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Literary and Scientific Mirror.

"UTILE DULCI."

nillar Miscellany, from which all religious and political matters are excluded, contains a variety of original and selected Articles; comprehending Literature, CRITICISM, MEN and VERS, AMUSEMENT, elegant EXTRACTS, POETRY, ANECDOTES, BIOGRAPHY, METEOROLOGY, the DRAMA, ARTS and SCIENCES, WIT and SATIRE, Fashions, NatuRAL HISTORY, &c. forming dsome ANNUAL VOLUME, with an INDEX and TITLE-PAGE. Persons in any part of the Kingdom may obtain this Work from London through their respective Booksellers.

417.-Vol. VIII.

The Kaleidoscope.

BEARDS AND WHISKERS.

TRIFLES LIGHT AS HAIR!

LIVERPOOL, TUESDAY, JUNE 24, 1828.

(Not) SHAKSPeare.

and other facial excrescences. We are assured, on very respectable authority, that no fewer than 8,000 Russians were massacred in 1720, on occasion of the order of Peter I. that people should shave their beards. They were conducted into a vast inclosure, where numbers of blocks, &c. had been previously very clever and amusing article, on the subject arranged, when Peter himself, with the axe in his ards and whiskers, appeared in the last Mercury, hand, gave the example to the executioners how they vill be found appended to our editorial prefatory should chop off the heads of the victims. Who would rks. Our readers, who are in the habit of see- have thought it possible that a nation of vassals, who both of our publications, will, we presume, had surrendered their liberties to the will and caly overlook, if not highly approve, of the trans-price of a despot, should have thrown off their alleo the Kaleidoscope of an article of no ordinary giance, and braved death in defence of a "feature," t, uniting the humour of Swift and Addison. if we may so term it, in which the goat has decidedly object of the writer is to demonstrate the fallacy the advantage over the "lord of the creation?" e prevailing notion, that beards and whiskers ny evidence of the courage and manhood of the He maintains the direct reverse of this, and precedents he adduces are highly amusing, and ce a more than ordinary acquaintance with ature, and a very happy and playful knack of ging his knowledge to bear upon his argument.

er.

Well might Swift represent mankind as he has done in his Gulliver, recollecting the endless absurdities which prevail in the world, not less ludicrous than those we have enumerated! and well might the

poet say,

"What dire events from trivial causes spring!"

PRICE 3 d.

The following miscellaneous facts, bearing on this subject, are copied from our manuscript scrapbook. They are, we believe, chiefly gleaned from D'Israeli.

"The Tartars declared the Persians infidels, and waged a long war with them, because they would not cut off their whiskers, while it was more infamous in Turkey to lose the beard than to be publicly whipped.

"To touch another's beard, or cut off a little, was a token of love and protection amongst the first French; and all letters which came from the King had three hairs of his beard in the seal.

"In the reign of Catharine, Queen of Portugal, the brave John de Castro took the castle of Diu, in India. He borrowed from the inhabitants of Goa 1,000 pistoles, as a security for which, he sent them one of his whiskers.

"The Turks, when they comb their beards, gather the loose hairs, fold them in paper, and bury them where they bury the dead."

D'Arnay, in his Private Life of the Romans, re

loes not contend that the beard, per se, is indica- The weakness or caprice of a wench set the Grelates that "amongst that nation, the beard was a re of pusillanimity, or of any peculiar moral weak-cians and Trojans by the ears, and caused the mark of wisdom; and that a learned man, who aspired To maintain such a position, would be a sweep-death of so many heroes, that, if Homer tells truth, to a philosophic chair, could not possess it on account censure upon the male sex, which our author has the hairs which graced Helen's mad pate, if doubled, of being beardless." And in Goldsmith's History much sense to insinuate. The deteriorating con- would not make up the amount; although, on the of the Earth and Animated Nature, we find the foltences, which he so felicitously enumerates, arise, other hand, candour compels us to add, that this lowing particulars connected with this strange subording to his theory, from the sedulous cultivation damsel's freak has given rise to an immortal poem.ject: 1 natural excrescence, which ought rather to be There is a work, originally written in French, "The Turks shave the head, but let the beard t under, than encouraged to exhaust the animal entitled, "Great Events from Little Causes." The nors, and to deface the male countenance. A well following extract from this work, on the commotion amed chin, he shows us, has ever been the con- produced in France by an attempt to interfere with itant of bravery, while those beards which "shine beards, may amuse our readers. a meteor to the troubled air," have ever belonged poltroons.

in author who maintains such a theory, will, we sume, be much more popular with the razornders and barbers than with certain of the soft , who are supposed to admire the barbarous dis

urement of " the human face divine."

"A beard was esteemed, formerly, in France as a
badge of liberty, and the people were not a little
proud of wearing it long, and of curling it, to render
it ornamental. The monks and friars, who affected
to despise the little vanities of the world, took it in
their heads to shave their beards; and the then
Bishop of Rouen, taking it extremely ill that the
laity did not follow so pious an example, began to
preach against beards in the pulpit, and, by degrees,
worked himself to so high a pitch of opposition, that
he excommunicated all those of his diocese who would
not consent to be shaved. Hereupon the bigots soon
permitted themselves to be trimmed; but the more

It is not a little singular, that, while the ladies
prove of the beards on the men's faces, they regard
em as frightful appendages to their own. We
ve, however, very high authority for the opinion,
at the sex did not always view the subject in the
me light. Cicero, in his work De Legibus, states,
at women were formerly prohibited from shaving, worldly-minded, accustomed to join the idea of pri-
st they should thereby acquire bearded chins. The
rohibitory law, he continues, was taken from the
'welve Tables. We recollect also, although we can-
ot just at present give our authority for the fact,
hat the Venus of Cyprus, of ancient Greece, was
epresented with a bushy beard.

grow. The negroes shave their heads in figures at one time, in stars at another, like the friars; and still more commonly in alternate stripes.

"The Melapours of Siam shave the heads and the eye brows of such children as are committed to their care. The Kings of Persia, and some of the early Kings of France, had their beards knotted and buttoned with gold. The Americans pluck the beard up by the roots, so that they have been thought to have no beard; a mistake which Linnæus has fallen

into."

Having protracted our prefatory remarks to an unexpected length, we shall now proceed with the dissertation of our correspondent.

BEARDS AND MUSTACHIOS.

ΚΕΙΡΕΣΘΑΙ ΤΟΝ ΜΥΣΤΑΚΑ, ΚΑΙ ΠΡΟΣΕΧΕΙΝ ΤΟΙΣ ΝΟΜΟΙΣ, ΙΝΑ ΜΗ ΧΑΛΕΠΟΙ ΩΣΙΝ ΑΥΤΟΙΣ.

vilege to that of their beards, conceived their liberties
and properties at stake, and, like true patriots, went
to loggerheads, and had their brains beaten out in
defence of the hairs of their chin. The commotion
grew so general, and its consequences so dangerous,
that Louis VII. found himself necessitated to take" Shave your beards, and adhere to the laws, that you

There is scarcely, in the history of mankind, a part with the clergy, and have his own beard taken
nore extraordinary phenomenon than is presented in off, to bring smooth chins into fashion at Court, and,
he importance that has, in different ages, and by that means, to overcome the prejudices of the
amongst different nations, been attached to beards populace."

ANNUAL PROCLAMATION OF THE SPARTAN MAGISTRATES.

may not be frightful to yourselves."

An innovation in the costume of some of the regiments of the British army, by the enforcement of the wearing of mustachios, has lately excited attention. Alterations in

the cut of clothes or accoutrements alter not the men; but yoke by the Samnites, having made them feel at their
to meddle with their regular habits of cleanliness, in re-chins, and look about them, a true patriot, Publius Ti-
viving the antiquated custom of huge whiskers, beards, cinius Menas, A. V. C. 454, according to Pliny and Varro,
and mustachios, involves considerations of more serious im-made the lucky discovery of what was wanted, and soon
portance than, at first sight, may be supposed. If the ob- put a new face on affairs, by an importation of barbers
ject be to daunt the armed foreign enemy, by this array from Sicily. No sooner had this corps d'elite begun their
of disfigured countenances, without any design of bully-operations, than the Samnites were repulsed; and, in the
ing our own unarmed people, it may be well to remind course of one smooth-faced generation, all Italy was sub.
the patrons of mustachios, that it was the smooth-faced dued; so that, in A. V. C. 518, the Temple of Janus was
British whom the French most feared to meet, in the last, shut, by the Consul Titus Manlius Torquatus, in comme-
as well as in all former wars, and not the whiskered-
moration of triumph and of general peace.
mouthed Spaniards or Germans. At Ligny, Bonaparte For a good while after, whilst the razors were kept in
made quick work with Blucher and his hairy-faced Prus-play, all went well; no enemy could withstand them; and
sians, who, to save their beards, soon gave him their the bearded Carthaginians, who, being of Phoenician origin,
pigtails to handle: but it was an altered case when the were akin to the Jews, were smitten so sorely, that, through
vaunted Imperial Guard, with its Legion-of-Honour deco- vexation, they hanged old Hannibal, their unlucky general.
rations, had to encounter clean lads, with ruddy cheeks But, in process of time, the Romans becoming careless in
and white chins. Whatever be the cause, whether the the essential particular, having fallen into the bad habit
cherishing of a lengthened beard exhausts the animal of shaving only once or twice a week, the beardless boy
powers, and causes a sickly languor, with sallow cheeks Hannibal seized the opportunity to make his assault: all
and sleepy eyes; or if the beard wearers feel as if fighting got into confusion: the disastrous battles of the Ticinus,
in a mask, and, therefore, entertain less sense of shame, of the Trebia, of the Lake Thrasimenus, and of Cannæ,
certain it is, that those nations who have most distin- followed close on each other. Just then young Scipio's
guished themselves by martial prowess, have, whilst they beard commenced growing, and, by way of encourage.
could claim that distinction, uniformly been careful to keep ment, he shaved it every day, as we learn also from Pliny.
their faces, and most especially those of their soldiers, The example of a youth of so much merit, and of such
completely shaven. In Homer it is the old and feeble high nobility, was sufficient to set the fashion; and when
men, poor old Priam and Phoenix, and Anchises, who he attained command he would, of course, enforce the
wear beards: the fighting heroes, Ajax, Diomede, Ulysses, practice on his troops. It was weary work for the barbers,
Hector, Eneas, Agamemnon, Patroclus, and Achilles, for the faces of the Romans were ruefully long; but a
seem all to have been as careful in their toilette as Lord few seasons of cleanliness soon brightened and tightened
Mark Ker himself, who made a point to have his regiment them up. The Carthaginians in Spain and Africa were
well-trimmed and full-powdered on the morning of every put, by Scipio, to the edge of the sword; and Hannibal
pitched-battle, that they might die like gentlemen. When was recalled from Italy, to have his gray beard clotted
Helen points out the Grecian chiefs to Priam from the with the dust of the desert, in flying to save it from
walls, not an individual of them is distinguished by the Scipio's vengeful razor at Zama. In vain did he seek
cut or colour of his beard; and, in all the numerous and help from Antiochus and Prusias, they too, being Asiatics,
minute descriptions given of wounds, by Homer, no men-
wore long beards, and could not protect him. Perseus,
tion is ever made of any warrior's beard. Ulysses is King of Macedon, and Jugurtha, King of Barbary itself,
praised for his fine black head of hair, in the Odyssey; in succession, fell before the trim Roman legions, who
but never for his beard: the beards belonged only to the went on all smooth-facedly, conquering the world. Not
aged and inactive. If, amongst the gods, Jupiter had a a beard is to be seen on the statues or medals of any one
beard, it was long after his fighting days were over. of the Roman commanders during the glory of the re-
Neither Bacchus, nor Theseus, nor Castor, nor Pollux, nor public, neither of Scipio, Sylla, Pompey, nor Cæsar.
any of the civilized Heroes were sculptured with beards Marius himself, although a vulgar fellow, was above the
on their chins: the bearded Bacchus was an Eastern deity; filth of a beard. Lucullus is represented with one; and
and Hercules was a sort of vagabond. All the equestrian to that circumstance, probably, (for no other has ever
and pedestrian figures of the frieze of the Parthenon have been divined, even by commentators,) he owed the hatred
smooth faces: the Centaurs, those monsters, have beards, and contempt of his soldiers, and his final deposition by
but they are getting them well plucked by the young their mutiny, notwithstanding his splendid success against
Lapitha.
Mithridates, whose beard must have been the longer of
In the Egyptian sculptures, at Thebes and Denderah, the two. Of such moment was the beard, that it out-
more than 4000 years old, the victors are shaven closely-weighed all the good qualities, and they were many,
the vanquished have long beards. Plutarch, in his life of which Lucullus possessed.
Cleomenes states, on the authority of Aristo:le, that the
first act of the Ephori, of the Spartans, on their accession-lib. 2, ode 15; but that refers to the period of his old
Cato the Censor is styled by Horace Intonsus, (unshaven.)
to office, was to issue a proclamation for all citizens to shave age, when he had taken to tippling :
their beards, and to conform strictly to the laws, that they
might not be frightful to themselves, making the shaving
the first grand test of a worthy citizen and soldier; for, to
their honour and benefit, all Spartans were soldiers: theirs
was a standing army of the right kind, every man being
well prepared to maintain his individual rights, and to
avenge his country's wrongs. The concluding words of
the proclamation, "that they might not be frightful to
themselves," show that the Ephori had found out the
secret, that when soldiers become terrible to their fellow.
citizens, they cease to be so to the foreign enemy. Lysan.
der, the only Spartan general who is known to have had a
long beard, after having, by his intrigues, with the help
of Persian gold, ruined the independent states of Greece,
corrupted also the Spartan people, and prepared the way
for their defeat by the Thebans, under Epaminondas. Plu-
tarch tells us that Alexander the Great, previously to his
expedition into Asia, ordered his Macedonian troops to
shave their beards well, as an important point in the im.
provement of their discipline, as constituting them more
truly Greeks, and the superiors of their Asiatic opponents.
In all their coins, both Alexander and his reputed father
Philip, (for he said Jupiter was his real father,) are found
with smooth chins, and neither of them was ever suspected
to be deficient in courage or skill.

"Narratur et prisci Catonis

SAEPE mero caulisse virtus.”—Lib. 3, ode 21.

Notwithstanding the subversion of liberty, the Roman armies still proceeded in their successful career, and the empire kept on the increase, so long as the Emperors and the soldiers shaved their faces clean, as niay be seen on their coins, where no Prince, nor soldier, on obverse or reverse, is seen with a beard, until the reign of Hadrian, who let his beard grow, as Plutarch says, to cover the blemishes of his face. At the precise period of the reign of Hadrian, the boundaries of the empire reached their utmost limit. For 460 years, from the year of the city 454, when the barbers were imported, to 914, victory attended the course of the Roman eagles: but the beard of the old fusty Antoninus, Hadrian's successor, was a portent of worse omen than ever shown in the sky. It was not for nothing that the Greeks designated beards and comets by

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"The scene was truly tremendous. The defile is t narrow, leaving space only for the road and for t rent. The mountains rise on each side so near pendicular, that the vast forests growing on their cast a dismal shade over the road, and loaded as were with a weight of snow, seemed ready to fal bury the traveller as he passed below.

"Now and then a chasm broke the uniformity of gloomy scenery, and presented an object less dar equally terrific; a torrent, arrested in its fall by the hanging from the brow of a crag in solid mass terminated in immense pointed icicles, the least of w icicles, if detached from the sheet above, would m crushed the whole party, and when contemplated suspended over our heads, jam jam lapsura c adsimilis, could not fail to excite some emotions of "Whenever the mountains receded and sloped

wards, they only enabled us to discover forests rising she each other, and swelling into new regions, till they cealed their extent and elevation in the clouds." Such is the beautiful graphic manner in which E ling, in the course of a continental tour during the qu describes the scenery amongst which we were now ave

1823.

"Twas in the evening of a beautiful autumnal da, that season of the year which the clear atmosphere variegated foliage render by far the most agreeable for viewing the beauties of nature. The sun, he rays bursting in glowing radiance through the leadm masses of the clouds, was setting behind the mo tinging their well defined outlines with streams and purple, which, reflected by the snows that the mountain's breast, in all probability for ages, grea all around, till

"Each towering peak, and flinty spire, Was bathed in floods of liquid fire."

and the whole seemed like the enchanted and enchants ing scenery of some fairy dream.

The beauty of the scene, however, was not of lart continuance; the sun gradually declined behind mountains, and with him departed the glories which presence had lent to the surrounding scenery, and the gathering clouds began now to betoken a night as te pestuous as they had been beautiful.

the same word. At the sight of that meteor, as Butler would have called it, the Stella Comata of Antoninus, very different from the Julian star, Victory flew off, never to return. With victory fled science and the liberal arts, and amongst the first of these the art of war. Severus, with a beard like a goat, according to Gibbon, subverted the discipline of the Roman armies, and brought ruin on Amongst the Romans, the name barbarian, that is, the empire. Europe was, for ages after, one general chaos beard-wearer, or bearer, was the designation of every thing of filth, ignorance, violence, and uproar. The first reuncouth, stupid, and ridiculous. They had, to be sure, advance towards civilization was manifested in the paring once been barbarians themselves, and had suffered severely of the beards. In France, Philip Augustus was nearly the for it. For many a year had they, with difficulty, sustained first King who shaved his chin, (see the plates and medals as to the weather by experience,) began now to lasht the attacks of the Samnites, and of their other Italian to Mezeray's History, taken from coins and other authentic neighbours, and had suffered under the repeated inroads monuments,) and by that, and other great and virtuous of the Gauls, assuredly from their neglect of shaving: for, actions, established the French monarchy in splendour. in the year of the city 488, the catastrophe of the Caudine Whilst his successors followed his example, they lived in forks, when their whole army was made to pass under the credit and power. But King John, choosing to wear

a

Our postillion, whose tardy motions had, ere this, b quently excited the impatience of us all, and called for the repeated execrations of the French servant who companied us, (rendered accurate in his discriminate

horses into their briskest pace. Rapidity of motion, how ever, was of little avail. Ere we had proceeded far snow began to descend with an impetuous violence, knwa only in such mountainous regions, while the chill wind

THE KALEIDOSCOPE.

ed in gusts along the narrow way, threatening to | abstinence, yet bore the stamp of intellectual nobleness, I gazed at me for a moment, and quickly interrupting me, nor had yet ch the impending ice, and bury us in its fall.

"Decay's effacing fingers

Swept the lines where beauty lingers."

Upon the whole, indeed, although death had robbed his
victim of the intellectual glance of a full black eye, I have
never seen a countenance that made a deeper impression
on my mind.

e snow was gradually becoming deeper as we ad-
zed, and the difficulty of proceeding was, consequently,
ning greater; and the postillion now proposed leaving
pass the night in the carriage, and, hastening to our
imation, the neighbouring town of St. John's, return,
of
soon as daylight would permit, with the means
On our return to the parlour, the conversation gradually
bling us to proceed on our journey; this proposal, as
7 be anticipated, was not a very agreeable one; none turned on the being whose remains we had just been
is relished much the idea of spending the night in the visiting. The superior, evidently gratified by the interest
t, and in a region so desolate and difficult. It was, which I took in the concerns of the convent, became
efore, with pleasure, or rather eagerness, that we re-gradually more open, and, ere we parted, gave me the
ed intelligence of our being then in the vicinity of a following brief sketch of the history of the monk.
vent of Benedictine Monks, in which, as an alterna-
, he proposed we should pass the night. As, there-
notwithstanding our national prejudices, we were
ty nearly unanimous in thinking that the interior of a
ent would make a better bed-chamber than the in-
r of a carriage, and that monks were better com-
Tons than Alpine snows, we pushed forward and soon
ved at the convent alluded to.

t has been justly remarked, that no country in the

"It was," says he, " on a night as tempestuous as that from the fury of which you have just escaped, that Renaldo Terino, whose mortal remains you have just seen, came first to this convent, carrying with him credentials from the father of our church. He was accompanied by no one, save the guide who had conducted him from St. John's. His dress, although plain, indicated a person of high rank, while his piercing eye, large forehead, and aquiline nose, seemed to favour the description contained

Monk,' said he, I have sent for you, not that you should address to me the language of cant; not because I thought that you could alter the texture of my future fate, but that you might be able, hereafter, to testify that Giovanno died a death that became his name; a death, glorying to men; I ask not thy interference with my God.'-f in the life which he had led. Be it thy task to justify me had endeavoured, without effect, to stem the torrent of his blasphemy, and as he was now compelled to stop, from exhaustion, I attempted again to call him to a sense of and again interrupting me, exclaimed somewhat more his situation. He listened, however, but for a few minutes, coolly, Father, I am now too much exhausted, and too near the precincts of another world to argue doctrines. never receive from reason. Interrupt me not again, but Nor would I accept that hope from fear, which I could listen : I have not always been, as you may have gathered I was born and educated from my name, what I now am. in Rome. Of the first years of my life, I remember but little; they were in all probability passed in the usual I lost when young, and on my arrival at manhood, found routine of boyish pleasures and employments. My parents myself unfettered in my inclinations, and in the possession of a large estate. For some time I led the life which is led by most young men of fortune in the capital. To pass over, however, this most barren part of my existence, of my destiny. I loved, good God! how loved. "Here his feelings overpowered him, his face became livid from emotion, he sunk back on his pillow, and lay for some time almost inanimate; gradually, however, he recovered, wiped his clammy brow, drew his breath for a moment, and proceeded with his narration.

ld exhibits more than Italy does, specimens both of in these letters, that he was a man of no ordinary cha- I proceed to narrate the event which cast for me the die

best and worst architecture. The convent at which

had now arrived was unfortunately of the latter class.
vas a large rectangular building, more of the Tuscan
n any other order of architecture. Its large blank
Is, interrupted by a few narrow ironed windows, gave
ta peculiarly heavy appearance. Over the gate there
Homer's well known tribute to man's mortality, of
ich the following is a translation, by Pope:

"Like leaves on trees the race of men is found,
Now green in youth, now withering on the ground;
Another race the following spring supplies,
They fall successive, and successive rise;
So generations in their course decay,
So flourish these, when those are past away."

In answer to our call, the gate was soon opened by one
the monks, by whom, after informing him of our
dation, we were invited to enter, and conducted to the

artment of the superior.

The monks, at the time of our arrival, were engaged in anting the burial service over the body of a dead brother,

10, we were informed by our conductor, had died on the orning of our arrival. It was, therefore, some time ere e superior came to us, during which we employed ourIves either in pondering on our unwonted situation, or listening to the noble tones of the organ, as, accomnied by the voice of the monks, they rose and fell in

ng echoes along the cloisters.

On the conclusion of the service, the superior made his pearance. He was remarkable for nothing, save what as then sufficiently new to us; the black flowing robe, ith long loose sleeves, and the black cap, by which his der is distinguished.

We explained to him the necessity we were under of rowing ourselves on his hospitality, and we were an

wered by a brief welcome.

In the course of the evening, after partaking of refreshaents, ordered for us by the superior, which, although 10t of a very dainty description, were, it may be supposed, endered extremely palatable by our long exposure to Alpine colds, we were conducted by the superior through the various parts of the building, and amongst the rest to the cell of the monk, who, as we mentioned in the preceding part of our narrative, had died on the morning of our arrival. This cell, like the rest which we had visited, was a small square room of about nine feet. At one end was a bed, or board, which served as such, on which the victim of a misapplied devotion took the rest which his tenets permitted him; while at the other end stood a table, on which were placed his desk, breviary, and crucifix: On this bed the now inanimate body of its Possessor was lying, clad in all the insignia of woe. He appeared to have been a man of above the common stasure; his countenance, though wasted by disease and

I

racter. These letters, however, contained nothing which
could lead to any inference regarding his family; nay,
on the contrary, forbade inquiry on that subject. Being
thus prevented by so sacred an authority, and feeling,
confess, almost afraid to interrogate the person himself,
I could only look forward to a death-bed confession,
should it please Heaven (and the old man glanced upward
as he spoke) to take him hence before me, as the means
of clearing up the mysterious circumstances which hung

over him.

Desirous

"It was not above, eight months after this, and not
many days previous to your arrival, that a messenger
came during midnight, from the neighbouring town of
St. John's, to request the attendance of one of our num-
ber, to receive the confessions, and perform the last offices
of religion, to one of the bandits who infest the neighbour.
ing mountains, and who had been wounded in a descent,
made by himself and companions, on the town.
of going thither myself, I rose and proceeded to pro-
cure one of my brethren to accompany me.
burning lamp directed me to the cell of Father Terino.
He was still engaged in his devotions, and engaged with
an intensity, which, for some time, prevented him from
observing my entrance. On my informing him of the
purport of my visit, he signified his willingness to ac-
company me, and, in a little time, we were on the road to

St. John's.

The yet

The moon, then at its full, was riding through the
blue vault of heaven; a few clouds reposed on the verge
of the horizon, but above, all was clear, uninterrupted
space. Not a sound fell upon the ear, save the ripple of
the mountain streams, and the screeching of the night-
birds, as they flitted past; and the face of nature, lit up
with a softened radiance, partook of the influence of the
hour, and formed a strong and striking contrast to the
scene of mental desolation, which we were about to wit-
A few hours' travelling brought us to St. John's,
ness.
and we were conducted by our guide through various
dark and noisome alleys, to a hovel in the outskirts,
where, in a wretched room, dimly lighted by a single
lamp, and on a wretched bed, reposed the object of our
visit.

" Yes, Father, she was-but it matters not. I loved her with all the ardency of a first love; but she-loved another! The extent of my fortune had made me confident; I asked her hand and was rejected ;-the rejection was repeated, and I was immediately afterwards goaded by the intelligence that she was soon to be married to one, otherwise my rival; he who the companion, the confidant of my boyish years,-the partaker of my boyish pleasures, had, since we reached the years of manhood, now the only being whom Heaven could send to interpose thwarted my ambition in a thousand different ways, was betwixt me and my felicity. I was driven to distraction: from the certainty of bliss I had been plunged to misery. When I thought the cup was already at my lips, I found being to whom, of all mankind, I could have wished eternal, destruction. Canst thou wonder then that I it dashed from my hand, and appropriated by the very sought revenge?'

"A groan from Terino, but which he thought had proceeded from me, caused him to pause for a moment.

But

"Yes, Monk, I sought, and found, sweet and bloody revenge is to a wounded, to a distracted spirit. revenge. Thy cloistered heart cannot know how sweet listen: I learned the day, the hour, the place at which the ceremony was to take place; bribed one of thy numthe keys of the private entrance to the church, and, with every thing ready for escape, concealed myself in the shade ber,-yes, one of thy number, to lend me his robes, and of the altar. My resolution, which had almost begun to relent as I gazed on her deep blue eyes, was again strengthened when I saw his almost triumph at the conclusion of the ceremony. had taken sure aim! vengeance was now complete, and I escaped in the confusion which followed its execution. I escaped to the mountains, joined a band of banditti, became their chief

I fired, and, ha, ha, ha! I I saw them fall together. My

and have since led that life.

"Once, indeed, I heard that she had fallen a victim to

my fire, but that he had recovered; I could have wished it otherwise; but 'twas well, he had felt my vengeance,-and,-ha, ha!

Monster!" exclaimed Father Terino, rising from his seat, and raising his hand as if to strike the wretch,His Villain! and dost thou glory in thy wickedness! Hadst "He was a man of very singular appearance. long black hair, and thick mustachios, matted by the blood thou felt remorse, I could have left thee to the punishment which issued from a large wound in his forehead, gave to of thy God, but, and he would have struck: death, him a peculiarly wild appearance. This, however, was however, had set his seal on the sufferer's cheek, and the not all, for scarcely do think that these circumstances judgment of Heaven mocked into silence the wrath of man. would have made such an impression on my mind; there was also something fascinatingly fiendish (and the old man crossed himself as he spoke) in the glare of his clear black eye.

"For sometime after we entered the room, and even apparently unconscious of our presence. Anxious to break when informed by our conductor of our arrival, he lay the silence, I began to address him; my voice seemed to rouse him from his lethargy; he started from his pillow,

"Such," continued the reverend narrator, was the scene which I witnessed. We returned to the convent : had received a shock which overpowered it, and ere the Father Terino never afterwards left his cell. His mind fourth day had dawned, Father Terino was receiving, I fiend that had destroyed his earthly felicity, was enduring trust, the reward of his labours in that world, where the FACT, ME IPSO TESTE. the pains of everlasting damnation."

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Poetry.

LINES SUGGESTED BY ACCIDENTALLY TAKING UP AN OLD NEWSPAPER.

Tell me, brief chronicle of hope, and fear,
Of fête, and revel gay;

Tell me, thou herald of despair,

Of death, and battle-fray;
Thou, on whose long-forgotten breast
Seeins as primeval night did rest!

Tell me, where are the myriads now,
Thy darkened page that swell?
They on whose proudly-conscious brow
The laurel blossomed well;

Kings, heroes, statesmen; where are they?
Borne to what far off region, say?
Where is the tyrant conqueror now,
And what his vaunted might?
Bow, human greatness, lowly bow;
For glimmers on the sight

A nameless grave;-nor helm, or spear,
To tell Napoleon slumbers there!
Where now th' ascendant of the day,
The wooed, and envied, where?
Deauty, in dazzling array,

And Genius,-speak,-declare,-
Where Genius, tow'ring and sublime;
And where, oh, where, the steep'd in crime?

Where are they now the marriage rite
Had bound, no more to sever?
Th' unconscious babe, in Heaven's sight
Vowed to its God for ever?

Ah, where are they? and where, oh, where,
They on Death's scroll recorded here?

Where is the pageantry and show,
Admiring crowds that won?

The cavalcade announcing woe,
Ended, scarce yet begun,

Life's meteor race;-youth in its prime,
The doom'd of casualty or clime?

Where vanish'd all ?-peasant and king,

The lofty and the low?

Time has swept by, on noiseless wing,
And all the living know

Is but that erst such filled the scene,
And struggles, triumphs,-such have been !

Have been no more l-and this the lot
To all below decreed?

To dazzle,-suffer,-be forgot,

Oh, spirit-crushing creed !
Enough to mar the dreamer's rest,
And lower, for aye, Ambition's crest!

Come, I will fold thee up again,

For, as I lingering gaze

Upon thy sombre page, a strain,

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See, in high places of thy land,

Thy beauty, Israel! slain;
Unstrung the bow, unnerv'd the hand,

The spear and shield are vain ;
Low as the dust-cold as the stone,-
How are the mighty overthrown!
Publish it not in Askalon,

O tell it not in Gath,

How there each high and mighty one
Was scatter'd in Heaven's wrath;
Lest over us, with harp and voice,
The daughters of the foe rejoice.
Hills of Gilboa! you no more

May dews and rains make gay,

For there the shield the mighty bore
Was vilely cast away;

The shield of Saul,-the crown'd,-the fam'd,-
Like his, the slave, who died unnam'd!

Once, from the battle's bloody van,
And from the mighty slain,
Thy sounding bow, oh, Jonathan!
Return'd not back in vain.

On hill, and plain, the sword of Saul
Stream'd with the richest blood of all
Pleasant and beautiful in life

Were they, and side by side,
Death, on the fatal field of strife,

Their hearts did not divide:
Swifter than eagles seek the prey,
And stronger than the lions, they.

Weep, daughters, weep! for Saul, whose throne
Deck'd you with spoils from far:
How are the mighty overthrown,
Amid the shock of war!
For thee my sorrows most o'erflow,
Oh, Jonathan, my brother, thou.
For very pleasant hast thou been

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Whatever his prospects mig

cannot be ascertained. have been, he appears to have abandoned them, m adopted the profession of an actor; and Kirkman an "that he not only acted himself every day, but also every day a sheet." His first play was published in a year 1601, and of his talents and industry some idea be formed from the fact that he had an entire hand, at least a main finger, in two hundred and twenty pind He translated several Latin and Italian works, wh prove him to have been a good classical scholar; and poems, although not highly thought of in his day, good as any poetry of the time.

Besides his poems, plays, and translations, he publ several other works, the best of which is his Actor F dication, which displays great erudition. The da manner of his death are unrecorded.

SONG.

Now what is love? I will thee tell;
It is the fountain and the well,
Where pleasure and repentance dwell;
It is, perhaps, the sansing bell,
That rings all into heaven or hell,

And this is love, and this is love, as I hear tell.
Now what is love I will you show;
A thing that creeps and cannot go,

A prize that passeth to and fro,

A thing for me, a thing for mo, And he that proves shall find it so; And this is love, and this is love, sweet friend, I trow.

SONG.

Pack clouds away, and welcome day,
With night we banish sorrow:
Sweet air blow soft, mount lark aloft,
To give my love good morrow:
Wings from the wind to please her mind,
Notes from the lark I'll borrow;
Bird prune thy wing, nightingale sing,
To give my love good morrow.

To give my love good morrow,
Notes from them all I borrow,
Wake from thy nest robin red-breast,
Sing birds in every furrow;
And from each bill let music shrill,
Give my fair love good morrow.
Blackbird and thrush in every bush,
Stare, linnet, and cock-sparrow,
You pretty elves, amongst yourselves,
Sing my fair love good morrow.

To give my love good morrow,
Sing, birds, in every furrow.

SONG.

The Spaniard loves his ancient slop,
The Lombard his Venetian,
And some like breechless women go,
The Russ, Turk, Jew, and Grecian;
The thrifty Frenchman wears small waist,
The Dutch his belly boasteth,
The Englishman is for them all,
And for each fashion coasteth.
The Turk in linen wraps his head,
The Persian his in lawn too,
The Russ with sables furs his cap.
And change will not be drawn to;
The Spaniard's constant to his block,
The French inconstant ever,
But of all felts that can be felt,

Give me your English beaver.
The German loves his coney wool,
The Irishman his shag too;
The Welsh his Monmouth loves to wear,
And of the same will brag too.

7

Some love the rough, and some the smooth;
Some great and others small things;
But, oh your lecherous Englishman,
He loves to deal in all things.

The Russ drinks quass; Dutch, Lubeck beer,
And that is strong and mighty;
The Briton he metheglin quaffs,
The Irish aqua vitæ ;

The French affects the Orleans grape,
The Spaniard tastes his sherry,
The English none of these can 'scape,
But he with all makes merry.
The Italian in her high chopine,

Scotch lass, and lovely Frow, too;
The Spanish Donna, French Madam,
He will not fear to go to;
Nothing so full of hazard dread,

Nought lives above the centre,

No fashion, health, no wine, no wench,
On which he dares not venture.

burgh architect, and that architect's reporting in the affir mative.

On the afternoon of Monday, the Rev. Edward Irving was extremely desirous of, and intent upon, preaching in the churchyard, where there were several graves yawning to receive the victims of the accident-among others, one, which peculiarly fixed our attention, destined to receive the bodies of the three sisters, Misses Matheson, and a young woman who was connected with them in business; but the magistrates very properly prohibited the exhibition.

Owing to the day being communion Sabbath, and the Rev. Edward Irving having been engaged to preach on the occasion, the parish church was excessively crowded for the evening service, which was to commence at six o'clock. When the tolling of the bell had ceased, but before the reverend gentleman made his appearance, the beams and flooring of the north gallery gave way, and, along with the persons in it, descended upon those beneath. The crash, and the cloud of dust, and shrieks which ensued, were indescribably appalling. In the height of their consternation, the persons occupying the south gallery rushed down stairs; and in the south passage the mass of them became so dense, and swelled so much beyond the capaciousness of the place, as to force in the partition wall which divides the staircase from the passage. A number (particularly females) before descending the staircase altogether, escaped through the windows, the glazing of which is almost entirely destroyed. In the passage, however, many were trodden down; and it was here that the greatest number of deaths occurred. Of the whole number of victims (twenty-nine) only four perished on the north side of the church. The lifeless bodies, which were afterwards removed from the south passage, had become black in the face, the consequence of suffocation. It is a remark-published a pamphlet, to prove that the great fires which able circumstance, that, among all the deaths, there were only two cases of fracture, and these any thing but fatal. Though the north gallery fell with such force as to shatter some of the pews beneath, the fall, it is believed, was the immediate cause of the death of only two, Mrs. Beveridge ressed to a young Student mightily smitten with the Muses, and David Lawson, the former of whom was rendered a and somewhat addicted to the sin of Punning. corpse in a moment, by being struck by one of the joists, while her two blind and twin sons, who were seated beside her, escaped unhurt. One man was seen, after the fall, standing in a part of the gallery which remained, and (as if fascinated by the horror of the scene) to leap down into the area, where he fell prostrate, but, springing to his feet, he again fell and expired, some inarticulate expression hanging, at the time, on his lips. The casualties, besides deaths, are so numerous that they cannot well be reckoned up. They who (instead of remaining seated, as many did) escaped from the crush, appeared in the open air, partially, and some almost wholly, divested of their clothes. Next day, in the Town-hall, (where a magistrate sat to restore articles which were lost on the occasion to their proper owners) we were struck with the immense quantity of hats, bonnets, shawls, veils, combs, bibles, psalm-books, &c. which were displayed in the place: they presented a vivid image of the disaster, in its nature and extent.

DOGGEREL EPISTLE,

EPLY TO THE LETTER OF E. S. W. IN THE LAST KALEIDOSCOPE;

DEAR NEPHEW,
I receiv'd your letter,
For which I'm very much your debtor;
You wrote in doggerels, I suppose,
Because you are averse to prose;
Or, perhaps, to prove that folks sometimes
Possess the art to prose in rhymes.
However, I must say your Latin
Quotations did come very pat in;
But pardon me, my mind I'll speak,
What do you hope from Latin, Greek,
Or from those crabbed Hebrew roots?
You'll find them yield but sorry fruits.
Why over metaphysics pore?
Bacon you'll find is but a bore.

On Locke ne'er waste your time and health,
That Locke is not the key to wealth;
As for those said Parnassian maids,
Yclept the Muses, they are jades,
Who jilt their vot'ries without pity,
Then cut them with a sorry ditty:
Like syrens to Ulysses strumming,
Their practice ever has been humming:
Then fly them, Sam,-ne'er look behind,-
"Respice finem" bear in mind.

I hinted to your good friend D-b-y,
My fears that Pegasus, your hobby,
Will throw you, as he has thrown many,
Then kick your brains out, if you've any.
Rather than tempt Parnassus' steep,
"Twere better far turn chimney-sweep;
To cry" Soot O!" would suit you better,
Than Latin, Greek, or the belles lettres.
A tinker's life is far more toler-
Able than that of a poor scholar;
Then Horace quit-put Homer by-
Learning, friend Sam, is all my eye
And Betty Martin.-So good bye.
Liverpool.

DREADFUL ACCIDENT, AND GREAT LOSS OF LIFE,
AT KIRKALDY.

(From the Edinburgh Weekly Chronicle of June 18.)

On Sunday last, one of those calamities which, from their magnitude, seem designed by Providence to rouse people from their habitual lethargy, to reflection upon the uncertain tenure by which they hold their lives, occurred at Kirkaldy. As soon as the intelligence of it reached us, we repaired to the spot, and consumed a day in collecting from authentic quarters the whole of its particulars.

[Here follows the melancholy list of the sufferers, which we shall omit.]

The calamity we have so faintly decribed, ought not to be imputed to the immense crowd, for every gallery ought to be capable of supporting fully as many as by any possibility can be packed into it, but to the general insufficiency of the church, which was built only about twenty years ago. And here, we cannot but reflect upon that rapaciousness of profit, which, insensible to all correct principle, and remote as are the poles asunder from all humane feeling, distinguishes modern times. The joists of the gallery ap peared to us to have been inserted scarcely more than an inch in the walls; and throughout the whole frame of it there was not a single iron bolt. It is very evident to us, at least, that the joists had been bent at their centre by the pressure upon them; and that, in consequence, their extremities resting in the wall had come out, and, as a farther consequence, their opposite extremities resting in a large beam which supported them as well as the front of the gallery (which beam and front are still standing) had come out, in like manner. It is a remarkable circumstance that the rests of the joists in that beam do not appear to be injured in a single fibre of the wood, and the rests in the walls, if we except part of the lath and plaster, are as little injured. There has all along been entertained, by many of the Kirkaldy people, a strong sense of the insufficiency of this church; and we know some who, on the day in question, reluctantly absented themselves from it, from a conviction of its insecurity, in the case of its being crowded. The great majority of deaths has justly been ascribed to the impetuous rush of people from the south gallery; but it is very questionable whether, had not that rush taken place, the calamity would not have been still greater. Before the rush took place, a cracking in the joists of the south gallery was very distinctly heard; and there is a considerable rent in the lath and plaster work of the under part of it, which took place on the occasion, between the front supporting the beam and the flooring.

The history of this church, which was designed to contain 1800 people, is very brief. A Mr. Alexander Macfarlane contracted for the building of it; and he having become bankrupt, a litigation arose between the heritors and Mr. Macfarlane's creditors as to its sufficiency; which ended in that question of fact being remitted to an Edin

When a calamity of this kind occurs, all angry and controversial feelings ought to be stilled by its awfulness; but, at the same time, there is any thing but reason in suppressing reflections which it may happen to give rise To do so would be to deprive, in a great measure, cato. lamity of its sanctity-of its only usefulness of that which alone can compensate for and mitigate its bitterness. In bigoted times, when there were antagonist religious parties, it was invariably the case that the one construed almost every calamity that occurred into a divine judgment upon the other. The practice still survives with a particular party; and but very lately one of that party, an excellently intentioned, and truly pious, and talented man, devastated Edinburgh in 1824, were a divine judgment upon its citizens for patronising the Musical Festival! Is this more tremendous accident at Kirkaldy, then, also to be construed into a divine judgment? and, if so, for what has it been inflicted? We have always believed, with the best of our divines, that there is, for the wisest of purposes, an impenetrability by human wisdom into the designs of Providence, in many of its dispensations; but there are some who, scarcely knowing their own minds, impudently and impiously pretend to a thorough knowledge of the mind of the Deity, and to fathom it with the utmost certainty; and to them we, in a spirit of charity which, we fear, they cannot comprehend, would suggest that, in construing what, in common parlance, are called accidents, into divine judgments, they are playing with a two-edged weapon. If what we have heard said is true, that the Rev. Edward Irving pronounced the downfal of the Brunswick Theatre to be a divine judgment upon dramatic representations, what will he say of this awful catastrophe happening in a place appointed exclusively for the worship of the Almighty?

The Beauties of Chess.

"Ludimus effigiem belli."-VIDA.

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