1830.] REVIEW.-The Pielure of India. public against the charlatanry of such pretensions, by exhibiting how impos sible it is for men to claim such lofty knowledge, and how proper it is for all persons to do justice, and love mercy, and walk humbly with their God." 66 The laws of vitality are utterly un. known, and yet vitality extends every where, and no two particles of matter throughout the whole creation are in contact or motionless. See pp. 9, 65, 68. It is too demonstrative, that in the interstitial spaces around each atom resides two powers, repulsion, and beyond that attraction. What the primary atom may be we cannot conceive, unless it be a portion of the vis divina, and the following extract will show, that if matter be infinitely divisible, even animated organization may be so too; and inanimate matter may after all have only an apparent existence, because our powers of vision are very limited. "Animalcules.-Animalcules have been discovered, whose magnitude is such, that a million of them does not exceed the bulk of a grain of sand; and yet each of these creatures is composed of members as curiously organised as those of the largest species; they have life and spontaneous motion, and are endued with sense and instinct. In the liquids in which they live, they are observed to move with astonishing speed and activity; nor are their motions blind and fortuitous, but evidently governed by choice, and directed to an end. They use food and drink, from which they derive nutrition, and are therefore furnished with a digestive apparatus. They have great muscular power, and are furnished with limbs and muscles of strength and flexibility. They are susceptible of the same appetites, and obnoxious to the same passions, the gratification of which is attended with the same results as in our own species. Spallanzani observes, that certain animalcules devour others so voraciously, that they fatten and become indolent and sluggish by over-feeding. After a meal of this kind, if they be confined in distilled water, so as to be deprived of all food, their condition becomes reduced; they regain their spirit and activity, and amuse themselves in the pursuit of the more minute animals, which are supplied to them; they swallow these without depriving them of life, for, by the aid of the microscope, the one has been observed moving within the body, of the other. These singular appearances are not matters of idle and curious observa tion; they lead us to inquire what parts are necessary to produce such results. Must we pot conclude that these creatures have heart, arteries, veïns, muscles, sinews, ten 51 The Picture of India; Geographical, Historical, and Descriptive. 2 vols. TIMES were when happiness and well-being were deemed results only of prudence and virtue; but golden ages and summum-bonums are now manufactured as plentifully as stockjobbing bubbles, and advertised as such, One says that the felicity of a home and private dwelling is misery com pared with being impounded in bär racks or colleges, a second, that religious enthusiasm and unphilosophical absurdity cause happiness to pour down upon us like a water-spout; a third, that if we will but let foreigners rival us in our own markets, and render this country tributary to others for its corn, there will be nothing but laughing and growing fat over the whole realm; a fourth, that if we will versal suffrage, so that they who have but have parliamentary reform and unigot nothing may gain the ascendancy over those who have property, folly and error will be immediately extinguished; a fifth, that because India has been always a losing concern to the Company, and generative of heavy, debt, it would be very advisable to ruin that Company, add the whole burthen of its debt to that of the na tion, and pay the interest by general taxation; because as none but Europeans in India use European goods,' it follows that the natives, under the change desired, will then wear, in a burning climate, as many great coats as a stage coachman. ง We shall enter no further into the subject, for our author very justly says, "As the time for agitating the renewal of the charter approaches, there will, judging from past experience, be a great deal of writing and publishing about the subject; and again, judging from past experience, the quality of that writing will bear no reasonable proportion to the quantity. Upon both sides it will be party writing, and; India has all along been so different from England, both physically and morally, that. no argument which applies in the one country t 52 REVIEW.-Picture of India. will apply in the other, Thus the public will be bewildered by ex parte statements, of which they are unqualified to form a sound opinion."-Pref. p. iv. Our author, therefore, tenders the PICTURE of INDIA as evidence; and we willingly allow it the credit of being a copious, satisfactory, and interesting work. As to Anglicizing India, our author observes, "The British rule exists in India only because no British feeling has been inspired in the natives; and if such a feeling were to be inspired, the dominion would not last for a day."-ii. p. 216. The opinion which we have of our Radicals and sectaries as politicians is, that they would throw open India, and so distract it with feuds of opinion, that they must either be checked by force or expulsion, or the country be lost, and thus be again sunk to misery and despotism. We shall take our extract from an interesting account of the diamondmines. Golconda, it is to be remembered, is only the mart where they are exposed for sale. "Pannah has long been celebrated for its diamond-mines, those costly gems being often found of large size, and so pure and free from roughness or opacity on the surface, that they hardly require to be cut or polished. As is the case with all places where diamonds are to be found, the surface around Pannah is sterile, and the soil containing the diamonds is gravel. This gravelly soil is more or less tinged with iron, and it varies in depth from three to twelve feet, that which is deepest being the richest in diamonds. The mines are not kept open or worked during the whole year; but filled up carefully before the rains, and opened again about a month after these are over. During the dry season they remove and carefully examine the kuckroo or gravel; and when the search is completed they carefully return it into the same pits from which it was taken. The production of the diamond, considering that it has always been met with in gravel, and gravel apparently of the same description, and never embedded in rock, or with its crystals adhering to the nodules of pebbles in gravel, is a very curious matter, and quite out of the way of common geological theory. The native miners or searchers for diamonds at Pannah, who, according to the general practice of the country, follow the occupation from father to son, all assert, with the utmost confidence, that the production of diamonds is constantly going on. The mere assertion would not be worth any thing, but they add to it a sort of proof, and [July, as that proof is a practical one, and involves their own interests, it is the more worthy of attention. They return the kuckroo which they have searched with the greatest care, back into the mine, in order to produce more diamonds; and they add, that after it has lain undisturbed for fifteen or sixteen years, they open it again with precisely the same chance of success as if they opened a portion that had never before been touched." "There is no reason why they should misrepresent the facts, because they can have no inducemeut to do so; and if they did not find the fresh turning of the same gravel productive, of course they would let it alone." "This is a subject on which it is imposs sible to come to any conclusion, because we know nothing of the process by which diamond is formed. We know, however, that it is pure carbon or charcoal; that when burnt it combines with oxygen, and a portion of pure carbonic acid, exactly equal in weight to the diamond and oxygen consumed, is the result. This being the case, we are quite sure, that, if we could take a quantity of pure carbonic acid, and abstract from it all the oxygen that it contains, the remainder would be exactly the same substance as diamond; and as we know of no forms under which carbon exists in nature pure and unmixed with any other substances, but that of diamond, analogy would lead us to suppose that, if we could but abstract the oxygen from pure carbonic acid, the result would be diamond itself in all its hardness and brilliancy." "Now the colouring matter that is found in all diamond-gravels is an oxide of some sort or other; it contains oxygen, and therefore the metal, or metal and alkali united, that enters into this oxyde, may derive its oxygen from the decomposition of carbonic acid gas; and by mutual attraction the atoms of pure carbon may be crystallized into diamond. This is only conjecture, however; but those who have access to the gravel might make experiments." We ought to add, that the work is elegantly got up with plates and wood cuts. 1890.] REVIEW. Archæologia, Vol. xxiii. Part i. uses these chambers appear to have been applied, and we conceive that they had no connection with the Da nish invasion, but belonged to the Cel→ tick Raths, common to the country. VII. Account of some Architectural and Sculptural Remains at Pæstum ; with Observations on the reference the latter may bear to the Mythological History of that City. By William Hosking, Esq. Mr. Hosking's remarks apply to some architectural peculiarities, which are not intelligible without the plates. Mr. H. is most certainly mistaken, in supposing the mutilated female figure, with the semblance of a fish's tail in front, to have been a siren; for, though some modern authors have pretended that the line of Horace, The *Desinat in piscem mulier formosa supernè," applies to a siren, no ancient author ever describes sirens as ichthyomorphous in any such manner. figure is that of a Nereid. These marine deities had sacred woods and altars in many parts of Greece, especially upon the shores of the sea. Pausanius (Corinthiaca) says that the Nereid Doto had a celebrated temple at Gabala. Conjoined hands are symbolic of concord. The Phrygian helmet covering the head entirely down to the chin, and the round shield in the upper, the xvnides, or greaves, in the lower figure, prove very remote antiquity, and very possibly the whole has some reference to events described in the Iliad. VIII. Description of two ancient British Shields. By Samuel Rush Meyrick, LL.D. and F.S.A. This, as being Dr. Meyrick's, is of course a valuable paper, and the subject is well illustrated. We beg to add a passage from Ossian concerning the studs and gilding of the shield, because Dr. M. adduces no authority for that fashion. "The chief was among them like the stag in the midst of the herd. His shield is studded with gold. Stately strode the King of Spears." § Carthon. The thongs are also mentioned : "Through the thongs of Swaran's shield rushed the blade of Luno." Cathloda. Thus, Dr. Meyrick's shield authenticates the antiquity of the Gaelic bard, and the text of the latter that also of the shield. 53 IX. Account of an Ancient Bath in the Island of Lipari. By Capt. W. H. Smyth, R.N., F.R. and A.S. A very good paper; already fully noticed in Part I. p. 65. X. On the Viola of the Ancients. By Lord Viscount Mahon. The viola is presumed by his Lordship to have been not the modern violet, but the iris of our gardens. His Lordship exhibits passages which are analogous to the iris, and not to the vio let; but the best part of the evidence is, that the Sicilians still denominate the iris viola. Add the remarks of Saumaise. The Greeks, he says, gave the general name of soy to the flower that the Latins called viola; but the Greeks had two kinds of soy, the first called μελανιον, * the other λευχαίον. The melanion came up of itself, without being sown, and was what the French call violet. The second, called leukaion, was cultivated in gardens, and is the [French] gilliflower, or wallflower, called violiere. The Greeks distinguished three sorts of these, the yellow (the most common), the white, and the purple. It is of the yellow violieres, and not of violets, that Horace speaks in this passage:-" nec tinctus viola pallor amantium;" the Latins have named indifferently viole both the melania and leukaia of the Greeks. According to the use of the word among the French and English, violet was a vague term given to vari ous kinds of flowers. XI. Disquisition on the member in Architecture called an Oriel. By William Hamper, Esq. F.S.A. Ducange having said, under the word Oriolum, "Vocis etymon non agnosco," a dispute has arisen concerning the origin of the term, it being common not to see the wood for trees. It seems to be nothing more than an Anglicism of Aureola, an abbreviation of [Camera] Aureola, a term, Mr. Hunt says (Parsonage Houses, p. 26), applied to the abbot's place in the refectory, and the oriel windows in halls, probably from the splendour of the stained glass when illuminated by the sun. In an old Dictionary we have "ORIOL, [Latin], the little wasteroom next the hall, where particular * See Theophrastus. REV. + But the French so denominate different sorts of flowers. See Cotgrave. REV. 54 REVIEW, Archeologia, Vol. xxiii. Parti. persons dine," and that certainly was In short, there is not a single instance in the examples quoted, which, except by prepossession or assumption, will bear the meaning of a penthouse or porch. The prepossession seems to have arisen from the following passage in Matthew Paris, "atrium nobilissimum in introitu, quod Porticus vel oriolum appellatur." Here it has been forgotten, that the relative quod refers to the antecedent atrium, which implies [July, a modern hall; that the passage means only that an entrance hall was called porticus or oriel; and that Porticus did not imply anciently a projecting or detached addition, but a section of it, at the entrance part (see Archæologia, xiii. 290-308). In the earliest Basilica or Churches, the porticus was only the place adapted for Catechur mens or Penitents. See Ducange. The ascription as a gatehouse is only assumptive, from the passage in Matthew Paris last quoted, and bears no such construction. The extracts from William of Worçester, when he mentions an overstorye called an oriel, with windows and vanes gilt; from Lord Stafford's roll, for an oriel over a stable, and for a new oreyell for the Lord's trumpets in the hall, show certainly distinct corruptions of the term, by extension of the primitive precise meaning. The first is only the old Solarium of AngloSaxon date, the others are as stated. Of oriel windows, as places of recess, there is no doubt. We therefore assume, that not from the preceding data, or any other that we have seen, does the term oriel imply any other thing than a room or recess. We also affirm, that if Camera aureold means the oriel, as Mr. Hunt says it does in barbarous latinity, that there is the legitimate origin of the word. By oriel, in general, we are inclined to think that our ancestors commonly distinguished rooms with large, light, and decorated windows; and that they used the term much as we now do bowwindowed, for pleasanter rooms. XII. Observations on the mode of Construction of the present old London Bridge, as discovered in the years 1826 and 1827. By William Knight, Esq. Mr. Knight's valuable paper is printed at length in Part i. p. 294. Mr. Knight presumes that the bed of the river was not laid dry, but that the late starlings were only coffer dams, which the builders knew not how to empty, and therefore filled up with stones. Mr. Seyer (Bristol, ii. 32) says, from Stow, that the bed of the river was laid dry; and it is certain, that from the starlings both here and at the old Bristol Bridge, our ancestors did not suffer obstruction of the waterway to be a consideration worthy competition with the bridge being a street upon which houses could be erected, and derive additional support from the starlings. It is to be recollected, that, 1830.]* REVIEW. Bowles's Letter to Lord Mountcashél. " bridges were also constructed upon principles of fortification. XIII. Copy of a MS. Tract, intitaled, "A Brief Discovery of the great Purpresture of New Buildings nere to the Citie." Written in the time of King James the First. Communicated by Henry Ellis, Esq. F.R.S. Secretary. James was a decided enemy to absenteeism from country residences, because he thought that it occasioned decay of " hospitalitie, and injured the nation" (Nichols's Progresses of King 'James, iii. 268); and many country gentlemen who appear to have come up with their wives and families to avoid creditors, were much grieved at being obliged to go home again (id. 782). In 1622 a proclamation was issued, prohibiting country gentlemen to stay in town, except during termtime only, or other business, and then they were not to bring their wives or families with them (id. 804). The women, it seems, were particularly offended (id. 842), and it was deemed a measure suited to beggar the town quite." (See p. 1006.) The policy of James is stated in this document to have the following objects; prevention of increase of tradesmen, that the old ones might have less competition; the prices of provisions and house-rent be kept down; and the resort of dissolute people and vagrants for an asylum be prevented. Further, that the prevention would decrease the number of alehouse-keepers, papists, adventurers, smugglers, quacks, paupers, and bad characters of all kinds. For through the increase of the metropolis it came to pass, "That in some one parishe there were above two thowsand people, which received relief, and many thowsands which lived without any man's knowledge howe, not using any manner of art or trade."-p. 124. "Such a resort was also thought to increase sickness and infection, and endanger the King's person.”—125, 126. The tradespeople were therefore to be put under the control of companies, and "Carpenters and bricklayers were bound not to erect any newe buildinges, before they had certified the Companie, and the Companie the Gov'nors, and the Gov'nors the Ll of his Maties moste hoble Privie Counsell." -p. 128. Pretty arbitrary all this! A Word on Cathedrals, Oratorios, and Clergy 455 cashel. By the Rev. W. L. Bowles, Canon Residentiary of Sarum, 8vo. pp. 42. THE mortification of Christianity was intended only to prevent undue ascendancy of sense and passion: but, to reiterate Mr. Pelham's axiom,whenever Religion is brought into discussion, Reason is lost sight of, and Enthusiasm takes its place. It is proper, therefore, to religious enthusiasm to be irrational. We accordingly wish that we could impress upon the public this axiom concerning religious discussion, because it would tend to stop the progress of folly and faction. But to the subject before us. Mountcashel his taste in the choice of We do not envy Lord his hobby, and think that it is a strange one for a senator to ride, because it is only a vulgar donkey, used by the low and ignorant. If, as Mr. Bowles says, (p. 19) his Lordship deems the sublime idolatrous fiddle-sticks, strains of Handel profane, and talks of "Tears such as tender critics shed" only flow from our eyes; for it does appear to us a feeling to be classed with intellectual disease, to divest piety of its charms-to make of it a Gorgon's head, which we cannot look upon without being petrified. Now all this emanates from a school which patronizes erotic hymns, such as (p. 28) "Oh! grant me children or I die! Was once the love-sick Rachel's cry." And evangelical ladies, "Hiding their blushing faces on their Saviour's breast." Also hymns upon matrimony, so bad that Mr. Bowles says, "he could not pollute his pages with them."-p. 29. Mr. Bowles adds (p. 30), "Along with these hymn-books, and other godly similar tracts, it might sometimes be as well if the Society for the Suppression of Vice were to employ some reverend Paul Pry who sell evangelical works. One miscreant, to examine the bottom of the baskets of those under The Dairyman's Daughter' and other tracts of that description, concealed the more edifying Moll Flanders;' and under this, pictures and publications too infamous to be thought of, which he was observed selling to a crowd of children. On being brought before the magistrate, he said He only sold those things to enable him to bring up a large family in the fear of the Lord.-Police Reports for Feb. 1830," As to the other point-a Clergyman should be as extensively useful as circumstances permit, and by being a ma |