But their courtesy to strangers is no less engaging than their solitude. A recluse life, for the fruits of it, generally speaking, produce moroseness; pharisaical pride too often sours the temper; and a mistaken opinion of their own merit too naturally leads such men into a contempt of others; but, on the contrary, these good men (for I must call them as I thought them) seemed to me the very emblems of innocence,

In particular, I remember one of those reverend old men, when we were taking leave at the door of his cell, to which, out of his great civility, he accompanied us, finding by the air of our faces, as well as our expressions, that we thought ourselves pleasingly entertained, to divert us afresh, advanced a few paces from the door, when, giving a whistle with his mouth, a surprising flock of little birds, variegated, and of different colours, immediately flocked around him. Here you would see some alighting upon his shoulders, some on his awful beard, others took refuge on his snowlike head, and many feeding, and more endeavouring to feed out of his mouth; each appearing emulous, and under an innocent contention, how best to express their love and respect to their no less pleased master.

Nor did the other cells labour under any deficiency of variety; every one boasting in some particular that might distinguish it in something equally agreeable and entertaining. Nevertheless, crystal springs spouting from the solid rock were, from the highest to the lowest, common to them all; and, in most of them they had little brass cocks, out of which, when turned, issued the most cool and chrystalline flow of excellent pure water. And, yet what more affected me, and which I found near more cells than one, was the natural cascades of the same transparent element; these falling from one rock to another, in that warm, or rather hot climate, gave not more delightful astonishment to the eye, than they afforded grateful refreshment to the whole man. The streams falling from these, soften, from a rougher tumultuous noise, into such affecting murmurs, by distance, the intervention of groves, or neighbouring rocks, that it were impossible to see or hear them, and not be charmed.

No. XXV. Vol. IV.-N.S.

Neither are those groves grateful only in a beautiful verdure, nature renders them otherwise delightful, in loading them with clusters of berries of a perfect scarlet colour, whicb, by a beautiful intermixture, strike the eye with additional delight. In short, it might perplex a person of the nicest taste, to distingush or determine, whether the meatness of their cells within, or the beauteous varieties without, most exhaust his admiration, nor is the whole, in my opinion, a little advantaged by the frequent view of some of these pyramidical pillars, which seem, as weary of their own weight, to recliue, and seek support from others in the neighbour

hood.

When I mentioned the outside beauties of their cells, I must be thought to have forgotten to particularize the glorious prospects presented to your eye from every one of them, but especially from that nearest the summit; a prospert, by reason of the purity of the air, so extensive, and so very entertaining, that to dilate upon it properly to one that never saw it would bae credit; and naturally to depict it would confound invention. I therefore shall only say, that on the Mediterranean side, after an agreeabie interval of some fair leagues, it will set at defiance the strongest optics; and although Barcelona bounds it on the land, the eyes are feasted with the delights of such au intervening champaign (where nature does not only smile but riot), that the sense must be very temperate, or very weak, that can be soon or easily satisfied.

Having thus taken a view of their refreshing springs, their grateful groves, and solitary shades under single trees, whose clusters proved that even rocks were grown fruitful; and having run over all the variety of pleasures in their several pretty cells, decently set off with gardens round them, equally fragrant and beautiful, we were brought down again to the convent, which, though on a small ascent, lies very near the foot of this terrestrial paradise, there to take a survey of their sumptuous hall, much more sumptuous chapel, and its adjoining repository, and feast our eyes with wonders of a different nature, and yet as entertaining as any, or all, we had seen before.

Hh

Immediately on our descent, a priest presented himself at the door of the convent, ready to show us the hidden rarities. And though, as I understood, hardly a day passes without the resort of some strangers, to gratify their curiosity with the wonders of the place, yet is there, on every such occasion, a superior concourse of natives ready to see over again, out of mere bigotry and superstition, what they have seen perhaps a hundred times before. I could not avoid taking notice, however, that the priest treated these constant visitants with much less ceremony, or more freedom, if you please, than any of the stran gers of what nation soever; or, indeed, he seemed to take as much pains to disoblige those, as he did pleasure in obliging us.

The hall was neat, large and stately; but being plain and unadorned with more than decent decorations, suitable to such a society,

I bastened to the other.

When we entered the chapel, our eyes were immediately attracted by the image of Our Lady of Montserrat (as they call it), which stands over the altar piece. It is about the natural stature, but as black and shining as ebony itself. Most would imagine it made of that material; though her retinue and adorers will allow nothing of the matter. On the contrary, tradition, which with them is, on some occasions, more than tantamount to religion, bas assured them, and they relate it as undoubted matter of fact, that her present colour, if I may so call it, proceeded from her concealment, in the time of the Moors, between those two rocks on which the chapel is founded, and that her long lying in that dismal place changed her once lovely white into its present opposite.

As the custom of this place, (which is likewise allowed to be a distinguished piece of civility to strangers), when we approach the black lady (who, I should have told you, bears a child in her arms, but whether maternally black, or of the mulatto kind, I protest I did not mind), the priest, in great civility, offers you her arm to salute; at which juncture, || I, like a true blue protestant, mistaking my word of command, fell foul on the fair lady's face. The displeasure in his countenance (for he took

more notice of the rudeness than the good lady herself), convinced me of my error; however, as a greater token of his civility, having admitted no Spaniards along with my companions and me, it passed off the better; and his after civilities manifested that he was willing to reform my ignorance by his complaisance. To demonstrate which, upon my telling him that I had a set of beads which I must intreat him to consecrate for me, he readily, nay eagerly complied, and having hung them on her arm for the space of about half or somewhat short of a whole minute, he returned me the holy baubles with a great deal of address, and most evident satisfaction. The reader, will be apt to admire this curious piece of superstition of mine, till I have told him, that even rigid protestants have, in this country, thought it but prudent to do the like; and likewise having so done, to carry them about their persons, or in their pockets; for experience has convinced us of the necessity of this most catholic precaution; since those who have here, travelling or otherwise, come to their ends, whether by accident, sickness, or the course of nature, not having these sanctifying seals found upon them, have ever been refused Christian burial, under a superstitious imagination, that the corpse of a heretic will infect every thing near it.

Two instances of this kind fell within my knowledge; one before I went to Montserrat, the other after. The first was of one Slunt, who had been bombadier at Monjouick, but being killed while we lay at Campilio, a priest, whom I advised upon the matter, told me, that if he should be buried where any corn grew, his body would not only be taken up again, but ill treated, in revenge of the destruction of so much corn, which the people would on no account be persuaded to touch; for which reason we took care to have him laid in a very deep grave, on a very barren spot of ground. The other was of one Captain Bush, who was a prisoner with me on the surrender of Denia; who being sent, as I was afterwards told, to St. Clemente la Mancha, there died; and, as I was informed, though he was privately, and by night, buried in a corn field, he was taken out of his grave by these superstitious people, as

soon as they could discover the place where || grimage. To me as a stranger, divested of bis body was deposited. But I return to the || acquaintance or friend (for at that instant I convent at Montserrat.

If you ascend from the lowest cell to the very summit, the las of all the thirteen, you || will perceive a continual contention between pleasure and devotion; and at last, perhaps, find yourself at a loss to decide which deserves the pre-eminence: for you are not here to take cells in the vulgar acceptation, as the little dormitories of solitary monks; no, neatness, use, and contrivance, appear in every one of them; and though in an almost perfect equality, yet iu such perfection, that you will find it difficult to discover in any one of them any thing wanting to the pleasure of life. If you descend to the convent near the foot of that venerable hill, you may see more, much more of the riches of the world, but less, far less ap pearance of a celestial treasure. Perhaps it might be the sentiment of a heretic, but that awe and devotion, which I found in my attendant from cell to cell, grew languid, and was lost in mere empty bigotry and foggy superstition when I came below.

Before I leave this emblem of the beatific vision, I must correct something like a mis take as to the poor borigo. I said at the be ginning that his labour was daily, but the Sunday is to him a day of rest, as it is to the hermits, his masters, a day of refection: for, to save the poor faithful brute the hard drudgery of that day, the thirteen hermits, if health permit, descend to their cœnobium, as they call it, that is, to the hall of the convent, where they dine in common with the monks of the order, who are Benedictines. seven days variety of such innocent delight (the space allowed for the entertainment of strangers), I took my leave of this pacific hermitage, to pursue. the more boisterous duties of my calling.

TAKING THE VEIL

FROM THE SAME.

After

Being now pretty well recovered of my wounds, I was, by order of the Governor of Valencia, removed to Sainte Clemento de la Mancha, a town somewhat more inland, and consequently esteemed more secure, than & Seaport. Here I remained under a sort of pil

was sole prisoner there), at first it appeared such, though in a very small compass of time I luckily found it made quite otherwise by an agreeable conversation.

Sainte Clemente de la Mancha is rendered famous by the renowned Don Michael Cervantes, who, in his facetious but satirical romance, has fixed it the seat and birth-place of his hero Don Quixote.

The gentlemen of this place are the leastpriest-ridden, or sons of bigotry, of any that I met with in all Spain; of which, in my conver. sation with them, I had daily instances. Among many others, an expression that fell from Don Felix Pacheo, a gentleman of the best figure thereabout, and of a very plentiful fortune, shall now suffice. I was become very intimate with him; and we used often to converse together with a freedom too dangerous to be common in a country so enslaved by the inquisition. Asking me one day in a sort of a jocose manner, who, in my opinion, had done the greatest miracles that ever were heard of? I answered, Jesus Christ. "It is very true," says he, "Jesus Christ did great miracles, and a great one it was to feed five thousand people with two or three small fishes, and a like num. ber of loaves: but Saint Frances, the founder of the Franciscan order, has found out a way to feed daily one hundred thousand lubbards with nothing at all;" meaning the Franciscans the followers of Saint Francis, who have no visible revenues; yet in their way of living come up to, if they do not exceed, any other. order.

Another day, talking of the place, it natur ally led us into a discourse of the knight of La、 Mancha, Don Quixote. At which time he told me, that, in his opinion, that work was a perfect paradox, being the best and the worst remance that ever was wrote. "For," says he, "though it must infallibly please every man that has any taste of wit, yet has it had such a fatal effect upon the spirits of my countrymen, that every man of wit must ever resent; for," continued he, " before the appearance in the world of that labour of Cervantes, it was next to an impossibility for any man to walk the streets with any delight, or without dan

ger. There were seen so many cavalieros prancing and curvetting before the windows of their mistresses, that a stranger would have imagined the whole nation to have been nothing less than a race of kuight-crrants. But after the world became a little acquainted with that notable history, the man that was once acen in that notable drapery was pointed at as a Don Quixote, and found himself the jest of high and low. And I verily believe," added he, "that to this, and this only, we owe that dampness and poverty of spirit which has run through all our councils for a century past, so little agreeable to those nobler actions of our famous ancestors."

After many of these lesser sorts of confidences, Don Felix recommended me to a lodg ing next door to his own. It was at a widow's, who had one only daughter, her house just opposite to a Franciscan munnery. Here I remained some time; all which time, lying in my bed, I could hear the nuns early in the morning at their matins, and late in the evening at their vespers, with delight enough to myself, and without the least indecency in the world in my thoughts of them. Their own divine employ too much engaged every faculty || of mine to entertain any thing inconsentaneous or offensive.

This my neighbourhood to the uunnery gave me an opportunity of seeing two nuns invested; and in this I must do a justice to the whole country to acknowledge, that a stranger who is curious (I would impute it rather to their hopes of conversion than to their vanity) shall be admitted to much greater freedoms in their religious pageantries than any native.

One of their nuns was of the first quality, which rendered the ceremony more remarkably fine. The manner of investing them was thus: In the morning her relations aud friends all met at her father's house, whence, she being attired in her most sumptuous apparel, and a coronet placed on her head, they attended her, in cavalcade, to the nunnery, the streets and windows being crowded, and filled with spectators of all sorts.

So soon as she entered the chapel belonging to the nunnery she kneeled down, and, with an appearance of much devotion, saluted the ground, then rising up, she advanced a step or two farther, when, on her knees, she repeated the salutes; this done, she approached to the altar, where she remained till mass was over; after which, a sermon was preached by one of the priests, in praise, or rather in an exalted preference, of a single life. The scrmon being over, the nun elect fell down on her knees before the altar, and, after some short mental orisons, rising again, she withdrew into an inner room, where, stripping off all her rich attire, she put on her nun's weeds; in which, making her appearance, she, again kneeling, offered up some private devotions, which, being over, she was led to the door of the nunnery, where the lady and the rest of the nuns stood, ready to receive her with open arms. Thus entered, the nuns conducted her into the quire, where, after they had enter. tained her with singing, and playing upon the organ, the ceremony concluded, and every one departed to their proper habitations.

The very same day of the year ensuing, the relations and friends of the fair novitiate meet again in the chapel of the nunnery, where the lady abbess brings her out and delivers her to them. Then again is there a sermon preached on the same subject as the first; which, being over, she is brought up to the altar, in a decent but plain dress, the fine apparel which she put off on her initiation being deposited on one side of the altar, and her nun's weeds on the other. Here the priest, in Latin, cries, Utrum horum mavis, accipe: to which she answers, as her inclination or as her instruction directs her. If she, after this her year of probation, shows any dislike, she is at liberty to come again into the world: but if, awed by fear (as too often is the case, or won by expectation, or present real inclination, she makes choice of a nun's weeds, she is immediately invested, and must never expect to appear again in the world out of the walls of the nunsery. The young lady I saw thus invested was very beautiful, and sang the best of any in the nunaery.

THE NEW SYSTEM OF BOTANY,

WITH PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF FLORA, &c. &c. &c.

If the myrtle may particularly be considered as a domesticated exotic, the

GERANIUM

the family; and any accurate observer may notice that the peduncles are always curved downwards at the commencement of that period, but become erect the moment the flower opens, and are thus flowered by each separate pedicel.

In generic character (as applicable to each branch of the general family, for we shall not notice minuter variations) the c-lyx is five leaved, wi ovate, acute, concave, and permanent leaflets; the corolla has also five petals, which are spreading, regular in disposition, and in shape obcordate or ovate; the nectary also has five horned glands, which are fastened to the bases of the longest filaments; the stamen has ten filaments, which are awl shaped, and spreading at the top, but connected slightly at the base, and are shorter than the corolla; the anthers are oblong and versatile; the pistil has a five-cornered germ, a perma. nent awl-shaped style longer than the stamens, and five reflex stigmas; in the pericarp the capsule is five grained, with the cells opening inwards, the seeds are solitary and oblate. The essential character is simply the five leaved calyx, the five petalled corolla, &c.

Is even more so. This elegant shrub (for such it actually is in more genial climes), which has long borne the English name of cranesbill, was well known to the ancients, and bore in the classic regions of Greece a name of similar import, from its fruit, or berry, having an exact resemblance to the head and neck of the crane; so that from Geranos, geranium is a name of self-evident derivation. In modern classification the plant is to be found amongst the MONADELPHIA DECANDRIA, and in the natural order of Gruinales; but though of such high antiquity in botanical chronology, yet more modern discoveries have developed such a number of varieties that the arrangement of the genus, even by the Linnean classification, is become too extended for convenient simplicity; a division of the geuus has therefore taken place, founded on recent observations that in some species all the filaments are fertile, whilst in others it happens that four or five of them form no efficient part of the fructification, being destitute of anthers. From this curious circumstance, modern classifiers have formed three genera; the first with five fertile stamens only, and called erodium; the second having seven, by the name of pelagonium; and the third more particularly called geranium, with all the filaments distinctive of its class completely fertile. Independent of these sexual differences there are other discriminative marks arising from varieties in their generic characters, but these are too tedious for a general lecture; at the same time we must premise, that notwithstanding this convenient arrangement, still must we considered, and the hoary cranesbill, which latter the whole species, amounting to thirty-two, as of one natural family, and the minuter distinctions to be merely artificial, as they all agree in their leading features; such as they all agree in the form of the calyx and corolla, and in general form and habit. Indeed one most curious circumstance respecting their inflorescence is common to all, and peculiar to

In the thirty-two species another division has taken place for the sake of regularity, the first variety having the peduncles one flowered, whilst in the other they are doubled. The most beautiful of these species are the Siberian, which has been about half a century is cultivation here; the bloody geranium, which is indigenous in various parts of the European continent, found wild in thickets and even in pastures, and from its flowering during great part of the summer is well deserving of more general cultivation; then come the silky leav

species is herbaceous, and was introduced here from the southern districts of Africa about the eighteenth century; the tuberous rooted is also an elegant variety from the abundance of its flowers, and has been cultivated here since the reign of Queen Elizabeth, but is not indigenous but a native of Italy, and also of Silesia, in Germany; after these come the purple