1829.] 



Domestic and Foreign. 



451 



Collins's tone exactly, and we will quote 

 at least the latter part of it. Love was for- 

 gotten by Collins. " Love goes," in the 

 poem we quote from, " to Music's magic 

 ceU, and grasps her own enchanted shell :" 

 He seized It. Hark! wliat thrilling sound 

 Trembles on the air around ? 

 Hark! its native notes arise — 

 Its own sweet strain the shell supplies — 

 Unalloyed by force or art 

 From their natal shell they start. 

 From Music's sacred symbol stealing. 

 To every wakened sense appealing', 

 A soothing murmur— rising — falling — 

 Wad contention all enthralling — 

 O'erTHB Passions transport shed : 

 Each, in turn, with bashful head — 

 Startled by t!ie conquering tone 

 That rose superior to its own — 

 Lingered — lingered — lingered — fled I 



Love remained within the cell, 

 And still he held the magic shell. 

 And still its thrilling notes ascending — 

 With every hidden feeling blending — 

 Fire his own enraptured breast. 

 Fill his soul wi'h transport blest ; 



For oh ! how well 



That magic shell 

 Breathed the thoughts he longed to tell! 

 And as its gentle notes arose. 

 Still— still his phrensied rapture grows, , 

 And still his eye more wildly glows ; 

 Still they whirl his heart and soul 

 Away — away— beyond controul I 

 Still— still the cbarm endures ; till fired — 



Maddened by the entrancing lay — 

 To the sweet song himself inspired. 



He faints in Music's arms away! 



Personal and Literary Memorials, hy 

 the Author of " Four Years in France," 

 " Italy as His,'" ^-c. ; 1829.— Mr. Best (the 

 elder) gossips very agreeably, and has tossed 

 u]) a melange of reminiscences, personal and 

 literary, admirably suited to while away an 

 hour or two, in indolent recollection of emi- 

 nent persons now gone by, and on matters 

 frequently — though sometimes the topics 

 arc of the deepest importance — of mere cu- 

 riosity, lightly and gaily touched upon. 

 Mr. B. has a keen sense of the ludicrous ; 

 but his own language often fails him in 

 pointing his stories : he would probably ma- 

 nage his French or Italian better. Consi- 

 derable space is occupied with Paley. Lin- 

 coln was Best's native place, where Paley 

 was subdean, bound by office to an annual 

 residence of some months, and by station 

 and character a remarkable person there, 

 independently of his literary eminence. Mr. 

 Best judges him with some severity, but still 

 readily recognizes his general merits. He 

 plainly does not take Paley's principle of 

 morals, or he would find no occasion for any 

 thing like the contempt or disgust he ex- 

 presses. Tlie collection of anecdotes, bons- 

 niots, and coarse phraseology, gatliered from 

 his conversation, most of it, appeared, some 

 time ago, in a cotcmporary monthly perio- 

 dica). 



He talked of education at the universities. 

 " You may do any thing with young men by en- 

 couragement, by prizes, honours, and distinctions : 

 see what is done at Cambridge. But there the 

 stimulus is too strong ; two or three heads are 

 cracked by it every year." He was asked, " Do 

 you mean that they really go mad from over- 

 studying the mathematics?" — "Why, some of 

 them go mad ; others are reduced to such a state 

 of debility, both of mind and body, that they are 

 uiitit lor any thing during tlie rest of their lives. 

 I always counselled the adnii.xture of the study of 

 natural philosophy, of classics and literature, and 

 that university honours should be accorded to all. 

 One thing I always set my face against ; and that 

 is, exercises in English composition: this calling 

 upon lads — (lads, be it un.lcrstood, is the old- 

 fasliiuned university woid for under-graduates) — 

 this calling upon lads for a style befme they have 

 got ideas, sets them upon fine viTiting, and is the 

 main cause of the puffy, spungy, spewy, washy 

 style that prevails at the present day." These 

 four epithets, being all of them words capable of 

 the grace of northern pionunciation, had all and 

 each of them the advantage, — and it was by no 

 means an inconsiderable one in point and effect, — 

 of the " vulgar tongue" learued by Paley in his 

 youth. 



Paley had some dislike to Watson, the 

 Bishop of LlandafF — " some old college 

 quarrel, perhaps," says Mr. B. ; perhajjs 

 also a little jealousy — some vexation ?.t Wat- 

 son's advancement, and Ms own compa- 

 rative want of it. 



I told him I had been reading a work that Wat- 

 son had lately published. " What is it about ':" 

 said he, " is it a proposal for paying off the 

 national debt ? Mind — every cracked man pro- 

 poses to pay off the national debt : that is a rule; 

 nobody but a cracked man would think of it, and 

 Watson has been thinking about it for several 

 years past.'' 



Some one quoted a phrase in a pamphlet, 

 by Watson, on the subject of the invasion 

 of England : — 



" I am an independent man,'' says Watson. 

 "Independent!" says Paley; "I do not know 

 what he can mean by ' independent,' unless be 

 may mean — un/ianged." 



The income-tax was talked of: — 

 " I have but one objection to declaring the 

 amount of my income; hut for that ol)jection, all 

 the world should be welcome to know it ; and 

 tliat objection is," he paused an4 made us wait a 

 little, " I am afraid of e.\citing the concupiscence 

 of the younger clergy." 



He talked of Burke in the highest terms 

 of admiration : — " As for eloquence," says 

 he, " Demosthenes was a fool toliim." A 

 bold opinion this — but one tliat will be im- 

 pugned by none but those who have not 

 read both. 



The author has many recollections of 

 Home, President of Magdalen, and after- 

 wards Bishop of Norwich, of whom the 

 public, and the readers of his sermons and 

 commentaries on the Psalms, knew nothing, 



3 JM 2 



