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care of his wife, while he occupied the garret, where he indulged his poetical genius. His ftocking fhop failed; and his poems produced him more chagrin than glory. He was a bankrupt in trade ; and was then ridiculed by his fellow citizens as a madman. Von

del had no other mafter but his genius, which, with his uncongenial fituation, occafioned all his errors.

• Another Dutch poet, is even lefs tolerable. Having written a long rhapfody concerning Pyramus and Thibe, he concludes it, by a ridiculous parallel between the death of thefe unfortunate victims of love, and the paffion of Jefus Chrift. He fays,

Om t'concluderen van onfen begrypt,

Dees Hiftorie moraliferende,

Is in den verftande wel accorderende,
By der Paffie van Chriftus gebenedyt.

And upon this, after having turned Pyramus into the Son of God, and Thisbe into the Chriftian foul, he proceeds with a number of comparisons; the latter always more impertinent than the former.

I believe it is well known, that the actors on the Dutch theatre are generally trade finen, who quit their aprons at the hour of public reprefentation. Their comedies are not only beneath criticifm, but offenfive to decency by the groffness of their buffooneries. It is told as one of their comic incidents, that when a miller appeared to be in diftress for want of wind to turn his mill, he had recourse to the novel scheme of placing his back against it, and by certain eructations, imitated behind the scenes, the mill is foon fet a going. Can fuch a depravity of tafte be equalled?

I faw two of their moft celebrated tragedies. The one was Gysbert Van Amftel, by Vondel; that is Gytbretcht of Amfterdam, a warrior, who in the civil wars preferved this city by his heroifm. One of the acts concludes with a scene of a convent; the found of warlike inftruments is heard; the castle is ftormed; the nuns and fathers are flaughtered; with the aid of "blunderbufs and thunder," every Dutchman appears fenfible of the pathos of the poet. But it does not here conclude. After this terrible flaughter, the conquerors and the vanquifhed remain for ten minutes on the stage, motionless in the poftures in which they happened to fall! Not a word is fpoken, and this pantomimic pathos is received with loud burfts of applause from the audience.

The fubject of the other was the fall of Haman. In the triumphal entry Mordecai came forward on a horse; but not a • theatrical horfe; a genuine Flanders mare, that was as heavy, and fortunately as ftupid as Mordecai himself.'

Original Letter of Queen Elizabeth.-In the Cottonian Library, Vefpafian, F. III. there is preferved a letter written by Queen Elizabeth (then Princefs) to her fifter Queen Mary. It appears by

this epifle that Mary had defired to have her picture; and in gratifying the wishes of her Majefty, Elizabeth accompanies the prefent with the following elaborate letter. It bears no date of the year in which it was written, but her place of refidence is marked to be at Hatfield. There he had retired to enjoy the filent, pleafures of a ftudious life, and to be diftant from the dangerous politics of the time. When Mary died, Elizabeth was at Hatfield; the letter must have been writen fhortly before this circumflance took place. She was at the time of it's compofition in habitual intercourfe with the most excellent writers of Antiquity; her letter difplays this in every part of it; it is polifhed, and repolished. I would flatter myfelf that this is the first time of it's publication.

"Letter. Like as the riche man that dayly gathereth riches to riches, and to one bag of mony layeth a greate fort til it come to infinit, so me thinkes, your Majee, not beinge fuffied withe many benefits and gentilnes fhewed to me afore this time, dothe now increase them in afkinge and defiring, wher you may bid and comaunde, requiring a thinge not worthy the defiringe for it felfe, but made worthy for your highnefs requeft. My pictur I mene, in wiche if the inward good mynde towarde your grace migth as wel be declared as the outwarde face and countenance shal de seen, I wold nor haue taried the comandement but prevent it, nor haue bine the laft to graunt but the first to offer it. For the face, I graunt, I might wel blufche to offer, but the mynde I fhall neuer be afhamed to prefent. For thogth from the grace of the pictur, the coulers may fade by time, may giue by wether, may be spotted by chance, yet the other nor time with her fwift winges fhal overtake, nor the miftie cloudes with ther loweringes may darken, nor chance with her flipery fote may overthrow. Of this althogth yet the profe could not be greate because the occafions hathe bine but fimal, notwithstandinge as a dog hathe a day, fo may I perchaunce haue time to declare it in dides wher now I do write them but in wordes. And further I fhal moft humbly befeche your Maieftie that whan you hal loke on my pictur you wil witfafe to thinke that as you have but the outwarde fhadow of the body afore you, fo my inward minde wifcheth, that the body it felfe wer oftner in your prefence; howbeit bicaufe bothe my fo beinge I thinke coulde do your Maieftie fitel pleasure thogth my felfe great good, and againe bicaufe I fe ás yet not the time agreing theruto, I fhal lerne to folow this fainge of Orace, Feras non culpes quod vitari non poteft. And thus I wil (troblinge your Maieftie I fere) ende with my most humble thankes, befechinge God longe to preferue you to his honour to your cofort, to the realmes profit, and to my joy. From Hatfilde this day of May.

"Your Maiefties most humbly Siftar and Seruante.

ELIZABETH:"

In p. 300, we find the following anecdote of James I.

It was ufual in the reign of James the Firft, when they compar ed it with the preceding glorious one, to diftinguish him by the title of queen James, and his illuftrious predeceffor by that of king Elizabeth. James was fingularly effeminate; he could not behold a drawn fword without shuddering; and was partial to handsome men; but it no where appears that he merits the bitter fatire of Churchill. He was a most weak, but not quite a vicious man. He difplayed great imbecility in his amufements; which are characterifed by the following one, related by Wilfon. When James became melancholy, in confequence of various difappointments in state matters, Buckingham and his mother ufed feveral means of diverting him. Amongst the most ludicrous was the prefent. They had a young lady, who brought a pig in the drefs of a new-born infant; the countess carried it to the king wrapped in a rich mantle. One Turpin, on this occafion, was dreffed like a bishop, in all his pontifical ornaments; he began the rites of baptifm, with the common prayer book in his hand; a filver ewer with water was held by another; the marquis stood as godfather; when James turned to look at the infant the pig fqueaked; an animal which he greatly abhorred. At this, highly displeased he exclaimed, "Out! Away for fhame! What blafphemy is this!"

This ridiculous joke did not accord with the feelings of James at that moment; he was not "i' th' vein." Yet we may obferve, that had not fuch artful politicians as Buckingham and his mother been ftrongly perfuaded of the fuccefs of this puerile fancy, they would not have ventured on fuch "blafphemies." They certainly had witnessed amufements heretofore, not lefs trivial, which had gratified his majesty.”

Antipathies. Perhaps antipathies, may not unaptly be placed amongst the effects of the imagination. Chevreau obferves, there are certain natural antipathies which appear very extraordinary, of which he gives feveral inftances. There have been perfons who have fainted at the odour of rofes; others, with greater reafon, quit the table at the fmell of cheese; and I have feen more than one perfon tremble before a lap-dog. A man was fo frightened at the fight of a hedge-hog, that he thought, for more than two years afterwards, that his bowels were gnawed by this animal. The great Erafmus had fuch an averfion to fish that he could not fuffer the fmell without growing feverish. If apples were offered to Duchefne, fecretary of Francis the Firft, blood gushed from his nofe; and a gentleman belonging to the emperor Ferdinand was convulfed whenever he heard the mewing of a cat. Henry III. of France could not fit in a room where a cat was. The duke of Schomberg had the

fame

fame averfion. Vanghneim, the elector's huntfman at Hanover, fainted or run away at the fight of a roasted pig. The Turkish Spy, who tells us that he would rather encounter a lion in the deferts of Arabia, provided he had but a fword in his hand, than feel a spider crawling on him in the dark, judicioufly obferves, that there is no reason to be given for these secret antipathies, which are discovered in many men. He humouroufly attributes them to the doctrine of the tranfmigration of the foul, and fuppofes himself to have been once a fly, before he came into his body, and that having been frequently perfecuted with Spiders in that ftate, he ftill retained the dread of his old enemy, and which all the circumstances of his prefent metamorphofes were not able to efface. In a word, these antipathies are so far from being uncommon, that, I doubt not, but every one can recollect perfons who are fufceptible of fuch affections.

'Scaliger tells us of a person who so much dreaded the found of the cymbal, that he could never hear it without an extraordinary propensity of making water. They made the experiment by a cymbal player, who was concealed under the table, and he had hardly begun to play on his inftrument when the gentleman difcovered his infirmity. This perfon was amongst thofe whom Shakspeare, that great mafter of human nature, describes,

"Some men are mad if they behold a cat;
And others, when the bagpipe fings i'th' nofe,
Cannot contain their urine: for affection,
Mafter of paffion, fways it to the mood

Of what it likes or loaths. Now for your anfwer,"

But Chevreau has given instances of antipathies still more extraordinary; these confist of an averfion to certain innocent actions and words. He fays, that Chryfippus was terribly affected by bors; and a Spanish Don fwooned away when he heard pronounced the word lana (wool) although his cloaths were woollen. It will be fufficient to obferve, that Chevreau was very learned, but dull and credulous.'

Speaking of a literary projector, p. 41, our author proceeds to ftate fome of his intended plans for the advancement of learning; and among other works which he propofed, mentions The Art of Invention ;' or, as he terms it, The Heuretic; a word which he forms, I fuppofe, (continues Mr. D'Ifraeli) from the Latin heuretes, a devifer, or inventor. We know not how far our author may be a proficient or not in the Greek language, but if he had adverted to it on the prefent occafion, he might have found ΕΥΡΙΣΚΩ, ευρετής, ευρετικο, and a whole family of words, that would have carried his opinion a little farther than mere fuppofition.

C. R. N. AR. (XI.) May, 1794.

F

An

An Inquiry into the Nature and Properties of Opium; wherein its component Principles, Mode of Operation, and Ufe in par ticular Difeafes, are experimentally inveftigated; and the Opi nions of former Authors on thefe Points impartially examinedBy Samuel Crumpe, M. D. Member of the Royal Irish Academy. 8vo. 5s. Boards. Robinsons. 1793.

MUCH MUCH has been already written on this fubject, of which our author has, with great care, availed himself. We do not recollect any authority that he has omitted, except that of the elder Laffonne and Cornette, in the Memoirs of the Royal Medical Society at Paris, whofe opinions we shall foon notice. The Inquiry is dedicated to Dr. Gregory of Edinburgh, and much ftrefs is laid on his approbation; with little propriety, unless he had been longer and more extensively a practical phyfician. We have been much more converfant in practice, and do not find the reafoning acute, or the expe riments well conducted;' nor can we conceive why this 'imprimatur' is prefixed, unless to prevent criticism, by the ful men of a medical bull.

The natural history of opium is given at fome length, from different works; but, as it is now well known, we need not enlarge on it. The experiments, defigned to show the effects of opium on the living fyftem,' add little to our knowledge. The effect of its application to fenfible furfaces is pain, and its first effect, internally, is to ftimulate. But Dr. Crumpe feems inclined to deny the narcotic and antifpafmodic power of opium, externally applied, because it produced no effect on a found part. If authorities were neceflary, a hoft might have been produced, in oppofition to the few quoted: if experience were to decide, innumerable facts might be produced to the fame purpose. The first stimulant effects on the motion of the heart and arteries are inconfiderable, and feldom from this caufe is opium injurious in the most inflamma tory cafes. The effects of large and repeated dofes are well known: yet, probably, opium acts chiefly as a foporific from leffening pain, and, in larger dofes, produces delirium :-in no inftance does it feem to bring on artificial fleep; for, when it feemingly does fo, the ftate is really that of a ftupor, and imperfect delirium.

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In the analysis of opium, and the effect of its different component principles,' we find little addition to our knowledge. The portion by which its falutary effects are produced, feems not to be volatile; but, from the repeated and continued boiling of baume, the opium is certainly decompofed.

From comparing thefe experiments it fufficiently appears, that

the

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