6 Why ts The Olive-Branch an Emblem of Peace? [Aug. 1, 
and rapidity. Nor does she avail her- 
self, in any instance where celerity is 
reguisite, of the sfuccato method of ex- 
pression constantly used by Billington, 
and which is allowed by” professional 
persons te be mere trick, We find in 
this sinver that mellowness and distiuct- 
ness combined, to which Mara first 
taught us to affix a just value. * 
Such are the leading excellencies of 
Catalani. But we must not omit to 
mention that she has brought with her 
from the Continent an uumeaning smile, 
Thad almost said, grimace, which to the 
dispasstonate and unprejudiced observer, 
camiot fail to be disgusting. It is ob- 
truded' upon us without discrimination 
in the most affecting, no less than in the 
mest frivolous passages. Whether she 
protess love, relate facts, or beg for life 
siself, we are assailed by the same in- 
cansistent distortion-of the features. It 
would be an act of kindness to apprize 
her of the contempt which so conspi- 
cuousa piece of affectation must produce 
in an English audience. Nor would 
there he any impropriety in proposing to 
her for a model the seiente, taste, and 
dignity of Madam Mara. Catalani, 
though young, has already the merit of 
great purity of manner, and sweetness 
of tone; and by a @ judicious imitation of 
Mara, if she can’ ‘be induced to avoid 
the nauseous and meretricious ornaments 
of singing, adopted by Brahain and Bil- 
ington, it is highly probable that she 
may eventually prove the finest singer in 
the world. A. BEE. 
Marlow, May 28, 1807. 
a 
lo the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
N the midst of a destructive war, it 
‘may seein quite out of season to 
present you with any remarks upon an 
emblem of peace. But an idea has oc- 
curred to me, concerning the origin of 
the adoption of the olive-branch as a 
pacific emblem, wlich IT beg leave to 
suggest, though proceeding + from no better 
source “than nuperfect conjecture: and 
it 1s offered to the public, with a hope of 
exciting those who are better qualitied 
for the task to elucidate the subject, 
rather than from any wish to impose my 
own opinion upon others. 
The adoption of the olive-branch, as 
an Seti ent of peace, 1s unquestionably 
of great antiquity. That as such it was 
not unknown to the old Romans, the 
following line’ from Virgil is of 
sufficiently conclusive: 
Pactiereque aacu ramum -prectendit olive. 
fin, 8. 116. 
tiself 
The Greeks too held the olive-branch in’ 
great esteem, and probably considered it 
as emblematical of peace; since in their 
civic games It was appointed as a token 
and reward of victory, the conqueror 
being crowned with it: ior, as these 
sports were entirely pacific, it might, as 
an euiblem of peace, not imaptly be used 
to dignity those who excelled im them. 
But other and more positive evidence of 
its being used by the Greeks, as a see 
emblem, may perhaps be met with 1 
Greck writers, whom I have not an el 
portunity of consulting. 
The olive-branch is not, I believe, 
mentioned in the Bible, as being used by 
the Israelites under the character of a 
acific emblem: but in the apocryphal 
ook of Judith, we are informed that a 
an id olive was placed upon Judith 
when the children of Israel rejoiced, 
because she had delivered them from the 
destruction with which Holofernes threat- 
ened them, and had opened to them a 
prospect of security and peace. Amongst: 
these ancient nations, therefore, it would 
seem that a particular honeur was at- 
tached to the olive-branch; and that it’ 
either assumed the office of a pacific em- 
blem, or bore evident allusion to a suc- 
cessful, or happy termination of contest, 
danger, or calamity. The conclusion 
that I would draw from hence is, that 
the origin of this, its emblematical desig- 
nation, is coeval with the universal de~ 
luge; and that it arose from the circum- 
stance of the dove, which Noah sent out 
of the ark, returning with an olive-leaf, 
according to our translation of the Bible, 
or, which the Hebrew may signify, an’ - 
olive-branch, as a token that the divine 
wrath was appeased, and the waters of 
the flood were abated. There can exist 
no doubt that the Greeks and Romans 
had some knowledge of the deluge, either 
handed down to them by tradition, or 
derived from the Jewish records, or 
heathen historians: and the ohve-branch 
might still retain its appropriate desig- — 
nation, even after the reason of it was 
lost and forgotten; as we see in our own 
country, customs continued from ancient 
times, with the original cause of” which 
we are now ne longer acquainted, 
Haanslope, Your's, &c. 
July 2, 1807. W. SINGLETON. 
—ie 
To the Editor of the Monthly Mag zine, 
SIR, 
BOUT the time that Mr. Greathead 
received the parliamentary reward 
for his supposed invention of the Lifes 
Boat, [ troubled you with a long letter 
on 
