furnished the public with fresh proofs of his spirit of research, and of his taste in the selection of curious and interesting pase sages concerning celebrated persons, from books, many of which are become scarce and never likely to be reprinted :-but, besides the extracts from these, and the reflections to which they give birth, many original articles appear, some of which have been expressly produced for the embellishment of this publication. Though we formerly observed that this kind of Olio, composed of ingredients culled from old books, is an indulgence to surperficial and lazy readers, yet we must add that it not only saves them time, but money; for the contents of these two volumes, exclusively of the original articles, include the most piquant and striking passages of more than 200 volumes; and, as most of them have been long out of print, this extraction of their essence can injure neither authors nor printers. It seems to have been the editor's intention to compress the present anecdotes into a single volume, as the pages of the second run on in continuation of the first:-but, as the two volumes contain more than 600 pages, if united in one, it would have been of a cubical form, and too ponderous and unwieldly for the fair hands of his female readers. We are sorry, however, that the work was not more correctly printed, and that more attention was not paid to chronology in the arrangement of the articles into classes. In the first volume, painters, from Michael Angelo of the Italian school to Watteau of the French, follow in succession, to the number of seventeen. Kings, Generals, and Fathers of the church, never succeed each other to any considerable number, without interruption. Indeed, it is only in the first volume that anything like regular arrangement is perceptible: for in the second the readers are tossed backwards and forwards in a manner which, to many, may prove somewhat fatiguing. We shall select a few articles, as specimens of the entertainment which the purchasers of this work are likely to find. The choice, however, from the wide range of the editor's reading, will be difficult. We commence with a pleasing little original poem, addressed by the compiler to his nieces, on the virtues and hospitality of the noble inhabitants of Arundel Castle. • An Uncle to his Protestant Nieces, on their visiting Wardour Castle in Wilts, the Seat of LORD ARUNDEL, on St. Peter's Day. 'Tis not the splendid House of Prayer, The burnish'd gold's well-order'd . The clouds of incense that arise, * Whilst, offspring of their magic hands, The Lord of Life, torn, pale, and dead, 'Tis not, my girls, such things as these Their goodness, their benevolence; Their minds unspoil'd by wealth or state The attendants on the priests at the altar, so called." Their charity, that knows no bound Of Rome's fam'd head the prop and stay, (How fitted for religious heats!), Fam'd long for pastors of good learning, Who, in polemics deep and strong, Rome's faith have labour'd to prove wrong Where Herbert, Norris, Hawes, and Coxe, S. The anecdotes concerning Mr. Martin are too pleasant to be omitted: Henry Martin, Esq.-having one day in the House of Commons made a long invective against Sir Harry Vand the elder, he continued, "But as for young Sir Harry and sat down. Several person's cried out, " And pray what have you to say to young Sir *Domestic chaplain to Lord Arundel.' + Dr. John Douglas; whom if the virtuous Lord Falkland had known, he would not have said that Bishop Juxon was the only prelate that a pair of lawn sleeves could not spoil. Bemerton, near Salisbury. Its incumbents have been occasionally very distinguished persons, as Mr. Herbert the Poet, the Ideal Norris, the fearned Mr. Hawes, and the celebrated Traveller Mr. Coxe.' Harry?" Harry "Why, if young Sir Harry lives long enough, he will be old Sir Harry, that is all;" and then sat down again. Oliver Cromwell, one day in the House of Commons, called him in a scoffing manner Sir Henry Martin; Mr. Martin rises and bows to Cromwell, adding, "I thank your majesty; I always thought that when you were king, I should be knighted." "I have lived," said he one day to Mr. Speaker, "long enough to see the scripture saying fulfilled. "Thou hast exalted the humble and meek; thou hast filled the, hungry with good things, and the rich thou hast sent empty away: * He was wont to sleep in the House. Alderman Atkins made a motion, that such scandalous members as slept, and did not attend to the business of the House, should be expelled. Martin starts up directly, and says, "Mr. Speaker, a motion has been just made to turn the nodders out of the House; I desire that the noddees may be included." The following extracts from a British worthy of the first class for learning and wisdom, during the last century, will probably be acceptable to our readers: JOHN SELDEN. This learned man, the glory of the English nation according to Grotius, thus describes his countrymen : The people are of a middle temper, according to their climate; the northern melancholy, and southern choler, meeting in their general constitution, doth render them ingenious and active; which, nourished also under the wings of liberty, inspires a courage generous, and not soon out of breath. Active they are; and so nigh to pure act, that nothing hurts them more than pure quiet. "Their ingenuity will not allow them to be excellent at the cheat, but they are rather subject in that kind to take than to give; and, supposing others as open hearted as themselves, are many times in treaties overmatched by those whom they overmatch in arms. Upon the same account, they are neither ungenerous over those that are beneath, nor stubborn against them that are above them. Man, woman, or child, is all one with them, they will honour majesty wherever they see it, and of the twain, tender it more when they see it set upon infirmity, as if they knew how to command themselver only in order to the public good. Nevertheless, they love much to be free. When they were under awe of the Pope's curse, they bore off designs by the head and Abbé Sieyes being one day asked, when he thought the French revolution would end, said, "When a particular part of the Magnificat is fulfilled;" those verses of it which Mr. Martin quoted.' "Liberty above all things, was the motto of this learned and excellent man; not that abstract liberty, the notion of which, at present, threatens the destruction of every government in Europe; but that tempered and useful liberty, for which Selden exerted him 15 self and shoulders, but afterwards by watchfulness and foresight; and. having attained a light in religion that will own their liberties, of them both they made up one garland, not to be touched by any rude hand; but as if it were the bird of the eye, the whole body startles therewith, the alarm is soon given and taken, and when the alarm is given, neither high nor low are spared that stand in their way. "This they do owe to the Eastern people, from whom they fetch their pedigree. So the only way to conquer them is to let them have their liberties; for, like some horses, they are good for carriage as long as their burdens are easy, and set loose upon them; but if too close girt, they will break all, or cast their load and die. "The two states of Lords and Commons, in their transmigration. being then in the nature of an army of soldiers, had a General by their election; under whom, after they had obtained a peaceable settling, they named anew by the name of Konning (or the wise man), for then wisdom was more necessary than valour. But after the clergy had won the day, and this Konning had submitted himself to the ghostly father, they baptized him by the new name of Rex, and so he is styled on all written monuments which we owe entirely to ecclesiastics, although the vulgar held their appellation still, which by construction, or rather corruption, did at length arrive at the word King, a notion which as often changeth the sense as the air, some making the persons all in all, and some nothing at all, but a compliment of state. Speaking of the alteration made in the condition of the House of Commons of England, by Henry the Seventh, he concludes, "Henceforth the Commons of England are no mean persons, and their representatives of such concernment, as, if a king will have them to observe him, he must serve them with their liberties and laws, and every one the public good of the people. No man's work is beneath, no man's above it. The best honour of the king's work is to be nobilis servitus (as Antigonus said to his son), or in plain English, supreme service above all. I now conclude, wishing we may obtain the happiness of our fore-fathers, the ancient Saxons, who. according to Tacitus, were quilibet sorte propriâ contentus," every one contented with his own situation. Discourses on the Laws and Government of England, folio." The slow process of the law in this country, so often the subject of complaint with those who have been obliged to have recourse to its decisions, acts nevertheless as a preventative on many who possess a spirit of unnecessary litigation. In a self with great spirit and energy; that liberty which secures to every individual the blessings of personal safety and private property, under the sanction of law+, and which is more generally enjoyed in this nation, than it has ever been in any other country in the world." +"Legum servi sumus vt liberi simus," says Tully; and in the true spirit of this indisputable maxim, the republic of Lucca inscribes over the great door of its prison, in golden capitals, Libertas; to shew that restraint is necessary to insure freedom, and that where there is no law, there can be no liberty." note |