Births, Marriages, and Deaths, Probus, Revd. J. Williams B. D. aged 50

The Cornish Magazine.

MAY 1st, 1828.

THE LION'S HEAD TO HIS FRIENDS.

I HAVE been appointed to exercise a conspicuous and important function in the machinery of this production. I am the centre and rallying point of those joint-stock endeavours, which, though their object be the maintenance of our provincial Literature, must first contribute to mine; in return for this generous condescension, my repository shall supply those streams of amusement and instruction which may be hereafter found in these pages. Seeing then that we hold so intime a relationship-I have thought it prudent and right to introduce myself to my liberal patrons, as early as possible, that we may commence our acquaintance with a mutual good understanding. My lineal descent is highly respectable, and I have a family tradition that the lion's head, so celebrated of old, and still revered in memory, was one of my ancestors-It will not be my fault at least, if the career of his descendant be not equally brilliant with his own.

As my connection with the Magazine is so recent, I enjoy the double advantage of knowing what is thought of it abroad, and also of witnessing the cabinet councils and proceedings behind the scenes. This puts it in

my power to be, on occasion, the mediator between the respective parties, and on this head I have something to say just now. That our publication has in general met with indulgent-if not respectful countenance from the public, can be denied only by those who are ignorant of the extent of its circulation. But there have been, and are some, who foolishly enough seek in infancy the strength and comeliness of maturity, and with scornful looks, or vituperative language, have assailed our humble origin, and pitied our first attempts. We return them their pity with ten fold interest-for it is what they need far more than ourselves. They are ignorant of the difficulties which attend our enterprize, and cannot sympathise with that noble ambition which led us to seek a foundation for our structure, though none was allowed us but in obscurity, Still the foundation is laid-we feel confident that the great design will be accomplished--that our own County, rich in intellectual treasures, will prove itself capable and willing to produce a monthly publication second to none. I have heard several persons say that they would willingly write for the work, if its reputation were better established. If all men determined in this way, its character never would be established. Doubtless, when it shall be considered an honor, as ere long it may be, to rank amongst the contributors of the Magazine-such gentlemen will gladly partake of the privilege.-Their efforts to hasten that day would gain a richer meed of credit for them hereafter. Others have said, they disliked their productions to appear in company with those of inferior merit, and blamed

They who are desirous of a personal interview, are requested to visit me at the "Cornish Magazine Office," where I shall be found at my POST in the window, waiting for my friends. Having adopted the maxim of being "always in the way," I am a stationary being, and some will think, a hungry one too-for my mouth presents a most inviting chasm to those who have anything to give me.

the Editor for admitting articles below mediocrity. Let them remember that the Editor has only to select the best materials which are offered to him, and that every good article which is sent, will be sure of excluding one that is inferior. It is well known that the excellence of periodical works is maintained at a great expence; each communication being remunerated by a proportionate and liberal premium. To such an interchange of services the proprietor of this looks forward, though I heard him say, that circumstances are not yet sufficiently favourable for it.

The alteration which has been made in the form of our Magazine was the result of my suggestion. I whispered one day to the Editor that I knew the double column had been objected to, and that nearly all with whom I was acquainted, would prefer the neat clean page, on which my lines are traced that on the old plan, it was necessary to print the poetry in a type by no means distinct, or pleasant to read; and even to exclude some for want of space. He thought there might be a considerable objection to change the external character before the commencement of a new year, which I overruled by remarking that in the balance the convenience far outweighed the want of uniformity in a single instance; and believing that the good taste of a few might be considered the representative of all-the change was determined on.

The Editor then desired me to inform you, in his name, that he trusts the somewhat heterogeneous and unequal character of his charge may for a while be regarded with kindness. It is his purpose, as soon as it can be accomplished, to organize a society of stated writers for this work, when it will assume a more decided and consistent style. The specific character will of course depend on the kind of talent he can enlist in its service at the beginning-but when once established it will not be departed from. One thing, the Editor is particularly desirous, that I should mention-he pledges himself, during his administration,-that the Cornish Magazine, shall lend no support to immorality or irreligion-that it shall not, with his knowledge, gratify the feelings of one party, by wounding those of another-that it shall seek no advantage to itself, by an appeal to the prurient and vicious propensities of its readers. I have done; in vindicating the Magazine, I have been pleading my own cause, for I know that as it rises in fame, so must the "Lion's head" be known and respected.

A SONG COMPOSED FOR A PARTY TO BEEFSTEAKS ON TIN.
Your old Indian china,-your service of plate,

In place of good eating, we cordially hate:
No glittering display can e'er make amends,

If one feasts no more than the eyes of his friends.

For no such delight to eye-feasting belongs
As what tickles Amateur palates and tongues;
And if all other senses be barren or waste,
Who enjoys good eating 's a man still of taste.
Beefsteaks are good eating, we'll prove by and bye,-
Some boil them, some fry them, some put in a pie:
But no method is known so nice and so clean
As dressing these dainties on blocks of hot tin.
So 's are drest, and when each has his pound,-
His noble allowance,- the glass shall go round;
And we'll drink to his health, and drown, while we can,
All thought of the sorrows and sufferings of man.

KAPPA.

ON THE USES OF GRANITE.
-Saxum ciremspicit isgeus:

Saxum antiquum.

VIRGIL.

MANY Geologists maintain that Cornwall is, in the language of their Science, a primitive district; which conclusion they have drawn principally from its containing such vast quantities of granite, the primitive rock in their nomen clature. Other geologists reject this theory, and affirm that the phenomena which the county exhibits, when viewed in the light of true science, furnish ground for a contrary hypothesis: that in fact, so far from its being a primitive district, it forms an actual exception to it. We shall not undertake to decide on this difficult point; for in matters of science, as well as of philosophy, quid est temeritate turpius? Following therefore the Academics in this instance, we hold that though the truth lies somewhere, so much may be said in favour of its resting in either of these opposite theories, it is the wiser part rather to doubt, than to run the risk, by a hasty decision, of embracing the wrong one. This we shall do at least, till Geology itself shall have acquired a firmer foundation, and a more settled form. For hitherto the master-architects have been too numerous, and their materials too scanty, to admit of its exhibiting that compactness and symmetry of parts which, through the penetration and industry of future theorists, we are confident it will assume hereafter.

We decline entering into a discussion of this subject the rather, because there are other facts connected with it more open to common observation, and equally interesting in themselves, if not equally deserving distinct notice on account of their importance. Among these facts may be classed the various uses to which granite is applied in all parts of the county. We shall proceed to point out some of them to our readers; not for the purpose of conveying information, for all must have observed them; but to shew, by entering a little into detail, the value of a material in which we abound.

In the time of the Druids, if tradition be true, granite was used by them for altars; and large masses of it are still shown, on which it is said, they offered the victims sacrificed in honour of their gods The constancy of this tradition is in favour of its truth; and it receives confirmation from the fact, sufficiently evident from the book of Genesis, that large unhewn stones served, in the earlier ages of the world, for this sacred purpose. It is not however quite so certain that the masses of granite now pointed out as druidical altars were actually so; for in any enquiry on the subject, we have little to assist us but conjecture. To indulge in conjectures is an easy task; the antiquary may find it an agreeable exercise of his faculties; but in the pursuit of truth, or for the purpose of arriving at certainty respecting the customs of remote ages, it is, like the ignis-fatuus, an unsafe and unsteady guide. A granite rock may or may not have been once used as an altar: we can proceed thus far, but no farther: all beyond is doubt and darkness. Let us not now however. be misunderstood: we have no wish to weaken, by any thing we have said, a very common and very innocent belief. Let the huge masses of which we speak still retain all the interest with which tradition has invested them; and let the spots where they lie, like all others where the religious rites of antiquity have been performed, continue to be regarded as sacred.

When popery was the religion of Great Britain, Cornwall was as firmly bound in the chains of that superstition as any part of the kingdom; and in conformity to the practices which prevailed in that dark age of the Church, blocks of granite were hewn into rough crosses, and exhibited in some instances rude engravings of the scene of the crucifixion. Before these images the

blind multitude bowed the knee and paid their devotions. It is not for us to determine whether their worship was superstitious only, or in the uncompromising language of the Reformers, positively idolatrous. We leave this point to the decision of theologians, to whom it properly belongs; into whose province, as it would not become us, so we have no wish to intrude. Nor do we pass the limits of our proper sphere, when we remark that granite, which had been rendered sacred in the times of Druidism, by the bloodshedding of religious victims, seems to have acquired additional sanctity in the times of popery for then, after being hewn into appointed forms, it became an emblem of religious faith, if not of religious reverence.

Granite crosses are still to be found in every parish of Cornwall: we meet with them in church-yards and in market-places,—on the barren cairne, in the cultivated field, and in the lone path-way: so that these vestiges of a former superstition are probably more numerous in this county than in any other part of Protestant Christendom. But this is no reason for their being selected, as they have been in some instances, for purposes foreign to their original design, without either utility or necessity to plead in excuse of the practice. Till lately, one of these reliques stood in the midst of a large mercantile town in the West, to which some scores of filthy swine were attached by cords on market-days for sale. What could be more swinish? We really are not fastidious in this matter of crosses: our pulse gives no indication of the least degree of morbid sensibility in that part: we regard them merely as reliques of a former age, and in no other light. And secure as we now are from a return of popish peculiarities and follies, we are of opinion that, for decency's sake, they should be used for no profane or degrading purpose. Should they still be regarded as remnants of idolatrous practices, as they may be by persons whose scruples on the subject are more rigid than our own, they have our consent to break them to pieces, or to bury them; only let not things once held as sacred, however great the ignorance or superstition of the age, be degraded by every vile use to which profaneness or bigotry would apply them.

A much more important and useful purpose to which granite is applied, than any yet mentioned, is that of buildings of different kinds, as churches, dwelling-houses, quays, wharfs, and bridges. It forms the principal material in most of our Churches; whence arises the superior strength and durability of those sacred edifices. In these respects they form an emblem of that spiritual fabric, against which, it is said in Holy Writ, if we may venture to quote it on such an occasion, "the gates of hell shall never prevail." For our own part, we make no pretensions to that species of devotion which refuses all aid from external objects, well knowing that none but natures purely spiritual are capable of it. We love therefore to behold the temples of religion so constructed, as either by their spaciousness or strength, to impress the mind irresistibly with the sense of the awful presence and majesty of the in-dwelling Diety. Of this kind are the greater part of our churches; and it is for this reason principally that we prefer them to those of other counties, though they may be wanting in many of the ornaments which adorn the latter.

In consequences of the durability of granite, our churches have moreover stood for ages, proof against the ravages of time; and for the same reason, will stand for ages to come. And here we cannot forbear alluding to a train of solemn thought aud feeling, often awakened by the recollection of this circumstance, at our stated attendance on divine worship. These "houses of God" have already witnessed the devotions of many generations. Our remote ancestors offered their worship in them, superstitious in some respects though it was: they have passed away: there names are blotted out from