Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

serves to pamper the debased appetites of the enervated sons of luxury and sloth."

One word or two more shall finish these desultory observations.-A youthful genius may be compared to wax, capable of receiving any impression while warm, but as soon as the cold damp mists of age or poverty approach, it either receives no benefit from, or breaks under the signet. Mr. Pope wisely asserts, that "when real merit is wanting, it avails nothing to have been encouraged by the great, commended by the eminent, and favoured by the public in general."-Truly it does not -but for one, possessed of abilities that claim reward, to remain unsupported by the great, and unassisted by the wise, to endure the scoffs of the imperious and the unmerited censure of the critic, to be exposed to the bleak wind of adversity, deprived of the mantle of hope, wandering on the sharp rocks of ima gination, without a conductor, to be goaded by sickness, and at length palsied by death, displays at once a portraiture of the deepest misery, and the sinistrous motives that actuate mankind in general.-Oh, ye that sport in the blaze of grandeur, that surfeit on viands the most delicious, that recline on the bosoms of swans, or roll on couches of roses? ye, who amass wealth in your coffers, that cankers in indolence, or glitters in darkness! debar not yourselves from the heartfelt pleasure of doing good, ere your riches take unto themselves wings, and vanish from your view.-Go to the mat of the unfortunate son of desert, and pour the balin of sympathy to his soul; if it will Bot repress the arrows of death, it will alleviate their smart; if it will not dispel the mists that hover round the eyefids, it will communicate a ray of consolation to the heart; and the blessing of him that was ready to perish will come upon you; or should it fail in either, the plaudits of a good conscience will be your reward, and impart more real satisfaction than the gaudy trappings of brocade, or the perishable lustre of worldly magnificence. Limehouse, May 16, 1816.

HORE CYCLOPÆDICE.

P. G.

[blocks in formation]

and 25 It does not occur under either of its component parts.

[ocr errors]

BEDFORD. “The old town gaol was taken down about thirty-three years since." As the late dean of St. Paul's" (see BARWICK, Peter) died in 1664, was this about the year 1640?

BEDFORDSHIRE. Col. 2, 1. 23. "The chief employment for the lower classes of persons in this county arises from agriculture, making of lace, and the manufacturing of straw hats. In the two latter, numbers of women and children are constantly occupied, and from them derive a bare subsistence. There is no such thing as bone lace made in the county, and the fullers' earth pits are all in Buckinghamshire. What the fullers'earth pits have to do here is not very evident: the fact is, fullers' earth was formerly dug in the county of Bedford, but the pits now worked are in the adjacent county of Buckinghamshire. It would seem too, from the same sentence, that the lace manufacture has taken a similar direction: but, if no bone lace be made in Bedfordshire, what kind of lace is it, that employs some of the people, as mentioned in the first sentence of the quotation? By the by, we are no where told what bone lace is.

Under LACE, bone and blond [blonde] lace are mentioned, but without the least hint of what is meant by either of the words. Indeed it would seem from what is there said, that they were synonimous terms: but blonde lace signifies lace made of silk; while bone lace is made of flax thread. The term bone lace is now nearly obsolete; this being in general called simply laces or, when it is thought necessary to distinguish it, thread lace.

It might have been added, that a small patch belonging to this county lies within the limits of Hertfordshire, between Studham and Flamsted.

BEDOWEENS. Col. 3, I. 31. How is it possible to form a circle with three tents?

Col. 4, 1. 20, 24. Are not "the genuine Arabs" "of a pure Arab race?" or can there be tribes" of a pure Arab race," who are not "genuine Arabs?” How are we to reconcile the apparent contradictions in this paragraph? In the next paragraph but one, notwithstanding what is here said, we find goats and poultry.

Col. 8, 1. 13 f.b. for however read at least.

Col. 9, 1. 15 f.b. for also read else.

BEE. Col. 3, 1. 17. For conversation read conservation.

Col. 4, 1. 28 fb. For fifteen read thirteen. At least, not being able to refer to Kirby's work, this I presume to be the necessary correction of a passage, which, as it stands, involves a contradic'tion.

BEES, Voice of. From Mr. Hunter's discovery of the lateral trachea in the bee, joined with our knowledge of the Jateral openings in the abdomen of the cicada, we may be led to infer, that the noise, supposed to be produced by the friction of the wings in other insects, is 'produced in the same way. Probably the wings may be employed to modulate the sound, as the tips are in man; and hence their motion accompanying it.

BEE [s], Generation of. Col. 6, 1. 34, for as, read are: 1. 35, før is read are: 1. 12 f.b. for push read fuss. Col. 8, 1. 26, for ovaria read ovarium.

WILD BEES. Col. 2, 1. 9, for or rather that of a species read rather than of a species.

BEER. Col. 2, 1. 21 f.b. for melted grains read malted grain. Last par. "Beer tasting of the cask may be freed from it [the cask?], by putting a handful of wheat in a bag, and hanging it to the vessel." If the editor of the Cyclopædia can believe this, he need not boggle at the doctrine of transubstantiation.

BEES, in Naval Architecture," properly Bes. We may read what is here said of them, without being a whit the wiser. They are two planks, thus called from being somewhat similar in shape to the capital B, bolted one on each side of the bowsprit near its outer extremity, where the forestay and fore-topmast stay are fastened. They serve both to secure the stays, and for the men to stand on when stowing the sails. They are sometimes called the saddle.

BEESTINGS. L. 1, for finest read first. BEETLE. At the end should be added: This is a solid block of wood, nearly conical, about a yard long, and eight inches in diameter at bottom, where it is hooped with iron. At the top it is continued for a few inches of equal diameter, and of a size easily grasped, to form a handle and another handle is inserted at right angles into its side about the middle. When made of a larger size, it is sometimes called a commander. When too large to be managed by one man, one or more ad

[ocr errors]

ditional handles are inserted in the side, and it becomes a two-man beetle, or a three-man beetle.

BEGARMEE. Col. 2, 1. 9: 26 matured!" surely it ought to be debilitated.

BEGHARDI. These make two artiBEGUINS.cles, though they are said to be different names for the same communities; and from each we are referred to SERTIARIES, though these are said to be the same. In some passages too the beguins and beghards are spoken of as different. Under Beguins," the third rule of St. Francis, and of the Augustines," is mentioned: but we are not told what this is under either of the words.

BEHEADING. What is "a circular 'stroke" ?

BEHUT. "The interval between the Behut and the Indus, in the widest part, is about 94 geographical miles. Pliny allows only 120 Roman miles between the Indus and the Hydaspes." From this only the writer appears to consider the distance assigned by Pliny as less than the preceding: but, according to the different values of the Roman and geographical mile, as given under MEASURE, it exceeds it by two English miles nearly.

BEIRA. This is apparently from the same hand, as gave us such an accurate account of the boundaries of ANDALUSIA, see Mag. Ixix. 12. Who else could consider a province as bounded by one, from which it was separated by another? Yet so it is represented here: “bounded on the north by the province of Entre Duero a Minho, from which it is separated by the river Duero or Douro, and by Tralos Montes." fact, it is bounded on the north by the provinces of Entre Douro e Minho and Tralos Montes; from the latter of which, and from the greater part of the former, it is separated by the Douro: on the west, by the ocean; on the south, by the province of Estremadura, and the Tagus: on the east, by part of Spanish Estremadura and Leon.

[ocr errors]

In

BELAY, on board of ship, signifies the same as fasten." This is not true, for there are many ways of fastening very different from belaying. The arti cle is given much better in Moore's little Vocabulary, now before me, but there it is not sufficiently explicit. It should be: "to fasten a rope by winding it several times," in the form of a

figure of 9,"round a cleat, belaying pin, or kevel."

"BELION....was the boundary of the expedition of Decimus Brutus :" yet in the next sentence we are told, that he first crossed the river, and was then followed by his army.

BELLS. Bells are here mentioned as hung to certain robes, and to the bridles of war-horses, but no notice is taken of their being different in shape from the great bells in churches. We confound under one name two very -different things that described in the Cyclopædia, a hollow, circular vessel, epen where its periphery is greatest, and made to sound by means of a clapper and a thin hollow sphere of metal, or piece approaching to a sphere in shape; the aperture of which con-sists of a small slit, terminating at each end in a circular hole; and made to -sound by means of one or more solid ⚫bodies enclosed within it. Such were the bells attached to the legs of a hawk; commonly, till of late years, to the headstalls of waggon horses; to the corals hung round the waist of : children; and, no doubt, to garments. The French have an appropriate name for these, grelots; while the bell with a clapper they call cloche, or, if small, • clochelle. The Germans also have dif⚫ferent names for the two. Thus the French phrase for "to bell a cat" is, attacher le grelot, not la cloche and the Germans express the same by der katz die schelle anhaengen, not die glocke.

BELLADONNA,

[ocr errors]

L. 6, for insomnis

I read in somniis. ···BELLE Dune. For Town read Down. BELLOWS, Hessian. As these are not described, I turned to Hessian, in hopes of obtaining an account of them; but all I found was," HESSIAN bellows, see BELLOWS."

BELONE. L. 18, 14: “ in the Mediterranean, on the coast of Lisbon !" What coast can this be? In some parts of the West of England, this fish is called the longnose.

- BELT. L. 13. The writer does not seem aware of the distinction between bell and a baldric, which are now confounded together. A language cannot be rich that wants discriminating terms; and it is to be regretted, that our own is much impoverished by the disuse of appropriate words. For what purpose the belt, properly so called, or girdle, was first worn, it is now impossible to Europ. Mag, Vol. LXX. July, 1816.

say. In some countries, probably, to confine a loose dress; in others, to suspend the scanty covering suggested by modesty; and in others, to still the cravings of hunger. From the belt, thas introduced, it was natural to sus pend the sword, when war had given birth to this weapon and it does not by any means appear from the quotations from Homer and Virgil, in col. 2, that the sword was not thus worn by the Greeks and Romans; for surely the weapon was as likely to hang against the thigh when suspended from a belt passing round the waist, as when fastened to a baldric crossing the shoulder. The sword of a fop in the middle of the last century dangled nearly at his knee, yet it hung by a belt, not a baldric. Spenser very aptly uses baldric for the zodiac, which is oblique to the axis of the Earth.

BENDA, Francis, col. 2, l. 13 f.b., "could boast of having had the honour of accompanying his majesty [Frederick II. of Prussia], during the forty years which he had been in his service, in near fifty thousand different concerts." What! more than three a day for forty years together, allowing no respite either in peace or war, though his own minister, and his own general in chief!

BENDER. Col. 1, 1. 19. What is "that dreadful instrument of modern warfare, the globe of compression?" It does not occur under either of the words in the Cyclopædia and though an obscure account of it is given a little below, we are there referred to MINE, under which not a word is said of it.

BENGAL. Col. 9, I. 6. "The most common vehicle among the peasants is a hackery, which see." That is, gentle reader, only take a trip to Bengal, and you may see what it is: for no such word occurs in the alphabetical order of the Cyclopædia.

Language of. Col. 2, 1. 38, 39. "The indefinite pronouns are all aptotes in Bengalese, as they are in Latin and Greek." What is meant here by indefinite pronouns ?

Col. 3,1 3-6. What is the difference of form between "an open consonant immediately preceding the final letter," and "a final letter preceded by an open consonant going before it ?" Where too is the use of the addition going before it for it could not be preceded by a consonant in any other situation.

lb. 1. 5 f.b. "the valve of which is

E

also included as a joint." I would ra ther say, "which is very properly considered as having three joints also:" for the thumb consists of three bones, as well as each of the fingers.

BENZOIN. It is not the white powder, "which has received the singular name of Lac Virginale," or lac virginis ; but the turbid, white liquid, formed by adding water to the tincture of benzoïn, from which the white pow der, called magistery of benzoïn, subsides on standing.

Col. 2, 1. 25, after almost add all.
1. 28, for perform read pro-

cure.

[ocr errors]

1. 37, for it may be gently shaken read it may be taken off and gently shaken.

1. 40, 41, "and should not be lost." Then what is to be done with it?

BERBERIS. Col. 2, 1. 25 f.b. "The berries are so acid that birds will not cat them." Yet on turning over the leaf, we are told in the last paragraph of the article, that " a few of these shrubs will make an agreeable variety in wil dernesses, and the fruit will be food for birds."

(To be continued.)

For the EUROPEAN MAGAZINE. PROPOSED ARRANGEMENT for a NAVAL BREVET.

T

HAT the following regulations shall be published in the Royal Gazette, and added to the naval instructions; viz.

The first one hundred post captains upon the list shall henceforth be denominated commodores, and shall enjoy the rank and pay of brigadier-generals. The remainder of the post-captains who rank with colonels, shall be paid as colonels, and be denominated viceeommodores. The post-captains who rank with lieutenant-colonels shall be paid as lieutenant-colonels, and be denominated rear-commodores.

The officers of the navy now called by the indiscriminate title of commanders, and who rank with majors, shall be paid as majors, and denominated sub-commodores.*

As the commodore advances by gradation to the rank of rear-admiral, so shall the vice-commodore become com

* Perhaps a more appropriate title may present itself to others.

modore, the rear-commodore become vice-commodore, and the sub-commo. dore become rear-commodore, according to seniority. When acting on service, the chief commodore shall wear a broad red pendant at the main, and the commodores a white, at the same place; the vice-commodores a red at the fore, the rear-commodores a blue at the mi zen, and the sub-commodores a common St. George's pendant.

A lieutenant of the navy, who ranks with a captain of the army, shall be paid as a captain of the army; and as a captain of the army upon service commands a body of men called a company, so shall the lieutenant of the navy command a body of men called a division; and he shall be denominated a captain, and each division shall consist of sixty men, more or less, according to the size of the ship, and her complement. Each division shall be trained to serve on shore, when necessary.

A midshipman who has served six years, and passed examinations, which stamp him qualified for any station in the navy, shall, as at present, if he can obtain it, be at once commissioned as a captain of division (now called lieutenant); but if he should be unable to obtain this at once, he shall not remain, as he has hitherto remained, after a sacrifice of six years, without any hold whatever of his profession, but he shall receive a commission, dated on the day that he shall have passed his final examination. He shall be denominated a lieutenant; rank with a lieutenant of the army; and receive the same pay, and half-pay. These officers shall be divided between the divisions commanded by the captains of division. The captaincy of division shall be opeu to him, whenever he can procure it by brilliant exploit, good conduct, or the will of the Admiralty; but under no circumstance, excepting ill conduct, shall he fail to be appointed a captain of division in eight years, from the day he entered the navy. Nor shall any officer, but for ill conduct, remain as a captain of division (now called lieutenant) for a period exceeding ten years; nor shall a captain of division by this rule be precluded from obtaining the rank of sub-commodore earlier, if circumstances admit of it; having, however, served at least two years as captain of division (now called lieutenaut), and the master shall take command after him; continuing, however, as he now is,

the pilot and conductor of the ship, to whom the captaincy of division shall be open to his choice, in cases of merit which demand reward.

A young gentleman, on his entering into the navy, shall, as at present, be called a volunteer; but after two years service, if his conduct has been proper, he shall be commissioned with the rank, pay, and half-pay of an ensign; and be denominated a midshipman.

If some arrangement of this nature, I do not mean implicitly as described (which may abound with faults, that I am unable to perceive); but if something of this nature were adopted, then the officers of the navy would feel themselves to be on something like a footing with the army; but until then, they cannot consider the navy otherwise, than as a secondary profession.

of

The titles of commodore, vice-commodore, and rear-commodore, would soon become as familiar to the ear as brigadier-general, colonel, and lieutenant colonel: and a fair promotion of adinirals, to pave the way for this arrangement, would meet the reasonable expectation, that a permanent peace would be crowned by some such sign regard to those of both professions, which have conquered it; and if there must be a "Retired List," let the retirement be from choice, and let the officer disabled by wounds, services, or 2ze, be provided for, as becomes the liberality of a great and generous nation. Let those who have been passed over be either restored to the rank which they ought to have had, of placed, if they prefer it, upon •Retired List" and this retirement, thus become voluntary, would no longer be fell as a stigma. Thus modified, all the gradations of the navy would be actuated by a new spirit, every individual would feel the stimulus; the road would be open to the top of the profession to all ranks; and there would be no dread, as now, that let an officer's actions, zeal, perseverance, and merit, be what they may, a period would, perhaps, come, when his reward would be -neglect and scorn.

the

The navy will be wanted again; let not disgust take too deep a root in its bosom, it is easier to prevent than to cure; let grace give justice to her sons, and not the force of circuinstances ; better and brighter will burn that zeal, acting from a consciousness that it is given to gratitude, than that which re

sults only from a sense of duty, clouded by a sense of wrong. It is not difficult to keep an established zeal alive, but systematic injustice must in the end prove an extinguisher, and, when once extinguished, we may blow it as long as we please, but we shall not easily rouse it again into flame!

ON EARLY INDICATIONS of ATTACHMENT to particular PURSUITS.

To the Editor of the European Magazinė.

SIR,

W

ITHOUT entering on the longdisputed, and as yet undecided, question, whether we are born with those talents which are peculiarly adapted for particular professions and pur suits, or whether we are solely indebted to education and habit for the biasse's which influence our conduct, it cannot be denied that many, when at so early a period of life that the faculties of the mind have scarcely begun to operate, have displayed, though, as might be expected at such an age, in trifles, an attachment to such objects as have afterwards been their greatest delight, and on which they have bestowed the most unremitted attention. Many have supposed that the character of the Man is formed between the ages of seventeen and thirty it is then that the impres sions which are made are sufficiently deep to be lasting, and the colours in selves sufficiently vivid to attract and to which surrounding objects present themcaptivate Arrived at the period when the judgment operates, when the credulity of youth has ceased to produce perpetual confidence, and before the sober decisions of mature experience have suggested the propriety of cautious reflection, we adopt our notions, choose our friends, select the path which is to lead to some fixed ultimatum, and

:

"Begin to venerate ourselves as men." Yet allowing this to be, generally speaking, the case, we may often no tice in the mind, at a much earlier period, some indications that mark what will be the cause of future greatness. The young mathematician experiences the greatest satisfaction in designing figures and drawing plans; the youth ful botanist cultivates his little spot in the paternal garden, and watches with a more than ordinary degree of pleasure the progress and the varieties of vegetation; the young patriot pricks

« ZurückWeiter »