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ing and attractive; and the Queen of the World in Arms and Arts, suddenly bursts on the spectator in all her pre-eminence. Contemplate the sensations of a Briton's heart in passing under it. The bridges of Blackfriars and Westminster, St. Paul's, Westminster Abbey, in short every steeple and spire, rising to swell the grandeur of the scene. The Trafalgar arch on the opposite end! whose foundation, united by this noble chain, will exhibit a striking symbol of that union and concord between our naval and military power, which holds the world in check; such a magnificent conjunction would constitute a monument as unrivalled in splendour as the cause and its consequences are unparalleled.

palm; while Englishmen, in conscious brightness, would consider the toll as a contributory return of national gratitude, that "owing, owes not ;" each end affords " ample space and verge enough" for a monumental remembrance of the triumphs of Waterloo and Trafalgar.

The reasons I have given are, I think, sufficient to convince all unbiassed opinions, that the site I now propose is, without exception, the most striking point of view, and commands a wider space, in all directions, than any other in the metropolis.

I have the honour to be, Gentlemen,
Your most obedient,
humble Servant,

Mr. URBAN,

EDWARD ISAAC.

April 28.
N an ancient Missal for the use of

by John Kingston and Henry Sutton, bury, and printed at London in 1551, (see Ames, p. 295. art. "Sutton") I find the following address from the Bibliopola to the purchasers of his

book:

Economy ceases to be a virtue on 42, Queen square, Bloomsbury.
occasions like this, and parsimony
degenerates to the degradation of ava-
rice, in attempting to stint a memo-
rial of imperishable glory. Why
then should we not raise, at the same
time, a tribute so eminently due to
our naval power? that power having
subdued the world on the ocean, con-
veyed to burning Afric and the stern
Peninsula the thunders which, wield-
ed as they have been, produced in a
few short years events sufficient to
adorn the annals of ages yet to come,
and will compel wondering posterity
to allow that even a Marlborough's
fame might be exceeded when sup-
ported by the undeviating steadiness
of our illustrious Regent, by a Minis-
try firm in their principles, and by
the strenuous efforts of the Royal
Personage at the head of the Army,
whose penetration in discovering and
in rewarding merit has raised to the
summit of excellence and enthusiasm
that branch of the service which, led
by Wellington, has finally established
the triumph of Truth over Infidelity,
of Legitimate Sovereignty over Usur-
pation.

AD SACERDOTEM.
Sanctorum qui Sancta soles intrare
Sacerdos
[emas.
Hoc Missale novum, si mihi credis,
Invenies illic digestas ordine Missas

The local superiority of Waterloo Bridge is evident; it commands the river of England; it is a splendid canopy over Father Thames' head, whose flowing tide rolls and returns commerce paramount, as Britain's Navy rides triumphant. National monuments within its controul would be magnetic; at such an entrance foreigners would pause with astonishment, and confess that the Islanders had won, and would preserve the

Cæsaris ut Burgi verior usus habet. Cetera sunt fedis passim deformia mendis;

Hoc Elephas ullâ dat sine labe tibi.

This Hexastich, which is considerably more modern than the following Leonine poetry, gives us plainly the etymon of Salisbury, Sarisbury, or Sarum-as derived from Cæsaris or Cæsarum burgum; and may be adduced as a proof that the art of puffing was known in the middle of the 16th century, as well as it is in our days.

The precepts or apophthegms contained in the verses, applied to every month in the year, relate to the Regimen sanitatis, and are closely connected with the dreams of astrological physiology still kept up in Moore's and other Almanacks.-I have taken the liberty of subjoining my observations upon them. Each month has its denouncing sentence or anathema, and four lines relating to the preservation of health,

JANU

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By this the first and seventh day of the month are declared to be unlucky. -For what reason, we have no data to guess. The first day being the commemoration of the circumcision of Christ, the truncat ut ensis might apply in a retrospective point of view -but I am at a loss to make the allusion good for the seventh.-The tetrastich tells us that warm and particularly good food is to be used-a cheerful, but sober draught ought to be taken after meal; this draught cannot mean wine or spirituous liquors, since mead, medo, is prohibited in the next line.-Bathing and bleeding are recommended.

FEBRUARIUS.

Quarta subit mortem, prosternit tertia
fortem.

Nascitur occulta febris Februario multa,
Potibus ac escis uti nunc si benè nescis.

cruorem

Frigus et horrorem fuge-pollice funde [pellis. Suge favum mellis quo morbos pectore The third day and the fourth of February bring death to the strongan improper use of food or drink causes hidden and inward fevers. It is recommended (naturally enough) to avoid cold, and any thing which might bring on a shivering. The bleeding at the thumb, mentioned here, seems to imply that this species of phlebotomy was antiently more commonly performed than it is now; and the sucking of a honeycomb is pointed out as a preventive against diseases of the chest and lungs.

N. B. Little attention is paid here, as well as in several other places, to spelling,grammar,and quantity, which appear entirely subservient to the mania of Rhyming-I give the text as I found it.

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In quo scalpescit corpus, sanguis quoque
crescit.
Ergò solvatur venter, cruor et minu-
[atur.

Why the tenth and eleventh of this month should be deadly days, the Author, speaking ex cathedrá, does not condescend to tell: and, indeed, all these oracular sentences ought to be taken for indisputable, or not to be taken at all-they would lose their credit if they were supported by proofs. Besides, who can affirm that they are not grounded upon some traditional and chronological observations ? Had we at hand the Ephemerides of the earliest centuries of the Christian æra, we might find that, by accidental occurrences, the days thus anathematized as black and unlucky, stand in the pages of history, like the Nefasti in the Roman Calendar, marked by some deeds of an ominous nature, conformably to the received opinion of the time.

We are told in the "Quatrain” that April has strength in Spring; that all in Nature revives; that the

pores of the skin open; that the body scalpescit-this word does not yield good sense; scalpere means fect for the cause, does it mean that "to scratch." Now, taking the ef ancient line of the same nature and the skin is liable to itchings? An metre, but much more intelligible, runs thus:

Scalpo dum prurit, sed postquam scalpi

tur, urit.

The French adage says:

Trop gratter cuit,
Trop parler nuit,

Trop manger fait mal, &c. The next hemistich declares that, at this time of the year, the blood increases, and therefore bleeding and purging are necessary. Here, I think, the Medico-poet is right.

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The third and seventh of May are denounced here as unlucky days: the third brings death, the seventh is injurious to the face or mouth-the word relidit is not Latin; yet by analogy to oblido, composed of ob and lado-we may suppose it to have the meaning adopted in the translation. —Purging, bleeding, and bathing, are here again recommended as of great importance. The diet must consist of warm food with spices; and sage mixed with the drink. This plant, the name of which attests its salubrity, was antiently of much more use than it is now. There was a sort of potion called salviatum, mentioned by Columela, 6, 9, made by a decotion of this plant, much esteemed for its virtues. Sage, in many countries, is smoked, instead of the Nicotiana or tobacco, on account of its having less pungency, and a more agreeable Smell; "petite sauge," from Provence, salvia angustifolia, or sage of virtue, is often smoked by gentlemen in France, before breakfast, as a preventive against the tooth-ache, and other morbid affections of the head.

The School of Salernum recommends sage as a remedy in all diseaseshence the line:

Cur moriatur homo cum Salvia crescit

in horto.

Why should man die, since Sage grows in his garden?

JUNIUS.

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[lædatVenam non scindat-nec ventrem potio Somnum compescat, et balnea cuncta parescat[munda. Salva recens unda, simul allia, salvia

The thirteenth brings death; the tenth of this month debilitates.-Who comforts ought to comply with the wishes to enjoy good health and its following directions: Abstain from phlebotomy, from cathartics, from too much sleep, and all kinds of bathing; use freely fresh water, garlick, and sage.

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Nemo laxari debet vel phlebotomari.

The first line seems to allude implicitly to some great event, some sig nal defeat sustained by a military force, on the first and second of that ly mere repetitions of what we had month. The apophthegms are mostfrom exercises that cause an impetus before; short slumbers, abstinence in the blood, and an excess of perspiration; not to bathe or eat too much, and to avoid purgations and the letting of blood.

September. Ternus Septembris et denus fert mala membris.

Fructus maturi Septembri sunt valituri; Et pyra cum vino-panis cum lacte ca prino[amicaQuamque dat urtica tibi potio fertur Tum venam pandas, species cum semine mandas.

The third and the tenth are stated to be unwholesome days.-Pears stewed with wine and sugar, which the French call "poires a l'hypocras;" bread soaked in goat's milk; ptizan,

made

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The denouncing line is imperfect. The only place where we find it is in Coetlegon's Dictionary, and there it runs thus: Tertius et denus est sicut MORS alienus, the meaning of which, I confess, appears still very obscure.The tetrastich is to the following purpose. October yields wine and venison; the flesh of wild and tame fowls is good in this month; good and hearty eating, though of not much use, is however harmless, and high feeding is allowed as far as it does not prove injurious to the stomach. It means, if I am not mistaken, that in October, when the body, weakened by Summer heat, wants to recover its wonted strength to encounter stoutly the hardships of the cold season, a greater quantity of food may be taken than at any other period of the year without becoming injurious to health.

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Hoc tibi scire datur quod Reuma Novembre creatur. [dieta. Quæque nociva veta-tua sit preciosa Balnea cum venere tunc non conducit

habere.

[vana. Pótio tune sana-tunc nulla minutio

The fifth day is dangerous as the scorpion (in which sign it is), and the third surrounded with death.-The four verses warn us against colds generally brought on by November; let us avoid unwholesome food; use a choice diet; leave off bathing and venereal pleasures: gentle purgatives, and other means to prevent plethory, are stated to be conducive to health. The sudden constriction of the pores at the first appearance of frosty weather, stopping the insensible perspiration, too often generates diseases; and our Leonine poet is right in prescribing against fulness and obesity.

DECEMBER.

Septimus exanguis, vivosus denus ut anguis.

Sanæ sunt membris calidæ res mense Decembris.

Frigus vitetur-capitalis vena secetur― Lotio tunc vana-sed ventri potio sana. Sit tepidus potus, pugnans cum frigore

totus.

The meaning of the first or denouncing line is one of the most puzzling of all; the seventh day of the month is bloodless; the tenth as venomous as a snake.-The Quatrain tells us that warm things are pleasant and salubrious; that cold is to be avoided; that blood let out at the temporal vein may be useful, bathing useless, purging wholesome, and that our drink should be gently warmed, to counteract the coldness of the weather; there is nothing new in all this; it only proves that our medicopoet is no conjuror.

N. B. The day of the month, which, throughout the year, seems to be the most obnoxious, is the tenth, being mentioned six times in the anathema; next comes the third, which is stigmatized five times; then the first and tenth, each being noted three times; then the fourth, which is mentioned twice; the second, fifth, eleventh, thirteenth, and fifteenth, are each marked only once. No day

above the fifteenth is taken notice of. Z.

ON THE PLEASURES WHICH ACCOMPANY PHILOSOPHIC. CONTEMPLATION.

MIDST the chequered scenes A which usually accompany this present state, the proportions of good and evil, of comfort and of infelicity, are dispensed in a wide variety. In walking through life, or in studying that department of history which treats of the biography of eminent individuals, the contemplator will remark many characters over which genius and worth must shed the tear of sympathy, struggling amidst the storms of adverse fortune, whose whole life seems perpetually to encounter the frowns of an unpropitious Providence. He will find, on the other hand, talents, not far removed from mediocrity, enjoying the full tide of public favour, and basking in the sunshine of prosperity, owing to the adventitious assemblage

of

of favourable circumstances; or because the character of certain performances happens to favour the partialities of those who possess more influence in directing the reigning mode in literature or in taste than is always acknowledged. The extensive and particular study of the class of history here alluded to, which in its strictest sense is" philosophy teaching by examples," will abuodantly supply instances in which the neglects of the world, and a succession of domestic troubles consequent upon a state of penury, has rendered genius a curse upon its possessor, and great powers of intellect, means for perpetuating the inquietude of a worthy individual. The decree of Providence has not always accompanied his gifts of understanding with a corresponding faculty of turning them to their own advantage; many, therefore, who were born to shine in a particular sphere, have " grown dim with age," and their energies have sunk through multiplied disappointiments, and the vain hope of realiz ing schemes of happiness.

"Some hearts once pregnant with celestial fire" may rust in obscurity, and sicken through neglect; their courage may faint before the difficulties which present themselves; and stars which might have shone with lustre among the luminaries of their hemisphere, may have been extinguished in the cold indifference of those from whom they solicited notice.

Happy is that man who, conscious of integrity of heart, and knowing alike that he does not participate in the honours with which successful genius is rewarded, through the rancour of party zeal, or of some other prejudice, can still retain his tranquillity of mind, and prosecute his views with philosophic calmness; trusting that a discriminating posterity will adjudge him that rauk in intellectual pre-eminence, which sacred justice demands: such an one may look abroad with an eye of proud superiority, smile at the stings and arrows of outrageous fortune;" and, far from envying the splendid success of some rival, whose versatility of character is more conspicuous than his independence of principle, will view him, divested of his adscititious plumes, in the naked

dress in which alone he will be exhibited to futurity. Other consolations, likewise, may be thought to. attend the enlarged mind, even apart from considerations of religion, which, however, when associated with them, generate a piety and a satisfaction far more sublime, which consists in marking the beauties of inanimate nature, and deducing topics of enquiry and encouragement from a fancied resemblance which may be traced between her laws and those. which frequently rule in life. "The comparison of the dispensations of fortune," says a writer," with the progress of the seasons, is equally just and beautiful. In Winter, the sun kindly withdraws his influence, that the soil may recover that vigour which has been exhausted in Spring and Summer. Thus, a state of indigence calls forth those talents, and ripens that genius, that prosperity would perhaps have extinguished."

The mind, therefore, oppressed with the sense of reiterated disappointments, may still find consolations from the practice of philosophy, and the contemplation of nature. Its pos sessor will find that, irrespective of the world, and the vacillating ap plauses of public favour, a calm and exhilarating interest accompanies his mental excursions. Contemplate the picture of an individual in the circumstances here described. The genius, alive to generous impressions, ambitious of fame, but distracted with cares, and chagrined with failure, seeks retirement; he walks abroad from society, and finds himself at length immured in solitude! Gloomy retrospections assail him of the past, cheerless anticipations crowd upon his mind concerning the future, he abandons himself to despair, and gives utterance to his thoughts in language like the following: "I have laboured patiently for renown; a desire to excel, and to acquire fame, has formed the constant object of lawful exertion; a succession of vain results have uniformly crowned my toils, and I now find myself destitute of resource, disgusted with imaginary schemes, and stung with the ingratitude of mankind. The world with its charms has become tasteless, inquietude takes the place of every better resolution, and embitters those hours which should be spent in fresh exertions. The quicksands

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