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my dear Phil," I replied, "is far too credi- Sir, how singular !"-"Singular! I wonder at
tably established in society to render their perjury no longer, for my part. I would have
alliance disgraceful. I'm proud to belong to gone into any court of justice, and have taken
so prevailing a party." "Pshaw! this is no my oath it was you. I never saw such a
time for joking. What's to be done?" "Why, likeness. Your father and the fellow's mother
when does a man want a joke, Phil, but when were acquainted, or I'm mistaken. The air,
he's in trouble! However, adieu to badinage, the height, the voice; all but the manner, and
and hey for Cambridge instantly." Cam-damine, that was not yours. No--no, you
bridge?" "In the twinkling of an eye- never would have treated your old uncle so."
not a moment to be lost. My uncle will post How rejoiced I am, that--" Rejoiced
there with four horses instantly; and my only so am I. I would not but have been unde-
chance of avoiding that romantic misfortune ceived for a thousand guineas. Nothing but
of being cut off with a shilling, is to be there seeing you here so quiet, so studious, surroun-
before him."
ded by problems, would have convinced me.
Ecod I can't tell you how I was startled. I
had been told some queer stories, to be sure,
about your Cambridge etiquette. I heard that
two Cambridge men, one of St. John's, the
other of Trinity, had met on the top of Vesu-
vius, and that though they knew each other
by sight and reputation, yet never having been
formally introduced, like two simpletons they
looked at each other in silence, and left the
mountain separately and without speaking
and that cracked fellow-commoner, Meadows,
had shewn me a caricature, taken from the life,
representing a Cambridge man drowning,
another gownsman standing on the brink,
and exclaining, Oh! that I had had the
honour of being introduced to that man,
that I might have taken the liberty of sav-
ing him! But, it, thought I, he never
would carry it so far with his own uncle !-I
never heard your father was a gay man," con-
tinued he, musing; "yet, as you sit in that
light, the likeness is- I moved instantly
But it's impossible, you know, it's impos-
sible. Come, my dear fellow, come! I must
get some dinner. Who could he be? Never
were two people so alike!”

Without settling our bill at the inn, or making a single arrangement, we dashed back to Cambridge. Never shall I forget the mental anxiety I endured on my way there. Every thing was against us. A heavy rain had fallen in the night, and the roads were wretched. The traces broke-turnpike gates were shut; droves of sheep and carts impeded our progress but in spite of all these obstacles, we reached the college in less than six hours. "Has Sir Thomas-been here?" said I to the porter with an agitation I could not conceal. "No, sir." Phil" thanked God, and took courage." "If he does, tell him so and so," said I, giving veracious Thomas his instructions, and putting a guinea into his hand to sharpen his memory. "Pitil, my dear fellow, don't show your face out of the college for this fortnight. You twig! God bless you."--I had barely time to get to my own room, to have my toga and trencher beside me, Newton and Aristotle before me, optics, mechanics, and hydrostatics, strewed around in learned confusion, when my uncle drove up to the gate.

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DEAR SIR,-The first thing I perused in the last Iris was your reply, and I can assure you it gave who is resolved to think for himself, who has cou me great pleasure. Every one admires the man rage to question the theories which he doubts. Upon my honour it was not with real" ill-humour" that I answered your second letter, it was assumed, and I thought you would understand it as such. Should we ever appear again as antagonists in the pages of the Iris, I hope it will be with that mutual goodtemper which ought to distinguish philosophical controversies. After receiving this communication, you will doubtless see the propriety of dropping this diste.. I will not provoke a reply if I can avoid it. Sufficient has been said to encourage the young philosopher to study this branch, of those laws which the Almighty has instituted, for the preservation, and the pleasure, of animated beings.

I will now say a few words in reply-observe, I do not intend to formally reply to your objections, though the materials for such crowd upon me. You say that my term "spectrum" is unphilosophical; it is nevertheless appropriate, for doubtless nearly every spectre, that has been seen for ages past, has (not that they are infallible) have thus made use of beeu nothing more than a spectrum. The learned the word many years, and have not yet rejected it. This you will find by having recourse to the LXXVI vol. of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, and to the 5th number of that very Philosophical Publication, the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal. I must, therefore, continue to use the word in this sense, till you, or some other person, substitute a better.

You say that the wearied retina, throwing itself into opposite or spasmodic action, is to you a new

"Porter, I wish to see Mr.- ," said he;
" is he in his rooms?" "Yes sir; I saw him
take a heap of books there ten minutes ago."
This was not the first bouncer the Essence of
Truth, as Thomas was known through college,
had told for me; nor the last he got well paid
for." Ay! very likely. Reads very hard, I times the amount. He left Cambridge the have never once referred to the ear.

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dare say?" No doubt of that, I believe,

Sir," said Thomas, as bold as brass. "You audacious fellow! how dare you look in my face and tell me such a deliberate falsehood? You know he's not in college!" Not in college! Sir, as I hope--" "None of your hopes or fears to me. Shew me his rooms-If two hours ago I did not see→→ See him,-yes, I've seen him, and he's seen the last of me."

We dined at the inn, and spent the evening together; and instead of the fifty, the last fifty," he generously gave me a draft for three

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next morning, and his last words were, as he
entered his carriage, My brother as a
handsome man; and there was a Lady Some-
body, who, the world said, was partial to him.
God bless you! Read hard you young dog;
She have a son.
may
Most surprising likeness.
remember. Like as two brothers!" I never
saw him again.

It

His death which happened a few months He had now reached my rooms; and never afterwards, in consequence of his being bit in shall I forget his look of astonishment, of a bet, contracted when he was a "little eleva amazement bordering on incredulity, when I ted," left me the heir to his fine estate! I wish calmly came forward, took his hand and wel- I could add, to his many and noble virtues. I comed him to Cambridge. "My dear Sir, how do not attempt to palliate deception. It is are you? What lucky wind has blown you always criminal. But, I am sure, no severity, here?""What, George! who-what-why- no reprimand, no reproaches, would have had I can't believe my eyes!""How happy I half the effect which his kindness, his confiam to see you!" I continued; "How kind dence, and his generosity wrought on me. of you to come! How well you're look-reformed me thoroughly, and at once. I did ing!" "How people may be deceived!--- not see London again till I had graduated; My dear George, (speaking very rapidly,) and if my degree was unaccompanied by brilI met a fellow, in a tandem, in the Hay- liant honours, it did not disgrace my Uncle's market, so like you, in every particular, liberality or his name. Many years have that I bailed him at once. The puppy dis- elapsed since our last interview; but I never owned me--affected to cut a joke--and drove reflect on it without pain and pleasure-pain, off. Never was I more taken off my stilts! that our last intercource on earth should have I came down directly with four post-horses, to been marked by the grossest deception; and tell your Tutor; to tell the Master; to tell all pleasure, that the serious reflections it awakthe College, that I would have nothing more ened cured me for ever of all wish to deceive, to do with you; that I would be responsible and made the open and straightforward path for your debts no longer; to inclose you fifty of life, that of pounds, and disown you for ever."-"My dear

AN OLD STUDENT.

bypothesis; I can assure you it is a well known one, mortal work, The "Zoonomia, or the Laws of OrSee the works above quoted, and Dr. Darwin's imganic Life."In the latter you will find many experiments which prove, and numberless analogies which support that very hypothesis which you state to be "unauthorized by experiment, and unsupported by analogy." What shall I say to you? You surely How many kinds, or degrees of motion, is the tympanum capable of?

Again, you say, that if, as I contend, the retina has the power of spontaneously falling into action, it must have the power of spontaneously refusing to

act.

This is certainly a very strange assumption. And then you say that," according to this hypothesis, each individual has entire command over his own optic nerves; can throw them into any kind of action he pleases," in other words, that falling into action "of its own accord," is the same as falling into action at the command of the will. Thus you sanction the following conclusion, that spontaneously falling into action, is the same thing as not spontaneously falling into action. Nothing else can be made of your paragraph.

With regard to spectra being divided into direct and inverse, nothing is more easy of solution. To medical men, these are small difficulties.

The following quotations will convince you that I have very great authorities for the opinions I have stated. From all these experiments it appears, that the spectra in the eye are not owing to the me chanical impulse of light impressed on the retina, nor to its chemical combination with that organ, nor to the absorption and emission of light.". "By the following observations it appears, that a similar circumstance obtains in the organ of vision; after it

has been fatigued by one kind of action, it spontaneously falls into the opposite kind."- "Sect. III. The motions of the retina demonstrated by experi ments."-See the works above quoted.

From the experiments which I myself have made, and from the researches of others, I have every reason to believe what I have advanced to be cor

rect.

The objections stated by you are easily removed, I must therefore still cherish these doctrines; you can please yourself whether you admit them or not. You surely will not condemn them before you have made yourself acquainted with that information which the above works so abundantly supply. No person holds in greater veneration than myself the illustrious Newton; but since his time, discoveries have been made in bis favourite sciences of which he had no idea. I shall pass over your attempt at ridicule, confident that that 66 unphilosophical" way of objecting was forced from you by my words, " captious, jeering, &c." which I am sorry for having used. I must now take my leave of you. I shall rejoice to see you again in the Iris, on any other subject. I shall myself sometimes trouble our kind Editor with a lucubration.

Most respectfully I subscribe myself,

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SIR, You are surprised, that I reject a doctrine so generally assented to, as that of the existence of a central cavity :-mere universality of assent, however, adds little to the value of speculative opinions; every body once thought, that the sun moved round the earth; and he, who first asserted a contrary opinion, was despised as a fool, and punished as a heretic: let us, then, examine how far I am justified in denying the existence of a central cavity.

You acknowledge it impossible to conjecture how this central cavity was produced, but persist in maintaining its existence, and quote a passage from the Book of Genesis, viz. "the earth was without form and void," in support of your assertion. To this evidence I object, first, that it is inadmissible; and, secondly, that it has no connexion with the point in question. In the first place, an attentive examination of the first four or five chapters of the Book of Genesis will convince you, that they were not composed by Moses internal evidence, not unsupported by external coincidence, proves them to consist merely of a collection of national traditions; the first of which, referring to events, which preceded the birth of man, is no better authority than the traditions of the same events, which have been preserved by other nations, and by which the Mosaic account of the creation is contradicted: the evidence, therefore, of such tratitions is evidently of no authority, and therefore inadmissible. But supposing Moses to have been the author, the inspired author of this history of the creation, and supposing our translation of that history to accord with, and convey exactly the ideas of the original, as composed by Moses, yet does the passage quoted afford no support to your argument. That a cavity should be formed and maintained in the centre of an uncondensed nebule of heterogeneous matter;-that any natural cause should so teract the operation of the universal law of gravity, as to prevent the different atoms from coming within a certain distance of their common centre of attraction, is a supposition evidently absurd: your translation of the term "void" is therefore incorrect, and the passage in question can have no reference to the existence of a central cavity.

coun

You say the sensation of increased heat is produced upon descent into wells, &c. and hence infer the existence of a central fire: some other cause, howéver, of this sensation must be sought that the temperature of the atmosphere does not become 'greater, as we descend into the earth, has been proved by various experiments; amongst others, Dr. Withering found the thermometer, at the bottom of a well 84 feet deep, to stand uniformly at 49° dur ing the year 1798.

* You most ignorantly attribute non-combustion in certain wells to the rarefaction of the air by heat: it is ascertained that it is the presence of carbonic acid gas that produces this effect.

You imagine a central cavity necessary for the

reception of the waters of the deluge: if you believe,
that the Deity created the Diluvian Waters, it surely
requires no great stretch of credulity to believe, that
he also destroyed them, when it became desirable to
withdraw them from the surface of the earth.

In the fourth paragraph of your letter you say,
that "if a central fire be allowed, one part of such
an immense globe of caloric might be hotter nnd more
expanded than another!!!" Proh pudor! What is
heat but caloric? In a body of caloric, it is evident,
that, were such a case possible, that portion would
necessarily be the hottest, not where the caloric was
the most expanded, but where it was the most con-
densed. But to return :-it is ascertained, that the
pressure of fluids is the same in all directions, and it
is therefore impossible, that the expansion of any
portion of this central globe of caloric should affect
one part of the earth, more than another; the least
expansion in any portion must necessarily affect the
whole, and produce a simultaneous eruption at all
its vent-holes.

By this view of the subject we moreover prove, that earthquakes do not originate in the expansion of this supposed central globe of caloric; for, while a passage is afforded by existing volcanoes, the superabundant caloric will never exert itself to form fresh vent-holes.

Should you choose to make any reply to these observations, I shall thank you to inform me, how you suppose this accumulation of caloric in the centre of the globe to be effected; it being a known property of the matter of heat, not to congregate, but to separate ;-not to accumulate, but to spread itself through all surrounding matter, until it has found its equilibrium.

TO THE EDITOR,

P.

SIR, Every lover of the drama must feel gratified that the town of Manchester has expressed, in so decided and dignified a manner, its determination to protect deserving performers from the caprice of those, who ought always to be governed by the will of the public.

It is hardly probable that the " gentlemen" mana-
gers at Liverpool, will disregard a marked expres-
sion of public feeling so much, as to insist on Mr.
Salter's dismissal; but are they not likely to be a
little embarrassed by their engagement with Mr.
Vandenhoff? No one imagines that gentleman will
condescend to perform second rate characters, where
Mr. Salter occupies the first rank; and, whatever
may be the feelings of Mr. S. on the subject, the
inhabitants of this town will not suffer their favourite
to be thrown into the shade. Under these circum-
stances, Mr. Salter may be forced to a temporary re-
tirement from the Manchester boards, and, in that
case, could any thing be more gratifying to his
patrons, than some lasting memorial of his talents,
and their approbation; especially, if that memorial
could be made the means of profit to Mr. S. and a
gentlemen managers,"
convincing proof to those, “

that, even without their assistance, the town of Man-
chester knows how to remunerate those who exert
themselves for the public gratification.

An en

The portrait of Mr. Salter, in the character of
Hamlet, drawn by Mr. Minasi, affords an opportu-
nity for putting such a plan into execution.
graving from it would be a gratification to the
admirers of Mr. Salter, and a source of considerable
emolument to that gentleman, if he were to publish it
by subscription, and the demand were as great, as
the partiality of the public would lead us to antici-
pate. The drawing is, in itself, a chef d'oeuvre,
and an engraving from it, such as a pupil of Barto-
lozzi might be expected to produce,* would be a
proof of the flourishing state of the fine arts in Man-
chester, as well as of the liberality with which
excellence is there patronized.

GIACOMO.

• Mr. Minasi was a pupil of that celebrated Engraver.

BRIEF OBSERVATIONS

On the use of the article a or an, before words beginning with a vowel.

"A becomes an, before a vowel, &c."-Murray's Gram.

Words beginning with the vowel, a, are universally used with an, as, an admirer, an aeronaut, an airgun, an aorist, an auricula, &c.

An, is used before words beginning with the vowel e; when e, is succeeded by a consonant, or the vowels, a, i, o, or y; as, an echo, an eagle, an eighteenth, an eoliple, an eye; when succeeded by the vowels w, or u; a, is used without exception; as, a ewe, a ewer; pronounced as if written you and your; a European, a euthanasy, a eunuch, a euphony, &c.

I, has no exceptions to the rule, as, an Indian, an iambick, &c.

O, has but one exception, and that is in the word, one; thus we say "such a one;" "a one," which may be easily accounted for; in the pronunciation of this word, w, appears to be understood, as if it were written (won) which does not occur in any other word beginning with o; except, once. All others follow the rule, as, an optician, an oath, an oeiliad, an oilman, an ooze, an outwatch.

U, the last vowel, (for w, and y are only vowels under peculiar circumstances), may be comprehended under two rules; 1. When, u, at the beginning of a word is sounded long; a, must be used, as, a union, a university, a unit, &c. 2. When short, an, is invariably applied, as, an underling, an upstart, &c. IOTA.

THE DRAMA.

MANCHESTER DRAMATIC REGISTER.

Monday, May 6th.-For the Benefit of Mr. Browne:
King Richard III.; Chrononhotonthologos; and
Love Laughs at Locksmiths.
Wednesday, 8th.-The Stranger; with Brother and
Sister.

Friday, 10th.-For the Benefit of Mr. and Mrs.
Chapman King Lear; with Valentine and Orson.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

We have received, during the last week, several
letters in which our correspondents complain of
their contributions having been passed over with-
out notice. We beg that it may, in future, be
understood, that we by no means reject all the
pieces to which we do not advert particularly.-
Were we to answer fully every correspondent,
our notices would occupy a considerable portion
of our publication. From our stock of unpub-
lished communications, if the authors will permit
us, we purpose occasionally to borrow. We trust
this explanation will be deemed sufficient.
We are obliged to " B." for his offering; but as we
shall decline making use of it, we have chosen the
other alternative.

Communications have been received from Dramati-
cus. Observer.-A Subscriber.-Junius.-X. Y.
-Vindex.-B. on Woman.-S- -n.-Adam.—
Ybznk.-N. K.-J. C.-A Constant Reader.-and
Job.

Manchester: Printed, Published, and Sold, by the Proprietors, HENRY SMITH AND BROTHERS, St. Ann's Square, to whom all Communications (post paid) must be addressed. Sold also by all the Booksellers in Manchester and the neighbouring towns.

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"THE CLUB."

No. VIII.-FRIDAY, MAY 10, 1822.

Here you a muckworm of the town might see,
At his dull desk, amid his ledgers stall'd,
Eat up with carking care and penury;
Most like to carcase perch'd on gallows-tree.
"A penny saved is a penny got:"
Firm to this scoundrel maxim keepeth he,
Ne, of its rigour will he bate a jot.

THOMSON.

SATURDAY, MAY 18, 1822.

WEEKLY.

PRICE 3 d.

Such are the Drippings, the Blubbers, the Grograms, the Bulls, the Gingers, the Bearskins, and a long et cetera of personages, who, together with their tawdry wives and affected daughters, are depicted by our popular essayists, or figure on the stage, as the representatives of the commercial part of this commercial nation!

It is probable that the spirit of party had something to do in producing such representations. A great majority of the puritans and independents, the adherents of the long parliament, and of Cromwell, were to be found amongst the tradesmen, who were frequently at once dissenters and roundheads. The wits were generally of the royalist party, dependent upon men of dissolute lives, and the compaWhenever we talk of these portraits at the nions of their excesses. When the return of Club, one of the members, a man of various the second Charles gave to these men the as-reading, and rather quick feelings, never fails cendency, they would have considered their to break in upon the mirth which they occatriumph as incomplete, if they could not have sion, by giving us an account of all the rendered their adversaries ridiculous. This learned tradesmen whose history he rememwas probably one cause of the contemptible bers. If we may believe him, the divine Plato light in which tradesmen were exhibited on the sold oil, and Demosthenes himself was in all and the character once introduced, was probability a cutler. Nay, he pretends that too valuable as a constant source of mirth, to Atticus, the bosom friend of nearly all the be soon given up. great writers of the Augustan age, was in fact only a considerable slave dealer. As our friend is himself a tradesman, he always speaks a little warmly on the subject, and usually concludes his catalogue of literary shop-keepers, by appealing to us against the injustice of the wits.

IT has before been stated that our Club is
composed partly of men of business, and
partly of persons who are engaged in profes-
sions. It is perhaps owing to this circum-stage;
stance, that we have occasionally amused our-
selves with considering those satirical delinea-
tions of the different classes of society, which The increase of trade; the wealth acquired
are to be found in authors who profess to de- by many tradesmen; and the greater inter-
pict life and manners. As we have learned to course which took place amongst the different
bear raillery without ill-humour, we have classes of society, gradually lessened the
found a good deal of entertainment in collect- coarseness of those representations of men of
ing and examining these little malicious re-business, which were given on the stage. Yet
presentations. Our mirth, however, has not this reformation, like almost every other,
hindered us from discovering, that the witty made but a slow progress. The lines from
part of mankind have given very unfair repre- Thomson, which I have placed at the lead of
sentations of their graver brethren. I shall at this paper, are a tolerably correct representa-
present consider this unfairness so far as it re- tion of the opinion which the learned and po-
lates to tradesmen, and, in a future number, lite entertained, in his day, of commercial
may probably extend my view to other classes persons. If it began to be discovered that a
of society.
tradesman might be a worthy man, it was still
the current opinion, that his virtues must be
of a vulgar and inferior kind. Taste, litera-
ture, or politeness, he could not possibly pos-
sess. His studies must by no means extend
beyond "Cocker's Arithmetic," and the News-
paper; and if he made the least pretension to
any knowledge beyond that which might be
acquired on the Exchange, or to more good-
breeding than could be expected at a city ball,
a host of hungry wits were ready to hold him
up to ridicule, and to prognosticate the speedy
termination of his career, by his appearance
in the gazette.

In the dramatic writings which appeared for some time after the restoration, the tradesman took the place, which, in the time of Shakespeare, had been occupied by the clown. He was introduced only to be the butt of the superior characters. His avarice, ill-breeding, and hypocrisy, were contrasted with the careless generosity, the easy manners, and the agreeable licentiousness of the fine gentleman of the piece. His unfashionable vices were punished according to the poetic justice of the day; and the audience saw him cudgelled, cheated, and dishonoured, with great satisfaction. It was part of the dramatic morality of the age, that the children of such a parent might rob him, not only with impunity, but with applause. They gave, by so doing, a proof that they had a spirit above their birth; and when his daughter made free with his money, and threw herself, without waiting for his consent, or the sanction of the church, into the arms of some battered rake, the poet took care to reward such filial piety, by making her an honest, as well as a happy woman, at the conclusion of the piece.

Our periodical essays furnish instances in abundance, of the mirth which was in this manner derived from the ludicrous exhibition of tradesmen. A foreigner, who should form his notions of our men of business from these writings, must conceive of them as a set of personages generally corpulent-great critics in roast-beef and turtle-soup---great consumers of port and tobacco---wearing fine clothes in an awkward manner--totally destitute of taste and literature, and too well satisfied with full purses, to be at all conscious of empty heads.

"Is it to be endured," says he, "that a set of men, whose sole merit consisted in being able to polish a period, or to manufacture rhymes; and whose lives were spent in repeating, in their own language, what they had read in some other, should thus hold up to contempt the most useful members of society? Authors may talk as they please about mental labour, and the superiority of their pursuits over those of tradesmen,---but I could never discover that it was more difficult to select proper images, than to choose good patterns; and I am sure that it is quite as easy to avoid bad grammar, as to escape bad debts. To make a fortune, requires at least as much intellect as to make a book; and the man who raises himself to the possession of wealth by close application to business, is, in my opinion, quite as much deserving of applause, as he who gets a name, by devoting the same time to study."

I would not have the reader imagine that the other members of the Club are exactly of the same opinion as this gentleman. We give due honour to those who have enlightened and instructed mankind by their writings; nor do we by any means undervalue the authors of works of imagination. On the contrary, no writers are more frequently quoted or eulogized amongst us. We think, at the same time, that a tradesman may have a just taste in literature, and be acquainted with books, without neglecting his business; as, on the

other hand, he may be a valuable member of the community, and acquire an honourable competency, without any relish for such pursuits. We think the portraits, which have been generally given of tradesmen, to be gross caricatures, the productions of men who had much more wit than knowledge of the world, and whose ignorance and prejudice combined to render their descriptions unfaithful. We have never yet seen any correct delineations of the mercantile character, and must be allowed to remark, that to pourtray with a faithful, and yet spirited pencil, the manners and feeling, the enjoyments and sufferings, of so large a portion of the community, is a task which would require the ability of no ordinary

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I like to meet a sweep---one of those tender novices, blooming through their first nigritude, the maternal washings not quite effaced from the cheek---such as come forth with the dawn, or somewhat earlier, with their little professional notes sounding like the peep peep of a young sparrow; or liker to the matin lark should I pronounce them, in their aerial ascents not seldom anticipating the sun-rise? I have a kindly yearning toward these dim specks---poor blots-innocent blacknesses--I reverence these young Africans of our own growth---these almost clergy imps, who sport their cloth without assumption; and from their little pulpits, (the tops of chimneys), in the nipping air of a December morning, preach a lesson of patience to mankind.

have seen palates, otherwise not uninstructed
in dietetical elegances, sup it up with avidity.
I know not by what particular conformation
of the organ it happens, but I have always
found that this composition is surprisingly
gratifying to the palate of a young chimney-
sweeper--whether the oily particles (sassafras
is slightly oleaginous) do attenuate and soften
the fuliginous concretions, which are some-
times found (in dissections) to adhere to the
roof of the mouth in these unfledged prac-
titioners; or whether nature, sensible that she
had mingled too much of bitter wood in the
lot of these raw victims, caused to grow out of
the earth her sassafras for a sweet lenitive-
but so it is, that no possible taste or odour to
the senses of a young chimney-sweeper can
convey a delicate excitement comparable to
this mixture. Being penniless, they will yet
hang their black heads over the ascending
steam, to gratify one sense if possible, seem-
ingly no less pleased than those domestic ani-
mals-cats---when they purr over a new found
sprig of valerian. There is something more
in these sympathies than philosophy can expli-
cate.

of what are called a fine set of teeth. Every pair of rosy lips (the ladies must pardon me) is a casket, presumably holding such jewels; but, methinks, they should take leave to "air" them as frugally as possible. The fine lady, or fine gentleman, who show me their teeth, show me bones. Yet must I confess, that from the mouth of a true sweep a display (even to ostentation) of those white and shining ossifications, strikes me as an agreeable anomaly in manners, and an allowable piece of foppery. It is, as when

A sable cloud Turns forth her silver lining on the night. It is like some remnant of gentry not quite extinct; a badge of better days; a hint of nobility:--and, doubtless, under the obscuring darkness and double night of their forlorn disguisement, oftentimes lurketh good blood, and gentle conditions, derived from lost an cestry, and a lapsed pedigree. The premature apprenticements of these tender victims give but too much encouragement, I fear, to clandestine, and almost infantile abductions; the seeds of civility and true courtesy, so often This is Saloop--the precocious herb-woman's discernible in these young grafts (not otherdarling--the delight, and, oh I fear, too often wise to be accounted for) plainly hint at some the envy, of the unpennied sweep. Him then forced adoptions; many noble Rachels mournshouldest thou haply encounter, with his diming for their children, even in our days, counvisage pendant over the grateful steam, regale tenance the fact; the tales of fairy-spiriting him with a sumptuous basin (it will cost thee may shadow a lamentable verity, and the rebut three half-pennies) and a slice of delicate covery of the young Montagu be but a solitary bread and butter (an added half-penny)-so instance of good fortune, out of many irremay thy culinary fires, eased of the o'er- parable and hopeless defiliations. charged secretions from thy worse-placed hospitalities, curl up a lighter volume to the welkin---so may the descending soot never taint thy costly well-ingredienced soups---nor the odious cry, quick-reaching from street to street, of the fired chimney, invite the rattling engines, to disturb for a casual scintillation thy peace and pocket!

When a child, what a mysterious pleasure it was to witness their operation! to see a chit no bigger than one's-self enter, one knew not by what process, into what seemed the fauces Averni-to pursue him in imagination, as he I am by nature extremely susceptible of went sounding on through so many dark street affronts; the jeers and taunts of the stifling caverns, horrid shades!--to shudder populace; the low-bred triumph they display with the idea that "now, surely, he must be over the casual trip, or splashed stocking, of lust for ever!"--to revive at hearing his feeble à gentleman. Yet I can endure the jocularity shout of discovered day-light--and then (O of a young sweep with something more than fulness of delight) running out of doors, to forgiveness.---In the last winter but one, pacing come just in time to see the sable phenomenon with my accustomed precipitation, a treaemerge in safety, the brandished weapon of cherous slide brought me upon my back in an his art victorious like some flag waved over a instant. I scrambled up with pain and shame qonquered citadel! I seem to remember hav-enough--yet outwardly trying to face it down, ing been told, that a bad sweep was once left ip-a stack with his brush to indicate which way the wind blew. It was an awful spectacle certainly; not much unlike the old stage direction in Macbeth, where the "Apparition of a child crowned, with a tree in his hand, rises." Reader, if thou meetest one of these small gentry in thy early rambles, it is good to give him a penny. It is better to give him twopence. If it be starving weather, and to the proper troubles of his hard occupation, a pair of kibed heels (no unusual accompaniment) be superadded, the demand on thy humanity will surely rise to a tester.

There is a composition, the ground-work of which I have understood to be the sweet wood 'yelept sassafras. This wood boiled down to a kind of tea, and tempered with an infusion of milk and sugar, hath to some tastes a delicacy beyond the China luxury. I know not how thy palate may relish it; for myself, I have never adventured to dip my own particular lip into a basin of such ingredients; yet I

as if nothing had happened--when the roguish
grin of one of these young wits encountered
me. There he stood, pointing me out with
his dusky finger to the mob, and to a poor
woman (I suppose his mother) in particular,
till the tears for the exquisiteness of the fun
(so he thought it) worked themselves out at
the corners of his poor red eyes, red from
many a previous weeping, and soot-inflamed,
yet twinkling through all with such a joy,
snatched out of desolation, that Hogarth -
but Hogarth has got him already (how could
he miss him?) in the March to Finchley,
grinning at the pye-man------there he stood, as
he stands in the picture, irremovable, as if the
jest was to last for ever--with such a maximum
of glee, and minimum of mischief, in his
mirth--for the grin of a genuine sweep hath
absolutely no malice in it--that I could have
been content, if the honour of a gentleman
might endure it, to have remained his butt
and his mockery till midnight.

I am by theory obdurate to the seductiveness

In one of the state-beds at Arundel Castle, a few years since-under a ducal canopy(that seat of the Howards is an object of curio sity to visitors, chiefly for its beds, in which the late duke was especially a connoisseur)— encircled with curtains of delicatest crimson, with starry coronets inwoven--folded between a pair of sheets whiter and softer than the lap where Venus lulled Ascanius--was discovered by chance, after all methods of search had failed, at noon-day, fast asleep, a lost chimney-sweeper. The little creature, having somehow confounded his passage among the intricacies of those lordly chimneys, by some unknown aperture had alighted upon this magnificent chamber; and, tired with his tedious explorations, was unable to resist the delicious invitement to repose, which he there saw exhibited; so, creeping between the sheets very quietly, laid his black head upon the pillow, and slept like a young Howard.

Such is the account given to the visitors at the Castle.-But I cannot help seeming to perceive a confirmation of what I have just hinted at in this story. A high instinct was at work in the case, or I am mistaken. Is it probable that a poor child of that description, with whatever weariness he might be visited, would have ventured, under such a penalty as he would be taught to expect, to uncover the sheets of a Duke's bed, and deliberately to lay himself down between them, when the rug, or the carpet, presented an obvious couch, still far above his pretensions--is this probable, I would ask, if the great power of nature, which I contend for, had not been manifested within him, prompting to the adventure? Doubtless this young nobleman, (for such my mind misgives me that he must be) was allured by some memory, not amounting to full consciousness, of his condition in infancy, when he was used to be lapt by his

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mother, or his nurse, in just such sheets as he sede the Laurel." All these, and fifty other
there found, into which he was now but creep-fancies, which were rather felt than compre-
ing back as into his proper incunabula, and hended by his guests, would he utter, stand-
resting place.-By no other theory, than by ing upon tables, and prefacing every sentiment
this sentiment of a pre-existent state (as I with
may
call it), can I explain a deed so venturous,
Gentlemen, give me leave to propose
so and so," which was a prodigious comfort
and, indeed, upon any other system, so inde- to those young orphans; every now and then
corous, in this tender, but unseasonable stuffing into his mouth (for it did not do to be
sleeper.
pieces of those reeking, sausages,
squeamish on these occasions) indiscriminate
pleased them mightily, and was the savouriest
which
part, you may believe, of the entertainment.
Golden lads and lasses must,

My pleasant friend JEM WHITE was so impressed with a belief of metamorphoses like this frequently taking place, that in some sort to reverse the wrongs of fortune in these poor changelings, he instituted an annual feast of chimney-sweepers, at which it was his pleasure to officiate as host and waiter. It was a

As chimney-sweepers, come to dust-
JAMES WHITE is extinct, and with him these
suppers have long ceased. He carried away
with him half the fun of the world when he
died-of my world at least. His old clients
look for him in vain; and, missing him, re-
proach the altered feast of St. Bartholomew,
and the glory of Smithfield departed for ever.

ELIA.

FURTHER EXTRACTS FROM LACON.

to be pleased, rather than to be instructed,
We seek the society of the ladies with a view
and are more gratified by those who will talk,
than by those that are silent; for if they talk
well, we are doubly delighted to receive in-
formation from so pleasant a source, and if
they are at times a little out in their conclu-
sions, it is flattering to our vanity, to set them
right. Therefore I would have the ladies in-
dulge with somewhat less of reserve in the
freedom of conversation, notwithstanding the
remark of him who said with more of point
than of politeness, that they were the very
flected without talking, but the other talked
reverse of their own mirrors; for the one re-
without reflecting.

solemn supper held upon the yearly return of the fair of St. Bartholomew. Cards were issued a week before to the master sweeps, confining the invitation to their younger fry. Now and then an elderly stripling would get in among us, and be good-naturedly winked at; but our main body were infantry. One unfortunate wight, indeed, who, relying upon his dusky suit, had intruded himself into our party, but by tokens was providentially discovered in time to be no chimney-sweeper (all is not soot which looks so), was quoited out of the presence with universal indignation, as not having on the wedding garment; but in general the greatest harmony prevailed. guests assembled about seven. The In those little temporary parlours three tables were spread with napery, not so fine as substantial, and at every board a comely hostess presided with her pan of hissing sausages. The nostrils of the young rogues dilated at the savour. JAMES WHITE, as head waiter, had charge of the first table; and myself, with our trusty companion BIGOD, ordinarily ministered to the other two. There was clambering and jostling you may be sure, who should get at the first table--for Rochester in his maddest days could not have done the humours of the scene with more spirit than my friend. After some general expression of thanks for the honour the company had done him, his inaugural ceremony was to clasp the greasy waste of old dame Ursula (the fattest of the three), that stood frying and fretting, half-blessing, halfcursing the gentleman," and imprint upon her chaste lips a tender salute, whereat the universal host would set up a shout that tore the concave, while hundreds of grinning teeth startled the night with their brightness. O it was a pleasure to see the sable younkers lick in the unctuous meat, with his more unctuous sayings--how he would fit the tit bits to the puny mouths, reserving the lengthier links for the seniors-how he would intercept a morsel even in the jaws of some young desperado, declaring it 'must to the pan again to be browned, for it was not fit for a gentleman's eating"-how he would recommend this slice of white bread, or that piece of kissing-crust, to a tender juvenile, advising them all to have a care of cracking their teeth, which "were their best patrimony"--how genteelly he would deal about the small ale, as if it were wine, naming the brewer, and protesting, if it were not good, he should lose their custom; with a special recommendation to "wipe the lip before drinking." Then we had our toasts--- only our successes, but even our dissappointOur vanity often inclines us to impute not "The King,"the "Cloth;"---which, whether ments, to causes personal, and strictly confined they understood or not, was equally diverting to ourselves, when nevertheless the effects may and flattering;--and for a crowning sentiment have been removed from the supposed cause, which never failed, "May the Brush super-far as the poles assunder. A zealous, and in

tution to root out a vice should go a little
He that has energy enough in his consti-
farther, and try to plant a virtue in its place,
otherwise he will have his labour to renew; a
strong soil that has produced weeds, may be
made to produce wheat, with far less difficulty
than it would cost to make it produce nothing.

when the danger is at a distance, but the mo-
Philosophy is a bully that talks very loud,
ment she is hard pressed by the enemy, she is
not to be found at her post, but leaves the
brunt of the battle to be borne by her humbler
but steadier comrade religion, whom on all
other occasions she affects to despise.

What we conceive to be failings in others,
are not unfrequently owing to some deficien-
cies in ourselves; thus plain men think hand-
some women want passion, and plain women
think young men want politeness; dull writers
think all readers devoid of taste, and dull
readers think witty writers devoid of brilliance ;
old men can see nothing to admire in the
present days; and yet former days were not
better, but it is they themselves that have be-

come worse.

123

his way a very eminent preacher, whose eloquence is as copious, and far more lucid than the waters of his beloved Cam, happened to miss a constant auditor from his congregation, Schism had already made some depredations on the fold, which was not so large, but to a practised eye, the deduction of even one was perceptible. B. away from us?' was the anxious question 'What keeps our friend farmer I have not seen him amongst us,' continued he, proposed by our vigilant minister to his clerk. 'this three weeks; I hope it is not Socinianism that keeps him away. No, your honour,' replied the clerk, it is something worse than it should be Deism.' 'No; your honour, it is that.' Worse than Socinianism! God forbid something worse than that.' Deism! good heavens, I trust it is not Atheism !' 'Worse than No, your honour, it is something worse than nothing can be worse than Atheism!" Yes it that. 'Worse than Atheism! impossible; is, your honour- it is Rheumatism!

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difficuity. Thus, having traced the axes ax, ay, at
right angles to each other, the point a will be the
The construction of these equations involves no
vertex of two parabolas, of which we have in one
case ay for the axis of the abscisses, and p for the
parameter. In the other, we have ax for the axis of
the abscisses, and
2a3 for the parameter.

P2

each other, will be the side of the cube required.
The absciss of the point where these parabolas cut

Solution of No. 13, by Mr. W. M. Laurie. Put x and y = the years and months, Then (x + y) x x = x2 + xy = 1302. And (x per question. y) × y = xy — y2 = 220

Hence, by reduction, a=31, and y=11. second digit in the number of days. Now, put the first and y = the 4; and y2 4 per question.

Then x = y

= 11 y

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4y + 50

Whence a 2 or 5 and y = 6 or 9; consequently 31 years, 11 months, and 36 days is the

age of Amicus.

Neat Solutions to the same question were received F.; Mercurius, and Miss Agnes. from J. H.; J. W.; Mr. Wilson; Mr. Robt. Andrew;

Question No. 17, by Miss Agnes. value of x by simple equations. Given, x2 + 3 x = 6 + to find the

Question No. 18, by Mr. W. M. Laurie. yz 278 and xyz = 880, in which equaGiven, y + z = 29; xy + x2 + tions, x, y, and z, represent the Solar, Lunar, and Indiction cycle of the year in which I was born; re'quired my age in years.

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