which they so powerfully called up in others, yet by frequent repetition those feelings must become deadened in great measure, and the performer trust to the memory of past emotion, rather than express a present one. She indignantly repelled the notion, that with a truly great tragedian the operation, by which such effects were produced upon an audience, could ever degrade itself into what was purely mechanical. With much delicacy, avoiding to instance in her self-experience, she told me, that so long ago as when she used to play the part of the Little Son to Mrs. Porter's Isabella, (I think it was) when that impressive actress has been bending over her in some heart-rending colloquy, she has felt real hot tears come trickling from her, which, (to use her powerful expression,) have perfectly scalded her back. I am not quite so sure that it was Mrs. Porter; but it was some great actress of that day. The name is indifferent; "but the fact of the scalding tears I most distinctly remember. [Miss Kelly, in the Recollections with which she is now entertaining the public at the Strand Theatre, narrates in her own pathetic manner, a similar anecdote of Mrs. Siddons, (as Queen Constance,) bedewing with tears the little collar of her (Miss K.'s) dress, as Prince Arthur. The Tombs in the Abbey is a well-timed let ter to Mr. Southey, on the exactions or tombfees at Westminster. The following is just.] Stifle not the suggestions of your better nature with the pretext, that an indiscriminate admission would expose the Tombs to violation. Remember your boy-days. Did you ever see, or hear, of a mob in the Abbey, while it was free to all? Do the rabble come there, or trouble their heads about such speculations? It is all that you can do to drive them into your churches; they do not voluntarily offer themselves. They have, alas! no passion for antiquities; for tomb of king or prelate, sage or poet. If they had, they would be no longer the rabble. For forty years that I have known the fabric, the only well-attested charge of violation adduced, has been a ridiculous dismemberment com mitted upon the effigy of that amiable spy Major André. And is it for this-the wanton mischief of some school-boy, fired perhaps with raw notions of transatlantic freedom-or the remote possibility of such a mischief occurring again, so easily to be prevented by stationing a constable within the walls, if the vergers are incompetent to the duty-is it upon such wretched pretences that the people of England are made to pay a new Peter's Pence, so long abrogated; or must content themselves with contemplating the ragged exterior of their cathedral? The mischief was done about the time that you were a scholar there. Do you know any thing about the unfortunate relic? [The paper on Sir Philip Sydney's Sonnets is of another description of interest: it is elegant and scholarly; and that on Modern Art is a deserved castigation of the freaks of artists. Old China is pleasant trifling.] The Public Journals. M. C. OR" SLEEPING BEAUTY."* THE young girl who is the subject of the following narrative was born and bred in London. She was the eldest of eight children, and her parents having been obliged to leave the metropolis, on account of pecuniary embarrassments, they seem to have taken up their residence in Aberdeen. The peculiarity of constitution which we are about to describe, first showed itself in December, 1814, when M.C. was house-servant to Mrs. L. On the 2nd of March her father and mother brought her to Dr. Dyce, for medical advice; and this eminent practitioner watched the progress of the disease, with much interest aud accurate observation, till its disappearance in June of the same year. The girl was now nearly sixteen years of age, and had enjoyed very good health for some years past. She was beautiful and well formed, and had such a healthy appearance, that no person could have conjectured that there was any derangement in her corporeal functions. About the end of December, 1814, Mrs. L. had observed that the girl had acquired the habit of sleeping by the fire in the evening, and she had frequent occasion to reprove her for this propensity. Some time afterwards she began to speak in her sleep, and afforded much diversion to her fellow-servants by repeating the occurrences of the day, and by uttering those wild incoherent expressions which are usual with sleep-talkers. When Mrs. L. was, one evening in January, on a visit at a friend's house, and Maria with her, Mrs. L. mentioned the extraordinary fact of her speaking and singing in her sleep. The party requested her to remain, in order to hear her; but being then put upon her guard, she did not fall asleep till after twelve o'clock. She then began to sing a psalm, and fancying herself an episcopal clergyman, she went through the ceremony of baptizing three children, and gave a good and appropriate extempore prayer. A clergyman of that persuasion was present, and expressed his astonishment at what he had heard. In order to satisfy the company that she was asleep, Mrs. L. shook her severely by the shoulders; and having then awakened her, she appeared unconscious of every thing excepting that she had fallen asleep, of which she seemed to be greatly ashamed. From "Magiana; or the Mysteries of Natural and Artificial Magic," in Fraser's Magazine. On another occasion, when Mrs. L. was from home, Maria fell into one of her sleepy fits, and the ladies of the house were called to see her. She imagined that she was living with her aunt at Epsom, and going to the races, and placing herself on one of the kitchen stools, she rode upon it into the room; and, notwithstanding the violent exertion she used, and the tremendous noise she made, she did not awake, but remembered having dreamt of going to the races. Having been severely reprimanded for this exhibition by her mistress, who threatened to part with her if she fell asleep again, and who also promoted the moral efficacy of her rebuke by a dose of salts, Maria did not again fall into a sleepy fit for a whole week. She soon, however, relapsed into her former practice, with this addition, that she answered distinctly any question that was put to her. The disease now increased so rapidly, that it came on at different times of the evening and morning. Mrs. L. assures us, that she has known her to dress herself in the morning, and also the children, while "dead asleep." One morning she came into Mrs. L.'s bedroom for a key, and having taken it as directed from Mrs. L.'s pocket, she was asked what o'clock it was. She replied, laughing, "La, ma'am! it is near twelve." Mrs. L. immediately drew aside the curtain, and perceived, to her great astonishment, that Maria's eyes were shut. She accordingly called for the other servant to take the key; but Maria refused to surrender it, gave the servant what she wanted, locked the door, and put the key into her mistress's pocket. Maria arranged the things on the breakfast-table as usual, with her eyes shut all the time, and having awaked with the child on her knee, she could not understand how she had got on her clothes. While in this state, Mrs. L. frequently lifted up her eyelids, and her eyes appeared quite sunk in her head, as if dead. On another occasion, Mrs. L. found her in a state of stupor, with her eyes open; and as this was the first time that she had seen this, she became greatly alarmed, and was afraid any longer to trust the children with her. She therefore communicated her fears to her mother, recommened medical advice, and procured that interview with Dr. Dyce, on the 2nd of March, which we have already mentioned Being desirous of examining his patient in one of her sleepy fits, Dr. Dyce saw her at his own house on Friday the 3rd of March. "When she was brought into his room, she appeared as if in a state of stupor; her eyes were half open, but when desired she could open them perfectly. At other times she closed them, as if unconscious of what she did. Having desired her to look at me, and tell me who I was, she gave a vacant kind of stare, and named some other person. She was then de sired to look about her, and say where she was. This she did apparently with some attention, but though she had been in the room before, she answered that she was in the New Inn. Afterwards I desired her to look at the light, as the sun was very bright at the time: this she did most readily; but I could perceive no contraction of the iris, which seemed to be in a state of paralysis. At all events, it allowed the greatest quantity of the strongest rays of light to fall on the retina, without producing their usual stimulus on that sensible membrane." But though the sun's rays did not seem to excite the retina, she read a portion of a book which Dr. Dyce put into her hands. During this examination her pulse never exceeded 70, her countenance was quite natural, but her extremities were rather cold. When desired to stand up, she seemed to feel that she had not sufficient muscular power; for on making the first attempt, she staggered like a person suddenly awakened; but after a short time she was able to walk, run, or dance, like other people. Being desired by the servant who brought her, to sing, she began a hymn, which she sang "most delightfully," and without the smallest hesitation. Dr. Dyce heard her sing the same hymn on the 4th of March; and the others, who were better judges of music than himself, concurred in opinion that she sang it with much more spirit and effect during her sleep. When her hands were plunged in cold water, she recovered in a few seconds from her fit, and regained the full possession of all her faculties. She informed Dr. Dyce that, previous to her attack she felt drowsy, with a slight pain in her head, then a cloud or mist came over her eyes, attended with a peculiar noise in the head, which she said resembled a carriage moving with great velocity, in which she herself was seated. At this stage, her conception of things were immediately altered, even if her eyes remained open; and were she asked where she was, her answer was invariably incorrect. On the 5th of March, while in a fit of somnolency, Maria performed her usual duties relative to the pantry and the dinner-table. She would not permit any of the servants to touch a plate, knife, or fork, but laid every thing down in proper order, with her eyelids shut. She asked Mrs. L. for the key of the storeroom, opened it, gave out to another servant what was wanted, and returned the key to her mistress, without even opening her eyelids. During this fit Dr. Dyce went to see her, but she did not recognise him. When Mrs. L. desired her to stand straight up, and look round her, and tell her where she was, she recovered instantly, the expression of her eyes changed, and she immediately knew Dr. Dyce. In a short time, however, she relapsed, and evinced, by the incorrectness of her an swers, that she was under the influence of her complaint. When she was desired to describe what she felt, she placed her hand on her forehead, and complained of her head; re marking, at the same time, that "she saw the mice running through the room." Mrs. L. mentioned that she had made the same remark on former occasions, even when her eyes were shut; and that she frequently imagined that she was accompanied by a little black dog, which she could not get rid of. In some of her fits, she insisted that she was going to church to preach; and when she was one day taking out two infants to an airing, she was seized with one of her fits on the quay, and, without any hesitation, she walked on a single plank, placed between a vessel and the shore, and even danced on it with the children. When she had recovered, she denied all knowledge of this fact; but when she was under the influence of a paroxysm, she acknowledged and asserted it. * * * * * * * Another curious example of the peculiarity of memory already mentioned, occurred on Sunday, when she was taken to church by her mistress during one of her paroxysms. She conducted herself like any other person, and seemed much affected by the sermon, the subject of which was the danger of breaking the sabbath-day. She shed tears during the account which the preacher gave of the execution of three young men in Edinburgh, who had described in their dying confessions the circumstances in which their vicious career had originated. About a quarter of an hour after her return from church she recovered from her fit; she was quite astonished at the questions which were put to her about the church and the sermon, and denied that she had been in any such place. But on the following night, when she was again taken ill, she not only mentioned her having been at church, but repeated the words of the text; and, in Dr. Dyce's hearing, gave an accurate account of the sermon, and of the tragical fate of the three young men whose history had so powerfully affected her feelings. dress, and name them, she could not do it when the light of the candle or the fire shone full upon him; but she pointed at every part accurately when it was placed in the shade. From the singular disease which we have above described, our patient recovered about the 11th of June, when a particular change in her constitution took place; and about a year afterwards Dr. Dyce saw her in a state of perfect health. MODERN REVIEWING. [IN the entertaining paper on the Life and Works of the late Rev. Robert Hall, in Tait's last Magazine, we find the following pungent, but merited observations on the favouritism and trade of modern reviewing:] There are one or two more points on which we should have liked to mention the opinions of Mr. Hall; and among these is the modern system of "reviewing," of which, from feeling and principle, he had a fixed and conscientious detestation. Nothing annoyed him so much as some intrusive friend or brother soliciting his pen to usher a volume into the world-as "the review," written by so eminent a person, threw over the work a reflected lustre. "With respect to the reviewing Mr. -'s Sermon," he writes to a friend, "I must be excused; I have entirely done with reviewing; it is an occupation, of all others, I dislike. If you wish me to publish, you should never wish me to review; for you are not aware what a serious interruption it is." Another unanswerable reason follows: "I have read Mr.'s sermon with much pleasure: it is judicious, serious, and affecting; but I am well aware how extravagantly his friends at have always over-rated his talents; and were I to review, and express myself in such terms only as the occasion would justify, I should mortify instead of gratifying. In truth, reviewing at the request of particular friends is a snare for the conscience. I never wished any person to review for me." As frequent exactions of this kind were During the time that our patient was well, made upon Mr. Hall, we find, in his corresher eyes had all the vivacity of youth and pondence many remonstrances against the health; but when she was seized with a fit, unreasonableness of such demands, as a mere her eyes resembled those of a person under inroad on time; besides that repugnance amaurosis, or of one half inebriated, who had which, in his mind, became an almost morbid never been in that state before. On one oc- feeling. In a letter to Mr. Josiah Conder, casion her stare was accompanied with some- who had been assailing him for some special thing resembling a squint; on another occa- (not personal) object, he says, among other sion, when Dr. Dyce tried to open her eyelids, strong things, "Were such things determined he found the pupils greatly contracted- -aby choice, it is my deliberate opinion, I should state the very reverse of what he had found in all his previous examinations. During her paroxysms she exhibited another remarkable peculiarity: she knew any person better by looking at their shadow than at their body. When Dr. Dyce desired her to point to different parts of his body and I prefer going out of the world by any tolerable mode of death, rather than incur the necessity of writing three or four articles in a year. must, therefore, beg and entreat I may not be urged again upon a subject so ineffably repugnant to all the sentiments of my heart." Mr. Hall's apprenticeship to the reviewing 2 craft was served in the Electric Review; and we see how he took to the trade. This Review began about 1804; and in 1824, Hall protests-he " never looks into either the Electric, or any Review-Edinburgh and Quarterly included, no doubt; and wishes "the whole tribe could be put an end to." The Westminster and Tait's Magazine must rejoice in not having been in existence when this stern denunciation was made, with some other fell curse, conveyed by Dr. Gregory in a series of portentous stars, shedding lurid light over page 539, vol. v. In the same volume Hall asserts, that, under the then regime, we were "doomed to receive our first impression and opinion of books from some of the wickedest, and others of the stupidest of men: men, some of whom have not sense to write upon any subject, nor others honesty, to read what they pretend to criticize; yet sit in judgment upon all performances, and issue their ignorant and foolish oracles to the pub lic." The shameless want of principle in the system of reviewing, justly stigmatized by Hall, has, like every other wickedness which becomes excessive, tended to correct itself. Reviewing is still far from perfect; but arrogance, petulance, flippancy, gross ignorance, and intolerable insolence, have received a de cided check. The Gatherer. Handel's Music has received more lasting and general applause than that of any other composer. By Boyce and Battishill his memory was adored; Mozart was enthusiastic in his praise; Haydn could not listen to his "Messiah," without weeping; and Beethoven has been heard to declare, that were he ever to come to England, he should uncover his head and kneel down at his tomb. THOMAS GILL. Charles James Fox-Lord Holland having resolved to take down the wall before Holland House, and to have an iron railing put up in its stead, it was necessary to use gunpowder to facilitate the work. He had promised Charles James that he should be present whenever the explosion took place. Finding that the labourers had blasted the brick-work in his absence, he ordered the wall to be rebuilt; and, when it was thoroughly cemented, had it blown up again, for the gratification of his favourite boy; at the same time advising those about him never, on any account, to break a promise with children.-Georgian Era. John Wesley." The first discovery," says Wesley, "of the Kingswood colliers being affected, was to see the white gutters made by their tears, which plentifully fell down their black cheeks as they came out of the coal-pits."-Frequently, when he had con cluded his discourse, the whole of his congregation appeared to be riveted to the ground, and not a person moved until he retired. On one occasion, a long wall, built of loose stones, on which many of his hearers were seated, suddenly fell down, without producing any interruption of his own discourse, or the attention of his audience. None of those who had fallen, he observes, screamed; and none of them being hurt, they appeared sitting at the bottom, just as they had sat at top.-16. - Anne, Princess of Orange. It was pro posed, that the heir of the house of Orange should be her husband. On this occasion, George II., being perfectly aware of that prince's great deformity, could not refrain from apprising her of the hideous ugliness of her intended bridegroom, and offered her per mission to refuse his proposals. She replied that she would marry him if he were a baboon. "Well, then," said her father, "there is ba boon enough for you.”—Ibid. theatrical pieces, having given Drury Lane Theatre the title of a wilderness, Sheridan, when requested, shortly afterwards, to produce wise and discreet author calls our house a a tragedy, written by Boaden, replied-"The wilderness. Now, I don't mind allowing the oracle to have his opinion; but it is really too much for him to expect that I will suffer him to prove his words."-Ibid. Sheridan.-Boaden, the author of several Sheridan was dining one day at Peter Moore's, with his son Tom, who was at that time in a very nervous, debilitated state. The servant, in passing quickly between the guests and the fire-place, struck down the platewarmer. This made a loud rattling, and caused Tom Sheridan to start and tremble. Peter Moore, provoked at this, rebuked the servant, and added, "I suppose you have broken all the plates!"—"No, sir," said the servant, not one. "No!" exclaimed Sheridan, “then, d-n it, you have made all the noise for nothing." THOMAS GILL. 66 Russia have the greatest propensity to singNational Singing.-The people of Little ing, especially while travelling. No sooner they begin to hum an air, which they often are postilions mounted for a journey, than continue for hours without intermission; at other times, holding a sort of musical dialogue, and chanting, as it were, their common conversation. The soldiers sing during a whole march; the peasant lightens his labour in the same manner; the public-houses re-echo with their carols; and in a still evening the air vibrates with the songs of sur rounding villages. Printed and published by J. LIMBIRD, 143, Strand, (near Somerset House,) London; sold by G. G. BENNIS, 55, Rue Neuve, St. Augustin, Paris; CHARLES JUGEL, Francfort; and by all Newsmen and Booksellers. |