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mess, which, it is said, he actually succeeded in devouring. This story, not being very effectually concealed, was recollected when he afterwards came to the same end with Nicol Muschat. He lived in the Fleshmarket Close, as appears from the evidence on his trial. He made away with his wife by burning her, and said that she had caught fire by accident. But, as the door was found locked by the neighbours who came on hearing her cries, and he was notorious for abusing her, besides the circumstance of his not appearing to have attempted to extinguish the flames, he was found guilty and executed. He was also hung in chains at the Gallowlee, where Mus chat had hung thirty years before. He did not, however, hang long. A few mornings after having been put up, it was found that he had been taken away during the night. This was supposed to have been done by the butchers of the Edinburgh market, who considered that a general disgrace was thrown upon their fraternity by his ignominious exhibition there. They were said to have thrown his body into the Quarrel Holes.*

(To be concluded in our next.)

STRABO THE GEOGRAPHER.

By the Author of "Anster Fair," &c. STRABO, the most learned and judicious of the ancient geographers, was born about forty or fifty years before the commencement of the Christian era at Amaseia, a flourishing city of Cappadocia, whose situation and appearance he describes, in the twelfth book, with an emphasis of interest derived from its being "his own city," his own romantic town. Of his personal history and adventures little is known, except what accidentally and at intervals glances forth from his own pages. He seems to have studied in his youth under the best masterst in Asia Minor; to have employed every means, whether by reading, meditation, or conversation, for the acquisition of elegant and useful knowledge; and, like Herodotus, to have fitted and perfected himself by travel into many various countries of Europe, Asia, and Africa, for the Hercules-rivalling labours of giving a full description of the then known world, its climates, cities, customs, and go

vernments.

His work is divided into seventeen books, of which the seventh is mutilated; and of others, the text is broken and vitiated by the negligence or ignorance of transcribers. The general character of the writer is, good sense— comprest and forcible style-brief, masterly, and impressive description. He leads us by the hand, as it were, in gradual progress through countries, provinces, and cities; and by a few touches of striking and rapid delineation, at once introduces us into the heart of almost every scene, town, temple, and palace of antiquity. The dry names with which, ere his work be perused, maps seem to be dull and confusedly crowded, become animated and illuminated, as it were, with a living interest, after the perusal of his short but graphic elucidations. He expands not into secondary or unimpressive details, but, catching at once the prominent peculiarities of places and manners, he sets them down in all the energy of his simple significance, and leaves his reader satisfied in the fulness of that emphatic brevity. His work is also interspersed and enlivened with notices and anecdotes of the learned men of every country; and numerous quotations, from Homer and the poets, gem, almost at every page, the

It is perhaps worth recording, as the recollection of a venerable native of Edinburgh who remembered seeing the son of Rob Roy walk down the West Bow to execution, in 1754, that that unfortunate hero then wore a pair of black silk breeches, and was attended by a Roman Catholic clergyman.

Of one of these, Christodemus, not the least celebrated, who taught at Rhodes and Nysa, it may be amusing to observe, that he combined in his Cios maidsurixos the duties of the modern schoolmaster and professor, having two schools, one in the morning, where he gave prelections on rhetoric, and another in the evening, where he taught grammar. He afterwards became tutor to the children of Pompey the Great, contenting himself in that higher appointment with teaching grammar alone.-Lib. 11.

unavoidable uniformity of geographical description. He has indeed been called the Homeric geographer, from his admiration of the land of Smyrna; and, in his masterly chorography of the Troad, he has at once given us, from a reference to the Iliad, an enlarged and intenser interest in that region, and has bestowed upon the works of the poet, from a reference to their geography, more illumination than all his other commentators taken together. As the geographer has associated himself with so much affection to the poet, so the poet, to be well understood, should never be dissociated from the geographer. Enriched as the mind of Strabo was with poetical reading, his style seems to have thence taken its peculiar strength and colour, and

"whispers whence it stole Those balmy sweets."

His diction is nervous, compact, close to a degree bordering sometimes on obscurity; and he has imitated his favourite authors principally in the free and unlimited use of compound verbs, substantives, and adjectives—a noble privilege, and possessed by the Greek, in superiority over all other modern and ancient languages. In the formation of these expressive neologies, the geographer has shown a dexterity, copiousness, and felicity, not exceeded by any other Greek prose author.

The most heavy, fatiguing, and laborious portion of his work will be found, by the majority of his readers, to be the disputatious part of it. first and second book is made up of such controversial By far too much of his matter, whereby he endeavours, at great and yawning length, to refute the obsolete opinions and systems of his predecessors. His desire of grasping at the pure truth alone, and his reluctance to accept of any statement unfounded on ocular or problematical evidence, if it has purified his book from the fanciful fable with which the narratives of his predecessors were so attractively adulterated, has also, on the side of virtue, misled him into operose and disagreeable disputations with his competitors, and excited in him a distrust and geographical scepticism with regard to some points, for which not every modern reader will be inclined to forgive him. This may be instanced in his notions regarding the circumnavigation of Africa, the most curious particular in the geography of the ancients. disappoints his reader by saying but little; and even that On this interesting subject he little is contrary to expectation; he appears to have doubted of the possibility of a periplus; what Herodotus published four hundred years before, of its accomplishment by the expedition dispatched by Necho, is suppressed; the evidence given by persons who declared they had performed it is rejected, and the very plausible account given by Eudoxus, of the prow of the Cadiz vessel found on the eastern shores of Africa, though its first perusal produces immediate conviction on the modern reader, is, to that reader's surprise, attacked, wrangled upon, and depreciated with an ingenious incredulity, which one has to regret rather than to admire.

With these abatements, however, Strabo must be considered one of the soundest and most judicious writers of antiquity. Vitiated and mutilated as his work is, it is yet a fortunate thing for learning that it has been, even in that vulnerated state, preserved. Possessed of him, we need the less to regret the loss of the other eminent geographers.-In concluding this short notice of an author whom we so much esteem and admire, we cannot forbear to observe, that it is discreditable to the vernacular literature of Great Britain that this respectable classic, which diffuses so much light over antiquity, is not yet made a denizen of our land and language; and when inferior classics have been long ago translated, that it remains yet a sealed and inaccessible book to our great reading community. A translation of Strabo should have been furnished long ago, as the most agreeable and pertinent accompaniment to the English versions of Homer, Herodotus, and Thucydides; and should be read, for one day in the week

at least, to the higher classes of Greek and Latin of our universities,—particularly those books illustrative of Italy, Greece, and the Troad.

We subjoin a translation of a few sentences from Strabo, which are given, not as a specimen of his best manner, but merely to show what opinions, about the time of our Saviour's birth, were entertained in the polished city of Athens and Rome regarding our forefathers, the inhabitants of Great Britain and Ireland.

"Of Britannia, the greatest part is champaign country, and shaded with woods; yet many of the grounds are heaved into fair elevations. It abounds in corn, cattle, gold, silver, iron; all which are exported, together with skins, slaves, and dogs, that by nature are admirably adapted for hunting. The Gauls employ in war both these hounds and those of their own country.

The men are taller than the Gauls, and less yellow-haired, and of softer texture of body. As a proof of their tall stature, we may instance that we have seen, in Rome, some of their young men, who exceeded by half a foot the tallest men of that city; but in their limbs they were ill-formed, and in the other features of their constitution, coarse and inelegant. As to their customs, partly are they similar to those of the Gauls; partly are they still more simple and barbarous; so that some of their people, though they abound in milk, yet, through mere ignorance, cannot make cheese, and are utterly ignorant of gardening, and the most simple processes of agriculture. They are governed by many divided and petty dynasties. In their

wars they use chariots, like their neighbours, the Gauls. Their cities are their forests; they barricade with felled trees a large circular space, within which they build temporary huts for themselves, and stalls for their cattle. The atmosphere is showery, rather than snowy; even when the heavens are unclouded above, a dense mist prevails below, so that during a whole day, the sun is seen only for three or four hours about mid-day."

"Adjoining to Britain are sundry small islets, as well as the great island Hibernia, which lies on its western side, extending in an oblong form towards the north. Regarding which I can say nothing certain, excepting that its inhabitants are still more wild than the Britons, being anthropophagi, devourers of human flesh; and reckoning it a goodly thing to eat the bodies of their deceased parents. These things, however, we mention, having no sufficient evidence of their truth. Of Thule, the history is still more obscure, on account of its great distance; for of all places whose names are given by geographers, this is deemed the most remote and northern. What Pytheas hath said of this and other countries there situated, is manifestly fabulous; nevertheless he hath, from considerations of climate founded on mathematical calculation, hit upon many particulars peculiar to the places near the frigid zone: that of the milder fruits and tamer animals there is either great paucity, or total want; that people live on millet and other herbs, fruits, and roots; that those that abound in corn or honey, make a drink from thence; and that their corn, seeing there is no clear strong sunshine, is carried into large houses, and there thrashed out

By this word THULI, which in the Syriac or Chaldaic means darkness, and which was most probably first applied by the CadizPhenician navigators, no particular place or island seems to be denoted, but generally all the dark, unexplored regions extending from their own latitude of discovery towards the pole. Accordingly we find, that when the southern parts of Britain only were known, it was applied only, or principally, to the north of Scotland; when the northern parts were discovered, it shifted back to Orkney and the Shetland Isles, then to Scandinavia, then to Iceland; in short, as discovery advanced northwards, Thule, or the line of darkness, seems to have proportionally receded, so that Spitzbergen or Greenland must now be honoured with that classical appellation. It is curious that the name Scotland, Scotia, Exoria, is but this same translated into Greek; and it is certain, that the Greek poets and geographers applied the word Zopes (also signifying darkness) to denote all the dark, undiscovered regions of the north and north

west.

from the spike, otherwise, on account of the sunless skies and copious rains, it would rot and become useless.”—Lib. 4, chap. 5.

Devon-Grove, Clackmannanshire, 3d July, 1829.

ORIGINAL POETRY.

POEMS.

By Thomas Todd Stoddart.

1. THE INFANT ONE.

He lay upon her lap in innocence;
A feeble and a melancholy babe!
And o'er the fringes of his eyelid play'd
A lambent glory. The Divinity
Shone through the dim material, like the sun
Bask'd on a shadowy cloud. Luxuriant fell
The cluster'd tresses on his infant brow,
Bathed o'er with splendour. Silently he bent
His eye above; devotion beautiful
Seem'd gathering within, nor human lip
Can picture the untold intensity
That linger'd on his features, like the wish
Of parting saint, but holier by far;—
The promise from the earliest of days
Lay visible in him, fulfilling fast-
It was the infant Christ!

Upon a bed

Of straw the mother sat, and smilingly
Bent over him-her son! the Son of God!
Blessed of women! that repair'd again
The fall of Eve, and gavest glorious birth
To Shiloh, the Redeemer.

Who are they

That bend before the infant, reverend
In years? These are the sages of the East,
That sought among the heavens, and follow'd far,
The meteor of his birth, which splendidly
Stood, like the eye of God, in holy watch
Above the child of Bethlehem!

II. TO

My heart it follows thee,

As twilight doth the day, When the sun is set beneath the sea In glory, far away.

Though ne'er a thought nor sigh
Of thine be spent on me,
Still, when thou goest gaily by,
My heart it follows_thee!

A word, a smile, to lift

My heart to hope again! And but this gift-this little gift Might save a world of pain.

I loved thee long ago—
That long ago is past;
And now that it doth wound me so,
I tell my love at last.

Then take my heart; a smile

Will pay it back to me; Oh! lifetime is too brief a time For it to follow thee!

III. TO THE SPIRIT OF IASTE. Iaste! lorn Iaste! love! Like to the cooing of a turtle dove,

I sob away the dewy night,

Until the stars do gather in their light,
And the moon lifts her holy shade

From the green grave where thou art laid-
Iaste! gentle maid!

No breath of breezy zephyr stirs

Amid the blossom of the golden furze;
No melancholy murmurs break

On the wild shore, that girds the mountain lake;
But half I fancy it is thee

Returning with thy ancient glee

Iaste! back to me.

Spirit of her, that art

The other relic of my broken heart,

If, from the heaven where afar

Thou shinest gorgeous, like a morning star,
One fondling memory left to thee
On earth may bend, oh! let it be,
Iaste! breathed for me.

LITERARY CHIT-CHAT AND VARIETIES.

A NEW Plan of Edinburgh and its Environs, by James Knox, Esq. Land Surveyor, has just been published, in which all the Improvements as yet determined on and in progress are accurately delineated; also all the boundaries of the different parishes-a very useful addition.

The Memoirs of the Court and Reign of Louis the Eighteenth, which have recently appeared at Paris, will very shortly be translated into English.

Tales of my Time, by the authoress of Blue-Stocking Hall, are nearly ready.

A work, that recommends itself to the military reader under the attractive title of Stories of Waterloo, may be very shortly expected.

Tales of the Classics, designed to convey the traditions of the Heathen Mythology in a familiar and agreeable manner to the mind, are in preparation. The work is said to be written by a lady, who has spent several years in its execution.

Lieutenant Rose announces a work, under the title of Letters Written during a Residence in South Africa. It will contain an account of the state of society at the Cape, personal observations on the country, and a variety of other interesting details.

Mr William Andrew Mitchell, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, has in preparation a Tragedy upon the story of Masaniello, the Fisherman of Naples.

Shortly will be published, Thesaurus Ellipsium Latinarum, sive Vocum quæ in Sermone Latino suppressæ indicantur, et ex præstantissimis auctoribus illustrantur, cum Indicibus necessariis, auctore Elia Palairet, 1760.

A Translation of the Library of Entertaining Knowledge is about to appear in France.

A History of Germany, from the earliest period to the present time, is preparing for the press by Mr Bernays, the editor of the German Poetical Anthology.

An account of the Early Reformation in Spain and the Inquisition is about to appear, translated from the French, by the late Dr A. F. Ramsay; to which will be appended, a Memoir of the Translator.

Mr Swan is preparing for publication a Demonstration of the Nerves of the Human Body, founded on the subjects of the two collegial anatomical prizes adjudged to him by the Royal College of Surgeons.

The Abbé Angelo Mai, librarian of the Vatican, to whom learning is so much indebted for the discovery of Cicero's Treatise "De Republica," has just presented to the Sovereign Pontiff some curious fragments of Sallust, Tacitus, and Cornelius Nepos, which he lately discovered.

A LITERARY JOURNAL was established, at the commencement of the present year, at Constantinople, which has met with distinguished

success.

PHRENOLOGY.-An address has just been circulated by the conductors of the Phrenological Journal, by which it appears that complete sets of that work, the full price of which is £1, are henceforth to be sold for £2; and that the separate Numbers, which were formerly sold at 4s. each, are now to be reduced somewhat in size, and to cost only 2s. The Phrenologists may put what construction they like upon these alterations, but they certainly seem to us to imply that the Phrenological Journal is on its last legs-a circumstance we cannot very much regret, because that ingenious periodical has all its life been attempting to disseminate nonsense.

MAS HEMANS.-Our readers will be glad to learn that this distinguished lady-the poetess of the domestic affections, and of all that endears a Briton to the "stately homes of England,"-is at present in Edinburgh. She is in delicate health, but able to go into society, and has of course been visited by most of the literati at present in town. She has two of her children with her.

MONSIEUR CHABERT.-We are a good deal surprised to observe, that the London papers, for want of something better to speak about, are occupying their columns with long accounts of the wonderful performances of this quack. When he was in Edinburgh, some time ago, we went to see his exhibition, which was a piece of complete fudge. We entered the oven ourselves after he had come out of it, and found the heat to be by no means oppressive, and certainly not more than the engine-men in steam-boats, bottle blowers, and others, submit to every day in their lives. As to his swallowing boiling oil, phosphorus, and similar pleasant things, we believe the oil to be no hotter than can be easily borne, and the phosphorus, we have a shrewd suspicion, is something very like green wax.

THE BARDS OF BRITAIN.-We have received the following com. munication from one of the gentlemen mentioned in the Ettrick Shepherd's poem in last Saturday's JOURNAL:-" Mr Editor,-In justice to an injured trampled vegetable, which has long flourished in a corner of your Literary Paradise, I request you will give insertion to the following complaint against that voracious animal which has lately issued from the solitudes of Mount Benger, to devour up and trample down all the young shoots in the country. Charles Doyne Sillery."

Gods! do I live

To see a Hog Crush all our poets,

Like a log

Thrown down from some high gallery ?Besides, he bites

So furiously

In all he writes ;-
Injuriously

He made a snap at Vallery:
Blew all the fruit

Into a bog,

And gnaw'd the root:-
All know a Hog,
With most unearthly raillery,
May bite a Bell,

And do no ill;
But who can tell
How soon he will

Devour a bunch of Celery!

Theatrical Gossip.-The King's Theatre is now closed.-Madame Pasta, who has lately been performing at Vienna with unparalleled success, and is now at Milan, is expected to return to this country before next season.-At the Haymarket, a translation of a little drama from the French, entitled, "The Happiest Day of my Life," has been well received.-There is nothing very new at the English Operahouse; the critics complain that there is a dearth of singers at this theatre. Miss Kelly seems to be its principal prop.-The Coburg and the Surrey Theatres go on thrivingly.-The weather has been a good deal against Vauxhall.-At Astley's Royal Amphitheatre, Ducrow and the "Cataract of the Ganges," are drawing crowds-The affairs of Covent Garden seem to be in a sad state. It is in the hands of the parish officers of St Paul's for debt.-Miss Love, who was performing at Nottingham, has gone away in a coach with somebody, in the middle of her engagement.-The Liverpool Theatre must be the best worth visiting in the kingdom at present. KEAN is there, toge ther with Warde, Vandenhoff, Blanchard, Bianchi Taylor, Miss Smithson, and Miss Lacy, all of whom play on the same night, and frequently in the same piece. This is an example for provincial managers.-At the Caledonian Theatre here the melo-drama of "Masaniello" has been brought out in exceedingly creditable style; and the dancing still continues to attract crowds.-We are glad to learn that there is a probability of Pritchard being re-engaged for the Theatre-Royal, in which case he and the new actor, Barton, will appear together.

TO OUR CORRESPONDENTS.

SEVERAL reviews of interesting works are unavoidably postponed. "Some Remarks on the Progress of the Fine Arts in Scotland," by the Rev. Dr Morehead, and "Letters from the West, No. III.* in our next.-We have just received the communication from Got tingen, and the packet from Callander, both of which will meet with our best attention.

We have perused the volume concerning which we have received a letter from Glasgow. There is some cleverness in it; but it is too full of coarse descriptions, and very objectionable morality; and fut this reason we have not noticed it.

We cannot give any encouragement to the "Poor but honest Wes ver" of Stonehaven. The Poetical Communications of " N. C." of Glasgow,-of "T. D." of Faisley,—and of " M." of Dalkeith, will not be overlooked.

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LITERARY CRITICISM.
Lectures on the Elements of Hieroglyphics and Egyptian
Antiquities. By the Marquis Spineto. Rivingtons.
London. 1829.

THESE Lectures were originally delivered by the author in the course of his official duties as assistant Professor of Modern History in the University of Cambridge, and afterwards at the Royal Institution in London, where they appear to have been received with much applause. The object of the publication is to give a brief history of those discoveries by means of which, since the year 1814, great light has been thrown on the structure and use of hieroglyphical writing, and, of consequence, upon the anfiquities of the Egyptian monarchy. The Marquis himself lays no claim to the honour of discovery, either in point of fact or of reasoning. He pretends to nothing more than the merit of giving a correct and impartial account of what has been done by others; and, in this respect, he performs for Dr Young and M. Champollion the service which was rendered to Newton by the affectionate zeal of the learned Maclaurin. Such an historian becomes doubly valuable at the present moment, when the opinions of France and of England are divided as to which of the two countries the priority of discovery belongs to; and as Spineto draws his birth from a land foreign to both, his judgment is less liable to be warped by national feelings and local associations. So far as we are qualified to determine, we think his book well entitled to the praise of impartiality; while, with regard to the narrative of facts, it is equally full and perspicuously written.

PRICE 6d.

phrase first elements is so ambiguous, that seventeen centuries passed away before its meaning was found out; and at length the discovery was owing to accident, and not at all to antiquarian ingenuity or classical learning. While a party of French soldiers, during their invasion of Egypt, were employed in digging for the foundation of Fort St Julian, they lighted upon a huge block or pillar of dark-coloured stone, which fortunately contained an inscription in three different languages or sets of characters, namely, hieroglyphic, demotic or enchorial, and Greek. This stone, which soon afterwards fell into the hands of the English, and is now in the British Museum, is mutilated in several places. The top part of the hieroglyphical inscription is gone. The beginning of the second and the end of the third are also wanting; but enough was still left to afford the means of arriving at a proper idea of its import and contents, and of ascertaining the meaning of Clement's "initial elements."

It is not our intention to detail minutely the various steps by which M. Silvestre de Sacy, M. Ackerbald, Dr Young, and M. Champollion, completed the important discovery, that one portion of the hieroglyphics used by the ancient Egyptians did not denote things, but sounds. Hence the name of phonetic or vocal hieroglyphics, in contradistinction to those which are properly symbolic, and express not alphabetical sounds, but ideas and even conceptions of the mind. The use of the phonetic, or, as Clement of Alexandria called them, the kuriologic hieroglyphics, may be illustrated by a familiar example, taken from an able article in the Edinburgh Review. Suppose the spoken language of England to be what it is, but that no other sort of writing, except by pictures or symbols, had yet been invented; and that it was wanted to record The less learned reader may require to be informed, in some legend or inscription, that an individual called that the word hieroglyphics literally means sacred carving, JAMES, had done or suffered something. The word James and is used to denote those inscriptions, whether of figures here was evidently a mere sound, and could not be deor of symbols, which are found upon the ancient temples, scribed or defined in any other way than as that sound pillars, and tombs of Egypt. The most ancient account by which the individual in question was suggested to that we have of these carvings is to be found in the works those who heard it. It could not, therefore, be directly of Clemens Alexandrinus, a Christian priest, who lived intimated to posterity by a mere visible symbol or picture, about the second century of our era, and who, it is clear, that such a sound had in his day been associated with that had paid great attention to the study of antiquities. He individual: And if this was what was proposed to be tells us that the Egyptians had three different modes of done, it is plain that some new device or contrivance writing, or rather perhaps three different sorts of characters. must of necessity be adopted. According to the late disThese were the epistolographic, or common characters, coveries in phonetic hieroglyphics, the device was as folcalled, by other authors, demotic or enchorial; the se- lows. They set down a series of pictures of familiar obcond were the hieratic or sacerdotal, employed merely injects, the names of which in the spoken language began the writing of books by the priesthood; and the third were the hieroglyphics, destined to religious uses, and generally inscribed on public monuments. With the first and second classes we have no concern at present, there being nothing particular either in their form or use. The third, or hieroglyphic, he divides into two sorts: the kuriologic, which are expressive of objects by means of the first or initial elements; and the symbolic, which denote objects by representation, either imitatively, tropically, or enigmatically.

with the sounds which were to be successively expressed, and which, taken together in that order, made up the compound sound or name that was wanted. For the sound now expressed by the letter J, for example, they would set down the figure of a jug or jar-for that corresponding to A, they would set down an ape or acorn-for M, a man or mouse-and for S, a spear or spur; and thus would they indicate the sound JAMS as the name of the person whom they wished to commemorate. If this was generally known to be the way of representing such sounds, and if We request the attention of the reader, in the first the painter or sculptor gave an intelligible warning when place, to the kuriologic hieroglyphics, or such as express his figures were to be so deciphered or applied, it is plain objects by means of the initial or first elements. The that the device would be very tolerably successful, and

that the object would be attained with considerable ease and precision. It is very remarkable, accordingly, that all the groups of figures which are found to represent proper names, are insulated and set apart, in the hieroglyphic sculptures, by being surrounded with an oval ring of an appropriate and invariable form.

In a word, the phonetic or kuriological hieroglyphics proceed on the very familiar principle long ago adopted by mothers for teaching their children the sounds of the alphabet, when they instruct the little ones to associate the letter M with Mamma, and P with Papa, N with Nurse, T with Top, and B with Bird. Hence, in interpreting a kuriologic inscription, it is only necessary to learn the names of the several objects which it comprehends, and then to arrange the initial sounds of those names, according to the established order of reading in every particular case. It is obvious that, in the different provinces of Egypt, where different dialects prevailed, the same animals might be variously named, a circumstance which cannot fail to give rise to some obscurity in the process of deciphering ancient legends. But, upon the whole, there is little doubt that the Coptic language, still used throughout the greater part of that country, preserves the structure and vocables of the tongue which was spoken even in the times of the Pharaohs.

It might be conjectured that there would be some room for taste and flattery in selecting objects to supply the alphabetical sounds, and that, in recording the name of a popular sovereign, a choice would be made of such animals, for example, as denote courage, generosity, and magnanimity. In writing, says Champollion, the articulated sounds of a word, they chose, amongst the great number of characters which they were at liberty to employ, those figures which by their form represented the object which had a relation to the idea which these characters were to express. The lion, for instance, which in the ancient Coptic was labo, and the eagle, which in the same language was akhom, were usually selected to express and a in the names of great personages. The Marquis gives an illustration of the principle, which will be at once understood and felt, and throw greater light on the practice of the Egyptians than would be effected by the most lengthened description:

the ship and the pole star for the letters D and N; for it would not readily occur to the reader that the one was to be restricted to deck, and the other to north. In his love for sea terms and figures he might have thought of the dolphin and the needle; but we admit that his example serves the purpose of illustration, and fully explains the use of phonetic hieroglyphics.

The symbolic hieroglyphics are more familiar to the common reader. We may remark that they are divided into three classes; the imitative, the tropical or figurative, and the enigmatical.

The first consists in employing the most remarkable circumstance attending any subject, to express the subject itself. Thus, if they wished to represent two armies ready to come to battle, they painted two hands, one of which held a bow and the other a shield.

The second was more ingenious, and it consisted in substituting for the thing which they wished to exhibit, the real or metaphorical instrument by which the thing itself could be done. Thus, an eye and a sceptre represented a king; a sword, a tyrant ; and a vessel with a pilot, the ruling power of the universe.

The third mode went still farther; it employed one thing for another, in which there was no other resemblance than that which convention had established. Thus, a serpent with its tail in its mouth, forming a circle, became the symbol of the universe, and the spots on its skin the emblems of the stars. In process of time the use of this third method was extended so far as to express the qualities of substances by sensible images; for instance, a hare meant simplicity and openness of character; a fly, impudence; an ant, science; a client flying for relief to his patron, and finding none, was represented by a sparrow and an owl; a king, inexorable, and estranged from his people, by an eagle; a man who through poverty exposes his children, by a hawk; a woman who hates her husband, by a viper; one initiated in the mysteries, or under the obligation of secrecy, by a grasshopper, which was thought to have no mouth.

It is no part of our undertaking to set forth what has been accomplished in the way of interpretation, by means of the hieroglyphic key thus obtained. For this purpose we must refer the reader to the able lectures now before "Suppose we were to imagine an alphabet of our own: us, in which the successful labours of Young, Barker, to write the name of London, for instance, we might choose and Champollion, are described with great accuracy and for the several letters the following images or hieroglyphics, at full length. On this interesting subject Spineto writes For the letter L we might take the figure of a lion, or of a with a kindred spirit. He follows the footsteps of the lamb, or of a lancet, or a leaf, or any other such objects distinguished men who have brought the literary Sphinx whose names begin with an L. Again, to express the letter N, we might select a net, a negro, the north star, or the nave to the light of day; and he anticipates, as they do, as the of a temple. To denote the letter D, we might choose the approaching reward of their toils, a complete knowledge figure of a dromedary, or a dagger, the deck of a ship, or of the ancient history and chronology of the most inteeven the whole of the ship, to signify the deck: And for resting people of the East. The dynasties of Maretho, the letter O, we might pick out the figure of an oak-tree, an it is said, have already received considerable confirmation ostrich, an ox, or an owl. Now, if from all these images from the names and dates discovered on certain national or hieroglyphics we should be obliged to write the word monuments; and hence the best-founded hopes are enLondon, we ought not to select the lamb, but the lion, as tertained that the credit of his chronicle, even in those the expression of the letter L, because the lion is the acknowledged emblem of England. For the O, we should parts which most greatly exceeded the belief of modern prefer the representation of the oak-tree, or of the acorn, its writers, will at length be placed beyond all objection. fruit, as connected with the building of a ship: for the N, With such views, we need scarcely add, that we recomyou certainly would not pick out the negro slave, for this mend to our readers the Lectures of Marquis Spineto as choice would be contrary to the decided antipathy which one of the most interesting books that have been publishthe English have to slavery; nor would you select the re-ed since we commenced our critical career. presentation of the nave of a church, because this emblem would better suit an ecclesiastical government, and by no possible means could it apply to your nation; but you would The Book of the Boudoir. By Lady Morgan. choose in preference the fishing-net or the north star, as the only images which would convey to the mind of the beholders two of the characteristics of a seafaring nation, as the English are. And last of all, for the letter D, you would, I am certain, decidedly prefer the representation of the whole or of part of a ship, as the only image connected with the very existence of the nation. Thus, the whole word, London, written hieroglyphically, would thus be represented by a lion, an oak-tree, a net, a ship, and the north star; for, you remember that we have no need to repeat the second O.'

We do not think the Marquis happy in the selection of

volumes. London. Henry Colburn. 1829.

Two

THE Quarterly Review sometimes calls Lady Morgan "a lively little lady," and sometimes "a poor worm." The latter designation is not in the least applicable. Lady Morgan is always clever-not unfrequently disgustingly clever-but she is never "a poor worm." She is terribly masculine, awfully conceited, shockingly irreligious, and fearfully metaphysical; but she is withal a right“ bold dragoon," and with her long sword slashes away not ineffectively both right and left. After all, we believe her

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