and with her right pulls in her veil, which the winds blew off her. The sea became presently calm; the

cupids, who hovered all about her, with their torches in their hands, sung hymeneus. The Nereids, on the backs of dolphins, rode about and showed all marks of joy. The Tritons danced round the nymph." This

description is represented in the two preceding cuts, with this difference only: that one of the cupids puts a crown on Europa's head, and the other seems to swim: a Nereis rides on a sea-horse, and two Tritons blow

their horns.

In the two first of the preceding plates, the bull seems to walk on the water, as if it were ice. The virgin companions of Europa stand on the sea-shore, astonished at the unwonted spectacle, expressing their emotions in all their gestures. The poet has touched off this scene to the life in the following admirable strain.

"Now lows a milk-white bull on Asia's strand,
And crops with dancing head the dasied land.
With rosy wreaths, Europa's hand adorns
His fringed forehead and his pearly horns;
Light on his back the sportive damsel bounds,
And pleased he moves along the flowery grounds;
Bears with slow step his beauteous prize aloof,
Dips in the lucid flood his ivory hoof;
Then wets his velvet knees, and wading laves
His silky sides amid the dimpling waves.
Beneath her robe she draws her snowy feet,
And, half reclining on her ermine seat,

Round his raised neck her radiant arms she throws,
And rests her fair cheek on his curled brows;
Her yellow tresses wave on wanton gales,
And bent in air her azure mantle sails.
While her fair train with beckoning hands deplore,
Strain their blue eyes, and shriek along the shore;
Onward he moves; applauding cupids guide,
And skim on shooting wing the shining tide;

Emerging Tritons leave their coral caves,
Sound their loud conchs, and smooth the circling waves.
Now Europe's shadowy shores, with loud acclaim,
Hail the fair fugitive and, shout her name."

Darwin's Botanic Garden-Canto II.

Jupiter, as already remarked, swam with Europa to the island of Crete, where she brought forth the famous Minos, and gave her name to one quarter of the globe.

On the abduction of Europa, her father immediately ordered his son, Cadmus, to go in search of her, and not to return without her. He went accordingly; but being unable to find her, and consequently not daring return to his father, he built the city of Thebes, not far from Mount Parnassus.

It happened that the companions of Cadmus, while they went for water, were devoured by a serpent. Cadmus, to avenge their deaths, slew the serpent, and extracted its teeth, which, by the advice of Minerva, he sowed in the ground; when lo! up sprang an immediate harvest of men, all armed, who, quarrelling among themselves as fast as they sprung up, destroyed one another, five only excepted, by whom that country was afterwards peopled. To crown all, Cadmus himself, and his wife Hermione, after many proofs of the freaks of fortune, were changed into serpents.

Cadmus is said to have invented sixteen letters of the Greek alphabet, which, in the time of the judges of Israel, he brought out of Phoenicia into Greece. Palamedes, two hundred and fifty years after this, added four letters more, in the time of the siege of Troy; though some assert that Epicharmus invented two of these letters. Six hundred and fifty years after the siege of Troy, Simonides invented the other four letters.

Cadmus is said to have invented prose writing, and to have been the first among the Greeks who consecrated statues to the honour of the gods.

BIOGRAPHY.

JOHN ELWES Esq.-Concluded.

MR. ELWES passed the spring of 1786 alone, at Stoke, and had it not been for some little daily scheme of avarice, he would have passed it without one consolatory moment. His temper began to give way; his thoughts were incessantly occupied with money, and he saw no person but what, as he imagined, was deceiving and defrauding him. As he would not allow himself any fire by day, so he retired to bed at its close to save candles, and even began to deny himself the luxury of sheets. In short, he had now nearly brought to a climax the moral of his whole life,-the perfect vanity of wealth!

On removing from Stoke, he went to his farm at Thaydon-hall, a scene of greater ruin and desolation, if possible, than either of his houses in Suffolk or Berkshire. It stood alone on the borders of Epping Forest, and an old man and woman, his tenants, were the only persons with whom he could hold any converse. Here he fell ill, and as he refused all assistance, and had not even a servant, he lay unattended and almost forgotten, indulging, even in the prospect of death, that avarice which nothing could subdue. It was at this period he began to think of making his will; as he was probably sensible that his sons could not be entitled by law to any part of his property, should he die intestate. On his arrival in London, he put his design in execution, and devised all his real and personal estates to his two sons, who were to share the whole of his vast property equally between them.

Soon after this, Mr. Elwes gave, by letter of attorney, the power of managing all his concerns into the hands of Mr. Ingraham, his attorney, and his youngest son, who had been his chief agent for some time. This step had become highly necessary, for he entirely forgot all recent occurrences, and as he never committed any thing

However singular this act of forgetfulness may appear, it serves to mark that extreme conscientiousness which, amidst all his anxiety about money, did honour to his character. If accident placed him in debt to any person, even in the most trivial manner, he was never easy till it was paid, and he was never known on any occasion to fail in what he said. Of the punctuality of his word he was so scrupulously tenacious, that no person ever requested better security.

The summer of 1788, Mr. Elwes passed at his house in Welbeck Street, London, without any other society than that of two maid-servants. His chief employment used to be that of getting up early in the morning, to visit his houses in Marybone, which were repairing. As he was there generally at four o'clock in the morning, and of course long before the workmen, he used to sit down contentedly on the steps before the door, to scold them when they did come. The neighbours, who used to see him appear so regularly every morning, and concluded from his apparel that he was one of the workmen, observed, that "there never was such a punctual man as the Old Carpenter !"

Mr. Elwes had now attained the age of seventy-six, and began for the first time to feel some bodily infirmities from age. He experienced some occasional attacks of the gout; on which, with his accustomed perseverance, and antipathy to apothecaries and their bills, he would set out to walk as far and as fast as he could. While engaged in this painful mode of cure, he frequently lost himself in the streets, the names of which he no longer remembered, and was as often brought home by some errand-boy or stranger, of whom he had enquired his way. On these occasions, he would bow, and thank them with great politeness at the door, but never indulged them with a sight of the interior of the house. Another singularity was reserved for the close of Mr. Elwes's life, which, considering his disposition and advanced age, was not less extraordinary than many already recorded. He who had during his whole life been such an enemy to giving, now gave away his affections. One of the maid servants, with whom he had been for some time accustomed to pass his hours in the kitchen, had the art to induce him to fall in love with her; and had it not been discovered, it is doubtful whether she would not have prevailed upon him to marry her. From such an act of madness he was however saved by good fortune, and the attention of his friends.

His son George, having now married and settled at his seat at Marcham, was naturally desirous that in the assiduities of his wife, his father might at length find a comfortable home. A journey with an expense annexed to it was, however, an insurmountable obstacle. This was fortunately removed, by an offer from Mr. Partis, a gentleman of the law, to take him to his ancient seat in Berkshire, with his purse perfectly whole. Still there was another circumstance not a little distressing; the old gentleman had now nearly worn out his last coat, and could not afford to buy a new one. His son therefore, with pious fraud, requested Mr. Partis to buy him a coat, and make him a present of it. Thus, formerly having had a good coat, then a bad one, and at last no coat at all, he was glad to accept one of a neighbour

On the arrival of the old gentleman, his son and his

The first symptom of more immediate decay, was his inability to enjoy his rest at night. He was frequently heard at midnight, as if struggling with some one in his chamber, and crying out, "I will keep my money, I will; nobody shall rob me of my property!" If any one of the family entered the room, he would start from his fever of anxiety, and as if waking from a troubled dream, hurry into bed again, and seem unconscious of what had happened. At other times, when perfectly awake, he would walk to the spot where he had concealed his money, to see if it was safe. In the autumn of 1789, his memory was gone entirely; his senses sunk rapidly into decay, and as his mind became unsettled, gusts of the most violent passion began to usurp the place of his former command of temper. For six weeks previous to his death, he would go to rest in his clothes, as perfectly dressed as during the day. He was one morning found fast asleep between the sheets with his shoes on his feet, his stick in his hand, and an old torn hat on his head. His singular appetite he retained till within a few days of his dissolution, and walked on foot twelve miles only a fortnight before he died.

On the 18th of November, he manifested signs of that total debility which carried him to his grave in eight days. On the evening of the first day he was conveyed to bed, from which he rose no more. His appetite was gone: he had but a faint recollection of every thing about him, and the last intelligible words he uttered were addressed to his son John, hoping "he had left him what he wished." On the morning of the 26th of November, he expired without a sigh, leaving property to the amount of above 800,000l. The value of that which he had bequeathed to his two sons, was estimated at half a million, and the remainder, consisting of entailed estates, devolved to Mr. Timms, son of the late Lieutenant Colonel Timms, of the second troop of Horse Guards.

Love makes a Painter.-Mathys was a blacksmith at Antwerp, but dared love the beautiful daughter of a painter. The damsel returned his passion-but meekly, hesitatingly; as is the way of young damsels, at an age when the heart one moment trembles before that mythological child with whom it plays the next. The father was inexorable.

"Wert thou a painter, she should be thine; but a blacksmith !-never!"

The young man mused and mused; the hammer dropped from his hand; the god stirred within him: a thousand glorious conceptions passed like shadows across his brain.

"I will be a painter," said he: but again his soul was cast down, as he reflected on his ignorance of the mechanical part of the art, and genius trembled at its own fiat. His first efforts re-assured him. He drew; and the lines that came were the features of that one loved and lovely face engraven on his heart.

"I will paint her portrait !" cried he-" Love will inspire me!" and he made the attempt. He gazed upon her till his soul became drunken with beauty; in the wild inspiration of such moments, his colours flashed fast and thick upon the canvass, till they formed what one might have imagined to be the reflection of his mistress.

There!" said he, showing the work to the astonished father: "there! I claim the prize—FOR I AM A PAINTER !"

He exchanged his portrait for the original; continued to love and to paint; became eminent among the song of art in his day and generation; and dying, was buried

VOL. I.

LITERATURE.

[From Good's Book of Nature.]

ON LEGIBLE LANGUAGE, IMITÁTIVE AND SYMBOLICAL. [Continued.]

No. 40.

Even China, at the time of Moses, according to the statement of their own writers, had not long emerged from a state of the grossest barbarism. It is admitted in the Lee K'hee, that, during the reigns of Yaou and Shun, or about two thousand years before Christ, the people,

Butler, p. ii. ut supr. p. 175. Asiatic Researches, vo.l vi. † Asiatic Researches, vol. x. See also Edin. Rev. No. xxxi 387-389. The difference is indeed wonderful; for while Sir William Jones reckons the Puranas at nearly 2500 or 2600 years old, "it is evident," says Mr. Bentley, "that none of the modern romances commonly called the Puranas, at least in the form in which they now stand, are older than 484; and that some of them are compilations of still later times."-Asiatic Researches, vol. viii. p. 240. And to nearly as late a date are they assigned by Mr. Wilford, "They are certainly," says he, a modern compilation from valuable materials that, I am afraid, no longer exist. An astronomical observation of the heliacal rising of Canopus, mentioned in two of the Puranas, puts this beyond doubt."—Ib. vol. p. 244. Mr. Coleman is of this same opinion; at least in respect to one of them, the Sri Bhagaveta: which he farther tells us, is considered even by many of the learned Hindoos as the work of a grammarian supposed to have lived about 600 years ago.-Ib. vol. viii. p. 487.

There is a doubt which has the best claim to the highest antiquity, the religion of Boodh or that of Brahma. One of the most authentic accounts we have of the former is that transmitted to the American Board of Missions by Mr. Judson, a man of great excellence and intelligence, who has resided in the Burman empire as a missionary, at Rangoon or at Ava, from 1814, to, I believe, the present time; to which I shall also have occasion to advert hereafter. Mr. Judson is intimately acquainted with the language, the customs, and established creed of the Burman empire; and, according to his account, the priests of Boodhism, though they claim for themselves a higher origin than those of Brahma, make no pretence to an extravagant antiquity. "Boodh," says Mr. Judson, "whose proper name. is Gaudama, appeared in Hindostan about TWO THOUSAND THREE HUNDRED YEARS AGO, and gave a new form and dress to the old transmigration system, which, in some shape or other, has existed from time immemorial. The Brahmans, in the mean time, dressed up the system after their fashion; and both these modifications struggled for the ascendency. At length_the family of Gaudama, which had held the sovereignty of India, was dethroned, his religion was denounced, and his disciples took refuge in Ceylon, and the neighbouring countries. In this island, about 500 years after the decease and supposed ANNIHILATION OF THEIR TEACHER OR DEITY, they composed their sacred writings in the Sanscrit, which had obtained in Ceylon; whence they were conveyed by sea to the Indo Chinese nations (those of the Burman empire.) Boodhism, however, had gained a footing in Burmah before the arrival of the sacred books from Ceylon. It is commonly maintained that it was introduced by his emissaries before his death."-Correspondence, 1819.

as we have just observed, were living in a savage state, in woods and caves, and holes dug in the ground; covering themselves with the skins of beasts, and rude garments formed of the leaves of trees, grass, reeds, and feathers. Even one thousand years later, or during the dynasty Chow, their states or clans amounted to not less than eighteen hundred, each of which had its chieftain, who possessed absolute and hereditary power; though all united in acknowledging the supremacy of this family, and conceding to it the imperial dignity. It was only about two hundred years before our own era, that these clans were reduced to seven; and some time afterward that Che-hwang-he, the first emperor of the dynasty T'sin, succeeded in amalgamating the whole into one vast and massy despotism, the great outlines of which continue to the present day. Yet, as far down as nine hundred years before the era of Confucius, notwithstanding their symbolical characters and sacred books, in use among the learned, Dr. Milne affirms, from their own historians, that generally speaking they were barbarians in literature as well as manners, and could "neither read, nor write, nor cipher."§ And I may here add, that whatever were their writings, and by whomsoever written, in earlier ages, the Chinese have, at this day, none of a higher date than those composed by Confucius himself, five hundred years before our own era, or compiled by him from rude and imperfect copies of more ancient productions, for the most part indented on plates or pieces of wood rather than transcribed on paper.

Upon the whole, however, the conclusion I have ventured to advance seems to be strengthened by the general tenor of the inquiry into this subject, and affords us additional ground for believing that the art of writing, even by the use of alphabetic characters, instead of having been communicated to Moses by some special interposition of the Deity, was in his day as familiar to his countrymen as to himself; that it was generally known throughout Egypt, and, perhaps, cultivated over various parts of Asia.

Contemplating written language, therefore, as of human invention, let us next inquire into the most probable means by which it was invented and brought to perfection; and the countries in which it originated.

Supposing, by a miracle, the world were now to be reduced to the state in which we may conceive it to have existed in its infancy, and every trace and idea of written language were to be swept away, and the only means of communication to be that of the voice, what would be the mode most likely to be resorted to of imparting to a deaf person, or a foreigner, ignorant of our dialect, a knowledge of any particular fact or thing with which we might wish him to be acquainted? The reply is obvious; we should point at it if in sight; and if not, endeavour to sketch a rude drawing of it; and thus make one sense answer the purpose of another. This is not mere fancy, but manifest and experimental fact; it is the plan actually pursued in most institutions for instructing the deafly-dumb, and the elementary system by which they acquire knowledge. In such establishments, however, it is the elementary system alone; for the use of letters

Part iv. sec. 9. See Milne's Retrospect of the First Ten Years of the Protestant Mission to China. Malacca Press, 8vo. 1820 p. 18, § Kwoh-tsch. Pref. p. 1. Milne, ut supr. p. 20.