenance to her pretended prophecies. Among those who were 
implicated for misprison of treason in this affair was Fisher.t Even 
his masculine understanding, like that of Archbishop Warham and 
of More, yielded to the delusion of her neighbours, that the predic- 
tions uttered by her were ascribable to some preternatural agency. 
This prophetess, as the statute informs us, declared that ‘she had 
knowledge, by revelation from God, that God was highly displeased 
with our said sovereign lord, and that if he proceeded in the said 
divorce, and married again, he should no longer be king of this 
realm, and that, in the estimation of Almighty God, he should not 
be a king one hour, and that he should die a villain’s death.” + 

This prediction of the nun, Fisher, it was said, had concealed 
from the king. Cromwell, therefore, advised him to confess his 
culpability and throw himself upon the royal clemency, with the 
full assurance of his receiving it. But the principles of this aged 
prelate, then in his seventy-sixth year, were not so pliant and duc- 
tile that they could stifle the voice of conscience at the call of safety. 
He was not a mere machine in the hands of the court to be moved 
in what direction they willed, to take what course they chose. 
When the question of the divorce was agitated, he had boldly main- 
tained the legality of the queen’s marriage, by publishing a treatise 
in defence of it. He was early consulted by Catherine on this 
grand subject, however some historians have denied the fact. At 
first, Fisher was extremely reluctant to interfere,§ but when he did 


* See Journals of the House of Lords, p. 68. 

+ History of the Reform., v. i., p. 308, 309. 

+ See Hall, Herbert, Strype, and Lingard upon this transaction. 

Ds In the first volume of the State Papers, p . 197, 198, there utjetaot the 


7 


60 AN HISTORICAL VIEW OF THE CHARACTER 


consent to become a party in her cause he manifested the most un- 
flinching adherence to it. He was one of her councillors upon the 
hearing before the legate at Blackfriars, and in that capacity so ex- 
asperated and envenomed the ire of Henry that this proved the 
stepping-stone to his tragical end.* And in a speech in the upper 
house of the convocation of Canterbury he had lifted up-a protest- 
ing voice against the suppression of the lesser monasteries, with 
such energy and freedom as must have conjured to his audience the 
image of most dangerous consequences, from their conviction of the 
deep and indelible offence which such an address would give to their 
tyrannical sovereign. If the following were not the words of 
truth, they were at least the words of undaunted faithfulness to the 
opinions which he had espoused. ‘‘ Beware, my lords,” exclaimed 
Bishop Fisher, “‘ beware of yourselves and of your country, beware 
of your holy mother, the catholic church. The people are subject 
to novelties, and Lutheranism spreads itself among us. Remember 
Germany and Bohemia. Let our neighbour’s houses, which are on 
fire, teach us to beware of our own. An axe,” continued the 
learned prelate, “‘came upon a time into the wood, making his 
moan to the great trees that he wanted an handle to work withall, 
and for that cause he was constrained to sit idle ; therefore he made 
it his request to them to grant him one of their small saplings with- 
in the wood to make him an handle. But now, becoming a com- 
plete axe, he fell so to work within the same wood that, in process 
of time, there were neither great nor small trees to be found in the 
place where the wood stood. And so, my lords, if you can grant 
the king these smaller monasteries, you do but make him an handle 
whereby, at his own pleasure, he may cut down all the cedars of 
the Lebanons.”+ 

The man who did not shrink from giving vent in such an open 
and frontless manner, to his indignation against measures which, 
according to his clear and compendious logic, were culpable, because 
arbitrary and unjust, was not likely to submit to the bent of Crom- 
well’s courtly politics, even though they assumed the colours of 
goodness, upon an occasion in which his own personal honour and 


* “ John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester,” says Fuller, “led here the front, 
whom some catholics call John the Baptist, because he was beheaded, though 
on a contrary account, John the Baptist for saying it is not lawful, John Fish- 

er for saying it is lawful for thee to have thy brother’s wife.” 
++ This speech was said to be delivered in 1529, upon a motion being made 
in the Upper House of the Convocation of Canterbury for suppressing the 
lesser monasteries.—Dr. Hall’s Life of Fisher, p. 108. 


o 
OF FISHER, BISHOP OF ROCHESTER. 61 


character were so deeply involved. Accordingly, with strong em- 
phasis, Fisher replied to his temporizing adviser that “ what the 
nun had communicated to him about the king he thought it need- 
less to mention, because she had told it to the king himself, and he 
had no reason to doubt of the truth of that assertion, as she had 
been admitted by the king to a private audience, and, moreover, she 
had named no person who should kill him, which, by being known, 
might be prevented. He was, therefore, guiltless of any conspiracy. 
He knew not, as he would answer before the throne of Christ, of 
any malice or evil that was intended by her, or by any other earthly 
creature, unto the king’s highness.” : 

For not complying with Cromwell’s advice, Burnett calls Fisher 
obstinate ;* an accusation which has been re-echoed by a distin- 
guished writer of the present day. ‘‘ His persistance in refusing,” 
remarks Mr. Southey, “ was plainly a matter of obstinacy, and not 
of conscience.”t One of his comprehensive views and “ vast cir- 
cumspection,” to use the words of Lord Hale, ought to have been 
more alive to the danger of this doctrine ; while his love of virtuous 
feeling should have resisted it, from its connecting a rule of action 
with a system founded on the supreme authority of the conscience. 
“‘ It is, indeed, an extraordinary assertion,” observes an acute critic, 
in reference to this subject, ‘“‘ that a man is to be denounced as ob- 
stinate because, at the summons of a secretary of state and upon a 
promise of pardon, he did not acknowledge himself guilty of an un- 
defined offence, of the commission of which his own conscience did 
not accuse him.” 

Burnett, however, not content with condemning Fisher for his 
incorrigible contumacy, has, by a strange and most reprehensible 
perversion, actually transformed him into a sort of ring-leader of 
the supposed conspirators in this affair of the nun of Kent, as one, 
in short, who gave unity to their counsels, and stimulus to their 
zeal. ‘There are heavy things,” he says, “‘ laid to Fisher’s charge, 
but except his being too much eoncerned in the business of the nun 
of Kent, which, without doubt, was managed with a design to 
make a rebellion in the nation, I do not find any other thing laid to 


* History ofthe Reform., v.i., p. 313. 

+ Book of the Church, v. ii., p. 43. 

+ See Observations on the circumstances which occasioned the Death of 
Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, in a letter from John Bruce, Esq., F.S.A., 
to Thomas Amyott, Esq., F.R.S.,Treasurer, Archeologia, v. 25, p. 68. This 
learned antiquary possesses the rare talent of conveying much exact and 
original information in a small compass. 


« 
62 AN HISTORICAL VIEW OF THE CHARACTER 


his charge.”* This arraignment appears mighty plausible at first, 
but, if well examined, it will prove unfounded in fact ; for if there 
had been any substantial ground for it, why were not the sayings 
of these conspirators, their actions, their plans disclosed? These 
surely might have been obtained from repentant traitors, from ac- 
complices, and from informers. There was no risk of popular com- 
motion, no cogent, imperative, perceptible motive of state expediency 
or security, to prevent these disclosures. The accusation is as va- 
lueless as motes in the sun-beam. Fisher’s property was not put 
in sequestration, or confiscated, and his bishopric and life forfeited, 
because he had mixed himself up in the elements of treason, accord- 
ing to the assumptions of Burnett, Mr. Turner, and others, but he 
was crushed by the strong hand of power, as we shall presently de- 
monstrate, on account of his denial of the supremacy. ‘True it is, 
in reference to those combinations which gave birth to the supposed 
treason of Fisher, that Cromwell, in a state paper addressed to the 
English ambassadors in France, has thus expressed himself: ‘ For, 
touching Mr: More and the Bishop of Rochester, with suche others 
as were executed here, their treasons, conspiracies, and practises se. 
cretly practisyd, as well within the realme as without, to move and 
styrre discension, and to sowe sedicyon within the realm, intending 
thereby, not onelye the destruction of the kyng, but also the whole 
subversion of his highuves realme, being explained and declared, and 
so manifestly proved afore them that they could not avoyde or denye 
it, and they thereof openly detected, and lawfully convicted, ad- 
judged, and condempned of high treason, by the due order of the 
lawes of this realme; it shall and may well appere to all the worlde 
that they, having such malice roted in their herts agenst their 
prynce and sovereigne, and the totall distruction of the comen 
weale of this realme, were well worthie, if they had had a thousand 
lyves, to have suffered ten tymes a more terrible deth and execution 
than any of them did suffer.” +t 

Upon this Mr. Turner remarks, “It is not likely that a minister 
of state would have used such strong language as this to its foreign 
ambassadors without some adequate grounds.”{ But this minister 
knew as well as Henry that the death of Fisher was the theme of 
lament and execration throughout Europe, that men ofall descrip-— 
tions,-of all ranks of society, were loud and vehement in expressing 


* History of the Reform., v. iii, p. 192. 
+ History of the Reform., v. vi., p. 110. 
t Reign of Henry VIII., p. 590, Note 69. 


4 


OF FISHER, BISHOP OF ROCHESTER. 63 


their sentiments of detestation upon the king’s vindictiveness and 
hardness of heart. To avert, then, this storm of moral indignation 
from themselves, and to turn it, if they possibly could, upon their 
innocent victim, it was necessary to have recourse to some such ex- 
pedient as the one just mentioned. Now Henry despised the voice 
of conscience, or at least it was but feeble when it told him to do 
what opposed his revengeful passions ; and as for his unscrupulous 
vicar-general, who was bred up in the Machiavellian school,* we 
have the most clear and undoubted proofs in Remembrances of his 
—Records, we would call them, of ministerial despotism—that he 
was quite a stranger to any of those restraints by which tender 
natures are kept back from daring and atrocious undertakings. At 
the nod of his royal master he was willing to execute the most 
odious of the purposes of tyranny ; and it is equally undeniable 
that he could practice in secrecy and concealment, for the attain- 
ment of his own selfish and ambitious views, acts the most atrocious 
and iniquitous, acts not only repugnant to all the commonest feel- 
ings of justice, but also contrary to all the fundamental principles 
of the English constitution. In verification of these assertions we 
will give some of the items of the memoranda which he carried in 
his pocket when he went to the court, the council, or the parlia- 
ment :— 

« To causet indictaments to be drawen for all the offenders in trea- 
sone and mysperusion, as the case requyre, concerning the nonne of 
Canterbury. To advertise the kyng of the orderyng of Maister 
Fyssher, and to shew hym of the indenture which I have delyveryd 
to the solicitors. ‘To knowe when Maister Fyssher shall go to his 
execution. ‘To remembre specyally the Ladie of Sar. To send 
Gendon to the Towre to be rakkyd.{ To remembre to know the 


* See Poli. Apol., p. 128. 

+ Sir Henry Ellis, in his Letlers on English History, in which the above 
extracts are to be found, has the following remarks in reference to them :— 
“ The Cottonian Manuscript Titus, b. i., contains numerous Notes, in Lord 
Cromwell’s own hand, of remembrances when he went to the Court, the 
Council, or the Parliament. Their folds and creases show that they were 
the memoranda which he doubled up and carried in his pocket: and it is 
singular that he should have suffered such to remain.”— Second Series, v. ii., 
p- 120. 

+ Those legal luminaries, Fortescue and Coke, and other eminent autho- 
rities on the common law, have expressed themselves in the most forcible 
terms against the use of torture in every form.—De Laud, Leg. Angli., cap. 
22, and 3rd Institute, p. 35—-while, in the following passage, which, as it is 
not a hackneyed one we shall quote entire, Sir Thomas Smith, who took a lead 


64 AN HISTORICAL VIEW OF THE CHARACTER 


trew valew of the goods of Castell-acre, for my part thereof.” And 
that he made no difference betwen his will and the law the follow- 
ing passage from Stowe furnishes the most positive evidence :-— 
“On the south side and at the west end of this church many 
fair houses are builded, namely, in Throgmorton-street ; one very 
large and spacious, builded, in the place of old and small tene- 
ments, by Thomas Cromwell, master of the king’s jewel-house, 
after that master of the rolls, then Lord Cromwell, knight, lord 
privy seal, vicar general, Earl of Essex, high chamberlain of 
England, &c. This house being finished, and having some reason- 
able plot of ground left for a garden, he caused the pales of the 
gardens adjoyning to the north part thereof on a sudden to be taken 
down, twenty-two to be measured forth right into the north of 
every man’s ground, a line there to be drawn, a trench to be cast, 
a foundation laid, and a high brick wall to be builded. My father 
had a garden there, and a house standing close to his south pale ; 
this house they loosed from the ground and bare upon rollers into 
my father’s garden twenty-two foot, ere my father heard thereof ; 
no warning was given him, nor other answer, when he spake to the 
surveyors of that work, but that their master, Sir Thomas, com- 
manded them so to do; no man durst go to argue the matter, but 
each man lost his land, and my father paid his whole rent, which 
was vis. vilid. the year, for that half which was left.”* 

From this statement, and from the curious document so singu- 
larly preserved, and which is so absolutely conclusive as to the per- 


in the politics and jurisprudence of the reign of Elizabeth, as a statesman 
and a lawyer, declares most positively that the application of torture for the 
purpose of extracting evidence and confession was unlawful and unjustifiable 
by the English constitution :—“ Torment, or question, which is used by the 
order of the civile law and custome of other countries, to put a malefactor to 
excessive paine to make him confesse of himselfe, or of his fellowes or com- 
plices, is not used in England. It is taken for servile. For how can he 
serve the commonwealth after, as a free man, who hath his bodie so haled or 
tormented ? And if hee bee not found guilty, what amends can be made him? 
And if he must dye, what cruelty is it so to torment him before! The na- 
ture of Englishmen is to neglect death, to abide no torment; and therefore 
hee will confess rather to have done anything—yea, to have killed his owne 
father—than to suffer torment. For death our nation doth not so much es- 
teeme as a meere torment ; in nv place shall you see malefactors goe more 
constantly, more assuredly, and witb less lamentation to their death than in 
England. The nature of our nation is free, stout, haulty, prodigall of life 
and blood; but contumely, beating, servitude, and servile torment and pun- 
ishment, it will not abide.”_-Commonwealth of England, b. ii., cap. 27. 
* Stowe’s London, p. 180. 


OF FISHER, BISHOP OF ROCHESTER. 65 


sonal character of Cromwell, we express, without reserve, our be- 
lief that this extraordinary (as he might with more justice be deno- 
minated rather than great) man, ashe is unjustly designated, would 
not be stopt by difficulties to which others would yield—would not 
be deterred, by any delicacy of moral feeling, from virtually pledg- 
ing himself to the truth of a declaration, every line of which he 
knew was traced with the characters of falsehood and injustice. 

In Burnett’s refutation of the lies and calumnies of that open 
and decided enemy to the protestant cause, the noted Roman Ca- 
tholic writer Sanders, there is one instance in reference to Fisher 
which, it must be fairly admitted, places the Bishop on the wrong, 
and Sanders on the right side in their respective statements. ‘The 
Bishop of Rochester,” says Sanders, ‘‘ was condemned because he 
would not acknowledge the king’s supremacy.” Burnett’s reply is, 
‘«¢ He was never pressed to acknowledge it.”* During Fisher’s con- 
finement in the Tower, which was altogether for fourteen months, 
and where his treatment was such as to make the poor remnant of 
his life as wretchedt as it could be, from the want of clothes and 
fire, he was visited several times by the lords of the council. In 
the interval between their first and second visit, there had been the 
session of parliament of the 26th of Henry VIII., in which was 
passed the celebrated statute that conferred upon Henry the title of 
the supreme head of the church, and which made words, contrary 
to all constitutional forms, treason. Upon their second visit we 
are expressly told the lords of the council went to know his opinion 
touching the statute of supreme head. So much for Burnett’s de- 
claration that he was never pressed to acknonledge it. Fisher, 
however, with all his straight-forwardness and conscientiousness of 
purpose, was so wary and unconfiding in his answer to their inter- 
rogatories, in the full conviction that they were put to entrap and 
criminate him, that the lords could draw no other reply than this— 
that “the statute did not compel any man to answer ; he, there- 
fore, besought that he should not be constrained to make farther or 
other answer than the statute did bind him to make.”{ He was 
again examined by the council for a third time. But though, on 
all these occasions, he still declined offering any opinion on the su- 
premacy, lest he might fall into the danger of the statutes, never- 


» “ History of the Reform., v. i., par. ii, p. 438. 
+ Burnett himself does acknowledge that “the old Bishop was hardly 
used.” — History of the Reform., v.i., p. 318. 
t+ See Bruce, p. 80—83; Lord Herbert, p. 392; and Roper’s Appendix, 
Letters xi. and xii. 
VOL. VI.-——-NO. XIX. I 


66 AN HISTORICAL VIEW OF THE CHARACTER, &c. 


theless the council, to gratify the eager, watchful vengeance of his 
royal persecutor, were even willing to travel beyond the sphere of 
action into thought, with which no human judgment has concern, 
of: which no human observation can take cognizance; as they 
sought to interpret his very avoidance of uttering any opinion 
whatever respecting the supremacy into a flat denial of it. 

In this exigency, to find matter of impeachment against their 
prisoner, Rich, the then Solicitor General, a man who had a genius 
for lying, and who has acquired an infamous celebrity in history, as 
the betrayer of More and Fisher, at last succeeded in inveigling him 
into a denial of the supremacy; for by this abandoned tool of the 
court, he is charged with having said, ‘‘ before divers persons, that 
the king is not supreme head of the church,” which accusation, in 
the cunning verbosity of the statute of 26 Henry VIIL., cap. 13, is 
thus put forth, “ that the prisoner falsely, maliciously, and traiter- 
ously wished, willed, devised, and by craft imagined, invented, prac- 
tised, and attempted to deprive the king of the dignity, title, and 
name of the supreme head of the church.” But though theory and 
practice were both alike against the act of parliament upon which 
this indictment was principally founded, inasmuch as it obliterated 
all distinctions between right and wrong in the understanding, 
which might. naturally enough be expected, when the parliament 
was willing to become the mere instrument* of sanctioning the 
most arbitrary measures of the king ; yet can the historian of the 
Reformation resort to the petty-fogging arguments and artifices of 
legal chicaneryt for the justification of proceedings that his, in 
other respects, sound and pure mind would have taught him to 
regard as specimens of a sanguinary era, and which memorials of 
frightful injustice even then might not have been furnished to the 
philosophical investigation of this age, if the judges who sentenced 
Fishert had not been the willing delegates of the vindictive and 


* “ There is not,” as Madame de Staél observes, “a better instrument of 
tyranny than an assembly when it is degraded.”—Considerations on the French 
Revolution, English translation, v. iii., p. 178. 

+ See History of the Reform., v. i., par. ii, p. 438. 

+ Some have mounted the scaffold with so fixed a determination to astonish 
their beholders by a display of their heroism, that they died, as it were, with a 
sort of scenic effect. But Fisher’s death was simply great, and therefore truly . 
christian. It is so well given by a protestant divine, that we shall not 
abridge his narration:—“ On the morning of his execution he dressed him- 
self with unusual care, saying that he was preparing to be a bridegroom. As 
he was conducted to the place of execution, being impeded by the pressure 
of the crowd, with his New Testament in his hand, he prayed to this effect : 


THE DOCTOR. 67 


iron despotism so discernible throughout the whole of Henry’s 
reign. * 


M. R. S.L. 


THE DOCTOR. 


Ir the permanence of our first impressions be sometimes an evil, 
thereby perpetuating the errors of infancy from the child to the 
father, from the father to the child, until sin and sorrow grow into 
an hereditary doom, yet how much of happiness do we owe to the 
lastingness of first impressions, belonging to a period of sinlessness 
and innocence when the tender affections were expanded like the 
opening petal to every beam of light and brightness—impressions 


that, as the sacred volume had been the companion and solace of his impri- 
sonment, he might open on some passage which might strengthen him in his 
last conflict. Having thus prayed, he opened the book—let not the Chris- 
tian say fortuitously—and his eyes rested on the following passage of Saint 
John :—‘ This is life eternal, to know thee, the only true God, and Jesus 
Christ whom thou hast sent.’ He again closed the book with joy, and the 
consolatory declaration was the subject of his meditations, until his mortal 
existence was:terminated by the hand of the executioner.”—Carwithen’s 
History of the Church of England, v. i., p. 1483—144. 

* In the subsequent reigns of the first James and the first Charles, this 
revolting spectacle of the judges bowing to the supremacy of the power of 
the crown, instead of presenting themselves as ramparts against the excesses 
of political tyranny, and so protecting the subject from the most odious of 
all wrongs, the most vexatious of all injustice, has been strongly pointed out 
by Clarendon. The very spirit of the English constitution seems to speak 
in him, when he says,—‘ The damage and mischief cannot be expressed that 
the crown and state sustained by the undeserved reproach and infamy that 
attended the judges by being made use of in acts of power. In the wisdom 
of former times, when the prerogative went highest, never any court of law, 
very seldom any judge or lawyer of reputation, was called upon to assist in 
any act of power. The crown well knowing the moment of keeping those 
the objects of reverence and veneration with the people, and that, though it 
might sometimes make sallies upon them by the prerogative, yet the law 
would keep the people from any invasion of it ; and that the king could never 
suffer whilst the law and the judges were looked upon by the subject as the 
asylum for their liberties and securit y.”— History of the Rebeltion, book i. 


68 THE DOCTOR. 


which fell unresisted by our weakness, bound together by memory, 
the nurse of all that is dear to the heart. 

From our first impressions springs the poetry of our natures, 
when in hardened manhood we look back upon the softened dream 
of infancy and its thousand prattles, of home, and all of home, of 
love, and light, and joy—every fluttering feeling, every fond associa- 
tion, full of mother’s love, possessing us with those delicious sensi- 
bilities which arise from the heart, like the dew-drops exhaling into 
fragrance. 

Mother !—O! there is such a fullness of love in that word, a 
thousand, thousand fond looks fall on one, a thousand kisses warm, 
a thousand fond expressions sound again. Father, sister, wife, are 
void of that utter giving up of self which speaks in mother. We 
think of her who through infancy preserved us, through boyhood 
delighted us, through life loved us—who watched every breath, 
and by her scarce articulate prayer and heaven-turned eye, beaming 
with its own goodness, taught us all of God—that he is love; ‘‘ first 
impressions” that in after years appear shining in the unclosed 
sanctuary of the heart. *Tis thus to be a boy again. The past 
forms the poetry of the future ; we foretell the events of unborn 
hours by the recognitions of olden times, we behold in the expan- 
sion of present delights, the golden fruition of young desires. Our 
fears, our hopes spring from those of childhood—our prejudices, our 
passions, had their germ in infancy. 


“The past is poetry! The deeds, the days, 
The feelings, thoughts, and phantasies of old 
Sown thickly o’er the memory, spring up 

As od’rous flowers to frame a wreath of song.” 


The terrors of darkness and the realm of ancient night, peopled 
with shades, arise from the incomprehensible fears of childhood na- 
turally connecting danger with dependence. For the same reason 
does the reverence which mankind insensibly render to authorities 
and powers owe its existence to the first impressions in the infant 
mind, when, like the savage, we behold authority in its display, 
and shrink less from the man than from the dazzling splendour 
which surrounds him. The king’s crown, the lawyer’s robe, the 
priest’s cassock, the doctor’s sables and gold-headed cane, seem con- 
substantiated with their being. 

Our first impressions seem to be sometimes hereditary, handed 
down from father to father as one of the incorporated elements of the 
body. When began the dread with which the name, the person, of 


THE DOCTOR. 69 


the Doctor is beheld? To the little child there is something fear- 
ful, ghost-like, in the sound of Doctor. It is not a mere antipathy 
to the jam powder; there is a hobgoblinish sound in the word Doc- 
tor which makes him ever after an object of alarm and dread. We 
do not mean to include in this title all those ycleped Doctors, from 
the pig-killer to the apothecary,— 


* Who in the catalogue go for Doctors, 

As hounds and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs, 
Shoughs, water-rugs, and demi-wolves, are ’cleped 
All by the name of dogs ;”— 


but those solemn students and grave masters—the lineal descendants 
of the ancient ‘ leech”—-who hold no intercommunion with the 
world at large but through the “ art and mystery” of their calling. 
Hark !—the Doctor! What terror there is in every look, what 
flying to and fro to escape the glance of the evil eye as he walks up 
the stairs ; one, two, three, four,—for a true-bred Doctor would 
sooner swallow his fee than mount two steps at once—five, six: the 
door opens, and the pale, emaciated, trembling brother, or shrinking 
sister, droops before the bald-headed Mephistophiles, whose very 
shake of the hand seems supernatural and belonging to another 
world. Then the poor patient, her eye restless, her cheek flushed, 
her breathings short, the very pulse quickened, as he softly intrudes 
his wan features between the falling white curtains of the bed—the 
*‘ How do you do? how do you do?” in tones pianissimo, sliding 
down into a mere breathing aspiration—then the solemn touch of 
his cold, white, long-fingered hand, the loud. tick, tick, tick, of his 
watch, with the dead, solemn moment of pulse feeling—the ah! as 
if talking to his own ghost. The Doctor is a fearful man ! 
Different from every other created being, every thing conspires to 
transform him into a nature neither of life nor death. The Doc- 
tor’s education works well; the constant features of death, the 
ceaseless wail of pain and anguish, the affliction of weeping friends 
—all this works well ; but, more than all, the first fears of infancy 
and childhood, and the superstitious dread which trafficking with 
death creates, work all to throw around the Doctor an aspect pecu- 
liar and impressive. But this dread is one of those “ impressions” 
which may be said with us to have had no first, but arose with the 
existence of human suffering, even long anterior to Machaon or Es- 
culapius ; medicine and magic came from the same womb, and thus 


70 THE DOCTOR. 


has her altar been ever since surrounded with darkness and mystery. 
Socrates himself dared not cheat Esculapius, however he laughed 
at Jupiter. The Asclepiadans grew rich when the priest of Apollo 
grew poor, and monarchs shrunk before the man who had rent the 
veil of death itself. The priests, alone, of our own land possessed 
the charm of the physician; then the cowled and gloomy monk 
held the poisoned chalice to the victim’s lip ; next the dim, myste- 
rious Doctor, who, with overwhelming brows, culling of simples in 
his dingy shop, hung round with alligators stuffed, and skins of 
hideous, ill-shaped fishes, the very dust of years gone by, coating 
the unbrushed webs of a hundred spiders. There, in his dark gown, 
night after night, communing with the magic of his art, prying 
into the vocabulary of heaven for the uncertain horoscope ; while 
the distilling vapours of simples, but of potent kind—vervain and 
vew—gathered, in the moon’s eclipse, with solemn incantation, 
wreathed in misty vapours round the walls ; the whitened crucibles, 
the ever-burning, bubbling furnace, the flickering lamp gently 
lighting up the magic sanctuary, or falling just askant the worn and 
pallid features of the Doctor, who next degenerated into the little 
man in black, with the wide, white peruke. 

But, like every other class, the Doctors have so multiplied that 
the original character is almost lost; the faith which of erst hung 
like a tassel to the gold-headed cane of the last century, has passed 
away as a tale that is told, and the learned little men in black and 
bob-wigs have too passed away to be numbered with slashed doub- 
lets and trunk-hose in the grave of the olden times. Multiplication 
breeds want—want breeds contempt of dignity ; and thus profes- 
sional gravity and importance has degenerated into tact, and what 
once rested in the mystery of faith—success—depends now on inge- 
nuity. 

The Doctor is now vulgarly omnivorous, and lives in the world 
like all the rest of the world: and he that a hundred years ago 
would as soon have thought of any other cloak than black, as that 
a pleader should forget his gown or a priest his cassock, now touches 
your pulse with a blue coat and brass buttons, said breeches, 
and top boots. O tempora! O mores! 

The Doctor is now a risible animal—he laughs, he jokes, he 
grows fat. “ Look on this picture and on that.” Who does not 
sigh for the little man whose very step was ghastly, whose face as 
he gazed down upon you with his dead, heavy-looking eyes, and 
pressing his cane like a divining rod against his chin, might have 


SKETCHES OF EUROPEAN ORNITHOLOGY. 71 


been fancied a pilgrim from the other world, with his black potion 
brought from Lethe itself to banish all pain in a profound repose ? 
But the Usher of the Black Rod is now another creature ; the aw- 
ful intercommunion between the two worlds forms no part of medi- 
cal study : the Doctor is veritably a common-place person, and what 
he once owed to faith is now exchanged for tact. 


W. 


SKETCHES OF EUROPEAN ORNITHOLOGY. 
Govu.p’s “‘ Brrps or Europe.” 
Parts FirtH anp Sixtu. 


Part V.—The fifth part opens with a very spirited and charac- 
teristic figure of the Bearded Lammer—Gupista barbata—Gupiste 
barbu, Fr.—Avoltojo barbuto, Jt.—Birtiger Geieradler, G. This 
species (in its immature plumage the Vultur niger of some authors) 
ranks alone in the genus Gupista, which is intermediate between 
Vultur and Aquila. It is nearly allied to the Alpine Abern—Neo- 
phron alpina—and, like that species, it is found in various parts of 
Europe, Asia, and Africa, but not in Britain. It inhabits the 
highest ranges of mountains, and appears to be abundant in the 
Himalayas. Makes no nest, but lays its two eggs, which are white 
with brown blotches, on the hard surface of lofty and inaccessible 
rocks. The plumage of the sexes is similar, and no material differ- 
ence of size is observable. The figure is one-third of the natural 
size, adult male. 

The River Dunlin,—Tringa pusilla, Lath.—Becasseau échasse, 
Fr.—Gambecchio oculetto, Jt:—Kleiner Strandlaufer, G. We are 
here given three representations, in adult summer plumage, adult 
winter plumage, and immature dress. They are the size of life, 
and well executed; that in winter plumage is the best. Inhabits 
Europe (including Britain), and specimens have been received from 
India. The borders of Jakes and’ rivers are its favorite resorts. 
Food: worms, insects, and small crustacea. Nidification little 
known ; the egg somewhat resembles that of the Common Sand- 


72 SKETCHES OF EUROPEAN ORNITHOLOGY. 


piper— Totanus hypoleucos—but is considerably smaller, of a red- 
dish white colour, spotted with dark brown. 

The Garrulous Roller—Coracias garrula, Linn.—Rollier vul- 
gaire, Fr.—Blaue Racke, G. An adult female, natural size, is 
figured ; a very fair representation. This beautiful bird is stated 
to be abundant in the oak forests of Germany, and likewise in those 
of Scandinavia. It is less common in France, and several individu- 
als have been shot in England, where it has mostly been met with 
on the north-eastern coast. Frequents extensive woods; builds in 
the holes of decayed trees, and lays from four to seven eggs ; these 
are smooth and shining, nearly round, closely resembling those of 
the Kingfisher, but considerably larger. Sexes differ little; but 
the young do not arrive at their full brilliancy till the second year. 
Food : worms, snails, insects, &c. Noisy and active in its habits. 

The next plate contains, ]st, the Whitethroated Fauvet, Ficedula 
cinerea, Blyth—Fauvette grise, Fr.—Fahle Sanger, G.—Capinera 
commune, Jt. The character of the figure is good, but Mr. Gould 
has not recorded any changes of plumage. In many specimens the 
white does not extend lower than the breast. Very common in 
most parts of Britain and Europe, and has a short but pleasant 
song, uttered on the wing. Mr. Gould informs us it has the power 
of imitating the notes of other birds, but this we have never observ- 
ed. Hedges and thick brakes are its favourite resort. It is a sum- 
mer visitant with us. Makes its nest in low bushes, and sometimes 
on the ground (we have seen one in a yew tree) ; it consists of the 
stalks of the Common Bedstraw—Galium aparine—and is of very 
slight construction. Eggs four or five, of a dirty white, blotched 
with ash-gray. The second figure is the Whitebreasted Fauvet, 
—Ficedula garrula, Blyth—Fauvette babillard, /r.—Klapper 
Sanger, G. It differs from the last in its smaller size, and in hav- 
ing the whole under parts of a silvery white. Mr. Gould’s figure is 
a very good one. This bird is less common in England than the 
Whitethroated Fauvet, and has not been traced further to the 
north than Yorkshire. Inhabits the warmer parts of Europe. It 
is shy in its habits, but is rather more of a tree-bird than the last 
species ; builds in low bushes, brambles, nettles, &c., and is often 
seen threading the interstices of hedges and brakes ; it is partial to 
orchards, and may be seen at the tops of lofty trees. Eggs four or 
five, nearly white, blotched at the larger end with gray. It is, also, 
a summer visitant, and has a pleasant song, which we never heard 
it utter on the wing. Sexes resemble each other. Both these 
figures are of the natural size, and in their spring plumage. 


So Se eee 


SKETCHES OF EUROPEAN ORNITHOLOGY. 73 


A lovely representation of the Wood Pigeon,—Columba arborea, 
N. Wood—Colombe des bois, Fr.—Holtz Taube, G. Inhabits the 
middle countries of Europe, being less abundant in the other re- 
gions. Occurs in the midland counties of England, in large woods. 
We are informed by J. D. Salmon, Esq., that it is very common in 
the sandy district of Norfolk, where it breeds in deserted rabbit 
burrows, and the young are caught before they are able to fly. In 
general, however, it builds its nest in the holes of cld trees, making 
little or no nest, and laying two white eggs. Food: Peas and other 
seeds of plants belonging to the Bean family ( Fabacew_), and also 
Turnip tops, Corn, &c. ‘The sexesare similar, but the young, as in 
other Pigeons, do not possess the metallic lustre of the adults. The 
figure is of the natural size. ‘This is erroneously called the “ Stock 
Dove” by some authors. 

Male and female Kestril Falcon—Falco tinnunculus, Linn.— 
Faucon cresserelle, #r.—Falco acertello, Ji—Turm Falke, G.— 
The figures are not wanting in character, but the plumage is too 
lax, and the air of the birds is not sufficiently bold and falconine. 
Inhabits the whole of Eurupe in greater abundance than any other 
of the genus, and also parts of Asia and Africa contiguous to the 
shore. Hovers over fields and waste lands in quest of small mam- 
malia, birds, frogs, insects, &c., which it seizes in the usual manner 
of the Falconide. The male acquires its beautiful adult plumage 
at the age of three years, the female at the first moult. Young 
males resemble the females; and “this,” says our author, “is the 
cause that so large a proportion of the birds bear the plumage just 
referred to, since but comparatively few survive the second year of 
their existence.” The female differs from the male in the browner 
colour of the upper parts, and in having the upper parts and tail 
barred with brown. The figures are three-fourths of the natural 
size. 

The Ivy Wren—Anorthura troglodytes, Morris—Anorthure ordi- 
naire, F'r.—Gemeine Zaunling, G. Mr. Gould’s plate, represent- 
ing an adult bird of the natural size, is infinitely inferior to the 
really spirited and characteristic figure given by Lewin, who has 
occasionally, though but seldom, hit off his birds most admirably. 
It is diffused abundantly over the whole of Europe, and occurs also 
in Asia and Africa, and the countries bordering on the arctic circle. 
Abounds in the thickets of the cultivated parts of England, de- 
lighting especially in heaps of dead brushwood lying on the ground, 
and fluttering off, with a harsh twitter, on the approach of man. 
The song is short and loud, and is heard almost throughout the 

VOL, VI., NO. XIX. K 


74 SKETCHES OF EUROPEAN ORNITHOLOGY. 


year. . Indigenous in England, but sometimes falls a prey to the 
severity of our winters, Builds in almost any situation; the nest 
is domed, consisting chiefly of moss outside, lined with hair or fea- 
thers, and slender twigs wound round the entrance. We have seen 
the nest consisting entirely of leaves, and others almost wholly of 
hay. Lays from six to eight eggs, pure white, marked with small 
red spots. The sexes are not to be distinguished, and the young 
only differ in size from the adults. 

A male and female, two thirds of the natural size, of the White- 
eyed Pochard—Fuligula leucophthalmos, Steph.—Milouin 4-iris- 
blanc, F'r.—Tafel Pochard, G.—Milouina penelope, Jé. Beautiful 
representations, but the female is not sufficiently feathery. Com- 
mon in France, Holland, Germany, India, and North Africa; rare 
in England. It is an expert diver, and strong and rapid on the 
wing. Feeds on acquatic insects, water plants, mollusca, &c. 
Builds amongst reeds, on the banks of rivers and morasses. Eggs 
eight or ten, of a greenish-white colour. The female differs from 
the male chiefly in the under parts being brown instead of white. 
The young “ have the top of the head blackish-brown, all the fea- 
thers of the upper parts edged with reddish-brown, and the white 
of the under part clouded with a lighter tinge of the same colour.” 

Male and female, size of life, of the Alpine Redwing— Tichodro- 
ma Alpina, Temm.—Tichodrome échelette, Fr.—Picchio muraiolo, 
It—Mauer Baumlaufer, G. These beautiful birds are well figured, 
and the colouring is exquisite. Inhabits the middle and southern 
portions of the continent, frequenting bleak rocks and mountains, 
and is found on the Alps, the Apennines, and Pyrenees. Its 
most favourite resorts are the ruins of castles and fortresses, 
where it may be seen hopping from stone to stone. Hence the 
name ‘‘ Wall Creeper,’ which has sometimes been applied to it. 
This species moults twice in the year, and there is no very material 
difference between the sexes. The wing-coverts and part of the 
quills are of a bright crimson. It dves not occur in Britain. 

An adult and a young bird of the Red-throated Diver—Colymbus 
septentrionalis, Linn,—Plongeon a-gorge-rouge, F’r.—Rothkehliger 
Taucher, G. Nothing can be more beautiful than the plate before 
us. Both male and female, figured two-thirds of the natural size, 
are truly gems of ornithological painting. This is the smallest of 
the genus, but the most abundant, being common on the European 
coasts, and especially in the arctic regions of Europe and America. 
In winter it is plentiful on the coasts of Holland and England, and 
betakes itself to lakes and rivers when the seas are frozen. Feeds 


SKETCHES OF EUROPEAN ORNITHOLOGY. 79 


on small fish, Crabs, &c., and, when it repairs to fresh waters, Frogs, 


Newts, and aquatic plants. Flight rapid and often long sustained. 
Breeds in Scotland, the Orkneys and Hebrides, and the northern 
shores of Europe, building a slight nest of grass, rushes, &c., on the 
borders of large lakes and morasses. Its two eggs are dark brown, 
blotched with black. The young do not attain the mature plu- 
mage till after the first autumn. The young bird was described by 
the older authors as the Speckled Diver, C. stellatus, &c., the white 
throat of the latter, and the speckled plumage of the back, having, 
apparently, caused the mistake. 

Common Hawk—Accipiter fringillarius, Ray—E’pervier com- 
mun, Fr,—Sparviere da Fringuelli, Jt.—Gemeiner Sperber, G.— 
Male and female, nearly the size of life; both, but especially the 
male, are too highly coloured, and, like most of Mr. Gould’s rapa- 
cious birds, wanting in boldness and vigour of aspect. Distributed 
over the whole of Europe, in many parts of which, as England, it 
abounds and superabounds ; occurs also in Asia and Africa. Of a 
bold and intrepid character, feeding chiefly on the smaller insessorial 
birds, but also on Partridges, Pigeons, and young poultry, which it 
sometimes destroys in great numbers. We have known more than 
one instance of its darting after its prey into the windows of houses. 
It seldom misses its aim, but when this does happen, it repeats the 
stroke until its end is accomplished. The male is easily distin. 
guished by its rufous throat and richer hues of the back. Con- 
structs its nest at the tops of trees ; eggs four, dull blueish-white, 
marked with angular red blotches. The Common Hawk delights. 
in well-wooded and mountainous districts, where it daily destroys 
great numbers of small birds, mammalia, and reptiles. 

An adult, in mature plumage and two-thirds of the natural size, 
of the Garzet Heron—Ardea garzetta, Linn.—Héron garzette, Fr. 
—Sgarza garzetta, /t-—Straues Rieher, G. Mr. Gould’s figure is 
a very good likeness. The Egret Heron inhabits the southern 
countries of Europe, Sicily, Sardinia, Turkey in Europe, and the 
islands of the Grecian Archipelago, being its chief habitat. A 
small number migrate annually to France, and sometimes to Ger- 
many ; it is generally considered a British species, but only two or 
three individuals have been met with in this country during the 
last fifty or sixty years. Its food consists of reptiles, insects, fish, 
and mollusca, peculiar to its favourite morasses. The young bird, 
destitute of the graceful tuft which adorns the head of the adult, 
has been named the “ Little White Heron,” which, however, is not 
the bird of that name described: by Montagu. In Egypt it is called 


76 SKETCHES OF EUROPEAN ORNITHOLOGY. 


e“ Ox keeper,” from its associating with the cattle, and feeding on 
the larve with which the backs of these animals are infested. 
Nidificates amongst the herbage in morasses, and lays five white 
eggs. The colour of this handsome bird is pure white. We beg 
to suggest the propriety of removing this bird from the genus Ar- 
dea. It might-stand as the Garzetia pusilla. 

Haw Grosbeak—Coccothraustes crategus, Blyth—Grosbec ordi- 
naire, f'r.—Frosone commune, J¢t.—Kirsch Kernbeisser, G. The 
male and female are represented the size of life. Both of them are 
too thick and heavy, but the head and bill of the female, in a diffi- 
cult attitude, is lovely, and the colouring is good. Occurs almost 
throughout Europe, and has lately been discovered to breed in the 
south of England. It is now proved to be indigenous, and we 
agree with our author in thinking that its numbers must have in- 
creased considerably of late years in England. Mr. Blyth informs 
us he has a live female in his possession, and that he has seen seve- 
ral others in his neighbourhood. Feeds on slugs, berries, seeds, 
and the kernels of stone fruits, which it cracks with ease. It 
breeds in May and June, in Fir and other trees of various altitudes. 
The nest is shallow and loose, consisting of sticks interspersed with 
white lichens, and is lined with roots. It is stated to be even less 
compact than that of the Hedge Alp, Pyrrhula vulgaris. Eggs 
from four to six, pale greenish-white, spotted and streaked with 
grey and brown. ‘The throat, cheeks, and head of the young are of 
a dull yellowish colour, under parts white, the flanks marked with 
brown streaks, and the upper parts spotted with dirty yellow... The 
female is of a more dingy hue than the male. 

Two adult figures of the Marsh Hoopoe—Upupa epops, Linn.— 
Huppe commune, F’r.—Upupa rubbola, J¢—Gebanderter Wiede- 
hopf, G. The female. represented in the act of coming out of the 
hole of a tree, is admirable, but both figures would give an idea of 
much larger birds than is actually the case. Extends over the 
whole of Europe and Africa, and specimens have been received 
from India and China. Rare and irregular visitor to Britain, 
where, however, it has been known to breed occasionally. Builds 
in holes of trees, crevices in rocks, fissures in walls, holes in the 
ground, or dunghills. Eggs five, light grey, clouded with dark 
grey. Sexes and young similar. Feeds on insects, grubs, &c. 

Tawny Hooter—Aluco stridula—Chouette hulotte, #r.—Alucco 
maggiore, Jt—Brand Kaute, G. An excellent figure, natural 
size. Inhabits the more extensive forests of the continent, but is 
rare in Holland; extremely common in England. Builds in the 


—— at sis ese Ja 


SKETCHES OF EUROPEAN ORNITHOLOGY. 77 


holes of trees, preferring those which are ivy-clad ; sometimes takes 
possession of the deserted nest of a Crow, or other large bird, in 
which it lays its eggs, which are rather large, elliptical, and pure 
white. Feeds on Mice, Shrews, Moles, &c. Syrnium is apt to be 
confounded with Surnia, and, therefore, Aluco is preferable. 

Common Pintail—Dajila epilobium—Dafile ordinaire, /'r.—Lon- 
guacoda commune, J¢.—Gemeiner Spiessen, G. In our opinion, 
these figures, representing a male and female, natural size, are de- 
cidedly the best in the Part ; the feathering is beautifully delicate. 
Inhabits Europe, North Africa, Asia, and the temperate districts of 
North America. Is a periodical visitant with us, and great num- 
bers are annually caught in the various decoys, and sent to the 
London markets. Nidificates in extensive beds of reeds, concealing 
its nest in the thick herbage beside the water. Eggs eight, and 
greenish-blue. The sexes offer much the same difference of plu- 
mage as the Teal. Feeds on aquatic plants, insects, mollusca, &c., 
and is said to be delicate eating. It does not stay to breed in Bri- 
tain. 

Snowy Longspur—Plectrophanes nivalis, Mey.—Plectrophane 
de-neige, Fr.—Plectrofano nivolo, Jt.—Schnee Plectrophe, G.— 
Intended to be the size of life, but both the figures are far too thick 
and heavy. The young and immature birds were described, by the 
older writers, as the Tawny Bunting and Mountain Bunting ; but 
the observations of Selby and others have long since satisfactorily 
dispersed the mist in which this species was once enveloped. Inha- 
bits Europe and America. Winter visitant with us, resorting to 
barren upland tracts. Arrives in October, and departs before the 
end of winter. Builds in the niches of rocks, or among large stones 
on the sea-shore ; the nest consists of dried grass, lined with hair 
or feathers. Eggs six or seven, pale flesh-colour, with small dots, 
and at the larger end blotches of reddish-brown. Food: the seeds 
of alpine plants, insects, and their larve. 

Kentish Plo er—Charadrius cantianus, Lath.—Pluvier de ri- 
vage, Fr.—Weisstirniger Regenpfeifer, G. Pretty figures, but 
they have too starved an appearance. The best plate we have seen 
of this species is in Mudie’s Feathered Tribes. Common on the 
southern coasts of England, and likewise on those of France and 
Holland. Subsists on marine insects and Worms, which it finds 
amongst the loose stones. Lays its five yellow eggs, marked with 
irregular blotches of dark brown, on the naked sand, or among the 
shingles on the beach. The female-is known by the absence of the 
black band on the forehead. 


78 SKETCHES OF EUROPEAN ORNITHOLOGY. 


An adult individual, natural size, of the Siberian Jay—Garru- 
lus infaustus, Temm.—Geai imitateur, Fr. This plate could 
scarcely be surpassed; it is perfectly alive, and is drawn and co- 
loured in the best style. Inhabits the north of Europe, its soft and 
compact plumage being well fitted to enable it to brave the rigours 
of the severest winters. It is found in woods, and feeds on various 
wild berries, insects, larve, Worms, &c. Builds, in Fir trees, a nest 
consisting of sticks and grass, and lays five eggs. Both sexes are 
alike. This bird should not remain in the genus Garrulus. 

Adults, in the summer and winter garb, of the Redshank Sand- 
piper—Totanus calidris, Bechst.—Chevalier gambette, F'r.—Tota- 
na gambetta, Jt.—Rothfussiger Wasserlaiifer, G. We much prefer 
the right hand figure to the other. Inhabits Europe, and is indige- 
nous in Britain, frequenting the sea-coast or the borders of rivers 
and marshy tracts, where it constructs a frail nest in a tuft of herb- 
age, and lays four eggs, greenish-yellow, spotted with brown, most 
thickly at the large end. The sexes are similar as regards plumage, 
but the female is somewhat larger than the male. 

Parr VI.—Merlin Falcon—Falco wsalon, Temm.—Faucon 
émérillon, Fr.—Falco smeriglio, Jt—Stein Falke, G. An adult 
male and a young male, the latter agreeing in plumage with the 
adult female, are figured. Both these representations have the 
same faults which we have mentioned when speaking of Mr. Gould’s 
other Falconidx, but in this, as in every other case, the species in- 
tended would be recognized by the ornithologist at a single glance. 
This little Falcon is found throughout Europe, but is rare in Hol- 
land. In the south of England it is a winter visiter, but is resident 
in other parts. The male, in the mature plumage, which is at- 
tained at the third year, has been termed “Stone Falcon.” Feeds 
on various small birds. Builds on the ground, or, according to some, 
in the holes of rocks and trees. Eggs, three to five, pale blue, 
spotted with brown, most thickly at the large end. 

Blue Rockiet—Petrocincla cyanea, Vig.—Rochet bleu, Fr.— 
Passera solitaria, Jt—Blaue Rodel, G. Male and female, natural 
size, in extremely stiff and unnatural attitudes, though the feather- 
ing is good. Common in the south of Europe, inhabiting rocky 
and mountainous districts. Habits shy and solitary. Builds in 
clefts of rocks, holes of walls, trees, &c. Eggs dull greenish-white. 
Subsists on Grasshoppers, berries, and the like. The female is much 
duller in colour than the male. 

Great Reedling—Salicaria turdoides, Selby—Verderolle rousse- 
rolle, Fr.—Grosse Karakiet, G. A stiff and uncouth figure, repre- 


SKETCHES OF EUROPEAN ORNITHOLOGY. 79 


senting an adult, natural size. Common in the low swampy por- 
tions of France and Holland. Sings sweetly. Feeds on Gnats, 
Libellulide, and other aquatic insects. Nestles amongst reeds. 
Eggs five, obtuse, pale green, spotted with black and grey. This 
species must obviously be removed from the genus Salicaria, and 
we could have wished that Mr. Gould had employed a less objection- 
able specific name than turdordes. 

An adult, half the natural size, of the Black Stork—Ciconia- ni- 
gra, Bellon.—Cicogne noire, Fr.—Cicogna nera, [t.—Schwarzer 
Storch, G. A very faithful and characteristic representation. In- 
habits the wooded and marshy districts of North Europe. Has 
been met with two or three times in England, and has occurred 
along the Caspian Sea. Feeds on small fishes, Frogs, Worms, and 
insects... Builds on trees, especially Firs. 

Stone Chat—Sawicola rubicola, Bechst.—Traquet patre, Fr.— 
Saltinselce moro, Jt.—Schwartzkehliger Steinschmatzer, G. Male 
and female, adult plumage and natural size ; the male is the best, 
but the form of neither is good, and the tints are too bright. These 
little birds should have a more lively and active appearance. Found 
in Europe, India, and Africa ; common in England ; resident in 
Africa, but migratory in Europe ; in England, however, it is indi- 

genous. Habits well known. 

Golden Eagle—Aquila aurea, Will.—Aigle royale, Fr.—Aquila 
leonata, Jt.—Gold Adler, G. We are far from admiring Mr. 
Gould’s figures (of a young and adult, one-third of the natural 
size) of this noble bird; they have all the appearance of having 
been long cooped up in a cage. Common in the hilly districts of 
‘Russia and Scandinavia; less so in France, Italy, and Germany. 
Is found in Scotland, where, however, it isa rare bird. It is resi- 
dent in this country. Builds in lofty rocks or trees. Eggs two or 
three, dull white, stained and spotted with dull red. Preys on 
Fawns, Lambs, Hares, and large birds. The immature bird has 
been described as the Ringtailed Eagle. 

Ortolan Bunting—Emberiza hortulana, Linn.—Bruant ortolan, 
Fr.—Zivolo hortulana, Jt.—Garten Ammer, G. These are the 
worst of our author’s figures which it has been our lot to criticise ; 
the male and female, size of nature, are given, but neither of them 
can be said to be either handsome or characteristic. Inhabits Eu- 
rope and North Africa. A few individuals have been shot in Eng. 
land. We think, with Mr. Gould, that it may occur more fre- 
quently, but has been mistaken for the Yellow Bunting. The nest 
is placed in hedges or low bushes, or on the ground, and consists of 


80 SKETCHES OF EUROPEAN ORNITHOLOGY. 


fibres and leaves. The eggs are five, reddish-grey, marked with 
brown streaks. The female lacks the yellow and the reddish-brown 
tints which adorn the male. 

Red-crested Pochard—Fuligula rufina, Steph.—Milouin siffleur, 
Fr.—Milouina col-ciuffo, Jt—Kolben Pochard, G. Elaborately- 
finished and beautiful figures of the male and female, three-fourths 
of the natural size. Common over nearly the whole of Europe, 
but,- unfortunately, very rare in this country. Feeds on small 
shell-fish, mollusca, the fry of fishes, vegetables, &c. The male is 
at once distinguished by the beautiful tuft of silky feathers which 
adorns the head and upper part of the neck. 

Tawny Toadeater—Bubo maximus, Sibb.—Granduc brun, Fr.— 
Gufo reale, It—Grosser Kuhu, G. <A very fair representation of 
the adult, three-fourths of the natural size. Europe, especially 
Scandinavia, and the parallel latitudes of Russia, form its habitat. 
Rare in England. Preys on young Deer, Hares, Grous, &c. 
Builds in the clefts of rocks or the holes of old trees. Lays three 
eggs, of a rounded shape and white colour. The female is known 
from the male by its superior size and brighter colour. 

Adult male and female, natural size, of the Hobby Falcon—Fau- 
con hobereau, /’r.—F alco barletta, 7t—Baum Falke, G. Charac- 
teristic figures, but rather tame. Is spread over the whole of Eu- 
rope, where it is migratory, passing to the south on the approach of 
the inclement seasons. It is a summer visitant in England. Feeds 
chiefly on insects, but also on small birds. Builds in trees or even 
bushes, and sometimes appropriates the nest of a Crow. Lays three 
dull white eggs, mottled with reddish-brown. 

Pine Crossbill—Crucirostra pinetorum, Mey.—Bec-croisé des sa- 
pins, Fr.—Kiefern Kreuzschnabel, G.—Tannen Papegai, It.— 
Two figures, natural size ; they are much too thick and large, and 
not otherwise characteristic. Is migratory in Poland, Russia, and 
Germany ; very rare in France, Holland, and Britain. Feeds on 
the seeds of the Fir, for the extraction of which its bill is admirably — 
adapted. This beautiful species, which has been called “ Parrot 
Crossbill,” is the type of the limited genus Cructrostra. 

Ring Plover—Charadrius hiaticula, Linn.—Pluvier a-collier, Fr, 
—Piviere col-coliere, Jt.—Halsband Regenpfeifer, G. Too fat and 
dumpy, but otherwise good. Inhabits the temperate portions of 
Europe and North America, frequenting sea-shores and rivers. 
Breeds on the shore, amongst gravel and broken shells, and lays 
rather large eggs, yellowish-white, streaked and spotted irregularly 
with black, especially at the large end. Feeds on Worms and 
insects. 


SKETCHES OF EUROPEAN ORNITHOLOGY. 8] 


White Stork—Ciconia alba, Bellon.—Cicogne blanche, F'r.—Ci- 
cogna bianca, Jt.—Weisser Storch, G. A very good figure, repre- 
senting an adult, half the natural size. Spends its winter in Egypt 
and North Africa, visits Europe in spring, but seldom ventures so 
far as the British isles. Common in the swamps of Holland, Ger- 
many, Prussia, France, and Italy. Breeds on the tops of houses, 
steeples, chimneys, trees, &c., the nest consisting of a “ cumbrous 
mass of sticks and coarse materials.” Lays three pale yellow eggs. 
Feeds on aquatic insects and reptiles. 

Pigmy Dunlin—Tringa subarquata, Temm.—Bécasseau cocorli, 
Fr.—Rothbauchiger Brachel, G. Pretty figures, of the natural 
size, but that on the left hand is somewhat stiff. Frequents the 
shores of Europe, Africa, and North America. Rare in England. 
Feeds on insects, Worms, crustacea, and mollusca. Builds near the 
edge of the water, and Jays four yellowish-white eggs, spotted with 
brown. — 

Blackeared Chat—Sazicola aurita, Temm.—Traquet oreillard, 
Fr. The plate before us represents the male in the spring and 
winter plumage; more life might, we think, have been instilled 
into the figures, and they might have been placed in more natural 
and pleasing attitudes. Inhabits the hilly portions of southern Eu- 
rope ; in the north of Italy it is stated to be of more common oc- 
currence than the Russet Chat. Of its nidification nothing certain 
is known. 

Sandwich Tern—Sterna cantiaca, Gmel.—Terne caugek, F’'r.— 
Sterna di-becca-nera, J[i.—Sandwische Terne, G. An adult and a 
young bird of the first year, natural size. The figure of the former 
is admirably executed, but we should pronounce the legs of the 
youngster to be rather stiffly set on. Is found on most of the coasts 
of the old world, and is common in some parts of Britain. It is one 
of our largest Terns, and is seldom seen in fresh water. Lays its 
two or three whitish eggs, marbled with brownish-black, on the 
bare rock or on the shingly shore. ‘The young birds want the jet 
black head which characterizes the adults of both sexes. 

Tree Redstart-—Phenicura albifrons, Blyth—Rouge-queue de- 
murailles, Fr.—Volgarama muraiola, Jt—Baum Rothschwanzen, 
G. It is aremark we have long made that this species is never 
well delineated, and the plate of Mr. Gould, representing a male 
and female, natural size, is certainly no exception to the rule, how- 
ever much we may be disposed to admire the style of the engraving 
and colouring. ‘The male is really a disgrace to a work like the 
Birds of Europe. But people are generally inclined to think fa- 

VOL. VI., NO. XIX. L 


82 SKETCHES OF EUROPEAN ORNITHOLOGY. 


vourably of their own performances, and we dare say our author 
considered his Redstarts well worthy of a place in his work when 
he had drawn them. All the Redstarts are confined to the old 
world, and the habits of the present species are well known to our 
ornithological readers. 

Redlegged Chough—Fregilus rujfipes, Auct.—Coracias sonneur, 
Fr.—Coracia di montagna, Jt—Stein Corak, G. A very fair fi- 
gure of the adult male, rather less than the natural size, but some- 
what tame. The Swiss Alps, the Himalaya, and the rocky portions 
of the lofty mountains of Europe, are its favourite localities. In 
England it occurs in Cornwall, Devonshire, Glamorganshire, the Isle 
of Anglesea, and the Isle of Man. The late ))r. Latham informs us 
that a pair were shot, a few months ago, near Andover, in Hamp- 
shire. Breeds in the crevices of the cliffs, the nest consisting of 
sticks, lined with wool and hair. Eggs, three or four, greenish- 
white, spotted with green and grey. Feeds on insects, grain, and 
berries, and is easily tamed. 

Collared Turnstone—Sirepsilas collaris, Temm.—Tournepierre 
a-collier, Fr. An adult male and a young bird are figured. They 
are well drawn, but they might have been engraved in a better 
style. Inhabits Norway, the shores of the Baltic, Africa, America, 
Melville Island, and parts of Britain. Feeds on insects, mollusca, 
and crustacea, which it finds amongst the stones on the sea-shore. 
The plumage of the female is less brilliant than that of the male. 

Here endeth our analysis of the sixth part of the Birds of Eu- 
rope, on the completion of which we beg to offer a few general ob- 
servations on the character of the work. To commence hens like a 
true critic, with the faults. The figures appear to us to be in ge- 
neral too tame, the forms in many cases too thick and dumpy, and 
the execution in too soft, smooth, and subdued a style. This is es- 
pecially observable as regards the Falconide, the Haw Grosbeak, 
and others ; and the attitudes are too often far from natural. We 
marvel, too, that the author has not introduced the nests and eggs 
into the plates, which might easily have been done in the majority 
of instances. But if our perhaps too severe judgment has succeed- 
ed in scraping together a few faults, how infinitely heavier will the 
excellencies prove in the balance. When we consider that we had 
before no work containing good representations of European birds, 
and when we remember that Mr. Gould’s delineations equal, if not 
surpass, anything of the kind that has hitherto been produced, the 
philosophic ornithologist ought to be truly grateful to our author 
for the admirable history of them here laid open to him. It is of a 


SOME REMARKS ON THE PHILOSOPHY, &c. 83 


convenient size, and will, of course, ever rank amongst the most 
splendid contributions to ornithological science. We are given. to 
understand that only a few copies of the Birds of Europe remain 
unsubscribed for. We shall return to this subject in our next num- 
ber, and hope to be able to present our readers with a critical ana- 
lysis of two parts in each succeeding publication. 


SOME REMARKS ON THE PHILOSOPHY AND 
OBSERVANCES OF SHAKSPEARE. 


V.—MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. 


Mrs. JamiIxEson, in her inimitable character of Beatrice, has so 
completely depicted the character of Benedict that one must possess 
almost a supernatural sight to discover any new feature. Beatrice 
and Benedict are so essentially similar that to think of one is to 
think of both. Twin stars of the zodiac, who owe their brilliance 
to their approximation—an “ ingeniorum cos,’’ as Burton expresses 
it, to each other. The only difference between them is owing, per- 
haps, more to the reader’s prejudices than to any dissimilarity in the 
characters of Signior Montanto and Ladie Disdain. 

Though Beatrice be the prima donna of wit and gaiety, and, as 
Mrs. Jamieson remarks, incomparable with the fine lady of modern 
comedy, yet that such a character belongs naturally to all women 
cannot be denied; the smart repartee, the sparkling satire, is 
peculiar to the sex; it arises out of the delicacy of their organiza- 
tion—a defensive weapon with which nature has endowed them. 
That few ladies are Beatrices is, perhaps, more the fault of selfish 
man than any incapacity in themselves. Holding the power by 
the most despotic of all titles, that of hereditary, he subdues the 
intellect of woman into a form and quality agreeable to his own 
inclinations. Thus, because man is too dull to encounter the nim- 
ble and sparkling wit of woman, he disables her by a mental restric- 
tion of the worst kind, and under the plea of modesty, becomingness, 
propriety, and all those terms included in the word amiability, 
she is taught, from childhood, to restrain every light-hearted 
word, lest she be betrayed into rudeness—every ingenuous repar- 
tee, lest it degenerate into pertness. Like the beautiful statue of 
Memnon, that seems no longer re-animated by the presence of its 
deity, every brilliant thought is concealed, every kindling emotion 
is suppressed, and wit, the most enlivening, reserved merely as a 
penalty for impertinence. 


84 SOME REMARKS ON THE PHILOSOPHY, &c. 


Even with Beatrice and Benedict, however favourably Mrs, Ja- 
mieson excuses Benedict, he is no match for dear Ladie Disdain :— 
with him wit is, in great part, an acquirement, and no little does he 
owe to the celerity of his circulation. Benedict is constitutionally 
smart, with fine humour, and just enough waywardness to be agree- 
able. Beatrice is sexually witty ; her fancies cluster in her mind 
brilliant as dew-drops in the sun—a grotto radiant with the light 
of its own thousand gems. Benedict was, happily, born with a 
wide capacity for enjoyment, a heart the bravest and the most 
sensitive ; one who can cry and curse at the same moment—the 
slave of affections that he would conceal by ridiculing. Were 
Benedict and Beatrice insensible to love they would satirize it less ; 
they are both ashamed of their own propensities. Extravagance 
springs not from indifference ; they are too excessive in their aver- 
sions to be careless of the object. 

Benedict and Mercutio are similar in many points—lively, hu- 
mourous, and satirical; but Benedict is not so refined. There is a 
sullenness in Benedict, in Mercutio there is a perennial cheerful- 
ness. It is not too much to say that the most miraculous genius of 
Shakspeare is an image of the All-creative Deity. No other em- 
bodied mind could ever approach him in the universality and indi- 
viduality of his genius. Like the infinite shades of the human 
countenance, which, however similar, are never the same, Shak- 
speare has distinguished every character by a peculiarity differing 
from every other; so that, however resemblant, they are never 
identical. Benedict is inferior to Beatrice: had she been coupled 
with Mercutio, she would have been silenced by the innate con- 
sciousness of his intellectual superiority. Mercutio could never 
have loved Beatrice—she must have loved him. Benedict turns 
misogynist from love; and after all, though they may be “ too 
wise to woo peaceably,” yet that Benedict will not escape the 
* predestinated scratched face” I do not think. I rather believe 
that a Beatrice, as a wife, however “ pleasant-spirited,” would 
soon feel less witty and more fond, and that a Benedict would be- 
come, if not uxorious, yet a tender, quiet-spoken husband— 


“ Supremely blest if to their portion fall 
Health, competence, and peace.” 


W. 


[Weare reluctantly compelled to limit the “‘ Remarks on the Philosophy 
and Observances of Shakspeare” to the above brief sketch of Signior Mon- 
tanto. In our next number we shall, however, have the pleasure of present- 
ing our readers with a continuation of the series.—Eps. | 


85 


AN ACCOUNT OF TWO NEW CRUSTACEA FROM THE 
TRANSITION AND CARBONIFEROUS STRATA. 


Among all the relies of former worlds, there is, perhaps, none that 
has more exercised the ingenuity of both naturalists and geologists, 
in the determination of its original and perfect form, than the re- 
mains of a crustaceous animal belonging to the transition strata 
known by the various names of Entomolithus paradoxus, Trilobite, 
and Dudley Locust. 'The earliest appearance of this fossil is in 
the Llandilo Flagstone, from which it extends upwards, through 
most of the intervening strata, into the Fullers’ Earth, accord- 
ing to Mr. Parkinson, which is a formation above the Lias, and 
beyond which it becomes perfectly extinct. It seems to have 
been almost the sole representative of the extensive class of crus- 
taceous animals through all this numerous series of rocks, whose 
deposition (to judge from the thickness of some of the layers, 
which are above five hundred feet) must have occupied immense 
periods of time. Trilobites belong to the class of Entomostraceous 
crustacea of Cuvier, and to the order of Pacilopoda, so termed from 
the varied form of their locomotive apparatus, some of which serve 
for feet or swimming organs, and the others, being furnished with 
fringed appendages, perform the office of gills. The other Ento- 
mostracea, with which the T'rilobites are associated in certain of the 
strata, belong to the genera of Cypris, Eurypterus, and Limulus, 
which last possesses considerable analogy to certain genera of Trilo- 
bites. To omit the hypotheses of other distinguished naturalists 
and geologists, as Cuvier, Audouin, Goldfuss, and A. Brongniart, 
&e., Dr. Buckland ( Bridgewater Treatises, No. 6) has endeavour- 
ed, with great success, to elucidate the structure of the T'rilobiles 
by a reference to their affinities in the genera Serolis, Limulus, 
and Branchipus ; and as one of the fossils I am about to describe 
is analogous, in some respects, to these animals as well as to the 
Trilobites, it will be necessary to give some account of them before 
instituting a comparison between them and the specimen. For if 
we assume the recent genus Serolis as the type of this class of 
animals, we appear to pass gradually from its more perfect struc- 
ture to the rudimentary form, (at least, apparently such,) of the T'ri- 
lobite, through the intermediate genera of Limulus and Branchipus. 

The Serolis (ibid., pl. 45, fig. 6), in size and general appear- 
ance, resembles a small Crab. It is furnished with antenne or horns, 
and with two claws. Its eyes are placed upon its back, and, like 
those of most of the animals I am describing, resemble the com- 


86 AN ACCOUNT OF TWO NEW CRUSTACEA 


pound eyes of insects. Its body is composed of several plates fold- 
ing over each other, which, like the joints of the Lobster’s tail, 
admit of considerable motion. They are prolonged laterally, so as 
to form a serrated edge to the body on each side. Its legs corres. 
pond to the number of the plates, at least of the projecting ones ; 
and beneath the tail are a number of fringed appendages, which 
perform the office of gills. The Serolis is found on both shores of 
the Atlantic. 

The next genus, Limulus, or King-crab (ibid., pl. 45, fig. 1), 
usually wants the antenne, dorsal plates, and ribs of the Serolis ; 
Its body is formed of a shield, consisting of two plates jointed trans- 
versely—the anterior semi-circular, the posterior triangular and ter- 
minated by a pointed tail, and its edges serrated and set with six 
spines on each side. It has four eyes—two compound close to the 
division of the shield, and two simple eyes, lying more in front, 
close to the median line. Its antennz are very small; but it has 
twelve legs, and ten paddle gills. Its habitation is confined to the 
warm seas of India and America. 

The third genus, Branchipus (ibid., pl. 45, fig. 4), is the ani- 
mal with which many persons are familiar from its exhibition in the 
solar microscope, where its agility, voracity, and the extraordinary 
vibrations of its paddles and tail, while the body was at rest, were 
remarkably striking. It has no proper feet or legs, but its mem- 
bers, and even its tail, being fringed with gills, answer the pur- 
poses of organs of locomotion and respiration. It possesses antenne, 
and inhabits fresh water. 

Lastly, the Trilobite, (see plate, fig. 1), imperfect as it has 
hitherto been found, presents some of the characters of the two for- 
mer genera, and, according to Brongniart, there is great reason to 
believe, of the latter also. Thus, it has the jointed body of the 
Serolis, and the large anterior plate or shield of the Limulus, and 
in some species the tail; but it has neither antenna, legs, nor gills, 
though M. Brongniart conceives that it did possess the paddle gills 
of the Branchipus. Mr. Parkinson also believes that he has detect- 
ed the existence of legs in one specimen, and M. Goldfuss gives 
some sections of a Calymene in which uot only the presence of a 
ventral as well as a dorsal plate is clearly established, but also that 
of certain members, but whether these are legs or paddle-gills is not 
so evident. This account in vol. xv. of the Ann. des Sc. Nat., seems 
to have escaped the attention of English geologists, for Dr. Buck- 
land says decidedly, that no 7'rilobite has been found possessed of legs 
or antenne. All these classes of animals are aquatic. 


FROM THE TRANSITION AND CARBONIFEROUS STRATA. 87 


Trilobites consist of a thin oval plate of calcareous matter of va- 
rious sizes, from half an inch to seven inches long, closely set with 
minute tubercles similar to those on the shell of the Crab. This 
plate is formed of many portions, the anterior of which, containing 
the eyes, is of a semicircular or crescent shape, and is called the 
shield ; and to it are jointed a number of other plates like those on 
the Serolis, which, being crossed by two longitudinal grooves, toge- 
ther constitute a three-lobed tail, from which the fossil derives its 
name. The edge of the shell is turned inwards all round on the 
under surface, and hitherto no abdominal plate or members have 
been discovered. The eyes have been rarely found fixed in the 
shield, as they drop out, leaving an appearance of gaping eyelids. 
They are crescent-shaped, with the convex surface directed out- 
wards, and are compound, as in the above-named genera, consisting 
of about four hundred facets or ocelli. From the close resemblance 
in the structure of the eyes of these animals, Dr. Buckland takes 
occasion to remark upon the permanence of the laws of nature from 
the earliest periods of which Geology supplies us with the records, 
when the earth was not yet fitted for the habitation of any animals 
higher than reptiles in the scale of organization, to the present 
time, when the earth teems with beings made in the image of the 
Creator, and but little lower than the angels. 

In this neighbourhood shields and tails of T'rilobites are very 
abundant in the thin upper layers of the Dudley limestone, but the 
finer and more perfect specimens are chiefly found in the lower 
and thicker beds. They are also met with in ironstone nodules 
at Coalbrook Dale. 

Trilobites have been divided, by M. Brongniart, into five genera, 
which M. Latreille has distributed into three groups, viz., reniform 
or kidney-shaped, 7. agnostus ; contractile or folded, 7’. calymene ; 
and extended or flat, 7’. asaphus, T. ogyges, and T. paradoxoides. 
Agnostus is of a semicircular shape ; calymene rolls itself up like a 
Wood Louse, and its segments are not extended laterally ; asaphus 
has a lengthened tail (see Bridgewater Treatise, pl. 46, fig. 11) ; 

ogyges has a long shield extended backwards on each side to a 
point (ibid., pl. 46, fig. 9) ; and paradoxoides has no appearance of 
eyes, and its plates are extended over the side, like those of Serolis 
(abid., pl. 46, fig. 8). 

Such are shy chief generic characters of the T'rilobite fainily 
given by Cuvier (Régne Animal, t. iv.), but they are not very 
distinct ; and Dr. Buckland has recently added Limulus ( Agnos- 
tus?) to them by the name of Limulus trilobitoides (ibid., pl. 46°, 


88 AN ACCOUNT OF TWO NEW CRUSTACEA 


fig. 3). The number of genera hitherto described are 10, and of spe- 
ecies 52. The specimen I now describe (see plate, figs. 2—3) seems to 
combine the characters of Serolis, Limulus, Agnostus, and Paradow- 
oides, with others peculiar to itself. It is enclosed in an ironstone 
nodule from Prior’s Lee, in Shropshire, where the strata are far 
richer in organic remains, both animal and vegetable, than the 
Staffordshire coal basin, and it was from thence that Dr. Buckland’s 
Limulus was derived. Some vegetable remains are visible on the ex- 
terior of the nodule. The accompanying figure is of the natural 
size. The lime, as in most calcareous fossils enclosed in ironstone, 
is in a crumbling powdery state, and is left white in the figure. 
The antenne are very distinct, but the central anterior projection 
is not clearly defined, although, like the antenne, it has a kind of 
tubercle at its base. The ribs or plates, with their lateral prolong- 
ations, are very evident ; the two anterior being connected by a 
web into a kind of fin, which is readily distinguished from the pro- 
longation of the shield observable in Limulus, Ogyges, and Para- 
doxoides. The surface of the specimen, from which the lime has 
crumbled away, is covered by minute crystals, and does not exhibit 
the tuberculated appearance of the surface of the Trilobites. The 
lateral projections are slightly grooved, and taper to a point. There 
is no appearance of eyes in either of the two specimens I have seen, 
unless the central projection is considered as such. The last of the 
elevated dorsal segments is remarkably prominent, and is quite dis- 
tinct from the tail. The number of segments is six, extended late- 
rally into as many ribs, terminated by a like number of legs, or 
more probably fin-rays or spines, for they exhibit no traces of a 
jointed structure. 

Thus, in possessing antenne it resembled the Serolis ; it had a 
tail and lateral spines like the Asaphus and Limulus ; its shape was 
that of Agnostus—i. e. extended laterally, not lengthwise ; and it 
was devoid of eyes like Paradoxoides ; which it also approached 
in the extended points of its shield. Judging from a note of 
Cuvier (Régne Animal, t. iv., p. 204), it closely resembles the de- 
scription of the Paradoxoides of Rasoumowski. 

The figure, ( No. 4), is taken from an imperfect specimen of the 
shield of a crustaceous animal from the Dudley limestone. '' The 
spine or antenna is very distinct, but the other parts, having been 
much rubbed, are restored, as far as possible, from the cast. Its 
shape is that of a rounded oblong, arched and mammillated, and 
having an elevated margin ; the whole surface, except the antenna, 
is covered with the same minute tubercles that are observed on the 


REMARKABLE CURES EFFECTED BY GYMNASTICS. 89 


Trilobites. From these, however, it is distinguished by having an 
antenna ; and it is only introduced here to turn the attention of the 
curious to the fact of the co-existence of undescribed crustacea with 
the T'rilobites in the Dudley limestone. The writer instead of avail- 
ing himself of the kind permission of Dr. Buckland to copy the 
plates in his Bridgewater Treatise, has referred to the several figures 
in that admirable work, which is doubtless in the possession of the 
readers of T'he Analyst. - 


REMARKABLE CURES EFFECTED BY GYMNASTICS. 
By James Cuuosso. 


Ir is an opinion almost universally entertained, that gymnastic 
exercises are either useless or dangerous ; but I feel convinced, from 
experience, that this arises from a want of knowledge of such exer- 
cises, or, as is also often the case, from the injudicious method of 
employing them. Thus, every accident which happens in schools 
of gymnastics is charged against the science, instead of against its 
instructors. It is not, however, my intention in this place to en- 
large either upon the objects of gymnastics or to detail the most ap- 
proved modes of employing it. At present I merely wish to estab- 
lish, by the recital of a few cases, that gymnastics might frequently 
afford a ready means of cure where the most experienced of the 
faculty would be compelled to confess their inability to remove the 
disease. 

CaskE I.—A boy* of a lymphatic temperament, fourteen years of 
age, afflicted with palpitation and pains of the heart, was brought 
to me in April, 1833, to see whether my system of gymnastics could 
be of any benefit to him, he having been previously given up by 
the profession. The palpitation was so violent that he could nei- 
ther rest nor sleep at night, he had lost his appetite, his left side 
was three-fourths of an inch higher than the right, and the left 
shoulder was somewhat more elevated than the right. This led 
me to suppose that the vertebral column must be affected also. I 


* Lest the authenticity of these cases should be suspected, it may be as 
well to state that we can answer for the truth of the whole of the details re- 
corded by our correspondent. Mr. Chiosso receives no remuneration for his 
services ; that he is not one of the race of quacks now unfortunately so nu- 
merous, must, therefore, be apparent to our readers.—Eps. 

VOL. VI.—NO. XIX. M 


90 REMARKABLE CURES EFFECTED BY GYMNASTICS. 


therefore made a careful examination of the body, and found, as I 
had expected, that the fifth, sixth, and seventh vertebre of the back 
were somewhat unnaturally out of the perpendicular. Being now 
in full possession of the case, I immediately began to apply a course 
of exercises, with a well-regulated diet, and without having recourse 
to any medicine whatever. At the expiration of three months, to 
my satisfaction, and still more to that of the boy himself and his 
parents, who had but little hopes of his recovery, he returned home 
perfectly cured. In two months more he went to school, to conti- 
nue his education, which had been interrupted by his malady. I 
had the pleasure of seeing him in June last, perfectly well. He 
was then as well formed as any young man of his own age could be. 

Case II.—On another occasion I was requested to see a boy of 
three years old, of a lymphatic temperament, who could not walk, 
or even stand. His parents were greatly distressed, for they had 
consulted the best doctors in the neighbourhood, but without bene- 
fit. I desired the mother to undress the child, and on examining 
him found that the complaint consisted in a slight prominence be- 
tween the last dorsal and the first lumbar vertebra. The child 
experienced a little pain during the examination, and especially in 
the region of the above mentioned vertebra. Upon the whole, I 
concluded that there was a touch of the rickets (rachitis), but I 
believe the bones were perfectly sound. I then planned out the 
system to be pursued for the malady, especially taking care to ad- 
minister the requisite physical exercises. The anxious parents per- 
formed every thing recommended, and at the end of two months 
the child was able to walk without the least assistance ; indeed, 
after the third month, namely, in September, 1834, he had so far 
recovered as, on seeing me coming, to run and meet me. He was 
henceforth perfectly well. 

Case III.—This, also, is a case of no small importance. A 
young lady, about twenty years of age, who had been confined to 
a sofa four years, in consequence of a fall from a horse while resid- 
ing in the neighbourhood of London, applied to me as a last resort, 
thinking that my gymnastics might, possibly, be of some service to 
her. ‘This case was widely different from the others, and, I should 
say, much more difficult to cure. As no external injury was ap- 
parent, I began to examine her back, requesting her to let me know 
when I caused her any pain. I soon discovered that the tenth, 
eleventh, and twelfth dorsal vertebra, and the first lumbar verte- 
bra, were the seat of the complaint, as she could not bear the slight- 
est touch on these parts without screaming. It thus became proba- 


HANNAH DYER. 9] 


ble that some of the intervertebral cartilages, par#*ularly those of 
the above named vertebre, had been injured in the fall, and had, 
moreover, lost their healthy tone in consequence of the four years 
inactivity. Here the exercises were different from those recom- 
mended in the former cases, as I could discover no outward injury, 
and as the patient appeared to be in a good general state of health, 
though rather thin, from the long confinement. I ordered her pa- 
rents to procure a machine something like a sedan chair—of which 
I gave them a plan—in which she was to ride out every day when 
the weather would admit ; likewise to use some other gentle exer- 
cises in doors, frictions, lotions, and.a strict diet, without any kind 
of medicine. At the end of three years she was perfectly well, to 
the great joy of herself and her parents, who had lost all hopes of 
her recovery. 

So much for a well-digested system of exercises, founded upon 
the laws of Physiology. To enlarge on the precise means I adopt- 
ed, or to detail all the cases I have successfully treated, would here 
take up too much space, besides being tedious to many readers of 
The Analyst. My sole aim has been to prove the incalculable im- 
portance of gymnastics in a variety of cases beyond the art of medi- 
cine. Gymnastics, if judiciously taught at every school, would 
produce a material improvement in the health and strength, both 
mental and physical, of the scholars. 


Campsall Grange, near Doncaster. 


HANNAH DYER. 


“ A profound thinker has said, that the man of genius is he who retains, 
with the perfect faculties of manhood, the undoubting faith and vivid im- 
pressions of the child.”—Noctes Ambrosiane, No. 39. 


Among the children of men there is not a more miserable being 
than he whose sense of existence is bound up and contracted within 
the present—who beholds himself as existing only in the now, with- 
out any affinity with the past or the future; a mind indurated by 
‘custom, a heart blasted by prejudice, sterile to every generous emo- 
tion ; with whom thought is annihilated, and sensibility transform- 
ed into the insatiable cupidity of selfishness. His pleasures, his 
pains, are negative ; he knows no change, he warms by no sympa- 
thy, he never smiles nor weeps, but lives in the dead rotation of a 


92 HANNAH DYER. 


perpetual monotony. Spontaneity and freewill are terms signifi- 
cant of nothing ; he lives and moves with no reference to others ; 
the beastial degeneration of a thinking being into a living automa- 
ton. 


« A Cowslip on a river’s brim 
A yellow Cowslip is to hiin, 
And nothing more.” 


Everything is “ nothing more” than the mere presence of an exist- 
ing object. The green earth or the foaming ocean possess no beau- 
ty nor grandeur, but are the commonplace objects of his senses ; 
and, worse than all, there is no redemption, since he is insensible to 
the loss. But whence could spring so horrible a malediction >— 
from the disruption of the continuity of his life. Infancy, boy- 
hood, youth, and manhood, succeeded each other, not as nature or- 
dained, by an insensible subsidence, each change succeeding unper- 
ceivably in their gradual progression, but divided from each other 
by habits enforced with every period ; infancy with its fine impres- 
sions, boyhood with its happy hopes and fancies, youth with its sus- 
ceptibilities and warm and wild desires, were. successively flung 
aside, as a dried leaf from the stem that nourished it. There is no 
memory of the past, no hupe for the future—We owe our intellec- 
tual affluence to the successively perpetuated impressions of boyhood ; 
the root is in infancy—the flower that “ spirits odorous breathes,” 
buds and blossoms in manhood. The wants of childhood become 
the hopes of youth and the ambition of age; the difference is only 
in their extension. It is only when the stages of life are bound to- 
gether by these insensible intercommunions, until the first and 
second childhood, like a circle, approximate in their impressions— 
an emblem of that eternity of which existence is thus a type—that 
we become regenerated spirits “ like unto a little child ;” when the 
memory of our childhood brings tears into the eye of age, and reci- 
procates us with ourselves by a perfect harmony. 


“* My heart leaps up when I behold 
A rainbow in the sky : 
So was it when my life began ; 
So be it now I am a Man; 
So be it when I shall grow old, 
Or let me die! 
The Child is Father of the Man; 
And I would wish my days to be 
Bound each to each by natural piety.” 


HANNAH DYER. 93 


Charlton, the village of Charlton, was, twenty years since, among 
the few really legitimate villages which were left us as a record of 
the “ good old days.” Situated between two and three miles from 
one of our most fascinating and fashionable watering places, and a 
mile from the great metropolitan road, it offered to the invalid one 
of the most agreeably restorative spots. The village small—the 
cottages low, thatched, and smiling with flowers—the old church 
and its ivy-bound tower—the village church-yard silent and so- 
lemn—the sandy lane o’ergrown with briars, brambles, and the 
ebon-stemmed hawthorn, the only carriage-entrance to the village 
—the old grass-tufted walks under the emerald-leafed Chestnut 
trees—the large expansive fields and ploughed lands, surrounding 
the village on all sides, luxuriant with verdure and richest crops— 
the well-wooded landscape, dell, and bosky bourn—the' not far dis- 
tant hills, their base rising in a semi-amphitheatre around the village, 
their barren rocky steeps, hill above hill, gemmed with the golden 
blossoms of the rich Heath and prickly Gorse—the straggling Pine 
standing out like some dark shade of the primeval world, or, clus- 
tered together, weaving their blackened branches in each other—al- 
together offered a scene the most varied, the most beautiful. 

Scarcely a quarter of a mile from the village was Prynne Park, 
with its broad bubbling river brawling over the chafed bed; the 
herd of dappled deer startled by the shrill whistle of some little 
urchin peering through the pales; then the aristocratic cawing of 
hundreds of ministerial rooks, perched on the topmost branches of a 
cluster of fine old Elms; the spacious antique mansion occupying 
an acre of ground, with the green wide-extending park stretching 
oer hill and dale for many a mile. There was a silence around all 
that might be felt, deepened by the long caw, caw, of great-grand- 
father Crow, who, with his long black bill pushed out to its full 
length, might be fancied a lineal descendent from William the 
Conqueror. 

How often have I seen the pallid cheek of the fair and lovely 
victim of consumption warmed with the quiet sense of her enjoy- 
ment as she gazed with lustrous eye upon the profuse luxuriance of 
nature! O! there is a blessing in all the dispensations of God :— 
disease, with all the suffering of the body, subtilizes the spirit that 
inhabits there, quickens the sensibilities of the heart, and purifies 
the thoughts from all grossness. There, far from the hum of men, 
Nature, with her still small voice, held communion with her heart, 
and by a divine inspiration quickened immortal hopes. 

There my infancy, my boyhood, was passed, there my natural 
wild dispositions were softened. I knew 


94 HANNAH DYER. 


it4 


each lane, and every alley green, 
Dingle, or bushy dell _—_—, 

And every bosky bourn, from side to side 
My daily walks and ancient neighbourhood.” 


And if I gazed, as I often did, on the purple boundary of the 
far horizon, and wantoned in my dreams, I felt that I was happy, 
—it was a positive sensation—my thoughts were feelings. Years 
have passed* away, my heart has been hardened, I have gained 
knowledge by suffering, I have passed into other lands, and beheld 
the children of men engrossed alike in their nefarious projects ; but 
with all the varieties of the species, under every clime, the heart is 
still the same. 

After many years absence I visited the gay town of » With 
its palaces and villas, terraces and gardens, walks and embowered 
groves—a most gorgeous combination of nature and art, a scene so 
full of life that it might cheat even death himself, in whose bright 
sky music floated like a native elemental breath. From scene to 
scene I wandered—associations crowded round my mind—I drew 
myself aside, and wept. I was alone, a stranger on my native earth! 

I fled the refined sensuality of groves and walks, and almost im- 
perceptibly pursued my way towards a spot where at least I might 
undisturbed indulge my sadness. The day was fading into the 
purple light of evening—it was a calm delicious hour, hushed 
and still; the grey-coated Gnats hummed round me as I enter- 
ed a large field which, though now sadly deformed by improve- 
ments, still encompasses one side of Charlton. Where once was 
only a narrow path across fifty acres of ploughed land, formed by the 
transit of the villagers, I found a long, white,stony road. Luckily the 
old stile at the end was in view, or I should have returned, sick 
with improvements, afraid that not even the hills and their Gorse- 
blossoms were left untouched. Suddenly I remembered a low 
thatched cottage across the lane beyond the field—it was still there: 
I fetched breath—there had lived Hannah Dyer! I quicken- 
ed my pace as I uttered her name: is she alive? perhaps married, 
perhaps poor—miserable. Hannah Dyer!—with that name how 
many associations of my young life were conjured up! The most 
eventful period of my existence was a blank, the stirring events which 
had transpired in the years of manhood were all forgotten as the 
jarring chaos of a dream; I awoke as from a feverish delirium—I 
was a boy again, 

Hannah Dyer! she was the only child of her mother, and “ she 
was a widow” whose decline of life, with all her sorrows—and they 


HANNAH DYER. 95 


were sair——was softened down by the silent, changeless love of 
her child: for though Hannah was then a woman in years, her 
soft, bland, and soothing affections—her artlessness and innocence— 
made her still a child to her aged parent. The few wants which, 
in their retired life, they required, were easily supplied by the in- 
dustry of Hannah, and even furnished those little luxuries which 
betray a delicate and sensitive mind. The low thatched cottage, 
almost concealed beneath the clustering branches of the fruit-trees, 
the patch of garden, parted tastefully into plots for ornament and 
utility. As I remember, Hannah’s flowers were the most beautiful, 
the most odorous ; few exotics—but filled, like her own heart, with 
the blossoms of her native land: faint and blushing in their 
own beauty, no flowers seemed to bloom so richly in their varied 
hues, as the Roses and fan-leafed Pinks in her garden. She tended 
them and loved them, and in the icy winter’s day she did not forget 
in the low frost-bitten leaves and roots, the sad remains of those 
delicious flowers; she covered and protected them with constant 
watchfulness, for they were a natural image of her own heart, 
whose first and only brightness had been sullied, and her summer 
hopes destroyed, by a more withering breath than the wintery 
North. The tale of her sorrow has, unhappily, too many prece- 
dents—she loved and was forgotten. Hannah was not a creature of 
waywardness and passion, whose love, as the lightning, consumes, 
or of fickle affections with neither faith nor feeling: her love 
came silently and sweetly upon her heart, without its jealous excess- 
es, it occupied every feeling that might be given to the creature 
without sin to the Creator—to love once was to love for ever. Af- 
ter the first gloomy prostration of her spirit, collapsed beneath the 
dead pain of her disappointed hopes, she recovered from the selfish- 
ness of her sorrow to make peaceful the last days of her mother, 
who now was the only tie between her and earth. She never re- 
pined—she seldom wept—and if her step was slow and her look 
sedate, there was in her pale face no reproach ; the complexion of 
her thoughts was peaceful—her hope was in God. 

Such is a slight pourtrayment of her whom, when a boy, I used 
to visit once or twice every week, with one whose custom it was to 
go and hold sweet converse of heavenly things. I never listened to 
those low breathings of holiness but I became, for the time, devout ; 
it touched the poetry of my young heart: and as I gazed upon the 
pallid face of Hannah, her eyes cast down in modesty before the 
elder, her thin hands modestly folded on each other—to hear her 
muttered response following the deep Amen of the poor old widow, 


96 HANNAH DYER. 


as my father, with his face a little raised and his eye up-turned, as if 
he were looking into the mystery beyond the grave—would dwell 
on the promises of the Gospel, his deep whispering words flowing 
on as by a divine inspiration, raising us by our sympathies beyond 
this world. Then the tears came fast into my eyes—for weeping 
was then a gladness—as I looked upon his benevolent features, irra- 
diated with the ardour of his devotion. 


*“ Compared with this, how poor religious pride, 
In all the pomp of method and of art, 

When men display to congregation’s wide 
Devotions every grace, except the heart.” 


So sung the sweetest songster that ever lived, so have I often felt 
when kneeling on the gay cushions with my gold-bound books and 
bands before my een—one among a throng of insensible worship- 
pers—listening to the ‘ pompous strain,” the bowings and ceremo- 
nies, and sacerdotal robes, plucked from Aaron’s old wardrobe.— 
These thoughts rushed through my mind as I walked tardily on 
towards the stile ; the green and briar-choked lane passing beside 
the cottage was before me. I laid my hand tremblingly on the 
wicket—a hasty glance at the garden realized my fears—her hand 
had not bound up the long ponderous-headed flowers—they hung 
neglected on the earth, soiled and trodden down ; weeds’ choaked 
the ground, and mingled mockingly with the choice blossoms of 
the garden. I heard a suppressed talking in the little room wherein 
we used to meet—there was more than one voice. I listened a mo- 
ment and then advanced, giving a hasty look through the latticed 
panes ; several persons were in the cottage. I stood a moment be- 
fore the unopened door—I gazed on the white walls, on the honey- 
suckle flowering round the casement ; softly and fearfully I moved 
my hand towards the latch, which, however, J dared not raise ; I only 
laid my finger lightly on it, and, with my eyes rooted on the 
ground, stood in motionless anxiety ; my arm dropped heavily 
down as, with a sigh, I would have turned away. Some one 
lifted the latch—my heart leaped up—lI felt suffocated. In the 
middle of the room, surrounded with six or seven decent young 
men, was a coffin supported on two chairs. No one questioned 
me ;—there was a grief in my look which told them I was a 
mourner. I bent my head beneath the door, and, standing by 
the coffin I read on it the name of——Hannah Dyer! My 
heart was swelled with bitter sorrow—my tears fell on the coffin 


HANNAH DYER. 97 


lid. There lay all that was once so dear to me, with whom I had 
listened to a voice long since hushed for ever. I stood as one en- 
tranced, rapt about with the incense of my own thoughts ;. a stir 
among the young men called me to myself. They were decently ar- 
rayed i in black, the long white silk bands and ribbon bows betoken- 
ing the chaste character of her who was gone. The heavy tones of 
the village church bell, which I had. so often heard, fell slowly on 
my ear; the bearers disposed~ themselves on each side of the coffin 
—the two last had just gained the door—I started—the mourners ! 
there was none to mourn. I hastily followed—stooping, I plucked 
a drooping rose ; and as I walked at the foot of the coffin with the 
flower in my hand, the little children of the village, the young 
maidens, and the aged carle, looked in my face and wondered—for I 
was the only mourner. Beneath the shadow of the sombrous Yew- 
tree her grave was dug ; the young men made way for me to stand 
by the grave’s side as one that loved. her, though they knew me not ; 
the earth from the old clerk’s hand sounded: heavily on the sian: 
“« Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord.” I looked up 
through the clear twilight of the starry evening ; the tears filled 
my eyes as I repeated aloud, ‘‘ Blessed are the dead which die in 
the Lord ;” and the young men wept. I stood alone by the grave 
until the sand. was being rudely thrown in; I returned to the cot- 
tage, which had been deserted : I sat fae ge there, self-com- 
muning in a spot so sacred’ to: goodness—wherein I had not stood 
for fifteen years—I recalled the long past, the present ; I recog- 
nized those first impressions which now came upon me _ gentle 
and pure as dew on the flowers of Eden. I was startled 
by a sheeny light striking into the darkening room—the cold 
rays of the chrystal moon shone upon the lattice panes—I looked 
around, and cast a long and lingering glance upon every object— 
upon those flowers that would no longer be cherished by her—up- 
on that sweet garden that would know her no more for ever. The 
moon’s beams reached not the grave, but silvered the dark sepulchral 
branches overshadowing it.. There was no voice to startle the si- 
lence, no eye to mark me : there I sat long and thoughtfully, until 
the clock, with its time-telling tongue, awoke my consciousness. 
I looked upon the withering rose—it was all that remained of her 
who is dead. : 

The worn and weary pilgrim may “purify his conscience by his 
toilsome journey to Mecca ; or the little less rational christian ab- 
solve his soul by bodily penance, or excite his religious ardour by 
a superstitious devotion: when that my heart is hardened. by. the 

VOL. VI.—NO. XIX. N 


98 PROCEEDINGS OF PROVINCIAL SOCIETIES. 


world, and sin and suffering encompass me, I will visit the grave of 
her who is in heaven ; and as I read on the plain stone the name of 
Hannah Dyer, I shall be regenerated by impressions which exalt 
and purify my heart, matured to penitence and peace by the faint 
stirrings of that better spirit which cannot be quenched. 

W. 


PROCEEDINGS OF PROVINCIAL SOCIETIES. 


MANCHESTER NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 


WHEN we examine the causes that operate in producing the rise 
and fall of empires, and the varied agencies that have aided in 
bringing the world to its present moral and intellectua] condition, 
we pause with feelings of pleasure to reflect for a moment on the 
origin and progress of our scientific institutions. The statesman 
wields the truncheon of command, and the warrior leads devoted 
thousands to an early death: but these in vain attempt to join na- 
tions in bonds of friendship: some jealousy discovers a new cause 
for quarrel, and, for trifling reasons, contending people again meet 
in all the hateful array of war. What these powerful avents fail 
to accomplish, is achieved by the humble hand of science. Its vota- 
ries, pursuing their peaceful discoveries, form connections and 
friendships which national quarrels in vain try to interrupt. Their 
interests and opinions (devoid of prejudice) seem apart from those of 
the world ; and when this happy communion becomes more extend- 
ed, that national hatred, so injurious in its effects, will disappear 
from the face of the earth—we shall no more hear such epithets as 
the too common one, “ natural enemies,’”’ but know and feel that 
our greatest blessing is universal peace and universal friendship. 

In producing and strengthening this silken tie between one na- 
tion and another, our philosophical institutions stand pre-eminent. 
Alike formed and supported by a numerous concourse of people, they 
must in time exhibit effects upon public opinion. Here; individu- 
als of opposite political principles (those banes of private friendship) 
meet together; they alike communicate and listen to communica- 
tions of discoveries : the harmless discussions which ensue, strength- 
en, rather than interrupt the happy feeling, and they separate with 
the full conviction that this is an arena on which persons of all 
ranks, all principles, and all nations may meet in friendly and 
agreeable intercourse. 

As in many other instances, comparative trifles first led: to the 


PROCEEDINGS OF PROVINCIAL SOCIETIES. 99 


formation of a Natural History Society in Manchester: sme of 
the inhabitants of that large and populous town had long contem- 
plated having an additional institution to the one already proceed- 
ing so successfully under the auspices of Dalton—some society 
where collections of all the rich and varied objects of creation should 
be brought together ; where, even in the centre of a commercial 
town, the admirer of Nature might study the beauties of the inha- 
bitants of woods and wilds—might at once transport his thoughts 
from the busy scene of bustle and turmoil with which he was sur- 
rounded, and for a time revel amidst the productions of distant climes. 

An opportunity at length offered itself for carrying this design 
into effect : in 182], a collection of birds and insects—the former 
comprising many rare and valuable specimens—were offered for sale ; 
a small body of spirited individuals met and agreed to purchase 
them, and these specimens became the nucleus around which were to 
accumulate the now splendid collections of the Manchester Natural 
History Society. The insects had been collected some time previous 
by Lee Phillips, Esq., and at that period, when collections of natu- 
ral objects were more rarely formed, exhibited a valuable assem- 
blage both of foreign and British specimens. The most complete 
department was that of British Lepidoptera, which, even at the 
present time, is highly valuable. Amongst the birds were many of 
considerable interest, especially some rare specimens of Myotherine. 
The greater part were collected by M. Freyreiss, who was employed 
by a society of Vienna to collect specimens in South America, 
where he staid some years. After his employers were supplied with 
the more valuable results of his labours, some of the duplicates 
came into the possession of the late Mr. Robinson, from whose 
friends, on his decease, they were bought by the gentlemen who 
thus first commenced the Manchester Natural History Society. 
This purchase being made, it was necessary to adopt some measures 
for the preservation of the collection, and to endeavour, as soon as 
possible, to obtain additional contributions. A room was taken in 
Cross-street, St. Ann’s Square, and Mr. T. Harrop was appointed 
to take charge of the specimens, and stuff such birds or other ani- 
mals as were sent in. 

No addition of great importance was made until the latter part 
of 1822, when the collection of minerals belonging to Mr. Strutt, 
of Derby, was purchased ; at once filling up, to a certain extent, a 
department of the highest importance, and one in which the Society 
was very deficient. This collection being obtained, the museum 
took at once a higher rank. The visitors were gratified by the in- 
terest they found in the specimens, the increased variety affording 
a more ample field for study and contemplation. 

A gradual accession of specimens was made during the years 
1823 and 1824, especially in the department of foreign Ornitholo- 
gy, which rapidly increased. The proximity of Manchester to Li- 
verpool, where ships were daily arriving from all quarters of the 
globe, bringing with them specimens and illustrations of every de- 


100 PROCEEDINGS OF PROVINCIAL SOCIETIES. 


partment of the vast field of Nature, gave the officers of the insti- 
tution great advantages ; and of these they availed themselves in 
the most active and persevering manner, each endeavouring to vie 
with the rest in promoting the prospects and ensuring the success of 
the society. ‘The apartments occupied now became much too small 
for the proper display of the property as well as for the general ac- 
commodation of the society, and consequently, in 1825, they re- — 
moved to a more convenient building in King-street, where two 
large and well-lighted rooms contributed much to the good appear- 
ance of the specimens. The chief deficiency consisted in the want 
of a conchological collection, and to remedy this an. extensive one 
was purchased from Mr. Swainson, which, however, was almost 
entirely composed of foreign species. 

_ No addition of particular importance was now made for some 
time, but a variety of contributions were received from its friends, 
both at home and abroad, and numerous minor purchases were 
made. The birds, from their numbers and splendour, attracted ge- 
neral attention, and already ranked as one of the first collections in 
the kingdom ; whilst the minerals, shells, and insects, for that pe- 
riod, were far from contemptible. 

In 1832 it was evident that the new building was not sufficiently 
extensive for the reception and display of the specimens accumu- 
lated, and the propriety of having one erected expressly for the pur- 
pose was suggested. This proposition was acted upon the follow- 
ing year, when,'a convenient site being selected in Peter-street, the 
present hall. of: the: Society was commenced.» The plot of land se- 
cured was much larger than the actual building required, to enable 
future additions to be made ; a precaution highly necessary, from 
the great demand for warehouses and other buildings in that part — 
of the town. In 1834 the Society received a considerable addition 
by the purchase of a collection of Crustacea belonging to the late 
Rev. L. Guilding ; and in April, 1836, the new hall of the Society 
being completed, the specimens were removed from their old situa- 
tion to the places they now occupy. 

The department in which this institution most excels is certainly 
that of Ornithology. The collection of British birds wants but 
few to make it complete, and the foreign one contains about eigh- 
teen hundred specimens ; amongst these are many rare and unde- 
scribed species. Hitherto the birds have only been arranged in ge- 
neral groups, but on the appointment of Mr. W. C. Williamson, in 
the autumn of 1835, to the office of curator, a new system of ar- 
rangement was commenced. The,.first step was the separation of 
the British from the foreign birds, which were placed in another 
room. The former were arranged according to the catalogue re- 
cently published by Jenyns, and grouped so as to simplify as much 
as possible the study of Ornithology. All the birds of one genus 
are brought together and placed upon one group of artificial 
branches, with: the name of the genus fixed at the root, or point 
where the branch is fastened to the case. For the next genus a se- 


x PROCEEDINGS OF PROVINCIAL SOCIETIES. 101 
parate branch is employéd, totally unconnected with the other, so 
that the student may perceive, at a casual glance, what birds belong 
-. to the one genus and what to the other. ‘To each bird is attached 
a label with its generic, specific, and provincial names, and also a 
number referring to a printed catalogue, by means of which their 
regular order of succession may be traced. 

The arrangement of the collection of foreign birds is not yet com- 
pleted. The classification of Cuvier, as illustrated by Griffith, is 
adopted in preference to any other. This classification is far from 
being a natural one ; but it is questionable whether any other has 
yet been published to supersede it. That of Mr. Vigors will ulti- 
mately be much superior, but for want of more ample specific illus- 
trations it cannot at present well be employed. The arrangement 
of all the objects of creation in one straight line will always be un- 
natural. It is highly desirable, however, that the arrangement 
should approach as near to the natural chain as possible, and at pre- 
sent there is certainly ample room for improvement ; but the true 
positions of some few species, as the Gypogeranus serpentarius and 
Menura superba, will long, we fear, be a gordian knot that natu- 
ralists will in vain attempt to unravel. 

The collection of British Coleopterous, Hymenopterous, and 
Neuropterous insects, has been re-arranged, according to Stephens’s 
Synopsis. These departments are very thinly supplied with speci- 
mens, a small portion. only of the known species being yet ob- 
tained. We hope that such collectors as possess duplicate specimens 
will add their mite towards rendering the Manchester collection 
as complete as possible. The British shells are equally incomplete, 
but a small portion of the number existing in England having been 
as yet procured. The collection of foreign shells is far more exten- 
sive, and is at present under process of arrangement, according to 
the system of Lamarck. Here some difficulty exists in introducing 
the new genera of Sowerby and Broderip, the works of the former 
being published in so unconnected a form. 

The greatest desideratum. now consists in illustrative geological 
specimens. Those that the Society possess are arranged upon 
sloping shelves, as adopted in the museum at Scarborough. This 
plan has certainly some imperfections ; but in districts where exten- 
sive natural sections cannot be met with, it materially assists in giv- 
ing the student a distinct idea of the principles of stratification, and 
the relative antiquity of rocks. 

The museum contains some beautiful specimens of Mammalia, 
especially of a few of the larger species. The space these occupy, 
and the great expense attendant upon the means of obtaining them, 
have hitherto prevented the Society from possessing so complete a 
collection as would be desirable; but, in beauty of appearance, such 
specimens as are already in the museum will yield to none. 

It is easy to foresee the future prospects of this valuable institu- 
tion. If it continues to increase with the same rapidity that has 
been so characteristic of its progress during the last fourteen years, 


102 PROCEEDINGS OF PROVINCIAL SOCIETIES. 


another such period will see it at the head of all British societies of 
the same nature. However enviable such a position must be, no 
feeling of jealousy towards sister institutions should lead it to strive 
for pre-eminence, except the generous principle of emulation. Whilst. 
using -every exertion to take a lead in the cause of science, the So- 
ciety should offer a helping hand to those labouring in the same noble 
and glorious work—that of making man acquainted with the rich 
and varied objects that a beneficent Creator has placed around him, 
refining his mind and aiding his imagination by presenting him with 
pictures of the most transcendent beauty, laying before him evi- 
dences and undeniable proofs of design on every hand, and thus pre- 
paring him 


“to look from Nature up to Nature’s God.” 


YORK PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. 


AxoutT the year 1822, the existence of fossil bones in the Cave 
of Kirkdale, first became known to the public. This circumstance 
having attracted a considerable share of attention, it was considered 
desirable that a collection of these organic remains should be. per- 
manently deposited in the county, and the want of a suitable place 
for their reception first suggested the idea of forming the Yorkshire 
Philosophical Society. In the first printed report of the Society, it 
is stated that its general object is the promotion of science in the 
district for which it has been instituted ; and for this end it would 
enroll among its members, not only those who are themselves en- 
gaged in philosophical pursuits, but all by whom the value of such 
studies is duly appreciated. One of its aims is to facilitate commu- 
nications of philosophical opinions and facts, by holding general 
meetings at which papers may be read and oral information re- 
ceived. Another object is to establish a scientific library, for which 
purpose a collection will be made of transactions of learned societies, 
Journals of Science, and works on Arts, Antiquities, and Natural 
History—especially the Mineralogy and Geology of Yorkshire— 
collections of specimens of Comparative Anatomy, Natural History, 
&c., will also be made, and the museum will be open to antiquities, 
or any other curiosities found in Yorkshire. 

The property is vested in the subscribing members for the time 
being, as there are no shares or transferable possessions. Each 
member pays £5. on admission, and an annual subscription of £1. 

In the first report, the names of 120 subscribers were included ; 
and it contained an acknowledgement of a donation, from six gen- 
tlemen, of 2000 fossils, mostly illustrative of the Geology of the 
county, and 245 from Kirkdale Cave ; some additional minerals 
were obtained by purchase. In the following year, the collection 
had increased so greatly, that the apartments became too small, and 


- PROCEEDINGS OF PROVINCIAL SOCIETIES. 103 


a building suitable for the purpose was completed in 1829. | It is in 
the Grecian style, with an elevated Doric front, and consists, on the 
basement, of dwelling apartments for the sub-curator, laboratory, 
workshop, and two rooms occupied with antiquities, the larger of 
the two being devoted to such as are architectural, of which a rich 
store was found in excavating for the formation of the new build- 
ing. These excavations were prosecuted until the foundations and 
former extent of those monastic buildings were traced out, of which 
some splendid remains still exist above ground, but the original ex- 
tent of which remained a secret, till brought to light by these explo- 
rations. An account of the whole, illustrated’ by numerous and 
beautiful plates, was drawn up under the auspices of the Society by 
one of its members (Rev. C. Wellbeloved), and published by the 
Society of Antiquaries. The ground floor consists of a vestibule, 
library, council-room, an elegant lecture-room, opening to the right 
into the mineralogical room, and to the left into the geological de- 
partment ; these two rooms communicate with each other at the 
other extremity by means of the zoological room, which is fitted up 
with a gallery, the whole suite being well lighted from above. 
The upper story consists of three rooms ; one for duplicate and un- 
arranged specimens ; another for antiquities and rarities, and the 
bones of a Whale cut up on the Holderness shore a few years ago, 
and which is intended to be mounted for public inspection ; the 
third is occupied by the specimens of Comparative Anatomy, &c., 
belonging to James Atkinson, Esq. The stone with which the 
building is fronted was presented by Sir J. V. B. Johnson, Bart. 

On the 27th of Sept. 1830, the Society had the gratification and 
high honour of accommodating within its walls those distinguished 
scientific men who first planned the British Association ; and of 
giving birth in their institution to that Society now so prosperous 
and widely extended ; and which appears likely to exert so perma- 
nently beneficial an influence on British science. 

Three years ago the zoological room was fitted up with glass cases 
and a gallery, at an expense of £500, the greater part of which was 
raised by subscription among the members. The collections in many 
departments have progressively and rapidly increased. The geolo- 
gical room, in particular, is one of the best arranged and most con- 
venient for reference and instruction, in the kingdom, and reflects 
the greatest credit on the keeper of the museum, John Phillips, 
Esq., professor of geology in King’s College, London, whose labours 
have been principally instrumental in bringing it to its present state 
of perfection. This room contains a good collection of specimens, 
from almost every British stratum having organic remains, arrang- 
ed according to their geological position in the earth ; also an inter- 
esting collection of fossils from the Paris basin, and one equally in- 
teresting of tertiary fossils from Sicily, lately presented by the Mar- 
quis of Northampton. Among the fossils is the jaw of a Didelphis, 
which possesses a high value from its being one of the only five spe- 
cimens known to attest the existence of genuine Mammalia at so 


104 PROCEEDINGS OF PROVINCIAL SOCIETIES. 


remote a geological period, and for which the Society is indebted to 
the Rev. Christopher Sykes. It also includes a beautiful cast of the 
Plesiosaurus, presented by Chantry ; and a cast of a fragment of an 
Ichthyosaurus recently presented by the Bristol Institution. Nor 
must the splendid fossil Irish Elk (mentioned in our last as having 
been dug up on the estate of G. L. Fox, Esq., near Waterford) be 
forgotten, as being the finest remains of this extinct but noble ani- 
mal in England. 

The mineralogical room contains a good illustrative series of mi- 
nerals, arranged in cases along the centre of the room; and on its 
walls three large, ancient, and highly interesting tapestry maps of 
portions of England, added to the society’s possessions by the Arch- 
bishop of York. The centre of the zoological room is occupied «by 
cases containing rudimentary collections of British and: foreign 
shells, Crustacea, and Corals. In the cases on one side of the wall 
are the British birds—by no means complete—the Struthionide and 
their skeletons, and a small case of British fishes ; on the other side 
are the foreign birds, The gallery contains Mammalia, small fo- 
reign birds, and a valuable collection of the skeletons of birds, 
the property of, and prepared by, Mr. Allis. In another part of 
the gallery is a small collection of the skeletons of Mammalia and 
Reptilia. 

n 1836 a very beautiful bust, by Chantry, of the Rev. W. Vernon 
Harcourt—the first president, and one of the most devoted friends of 
the Society—the gift of many of the members, was placed in the 
library. ‘Several valuable donations were also received durin 
the year, among which may be specified the noble. fossil: Elk 
already alluded to; one hundred and thirty-seven skins of Austra- 
lian birds, presented by Capt. E. Markham, many of them of great 
beauty and rarity, and a great portion among the desiderata of the 
Society ; a collection of skins from the Himalayas, by Dr. Wake ; 
and a series of fossils in spirits, eighty in number, from the Medi- 
terranean, from Mr. Allis. 

The most important proceeding of the Society during the past 
year was the purchase from the crown of the remaining five acres | 
of land forming the manor share, and lying between the Society’s 
garden and the river, for the sum of £2,500; thus effectually se- 
curing itself from all annoyance from that quarter, and furnishing 
itself with means for enlarging its grounds whenever it may be»re- 

uisite. 
) Several scientific communications have been received during the 
year, and a club, formed from the members, assembles every Monday 
evening during the winter; at this meeting each member in ro. 
tation produces a paper on some scientific’ muons which: then be- 
comes the subject of discussion. 

It must be confessed that the Society has hitherto paginas a fair 
share of public patronage, and that the subsériptions for its establish- 
ment were liberal; yet when we look at the object of the Society, 
and remember that it is a Yorkshire institution for the promotion 


PROCEEDINGS OF PROVINCIAL SOCIETIES. 105 


of science, we cannot but feel that it is entitled to a much larger 
share of support, by annual subscription, than it has hitherto re- 
ceived. It is open gratuitously to all strangers bearing a member’s 
order, and to all residents accompanied by a member ; but as com- 
plaints have been made as to the inconvenience of this system, ad- 
mission may now be obtained by the payment of one shilling—a re- 
gulation made by way of trial. Those who can procure a member's 
order are still admitted without payment. About £65 was received 
during the year from the shilling tickets, aud those who obtained 
admission by payment did not form a third of the strangers who 
visited the museum. The same arrangement is continued for the 
current year. 


DONCASTER LYCEUM. 


Ir is with much regret that we notice the undue attention paid 
by this Society to Politics, which we think should be wholly ex. 
cluded from such institutions. Politics require no further encou- 
ragement than is most amply afforded by the newspapers and 
political magazines ; but to excite a taste for science and literature, 
great and continued exertions are needed. Let us not be mistaken. 
We are most desirous that useful knowledge should be communicated. 
to the people in every possible manner ; and amongst these subjects 
politics ought to obtain a considerable share of attention. But when 
we see tradesmen enter a scientific and literary society solely with 
the view of reading a large number of newspapers for a small sum 
of money, to this perversion of the objects of the institution we most 
decidedly object. £20 per annum is spent in this ephemeral 
literature at the Lyceum, and some of the quarterly members* are 
actually desirous of increasing the number of papers. As the 
Society wishes to expend some portion of its funds in newspapers, 
Dr. Ferguson Branson facetiously moved, at one of the meetings, 
that one penny per annum be dedicated to this purpose, a motion 
which receives our hearty approval. A petition against the abuse 
we are noticing has been drawn up, and very numerously and 
respectably signed, and we suspect, that if the error is persisted in, 
the Society will lose many of its more influential members, who, 
well aware of the real interests of such an institution, will naturally 
feel averse to giving it their countenance and support after so gross 
a perversion of its rational aim and objects.—Another subject we 
find it our duty to expose, is the delivery of a lecture on nutrition 
and digestion, by Mr. J. E. Morey, Surgeon, of Doncaster, the 
greater part of which was copied verbatim from one of Dr. Combe’s 


* It will be remembered, that in our last report of the Lyceum, we observed 
that the subscription of the annual members is £1; that of the quarterly 
members, 10s.—_Eps. 


VOL. VI.—NO. XIX. O 


106 CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 


works. Now nothing could be more useful than to disseminate Dr. 
C.’s admirable views ; but if Mr. Morey was desirous of enlighten- 
ing the inhabitants of Doncaster and the neighbourhood by reading 
them a chapter from that work, surely some kind of acknowledg- 
ment was due to the author. We are willing to testify to the skill 
of Mr. Morey asa surgeon ; but when he descends to such barefaced 
plagiarism, he may rest assured we shall not spare him. In fine, 
we wish the Lyceum every success, and whether or not our hints 
are acted upon, we hope they will be taken in the same kindly spirit 
in which they are written. 


* 


CHESTER MECHANICS’ INSTITUTION. 


The Rev. Edward Stanley, Rector of Alderley, Cheshire, recent- 
ly delivered a lecture, at this Institution, on the Uses of Studying 
Natural History, in the Royal Hotel Assembly-room. The Rev. 
Gentleman, in dilating on Natural History, pointed out in the most 
glowing colours, and with his accustomed energetic eloquence, the 
vast advantages to be derived in the increase of moral and religious 
feeling, as well as general knowledge, from the study of this sub- 
ject. The whole of his discourse was listened to with the utmost 
attention, and at the close the Bishop of Chester rose and thanked 
Mr. Stanley for his admirable and very instructive lecture—A lec- 
ture on Geography has been delivered to the Institution by Henry 
Raikes, Esq., Member of the Cambridge Philosophical Society. 


CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 


The Romance of Nature, or the Flower Seasons Illustrated. By 
Louisa Anne Twamley. With twenty-eight Plates, engraved 
after original Drawings from Nature by the Author. Second 
Edition. London: Tilt. 1836. 

Beauties of the Country, or Descriptions of Rural Customs, Objects, © 
Scenery, and the Seasons. By Thomas Miller, Author of 4 
Day in the Woods. London: Van Voorst. 1837. 


WE are induced to group these two works together, not only be- 
cause they have much in common (though ostensibly the one refers 
to specialities, and only occasionally touches on generalities, while 
the other refers to generalities, and rarely concerns itself with spe- 


CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 107 


cialities), but because we consider the nearly simultaneous appear- 
ance of these and other works of a like character, evidence of what 
our American brethren term a “ revival,” or a return of ‘* the heart 
of the nation” from the unsatisfying pursuits of war and the frivo- 
lities of fashionable life, to a taste for the pure and uncloying 
charms of nature and the country. Several of our poets, about the 
end of the last century and beginning of the present, endeavoured 
to give this more healthful direction to the mind ; but amid the 
fierce contention of political strife, and the clangour and din of 
arms, their voice was either unheard or made but a feeble impres- 
sion. Among the number of this glorious band it is enough to 
mention Cowper, Burns, Coleridge, and Wordsworth; the last 
named of whom we yet possess, and who is’ unquestionably the 
greatest poet of the present day in the sense in which Nature un- 
derstands a poet, as one who ministereth continually in her temple, 
listening to the gentlest whisper of her voice, that, having caught, 
he may convey it, and interpret its deep meaning to the multitudes 
that stand without. To him is Miss Twamley’s volume most ap- 
propriately dedicated—the offering of a young and beautiful daugh- 
ter to a revered and venerable sire. 

Fortunate it is for us that he and some others of the tuneful 
train. perceived that 


“ The world is too much with us; late and soon, 
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers ; 
Little we see in nature that is ours: 

We have given our hearts away—a sordid boon 


99 
: 


and earnestly do we hope that by the mild, but powerful, influence 
of song we may, ere too late, be enabled to 


“Win back our way, 
Our angry spirits healed and harmonized 
By the benignant touch of love and beauty.” 


We deem it not one of the least peculiar of the features attendant 
upon the revival above spoken of, that the voices calling upon us 
to return have proceeded from the strongholds, the fastnesses, the 
very citadels of trade, commerce and manufactures ; from Sheffield, 
from Leeds, and from Birmingham. Out of Sheffield came the 
voice of Ebenezer Elliot, like the vivid flash of the lightning bursting 
from the lurid thunder-cloud, shewing that men whose hands were 
hard with daily toil, were yet possessed of hearts melting with 
all the genial feelings, and radiant with all the brightest attributes 
of humanity. Leeds, too, can boast of one } 


*‘ Whose soul can sicken at the tale 
Of sorrow springing from the sordid ore ; 
Whose heart can feel for crippled childhood’s wail, 
And scorn the vassal sceptre wielded o’er 
The infant labourer for a tyrant’s store ; 
Whose spirit wearies of the maniac roar, 
The mammon-worshipper’s idolatry,”— 


108 ORITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 


and whose indignant denouncements of the evils attendant upon en- 
tering into the service of 


* Avarice, that demon bold, 
Who ranges earth with never-dying force,” 


Jack little, if anything, of the nerve, the pathos, or the soul-arous- 
ing power, of the mighty “‘ Corn Law Rhymer.” Yet listen to the 
tones in which, turning from such heart-rending scenes, he pours 
forth an invitation which no one should resist :— 


“ Come thou to quiet fields, and meditate with me: 
Look, as thou wanderest on thy gentle way, 
Into thine own heart’s temple, and within 
. Its holiest veil some solitary ray 
Of beauty, beaming through the mists of sin, 
Shall gladden thy new being, as the din 
Of courts and camps, in lawless riot’s hour, 
Hath never gladdened it ; and thou shalt win 
A nobler pleasure for thyself, than power 
And wealth can ever find in passion’s harlot-bower. 


Thou shalt converse with beauty-beaming spring, 
The glorious infancy of nature’s life ; 
And thou shalt hear glad insects murmuring 
O’er the green earth, with all her blessings rife ; 
No voice discordant, and no greater strife 
Than amorous birds for some fair mate contending ; 
Or bleating lambs, unprescient of the knife, 
With their white dams among the mountains wending ; 
All that is good on earth with thine own spirit blending. 


So shall we gain health’s rich inheritance, 
And ruddy vigour in our bodies grow ; 
Not the flushed fever of intemperance, 
The bloated epicure’s unwholesome glow, 
But the calm current in our veins shall flow 
Pure as the fountain which its blood supplies ; 
Slumber shall hover o’er our couches low, 
Blessing frail nature with fresh energies, 
While troublous dreams shall flee to sensual sleeper’s eyes. 


Th’ etherial intellect—that brighter part 
Of dark humanity—wax brighter still ; 
Nor indolence, nor melancholy swart, 
Fetter the freedom of the wearied will ; 
Th’ imprison’d God within us holier thrill 
Through every sense that binds us yet to clay ; 
And inspiration from her sacred hill 
Descend, to light us on our placid way 
With holy prayers by night, ah poesy by day.”* 


In Leeds also, as well as in Birmingham, the female muse is 
raising her softer, but not less persuasive, voice in behalf of the 


“The Age of Gold,” in Cyril, and other Poems, by George Wilson, 
Leeds, 1834. 


CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 109 


same great and good cause: and to the authoress of T’he Moral of 
Flowers, as likewise to her whose pen and pencil have produced 
The Romance of Nature, do we return our cordial thanks for what 
they have done and are doing. 


“ Blessings be with them, and eternal praise, 
Who gave us nobler loves and nobler cares.” 


After this preface we must confine ourselves to the works imme- 
diately before us, and, as in duty bound, first pay our respects to 
the lady. 

Of all romances commend us to The Romance of Nature! ’Tis 
like the landscape, “‘ ever charming, ever new ;” and what but a 
romance on the grandest scale is carried on every year on the 
stage of the earth, the agency being all of a supernatural kind? 
And who but such observers as Miss Twamley could detect the se- 
cret character of the performers under their many-coloured garb and 
occasional disguises, and explain them as they pass to the other less 
attentive spectators? She is worthy of the appointment of priestess 
in the court of Flora, or to be made mistress of the ceremonies on 
levee and grand gala days; for she not only instructs each one that 
is successively presented to the goddess what to say, but takes care 
that they are properly attired and dressed for the happy occasion. 
She has arrayed each in the colours which best become the delicate 
beauties, and has been particularly careful that there should be no- 
thing artificial about them, but that each should appear strictly na- 
tural. Hear what she says on this point :-— 


** Of the plates (on which authors usually compliment the artists), J can 
say nothing, but that they have been carefully engraved after my own draw- 
ings, which drawings were invariably made from Nature. I have never been 
ead of curving a stem on my paper which I found growing straight in the 

eld, or of magnifving a flower for the sake of the gay effect. y models 
always appear to me too perfect in their beauty for me to dream of doin 
aught but attempt to copy, faithfully as I can, their various forms an 
colours : invention here must be positive error, and I anxiously strive to 
avoid that fault, however I may sin against the laws of picturesque effect or 
elegant arrangement.” J ! 


We hope the result, as seen in the beautiful plates which adorn 
this volume, will have the proper effect on our flower painters, and 
prevent them attempting to improve upon Nature, or being guilty 
of such “ wasteful and ridiculous excess” as that of painting “ the 
lily” otherwise than it really appears. Nor is she less truly natural 
when she exchanges the pencil for the pen. No one can read her 
introductory lines, entitled “ Flowers,” without feeling that they 
contain 

“ All her impassion’d heart’s fond communings.” 


* Beautiful, even in its error, seems 
The pagan offering of flowers as gifts 
To the Almighty ove : for what so fair, 


110°. ~—s GRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 


So pure, so holy, as their fragile forms ? 
Earth’s loveliest offspring, ae the mighty sun 
Looks on with smiles, and whom the careful sky 
Nourishes with soft rain, and whom the dew 
Delights to deck with her enclustered gems, 
Which each, reflecting the soft tint it lights, 
Gains, while it gives, new beauty. 

O! they ’re fair! 
Most wonderful and lovely are they all ! 
From our own daisy, ‘crimson-tipped,’ that greets 
Our English childhood with its lowly look, 
To the proud giants of the western world 
And gorgeous denizens of either Ind, 
Towering in nature’s majesty and might, 
And lifting up their radiant heads to hail 
The sun, their monarch, as he burns above. 
Who does not love them? Reader, if thine heart 
Be one unblessed by such affection, turn 
Far from these lays thy cold and careless eye, 
For less than dull to thee the page will seem. 
And if e’en Nature glads thee not, then Art, 
With Nature for her model, will but tire. 
But ye, creation’s readers, O! be mine: 
If ye do love that glorious book whose leaves, 
Interminably spread before our eyes, 
Challenge our onward progress in its lore— 
Small though our utmost grasp of it may be— 
Then will ye listen to the simple lyre 
That now, with changeful tone, or grave or gay, 
Wakes its wild music to a gentle theme, 
Gentle and sweet—’tis the Romance of Flowers !”—pp. 5-6. 


And sweetly does she sing, in various keys and moods, of the dif- 
ferent flowers which form the subject of her verse, whether they 
be the gems which form the sparkling coronet of spring, the gar- 
land of summer, or the robe of autumn. In addition to her own 
charming lays and fitful fancies, she provides her guests with a rich 
banquet of the choicest fruits collected in the garden of the old 
English poets, from Chaucer to Herrick, who was truly more di- 
vine than human, and a selection from whose works she intends to 
edit. 

In admiration of our old English poets, Miss Twamley and 
Thomas Miller harmonize delightfully. Another point in which 
they agree is in their intense regard for the scenes and charms of 
their native land. 


“ Beautiful,” says Miss Twamley, ‘in their rich, calm, and sun-lit sum- 
mer pride, are the rural scenes of our own dear England : beautiful, even, is 
the memory of spots we have transiently beheld in such a season ; for though 
we may dwell in them but an hour, we remember them for a life: and often 
do they rise before the mind’s eye like pictures, gladdening many a lonely 
hour with their silent and dreamy eloquence; telling of the thousand 
‘ changes of time and tide’ which we have seen and felt since we gazed on 
the bright realities; and proving how precious is that spirit’s wealth we 
gain from communion, however brief, with the beauty, purity, and holiness 
of Nature.”—p. 130. 


CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 111 
A modern Greek, gazing on the scene 
“ Where burning Sappho loved and sung,” 


could not feel more vivid delight than does our enthusiastic basket- 
maker when speaking of the scenes hallowed by the muse of Chau- 
cer, Spenser, Shakspeare, and Milton, which, in his eyes at least, 
they have raised 


* Above all Greek, above all Roman fame.” 


- Why should we envy sunny Italy, or the classic shores of Greece, while 
our own green hills lift up their Baus $adboat foreheads to heaven, and our 
velvet valleys are mnisinat with brooks? Are we not rich in golden poetry ? 
Old Chaucer has shed a glory over our plains, and Spenser has hallowed our 
forests; Shakspeare, the immortal, has “ warbled his wood-notes wild,” and 
let loose an eternal music through our land, whose melody can never die, 
and the god-like Milton hath struck a harp-string whose vibration shall never 
cease while an echo haunts our lovely hills. Let us look with an eye of 
love upon our country: the greenery of sweet prares invites us, the violet 
and primrose call us forth with a still voice of music which our ancestors 
heard—the daisy waves its white head as if beckoning us to the fragrant 
fields. Up, and away, then, to the woodlands, to worship the month of love 
and flowers. Chaucer confessed, nearly five hundred years since, that no- 
thing but the daisied fields of spring could allure him from his books. How 
sweetly does he describe his feelings at this season of the year !”* 


Burns and Scott have invested with a similar interest the scenes 
of the northern part of our island, and spread over its heaths and 
fields a spirit of undying power. To borrow the words of Camp- 
bell’s splendid Ode to the Memory of Burns, 


“ On Bannock-burn what thoughts arouse 
The swain whom Burns’s song inspires ! 
Beat not his Caledonian veins, 
As o’er the heroic turf he ploughs, 
With all the spirit of his sires, 
And all their scorn of death and chains ?” 


The writer of the article “ Beauty” in the Penny Cyclopedia 
seems to think that no poet possesses such a power. ‘‘ Beauty,” he 
says, “never arises from such a source as this. No man would 
think a plain green field or an ordinary stream more beautiful than 
any other such field or stream, simply because King John had 
signed Magna Charta in the one, or Julius Cesar raised the stan- 
dard of rebellion on the banks of the other.” This averment is, . 
we think, abundantly contradicted by the testimony of both the 
wise and the simple. A countryman who was conducting Wash- 
ington Irving over Burns’ farm in Ayrshire said “ He thought the 
country had grown more beautiful since Burns had written.”+t 


* « May,” in Miller’s Beauties of the Country.—p. 138. 
+ See Abbotsford and Newstead Abbey. 


112 CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 


Fitzgreene Halleck, another American, in his noble poem To a rose 
brought from Kirk-Alloway, speaking of the effect of walking over 
the land of Burns, says— 


*¢ All ask the cottage of his birth, 
Gaze on the scenes he loved and sung, 
- And gather feelings not of earth 
His fields and streams among.” 


And, lastly, we have the testimony, perhaps the best of all, of 
Wordsworth, in his sonnet entitled “‘ Mossgiel :”— 


“¢ There,’ said a stripling, pointing with meet pride 
Towards a low roof with green trees half concealed, 
‘Is Mossgiel farm, and that ’s the very field 
Where Burns ploughed up the daisy.’ Far and wide 
A plain below stretched sea-ward, while, descried 
Above sea-clouds, the peaks of Arran rose ; 
And by that simple notice the repose 
Of earth, sky, sea, and air, was vivified. 
Beneath the random Bield of clod or stone 
Myriads of daisies have shone forth in flower, 
Near the lark’s nest, and in their natural hour 
Have passed away, less maby than the one 
That by the unwilling ploughshare died to prove 
The tender charm of poetry and love.” 


We have indulged in this digression because we deem this power 
claimed for our poets at least as valuable as any of those by which’ 
Pope undertook to prove that a poet was, 


“ Although no soldier, useful to the state.” 


Miss Twamley has woven into her graceful lays many pleasing 
apologues and instructive fables, such as that of ‘“‘ The Flower and 
the Fairy,” at page 113; reminding us of some of the delightful 
conceptions of the German writers, of which a good example may 
be found in that translated from the Parabeln of Krummacher 
which appeared in Blackwood’s Magazine several years ago :— 


“ The angel of the flowers one day 
Beneath a rose tree sleeping lay ; 

That spirit to whose charge is given 

To bathe young buds in is om heaven. 
Awaking from his light repose, 

The angel whtiiited to the rose :— 


‘O! fondest object of my care, 

Still fairest found where all are fair, 

For the sweet shade thou ’st given to me 
Ask what thou wilt, ’tis granted thee.’ 
‘Then,’ said the rose, with deepened glow, 
‘On me another grace bestow.’ 

The spirit paused, in silent thought 

What grace was there that flower had not : 


CRITICAL NOTIGES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 113 


*T was but a moment—o’er the rose 

A veil of moss the angel throws. 

And, robed in nature’s simplest weed, 
Could there a flower that rose exceed ?” 


The writings of Herder abound with similar fictions, one of 
which we have “ done into English” prose; and if Miss Twamley 
will confer upon us so much honour as to “‘ do it into verse” for her 
next edition, and head it ‘‘ The Romaunt of the Rose,” we shall 
feel highly flattered. 


THE LILY AND THE ROSE. 


Tell me, ye graceful daughters of the coarse black earth, who gave you 
our beauteous shapes? since truly ye were formed by delicate fingers. 
hat little spirits spring from your cups ? and what pleasure pervades you 
when goddesses rest themselves upon your leaves? ‘Tell me, peaceful flow- 
ers, how do they divide themselves in their friendly work, and nod to each 
other when they spin your fine web of so many folds—so multifariously 
adorned and embroidered? But ye are silent, sweet children, and enjoy 
your existence. Well, then, the instructive fable shall tell me what your 
lips withhold from me. 

Once, when the earth stood a naked rock, behold, there stepped forth a 
friendly troop of nymphs upon the virgin earth, and happy genii were ready 
to cover with flowers the naked rock. Multifariously the divided them- 
selves in their work. In beauty, under the snow and cold short grass, began 
the modest Humility, and wove many a concealed little one: Hope followed 
her, and filled with cooling odour the cup of the refreshing Hyacinth. Then 
came, as it pleased each, a prouder, showy choir of variegated beauties—the 
Tulip raised its head; the Narcissus looked around wit EADIE eyes. 
Many other goddesses and nymphs employed themselves in the varied work, 
and adorned the earth, exulting over their beauteous forms. 

And lo! as a great part of their work had faded away with their fame and 
their io s, Venus said to her Graces, also— Why linger ye here, sisters of 

racetulness ? Up, and weave with your charms a mortal visible flower.” 

hey descended to the earth, and Aglaia, the Grace of Innocence, created the 
Lily ;-Thalia and Euphrosine wove, with sisterly hand, the flower of Joy and 
Love—the Virgin Rose! 

Many flowers of the field and garden envy each other; the Lily and the 
rose envy none, and are envied by all. Like sisters, bloom they together 
upon the field of Flora, and adorn each other, since the sisterly Graces wove 
them together. 

Also, upon your cheeks, O ! maidens, may lilies and roses bloom ; and may 
your graces, Innocence, Joy, and Love, ever dwell upon them united and 
inseparable ! 


The public has shewn its appreciation of the merits and beauties 
of Miss Twamley’s book by bringing it so quickly to a second edi- 
tion. We anticipate that every revolving season for many years 
to come will call for a new, and we are sure Miss Twamley will 
spare no pains to render it a more beautiful, one. It were supere- 
rogation to say to The Romance of Nature, since it could not be 
otherwise if we wished it, Esto perpetua. 

We now turn, as the season of the year invites, to The Beauties 
of the Country. Mr. Miller entitled his. former volume A Day in 
the Woods ; he might have termed this ‘ A Year in the Woods,” 

VOL. VI.—NO, XIX. P 


114 CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 


or at least in the country ; for he discourses of its charms through- 
out each month of the year with so much eloquence and fervour, 
that “cold is his heart” who can remain “in populous city pent” 
when such allurements are presented to his mind’s eye. The ear- 
nestness of his tone reminds us of The Passionate Shepherd to his 
Love :— 


“ Come, live with me and be my love, 
And we will all the pleasures prove 
That grove or valley, hill or field, 

Or wood and steepy mountain yield. 
Where we will sit on rising rocks, 
And see the shepherds feed their flocks 
By shallow rivers, to whose falls 
Melodious birds sing madrigals.” 


We have already presented our readers with one specimen of his 
style, and now, anxious to give an idea of his descriptive powers, 
are absolutely at a loss what to choose. Were we to select May, 
few of our readers could resist the disposition to exclaim, with 
Herrick, changing the name in his line for any other that they 
have a preference or passion for—‘ Come, my Corinna, come, let ’s 
go a-Maying!” if not to dance around the neglected May-pole, at 
least to ‘partake in the rejoicing between heaven and earth.’ We 
give but a part of it :— 


“'The woods have a very beautiful appearance this month, for the trees 
have only put ona part of their foliage ; and where, in a few more weeks, all 
will be clothed in a leafy darkness, now reigns a green soft light—an emerald 
sunshine. Each tree, also, shews its fine tracery; the wiry twigs, the fea- 
thery branches covered with ivy and enamelled moss of various hues, and the 
stronger boles throwing up their iron arms in every direction. ‘There, too, 
are the silver brooks “ kissing the feet’? of tall stems with murmurs, and 
making sweet melody as they glide along, reflecting the blue sky and the 
voting Yeates which glitter around many a new-made nest. The wild-rose 
uplifts its amber cup on the thick hedges, as if wooing the dews to alight ; 
and the trailing wood-bine blushes along the wood-side, and loads the breeze 
with sweet odours; while the wild-cherry, sheeted with blossoms, rears up 
like a pillar of snow in the forest. The tulip-tree is in full leaf, the flowers 
of the horse-chestnut are appearing, and the lilac sends forth a pleasant 
smell: the leaves of the mulberry have put out; the tall fir, the majestic 
oak, and the lovely beech, are also in flower—so is the elm, the mountain- 
ash, the alder, the horse-chestnut, laburnum, guelder-rose, and several others 
mentioned last month. Nearly all the trees have, before the end of the 
month, put on their summer dress; every day the woods look darker, most 
of the flowers are in full bloom, and the birds also in full song. A thousand 
winged insects now hum in the air—the bee is on the wing—the butterflies 
are out in the sunshine—and the fields are filled with music.”—p, 136. 


Many are the passages of equal or of greater beauty with which 
this volume abounds, which, however, is not, nor professes to be, 
altogether original; on the contrary, it contains a variety of ex- 
tracts from similar works, thus forming a collection of “all other 
men’s sweets,” as stated by the author ; 


CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 115 


* Gentle reader, we have catered for thee through many a goodly volume 
—have turned over wearily many a page, extracting, like the bee, the honey 
from them.”—p. 158. 


This is to us, even, who possess no small number of volumes on this 
subject, a great recommendation, since we find here brought toge- 
ther many of our favourite passages. As our limits forbid farther 
extended quotation from this work, we give a few of the original 
and beautiful thoughts which are scattered through its pages.— 
Speaking of the repose and beauty of an English landscape at sun- 
set, he says :— 


“ Live not all these images in the heart, chasing away even care while we 
contemplate them, and throwing a soothing tranquillity over the soul—a rest 
which we remember, a poetry which owns no words, a delight which can 
never be forgotten ?”—p. 106. 


Speaking of the early flowering of the Snowdrop :— 


“The north wind whistles, and the hoar-frost clothes the verdure-despoil- 
ed trees; an uniform white carpet covers the earth, the birds withhold their 
tuneful song, and the sealed waters cease to murmur as they roll along. The 
rays of the sun, enfeebled by the density of our atmosphere, shed a gloomy 
light over the fields, and the heart of man is sad while all Nature reposes in 
torpid tranquillity : still this delicate flower ventures forth alone, starting like 
an unexpected thought from the mind. Meek emblem of consolation! herald of 
spring, sent forth from the bowers of Flora, like the lovely dove from the 
ark, to visit the earth for a season, then return to tell whether the youn 
buds burst forth, or the stern storm still careers over the flowerless valleys.” 
—p. 35. 


‘The man who thinks and writes in this manner is (as our readers 
may have learned from what we before said, or from other sources) 
a basket-maker; yet he has produced a work which, whether we 
regard the style, sentiments, and acquaintance with the literature 
of our country by which it is characterized, or feel the patriotic 
spirit and commendable desire to turn the attention of his country- 
men to the pleasures which are free and open to all, which it 
breathes, would reflect the highest credit upon any author, of any 
rank, however distinguished that might be. It is, indeed, delight- 
ful to find sentiments such as his, existing in the bosoms of men to 
whom fortune has been a niggardly patron, as regards the goods of 
life ; and we cannot but hope that a generous public will extend its 
encouragement to him in plenteous measure: this even the poorest 
may do, for those who cannot afford to purchase his book may at 
least buy his baskets. The ladies of Great Britain should resolve 
that all “ flower baskets” used by them should be manufactured by 
him, none to be deemed genuine which do not bear the name of 
‘«‘'Thomas Miller, Elliott’s Row, Southwark.” Let us remember 
the fate of Burns, and avoid a similar degree of injustice to any 
other son of genius. © 


116 CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 


“OQ! had the tithe of monumental offering, 
Which wealth and rank have on his memory rolled, 
Been poured upon the living and the pope 
Ere yet the twelfth hour of his fate had tolled, 
How changed had been his tale, so bright, so brief !” 


It would be unpardonable to omit noticing the wood-cuts which 
form the vignette, head and tail pieces, to the number of twenty- 
six, from designs by Mr. E. Lambert; they greatly adorn the vo- 
lume by their appropriateness to the occurrences in each month. 
We could not look upon that of April, the peaceful river, and the 
contemplative anglers enjoying their recreation, without experienc- 
ing a strong movement of the spirit, and feeling an inclination to 
look out our rod and tackle, to set off on a piscatory excursion, with 
Izaak Walton in one pocket and Yarrell’s Fishes in the other. We 
hope to do this ere long. j 


National Education ; its Present State and Prospects. By Frederic 
Hill. 2 vols. feap. 8vo. London: Charles Knight. 1836. 


Tue object of the present work is to give a clear and succinct 
account of the state and prospects of education in the different 
countries, without professing to teach the science to the uninitiated, 
or even entering deeply into the discussion of the most expedient 
methods of instruction. That it is necessary to obtain a tolerably cor- 
rect estimate of the statistics of national education, and of the man- 
ner of imparting it, is too obvious to require enforcing. Unless 
we are aware of the numbers of educated persons in the various 
countries and districts of countries, as well as the relative effects of 
such instruction, we must be working in the dark, and our labours 
will be rendered comparatively useless. That education, as a national 
object, is positively beneficial to the morals and general habits of 
industry of the working classes, is placed beyond doubt by the re- 
results of the educational reports so frequently had recourse to in Mr. 
Hill’s volumes. Ceteris paribus, a nation will be moral and steady 
in proportion to the amount of instruction imparted, provided that 
instruction goes beyond the mere teaching of reading and writing, 
implements which, undirected, are as likely to be abused as properly 
employed. Our author details, in his National Education, the 
modes of instruction adopted by some of our principal schools, ap- 
plauds where approbation is due, and freely censures when the oc- 
casion requires. He has, moreover, instituted a minute investiga- 
tion into the practical use of infant schools; the evidence under this 
head, being obtained from those who, by their situations, are fully 
capable of giving a true estimate of the case, may, it is presumed, 
be relied upon. The conclusion almost unanimously arrived at 
is, that such establishments are always more or less beneficial, and 
that even where they are under injudicious management some advan- 
tage always accrues from them. It has further been observed that 
those ehildren who have attended infant schools, and have after- 


CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 117 


wards been sent to national schools, make better servants, and are 
generally more sought after as apprentices, than those who have 
not enjoyed similar privileges. Add to this the extremely small 
number of instances in which individuals educated at good national 
schools have afterwards been convicted of any moral offence, or be- 
come burdensome to society in any way, and no one who really has 
the interests of his fellow creatures at heart can continue to be op- 
posed to instructing the people. On the contrary, they will take 
every opportunity of adding to their knowledge, and thereby in- 
creasing their comfort and happiness. The building of churches 
and the preaching of sermons may be all very well; but until the 
people are enlightened, instructed in the physical, intellectual, and 
moral structure of man, by practical and intelligible illustrations, 
the purely doctrinal tenets of the divine, and the brightest eloquence 
that ever adorned the pulpit, will have no more impression on the 
moral sentiments of the illiterate peasant than a passing shadow ; 
drunkenness and every other vice will remain as before, and the 
zealous but misguided priest will marvel at the obduracy of his 
*“‘ beloved brethren.” To strike at the root of the evil the benefits 
of education must be extended to the lowest classes, and the altera- 
tion effected in the community will be certain and striking. 

In the second volume we are presented with an account of the 
state of education in Prussia, and most gratifying that report must 
be to the educationist. Here the government provides for the in- 
struction of a very considerable proportion of the labouring classes. 
Children of a certain age are obliged to go to school, and the schools 
appear to be conducted upon an extremely judicious plan. Com- 
pare the miserable and imperfect system adopted in our own esta- 
blishments with a Prussian normal school, wherein are taught Re- 
ligion, Reading, German, Arithmetic, Geometry, Drawing, Writ- . 
ing, Singing, Mathematics, Geography, Natural History, History. 
Only cortrast this with our boasted establishments of Eton and 
Westminster, our universities of Oxford, Cambridge, &c.! The 
introduction of Natural History and Music to the pupils we cannot 
but perceive with the highest pleasure. The contemplation of the 
works of Nature, and the exercise of the “divine art of Music” 
must be alike amusing and instructive to the young and pliant 
mind, and form a highly desirable recreation even to those who are 
unable to follow them in detail. Many of the Prussian schools 
have excellent organs, piano fortes, violins, &c., and each pupil re- 
ceives instructions on these instruments and in Singing. When 
shall we arrive at this state in England? 

The conclusion at which we arrive, after a perusal of Mr. Hill’s 
book is, that education is certainly advancing everywhere, and that 
its advantages are obvious and undeniable. That very much yet 
remains to be done, however, even where it is most flourishing, as 
in Prussia and some parts of America, is certain, and no fear need 
exist as to the possibility of advancing too rapidly. We are also of 
opinion that normal schools ought to be more extensively establish- 


« 


118 CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 


ed, and that cheap literature should be encouraged and increased 
by every possible means. It is then, and then only, that we can 
expect our labourers, as a body, to be steady, sober, well-informed, 
and industrious—then alone that we can hope for a material reduc- 
tion of crime in every shape, and the prevalence, in every class, of 
that comfort and happiness which ought to be the lot of all. We 
might say much more on this engrossing topic, but we fear we have 
already been guilty of a breach of courtesy towards our author, and 
therefore speedily proceed to make amends for our negligence. 

Upon the whole, it must be conceded that Mr. Hill, with all his 
enthusiasm on the subject, has conducted the discussion, in every 
department, with that impartiality and desire for truth which ought 
to be the prevailing feature of a work on so important a topic. He 
displays throughout considerable ability, and his observations on 
methods of instruction, both general and particular, are, for the 
most part, sound and excellent. The style is modest, and well 
adapted to the subject. We must, however, ‘pick a crow” with 
Mr. Hill on one important point. Let us whisper in his ear— 
Why have you refused the assistance of Phrenology? This sci- 
ence is only once mentioned in the whole work, and that merely in- 
cidentally. Surely Mr. Hill has not investigated the claims of 
Phrenology to the rank of a science ; had he done so, we feel con- 
vinced that he would readily admit its value as an accessory to the 
attainments of the teacher. To adduce a single instance ; would 
not a recourse to this science have saved an infinity of trouble and 
expense to the governors cf the normal schools, by determining, at 
a single glance, the fitness or otherwise of a young man to become 
a teacher of youth? We hold that Phrenology is the true science 
of the mind ; whether or not it is so should have been determined 
by our author before writing his work, and, if we are not strangely 
mistaken, his impartial investigation would have convinced him of 
the truth of our position. The only grave desideratum which now 
exists in his work would then have been supplied. Mr. Hill de- 
serves, however, the united thanks of every well-wisher of his spe- 
cies, and we have much pleasure in recommending his National 
Education to the attention of all who believe that to educate the 
people is to increase their welfare and that of the country at large. 


British Oology ; being Illustrations of the Eggs of British Birds, 
nith figures of [those of ] each species, as far as practicable, 
drawn and coloured from Nature ; accompanied by descriptions of 
the Materials and Situation of their Nests, Number of Eges, &c. 
By William C. Hewitson. Newcastle-on-Tyne: Currie and 
Bowman ; and Edwards, London. Vol. II., royal 8vo. 


Ir is with pleasure that we resume our critical analysis of Mr. 
Hewitson’s beautiful work on British eggs. The volume before us 
contains forty-four plates, illustrating those of fifty-four species, 
and representing eighty-eight examples. Many of these are very 


CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW RUBLICATIONS. 119 


rare and difficult to obtain, and a large proportion of them extreme- 
ly variable ; so that it requires no inconsiderable amount of experi- 
ence and judgment in order to be enabled to figure typical and cha- 
racteristic specimens. We have been much instructed by a variety 
of interesting anecdotes interspersed through the letter-press; for 
all which original observation the ornithologist is greatly indebted 
to the industry and perseverance of the zealous author. A few of 
these we shall occasionally introduce in the course of this review, 
which will enable the reader to estimate Mr. Hewitson’s talents as 
a field naturalist. . 
Plate I. (XCVIII. in the series of publication) contains two fi- 
gures of the egg of the Common Curlew, exquisitely represented, 
and characteristic in the extreme; yet, without wishing to be 
deemed at. all hypercritical, we could wish that one of them had 
been coloured a trifle deeper, for they are often much darker than 
fig. 1. We are induced to say this principally because Mr. H. ob- 
serves that ‘ the two figures represent two opposite varieties, those 
intermediate being much more frequent.” We hope every natura- 
list has often participated in the devout and heart-felt sentiment of 
gratitude and adoration to the supreme Governor of the Universe 
with which our author opens his brief notice of the habits of 
this bird. “I have never traversed the lone wild heath, desert- 
ed, except by the feathered race, and at a moment at which I have 
felt the solitary dreariness of the scene, that the wild cry of the 
Curlew, so much in accordance with all around me, has not 
come like the voice of a companion to my ear, and produced a silent 
feeling of gratitude to that Being who has thus adorned with life 
and beauty the most sterile and least interesting of his works ; and 
I have thought how great would be the void in the creation were 
we deprived of this single branch of his glorious works.” We are , 
more familiar with the Curlew’s cry upon the sea-shore, and there 
also does it harmonize with all around, and tranquillize and elevate 
the mind, and lead it to hold communion with its Divine Creator ; 
there has it often induced in us the same mood of silent and most 
delightful contemplation, and called forth the same spontaneous 
feeling of natural religion, which confers the very purest and most 
exalted happiness of which our nature is susceptible. But let us 
return to the wild haunts of our friend the Curlew. Mr. Hewit- 
son tells us of what our own experience of the habits of this species 
would certainly never have led us to anticipate. ‘‘ Whilst in Nor- 
way,” he says, “we were much amused at what appeared to us to 
be quite a new and unnoticed habit of the Grallatores, or Waders. 
One day, eagerly pursuing a bird of this order, and having searched 
in vain a marsh towards which it had flown, we were about to re- 
linquish the pursuit when, much to our amazement, we discovered 
it seated high above our head, on the top of a tree; so contrary 
was this to any of the habits of this class of birds with which we 
were then acquainted, that we concluded that it must be a species 
unknown to us. We afterwards found it, however, to be a practice 


120 CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 


by no means uncommon with the Redshank and Greenshank ; and 
what surprised us more than all was, to see the Longlegged Cur- 
lew alight, as it frequently did, on the tip-top of the Pine forests, 
and to hear it, as it passed from tree to tree, utter its loud whistle.” 
It is well known that the Herons, Storks, and Ibises, perch a good 
deal ; also, it may be added, the Common Gallinule. 

Two figures of the egg of the Whimbre] Curlew succeed, which 
are delicately represented. ‘These are much rarer in collections 
than the last, and are of a greener tint, more boldly spotted. Mr. 
Hewitson is “‘ unaware of any building place in this country besides 
the Shetland Isles, upon two of which (Yell and Hascovea) only 
they are to be met with, in very small and rapidly decreasing num- 
bers, their eggs being there considered a delicacy.” The party who 
visited Sutherland in the summer of 1834 observed this species 
upon the margin of Loch Shin, in that county, but no eggs or 
young were obtained. ‘Its note,” says Mr. Hewitson, ‘ when dis- 
turbed by your approaching its nest, is, like that of the other, in 
loud, clear, and closely repeated ejaculations.” In all this tribe of 
birds the female exceeds her partner in size ; a fact particularly no- 
ticeable in the larger Snipes, the Godwits, and Curlews: this has 
been popularly noticed, whence a prevalent error has arisen that the 
Whimbrel is the Jack Curlew, as it is not unfrequently designated, 
and that the Scolopax gallinula is the male or Jack Snipe: the lat- 
ter is an extremely common notion in most parts of the country. 

Two faultlessly represented eggs of the Redshank Sandpiper ; 
No. 2 exhibiting rather the more ordinary aspect. Plenty of these 
may be obtained every season in the London markets, as may also, 
now and then, a few of those of the Common Curlew. 

Next follow two capital figures of the Common Sandpiper’s egg. 
This pretty little bird, so frequent in many of the northern coun- 
ties, is of comparatively rare occurrence in the south of England, 
scarcely commoner in those bordering the metropolis, than its rare 
and estimated congener, the Green Sandpiper, which is often met 
with in the districts margining the Thames. The little Temminck’s 
Sandpiper is closely allied to it, and resembles it in habit, but is still 
more rare, The beautiful 7’. glareola is, in the same parts, hardly 
more frequent than the last-mentioned species, if, indeed, so common. 
It is no easy matter to procure the eggs of certain members of this 
and some allied genera. 

A fine example of the Wood Snipe’s (or Woodcock’s) egg, consider- 
ably differing from those of the Common Snipe, which are well 
known. We have several times met with the young of this species, 
and very near London, but never the egg. An individual, about 
one-third grown, came into our possession on the 20th of last April, 
notwithstanding the excessive backwardness of the season: it was 
caught in Surrey, by a cat; and a day or two afterwards we saw 
many of the adults exposed for sale in Leadenhall market. We are 
acquainted with at least one situation within a few miles of the 
metropolis, where this species annually breeds; and what leads us 


CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 12] 


to suppose that the increased taste for Natural History is the prin- 
cipal reason why we so often now hear of the nest being met with, 
is the fact that we believe no person in the neighbourhood alluded 
to is aware that any Wood Snipes stay with them through the sum- 
mer. Even if they were so, indeed, it is by no means likely that 
any of them would make it known. 

A couple of Snipe’s eggs, admirably represented ; No. 1 exhibit- 
ing the usual appearance. ‘ The Snipe,” says Mr. Hewitson, “ is 
most commonly to be met with in low, marshy, and boggy grounds, 
and in such situations a few of them breed in most parts of the 
country. It is extremely difficult, however, in describing the usual 
breeding place of any bird, to limit it to any particular situation. 
In confirmation of this, I met with several nests cf the Snipe, dur- 
ing the present summer, affording so great a deviation from their 
usual position that I was strongly inclined to doubt their identity, 
till I had proved it. They were upon Foula, the most westerly of 
the Shetland Islands, against the dry heathy side of a steep hill, 
and at an elevation of not less than from 500 to 1000 feet above 
the marshy plain.” 

Two examples of that of the Common Dunlin, sufficiently cha- 
racteristic and exact ; but we could wish that one of them had been 
figured rather darker. 

The next plate contains eggs of three species ; viz.—the Corn 
Crake, Speckled Sora, and Rail; one example of each. There is 
a great family resemblance throughout the eggs of all the species of 
this family, and they are unlike those of any other. The Corn 
Crake’s egg is, perhaps, as good an average as could be chosen ; 
those of the other species are somewhat smaller, and alike in size: 
that of the Rail is very like many examples of the Corn Crake’s— 
dull-reddish white, with small specks of reddish brown and pale ash 
colour. The Speckled Sora’s egg has a deeper ground tint, and is 
more boldly spotted with darker brown. Mr. Hewitson observed 
the Corn Crake “ sitting upon the stone walls, in Shetland, on 
which it had a singular appearance.” 

Two eggs of the Common Gallinule succeed, differing remarkably 
in size, but not nearly so much in tint and markings as some we 
have. However, they are sufficiently characteristic, which is all 
that is necessary. They vary from a dull clay tint to reddish white, 
and the spots in size and relative abundance. Not unfrequently 
they have a longitudinal tendency. We have seen a variety with 
the ground colour pure white. 

A Coot’s egg, which is less variable in tint than the preceding, 
though, like it, subject to much difference in size, as Mr. Hewitson 
observes. We are aware of no author who has described the 
singular production on the forehead of the newly-hatched Coot, 
beautifully intimating the true nature of the frontal shield, which 
is simply a modification of the feather. An approach to this struc- 
ture is noticeable on the forehead of the Rail, on which the shafts 
of the feathers terminate in a horny point. In the chick of the 


VOL. VI.—NO. XIX. Q 
e 


122 CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS, 


Coot, the forehead and beyond it are covered with a sort of feathers 
—for so we must term them—each of which is a small flattened 
oblong lobe, separate from, and overlapping, those behind it. In 
like manner, the elegant tips to certain of the wing and some- 
times tail-feathers which distinguish the Wax-wings, are not, 
as generally described, prolongations of the shaft, or even ap- 
pendages, in strictness of language; but they are modifications 
of the whole substance of the feather, not increasing its total 
length: in one specimen in our possession, which has these red 
tips unusually large, there is a single secondary in one wing that 
wants this structure, although those on each side of it are thus dis- 
tinguished ; and the barb of this one extends beyond the others, 
reaching to the termination of their red tips. It may be added, that 
the rictorial bristles of birds are also true feathers, and are annual- 
ly moulted like the rest of the plumage. Of this any person will be 
at once convinced who examines their condition in a young nestling. 

We have next two excellent representations of the Oystercatcher’s 
egg, accompanied by some curious remarks on its nidification and 
habits in the breeding season. ‘It is very particular,” says Mr. 
Hewitson, “ in its selection of a situation for its eggs, always choos- 
ing a piece of gravel or stony ground, if to be met with, especially 
if mixed with bits of broken shells, to which it shews a curious par- 
tiality, carefully collecting them together, and arranging them in a 
slight hole in the ground: when these are not to be found, it selects 
small flat pieces of stone. There is something very singular in the 
habits of this bird, which has always puzzled me greatly: simple as 
are the hard materials composing its nest, it is as particular in the 
arrangement of them as many of our smaller birds, in the softer 
compositions of their neat and beautiful abodes. In this it seems 
to have much difficulty in pleasing itself, and makes numerous nests 
ere it fixes upon one; this I have always noticed, and in some 
instances have seen as many as a dozen, all apparently as well 
finished as the one containing the eggs. Nothing can exceed the 
very extraordinary and anxious solicitude evinced by this bird on your 
approaching the nest; it flies round and round you, uttering its 
loud and piercing cry, and becoming more and more noisy as you 
near the nest. It lays three eggs, varying as figured in the plate; 
the spotted variety occurring more frequently than the other,” which 
is darker and streaked. ‘‘ The young birds run soon after they 
leave the shell, and are very active. On being pursued, they hide 
their little heads in the first hole, as a beaten fighting cock will do, 
considering themselves safe when you are no longer visible; the 
down with which they are covered is beautifully mottled.” Having 
quoted so much, we may add that their first feathers, as in many 
other species, resemble those of the adults in summer dress, except- 
ing in being very much looser and more downy in texture. There 
is better philosophy than people seem generally to suppose in this 
concealment of their faces, for, on the stones, the bright quick eyes 
of the little chicks are the most apt to excite observation. Wilson, 


a 


CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 123 


in one instance, observed the Kildar Plover, (Charadrius vociferus), 
of North America, to form a nest similar to that here described of 
the present species. 

A couple of Turnstone’s eggs, very pretty and beautifully repre- 
sented. ‘‘I have seen specimens,’ says Mr. Hewitson, “ very 
nearly resembling some eggs of the Common Snipe.” We know of 
one which has a darker, or rather pale brown, ground colour. Some 
highly interesting remarks on the habits of this species are annexed. 
It breeds on islets, concealing its eggs under the shelter of an ever- 
green bush, and is apt to indicate the site it has chosen by its 
activity in driving the larger Sea Fowl from the spot; Mr. Hewit- 
son met with its eggs, in one instance, upon the naked rock. 

A Lapwing’s egg, with which most persons are familiar. The 
number of these which are brought seasonally to the London 
markets is most surprising. 

Next follow two specimens of that of the Golden Plover, which 
are usually larger than the preceding, with a clear ground-colour. 
They are figured exquisitely. 

Two of the little Ring Plover; “the first,’ according to the 
author, “‘ the most common, both as regards shape and colour ; the 
other is, however, frequent.” ‘Though we bow to Mr. Hewitson’s 
superior experience, it behoves us to say that our own observation 
would rather lead us to consider the second figure as that exhibiting 
the more ordinary appearance. However, we fully accede to their 
being both common. 

A couple of examples of the Thicknee’s egg, of which species we 
obtained a very immature example, unable to fly, in the month of 
October last. Some of these birds always stay with us through the 
winter. Its eggs are very well figured, but we have seen many 
which have the ground colour clearer, and more boldly blotched than 
either of those represented. 

A white egg, belonging to the Sheildrake. It is well known 
that this beautiful species, though very easily hatched and reared 
in a domestic state, in which it becomes even troublesomely fami- 
liar, has, nevertheless, been rarely known to breed in confinement. 
In the wild state it usually deposits its eggs in rabbit burrows, and 
all that is necessary to get it to breed in a captive condition, is 
merely to furnish it with artificial burrows, into which it may re- 
tire for this purpose. 

Eggs of the Wigeon, and of the Shoveler, dull white, the latter 
somewhat more deeply tinted. The former species was first dis- 
covered to breed in Britain, by the party of naturalists who visited 
Sutherland in the summer of 1834, of the ornithological discoveries 
of which an interesting account has been furnished by Mr. Selby, 
in Jameson’s Edinburgh Journal, which we heartily recommend to 
the perusal of every British naturalist. 

An egg of the Mallard Duck and of the Teal, differing only in 
size; and on the next plate an example of that of the Ejder, of 


124 CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 


eourse larger, and of a rather deeper green ; it is accompanied by 
some origina] remarks upon its breeding habits. 

Then follow those of the Goldeneyed Garrot and of the Long- 
tailed Sarcelle ; the former beautiful and bright deep green, the 
other dull olivaceous green, and smalJer. We are happy to find 
that Mr. Hewitson is enabled to corroborate the old account of the 
Garrot breeding in the holes of trees, of which a friend has also as- 
sured us from observation. The Sarcelle’s egg is figured from a spe- 
cimen brought home by one of the arctic expeditions ; for although 
the author frequently met with small roving flocks of these birds 
when in Norway, and dissected several which appeared nearly ready 
to lay, he was not fortunate in obtaining the egg. A female speci- 
men we lately examined in Leadenhall Market had the stiff tail- 
feathers a good deal worn, as though much used for a support when 
clambering. A fine male we also lately had the pleasure of mea- 
suring, and which was shot in Orkney, had the long central tail- 
feathers exceeding by six inches those next but one on either side, 
which is a greater length than we ever previously met with. 

An egg of the Redbreasted Merganser, very pale brown.— 
“ This elegant species,” Mr. Hewitson states, ‘is one of the most 
common of the Duck family in Norway.” ‘ Amongst the smaller 
birds,” he observes, “‘ which I have had an opportunity of frequent- 
ly observing, I have remarked that they lay their eggs early in the 
morning. I was, therefore, surprised to find that two of the 
Redbreasted Mergansers which we shot contained hard eggs, 
ready for laying, as late as eleven o'clock in the forenoon.” We 
have noticed, in some instances, that each successive egg is, in many 
of the smaller land birds, deposited later every day than the preced- 
ing, and that sometimes a day elapses without the expected increase 
of number in the nest. 

Eggs of three species of Podiceps, the Crested, Horned, and 
Little Grebes of authors. Respecting the last mentioned our au- 
thor quotes Montagu, who asserts that, ‘‘ notwithstanding this pre- 
caution (of covering the eggs), they are frequently destroyed by the 
Water Rat.” Our friend the Water Rat—or Water Vole, as we 
prefer to designate him—has enough on his shoulders for burrow- 
ing into the raised banks of canals, and for storing himself a winter 
provision of potatoes. We acquit him entirely on the charge of 
destroying Grebe’s eggs, or those of any other species of fowl; the 
common Brown Rat is the guilty species, and the little Field 
Mouse will also devour the eggs and nestlings of the smaller Jnses- 
sores. ‘To render assurance of the innocence of the Arvicola doubly 
sure, we have confined a large old male of this species and supplied 
him in turn with every kind of provision, green food and various 
sorts of leaves, corn and beans, young ducklings murdered by a 
Weasel, butcher’s meat, and eggs; of these it would never touch 
aught but the green leaves, and fruit, and vegetables, which it de- 
voured voraciously, and could not even be starved into eating corn 


CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 125 


or the ducklings, or breaking an egg ; neither would it touch nuts, 
nor anything else we offered, though in the wild state, we are told, 
it subsists partly on insect food. We trust the above will sufficient- 
ly clear its character from the aspersions which gave rise to our di- 
gression. ‘* There is a peculiarity,” Mr. Hewitson justly observes, 
‘in the eggs of the Grebes which immediately distinguishes them 
from those of all other birds; they are widest in the middle, and 
taper so regularly towards each end that it is not easy to distinguish 
that which is, in other eggs, the broadest. They are rarely seen of 
their natural and original purity ; when first laid they are of a 
spotless chalky white, sometimes slightly tinted with blue, but by 
coming in contact with the materials of the nest, by which they are 
also covered on the departure of the bird, they soon assume a very 
different aspect, and become besmeared and thoroughly stained 
through with various shades of dirty green.” To this we may ap- 
pend that they present an absorbent, unenamelled surface, which 
imbibes the discoloured moisture of the nest materials in a way 
which few other eggs would do. The Cormorant’s and Puffin’s 
eggs are the few we allude to, but even these are not exactly as 
those of the Grebes. There may bea reason, possibly, for these 
shells absorbing moisture. The eggs of the Crested species may be 
always easily obtained in the season in the London markets. 

A large dark brown egg, sparingly spotted with deeper black- 
ish brown; that of the great Northern Diver. A specimen 
in the national collection, agreeing in size, is of a dull white, with 
a few small, scattered, irregular spots, of the hue of the ground-co- 
lour of Mr. Hewitson’s figure ; besides which some larger spots also 
appear beneath the surface of the shell. We take the opportunity 
to call attention to the difference, both in number and character, of 
the eggs of the genera Podiceps and Colymbus, brought together by 
systematists as the only components of their family Colymbide. It 
cannot be affirmed that there is much affinity between these genera. 
Werather prefer to arrange Colymbus among the Alcadx. Their 
skeletons are extremely different. 

An egg of the Blackthroated, and one of the Redthroated, Diver ; 
the former larger, as would be expected, than that of the latter, and 
of a reddish brown, with a few spots of blackish, principally at the 
large end. The Redthroated Diver’s egg is figured of a dull olive- 
greenish brown, longitudinally spotted and blotched with reddish 
black: we have seen a specimen of the same ground-colour, but 
almost spotless. The Blackthroated Diver was first discovered to 
breed within the British Isles by the gentlemen of the Sutherland 
expedition ; and many interesting minutie connected with its histo- 
ry will be found in Mr. Selby’s paper before adverted to. We have 
just been examining a beautiful male, in very matured plumage, of 
this elegant species, which was purchased in Leadenhall market, 
where even the young birds are very seldom to be met with. The 
young of the Redthroated Diver may there be obtained continually, 
but specimens of that in adult plumage are not of frequent occur- 


126 CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 


rence. Of the last-named species, Mr. Hewitson says, that, when 
in Norway, “we frequently saw pairs of them passing over the 
country in an evening, and at a great height.” 

Uria troile, or Foolish Guillemot. Two eggs of this species are 
represented, and we think the best that could be well selected. 
These are brought in considerable numbers to the London markets, 
and are sold cheap, so that a pretty series of them may be ob- 
tained at a small expense. Our author has furnished us with a 
graphic picture of their breeding haunts, which sets one all alive to 
peruse. We are almost sorry that space will not allow of a full 
transcription, and are unwilling to mar the effect by copying a por- 
tion only. It affords more pleasure to refer the reader to the book 
itself, which we do heartily, promising him delight in the perusal. 

Our next plate has three figures in it, of the Black Guillemot’s 
egg, excellently represented, and presenting three somewhat diverse 
varieties. It appears that this bird’s egg is little liable to variation. 
« Amongst about seventy specimens,” says Mr. Hewitson, ‘I was 
surprised to find so little dissimilarity: of figures 2 and 3 in the 
plate—the former of which is a very singular variety—I only met 
with two of each; the rest bear the general appearance of figure 1, 
about one half of them differing from it only in the ground colour 
being white instead of blue, the spots most commonly smaller, and 
more regularly disposed; a few are more sparingly, others more 
closely and minutely marked ; they resemble the eggs of the Razor- 
bill much more than they do those of the Common Guillemot, both 
as to shape and character ; so much so, that any one forming a clas- 
sification of birds from their eggs, which might generally be done 
with great and admirable accuracy, would, in this instance be led 
into error.” ‘ The Black Guillemot,” also says Mr. Hewitson, “ is 
not nearly so expert a diver as the Razorbill or Common Guillemot, 
and when disturbed usually takes to flight, passing very close to the 
surface of the water; it is, however, strong upon the wing, and 
rises with ease to the precipices where it nestles.’ We have 
known it to occur upon the Thames, far beyond London. It differs 
from the other, also, in always laying two eggs instead of one; and 
upon the whole, however externally the characters of these two 
birds may undoubtedly resemble, we are loth to consider them as 
physiologically very closely allied. It is said that the former spe- 
cies takes to the water and follows its parent almost immediately 
after exclusion, while clad in down; whereas the young of the 
Black Guillemot ordinarily remain in the nest till fully grown and 
able to provide for itself,—quitting the society of its parent when it 
leaves its natal rock, and associating with other immature birds of 
its species. 

We have next a most characteristic figure of the egg of the Ra- 
zorbill Auk, so exactly similar to one of the specimens before us, 
that we can hardly persuade ourselves it was not drawn from it. 
It is, the author tells us, “ of an intermediate size.” 

Then comes the Puffin’s égg ; ‘‘ of a dirty white, mostly marked 


CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 127 


with various tints of colour, but so faint and indeterminate as to 
appear as though they were seen through the shell and proceeded 
from the inside, like those marks frequently observed on white eggs, 
occasioned by pieces of the yolk adhering to the shell. The egg 
figured is a pretty example of the species, and is more spotted than 
common. It is very difficult to procure good specimens, and unless 
they are taken quite fresh they become stained and dirted through- 
out, in the same manner as the eggs of the Grebes, and cannot 
afterwards be cleaned.” 

An egg of the Cormorant and one of the Shag, white and “ of 
a soft chalky substance, which is easily rubbed off, leaving a hard 
greenish shell beneath :” these, as is well known, soon become 
daubed all over, as in those of the Grebes. 

And now we enter upon the large natural family of the Laride, 
containing the Gulls, Terns, and Feazers ; for the Albatross and Pe- 
trels, in the writer’s opinion, form another and very different one, 
as, indeed, is pretty well-intimated by their eggs alone. We com- 
mence with three figures of those of the Sandwich Tern, than 
which, observes our author, “‘ nothing can exceed the beauty and 
variety.” The specimens are very well chosen, and admirably re- 
presented. 

Next we have two examples of the egg of the Roseate Tern, a 
good deal unlike ; excessive variableness in the tint and markings 
of the eggs amounting in this group almost to a generic character. 
* They seem, from the specimens I have examined,” says Mr. Hew- 
itson, “‘to be more constantly of a light colour, and more covered 
with minute dots than those of the other Terns ; most of the speci- 
mens much more so than fig. 2; whilst fig. 1, possessing more of 
the Tern-like character, is of rare occurrence.” 

Three figures of those of the Arctic Tern succeed, equally unlike 
each other, and as exquisitely drawn and coloured. “ It is quite im- 
possible,” says the author, “‘to give any idea of these by descrip- 
tion. I would propose, during the progress of this work, to draw 
another plate of the eggs of this, as well as of the Sandwich Tern.” 
We wish he would do the same in many other instances. 

Three eggs of the little Richel Tern, (St. minuia), differing 
much less remarkably, figs. | and 2 shewing, as the author states, 
the common appearance, and agreeing with all we have seen: “ fig. 
3 is a variety not often met with.” 

Three of the Black Tern, or Viralve, as it is now sometimes call- 
ed. These differ a good deal, and were selected from an extensive 
series of the eggs, “‘ as affording the most opposite varieties.” It 
is superfluous, perhaps, to add that they are faithfully executed. 

Then follow three of the Mew Gull, (Larus canus), ‘‘ selected 
from upwards of two thousand specimens, gathered from one island 
only ; and chosen, not because they present the most singular and 
opposite varieties, but to give the best idea of the general colour- 
ing.” 

Two Kittiwake’s eggs, accompanied by some interesting descrip- 


128 CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 


tion. These vary excessively, ‘‘ differing exceedingly in colour and 
markings: a variety, having a very beautiful zone of spots towards 
the larger end, is more prevaJent than amongst the eggs of almost 
any other bird.” An example of this variety is not presented. 

Two specimens of those of Larus argentatus ; but it is quite im- 
possible to illustrate the species without a number of figures. They 
resemble closely those of L. fuscus ; and “the only characteristic 
distinction,” observes Mr. Hewitson, “ that I have been able to de- 
tect, after examining a number of each, is, that the eggs of the 
Herring Gull are occasionally marked with larger blotches of colour 
than those of the Blackbacked species.” 

Next are two figures of those of the Great Blackbacked 
Gull, which, “ though often very much resembling those of 
the Lesser Blackbacked and Herring Gulls, are generally marked 
with much larger blotches of colour ; they are, also, for the most 
part, considerably larger ; but I have seen several specimens that 
were very little, if any, bigger than some large eggs of the Herring 
Gull. * * It makes a nest of a quantity of dried grass, carelessly 
heaped together ; and the eggs are three in number, and never (I 
pelieve) four, as stated by Mr. Selby ; the eggs of all the species of 
the genus Larus being confined to three—at least as far as my own 
observation goes. * * Those of the present species are excellent to 
eat ; when boiled, the yolk is much deeper in colour than those of 
the common fowl, and the white transparent: they are in conse- 
quence a most valuable acquisition to the owners of the islands upon 
which they are deposited.” 

Two specimens of the egg of the Lesser Blackbacked Gull, much 
unlike each other. ‘‘ These birds, after they have begun to sit, 
become very bold in defence of their eggs: while amongst them,” 
observes Mr. Hewitson, “I was amused with one, near the nest of 
which I was sitting. It retired to a certain distance, to give it full 
force in its attack, and then madea stoop at my head, coming within 
two or three yards of me, and repeating the manceuvre incessantly 
till I left it.” Mr. Darling, the keeper of the light-house on the 
island, informs me, that an old woman who was in the habit of ga- 
thering their eggs, had her bonnet almost torn to pieces, it being 
perforated throughout with their bills.” 

Lestris cataractes ; two specimens, one paler and rather less 
spotted than the other: we have seen it of a pale brown, with a 
few abrupt, large, scattered spots. Our author justly deprecates 
the cupidity and callous selfishness of a Hull bird-stuffer, who, re- 
gardless of the wishes of his kind entertainer in Shetland, the only 
British locality where this noble species breeds, nearly exterminated 
a fine colony of them, the spirited protectors of the scattered flocks 
of the inhabitants. Their breeding place at Foula was “ within a 
few paces of the mountain top, 1400 feet high. More labour is be- 
stowed in the formation of its nest than by any other allied species : 
it is large, and composed of a quantity of the moss which grows in 
such moory situations ; the eggs are two in number, the time of 


CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 129 


laying them towards the end of June; they are easily found, and 
their situation pointed out by the poor bird itself, in its anxiety to 
defend them. It is impossible not to admire its unflinching bold- 
ness of attack ; soaring high above you, it will, on your approach- 
ing its nest, suddenly pounce down at a short distance from you to 
the level of your head, and flying directly at you, and with great 
force, will strike you with its powerful beak, immediately rising to 
repeat the attack, which is continued during your stay, and with 
increasing rapidity as you near its nest. It is considered by the in- 
habitants as the protector of their flocks, and with good reason, and 
is by them protected in return. No Eagle would, with impunity, 
approach the dwelling-place of a bird possessed of such courage and 
intrepidity. When soaring high above you it much resembles an 
Eagle in its flight, when standing near you on the ground you 
would not suppose it to be the same bird ; it has then a thick, heavy 
appearance, and a Duck-like waddle ; far different, again, when, 
like the Arctic Feazer, it is in pursuit of other birds to plunder them 
of their fish: I have seen it thus attack the Solan Gannet.” 

We have next three figures of the egg of Richardson’s Feazer, all 
different, and unlike every member of a series with which we have 
been comparing them. ‘Those figured,” Mr. Hewitson tells us, 
“are selected to shew the near approach which some of them make 
to the eggs of other species [it may be added, of a widely different 
genera |, the middle figure resembling most closely that of the 
Whimbrel Curlew ; the third figure shews a form which very rarely 
occurs, and is so much like some of the eggs of the Mew Gull as 
not to be known from them.” There are some observations worthy 
of attention on the plumage of this species, which may be con- 
sidered in connection with the presumed distinctness of the Budytes 
flava and neglecta, which offer not the slightest difference, except in 
colour. Mr. H. observes that “ you are made aware of approaching 
their breeding places, long before you reach them, by their loud, 
harsh, and most singular cry, more nearly resembling that of a Cat 
than ofa bird : nothing can exceed their solicitation as you near their 
eggs ; seating themselves at a short distance from you, they flutter 
about and creep along the ground, extending their wings and express- 
ing, with a language as intelligible as words, their extreme anxiety.” 
Yet are they “the merciless persecutors of the other species of sea- 
fowl in their neighbourhood ; sucking their eggs whenever they are 
.left uncovered by their owners, and with unavoidable speed pursu- 
ing them over the surrounding sea, in order to compel them to dis- 
gorge those fish which they had captured for themselves or for their 
young ones. They are the Hawks among the feathered inhabitants 
of the ocean, fearlessly attacking even the Greater Blackbacked 
Gull, and evincing, in their amazingly rapid evolutions of flight, a 
rapidity of wing which, I should imagine, surpasses that of any 
other bird I know.” 

On the following plate are two figures of the Manks Shearwater’s 
egg ; white, as are those of all the Petrel tribe, but one of them 

VOL. VI.—NO. XIX. R 


130 CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 


having a much browner tinge than the other: they are of the size of 
those of a dunghill fowl. It appears that the young are held in 
very high estimation, by the fisherman, as food. 

Lastly, we have a figure of the Fulmar’s egg, and one of the 
Storm Petrel’s ; both white, the former equalling in size, or exceed- 
ing, that of the Herring Gull, the latter about the magnitude of a 
Black Thrush’s. Both are said to exhale a strong musky odour, 
which they retain for a length of time. Among a number of Storm 
Petrel’s eggs received by the author subsequently to the publication 
of this plate, were two specimens “ beautifully marked round the 
larger end with very minute dots of red and purple, forming a clear 
though faintly-marked zone.” Mr. Hewitson has some pleasing 
observations on this bird’s habits, which appear to be more exclu- 
sively nocturnal than is generally considered. ‘Their manner of 
walking,” he says, “is very light and pleasing, and differing from 
that of every other bird I have seen ; they carry their bodies so far 
forward, and so nearly horizontal, as to give them the appearance 
of being out of equilibrium.” There has been a great number of 
these curious little birds, during the last winter, in the London 
markets, in consequence of the violent gales that we have experi- 
enced. It invariably lays but one egg, like the rest of its tribe, and 
not two, as has been represented. 

Since these volumes have been bound up, Mr. Hewitson has 
made considerable progress in his undertaking, as much, we think, 
as could reasonably be anticipated. It is by far the most elegant 
work of the kind that has ever been published, and reflects much 
credit on all who have been employed in it. It would be superflu- 
ous to repeat the eulogiums we have all along bestowed in the 
course of the foregoing commentary. No person engaged in orni- 
thological pursuits should be without it. 


Birmingham and its Vicinity, as a Manufacturing and Commercial 
District. By William Hawkes Smith. London: Tilt. 1836. 


8vo. 


We have already (vol. ii., p. 264) presented our readers with an 
analysis of the earlier numbers of this publication, and now that 
the volume is completed we feel a pleasure in renewing the praise 
it so well deserves. The work contains much interesting and use- 
ful information relative to an extremely important district, and the 
talent and research indicated both in the text and the notes is high- 
ly creditable to the author. The history of the town of Birming- 
ham is succinctly abstracted, from various published authorities, and 
from personal observation and inquiry ; and the tone of the descrip- 
tive portions, generally, evinces a fondness for antiquarian pursuits. 
The engraving given at page 9, part iii, is interesting in this re- 
spect, as including representations, not, we believe, before published, 
of the fine monumental sculptures in St. Martin’s Church ; the 
ancient brass manorial standard bushel-measure, and other objects 


CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 131 


of curiosity. The numerous plates with which the work is illus- 
trated are from the burin of Mr. Radclyffe, and are most elaborately 
and beautifully engraved. 

Our allotted space will not permit of many extracts from the 
work of Mr. Smith. We must, therefore, content ourselves with 
an abstracted description of the subjoined plate, illustrative of the 
Geology and Mining of the South Staffordshire Coal-field, with 
the use of which we are favoured by the publishers. 

After describing the boundary of the Coal-field, which is well 
displayed in an accompanying map, by means of shades and lines of 
varying intensities, the author proceeds—(part i., p. 23 et seq.) :-— 


“ Of the coal strata, the principal one is nearly thirty feet thick, and takes 
the descriptive appellation of “ ten-yard coal.” * *® The general inclina- 
tion, or dip, of the entire strata is from north to south ; but there are various 
irregularities observable in this course. Of these, the most remarkable are 
those in which the whole recumbent mass has been forcibly raised ; bringing 
to view a thick bed of lime-stone, which, in all probability, is the primitive 
substratum throughout the district. Its angle of inclination varies from 45 
to 80°; and as it has been raised from its original location, 300 yards below 
the surface, the strata are found to incline each way ; tending to a junction 
at the summit, and sloping on each side like the roof of a house.—(fig. 1, b.) 

“ The great elevation of the lime-stone here alluded to, and which occurs at 
the Wren’s Nest Hill, near Dudley, is more definitely exhibited in fig. 2, in 
which ¢ ¢ and d d represent the position and inclination of the elevated stra- 
ta—g h the line or face of the country—and a6 a subterranean canal, 2,000 
yards in length, cut, with immense labour, at a Pe depth, connecting itself 
with the other canals in the neighbourhood, and thus affording the facility of 
transit for the heavy mineral, through which it is driven. Fig. 4 represents 
the curious appearances exposed in a deepened cutting of the road at the 
Hayes, between Hales Owen and Stourbridge, and which laid open a lon 
series of coal and rocky beds, dipping to the east, and extending to the solid 
lime-stone, at a. Fig. 7. is a sketch of a fragment of the Dudley lime-stone, 
full of fossil remains, as Trilobites, Corals, Sponges, Pectins, and other bi- 
valved testacea; with detached vertebrze of Encrinites.” 

“That the stupendous events which caused these elevations and depres- 
sions took place after the numerous upper beds were deposited, is rendered 
evident by the regularity of their relative collocation, even where faults or 
fractures occur. A remarkable disruption of this kind runs through the 
Bradley mines, and proceeds in a southerly direction to a great length. On 
the western side of this fracture, with scarcely any intervening space, the 
main coal and all its attendant beds lie from 80 to 100 yards nearer the sur- 
face, than on the eastern side.”—(fig. 1, 0). 


The other strata of useful minerals are then described, viz., “ the 
iron-ore, of the kind denominated clay ironstone; technically, a 
carbonated hydrate of iron mixed with clay,” and “the fire-clay, 
(leucargillum ), so called from its power of sustaining very intense 
heat without fusing. This substance is extremely serviceable in the 
manufactures, being used for crucibles of all kinds; and for the 
bricks with which furnaces are lined.” 

The last substance particularly described is that which is denomi- 
nated Trap or Basalt, and which, from the situation of its principal 
quarries, is commonly called “ Rowley Rag.” It is presumed, from 


132 CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 


the position in which it is found—sometimes injected between the 
other strata, forming dykes of hard rock; and sometimes appearing 
above the surface in considerable elevations—to be of volcanic ori- 
gin ; and in fig. 3 it has been endeavoured to give some idea of the 
conceivable action of the convulsion of Nature, which was accompa- 
nied by the eruption of such a mass of fused matter. 

Thus, then, figs. 1 and 3, though, of course, imaginary in their 
details, may be considered as presenting, in section, the probable 
disposition of the various strata, from the north-eastern point, where 
the thick coal crops out and is lost near Bilston, to the south-west- 
ern boundary, where it rapidly descends, as it were in. steps, to great 
depths, exhibiting a minature picture of the spectacle which would 
meet the eye were a deep cutting to be made through the entire 
district, and shewing such faults, dykes, elevations, and depressions 
as the experience of the miner discovers actually to prevail. ‘The 
position of the thick coal and the lime-stone, respectively, being 
marked by the shaded lines m and n. 

The remaining figures on our plate, (figs. 5, 6, and 8), refer to 
the chapter on the Coal Mine, which contains a good deal of graphic 
and lively description. (p. 36, et seq.). The work of raising the 
coal is usually performed by the steam-engine, but in certain situa- 
tions where the depth is not great, and where the dip is considerable, 
the more ancient machine, the Gin, (fig. 8) is still used. The name 
of this apparatus, as our author speculates at page 7, is “ a slipshod 
corruption or abbreviation of ‘engine’—as we say van, adopting the 
final syllable of caravan.” An examination of the figure will suffi- 
ciently explain its construction and adaptation. 

Figs. 5 and 6 are, respectively, a section and a ground-plan of the 
mode of “ getting” the ten-yard coal ; to which the following refer- 
ences may be made :—c the shaft; G @ the entrances to the stalls, 
or places where the work is proceeding ; B B pillars of coal of great 
thickness, left to support the superincumbent strata; a the ungot 
coal. ‘The white lines round the working, (6 4, fig. 6,) represent 
the air-head—a narrow passage with apertures communicating with 
the openings or stalls, and constructed for the purpose of introduc. 
ing acurrent of pure air into the mine. A supposed improvement 
in this important department of mining—Ventilation—is also exhi- 
bited in these figures :—pb D is an air-pipe conducted down the shaft 
co, and extending by its ramifications, EF E, into the working stalls ; 
capable of being easily lengthened, shortened, or removed, as the 
case requires. ¥ isa blowing, or air-cylinder, attached to the mine- 
engine, by the operation of which a constant and powerful stream 
of air would be impelled into the mine, spreading itself in jets from 
the mouths of the arms, & £, and driving out the deleterious 
vapours and gases that are generated in the recesses of the mine. 
This mode of ventilation, it appears, is suggested by Mr. Harper of 
Wednesbury. It has never been brought into practice, but it ap- 
pears to be dictated by good sense, and, if found effectual, would 
have the additional merit of economizing labour, and of preventing 


CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 133 


the great waste of coal which is unavoidable in the excavation of 
the atr-heads. 

The chapter devoted to Mineralogy and Geology is highly inter- 
esting, but as our space will not admit of more extended extracts 
we must refer our readers to this section of the work. 


Mundi et Cordis: De Rebus Sempiternis et Temporariis : Carmina. 
Poems and Sonnets. By Thomas Wade. pp. 285, 8vo. London. 


Turis is a volume of intrinsic poetry, instinct with all the attri- 
butes of the master—one who seeth through things clearly with a 
spirit’s eye. Thomas Wade is the interpreter betwixt Wordsworth 
and Shelley: he has all the holy glow and fiery fervour of the one, 
with the profoundness of the other, united to a solemn splendour of 
expression peculiarly his own. His mind is of a high order; the 
keenest sensibility is wedded to profoundest thought: he has an ear 
attuned to the nicest shades of harmony—a soul that trembles into 
emotion at touch, sound, colours. Stored with the riches of classic 
lore, imbued with the spirit of the antique, pre-eminently with that 

which exalts, ennobles, purifies—with that which, while it lifts us 

above “ this sphere of earthliness,” reconciles us to, and makes sup- 
portable, the infirmities of our humanity. Mr. Wade is neverthe- 
less, like all true poets, in advance of the spirit of the age. In his 
muse there is a majesty, a voluptuous and august refinement of 
diction—the outward and visible sign of thought—altogether new. 
and unprecedented. The volume before us consists, for the most 
part, of minor pieces and sonnets; but their brevity is atoned 
for by their quality. The sonnets, of which there are more than a 
hundred, are of great beauty and variety, and will endure the test 
of “Time.” The love enunciations of that composition are of in- 
toxicating beauty. Every gradation of feeling of the all-absorbing 
passion is pourtrayed with a potential subtlety startling and new. 
We will introduce some examples :— 


“PROMISE. 


“T go; but do not weep !—I will remember 
Thine very accent till we meet again ; 

The bright fire of my love shall ne’er know ember, 
But purely burn, like to the soul of wine: 

Pil think and dream of thee: I'll ne’er recline 

To slumber, but [’ll wish my couch were thine ; 
Nor wake and sigh not for thee: and by letter 
Ill break the distance which our love doth fetter, 
And speak to thee in love-born characters : 

And on the wide sea-waving of my verse 

A rich shower of sweet thoughts of thee shall rain, 
And stories of our hearts will I rehearse : 

Let this assurance stanch thy bleeding woe— - 
Thine image follows me where’er I go.” 


134 CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 


“THE TOKEN-FLOWERS. 


** IT have been ing on those eloquent flowers— 

The love-named ‘ Heart’s-ease’ and ‘ Forget-me-not’— 

Which thou did’st give me in those last sweet hours 

That beam’d quick life before our death of parting. 

They are both wither’d! —That the first should die, 

To my repining heart is nothing strange ; 

For never heart’s-ease fell to passion’s lot 

In this woe-weary world, where chance and change 

Still drug Joy’s purest cup with misery. 

But my soul sighs, and to my eye is starting 

A thoughtful tear, to think the last must perish : 

O! I would have it live until the hour 

When thy remembrance, Dear! I cease to cherish— 
What an undying thing were then that sacred flower !” 


“THE ANSWER. 


“‘ Here, in my lone abode again I sit, 

With a tired heart, for ever toward thee yearning ; 
And visions of thee, in all aspects, flit 

Before my sleepy eyes, that cannot sleep, 
Kept open by my troubled mind’s discerning. 
Through the long night sad vigils did I keep ; 
And spectres of thee, and imaginings, 

Were in me and around me. I did weep, 

To think on all thy love ; and all the grief 
Which must disturb thy spirit in its springs, 
After our hurried parting, when relie 

Of tears or sighs was by our state forbidden ; 
And our one heart was as a folded leaf 

In which oracular characters are hidden. 


“ But, then; the thought—the deep, prophetic thought, 
That in this being we should meet again, 
Did still the turbulent sorrow of my soul ; 
And my sweet hopes kiss’d thine—but had no fear ; 
For a triumphant flag did passion rear, 
That stream’d into the future, glory-fraught ! 
I cannot cease to love thee: though the chain 
Of this world is around me, its controul 
Is feeble; for the powers of love and song 
Wave a magician’s wand above my spirit, 
_ And sway me with a talisman divine 
Which I resist not: others may inherit 
My heart’s wild perfume ; but the flower is thine. 
This read where thou didst write. All blessings round thee throng !” 


We appeal to all who think and feel—Are not these true pictures 
of the human heart? They are, true, profound, lasting. And yet 
there are those, of literary pretensions too, who cannot discriminate 
between this and ordinary versification ; what may be the texture 
of their heart and brain we cannot divine. God pity and forgive 
them! Poor Fakenham Ghosts ! 

The condensed power of Mr. Wade’s genius is felicitously enun- 
ciated in the Sonnet. Familiar as we are with the masters of this 
composition—Petrarch, and Shakspeare, and Wordsworth—we do 


CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 135 


not hesitate to award the highest meed of approbation to the obla- 
tion to the poet Shelley. For force of expression and sublimity of 
sentiment it has no equal. The subject and the song are alike un- 
paralleled :— 


“ SHELLEY. 


*“ Holy and mighty Poet of the cpa 

That broods and breathes along the Universe ! 

In the least portion of whose starry verse 

Is the great breath the sphered heaven’s inherit— 
No human song is eloquent as thine ; 

For by a reasoning instinct all divine, 

Thou feel’st the soul of things ; and thereof singing, 
With all the madness of a skylark springin 

From earth to heaven, the intenseness of thy strain, 
Like the lark’s music all around us ringing, 

Laps us in God’s own heart, and we regain 

Our primal life etherial! Men profane 

Blaspheme thee: I have heard thee dreamer styled— 
I’ve mused upon their wakefulness—and smiled.” 


We have heard this from the lips of a fine elocutionist : the effect 
was marvellous.—Here is something that, if we mistake not, will 
find its way to the heart :— 


“AN EXHORTATION TO MANKIND. 


“When will it be that men shall kinder grow 

In human intercourse; and not thus, savagely, 
Spring upon each occasion to o’erthrow 

Their fellow-travellers through mortality ? 

God hath apportioned us enough of woe 

In this brief journey; from within derived, 
And from the elements, in which we sicken, 
Grow weak and die: let not man be deprived 
By man of that poor solace which doth quicken 
The flagging heart and the o’erlabour’d brain, 
And temper to endurance, when self-stricken, 
Or time and storm-worn. Transient thing! refrain ! 
Sting not thy brother insect till he perish: 

A life brief as thine own, vex not ; but cherish.” 


We trust Mr. Wade will pardon us if, for a moment, we relax 
our critical dignity, and, flinging aside our pen, leap from our cri- 
tical perch, and fold him to our heart. 

Prose praise would be a poor return for these soul-filling strains. 
But before we close this brief notice with our expression of rever- 
ence of the author’s genius, we would ask Mr. Wade why, when 
the choice was open to him, why did he not write for the middle- 
rate, muddy-minded million? What chance has he of popularity ? 
Why is he so “abstruse?” He will understand us, we opine. 

Howsoever much we may regret, the fact cannot be disguised that 
poetry of this supreme order is not likely to meet with extensive 
sympathy. Few and far between are the minds that will fully ap- 


136 CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 


preciate it; its compass and power is beyond the common cope. 
The multitude sympathises most with what assimilates to itself. 
We are satisfied, fee, that the discriminating few under whose 
notice this shall fall, will feel as grateful to us fur directing their 
attention to the author, as are we gratified in presenting his claims 
to their regard. 


The Fallacy of the Art of Physic as taught in the Schools ; mith 
the development of new and important Principles of Practice. 
By Samuel Dickson, M.D., Cheltenham, formerly a Medical 
Officer on the Staff. Edinburgh: A. & C. Black ; Longman, 
London ; Lovesy, Cheltenham. 1836. 8vo., pp. 180. 


Ir requires not a little courage to write such a treatise as the one 
before us, attacking as it does the established opinions of the whole 
faculty, and attempting to prove the fallacy of the art of physic as 
taught in the schools ; but the author urges that “if multiplicity 
of patients be at all a test of successful treatment, the profession 
may draw a favourable inference from the fact that, in a less period 
than three years, I have prescribed for upwards of eight thousand 
private patients.” What Dr. Dickson mainly labours to establish 
is that there is but one disease, remettent fever, and that every dis- 
ease is a variety of this type. There is much useful matter in the 
volume, and even supposing his theory false, we think such a book 
calculated to do good, if it were only to excite a more vigorous re- 
search into the errors and prejudices of routine practitioners. The 
author appears to be not unfavourable to Homeopathy, and tells 
us that he had himself discovered the principle of similia similibus 
curantur before he had even heard of the doctrines of Hahnemann. 
This is a new and most convincing proof of the truth of that the- 
ory. When, however, our auther had advanced thus far, we must 
hold him blameable for not looking further into the subject ; and 
after the somewhat harsh language in which he occasionally in- 
dulges towards his brethren (for not adopting his omn views, which 
he now for the first time promulgates), he has no excuse for ridicul- 
ing the small doses of the homceopaths: let him remember that le 
vrai n'est pas toujours vraisemblable. But although Dr. D. has not 
condescended to dive deeper into Homceopathy otherwise than by 
means of faulty reviews of homeopathic books, he has effected a 
great improvement on the practice of the old school, and his book is 
replete with judicious remarks. Take the following as examples :-— 


“The same remark attaches to palpitation and temporary cessation of the 
heart’s action; diseases constantly misunderstood, and as constantly mal- 
treated, ‘That bauble of Laennec—the stethoscope—which the reader will 
pardon me for holding in heterodox punter is, of course, employed. The 
very application of the instrument to the chest deranges the action of the 
lungs and heart ; the patient’s attention to the operation, in most instances, 
calling off the influence of the brain, by alarm or otherwise, from the func- 
tions of the body. The most extraordinary prognoses are consequently 


CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 137 


given—extraordinary if they did not, by the subsequent treatment, like pro- 
phecies, tend to verify themselves.”—p. 16. 


_ Again :— 


“The division of the profession into Medicine and Surgery has given rise 
to a vast number of operations which, so far from alleviating the sufferin 
of man, have materially added to them. Among these I must particularly 
reprobate the employment of the knife in every kind of fistula, numerous 
tumours, including cancer, the abuse of the bougie, the extirpation of the 
upper and lower jaw, and many other sanguinary practices, which so often 
help the suet to a carriage and the patient to a coffin. A proper know- 
ledge of medicine and its mode of action requires but seldom the formidable 
assistance of operative skill—a skill which the generality of students, in their 
endeavours to ‘acquire, too frequently neglect the very interests it is the 
business of their profession to keep in mind.”—p. 22. 


Dr. D. also agrees with Hahnemann in abjuring, in every case, 
the practice of bleeding—a subject which certainly requires much 
reform. The work is written in a pleasant style, and if the Doc- 
tor’s language be occasionally unwarrantably strong, he. undoubt- 
edly has thrown out hints well worthy of attention; and, without 
conceding to his theory zm toto, we may recommend the perusal of 
the volume to the improving part of the profession. 


The Ornithological Guide ; in which are discussed several interest- 
ing points in Ornithology. By Charles Thorold Wood, jun., Esq. 
London: Whittaker & Co. fcap. 8vo. 1836. 


In this book-making age octavo volumes are the work of a few 
short weeks, and the majority of the publications of the present day 
would certainly tend to prove the truth of our assertion. On tak- 
ing up the guide before us, we expected—judging from the date of 
the preface, September, 1835—we had at length met with a book 
on which unusual care and labour had been bestowed. We must, 
however, say that we were disappointed. ‘The volume is divided 
into three sections. The first of these is on the subject of nomen- 
clature, scientific and vernacular. We should have been better 
pleased had our author omitted the somewhat harsh critique on the 
letter of Mr. Strickland to this Journal, especially as it had already 
been replied to. A chapter .on nomenclature might have been in- 
troduced without implicating Mr. Strickland so deeply in the mat- 
ter: even supposing Mr. S. to be in the wrong (which we are in- 
clined to believe), surely it is not necessary to resort to abuse to 
establish this fact. We rejoice, however, to see the reform of Eng- 
lish names advocated, and hope the example may be followed by 
others. The second section consists of notices of ornithological 
works. In Mr. Neville Wood’s Ornithologist’s Text Book, one 
hundred and fifty works are included, in the present Guide only 
fifty, or exactly one-third ; we leave our readers to form their own 
conclusion. Lastly, we have a list of British birds for labelling 

VOL. VI.—NO. XIX. s 


138 CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 


eabinets. It is well worth the cost of the book ; it is the best cata- 
logue extant, and would have deserved our unqualified commenda- 
tion, had it not been for the unfortunate spelling of many of the 
names. We cannot compliment Mr. C. T. Wood on his style—it is 
often pedantic, and not always even correct ; but still, with all ‘its 
imperfections, the first chapter contains hints well worthy attention, 
and the catalogue will prove useful to the collector. 


Wanderings and Excursions in North Wales. By Thomas Ros- 

_ coe, Esq., with 51 engravings, by W. Radclyffe, from drawings 
by Cattermole, Cox, Creswick, &c. London: C. Tilt—Birming- 
ham: Wrightson and Webb. 1836. Royal 8vo. pp. 261. 

Wanderings and Excursions in South Wales, including the Scenery 
of the River Wye. Parts i. to iv. 


Having already had occasion to notice this beautiful and original 
work in previous numbers, we do not consider it necessary to present 
our readers with a lengthy review of it, now that the first part of 
Mr. Roscoe’s undertaking has come to a close. We-may, however, 
observe, that the talent and care we had the pleasure of remarking 
in the early numbers, are equally conspicuous throughout the work, 
which is completed in 17 parts. Mr. Roscoe’s Wanderings are 
alike elegant, entertaining, and useful ; and both the letter-press 
and the admirably-executed plates cannot fail to prove interesting 
to every one. 

The Wanderings in South Wales are a continuation of the above 
work, and its plan and character are precisely similar. The style is so 
chaste, and the descriptions are so glowing and animated, that, but 
for want of space, we could not have resisted the temptation of mak. 
ing a few extracts. We look forward with considerable interest to 
the termination of the work, when we shall again return to these 
classical pages, and the equally beautiful engravings, by the emi- 
nent artists employed upon this publication. 


The Philosophy of Education, with its practical application'to a sys- 
tem and plan of Popular Education as a National Object. By 
James Simpson, Advocate. Second edition. Edinburgh: A. and 
C. Black—London: Longman. 1836. feap. 8vo., pp. 288. 


Tuts is a second edition of Mr. Simpson’s deservedly popular 
treatise, originally published in 1834, and entitled—Necessity of 
Popular Education, as a National Object.. The work has under. 
gone a careful revision, and is now published at a reduced size 
and price, by omitting the treatise on Homicidal Insanity and 
Criminal Legislation, which the author proposes to issue in a 
separate form. ‘To give our readers a detailed analysis of the 
contents of a work so widely disseminated, would be superflu- 
eus: it is a publication eminently calculated to correct the errors 
and prejudices which exist on the important subject of educa- 


CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 139 


tion ; and there is scarcely a single sentence in the justice of which 
we do not most heartily agree with the author. The Appendix 
contains much interesting information relative to infant schools 
and other educational establishments. The only thing in which 
we conceive Mr. Simpson to have failed, is in the classification 
of the mental faculties ; and we perfectly concur with our respected 
cotemporary, the Phrenological Journal, in wishing that he had not 
included the organs of Hope, Firmness, Wonder, Ideality, Wit, and 
Imitation, amongst the moral sentiments. Wit is, we think, rather 
a reflecting than a moral faculty, though we are doubtful of ‘its 
right to a place in either class. 


I.—The Harmony of Phrenology with Scripture: shewn in a refu- 
tation of the Philosophical Errors contained in Combe’s Consti- 
tution of Man. By William Scott, Esq. Edinburgh: Fraser & 
Co.—London: Smith and Elder. 1836. Small 8vo., pp. 332. 

II.—An Examination of Mr. Scott’s Attack on Combe’s ‘‘ Constitu- 
tion of Man.” By Hewett C. Watson. London: Longman & 
Co. 1836. - pp. 38. 


Mr. Scott is a phrenologist, though it may well be doubted whe- 
ther his knowledge of the true science of mind has been of much 
service to him. As his volume is so glaringly invidious, and con- 
tains in each page such a, host of ‘philosophical errors,” we shall 
not condescend to give it a detailed analysis. We must, however, 
do Mr. Scott the justice to say that one or two of the speculations 
he has touched upon are curious, and not altogether unworthy the 
attention of the immortal writer whose admirable work he has so 
unsparingly criticised. ‘Those who are disposed to place any reli- 
ance on the pages of Mr. Scott will find their fallacy cleverly and 
amply refuted in the pamphlet of Mr. Watson, the title of which 
we have extracted above. Mr. W. has only deemed it incumbent 
on him to analyze a small portion of the book, and we are by no 
means eet to censure him for his forbearance. 


A Nomenclature of British Birds ; being a Systematic Catalogue of 
all the Species hitherto discovered in Britain and Ireland, intend- 
ed for Labelling Collections of British Birds and their Eggs, By 
Henry Doubleday. London: Westley & Davis. 1836. 


Mr. Doubleday commences his preface by endeavouring to prove 
the catalogue of the Rev. F. O. Morris to be comparatively useless. 
Without, however, following him in this discussion, we must say 
the present pamphlet falls very far short of our expectations. The 
author has judiciously employed the classification adopted by Je- 
nyns; but the English nomenclature is, in our opinion, defective, 
and we cannot, therefore, recommend the publication to our readers, 
although we must admit that it contains no very glaring errors. The 
names are neatly and clearly printed, but we miss the double lines 


140 CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 


between each species, which have so good an effect in Mr. Morris's 
list. 


Two Lectures on Modern English Literature, delivered in the Li- 
terary and Scientific Institution at Staines, in November, 1836. 
By the Rev. Robert Jones, D.D., M.R.S.L., &c. London: 


Harvey & Darton. pp. 44. 


Turse lectures—printed at the desire of the members of the 
Society to whom they were delivered—are written in the usual chaste 
and elegant style of Dr. Jones. They will, doubtless, fulfil the 
desired end, of exciting an interest in English literature ; but the 
sketch is so extremely brief and rapid as scarcely to bear criticism. 
Dr. Jones is fully competent to write a much more detailed trea- 
tise on the subject, and we should be most happy to see such a vo- 
lume from his classical pen on our table. 


The Naturalist’s Library. Conducted by Sir Wm. Jardine, Bart., 
&c. Mammalia. Vol. VI. Ordinary Celacea, or Whales. 
Edinburgh: Lizars—London: Highley. 1837. fcap. 8vo. 


‘Tue present volume of this popular series is one of more than 
ordinary interest. ‘To the general reader the accounts of the Whale 
fishery cannot fail to be amusing ; and the book contains many ob- 
servations of value to the naturalist. Much confusion has hung 
over the Cetacea, and any additional attempts to elucidate their his- 
tory deserve the thanks of the cetologist. The chapter on the com- 
parative anatomy of the Cetacea is exceedingly well written, and 
contains many valuable observations: the descriptions of species are 
replete with interesting details, and the plates are as numerous and 
excellent as usual. It is not for us to institute an analysis of any 
portion of a popular volume like the present, but we will present 
our readers with an extract from the observations on fossil Ceta- 


cea --—— 
* 


‘** There are distinct records of portions of skeletons of Whales having been 
discovered on the continent of Europe, as well as in various parts of Britain, 
&c. One of these was discovered by M. Cortesi, in 1806, on the east flank 
of Monte Pulgnasco, one of the Apennines, about 600 feet under the summit, 
which is itself elevated 1200 feet above the neighbouring plain. In this part, 
the hill consists of regular beds of blueish clay, inclined towards the north, 
and filled with marine shells. The Whale was found lying in the same di- 
rection with the strata which inclosed it, the head pointing northwards. 
This skeleton was nearly perfect, although some of the ribs were somewhat 
out of their proper position. The vertebree were lying on the right side; a 
great many teeth of a small species of Shark, and innumerable shells sur- 
rounded it, especially a small variety of Oyster, many of which were attach- 
ed to the left side of the vertebra, lying uppermost. The regular attach- 
ment of these Oysters is well worthy of consideration, as it goes to show that 
they must have been fixed to their position while alive, and, consequently, 
that the skeleton had long lain at the bottom of the ocean. . < as 
M. Cortesi discovered another skeleton in 1816, in the same kind of strata, 


CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 141 


and in a neighbouring valley. It was not in such good preservation, and 
could not so easily be disengaged from the surrounding rock. Its head was 
only four feet long, and the total length 12ft. 5in. It was situated at a low- 
er level than the other, at 1200 feet under the summit of Monte Pulgnasco, 
and 1400 feet under that of Monte Grogo, the two nearest hills. This has 
been designated, by the authority last quoted, Balena Cortesii.—A cetaceous 
animal of much larger dimensions was discovered, in 1775, in Paris. A wine- 
merchant, in la Rue Dauphine, while cutting trenches in his cellar, discover- 
ed a fossil bone of considerable dimensions, in a yellowish and sandy clay, 
which appears to be the natural soil of the locality. Solicitous to spare the 
labour necessary for its entire extraction, he broke it, and raised a portion 
weighing 2cwt. This attracted the attention of the curious; a cast was taken 
by tana and a sketch and description were published in the Journal de 
Physique for 1781. This cast, with additional sketches, fell into the hands of 
Cuvier, and he, with that success which attended all his labours in this de- 
or detected it to be a portion of the right temporal bone of a Whale. 
He compared it with corresponding portions of others, and concluded that 
the length of its head was about 16 feet, and that the total length of the ani- 
mal to which it belonged could not be less than 54 feet, without including 
the tail or lips, which would raise it to about 60 feet. Cuvier, moreover, re- 
marks, that, although this size agrees with that of the mysticetus, yet the 
details of the shape, and the comparison of the proportions, indicate decided 
differences. His conclusion is, that, according to all appearance, this frag- 
ment belongs to a cetaceous animal of a species which is unknown, even 
among fossiles.”——p. 152. 


We should not omit to mention that the volume contains a por- 
trait, and a short though interesting memoir of Lacépéde, who, it 
is well known, was a musician as well as a naturalist. 


Sacred Philosophy of the Seasons ; illustrating the Perfections of 
God in the Phenomena of the Year. Vol. IIl—Spring. By the 
Rev. Henry Duncan, D.D. Edinburgh: W. Oliphant and Son 
—London: Hamilton, Adams, & Co. 1837. 


In The Naturalist we noticed the former volume of this interest- 
ing and instructive work, bestowing upon it the commendations it 
seemed so richly to merit. The appearance of the present volume 
fully bears out our favourable anticipations, and as the scope for 
observation is generally greater in spring than winter, there is 
greater variety in this than its precursor, while the plan is adhered 
to with all the fidelity which was requisite. The physical condi- 
tions of the earth during the vernal months are briefly adverted to, 
and then the effects of the alterations in them, as manifested by the 
revival of vegetation, and the assiduity of birds to hatch their brood, 
are introduced. ‘The latter part of the volume,” states the pre- 
face, “is devoted to an exemplification of those adaptations and pro- 
perties in the soil, and in vegetable substances, which give rise to 
and reward the labours of the agriculturist, and which thus lay the 
foundation of civilized society, and afford a stimulus to progressive 
improvement in the arts and sciences.” In the prosecution of this - 
subject many interesting facts, some very recently made known, are 
adduced, and each is caused to 


142 CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 


“ Unfold its store of argument” 


in the same tone of devout philosophy which characterizes the pre- 
ceding volume. Few could read these volumes without being made 
wiser, no one could peruse them with any degree of attention and 
not be made better. To have the mind imbued with such senti- 
ments is one of the greatest of earthly blessings, and one of the 
surest ways we can take 


**'To walk from holiness below 
To holiness above.” 


How truly does the amiable Bernard Barton put the case :— 


**Q! look up to the soft blue sk 

Arching above thee bright and fair : 
Cold is the heart and dull the eye 

Which feels not, sees not, God is there! 


Look round thee on this spacious earth, 
With every varied beauty rife : 

Starts not an instant thought to birth 
Of Him whose presence gives it life ?” 


Our limits forbid our making any extracts, and it is besides quite 
unnecessary, for the public has shewn its appreciation of the first 
volume so fully as to bring it already to a second edition, which has 
given the author an opportunity of considerably improving the ar- 
rangement ; and we cannot doubt but that an equally favourable re- 
ception will attend this second volume. 


The Physiology of Digestion, considered mith relation to the Princi- 
ples of Dietetics. By Andrew Combe, M.D., &c. &c. The se- 
cond edition, revised and enlarged. pp. xxviii, 350; small 8vo. 
London: Simpkin, Marshall, & Co.—Edinburgh: Machlachlan 
and Stewart. 1837. 


As we fully anticipated, this excellent and justly popular treatise 
approaches to a third impression: the first was large ; so was the 
second, which has been carefully revised and considerably enlarged. 
The first Part, which is introductory and physiological, includes 
much valuable information communicated in a style remarkably per- 
spicuous and intelligible by unprofessional readers. We recom- 
mend, in an especial manner, the sixth chapter of the second Part to 
the attention of invalids and convalescents. Altogether, the volume 
abounds with principles and precepts peculiarly adapted to secure 
the advantages of health—the principal element of comfort and hap- 
piness. 


CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 143 


A Practical View of Homeopathy; being an Address to British 
Practitioners on the general Applicability and superior Efficacy 
of the Homeeopathic Method in the Treatment of Disease. By 
Stephen Simpson, M.D., late Resident Practitioner at Rome. 
London: Bailliére, Regent-street. 8vo., pp. 350. 1836. 


In a subject so deeply interesting as Medicine must ever be to 
the human race, and where so much depends on the fitness or unfit- 
ness of the physician or the system he adopts for the eradication of 
disease, the public ought, undoubtedly, to be aware of the general 
plan on which they should be treated, and ought to be possessed. of 
knowledge sufficient to detect the quack from the enlightened phy- 
sician. Thus, however much it may be the interest of the profes- 
sion to repel any sudden and apparently violent dispersion of their 
acknowledged theories, it will, in equal ratio, behove the non-pro- 
fessional public to investigate with care any new system—however 
“improbable and grotesque” it may at first sight appear—that may 
be propounded. Montaigne very justly observes “ le vrai n’est pas 
toujours vraisemblable.” This seems to apply admirably to Homeo- 
pathy. The small doses administered by the new school have so 
startled the routine doctors, that they consider it needless further to 
examine the method. Indeed, it would appear that the original 
discoverer, Dr. Hahnemann, has, by his exaggerations and over zeal 
in the cause, given much occasion for just reprehension. To these 
extravagancies many of his more devoted followers still adhere ; but 
others—amongst whom we must class Dr. Simpson—rejecting 
many of Hahnemann’s speculations, and carefully gathering toge- 
ther facts, have arrived at far more reasonable conclusions. We 
must ourselves confess, that a perusal of the learned discoverer’s 
books on the subject, made but a small impression in favour of the 
doctrine ; but a careful survey of the work before us, containing 
the opinions of many of the most eminent German physicians, has 
left no doubt in our minds, that the advantages of Homceopathy 
over Allopathy are immense: Ist., because the disease under the 
new method is eradicated in less than half the time that it could be 
by the ordinary plan ; 2nd., because the copious evacuations and 
excessive debility—too often the effects of allopathic treatment— 
are avoided ; 3rd., because the action of the medicine is less violent, 
and consequently allows the patient considerably more ease; 4th., 
because the medicines are without taste, and this is especially valu- 
able as regards children ; and, 5th., because the reduction of the 
druggist’s bill will be considerable. 

These five considerations, if just, are surely sufficient to point out 
to any one the immense practical utility of Homoeopathy: whether 
or not they are just, it is the duty of every one to determine for 
himself. We are of course well aware that the introduction of it 
will be retarded as long as possible, and that the negative verdict 
of the family doctor will for a time successfully prevent its gaining 
ground ; but the opposition will only be temporary, for who can, in 


144 CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 


the end, stem the current of favour in the cause of rruTH? Nay, 
more, we conceive the violent attacks which this system has sus- 
tained abroad, and with which it is beginning to be persecuted at 
- home, to be one of the best arguments in its favour. No one consi- 
ders it worth while to refute the assertions of a notorious quack ; 
but when there is a lurking consciousness of the truth of a new dis- 
covery, then it is that all the wit and talent that can be mustered 
are employed in its demolition On the continent the practical ad- 
vance made by Homeeopathy is great, and its opponents have long 
been strong and active; in England the system is but little known, 
save by the profession, and to them often only by name; and only 
one weekly medical journal has as yet vented its petty spleen on the 
subject. As the doctrine advances in public favour it will be suc- 
cessively attacked by the higher periodicals. But let us now glance 
at our author’s work. 

Dr. Simpson’s book is divided into three parts—homeeopathic 
principle, homeopathic practice, and homeopathic materia medica ; 
a few extracts from each may be useful. The grand principle of 
Homeeopathy is, simelia similibus curantur, and that specifics which, 
in large doses, would excite a disease in a healthy person, cure the 
same malady in a sick individual. Thus— 


*'The purgative power of rhubarb, in large doses, is universally known; 
in smaller doses it is not less efficient in checking certain forms of diarrhoea. 
Opium, which, in large doses, constipates the bowels, is recommended by 
many excellent practitioners as a most efficient remedy in ileus and incarce- 
rated hernia. Its power as an intoxicating and stupifying remedy is not less 
certain; while in the comatose state of acute fevers, in small doses, it re- 
lieves the symptoms like a charm. Arsenic produces ‘shivering, dryness of 
the throat, excessive thirst, twitching of the tendons, palpitations, a small, 
quick, and feverish pulse, sometimes eruptions of the skin, vertigo, coma, 
and convulsions; and it is also a powerful remedy in intermittents, attended 
with nervous symptoms and great prostration of strength. A remarkable 
case is mentioned by Rau of a young lady who, from a peculiar irritabilit 
of the skin and great susceptibility of cold, was subject to a nettle-rash, whic 
never failed to return at short intervals, but which as certainly gave way 
upon her’ partaking of craw-fish, and did not return as long as these were to 
be had. Craw-fish are well known to excite a similar eruption in many in- 
dividuals, and hence, in all probability, their action in this case was homoeo- 
pathic, though not sufficiently powerful to eradicate a disease so deeply © 
rooted in the organism.” 


The asertion made by some, that the homeopathic doctrine is not 
novel, can never detract from the merit of Hahnemann. It was, 
indeed, obscurely hinted at so long ago as the days of Paracelsus, 
and by a few authors since that date; but to Hahnemann alone 
belongs the transcendent merit of having first applied the principle. 
There are, moreover, numerous instances on record of physicians, 
who had practised the old method thirty years and upwards with 
success, renouncing their former views, and publicly acknowledging 
their belief in Homeeopathy. 

One great merit of Dr. Simpson’s treatise is the calmness and im- 


CRI'PICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 145 


partiality with which he discusses the whole matter. He is bigotted 
to noone master or theory, but reasons for himself; rejects that 
which appears to him not founded on truth, and adopts whatever he 
considers sound, whencesover it may proceed. He also makes an 
admirable distinction between the grand principle on which the. 
system rests, and the theories of even its most enlightened advocates 
Thus, he observes— 


* As to the merits or demerits of the above speculations future observa- 
tions must decide; in the mean time let us not forget that, whether true or 
false, the facts of Homoeopathy are altogether independent of them, being 
the result of experiments, of the truth of which any candid inquirer may 
convince himself.” s 


Dr. S. further admits that, in the present state of our knowledge, 
antipathic remedies, and even bleeding, are still occasionally re- 
quired ; and the volume does not contain a single observation tend- 
ing to detract from the merits of the old school. 


“ There is, however, a class of diseases in which the use of antipathic re- 
medies is altogether indispensable, namely, where there is a prostration of 
the vital powers; here the susceptibility for homceopathic medicines is often 
altogether extinguished, and can only be restored by the use of such antipa- 
thic remedies as are adapted to the peculiar nature of the case. Whilst, 
therefore, we reject the exaggeration of Hahnemann, when he says that by 
means of the above methods no radical cure was ever effected, we must ad- 
mit their application to be ofa very limited nature, and their injudicious 
adoption to be frequently followed by very injurious effects. Still they are 
both occasionally of essential service in the palliation of symptoms, both in 
acute and chronic diseases, and at times are even alone sufficient to effect a 
permanent cure.” 

Confirmation of the Homeopathic Doctrine by an Opponent.— Professor 
Jorg, of Leipsic, having undertaken a series of experiments with the view of 
disproving that doctrine, ends by wang practitioners of the danger of 
using nitre in inflammations, assafoetida in hysteria and hypochondriasis, and 

russic acid in inflammatory affections of the larynx and pronchil, because, 
in his experiments upon healthy individuals, these substances had produced 
very similar diseases. He further expresses his astonishment at finding re- 
sults so contrary to received opinions, and states that, as far as his experi- 
ments have yet gone, he has scarcely met with a remedy the real properties 
of which are known. The most remarkable point in these experiments, how- 
ever, is that, though conducted in the most practical manner, the learned 
professor cannot see that they all tend to confirm the very system they 
were meant to destroy.” : 

Small Doses.—Many, both of the opponents and advocates of the system, 
‘“‘ seem to dwell upon the incredible smallness of the dose as the essence of 
the system, and the touchstone of its merit ; and exhaust their imagination 
in the attack and defence of this unimportant point, which has, in reality, 
nothing to do with the marrow of the question. The principle of Homco- 
pathy had been promulgated, the system had been named from this princi- 
ple, and had already approached maturity, before the discovery of the atomic 
powers of medicine not only spread terror and dismay among the adherents of 
the old system, threatening the apothecaries especially with utter annihila- 
tion, but laid the foundation for many of the errors and absurdities which 
have since so seriously impeded its progress. And yet this discovery of 
Hahnemann is not only absolutely certain, but in its results will, in all pro- 

VOL. VI.—NO. XIX. T 


146 CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 


bability, ultimately prove one of the most important in the annals of medi- 
cine.” 


Hahnemann’s discovery of the atomic power of medicine was the 
result of no speculation, but of practice, he having been induced 
gradually to decrease the doses on account of the too violent effects 
which were the result of the large doses. 


“ It is for those, therefore, who doubt the possibility of such minute doses 
as the hundredth, thousandth, millionth, and even decillionth part of a grain 
of any medicine producing effects when administered homceopathically in 
disease, to retrace the steps of Hahnemann.” 

Homeopathy demonstrated to be true by facts.—“ The system of Hahnemann 
as such, would long since have ceased to exist, had not the application of his 
method to the treatment of disease been followed by such successful results 
as to have obtained for it the suffrages of the public, and hence too at length 
to have attracted the attention of the profession. Since the homceopathic 
principle was not discovered by the way of speculation, but solely by that of 
experiment, out of which the theoretical side of Homceopathy has since been 
developed ; so all attempts to disprove it by theoretical arguments must be 
altogether ted bat Further,—“It may fairly be asserted, that the 
rapid advancement of Homoeopathy within the last ten years is almost en- 
ene to the scientific cultivation of it by practitioners bred up in the 

school.” 


Dr. Simpson has the following observations in his chapter on 
diet (to which the homeopathists pay the strictest attention), in the 
truth of which we entirely concur :— 


“ The length to which the use of strong wine, cayenne pepper, and other 

owerful excitants has been carried in England, calls loudly for reform, as it 
is, probably, the cause of one half of the dyspepsies with which the English 
are plagued. With this exception, the English diet in general, and the cook- 
ing in particular, is superior to that of any nation in Europe, as, beyond all 
others, it fulfils the great objects of the art—to present the food in the most 
digestible, most nutritive, and most sapid form.” 


Weare next presented with thirty-two extremely interesting and 
satisfactory cases, homeeopathically treated, mostly extracted from 
German works, but one from our author’s own practice. One of 
these cases was commenced by a physician of the old school ; but 
when all hopes of the recovery of the patient were abandoned by 
Dr. Kramer, he reluctantly, and as a last resource, permitted Dr. 
Siegel, ‘‘ an experienced physician of upwards of fifty years stand- 
ing, but who for the last two years had adopted the new me- 
thod,” to prescribe for the young lady. “To the astonishment of 
Dr. K., the patient the ensuing morning—the eighth day of the 
disease—was much better. During the day, the patient took a few 
more doses of aconite, and the following morning seemed altogether 
freed from her dangerous disease.” The convalescence of the lady 
was, however, slow, on account of her extreme debility. In the 
fourth week of her convalescence, she was imprudently exposed to a 
current of cold air, and was again attacked by her former complaint. 


CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 147 


At the earnest entreaty of the patient and her friends, Dr. K. was 
induced to administer the remedy previously prescribed by Dr. Sieg- 
el. In half an hour a quiet sleep came on, and in three hours the 
patient awoke refreshed and relieved from all symptoms of disease. 
She had no further relapse. After the first cure by Siegel, Kramer, 
then a practitioner of forty years standing in the allopathic method, 
refused to admit that the eradication of the disease was owing to the 
homeeopathic remedies: but the termination of the case—for the 
details of which we must refer to the work itself—‘‘ was the means 
of entirely changing Dr. Krimer’s views in regard to the worth of 
Homeopathy, which he has since practised with increasing confi- 
dence and success.”’ 

In conclusion, we must confer the most unqualified praise on the 
manner in which Dr. Simpson has executed his task. The volume 
is not too long, or too dry and technical to fatigue any reader ; the 
style is simple, modest, unaffected, and well suited to the subject ; 
the author maintains his temper throughout, does justice to every 
class of practitioners, of whatever sect, commends where commenda- 
tion is due, and never fails to expose the absurdities and exaggera- 
tions of even the homeeopathists, wherever they occur. He gives 
the results of the labours of others, confirmed by his own experi- 
ence ; and we think that the system is here proved beyond a doubt 
to be of such incalculable benefit to the human race, that no one, 
having given the book an impartial perusal, and who was not blind- 
ed by prejudice, would again trust his health and his life in the 
hands of an allopathic doctor, when so infinitely less tedious, irk- 
some, and expensive a means of cure is at hand. The volume con- 
cludes with a long list of works and periodicals, published on the 
continent, for and against the system. The doctrine appears to be 
rapidly gaining ground in Germany, and we understand that Paris 
boasts of a Homeopathic Society, consisting of thirty physicians 
practising according to the improved method. Its slow progress in 
England is chiefly to be attributed to the hitherto too successful 
opposition of the profession, and to the blind reliance of individuals 
and families on the interested verdict of their doctor. There are, 
however, several physicians practising Homeopathy in England ; 
and it is sincerely to be hoped that the Practical View of Dr. 
Simpson will set the matter in its proper light, and induce the 
public to make a trial of the system vainly attempted to be repress- 
ed by the practitioners of the old school. We fearlessly predict, 
that, in the end, full justice will be done to Hahnemann’s discovery ; 
and that when the public begin to perceive the importance of the 
doctrine, the profession will find it their interest speedily to free 
themselves from their trammels, and adopt the views of their employ- 
ers. We ask our medical readers to institute an impartial investi- 
gation of the homeopathic principles, and either to publish any facts 
in refutation of them, or else to adopt them before they are com- 
pelled to do so ; and they may rest assured that, sooner or later, the 
matter will come to this crisis. ; 


148 CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 


Homeopathy Examined ; or Homeopathy in Theory, Allopathy in 
Practice. By Robert Verity, M.D., Member of the Universities 
of Edinburgh and Gottingen. Paris: Galignani & Co. 1836. 
8vo., pp. 24. 


In this pamphlet of twenty-four pages, Dr. Verity has doubtless 
pleased himself with the idea that he has been seeking after truth ; 
but since he has taken a distorted view of the subject, and has evi- 
dently no practical knowledge of the theory, his twenty-four pages 
go for nothing. Although Dr. Verity scarcely deserves the honour, 
we will briefly undertake to refute a few of the erroneous notions 
he has imbibed. He says— 


“The first fundamental proposition whence Homeeupathy derives its 
name, and to which the others are appended as convenient corollaries—similia 
similibus curantur —requires only a fair exposition to be refuted as paradoxi- 
cal and logically absurd. For if similar qualities of action be added to each 
a there must consequently ensue aggravation, and not annihilation, of 
disease.” 


This is mere assumption, as the author does not speak from expe- 
rience. But the effect he reprobates is the very thing the disciples 
of Hahnemann wish ; and the result of aggravating the disease for 
a time is precisely the same as the result of introducing a current of 
air into a stove, namely, that the. flame is sooner extinguished. 
This exacerbation is, however, by no means a necessary effect of 
homeceopathic remedies. To proceed :— 


“The practice of homoeopathy in the exhibition of infinitesimal doses (tae 
last link of the theory) is so thoroughly a deduction from the preceding as- 
sumptions, that this rare-facted absurdity may safely be consigned, without 
any further notice, to share the fate of their condemnation.” 


Now Dr. V. has only very slightly touched upon the “ preceding 
assumptions,” without any attempt at refuting them ; to declare a. 
thing to be absurd because it is a deduction from such assumptions 
is, therefore, manifestly irrational. But it happens, unluckily for 
the Doctor’s argument, that the size of the dose, whether large 
or small, leaves the grand principle of the theory—stmilia similibus 
curantur—wholly untouched ; indeed, Hahnemann practised his 
method for a considerable time before he discovered the atomic 
powers of medicine homeeopathically prepared. The writer next 
devotes three pages to the demonstration of the ignorance of the 
homeeopathists of existing knowledge. This supposition on the 
part of the pamphleteer can alone proceed from ignorance the most 
culpable of the history of Homeopathy. Is he not aware that by 
far the greater number of enlightened advocates of the new doctrine 
have previously served a long apprenticeship in the old school? that 
some haye been eminent as allopathic practitioners for forty years 
and upwards? and that others, again, having instituted an investi- 
gation in the subject, with a view of refuting its errors, have ended 


CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 149 


by ranking themselves amongst the most enlightened disciples of 
Homeopathy ? 

Dr. V.’s assertion, that persons of a highly nervous and excitable 
system are alone fitted to become the patients of the homeeopathists, 
strengthens our opinion of his want of knowledge of the subject. 
Let him cast his eye over any miscellaneous cases homceopathically 
treated, and if he be really searching after truth he will alter his 
opinion. Were homeopathy to prove inapplicable to any one class 
of diseases or constitutions, the discovery would be of comparatively 
small value. But we have already occupied too much space with 
Dr. Verity and his pamphlet. Let him investigate the doctrine 
carefully and impartially, let him make a practical trial of it; and 
if he possesses ordinary skill and knowledge, we are very much mis- 
taken if we do not give him a much more favourable reception on 
his next appearance before our tribunal. 


A History of British Quadrupeds. By Thomas Bell, F.R.S., F.L.S., 
Lecturer on Comparative Anatomy at Guy’s Hospital. LIllus- 
trated by a Wood-cut of each species and numerous Vignettes. 
8vo. Parts3 to 6. London: Van Voorst. 1836. 


Ws regard the progress of this beautiful work with the highest 
interest ; and whether the scientific details, the clear, skilful, and 
popular manner with which the descriptive materials are worked up 
be regarded, or attention given to the decorative department—the 
wood-cuts, the vignettes, and the typography—both the general 
reader and the naturalist will find abundant materials for the high- 
est gratification. The history of the Mole ( Talpa vulgaris, Bell) 
we consider the chef d’euvre of the work, as far as it has yet ap- 
peared—full of acute research, interesting facts, and economical 
details, worthy of the highest commendation. So that we can most 
sincerely use Hamlet’s language in reference to this article :— 


** Well said, old Mole, canst work in the earth 
So fast ? A worthy pioneer!” 


We shall, therefore, at present, prefer tunnelling a little, in compa- 
ny with our friend the Mole, to taking a mere Marten-like skip 
among the various animals so agreeably introduced to us by Mr. 
Bell. The Mole is so well known from the manifestations of its 
existence which it presents to view in almost every field, that a cor- 
rect notice of its habits and economy cannot fail to be interesting, 
more especially to those who may feel uncertain whether to pre- 
serve or destroy it, since, like most other inhabitants of this terra- 
queous globe, it has had both advocates and enemies, though, un- 
fortunately for its happiness, the latter have greatly outnumbered 
the former. Instead of taking the gloomy view of things common 
to thoughtless individuals, that because the Mole lives under ground 
it must of necessity endure nothing but misery in its damp and 


150 CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 


dreary habitation, Mr. Bell justly shews that its manners and habits 
being expressly adapted for a subterranean existence, it enjoys as 
much happiness in the under ground tunnels it has constructed as 
any animal sporting in the glare of day, and doubtless subject to 
much less molestation. 


** The one prominent circumstance which strikes us on looking either at 
the habits or structure of the Mole, is, that labour—almost incessant la- 
bour—is its necessary doom. Its feeding and its habitation, its wanderin 
and its repose, its winter retreat, and the nest in which its young are brought 
forth and nourished, are all so many calls for the most laborious and enduring 
toil: but, on the other hand, that toil is so amply provided for in the whole 
structure of the animal—so exactly balanced = the strength and conforma- 
tion of its limbs, that it cannot be considered as exceeding the healthful and 
even pleasurable exercise of its natural powers.” 


The existence of the organ of vision in the “ blind Mole” has 
been frequently a subject of dispute with physiologists, especially 
from the confident assertion of Aristotle and other naturalists, that 
it was totally sightless, while our Mole, at any rate, was found to 
have open eye-lids, which seemed to argue that some little light 
might be occasionally conveyed to his optic nerve. But it now ap- 
pears that another species of Mole, with the eye-lids totally closed,* 
is common in the south of Europe, and this kind Mr. Bell thinks 
was the one examined bv Aristotle. Although, however, the organ 
of vision in the Mole appears in its most diminished form, it appears 
that his hearing is very good, although devoid of any external 
conch ; but if must be confessed the amusing experiment recorded 
to prove this might be considered sufficient to rouse the dead, to say 
nothing of startling our little velvet-coated friend. We shall ex- 
tract it as given by Mr. Bell, first premising that the Mole has 
always a regular “high road” extending from his “ fortress,” or do- 
micile, to the extremity of his property ; for it appears that each 
Mole is lord of a little manor of his own, where the game is strictly 
preserved, and no trespassers allowed to sport. From this “ high 
road”’ lateral alleys diverge to the “hunting grounds,” and mole- 
hills are principally thrown up above these alleys, marking the 
sporting excursions of the Mole. As the Mole always goes from 
and returns to his habitation by the high road, mole-catchers are 
obliged to ascertain its direction before they can intercept him by 
their traps placed in its course. 


“ 'The swiftness with which the Mole will traverse its domain by means of 
this principal road, was made the subject of an amusing and satisfactory ex- 
periment by Le Court, [a Frenchman, who devoted his entire attention to 
the extermination of Moles]. Having ascertained the exact direction of the 
road, and finding that the Mole was engaged in exploring for its food the 
ground at the farthest extremity from the fortress, he placed along its course, 
at certain distances, several pieces of straw, one extremity of which pene- 
trated within the passage, and to the other end was fixed a little flag of pa- 


* Talpa ceca, not yet discovered in Britain. 


CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS, 151 


per. He also introduced into the passage near the end, a horn, with the 
mouth-piece standing out of the ground. Then, waiting till he was sure of 
the Mole’s presence at that part of the road, he blew into the horn, to use 
the words of. Geoffroy, ‘ wn cri effroyable,’ when, in a moment, the little flags 
were successively thrown off as the Mole, in its rapid course towards its for- 
tress, came in contact with the interior extremities of the straws: and the 
spectators of this neat and demonstrative experiment affirm that the speed 
of the frightened Mole was equal to that of a horse at full trot.”—p. 95. 


Suchan infernal noise within so confineda space was surely enough 
to have frightened all the Moles for miles round! The Mole, 
however, makes no attempt at such extraordinary speed when sur- 
prised above ground, feeling himself out of his element, and remain- 
ing passive, as we have witnessed, till taken. This may, perhaps, 
arise from the glare of day being too much for him, as, below deck, 
he in reality turns day into night, working diligently by night and 
in the early morning hours, and sleeping profoundly during the 
greatest part of the day. 

We have often been struck by perceiving numerous fresh-turned 
mole-hills in places entirely surrounded with water, but it appears 
that this is to be accounted for by our friend’s swimming propensi- 
ties ; for a friend of Mr. Bell assures him “ he has seen Moles 
swimming very featly when the marshes in that neighbourhood 
have been inundated.” Mr. Bell has given the provincial name of 
** Want” as applied to the Mole, but though this may be, perhaps, 
orthographically correct, in the midland counties it is commonly 
called ‘* Oont,” the double o being pronounced asin moon. There 
is no British animal whose movements so certainly indicate a change 
of weather as the Mole, though this fact is no otherwise indicated 
by Mr. Bell than by the remark that ‘in the winter, when the 
frost has penetrated deeply into the soil, and the ordinary hunting 

ounds are rendered useless and impracticable, it descends to a con- 
siderable depth by a perpendicular shaft, till it arrives at the part 
to which the earth-worms have been driven by the cold.” When, 
however, the frost is about to break up, and previous to a single at- 
mospherical demonstration of it, a fresh-turned mole-hill will always 
irrefragably prove that the northern tyrant is gone off, leaving his 
camp, equipage, and icy materiel behind. The same appearance 
presages rain. Mr. Bell does not say what altitude the Mole at- 
tains in his peregrinations, which it would be curious to ascertain, 
as we have noticed him at nearly two thousand feet, and very likelv 
he may advance higher. The Mole is found in every kind of soil 
throughout England and the continent of Europe, but not in the 
islands of Orkney, Shetland, or Ireland, for which as yet no satisfac- 
tory solution has been given. Deep-rooted prejudice among farmers 
is the cause of annual destruction to multitudes of Moles, but, his 
aliment being almost entirely worms, we confess we should consider 
him as very little to be regarded as an enemy, except in gardens. 

We have dwelt at some length upon the Mole because, in doing 
so, we consider ourselves as passing the highest praise upon Mr. 


a 


152 CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 


Bell’s work, which must be in the hands of every European faunist. 
The wood engravings are, above all praise, characteristic and highly 
finished ; we can scarcely particularize, but the Urchul, the Oont, 
and the Fitchet, as well as the Wild Cat, Blood-hound, and Fox- 
hound, are truly admirable. Poor Puss is not quite to our liking, 
and Reynard does not come out of cover sufficiently :—his history, 
we fear, in the eye of the sportsman, will seem sadly curtailed. 
The vignettes—we mean the speaking ones—though beautiful, 
want a little more force. The bridge and water, at page 118, is 
a sweet scene, and the badger-baiting and mole-catcher are good, 
but the dramatis persone of the former are all cocknies. The 
horse drinking, at page 147 ; the old fellow asleep in the sunshine 
while his cat and dog seize on the relics of his dinner, page 206 ; 
and the dog’s-meat man, p. 246; are all to the purpose, and truly 
adorn as well as illustrate. We can sincerely say that the British 
quadrupeds never before were fortunate enough to meet with so 
able an historian or scientific illustrator as Mr. Bell. We shall 
look forward with increased anxiety to every forthcoming part of 
this highly interesting work. 


Report of the Committee of the Birmingham Philosophical Institu- 
tion, for 1836; with the Meteorological Journal, a statement of 
the Steam Power employed in Birmingham from 1780 to 1835, 
and Tables of the Mortality of the Borough from 1831 to 1835. 
Birmingham : Belcher & Son, 


THE pamphlet before us contains the rules of the society, the 
names of the officers and members, and the other subjects specified 
in the title-page. The report appears satisfactory, but we shall, at 
present, confine our attention to the steam power and the mortality 
of the borough. The following is a condensed account of the num- 
ber and power of the engines now in use :—for grinding flour, 275 
horse power; working metals, 1770 ditto; pumping water, 279 
ditto; glass grinding, 87 ditto; working wood, 97 ditto; paper 
making and glazing, 44 ditto; grinding clay, 37 ditto; grinding 
colours and chemicals, 61 ditto; sundries, 50 ditto; so that the 
horse power of the number of steam engines (169) now at work in 
Birmingham is 2700. We now give the mortality of the borough 
from 1831-5 :—Total number of deaths in 1831, 4442; in 1832, 
3622 ; in 1833, 4256; in 1834, 4209; in 1835, 3861; making 
the total number of burials in the years 1831-5 (with the addition 
of 28 Jews) 20,418. The tables in this Report are as numerous 
as they are minute and ingenious ; but, in order to save room, as 
well as to render the subject intelligible to the generality of readers, 
we have only given the totals of the various calculations. On the 
meteorological tables we will not at present comment, leaving the 
pamphlet to the discussion of those who may feel a desire to possess 
themselves of the Report itself. 


CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 153 


The Cheltenham Annuaire, for 1837. London: Simpkin, Marshall, 
& Co.—Cheltenham: H. Davies. pp. 173. 


THE Cheltenham Annuaire ranks very far above the generality of 
the local publications so frequently issued with a similar aim. 
Excellent, however, as we willingly pronounce it to be in every 
department, we are only able to give our readers a list of its con- 
tents, which are as follows :—Notice of the Cheltenham Lite- 
rary and Philosophical Institution; on the Fossil Zoology of 
Cheltenham ; Meteorology, by the Rev. Dr. Ritchie, F.R.S. ; Sketch 
of the Principles of Railway Communication, &c., by Captain 
Moorsom ; On the Application of Monastic Architecture to Modern 
Mansions, with a Description of Toddington Hall, the seat of 
C. Hanbury Tracy, Esq., M.P., by J. Britton, F.S.A.; Notes on 
the Climate of Cheltenham ; Chronological Notices of Cheltenham ; 
Preliminary Notes of the Year, &c. &c. The Editor has evidently 
bestowed great pains on the publication ; and the Annuaire of this 
fashionable town altogether forms a most interesting and useful 
. little volume. 


Works of Lord Byron: New Edition. Childe Harold’s Pilgrim- 
age, and The Byron Tales. Vols. I. II. and III. London: John 
Murray. 18mo. 1837. 


Here we have the commencement of a cheap and extremely beau- 
tiful edition of the works of this delightful poet (to be completed in 
ten monthly volumes), which we earnestly recommend to the ad- 
mirers of that immortal bard. The first volume contains Childe 
Harold; the second the Giaour, the Bride of Abydos, the Corsair, 
and Lara; the third, Siege of Corinth, Parisina, Prisoner of Chil- 
lon, Beppo, Mazeppa, and The Island. This edition is published in 
divisions, each complete in itself, and is enriched with the Notes 
of the noble author, and the criticisms and opinions of the most able 
writers, collated by Mr. Lockhart. The work is illustrated with 
plates, exquisitely engraved, of Lord Byron, View of the Lake 
of Geneva, Mount Parnassus, and the Acrocorinthus. 


Magazine of Zoology and Botany. Conducted by Sir W. Jar- 
dine, Bart., P. J. Selby, Esq., and Dr. Johnston. Feb., 1837., 
No. V. Edinburgh: Lizars—London: Highley. 


Ir is with much pleasure we notice the rapid improvement 
evinced in this scientific periodical. The fifth number is by far 
the best which has appeared; the articles are, without exception, 
highly interesting and valuable; the invidious task, therefore, 
of drawing the attention of our readers to any particular paper is 
unnecessary. Some of the subjects are illustrated by spirited 
wood-cuts and highly-finished steel engravings. 


VOL. VI.—NO,. XIX. U 


154 


FINE ARTS. 


MUSIC.—VOCAL. 


The Crucifixion, an Oratorio, by Louis Spohr ; the English version, 
by Edward Taylor. London: Cramer & Co. 


Spour’s genius is not fitted for the Oratorio. It is wanting in 
the power, the dignity, the nerve, so remarkably characteristic of 
the sacred works of Handel, Bach, Graun, and Beethoven. While 
listening to the Last Judgment, or the Crucifixion, you admire, but 
do not venerate ; on the contrary, your admiration of the Messiah 
of Handel, or the Passtonsmustk of Bach, is well nigh swallowed up 
in veneration for their gigantic genius, and in wonder at the almost 
unlimited controul they possess over your feelings. Had we the 
requisite space, it would be interesting to compare this oratorio, not 
with the Last Judgment, but with the master-pieces of the great 
composers above-named, in order the more clearly to point out the 
comparative littleness of the first. We say comparative, because, 
although this oratorio, as such, is a failure, yet there are parts of it, 
which, if not brought to this standard, but judged of by their in- 
trinsic merits as music, must, we think, extort praise from the most 
censorious. We may instance the opening chorus of disciples, which 
is soft and beautiful as a serenade; also the song and chorus, 
* Though all thy friends prove faithless,” which is very pretty, but 
far too light for the subject. The air sung by Peter, after he has 
denied the Saviour, is a masterpiece of its kind, and admirably 
expressive of the grief and contrition conveyed by the words—* he 
went out and wept bitterly.” The song of Judas Iscariot is equally 
fine in another style. The trial scene is not at all to our taste. 
The subject is the least possible adapted for music; and what inte- 
rest can there be in those long recitatives of the disciples—in the evi- 
dence of the witnesses given in triplets—in the ruthless yells of the 
priests and the rabble, calling out for the crucifixion of the Saviour? 
All these should be kept behind the scenes—they merely disgust by 
being brought into view. It is unnecessary to point out any more 
of the beauties or defects of this work ; it is well worthy the study, 
though not the imitation, of every musician. On the whole, Mr. 
Taylor richly deserves the thanks of the musical world for this per- 
formance. 


1. I Contadini di Siena, Duet for Soprano and Contralto, arranged 
from an Italian national melody, by Gabussi.—2. Quando Canti 
la Sera, Serenata, by Dessauer. T. Boosey. 


No. 1. In spite of certain crudities in the composition, the beauty 
of the melody can hardly fail to render this du@t popular.—No. 2. 


FINE ARTS. 155 


Simple, beautiful, and touching. We cordially recommend it to all 
lovers of melody—pure melody, as opposed to that extravagantly 
ornate style, now so much the fashion. 


1. Sappho to her Mother, by C. E. Horn.—2. Spohr’s Cradle Song, 
The words by W. Bartholomew, Esq.—3. The Star Spirit, Ca- 
vatina, by S. Nelson —4. Dearer than Life thou art, Ballad, by 
the author of ‘ Welcome me Home.”—5. Good bye, Sweele 
Heart, in imitation of the ballads of the 15th century, by R. F. 
Williams ; the music by S. Nelson.—6. O! weep not, Mother, 
prize Ballad, composed by J. W. Hobbs. London: T. E. Pur- 
day, 50, St. Paul’s Church-yard. 


No. 1. One of the few songs by Charles Horn, of which we are 
compelled, unwillingly we own, to say—* stale, flat, and unprofit- 
able.” 

No. 2. Compare this little gem with the Sleep on of Neukomm, 
and you will readily perceive the difference between the real 
musician and the charlatan. Spohr, when he wishes to represent a 
mother singing her baby to sleep, does not, like the renowned 
Chevalier, produce a song far more calculated to have an opposite 
effect, but one which breathes the very spirit of peaceful slumber and 
motherly love. This is the test of a true musician, to adapt himself 
to, and body forth in his music the very images presented to him by 
the poet. 

No. 3. Neither very bad nor very good. It is the representa- 
tive of a large class of compositions of the present day—compositions 
which would never have seen the light, had they not appeared an 
eligible means of procuring the summum bonum of the nineteenth 
_ century—money. 

No.4. It is difficult to determine which is the most edifying, 
the music or the words of this ballad. Only listen— 


Dearer than life thou art, can I say more ? 
True I have told thee so, often before : 
But of thy apathy still I complain, 
Therefore I tell it thee over again. &c. 


The song is worth procuring, were it only for the setting of the 
line we have put in Italics. The “apathy” is certainly made the 
most of. In brief, a more slovenly composition we never saw. 

No. 5. What absurd affectation to call it an imitation of the 
ballads of the 15th century. The only imitation is in the spelling ; 
the rest is as modern as the music, and as worthless too. 

No. 6. This being the second prize Mr. Hobbs has obtained, 
would seem to indicate that he knows, and has accommodated him- 
self to the taste of the “‘ Melodists’ Society.” The present composi- 
tion, however, is deserving of a still higher prize, which we doubt 
not it will obtain—the approbation of the public. 


156 FINE ARTS. 


1. Six Duets in Canon for two Sopranos. 2. Songs of Remem- 
brance. Both by Miss Mounsey. London: T. E. Purday. 


To each of these publications we feel pleasure in giving unquali- 
fied approbation. ‘The songs in canon are excellently adapted for 
preparing the taste, no less than the voice, of the pupil to execute 
and appreciate the concerted pieces of classical composers. Miss 
Mounsey has herself drank deep of the pure fountain of classical 
music, and wishes her pupils to possess the same advantage. This 
is as it should be, and until it is universally the case we shall in 
vain look for improvement in the public taste commensurate with 
the “march of intellect” in other matters. The Songs of Remem- 
brance have a freshness and originality no less pleasing than rare in 
these days, when every one, however weak his talents, seems to 
think that the mantle of inspiration has fallen upon him, and that 
the public will hear Aim, if it will listen to no one else. The 
** Song of the Summer Winds” is a perfect gem, and leaves nothing 
to desire, either on the score of beauty or originality. The “ Will- 
o’-the-Wisp” is our next favourite, and in its manner rather reminds 
us of Purcell, with whose works Miss M. is doubtless familiar. 
But we have not space to enumerate the beauties of these songs, 
and must, therefore, conclude by recommending this publication to 
our musical readers, as a proof that the musical ability of the fair 
sex is not confined to the production of such trash as the T'reasures 
of the Deep, or the Greek Exile. 


INSTRUMENTAL. 


1. Deux Rondinos, sur les Thémes favoris de [Opera Il Elisir 
d’ Amore, pour le piano, par W. Plachy. 2. L’ Aurore Boréale ; 
Premiére Suite de Contredanses brilliantes et variées, par R. 
Nordmann.—Boosey. 3. Fantasia for the Piano, with varia- 
tions on the favourite glee “‘ Glorious Apollo.” By Philip Klitz. 
_Purday. 


No. 1. The admirers of Donizetti and his school will doubtless 
be pleased with these rondinos, containing, it appears, the cream of 
his operas, and being at the same time brilliant and playable. We 
prefer the first. 

No. 2. The northern lights set to music by Herr Nordmann! 
who certainly does very right to inform us when he means to repre- 
sent the sky, and when the lightening, &c., for we should other- 
wise never have discovered which was which ; as it is, we take it 
all upon trust, though we think none need fear the effects of his 
lightening. As dance-musie /’ Aurore Boréale is spirited and pleas- 
ing. 

‘No. 3. Though Mr. Klitz be not quite so expert at writing vari- 
ations to an air as Haydn (who has left us several specimens of this 
kind which prove him to have been the greatest master of the art 


FINE ARTS. 157 
¥ 
that ever existed), he is yet not an unskilful composer, and in the 
present instance he has managed to make much of rather an unpro- 
mising theme. 


1. Capricio for the Piano, intended as a study for the right hand.— 
Purday. 2. Le Départ pour Munich; Rondo varié, for the 
Piano, by the same. London: Paine and Hopkins. 


Tue character of both these pieces is the same. They are in- 
tended rather as studies than as piéces de concert, and, considered 
in this light, are excellent. 


The Violin. By George Dubourg. London: Colburn. 1836. 
12mo., pp. 276. 


We have here an amusing and, in some measure, instructive 
little volume, giving an account of the origin of the violin—a short 
biographical notice of its most eminent professors, from the time 
when it was first employed as a solo instrument to the present day 
—a chapter on amateurs, but too descriptive, we fear, of that class 
—and anecdotes and puns without end. Indeed, it appears to be 
Mr. Dubourg’s decided opinion that the bitter pill of instruction is 
easiest swallowed when gilded with the tinsel of amusement; and 
he is right for all we know to the contrary. The volume is en- 
riched with numerous spirited wood-cuts. 


Zephyr et ! Amour, Volses brillantes, composées pour le piano forte, 
par Adolph Marschan. London: T. Boosey. 


We are not of those who despise a waltz merely because it is a 
waltz, and think themselves mighty wise because they are above a 
quadrille. When cleverly treated and kept to its proper sphere this 
kind of music is not unworthy the cultivation of the scientific musi- 
cian. That Mr. Marschan is of this class appears evident from the 
very pleasing composition before us, which displays, in a degree too 
rare in music of this description, excellence of modulation combined 
with elegance of melody. We cordially recommend it to all lovers 
of the intoxicating whirl, and of music, its enchanting accompani- 
ment. 


CORRESPONDENCE. 


ON THE DEPOSITS OF SUPERFICIAL GRAVEL IN THE 
COUNTIES OF CHESTER, STAFFORD, WORCESTER, AND 
WARWICK. 


To rue Epirors or “ THE ANALYST.” 
GENTLEMEN, 

I am desirous of submitting a few queries to such of your geological read- 
ers as reside in the midland counties. The deposits of superficial gravel, 
sand, and clay in that part of England are now beginning to attract the at- 
tention they deserve; and the researches of Mr. Murchison have thrown a 
new-light on these accumulations of drifted matter. He has shewn that the 
vast deposits of gravel which are scattered over Cheshire, Staffordshire, and 
Worcestershire, are of marine origin, and contain sea-shells of existing spe- 
cies. My own observations on the subject lead to the conclusion that these 
beds of erratic gravel may be divided into two classes—the marine drift of 
Mr, Murchison, and ancient fluviatile drift, consisting of the same materials 
as the former, but modified by the action of rivers after the midland counties 
became dry land. The former class of deposits are scattered indiscriminately 
over the surface, and occur on the summits of considerable hills. They con- 
sist of rolled fragments of various rocks, commonly mixed in confusion, with 
little or no appearance of stratification. The fluviatile drift, on the contrary, 
is in general finely stratified, denoting a more tranquil action of flowing wa- 
ter. It is found in the vicinity of existing streams, forming low platforms 
rarely exceeding fifty or sixty feet above the present drainage level. In the 
latter situations, the bones of Hippopotami, Elephants, and other extinct 
Mammalia frequently occur, and are occasionally accompanied by land and 
freshwater shells. But I have not been able to learn that either bones or 
freshwater shells have occurred in deposits referable to the marine class of 
deposits. 

My object in now addressing you, is to learn how far these views may be 
found to hold good in the district in question. I therefore beg to propose 
the following queries:— 

1. Have the bones of Elephants and other extinct Mammalia, or freshwa- 
ter shells, been found in gravel and sand at a distance from existing streams, 
or at great elevations above those streams, within the counties of Cheshire, 
Stafford, Worcester, and Warwick ? 

2. Have not all the fossil bones which have occurred in gravel in the mid- 
land counties been found at distances not exceeding a mile from flowing 
streams, and at heights not exceeding sixty or eighty feet above them ? 

3. What is the greatest elevation at which the non-ossiferous or marine drift 
occurs. 

I also take this opportunity of calling attention to the marine shells notic- 
ed by Mr. Murchison in the gravel of Staffordshire and Cheshire. ‘These 
remains have not yet, I believe, been found in Worcestershire or Warwick- 
shire; and it would be highly desirable to establish their existence in the 
gravel of those counties also. H. E. S. 


ta 


CORRESPONDENCE. 159 


ON THE APPLICATION OF BARBAROUS CORRUPTIONS OF 
LATIN WORDS AS ENGLISH NAMES. 


To rue Epitrors or “ THE ANALYs’T.” 


GENTLEMEN, 

Havine been prevented from procuring your excellent Journal for Janu- 
ary, 1837, until a few days ago, I am almost afraid I shall be too late for 
your next number, and will only trouble you with a few brief remarks, in 
the event of a vacant corner. I will not make any observations on the ab- 
surd style of orthography adopted by your correspondent, S. D. W., in his 
Nomenclature of British Fishes, because I trust he will take the hint you 
have given him, and cease to obscure his valuable labours after so ludicrous 
a fashion ; but I have one or two rather more serious objections to make to 
his arrangement. 

In the first place, where is the utility of applying barbarous corruptions 
of Latin words as English names? Why is Acerine preferable to Ace- 
rina, Aspidophory to Aspidophorus, or Xiphy to Xiphias. Where known 
English names do exist, such as Bullhead, Stickleback, or Angler, nothing 
can be more beneficial than their adoption into the system; but the degra- 
dation of the Latin into uncouth and unrecognized English, appears to me to 
be an innovation without being an improvement. 

Secondly, I wish to know why S. D. W. has given the name Saurus to a 
genus standing in his list between Belone and Exocetus? The term Saurus 
has already been applied, by Cuvier, to a genus of the Salmonide, which, 
from their Lizard-like form and voracious habits, almost justify an appella- 
tion which is, however, at best but an unfortunate one. But the genus to 
which §. D. W. has given this name, is, I suppose, from its place in his ar- 
rangement, the Sairis of Rafinesque, the Esov Saurus of Bloch, and for 
which the term Scomber-esox, applied to it by Lacépéde, seems particularly 
appropriate. The common name given to this fish on the coast—Egyptian 
Herring—is bad, as tending to confound it with genera of the Herring fami- 
ly ; but surely no advantage is to be expected from describing it as the 
Common Saury. 

I hope I do not speak harshly on the subject ; but I conceive that nothing 
can be more injurious to that precision and clearness so desirable in syste- 
matic arrangements, than the frequent change of generic appellations, or the 
creation of new genera or species without very substantial and sufficient rea- 
sons. Ofcourse I do not apply the latter portion of the remark to your 
correspondent. 

It would be conferring a great favour on many students of Ichthyology, 
and myself among the number, if any of your correspondents who possess, or 
are able to procure a sight of, Agassiz’ s Poissons Fossiles, would give, through 
the medium of The Analyst, asynopsis of the classification adopted by the 
Neufchatel Professor. 

D. W.N. 

Cheltenham, March 7, 1837. 


160 


MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS. 


AUDACITY OF THE Sparrow Hawk, ( Accipiter nisus ).—In riding, a few 
mornings ago, through a village in the neighbourhood of Doncaster, a Spar- 
row Hawk crossed the road within a few inches of my horse’s head, and dash- 
ed into an adjacent farm-yard, containing large flocks of granivorous birds, 
and various kinds of poultry. After whisking two or three times round a 
hay-stack, without any apparent motive, it darted oft with that elegance for 
which the generality of the family are characterized, and was subsequently 
lost to sight by the intervention of houses, hay-ricks, &c. The Fowls 
sounded their accustomed alarm-note, and the Pigeons evinced considerable 
terror at this invasion of their territory ; but the motions of the bold depre- 
dator are so rapid, and at the same time so noiseless, that the trepidation is 
excited in a moment, and abates almost immediately the enemy is out of 
sight. On the same day, towards dusk, I saw a Sparrow Hawk fly off 
with a Robin Redbreast in his talons, in an orchard, from the opposite side of 
the hedge to that on which I was standing. A Hedge Dunnock and ano- 
ther Robin Redbreast were hopping about quite close to the scene of action, 
without exhibiting the slightest apparent alarm. I have noticed this in 
many other instances; and, whatever the degree of fear may be before a 
victim has been selected and secured, my observations lead me to believe 
that the remaining portion of the before terrified flock will remain in the 
immediate neighbourhood of the Hawk whilst he is enjoying his bloody re- 
past.—On one occasion, when walking with a friend, I heard the screams of 
an unhappy victim to the voracity of this bird; and on approaching the spot 
from whence it proceeded, the tyrant flew off and was soon out of sight, and 
was immediately followed by a flock of Redwing Thrushes—the companions 
of the Sparrow Hawk’s prey. In this fact, doubtless, originated the popu- 
lar error that some species of Hawk habitually live with Partridges.—N. W. 

ARRIVAL OF THE FretprarE TurusH (Turdus pilaris) In 1836.—I 
think Mr. Menteath ( Analyst, vol. v., p. 347) must have mistaken the Mis- 
sel for the Fieldfare Thrush, a mistake, indeed, I repeatedly find to be made 
in my own neighbourhood. At the period mentioned (the beginning of Sep- 
tember), the Missel Thrushes are frequently seen in flocks of thirty or more 
together, and their size and appearance, when on the wing, is not unlike that 
of the other species, though, upon being observed with attention, the pecu- 
liar note or chatter of the Fieldfare Thrush will always be found wanting. 
No Fieldfare Thrushes arrived last autumn upon our coast (the first they 
make for on their rout from Norway, &c.) before the 22nd or 23rd of Octo- 
ber, or nearly a fortnight earlier than the average period of their appearance, 
which, from long observation, I have found to be between the 5th and 20th 
of November.—Prineaux J. SELBY, Twizell House, Northumberland. 

Tur YELLOw-NosED AuBaTross A British Brrp.—On November 25, 
1836, a beautiful specimen of the Yellow-nosed Albatross (Diomedea chloro- 
rhynchus, Lath.) was observed hovering above the river Trent at Stockwith, 
near Gainsborough, and was shot nearly opposite the Chesterfield canal 
basin. Thus, according to the rule generally agreed on by Naturalists, this 
bird may now be included in the British fauna. There are four species of 


MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS. 161 


Albatross ; the Diomedea exulans or Common Albatross (and not the Yellow- 
nosed species, as erroneously supposed by the newspapers) being the largest. 
—Eps. 

Statistrics.—At a recent meeting of the Statistical Society of Glasgow, 
a notice was given, by J. P. Nichol, Esq., Professor of Astronomy in the 
University of that city—“ to move for a committee to collect materials for a 
statement of the chief kinds of manufacture which foreign nations produce, 
under present circumstances, at a cheaper rate than is possible in this country ; 
discriminating in each case whether the superiority of the foreign nation 
springs from the operation of natural and fixed causes, or from the comparative 
knowledge, peculiar habits, or economical condition of its people ; and endeavouring 
to ascertain, in reference to the latter class of causes, how the agencies of an 
advancing civilization—especially those agencies which alter the proportion 
of manual labour and fixed capital in the production of commodities—may be 
expected to remove or diminish our inferiority.” We rejoice to find that an 
inquiry calculated to produce such important results, is about to be insti- 
tuted by a society so well able to execute the task. Ifthe committee will 
favour us with their Report, when published, we will present our readers 
with an analysis. 

A Dwarr has lately made his appearance at Paris, who has become an 
object of interest to the scientific men of that city. He comes from Illyria, 
not far from Trieste, where he was born of respectable parents, and is called 
Gulia. The peculiarity of his case is, that, up to the age of five, he was a 
child of ordinary proportions; but his growth then suddenly ceased, and he 
is now, at 22, just the size that he was at that period: His height is exactly 
three feet ; he was, therefore, not born a dwarf. His figure is beautifully 
proportioned, and he possesses mind and intelligence not common to other 
dwarfs. He speaks fluently five languages, the two which are common upon 
the Adriatic, German, French, and Italian. He is, besides, accomplished, 
plays the violin, and mounts and manages a horse with considerable grace. 
The check to his development at the age of five, and his invariable good 
health ever since, are, however, the circumstances worthy the attention of 
the physiologist. 

Sire oF THE NEsT oF THE YELLOW Buntinec, Emberiza citrinella.— 
Syme says that this bird ‘“‘ makes choice of a low bush or hedge (for its nest), 
though we have seen one in a moist mossy bank above astreamlet, canopied 
by a plant of Avens.” Also—‘ but the Yellow Bunting rarely builds on the 
ground.”—Rennie says (Architecture of Birds ) that this is contrary to his ob- 
servation, and that he has seldom found the nest except on the ground. 
The situation in which I have generally met with the nest, has been amongst 
the long grass on old sod fences, which are rather common in the North of 
England. I never remember to have found it in the bushes of a hedge, 
though it is often made amongst the tall herbage sometimes allowed to grow 
at the bottoms ofhedges. The Yellow Bunting shows great caution and se- 
cretiveness in approaching its nest if any one be near, and will often not at- 
tempt to enter for a long time if it supposes itself watched.—_W. R. Scorv, 
Doncaster, Feb. 2, 1837.[Under peculiar circumstances, the Yellow Bunt- 
ing will build a few inches above the ground; but Professor Rennie and our 
correspondent are quite correct in stating that the nest is usually found on 
the ground.—Eps. | 

VOL. VI.—NO. XIX. x 


162 MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS. 


RerormMED Epucation.—The Monthly Repository for February contains 
a very interesting account of Mr. Heldenmaier’s school at Worksop, in 
which the ruling principle is /ove and respect, and not, as is usually the case; 
fear. Prizes and punishments are wholly excluded; the classics are not cul- 
tivated more than they deserve, things rather than words being aimed at. 
We have long known Mr. Heldenmaier as a most zealous and able instructor 
of youth, and recommend all our educational friends to pay a visit to his 
seminary ; we can assure them they will not regret the time thus spent. In 
the mean while let parents and school-masters peruse the article which we 
have noticed above, and profit by it. It will prove to them—what probably 
they never dreamt of before—that instruction may be so imparted as to be 
equally pleasing to the pupils with their out-of-door recreations. 

Cunnine or THE DorTEeREL PLover ( Charadrius morinellus, Linn.)— 
Having lately read, at page 5 of Mr. Salmon’s pamphlet,* the fact concern- 
ing the Dotterel Plover, I may mention a confirmatory incident which oc- 
curred to myself thirty years ago. In the height of summer I was ascend- 
ing, in company with my eldest son and an experienced guide, from Kes- 
wick, the conical mountain Red Pike, which rises over the upper end of the 
Lake of Crummock. We pursued a very steep route, as the shortest. 
Close to the top we had to clamber up a breast-work of rock, nearly perpendi- 
cular, which entirely sheltered us from observation until our heads emerged 

‘above it. There we at once found ourselves close to a flock of Dotterels, 
all of which, except one, instantly flew off to distant places of safety. The 
lingerer, with which I was almost in contact, immediately dropped its wing, 
and limped and fluttered before me on its side, like a wounded bird, which I 
was simple enough thoroughly to believe it to be, and also every moment to 
imagine, while stooping over it, that I should infallibly pick it up at the 
next trial. Various fruitless attempts, however, followed. The wily bird 
always kept just, and but just, out of my reach: and when at length it had 
drawn off its unsuspecting pursuer to a sufficient distance from its young, 
which, no doubt, were hidden among the broken and overhanging stones near 
the spot where we first presented ourselves (and where the guide had been 
sedulously but unsuccessfully searching for them during the whole of my 
chase), it suddenly sprang up with expanded wings, and vigorously flew 
across a valley to an opposite hill. I never was more fully deceived; nor do 
I ever recall the circumstance without being heartily amused at the cunning 
of the bird and at my own credulity.—T. Gisporne, Youall Lodge, Stafford- 
shire, January 24, 1837. 

Suootine Srars.—The Paris journals state that, during the night of the 
13th of November, about one hundred and fifty shooting stars were seen in 
the heavens; but there were no appearances to sustain the astronomical ex- 
pectations founded on the American accounts, of thousands of planetary bo- 
dies approaching the earth’s sphere at this annual period. Shooting stars 
are usually seen between the 13th and 15th of November. 

QuatiricaTions oF TEacHERS.—When will a knowledge of human na- 
ture be deemed an essential qualification of a teacher? In other words, 
when will he, whose business it is to mould minds and dispositions, be expect- 
ed to have some acquaintance with the materials he has to deal with ?—F. 
Hit on National Education, vol. i., p. 70. 


* A Catalogue and Account of some of the rarer Birds of Norfolk, by J. D. Salmon ;— 
printed for private circulation.—Eps. 


MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS. 163 


Patent-Law GrrEvaNcE.—In the March number of the Magazine of 
Popular Science, we find the following observations on the Letters-Patent 
Law: “'T’he inventors of this country, and the introducers of inventions of 
other countries into this, were obliged to pay down to the attorney-general 
and other agents, &c., of the government, during the past year, above 
£42,000.— What did the attorney-general effect, in return for this vast and 
oppressive extortion? 'The penalties inflicted on the inventive genius of Bri- 
tain during the present year, up to the 25th ult., in the shape of government 
stamps and fees on patents, amount to more than £6000!” We hope and 
trust the bill introduced by Mr. Mackinnon and Mr. Baines, “to alter and 
amend the Patent Laws, and for better securing to individuals the benefit of 
their Inventions,” will this session receive the royal assent. The thanks of 
scientific men are eminently due to the editor of the very ably conducted 
Periodical above quoted, for his continued exertions in exposing a system of 
extortion which is a positive disgrace to the legislature. 

Cocx Fientine.—It would appear, by an announcement in the York 
Herald, that the demoralizing sport of Cock fighting is still but too preva- 
lent in this country. Now we do not object to Cock fighting on the score of 
cruelty to the birds—for, as Mowbray justly observes, they would fight as 
fiercely were they to meet in a desert, as when surrounded by hundreds of 
spectators—but for its demoralizing effects, which must produce the worst 
results to those addicted to such sports. Every country gentleman ought 
to discourage these barbarities as much as possible in his own neighbourhood ; 
and ought, further, to supply in their stead rational employments, calculated 
to improve the moral and intellectual faculties of the people. 

Tue Bramsie Fincu (Fringilla montana) 1x YorxsH1reE.—The Bram- 
ble Finch has been somewhat abundant in the neighbourhood of Doncaster; 
we have more than once met with flocks of ten or twelve at Campsall, and 
according to the observations of others, several have been seen in the same 
district. 

Sone oF THE Grey Waertatt ( Motacilla cinerea, Wiiu.)—In the Natu- 
ralist, Mr. Neville Wood has recorded the fact that the Grey Wagtail pos. 
sesses a song. Ardent as I profess to be in the pursuit of Nature, and espe- 
cially of the habits of our native birds, it may seem strange that I had never 
previously noticed the song of this amusing little bird; nor, I believe, have 
other ornithologists had better fortune. Since, however, I have frequently 
heard and enjoyed its sprightly notes. Even Mr. Wood, at the time that he 
wrote his interesting and popular volume on British Song Birds, was not 
aware of the circumstance.—N. C. Percrvat, M.D., Leamington, January 
5, 1837. 

Tue Acapimie DE MépecrnE or Paris anp 1Ts DEcision on Homeo- 
PATHY.—We perceive, by the fourth number of the British and Foreign 
Medical Review, for January, 1837, that the French Academy of Medi- 
cine (whose verdict on Phrenology is recorded in our last number) has 
recently been called upon to decide the important question of Homoeopathy. 
The system was denounced as a piece of quackery which ought to be speedily 
put down. The only comment we shall here make on this decision is contain- 
edin this simple query—Had the academicians, previously to the solution of 
the question, impartially studied the system, either in theory or practice ?— 
Eps. 


164 


BXTRACTS FROM FOREIGN JOURNALS. 


ZOOLOGY. 


REMARKABLE InsTANCE OF INTELLIGENCE IN A Doc.—M. Alph. De 
Candolle has communicated the following observations on the instinct of 
animals :—Being last October in the neighbourhood of Aiguesmortes, I 
had occasion to observe a remarkable instance of intelligence in a Dog. The 
day was hot, and the season unfavourable, by reason of the trade winds so 
troublesome on the shores of the Mediterranean. After walking several 
hours in the desert which separates the town of Aiguesmortes from Camargne, 
we arrived at a plain where we found, in the midst of a whirlwind, some 
remains of a shipwreck. Out of three Dogs which had followed our guide, 
two only accompanied us to this spot. Their black hair attracted the rays of 
the sun, and the poor creatures, like ourselves, seemed to find the sand some- 
what too warm to be pleasant. I sat down on a mat half buried in the sand. 
One of the Dogs quickly conceived the idea of establishing itself near me. 
It nestled close to a horizontal plank, by way of procuring a little shade, but 
finding this insufficient, it hollowed the sand until it came to the part moist- 
ened by the sea. It then stretched itself with delight in this fresh and shady 
bed. There, said I, is an undoubted instance of reason. Had it been instinct, 
every animal of the same species placed in similar circumstances, would 
have acted alike. But the other Dog, though of the same race and also weary, 
knew not what to do; it writhed on the hot sand. One of these Dogs evident- 
ly remembered that by hollowing the sand hillocks, a cool and moist part is 
arrived at, and it applied the reminiscence to this particular case. It may 
perhaps be;said that the Dog which made no burrow, had never been on the 
plain, and had therefore had no opportunity of ascertaining the coolness of 
the sand underneath. But this is not probable, since both Dogs had been 
accustomed to the seashore. This, again, is another difference between in- 
stinct and reason ; instinct acts without previous experience. The Dog of Pec- 
cai, the less sagacious of the two, might perhaps one day have learnt to burrow 
to the cool part of the sand hills.—[From our own observations, we are con- 
vinced that M. De Candolle is right, and that many animals, as the Horse, 
Dog, &c., &c., possess reason—some individuals even in a considerable 
degree.—Eps. | 

MownocraPu ON THE ARvicuLES or Liicr.—The smaller quadrupeds 
are among the vertebrated animals which present considerable difficulties to 
the naturalist, in the discrimination of species. M. Sélys Longchamps has 
endeavoured to disembrangle the history of the Arvicules ; he has found five 
species in Belgium, three of which were already known in France and Ger- 
many, and the other two are new. The number of Arvicules in central and 
western Europe amounts, then, to six. Here follows an enumeration of the 
five Belgian species :—Arvicola fuluus, Desm. Length of the body, 3 in. 21, 
of the tail, 111. ; ears scarcely visible.—A. amphibius, Desm., ( Mus amphibius, 
Linn.). Length of body, 6in. 3l. ; tail, 3in. 41—4A. arvalis, D.S.L. (Mus 


EXTRACTS FROM FOREIGN JOURNALS. 165 


arvalis, Linn.). Length of body, 3in. 91. ; tail, lin. 11. ; ears of moderate size. 
A. subterraneus, D.S.L. Body, 2in. 91. ; tail, lin. 11. ; ears of moderate size, 
tail black above, whitish beneath; eyes very small.—A. rufescens, D.S.L. 
Body, 2in. 91. ; tail lin. 431.5; ears rather large ; tail black above, whitish be- 
low; eyes prominent. ‘This monograph contains four plates, figuring four 
of the species of the natural size, and giving the heads of two. 

A New Instance or A SHOwER or Toaps.—M. Pontus, a Professor, 
at Cahors, has communicated to the Académie des Sciences of Paris, ano- 
ther instance confirming the truth of the showers of Toads which have 
already often occupied the attention of the Academy. ‘In the month 
of August, 1834,” he writes, *‘ I was in the diligence from Alby to Toulouse; 
the weather being fine and clear. About four o’clock in the afternoon, 
three leagues from Toulouse, a dense fog suddenly covered the horizon, and 
loud peals of thunder were heard. This mist burst upon the road, at about 
120 yards (60 toises) from where we were. Two horsemen, returning to 
Toulouse, whither we were going, and who found themselves exposed to the 
storm, were obliged to put on their great coats; but what was their surprise 
and consternation when they were assailed by a shower of Toads. They 
quickened their pace, and eagerly pressed forward, as soon as they met the 
diligence, to relate what had happened. I still saw some small Toads upon 
their cloaks. When the diligence reached the spot where the fog had burst, 
we beheld the road, and the fields on both sides, covered with Toads, of which 
the smallest was at least an inch in length, and the largest about two inches, 
which led me to suppose they were one or two months old. There were 
three or four layers super-imposed one above the other. The feet of the 
horses and the carriage wheels crushed many thousands. On the road thus 
covered we travelled at least a quarter of an hour, at the usual pace.”—Bib. 
Univ. de Geneve. 


BOTANY. 


New Fossizr Prants Founp 1x Nortu America.—Dr. Harlan has 
published, at Philadelphia, a thick volume entitled Medical and Physical Re- 
searches, &c., 1835. This work contains various papers on Medicine, Zoolo- 
gy, &c. We extract the following notes on various species of fossil plants, 
recently found in the United States :—Pecopteris obsoleta. This species 
bears considerable resemblance to P. Cistii of Brongniart, but differs in 
having the veins of the segments of the leaves slightly, or not at all marked, 
It occurs in the sandstone of the bituminous strata of coal. 

Pecopteris Milleri.—P. Pinnulis obliquis rectis linearibus elongatis vix distinc- 
tis nervulis simplicibus valde obliquis. Found in the same localities as the pre- 
ceding, and resembles the P. Beaumontii, Brong. 

Equisetum stellifolium.—E. caule erecto simplici levi cylindrico, diam. 1-8 pol- 
lic. subequali, ramulis 10-12 ad articulationes caulis verticillatis stelliformibus, 
articulis vix distinctis superne approximatis, vaginis indistinectis. Occurs in coal- 
fields and bituminous earth in Pennsylvania. 

Fucoides Alleghaniensis.—F. fronde compressa rugata apice recurva obtusa, 
ramis inequalibus digitatis et fastigiatis enervibus nudatis. Found in the com- 
pact sandstone under the coal formations, on the mountains bordering the 
river Juniata, near Sesquehanna. 


166 EXTRACTS FROM FOREIGN JOURNALS. 


Fucoides Brongniartii.—F. fronde elongata subquadrangulari canaliculaté 
transverse rugosa, ramulis inequalibus sparsis remotis compressis rugatis recurvis 
nudis. Met with in the same localities as the foregoing species, in the west- 
ern parts of the State of New York, and near the Welland canal in Canada. 
—Bibliothéque Universelle de Genéve. 

METHODS OF CONVERTING ANNUALS INTO Vivacious AND Lienrous 
Prants; by M. Pépin, principal of the Botanical School of the Paris Mu- 
seum of Natural History.—Two methods are commonly employed for trans- 
forming annuals or biennials into vivacious or woody plants :—Ist. By pre- 
venting the growth of the seeds; 2nd. By grafting an annual upon a viva- 
cious species. Besides these two modes, M. Pépin mentions a third, of which 
he records but one example, but which deserves to be studied, as an entirely 
novel circumstance in Vegetable Physiology, namely, the grafting a viva- 
cious plant upon an annual. Let us review the three methods. The first is 
that most frequently employed. Annuals and biennials only die from weak- 
ness induced by the formation and maturation of the seeds. They have 
aptly been compared to women who die in child-birth. When no seeds are 
formed, the flowers are double. Thus the double Nasturtium is vivacious, 
and is produced from slips. M.Pépin has kept plants upwards of twelve years, 
Chrysanthemum coronarium and Senecio elegans, become double by cultivation, 
are equally vivacious. The result is the same when the formation of single 
flowers is prevented or diminished. Corn lasts as long as the intemperatures, 
(intempéries) or the hand of man prevent it from forming its ears. The 
Reseda becomes ligneous when the lower stalks, and all the flowers developed 
during the first year, are removed. Hibiscus vesicarius and trionum, Anthe- 
mis triloba, Ageratum ceruleum, Cassinia spectabilis, GEnathera biennis, grandi- 
flora, salicifolia, many Malva and Sida—all ornamental annuals—become viva- 
cious and more or less ligneous when prevented from flowering at their usual 
time, or by removing the upper and lower branches. The plants must be 
housed in winter, as they are natives of a warmer climate than our own. 
The plan of grafting annuals upon ligneous species is intended to increase 
the quantity of the sap, in order that they may not be exhausted by the for- 
mation of the seeds. Pépin has grafted Ipomea purpurea on Conwolvulus pa- 
tatas. He made use of the Red Potato, and grafted on one of its branches at 
the height of a foot. Since the time of the operation (1831), the Purple 
Bindweed (Liseron pourpre) has put forth several branches, which produced 
annually abundance of flowers. Kept in a pot, it has almost become woody, 
and is put every winter into a warm greenhouse. The herbaceous graft, 
now so successfully employed, furnishes also some remarkable examples. 
Many annual Solanacee will live a considerable time when grafted on ligne- 
ous species of the same genus, or even upon the stems of Potatos, provided 
they are kept in a warm place in winter. The various annual Tobacco 
plants may be grafted on the Nicotiana glauca, that beautiful woody species 
which grows to a greater height than aman. All grafts answer well—what- 
ever be the cause—in a slip or crown, and can live there a considerable time. 
It is necessary to suppress the first flowers which appear, and to pull off the 
ends of the branches developed by the graft, in order to give it vigour and to 
increase the number of ramifications. If the plants grafted are unable to 
bear the cold, they should be put into the greenhouse. The neighbouring 
genera, Petunia, Nierembergia, &c., grafted on Nicotiana glauca, or on Taba- 


EXTRACTS FROM FOREIGN JOURNALS. 167 


eum, become equally vivacious and woody. Dianthus caryophyllus and ligno- 
sus, are very suitable for receiving the graft of annuals or biennials, as D, 
sinensis, barbatus, moschatus, so common in gardens. The grafted plants 
should be taken into the house in winter. The Potato, a vivacious plant, 
has been grafted upon the Purple Bindweed, and has caused the latter to be 
so far vivacious as to live three years! Its stem has become thicker than a 
goose-quill. “It was expected by this means,” says M. Pépin, “to hasten 
the flowering of the Potato, which to this day is scarce of flowers; but if ex- 
perience has not realized this hope, the result is not the less interesting.” 
May we not conclude, from this observation, that the species grafted not 
having exhausted the subject by the flowering, this has become vivacious, 
as if it had been prevented from flowering without being grafted? This 
method, which at first sight appears singular, is, notwithstanding, probably 
a confirmation of the principle that it is the formation of seeds that kills an- 
nuals.—ALPHONSE De CanDOLLeE, in the Bib. Univers. de Genéve, No. 12. 


GEOLOGY. 


On, THE BasiLosaurus ; A NEW GENus oF SauRIAN FossiIL, DISCOVERED 
in AmERica.—The discovery of this species is due to Judge Bree, of Ark- 
ansas, who found, in 1834, the first vertebra on the fenny margin of the river 
Washita. ‘Towards the close of the same year, other vertebree, fragments of 
the lower jaw, &c., were discovered at Alabama, thirty miles from Chair- 
bome. Several immense vertebrze, teeth, ribs, parts of the shoulder, hume- 
rus, tibia, &c., have been obtained ; and in May, 1835, another skeleton, pro- 
mising a rich collection of fossil remains, was found. Near it was a vertebra 
of the tail of the Mosawrus, or Crocodile of Maéstricht. All these bones, 
though differing in their proportions and size, belong to the same species ; 
the structure of the lower jaw, which is hollow, indicates that it is an extinct 
genus of the Saurian class. The comparatively small size ofthe bones of 
the extremities, seems to prove that the tail was the principal organ of mo- 
tion ; the anterior members ought to have been fins. The row of vertebre, 
extending to more than 100 feet in one specimen, and estimated at upwards 
of 150 feet in that of Arkansas, proves this enormous animal to have attained 
or even exceeded these dimensions; and it well deserves the name it has re- 
ceived—Basilosaurus, or King of the Saurians. 


MINERALOGY. 


THE PROBABLE OricIn oF THE D1amMonp.—Naturalists have proposed 
hypotheses as to the origin of the diamond which ascribe it to a vegetable, 
and not a mineral, formation. Jameson attributes it to the vegetable secre- 
tion of some patriarchal or. antediluvian Baobad or Banyan tree of the world 
before the flood. Brewster considers the stratum in which it is found as nei- 
ther the production of water or fire, and the diamond itself, like amber, from 
its combustibility and its powerful reflective properties, as a consolidation of 
vegetable matter, which has gradually acquired crystallization. Jameson’s 
view is supported by many remarkable analogies of the formation of silex in 
various Indian plants, as the formation of lime is known to take place in 
others. The genus Chara is especially rich in the latter as well as the ex- 


168 EXTRACTS FROM FOREIGN JOURNALS. 


traordinary group of corallines, which have hence frequently been considered 
as animals. The formation of silex occurs pre-eminently in Indian grasses, 
bamboos, and even trees. Dr. Moore observed that within the Circars, as 
far as Nagpore, consequently within the district watered by the Kistna and 
Godavery, a species of Jungle grass, with which Dr. Roxburgh was unac- 
quainted, grows in immense quantities upon the mountain heights, in the 
knots of which a secretion of perfect silex takes place. The Calamus rotang, 
Equisetum hiemale, and certain species of bamboo, also produce these secre- 
tions of silex, which are better known by the name of Tabaschir, or vegeta- 
ble opal. The bamboo in which this Tabaschir is secreted, Langford Ken- 
nedy observed in great quantities in the wilds of the mountain around Ram- 
guhr, thirty geographical miles to the west of Calcutta, consequently in the 
vicinity of the sources of the rivers Brahmani and Mahanadi, along which it 
may also be distributed. This species of Bambas is called at Ramguhr Kut- 
binbanse—that is, prickly wild bamboo—and the siliceous secretion Banselo- 
chum. It is not every plant which produces this secretion ; those who seek 
it shake the stems, and detect it by its rattling within those plants which 
exceed in their stem two inches and a half in diameter. In the east- 
ern islands it is found in much larger stems, but it is then of a dirty yel- 
low colour. There are two different kinds; the one nearly white, but 
opaque, and the other resembling opal, but without any polish. The physi- 
cians of the Hindoos use it as a medicine, and it costs from eight to ten shil- 
lings the pound. Dr. Turnbull Christie observes that this Tabaschir is not 
found in all parts of India, nor in all the species of the same genus of bamboo, 
nor even in all the bamboos of the same locality. The secretion of this silex, 
therefore, may be referred to certain local and individual vegetable peculia- 
rities which stand in a yet unknown connexion with its range of occurrence, 
like that of the diamond. As long as the bamboo is green the Tabaschir is 
moist and transparent, analogous to chalcedony in basalt, which becomes 
opaque by exposure to the air before it can be removed from the fissure. 
The Tabaschir possesses a similar property to Chalcedony, for by chemical 
analysis it produces silex. ‘The bamboos are not the only plants which pro- 
duce silex. The iron-wood, Calumidiri, and others which have been brought 
from the forests of Ava, are so filled with condensed carbon that they ac- 
quire almost the hardness of diamonds, and rather resemble petrifactions 
than succulent vegetables. It therefore becomes probable that many of the 
so called petrified species of wood have killed themselves by a superabundant 
secretion of the siliceous matter; whence we may comprehend their wide 
dispersion in both the deserts of Africa and Asia. Similar concretions of si- 
lex have frequently been found in abundance in the hard teak wood, the 
analysis of which, according to Wollaston, gave silex which appeared to 
come most closely to the diamond carbon, and seemed to support Jameson’s 
interesting hypothesis of the possibility of a vegetable origin of this jewel, 
but which, indeed, still requires many experiments and observations to con- 
firm.—Ritter Erdkunde, vi., 365. 


MISCELLANEOUS. 


Van Manver at Forence.—Two thirds of the fifteenth century—at 
which period commenced in Belgium the revival of painting by the invention 


EXTRACTS FROM FOREIGN JOURNALS. 169 


of oil colours—were already passed. Van Dyck was no more ; but the adopted 
child of Bruges had achieved enough for his glory and that of his country, 
by imparting to colours a durability wanting in the works of Athens and of 
Rome. The centre of acatholic unity, enriched by the spoils of Rome, Italy 
gathered to itself the pupils of Van Dyck. After receiving instructions from 
this celebrated painter, Joseph Van Mander, a native of Bruges, travelled 
to Italy. At Venice the friendship of Dominique fully compensated him for 
the communication which he made to that artist of his master’s discovery ; 
and at the invitation of his new acquaintance the young painter directed his 
steps to Florence, there to behold the master-pieces collected by the Medici 
in their splendid capital. Here Van Mander sent to ask André del Castagno, 
a distinguished artist of Florence, ifit would be agreeable to him to receive a 
foreign painter, who had a message for him from his friend Dominique of 
Venice. André was himself the bearer of the reply—“ Sir,” said he, “ the 
friends of Dominique are my friends, and, moreover, are not all artists 
brothers ?” Wan Mander accepted the invitation of the Florentine to take up 
his abode with him, and the two friends soon arrived at the house of the latter. 
Van Mander on seeing the works of André, bestowed on them the warmest 
praise ; but when the Florentine had induced the young Fleming to exhibit 
his own pictures, he could not restrain his admiration of a Madeline repentanie, 
into which Van Mander had thrown all the poesy of a religious soul, and the 
brilliant colouring so characteristic of the Flemish painters. 

“‘ T do not deserve these praises,” said Van Mander. “ ‘This transparent 
varnish is not my invention. Its discovery is due to my master, Van Dyck. 
But what would you say were you to see his Agneau de l’ Apocalypse 2” 

“J know not which to admire the most, your talent or your modesty.” 

“If you please,” rejoined Van Mander, “I will impart to you my il- 
lustrious master’s secret.” 

“How could I ever repay so great a favour ?” 

‘*Did you not say that all artists were brothers ?” 

And for some time the friends worked together in the studio of André, who 
had in a short time no reason to envy Van Mander. The Florentine had, 
however, no pleasure in contemplating that this discovery would place him 
amongst the best painters of Florence : at times his brow clouded, his eyes 
became savage, he muttered angrily ; and when the good Van Mander 
inquired the cause of this alteration, André replied that he had recently been 
disappointed in love. One night André seemed more than ever occupied with 
his gloomy thoughts ; and as his companion was unable to please him he went 
out to walk in the spacious streets and squares of Florence. The moon cast a 
gigantic shadow on the church of the Annunziata, and Van Mander had scarce 
reached its beautiful door-way, when he felt the icy thrust of a dagger in his 
breast. He tore the weapon from the wound, and perceived a man in a cloak 
hurrying offin the shade. Wan Mander fell upon the earth. Two men who 
were passing that way, found him weltering in his blood, and almost ex- 
hausted. 

« Already a victim,” observed one; “ the bullies of Venice have taken up 
their abode at Florence.” 

‘Only been here eight days,” said the other, when he had heard the 
painter’s story, “and thus early a dagger thrust. By the Madona, this is 
singular.” 

VOL. VI.—NO. XIX. Y 


170 EXTRACTS FROM FOREIGN JOURNALS. 


‘Some love affair, probably.” 

Van Mander was conveyed, by his desire, to the house of the Seigneur del 
Castagno, who seemed anxious at the absence of his friend. The door opened, 
and Van Mander was carried in, covered with blood. 

“O !” exclaimed André, “ what a terrible accident ;” and, weeping, he threw 
himself on the body of the dying man. ** Weep not,” said Van Mander, “ your 
kindness deprives death of its sting.” André appeared so much affected as to 
be unable tospeak. After moistening his parched lips with water, the suffer- 
er, somewhat refreshed, observed, ‘“‘ Have I done harm to any one? It was 
not to rob me that the assassin struck the blow, for he fled immediately. In 
my country the attack is made openly, and with the sword, but here the 
dagger ! 

André would have called in a physician, but his friend prevented him, as- 
suring him he was past human aid. A few minutes, and he breathed no more. 
On the morrow, the splendid obsequies for the deceased, attended by all the 
artists of Florence, attested the deep grief of the Seigneur André del Castagno, 
who also erected a costly monument to the memory of the young stranger. 
The whole city lauded the interest which he condescended to take in a 
foreigner ; his celebrity increased, and the mother of Van Mander died 
blessing the name of André. Yet all this fame and honour satisfied not the 
Seigneur del Castagno. He was evidently suffering from some concealed re- 
morse; his admirers said he had never forgotten the death of the young 
Fleming; his piety passed into a proverb, and he was called Pami de Pétran- 
ger—the foreigner’s friend. 

Grief failed not to hasten the end of André. His health declined visibly ; 
at length he could no longer handle his brushes. The physicians called in 
by his friends were refused admittance ; he wished to die, for life was to him 
but a horrible punishment. Finally, feeling his approaching dissolution, he 
collected about him all his friends, and thus addressed them :— 

“O you! whom I once called my friends, Iam dying. I am too culpable to 
hope for pardon on earth or in heaven; still I feel that the avowal of my crime 
renders my last moments less painful. Many years ago, I received into my 
house a young foreigner who fell by the hand ofan assassin—I am that assassin. 
Was it not infamous to stab one who had eaten at my table—whom I had 
called my brother ? God would not be just were he to pardon so heinous an 
offence !” 

A feverish strength sustained the dying man; he raised himself in bed, as 
if to escape from a frightful vision, and fell back motionless. The attendants 
departed in silence, a priest alone remaining to pray over the corpse.—When 
this awful truth was known, the senate of Florence ordered the name of André 
del Castagno to be struck out from the records of the city. His pictures 
were publicly burnt, his ashes were scattered before the winds, and his name 
was held up to universal execration,—Translated and abridged from Le Con- 
stitutionnel, Journal Politique et Litteraire. 


171 


OBITUARY. 


On January 10, 1837, died John Robinson, M.D., at his house in Hall 
Gate, Doncaster, aged 59. He was born at Cawood Hall, near Spalding, 
Lincolnshire, acquired his medical education with the celebrated Dr. Harri- 
son, and obtained his degree at Edinburgh. Subsequently he setiled for a 
short time in Derby, but afterwards removed to Doncaster, where he prac- 
tised about thirty years, with great credit and extensive usefulness. He 
acted for many years as physician to the Dispensary, and the poor will long 
remember his honest, upright manner, and genuine benevolence, with feelings 
of gratitude. He also gave his gratuitous services to the Yorkshire Deaf 
and Dumb Institution from its commencement till about a year before his 
death, when Dr. Scholfield was requested to accept the office. Such was his 
urbanity that he was respected by all parties and all classes; and by the wn- 
prejudiced practitioners of his time his name is associated with the pleasing 
recollection of his having been the first physician who devoted his talents to 
the relief of diseases of the spine on Dr. Harrison’s principles of spinal Pa- 
thology. When Dr. Robinson was pupil to Dr. Harrison, at Horncastle, in 
Lincolnshire, and when Dr. H. began his spinal practice in London with such 
decided success, he communicated not only the principles, but all the manual 
and mechanical part of the treatment, to his favourite pupil, our late wor- 
thy friend; and nothing could be more pleasing than to witness the warm 
friendship which subsisted between these two gentlemen—the pupil honour- 
ing the master, and the teacher repaying this regard, through a long life, 
with marked confidence and esteem, until death claimed the younger man as 
his victim. We have often admired the magnanimity with which Dr. Robin- 
son bore the odium which is attached to any new species of practice; but he 
knew and felt that it was one eminently calculated to mitigate, and often to 
cure, the maladies resulting from curvature of the spine. It was conviction 
that urged him “through evil report and good report,” and he lived to see 
even the most vehement opponent admit the value of the system and the 
importance of the practice. There was in all Dr. Robinson’s actions the im- 
press of good principles, and he conscientiously persevered in that which his 
intellect decided to be correct; and although he valued the good opinions of 
his cotemporaries, yet he never compromised his consistency or integrity to 
obtain it. He might not be always right, but he was never intentionally 
wrong. He was invariably candid and just, never indulging in spleen at 
disappointment, nor did he make the errors of others a subject of comment. 
To his cotemporaries he was just, and particularly appreciated any kindness 
or attention ; but he was likewise much pained when he experienced the con- 
trary, if unmerited; and when he finished his earthly career there was but 
one sentiment manifested, that of great regret at his somewhat unexpected 
summons to * that bourn from whence no traveller returns.” 

January 16, 1837, at his father’s house, in Glasgow, in his 36th year, 
Robert Macnish, M.D., author of Philosophy of Sleep, Anatomy of Drunken- 
ness, Catechism of Phrenology, Book of Aphorisms, &c., works well known to the 
majority of our readers. 

January the 17th, at his house, in Newhall-street, Birmingham, aged 36, 
Mr. George Parsons, Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, and one of 


172 OBITUARY. 


the Surgeons to the Birmingham Infirmary. The great loss which has 
been sustained by the death of this most estimable and highly-talented 
gentleman, will be most severely felt by all classes of society. The 
varied acquirements which his mind, ever active in the pursuit of knowledge, 
had made in the different branches of literature and science, made his society 
particularly valuable to all those who had the pleasure of enjoying it. The 
successful manner in which he employed his professional skill to relieve the 
sufferings of the poor, the generous sympathy he displayed in their distress- 
es, and the untiring exertions he made to relieve their wants, have obtained 
for him the affectionate attachment of this large and important portion of the 
community. The extensive attainments of Mr. Parsons in the various 
branches of science, rendered him a most valuable acquisition to the Philoso- 
phical Institution of Birmingham, which he joined in the year 1827, and was 
appointed Secretary in the year 1829. Mr. Parsons was a frequent contribu- 
tor to several of the medical periodical publications ; and some very interest- 
ing papers of his, containing a statistical account of the diseases of this town 
are published in the Reports of the Midland Medical Asseciation. He held 
the office of Local Treasurer of the British Association for the Promotion of 
Science. 

January 22, 1837, at his residence, Howland-street, London, Dr. Thorn- 
ton, the celebrated botanist. 

January 24, aged 67, Joseph Sabine, Esq., F.R.S., L.S., H.S., Z.8., &c., 
many years Honorary Secretary tothe London Horticultural Society, and 
a well-known amateur of Botany. Mr.8. was brought up to the bar ; but 
shortly after he had begun to practice, he received an appointment under 
government, at a salary of £600 a year. This office he held till 1835, when 
he was put upon the retired allowance of £350. per annum. In 1810, Mr. S. 
joined the Horticultural Society, of which he was made Honorary Secratary 
on May I, of the same year, upon the resignation of R. A. Salisbury, Esq. 
After Mr. §. ceased to be Hon. Secretary, he became an active member of 
the Zoological Society, and was the means of greatly increasing its collection 
of ornamental plants, in the Regent’s Park. 

On the 4th of February, John Latham, M.D., F.R.S., L.S., A.S., closed 
his long and honourable career, at Winchester, in his 97th year. A biogra- 
phical sketch of this celebrated naturalist will appear in our next number. 

Science has recently sustained asevere loss in the death of Edward Turner, 
M.D., who departed this life February 12, at his residence at Hampstead, 
aged 40. He died of inflammation of the lungs, which commenced in an 
attack of influenza. He had suffered many years under chronic affection 
of the intestines, by which his strength was greatly reduced. Dr. 'T. was 
born in Jamaica, but was early removed for his education to England, and 
obtained his degree at Edinburgh. Having determined to make Chemistry 
his chief study, he then went to Gottingen, where for two years he devoted 
his whole attention, under Prof. Stromeyer, to that science and Mineralogy. 
He returned to Edinburgh in 1824, and began to lecture on his favourite 
science. On the foundation of the London University, he was appointed 
Prof. of Chemistry at that Institution, to the success of which, as a medical 
school especially, he has contributed an ample share. His class was large and 
flourishing ; his lectures were remarkable for the simplicity and clearness 
with which the most apparently complicated principles and facts were ex- 


LITERARY INTELLIGENCE. 173 


pounded, and he was considered the model of an effective teacher. As a che- 
mist, Dr. T. was early known asa most acute and original observer, and he 
was distinguished for the extent and accuracy of his knowledge in all depart- 
ments. 
At Paris, M. Van Praet, a bibliographer of the first eminence in nearly all 
branches of learning. 
_At Upsala, in the 87th year of his age, Professor Adam A fzelius, the last 
surviving pupil of the immortal Linneus. 
The learned botanist of the Cape of Good Hope, M. Persoon, is no more ; he 
died in Paris, at a very advanced age, having lived there since he enjoyed a 
pension from his Government, which was granted to him on giving up his 
Herbarium to the Museum at Leyden. His works on Cryptogamea are ex- 
cellent, and his Enchiridiwm Botanicum is one of the most useful works of the 
kind ever published. 


LITERARY INTELLIGENCE. 


Mr. John Britton, F.S.A., has published a Catalogue Raisonné of his 
unique Collection of Works on Cathedral and Architectural Antiquities, and 
other choice Literary and Graphic Works, which are offered at somewhere 
about half the cost of the publishing prices. 

The Bridal of Naworth, a Poem, in three cantos, has just been published 
by Simpkin, Marshall, & Co. 

Mr. Hoskins, the author of Travels in Ethiopia, has in the press an account 
of a Visit to the Great Oasis, with an account, Ancient and Modern, of the 
Oasis of Amun and the Oases of the Libyan Desert, now under the dominion 
of the Pasha of Egypt. : 

A new edition of Inglis’s Spain is in the press, with an introductory chap- 
ter, giving some account of the lamented author, and an outline of the 
proceedings in the Peninsula since his decease. 

The Rev. T. R. Everest has lately published a second edition of his 
Popular View of Homeopathy. 

Modern India; or Illustrations of the Resources and Capabilities of 
Hindostan, a work from the pen of Henry H. Spry, Esq., M.D., of the 
Bengal Medical Staff, which promises to add greatly to the information 
already extant concerning the British Empire in Hindostan. 


SELECT LIST OF NEW PUBLICATIONS, 
From January 1, 1837, ro.Marcn 8, 1837. 


Addison’s Indian Reminiscences, 8vo., 14s. 

Antrobus’s Social Bearings and Importance of Education, 8vo., 10s. 
Barton and Castle’s British Flora Medica, vol. 1, 8vo., 21s. 

Boullaye le Gouz’ Tour in Ireland, 1644, edited by Croker, post 8vo., 5s. 
Brenton’s (Capt.) Naval History, 2 vol. 8vo., 31s. 6d. 

Campbell’s (Thomas) Letters from the South, 2 vol. 8vo., 31s. 6d. 
Castle’s Linneean Artificial System of Botany, 4to., 5s. 

Cooper’s (J. F.) Recollections of Europe, 2 vols. post 8vo., 21s. 


174 METEOROLOGICAL REPORT. 


Crossley’s (T.) Flowers of Ebor ; poems, 12mo., 6s. 
Duncan’s Sacred Philosophy of the Seasons (Spring), fcap,, 6s. 
Duncumb’s (T.) British Basigrant’s Advocate, 7s. 6d. 

Ede’s Practical Facts in Chemistry, 18mo., 3s. 

Edwards (T. C.) on the Bladud Spa Waters, 8vo., 3s. 

Fairland’s Studies of the Human Figure, 2 vols. royal 4to., 24s. 
Faulkner’s Letters on a Tour through France, &c., sm. 8vo., 9s. 6d. 
Grund’s it a History of the Americans, 2 vol. 8vo., 24s. 

Home’s (Dr. G. A.) Guide for Invalids to the Continent, 18mo., 3s. 6d. 
Howitt’s (Mary) Tales in Prose, 12mo., 5s. 

Jardine and ‘een Me Ornithology, 3 vol. 4to., 101. 10s., 1. p. 151. 15s. 
Jardine’s Naturalist’s Library, vol. 17 (Birds of West Africa), 12mo., 6s. 
Lardner’s Cyclopedia, vol. 87 (Southey’s Admirals, vol. 4), 12mo., 6s. 
Lardner’s Cyclopedia, vol. 88 (‘Thirlwall’s Greece, vol. 4), 12mo., 6s. 
M‘Clelland’s Geology, &c., of the Province of Kemaon, 8vo., 12s. 
Millengen’s (Dr.) Curiosities of Medical Experience, 2 vol. 8vo., 28s. 
Mudie’s (Robert) Seasons (vol. 1, Spring), royal 18mo., 5s. 

Muskau’s (Prince) Semilasso in Africa, &c., 3 vol. small 8vo., 31s. 6d. 
Pearsall’s (R.) Contemplations on the Ocean, &c., 8vo., 9s. 
Pharmacopeeia Londinensis, translated by D. Spillan, 18mo., 6s. 
Raumer’s Contributions to Modern History, vol. 2, sm. 8vo., 10s. 6d. 
Shuckard on the Indigenous Fossorial Hymenoptera, 8vo., 14s. 

Smith’s Birmingham and its Vicinity, 8vo., 10s. 61. 

Sinith’s Dudley Castle, 4to., 9s. 

Transactions of the Statistical Society of London, part 1, 4to., 7s. 6d. 
Turnbull’s (Dr. A.) ‘Treatise on Painful and Nervous Diseases, 8vo., 6s. 
Walker (Mrs.) on Female Beauty, post 8vo., 30s. bound. 
Weatherhead’s (G. H.) Treatise on Diseases of the Lungs, 8vo., 7s. 6d. 
Wyse (T.) on Education Reform, vol. 1, 8vo., lis. 


METEOROLOGICAL REPORT. 


Tux influenza, which, since my last report, has so universally prevailed 
among the high and low, rich and poor, first made its appearance in Malvern 
about the 15th of January—a week or ten days later than in London—and 
prevailed extensively among all classes, children excepted. The disease 
seemed to be similar in every respect to that which appeared in 1803, to 
which it was allied also by its general diffusion throughout the whole king- 
dom ; in 1831, and again in 1833, the same disorder appeared in a minor de- 
gree. This is not the place to enter into any detail as to symptoms, treat- 
ment, mortality, &c.; 1 may, however, remark that it appears extremely 
difficult to trace its origin to any of those atmospheric phenomena indicated 
either by the barometer, thermometer, or hygrometer. The vicissitudes of 
temperature in December and January were considerable, but not peculiar ; 
whilst the pressure and hygrometric conditions of the air were by no means 
remarkable in any respect. That extraneous wo a exist, hitherto 
undetected by chemical analysis, and to which epidemic diseases—such as 
that which has just visited us—owe their origin and progress, there can be 
no doubt; the atmosphere, even when very dry, is very often extremely 
misty and hazy, and this mist or haze cannot, under such circumstances, be 
attributed to vapour—it must be something else; and we have only to col- 
lect a sufficient quantity of it, and to examine minutely into its nature, in 
order to become acquainted with its effects upon the human frame. To do 
this an immensely larger quantity of air must be searched than any yet sub- 


METEOROLOGICAL REPORT. 175 


jected to examination ; a bottle full, a room full, or a house full, would con- 
tain too small a quantity for such a purpose. I think means might easily be 
devised for thus searching a much larger quantity of air than any yet at- 
tempted, and I hope on some future occasion to shew how this may be done. 
The disease disappeared rather suddenly on the 14th or 15th of February, 
having continued just one month. 

«February 18th, at 6 p. m.—Barom. 28.960; clouds and rain. At 63 p.m. 
—Very heavy rain indeed; wind veering from 8. W. toW. N.W. At9 
p- m.—Barom. 29.045; brilliant, clear, moon-light night ; fresh breeze from 
the westward, and an extensive and varied Aurora; a large, reddish-looking 
arch extending from N. W. to N. E., with streamers up to the zenith; the 
effect greatly diminished by the bright moon: the Aurora did not continue 
long. 103 p. m.—Went out about half an hour ago to see the occultation of 
Mars by the moon, when my attention was arrested by a most brilliant, 
broad, light-red, or almost carmine-coloured, arch, stretching across the hea- 
vens. It was much broader and more deeply coloured at either extremity 
than in the centre : to the eastward it passed between the tail of the Great 
Bear and Arcturus. The middle of the arch, which was very faint, passed 
through the two principal stars in Gemini, and the western extremity 
crossed the two largest stars in the shoulders of Orion, viz., «and y. In a 
little while the western extremity of the arch shifted over Aldebaran, and 
ultimately over Capella, throwing out now and then very vivid streamers. 
I never saw a luminous arch of such a peculiar colour—so beautiful and, not- 
withstanding the clear moon-light, so brilliant! Now and then several deli- 
cate pencilings of the same hue appeared near the zenith. The eastern end 
of this arch passed at length over Arcturus towards the south, while the west- 
ern end moved towards the north, disappearing between ie ayy and Cassiopdia. 
On the 19th, boisterous 8. W. gale and heavy rain.”—W. A. 


Malvern, March 20th, 1837. 


DECEMBER. 
1836| Barometer. | Thermometer,| . Remarks. 
Dec. | Morn. | Even. | Max. { Min. Day. Nizht. Wind. 

i | 29.275 | 29.430| 44 34 Clouds, sun, rain Fine S. W., light 

2 | 29.260 | 28.980} 50 40 Clouds, wind, and rain | Clouds & rain | S. W., strong 

3 29.180) 53.5 | 43 Fine and windy Thndr. & rain | Westerly 

4 | 29.085 | 29.185| 54 50 Fine, clouds, and wind | High Wind Westly by N. 

5 29.220| 53 Showers and wind S Westerly 

6 29.085) 51.5 | 45 Cloudy and fine 

7 | 28.730 | 28.910} 47.5 | 45 Hvy showers and wind} Rain Ww. S. W. 

8 | 28.490 | 28.400] 42.5 | 39 Hvy. showers and wind | Showers W.N. W. 

9 | 28.400 | 28.300} 39 34 Sun and snow Light airs 
10 | 28.520 | 28.750 | 39 31.5 | Showers, fine Fine, frosty Lt. airs, Wly. 
11 29.000 | 39 32 Cloudy, calm, fine Light airs 
12 28.635 | 50 32 Fog and rain Frost, rain Ss. W. 

13 | 28.600 | 28.660} 39 35 Cloudy — Wind and rain | W.S. W. 

14 | 28.725 | 29.125} 43 35 Fine, windy W.N. W. 

15 | 29.500 | 29.010} 40 35 Fine, boist. wind, rain | Fine N. W. 

16 | 29.235 | 29.530| 43.5 | 37 Cloudy, wind Rain,wind, fine| W. N. W. 

17 | 29.520 | 29.450} 48 37 Clouds, rain Fine W.S. W. 

18 | 29.530 | 29.630} 52 49 Fine, mild Fine Light airs 

19 | 29.580 | 29.530| 48 44.5 | Fine, cloudy Fine S. W. 

20 | 29.685 | 29.725| 45 42 | Fine’ Fine Light, vble. 

21 | 29.735 | 29,850| 47 38 =| Fine, cloudy Fine Westerly 

22 | 29.845 | 99,530} 51.5 | 44 | Fine, cloudy ‘ Clouds, fine | N. W. 

23 | 29. 29 220} 35 34 Cloudy, clear Rain Northerly 

24 | 29.260. | 29.430} 33 28 Cloudy, sun Snow NN? BE: 

25 | 29.375 | 29,300} 27 23 Snow and wind Clear, fine N.N. EF. 

26 | 29.160 30 26 Cloudy, windy Snow & wind | N. E. 

27 | 29.310 32 29 Some snow Calm 

28 | 29.435 | 29.520} 31.5 | 28 Cloudy, light wind Snow ‘Northerly 

29 | 29.560 |” 32 30 Cloudy Cloudy N. W., light 

30 | 29.580 | 29.665} 32 275 | Clouds and sun Cloudy Nor ‘herly 

31 | 29.970 32.5 | 29 | Cloudy Fine W.N W. 
Mean Max. 42.1 35.8 Mean Min. 


r 


-. METEOROLOGICAL REPORT. 


q JANUARY. 

1837 | Barometer. | Thermomete Remarks. 

Jan. | Morn.| Even. | Max. ) Min. . Day. ight. Wind 
1 | 30.035 | 29.930; 35 -} 29 | Clowdy, fine Northerly 
2 | 29.860 | 29.845}. 40. | 32 | Cloudy, tine Cloudy | N. W, 
3 29760} °39 7. . : W.N.W. . 
4 | 29.830 | 29.720} 40.5 | 35 || Cloudy, fine Cloady | Lt. Westerly 
5 | 29.550 | 29.210} 37: | 35 | Cloudy, fine Cloudy Light airs |" — 
6 | 29.040 | 28.990 } -44 34 Fine, sun Rain ’ «| Westly., high 
7 | 29.115| 29.430} 44 |.36.5. |, Fine | Windy,showers | Westly., high 
8 | 29.660/ 29640} 40 _ | 32. | Fine, - Frosty | Westly., light 
9 | 29 620| 29.435] 50 | 40 | Fine, clouds, wind Fine Westerly 
10 | 29.160] 29535} 51 |. 45° | Showers Showers © Westerly 
11 | 29.650 | 29.670 | 32 26.5 | Fine . Clear, frost Northerly 
12 29.035 |. 40 2 Snow Cloudy Ss. W. 
13 | 28.845] 29.235} 51. | 435 | Showers Rain Westerly 
14 33 31 Fine Frost orth 

» 15} 29.930} 29.840} 33 - |: 29. | Fine, cloudy Fine N. Ee 
16 | 29.800! 29.780} 40. 30 | Damp, wet ‘ _| Variable 
17 | 29 760; 29.670} 42 ‘40 Damp, wet Cloudy ' | Northerly 
18 | 29.570| 29 440| 36. | 36 Damp, wet Cloudy, rain Northerly 
19 | 29 440} 29.330 | 33 33 Damp, misty Cloudy © Easterly 
20 | 29.180} 29.170 | 34 31 Cloudy, damp Showers Light, vble. 
21 | 29.090) 28.955} 42 31.5 | Fog and rain A little snow S. W. 
22 | 28.735) 28.800} 50 41.5 | Cloudy Rain Southerly 
23 | 28.850) 28.790} 51 41 Rain Rain Southerl 
24 | 29.000) 29.140} 50. | 43 ...| Showers Fine Westerly 
25 29.160 | 43 37__.| Fog and rain Rain Northerly 
26 | 29-125 39.5°) 37 .| Rain = - All rain N. Easterly - 
27 | 29.325; 29.380 | 38 35. | Rain East 
28 | 29.430! 29.400 | 35 32.5 | Clondy | Cloudy N.' Ee»: 
29 | 29.300) 29 240 | 33 30 A little snow Snow Easterly. 
30 | 29.200 29.240 | 41 30 Rain . | Snow S. E. 3 
31 | 445 | 39 Showers | Rain 

Mean Max.407 34.7 Mean Min. 
FEBRUARY: 

1837; Barometer. ;Thermometer, Remarks. 7 

Feb. | Morn. , Even. | Max. | Min. Day. Night. Wind. 
1 42 37 Clouds, sun eG Oe 
2 | 29.750 | 29.770 Cloudy, fog, damp Light, vble. 
3 | 29. 800.| 29.840 | 43.5 | 38.5 | Clouds, fog, rain | Southerly 
4 _ | 29.800 |.41 Fine, cloudy, cold '| Easterly 
5 |.29.770 | 29.770 | 41 32.5.| Cloudy, damp, cold Cloudy S. Easterly 
6 | 29.800 | 29.740 | 42 34.5 | Fine, sun S_ Erly. vble 
7 | 29.620 | 29.660 | 42 35.5-| Fine, sun Souther] 
8 | 29.560 | 29.640 | 45 36 .| Clouds, rain Cloudy Ss EB. light 
9 | 29.735 | 29.535 | 46.5 | 41 | Fog, windy Southerly 
10 | 29.230 | 29.125 | 52. 445 | Rain and wind SiUw.ry 
11 | 28.600 | 28.550 | 50 42 | Showers, high wind Rain Ss. W. 
12 | 28.920 | 28.660} 42 35 | Clouds, sun, fine Fine W.N.W. 
13 | 28-700 | 28.660 | 47 39 | Heavy showers Heavy rain Westerly. 
14 | 28.800 | 29.260 | 47 35 | Fine, clouds, sun Heavy rain Westerly 
15 | 29.430 | 29.454 | 50 34 | Fine, cold wind Fine N. W., Vble 
16 | 29,520 ae 55 46 | Very fine Clouds & rain |S. W. 
17 | 29.654 | 29, 51 40 | Very fine ine Ss. W. 

- 18 | 29.355 | 28.960 | 50 38 | Windy, showers Fine Ss. W. 
19 | 28,930 | 28.560 | 49 32.5 | Bois. gale, cont’d. rain | Fine S. W. 
20 | 28.952 | 29.090 | 46 34 =| Fine, windy Fine . Westerly 
21 | 28.966 | 29.134} 50 39.5 | Very windy Shs., wind, hail weed? 

22 | 29.334 | 29.408 | 45 35 | Very wind Wind Ww ; 

ie _| 28.950 | 54 39 | Wind & rain, & snow | Clouds & rain|S. W. ~ 

_ 24 | 29.355.) 29.525} 40 32 | Windy and snow shrs. N. N. W. 

. 25 | 29.640 | 29,725) 39 31 | Fine, clouds and sun _ | Hail and snow | Northerly 

- 26 | 29.710 | 29.600} 41 27 ~+| Fine Fine, frost Calm, vble. 
27 | 29.425 | 41 32 | Fog and rain Calm, vble. 
28 | 29,480 | 29.790} 415 | 35 | Misty end cloudy Northerly 

Mean Max. 45.6 36.3 Mean Min. 


WA Adlrnz. 
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CONTENTS. 


. x. : PAGE 
Essay on the Ro'@l¢ of Circumstantial Evidence, by William Wills, Esq.......... 177 
Expression Bry DY Cees Peace aba kv adacs Saw gdiinkp tua usens eoes,cceedae geese Oepeeweaeteadh veya 191 
On the Presens2te of the Opera in Tiondon  .0...2.0.0..6.0. estes eee epeveveeee ceeneetenees 200 
Sketches of F,)2¢4n Ornithology—* Gould’s “ Birds of Europe.” ...........0.c..0088 239 
Some Remar?™ the Philosophy and Observances of Shakspeare; VI., “Hamlet.” 252 
Analysis of mbe's “System of Phrenology.” ..................000- KRM aie rc 262 
Horace on sanity, by D. W. Nash, BERG ciccrn sok eect en HUE ek ely st eaibal sco be cee 271 
The Impcance of Consulting the Bias of Youth in the-Choice of a Business or 
Profeion, exemplified in the case of Linneus [from a MS. Memoir]............. 280 — 
On the ennect n between Phrenology and Physiognomy, by J. L. Levison (con- 
Sink SCONE BAGEL. od. Bene waka a rakes hate e a agen TPR ea RANG Ue) Mies deaida Sans 284 
Correspu Geng eee tal opted URC oa aad Mice Sakae MOK Ee ros Rue Seca py at ees Paes SN aad ans 293 
talofue of Rare Plants found in the Vicinity of Birmingham and Lichfield. 
Ornithologizal Society of London «2.2.0... 0... cceees Sa pe Ten Sat ie Fed og me 298 
Proceedings of Provincial Socletles.3..07 53 ies Sh Pa eet eer EMO Cera Cake 303 


orcestershire Natural History Society—Shropshire and North Wales Na- 
txral History and Antiquarian Society. 
Critical Notices of New Publications ..........cccecccecseeseeeeseeeens pe aan! a eel grils 315 
Reports on the Explosion of Steam Boilers—An Address delivered at the 
Opening of the Worcestershire Museum—Sacred Philosophy of the Seasons, 
by the Rev. Henry Duncan, D.D.—An Analysis of the British Ferns and their 
Allies—A Synopsis of the Birds of Australia and thé adjacent Islands—The 
Naturalist’s Library. 3 


- 


Fite Awe: Muaig 227 oo ya, a cs eae ie -s MaN oe Patera ai raveey ote eaNees oie 337 
Extracts from Foreign Journals ................06.-+ iS ees se RNR ered ae oe 340 
Miscellaneous Comnmitinications 2:5 iosce eee ss Foote and ae Sede a eas eade tee 341 
t Obitiary.. Sisson tiie ee Pree S sg pemere Se VTE CASE aR oe te Hee Ea 348 
Literaty.- Intelligence: cosy 55 ot ste. Pe tyes ee ees gia stay Ne or Aree a al 352 
Meteorological Report............... sees Sst Mean eCee ep sk Leah aging Setter sea were dedvetstee te}. 353 


TO CORRESPONDENTS. 


Notwithstanding we havé given our readers an additional eight pages in the present 
number, we have been obliged to omit a notice of the Herefordshire Natural History So- 
ciety, and likewise an account of the opening of the Mechanics’ Institution at Lichfield, _ 
on which occasion the Rev. Chancellor Law delivered a very luminous and impressive ad- _ 
dress. ; 

We have also been reluctantly compelled to postpone critical notices of the following 

_ publications :—The Ninth Bridgewater Treatise ; MacGillivray’s British Birds ; Manual of 
Phrenology, by John Epps, M.D.; Spartacus, or the Roman Gladiator, by Jacob Jones, Esq. ; 
Post Office Reform, its Importance and Practicability, by Rowland Hill; An Appeal to the 
Public on the subject of Railways, by George Godwin, Esq.; Doveton, or the Man of many — 
Impulses ; Colonial Policy of the British Empire ; Memorials of Shrewsbury; and A Horti- 
cultural Tour through Germany. ~ 3 pid, 

It is requested that all communications sent to the Editors may be directed (pos PAID) 
to the care of Mr. Bartow, Bookseller, Bennett's Hill, Birmingham; and contributions 
should be sent early in the quarter preceding that in which they are expected to appear. 


No. XXI. of The Analyst will appear on the Ist of October next. 


7 


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the Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Volumes, price 9s. each, may be had of all Booksellers. 


177 


ESSAY ON THE RATIONALE OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL 
EVIDENCE. 


By Wriu1am WILL Ls, Esa. 


Or the various kinds of moral evidence, that of testimony is the 
most important and comprehensive in its relation to human con- 
cerns; and, considering how many of our daily determinations are 
grounded upon that kind of evidence, even where we least suppose 
that we are pursuing a logical process, and how important it is 
that our judgments should be correctly formed, the subject is one of 
deep curiosity and interest. To enter upon the subject of testimony 
at large, would be to treat of the conduct of the human under- 
standing in relation to the greater portion of the affairs of life. A 
due regard to unity of plan requires that I abstain from even glanc- 
ing at many kindred and interesting topics, and that I restrict my 
observations as much as possible to that specific portion of moral 
evidence which I propose to consider. 

It would be erroneous and unjust, because the subject is best ca- 
pable of illustration by forensic occurrences, to conclude that it 
more especially concerns the pursuits or the members of a particular 
profession. Such events are amongst the most deeply touching and 
dramatic incidents of social life ; and throw a fearful light upon the 
darker parts of human nature, “‘ as earthquakes and volcanoes dis- 
close the layers which compose the deeper parts of our planet, be- 
neath a fertile and flowery surface.”* The subject is of universal 
concernment, and relates to an intellectual process applicable to 
every branch of human speculation. 

It is desirable to clear the subject of ambiguity from the inaccu- 
rate use of language. The word proof is often applied to that 
which is merely the medium of proof: The judgment in relation to 
any alleged fact is always founded upon evidence, and when the 
result is that state of opinion which we distinguish by the term 
belief, we correctly say that the subject-matter of our inquiry is 
proved. Proof, then, is that quantity of evidence which produces 
belief, and they severally differ as cause and effect. 

The epithets direct, or indirect, or circumstantial, as applied to 
moral evidence, have been sanctioned by such long and general use 
that it might seem presumptuous to question their accuracy, as it 


* Mackintosh, Ethical Dissertation, p. 228. 
VOL. VI.—NO. XX. Z 


178 ESSAY ON THE RATIONALE OF 


would be needless and perhaps impracticable to substitute others ; 
but their distinctive propriety is certainly not evident, and the mis- 
use of them has occasionally been the cause of lamentable errors. 

On a superficial view it might be thought that the terms direct 
and circumstantial denote distinct kinds of evidence, whereas in 
reality they denote only the different probative nature of evidentiary 
facts themselves. The actual distinction is, that by direct evidence 
is intended proof of the fact which is the subject of inquiry—the 
factum probandum. Circumstantial evidence is equally direct in its 
nature, but it is direct evidence of a minor fact or collection of facts 
more or less usually connected with some other fact, and from 
which it is usually inferred. A fact of this latter kind is called 

factum probans. 

The term presumptive is frequently used as synonymous with cir- 
cumstantial evidence, but it is never so applied with accuracy. A 
presumption is a probable consequence drawn from proved facts, as 
to the truth of.a fact alleged, but of which there is no direct proof. 
The word presumption, therefore, inherently imports a conclusion 
of the judgment, based upon circumstantial evidence ; and it is more 
accurate to apply it only to conclusions from facts or moral pheno- 
mena. A wounded and bleeding body is discovered ; it has been 
plundered ; wide.and deep footmarks are found proceeding in a di- 
rection from the body. These circumstances induce the conclusion 
that a crime has been committed, and that conclusion is properly 
termed a presumption. The Judgment of Solomon is a memorable 
instance of a presumption afforded by moral phenomena. 

Direct and circumstantial evidence are essentially distinguished 
by the manner in which they produce belief. So rapid are our in- 
tellectual processes, that it is frequently impossible to trace the con- 
nection between an act of the judgment and the train of reasoning 
of which it is the consequence ; and the one appears to succeed the 
other by a kind of necessity, as the thunder follows the flash. But 
the case is widely different when we have to determine upon cir- 
cumstantial evidence, the judgment in respect of which is essen. 
tially deductive and inferential; the facts may be true and the de- 
duction false, and it is only by long experience that we acquire con- 
fidence in the accuracy of our conclusions. 

It is essential in all investigations founded upon moral evidence, 
and especially upon circumstantial evidence, that we correctly esti- 
mate the kind and degree of assurance of which the subject admits. 
The end of all intellectual research is the discovery of truth, or the 
conformity or disagreement of ideas. Abstract truth concerns ne- 


CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE. 179 


cessary relations, and its first principles are definilions which ex- 
clude all ambiguity of language and ideas, and lead infallibly from 
step to step to conclusions the most remote from common apprehen- 
sion. But the subjects which admit of mathematical certainty are 
comparatively few. Innumerable truths, the knowledge of which 
is indispensable to happiness, and even to existence, must be be- 
lieved upon evidence of an inferior kind. The subjects of moral 
- evidence are facts and relations which may or may not exist, and as 
to which our reasonings and conclusions may be erroneous and false. 
In the case of abstract truth, absolute and infallible demonstration 
is the result, to which moral certainty the highest assurance we 
can have of moral truth, is obviously and necessarily inferior. | 

Numerous attempts have been made to give mathematical form 
and precision to moral reasoning, but to little purpose, except as 
they shew the ingenuity of their authors ; and, without presump- 
tion, they may be declared to be destitute of any useful and practi- 
cable application. A learned author, whose high praise it is to 
have “ done more than any other writer to rouse the spirit of judi- 
cial reform,” but whose merits have been obscured by his eccentri- 
cities of thought as well as of style, has gravely demanded whether 
Justice requires less precision than Chemistry. The truth is that 
the precision required in the one case is of a nature of which the 
other does not admit. It would surely be absurd to require the 
proof of a moral or historic fact by the same kind of reasoning as 
that by which we establish that the three angles of every triangle 
are exactly equal to two right angles; or that, in certain of the co- 
nic sections, the latus rectum is a third proportional to the major 
and minor axes. 

Unlike the assent which is given to mathematical truth, belief 
may be of various degrees, between the highest and lowest of which 
there are innumerable shades of conviction, which the latency of 
mental operations, and the imperfections of language, render it im- 
possible to define or express. Nor is it material, in relation to 
subjects of moral inquiry, that exact expression cannot be given to 
the inferior degrees of belief. |The doctrine of chances, and nice 
calculations of probability, cannot be applied to human actions, 
which are essentially unlike, and dependent upon peculiarities of 
person and of circumstances, which render it impossible to compare 
them with a numeral standard. 

It is true, that, in the common affairs of life, we are frequently 
obliged from necessity and duty to act upon evidence which pro- 
duces the lowest state of belief; and Locke very justly remarks, 


180 ESSAY ON THE RATIONALE OF 


that “ he who will not stir till he infallibly knows the business he 
goes about will succeed, will have little else to do, but sit still and 
perish.”* But in such cases our judgments concern ourselves, and 
our own duties and interests ; while in moral judgments and penal 
jurisprudence, a rule of action is applied to the conduct of others, 
where external and sometimes ambiguous indicia constitute the only 
basis of judgment. In the application of a rule of action, the | 
moral certainty of the facts is its only just foundation and vindica- 
tion, and upon any lower degree of assurance it would be arbitrary 
and indefensible. 

But, though a process purely mathematical cannot be applied to 
moral evidence, a proceeding somewhat analogous is always follow- 
ed in the examination of a group of facts which are adduced as 
reasons for inferring the existence of another fact. We mentally 
collect on one side of the equation all the circumstances which 
have an affirmative value, and on the other, all those which lead to 
the opposite inference, or which diminish or destroy the weight or 
relevancy of the facts which have been put into the opposite scale. 
As in algebraic addition, we incorporate the opposite quantities, 
positive and negative, and the balance of probabilities constitutes 
the ground of human judgment and belief. 

The best writers on the subject of moral evidence, have been 
unanimous in treating circumstantial as inferior in cogency to direct 
evidence ; a conclusion which seems to follow necessarily from the 
very nature of these different kinds of evidence. But assertions of 
a different import are to be found in some late authorities. 

It has been said that ‘‘ circumstances are inflexible proofs ; that 
witnesses may be corrupted or mistaken, but things can be neither.” + 
“ Circumstances,” says Paley “ cannot lie.” It is astonishing that 
sophisms like these should have passed undetected. These pas- 
sages assume the circumstances to be in every case established 
beyond all possibility of mistake, and that the conclusions from 
them are necessary and infallible ;—and imply that circumstan- 
tial evidence possesses some mysterious force peculiar to facts of 
a certain class. Now, a circumstance is neither more nor less than 
a minor fact ; and it may be admitted of all facts that they cannot 
lie ; for a fact cannot at the same time exist and not exist, so that 
the doctrine expresses a mere truism, that a fact is a fact. It may 
also be admitted that circumstances are “ inflexible proofs ;” but so 


* Essay on the Human Understanding, b. 4, c. 14, s. 1. 
_+ Burnett, On the Criminal Law of Scotland. 


CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE. 181 


are facts of every kind, so that this is only a repetition of the same 
sophism. Although “ circumstances cannot lie,” the narrators of 
them may, and, like witnesses of all other facts, they may be biassed 
or mistaken. 

Burke appears to have adopted. without scrutiny, the notion I am 
combatting. ‘ When circumstantial proof,” says he, “is in its 
greatest perfection—that is, when it is most abundant in circum- 
stances—it is much superior to positive proof.”* Paley says: “a 
concurrence of well-authenticated circumstances composes a stronger 
ground of assurance than positive testimony, unconfirmed by cir- 
cumstances, usually affords.”+ The fallacy of these passages is, that 
they select an extreme case for the support of a general position : 
they contrast slender or doubtful cases of positive evidence, with 
cases of circumstantial evidence of the strongest kind, and calculated 
to produce the highest degree of assurance. If evidence be so 
powerful as “necessarily to produce conviction’’ (in the language of 
Mr. Justice Buller on the trial of Donellan), it matters not by 
what kind of evidence the effect is produced: the proving power 
must be precisely the same whether the evidence be direct or cir- 
cumstantial. But a judgment based upon circumstantial evidence 
cannot, in any case, be of a different nature from or more satisfacto- 
ry than when the same result is produced by direct evidence free 
from suspicion of bias or mistake. 

Attempts have been made, more especially by the civilians, but 
with no advantageous result, to classify and tabulate individual facts 
under terms expressive of their intrinsic and relative value as pre- 
sumptions. In matters of property, the laws of every country have 
created artificial legal presumptions, grounded upon reasons of poli- 
_ cy and convenience, to prevent discord and to fortify private right. 
** The very essence of such matters depends on the arbitrary con- 
vention of men. Men act on them with all the power of a creator 
over his creatures.”{ But in Morals and Jurisprudence, man, as a 
physical being and as a moral agent—such as he is by natural con- 
stitution, and by the influences of social condition—is the subject on 
which the legislator and the moralist have to operate; and with 
physical actions merely they have nothing todo. ‘ The presump- 
tions which belong to criminal cases, are those natural and popular 


* Burke’s Works, v. ii., p. 624, ed. 1834. 
+ Moral and Political Philosophy, b. iv., c. 9. 
{ Burke, supra. 


182 ESSAY ON THE RATIONALE OF 


presumptions which are only observations formed into maxims, like 
adages and apothegms, and are admitted, when their grounds are 
established, in the place of proof, where better is wanting, but are 
always to be overturned by counter proof.”* It is impossible, there- 
fore, to lay down arbitrary rules of presumption, where every case 
must be connected with peculiarities of personal character and con- 
comitant circumstances, and therefore irreducible to any fixed prin- 
ciple. It would be as wise to lay down at Lloyd’s positive regula- 
tions obliging a captain when within a certain distance of a rock 
to abandon his vessel.t Who can recall without horror the bloody 
law of James I., which made the concealment by the mother of 
the death of her illegitimate child conclusive evidence of murder ? 
whereas it affords not the slightest warrant for such a conclusion. 
Obnoxious enactments of a similar character, to the disgrace of our 
age, are yet in legal existence ; but by a wise ordination, the feel- 
ings rebel against all barbarous laws and render them practically a 
dead letter. 

Other writers have proposed to divide presumptions into neces- 
sary, probable, and slight ; but the scheme is fanciful rather than 
practical, since it is impossible thus to classify more than a very few 
of the infinite number of circumstances connected with human’ mo- 
tives and conduct, and the terms of designation, although not desti- 
tute of utility, are yet, from the inherent imperfections of language, 
unavoidably defective in exactness. 

The mental and physical constitution of man, and his external re- 
lations, are the sources of evidentiary facts. In every inquiry into 
the truth of an alleged fact, of the existence of which we are re- 
quired to judge on the foundation of secondary facts, there must - 
exist certain connections and dependencies with the principal fact, 
which will be manifested by external phenomena. No action of a 
rational being is indifferent, solitary, or independent, but must ne- 
cessarily be joined with antecedent and concomitant states of mind, 
and with external circumstances, and of their actual connection, 
though it may not be invariably apparent, there can be no doubt. 
There must be a voluntary agent, the act must have corresponding 
propinquity to some precise moment of time and portion of space, 
there must have existed inducing states of mind and material ob- 
jects of desire ; these, the means of flight or disguise, and a thou- 


* Burke, supra. 
+ Edinburgh Review, vol. x\viii., p. 499. 


CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE. 183 


sand other particulars connected with individual conduct, and with 
moral, social, and physical relations, afford materials for the deter- 
mination of the judgment. 

We assume the existence of an inducing motive for the voluntary 
acts of a rational agent as naturally and unhesitatingly as we look 
for secondary causes in material phenomena. The predominant de- 
sires of the mind are invariably followed by corresponding volitions 
and actions. It is indispensable, therefore, that, in cases of imputed 
guilt, we look at all the surrounding circumstances which connect 
the supposed actor with other persons and things, and may have in- 
fluenced his conduct. 

The passions are great casuists, and to enumerate the infinite 
ways in which they had to act, even if it were possible, would not 
be relevant, and would trespass upon a distinct department of moral 
science. We must not, however, lay undue or even great stress 
upon the existence of motives, which can never supersede the neces- 
sity for precisely the same weight of proof as would be necessary in 
the absence of evidence of such a stimulus. The external circum- 
stances which seem to present motives, may never have operated on 
the mind. Suspicion—too readily excited by unfavourable appear- 
ances—is incompatible with that even state of mind which is indis- 
pensable to correct and sober judgment. 

Neither must we expect to discover the existence of motives 
which, on a just estimate of things, can be regarded as adequate. 
It is of the very essence of moral weakness that it forms a mistaken 
estimate of present good ; and there must, therefore, be a want of 
proportion between the objects of desire and the sacrifices made to 
obtain them. 4 

The moral anatomist has, moreover, to encounter other and for- 
midable difficulties in endeavouring to trace the invisible links 
which connect actions with their impelling motives. The desire of 
the approbation of our fellow men has a powerful, often a very aus- 
picious, but sometimes a dangerous, influence upon the character. 
Hence the human mind is subjected to the action of antagonist 
principles, and the crafty are obliged to assume the semblance of 
characteristics of which they are utterly destitute, the natural incli- 
nation to truth being destroyed by overpowering inducements to 
dissimulation. 

It would be impossible to enumerate the infinite variety of cir- 
cumstantial evidentiary facts, which are necessarily as various as are 
the modifications and combinations of events in actual life. “ All 
the acts of the party, all things that throw light on these acts, all 


184 ESSAY ON THE RATIONALE OF 


the acts of others relative to the affair that come to his knowledge 
and may influence him—his friendships and enmities—his promises, 
his threats, the truth of his discourses, the falsehood of his apologies, 
pretences, and explanations—his looks, his speech, his silence where 
he was called to speak—every thing which tends to establish the 
connection between all these particulars, every circumstance, prece- . 
dent, concomitant, and subsequent, become parts of circumstantial 
evidence. These are in their matter infinite, and cannot be com- 
prehended within any rules or brought under any classification.”* 

All of these facts and circumstances are, however, susceptible of 
a general, though not of a perfect, arrangement under two classes ; 
namely, moral indications afforded by the language and conduct of 
the party, and secondly, facts which may be termed, for want of a 
more appropriate term, abstract facts—that is, facts apparently ex- 
trinsic and independent of moral conduct. This arrangement, 
indefinite as it is, is grounded upon the apparent rather than 
the real qualities of actions, and cannot be regarded as strictly accu- 
rate, since all the actions of a rational agent are prompted by mo- 
tives, though it be not always practicable to trace the connection 
between them. 

These great divisions are capable of reduction to subdivisions, 
every one of which may be made the centre of an assemblage of 
curious and instructive cases, many of them of the most extraordi- 
nary and tragic interest. But, ample as are my materials, on this 
occasion I can do no more than thus briefly advert to the practica- 
bility of such an arrangement and classification. 

It is obvious, that, in all questions of moral evidence, where we 
seek for the hidden cause of observed phenomena, we impliedly or 
expressly assume and refer to a standard of probability, both as re- 
spects physical and phsychological facts. I need not remark upon the 
difference between mathematical and moral probability, nor observe 
that moral probability does not imply any deficiency in the proof, 
but only marks the particular nature of that proof, as contradistin- 
guished from another species of proof.t—Moral probability is the 
accordance of facts which we receive upon testimony, with other 
facts with which we are previously acquainted.{ It would ob- 
viously be most erroneous and unsafe to be influenced in our recep- 
tion of facts, solely by the results of our own observation and 


* Burke's Works, vol. ii., p. 623. 
+ Stewart’s Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind, vol. ii., p. 252. 
+ Abercrombie, On the Intellectual Powers, p. 74. 


CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE. 185 


experience. We may remember the incredulity of the King of 
Siam, who, when the Dutch ambassador, entertaining him with an 
account of his own country, told him that the water in cold wea- 
ther was so hard that men walked upou it, and that it would even 
bear an elephant, replied, hitherto I have believed the strange things 
you have told me, because I look upon you as a sober fair man, but 
now Iam sure you lie.* The Japanese who witnessed in 1803 
the assent of Garnerin from Petersburgh, evinced no surprise, and 
being asked if they had seen any thing of the same kind in Japan, 
answered no, but that nothing was more common among them ; and 
that the reason why they had not seen it was that the sorcerers in 
Japan traverse the air only during the night. 

How instructive are the circumstantial details contained in our 
own Stale Trials of cases of imputed witchcraft, and of communica- 
tions with evil spirits! The venerable and excellent Hale consign- 
ed many persons to death for witchcraft. Upon the trial of two 
women at. Bury St.. Edmunds, in 1685, that good man said to the 
jury, that there were such creatures as witches he made no doubt, 
and left the case to them, with his prayer that “ the great God of 
Heaven would direct their hearts in that matter.” The learned 
Sir Thomas Brown, one of the first physicians and philosophers of 
his time, and the author of A T'reatise on Vulgar Errors, declared 
himself ‘clearly of opinion that the persons were bewitched :” it 
is superfluous to add that they were executed. 

It is astonishing how prevalent is yet the common belief in 
witchcraft. It was formerly a current belief that a corpse would 
bleed in the presence of its murderer; and I could adduce some 
most curious cases of the unfavorable influence of this notion upon 
individuals of whose sincerity there can be no doubt, as well as upon 
the issue of judicial proceedings. A refusal to touch the corpse has 
often been advanced as cogent evidence of guilt ; and, strange to 
say, the last few years have presented many cases which shew the 
deep belief still entertained on this subject amongst the uninformed. 
So late as 1754, in a trial before the Court of Justiciary in Scot- 
land, two witnesses deposed to their having seen a spirit, which told 
them where the body was to be found, and that the accused was the 
murderer. How many great names might be adduced as _ believers 
in relations of apparitions, which may he admitted to have been 
grounded upon mental impressions so strong as to be undistinguish- 


* Locke, On the Human Understanding, b. iv., c. 15, s. 5. 
VOL. VI.——NO. mK» AA 


186 ESSAY ON THE RATIONALE OF 


able from realities, but require not the hypothesis of supernatural 
agency. 

Dreams have occasionally led to the discovery of murders, of which 
the case of William Corder, who was convicted and executed in 
1828 for the murder of Maria Martin, presents a curious instance. 
A philosophical mind will discover no causation in the conjunc- 
tion of events like these, nor anything more than sequence; the 
dream being the involuntary, and therefore vivid, recurrence in 
sleep of thoughts more or less transient, upon which the mind has 
meditated when awake ; just as darkness seems more black and ter- 
rible after momentary light. 

I forbear to increase the number of these illustrations, the perti- 
nency of which will, however, be admitted when we consider what 
the mass of mankind still are, and the indispensable importance and 
inappreciable value of a correct standard of probability and analo- 
gical reasoning. Hence we infer the necessity of an enlarged and 
accurate knowledge of Nature, and of the springs and principles of 
human conduct ; and thus it is that all the branches of knowledge 
are directly or remotely allied, and mutually receive and reflect 
light. 

From what has been advanced it results that, in every investiga- 
tion based upon circumstantial evidence, the process is, in the first 
instance, analytical and analogical. Every combination of facts is 
resolved into its constituent elements, and we reason upon them, se- 
parately and in combination, from what is known to what is sought. 
The groundwork of our reasoning is our confidence in the stability 
of the order of nature and in the operation of moral causes, which 
have a tendency to influence human conduct with a similar unifor- 
mity.* 

The argument from analogy is founded on the observation of re- 
semblances ; and, of consequence, the more numerous and close they 
are the safer will be our conclusions. Every branch of knowledge 
presents instructive examples of the extent to which this mode of 
reasoning may be securely carried. From shapeless ruins whose 
date, as the poet expresses it, “‘ o’erawes tradition,” the scientific ob- 
server is enabled to construct a model of the original in its primitive 
symmetry and magnificence. A profound knowledge of compara- 
tive anatomy enabled the immortal Cuvier, from a single fossil 
bone, to describe the structure and habits of many of the extinct 
animals of the antediluvian world. ‘ The formation of the tooth,’ 


* Abercrombie, On the Intellectual Powers, p. 205. 


CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE. 187 


says that great man, “‘ bespeaks the structure of the articulation of 
the jaw, that of the scapula that of the claws, just as the equation 
of a curve involves all its properties ; and in taking each property 
separately as the basis of a particular equation, we should find again 
both the ordinary equation and all the other certain properties.” We — 
may corroborate and illustrate this remark by a case more immedi- 
ately connected with our subject—that of Eugene Aram, whose 
eventful story has given birth to one of the most interesting of mo- 
dern novels, and who was tried in 1759 for the murder, about four- 
teen years before, of Daniel Clark. It is a fact in our nature that 
there is a general and involuntary tendency to truth and consisten- 
cy, except where the mind is resolved upon concealment. An ap- 
parently slight circumstance in the conduct of Houseman, his ac- 
complice, led to Aram’s conviction and execution. About thirteen 
years after Clark was missing, a labourer, employed to dig for stone 
to supply a lime-kiln near Knaresborough, discovered a human ske- 
leton near the edge of the cliff. It soon became suspected that the 
body was that of Clark, and the coroner held an inquest. Aram 
and Houseman were the persons who had last been seen with Clark 
on the very night before he was missing. At the request of the 
coroner, Houseman took up one of the bones, and in his confusion 
dropped this unguarded expression, ‘‘ This is no more Daniel Clark’s 
bone than it is mine ;” from which it was concluded that if he was 
so certain that the bones before him were not those of Clark, he ~ 
could give some account of him. He was pressed with this obser- 
vation, and, after various evasive accounts, he made a full confession 
of the crime, and, search being made pursuant to his statement, the 
skeleton of Clark was found in St. Robert’s Cave, buried precisely 
as he had described it. Sellis, who, in 1810, attempted to assassi- 
nate the Duke of Cumberland, was a left-handed man ; after hav- 
ing made his attack he cut his own throat, and the razor with which 
he committed the act was found lying by his eft side. 

“True knowledge,” says Bacon, *‘is the knowledge of causes ;” 
and in moral no less than in physical science, we can hope to discover 
the relation of cause and effect only by following the inductive 
process so successfully pursued in all other philosophical researches. 
But when the inductive process is concluded, we may test the truth 
of our conclusions by reversing our previous course of proceeding 
and reasoning synthetically, from cause to effect. If our judgment 
be correct, it must not only comport with, but satisfactorily account 
for, all the facts, however numerous, to the exclusion of every other 
reasonable ‘hypothesis ; and if the facts be rationally explicable by 


- 188 ESSAY ON THE RATIONALE OF 


more hypotheses than one, the true cause is manifestly not discovered. 
This is the master principle which governs every other principle, 
and every case of circumstantial evidence. In physical science, 
though the phenomena may be accounted for by more hypotheses 
than one, no prejudicial consequence follows from the uncertainty. 
It is known, for instance, that solar light consists of rays of three 
kinds, calorific, non-calorific, and chemical ; and the constitution of 
light may be accounted for equally well, by the supposition that it 
is composed of three distinct principles, or that it consists of distinct 
rays, having different degrees of refrangibility. 

Nor is it essential, in physical investigation, that any decided 
conclusion should be formed as to the cause of the phenomena ; 
whereas, in moral investigation, it essentially constitutes the only 
subject matter of inquiry, and erroneous conclusions are not merely 
harmless but fatally dangerous. 

It is a cardinal and admirable maxim in Courts of Justice, where 
the subject of evidence is seen treated to the greatest advantage, 
always to require direct proof of the corpus delicti, and of every fact 
which goes to constitute the corpus delicti. |For instance, in case 
of alleged murder, ExPREss proof must be given of the fact of 
death, before any inquiry can be gone into as to its cause or author. 
This rule is borrowed by us from the Romans, those great lights in 
jurisprudence ; and the disregard of it formerly led to convictions 
and executions of murder, where the alleged victims have after- 
wards appeared, of which I could recount many singularly interest- 
ing cases. 

Having thus excluded the possibility of mistake as to the cause of 
death, the next step in the proof of the corpus delictt is to exclude, 
by the method of exhaustions, as it were, the possible hypotheses of 
death from self-inflicted violence, accident, or natural cause ; and 
not until it is clearly established that no other hypothesis will ra- 
tionally account for the facts can we adopt the remaining one of death 
from foreign violence. The discrimination of the several causes of 
death often involves the profoundest considerations of science, and 
belongs to the department of Medical Jurisprudence. But it apper- 
tains to that department of the subject of which I have undertaken to 
treat, to determine whether conviction of murder by poisoning ought 
ever to be permitted merely upon presumption, and without express 
proof of the administration of poison, whether by its discovery in 
the human body or otherwise. Some medical writers lean to the 
opinion of the sufficiency of this kind of proof, but the opinion of 
others, and amongst them that of Orfila, and the inclination of the 


CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE. 189 


courts of law, is the other way ; and I think it more than probable, 
had Captain Donellan now been put upon his trial (whatever opi- 
nion we may form of his actual guilt), that the judicial result 
would have been different. 

All scientific investigation leads to rules of art, which have been 
most accurately described to be ‘‘a collection of general observa- 
tions, suggested by long experience, with respect to the most com- 
pendious methods of performing every different step of the process 
which the art involves.”{ There are “indolent discoverers,” as 
Lord Bacon terms them, who, “seeing nothing but sea and sky, ab- 
solutely deny that there can be any land beyond them.” If time 
permitted, we might satisfactorily deduce from experience and obser- 
vation a series of rules, like so many moral safety lamps, for the 
conduct of the understanding in matters of controverted facts depend- 
ing upon circumstantial evidence, calculated to lead to the formation 
of correct and exact judgment, and to leave no other source of uncer- 
tainty or fallacy than the possibility of error which, by an inherent 
necessity, belongs to every human judgment. Infallibility belongs 
not to man, and his strongest assurance must ever be accompanied 
by the possibility of mistake; but the existence of society, no less 
than that of individuals, requires that we form our most important 
determinations upon conflicting and upon circumstantial evidence. 
Nor is the difficulty or uncertainty greater in this than in many 
other equally important subjects. No one has ever yet been able 
to define the line which separates lunacy from malignity, impunity 
from accountability. No chart has yet marked every sunken rock, 
and even the pointings of the needle are subject to disturbing causes, 
and cannot always save the mariner from shipwreck. 

Too much stress is often laid, in the discussion of moral evidence, 
and particularly in cases of circumstantial evidence, upon unimpor- 
tant discrepancies. Variations in the relations by different persons, 
in respect of unimportant circumstances, are not necessarily indica- 
tive of fraud or falsehood, provided there be substantial agreement. 
True strength of mind consists in not allowing our judgments, when 
founded upon convincing evidence, to be disturbed because there 
may be immaterial discrepancies which cannot be reconciled. Con- 
sider the vast inherent differences in individuals with respect to their 
natural faculties, and acquired habits of accurate observation, faith- 
ful recollection, and precise narration, and the influence of intellec- 
tual and moral culture, and it will not be surprising that we seldom 


+ Stewart, Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind, vol. i., p. 50. 


4 


190 ESSAY ON THE RATIONALE OF 


meet with entire agreement amongst a number of witnesses, in all 
the collateral incidents of the same principal event. Such an agree- 
ment is, indeed, rather apt to excite suspicion of confederacy. 

Instances of discrepancy as to the minor attendant circumstances 
of historical events are almost numberless. Lord Clarendon relates 
that the Marquis of Argyle was condemned to be hanged, which 
was performed the same day. Burnett, Woodrow, and Echard, all 
writers of good authority, who lived near the time, state that he 
was beheaded, though condemned to be hanged; and that the sen- 
tence was pronounced on Saturday and carried into effect on the 
following Monday. Some historians say that Charles I. slept at 
Whitehall on the night before his execution ; others that he walked 
across the Park from St. James’s to the place of execution. The 
place of interment of that unfortunate but faithless sovereign has 
been variously stated; the exact spot, we know, was verified a few 
years ago, and was the subject of a very interesting paper: by Sir 
Henry Halford. Charles II. has been variously stated to have em- 
barked at Brighthelmstone and at New Shoreham. Baker’s Chro- 
nicle and Whitelock’s Memorials date the death of Pym in May, 
16438, whereas he died in December in that year. Lord Clarendon 
says, “ On August 29th the standard was erected about six o’clock 
of the evening of a very stormy and tempestuous day.”* In Rush 
worth’s collection, it is stated to have been erected on the 22nd of 
August. Every one knows how variously the circumstances con- 
nected with the death of Hampden have been stated: not long ago 
his remains were exhumed, and afforded a remarkable confirmation 
of the accounts given by some writers by the discovery of his dis- 
membered hand in a bag in his coffin. Hume, Robertson, and other 
historians, say that Mary, Queen of Scots, on the night preceding 
her execution, went to bed at her wonted time, and slept calmly for 
a few hours. Lingard says she retired to rest, but it was observed 
she did not sleep ; her lips were in constant motion, and her mind 
seemed absorbed in prayer. 

Notwithstanding these discrepancies, who ever doubted the exist- 
ence of any of the main facts with which they are connected? 

Mere omissions are generally capable of explanation by the 
consideration that the mind may be so deeply impressed by, and the 
attention so rivetted to, a particular fact, as to withdraw observa- 
tion from concomitant circumstances. Omissions, however, some- 
times proceed from wilful suppression. Grafton, in his Chronicles, 


* History of the Rebellion, vol. iii., p. 191. 


CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE. 191 


published in 1562, in writing of the reign of King John, has made 
no mention of Magna Charta: our surprise is diminished when we 
remember that he was printer to Queen Elizabeth, and probably 
considered his silence complimentary to that arbitrary princess. 

Upon the subject of this essay little has been written, and that 
little is scattered in many vol —some of them not easily acces- 
sible. I have not affected to ‘give a complete view of the subject, 
or to do more than trace a faint outline ; but I think I have shewn 
that the subject, in all its parts and bearings, is reducible to princi- 
ple and system ; and if I have awakened or gratified curiosity, or 
agreeably filled up the ‘brief space which I have occupied, my end 
will have been answered, and I shall be more than satisfied. 


EXPRESSION IN MUSIC. 
By Marrurw Macroske.yes, Mus. Doc. 


Market Mowsray !—Above all places commend me to Mar-— 
ket Mowbray for an example of one of those towns peculiar to Old 
England which seem to have had no origin, no birth, but rose at 
once into a maturity that has suffered no decline ; one of those me- 
morials of the olden time which, (like the vast piles of Stonehenge), 
has undergone no change, no new combination, no improvement, no 
alliance with the white, staring, stucco of modern buildings, but re- 
poses in the solemn grandeur of the hereditary title, silent, soli- 
tary, and antique. As the traveller looks at the low, overhanging 
thatched houses, with the grotesque fronts chequered with the black 
inlaid timber, crossing and recrossing, like so many giant hiero- 
glyphics, the small diamond-paned windows ensconced deeply in 
the imperishable blocks, he readily fancies the dark, oak-wainscotted 
parlour, mellowed in the light of that perpetual chirioscura so 
essential to the ponderous structure of Gothic architecture, the 
massive, unearthly, carved chairs, and all the fashions of those 
departed times, when the green-kirtled maidens busied themselves 
with no science. but that of pickling and preserves, or threw their 
rosy fingers over the flying weft, or framed the varied threads of 
the magical tapestry. Market Mowbray is like an old tombstone 
with its half-effaced inscription of forgotten names with which the 


192 EXPRESSION IN MUSIC. 


present day has no connection ; all that combines the past with the 
present isin ourfancy. There are no civic commotions, no political 
brawls, no nightly revels, in Market Mowbray: from January to Ja- 
nuary, silence and sobriety fill the streets. Not but there are periods 
of enjoyment ; there are “ fairs holden” twice a year: but how dif- 
ferent are the fairs of Market wbray to the riotings and de- 
baucheries of such named assembli@$ in other places, where they de- 
generate either into a mere lifeless, miserable film of an ancient cus- 
tom, or a monstrous idol of mammon, where even pleasure is deformed 
into pain! Not so the fairs holden in this primitive borough ; there 
is the long line of white canvas stalls—a wilderness of sweets—the 
swains and buxom maidens, undisturbed by the impertinence of tra- 
velled beaux, give themselves up to all the innocent enjoyments and 
festivities of the time. Fairs should be consecrated to such old 
towns as Market Mowbray, sacred as the mysteries of Greece ; the 
profane company of fashionable puppies should be forbidden to in- 
terrupt the happy meeting of the simple-hearted country folks, who 
have worked and wearied from Michaelmas to Lady-day, with no 
other hope to cheer them. 

Market Mowbray will never alter—it was never intended to alter: 
there are no gay suburban villas, no gay new-town to make an invi- 
dious comparison with the brick-and-wood houses of the old town ; 
there are no Bond-street. shops to distinguish particular streets—the 
good tradespeople are satisfied to combine three, four, or five voca- 
tions in one, and expose hats, hosiery, fresh butter, and dried fish 
on the same shelf. But the good people are not less unique and 
admirable than the town itself. Barring some new comers and 
occasional visitors, they are a dull, dark, sober, ‘“ days-gone- 
by”-looking people, all native to the soil, and, like the ancient 
sybil, seem as if they could die only upon their own earth. All 
may be said to be in easy circumstances, inasmuch as their wants 
are seldom multiplied by novelty. As they do not conceive that 
the mind was ever intended for any other purpose than to adminis- 
ter to the bodily appetites, they escape the multiform monster, ner- 
vousness ; living and living by a species of regeneration, until they 
die, not of disease, but rather by a necessity. It has been said that 
the Serpent, in the form of a doctor, did once creep into the Eden 
of Market Mowbray; one victim only paid the penalty of his 
credulity, and that was the parish fool. 

But there is one evil which prevails even in Market Mow- 
bray,—what place or person can be infallible !—one evil prevails ; 
and that is an almost insatiable curiosity. Busied so little in their 


EXPRESSION IN MUSIC. 193 


own affairs, and interesting themselves so much in the affairs of 
others, a stranger would suppose from the publicity of every trans- 
action, however trivial, that the good people of Market Mowbray 
acted and thought with one mind, like the old church horologe by 
which they daily regulated their own time-pieces. So it was, that 
not an event could transpire, without the cause and the effect being 
known from gate to gate. 

The first and most dreaded of this clique was the chaste Miss 
Martha Tibbs. A victim to the evil eye of curiosity, Miss Tibbs 
exercised a despotic rule over all the tendrils of the town; nor 
could a glance travel from eye to eye without being crossed by the 
dreaded shadow of this virtuous lady. Miss Martha was a most 
important person, she inhabited the ‘ big house,” where her maid- 
en aunt had resided for half a century before her. The patroness 
and queen of Market Mowbray, she exercised a discretionary power, 
and had raised her circle to the enviable height of exclusives. She 
was a thin, tall, yellow-faced lady, who, in spite of the stubborn- 
ness of her crisp curls, that hung in wiry circles about her cheeks, 
would never consent to adopt a cap, “it looked so old maidish ;” 
her flat, hard, mahogany-looking bust, shewed that she had little of 
the milk of human kindness; and her figure was rendered still 
more gaunt by her old-fashioned, short-waisted, chintz robe, which 
dropped over her feet. Her grey eyes were omnipresent, her long 
pointed nose would smell out the slightest error, while her tongue, 
like a right Toledo, seemed as if it must wound even the sheath 
that held it. But the accomplishments of Miss Martha Tibbs were 
of an order unparalleled in the history of Market Mowbray ; for it 
is said that she could not only read and write, but even that she 
could play extempore on the harpsichord. It was Miss Tibbs’s 
highest delight to collect around her the elite of Market Mowbray, 
and, while they were sipping their coffee or lemonade, to listen to 
some of her “ touching airs,” sometimes assisted by her dear Dr. 
Mellitongue and the voice of his supposed daughter, Miss Julia, 
who was declared to sing divinely whenever she sang in tune. 

Things were in this state at Market Mowbray when one night— 
remembered long since for the terrific thunder-storm which shook 
to their foundations the tenements of age—a human being stagger- 
ed into the Crown and Sausage, and appeared almost dead with 
alarm and exhaustion ; as he entered the gate of the inn the wind 
howled still louder, the rain descended in Noachian torrents, the 
forked lightning (with one prong) followed his course, while the 
thunder rolled like—anything. The awful stranger seated himself 

VOL. VI.—NO. XX. BB 


194 EXPRESSION IN MUSIC. 


in the tap-room, and, lifting his head, called for a pint of ale and 
a pipe. He glewed his lips to the tankard, nor did he move his 
eyes from the foam until he saw the reflection of his nose, like a 
piece of red sealing wax, sticking at the bottom. He looked up 
and, fetching a long sigh, muttered “ good,” and, as the landlady 
turned round, she was startled by the appearance of two eyes that 
squinted so forcibly that they seemed to be always at cross pur- 
poses. Suddenly the stranger, (of course in black), made several 
inquiries as to the persons inhabiting the town of Market Mow- 
bray ; and having satisfied his curiosity he bowed politely to the 
landlady, called the maid, and requested, being tired, that he might 
“ oo upon tick.” Are the sheets well aired ? ) 

The amiable reader must suppuse a month at least to have 
elapsed since the arrival of the illustrious stranger at the Crown 
and Sausage and the period when he again appears, as a professor 
of music, in the sweet-smelling town of Market Mowbray. The 
imaginative reader must behold the celebrated Mr. Peregrine 
Peascod (for by'that name was the professor distinguished) domi- 
ciled over the large bow-windowed shop of Mrs. Percy Peach, a 
very comfortable woman in her way, and who would never ding 
down her head to the best of them; “and why should she?” said 
the seductive Professor Peascod. Peregrine was a wise man, a 
second Talleyrand ; he read at first sight the great characteristic of 
the Market Mowbrayians ; and whatever they might say against 
pride, yet, from Miss Martha Tibbs down to the chambermaid of 
the Crown and Sausage, there was but one spirit—* Marry, come 
up !” 

On the 15th of June, 18—, he paid his first visit to the charming 
Miss Martha Tibbs ; he spoke of the weather, of the town, of the 
high, of the low, of Miss Tibbs. ‘I see you play.” Miss Tibbs 
blushed till her eyes watered ; he opened the piano, struck five oc- 
taves, and pronounced the instrument superb. Miss Tibbs was over- 
reached, it was her soft part ; she smiled, and, seating herself, played 
the overture to the “Three Crows.” “ Beautiful, most beautiful !” 
sighed Peregrine; “ what expression! ‘it is the cause, it is the 
cause !’ what an effect !” Happy Miss Tibbs, and happier Peregrine ! 
He awoke and found himself famous next morning, just as he heard 
the fair form of Mrs. Percy Peach turn in the tell-tale bed. From 
that day Peregrine was happy; his fortune rose with his cele- 
brity ; he was a great and, therefore, a grateful man: and, to ac- 
knowledge the favours of his patroness, he proposed a concert at the 
house of Miss Martha Tibbs, which should for ever immortalize 
her memory. 


EXPRESSION IN MUSIC. 195 


This unexpected, unparalleled circumstance filled with delight 
the good people of Market Mowbray, and especially all those who 
were to be admitted within the four walls of the high and virtuous 
lady patroness. Happy Peregrine! heroes only make sensations. 
Mr. Peascod was a nice-looking piece of pale-faced sensuality ; his 
portrait was drawn -by Mnemosini at full length ; and, as the public 
papers, some months after this celebrated concert, advertised, under 
the cacaphonic title “‘ Beware,” that Peregrine Peascod was a young 
man of a possessing look, whose back was formed for coats of all sizes, 
whose feet fitted to any shaped shoe, whose head was equally accom- 
modating, and who strived to get a character, but was nonsuited— 
he was a tall, short, no-sized, thin, fat, serious, funny, sleepy, always 
awake, good-natured, selfish person, who invariably asked after the 
children. Peregrine was a compound of mighty opposites, a riddle 
to the good people of Market Mowbray, but who was said to have 
nothing in him, when he was found out. 

The evening of the concert advanced ; the young ladies were 
surprised, charmed, delighted. There was Miss Jane Verismall, 
the three Miss Shrimpingtons, the two Miss Trumps, and the four 
Miss Crumps ; and then the beaux were most select: there was Mr. 
Acteon Snaggs, a very dear among the ladies, Mr. Dominic Fox, 
Dr. Mellitung and his daughter, Miss Mellitung, and, though last, 
not least, Bob Salter, the wit of Market Mowbray, and who, it is said, 
had even once composed an ode, which treated of several subjects, 
such as negro flogging, the sublime in music, the price of soap, 
with some fine allusions to the Fancy. Bob Salter was an ingenious 
person ; he was a virulent pundit, and had made considerable pro- 
ficiency on the Jew’s-harp, which he maintained was the instru- 
ment which David played on before Saul. 

It was on the sunny morning of the 4th of July that the good 
and industrious people of Market Muwbray had scarcely opened 
their shop windows and rubbed up their counterpanes when, to 
their amazement, they observed the head of Miss Martha Tibbs 
voluminised and ensepulchered in her frilled night-cap, gently in- 
sinuated between the folds of the white window curtains: the cir- 
cumstance was remarkable, and excited no little inqtiry as to the 
cause of such a phenomenon, whether or no it proceeded from a 
mental solecism, or the more probable effects of green gooseberry 
pie. But through the day, what was their surprise to see the door 
of Miss Tibbs thrown wide open! a circumstance that had not been 
known since the death of Mrs. Margaret Tibbs, some fifteen years 
back. So it was: wide open was the door, and servants were seen 


196 EXPRESSION IN MUSIC. 


flying from window to window, and men with strange, uncouth- 
looking boxes, carried up stairs under the particular direction of Mr. 
Peregrine Peascod. The professor had exerted himself most dili- 
gently to secure a good and expressive number of performers for the 
forthcoming musical soirée. There was Mr. Crook, the leader of 
the Shipney Church choir, on the clarinet ; Miss Tibbs on the piano 
forte ; Master Plunkett on the triangle; Bob Salter on the drum, 
Jew’s-harp, and ram’s-horn ; Peregrine Peascod, leader, on the vi- 
olin ; with the fortunate assistance of two itinerant musicians, one 
on the Pandean pipes, the other, a six-feet-two consumptive-look- 
ing man, to shake a cap and bells. The band was thought most 
complete, and from the morning rehearsals great things were ex- 
pected. The evening drew on; the performers were stationed, 
Peregrine in front, the clarinet at one end of the room, the drum, 
Jew’s-harp, and ram’s-horn at the other end, Miss Tibbs behind the 
leader, and the triangle stood by Miss Tibbs, to accompany her in 
** Those Evening Bells.” ‘The itinerants were placed behind a screen 
near the door, where also the refection was laid out. The happy 
hour arrived ; the ladies, dressed out quite smart, took their seats 
in a circle round the room. Dr. Mellitung prepared a short address 
on the Expression of Music, which he understood was the highest 
perfection of the science, that tones should be brought to as near a 
resemblance as possible of the thing expressed, that the sacrifice 
of melody was nothing compared to the natural illustration of 
either sounds, persons, or events; Professor Peregrine confirmed 
the Dr.’s harangue, when Bob Salter here sounded a blast upon 
his ram’s-horn, and begged the ladies to observe that the ram’s- 
horn was not only the most ancient but most powerful instrument, 
since it had even blown down the walls of Jericho itself. 

Peregrine then opened the concert by playing a little song, which 
he had composed for the occasion, in honour of Miss Tibbs, begin- 
ning with ‘‘Chaste Diana,” to the tune of Lillabullero. Being 
finished they expressed their approbation most eagerly. The next 
piece was variations on the celebrated air of ‘‘ Borborigmus” (by 
Squatz) on the clarionet. It is said that Mr. Crook lost his 
puff, though it was followed by much praise. The professor next 
gave an imitation of silence on the back of his violin, which was so 
much liked that he repeated it. ‘ What a nice fiddle!” whimpered 
the eldest Miss Trumps. Peregrine smiled, and observed that it was 
areal Straduarias ; Miss Verismall begged to see it, for she declared 
she had never seen a gregarious fiddle before. Miss Tibbs then sang 
the “‘ Minuet in Ariadne” to her own accompaniment. Delightful, 


EXPRESSION IN MUSIC. 197 


Miss Tibbs ! Several minor pieces followed, when Mr. P. announced 
that the next piece to be performed would be the celebrated over- 
ture to the “Siege of Algiers.” Here he was particularly requested 
by the ladies Shrimpington to explain what it meant. ‘“ The Siege 
of Algiers,” replied he, “is intended to represent all the events, 
attack, siege, counter-siege, plot, counter-plot, commanding, fight- 
ing, dying, drowning, praying, and blowing-up of Algiers: itis the 
expression of music.” ‘ How nice!” said the ladies. 

The violin then commenced conbrio, which excited much atten- 
tion, as it was understood that the Dey of Algiers was thereby 
threatening destruction to the English fleet. Mr. Acteon Snaggs 
whispered to Miss Mellitung that he thought the Dey had but a 
tremulous voice for so ferocious a warrior, but which the Doctor 
overhearing, he declared that as the Dey must have been terrified, 
it was perfectly natural that there should be a quivering of the 
chorde vocales, or vocal strings. Perigrine finaled by a very 
effective slash of the bow across the strings, which Bob Salter said 
was a clever passage, and expressed that the Dey was in terrible 
swearing rage. 

Whilst the audience were lost in admiration at the last vibra- 
tion of the enraged Dey, full of wonder and alarm as to the result 
of this threat from one so every way qualified to execute it, Pere- 
grine shook aloft his magical bow, and, giving a long tattoo on the 
piano, the whole band—violin, ram’s-horn, triangle, clarinet, piano, 
bells, and pipes—should have struck up with one unanimous burst, 
but, for some reason not explained, the ram’s-horn followed the vio- 
lin, the bells followed the horn, the piano the bells, the clarinet the 
piano, and the pipes and triangle the clarinet, that it was at first 
supposed by the Miss Trumps, that the English were in suspense 
how to proceed. Every one worked full drive after the other, 
shewing the eagerness of the debate: at length the furious notes 
expired, when the Miss Trumps, all eagerness, requested to know 
the result of so furious a discussion. Discussion! screamed the 
heated Miss Tibbs, it was no discussion! What then, pray? said 
the ladies). |. What then! reiterated Mr. Crook, puffing like a 
Grampus—why the English were cannonading the town and bat- 
teries to be sure. Nonsense! smiled the incredulous Miss Trumps, 
Dr. Mellitung stared, Mr. Crook stared, Miss Tibbs stared, the man 
with the bells stared, every one stared but Bob Salter, who begged 
to inform the audience that the next part of the overture was a solo 
by himself on the drum ; the meaning of which was that the Eng- 
lish prisoners were having the sack. Bob played so rapid and so 


198 EXPRESSION IN MUSIC. 


loud that the audience were undetermined whether to clap their 
hands or stop their ears ; but as Miss Tibbs cried beautiful! they 
all cried grand ! 

The last replication of the sounds died away, when the bells, 
Pandean pipes, and triangle, were desired to be in concert; Pe- 
regrine requested them to throw as much supplication as possible 
into their instruments, in order to signify that the Christian pri- 
soners where offering up prayers for success. ‘“ Beautiful!” whis- 
pered Miss Mellitung to Mr. Snaggs; ‘‘ what a consolation under 
such trying circumstances!” “Very,” said Mr. Snaggs. The three 
performers began with sounds “most musical, most melancholy ;’ 
but as the Pandean pipes decidedly had the advantage in sound, the 
bells, not to be outdone, shook with such a rapidity that, had not 
the triangle and the pipes quickened their motions, they must soon 
have been left behind ; a steeple chase followed, the bells, of course; 
first, when the clear, shrill blast of a horn silenced them all at once. 
“Tt is a flag of truce,” said the rejoicing voice of the eldest Miss 
Shrimpington. The horn sounded again, when, instead of the 
presence of the turbaned Turk, on rattled the London Mail !— 
Then the ladies laughed, the gentlemen laughed, all laughed ; 
Bob Salter said the herald knew how to sound his own trumpet, 
and then he laughed. Silence being restored, the ladies blew their 
noses and shifted themselves into a more easy position. Bob Salter 
said he should feel much pleasure in complying with Mr. Peascod’s 
request in introducing a little variation, especially as it was perfectly 
consistent with the naval character of the overture ; it was an imi- | 
tation of the boatswain’s whistle on himself. He then sounded so 
shrill and piercing a note, long drawn out, that it was even suspect- 
ed he must have had the instrument itself. There was something 
so exhilarating in the sound to the inland ears of the audience that 
he was requested to repeat it: he blew louder and louder still, so that 
Miss Pinkinton, an old maid, stone deaf, ejaculated ‘ Sure it must be 
a rough night.” “ What acompliment!” said Miss Tibbs.. Mr. Crook 
put his clarinet to his lips and, fetching his breath hard, blew a long 
series of sighs. ‘‘ The surgeons have too much to do, is explained 
by that passage,” said Peregrine. ‘ That is quite a novelty,” said Dr. 
Mellitung. Bob Salter then struck one, two, three, distinct blows 
on the drum, which the Miss Shrimpingtons supposed was some 
signal of distress, but were informed by Mr. Peascod that two post 
captains and a private were killed. ‘Two captains !—dreadful !” 
said the Miss Shrimpingtons. Mr. Peascod particularly directed 
the sympathetic attention of the ladies to the next solo, by the man 


EXPRESSION IN MUSIC. 199 


with the cap and bells, who began pianissimo, then exchanging 
from andante to allegretto, until at last he was obliged to loosen 
his cravat, from the fear of suffocation. ‘‘'These are the groans of 
the dying,” said Miss Tibbs. ‘“ Shocking! delightful ! poor crea- 
tures !” murmured the ladies; while Dr. Mellitung entered into a 
long harangue on the necessity for pensioners. This was a highly 
satisfactory performance, and was much applauded. The interest 
was awakened, the sympathies were warm; Mr. Crook, quite at home, 
broke forth into the tune of “Lo! he comes, in clouds descending,” 
in which the whole audience joined, not aware that it was the Alge- 
rine hymn from the Dey’s seraglio: the mistake was natural. 
** Where could they have learnt that tune?” said Miss Crump. 
“ Of course, in Shipney Church,” said Mr. Crook. ‘ How singu- 
lar!” said Miss Crump. 

Miss Tibbs began to look rather blue at having hitherto had so 
little to do: she settled herself before the piano; in one wild run 
she swept the trembling keys—octave after octave, semitones, demi- 
semitones, quavers—most brilliantly ; and Peregrine, wishing to 
shew that he understood it, kept time with his fiddle. The English 
then take the city to the tune of Drops of Brandy, when the whole 
band,struck up a voluntary for the shout of victory. There was no 
mistaking the result—piano, horn, violin, drum, triangle, clarinet, 
rung forth the wild hurrah! A deafening applause followed. Miss 
Tibbs was so delighted that she would have had the finale repeated, 
but that it struck her she had not of late seen the ugly hungry faces 
of the itinerants obtruded from behind the screen. She therefore 
desired Mr. Peregrine to bid them prepare. She touched the keys, 
—‘ What ’s the matter?—Gone! The rascals!” screamed Miss 
Tibbs. ‘ Gone!” echoed the surprised assembly. ‘“ Yes, gone !” 
screamed Miss Tibbs from behind the screen ; ‘‘ Oh my silver spoons! 
Oh my silver baskets! Oh my silver fruit knives! Oh, Oh!” “ You 
don’t say so!” said Mr. Acteon Snaggs. ‘“ Oh that I should be 
such a fool!” cried the bereaved Miss Tibbs, wringing her hands 
over the sad remnant of knives, forks, and plates. ‘‘ Concert in- 
deed!” ‘Calm yourself, my dear Miss Tibbs,” said the soothing 
voice of Dr. Mellitung. ‘Don’t dear me,” said the infuriated Miss 
Tibbs ; “ you! you! why don’t you all run after the villains, and 
not stand staring there? I am ruined, totally.” As the disconso- 
late lady gave utterance to her griefs, Professor Peregrine Peascod 
slunk out of the room, the ladies hastily departed, the gentlemen fled. 

The morrow’s sun smiled in vain on the fallen hopes of Peregrine: 
he felt, like Francis, that all was lost save his honour. In vain he 


200 ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE OPERA IN LONDON. 


struggled ; the rage for music fled with Miss Tibbs’ spoons ; he 
sighed as he sat in the bow-windowed parlour ; yes, he must abuse 
what he could not much longer use—his credit. Borrowing dulls 
the edge of husbandry ; but I am too sharp, said Peregrine, and 
therefore can afford to get a little blunt. 

Lightnings and storms do harbinger events: Professor Peregrine 
Peascod’s first visit to the Crown and Sausage was commemorated 
by that night’s awful tempest. The sun threw his last golden 
beams over the gloomy tabernacles of Market Mowbray as poor Pe- 
regrine bade a silent adieu to his friends, and, striking out of the 
public road into the woodlands, pursued his solitary way. 

Poor Miss Martha Tibbs! she felt relieved by the sufferings of 
the good tradespeople who had silvered the pockets of Peregrine 
Peascod. She lived to get older; but, it is said, she never heard 
the sound of a bell but it “ opened all the cells where memory slept,” 
when she muttered a hasty curse against the name of Peregrine 
Peascod and the “‘ Expression of Music.” 


ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE OPERA IN 
LONDON. 


( Continued from page 48). 


Ir is due to the high and extended reputation which Rossini has 
acquired, to allow that his works deserve a prominent place in every 
theatrical establishment in Europe, although it may at the same 
time admit of doubt whether his merits have not been somewhat 
over-rated. He was not possessed of sufficient application to render 
him a scientific musician ; consequently, where the situation will 
not allow of a pretty melody with marked rythm, he has recourse 
either to forced modulations and abrupt transitions, or he will be 
found to cause weariness by sameness and repetition. He likewise 
fails in imparting to his several personages a distinct character. His 
bass songs are as full of roulades as those for the soprano; and 
transposition would not unfrequently render them suitable for any 
description of voice.* The origin of the very florid style which 


* The celebrated Frederick Schneider, composer of the Deluge and other 
oratorios, has the following observations on the subject :—“ As dramatic mu- 


ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE OPERA IN LONDON. 201 


prevails throughout his works, is commonly ascribed to the circum- 
stance of his having heard one of his own airs so metamorphosed by 
the ornaments of Veluti, that he did not recognize it as his compo- 
sition. It is, however, sufficiently obvious that every attempt to 
render vocal music so florid as not to admit of further embellish 
ment must necessarily prove futile. No better illustration of this 
fact can be offered than Rossini’s two songs, Di tanti palpiti and 
Una voce poca Sa, which have frequently, as performed by first-rate 
Italian singers, no further resemblance to the original airs than that 
which the rhythm and the harmony afford. On the whole, although 
some of Rossini’s melodies are charming, and his acquaintance with 
the powers of the human voice undeniable, I freely confess that I 
think he is indebted for no small portion of his reputation to the 
prevailing ignorance respecting the works of his predecessors. From 
these he has borrowed, to use no harsher term, largely, without 
being able, in many cases, to put in the plea of having improved or 
followed out an idea casually dropped by an inferior author who 
might himself be incapable of doing justice to it. Cimarosa and 
Paer have suffered more than almost any other authors, with whom 
I am acquainted, from the depredations of the popular maestro. 
Indeed, on hearing an opera by Paer performed in Germany, I 
could scarcely succeed in convincing myself that part of the music 
was not to be ascribed to Rossini. It is, however, only rendering 
justice to Paer, to affirm—which I am enabled to do from an intimate 
acquaintance with his principal works—that, while in beauty of me- 
lody and pathos he is fully equal to his imitator, Rossini, he far sur- 
passes him in correctness of modulation, propriety of instrumenta- 
tion, and in the power of imparting § distinct character to his diffe- 
rent personages. In comic writing he is, undoubtedly, inferior: in- 
deed, in this style of composition, Rossini is unrivalled, even by his 
great predecessor, Cimarosa. 

If, with Dr. Crotch, we maintain that success in every style 


sic has to depict the passions and feelings of the persons in the action, an ex- 
act delineation of character becomes one of its essential requisites. ‘There 
are, indeed, operas which, with regard to melodic and even harmonic treat- 
ment, and consequently in a musical point of view in general, are entitled to 
high praise, yet which nevertheless cannot be called genuine dramatic com- 
positions, because they are wanting in the musical delineation of character 
just spoken of. The most glaring transgressions against this requisite, 
amidst others ofa different nature, are to be found in the works of Rossini. 
With him every person in the piece sings alike, let the situation be as diffe- 
rent as it may.” 
VOL. VI.—-NO. XX. CC 


902 ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE OPERA IN LONDON. 


(keeping the ornamental in due subordination) is the test of a great 
composer, then will Rossini assuredly not fall under that honorable 
appellation. His element is the flippant, the playful, the light: he 
is occasionally sentimental, but never rises to grandeur, still less 
to sublimity. Had he possessed the power of raising emotions suita- 
ble to sacred subjects, Mose in Egitio would have afforded him an 
opportunity of treading in the steps of the great masters who had 
previously handled the same theme. This drama contains scarcely 
a movement calculated to produce devotional feeling: it is cast in 
the same mould, and is made up of the same ideas, as his secular 
works. Many of the airs, duets, &c., are exquisitely beautiful, and 
would have been entitled to unqualified praise had they been em- 
ployed to illustrate a less lofty theme. Of the choruses, I confess 
my inability to discover any one which is deserving of the eulogium 
bestowed by an ingenious author* who describes them as “‘ profound 
and majestic.””? He cannot surely allude to All etra, al ciel, the sub- 
jects of which are borrowed from the hunting scene in the finale to 
Winter’s Calypso! The effect of the genuine oratorio chorus de- 
pends on the contrapuntal treatment of the vocal parts. Haydn and 
the modern German school rely more on ingenuity of instrumental 
writing. Rossini has employed neither of these resources ; common 
chords, unisons, and unmeaning instrumental clamor form the staple 
of his choruses, which are in reality unworthy of the name. Even 
the celebrated Preghiera, so often misnamed sublime, is, in fact, 
merely a pretty cavatina and quartet in the common-place Italian 
style ; nor can any thing be less appropriate to the solemnity of the 
words than the triplet accompaniments and the affected accentuation 
on the second syllable, in whieh Italian singers so much delight, 
Thus does Rossini treat every subject, not according to its own pe- 
culiar character, but asa mere vehicle for his one-sided ideas. How 
immeasurably superior a power over the feelings must that compos- 
er exercise who is master of every style—who can pass from grave 
to gay, from the pathetic to the sublime! how far more noble must 
be his genius, how far more deeply must he have penetrated into 
the secrets of his art! Rossini is never serious; he is neither 
thoughtful himself, nor is he capable of exciting thought in others ; 
he is a trifler who never penetrates below the surface. What a 
contrast is presented between the Preghiera and the chorus of 
Egyptian priests in the Zauberflite! The latter is in the true 
church style, yet no composer more excelled in the ornamental than 


* Mr. Hogarth, History of Music, p. 392. 


ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE OPERA IN LONDON. 203 


Mozart. Still more striking is the contrast between Rossini and 
Handel; Rossini, even when attempting to be serious, relapses in- 
voluntarily into mannerism. Handel composed the sublime double 
choruses, I will sing unto the Lord, and But the Waters overwhelmed, 
with as much ease as the delicate and finished songs, Hush, ye pret- 
ty warbling Choir, and Let me wander not unseen, which remain to 
the present day models of grace and elegance. How must this uni- 
versal dominion over the powers of sound throw into the shade the 
petty talent of him who, when he attempts a lofty theme, relapses 
involuntarily into the manner only suitable to a comic song. A 
mode of treatment like this is ever the result of incapacity for high- 
er efforts. Let us, therefore, pause before we acknowledge the doc- 
trine originally promulgated by the Italians, and unfortunately fol- 
lowed by too many of our own writers, that each successive composer 
is necessarily an improver ; that he who violates an established cus- 
tom is a reformer who has the merit of exploding some antiquated 
prejudice ; that he who opposes the exclusive study of the latest 
fashionable composer is a bigot, unable to keep pace with the im- 
provement of the times. While maxims such as these meet with 
toleration, while criticism remains either an echo of public opinion 
or an expression of individual taste, so long will the majority con- 
tinue in their present state of ignorance, indifference, and presump- 
tion. The dissemination of these ideas is greatly favoured by com- 
posers and instructors, whose interest it is to represent the master- 
pieces of ancient writersasno longer adapted to the exigences of 
the present day, because attention given to these would withdraw 
patronage from their own compositions: it would also have the ef- 
fect of imparting a greater ability to criticise, which might possibly 
be productive of invidious comparisons. If self-interest be thus 
alert in the propagation of error, the advocates of truth should 
arouse themselves to increased exertions in meet to counter- 
act this pernicious influence. 

No composer has ever been so highly extolled by one party and 
decried by another as Bellini; his advocates maintaining that he 
combines every possible excellence, while his opponents do not allow 
that he possesses merit of any description. The first party consists 
principally of those whom Von Raumer calls “the musical multi- 
tude ;” among the latter may be reckoned most of the eminent pro- 
fessional musicians of England and Germany. Neukomm declares 
that he was unable to endure the representation of Norma longer 
than a quarter of an hour, and the celebrated theorist, Schnyder 
von Wartensee, characterizes the Puritani as a spiritless composition, 


204 ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE OPERA IN LONDON. 


totally devoid of life and power, The existence of this discrepancy 
concerning a composition whose merits and defects are equally pal- 
pable, clearly demonstrates how little the philosophy of music is yet 
understood. Neither can any great weight attach to the opinions 
of the majority of professional persons. Dr. Crotch justly observes 
that the education which they usually receive is calculated to: give 
an undue bias in favour of the particular school in which they have 
been trained, rather than to impart a correct, comprehensive, and 
impartial judgment of music in general. In fact, the philosophy of 
music receives so little attention in a mere professional education 
that, in many cases, it may be fairly questioned whether the verdict 
of the public may not be preferable to the more prejudiced decision 
of the musician. 

Musical criticisms have not been hitherto conducted on the prin- 
ciples universally applied to the other arts. Individual taste is here 
permitted most unaccountably to usurp the place of rules. based on 
the broad foundation of the natural laws, in accordance with which 
music holds dominion over the feelings. An opera containing a 
pretty cavatina, a showy chorus, and an aria di bravura well calcu- 
lated to display the powers of the prima donna, will certainly be- 
come popular, although the rest of the music be worthless, and the 
whole unconnected and ill adapted to the subject. Were an. opera 
considered in its true light, as a work of art, it would be at once 
evident that beauties so trifling should hold no more sway over the 
decision of the critic than a well-drawn ornament or gorgeously- 
coloured robe would influence his judgment respecting the merits of 
an historical painting. In the higher branches of the pictorial art, 
neither excellence of execution, nor skill in detail, nor the union of 
Dutch minuteness and exquisite finish with the splendour of Italian 
colouring, can compensate for poverty of invention, or atone for the 
violation of historical or natural truth. Now, the aim of an opera 
and that of a painting of the higher rank being identical—in the 
one sound constituting the illustrating medium, while in the other 
it is form and colour, the end of both being to pourtray the work- 
ings of human affections, passions, and sufferings, whether the ex- 
ample be drawn from history, or whether it be presented in the 
guise of an allegory or of an imaginary plot—it follows that, how- 
ever beautiful and attractive detached portions of an opera may 
prove in themselves, yet if the whole excites emotions inconsistent 
with the object of the poem, or is calculated to neutralize the legi- 
timate feelings which the passing scene ought to inspire, although 
these parts may be successful in affording amusement, yet the work 


ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE OPERA IN LONDON. 205 


of art fails to accomplish its own lofty purpose—that of imparting 
instruction. These sentiments will doubtless occasion surprise to 
many in this country, but that it is possible to render music a me- 
dium of moral culture may be demonstrated both by argument and 
fact. At Berlin the opera not only constitutes a school of art, but 
is likewise considered a powerful mode of moral cultivation ; whereas 
in London its highest aim is an exhibition of vocal skill. The truth 
of the assertion of a German critic, that an opera by Gluck is more 
favourable to morality than one by Rossini, will not be contro- 
verted. Music is now admitted to exercise a more powerful influ- 
ence over the feelings than painting, sculpture, or even poetry: if, 
then, the highest virtue and the utter degradation of vice receive 
the same musical treatment, if the most fearful crimes are recited 
and acted to light and sportive measures (the natural expression of 
gay-hearted innocence), this abuse of the powers of the art must’ 
inevitably lead to a confusion in the feeling of right and wrong ; 
the association of the music with the action will produce a perma- 
nent impression. It is futile to assert that music can never influ- 
ence belief or change opinion ; man is a sentient as well as a reason- 
ing being, he acts as frequently from impulse as from conviction, 
The general diffusion of modern Italian music among the people 
would probably tend to lower their moral character in the same de- 
gree that a familiarity with that of Gluck and the classical German 
composers would conduce to its improvement. In the operas of 
Gluck, the boundaries which separate right and wrong are clearly 
defined, the feelings unconsciously side with the judgment ; in the 
modern Italian school, the allurements of sense too often triumph 
over the mental and moral faculties. When Gluck drags before us 
Orestes tormented by the furies, we feel under the same spell as 
when perusing the history of the fate-pursued monarch in the im- 
mortal pages of the Greek dramatist ; we become enveloped in the 
dark unwholesome atmosphere of crime ; we labour under an insup- 
portable oppression, and long to escape. The same tragic power; 
although on a subject less revolting, is displayed in his opera of 
Ifigenie en Auliade. Nor is the master’s regard for truth less con- 
spicuous when he depicts peace of mind and calm content by a sweet 
and soothing andante or‘a sustained and lofty adagio ; such passages 
will ever remain among the finest specimens of pure musical beauty 
which the art affords. In» no instance does he sacrifice expression 
to a love of display in the singer, or to a vitiated taste for ornament 
in the audience. Thus did this great musician constantly aim at 
and attain the highest object of art, that of rendering virtue attrac- 


206 ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE OPERA IN LONDON. 


tive and vice abhorrent to the feelings. How widely different the 
course of modern Italian composers, has been demonstrated in speak- 
ing of Rossini. 

The glaring absurdities of Italian operas, especially as conducted 
in this country, have proved a main cause of the hostility or con- 
tempt with which English writers have almost invariably treated 
music. Ignorant alike of the art and the science, and incompetent 
to form a judgment on the whole, they naturally drew their conclu- 
sions from that part which came under their immediate observation ; 
now an opinion formed concerning a whole, deduced from a part, 
will rarely prove correct. The literary men of Germany, on the 
contrary, whether personally conversant with music or not, always 
treat the art with due respect, because they have witnessed its be- 
neficial effects. Wyndham selfscomplacently vindicated his own 
distaste for harmony by the assertion that four of England’s great- 
est men (of whom Pitt was one) had been insensible to its charms. 
En revanche, I may cite Klopstock, Schiller, Goethe, and the two 
Schlegels, men who, in true greatness, far outweigh any name ad- 
duced by the British statesman. Authority, however, has but little 
weight in permanently determining the rank which an art or sci- 
ence is entitled to hold in the scale of knowledge ; a satisfactory 
result can only be obtained by a consideration of the mental facul- 
ties which it calls into action. Although the estimate might raise 
the character of music to a higher rank than even its warmest ad- 
mirers dream of, the present is not a proper time for such disquisi- 
tion. My object has been to elucidate, in some degree, the princi- 
ples which ought to guide true musical criticism; cotemporary 
popularity should not be for a moment admitted as evidence of 
merit, and all great works must be not only technically correct, but 
also written in conformity with every esthetical requisite. 

In the compositions of Mozart, Cimarosa, and other writers of 
the same school, melody and harmony, the vocal parts and the in- 
strumentation, are so intimately blended that it would be difficult 
to apply praise or censure to the one without involving the other in 
the same sentence. In the modern Italian school, on the contrary, 
the air and the accompaniment are so independent of each other 
that no task can be more easy than to analyse their respective me- 
rits. The distinction is also equally well marked between the 
theme and its treatment. The neglect of adverting to this differ- 
ence of character in the two schools will sufficiently account for the 
opposite conclusions at which critics have arrived respecting the 
merits of productions so universally known. The following remarks 


\ 


ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE OPERA IN LONDON. 2()7 


may possibly meet the views of each party, and thus lead to the set- 
tlement of this much-disputed question. 

Several of the melodies of Bellini may be classed among the love- 
liest that ever flowed from musician’s pen ; clear, graceful, and vo- 
cal, and particularly adapted to the kind of voice or even individual 
singer for whom they were written, and combining, in many in- 
stances, the character of recitative with that of the genuine opera. 
The performer appears to be declaiming rather than singing, as in 
Vien diletto (Puritani), and in the first part of the duet Il rival sal- 
var. Who that has heard Malibran or Grisi give utterance to the 
impassioned strain of joy and thanksgiving, but will feel the thrill- 
ing effect of the energy which the master has thrown into the me- 
lody. Bellini is here truly dramatic, and displays genius of no 
common order. Had his scientific attainments equalled his natural 
abilities, his works might have ranked with the first productions of 
the present day ; unfortunately, however, his education and train- 
ing were lamentably defective. According to the pernicious custom 
universally prevalent in Italy, Bellini had been introduced exclu- 
sively to the works of his immediate predecessors, or, to speak more 
correctly, his musical acquaintance was confined to Rossini. From 
a model of this description it was not probable that he would acquire 
either contrapuntal correctness, skill in managing a subject, variety 
of modulation, or effective and clear instrumentation. As in lite- 
rature a good style is not to be acquired by the imitation or exclu- 
sive study of one author, so in music the power of producing ori- 
ginal ideas with the connectiom and coherence requisite to form a 
great work cannot exist without an extensive and intimate acquaint- 
ance with the sacred and the secular works of the greatest masters. 
To the neglect of this maxim may be attributed the paucity of really 
original productions: modern composers have played some of the 
flimsy effusions of their cotemporaries, studied the rules of thorough 
bass, and they imagine that inspiration will accomplish the rest. 
The biographies of Handel, Bach, Haydn, and Mozart, show how 
different was the course pursued by men possessing the highest na- 
tural genius, men whose names are immortal: of the works of 
these master spirits, with perhaps the exception of a few of Mozart’s 
songs, Bellini was evidently ignorant. Neither in the Italian con- 
servatorios is the inferiority of the examples atoned for by a judi- 
cious and profound study of the principles of harmony. From these 
causes may be traced that one-sided acquaintance with the art dis- 
played in his works; hence arises his inability to treat a serious sub- 
ject in an appropriate, sustained, and lofty style. The two princi- 


208 ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE OPERA IN LONDON. 


pal defects in his style are repetition and want of purpose. His 
theme is invariably repeated in the same key, without any other al- 
teration than increase of noise in the accompaniment, until the 
pleasure of the hearer becomes converted into weariness. On re- 
solving to leave it, he presents us with commonplace phrases not 
bearing in the most remote degree on the original idea, wanders at 
random through various keys, pauses, then returns without prepa- 
ration to his first melody, which he again repeats usque ad nauseam, 
The accompaniment consists of the chords of the key-note, domi- 
nant and subdominant, first piano and in crotchets, afterwards in- 
creased to forte, with the whole power of the band; the wind in- 
struments are employed on every occasion, and generally inappro- 
priately. That each instrument possesses a character peculiar to 
itself, and is intended for a separate object, he appears not to sus- 
pect ; they are by him employed en masse, and with the sole aim of 
producing noise. Modulation he scarcely attempts, for to apply 
that term to the desultory wanderings already described would be 
an abuse of language; neither can I recollect an instance in which 
his vocal subject is answered by any corresponding idea in the in- 
strumentation. Bellini resembles an orator who, instead of bring- 
ing argument and illustration to support an assertion, contents him- 
self with a repetition of the same idea in different words. The re- 
petition of the first two or three phrases towards the conclusion of 
a song produces, undoubtedly, a good effect ; but the repetition of 
the whole of the first part is intolerable, and can only proceed from 
want of science. Nor can it be pleaded in justification that Handel 
and the Italian composers of his time always employed the da capo, 
because those great masters scarcely wrote three successive bars in 
the same key. The da capo is, moreover, one of the usages which 
Gluck (the great reformer of the opera) exploded as inadmissible in. 
dramatic music, and every good composer for the stage has since 
trodden in his steps, adapting the music to the situation, action, er 
passion, which they undertake to illustrate. 

Bellini is the first who has openly set at defiance this maxim: he: 
has no plan, no purpose, no gradual rise of the music corresponding 
to the development of the plot, no finale in which the composer con- 
centrates his powers to raise to its acme an interest well-sustained 
throughout, although varying in character with the passing scene. 
Had Bellini been requested to render a reason for his choice of the 
particular vocal passages which he appended to the original theme, 
his only reply could have been, to suit the singer. In the majority 
of instances, almost any other, in the same key and the same time, 


ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE OPERA IN LONDON. 209 


would be equally appropriate: this circumstance sufficiently ac- 
counts for the great liberties which singers take with his text. To 
alter, add, or omit one note in an aria of Mozart, would be, not only 
to change its character, but, probably, to render it grammatically 
incorrect. With Bellini, on the contrary, it is a matter of chance 
whether the music is improved, or the reverse, by the alteration. 
What object had he in view in inserting, according to his constant 
practice, a noisy instrumental symphony between the phrases of his 
most tender and plaintive songs? The answer would properly be, 
that he wrote the first passage that occurred, regardless whether its 
effect would be to strengthen or destroy the impression suggested by 
the poem, and faithfully rendered by the vocal motivo. In regard 
also to the precise moment of adding the usual Italian close to a 
song, it would be vain to seek a reason in its connection with the 
preceding passage, because this connection can rarely be found to 
exist. When Mozart, Cimarosa, and Paer, introduce analogous 
passages, the reason and the object are alike conspicuous, the one to 

«follow out the course of a composition, the other to express a feeling 
with propriety. Were some ruthless hand to expunge three or four 
of the preceding bars, and then add the finale, the absurdity would 
be instantly detected by the judicious auditor. With these com- 
posers every successive bar appears to be a consequence of the last, 
and the entire composition presents the result of a scheme carried 
into execution with a degree of success dependent on the propriety 
of the means employed for its accomplishment. 

It is, however, possible that Bellini might have a plan in view, 
although its nature is not obvious: if he had, it has terminated in 
producing a certain number of arias, cavatinas, and duettos, each 
adapted to the respective singers, and pleasing to the public taste. 
That some of these are appropriate and dramatic has been already 
admitted, or rather that the theme is dramatic, its treatment irrele- 
vant. Were it possible to invent a series of motivi suited to every 
situation in the poem, it is certain that these would form, not an 
opera, but a succession of ballads: it is evidently an equal misno- 
mer to dignify with the title of opERa a series of pieces composed 
of a subject frequently taken at random (though sometimes strik- 
ingly beautiful), repeated until the composer himself becomes weary, 
of noisy instrumental passages, and vocal flouriskes selected from 
the newest collection of solfeggios, and terminating by the recapitu- 
lation of the whole of the first part, to which is added the “ favour- 
ite finale.” In short, the character of Bellini’s music is essentially 
undramatic, and the manner in which it is performed and listened 

VOL. VI.—NO. XX. ? DD 


210 ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE OPERA IN LONDON. 


to by his countrymen is a striking confirmation of the correctness of 
the assertion. To the chorus, the orchestra, and the inferior per- 
formers, they are totally indifferent ; on the appearance, however, 
of the prima donna, or primo tenore, the audience are hushed into 
attention, not on account of the dramatic situation, but to catch 
every note of their roulades and cadences; they are absorbed, not 
by pity for Elvino or Amina, but by admiration of Rubini and Ma- 
libran. The principal.singers, however, requiring occasional repose, 
chorusses, &c., are inserted between the songs, in order to fill up 
the time; and if they may be said to receive as little attention as 
the music between the acts of a play, it must be confessed that they 
have frequently no greater degree of connection with the solos 
which they precede or follow. 

The assertions contained in the Edinburgh Review for sel, 
1836, in a notice of Hogarth’s excellent History of Music, afford 
an opportunity of examining certain fallacies too generally received 
on this subject. The reviewer, after observing that he does not con- 
cur in Mr. Hogarth’s sweeping condemnation of the modern Italian 
school, supports his opinion in the following manner :—*“ Rellini’s 
Operas are not merely to be examined on the face of the score, but 
to be judged of, like a well-painted scene, by their effect on the au- 
dience. “  * There are few of those critics so acute in finding 
out errors in black and white who would be able to detect them in 
the course of the performance. Amidst scenes of deep interest, 
such as Bellini has represented, they are seldom, if ever, observable ; 
and where it is otherwise, it appears to us that we. have no more to 
do with the original score than with the paper on which it is writ- 
ten.” I would, in reply, beg to refer to an assertion made in the 
former part of this article, that to a musician the score and its per- 
formance are one and the same. What rational person would find 
fault with a score, except on account of the effect which he knows 
will be produced by its performance? Suppose that he discovers 
the same subject repeated several times in the course of a song, 
without any variation except an increase of noise in the accompani- 
ment, he feels confident that this reiteration must have the effect of 
palling upon the ear. Suppose, on the other hand, that he hears 
the song without having previously seen it on paper, the repetition 
of the melody in the same key is equally wearisome ; whether, 
therefore, he blame the song or the score, the result is the same. 
It may, however, be ‘politic in an advocate for the modern Italian 
schoo] to endeavour to deter his readers from an inspection of the 
scores: what a mass of confusion do they exhibit! It has been a 


ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE OPERA IN LONDON. 211 


subject of astonishment how some of them could be performed at 
all. The advice tendered, to judge of the operas by the effect which 
they produce on the audience, is likewise judicious, inasmuch as 
they have generally the undeserved good fortune of being sung by 
the finest vocalists in the world; under such circumstances, it may 
be confidently asserted that, in the present state of public taste, the 
composer is secure of obtaining a share of the applause which in 
justice belongs solely to the performer. Thus, the argument which 
the reviewer founds on their extensive popularity, cannot be sup- 
ported until he produces a public capable of estimating the intrinsic 
merit of an opera independently of the manner in which it is per- 
formed. The Germans approximate far more nearly in this respect 
toa perfect taste than either the English or the French, yet in 
Germany the partisans of Bellini form but an insignificant minori- 
ty. Ihave been present at the performance of the Somnambula, at 
Frankfort, when the audience did not exceed fifty persons (either 
Robert le Diable or a classical opera of any school would have filled 
the house), and expressions of disapprobation were certainly. predo- 
minant, although the performers might be considered favourites. 
Even in England we are not without proof that the popularity of 
Bellini may be ascribed rather to the performance than to the com- 
position. When the manager of the English Opera House has en- 
deavoured to introduce either the works of that composer, or any 
other of the same school, the experiment has invariably failed. The 
reason is obvious: the singers, although competent to do justice to 
music of every style, were not in themselves sufficiently attractive 
to counterbalance the want of interest in the music, which, when 
left to its intrinsic merit, encountered the neglect it deserved. 
Again, if it were actually the composition which affords so much 
delight to the frequenters of the Italian opera, it is difficult to con- 
ceive why Balfe’s Szege of Rochelle has attracted so small a share of 
notice in aristocratic circles. This opera contains airs in the style at 
present so much in vogue, while the excellence of the concerted 
pieces renders it, as a whole, superior to any production of the mo- 
dern Italian school; yet it will never acquire the same degree of 
popularity as the trash which has been introduced to the notice of 
the fashionable world by the splendid talents of Grisi, Rubini, Tam- 
burini, and Lablache. Let the most contemptible opera ever com- 
posed be assigned to this gifted quartett, and behold how the praises 
of the composer will be instantly blazoned abroad by the opera 
house critics ! 

The question is not, however, whether there are, or are not, indi- 


212 ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE OPERA IN LONDON. 


viduals to whom the works of our author afford pleasure ; admitting 
the admirers of Bellini to be numerous, what do his advocates gain 
by the concession? Inferior poetry, indifferent paintings, have 
been applauded by the public ; why, then, should music be the only 
one of the fine arts in which we are to bow slavishly to the verdict 
of the uninformed ? Common chords, either entire or divided, wind- 
instrument passages in thirds and sixths, are sounds naturally pleas- 
ing ; and as those who have never seen good paintings are delighted 
with the gaudy colours of a worthless daub, so thousands who flock 
annually to the opera with ears inexperienced, save in the tinkling 
of their own piano forte, or the squalling in the parish church, are 
enchanted by the brilliancy of the orchestra and the sound of deli- 
cious voices, unconscious of the inanity or inappropriateness of the 
strains thus emphatically rendered. Let our author have the bene- 
fit of every concession not inconsistent with truth ; but it will be 
found impossible to invalidate the position that the redeeming traits 
scattered over his operas are inadequate to counterbalance their 
glaring musical and dramatic deficiencies, or to establish their claim 
to the title of works of art. To gratify the idle caprice of a modern 
Italian audience, Bellini scruples not to sacrifice all consistency, all 
truth of keeping, to transgress dramatic propriety, and to disregard 
the dictates of common sense. Were a sculptor to represent a Ju- 
piter or a Hercules with the slender limbs and elegant proportions 
of an Adonis, he would not sin more grievously against nature than 
the musician who clothes the most vehement of passions and emo- 
tions in languishing and effeminate strains. 

The musician escapes the imputation of ignorance in his own art 
which, in a parallel case, would undoubtedly attach to the sculptor, 
because the public are at present less versed in the principles of mu- 
sic than in those of the imitative arts. ‘The execution of the statue 
might gratify the eye in the same manner as a pretty though inap- 
propriate melody would please the ear, but the mental faculties 
would, in each instance, feel revolted. Blunders such as these will 
meet with toleration, if not with applause, as long as the sensual 
gratification of the ear is regarded as the sole aim of music. . Let 
the art of sound, like those of form and colour, be universally re- 
cognised as a legitimate object for the employment of the mental fa- 
culties, then will music command that share of respect which has 
been accorded, in all ages, to sculpture and painting. Let those 
who are conversant with the subject never shrink from exposing 
the absurdities and errors committed by musicians—let them shew 
that they proceed from a deficient understanding of the first princi- 


ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE OPERA IN LONDON. 28 


ples of their art ; thus will they effectually deprive the enemies of 
art of their favourite sophism, which would represent such absurdi- 
ties as inherent or essential features of the subject of their ridicule. 
With this view I proceed to examine the Somnambula, dwelling not 
on trifling blemishes only to be detected by a hypercritical observer 
on a minute inspection, but directing attention to its essential cha- 
racteristics. 

This opera may be pronounced, on the whole, the chef d’ceuvre of 
Bellini ; a degree of animation and vigour seems to have inspired 
the composer of the dull and insipid Anna Bolena, Norma, and the 
Capuletti, operas which can scarcely lay claim to the merit of con- 
taining a melody worthy of remembrance. In the Somnambula, on 
the contrary, almost every melody, if not original, is beautiful ; 
many of the chorusses are effective : yet we look in vain for a good 
concerted piece. But, although this ‘opera is tolerably successful in 
amusing the ear, it fails completely in satisfying the mind; it 
abounds with the usual sacrifices of sense to sound, and some of the 
tenderest songs are disfigured by noisy, unmeaning instrumentation. 

An enlightened critic has commented on the absurdity of repre- 
senting the susceptible and intellectual Amina under the influence 
of an attachment bordering on infatuation for the repulsive and jea- 
lous Elvino. The reproach is just ; Elvino; who is unable to ob- 
tain the sympathy of the audience, cannot obtain that of the 
heroine without lowering, in some degree, the estimate which the 
hearer had formed of her intellectual powers. Is it inquired by 
what means this sympathy might have been obtained? A detailed 
reply would, at present, lead me too far ; let the inquirer diligently 
study Mozart, and he will be speedily enabled to answer the ques- 
tion. It is probable that the intention of Bellini was to render the 
character of Elvino one of deep interest ; in this case no failure 
could be more complete: were such not his purpose, he must have 
speculated largely on the indulgence of the public, in presenting 
them with an opera in which one character only is possessed of the 
slightest attraction. But of Amina we are scarcely yet capable of 
forming an impartial judgment ; Malibran, by her incomparable 
acting, shed a lustre and an interest over this part of which those 
who had only seen it in other hands would not have deemed it sus- 
ceptible. It is also necessary to recollect that the music, as sung by 
this highly-gifted woman, bore frequently but little resemblance to 
that which Bellini had written, and displayed, in numerous in- 
stances, far superior powers of mind. In justice to the composer, I 
must here mention the Cavatina O love! for me time’s power, as 


214 ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE OPERA IN LONDON. 


equally beautiful, dramatic, and satisfactory in musical treatment. 
With one striking instance of strife between sense and sound, I take 
leave of this opera. At the conclusion of the second act Elvino 
spurns Amina, in consequence of her supposed guilt, while the rest of 
the dramatis persone are engaged in moderating the violence of his 
rage, or endeavouring to impart consolation to the distracted and 
injured girl. In this scene, so awful to the spectator, his feelings 
are outraged by the levity of the musical treatment, which is a com- 
monplace Italian motivo, with triplets in the accompaniment ; while 
the chorus bawls to the same tune, and the orchestra increases, by 
its vociferation, the merriment of a strain fit only to accompany a 
ballet. And yet the discerning critic in the Edinburgh Review in- 
forms us that “ Bellini, more than any other author since the days 
of Mozart, addresses us in the simple, unadorned, and unaffected 
language of feeling and nature!” This is the first time that any 
one has ventured on a comparison of the quackery of Bellini with 
the music of Mozart ; it may be hoped that it will be the last.* 

But the reviewer has further information in store. ‘ His style 
is eminently chaste, and entirely free from that species of meretri- 
cious embellishment which, repeated as it is, usque ad nauseam, 
throughout the works of Rossini, so much disfigures his music. 
Besides being perfectly original (!!!), it is more graceful, flowing, 
and infinitely more impassioned. In this respect, and in its freedom 
from all pedantry, we regard the music of Bellini as a decided ad- 
vance in the progress of the art, and a still further development of 
that principle of the modern system which has been at work ever 
since the refinement of melody became an object of attention.” 

That the style of Bellini is totally devoid of meretricious embel- 
lishment—i. e., ornament neither suited to the subject nor founded 
on the structure of the harmony—may admit not only of doubt but 
of denial. It is, however, not ornament in itself which constitutes 
a defect, but the ad libitum and gratuitous character imparted to it. 
Mozart has introduced ornament, with no sparing hand, into the 
Zauberfiote, but it there forms a part of the melody, and even con- 
duces to grandeur of effect, as in the songs of the Queen of Night 
in that opera. 


* Some of my readers may feel surprise that I pass over the Puritani 
without a detailed notice; but such notice could only consist of an enumera- 
tion of the defects before mentioned as characteristic of this author. Not- 
withstanding the perfect performance and the beauty of some of the melo- 
dies, I never experienced weariness so intolerable in listening to any other 
opera. 


ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE OPERA IN LONDON. 215 


Besides being perfectly original !” Thus incidentally to intro- 
duce so unqualified. und positive a declaration, without an attempt 
to support it by the shadow of a proof, is a mode of procedure far 
from satisfactory or conclusive. So remarkable an assertion might 
induce a suspicion that the reviewer was an entire stranger to the 
classical Italian school of opera composers, beginning with Sacchini 
and closing with Paer. Has he ever looked into the solfeggios of 
Italian singing-masters ! ? If he had, these rash words could not 
have escaped; if he is conversant neither with the former nor the 
latter, he is incompetent to form an opinion on the subject. Han- 
del, Haydn, Mozart, are far from being perfectly original ;* these 
great masters were not ashamed to acknowledge their obligations : 
it is, therefore, mere waste of words to prove the mighty debt in- 
curred to their predecessors by composers of a minor calibre. 

In regard to the improvement which it is alleged that Bellini 
has effected in melody, there is only one feature in which it differs 
from that of many composers belonging to the old school ; take, for 
instance, Guglielmi. I allude to the showy manner in which he 
adapts his words, partly by setting emphatic phrases to sonorous 
though unmeaning successions of notes, and partly by taking the 
utmost advantage of the sonorous nature of the Italian language, 
in a repetition of the same word, and by this device to impart an 
impassioned character to a melody which, if applied to English or 
German words, or if performed on an instrument, would be divested 
of this artificial and adventitious colouring. These contrivances, 
although they may be blameless, will not contribute to the advance- 
ment of the art, nor will mere ‘‘ freedom from pedantry,” especially 
if it arise from positive ignorance, be of service to music any more 
than improvement will accrue to literature from the writings of an 
unpedantic, because uneducated, man. Mozart undermined pedan- 
try by substituting for empty forms the graceful imaginations of 
his glowing genius ; while the only equivalent offered by the mo- 
dern Italians is exemption from too much learning. 

I confess my inability to understand the reviewer when he dis- 
courses of “that principle of the modern system which has been at 
work ever since the refinement of melody became an object.” This 


* In this fact lies one main argument for the study of classical composers 
of former ages, of the works, not of one school, but of all, Dr. Crotch gives 
_ a list of ae from whom. Handel borrowed, or whom he imitated. 

_iTozart replied to a friend who complimented him on the ease with which he 
wrote, “I believe there is no end composer whose works I have not played 
through many times.” 


216 ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE OPERA IN LONDON. 


principle would seem, from the context, to be an increase of sim- 
plicity and clearness of melody. But such has. been by no means 
the tendency of the art ; the course which it has followed, at any 
rate, for a century back, has rather been in an opposite direction. 
Compare the melodies of Weber, Spohr, Marschner, Ries, Reissiger, 
with those of Haydn, Mozart, Winter, Himmel, Weigl, and Kreut- 
zer. The latter will be relished by persons totally ignorant of mu- 
sical science, while the former require the harmony and the whole 
design of the composer to be understood before they can impart the 
slightest pleasure. The style of the Mozart school, again, was so 
much more complicated than that of preceding composers that many 
critics ascribed the admiration of their partisans to affectation. Had 
the reviewer ever seen an opera of Graun or of Hasse, he might 
possibly, on account of their simplicity, have preferred them to the 
works of later masters ; yet this very simplicity has caused them to 
be forgotten even in name ; they are no where to be met with save 
in the cabinets of the curious, and were they produced before a mo- 
dern audience, would infallibly send them to sleep. 

If we turn to the Italian school, a similar change appears to have 
taken place. Where do we find airs so clear, simple, and intelli- 
gible, as in the unexplored works of Sacchini, Guglielmi, Sarti, 
Paisiello, and Zingarelli? The motivi of their successors, Cimarosa, 
Mayer, and Paer, although of exquisite beauty, are more inter- 
woven and connected with the harmony, or, in other words, bear a 
certain similarity to the German works of the same period. It is 
impossible, consistently with beauty, to find melodies more simple 
than those of the first mentioned composers, nor can the piquancy 
of the latter be surpassed; Rossini, therefore, wisely struck into a 
different track, and the great sensation which he created may be 
fairly attributed to the lightness and flippancy of his melodies, and 
to the gayety which invariably pervades them. Where then do we 
find traces of this simplifying process to which Bellini is said to 
put the finishing stroke? The true history of melody would seem 
rather to be the following:—In the early part of the eighteenth 
century, while the opera was in its infancy, the melodies of Jomelli, 
Vinci, and Galuppi in Italy, and those of Graun and Hasse (Italian 
in character, but written in Germany), although beautiful, were 
not possessed of sufficient animation and vigour to render them ap- 
propriate on the stage. The accompaniments were meagre, and in- 
tended rather to fill up the harmony than to take an adie share in 
forwarding the dramatic action. In the hands of the successors of 
these composers, with Sacchini at their head, melody became more 


ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE OPERA IN LONDON. 217 


animated, more vigorous, and considerably more ornate ; the embel- 
lishments partake of a greater freedom, and display more knowledge 
of the human voice. As, however, this school, like the preceding, 
relied exclusively on the beauty of the airs, neglecting science and 
ingenuity in the harmony, they are equally amenable to the charge 
of feebleness and monotony. On the other hand, their beauty was 
so exquisite as not only to spread the fame of Italian operas over 
the world but to cause it to be transplanted into every other coun- 
try.* Whatever is an object of nearly exclusive attention will, 
under favourable circumstances, be speedily brought to perfection. 
If these statements prove correct, the assertion that the melodies in- 
vented by the Italian composers, from Jomelli or Pergolesi down to 
Paisiello, are, with one exception, more beautiful than any which 
occur elsewhere, will not excite surprise. While it is my decided 
conviction that no improvement in vocal melody has been effected 
by later composers, I freely admit that the motivi of their successors, 
commencing with Martini and Cimarosa, are intrinsically equal to 
them, while their effect is enhanced by the adoption of the system 
introduced by Mozart. Cimarosa and his successors always availed. 
themselves of the power of the orchestra in strengthening the feel- 
ing intended to be produced by the air, and therefore they intro- 
duced the delightful orchestral effects with which their works 
abound, But after Paer, the last of that classical school, beauty of 
melody may be said to have declined. Rossini relied upon orna- 
ment as a means of exciting the wonder of his audience, and upon 
his power of expressing the ludicrous. The manner of Bellini may 
be described as a return to the simplicity, bordering upon inanity, 
which characterised the old Italian composers (Vinci and Galuppi), 
combined with the noisy, unmeaning system of instrumentation, 
which Mr. Hogarth designates as pseudo-German. I cannot con- 
template the works of the classical Italian masters without experi- 
encing a sensation of regret that, while the majority of students re- 
main in ignorance of productions on which the fame of Italian music 
is founded, they should be induced, by a vague idea of the excel- 
lence of all Italian music, to consume time and corrupt their taste 
by persisting to draw from a source which is nearly exhausted, in- 
stead of recurring to the pure stream of melody which flows through 
the pages of those classical composers. Actuated by the hope of in- 


* In proof of the admiration excited by the Italian compositions of the 
early schools, see the’ Letters of Gray, Marmontel’s Autobiography, and Rous- 
seau’s Essays on Music, and Musical Dictionary. 

VOL. VI.——NO, XX. EE 


218 ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE OPERA IN LONDON. 


ducing my readers to explore these neglected works, and with the 

view of preserving beauties so exquisite from oblivion, as well as of 
affording an opportunity of testing the correctness of the foregoing 

arguments, I give a list of specimens which, although scanty, may 

awaken a desire for further research. The list might have com- 

menced from an earlier period, but the plaintive and tender songs of 
Hasse, &c., are not easily to be procured, whereas most of the fol- 

lowing pieces may be purchased at any foreign music-shop in Lon- 

don. 


Resta ingrata.— Aria. 


Pit non ho la dolce speranza.— Aria. 
SACCHINI...... ie 
Je ne vous quitte point.*—Arietta. 


Dolce speranza in seno.— Trio. 
Se perdo il mio bene.—Cavatina. 


GUGLIBLMT «<5 La mia tenera agnellina.—_Duetto. 
Si ti leggo al volto.t—Aria. 
Lungi del caro bene.—Cavatina. 
qi Ah non sai.—Aria (arranged by Dr. Crotch ). 
Ber Oth yuiieads Amplius lava me.—From a Mass (arranged by 
Novello). 
Ho perduto il mio bene.—( Arranged by Dr. 
PAISIELLO ...... Clarke). 
Saper bramate. 
at Ms Dunque mio bene.—Duetto. 
INGARELLT --- ) Ombra adorata.—Aria. 
FRORIO, © > 6050-5255 Se mi credi amato bene.—Duetto. 


These specimens (all of which are within the compass of private 
performance) will demonstrate how slender is the claim which Bel- 
lini possesses to the appellation of a simplifier of melody ; and small 
indeed must be his chance for immortality when we have witnessed 
the oblivion which has successively overwhelmed the most popular 
composers of Italy, who each in his day was, like him, the idol wor- 


* Gdipe a Colone, the opera from which the above exquisite melody is se- 
lected, was originally performed at Paris: the opera abounds in similar mor- 
ceaux, and is worthy the attention of the student, as furnishing an idea of the 
state of dramatic music at that period. 

+ I do not think that any author, either ancient or modern, has produced 
a more simple, clear, and eloquent motivo than the part of this song begin- 
ning at Deh respirar lasciate mi. 


ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE OPERA IN LONDON. 219 


shipped to the exclusion of all others. The operas of Sacchini 
maintained their ground longer than others, but they are never per- 
formed at present ; whereas the works of his German cotempora- 
ries continue to exercise over the public taste an influence nearly as 
great as they did on their first appearance. This is a confirmation 
of the maxim that it is not the most simple, the most intelligible, or 
the most popular compositions at the time, but those which display 
the highest power of mind, that endure as monuments of genius, 
that create an era in the art, that become the test by which the 
musical historian judges of its state at the period when they were 
produced. Nor at the present day is the tendency of music towards 
greater simplicity ; it gives, on the contrary, evident signs of an in- 
crease in piquancy, variety, interest, and animation. Its limits are 
enlarging daily ; new resources are discovered, new paths are struck 
out by every successive candidate for immortality: and, provided 
the proper means are adopted, we may reasonably indulge in the ex- 
pectation of seeing a genius arise who will unite in one splendid 
whole the varied and scattered excellencies of his predecessors. 

In order to induce my readers to extend their researches, and 
thus to qualify themselves for the detection of the countless plagia- 
risms committed on their predecessors by the sot-disant maestri of 
the present day, I will present them with specimens from some of 
' the greatest masters of the Mozart school ; these will, I trust, be 
sufficient to establish the superiority of their melodies over those of 
the modern Italian school. 


Confusa, agitata.—Aria (Calypso ). 
Io mi pasco di sospir.—Aria ( Calypso ). 
Mio dolce tesore.—Aria (I fratelli rivali ). 
The maid who'd wish to slumber.—Quintett, 
WINTER ......... ( Opferfest ). 
There was a time ere sorrow.—Air ( Opferfest ). 
Mi lasci o madre amata.—T'rio ( Proserpina ). 
Men’andro al Giove.— Duet (Il triomfo del amor 
Sraterno ). 
Piu bianca di giglio 
MarrTini* ...... Perche tu m’ami ( Una cosa rara ). 
Dolce mi parve un die 


* Martini may be regarded as the connecting link between the school of 
Sacchini and that which adopted the principles of Mozart. Una cosa rara 
was brought out at Vienna in 1786, at the same time with Mozart’s Nozze 
di Figaro, and was for some time more popular than that immortal work. 


220 ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE OPERA IN LONDON. 


a 
La donna ch’e amante. 


CIMAROSA ...... Diiteenieisailiiaadas 
O lass dein Herzchen 

HimME.’” ...... Von Pracht und Schimmer +} (Fanchon ). 
Kénnt auch die Liebe 
Mi vedrai nel ciglio.t 

MAYER ......... Qui sospir la rise. 


Che al mio bene.—Dueito. 
A goder la bella pace. 


Egli ha il core 
Vederlo sol bramo (Griselda ). 


Io non bado al volto 


REE calasen nonce Vieni econsola mi . oe 
In van in te s’accende (Numa P ompilio ) ‘ 


Andiamo carino. ‘ 
Spesso trionfa.{—( Sofonisbe ). 

At the risk of becoming tedious, I am under the necessity of 
again reverting to the assertions of the reviewer :—“ Bellini, more 
than any other author since the time of Mozart, addresses us in the 
simple, unadorned, and unaffected language of feeling and nature ; 
and so far from answering the description given in the above quo- 
tation (from Hogarth’s History), we venture to affirm that no 
music written for the stage was ever more strictly subservient to 
the situation and action of the drama.” 

The reader will now be enabled to form a competent judgment as 
to the reliance to be placed on this assertion. If it be true, all that 
has been advanced in this article is mere imagination and delusion; 
if false, what opinion can be formed respecting the capability of the 
critic for the task which he has undertaken, when, from vague spe- 
culations resting solely on the flimsy foundation of his own peculiar 


* The daily increasing knowledge of German renders unnecessary any 
apology for the introduction of songs in that language. A clever translation 
of Fanchon could not fail to render that opera popular on our stage. Some 
pleasing specimens of this excellent composer may be found in the Lyra Ger- . 
manica. 

+ I have heard, on good authority, that this splendid aria, although intro- 
duced into one of Mayer’s operas, was composed by Paer. It was a great fa- 
vourite with Pasta. 

+ Some of the above songs may possibly not be found separate from the 
operas in which they occur; in this case, it would be doing good service to 
the public to reprint them. 


ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE OPERA IN LONDON. 921 


taste, he deliberately deduces conclusions as easily to be disproved as 
so many incorrect geometrical propositions? The entire tendency 
of the article is to retard the progress of the art, and to lower the 
public taste. It opens with depreciating the advantages of theoreti- 
cal knowledge, both as regards the nature of sound and the princi- . 
ples of composition. The author apparently considers taste, not as 
founded on and derived from knowledge, but as something apart— 
something that may be acquired by the perusal of Mr. Hogarth’s 
book. A considerable degree of attention to the subject has con- 
vinced me that as long as the knowledge of the public remains sta- 
tionary, it is impossible that taste can progress. The degree of gra- 
tification arising from music may be immeasurably increased with- 
out devoting a larger portion of time to the whole range of the art 
and science than is at present lavished on one branch. If, indeed, 
time cannot be afforded for both the intellectual and mechanical de- 
partments, it cannot surely be considered a debateable question 
whether the finger or the mind should be deemed the more worthy 
of cultivation. By this change of plan we might, indeed, lose some 
superfluous and inefficient pianists; but this loss would be amply 
compensated by an equal number of true “kenner.”* We should 
be spared the pain of perusing articles like the above, which, pre- 
suming on the ignorance of the public, attempts to depreciate Pur- 
cell, talks of “unknown and unfrequented paths of modulation 
tracked out by Weber and Rossini’—(this is nearly as bad as his 
connexion of Mozart and Bellini)—and concludes by hurling the 
anathema which was intended by Rousseau to apply to those who 
were incapable of appreciating real genius, against all who estimate 
Bellini at his proper value. Such opinions would then fall as harm- 
less as an attempt to pull down Shakspeare and to elevate on his 
pinnacle of deathless fame some author of popular melodramas, 
_ Were it not for the high literary authority of the Edinburgh Re- 
view, it would have been an useless expenditure of time to under- 
take the refutation of fallacies which a momentary consideration 
would render palpable. Unfortunately, the dicta of high literary 
authorities are exempted, on certain subjects, from the ordeal of re- 
flection. The musical heresies which Addison so confidently pro- 
mulgated, have since recoiled with double force, from the intended 
objects of his satire, upon himself. Let authors, then, beware how 
they dogmatise on subjects with which they are unacquainted, while 


* Knowers ; a word which merits to be naturalized ; connoisseur is associ- 
ated with pretension, rather than actual knowledge. 


222 ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE OPERA IN LONDON. 


their readers should employ equal caution in subjecting both facts 
and arguments to a deliberate scrutiny before admitting the truth of 
assertions, sanctioned even by the “ magic of a name.” 

In concluding this notice of Bellini, let me again repeat that, far 
from entertaining a desire to force the individual views contained in 
this article on the public, it is my earnest wish that they may, by 
gaining a thorough acquaintance with the subject, become qualified 
for testing, in the most rigorous manner, the correctness of these con- 
clusions. If they can be proved to be erroneous, the error will be 
candidly acknowledged, under the conviction that, of all mental 
problems, the most difficult to solve is that of forming a just esti- 
mate of our cotemporaries. ‘ 

Of Donizetti, it will not, after so ample a notice of Bellini, be 
requisite to say much. He belongs to the same school, and writes 
on the same erroneous priuciples. In a comparison of the two com- 
posers, Donizetti may be considered as the more correct, Bellini as 
possessing the greater share of genius: the former draws more 
largely on Rossini, although he is far from attaining the spirit and 
fire of his model ; while the latter presents us with more original 
ideas. Pretty melodies are not unfrequent throughout Donizetti’s 
operas ; but they are like particles of gold scattered amongst count- 
less grains of sand—the amount of the precious material will not 
repay the labour of separation from the dross. His instrumentation 
is as faulty as that of the other writers of the same school. Al- 
though destitute of the slightest claim to the title of a scientific 
musician, he has been appointed Professor of Counterpoint in one 
of the first conservatorios of Italy: Donizetti occupies the chair 
rendered illustrious by Durante, Leo, and Jomelli. Alas! for the 
scholars of Donizetti !—the art has yet to fall. 

Vaccai, Pacini, Ricci, Mercandante, &c., are still less worthy of 
detailed notice: their melodies, when pretty, are plagiarisms, and 
when origina] they are dull. 

These are the composers who monopolize an establishment sup- 
ported at greater cost than any other in Europe ;* these are the 
men who are deemed worthy to supersede the masters of every other 
school. It has been already demonstrated that these disgraceful 
proceedings may be, in great measure, attributed to the ignorance 
of the public, and the indifference with which they receive what- 
ever the manager or the singers think proper to provide for their 
entertainment. The removal of existing ignorance, and the forma- 


* The amount of subscriptions is from £25,000 to £30,000 per annum. 


ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE OPERA IN LONDON. 923 


tion of an enlightened taste, can only be the fesult of a properly di- 
rected and long-continued course of study : a remedy may be, in the 
mean time, suggested which will have a tendency to palliate, al- 
though it will not entirely remove the evil. 

The attempt at the present moment to perform classical music of 
every school could only terminate in failure and disappointment: 
Italian singers possess a peculiar style, and manner, and taste, 
which from long habit have become a second nature. Remove them 
from the usual routine of their daily practice, and their inferiority 
to other performers becomes as manifest as their former excellence. 
To them Weber, Beethoven, and Spohr, write in an unknown 
tongue ; the mode by which these writers produce their most splen- 
did effects is a science which they have never acquired. While the 
composers of other countries, more particularly the Germans, have 
learned, during a residence in Italy, to combine Italian ease and 
grace with their native depth and elaboration, the Italians have 
never incorporated with their own style foreign peculiarities, so as. 
to render them indigenous. In fact, when a composer has formed 
an exception, it will be found that he lost the favour of his country- 
men in the same proportion that he allowed foreign ideas and novel 
modes of treatment to disturb the pure stream of native melody. 
Such was the fate of Jomelli, whose music received the appellation 
of scelerata, in consequence of the introduction of a few German 
harmonies. Paer, and still more strikingly Cherubini, forfeited, 
for the same reason, the good opinion of the Italian public. This 
patriotic attachment prevails with equal force among the singers ; 
an Italian opera, in whatever country it may be performed, remains 
unchanged and unmodified by the taste of the public, or the exam- 
ple of composers in the country of their temporary residence. An 
Italian company invariably sings the compositions of Italians, or of 
those foreigners who have made the nearest approach to their style. 

Instead, therefore, of attempting the impossibility of requiring 
Italian performers to sing la musica tedesca, let us rather employ 
their unrivalled talent in the classical school founded by Mozart. 
The key to his style may be found equally in the accidents of his 
artistical cultivation.and in the events of his subsequent life. By 
birth a German, his earliest studies were among the works of Han- 
del, Sebastian and Emanuel Bach ; had circumstances confined him 
to his native country he would, in all probability, have rivalled, in 
their own line, these great men. But during a visit to the native 
land of song, at an age when impressions received by the ductile 
mind become not only permanent but expand with the growing 


224 ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE OPERA IN LONDON. 


mental and bodily powers, the young artist studied with enthusiasm 
the noble models of genius left by the composers of a by-gone age, 
at the same time that he was favoured by the personal friendship of 
their equally great successors, Hasse and Jomelli, whose works then 
held the first place in public estimation. With these models and 
in this society, engaged also in composing an Italian opera for na- 
tive artists, his ardent temperament could not fail to be deeply im- 
pressed by the melodies, so congenial to his feelings, which he heard 
constantly floating around him: in short, they became a part of his 
being, modified by his immense stores of learning, tinged with the 
pensive cast of northern art, and rendered more lovely and fresh by 
his consummate skill in suiting the music to the passions, nay, to the 
minutest shades of the characters he pourtrayed. He created a new 
era in the art by so blending the two styles as to form a school of 
his own more excellent than either ; characterised also by attention 
to truth and nature, rather than fettered by conventional rules. 
Hence, as a dramatic composer, he excels alike his predecessors and 
his followers ; others may have written works irreproachable when 
considered in the abstract, but they are deficient in that nice adapta- 
tion indispensable to correct delineation of character. Mozart is the 
Shakspeare of music. To our countrymen, who are too much 
inclined to regard music in the light of a merely sensual gratifica- 
tion, an intimate acquaintance with his works cannot fail to impart, 
both as regards composition and performance, more just and elevated 
conceptions respecting operatic excellence. While, then, we dili- 
gently study Mozart and follow out the principles on which he 
wrote, let us not regard him as a mere musician, but as a dramatic 
poet whose language is music. 

Don Giovanni has been performed over the whole civilized world ; 
volumes have been written analyzing its merits, arrangements have 
been published for every instrument, its songs have furnished mo- 
tivos for piano forte writers and performers of every grade; this in- 
satiable repetition and imitation, these innumerable parodies, would 
have exhausted amore trivial work, while this master-piece still re- 
mains the highest treat which can be offered to the lovers of drama- 
tic music. In whatever point of view we regard it, whatever may 
be our own individual taste or theory, we must be in no small de- 
gree fastidious if it fulfil not our idea of perfection. The “ sublime, 
the beautiful, and the ornamental,” are here found in due propor- 
tion ; lovely and vocal melodies, ingenious instrumentation, contra- 
puntal corrrectness, and modern freedom, combined with so much 
grandeur of conception and exquisite finish in the execution, that it 


ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE OPERA IN LONDON. 225 


may admit of doubt whether Don Giovanni will ever be equalled, 
surpassed it cannot be. It is, therefore, to be hoped that the mana. 
ger may be compelled, by the improving taste and growing know- 
ledge of the public, to produce, more frequently than he has hitherto 
done, so stupendous a monument of dramatic genius. 

Le Nozze di Figaro, although it does not rank so high as a work 
of art, possibly on account of the subject requiring a more one-sided 
treatment, is nevertheless replete with enchanting melodies, inte- 
resting yet natural harmonies, and above all it contains concerted 
pieces which will ever serve as models in this difficult, and therefore 
now neglected, part of dramatic composition. How skilfully are 
the various characters exhibited ! how clear is the expression of their 
feelings ! and how rich their effect when brought into collision by the 
concerted pieces! Perhaps the finest, though least generally known, 
parts of this opera are the sextet Riconoscz in quest’ amplesso, and the 
finale to the second act. Among the airs may be mentioned Al desio 
di chi Padora, as a specimen of the true style of the opera song. 
Would that our great artists displayed their powers more frequently. 
on such compositions! And although the attention and applause 
usually bestowed upon the performer would be shared by the com- 
poser, yet if the former have a proper sense of the dignity of his 
calling, he.will prefer rendering the conceptions of the mighty mas. 
ter, and producing in the minds of the audience the feelings and the 
effects which he intended. to create, to the poor ambition of exciting 
astonishment by feats of mere mechanical dexterity, which, in the 
estimation of the enlightened critic, hold no higher rank than the 
tours de force of a tumbler or a rope-dancer. 

Cosi fan tutte, in comparison with the two former operas, pro- 
duces a similar effect to a water-colour drawing by the side of an 
historical painting. This may be in part attributed to the flimsy 
materials, the entire absence of plot, and the miserable diction: to 
supply the deficiencies of the poet and to construct a dramatic whole 
on so imperfect a foundation, called for no ordinary degree of skill 
in the musician. As the characters are of his own conception and 
invention—(in the hands of the poet they are mere sketches) —they 
require to be examined and criticized accordingly. It is, therefore, 
to be regretted that Mr. Hogarth should have revived the old charge 
brought against Mozart’s comic operas, that they contain too great 
a degree of seriousness and sentimentality.* As, in the present in- 
stance, however, had the music been constructed on the model ‘of 


* Musical History, p. 265. 3 
VOL. Vi—NO. xX. FF 


226 ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE OPERA IN LONDON. 


the words, few would have had the patience to listen to it, no plan 
could have been more judicious than that of presenting a succession 
of exquisite musical miniatures, consisting of inexhaustibly lovely 
melodies, with delicately instrumented accompaniments. <A lofty 
style would only have rendered the absurdity of the poem more con- 
spicuous, while Italian buffoonery and volubility are too remote 
from nature and feeling to impart that moral interest which can 
alone confer on any work of art the power of pleasing, after pro- 
ductions of greater cotemporary fame (because complying with and 
flattering the false taste of the day) have been consigned to oblivion. 
The tone which pervades alike this opera and Figaro, is that of 
refined society, or rather of the beau ideal of it, which Goldsmith, 
Sheridan, and Cumberland have so happily attained in their come- 
dies. To assert that these would have been improved by a mixture 
of low buffoonery, that they are too serious—too heavy, is not a 
more palpable absurdity than to maintain that Mozart would have 
been greater had he been capable of descending to vulgarity. But 
the English public have yet to learn the distinction between a comic 
opera and a musical farce. Cosi fan tutte is an excellent example of 
the former, I Virtuost ambulanti of the latter. 

If we refer to the classical Italian school, we find that Paisiello, 
by depicting the passions with equal truth and beauty, has produced 
in his Barbiere di Seviglia a genuine musical comedy. Nor should 
it be forgotten, that, in music as well as in literature and in acting, 
the acme of the ridiculous is frequently obtained by the contrast 
between the gravity of the narrator and the ludicrous situation in 
which he is placed. It would prove highly interesting to pursue 
these speculations more in detail. It cannot but form a subject for 
regret, that, in England, music being regarded either as a branch of 
learning or as an accomplishment, and never as a vehicle for the 
expression of our familiar feelings, we remain, in consequence, still 
so far behind our German brethren in its application to the passions 
and emotions, as to compel us to abide by their decision on all zsthe- 
tic questions. Our love for the art is intense, and all the elements 
of musical greatness are in existence in this country, but as yet en- 
cumbered by the dross of ignorance, prejudice, and inexperience. 
Instead, therefore, of criticising the chef d’wuvres of a great master 
because they do not, in all respects, accord with our present views, 
it would be wiser to distrust the correctness of our own taste until 
we have bestowed some pains in acquiring an intimate knowledge 
of the principles on which he wrote. Were the modesty, the defe- 
rence to a great name which is observed in the criticism of the 


' 
ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE OPERA IN LONDON. 227 


other arts extended to music, the good effects of this course would 
become visible in the amelioration of public taste which must neces- 
sarily ensue. 

The opera before us is eminently characteristic of Mozart, yet we 
perceive that the. poet is unbending himself, and lowering the dig- 
nity of his style, while by imparting to it additional grace he ren- 
ders it to the majority of his hearers more attractive. His dramatic 
talent is equally conspicuous in this instance as in the works before 
noticed ; the characters are distinctly and naturally represented, and 
the effect of their peculiarities heightened by the art with which 
they are contrasted. Concerted pieces do not form so prominent a 
feature, nor are they on so grand a scale; yet the quintett, Alla 
bella Despinetia, is excellent, and the finale to the first act contains 
some elaborate and masterly writing. Of the arietts and duets 
which abound throughout the opera, it might be difficult to find 
their rivals in loveliness, except in the unknown works of the ne- 
glected and slighted Winter. Ah! guarda sorella is an instance of 
the simple means by which Mozart attains some of his most delight- 
ful effects. the melting of the andante into the clear allegro is pe- 
culiarly happy. The duetto Fra gli amplessi is a beautiful specimen 
of the union of grandeur and pathos. The whole scene is admira- 
bly treated, and deserves attentive study ; the change into C at the 
allegretto is most impressive, and the loftiness of the impassioned 
address of Ferando cannot be surpassed. The return into the key 
of A is skilfully effected ; every note enhances the dramatic effect ; 
nothing is admitted merely for the sake of the modulation. But it 
is the andante which winds our feelings from the highest pitch of 
excitement into an extacy of pleasure. Words are inadequate to 
convey an idea of this most delicious movement ; it must be heard, 
or, still better, studied, and the more closely it is examined the higher 
will the composer rise in our estimation. The part of Ferando is 
distinguished throughout by pathos, grace, and refinement. Una aura 
amarosa and Ah ti veggio are strains which will be listened to with 
pleasure in every age. Although the part of Fiordegli contains 
music both dignified and impressive, it is occasionally tinged by the 
conventional style calculated to display the prima donna of the day. 
Despina and Dorabella enjoy the advantages accorded to persons in 
their humble sphere, both in real life and on the stage, of display- 
ing the impulses of their nature unrestrained by art or fashion. 
Una donna a quindici anni, and Amore un Ladroncello, are favour- 
able specimens of their respective characters. Guglielmo has the 
rare merit of being a comic personage without the slightest tinge of 


228 ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE OPERA IN LONDON. 


vulgarity ; but, although his vein of light merriment prevents much 
depth from entering into the construction of the music which he 
sings, I am inclined to think that La mia Dorabella, Non siate ri- 
trost, and E voi ridete, are the best known and most popular parts 
of this opera. It is altogether a charming production, and one 
which deserves to be frequently brought before the public. 

The Zauberflote enjoys on the continent a reputation second only 
to Don Giovanni ; it is, perhaps, the most universally and durably 
popular opera in the German language. In England, on the con- 
trary, while separate morceaux are general favourites, it does not 
appear to have been sufficiently appreciated by scientific musicians. 
Nor is this, taking into consideration the manner in which parts 
have been adapted and mutilated, much to be wondered at, especi- 
ally as, until the arrival of the German company, it had not been 
for many years performed entire in London. The practice of adapt- 
ing and altering should be discountenanced by all who are desirous 
of raising the dignity of the art and of preserving the purity of 
public taste. No practice can prove more fatal to the reputation of 
a composer than the transformation of an air or duet into a psalm 
tune, of the subject of a symphony into a song, or an elegant aria 
into a quadrille. The march for instruments in this opera has fur- 
nished the subject for a psalm, and the trio Oh cara armonia, ele- 
gant and appropriate where it occurs, has been adapted to the words 
“ Away with Melancholy,” denuded of instrumental accompani- 
ments. The conspiracy, indeed, appears to have been general, 
scarcely an air in the opera but has been seized and mutilated to 
suit the introductions to the piano forte, flute and violin preceptors, 
&c. The consequence is that the majority of persons associate the 
lighter portions with the miseries of their days of pupilage and 
practice, while with the more serious parts, and the scientific deve- 
lopment and connection of the whole, they are entirely unacquaint- 
ed. While conceding that in this country justice has not been ren- 
dered to its merits, it may form a question whether they have not 
been too highly estimated by the Germans. Among popular operas 
it undoubtedly is deserving of the first place ; but, considered scien. 
tifically and as‘a whole, the music is deficient in depth, grandeur, 
and connection. The expectations excited by the overture (decided- 
ly the finest of the sombre cast ever written) are no where fulfilled. 
It scarcely admits of doubt that, had Mozart consulted his own feel- 
ings, instead of conforming to the frivolous taste of his audience, 
he would have written very differently. Experience, however, had 
taught him that he could not commit any error more dangerous to 


ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE OPERA IN LONDON. 229 


cotemporary success than that of appealing too largely to the 
higher faculties of his audience. This was the reason that both 
Le Nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni were at first only partially 
successful ; the music was too scientific and too original to be at 
once appreciated by a superficial audience. But Mozart had obsta- 
cles still more formidable to encounter in the folly and presumption 
of Shikaneder, the manager for whose benefit the Zauberflote was 
composed, who was in the constant habit of erasing the best parts 
of operas written for his theatre, and substituting such passages as 
pleased his own bad taste. Mozart was too conscious of his own 
powers and of the dignity of the art to allow the unity and harmo- 
ny of his works to be thus marred ; but we are ‘informed that his 
patience was occasionally put to severe trial by his presumptuous 
critic, who actually obliged him to compose the duet La dove prenda 
five times before it could obtain his approbation. In this manner 
was the great master hampered by his audience and by an ignorant 
censor, and, as a natural consequence of this tyranny, some of the 
airs are too trivial, and the construction of the concerted pieces too 
simple and superficial. But there are parts where the force of his 
genius shines undebased by meaner matter ; such are the march and 
chorusses of Egyptian priests, and the effect of the choral melody 
sung by the men in armour. The manner in which the wicked, 
revengeful character of the Queen of Night is pourtrayed, is another 
masterly effort. With the mention of the Jtalian beauty of the 
melody Qual suono ohimé, I must conclude this imperfect notice of a 
work which the public ought to be allowed an opportunity of eriti- 
cising for themselves. 

La -Clemenza di Tito is an heroic opera constructed on the model 
of the grand musical tragedies of Gluck, a composer who, unknown 
and unhonoured though his name may be in this country, was the 
first who broke the conventional trammels which shackled his prede- 
cessors, and who, by working on more profound principles, rendered 
music really dramatic. Mozart ever expressed for his works the high- 
est regard, and acknowledged that from the study of them he had 
not only reaped signal benefit, but that they had served as models 
for the construction of his own tragic operas. The enlarged re- 
sources of the art at this period, produced in great measure by fol- 
lowing out the principles of Gluck, enabled our author to surpass 
his model. Tito combines the majesty of Gluck with more grace 
and expression ; there is less of instrumental eclouring than in his 
other operas, but the melodies are on a grander scale. The disad- 
vantages arising from the undramatic character of the text are over- 


230 ON THE PRESENT STATE OF 'THE OPERA IN LONDON. 


come by the composer in the manner already noticed in speaking of 
Cosi fan tutte. The assertion has not unfrequently been made that 
music should be suited to the words; but this precept requires to be 
taken with considerable limitations. A great composer will rather 
direct the adaptation to the subject and tenor of the whole than to 
minute peculiarities. In other words, although the aim of the poet 
and the musician be the same, yet should the latter by no means 
slavishly attach himself to the march of the former, nor, indeed, 
should he pursue similar means. That such was the plan adopted 
by Mozart is apparent on examination of his works, whether we re- 
gard separate portions (lyrically), or view each as a whole dramati- 
cally. Frequently do songs occur pourtraying love, revenge, or 
other passions, but feebly expressed.and in commonplace terms, yet 
the music so concentrates the idea of the poet as almost to amount 
to a personification. And, again, he forms a dramatic whole by 
working out the character in accordance with his own lofty and true 
conceptions, instead of servilely following the meagre sketch of his 
author. The three most important characters in this opera are Ser- 
vilia, Tito, and Sesto. Every genuine lover of dramatic music who 
has heard Malibran sing Non piu di fori, cannot-but lament that the 
world has been for ever deprived of the opportunity of witnessing 
the personification of a character so admirably suited to the powers of 
that unrivalled artiste as that of Servilia. Titois painted with almost 
historical fidelity ; his greatness and his clemency shine conspicuous 
in every note. On hearing the celebrated Wild in this part, at a 
small town in Germany, I became convinced that I had previously 
formed an inadequate conception of its beauties.. But Wild is, as 
Malibran was, neither a mere actor, a mere singer, nor yet a combi- 
nation of the two, but a real artist. I am of opinion that this opera 
might be got up in a more artist-like manner with an entire Eng- 
lish cast than would be possible with the present Italian company. 
It will be unnecessary to enter into detail respecting the beauties of 
particular parts of an ene better known, perhaps, than any other 
of this author.* 

Of the Seraglio I am not aware whether an Italian version ex- 
ists, but, be this as it may, this opera is by no means adapted either 
to the performers or the audience of the King’s theatre. Written 


* Parto ma tu ben mio, which occurs in the part of Sesto, has been sung at 
the vocal concerts by Miss Shirreff. A song less adapted to a female voice 
it would be impossible to find throughout the whole of Mozart’s works. It 
is also advertised to be sung at the quartett concerts by Miss Woodham. 


ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE OPERA IN LONDON. 231 


before Mozart had attained to that peculiar style which spread his 
fame throughout Europe, although containing many great and ster- 
ling beauties, yet, when compared with his other works, the style 
appears deficient in expression, and on the whole too prolix. It is 
still frequently performed in Germany, and, had we a real English 
opera house, would probably become a favourite on our stage. 
Idomeneo.—The grandest heroic opera ever written. Like Tito, 

it unites the majesty of the old with the pathos of the modern 
school ; the period at which it was written, and the nature of the 
subject, were more favourable to sublimity and less to the trifling 
graces so captivating to vulgar minds. It may appear somewhat 
singular that, both on the continent and in England, so extraordi-’ 
nary a production should alone, of all Mozart’s works, have been 
laid on the shelf ; but the fact isthat neglect must inevitably be the 
portion of some of the greatest master-pieces ever composed, as long 
as attention continues to be given rather to the form in which they 
appear than to the ideas which they embody ; as long as admiration 
continues to be lavishly bestowed on the drapery to the neglect of 
the beauty and truth of the figures themselves. In criticising an 
ancient painting, it is considered no disparagement to the artist that 
the robes with which he invests his figures agree not with the fa- 
shions of the present day ; nor would it be possible to place Michael 
Angelo below Sir Thomas Lawrence on the ground of the draperies 
of the latter being more in conformity with modern taste. And yet 
because the cadences in Idomeneo differ from those which Rubini and 
Grisi daily teach us to admire—because the instrumental accompani- 
ments remind us rather of Handel and Gluck than of the sparkling 
phrases we have heard in the last piano forte concerto, on grounds 
equally frivolous and nugatory are we debarred from ever listening 
to one of the greatest triumphs of the dramatic art. But with 
trifles such as these the art has no concern, nor can they affect its 
master-pieces ; oblivion will never be the lot of master-minds like 
Handel, Bach, and Mozart, as long as human voices continue capa- 
ble of executing their divine harmonies. The beauties of Idomeneo 
are of too lofty an order to pass away with the conventional phrases 
and turns of melody fashionable at that period. No event would 
produce a more favourable impression on the musical taste of our 
country and time than the revival of Tdomeneo. It would be a 
giant step in the progress of good taste ; an admission of the princi- 
ple that conventional forms ought invariably to be considered as 
subordinate to the ideas which they invest. It may be feared that 
the King’s Theatre is not the place in which a resuscitation like 


232 ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE OPERA IN LONDON, 


this will take effect. Supposing that the management were to de- 
volve on more competent hands than those of a mere adventurer 
ignorant of music and careless of the interests of the drama, whose 
sole object is to draw money from his subscribers and to expend lit- 
tle on their gratification, it must still remain evident to those who 
are acquainted with the habitual indifference of the audience to the 
higher beauties of a composition, and their blind enthusiasm for 
their favourite performers, that they are far from having attained 
the degree of musical cultivation requisite to enable them to give in 
their adhesion to the principle that tdeas are superior to manner. 
But if the higher orders are content to remain stationary, why 
should not the rest of the nation advance? Fidelio has been appre- 
ciated in London, it has even been received with greater enthusiasm 
than on the continent. Let Drury Lane give fdomeneo ; it might 
then claim the credit of having introduced to the English public 
two of the noblest musical dramas in existence. The example 
would probably be no more followed in this case than it was in that 
of Fidelio ; and if the subscribers to the opera choose to pay largely 
for the privilege of listening nightly to the same undramatic operas, 
truly they have a right to the indulgence of this taste, while poorer 
and wiser audiences will probably prefer a more moderate expendi- 
ture, and receiving in return excellence and variety. 

The widely extended celebrity of the dramatic works on which 
the fame of Mozart principally rests, may possibly be considered as 
having rendered unnecessary the foregoing short and imperfect ana- 
lysis. No doubt every musician has studied Mozart ; but this arti- 
cle is written, not for the learned, but for the ignorant—for those 
who, although they may boast an expensive musical education, are, 
notwithstanding, entitled to no higher appellation than that of 
smatterers. And so numerous, in the present defective state of in- 
struction, is the class coming under this denomination, that it 
includes nearly every unprofessional person who learns music. The 
true musician is aware that the majority of those who talk of Han- 
del, Haydn, Mozart, &c., possess a very vague and indefinite idea of 
their respective styles, and employ these great names principally 
with the view of displaying their own would-be learning. How 
rare in society is the performance of one of Mozart’s songs! and 
how seldom, in comparison with the productions of Bellini and his 
congeners, is one to be found in a lady’s collection! And when at 
length it is brought forward, endless apologies are considered neces- 
sary to excuse the introduction of such old-fashioned stuff. Those 
who at present speak in ignorance of Mozart, I would strongly 


ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE OPERA IN LONDON. 233 


urge'to a practical acquaintance with his value, in order to con- 
vince them that, as an artist, as a creative genius, he stands as in- 
dependent of the caprices of fashion as the master minds in the sis- 
ter arts. The substitution of the songs mentioned in the course of 
this article for the trash which ‘Italian singing-masters usually re- 
commend, will be eventually acknowledged as a manifest improve- 
ment, and the exchange will become a subject for congratulation to 
all parties.. An opportunity of contrasting the gold of Mozart with 
the dross of modern. Italian scribblers would effectually disperse the 
clouds of ignorance, and banish at once frivolous and bad taste. 
Such an opportunity would, in all probability, prove effectual in 
producing a reconciliation between the two parties who now divide 
the musical world. The first of these parties consists of exclusive 
admirers of mere science and artificial contrivance ; the second is 
composed of advocates for the popular and easy of comprehension. 
The favourite (cotemporary) composers of the former are Spohr and 
Mendelsohn—of the latter, Rossini, Auber, and Strauss. The mu- 
sic of Mozart, although eminently scientific, is yet capable of being 
appreciated by the most uncultivated lover of sweet sounds: it is, 
consequently, beyond any other, calculated to controvert the un- 
founded, though widely spread, opinion that science excludes or is 
opposed to whatever pleases the ear ; it, in fact, rather demonstrates 
the converse proposition, viz., that it is only through the medium of 
science that the art is rendered capable of i pagent # the highoont and. 
most permanent gratification. 

The student having been thus gradually led to examine the means 
by which the musician acquired so complete a mastery over the 
minds of his hearers—having, as it were, paid involuntary homage 
to science and ingenuity of contrivance in one composer—would feel 
a greater inclination to extend his researches to others, than if he 
had been at first compelled to listen to the more recondite efforts of 
art. Place a fugue of Sebastian Bach, a symphony of Beethoven, 
or an opera of Spohr, before one whose acquaintance with the art 
(if it be worthy the name) has been limited to Bellini and Herz, 
and it is more than probable that he will contract a lasting disgust 
for scientific music. Were this injudicious course (too commonly 
pursued by the advocates of science) reversed, by beginning with 
Mozart, it might not be impracticable so far to improve the taste of 
the most determined devotees to fashionable trash and ‘ new music” 
(most inappropriately so termed) as eventually to render them sen- 
sible to the beauties of those masters who produce their effects 
rather by the harmonic development of the parts collectively than 

VOL. VI.—NO. XX. GG 


234 ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE OPERA IN LONDON. 


by the melodious beauty of any one. Let lost time be redeemed by 
the diligence with which we resolve in future to cultivate an ac- 
quaintance with Mozart. No nation is so ignorant of his works as 
the English: during his life, when they were performed to enthu- 
siastic audiences over the whole of Germany, his fame had not yet 
reached this country ; a solitary specimen was at length introduced, 
and the public taste lagged so far behind as to be incapable of dis- 
cerning its merits—even at the present day, they are not seldom 
stigmatized by the epithet old fashioned! Thus, while in Germany 
the admiration for this great master amounts nearly to veneration, 
the greater part of the English have advanced little farther than to 
have heard that such a composer has existed. The influence pro- 
duced on the public taste of the two nations by this difference in 
circumstances, requires to be witnessed in order to be credited. I 
therefore repeat that we can only expect to atone for past supine- 
ness by encreased exertions. 

A similar analysis of some of the principal works of the great 
writers, both Italian and German, who adopted the principles which 
Mozart was the first fully to develop, would prove equally useful 
and interesting ; but this article having already encroached too much 
on the space which it is entitled to occupy, I must postpone, for the 
present, that part of my plan, and rest satisfied with the mention of 
the names of those authors whose works could not fail. to impart 
increased attraction to the now monotonous Italian opera. . Winter, 
Cimarosa, Mayer, and Paer, occupy a conspicuous place on all the 
principal boards of Germany. That they are excluded from our 
own, is but a natural consequence of the absence of an enlightened 
taste to control the indolence and the carelessness of the performers. 
Should it accord with the views of the Editors of The Analyst, it is 
my intention, in a future number, to endeavour to rescue these 
charming authors from the oblivion into which they have undeserv- 
edly fallen in this country.. I hope that I may, in the mean time, 
venture to indulge in the expectation that the readers who have 
taken an interest in this subject will, by becoming acquainted with 
the specimens which I have already cited, have advanced at least. 
one step towards qualifying themselves to confirm or to refute the 
statements which may be hereafter advanced; always bearing in 
mind that the mere possession of a work of art will not constitute 
ability to criticize, without a thorough knowledge of the rules and 
principles on which the art itself is founded. 

There remains one point in reference to the present mode of con- 
ducting the opera, to which this notice may possibly be instrumental 


ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE OPERA IN LONDON. 935 


in directing public attention. Why are the vocalists at a theatre, 
supported by an immense expenditure of English money, to be 
exclusively Italian? Granting the impossibility of procuring from 
any other country than Italy four singers equal to the principals of 
the present corps, does it necessarily follow that Mad. Castelli, Sig- 
nor Galli, Signor di Angioli, Signor Winter, and a host of equally 
accomplished performers, are more competent to illustrate the beau- 
ties of the parts allotted to them, than some of the natives of this 
less favoured isle? Why are artists of acknowledged talents, such 
as Mrs. Seguin, Miss Betts, Miss Shirreff, Miss Romer, Mr. Wil- 
son, Mr. Phillips, finally why are the pupils of the Royal Academy 
of Musie, pertinaciously excluded from a field of exertion equally 
calculated to form and mature their talents, and to bring rising 
genius under the notice of the public?* No satisfactory reason can 
be assigned either for the preference or the exclusion: the system 
militates alike against the interests of the public and the improve- 
ment of British art. The inferior Italian performers are well 
known to be inefficient in solos, and useless in concerted pieces, 
Then how, inquires some ingenuons reader, do they succeed in ob- 
taining an engagement ? or why, on being found, after a fair trial, 
incompetent, is that engagement renewed? The manager and the 
conductor are foreigners, and as long as the indolent, good natured, 
and uninstructed public will pay for the privilege of listening to 
performers who can neither sing nor act, so long will those who 
hold the purse continue to pension their own friends and country- 
men at the expense of John Bull. To the public, then, does the 
blame attach of allowing the engagement of incompetent perform- 
ers, and of sanctioning the exclusive performance of the operas of 
one monotonous school. While the latter course is persevered in, 
it is not material how the subordinate parts are filled; but if Mo- 
zart, or any other German composer, is to be justly appreciated, it 
is indispensable that all the performers shall be artists who tho- 
roughly understand the music. 

The privation of pleasure sustained on the part of the audience 
is, however, a minor consideration, in comparison to the injustice 
inflicted on the young singers of our own country. If the stage is 
the only field in which a singer can hope to attain the first rank in 
his profession, it is likewise that in which the greatest combination 


* While this is in the press, Miss F. Wyndham has been introduced first 
in the opera buffa, afterwards in the Italian opera. It may be hoped that 
this precedent will be followed systematically. 


236 ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE OPERA IN LONDON. 


of talent, cultivation, and experience is requisite to ensure success. 
We possess, perhaps, a greater number of good concert-room singers 
than any other country ; yet, with one brilliant exception; we have 
no first-rate dramatic singers. It is true, that neither favourable 
circumstances nor encouragement, however judicious, can create 
talent ; and it is equally true, that genius of the highest order may 
be not only concealed from the world, but utterly destroyed, if jea- 
lous mediocrity be permitted to levy the heavy duties on talent, 
which it may deem requisite to its own protection. That these du- 
ties are not only absurd in themselves, but that they will prove 
insurmountable obstacles to all who are either destitute of the 
means of complying with their exactions, or whose spirit may be too 
lofty to permit them to become a party to so palpable a conspiracy 
for defrauding the public, is admirably demonstrated by that elo- 
quent advocate of genius, the Exposition of the False Medium.* 
The present dearth of dramatic excellence amongst us is the result, 
not of any inherent deficiency of the elements of which it is com- 
posed, but of the system pursued at the English theatres, a system 
which throws obstacles innumerable in the path of those unknown 
to fame, excludes them from the opportunity of improvement, and 
withholds from them the chance of obtaining through the verdict of 
the public, the reputation and the emolument which their talents, 
if allowed free scope, might reasonably hope to command. Most of 
the artists who are now enjoying the fruits of a well-earned cele- 
brity, have been indebted for the successful exhibition and acknow- 
ledgement of their powers to some fortunate accident ; while others 
of equal ability, born under a less propitious star, have been doomed 
to oblivion and starvation by the ignorance and short sighted selfish- 
ness of the mentai douwaniers who would seem to exist for the sole 
. purpose of crushing genius. 

Although the Royal Academy has not fulfilled, at least in the 
vocal department, the expectations which were formed on its esta- 
blishment, yet it may be said that the pupils have encountered un- 
merited neglect from theatrical managers. Without entering into 
a minute investigation as to whether the directors and patrons of 
the Academy have constantly exerted their influence to obtain from 
the public a fair hearing for those whom they had allured into the - 
musical profession, it is evident that, had the system of vocal in- 


* Page 105. ‘This work, in addition to much valuable matter on other 
subjects, contains many statements respecting the state of Music in this 
country that are painfully true. 


ON THE, PRESENT STATE OF THE OPERA IN LONDON. 237 


struction been as efficient as that pursued in other conservatorios, 
self-interest would have prompted managers to secure the talent 
matured within its precincts. It may, however, be feared that the 
course of studies is not of the description to enable the pupils to keep 
pace with the increasing taste for classical music. The. present 
dearth of great singers may be ascribed to the mistaken and perni- 
cious doctrine that mere mechanical development of the vocal or- 
gans will enable the student to cope successfully with the music of 
any school. In the time of Billington, Bartleman, Mara, and Ca- 
talani, whatever might be the elementary training of a singer, an 
intimate acquaintance with Handel, Gluck, Mozart, and Winter, 
was considered indispensable, because among these composers lay 
the daily routine of their public performances. At that period a 
display of mind was a safer passport to success than rapidity of exe- 
cution, and in this manner were singers forced into greatness. 
Style has been gradually lowering in proportion as it assumed an 
instrumental character. Italian vocal music has become more florid 
and less difficult of comprehension, and the fashionable style of the 
day may almost be denominated a series of exercises. It is infinitely 
more difficult to do justice to an air, especially one of a grand and 
imposing character, than to accomplish any accumulation of the flo- 
rid passages that occur in Italian solfeggios. It may, however, be 
hoped that a re-action is taking place ; certain it is that the demand 
for classical music is rapidly increasing. Let the directors of the 
Academy not remain behind ; let them prepare the pupils to answer 
_ the demands of the public by acquiring an intimate knowledge of 
the great masters on whom time has confirmed the suffrages be- 
stowed by their cotemporaries. 

It is needless to expatiate on the advantages which young and 
inexperienced singers would derive from habitually co-operating with 
performers who have attained the beau ideal of their respective de- 
partments. Let it not, however, be understood that I would advo- 
cate the mistaken kindness which would seek to thrust tyros into 
parts in which the audience has a right to expect the exhibition of 
matured powers; Jet it ever be borne in mind that the possession 
of the highest talents will prove no exemption from the necessity of 
undergoing a course of drudgery which, to the idle and the presump- 
tuous, may appear a degradation, but which will eventually prove the 
surest means of preparing genius for those daring flights which the 
astonished world is apt to ascribe solely to innate and momentary 
impulse. Any plan which would enable those Royal Academy pu- 
pils evidently gifted with dramatic talent, systematically to obtain 


238 ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE OPERA IN LONDON. 


engagements at the Italian opera, in parts adapted to their respective 
powers, is a subject deserving the serious consideration of all who are 
solicitous for the interests of British art. It is idle to talk of deficiency 
of talent or of voice ; let the experiment be tried with impartiality, 
and it will be found that English science, in combination with Ita- 
lian cultivation, will produce now, as heretofore, vocal artists who 
may fearlessly challenge the world. Let those possesssed of influ- 
ence arouse themselves, and by the adoption of the two principal 
suggestions contained in the preceding pages—namely, the intro- 
duction of classical music and the protection of English singers— 
they may hope to witness, at no distant period, the conversion of 
the opera from an idle and expensive luxury into a school in which 
instruction may be reaped alike by the artist and the connoisseur ; 
while to the public at large it will prove an unerring standard of 
good taste, in regard equally to the compositions admitted and the 
manner in which they are performed. 


Aa 


[Reform in music has an able advocate in our correspondent; and we feel 
confident that such views as these, emanating from an accomplished musici- 
an, free from the too common taint of prejudice, will carry conviction into 
the minds of all who peruse the paper in the same philosophic spirit in which 
it is written. Thé only particular in which we differ from Y. D. is as re- 
gards the so-called theory of music. In our last number we ventured to cha- 
racterise that as useless, and more than one distinguished musician has since 
expressed to us precisely the same views on the subject. What is termed 
“theory” appears to us precisely analogous to “grammar” in language; and 
the total inability of both to effect the ends for which they are taught, will 
one day be as freely acknowledged by the whole world as it now is by a few 
master-minds who fear not to advance some steps beyond the majority. We 
hold that “theory” and “ grammar,” as taught in the schools, are as dry as 
they are useless; but the trwe theory—namely, the art oF COMPOSITION— 
would not only prove ten-fold more interesting to the youthful mind, but 
would be in equal ratio instructive. Language, in like manner, will never 
be learned with that ease with which it ought to be mastered, so long as the 
pupil is tormented with those tedious, repulsive, and pernicious rules termed 
grammar. With this exception, we repeat that our correspondent’s paper 
deserves to be carefully perused and re-perused by every one who professes 
to take the slightest interest in the noble art of which it treats.—Eps.] 


239 


SKETCHES OF EUROPEAN ORNITHOLOGY. 
Gouup’s “ Birps or Europe.” 


Parts SEVENTH AND EIcuru. 


Part VII.—On opening the seventh part of this work, we find 
the same merits and the same defects that we had occasion to notice 
in our last number ; the chief of the latter being the too great tame- 
ness of most of the figures, but especially those of the Falconid# and 
Fringillide. The accuracy of the delineation and colouring, is, 
however, in almost every case, such as to render the species recogni- 
sable by the ornithologist at a single glance; and each plate is, as a 
whole, so beautiful, as to rivet the eyes of even the most ordinary 
observer. The first plate represents 

The Rock Gossak—Astur palumbarius—Autour de rocher, Fr.— 
Sparviere da Colombi, Jt.—Hunerhabicht, G. The adult female in 
mature plumage, and the young bird, about three-fourths of the 
natural size, are given; of these, both characteristic, we prefer the 
latter, as having the more falconine expression of the two. “ It may 
be regarded,” says Mr. Gould, “ as the most noble and typical 
species of its genus—a genus separated from the Falcons by the 
absence of the true dentation of the mandibles, and by possessing a 
short and more rounded form of wings, together with aslender and 
less robust body.” It is widely distributed, in both the old and new 
worlds, and abounds in all the wooded parts of Central Europe, but 
is very rare in Britain. In manners it bears considerable resem- 
blance to the Sparrow Hawk ; in taking its prey, however, it does not 
stoop like a Falcon, but glides after its victim in aline with ex- 
treme rapidity. The sexes differ considerably in size, and the 
markings on the breast are more distinct in the male than in 
the female.. The young have the breast brown, and the markings 
are not in the same direction as in adults. Meyer informs us’ that 
this bird feeds on young birds of its own species—a circumstance, 
we think, that wants verification. Mr. Gould tells us nothing 
about its nidification or food ; the latter consists of Squirrels, Rab- 
bits, Mice, Moles, young poultry, Pigeons, and other small animals. 
It is said to make its nest on lofty trees, and to lay from two to 
four bluish eggs, streaked and spotted with brown. 

The Siskin Goldwing—Carduelis spinus—Tarin vert, Fr.—Er- 
lenzeisig, G. Pretty figures, but wanting in the lively expression 


240 SKETCHES OF EUROPEAN ORNITHOLOGY. 


of the origina) ; the plate represents the male and female, natural 
size. ‘The colour of the female is much less bright than that of the 
male. Common in Europe, especially where the Birch and Alder 
abound ; and we are glad to find our author correcting the usual 
notion of the rarity of this species in Britain ; we have even as- 
certained that it breeds in this country, and have received specimens 
at almost every season of the year. Feeds on the buds of trees, and 
possesses a short but rather agreeable song. This circumstance, 
combined with its lively and pleasing manners, renders it a coveted 
bird with the fancier, and the trade in London catch hundreds of 
them every winter.—Builds on the upper branches of lofty trees, 
laying five light grey eggs, with minute purple dots. We should be 
glad to hear of the Siskin being met with in England in summer, 
and that it commonly breeds with us. 

The Rednecked Grebe, Podiceps rubricollis, Lath—Grébe jou- 
gris, Fr.—Graukehliger Steissfuss, G. Beautiful representations, 
natural size, of an adult in summer plumage, and a young bird of 
the year. Habitat the Eastern portion of Europe, and the adjacent 
parts of Asia; found, but less abundantly, in the rest of Europe ; 
rare with us. Frequents large lakes and rivers, and the sea-coast. 
Food the same as that of the other Grebes. The young want the 
rufous colour on the neck of the adults. | 

Cinereous Vulture, Vutur cinereus—Vautour noir, Fr.—Avol- 
toio lepraiolo, Jt—-Grauer Geier, G. An excellent figure of the 
adult male, one third of the size of nature, the best bird of prey Mr. 
Gould has figured thus far. Inhabits the extensive forests of Hun- 
gary, the mountains of the Tyrol, the Swiss Alps, the Pyrenees, 
and the middle of Spain and Italy, but never seen in Britain. 
Temminck says it only feeds on dead animals; but Bechstein af- 
firms that it will attack Sheep, Goats, and even Deer, picking out 
their eyes, and being very troublesome to the farmers. 

Two rather dumpy engravings of the Green Grosbeak, Cocco- 
thraustes chloris—Grosbec verdier, Fr.—Verdone, J¢—Gruner 
Kernbeisser, G. An adult male and a young bird, natural size. 
Indigenous and common in the whole of Europe. Mr. Gould says 
nothing about the insects and caterpillars eaten by these birds ; nor 
we believe, has any author noticed the circumstance, although the 
nestlings are brought up almost entirely on animal food—chiefly 
small green caterpillars. 

Collared Pratincole, Glareola torquata—Glaréole a collier, Fr.— 
Glareola, Jt—Rothfussige Sandhuhn, G. A male and female, na- 
tural size, are extremely well hit off. Inhabits the extensive plains 


SKETCHES OF EUROPEAN ORNITHOLOGY. 241 


and morasses, abounding with lakes, of Eastern Europe. It is a 
rare straggler in England, but a regular periodical visitant in 
France, Germany, and Italy. Flies with elegance and rapidity, and 
takes its insect food on the wing; it likewise runs with celerity on 
the ground, where it frequently pursues its prey. Breeds amongst 
osiers and tall rank herbage, and lays three or four white eggs. 
The sexes resemble each other, but the young are of a more dusky 
colour. 

The Mute Swan, Cygnus mutus—Cygne tubercule, Fr.—Cigno 
reale, Jt—Hicker Schwan, G. Drawn and engraved, by E. Lear, 
in a truly splendid and masterly style, and an excellent model for 
the imitation of the ornithological painter. We have not a single 
fault to find with it. Indigenous in England, and forming an ad- 
mirable ornament in lakes flowing through gentlemen’s parks. 
More than one pair is seldom kept at one place, but we have seen as 
many as twenty or thirty together. ‘The female lays six or seven 
long oval-shaped eggs, of a greenish-grey colour, and sits about forty- 
five days. During this extended period, the male keeps watch at 
a short distance from her nest ; and when the young brood are pro- 
dueed, and take to the water, he is incessant in his care and guar- 
dianship, and boldly advances to repel the intruder upon every ap- 
pearance of danger.” The sexes differ little. The young do not 
attain their full plumage till after the second year, and are unable 
to breed before the third. 

Adult male and female, the size of life, of the Sardinian Starling, 
Sturnus unicolor—E’tourneau unicolore, Fr. Found in the warmer 
parts of Spain, Sardinia, and the rocky shores of the Mediterranean. 
These birds live in small flocks, and breed in the holes of rocks, old 
towers, &c., agreeing in most of their habits with the Spotted Starling 
of Britain. The plumage is soft and glossy, and Mr. Gould’s plates 
are very good. Birds of the first year have the ends of the feathers 
tipped with white; the sexes scarcely offer any difference worth 
mentioning. 

Longtailed Hareld, Harelda glacialis, Leach—Miclon a-longue- 
queue, Fr.—Eisente Trente, G. A male and female, three-fourths 
of the living size ; characteristic, but not so gracefully situated as we 
could have wished. Inhabits the north of Europe and America, but 
is mostly found within the Arctic Circle, rarely travelling further 
south than Britain, which it visitsin considerable numbers in hard 
winters, and afew remain to breed in the Orkneys. - Sometimes 
seen in the lakes of Germany, and abundantly in Russia. “The na- 
ture of their food,” observes our author, “ which consists of Mussels 

VOL, VI.—NO, XX, HH 


942 SKETCHES OF EUROPEAN ORNITHOLOGY. 


and other shelled and naked Mollusca, confines them almost ex- 
clusively to the sea, and they are remarkable for their activity and 
dexterity in diving.” Builds amongst herbage near the sea-shore, 
the female lining her nest with down from her breast, which is con- 
sidered equal in value to the celebrated product of the Eider. Lays 
from ten to fourteen bluish-white eggs, tinged with olive. In sum- 
mer the white on the head of the adult male—characteristic of the 
sex and age—becomes of a dark brown; and the young male and 
adult female are dark brown above, lighter on the breast, and grey- 
ish-white underneath. 

The Common Crane, Grus cinerea—Grue cendrée, Fr.—Grue 
commune, Jt,—Aschgrauer Kranich, G. A fine plate, by Lear, re- 
presenting the adult male, half size, but with the right leg in an 
unnatural position. .Common in the north of Europe and Asia, vi- 
siting France and Germany, and formerly common in this country, 
but now rarely seen, having been banished by the drainage of its 
favourite marshes, the inclosures of wild tracts, &c. This beautiful 
bird feeds on grains, aquatic plants, Frogs, Worms, and fresh-water 
shells. Nidificates amongst Osiers or Reeds on the borders of lakes, 
-and occasionally on the tops of deserted buildings, depositing two 
dull greenish eggs, dashed with brown. The sexes differ little, but 
the plumes are said to be shorter and less graceful in the female. 
Very old males have a long white streak behind the eye. 

The Sombre Tit, Parus lugubris—Meésange lugubre, Fr. Very 
fairly executed, but, we think, rather too sombre even for the Som- 
bre Tit. Almost confined to the European confines of the Asiatic 
border. It is about the size of our Garden Tit, which our author 
supposes it to resemble in habits. The male and female agree in 
plumage: “ the whole of the upper surface of a brownish ash co- 
lour, becoming deeper on the top of the head; the secondaries and 
tail-feathers slightly margined with whitish ; throat brownish- 
black ; the cheeks and the whole of the under surface white, slight- 
ly tinted with brownish-grey ; beak and feet lead colour.” 

On the same plate is figured, very happily, the Siberian Tit, Pa- 
rus Sibericus—Mésange a-ceinture-blanche, Fr. Equally rare with 
‘the former, and easily distinguished, from it by its smaller size and 
longer tail. Reported to inhabit the north of Europe and Asia, 
and to visit Russia in winter. ‘ The upper surface is of a deep 
ash colour, tinged on the back with brown ; the quills, secondaries, 
and tail-feathers, edged with white ; throat black ; cheeks and up- 
per part of the chest pure white ; under parts greyish-white, wash- 
ed with rufous on the flanks ; bill and tarsi lead colour.” Judging 


SKETCHES OF EUROPEAN ORNITHOLOGY. 243 


from Mr. Gould’s representation—for we have never seen the bird 
itself—the Siberian Tit is an elegant and lively little species. 

Creamcoloured Courser, Cursorius Isabellinus—Courvite | Isa- 
belle, Fir.—Corrione biondo, Jt. A native of North Africa and Si- 
beria, frequently migrating to southern Europe, and even visiting 
Britain occasionally. ‘Runs with great swiftness on the sandy 
plains, which it so closely resembles in colour, feeding on insects. 
Nidification unknown, or at best doubtful. The sexes are similar, 
but the young’ birds lack the black occipital patch of the adults. 
The general colour of the adults is delicate fawn colour above, 
lighter beneath. The plate is al] that we can desire. 

Two representations of the Pied Flycatcher, Mascicapa luctuosa 
—Gobemouche beefigue, F'r.—Schwartzriickiger Fliegenfanger, G. 
Common in France and Germany, but especially so on the Europe- 
an coasts of the Mediterranean ; in England it chiefly occurs in 
Yorkshire, Cumberland, Westmoreland, and Derbyshire. It lives 
on small insects, in taking which it is extremely expert. Builds in 
hollow trees, laying from four to six pale blue eggs. 

A male Whitecollared Flycatcher, Muscicapa albicollis—Go- 
bemouche a-collier, Fr.—Fliegenfange mit-Halsbande, G. Mr. 
Gould has seen a specimen of this bird said to have been killed in 
England ; but we perfectly agree with him in doubting its authen- 
ticity. ‘In winter, according to the above-quoted author ['Tem- 
minck], both these species lose the black plumage of summer, and 
assume an uniform brown livery over all the upper parts, at which 
season the young, females and males, resemble each other: on the 
return of spring they moult again, the males assuming their black 
livery.” Both these species are song birds, and the notes of each are 
different ; the eggs also differ. 

The Spotted Nightling, Noctua passerina—Chevéche, Fr.— 
Civetta gialla, Ji—Kleiner Kautz, G. A sweet little cut, taken 
from a full-grown bird, and given of the natural size. Seldom 
oceurs in Europe beyond the 55° of north latitude ; common in the 
warmer districts of this quarter, and ranks as an occasional visitant 
_in the British fauna. Builds in deserted castles and towers, and 
lays from two to four white rounded eggs. It is said to be of a sa- 
vage and untameable disposition, but, according to Selby, is often. 
kept in large wicker cages in France and Flanders, where it is ex- 
posed for sale. It feeds on Mice, Shrews, &c., and on small birds, 
which it takes at roost. It will also eat Locusts, Beetles, and other 
insects. 

Common Dipper, Cinelus aquaticus—Cincle plongeur, Fr. Mr. 


244 SKETCHES OF EUROPEAN ORNITHOLOGY. 


Gould’s two figures—of an adult and a young bird, natural size— 
please us very well. The general habits of this species are familiar 
to our ornithological readers, but for a minute and masterly biogra- 
phy of the bird we refer to the Naturalist, No. iii., vol. i., p. 105. 

An adult male, the size of life, very well delineated, of our fa- 
miliar old friend the Barn Owl—Striz flammea——Chouette 
éffraie, Fr.—Schleyer Kautz, G~-whom we shall pass over with 
this slight notice, though, judging by the looks of the bird in the 
plate, it may be somewhat dangerous to offer him such an affront. 
Four artists have been employed on this plate. 

The Shore Lark, Alauda alpestris—Alouette a-col-noir, Fr.— 
Berg Lerche, G. Beautiful birds, admirably drawn and coloured 
—both sexes, natural size. Inhabits the regions of the Polar Cir- 
cle, and breeds in the marshy woody tracts of North America. A 
few specimens have been killed in Britain. The male is remarkable 
for the tuft upon its head, and its plumage in general is brighter 
than in the female. We hope all the ornithological readers of the 
Analyst have perused Wilson’s interesting account of the Shore 
Lark, and shall therefore, at present, say nothing of its habits. 

Splendid figures—of an adult and a young bird, half the natural 
size—of the Common Ossifrage, Ossifraga albicilla—Grand Py- 
garque, Fr.,—Aquila commune, J¢. Dispersed, though rather 
sparingly, throughout Europe, being least abundant in our own 
island; much more frequent in many parts of America. Haunts 
large rivers and lakes, feeding on fish, on which account it is shot 
wherever it occurs. The following extract from Mr. Gould’s work 
will doubtless interest the reader :—‘‘ In some parts of America the 
Osprey is very common, especially in the United States, where it 
makes its appearance on the return of spring: hence it is a welcome 
visiter, since its arrival betokens the opening of the rivers and the 
return of the hordes of fish. Here, along the banks of mighty 
streams, undisturbed and unmolested (save by the Bald Eagle, its 
professed enemy), it builds its nest in tall trees, constructing it of 
sticks and turf, so as to form a large mass, on the edges of which 
other small birds congregate and nidify without the slightest injury ; | 
in fact, the Osprey is a quiet bird, with little ferocity or daring in 
his temperament. His manner of taking his prey is very remark- 
able: hovering for a time on wide-spread wings over the water, he 
then sails about, intently gazing on the element beneath. The 
moment a fish appears, down he plunges like an arrow, almost dis- 
appearing beneath the water, but rising in a moment, with the vic- 
tim grasped in his strong and incurved talons: throwing the spray 


SKETCHES OF EUROPEAN ORNITHOLOGY. 245 


from his burnished plumage, he soars aloft, and hastens to his nest 
to share the spoil with his young, or feast upon it at leisure. Often, 
however, is the Osprey robbed of his prize. We have alluded to 
the Whiteheaded Eagle as his foe, who frequently chases him when 
loaded with his booty, which he is forced to relinquish to his 
stronger opponent. “ * * The eggs are generally three, dull 
white, blotched with dark red or yellow-brown.” In young birds 
the feathers on the upper parts are tipped with white. 

Tawny Pipit, Anthus ruféscens—Pipit rousseline, F’r.—Brach 
Piper, G. Our author figures a pretty pair of birds, natural size. 
This Pipiti—the A. campestris of Bechstein—is the largest of the 
European species, and is easily distinguished by the pervading yel- 
low tint of the plumage. Visits France and Germany in spring, 
where it breeds in abundance; rare in Holland, and unkown in 
England. It is a terrestrial species, and builds on the ground, 
amongst loose herbage or clots of earth ; lays from four to six round- 
ish eggs of a pale grey colour, with russet markings. This. bird 
offers no sexual or seasonal changes of plumage. 

A lovely figure, in the summer plumage, size of life, of the Gull- 
billed Tern, Sterna Anglica, Montagu—Sterne Hansel? Fr. Mr. 
Gould says little or nothing respecting the geographical distribution 
of the Gullbilled Tern ; but, according to other authorities, it 
abounds in the lakes and marshes of Hungary, and the confines of 
Turkey. Selby believes the Marsh Tern of Wilson to be the same 
bird, though Mr. Ord is of a different opinion. We cannot our- 
selves speak with certainty on the subject, but we rather incline to 
the view taken by Mr. Selby. This author tells us “ it breeds in 
the marshes, making no nest, but depositing on the bare ground 
three or four eggs of an oil-green colour, spotted with dark brown. 
It has not been known to breed in England, although most of the 
specimens hitherto obtained, as well as that described and figured by 
Montagu, were in the summer or nuptial plumage.” The term 
Anglica, for a bird so rare in England, is decidedly not good. Ster- 
na palustris certainly offers a less objectionable designation. 

Parr VIII.—The Rufous Reedling, Salicaria galactotes, Gould 
—Becfin rubigineux, Fr. Our author’s representation of an adult, 
natural size, is excellent in every respect. Inhabits the south of 
Spain. M. Natterer—the discoverer of the species—met with it at 
Gibraltar, “and killed two pairs at Algesiras.” It appears to be 
less partial to fens and marshy grounds than the true Reedlings—of 
which our Sedge and Marsh Reedlings may be taken as typical ex- 
amples—and we perfectly coincide with Temminck and Gould in 


246 SKETCHES OF EUROPEAN ORNITHOLOGY. 


the propriety of removing it from Salicaria ; probably it will form 
anew genus. 

Pleasing and characteristic figures of the Black Ouzel, Merula 
vulgaris, Ray—Merle noir, Fr.—Schwartz Drossel, G., the male 
the best. The plumage of the female is beautifully executed, but 
the head is not so good, and the general colour is rather light for the 
adult female—approaching, in fact, the hue of the young of both 
sexes. This bird is common throughout Europe ; and we think, with 
Mr. Gould, that it ought to be ranged in a different genus from the 
Thrushes. Like the rest of the genus, it is of a solitary disposition 
—whence the generic term merula, sola—and iis deep rich notes 
are familiar to almost every one. By the way, Mr. Gould evidently 
confounds the strains of the present species and those of the Garden 
Thrush ; probably in this case his remarks are not from personal 
observation. 

Common Shieldrake, Tadorna vulpanser—Tadorne commun, Fr. 
—Tadorna commune, Jt.—Brandente, G. The figure of a male, 
three-fourths of the living size, is characteristic, but somewhat stiff, 
and the colouring occasionally too smooth and abrupt. Inhabits 
the whole of Europe, including Britain, in some parts of which it 
breeds in abundance. Singular as it may seem, the Shieldrake 
builds its nest at a considerable depth in Rabbit burrows, forming it 
of dried grass lined with down from its own ‘breast, and laying 
from twelve to sixteen white eggs. The male and female sit alter- 
nately. It feeds on shelled Mollusca, insects, and marine plants. 
The female only differs from the male in being somewhat smaller, 
and it may be doubted whether even this would always prove a 
sufficient distinction. We have seen this beautiful bird in a semi- 
domestic state on ornamental’ water in various gentlemen’s parks in 
the midland counties. 

The Longtailed Tit, Parus caudatus—Mésange a-longue-queue, 
Fr,—Codibugnolo, Jt—Schwantzmeise (literally Tailed Mouse !) 
G. The habits of the Longtailed Tit are too generally known to 
require detail in this place ; but we may observe that we believe 
our author to be in error in supposing that it ever lays so many as 
twenty eggs. We have rarely seen more than twelve. 

A highly creditable figure of the Common Heron, Ardea cinerea 
—Heéron cendré, Fr.—Sgarza cenerino, /t.—Aschgrauer Reiher, G. 
Found in almost every part of the old world. The Common He- 
ron is one of those birds, once abundant in England, which the 
drainage of fen lands and the cultivation of extensive wastes are 
rapidly banishing from the country : and, even while we applaud the 


SKETCHES OF EUROPEAN ORNITHOLOGY. 247 


improvements thus effected, we cannot but contemplate with regret 
the total extermination of so beautiful and interesting a bird. The 
Common Heron is certainly, to some extent, a nocturnal species, 
though perhaps not to the degree intimated by Mr. Gould. It 
feeds on almost any kind of fish it can get, devouring an incredible 
number in a given period, on which account it ranks, in the system 
of the gamekeeper, in the class “ varmint.” It catches its prey 
standing in shallow water, waiting, with its head buried between 
its shoulders for hours together, until its hunger is appeased. It 
also destroys Mice, Rats, Shrews, Lizards, Frogs, &c., and even, 
according to Mr. Gould, aquatic insects. It builds in companies, 
forming a large coarse nest of sticks, lined with wool, on tall trees, 
and laying four or five bluish-green eggs. The only chance we can 
perceive of retaining the Heron in Britain is by leaving it unmo- 
lested in parks and other retired places, where they are easily 
induced to remain and breed. We have seen several of them in the 
park of Walton Hall, the seat of the benevolent and amiable wan- 
derer, Charles Waterton, Esq., and their numbers are annually 
increasing under his kindly care. 

Whiterumped Woodpecker, Picus leuconotus—Pic leuconote, Fr. 
—Picchio vario, Ji.—Weissriickiger Spechtelster, G. The male 
and female are figured of the natural size, but scarcely, we opine, 
in natural attitudes ; we have not, however, much fault to find with 
the plate. This bird is not found in the south of Europe, and is not a 
British bird ; “ its true habitat appears to be Siberia and the adja- 
cent parts of Russia, whence it occasionally emigrates as far as the 
North of Germany, but this is only in severe winters.’ In habits 
it resembles its congeners, and it feeds on various insects and larve. 
Lays its four or five white eggs in the hole of a tree, making no 
nest. ‘It may always be distinguished from the Greater Spotted 
Woodpecker of England by the blotches along the flanks, by the 
pure white of the rump, and the more extended crimson of the 
abdomen.” The author believes that the only specimens of this bird 
in Britain are in his possession. 

The Heath Madge, Otus vulgaris—Hibou moyenduc, Fr.— 
Mittler Ohreule, G. An extremely beautiful plate, representing 
the adult male, but we could have wished the plumage of the 
head had been a trifle more mothy. Inhabits the whole of Europe 
and many parts of America, haunting the depths of forests. In this 
country it abounds chiefly in Scotland and the north of England, 
feeding on Rats, Mice, Moles, Shrews, &c. It lays four white eggs 
in the deserted nest of a Crow, Magpie, or other large bird. | The 


248 SKETCHES OF EUROPEAN ORNITHOLOGY. 


young are covered with a full coat of white down, which lasts for a 
considerable time, and disappears gradually as the feathers advance.” 
The male and female are similar. 

Two well-executed figures of a pair of Black Redstarts, Pheeni- 
cura tithys—Becfin rouge-queue, Fr.—Schwartze Rothschwantz, 
G. Several specimens of this elegant Redstart have been killed in 
England; but it is only an occasional visiter. Common in the 
rocky districts of North Europe, but rarely met with in level 
grounds. Mr. Guuld has traced it all along the road from Frankfort 
to Berlin. The nest is built in the holes of rocks or old walls, and 
the six eggs are of a pale pink hue. The female is brownish all 
over, varying only in shade, the rump and outer tail-feathers being 
dull red. 

The next plate represents our old winter friend the Fieldfare 
Thrush, T'urdus pilaris—Merle litorne, Fr.—Tordella gazzina, It. 
—Wacholder Drossel, G. It visits the temperate portion of Europe 
in autumn, returning to its true habitat, the Arctic Circle, on the 
approach of spring. Our author quotes an interesting passage from 
Hewitson’s British Oology relative to this bird, for which we refer 
the reader to that valuable work, a critical analysis of which will 
be found in previous numbers of the Analyst. In many parts of 
the country, the Fieldfare Thrush is in much esteem as a delicacy 
for the table; but we do not agree with Mr. Gould in thinking the 
shyness of the species to be caused by the eagerness with which it 

.is pursued by gunners. We have found it fully as wild in counties 
where it is scarcely molested at all, as in places where it is most nu- 
merously destroyed. Cautiousness is, and ever will be, characteris- 
tic of the Fieldfare. The figure before us is, perhaps, a Jeetle too 
highly coloured. 

The Horned Grebe, Podiceps cornutus, Lath.—Grébe cornu, Fr. 
—Gehirnter Steissfuss, G. This species, the rarest of the British 
Grebes, has been described, in its winter and immature plumage, as 
P. Caspicus and P. obscurus. Extends throughout the Arctic 
Circle, but seldom occurs further south than England or the mid- 
dle of the United States. Haunts inland lakes and large rivers, and 
likewise the sea-coast, agreeing in habits and nidification with its 
British congeners. 

An adult, one fourth less than the natural size, of the Raven 
Crow, Corvus corax——Corbeau noir, Fr.—Corvo imperiale, [t.— 
Kohlkrabe, G. The figure is too large for the size of the plate, and 
hence the attitude of this noble bird is somewhat cramped, but the 
colouring is very good. The Raven has an extensive geographical 


SKETCHES OF EUROPEAN ORNITHOLOGY. 249 


distribution, but is much less common in Britain than formerly. 
Feeds on almost any animal or vegetable matter, fresh or putrid: 
Mr. Gould mentions “ small Mammalia, eggs, reptiles, dead fish, 
insects, grain, and carrion ;” and adds that “they have been seen 
feeding their young out of the nests of a rookery.” The habits of 
the Raven are very generally known ; let us, therefore, pass on to 
the 

Little Tern, Sterna minuta—Sterne petit, Fr.—Kleine Meer- 
schwalbe, G.—of which our author presents us with a beautiful fi- 
gure of the adult, natural size, and one, somewhat less to our liking, 
of a young bird. It passes the spring and summer on the European 
coasts, returning, of course, to warmer climes on the approach of 
the inclement seasons. It is common on our own shores, and Mr. 
G. has had specimens of it from India and America. ‘ The shingly 
beach affords them a place of nidification, their eggs being depo- 
sited in a slight depression among the broken shells just above high- 
water mark ; and so closely does the colouring of the eggs assimilate 
with the mingled mass around them, that they escape the casual 
search of inexperienced eyes.” ‘* Winged insects, small fishes, and 
marine animals, form their food: these latter they take from the 
surface of the water as they fly, but without diving, a power which 
the Terns do not possess.” 

The Common Gadwall, Chauliodus strepera, Sw.—Canard chi- 
peau, Fr.—Anatra canapiglia, [t—Schwatter Ente, G. Lovely 
representations of a most elegant species—an adult male and a year- 
ling, three fourths of the living size. Common in the north of Eu- 
rope, and has been received from the Himalayas ; visits our coasts 
in tolerably large numbers in spring. The nidification is similar to 
that of the Common Duck (Anas boschas), and its flesh is consi- 
dered a delicacy, but of this we ourselves know nothing. The sexes 
differ less than usual in this family, but still the male is distinguish- 
ed by the superior brilliancy of his plumage. 

_ The Garden Tit, Parus hortensis—Meésange charbonniére, Fr.— 
Kohlmeise, G. The plate contains a pair of these birds—the Great 
Tit of authors—very fair cuts. Mr. Gould is evidently not aware 
that this bird possesses a song; and all the notice we shall now 
take of the habits of this lively and amusing bird will be by stating, 
as we have elsewhere done, that the strain “consists only of two 
notes, repeated alternately and in rapid succession. The notes are 
at the interval of a major third from each other.”* 


* British Song Birds, p. 157. 
VOL. VI.——-NO. XX. II 


250 SKETCHES OF EUROPEAN ORNITHOLOGY. 


Whiteheaded Osprey, Pandion leucocephalus——Aigle 4-téte- 
blanche, Fr.—Aquila di-coda-bianca, Ji. Two spirited figures, by 
Lear. A native of the northern and temperate parts of both con- 
tinents, but much more abundant in America. The white on the 
head and tail are not observed in full purity till the third year. 
This species was formerly confounded with Ossifraga albicilla. 
Wilson has described its habits in his usual felicitous manner. 

Meadow Bunting, Emberiza cia, Linn.—Bruant de-pré, Fr.— 
Zivolo dei-prati, Jt—Zip Ammer, G. Rather pretty cuts of a pair 
of these birds. ‘‘ Although common in the meadows bordering the 
Rhine, as well as in the southern parts of France, Italy, Spain, and 
adjoining the Mediterranean, it does not appear to be distributed in 
the north, as is the case with so many of its congeners, neither Hol- 
land nor England being among the places of its habitat.” The 
Meadow Bunting closely resembles our Reed Bunting in habits 
and somewhat in plumage. Indeed, it has been confounded both 
with Emberiza scheniculus and E. Lesbia. ‘ The food of this bird, 
as its feeble bill indicates, consists of the small seeds of farinaceous 
plants, such as millet, canary, &c. It constructs a nest in bushes 
and tufts of herbage, and not unfrequently on the ground ; the eggs 
are five in number, of a whitish colour, marked with a few lines 
of black.” The plumage of the female is slightly more sombre than 
that of the male. 

The Grey Squaterole, Squatarola cinerea—Voanneau pluvier, Fr. 
The only European species of the genus, which, as our author ob- 
serves, forms a link between Charadrius and Vanellus. Inhabits the 
north of Europe and America, but little is known of its nidification. 
It is common on our sea-coasts, and well known to persons residing 
in such situations ; but we cannot settle the question whether or 
not it regularly breeds with us. The adult bird, in spring plumage, 
in the plate lying open before us, is remarkably well done. 

Black Chat, Saxicola cachinnans, Temm.—Traquet rieur, Fr.— 
a bird classed, singularly enough, by Gmelin, Latham, Cuvier, &c., 
in the genus Turdus ; and we feel certain that it will not remain 
long in company with the Chats. The Black Chat is shy and timid, 
frequenting lonely rocky places, and feeding on insects. ‘‘ Nidifica- 
tion,’ says M. Temminck, ‘ unknown.” These birds are black, 
with a white rump, and part of some of the tail-feathers white ; 
the female is known by her duller hue. We much admire the 
plate, containing a male and female, natural size. 

Two figures—an adult and a young bird—of the Ring Pigéon, 
Columba pulumbus, Colombe ramier, F’r.—Colombaccio, [t.—Ringel 


SKETCHES OF EUROPEAN ORNITHOLOGY. 251 


Taube, G., in Lear’s best style ; both are unexceptionable, and may 
truly be called living portraits. Dispersed all over Europe. We 
need not detail its habits.) Mr. Gould informs us that a pair of 
these birds once built a nest and laid two eggs in confinement ; and 
we have no doubt it would frequently do so if properly managed, 
despite the agreement to which most ornithologists have come, that 
it never has and never will breed in domesticity. ‘Those who have 
not had the pleasure of feasting their eyes on this plate, scarcely 
know what a good ornithological drawing is. 

The eighth part concludes with two lovely figures of the Spotted 
Sandpiper, Yotanus macularius—Chevalier perlé, Fr.—Gefleckte 
Strandlaiifer, G.—and as we have said so much ourselves, we shall 
now permit the author to have his say. Here then follows a part 
of his account of the bird :—‘ This elegant little Sandpiper is most 
intimately allied to the well-known Common Sandpiper (¢ Tolanus 
hypoleucos ), which pays its annual visit during the sammer months 
to the brooks and rivulets of our island; but, unlike this latter bird, 
its visits are of the most rare occurrence, no instance having come 
under our own observation. M.Temminck states that it occurs ac- 
cidentally on the shores of the Baltic and in some of the provinces 
of Germany, but never in Holland. The native country of this 
bird appears to be the arctic regions of both continents ; but it is 
most abundant in America, extending from these high latitudes over 
the whole of the United States, where it appears to take up the 
same situation as the Totanus hypoleucos, frequenting Pennsylvania, 
and the rivers Schuylkill and Delaware, as we are informed by 
Wilson, from whose valuable work we have taken the liberty of 
extracting an account of the habits and manners of this bird, which 
we have not had the opportunity of observing.” The rest of the 
description is, accordingly, from Wilson, which it will not be neces- 
sary to quote. We shall have much pleasure in resuming our cri- 
tical notices of the valuable and ably-executed Birds of Europe in 
our next. 


252 


SOME REMARKS ON THE PHILOSOPHY AND 
OBSERVANCES OF SHAKSPEARE. 


VI.—HAMLET. 


Or all Shakspeare’s plays, Hamlet has been the most studied and 
the least understood. As a subject of criticism, it has attracted the 
attention of our most celebrated authors, who have all made more 
or less approach to its elucidation, in proportion to the metaphysical 
or poetical tendency of their minds: nevertheless, the character of 
Hamlet is still an uninterpreted mystery. 

In reading this play, one thing is obvious—that our impressions 
become so various and our opinions so contradictory, that we leave 
it with but a vague and painful idea of the whole. The presump- 
tive inconsistencies in Hamlet’s character destroy in our minds its — 
unity and completion: in this rests the difficulty of the task to ab- 
stract our ideas from particulars, rejecting every opinion of the parts 
until, by a careful comparison of them all, we come to a better un- 
derstanding of the beautiful and homogeneous creation of Hamlet. 
No study is, perhaps, more difficult than to follow such a subject 
with an analytical criticism from part to part: for it is the essential 
excellency of Shakspeare, that he is always suggestive—a moral 
telescope, which opens to our view new and brilliant imaginations, 
filling the mind at every glance with beautiful and profound reflec- 
tions. It is no easy task, then, to carry on these successive impres- 
sions, as it were mapping them together into one complete structure. 
Hamlet is the masterpiece of human genius; it combines all that is 
sublime in thought acting on one of the most perfect of human 
beings: his apparent inconsistencies belong to his greatness; a 
common mind so circumstanced would have exhibited none of his 
conduct, but have gone at once, beast-like, to his revenge. | 

Hamlet forejudged every act, and reasoned to the utmost limit of 
fallibility ; it is no wonder, therefore, that his biography is seldom 
read and never understood. ‘The character of Hamlet is a triplet, 
compounded of three causes—the physical, the spiritual, and the 
educational : this triad, acting in concert under most peculiar cir- 
cumstances, produced an effect or developed a character which, as a 
whole, is contrary to its parts. 

To examine the character of Hamlet, we wil] take these causes 
separately, and by examining each individually we may, perhaps, 
better understand the profound mystery of his character, and be able 


REMARKS ON THE PHILOSOPHY, &c., OF SHAKSPEARE. 253 


to reconcile those inconsistencies and defalcations which awaken our 
surprise and leave us in doubt. 

The physical constitution of Hamlet is the very diapason of his 
mind ; 


‘© Ophelia. —Oh ! what a noble mind is here o’erthrown! ~ 
The courtier’s, soldier’s, scholar’s eye, tongue, sword : 
The expectancy and rose of the fair state, 

The glass of fashion and the mould of form, 

The observ’d of all observers! quite, quite down ! 
And I, of ladies most deject and wretched, 

That suck’d the honey of his music vows, 

Now see that noble and most sovereign reason, 
Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh ; 
That unmatch’d form and feature of blown youth, 
Blasted with ecstacy !” 


Weat once recognize a perfect organization, that exact proportion 
of parts, that symmetry of form, that fine adaptation of the intellec- 
tual, moral, and animal, which distinguishes the sublime creations of 
art; it is the preponderance of a particular faculty which di- 
rects the conduct of mankind, which makes opinion prophetical and 
action speculative. But in the very few whose cerebral develop- 
ment approaches this perfect agreement, one faculty so equapoises 
the other as to create, by that reflective anticipation of the soul, a 
possible uncertainty. The greatest minds are always the most 
doubtful. Unhappily, the general temperament of Hamlet was dis- 
analogous with the concordance of his structure, and thus assisted 
in producing those strange self-contradictions ; a temperament, or the 
bodily liability of his nature, at variance with his moral conscious- 
ness; that melancholy aérabiliousness, denoted great and violent 
exertion, but conjoined with the inert lymphatic habit, his energy 
and passion are momentary and his will deadened by lethargy ; and 
thus 


“the native hue of resolution 
Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought”— 


Hamlet, though he succumbed to the necessity of his nature, was, 
nevertheless, fully aware of the defect— 


@Yet.I, 
A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak, 
Like John a-dreams, unpregnant of fee! cause, 
And can say nothing.” 


254 REMARKS ON THE PHILOSOPHY AND 


and the whole of this beautiful speech to Guildenstern is full of 
dark sublimity :— 


“ T have of late (but wherefore I know not) Jost all my mirth, foregone_all 
custom of exercises, and, indeed, it goes so heavily with my disposition, that 
this goodly frame the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory; this most 
excellent canopy, the air—look you, this brave o’erhanging firmament, this 
majestical roof fretted with golden fire—why it appears no other thing to me 
than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. "What a piece of work is’ 
man !—_how noble in reason ! how infinite in faculties! in form and moving, 
how express and admirable ! in action, how like an angel! in apprehension, 
how like a god! the beauty of the world—the paragon of animals! And 
yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust ? Man delights not me, nor wo- 
man neither ;” | 


and again the soliloquy, profaned by the mouthing of every whin- 
ing school-boy, 


* Oh, that this too, too solid flesh would melt, 
Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew !” 


The whole play is craped with the gloom of his nature. Such was 
Hamlet, a compound in physical temperament: the dispositions of 
his nature were antagonists ; ‘‘ one not easily moved, but being so is 
moved in the extreme.” 

Without going into an explanation of what is meant by the spi- 
ritual nature or mind of Hamlet, and however the physical is impli- 
cated in the moral character, we are content to distinguish by this 
term the habitual characteristic of Hamlet’s mind. We speak of 
Hamlet as a being always existing; we look upon him as a monad 
set aside for our interpretation and profit. The mental peculiarity 
of Hamlet was reflection, deep, searching, profound thought ; from 
his earliest recognitions comparisons were held; he looked upon 
every event, upon every action, as implying the past and future in 
their causes and consequences. He had beheld human nature in its 
most subtle and occult appearances, when vice becomes more bane- 
ful because more concealed. The evil which vice loses with its 
grossness is made up in its permanency and insidiousness ; and thus 
Hamlet disdained the polished hypocrisy of the court, and chose his 
friend in the sane and firm-minded Horatio. 

Reflection with him is a moral excess ; his mind is a profound of 
thought ; he analyzes every thing, dissects the conduct of mankind, 
and refers every act to some imperfection, either of weakness or 
wickedness. The complexion of his ideas was always gloomy ; 


OBSERVANCES OF SHAKSPEARE. 255 


his wit severe and sarcastic. He is a human Mephostophiles with- 
out sin, before whom the circumstances of existence are laid bare, 
the original cause of intent and action is defined, and goodness itself 
exhibited as the deceitful cloak of selfishness. Thought is ceaseless ; 
it is a monomania that admits of no pause. The actions of men 
seem frivolous, and life itself, by a dark comparison with itself, is 
beheld with indifference, as but a painful suspense. Hamlet was a 
man to become sick of the uses of the world, scorning what he de- 
spised. The ambition of the soldier, the phrenzy of the lover, the 
policy of the courtier—he had tried them all, and left them as a 
madman’s labour. Hamlet, though sceptical as to creeds, was firm- 
ly religious. But 


* that the Everlasting had not fixed 
His canon ’gainst self-slaughter,” 


he would have sought in the grave repose from the oppressive tedi- 
ousness of life. 

Hamlet educationally was a scholar and a gentleman ; the fellow- 
student of Horatio at Wittenberg, where congregated all the learned 
men of the day. A metaphysical complexion marks the learning of 
that time ; the mind was for ever wrestling in the Palestra of ab- 
stract reasoning. The quiddits of the Aristotelian school occupied 
the place of experimental philosophy, oppressing the intellect with 
infinite and intangible ideas. We perceive Hamlet complains to 
Rosencrantz that he could not reason, though he is continually 
touching upon his favourite logic :— 


“ Ham.—O God! I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count myself 
a king of infinite space ; were it not that I have bad dreams. 

“ Guil.—Which dreams, indeed, are ambition; for the very substance of 
the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream. 

* Ham.—A dream itself is but a shadow. 

“ Ros.—Truly, and I hold ambition of so airy and light a quality, that it is 
but a shadow’s shadow. 

“ Ham.—Then are our beggars, bodies ; and our monarchs and outstretch’d 
heroes the beggars’ shadows. Shall we to the court ? for, by my fay, I can- 
not reason.” 


Yet the genius or reflective faculties of Hamlet made him an expe- 
rimental philosopher ; he not only idealised, but he observed, and 
derived no little of his learning from the visible world. His know- 
ledge of natural philosophy is evidently the result of observation. 
That he was a diligent student at Wittenberg there is no doubt, 
and he most probably aspired to attainments of the highest possible 


256 REMARKS ON THE PHILOSOPHY AND 


order. His soliloquy, after the apparition of the Ghost, displays his 
literary practises :— 


“* Remember thee! 
Yea, from the table of my memory 
I'll wipe away all trival fond records, 
All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past, 
That youth and observation copied there ; 
And thy commandment all alone shall live 
Within the book and volume of my brain, 
Unmix’d with baser matter.” 


Hamlet was an accomplished gentleman ; he would not bate a jot 
of excellence: he went so far as to copy the extravagancies of 
good breeding, and, like our modern gentleman—but here ine com - 
parison drops—to write unintelligibly : 


“I once did hold it, as our statists do, 
A baseness to write fair, and labour’d much 
How to forget that learning.” 


Hamlet should ever be “ the glass of fashion ;” but, in the compa- 
rison, how odious we become !* 

Such is Hamlet in his physical, moral, and intellectual conjunc- 
tion ; perhaps the most perfect character within possibility—acting 
without any express and definite purpose of ambition to regulate and 
direct his conduct. 

It is justly said that Hamlet is the most Shakspearean of all 
Shakspeare’s plays. It is, in fact, the embodying of the poet’s ge- 
nius ; exhibiting the most sublime historical picture. Like the 
Orestes of /schylus, Hamlet is impelled by a necessity to become 
the avenger of blood, self-devoted by their own internal conscious- 
ness to the perpetration of a penalty that suffers no palliation. 
There is no arrangement, no decree, no customary process of con- 
demnation ; but, sitting on the judgment-seat of the secret soul, the 
fate of Orestes or the genius of Hamlet holds the immutable decree. 
But the position of Hamlet is infinitely the more dreadful. Ores- 
tes was the minister of the gods: the maternal bond with the Gre- 
cians was slavish ; hence there are few pauses in the purpose of 


* The learning of Shakspeare is so various, that he baffles all his commen- 
tators: many suppose him, reasonably enough, to have been a student in 
physic—or how could he have become so acute a physiologist ; while, in the 
Legal Observer, his studies in the law are seriously treated of and proved, 
from the use of terms which, they say, none but a lawyer could have known. 


OBSERVANCES OF SHAKSPEARE. 257 


Orestes. He was the predestinated avenger of the Deity ; Hamlet, 
on the contrary, is, by his nature, at variance with himself. He 
revolts from an act that has no other warranty than a supernatural 
apparition, and which, reasoning upon, becomes itself an object of 
suspicion : 


“ The spirit that I have seen, 
May be a devil: and the devil hath power 
To assume a pleasing shape.” 


While from his philosophy, that ever-busy, capable understanding, 
he doubts even the reality of the apparition ; that it is a delirium of 
the heat-oppressed brain, directed by the enemy of souls ; 


“ Yea, and, perhaps, 
Out of my weakness and my melancholy 
(As he is very potent with such spirits), 
Abuses me to damn me.” 


The old question of Hamlet’s madness is at once answerable from 
this very reason, that he is even reasoning against what may possi- 
bly be a delusion. He is too wise to err, and yet not wise enough to 
be resolved. That Hamlet is not mad is self-evident ; his seeming 
insanity is predetermined from the first appearance of the Ghost, 
before which, though we perceive the same dark, meditative, melan- 
choly disposition, yet withal he is composed, and even affectionate in 
his reply to the Queen, 


“T shall in all my best obey you, madam.” 


But directly after the exposition of his father’s murder he resolves 
on his conduct, as if the circumstances rendered it essential :-— 


‘¢ There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, 
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. 
But come ;— 
Here as before, never, so help your mercy ! 
How strange or odd soe’er I bear myself, 
As I perchance, hereafter shall think meet 
To put an antic disposition on.” 


The wicked speed with which his mother wedded to his uncle 
soured his temper, and seems to have inspired him with a presen- 
timent that “it could not come to good.” The hatred which he 
bore to his uncle was natural: altogether different from Hamlet, a 
crafty, fawning sensualist, he could feel nothing but aversion for 

VOL, VI.—NO. Xx. KK 


258 REMARKS ON THE PHILOSOPHY AND 


the delicate-minded and meditative Hamlet. There was no resem- 
blance between them, and hence his cozenage appears so offensive. 
The repugnance which Hamlet had to Polonius, his conduct to 
Ophelia, his retaliation upon Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, have 
been made the subject of much censure ; and, without thinking on 
the whole bearing of the play, the reader is glad to find an excuse 
in the supposed madness of Hamlet for the want of common huma- 
nity. Let us reconcile this discrepancy. Hamlet never tolerated 
Polonius ; though he was a wise, he was too wily a courtier to 
please Hamlet, who saw right through the disintegrity of his con- 
duct. Polonius was no bad resemblance to the crafty Metternich, 
with less talent but more wisdom. Polonius cared not how he 
played the fool so that he was not a fool to himself. To fancy Po- 
lonius the friend of Hamlet is to couple Thersites with Ulysses. 
Hamlet would have listened to the ribaldry of a jester, but he could 
not endure the compliments of a courtier. He always despised Po- 
lonius ; but the gentle flower born to this old sycophant, the loved 
and loving Ophelia! Hamlet was her worshipper, but in that was 
he peculiar. Hamlet did not love like the rest of the world; his 
love was full of elegance and truth; no jealousy, no caprice, but 
tenderly severe, he would teach a woman to reverence herself. But 
the current of his thoughts was turned awry, he suspected Ophelia 
of espionage, he found in his love an excuse for his pretended insa- 
nity, and, without thinking on the consequences, he spoke as no 
man should have spoken to a chaste, fond-hearted maiden. Yet he 
‘loved her— 
“ forty thousand brothers 


Could not, with all their quantity of love, 
Make up my sum.” 


His school-fellows, Guildenstern and Rosencrantz, deserved their 
penalty: they would have played upon him, would pluck out the 
heart of his mystery, “ delve to the bottom of his soul,’”’ and then 
lend their aid to the bloody villain for the destruction of Hamlet. 
His conduct was justified by their own. But let us remember his 
friendship for the healthy-minded Horatio—that shadow of himself 
—one degree lower than Hamlet, with less passion, constant, brave, 
and honourable. There is no higher eulogium conceivable, than 
that which Hamlet passes on his friend ; it is a beautiful outbreak 
of admiration, love, and truth : 


“ Ham.—Horatio, thou art e’en as just a man 
As e’er my conversation cop’d withal, 
“ Hor.—O my dear lord,——. 


OBSERVANCES OF SHAKSPEARE. 959 


“ Ham.—Nay, do not think I flatter: 
For what advancement may I hope from thee, 
That no revenue hast, but thy good spirits, 
To feed and clothe thee ?. Why should the poor be flatter’d ? 
No, let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp, 
And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee, 
Where thrift may follow fawning. Dost thou hear ? 
Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice, 
And could of men distinguish her election, 
She hath seal’d thee for herself: for thou hast been 
As one in suffering all, that suffers nothing ; 
A man, that fortune’s buffets and rewards 
Hast ta’en with equal thanks ; and bless’d are those, 
Whose blood and judgment are so well commingled, 
That they are not a pipe for fortune’s finger 
To sound what stop she please: Give me that man 
That is not passion’s slave, and I will wear him 
In my heart’s core, ay, in my heart of hearts, 
As I do thee.” 


It may be impertinent to transcribe, but that, like the Cartoons 
of Raphael, Shakspeare must be studied often to be justly appreci- 
ated. Hamlet and Horatio possess those points in common which 
make them friends. Horatio is a scholar, a philosopher, but no 
enthusiast ; his blood and judgment were well commingled: had 
his father been the victim, he would at once have proceeded to 
the accusation and executed the penalty—he would have “ crowned 
his thoughts with acts.” Horatio stands between Laertes and 
Hamlet ; he possesses neither the impetuosity of the former nor the 
tardiness of the latter ; he was not passion’s slave ; but one whom 
fortune had tried, and experience made wise without its prejudice 
and selfishness: he was an example of a sound mind in a sound 
body. Though he does not ascend to the moral grandeur of Ham- 
let, he is throughout, even from the first meeting at Elsinore, a 
dignified, well-bred man. Nothing can be more beautiful than his 
address to the Ghost. Without the excited frenzy of Hamlet, he 
behaves with boldness and reverence : 


“ Hor.—What art thou, that usurp’st this time of night, 
Together with that fair and warlike form 
In which the majesty of buried Denmark 
Did sometimes march ?>—By heaven I charge thee, speak !” 


The honest confession of Horatio to Bernardo, ‘“‘ Before my God, 
&c.,” is just the character of a practical philosopher, incredulous 
without being sceptical. The whole of the first scene is a fine in- 
troduction to the play ; the place, the hour, the dialogues, lean all 


260 REMARKS ON THE PHILOSOPHY AND 


to one point, and by the solemnity tones the mind to a right key 
with the incidents of the play. The appearance of Hamlet in the 
second scene, in company with the King, Queen, and courtiers, is 
essential to the development of his character. Any other mind than 
Shakspeare’s would have introduced him with more positive effect 
by himself, or with Horatio and Marcellus ; but Hamlet, as it were, 
gives us his own biography. 

Hamlet’s interview with Horatio, his fellow-student, friend, and 
confidant, relieves and quickens our minds ; it throws us back to the 
truant hours at Wittenberg, when Hamlet was the high-minded, ele- 
gant Prince of Denmark, without a scathe of grief. There is a 
touching affection in this dialogue with Horatio which we see no 
where after. Hamlet, surprised, listens eagerly to Horatio’s account 
of the Ghost, and, true to nature, inquires of the form, features, and 
personation of his father. He pauses a moment abstractedly, breaks 
into a passion of words, and then abruptly leaves. The eagerness 
which Hamlet manifests to learn the mystery of the Ghost, though 
contradictory to his after inertness, is perfectly in agreement with his 
hypochondriacal idiosyncrasy ; at first passionately excited by the 
expected novelty, full of a thousand alarms and imaginings as to the 
cause of such a visitation ; whereas, after the revelation of the mur- 
der, he falls back again, with a satiated curiosity, into the same or 
even a more profound abstraction, out of which he occasionally 
starts as from a dream, for a time impetuous and self-criminating. 
The character of Hamlet, then, is true to nature. The inconsis- 
tencies belong to one who would be a perfect being were he not a 
fallible creature. He is wise, but, not being essentially prescient, 
every act and intention is “sicklied o’er with the pale cast of 
thought.” The name of action is lost from the many-sidedness of 
his reflections, that strike into all the uncertainties of a distant 
event. It may naturally be asked, then, what did Hamlet antici- 
pate, or what direct process of revenge did he purpose? We reply, 
None definitively, but, by a watchful observation of the King, to 
manifest his guilt beyond contradiction, and to punish him at a time 
suitable to an act so dreadful, though inevitable. To kill a king, 
even though by a prince of the blood, is not easily accomplished, and 
especially when that prince was Hamlet, naturally, nay, religiously 
merciful. Death with him was nothing, he did not value life 
at a pin’s fee; but the dread of something after death puzzled his 
will. 

1» 


“ 'T'o sleep—perchance to dream 


It is very evident that Shakspeare intended this play as the bio- 


OBSERVANCES OF SHAKSPEARE. 261 

] 
graphy of an unique character ; it was the highest creation of the 
poet’s genius. Superior to sympathy, his misery was too agonizing 
to be participative or communicable ; there is no amiable imbecility 
in his complaints, no lachrymose sentimentalism : wrapt in the awful 
originality of his genius, the majesty of Hamlet is unapproachable ; 
every character, like rays of light converging to a point, exalt his 
genius and give to him a striking distinctiveness. Othello, Lear, 
Macbeth, Romeo, display particular passions—jealousy, despair, 
ambition, love ; they are single throughout: but in Hamlet, the 
man, the complexion of his thoughts, the structure of his soul, the 
biography of Hamlet is before us; a thousand feelings and disposi- 
tions, disanalogous in their individual tint, like precious gems, are 
skilfully arranged in their multitudinous varieties and degrees of 
light and shade, forming altogether the most homogeneous and 
sublime portraiture of man. 

Of all the actors* who have ever conceived the character 
and personated Hamlet, Macready is the only man. To be- 
hold his pale, solemn, classical face, abstracted from all around 
him ; his quiet, graceful movements ; his features answerable to 
every complexion of his varied thoughts ; altogether prepare the 
beholder, from his first appearance, for the exhibition of a character 
peculiar, metaphysical, and spontaneous. His first reply to the 
King—*“ a little more than kin and less than kind’—and to the 
Queen, is searching, sarcastic, and sorrowful. Through the whole 
of the play, Macready is no longer himself; he is Hamlet, he pos- 
sesses you with his own passions, and does more to elucidate the 
sublime character of Hamlet than any actor, living or dead. So 
self-elevated was my mind after seeing Macready in Hamlet, that I 
was Hamlet in soul for a month after. The barking criticism of 
mannerism is at least a compliment to Macready in his personation 
of Hamlet ; for no one, however great the genius, could represent 
the scholar and the gentleman, but he whose education and intellect 
were of the highest order. 

May I never belong to those “ sophisticated mighty wise,” who 
know too much to know anything. As for the million, Hamlet, 
under all forms, must be “ caviare to the general.” Sus apage 


haud tibi: spiro. 
W. 


* Like the inimitable Mrs. Martha Bethune Baliol, who always express- 
ed her gratitude to any author whose works she had read, as one to whom 
she was personally indebted, so I feel the sincerest pleasure in mentioning 
the name of Macready as an actor whom I have never beheld but with ad- 
miration and delight. 


262 


ANALYSIS or COMBE’S “SYSTEM or PHRENOLOGY.”* 


Mr. Combe bespeaks attention to his System and his Science in 
an ingenuous prefatory account of the studies, observations, and re- 
flections which enabled his own mind to admit the truth, and to 
discern the extensive usefulness, of those principles whereon the new 
mental philosophy reposes its foundations. This modest and candid 
example of an honest inquiry to ascertain the truth, is followed by 
an Introduction, composed of several very important topics, which 
may be enumerated. These are, instances of opposition to the 
greatest scientific discoveries ; the brain is the organ of the mind ; 
there is a plurality of mental faculties, with a corresponding plura- 
lity of cerebral organs ; the size of organs influences their power, 
while temperament and disease modify the influence of size ; exer- 
cise invigorates the cerebral organs and facilitates their action ; 
sketch of the efforts of metaphysicians, moralists, poets, divines, and 
physiologists, in determining the philosophy of mind; history of 
Dr. Gall’s discovery ; and a general view of the functions of the 
spinal marrow and the nerves. These subjects are discussed seria- 
ttm with singular perspicuity and success. The section on tempe- 
raments, or constitutions, is valuable, and well-coloured figures ac- 
company it as illustrations. 

Every body talks of constitutions ; few can define what is signi- 
fied by the term. Mr. C., at p. 43, adopts the usual distinction of 
four primary constitutions—the lymphatic, sanguine, bilious, and 
nervous ; and these are attended with different degrees of activity 
in the mind and the brain. They depend upon the ascendancy of 
particular systems of the body, in man and animals: thus, when 
the brain and nerves are predominantly active, they produce the 
nervous constitution ; when the lungs, heart, and blood-vessels pre- 
dominate in their actions, they give rise to the sanguine constitu- 
tion ; the bilious constitution results from predominancy of the mus- 
cular and fibrous systems ; and the lymphatic proceeds from predo- 
minancy of the glandular and assimilating systems. The different 
constitutions are indicated by external bodily signs, which are open 
to observation. The lymphatic is distinguishable by a round form 
of the body, softness of the muscles, fulness of the cellular tissue 
under the skin, fair hair, and paleness of the surface of the body: 


* Fourth edition, two vols., 8vo.; Edinburgh and London, 1836. pp. 933, 
with sixty-one figures and plates. 


ANALYSIS OF COMBER’S “SYSTEM OF PHRENOLOGY.” 263 


it is accompanied by languid vital actions, weakness and slowness of 
the circulation, and sluggishness and feebleness of the brain in per- 
forming its natural functions. The sanguine is denoted by well- 
defined forms, moderate plumpness of person, tolerable firmness of 
flesh, light hair inclining to chestnut, blue eyes, and ruddiness of 
the cheeks, with a fair complexion: it is marked by strength and 
velocity of the pulses, fondness for exercise, and an animated coun- 
tenance, with proportionate activity of the brain. The bilious is 
recognized by black hair, dark skin, moderate fulness and much 
firmness of flesh, with a harshly expressed outline of the person: it 
is attended with great energy of the brain and vital organs, while 
the face exhibits strong and decided features. The nervous is cha- 
racterised by fine thin hair, thin skin, small thin muscles, quickness 
of muscular motion, paleness of countenance, and often delicate 
health. In this constitution, the whole nervous system, including 
the brain, is predominantly active, and the mental operations are 
proportionaliy vivacious. Let it be observed, however, that a sim- 
ple constitution rarely occurs in any individual ; two or more are 
generally combined in the same person. The bilious-nervous is a 
common combination : it gives strength and activity. The lympha- 
tic-nervous is not uncommon ; it produces sensitive delicacy of mind, 
conjoined with indolence. And, from the nervous-sanguine, great 
vivacity results, but it is without corresponding vigour or energy. 
—That whereof every body talks, every body should try to know : 
these notes of Mr. C.’s will instruct the ignorant. 

Mr. Combe’s introductory discussions are followed by an expo- 
sition of the principles of Phrenology ; and, under this department 
of his System, he undertakes and accomplishes a concise illustration 
of the following subjects—a discrimination of mental dispositions 
and talents ; a popular description of the brain, cerebellum, and skull, 
of its bones and frontal cavities, and of the integuments of the 
brain ; a practical application of the phrenological principles ; obser- 
vtidins on the length, breadth, and forms of the cerebral organs ; 
account of the phrenological bust and its progressive improvements, 
in shewing the situations of organs and their proportions; on the 
terms used to denote the gradations of size in the organs ; it is the 
relative, not the absolute, size of the organs that indicates the pre- 
dominance of particular talents or dispositions; remarks‘ on the 
brains of the lower animals; the distinction between power and 
activity ; a solution of the inquiries— What is a faculty, and is the 
mind simple? A division of the mental faculties, with a view of 
their natural language. As a mere intellectual exercise, the study 


264 ANALYSIS OF COMBR’S “SYSTEM OF PHRENOLOGY.” 


of these diversified questions should prove to be both agreeable and 
instructive to the fairly inquisitive mind. . 

Mr. Combe divides the mental faculties into the affective, which 
are the propensities and sentiments, and the intellectual, which con- 
stitute the perceptive and reflective powers. He states preliminarily 
that, with regard to many of the faculties and their organs, the 
observations have been made to such an extent that their functions 
are held to be ascertained ; and, in the case of others, where the ob- 
servations have been fewer, the functions are represented as being 
only probable. Among phrenologists, there is no difference res- 
pecting the kind of manifestations which accompany the facul- 
ties and organs set down as established ; their views differ merely 
concerning the result of the metaphysical analysis of the feelings and 
intellects, and the order of their arrangement. Mr. C. notices 
briefly the history of the discovery of each faculty and its organ, 
and he relates a few cases in illustration of its particular function ; 
but he considerately abstains from swelling his volumes, by accu- 
mulating the multitudes of facts which constitute the evidence 
wheron Phrenology is founded. His method of proceeding is, to 
refer distinctly to the authorities which elucidate and confirm his 
propositions, and he requests those persons who desire philosophical 
conviction, to resort directly to nature, which is always within their 
reach; for, he avers emphatically, well-grounded conviction can be 
obtained only by personal observation. 

Mr. Combe propounds his doctrines regarding the affective facul- 
ties or feelings in two separate sections: the first includes the ele- 
ven propensities, and in the second he places the twelve sentiments ; 
an arrangement obviously quite natural, and also very convenient 
for elucidation. 

Propensities—With respect to these mental faculties, Mr. Combe 
maintains the general proposition that they do not form ideas or 
procure knowledge, but that their sole function individually is to 
produce a desire, disposition, tendency, or impulse of a specific kind. 
They are common to man with the lower animals, and their chief 
object is to secure the preservation of each individual himself, his 
family, or his tribe. In this world there is ample and delightful 
scope for their proper activity, even in this way; but they are 
prone to deviations from their original intents, unless their motives 
be directed by those higher faculties of the mind which originate 
the principles of reason, virtue, and religion. 

Sentiments.—These faculties excite feelings or emotions of a par- 
ticular sort joined with an inclination to act. They differ from in- 


ANALYSIS OF COMBE’S “SYSTEM OF PHRENOLOGY.” 265 


tellectual perceptions in being accompanied with a peculiar vividness 
which every body understands, but which it is impossible to express 
by any verbal definition. They may be called into action by the 
presentment of the external objects naturally related to them, as 
danger is to fear and august appearance is to reverence, or by the 
spontaneous activity of themselves and their organs. Mr. Combe 
distinguishes the sentiments into two kinds—those which are com- 
mon to man and the lower animals, and those which constitute the 
peculiarly human character. The former he denominates Self-es- 
teem, Love of Approbation, and Cautiousness ; the latter are Bene- 
volence, Veneration, Firmness, Conscientiousness, Hope, Wonder, 
Ideality, Wit or Mirthfulness, and Imitation. There are, however, 
reasons for concluding that Firmness, Imitation, and Benevolence, 
are possessed by some of the beastial tribes. Mr. C.’s philosophy of 
Justice is truly valuable, as affording a safe practical guide in the 
operations of self-discipline and philanthropy. While attempting 
to discharge the sacred duties of doing good and reforming evil, man 
should zealously teach himself to know and to obey implicitly the 
unerring dictates of Conscientiousness, the source of pure justice, 
which is universal, immutable, and eternal. 

Mr. Combe’s division of the intellectual faculties has them under 
three heads—the sentient, perceptive, and reflective powers of the 
mind, 

The Sentient.—These faculties, which are usually designated the 
external senses, bring man and animals into communication with 
the outward world. They are the tactile sense, or that of touch ; 
the gustative, or that of taste ; the olfactory, or that of smell ; the 
auditory, or that of hearing ; and the visual, or that of sight or vi- 
sion: and, apparently, their common generic name may have been 
originally suggested by the circumstance of their severally possess- 
ing a set of organic appliances external to the brain, wherein every 
distinct primary sense has its own proper actual organ, by means of 
which every individual sentient faculty executes its own appropriate 
function. General readers will find a rich mine of useful know- 
‘ledge in this section of the System, and the experienced physiologist 
may peruse it with advantage. 

The Perceptive-—These faculties procure knowledge of external 
objects, their physical qualities and various relations: they form 
ideas, and their action is attended with a sensation of pleasure; but 
this has less intensity than the emotions produced by the higher af- 
fective powers or sentiments, They experience and impart the per- 

VOL. VI-—NO. XX. LL 


266 ANALYSIS OF ‘COMBE’S “SYSTEM OF PHRENOLOGY.” 


ceptions or distinctive knowledge of Individuality,* Form, Size, 
Weight, Colour, Locality, Number, Order, Eventuality, Time, 
Tune, and Language. Mr. Combe concludes his instructive enume- 
ration of facts and inductions concerning the knowing or perceptive 
faculties with some explanatory observations, which may furnish 
the student of mental science with extraordinary light in further- 
ance of his favourite pursuit. 

The Reflective-—These faculties judge not of the qualities and re- 
lations of external objects, but of the'relations of different classes of 
ideas produced by the perceptive faculties: they minister to the di- 
rection and gratification of all the other mental powers, and consti- 
tute what is colloquially called reason or reflection: in Mr. C.’s 
System, Comparison and Causality are their names. He crowns his 
most admirable views respecting the nature and functions of these 
two faculties with a truly sublime and triumphant demonstration of 
the sophistries of those atheists who, with an insane magnanimity, 
adventure to propose arguments in support of their impiety in de- 
nying the existence of God. Mr. Combe finishes this momentous 
discussion with these remarks:—“I have stated the argument in 
the plainest language, but with perfect reverence ; and we are ar- 
rived at the conclusion that the faculty Causality is silent as to the 
cause of the creator of man, and cannot tell whether he is self-ex- 
istent or called into being by some higher power. But thus far it 
can go, and it draws its conclusions unhesitatingly, that He must 
exist, and must possess the attributes which it perceives manifested 
in His works ; and, these points being certain, it declares that He 
is God to us; that He is our Creator and Preserver ; that all His 
qualities, so far as it can discover, merit our profoundest respect and 
admiration ; and that, therefore, he is to man the highest and most 
legitimate object of veneration and worship.” Here, then, we 
clearly perceive that the utmost powers of human reason are sub- 
jected to an insurmountable limitation : but the most precious book 
of inspiration comes to its aid, and reveals to the finite mind of man 
the everlasting truth that his Creator is God without beginning of 
days or ending of years, and that the heavens and the earth, with’ 
all that constitutes the universe, are the works of His Almighty 
Word. 


* The organ of this intellectual faculty is situated in the middle of the 
lower part of the forehead, immediately above the top of the nose. An ex- 
quisite portrait of Michael Angelo is given in illustration of its size and po- 
sition. 


ANALYSIS OF COMBE’S “SYSTEM OF PHRENOLOGY.” 267 


After giving a concise, but exceedingly instructive, sketch in evi- 
dence of the perfect ‘adaptation of the external world to the intellec- 
tual faculties of man, Mr. Combe proceeds to explain the modes of 
action of the different mental powers. All the faculties tend to ac- 
tion, and when active in a due degree they produce actions good, 
proper, and necessary. It is excess of their activity and its ill di- 
rection that occasion abuse. Every one of them, when in action, 
from whatever cause, excites the kind of feeling, or forms the kind 
of ideas, which result from its natural constitution. Hence, it is 
clear that there must be a legitimate sphere of action for them all. 
Not one of them is or can be necessarily and inherently bad ; other- 
wise God must have deliberately created faculties with their organs 
for no other purpose than to lead us into sin ; an impious notion, 
which, if cherished, would inevitably be vented in the expression of 
blasphemy. 

According to Mr. C.’s System, the propensities and sentiments can- 
not be excited to action directly by a mere command of the will: we 
cannot conjure up the emotions of fear, compassion, and veneration, 
by simply willing to experience them ; hence, we are not account- 
able for the absence of any emotion at a particular time. These 
affective faculties, however, may enter into action, from an internal 
excitement ; and then the desire or emotion which each produces, 
will be felt whether we will to experience it or not: in such cases 
it is man’s duty to manage the emotion, under the guidance of rea- 
son, and the government of conscience over-ruling the other moral 
sentiments. Again; these faculties may be called into action, in- 
dependently of the will, by the presentation of the external objects 
fitted by nature to excite them. In such instances, the power of 
acting or of not acting, is dependent on the will; but the power of 
feeling or not feeling is not so; the mind cannot will not to see a 
tree or a mountain, when this is the object of vision. Once more ; 
the propensities and sentiments may be prompted into action or re- 
pressed, indirectly, by an effort of the will: thus, if the perceptive 
faculties be employed in conceiving objects naturally adapted to in- 
cite the affective faculties, the latter will start into action in the 
same manner, though with less intensity than if their appropriate 

‘objects were externally present ; and, on such occasions, the vivaci- 
ty of the feeling will be in proportion to the strength of the intel- 
lectual conception united to the energy of the propensities and sen- 
timents. 

As the propensities and sentiments do not form ideas, and as it is 
impossible to excite or recall, directly, by an act of the will, the 


968 ANALYSIS OF COMBE’S “SYSTEM OF PHRENOLOGY.” 


feelings or emotions produced by them, Mr. C. fairly infers that 
these faculties have not the attributes of perception, conception, me- 
mory, and imagination. They possess the attribute of sensation 
alone ; or, when they are active, a sensation or emotion is experi- 
enced: hence, sensation is an accompaniment of the action of all the 
faculties which feel, and of the nervous system in sca ; but sen- 
sation itself is mot a mental faculty. 

Mr. Combe is completely successful in evincing the immense ad- 
vantages which may be derived from the right application of his 
principles in explaining the sources of pleasure and happiness, in 
choosing servants and confidential agents, in accounting for the great 
variety of tastes and dispositions among mankind, in managing the 
unhappy victims of insanity, and in conducting the all-important 
business of education. 

The perceptive, or knowing, and the reflective faculties, form 
ideas and discern relations: they are subject to the will, or, rather, 
they constitute will themselves, and they minister to the gratifica- 
tion and government of the other faculties which only feel. They 
may become active from excitement by internal causes, and then 
the kinds of ideas which they are adapted to form are presented in- 
voluntarily to the mind. Again; they may be excited by the pre- 
sentation of external objects calculated to call them into action ; 
and, moreover, they may be prompted into action by an act of the 
will. When excited by the presentation of external objects, the 
objects are perceived, and this act is called perception; but percep- 
tion is not a separate faculty of the mind; it is merely a mode of 
action of the faculties that form ideas, and the term implies the 
luwest degree of intellectual power. Perception is simply an act of 
the perceptive and reflective faculties. When these are powerfully 
active from internal excitement, whether by the will or from natu- 
ral activity, ideas are then vividly and rapidly conceived, and the 
mental act of forming them is styled conception ; and if this act is 
performed with a very high degree of vivacity, it is then called 
imagination. Each of the forementioned faculties performs the act 
of conception in its own sphere, and temperament or constitution 
exercises great influence on their activity. 

The lymphatic constitution requires external objects to rouse it to’ 
vivid action, while the sanguine and nervous glow with spontane- 
ous and constitutional vivacity. Hence, imagination, which results 
from a high degree of activity, is rarely found with a constitution 
purely lymphatic, but it, becomes exalted in proportion to the ap- 
proach of the constitution to the nervous. Conception, then, is the 


ANALYSIS OF COMBE’s “‘ SYSTEM OF PHRENOLOGY.” 269 


cool and methodical representation to one’s self of things absent and 
as they exist in nature. Imagination is the impassioned representa- 
tion of the same things, not merely in the forms and arrangements 
of nature, but in new combinations made by the mind itself. Per- 
ception, therefore, is the first, conception the second, and imagination 
the third degree of activity of the perceptive and reflective facul- 
ties. 

Memory is not a faculty of the mind: it is solely a mode of ac- 
tion of the faculties which perceive and reflect. The emotions ex- 
perienced through the propensities and sentiments cannot be recalled 
by merely willing them to be felt: hence, it is held that these 
faculties do not possess memory, are incapable of performing the 
act of remembering. Memory differs from conception, in that it 
implies a new conception of impressions previously received, attend- 
ed with the idea of past time and consciousness of their former 
existence: generally, the act of remembering follows the order of 
events as they happened. 

On the other side, in conception and imagination, new combina- 
tions of ideas are formed, not only without regard to the time or 
order in which the elementary notions had previously existed, but 
even without any direct reference to their having formerly existed 
at all. Judgment is the perception of adaptation, of relation, of 
fitness, or of the connexion between means and an end: it is an act 
performed exclusively by the reflective faculties ; it is the decision 
of these upon the feelings furnished by the propensities and senti- 
ments, and upon the ideas furnished by the whole intellectual pow- 
ers. An analytical view of Lord Bacon’s character is given by Mr, 
C. at p. 642, as an example, how poor an endowment, even the 
most transcendent intellect is, when unaccompanied with upright 
sentiments. . 

Mr. Combe accounts for the phenomena of dreaming, by showing 
that it proceeds from the activity of the organs of some faculties 
which continue to be awake while those of all the rest are asleep. 

This subject is curious and involves topics of high consideration : 

his philosophy of dreaming is ingenious, clear, and substantial. It 
is followed by disquisitions on consciousness, attention, association, 
passion, pleasure and pain, patience and impatience, joy and grief, 
sympathy, habit, and taste. After these come others on the effects 
of organic size on the mental manifestations ; on the effects of the 
organs when in different relative proportions or size ; on their com- 
binations in activity ; with a practical application of the doctrine of 
the combinations of the mental faculties and their organs. These 


270 ANALYSIS OF COMBE’s “SYSTEM OF PHRENOLOGY.” 


disquisitions establish many views well calculated to improve the 
practical adaptations of philosophy, morals, and legislation. Two 
essays stand next in the System. The first is on the coincidence 
between the natural talents and dispositions of nations and the de- 
velopment of their brains. This brings under review successively 
the national characters of the Hindoos, Caribs, New Hollanders, 
New Zealanders, North American Indians, Brazilian Indians, Ne- 
groes, Sandwich Islanders, Swiss, Ancient Egyptians, Ancient 
Greeks, Scotch Lowlanders, English, Germans, and French: and 
the characteristic differences delineated in the essay are confirmed 
by figures demonstrating fundamental distinctions in national heads, 
both in size and shape. The second is on the importance of includ- 
ing development of brain as an element in statistical inquiries into 
the manifestations of the animal, moral, and intellectual faculties of 
man. The value of this essay is greatly enhanced by comparative 
tables of the statistics of insanity, crime, and instruction. 

Mr. Combe concludes the System with a truly philosophical 
examination and refutation of objections to the new mental science, 
especially those founded on materialism, and the effects of injuries 
of the brain. His appendix contains four documents,—additional 
evidence that the brain is the organ of the mind ; objections to classi- 
fications of the mental faculties ; table of Dr. Gall’s original names 
of the faculties ; and a list of testimonials in support of a represen- 
tation addressed, in 1836, to the Secretary for the Colonies, recom- 
mending a method for classifying convicts sent to New South 
Wales, as a punishment for their crimes. 

The preceding dense outline of Mr. Combe’s System, will 
serve to exhibit the very comprehensive and influential bearings of 
his doctrines upon the foundations of man’s virtue, happiness and 
power, as he is a responsible agent in this world and an aspirant for 
an higher inheritance which will be permanent as his immortality. 
May these doctrines be impartially, deliberately, and fully inves- 
tigated. 


271 


HORACE ON INSANITY. 


By D. W. Nasu, SurGEoN. 


‘There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, 
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” 


» Truz, O princely Dane! And there is more philosophy in 
Horace than the world in general dreams of, and which, if matters 
progress after their present fashion, will, in all probability, ere long 
“* be dipped in Lethe and: forgotten :” for in these utilitarian days, 
when cui bono ? is the universal question, and the dulce is too often 
divorced from its long and pleasing union with the witle; when, to 
use the favourite phraseology of the Giethe school, the substantial 
has usurped the throne of the ideal ; when the argent comptant of 
practical information is more readily received than the promissory 
notes of the imagination—there is apparently a growing deprecia- 
tion of the politer branches of education, and a not unnatural, 
though perhaps, comparatively, an over-estimate of the value of 
those acquirements which are more directly available in the world 
we live in. 

It has often been stated, of late, in works professedly on educa- 
tion, that the time employed by young persons in the acquisition of 
the Greek and Latin languages is, in fact, so much time thrown 
away ; for that a knowledge of these languages is not productive of 
sufficient advantage to them in after life to compensate for the la- 
bour and time bestowed on their acquisition, which time and labour 
could of course have been available for the purpose of acquiring 
more useful knowledge. 

In a former number of the Analyst, a quotation from Dr. Shir- 
ley Palmer’s Popular Illustrations of Medicine was adduced to 
strengthen the arguments of a writer against the utility of a classi- 
cal education. ‘It may even be questioned,” says Dr. Shirley Pal- 
mer, in the work before mentioned, “ whether the literary acquire- 
ments of early age are worth the sacrifice and the risk incurred in 
their pursuit. Many a weakly stripling has spent the brightest 
and most joyous years of a precarious existence in irksome drudgery 
upon the works of Homer and of Virgil, long ere his mind could 
comprehend the majesty of the Greek, or be smitten with the splen- 


272 HORACK ON INSANITY. 


dour and elegance of the Roman, poet: And what, after all, has he 
acquired, that can compensate for the lost opportunity of more fully 
evolving his physical powers, and fortifying his constitution against 
the inroads of future disease? A knowledge of which, in riper 
age, a few month’s application, under an enlightened system of in- 
struction, would have given him a far more perfect possession ; and 
in the attainment of which a maturer intelligence would then have 
afforded the most exquisite gratification.” 

Of course the weakly stripling would suffer the same martyrdom 
whether he applied himself to German or Greek, to logarithms or 
to Latin; the only question is upon the point of what is to be 
gained by either, in short, the old query of cui bono? Now I do 
not purpose entering into an argument on the value of classical ac- 
quirements either to the medical practitioner or to students in ge- 
neral, though, in the course of such an argument, I could enlist on 
my side many of England’s best and wisest ; but, after these few 
preliminary observations, will endeavour to shew that a great deal 
of both moral and medical philosophy may be acquired from the 
writings of the lyric bard of Rome. 

One of the chief characteristics of a great poet, of whatever coun- 
try, is an intimate knowledge of human nature. The face of a 
country may alter in appearance under the influence of increasing 
civilization, languages and religions may be modified or lost, the 
manners and customs of a people may gradually change, but human 
passions and human affections remain unchanging and unchange- 
able. Ambition, love, hatred, avarice, revenge, are the same in the 
barbarian as in civilized man, though clothed in a different dress 
and seen in a different light. In vice and virtue themselves time 
has made no alteration, though it has changed the fashion of their 
garb; the same passions produce the same effects in London and in 
Paris, as in ages gone by they produced in Athens and in Rome; 
and the picture which Horace drew of the vices and follies of his 
day requires but little change to render it a faithful representation 
of the present time. Horace himself held the same opinions, and 
tells us, in his Epistle to Lollius, that he was in the habit of read- 
ing Homer for the sake of the moral philosophy which it contained. 


“ Trojani belli scriptorem, maxime Lolli, 

Dum tu declamas Rome, Preeneste religi ; 

Qui, quid sit pulchrum, quid turpe, quid utile, quid non, 
Plenius ac melius Chrysippo, et Crantore dicit.” 


What Horace here says of Homer is true of Horace: 
we 


HORACE ON INSANITY 273 
“¢ Mutato nomine, de te, fabula narratur” 


was his own remark, though with little foresight of the future ex- 
tent of its application. To prove our position, let us take our old 
school Horace, imprinted in /dibus Valpianis, or the Delphine edi- 
tion, if preferred, and read the conversation which took place be- 
tween Damasippus and the poet.* What says the heading? “ Da- 
masippus, Stertini, Stoici verbis, omnes insanire docet.” “‘ Stertini- 
us,” says Lempriere, “ was a Stoic philosopher ridiculed by Horace.” 
This seems more than doubtful: Horace has put his sentiments in 
the mouth of the Stoic, but by no means does he place him in a ri- 
diculous light; on the contrary, he makes him utter many very 
philosophical and profound remarks. And, first, he proceeds to tell 
us the grounds on which he makes the assertion that “all men are 
mad.” ‘Nunc accipe,” says he,— 


“ Nunc accipe quare 
Desipiant omnes, zeque ac tu, qui tibi nomen 
Insano posuere. Velut sylvis, ubi passim 
Palantes error certo de tramite pellit, 
Ile sinistrorsum, hic dextrorsum abit ; unus utrique 
Error, sed variis illudit partibus. Hoc te 
Crede modo insanum ; nihilo ut sapientior ille 
Qui te deridet, caudam trahat.” 


And who is there that keeps in “ certo tramite”—~in the right path 
of reason? Who can say that he is not led away from it like the 
rest of his fellow cosmopolites? Who is there that has not some 
favourite pursuit, some prevailing fancy, which leads him to the 
right or to the left, and causes him to wander in the tangled paths 
of error—some hobby, whose prancing disposition carries him into 
the thickets, and too often deposits the unwary rider amid the 
briars? Again, how true the poet’s remark, “ Qui te deridet, cau- 
dam trahet!” How few are aware of their own follies! how few 
can discover their own eccentricities or weaknesses! “ yrwdi csavroy” 
was an excellent moral precept, but its accomplishment is hardly 
within the power of man ; and the old fable carries with it much 
sound sense, which relates that Jupiter placed the wallet contain- 
ing the faults of men at their backs ; so that each man can discern 
those of his neighbour, while he remains ignorant of his own. 


* Satirarum, lib. ii,, iii. 
VOL. VI.—=-NO. XX. MM 


W 


274 HORACE ON INSANITY. 


That man will have made no inconsiderable progress towards per- 
fection who 


* Respicere ignoto discet pendentia tergo.” 


But to return to the argument of the Stoic, that ‘all men are 
mad.” In order to enter fully into it, we must first inquire, In 
what does insanity consist? ‘A lunatic,” says the learned Judge 
Blackstone, “is one who hath had understanding, but by disease, 
grief, or other accident, hath lost the use of his reason.” Medical 
writers of late years, and among them Esquirol, Pinel, and Dr. 
Prichard, have considered insanity principally as offering itself to 
our observation under two heads; as insanity with hallucination, 
and moral insanity, in which no delusion or hallucination of mind 
can be discovered. 

The first kind of insanity occurs in four principal forms, namely, 
Ist. Mania, where the mental delusion is complete and universal, 
accompanied by excitement ; 2nd. Monomania, or partial insanity, 
an hallucination confined to a single object; 3rd. Dementia, or ac- 
cidental obliteration of the reasoning faculties ; 4th. Idiotism, in 
which this obliteration is congenital. 

The second kind of mental alienation has been distinguished, by 
Spurzheim, under the name of irresistibility ; by Pinel, as mania 
without delirium or hallucination ; and by our learned countryman, 
Dr. Prichard, as moral insanity. 

Dr. Prichard thus defines this affection :—‘‘ Moral insanity, or 
madness, consists in a morbid perversion of the natural feelings, af- 
fections, inclinations, temper, habits, and moral dispositions, without 
any notable lesion of the intellect or knowing and reasoning facul- 
ties, particularly without any maniacal hallucination.” 

If this perversion of the feelings and habits be slight in degree 
and harmless in character, the individual thus affected is merely 
considered odd or eccentric, and passes muster with the world in 
general: but if developed more strongly, it becomes the source of 
one of the most terrible species of mental alienation. 

If the above definition be correct, who is there that can be said 
to be exempt from the taint of moral insanity? who is there in 
whom some of the natural propensities, to use the words of Spurz- 
heim, do not occasionally become so violent as to be irresistible and 
incontrollable ? 

“ Tra brevis furor est,” and so are many other evil passions. The 
poor man whose breast is gnawed with a feeling of envious dislike 


HORACE ON INSANITY. 275 


towards him who is richer and apparently happier than himself— 
the rich and powerful who looks down with contemptuous loathing 
on his poor and miserable fellow-man, equally with himself the 
work of God—the gambler who sacrifices health, happiness, honour, 
and peace of mind, both his own and that of others, in his destruc- 
tive pursuit—the miser who hoards up useless treasure, and denies 
to himself and to his offspring the merest necessaries of life—in 
these and a hundred other cases the same passions are at work 
which, if developed in a higher degree, would come under the deno- 
mination of insanity. 

But let us turn to our poet, and see what he has to say on this 
point :— 


“ Audire, atque togam jubeo componere, quisquis, 
Ambitione mala aut argenti pallet amore 
Quisquis luxuria, tristive superstitione 

Aut alio mentis morbo calet.” 


Ambition, avarice, luxury, and superstition, may well be placed 
foremost among the diseases of the mind; productive of various 
shades of mental alienation, as injurious to society, in their conse- 
quences, as many other more generally recognized varieties of insa- 
nity. Of these disorders Horace seems to consider avarice as the 
most obstinate and most difficult of cure :— 


“ Danda est hellebori multo pars maxima avaris 
Nescio an Anticyram ratio illis destinet omnem.” 


Avarice is, indeed, the vice at which Horace most frequently levels 
his satire, but not at this alone. He asks, 


* Quisnam igitur sanus? Qui non stultus? quid avarus ? 
Stultus et insanus. 

* ‘ * ambitiosus et audax 

Naviget Anticyram.” 


The numerous gradations of insanity are extremely difficult of 
distinction, especially in the slighter varieties. It is no easy matter 
to define the boundary between that state of mind which is com- 
monly called eccentricity, and what would legally come under the 
denomination of unsoundness of mind. An individual may acquire 
habits at variance with those of the world in general, and his con- 
duct may be influenced by a mental impression, or some mental fa- 
culty which in him is more than ordinarily energetic ; and yet he 
may be capable of reasoning correctly on correct premises, and may 


276 HORACE ON INSANITY. 


be perfectly competent to conduct his affairs without injury to him- 
self or to society. Horace says, 


“ Si quis emat citharas, emtas comportet in unum 
Nec studio citharee, nec muse deditus ulli; 

Si scalpra et formas non sutor, nautica vela 
Aversus mercaturis ; delirus et amens 

Undique dicatur merito.” 


Here the words “ delirus et amens’’? must not be literally taken, 
as the mental disorder, if confined to the description given, would 
not amount to more than eccentricity. But the moment the men- 
tal affection begins to deprive the individual of the power of proper 
self-direction, he, of course, becomes obnoxious to society and dan- 
gerous to himself; and at this period the law steps in, and charges 
itself with the duty of protection, both towards the individua] and 
towards society at Jarge. Horace tells us that when there was suf- 
ficient evidence of aberration of intellect to render the individual 
incapable of taking care of his property, he was placed under the 
guardianship of the law, and his estates committed to the care of 
his relatives. He here draws a distinction between that kind of 
mental disease which constitutes real insanity, and that which re- 
sults from the development of uncontrolled evil passions and pro- 
pensities, and between these and the state of eccentricity before al- 
luded to. He now puts a case of real monomania, in which a de- 
lusion or false mental impression exists, not connected either by the 
evidence of the senses or by the exercise of the reasoning faculties, 
by the powers of comparison and judgment. 


“ Si quis lectica nitidam gestare amet agnam 

Huic vestem, ut nate, paret, ancillas paret, aurum 
Pupam aut pupillam appellet, fortique marito 
Destinet uxorem ; interdicto huic omne adimat jus 
Preetor, et ad sanos abeat tutela propinquos.” 


A person in such a state of mind as here represented, would, 
without doubt, be considered a fit inmate for a lunatic asylum. His 
insanity would be at once recognised, and his social rights would 
with justice be suspended during the period of such an aberration of 
intellect ; but what will be the answer to the following question, in 
which the sacrifice of Iphigenia by her father, Agamemnon, is . 
alluded to? 


“ Quid si quis natam pro muta devovet agna 
Integer est animi?” 


HORACE ON INSANITY. 277 


Under what title should such a deed be arraigned? Is it to be 
attributed to a kind of religious mania—to superstition become mor- 
bid in its excess—or rather, in the case referred to, the desire to 
return in safety to his country being more powerful than the natu- 
ral affection of the father for his child, the latter was sacrificed to a 
superstitious delusion? Selfishness is a very prominent feature in 
the character of Agamemnon, throughout his whole history. There 
was here, certainly, “a morbid perversion of the natural feelings 
without any maniacal hallucination ;’ but there was a motive for 
the act, which constitutes the difference between crime and moral 
insanity ; and this motive was not based on a false mental impres- 
sion, but on a sound train of reasoning on sound premises. These 
premises we know to have been false ; but to the Grecian monarch 
they were correct, because in that period of universal ignorance 
they were universally received and accredited. In the present day, 
in a civilized country, a man who sacrificed his daughter to avert 
the anticipated wrath of Heaven, would justly be deemed insane, 
as he would be acting contrary to the dictates of reason, influenced 
by a false mental impression. Agamemnon gives a reason for his 
act, and directly denies the charge of insanity. He says— 


“ ‘Verum ego ut herentes adverso littore naves 
Eriperem, prudens placavi sanguine Divos.” 
“ Nempe tuo furiosse.” ‘ Meo, sed non furiosus.” 


Crime and insanity are nearly allied; ignorance treads on the 
heels of both. Horace says, with truth, 


“ ubi prava 
Stultitia, hic summa est insania. Qui sceleratus 


Et furiosus erit.” 


This appears to be the plain truth. Unchecked immoral habits 
and unbridled passions constitute a kind of madness, and too often 
degenerate into real insanity. It remains doubtful whether such 
causes should be allowed to shield their victims from the penalties 
due for crime committed under their influence. 

The question of the positive insanity of persons by whom crimes 
of the most dreadful character have been committed, and yet in 
whom no mental hallucination exists, has been much argued by 
medical jurists, and in many cases it has been urged that acts of 
violence committed under the influence of that peculiar state of 
mind, termed moral insanity, do not come under the denomination 
of crime, and, therefore, are not punishable by law. 


278 HORACE ON INSANITY. 


It may be said, in reply, that when there is no mental hal- 
lucination there can be no insanity, since insanity consists in the 
existence of one or more false mental impressions, retained con- 
trary to the evidence of the senses and of the reasoning pow- 
ers, or in consequence of the diseased state of the former or the 
enfeebled or deficient state of the latter. The want of self- 
government and the strength of the passions can with difficul- 
ty be considered as disease. In many cases which have been 
brought forward as of moral insanity, there has been evident delu- 
sion of mind; as in those persons who have been impressed with an. 
irresistible desire to commit murder. In others, on the contrary, a 
long indulgence of the worst passions of human nature, the total ab- 
sence of self-controul, of moral and religious constraint, impatience 
of contradiction and reproof, and utter selfishness, have led to a si- 
milar state of blood-thirsty and inhuman ferocity. This was the 
state of mind of Nero, of Tiberius, of Nadir Shah, and of many 
other scourges of the human race, who in their turn ‘ have shut 
the gates of mercy on mankind ;” and it is the state of many who 
consummate a long life of wickedness by shedding the blood of a 
fellow creature. Though the excessive development of evil passions, 
and the perversion of the natural affections, are well characterized 
under the term moral insanity, it becomes a most difficult matter to 
define the boundary between a crime to be punished and a disease 
to be pitied and relieved. Well-marked hallucination, of course, 
exempts its unfortunate subject from the penalties exacted from the 
criminal ; but, in cases such as those just referred to, the responsibi- 
lity of the medical witness becomes very serious. 

Horace alludes to a case in which some doubt appears to exist in 
his mind as to whether the crime was committed under the influence 
of insanity or otherwise. The case is that of the murder of Cly- 
temnestra by her son Orestes, and the facts are these. Agamem- 
non, king of Mycenz and Argos, on returning from the siege of 
Troy, was barbarously murdered by his wife (Clytemnestra) and 
her paramour (A%gisthus). Orestes, the son of Agememnon and 
Clytemnestra, arrived at manhood, revenges his father’s death by 
the murder of Aigisthus and his mother. He afterwards became 
insane. Speaking of this murder, Horace asks, 

Au tu reris cum occisa insanisse parente 
Ac non anté malis dementem actum Furiis, quam 
In matris jugulo ferrum tepefecit acutum ?” 


This, however, was evidently a case of premeditated murder, for 


HORACE ON INSANITY. 279 


which there is clearly a real motive, to revenge the murder of his 
father. Orestes was suffering neither under delusion nor false im- 
pressions, nor was there any perversion of the natural feelings and 
affections (for such perversion must be without just cause) ; he rea- 
soned rightly on real grounds, the power of doing which constitutes, 
in general terms, soundness of mind. His insanity commenced after 
the commission of the deed, and took its origin in remorse and hor- 
ror at the magnitude of his crime. It was, however, only of tem- 
porary duration, and we find that he had entirely recovered at no 
long period afterwards. 

‘Horace was fully aware of the great difficulty of distinguishing 
between these two species of insanity; for crime is, as has been 
before observed, the effect of an aberration of reason; and the man 
who commits a murder while under the influence of evil passions is 
not really in a sound state of mind. — with this view of the 
case, Horace asks— 


“au commote crimine mentis, 
Absolves hominem, et sceleris damnabis eundem, 
Ex more imponens cognata vocabula rebus ?” 


It has been frequently remarked, that no knowledge is so diffi- 
cult of acquirement as self-knowledge ; and yet none is of more im- 
portance to man, whether as regards his happiness in this world or 
his prospects in that to come. It would, indeed, be well if we were 
to commence the task of self-examination, and to put to our own 
breasts the question which the poet puts to the stoic philosopher :— 


“ Qua me stultitia, quoniam non est genus unum 
Insanire putas ? Ego nam videor mihi sanus :” 


and fortunate if the result of the examination induces the confes- 
sion, however humiliating, proceeding from a conviction of our own 
innate depravity :— 


“ Stultum me fateor (liceat concedere veris) 
Atque etiam insanum.” 


Thus much and more may be elicited from a single satire of Ho- 
race. How much of philosophy, of knowledge of mankind, of 
shrewd observation, and, in many cases, of excellent moral precept, 
may we not derive from the same source! This, I think, is at least 
an argument in favour of a classical education, and a proof that the 


280 THE IMPORTANCE OF CONSULTING THE BIAS OF YOUTH 


time spent in the acquirement of the dead languages need not be 
considered as entirely thrown away. 

But it is time to conclude, lest my readers exclaim, as our favour- 
ite poet to Damasippus :— 


“‘O major, tandem parcas, insane, minori !” 
Cheltenham, May, 1837. 


[ We consider the utility or otherwise of classical pursuits to be placed on 
its right footing in Dr. Caldwell’s Thoughts on the Study of the Greek and 
Latin Languages, to which excellent treatise we refer our readers.—Eps.] 


THE IMPORTANCE OF CONSULTING THE BIAS OF 
YOUTH IN THE CHOICE OF A BUSINESS OR 
PROFESSION, 


EXEMPLIFIED IN THE CASE OF LINNEUS. 
[From a MS. Memorr]. 


AFTER spending three years more under the private tuition of 
Gabriel Hok, who ultimately married his eldest sister, Linneus was 
advanced to a higher grade in the school, and was, in consequence, 
privileged with more frequent opportunities than he had before en- 
joyed of indulging and cherishing his attachment to Botany—oppor- 
tunities which he eagerly embraced, almost, indeed, to the utter 
neglect of the important branches of learning which he had been 
placed there to acquire. His highest pleasure was to escape from 
the thraldom of the school, in order to ramble, unfettered, in the 
country ; not to avoid his task, or to indulge that listlessness of dis- 
position which so generally influences truants in their stealthy ram- 
bles, but to hold secret and delightful converse with the fairies of 
the meadows. 

On his removal, at seventeen years of age, to the gymnasium, or 
high school, he manifested, more decidedly than ever, his uncon- 
querable aversion to the studies necessary to prepare him for the 
proper discharge of the sacred office. Rhetoric, Metaphysics, Ethics, 


IN THE CHOICE OF A BUSINESS OR PROFESSION. 281 


and Theology, had no charms for him ; nor did Hebrew and Greek, 
languages in which the great treasures of divinity were deposited, 
find in him an admirer. He devoted himself almost exclusively 
to the Mathematics and Physical Sciences; to aid his progress 
in the latter of which, he formed a small collection of books, con- 
sisting principally of Floras, and some of these, though then beyond 
his comprehension, he even committed to memory. Indeed, he was 
generally known, amongst both tutors and scholars, by what was 
doubtless considered the contemptuous appellation of “ the little 
botanist.” 

The result of so manifest a dislike to theological studies, and of 
so determined an adherence to the natural sciences, in a community 
totally unable to appreciate their value and importance, was that, 
when his father came to Wexié in the expectation of finding him, as 
he was then in his nineteenth year, almost prepared to enter on 
the great duties of the Christian ministry, he had to endure the bit- 
ter disappointment and mortification of learning, from the preju- 
diced and narrow-minded tutors, that his son had neither taste nor 
talent for classical and biblical literature, that to incur further ex- 
pense in his education would be the height of folly, and that the 
most proper and prudent plan he could adopt would be to bind him 
apprentice to a shoe-maker or tailor ! 

Thus was he whom, shortly after, Sweden was proud to call her 
son, and whom kings delighted to honour, on the point of being sa- 
crified to ignorance and bigotry, and probably of being lost for ever, 
as a man of science, to himself and to mankind, in the unintellec- 
tual details of an ignoble mechanical employment. It is not unfre- 
quently the case that attempts are thus made to thwart the obvious 
bias of youth, in order to promote some darling project.or to serve 
some contemptible policy. With ordinary minds, easily influenced 
by external circumstances, this, it is true, may be a task of no diffi- 
cult accomplishment ; but in such as bear the genuine impress of 
genius, the impulse communicated by some early determination of 
their powers and predilection generally continues, through life, un- 
changed and undiminished. In the instance of Linneus, the whole 
course of his education hitherto had been directed to prepare him 
for an office for which, however dignified, he had no inclination 
whatever, and to turn the current of a taste which, formed almost 
at his birth, had grown deeper and stronger with his growth, and 
which neither severity of treatment, the insolence of contempt, nor 
the stern obligations of filial duty, could weaken or destroy. Yet 
it is only candid to admit that, although the result bears out this 

VOL. VINO. XX. NN 


982 <THE IMPORTANCE OF CONSULTING THE BIAS OF YOUTH 


sentiment in the case of Linneus, youthful propensities are often too 
capricious or unreasonable to justify parents in yielding to inclina- 
tions not less unequivocally expressed than in the instance in ques- 
tion. Nor should it be concealed that Botany, besides holding out 
no immediate or remote hopes of subsistence or honour, was not by 
any means regarded, at the period and place alluded to, even among 
the learned, with that respect, as a science, which the labours and 
fame of Linneus and of other modern cultivators have secured for it, 

Honoured, however, be the name of the man who rescued talents 
so promising from the degradation which the father of Linneus was 
thus persuaded to think advisable and necessary. The venerable 
minister was grieved and vexed that so much time should have been 
spent, as he thought, to so unprofitable a purpose, and that his in- 
come, limited as it was, should have been burdened with expenses 
which had proved so useless and unavailing. Whilst under the influ- 
ence of these feelings he had occasion to consult Rothman, an emi- 
nent physician, and professor of medicine in the college of Wexid, 
respecting a complaint with which he had for some time been trou- 
bled. After describing his symptoms, he could not refrain from 
telling the professor, in the fulness of his heart, the sad and painful 
disappointment which he had recently suffered, and which threaten- 
ed to dispel, in a moment, the bright visions of hope that had hi- 
therto promised to cheer the evening of his days. Rothman was 
much interested by the recital, and told his patient that he could 
not only effect his restoration to health of body, but that he could 
also, in that instance at least, “ minister to a mind diseased.” He 
said that if the sciences to which the youth had devoted himself 
disqualified him for theological studies, his diligence and taste held 
out an assurance that in medicine he would become useful and emi- 
nent, and that he would ultimately distinguish himself in the wide, 
but almost untrodden, field of Natural History. So confident was 
Rothman of the correctness of these views and expectations that, to 
remove all scruple and uneasiness from the mind of his father, he 
generously offered to take the young outcast into his own house and 
under his own especial charge, during the remainder of his term at 
the gymnasium. This promise he punctually performed, and, in 
addition; gave him private lessons in Physiology, and explained to 
him the principles of the Tournefortian System of Botany, which 
was then universally and, considering the state of science, deservedly 
popular. 

Thus, through the penetration and benevolence of Dr. Rothman, 
the prospect of a new career was opened before Linneus,. and he 


IN THE CHOICE OF A BUSINESS OR PROFESSION. 283 


was not slow to avail himself, to the utmost, of the high advantages 

it afforded. He passed his examination in Physic in a manner 
highly satisfactory to his tutor and creditable to himself; and in 
Botany, which he had before studied without reference to system, 
he laboured so incessantly that he was soon enabled to assign every 
plant he gathered its proper place in the classification of the great 
Tournefort—a classification which, though highly ingenious, Lin- 
neus quickly discovered to be defective. 

It is probable that, notwithstanding the bright and flattering an- 
ticipations of Rothman, and the pleasing change which the young 
naturalist, in consequence of his liberality, enjoyed, his parents did 
not view the hopeless overthrow of their favourite scheme with 
any high degree of complacency and satisfaction. In the church, 
comfort, respectability, and a competency, were morally certain ; 
while in the unbeaten path which he seemed perversely determined 
to pursue, honour and emolument appeared to them as empty 
sounds, or as phantoms of the imagination that would inevitably 
allure him to poverty and ruin. So little, even yet, were they ac- 
quainted with the rich intellectual endowments of their son, and so 
little able to enter into the lofty projects and to conceive the buoy- 
ancy of hope of a great and aspiring mind, which often, indeed, 
makes its way to riches and to fame where dull and easy mediocrity 


would starve in penury and neglect. 
L. L. 


[Of course, every one professing himself a naturalist is familiar with the 
history of the “immortal Swede ;” but as it may prove interesting and in- 
structive to others, especially as treated by our intelligent correspondent, 
we have much pleasure in publishing it in the form above presented.—Eps. ] 


284 


ON THE CONNECTION BETWEEN PHRENOLOGY 
AND PHYSIOGNOMY. 


By J. L. Levison. 
(Concluded from p. 273, vol. v.) 


THE practical inference deduced from my preliminary remarks in 
the eighteenth number of the Analyst was briefly this, that the head 
is more important to individualize a person than a mere fac-simile 
of the features, if the cranial developments are unheeded. And as 
the skulJ receives its form from the brain contained within, it fol- 
lows that a knowledge of the functions of the brain (Phrenology) 
must furnish more accurate and certain means to ascertain particular 
dispositions, tempers, and various kinds of intellectual capacity, than 
could be obtained by any of the vague rules of Physiognomy. 

I shall, therefore, make a more particular comparison between — 
these two modes of attempting to know something definite of human 
character ; and I think every candid person will admit that, for this 
purpose, there is much greater accuracy in the system of Gall and 
Spurzheim than there is in those of Theophrastus and Lavater. I 
ask, what rules can be suggested by the most learned physiognomist 
to ascertain when there exists a natural genius for Music, or Paint- 
ing, or Poetry, or Mathematics, or History, &c.? What rules 
could he furnish to denote any relative degree in which such men- 
tal qualifications are experienced in the persons with whom we as- 
sociate? It will be shewn, in the sequel of this paper, that mere 
length and breadth of the face, or the size and shape of the’ nose, 
chin, and so forth, are imperfect indicators of character, unless in 
extreme cases. On the other hand, the phrenologist can ascer- 
tain cases even of mediocrity, without looking at the nose or chin, 
&c., by the mere inspection of the head. I venture to add that 
even in such extraordinary instances of early genius as was manifest- 
ed by Dr. Crotch, the mere inspection of his features would not have 
indicated his musical capacity: and if his form of face should have 
been adopted by the physiognomist as typical of great musical capa- 
city, then the student would have been in a dilemma on examining 
the features of composers in general. He would find, for example, 
that there are scarcely two of the composers alike :—what a difference 
in the faces of a Handel, a Mozart, a Haydn, anda Neukomm! If, 
however, the tyro in Physiognomy, instead of applying his fancied 


ON THE CONNECTION BETWEEN PHRENOLOGY, &c. 285 


rules to point out composers and what kind of composition they 
would excel in, should turn his attention tu those who warbled the 
sweetest strains of the great masters of harmony—such as Braham, 
Catalani, Sontag, or Malibran—he would find himself with equal 
difficulties, as these singers, and many others, have not features of 
similar forms ; but if he looked at their brains he would find large 
organs of Melody, Time, &c., in all of them. That the reader may 
be satisfied that I do not unfairly depreciate the merits of Physiog- 
nomy, or that I ask their acquiescence to my views without 
convincing their judgment, I submit the following phrenological 
experiment, made by the writer of this article, on board the Hull 
and Gainsborough steamer, in the summer of 1827. I had seated 
myself in the stern of the vessel, next to a Danish merchant, who 
told me he was from Copenhagen, and that he should shortly return 
there. As I knew that in that city a phrenological journal was 
published, I asked some particulars about it, and inquired what was 
the state of Phrenology on the continent, as the merchant had some 
little knowledge of the science through the writings of Drs. Otto 
and Hoppe; but I found him a kind of negative convert. He 
thought there was “something in it, but it was a mere theory, 
which would never be available for useful purposes.” I controvert- 
ed his statement, and in particular urged its importance in educa- 
tion. The merchant required some proof, and said, ‘‘ Are you ac- 
quainted with any of the passengers?” Receiving an answer in 
the negative, he continued, “ Well, then, what do you think of that 
person?” The individual pointed at stood leaning against the en- 
trance of the cabin, and it soon appeared that he had noticed the 
fact of his being the subject of our conversation. He approached us 
and very frankly told us so. I was obliged to explain the circum- 
stance by mentioning part of the previous conversation, and that I 
- had been challenged by my companion to say something of his phre- 
nological development. The stranger smiled, very obligingly took 
off his hat, and said ‘‘ Well, what do you think of me?” ‘ Why, 
that you are very fond of Music, and are most likely a good musi- 
cian.”* “ That is excellent,” said the stranger ; “ could you venture 
to say that I am a composer, and what kind of Music I have a pre- 
ference for?” I answered that his organization seemed to me so 


* All the intellectual faculties were large, but Melody, Time, Order, 
Number, Constructiveness, Ideality, Veneration, Marvellousness, Hope, 
Self-esteem, and Love of Approbation, were very large, and also the domes- 
tic feelings ; hence the phrenologist will perceive it was not guessing. 


286 ON THE CONNECTION BETWEEN 


good that I should not be surprised to be informed that he was ac- 
tually a composer, and that in such case he would have a preference 
for sacred music, and probably might also indulge in amatory strains,* 
He clapped his hands with evident satisfaction at my remarks, and 
with great candour said, “ I am sure you have never seen me before, 
nor am I known to any one on board; therefore your accurate 
knowledge of my character and pursuits convinces me that Phreno- 
logy is a very valuable science: I am a composer of sacred music !”” 
He then went into the cabin and unlocked a case, from whence he 
took a quarto volume of sacred compositions for the organ, of which 
he was the author. In the satisfaction of the moment I omitted to 
inquire his name, but subsequently ascertained that it was Mr, 
Greenwood, of Leeds, and that he exercised the triple occupation of 
organ-builder, organist, and composer of sacred music. My foreign 
companion seemed also much gratified, as he confessed he “ could 
not have given any particulars of Mr. Greenwood’s mental qualifi- 
cations by the most minute and accurate examination of the face, 
although he professed to be a physiognomist. 

Let the most talented advocate of physiognomical science contem- 
plate the busts or portraits of Raphael, Rubens, or Salvator Rosa ; 
would he be enabled to explain their respective excellencies >—that 
Raphael was most powerful in imitating forms ?—that Rubens had 
more poetic conception, and an exquisite perception of the harmony 
of colours >and that Salvator Rosa luxuriated in the sublime and 
the horrible? I think he could not, so as to explain the data he 
judged from, by which, on examining other artists, he could enable 
a disciple to say which branch of the art any embryo artist would be 
most predisposed to select. Now I claim the palm for Phrenology 
because it would enable a professor to make such discrimination. 
He could ascertain the particular bias, and also how far any one 
might hope to vie or approximate to the great masters of the art. 
Or let the Lavaterian put his rules to this test ; let him decide on 
examining a number of students just entered at Cambridge (of 
course, all strangers to him), and say whether they will or will not 
take honours, and, if so, who amongst them would be most likely to 
be the senior wrangler, or second, or third, &e. Should he form 
his opinions from the features of a Newton, he would probably find 
the faces different in every one of the individuals on whom the expe- 
riment was tried. But this would be no kind of obstacle to a phre- 
nologist ; whatever the difference in the general forms of their 


* He had large organs of Amativeness and Adhesiveness. 


PHRENOLOGY AND PHYSLOGNOMY. 287 


heads, he would find they had large perceptive faculties (particularly 
Form, Size, and Number) and the reasoning faculties ample. 
When the late excellent Dr. Spurzheim lectured in Cambridge, he 
pointed out the very large organ of Number in Professor Airy, 
without knowing who he was. 

All that can be said for Physiognomy, in reference to the intelli- 
gence of persons, is, that it can recognise a person of general good 
talent, without explaining the details, or his particular excellence ; 
and it will also point out an idiotic person, but without specifying 
whether he is wholly or only partially so. But Phrenology can ac- 
complish these distinctions in both cases. 

Physiognomy is of some value in extreme cases of the animal pro- 
pensities, though even then it is rather something almost instinc- 
tively recognised than actually comprehended. But its data are so 
vague and undefined that it is an imperfect guide, often misleading 
the judgment. This is easily accounted for, as the modifications of 
human character depend on many and dissimilar causes, yet in every 
instance the effects are to individualize each person. It must, 
therefore, be a very difficult task to furnish a theory to explain such 
differences as the modifications in the outward and visible signs, 
which must be as numerous as they are evanescent. If we examine 
national expression, for example, we find a certain general form of 
feature, but modified by such imperceptible shades that still there 
are not two faces exactly alike. What produces these results >—the 
mental faculties, imparting, by their almost innumerable combina- 
tions, some slight difference to the muscles of the face in general, 
and of the mouth, nostrils, eye-lid, &c., in particular. It is the 
vagueness which such fleeting impressions produce that increases the 
great difficulties of comprehending the commonplace in human cha- 
racter. We may immediately determine strong-marked cases, such 
as the confirmed sensualist, the savage, the revengeful, the stubborn, 
the proud, the vain, the sly and cunning, the ingenuous, the timid, 
the brave, &c., but what. rules have we to discriminate, with any 
accuracy, persons who are very revengeful but who can conceal 
their feelings? or those who, with the most sensual and animal 
pursuits, assume the character for being religious and moral agents ? 
In short, how are we to indicate cases when there are the greatest 
anomalies in the sum total of the character? Hence the following 
may be taken as a strictly legitimate estimate of the actual value of 
Physiognomy :—Ist. That, as far as the intellectual qualifications 
of any individual are concerned, only a general notion can be ob- 
tained ; 2nd. That we can only trust to its rules in extreme cases 


288 ON DHE CONNECTION BETWEEN 


of the selfish propensities ; 3rd. It serves by negative evidence to 
mark the moral sentiments, unless in extreme cases of Benevolence, 
&e.* | 

Before proceeding further in the evidence I shall subsequently 
submit in confirmation of these statements, I may remark that I use 
the term Physiognomy in its popular and generally received sense, 
and not in its literal meaning.t but as indicating certain general ob- 
servations on the form of the forehead, nose, mouth, chin, &c, 
Now, the hard bony outline of the features are modified by the dif- 
ferent action imparted to the muscles that give to the face its varied 
expression ; and the instruments which set the muscles into their 
simple and complex action, are the nerves of the face (those of the 
eyes, mouth, &c.), which also receive their impulse by the mind act- 
ing through the organs of the brain. 

The child at its birth possesses the mental faculties which will 
one day give to the character of the man his individuality. These 
faculties are not called into simultaneous action, but are developed 
at the periods when they become important ; and in harmony with 
this arrangement are the changes which occur to the countenance. 
What a difference in the expression of the child! how rounded and 
smooth are the muscles! how these same features undergo an alte- 
ration in adolescence! and how much more so in manhood! At 
this period, there is an angularity, a sharpness, modified by the 
amount of anxiety or passion which have influenced the metamor- 
phosis. But all such changes are owing to the cerebral organs act- 
ing directly on the muscles of the face, which, like obedient ser- 
vants, merely take their expression from the mental faculties, and 
that with rapid punctuality, when they are called upon. 

Suppose we offer an illustration of these statements; let it be 
the organ of Secretiveness. Every one of the mental faculties gives 
some specific action to the muscles of the face generally, but to one 
or more in particular. Thus it (Secretiveness) acts very much on 
the muscles which depress the eye-lids, giving the eye a half-con- 
cealed appearance ; whilst another muscle pulls the eye-ball rather 
on one side, and, in the language of Burns, gives the power to 


“ Keek through ev’ry other man 
W? sharpen’d, slee, inspection.” 


* Those who have read the celebrated Characters of Theophrastus, will 
recognise them as mere descriptions of extreme cases. 
+ Study of Nature. 


289 


PHRENOLOGY AND PHYSIOG! 


And thus, if this one propensity be in extreme in the character, we 
should have the sly-looking person. On the other hand, suppose the 
organization to be the same, but that education may have prevented 
its abused activity, there would be some modification produced in 
the face by this circumstance. Again; if trained with a view of 
concealing the real opinions of an individual, he would use this same 
faculty to simulate some very different character to his own. Such 
a person could 


* Smile and smile and be a villain.” 


Now, whatever the natural character, the features would be, at 
birth, of a particular form ; education would, by calling into action 
particular faculties, have a tendency, by means of the muscles of the 
face, to alter and modify the form of every feature. But whether 
or not any great alteration is produced in the form of the face, there 
would be a considerable difference in the expression ; hence it would 
be more correct to speak of Pathognomy (expression) instead of 
Physiognomy. 

If one feeling can impart a particular expression, so would power- 
ful Destructiveness give a savage expression when it was excited, 
and a very large Cautiousness an expression of great timidity, or 
even terror, if called into strong action. It is by such means that 
faces are stamped with a morose or a timid expression: the repeti- 
tion of the feeling, with the corresponding repetition of particular 
arrangement of the muscles of the mouth, &c., will in time pro- 
duce a fixedness of form, an index of the strong passions which have 
been most powerfully experienced. ee 

I mention these facts to point out, Ist. That it is quite possible 
to indicate any strong mental power, because it imparts a particular 
arrangement to the facial muscles ; 2nd. That in cases of persons 
of nearly similar cerebral organization at their birth, and very much 
alike in their faces, if they were placed in different circumstances, 
there would be in time a marked difference in their faces or in their 
expression ; 3rd. That such results are the effects of the particular 
’ arrangement of the facial muscles, which is produced by the trans- 
mitted action of one or more of the intellectual, moral, or animal 
faculties, and the frequency or otherwise of these changes ulti- 
mately gives a particular expression; 4th. That when the mental 
faculties are in mediocrity, and the temperament very active, the 
rapid and almost magical changes which are imparted to the facial 
muscles are too evanescent to leave any permanent impressions; 

VOL. VI—-NO. XX. 00 


290 ON THE CONNECTION BETWEEN 


hence the difficulty of having any positive physiognomical . know- 
ledge of such characters. 

The accuracy of these statements ay be verified in the following 
manner :—by observing the features under the excitement of strong 
passions—such as fear, anger, pride, firmness, &c. In these highly- 
excited states of the primitive feelings of Cautiousness, Destructive- 
ness, Self-esteem, &c., the complex muscles of the mouth indicate 
marked differences in their arrangement and combinations. This is 
confirmed by the fact, that when individuals have their casts taken 
in plaster, whatever states of mind they have experienced will be 
imparted to the bust. In my own museum, I have children’s casts 
smiling with Love-of-approbation, frowning because scolded, affected 
almost to the very act of crying, and with closely compressed lips, 
strongly expressive of great firmness and a determination not to— 
ery, &c. _ : 

We must, therefore, judge of the relative importance of Phrenolo- 
gy and Physiognomy by their respective practical merits. It is pos- 
sible by the former to specify particular intellectual powers, and, in 
an insane establishment, to point out persons partially affected, as in 
cases of monomania; and, in the prison, to form an accurate estimate 
of the degree of criminality of each offender.* There is, however, 
_ one physiognomical observation I have made, which seems to be 
almost a rule absolute ; viz.—that persons guilty of great crimes— 
say murder, or murder and robbery—are generally very ugly ; and 
in my own collection there are many so much alike, and their habits 
and crimes so similar, that a casual observer would say, there was a 
great family likeness among them. But. this sameness of expression 
is quite corroborative of the opinions before submitted. These cri- 
minals having similarly formed heads—the base of the brain and 
back part of the head (behind the meatus auditorius externus ) 
being in the greater proportion, which gave them a bias to ani- 
mal and selfish gratifications, and which they cultivated by associat- 
ing with criminal minds, and by not having any appeals made to 
their higher sentiments: hence, from the constancy of particular ac- 
tions transmitted to the muscles of the face, we have ample means of 
accounting for their cowntenances beng very similar. I select the 
following illustrative examples :— 

Heffell and Kipple were executed at Horsemonger-lane, for the 


* The first experiment instituted by the writer, was when Sir W. C. Ellis , 
was Medical Resident at the Pauper Lunatic Asylum at Wakefield; and the 
second was made by my late friend, Dr. Spurzheim, in the Hull gaol. 


PHRENOLOGY AND PHYSIOGNOMY. 291 


murder of Mrs. Richards, of Clapham. They are reported to have 
been very much hardened and reckless, and perfectly indifferent to 
their fate. It is said that they shewed the most perfect contempt 
and insolence to their minister, who endeavoured to make them sen- 
sible of their depraved condition. They had been for some time 
companions in crime—colleagues in a career of vice and intempe- 
rance. Their features are somewhat different, but their heads are 
very similar, and look almost as if they had been formed in one 
mould. Yet, from their having exercised their animal propensities, 
they have a very similar expression. The intellectual faculties of 
both are only moderate (small anterior lobes), but Amativeness, De- 
structiveness, Secretiveness, Acquisitiveness, irmness, and Self-es- 
teem, are all very large, when compared to the moral sentiments. 
Kipple’s features have rather more of refinement than Heffell’s, 
owing perhaps to his Ideality and Secretiveness being rather better 
developed than in his associate. But the faculties which must have 
been most active, and most exercised, being so much alike, may ac- 
count for the stupid daring so apparent in their casts. ) 

Some time since I visited the Wakefield House of Correction. 
The appearance of the female prisoners was in general very ungain- 
ly, having broad and low heads, strongly indicating their depraved 
and criminal habits. One of them told me, without the slightest 
appearance of shame, that she had been in a prison sixteen times! 
There was one young woman, however, amidst these . debased 
persons, who was very handsome, and seemed to have a good 
cerebral organization. She had been committed for pawning stolen 
goods, and was very near being a mother, although not more than 
seventeen years old. On: examining her head I found a deep de- 
pression over the organ of Conscientiousness, which she said was 
occasioned by a fall, at which time she lost some quantity of the 
brain; added to this she had been neglected in her moral education 
(being an orphan), but could read and write. She should have been 
placed in an insane establishment, and treated as one having a 
diseased brain, rather than abandoned to the society of a number of 
women naturally depraved. In cases of this kind, the importance 
of Gall’s philosophy of mind is obvious, as it would enable the ma- 
gistrate to exercise a discretionary power, and to commit those 
whom the scientific practitioner must decide as cases of disease, to 
the care of a physician, rather than to the goaler. 

It has often appeared to me, that painting and sculpture could be 
turned to moral advantage, in exhibiting the features of persons 
under the strongest excitement. Of course, if the moral sentiments, 


292 ON THE CONNECTION BETWEEN 


we should have examples of the sublime in sentiment—if the 
animal propensities, the best types to denote each particular passion 
as it fixes its mark on the features. Would any argument be 
so powerful an advocate for temperance, as the busts of the 
sensualist, the glutton, and the inebriate? The appeal of the 
Romans and Spartans to their children * would be less powerful 
checks to arrest the progress of the inebriate, than a series of casts 
taken from persons in the different stages of intoxication, particu- 
larly the idiotic stage of complete inebriation. These casts would 
be good studies for the physiognomist. He would find that there 
might be features very well formed, or extremely plain, but with a 
similar expression, because the brain ceasing to stimulate the fea- 
tures, they would have all the appearance of fatuity. 

Before bringing these miscellaneous observations to a close, I 
submit the following practical truths. Ist., That most criminals 
have broad noses, flattened out at the extremity (the ale que nasi 
extended) ; the mouth large, the lips thin, and in nearly straight 
lines, without any undulation; the chin broad and deep; and the 
heads, in all extreme cases, broad from ear to ear, with defective 
moral sentiments, and very moderate intelligence. 

2nd. Measuring the face of a great many good heads similarly 
to those of the criminals, that is, from the roots of the nose, just 
below Individuality (os nasi), to the curve of the chin, we could 
not find any thing like a positive difference, and very often the 
forms of the nose also agreed; the only positive difference being 
in the mouth, and this is by no means surprising, when we 
consider the number of muscles which produce its various mo- 
tions ; and as these motions are different in emotions of the sen- 
timents and in the animal passions, the results of their constant 
actions impart forms to this interesting organ (the mouth) which 
are the least fallacious of any of the physiognomical signs. I re- © 
collect a young man who was nearly idiotic, the son of a learned 
divine, whose features were so like those of his father that they 
might be considered a fac-simile, with the exception of the mouth, 
which had a very different expression. 

Again, we often see persons with faultless faces, who have as 
much expression as dolls carved from wood. In such cases, the 
mouth will tell something, as the muscles have been moved as me- 


* I allude to the practice of the Romans making their slaves, and the 
Spartans their helots, beastly intoxicated, to disgust their children with the 
vice of inebriation. 


PHRENOLOGY AND PHYSIOGNOMY. 293 


chanically as the works of an automaton. Persons of this kind have 
small brains, and their temperament is sluggish (lymphatic) ; hence 
their senseless faces and want of expression. 

On the whole, therefore, I do not deny that Physiognomy may be 
used as an auxiliary to Phrenology—as an “ index” to mark when 
there has been a highly excited state of various feelings ; but to 
read and comprehend them would require the philosophy of Gall, 
which furnishes the only true key to human nature. 

It is generally asserted by the opponents of Phrenology, that 
when its professors point out any particular ¢rait of character, they 
judge by the form of the features, rather than by the head: and 
they affect to laugh at our “ conceits,* as they are pleased to term 
them, when we say that we should not derive any definite notions 
of the modification of talent, &c., if the head was concealed, but 
that we can do so if the face is covered. And when we offer in 
opposition to their mere assertions, to abide by our statements, and 
prove our knowledge of characters by a practical experiment on 
strangers, they are so disingenuous as to call it “ good guessing.” 
Yet facts demonstrate that a phrenologist who is well acquainted 
with the elements of the science, will not fail in estimating the 
natural tendencies of even commonplace persons, whilst the phy- 
siognomist can scarcely determine on any thing more than extremes 
in character,—circumstances that at once decide which of the two 
sciences will be most important in a psychological point of view, and 
in promoting the happiness and welfare of mankind. 


Doncaster, March 18, 1837. 


CORRESPONDENCE. 


To tHE Eprrors or “THe ANALYsT.” 


GENTLEMEN, 


I ree happy in having obtained the permission of two ladies to 
enclose for the pages of the Analyst lists of the rarer indigenous 
plants collected by themselves in their respective vicinities. The 
first catalogue, which has reference principally to the neighbour- 


294 CATALOGUE OF RARE PLANTS FOUND IN THE 


hood of Moseley, forms a valuable addition to that of the Birming- 
ham plants given by a gentleman in a former number, a few of 
which have been repeated when it was desirable to furnish other 
habitats. I have sent the lists as they were received, with the 
exception of my having added a little to the first. And as I 
have had the gratification of inspecting, either in the living state or 
in Miss Beilby’s herbarium, nearly every species comprehended in 
the first catalogue, with the exception of the Carices, I can bear 
testimony to its correctness ; and from Miss Jackson’s extensive and 
minute acquaintance with our indigenous flora, implicit confidence 
may be placed in the accuracy of the list from Lichfield. It may 
be well to premise, that, in the first list, the names are from Lind- 
ley, in the second from Smith. 
Yours, respectfully, 
E. W. BENSON. 


CATALOGUE oF RARE PLANTS FOUND IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD 
oF BIRMINGHAM. 


Crass L., VASCULARES.—Svus-Crass I, DICOTYLEDONES. 


RanuncuLacem.—Thalictrum flavum, meadows near the Rea. 

Fumariace®.—Fumaria capreolata, Sandy lanes. 

BrassicacEm.—Coronopus Ruellii, lanes near Yardley. 

VioLtacEz.—Viola palustris, bog on Moseley Common. 

DrosEracE&.— Drosera rotundifolia, bogs on Moseley Common. 

HypericacEm.—Hypericum pulchrum, Green Lanes, Yardley ; 
H. elodes, in a drained mill-pool on Moseley Common. 

CaRYOPHYLLACER.—Dianthus deltoides, lanes near Moseley, but 
rare; Silene inflata, road-side, Handsworth; Lychnis vespertina, 
lane from Sparkbrook to Golden Hillock; Arenaria tenuifolia, 
Gravelly fields, Yardley ; Stellaria nemorum, field in Hob-lane, 
Yardley. 

LinacEx.—Linum catharticum, Balsall Heath, and banks of the 
Warwick canal; Radiola millegrana, Moseley Wake Green. 

GERANIACEE.—Geranium columbinum, Green Lanes, Small 
Heath. 

SAXIFRAGACEH.—Adoxa moschatellina, under Aston Park-wall, 
and in many lanes near Birmingham; Parnassia palustris, bogs on 
Moseley Common ; Leiogyne granulata, lanes near Yardley. 

LytrHRAcEx.—Peplis portula, Green Lane, Small Heath ; Ly- 
thrum salicaria, Hay-mill Brook, Yardley. 


VICINITY OF BIRMINGHAM AND LICHFIELD. 295 


RuAMNAcEx.—Rhamnus frangula, Moseley Common. 

Fasaces.—Melilotus officinalis, fields near Moseley occasion- 
ally ; Medicago sativa?, banks of new Dudley Canal ; Ornithopus 
pepusillus, Moseley Wake Green. 

Rosacem.—Potentilla comarum, pool on Moseley Common. 

CrrcmacE®.—Circea lutetiana, Sheldon. 

Haroracacem.—Myriophyllum spicatum, Rea, near Vaughton’s 
Hole. 

ApiacEm.—Archangelica officinalis, bank of a small brook, on 
the left of the Stratford road ; Stlaus pratensis, field in Hob- 
lane, Yardley; Helosciadium inundatum, Moseley Wake Green ; 
Hydrocotyle vulgaris, Moseley Wake Green. 

VaccinacEm.—Oxzycoccus palustris, bog on Moseley Common. 

CaMPANULACER.—Campanula patula, common in many places, 
Sheldon. 

Compositm.—Eupatorium cannabinum, Vaughton’s Hole and at 
Yardley ; Pulicaria dysenterica, common at Yardley ; Cnicus pra- 
tensis, Moseley Common, and field in Hob Lane; Serratula tincto- 
ria, near the Rea, Balsall Heath, lane from Yardley to Sheldon ; 
Centaurea solstitialis, Eagbaston ; Chondrilla muralis, Stony Lane, 
Sparkbrook ; Senecio sylvaticus, lanes, common. 

BoRAGINACER.—Anchusa sempervirens, near Moseley Hall, and 
Edgbaston. 

PLANTAGINACEE.—Plantago coronopus, Moseley Wake Green. 

Ericace®.—Erica tetralix, and E. cinerea, Moseley Common. 

GENTIANACEEZ.—Menyanthes trifoliata, pond on Moseley Com- 
mon. 

PRIMULACE%.— Centunculus minimus, Moseley Wake Green ; 
Anagallis tenella, bog on Moseley Common. 

ScROPHULARINACE.—Veronica scutellata, Moseley Wake ila: 
Pedicularis palustris, bog on Moseley Common ; P. sylvatica, lanes 
near Moseley. 

MELAMPYRACEEZ.—Melampyrum pratense, the Beech Woods. 

Lamiacem.—Mentha gentilis, Yardley ; Stachys arvensis, Yard- 
ley-field ; Nepeta cataria, Yardley ; Scutellaria galericulata, pond 
on Moseley Common, and bank of Warwick canal; S. minor, bog 
on Moseley Common. 

PoLyconacEm.— Polygonum bistorta, lane from Cannon Hall to 
Moor Green. 

Eupnorsiace®.—Mercurialis perennis, Sheldon church-yard. 


296 CATALOGUE OF RARE PLANTS FOUND IN THE 
Sus-Crass I1.—_MONOCOTYLEDONES. 


JUNCAGINACE®.—Triglochin palustre, meadows near the Rea. 

OrcuipacEm.—Listera ovata, and Orchis morio, mascula, latifo- 
lia, and maculata, common about Sheldon. 

MELANTHACER.—Colchicum autumnale, common in wet fields 
near Yardley. 

AMARYLLIDACER.—Narcissus pseudo-narcissus, field at Showell 
Green, and fields near Yardley. 

LiniacEx.—Allium ursinum, fields and brooksides near Mose- 
ley and Yardley. 

Buromace®.—Butomus umbellatus, Vaughton’s Hole. 

JuncacEm.—Narthecium ossifragum, bog on Moseley Common. 

CypEeracem.—Rhyncospora alba, bogs on Moseley Common ; 
Eriophorum vaginatum, angustifolium, bog on Moseley Common ; 
Carex stellata, ovalis, remota, Moseley Common; C. paniculata, 
pond at Edgbaston, near Strawberry Vale ; C. divulsa, same place ; 
C. vulpina, Shady Lanes, common; C. sylvatica, Edgbaston Lane, 
opposite Cannon Hall gates; C. pseudo-cyperus, ditch in a field on 
the Balsall Heath side of the Rea; C. flava, binervis, preecox, pani- 
cea, cespitosa, Moseley Common; C. acuta, paludosa, riparia, 
bank of the Warwick Canal; C. vesicaria, pond on Moseley Com- 
mon ; C. levigata, moist field at Highgate, not far from the Rea. 

GRAMINACER.— Molinia cerulea, Moseley Common ; Melica uni- 
flora, common in shady lanes. 


Crass II., CELLULARES.—Svus-Crass IIL, ACOTYLEDONES. 


PoLyPopiacEx.—Aspidium lobatum, Yardley ; A. oreopteris, 
cristatum, dilatatum, Moseley Common; Asplenium adiantum-ni- 
grum, trichomanes, Green Lane, Yardley ; A. rula-muraria, old 
walls, Hall Green, but not common ; A. jfilix-foemina, lanes, com- 
mon; Blechnum boreale, Moseley Common ; Scolopendrium vul- 
gare, lanes near Yardley occasionally. 

OsmunDACE®.—Osmunda regalis, Moseley Common. 

Opui0GLossacEm.—Ophioglossum vulgatum, meadow at the Rec- 
tory, Sheldon. 

LycoropiacEm.—Lycupodium selago, bog on Moseley Common. 


M. A. Berusy. 
[We have taken the liberty of supplying, in the above list, the family 


names from the second edition of Lindley’s work, which will, we hope, meet 
the wishes of our correspondent.—Eps. | 


VICINITY OF BIRMINGHAM AND LICHFIELD. 297 


CATALOGUE oF SomME OF THE RARER SPECIES OF PLANTS 
FOUND IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF LICHFIELD. 


Cuass I.—Chara flexilis. 

Cuass II.—Veronica scutellata, montana, Utricularia vulgaris 
(ditches near Wichnor), Lycopus Europzus (Stow), Circa lute- 
tiana. 

Crass IJ1.—Valeriana officinalis and dioica, Fedia olitoria, den- 
tata. 

Cxuass IV.—Dipsacus sylvestris and pilosus (Hopwas Wood), 
Asperula odorata (Hopwas Wood), Scabiosa succisa, Galium erec- 
tum (Swinfen Pastures), Plantago coronopus, Sanguisorba officina- 
lis, Parietaria officinalis, Manchia fontana, Potamogeton grami- 
neus. 

Cxiass V.—Echium vulgare (Thickbroom), Myosotis caspitosa, 
Symphytum officinale, tuberosum, Borago officinale, Menyanthes tri- 
JSoliata (bog, Paper Mill), Lystmachia vulgaris, nemorum, nummu- 
laria (Woods about Curbro’.), Anagallis tenella, Campanula patula, 
latifolia, hederacea, Hyoscyamus niger, Solanum nigrum, Rhamnus 
Srangula, catharticus, Viola palustris, Sanicula Europea, Sium an- 
gustifolium, Myrrhis temulenta, Anthriscus vulgaris, Angelica syl- 
vestris, Pimpinella magna (Needwood Forest, nine miles), Vibur- 
num opulus, Parnassia palustris, Drosera rotundifolia, longifolia. 

Crass VI.—Convallaria majalis (Curbro’ Wood), Berberis vul- 
garis (hedges near Hints), Peplis portula, Narcissus pseudo-nar- 
cissus, Narthecium ossifragum, Acorus calamus (Tamworth), Trig- 
lochin palustre. 

Cuass VIII.—Epilobium angustifolium (Curbro’ Wood), E. rose- 
um (Pipemarsh), Chlora perfoliata, Erica tetralix, cinerea, Polygo- 
num bistorta, Adoxa moschatellina, Paris quadrifolia. 

Crass IX.— Butomus umbellatus. > 

Cuass X.—Sazifraga granulata, tridactylites, Scleranthus annu- 
us, perennis, Chrysosplenum alternifolium, oppositifolium, Saponaria 
officinalis (Tamworth), Silene inflata, noctiflora, Stellaria graminea, 
Sedum telephium. 

Crass XI.—Lythrum salicaria, hyssopifolium (Tamworth), Rese- 
da luteola. 

Cxass XII.—Spirea salicifolia (Needwood, nine miles), Geum 
rivale, Comarum palustre. 

Crass XIII.—Papaver argemone, dubium, somniferum, Thalic- 
trum flavum, Nuphar lutea, Nymphea alba (Tamworth). 

VOL, VI.—NO. XX. PP 


298 THE ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. 


Cuass XIV.—Mentha hirsuta, pulegium, Nepeta cataria, Mar- 
rubium vulgare, Verbena officinalis, Thymus acinos, calamintha, 
Scutellaria minor, Melampyrum pratense. 

Crass XV.—Lepidium campestre, Teesdalia nudicaulis, Carda- 
mine amara, Turritis glabra. 

Crass XVI.—Erodium maritimum, Geranium lucidum, columbi- 
num, pyrenaicum, 

Cuass XVII.—Fumaria peiben Genista anglica, Ononis ar- 
vensis, Vicia angustifolia, lathyroides, Ervum tetraspermum, E. hir- 
sutum, Trifolium striatum, T. arvense, Lotus decumbens. 

Cass chen TE 8 androsemum (Hopwas, five miles), 
H. elodes. 

Cuiass XIX. Se pratensis, Hieracium umbellatum, sa- 
baudum, Serratula tinctoria, Bidens cernua, Gnaphalium erectum 
(Hopwas), G. germanicum, Erigeron acre, Senecio sylvaticus, Soli- 
dago virgaurea (Hopwas), Anthemis nobilis, cotula. 

Cxiass XX.—Orchis bifolia, Epipactis latifolia, Listera ovata; 
Malazis paludosa. 

Cuass XXIV.—Aspidium angulare, oreopteris, lobatum, Aspleni- 
um ruta-muraria, trichomanes, Scolopendrium vulgare, Lycopodium 
clavatum, Ophioglossum vulgatum, Equisetum sylvaticum, fluviatile, 
arvense, hyemale. 


The above are all found in the immediate vicinity of Lichfield, 
unless the contrary is stated. 


; M. A. Jackson. 
Lichfield. 


THE ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. 


We have watched the rise and progress of this infant Society 
with unusual interest and anxiety ; and we are happy in being now 
able to congratulate our readers upon its establishment on a firm 
basis.. The original programme, or heads of the plan which the 
Provisional Committee recommended the members of the Society to 
adopt, had our cordial and unqualified approbation ; and when the 
general meeting of the 26th of April referred that plan. to the con- 


THE ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. 299 


sideration of the newly appointed council, we felt that the names of 
the noblemen and gentlemen of whom that body is composed af- 
forded an ample guarantee that the whole plan, unmutilated and 
uncurtailed of its fair proportions, would, sooner or later, be carried 
into execution. We question whether any society in England can 
boast such a list of names as the Council of the Ornithological So- 
ciety contains. The Earl of Liverpool is President ; the Duke of 
Bedford, the Bishop of Norwich (more dear to ornithologists as the 
Rev. E. Stanley), Sir Robert Peel, Macleay, Swainson, and Vigors, 
are the Vice-Presidents, all members of the Council ; as are also 
the Earl of Derby, Dr. Burchell, Mr. Ridley Colborne, J. E. Gray, 
Captain Mangles, the Earl of Orkney, and Dr. Royle. What may 
not be expected and obtained from such men? Their very names 
are in themselves a host. We were present at the opening of the 
rooms in Pall Mall at the general meeting on the 3rd instant. In 
the absence of Lord Liverpool, Mr. Macleay, the father of British 
zoological science, took the chair amid the hearty applause of the 
meeting. He opened the proceedings in a short speech, in which, 
after congratulating the Society upon their attainment of the two 
most important preliminary objects, “a local habitation and a 
name,” he briefly stated that the present condition of science re- 
quired the establishment of an ornithological society ; that the plan 
upon which this Society is projected was eminently calculated to 
further the interests of science and to produce practical advantages 
to all classes of the public; and that the Society might already be 
said to be firmly and permanently established. The Council then 
presented their Report, which was approved and ordered to be 
printed. Having obtained a copy we propose to give it entire, as it 
sketches the whole outline of the plan which the Council intend 
to execute :-— 

** In pursuance of the resolution of the last general meeting, by 
which the scheme recommended by the Provisional Committee was 
referred to the Council, and the Council were directed to publish a 
short statement of the views of the Society, they proceeded to con- 
sider what portions of the scheme they could venture, in the then 
state of the Society, to carry into execution, and embodied them in 
the prospectus, of which each member has been furnished with a 
copy. The total number of members is now one hundred and se- 
venty-four ; and, considering that these members have been elected 
while the Society could hold out the inducement of prospective ad- 
vantages only, there appears well-founded reason for anticipating a 
‘very extensive and powerful support from the public so soon as the 


300 THE ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. 


Society shall be in a condition to offer immediate and actual advan- 
tages to its members. The Council will endeavour, gradually and 
securely, to extend the basis of the Society, and to embrace, as their 
financial means may allow, the whole of the following objects, 
which they consider are obviously (in the words of the prospectus) 
legitimate objects of a National Ornithological Society, viz.: The 
free exhibition of living birds in the public parks; the introduction, 
breeding, and distribution (with a view to the naturalization) of all 
such foreign birds as are suited for domestication in preserves, 
poultry yards, and cages ; the publication and patronage of scienti- 
fic, popular, and practical works on Ornithology ; the formation of 
an useful and interesting museum, and a standard ornithological li- 
brary of consultation and reference ; the institution of periodical 
meetings, lectures, and prizes for ornithological essays, and for the 
breeding of useful and ornamental foreign birds. The extent to 
which the Council will venture to attempt these objects, will de- 
pend entirely upon the means which may be placed at their dis. 
posal; they are confident, however, that the mere endeavour to 
accomplish such objects can hardly fail to be serviceable to Science, 
to be popular and attractive, and to be productive of practical uti- 
lity. The Council have great satisfaction in stating that a consi- 
derable majority of the most eminent British ornithologists have 
promised their co-operation and support. So many members of the 
Society have offered donations, and loans of specimens for exhibition 
in the museum whenever it should be opened, and so important it 
appeared, in the present state of the Society, to bring the members 
as much as possible together, for the attainment of their common 
objects and the rapid extension of the institution, that the Council 
conceive that its interests would best be consulted by providing, 
without further delay, as good an accommodation for the meetings, 
museum, and library, as the circumstances of the Society would 
afford: they have, therefore, taken these rooms for a period of three 
months, renewable upon the same terms, viz. £140. per annum. 
They propose that (Sundays excepted) the rooms should be daily 
open to members and their friends from half-past nine till six, and 
that the museum and library should be always open, without re- 
striction, to scientific persons and artists—The Earl of Liverpool, 
as President, has appointed the following noblemen and gentlemen 
to be Vice Presidents of the Society, viz.: His Grace the Duke of 
Bedford, the Bishop of Norwich, Sir Robert Peel, Bart., M.P., 
W.S. Macleay, Esq., W. Swainson, Esq., and N. A. Vigors, Esgq., 
M.P.—The Council have elected the Earl of Derby and Dr. Bur. 


THE ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. 301 


chell Honorary Members of the Society and ex-officio Members of 
the Council, and it is concluded: that there can be but one opinion 
of their eminent fitness for these appointments.—Mr. Holl has un- 
dertaken to act as Secretary, jointly with Mr. Harry Chester, until 
further arrangements can be made by the Council.—The Council 
are convinced that the real value of the Society, its usefulness, and 
means of permanent popularity, will depend mainly on the early 
acquisition of a valuable museum and library, and they strongly re- 
commend that great efforts should be made to secure this important 
point: they, therefore, propose that a separate fund should be cre- 
ated for the express purpose of furnishing books, cabinets, and spe- 
cimens of stuffed birds, skins, nests, eggs, skeletons, and anatomical 
parts and preparations to illustrate the habits and the internal and 
external structure of birds ; that a book should be opened for “* Sub- 
scriptions to the Museum and Library Fund,’ and that the property 
acquired by these subscriptions should remain vested in the names 
of the subscribers until the general funds of the Society be suffici- 
ent to repay to the Subscribers the sums which might be advanced 
for this purpose. The Council confidently appeal to the liberality 
of the friends of the Society, to furnish in this manner the means of 
establishing it at once upon an honorable and advantageous footing. 
—TIn conclusion, the Council are anxious to impress upon the minds 
of the members that the popularity of the Society will be greater 
or less in proportion to the extension or contraction of its basis ; 
that, by a judicious combination of the scientific, the attractive, and 
the practical, not only good will be effected, but the means of effect- 
ing it will be increased, and the support of all parties may be 
counted upon, from those who look to the improvement of the 
breeds of domestic poultry, to those who delight in the loftiest spe- 
culations of Science.—Books are opened at the Society’s rooms for 
subscriptions to the museum and library fund, and for donations to 
the general funds, to the library, to the museum, and to the col- 
lection of living birds.” 

The reading of the Report was followed by a very interesting 
discussion of the various modes in which the institution might be 
made to work for the public good: for our own part it appears to 
us that all its objects are admirable. It proposes to unite all 
classes of ornithologists for the attainment of their common objects ; 
and it has already united Mr. Vigors, Swainson, Macleay, Lord 
Derby, Stanley, Gray, Horsfield, Yarrell, Mudie, Sykes, Gould, 
Burchell, Richardson, Selby—why prolong the list? We have 
stated that the Earl of Derby and Dr. Burchell have been elected 


302 THE GRNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. 


honorary members: such appointments reflect equal honour upun 
the two parties. We hope that Dr. Burchell, in this well-deserved 
compliment, will perceive that he is not yet forgotten in the scien- 
tific world, which (alas for the interests of science!) he has of late 
too much deserted ; and we hail his acceptance of this honour as a 
pledge that he will thrust his sickle into the harvest of knowledge 
which he possesses in his close-sealed collections ; that he will do 
tardy justice to science, to his friends who are anxious for his fame, 
and (though last, not least) to himself. 

The free exhibition of living birds in the public parks would 
alone stamp this Society with the mark of pre-eminent liberality. 
Our country friends can have little notion of the extraordinary in- 
terest which is created by the collection of aquatic birds in St. 
James’s Park. On Sundays the banks of the lake are even incon- 
veniently crowded with thousands upon thousands of people. It is, 
indeed, an attractive sight ; the locale itself is particularly beauti- 
ful, and the numerous young broods that are just now upon the 
water add greatly to the interest of the scene. The advantages of 
introducing suitable foreign birds into this country are too obvious 
to be mentioned ; they are exemplified in the Pheasant, Turkey, 
and Canary Bird. The publication of scientific and practically 
useful works on Ornithology will be a boon of incalculable value. 
With regard to the museum and library, we will only say we are 
glad that a foundation of each has been already laid, and we hope 
that the suggestion which Mr. Vigors made at the general meeting 
will be attended to, namely, that the Zoological Society should 
present their duplicate birds to the museum of the new institution. 

The periodical meetings and lectures will be interesting, and in 
many ways useful ; and in estimating the advantages of prize 
shews of birds we have only to refer to the analogous shews of the 
horticultural societies. You have exhibitions of fruit and flowers— 
why not have exhibitions of birds? We must now take a quarter's 
leave of the Ornithological Society of London. May it never dis- 
appoint our expectations ! 


303 


PROCEEDINGS OF PROVINCIAL SOCIETIES. 


WORCESTERSHIRE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 


\ 

We have great pleasure in recording the increasing prosperity of 
this Society, and the rapid progress it has made in promoting scien- 
tific inquiry in the several branches of Natural History. During 
the past session, a series of highly interesting lectures have been de- 
livered on various subjects, including one by the Rev. John Pear- 
son, on the Influence of Natural History on the religious and moral 
Character. of Man, of which the following is an abstract :— 

After dwelling upon the frame of mind in which the study of 
Nature should be approached, the lecturer proceeded: “ We are 
apt to speak of religious and moral influences as matters of course— 
as abstract principles which alone require to be known that they 
may be appreciated and adopted; we imagine that they are recom- 
mended by their own intrinsic weight and character, and that the 
mind necessarily prostrates itself before their consecrated shrine. 
Do we not deceive ourselves by the speciousness of this conclusion ? 
Do we not too often fancy ourselves in possession of the feelings 
without sufficiently estimating the means by which they are to be 
obtained, and thus appropriate to ourselves a pharisaical conviction 
which deludes with the form rather than confers the substance ? 
Do we not too often amuse ourselves with lights and shades under 
the impression that we grasp the reality? It is well known to the 
cultivator of the soil, that he can expect no produce unless he 
labours with a persevering and untiring hand ; the mechanic, the 
artist, the man of science, know full well the impossibility of reach- 
ing excellence without due preparation and study. If thus it is in 
the ordinary attainment of perfection, may we not draw the same 
conclusion in relation to the influences upon the mind? Let us 
look to the untutored and unlettered barbarian. We are told that 
he 


*¢ Sees God in clouds and hears him in the wind.” 


This appears to rest more in the inspiration of the poet than in the 
realities of truth. Dependance upon a superior agency is one of the 
qualities of the human mind; but, in a state of Nature, how does . 
man display its character? By falling down before a stock or a 
stone, a Vishnu or a Juganaut; thus idolizing the creature of his 
own invention, and propitiating his imaginary deity as the means 
of support in the pursuit of his unsubdued. and unhallowed passions. 
* * * If then it shall be admitted that we require every aid and 
assistance in perfecting the intentions of the Deity, that it is our 
duty as our interest to prepare by cultivation and by industry for 
the reception of those truths revealed to man, where shall we find 


304 PROCEEDINGS OF PROVINCIAL SOCIETIES. 


such able and effectual assistance as in the contemplation of the stu- 
pendous fabric which was formed by the Almighty Creator, and in 
reading in the book of Nature those salutary and instructive lessons 
before which even scepticism is baffled, and before which the highest 
reach of intellect in every age and under every clime has bowed 
with confidence and trust? Unhappily, however, the various 
proofs of divine power and divine beneficence are looked upon by 
the mass of mankind in too negative a light: yesterday, to-day, and 
every day they present the same unvarying phenomena, disregarded 
or unappreciated by the ordinary observer. The richest treasures of 
Nature are to him, like leaves in the Sybil’s book—a charmed 
knowledge, as it were, hermetically sealed, because he will not open 
the pages and appropriate to himself the precious contents. From 
whence, then, this apathy to the beauties of creation? why have 
they not been received into the inner man in aid of that scheme of 
regeneration which has been offered for his acceptance? The rea- 
son is obvious: he has been untaught and unschooled in the great 
volume of Nature; his attention has not been directed to its in- 
structive lessons ; he has not been made acquainted with its con- 
tents; his eye first opened upon all its charms, and because they 
have exhibited an uniform and even aspect, he sees nothing won- 
derful in that which is so familiar.’ The lecturer then strongly en- 
forced the necessity of imbuing the youthful mind with the love 
and knowledge of the works of God, and thus proceeds: “ There is 
a grandeur, a beauty, and a harmony in Nature which, when rightly 
considered, cannot fail to direct the heart and mind to contempla- 
tions beyond this world and all its concernments. The lover of 
Nature treads, as it were, upon holy ground, unpolluted by the pas- 
sions which usually agitate and perplex him in the more busy 
scenes of life: all is tranquil, serene, and composed ; the tossings of 
the storm are still; he beholds the heavens, the sun, the moon, the 
stars, acting in one uniform system—‘ each has its place appointed, 
each its course ;’ he contemplates the earth and its adaptation to 
the uses, the conveniencies, and pleasures of existence, ‘ fraught 
with all comforts, nor yet one withheld ;’ he looks into the detail of 
Nature, and finds the minutest particle contributing to the mighty 
whole, and each formed by the Divine Artificer for the happiness of 
his creatures.” 

After further pursuing this train of thought, the lecturer pro- 
ceeded to state his regret that, through our own imperfect percep- 
tions and other causes, any apparent discrepancy should have arisen 
between revelation and the discoveries of modern science. These 
discrepancies had been satisfactorily reconciled by others, but as the 
objections may have been more widely spread than the refutations, 
he considered it his duty to examine the subject. “Indeed,” he 
observes, “‘some examination of this question appears indispensable ; 
for should the results of philosophical investigation prove essentially 
repugnant to the scriptural account, to me, at least, it appears most 
conducive to the welfare of mankind that we should distrust the 


PROCEEDINGS OF PROVINCIAL SOCIETIES. 305 


perceptions of our own limited and imperfect faculties, and relin- 
quish a science the results of which must be regretted by every 
friend of social order, moral excellence, and religious truth.” The 
difficulties to which the lecturer refers arise from the disclosures 
made by Geology respecting the lapse of very long periods of time 
before the six days creation, as recorded by Moses. After express- 
ing his conviction that the word and works of God must, in all es- 
sentials, point in the same direction and lead to similar conclusions, 
the lecturer thus states his opinion that the object of the Mosaic 
narration was strictly religious and in no degree scientific. ‘ Let 
us, for a moment, reflect : if it had pleased God to lay open the 
whole field of Nature and science to the view of the inspired histo- 
rian, for the sake of its farther promulgation, it would have been 
also necessary to have imparted a similar knowledge to his hearers, 
or their minds would have been involved in useless speculations and 
scientific technicalities, instead of anxiously intent on the far more 
important information which the narrative conveys. We should 
ever bear in memory this important fact, that it was not the inten- 
tion to inform mankind how the world was made, but by whom— 
not in what manner it pleased the Almighty to call creation into 
existence, but that he commanded and it was done.” The lecturer 
then goes on to state the views taken by those who consider the ma- 
terial substance of our globe to be of no oldér date than, at first 
sight, the Mosaic account may imply. The first view—that the 
various geological phenomena may be accounted for by the convul- 
sions that have taken place since the creation of man, and princi- 
pally by the Mosaic deluge—he considers to be refuted by the vast 
thickness and innumerable sub-divisions of the stratified rocks, and 
by the numerous successions they contain of the remains of animals 
and vegetables ; those in what may be termed the transition rocks, 
where organic remains are first found belonging to extinct species. 
It is still a matter of doubt whether a really fossil skeleton of 
man has ever been discovered, and certain it is that none has 
ever been found in any of the lower strata; consequently many 
successions of animals must have existed before man was first cre- 
ated.” We are obliged to abridge the discussion upon this interest- 
ing question. The next view alluded to is entertained by those 
who may be said to hold a middle course upon this subject. They 
consider that no system existed previous to the first day of the Mo- 
saic account, and that all difficulties may be overcome by extending 
the word “day” to an indefinite period, instead of a single revolu- 
tion of the earth. In the opinion of the lecturer, there exist strong 
scientific, theological, and critical objections to this view. It ap- 
pears that the remains of the most ancient marine animals occur in 
the same strata with the earliest remains of vegetables ; so the ori- 
gin of animals and plants must have been nearly cotemporaneous. 
The length of each day is distinctly marked by the emphatic men- 
tion of the evening and the morning as its boundaries. It is also 
most improbable that the sun should not have been created or made 
VOL. VI.—NO. XX. QQ 


306 PROCEEDINGS OF PROVINCIAL SOCIETIES. 


to appear till the fourth day if the earth had been for ages covered 
with vegetation, which, according to this theory, it must have been, 
the plants having been made on the third day. In the opinion of 
the lecturer, geological evidence drives us to the conclusion that 
former systems did exist prior to the biblical chronology, and that 
this view is in accordance with, rather than repugnant to, the Mo- 
saic narrative. Moses only records the present condition of the earth, 
and whether it was formed from the wreck of former systems in- 
habited by animals is left entirely an open question. About six 
thousand years have elapsed since light was commanded to descend, 
at which period the Mosaic chronology, and consequently our world, 
commenced ; but is there no intimation given that a material sub- 
stance was formed at a far prior date. The lecturer remarks, ‘‘ The 
book of Genesis opens thus: “ In the beginning God created the 
heaven and the earth.” It is worthy of remark that the Gospel of St. 
John opens in language strikingly similar, “In the beginning was 
the word.” If we place, in any degree, a similar interpretation. 
upon similar words, we are here afforded some clue—a clue, indeed, 
which, while it may direct, at the same time must overwhelm the 
mind with its immensity ; for it places the first creation of the hea- 
vens and the earth in the deepest recess of time, subsequent only to 
the one Eternal, ‘ by whom all things were made.’” The lecturer 
then proceeds to examine closely the two first. verses of Genesis, ac- 
knowledging that a part of the following argument is taken from 
a note in Dr. Buckland’s Bridgewater treatise. ‘The point upon 
which the interpretation of the first chapter of Genesis appears, in 
the opinion of many persons, to turn, is this, whether the two first 
verses are merely a summary statement of what is related afterwards 
in detail, in the creation which took place in the six days; or whe- 
ther they contain in themselves an act of creation prior to, and dis- 
tinct from, what follows. The latter seems to be decidedly the cor- 
rect opinion, and for these reasons: There is, in the first place, no 
other account of the creation of the earth, except in the first verse ; 
in the next place, the second verse describes the state of the earth 
at some period after it was created, and before light was commanded 
to descend upon it. Some persons hold that the act of creation re- 
corded in the first verse constitutes a portion of the work of the first 
day, but reflection leads to a different conclusion ; for you will ob- 
serve that each separate day’s creation commences with the words 
« And God said ;’ and therefore the very form of the narrative seems 
to imply that when the creation of the first day began these words 
were first used—zi. e., with the creation of light in verse the third. 
Accordingly, in some old editions of T'’he Bible, where there is no 
division into verses, you actually find a break at the end of what is 
now the second verse ; and in Luther’s Bible you have, in addition, 
the figure 1 placed immediately before what is, at present, the third 
verse, as being the beginning of the account of the creation of the 
first day. Of the fathers, Augustine, Theodocet, and. others, have. 
confirmed this view by their testimony ; indeed, I could produce the 


PROCEEDINGS OF PROVINCIAL SOCIETIES. 307 


evidence of so many writers eminent for their piety and their learn- 
ing, establishing this interpretation, that it appears most unfair and 
uncharitable to accuse geologists of the present day of the impious 
attempt to bend the text of the sacred writings to their own preju- 
dices and views.”” From these and other arguments the lecturer 
arrives at the conclusion that if, as the most approved science and 
philosophy demonstrate, a world did exist, inhabited by unknown 
animals, before our system was called into being, there is nothing 
in the Mosaic account repugnant to such a view ; that his account 
was intended as the history of the present earth and of the ancestors 
of its present inhabitants, and also to convey religious and moral 
instruction to the generation whom he addressed, and to all after 
ages. After removing any religious difficulty that might exist in 
the pursuits of Geology—a most important branch of natural science 
—he thus cautions his hearers against rash and useless speculations : 
“It would be foreign to my subject to enter in detail upon the six 
days creation. Over many parts of that glorious and miraculous 
event science has shed her light, over others mystery has thrown her 
thickest veil, concealing them from the knowledge, yet leaving them 
to the admiration, of man. Often, indeed, in our contemplations on 
the works of providence, even when glorying in the splendid acces- 
sions which science has made in these latter days, often are we con- 
strained to acknowledge that the injunction of Milton is not devoid 
of philosophy :— 


‘ Whether the sun, predominant in heaven, 
Rise on the earth, or earth rise on the sun— 
He from the east his flaming road begin, 

Or she from west her silent course advance 
With inoffensive pace that, spinning, sleeps 

On her soft axle while she paces even 

And bears thee soft with the smooth air along— 
Solicit not thy thoughts with matters hid : 
Leave them to God above.’ 


The doubt conveyed in these lines has been solved, but the warning 
need not be disregarded.” 

The lecturer next proved, by the authority of La Place, that no 
animal could have existed at the time of the Mosaic creation, how- 
ever they might before, thus destroying the uuphilosophical theory 
of an eternal successive generation of animals; and also instanced 
Cuvier’s proof that man was first created about six thousand years 
ago. He then proceeded to show, at considerable length, the har- 
monious adaptations that pervade the universe, drawing his illustra- 
tions from the mutual attractions and movements of the heavenly 
bodies, and from thence the unity of design evinced in the animal 
aa vegetable kingdom, describing creative power in the words of 
the poet :— 


“ Lives through all life, extends through all extent, 
Spreads undivided, operates unspent.” 


308 PROCEEDINGS OF PROVINCIAL SOCIETIES. 


Having concluded this part of his subject, he illustrated the close 
connection between natural philosophy and religious devotion by 
quoting the views entertained of the nature and attributes of the 
Deity by the ancient philosophers, of whom he remarked—* The 
ancients were deeply versed in most of those arts and sciences which 
could be obtained without the assistance of scientific instruments ; 
and the extraordinary talents of many of their philosophers, and 
their eminent proficiency in Natural History, abstract reasoning, 
and Metaphysics, opened to them as clear and comprehensive a view 
as reason, unenlightened by revelation, could attain of the nature 
and attributes of the Deity. Aristotle says that God appears the 
cause of all things and a first principle ; he also describes him as im- 
mortal, incorruptible, uncreated, and self-existing. Plato, although 
convinced of the unity of the Deity, frequently speaks of him in 
the plural number, out of indulgence, perhaps, to the prejudices of 
his countrymen. The following is a remarkable view which he 
takes of what constitutes blasphemy :—the first species is ‘ denying 
the existence of a Deity or Gods; the second, ‘admitting their 
existence, but denying that they care for man;’ the third kind of 
blasphemy was that of ‘men attempting to propitiate the Gods to- 
wards criminal acts, such as murder, &c., by prayers, thanksgiving, 
and sacrifice, thus making those pure beings accomplices in their 
crimes. The first two of Plato’s doctrines cannot be impeached ; 
and how exactly should we agree with the last view of the great 
heathen in contemplating alone the purity of God! but thankful 
ought we to be that he has condescended to reveal to us the blessed 
truth that his love and mercy are equal to his justice.” After 
quoting some fine passages from Epicurus, Plutarch, Seneca, and 
the elder Pliny, expressing their full belief in the omnipotence and 
unity of the God of Nature, the lecturer proceeds:—* Thus, then, 
have these wondrous men bequeathed us in their works a proud me- 
morial of genius inspired by the contemplation of external Nature, 
and thus on every page have they engraved an inscription imperish- 
able as that on the Athenian altar, ‘to the unknown God.’ Some- 
thing, however, was still wanting: it was the light of revelation to 
pierce that mental cloud which philosophy alone was unable to dis- 
pel—it was the voice of an apostle, to declare unto them that Being 
whom they ignorantly adored. I will not describe, for it must be 
obvious to all, in how beautiful and comprehensive a manner the 
Deity whom we meet in every path of Nature is shadowed out te 
us in the sacred writings, and with what enthusiasm the ancient 
philosophers would have hailed that delineation as the fulfilment of 
their deepest speculations and fondest hopes. From the eye of 
every christian the veil has been long withdrawn which separates 
anxious doubt from the glorious certainty ; and it is our privilege 
to peruse with unsatiated delight the works of Nature, and to rest 
with humble confidence on the written word of God.” The lectur- 
er then goes on to describe, with much enthusiasm, the elevating ten- 
dency of the contemplation of Nature, from the glorious objects 


PROCEEDINGS OF PROVINCIAL SOCIETIES. 309 


with which the mind is engaged ; and thus expresses the benefit to 
be derived from even the most casual observation :—-‘ It is known 
only to the lover of Nature how moral and social a tone even the 
most cursory contemplation of her works is calculated to impart to 
the mind and to the heart. In the busy scenes of life our feelings 
are too often embittered and our passions excited by collision with 
our fellow men and by the very weight of material existence: but 
one look upon the smiling landscape, one glance at the glowing sky, 
dispels the gloom and infuses its sunshine into the breast. We see 
the great parent of all, who is kind to all, for he maketh his sun to 
rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and 
on the unjust. We catch something of this divine spirit, our pas- 
sions are assuaged, our hearts are softened, our sympathies are awa- 
kened ; we return into the world and are irresistibly impelled to 
hold out the hand of reconciliation to an offending brother, and to 
extend to universal creation the sacred sentiments of charity and 
love.” After some farther reflections, and a noble passage from a 
work of Linneus, expressive of his unbounded admiration of the 
works of God, but his consciousness of deep personal humiliation 
and abasement in their contemplation, the lecturer thus concluded 
his subject :—“ We see, then, all that are illustrious for their genius 
and venerable for their worth unite in contemplating the Deity 
through the works of his hands, and, from hearts overflowing with 
devotion, in offering their unbounded and imperfect tribute of gra 
titude and praise. It is, indeed, a subject calculated to call forth 
every expression of the tongue, to elevate the intellect to its proud- 
est summit, and yet to overwhelm it with the immensity and gran- 
deur of the considerations which it involves. If the mind thus 
shrinks within itself, if the eye can scarcely view the present un- 
moved, what will support us in that awful hour when the earth 
shall rock from her deep foundations, when the heavens shall be 
rolled together like a scroll, when the sun shall be extinguished in 
eternal darkness, when Nature herself shall perish, and the soul 
shall survive the general wreck, and the spirit shall return to God 
who gave it? What, then, shall be our trust, when the present 
shall yield to the future, and prophecy be swallowed up in its own 
completion? Faith, strengthened by the contemplation of the 
works of God, and built upon the rock of his revelation—hope, 
cheered by his visible goodness and perfected by his gracious pro- 
mises. These will not forsake us when Nature herself shall fail— 
these will sustain the shock of a dissolving universe, and support us 
in the presence of that stupendous Being who was, and is, and is to 
come. Thou, Lord, in the beginning, hast laid the foundations of 
the earth, and the heavens are the works of thine hands ; they shall 
perish, but thou remainest ; and they all shall wax old as doth a 
garment, and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall 
be changed ; but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.” 
The fourth anniversary of the Society was held at the Museum on 


the 24th of May, the Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of Worcester in 


310 PROCEEDINGS OF PROVINCIAL SOCIETIES. 


the chair. H. Strickland, Esq., read the Annual Address of the 
Council, which, after alluding to the numerous and liberal dona- 
tions to the museum and library, exhibited the labours of the Socie- 
ty in the advancement of science during the past year. The follow- 
ing is a sketch of the proceedings of the different Committees devoted 
to the several branches of science. In Meteorology, two valuable 
papers have been received, one by W. Addison, Esq., of Great Mal- 
vern—the other by John Williams, Esq., of Pitmaston, on the wea- 
ther of 1836 compared with 1837, and the Influence of the late se- 
vere Season on Vegetation and the progress of Diseases. At the de- 
sire of the Statistical Committee, the Revs. Thos. and John Pearson 
have just published the Statistical History of Great Witley, prepara- 
tory to a general history of the country ; and Sir Thomas Phillips 
is now preparing a similar account of the vicinity of Broadway. 
The Botanical Committee record their gratitude to Mr. Phipps On- 
slow for a liberal offer of specimens, and to the executors of the late 
Mr Purton, for a collection of Cryptogamia made by that eminent 
botanist. In Geology, several important discoveries are announced. 
The new Red Sandstone, which was long considered to be devoid of 
fossils, has been found by Mr. Amphlett, of Dunclent, to contain an 
abundance of vegetable remains at Hadley and Elmley Lovett. Si- 
milar fossils also occur at Breakback Hill, near Bromsgrove. An- 
other stratum of sandstone near the top of the red marl at Birghill, 
near Eldersfield, has been found to contain bones and bivalve shells, 
and as this stratum is quarried at Ripple, at Inkberrow, and other 
places, it is recommended that further search be made for these curious 
remains. Some interesting observations have also been made on the 
superficial gravel of this county. This gravel is supposed to have 
been deposited partly by marine currents and partly by ancient ri- 
vers. If this view be correct, every gravel pit in the county may be 
expected to yield either marine shells or bones, and fresh-water shells. 
Jabez Allies, Esq., has found the former in the gravel at Kempsey, 
and the Rev. W. Parker has discovered bones and fresh-water shells 
at Bricklehampton. The Council conclude their address with recom- 
mending the Society and the public to make further search for these 
fossil remains, and to ascertain whether bones and fresh water shells 
are ever found in the gravel on the top of hills, or only, as seems to 
be the case, in the immediate vicinity of existing rivers and streams. 
After a series of resolutions had been passed, the Rev. John 
Pearson rose to read his paper on British Ornithology. The lec- 
turer remarked that “ between the limited faculties of man and the 
boundless range of omnipotence there is an impassable gulph ; and 
while we stand alone in our insignificance, and every movement we 
make is calculated to add humility to the humble and to strike with 
dismay the arrogant and presuming, we are allowed to follow the 
works of creation with admiration of their beauty, with amazement 
at their gigantic structure and correctness of order, and with deep- 
seated gratitude for the benefits and advantages they are calculated 
to afford. Religion approves and philosophy promotes these generous 


PROCEEDINGS OF PROVINCIAL SOCIETIES, 311 


views ; and be the walk ever so humble, yet inquiry opens to the 
contemplative mind stores of knowledge and instruction, which can- 
not, when properly viewed, do otherwise than interest and improve 
the mind and heart of man. The branch of science which it is my 
intention to touch upon, although not the highest in the range uf 
Natural History, is one that offers that beautiful adaptation and fit- 
ness of the means to the end, that, whilst it can scarce fail to im- 
press even the casual observer, sinks deep into the heart of the more 
reflective inquirer, and strikes upon a 


“Chord within, which, touched by Nature’s hand, 
Reciprocates her holiest sympathies.” 


There are none of the lighter branches of Natural History the pur- 
suit of which is attended with greater pleasure than that of Orni- 
thology. In this study our admiration is excited, not only by the 
beautiful forms and plumage, the harmonious songs and elegant 
motions, of the feathered race, but the contemplation also of their 
interesting habits and wonderful instincts affords full scope to our 
speculations and astonishment. It has the advantage also of not 
being a solitary or isolated study, for it may be embraced in 
the active inquiries of the geologist and botanist. It is un. 
fortunate that many ornithologists of the present day appear to pre- 
fer the duty of the cabinet to that of the field, and confine them- 
selves to the arrangement or re-naming of species already well 
known, instead of giving their attention to the discovery of new 
species or the investigation of new habits. Doubtless a correct and 
scientific nomenclature is absolutely necessary, but the continual 
and unnecessary change of common names is the greatest obstacle to 
the pursuit, and the greatest drawback to the acquisition of know- 
ledge, that can possibly be invented or imagined.” The lecturer 
then divided birds into the five following heads :—Raptores, or 
Preyers, such as the Hawk; Insessores, or Perchers, such as the 
Sparrow ; Rasores, or Scratchers, such as the Partridge ; Gralla- 
tores, or Waders, such as the Heron; Natatores, or Swimmers, 
such as the Wigeon ; and these he divided into numerous families 
and sections. He considered British birds (of course, including 
those which visit our shores) to amount to upwards of three hun- 
dred species, but believed it impossible to determine the precise 
number. He thence proceeded to take a view of the most general 
and striking characteristics of Ornithology, such as the forms, flight, 
migration, instincts and affections, age, food, and songs of birds. 
The construction of birds is very admirable. Independent of the 
external beauty and buoyancy of their shapes, their delicate plum- 
age, at once an ornament and defence, and the combination of elas- 
ticity and strength so observable in their wings, their peculiar adap- 
tation is displayed in a large portion of the skeleton being formed 
into receptacles for air, the interior of most bones of adult birds. 
being hollow. The bones of young birds are filled with marrow, 


312 PROCEEDINGS OF PROVINCIAL SOCIETIES. 


which becomes, however, gradually absorbed, to make room for the 
admission of air. The air passes into the lungs by a communication 
with the windpipe, and is conveyed into a number of membranous 
cells, which lie in various bones. Could a man move at the pace 
of the swiftest bird, as he is not furnished with internal reservoirs 
similar to those possessed by birds, the actual resistance of the air 
would soon suffocate him. The act of flying is performed by the 
bird leaping from the ground or dropping from a height, and raising 
its wings at the same time; and the velocity with which the bird 
ascends is proportioned to the velocity with which the strokes of the 
wings are repeated upon the air. When birds fly in a horizontal 
direction their motion is not in a straight line, but inclining up- 
wards, and the body then comes down to a lower level before ano- 
ther stroke is made ; so that they move in a succession of curves. 
With regard to migration, the lecturer observes, ‘‘ About twenty- 
five kinds of birds regularly visit this country in the spring, and 
about seventeen in the autumn. The Wryneck and Lesser Willow 
Wren, or Chiffchaff, our earliest spring visitors, arrive here gene- 
rally towards the end of March ; the Flycatcher, which is the latest, 
about the middle of May. Ali our autumn visitors arrive much 
nearer together. The periods of migration are greatly influenced 
by the seasons. This spring, for instance, birds were generally very 
late in arriving: and yet we sometimes find anomalies in this as in 
other things ; for I saw a Swallow on the Sth of April, nearly a 
fortnight earlier than they usually appear in this neighbourhood—a 
clear proof, too, that one Swallow does not make a summer. On 
the same day I saw a flight of Fieldfares, which had not yet left us— 
an unusual assemblage of spring and autumn visitors.” After notic- 
ing the doubts of some naturalists as to the migration of our short- 
winged spring visitors, he continues, “ But, notwithstanding all 
these difficulties, certain itis that many of the least of birds, and the 
most timid and inefficient of flyers, do migrate, many of them to 
Italy and the coast of the Mediterranean. They take advantage of 
a favourable breeze, and are doubtless lost by hundreds in the sea, 
should the wind become adverse. I will allow that a few instances 
have occurred of migrating birds being found in this country during 
winter in a torpid state, but these are only rare exceptions to the 
general rule. By some instinctive power, birds are enabled to se- 
lect the narrowest channels of the sea, and also to traverse regions 
which, to our eyes, would present no mark or guide, and to arrive 
at the self-same spot which, each successive year, is the scene of 
their habitation. The eyes of birds are peculiarly quick and pierc- 
ing, and it is supposed that they are guided by the appearance of 
the atmosphere, the clouds, and direction of the wind; these vary- 
ing and uncertain causes, however, appear to me quite insufficient 
for the purpose. It is evident that practice is a great assistant to 
instinct ; in the case of Carrier Pigeons, for instance, they are first 
taken a short distance from home—a quarter of a mile, perhaps— 
which distance is gradually increased, till at last these extraordinary 


PROCEEDINGS OF PROVINCIAL SOCIETIES. 313 


birds will accomplish hundreds of miles in safety. I have witnessed 
the flight of many Carrier Pigeons, and have only seen one unable 
to find his way. This bird, after taking a turn or two in the air, 
settled on a building, apparently quite bewildered. He was doubt- 
less deficient in instinct or practice.” 

After entering into various particulars with regard to migration, 
and mentioning Dr. Hunter’s refutation of the absurd notion that 
Swallows had the power of existing under water, the lecturer re- 
marks :——‘ The obvious motives of migration are to be found in 
food, climate, and convenience for incubation and rearing of young. 
* * %* ‘The instincts and affections of birds,” he observes, “ are 
very wonderful and beautiful. It would be difficult, in the case of 
birds, as we can in the case of dogs and some other animals, to at- 
tribute a superiority of instinct to one species over another. Doubt- 
less the instincts of all correspond with their necessities ; but per-. 
haps I may not be wrong in ascribing the greater acuteness of per- 
ception to those birds which most easily acquire the power of arti- 
culating words. Philosophers have defined instinct to be ‘ that 
secret influence by which every species is impelled to pursue at all 
times the same way or track without any teaching or example.’ ” 
This definition he proves to be deficient, by giving many instances 
in which birds deviate from their usual course, particularly when 
the affections are engaged. Amongst others, he gives the following 
from White of Selborne :—‘'The Flycatcher builds every year in 
the vine that grows on the walls of my house. A pair of these lit- 
tle birds, one year, inadvertently placed their nest on a naked bough, 
perhaps in a shady time, not being aware of the inconvenience that 
followed; but a hot sunny season coming on before the brood was 
half-fledged, the reflection of the wall became insupportable, and 
must have inevitably destroyed the tender young had not affection 
suggested an expedient and prompted the parent birds to hover over 
the nest all the hotter hours, while with wings expanded and 
mouths gaping for breath they screened the heat from their suffer- 
ing offspring.” 

The age of birds does not appear to bear the same proportion to 
the time of acquiring their full growth as it does in quadrupeds. 
In proportion to the size of their bodies, birds live much longer 
than either man or quadrupeds. Geese and Swans sometimes attain 
the age of seventy, and an instance of a Goose ninety years old has 
been known: Ravens and Eagles are supposed sometimes to reach 
an hundred. Even Linnets and other small birds have been kept 
in cages from fifteen to twenty years. 

After giving some interesting particulars with regard to the food 
of birds, the lecturer proceeded to dwell upon their songs, which he 
did with much enthusiasm. We must, however, conclude our no- 
tice with the following reflections: ‘“ How impressive is the reflec- 
tion which the history of birds, and, indeed, of other animals, is cal- 
culated to impart to the mind! All human affairs are transitory 
and unstable, and the fashion of them soon passes away. The ha- 

VoL. VI.—NO. XX, RR 


314 PROCEEDINGS OF PROVINCIAL SOCIETIES. 


bits, we may almost say the nature, of man is changed by time; one 
race of men succeeds another, empires rise upon the ruins of former 
kingdoms, enlightenment and science progress, and again decline. 
Look, too, at languages: how various! how imperfect! how change- 
able! How many have been swallowed up in the gulph of years, 
or descended to us entombed in a few ancient works! Does not 
this speak plainly of the instability, the corruption, the fall, the 
confusion of man? On the contrary, the race of animals, all de- 
stined to perish, while man is born for immortality, remain. uniform 
in their generations, unmoved by the convulsions of the world, 
untouched by time; and the song of a bird which now fills the 
air is the very same which, six thousand years ago, the first of his 
species poured forth in homage when he came perfect from the 
hand of his Creator.” 

Thomas Thursfield, Esq., next read a very able paper on the 
Basaltic Dyke at Shatterford, and the vegetable remains in the ad- 
jacent coal measure. The paper displayed deep research and an 
intimate knowledge of the subject ; and was illustrated by a draw- 
ing and many beautiful and valuable specimens. 

On the motion of Mr. Aston, seconded by Mr. Cookes, a vote of 
thanks was given to the Rev. J. Pearson and Mr. Thursfield for 
their scientific and highly interesting papers; and the meeting 
broke up, highly gratified with the proceedings which had been laid 
before them. 


SHROPSHIRE AND NORTH WALES NATURAL HISTORY 
AND ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY. 


Tue session of this Society terminated on the 2nd of May, dur- 
ing which the following interesting lectures and valuable scientific 
papers have been read: January.—Lecture on Pneumatics, by 
Henry Johnson, M.D. ; on the Conversion of Cast-Iron into Plum-.. 
bago, by Thomas Du Gard, M.D., F.G.S.; a Continuation of the 
Shropshire Fauna, comprising a portion of the class Aves, by T. C. 
Eyton, Esq., F.L. and Z.S. February.—Lecture on the Affinities 
of Vertebrate Animals, by T. C. Eyton, Esq., F.L. and ZS. 
March.—Lecture on Electricity, by Mr. Thomas Blunt; on the 
Utility of Antiquarian Research as connected with the Remains of 
Shrewsbury Abbey, and recent discoveries therein, by Mr. Henry 
Pidgeon. April.—Lecture on Optics, by Henry Bloxam, Esq. ; on 
a Deposit of Mammalian Remains on the Coast of Kent, communi- 
cated by the Rev. B. H. Kennedy, D.D. May.—Lecture on the 
Metamorphoses of Plants, by W. A. Leighton, Esq., B.A. ; on the 
Composition of Soils, by the Rev. C. A. A. Lloyd, M.A. ; on the 
Roses of Britain, by Edwin Lees, F.L.S. 

Among the very numerous donations to the Museum and Library 
lately received, the following may be enumerated as the more valu- 


CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 315 


able :—Sixty-four Foreign Birds, from Mr. John Gould, F.ZS. ; 
Thirteen Silver Coins of Edward I., Edward II., and Alexander of 
Scotland, found in the bed of the river at Tutbury, Staffordshire, 
supposed to be part of the contents of the military chest of the 
Duke of Lancaster, when in retreat before Edward I1., which was 
lost about that place, from C. C. Babington, Esq., F.L. and GS. ; 
a Collection of Fossils from the Chalk, &c., from C. C. Babington, 
Esq. ; a large Collection of Roman and English Coins, from Sir A. 
V. Corbet, Bart.; African Pig, Doe and Fawn, numerous birds, 
crania, fresh-water shells, &c., from T. C. Eyton, Esq. ; Historical 
Register, 14 vols. 8vo., from the Rev. Canon Newling; Collection 
of dried specimens of British Rose and Rubi from Edwin Lees, 
F.L.S., M.E.S. 


CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. | 


Reports on the Explosion of Steam Boilers, by a Committee of the 
ranklin Institute of Pennsylvania. Part I., containing the 
first Report of Experiments made by the Committee for the 
Treasury Department of the United States. Part II., containing 
the General Report of the Committee. 


The Reports now before us, from a committee of the Franklin In- 
stitute of Pennsylvania, are upon a subject of special interest to every 
community where steam is extensively used as a motive power.* 
They emanate from an institution which has been very active in the 
promotion of the mechanic arts in the United States of North Ame 
rica, and come to us with the sanction of a committee of its members, 
and of its board of managers. The names of most of the gentlemen 
composing the Committee have been more or less familiar to the 
readers of the Journal published by the Franklin Institute.+ 


* While this article was going through the press, the lamentable occur- 
rence of an explosion of the boiler of a steamer at Hull renders it but too ap- 
propriate. The ignorance displayed before the coroner’s inquest by those 
who were concerned in the management of the engine sand boiler, shows 
plainly that light has not yet reached those in whose care our lives are so 


often 4 rent 

+ Our cotemporary, the anonymous editor of the Magazine of Popular Sci- 
ence, should at least have given himself the trouble to look into the facts of 
the case, before he insinuated a doubt of the qualifications of these gentle- 
men for the task imposed by the Franklin Institute. A reviewer should 
bring both candour and knowledge to his task, and our cotemporary really 
seems to have been wanting in both. We refer to the Journal of the Frank- 
lin Institute to show that seven of the members of the Committee, whose 


316 CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS: | 


On their appointment, in 1830, the Committee addressed letters: 
to persons whom they supposed might furnish information in regard 
to the subject before them, and have published the replies in the same 
Journal in which their reports first appeared.* At the request of 
the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, they also under- 
took two series of experiments ; the first intended to test the truth of 
the various causes which have been assigned for the explosions of 
steam boilers, and the second to determine the strength of the mate- 
rials commonly used in their construction. The first-named series of 
experiments being that upon which the general report of the Com- 
mittee is based, was publishedt next in order to the replies to their 
letters, and we were thus furnished with the means of judging, inde- 
pendently of the authority of the Committee, of the accuracy of the 
conclusions in their General Report. The second series of experi- 
ments is now in the course of publication. 

We propose, in the following article, to give as full a view as the 
nature of our journal will admit of the General Report of this Com- 
mittee, and of their experiments, inverting for this purpose the “ in- 
ductive” order, and following the discussion of the causes of explosion 
as enumerated by the Committee, in their General Report, referring 
to the experiments as the subjects of them came under discussion. 

Ist. Explosions may occur from undue pressure within a boiler, 
the pressure being gradually wcreased. 

It would seem that there could be no difference of opinion as to 
these being a “ vera causa.” Engineers have, however, alleged that 
boilers, particularly if made of copper, only rend by a gradually in- 
creased pressure, and thus discharge their contents without danger- 
ous violence. A most dangerous maxim is stated, in this Report, to 


works are under discussion, are, or were, Professors of Natural Philosophy 
or of Chemistry. Four other members we find, from the same source, to be 
practical mechanics. One other has written much on Mechanics. We are 
thus left in doubt as to the professions of but four, out of seventeen, of the 
Committee. 

* Journal of the Franklin Institute, vols. viii., ix., x. 

+ Journal of the Franklin Institute, vol. xvii., and London Mechanics’ Ma- 
gazine. The first and second parts of this Report have been printed in a se- 
parate form by the Frankiin Institute, and kindly presented to several of 
our scientific societies. 

+ Both series of experiments were made by sub-committees, whose names 
are given in the Preface to the Report. On neither of them do we find the 
name of Professor Hare, who is vauntingly said by our cotemporary before 
noticed, in his attempt to discredit this Report, to have “openly stated that 
he never attended a single experiment.” We do not intend to fatigue our 
readers by following the disingenuous criticisms of our anonymous, friend in 
detail, considering, as we do, his review to be discreditable to a journal pro- 
fessing to give information upon science. It is the more objectionable be- 
cause interspersed with general epithets of approbation, which are totally 
misapplied if the individual criticisms are in the least warranted. Besides 
perversions of fact, we have, in his review, such language as this:—‘ Presi- 
dent Jackson and some of his fellow citizens down cast ;”—“* There must be 
a district in Pennsylvania where the shamrock is worn!” &c, 


CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS: 317 


be prevalent among engineers on the western waters of the United 
States, that, provided a full supply of water is kept in a boiler, there 
is no danger of explosion from increasing the steam pressure.* 

To set this question at rest, two cylinders—one of iron and one of 
copper—were partly filled with water and exposed over a fire, so as 
to increase the pressure of steam within ; the greatest amount of this 
pressure, before the cylinder gave way, being registered by a spring 


gauge. The material facts attending the bursting of the iron boiler 
are thus stated by the Committee :— | 


“'The explosion tore off one of the heads, b c, of the cylinder, projecting 
the other parts of the boiler in an opposite direction, carrying with them, for 
a portion of the distance, the iron Glindes forming the furnace, and scatter- 
ing the fuel in every direction. * * The boiler head was thrown fifteen 
feet, the boiler and spring register about six feet, and the furnace, weighing 
about forty-five pounds, was overturned and carried four feet. 'The pressure 
indicated by the register was 11} atmospheres. * * The circumstances 
of this experiment show that the steam rose quite gradually on account of 
leaks in the boiler, increasing, probably, more rapidly as the quantity of wa- 
ter diminished, the intensity of the fire, meanwhile, increasing; that, at a 
certain period, the tension within had attained about eleven atmospheres, when 
the boiler exploded violently.” 


The copper cylinder was next subjected to experiment : 


“« As before, apaspens remarkable occurred previous to the instant of ex- 
plosion, and the members of the committee employed in the experiments 
were engaged in observing the boiler at the instant it exploded. A dense 
cloud of smoke and flame, capped by steam, rose from the pit; the stones 
and combustibles were widely scattered, and the boiler was thrown, in a 
single mass, about fifteen feet from the furnace. The noise attending this 
_explosion was like that from the firing of an eight inch mortar. 

“'The boiler was rent as shown in the accompanying figure, giving way in 
an irregular line, just above the probable water-line on one side of the boiler, 
but not conforming to it. dand 4 were the lowest points in the two heads 


* This same opinion we see in the evidence of one of the parties examined 
before the coroner’s inquest in relation to the late accident at Hull. 


318 CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 


before the explosion. The sheet of copper was torn from the heads, un. 


rolled, and irregularly bent, adhering to the heads for only a short distance 
near the top of each; and the heads were bent outwards. The thickness of 
the copper along the line of rupture varies from 0.25 to 0.35 of an inch, and 
the metal appears to have been highly heated at one end of the torn por- 
tion.” 


To a gradual increase of pressure beyond that which the material 
of the boiler would bear, the Committee refer certain well-known ac- 
cidents, which are upon record ; as that in Wellclose Square, London, 
that of the steamer, Rhone, &c. 

The safety-valve being the means commonly relied on to prevent a 
dangerous accumulation of steam within a boiler, the Committee thus 
enumerate the causes which may render it inoperative :—Design on 
the part of the engineer or attendant, and adhesion of the valve to its 
seat by rust or other cause. This adhesion, the Committee consider, 
cannot be traced to the peculiar phenomenon observed when a disk is 
placed before an aperture, whence a fluid is rapidly issuing. This 
phenomenon has been the subject of much examination. ‘The first 
observation of it is claimed by M. Clement, of Paris, and by Mr. 
Roberts, of Manchester. Theory and experiment both. shew it to 
depend upon the relative dimensions of the disk and aperture ; and 
as these are not very unequal in the case of the safety-valve, the ten- 
dency of the disk towards the opening is inconsiderable. This de- 
duction is further confirmed by the experiments of the Committee, 
who used a graduated safety-valve, and compared its indications of 
pressure with those of a mercurial gauge, or with those deduced from 
the observed temperature of the water in the boiler. Two different 
valves were used in different parts of the series of experiments, both 


CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 319 


being, however, of the same form—disk valves. This form is stated 
to have been selected as most applicable to practice, from the ease 
with which the touching surfaces can be ground into contact, and the 
impossibility of tightening by friction, as in the case of the cone. 
The observed pressures at which the valve rose were uniformly below 
the calculated pressures at which, allowing for the weight, leverage, 
and friction, the valve would have been expected to rise; the mean 
ratio being as 1 to 1.035. In no case was any undue adhesion ob- 
served. While these experiments are favourable to the use of the 
safety-valve, when well constructed and kept in good order, they can- 
not be considered as justifying that feeling which imagines a valve to 
be a security, without inquiring into its condition. On the contrary, 
we find in this Report a well-authenticated instance of great adhesion 
of the valve to its seat, requiring, when the pressure of the steam was 
above that which should have raised the valve, considerable force ap- 
plied at the end of the lever to open it. 

Besides two safety valves, the regulations for the safety of the 
steam engine, until lately in force in France, required that fusible 
plates, or plugs, should be placed in or over an opening into the 
boiler. These, giving way when the steam within reached the melt- 
ing point of the alloy constituting the plate, allowed the escape of 
steam. These plates were intended besides to apply to a case in 
which the safety-valve is inoperative, namely, when, from a defici- 
ency of water in the boiler, parts of the metal have become highly 
heated, and thus have heated the steam above the temperatute corres- 
ponding to its density.* The experiments made on these plates were 
numerous, and lead to a conclusion of considerable interest as affect- 
ing their use. It was found that the alloys composing the plates 
soften, in part, before they reach the temperature of fusion of the 
whole mass, and that liquid portions are forced out through the holes 
of the brass plate which, in practice, covers them, leaving a less fu- 
sible mass. In the ease of one of the alloys, which melted above 


* That steam thus surcharged with heat may exist within a boiler which 
yet contains some water, appears to have been generally assumed. ‘The 
fact was made the subject of experiment by the Committee, who found it to 
be as assumed. ‘The steam was pein and kept up by a charcoal fire 
city under a boiler, while a similar fire above the boiler surcharged with 

eat the steam produced. The committee found that the elastic force of the 
steam dalcsila tied on the supposition of its expanding by heat as a gas agreed 
very nearly with the observed force, differing but .05 of an atmosphere at the 
temperature of 533°. The thermometer giving the temperature of the wa- 
ter in the boiler had become deranged during the course of this experiment 
by an accident, but this close coincidence certainly rendered a repetition of 
the inquiry unnecessary. On these experiments, our good-natured cotem- 
porary before referred to remarks: “The Sub-committee did not make 
one experiment on this subject; they decide upon the uncomfortable expe- 
riments of the preceding investigation, &c.” hich uncomfortable experi- 
ments, as he facetiously (?) terms them, were quite as directly to the point 
rs nt they had been intended solely to apply to it, to the exclusion of all other 

eductions. 


320 CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 


250° Fah., a portion was thus forced out, in the liquid state, at 228° 
Fah. The entire series of conclusions drawn by the Committee will 
serve to indicate their train of experiment, for the numerical results 
of which we must refer to the Report itself. 


“The conclusions deduced from the foregoing experiments on metallic 
alloys wT be thus stated :— 

“Ist. The impurities of common lead, tin, and bismuth, are usually not 
such as to affect materially the fusing points of their alloys. 

“2nd. When mixed in equivalent proportions, tin and lead formed alloys, 
not aommamg: the characters of distinct chemical compounds, in definite 
proportions. ‘The alloys between the range of one equivalent of tin to one 
of lead, and one equivalent of tin to six of lead, varied considerably in the in- 
terval between the temperature of commencing to lose fluidity and that at 
which the temperature of a thermometer, immersed in the solidifying metal, 
became [for an instant] stationary. These different alloys duced near] 
the same stationary temperature in a thermometer plunged into the solidi- 
fying metal. 

“3rd. Fusible metal plates, covered by a perforated metallic disk, and 
peed upon a steam-boiler, show signs of fluidity at the disk before the steam 

as attained the temperature of fusion of the alloy of which the plate is com- 
posed. ‘This fluid metal oozes through the perforations in the disk, and the 
plate thus loses much of its substance before finally giving vent to the 
steam. 

“4th. The under parts of the plate are not kept from fusion by a protect- 
ing film of oxide there formed. 

“ Sth. The thickness of the plate is not important, provided only that it is 
sufficiently strong to resist the pressure of the steam at temperatures below 
its point of fusion. 

“6th. The temperature at which the plates are cast, and the rate of cool- 
ing of the cast metal, do not affect the temperature at which the plates give 
vent to steam. 

“7th. The effect stated in conclusion third is explained by the nature of 
the alloys used, which are formed of portions of different fluidities ; the more 
fluid parts are forced out by the pressure of the steam, leaving the less fusi- 
ble. ‘These latter, in general, are burst, not melted. 

“8th. By pressure in a receptacle provided with small openings this effect 
of separating the differently fluid portions of an alloy may be imitated. 

“9th. Fusible alloys, used to indicate the temperature of any part of a 
steam-boiler, should not be exposed to the pressure of the steam; at least, 
not in such a way that the separation of the differently fusible constituents 
. of the alloys may be effected.” 


We shall return to this subject under the next head, to which we 
now proceed. 

2nd. Explosions produced by the presence of unduly heated 
metal within a boiler. , 

It was first observed, we believe, by the chemist Klaproth, that 
when small drops of water were in succession thrown into a red hot 
iron spoon, the first drops evaporated very slowly, and succeeding ones 
disappeared more rapidly as the vessel cooled. These observations, 
and others of an analogous sort, have been supposed to contradict the 
conclusion that highly heated metal can produce steam rapidly, when 
water was thrown upon it. M. Arago, in his Essay upon the Ex- 
plosions of Steam Boilers, considers this as a capital difficulty to be 


CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 321 


examined by experiment. The Committee of the Franklin Institute 
made this examination under two heads; Ist. As to the fact, whether 
or not high steam may be rapidly produced by water thrown into a 
red hot boiler ; 2nd. The circumstances modifying the production of 
steam in such cases. 

The experimental boiler being heated to redness, different quanti- 
‘ties of water were thrown into it, producing various pressures of 
steam from three to twelve atmospheres.* 

We may here notice an opinion, formerly advocated by a practical 
engineer, that when water is thrown into a heated vessel containing 
steam surcharged with heat, it is the surcharged steam, and not 
the heated metal, which supplies the heat to the water to flash it into 
steam. This hypothesis was submitted to direct experiment by the 
Committee of the Franklin Institute. Steam having been produced 
within a boiler, was surcharged with heat by applying a charcoal fire 
to the top of the boiler. In this way the temperature of the steam 
was raised, in one experiment, to 533° F., at which it had an elastici- 
ty of 6.8 atmospheres, while steam of the full density, corresponding 
to that temperature, would (by calculation) have had a pressure of 
more than sixty atmospheres. Water being thrown into steam thus 
surcharged, invariably diminished its elasticity: thus showing that the 
theory which has so often been applied to refute the error of this 
hypothesis has in reality been rightly applied. Much difficulty ap- 
pears to have been encountered in these experiments by an attempt to 
make them without more expense than the intrinsic worth of the 
matter to be determined warranted.+ , 


* In this last case the steam was produced in “a time not exceeding one 
or two minutes at the most,” bursting one of the glass plates in the head of 
the experimental boiler, and which served to give a view of its interior.— 
Seven experiments are given, in which water was thrown into the boiler 
when the metal was red hot. Our ingenuous critic remarks that “the blow- 
ing out of one of the little windows of the boiler put an end to it [the series 
of experiments] when it was becoming interesting”—we should say, when 
completed. 

+ In reviewing these experiments, the Magazine of Popular Science says, 
“ Tt is scarcely credible, but the temperature of" the water in tbe boiler beneath 
the steam was not thought sufficiently important to be noted.” ‘To shew that 
the reviewer could not have read the article under review, we make from it the 
extracts in regard to the very point which he asserts (implies) was neglected. 
“To measure the temperature thus acquired by the steam, as well as that of 
the water below it, thermometers were placed in the iron tubes already de- 
scribed ; the mercury was removed from the tubes, except enough to cover 
the bulbs of the thermometers, so that the temperatures shown by them 
might be, as nearly as possible, that of the steam by which the shorter tube 
was surrounded, and of the water into which the longer tube dipped.” — Report, 
part i, p. 19. ‘The temperature of the thermometers in the water and 
steam were noticed both before and after the injection.”— Report, part i., p. 
20. “In the last day of trial the heat of the top of the boiler was so great 
and so long sustained that the thermometer in the water became, for reasons 
which will be stated, comparatively useless as an indicator of the tempera- 
ture of the water.”—Report, p. 20. It appears clearly, from this article, 
which we have read, that, not prejudging the results of experiment, the Com- 

VOL VI.—NO. XX. Ss 


322 _ CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 


The examination of the circumstances which vary the quantity of 
steam produced by heated metals, was so fully gone into in the expe- 
riments of the Committee, and is so replete with numerical details, 
that we cannot do it justice in our limited space for criticism. We 
shall therefore barely state how these circumstances were varied, and, 
referring our readers to the Report for all except the principal num- 
bers, give the conclusions drawn by the Committee in their own words. 
The experiments were made, first, by introducing drops of water into 
bowls of iron and copper with different states of surface, of different 
thicknesses, and heated to different temperatures ; then different quan- 
tities of water, up to that of the entire capacity of the heated vessels, 
under similar variations, and with the additional one of variation in 
the means of communicating heat. The practical question immedi- 
ately in view was to determine at what temperature of a metal, wa- 
ter, thrown upon it in a limited quantity, will be most rapidly turned 
into steam. ‘Taking into consideration, of course, whether it is, or is 
not, supplied with heat. 


“From the foregoing details may be deduced the following general conclu- 
sions, which will be found of practical importance. 

“Ist. The vaporizing power of copper when supplied with heat, by a bad 
conductor or circulator, such as oil, increases with great regularity as the tem- 
perature increases, up to a certain point, the water being supposed thrown 
upon the copper surface, in small quantities. Copper flues, heated by air 
passing through them, would be in this condition if left bare of water, and 
then suddenly wet. ‘This holds with copper 1-l6th of an inch thick, without 
indication that a limit will be attained bya much more considerable thick- 
ness. ‘The temperature at which the metal will have the greatest vaporizin 
power, is about 570° Fah. or about 230° below redness, according to Daniel ° 

“ The law of vaporization of small quantities of water, by a given thickness 
of copper, is represented with singular closeness by an ellipse, of which the 
temperatures represent the abscissze, and the times of vaporization the diffe- 
rence between a constant quantity and the ordinates. 

“2nd. The same power in thin iron, .04 (7-32nds) inch thick, increased re- 
gularly, and was at a maximum, probably, at 510°. With thicker metal the 

ower increases more rapidly at the lower temperatures, and varies very 
ittle, comparatively, above 380°, with thicknesses exceeding }th, and less than 
ith of an inch; attaining a maximum at about 507° Fah. when the quantities 
are small; rising to 550°, and much above, as the quantity of wateris in- 
creased relatively to the surface of the metal which is ver Quadrupling 
the quantity of water, the entire amount being still small, nearly tripled the 
time of vaporization at that maximum. 

“3d. When copper of 1-16th of an inch in thickness, was supplied with 


mittee omitted no datum which might be of importance; that they experi- 
mented several times and with the same results, except that, on the last day 
of trial, they were able to heat the steam more highly than on former days ; 
and that a momentary decrease of elasticity from the injection of water into 
the hot steam being aiways the result, the temperature of the water from 
which the steam was raised was not an element required in the general solu- 
tion of the problem as attempted: and thus they were enabled to omit the 
tables of results when the temperature of the water was correctly ascer- 
tained, and give us only the results of that day’s trial in which they had 
pushed the experiment furthest. We are at a loss which most to value— 
the scientific knowledge or the candour of the reviewer. 


CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 323 


heat by melted tin, a worse conductor, and having a lower apseite heat than 
copper itself, the time of vaporization, in a spherical bowl, of quantities vary- 
ing from 1-16th to 4 of the entire capacity of the bowl, increased but three- 
fold, and the temperature of greatest evaporation wads raised but 56°, or from 
470° to 526°. hen the bowl had half of the portion which was exposed to 
heat filled, the weight of the water was about one and one-tenth of that of 
the metal. 

“4th. The times of vaporization of different quantities of water, varyin 
from 1-16th ofan ounce to 2 ounces, in an iron bowl }th of an inch thick, an 
supplied with heat by the tin bath, were sensibly, as the square roots of the 
quantities, at the temperatures of maximum vaporization for each quantity. 

“These temperatures were raised from about 460° to 600°, by increasing 
the weight of water about sixteen times, indicating that considerable quanti- 
ties of water, thrown uvon heated metal, will be most rapidly vaporized when 
the metal is at least 200° below a red heat. 

“5th. While a red heat, visible in daylight, given to a metal, even when 
very thick, and supplied by heat from a glowing charcoal fire, does not pre- 
vent water, when thrown in considerable quantities, from cooling it down so 
as to vaporize the water very es it is much above the temperature at 
which the water thrown upon the metal will be most rapidly evaporated. 
Thus one ounce of water was vaporized in 13 seconds, at about 550°, in a 
wrought iron bowl } of an inch thick, and required 115 seconds to vaporize 
in a cast iron bowl] 4 an inch thick, at ared heat. Four ounces in the latter 
bowl vaporized in about 300 seconds, the bowl being red hot whenit was 
introduced; and two ounces vaporized in 34 seconds at 600° Fah. 

“6th. The temperature of greatest vaporization, with a given thickness 
of metal, is lower in copper than in iron, the repulsive force being develop- 
ed at a lower temperature. With equal thicknesses of iron and copper, the va- 
porizing power of the latter metal, at its maximum, was, with the oil bath, 
one third greater than that of the former, and with the tin bath the power of 
ey .07 of an inch thick, was equal, nearly, to that of iron, 4} of an inch 
thick, each being taken at its maximum of vaporization, for the different 

uantities of fluid employed. As the maxima for the ironare higher than 
those for the copper, the advantage will be still greater in favour of copper 
when the two metals are at equal temperatures. 

“7th. The general effect of roughness of surface is to raise the tempera- 
ture at which the maximum vaporization occurs, and to diminish the time of 
vaporization of a given quantity of water at an assumed temperature below 
the maximum. 

“8th. ‘Though it has been shown that water thrown upon red hot metal 
is adequate to produce explosive steam, even when it does not cool the me- 
tal down to the temperature of most rapid vaporization, it is not the less true 
that metal more than two hundred degrees below a red heat in the dark, is in 
the condition to produce even a more rapid vaporization of water thrown 
upon it than when red hot. . 


These experiments show why steam is rapidly produced by red 
hot metal, notwithstanding the great repulsion between the heated 
metal and the water: for the metal requires to be cooled but two 
hundred degrees below redness to reach the point of greatest vapor- 
ization. 

The deductions as to the danger resulting from water obtaining 
access to highly heated metal within a boiler, are supported by a re- 
ference to two violent explosions, in one of which (on board of the 
Grampus steamer) six cylindrical boilers exploded simultaneously. 
The engineer had discovered, just before the explosion, that the boil- 


324 CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 


ers contained very little water, and had suddenly thrown in a plenti- 
ful supply. 

Doubts as to the development of steam by heated metal have led 

to the supposition that water is decomposed in an unduly heated 
boiler, giving rise to the production of hydrogen gas.* We have 
always considered the attempts to explain explosions in this way as 
entire failures, from the impossibility of furnishing free oxygen to the 
hydrogen within the boiler to produce an explosion. The Committee 
whose labours are under ‘discussion have made an elaborate set of 
experiments, to ascertain if water is decomposed, as has been assum- 
ed, when thrown into a red hot boiler. They find that no such de- 
composition takes place, and thus remove the very foundation of the 
hypothesis. They admit that carburetted hydrogen does, no doubt, 
exist at times ina boiler, in greater or less quantities, from the de- 
composition of oil or of vegetable substances introduced to stop leaks 
or to prevent deposits; but consider that there is no warrant for the 
idea that this gas can accumulate and mix with air within a boiler, so 
‘as to become a source of danger. 
_ They then consider some cases of explosions which have been 
assumed as produced by hydrogen, particularly one which occurred 
at Pittsburgh in the United States. A cylindrical boiler was thrown 
up into the air, and a stream of fire described as issuing from it, 
by an eye witness of the explosion. This observation they explain 
by the optical phenomenon always occurring when luminous bodies 
are viewed in rapid motion. 

Having proved that danger results from heated metal within a 
boiler, and disposed of various hypotheses connected with this fact of 
the subject, the Committee proceed to examine the probable causes 
which may lead to this source of danger, and the remedies which have 
been suggested to meet them. 

The causes examined are: first, a deficient supply of water within 
a boiler; second, the existence of deposits from the water used to 
supply the boiler, or from other sources ; third, m the particular 
arrangement of contiguous and communicating boilers on board of 
steam boats, by the deck of the boat being inclined to the horizon. 

In all these cases it is necessary to shew, not merely that heated 
metal will result, but that water can get access to it; otherwise no 
dangerous effects follow. In the first case, besides the ordinary cir- 
cumstances which suggest themselves, such as the introduction of 
water by a hand pump, the removal of an obstacle from the forcing 
pump which supplies the boiler with water, &c., a less obvious train of 
circumstances has been assumed as operative. When water is sudden- 
ly relieved from pressure, this hypothesis asserts that it foams up, and 


* This, with other errors which these Reports would have explained, if 
circulated in a popular form, appears in the evidence before the coroner’s in- 
quest in the matter of the late explosion at Hull. 


CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 325 


that the foam being thrown upon the hot iron, is instantly vaporized. 
If this be true there are cases in which the opening of a safety valve 
may be a source of danger instead of one of safety! And this result 
was actually found experimentally to be true by M. M. Tabareau 
and Rey, of Lyons. But the fact of this foaming is also interesting 
as affecting the indications of the gauge-cocks and floats, commonly 
used to show the level of the water in a boiler. It must be especially 
effective in a small high pressure boiler. 

The Committee found, by experiment, that when water boiling 
under pressure is relieved from that pressure a foaming commences, 
near the point at which the relief is given, extending throughout the 
fluid. That this is greater as the opening made is greater, the relief 
more sudden, and the previous pressure greater. In one of the ex- 
periments indications of water were found by a guage-cock two inches 
above the true level of the water in the small experimental boiler, 
these guage-cocks being at the time open. 

The glass guage-tube used in our locomotive engines they found 
not to be affected by this foaming, until it reached the top of the 
tube. They recommend its use strongly, and propose to substitute 
green glass in high pressure boilers, for the white glass which erodes 
under the action of high steam. 

It is obviously impossible to determine, as a general phenomenon, 
whether the steam produced by the projection of foam upon the 
heated sides of the boiler, produces more steam than that which 
escapes through the opening causing the foaming. It depends upon 
circumstances liable to vary in every case. This view the Com- 
mittee take of the subject. They refer to the experiments of M. 
Arago, at Paris, made upon boilers not unduly heated, in which the 
mercury guage always fell on making an opening from the boiler ; to 
their own experiments on a boiler of which the sides were heated 
when the same result followed ; and to those of M. M. Tabareau and 
Rey, when the boiler was surrounded by a charcoal fire, and when 
the reverse always took place, the pressure being increased by making 
an opening. It must be admitted then, that with a boiler presenting 
a great extent of highly heated surface upon which foam may be 
thrown, the making of an opening may be attended with danger. 
Indeed the successive explosions, recorded by Mr. John Taylor to 
have occurred in connected boilers in the Polgooth mines, do not ad- 
mit a contrary supposition, for the second boiler had just had an 
opening of large size made by the explosion of the first, with which 
it had been in connection. . 

To avoid the source of danger resulting from the presence of 
heated metal, it is necessary to have some means of ascertaiming the 
temperature of those parts of a boiler which are most liable to be- 
come overheated, so as to give notice before they reach a.temperature 
at which danger would result. The Committee discuss various in- 
ventions which have been brought before them for this purpose, and 
give the experiments made upon one proposed by their chairman. 


326 CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 


These experiments, which were favourable, were made upon the appa- 
ratus shown in the annexed figure. A B is a section through the top 
of a boiler; C D is the flue, 
~ or fire-place, to which the tube 
R L is supposed to be fastened 
yn 4M Ryn S at the bottom, the flue closing 
the tube. The lower part, H I, 
of the tube contains a small 
quantity of fusible metal, by 
which a stem, L K, is soldered, 
as it were, to the flue. The 
weight, M, upon the lever, 
A HART gi P K, tends to draw the stem, 
K L, upwards, and, when the 
pe fusible metal is softened, will 
ae / actually disengage the stem. 
The weight, M, descending, 
rings the bell, N, giving notice that the proper limit of temperature 
has been reached. If by throwing cold water into the boiler, which 
at this temperature may be done without danger, or by other appro- 
priate means, the temperature of the flue is reduced, the stem, K L, 
having previously put in its place, is soldered again to the flue, and 
the weight, M, being applied to the lever at P, the apparatus is ready 
for action.* 

The second cause assigned for the undue heating of parts of a 
boiler is the accumulation of sedimentary matter upon them. To 
this the boilers of steam boats plying on the western rivers of the 
United States are stated to be particularly exposed, those waters con- 
taining both mud and calcareous matter in great abundance. The 
facts brought together, from different quarters, in relation to sedi- 
ments from salt water, from river water, and spring water, are inter- 
esting. They are examined with a view to the application of vari- 
ous remedies which have been proposed to the Committee, none of 
which, however, are considered as proper substitutes for frequent 


Wad 


rr 
LnAd 


* On this apparatus, the Magazine of Popular Science has these remarks: 
“No doubt! there can be no doubt of this effect occurring, the most perfect 
fluidity may be obtained; but cui bono 2—for what purpose ?” e can 
pe understand how an individual should be so dull, the mode of action 
seems level to so mean a capacity. Perhaps our cotemporary was not aware 
that letting off steam was not always the “true remedy” to the danger of 
an overheated boiler. Perhaps he did not see that the same power which 
rings a bell, will equally open a valve or turn a stop-cock, if required, and 
that if a large opening is not preferred to be made it is not without cause. 
Here is his note on the subject; it may be taken as a specimen of his fairness 
and of his style: “ We cannot help thinking that the following parallel case 
of a “true remedy” would be prescribed by the Sub-committee, if the hg 
tion were presented to them. Suppose a man has a box which can only be 
opened by a certain crooked sixpence ; what is the best way of being sure to 
have the sixpence always at hand when wanted? Answer.—Shut it up in 


the box! enclose the metal in a case !”- 


CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 327 


cleansing of the boiler. This is impracticable in the connected boilers 
before referred to, when used on board of steamers; and the fact 
may serve to explain the frequent explosions which occur in the 
United States, on the Mississippi river. It is to this kind of boiler 
that the third mode assigned by which unduly heated metal may be 
produced is applicable. This form is condemned by the Committee, 
and is not in use, we believe, for our steamers. We wish they may 
be successful in preventing the further extension of its use in their 
own country. When the deck of the steam vessel is inclined by pas- 
sengers moving to one side, by wind, &c., the upper boilers are more 
or less emptied of water ; they are thus exposed to the fire, without 
the protection of a covering of water, and become unduly heated. The 
water which is forced into them on the return of the boat to its pro- 
per position is thrown upon the heated metal and flashed into steam. 
For a connected view of the conclusions drawn from the discussion 
of this part of the subject we would refer to the Report itself. One 
of the articles in which these are exhibited contains a table of alloys 
applicable to boilers working at pressures from one to thirteen atmo- 
spheres, and is deduced from experiments by the Committee, in which 
much labour must have been encountered, and in the course of which 
some curious properties of alloys appear to have been developed. The 
temperatures given in this table as corresponding to the assumed pres- 
sures are from data drawn up by the Committee from their own ex- 
periments. This differs considerably from that lately given by a 
Committee of the French Institute. The results, however, are the 
mean of many experiments, in which the data appear to have been 
calculated with care. The pressures increase more rapidly with the 
temperatures than in the table of the French commissioners, agreeing 
more nearly with the experimental results of Dr. Ure and Professor 
Robison than with those of other experimenters. } 
3rd. Explosion may arise from defects in the construction of 
the boiler or of its appendages. 
Under this head are discussed the influence of the form, material, 
and manufacture of a boiler. The waggon boiler is considered as ap- 
plicable only when low steam is used. Boilers with interior flues 
commonly give way by blowing off the heads of the boiler, or by the 
flattening of the flues. Those in which the flues pass through both 
heads of the boiler are, ewteris paribus, the most safe, while 
those in which the flue passes through the steam chamber and 
top of the boiler are liable to accident. Weakness arising from irre- 
gular forms, from the cutting out of the metal by rivets, from the 
wearing of the junctures of the plates when exposed to the fire, &c., 
are discussed. Frequent proving of the boiler is recommended, 
while in use, as the only means of being certain of its retaining the 
strength shewn in the preliminary proofs before its use. 
The Committee consider it important that several valves should be 
placed in the induction and eduction pipes of the forcing pump which 
supplies the boiler with water, in order to prevent the derangement 


228 CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 


of the pump by sedimentary matter. To ascertain its action at 
any time, they recommend a small stop-cock in the supply pipe, similar 
to that used in locomotive boilers. 

4th. The carelessness or ignorance of those entrusted with the 
management of the steam engine may produce, and have produced, 
the most disastrous accidents. To guard against these the Commit- 
tee have proposed certain provisions in their project of a law for 
regulating steam navigation and the steam engine, and to which we 
must refer for details. 

oth. Cases of collapse from a partial vacuum within a boiler or 
its flues. 

The ordinary air-valve is commonly provided, to prevent danger 
from this source by the condensation of the steam. A singular case, 
described, by Mt. John Taylor, as having occurred at the Mold 
Mines, is discussed by the Committee. It appears than an explosive 
mixture of coal-gas and air was formed in the flues on the closing 
of a damper, and became ignited. A burst of flame was seen from 
the mouth of the flue at the moment of explosion. The boiler was 
one of those with interior flues. The precaution which suggests itself 
to prevent the possibility of such an actident is an obvious one. 

6th. Having closed the subject of the means of preventing explo- 
sions, the Committee consider briefly whether it is possible to pro- 
vide protection against them when they occur. 

The means proposed are by carrying passengers in a boat separate 
from the engine, or by placing the boilers on the “ guards” of the 
boat, and separating them by a suitable bulwark. The first of these 
plans, it is stated, has been tried in America, and abandoned on ac- 
count of the impediment to speed. The second, the Committee are 
of opinion, might be rendered effectual, but they prefer strongly at- 
tempts to render the boiler safe to those intended to ward off the 
effects of its explosion. These means, as far as have occurred to 
them, are embodied in the project of a law, from the adoption of 
which we should anticipate much good would result, and which, 
with the Reports, we recommend to the perusal of our readers. 


An Address delivered at the Opening of the Worcestershire Museum, 
by Charles Hastings, M.D., F.G.S. ; to which is subjoined the 
First Fasiculus of the Statistical and General History of Worces- 
tershire—Parish of Great Witley—by the Rev. Thomas Pearson, 
Rector of Great Witley, and the Rev. John Pearson. pp. 97, 
800. London: Sherwood—Worcester: Deighton. 


Foremost among the Natural History societies that, like bril- 
liant syngenesious flowers opening before the unclouded sun, met 
the bright beams of the sun of science, shone forth the Natural 
History Society of Worcestershire. Its founders seemed men en- 
dued with enthusiastic ardour, its patrons appeared liberal and judi- 


CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 329 


cious, its friends and lecturers were hailed as. men of talent, the 
world applauded, and even veteran philosophers extended the right 
hand of fellowship to the new society that thus vigorous in its ear- 
ly growth, seemed destined to overshadow the land. Numerous 
other societies, following this spirit-stirring example, have since 
arisen on all sides, and the Worcestershire Society has either not 
kept up its original inpetus, has lost some of its early friends, or at 
any rate has not been heard of so frequently as it was wont to be. 
Perhaps this is not to be altogether wondered at by any one conver- 
sant in the frailties of human nature. Novelty, like beauty, is 
evanescent. The best experimenters will occasionally fail, and wet 
weather damps the efforts of the cleverest electrician: so that sup- 
posing no collision of opinions, or “ little enmities and dissensions,”* 
to arise, the warmest admirers of the Seciety could scarcely suppose 
its advancing career would never meet with a check. As such, 
however, would seem to be almost the case from the publication 
which has now appeared, it behoves us, in examining the produc- 
tions of a society now of some years standing, to assume a more 
rigid position than we should have considered it fair to have done 
at the outset of the Society. This is the first publication that 
comes before the world as a specimen of what the Society has done, 
and as a pledge of what it is to do: for though other publications 
have appeared from individuals, they have not assumed the form of 
the transactions of a body, as this appears to do, since Dr. Hastings 
says, in reference to the first fasiculus of the History of Worcester- 
shire, here appended to his Address, and containing the parish of 
Great Witley, by the Revs. Thomas and John Pearson, that “there 
is every reason to believe that the able manner in which the local 
history of that parish has been executed, will secure for it an exten- 
sive circulation throughout this intelligent county ; in which event 
the Society will be justified in proceeding in their praiseworthy 
undertaking, and will gradually collect together a correct history 
of each parish in the county, so as to present an invaluable body of 
information, which may prove of the utmost importance to the tra- 
veller, the antiquary, the man of science, and the naturalist.”+ So 
that from this it appears, in fact, that the Society is proceeding se- 
riatim to make a Topographical Dictionary of Worcestershire. We 
might, perhaps, notwithstanding the imprimature of the amiable 
physician, almost doubt the legality and propriety of such a step as 
this; but if it must be so, and the Society is content to rest its 
claims to distinction upon this undertaking, it is not*for us to com- 
plain. We would, however, in perfect good feeling, suggest the 
scriptural injunction of the cost being first counted, as we are told 
there are one hundred and fifty-two parishes in the county, which 
wwe presume will require a considerable number of fasciculi, and a 
patience that must endure unto the end if the work is to be com. 
pleted. 


* Address, p. 56. + Page 11. 
VOL. VI.—NO. XX. x 


330 CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 


With regard to the Address of Dr. Hastings, we consider it to 
have been exceedingly well adapted to the occasion on which it was 
delivered ; and it is, perhaps, almost superfluous to say that, coming 
from a man so well known and esteemed by his “ medical friends,” 
its style is elegant and its sentiments unexceptionable. It seems 
especially to call for the active co-operation of his brethren in the 
healing art, and cursorily traces the progress of Natural History, or 
rather of the writers on Zoology, Botany, &c, from Solomon and 
Aristotle down to Cuvier and Buckland. All receive in turn their 
due modicum of praise for their respective labours, and this Address 
may be considered to be a good recapitulation of what has been done 
by others in the wide field of scientific inquiry. In one respect, 
however, we wish the learned physician had been more explicit, and 
have stated distinctly what has been effected by the members of the 
Society he then represented. It seems somewhat remarkable that, 
on this point, he is entirely silent, and while glorying in “ the 
splendid edifice’ which ‘ promises to stand for ages,” he makes no 
mention of any researches which might be calculated to reflect lus- 
tre upon the building in which he stood, but rather to rest satisfied 
in the ‘“* memorial of those exertions by which so great a work has 
been accomplished.” But we must be permitted, however fastidi- 
ous it may seem, to take a somewhat different view. We always 
hoped the formation of Natural History societies would rouse the 
energies of latent genius, and bring forth local talents that wanted 
only a place to stand on to exhibit useful effort, and quiet, unosten- 
tatious, but laborious and useful, research. We expected that such 
institutions would materially add to the stock of our knowledge. 
A splendid building is, in our view, but a secondary consideration, 
if its grandeur extinguishes the effort and spirit that distinguished 
its members when a united few, with incommodious premises and 
insufficient means. It is not always the holder of the patent rod 
and morocco book of gorgeous flies that fills his fishing-basket ; the 
humble urchin, intent upon his purpose, is often more successful 
with his crooked pin. We wish, therefore, that while bricks and 
mortar have the praise to which they are entitled, those re- 
searches should not be forgotten which can alone do honour to 
societies, when perhaps gorgeous buildings are converted to other 
purposes than their founders intended them. As Dr. Hastings has 
nowhere stated in this Address what has been undertaken or accom- 
plished by any members of the Society, save and except the fascicu- 
lus of the History of Worcestershire appended thereto, we now pro- 
ceed to direct our attention to this production. 

That even a remote and isolated rural parish may be most de- 
lightfully treated of by the natural historian, no one who has ever 
glanced over one of the numerous editions of White’s Selborne will 
for a moment deny. But then it is not the topographer or the sta- 
tist who can satisfactorily perform this task. Tables may be con- 
structed and compiled from documents in a week, a parish may be 
surveyed in a month, but the natura! history of a tree, if its minute 


CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 33] 


details be illustrated, requires many years of patient investigation. 
We regret, therefore, to be obliged to remark that the observations 
respecting the Natural History of Great Witley are very meagre. 
For this we can hardly blame the reverend gentlemen who under- 
took the topography of Witley, but surely the council, who dele- 
gated to them this task, should have associated with them some 
zealous collector, who would have filled up the hiatus they have 
left. For, although anxious to avoid censure, what will, what can, 
be said to such a paragraph as the following, issuing under the aus- 
pices of a Natural History Society? ‘It would be useless to en- 
ter upon the minute but spacious field of inquiry which the insect 
tribes present, as we are not aware that this parish can supply any 
novelty to gratify the curiosity of the entomological student.”— 
p. 15. That the worthy and reverend authors of the fasciculus are 
not “aware” of any peculiar insect inhabiting Witley we admit, 
but that the inquiry would be “ useless’ we altogether deny. It 
-might, perhaps, be a matter of curiosity to know if Acherontia atro- 
pos be found in Witley or not, but it might be very useful to ascer- 
tain whether the Elm trees there are attacked by Scolytus destruc- 
tor, and what insects are most injurious to the Oaks. Space forbids 
our suggesting other things, but we very much doubt if a week’s 
actual investigation would not supply something “ to gratify the 
curiosity of the entomological student.” The Glowworm is, how- 
ever, mentioned as abounding in a particular spot, and this incau- 
tious paragraph follows, which of course could not have been penned 
by a practical entomologist. ‘« There is perhaps a greater distinc. 
tion between the male and female of this class than can be elsewhere 
found in the whole range of Zoology. The male is a small dusky 
Scarabeus, without luminous power or other peculiarity.” Now 
all this is decidedly wrong, as every entomologist knows, and we 
therefore again regret that an avowed publication of this Society 
should be below the usual high-water mark of scientific language 
in any respect. There are many insects, the sexes of which are 
more dissimilar and would be less easily recognized than even the 
Glowworm, as several of the Mutillites, and the apterous females of 
certain moths. Again, the Glowworm, is not a Scarabeus at all, 
and the male of the Glowworm certainly has two faintly luminous 
spots on its abdomen. The authors of the fasciculus give us a list 
of the migratory birds visiting Witley, in which they include the 
Grey Shrike, Lanius excubitor. They state that during the sum- 
mer months this kind is invariably present in the parish, to the 
number of ‘‘ perhaps a dozen! ! No account, however, is given of 
the habits or nidification of the bird, and we almost fear some mis- 
take, particularly as the more common Lanius collurio is altogether 
omitted. Surely, too, the Whin Chat (Sazicola rubetra), the 
Spring Oatear (Budytes verna), the Tree Redstart ( Phenicura 
albifrons), and the Fern Nightjar (Vociferator Europeus), must 
visit Witley, yet they are altogether omitted by the reverend writers. 


332 CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 


Now, as these are migratory birds of general occurrence, we cannot 
understand on what principle they are omitted, unless not observed, 
in which case an explicit statement should have been made that 
those birds of general occurrence had never been perceived in the 
parish of Witley. A local catalogue of the birds frequenting any 
district is very useful if all the known species are included; but if 
merely a selection is made, without any elucidatory remarks, the 
reader is left totally in the dark as to whether any birds omitted 
have been so treated purposely, or whether they do not really occur 
in the district. 

Under the heads of Population, Parish Registers, Mortality, Lon- 
gevity, Births, &c., the labours of the authors are judiciously suc- 
cinct and to the purpose. Their account of the Hop-pickers whose 
annual migration passes through Witley, for the supply of the 
neighbouring parishes of Worcestershire and Herefordshire, is really 
se not generally known, and deserves unqualified praise. 

e subjoin the passage: ‘‘In the hop season, every child capab!e of 
plucking the hops stands to the crib. Neighbours, for the most 
part, are employed in picking the few plantations in this parish. 
Not so on the other side of the hills, where foreign aid is required : 
and it may not be uninteresting to state that, in a good hop season, 
two thousand strangers pass over Stourport Bridge, from Stafford- 
shire, for the supply of the parishes, both in Worcestershire and 
Herefordshire, situated within a few miles of Great Witley. Be. 
sides the Stourport Bridge, many strangers pass over Bewdley and 
other bridges which cross the Severn. ‘The inducement to these 
strangers to leave their home is principally the apples, which they 
consume largely whilst in the country, and carry away, upon their 
return home, as many as they can walk under. Taking the low 
average of two thousand strangers in a good season, and the still 
lower average of half a pot of apples to each person, the quantity 
consumed and carried away by such strangers would be one thou- 
sand pots, or twenty-five waggon loads, which, being taken at three 
shillings a pot, or six pounds the load, would produce no less a sum 
than £150.! The hop season is one of joyous excitement and of 
pleasurable hope; and where the plant is luxuriant in its growth, 
and clustered with loaded tendrils hanging in graceful curves, with 
groups of gatherers appearing at intervals between the long vistas, 
carolling forth, with gay and artless. glee, their national songs, the 
scene affords a picturesque treat, and excites a corresponding senti- 
ment of pleasurable feelings.” This is the bright side of the pic. 
ture, and it is so good that we will not spoil it by hinting at another 
view that, we fear, might be taken. At all events, we warn 
strangers who might be tempted by the pastoral beauties pourtrayed 
in this vivid scene not, in their poetical raptures, to approach too 
near the crib. 

We have examined this publication with detailed attention ; and 
if the fasciculus had appeared to us a model, in all respects, for other 


CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 333 


Natural History Societies, we would have cheerfully so recommend- 
ed it. We have pointed out its defects unreservedly, because it is 
absolutely necessary that the votaries of Natural History in the pre- 
sent day should fully understand that their observations, to be duly 
appreciated, must keep pace with the progress of modern science, 
and that nothing inadequate or imperfect can be now regarded, 
however praiseworthy the author’s intentions. 


Sacred Philosophy of the Seasuns ; illustrating the Perfections of 
God in the Phenomena of the Year. By the Rev. Henry Dun- 
can, D.D. Vol. III. Summer. Edinburgh: W. Oliphant and 
Son. London: Hamilton, Adams, and Co. 1837. 


In our last number we were compelled to content ourselves with 
a brief notice of the second volume of Dr. Duncan’s excellent work. 
We now propose in some way to atone to the philosophic author by 
a more detailed review of his treatise on Summer. We observe 
throughout the varied subjects that have fallen under the scope of 
his undertaking, the same comprehensive and devout spirit which 
we had occasion to commend in our former critique. 

The first chapter very naturally consists of a general account of 
the summer season, which is represented as the perfection of the 
year. The increased heat of the season, and the internal heat of the 
earth are next treated of. From the latter chapter we extract as 
follows :— 


“ The fact, then, seems to be established, that there is a vast region of ex- 
cessive heat in the centre of the earth; and that the crust of the globe is 
rent internally into very extensive fissures, along which that formidable 
agent approaches nearer the surface, and through which it finds occasional or 
permanent vents. This being proved, seems to open to us, not only one of 
_ the natural causes of the previous revolutions on the surface of our planet, 
but a source of future disruption and ruin. The ‘ more sure word of proa- 
phecy’ informs us, that the time will come when the eiements shall be dis- 
solved with fervent heat, and the earth and all that is therein shall be burn- 
ed up: and it is satisfactory to observe that geological indications render this 
catastrophe, not only possible, but probable. Let it only be conceived that 
the safety-valve, by which the superabundant heat generated internally is 
at present thrown off, were, by some convulsion, to be stopped up, or that 
some other deranging cause were to occur, which should destroy the equili- 
brium at present subsisting between the great central fire and the shell in 
which it is inclosed, and an explosion would take place like the bursting of a 
bomb ; or, at all events, a force would be exerted which might altogether de- 
range the present system of things, and set the world in a blaze. The pow- 
ers which sustain the great planetary system are equally balanced, and, not- 
withstanding the existence of a resisting medium, may, as to all practical re- 
sults, be considered stable; but it is not so with the materials of our own 
globe. These have already undergone numerous disruptions ; and there 
is one other catastrophe still in reserve for them. We see the elements of 
that catastrophe in existing phenomena, and when we look to the announce- 
ments of Scripture, the event, which might almost be anticipated, is authori- 
tatively foretold.”—p. 22. 


Increased light and electricity are then discussed. The latter is, 


334 CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 


of course, a subject of the highest interest. After briefly explaining — 
the uses of electricity, so far as these are known, our author ob- 
serves— 


* Another property which has been said to belong to the principle of elec- 
tricity, is the assistance which it affords to the processes of vegetation. 
While these processes proceed, it is ascertained, by some late experiments, 
that there is a constant circulation of this fluid, if it deserves that name, 
between plants and the atmosphere ; and there is, therefore, reason to believe 
that the circulation is essential to the growth and health of the former. Va- 
rious contradictory experiments, however, have been made on this subject, 

roducing conflicting theories, and not ending in any very satisfactory result. 
The Abbés Nollet and Bertholon both made experiments which seemed to 
prove that the artificial application of electricity considerably accelerated the 
vegetable process, and rendered it more vigorous; and the latter took so 
strong a view of this subject, that he seriously ped osed the erection of what 
he named edectro-vegetometers, or thunder rods, for bringing down the electri- 
city of the atmosphere to the earth, for the purpose of fertilizing the soil. 
After describing his plans, he thus expresses himself :—‘ By these means we 
shall have an excellent vegetable manure, or nourishment, brought down, as 
it were from heaven, and that, too, at so easy an expense; for, after the con- 
struction of this instrument, it will cost nothing to maintain it. It will be, 
moreover, the most efficacious you can employ; no other substance being so 
active, penetrating, or conducive to the germination, crave multiplication, 
or reproduction of vegetables.” The Abbé’s views, however, appear to be 
visionary, and the experience of several other philosophers is far from con- 
firming the effects above mentioned; so that nothing more can be positively 
affirmed, from acutal experiment, than the existence of a circulation of elec- 
tricity in plants during vegetation. Further experiments are required to 
elucidate this very interesting subject.”—p. 30. 


In a work containing so much philosophical research as the pre- 
sent, we cannot of course be expected to give a detailed analysis of 
the whole: we are, indeed, unable to spare either time or space to 
mention even the heads of the various chapters ; but will proceed to 
make a few more extracts, which we will intersperse, if convenient 
or necessary, with observations of our own. The ensuing para- 
graph is from the chapter on vegetable fixed oils :— 


“The Sesamum, or oil-plant of the east, is indigenous in the island of Cey- 
lon and on the Malabar coast. It is an annual, growing about two feet high, 
and producing seeds of the size of those of mustard. It is grown universal] 
throughout Asia and in some parts of Africa, where the whole seed is valued, 
not merely for its oil, but as an article of food. The oil is abundant, nine 
pounds of seed yielding two quarts of this substance. It is perfectly sweet, 
and is used for the purposes of olive oil, while it has the great advantage of 
not becoming rancid, though kept for years. From the kernels of walnuts, 
hazel-nuts, and beech-masts, and from the seeds of the poppy, oils are ex- 
tracted, which are much esteemed by varnishers, on account of their trans- 
parency. ‘The latter is also extensively used in place of olive oil. The co- 
coa-nut and some species of palm likewise yield an abundant and useful oil 
well known in this country, the latter being chiefly used in the manufacture 
of a certain kind of soap, and the former being in very general use. The 
chief defect of the oil extracted from the cocoa-nut was its congealing at the 
ordinary temperature of the atmosphere in England. Recently, however, a 
discovery has been made of a method of separating the concrete matter from 
the liquid part of the oil, by which means a pale, limpid, tasteless fluid is 


CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 335 


produced, possessing the property of combustibility in an equal degree with 
the best sperm oil, while the solid unctuous substance is applicable to the 
manufacture of candles, and to other uses in which fatty matter is employed. 
This discovery will probably be of considerable importance to the inhabi- 
tants of Ceylon, where the cocoa-nut tree is cultivated in such abundance. 
The utility of its oil adds to the valuable properties of this wonderful tree.” 
—p. 122. 


Dr. Duncan devotes a section to the consideration of vegetable 
life in the polar regions, where the plants are few in number and 
stunted in growth. The cryptogamic plants are, however, tolerably 
abundant even in those desolate regions, These countries are still 
by no means wanting in peculiarities interesting to the botanist :— 


“'These bleak regions enjoy a precious boon in the plants which act as an 
antidote to scurvy, and which defy the most severe cold of the arctic zone. 
The Cochlearia, a thick-tufted juicy plant, of extreme fecundity, is emphati- 


cally called scurvy-grass ; and different species of sorrel were found, by Cap- 


tain Parry, flourishing under the snow, at the very furthest limit of vegeta- 
tion.”—p. 133. 


Some account is then given of a curious production supposed to 
be a plant, and named Protocecus nivalis, which has somewhat the 
appearance of red snow, for which, indeed, it was mistaken by the 
northern voyagers. It is rather remarkable that this plant has also 
been found in Scotland and in the Alpine countries of Europe. 
We have called this substance a plant, since it has been supposed to 
consist of an assemblage of minute Algw, but the fact is not well 
ascertained. 

Our author devotes a chapter to the intellectual and moral facul- 
ties of man, but here we must beg to be excused from following 
him. As he is unacquainted with the science of Phrenology, it is 
not surprising that he should have treated this subject less happily 
and satisfactorily than many others. These two chapters might, 
we think, very advantageously have been omitted, as they involve 
. nothing but speculation and hypothesis, where all might have been 
as clear and precise as a problem in mathematics. 

We have only been able to select, here and there, a few paragraphs 
from the volume, but we trust enough has been said to point out 
the excellences, both in plan and execution, of the greater part of 
this work. It is, in fact, a series of singular merit, and gives us a 
highly favourable opinion of the talents of the reverend author. We 
hope and believe it will meet the reception it so richly deserves. 


An Analysis of the British Ferns and their Allies, with Copper-plate 
Engravings of every Species and Variety. By George W. Fran- 
cis. London: Simpkin & Co. 1837. pp. 68. 


Our botanical readers will be well able to appreciate the value of 
a synopsis of British Ferns, and therefore we shall only say that we 
are perfectly satisfied with Mr. Francis’s Analysis. The author 


336 CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 


has been assisted in his undertaking by Mr. H. C. Watson, Mr. W. 
Wilson, Mr. W. A. Leighton, Dr. Murray, Mr. W. Pamlin, Mr. 
Beevis, Mr. Castles, and the Rev. W. T. Bree, and we must consi- 
der the book a most valuable and acceptable addition to this depart- 
ment of our native plants. With this volume we have also received 
an excellent tabular Catalogue of British Flowering Plants and 
Ferns, by the same author. We are by no means surprised to find 
that it has reached its third edition. 


A Synopsis of the Birds of Australia and the adjacent Islands. By 
John Gould, F.L.S., &c. Part I., coloured or plain. January, 
1837. Tondon: Published by the Author, 20, Broad-street, 
Golden-square. 


_ Numerous and important as have been the ornithological works 
of Mr. Gould, we are glad to find him persevering in his course of 
usefulness ; and perhaps the present publication, of which the part 
on our table is the commencement, will yield in value and excel- 
lence to none of his other undertakings. The scientific ornitholo- 
gist must be especially obliged to him for illustrating the birds of a 
country in which, comparatively, so little has hitherto been done in 
the same line. Lewin’s Birds of New Holland is valuable as far as 
it goes, but is extremely deficient as regards the number of species it 
describes, and, with the exception of a memoir by Mr. Vigors and 
Dr. Horsfield, in the fifteenth volume of the Linnean Transactions, 
that is the only work on the subject with which we are acquainted. 
The field Mr. Gould has now chosen for his labours is one of great 
interest and importance in an ornithological point of view, and 
abounds in forms remarkable for their beauty and interest. In the 
present Synopsis we have a concise and masterly description of each 
species, with synonyms, &c. ; and a drawing of the head is, in every 
case, given, with occasionally the wings and other parts supplied in 
outline. These plates—which may be had either coloured or plain, 
according to the taste or resources of the student—are satisfactory in 
every respect, and are, unquestionably, the best of the kind we have 
seen. 

_ We think it would not have been amiss to have supplied the Eng- 
lish names of the birds described. To those who have not enjoyed 
the ‘‘ benefits of a sound classical education”—and the number of 
these is yearly increasing—such names as Ocyplerus albovittatus, 
Neomorpha crassirostris, &c., however familiar to the ears of the 
initiated, must appear strangely uncouth to those “ honest folk” who 
are debarred the advantages of college instruction. We cannot 
agree with the naturalists who wish to exclude Latin names alto- 
gether any more than we are disposed to ‘‘ chime in” with those 
who declare the English designations to be useless. On the con- 
trary, we are inclined to compromise the matter, and unite the two 
languages so as to suit all tastes, and of course this plan cannot fail 
to facilitate the study. Indeed, the method we advocate is so ge- 


FINE ARTS, 337 


nerally agreed on that we are only surprised to find our author de- 
parting from it. Hid: 

The Synopsis of the Birds of Australia is to extend to six or eight 
quarterly parts, and the work will, we doubt not, be supported in 
the manner its merits so richly deserve. 


The Naturalist’s Library. Conducted by Sir W. Jardine, Bart. 
Ornithology, Vol. VII—Birds of Western Africa. By W. 
Swainson, Esq., A.C.G., &c. Edinburgh: Lizars—London : 
Highley. 1837. 


Tuts, too, considering the limits which must necessarily be at- 
tended to in this series, and the popular complexion of the under- 
taking, is a work of no small value. The Ornithology of Western 
Africa has scarcely reeeived a greater share of attention than that 
of Australia, though equally deserving the investigation of the na- 
turalist. We are glad to find Mr. Swainson intends to give us ano- 
ther volume on the same subject, and feel confident that it will be 
executed in the same careful and philosophic manner so conspicuous 
in all the writings of that gentleman. Above thirty species are 
figured—not a few of which are new—the engravings being by 
Lizars, from drawings by the author. These illustrations are, at 
least, equal to those in any of the preceding volumes. Mr. Swain- 
son’s introduction is so interesting and beautiful that had we not 
elsewhere (The Naturalist, vol. ii., p. 109) freely extracted from it, 
we should have presented our readers with various extracts from it ; 
but we prefer our readers to peruse the whole volume. This book 
opens with a plate and remarkably interesting memoir of Bruce, the 
African traveller, by Andrew Crichton, Esq., author of the History 
of Arabia. 


FINE ARTS. 
MUSIC. 
John Sebastian Bach’s Grand Studies for the Organ. Cramer & Co. 


THE instrumental works of this greatest of all composers are now 
at length beginning to attract some portion of that attention and 
admiration which they so well deserve ; but his vocal masterpieces 
are, by some unaccountable fatality, entirely unknown to the pub- 
lic at large, and even to a great majority of the professors of this 
country. At some future time we will, as far as in us lies, endea- 
vour to dispel some portion of the cloud of ignorance and prejudice 

VOL. VI.—NO. XX. uU 


338 FINE ARTS. 


which have so long obscured the name of this truly great man. 
At present we must content ourselves with quoting a passage from 
his life by Forkel, a work which cannot be too highly praised, as well 
for its dignified estimate of the art, as for its constant inculcation 
of whatever is greatest and noblest in that art :— 


“When an artist has produced a great number of works, which are all of 
the most varied kind, which are distinguished from those of all other compos- 
ers of every age, and have in common an abundance of the most original 
ideas, and a most lively spirit which charms every one, whether connoisseur or 
not, there can hardly be room to ask whether such an artist was a great ge- 
nius or not. The most fertile fancy ; the most inexhaustible invention; the 
most acute and accurate judgment in the just application to every object of 
the rich flow of thoughts issuing from the imagination; the most refined 
taste, which cannot endure a single arbitrary note, or which does not duly 
accord with the spirit ofthe whole; the greatest ingenuity in the suitable use 
of the most delicate and unusual resources of the art; and, lastly, the high- 
est degree of talent in the execution—qualities in which not one, but all th 
powers of the soul, in the most intimate union, must act—these must be the 
characteristics of real genius, or there are none such: and he who cannot 
find these characteristics in the works of Bach, is either not acquainted with 
‘them (the works) at all, or else not sufficiently so. He who does not know 
them, cannot possibly have an opinion of them, or of the genius of their au- 
thor; and he who does not know them sufficiently, must consider that works 
of art, in proportion as they are great and perfect, require to be the more 
diligently studied to discover their real value in its full extent. That butter- 
Sly spirit which flutters incessantly from flower to flower, without resting upon any, 
can do nothing here.” 


Grant Duet, in three movements, for the Piano-forte or Organ. By 
Samuel Wesley. London: J. Dean, 148, New Bond-street. 


Tuts duet is neither entirely fitted for the organ, nor for the 
piano-forte. The parts are often too straggling and detached to 
produce a good effect on the former, while the general character of 
the piece is too heavy and spiritless to be suitable to the latter in- 
strument. The last movement, a fugue on two subjects, is decidedly 
the best of the whole, and would make a good organ piece played 
by itself, or with a short introduction ; but nothing that we can see 
in it at all justifies the title of the ‘‘ English Sebastian Bach,” 
which ore of his admirers has bestowed on its author. Mr. Wesley 
is a very respectable composer, but certainly no Sebastian Bach. 


Favourite Airs. In two books; selected from Cimarosa’s opera “ Il 
Matrimonio Segreto.” Arranged for two Performers on the Pi- 
ano-forte. By W. Watts. R. Mills, 140, New Bond-street. 


: WHEN an arrangement from a great work is in contemplation, 
what is the object which the arranger should propose to himself? 
Certainly, if he has any respect for his author, to give the clearest 
and most adequate idea of the work from which he is arranging, in 
a manner consistent with the character and capabilities of the in- 
strument to which he is adapting it. That Mr. Watts, however, is 


FINE ARTS. 339 


not of our mind is but too evident from the duets before us, for 
stranger and more lamentable vagaries, and a more pitiable murder- 
ing of a fine work, it never fell to our lot to witness. To speak of 
the arrangement alone, compare the small portion of the first finale, 
which is here vouchsafed to us, with the admirable and elaborate 
arrangement of the same finale by Dr. Crotch. The slovenliness 
and want of effect in the former will be seen in striking contrast 
with the care and faithful rendering of the original which distin- 
guish the latter. But what are we to say when we find the se- 
cond finale (a piece of music, as well from its scientific arrangement 
as from its dramatic treatment, every way worthy of the chef d’euvre 
it concludes) transformed, in the merciless hands of the arranger, 
into a pot-pourri of favourite airs! As if there were no composer 
better fitted for his purpose—no inventor of favourite airs ready 
made to his hand, without troubling him either to transpose or cur- 
tail—no composer who writes with especial eye to the edification of 
the young ladies, or none who never introduce into their composi- 
tions anything heavier than a waltz, or at most a favourite air! 
As long as there are such we would beg Mr. Watts to keep off his 
unhallowed hands from Cimarosa, and from all who have written 
for posterity. 


Six Grand Waltzes. By Miss Mounsey. Clementi, Collard, & 
Collard, 26, Cheapside. 

The Erl King. The poetry by Goethe, with an English transla- 
tion by W. Bartholomew, Esq. The music by Miss Mounsey.— 
J. A. Novello, 69, Dean-street, Soho. 


In these waltzes Miss Mounsey has escaped the Strauss mania, 
which is beginning to make such great ravages, and has apparently 
taken Beethoven for her model, without, however, being in the 
slightest degree amenable to the charge of imitating, still less of 
copying, his phrases or ideas. They are beautiful, and sufficiently 
ornamented without being flippant, the usual besetting sin of com- 
positions of this class ; and being such they deserve the popularity 
they have by this time, doubtless, obtained. 

The Eri King is a composition of a very superior order. The po- 
etry presents considerable difficulties, not with regard to the lan- 
guage, but to the feelings and emotions to be depicted. Over these 
difficulties the fair composer has triumphed most completely. The 
introduction is admirable, and most. successfully pourtrays the dark 
and stormy night in which the father is hiding with his “lovely 
boy.” The fears of the child, the blandishments of the “‘ Erl King,” 
the horror of the father on discovering the terrible reality, are all 
depicted with a power, a truth, and, at the same time, a poetic feel- 
ing, which must be in the highest degree delightful to those who 
wish to see, in the cultivators of art, that earnest striving after ideal 
excellence, without which art degenerates into a mere idle and sen- 
sual gratification. 


340 


EXTRACTS FROM FOREIGN JOURNALS. 


ow 


ZOOLOGY. 


On a NEW Grour or InsEcTs oF THE Famity Mantide.—M. Dumé- 
ril has communicated some observations on a new group of insects of the fa- 
mily of Mantide. The forms of the species belonging to this family are most 
singular; some resembling walking sticks, others appearing like green leaves 
fastened together, and walking thus united. Their head, abdomen, legs, &c., 
present the greatest varieties of shape, from which they have received names 
expressive of their remarkable contour, as Specires, Phasmes, Phyllis, Mantes 
or Diables, Pregadious. It is a new group of this family, named, by M. Du- 
méril, Anomides, (Anomide), that M. Lefebvre has described. He has col- 
lected several species in Egypt. Ina monagraph on the subject, he gives 
an account of the organization of the two new genera, which he names, the 
one, Eremiophilus, because he has only met with it in deserts; the other, 
Heteronutarsis, on account of the tarsi, and especially the nails, being diffe- 
rent in the posterior and anterior legs.—Another paper, by the same author, 
will describe the larva and perfect insect of a new species of Clerus, which he 
has found in a medullary substance with which the bottom of an insect-tin 
was covered, and which proceeded from the root of Aischynomene paludosa. 

On THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE Eces or Planorbis.—M. Jacquemin 
has communicated to the Académie des Sciences of Paris new details relative 
to the development of the eggs of Planorbis. He indicates, each day, the 
progress of this development, observes on the tenth day the first trace of the 
formation of the testicle, on the eleventh the pulsations of the heart, and on 
the thirteenth the action of deglutition. On the fourteenth day the hatch- 
ing takes place; but pulmonary respiration only commences six or eight 
days afterwards.—Echo du Monde Savant. 


BOTANY. 


On Two NEW SPECIES oF Spitzelia.—We have already more than once 
had occasion to speak of the works of M. Schultz, Sur les Chicoracées, (Cicho- 
racee). In the first article we described the genus Spifzelia, Delile; and in 
the second we spoke of another species of tlte same genus, Crepis radicata, 
Sieber. Through the kindness of M. Ad. de Jussieu, the author has been 
enabled to add to this genus two other plants, Picris lyrata, Delile, and Leon- 
todon coronopifolium, Desf. M. Schultz arranges the species of his new genus 
in two groups, and distinguishes them as follows :— 

I. Scariositas acheniorum radii basin fere usque in pilos divisa. 

1. S. egyptiaca.—Acheniis disci breve rostratis. 
2. S. Sieberi.—Acheniis disci truncatis. 

II. Scariositas acheniorum radii cupuliformis, ad medium tantum in pilos 
divisa. 

3. S. dyrata.—Caule foliato subramoso ( Picris lyrata, Del.) 


MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS. 341 


4. S. coronopifolia.—Scapo simplici, foliis radicalibus breviore ( Leonto- 
don coronopifolium, Desf.! Fidelia 2, Schulz, 1834), 


GEOLOGY. 


On THE Heap or a Fossrr CAMEL FOUND IN THE FREESTONE 1N 

HE Himatayas.—Up to this time, says M. de Blainville, those who have 
been most occupied in collecting all that has been done and published on the 
fossil remains of mammifera have never described any which have been. as- 
certained to belong to the Quadrumana, or to the Camels in the ruminating 
order, animals, in fact, which seem to be confined within well-marked limits. 
It is true that Bojanus, having purchased of a merchant three molar teeth of 
a ruminating animal, which he was assured. had been found in Siberia, with. 
the teeth of a Mastodon, thought they belonged to a species of the Camel 
family, and formed accordingly, on account of some slight differences, a genus 
under the name of Merycotherium. It is also known that M. Marcel de Serres 
forwarded, some years ago, to Cuvier, the drawing of a portion of a femur, 
which he imagined to be that of a Camel; but, even supposing the other 
bones to have belonged to a Camel, it is not certain that they were really 
fossil. At present, it may be considered very doubtful whether they were 
fossil bones of a Camel. It is no longer the case that, when a skull is dis- 
covered nearly entire, it is impossible to refer it to the Dromedary or Camel 
with one hump, as is proved by the drawing M. de Blainville placed before 
the Académie des Sciences Naturelles, and by the extract from a letter of Mr- 
Henry Durand, an officer in the service of the East India Company, ad- 
dressed, on the 14th of April last, to his brother, and which was transmitted 
to me by the latter. This skull was found in a very hard freestone, or sand- 
stone, obtained, doubtless, like the building stone of India, along the lower 
Himalayas. 

The Academy will perceive, continues M. de Blainville, by the lecture I 
shall have the honour of delivering, that in the same places has been disco- 
vered the head of a mammiferous animal intermediate between the genera 
Anoplotherium and Paleotherium, of the vicinity of Paris, but of which Mr, 
Henry Durand has, unfortunately, not sent the drawing ; and, lastly, a tooth 
of a species of Mastodon, which closely resembles Mastodon angustidens, and 
which, if this resemblance were perfect, would be found in three divisions of 
the world, Europe, Asia, and America.— Annales des Sciences Naturelles, No- 
vember, 1836. 


MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS. 


On THE RisE anp Dectine or Arv.—In A. W. Schlegel’s Lectures on 
Dramatic Literature occurs the following passage :—“ Perfection in art and 
poetry may be compared to the summit of a steep mountain, where a weight 
that has been rolled up cannot long maintain itself, but immediately rushes 
down the other side, without stopping until it has reached the bottom. In 


342 MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS. - 


its downward course, following the law of gravity, it proceeds quickly and 
easily, and, inasmuch as it follows its natural inclination, is a pleasing» 
whilst the laborious ascent is, in some measure, an unpleasing, object. Thus 
it is that paintings produced at a time when the art was on the decline af- 
ford far greater pleasure to the ignorant than those which preceded the pe- 
riod of its perfection.” Here the comparison of the rise, height, and decline 
of an art, to the laborious rolling up of a weight, its short stay at the sum_ 
mit, and its easy and rapid descent, is, unfortunately, but too just; the rea- 
son, however, assigned for the greater pleasure derived by the ignorant from 
works of art in decline than from those produced when it is on the road to 
perfection, appears less so. The following will, perhaps, be found to be 
nearer the truth :—From the very circumstance of an art not having yet 
reached perfection, it follows that those engaged in its cultivation are striv- 
ing after and actually obtaining an upward step in the ascent towards the 
summit of Parnassus—towards the attainment, in other words, of the most 
successful expression of ideal beauty and superhuman grandeur. In this 
pursuit all the minor accessories, such as minuteness of detail, excessive 
polish, and ornament for its own sake, are entirely overlooked, perhaps even 
estimated below their real value. But these are precisely the qualities 
which most easily captivate the eyes, ears, and understandings of the igno- 
rant, and are those also which indicate the decline of that art in which they 
are discovered. After the highest imaginable sublimity and beauty bas been 
reached, since it is impossible to stand still, we must descend from our labo- 
riously-attained eminence ; not, however, in the same direction as we came, 
for we now rush headlong down the opposite side of the hill; and the nearer 
we approach the bottom—that is, the more we cultivate the lesser excellen- 
cies above mentioned, to the neglect of those which are alone worthy of culti- 
vation in the higher departments of the art—so much the more shall we 
come within the sympathies and capabilities of the vulgar and unenlighten- 
ed. For multitudes stand gaping with stupid admiration at the bottom of 
the hill, but few only can appreciate the solitary grandeur which clothes its 
summit.—T. 

Pecutian ORGANIZATION OF THE Grey Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus, 
Liwn.)—Mr. Levison informs us that he considers the extraordinary habits 
of the Cuckoo, as regards propagation, to result rather from a deficiency in 
the organ of Constructiveness than in the portion of the brain assigned to 
Philoprogenitiveness, which latter propensity he states to be amply develop- 
ed in the head of this interesting bird. The habits of the species certainly — 
tend to confirm this view of the matter; for it has been observed by Mr. 
John E. Gray, and others, that the Cuckoo frequently returns to the nest 
after having deposited its egg there, and the anxiety of the bird to obtain a 
proper receptacle for the egg is decidedly considerable; while, on the other 
hand, that the Cuckoo has never even made the remotest attempt at build- 
ing a nest, is an incontrovertible fact. Mr. Levison’s observations on the 
development of the Cuckoo’s head were first alluded to by that gentleman in 
a conversation with his friend Dr. Spurzheim, and were communicated to us 
during a recent visit to Mr. L.—Ep. 

Cuurcn Music.—It has been said, that the lower classes have, in gene- 
ral, no taste for harmony; and the little inaccuracies and blunders of self- 
taught musicians have been the subject of ill-timed merriment. But we 


MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS. 343 


have not the slightest doubt but it is the want of support and patronage of 
the better informed, and not from incapability on the part of the performers, 
that prevents their attaining greater excellence than is at present the case. 
We can conceive no more efficient mode of raising church music—the high- 
est style—to its proper eminence in England, than the judicious education ot 
singers in country churches, either by professed musicians or amateurs. In 
‘every church there should be a good organ, and the salary of the organist 
‘should never be lower than £100., though at present we fear that few even 
of our cathedral organists are allowed more than this. There would then be 
some competition amongst real musicians to obtain so honourable a situation. 
But, of course, if the organist is to have a good salary, he must not expect to 
find his situation a sinecure. He ought to be required to instruct the choir 
at least three times a week, in singing psalm-tunes, anthems, &c. These 
ought to be selected from the sterling works of the old masters, as Purcell 
Handel, Gibbons, Croft, and other true church composers. The ears of the 
initiated would not then, as at present, be tormented by hearing men with 
cracked voices singing through their noses, and, as a matter of course, out ot 
tune. As long as there is an organ all goes on tolerably well, but without 
the assistance of this sublime instrument, each performer plays and sings 
according to his own fancy, ad libitum! If every country gentleman and 
clergyman were imbued with even a respectable taste for church music, 
and were willing to instruct those whom they deem their inferiors, this state 
of things would not long exist.—_Eps. 

Tue Evits or Fasuton tn Music.—The two following extracts satirize 
admirably the absurd custom so prevalent among the amateurs of this coun- 
try of buying any thing and every thing which they hear performed in pub- 
lic. The first is from an article by Dr. Hodges, in the Musical World :— 
“ It is related of the far-famed Farinelli, that, on his first appearance in this 
country, in the year 1724, the effects which his surprising talents had upon 
the audience were ecstasy, rapture, enchantment! The first note he sang 
was taken with such delicacy, swelled by degrees to such an amazing volume, 
and afterwards diminished to a mere point, that it was applauded for full 
five minutes. There was, doubtless, in this case, a strong predisposition to 
be pleased: yet there must have been something extraordinarily fascinating 
in the performance of this single note to have called forth such unprece- 
dented applause. Neither the composer nor the poet could by possibility 
have claimed much of it. It is, indeed, almost to be regretted that a singer 
has such power ; for it has not invariably been exerted in a beneficial direc- 
tion. Hence it has many times happened that, after an enraptured metro- 
politan assembly has been fascinated by the tasteful performance of some 
trashy composition, the whole country has been deluged with copies of a pro- 
duction only to be rendered tolerable by the exquisite performer with whom 
it originated. 'The detrimental effect upon the interests of science and taste 
may be presumed, in such instances, to be inversely as the pecuniary benefit 
of the singer and the music-seller.”—The next is an extract from a letter by 
an accomplished German musician, now in London :—“ The compositions of 
Thalberg are of a lofty character, and bear eminent tokens of severe study : 

such, moreover, is their difficulty, that many public players would be inca- 
pable of getting through the notes, far more of executing them in the inimi- 
table style of the composer. I must, therefore, confess that the present de- 


344 MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS. 


termination of fashionable ladies to buy no music but that of Thalberg, 
appears exceedingly ridiculous. What use they can make of it—except to 
curl their hair—I am at a loss to imagine. It shows how small a share rea- 
son has in the musical predilections of the aristocracy ; for besides the extra- 
ordinary mechanical difficulties with which the compositions of Thalberg 
abound, a power and energy scarcely to be acquired by two years hard prac- 
tice is indispensable to give them due effect. Now, the aversion of the 
fashionable world to studies and exercises is notorious; Kalkbrenner and 
Hummel are characterized as too difficult both of comprehension and exe- 
cution, and consequently are but little studied except by the professional 
musician. Yet he who is able to appreciate both these admirable compos- 
ers, and to play their works with effect, has travelled but a small portion of 
the road necessary to enable him to render equal justice to Thalberg. But 
in London it would seem that every thing must bow to fashion. Poor 
Herz has now given way to a more powerful lion. Instead of this successive 
idolatry and neglect, how much more would a just appreciation of every 
composer according to his intrinsic merits be in accordance with the march of 
intellect in the nineteenth century.”—1I fully agree with the sentiments of 
the above; it is, indeed, high time that fashion should be voted vulgar.— 
From a Correspondent. 

Eces or THE Merwin Fatcon anp Ortotan Buntine.—I am glad 
to see that it is your intention to continue the critical and analytical articles 
on Gould’s Birds of Europe. To those who do not possess a copy of this 
splendid work, these notices must be valuable. 1 perceive the eggs of the 
Merlin Falcon (p. 78) and Ortolan Bunting (p. 79) are incorrectly described. 
Those of the former are very similar to the Peregrine Falcon’s eggs. The 
second figure of Hewitson’s plate (62) will illustrate the general markings, 
but they are much smaller, the egg scarcely exceeding in size that of the 
Kestril Falcon. The eggs describedin The Analyst are those of the Sparrow 
Hawk. The eggs of the Ortolan Bunting are not streaked, like those ot the 
Yellow or Cirl Bunting, but are, for the most part, dotted; in this particu- 
lar they differ from those of all the other Buntings. At least such is the 
case with my specimens, but possibly the marking of the eggs may vary in 
different nests.—J. D. Satmon, Thetford, Norfolk, April 22, 1837. [In the 
British Oology for May, 1837, two varieties of the egg of the Ortolan Bunt- 
ing are figured with streaks, and one with dots alone.—Eb. | 

Grammar.—* I now see clearly the advantage of paying little attention 
to the grammar till you have made some progress in the language. Instead 
of having both precepts and examples to learn, I need attend only to the 
general rules of what I have already seen in a variety of particular instances, 
It is examining the map of a country through which I have before travel- 
led.”Giszon’s Journal. [We have always been of opinion that it is not 
only useless and tedious, but absolutely pernicious, in imparting language, to 
attend so minutely to those abstract rules in which thoughtless routine mas- 
ters so delight. Depend upon it, grammar may enter the brain by a much 
less irksome process than “ parsing,” ‘ construing,” &c., however much we 
may be and have been ridiculed for the opinion.—Eps. | 

Tue Crate Buntine 1x Yorxsurre.—The Cirl Bunting ( Emberiza cir- 
lus) has hitherto been supposed to be confined to a few of the warmer parts 
of the south of England ; but we have seen a specimen, a fine female, in ex- 


MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS. 345 


cellent condition, that was shot, on the 25th of April, 1837, in the neigh- 
bourhood of Askern, near Doncaster. It had three companions, but we are 
unable to say whether they were of the same species.— Eps. 

Tue Braxe Nicurinea.e (Philomela luscinia) 1n Norroux. The 
Brake Nightingale is tolerably abundant in this part of the country, resort- 
ing to the thick underwood plantations and shrubberies. I have repeatedly 
heard half a dozen singing at the same time in a warm, still evening, when 
walking beside a favourite resort of the species, namely, a belt of underwood 
surrounding a park consisting principally of blackthorn.—J. D. Satmon, 
Thetford, Norfolk, April 12, 1836. 

«A Ssower or Brack Worms.—Some time since, during a snow-storm, 
a shower of black worms, wholly unknown to the agriculturists of the dis- 
trict, fell in the parish of Bamford Speke, Devonshire. They measured 
about three-fourths of an inch long. 

PurENoLocy at New Yorx.—<A friend has brought to us, from New 
York, A Phrenological Chart, representing a Synopsis of the Science, by O. S. 
and L. N. Fowler, assisted by S. Rishman, which is remarkably comprehen- 
sive and correct in its descriptions of the organs. The cuts are not so good. 
A handbill also announces “ Lectures on Phrenology and Examination of 
Heads” at New York, commencing on the 12th of October, 1836, by Messrs. 
Fowler, who style themselves ‘‘ Practical Phrenologists.” They throw out 
the following challenge :—“ The lecturers pledge themselves to demonstrate 
the truth of Phrenology in any and in every honourable way which the in- 
genuity of the incredulous may devise or propose. They throw out the chal- 
lenge to opponents and disbelievers boldly, and without condition or reserva- 
tion. They will meet opposition publicly, and on any ground ; either by fair 
argument, or by an application of the principles of the science to the heads 
and skulls of animals, or to the heads of individuals selected by the audience, ei- 
ther with or without their eyes covered, and let Phrenology stand or fall by 
this test.” From a variety of testimonials appended to this challenge, they 
seem successfully to redeem their pledges. The Washington Mirror of No- 
vember 28, 1835, contains two letters by Mr. O. S. Fowler in defence of 
Phrenology, against an attack made on it by ‘“‘ Maxwell Macdowall, M.D., 
of Baltimore, in the Baltimore Literary and Religious Magazine.” The let- 
ters are well and temperately written, and show a creditable knowledge of 
the science. Weare glad to see so much ability, combined with practical 
skill, as these gentlemen exhibit. They announce a new organ, ** whose 
function is to furnish its possessor with an intuitive knowledge of human na- 
ture, or to enable him readily to perceive the state of mind or feeling possess- 
ed by others, and thus successfully to adapt himself to, and operate upon, 
the minds and feelings of his fellow mén.” The situation of it is “between 
the reflective organs upon the one side, and Benevolence and Imitation on 
the other.” Mr. L. N. Fowler says he has made numerous observations 
and experiments upon it, and is disposed to believe in the above function. 
We presume that he means that the new organ is situated above Comparison 
and Causality, and below Benevolence and Imitation. We observe, certainly, 
that men whose foreheads are very high in that region—such were the heads 
of Shakspeare and Sir Walter Scott—have an extraordinary and almost intui- 
tive talent of becoming acquainted with human nature ; but we have hitherto 
regarded that: configuration as indicating a large development of the ascer- 

VOL. VI.—NO. XX. xx 


346 MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS. 


tained organs there enumerated, and have not yet had an opportunity of ob- 
serving whether there are organs in this region hitherto unknown.—Phreno- 
logical Journal, vol. x., p. 510-11. 

Tue DEANS AND Cakerms or CATHEDRALS, AND CaTHEpRat Corrs. 
—The shameful practices of the “ great functionaries,” of the church in ap- 
propriating to themselves all the “tomb money” and other sources of income 
in the metropolitan cathedrals, to the almost total exclusion of the just claims 
of the choir, have been well “shewn up” in several recent numbers of the 
Musical World. These dignitaries, not content with immense incomes, must 
needs deprive others of their due, with the view of further enriching them- 
selves. This accounts for the low state of the choir in our cathedrals, more 
particularly in the metropolis ; it accounts also for the very moderate salary 
of the organist, and for his unwillingness to exert himself in the improve- 
ment of the choristers.—Eps. 

REporTED RENUNCIATION OF PHRENOLOGY BY Mr. G. ComBe.—“ To 
Grorce Comse, Ese. Sir,—A rumour having been prevalent here, dur- 
ing the past week, that you had renounced the principles of Phrenology as 
laid down in your System, which has now reached its fifth edition, I am re- 
quested by a circle of friends (who have read your different works on that 
science) to make the inquiry. I am induced to trouble you personally, as 
a line from you would place it beyond a doubt.—Grorcr Fourness, 28, 
High-street, Birmingham.” AnswEer.—“ Edinburgh, 23, Charlotte Square, 
12th of January, 1837. Sir,—I am fayoured with your letter without a 
date, and hereby authorize you, not only to contradict the report which you 
mention, that I have renounced the principles of Phrenology, but to add 
that I have given up the profession of the law in order that, during the re- 
mainder of my life, I may be able to dedicate more time and exertion to the 
cultivation and diffusion of that science. Yours, GkEorce ComsBe.”—Phre- 
nological Journal, No. 51. 

Tue Braxe NicutTincAtt ( Philomela luscinia) Stncine 1n NovEMBER. 
—“ Two of these charming creatures were heard in Teignmouth, cheering 
the dulness of a November night with their melodious warblings, instead 
of “wasting their sweetness on the desert air.” 

Tue Fie.prare Tarvss ( Turdus pilaris, Wr11.).” The caged Fieldfare 
Thrush which I before mentioned to you continues well, and is a perfect 
Garden Ouzel in his ways. He swallows about half his weight of haws 
every day, besides worms and bread and milk. It is a very handsome speci- 
men.—Epwarp Bryn, Tooting, December 21, 1836, in a Letter to Neville 
Wood, Esq. vt 

Tarr’s Epinsurcuo MacazinE ann Purenorocy.—In thenumber of 
this excellent and widely-circulated periodical for March, 1836, p. 191-2, fa- 
vourable mention is made of the phrenologists and of the lectures of Mr. 
Combe; but in a later number, in a review of Watson’s Statistics of Phreno- 
logy, the science is ridiculed, and treated as if it had no more foundation in 
truth than astrology. Surely the Editor must have been dozing when he 
consented to mar his pages by the admission of such a critique. 

Tue Prospects or GreEeK anv Latin.—We have admitted thatithere 
was a time when a knowledge of the ancient classics was essential to a libe- 
ral education. But is that time to be interminable? Is the minority of the 
English language never to have an end? Isthe period never to arrive 


MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS. 347 


when that language will be so mature and independant ofits parentage as to 
be prepared to set up for itself? The warmest advocate for Greek and 
Latin will pause before answering the question negatively. We doubt 
whether any one will so answer it. Within a century from this date, Eng- 
land will be the native tongue of upwards of three hundred millions of the 
human race. Must that immense population, whose number the mind is 
unable to grasp, still depend, and, notwithstanding its sudsequent boundless 
increase, still cohtinue to depend, on Greece and Rome for their intellectual 
nourishment ?—for their literature and their mental discipline? The faney 
is preposterous. As well may it be contended, that they will derive from 
those spots of earth their corporeal food. No! they will have a language of 
their own, answering to all their wants, and competent to the manifestation 
of all their powers. In fact, with the slight restrictions heretofore men- 
tioned, the English and their descendants have such a language now, and the 
time will arrive, when to oppose this opinion will be considered as much. the 
result of antiquated prejudice, as to advocate it now is considered the work 
of a spirit of innovation. Nor do we hesitate to believe, that ages hence, 
when the Greek and Latin languages shall have been neglected and forgotten, 
English literature, in common with general and professional science, willbe 
in a state of much higher perfection than it has hitherto attained. Greek 
and Latin are destined to become the Sanscrit of future times, known only 
to the antiquarian and the virtuoso; while English, in an improved condition, 

will be as lasting as our race —Dr CatpweELw’s Thoughts on the Study of the 
Greek and Latin Languages. 

Ture Grecian and Roman Scunrrors were celebrated for their nice 
imitation of Nature, but the heads of their gladiators and philosophers are 
always represented differently, in strict conformity with phrenological prin- 
ciples. ‘They had never heard of Phrenology, yet they never once violated 
its principles, because its principles are founded in Nature, and they took 
Nature only for their guide.— Philosophy of Phrenology simplified, p. 26. 

Dors THE Roox Crow (Corvus nudirostris) EVER ImiTATE THE NoTEs 
oF THE Daw Crow (C. monedula) 2—I do not think the Rook is guilty of 
ventriloquism ; but I have often put the above query to myself when I 
have seen a number of Rooks pass over my head, and have every now and 
then heard the noise which I supposed to proceed from the Jackdaw, without 
being able to observe any difference in the size of the birds overhead.—W. 
C. Hewirson, Bristol, October 10, 1836. 


348 


OBITUARY. 


In noticing the life and labours of the late Dr. Latham—a name which for 
half a century has been quoted as an authority in Ornithology, not only in 
England, but in every country where Natural History has been studied— 
we shall seem, perhaps, to some of our readers, to be recurring to matters out 
of date—the subjects ofa former age. Perhaps there were not many, beyond 
the limited range of his personal acquaintance, who were aware that this cele- 
brated naturalist was living, until very recently, at Winchester, where 
he was gathered to his fathers at the advanced age of 97. 

A life, however lengthened, spent amidst pursuits such as those of our late 
venerable friend, is not likely to contain very much that is interesting to 
the world at large; yet we hold it to be our duty to place on record, to the 
best of our power, the few memorials which can now be gleaned of such a 
name as his. 

John Latham was born June 27, 1740, at Eltham, in Kent. He was the 
eldest son of John Latham, a surgeon and apothecary of that place, who 
was descended from an ancient family in Lancashire. His mother was a 
descendant of the Sothebys, of Yorksbire. When eight years old he was placed 
at Merchant Tailor’s school. Although his talents and acquirements gave 
a fair promise of his sharing the honors and advantages of that foundation, he 
was removed from thence at the age of fifteen, to prepare himself for his fa- 
ther’s profession, to which the turn of his own mind strongly inclined him. 
He studied Anatomy under the famous Dr. William Hunter, and having 
completed his education at the London Hospitals and Schools of Medicine, 
he commenced practice at Dartford, in 1763, at the age of twenty two, and 
married in the same year. 

Natural History must have engaged his attention and have been eagerly 
pursued by him from an early age; for as soon as Feb., 1771, we find him 
in correspondence with Mr. Pennant, who had just published his British Zo- 
ology. Mr. Latham having at that time himself made a considerable collection 
of zoological subjects, although a stranger to Mr. Pennant, was induced to 
communicate to him some matter, the result of his own observations, which 
he thought might be interesting to that gentleman. On this occasion Mr. 
Pennant replies, “It gives me inexpressible pleasure to have my poor en- 
deavours to promote science approved by a gentleman so well versed in my 
particular study as you appear to be: receive my best thanks, and grant me 
the favour of your future correspondence.” This correspondence was con- 
tinued without interruption until the death of Mr. Pennant in 1799. 

In 1772 Sir Ashton Lever introduced himself by letter to him as a brother 
collector, of whom he had heard so much, and proposed a correspondence 
for their mutual benefit. Sir A. Lever was not a man of our day, but his 
name is familiar to every naturalist, and the following letter, dated two 
months only after the first, will, we think, be interesting to our readers, 
making them acquainted with one trait at least of his character, while it isa 
distinguished testimony to the frank and liberal disposition for which the sub- 
ject of our memoir was most strikingly remarkable. 

“ Alkington, Jan. 24, 1773. 
“ Dear Latham—Give me leave to call you by that familiar name, as I flat- 


OBITUARY. 349 


ter myself we shall be correspondents as long as we both live. Your very 
generous disposition suits me, and I shall be much mortified if I cannot 
make you proper returns for whatever you send me. You will allow me a 
little time, and I will do my best endeavours to pick some things out of this 
collection that will please you. The Manakins are the most elegant birds 
I ever saw, and your taste in the disposition of them is most exquisitely beau- 
tiful, you have set us on our mettle, as I tell you honestly I have not, among 
all my cases any so attractive to my visitors as these. * * To make my re- 
marks on all the articles you have sent me would exceed the bounds of a 
letter; but this I assure you, I never received so generous a present from any 
one since I began to collect, though I have frequently had a right to expect 
great matters. Our friend, Mr. » sent me the other day a cargo (having 
been a night or two with me, and expressed a vast desire to be one of my 
benefactors, and to appear in my Museum in print, a liberty I take of ex- 
hibiting the names of my assistants) and such trumpery as he sent me you can 
have no conception of. I have by letter told him my opinion, and that I 
would not have given five shillings for the whole. Now this gentleman ex- 
pected to have come and spent a fortnight with me, and brought his drawer 
with him to have taken every subject he chose for the ornament of his pub- 
lications. But I shall beg to be excused. Men ofsuch narrow minds I like 
not. * ™ Pray, are you married? if not, I would recommend you to pre- 
sent a case or two to any lady you may desire to win, as the ladies here are 
quite captivated with your little case, and admire the taste of the disposer 
of the articles contained in it. I havea little wife who is quite in love with 
you, and insists on paying you a visit along with me. Let me know any 
particular subject you may want that may fall in my way to supply you 
with, as my inclination as well as my gratitude willalways induce me to 
shew you how much 


“Tam, affectionately, yours, 
“ AsuTron LEVER.” 

The following letter, from the same, is dated August, 1776 :— 

“Dear Latham,—Having plundered Amsterdam, Leyden, Harlem, the 
Hague, Rotterdam, Delph, Massenslu'yss the Brill) and Helvoetsluys, I am 
now returned to England: and in consequence of the above voyage, shall 
have more duplicates for you. You should see me as soon as you can, as 
I have wonderful things to tell you. 

* Yours, with compliments to Mrs. I.., 
“ AsHton LEVER.” 

Before this date Mr. Latham had formed acquaintance with most of the 
leading naturalists and collectors of England. His acknowledgements to 
these severally have been placed on record by himself. Sir Joseph Banks in 
particular, when he found him disposed to arrange materials for a work on 
Ornithology, handsomely gave up the whole of his splendid collection of 
drawings and specimens for inspection and description. 

In 1781, the first volume of the General Synopsis appeared, and was fol- 
lowed at irregular intervals by five others. A Supplement in two volumes 
completed the work in 1787. By the preface to this latter work, we find 
that he was then contemplating the Indea Ornithologicus, and he published 
it in 1791. This last very useful work, written in what might, at that time 
especially, be called a universal language, was received with great applause 


350 OBITUARY. 


on the Continent. He was in consequence elected an honorary member of 
the Natural History Society at Berlin, and of the Royal Society at Stock- 
holm ; and the University of Erlang, unsolicited, conferred upon him the 
degree of M.D. The diploma was forwarded to him in the beginning of 
1795. A compliment so handsomely offered could not but be gratefully felt 
by him, but he was unwilling to assume the title which it bestowed. Some 
of his friends, however, amongst whom Sir J. Banks was the foremost, insisted 
on addressing him from that time as Dr. Latham. 

In 1796 be retired from business. The possession of a handsome fortune, 
almost entirely realised during a practice of two and thirty years, was the 
reward and testimony of his assiduity and success in the duties of his pro- 
fession. And we beg the attention of our readers to the remarkable, the 
instructive fact, that in the leisure hours of these few years, by pursuits 
which constituted his relaxation and amusement amidst the fatigues of one 
of the most uncertain and most laborious of all professions, this indefatigable 
man contrived to establish a reputation such as few are fortunate enough 
to obtain by the uninterrupted employments of a whole life. When it is 
related, that, in addition to his voluminous correspondence with eminent 
naturalists and friends on the subject of his favourite pursuits, the inspec- 
tion of museums, and taking drawings of specimens lent to him for the pur- 
pose, he etched every copper plate in his original work, stuffed and set up 
almost every animal in his very extensive museum, and put together with his 
own hands a great many of the very cases in which they were disposed, it is 
almost difficult to conceive how he could have been, as he certainly was, one, 
not only of the most punctual men of business, but of the most attentive to 
all the duties and courtesies of life. 

Romsey, in Hampshire, was chosen for the place of his retirement. It was 
the residence of his only surviving son, and in the neighbourhood of his only 
daughter. Here he continued, with the same unwearied eagerness, the pur- 
suits which he had always loved and which his leisure now enabled him to 
extend. The world knows him almost only as an ornithologist, but his ac- 
quaintance were accustomed: to consult: him as one ultimately versed’ in all 
the 'works-of nature andof artis} audishis surviving relatives can shew that 
there is scarcely a department of Natural History which might not have been 
enriched from his original notes and manuscripts, and that many of the lead- 
ing works of his day were deeply indebted to him for materials and revision. 
He was also a worthy member of the Society of Antiquaries, and the noble 
Abbey of Romsey supplied ample encouragement to an inquirer. At one 
time he intended to have presented to the world a history of this: place, which 
he had actually completed on a very extensive scale ; but he was deterred by 
the expense and risk of publication on a subject which gama merely a 
local interest, except to a professed antiquary. 

He had enféyed a leisure of twenty years and more in affluence, when a 
series of calamities in his family not only caused him the severest distress of 
mind, but plunged him at the age of eighty into a state of almost utter desti- 
tution. Happily, a home was left him in the house of his son-in-law, W.N. 
Wickham, Esq., of Winchester. Thither he retired with his second wife 
in 1819. He was enabled to save some of the choicest of his books from the 
wreck of his property, and that placid disposition which characterized him 


OBITUARY. 351 


through life, aided, we trust, by higher hopes, enabled him to settle down, in 
the bosom of his daughter’s family, into his usual habits and pursuits. 

We find by a letter to Colonel Montagu, dated 1809, that he had then 
completed the reconstruction of his original work, with a view to a second 
edition. Some difficulties had occurred on the part of the booksellers, and 
it was postponed for the time. In 1811 he had revised, and largely aug- 
mented with notes and observations from this the ornithological part for M. 
Pennant’s British Zoology, of which a second edition was published by his 
son, Mr. D. Pennant. But although he had thus drawn upon his own work, 
he had never relinquished the idea of republishing it himself entire, and had 
continued to add daily to his stores. * 

With the desire of withdrawing his mind from the painful events to which 
we have alluded, as well as with the hope of pecuniary advantage to him, 
his friends now pressed him to print by subscription the work which he had 
prepared. Accordingly, in 1821, he commenced the publication of the 
General History of Birds, and it was completed, in ten volumes, in about two 
years and a half. It was not likely, from the very nature of the undertaking, 
that he would add materially to his reputation by this late effort, but it was 
a curious and interesting spectacle, to see a man who had attained the 82nd 
year of a laborious and harrassed life, busily engaged in editing a work which 
demanded so large a space of time for its completion; and those who have 
witnessed him during that time, retouching the copper plates, with a steadi- 
ness of hand which is supposed peculiar to the prime of life, will not les my 
forget their admiration. 

He lived nearly fourteen years after the termination of this task, without 
sorrow or suffering, beyond that which he has in his correspondence de- 
scribed as the great evil of old age—to become the survivor of those whom he 
had valued and loved in life. He was already a widower for the second time, 
and his only remaining child, Mrs. Wickham, died in the beginning of 1835. 
During this year he felt, for the first time, the failure of his eye sight. In- 
firmities gradually increased ; but he was an active and cheerful man still— 
he took his daily walk alone —he scorned the assistance of an arm—and if any 
one was happy enough to ask for information on any subject which his 
library could illustrate, neither the distance of the room, nor the weight of 
the folio, deterred him from going himself to gratify his inquirer. 

His end was rapid, but not unexpected—not the effect of disease, but of 
exhaustion—the taper burnt fairly out. Four days before his death he ex- 
hibited an unusual vivacity, and sprightliness almost unnatural; this was 
followed by a sudden failure of understanding—then of appetite—and he fell 
into a deep sleep of many hours duration, in which he expired without a 
pang, on the 4th of February, 1837. His remains are eet in the 
Abbey Church of Romsey. 

Dr. Latham was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1775. He was 
the originator of, and took a prominent part in the formation of the Linnean 
Society, of which he was also a fellow from the beginning : and he became a 
member of the Society of Antiquaries in 1793. 


The celebrated composer, Zingarelli, the author of Romeo e Giulietta, died 
lately at Naples, aged 87. He was chief director of the Royal Academy of 
Music of that capital. 


352 


LITERARY INTELLIGENCE. 


In the Press, Temples, Ancient and Modern; or, Notes on Church Ar- 
chitecture. By William Bardewell, Architect. 

Voy up the Mediterranean and in the Indian Seas; with Memoirs 
compiled from the Logs and Letters of a Midshipman: with a Portrait and 
Engraving from Original Drawings. By the late William Robinson, the 
subject of the Memoirs. | 


SELECT LIST OF NEW PUBLICATIONS, 
From March 8th to May 8th, 1837. 


Aretzeus on the Causes, &c., of Disease, transl. by Reynolds, 8vo., 8s. 6d. 

Auber on the British Power in India, vol. 1, 8vo., 21s., roy. 8vo., 31s. 6d: 

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Burnet on Education of the Eye, with reference to Painting, 4to., 25s.—1. p. 
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Central Society of Education, first publication, 12mo., 5s. 6d. 

Cooper’s (J. F.) England, 3 vols. post 8vo., 31s. 6d. 

Cooper’s (Sir A.) Principles, &c., of Surgery, by Lee, vol. 2, 8vo., 18s.—cold. 
24 


8. 
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Crockett’s Exploits and Adventures in Texas, 12mo., 5s. 6d. 

Curtis (J. H.) on the Preservation of Health, feap., 3s. 6d. 

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Edinburgh Cabinet Library, vol. 22, (Tytler’s Life of Henry VIII.), 5s. 
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353 


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METEOROLOGICAL REPORT. 


MARCH. 
1837 | Barometer. | Thermometer. Remarks, 
Mar. | Morn. | Even. | Max. {| Min. Day. Nizht. Wind. 
1 | 29.900 | 29.935) 37.5 | 28 Hazy, sun, cloud Hard frost N. E. 
2 | 29.860 | 28.750} 41.5 | 28 Haze, sun, snow, rain | Hard frost N. E. 
3 | 29.830 | 29.760; 41.5 | 35 Hazy, cloudy, It. wind | Cloudy Northerly 
4 | 29.645 | 29.665} 45 34 Hazy, sun, cloud, breeze| Fine, cloudy | N. E. 
5 | 29.535 | 29.370; 45 30 Hazy, cloudy, showers | Clear Northerly 
6 | 29.440 | 29.522} 41 37 Hazy, cloudy, sun Cloudy Calm, eastly 
7 | 29.570 | 29.670 | 43 31.5 | Fine, sun | Fine Calm, vble. 
8 | 29.702 | 29.592; 44.5 | 31.5 | Fine, cloudy Fine Calm, wstrly 
9 | 29.494 | 29.286) 48 39 __—| Fine, light showers Fine Fresh, wstly. 
10 | 28.988 | 28.728 37.5 | Showers, snow at night Fresh, 8.W. 
11 | 28.702 | 28.724; 445. | 31 Grnd. cov. sn.; cls., sun! Snow Westerly 
12 | 28.840 | 29.120} 44 29 Hazy, cloudy Calm, S 
13 | 29.398 | 29.780 | 39 28 Hazy, cumuli, fr. brze. | Hard frost Northerly 
14 | 29.892 | 29.848; 41 28 Hazy, cumuli, fr. brze. | Hard frost N. E. 
15 | 29.710 | 29.612} 37.5 | 31 Cloudy, dark, frsh. brze. | Fine N.E. 
16 | 29.612 38 34 Cloudy Cloudy N E. 
17 | 29.790 | 29.808 | 40 34 Cloudy Cloudy N. E. 
18 | 29.756 | 29.642 | 38 33 Cloudy, cold Cloudy N. E. 
19 | 29.572 | 29.504} 39 32 Cloudy, cold Cloudy Frsh, E.N.E. 
20 | 29.468 | 29.512} 39 28.5 | Snow shrs. fresh breeze | Hard frost ° Frsh, N.N.E 
21 | 29.358 | 29.164| 38.5 | 23! | Lt.sno,hvy. sno inevg. | Hard frost Northerly 
22 | 29.204 | 29.240; 34 28! | Snow deep, cloudy Hard frost Light, souly 
23 | 29,181 | 29.168} 34 25! | Snow deep, cloudy Hard frost Calm 
24 | 29,216 | 29350; 33 23! | Snow deep, all sun A little snow | Calm, S. E. 
25 | 29,283 | 29.180} 38 22.5 ! | Sun, snow still covg. gr.| Hard frost Northerly 
26 | 29.232 | 29.360| 38.5 | 31 | Fine, sno. still covg. gr. | Fine Northerly 
27 | 29.473 | 29.4.0} 40 23.5! | Fine, sun, clouds Hard frost Northerly 
28 | 29,340 | 29.238; 41.5 | 32 Showers, and hvy. rain | Snow showers | Westerly 
29 | 29.128 | 29210; 40.5 | 33 Clds., sno. lies in places} Rain : Westerly 
30 | 29,251 | 29.352} 41 28 Fine, sun, cumuli Aurora Northerly 
31 | 29.416 | 29.426! 43 27 Hazy, aJl sun Clear N. E. 
Mean Max.40.3 30.2 Mean Min. 
VOL VI.—NO. XX. Y¥ 


METEOROLOGICAL REPORT. 


APRIL. 
1837 | Barometer. | Thermometer. Remarks 
April | Morn.| Even. | Max. in. Day. Night. Wind. 

1 | 29.398 | 29.417} 48 30.5 | Fine, sun andcumuli | Fine, clear W.N. W. 

2 | 29.406 | 29.180} 455 | 285 | Fine, sunandcumuli | Fine, clear W. N. W. It. 

3 | 28.874; 29040} 40 32 Snow, fine, cold wind | Snow Westerly 

4 | 29.108 | 29.206 | 39.5 | 30 Hazy, cloudy, cold Fine, stars Northerly 

5 29.394] 41 31 Fresh cold wind Cloudy E- 

6 | 29.418 | 29.540} 41 29 Snow, storms, variable | Fine, stars Northerly 

7 | 29. 29.885 | 42 30 Rain and snow, fr. brz. | Aurora Northerly 

8 | 29.918 29 892 | 42 30 | Snow showers -| Cloudy N. N. E. 

9 | 29.868 | 29.788 | 37 26! | Grnd. covd. with snow | Snow showers | N. E. fresh 
10 | 29.652/ 29.354} 38 24.5 !| Fine, clouds and sun Hard frost N. E. fresh 
11 | 29.118} 29.032 | 39 28.5!) Hvy. snow in the evng. | Hard frost Calm, Wrly. 
12 | 29.150} 29.318 | 36 30 Deep snow, clear Snow Calm, Estrly 
13 | 29.406) 29.442 | 37 29.5 | Snow showers Cloudy, frost | N. E. 

14 | 29.402/ 29.270 | 47 32 Fine, hazy Cloudy N. E. 
15 | 29.107} 29.022 | 47 32 Snow in the evening Cloud Srly, vbl., It. 
16 | 28.960 41 28.5 | Cloudy, light snow Hard frost Northerly 
17 | 29.250} 29.414 | 46 29.5 | All sun, fine Northerly 
18 | 29 454| 29488 | 50 Hazy, all sun Solem 
19 | 29.448 29.384 | 52 34.5 | Hazy, all sun Calin, sthrly. 
20 | 29 312! 29.268 | 44 41 Showers, rain and hail | Clr., moonecl].| N Westerly 
21 | 29.134! 29.084 Heavy rain Westerly 
22 | 29.051/ 29.144} 47 32 =| Cloudy, hazy Fine Northerly 
23 | 29.086| 29.070 | 48 35 Light rain, strong brze. | Cloady Northerly 
24 | 29.160) 29.299 | 53 38 Hvy showers, hail Cloud Calm 
25 | 29.332) 29.254 | 53 38 | Heavy rain Clear, fine S. W., light . 
26 | 29-286} 29.300 | 58 42 Sun, cumuli Cloudy Westerly 
27 | 29.194| 29.232 | 56 36 Fine, showers Light clouds |S. W. 
28 | 29.130| 29064| 50 | 42 | Cloudy, light rain Cloudy S. W. 
29 | 28.852) 28.808} 52 42 Rain Cloudy S. Erly. 
30 | 28.830) 29.016 | 535 | 43 Fine, boisterous wind -| Clouds & stars} Westerly 
Mean Max.456 33.0 Mean Min. 
MAY. 

1837, Barometer. /Thermometer.| Remarks. 

May |} Morn ven. | Max, | Min. Day. Night. Wind. 

1} 29.076 | 29.286 | 57 45 | Cloudy, very windy Shrs. & wind | S. W. 
2| 29.418 61 43 | Fine, chiefly sun Fine, cloudy | W.N.W. 

3 | 29316 | 29.240 | 62 43 | Clouds, sun, It. showers | Fine Calm 
4 9.490 | 57 Hazy, showery 
5 | 29.564 | 29.612 | 57 37.5 | Fine, sun, cloud 
6 | 29.694 | 29.608 | 59 41 | Fine, sun, hazy Stars, fine N. Easterly 
7 | 29.540 | 29.412 | 52 44 Cloudy Calm 
8 | 29,204 | 29.172 | 54.5 | 42 | Clouds chiefly Showers Northerly 
9 | 29.152 | 29.160 | 46 33.5 | Light snow, fine ; Northerly 
10 | 29.182 | 29.372 | 48 325 | Haze, sun, Jt. snow shr. | Clear Northerly 
11 | 29.494 | 29.400 | 54 35 | Fine, cloudy, hazy Variable 
12} 29.258 | 29.324} 52.5 | 40 | Fine, clouds, sun Showery Southerly 
13 | 29.286 | 29.254 | 57 45 | Fine, hail shower S. W. 

14 | 29.296 | 29.574 | 56-5 | 42.5 | Haze, sun, cloudy Showery N. E. 

15 | 29.684 | 29.752 | 565 | 42 | Haze, sun, cloudy Fine N. E. 

16 | 29.852 | 29.896 | 61 40 | Hazy,sun Clear Northerly 

17 | 29.852 | 29.750 | 68 48 | Hot sun Fine Calm 

18 | 29.744 | 29.734| 525 | 49 | Cloudy, showers Northerly 

19 | 29.674 | 29.640 | 48 38.5 | Cloudy, fresh breeze Cloudy . E. 

20 | 29.550 | 29.376 | 49 40 | Cloudy, cold Fine Aa OM 

21 | 29 268 | 29.316} 51 42 | Hazy, heavy showers Cloudy Light, vble 

22| 29.380 | 29.474| 535 | 37 | Hazy, cloudy ‘Bs 

23 29.440 | 58 41 |Sun and cloud N. E. 

24 29,320} 61 Sun and cloud 

25 29,340 | 55 Light showers Southerly 

26| 29.384 | 29.390 | 63 42.5 | Fine, sun, clouds S. W. , 

27 29,540 | 64 47 | Fine, sun, clouds S. W. 

28} 29.540 | 29.430 | 68 48 | Fine, sun, clouds Fine S. W. 

29) 29.460 | 29.540 48 Fine S. W. 

30} 29.562 | 29.600 | 62 44 | Windy, fine Fine N. W. 

31 29.510 | 65 46 | Cloudy chiefly Showers Westerly 
Mean Max. 57.0 42.0 Mean Min. 


INDEX. 


AnTonio’s Love Song; or Don 


Quixote’s Reverie, 33 


Crustacee from the Transition and 
Carboniferous Strata, An account 
of two new, illustrated by a litho- 
graphic engraving, 85 

Correspondence: on the Deposits of 
Superficial Gravel in the Counties 
of Chester, Stafford, Worcester, 
and Warwick, 158. On the Ap- 
plication of barbarous corruptions 
of Latin Words as English Names, 
159. Catalogue of rare Plants 
found in the Vicinity of Birming- 
ham and Lichfield, 293. 
Circumstantial Evidence, Essay on 

the Rationale of, by W. Wills, 
Esq., 177 

Combe’s System of Phrenology, A- 
nalysis of, 262 

Choice of a Business or Profession, 
The importance of consulting the 
Bias of Youth in the, 280 


Doctor, The, a Sketch, 67 


Education, Remarks on Elementary, 
by James Simpson, Esq., Advo- 
cate, 3 


Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, An 
Historical View of the Character 
of, 49 

Fine Arts: Music, 154, 337 

Foreign Journals, Extracts from, 
164, 340 


Gymnastics, Remarkable Cures ef- 
fected by, 89 


Hannah Dyer, a Sketch, 91 
Horace on Insanity, by D. W. Nash, 
Esq., 271 


Literary Intelligence, 173, 352 


Miscellaneous Communications, 160, 
341. 

Meteorological Report, 174, 353 

Music, Expression in, 191 


New Publications, Critical Notices 
of: The Romance of Nature, by 
Louisa Ann Twamley; Beauties 
of the Country, by Thos. Miller, 
106. National Education, its pre- 
sent state and prospects, by F. 
Hill, 116. Hewitson’s British 
Oology, 118. Birmingham and its 
Vicinity, as a manufacturing and 
commercial District, by W. H. 
Smith, 130. Mundi et Cordis, De 
Rebus Sempiternis et Temporariis, 
Carmina, 133. The Fallacy of the 
Art of Physic as Taught in the 
Schools, by 8. Dickson, M.D., 136. 
The Ornithological Guide, by C. 
T. Wood, 137. Wanderings and 
Excursions in North and South 
Wales, 138. Simpson’s Philoso- 
phy of Education, 138. The Har- 
mony of Phrenology with Scrip- 
ture, by W. Scott; an Examina- 
tion of Mr. Scott’s Attack on 
Combe’s “ Constitution of Man,” 
by H. C. Watson, 139. Double- 
day’s Nomenclature of British 
Birds, 139. Two Lectures on 
Modern English Literature, by 
the Rev. R. Jones, D.D., 140. 
The Naturalist’s Library, 140, 337 
Sacred Philosophy of the Seasons, 
by the Rev. H. Duncan, D.D., 141. 
The Physiology of Digestion, by 
Andrew Combe, M.D., 142. A 
Practical View of Homoeopathy, 
by J. Simpson, M.D., 143. Ho- 
moeopathy Examined, by Robert 


356 


Verity, M.D., 148. A History of 
British Quadrupeds, by Thomas 
Bell, F.R.S., 149. Report of the 
Committee of the Birmingham 
Philosophical Institution for 1836, 
152. The Cheltenham Annuaire, 
153. Murray’s New Edition of 
the Works of Lord Byron, 153. 
Sir William Jardine’s Mearartie of 
Zoology and Botany, 153. Re- 

orts on the Explosion of Steam 
Boilers, 315. Address delivered 
at the opening of the Worcester- 
shire Museum, 328. Sacred Phi- 
losophy of the Seasons, by the Rev. 
Henry Duncan, D.D.; Summer, 
333. An Analysis of the British 
Ferns and their Allies, by G. W. 
Francis, 335. A. Synopsis of the 
Birds of Australia and the adjacent 
Islands, by John Gould, F.L.S., 
&e., 336. 


Opera, on the present State of the, 
in London, 39, 200 

Ornithology, Sketches of European, 
* Gould’s Birds of Europe,” 71, 
239 


INDEX. 


Obituary, 171, 348 
Ornitho ogical Society of London, 
298 


Plants, List of remarkable, found 
growing in the Vicinity of Bir- 
mingham, 20. 

Provincial Societies, Proceedings of, 
Manchester Natural History So- 
ciety, 98. York Philosophical In- 
stitution, 102. Doncaster Lyce- 
um, 105. Chester Mechanic’s In- 
stitution, 106. Worcestershire Na- 
tural History Society, 303. Shrop- 
shire and NorthWales Antiquarian 
and Natural History Society, 314. 

Phrenology and Physiognomy, On 
the Connexion between, (continued 
Srom p. 273, vol. xix.), 273. 

Publications, List of New, 173, 352 


Roman Antiquities discovered in 
Worcestershire, 29 


Shakspeare, Some Remarks on ‘the 
Philosophy and Observances of, 
83, 252 


END OF THE SIXTH VOLUME. 


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LAYS OF SHAKSPEARE, AND POEMS; with a Life, Glossarial 
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This edition, which has experienced the most favourable reception during the courge of 
ublication, may now be had complete in fifteen volumes, price £3. 15s. The Plates may 
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The distinguishing features of this edition are, the text of Malone, Glossarial Notes on 
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The work is embéllished with 170 Illustrations, executed on steel in the first style of 
outline engraving, from the plates in Boydell’s Shakspeare, originally published at £95., 
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NEW MUSIC, BY WILLIAM THOROLD WOOD. 


Pes ROSE; a Canzonet, the poetry by CowrrEr, sung at the public Con- 
- certs, with great applause, by Mapame Mauisran vE Bertor. 
IN JOYOUS YOUTH ; a Song for a bass voice, the poetry from Campbell’s “ Plea- 
sures of Hope.” 
SWEET ARE THE CHARMS OF HER I LOVE; a Canzonet. 
“It possess all the grace and elegance of the first of all canzonet writers—the immortal 


Haydn. To the refined thinker this canzonet will be a luxury.”—Flutonicon. 


DEAR IS MY LITTLE NATIVE VALE; a Duet for two Sopranos. The 
words by Samuget RoceErs, Esa. 

“Mr. Wood’s strains are worthy the poetry: he describes it with the zest of a poet. 
Had Rogers conjured his meaning into sound,*he would not have been more correct in his 
enthusiasm.” Harmonicon. 


GO GENTLE ZEPHYR; a Duet for two Sopranos. The words translated from 


-. Metastasio; the music composed and dedicated, at her request, to MapameE Matisran 


DE BERtor. 

‘¢ Asa chamber duet it is particularly attractive, and, being remote from difficulty, will 
probably become popular.” Analyst. 

SWEET IS THE BALMY EVENING HOUR; a Duet for two Sopranos.» The 
poetry by Mary RussELit Mirrorp. 

*¢ That there are amateurs in England who understand the true purposes for which mu- 
sic was evidently ordained, is apparent from this duet.” 

BURN NOT, THOU TAPER, TOO INTENSELY- BRIGHT; a Canzonet. 
The words by Str L. Lawrence. 

SOFTLY GLIMMERS THE EVENING STAR; a Cavatina. The Poetry by 
Louisa ANN TwaMLEy. 


5 WALTZES. 


1. LES E’CUREUILS; in which is introduced the favorite 6-8 movement from the 
author’s duet, “ Dear is my Little Native Vale.” 
' 2. LES VIOLETTES. 

3. VALSES DI TERPSICHORE. 

4. INVITATION A‘ LA DANSE. . 


“WALTZES FOR TWO PERFORMERS. 
1. LA SPERANZA. ee : 
2. NEW YEARS OFFERING. . 


“ These waltzes are in the style of Strauss of Vienna, and are in every respect, both in 
original melody and harmony, quite as good as those by that fashionable composer.”—F/u- 
tonicon. <6 


3. LE PRINTEMPS ; Dedicated to Lapy Trot.orr. 


Z 


“ 


Under the patronage of the Right Hon. the EARL of DARTMOUTH, the’ Right Hon. . 
the EARL of MOUNTNORRIS, the Right Hon. LORD CALTHORPE, anv 
QFHER DISTINGUISHED PatRons.' | : 


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‘HE FLORAL CABINET; or Macaztne or Exoric Borany: con- 


taining accurate and highly-finished Delineations, with scientific and popular de- 
scriptions of Plants cultivated in the Stove, the Green-hous¢, or the open Garden, and _ 
remarkable either for their beauty, their rarity, or the singularity of their structure; se-’ 
lected from many of the most important public and private Collections in the Kingdom. — 
Conducted by G. B. Know res, Esa., M.R.C.S., F.L.8., &c. (Corresponding “Member of 
the Medico-Botanical Society, and Professor of Botany in the Birmingham Royal $chool 
of Medicine) and FrepErRic Westcott, Esa., Honorary Secretaries of the Birmingham 
Botanical and Horticultural Society. A ; . 
‘The generic and specific characters are necessarily given in Latin, as the acknowledged 
language of science in every part of the civilized world; these, however, are followed by 
literal translations, for the accommodation of those who may be unacquainted with that 
language. A popular and more detailed description of each plant is also added, accompa- 
nied at the same time by remarks on its mode of culture, its native place of growth, the 
period of its introduction, and its medicinal or other properties, . 
‘The Work will be continued monthly, price 2s. 6d. per Number. : 
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_cimna, (a new species), Syringodea hirta, Marica cerulea, and Govenia superba. 


London: Longman, Rees, Orme, and Co., Whittaker and Co., and John M. Knott; 
J. K, Johnstone and Co., Dublin; W. Whyte and Co., Edinburgh ; John Smith and Son, 
~ Glasgow. At Birmingham, John M. Knott, 95, High-street; and at the Botanical Gar- 
~ dens, Edgbaston. ae - ; 


t 


MHE ANALYST; a QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF SCIENCE, | 
_ 1 - LITERATURE, NATURAL HISTORY, AND THF F-NE ARTS. 


SES are CONTENTS OF No XIX.—APRIL, 1637. . 
~ Remarks on Elementary Education, by.James Simpson, Esq., Advocate—List of Re- 
markable Plants growing in the Vicinity of Birmingham, in 1836—Roman Antiquities dis- 
covered in Worcestershire—Antonio’s Love Song, or Don Quixote’s Reverie—On the 
resent State of the Opera ih London—An Historical Review of the Character of Fisher, 
ishop of Rochester—The Doctor; a Sketch—Sketches. of European Ornithology: 
, * Gould’s Birds of Europe”—Some Remarks on the Philosophy and Observances of Shak- 
-speare: V., “Much Ado about Nothing”—An account of two new Crustacea from the 
Transition and Carboniferous Strata ; illustrated with a Lithographic Drawing—Remarkable 
* Cures €ffected by Gymnastics—Hannah Dyer; a Sketch— Proceedings of Provincial Soci- « 
‘eties—Critical Notices of New Publications—Fine Arts: Music—Extracts from Foreign — 
Scientific Journals—Miscellanedus Communications—Obituary of Scientific Men—Lite- - 
-rary Intelligence—Select List of New Publications—Meteorological Report, &c. 


‘CONTENTS OF No. XVUL—JANUARY, 1837. 


Some Remarks on the Dissolution of the Monasteries—Observations on the Nemen- ~ 
clature of Neville Wood’s British Seng Birds—Hard Words—The Fishes of Britain sys- 
tematically arranged—-On the Effects of certain Mental and Bodily States upon the Ima- 
pinatiae ee of Minute Insects in and Around Macclesfield—The Poet Shenstone— 

“‘houghts on the Sublime in Music—Anecdotes Elucidatory of the Natural History of the - 
Ermine Weasel, by Sir O. Mosley, Bart., M.P., D.C.LL.—Remarks on the Philosophy and 
Observances of Shakspeare—On the Connection of Phrenology with Physiognomy— 
Remarks on Museums of Natural History, by J. E. Gray, F.R.S.—Notes on Natural 
History. Books, by J. Fennell_Correspondence—Proceedings of Provincial Societies— 
Central Society of Education.—St. James’s Ornithological Society —Yorkshire Institution . 
for Deaf and Dumb—Critical Notices of New Publications—Fine Arts ; Reviews of Music 
—Miscellaneous Communications—Literary Intelligence—Meteorological Report, &c. 


{<The First and Second Volumes of the Analyst (with Index), in cloth boards, price 10s., and 
the Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Volumes, price 9s. each, may be had of all Booksellers. 


London :—Simpkin, Marshall, and Co. f 


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