gress, at first slow and silent, which I only mention, because nothing more important

has been recorded.

In 1575, the queen having been now near twenty years on the throne, we find, on positive evidence, that Greek lectures were given in St. John's College, Cambridge; which, indeed, few would be disposed to doubt, reflecting on the general character of the age and the length of opportunity that had been afforded. It is said in the life of Mr. Bois, or Boyse, one of the revisers of the translation of the Bible under James, that "his father was a great scholar, being learned in the Hebrew and Greek excellently well, which, considering the manners, that I say not, the looseness of the times of his education, was almost a miracle." The son was admitted at St. John's in 1575. "His father had well educated him in the Greek tongue before his coming; which caused him to be taken notice of in the college. For besides himself there was but one there who could write Greek. Three lectures in that language were read in the college. In the first, grammar was taught, as is commonly now done in schools. In the second, an easy author was explained in the grammatical way. In the third was read somewhat which might seem fit for their capacities who had passed over the other two. A year was usually spent in the first, and two in the second." It will be perceived, that the course of instruction was still elementary; but it is well known that many, perhaps most students, entered the universities at an earlier age than is usual at present.

Books on Sorcery.

I hardly know how to insert, in any other chapter than the present, (theological literature) the books that relate to sorcery and demoniacal possessions, though they can only in a very lax sense be ranked with theological literature. The greater part are contemptible in any other light than as evidences of the state of human opinion. Those designed to rescue the innocent from sanguinary prejudices, and chase the real demon of superstition from the mind of man, deserve to be commemorated. Two such works belong to this period. Wierus, a physician of the Netherlands, in a treatise, "De Præstigiis,' Basle, 1564, combats the horrible prejudice by which those accused of witchcraft were thrown into the flames. He shews a good deal of credulity as to diabolical illusions, but takes these unfortunate persons for the devil's victims rather than his accomplices. Upon the whole, Wierus destroys more superstition than he seriously intended to leave behind.

A far superior writer is our countryman,

Reginald Scot, whose object is the same, but whose views are incomparably more extensive and enlightened. He denies altogether to the devil any power of controlling the course of nature. It may be easily supposed that this solid and learned person, for such he was beyond almost all the English of that age, did not escape in his own time, or long afterwards, the censure of those who adhered to superstition. Scot's Discovery of Witchcraft was published in 1584. Bodin, on the other hand, endeavoured to sustain the vulgar notions of Witchcraft in his "Demonomanie des Sorciers." It is not easy to conceive a more wretched production; besides his superstitious absurdities, he is guilty of exciting the magistrate against Wierus, by representing him as a real confederate of Satan.

Essays of Montaigne.*

[The exposition of Montaigne is, indeed, a delightful piece of writing, extending to some dozen pages: but we have only space for a few extracts.]

The Essays of Montaigne, the first edition of which appeared at Bourdeaux in 1580,† make in several respects an epoch in literature, less on account of their real importance, or the novel truths they contain, than of their influence upon the taste and the opinions of Europe. They are the first provocatio ad populum, the first appeal from the porch and the academy to the haunts of busy and of idle men, the first book that taught the unlearned reader to observe and reflect for himself on questions of moral philosophy. In an age when every topic of this nature was treated systematically and in a didactic form, he broke out without connexion of chapters, with all the digressions that levity and garrulous egotism could suggest, with a very delightful, but, at that time, most unusual rapidity of transition from seriousness to gaiety. It would be to anticipate much of what will demand attention in the ensuing century, were we to mention here the conspicuous writers who, more or less directly, and with more or less of close imitation, may be classed in the school of Montaigne; it embraces, in fact, a large proportion of French and English literature, and especially of that which has borrowed his title of Essays. No prose writer of the sixteenth century has been so generally read, nor probably given so much delight. Whatever may be our estimate of Montaigne as a philosopher, a name which he was far from arrogating, there

* Montaigne, it will be remembered, was one of Byron's favourite authors: it is strange, however, that the Essayist's scepticism on supernatural stories had little weight with our poet.-ED. L. W.

+ This edition contains only the first and second books of the Essays; the third was published in that of Paris, 1588.

will be but one opinion of the felicity and brightness of his genius.

It is a striking proof of these qualities, that we cannot help believing him to have struck out all his thoughts by a spontaneous effort of his mind, and to have fallen afterwards upon his quotations and examples by happy accident. I have little doubt but that the process was different; and that, either by dint of memory, though he absolutely disclaims the possessing a good one, or by the usual method of commonplacing, he had made his reading instrumental to excite his own ingenious and fearless understanding. His extent of learning was by no means great for that age, but the whole of it was brought to bear on his object; and it is a proof of Montaigne's independence of mind, that, while a vast mass of erudition was the only regular passport to fame, he read no authors but such as were most fitted to his habits of thinking. Hence he displays an unity, a self-existence, which we seldom find so complete in other writers. His quotations, though they perhaps make more than one half of his Essays, seem parts of himself, and are like limbs of his own mind, which could not be separated without laceration. But over all is spread a charm of a fascinating simplicity, and an apparent abandonment of the whole man to the easy inspiration of genius, combined with a good-nature, though rather too epicurean and destitute of moral energy, which, for that very reason, made him a favourite with men of similar dispositions, for whom courts and camps, and country mansions were the proper soil.

Montaigne is the earliest classical writer in the French language, the first whom a gentlemen is ashamed not to have read. So long as an unaffected style and an appearance of the utmost simplicity and good nature shall charm, so long as the lovers of desultory and cheerful conversation shall be more numerous than those who prefer a lecture or a sermon, so long as reading is sought by the many as an amusement in idleness, or a resource in pain, so long will Montaigne be among the favourite authors of mankind. I know not whether the greatest blemish of his Essays has much impeded their popularity; they led the way to the indecency so characteristic of French literature, but in no writer on serious topics, except Bayle, more habitual than in Montaigne. It may be observed, that a larger portion of this quality distinguishes the third book, published after he had attained a reputation, than the two former. It is also more overspread by egotism; and it is not agreeable to perceive that the two leading faults of his disposition became more unrestrained and absorbing as he advanced in life.

Writers on Morals in England. There was never a generation in England which, for worldly prudence and wise observation of mankind, stood higher than the subjects of Elizabeth. Rich in men of strong mind, that age had given them a discipline unknown to ourselves; the strictness of the Tudor government, the suspicious temper of the queen, the spirit not only of intolerance, but of inquisitiveness as to religious dissent, the uncertainties of the future, produced a caution rather foreign to the English character, accompanied by a closer attention to the workings of other men's minds, and their exterior signs. This, for similar reasons, had long distinguished the Italians; but it is chiefly displayed, perhaps, in their political writings. We find it, in a larger and more philosophical sense, near the end of Elizabeth's reign, when our literature made its first strong shoot, prompting the short condensed reflections of Burleigh and Raleigh, or saturating with moral observation the mighty soul of Shakspeare.

The first in time, and we may justly say, the first in excellence of English writings on moral prudence, are the Essays of Bacon. But these, as we now read them, though not very bulky, are greatly enlarged since their first publication in 1597.

TRAVELS,

RECONNOITERING VOYAGES AND
WITH ADVENTURES IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA.

[THE author of this work, one of startling statements, by the way, is Mr. W. H. Legh, who, in the autumn of 1836, was appointed surgeon to the South Australian Company's barque, "South Australia," destined to convey emigrants to that colony. His narrative is a very interesting one, as all experience in this portion of the New World must be. He states his only object to be to tell the truth, as regards emigration to Australia; although, his statements and general views being greatly at variance with existing opinions, he is prepared for the wrath of theorists and speculators. Upon this point we shall not enter; for, after all, we suspect the results of emigration to be represented, as are most other affairs of life; "every man speaks of the market as he has found it :" for example, Mr. Legh's report of Adelaide is discouraging in the extreme; whereas, a private letter lying before us is the very reverse; the writer, who has scarcely been two years in the colony, looking forward to saving a competence for his family.

Mr. Legh, in his opening chapter, glances at two classes of persons who emigrate those who have a "mature conviction that another land holds forth advantages which their own does not possess, and who are resolutely determined to

rough it. They will, with due exertion, meet with success, whether they be gentlemen with large families and small capital, labouring men, mechanics, or tradesmen." The second class are those "reckless and dissatisfied beings who fancy every one is better than themselves, and that every land enjoys advantages superior to their own." For such worthies, Mr. Legh quotes from a brother emigrant: "I find in emigration but very little of the romance. It is nothing but downright laborious plodding." Having noticed a party of flighty young fellows," whom he found drinking, smoking, and hunting, in Kangaroo Island, the author adds:]

66

I never could recommend thoughtless young men to come out to these young colonies, abandoning the gay dissipation of England for the gloomy wilds of Australia, where nothing but the strictest perseverance can make way. The comforts of society must be disregarded for awhile; years must elapse before you can think of enjoying the comforts of happy England. The want, not merely of luxuries, but of even the necessaries of life, must often be submitted to. Not even, after all your toil in preparing your foster-home, are you secure from disappointment, since the long drought to which these climes are subject may destroy all your labour, and leave the once verdant field, upon which you anchored all your hopes, a brown and withered wilderness.

Forget, if it be possible, that you have lived in England; forget, at all events refrain from comparing your native with your adopted country, and then,-with your wife and domestics, your little home, though rude as the huts which held our sturdy forefathers in Britain, you may have many comforts; indeed, I have spent as gay and as happy a night in a hut composed of bark and reeds, or under a log-hut, as ever I passed in the vicinity of Turkey carpets, purple and fine linen.

[Mr. Legh did not sail till December 22, 1836; his first misfortune was to find he was in a "leaky ship," and that, upon one particular tack, she made six inches water per hour the incidents of the voyage-as sea-sickness, bottle-experiments, flying fish, sharks, crossing the Line, colour of the sea, &c. must be passed over. Not so, however, a visitation of typhus fever, aggravated by the vessel being frequently becalmed upon the Line, under a sun that seemed suspended perpendicularly overhead, the emigrants being crammed into unwholesome berths, like Africans in a slave-ship, and this for a voyage of so many thousand miles, and of four months duration; a ship of 120 tons being inadequate for 100 individuals, with provisions, water, bullocks, pigs, sheep,

spare tackling, booms, sails, &c. Surely, this is cruelty to helpless whites, which our philanthropists at home would do well to counteract.

Three chapters are devoted to the author's sojourns at Tristan D'Acunha, and the Cape; and the voyage is then resumed. A terrific storm ensues; and April 2 and 3, “all are heartily sick of sea, provisions turn out uneatable, the men are constantly wrangling, the water is undrinkable; the vessel is yet 3,800 miles from her destination, and the emigrants have nothing to hope from touching anywhere; providentially, some heavy rains fall: by spreading the awning, a bucket or two each of water is caught, of which, though it tasted tarry, they are very chary; and the author recommends to all emigrants a filter. At length, on April 22, they reached the "land of promise," the first impression of which is thus recorded:]

The appearance of Kangaroo Island, as we coasted along, was far from inviting; it was a very bold sandy red rocky shore, and hilly, with no appearance of verdure

-

nothing but a burnt-up brown barren land, with here and there a thicket of umbrage. To us any land was pleasing: but, generally speaking, the farming gentry" pulled long faces."

We worked with a tolerably fair wind down the Strait, the land everywhere looking bleak, till we came to near Point Marsden, at the head of the bay, where the land assumed a more garden-like appearance, and we were planning a journey across it to the settlement, a proposition, luckily for all, not carried into effect. Rounding this point we at once beheld the settlement of Kingscote.

[In a note is a melancholy experience of the value of guide-books.]

The doctor of the vessel immediately preceding us, with a party of four or five, did land at this place with the same intention. Taking Sutherland's book as a guide, with a bit of pork, a few biscuits, &c., guns and ammunition, off, they started to cross to the settlement. Sutherland says, "the island is surrounded near the beach by a belt of jungle, which, when passed, shews fine plains abounding with kangaroos and emus." They struggled through the terrible bush in the vain hope of finding the plain and kangaroos; not a living thing disturbed those solitudes; thirst, hunger, and fatigue overpowered the doctor and two others, and he begged those that could proceed to do so and leave them there. The remainder had the fortune to make the sea, and a few periwinkles and a sea-gull, the blood of which they sucked, just served to keep life within them, till those in quest of the distressed settlers discovered their gaunt and ghastly frames asleep on the beach. Search was instantly made for the doctor and his hapless companions, but the spot where they had lain was deserted; they had straggled farther into the bush, to fall and die a lonely miserable death.

[Some interesting sketches ensue; as of Clearing the Land.]

We were put on shore on the morning of the 24th; the men were escorted ra

ther more than a quarter of a mile, through a bush, that induced them to keep pretty close to each other, as it was impossible to see a yard before them. I accompanied them, not a little amused at hearing the imprecations they heaped on certain gentry, who before had been the worthiest of the worthy. Every one had his axe and saw, and they were all ordered to commence clearing a piece of ground, where they were informed their tents would be erected. This spot was full of young gumtrees from twenty to thirty feet high, and about as thick as a man's thigh. No sooner was the command given, than down came the gum-trees. Many a one, whilst engaged in felling his own tree, was knocked to the ground by the fall of his neighbour's. I earnestly advised them not to cut down every tree, but to leave the finer ones for shade and ornament, a plan which they adopted.

Kingscote.

The aspect of Kingscote at the time of our landing was thus:-Before us were the hills, on the slope of which lies the town. These hills are covered entirely with wood, having, from the sea, the appearance of one impenetrable jungle, with here and there a group of dead trees, rearing their gaunt and withered limbs above their fellows. A little patch had been cleared at the slope of one of these hills, and there stood a solitary white cottage, the property of S. Stephens, Esq. On the brow of the hill, looking down a steep precipice into the sea, were some half-dozen wooden huts, which contained farmer emigrants. On the beach was the skeleton of a storehouse then under erection, around which were four or five huts built of bushes; in one of them they were performing divine service, the summons to attend which was given by means of a bell hung up in a tree. I soon landed, and then, for the first time, rested my foot on this distant region. We were met on the beach by T. Beare, Esq., settler there, who hospitably invited us to his house. We accompanied him to the door, where, in spite of good breeding, we indulged in a hearty laugh. I must describe the rich scene. În the centre of five or six gum-trees was a canvas tent, very much like an eating-booth at a country fair; before it was a fire-place made with a few stones, and a pot swung à-la-gipsy. There was on a bench, which ran along the front, a pigeon-house with its inhabitants; there were also two or three native parrots cawing away; agricultural implements, &c., and all around you were his poultry. The tent was upon a kind of stage, and we were invited, good humouredly, "to walk up and secure our places, as the performance inside would

commence immediately." Notwithstanding the ludicrous figure the tent cut outside, it looked very respectable within, for he had, in his kind hospitality, spread his table, whereon was very good cheer, to which we did ample justice.

Kangaroo Island.

Capt. Flinders tells us the island abounds with kangaroos and emus, and Capt. Sutherland seconds the assertion-there was nothing to be feared. Accordingly I purchased a splendid rifle, double-barrelled gun, single gun, pistols, powder, and shot. Now mark the interpretation of our dreams. There is not a kangaroo within twenty or thirty miles of the settlement; if you want to shoot one you must prepare for a fortnight's march in the interminable bush; and when shot, how is it to be got home? According to men who have lived there, there has no emu been seen these ten years; and, as it regarded the cow-jobbing business, when we landed our two goats, the manager said, "Pray send some corn with them, for we have not a blade of grass upon the island!!!" Nor was there; for what little grass springs up, is a long way from Kingscote, and is only periodical, the dry weather destroying it.

The top canvas of all tents should be white, as least attracting the rays of the sun, which probably raises the thermometer in Australia as high, if not higher than it does in any country of the world. I have seen it in my tent, on Kangaroo Island, as high as 115°; and I have been informed by respectable inhabitants, who arrived there a few months before me, (namely, during the heat of their summer, Christmas time) that the thermometer, in their tents, has reached to 1200; yet, though standing so extraordinarily high, the heat is not felt to that oppressive degree as it is in India, when the thermometer is 20 or 30 degrees lower.

The soil of this island, in the vicinity of Kingscote, is composed of sand left by the retiring sea, mixed with a small portion of vegetable mould. A Mr. Menzies, who is the Company's geologist here, has been trying these nine months, to raise a cabbage, but in vain. The want of rain upon land so thirsty in its nature, renders it impossible to produce vegetables except during the rainy season. I have seen this gentleman travelling with a bag full of mould which he had been at the pains to fetch from a distant spot, in order to plant some favourite seedling.

Kingscote is built upon the beach, where the traveller sinks ankle-deep in the sand at every step. About 200 or 300 yards from the sea, where the geologist has taken up his abode, there is to be found

There are belts of iron and limestone running through the island, in the interstices of which good soil is frequently found. The best I have seen was nine miles in the interior, where the Company keep their piggery. This was the location of some runaway convicts, who resided here with some native women, and of whom the Company bought the ground. I have seen excellent corn grown here; but a terrible blight came over it this year, and what that spared was destroyed by the parrots, which attacked it in myriads. There are other very grievous drawbacks upon the labours of the farmer in this country. I will enumerate some of them. In the first place, when the agriculturist lands, he will endeavour, of course, to select the best soil, which is to be found where the largest timber grows, as at the place above-mentioned, where I have measured trees, as high as could reach from the ground, nineteen feet in girth, enormously lofty and umbrageous, and growing as thick as an English wood; while minor plants and climbers spring up at their roots, and woe betide the stranger who ventures among them! These will defy the efforts of any man to cut down; he must look for an open spot near them, which being found, he must next look for water; then cut down what trees he can, and grub up the roots. He must also fence every foot round his land as close as a wall, to protect it from the wallaba and the bandicoot, which, like hares in England, destroy all the young corn, while the crows and magpies, et hoc genus omne, visit your potato-field. Allowing even that the season is unusually wet, and that neither blight nor scalding winds occur, he is yet exposed to the depredations of the parrots, which are, without exception, the most impudent thieves I ever saw; flying down before your face, and chattering away until you shoot the very last of the flock. There is in some parts of the island a quantity of the kangaroo grass, which shoots up in the rains, but I have no opinion of it for sheep; it may do for a few hungry oxen. Potatoes may, I have no doubt, be grown, though probably to no great size, as I never saw an old potato of native growth.

Popular Antiquities.

THE CAMDEN SOCIETY,

"FOR the publication of early historical and literary remains," goes on and prospers. Indeed, such is the interest excited by its praiseworthy purpose of literary cul

been extended from one thousand to twelve hundred; and the candidates for admission are numerous. The impression already produced by the Association must be highly gratifying to its warmest promoters, amongst whom stand foremost the Messrs. Nichols, who have taken considerable pains, beyond a commercial interest, in the welfare of the Society, and in advancing "the interest of that branch of Literature, for its connexion with which their house has long been so honorably distinguished."

The Society's fifth publication has just appeared; and consists of "A Collection of Anecdotes and Traditions illustrative of Early English History and Literature, derived from MS. Sources: "" suggested to the Council, and edited by Mr. Thoms, the secretary. It is, withal, a very pleasant assemblage of "quips, quirks, and quiddities," interspered with much judicious illustration and comment, and abundantly stored with wit and anecdote; so that the present volume may, probably, become more popular than either of its predecessors. Mr. Thoms, in his Preface, hints at "the intermixture of lighter matters," and at the "Members of the Society, who think Minerva looks most bewitching when her face is dimpled with a smile," being "allowed an occasional glimpse of their divinity in that mood which they deem her happiest." At such pleasantry, the gravest of the Somerset House magnates must relax: there must be milk for babes, wherein the dry crusts of antiquarian literature must be sopped for the many; and, notwithstanding the multitude of literary distinctions in the Society's list, Mr. Thoms's volume will, doubtless, be acceptable to the members.

The raw materials of the Collection are "Merry Passages and Jests," from the Harleian MS. No. 6,395, compiled by Sir Nicholas Lestrange, of Hunstanson, of whom, by the way, Mr. J. G. Nichols has drawn up for this volume a very elaborate and interesting account. The second part is derived from the Lansdowne MS. No. 231, written by John Aubrey, and containing his materials (with additions by Dr. Kennett,) for a projected work entitled Remains of Gentilism and Judaism, in which Aubrey draws a parallel between the Superstitions of Greece and Rome and those of his own country. The subject of coincident superstitions, though by no means a novelty in antiquarian literature, is a very attractive one; and, as Mr. Thoms has only availed himself of such passages from the MS. as have not been previously appropriated, they form not the least readable portion of this volume. The third portion has been