it; and the question to be tried is, whether | disposition and talents is accompanied by tling in London, Dr. Farquhar made a temour Standard is to be good, bad, or indiffer- some extracts from his lectures, which prove porary sojourn at Torquay. While there, he ent. This, as we have already said, must be their selector to have had judgment and dis was summoned professionally to Berry Pomeleft to the tribunal of the public; but it is cretion equal to the soundness and origina-roy. It is a noble ruin, very much dilapiplain that bad or indifferent commodities are lity of his own commentating remarks. The dated and worn away by time; but maguidearer at a shilling than articles of the same contrast between these and the next subjects ficent even in decay, and an object of interest quality at twopence; and without imputing is, however, wide and wild. To leap from and attraction to every lover of scenery aud peculiar dulness to the Literary Gazette be- the serious investigation of the genius of a antiquity. Here, a massy buttress supports yond its neighbours, we may fearlessly remark | popular professor to illustrative evidences of an oak coeval with the castle itself; there, a that it has frequently supplied its readers a remarkable superstition, is not the common mouldering turret is clothed with the most with numbers after numbers which would practice of an anthor; and yet the next luxuriant ivy; while around it sweeps the be overpriced at a farthing. chapter of Whychcotte of St. John's affords us river proudly, as if it exulted in the contrast As for the difficulties which the addressor three strange romances, which we may fairly of the duration of natural objects with the sees, or thinks he sees, with respect to the call ghost stories of visitants from the dead. feebleness, and the frailty, and ephemeral procuring means of paying for paper and Again, by a breach scarcely less sudden or existence of the edifices and efforts of man. printing, and the assistance of clever writers, curious, we are introduced to a group of for cheap periodicals, that is our business. church controversialists. We discuss the We know that it can be done, and the public merits of Bishop Marsh;-Philpotts, Barshall know it too. But enough on such a rington, aud Durham, are laid before us like subject. We shall proceed to business with-so many lights and shadows of the church, out further preface.

"At the time I am speaking of only one part of it was inhabited. Its occupants were the steward and his wife. The latter was seriously ill, and desired the doctor's advice. Previous to seeing his patient, he specks or beauties upon the bright landscape was shewn into an apartment, where he of our religion; and, in the author's views waited till the sufferer was apprized of his of these, there is an independent justuess of | arrival. opinion, and a vigorous boldness of thought, room. mingled with an accurate knowledge of the anony-men themselves, and slightly, though pleasantly, tinctured with domestic anecdotes and glimpses of their private life.

REVIEW OF NEW BOOKS.

Whychcotte of St. John's. 8vo. London,
1833. Effingham Wilson.
HERE is a work to be published
mously. How many volumes it may consist
of, or how numerous the pages in each, we
are as yet unable to decide. The fact is, it
is a book forthcoming within the ensuing ten
days: one of the earliest wanderers into the
literary labyrinth of the year 1833; and
though as yet we know little of the stranger,
(having received but a few sheets by favor,)
we still can find enough to welcome, if not
to wonder at; and may even add, that our
curiosity is excited to know the veritable
nom' of the author. Sybillistic, oracular,
and prophetic as reviewers ought to be, we
fancy that we have unfurled our Standard in
a little world of discovery, which gives us
evidence internal '-proof traceable and dis-
tinct,' that Whychcotte of St. John's, hath
emanated from a more powerful and cele-
brated pen
than its own
modest
entrée into the circle of letters, would claim
it credit for. Be this as it may, we shall
transcribe such of it as we have read, and
then hinting out the man we mean,' leave
our readers to say whether we have guessed
with sufficient accuracy to entitle us to the
cognomen of respectable Americans, in that
particular qualification of States citizenship.
Whychcotte of St. John's, then, gives evi-
dence, in its first two hundred pages, of being
the production of a deep thinker, an acute
reasoner, and a man of vast and varied
genius; or, if not absolute genius, at all
events an enthusiastic admirer of it in others,
and gifted with a keen perception of its own
bright beauties, as well as of the stars that
have in all time illumined its glorious ga-
laxy.

Whychcotte of St. John's is but the general title of a work which seems to embrace a thousand subjects. The opening one touches upon the mind, character, and lectures of Mr. Smythe, Professor of Modern History at Cambridge, and, as the writer justly observes, truly an ornament of the university. A sketchy, but very beautiful and pertinent summary of this learned man's

It was a large, ill-proportioned Around it ran pannels, richly carved, of dark oak, which from time had assumed the hue of ebony. The only light which it admitted fell through the checquered panes of a gorgeously stained window, on which the arms of the former lords of Berry Pomeroy were richly emblazoned.

Then follow topics innumerable, yet all interesting-fragments of fiction to illustrate truth, and dyes of truth to give brilliancy to "In one corner, to the right of the rude fiction. Criticisms, too, condensed, just fire-place, was a flight of dark oaken steps and perceptive, with public men for their forming part of a staircase leading appaobjects, (Byron, Churchhill, Collingwoods rently to some chamber above; and on these and many more), politics, polemics, philoso-stairs the fading gleams of summer's twilight phy, ethics, science, and art; in short, little shone strongly. that is not instructive, and nothing that will not entertain.

"While Dr. Farquhar wondered, and, if truth be told, chafed at the delay which had We have several reasons for supposing been interposed between him and his patient, the author of this various book to be no the door opened, and a female, somewhat other than Coleridge the poet. The me- richly dressed, entered the apartment. He, taphysical tendency of much of the supposi- supposing her to be one of the family, adtious theory, the conversational air of the vanced to meet her. Unheeding him, she narrative, the condensity of point in many crossed the room with a hurried step, wringof the expressions (a remarkable feature in ing her hands, and exhibiting in her motions the work), the deep reasoning, and occa- the deepest distress. When she reached the sionally, the still deeper sophistry, the foot of the stairs, she paused for an instant, thought, the power, the philosophy of the and then began to ascend them with the same argumentative, and the utter and pure sim-hasty step and agitated demeanour. As she plicity of the fictitious portions of the work; reached the highest stair the light fell all these we deem marks of the peculiar strongly on her features, and displayed a man, shining through all deception, and countenance,-youthful indeed and beauti bringing at almost every page the idea of Coleridge before the reader's mind. Once, indeed, his own name is mentioned, if not oftener, but may not this be a blind to avert discovery?

In this fancy of ours we may have made a reviewing blunder, and we have not been without perceiving occasional faults which tell us that we may be wrong, even while the beauties induce us to fancy ourselves right. No matter, we have given an honest judgment, as far as what we have seen would allow us, and we leave the rest to the reader.

ful,—but in which vice and despair strove for mastery. If ever human face,' to use Sir Walter's own words, exhibited agony and remorse-if ever eye, that index of the soul, pourtrayed anguish uncheered by hope and suffering without interval-if ever features betrayed that within the wearer's bosom there dwelt a hell, the hell of passions that have no room for exercise, and diseases that have no hope of death-those features and that being were then present to me.'

"Before he could make up his mind on the nature of this strange occurrence, he We take our present quotation from a was summoned to the bedside of his patient. fictitious part, as being the most entertaining Ile found the lady so ill as to require his after our own crude comments. Next week undivided attention, and had no opportuwe may dip into the learning and metaphy-nity, and in fact no wish, to ask any quessics. An elderly widow narrates the follow- tions which bore on a different subject. ing tale :"But on the following morning, when he "In early life, years previous to his set-repeated his visit, and found the sufferer

|sion, she says, which no time can efface. I alone. But to a large dinner party given am well aware of what you will say, that there, the bloody head came, uninvited, and nothing can possibly be more preposterous. stationed itself opposite to its old intimate, We have tried to rally her out of it, but the whom it harassed and disheartened with its more heartily we laugh at her folly, the more presence, till the companionship became unagitated and excited does she become. In bearable, and the earl, abruptly and in disfact, I fear we have aggravated her disorder order, quitted the table. All this was attriby the scorn with which we have treated it. buted by the faculty to hallucination." For my own part, I am satisfied her impressions are erroneous, and arise entirely from a depraved state of the bodily organs. We wish, however, for your opinion; and are most anxious you should visit her without delay.'

"Madam, I will make a point of seeing your sister immediately; but it is no delusion. This I think it proper to state most positively, and previous to any interview, I myself saw the same figure, under somewhat similar circumstances, and about the same hour of the day; and I should decidedly oppose any further raillery or incredulity being expressed on the subject in your sister's presence.'

"The dialogue that followed is not material. Sir Walter saw the young lady the next day, and after being under his care for a very short period, she recovered."

"Ah! that's all very well," said one of the youngest of the cavallers, as the widow concluded her story; "but I should like to have had the testimony of the young lady herself. The spectre might be accounted for, like that of Lord Grey and the bloody head, on the principles of hallucination. I should wish to have questioned this very sensitive damsel; she might have been a somnambulist, or a simpleton."

"On that subject, put what question you will, it shall be answered. I avow myself to be that sensitive lady, or somnambulist, or simpleton," returned the widow, sharply.

"But what," said our good natured, hospitable host, wishing to break the awkward pause which this reply had created, "what of Lord Grey and the bloody head ?"

in their domestic as well as public existence; neral. He continued in his place during for his extensive knowledge of the law, and the tendency of the principles, actions, and the administration of the Duke of Wellington, the impartiality with which he formed his doctrines of this immortal galaxy, this whom he assisted in the abolition of the judgment, unbiassed by political or party Louvre in our palace of Refinement, are Test and Corporation Acts, as well as in the considerations. In the senate, he preserved ably and philosophically discussed and com- passing of the Bill for the relief of the Ca- the same independence of conduct; and his mented on, in the true spirit of an impartial tholics. In his official capacity, he rendered learning and talent served to heighten the biographer, in the volumes which have yet himself unpopular, as well as the govern-effect of his integrity. As a parliamentary appeared of the work before us. This (the ment of which he formed a part, by the orator, his arguments, however vehement, second) is unusually rich, too, in the anec-prosecutions instituted against a paper called were tempered by gravity and dignity; while, dotal portion; which surprises us the more, the Morning Journal, for libels on the mi-at the same time, his eloquence lost none of as there is so admirable a condensity pervad-nisters. ing the memoirs, that we almost wonder how the writer has found the means to include one-half of the actual necessary details. We observe that the plan of accompanying the Lives with portraits has been very prudently dropped, as it was next to impossible to produce a good medallion likeness on wood. The letter-press is, however, sufficient to afford a good three months' mental food to any one gifted with the memory to retain half its valuable contents. For all persons it is entertaining and instructive; for schools, admirable.

Our extracts relate to two men whose memoirs are immediately interesting to the public: Sir James Scarlett, by reason of his station at the bar; Sir James Mackintosh, on account of his recent lamented death.

Sir James Scarlett.

that warmth which is so congenial with the truth and diffusion of generous sentiments. In his domestic circle he was much beloved and respected; and in Christian society, he shone as the advocate of whatever was sacred and hallowed.

"As a barrister, Sir James Scarlett is less remarkable for his oratorical powers, than for the acuteness of his reasoning powers and his tact in the examination of witnesses. His knowledge of the law is extensive; and his opinion, therefore, has the respect of the "We select the following, as containing judges, while he contrives skilfully to obtain what Mr. Campbell calls the character of the ear of the court, to make it a point never that arch hypocrite of France, Louis the to press an argument when he finds that Fourteenth, as a fair specimen of Sir James's those whom he addresses have made up style and power of writing: The intrusion their minds on the subject, and that it is uo of any popular voice was not likely to be tolonger possible to influence their judgments. lerated in the reign of Louis the Fourteenth; He has a happy facility in detecting the weak a reign which has been so often celebrated as points of a case; and invariably uses this the zenith of warlike and literary splendour, power of perception for his own benefit, and but which has always appeared to me to be the disadvantage of his opponent. His suc- the consummation of whatever is afflicting cess, as a pleader, is to be attributed more to and degrading in the history of the human these qualities, and to his thorough know- | race. Talents seemed, in that reign, to be lodge of modern practice, thau to his robbed of the conscious elevation of the acquaintance with the established principles on which the laws are founded.

In person, he is rather above the middle size,
stoutly made, and his countenance, which is
round and florid, is by no means expressive
of intellect."

erect and manly part, which is its noblest as-
sociate and surest indication. The mild
purity of Fenelon, the lofty spirit of Bossuet,
the masculine mind of Boileau, the sublime
fervor of Corneille, were confounded by the
contagion of ignominious and indiscriminate
servitude. It seemed as if the representative
majesty of the genius and intellect of man
were prostrated before the shrine of a
sanguinary and dissolute tyrant, who prac
mildness, and incurred the guilt of wars
without their glory. His highest praise is to
have supported the stage part of royalty
with effect: and it is surely difficult to con-
ceive any character more odious and despi-
cable than that of a puny libertiue, who,
under the frown of a strumpet or a monk,
issues the mandate that is to murder virtu-
ous citizens, to desolate happy and peaceful
hamlets, to wring agonizing tears from wi-
dows and orphans. Heroism has a splendour
that almost atones for its excesses; but what
shall we think of him who, from the luxu
rious and dastardly security in which he
wallows at Versailles, issues, with calm and
cruel apathy, his orders to butcher the pro-
testants of Languedoc, or to lay in ashes the
villages of the Palatinate? On the recol-
lection of such scenes, as a scholar, I blush
for the prostitution of letters; and, as a man,
I blush for the patience of humanity.'
"Few men have been more generally es-
teemed than Sir James, and he retained the
respect of all who knew him, excepting that
of Dr. Parr, who, being a staunch Foxite,
became highly indignant at the subject of our
memoir for accepting, through the influence
of Mr. Pitt, the recordership of Bombay.
Parr took an opportunity of showing his
virulence, a short time afterwards, at a
party, where the conversation turning upon

"The subject of this memoir was born in 1760, at Jamaica, where his family had been long settled, his brother holding the office of "In the house of commons, he never chief justice of the island. Being sent to evinced the capabilities for becoming distinEngland for his education, he was placed at guished in the senate. Without the power a public school; whence he removed to of oratory, he does not possess that classical Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1780; and, taste or learning which might have supplied having proceeded to the degree of B.A., he, the deficiency. His political conduct has been in 1784, quitted the university. Having inconsistent and unpopular. He commenced come to London, he eagerly pursued the his career as a Whig, but afterwards became study of the law, as a member of the Inner a proselyte to Tory principles. As attorney.tised the corruption of courts without their Temple; devoting himself, however, princi-general, he rendered himself particularly obpally to the perusal of the modern reports, noxious, by his prosecutious of the press; an acquaintance with which he conceived to which, during his continuance in office, were be the most practically useful part of a legal unusually frequent. In private life, he is said education. Having been called to the bar, to be a man of gentle manners and au amiable he chose the northern circuit, and soon disposition. He has for many years been gained celebrity for his dexterity in the exa-married, and has had a numerous family. mination of witnesses. In 1816, up to which | period his reputation had been gradually increasing, he obtained a silk gown; and soon after offered himself, on the Whig interest, as a representative in parliament of Lewes, The Character of Sir James Mackintosh. in Sussex. This, and a subsequent effort, "Sir James Mackintosh has sustained, proved, however, unsuccessful; but, by the with distinguished honour and reputation, exertions of his Whig friends, Mr. Scarlett his three successive characters of advocate, was returned, by Lord Fitzwilliam, to the judge, and statesman, In the first, we have house of commons as member for Peterbo- already mentioned the abilities he displayed rough. Finding that he was not calculated and the fame he acquired by his speech in to shine as a senator, he judiciously spoke defence of Peltier, but, with this exception, but seldom in parliament, though he intro- he did little worthy of notice at the bar; in duced a bill for the reform of the poor laws, proof of which, the following anecdote is which he was unable to carry. He after-related of him. When he was once addresswards, unsuccessfully, contested the repre-ing a jury, Henry Blackstone, the brother of sentation of Cambridge university; and, the judge, was engaged in taking notes of the being afterwards made attorney-general for speech for the senior counsel, who was to the duchy of Lancaster, conducted the pro-reply, till at length, wearied out by the secutions which arose out of the dreadful irrelevancy of the oration, he wrote down, riots at Manchester. 'Here Mr. Mackintosh talked so much non"On the accession of Canning to the pre-sense, that it was quite useless, and indeed miership, Mr. Scarlett was knighted, and impossible to follow him.' appointed to the ofce of king's attorney ge- "In his judicial capacity, he was eminent

the conduct of one Quigley, who had lately of economy, too, it is better to pay six shilbeen executed, the Doctor exclaimed, re-lings for a handsome single volume than peatedly and emphatically, 'He might have thirty for three, which contain no more been worse! Upon Sir James asking him amusement, and have not the quality of conto explain how, he replied, 'I'll tell you, density to recommend them. Jemmy: Quigley was an Irishman, he might have been a Scotchman; he was a priest, he might have been a lawyer; he was a traitor, he might have been an apostate.'

"In addition to the works already mentioned, Sir James has also written several articles in the Edinburgh Review, and other periodical journals of importance.

their kitchen fire; and he or she who con sumed to the measure of one quart of the shebeen was, as a matter of course, entitled to a slice of the beef contained in the cauldron, together with the round of a loafApproving of the plan then, let us turn to payment being expected for the liquors only. the first volume of its execution. It contains Those generous times are past and gone. a story by the author of the O'Hara Family, The thirsty man must now be contented with which is in true accordance with the usual a very thin potation indeed, compared with tone of his productions, and bears the mys-the almost glutinous beverage imbibed by terious title of the Ghost Hunter. It is a his happier forefathers; and he must pay for clever tale; indeed, Mr. Bauim is a cleverit, into the bargain, treble the price demanded man-too fond, however, of turning to dark of them for an article ten times, aye, it has "'Sir James,' says Mr. Campbell, was, times and circumstances-a spirit living in been sworn to us, twenty times better. As in his person, well made, and above the the shadow of life's valley, and brooding for the cut of beef and the round of the middle stature. He was regularly handsome there as if he feared the sunshine, and was good homemade loaf, the sellers of liquors in youth, and even in the decline of life, and dazzled rather than charmed by the aspect now-a-days can hardly find such fare for their under afflicted health, was a person of pre- | of all bright things. Such a tone of mind own tables. possessing and commanding appearance. gives a colour to the imagination, and a "Hesther had been a beauty; and 'Hetty His countenance had a changeful mixture of wildness to the fancy, well suited to such of the Red Cow,' the sign, for three generagrave and gay expression, a shrewdness com-scenes and natures as Mr. Banim loves to tions in her family, of her parents' house bined with suavity, that heightened and depict. Of these, Ireland unfortunately of entertainment, was in her youth quite as accorded with the charm of his conversation. contains but too many; and in that unhappy celebrated as their ale. But Hesther was as No man was a greater master of conversation; country the dramatis personæ of the narra-vain, and arrogant, and ill-tempered as she he overlaid you with monologue, but overpaid tive are made to exhibit their emotions was beautiful. To her numerous admirers whatever you said to him with insinuating and their crimes. A few of them, indeed, she behaved very scornfully; but, though she correction; or else, if he approved of your are possessed of virtues and display sweet dealt harshly enough by them, the true gall remarks, he amended them by rich and happy sympathies, kind feelings, holy resignation, and venom of her nature seemed reserved illustration. A certain thinness and sharpness and even undying love; but these are only for any unhappy girls who dared dispute with of voice was the chief defect of his elocution; beautiful intruders into the pale of gloom, her the palm of female sovereignty, even in and sometimes there was, perhaps, an over- like glimpses of sun-light upon a path of the case of a single one of her rejected lovers ; northern keenness and sharpness in his shade! so that, however her young neighbours of metaphysics; but still the world will produce her own sex might display and insist upon no such mental lights again.' their charms in her absence, none durst venture on a flirting manoeuvre, nay, hold up their heads before her. They dreaded the deadly spite of her tongue, put forth in the shape of the most cutting satire and ridicule, or perhaps venting itself in a blighting calumny.

"He formed a second marriage in 1798, when he was allied to Miss Allen, a lady of family in Wales, by whom he had several childreu."

The Georgian Era is a book to which we shall often refer.

Library of Romance. Edited by Leitch
Ritchie. The Ghost Hunter and his
Family. By the O'Hara Family. 12mo.
pp. 230.
London, 1833. Smith and
Elder.

The story of the ghost-hunter is strange in its character, and somewhat intricate in its plot; powerfully told, however, and full of the excitement of mystery and romance. The hero is a wild youth, a lover of phantoms and visitants from the dead, hunting them by day and night, in field and forest, by roads and rivers, on mountain and in dale. In these vague and strange wanderings he sometimes seeks commune with departed spirits, but is at last led into a thousand perils, in which his family are involved by a living and mischievous enemy, who, wearing the guise of a phantom, he believes to be one

main incidents of the tale, which has of
course all the improbability of romance.
Many of the scenes, however, are striking
and even natural, but, generally speaking, the
misery is too intense. Occasionally, how
ever, we have a touch of humour, which is
almost inseparable from an Irish tale, and
now and then a burst of deep tenderness and
strong natural pathos. Certainly, the work
bears all the evidences of an imaginative
mind and a creative fancy. The following
presents thehistory of the old hag who first
gives the wild, phantom-seeking propensity
to the Ghost-hunter's mind:

"In her pride of prime, we may hence conclude that Hesther had but few feminine acquaintances; she certainly had not one friend. And when this haughty and scurrilous daughter of Eve, notwithstanding all her previous scorn of the male sex, became guilty of an irrecoverable and unhidable false step, it cannot be wondered at if the outcry against her was general and violent. In vain did Hesther endeavour to brave the consequences of her error; in vain did she sally forth into the streets, determined to let the world see how exceedingly little she thought about it. Insult, derision, or contempt met her at every step, and she returned home crest fallen; the natural gall of her heart made ten times more bitter.

A mania for periodical publications of al-in reality. Upon this circumstance hang the most every kind has of late been fostered by the public, and spread, flame-like, over the world of letters. The works of Scott and Byron, Lardner's Cyclopædia, the standard novels, the sterling fictions of the olden time, nay, even the classics, of still more ancient date, have been formed into sets and libraries, of which the several volumes make their monthly appearance, like fruits coming in their season; and truly may we say of most of them, that the tree on whose "In a short time Hesther left the place of branches they have ripened has been planted her birth, taking with her all the ready money in a fertile and luxuriant soil. In accordpossessed, after lives of great industry, by ance with this spirit, or rather fancy of the her parents. The sister beauties of her town, times, the work before us has been published; at least all those of her own humble rank, and we do not think that the very clever looked cheerful and greatly relieved after her person who has taken the office of editor departure. But her father and mother will have any reason to regret the opinion drooped. The world went wrong with them. that, an original romance by one of our most They lost their business; they closed their popular authors would prove a welcome doors; the kitchen cauldron lay, bottom companion to the standard work, and be uppermost, in a corner. "The ould Red received by the public as a friendly visitor Cow" was blown down by a storm; and the a mirror reflecting the manners of peculiar poor couple died in wretchedness, after havtimes and lands-a line marking the progress "At all hours, from eight in the morning severally bequeathed a curse to the unnaand variety of modern genius. As a mattering to ten at night, a huge pot simmered on tural cause of their ruin.

"We are now compelled to have much to say of old Hesther Bonnetty.

"She was a native of the town in which the occurrences we detail took place. Her parents were reckoned comfortable in their times. Their house was of long standing in their popular line of business; and they had the reputation of being the brewers of the very best shebeen.

"Between forty and fifty years after this event, Hesther re-appeared, at first unknown and unrecognised, in her native city. Indeed, it was impossible for any one with whom she impudently claimed acquaintance, to discover in the sallow, wrinkled, and spiteful physiognomy of the old woman before them, the slightest residue of the charms which had once distinguished Hetty of the Red Cow.'

"But although she failed by every other meaus to make herself known, she still possessed, in unimpaired, if not augmented force, her tongue-for age, we believe, seldom injures in a woman the powers of that little member; and Hesther could at least inspire fear and wonder by her knowledge of the details of long-gone scandal, which the hearers, for nearly half a century, had hoped Jay buried in the grave with its author." Now for her dwelling.

old Hesther Bonnetty had taken up her wisdom. The Chinese shoe and shirt are
abode in this deserted place. Vague rumours as they were centuries ago; the Physician is
had for some time been afloat, that she held the same in his style and cut as when he
intercourse with others than her own shun- first came among us. His black coat, unlike
ned and shunning fellow creatures; and Dominie Sampson's, hath had no renovating
these arose chiefly from her own manner of air; his wig is the wig of hoar antiquity;
speaking; for she would threaten any who his brazen-headed cane is the same awful
roused her wrath with ruin and perdition, instrument which used to chill the blood of
and assert her power to affect her threat; our grandmothers. It is this sturdy con
and as it was pretty well known that earthly tempt of change, this philosophic indifference
power she had none, the plausible conclusion to the shifting modes of generations, which,
was that she confidently depended on agency doubtless, the Physician looks upon as so
of an unearthly description.
many ant-swarms, that appeals to our love
of justice, and impels us to prove the high
claims of Francis Moore to the patronage of
all mankind; inasmuch that they may go on,
scrambling through briar and brake, for the
ignis fatuis,-intellectual improvement,
whilst the Physician keeps "a more removed
ground," and proudly sticks to the antiquity
of his wisdom. To proceed,

"What might have been the exact extent of people's suppositions on this subject, has not come within our knowledge. Exclusively, however, of the fact of her having chosen so lonely a place of residence, it was plain that old Hesther could not, with her own hands, have drilled a hole through the top of her den, to let the smoke out; nor have "In the first instance, after her unwel- so thoroughly repaired the dilapidated door, come return, Hesther took up her quarters through the head of the stone steps, as to among the poorest of her species; but even be able to bolt and bar it against all intrudto them the incessant virulence of her speech ers. Without any extraordinary stretch of rendered her unendurable. Door after door understanding, it might, indeed, have ocbecame shut against her; until at last, mut-curred to the commentators, that, if Hesther tering curses against every human being, she could boast of supernatural assistants, they was compelled to choose her abode in a might as well have supplied her with a complace where, with the exception of rats, fortable and respectable domicile off-haud; bats, and screech-owls, she was the sole or, at any rate, have given her an entirely inhabitant. new door, instead of patching up, no matter how strongly, her old one: but speculations of this kind are not generally famed for consistency.

"Witch or not, fairy woman or not,
ghost-seer or not, Hesther had lived in this
suspicious place for about two years before
our acquaintance with her. Over her out-
ward rampart of rubbish she daily clambered,
and out into the streets she daily issued, to
levy contributions for her miserable exist-
ence. Not, indeed, that she sought to arouse,
in her favour, the charity of good Christians;
no such thing; she extorted what she
demanded by the terror of her tongue; and
the bribe for quietness was bestowed, as
some savage nations sacrifice to their divinity,
not to engage his good offices, but to wile
him from his wicked intentions towards

We may perchance refer again to Mr.
Banim's story.

In the following Homeric strain doth the Physician invoke many-eared Jove, touching the business of the deity with the Doctor's pen:

JANUARY.

Assist, great Jove! and make my humble pen
A welcome herald to all minds of men!
The various actions of the following year;
May it heaven's curtain draw, and here declare
How the stars affected are to love or hate,
To nations, cities, and each mortal's fate.

The pen having at once performed the functions of a herald and a curtain-drawer, the doctor proceeds to

FEBRUARY.

Five planets join'd this month, whence I gather,
We shall have strange variety of weather t

Besides, freshens we marriages shall find,
Where couples, with vast oddities, are join'd.
Old with the young, the foul match'd with the fair,
The priest ne'er minds, 'tis they must have the care!
This is somewhat bitter of the Doctor. We
would pass over the fact that a couple must
be joined into vast oddities, thereby making
to every marriage, at least four parties; but
we must condemn the hit at the parson who,
it is here scaudalously inferred, cares not
whether the couples live like two sweet birds,
"linked into a silver hook and eye," or
quarrel cat and dog, so that the said parson
have his wedding-fees. This libel will,
through us, be known at Lambeth Palace.
Come we to rugged

MARCH.

"One of the principal streets of the town ran straight to a bridge, which crossed a good broad stream. Along the little quay branching from the bridge, at one hand, Hesther hobbled her way to the rear of a ruinous old mansion, of which the front faced the street mentioned, and which was nearly the last next to the river. It had long been untenanted; its out-offices were in complete ruins; the hall which they had surrounded lay in heaps of rubbish; and over this rubbish the outcast old woman would scramble to her home-a cellar, namely, of the deserted house, which she gained through a narrow arch-way, and a flight of stone steps. This den was arched over head, and divided into two apartments; and in that next to the entrance Hesther dwelt. In one corner was a rickety bed-them." stead; and when she slept, she was protected against the damp only by a piece of straw matting hung against the wall at the head of her miserable couch. There was Vox Stellarum; or a Loyal Almanack for some clumsy contrivance for a fire-place in the Year of Human Redemption, 1833. another corner; and a three-legged stool, By Francis Moore, Physician. Printed and a straw boss, completed the catalogue for the Company of Stationers. If we pluck out the heart of this mystery, of her furniture. Into the second apart- WE intend to signalize our first appearance we may conclude that in "March" we may ment, accessible by an open door-way in the by a great act of justice. The Vox Stel- expect to reap a very fine harvest. In April solid party wall, Hesther never entered, larum, or, literally, Francis Moore, Physi-"great Jove salutes the sun," from which though she often directed her voice into it cian, has hitherto been venally overlooked the Doctor infersfrom her bed at night, praying for heavy by all of those whom we are now pleased to curses on the gamboling or scratching rats, call contemporaries. We are at a loss to whose occupations, or whose vagaries therein, account for this neglect. Every other annual would not let her sleep. Sufficient light is graced with a review, why not Moore's crept down the stone steps, from the arched annual? Besides, the Physician has higher door above, to let her see what she was claims than any other yearly publication. about in the day-time; but the unexplored They go on, season after season, endeavourportion of her residence was perfectly dark.ing, as they assert, to improve in beauty and "There were many remarks passed by utility. The Physician scorns such professhrewd observers, when it was known that sions. He is fixed, immutable, in primitive

How the high cliffs their craggy arms extend,
Distinguish states, and sever'd realms defend;
Now ambient shores confine the restless deep,
And in their ancient bounds the billows keep;
The hollow vales their smiling pride unfold;
And rich abundanee do their bosoms hold.

"The dire effects of the Jupetrine's Square; Yet question not, we shall be used to smell

The smoke; if we escape the flame, 'tis well." Mark! how confidently the Doctor rests on the olfactory sensitiveness of his worshippers. Were his readers thorough-bred spaniels, (and they shew a wisdom worthy of that sagacious tribe,) he could not speak with greater certainty. In "May," the Doctor gives us nothing particular-Yes; he says in his