PART 1] REVIEW.-Nichols's Literary Illustrations, vol. VI. illustrated by original correspondence, we may notice, as particularly worthy of our readers' attention, those of the late Earl of Buchau, and of Bishop Percy. The life of the Earl of Buchan was a long, active, and busy period. He was the brother of Thomas Lord Erskine, sometime Lord Chancellor, and of Henry Erskine, an eminent lawyer at Edinburgh, perhaps the only one of the three who did not frequently call the public attention to certain peculiarities of what is termed eccentricily, which are still remembered. The Earl, born in 1742, seems very early to have distinguished himself by an independence of political character, which prevented his attaining some of the honours to which he might have aspired, and seems to have thrown him back on his own resources, which were those of a man of general literature and antiquarian taste. Besides being the founder of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, he was a frequent and indefatigable contributor to that and other similar societies, as well as to the Gentleman's Magazine and other periodical publications for a great many years. His Lordship married at Aberdeen, in 1771, Margaret, eldest daughter of his cousin-german, William Fraser, of Fraserfield, co. Aberdeen, esq., but by her, who died in 1819, had no family. The Earl died April 16, 1829, when the titles devolved on his Lordship's nephew, Henry David Erskine, esq., eldest son of the Hon. Henry Erskine, who died in 1817. It is impossible to read the worthy Earl's correspondence with Mr. Gough, Mr. Nichols, &c. without admiring the spirit and perseverance he displayed for many years in promoting the study of the antiquities and the biography of his native country; and that amidst difficulties and discouragements, which do little credit to many of his contemporaries. But it must be owned there was a warmth in his politics which interfered rather too much with those public opinions which prevailed both in Scotland and England during the last thirty years of his life, and this warmth he could not conceal, either in his public or private correspondence. The Life and Correspondence of Dr. Percy, late Bishop of Dromore, or rather the Correspondence, confirms many particulars of the learned Prelate's temper, which were previously not unknown. We have had as yet no au 615 thentic account of his life. It appears by a letter here that his friends knew very little of his early life. For a bishop his life was singularly eventful. As he went through its different stages, he went through corresponding changes of station and opinions; and what is rather singular, every new event made him anxious to bury in oblivion that which preceded. The account before us affords various illustrations of what we may term the mutability both of his pursuits and his temper. He set out as the author of many performances (not all enumerated here) which he afterwards wished to be forgotten. Attaching himself, however, at a very early period, to poetical antiquities, he produced those volumes of Ballads and Ballad History which will probably be longest remembered. They served to form a class, or a school, of poetical antiquaries which still flourishes; but it was long before the public could recognise the divine, the future prelate, in Dr. Percy's history. The only symptoms were a single sermon, preached on a public occasion, and a small volume, entitled "A Key to the New Testament," published in 1773. His temper appears to have embroiled him with many of his friends; of this we have well-known specimens in Boswell's Life of Johnson, and Cradock's Memoirs; and in the correspondence before us he is wrangling with booksellers and printers. continued to the last the affectation of suppressing his literary contribu tions. He seems even to sink upon us his share in the Life of Dr. Goldsmith; prefixed to the edition of that author's works in 4 vols. 8vo. Still there ap pears to have been much in his character that was good-substantially good-but his rank as a churchman is inconsiderable; nor can he form any more than a very slight article in any future collection of the Lives of Bishops. He The lives of the Rev. Thomas Kerrich, of Sir James Edward Smith, of the Dawsons, of the Rev. Geo. Burton, and Mole the algebraist, will form very interesting additions to future biographical collections; but these and many others we must pass over with this brief, though commendatory notice. We cannot, however, omit referring our readers to two letters in the life of Mr. Kerrich, on the origin of Gothic architecture, which bring that, question nearer to a point than any 616 REVIEW. Brayley's Knowledge of Nature. thing we can remember. Indeed, Kerrich's life is altogether original and interesting. This volume is illustrated by the following portraits, which are engraven from original pictures, and in a very superior style:-William Gifford, Rev. Baptist Noel, Rev. Theophilus Buckeridge, Rev. Treadway Nash, D.D., John Charles Brooke, esq., Right Hon. William Burton Conyngham, David Earl of Buchan, Dr. Percy Bishop of Dromore, Rev. Thomas Kerrich, and Sir James Edward Smith, Pr. L. S. The Utility of the Knowledge of Nature considered; with reference to the introduction of Instruction in the Physical Sciences into the general education of Youth. By E. W. Brayley, jun. A.L S. Lecturer on Natural Philosophy and Natural History. 8vo, pp. 117. THERE are two palpable positions with regard to the subject before us; one is, that the inability of man to receive or acquire knowledge, but through physical media, renders it absolutely necessary that he should know the qualities and operations of those media; the other, that a lecturer or teacher of them is bound to have a perfect acquaintance with his subject. Both these positions are truisms, but we add no more, because in disquisitions of this kind the actions of the particular subjects exhibit the merits or benefits distinctly from others, and because Mr. Brayley introduces his work with the following excellent proëmium : "Civilization may be defined to be that state of human existence, in which Man so disposes the objects of nature which are subject to his use, as to enable him either to control, or to evade, the action of those natural powers which would otherwise injure him, or interfere with his supremacy over those impediments to his happiness which are inseparable from his material constitution; and for the final cause, that, being in the one case enabled to substitute those powers for his own bodily labour, and in the other, relieved from their injurious operation, he may, by the cultivation of his higher intellectual and moral faculties, so increase in wisdom and goodness, as to attain the highest degree of happiness he is capable of enjoying; both in this world, and in a future eternal state. The Civilization attained, is proportionate to the degree of perfection with which those natural powers are controlled, or made subservient to the welfare of mankind; and all those secular pursuits of the human race which tend to augment the true happiness of the individual, while they [VOL. CI. contribute at the same time to the welfare of society at large, are resolvable, either directly or indirectly, into the control or resistance of the powers of nature, the acquiing them, which is necessary, effectually to sition of that degree of knowledge concernsubdue them, or to counteract their injurious influence, or the review and illustration of the Moral History of Man. Such, I conceive, if we regard the entire human race, are the ends for which every department of natural knowledge, whether of quantity and form, of substance, or of organized being, every species of profane literature, and all the arts of life, are cultivated. Everything man has in view as desirable, in any condition of existence, is designed by him either to contribute to his well-being in this world, -to the healthy and secure enjoyment of all his means of gratification, whether of the senses or of the mind,-or, by enabling him, in a more perfect manner, to apprehend and comply with the requirements of Revelation, to conduce, as preparative means, to his eternal happiness.' We shall further extract a very useful caution concerning successless projects for finding coal-mines, a caution prevent any further which we hope will foolish waste of money. "Among the geological formations which are developed in Great Britain, there are at most two only which include beds of this mineral that can be worked with commercial advantage. One of these is the Great CoalFormation, situated between the two series the New Red Sandstone and the Old Red of strata called by geologists, respectively, Sandstone; the other is the lower division of the assemblage of clays, sands, and freestones, called the Oolitic series; which lies above the new red sandstone, and consequently is much higher in the series of strata than the great repository of coal just mentioned. The coal-field of the Eastern Moorlands of Yorkshire, and that of Brora* in Scotland, belonging to the latter formation; but it is the former on which the manufacturing industry of this island principally rests; the coal-fields of the midland counties of England, of Northumberland and Durham, of Cumberland, and the principal coalfields of Scotland, are situated exclusively in it. I have mentioned the deposits of coal in the Oolitic series, in order to be philosophi~ cally correct in my statement on the subject; but in a commercial point of view *For the authenticated knowledge of the true geological position of the Brora coal, we are indebted to Mr. Murchison, to whose extensive researches in Geology much of our present improved acquaintance with the more recent regular strata is due. See Transactions of Geological Society, Second Series, vol. ii. pp. 293, 353, PART 1.] REVIEW.-Brayley's Knowledge of Nature. they are insignificant; and although the beds in Eastern Yorkshire have long been known, an eminent geologist, after enumerating the various positions in the earth in which carbonaceous matter occurs, so lately as the year 1822, thought it necessary to conclude with the following explicit caution: "In thus stating the occasional occurrence of carbonaceous beds in other formations [than the Great Coal-Formation above mentioned,] it is necessary carefully to guard against the error of supposing that any supplies of this mineral, capable of being profitably worked, are to be found anywhere without the limits of the coal-district of which we are now treating; an error that has led to much waste of capital in fruitless speculation. The local deposits above mentioned [those of the plastic clay, the Oolites, &c.] are objects of Geological curiosity, not of statistical interest.'"* In the digest of his matter, the perspicuity of his elucidations, the solidity of his remarks, the picturesque exhibition of his phoenomena, and frequent corruscations of talent, Mr. Brayley is to be classed with the best of our Lecturers on Natural Philosophy. In one particular only, the mode of decyphering inscriptions in unknown languages (see p. 71 seq.), we think that there is a defect. It is known that a wager was laid, in regard to the King's decypherer of the Willes family, viz. that a set of characters should be handed to him of which he could not furnish an inter pretation. The only condition imposed on his part was, that the characters should indicate the letters of an alphabetical language, each letter having the same character, the form of that character being optional. A quantity of pure arbitrary strokes, but conformable to the condition, were accordingly forwarded; and, in an hour, the manuscript was returned, satisfactorily decyphered, and pronounced to be what it actually was, the Lord's Prayer in Swedish. It is therefore plain, that, without the slightest disrespect to men of such transcendent merit as Dr. Young and others, there has been nothing_miraculous in the discovery of the Greco-Egyptian Enchorial language; nor would there be in any other language whatever, which is constructed upon the principle of an alphabet, where similar characters denote similar letters. Decyphering is in fact an art founded chiefly upon the following *Conybeare: "Outlines of the Geology of England and Wales," p. 329. GENT. MAG. Suppl. Cİ. PART. I. F 617 rule. In every alphabet some letters * Hieroglyph. Literat. P. 13. 618 REVIEW.-Conder's Italy. than the age of Alexander. Of course nothing older than this has been in reality decyphered at all; and of the previous existence of a Greek alphabet there is no doubt. In fact, then, all that has been done is the discovery of those signs by which the Greco-Egyptians expressed Greek letters. The real old Egyptian hieroglyphical language remains, with a few very partial exceptions, in its original obscurity. In proof of this, it is to be remembered, that the Rosetta stone does not exhibit, like the papyri consulted by Dr. Young (see chap. iii.), an agreement, character for character, between the enchorial and hieratic writing. This disagreement, Dr. Young says, "can only be explained by consider ing the sacred characters as the remains of a more ancient and solemn mode of expression, which had been superseded in common life by other words and phrases" (p. 16), and to decypher an un-alphabetical hieroglyphic language, like the Chinese, by means only of a few surviving monuments, presents, according to the same author (p. 12), a combination of difficulties almost insurmountable to human industry. We suggest further, for Mr. Brayley's consideration, the remarks upon Astronomy in Mr. Godwin's "Thoughts on Man" (Essay xxi. p. 376). We give no opinion about his doubts; but they deserve attention, for if they are correct, the mathematical ladder by which astronomers ascend to heaven, is one like Jacob's, a dream only. Italy. By Josiah Conder, Author of the "Modern Traveller." 3 vols. 16mo. Plates. A GENERAL description of Italy, approachnig to accuracy or completeness, does not (says Mr. Conder) exist in our Literature.' Lord Byron makes a similar complaint of Eustace, "whose work affords little evidence that he had ever set foot in Italy," (pref. vii.) Millin and Lalande have the same character in that country. Errors of all kinds abound in other writers, because the curiosities of Italy belong to sculpture, painting, and architecture, of which the writers have no professional knowledge; and no man can explain what he does not understand. The best English writers on Italy are pronounced in particular to be Forsyth, Williams, Bell, Woods, Hobhouse, Burton, Lumsden, Cramer, [VOL. CI. Brockedon, Cadell, and Pennington. A more modern traveller, Dr. Johnson, has exposed the dirtiness of the people, and the danger of the malaria. On this last point Mr. Conder has suggested some very simple precautions, which we shall extract for our specimen. "It is well known to persons acquainted with the shores of the Mediterranean, that concealed water, lurking as it were beneath the surface, is the enemy most to be dreaded as the source of fatal miasmata. High grounds are in general safe; but this is because they are generally dry. When water has been conveyed to them by artificial means, and afterwards suffered to stagnate and soak into the earth, or whenever there happens to be moisture in the soil from other causes, fevers are generated. "Gardens, in low situations, often bepartly for this reason, that, in the East, come the source of malaria; and it may be they have been excluded from the closelybuilt cities. Mr. Simond remarks, that, in the low but healthy parts of Rome, those houses which have a garden are not safe, while the neighbourhood without gardens is safe. The outskirts of towns thus situated are always particularly unhealthy, while, within the walls, the inhabitants are secure. where, during the sickly season, In the pine-barrens of South Carolina, it is deemed healthy spots where the overseers of plantahazardous to pass a night, there are some tions reside with impunity; but it is found that, in order to be safe, not a tree must be cut down, except to leave room for the house; and the smallest garden would entail some risk. Even broad streets, notwithstanding the apparent benefit of a freer ventilation, are neither a luxury nor an advantage in southern climates; and it is not without reason that Tacitus represents Nero as having spoiled Rome by widening the streets. Before his time, they were, in general, very narrow, and the wider ones were the least healthy. It is still found, that the heart of the modern city, where the houses are contiguous, notwithstanding the lowness of the ground, and how near soever to the river, is quite exempt from the malaria which reigns in the gardens and vineyards of the Seven Hills. *"Kuolls and bluffs, in a marshy country, have often been found far more unhealthy situations, than the immediate margin of the within reach of the miasmata. In the Ponriver; but this must be because they are tine marshes, an elevation of 200 feet is barely sufficient to quently, the infected atmosphere does not ensure safety. Frerise higher than 100 feet, and rarely higher than 500; nor is it carried to any great distance by the wind." PART I.] REVIEW.-Sketches from Venetian History. It "All these facts concur to prove, that the danger originates in laying bare the soil to the direct action of the sun; and that, when shaded by either woods or buildings, the plague is stayed. Although moisture is necessary to generate these noxious exhalations, they arise not from the water, but from the soil. Consequently, tracts covered with water, but not reduced to marsh, are rendered harmless, although their immediate neighbourhood may be highly insalubrious. The exemption from endemic fever, which Venice enjoys, has been attributed to the salt water; but experience has taught the Indians of Venezuela to build their huts on piles amid their great fresh-water lake, in order to escape the noxious atmosphere which constantly envelops its borders.* is the vapour of stagnant water only that is injurious, because it then becomes charged with vegetable or mineral effluvia. Ships, indeed, have been affected by noxious exhalations from swampy shores, at a considerable distance, in tropical climates; but this must be owing to the wind setting in that direction. The exhalations of the soil extend further in proportion to their greater density and malignity; and these appear to be according to the greater intensity of atmospheric heat. Under the climate of Italy, the endemic pestilence is so strictly local, that an ascent of ten minutes will often place you above its reach, while a narrow street will sometimes divide the healthy from the infected district." Knowledge concerning Italy is so accessible, and rendered particularly so by Mr. Conder's well-digested work before us, that we add no more. We have deemed it an affair of general utility to disseminate his elucidation of malaria, and that has occupied our utmost allowable space. Sketches from Venetian History. Vol. I. Murray's Family Library. THE utility of "bogs turned up to dry," is conspicuous in the two amphibious states of Holland and Venice; one inhabited by Lutheran frogs, the other by Papal sea-gulls. It is certain that maritime sites sharpen our intellectual powers and augment our resources; danger appears not as a giant, but as a ghost; difficulties are reduced to only bad roads; man by custom and contrivance is great-coated against water *Hence the name of Venezuela, or Little Venice, given by the Spaniards to the territory. See Modern Traveller, vol. xxvii. P. 211. + Sir Gilbert Blane says 3000 feet, and even further. 619 as against weather; and he acquires moral strength of character, heroic bravery, and chivalrous generosity. Many instances of these qualities, and much ingenuity, displayed in overcoming circumstances, are conspicuous in these interesting sketches. We shall however only extract some curious matters. In p. 29 we are told, concerning a Constantinopolitan Dogessa, who shared the Crown of a Doge in 1069, that "her apartments were so saturated with perfumes, that those who were unaccustomed to such odours fainted upon entering." The explanation given by Dr. Johnson, in his "Change of Air," p. 274, is this," Habituation to the STINK of the Roman streets, perverts the sensibility of the olfactory nerves-renders them unaccustomed to decent smellsand throws them into convulsions on contact with a perfume.' The origin of our cross-legged monuments is not known; and the meaning is supposed to denote performance of a crusade. It is certain that the Emperor Frederic Barbarossa is so represented in a sitting position upon a basso-relievo on the Porta Romana at Milan (see p. 82, woodcut). Strutt, in his Dresses, pl. vii. gives us an illumination of the eighth century, where a personage of distinction is seated in a similar cross-legged position; and Montfaucon gives us a figure of Dagobert, who reigned ann. 628-644, and has his feet resting upon dogs. We shall make no other observation upon the subject, than this, viz. that the fashion with sitting figures is antecedent to the Crusades. Every body has heard of the famous bronze horses ascribed to Lysippus. The following is the account given of them: "Antiquaries appear to hesitate concerning the date and even the native country of these horses; for by some they have been assigned to the Roman school, and to the age of Nero; by others to the Greeks of Chio, at a much earlier period. Though far from deserving a place among the choicest specimens of Art, their possession, if we may trust their most generally received history, has always been much coveted. gustus, it is said, brought them from Alexandria, after his conquest of Antony, and erected them on a Triumphal Arch in Rome; hence they were successively removed by Nero, Domitian, Trajan, and Constantine, to Arches of their own; and in each of these positions, it is believed that they Au |
