yards it is impossible to secure a grave in perpetuity at | all, unless by the expensive means of a faculty; and consequently the mere placing of a monument upon a grave does not prevent its being afterwards used for persons not members of the family.

space we can afford to give to the subject, and the difference between it and the one proposed does not appear to be so considerable as to require a separate notice.

We have thus stated the points which seem of leadTHIRST QUENCHED WITHOUT DRINKING. ing interest or importance in this establishment; and although, in the great extent of ground it affords, not IT may not be generally known to our readers that water, more than 193 interments have taken place in a year even salt water, imbibed through the skin appeases thirst and a half, while we could indicate a burial-ground of almost as well as fresh water taken inwardly. In illustraless than two acres in the metropolis in which upwards tion of this subject, a correspondent has sent us the followof 500 bodies were interred in the year 1832*; nedy's losing his Vessel, and his Distresses afterwards, ing abridged quotation from a Narrative of Captain Kenyet, considering the prejudices that were to be over- which was noticed in Dodsley's Annual Register for 1769. come, the encouragement which the new cemetery has "I cannot conclude without making mention of the great received already is greater than we should have ex- advantage I received from soaking my clothes twice a day pected. We make no question that many years will in salt water, and putting them on without wringing. It not elapse before such suburban cemeteries will have was a considerable time before I could make the people completely superseded those which now make the dead comply with this measure, although from seeing the good divide the largest city of Europe with the living. But their own accord. To this discovery I may with justice ateffects produced, they afterwards practised it twice a day of such cemeteries can hardly be brought into full opera- tribute the preservation of my own life and six other pertion until the chief inducement, among the labouring sons, who must have perished if it had not been put in use. classes, to the interment of the dead in the nearest The hint was first communicated to me from the perusal of ground has been removed, by diminishing the expense a treatise written by Dr. Lind. The water absorbed through and labour of conveyance to a more distant place. We the pores of the skin produced in every respect the same do not see why the persons connected with the ceme-effect as would have resulted from the moderate drinking of teries might not themselves organize a system of con- any liquid. The saline particles, however, which remained veyance, with a scale of various prices and vehicles, that of our own bodies, lacerating our skins and being in our clothes became incrusted by the heat of the sun and which might afford to all but the extreme poor the otherwise inconvenient; but we found that by washing out means of decently but cheaply conveying their dead these particles, and frequently wetting our clothes without to" the house appointed for all living." wringing twice in the course of a day, the skin became well in a short time. After these operations we uniformly found that the violent drought went off, and the parched tongue was cured in a few minutes after bathing and washing our clothes; and at the same time we found ourselves as much refreshed as if we had received some actual nourishment. Four persons in the boat who drank salt water went delirious and died; but those who avoided this and followed the above practice experienced no such symptoms."

We understand that it is in contemplation to establish another cemetery, also on the plan of Père la Chaise, at Bayswater, about two miles from Oxford Street, on the Uxbridge Road. In describing that which is already established, we have, however, exhausted the

From a recent parliamentary return, it appears that in 134 parish-churches and burial-grounds, 24,606 bodies were interred in 1832; yet the collective extent of accommodation amounted to no more than 113 acres, little more than double that afforded by the single cemetery at Kensall Green.

Effect of the Atmosphere on Hair.-My own beard, which in Europe was soft, silky, and almost straight, began immediately after my arrival at Alexandria to curl, to grow crisp, strong, and coarse; and before I reached Es-Souan resembled hare hair to the touch, and was all disposed in ringlets about the chin. This is, no doubt, to be accounted for by the extreme dryness of the air, which, operating through several thousand years, has, in the interier, changed the hair of the negro into a kind of coarse wool.-St. John's Travels.

Life prolonged by Civilization.-If we collect England, Germany, and France in one group, we find that the average term of mortality which, in that great and populous region, was formerly one in thirty people annually, is not at present more than one in thirty-eight. This difference reduces the number of deaths throughout these countries from 1,900,000 to less than 1,200,000 persons; and 700,000 lives, or one in eighty-three annually, owe their preservation to the social ameliorations effected in the three countries of western Europe whose efforts to obtain this object have been attended with the greatest success. The life of man is thus not only embellished in its course by the advancement of civilization, but is extended by it and rendered less doubtful. The effects of the amelioration of the social condition are to restrain and diminish, in proportion to the population, the annual number of births, and in a still greater degree that of deaths; on the contrary, a great number of births, equalled or even exceeded by that of deaths, is a characteristic sign of a state of barbarism. In the former case, as men in a mass reach the plenitude of their physical and social development, the population is strong, intelligent, and manly; while it remains in perpetual infancy, whole generations are swept off without being able to profit by the past,-to bring social economy to perfection.-Philosophical Journal

that in the works of Rubens the art of the painter is
frequently too apparent, and then proceeds to say
"His figures have expression, and act with energy, but
without simplicity or dignity. His colouring, in which
he was eminently skilled, is, notwithstanding, too much
of what we call tinted. Throughout the whole of his
works there is a proportionable want of that nicety of
distinction and elegance of mind which is required in
the higher walks of painting; and to this want it may
in some degree be ascribed, that those qualities which
make the excellence of this subordinate style appear in
him in their greatest lustre. Indeed, the facility with
which he invented, the richness of his composition, the
luxuriant harmony and brilliancy of his colouring, so
dazzled the eye, that, while his works continue before
us, we cannot help thinking that all his deficiencies are
fully supplied."

vulgar eyes; and here Rubens has selected a very proper subject to display the gigantic boldness of his pencil." After the picture had remained 200 years at Antwerp, it was transferred to Paris, and formed one of the chief ornaments of the Gallery of the Louvre for the twenty years previous to 1815, when it was comprised among the numerous works of art which were restored to their original owners. The painting was executed by Rubens soon after his return from his seven years' residence in Italy, and while the impression made by the works of Titian and Paul Veronese was yet fresh in his mind. The great master appeared in the fulness of his glory in this work-it is one of the few which exhibits in combination all that nature had given him of warmth and imagination, with all that he had acquired of knowledge, judgment, and method; and in which he may be considered fully to have overcome the difficulties of a subject which becomes painful and almost repulsive when it ceases to be sublime.

Most of the works of Rubens indicate the rich and splendid tone of his imagination. He seems on all occasions to have abandoned himself almost entirely to his own feelings, and to have been guided exclusively by his own impressions, deriving less assistance perhaps than any other painter from sources out of himself. He is, therefore, eminently original; and if, in all his numerous works, a few instances can be found in which he has copied the ideas of other painters, it is evident how well they have been digested, and how skilfully adapted to the rest of his composition. His paintings abound in defects as well as beauties; but they possess the attribute peculiar to the works of true genius, that of commanding attention and enforcing admiration. It is difficult to say which branch of his art Rubens cultivated with most success. In history, portraiture, animals, landscape, or still life, his brilliant imagination and skilful execution are equally apparent. His animals, particularly his lions and horses, are so admirable, that it has been said they were never so pro-five of the disciples, all occupied in the same action. perly, or at least so poetically painted as by him. His portraits rank with the best productions of those who made that branch of the art their exclusive study; and in his landscapes, which combine the lustre of Claude Lorraine with the grandeur of Titian, the picturesque forms of his rocks and trees, the deep tones in his shady glades and glooms, the sunshine, the dewy verdure, the airiness and facility of his touch, exhibit a charm and variety of invention which fascinate the observer. In the mechanical part of his art, Sir Joshua Reynolds thought Rubens the greatest master that ever existed. His defects, which are neither few nor unimportant, consist chiefly of inelegance and incorrectness of form; a want of grace in his female figures, of which that buxom one of Salomé, in the present picture, is an instance. All his subjects, of whatever class, are equally invested with the gay colours of spring. A very general want of sublime and poetical conception of character may also be discovered in his pictures; and the good taste of the mixture of truth and fiction presented in his famous allegorical pieces has been strongly ques-base to this noble figure, and relieves, by its transparent tioned by some writers. There is, perhaps, no painter whose style has been so much described and discussed as that of Rubens; but we must now leave this for a more particular consideration of the picture before us, the following account of which is derived, with some abridgment, from the article which, in the Musée Français,' illustrates the engraving from which our wood-been established in all the principal parts. cut is copied.

When, in viewing the original of the splendid work, the general character of which alone our wood-cut can aspire to exhibit, the mind can descend to details, from the first grand impression it cannot fail to make, new beauties and perfections are discovered, and the only employment of the informed judgment is to sanction the feeling which the first impression created.

As the attention is directed in succession to the principal figures, that of Christ claims the strongest admiration. Death can hardly be more touchingly exhibited than in that pale, drooping, and blood-stained body. Then our notice descends to the natural action of all the characters, and the vivid expression of their love and grief. When we proceed to examine the structure and execution of this splendid work, we find that a single pyramidal group exhibits around Christ, upon a somewhat circular base, the three Maries and Two of the disciples, mounted upon the cross, let down the body of Jesus, which descends in an inclined posture, one of the disciples having just relinquished the hold which the other retains. Joseph of Arimathæa, a little less elevated than these two disciples, supports the declining body under the arm; while the beloved disciple, placed on the ground, receives in his arms the descending corpse of his Lord. The Virgin, full of tears and weakened by her sorrows, raises the maternal hands which nursed him when a child, and seems to seek one last consolation in embracing what remains of her Son and Lord. The obscurity of the horizon announces the sympathy of nature; while, notwithstanding, a light falls from the midst of the clouds upon the body of Christ, and gradually spreads itself over the immediately surrounding objects. The head, the body, and the left arm of Christ, are considered to constitute the finest work which Rubens ever executed. The vast white drapery intended to envelope the sacred body, and spreading from the summit to the foot of the cross, serves as a

This picture is one of the most celebrated of Rubens' productions. It was painted by him for the cathedral of Antwerp; where Mr. Beckford informs us that he saw it in the year 1780, and adds:-" A swingeing St. Christopher, fording a brook with a child on his shoulders, cannot fail of attracting attention. This colossal personage is painted on the folding doors that conceal the grand effort of art just mentioned from

reflection, the prevailing yellowish and azure tints. This same white drapery is skilfully employed to sustain the general harmony, by fixing the most clear and vivid light on the centre of the group. By this contrivance of the painter all the colours acquire a new intensity, and an eminently picturesque opposition has

The red tint of the tunic of St. John, and the green drapery of Mary Magdalen, contrasted with the pale body of the Saviour, heighten the apparent projection of the group in front; while the blue mantle of the Virgin, half of which is in shade, the blue and purple tone of the vestments of Joseph of Arimathæa, and of the disciple who is seen in the right, serves to round off the sides. In painting this picture Rubens seems to have determined to try by a grand experiment the rule

of Titian, that a group should present the effect of a
cluster of grapes. To this experiment he was also in-
vited by his subject, which he has adorned with all the
beauties of execution of which it was susceptible.
After this statement, the fame even of Rubens will
allow it to be said, that this admirable work is in some
respects faulty and imperfect. But in considering the
head and body of Christ, the heads of the Virgin and
Joseph of Arimathæa, the touch, the chiaro-scuro, and
the general effect of the whole, minute criticism is dis-
armed.

religious recluse, who, in all probability, had never been on the back of a horse before, and who says of himself that he was corpulent and heavy, to keep up with these flying Pagans, who might almost be said to be born on horseback. Where they met with an encampment they changed their horses, but this did not happen more than two or three times a-day, and yet the monk says they went thirty leagues daily. Sometimes, indeed, they travelled two or three days together without finding any people or horses, and then they were constrained not to ride so fast. Scattered here and there in the wide countries he was traversing, Rubruquis found a few Christians, who were chiefly Hungarians, Effect of Fear on a Tiger.-A correspondent transmits that had been carried off during the incursions of the to us the following curious anecdote, extracted from a letter Tartars into Europe. From these men he received received from India:-"During the dreadful storm and in- great kindness. One of them understood Latin and undation in Bengal, in May, 1833, the estates of a Mr. psalm-singing, in consequence of which he was in great Campbell, situated on the island of Sauger, at the entrance He also met with the native of a of the river Hoogly, suffered so greatly, that out of three request at funerals. thousand people living on his grounds only six or seven remote part of Asia, who had 'earned the rudiments of hundred escaped, and these principally by clinging to the Christianity from a monk of Rubruquis' own order roof and ceiling of his house. When the house was in this while in Hungary with a Tartar army. As he went close, crammed state, with scarcely room within it for an- farther on, he met with people in greater numbers, other individual, what should come squeezing and pushing professing themselves Nestorian Christians; but these, in its way into the interior of the house but an immense tiger, sober truth, were little better than the idolaters among with his tail hanging down, and exhibiting every other whom they lived. symptom of excessive fear. Having reached the room in Prester John and the great united Christian comIt is scarcely necessary to say, that which Mr. Campbell was sitting, he nestled himself into one of the corners, and lay down like a large Newfound-munity he was in search of were nowhere to be found. land dog. Mr. Campbell loaded his gun in a very quiet manner, and shot him dead on the spot."

OLD TRAVELLERS.

WILLIAM DE RUBRUQUIS.-No. II. OUR enterprising monk complains, at a very early stage of his journey, of the quality and small quantity of food allowed him by the Tartars, and, soon after, of the rapidity with which they made him travel. He says, they ate all sorts of flesh, even that of animals dead by disease. He seems, however, to have conquered his aversion to horse-flesh, and informs us that the sausages the Tartars made of the intestines of their horses were better than pork-sausages.

With their train of waggons they travelled for several weeks across the steppes which separate the Dnieper from the Tanäis, or River Don. Near to the latter river, they found the great Sartach, of whom they were in search, and who, without professing himself a Christian, recommended them to go on to his father, or father-in-law, the still greater Baatu. After many sore fatigues, they reached the encampment of Baatu; but even he could not treat with them, or so much as grant them permission to stay in the country. He however gave them a civil audience, and sent them forward in search of Manchu-khan, the great Tartar emperor, who was to be found somewhere in the direction of China. For five weeks they followed the banks of the Volga, walking on foot nearly all the way. They then left that river and went towards the River Jaïk. About this part of their journey they were mounted. not informed what became of the ox-waggons with their luggage, &c.; but these matters were already so much reduced by the rapacity of the different tribes they met, that they were probably left behind.

We are

In his intercourse with the Tartars he zealously attempted the task of conversion; and those wanderers appear at that time to have been so tolerant, and to have had so much respect for many of the forms and ceremonies of the Catholic church, that his mission, in this way also, might not have proved unprofitable. But Rubruquis was ignorant of their language, and unfortunate in the dragoman, or interpreter, he took with him. This fellow had no taste for sermons, "And thus," says the worthy traveller, "it caused me great chagrin when I wished to address to them a few words of edification, for he would say to me, 'You shall not make me preach to-day; I understand nothing of all you tell me!'" "And then," the friar adds, "he spoke the truth; for afterwards, as I began to understand a little of their tongue, I perceived that when I told him one thing he repeated another, just according to his fancy. Therefore, seeing it was no use to talk or preach, I held my tongue." This interpreter, moreover, was so fond of fermented mare's milk, that he was generally intoxicated.

Rubruquis, however, found the Tartars very fond of the symbol of the Cross, and of being blessed in the Christian fashion. Wherever he went he was asked for his bénédicité. With the existence of the great head of the Catholic church they were well acquainted; his name had reached the farthest corners of the East: but these Tartars had much the same notion as to the pontiff's longevity that is entertained by certain Asiatics of our own day with regard to the age of the EastIndia Company, which said Company they fancy to be one very old woman. The Tartars asked Rubruquis if the pope was indeed 500 years old! They likewise inquired whether, in the European countries the monks came from, there was an abundance of sheep, oxen, and horses? Their minute inquiries on this head, and the eagerness they showed for the acquisition of wealth, gave the friar some uneasiness, as he apprehended (what indeed, at the time, was not unlikely) that their numerous hordes would roll on from the Danube to the Tiber and the Seine, pillaging and devastating the best parts of Christendom.

While on the road, the friar and his companions were obliged to keep their horses almost always at full gallop, in order not to be left behind in the desert by their conductors. This break-neck speed was ill suited to the previous sedentary, slow, measured habits of the menks. Some friars, who had attempted this mission before Rubruquis, gave it up in despair when they Meanwhile, as the monks proceeded on their journey, found they had to gallop all day long, and many days" of hunger and thirst, cold and fatigue, there was no following, without rest, like Tartar couriers. youth and good constitution of Father William were The end." In places where horses were scarce, two of them in his favour; yet it was no ordinary exploit for a keep him up with "great beating and whipping.' were sometimes obliged to ride on one animal, and to

"Neither yet," says Rubruquis, "durst I complain, | esteemed. In one instance he fancied that the wife although my horse trotted full sore, for every man was bound to be contented with his lot as it fell."