CRAB CRABBE. 



505 



more effectual method. A mixture of this powder 

 with sugar or molasses, and crumbs of bread might 

 be tried with a considerable prospect of success. 



The species which daily bask in the sun, on the 

 rocky shores of the West India islands, are quite as 

 vigilant, and very little inferior in swiftness to those 

 above mentioned. Some of them are very large, 

 splendidly coloured, and well suited to excite the 

 wishes of a naturalist to add them to his collection. 

 Many an hour of anxious watching, and many a race 

 of breathless eagerness, have they caused the writer 

 in vain. Sometimes when, with great caution, I had 

 approached, and placed myself between the crab and 

 the sea, hoping to drive him inland, and secure him, 

 just at the instant success seemed to be certain, the 

 vigilant animal would dart sidewise, backwards, or 

 in a direction entirely opposite to that he might be 

 expected to take, and scamper securely to his ocean 

 hiding-place. At other times, while stealing upon 

 one which was prevented from observing my ap- 

 proach by a projecting piece of rock, and almost sure 

 of my prize, one vigilant imp at a distance has taken 

 alarm, and, by dashing across the spot where the un- 

 suspecting individual rested, set all in the vicinity to 

 flight, and changed my anticipated triumph to morti- 

 fication. 



Inquirers who wish to obtain the most ample 

 knowledge of the construction, functions, and classi- 

 fication of crustaceous animals, we refer to Desmar- 

 est's excellent work, entitled Considerations gener- 

 ates sur les Crustaces (8vo, Paris, 1825). Such as 

 wish to be satisfactorily acquainted with the habits 

 of these curious beings, would find much gratifica- 

 tion from a visit, during the fine season, to some of 

 the places of resort upon the Atlantic coast, where 

 they will find an abundant field thrown open to their 

 examination. Perhaps cape May is one of the best 

 situations for this purpose. 



CRAB, in ship-building ; a sort of wooden pillar, 

 whose lower end, being let down through a ship's 

 decks, rests upon a socket, like the capstern. It is 

 employed to wind in the cable, or to raise any weighty 

 matter. It differs from the capstern by not being 

 furnished with a drum-head, and by having the bars 

 going entirely through it. 



CRAB-APPLE. See Apple. 



CRABBE, GEORGE ; a distinguished modem Eng- 

 lish poet, was born at Aldborough, a small village on 

 the coast of Suffolk, on Christmas-eve, 1754. His 

 father, who filled the humble station of collector of 

 the salt-duties at that port, early perceived the na- 

 tural talents of his son, and gave him a more liberal 

 education than his circumstances could well afford. 

 Being destined for the medical profession, he was, hi 

 his fourteenth year, apprenticed to a surgeon at 

 Wickham-Brook, but receiving more than his due 

 share of labours other than protessional for his mas- 

 ter added the calling of a former to his other avoca- 

 tionshe was removed, in 1771, to a more eligible 

 situation at Woodbridge, a market town about 

 seventeen miles distant from Aldborough. Here, 

 while fitting himself by study and observation for the 

 duties of his profession, he found time to court the 

 muses, and in 1775, appeared from his pen, Ine- 

 briety, a Poem, in three parts. He subsequently 

 settled as a surgeon and apothecary in his native 

 village, but soon finding his practice insufficient to 

 afford him a livelihood, he resolved to abandon it, 

 nnd trust to his talents for poetry for support. With 

 this view he proceeded to London, and after a year 

 spent in that most trying of all situations, that of a 

 literary adventurer without fortune and without 

 friends -a situation from the miseries of which the 

 unfortunate Chatterton, " the wondrous boy," escap- 

 ed by suicide when on the point .of being thrown 



into jail for the little debts which he had unavoid- 

 ably contracted, as a last resource, in an auspicious 

 moment, he applied to Edmund Burke for assistance, 

 transmitting him at the same time some verses as a 

 specimen of his abilities. In these sketches Burke 

 at once recognized the hand of a master. He invited 

 the poet to Beaconsfield ; installed him in a conveni- 

 ent apartment ; opened up to him the stores of his 

 library ; watched over his progress, and afforded him 

 the benefit of his taste and critical skill. Under hia 

 auspices the Library was prepared for publica- 

 tion, and by it Crabbe was at once raised to fame. 

 But the efforts of Burke did not stop here. By his 

 advice and assistance notwithstanding the irregu- 

 larity of his education Crabbe was admitted to 

 holy orders ; appointed domestic chaplain to the 

 Duke of Rutland, and afterwards obtained most am. 

 pie preferment. In 1783, appeared the Village, 

 which placed Crabbe's reputation on a permanent 

 basis. Two years afterwards it was followed by 

 the Newspaper. A period of twenty-two years 

 now intervenes between the publication of the last 

 mentioned poem and Crabbe's next appearance as a 

 poet. During the interval he was devoting himself 

 to his clerical duties, and though he ought not to 

 escape censure for participating in these foul blots 

 on the system of the church of England, plurality 

 and non-residence, it must be admitted, that he per- 

 formed his duties with rather more than average as- 

 siduity. The Parish Register appeared in 1807. 

 In it Crabbe first fully developed the style which may 

 be regarded as peculiarly his own that minuteness, 

 yet force and truthfulness of description, that search- 

 ing analysis of human character, which stamps him as 

 an original as well as a great poet. The Borough 

 appeared in 1810. In it characters are sketched 

 with a bolder hand, but it is liable to all the objec- 

 tions chargeable against its predecessor. The follies 

 and crimes of its characters are described with the 

 same painful minuteness which, instead of pity or in- 

 dignation, frequently excites only disgust. The 

 Tales in Verse appeared in 1812. In these our 

 poet has taken what many will conceive a more poe- 

 tical view of human nature. The workings of the 

 finer feelings the stirrings of loftier emotions are 

 brought more prominently forward, and dwelt on 

 more at large than in his former writings. In some 

 of the tales the Parting Hour, for instance he 

 rises with his subject, and pours forth passages of 

 great beauty and pathos. In the Tales of the 

 Hall, which were published in 1819, there are per- 

 haps fewer of these highly-wrought passages, but 

 there are also fewer of those unsparing views of the 

 darker and more repulsive shades of human character 

 which distinguish the Parish Register ; as if the 

 higher station in which his characters move had had a 

 softening effect on his muse, they are in general of 

 a more amiable disposition. The tender passion, on 

 which other poets love to expatiate, and which 

 Crabbe had in general shunned, as out of place 

 among his ruder characters, was here allowed full 

 play, many of the tales turning on its most roman- 

 tic varieties. The latter years of Mr Crabbe's lift 

 were spent in the peaceful discharge of his professional 

 duties, at Trowbridge, in Wiltshire. He died, Feb. 

 3d, 1832, in his 78th year. A beautiful uniform 

 edition of his Works, with a Life by his son, an 

 Notes, was brought out by Mr Murray the booksel- 

 ler, in 1834. 



The distinguishing characteristic of Crabbe's poe- 

 try is truth and force of, description. Whatever he 

 paints, he sets before you with unrivalled power. H is 

 descriptions, indeed, are so faithful, that they look 

 more like transcripts than imitations. Be the sub- 

 jects ever so mean and repulsive, they are shadowed 



