Next this, the eye, the art of Flaxman leads A figur'd dance succeeds; such one was seen treated. Of the representation of war especially, in which Mr. Flaxman's anatomical knowledge is displayed, it may with perfect truth be said, "That each bold figure seems to live or die." Nor, in the attack upon the herd, can any thing be more admirable than the energetic ferocity of the monsters of the forest, who have fastened on the bull, the desperate efforts of that noble animal to disengage himself, and the vain attempts of the herdsmen to urge With well-taught feet; now shape, in oblique ways, their fierce but alarmed dogs to furConfus'dly regular, the moving maze : Now forth at once, too swift for sight, they spring, Thus the broad shield complete, the artist crown'd And beat the buckler's verge, and bound the whole." The skill and application necessary to complete so extensive and so complicated a composition, consisting of upwards of a hundred human figures, besides animals, &c. must have been very great. Nothing similar to it, ancient or modern, is, that we know of, in existence. Mr. Flaxman must, therefore, have relied upon his own unassisted imagination and judgment; and we congratulate him on a happy opportunity, thus afforded him, of condensing into one comprehensive space all the professional knowledge, which he had acquired during a long and laborious life from the study of nature, and of the sculpture and literature of the Greeks. It is a production which, if any thing were yet wanting for that purpose, would set the seal upon his fame. Amidst so much beauty and excellence, it is difficult to select any particular objects of admiration. If, however, we were absolutely required to do so, we should name the personification of the Sun, by the spirited alto relievo of Apollo in his chariot, in the centre of the shield; and the manner in which the various subjects of war, the attack by the Lions on the Herd of Oxen, and the Marriage Festival, are 46 ATHENEUM VOL. 14. ther resistance. To these scenes of contest and death, the beauty, elegance, and sprightliness of the nuptial procession, with all its classical accompaniments, form a delightful contrast. It appears that, highly to the credit of the taste, discernment, and liberality, of Messrs. Rundell and Bridge, this has been entirely a speculation of their own; no other person having any interest or concern in it whatever. They gave the original order to Mr. Flaxman, model the sum of six hundred and and paid him for the drawings and the gilt, each of the value of two thousand twenty pounds. Four casts, in silver the first for his Majesty, who, with his guineas, have been finished from them: characteristic liberality and love for the arts, ordered a cast even before the model was finished; the second for his Royal Highness the Duke of York; the third for the Earl of Lonsdale; and the fourth, which is the one we had the gratification of seeing, for the Duke of Northumberland. Each cast, with the all of which has been performed in the necessary and elaborate chasing, &c. Rundell and Bridge's superintendance, most masterly manner, under Messrs. and to the entire satisfaction of Mr. Flaxman, has occupied two experienc ed workmen for a whole twelvemonth. We are surprised that this splendid specimen of British genius and enterprize has never been publicly exhibited. We are persuaded that a faithful and spirited engraving or etching of it, of a size sufficiently large to enable justice to be done to its merits would be ex classical scholar, but to the public gentremely attractive; not merely to the erally. VARIETIES. Original Anecdotes, Literary News, Chit Chat, Incidents, &c. DREAMS AND VISIONS OF THE NIGHT. selection of modern instances; and I Mr. Editor, I HAVE been much amused by the remarks of one of the contributors to your interesting pages, on The Force of Imagination; but although I consider myself to be as free from superstitious ideas as most men, and though I can laugh at horrible dreams, and tales of sheeted ghosts, as freely as the writer of those remarks can, my judgment -prejudice, perhaps he may term it -will not permit me to assent to the truth of all that he has advanced. In all ages and in all countries a belief in supernatural appearances and intimations has more or less prevailed; and the fears of the superstitious have, from time to tine, been rendered the engines of tyranny and oppression. The church of Rome itself, though professing to inculcate the purest faith in the universe, has been strikingly conspicuous in forging, and strengthening and rivetting the chains of superstition. In the dark ages when all the little that was known of learning and of science was monopolized by the Romish priesthood, a few of the commonest secrets of natural philosophy-the possession of a magic lanthern and a bottle of phosphorus-enabled them triumphantly to delude the multitude, by the pretended performance of many an astounding miracle. Spectral appear ances, dreams, visions, and ominous portents of every description, were easily conjured up, to act with terrific power on the excited minds of the ignorant. It does not follow, however, that because one phenomenon may be, or is, an imposture, every other phenomenon must be an imposture also. Many such cases as that which your correspondent has related from his own experience, might be adduced; but that all dreams, omens, presentiments, &c. "are purely and simply the effect of an intellect more or less disordered," is a position too sweeping to be implicitly adopted. That supernatural intimations have been conveyed by dreams Holy Writ is a sufficient authority. At present, however, I should prefer a would rather deal with what I presume to be facts, than interfere, farther than may be necessary for the purpose of illustration, with speculative or metaphysical reasoning. Dreams, Sir, in my humble opinion, prove the existence of something distinct from matter; of faculties, of which mere matter is not susceptible; of something which reason cannot penetrate, comprehend, or explain. Rea son cannot satisfy itself upon the subject, consequently it cannot satisfy or convince the minds of others. Nor is this to be wondered at. Volumes upon volumes have been written about matter and spirit; but, as yet, the line of demarcation has not been drawn; we know not how the one acts upon the other; we know not, strictly speaking, of what either is composed; we know not where one ends or the other begins. When we consider how exquisite are our sensibilities-how acute our joys-how deep our anguish, in dreams--it is not surprising that ancient writers should have ascribed them to the action of some spiritual being on the sensory. I am not, for a moment, supposing that all, or even the majority of dreams have supernatural, mental, or spiritual origin. Dreams vary greatly in their nature. They may be produced by indigestion, by opium, by disease, or pain; by occurrences of the day; by events which may have deeply impressed the mind; by recollections of the past, or anticipations of the future. Thus, with reference to dreams occasioned by corporeal sensation, Dugald Stewart mentions the case of a friend, who, having found it necessary to apply a bottle of hot water to his feet, when he went to bed, dreamed that he was making a journey to the top of Mount Etna, and that he found the heat of the ground insupportable. This dream was evidently the result of the mind, or imagination, which, between waking and sleeping, had associated the sensation excited by the bottle of hot water with that which might be excited by the hot cinders that surround a volcano. To a similar cause the association of ideas-must be attributed the sleeping sensations of another person, who, having had blisters applied to his head, dreamed that he was scalped by a party of Indians.* The most important class of dreams, however, is one composed of those which have no reference, by the association of ideas or otherwise, to the past or present, which exhibit new objects, and develope new ideas. Such dreams are generally very striking in themselves, and they become deeply interesting when subsequent events are found indisputably to accord with them. A celebrated antiquary, whose name at this moment I cannot recollect, dreamed that, in a certain street of a certain town, (where he had never been in his life) in the shop of a certain jeweller (whose name he had never heard, and of whose existence he was altogether unconscious) were certain valuable medals (with the existence of which he was also unacquainted) and that he went in and purchased the said medals, at a specific price demanded by the jeweller. The recollection of such a dream could not easily perish. Some time afterwards, but without thinking of his dream, business had taken the antiquary to the town in question. Passing through one of the streets, his eye accidentally rested upon a jeweller's shop, over which was the name that had been intimated in his dream. Struck with the coincidence, he entered and inquired for the medals; the medals were immediatety produced, with the price fixed, as in his dream; and he purchased them, at the price, on the spot. On further inquiry, he found that the street also bore the name which had been revealed to him in his sleep. Whence, let me ask your correspondent, could such a dream as this have originated? Surely he will not answer that it was 66 purely and simply the effect of an intellect more or less disordered." Similar in their nature are those dreams which convey the intimation of some extraordinary event-of ap. * Vide Dugald Stewart's Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind, chap V. proaching death or calamity. In a biographical memoir of Mr. Miles Peter Andrews, published in one of the numbers of The Monthly Mirror for the year 1797, is a relation sufficiently extraordinary, I conceive, to stagger the incredulity of the most sceptical. Mr. Andrews, the proprietor of the Dartford powder mills, and a member of Parliament, was well known in the literary and fashionable world; and he was in habits of intimacy with the late Lord Lyttleton, whose death has so often been the subject of discussion. The relation is as follows: "Lord Lyttleton, who died at Pitt Place, near Epsom, as a mark of his regard left Mr. Andrews two thousand pounds. The dream that preceded, and, in fact, occasioned the death of Lord Lyttleton, is known to the public: but the very extraordinary one which Mr. Andrews had the night on which Lord Lyttleton died, is, perhaps, of authenticated circumstances the most singular, and deserves being related. At that time Mr. Andrews was at Dartford, and did not know Lord Lyttleton was returned from Ireland, where he had been for some time, of course was entirely ignorant of his death. He had been in bed about an hour, and had a light in his room. He dreamed that the figure of Lord Lyttleton appeared before him, dressed in a damask nightgown, which he usually wore in a morning, and said, " Andrews, it is all over with me!" The idea impressed Mr. Andrews so strongly, that, knowing Lord Lyttleton was fond of frightening persons in the dark, and had of ten done so at his house at Hagley, he concluded he had come to Dartford, and had by some means, got in the room. He called to him, therefore, by his name; and not finding him return an answer, he got up, and, to his surprise, found the chamber-door locked. Still doubtful whether what he had seen was a dream, he looked at his watch, to see how long he had been in bedit wanted only a few minutes to twelve o'clock. Still retaining in his mind the image of what had appeared to him, he mentioned to the family, in the morning, the extraordinary dream which he had, and his fear that some thing had happened to Lord Lyttleton. When he returned to town, he found a letter from Lord Westcote, acquainting him with Lord Lyttleton's death. The time of it exactly corresponded with that when he seemed to say, " It is all over with me !" Could this have any thing to do with disordered intellect ?-Mr Andrews, it should be observed, was alive when this narrative was written; and, if it exhibited the faintest shadow of misrepresentation, it was his bounden duty to correct it. and to proclaim the truth. The probability is, that the statement passed immediately from him, or from some of his intimate connexions, to the editor of the work in which it was published. Presentiments of death appear to have been derived from various sources. In an old volume of The Gentleman's Magazine, it is related that, at the taking of Pondicherry, in the year 1778, Captain John Fletcher, Captain Demorgan, and Lieutenant Bosanquet, each distinctly foretold his own death on the morning of his fate. In the same work I find it stated that Captain Wheeler, of the Isis, of fifty guns, immediately before he entered into close action with L'Oriflamme, a well-appointed fortygun ship, sent to Mr. Deans, the surgeon of the Isis, and entrusted him with certain particular instructions concerning his family affairs. Mr. Deans attempted to dispel the presentiment of his Captain, but was bluntly told, "I know full well this day's work: Cunningham will soon be your commander. All the great circumstances of my life have been shown in dreams: my last hour is now come." Captain Wheeler was killed early in the fight; and Lieutenant Cunningham, succeeding to the command, captured L'Oriflamme. Another instance of presentiment of death, from a dream, I find recorded in the life of Captain Robert Faulkner, the gallant captor of Fort Royal, Martinique, in the month of March, 1794. "Captain Faulkner's collected mind, observing a visible confusion in the countenance of the pilot of the Zebra, when he received Captain Faulkner's orders to place the sloop close under the walls of Fort Royal, said to one of the officers, 'I think Mr. seems confused, as if he did not know what he was about. Was he ever in action before? Many times, Sir; he has been twenty-four years in the service." Captain Faulkner, however, being more convinced that his suspicion was well founded, went up to the pilot, and asked him some trifling question, to ascertain the real state of the case; when his agitation was such, as entirely to render him incapable of giving an answer. But he added, in a low voice, and without raising his eyes to his noble commander's face, I see your honour knows me. I am unfit to guide her. I don't know what is come over me. I dreamt last night I should be killed; and am so afraid I don't know what I am about. I never in all my life felt afraid before.' Captain Faulkner, with that presence of mind which marked his character, and when all around was confusion and death, replied in a still lower tone: The fate of this expedi tion depends on the helm in your hand give it me! and go and hide your head in whatever you fancy the safest part of the ship. But fears are catching; and if I hear you tell your's to one of your messmates, your life shall answer for it to-morrow.' The poor fellow, panic-struck, went away; and, overcome with shame, sat down upon the arm-chest, while Captain Faulkner seized the helm, and with his own hand laid the Zebra close to the walls of the fort; but before he had got upon them, at the head of his gallant followers, a cannon ball struck the arm-chest, and blew the pilot to atoms."* Such instances might be multiplied at pleasure; but I trust, Sir, I have said enough to satisfy your readers, and even the ingenious author of the paper on The Force of Imagination, that all "dreams, omens, presentiments, &c." are not "purely and simply the effect of an intellect more or less disordered.” Yours, &c. * Vide Naval Chronicle, vol. xvi. p. 32. LORD BYRON. H. DAVID HUME met Madame a Dutch lady of rank and literary talents, at the house of the Earl of Fife, at Whitehall. They were exceedingly pleased with each other, and the native of Batavia observed, that where Mr. H. was, no one ought to think of eating. The justice of this remark was in some respects verified; for, although the dinner was excellent, some chickens, which had been reserved for a bonne bouche, were ordered to be removed, and placed at the fire; and the dissertation of Mr. H. was so long, that a cat actually ran away with them! TWELFTH DAY, OR EPIPHANY. The rites of this day, the name of which signifies an appearance of light or a manifestation, are different in various places, but all in honour of the Eastern Magi. There is a very antient and singular custom, in various parts of the continent, which takes place on the eve of the Epiphany, and is performed in the following manner :-A cake, made of flour, butter and eggs, and of a size proportionable to the number of the guests, is brought in and divided into as many shares as "convives" are going to sit down to supper. These pieces, one of which conceals a bean lodged in the outer part of the cake, are tossed up in a napkin. The youngest person in the company comes forward, and having said grace, takes hold of a slice without looking at it, and then addresses the master of the house by these words: Fabæ Domine (lord of the bean), who is this for? An answer is given, and when all the shares are drawn, the guest who finds the bean in his or her possession is declared king or queen of the feast, and becomes possessed of all the rights belonging to the. president for the night. When either drinks, if any one in the company omits to say aloud, "the king" or "the queen drinks," a fine is lawfully exacted, which consists in a pledge deposited in the hands of some one, to be redeemed after supper by a kiss, or a song. This sort of amusement was well known at Rome, with this difference, that the king of the feast was not chosen by means of a bean, but by the cast of small bones called tali. They are the ankle-bones of sheep, which schoolboys in France still use for a game called osselets; having been previously smoothed upon a stone, and reduced to four sides. The tessera, dice, have six. Horace says, Carm. lib. 1, od. 4:— But when you sink to Pluto's hall, No little rattling bones shall fall To choose you Monarch of the wine. Another custom, on the eve of the Epiphany, still practised on the continent, is to take a few larks, and spit them upon a fresh-cut twig of hazel, and place them before a good fire; after a few minutes' expectation, the whole begins to turn without help, and as if by a spontaneous motion. The staring company, in amazement and rapture, cry Miracle!' and remain persuaded that this cannot be done but by supernatural agency or magic. The fact is, that the sap contained in the veins of the twig (which are probably set in a spiral line round the centre) being successively attracted by the fire, causes a sort of rotation. OLD PARR. It was the privilege of Old Parr to escape six times the infection of the plague. He was born before printing came to be in vogue, and had lived 80 years before guns were fabricated in England. He witnessed the first importation of busks, masks, muffs, fans, and periwigs, for female use, all derived from Italy, but by the English borrowed from their French neighbours. Although deprived of his sight, he retained his mental faculties, more especially the shrewdness of his apprehension, of which a curious instance is given by his biographer. Being desirous to renew the lease of his house, for the third time, for 60 years, for the benefit of his wife, who was about a century younger than himself, he took occasion, when his landlord was coming to his house, to desire that a pin might be dropped on his shoe; and scarcely had the landlord begun to enter into conversation with him, than the wily old man exclaimed, "Is not that a pin I see there?" By which artifice he hoped to make the landlord believe that he had recovere |