like a worsted wonder. It is after the fashion of Catharine's cap in the play: it seems as if Moulded on a poringer; Why, 'tis a cockle, or a walnut-shell, A knack, a toy, a trick, a baby's cap; But we may not add; I love thee well, in that thou lik'st it not. Ill befall us, if we ever dislike any think about thee, old nurse of our childhood! How independent of the weather used we to feel in our old friar's dress,our thick shoes, yellow worsted stockings, and coarse long coat or gown! Our cap was oftener in our hand than on our head, let the weather be what it would. We felt a pride as well as pleasure, when every body else was hurrying through the streets, in receiving the full summer showers with uncovered poll, sleeking our glad hair like the feathers of a bird. It must be said for hats in general, that they are a very ancient part of dress, perhaps the most ancient; for a negro who has nothing else upon him, sometimes finds it necessary to guard off the sun with a hat of leaves or straw. The Chinese, who carry their records farther back than any other people, are a hatted race, both narrow-brimmed and broad. We are apt to think of the Greeks as a bare-headed people; and they liked to be so; but they had hats for journeying in, such as may be seen on the statues of Mercury, who was the god of travellers. They were large and flapped, and were sometimes fastened round under the chin like a lady's straw-bonnet. The Eastern nations generally wore turbans, and do still, with the exception of the Persians, who have exchanged them for large conical caps of felt. The Romans copied the Greeks in their dress, as in every thing else; but the poorer orders wore a cap like their boasted Phrygian ancestors, resembling the one which the reader may now see about the streets upon the busts of Canova's Paris. The others would put their robes about their heads upon occasion, -a custom which probably gave rise to the hoods of the middle ages, and to the cloth head-dresses which we see in the portraits of Dante and Petrarch. From these were taken the draperies on the heads of our old Plantagenet kings and of Chaucer. The velvet cap which succeeded, appears also to have come from Italy, as in the portraits of Raphael and Titian, and it would probably have continued till the French times of Charles the Second, for our ancestors up to that period were always great admirers of Italy, had not Philip the Second of Spain come over to marry our Queen Mary. The extreme heats of Spain had forced the natives upon taking to that ingenious union of the hat and umbrella, still known by the name of the Spanish hat. We know not whether Philip himself wore it. His father, Charles the Fifth, who was at the top of the world, is represented as delighting in a little humble-looking cap. But we conceive it was either from Philip, or some gentleman in his train, that the hat and feather succeeded among us to the cap and jewels of Henry the 8th. The ascendancy of Spain in these times carried it into other parts of Europe. The French, not requiring so much shade from the sun, and always playing with and altering their dress, like a child with his toy, first covered the brim with feathers, then gave them a pinch in front; then came pinches up at the side; and at last appeared the fierce and triple-daring cocked hat. This disappeared in our childhood, or only survived among the military, the old, and the reverend, who could not willingly part with their habitual dignity. An old beau or so would also retain it, in memory of it's victories when young. We remember it's going away from the heads of the foot-guards. The heavy dragoons retained it till very lately. It is now almost sunk into the mock-heroic, and confined, as we before observed, to beadles and coachmen, &c. The modern clerical beaver, agreeably to the deliberation with which our establishments depart from old custom, is a cocked hat with the hind flap let down, and only a slight pinch remaining in front. This is what is worn also by the judges, the lawyers being of clerical extraction. Still however the true cocked hat lingers here and there with a solitary old gentleman; and wherever it appears in such company, begets a certain retrospective reverence. There was a something in it's connexion with the high-bred drawing-room times of the 17th century; in the gallant though quaint ardour of it's look; and in it's being lifted up in salutations with that deliberate loftiness, the arm arching up in front and slowly raising it by the front angle with finger and thumb,-that could not easily die. We remember, when our steward at school, remarkable for his inflexible air of precision and dignity, left off his cocked hat for a round one; there was, undoubtedly, though we dared only half confess it to our minds, a sort of diminished majesty about him. His infinite selfpossession began to look remotely finite. His Crown-Imperial was a little blighted. It was like divesting a column of it's capital. But the native stateliness was there, informing the new hat. He The late Emperor Paul had conceived such a sense of the dignity of the cocked hat, aggravated by it's having given way to the round one of the French republicans, that he ordered all persons in his dominions never to dare be seen in public with round hats, upon pain of being knouted and sent to Siberia. Hats, being the easiest part of the European dress to be taken off, are doffed among us out of reverence. The Orientals, on the same account, put off their slippers instead of turbans; which is the reason why the Jews still keep their heads covered during worship. The Spanish grandees have the privilege of wearing their hats in the royal presence, probably in commemoration of the free spirit in which the Cortes used to crown the sovereign; telling him (we suppose in their corporate capacity) that they were better men than he, but chose him of their own free will for their master. The grandees only claim to be as good men, unless their families are older. There is a well-known story of a picture, in which the Virgin Mary is represented with a label coming out of her mouth, saying to a Spanish gentleman, who has politely taken off his hat," Cousin, be covered." But the most interesting anecdote connected with a hat, belongs to the family of the De Courcys, Lord Kinsale. One of their ancestors, at an old period of our history, having overthrown a huge and insolent champion, who had challenged the whole court, was desired by the king to ask him some special favour. He requested that his descendants should have the privilege of keeping their heads covered in the royal presence; and they do so to this day. The new lord, we believe, always comes to court on purpose to vindicate his right. We have heard, that on the last occasion, probably after a long interval, some of the courtiers thought it might as well have been dispensed with; which was a foolish as well as a jealous thing: for these exceptions only prove the royal rule. The Spanish grandees originally took their privilege instead of receiving it; but when the spirit of it had gone, their covered heads were only so many intense recognitions of the king's dignity, which it was thought such a mighty thing to resemble. A Quaker's hat is a more formidable thing than a grandee's. THE INFANT HERCULES AND THE SERPENTS. Translated from the 24th Idyll of Theocritus. JUPITER having taken Amphitryon's shape during the absence of that hero in the wars, begot Hercules of his wife Alcmena. The husband, when the circumstance came to his knowledge, felt nothing but a generous pride at the deity's admiration of his beloved wife; and with all care and tenderness brought up the infant demi-god with his own twin son Iphiclus. But Juno's feelings were not so godlike as the mortal's. She laid various plans for the destruction of this new child of her husband's; and among others, sent two dreadful serpents at midnight to devour it. This is the subject of the present.idyll, which in the original is exceedingly fine and real, and shews that Theocritus had a perception of grandeur becoming his deep insight into nature in general. We have seen an outline after a picture of this story by one of the Caracci, which must be very noble; though his Hercules seems to retain too little of the unconscious baby. His look is too full of intention. The poet has preserved an admirable propriety in this respect. Young Hercules had now beheld the light Her hand on both their heads, and yearned, and said, At midnight,-when the Bear went down, and broad There came, careering through the opening halls, Serpents; who Juno, threatening as she drove, And now they have arrived, and think to fall And held, like iron, in it's little fists. Buckled and bound he held them, struggling wild; Tired out at length, they trail their spires, and gasp, Locked in that young indissoluble grasp. Alcmena heard the noise, and "Wake," she cried, There's something dreadful in the house; there is The hilt he grasped in one hand, and the sheath All in an instant, like a stroke of doom, Returning midnight smote upon the room. Amphitryon called; and woke from heavy sleep His household, who lay breathing hard and deep. “Bring lights here from the hearth; lights, lights; and guard The doorways, Rise, ye ready labourers hard!" He said; and lights came pouring in; and all Kept beating them together, plaything-wise, Then did Alcmena to her bosom take Her feebler boy,* who could not cease to shake. Soon as the cock, with his thrice-echoing chear, Tiresias; and she told him all this thing, So spoke the queen. Then he, with glad old tone;- With his broad heart to win his way to heaven; And brutal things o'erthrow, brute men the worst; Purge his mortalities away with fire; And he shall mount amid the stars, and be Acknowledged kin to those who envied thee, And sent these den-born shapes to crush his destiny." *Literally, the extremely bilious Iphiclus,—axgaxoλov IQıxλna. The ancients are accused of being too bodily and superficial in their philosophy. It was one of the advantages however of their attention to these exoterical matters, that they never lost sight of the connexion between mind and body, and their mutual healthiness, beauty, and power;-a part of wisdom which our modern psychosophists are so apt to forget. TO CORRESPONDENTS. In removing a quantity of papers, we have unfortunately mislaid some letters from correspondents. We hope to recover them; but should we still be disappointed, the writers will perhaps have the goodness to oblige us with other copies. We have not forgotten the substance however of some of them; and least of all, what was so good-naturedly said upon the article on the Heathen Mythology. Orders received by the Newsmen, by the Booksellers, and by the Publisher, |