I add one more observation. The less a man has seen-the more scanty his intellectual powers-and the more contracted his knowledge, the more prone he is to doubt the truth of every extraordinary fact he hears, and to controvert any idea out of the narrow track of his own paltry conceptions. He makes his thimble-full of brains the infallible test of right and wrong. He who has had opportunities of seeing the world on a large scale, or who has perused books extensively, must have seen and read of numberless things which will appear incredible, nay, impossible, to the insignificant animal who has not gone beyond his A, B, C, in study, and has always vegetated upon the spot where Nature thought fit to place him. The former has read of various incidents of the most extraordinary kind, which are nevertheless established on the very best authority. To the latter these appear as extravagant as the wild stories of sir John Mandeville, of one eyed and headless nations.

Fallacy of History.

Who was he that said that history was a bundle of lies? Was he very wide of the mark? I believe not. Let me quote an instance in proof.

I could, but will not, at this moment, name an historian of the highest possible reputation, whose work has been translated into almost all the languages of Europe, and been regarded as a model, not merely of style, for which it is highly and justly celebrated, but for fidelity-I could, I say, name an historian of the above description, who has fallen into the very grossest of all possible errors, without censure, and even almost without notice.

In giving an account of a most important and highly controverted event, he has forty-five references to the authorities on which rests the truth of his narrative, and of these no less than thirty-three are to a book written by a person who could with propriety say quorum magna pars fui.

This latter book, however, is one of the basest, most false, and most corrupt that ever was written. It is one continued tissue of falsehood, and as absurd and ridiculous as The Seven champions of Christendom, Don Bellianis of Greece, or Parismus, Parismenos, and Parismenides. Many of the pretended facts are not merely to the last degree improbable, but absolutely impossible, and contrary to the most established rules of nature. The book, which is very rare, is in the city library. Ainsi va le monde.

Richard Calef.

To every liberal mind it is highly grateful to give praise where praise is due, and to rescue a meritorious name from obscurity. I have VOL. III.

therefore resolved to devote a few lines to the excellent man whose name is prefixed to this paragraph.

Every nation has had its paroxisms of insanity, in which the "small still voice" of reason, justice, and humanity has been for a while stifled by the violence of party, passion, prejudice, or bigotry. To resist the public delusion on such occasions, is attended with very considerable danger, and has not unfrequently involved in the common destruction those who have undertaken to advocate the cause of the oppressed. It therefore requires a very high degree of magnanimity and heroism to induce a man to make an effort to stem the torrent. For the honour of human nature, however, on all occasions of this description, there have been found heroes who have thus signalized themselves.

In several parts of New-England, more particularly Salem, in the year 1692, a most awful delusion prevailed on the subject of witchcraft, which extended its deleterious effects into the highest grades of society. The governor, the public officers generally, and many of the clergy, were numbered among the mass of those who implicitly believed in the guilt of the persons charged with this crime. About twenty were immolated (one of whom was pressed to death with weights) with all the forms, but without the least shadow of the reality of justice. The evidence was to the last degree frivolous and absurd. Many of the accusers were constantly in a state of delirium, the result of rum drinking. At this frightful period, when the very sanctity of age exposed a superannuated creature to the most imminent hazard of destruction, Richard Calef, a merchant in Boston, acquired immortal honour, by the most decisive exertions to arrest the progress of the devouring monster, and was eminently instrumental in opening the eyes of the public, and rescuing many devoted victims from the gaping jaws of destruction. He wrote a number of valuable letters to Cotton Mather, who ranked among the stedfast believers in witchcraft. Mr. Calef had obviously the most decisive advantage over his opponent. He afterwards collected the whole correspondence, and a portion of the trials of the unfortunate victims, into a volume, to which he gave the title of "More wonders of the invisible world," in reference to the title of one of Cotton Mather's books, called "Wonders of the invisible world." Calef's book is really very well worth perusal. It throws important light upon the history of the miserable animal, "bipes et implumis.” The title operates very much to its disadvantage. Few but believers in witchcraft will be tempted to open it, and it is so little calculated to fan the flame of their prejudices, that a few pages will suffice them. I owned it for seven years, without having the curiosity to open it. An accidental want of another book to read, induced me lately to examine the nonsense which I supposed it contained, when I was delighted with

the masculine spirit and the strong and unanswerable arguments it contained.

I was somewhat disappointed to find, in a work of considerable merit lately published in Boston, called "An American Biographical and Historical Dictionary," a very cold compliment paid to Calef. It is barely said, that he "was distinguished about the time of the witchcraft delusion, by his withstanding the credulity of the times”— and as he censured the proceedings of the courts, respecting the witches, at a time when the people of the country in general did not see their error, he gave great offence." This is pretty nearly “damning with faint praise."

Savage Barbarity.

In Italy, so late as the beginning of the last century, according to Labat, there were numbers of brutal ruffians, who delighted in disfiguring the faces of females whom they met unprotected. They cut them sometimes with a knife, and sometimes with a thin piece of money. In the latter case, a scar was left which neither care nor time could ever efface. Other wretches carried their animosity to the sex no farther than smearing them over with filth and nastiness.

Refined Amusement.

It is stated in the history of the Female sex, vol. iv. p. 217, that in Lisbon, during the three last days of the carnival, the front windows of the houses are hardly ever free from "women in their best attire, who are provided with syringes and vessels of different kinds, with and from which they sprinkle and pelt the passengers with all sorts of matters, solid and fluid, pure and impure."

Free and Easy.

Townsend, in his travels through Spain, mentions that he saw a merchant smoke a çigar, "and then present it to a countess. She took it with an obeisance, smoked it half out, then returned it to the owner, and after an interval of some minutes, puffed out a thick cloud of smoke, after she had suffered it to circulate completely through her lungs. Vol. ii. page 45.

A free Translation.

Miners, a German writer, author of "the History of the female sex," states that kisses being entirely banished from the Spanish theatre, the translator of a French operette, entitled " Le Tonnelier,” instead of making the hero of the piece kiss his mistress, as is done in the original, “has represented the latter picking the vermin from her gallant, because this is a service which lovers of the lower class in Spain very commonly render one another." Vol. iv. page 227.

Too much and too little reading.

It is remarkable how very frequently the old remark, that " ex tremes meet," is realized. It may be fairly stated that much of the ignorance of the world arises from reading too much and reading too little. A considerable portion of readers read too much, and too hastily, to digest or avail themselves of what they peruse. Of course, their ignorance arises from falling into the opposite extreme to those who read little or nothing.

Epigram-from the French.

A swaggering braggadocio swore
He'd travelled all the world o'er,
And wheresoever he had been,

Had kings, and queens, and princes seen,
By all of whom he'd been carest,
And with their choicest favours blest.
A droll old codger sitting near
Jocosely asked him, with a sneer,

Pray have you seen the Dardanelles,
Those far-famed, lovely, Turkish belles?
"Seen them?—You surely jest-parbleu '
"I've often seen and kissed them too."

Epigram.

Morosus lost a pliant wife,

The joy, the comfort of his life.

He roar'd, he wept, he stamp'd, he swore:
But this could not his spouse restore :

Therefore, his woes to dissipate,
He wooed-and won-a second mate.
"Ye gods and little fish!" their joy
Could never, never, know alloy :
But wo is me, I can't disguise-
(The reader will the tale surmise.)
The honey moon at length was past;
The sky with clouds was overcast ;
The new wife found-alas! too late-
Her husband prone to fierce debate;
And, on each transient slight disgust,
He'd bitterly bewail the first.

This piqued the dame. She heaved a sigh.

"You can't regret her more than I."

FOR THE PORT FOLIO.

INTERESTING NARRATIVE.

In the year 1757 a book was reprinted, in this city, intitled, "A voyage to the South Seas in the year 1740-1, containing a faithful narrative of the loss of his majesty's ship, the Wager, on a desolate island, &c. by John Bulkeley and John Cummins, late gunner and carpenter of the Wager." The edition printed here brings the narrative down much later than the London edition, and is dedicated to William Denny, Esq. then governor of Pennsylvania. This book is a very interesting journal of cruel hardships and surprising escapes from destruction, and bears the most. indisputable internal evidence that it was really written by the persons, claiming the authorship-one or two extracts will prove the title of the gunner and his friend to the honour of the work:

"Wednesday the 6th, Departed this life Mr. Thomas Harvey, the purser; he died a skeleton for want of food; this gentleman probably was the first purser, belonging to his majesty's service, that ever perished with hunger. We see daily a great number of whales." Towards the conclusion of the work the honest gunner says, "I take this opportunity to recommend to the candid reader, the perusal of that excellent work, entitled The Christian Puttern, or the Imitation of Jesus Christ, by Thomas a-Kempis;' which book I brought with me through the various scenes, changes and chances of the voyage, and Providence made it the means of comforting me: one thing more I pray to recommend to the natives of North America, who are troubled with many terrible gusts of wind, thunder and lightning, being convinced (notwithstanding I have heard several say to the contrary) that they must have a panic fear; which, whether they have or not, let me desire that they would make use of this short prayer," which is then set forth with assurances of its efficacy.