491] Varieties: Critical, Literary, and Historical. [492 injury to his family, becomes fortified in markable instance of this kind happened' his mind; but were he to know that at York about 25 years ago, and was resuch juries would act up to the meaning lated to me by an eye-witness. The of the solemn oath they have taken in convict's name was Broughton: having foro conscientia, without respect of per- robbed the mail, he was sentenced to be sons, it might in some instances prevent hung in chains near the spot where the the horrid catastrophe. One more sug- crime was committed. He was so disgestion, and I leave the interesting sub- tressed in his mind at the latter part of ject to persons more competent to en- his sentence, that his friends were induforce it on the minds of those whose pe ced to say, two days before his execuculiar province it is to be the guardians tion, that that part was remitted; in of the suicide being buried in a cross consequence of which he became tranroad and a stake driven through the quil and resigned, talking and shaking body, might it not act more in terrorem hands with many on his way to the galif the body were given to the Royal Col- lows. lege of Surgeons for dissection? The fear of such an exposure before their fellow-creatures, might operate more on their minds than the fear of appearing in the awful presence of their Creator and Judge. To inforce this idea how shame acts on the minds of the most depraved characters, it is well known that even murderers dread being dissected more than hanging, and still more if their bodies are to be hung in chains. A re To prove how exposure after death operated on the female mind, when neither the tears nor entreaties of agonized parents had any effect, I refer your readers to the story of the Milesian Virgins, whom nothing could prevent from hang. ing themselves till a decree passed that their dead bodies should be dragged through the streets; and this enactment effectually restrained the practice. If these hints prove useful, it will be grateful to HUMANITAS. VARIETIES, CRITICAL, LITERARY, AND HISTORICAL. THE WIVES OF LITERARY MEN. THE of a demigod. This appeared glaringly HE ladies of Albert Durer and having erected a monument to the memafter his death; for Cardinal Barberini Berghem were both shrews, and the former compelled that great genius to ory of his tutor, next to the tomb of Barthe hourly drudge of his profession, this, that she demolished his monument, clay, Mrs. Barclay was so irritated at merely to gratify her own sordid passion. brought home his bust, and declared that At length in despair, Albert ran away the ashes of so great a genius as her from his Tisiphone; she wheedled him husband should never be placed beside back, and not long afterwards he fell a victim to her furious disposition. He so villainous a pedagogue. died of a broken heart! It is told of band gave lectures on the philosophy of The wife of Rohalt, when her hus Berghem's wife, that she would not allow Descartes, used to seat herself on those that excellent artist to quit his occupa- days at the door, and refused admittance tion; and she contrived an odd expedient to every one shabbily dressed, or who did to detect his indolence, The artist worked in a room above her; ever and anon she roused him by thumping a stick against the ceiling, while the obedient Berghem answered by stamping his foot, to satisfy Mrs. Berghem that he was not napping! The wife of Barclay, author of The Argenis, considered herself as the wife not discover a genteel air. So convinced was she that to be worthy of hearing the lectures of her husband, it was proper to lecturer exhausted himself in telling her appear fashionable. In vain our good that fortune does not always give fine clothes to philosophers. Salmasius's wife was a termagant ; and Christina said she admired his pa 4937 Varieties: Critical, Literary, and Historical. [494 tience more than his erudition, married his physical strength not sink under the efforts of his early genius, he may one day probably claim the first rank among his competitors in mental precocity. Of this I will leave the reader to judge from the subsequent notice of to such a shrew. Mrs. Salmasius, indeed, considered herself as the queen of science, because her husband was acknowledged as sovereign among the critics. She boasted she had for her husband the most learned of all the nobles, and the most noble of all the learned. Our good lady always joined the learned conferences which he held in his study. She spoke loud, and decided with a tone of majesty. Salmasius was mild in his conversation, but the reverse in his writings, as our proud Xantippe considered him as acting beneath himself if he did not pour out his abuse, and call every one names.-Lit. Gaz. PROFESSOR HOFFMANN. S. M. W. Otto von Praun, the son of a captain in the Austrian service. He was born at Tyrnau, in Hungary, on the 1st of June, 1811. When but an infant, he showed singular desire of instruction, and in his second year he had acquired such a readiness in the knowledge of his letters, in reading, and in decyphering prints of subjects from general and natural history, that, on the 1st of November, 1813, when but two years and five months old, he was deemed qualified to enter the second form of the principal The Assembly of Jamaica presented National School of Tyrnau. Having Captain Bligh with 5000l. for introduc- attended the school about ten months, on ing the bread-fruit into that island. This the 26th August, 1814, he was expiece of liberality seemed so surprising amined with the rest of the pupils; in to old Hoffmann, Professor of Botany at reading and writing German, in Hungathe University of Göttingen, that in one rian orthography, his catechism, and of his lectures, holding up a specimen of drawing, he bore away the highest prize the fruit, he related the anecdote, and from 70 of his juvenile competitors, and with marks of ludicrous astonishment, was advanced to the first form. On exclaimed at least half a dozen times :- the examination of the 17th of March, "Five thousand pounds for an apple !”— 1815, this child, who had then attained The young English then at Göttingen the age of three years and three quarclassed Hoffmann himself. His estab- ters, was again pronounced the greatest lishment consisted of a niece and two proficient among the 124 pupils of his female servants: they therefore called form, in reading the German, Hungarian, him Monandria trigynia. He was, and Latin languages, in arithmetic, and however, a very good man, and a dili- his catechism. This infant prodigy has gent as well as able instructor.-New excited still greater attention, from the Mon. Mag. PREMATURE TALENT. extraordinary and more rapid progress he has made in music. From his second year he had studied the violin with so The names of Barretier, Crichtan, much success, that, after the examinaMeursius, and Pelisson, are familiar to tion of the 17th March, he astonished the historical reader; at the age of those who were assembled to hear him, aine years the first was master of five namely, the magistracy, all the teachers languages; at that of one-and-twenty, of the principal National School, and a the second challenged the learned of the number of amateurs of music, with takParisian University to a public disputa- ing the leading part in a duet and trio tion; when thirteen years old, Meursius of Pleyel's; this he repeated on the 13th composed Greek verses which were uni- of April following at a party given by versally extolled and when but seven- Prince Schwartzenburg at Tyrnau, before teen, Pelisson wrote a Paraphrase on a numerous circle of nobility. Nor is Justinian's Institutes. With these and the progress he has made in acquiring a other instances of singular prematurity foreign language, fencing, and drawing, of talent, a living prodigy is well entitled inferior to his other advancements. Durto be classed; indeed, should his intel- ing the summer of 1815, this boy gave a lectual advancement correspond here- public concert at Vienna, when the astoafter with that of his tender years. and nishment and admiration of all present 495] Varieties: Critical, Literary, and Historical. [496 were unbounded; the production of it he and various writers, Roman and Grecian, bestowed on the Invalid Fund. for it was taken from the mythological The authenticity of these particulars is system, common to both, and making verified by a certificate from M. von part of their established belief respecting Berzaczy, the director of the principal the state of the dead, who were reprenational school, and mayor of the free sented as entering into a vast and gloomy and imperial city of Tyrnau, and the mansion through an adamantine door whole of the public teachers in the first, which turned inwardly and prevented all second, and third, national schools there. return. Ibid. ILLUSTRATION OF OBSCURE SAY INGS, PROVERBS, &c. The character and manners of a people may be often correctly ascertained by an attentive examination of their popular sayings and familiar customs. The study, therefore, of these peculiarities ought not to be condemned, since the investigation has not only a tendency to enlarge the knowledge of human nature, but to illustrate national history, to mark the fluctuation of language, and to explain the usages of antiquity. We occasionally devote a page or two to this amusing subject, which we are confident is gratifying to the general body of our readers, though in the course of our inquiries we are sometimes obliged to relate many whimsical stories, and to quote very homely phrases and authorities. Chaucer gives a similar description of The day and night her to torment A MOOT POINT. "Moot" (as derived from the Saxon motion, to plead) is a term used in the inns of court, and signifies that exercising or arguing of cases which young barristers and students have been used to perform at certain times, the better to qualify them for practice and defence of cli ents' causes. argued was antiently called the "Moot The place where such Moot cases were Hall," at which time the benchers chose a bailiff of the Moots. There was likewise an exercise termed bolting, which word intended a private arguing of cases. HOBSON'S CHOICE. This is said when a person must either take what is offered to him or go without; and took its rise from Hobson, an eminent carrier at Cambridge, in the reigns of James and Charles the First. Hobson used to let out horses to hire to the young students of the University, who were obliged to put up with whatever steed the ostler produced, according to the regulations of the stable, which, like the laws of the Medes, were unalterable. Milton has inserted two epitaphs on Hobson in his minor poems, in a very neat edition of which, published by Tonson, there is a portrait of him on horseback. Hobson realised a handsome fortune, which he bestowed in public charities, particularly at Cambridge, where he erected a conduit in the market place. AS DRUNK AS A PIPER. Why persons of this description should That Death standeth armed at her gate. be so stigmatized is not very clear, un"Death's door" was indeed a common less it be alleged that, being usually cal phrase in early authors, and it occurs in led to play a distinguished part at merry our old version of the Psalms-"They meetings, they are peculiarly liable to were even hard at Death's door," Psm. temptation. Be this as it may, the folcviii. 18. To these observations of lowing story by Sir John Reresby, in Thomas Warton it may be added, that his Memoirs, has a fair claim to the orithe same idea may be found in Virgil, gin of the proverb: "A dreadful plague raged this summer, 1665, in London, it, in the room of his wooden bowl, was and swept away 97,309 persons. It to discover a thief. He said, that, when was usual for people to drop down in any thing was stolen, and the thief could the streets as they went about their busi- not be found out, the people were all ness; and a bag-piper, being ex- assembled together before him, when he cessively overcome with liquor, fell washed his hands in water in this vessel; down in the street, and there lay asleep after which it was cleaned, and then the in this condition. He was taken up and whole multitude advanced, one after thrown into a cart betimes next morning, another, and touched it in the same and carried away with some dead bodies. manner as they touch his foot, when Meanwhile, he awoke from his sleep, it they pay him obeisance. If the guilty being now about day's break, and ris person touched it, he died immediately ing up, began to play a tune; which so upon the spot: not by violence, but by surprised the fellows that drove the cart, the band of Providence; and if any one who could not see distinctly, that in a refused to touch it, his refusal was a fright they betook them to their heels, clear proof that he was the man." Cook's and would have it that they had taken Third Voyage, Chap. viii.-Eur. Mag. up the devil in the disguise of a dead man." It should be added, that according to an anonymous historian of the plague year, this man never took the infection, though he lay so long among the dead.-Ibid. JOSEPH'S CUP. "Is not this [cup] it in which my lord drinketh, and whereby indeed he divineth?" Genesis, Chap. xliv. 5. It is remarkable that a similar superstition to that of the Egyptians alluded to in the above text should have been found to exist in an island in the Pacific Ocean. AVALANCHES OF THE GREAT ST. BERNARD. A frightful avalanche on the 18th Dec. 1816, buried two domestics of the hospital, and four men of the town of St. Pierre, without a possibility of relief. To heighten the misfortune,all the dogs were buried under the snows. There remains at the Convent only one of these courageous animals, so long the hope of the traveller-their race is extinct. will require a long time and much attention to train new ones. INTERESTING TO FARMERS. It In "The Summer, having been remark"The King, who was one of our ably cold and unfavourable, the harvest company, this day, at dinner, I observed, was very late, and much of the grain, estook particular notice of the plates. This pecially oats, was green in October. In occasioned me to make him an offer the beginning of October the cold was so of one, either of pewter, or of earthen- great, that in one night there was produware. He chose the first; and then ced on ponds, near Kinnell, in the neighbegan to tell us the several uses to which bourhood of Bo'ness, ice, three quarters he intended to apply it. Two of them of an inch thick. It was apprehended are so extraordinary, that I cannot omit by many farmers, that such a degree of mentioning them. He said, that, cold would effectually prevent the farther whenever he should have occasion to filling and ripening of their corn. visit any of the other islands, he would order to ascertain this point, Dr. Rockleave this plate behind him at Tongata- buck selected several stalks of oats, of boo, as a sort of representative, in his nearly equal fulness, and immediately cut absenc that the people might pay it the those which, on the most attentive comsame obeisance they do to himself in parison, appeared the best, and marked person. He was asked, what had been the others, but allowed them to remain in usually employed for this purpose, before the field fourteen days longer; at the end he got this plate? and we had the satis- of which time they too were cut, and faction of learning from him, that this kept in a dry room for ten days. The singular honour had hitherto been con- grains of each parcel were then weighed: ferred on a wooden bowl in which he when eleven of the grains that had washed his hands. The other extra- been left standing in the field were found ordinary use to which he meant to apply to be equal in weight to thirty of the 499] Memoirs of the Abbé Edgeworth. [500 PUNISHMENTS OF PREVARICATION. Pascal, in his Pensées, says—“ There grains which had been cut a fortnight sooner, though even the best of the grains were far from being ripe. During is nothing, either just or unjust, but that fortnight (from 7th October to 21st) changes its quality by changing climate, the average heat, according to Fahren- Three degrees of polar elevation overheit's thermometer, was little above 43. throw the whole system of jurisprudence; Dr. Rockbuck observes, that the ripening one of the meridian decides upon truth, and filling of corn in so low a tempera- or a few years of possession." How ture should be the less surprising, when would the astonishment of this philosowe reflect that the seed corn will vege- pher, accustomed to mathematical axitate in the same degree of heat; and he oms, have been increased, had he been draws an important inference from his apprized that in Bohemia prevarication observations, viz. that farmers should be is punished with death, and in the concautious of cutting down their unripe tiguous kingdom of Saxony, with a fine corn, on the supposition that in a cold of five rix-dollars. autumn it could fill no more." MEMOIRS OF EMINENT PERSONS. ΤΗ From the Monthly Review. MEMOIRS OF THE ABBE EDGEWORTH. Published by C. SNEYD EDGEWORTH. HE Abbé Edgeworth lived un- be considered as the proper seminary for known to the world until the giving a finish to Catholic studies. On memorable day on which he attended undertaking the discharge of his proLouis XVI. to the scaffold, and gave fessional duties, the Abbé preferred to honourable evidence that he set at de- reside in Paris; where he found, parfiance the poignards of the Jacobins ticularly among the poor Savoyards, when the question lay between his per- many uninstructed and distressed objects. sonal danger and the discharge of his His ministry afterward received an exprofessional duty. His conduct on that tension among the humbler English and occasion, and his power of communicat- Irish of the French metropolis, many of ing information concerning it, render his whom stood in need of his attention and memoirs interesting; independently of consolation. A man employed so much which considerations, the publication of amid the abodes of poverty was not them is to be viewed only in the light of likely to take the steps necessary to gain a tribute from a relative to the memory favour at court; and, in fact, the modest of a respected friend. and unassuming Abbé was not introHe was born in Ireland in the year duced to the King or the Queen till the 1745, at the vicarage-house of Edge- time at which the terrors of the Revoluworth's town, in the county of Long- tion had driven from the metropolis, and ford, in the immediate neighbourhood of even from France, all the most conspiwhich is the residence of the family of cuous ecclesiastics. His first patroness the well known female author of this was the Princess Elizabeth, who had a name. His ancestors had been Protes- strong tincture of devotion, and having tants ever since the Reformation: but been deprived of her aged confessor by his father, having become a convert to death, applied for another to the Supe the Catholic faith, determined to relin- rieur des Missions étrangères, a man of quish his living and to remove with his extensive acquaintance with his brethren. family to France, and settled at Toulouse. The superior had no hesitation in selectHis son was educated first at the Uni- ing Abbé Edgeworth as a person in versity of that city, and afterwards at the whom the Princess might place implicit Sorbonne in Paris, which continued to confidence, both in political and religious |