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what was that concealed meaning? And first as to the food of man in the case before us. The inventors of the fable of Ceres and Proserpine appear to me to have typified the change from our natural to an unnatural means of sustenance, by making Pluto proclaim that he who should bring with him the golden bough and present it to Proserpine should be exempted from the laws of hell, should have ingress and egress free, in consideration of so acceptable an offering. We all recollect, that Eneas furnishes himself with this claim to the favour of Proserpine, when he contemplates his ever-famous descent in the sixth Æneid. That this golden bough was a bough of golden fruit is too obvious, and will be too readily conceded for me to do more than produce a single authority for that construction.

But beauty, like the fair Hesperian tree Of blooming gold, had need the guard Of dragon-watch. Comus, v. 387. Apollodorus mentions that, when Jupiter required the release of Proserpine, Pluto gave her at once the pomegranate* to eat, τα μη πολύν χρόνον παρα τη μητρί καταμείνη, "that she might not pass much time with her mother." The original fabulist did not chuse to tell us that Proserpine partook of meat in the infernal regions, for then there would have been nothing symbolical; but, to typify the food of blood, he chose the pomegranate, the juice of which when ripe resembles blood. Proserpine's remaining a part of the year with Pluto and the rest with Ceres appears to refer to the two kinds of food to which Jupiter is thus made to give an unwilling sanction, merely beCause the use of animal food had been already adopted when the rape by Pluto was first added to the mythological history of Ceres. The only solution of this circumstance of the fable that I have ever heard of, except Lord Bacon's, which is not adapted to all parts of the globe, is that it alludes to the corn remaining half the year in the bowels of the earth, and half above it; but the fact is totally otherwiset. Proserpine's de

• Rapta tribus, dixit, solvit jejunia granis, Punica quæ lento cortice poma legunt. Ov. Fast. 1. 4. v. 607. There are also three kinds, and no more, of animal food, the fishes, the birds, and the beasts

The corn appears in two or three weeks after the seed is planted. I must not forget to remind the reader that the four most an

scent through water to the subterraneous regions cannot be considered as quite indifferent, when we recollect that the Greeks used the adjective νυμφίληπτος, "possessed with water," and the Romans lymphatus, just as we say in good Scripture language, "possessed of a devil.” So that, with them, "to be watered," was to be in a very high state of disease, for it signified to be insane, to be distracted. Ceres in searching for her daughter is seized with thirst, and asks permission to allay it at the door of a cottage. The old woman who lives there brings out to the goddess a vessel, not of pure water, but of water which has some thing mixed in it, the fabulist clearly indicating thereby the admixture of foreign matter which there is in water. While Ceres drinks, a boy presents himself before her, and being thirsty himself, reproaches her for drinking so deeply of the water. She takes offence at his insolence, and, throwing over him what remains in the vessel, together with the mixture, she changes him into a lizard called the stellio, a reptile of minute dimensions, lest his power of doing injury, should equal his inclination, I have no where met with an explanation of this portion of the fable. Some meaning must evidently be intended. Ovid, although he did not comprehend the full force of that traditionary wisdom which he was rendering eternal by his delightful poetry, was not a man to write what he suspected to be nonsense; indeed, if we

cient orders of priests, the Rahans, the Brahmins, the Magi, and the Druids, confined themselves to vegetable food, as did also the the Eleusinian Mysteries, and one of whose Athenian prince Triptolemus, who established laws prohibits all injury to animals. The

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σινεσθαι.

* On the metamorphosis of the fountainnymph Cyane, we are told, Denique pro vivo vitiatas sanguine venas Lympha subit.

Inque brevem formam, ne sit vis magna nocendi, Contrahitur.

I beg leave to refer the learned reader to a variety of passages in the Greek and Latin authors, particularly to the choruses of the Greek tragedians, for confirmations of the view here taken of the fable of Proserpine. It is probable also that light will thus be thrown upon some sentences which hitherto have baffled the labours of commentators. The story of Aristæus, the hunter, and his bees, or of that prince and his people, I'shall take a future opportunity of observing upon.

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cept that they are perfectly consistent with the principal ones; and I shall reserve, to another occasion, what I have to communicate further on the mystic theology of the ancients. Every argument must have one or more data. In submitting this to the public, I ask but a single datum: namely, that the experi ment of vegetable diet, and distilled water, which I am making in my own family, will be attended with similar results in other families. By the success of this experiment, as far as it has proceeded, by the evidence arising out of the fable which we have been examining, as well as by other reasons connected with the learning of ancient days, supported as all this ground of confidence is by an exemption in my own person from the attacks of a painful illness, or in other language, by my delivery from the grasp of the Promethean vulture; I am induced to believe that many wise men have long ago discovered, first, that man is not by nature a carnivorous ani mal; secondly, that thirst is occasioned by a flesh diet; and lastly, that water contains an admixture of particles, which are injurious. Had it so happened that our regimen had been strictly and gene rally adopted in England, from the commencement of the reign of his present Majesty, I am persuaded that there would not, at this hour, have been found in the whole island a wretch capable of destroying an infant in the cradle. Some considerable effect would already have been produced; but in the course of ages it would be felt and perceived, how true in its most refined sense is that opinion, so elegantly expressed by the Muse of other days, that the torch of love never burns with so vivid a lustre, as when fanned by the benefactress, Ceres.

were to consider the figures in these beautiful poetical paintings, as called up and dismissed like those of a pantomime, by the wand of harlequin, the reading of poetry would sink to the most puerile of all amusements, and would be a perfect waste of time. To my apprehension, Ceres appears to say, by this abrupt action towards the harsh-visaged boy, puer duri oris, "Since you already carry about you one principle of evil, which is manifest in your countenance, receive also the other mischievous principle as a chastisement for your contempt of my divine nature." Thus she marks him all over with the contents of the old woman's pitcher, and accordingly stellio, the name of the lizard into which the boy was changed, signifies in Latin, a knave or a villain. The impaired strength and the general degradation of the human species, could not be more vividly depictured than by this metamorphosis. It is most melancholy to reflect, that the corrupt state of the world should have made so deep an impression on the minds of those distinguished men, whoever they were, with whom the ancient religion originated. Humiliating as this truth may be, it descends to us with the accumulated authority of antiquity. Yet let us not despair: Apollo is our protector, and he has not been idle. The divinity who presides over medicine and letters, he to whom Jupiter has assigned the province of curing or inflicting diseases, has bent his powerful bow, and stretched this reptile lifeless at his feet. Praxiteles has left to admiring ages a statue of Apollo, as the lizard Killer, TauponTovov. Pliny says (Hist. Nat. 1. 34. s. 8.) Praxiteles quoque marmore felieior, ideo et clarior fuit. Fecit tamen ex are pulcherrima opera: Proserpina raptum; item Cutagusam; et Liberum Patrem; et Ebrietatem.-Fecit et puberem Apollinem subrepenti lacerta cominus sagittà insidiantem, quem Sauroctonon vocant. "Praxiteles sculptured a young Apollo, transfixing with an arrow the lizard as it was creeping away." "This is very much as Ovid describes the animal, fugit anum, latebramque petit. This action was so remark

able in the history of Apollo, that he takes his name from it. Aronowy, ATX, is the participle of amox, to kill or destroy. Of the minor incidents of this fable I shall say nothing at present, ex

*The Apollo of Belvedere, now in the Museum of Paris.

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long, large root; largest at the upper end, forked and shaped somewhat like the human body. From Mandragora, or Mandrakis, the ancients gave the name of Mandragoritis, to Venus. The Emperor Julian, in one of his Letters tells us, that he drinks the juice of Mandrakes to excite amorous propensities. And Moses tells us, Gen. xxx, 14, that Reuben, the son of Leah, brought Mandrakes from the field, and that Jacob's wives had a dispute about them; Rachel, as in the opinion of some at the present day, thinking them good against barJAMES HALL.

renness

Chesnut Walk, Walthamstow,

Dec. 15, 1811.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

Yun Cres, in the last number YOUR correspondent, who signs

of the Monthly Magazine, p. 548, cannot be acquainted with the modern dictionaries of Arts and Sciences, or he could not have made so strange and utterly unfounded an assertion as that the word CANTEEN is to be found" in one, and only one, of our dictionaries;" whereas it is difficult, I believe, to fix upon any one, excepting the Encyclopædia Britannica, in which it is not mentioned, and the thing itself described. A short account of CANTEEN, with notice of the manufacturer of the article, on a large scale for the British government, 15 given in Dr. GREGORY'S Dictionary of the Arts and Sciences. The vessel is also described in the British Encyclopedia by Nicholson; and in Kendal's Pocket Encyclopædia. But in Dr. Rees' NEW CYCLOPADIA is given a very full and particular description, accompa. nied with two plates, by Lowry, of all the machinery used in the manufacture, which has been before the public full five years. JER. JOYCE.

Highgate, Jan. 10, 1812.

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80

THOUSAND brave and valuable men have ingloriouslyperished under circumstances, which the slightest consideration will prove to have been so many wanton and unnecessary SACRIFICES-Sacritices wanton so unnecessary--and so easily to have been prevented, that, had the same number of men been standing upon a magazine of gun-powder, it might with equal reason be made a question, whether their deaths had been unvoidable, had we purposely applied a match to the powder, and they had been blown to atoms!

During the month of December, in the St. George of 98 guns, the Defence of 74 guns, the Hero of 74 guns, the Saldan ha of 44, the Baltic Fleet, and in other ways, more than THREE THOUSAND brave

British seamen perished by their ships being wrecked on LEE-SHORES--from driven the crews alive on the same shores, physical causes, which would also have

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had they been provided with the means of preserving their buoyancy, after they had lost the other artificial means of floating, afforded by their ships.* fact, had each man been provided with a cork girdle-a cork spencer-a cork life-preserver, or any of the nugnorous contrivances invented to diminish the specific gravity of the human body, in ' water, and enable unhappy mariners to float over the few yards which usually lie between their wrecks and a lee-shore.

I know that old seamen, or young and thoughtless seamen, will sneer at these fresh-water fears and cowardly provisions! They" think it pusillanimous to attend to any measures of precaution! They deem it an indication of fear to stop a leak to work the pumps-to cut away the masts-to fasten down the hatches-or take any measures which counteract their destiny, or superscde the protection of Providence! Calking

coppering-and all other arts of the ship-builder, calculated to keep the crews afloat in ships, they treat as the arts of cowards and land lubbers. A truly brave seaman (say they) would prefer to go to sea in a riddle-trust to bis fate and leave all to Providence!At any rate, if he cannot swim in a riddle, he is bound to sink without murmuring, and subunit quietly to that destiny which cannot be averted!"

Swimming in a tempestuous sea is out of the question-nothing can float even at intervals in such a sea, but what is specifically lighter than water. Such

Such really are the sturdy prejudices and arguments of this race of men, and they are as unconquerable by appeals to their reason, as their bodies and courage are unconquerable when opposed to the "Not to sink quietly, (say enemy. they) when our ship will no longer sustain us, would be unworthy of us, and perdition seize the poltroon who would leave his ship while two planks of her remained together!" So say 1-but, when the last planks separate-what then? What then--why then he may get ashore if he can!"-This then is all I ask-when the elements have proved the inefficacy of exertion-or indicate that such may be the event; then I ask, that every man should be allowed to buckle on his last resource his cork-belt, cork-jacket, or whatever best answers the purpose.

Let the reader think on the indescribable horrors of the time passed in a hopeless wreck, between the striking of the ship and its going to pieces let him pause in this place, and reflect on the variety of those sufferings-and on the subsequent pangs of parents, widows, and orphans and let him, on the convictions of his feelings and his reason, declare the bounden duty of the legislature on this subject!-Is it not most evident that a law, ordering the provision on board of all ships, of a life-preserver, for every soul on board, is due from wise legislation, at once to prove its tenderness for the lives of those whom it is bound to protect; and to demonstrate its superiority over fool-hardy and vulgar prejudices?

I should he ashamed to quote the stale argument of the House of Commons on such occasions, by urging the policy of preserving the lives of our brave defenders, at the expence of their prejudices; because HUMANITY demands the enactment of such a law, and policy, ought never to be named when there exists a paramount claim of humanity. I shall, however, invite the reader once more to depict in his mind the horrors of a hopeless wreck, and imagine the effect on the exertions of a crew, when in one case they have the means of salvation in their own power, and when in the other they have only to count the moments, till that wave arrives which is to close their hopes in this world! Instead of giving way to the agonies of despair of Loosing their sense of subordination of indulging in criminal and fatal excesses

confidence in personal security would invigorate their exertions, and there

would be no motive for leaving the ship by desperate experiments, but every inducement to continue with the wreck while two planks kept together!

It is absolutely certain as CERTAIN as any proposition of Euclid,-that, had the crews of the St. George, Defence, and Hero, lately wrecked in the North Seas, and of the Saldanha, wrecked off the coast of Ireland, say about THREE THOU➡ SAND brave men, been provided with any arrangement of cork sufficient to maintain their buoyancy, nearly the whole must have reached the shore alive!-Thus have THREE THOUSAND men perished in these instances, simply because a legislative enactment was not made last year--what then shall we have reason to think of that legislature, if after such warnings, any number of our brave defenders should be drowned in like manner during the ensuing winter?

The crime of OMISSION in such a case, would be little less culpable than the crime of COMMISSION!

Dec. 30, 1811.

COMMON SENSE. P.S. The simplest and cheapest contrivance that I have seen for these purposes, is a long

canvas bag, about five or six inches in diameter, filled with old corks, or cork shavings, passed round the body under the arms, and tied with a string, or piece of leather, on the

chest. The corks drawn in London and Middlesex, during a single Christmas, would on this plan make belts enough for the crews of the whole Royal Navy.

For the Monthly Magazine. POSTSCRIPT to the MEMOIR of JOHN

M

FRANSHAM.

R. SAINT has favoured the inhabitants of Norwich, and, it may be hoped, a more extensive public, with a separate life of the late John Fransham, of that city. It is in the form of letters, and contains several corrective animadversions on the account given in your Magazine for May, 1811, (sce vol. xxxi. page 342) several additional anecdotes, and several interesting extracts from the unpublished writings of this philosopher.

Of the corrective and additional matter it is proper to transplant the substance into your pages; but this must be done with an abbreviation proportioned to the narrower compass of the original biography.

Mr. Saint states, (page 70) that Frausham was son to the sexton, not clerk, of saint George's parish; that when a boy, he composed sermons; and that Dr. Salter, the minister of the parish, took many kind steps toward placing him at

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an English university. The kinsman, who bequeathed five-and-twenty pounds to Fransham, was willing to assist in this expense; but his death rendered the scheme abortive. Still this project occasioned the school-learning of Franshain to be pushed further than is usual in his line of life.

Mr. Saint states, (p. 72) that Fransham was not bound apprentice to a cooper at Wymondham, and that he did not stay there with his master the entire month, which he was to pass on liking. He returned to Norwich, made a similar experiment at a farriery, where he became intimate with Mr. Clover, afterwards a celebrated veterinary surgeon' (p. 88); but abandoned this employment also, from abhorrence at the cruel practices there carried on of cropping, nicking, and docking, horses.

Being asked (p. 91) to which of two candidates he gave the preference, Fransham said, he should be for choosing that man who had the humanity to drive long-tailed horses.

Afterwards (p. 79) he put himself under the instruction of one Daniel Wright, a weaver, with whom he continued to work two years, subsisting all the while by throwing the shuttle. Daniel Wright was characterised by his pupil as one "who could discourse well on the nature and fitness of things." Their loons were placed in contiguous opposition, and they learned to measure their periods so rhythmically, as to converse with ease during the intervals of the click-clack. Wright possessed a finely philosophic spirit, said Fransham, and a soul well purified from vulgar errors.

Previous to his intended excursion into the Highlands of Scotland, Fransham (p. 75) walked habitually about Norwich barefoot. This led his parents to consult Sir Benjamin Wrench, whose advice was (p. 78) "to keep him low, and not to contradict him." Fransham chuckled over this sentence, which may have contributed to occasion both his temperance and his waywardness.

After his return from the north, Fransham attached himself to a band of strol. ling players, (p. 151) and performed at Aylsham. The corps separated in a field of turnips, where, from a total want of pecuniary resources, they had sitten down to dine.

Between the years 1760 and 1770, Fransham used a singular kind of relaxation, (p. 95) which consisted in throwing a stick, made heavy at one of MONTHLY MAG., No, 223.

its ends by lead or iron. After each throw, he used to pace the distance from the place of projection to the place of fall; by which means he was enabled, from the increasing length of that distance, to ascertain the degrees of his advancement in skill and muscular force. The stick which Fransham employed for this amusement, was given after his death, by his sister, to Mr. Robinson, in whose possession it now remains. It were to be wished that some record subsisted of the distance to which Fransham

was wont to hurl it.

Of the kindness and probity of Fransham, a curious anecdote is given, (p. 109) as follows. He had purchased at the book-stall of some poor old woman, a small edition of one of the clas sics, for two shillings. On showing this book to a literary friend, he was informed, that, from its scarcity, it was fairly worth seven shillings. Do you think so, said Fransham? I am certain of it, replied his friend, as I gave that sum for a similar copy to a bookseller only a few days ago. Then I will now go (said Fransham) and pay the woman the other five shillings. Why $0, expostulated the friend, she had her profit at two shillings, wherefore give her seven? If I had purchased (answered Fransham) of an established bookseller the volume, I should not have felt the necessity of carrying the other five shillings; because, as a tradesman, he ought to have known the price of the book; and I should then have thought it probable that his valuation was correct, and yours erroneous. But, as it was a poor woman, there can be no doubt she was unacquainted with the value of this particular edition. I should be doing an unjust act, were I to take advantage of her ignorance. He accordingly went immediately, and discharged this debt of conscience.

Mr. Saint thinks, (p. 112) that Fransham gave mathematical instructions to Mr. Windham; probably these are to be dated about, or shortly before, 1785, as, in the April and June of that year, Mr. Windham is believed to have inserted in Maty's Review, the account of the Encyclopedie Methodique, and of Condorcet's Application de l'Analyse d la Probabilité des Decisions rendues à la Pluralité des Voir; a choice of topic which shows that the attentions of his leisure had then a mathematical direc tion.

Fransham was, or affected to be, afraid
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