220 



Monthly Review of Literature, 



[FEB. 



giving up the Greek cause, and " basely, 

 for the sake of better pay, deserting 

 the cross for the crescent." Much of 

 Mr. Millingen's very intelligent book is 

 accordingly occupied in defence, but in- 

 dependently of personal matters, his 

 narrative of events, and especially his 

 sketches of distinguished Greeks and 

 Philhellenes are executed in a style of 

 discrimination that entitles them to at- 

 tention. But the portion of the volume 

 which will prove most attractive is un- 

 doubtedly what concerns Lord Byron. 

 Of the accounts relative to his last days 

 we have seen none that bear the marks 

 of veracity so distinctly stampt upon 

 them. 



The old Scotch fortune - teller's 

 " beware of your thirty-seventh year," 

 seems to have pressed upon Lord By- 

 ron's recollection. He entered this thir- 

 ty-seventh year in January, while in 

 Greece; and repeated the story of the 

 warning with great emotion, in the pre- 

 sence of Mr. M. The party laughed at 

 his superstition. "To say the truth," re- 

 plied Lord B. " I find it difficult to know 

 what to believe in this world, and what 

 not to believe. There are as many 

 plausible reasons for inducing me to die 

 a bigot, as there have been to make me 

 hitherto live a free-thinker. You will, 

 I know, ridicule my belief in lucky and 

 unlucky days ; but no consideration can 

 now induce me to undertake any thing 

 either on a Friday or a Sunday. I am 

 positive it would terminate unfortunate- 

 ly. Every one of my misfortunes, and 

 God knows, I have had my share, have 

 happened to me on one of those days. 

 You will ridicule, also, a belief in in- 

 corporeal beings. I could give you 

 the details of Shelley's conversations 

 with his familiar. Did he not apprise 

 me, that he had been informed by that 

 familiar, that he would end his life by 

 drowning ? and did 1 not, a short time 

 after, perform on the sea-beach, his fu- 

 neral rites ?" 



Three or four days before his death,he 

 asked Millingen to inquire for any very 

 old and ugly witch. M. turned the re- 

 quest into ridicule. "Never mind," said 

 Lord B., "whether lam superstitious or 

 not; but I again entreat of you to bring 

 me the most celebrated one there is, in 

 order that she may examine whether 

 this sudden loss of my health does not 

 depend on the c evil eye.' She may de- 

 vise some means to dissolve the spell !" 

 One was found, but as he did not repeat 

 the request, she was not introduced. 

 Mr. M. attributes the attack to drinking 

 punch to excess with Parry. 



Blisters on the legs were proposed. 

 Lord B. asked if they could not both be 

 applied to the same leg. " Guessing his 

 motive," says M. " I told him 1 would 

 place them above the knees. 4 Do so,' 



said he, c for as long as I live, I will not 

 allow any one to see my lame foot. Did 

 not I tell you,' he said repeatedly, 4 1 

 should die at thirty seven ? ' " 



Encyclopaedia Britannica, Parts IX. 

 and X. Professor Leslie's dissertation* 

 proves quite worthy to fill up the va- 

 cuam left by Playfair. The writer's 

 hazardous undertaking was to resume 

 his predecessor's discourse, and conduct 

 the history of mathematical and physical 

 science through the eighteenth century. 

 We had read the piece without observ- 

 ing this limitation, and were surprised 

 occasionally to find the story, for the 

 most part, for any notice it took of 

 recent advances in science, might have 

 been written as well twenty or thirty 

 years ago. In some branches of physics,, 

 electricity and astronomy for instance, 

 the progress is brought nearer to our 

 own times, and the wnole surely should 

 have been worked out quite up to the 

 date of the edition of the Encyclopaedia 

 it was destined to accompany and illus- 

 trate. What is done, however, is well 

 done. Mr. Leslie had a much more 

 laborious and difficult task to accomplish 

 than his predecessor. The regions of 

 science expanding so immensely in the 

 eighteenth century, the effort required 

 more resolution, more research, and 

 above all, more selection. The mate- 

 rials, in proportion as they were ampler, 

 were more scattered. The outline of 

 his subject was at once more extensive, 

 and the details incomparably more 

 abundant. The result is a very useful 

 compendium of a multitudinous subject. 

 In the body of the Encyclopaedia, the 

 article America is able and comprehen- 

 sive, and would have been improved by 

 a glance at the general statistics of the 

 United States, to complete, Avhat ap- 

 parently was intended, a view of the 

 western world. 



The Military Bijou, by John Shipp, 2 

 vols. 12mo. When Shipp had his own 

 unique story to tell he told it well, and 

 every body was delighted with it ; but 

 the narrative exhausted his resources. 

 It contained the pith of his materials, 

 and the volumes before us present no- 

 thing but scraps, the greater part of 

 which were scarcely worth collecting or 

 recollecting. Too often he mistakes 

 breadth for humour vapouring for 

 frankness stale romance for generous 

 sentiment, and is perpetually tripping 

 in chace of fine writing, and ever and 

 anon is on the brink of slip-sloppery. 

 But it is a soldier's book, and need not 

 be severely handled. A courtship scene 

 has perhaps truth and humour enough 

 in it to balance the coarseness. 



THE SOLDIER'S SWEET-HEART. 



It is an old saying, that sokliers and sailors 

 have one at every port. There is more truth ii) 



