having had his education in Italy, he calls himself Sue Kelly, I believe---a better name for his wife. Tom and I did the satisfactory with our kids. Caradori, as usual, delightful. Some women create envy and jealousy among the audience; but she "sweets to "the sweet;" gives a nod and a smile to every fellow in the house. Did the laudatory to her with vulgar animation. The dancing this winter very horrible: Tom pronounced it to be Quakerian, New Zealandish, and Polichenelolican. I have heard of women padding their shoulders and legs, but never before of their padding their ancles, which the figure-antes (or, as Tom remarked, by their looks, the figure-aunts) of this house certainly do. Tom observed if that was the case, they ought to be termed theatrical footpads.---(Not bad.) They rob Ebers of his money, and the spectators of Christian-like dispositions. Hear Madame Breezy, a fine singer, is expected over shortly to delight us with her airs, and Madame Sonntag, the lady who carried the whole Vauxhall of Frankfort before her, through three streets, and as one paper said, up into her bed-room. Heard a venerable dilletante, comparing her to Pasta, say "she Sur-past her." Intend to cut the Opera for the Gymnasium, and Monsieur Delville for Professor Voelker.

12th. Invited to a public dinner. Purchased a new book of puns; last years' edition, reprinted on an Irish plan; make the end of the book last year, the beginning of the book this, and so go through from the end to the beginning, instead of from the beginning to the end: originality in this; the last puns must be the newest. Derivation

of the word Pun, from the Latin of punio, to punish---a pun being considered in those sensible times as an infliction. Pundicti, the classic term for a P. M.: pundit, the Bramin ditto for the same animal. In English we have two---punster, or a stirrer of puns, which is the vulgar; and pun-gent, or a gentleman who perpetrates puns: the latter, in my opinion, has the more point and respectability in it.

13th. Went to the new comedy at Covent Garden, "The School for Grown Children;" heard it was from the pen of a master, a gentleman who if he has not more wit than many of his cotemporaries, has certainly More-ton. The comedy very amusing altogether, and some good acting in it. Kemble played well, and looked like one of Barclay and Perkins's draymen; Chatterley, an interesting chatterer; Farren, an abominable machinist, an actor that works by a crank ;---" The School for Grown Children" brought a brilliant attendance that evening to the boxes, namely, Mr. Joseph Hume, Sir Thomas Lethbridge, Alderman Curtis, Lord Lauderdale, George Colman, Mr. Waithman, and the Duke of Buckingham. Cobbett was in the pit. Heard a story of his Grace, the Deputy LiSam. Beazley carried him a farce, which contained an exceptionable line--" The Lord have mercy on us" (a very natural exclamation in the mouths of some actors) Colman drew his pen over it---" Sir," says the author," that's the best joke in the piece.""Do you call that a joke, Mr. Beazley?" "Yes, Sir."---" Then, I tell you what, Sir," replied the man in office, "your farce will be d d in this world for containing it, and you in the next." Mem. Heard that Colman is to be appointed to the first vacancy in

censer.

the Tabernacle Chapel.

14th. Fred. brought me the Cheltenham Chronicle, to shew me the accounts of some

extraordinary circumstances. The first was as follows---" Last week, a young girl in "the neighbourhood of Gloucester, being upon the point of marriage, and not possessing "the money to purchase her wedding clothes, consented to have seven of her front teeth "extracted by a dentist, who gave her two guineas a-piece for them." This must have been a very valuable wife, few women in the present day so convertible into cash. Her husband must have loved her in spite of her teeth. The other relation was still more extraordinary---" A few days since a Medical Gentleman was called in to prescribe for a "youth, aged 18, who was reported to have swallowed an East India silk handkerchief, 66 a yard square. The Physician, as may be supposed, was rather puzzled in this in"stance how to combat such an unusual intruder, and even went so far as to express his "doubts of the fact; when the mother of the lad, with unanswerable authority, pointed to the boy's lips, which were stained blue (the colour of the handkerchief): here66 upon the Doctor having his doubts removed, prescribed some strong doses of castor oil, " and, in a few days, to the astonishment of all, and the verification of the mother, the "handkerchief made its appearance, and the lad is now very well." This circumstance is a very interesting one, in my opinion, in the history of the human anatomy. And the possibility existing, as is clearly shown above, of a handkerchief performing a medical tour through a man's internals, I require of one of the faculty, to inform me, whether this novel and much more genteel mode might not supersede the use of stornach pumps, and Epsom salts. Mem. Take in the Cheltenham Chronicle henceforward.

GAIETIES AND GRAVITIES OF THE MONTH.

459

16th. Bored to death on all sides by the Corn Laws; so long as I have my roll for breakfast, and my toast for tea, what care I who has the providing them? Advised to read Stanhope and Whitmore's pamphlets. My friend Fred. had read William Whitmore's pamphlet, and I asked him his opinion. "I consider him," said he, " to be wit"less." Very good.

19th. Met Mr. H—, my medical attendant, who told me a bit of Hospital pleasantry :---On new-year's day a man was carried into Guy's, with his ear partly bit off. Mr. Abernethy healed it, and looking at him in the face when the operation was performed, wished him a happy new ear. Query, Did the patient laugh? I should have been very impatient.

20th. Stepped into Colburn's to pick up some literary mems. and heard Theodore's last upon the forthcoming Life of Napoleon, by Sir W. Scott. Sir Walter had observed, that "all preceding biographers in treating of the character and conduct of that great 66 man, had only gone skin deep in their investigation." "Aye," said Hook, "and now, "I suppose, Sir Walter will take hold of the Bony-part." Moore's Life of Byron in expectation. Some one advises that it should be published as a romance, and under the title of a Moorish tale. Rogers remarked, that if he had been Sheridan's murderer, he would become most probably Byron's undertaker.

21st. 1, at the pressing solicitation of a female acquaintance, read Almack's. Tom could not sleep, he told me, after opium: prescribed him three pages of it going to bed ---probatum est. O'Hara, or Old Harry, Tales, as my friend Fred. calls them, devilish queer things: wild Irish boys, and wild Irish girls---a bore; dont like getting into such low company, even in a novel. Tales are fashionable reading, but there is no end to them. Query. What is the last species of novel writing? A tale.---(Pretty good.) Miss Porter getting stale: her last work, Tom says, is half-and-half: Lord Palmerston says he cannot beer her.

22nd. Colman writing his life I understand. This is an age for actors' recollections ---gossiping Kelly, twaddling Reynolds, doting O'Keeffe, pedantic Boaden, and last, not least, serious George Colman. Hook met him in the street the other day; "Colman," said he, " Imany people have told me you have led a life of error, and now I understand you are righting it." "Yes," replied he," and I am sorry that what I intended to "write has been left to so late a day." "Never mind," said Hook, "in this kind of "scribbling we want u-more, and certainly you are a whit better than any of your pre"decessors."

LITERARY INTELLIGENCE.-Just published, No. I. of a series of Views in the West Indies, engraved from drawings taken recently in the Islands, with letter-press explanations, made from actual observation. The intention of this work is to convey a faithful outline of the existing state of Slavery on the Plantations in the British Islands, the Costumes of the Negroes, Process of Sugar-making, &c.; combining at the same time a selection of such scenes best calculated to form pictures, and describe the character of the scenery in the several Colonies. Each number to contain four coloured Views to imitate Drawings.

The first number of a work, to be entitled "The Quarterly Juvenile Review; or, a Periodical Guide for Parents and Instructors in their selection of new Publications," is in the press, and will appear in the course of the present month.

NUMBERS OF THE JEWISH NATION.-We extract from the Weimar Geographische Ephemeriden, the following statistical accounts, which we think will be found curious.

The number of the Jews is at present nearly the same as it was at the time of David and Solomon. There were then nearly four millions; and at present they are about 3,200,000, which are divided as follows:

In most of these States they are merely tolerated; in Germany, Prussia, and the Netherlands, they have all the rights of a citizen, but are inadmissible to public offices. France is the only country in Europe, where this restriction does not exist, as the constitution knows no political disabilities on account of religious opinions.

7,300

321,000

158,000

...

504,000

5,700

50

THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT EGYPT.

Introite, nam et heic Dii sunt!

ENN. AP GELL.

It has often struck us, that notwithstanding the distinguished and deserved attention bestowed among us on classical learning, we should have yet been so deficient in our acquaintance with one branch of it, and certainly not the least important and interesting-we mean the religions of antiquity. We confess we are unable to account for this, be it indolence or ignorance. The classical authors are in the hands of every one, and in the memory of many. They are construed in the grammar-schools, and quoted in the House of Commons. The most intimate familiarity with the idiom in which they wrote, is contracted, or, if it is not, at least it might be. We are taught to write nonsense verses, and whose fault is it, if we cannot afterwards afford both reason and metre? We are taught to scan the trimeter, and to blunder about the choruses. We know what feet admit of the anapaest, and under what circumstances; and, thanks to Porson, we know a good deal more about the metres, than the Greek tragedians themselves. By dint of application, we have a fair chance of getting the Crases Atticæ at our fingers' ends. We do not wish to say any thing to depreciate these studies; no. We entertain personally a very high regard for the Crases Atticæ. We are well aware, that all our great men have been materially assisted by an exact knowledge of them.

Hac arte Pollux et vagus Hercules
Enisu arces attigit igneas.

But while we should be sorry to see those pursuits abandoned, which lead to exact scholarship, an attainment in which we feel confident that our Universities will be found equal to those in any part of the world, we could wish at the same time, that the range of our studies were extended. We could wish that more were done to encourage those studies, which not only promote accuracy and precision of knowledge, but also expand the mind. Too much is, in our opinion, done for the acquirement of a kind of knowledge, which at best can but be considered as subordinate. We spend a great deal of time in studying the languages, and we pay little attention to the ideas of antiquity. The most important lessons which an acquaintance with the ancient world would teach, the most interesting results which it would offer, are far from being generally known, or sufficiently appreciated.

For a proof of what we have just observed, or rather for an exemplification of the fact, we would particularly refer to the subject to which we have alluded above-to the religions of antiquity. We are sick with the endless repetition of the terms heathenish superstition and scurrilous stories affixed to ancient mythology, by those from whom we had expected better things. It is in vain to tell us,

that the multitude believed in the most absurd traditions, and prac. tised the most ridiculous ceremonies. We know too well, that there was, in all ages, something superior to the belief of the multitude. To say that there was not, or that it is not worth knowing, is a fair way to be sure of getting rid of the trouble of investigating it. A round denial of facts, an affected depreciation of knowledge, are commodious apologies of ignorance or listlessness. But we are surprised that those also, whose learning and genius we revere, have not thought it worth while to add to their extensive acquirements a knowledge of a subject, of which we should expect that it could not be indifferent to any one interested in the history of mankind. When we speak of the history of mankind, we do not mean a dry, or be it even an animated, recital of battles and political events, and of the overthrow of empires-of "moving accidents by flood and field:" but we mean the history of man, of human nature, with its passions and energies, its efforts and errors. And we know not a better mirror of the intellectual and moral worth, of the "age and body” of the time, than the opinions which were entertained on the highest problems that can occupy the ingenuity, or interest the heart, of man. In tracing the history of opinions, and religious opinions especially, in canvassing the errors of the least enlightened, and in admiring the aspirations of the best and wisest of our race, the mind is deeply imbued with that sentiment, than which nothing can be more worthy of humanity,

"Homo sum: nihil humani à me alienum puto."

And on this very subject we regret to find that so little has been done among us. Bacon's hints on "The Fables of the Ancients" are forgotten. The volumes of Cudworth are laid on the shelf. If original research is out of the question, who is there that has even turned Cudworth's labors to account? We admire the ingenuity of Bryan, and the acuteness of Payne Knight; but it strikes us that the one is more fanciful than accurate, and the other more bold than just. We could wish that more justice had been done to Mr. Taylor. We do not mean the "Reverend" Mr. Taylor, but Mr. Taylor the Platonist. He has entered into his subject with more congeniality of feeling. But though his laborsare voluminous, his results are but fragmentary: and it has been his misfortune, that his peculiar manner has been still more unpopular than his subject.

We have indeed one name, one brilliant name, which, whatever others may have done, or may still do, for the science we allude to, we shall always quote with exultation as our own, one of the few who have shone in every branch of literature which they attempted, and whose genius was born to sympathize with the noblest and most beautiful effusions of all ages, and all nations; one in whose laurel were twined the roses of the West, and the palm of the East.

There are few, indeed, who, for extent of knowledge, for elegance of taste, and universality of genius, deserve to be mentioned together with Sir William Jones. Among them, it is our conviction,