and I having gone out for a few mi-alleys, to the foot of a hill; but the dining-room was little better than an open barn, and was recommended only by the coolness of its shade. Abdullah would accompany us on our return to the fhip, together with two Mufti's, who fpoke Arabic indifferently, and feemed eager to fee all my manufcripts; but they were very moderately learned, and gazed with ftupid wonder on a fine copy of the Hamalah and on other collections of ancient poetry. nutes to read an Arabic infcription, found him on my return devouring a manufcript, which I had left with fome of the company. He is a Kadi or Mohammedan judge; and as he feemed to have more knowledge than his countrymen, I was extremely concerned that I had fo little converfation with him. The king, Shaikh Ahmed, has a younger fon, named Abdullah, whofe ufual refidence is in the town of Wani, which he feldom leaves, as the ftate of his health is very infirm. Since the fucceffion to the title and authority of Sultan is not unalterably fixed in one line, but requires confirmation by the chiefs of the island, it is not improbable that they may hereafter be conferred on prince Hamdullah. A little beyond the hole in which Salim received us, was his Haram, or the apartment of his women, which he permitted us all to fee, not through politeness to ftrangers, as we believed at firft, but, as I learned afterward from his own lips, in expectation of a prefent: we faw only two or three miferable creatures with their heads covered, while the favourite, as we fuppofed, stood behind a coarse curtain, and fhewed her ankles under it loaded with filver rings; which, if she was capable of reflection, the muft have confidered as glittering fetters rather than ornaments; but a rational being would have preferred the condition of a wild beaft, expofed to perils and hunger in a foreft, to the fplendid mifery of being wife or mif treís to Salim. Before we returned, Alwi was defirous of fhewing me his books; but the day was too far advanced, and I promifed to vifit him fome other morning. The governor, however, prevailed on us to fee his place in the country, where he invited us to dine the next day: the walk was extremely pleafant from the town to the fide of a rivulet, which formed in one part a fmall pool very convenient for bathing, and thence, through groves and 2 Early the next morning a black meffenger, with a tawny lad as his interpreter, came from prince Salim ; who, having broken his perspective glafs, wifhed to procure another by purchase or barter: a polite answer was returned, and steps taken to gra❤ tify his wishes. As we on our part expreffed a defire to vifit the king at Domoni, the prince's meffenger told us, that his mafter would, no doubt, lend us palanquins (for there was not a horfe in the island) and order à fufficient number of his vaffals to carry us, whom we might pay for their trouble, as we thought juft: we commiffioned him, therefore, to ask that favour, and begged that all might be ready for our excurfion before funrife, that we might escape the heat of the noon, which, though it was the middle of winter, we had found exceffive. The boy, whofe name was Combo Madi, ftaid with us longer than his companion: there was fomething in his look fo ingenuous, and in his broken English fo fimple, that we encouraged him to continue his innocent prattle. He wrote and read Arabic tolerably well, and fet down at my defire the names of several towns in the island, which, he firft told me, was properly called Hinzuan. The fault of begging for whatever he liked, he had in common with the governor and other nobles; but hardly in a greater degree: his firft petition for fome lavender-water was readily granted; and a imall bottle of it was fo acceptable to him, that if we had fuffered him, he would have kiffed our feet: ་ feet but it was not for himself that he rejoiced fo extravagantly; he told us, with tears ftarting from his eyes, that his mother would be pleafed with it, and the idea of her pleasure seemed to fill him with rapture: never did I fee filial affection more warmly felt, or more tenderly, and, in my opinion, unaffectedly expreffed; yet this boy was not a favourite of the officers, who thought him artful. His mother's name, he faid, was Fatima; and he importuned us to vifit her; conceiving, I fuppofe, that all mankind muft love and admire her: we promised to gratify him; and, having made him feveral prefents, permitted him to return. As he reminded me of Aladdin in the Arabian tale, I defigned to give him that name in a recommendatory letter, which he preffed me to write, instead of St. Domingo, as fome European vifitor had ridiculously called him; but, fince the allufion would not have been generally known, and fince the title of Alau'ldin, or Eminence in Faith, might have offended his fuperiors, I thought it adviseable for him to keep his African name. A very indifferent dinner was prepared for us at the house of the governor, whom we did not fee the whole day, as it was the beginning of Ramadan, the Mohammedan Lent, and he was engaged in his devotions, or made them his excufe; but his eldest fon fat by us, while we dined, together with Mufa, who was employed, jointly with his brother Hufain, as purveyor to the captain of the frigate. Having obferved a very elegant ceived a different idea of this dye, and On the IDEAL PLEASURES of INSANITY: An Essay. F all the maladies to which humanity is liable, there is none, perhaps, of which the nature and Gaufes are fo little understood as that which we denominate infanity. This, however, is not at all furprising, fince the disease having in its operations fo much the appearance of being ent rely mental, it cannot be expected that we fhould be much acquainted with the distempers and derangements of a principle, with whofe very nature we are perfectly unacquainted, and even whofe healthy operations mock all the efforts of our art to trace. But whatever be the nature and caufes of this disease, I am well perfuaded there are fome degrees of it, P 2 which which are by no means fo calamitous to the perfons diseased, as the imaginations of the inexperienced are apt to reprefent: nay, perhaps, in fome inftances, the whole of the calamity is confined to the relatives and connections of the fufferer; many people having been obliged to behold the re lities of the world in fuch a point of view, as to be bet in any delufion, by which they can efcape from the painful prospect. Thefe reflections were fuggefted to my mind, a few days ago, by a vifit I paid to cne of those houfes in the Outiki ts of the town, where thofe who have either too keen, or too confused an intellect, are prevented from being troublesome to their friends; and where a once intimate acquaintance of mine has for fometime had the misfortune (if his prefent appear. ance will permit one to call it fuch) to be confined. I must own, as I approached the Gothic-looking building, together with the friend who accompanied me, I felt an awful terror creeping over me; whips, chains, and beds of straw, and difto ted eye-balls rolled in my imagina.ion; and the fenfations of my mind a. of to the fublimity of horror; for I had never been in fuch a scene before, and I had no other ideas of madness, than what I had derived from the descriptions of the poets. Nor were thefe impreffions at all weakened when the jealous door, creaking on its fonorous hinge, revealed a gruff black-looking figure, not indeed very like the three headed Cerberus of the infernal regions, but prefenting me (at that inftant) with no faint idea of the sturdy hero, by whom that fame Cerberus was dragged to day. This Alcides of Bethnalgreen, it is true, was clothed with no fhaggy honours torn from the favage monarch of the woods, nor did his iron hand grafp the enormous club; but the place of the latter was fupplied by a key of mot uncommon magnitude, and his huge proportions were covered, rather than concealed, by a kind of flannel jacket, which clinging to his limbs, gave to every fwell and fall of his muscles, as determined a difcrimination as ever the pencil called forth in the giant figures of Fufeli. My imagination, however, was a little relieved when, after specifying the caufe of our vifit, we were fhewn into a large parlour, in which no appeara ces of gloom were to be difcovered, except what was imparted by the iron bars that barricaded the windows from without and even these, twined by the tendrils of woodbine, and shaded by the fmiling fprays of jeffamine, loft, at least, the half of their terrors. As for the guests, who were fauntering in and out, with the greatest apparent compofure, my mind was alarmed by them with no kind of apprehenfion; for there was not a face among them, which bore any thing like the marks of eccentricity or wildness that my eye, glancing by accident upon the glafs, has fo often beheld, when yielding to the delufions of fancy, I have held fweet communion with the enthufiaft mufe, and enjoyed the delightful madness of poetic reverie. But if the tumults of my mind fubfided in the contemplation of these objects, fomething like pleasure stole across it, at the entrance of my suppofed unfortunate friend. And when I beheld the man whom for fo many years, while in the poffeffion of his reafon, I conftantly met with a thin fallow countenance, thoughtful brow, and eye fcarcely ever enlivened by a fmile, ftep brifkly up to me with a vivacious look, clear and ruddy complexion; fleak, and even inclining to contented corpulency, I could not but inwardly exclaim Good heaven! and is this the pitiable state of infanity which thrills us with terror but to name?' The happy maniac took me im mediately by the hand, in the most cordial manner, enquired after my family, one by one, without taking the leaft notice of his own; aflured me me how glad he was to fee me, how much better he was (which is indeed the case) than he had been; and gave me to understand how foon he expected to be liberated from the place of his confinement. "O my friend,' fays he, gayly, I get charmingly apace. I am quite a different creature from what `I was. While I was at St. Luke's, I had used to fit from day's end to day's end like a ftone-juft as if I had no animation; and fhould never have moved from my feat, if they had not led me by the arm, in this way,' (taking hold of me as he spoke.) But now I walk about, and write, and talk, and am juft as I was when at home, and in my bufinefs: only I cannot say that my head,' continued he, laying his hand upon his forehead, is quite right. But I never do any mischief, I am perfectly tranquil. Indeed I never did commit any outrages, except three or four times, when I was at --> I knocked my head against the wall to think that God Almighty fhould rob me of my reafon. But now,' concluded he, I am always perfectly calm-always juft as you see me.' This voluble vivacity, in a man, whose penfive taciturnity had ufed to be the most diftinguishing trait of his character, no lefs furprised me than the perfect recollection he feemed to have, not only of circumstances which had happened previous to his derangement, but of every part of his deportment, in every stage of his infanity. My furprife, however, did not prevent my taking particular notice of his perfon, which was no otherwise neglected than had been always ufual with him; and the most ftriking appendage of which was a great bundle of papers, fo closely written, as to leave scarcely any traces of their original whitenefs, which were flicking out of his waistcoat pocket. With thefe writings, I was not permitted to remain long in this ftate of diftant acquaintance; for fcarcely were we feated, when he began to inform me, that he had the very day before written a letter to my friend Humanicus, in which he had taken the liberty to make ufe of my name for that he had hit upon a scheme for the advantage of mankind, juft the very fame as that which Humanicus had executed- Juft the very identi af thing,' faid he, clapping the back of one hand, in which he held a pinch of fnuff into the hollow palm of the other, only that the object is different: they hit together as exact as can be. But here it is,' continued he, rummaging over his papers, and giving me two fheets of an old copy book, written as clofe as poffible between the lines, you fhall fee what an excellent discovery it is.' As I was inclined to humour a difposition, which I could not discover any probable advantage in oppofing; or, to fpeak fincerely, as I had a curiofity to indulge by tracing the eccentric operations of a difordered mind, I perufed his long epiftle, in which he avowed his difcovery of a new machine, for the prefervation of the lives of perfons endangered by fire, with confiderable attention; and though I was fometimes induced to fmile at the eccentric ideas occafionally interfperfed, there was neverthelefs fo much regular reafoning in fome parts of his difcourfe, and fo great an appearance of plausibility and invention in his fcheme, that I could not help reflecting, that from his vifionary fpeculations, an ingenious mechanic might have collected hints for executing, in a confiderable degree, the benevolent purposes his frenzy had in view. The object to which he was perpetually digreffing, however, and which feemed to him the most effential requifite for the due execution of his fcheme, was that he should be released from his captivity; of the injuftice of which, in the prefent fituation of his min. he feemed to have conceived a ery rivetted idea. Your benevolence,' fays he, will readily per, ceive that there are but three reafons, why a man in my fituation of mind ought to be confined The first is, when he endeavours to commit any outrage upon the lives or perfons of his fellow creatures; the fecond, when by diforderly conversation he disturbs the peace, and hurts the feelings of fociety; and the third, when he is apt to commit any injury on the furniture of a house-and you will I dare fay even admit that the last of these, is no fufficient reafon for depriving a man of the most invaluable bleffing, liberty alluding moft evidently in this reservation, to the remembrance of an outrage, which he himself had committed about five years ago, (in the first paroxyfm of his infanity) upon a mahogany table then standing in his room. if this be madnefs, yet there's method in it,' as Polonius obferves. And indeed, the whole of his deportment was fuch, as to furnish me with an additional argument in favour of the ingenious Mr. Morgan's opinion, that Shakspeare's Hamlet (miftaken by players and commentators) is a delineation of real, not of affumed madness While my attention was thus engroffed, and that of my companion was equally engaged with a poem, and a French letter, (the correctness of the latter of which, confidering how many years it was fince he had enjoyed any opportunities of exercifing himself in the language, was an additional object of furprife) a thin, pale-looking man, in black, with the most compofed and contented countenance, came fauntering into the room, and having thrown himself carelessly into a chair, asked us whether we had been to fee the camp at Bagshot. Upon being answered in the negativeAh!' fays he, I meant to have gone there myself this week, but I took a trip to Cheltenham about a fortnight ago, and got a drop too much, which turned my head a little, and here I have been everence. Well, well,' continued he, with a smile, ⚫ it is a good thing to be married, and have a good wife to take care of one. My dame perceived that all was not right here,' (pointing to his head) to the very kindly took this method to prevent any mischief from befalling me. I fhall not be here long I dare fay. I often take a country lodging here for a week, or fo, and then return to my fhop; where I have seen you, I believe, fir, before now,' added he, defcribing a fhop where I remember about two years ago to have bought a hat. Ah!' replied my visionary friend,' 'you have no business here, I am fure. You would be better at home in your own parlour; as indeed, we both of us fhould: for between you and me,' faid he, turning round to me, if you fuppofe we are here to be cured, you are mistaken. No, no, that would not answer their purpose. We live in this houfe, juft as the generality of people live out of this houfe; we eat, we drink, we walk about, and we go to bed. But no medicine to cure us. No, no; we might just as well be at home; and better too, for then we should not be disturbed with the shocking blafphemy and noifes, with which fome of the people under clofe confinement here, occafionally fhock the whole house.' Why no,' replied the hatter, very compofedly, we certainly do not come here for what we had loft; if we do it is certainly the wrong place; for it is not here, I affure you. But then we live very well here. I never was in a house in my life, where there was better usage and accommodations; and we have got a tolerable fet, at prefent, who fuffer us to enjoy * This opinion of Mr. Morgan has never been published to the world, nor I be lieve any otherwife broached than in private converfation; but the ingenious defence of the character of Falftaff, from the general charge of cowardice, must render every lover of the higher order of criticism, defirous of further elucidations of our most admired author from the fame pen. our |