$0 Slephensiana^ 



known, and Volney founded his first 

 claim to distinction in a fnrtlier inves- 

 tigation of tJieir fine remains, and by 

 producing a work that should convey 

 a clearer idea of the same. From the 

 nature of this undertaking, he foresaw 

 in the execution many obstacles to 

 surmount, many perils to brave ; and, 

 without any violation of propriety, 

 some glory to be gained. His resolu- 

 tion was fixed ; and, to prepare himself 

 for the voyage, he quitted Paris, and 

 retired to an uncle's in the country. 



There he indulged in all the different 

 subdivisions and degrees of exercise 

 conducive to a particular or extraor- 

 dinary agility, — sometimes displaying 

 his powers in a foot-race, or in long 

 journies of several days' duration ; oc- 

 casionally passing whole days without 

 food, — sometimes rapidity, sometimes 

 violence of motion, as leaping broad 

 ditches, scaling lofty walls, measuring 

 his paces by a fixed standard of time, 

 &c. Through a variety like these, 

 some of them pleasing, others serious, 

 toilsome, and dangerous, Volney was 

 exerting himself with a prominent and 

 undisguised simplicity. Observations 

 were made on this conduct by the 

 thoughtless, who seldom consider be- 

 fore they ridicule ; but the philosopher 

 was above the laugh of ignorance, 

 proportioning the means to the great 

 end he had ia view. Daring one 

 year Volney was treading in the steps 

 thus marked out. How well he rea- 

 lized the object designed, in the ge- 

 neral scheme of bis travels, is univer- 

 sally felt and acknowledged. 



HENRY VIII. 



A copy of the work which was writ- 

 'ten by this king, and which gained 

 him from the Pope the title of Defen- 

 der of the Faith, was stolen from the 

 Vatican, and sold to the brother of 

 Payne, the bookseller of the Mews 

 Gate. The bookseller received for it, 

 fiom the Manjuis of Douglas, an an- 

 nuity for life. 



ANCIENT TRIAL B'. JURT. 



About the year 800. a wooden statue 

 of the Virgin, wliich stood on the Rood- 

 dee near Chester, was carried by a 

 flood to the banks of the parish of Ha- 

 varden, and there preserved. But as, 

 in the following year, a fatal disease 

 took place among the cattle, the priests 

 and priest-ridden people of Haverden 

 ascribed their misfortune to their sa- 

 crilegiously detaining the statue. A 

 jury was accordingly convened to de- 

 termine w hat it was best to do ; when 



No. XVI. [Feb. 1, 



they advised that the statue should, 

 in due form, be carried back, and re- 

 placed on the Rood-dee. The list of 

 this jury is still preserved ; and among 

 them was one Corbyn of the Gate, 

 and to this day, at a place called the 

 Gate, still reside the family of the same 

 Corbyn ! 



NATIONAL TASTE. 



I lately took up a foreign journal, 

 which contained some observations 

 on the corruption of taste in England. 

 Speaking particularly of our poetry, 

 the writer calls it the plaything of 

 fashion, objecting that at present it 

 has scarcely any other aim than, by 

 brilliant whims, to please the multi- 

 tude, always eager after novelties. As 

 to that which constitutes good criti- 

 cism, he complains that the noble man- 

 ner of our ancient reviewing journals 

 is but feebly imitated ; and that, in 

 short, our literary critiques are replete 

 with exaggeration, partiality, envy, 

 and malignity, according to the petty 

 interests which the journalists have- 

 espoused. The reflections on this sub- 

 ject appear, in many respects, to be 

 just and pertinent. 



HONEST IMPOSTOR. 



A w oraan once presented herself to 

 the late Lord Melville as being a cler- 

 gyman's widow, in great distress;, 

 when his lordship gave her five pounds. 

 She became so perfectly astonislied at 

 this munificence, that she burst into 

 tears, and declared that she was an 

 impostor. He dismissed her on h&r 

 promising never to attempt the lik& 

 again. 



CIVILIZATION. 



Properly speaking, it is the result 

 of the progress of society, but the end 

 of all society is the public welfare: 

 Nature evidently points this out. A 

 people are then more or less civilized, 

 when their political institutions and 

 moral habits seem amicably to have 

 joined together ; this, if the comparison 

 may be allowed, is the very body and 

 soul of civil existence. Man fre- 

 quently tears the couple asunder, 

 though civilization is then only com- 

 plete when they are reconciled, aud 

 when both equally concur to the hap- 

 piness of all. 



NADIR shah's TENT. 



Nadir Shah, after his plunder of 

 Delhi in 1739, set out on his return to 

 Persia, laden with the spoils of the 

 country which had been the scene of 

 his depredations. In his journey back, 

 wherein he obtained conquests over 

 1 the 



