the thing. "So rapid," says one, "is absorption from the stomach in the morning, that I have repeatedly seen nine tumblers of a saline mineral water taken at eight o'clock, and a very hearty breakfast finished within half an hour after the water was drunk!" 1

XIX.

MONACHISM.

ONE of the Oxford divines, whose writings are now so much spoken of, has so expressed himself as if he wished the revival of some kind of monachism. "Great towns will never be evangelized merely by the parochial system; they are beyond the sphere of the parish priest, burdened as he is with the endearments and anxieties of a family. . . It has lately come into my head, that the present state of things in England makes an opening for reviving the monastic system. I think of putting the view forward under the title of Project for reviving Religion in great towns.' Certainly colleges of unmarried priests (who might of course retire to a living when they could and liked), would be the cheapest possible way of providing for the spiritual

2 Dr Combe on Digestion and Dietetics, p. 195. Edinb. 1836. He refers for instances to Sir Francis Head's Bubbles from the Brunnens of Nassau.

You must

wants of a large population. have dissent or monachism in a Christian country; so make your choice." These opinions are perhaps more strange than new; for views very like them were held by Swift. "The institution of convents," says the editor of Swiftiana, "seems in one point a strain of great wisdom, there being few irregularities in human passions, that may not have recourse to vent themselves in some of those orders, which are so many retreats for the speculative, the melancholy, the proud, the silent, the politic, and the morose to spend their lives, and evaporate the obnoxious par¬ ticles; for each of whom in England,' says Swift

6

forcibly, we are forced to provide a several sect of religion to keep them quiet. "2

XX.

HARDHAM'S No. 37.

THIS famous snuff derives its name from John Hardham, a native of Chichester, who died in the year 1772. He was bred to the employment of a lapidary or diamond-cutter; but abandoned that for the business of a tobacconist. He was intimate with the wits and critics of his time, and wrote The

1 Froude's Remains, cited in Dr Pusey's Letter to the Lord Bishop of Oxford, p. 208, note.

2 Swiftiana, vol. i. p. 164. Lond, 1804.

Fortune Tellers, a comedy, which was never acted. He was at once the patron and teacher of many candidates for histrionic fame, so that we are told, "he was seldom without embryo Richards and Hotspurs strutting and bellowing in his dining-room, or the parlour behind his shop, which was at the Red Lion, near Fleet Market, in Fleet Street. The latter of these apartments was adorned with heads of most of the persons celebrated for dramatic excellence, and to these he frequently referred in the course of his instructions."1 The figures 37 seem to have been those which marked the number of his snuff-shop.

XXI.

ANTIQUARIES.

It is the glory of the antiquary that he is able to read what to others is unreadable. 66 "If ever," says the cautious Mr Saunders Gordon, "these letters, I. A. M. P. M. P. T. were engraven on this building, it may not be reckoned altogether absurd that they should bear this reading; Julius Agricola Magnae Pietatis Monumentum Posuit Templum. This may as probably be received as that inscription in Holland, which, having these following letters, C C P F, is read, Caius Caligula Pharum Fecit."2 If the old

1 Biographia Dramatica, vol. i. pp. 206, 207, edit. 1782. 2 Gordon's Itinerarium Septentrionale, p. 29. Lond. 1726.

Dutch instance shall be judged not in point, its place may be supplied by modern French ones. In the amphitheatre at Arles, is a stone inscribed,

V. S. D. D. P. A. S.

which no one doubts should be read, Votum Susceptum Decreto Decurionis Pro Amphitheatri Salute. On a vase dug up at Cuissy, are engraved the letters

INI VOI,

and the only dispute is, whether they stand for Infra Illustris Viri Ossa Jacent, or Intra Illustris Vir Optimus Jacet.2 The initials

M MAVS,

found on a tomb at Scarpone, are interpreted with no hesitation, Monumentum Moerens Lubenter Voto Suscepto.3

XXII.

AN ANTI-CLIMAX.

THE profound treatise by the Scriblerus Club on the Art of Sinking, contains no finer illustration of the bathetic than is afforded by a sentence of a popular work on Iceland, by Ebenezer Henderson, Doctor in Philosophy, Member of the Royal Society of Gottenburgh, Honorary Member of the Literary Society

1 Mem. de S. R. des Antiq. de France, t. vii. p. lv. ; t. ix. p. 237. 3 Id. t. viii. p. 206.

2 Id. t. ix. p. 335.

of Fuhnen, and Corresponding Member of the Scandinavian Literary Society at Copenhagen. "Having," writes this pluralist of honours, "returned thanks to my Almighty Deliverer, for this fresh instance of his mercy, and emptied my boots of the water that had got into them, I bent my course into the desert."1

XXIII.

FLOWERS FROM A NEGLECTED GARDEN.

THE old reproach of critics will scarcely hold true in our day, that they read books but to find out their faults, and winnow corn but to collect and preserve the chaff. The Republic of Letters now counts amongst her citizens many who may be likened rather to cinder-wenches, raking the refuse heaps of literature for lost valuables, and carrying off in triumph the veriest trifles, if they bear but the semblance of worth. Then what infinite pains are wasted on the recovered relic to restore its faded hue, to piece together its broken limbs, and to set it forth again in all its pristine beauty! Monmouth Street or Saint Mary's Wynd may be challenged to show greater skill in the art of renovating old clothes, than these critics display in putting a fresh nap on cast-off authors.

1 Journal of a Residence in Iceland during the Years 1814 and 1815, vol. i. p. 183. Edinb. 1818.