mentine Museum, and two in the French; one brought from the Palace of Modena, the other from the Villa Albani. After his busts, all those of the following Emperors decline in merit. XXXVII. A WOUNDED COMBA TANT. A Statue. The attitude is remarkable. The wounded hero, with one knee on the ground, does not ap pear vanquished. (Visconti, p. 17.) It is just as probable that he is in the act of supplicating mercy from his conqueror: unless the statue refers to one of Homer's heroes. XXXVIII. A YOUNG HERCULES WITHOUT A BEARD. The bandeau around his head was often given by the Greeks to deified heroes. (Visconti, p. 17.) Upon the Palais Royal Gems (1. pl. 80.) is a head, very fine, of the young Hercules: but, whether young or old, his forehead has the form of that of a bull: and his hair is curled upon his head. XXXIX. ANTINOUS. A Bust. The Ivy crown which encircles his head, gives him the character of a Bacchus, or Osiris. (Visconti, p. 17.) All the representations of Antinous are in the Egyptian style, as it was modified by the Greeks under the Lagidæ. The two finest known heads of him are engraved in the Monumenta Inedita. Mr. Hope has a fine bust in the Greco-Egyptian style. The pretended Belvidere Antinous, so common in the shops, is a Meleager, or a Mercury. XL. PLANTILLA. A Bust. This undoubted portrait of the wife of Caracalla, is equally perfect in conservation and execution. (Visconti, p. 17.) Qu. if this bust is not unique, or excessively rare? Mongey takes no notice of any bust. XLI. BACCHANTE. A Statue. She is crowned with vine leaves, and draped in two tunics without sleeves, of unequal length, over which a goat skin is negligently thrown. (Visconti, p. 18.) Winckelman says, that the face of a Bacchante expresses the Aurora of Pleasure. They have the antient character of comic grace, like Fauos, a gay smile, delineated by the angles of the mouth, drawn upwards. Besides this, the fine Bacchante of the Villa Albani has a flat profile, and the eyes elevated, like those of Fauns. The goat's skin, says Montfaucon, is common. XLII. ENEAS. A Bust. This warrior, whose head is covered with a helmet, and who seems to direct sorrowful looks to Heaven, has been taken for a wounded Diomede, im. ploring the protection of Minerva, but the absence of every indication of a wound, and the crooked form of the top of the helmet, which seems to imitate the Phrygian bonnet, may rather induce us to think, that it represents a Trojan Hero, probably Eneas, who, upon the shore of Africa, where he has been thrown by a tempest, is invoking the aid of his Goddess mother. (Visconti, p. 18.) This conjecture is very ingenious, for the helmet of Eneas is of this fashion in the illuminations of the Vatican Virgil, supposed to be of the reign of Theodo sius, towards the end of the fourth century; and it also occurs upon the head of the Goddess Rome, in the coins of the family Cornelia. These are the authorities from which the presumptive form of the Trojan helmet is taken. The XLIII. AN EGYPTIAN GOD. A Statue of alabaster. Egyptian monuments sculptured in alabaster are very rare. This seated figure is of a large dimension and Egyptian work. manship: and is, for its matter and antiquity extremely precious. seat is ornamented with hieroglyphicks. It is probable that this statue formed the ornament of the Temple of Orus, in some town of Egypt, perhaps that which the antient Geographers called the "City of Alabasters." We know that the Egyptians were accustomed to sculp the images of this God of Light upon white stones. (Visconti, p. 19.) Only two other Egyptian statues of alabaster are known; they are two Isises seated, holding horns upon their kaces. One is at the Roman College; the other at the Villa Albana. (To be continued.) tients were accustomed to light fires in honour of the New Year, which they held to have originally commenced in fire. Nor is there, he asserts, any computation of time more antiently received than that which fixes the beginning of the year in June. These fires, he proceeds, were accompanied with vows and sacrifices for plenty and prosperity, with dances and leaping over the flames, and each person on his departure took a firebrand of greater or less magnitude, while the rest was scattered to the wind in order that it might disperse every evil as it dispersed the ashes. The vigil of St. John the Baptist falling on this day, the MidsummerEve rites seem to have been carefully practised and handed down by our more immediate ancestors; for Stowe and his contemporaries particularly describe its observance. Bourne mentions it in 1725, and Borlase about 30 years later. As to the universality of this custom through out the nations of Celtic origin, we know that in the North of England, in Ireland, and in Scotland, it is still retained. And may perhaps argue from its name Belleine-Bel's Beal's, or the Suu's fire-that it is coeval with the Aboriginals of our Island, who, as well as almost every other nation of Idolaters, paid homage to that glorious luminary. Traces of it appear in Sweden, where the houses are ornamented with boughs. Stowe says they ought to be greene birch, Long Fennell, St. John's Wort, Aspin, White Lillies, and such like, and the young people dance around a poll till morning, and even among the Vehosti, a Tartar tribe, subject to Russia, who assemble, as we are told, under a tree at night, and remain till morning on the festival of St. John, shrieking and singing and dancing round a great fire. The best account of the attendant ceremonies is given by Googe, in 1570, io a translation which he dedicated to Queen Elizabeth. Theu doth the joy full feast of John the Baptist take his turne, When bonfires great, with lofty flame, in every towne doe burne, And young men round about with maydes doc dannce in every street With garlands wrought of motherwort, or else of vervaine sweet, And many other flowers faire, with violets in their hands; [whosoever stands Where as they all doe fondly thinke that And thorow the flowers beholds the flame, his eyes shall feel no paine, When thus 'till night they daunced have, they through the fire amain With striving minds doe run, and all their herbs they cast therein; And then with words devout, and prayers, they solemnly begin, Desiring God that all their illes may there confounded be; Whereby they thinke through all that yeare from augues to be free." Vide Strutt's Sports and Pastimes, p. 317. The vestiges of these rites are not quite obliterated in South Wales, and may perhaps be instanced as one amongst many proofs of resemblance between Welsh and Scottish customs. At Port-Einon, a small village in that insulated part of Glamorganshire, called Gower, culm is collected and hid against a fire on the 23d of June, as I had an opportunity of being witness to last year: on enquiry I found that the custom had been observed time immemorial. At Llangeneth, a neighbouring village, the festival of the Patron-saint, or Mabsant, i.e. holy man, falling on the 24th, the garlands and the poll, as well as the dances and bonfire, are still retained. This ceremonial is not wholly unknown in Pembrokeshire. It does not appear that it was necessary to light the fire invariably in the same spot, although a conspicuous situation was generally chosen. foundations of a small inclosure once used for this purpose, may still be traced in the turf about a furlong from the noted well at the secluded village of Newton in Glamorganshire. A few of the old people still remem ber convening there, and throwing a small cheese across through the flame on Midsummer's Eve. They report that the enclosure was afterwards used as a pound, though it seems too small for that purpose, and that the stones have been taken to mend the road that leads to the little barbour below. The above cited contain so satisfactory a I have only to add, that the lines description of this curious rite, that should it fall into total disuse, I can still heartily congratulate Morganery and her neighbours on being free from the evils which it was erst intended to deprecate. H. Mr. for literary property appears to have been in the reign of Queen Anne; for though Queen Elizabeth permitted no book to be published without the permission of the persons appointed by the Crown, as Licensers of the press, and directed that only one license should be granted for the same work, this afforded but very slender protection to the Authors; since it is well known that the said Licensers were frequently tampered with, and prevailed upon to countenance every species of literary depredation which ingenuity of the age could suggest or practice. The origin of Copy-right may, however, be traced to a much more remote period in Italy. The earliest instance of the positive protection of literary property occurred in 1514, during the pontificate of the accom plished Leo X. Having committed the five books of Tacitus (which he had purchased for 500 zechins of ADgelo Arcomboldo, who brought them from the Abbey of Corvey in Westphalia) to the care and editorship of the learned Beroaldo; in order to secure him the reward of his labours as editor and collator of the MSS. he denounced senteuce of excommunication, besides the penalty of 200 ducats and forfeiture of the books, against any person who should reprint the work within ten years of its publication by Beroaldo, without his express permission. cause of complaint than the loss of his ducats. It is easy to conjecture modern publisher on such an occasion. A compromise was subsequently entered into between Mauuziano and Beroaldo, and the former permitted under certain restrictions to vend his spurious edition. The Copyright Act, notwithstanding its improvements, is still susceptible of further modification. "Authors," says Mr. D'Israeli *, "continue poor, and booksellers become opulent-an extraordinary result! Booksellers are not agents for authors, but proprietors of their works; so that the perpetual revenues of Literature are solely in the possession of the trade." Literary might be as profitable as landed property to its possessor, if properly secured; but, as M. D'Israeli very pertinently observes, "successful Authors are heirs to fortunes, but, by a strange singularity, are disin herited at their very birth; for on the publication of their works they cease to be their own property." This is ordered somewhat differently in France, where the descendants of Racine and Corneille relain a claim to compensation from the proprietors of the French Theatres, whenever the Dramas of their immortal ancestors are performed. In that country particular encouragement has been given to literary men. It was there decreed, in the affair of Crebillon, that literary productions should not be liable to be seized by creditors. I think it possible for a greater indulgence to be granted to Authors in England than has ever as yet been allowed them, without infringing upon the interests of the Commonwealth. And that the Copy-right Act, even in its present reformed state, is capable of being very materially improved, is a fact, of which all who think proper to deliberate calmly upon the matter must be aware. Notwithstanding these serious injunctions, however, the work was pirated and drinted at Milan in the same year, by Alesandro Manuziano, who had established himself as a printer in opposition to Aldus Manuzio, and who contended with him in the publication of the writings of antiquity. He appears to have obtained the sheets of Beroaldo's Tacitus as they came from the press, and had probably nearly completed his impression be- I shall be pleased if these imperfect fore he was aware of the heavy pe- hints elicit remarks from any of your nalties he was provoking. He was numerous Correspondents, on a subcited before the Pontiff to answer for ject of such vital importance to Lihis offence; but, owing to the inter-terature as that to which they are di ference of some powerful friends, he was excused the weightiest portion of his punishment, namely, excommunication; though it is a question whether he would not have deemed the curses of the Pope a much lighter rected; and shall gladly avail myself, *"Calamities of Authors." Mr. present the Mythe, in the parish of Tewkesbury, within half a mile of Mr. URBAN, May 1. O rescue from oblivion the pe antient drawing was taken piety and magnificence, ere yet entirely effaced by the overwhelming power of Time, or the yet more levelling arm of "Modern Improve ment," is a pleasing, though melancholy task, which, while it affords a legitimate source of innocent pleasure, must at the same time impress on the mind an awful, though salutary lesson. The Quadrangular Tower, a drawing of which accompanies this *, was pulled down about two years ago, to make way for the erection of a School for the education of Children on the System of Dr. Bell, and was for many years used as the Common Gaol of the Borough of Tewkesbury. It is conjectured to have been originally intended as a receptacle for the bells belonging to the Abbey, of which it was undoubtedly an appendage, though its site is now at some distance from, and apparently unconnected with it. But probably being found too weak to support the powerful vibration of the Bells, to which the extensive fissures on the North side are attributed, they were transferred to the central tower of the Abbey. To each of the four corners was affixed a winged figure, which has been supposed to represent demons in the act of flying away from the "Harmony of the Steeple," to which they are said to have an aversion, though this property is not enumerated in the list of good offices performed by bells in the following distich: "Laudo deum verum, plebem voco, congrego clerum, Defunctos ploro, pestem fugo, festa de. coro." Or in the inscription for Bells, mentioned by Weever in his "Funeral at least 10 years ago; as about that time it underwent some material alterations in the exterior. It is vulgarly called King John's Castle, from an unfounded idea that that Monarch once inhabited it, F. I. Mr. URBAN, April 26. I HAVE been much gratified by a perusal of the Translation of the Saxon Chronicle, reviewed by you in p. 336. Not having the original of the Saxon Chronicle by me, I cannot refer to it; but I suspect Miss Gurney has no authority for what appears to me an error, pp. 31, 635. "This year, &c. at Dorchester (Oxfordshire).” In the late edition of Hutchins, vol. IV. p. 86, Birinus, an Italian monk, did the same anno 634 in Wessex, and fixed an Episcopal See at Dorchester in Oxfordshire, and the an. thorities quoted are in Saxon Chron. p. 230. Godwin de Præsul. p. 202, (not 329.) Dug. Mona. Bede Hist. I. 3. c. 7. (not 1. 5. c, 19.) W. of Malmsbury, Brompt. Leland. It has always been a doubt with me whether Birinus ever went into Oxfordshire. Bede says he arrived in the nation of the Geoisseans (West sex) and finding them all Pagans, he continued there, and the two Kings, Cynegils and Oswald, gave him the City called Dorcic. E. B. On the Extent of the Historic Relation, in discovering and marshalling the Subjects of Human Knowledge. (Continued from p. 391.) E must now define a word not WE usually defined in philosophical inquiries-1 mean FAITH. Faith is the eye of the soul. This is a diatinct organ, act, or faculty of the mind as much so as reasoning, imagination, or belief of human occur. rences. A mau may lose the use of this faculty, as he may his eye-sight: or he may have it diseased and illaffected, just as he may any other sense, external or internal. Is it possible that some persons (like HUME for example) may, in this acceptation of the word, have been born blind? HUME could no more reason upon, or conceive, what religious feeling. feeling was still less calculate its effects-than a man born blind could comprehend what was meant by the word "scarlet." The property of faith is to perceive a supernatural communication, a fact, precept, influence, command, or power divine. It is the faculty whereby to perceive and feel Revelation. It has sagacity where reason is blind: and that it is not wrong, is proved by its effects, a supernatural goodness and cheerfulness from HOPE penetrating its countenance, speech, and actions.-It carries the divine letter of recommendation in its face wherever it goes. It has a steady perception, and belief (of course) in the system of Providence the full extent of whose plan is above and beyond its ken, but it sees plainly that the system of Providence here is a mysterious fragment of some whole -that the human soul, wondrous in its energies, possessing and agitating this body, its senses and organs, yet remaining invisible-is in a stage of progress from, and to, some point the superior order of beings, and is part of that golden chain let down from heaven-alluded to by Homer, and the Pagan Poets. And, by the way, all the Pagan superstitions, whether antient or modern, have, by the unanswerable learning of sound criticism, been shewn to be only so many corrupted and mutilated remains of revelation, imperfectly transpired. The virtue of the Stoics, Epicureans, Sceptics, and Academicians, is founded on apathy, and a self-balanced independence of the historical chain of things-the mutual connection with God and man. So the modern philanthropist (as he is foolishly called) resolves charity into an expansion of self-love—a solecism in terms. But Christians make virtue a communicated feeling, (moving in the contrary direction, that is, from without, from around, and from on high: a grace derived from the Deity, our common FATHER. It is drawn historically from that sublimest and purest origin. Hence duty, fortified by habits of forbearing, that from the infinite distance is hid and of active exertion of our faculfrom view. That it is making a tran- ties, repressing, of consequence, selfsit over the disc of finite space.-love: crossing, but not mortifying Faith has a curiosity, a yearuing after, immortality-an anxious expectation as if longing to be gone, upon a fair journey a tenderness as of having been parted from some one-and will take no consolation-a thoughtfulness, as if recollecting a state, not by any means to be found here; but as something that it has seen or known before. Formed exclusively to believe divine truth, it has a ready presentiment of heavenly grace and favour, unless diseased with fanaticism or superstition, its two fatal disorders. But when sound, it is the rightful witness and trier, as to the fact, of divine interpositions, of the correspondence in evidence of things not contrary, indeed, to reason, nor incompatible with it-closely in the analogy of it-for both are historical; but it is specifically different from reason— and as far above it, as reason itself is above brutish sagacity. Whoever has heard the evidence of Christianity must be stupid if he is not a Christian. He must have suffered some paralysis of the mind. He must have been by some accident bereft, as Dr. Clarke has demonstrated, of that faculty, which links us with it, in the sense of the Monks, and Methodists, but of the Apostle. Hence general maxims, which are the precis, result, or sum total, of historical experiences, and communicated truths. And thus it appears that prudence, temperance, fortitude, and justice, are only consequences that immedi ately arise from Christian duty, or benevolence, i.e. gratitude to God and man, arising from the historical notice of our relations to them, respectively. Traditionary maxims of life, proverbs, approved apophthegms, rules, and aphorisms, or definitions, i.e. limitations of moral truth, were, as we have observed before, the first step in the science of moral philosophy. Proverbs are in ETHICS what the best poetry and narration are in CRITICS, from their simplicity, ever in the mouths of the common-people. They were the precis of historical notices. So the first poetry consisted of short real histories. A didactic order or system of these proverbs reduced to heads, was next formed by the operation of simply noting differences among things agreeing, and agreements among things differing, and then the further con necting |
