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seriously promulgate such doctrines as those which have chiefly distinguished his character. As collaterally connected with our subject of vision, we shall here, in closing these remarks, cite the passage alluded to; presenting, as it does, in no inferior degree, a specimen of its author's talent in describing scenes of Nature:

"Look!" says the ideal character, whom Berkeley has chosen to disseminate these peculiar opinions, "are not the fields covered with a delightful verdure? Is there not something in the woods and groves, in the rivers and clear springs, that soothes, that delights, that transports the soul? At the prospect of the wide and deep ocean, or some huge mountain whose top is lost in the clouds, or of an old gloomy forest, are not our minds filled with a pleasing horror? Even in rocks and deserts, is there not an agree able wildness? How sincere a pleasure is it to behold the natural beauties of the earth! To preserve and renew our relish for them, is not the veil of night alternately drawn over her face, and doth she not change her dress with the seasons? How aptly are the elements disposed! What variety and use in the meanest productions of nature! What delicacy, what beauty, what contrivance in animal and vegetable bodies! How exquisitely are all things suited, as well to their particular ends, as to constitute apposite parts of the whole! And while they mutually aid and support, do they not also mutually set off and illustrate each other? Raise now your thoughts from this ball of earth, to all those glorious luminaries that adorn the high arch of heaven. The motion and situation of the planets, are they not admirable for use and order? Were those (miscalled erratique) globes ever known to stray in their repeated journeys through the pathless void? Do they not measure areas round the sun ever proportioned to the times? So fixed, so immutable, are the laws by which the unseen Author of Nature actuates the universe. How vivid and radiant is the lustre of the fixed stars! How magnificent and rich that negligent profusion with which they appear to be scattered throughout the whole azure vault! Yet if you take the telescope, it brings into your sight a new host of stars that escape the naked eye. Here they seem contiguous and minute; but, to a nearer view, immense orbs of light, at various distances, far sunk in the abyss of space. Now you must call imagination to your aid. The feeble, narrow, sense, cannot descry innumerable worlds revolving round the central fires; and, in those worlds, the energy of an all-perfect Mind displayed in endless forms. But neither sense nor imagination are big enough to comprehend the boundless extent with all its glittering furniture. Though the laboring mind exert and strain each power to its utmost reach, there still stands out, ungrasped, a surplusage immeasurable. Yet all the vast bodies that compose this mighty frame, how distant and remote soever, are, by some secret mechanism, some divine art and force, linked in a mutual dependence and intercourse with each other, even with this earth, which has almost slipt from my thought, and lost in the crowd of worlds. Is not the whole system immense, beautiful, glorious, beyond expression, and beyond thought?"

In this rapid survey, worthy of the pen of Addison, the author is at pains to enumerate proofs, which essentially designate the faculty of vision to be, as the youth upon whom the celebrated operation was performed by Cheselden expressed it, a LYING SENSE. But we have sufficiently dwelt upon the injustice of classing Locke with those commentators who choose to foist (upon his authority) error and absurdity upon mankind; and we, therefore, here close our remarks.

ALCIPHRON.

TO A LADY,

WHO REQUESTED SOME VERSES ON THE BIRTH OF HER SISTER'S FIRST-BORN CHILD. BY G. DYER,

Author of "POETICS,"

"HISTORY OF CAMBRIDGE," &c.

[The following Poem, it will be seen, is the production of a gentleman extremely well known in the literary world. It was written some time since, and a few copies of it were distributed amongst the author's private friends, but it has never been published.] DAMZELL, right wel ye wot (1), that I of yore (2)

Forlorne (2) the hilles, and plaines, and silver springes,

And oaten pipe, a fon (3) at tuneful lore,

And now am close (4)-ypent o'er auncient thinges;

(Eld (5) that mought michel muse, is slowe to sing)

Stil ye, as in dispite, persyste to saie,

My sister's newe-born sonne fit subject bringes:

Colin, be once againe, as whilome gaie,

The litell frenne (6) is come, and claymes your roundelaie. Heare tho' (7) my roundelaie; or rather heare

What youthly I heard by browne Sibyl sung,
Beside an impe (8), y-rock'd by moder deare;
Whyles I, as fix'd by spel, y-wondring hung,

To weet (9) what wysdome flow'd from beldame's (10) tongue.
The powers of hearbes shee couth, (11) als (12) fortunes told ;
And nowe fro (13) meddled (13) hearbes shee juices prest

In mazer (14) mirke and brade; and eke (15) shee roll'd
Upwardes her blacke bold eyen, as with Heav'n's counsels blest.

The juices meynt, (16) she ever and anon

Into them dipt her finger, and, eche time

With fixt arch eie prophetic gazing on,

Touch'd that Impe's face, redding (17) a charmed rime-..

"With Genius rath, (18) but ne too hie to climbe--

With so moche richesse, as a wight mought crave--

With wizzards (19) lear, (19) but moe (20) of motherr (21) Sense--With so much beautie, as a man neede have--

And witt, that ne can give no honest heart offence."

“---A warrfare brave, but ne (22) in bloodie fielde---
(In vallie lowlie lyves lyfe's lustie (23) tree)
---Caution to warre with daunger, dreed (24) to yielde---
---In Love's sweet Faerie-Lond awhyle to bee---

Tho (25) gang to Hymen's court with buxom (26) glee:

Lo! in the welkin (27) bryghte a bickering (28) cloud ;

Joyaunce (29) aye (30) linckt (31) with bale (31) plesaunce with payne; Musyc mote han its notes both lowe and lowde;

And Lyfe is an excheat (32) and Death to all gives shrowd." (33)

(1) Know.

(5) Age, or old age.

(10) Dame's.
(14) A basket
(18) Early.

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(11) Knew.

(4) Close confined over. (7) Then. (8) Child, or babe. (9) To think. (12) Also. (13) From mixt.

(17) Uttering. common sense. (26) Yielding. (29) Joy.

or bowl, dirty and broad. (15) Also. (16) Being mixt. (19) Wise-man's learning. (20) More. (21) Native, (23) Vigorous. (24) Fear. (25) Then go. (28) Quivering, or moving backwards and forwards. (31) Linked with sorrow. (32) Or escheat, a law-term; it means lands, or goods, and profits of any kind, that fall to a lord within his manor by forfeiture. (33) Shelter.

(22) Not.

(27) Sky.

(30) Always.

Tho louting (1) revrendly with matron grace,
Shee took the gentle parent by the hond (2);
And castyng (3) with prophetic eyne (4) her face,

--

Sain'd mystic (5) meanings, but in language blond :Thilke (6) impe ben true-love's gage (7), if ryghte I trace: Heart linckt with heart, and mind with mind agree:Lyfe is a traveil (8): keepe peregall (9) pace;

Thus your true-lover's knott entrayled (10) bee, Wyles I a priestesse stond, and againe marrie yee.

"And take this ring, fro faerie lond ybrought;
And it so charmed been, as fewe may tel;

Your finger ring (11) with ilk, ne less your thought;
Use it ne wrong, and ilk wil use ye wel:

Heales deadly bale, I weet (12); and sooth (13) can quel
That inborn feend (14); sprights (15) it can putt to flyghte,
The caytiffs (16) of this world, and broode of hell;

Y-spredds in dungeon dark a cheary lyght;

And into distant dayes deigns (17) straunge seraphic sight.

"I drem'd a dreme---oh! sweete dame, what a dreme!
Beares, gryfons, tygers, lyons, rampant soche (18)
In forme; with foregn blood yet swelt, they seme
Bursting amaine (19), and I ywonder'd moche (20);

Yet moe(21), to see them live, as by some touch
Of Demogorgon (22), and for fyghte up-spring;

And they wil fyghten; wo (23) worth (23) each one's clutch!
Ne heede hem, dame; I plyghte me by thilke ring,

Soche (24) fyghtes (24) shall ne'er your Impe into no daunger bring.

"On a blacke mountain's side a Dragon drere (25)
His long long length yspredd; dreadful to see!
To warre no needes beseme him to requere (26);
Yet cause and umpire of that warre was hee;
And he itt kent (27), I wot, with ravenous glee,

And held in clutch a globe, ywrought with gold,
Which salvage beastes eied mochil greedilee :--

There the world's valour, sweet dame, ye behold:

That prize been theirs; long live your Impe for virtue bold."

Lady, yf my song flows not as of yore,

Know, Colin, now nis (28) Colin never more;

He mote (29) ne, con ne (30), pipe, as heretofore:

Weleaway (31)! leave seely (32) olde man, to muse on auncient lore.

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"It is desirable, and indeed is necessary, to intellectual health, that the mind should be recreated and refreshed with a variety in our studies." SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS.

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38. COACHES, WHEN FIRST USED IN ENGLAND. Coaches were first used in England in Richard the Second's time, under the name of Whirlicotes. What sort our own then were in point of elegance, is not easily ascertained; but in Germany, we are told, about the same period, they were ugley vehicles, made of four clumsey boards;" of them, as late as 1618, John Sigismina, the Elector of Brandenburgh, when he went to Warsaw to do homage to the Duchy of Warsaw, had thirty-six in his train, each drawn by six horses. Our hackney coaches are so called from the French word haquenée, a common horse, for all purposes of riding.

39. THE ROYAL TOUCH. Alfred, Abbot of Rivaulx, informs us, that six men, totally blind, were restored to perfect sight by Edward the Confessor.

There was much sympathy between the royal hand and the part touched, so much, that on the very day and hour of Charles the First's execution, the sores of a woman who had been healed by him broke out afresh, though she lived at a great distance from London, and was ignorant of his death. It does not appear that any of our princes since Queen Anne, have pretended to this miraculous gift. Those who wish to know more on the subject, may find most ample details in three works by John Brown, Chyrurgeon to Charles II. 1. Adenochoiradelogia. 2. Charadelogia. 3. Charisma Basilicon. How much this foolery was then in vogue, we may learn from the registers kept by Mr. Thomas Dunkley, Keeper of the Closet belonging to the Chapel Royal, from 1667, to 1682. The number of persons touched, amounted to 92,107!!

40. THE LAST WITCH BURNT IN SCOTLAND, met her fate with great firmness, in the year 1722. She was condemned by the sheriff depute of Sutherlandshire; one of a class of men, who, on many occasions, exercised, without control, a species of authority, now happily unknown in any part of the United Kingdom. The old woman, among other crimes, was accused of having ridden upon her own daughter, transformed into a pony, and shod by the devil, which made the girl ever after lame, both in hands and feet, a misfortune entailed upon her son, who was alive of late years. The poor creature was executed at Dornoch; and it is said, that after being brought out to execution, the weather proving very severe, she sat composedly warming herself by the fire prepared to consume her, while the other instruments of death were making ready.

41. CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD KNOWN TO PLATO. This is, I think, sufficiently established by the following passage from his Timæus: "But they (the gods) established the heart, which is both the fountain of the veins and of the blood, which is vehemently impelled through all the members of the body, in a circular progression," &c. P. 519, Taylor's Translation,

8vo. ed.

42. LORD HASTINGS A PENSIONER of Louis XI. This traitor had the mean cunning to avoid giving a receipt for the pension he received from the French Court. "This present," he said to the King's agent, comes from your master's good pleasure, and not at my request; and

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if you mean I should receive it, you may put it here into my sleeve, but you shall have no discharge from me; for I will not have it said, that the Great Chamberlain of England, is a pensioner of the King of France, nor have my name appear in the books of the Chambre des Comptes." Hallam's Middle Ages, vol. i. p. 123. note*.

It is in Sheridan's Duenna, that there is a similar incident of a friar, which has often been considered too broad a satire, but we see it might have been copied from the actual conduct of an English peer.

33. A POETICAL LOVER. William Hamilton, of Bangour, was a desperate lover---in verse. A Scotch lady, whom he treated with his addresses, applied to Home, the author of Douglas, for advice how to get rid of them. Home advised her to affect to favor his assiduities. She did so, and--they were immediately withdrawn. Shenstone was an inamorato of the same species; he might have had his Phyllis, whenever he chose to ask for her.

44. HOW TO KNOW A QUAKER WHEN SWIMMING. Matthew Green, though he wrote a poem with a hypochondriacal title, "The Spleen," was a facetious fellow, as the following anecdote will testify. "One day his friend Sylvanus Bevan complained to him, that while he was bathing in the river, he had been saluted by a waterman, with the cry of a Quaker Quirl, and wondered how he should have been known to be a Quaker without his clothes." Green replied, "By your swimming against the stream." Campbell's Specimens, vol. v., p. 49.

45. EGYPTIAN MARINE. The Ptolemies kept up a formidable marine in the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, to protect the Egyptian merchants. Theocritus affirms they had 97 first-rate ships, several of which were 200 feet long, besides a multitude of smaller vessels, and 4000 barks to bear orders throughout the empire. Under the reign of the Fourth Ptolemy were built vessels of so enormous a size, that they have never since been equalled. Plutarch describes one of his vessels with 40 benches of rowers, 373 feet long, and 64 feet high at the poop. This enormous ship, by the side of which our three-deckers would seem small frigates, contained 400 sailors to work her, 4000 rowers, and about 3000 fighting men.-See Savary's Letters on Egypt.

46. COPIOUSNESS OF THE ARABIC TONGUE. According to Firouzabadi, an Arabian lexicographer, the Arabic language contains 1000 words to designate a camel and a lion, and 500 to express a sword. This abundance of synonymes (arising from the multitude of tribes which comprised the Arab nation) is not altogether unexampled in modern languages: the Laplanders have 30 words to designate a rein-deer; the French have more than 50 for a ship, with relation to its size, shape, and the purpose for which it is employed; the Germans have 100 words, and the French 50, to express a horse.

47. RESPIRATION OF THE TORTOISE. Few animals are able to live for any time when plunged under oil. Even those that can resist the vacuum of an air-pump, or which revive after being drowned in water, never revive if they have been kept for some time under oil. The leech alone is capable of remaining for some hours under oil with impunity. It appears from the experiments of Carradori (Ann. de Chim et de Phys. v. 94), that the land tortoise possesses the same remarkable quality. He kept one under oil for six hours. When he appeared dead, he was taken out and exposed to the air, and recovered. The same tortoise lived under oil for 24 hours. On being taken out he vomited a considerable quantity of oil; but died. Another tortoise lived 33 hours under oil; but was dead in 36 hours.

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