numerous misrepresentations which have gone abroad con- hood, and the more so, as Lady Byron now, for the first Upon this pamphlet we have to remark, that we think it ought either not to have been published at all, or it ought to have been fuller and more satisfactory. Whether Lady Byron was influenced by her parents or not, was a matter of comparatively little moment, and we are willing to allow that she has now shown that they did not interfere ultroneously or too officiously; but what we wanted to know was, whether she was justified, or not, in separating herself from her husband in the manner in which she did? This point she leaves in as great obscurity as ever; nay, she has made it more mysterious than it was before, for it appears that she chose to confide to Dr Lushington certain circumstances which she would not tell her own parents, although it is evident that upon these circumstances, from the impression they made upon Dr Lushington, the whole gist of the matter depends. One thing is clear, that Lady Byron was herself deter'mined on a separation. If Lord Byron had been mad, as she seems very willing to have believed, a separation must, of course, have taken place. But as he was not mad, she drew up what she thought a strong enough case against him, which she intrusted to the management of her mother. But even this was found insufficient to produce the desired effect; and she then went to her lawyer herself, and told him something or other, which induced him to advise her parents to take steps to secure a separation, and thus she at length gained her object. Lady Byron may have been very ill used, for aught we can prove to the contrary; but we repeat, that if she was to come before the public at all, it should not have been with a story so inexplicit and obscure. full account of the life and literary and scientific labours of Cuvier-a theme full of interest; and which we hope to see followed up in subsequent Numbers by similar memoirs of Humboldt, Laplace, and others. Article fifth contains a biography of Sir Thomas More-an abstract from the ponderous tome of Dr Rudhart. In article sixth, the reader will find a satisfactory criticism on the works of Calderon, together with incidental notices of other distinguished Spanish dramatists. The short reviews of new publications are numerous and interesting; and the continental literary intelligence comes quite up to our notion of the manner in which this part of the work ought to be executed-no straggling uninteresting notices, but a condensed view of what has been achieved at each place du ANECDOTE OF LORD ERSKINE. "My father often met Lord (then Mr) Erskine in the street, and invited him to dinner on that same day;-on these occa sions, our party, which, when I was at home, formed a tria, might as well have been called a duet, for I was only a listen. cer-er;-indeed, my father was little more, for Erskine was then young at the bar, flushed with success, and enthusiastic in each particular case;-this I thought dull enough, and cenhis profession. He would therefore repeat his pleadings in im-gratulated myself, till I knew better, when the oration was over. But here I reckoned without my host; for when my father observed that the arguments were unanswerable,By no means, my dear sir,' would Erskine say; had! been counsel for 4, instead of B, you shall hear what l would have advanced on the other side ;'-then we did hear, and I wished him at the forum ! • Lord Erskine and my father; for the Lawyer delighted in "No two companions could have been worse coupled than talking of himself and the bar, and the Manager of himself and the theatre. Erskine was a gifted man, and, what is better, a good man. In the early part of his career, he was considered a great man; but, as John Moody says of Sir Francis Wronghead, he could no' hawld it.'" The Foreign Review and Continental Miscellany. No. X. March, 1830. London. Black, Young, and Young. THIS is a good Number. The first article-containing a biography of Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the order of the Jesuits-is from the pen of Dr Southey, and written in his happiest manner. The third article contains a Colman's Random Records. London. Colburn and We are not going to review this book just now; but we string together a few anecdotes which we have found in it: ANECDOTE OF BONNELL THORNTON. "I have no recollection of having ever seen Thornton at my father's house. Not long before his (Thornton's) death, these two quondam co-partners had occasion to meet in London, on some business, at a tavern; their interview was at noon, and Thornton came half drunk! During their conversation, upon the business which had brought them together, my father observed to his old friend, that he regretted to see he by no means appeared in good health. Health!' said Thornton; look here!' and he pointed to his ankles, which were alarmingly swollen ;- can't you see?-'tis the dropsy;-by 'od! I'm a-going;' and he was going, for he died shortly afterwards. "When Thornton was on his death-bed, his relations surrounding it, he told them that he should expire before he had counted twenty; and covering his head with the bedclothes, he began to count :-'One, two, — — eighteen, nineteen, twenty.' He then thrust out his head, exclaiming, By 'od! it's very strange! but why aren't you all crying?-Teach my son,' said he to the bystanders, teach him, when I am gone, his A, B, C ;-I know mine in sehas done me;-so if you never teach him his A, B, C, at veral languages; but I perceive no good that the knowledge all, it don't much signify. Within an hour after this, poor Bonnell Thornton breathed his last.-This is dreadful!To see a man of learning and genius lost and besotted, at an age when his talents and experience should have elevated him to many years' enjoyment of the world's admiration and respect to see him on the brink of a premature grave, looking down, like an idiot, into the narrow dwelling,' and beholding it with fevered levity!-can there be a more mertifying picture of frail humanity?" " ANECDOTE OF LORD NORTH. "I have been told, from very good authority, that Lord North was once discovered among the crowd, which is generally attracted to the windows where caricatures are dis tion. For my pastoral friend and brother errs much in native Doric; when Scottish words, now floating only on the mouths of our lowest people, had not yet been extinct in the halls and on the lips of our nobility and beauty, and were therefore unaccompanied with that impression of vulgarity, or of ludicrous or too familiar address, with which they are now so inevitably associated. Pulpit language ought at once to be of the most simple and solemn character; simple, to recommend itself to the uneducated; solemn, to recommend itself to all classes, but particularly to the highest, in whose estimation solemnity cannot be associated with vulgarities, or with mean, incorrect, or exploded expressions. A village congregation of decent rustics, with their wives and families, are not in the smallest degree shocked at the rude elocution of the most vulgar-toned preacher, neither can they conceive why offence should be taken (6 on thou at the "kythest," and the "riggs," and the wents," that still deform our psalms; but it is far otherwise with the politer congregations of our cities. Devotional feeling is with them interrupted or endangered where taste and sense of propriety are rudely assailed; nor do I believe that the accomplished preachers of St George's or St Stephen's would have courage to read out to their audiences, as a theme of melody, the verses where the words, so admired in Ettrick Forest, are to be found -the most mellifluous kythest, and that most venerable kitchen-wench polysyllable imperfite! In short, it is a fact that cannot be disputed, nor must we allow our national vanity, high-stomached and dogged though it be, to struggle against the conviction, that our pulpit-language is completely anglicised-that we are as a conquered people in our churches-that the powerful language of Lindsay and Dunbar is banished from our altars-that our sermons, as well as their texts, our prayers, our addresses, are all (as agreeably to good taste they should be) completely moulded into English gravity and decorum-all, but our Psalter, where, despite of our Blairs, and Robertsons, and Chalmerses, and Thomsons, some unseemly specks of provincial rusticity are still permitted to linger. Now, I am not for pulling down, In a work that ought to be complete beauty and perfec-to use my Ettrick brother's own figure, the noble edifice, MY DEAR SIR,I am amused to see our old, gallant, trust-worthy friend, the romantic Shepherd of Ettrick, buckling on, even on suspicion, his Caledonian armour; waxing fierce and fervid, nay, somewhat vociferous, adjuring even the Wicked One in his zeal, and, contrary to the effect of good King David's harp, calling up Evil Spirits in the defence of what even an archangel's voice | would be insufficient to defend or justify-the obstinate retention of acknowledged error and wilful imperfection, played, staring at one of the graphic libels upon himself. He was represented in a ludicrous attitude, bidding the leaders of the Opposition do homage to his person, by the most abject of all possible salutations. No premier but his lordship so unpopular as he then was, as a minister, but so amiable in private life, so totally unaffected, and devoid of all the pomposities of a high office would have thrust himself, in such times, into a mob, to gape at satires upon the i government. Soon finding, however, that he was recoganised by those nearest him, who began to titter, he made his retreat, though by no means in confusion;-saying, with a good-humoured laugh, to the bystanders, as he turned his back to depart,- Don't you think, gentlemen, it is very like?' "In the same careless spirit of forgetting a statesman's gravity, and yielding to the idlest ebullitions of a humorous and playful mind, he one day walked into the china and glass-shop, so well-known for many years, in New Bond Street, over the door of which was written in capitalsFOG AND SON.' "Sir,' said his Lordship to the tradesman whose customer he was, this is a very extraordinary coalition of yours, and cannot be expected to last for either Fog banishes Sun, or Sun expels Fog; and in both cases, there's an end of the partnership.'" ! ANECDOTE OF FOOTE. " "One morning, he came hopping upon the stage, during the rehearsal of the Spanish Barber,' which was shortly to be produced: the performers were busy in that Scene of the piece when one servant is under the influence of a sleeping draught, and another of a sneezing powder. Well,' said Foote, drily, to my father, how do you go on?' Pretty well,' was the answer, but I can't teach one of these fellows to gape as he ought to do.'-' Can't you?' cried Foote, read him your last comedy of the Man of Business,' and he'll yawn for a month.'-On another occasion he was not less coarse (though more laughable) to an actor, than he had been to the manager." • GIBBON, THE HISTORIAN. "The learned Gibbon was a curious counterbalance to the learned (may I not say less learned?) Johnson. Their manners and taste, both in writing and conversation, were as different as their habiliments. On the day I first sat down with Johnson, in his rusty brown, and his black worsteds, Gibbon was placed opposite to me in a suit of flowered velvet, with a bag and sword. Each had his measured phraseology; and Johnson's famous parallel between Dryden and Pope, might be loosely parodied, in reference to himself and Gibbon.-Johnson's style was grand, and Gibbon's elegant; the stateliness of the former was sometimes pedantic, and the polish of the latter was occasionally finical. Johnson march'd to kettle-drums and trumpets; Gibbon moved to flutes and hautboys;-Johnson hew'd passages through the Alps, while Gibbon levell'd walks through parks and gardens. Mauled as I had been by Johnson, Gibbon pour'd balm upon my bruises, by condescending, once or twice, in the course of the evening, to talk with me; the great historian was light and playful, suiting his matter to the capacity of the boy;-but it was done more suá-still his mannerism prevail'd;-still he tapp'd his snuff-box,-still he smirk'd, and smiled; and rounded his periods with the same air of good-breeding, as if he were conversing with men.-His mouth, mellifluous as Plato's, was a round hole, nearly in the centre of his face." MISCELLANEOUS LITERATURE. SCOTTISH PSALMODY. A LETTER FROM THE OCHILLS. To the Editor of the Literary Journal. 66 pre because it has a broken pane or a crumbled corner-stone;' there is one audacious expression, which I regret our friend, but for replacing the shattered panes with modern and gentle, and good, and kindly as he is, should have, in his brilliant glass, and substituting, for the mutilated or dis- furious anti-Bradyism, been betrayed into. He never coloured corner-stones, others more beautiful and enduring. opened the Psalms of Tate and Brady, save to despise them." I should just wish that the enlightened clergymen of our Is this like an unprejudiced critic? Is this like handling General Assembly should do for our Psalmody what the a matter, as Solomon directs us to do, wisely? If my broenlightened civic rulers of Edinburgh are doing for their ther opens them for the sole purpose of despising them, High Church-they are repairing and refurbishing its can his contempt be any thing else than unfounded exterior, that it may more harmonize with the elegance judice? And, prejudiced as he sits down to read, can he of the surrounding city, and show off, with more con- ever find in them any thing pleasant or good? And does gruous effect, the majesty of the architectural crown that that book of Psalms, which received the approbation of so sublimely tops and ennobles it. Even so should our the Hierarchy of England, men, of all Europe the most Psalms be beautified; even so should the discolouring erudite and most accomplished,-which has, for more rust of antiquity be rubbed from off them, to show off, in than a century, been, as a devotional exercise, in the uninterrupted effect, and in consonance to those produc- mouths of all the learning, and the nobility, and the tions of elegant literature by which they are, as it were, beauty, and the royalty of our sister kingdom,—with surrounded and challenged, that regal crown of sublimity whose verses the magnificent worship of their cathedral and simplicity that so eminently adorns them. service has been so long and so venerably associated; is scruple not to repeat it, without any horror of an assault this a book worthy of being despised in the humble skielfrom our worthy old women of Scotland, and my good-ing of Ettrick Forest? Alas, my brother! Verily," humoured Shepherd of Ettrick, with his bloodless crook, saith Solomon, "he that despiseth his neighbour”at their head, that such a purification is due-not only to but I cannot utter the remaining words upon my beloved the high literary respectability of our clergymen, to the brother. improved and daily improving taste of their lay-hearersbut it is due, above all, to the admirable excellence of the original compositions. I profess myself no admirer of Tate and Brady,—no admirer of our old Scottish versifiers, no admirer even of George Buchanan or Arthur Johnston; but I profess myself an admirer of the Divine Lyrist of Judea, the first in degree, as the first in time, of all lyric poets; and according as he, in his grace, majesty, and beauty, is more or less reflected in any versions whatsoever, prosaical or poetical, in the same degree will I form my opinion and mete out my commendation. And I 46 To conclude, I am of opinion that neither of us should write more on this pacific subject, but consign it modestly over to the clergymen, with whom the determination must finally rest. I shall only add, that for my own part, I undertook the theme as a pleasant and improving one, and found it full of recreation and delight,—always, like Bishop Horne, experiencing, the more I studied the subject, and compared the various versions, the less admiration of them, and the greater admiration of the Divine Original. WM. TENNANT.* But, indeed, my brother of Ettrick, fervid though he be, and putting on the appearance of championing it in behalf of what he deems the Palladium of Calvinism, which he suspects that I, like another crafty Ulysses, am devising to displace and to steal-my brother himself seems to be, at bottom, in agreement with me, by confess. ing "the incalculable advantage which would be if the ancient and original spirit of ours were installed into theirs ;" meaning, I doubt not, the combination of the English taste and correctness with the Scottish fire and originality. Now this is quite my ow conception of what is necessary to form a perfect version; and, as it is altogether impracticable to infuse the spirit of ours into their too inanimate paraphrase, I should be inclined to adventure upon the latter alternative, which is quite practicable the infusion of their taste and correctness into our fire and animation. On this point, it remains for our clergymen to decide; and, after decision, to undertake the execution. For the work should be intrusted to no lay-poet, not even to Sir Walter himself; it should be done by themselves ;— there are many men of genius belonging to our Church, not only in our university-towns, but in the retired valleys and obscurer nooks of our provinces, fully capable of achieving such a task. As to the prejudice which would arise against a change, particularly in our aged people, I confess it deserves to be respected rather than ridiculed or contemned; but the same prejudice must have existed, and in a much more violent degree, (for the change was much greater,) against the present version, which about a century and a half ago superseded the defective one that preceded it. Many murmurs against innovation,-many lamentations against backsliding, must have proceeded from those old persons, who, having got most of them by heart, must have regarded their Psalms as the Church's Palladium, and departed this life unreconciled to that improved version which was forced upon them. A few years, however, swept away these respectable murmurers, and left the new one in unopposed possession, to be sung, and admired, and committed to memory by new generations. On reading again my brother's "Letter from Yarrow," Devongrove, Dollar Institution, REMARKS ON THE SCOTttish metrICAL VERSION For the Edinburgh Literary Journal. I AM glad to see that so respectable a poet as Mr Tennant has turned his attention to the metrical version of the Psalms which is used in the Church of Scotland; and though I do not altogether agree with him in his estimate of that version, yet it is undeniable that it has many faults, calling loudly for correction. Mr Tennant seems to be unacquainted with the history of our version, or he would not have been so apt to find it so full of Scotticisms as he has done. It was, in fact, not prepared by Scotchmen, but by Englishmen, and is called the Scottish version, merely from the circumstance of its having been adopted by the Church of Scotland. It was composed during the Civil Wars, under the auspices of the Assembly of Divines which met at Westminster, and was intended to be the authorised version for both England and Scotland, when the projected uniformity of worship had taken * Since the above letter was written and sent to press, the author of it and of the short critical strictures that occasioned Mr Hogg's re monstratory epistle, has had an opportunity of perusing Dr Beattie's "Letter to Dr Blair on the Improvement of Psalmody in Scotland," (just published by Mr Buchanan of George Street,) which was writ ten upwards of 50 years ago, and privately circulated among their mutual friends. From the perusal of this well-timed little publication, the author cannot but congratulate himself on observing, that his view of this important subject is sanctioned by a name so respect able and authoritative as Dr Beattie, who coincides with him, almost requisite in our own, of the persons most qualified to make these unvaryingly, in his opinion of the various versions, of the corrections corrections, and of the most simple and proper mode of making them; in fact, in every point, whether of criticism or of suggestion to the authorities of our Church. W.T. 23d March, 1830. [A Correspondent enquires,-" Could Mr Tennant's attention be drawn to a versification, or rather a new edition, of the Psalms, with the versification amended by the late Mr Boswell, advocate? Mr Boswell was an Oriental scholar, and one of the leaders of the small but respectable sect of Glassites in this city. His version appears to me to be both smoother and closer than that of the Old Church, to which, however, he gives the decided preference, only varying from it when convinced the alteration is an improvement."] be very considerable difference of opinion on many points. The Calvinist could not conscientiously use in public worship a formulary which distinctly recognises the Arminian doctrines; nor could a conscientious Arminian adopt language which was manifestly Calvinistic. But, independently of all doctrinal differences, the actual state of devotional feeling is widely different among Christians, as much, at least, as the degrees of a musical ear and a musical taste among mankind at large. Hence those devotional expressions, which are well suited to the feelings of those who are at the highest point of the scale, will appear to those who stand lower as enthusiastic and unintelligible; while such as suited those of a lower grade, would be felt by the higher as frigid and uninteresting. Besides this, the poet, if not strictly tied down to Scripture, would be in danger of allowing his "eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, to body forth the forms of things unknown" and incomprehensible by any class of worshippers. All these evils are got rid of by keeping strictly to Scripture; and from all these evils and dangers the Scottish version is quite free. It sets before us pious and devotional thoughts and feelings, which are acknowledged as true and just by all who acknowledge the divine inspiration of the Scripture, and it gives us nothing more. To accomplish such a work well was no easy task, as any one may satisfy himself by trying to execute it better on a single Psalm, tying himself down rigidly to the rules in the received version. Let him neither add a single idea, nor omit one, but give us the ideas of the original Psalmist in plain, elegant, and smooth verse, without the smallest poetical embellishment drawn from his own stores, and he will feel the difficulty. That the Scottish version is on the whole admirably executed, agreeably to this plan, no man can doubt. In fact, when compared with that of Sternhold and Hopkins, it will be found that there is not a single psalm, nor scarcely a verse, which is not improved. It is granted that the two verses in the 18th psalm in Sternhold, which have been so often quoted, are very fine; but as they are paraphrastic, they could not be adopted in our version without a violation of that rule of rigid adherence to the There is reason to believe that the great leading object original, which the authors of that version had laid down which is constantly kept in view in our version, is not to themselves. But it may safely be asserted, that there generally understood. This object is shortly and accu- is scarcely an instance in which they have not either given rately expressed in the title page:-"The Psalms of us a more correct version of the original, or finer poetry, David, in metre, more plain, smooth, and AGREEABLE TO than their predecessors. The finest psalm in Sternhold THE TEXT, than any heretofore." The compilers did not is the 100th, and this our version has adopted, with the propose to give us Psalms of their own, but the Psalms of alteration of only one word in the third line, "Him serve David, rendered into metre, without admitting a single with mirth," instead of "Him serve with fear," as Sternidea of their own, and without omitting one which they hold has it, different from the original; so scrupulous found in the original. The three rules by which they were they in this matter. Adherence to this rule led proposed to guide themselves were, That the new version them also sometimes to adopt a very obscure version; should be smooth, plain, and agreeable to the text;—more for where they did not find the original clear, they did so than any heretofore. Agreement with the text, and not think themselves at liberty to become paraphrasts nor plainness, they considered as matters of essential import-expositors, but gave, as nearly as possible, the very words ance, and never to be sacrificed. Smoothness was only a of Scripture. It was solely on this ground that they matter of taste, and if they could not in every instance have given us the lines in the 74th psalm, which have so combine all the three, they sacrificed this. often been made the subject of ignorant ridicule,— The plan thus adopted was certainly a very excellent one, and well calculated to secure unanimity in the minds of all who joined in public worship. Particularly in that age when religious opinions had run riot in no ordinary degree, it would have been found quite impracticable to have produced any human composition which would have met the views of all classes of worshippers; but, in adhering strictly to the ipsissima verba of Scripture, the cor-like dial consent of all who bore the Christian name was effectually secured. This view of the subject is applicable to all periods of the Church, at least of the Protestant Church, in which, from the entire liberty of thinking for himself, which is granted to every man, there must always It was place. The original draught was made by a Mr Rous, "Blessed is he that wisely doth The poor man's case consider; With regard to many of the faulty rhymes, it is also to be remembered that the public ear and the public taste were not then so accurately formed as they are now; and in consequence of this, there are to be found as bad rhymes in Dryden, and as harsh, unreadable lines in Milton, as are to be found in our version of the Psalms.* This, however, is only an apology for those by whom it was executed, but its faults still remain, and, in this age of more correct taste, should certainly be removed. There is also as bad grammar in Pope. Witness the Universal Prayer," Who all my sense confined;" while the grammar required confinedst." And again," Yet gave me in this dark estate," instead of “gavest.” " "A man was famous, and was had According as he lifted up His axe thick trees upon." Mr Hopkins has here allowed himself the liberty of a commentator, as he and his fellow-labourer often do, but, many other commentators, he has quite mistaken the *The first of the following verses are from a Calvinist, the second from an Arminian hymnn: "Yes, I to the end shall endure, "Ah, Lord, with trembling I confess, sense of the author. in materials for that purpose; but now, the chief zeal The inequality in our version is in some measure owing to the inequality which is to be found in the original. The authors thought it enough if they made that sublime which they found sublime, and that pathetic which was so in the original; but did not think themselves warranted to introduce the flowers and ornaments of poetry where their author had not introduced them. "He shall be like a tree that grows Which in his season yields his fruit, "Salvation doth appertain Unto the Lord alone, Ps. vii. 9. "In thy great indignation," &c. For why? The Lord hath heard my voice, In pieces renting it, while there "but 'stablish stedfastly." -" on his own pate shall come.” For thy foes cause, that so thou mightst Besides correcting the present version, there is still another field open-which is, to give us a few of the most deBut with all its merits, it has many faults, which it votional of the Psalms, in long metre, still adhering to would be most desirable to see corrected. This is an age the rule which has guided the authors of the present in which there is immensely greater facility of versifica- version, that they shall be literally the Psalms of David tion than was to be found two hundred years ago; and in metre. I have no manner of objection if any man I beg leave to conclude, with inviting all your poetical can produce better psalms or hymns than these, but I correspondents, and all your versifying correspondents, feel so much satisfied with them, that I wish, in the first (for this work does not require a poet,) to send in their place, to have them pure and entire; and when any are several quotas. It is not intended to turn your miscel-produced which are better, it will then be time enough lany into a religious magazine, but your desire to promote to consider them. good taste and good writing, will, it is hoped, ensure a place to any thing of this kind which deserves it. Nor is there any reason to apprehend that your pages will be quite overrun with matter of this kind. If you adhere with unbending steadiness to the rule, that nothing shall be admitted, but what is more smooth, plain, and agreeable to the original than any heretofore, very little space will probably contain the whole. I shall point out a few faulty verses, on which im- | provers may try their hand :-- Ps. i. 3. The whole of the above verse is extremely unmusical. Ps. viii. 3." When I look up unto the heav'ns The two first lines of verse 6th are also very unharme nious: "Of thy hand-works thou mad'st him, Lord, All under 's feet did'st lay," &c. The whole of this Psalm is so exquisitely beautiful in the original, that it deserves the highest degree of polish which can be given it in a metrical version. But, let the original simplicity be held sacred, and all modern embellishments and tawdry ornaments rigorously banished. LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES OF WERNERIAN SOCIETY. Saturday, 20th March. Mr JAMES WILSON read a paper " On the Origin of our Domestic Poultry;" with a view to illustrate which, speci mens of the wild poultry of India, from the College Museum, were exhibited by the Essayist. He remarked, that of the many benefits which Providence has enabled man to draw from the numerous tribes of the feathered race, there is none which surpasses in extent and utility the domesti cation of those most familiarly known of all birds, called, par excellence, the Cock and Hen. So ancient has been the subservience of this species to the human race, that no authentic traditionary traces now remain of its original introduction to any of the more ancient kingdoms of the earth; and its existence under the protection of man appears, indeed, coeval with the most antique records. It seems, like the faithful and accommodating dog, to have joined its fortunes to the earliest families of our race, and to have followed man in all his migrations, until it lost, under the joint influence of climate and culture, almost all resemblance to the stock from which it sprung. The obscurity which hangs over the origin of our domestic poultry, has occasioned more inconclusive speculation than almost any other question in natural history. It has been inferred from the epithet "Persian bird," applied by Aristophanes to the cock, that it came originally from Persia; but no traveller since the revival of letters has been able to discover any species of wild poultry in that country. In all probability the expression of Aristophanes infers no more than that the Greeks obtained from the Persians an already domesticated breed. It appeared from the learned discussion read by Dr Scot, at the last meeting of the Society, that domestic poultry are not specifically alluded to in the |