tle better than crazed." Still the book is IV., V., and VI., died this day by a wound of a an amusing one, and will have its charms, cannon-shot he received at Orleans. So also did in these days, for many readers, as a col- Cardinal Borrhomeo, famous for his sanctity of lection of stories of a kind again becoming his time, Lord Deputy of Ireland, son to Henry life. Sir John Perot, a man very remarkable in popular, and even (if mesmerism is to VIII., and extremely like him, died in the Tower, come to anything) possessing some small the 3rd of November, 1592 (as Stow says;) grief grain of possible scientific value. The ob- and the fatality of the day killed him. Stow, in servations and anecdotes are distributed his Annals, says, anno 1099, Nov. 3, as well in under the following heads: 1. Day-Fa- Scotland as England, the sea broke in, over the tality, or Observations on Days Lucky banks of many rivers, drowning divers towns and Unlucky; 2. Fatalities of Families and much people, with an innumerable number and Places; 3. Ostenta, or Portents; 4. Kent, sometime belonging to Earl Godwin, were of oxen and sheep; at which time the lands in Omens; 5. Dreams; 6. Apparitions; covered with sands and drowned, and to this 7. Supernatural Voices; 8. Supernatu- day are called Godwin's Sands. I had an estate ral Impulses; 9. Spirit-Knockings; 10. left me in Kent, of which between 30 and 40 Blows Invisible; 11. Prophecies, 12. acres was marsh-land, very conveniently flankMiranda, or Miraculous Cures; 13. ing its upland; and in these days this marshMagick, or Wizard-craft; 14. Transpor- land was usually let for four nobles an acre. tation by an Invisible Power; 15. Vis- My father died 1643. Within a year and a half after his decease, such changes and water-shots ions in a Beryl, or Crystal; 16. Visions came upon this marsh-land by the influence of without a Glass or Crystal; 17. Converse the sea, that it was never worth one farthing to with Angels and Spirits; 18. Corpse-can- me, but very often eat into the rents of my updles in Wales; 19. Oracles; 20. Ecsta- land; so that I often think this day, being my cy; 21. Glances of Love and Malice; birthday, hath the same influence upon me that 22. Second-Sighted Men in Scotland. We it had 580 years since upon Earl Godwin, and select one or two specimens of Aubrey's others concerned in low-lands. The Parliament stories and reflections under these heads. so fatal to Rome's concerns here in Henry VIII.'s time began the 3rd of November (26 of his After enumerating notoriously unlucky reign.) The 3rd of November, 1640, began that days in various months of the year, Au- Parliament so direfully fatal to England, in its brey speaks more particularly of the veri-peace, its wealth, its religion, its gentry, its nofication in his own case of the old adage bility; nay, its king." (as old, he says, as the time of Henry VI.) that the 3d of November is an ill-omened day-" Scorpius est quintus, et tertius a nece cinctus." "I shall take particular notice here of the 3rd of November, both because 'tis my own birthday, and also for that I have observed some remarkable accidents to have happened thereupon. Constantius, the Emperor, son of Constantine the Great, little inferior to his father, a worthy warrior and good man, died the 3rd of November; Er veteri calendario penes me.” But how about the change of calendar, Mr. Aubrey? Does the ill-luck shift itself, when the calendar is altered, so as to be always on the same day numerically? Or does it remain fixed at one point, despite conventional changes of reckoning, thus vindicating its character as something real, depending on recurring maleficent junctures in the total conditions of the physical universe at particular moments? As Mr. Aubrey cannot answer, we will let him go on with his observations: "Thomas Montacute, Earl of Salisbury, that great man and famous commander under Henries Most of our readers must know what it is, in passing along a street, suddenly to feel a dislike to some house, standing back, it may be, a little from the pavement, and with a small yard before it, not at all unrespectable in appearance, but yet disagreeable or repulsive-having a look as if some murder either had been committed in it or would be committed in it; and as if whoever lived in it must be sullen and miserable. Aubrey had this feeling and believed in "unlucky houses." He gives instances, which we would not quote did we not feel sure that the indications of locality are so vague, that nobody's property will be damaged by our doing so. "A handsome brick-house on the south side of Clerkenwell Churchyard had been so unlucky for at least forty years, that it was seldom tenanted; and at last nobody would venture to take it. Also a handsome house in Holborn that looked towards the fields: the tenants of it did not prosper-several; about six." Aubrey is great on omens; but we quote the following for the sake of the personal reminiscence contained in it: Omens to Charles I. and Charles II.-"When I was a freshman at Oxford, 1642, I was wont to go to Christchurch to see King Charles I. at supper; where I once heard him say, 'That as he was hawking in Scotland, he rode into the quarry, and found the covey of partridges falling upon the hawk;' and I do remember this expression further, viz., And I will swear upon the book 'tis true.' When I came to my chamber, I told this story to my tutor: said he, 'That covey was London.'-The head of King Charles L's staff did fall off at his trial: that is commonly known.—King Charles II. was crowned at the very conjunction of the Sun and Mercury, Mercury being then in corde solis. As the King was at dinner in Westminster Hall, it thundered and lightened extremely. The cannons and the thunder played together." Here is a story of an omen in a private family, and a real warning to widows: sent envoy to the Emperor by King Charles I., "A Ghost-Story.-'Sir John Burroughes being did take his eldest son, Caisho Burroughes, along with him, and taking his journey through Italy, left his son at Florence, to learn the language, where he, having an intrigue with a the familiarity became so public that it came to beautiful courtezan, (mistress of the Grand Duke,) the Duke's ears, who took a resolution to have him murdered.' But Caisho having had timely notice of the Duke's design by some of the English there, immediately left the city without acquainting his mistress, and came to England. Whereupon the Duke, being disappointed of his revenge, fell upon his mistress in most reproachful language. She, on the other side, resenting the sudden departure of her lover, of whom she was most passionately enamored, killed herself. At the same moment that she expired, she did appear to Caisho, at his lodgings in London. Colonel Remes was then with him, who saw her as well as he giving him an account of her resentments of his ingratitude to her on leaving her so suddenly, and exposing her to the fury of the Duke, not omitting her own tragical exit; adding withal that he should be slain in a duel, which accordingly happened. And thus she appeared to him frequently, even when his younger brother (who afterwards was Sir John) was in bed with him. As often as she did appear, he would cry out with great shriekings and tremblings of body, as anguish of mind, saying, 'O God, here she comes, she comes;' and at this rate she appeared till he was killed. Our last quotation shall be a little batch, killed. Some of my acquaintance have told me She appeared to him the morning before he was "Sir Walter Long's (of Draycot in Wilts) widow did make a solemn promise to him on his death-bed that she would not marry after his decease; but not long after, one Sir Fox, a very beautiful young gentleman, did win her love; so that, notwithstanding her promise aforesaid, she married him. She married at South-Wraxhall, where the picture of Sir Walter hung over the parlor-door, as it doth now at Draycot. As Sir Fox led his bride by the hand from the church (which is near to the house) into the parlor, the string of the picture broke, and the picture fell on her shoulder and cracked in the fall, (it was painted on wood, as the fashion was in those days.) This made her ladyship reflect on her promise, and drew some tears from her eyes." under different heads. "Dreams.-"My Lady Seymour dreamt that she found a nest with nine finches in it. And so many children she had by the Earl of Winchilsea, whose name is Finch.' [One of the neatest little dreams we ever heard!] When Sir Christopher Wren was at Paris, about 1671, he was ill and feverish, and had a pain in his reins. He sent for a physician, who advised him to let blood, thinking he had a pleurisy; but bleeding much disagreeing with his constitution, he would defer it a day longer. That night he dreamt that he was in a place where palm-trees grew, (suppose Egypt,) and that a woman in a romantic habit reached him dates. The next day he sent for dates, which cured him of the pain in his reins.-William Penn, proprietor of Pennsylvania, told me that he went with his mother on a visit to Admiral Dean's wife, who lived then in Petty France. The VOL. XXXIX.-NO. I. that he was one of the most beautiful men in England, and very valiant, but proud and bloodthirsty. This story was so common that King Charles I. sent for Caisho Burroughes's father, whom he examined as to the truth of the matter; who did (together with Colonel Remes) aver the matter of fact to be true, so that the King thought it worth his while to send to Florence to inquire at what time the unhappy lady killed herself. It was found to be the very minute that she first appeared to Caisho. This relation I had from my worthy friend Mr. Monson, who had it from Sir John's own mouth, brother to Caisho; he had also the same account from his own father, who was intimately acquainted with old Sir John Burroughes and both his sons, and says, as often as Caisho related this, he wept bitterly.' "Remarkable Behavior of an Apparition near Cirencester. Anno 1670, not far from Cirencester, was an apparition. Beings demanded 6 "Supernatural Impulses.Oliver Cromwell had certainly this afflatus. One that I know that was at the Battle of Dunbar told me that Oliver was carried on with a divine impulse: he did laugh so excessively as if he had been drunk; his eyes sparkled with spirits. He obtained a great victory; but the action was said to be contrary to human prudence. The same fit of laughter seized Oliver Cromwell just before the Battle of Naseby; as a kinsman of mine, and a great favorite of his, Colonel J. P., then present, whether a good spirit or a bad, returned no | thentications and affidavits, might be useanswer, but disappeared with a curious perfume ful to our modern collectors) it will be and a most melodious twang. Mr. W. Lilly seen that Aubrey's Miscellanies are by no believes it was a fairy.' means so valuable as his Lives. This being the case, it is to be regretted that it is of the Miscellanies that we are promised a new edition by a London publisher. A new edition of the Lives would be far more welcome. Why does not some Oxford man give us such an edition, in which all the matter of the MS. should be more completely and literally presented to the public than in the edition of 1813, together with such notes as might be necessary, and such additional material respecting Aubrey's own life, as can be procured? Not only is the edition of 1813 very faulty, it is also very scarce. testified."" From these samples (and there is an abundance more of the same sort, some of which being accompanied by detailed au From Dickens's Household Words. SALT. Or all the minerals that we eat, none | dition of the existence of every living can claim so high a place in science, history, and literature, as common salt. The only mineral which we habitually consume in its raw state which is universally found in our food and in our frame: which is eagerly consumed by all nations, and in all ages: enthusiastically lauded; blindly assailed: which is a preservative of health, yet perhaps not unproductive of disease: held sacred in every religion: potent over life before man existed: as potent, and more honored, since man was created. It was in those petrified leaves which now display, in stony characters, the recorded history of earliest geologic ages, that the first lines of the Biography of Salt were written. For, many thousand years before man was created, the toleration of salt was the tenure by which plants and animals held their existence. The earth was covered with salt waters, and the air was impregnated with salt vapors. The endurance of salt was the law and con thing. Plants and animals, strange forms and monstrous, all had to swallow their dose of salt. A ridiculous image presents itself to our mind of a squeamish plesiosaurus, or a fastidious dinotherium pulling a long face over the nauseous mouthful. But there was no help; they must thrive on it, or perish by it; it was their daily food. And, when Nature was partly freed from this thraldom: when the seas subsided, and the face of the dry land appeared, and man and salt were simultaneously deposited on it, salt lost none of its importance. It was not only that salt still swayed the seas, and that the teeming vegetation and crowded life of those mighty waters were modified by salt as they are now-so subject to its influence, that they must have salt daily and hourly or they die; but man began to seek for the salt deposited on the earth. In the earliest divine record of man's history, salt plays a foremost part. Read, for instance, that sacred ordinance which commands the ad- | failing appendage to our table. In Engdition of salt to every offering and oblation. land the amount of salt consumed gives A Talmudic fantasy of the Hebrew com- twenty pounds per annum to each indivimentator Rabbi Shelomo exists, which dual: in France the average ranges at about may be transformed into a graceful fable. fifteen pounds; but, in some countries, When, at the creation, the waters below, the love of salt amounts to a passion. In now called the seas, he gravely narrates, Abyssinia, every man carries a lump of were banished to this gloomy earth, they salt; and, when he meets a friend, he repined at the happiness of those celestial gives it to him to lick: his friend returnwaters which were spread out above the ing the compliment with all the grace of firmament, destined to flow through eter- which anAbyssinian dandy, butter-anointed nal fields of amaranth, in rhythm with the to his head, is capable. The little children choiring of angelic voices, and privileged beg for it as for sugar. In India, when to waft seraphic harmony to the foot of the gabelle, or salt-tax, made it penal for the throne of glory. In grace, it was pro- the natives to go down on their knees and mised to them, that they should be per- lick the salt stones, the enactment propetually employed in God's service, and duced insurrection. In France the salt offered in all offerings and sacrifices. Hence duties were so often violated, that in one the Mosaic ordinance. It may be that, in year, four thousand persons were thrown the sad moans of the restless waves, we into prison for the offence. Yet the sea is hear their lament for earthly exile; but full of salt, and the sea is made for all. who doubts that they, in common with all Animals love salt not less than man. Cows Creation, are continually performing God's in pasture lick it up with avidity, so also work, and in this are made happy? Often horses and most other animals. The saltagain salt appears in the Sacred Volume licks of America bear the name of Bigbone as the emblem of eternity; of repentance; Licks; for here are found great heaps of of reconciliation, and of wisdom. Numa bones; relics of the Pre-Adamite inhabitamong the Etruscans, Pythagoras among ants of Earth; uncouth monsters who the Greeks, repeated the precept of Moses. came floundering down in search of salt, "Do not speak of Deity without fire; nor and sank there impacted in the mud, never sacrifice without salt." Pythagoras calls to rise again. it "a substance dear to the gods:" Homer calls it "divine;" and Plutarch says "divine indeed; because it symbolises the soul, which is of divine nature, and preserves the body from dissolution whilst it there resides, as salt preserves flesh from putrefaction." Salt has always been, and is now amongst the Arabs, the emblem of hospitality. It figures largely in eastern story. A thief, for instance, entering an Arab tent by night, when the master is asleep, seizes some food and becomes aware of the flavor of salt; bound involuntarily by the laws of hospitality, he withdraws without carrying out his felonious intention. In the story of the Forty Thieves, the chief robber who enters the house of Morgiana's master on a false pretense, is enjoined to make such excuses, whenever his host offers him salt, as will enable him to refuse partaking of it without suspicion. We may question those learned in the mysteries of the animal and human frame, if we would learn the secret of this strange yearning after salt which ages have not diminished, nor civilisation annihilated. Salt occurs in every part of the human body. It is organised in the solids, and dissolved in the fluids; it creeps into every corner of the frame, and plays a part in all the complicated processes of life, without which the machinery would be arrested in its operation. Thus, all our nutritive food consists either of fibrin, albumen, or casein; and neither of these could be assimilated, and used in building up the flesh that walls about our life, unless salt were present: neither being soluble except in a saline fluid. Salt constitutes a fifth part of the ash of muscle, and a tenth part of the ash of cartilage: it supplies the acid of the gastric juice: it so essentially helps assimilation, that its absence would create a difficulty in getting rid of the effete materials of the frame. The relative amount of salt in the body is incapable of great alteration; for there appears to be a special sense which provides for the but the salt-cellar has become a never- necessary dilution of salt with water. This In our time not only is salt mixed with all our food: For cooks would deem't a grievous fault is the sense of thirst, which wakes up within us when we have thrown too much salt into the circulation, and plagues and torments us; calling for water- more water! salt-water and sea-breezes in repairing the The inmates of Margate Infirmary can tell a yet happier tale of the beneficence of these salt-breezes. They can tell of lingering diseases fortunately ended; of long convalescence speedily consummated by cure. Many the life which seemed gradually ebbing away in the atmosphere of a London hospital, that these briny vapors have called back and fortified, and cheered with long years of health. Salt plays here the part of a good fairy; it makes of this infirmary a sort of healing heaven for the bodily sick. The London hospitals afford a refuge to a maimed or diseased being who has made no progress towards health, while he had been doomed to remain in his own home, in the thick stagnant atmosphere of a room, crowded perhaps by three generations, and to wear out a wretched life amidst dirt and disease. Airy wards, good diet, skilful and tender treatment, fan the flickering spark into a feeble flame; but still he lies there pale, sallow, with thin lips and sunken eyes; and as month after month rolls on, the rapid hours that found him so weak and worn, leave no healing trace upon his thin brow. But a vacancy occurs at the Margate Sea-bathing Infirmary, and he is transported to the atmosphere which the saltbreezes have purified and blessed with healing power. Little other medicine does he need than the fresh breeze and the pleasant vapor of the sea: than baths and invigorating exercise. By these, the poor victim who lay so long upon the altar of Death-who seemed for months to be within his very clutches-is rescued. Death dallied with him; and, seeing him weak and powerless, delayed to slay this miserable captive, while so many that were young and fair, and eager to escape, awaited the stroke of his sweeping scythe. But he loses his victim by the virtues of salt. It is when I contemplate salt from this stand-point, that it seems to me to be no unfit subject for all the extravagant laudations which mystics and philosophers have lavished upon it. I, too, am ready to call divine and blessed, a fifth element, the most precious gift of Heaven. Suppose, then, salt to be cut off from the food of man or animal. Would they suffer? There are not wanting doctors, both in physic and philosophy, who maintain that, without salt we could no more live than without bread: and the learned have not failed to note that malach, the Hebrew expression for salt is anagram of lacham-bread. Indeed, salt pervades all organic structures so intimately, that it is not possible to exclude it from our diet. But salt has been disused as far as possible by some inland tribes. Homer, who interested himself in this investigation, notes that the Epeirots ate no salt; the Bathurst tribe of savages are almost the only other known instances of like want of taste. There exist, however, in society some few human anomalies who abstain from salt to a certain extent; and gloomy enough their gastronomic souls must be; for salt is, in the material world, what the affections are in the moral world-a zest and relish, without which life would be tasteless and insipid. The deprivation of salt was a punishment among the Persians, Dutch, and Russians. The prisoner condemned to it suffered from fevers, and diseases of a low type. They fell victims to parasites. Dr. Leitch lately observed some of the diseases engendered by a diet devoid of salt among the state prisoners of Russia. Elder writers are enthusiastic in praise of salt. "Common salt," says Schroeder, "is affirmed by the Monk Basilius, to be the most delicious of all condiments, and the most wholesome. It warms, dries, cleanses, dissolves, astringes, destroys the superfluities, penetrates, digests, resists poisons and putrefactions." "An antient Physician" told that excellent philosopher, Mr. Boyle, that besides his ardent prayers to God, and a very regular diet, his constant antidote against the plague was only to take every morning a little sea-salt in a few teaspoonfuls of fair water, which kept his blood soluble without weakening him. More modern physicians have put faith in salt and brandy as an antidote against that plague of our later days-it cholera. Salt-water frictions daily advance into greater vogue: as Mr. Meinig with "Daphne Sal Marinum," will testify. We know, too, how great is the efficacy of The Pythagoreans held the sea to be a separate element, in addition to fire, air, and water, on account of the salt which it 1 |