Again, speaking of the will of John Cabot, we are told: a confused mass. For finding the documents, | terrified by the perils they had encountered, their | ages; and this circumstance has even been urged two guineas were demanded, in addition to the dissatisfaction came to a head when they found against him as a matter of reproach. Sebascost of copies. The applicant is informed that a new career of peril suggested by what they tian, with all his knowledge, and in the course the charge must be paid, whether the docu- deemed the delusive hopes of their youthful of a long life, never committed to writing any ment be discovered or not; so that the officer commander. Let us look into the subject with narrative of the voyage to North America. has no motive to continue perseveringly the the aid which these suggestions afford. Bylot, The curious on the continent, however, drew irksome pursuit." who, after penetrating into Hudson's Bay, from him in conversation various particulars proceeded up its northern channel on the west which gave a general idea,' &c. (Historical side, as far as 65° and a half, represented the Account of North America, &c., by Hugh If, as is probable, he died at Bristol, it coast as tending to the north-east. The Murray, Esq. vol. i. p. 66.) Let us see how would be proved at Worcester. On applica- Quarterly Review (vol. xvi. p. 158), in an ar- far the reproach on Cabot may be retorted on tion at the Bishop's Registry, the acting re- ticle urging a new expedition in search of the his country. In this work of 1582, after citing gistrar, Mr. Clifton, writes thus: The indices north-west passage, refuses its belief to this the patent granted by Henry VII. and the of wills proved, and letters of administration statement. We turn then to Captain Parry's testimony of Ramusio, Hakluyt says: — This granted, do not extend farther back than the Narrative of his Second Voyage. It is appar- much concerning Sebastian Cabot's discoverie year 1600. Previous to this period, these do- ent from an inspection of the map, that the may suffice for a present taste; but shortly, cuments are tied up in linen bags without much course pointed out by Cabot, for passing God willing, shall come out in print ALL HIS form or order; so that a search for the will of through the strait, would conduct a navigator, owN MAPPES and DISCOURSES drawne and John Cabot, or Gabot, or Kabot, would be at- without fail, to Winter Island. Now, from the written by himselfe, which are in the custodie tended with very considerable trouble and ex- very outset of Captain Parry's course from that of the worshipful Master William Worthingpense, whilst the chance of discovering it would point, we find him engaged in a struggle with ton, one of her Majesty's pensioners, who (bebe uncertain.' Aside from historical purposes, the north-eastern tendency of the coast. On cause so WORTHIE MONUMENTS should not it would be curious to see an instrument, dated 13th July, he was off Barrow's River, which is be buried in perpetual oblivion) is very willing some months before the time when Columbus in lat. 67° 18′ 45"; and having visited the to suffer them to be overseene, and published (in August 1498) first saw the continent of Ame- falls of that river, his narrative is thus con- in as good order as may be, to the encouragerica, which, probably, makes a disposition of tinued:-'We found, on our return, that a ment and benefite of our countrymen.' It may the testator's interest in the tract of land fresh southerly breeze, which had been blowing be sufficient here to say of William Worthinglying between the present Hudson's Strait and for several hours, had driven the ice to some ton, that he is joined with Sebastian Cabot in Florida." distance from the land; so that at four P.M., the pension given by Philip and Mary on the And again: "The curious and important as soon as the flood-tide had slackened, we cast 29 May, 1557 (Rymer, vol. xv. p. 466). The documents at the Rolls Chapel will probably off, and made all possible sail to the northward, probable fate of the maps and discourses will one day be arranged and made available to the steering for a headland, remarkable for having be considered on reaching the painful part of purposes of history. Evidence may then come a patch of land towards the sea insular in sail- Cabot's personal history which belongs to this forth, and it is desirable that no erroneous hy-ing along shore. As we approached this head-association." 66 pothesis should be found in the way of truth. land, which I named after my friend Mr. "We look round with some interest for Until that period we must be content to remain Edward Leycester Penhryn, the prospect be- information as to William Worthington. The in the dark. Where the records are in such a came more and more enlivening; for the sea only notice of him discovered, is in a passage of state of confusion as to warrant the charge was found to be navigable in a degree very Strype's Historical Memorials, (vol. ii. p. 506), which has been before mentioned for finding a seldom experienced in these regions, and the where, amongst the acts of Edward VI. the specific paper, of which the exact date, the land trending two or three points to the west- youthful monarch is found, with an easy libename of the party, the purpose and general ward of north, gave us reason to hope, we rality, forgiving him a large debt, on his alletenor, are given, it is obvious that no private should now be enabled to take a decided and gation that a servant had run away with the fortune would be adequate to meet the expense final turn in that anxiously desired direction.' money. A pardon granted to William Worth. of a general search." Another remark is suggested by Captain Parry's ington, being indebted to the king for and Our author has proved what new and strong Narrative. Every one who has had occasion to concerning the office of bailiff and collector of light is yet to be thrown upon history, by the consider human testimony, or to task his own the rents and revenues of all the manors, mesdiligent search for, and careful examination of, powers of recollection, must have observed how suages, lands, tenements, and hereditaments, ancient papers; and we the more heartily join tenaciously circumstances remain which had within the city of London, and county of Midin his regret at the slovenly manner in which affected the imagination, even after names and dlesex, which did belong to colleges, guilds, these public treasures are kept. Surely, if dates are entirely forgotten. The statement fraternities, or free chappels, in the sum of 392 farther argument were wanting to enforce the of Peter Martyr exhibits a trophy of this kind. pounds 10 shillings 3 pence, as upon the foot expediency of arranging, cataloguing, describ- He recalls what his friend Cabot had said of of his account, made by the said William, before ing, and preserving in some national reposi-the influence of the sun on the shore along Thomas Mildmay, auditor of the said revenues, tory, the records scattered over so many quar-which he was toiling amidst mountains of ice; manifestly it doth appear,-In consideration of ters, so constantly exposed to destruction, so 'vastas repererit glaciales moles pelago natantes, his service, both in France and Scotland, and little known, and so difficult of access, it is et lucem fere perpetuam, tellure tamen libera also his daily service and attendance, being one to be found in the work before us, whether gelu liquefacto" (Decades iii lib. 6); a passage of the ordinary gentlemen and pensioners; and we consider its successful results, or the ob- which Hakluyt (vol. iii. p. 8), borrowing Eden's for that the debt grew by the unfaithfulness of stacles with which the author's zeal and per- version, renders, he found monstrous heaps his servant, who ran away with the same. severance in the quest of truth had to contend. of ice swimming on the sea, and in manner Granted in March, but the patent signed in Respecting Cabot's discoveries, we think the continual day-light; yet saw he the land in April.' It will be remembered that in Haksubjoined extracts very interesting. that tract free from ice, which had been molten luyt's earliest work, published in 1532, he "Great perplexity has been caused by the by the heat of the sun.' Where do we look speaks of all Cabot's maps and discourses writstatement, that the expedition under Cabot for this almost continual day-light, and this ten with his own hand, as then in the possesfound the coast incline to the north-east. He opportunity of noticing the appearance of the sion of William Worthington. The facts dishimself informs us that he reached only to 56° land? In that very channel, we would say, closed may, perhaps, assist to account for their north latitude, and that the coast in that part leading north from Hudson's Bay, where Cap-disappearance. It is obvious that such docutended to the east. This seems hardly pro-tain Parry, later in the summer, whilst between ments would be secured, at any price, by the bable, for the coast of Labrador tends neither 67° and 68°, and threatened every moment Spanish court, at the period of Hakluyt's pubat 56° nor at 58° to the east. (Forster, p. 267.) with destruction, thus records his own impres-lication, when English enterprise was scatterSo Navarette (tom. iii. p. 41) thinks that Ra-sions (p. 261), Very little snow was now ing dismay amongst the Spanish possessions in musio's statement cannot be correct, because lying upon the ground, and numerous streams America. The work of Hakluyt (six years bethe latitude mentioned would carry the vessel of water rushing down the hills and sparkling fore the Armada), shewed where they were to to Greenland. It is to be remembered, that in the beams of the morning sun, relieved in be found. The depositary of them was the the language of Cabot suggests that at the im-some measure the melancholy stillness which mediate point of arrest he was cheered by the otherwise reigned on this desolate shore."" prospect of success. We are led, then, to infer The following is a shrewd guess at the fate that the sanguine adventurer was, for some of Cabot's manuscripts. reason, inspired with fresh confidence, in which his associates refused to participate; and that, very man who had been the object of Philip's bounty during his brief influence in England. Were they not bought up? There can be now only a conjecture on the subject; yet it seems "Great surprise has been expressed that to gather strength the more it is reflected on. Cabot should have left no account of his voy-Suspicion may even go back farther, and sug Spanish and Portuguese fabrication during all the sixteenth century, contributed, no doubt, to involve Cabot's voyages in obscurity; and it is delightful to see so much of the darkness which overspread that great navigator's discoveries, now rolled away. The account of his death is very affecting. HOPE'S ESSAY ON MAN. LITTLE as this work can be generally known, gest, that a main object in associating this man | adopted and circulated. All his own maps and | sition to their momentary whims renders them with Cabot was, to enable him to get posses- discourses, drawn and written by himself,' furious; the weightiest considerations of future sion of the papers, that they might be destroyed which it was hoped might come out in print, welfare hardly make them stir a step. Frightened or sent to Spain. The fact that Worthington because so worthy monuments should not be at a shadow, their cowardice equals their irritahad received them, was probably too well known buried in perpetual oblivion,' have been buried | bility. Of human laws they are ignorant: of to be denied by him; and his remark to Hak-in perpetual oblivion. He gave a continent to divine laws heedless. Their deity is a black luyt may have been a mere mode of evading England; yet no one can point to the few feet cat; their worship, the slaying of their cattle that person's prying curiosity. The same alarm of earth she has allowed him in return!" and captives. So unsuited is their frame to which dictated the demand on Edward VI. for There are many other passages which might any climate milder than their own, that even the return of Cabot, would lead Philip to seize, well tempt us to enlarge this review; but as the temperature of Denmark and Norway is to with eagerness, an opportunity of getting hold we hope the book itself will be very widely them mortal. In the new as in the old world of these documents, so that the author's dread-consulted, we shall content ourselves with re- there still remain vestiges of nations which ed knowledge might expire with himself. Of questing the author's notice to the reference, bear the marks of original inferiority of organone thing we may feel assured. Hakluyt, who page 107, to Thorne's Memorial. He will isation, variously modified, strong upon them. is found attaching so much importance to an find in our description of the Cecil Papers a Among these are the red or copper-coloured ' extract' from one of Cabot's maps, was not different reading of that passage, and one which tribes, of which some are also found in Africa. turned aside from efforts to get a sight of this bears something in favour of the views he has So torpid are in some of these, and especially precious collection, but by repeated and per- so ably and patriotically advanced. in the Caraibs, the vital functions, that they emptory refusals, for which, if it really remaincan for whole days remain deprived of food, ed in Worthington's hands, there occurs no ere the cravings of hunger induce them to make adequate motive." the least exertion for the purpose of seeking sustenance; though, when food is at hand, they gorge till repletion alone forces them to leave off, and to lie down motionless till digestion is performed. As slow in their productive "Further examples of the differences, phy- as in their consuming powers, their sexual sical and mental, of different human races.- frigidity at first excited the wonder of the more As the examples of the differences between ardent Spaniards. Only capable of being sti"Sixty-one years had now elapsed since the certain human tribes and others lead me to mulated to exertion by a present bodily stimudate of the first commission from Henry VII. races higher, and having an organisation of lus, they are unable to be, by the mere recolto Sebastian Cabot, and the powers of nature body and of mind more flexible, I find it ne- lection of the most pinching past wants, made must have been absolutely wearied out. We cessary more to distinguish the characteristics to guard against future privations. Only havlose sight of him after the late mortifying inci- that are given them directly by mere nature ing advanced to the most primitive arts of dent; but the faithful and kind-hearted Rich- from those which are superadded by later art; hunting and fishing, they disdain the labours, ard Eden beckons us, with something of awe, since the latter, well conducted, may raise in- lighter but more regular, of the shepherd and to see him die. Thatexcellent person attended dividuals higher above their earlier natural the husbandman. Consequently, they by turns him in his last moments, and furnishes a touch-pitch; and, on the contrary, ill conducted, may lie in complete torpor, or endure the utmost ing proof of the strength of the ruling passion. sink them lower beneath their natural standard. fatigue: alternately suffer the extremes of Cabot spoke flightily, on his death-bed,' about Like the extremes of heat, the extremes of want, or wallow in beastly excess. At a single a divine revelation to him of new and infal- cold still have produced human races pointedly meal they consume the provision of a month, lible method of finding the longitude, which he and exclusively adapted to the regions in which and are content to pay for their intemperance was not permitted to disclose to any mortal. they first arose. The Samoyedes seem as by as long a period of abstinence. In the His pious friend grieves that the good old little able to support life on the coast of Guinea, morning, on rising, for an intoxicating draught man,' as he is affectionately called, had not yet, as the negroes of the Gold Coast seem able to they give away the mat which on going to 'even in the article of death, shaken off all live near the poles. Only the auctothones of sleep they will again want: when unengaged worldlie vaine glorie.' When we remember the intervening more temperate regions, less in the chase or in warfare, they sit for whole the earnest reigious feeling exhibited in the distant from either extreme, seem able, to a days close huddled together in a circle, not for instructions to Sir Hugh Willoughby, and certain degree, to brave both the cold of the the sake of society or mental companionship, which formed so decided a feature of Cabot's one and the heat of the other; and even that but for that of mere bodily warmth; as silent, character, it is mpossible to conceive a stronger but imperfectly, as we have found at Sierra and indeed as solitary, as if they were alone. proof of the infuence of long-cherished habits Leone. Like the lowest of the tropical races, There is between them only physical contact, of thought, thar that his decaying faculties, at the lowest of the hyperborean races still seem not intellectual communication, interchange of this awful moment, were yet entangled with to shew the inferior combination of the ele- ideas. Their eyes are fixed on vacancy—their the problem whch continues to this day to ments of which they are composed, in all their intellects in abeyance. Unheeding passing obvex and elude the human intellect. The dying forms and habits. The Samoyede still has a jects, however new and strange; inaccessible seaman was agan, in imagination, on that skull depressed and shapeless; hair lank, oily, to curiosity and wonder, however little they beloved ocean over whose billows his intrepid and coarse. His dim half-closed eyes form krow; incapable of any real merriment ;. and adventurous youth had opened a pathway, with each other an angle, descending over his from mere absence of thought, seeming aband whose mysteres had occupied him longer flat mishapen nose. His cheek-bones protrude sorbed in deep cogitation,-they only awake than the allotted span of ordinary life. The preposterously. His head, seen sideways, rests from total apathy to give way to the most suddate of his death is not known, nor, except obliquely on his curved spine. His body is den and extreme irritation. They pass, withpresumptively, the place where it occurred. bloated, and his extremities seem consumptive. out any ostensible reason, from the apparent From the presence of Eden, we may infer that His arms and legs are crooked and ill formed: gravity of the sage to the groundless laughter he died in Londor. It is not known where they appear the rude performances of some of the infant. They sometimes bestow on his remains were deposited. The claims of bungling artificer. His stature is squat and England in the New World have been uni- dwarfish; his complexion swarthy; his skin formly and justly rested on his discoveries. from infancy so shrivelled, that before he atProposals of colonisation were urged, on the tains manhood he seems to verge on extreme clearness of the tite thus acquired, and the old age. The female is only distinguishable shame of abandoning it. The English lan- from the male by her dugs, which hang down guage would probably be spoken in no part of to her navel, when not flung over her shoulders, America but for Selastian Cabot. The com- in order to support the infant suspended from merce of England and her navy are admitted to her back. Feasting on the remains of the dead have been deeply, incalculably, his debtors, whales cast on their shores, the Samoyedes, Yet there is reason to fear, that in his extreme like their dogs, growl when approached during age the allowance which had been solemnly their meals, and, like dogs, approach their own granted to him for life was fraudulently broken females for carnal purposes in the sight of in upon. His birth-place we have seen denied. strangers. Their short summers they waste, His fame has been obscured by English writers, when they can, in intemperance: their long and every vile calunny against him eagerly winters they sleep away. The smallest oppo worthless trifles the admiration they withhold from real wonders. If they recognise a Providence, it is only in evil. For the performance of no deed, however kind, do they feel any obligation, or return any thanks. How should they? They cannot conceive a desire to oblige. They only fancy man to give away what he wants to get rid of what he finds it a trouble to keep. But while no favour bestowed excites in them any gratitude, the least boon denied provokes their utmost wrath. Desiring no applause, they fear no disgrace. They know not the value of virtue, of truth, of honour, of renown. They thieve, they lie, they are faithless, without remorse and without shame. They are unable to compass abstract ideas of number or of quantity. The least process of addition small depressed nose. Their organs of smell deviation from the pure worship of the Creator or subtraction exceeds their mental faculties. hardly rise to the level of their large and himself, which still had for its object his earliest Their hardly articulate language only affords skinny lips, which extend the whole width of and most general creations, ethereal fire, and words for a few concrete ideas. In their wilds, their ample and projecting jaw. Their enor- its first offspring the heavenly bodies; where which, however extensive, are hardly able to mous hemless ears stand out at right angles to the last the kings of Media, of Persia, and supply the restricted wants of a thin popula- from their ill-formed head, while their small of Pontus, still had the symbols of this fire tion, each new-comer is looked upon as an in- receding chin is only decked with a few coarse worship displayed on their mitres and imtruder, and treated as an enemy. Each tribe, bristles. Their contracted brains do not pre-pressed on their monuments; whence through however small, regards each other tribe, how-vent the thickness of their skull from giving a the regions of Colchis, round the northern ever distant, with hostile eyes. Each tribe preposterous size to the circumference of that shores, and through Pontus, round the southern even regards its own members who no longer head, which the shortness of their neck keeps coasts of the Euxine, seem to have travelled can contribute to the general defence, as no wedged close within their huge elevated shoul-westward those tribes which, settling further longer entitled to the general protection; as ders. Their bulky body, ill supported by down on the opposite continents of Europe and lapsed from their former privileges, as having meagre and bandy legs, seems almost by nature of Asia, and in the intervening islands of the become a mere encumbrance, as only fit to be itself so formed as to need the assistance of that Archipelago, bore the earlier different appellaspurned or be despatched. Between two dif- equestrian life which their native steppes so tions of Hellenes, of Pelasgi, and others, which ferent tribes, any meeting, avoided as long as particularly favour. To the Tartars they owe at last were confounded in the more general possible, when no longer to be averted, be- their written language, to the Thibetans their denomination of Greeks, and became that of comes a fight;-not, indeed, in the open field creed; and however long they have had the the people most eminently gifted of which reand by fair warfare, but in ambush and by physical peculiarities of their frame remodified cords have survived the wrecks of time;treachery. Prisoners are devoted to' a linger- by intermarriages with other surrounding races, where to this day specimens of the physical ing death; and the hardihood with which tor-less marked by the hand of nature, these pecu- perfection of their first ancestors still are beture is endured, only proceeds from the hope- liarities are so tenacious, that their descendants held in the population of Circassia, Armenia, lessness of inspiring pity. On their wives they still retain the impress of the Mongul features. and Georgia, still reckoned the handsomest of never bestow the least endearment-on their The Chinese still display the same aberrations the human race. Those Greeks who in their offspring any correction. Their companions of form, but in a milder degree, and therefore own original nature must have found the moill or wounded they leave behind. Their pa- are supposed to be descended from the Mon- dels of those pre-eminent forms of which their rents, when old and infirm, they drive away, guls: but why may they not spring from pri- art offered the imitation, and of which their to die deserted. A life of distrust and sus- mitive parents distinct from those of the Mon- degenerate descendants only present the partial picion is early closed by a miserable death'; for guls, which only from having arisen in a soil remains, mixed with baser alloy, and defaced while the African black, like the spaniel, and climate nearly similar, have thence alone by subsequent corruption, must in their primi. thrives in slavery and fawns upon his tyrant, derived an organisation naturally very similar? tive state have possessed the highest organisathe copper-coloured American, like the hyæna, If the Chinese, though resembling the Mon- tion of body, and the highest capabilities of cannot be tamed or brook a master. The guls, seem to excel these in mental faculties, mind. They formed the races who in the small number of those that still prowl about the Japanese again, in their turn, seem equally shortest limits of time, and in the smallest cirtheir wastes diminishes daily, and soon the to resemble, and yet in energy of mind far to cumference of space, with the least assistance vast continent of America will be entirely surpass, the Chinese. I shall not pursue any from foreign example or uition, made in art stripped of aboriginal races.-America, how further my examples of races higher than those and in science the furthes strides in the most ever, seems to have spontaneously produced described, and yet in their qualities, physical opposite directions: who in natural powers of races more finely organised than the Caraibs. and moral, short of the very highest races; body and of mind must most have excelled all To the south of the line, in the vicinity of Rio like that of the Malays, the Indians, the other later nations which, with the benefit of de Janeiro, are still seen those Indians of Arabs, and the Copts. All of these alike still their example and their precepts as guides, Tamoy, whose bow no European can bend; prove their inferiority to the higher exemplars, have still only gone beyond them in those acacross the inland plains of Patagonia still roam by certain features either too long or too short, quirements which mere time sufices to mature those tribes that by their size make the tallest too full or too meagre, too protruding or too and perfect, and which to this day are forced European look diminutive. Before America depressed, -to preserve the exact middle line to acknowledge their by-gone pre-eminence in was remodified by the arts of Europe, it brought compatible with the highest degree of utility whatever is the spontaneous offering of innate forth, from its native exuberance, large cities and of beauty. All of these alike, by complex- genius and talent. In the representations of and flourishing empires. Of some of these ion too uniformly light or too uniformly dark, the ancient Greeks we find the skull most the European invaders accomplished the fall: seem to want in their countenances that variety rounded, the forehead most square, the brow of others the sun had again set even before and contrast of hue which marks the most per- most sharp, the nose most removed both from these strangers appeared. Of such we find the fect mixture of the different elements that com- the aquiline and snubbed exremes, the lips remains on the borders of the Mississippi and in pose the human frame. The races which by most wavy, most curling up, most neatly the province of Quito. It does not, however, nature seem most gifted with these qualities hemmed, most luxuriantly pressing on each appear that the sciences or even the arts ever seem to have arisen in those regions to the other; the chin most conves, the outline of attained among the Americans a very great south-west of the Caspian and of Caucasus, the face most oval, most distant alike from degree of eminence. All the gold they pos- where Xenophon still beheld pleasure-gardens uniform width and from unvaried elongation; sessed still left them destitute of coin-all the similar to that of Eden, the first cradle of the the throat most developed in its forms and languages they spoke, of writing. They used first scriptural pair, and bearing like that the disengaged in its movement:; the chest most for representing their thoughts none but sym-name of Paradise. They seem to have arisen ample, elevated, and roomy; the waist of bolical signs. In their most civilised states in those regions, where, after the deluge of slenderest span, the extremiies most taper,— government still remained an unmodified des- Noah had overwhelmed the surrounding land, of any race. We find the skin represented as potism; religion, a senseless and sanguinary the ark first touched ground on Mount Ararat; having its transparent white at its surface idolatry. It is of Asia that the high central where rose near the Euxine that city, from most marked by the purple meandering vein, table-lands, the outskirts every way slanting the anchor found imbedded high up in the at its extremities most blerding with the rich down to the surrounding seas and the far- neighbouring mountain, called Ancyra; where crimson of the blood; the ips tinted with the spreading islands, seem to have produced the in later eras on the rocks of Samothrace still richest coral hue; the lorg silken hair most human races most different in their organisa-remained marks of the deluges of Ogyges and neatly implanted, and most distinctly defined tion, most distant in their faculties of mind Deucalion; where alone the cereal plants, since by its auburn or jetty hue; under eyebrows and body. Among these races, already very diffused over a great part of the globe, first most arched, most confluent, and most caresuperior both physically and morally to those were by nature spontaneously produced; where fully penciled, and eyelashes casting underdescribed as having arisen at its Austral Asian arose the first great postdiluvian monarchies neath the softest and most vapoury shade, we extremities, are the more central Mongul race. of Armenia, Persia, Assyria, and Media; find the eyes most full, most resplendent with Still do its individuals yet preserve many marks where originated the most ancient and wide-a lambent fire. We find a countenance most of inferiority. Their enormous cheek-bones spreading language on record, that Pahli, the lofty, radiant, and animated; a gait most often give their flat faces a width exceeding mother of the Sanscrit, the Greek, and the elastic and firm; movements most easy, vatheir length. Their obtuse os frontis and German; where Babel's tower since passed ried, and replete both with vigour and with shaggy eyebrows completely overshadow their for the central point whence diverged in dif- grace; and when, from the contemplation of small piercing eyes, of which the long close-ferent directions tongues wholly different; the qualities that strike the sense, we pass to drawn lids descend obliquely toward their where first prevailed that earliest and simplest those only cognisable to the mind, we find . son, there is a curious statement in exculpation | more familiarly than the other biographers, Boswell says, the air of indifference with which Lord C. treated Johnson's letter "was certainly nothing but a specimen of that dissimulation which Lord Chesterfield inculcated as one of the most essential lessons for the conduct of life;" upon which Mr. Croker asks,— symptoms of that mental aptitude to every pursuit of art and of science, the most varied and the most opposite, which by its transcend. ency justified, over other nations called barbarians, the pre-eminence universally allowed to the Greeks. Still do even the Greeks themselves seem not entirely to have filled the full measure of perfection which, under the most favourable circumstances, appears by nature to have been allotted to the organisation of man. Every nation of antiquity, even unto the Greeks themselves, preserved some record of a nation still more highly gifted than itself, which once flourished on the earth, but was subsequently again, in one of those great revolutions which marked the infancy of the globe, swept away from its surface. The Greeks retraced its existence in those Titans, afterwards subdued by their gods, and cast into the fiery furnaces of Etna; the Jews recorded its recollection in the rebel angels, by Jehovah for their pride hurled info the flames of hell; in those giants, which on this globe are only once Why? If, as may have been the case, Lord mentioned; and in those very descendants of Chesterfield felt that Johnson was unjust toAdam himself, whose longevity, like the size "Why was it to be expected that Lord wards him, he would not have been mortified of the Titans, far exceeded the dimensions of Chesterfield should cultivate his private ac-il n'y a que la vérité qui blesse. By Mr. later generations, and bespoke a vital energy, quaintance? that he did not do so, was a loss Boswell's own confession, it appears that Johnsince greatly diminished in the postdiluvian to his lordship; and the amour propre of John- son did not give copies of this letter; that for races. The Medes and the Persians preserved son might be (as indeed it probably was) of many years Boswell had in vain solicited him similar memorials of races gone by, more per- fended at that neglect; but surely it was no to do so, and that he, after the lapse of twenty fect than any of those remaining, in their ground for the kind of charge which is made years, did so reluctantly. With all these adPeris, their Dives, their Gin, and their pre- against his lordship. But even this neglect of missions, how can Mr. Boswell attribute to any adamite monarchs, also at last for their crimes Johnson's acquaintance is not without some thing but conscious rectitude Lord Chestercast into the regions of everlasting fire. Even excuse. Johnson's personal manners and ha- field's exposure of a letter which the author the Hindoo mythology retraced this primitive bits, even at a later and more polished period was so willing to bury in oblivion ?" He adds, perfection of human beings in those powerful of his life, would probably not have been much in contradiction to another charge of Boswell, spirits which, arisen from earth and warring to Lord Chesterfield's taste; but it must be re- founded on Johnson's calling his "defensive with the hosts of heaven, were at last swal-membered, that Johnson's introduction to Lord pride:""Lord Chesterfield made no attack lowed up by the very parent from which they Chesterfield did not take place till his lordship on Johnson, who certainly acted on the offenhad sprung, and, in the deepest recesses of the was past fifty, and he was soon after attacked sive, and not the defensive." globe, doomed to eternal flames. Plato par- by a disease which estranged him from society. An ancient Bride." Susanna, daughter of ticularly describes as more beautiful in person The neglect lasted, it is charged, from 1748 to Sir Alexander Kennedy, of Culzeen, third wife and more transcendent in intellect than any of 1755: the following extracts of his private of the ninth Earl of Eglintoune. She was a the nations remaining on the earth, those letters to his most intimate friends will prove clever woman, and a patroness of the belles Atlantes who probably inhabited the vast in- that during that period Lord Chesterfield may lettres, Allan Ramsay's Gentle Shepherd was land basin since filled by the waves of the be excused for not cultivating Johnson's soci- dedicated to her in a very fulsome style of paMediterranean, along whose southern coast ety:- 20th January, 1749: My old disorder negyric. She died in Ayrshire, in 1780, aged still soars Mount Atlas. Having in their pride in my head hindered me from acknowledging ninety-one. The eighth Earl of Eglintoune, forgotten that Deity to which they owed their your former letters.'-30th June, 1752: I am the father of her lord, had married, as his seexcellence, and having only retained a superi- here in my hermitage, very deaf, and conse-cond wife, Catherine St. Quentin, the widow ority in vice, their day of final doom at last drew quently alone: but I am less dejected than most of three husbands, and aged above ninety at near. When the high waters, long pent up in people in my situation would be.'-11th Nov. the time of her last marriage, being, it is prethe table-lands of Asia, whence rivers now 1752: The waters have done my head some sumed, the oldest bride on record." flow downwards to every point of the compass, good, but not enough to refit me for social life.' broke their barriers, and in their descent west-16th Feb. 1753: I grow deafer, and conseward successively formed the inferior reser-quently more isolé from society every day.'voirs of Lake Aral, of the Caspian Sea, the 10th Oct. 1753: I belong no more to social Euxine, the Archipelago, and that last aggre- life, which, when I quitted busy public life, I gate of internal waters, shut out from the vast flattered myself would be the comfort of my deocean by the Straits of Gibraltar, called by pre-clining age.'-16th Nov. 1753: I give up eminence the Mediterranean, together with the intervening steppes and plains of salt, these Atlantes were at last, with their country, for ever swept away from the face of the earth." With this we conclude. We have almost confined ourselves to one part; but the whole of these extraordinary volumes, where Hobbes has puzzled and Lucretius inspired, is well calculated to excite philosophical inquiry for years to come. Croker's Boswell's Johnson. (Third Notice.) AGREEABLY to our promise, we continue the interesting illustrations with which Mr. Croker has so greatly enriched this work. Upon the offence of Lord Chesterfield which led to the bitter castigation from John 66 Comfort to Card-Players." Johnson said, I am sorry I have not learnt to play at cards. It is very useful in life: it generates kindness, and consolidates society.' And the late excellent Doctor Baillie advised a gentleman whose official duties were of a very constant and engrossing nature, and whose health seemed to suffer from over-work, to play at cards in the evening, which would tend, he said, to quiet the mind, and to allay the anxiety created by the business of the day." We recommend a game at Boston, as more a relaxation than whist. After the Hebridean, we have Johnson's Welsh tour; his journal of which was published by Mr. Duppa, in 1816. From this we also pick two or three of the novelties for which we are indebted to the present editor. all hopes of cure. I know my place, and form 6 : pie; fish he seldom passed over, though he At sixty-six Johnson visited France, in com- utensils were demolished in the course of ser said that he only valued the sauce, and that pany with Mr. and Mrs Thrale; and from vice, Sir Joshua could never be persuaded to every body ate the first as a vehicle for the this tour we must also derive a few bits for our replace them. But these trifling embarrass. second. When he poured oyster sauce over plum mosaic. ments only served to enhance the hilarity and pudding, and the melted butter flowing from Statuary.-Johnson says, Painting con- singular pleasure of the entertainment. The the toast into his chocolate, one might surely sumes labour not disproportionate to its effect; wine, cookery, and dishes, were but little atsay that he was nothing less than delicate." but a fellow will hack half a year at a block of tended to; nor was the fish or venison ever A Lady of Quality: Lesson on Hospitality.- marble to make something in stone that hardly talked of or recommended. Amidst this con"Lady Catharine Perceval, daughter of the resembles a man. The value of statuary is vivial, animated bustle among his guests, our second Earl of Egmont: this was, it appears, owing to its difficulty. You would not value host sat perfectly composed; always attentive the lady of whom Mrs. Piozzi relates, that the finest head cut upon a carrot." On which to what was said, never minding what was ate For a lady of quality, since dead, who re- Mr. Croker remarks: " Dr. Johnson does not or drank, but left every one at perfect liberty ceived us at her husband's seat in Wales with seem to have objected to ornamental architec- to scramble for himself. Temporal and spi. less attention than he had long been accus- ture or statuary per se, but to labour dispro- ritual peers, physicians, lawyers, actors, and tomed to, he had a rougher denunciation: portionate to its utility or effect. In this view, musicians, composed the motley group, and That woman,' cried Johnson, is like sour his criticisms are just. The late style of build- played their parts without dissonance or dis. small beer, the beverage of her table, and pro-ing introduced into London, of colonnades and cord. At five o'clock precisely dinner was duce of the wretched country she lives in porticos, without any regard to aspect, climate, served, whether all the invited guests were like that, she could never have been a good or utility, is so absurd to reason, so offensive arrived or not. Sir Joshua was never so fa thing, and even that bad thing is spoiled.' to taste, and so adverse to domestic comfort, shionably ill-bred as to wait an hour perhaps And it is probably of her too that another that it reconciles us to the short-lived ma- for two or three persons of rank or title, and anecdote is told: We had been visiting at a terials of which these edifices are composed. put the rest of the company out of humour by lady's house, whom, as we returned, some of It would have been well if we had, according this invidious distinction. His friends and inthe company ridiculed for her ignorance: She to Johnson's sober advice, thought it necessary timate acquaintance will ever love his memory, is not ignorant,' said he, I believe, of any that the magnificence of porticos,' and the and will long regret those social hours, and the thing she has been taught, or of any thing she expense of pilastres,' should have borne some cheerfulness of that irregular, convivial table, is desirous to know; and I suppose if one degree of proportion to their utility. With which no one has attempted to revive or imi. wanted a little run tea, she might be a proper regard to statuary,' when it does preserve tate, or was indeed qualified to supply.'" person enough to apply to.' Mrs. Piozzi says, the varieties of the human frame,' it deserves We have still Vols. IV. and V. to consult; in her MS. Letters, that Lady Catharine all that Mr. Boswell says for it: but Johnson's but we do not anticipate that they will lead us comes off well in the diary. He said many objection was, that it more frequently produced to trespass much farther on our readers, espe severe things of her, which he did not commit abortive failures, hardly resembling man.' cially as the work is already so extensively cir to paper. She died in 1782." Mr. Croker notices that Mrs. Hannah More culated, that most persons have access to the is supposed to be the individual referred to in original. the annexed. "He would not allow me to praise a lady then at Bath; observing, She United Efforts; Poems of a Brother and Sister. does not gain upon me, sir; I think her emptyPp. 100. Sherwood and Co. 999 headed.' "Yet (he observes) it seems hard to WELL-MEANT; and that is all we can say. conceive in what wayward fancy he could call her empty-headed.' 66 Anecdote. In passing through Ruabon the following occurrence took place: A Welsh parson of mean abilities, though a good heart, struck with reverence at the sight of Dr. Johnson, whom he had heard of as the greatest man living, could not find any words to answer his inquiries concerning a motto round somebody's arms which adorned a tombstone in Ruabon churchyard. If I remember right, the words were, Heb Dw, Heb Dym, And though of no very difficult construction, the gentleman seemed wholly confounded, and unable to explain them; till Mr. Johnson, having picked out the meaning by little and little, said to the man, Heb is a preposition, I believe, sir, is it not? My countryman recovering some spirits upon the sudden question, cried out, So I humbly presume, sir,' very comically." We are not sure that the following is quite new: 6 6 Roscoe's Novelist's Library. Vol. III. Humphrey Clinker. London, 1831. Cochrane and Pickersgill. . "for The Staff Officer; or, the Soldier of Fortune: a Tale of Real Life. By Oliver Moore. 3 vols. London, 1831. Cochrane and Pickersgill. Sir Joshua Reynolds' Dinners." On Sunday," Johnson writes to Mrs. Thrale," I dined at Sir Joshua's house on the hill HUMPHREY CLINKER, in a single, clearly [Richmond], with the Bishop of St. Asaph printed, and legible volume, with a portrait of [Shipley]: the dinner was good, and the Smollett, and four illustrations by G. Cruikbishop is knowing and conversable." To which shank, and "all," as the showmen say, Mr. Ĉroker adds: “ This praise of Sir Joshua's the small price of five shillings," is enough to dinner was not a matter of course; for his tempt a miser to buy the book. table, though very agreeable, was not what is usually called a good one, as appears from the has thus capitally begun, we shall rejoice in the If this new publishing scheme goes on as it following description given of it by Mr. Courte- resuscitation of our best novels, which more nay (a frequent and favourite guest) to Sir modern performances have thrown somewhat James Mackintosh; and which is not, the into shade, and at a rate which will make them editor hopes, misplaced in a work in which Sir accessible to readers of every class. Surely if Joshua and his society have so considerable a all other things are dear, books are now cheap share. There was something,' said Courte- enough. "He was always vehement against King nay, singular in the style and economy of William. A gentleman who dined at a noble-Sir Joshua's table that contributed to pleaman's table in his company and that of Mr. santry and good-humour; a coarse inelegant Thrale, who related the anecdote, was willing plenty, without any regard to order and arto enter the lists in defence of King William's rangement. A table, prepared for seven or character, and, having opposed and contra-eight, was often compelled to contain fifteen or We regret to have here another novel upon dicted Johnson two or three times petulantly sixteen. When this pressing difficulty was got which we are bound to pronounce a sentence enough, the master of the house began to feel over, a deficiency of knives, forks, plates, and of decided condemnation. If the reader can uneasy, and expect disagreeable consequences; glasses succeeded. The attendance was in the suppose a man of mature age, or rather dipping to avoid which, he said, loud enough for the same style; and it was absolutely necessary to into the vale of years, who will sit down and doctor to hear, Our friend here has no mean-call instantly for beer, bread, or wine, that retrace the scenes of his youthful follies and ing now in all this, except just to relate at you might be supplied with them before the promiscuous amours with a gloating complaclub to-morrow how he teased Johnson at first course was over. He was once prevailed cency, a fair idea may be formed of the Staff dinner to-day-this is all to do himself honour." on to furnish the table with decanters and Officer. Oliver Moore is evidently a fictitious No, upon my word,' replied the other, Iglasses at dinner, to save time, and prevent the name; and we would advise the author, whosee no honour in it, whatever you may do.' tardy manœuvres of two or three occasional ever he may be, to preserve his incognito. A 'Well, sir,' returned Dr. Johnson, sternly, if undisciplined domestics. As these accelerating retrospective story of the indiscretions, follies, you do not see the honour, I am sure I feel the disgrace."" the world, will hereafter be still more amusing, when and intrigues, of an Irish lad, can reflect but it is known, that it appears by the books of the club, that little credit on an individual of any station in Boswell, describing one of the club meetings, at the moment it was uttered, Mr. For was in the chair." society. Had time brought its best gift, prustates that "patriotism is the last refuge of a "Lord Lauderdale informed the editor that Mr. Fox scoundrel." Upon which Mr. Croker notes subjects) told him, that the deepest play he had ever wisdom, we should not have been offended by (a great authority on this as well as on more important dence, and experience taught its best lesson, with no very liberal allusion. known was between the year 1772 and the beginning of a production of this kind, which ought neither the American war. Lord Lauderdale instanced 50007. "This remarkable sortie, which has very much amused being staked on a single card at faro." to have been penned nor published. As we |