new doctrines, which are preached to us, appear to you upon examination to be better and more certain, let us hasten to embrace them without delay.' To this speech of the high-priest, another of Edwin's grandees presently assented in these remarkable words; "So short, O king, is the present life of man on earth, compared with that extent of time which is hid from our view, that it seems to me like the sudden flight of a sparrow through your house, when you are at supper with your generals and ministers in a winter evening, and the hall is heated by a fire in the midst, while furious storms of rain or snow are raging without. It comes in at one door, but presently goes out at another; and though it feels not the wintry tempest when within, yet it enjoys only a momentary calm while it passes from winter on the one side to winter on the other, and then disappears from our eyes. Such is the life of man; it appears for a little space, but what follows it, or what has preceded it, we cannot tell. If, therefore, this new doctrine presents us with something more certain, it ought by all means to be adopted." While others expressed their concurrence with these sentiments, and none appeared to oppose them, Coifi requested that Paulinus should now discourse to them more fully about the God whom he preached; and, when the bishop had finished his discourse, the high-priest exclaimed, "Long have I been convinced that our worship is vanity, since the more I sought for the truth in it, the less I found it: but now I openly profess, that by this preaching we clearly discover that truth that can give us life, salvation, and eternal felicity. I therefore propose to your majesty, that we hasten to profane those temples and altars which we have foolishly venerated." Upon this the king openly renounced idolatry, and professed his adherence to the faith of Christ. Then turning to Coifi, he asked him, who ought first to profane the altars and temples of the idols. "I," replies the highpriest, "for who is more proper than myself to set the example to others, in destroying through the wisdom granted me by the true God, the things which I have worshipped in my folly?" And immediately renouncing idolatry, he begged the king to give him arms and a horse, both of which it was unlawful for him to use, according to the rules of their superstition; and, Edwin having complied with his request, he mounted the horse, and with a sword by his side, and a lance in his hand, he rode to the idol temple at Godmundham, not far from the king's palace on the Derwent, where this assembly appears to have been held. Upon reaching the scene of his former idolatries, he threw his lance into the building, in order to profane it, and in token of defiance to the idols whom it contained. This was the signal for its destruction; for those who accompanied him, following his example and his orders, presently burned it to the ground.-Young's History of Whitby. A contented Bishop.. A friend coming to see the learned bishop Prideaux, while he was labouring under great privations and distress, and saluting him in the common form of, "How does your Lordship do?" He replied, "Never better in my life, only I have too great a stomach; for I have eaten that little plate which the sequestrator left me: I have eaten a great library of excellent books; I have eaten a great deal of linen, much of my brass, some of my pewter, and now I am come to eat iron; and what will come next I know College Anecdote. In the course of the publication of the Spectator in folio, the paper, as it came, was commonly hung up within the bars of the coffee-houses at Oxford and Cambridge. A wag at the University, who stole in to read No. 154, which bears for its motto that well-known passage from Juvenal, Nemo repentè fuit turpissimus, wrote underneath the following free translation:- "It is a long while ere one becomes a Senior Fellow." ON THE ORIGIN OF GRACE AT MEAT. བ༥་་མ0་་་་་་་་ To the Editors of the Northern Star. IT appears not a little remarkable that the greater part of our popular customs, as well sacred as profane, may without much difficulty be proved to have originated at a time when the world was altogether immersed in paganism and idolatry; yet this is a circumstance (especially as far as regards religious ceremonies) at which we need not be surprised; for the religion of the ancients, however degraded it may appear when we consider the unworthy objects to which it was addressed, had in it, notwithstanding, many affecting tokens of the gratitude due from creatures to their Creator, several of which have with the greatest propriety been adopted in the service of the true God. That the minds of the ancients were deeply impressed with the idea of a superintending providence is most forcibly proved by their scrupulous attention to one ceremony, which amongst others has continued in use from their times to our own. Whatever might be their haste, or whatever situation they might be in, it appeared to them a crime of no ordinary magnitude for any one to eat before he had offered a part of the provisions to those deities whom they worshipped. Athenæus informs us that the neglect of this duty was an impiety, of which none but those who denied the existence of the gods durst be guilty. That it was never omitted by any who paid attention to their religion is proved from the following passage in the ninth Iliad :— "The first fat offerings to the immortals due, Amidst the greedy flames Patroclus threw." So also Virgil observes in the first Æneid, "She said, and on the board in open view This practice of presenting, before the commencement of their meals, a part of the provision to their deities was in imitation of the greater sacrifices offered in their temples. When the worship of the living God began to supersede those adorations which had been paid to the works of men's hands, sacrifices were still continued, and we learn that the Israelites were enjoined by the Mosaic Law to present before the Lord a part of their fruits and 3 L flocks: nor whilst a regard to public oblation was thus paid, did the use of a religious ceremony at meals fall into neglect: the Jews, though they poured out no libations, nor cast the choicest parts of their viands into the flames, were nevertheless very strict in offering to the Almighty the more acceptable sacrifice of prayer and thanksgiving before they presumed to partake of that which his bounty had afforded: this rational adoption of an idolatrous usage to the purposes of true devotion was thought so judicious that we find it continued from the first profession of Christianity down to the present time. Here, then, we find the origin of Grace at Meat, a custom sanctioned by the constant practice of our Redeemer, and which seems admirably calculated as well to keep alive the flame of piety and gratitude in the religious breast, as to awaken in the hearts of the most careless a just sense of their dependent state; and justly has it been observed that the too frequent instances, in which it is negligently and irreverently performed, constitute no juster plea against its general utility than the arguments of those who foolishly object to its continuance because it originated with pagans and idolaters. S. I. LAW. CULINA having succeeded in procuring the insertion of her paper, the following attempt at a confutation of so unphilosophical a doctrine may not be unacceptable, particularly as the error is nearly universal, and may often lead young minds to spend those moments unprofitably, which ought to be given up with far more advantage to investigations of real importance, and in which there is some chance of truth forming the basis. He is as innocent I deny the fact. The sun is only the apparent cause. as the moon. When the sun shines on a grate, the brightness of his rays obscures those of the culinary fire. It becomes difficult to perceive whether the coals retain that heat and redness which it is known they possessed a little while before, or it is likely that the gayness of the atmosphere withdraws the cook's attention from her proper business. The fire becomes neglected; and when a casual obscuration of the sun by a cloud, or the removal of its rays by its apparent motion, gives the fire the advantage in light, the cook becomes astonished; coals ought to have been added half an hour ago, the bottom bars ought to have been cleared of rubbish, the meat consequently is not half done, and the mistress is scolded by the impatient wretch of a master. There is one way, however, in which I believe the sun has sometimes an actual though secondary power in diminishing the heat of the fire. When the sun shines strongly, the wind generally ceases, the air is still, and the chimney becomes deprived of the greatest part of that draught which is the supporter of the fire, and which by an American philosopher has been aptly called Nature's Bellows. Versatility of Disposition incompatible with scientific Attainments. 455 With regard to the candle, I have merely to ask who would look at a lighted one on a sunshiny day. The snuff lengthens unperceived, the wick becomes obstructed with dust, the flame is divided and diminished, and is it not likely that the cook herself in her hurry may extinguish it with a whisk of her tail. THRASEA. VERSATILITY OF DISPOSITION INCOMPATIBLE WITH SCIENTIFIC AND LITERARY ATTAINMENTS. ༢༠་༢༠༢༠༠་བ༦༢༠༠༠་༠༠༠་ To the Editors of the Northern Star. FROM the commencement of your publication I have regularly perused it, or at least such parts of it as were at all suited to the capacity of a female, whose education and employments have fitted her for domestic avocations rather than for literary pursuits ;-many parts of it I admire, some I have read to my children, and others have furnished me with topics of conversation for hours after tea: yet, after all, to your Magazine I have to attribute nearly all the uneasiness which as a wife I have recently been doomed to experience. My husband is a tradesman of considerable repute and some property; we farm our own land, and carry on the malting business to a considerable extent. Our exertions were crowned with success, and my husband's industry and attention to business were daily adding to our property, when that number of the Northern Star which contained a proposition for establishing a Literary and Philosophical Society made its appearance. Ah that paper! my husband's ideas were quite changed by it; for some weeks he could talk of nothing but this intended society; his time was occupied in forming plans for conducting it; and I have actually found scraps of paper on which he had written his name, with the letters F. Y. L. P.S. at the ends of them. He soon became acquainted with several persons whose views and predilections were similar to his own; fitted up a room with crucibles, retorts, and I do not know what; conversed in a language to which I was altogether a stranger; and was daily filling the house with such noxious smells that there was scarcely any living in it. But this was a trifle. He one night requested me to bring the children into his laboratory (I think I am correct in the name), where with one of his friends he had been employed the whole of the day:-we went, and sure enough a very pretty sight there was,- a large glass-globe, with a lamp, surrounded by brass wire under it, red hot, and burning most brilliantly. This, he said, was a discovery of Sir somebody Davy's, and of inestimable value, as it burnt up all the gas in coal-pits, which would otherwise poison the workmen: he was going on, when-off it went, blew the globe into a thousand pieces, broke the windows, burnt or wounded my husband, his friend, and the children, and frightened me so much that I was not myself for a week after! And all this, as I afterwards learned, was occasioned by their having made the frame of their lamp of wood instead of iron or some other metal, 1 This and some other accidents cured him of his attachment to chemistry, and I was in good hopes that things were getting into their old channels, when, alas! he became as much enamoured of the study of Antiquity as he had been of his former pursuit ; and this, if possible, was attended with worse consequences; for somebody or other having put it in his head that a part of the malt-house was supported by a fine Saxon arch, he nearly destroyed the whole building in endeavouring to remove it: and, after all, was only laughed at for his pains by those who knew better. From digging up the ground in search of coins, which he could never find, and broken pots, the acquisition of which only exposed him to ridicule, he turned his attention to the study of the planets; procured telescopes and various astronomical apparatus, and was actually about to lay out a large sum of money in converting the garden-house into an observatory, when his views were again changed by a visit to a relation at Liverpool, who had the kindness to introduce us to the Botanic Garden. The beauty of the place excited our admiration; the variety and arrangement of the plants filled us with astonishment ;-the observatory was abandoned, astronomy was for gotten, and the same earnestness which distinguished him in the outset of his former pursuits, now hurries him on in the study of Botany. This, Gentlemen, is briefly my situation; and these are the evils to which your praise of scientific pursuits has unhappily given rise. My education has not been so far neglected, but that I can, in some measure, appreciate the value of these acquirements; yet I am not so ignorant as to imagine that their attainment is so facile as that an individual can with ease, and in a short time, become particularly distinguished in any one of them. My husband's conduct might warrant us to suppose that he is of a different opinion; and indeed, in his over-great desire to reach the summit of the hill of science, he constantly endeavours to find out some near road by which he can rapidly move to the object he contemplates. This is his error, and the error of all those who forsake the well beaten path which leads to distinction, and imagine that some bye-way will enable them to skip over one half the ground, and conduct them at once to the goal they aspire after. You may naturally ask, why I prefer addressing you on this subject, to remonstrating with him who is the cause of my uneasiness. I can only answer, that to my husband I look up as the director of my actions, and have not yet, on any occasion, presumed to direct him. I am aware, too, that when a wife takes upon her to censure her husband's conduct, contention is most commonly the result, and added causes of uneasiness arise. I am of the opinion too, that if you would point out the folly of such a versatility of disposition, which will ever prevent, (especially a tradesman, a small portion of whose time can only be devoted to literary or scientific pursuits,) from attaining to any thing more than mere superficial knowledge, the object which I have in view would be fully answered, and you would confer an obligation on your constant reader, P.S. |