Indian Chief) into this Bull's Head; but instead of him, we had Mr. Wrench, Mr. W. S. Chatterley, Miss Love, &c. There is little of novelty in the piece. By the ruse of transforming a portrait into a Bull's Head, and hanging it out for a sign, a private house is converted into the semblance of an inn, whither a fair damsel and her guardians are thus inveigled, and a love intrigue carried on, in which the obvious mistakes and equivoques of such a metamorphosis give room for much lively dialogue, bustle, and cross purposes. The pretending lover is as usual discarded for faults not before observable, and the favoured hero made happy.

THE INCOMBUSTIBLE MAN. There is so much of philosophy mixed up with common show, in the exhibition of Ivan Ivanitz Chabert, that we presume on some account of the phenomena he exhibits being acceptable. This person, and a Signora Girardelli, have recently revived the public attention to certain curious powers, either naturally possessed or artificially communicated to the human frame. We have not seen the performances of the lady, but from the report of friends, and a very clever and accurate account of them in Constable's Edinburgh Magazine, and from our own remarks upon those of the male "Fire-proof," we shall endeavour to bring the matter sufficiently under the eye of our readers.

The power of resisting the action of heat has been claimed, and to a certain wonderful degree enjoyed, by persons in all ages. Much of imposture has been founded upon it, and much of injustice perpetrated under its operation. By the ancients, and by the comparatively moderns, by Hindus and by Christians, it has been made the test of truth or the trial of faith. Sophocles mentions it in the Antigone, and Virgil and Varro tell us, that the priests of Apollo on Mount Soracte would walk over burning coals with naked feet. The priests of the temple of Feronia were, according to Strabo, equally incombustible. The Suludadores or Santiguadores, of Spain, pretended to prove their descent from St. Catherine by this ordeal, and one of them carried the jest of imposition so far, that he went into an oven and was literally baked to a cinder. The earliest instance of fire ordeal in Christendom occurred in the fourth eentury, when Simplicius, Bishop of Autun, and his wife (married before his promotion, and living with him after it,) deinonstrated the platonic purity of their intercourse, by putting burning coals upon their flesh without injury. This miraele was repeated by St. Brice about a century after; and it is generally known to what a monstrous pitch the trial by fire was carried through many succeeding ages, when craft was canonized and innocence martyred upon frauds like these. Pope Etienne 5th condemned all trials of this kind as false and superstitious, and Frederick the 2d prohibited them as absurd and ridiculous.

From being the object of religious belief,

and of judicial importance, the feats of hu- | possibility, be any trick; and, in the latman salamanders descended into itinerant ter, if there was any deception, it must have wonders. About 1677, an Englishman, been by having some preparation at the named Richardson, exhibited in Paris; and bottom of the brazier, which a slight heat M. Dodart, an Academician, published in caused to bubble up through the oil, and the Journal des Savans an explanation of give it the semblance without the reality of his performances on rational principles. boiling. The spoon was, however, hot; They seem to have been of the same nature but we think not so much so as if the oil it with those of Madame Girardelli and M. had lifted had been really at a boiling temChabert; chewing and swallowing burning perature. coals, licking a hot iron with his tongue, 4. The writer of this notice took two &e. In 1754, the famous Mr. Powell, the impressions of his seal in black sealing fire-eater, distinguished himself in Eng-wax dropped on Chabert's tongue. It was land, an account of whose exploits is con very thin, but undoubtedly dropt melting tained in the Gentleman's Magazine for from a lighted candle. February 1755 and so late as 1803 the incombustible Spaniard, Senor Lionetto, performed in Paris, where he attracted the particular attention of Dr. Sementini, professor of Chemistry, and other scientific gentlemen of that city. It appears that a considerable vapour and smell rose from the parts of his body to which the fire and heated substances were applied, and in this he differs from both the persons now in this country.

In M. Chabert's bill the following are announced as the "extraordinary proofs of his supernatural power of resisting the most intense heat of every kind; and he pledges himself that no sleight of hand, as is usual in these things, will be practised: 1. He will forge with his feet a bar of red hot iron.

2. He will undergo the torture by fire, as used in the Spanish Inquisition.

3. He will drink, positively, boiling oil. 4. He will drop on his tongue a large quantity of burning sealing wax, from which any of the company may take impressions of their seals.

5. He will eat burning charcoal. 6. He will inspirate the flame of a torch. 7. Will bathe his feet in boiling lead, and pour it into his mouth with his hand. 8. Will pour the strongest aqua-fortis on steel filings, and trample on it with his bare feet.

9. Will rub a red-hot shovel on his arms and legs, and hold it on his head until the hair shall be too warm for any by-stander to hold his hand on it.

10. He will pour vitriol, oil, and arsenic into the Fire, and hold his head in the flames and inhale the vapours.

11. He will eat of a lighted torch with a fork, as if it were salad.

12. Will pour aqua-fortis on a piece of copper in the hollow of his hand.”

Of these undertakings, what he actually did, was as follows:

1. He took a red hot iron, like a spade, and repeatedly struck it or stamped briskly upon it, with the sole of his bare foot. The foot was quite cool after the experiment.

2. He held his naked foot long over the flame of a candle, which did not seem to affect it in the slightest degree, though in contact with the skin.

5. He put several small pieces of burning charcoal into his mouth. 6. Not done.

7. A quantity of melted lead was poured into a utensil like a washing copper, inte which Chabert leapt barefooted. "It did appear to us, however, that he stood upon his heels in a part of the vessel, over which the metal did not flow. With regard to pouring the boiling lead into his mouth, he seemed to lift a small quantity of what either was or resembled boiling lead, from the crucible to his mouth, and thence spit it into a plate in a sort of granular state. We could not minutely examine this experiment, but it is possible that Mercury might be introduced to give a fluid the semblance of boiling lead. Nor is it likely that lead could be lifted in this way with the fingers.

8. Done according to the programme, but it cannot be ascertained that the aquafortis was "the strongest," and if not, there is little marvellous in the exploit.

9. Nearly correct. He waited some time with a shovel in his hand while explaining what he was about to do; he then scraped up his arm with the edge of it, and subsequently licked it with his tongue, and smoothed his hair with its flat side. The hair felt hot in consequence, but there was no smell, no vapour, nor any appearance of singeing. The tongue looked white and furry-the moisture on it hissed. 10. Not done.

The

11 and 12 performed as stated. blazing salad was visible in his open mouth, near the throat, for several seconds, and had an extraordinary effect in lighting this human vault in so unusual a manner.

It is thus evident, that whatever there may be of deception in these performances, there is still enough of the curious to merit attention. M. Chabert asserts, that he is the only naturally incombustible Being exhibiting; the others using preparations which he disclaims. He is a dark, stout, not unpleasant looking man, and, as he says, a Russian by birth. His story is, that he fell into the fire when a year old without suffering any injury; and a similar accident when he was twelve, from which he also escaped unburnt, demonstrated that he possessed the quality of resisting fire.

Of course we cannot determine what may be depended upon in this statement. How much of the power clearly possessed to reInsist greater degrees of heat than other men may be a natural gift, how much the result

3. Oil appeared to boil in a small brazier, and he took nearly two table spoonfulls into his mouth and swallowed it. the former experiments there could not, by

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ther, Lend me, I pray thee, thine axe. But | ries in science have rather augmented in he refused, and would not. interest than deprived of intelligence.

Vol. III.

pre

This is the concluding volume of one of the most valuable productions of the sent era, and which, being thus ably completed, forms a standard book which will

not lose its interest for centuries to come. To the two preceding volumes we paid our respects as they issued from the press, and now beg to offer a similar tribute to the latest, which contains the private correspondence and public negociations of Dr. Franklin, and a selection from his political, philosophical, and

miscellaneous works.

The first part comprehends a historical sketch of the rise of the American Republic; the second, Essays on political economy and commerce; the third, Miscellanies on religious, moral, and amusing topics; and the fourth, letters and papers on philosophical subjects, most of the latter being now first printed from original MSS.

Every part bears the impress of an acute and vigorous mind, of an original and masculine understanding; and though a good deal of the novelty belonging to some of the Essays has been anticipated, there is a general freshness and form about the whole, which, in consequence of what is new, and of a good arrangement of the old, gives the entire collection an interest as far removed from a twice-told tale as can be imagined. It is more easy to bestow a comprehensive character upon a work so various as this is, than to afford an adequate idea of its qualities by quotation. We shall, however, select a few examples from its different divisions, and for a greater treat refer our readers to the publication itself.

The following is a pleasing specimen of the inculcation of moral truth:

--

A PARABLE ON BROTHERLY LOVE, &c.

In those days there was no worker of iron in all the land. And the merchants of Midian passed by with their camels, bearing spices, and myrrh, and balm, and wares of iron.

And Reuben bought an axe of the Ishmaelite merchants, which he prized highly,

Then came Judah unto Reuben, and entreated him, saying, Lo! thou lovest me, and I have always loved thee, do not refuse me the use of thine axe.

But Reuben turned from him, and refused him likewise.

timber on the bank of the river, and his Now it came to pass that Reuben hewed axe fell therein, and he could by no means find it.

But Simeon, Levi, and Judah, had sent a messenger after the Ishmaelites with money, and had bought for themselves each an axe.

Then came Reuben unto Simeon and said, Lo! I have lost mine axe, and my work is unfinished, lend me thine, I pray

thee.

And Simeon answered him, saying, Thou wouldest not lend me thine axe, therefore will I not lend thee mine.

Then went he unto Levi, and said unto him, My brother, thou knowest my loss and my necessity; lend me, I pray thee,

thine axe.

And Levi reproached him, saying, Thou wouldest not lend me thine axe when I desired it, but I will be better than thou, and

will lend thee mine.

New and curious Theory of Light and Heat, (Addressed to David Rittenhause, Esq.) Nov. 20, 1788.

Universal space, as far as we know of it, seems to be filled with a subtle fluid, whose motion, or vibration, is called light.

This fluid may possibly be the same with substance by separating the constituent into other more solid matter, dilates the that which, being attracted by, and enterparticles, and so rendering some solids of which fluid, when our bodies are totally fluid, and maintaining the fluidity of others; deprived, they are said to be frozen; when they have a proper quantity, they are in tions; it is then called natural heat: when health, and fit to perform all their functoo much, it is called fever; and when forced into the body in too great a quantity from without, it gives pain, by separating and destroying the flesh, and is then called burning, and the fluid so entering and acting is called fire.

While organized bodies, animal or vegetable, are augmenting in growth, or are supplying their continual waste, is not this done by attracting and consolidating this fluid called fire, so as to form of it a part of their substance? And is it not a separation of the parts of such substance which, dissolving its solid state, sets that subtle fluid at liberty, when it again makes its ap

And Reuben was grieved at the rebuke of Levi, and being ashamed, turned from him, and took not the axe, but sought his bro-pearance as fire? ther Judah.

And as he drew near, Judah beheld his countenance as it were covered with grief and shame; and he prevented him, saying, My brother, I know thy loss; but why should it trouble thee? Lo! have I not an axe that will serve both thee and me? Take it, I pray thee, and use it as thine own.

And Reuben fell on his neck, and kissed him, with tears, saying, Thy kindness is great, but thy goodness in forgiving me is greater. Thou art indeed my brother, and whilst I live will I surely love thee.

And Judah said, Let us also love our other brethren: behold, are we not all of

one blood?

And Joseph saw these things, and reported them to his father Jacob.

And Jacob said, Reuben did wrong, he repented. Simeon also did wrong; Levi was not altogether blameless :

but

and

But the heart of Judah is princely. Judah hath the soul of a king. His father's children shall bown down before him, and he shall rule over his brethren.

For the power of man relative to matter, seems limited to the separating or mixing the various kinds of it, or changing its form and appearance by different compositions of it; but does not extend to the making or creating new matter, or annihilating the old. Thus, if fire be an original element or kind of matter, its quantity is fixed and permanent in the universe. We cannot destroy any part of it, or make addition to it; . we can only separate it from that which confines it, and so set it at liberty; as when we put wood in a situation to be burnt, or transfer it from one solid to another, as when we make lime by burning stone, a part of the fire dislodged in the fuel being left in the stone. May not this fluid, when at liberty, be capable of penetrating and entering into all bodies, organized or not, quitting easily in totality those not organized, and quitting easily in part those which are; the part assumed and fixed remaining till the body is dissolved?

Is it not this fluid which keeps asunder the particles of air, permitting them to approach, or separating them more, in proportion as its quantity is diminished or augmented?

Is it not the greater gravity of the particles of air, which forces the particles of this