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ashes. In the same place lay a pair of antient stone querns. The bottom stone, 13 inches diameter, contained a hole in the middle 2 inches wide for a

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spindle; the upper stone something like a sugar-loaf, with a hole in the centre for the spindle, and another in the side for a shaft to turn the stone round with one hand, whilst corn was dropped down with the other like a hopper; the flour supposed to be received in a cloth on a table. Several instances of these querns, found in Yorkshire, are noticed in Hargrave's History of Knaresborough," p. 139; but where and by whom this cave was in use, it is much more difficult to determine. There is no appearance of foundations or earthworks any where near the place. Before the inclosure, this spot was woody and thorny, part of the common cow pasture; and a remarkably high dry situation, commanding a very extensive prospect all round, a mile or more from any town, and fitting for a store and hiding-place for plunderers. C.

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Tan early period of my life, when

sophy, and grew very metaphysical, as I conceived, and was in my own estimation quite capable of determining the grand questions of the origin of evil, and the derivation of all effects from their most recondite causes, I used to indulge my leisure in settling the motives of the actions of my friends; -I developed their dispositions from their external demeanour, and held fast the legal principle of judging of the hidden motive by the overt act. But I had not always discretion enough to conceal my opinion, and having two or three very narrow escapes from the ullima ratio of offended gentlemen, and the rude shock of John Bull and his family, the doctrine seemed to grow very unpopular, and I judged it most prudent to withdraw from this part of my pursuits: and I am free to confess that my subsequent years have passed over with considerably less difficulty, than they did under the influence of my philosophical penetration. I have, however, very lately fallen into company with a gentleman of about half my own age, and much more leisure, without so much experience, who is far advanced beyond the vanity of

[Sept.

seeking applause, but not yet arrived at the happy calm of a Sexagenarian, who can weigh all that passes in a more equal balance. He has taken up the science of motive-mongering, and assured me with perfect confidence that he had discovered the grand secret of developing every character, and of reviewing as a regiment marching before him in ordinary time, all the internal system of mind and intention of every one of his friends. Being myself well aware of the difficulties which I had undergone, it became my duty to check his career, which was very rapidly conducting him into all the labyrinths of phrenology, and was about to place him on the precipice of dishonour!

As I one day accompanied him to my house, where he was engaged to meet an intelligent party, who would have seen and esteemed his merit and talents, he stopped short in the street, and asserted that he knew the reason of my invitation; and as he said this, after a pause, I demanded what it was, supposing that I had incautiously disclosed it. "You want me," said he

in reply, "to entertain your friends, because you can't do it yourself." I

it

was purely to give him an opportunity of conversing with and shewing himself to advantage to some scientific men. He desired to be excused. I pressed him; he persisted; and I let him go, whispering as we separated, that he was afraid of their scrutiny.

A few days afterwards I saw him walking with one of these very friends, and they were attracted by a venerable man in the wane of years, who gave them a silent look of solicitation, which they could not mistake; his companion, prompted by a momentary, benevolence,gave him something worth

his

acceptance, which the old man acknowledged with fervency and gratitude. "You would not have done that alone," said our philosopher;

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you purchased his praises, that I might hear them, and because you' saw our friend passing by." He pro-tested that he had not thought for a moment. "Yes, yes," said the Motive-monger, "self was the Deity of your service, and the old beggar the happy instrument of your devotion!"

Soon after this, my son, after a long and tried attachment, was preparing to marry a young lady of suitable con

nection,

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nection, fortune, and qualifications for happiness. Just as the articles were signed, and the preparatory steps arranged, our wily philosopher accosted him with his usual freedom, "Well, Tom, I hear you are soon to marry,you think you are attached to the lady, but you are mistaken, for you dare not confess to yourself that you hate her." -My son was irritated, and prepared to shew his anger, when the philosopher retreated a few steps, and said, "You are going to marry her connections, and she is the helpless victim!" My son drove him to the wall, and he came to me to complain!-Poor ignorant man! said I, you have mistaken your talent,-you imagine yourself another Rochefoucault, and that you may speak with impunity; if your judgment was matured, you would learn that silence is the first symptom of prudence and skill; and that if you were in the palace of Truth, she would best shew you the merit of benevolence and conciliation.

This system of motives has been Lately not a little encouraged in its cynical progress by the introduction of Phrenology, a science which I have been told Dr. Gall, the first founder of it, wholly relinquished, from a very obvious discovery that he could not reduce it to fixed principles. Dr. Spurzheim, his pupil, with bolder zeal and more ardent practice, has been lecturing to astonished parties, and shewing them by the bumps and shallows of their skulls, that their whole merit and demerit cannot be hid, at least from his view, and especially if they happen to be bald.— Thus the science of Motives has become an easy study; and as soon as an enemy wishes to discover the inducement of any action or sentiment, of any insult or complacency, he is now referred to the great collection of marked skulls and models in the possession of Mr. De Ville, where he soon discovers, or thinks he discovers, the latent cause. One says, if he has an elevation in the os frontis, so has my friend, then he means well, for that is the seat of benevolence; or, his admiration of my daughter, or peradventure my wife, was base, for he has a protuberant occiput, and that is the seat of the bad passions! or he cannot have much devotion, though he talks well on theology, for I perceived a great shallow GENT. MAG. September, 1825.

217

across the sutures. Another gentleman with very anxious enquiry was seen looking for all the skulls which had either an elevation or a hollow beyond those sutures. Now this young man of fashion having received a challenge for the next morning, was desirous of previously knowing whether himself or his antagonist had the most, or any, courage; and I observed him look very grave, when he found a bust most resembling the latter, which discovered a greater elevation in the upper part of the scalp than on his own!

It is very remarkable, whatever may be said by the Celebes, that female skulls have very scarcely a protuberant occiput, from which I should be led to conclude, as a liberal phrenologist would assert, that the ladies are free from all bad passions;-but I shall forbear to develope their motives, lest I get into bad bread at home. All this shows that philosophers are not always mistaken, though they may be run away with by visionary schemes.

My friend the Motive-monger was deeply interested in the system, and pursued it with his accustomed ardour. He never examined his head so much in the glass; his very arms and fingers ached with continually feeling different parts of his bald pate; he challenged himself with vices he never had practised; he gave himself credit for virtues he had never exercised; he thought at one time that he could have gained the battle of Waterloo, and at another, that he was fit for the see of either York or Canterbury. One day I found him desponding over a skeleton,-expecting to be hanged for murder or forgery; and at another, aspiring to be Lord Chancellor of England. His unrelaxed ardour at length gave way, and he fell into a stupor of mind, which gave evidence of ungovernable perplexities that threatened insanity or idiotcy. Instead of his customary urbanity and agreeable conversation on almost all literary topics, he sat with fixed eyes comparing the foreheads, chins, and noses of the company; and when the news was conveyed to him that the Catholic Emancipation Bill was thrown out by a large majority in the Upper House, instead of expressing applause or concern, he inquired what was the shape of Lord Liverpool's forehead!

What I have seen of the world is suffi

218

Hypothesis on the Creation of the Stars.

sufficient to assure me that neither
motives, nor skulls, nor the brains
contained in them, are to be bound
hand and foot to any fixed and certain
rules; they are made to find their own
way in the world by the most prudent
judgment which they can form, and it
is not by comparison of skull with
skull, its breadth or its thickness, that
the true character of the man within it
can be discovered.
A. H.

Mr. URBAN,

Exeter, Aug. 30. YOUR YOUR Correspondent Col. Macdonald has pointed out an apparent incongruity in the 16th verse of the first chapter of Genesis, which he is desirous to rectify by an hypothesis that the fixed stars were created many ages before the solar system, of which the earth forms a part; and that the words "he made the STARS also," allude only to the planets and the comets revolving round the sun; and which he supposes to have been created, together with the earth, at the period adverted to by Moses, in the first chapter of Genesis. Before I offer any observations on this point, Mr. Macdonald must be aware that a still greater incongruity exists with regard to the creation of the sun itself, which, according to the Mosaic account, did not take place till the fourth day, although "the evening and the morning" are stated to have formed component parts of the first, second, and third days. With respect to his hypothesis, that the STARS also are to be considered as the planetary bodies only, we must be governed by the sense in which the word "stars" was taken, at the time when Moses wrote his History of the Creation. The first mention of" STARS" will be found in the 5th verse of the

15th chapter of Genesis, when the promise of a numerous progeny was made to Abraham-" and he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward Heaven, and tell the STARS, if thou be able to number them; and He said to him, so shall thy seed be.” This is also repeated in the 17th verse of the 22d chapter of Genesis-"I will multiply thy seed as the STARS of the heaven, and as the sand upon the sea shore." It is here very evident that the whole firmament of STARS alluded to; and the probability therefore is, that the words "he made the STARS also," have a reference to the fixed stars generally, and not merely to

was

[Sept.

the planets forming a part of our solar system. The idea entertained by your Correspondent, that the fixed stars were created many ages prior to the globe we inhabit, does not seem to be corroborated by Moses; since in the first verse of the 5th chapter of Genesis, he says"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth;" by which we naturally understand that they were called at the same time into existence; but whether this period may be justly considered as at the distance of 6000 years only, when Colonel Macdonald supposes the solar system to have been created; or "in the beginning of time," when that gentleman imagines the fixed stars were allotted their places in the great Canopy of Heaven, must be left to wiser heads than mine to determine. My sole object in the present communication is merely to consider, and I hope impartially, whether an hypothesis, founded (no doubt) on very proper motives, is, or is not founded in truth, The enlarged views of your Correspondent, respecting the boundless magnificence and grandeur of the UNIVERSE, reflect the greatest credit on his understanding, and naturally lead us to the contemplation of the CREATOR himself, and to ejaculate with Milton,

--"These are thy glorious works,
parent of good,
Almighty! thine this universal frame,
Thus wondrous fair! THYSELF how wondrous

then!
Unspeakable! who sit'st above the Heavens,
To us invisible !"
Yours, &c.

Mr. URBAN,

E. T. PILGRIM.

Sept. 12. THEN a knight, armed to appearance in panoply of proof, enters the lists, and throws down his

gauntlet as a challenge to all comers, it

is no wonder if those who are not so

well provided with weapons, nor so
back from the encounter. Thus did I,
well skilled in the use of them, shrink
on reading the letter of J. S. H. in
your last Supplement, allow my discre-
cline contending with him on the pro-
tion to overcome my valour, and de-
nunciation of the word heard.
since *B. whose paper appears in p.
104, and who is not quite so formide-
whose side he has ranged himself,
ble an antagonist as the champion on
chooses to engage in the contest, I
have no hesitation in adventuring to
break a lance with him, in honour of

But

the

1825.]

On the Pronunciation of Heard, &c.

the damsel Orthoëpy, trusting that some one, more equally matched with the first challenger, may afterwards prove the inefficacy of his cumbrous armour in the defence of a bad cause. To begin with *B. He quotes Dr. Johnson in support of the opinions of J. S. H. Now it is admitted on all all hands that Johnson, great as he was, had his peculiarities; and we have the authority of his very partial biographer, Boswell, for asserting that one of these was his obstinacy in supporting theories or opinions which he had previously taken up, frequently upon very slight and insufficient grounds. He first made up his mind upon a given subject; and then, if his opinion was untenable, amused himself, and exercised his ingenuity, by adducing arguments in its defence.

Of the word now under consideration the Doctor remarks, that to pronounce it herd would form a single exception to the sound of ear in the English language. This is a mistake. The letters ear, when combined, have four distinct sounds. The first, which may be called their proper sound, as being that which most frequently occurs, and analogous to the sound of ea united with other consonants, is similar in effect to eer, as in ear, hear, fear, rear, &c. The second sound resembles that of air, as in bear, swear, pear, &c. The third resembles that of ar, as in heart; and the fourth that of ur, as in chearful, fearful; to which we may add that the late John Philip Kemble, who, notwithstanding the peculiarity of some of his canons, must be classed among the most perfect masters of his native language, used to adopt burd as the pronunciation of beard. If it be objected, in spite of the authority of Walker, that the pronunciation of chearful and fearful should not be such as I have here given, and that

219

Kemble's peculiarities are no authority at all, I trust that the other examples, which I doubt not are of greater antiquity than Johnson, are sufficient to prove that his dogma on this point is not implicitly to be received. It is worth while to observe, that, in a note on the identical passage in Boswell's Life of Johnson quoted by *B. (see 8vo edition, 1804, vol. 111. p. 215,) Mr. Malone remarks that this word, in the age of Elizabeth, was "frequently written, as doubtless it was pronounced, hard." This mode is still to be met with among the natives of Scotland.

Having proceeded thus far in my endeavour to state the merits of this question, I will venture, although not so well acquainted with the Father of English Poesy as your Correspondent J. S. H., to examine the arguments which he brings forward on his side.

He says that the verb to hear is regular*. We have the authority of Murray, and other grammarians, for affirming that it is not. We cannot, therefore, with certainty derive the pronunciation of the imperfect tense and participle from that of the present.

Such is the genius of the English language, that the mode of writing a word affords but slight proof of the manner of pronouncing it. This will be evident from a consideration of what has been said on the different sounds of ear. Yet to the orthography of hered and heered J. S. H. refers as his strongest argument. In Chaucer we find herte written for heart. Yet J. S. H. I presume, will not insist that the modern pronunciation of the word should be heert. On the contrary, as it often rhymes with smerte (smart), we should infer that the modern sound is correct. To what, then, would this lead us? Herte is now be come heart, and pronounced hart.

In this respect the English language seems to have undergone many changes. Verbs which were formerly considered regular are no longer so; and, on the other hand, irregular verbs have lost their irregularities. I will quote from Chaucer, as I conceive J. S. H. cannot refuse to admit the authority to which he himself refers. In the very outset of the "Canterbury Tales" we have instances of both kinds :

"Of fustian he wered (wore) a gipon."

"Curteis he was, lowly, and servisable,

And carf (carved) before his fader at the table."

Even in our own days innovations, or, if you will, corruptions of this kind, are creeping in. Thus it has become common to make the verb to light (accendere) irregular. I light, I lit, I have lit. The verb to lean (incumbere) appears in many modern works similarly corrupted. I lean, I leant, I have leant, which thus becomes confounded with I lent, &c.

220

On the Pronunciation of Heard, &c.

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Any argument dependent upou rhyme cannot be considered as conclusive. Poets in all periods, since rhyme became an appendage of English verse, have taken licences in this respect. Chaucer himself, from whom all J. S. H.'s examples are taken, abound with such.

"Embrouded was he, as it were a mede1
Alle ful of freshe floures, white and rede 2."
"And ran unto London, unto Seint Poule's,
To seken him a chanterie for soules."
"A wert, and thereon stode a tuft of heres3
Rede as the bristles of a sowe's eres 4."

I willingly admit that, in calling these rhymes irregular, I do so with reference to the present pronunciation of the words; and I confess I do not see any proof that can be brought forward to decide whether, in the time of Chaucer, the words mede, rede, were perfectly consonant, or dissimilar as at present. The same may be said of heard, and any of the rhymes to it which J. S. H. produces.

All that I contend for is that, as language in the lapse of time undergoes various changes, it is absurd to require, upon grounds by no means clear, that the alleged ancient pronunciation of one word should be retained, while no objection is raised to the innovations which have taken place in the sound of others of analogous orthography. To carry an argument to its full extent often shews its absurdity. Let us apply this test to the rhymes of J. S. H. The following lines, which I remember to have heard chaunted by a village hoyden some years ago, when rustics were not addicted to the study of mathematics, are certes not from the pen of a superior poet, and are probably not generally known to your refined readers; but as they suit my purpose I shall not apologise for their in

troduction.

What care I how black I be? Twenty pounds will marry me. If twenty won't, forty shall, Is'nt Bet a bouncing girl? It is certain that among uneducated persons girl is pronounced gal-a fact of which Geoffrey Crayon takes notice (vide The Stage Coach.) But I doubt not J. S. H. would be infinitely horri

mead. ered. > hairs.

ears.

[Sept

fied if any one were to maintain the correctness of that pronunciation on the authority of the above quoted rhyme.

But admitting that rhyme is of supreme authority in determining the pronunciation of words, J. S. H.'s logic is erroneous. He produces a couplet in which heard is made to correspond with sweard (sword) and then another in which sweard answers to beard. Therefore, says he, heard and beard have similar sounds. But what proof have we that the ancient and modern pronunciation of beard are identical? I think it perfectly possible that the case is not so. Sword, in some parts of the country, more particularly in swerd, full power being given to the w. Scotland, is pronounced swurd or Beard therefore to rhyme with it must follow the mode of Kemble formerly alluded to; and if so J. S. H.'s syllogism falls to the ground.

But in truth the matter is not worth an argument. It is undoubtedly custom. Quem penes arbitrium est et jus et norma loquendi.

The pronunciation heerd, for which your Correspondent contends, is I think never met with in the present day, except in the mouths of natives of the northern counties, or of such as have associated much with them. It is in short regarded as a provincialism; and so long as the usage of welleducated persons points to herd, that must be regarded as the correct pronunciation of the word in question.

Having mentioned Kemble as an authority, I am aware that I have exposed myself to be twitted for quoting one who was so eccentric in his pronunciation as to give to aches the sound of aitches. This fanciful pronunciation, as is well known, has called forth the jeers of wits and witlings without number since it was first hazarded. The only defence of it with which I am acquainted is grounded upon the necessities of the line in which the word occurs,

"I'll rack thee with old cramps; Fill all thy bones with aches; make thee That beasts shall tremble at thy din."

roar

TEMPEST, Act 1. Scene 2. but, as Lord Byron observes (see Medwin's Conversations) is at variance with its correct etymology. It may, however, be remarked, that Butler, in

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