I crept softly down the companion, and found the door a little ajar. I peeped in, and saw him looking out of the starn windows, and she sitting on one of the chairs, sobbing, ready to break her heart; and, blow me, if I could help piping myself when I see'd it. "Twas a little duskish, though not so much as to hinder me from seeing pretty well. Says I to myself, " If the skipper catches me here, I'll get it; and he's pretty sure to do so, if I wait till he comes to shut the door." So with that I found myself creeping in. Hang me, if I hardly knew what I did that night. I was a little fellow then, and could creep or climb like a cat. There was a sofa to the starboard of the door, under which I popped myself, and made so little noise, that neither of them ever heard me. Well, after he'd stood looking out o' the windows for some time, he flung the middle one open, to let in the air as I thought, and then began to walk up and down like mad. Then he seemed to tire of that, for he went and locked the cabin door. So when he'd done that, he goes up to Elrisa, and takes hold of her, and pulled her into the middle of the room, saying, "Thou false wench, what hast thou got to say for yourself, that I shouldn't send you to keep company with the sharks ?"

Oh, Harry," said she, flinging her snowwhite arms round his neck, "I never was false to thee!"" You were !" he answered. "My good cutlass has done for thy minion the mate, and you shall go seek another in the deep."- Spare me ! spare me Harry ""Never!" and then he dragged her to the window; and says I to myself, "He's agoing to fling her overboard, and if he finds me here, he'll fling me too." I was in a most awful predicament, and kept my very breath in for fear. Well, he took her up, and flung her out of the window with all his might; but she clung so tight, that he was nearly after her, and there she hung by his neck. I saw him take and tear her arms from round his neck with a madman's fury, and fling them from him; but she caught with her right hand the windowbeam, and clutched it so tight, that he couldn't make her fingers let go their hold; and there she was, looking up so calmly and sweetly into his face, as if she was content to take even death from his hands. Her

love was great. When he saw he couldn't make her let go, he took up a hatchet, which was lying by chance on the floor, and with one blow severed her hand from her arm. A heavy fall on the water, a stifled shriek, a gurgle of the closing wave, said all was over with her. But there he stood, with the hatchet still uplifted, gazing on the hand which was fixed there convulsively in the death-grasp, and all hell seemed to be imprinted on his features, so horrible and ghastly was their expression. However, this didn't last long. He took and cut away

the hand by pieces, for its grasp was fixed so firm in death, that he couldn't unloose it. He then flung water over it, to wash out the stains of the blood, and rushed out of the cabin upon deck. I followed him, more dead than alive. "All hands, ahoy!" he sung out; "man the boat there; cut away, every mother's son of ye-Elrisa's flung herself overboard!" You may well suppose she was never found. He pretended to be half mad at her loss; but he couldn't make the men believe but that he knowed more about her than what he said. I crept away to my hammock, shivering with fear. Not a wink of sleep did I get that night, and I was too frightened to say any thing about what I'd seen. Well, the calm still continued, and there we lay like a log on the water. About the third night after this happened, a young fellow, named Brown, had been skylarking up in the maintop, when, all of a sudden, down he came, shivering with fear, and as pale as death. "I've seen it, mateys," he cried. "Seen what?" we asked. Why it. When I was up in the top, presently something came smack agen my cheek." (But I forgot to tell you, that Elrisa had a custom of putting her hand on the skipper's mouth whenever he began to swear.) "Well," as Brown said, "smack agen my cheek it came once more; and so I, thinking 'twas some of you making fun of me, cried out, Belay there with your tricks, and be d-d t'ye! Lord, I'd no sooner got the words out o' my mouth, than bang 'twas closed with a hand all blood, and all cut about the fingers, with never an arm to it, as if it had been cut off at the wrist. You may be sure I didn't wait to see any more; and may I be d-d if ever I go up that ere top again !”—“ Oh !” said one of the men, "Brown's fallen asleep, and dreamed all this, and has awoke by hitting his head 'gainst the mast, and so believed it all true." He'd hardly spoke, when a voice from the maintop sung out plain enough, “ On deck there!" We were all a little startled at this; but we counted, and found all hands on deck except the skipper, the doctor, and the mate. deck, there!" sung out the voice again; and then there was such a hooting, and yelling, and shrieking, as if Davy and his crew had come to anchor in our tops. Well, the skipper, hearing the noise, came upon deck, and then the voice sung out again, “On deck, there!". "Hilloah!" roared the skipper, running for'ard to the mainmast. "Stand from under!" roared the voice! "Let fall, and be d-d t'ye!" said the skipper. Blow me, but it came with a vengeance. Down dropped a bloody hand, and directly it touched the deck, it started up, and fixed itself right on the skipper's lips. He ran up the rigging like a madman into the top, where the yelling still kept up; but he wasn't there a moment before he

"On

gives a jump, and goes right overboard; and no sooner did he reach the water than all was silent, and a heavy squall arose that moment, and away flew the hooker like lightning through the waves: and if that isn't what I call a queer yarn, blow me— that's all.

SELF-SATISFACTION.†

“ALL men are more or less mad." In other words, all men, under certain given circumstances, think, feel, and act differently from the manner in which any other men under the same circumstances would either think, feel, or act. What is commonly called knowledge of the world is, in truth, nothing else but a knowledge of this fact. The mere ignoramus gapes and cries out at every step, because he is continually meeting with some thing which had not previously come within the narrow sphere of his own observation, The possessor of a more enlarged mind is, on the contrary, astonished at nothing, because the very circumstance which has enlarged his mind is, that he has had his eyes opened to the great law of nature expressed in the four Latin words-tot homines-tot sententiæ. It is delightful to see a small mind and a great mind brought into immediate contrast any where-at a dinnerparty, for example. The sma mind has made its own experience (trifling as that in all probability has been) the groundwork of certain principles, which it has built up with the most pragmatical nicety and obstinate self-sufficiency, and whatever seems to go beyond this narrow and puny boundary, at once throws it off its balance-surprises, confuses, stupifies, and demolishes it. But the great mind makes allowance for every possible diversity of opinion for every possible mode of feeling. The great mind knows the constitution of its own nature its powers and its feeblenesses, and also knows that there exist other natures no less admirable no less instinct with the glorious workmanship of an Almighty hand-whose peculiar idiosyncrasy is totally distinct from its own. Hence, a great mind is full of forbearance and benevolence towards all mankind. In company, a small snappish mind, gifted with some quickness, but very little extent of vision, seizes upon petty errors and trifling discrepancies of judgment, and triumphantly tears, and rugs, and shakes its head over them, like a puppy-dog over a glove or a worsted stocking, wagging its tail all the time in token of self-approbation, + Abid..

VOL. V.

M

and ever and anon emitting a short bark to attract more general attention. A great mind views with interest and delight every state in which intellect developes itself, however imperfect that development may be. Even the clever little conceited creature, who occupies almost all the conversation, and lays down the law so emphatically, affords to such a mind an amusing and not unprofitable study. It has consequently been invariably remarked, that the manners and conversation of all those men who have made advances in science and the art of ratiocination beyond any of their contemporaries, have been remarkable for simplicity and affability. They have learned to respect the individual, from having deeply studied the species. As the botanist discovers in the meanest weed attributes linking it indissolubly with the whole of the vegetable kingdom, so does the philosopher, in every condition of mind, and in every manifestation of feeling, acknowledge the presence of that nobler and ethereal essence which distinguishes man, not from the lower animals, for to them also belong both mind and feeling, but from the flowers of the field and the stones of the desert. In the eye of philosophy, therefore, madness, in the common acceptation of the word, is a phenomenon of rare occurrence, and is limited to that particular disorganization of the system which produces positive corporeal disease. Unfortunately, however, philosophy is seldom met with in ordinary life, and as the unphilosophical are less scrupulous in the choice of their terms, all men are pronounced mad whose thoughts and actions are not like unto their thoughts and actions. Respectable gentlemen of fifty generally inform us that love is madness;-hundreds of worthy tradesmen, who make from 5s. to 15s. a day, look upon ambition as madness;

country clergymen, the husbands of one wife, and the fathers of thirteen children, consider military individuals in red, who wear spurs and moustaches, not altogether in their right mind ;-the spendthrift maintains that the miser is cracked, and the miser is clear that the spendthrift is non compos;-the merchant, who has worked all his life at the ledger, is in terrible distress if his son turns out a genius, which to him is synonymous with entire uselessness; and the son, as he grows up, begins to discover that his father is a particularly weak and contemptible sort of character. Thus mankind go on-each admiring his own wisdom, and overwhelmed with astonishment at the evident insanity of every body else.

TOBACCO."+

THE "Counterblast to Tobacco "

was the

first work which James published in Eng land, and it appeared very soon after he had settled himself in that kingdom. It is, perhaps, the briefest of all his miscellaneous tracts, the first edition being comprised in only a few quarto pages. When first published, it was anonymous; and it is evident from several passages, as well as from the great freedom of language employed, that the author originally designed it to be so. But, perhaps, on account of the applause it met with, he afterwards caused it to be received into the collected edition of his acknowledged works, where it cuts as strange a figure, surrounded by polemical and classical discussions, as would the picture of a Dutch drinking-scene by Teniers, if placed amidst the hermits, and saints, and goddesses of the school of Italy.

James, very probably for some reason purely physical, entertained a violent antipathy to the smell of tobacco-an antipathy which he is said to have transmitted to his son Charles I. There is a tradition in Scotland, that he ejected the clergyman of Gullen, a district in East Lothian, for the simple reason of his being an immoderate debauchee in the use of this herb. It would appear that, on his coming to England, he was greatly shocked to observe the progress which the practice of smoking had made among men of all ranks, and how much it had tended to render disgusting those domestic and convivial scenes upon whose elegance so much of the pleasure of life is dependant. Feeling the grievance bitterly himself, and thinking it must be equally so to many others-inspired, moreover, with a notion that the lives of his subjects were shortened and endanger ed by smoking, he immediately conceived the idea of setting forth a little anonymous jeu d'esprit against it. The title which he assumed for his work is a pun, the word blast being then used in England, as in many parts of Scotland at this day, to signify what is now technically called taking a pipe.

In the preface to the "Counterblast," he alleges, as the cause of this vice, the great increase of wealth in England during an age of peace, which had rendered effeminate, and compelled them to resort to improper indulgences for the sake of amusement. It is the king's part, he thinks, as "the proper physician of his politicke-bodie," he has elsewhere described himself as the great schoolmaster of the nation,"] to be perpetually on the watch, to observe that his

From Constable's Miscellany.-No. LVI.

whatever. In the present case, however, as the matter is obviously too mean to be a proper subject for animadversion by his majesty, he thinks it right that a private person, one of the undistinguished public, should and such he, as the author, professes to be. take it upon himself to admonish them; At the beginning of the work he remarks the undignified origin or early history of tobacco; it having been first used by the Indians in the cure of their vile diseases. It was first introduced, he says, by a navigator who had just discovered a large tract of country in America, and who brought, along with this strange herb, and the custom of smoking it, a few of the savage natives of that savage region. "But pitie it is," he says, pathetically," the poor wild barbarous men died; but that vile barbarous custom is yet still alive, yea, in fresh vigour." From his insinuating, in the next sentence, that the man who introduced it was "generally hated," we are led to believe that he means Sir Walter Raleigh, to whom popular story ascribes the honour, if such it be-although Baker, in his "Chronicles," tells us, that plant was first brought to the country by Ralph Lane, in the twenty-eighth of Queen Elizabeth [1586]. The true reason of its being so favourite a regalement, are the novelties; and the notion, very generally disposition of men to patronise all fashionable for all kinds of diseases. He holds up a diffused, that it was a Catholicon, or cure number of arguments, grounded on the superstitious pharmacy of that time, to prove that it is pernicious to the health. Such," says he, in a strain of amusing irony," is the miraculous omnipotencie of our strongall contasted tobacco, that it cures

trarious sorts of diseases, in all persons and

at all times.

and (which is miraculous in that very It cures the gout in the feet; instant when the smoake thereof, as light, flies up into the head, the virtue thereof, as heavy, runs down to the little toe. all sorts of agues. It makes a man sober It helps that was drunk. It refreshes a weary man, when they goe to bed, it makes one sleep and yet makes a man hungry. Being taken soundly, and yet, being taken when a man is sleepie and drowsie, it will, as they say, awake his brain, and quicken his understanding. As for curing the pockes, it serves for that use but among the pockie Indian slaves. Here, in England, it is refined, and will not dare to cure here any O omnipotent power of tobacco! And if it other than gentlemanly and cleanly diseases. could by the smoake thereof cast out devils, as the smoake of Tobias's fish did (which I am sure could smell no stronger), it would serve for a precious relike, both for the superstitious priests and the insolent puritans to cast out devils with all."

Towards the conclusion of the treatise, he breaks out into several bursts of testy feeling against the object of his invective, and exhibits altogether an exacerbation of spirit that can scarcely fail to make the reader laugh, proceeding, as it does, in such serious earnest, from what was after all but an accident of taste, and that in a very homely and even ludicrous matter. In one place he gravely makes it out a kind of treason for the people to smoke tobacco, seeing that, by doing so, they disable their bodies for the service of their king and country. "What a shameful imbecility," says he, "have ye brought yourselves to, that you are not able to ride or walke the journey of a Jewes Sabbath, but you must have a reekie cole brought you from the next poore house to kindle your tobacco with!" After remarking that the proper characteristic of a good soldier is to endure the want of food and sleep, not to speak of this vile indulgence, he asks, if, "in the times of the many glorious and victorious battailes fought by this nation, there was any word of tobacco? If any of you," says he to the soldiers, "stayed behind your fellows on a march, in order to smoke tobacco, for my part, I should never be sorry for any evil chance that might befall him." He points out, as a strong reason for the abolition of this custom, its expensiveness: "some gentlemen bestowing three hundred, some four hundred pounds-a-yeere on this precious stinke, which 1 am sure might be bestowed upon far better uses;" a statement almost incredible, unless we allow for the great quantities consumed at entertainments, and for the duty or tax, which James, by way of enforcing his literary efforts, had raised to more than six shillings a pound. "I read, indeed," he continues, "of a knavish courtier, who, for abusing the favour of the Emperor Severus, his master, by taking bribes to intercede for sundry persons in his master's care (for whom he never once opened his mouth), was justly choked with smoke, with this doome, Fumo pereat, qui fumum vendidit, but of so many smoke buyers as are at present in this kingdom, I never read nor heard." 1

Having remarked the extreme impropriety of smoking at dinner, and mentioned the fact, that the stomachs of great smokers had been found, on dissection, to contain 66 an oily kind of soote" (which must have been a mere superstition of the day), he deplores the necessity which he had compelled some men averse from smoking to take of it in self-defence, and also inveighs against the sentiment which now generally obtained, that not to smoke with a friend was a mark of incivility and pettishness. "Yea," says he," the mistresse [of a house] cannot in a more mannerly kind entertain her servant, than by giving him, out of her faire hand, a pipe of tobacco." He then points out the

disagreeable change which a habit of smoking produces upon the breath; adding, 66 Moreover, which is a great iniquitie, and against all humanity, the husband shall not be ashamed to reduce thereby his delicate, wholesome, and clean-complexioned wife to that extremity, that either she must also corrupt her sweet breath therewith, or else resolve to live in a perpetual stinking torment!"

"Have ye not then reason to be ashamed," says the royal pamphleteer, in conclusion→→→ and we must be excused for giving this paragraph in the same emphatic arrangement of type as in the original-“ and so forbear this filthie noveltie, so basely grounded, so foolishly received, and so grossly mistaken in the right use thereof? In your abuse thereof, sinning against God, harming yourself both in persons and goods, and raking also thereby the notes and marks of vanitie upon you; by the custom thereof making yourselves be wondered at by all foreign civil nations, and by all strangers that come among you, to be scorned and contemned: A custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to nose, harmfull to the braine, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black stinking fume thereof, neerest re

sembling the horrible Stygian

smoake of the pit that is
bottomlesse."

Such is the celebrated "Counterblast, to Tobacco;" and, assuredly, after perusing these specimens, and giving but a glance to the general nature of the book, few readers will hesitate to join the present writer in considering it a most outre and most unkingly performance. True, it was originally written in the assumed character of a plebeian, expressly from a consciousness on the part of the author that it was not a subject of sufficient dignity for a king to handle. But yet, as he acknowledged it afterwards, and gave it a place in his works, that is but a slight palliation of such a monstrous offence against good taste, such a remediless violation of every thing like professional respectability. I am afraid the "Counterblast," must be resigned to the laughter of those who hold James in contempt, as a most notable instance of that homely spirit by which he was so perpetually breaking down the divinity he believed himself to be hedged with. Like most of his other offences, it involved no personal haseness; and perhaps it ought to be allowed to possess merit as a jeu d'esprit. But nothing else can be said in its favour.

VARIETIES..

Introduction of Brunel's Black-Machinery. We believe it was under the favour of Lord Spencer, when at the head of the Admiralty Board, that Mr. Brunel's ingenions and valuable inventions in block-machinery were introduced into our dock-yards; to gether with many other improvements made in these important depôts, which have since contributed in no small degree to our naval superiority. We have heard it told as an anecdote (without being able to vouch for its authenticity), that Mr. Brunel's fine device for cutting ship-blocks was ultimately adopted from one of those chances which sometimes help clever men more than extraordinary talent and persevering industry. Like the generality of projectors who offer their schemes to government, he had, it is said, wasted many a day in fruitless endeavours to get his plans accepted and tried: at length, weary with deferred hopes, he presented a mechanical toy to Lady Spencer, into which a pack of cards being put, it could be so regulated as to deal them out to any number for a round game. The ingenuity of this trifle attracted so much notice, that the artist was immediately brought forward; and much of the rapidity with which future ships of war could be rigged and fitted for sea, was the result of a little box which saved fair dames the trouble of dealing cards for the amusement of a home circle. National Portrait Gallery.

Lithotrity. During the last month there were several successful operations for stone by the new method of crushing it in the bladder. The additional security against la ceration, from any accidental rent in the in strument contrived by M. Costello, by means of several rounds of wire thread, to prevent the extension of the rent, has been introduced into the French hospitals, where it has given great satisfaction.Paris Journal.

Anecdote of Sir Humphrey Gilbert.That gallant officer, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, reached Newfoundland, of which, by the usual form of digging up a turf, and receiving it with a hazel wand, he took pos session, in right of the discovery made by Cabot; planted the first British colony there, discovered a silver mine, divided some portion of the lands among his followers, and began his voyage home, in the joyful expectation of further encourage ment from Queen Elizabeth. But this brave man was destined never to return to his native country. The ship in which he had stored the silver ore, which he designed to show as a specimen, was lost; and, before he had passed the Azores, tempestuous weather and terrible seas sank the spirits of the sailors, who, in the true spirit of the superstitious fears to which they are prone,

reported that they had heard strange voices in the night, scaring them from the helm. Even the principal officers were alarmed for the safety of Sir Humphrey, who had imprudently chosen to sail in the Squirrel, & small frigate. In vain did his friends entreat him to change his vessel, and come on board the Hinde, the largest ship of the squadron. The honour of the dauntless Sir Gilbert had, unhappily, been touched by the imputation of cowardice, a report false as it was cruel. He persisted, therefore, in remaining at his post, "saying, I will not desert my little company, with whom I have passed so many storms and perils;" nor would he remain on board the Hinde, except for a short time, for the purpose of a convivial meeting with the officers, their last interview; and they parted, agreeing that all the captains should give orders to hang out lights at night. Meanwhile the dangers thickened; the oldest mariners declared that they had never witnessed such seas; the winds changing incessantly, the waves, in the simple language of a spectator, breaking high and pyramid-wise." The hearts of the most courageous were appalled by a meteor, common in storms, which the seamen consider to be an apparition of fatal import, and which they call "Castor and Pollux." Once, the anxious company of the Hinde beheld the frigate nearly cast away, then again it approached them, and they saw Sir Humphrey sitting on the mainmast, with a book in his hand, exclaiming, as he regarded his companions in distress, "We are as near heaven by water as by land.” Suddenly the lights were extinguished; those who kept watch cried out aloud that all was over; and, in the morning, the frigate was beheld no more.-Memoirs of Sir Walter Raleigh.

DÆMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT.★