ON BLACK CATS.

bitter regrets; whilst to the University itself, are velvet, and seem formed to walk on carpets of
he has bequeathed a debt of gratitude, which tissue. What a pretty knowing primness in thy
we doubt not will hereafter be amply and liber-mouth, what quick turns of expression in thy ears,
and what maiden dignity in thy whiskers. Were
ally discharged.
it not for thine emerald eyes, and that one white
hair on thy breast, which I abstain from compar-
ing to a single star, in a cloudy sky, or a water
lily lying on a black lake, (for, in truth, it is like
neither,) I should call thee nature's monochrom.
And then the manifold movements of thy tail, that
hangs out like a flag of truce, and the graceful sinu-
osity of thy carriage, all bespeak thee of the gen-
tle kind. False tokens all: thou canst be farious
as a negro despot; thy very hairs, if crossed, flash
fire. Thou art an earth-pacing thunder-cloud, a liv-
ing electric battery, thy back is armed with the

Sleep thon in peace, my sable Selima, rest and be thankful, for thou wert born in an enlightened age, and in a family of females, and elderly gentlemen. Well is it for thee that thou wert not contemporary with the pious Baxter, that detester of superstition or the learned Sir Thomas Brown, the exploder of vulgar errors; or the great Sir Matthew Hale, whose wholesome severities against halfstarved sorceresses, so aptly illustrated his position, that Christianity is parcel of the common law of England.' Rest, I say, and be thankful, for the good old times had been bitter times for thee.

Why should colour excite the malignant passions of man? Why will the sole-patentee of reason, the soi disant Lord of Creation, degrade himself to the level of the Turkey-cock, that is filled with rage and terror at a shred of scarlet? What is a hue

an absorbed or reflected ray, or, as other sages tell, a mere extended thought--that we should love or hate it? Yet such is man, with all his boasted wisdom. Ask why the Negro is a slave? He's black, not like a Christian. Why should Bridget's cat be worried? Why, to be sure, she's black, an imp of darkness, the witch's own familiar; nay, perhaps, the witch herself in disguise: a thing most easily put to proof; for if you knock out Grimalkin's eye, Bridget will appear next day with only one maim the cat, its mistress halts; stab it, she is wounded. Such are the dangers of necromantic masquerading, when the natural body is punished with the stripes

inflicted on the assumed one: and this was once religion with royal Chaplains, and philosophy with the Royal Society.

These superstitions are gone this baseless fabric of a vision is dissolved; I wish that it had left not a wrack behind. But when Satan disappears, an unsavoury scent remains behind him; and from the carcass of buried absurdity, there often proceeds an odour of prejudice-the more distressing, because we know not whence it comes. Neither elderly ladies nor black cats are now suspected of witchcraft; yet how seldom are they fully restored to their just estimation in the world.

Be it perverseness, or be it pity, or be it regard for injured merit, I confess myself an advocate for the human tabbies, so famed for loquacity, and for their poor dumb favourites in black velvet.

wrath of Jove.

Yet, my Selima, if thy tribe have suffered much from the follies of mankind, they have profited by them also. If the dark age looked black upon them; if the age of black arts, black friars, and black letter set them in its black-book, and delivered over their patronesses to the blackness of darkness; yet time hath been when they partook of the honour and worship paid to all their species, while they walked in pride at the base of the pyramids, or Then was their life pleasant and their death as a secreted their kittens in the windings of the labyrinth.

sweet odour.

This was, indeed, common to all thy kind, however diversified by colour or divided by condition.— Tabby and tortoise-shell, black, white, and grey, tawny and sandy, gib and grimalkin, ye were a sacred race, and the death of one of ye was mourned as a brother's-if natural; and avenged as a citizen's -if violent; and this is the cradle of the sciences, (so called, presume, because the sciences were babies there,) and in spite of the 700,000 volumes of Alexandria.

Yet I cannot but think that the wise Egyptians distinguished black with peculiar reverence. We know that their religion, like their writing, was hieroglyphical; that their respect for various animals was merely symbolical; that under the form of the ox, they gratefully remembered the inventor of agriculture, and adopted a beetle as the representative of the sun. Now, of how many virtues, how many powers, how many mysteries may not a black cat be an emblem? As she is cat, of vigilance; as she is black, of secresy; as both, of treachery, one of the greatest of political virtues, if we judge from the high rewards continually given, and daily advertised for it. Again, we know the annual circle, and the signs by which it was measured, was another object of idolatry; but one ample half of time is typi

Whether it be true, that Time, which has such various effects on divers subjects, which is so friendly to wine, and so hostile to small beer, which turns abuse to right, and usurpation to legitimacy, which improves pictures while it mars their originals, and raises a coin no longer current to a hundred times the value it ever went for ;-whether this wonder-fied by a black oat. working Time be able to deface the loveliness of women, shall be a subject for future inquiry. But, my pretty Selima; thou, that like Solomon's bride, art black, but comely; thee, and thy kind-the sable order of the feline sisterhood, I would gladly vindicate from those aspersions, which take occasion from the blackness of thy coat to blacken thy reputation.

Thy hue denotes thee a child of night; Night, the wife of Chaos, and being a female, of course the oldest female in being. How aptly, therefore, dost thou become the favourite of those ladies, who, though not so old as night, are nevertheless in the evening of their days. Thon dost express thy joy at the return of thy mother, even as the statue of Memnon at the approach of her rival, frisking about in thy mourning garb by moonlight, starlight, or no light, an everlasting merry mourner; and yet a mute in dress, and silence too, not belying thy name by volubility.

How smooth, how silky soft are thy jetty hairs! A peaceful multitude, wherein each knows its place, and none obstructs its neighbours. Thy very paws

But should these deep speculations be deemed mys-
tical by the present age, which if it be an age of
light, is certainly an age of lightness, it may, at
least, be admitted, that the Egyptians would prefer
their own colour, and we are assured by Volney and
others, that they were not only black, but literally
negroes.

ral, we may account for it on the supposition, that
As for the esteem they entertain for cats in gene-
they were delivered, at some period of their history,
in an extraordinary manner, from a swarm of rats,
either national or political. And that the agents of
figure, which may be plausibly considered as a bodily
this deliverance were represented under the feline
representative of the spirit of reform.

After all, Selima, I doubt whether thou hast lost
as much by never being worshipped as thou hast
gained by living in a Christian country. State is bur-
densome, and superstition is seldom prone to regard
its objects with affection.

REPOSITORY OF GENIUS.

ENIGMA. No. 9.
Enigmatists I pray disclose
The mysteries I now propose,

And let your answers, Sirs, be known
In the next Iris of this town.

A foreign name I always bear,
Though chiefly manufactur'd here,
And pleasure I to all impart,
If manag'd with peculiar art.
I'm of four different parts combin'd,
Which, when I'm used, must all be join'd,
And then my master with his skill,
Must dexterously my belly fill,
Whereby the company around,
With silent mirth and joy abound.
In different colours I am drest,
As suits my master's fancy best;
Sometimes I'm black and dismal quite,
And sometimes cloth'd in virgin white;
Sometimes both black and white I wear,
And oftentimes in brown appear.

I at the festive board attend,
And in the fair sex have a friend.
But hold enough is said no doubt,
For you to find your servant out.

Manchester, March, 1822.

J. SWILBRIG.

CHARADE. No. 10.

To make a populous town in Lancashire. One half of a despicable character;

One half of an easy office in the Collegiate Church. But there is one of thy hues whose condition might One half of an useful animal, have been envied by all the sacred mousers of Egypt. | And two fifths of an emblem of peace.

THE MUSAEID.

No. II. THURSDAY, MARCH 28, 1822.

TULL.
Scripsi, non otii abundantia, sed amoris erga te.

'Tis not because we've nothing else to do;
We write dear Ladies, from our love to you.

LETTERS TO RICHARD HEBER, Esq. M. P.-Old maids read novels for employment, and young maids read them for pleasure. But there are few women who them with any critical intention, or who peruse form opinions which may serve them for subsequent reflection. It may not be difficult to account for this. The motives of their reading are not of a studious or inquisitive nature; and the female disposition is not, of the grave and severe complexion, favourable to habits of deep and connected thought. There is still another reason which prevents them profiting, as they might do, from this fascinating species of literature. The two days allowed,' by Circulating Libraries, the grand repositoria of romance, are not sufficient for that close application of the mind without which no proper understanding of a book can be attained: and hence it is that, after the first excitement is abated, there is little remembered but the author, the plot, and the principal character.

The volume, which we have now before us, is not the result of such hasty and superficial discussion.It is framed by the band of diligence and research: and we have no doubt, will prove both serviceable and amusing to the professed or real admirers of the Waverley Novels. The object of the letters is to prove by the internal evidence of these works, and of the avowed productions of Sir W. Scott, the identity of their author. The arguments are skilfully managed, and the proofs are as complete and satisfactory as we could be warranted in expecting from the resemblances which an author may be supposed to bear always to himself. Besides this, there is a taste and elegance, predominant throughout, which cannot fail extremely to gratify the reader; and the numerous quotations are so judiciously selected, that they recal in the most lively manner, and with the most pleasing associations, the memory of the books themselves. Upon the whole, we cannot imagine a more rational or elegant entertainment than these letters are calculated to afford; and we recommend them to our fair friends, with the fullest conviction that they cannot fail to admire the acuteness and taste which is every where displayed by the author.

THE NEW BONNET.

-Dulcique animos novitate tenebo.-- OVID.

Shall I not tempt you?-'tis the sweetest thing,
And quite the newest I have shewn this spring.

'Don't detain me a moment; Mrs. Taylor has the And are you going sweetest little bonnet, I hear.' to have it?' said Volatile, accompanying the fair one in her hasty steps along the west side of the Square: I don't know yet, that depends upon mamina; but I hope she will let me if I like it, for I am so tired of this ugly poke fashion-you can't imagine.' May I give you my opinion?' said our friend, but the lady had vanished into the shop. Volatile however hovered round the door.

think Five guineas!' said the lovely Anne to her cousin, 'five guineas!' what a terrible price! do you any body will be so foolish as to buy it?'

And not
a single feather,' rejoined the other, nothing but a
shabby bit of lace which has no one single recommen-
dation but that of being foreign; I suppose feathers
though are really not to be worn.'

'Good morning, Mr. Volatile,' said the fat and
dasbing Mrs. Glaise, bouncing out of the shop.
What, have you been looking at this bonnet?' said
Been trying it on Fanny but it's horridly
Volatile.
vulgar-may suit some sort of beauties very well'
'finished!' said she, as ber daughter tripped upon

THE MANCHESTER IRIS.

the step.
You don't like this famous bonnet Miss
'O dear 10-Mamma it's the
Glaise,' said Volatile.
very same that Colonel Bouverie described in Hyde
Park a few weeks ago, and thought was so brutishly
knew that.' 'Jane Arnold
staring.' Yes, my dear,
though.' 'Yes, but con-
looked very pretty in
sider, her style of beauty-very different to your's
-you know Colonel Bouverie begged particularly
that you would not disgrace yourself by wearing
such a thing; will you go with us to Bancks', Mr.
Volatile?' Volatile declined the invitation, and the
party passed on.

Excessively genteel,' said one of two sisters who were young twenty years ago, do you think it would become me?" Why ee e n-o-I dont think itthe other, as if half afraid to intimate that the beauexactly-would something closer perhaps,' said tiful Mary must soon begin to throw a little into the shade those charms which once it was her greatest pride to display.

sorry he could not, assisted them into their carriage,
gazed earnestly after it as it rolled away, (we thought
we heard a sigh)—turned round--caught Tacit's arm,
to the billiard room.
who was passing at the instant, and walked with him

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

We have a score of apologies to make to our correspondents
We could not,
for not inserting all their communications, but really we
must use conscience towards our readers.
for example, insert seventeen stanzas of such Poetry as
this,

Whiles glistering hope in my path shineth,
I can never turn back :
Though like sere leaf my old thought pineth,
The new to the same thing inclineth:
Still, still, the same I lack.

without feeling that the space might have been better oc-
cupied with our own lucubrations: and yet we dare say
D. W. P. will be particularly offen ded at our rejection of

them.
We'll try it again when there
are not so many people in the room-I half fancy I
may venture.'

We do not doubt that a Young Lady' is a genuine lover of Solitude; indeed, we found her sonnet very re tiring -on a second perusal.

'Twas the sweetest note we ever had,' we saw Artemesia
writing it. We hope she will remember Will. Volatile's
advice, and use a crow quill for the future; she cannot
think how much the contrast will aid the beauty of her
hand.
-that hand,

A numerous company now issued from the shop, whose simultaneous chatterings pretty nearly resemEliza, bled the clamour of a flight of lapwings. did you like it?' I can't say that I did much.' 'I'm sure I caught the We'll try You know we Shamefully extravagant!' when we get home,' was the reply. pattern,' whispered one of the number. may easily get the velvet, and the blonde that trimmed our satin dresses last winter will do as well as any other, won't it-quite?' Volatile bowed to the party, but they were too busy to bark at him: though Margaret may send the verses, how could she doubt they there had been times, when not so interestingly occupied, he had feared the dislocation of every joint in his frame, from the contrary pullings of this formi

dable crew.

'Well,' said an elderly lady to her niece, as she
dear, did you like this bonnet?' O yes! delight-
pressed on her arm to descend the step. Well my
ful' said the other. Well, my dear, I can only
say that I think its a perfect fright, and quite an
indecent exposure of the face for any respectable
female !' Now, my dear madam,' said Volatile,
making an advance. Ha! Mr. Volatile is that
What were you going to
you? How d'ye do?
say Mr. Volatile?' I was about to protest against
your very old-fashioned notions, my dear madam.
This is the first time a lady's face has stood any
chance of being visible these five years, and now
your matronly amathema is interposing to prevent
it would have been in the days when you were
it, consider, my dear madam, what a mortification
young? Why Mr. Volatile to be sure, but then
a young
the times are very, very different now:
lady might then walk along the streets and not en-
counter such a set of idle, dissipated young men,
to stare her out of countenance as infest them now
a days for my part I'm an advocate for large bon-
nets, and I think that modest girls will do a great
deal better to continue them, that's what I think.'
Volatile smiled at the young lady, who did not
seem exactly to coincide with her aunt's opinion.
Emma, my dear, I want some muslin for night-
caps, will you help me across the square? Good
Volatile again smiled at the
bye, Mr. Volatile!'
niece, and wished the old maiden a good morn-

ing.

As soft as dove's down, and as white as it;
Or Ethiopian's tooth, or the fanned snow,
That's bolted by the northern blasts twice o'er.

The letter of Thespis is well written, but it would not suit
us to give theatrical criticisms. The Drama is now so
monstrously unfashionable, that we fear we should be
sconted were we to attempt to patronize it. We wonder
how the polished nations of antiquity could tolerate a pub-
lic stage, when a civilized cotton spinning community can
treat it with contempt. What a superior standard of re-
finement must prevail in Manchester to that which Greece
or Rome possessed. Cedite Romani-cedite Graii.'
We should have known Matilda Julia was a novel reading
mantuamaker, even if her letter had not been sealed with
Once for all, we beg to inform the nu
a thimble.
merous fry of Milliners' girls-we beg their pardon-young
We
ladies, Drapers' gentlemen, Grocers' apprentices, &c. &c.
that we cannot possibly interfere in their amours.
therefore request we may have no more such verses as the
following:

What are you here yet said the fair one whom
he had first accosted, I have waited to ask after
the bonnet,' said Volatile. O! it's a pretty bonnet
enough, but nothing to make a rout about, and I am
sure I would much rather wear my old Leghorn all
the summer than give five guineas for it; I shall not
mention it to mamma for, though I dare say she might
purchase it, I should really be ashamed of such a
A
thing every body would know what I gave for it.
O! there she is!' 'I hope you are well this morn-
ing Mr. Volatile: my love have you seen this
astonishing bonnet?'

'Yes, mamma, but what do
you think is the price of it?' Not cheap I'm sure,'
said her mother. No, but abominably dear I can
tell you- so dear that I won't even ask you to buy
Mrs.
it for me.' Well, my love, but we must call on
can you go with ns Mr. Volatile, I
Volatile was
dare say we can find room for you.'

My sweet Miss Lomas, why so coy,
Thine azure eye averting;
Where love so softly shot with joy
Seemed just the shade of flirting.

O frigid Thomas! still to me thy soul
Tarns like the needle to the freezing Pole.
With groans and sobs and heaving sighs,
My constant heart is big;
You vows and tears alike despise,
Nor care for me a Fig.

Postscript.-Friday, 4 o'clock, p. m..-We have just called at the Iris Office, to correct the proof sheet of our paper, and have found three letters addressed to us, from Adeline, Lætitia, and X. T. C. We beg to inform our correspondents in general, that we have arranged with Mr. Smith, to send our letters on Wednesday evening, and that all communications received after that period cannot be regularly noticed until the following week. We have a card in preparation, which will be issued forthwith; in the mean time, our friends will have the goodness to remember our address-THE EDITORS OF THE MUSAEID, AT THE IRIS OFFICE.

WEEKLY DIARY.

MARCH.

REMARKABLE DAYS.

SUNDAY, 31.-Palm Sunday.

In the missals, this day is denominated Dominica in ramis Palmarum, or Palm Sunday, and was so called from the palm branches and green boughs formerly distributed on that day, in commemo

ration of our Lord's riding to Jerusalum. In Yorkshire, and the northern counties, Palm Sunday is a day of great diversion; young and old amusing themselves with sprigs of willow, or in manufacturing palm crosses, which are struck up or suspended in houses. In the afternoon and evening, numbers of impudent girls and young men sally forth, and assault all unprotected females whom they meet out of doors, seizing their shoes, and compelling them to redeem them with money; These disgraceful scenes are continued till Monday morning, when the girls extort money from the men by the same means; these depredations were formerly prolonged till Tuesday noon.

Of the present ceremonies observed at Rome on Palm Sunday, we have a pleasing account by a modern traveller. About half-past nine in the morning, the Pope entered the Sistine Chapel, attired in a robe of scarlet and gold, which he wore over his ordinary dress, and took his throne. The Cardinals, who were at first dressed in under-robes of a violetcolour (the mourning for cardinals), with their rich antique lace, scarlet trains, and mantles of ermine, suddenly put off these accoutrements, and arrayed themselves in most splended vestments, which had the appearance of being made of carved gold. The tedious ceremony of each seperately kissing the Pope's hand, and making their three little bows, being gone through; and some little chaunting and fidgetting about the altar being got over; two palm branches, of seven or eight feet in length, were brough to the Pope, who after raising over them a cloud of incense, bestowed his benediction upon them: then a great number of smaller palms were brought, and a Cardinal, who acted as the Pope's aid-de-camp on this occasion. presented one of these to every Cardinal as he ascended the steps of the throne, who again kissed the Pope's hand and the palm, and retired. Then came the Archbishops, who kissed both the Pope's hand and toe, followed by the inferior orders of clergy, in regular gradations, who only kissed the toe as they carried off their palms.

The higher dignatories being at last provided with palms, the Deacons, Canons, Choristers, Cardinals, train-bearers, &c.'

REMARKABLE DAYS.

MONDAY, 1.—All or Auld Fool's Day,

On this day every body strives to make as many fools as he can: the wit cheifly consists in sending persons on what are called sleeveles; errands, for the history of Eve's mother, for pegeon's milk, stirrup oil, and similiar ridiculous absurdities.

THURSDAY, 4.-Maundy Thursday.

had each to receive branches of olive, to
which, as well as to the palms a small
cross was suspended. At last, all were
ready to act their part, and the procession
began to move: it began with the lowest
in clerical rank, who moved off two by
two, rising gradually in dignity, till they
came to Prelates, Bishops, Archbishop,
and Cardinals, and terminated by the
Pope borne in his chair of state (sedia
gestatoria) on men's shoulders, with a
crimson canopy over his head. By far
the most striking figures in the procesion
were the Bishops and Patriarchs of the
Armenian Church. One of them wore a
white crown, and another a crimson
crown glittering with jewels. The mitres
of the bishops were also set with preci-
ous stones; and their splendid dresses,
and long wavy beards of silver whiteness,
gave them a most venerable and imposing of Christ as a propitiation for our sins.
appearance.

This day is called, in Latin, dies Mandati, the day of the command, being the day on which our Lord washed the feet of his disciples, as recorded in the second lesson.

FRIDAY, 5.-Good Friday.

This day commemorates the sufferings

SEA STORIES;

No. VI.

Oft would he, as on that same spot they lay
Beneath the last light of a summer's day,
Tell (and would watch the while her stedfast eye)
How on the lone Pacific he had been:
When the Sea Lion on his watery way
Went rolling through the billows green,
And shook that ocean's dead tranquility.

Barry Cornwall.

The procession issued forth into the Sala Borgia (the hall behind the Sistine Chapel), and marched round it forming Or, the Voyage and Adventures of Cyril Shenstone, Esq. nearly a circle; for by the time the Pope had gone out, the leaders of the procession had nearly come back again; but they found the gates of the chapel closed against them, and, on admittance being demanded, a voice was heard from within, in deep recitative, seemingly enquiring into their business, or claim for entrance there. This was answered by the choristers from the procession in the hall; and after a chaunted parley of a few minutes, As soon as this tale was finished, a spruce young the gates were again opened, and the gentleman, delicate in his appearance, and somewhat Pope, Cardinals, and Priests, returned to of their seat. Then the Passion was chaunted; and then a most tiresome long service commenced, in which the usual genuflections, and tinkling of little bells, and dressings, and undressings, walking up and coming down the steps of the altar, and bustling about went on; and which at last terminated in the Cardinals all embracing and kissing each other, which is considered the kiss of

peace.

and

The palms are artificial, plaited of
straw or the leaves of dried reeds, so as

to resemble the real branches of the palm-
tree, when their leaves are plaited, which
are used in this manner for this ceremo-
ny, in the Catholic colonies of tropical
climates. These artificial palms, how-
ever, are topped with some of the real
leaves of the palm-tree, brought from the
shores of the Guld of Genoa*.'

Rome in the 19th century.

APRIL.

April is derived from Aprilis, of aperio, I open; because the earth in this month, begins to open her bosom for the produc tion of vegetables.

a dandy in bis outward man, exclaimed in an under tone to his next neighbour-''Pon honour

Charles that's d-d bad Scotch-I believe this fellow is some impudent pretender, who knows just about as much Scotch as Jack Robinson.

Scotch,' said the other, such stuff was never heard since the tower of Babel was built.'

'Lord, how the wind howls', said the simpering

lady, I declare I never neard any thing so frightful

Ha! ha ha!' roared Jack Brindle, why that's a mere puff

am

Puff,' said the other lady, Oh Lord how sick I
-Ob! Oh!'

The Captain now went on deck, and I followed. The sea was a little rough, but in the course of an hour the wind subsided, and tranquility was restored below stairs. We descended and the Captain desired

them to make the best use of their time, for it was getting late.

Well,' said the young gentleman I'm for you,' and thus commenced-

TALE V.

The Outlaw's Tale.
I.

Slowly advanc'd the leaky skiff,
And bad but passed the Eagle's cliff,
When suddenly a moon-beam bright,
Scantly illum'd the craggy height.
Then o'er the calm and placid stream
Shot the serene and lucid beam.
Sufficient was the ray to mark
A robber's crew of aspect dark,
Who muttered curses at its glow,
And wished the beam would cease to Row:
For now it shone, as if to thwart
The purpose of the leader's heart.