mous, or rather the infamous, Scioppius, a man, who by his talents, his malevolent and perverted criticism, his literary forgeries, and his bitter and biting satire, has had the honour of causing more hearts to ache than any who have ever gone before or who may ever come after him. Although it was his lot to live in the sixteenth century, and during an age which, more perhaps than any other, was fertile in great and illustrious men, yet no talents, however exalted, no sta tion, however sacred, no disposition, however gentle or unassuming, could avert the venom of his censure, or sweeten the corrosive bitter of his quill. His walk through the fields of genius and literature was like the passage of the simoom over the gardens of my native Arabia.* It withered every flower of genius, and blasted all the infant blossoms of the mind. He has darkened with his sacrilegious breath the fairest pearls which glittered on the string of poesy; nor was it for want of will that he did not destroy the noblest links that connected the chain of science. Punishment has, however, at last overtaken him. Ob serve with what malignity he eyes the persons near him.

⚫ Videt ingratos intabescitque videndo."

1

An Eastern Peri of Gennistan quoting Ovid, thought I to myself. That wonder must be the subject of future interrogation. I must not at present interrupt her account. "Those three aged-looking persons whom you see near him, are Julius Cæ

The Peris are all of Arabic extraction. See D'Herbelot, quoted above in part I. This must also excuse the metaphors she uses, and the hyperbolical tone of indignation which she assumes. The speech of the little Spirit brings to my mind those fine lines in Gifford's severe and lashing, but most admirable, Epistle to Peter Pindar.

Truck praise for lust-hunt infant genius down,

Strip modest merit of its last half-crown. Blow, from thy mildew'd lips, on virtue blow, And blight the Goddess thou can'st never ▹ཀཽ ༔, know:"

Is Mr Gifford's muse to be for ever silent? "Is her most eloquent tongue now mute for ever ?"

The country has a claim on one who possesses his poetical powers. Has he forgot ten the expectations which his motto must

sar Scaliger, Casaubon, and Thuanus, most celebrated names, as you well know, and against whom Scioppius ever entertained the most deadly rancour. His punishment is an ingenious one, and to him the most severe that could be allotted. He has been condemned to write an eulogium of Scaliger, in which you see him now employed, and to refute in it all those calumnious and lying aspersions which he engrossed in his Scaliger Hypebolimacus. Those little devils with their whips admonish him to diligence; and as he dare not rise from his table, even to meals, till his eulogium is concluded, his little dinner is cooked before him; and to complete his mortification, his fowls are singed with his Exercitationes Rhetorica, and his apples roasted in the leaves of his Infamia Famiani.* But we have no longer time to spend on Scioppius."

As we turned from this part of the wood, I discerned, at a distance, one man undergoing the most signal castigation from another, who stood above him in a most merciless attitude. "Whom do you imagine that pair to be?" said my little airy Spirit. I professed my ignorance." Why, that's Livy, the Roman historian, mauling the poor battledore-maker who made his battledores with the parchment of one of his best Decads."

"But turn to the right hand, before

The works of Gaspar Scioppius are very numerous. See his Life at some length refutation of the celebrated letter of Joseph in Bayle. His Scaliger Hypobolimæus is a Scaliger's, in which he gives a particular account of the life of his father Julius Cæsar Scaliger, and attempts to prote his descent from the Princes of the House of Scaliger in Verona. There is not the least doubt that Scioppius introduced innumerable falsehoods into this work; but, on the other hand, it seems just as evident, that Joseph Scaliger, in his description of the family tree, and the various anecdotes of his father's earlier days, has indulged pretty freely in theoretical conjecture, and, not unfrequently, in direct forgery. The Infamia Famiani is an attack on the first Decad of the History of the Belgic Wars, by Famianius Strada. In speaking of Scaliger, it is impossible not to add what must strike every one who is anxious for the interests of knowledge, that a life of Joseph Scaliger, with anecdotes of the literary men of his time (which would be in fact, if properly executed, A History of the Revival of Letters and Philosophy in Europe), is at present almost the great desideratum in modern literature.

we leave this scene, and you will see a singular group enough." The group certainly was an uncommon one. It consisted of only three figures. One a venerable-looking man, who, not withstanding the mildness of his expression, and the pacific-looking suit of quaker-grey in which he was habit ed, stood in a firm erect attitude, and along side of him a little devil with a came in his hand raised and ready. Beside these stood a learned-looking mitred father of the Church; and on the back of this reverend prelate was placed, in no very comely position, a poor trembling pedagogue-looking being, with his breeches taken down evidently by premeditation, and his arms pinioned across the neck and fixed on the other side by the strong grasp of the bishop. The cane, which had been raised in the air, was now applied very smartly to the lower quarters of the pedagogue; and between every stroke I could hear some little observation or other made by the venerable superintendent.-Such as, "take that for Massenius,-So much for the interpolations from Hogaeus,-That's not too smart for Staphortius," which seemed to increase the energy of the infernal castigator, and to add bitterness to the groans of the unfortunate culprit. "That group," said the Peri, "con sists of Milton superintending the punishment of Lauder who so cruelly defamed him, and Bishop Doug lass, or, as we generally name him, Detector Douglass, performing the part of Janitor."-And if Samuel Johnson had got a back stroke or two for his carelessness, thought I, it would have been only what he deserved; "but we must proceed now, Peri, otherwise we may chance to be late for Paulus' rout. By the way, I may ask, as we go along, how you came, Peri, to quote Ovid so appositely in describing poor Scioppius. You don't speak Latin in Gennistan, do you?" "Lord, sir," answered she, we must all be able to speak not only Latin, but all the learned and ancient tongues, before we can be admitted as dommestics here. What could we do amongst so many learned men of all countries, if we were ignorant of their languages? When Sad calls for roseate beverage in Persian, or Demosthenes thun ders but his fiessures in Greek, when Abulfe Scolds us in Arabic, or Pe" trarca despatches his billets doux in

Ανθρωπε και κορωνης. "No apologies, Peri," said 1; apologies for your talkativeness most delightful for me to meet so learned, intelligent, and classical spirit; and I intreat, that so long I remain in this new world, Army have the pleasure of your attendance. "That, sir," said the Peri, “to the best of my ability, you shall have and although you greatly overrate my poor talents, yet it is true I am re marked among my brethren as being too fond of a learned seclusion. Often after our day's labour is finished, sand our little flower scrip & emptied, when the rest of our fraternity are dancing after dinner in the air, or bathing and frolicking in the lake, I will escape to some sweet and sunny cloud, and there pore over a favourite author till my companions come frisking by and tel me I ein stupifying and besotting my wits with study. bne :soaslisare

"This remonstrance, Perig of your light-bodied friends, when, after the duties of the day, you retire to study puts me in mind of the speech made to one who was as fond of study, and as severely taxed for it, as yourself old Dan Chaucer, Dan was slee fond of putting his moral maxins ins to the mouths hof birds and besta and if you recollect, he makes the eagle say of him, in his House of Fame-oze silly bothony ved blue

For when thy labour all done is, And thou'st made all thy reckeninges,* Instede of rest and of new thinges, Thou goest home to thy house anone, And all as dombe as any stone Thou sittest at another boke, Till fully dased is thy loke.'

These reckeninges which Chaucer had to finish before he found time to study, were the duties of his office of Comptroller of the Customs, conferred on him by the influence of his magnificent friend and patron, John of Gaunt.-See, on this, Godwin's Life of Chaucer, vol. iv. c. lv. a work in many respects amusing and instructive, though often desultory in the Last degree. The conjectural species of biography adopted by Godwin is carried to an excess which is sometimes quite ludicrous. Chaucer perhaps saw Petrarch in Italy perhaps studied at the university of Parisperhaps lived in Donnington Castle" he probably had a large share in forming the mind of the Patron of Wickliffe"-his son

was almost certainly created Speaker of the House of Commons he was most likely of a convivial disposition-and it is probable, that the grant of a daily pitcher of wine, which is four bottles a-day, was for the poet's own daily consumption. Yet although this is the great fault of the work, that the doctrine of probabilities is carried too far, that conjecture often supplies the place of certainty, and possibilities assume the tone of truths, yet that labour certainly is never to be condemned, which has been industriously and often ably employed in the elucidation of the life and character of the great Father of English Poetry, of one who was in many respects the creator of our language, and perhaps the greatest master of humour that has ever appeared. It is is the critical part, however, of the

work of Godwin, and that more particularly in the last volume, which forms its chief excellence; and yet, perhaps, the most pleasing part of all is that individuality which the author has succeeded in giving to the character of his bard, by the discov ery of those little minutia in his manner of life, in his general temper and conversation, which are so interesting in their connexion with great men. Had Tod, in the Life he has given us of Spenser, possessed some what of the imagination of Godwin, and had Godwin's ardour and ingenuity been more tempered by something like the diffidence and coldness of Tod, both works would have profited by the exchange.

VOL,

of correction, and in our literary dissertations. A sharp eye may discern the little stars beginning to twinkle in your clear and liquid heaven; and see, what a lovely crescent is resting on yon filmy cloud!"-" Be not afraid, master," said the Spirit: we are she spoke, we entered a dark avenue just at the gate of Jovius' villa."-As composed of trees, whose aged branches met at the top, and formed that species of shadowy and religious aisle to which the ingenuity of modern theory has traced the introduction of our Gothic structures. Towards the end of this avenue, at a considerable distance through the intermingling branches, I saw, constantly moving, sometimes appearing, and at other times disappearing, many lights, which left me no doubt that the villa of our host was situated at the end of the avenue. It was a very striking scene. The dark avenue, the silver crescent which shone serenely through the boughs, and the solemn tranquillity of all around me, formed a striking contrast to the constant agitation and flickering of the lights in the distance.

"How sweet, how silent, how beautiful is Nature when she rejoices," thought I. "How inconstant, how agitated in his pleasures is man."This avenue, too, was dearer to me for another reason: for whether it was that my mind was then dwelling upon former days, or that the coincidence my memory a scene of our own world was merely accidental, it recalled to with which I was deeply familiar, which I had once most fondly cherished, but which now is lost to me for ever. As we advanced nearer to its termination, the brilliancy of the lights increased, the dark outline of I heard the music sounding in its halls. the building was seen on the sky, and At length we reached it; and after entering the porch, and walking through several passages, which were superbly illuminated, two folding doors, at the touch of the Peri, expanded "their wings of pride." "Within them was one blaze of light, A thronging scene of figures bright." And certainly poor Ellen, when she threw her timid but beautiful over the assembled Court of King James, was not more astonished or be wildered than I, when the bright, the varied, the astonishing picture of Jo

4 E

gaze

vius' drawing-room was offered to my sight. In llen's case the scene was indeed brilliant, but it must in some bospects have been uniform and un variedu The assembly was composed of lovely dames and gay accoutred knights; but every knight was, in costumie, but a prototype of his neigh bour,band every lady shone in the self same habiliments as her fair companions. In my case, the assembly had all the brilliancy and elegance of the Court scene, and all that delightful effect arising from the varied and contrasted costume of every age and country. The turbaned sages of Arabia, and the rich and flowing dresses of the Persian and other Eastern literati, their jewelled head-dresses and embroidered mantles, contrasted with the white-robed philosophers of ancient Greece; these again with the slashed sleeves and short cloaks of the learned Dons of Spain, the ruff and doublet, the hat and plume, the embroidered hose and full-bottomed breeches, of the age of Elizabeth; then the prim starched-looking authoresses in hoops, who kept sideling through the crowd, and walking arm-in-arm, with the graceful figures of the Grecian blue stockings; and these contrasted again with the immense wigs, the peach blossom frocks, the variegated vests, and embroidered sword-belts, of the Kit-cat wits, all these heterogeneous but astonishing materials, thrown into every possible variety of form, and disposed into that picturesque grouping which chance so happily dictates, composed a whole which, it is not too much to say, was at once the most brilliant, and the most remarkable, that could have entered into the dreams of the fondest votaries of novelty, or been conjured up by the brain of the most inventive and enthusiastic master of ceremonies of any age, or creed, or country.

It was with a mixed feeling of joy and trembling that I made my debût into this astonishing celestial rout. I was introduced by my accompanying Spirit to Paulus, who stood at the door to receive his company; and after having paid my respects, and improved, by a deeper inclination, and a more decided and rectangular sweep of thy right leg, my common bow, into one which I conceived due to a celes tial assembly, I began to aningle with the company. Here, whether it was that these worthy and gay-looking

A young stranger from the lower world," was all the reply they receiv ed; and this species of general de scription, it is needless to say, pleased me much more than any more pa cular, but for that reason le less accep able, denomination.

The first circle which I joined forded me great entertainment They seemed eagerly and busily engaged a conversational discussion, or criticis on some new work. The Peri, still walked beside me, whispered, thi this circle consisted of very eminer personages, and that I must already owing to its celebrity, have seen the work which was the subject of ther debate, as it was Guy Mannering – As to the circle, one of them, on I immediately fixed my eyes, was no need to inform me about, dress and figure instantly told me was Shakespeare, whom I had so late ly seen. The rest, as Inwas formed, were Cervantes, Shirley singular looking old man, exactly the figure of a smoke dried alchemist, decayed astrologer, whom I found was Baptista Porta, the Neapolitan writer on magic; and Toby Smollett, whose handsome gentleman-like figure Le cognised immediately, from being w acquainted with the portraits of hi

When I came up, found Bap tista apostrophising to his audienc in a high tone,- I must assert said he, that however e excellent B other respects this work may be accord ing to your ideas, gentlemen, to meith a matter of no small moment, the admirable science of judicial stre logy treated with such unmerited and idle ridicule. It is a subject on which I have long thought, read, and in tensely laboured, for the furtherine of which no worldly goods have been spared, no mental exertion, thought grievousvin, the investigation whose recondite truths I have sweated

for years beside a slow furnace, till Became, as you see, of the colour and consistency of a shrivelled mushroom, or watched beneath the winter's moon till was little less than a moving icicle. When this author sports these opinions, and plays with his unhal lowed ridicule, on so sacred a subject, does he consider whom he is attack ing? What will the divine Zoroaster, the illustrious offspring of Oromases, say to this? What will my friend Thes plan, the wonder of the Gymnosophistie school? What will the aged Bhudda of the Babylonians, or the Thracian Zamolxis, or the Hyperborean Abaris, or any of those more modern, but not 4 less illustrious sages, which shine in the hemisphere of science, the constel Iation of astrological discovery "lus noiteningofalde

is bento doidy oloxis aut od var And what will the Quarterly Review ay might the inflamed Baptista have added, in completing this climax of astrological indignation, for it seems that the rage of the Neapolitan Magician, and the Thracfan Zamolxis, is nothing to the irritated feelings of our southern critics against the author of Guy Mannering, at the introductions of this supernatural machinery, which they decidedly declare to be either criminal or contemptible." Where the criminality however will fall, the world will Er determine, and they who, after having been accustomed to the varied and uncommon excellence of Guy Mannering, to the sublimity and Vigorous conception of the character of her whom the Reviewer terms Mrs Meg Mer rilies the masterly rapidity with which the scenes are brought before us, the hu

bur and truth of the lower characters, and the unequalled beauty of the pictures of nature they who, after having wandered through all this enchanted ground, can bear to enter on a desert, can wade through the heaviness, the ignorance, and the utter want of taste of the criticism, will be best able to determine on whose side this con tempt will most appropriately recoil. The Quarterly Review has been all along conducted with no common talent, and although, perhaps, too much place is given to the lower parts of Greek literature, to criticisms on quantities, and animadversions on the scholiasts, yet this has been redeemed by many excellencies, by consistency of principle, correctness of information on political subjects, and the insertion of many articles which were ably and eloquently writtenco But constant exertion, and unre mitting care, is required in conducting a periodical journal, and the occurrence of another such piece of criticism as that upon Guy Mannering, would give it a disposition towards the Bathos, or Art of Staking, which it might not easily recover. euroveira twa na serw

At this grave exordium of the for reign astrologer, the counteriances of the whole party, but more particular ly of Cervantes and Chaucer, assumed an inimitable expressions of humour, which, as it was restrained by polite ness from having the usual, rentin laughter, contented itself with dancing about their eyes and mouth, and illu minating their striking countenances with all the brilliancy of comic ex pression.guio Che yorulund edit

Humphry, my love," (my name is Humphry) said a shrill-toned female voice, which crackled on my tympanum the moment Shakespeare had addressed himself to speak. "Humphry, sir," and the transition from my love to sir, was given with great effect, as she discovered me asleep, and shook me with a touch not quite so soft as my Peri,

"The urn has been hissing, and spit ting, and groaning, on the tea-table this half hour.-Recollect, you bade me try my best Pegou cannister to-night, Mrs Cockit, too, has stepped in to take her rubber. And you no doubt expect to be allowed to sit dreaming here, an immoveable non-entity Rise, sir, and leave your vagaries." I opened my eyes slowly on the severe and saturnine fear tures of my maiden sister Dorothy they operated like a spell-Shakes peare and his circleJovius and his illustrious company flitted for a mo ment before me, then faded into air, and restored me to the lower realities of the tea-urn and Mrs Cockit,

ON THE SYMBOLICAL USES OF SALT.

MR EDITOR,

SINCE the publication of The Tales of my Landlord, a considerable degree of attention has been excited in regard to an ancient custom, the me

ory of which had been almost lost, that of being seated at table "above or f below the salt." Through, the channel of your valuable Miscellany, it has been shewn that this custom was by no means peculiar to Scotland, but prevailed also in England, and was not unknown on the Continent. In proof of this, Bishop Hall, Ben Perat among the French, have been Jonson, and Massinger, bas well as summoned as witnesses Magazine for May, 18801 negod I vidmaas as WThis modewof distinguishing r grdool-veg bus ydow salt