The closet here figured was another evident composition of the curiosity dealers. It is styled in the catalogue, a Gothic Beaufet. It appears to have been formed of the leaves of an altarpiece, and contained six paintings, three without and three within. The lock, or handle of the door, was not the least curious part of the whole. It was an embossed sainted head, engraved and enamelled, in a very early style of art, and had perhaps been removed from the sides of some ponderous service-book of the Church. This was sold for 381. The upper part of the same engraving represents a small gothic canopy, of oak, gilt, and containing seven small paintings : it was sold separately for 501.

In the same room was a most beautifully executed piece of shrine-work, represented in Pl. III. The pinnacles on its top did not belong to it, and perhaps scarcely improved the effect. The whole was gorgeously gilt, as were the greater part of the carvings of this very magnificent room.

To mention the many beautiful specimens of ancient art in Mr. Baylis's collection would exceed our limits, and be beyond our present purpose. There were, however, some portraits which may deserve a passing record.

312. On panel, supposed to be the Earl of Lennox, and his infant son Lord Darnley.

337. The Earl of Essex, in the robes of the Garter, AN° DNI 1598, by Zucchero. (See the figure in Plate I.) It was sold for 631.

338. Whole length of Queen Elizabeth, (qu?) with a feather fan. 197.

388. A whole-length "of Prince Maurice, nephew of Charles I." On which we may observe, that Prince Maurice died in 1654, aged 34; but this portrait represents an elderly man, of at least fifty-five.

389. "A fine portrait of Admiral Tromp, whole length, created a Baron by Charles I." Mr. Baylis, we understand, purchased this picture under another name, and it was disguised by a wig, which has been cleaned off. It has been identified with the famous Von Tromp, who was born in 1597, with which date an inscription upon it "ÆT. SVÆ 44, 1642," corresponds : and it is remarkable that it was in the latter year that he was knighted (not "created a Baron") by Charles the First in England.

397. A set of ten Portraits, consisting of Henry VIII. his six Queens, Queen Elizabeth, Edward VI. and the Emperor Charles V. They formerly belonged to the late Lord Audley, and afterwards to Sir William Horne. They have now been purchased by the Marquess of Salisbury for Hatfield, at the price of 1407.

398. A full-length portrait of Sir Philip Sidney. 251.

514. The Earl of Sussex, "Lord High Steward to Queen Elizabeth." 177. 6s. 6d.

519. A small full-length of Queen Anne of Denmark and her son Prince Henry. This is a very good and pleasing picture. 61.

598. A portrait of Queen Mary, by Lucas de Heere, from the collection of the late Mr. Dent. 1057.

599. Queen Elizabeth, by Zucchero ; her sleeves covered with spheres: formerly belonging to the family of Sir Thomas Rich, at Eltham. 50l. 8s.

600. Henry VIII. by Holbein, a very fine picture. 1377. 11s. Bought by Jarman, a dealer.

601. Henry III. of France. 97. 19s.6d. 602, 3. Henry IV. of England and Henry VI. Together for 147. 38. 6d.

Lot 583 was a very fine statue, carved in oak, of the Emperor Rudolph : it is 5ft. 6in. high, and was brought by a brother of the late Sir Herbert Taylor from Aix-la-Chapelle. (See Plate I.) Bought by Hull, of Wardour Street, for 331. 1s. 6d.

There was a modern statue, in wood, of Sir Walter Raleigh, balanced on his proper legs, not ill executed, but inferior to the older work above noticed.

Among several suits of armour, three were particularly handsome. One with a singularly fine breast-plate, of the period of the Emperor Charles V. was sold for 347. 13s. Another extraordinary suit of fluted steel (Pl. I.) of the time of Henry VII. produced 100%. A third, elaborately engraved with a diapered pattern of the lion and eagle of Bavaria, in the manner of that in the Tower collection, assigned to Hector Count Oddi of Padua, and dated 1600, was sold for 571. 178.

un

Some very remarkable specimens of leather hangings, representing the full-length portraits of Kings and Queens of Spain, with stamped gilt back-guards, should not pass mentioned. These were bought in by Mr. Baylis, and are now placed on the walls of St. George's Gallery at the Pryor's Bank.

A backgammon-board (537) with a curious lock, and men stamped with subjects and mottoes, two having portraits of Charles II. and Louis XIV. and said to have belonged to the former. 107. 10s.

We return to give a few more particulars, before we close, of the recent sale at East Retford. A small table for the corner of a room, standing 2 feet 10 inc. high, upon four carved legs, with a shelf below, and its upper surface inlaid, in wood, with the figure of a ship in full sail, was purchased by the auctioneer, Mr. Leigh Sotheby, for 31.; as was, for 4l. 4s., a DESK of black oak, carved in low relief; and the two together now form his professional rostrum in Wellington Street, Strand. On the folding lid in front, of this desk are these arms, quarterly 1 and 4, a lion rampant; 2. three martlets, two and one; 3. three pheons, two and one; and for supporters, two lions. At the back of the desk is the third coat impaling the first, and the first impaling the second. In front is also carved the name of DAVID LLOYD, and on one side the date 1624. The catalogue identifies the original owner with David Lloyd, who died Dean of St. Asaph in 1663; but as that person was born in 1617, it appears not very probable that the desk should have been made for him at seven years of age.

Another desk, carved, with the initials E. P. 1612, and the same upon its lock, which belonged to Admiral Palliser, was sold for 1l. 3s. to Mr. Harris.

An oak tablet, measuring 13 inc. by 11, had been brought from the wainscoting of the old mansion-house of the Babingtons at Wirksworth in Derbyshire, representing their rebus of a BABE-IN-TUN, and the crest of a wyvern. £1. 8. Mr. Tallents.

An oak panel, 7 feet 9 by 2 ft. 6, divided into three compartments, each containing a shield of arms and inscriptions: 1, the arms and quarterings of Reresby, subscribed MERCY IESV 2, the same impaling Swift, round which are these rhymes,

Blessed are they

The Scripture doth say,

That heare the word of God
And kepe yt al waye.

3. the coat of Swift alone, with the motto DE BON SERVIERTA. This commemorates the alliance of Godfrey Reresby, fifth son of Thomas Reresby, of Thriburgh, co. York, living in 1585, who married a daughter of Swift, of Rotherham. £3. 17s. Mr. Hudson.

The whole fabric of a Gothic Room erected by Mr. Holmes in his garden, measuring thirty-one feet by twelve, with its lining of old carvings, and a variety of stained glass in the windows, was put up in one lot, and bought in for 185 guineas, that sum being considered below its value. It is not, however, likely to be preserved entire : but, unless a better offer occur, may probably be taken to pieces and brought to London for sale.

A monumental brass of a knight in armour, wearing a ram's head for his crest, set into a carved oak table, was sold for £5. 15s.

An old Virginal, marked with the name of "Joannes Ruckers fecit, 1604," was sold for the small sum of 14s. to Mr. Cochran the bookseller of London. The shape and bulk of this curiosity were perhaps no recommendation to it; its size is 7 feet 9 inc. long, by 2 feet 6 inc. broad.

The produce of Mr. Holmes's museum was £382. 5s. 6d.; of his library, £1874. 12s. Total, £2256. 17s. 6d.

The total amount of the plate, furniture, &c. sold at the Pryor's Bank, was between 3000l. and 40007.

QUESTION, Was one Man only, or were more Men than one (probably a considerable number), originally created?

there be for any mark? There were, doubtless, on the contrary, numbers of human beings, many of whom did not know Cain personally, or by sight. Thence the necessity for the mark.

signification, and mean every species, all kinds of moving creatures, fowls, &c. In the 20th verse it is said, "Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly;" and in the 21st verse we are told that "God created every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly after their kind.". Now if one pair, male and female, only were created, could the waters be said, with propriety and truth, to bring forth abundantly? Certainly not: bers, no doubt, of each sort or species were produced; and not in one part of the world only, but in every part, in every country. There was a necessity for this; for many animals, particularly the smaller animals, the creeping things, could not transport themselves to distant quarters and countries of the world, and scarcely any across wide seas and vast oceans.

num

In the same manner, in the 26th verse, the word "Man" cannot mean one individual only; but must mean, generally, the species of the superior animal, created last of all.

This

opinion is corroborated by the following expressions : "Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea," &c.; "male and female created He them; "God blessed them: " in which the plural pronoun them, and not the singular him, is used.

In the fourth chapter, and verse 1st, it is said that Adam, after his expulsion from the garden of Eden, "knew Eve his wife, and she bare Cain; and in verse the second, that "she again bare his brother Abel." These sons grow up, and Cain slays Abel. He is severely punished for this fratricide : a mark is set upon him, "lest any one finding him should kill him." Now if all the human beings then upon earth consisted of Adam and Eve, and their then (as it appears) only child Cain, what occasion could

After these things, Cain goes and dwells in the land of Nod. His wife bears a son named Enoch; and he

I wish to ask, whence came Cain's wife? She could not be Adam's daughter; for it does not appear that Adam, at that time, had any daughter. She must consequently have been the Cain daughter of some other man. builds a city. How could he do this, without men to help him? And why build a city, if there were not men and women to occupy the houses in that city?

In the 25th verse of the same chapter, it is written, "Adam knew his wife again, and she bare a son, and. called his name Seth: For God, suid she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew." From the words "again," and "another seed, it may be fairly inferred that Eve had no child born between Abel and Seth.

In the 2nd verse of chapter the 5th are the expressions "male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created."

Here,

seems

as in the first chapter, the plural pronouns they, their, and them, are made use of, and not he, his, and him; and the word 66 Adam" to be used in this verse, not for the name of one person only, but for that of a species, and to be synonymous with the term man.

In the fourth verse of this chapter, we are informed that "the days of Adam, after he had begotten Seth, were eight hundred years, and he "" From begat sons and daughters.' this verse it is pretty clear that Adam begat no daughters until after the birth of Seth, Cain's younger brother. Hence Cain's wife could not be Adam's daughter, as before mentioned.

From all these facts and observa

tions, the conclusion to be drawn seems to be that, according to the Bible itself,-not one Man only, but more Men than one (probably a considerable number), were originally created.

INVESTIGATOR.

MR. URBAN, Cork, Sept. 16. ALTHOUGH the article devoted by you, in your September Magazine, to the recent publication of Mr. Swinburne's Letters, or, in the more ambitious assumption of the title, "The Courts of Europe at the Close of the last Century," together with the similar compliment paid it by the Quarterly Review, may appear sufficient to satisfy the general desire, if not to exhaust the subject, yet some incidents struck me as passed unnoticed, or uncorrected, which I consider not less entitled to development, nor

more

barren of interest, than those selected by your reviewer for illustration. In the hope that I may be supported by your readers in this opinion, and that a brief advertence to these omissions will not be unacceptable, I now take the liberty of addressing you, while I premise, that I spent a portion of the ante, and the whole of the post, revolutionary periods embraced in these letters, on the Continent, with some opportunities, too, of obtaining information on the occurring topics of their communications; and, trodden though the field be, some gleanings worth gathering still remain, methinks, for collection.

Mr. Swinburne, it is manifest, was a complete gobe-mouche, who greedily caught, without weighing its probability or sifting its truth, every current report in those circles, where the talent of a good narrator was a first recommendation to society, and was best displayed by the pungent version, or epigrammatic turn, which wit or malignity could impart to the simplest - story. Restricted in political convers sation, for which Sir Robert Walpole, we are told, was wont to substitute the ribbald discourse, now, thank heaven, banished alike from the fash⚫ ionable and the moral board,* convi

* Those who, from personal recollection, may retrace the habits of society some fifty years back, cannot forget how deeply impregnated with indecorous topics and language the conversations of convivial meetings generally were. I well remember, for I often witnessed, the indulgence in those unseemly subjects of two eminent men, then most prominent in public life, Lord Clare and Mr. Curran, GENT. MAG. VOL. XVII.

though, in most other respects, contrasted in character and feelings. Nor were they less addicted to profane swearing, more particularly the Irish Chancellor, like his English contemporary Thurlow; a custom then likewise of general prevalence, apparently, as the French obtrude their filthy expressions, to give energy to their discourse, but much oftener, though, certainly, not in that sense applicable to Curran, to supply the dearth of language, or the pause of thought; like Homer's expletives, in completion of a phrase, or the constant interpellations of the Speaker by our parliamentary orators. But the forms of decency are now, it is gratifying to add, seldom violated by these social anomalies. And again, a spectacle of still more satisfactory contemplation is daily presented to our view, in the reformed habits of the humbler classes of this nation-an improvement, on an immeasurable scale, wrought by that wonderful regenerator of his country, my revered friend, Father Mathew, whom envy cannot assail, for it could find nothing to reprove or amend"Che non trouva l'invidia ove l'amende." (Orl. Fur.)

"Esto perpetua," we may suppliantly say in respect of this genuine reformation, the achievement of a commanding mind, devoting its energies and exerting its influence the resistless attraction of virtue-in checking the wide-spread evil, which seemed beyond the ability of man to control. And yet, in the recent number of the Quarterly Review, (136,) a writer undertakes, in an elaborate article, to elucidate the condition of the

Peasantry of Ireland," while he over

looks, and passes in utter silence, this mighty conquest of morality, and its venerated and admirable author! As well might the historian of modern England attempt to sink in oblivion the names and glorious work of Clarkson and Wilberforce, in association with whom, and in full parity of merit, the APOSTLE OF TEMPERANCE-clarum et venerabile nomen !must ever rank in the foremost class of the benefactors of his species. But the acknowledgment of obligation to an Irish priest-nay more-to a poor monk, (oh ! how rich in the treasures of heaven!) would ill accord, I fear, with the spirit of the Review, or the tenor of the article, It would be to expect praise or justice from the Southern United States to the

E

so much "to point a moral, as to adorn a tale," to quicken attention and enliven the arising subject by a

great advocates of Negro emancipation. It may, however, happen, as I am still willing to infer from this extraordinary omission, that some time has elapsed since the article was prepared; for no prejudice could withstand the sublimity of the act, or withhold the homage due to its achiever. To me, it is an exhaustless theme of admiration, as it must be to every eye-witness of the past and present state of our popu lation.

The deteriorating source of our national character, the most apparently operative one, at least, for I wish not to introduce any allusion to concurring political causes, thus happily arrested, seems not to have been unknown to antiquity, whose great naturalist ascribes its origin to the vicious ingenuity of man- "Heu! mira vitiorum solertia, inventum est quemadmodum aqua, (in Irish, usquah, or whiskey,) quoque inebriaret."" (Plinii, lib. xiv. cap. 29.) The noxious power and maleficent influence of idleness have of old obtained the authority of an adage; and drunkenness, surely, is not less the parent of evil, generative alike of individual and public degradation; but, not unacquainted, I may say, from early, domesticated, and long intercourse with other people, I can affirm, with equal truth and pride, that none, of comparable extent of territory, or parallel numbers, do or can exceed my now redeemed, regenerated and disenthralled" countrymen, to use the language of one of the most eloquent of them, (Curran,) in every attribute of morality, private or national. Such are the materials for the Legislature now to work on.

With respect to the custom of swearing, which, I am happy to observe, is falling with us into merited reprobation, in France, on the contrary, (where it also expresses, singularly enough, the purring of a cat,) from the predominance of the military spirit, and commixture of its usages with the people, it has so spread itself, that no class of society, scarcely even the young or recluse, though of course strangers to the practice, if ever they come in contact with the people, can feel or affect ignorance of what astounded the unconscious nuns of Nevers in the mouth of Gresset's renowned parrot,― "Jurant, sacrant, d'une voix dissolue, Faissant passer tout l'enfer en revue: Les B. les F. voltigeaient sur son bec, Les jeunes soeu œurs crurent qu'il parlait grec." Vert-Vert, Chant. iv. 51.

stimulant infusion of fact or fiction, such as Chamfort, Rivarol, or Champcenets, the brilliant stars of the saloons of that day, were sure to introduce, with animating effect. Swinburne's convictions and feelings fortunately preserved him from the taint of

The Vert-Vert of Gresset is not surpassed, in the characteristic merits of such compositions, by any similar effusion of fancy; and, though our expression humour is without a synonyme in the French language, no work of its compass is more fraught with its genuine spirit. His family, however, assured me, that the recollection of the youthful jeu-d'esprit excited some conscientious qualms, rather overwrought, surely, in after life. Have,

I would fain know, these tardy visitations agitated the bosom or invaded the repose of his best interpreter, the representative of my venerable acquaintance, Father Prout?

quos dira conscia facti Mens habet attonitos, et surdo verbere cædit,

Occultum quatiente animo tortore flagellum."

Juvenal, Sat. xiii. 193, &c. Gresset was with the Jesuits and destined to join that Society, of whom, as proved by his affecting Adieux, he ever cherished the fondest remembrance, when he produced this poem; but he abandoned the early vocation before the consummation of his vows, and married, but died childless.

When Rousseau passed through Amiens, after his rupture with Hume and departure from England, in August 1767, Gresset saw him, and found this affectedly morose being far more communicative than he had reason, from report, to expect; a surprise which Rousseau easily discovered, and observed: "Vous faites si bien parler les perroquets, qu'il n'est pas étonnant que vous sachiez apprivoiser un ours." (Vie de Gresset par Rénouard, p. 71.) One of the first literary efforts of Robespierre was a prize eulogy of this poet, chiefly remarkable for professions of loyalty, and declarations of attachment to monarchical principles; and it is equally certain that this wholesale spiller and slakeless thirster of blood was the first who brought forward a specific motion in the Constituant Assembly (1790) for the abolition of capital punishment by legal sentence-its total expunction from the Penal Code. Such is man ! "Estuat, et vitæ disconvenit ordine toto." (Hor. Ep. lib. i. Ep. i. 98.)