Page images
PDF
EPUB

proud, independent being, which he had flattered himself that he was; learns bumility from the blow which his pride has received; and is rendered more capable of enjoying wealth and power if he should again be put in the possession of them. It is then also that he learns who are, and who are not, his real friends. The mere self-interested acquaintance forsakes him; the man who looked only to his own advantage, leaves him; and he alone remains who has really been attached to him, and not to his circumstances; whose affection has been the result of personal regard, and not of relative advantages; and who rejoices in the opportunity (whilst he laments the cause) which is now afforded him of proving the sincerity of his professions. Perhaps the sweetest hours that Friendship knows, are those in which she throws a ray of light across the gloom of sorrow. Perhaps the employment that is most congenial with her nature, is that of pouring a cordial into the wounds which have been made by affliction. Perhaps her brightest glories are those which illumine the night of adversity. The assurances of those whose sincerity we are most inclined to believe, are open to suspicion so long as we reflect on our ability to render service to the persons proffering them. But when we are convinced that we have nothing to return but the attachment of a heart as faithful as that which prompts the friendship we admire, the language of affection is indeed the language of disinterestedness; it is such as no common regard could have produced; such as no common calamities could determine. The expressions of kindness steal with a winning persuasion over the soul, and the assurance of the devotion which gives them birth, renders the affliction which has been their trial less a source of sorrow. The altar on which the professions of esteem are offered, burns in its flame the baser motives that might elsewhere have led to them. Whilst "the summer friend, the flattering foe," are now employed in magnifying the foibles and heightening the vices of their former companions, and are exposing them in all their deformity with as much avidity as they were previously palliated; and whilst those actions which were before highly extolled, and were the result perhaps of their advice, arenow the subject of their censure, or their merit, if really praiseworthy, is bestowed upon another; the

mistaken victim of misfortune learns to set a higher value than ever on that constancy which calamities could not shake, nor adversity destroy, He finds one friend better than a thousand pretenders to the title, and enters fully into the sentiments of Young

"Poor is the friendless master of a world." It is in the quiet and retired hours of affiction that the mind is left at liberty to indulge in meditation and salutary reflection. It is then that past errors are revolved; that false steps are remembered; that former mistaken sentiments are relinquished; that erroneous opinions are rectified; that a mistaken judgment is corrected; that the heat of the passions is allayed; that the voice of prudence is listened to; that the lessons of experience sink deep into the mind; and that the dictates of wisdom are inforced. It is at this season that a retrospective view of former failures leads to a prospective plan for future success; and it is then, that "Wisdom in sable garb array'd,

Immers'd in rap'trous thought profound," teaches her lessons, and inculcates her precepts with a force that is calculated to render them as lasting as they are impressive. Dryden, in a very beauti ful manner, conveys a similar sentiment to that of Gray's

"Well might the ancient poets then confer, On night the honour'd name of counsellor, Since struck with rays of prosp'rous fortune

blind,

We light alone in dark afflictions find.”

to

There is another advantage which the man who has been the subject of adverse circumstances experiences, which the favoured child of Fortune is a stranger. There is such a thing as satiety of pleasure. Wealth, if its pos sessor is dependent on this alone for his happiness, soon purchases all that can afford delight, and leaves the man who has all the power that it commands within his grasp, discontented with his lot, and covetous of some fancied snperiority which another possesses. Much of our enjoyment is dependent on variety. The order of nature and the succession of the seasons are a suitable emblem of the changes in the moral world. The balmy gales and verdant scenes of spring, derive a dou ble sweetness and beauty when con trasted with the chilling blasts and dreary barrenness of winter. The opening light

and dawning splendours of the day, please the eye of the beholder in proportion to the gloom and darkness of the night. The man who has long been immersed in a dungeon, and has spent his tedious hours in the melancholy stillness of solitary confinement, when released from his cell, gazes upon the fair face of nature with a rapture before unknown: the beauties of the surround. ing scenery that would formerly have passed unnoticed, are now the theme of his praise, and the objects of his admiration. The plants yield a sweeter fragrance; the fields wear a lovelier verdure; and the birds which sing among the branches warble their most delightful notes. "Wherefore," he asks,

"Wherefore Nature's form, So exquisitely fair? her breath perfum'd With such ethereal sweetness? whence her Voice,

Informed at will, to raise or to depress Th' impassion'd soul? And whence the robes of light,

Which thus invest her with more lovely pomp,

Than Fancy can describe?"

"Well pleased he scans The goodly prospect, and with inward smiles,

Treads the gay verdure of the painted plain,
Beholds the azure canopy of Heav'n,
And living lamps, that over-arch his head
With more than regal splendour, lends his

[blocks in formation]

breast, instead of giving vent to the many crosses that excite them, it must rather serve to embitter the cause, without at all alleviating the pressure of affliction. The great and lasting conflict that must here ever subsist between our inclination to vice and true reasoning, though too often overpowered and hurri ed down by the former, makes it both requisite and salutary for us to look into them, in order to discern them in their truest garb; that, through a just sense of our natural turn toward them, we may guard against them by knowing them, and form within us a just distaste of their outrageous unthoughtfulness, well knowing that the slightest retrospect unveils them, we should in time learn to purge ourselves of them, and assume a temperance and serenity of mind, uoruffled by the uncouth attacks of blindness and rage, that would recompense our labours in the eradicating them from the heart. Rash proceedings are the origin of all evils and errors, and the annals of history too conspicuously point them out to need a quotation. Then, ere we proceed to any undertaking, let us justly weigh the attendant consequences, and put ourselves upon our guard for disappointments which every where meet us, and not hurry on to any decisions without a mature consideration, founded on that grand point, all is frail on earth." Were we to use this only method through the career of our lives, we should, in time, find ourselves happily released from the rugged and unthoughtful bondage of rage, and become, through the reduction of that vice, worthy ornaments to the sacred science of humanity.

[ocr errors]

ON SCANDAL.

Against slander there is no defence. Hell cannot boast so foul a fiend, nor man deplore so fell a foe. It stabs with a word-with a nod-with a shrugwith a look-with a smile. It is the pestilence walking in darkness, spreading contagion far and wide, which the most weary traveller cannot avoid;-it is the heart searching dagger of the assassin;

it is the poisoned arrow, whose wound is incurable; it is as mortal as the sting of the deadly adder; murder is its employment-innocence its prey, and ruin its sport. Maria was a fatal instance; her head was a little raised from the pillow supported by her hand, and her countenance was exceeding sorrowful.

[ocr errors]

The glowing blush of eighteen vanished from her cheeks, and fever rioted in luxury upon her damask skin. It is even so,-a bursting sigh laboured from her boson-virtue is no protection while detraction breathes malignity while envy searches for faults and tortures truth. I might have been happy! but, oh! ye busy thoughts, recall not to my memory those joyful hours! She strug The invisible power gled, but in vain. closed her eyes, and her heaving sigh panted with the last throbbing of a broken heart. She is now no more. dal triumphed over the lovely maid. Superior qualifications made her the dupe of envy, and a fever followed. She fell a sacrifice to exquisite feelings.

AVARICE.

Scan

The love of money is a passion which, of all others, is the most difficult to

guard against, because it increases by imperceptible degrees; and when it once gets intire possession of the heart, I believe that there is no remedy for it. Many liberal men have become covetous, but I never knew one covetous who became liberal; so easy is it, in every instance, to deviate from virtue to vice, and so hard in that particular case to rise from vice to virtue.

THOUGHTS, REFLECTIONS, &c.

The ambition of men is generally proportioned to their capacity. Providence rarely sends any one into the world with an inclination to attempt things, who have not likewise abilities to perform

them.

The shortest expression, supposing equal perspicuity and elegance, is best. The rays of sense, like those of the Sun, acquire force by converging, and act more vigorously in a narrow compass.

A good story can never be too short, nor can a striking sentiment be clothed in too few words. We love to see the whole of the building at one view, not to be tired with the length of a naked portico, from apartment to apartment, or led through the gardens to be brought into the back door of a parlour, after we had forgot the figure of the saloon.

RECIPES. No. XVIII.

PERMANENT INK IOR MARKING LINEN.

AKE a drachm of nitrate of quick

Tsilver (lunar caustic) dissolve it in à glass mortar in double its weight of Europ. Mag. l'ol. LXXII. Dec. 1817.

pure water: this is the ink. In another vessel dissolve a drachm of salt of tartar in an ounce and a half of water: this is the liquid pounce with which the linen is first wetted. To be dried previous to the application of the ink.

MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION.

No. XXXVII.

METHOD OF DEFENDING TIMBER FOR BUILDING FROM ATTACKS OF THE SEASONS.

TH

HIS method is much more advantageous than that of soaking the wood in a solution of salt. It consists of a coating, which is prepared in the following manner : — Three parts of slacked lime, two parts of wood-ashes, and one of fine sand; the whole is sifted, and as much linseed oil added as is necessary to form it into a mass that may be managed with a pencil or brush. In

order to render the mixture perfect and

more durable, the mass may be beaten upon a marble. The wood only requires two coats, of which the first is laid on thinly, but the second as thick as the brush can do it. This coating, when well prepared is impermeable to water, and resists the influence of the weather and the action of the sun, which hardens and renders it more durable.

ABSTRACT OF THE NATIONAL DEBT

IN 1817.

THE following very curious document has been handed to us, as containing a body of financial information, derived from authentic sources in the month of last October. This paper throws a new and highly interesting light upon the National Debt of Great Britain; inasmuch as it not only states the sum total of the debt, and ascertains the separate amount of each description of stock by which it is constituted, but forms a species of enumeration not often, if ever, submitted at one view to the public, corresponding to the various classes of ostensible proprietors of stock, to each of whom it assigns whatever proportion of the several funds is found standing in their name at the Bank of England. Although the great body of the account in question bears the appearance of research and authenticity, we shall feel obliged to any of our correspondents who will enable us to rectify such errors of detail as may by possibility have crept into it :

3 X

[graphic]

Exclusive of the above, the National Debt consists of,

South Sea Stock.

Old South Sea Annuities

New South Sea Annuities

3,662,784 8 6 ..11,907,479 2 T 4,500,830 2 10

8 per Cent. Annuities, anno 1751 .. 960,110 0 0

Making a total of.......21,087,194 13 11 transferable at the South Sea House.

THE

LONDON REVIEW, LONDON

AND

LITERARY JOURNAL,

FOR DECEMBER, 1817.

QUID SIT PULCHRUM, QUID TURPE, QUID UTILE, QUID NON.

Memoirs relating to European and Aviatic Turkey, selected from Manu script Journals. By Robert Wal pole, M.A. 1817.

I'veller who is not absolutely sunk

T is scarcely possible that any tra

in ignorance and stupidity, should visit those celebrated regions which it is the object of Mr. Walpole to illustrate, without adding largely to his own fund of knowledge, and collecting materials for information on many curious and important subjects; it is justly remarked, in the preface to the present work, that a selection from different journals, may be the means of bringing together in a single volume a greater variety of information than is comprised in the works of any single individual, however enlightened or accomplished.

The observations contained in the following pages have been furnished at different periods, by men of science, taste, and learning, whose only object was to acquire knowledge and to diffuse truth. The preliminary discourse contains a succinct view of the changes which have taken place in the Turkish empire. Amongst the more valuable communications we have to notice those of Mr. Morrill, Dr. Sibthorp, Dr. Hunt, Mr. Hawkins, Mr. Haygarth, and Professor Carlysle. But it is painful to reflect that the greater part of these MSS. are posthumous, and that many of these meritorious enquirers perished in the flower of life, ere curiosity was sated, or the energy of an active spirit exhausted. Amongst these the late Dr. Sibthorp holds a distinguished place, not only for the ardour with which he pursued bis researches in the plains of Troy and the mountains of Athos, but for the munificent bequest by which he sought to perpetuate the zeal that animated him in the discovery

and diffusion of truth. To his excellent associate, Mr. Hawkins, we are indebted for much interesting information respecting the topography of Athens, the Vale of Tempe, and the Euripus of Strabo. The late Professor Carlysle bas furnished much valuable miscellaneous observation concerning Constantinople. From Dr. Hunt we have the result of a journey in Asia Minor, and a most curious and novel description of the monastic inhabitants of Mount Athos. The papers of the late Colonel Squire, who, in conjunction with Col. Leake and Mr. Hamilton, made a tour in Greece, have thrown light on the topography of Marathon. Many interesting communications concerning Africa are supplied from the journals of Mr. Davison, well known to foreign travellers for having penetrated within the chamber of the pyramid at Ghiga. Many judicious remarks on the modern inhabitants of Egypt are extracted from the MSS. of Dr. Hume. There is also a journal of a voyage up the Nile, between Philae and Ibrim, in Nubris, by Capt. Light. To these are added many curious disquisitions on the site of Troy. A panoramic view of Athens, by Mr. Haygarth; an elucidation of its architectural inscriptions, by Mr. Wilkins: with much valuable information on the natural history of Greece from Dr. Sibthorp, and other diligent observers of Nature.

Without attempting to analyse the various articles contained in this compendious volume, we shall for the present confine our attention to Mr. Morritt's original account of his tour through Maina in the Morea, a district under which the classical reader will recognize a part of the ancient Laconia; which, with a spirit not unworthy of antiquity, still preserves a virtual inde

« PreviousContinue »