In the French court my influence can do much ; It waits but your consent to call you lord. But he refuses to change his faith; and in the middle of an argument, getting rather warm on the lady's side, Sir Charles suddenly appears close to them, and expresses his surprise at his lady's sudden interest in Walter and his fortunes. But by what secret motive prompted, Beyond all rightful limit, far extending To separate and blight two gentle hearts, I would, in no vain, curious spirit, ask; The Lady urges the inequality of the match, and its consequent impropriety. Sir Charles maintains the higher ground, that virtue is the true nobility. Though his descent from monarchs were derived, And this topic is debated, though rather at too great a length, between them, till the Lady's opposition evokes a full exposition of Sir Charles's views in the following speech: I hold that honours honourably won, Afford the purest stimulants to action, Which men, untouched by heavenward desires, Regardless of their everlasting crown, And cent'ring in this world their sum of good, Can raise their hopes, or bend their efforts to. They far exalt fame's ardent votary Above the miserable herd whose lives Are wasted on the grovelling quest of gain, Or dissipate on sensualities; The noble name, acquired by noble deeds, Lives the memorial of past excellence, And, potent in the virtues it embalms, Excites the aspiring soul, which yearns for fame, To emulate the achievements it rewards. But glittering orders and proud appellations Are but as stigmas when the unworthy wears them; This open declaration, in which the virtues of the heart and the honour of the character are so raised above the splendour of rank and titles of society, begets some suspicion and alarm in Lady Ellinor's mind that Sir Charles has some particular meaning applicable to her in what he says; and this leads to the full disclosure of the guilty secret, which we must give in those winged words which the poet himself has chosen. SIR CHARLES. Think you then, and say, Which is the nobly, which the basely born, Good Empson's daughter, though of lowly race, Whose childhood throve beneath their brightening hopes, Or he, whose parents, whatsoe'er their rank, By publication of their own disgrace? LADY ELLINOR.-Have you no recollection of the past? Strikes to my heart a pang of keen reproach. No longer urge our cause against her will; How say you, lad! Sir Charles communicates therefore to Empson that he has discovered in Walter a relation; yet that, notwithstanding his brightened prospects, he will make no alteration in their course of life or desires, but make them happy in the way they have chosen. He then joins their hands, and, on Walter owning his preference to a country life, Sir Charles thus at once unfolds his views, and concludes the drama in a very poetical and picturesque manner. Your choice is wisely made, and shall be prospered. There is a fertile wide demesne of mine, Which shall to you and to your gentle Mary Be confirmed fully. 'Tis an ancient seat,- And nobly stands at Aber by the sea, Hard by the coast-but oh! not such a coast Of the blue ocean's tide the corn-fields stretch, And flocks and herds the flowery meadows browze; From the rude touch of all ungenial blasts, Lift up their heads unscathed, and spread their branches There were my boyish haunts,—I love them yet; It cheers me in anticipation now To think upon our summer-evenings there; And look across the Menai's sparkling straits, Will we not, Mary? So ends this little domestic or familiar tragedy, representing nature and truth under a poetical form, with less depth in the delineation of passion than the loftier tragedy, yet conveying its mitigated impressions with greater ease and lighter colouring. The story is not a mere imitation of the prosaic reality of the world, but dignified by ideality, and admitting picturesque associations and figures. The dramatic progress is slower than in the higher tragedy, but not less effective; and what is wanted in intensity of passion is compensated by the truth of the picture, and the readiness with which it excites sympathy, by being more on a level with our own feelings and situation. Perhaps it is to this class of fiction, whether in prose or poetry, that we recur with most pleasure; for there are accents that come from the poet's lyre, too deeply plaintive to bear frequent renewal, while those works will be most uniformly popular that, while they moderately affect the passions, at the same time seek to divert the fancy and exercise the taste. Nonnullas credo esse materias, quæ continuum desiderent affectum; nec tamen minus artis aut usus hi leniores habent. MR. URBAN, Charterhouse, May 8. YOUR Correspondent, MR. J. ALLIES, who requests information respecting John Bunyan, will probably have learned before seeing your next number that another splendid edition has just been edited by Lewis Pocock, esq. F.S.A., who has laid the first edition, with many other early ones, under such ample contribution as probably to settle every really important bibliographical question for the future. But a new era, even in the fame of Bunyan, having as it were set in with the editorship of Southey, perhaps others of your readers besides J. A. may thank me for requesting a little of your space in order to do justice to the high principle displayed by the laureate in the execution of the task which he undertook at my request. It is a subject which perhaps no one but myself can speak of-on which there will be but one opinion,-and can be no mistake. Mr. Southey was from the first particularly anxious to improve the text; but, residing three hundred miles from London, he in the first instance corrected a common copy throughout with his own hand, consulting the folio edition as well as others which I had sent him, and this was done thinking it would therefore not be necessary to transmit each sheet to so great a distance as it came from the press: but as he proceeded in his task I was enabled to furnish him with so many valuable aids from various literary friends, that he determined to disregard his own extra labour, and wrote me thus : "Keswick, 21 March, 1829. "I duly received your parcel, and will in a few days return the copy for the press. It has put me upon a careful collation of the text, and do not repent of the unexpected labour which has been thus occasioned, as it will be the means of presenting the work in Bunyan's own vigorous vernacular English, which had been greatly corrupted in the easiest and worst of all ways, that of compositors and correctors following inadvertently their own mode of speech. The copy of Hep tinstall's edition has been of use in this collation; and sometimes in the one which goes to press, corrupt as it is, I have found a better reading than in the folio. These are minute pains of which the public will know nothing, but of which a few readers will feel the worth. "A correct text has appeared to me (who, both as a verseman and a proseman, am a weigher of words and sentences,) of so much consequence, since I undertook this collation, that I should like to correct the proofs myself." Accordingly, every proof sheet was transmitted to Mr. Southey at Keswick, and the modern printer whom I lately heard honestly exulting in the beauty of a Large Paper bound copy, now mellowed and glossy with comparative age, was as happy in minutely following his "copy" as former mar-tex's seem to have been in perpetuating, if not engendering, the foulest errors. I feel quite happy, Mr. Urban, in the idea that you will think I ought not to lose so fair an occasion of Using accidentally the word modern here calls to my mind that the late Lord Spencer used to call my friend Mr. Wm. Nicol of whom I am now speaking-the "modern JENSON!" P.S. I have examined the copy of the second edition in the British Museum, and it has not the portrait, but a gentleman of the highest bibliographical and biblical authority tells me has always considered it as imperfect on that account. The spurious third part (bound up with it,) wants the title-page; Scott adopted the second edition for his text-it was lent to him by a lady for the purpose-in all probability Mrs. Gurney, for there cannot be many persons who can boast of possessing even a second edition of this remarkable book. ON THE SCARABÆUS. IN every cabinet or museum of antiquities are to be seen numerous collections of stones, such as agate, cornelian, porphyry, basalt, &c. &c. which are worked into the shape of the scarabæus or beetle, and have often some engraving or device on the flat surface. They have been found in great abundance in Egypt, and occasionally amongst the vestiges and ruins of the ancient Etruscan cities, and are of different sizes, and great variety of execution. Why this insect should have been selected so generally for an object of sculpture is by no means a clear point, and it may be a matter of some interest to inquire for what reason any consideration should have been attached to a creature of how far it may have been connected such comparative insignificance, and with the philosophy and mythology of the earliest nations of the world. Lanzi, in his " Etrusca," (p. 135, vol. 1,) has these Saggio di Lingua observations on this subject: "We will now say a few words on the Scarabæus, which has served as a model for the form of a vast number of Etruscan sculptured stones. ་་ They are generally perforated with a hole lengthways, so that either they may be strung on a thread or small cord, and thus worn as amulets, or, by means of a rivet, they may be fixed or set, so as to serve the purpose of a ring or signet. This description of superstition is derived from Egypt, where the scarabæus was held by many as an object of divine worship,* and was universally considered a symbol of the moon and the sun. It was likewise supposed to be emblematical of manly strength and vigour, from the received opinion that these insects were solely of the male species, and from thence were held as particularly adapted to form the subject of the ring or signet used by the military class. Thus, according to Plutarch, the scarabæus amongst fighting men was engraved on their signets.† "The same custom seems to have passed over into Italy, either having been first adopted in Sicily, where the usages of Egypt prevailed from the earliest ages, or through the doctrines of Pythagoras, whose philosophy, being veiled in symbols, was copied from that of the Egyptians. There is every reason to suppose that the warriors of Italy held this same opinion respecting the scarabæus, since the figure of some hero was generally engraved on the flat surface of the stone, and it was probably not only considered as an amulet, but, from the image representing some person connected with religious veneration, it was classed and deposited amongst the household gods. Hence it follows, that, as the style of engraving in many instances is exceedingly rude and unfinished, it is to be supposed that these scarabæi were in use among the soldiery of the lower grades, since such as are more delicately executed are far less numerous.' The earliest mention in the Old Testament of religious worship rendered to any divinity connected with an insect occurs in the 1st chap. 2nd Book of Kings, 2nd and 3rd verses. Abaziah, King of Israel, having fallen through a lattice of his upper chamber, and having thus received some dangerous injury, sent to consult Beelzebub, the god of Ekron, to know whether he should recover of this disease." The name of this deity is translated in the Septuagint as "The God-Fly of the Ekronites,"§ who were the inhabitants of a district belonging to the Philistines, situated near the Mediterranean, and originally allotted to the tribe of Judah. chap. xv. ver. 45 and 46.) (Josh. Calmet says, (and the same opinions are found in Buxtorf's Chaldee Dictionary, v. the word " Baal,”) that "This deity was called the god of the flies, either because he defended the people from the flies, (which were attracted in great numbers by the sacrifices,) or because the idol represented a fly or beetle, and the figure of this insect was according to Pliny an object of adoration. The Egyptians, with whom this worship originated, were at a short distance from the country of the Philistines, and it is observed that there are beetles in the pictures of Isis, on which Pignorius¶ has a comment. The author of the Book of Wisdom,** (chap. xii. ver. 8, 23, and 24,) having said that God sent flies and wasps to drive the Canaanites and Ammonites by degrees out of their country, adds, that God made those very things, to which they paid divine honours, the instruments of their punishment, they therefore adored flies and wasps. There are said to be medals and old seals on which flies and beetles are represented. Some authors are of opinion that the name Achor †† (as quoted by Pliny) being the God invoked at Cyrene against flies, refers to Akron, the city where Beelzebub was worshipped." According to this extract from Calmet, it appears that winged insects, such as the fly, the wasp, and the beetle, were objects of worship amongst the Egyptians and the adjoining nations. It may further be observed, that one of the distinguishing marks on the calf, which word Beelzebub. || Vide Calmet's Dictionary under the ¶ Pignorius Laurentius of Padua, a canon of Treviso, died 1631. He wrote the Mensa Isiaca to illustrate Egyptian antiquities. Vid. p. 43. **As Calmet evidently refers to the Vulgate, these verses are here given : Wisdom xii. 8. Et misisti antecessores exercitus tui, vespas. Ver. 23. Unde et illis, qui in vitâ suâ insensate et injustè vixerunt, per hæc, quæ coluerunt, dedisti summa tormenta. Ver. 24, Etenim in erroris viâ diutiùs erraverunt, Deos estimantes hæc, quæ in animalibus sunt supervacua. Vulgate Version. ++ Cyreniaci Achorem Deum invocant, muscarum multitudine pestilentiam afferente, quæ protinus intereunt, cum litatum est illi Deo. Plin. Nat. Hist. 1. 10, c. 26. Cyrene, here mentioned, was a city and province of Libya Pentapolitana, lying between the great Syrtes and the Mediterranean. Ꭰ |