1821.] 



Cormicopia- 



247 



in liis three first properties of Eternal 

 Nature ; and from thence they are 

 derived into this temporal cut-birth. 

 This, added to tlie information above, is, 

 I think, a sutficient warrant for my hav- 

 ing said, that Sir Isaac could have refer- 

 red to Behmen for the true sjronud, &c. 

 From the authority above, I can assure 

 yon, that Sir Isaac ^vas formerly so deep 

 in Jacob Behmen, that he, together 

 with one Dr. Newton, his relation, set 

 up furnaces, and were for several 

 months at Avork in quest of the Tinc- 

 ture, purely from what they conceived 

 from him. It is no wonder then that 

 attraction, with its two inseparable pro- 

 perties, which make in Jacob Behmen 

 the first three properties of Eternal Na- 

 ture, should come to the grand founda- 

 tion of the Newtonian Philosopy. It 

 is my conjecture, that Sir Isaac de- 

 clared so openly at first his total igno- 

 rance of the same catise of attraction, 

 to prevent all suspicion of his having 

 been led into it from Behmen's doc- 

 trine. It is plain he knew the deep 

 ground which Behmen had given of it. 

 No one, from Behmen, can know any 

 thing of the tincture, or the means and 

 possibility of coming at it, without 

 knowing and believing, as Behmen 

 does, the ground of universal attrac- 

 tion : and therefore Sir Isaac's silence 

 and ignorance of this ground must 

 have been affected, and for certain rea- 

 sons which can only be guessed at.*'* 



HOT CROSS BUNS. 



The custom of crying these buns in 

 London, and in many parts of England, 

 on Good Friday, is thought to have 

 had its origin anterior to the solemn 

 day of which this is kept in comme- 



• We give place to the above, but having^ 

 been led in consequence to consult the 

 works of Behmen, we can discover but faint 

 g'limpses of the Keplerian or Newtonian 

 physics ! The poor enthusiast talks re- 

 peatedly about the attraction of the central 

 sun, and of his virtue being interchanged 

 ■with the planets ; but this he does as much 

 in a spiritual as in a material sense, for his 

 writing* are a most contemptible jumble of 

 astrolopfy, divination, inagic, and mystical 

 divinity. If Newton gleaned any know- 

 ledge from such a chaos, he must have had 

 more trouble than in searching into the 

 more intelligible volumes of nature. Every 

 thing proves, however, that Newton was 

 the dupe of many of the studies which dis- 

 graced his time. But he was the great ge- 

 nius that stood between two epochs, and 

 wa« himself the mbi-ning star of true philo- 



JiOphj. EDITOR. 



moration. But the Greeks were ac- 

 customed to present to the Gods a kind 

 of consecrated bread, purchased at tiie 

 gate of the temples. One species is 

 said to have bepn called by them boun, 

 which Hesychius describes as a kind of 

 ccd-e with horns, and another ancient 

 author describes its composition to be 

 of fine flour and honey. Jeremiah 

 notices this kind of offering, when 

 speaking of the Jewish women falling 

 into idolatory in Egypt. Formerly a 

 cake was mucJi in request on tiiis day, 

 called water-cakes, composes! of water 

 and fiour only, but to compensate for 

 the want of ilavour, the tops of the 

 cakes were smeared with tunneric, 

 which made them of a fine yellow co- 

 lour. These have given way to the 

 sweet cross-buns. 



AMERICAN .SPIDER. 



There exists in America an enormous 

 spider, whose size (the body alone be- 

 ing an inch and a half long,) enables it 

 to attack even small birds. M. Moreau 

 de lonnes has furnished a memoir on 

 its manners, as observed by him at 

 Martinique. It spins no web, but 

 ledges in the crevices of the rocks, and 

 throws itself with main force upon its 

 prey : it kills humming-birds, fly-birds, 

 and small lizards, taking special care to 

 seize them by the nape of the neck, 

 knowing that they may thus be killed 

 with the greatest ease. Its strong jaws 

 seem to infuse a poison into the wounds 

 which they inflict, for such wounds are 

 considered much more dangerous thctn 

 they would be by their depth alone. 

 It envelopes its eggs, to the number of 

 from 1800 to 2000 in a ball of white 

 silk, and this fecundity, joined to its 

 tenacity of life, would soon cause the 

 island to be overrun with if, had it not 

 active and innumerable enemies in the 

 red ants, \vhich destroy the greater part 

 of the young spiders. 



»iARACENS AND MATGREBINS. 



Saracens, says M. Langl^s, is the 

 vulgar Arabic plural chargyn. The 

 Greek wniters attempted to express the 

 word by z«f«)uv, and hence the Latins 

 made Saraceni. In Arabic, chargt/n 

 signifies orientals, and is opposed to 

 maghrebt/n, which signifies occidentals, 

 a name given to the Mahomedan inha- 

 bitants of Africa. 



ENIGMA. 

 Form'd long ago, yet made to-day, 



Employ'd while others sleep, 

 I am wliat few wo\il(l give away, 

 And no one wish to keep. 



SOUR 



