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or of Saxony's fool, that he one day put 30 worth of wood on the fire at once, and nevertheless was not warmed by it. It should be observed, that it was a Cremona violin. A single dish cost Vitellius even 5000 pounds, and a fire-place was built in the fields for the express purpose of cooking it. He called it the shield of Minerva. It was composed of the livers of sea-bream, the brains of pheasants and peacocks, and the tongues of flamingoes, delica cies which were brought from a great distance beyond the seaVitellius had also an excellent appetite, and when he could eat no longer, he threw up what he had already taken. His brother once gave him an entertainment consisting of 2000 fish and 7000 birds of the rarest species. It is scarcely necessary to observe, that this love of good eating produced a prodigious rise in the price of cooks, who were each originally worth no more than a good horse. Fish were a principal object of this epicurean luxury. Julius Cæsar had 6000 lampreys served at his triumphal dinner. They were valued according to their weight, and it was a noble pastime for the guests to weigh them at table. A great number of notaries were obliged to attend, to draw up authenticated instruments respecting their wonderful weight.

I cannot refrain from quoting another remarkable passage of Seneca: "How incredible," he exclaims, "are the works of gluttony! How often is nature cheated or conquered! The fishes swimming in reservoirs are caught under the table itself, and immediately placed upon it. They are shown in glass vessels; the company observe with pleasure how death gradually changes their colours," &c. Mullets were held in equal request with the lamprey, and cost twenty or thirty pounds a piece. The lamprey, and also the sturgeon, had the honour of being carried to table crowned and accompanied with music.

L. Crassus, a man who had held the office of censor, was not ashamed to lament bitterly the loss of a lamprey which had died in his fish-pond.

Oysters and lobsters were likewise in great estimation. Connoisseurs in these matters knew, at the first taste, what spot the oysters came from, and at the first sight where the lobsters were caught. The larger the oysters, the better they were thought.They were opened at table. One Sergius Orata was the first that

formed the oyster-beds at Baja, and obtained for the Lucrine oysters, which are now excellent, the preference before all others.

We may easily calculate how expensive their fish-ponds were to the Romans, when we know the price of one of these fish, and that thousands of them were kept. Varro says, "The fish-ponds are constructed at a great expense, stocked at a great expense, and kept up at a great expense. Hirrius spends upon his 60,000 pounds a year." Many fishes had particular names, and came to be fed when they were called.

Among the birds, the thrush was accounted an extraordinary delicacy. According to Varro, 5000 of them were sold from one aviary for thirty pounds. Aufidius received much more annually from his peacocks; every peahen's egg cost two shillings; a pair of pigeons five shillings, and often much more, for in Varro's time they sold for twenty pounds. As the consumption of all these birds increased so prodigiously, aviaries were built in order to furnish a sufficient quantity of them, and these were more extensive than were formerly whole villas.

So much for the luxury of the living. But even in death these people did not renounce their prodigality. In ancient Rome things were certainly very different. Menenius Agrippa died so poor that the people collected sixty pounds, to defray the expenses of his funeral. The same was done on the death of Valerius Publicola, when the gratitude of the whole Roman people contributed no more than four or five hundred pounds to bury him. On the contrary, as early as the time of Sylla, two hundred and ten hand-barrows of fragrant spices were thrown upon his funeral pile. At the funeral of Poppaa, Nero consumed more cinnamon and cassia than all Arabia could afford in a year. Pliny estimates the value of these articles, with which Rome was furnished by India, at upwards of 800,000 pounds per annum. If to this we add the expense of the funeral pile itself; of the costly garments, gold, silver, and precious stones which were thrown into the flames; of the entertainments given to the public; of the fights of gladiators, the monuments and manumissions-how often must the heirs have involved themselves in total ruin for the sake of empty honour! Isidorus, a common citizen, directed that his funeral should cost 55,000 pounds! Anteros, a freedman, and afterwards a sevir, bequeathed

to his colleagues 5000 pounds for an annual entertainment. Nero's funeral cost upwards of one million and a half sterling.

From all these facts we may derive the melancholy consolation, that if luxury should in our days increase even in a tenfold degree, still there would be nothing new under the sun.

FOR THE PORT FOLIO.

THE ECLECTIC REPERTORY.

As we read in the works of the Roman historians and orators that, in certain critical cases, it was the duty of the consulate, for the time being, to take care that the commonwealth sustained no injury, so it is conceived to be the duty of every faithful journalist to be solicitous that the republic of letters should be aggrandized as far as possible. Hence, we are never more in our element than when it is in our humble power to pioneer the way and clear the road for the march of any aspiring adventurer; provided, he have for his passport the parole of genius and literature. We have no fond partiality for the blandishments of the belles lettres, to the prejudice of the exact and solid sciences; nor, on the other hand, are we so devoted to diagrams, or so wedded to Analysis that laughing Levity must be locked out of doors. For all these charmers we have room and entertainment enough; and each interesting visitant shall always experience from us a very cordial reception. In the phrase of an elegant courtier,

Locus est, et pluribus umbris.

In the language of the prophet, and we quote it reverently, the invocation to the votaries of the Muse should be audible at the extremities of the universe; it should be "say unto the north, give up, and to the south keep not back. Bring thy sons from afar, and thy daughters from the ends of the earth."

While, therefore, in pursuance of these principles, which, we hope, will be deemed abundantly liberal, we dedicate a portion of The Port Folio to the amusement of the literary lounger, yet the man of science, the lawyer, the divine and the physician shall never, for a moment, be wantonly neglected. It is our heart's desire to make this a scientific, as well as a literary journal.

We are peculiarly pleased that of late, after a long struggle and very hard fighting in America, the forces of Ignorance, Avarice and Illiberality are nearly

routed, and that Genius, in alliance with all the sciences and all the graces is free to proceed" conquering and to conquer." In the place of ribald pamph. lets, defiled with all the smut of party, in the place of contemptible chronicles, conducted by animals of no higher pretension than as cousins german to the ass and the owl, we now behold, with exultation, ably edited journals of various descriptions, and with various views, but all of a character so resplendent that they glitter pleasingly before the optics of the most captious observer. Nor is this glorious spirit of literary enterprise at rest. New schemes, honourable to the projectors, are constantly starting; and thus individual benefit, and national renown are most successfully consulted.

Among the most meritorious candidates for a just and liberal share of public favour, we are delighted to announce a new journal shortly to be published in Philadelphia. Its appropriate title and excellent plan will appear in the sequel. With one of the editors of the work it is our happiness to be intimately acquainted. The superior education, the professional skill, and elegant accomplishments of this gentleman, aided by a zeal that is never baffled, and a benevolence to which every grateful patient is a willing witness, are the amplest pledges for the character, success, and remuneration of a scheme, alike interesting to science and to humanity. Of his coadjutors, though to us less known, it is perfectly well understood that they are among the most brilliant luminaries of their profession. We have often had occasion to praise, and not penuriously, the gentlemen of the bar. But let it not be concluded because from education and attachment we love to linger in the forum, that the church, the senate, and the medical hall have for us no charms. Far be from us an inference so illiberal. In a life of some vicissitudes the writer has had the honour and the privilege of being closely associated with many members of the liberal professions, and, "if there be any virtue, and any praise" to them he is largely indebted for most of those enjoyments which are alone worthy of re gard. They have shown him the paths of peace, they have asserted his rights, they have vindicated his innocence, they have guarded his health, and defended his reputation. To each he exclaims in the words of the grateful Roman,

I, bone, quo Virtus tua te vocat, I, pede fausto.

The Eclectic Repertory and Analytical Review, Medical and Philosophical, edited by a society of physicians, Philadelphia.

Or all the means which have been devised to disseminate information, that of a periodical journal is, perhaps, the best adapted. The utility of such publication is, indeed, very decisively evinced by the encouragement which they receive among every people at all distinguished by an attachment to letters. It is however in the United States, where access to

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the stores of learning is impeded by peculiar obstacles, that they seem to be more especially required, and to hold out the greatest advantages. Easy of circulation, they reach the remotest portions of our widespread territory, and open, at a very moderate expense, a source of amusement and instruction which to many would otherwise be denied. Nor is the salutary influence of these popular vehicles any longer with us, than in Europe, a matter to be determined by experiment, or the results of the future. Effects, the most beneficial to our literary relations, can already be traced to their rapid multiplication, and extensive dispersion. They have insinuated into the minds of our people, who were once, confessedly, too negligent of liberal pursuits, a love of knowledge, and have made us, what in the language of a celebrated foreigner we have truly become of late, one of the most inquisitive and reading nations of the earth.

Dispositions, in every view so auspicious, were to be anticipated from the diffusion of writings so eminently calculated to captivate general attention, and to delight or improve every description of readers, every class of society, every variety of taste, and every gradation of intellectual capacity.

As its title indicates, the journal now offered to the patronage of the public, will be conducted chiefly on the principle of selection. The leading feature of the plan, more distinctly enunciated, is to present at stated intervals, a sort of synopsis of the foreign magazines, journals, and reviews appropriated to medicine and its kindred sciences.

Whatever may be thought of the humility of this design, no one will doubt of its importance who is conversant with the periodical works of Europe. As is incident to such publications, the matter which they contain is altogether of a mixed nature, and of merits the most unequal. They are a vast field, where golden wheat is too often choked by useless or pernicious tares, and where it imports us, like the prudent husbandman, to reject the one, and hoard the other. These publications are, moreover, at this time, so numerous, so costly, and so difficult to be procured, that really they can only be consulted, by a large majority of the cultivators of science in the United

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