hold. There wanted no dames, or damsels, meet or apt to dance with the masquers, or to garnish the place for the time, with other goodly disports; then was there all kinds of music and harmony set forth, with excellent voices, both of men and children." It was here, after the place had come into the possession of Henry, that the marriage between that monarch and Anne Boleyn was privately solemnized on the 25th of January, 1533. Here, also, was celebrated with extraordinary pomp and revelry, on St. Valentine's day, 1613, another royal marriage, destined to be productive of important consequences to England, that of Elizabeth, the daughter of James I., to the Elector Palatine. To the first of these unions, which gave birth to Queen Elizabeth, we may be said to owe the completion and final establishment of the Reformation; to the second, from which sprung the family now on the throne, we may in like manner be said to owe the completion and final establishment of that settlement of our civil liberties which was made at the Revolution. The most ex | short; and also the adjective live pronounced long. which we apply to fish and other things. By adding en, and in this instance by prefixing it also, we express the idea of giving life and animation, and pleasurable feeling. In our old Saxon language the infinitive verbs terminated in an: thus, instead of give, have, love, &c. in the infinitive, they said gifan, habban, luffan; and the Germans now say, geben, haben, lieben. There is considerable irregularity in some of the perfect tenses, and perfect participles of our verbs, which it may be well to notice. In general what is called the perfect, as, for instance, I loved, is formed by adding ed to the verb, and dropping a vowel, if necessary in the same way the participle is formed, which, in perhaps a majority of instances, has the same form as the perfect. Perf. Participle. Present. Gain, Perfect. loved, gained, loved. gained. traordinary event, however, if not the most momentous But many other verbs are very irregular : in its permanent results, that ever took place at Whitehall, was the execution of Charles I. on the 30th of January, 1649. The unhappy monarch passed to the scaffold in the street, through one of the windows of the present Banquetting-house. His body was afterwards exposed for about a week in one of the apartments of the palace. MEANINGS OF WORDS.-No. 7. It is not our intention to attempt, within the limited space of a weekly publication, anything like a complete classification of the forms of words in our language. Before, however, we conclude our papers, we shall make a few additional remarks, which may serve in some small degree to direct the studies of those who have not had any opportunity of examining our language etymologically. We have given most of the terminations of nouns, adjectives, and adverbs. We will now say something about the verbs. Bring, brought, thought, brought. Teachers and learners may, however, observe that some regularity may be introduced even into this irregularity: Ring, rung, or rang, rung. Fling, flung, flung. clung. It will be perceived that many of our perfect participles end in en, as drunken, driven: sometimes the short e is omitted, as in shorn (shoren), torn (toren); but there are parts of this island in which such words as shorn, torn, are still pronounced as they once were more generally, shoren, toren. very large class of verbs are derived from the Latin language, either immediately, or through the French and Italian. They may be generally distinguished by their form; as These words are in general remarkably simple in their forms, as we may see from such instances as to cut, to sell, to kill, &c. Most of them, indeed, consist of a single root or element without any termination, or, as it is otherwise called, suffix. A A great number of words are also both nouns and verbs, as in the following instances: cut, walk, kick, &c. Some are both verbs and adjectives, as, He had a tame tiger: I will teach you how to tame a tiger. One instance we recollect (and our readers may possibly find others) of the same word being verb, noun, and adjective. The sea is calm; and, there is a great calm; and, He can calm the winds and the waves. But a considerable class of verbs still retains the termination en. This syllable perhaps originally belonged only to the infinitive, that is, to the form of the verb to which we prefix to, as, to enliven, to quicken; and also in those modes of expression in which shall, will, may, can, &c. are used; as, I will sharpen my knife. These verbs, as we have incidentally explained, are used to express the idea of giving to some particular thing a particular quality-as, to deepen a ditch, to open a road, to blacken a man's character. Some are used as intransitive words, that is, the thing done is confined to the person who is the doer, or who is in the condition signified; as, he reddened with anger. It may be generally observed that when the verb ends in en, as, to redden, to quicken, &c., the simple words red, quick, are only used as nouns or adjectives. Blacken is an exception (and there may be others), for we say, of some people, "It is their practice to blacken men's characters;" while of others we say, "They black men's shoes." The word enliven is a good instance of the power of the syllable en. We have the verb to live pronounced It is very common for the final d of our participial forms to be changed into t: thus we do not say feeled, burned, keeped, but felt, burnt, kept. Yet we always write killed, swelled, filled, where, however, we do not pronounce the letter e; but in common conversation, at least, we reduce these three words to monosyllables. Indeed, usage has in some cases assigned different meanings to the same word, according as we pronounce it with the ed or the t at the end: we say, learned man;" and "John has learned his lesson." In the latter instance, learned would very generally be pronounced learnt, and there are many persons who Obsolete, "He is a would also write it so. Whether it is desirable or not to extend the practice of pronouncing words in ed as if they ended in t, and still further whether it is desirable to increase the number of words written with t at the end instead of ed, we leave to the consideration of our readers. THE BRITISH MUSEUM.-No. 5. THE ELGIN MARBLES. It was a proper appropriation of the public wealth to build a room for the due exhibition of the Athenian (or Elgin) marbles. Perhaps one of the most judicious measures of Government, with reference to the advancement of the Arts in this country, was the purchase of these remains. We may go farther, and add, that the removal of them from Athens, where their destruction was daily going forward, to place them where their merits would be appreciated, and their decay suspended, was not only a justifiable act, but one which deserves the gratitude of England and of the civilized world. Before we enter upon a particular account of these monuments, it may be convenient very briefly to notice their history. Athens, as most of our readers know, was the capital of Attica, in Greece. The foundation of the city is ascribed to as remote a period as 1550 years before Christ. It is not within our province to trace the pro gress of this wonderful place towards the greatness which it was destined to attain in arts and in arms; nor to pursue the sad story of its gradual decline. In the age of Pericles (about 500 years before the Christian era), Athens was at the summit of her grandeur. The city was covered with magnificent temples; and whilst the spoils of the Persian conquest enabled her rulers to engage in the most profuse expenditure, it was fortunate for mankind that the highest taste directed this profusion. The greatest architect and sculptor that probably the world has seen lived at that time. The erection of the most splendid buildings of Greece was committed to the genius of Phidias; and he produced monuments which will exercise an influence upon art as long as men agree in their veneration of the models which are now supposed to contain all the principles of excellence. Athens was divided into two cities. The most ancient part was built upon a rock called the Acropolis; beneath which spread the lower city. The upper city contained three of the most sumptuous buildings with which Athens was adorned-the Parthenon, the Erectheium, and the Propylæa. The monuments now called the Elgin marbles were principally obtained from the ruins of these edifices; and more especially from the Parthenon, or Temple of Minerva. We shall describe the Parthenon as we proceed to show to what parts of the | temple the sculptures in the British Museum belonged. The above wood-cut pretty accurately exhibits what | of Athens were becoming less and less worthy of notice, remains at Athens to attest the former magnificence of covered in the dust, or carted away to be broken up for its principal temple. Its decay, and that of the other building, Lord Elgin, who had been Ambassador at monuments of the glories of Greece, may be attributed Constantinople in 1799, obtained, in 1801, an authority to various causes. "Time and the barbarian" have both from the Turkish government, called a Firmaun, which done their work. Athens has seen many masters. The eventually enabled the British nation to possess the Romans were too refined to destroy the monuments of most valuable of the sculptures of which any portion art but the Goths had a long period of spoliation; was left. The authority thus granted empowered Lord and then came the Turks, at once proud and ignorant- Elgin " to fix scaffolding round the ancient Temple of despising what they could not understand. The Acro- the Idols;-to mould the ornamental and visible figures polis became a garrison in their hands; and thus, in thereon in plaster and gypsum;"-and, subsequently, 1687, it was bombarded by the Venetians, whose heavy" to take away any pieces of stone with old inscriptions guns were directed against the porticos and colonnades or figures thereon." For several years the intentions of of the ancient temples. But the Turks still continued Lord Elgin were carried into effect, at his private risk; to hold their conquests; and the business of demolition and at a cost which is stated to have amounted to went steadily on for another century and a half. Many 74,000l., including interest of money. In 1816 the travellers who visited Athens about a hundred years ago, entire collection was purchased of Lord Elgin, by Act and even much later, describe monuments of sculpture of Parliament, for 35,000l. It is unnecessary for us to which now have no existence. The Turks pounded the go into the controversy whether it were just to remove marble into dust to make lime; one traveller after these relics from their original seat. Had the Greeks another continued to remove a fragment; the Museums been able to preserve them, there can be no doubt of the of Europe were successively adorned with these relics. injustice of such an act. The probability is, that if At last, when, as column after column fell, the remains foreign governments had not done what Lord Elgin did as an individual, there would not have been a fragment | purchase of these monuments, has secured a possession left at this day to exhibit the grandeur of Grecian art of inestimable value. as practised by Phidias. The British nation, by the [Western Side of the Acropolis of Athens.] A FEARFUL. ADVENTURE. WE recently noticed a work descriptive of Calabria. Desirous of a little more accurate information on the character of the fierce brigands of this part of Italy, we turned to the letters of Paul Louis Courier, whose works are little known in England. Our readers will probably be interested by the following little story, which we translate for their edification*. He is writing to his female cousin. "I was one day travelling in Calabria. It is a country of wicked people, who, I believe, have no great liking to anybody, and are particularly ill disposed towards the French. To tell you why would be a long affair. It is enough that they hate us to death, and that the unhappy being who should chance to fall into their hands would not pass his time in the most agreeable manner. I had for my companion a fine young fellow. I do not say this to interest you-but because it is the truth. In these mountains the roads are precipices, and our horses got on with the greatest difficulty. My comrade going first, a track, which appeared to him more practicable and shorter than the regular path, led us astray. It was my fault. Ought I to have trusted to a head of twenty years? We sought our way out of the wood while it was yet light; but the more we looked for the path the farther we were off it. It was a very black night, when we came close upon a very black house. We went in, and not without suspicion. But what was to be done? There we found a whole family of charcoal burners at table. At the first word they invited us to join them. My young man did not stop for much ceremony. In a minute or two we were eating and drinking in right earnest-he at least:-for my own part I could not help glancing about at the place and the people. Our hosts, indeed, looked like charcoal burners; but the house!-you would have taken it for an arsenal. There was nothing to be seen but muskets, pistols, sabres, knives, cutlasses. Every thing displeased me, and I saw that I was in no favour myself. My comrade, on the contrary, was soon one of the family. He laughed, he chatted with them; and with an imprudence which I ought to have prevented, he at once said where we came from, where we were going, that we were Frenchmen. Think of our situation. Here we were amongst our mortal enemies, alone, benighted, far from all human aid. That nothing might be omitted that could tend to destroy us, he must play the rich man forsooth, promising these folks to pay them well for their hospitality; and then he must prate about his portmanteau, earnestly beseeching them to take great care of it, and put it at the head of his bed, for he wanted no other pillow. Ah, youth, youth, how you are to be pitied! Cousin, they might have thought we carried the diamonds of the crown: the treasure in his portmanteau which gave him such anxiety consisted of the letters of his mistress. Euvres complètes do P. L. Courier; 4 vols. Bruxelles, 1828. Supper ended, they left us. Our hosts slept below; we on the story where we had been eating. In a sort of platform raised seven or eight feet, where we were to mount by a ladder, was the bed that awaited us-a nest into which we had to introduce ourselves, by jumping over barrels filled with provisions for all the year. My comrade seized upon the bed above, and was soon fast asleep, with his head upon the precious portmanteau. I was determined to keep awake, so I made a good fire, and sat myself down. The night was almost passed over tranquilly enough, and I was beginning to be comfortable, when, just at the time when it appeared to me that day was about to break, I heard our host and his wife talking and disputing below me;-and putting my ear into the chimney which communicated with the lower room, I perfectly distinguished these exact words of the husband:- Well, well, let us see:-must we kill them both? To which the wife replied, Yes,'—and I heard no more. "How shall I tell you the rest? I could scarcely breathe; my whole body was as cold as marble; to have seen me, you could not have told whether I was dead or alive. Heavens! when I yet think upon it! We two were almost without arms;-against us were twelve or fifteen who had plenty of weapons. And then my comrade dead of sleep and fatigue! To call him up, to make a noise, was more than I dared;-to escape alone was an impossibility. The window was not very high-but under it were two great dogs howling like wolves. Imagine if you can the distress I was in. At the end of a quarter of an hour, which seemed an age, I heard some one on the staircase, and through the chink of the door I saw the old man, with a lamp in one hand and one of his great knives in the other. He mounted, his wife after him; I was behind the door. He opened it; but before he came in he put down the lamp, which his wife took up, and coming in, with his feet naked, she being behind him said in a smothered voice, hiding the light partially with her fingers, Gently, go gently. When he reached the ladder he mounted, his knife between his teeth; and going to the head of the bed where that poor young man lay, with his throat uncovered, with one hand he took his knife, and with the other-ah, my cousin he seized a ham which hung from the roof, cut a slice, and retired as he had come in. The door is re-shut, the light vanishes, and I am left alone to my reflections. "When the day appeared, all the family with a great noise came to rouse us, as we had desired. They brought us plenty to eat-they served us a very proper breakfast, a capital breakfast, I assure you. Two capons formed part of it, of which, said the hostess, you must eat one, and carry away the other. When I saw the capons I at once compre hended the meaning of those terrible words-Must we k them both!" an income of about 3001. after paying his deputy. The only works which he produced for some years were several dramatic pieces, all now nearly forgotten, except perhaps his tragedy of Tancred and Sigismunda, which experienced a better reception than the others at first, and has been occasionally revived since. But in 1746 appeared his admirable Castle of Indolence,' perhaps the most poetical of all his productions. It was also the last effort of his muse. About two years after, he caught a cold on returning one night by water from London to his residence in Kew Lane; and, a fever having come on, he died on the 27th of August, 1748. Thomson's remains lie interred in Richmond church-yard; but a monument was erected to his memory some years after his death in Westminster Abbey. The house in which he resided at Richmond has also been carefully preserved, having been some years ago repaired at a great expense. It was in the garden attached to this abode, called Rossdale House, that, according to tradition, the indolent poet would sometimes be seen eating the peaches from the wall with his hands in his pockets. This anecdote may serve as a sample of the general character of the man, which, however, although somewhat luxurious, was also very benevolent and full of kind and amiable feeling. He was greatly beloved for. his simplicity and genuine excellence of heart by all to whom he was known. As a poet, Thomson occupies a very high place both for originality and for force and beauty of imagination. Perhaps no other descriptions call up so powerfully as his, the very effect produced by real nature when viewed through the illusion of poetic excitement. His versification too, although not possessing much variety, nor attuned upon any very refined musical principle, has usually a power and fullness forcibly expressive of the earnestness of the poet's convictions, and sometimes a sustained grandeur admirably harmonising with the lofty aspirations and far-extending visions of which his song is composed. deeply than others the real interests and motives they have to be virtuous. Without the study of nature, man can never know the relation he bears, nor the duties he owes to himself firm principles nor true happiness. The most enlightened and others-deprived of this knowledge, he can have neither are the most interested in being the best men-great talents should lead to great virtues. He who does evil is blind-he who is unregulated is deprived of reason-his conduct proves that he mistakes his own nature, is ignorant of what is due to himself and others, of the value of self-esteem, and of the esteem of those around him-he is not an enlightened man. If he be insensible to the offices of benevolence, to the approfrom brutes-if he do not see that his vices lead to his own bation and kindness of his associates, he differs in nothing destruction, he is not an intelligent being, whose great aim is self-preservation-if he do not know and appreciate the inestimable advantages of society, and the means to render it useful and agreeable, he is a madman, and not a friend to wisdom. ***From a French work, entitled, "Nouvelles Libertés de Penser," (The new Freedom of Thought,) by M. du Marsais, published in 1776. they are the fruit of experience, which can only be exercised Truth and reason never cause revolutions on the earth; when the passions are at rest; they excite not in the heart those furious emotions which shake empires to their base. Truth can only be discovered by peaceful minds it is only adopted by kindred spirits. If it change the opinions of men, it is only by insensible gradations - a gentle and easy descent conducting them to reason. The revolutions caused by the progress of truth are always beneficial to society, and are only Marsais, burthensome to those who deceive and oppress it.- Du SONG. THE gloomy night is gathering fast, The autumn mourns her ripening corn Farewell! old Coila's hills and dales, BURNS. The Office of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge is at 59, Lincoln's-Inn Fields. LONDON:-CHARLES KNIGHT, PALL-MALL EAST. Shopkeepers and Hawkers may be supplied Wholesale by the following Booksellers, of whom, also, any of the previous Numbers may be had: taining a hundred and sixty-three gallons. We have seen a copy of this vase, of the original dimensions, at Birmingham, executed in bronze; which work is one of the many proofs which exist in this country of the intimate union between the manufacturing arts and those which are connected with the highest display of taste. The importance of this union ought never to be lost sight of. (Concluded from the last Number.) In an account which we recently gave of Warwick Castle, | we mentioned the beautiful and celebrated specimen of Grecian art, which now embellishes the grounds of one of the finest monuments of the feudal grandeur of England. There is something extremely captivating to the imagination to witness one of the most exquisite pieces of ancient workmanship, said to be the production of Lysippus, a statuary of the age of Alexander the Great, thus preserved from the ravages of time, amidst the scenes which tell their story of a past age, not so far removed from the present day, but equally recalling lives and ESCAPE OF DE LATUDE FROM THE BASTILLE. actors essentially different from our present habits and modes of thinking. The Warwick Vase' was dug up from the ruins of the Emperor Adrian's villa at Tivoli, and was sent to England by the late Sir William Hamilton, in 1774. It is probably one of the most entire, and, to a certain extent, the most beautiful specimen of ancient sculpture which this country possesses. The material of which it is made is white marble. Its form is nearly spherical, with a deep reverted rim. Two interlacing vines, whose stems run into and constitute the handles, wreathe their tendrils, with fruit and foliage, round the upper part. The centre is composed of antique heads, which stand forward in grand relief. A panther's skin, with the thyrsus of Bacchus (a favourite antique ornament) and other embellishments, complete the composition. This vase is of very large size, as it is capable of con VOL. I. DE LATUDE goes on to detail the precautions which he and his companion in misfortune took, in case any of the jailers should be listening, to give feigned names for every thing they used in their work, and states the names used by them for each article. He then proceeds with his narrative: "These things being complete, we set about our principal ladder, which was to be at least eighty feet long. We began by unravelling our linen, shirts, napkins, nightcaps, stockings, drawers, pocket-handkerchiefs-every thing which could supply thread or silk. As we made a ball we concealed it in Polyphemus, (the name they called the hidingplace,) and when we had a sufficient quantity we employed a whole night in twisting it into a rope; and I 2 H |