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through his difficulties as many a hero of the same school has done before him:

Juan, who was a little superficial,

And not in literature a great Drawcansir,
Examined by this learned and especial

Jury of matrons, scarce new what to answer:
His duties warlike, loving, or official,

His steady application as a dancer,

Had kept him from the brink of Hippocrene,
Which now he found was blue instead of green.
However, he replied at hazard, with

A modest confidence and calm assurance,
Which lent his learned lucubrations pith,
And passed for arguments of good endurance.
That prodigy, Miss Araminta Smith,

(Who at sixteen translated" Hercules Furens"
Into as furious English) with her best look,

Set down his sayings in her common-place book.

Our captivating Don, however, is acquainted with several languages, which does much for him; only he is no poet, which in the estimation of the ladies is all that is wanted to render him sublime; besides

Lady Fitz-Frisky, and Miss Mævia Mannish,

Both longed extremely to be sung in Spanish.

Juan is however admitted to all the coteries, and gets some knowledge of the ten thousand living authors; and

Also the eighty" greatest living poets,"

As every paltry magazine can show it's.

The "greatest living poet," Lord Byron observes, is precisely in the situation of the champion of the fist:

In twice five years "the greatest living poet,"
Like to the champion in the fisty ring,

Is called on to support his claim, or show it,
Although 'tis an imaginary thing.

804Even 1,---albeit I'm sure I did not know it,

Nor sought of foolscap subjects to be king,---
Was reckoned, a considerable time,

The grand Napoleon of the realms of rhyme.

The subsequent parallel is still more happy :-
But Juan was my Moscow, and Faliero

My Leipsic, and my Mont Saint Jean seems Cain :
"La Belle Alliance" of dunces down at zero,

Now that the Lion's fall'n, may rise again:

But I will fall at least as fell my hero;

Nor reign at all, or as a monarch reign;

Or to some lonely isle of Jailors go,

With turncoat Southey for my turnkey Lowe.

Whether Lord Byron is performing Napoleon to Southey's Sir Hudson or not, we will not determine; but of this we are sure, that in comparison with himself no assignable successor can at this moment be any thing more than a Louis XVIII. to a Bonaparte. La Belle Alliance is no doubt active to make it appear otherwise, and its mercenaries retail their miserable jokes and pointless darts (sine ictu) with persevering and lamentable imbecility. These gentry should recollect that the lion was not kicked by asses until on the point of expiring, and that a Canto of Don Juan will at any time lay them prostrate by the score. To be candid, their mode of procedure looks as if they themselves thought so, for they exhibit nothing but a sort of impotent demonstration, like the soldiers of a Chinese fort, mentioned

in Lord Anson's Voyage, who in order to keep up a warlike appearance paraded the ramparts with wooden guns. Peace be with them, it is

sure to attend their readers, if not the most wakeful of mankind.

We find Canto XI. too fruitful for the limits of our publication: we shall therefore conclude our remarks upon it next week.

Memoir of John Aikin, M. D. By Lucy Aikin.

Dr. Aikin was one of the few authors by profession, who after running a lengthened career, had no occasion to look behind him with uneasiness or regret. Calm in conduct and steady in principle, the sober and even tenor of his moral and literary character, was perfectly correspondent; and what is not always the case, he seemed thoroughly embued himself with the spirit of his own favourite axiom,-the propriety of submitting every thing to "the decision of reason." We apprehend, that it is in the rank of the more educated and liberal dissenters that this mental constitution is likely to be formed, and, with certain exceptions, this constant appeal to reason to be more assiduously cultivated, at least we have been generally led to conceive so by the result. Solid and generally scientific attainment, with a diligent culture of the reasoning powers, as opposed to mere philology, and the attainment of an excursive and imaginative spirit, seems to distinguish the thorough bred scholastic dissenter from the mass of the people who are less distinctively educated. This is partly in their favour and partly not. In the critical and investigative departments they usually excel, in the bold, the soaring, and the inventive, seldom; and in lofty flights of imagination still seldomer. In point of fact, they are not often allowed to feed on the literary pabulum of this mental tendency until a relish for it is in a great degree superseded; and with the exception of a few of the leading classics, scholastically communicated, instead of coming to the great fathers of poetical inspiration, with a gay, youthful and disengaged frame of mind, they are usually sealed books to them, until preoccupancy has shut out their influence for ever. So much as to our grand distinction; and if necessary it would be easy to refer to social and political causes for many more. This however is not our intention; our sole object being to refer to an intellectual species, of which as an individual we think the late Dr. Aikin formed a very favourable example.

The Memoir before us exhibits all the Aikin good sense, with what we are obliged to regard as its frequent concomitant-a something of dryness-too literally a mere memoir to be entertaining; and too destitute of incident to excite curiosity. The life of the professional literary man of the assiduous and laborious class, can scarcely be otherwise; and such was Dr. Aikin. Independent of the history of his productions, we are chiefly interested by his conscientious and honourable maintenance of his public principles, at a time when social comfort and worldly prosperity were both in jeopardy wherever this independence was manifested. In this point of view, the calm and unostentatious life of Dr. Aikin merits the attention of all men, as his services to general literature claim the respect of the scholar and general inquirer in particular. These services, it will be seen by a list of his numerous works inserted in the introduction to these volumes, were chiefly critical and biographical; the first correct and elegant, rather than profound;

the latter of standard value, both for accuracy and acumen, and especially serviceable as books of reference and valuable compilations.

The chief novelty in these volumes consists of the correspondence of this very respectable literary veteran with a variety of contemporaries of learning and reputation, by whom he was generally respected. To these are added a judicious compilation of his critical essays on the English Poets, appended to respective editions of them; and a selection of his miscellaneous papers and essays, contributed to various periodical works, and consequently not always known to be from the pen of Dr. Aikin. The result is a couple of handsome octavo volumes, which will take their place on the general shelf of British Literature, with modest but undisputed respectability.

Dr. Aikin and Mrs. Barbauld, who still survives, were the children of the Rev. John Aikin, a dissenting clergyman and schoolmaster, first of Kibworth Harcourt in Leicestershire, and subsequently of Warrington, where he bore a high character for learning, and general ability. Dr. Aikin was brought up to the medical profession, but after a trial or two, which in the principal instance failed, in consequence of the virulence of party spirit, at the commencement of the French revolution. He gradually took up literature as a source of profit, in which pursuit he seems to have enjoyed much more satisfaction and reputation than usually belong to so uncertain a profession. His leading characteristics, which we believe few will be inclined to question, are neatly sunmed up in the following epitaph:

In Memory of
JOHN AIKIN, M. D.

who was born at Kibworth in Leicestershire

Jan. 15th, 1747,

died in this parish
Dec. 7th, 1822.

A strenuous and consistent assertor
Of the cause of civil and religious liberty
and of the free exercise of reason
in the investigation of truth.

Of unwearied diligence in all his pursuits,
he was characterised,
in his profession,

by skill, humanity, and disinterestedness
in his writings,

by candour, by moral purity,
by good sense, and refined taste.
In the intercourse of society

he was affable, kind, cheerful, instructive;
as a husband, a father, and a friend,
unblemished, revered, and beloved.

TABLE TALK.

The following extract is from Heywood's Hierarchy of Angels, a work which, with infinite simplicity, details the whole social economy of heaven, and no small portion of that of hell. The following account of "the homage paid by a witch or a magician to Lucifer or the Devil" is supplied with so much precision and official phraseology, it must undoubtedly have been supplied to the author by the court newsman of Pandemonium.

“The manner of this homage (and others) done to the devil, is as followeth :— First, the magician, or witch, is brought before the tribunal of Satan, either by familiar spirit, or else by a mage or hag of the same profession: he sits crowned in a majestic throne, round engirt with other devils, who attend on him as his lords, barons, and princes, richly habited. The palace seemeth wholly to be built of marble, the walls hung with gold and purple-coloured arras; all shewing the pomp of regality and state. Satan himself, from his royal seat, casts his eyes round about, as if ready to incline his benign ears to any humble suitor whatsoever.

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"Then steps forth a devil of a venerable aspect, and saith, O most potent lord and master, great patron of the spacious universe, in whose hands are all the riches and treasures of the earth, and all the goods and gifts of the world; this man I present before thine imperial throne, to follow thy standard, and to fight under the patronage of thy great name and power; who is ready to acknowledge thee to be God and Creator of all things, and none but thee. It shall be in thy clemency, O most sovereign lord, to vouchsafe this man (or woman) the grace of thy benign aspect, and receive him (or her) into thy patronage and favour."

"To which he, with a grave countenance and loud oration, thus answereth,' I cannot but commend this thy friend, who so cordially hath committed himself into our safeguard and trust; whom, as our client and favourite, we accept, and promise to supply him with all felicity and pleasures, both in this present life and the future.' This done, the miserable wretch is commanded to renounce his faith and baptism, the eucharist, and all other holy things, and to confess Lucifer his only lord and governor; which is done with many execrable ceremonies, not fit to be here remembered. Then is the writing delivered (as was before spoken of Theophilus), written with the blood of the left thumb. Then doth the Devil mark him, either in the brow, neck, or shoulder, with the stamp or character of the foot of an hare, a black dog, or toad, or some such figure, by which he brands him (as the custom was of old to mark their slaves and captives, whom they bought in the market for money) to become his perpetual slave and vassal."

The following passage we give upon the same authority; but we cannot participate in the indignation of the author at the extraordinary mode of salutation practised at the court of Tartarus, being satisfied that the locality of the part to be saluted never stands in the way of a practised courtier even in this world; and as to standing on the head, leaping a stick, and all that, Gulliver's account of the court of Lilliput applies to almost every court on the terrestrial globe.

"The way in which Lucifer is worshipped by his Adherents.

"As the Devil is always adverse to his Creator, so he will be worshipped with contrary rites and ceremonies. Therefore, when magicians and witches present themselves unto him, they worship him with their faces from and their backs toward him, and sometimes standing upon their heads, with their heels upward; but, which is most beastly and abominable of all, in sign of homage, he presents unto them for salutation the hinder part of his person, as divers magicians have confessed."

Having supplied an account of certain ceremonies belonging to the holy Inquisition last week, we thought a brief account of other diabolical forms might follow with great keeping and propriety.

LONDON: Published by HENRY L. HUNT, 38, Tavistock-street, Covent-garden, and 2%, Old Bond-street. Price Fourpence. Sold by all Booksellers and Newsvenders in town; and by the following Agents in the country:

Edinburgh, Messrs. Bell and Bradfute.

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Leeds, James Mann, Briggate.

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Plymouth, Mr. Bartlett.

Printed by C. W. REYNELL, Broad-street, Golden-square.

THE

LITERARY EXAMINER.

No. VIII. SATURDAY, AUGUST 23, 1823.

.

THE INDICATOR.

No. LXXXI.

There he arriving, round about doth fly,

And takes survey with busie, curious eye,

Now this, now that, he tasteth tenderly.-SPENSER.

ON THE SUBURBS OF GENOA AND THE COUNTRY ABOUT LONDON. [Concluded from last week.]

AT Holland House, still in becoming hands, lived, loved, and died Addison; none of them very happily, though much is said about the death. I do not use the word "happy" in a physical sense, but as a question of good taste. Christians can die well undoubtedly: so can good people of all religions; especially if their blood is in a state of -reasonable circulation, and they are not haunted with fears for others. I do not know how Steele died. Very pleasantly, I dare say, if he had his wits about him; for Young said, that " in his worst state of health, he seemed to desire nothing but to please and be pleased." But at all events, his last years are preferable to those of Addison, even though he had given up his property to his creditors and retired into Wales. He used to amuse himself there with sitting out of doors in a chair, and giving prizes to be contended for by the village damsels. His more prudent friend, who put executions in his house to instruct him (which was about as good-natured as Steele thought it, and about as wise as damming up a torrent for a fortnight) flourished and faded in his grand house under the contempt of his wedded Countess, and resorted to consolations, which in such a man, and such a man only, provoke one to forget the charity which he lost sight of. It is a tradition, I believe, in Holland House, that Addison used sometimes to compose while pacing up and down a long room that had a window at each end, and in each window a bottle. What the bottle contained, more or less, stronger or weaker, is matter of speculation. If he thought of poor Steele, I beg his pardon; but why did he not say something about it? Addison's tavern habits were too much for Pope, who was obliged to leave off sitting up with him. Dennis, according to Spence's Anecdotes, said, that Dryden" for the last ten years of his life was much acquainted with Addison, and drank with him more than he ever used to do; probably so far as to hasten his end." Addison was then a young man. This was beginning betimes for the great moralist of the circles. When the story of his death-bed is told, it should be added (and doubtless would obtain equal admiration) that, a fortnight before, he sent for

VOL I.

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