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characters of a stratum, excepting the apparently mechanical regularity of the arrangement of its materials. This distinction is very evident in the vicinity of this city, in the instance of Salisbury rock. There the greenstone is pointed out by Professor Jameson as a bed, while the sandstone, &c. exhibit stratification. Now, I am inclined to maintain, that the greenstone of Salisbury rock is as well entitled to the appellation stratum as any granite rock in Switzerland or elsewhere. It is interposed between strata of sandstone, just as the granite, referred to above, is between gneiss. I dare say most of your geological readers are acquainted with the beds of porphyry that occur between Blair in Athol and the inn of Dalnacardoch. No one has ever called these strata of porphyry. They are beds apparently; but, on an exanination not very minute, they will be found to send off numerous branches or veins, which cut the strata of gneiss, and clearly indicate these apparent beds to be great veins accidentally running between, instead of across, the strata; and a great many instances have been observed and recorded of great dikes or veins, in their course among the strata, occasionally running for a considerable distance between them. In the same manner, granite has been observed to proceed and to be formed in apparent beds parallel to gneiss. Now, as we know that there is no limit to the space through which granite, porphyry, greenstone, &c. may pass in this manner between strata, we ought not to be hasty in forming a conclusion from our seeing a very great extent arranged in this manner. Granite and gneiss are very nearly allied; and, indeed, so nearly, that, in a great many instances, hand specimens can with difficulty, if at all, be distinguished. For these reasons, I think we should not be hasty in forming general conclusions, the more especially, as we have found, during the extension of our knowledge, that the more careful we are in observing, the farther we remove from any theory supposed to be generally applicable to every phenomenon. If there be, as I think there should, a distinction between the words stratum and bed, there seems to be a word wanted to denote the arrangement of beds above one another. Stratification is used indis

criminately for the general appearance both of beds and strata, and hence, probably, has arisen the confusion of the two. Perhaps superposition might be used when beds are spoken of, as lying one above another, as interposition is used when a bed appears among strata. Such distinctions may to some appear trivial, but to those who are in the habit of studying geological descriptions, I doubt not of their having due importance. There is not, perhaps, any kind of description in which clearness is more necessary than in that of rocky masses, since geology may be said still to be

an infant science.

The most celebrated English and Continental geologists seem to be nearly agreed respecting the igneous origin of trap rocks; and the opinion of VON BUCH in this respect, a pupil and zealous admirer of Werner, must have great weight. But, although we have veins of granite presenting, with respect to primitive and transition strata, the same appearances that greenstone, basalt, &c. offer to our notice among those that are secondary, VON BUCH does not allow the igneous origin of granite. Much as this lastmentioned rock has been explored, and although the fundamental position of Werner, that granite was the rock on which all others rested, has been long ago proved to be groundless, still we must make more careful and extensive observations, before concluding that granite is either igneous or stratified. Crystallization is a good general mark of want of stratification; but, if the Wernerian system, as extended by the speculations of Jameson, be well founded, stratification is a word which is inadmissible, inasmuch as it has been understood to imply mechanical deposition from wa

ter.

This is, however, too extensive a subject for your Miscellany, and I have thrown out these hints merely with the view of suspending the judgment of your readers respecting what has been said of stratified granite, until we shall have seen the description of it by the great illustrator of the Huttonian theory; and, in the hope that some geologist of known ability will favour us with a definition of the words stratum and bed, which occur in geological writings so often without a specific meaning, and in a manner which greatly misleads the student.

In the same work in which the notice respecting granite is given, we find an observation, or rather a speculation, of Major Peterson, respecting stalactites, in caverns of lava observed by him in Iceland, some of which he supposed might have been formed by the percolation of water. Geologists are, in general, very fond of announcing new discoveries and speculations; but, in this instance, I apprehend that Major Peterson has been misrepresented. I was fortunate in having that gentleman's acquaintance, and to have had a conversation with him on this very subject, with specimens from the volcanic caverns before us. His words to me were,-" I do Hot say that I can prove it, as I had little time to extend my examination; but I think it, and it may be possible." Without specimens, it is impossible to enter on this subject. I can only say, that I paid particular attention to such specimens of these stalactites as were before me, and I could not find that any part of the lava forming the roof of the caverns offers room for a conjecture that water, in percolating through it, has carried any portion along with it to form the stalactites, all the vesicles appearing perfectly entire. Nevertheless, as Major Peterson observed, it may be possible. But we must not receive such a speculation too readily, or draw conclusions from it, especially as the author himself declared, that the aqueous were exceedingly difficult to be distinguished from the igneous stalactites. For my own part, I am disposed to prophecy, that we shall at last admit the agency both of fire and water; and incline to the belief, that water, strongly heated under powerful compression, may have produced substances which we know that neither heat nor water separately can form, under any management of ours, or in any circumstances in which we can imagine them to operate independently of each other.

Edinburgh, March 1818.

S.

COMMENTATORS OF THE TWENTY-
SECOND CENTURY.
MR EDITOR,

I HAD the misfortune to dine alone yesterday, (an evil which sometimes occurs to us bachelors,) and, having nothing better to do in the evening, I

took down a volume of Johnson and Steevens's Shakspeare, to pass away the time before I retired to bed. As I was engaged in unravelling one of Dr Warburton's long notes, I was, some how or other, surprised by that sort of stupor, so ably accounted for by Professor Stewart, in which a certain consciousness of visible objects still remains, though the faculties are, in other respects, under the influence of a dream. In this state, I imagined myself on a sudden transported inte the 22d century; and, by a similar Legerdemain of the senses, the book I held in my hand appeared to be converted into a volume of Tristram Shandy, printed in the year 2118, in which I fancied I read a series of comments upon a passage, which does not, at the present day, seem to require much explanation. The whole was so fresh in my memory when I awoke, that I was enabled to commit it to paper, with tolerable fidelity. As you may possibly esteem it sufficiently curious to obtain a place in your valuable repository, I take the liberty of transmitting it to you, in the following words:

"Speaking to a little dwarfish bandy legged drummer," I think we should read bendy legged, from the verb, to bend, or bow. In the Latin the word

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valgus" is employed, which signifies bowed or crooked legged.-POPE. The precise meaning of the word

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valgus," is of little consequence, as the author seems to have aimed at any thing, rather than a literal translation; otherwise, he surely never would have rendered," nequaquam, respondit uxor," by, "'tis a pudding's end, said his wife." I suspect Shan dy wrote " bendy locked," for curly headed, the drummers of those days having been always boys. Sometimes they were called drum-boys. This reading is, moreover, countenanced by the epithets," little,” and “dwarfish."-THEOBALD.

This passage has been strangely corrupted. Beyond all question the author wrote "dandy ragged dreamer." The word " dandy' frequently occurs in the romances or novels (as they were then called) of the early part of the nineteenth century. The "Dandies" appear to have been a sect that flourished about this period, and were remarkable for the wildness of their tenets. Of what nature these

were, no sufficient evidence has come down to us, nor is it even clear whether they were a philosophical or religious sect. I am, however, inclined to adopt the former opinion, from a passage I accidentally discovered in a fragment of a romance entitled "Glenarvon," printed in 1816, now in the possession of Mr Heber, and which that gentleman, with great apparent probability, ascribes to the pen of Dr Howley, then bishop of London. In this book, a certain lady, who is described as a great patroness of the literary and scientific characters of the day, is reproached with being at all times ready to flatter a needy dandy. From this I infer, that they were a species of empyrics in experimental philosophy, something like the alchymists of old, for poverty is seldom the companion of religious adventurers. I am, therefore, persuaded, that Shandy wrote "dandy ragged dreamer," i. e. indigent, visionary dandy. The word "ragged" may also have been used to indicate the slovenliness of their dress, as well as their poverty, for it is not probable that these philosophers paid much attention to their personal appearance. This reasoning is amply confirmed, by what follows, a little further on in the story :

"What a pity it is," cried the dandy ragged dreamer," that we did not both touch it!" This exclamation of regret is perfectly suitable to the character of a zealous experimentalist, when we recollect that the subject in debate was the extraordinary phenomenon of the stranger's nose, and the immediate question of what material it was composed. Now, our author would never have committed the impropriety of putting these words into the mouth of a German drummer, who must have known, that, had he ventured to lay hold of the gentleman's nose, on any pretence however innocent, he would have been instantly conveyed to the halberds, and severely punished for his presumption. The German military discipline was then the strictest in Europe.-WAR

BURTON.

Great learning and ingenuity are certainly displayed in the last note; but I cannot help thinking that the Doctor has taken rather too great a liberty with the text. It is true I can find no meaning for the word bandy," so that some alteration ap

pears absolutely necessary. Mr Pope's emendation is by no means satisfactory to my mind; for why should a drummer, more than any other man, be supposed to have bended or bowed legs? As it is, however, a well-known fact, that the legs of those persons, who labour principally with their arms, (as watermen, for instance,) are apt to dwindle away, I propose that we should read " dainty legged," the word "dainty" having been used, in our author's time, for delicate, or slender.-EDWARDS.

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I see no reason why a drummer should be supposed to have slender legs. A drummer marches with his corps, and beats his drum on the march, to which he himself, as well as his companions, is obliged to keep time with his legs. My opinion is, that the original reading is right; particularly as all the copies agree in this respect. Bandy" is probably equivalent to banded, " band" anciently signifying a ribbon, (sometimes written ribband,) or string;from whence the verb to band, of which bandy was the participle. At that time of day, drummers, and other musicians belonging to the army, were distinguished from the fighting men by a fantastic dress. Indeed, this dress was subject to great variations; and it is a curious, though well attested fact, that the Regent himself not only paid the greatest attention to the subject, but (what will hardly be credited at the present day) a Board of general officers was actually appointed for the superintendence of the army tailors. There is still to be seen in the Tower a military effigy, accoutered something after the manner of a Roman soldier, except that, instead of a helmet, it has a bonnet or cap, of a singular form, and which certainly never was intended for defence. This, as well as a short jupon, or petticoat, which reaches nearly to the knee, is party-coloured. But, what is most to our purpose is, that it wears a kind of sandal, to which are attached two broad woollen ribbons, or bands, twined cross-wise up the leg, to keep it on. This figure unquestionably represented a drummer of the day.-STEEVENS.

Perhaps this was the dress common to all musicians. I have frequently met with the phrase," band of music," for a company of musicians, in

old authors. They may have been so called from the above peculiarity in their dress, under the rhetorical figure Synecdoche.-MALONE.

Mr Steevens is right. With respect to the word "Dandy," I greatly doubt whether it denoted any particular sectarist. I am disposed to consider it as a general name for the most celebrated writers of the day. In a leaf of the "Morning Chronicle" for the year 1818, preserved in the British Museum, I find an allusion to some of these Dandies, each of whom seems to have been distinguished by a particular epithet, in the nature of a surname. Thus, we have the Commercial Dandy, the Deo Dandy, the Dead Dandy, &c. The first of these probably treated of commercial subjects, a principal branch of what was called, in the jargon of the day, political economy;" the second was a deist, or asserter of pure Theism ; and the third may have been a materialist, who, denying the notion of a future state, contended, that death was the consummation of our being. JOHNSON.

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The real meaning of the word Dandy" seems to have hitherto escaped the commentators. In the leaf of the " Morning Chronicle," lately discovered at York, the expressions, Dowager Dandy," and "Desart Dandy," are to be found. It was probably a word of contempt for an impostor of any kind. Dowager Dandy may have been a person who paid his court to rich old widows, from interested motives. Desart Dandy is not so easily explained. I have likewise met with "Handy Dandy," which, I presume, meant a pickpocket, and "Dirty Dandy." This last epithet, I conceive, did not designate any particular Dandy, but was a general term for the whole race, and is, perhaps, not to be understood as referring

so much to the foulness of their bo

dies, as the depravity of their minds. I am, Sir, your obedient servant.

THE ADVENTURES OF

R. T.

PARSON

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is a translation, appears in a "Deutsche Blumenlese," or, "Collection of the Flowers of German Literature," and is ascribed to " Langbein." The original is happily conceived, and exquisitely expressed. In vain would I at.. tempt to imitate the rich humour, serious drollery, and close condensation of Langbein's style, in a translation. The interest of the story, however, does not consist entirely in the expression, for the incidents can scarcely fail to amuse, even under the disadvantages of an imperfect translation. If you are of the same opinion, the piece may perhaps find a place in your interesting Miscellany. The original has been strictly adhered to, except in the postponement of the denouement for a few stanzas, to continue longer the interest of the story.I am, &c. A. B.

"Where are we now? See nought appears But cattle on the hill;

I told you oft to shun the left,
You've brought us here;-now save us
But you would have your will.

both

From rock, and pit, and rill.” "Hic hæret aqua,' honoured Sir,

Trust now no more to me; But mark! 1 tremble not although We thieves and wolves may see. Says Horace, Purus sceleris

Non eget mauri jaculis." " "O that you and your Latin were In Styx, and I-in bed. Is this a time to laugh and jest

With my distress and dread? But see! low in the valley gleams

A light; O let us seek its beams!" "Cur non, mi Domine,' for there A mortal must abide ;

In

such a place the cloven feet

On, quickly on! for now I think

And tail would ne'er reside.

How sweet their potent ale will drink.” Then, reeling for the light, they steer,

These heroes of my strain;

But whence they came, I, with your leave,
They staggered from a bridal feast
In one word may explain-

With all they could contain.
The hut is reached; a man appears
All clad in sullied brown,
Who eyes our two benighted friends

With dark suspicious frown.
They begged for beds, till rising day
Should dawn to light them on their way.
"Indeed, to tell your Honours true,
Of beds I've none to spare,
But solace such as straw may yield
You're welcome here to share.

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On straw couch wilt thou lie ?""Sub sole nil perfectum est," Said Bakel-" here I'll take my rest.' He said, and soon was fast asleep.

The Parson looked around For peg to hang his wig upon,

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But no one could be found:
Himself upon the straw he cast,
His wig upon the ground.
Between the guests and host alone
A thin partition stood :
They heard him sing an evening hymn,
Then for faith and food;
pray
And now, the godly service done,

Unto his spouse he thus began :-
"My dear, as soon as morning dawns,
The black ones I shall slay,
They will be, when I think again,
Much fatter than I say.

Oh how that bullet-round one will-
He makes my very chops distil!"
"Ah, Bakel! do you sleep? or hear
These cannibals declare,
That, when the morning sun ascends,
On us they mean to fare?
Oh from this horrid murderous den
Were I but out alive again !"
"Proh dolor,' Sir; but still there's hope,
We're not in Charon's barge;
Still may some good Convivia,

Your little paunch enlarge.
Nay ope your eyes,-look here and see
A window; from it leap with me."
"Yes! such a goose-quill thing as you
May leap, and dread no harm;
But, were I such a leap to take,
I'd die with pure alarm;
This ponderous body would but drop
Into Death's open arm."
Now Bakel used his eloquence
To urge his friend to fly;
He painted dangers great and dread
If they should longer lie;
Till he took courage, from despair,

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The unknown dreadful leap to dare. But still there was a point to fix, Which first the leap should try; Each urged the other, and again Replied, "Oh no, not I." At last our friend the pedagogue Down like a bird did fly. He lighted, salva venia, Upon a hill of dung, And bounding from the dirt unhurt

Like dunghill cock he sprung: But like a cliff from mountain cast, Fell the fat parson-and stuck fast! He sunk up to the waist, por could Move on a single hair;

VOL. II.

While Bakel cursed and scampered round,

In impotent despair:

Meantime the roof poured torrents down

On the poor parson's naked crown. Now Bakel found all efforts vain

To ope the dunghill's side;

And though his friend there still had lain, No help could he provide.

At last a powerful lever's found;

With it he heaves him from the ground. But ah how adverse still their fate!

For now they found a court,
Whose towering walls and barred gate
Cut further egress short.

Thus fruitless all these dangers run
The dreadful cannibals to shun !
Now they prepare their hearts to sing
A valet" ere they die,
And only seek a shelt'ring roof,
Till then to keep them dry.
Experience tells we best may claim
Success, if humble be our aim.
So found the candidates for death
A shelter in their need;

It was a hovel near a shade

Where cattle use to feed.

It chanced that in that hole, his swine
Our host, while feeding, did confinc.
But they had burst their little door,

And so had stole away,

And in the garden with their snouts
Did hold their merry play;
While in their place our pious friends
Most fervently did pray.

"Oh think, dear Bakel, that the grave
Is but the gate of life;
There beggars equal mighty kings;
There ends all mortal strife;
The injured slave feels not the thong,
Nor drags his weary chain along.'
"Ah yes, how truly says the bard,
Si hora mortis ruit

Is fit Irus subito

Qui modo Cræsus fuit."

Thus spent they all the hours of night,
Till dawn the little court did light.

Now hideously a door did creak,

From which came out the man,
Whose eye beamed murder; and he straight
To whet his knife began

And muttered as he rubbed away,
"Ye black ones ye shall die to-day!"
The host a Flesher was by trade,

And spoke still of his swine,
While all these dreadful thoughts beset
The Teacher and Divine;
Who fell into the odd mistake,

That he their lives designed to take.
So forth he stretched his hand to draw
The swine from out their hole :-
The first thing that he seized upon
Was Bakel's thickened sole:

He cried in terror and affright, "The Devil! oh ye powers of light!"

3Y

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