Chapter 2

The best illustration of the comparative degree of mental excellence between the southern and northern nations, is, perhaps, that of Bishop Berkeley, who compares the southern wits to cucumbers, which are commonly all good of their kind, but at best an insipid fruit; while the northern geniuses are like melons, of which not one in fifty is good; but when it is so, it has an excellent relish. Now it is not probable that the same climate which is favourable to the study of the sciences and to the reasoning powers, would prevent their being pushed to the utmost extent; and the solution of this difference may, perhaps, depend on the question, whether a general diffusion of learning among a people is a state of things usually accompanied by a remarkable perfection in particular persons. A man of ordinary acquirements in the present day might have passed for a prodigy in the thirteenth century; and the novelty and distinction attaching to one who rises above the rest, is, of course, more difficult to attain in an age where knowledge is possessed universally. Inasmuch, therefore, as the liberal arts have been imported to us from the south, and their progress is as yet not so extensive in cold countries, the stimulus to their cultivation in the latter is so much the greater; which is one way of accounting for the giants in science that have appeared in the north, It is moreover remarkable, that the northern nations have a stronger apprehension of abstract propositions, and a greater fondness for generalizing, than seems to be the case in the south. The difference between a Frenchman and a German is observable in this particular, by any one who attends to their manner of telling stories. The former, in giving you an account of his being robbed by a servant to whom he had been particularly kind, first tells you the facts, and concludes with a reflection, "_Voila que le monde est ingrât!_" The German, on the other hand, in order to prove to you the general proposition of the unthankfulness of men to their benefactors, gives you the instance that has recently happened. To the one, the fact is interesting, because it proves the proposition; to the other, the proposition is a conclusion, which he hastily draws from an individual occurrence that has suggested it.

The climate does not appear to affect even the bodies of men to any great degree. We cannot pronounce that it is the sun which makes the African black, when we see the same heat pouring down on the copper-coloured American, in the same degree of latitude, though in another longitude. The inhabitants of Terra del Fuego are of a very dark hue, approaching to black; and yet that island experiences as severe cold as any part of the earth, as Sir Joseph Banks and Dr. Solander have testified. The complexion and appearance of the Jews, and other emigratory races, is the same in all parts of the world. And a stronger proof cannot be given, than the marked distinction which still exists among the three great families that divide Europe. These three have been for the last 2,500 years, and still are, the Celts, the Teutonic race, and the Slavonic race.

The Celts have black hair and eyes, and a white skin, verging to brown. They chiefly inhabit the west of Europe, viz. the south of France, (called by M. Dupin, _France obscure_,) Spain, Portugal, and the greatest part of Italy. To them also belong the ancient Britons, the Welsh, Bretons, Irish, Highland Scotch, and the Manks, or people of the Isle of Man. The great German race, with blue eyes, yellow or reddish hair, and a fair and red skin, occupies the middle of Europe. It includes the Swedes, Norwegians, Icelanders, Danes, ancient and modern Germans, Saxons and English, Caledonians and Lowland Scotch, the Belgians, the Vandals, and the Goths.

The east of Europe contains the Sarmatian and Slavonic tribes, with dark hair and eyes, darker skin than the Germans, and larger limbs than the Celts. This race includes the Russians, Poles, Croats, Slavons, Bohemians, Bulgarians, Cossacks, and other tribes using the Slavonic language.

We trust we shall not give offence to such of our readers as wear the Celtic appearance, if we assume, as undisputed, the general superiority of the Teutonic to the Celtic or Slavonic races in mental acquirements. We believe that the German race are pre-eminent for their sense of order, of law, and of social institutions; and whether they derive these advantages from the east, whence their origin has now been satisfactorily traced, or however they have attained them, we have only to reflect on the civilization introduced by the Saxons into England--on the actual state of the ancient Britons at present inhabiting Wales and the Highlands--and on the terrible disorder and barbarism that reigns in Ireland--to be thankful that the pure Celtic blood has not been allowed to remain unmixed in these islands.

What, then, it will be asked, is the result of these speculations? Are we to conclude that the races of men are essentially different, or that the variations are attributable to the various degrees of moral cultivation that each nation has received? And our answer is, that we are inclined to believe the capacities for improvement of races, as of individuals, to have been differently bestowed by nature; but that none are actually incapable of culture. There is no land, however sterile, that the art of man may not make to produce fruit; but the difficulty and expense of tillage must be in proportion to the intrinsic richness or poverty of the soil. We fear that the soil of the Negroes[3], of the American Indians, and of the Esquimaux, must be laboured at early and late, before it brings forth even an average crop. But we do not despair even here. Still less could we for a moment depreciate the labours of those who are carrying education to the utmost bounds of the earth. The more degraded and stupid the condition of any set of people may be, the more meritorious and thankworthy are those efforts that are made to advance them one point nearer to the heavens--one step above the beasts that perish. The advancement of Hayti, though much overrated, is nevertheless considerable; and we trust that national independence will co-operate there also with the progress of learning, for the increase of happiness and prosperity. A free government, high public spirit, and an eager desire for wisdom, are permanent securities for the welfare of the state, and the happiness of the citizens; and though we cannot control nature, let us endeavour by art to supply what is wanting, where her bounty has been limited; "let us," in the words of Lord Bacon, "labour to restore and enlarge the power and dominion of the whole race of man over the universe of things!"

D.

[3] The idea of the ancient Egyptians, as mentioned by Herodotus, having been of the same family as the Negroes, is now completely refuted by the inquiries of Cuvier and other naturalists. The examinations of mummies have been highly useful in setting this question at rest.

* * * * *

MORTON BRIDGE.

A BALLAD.

(_For the Mirror_.)

The remorseless tragedy on which this ballad is founded, took place upwards of a century ago. In the retired village of Romanby, near Northallerton, Yorkshire, there resided a desperate band of coiners, whose respectability and cunning concealment precluded all possibility of suspicion as to their proceedings. The victim of their revenge was Mary Ward, the servant of one of those ruffians. Having obtained an accidental view of some secret apartments appropriated to their treasonable practices, she unguardedly communicated her knowledge to an acquaintance; which reaching her master's ears, he determined to destroy her. The most plausible story, time, and means were selected for this purpose. On a Sunday evening, after sunset, an unknown personage on horseback arrived at her master's mansion, half equipped, to give colour to his alleged haste, and slated that he was dispatched for Mary, as _her mother was dying_. She lingered to ask her master's permission; but he feigned sleep, and she departed without his leave. On the table of her room was her Bible, opened at those remarkable words in Job, "They shall seek me _in the morning_, and shall not find me; and where I am, they shall not come." Her home was at the distance of eight miles from Romanby; and Morton bridge, hard by the heath where she was murdered, is the traditionary scene of her nocturnal revisitings. The author has seen the tree said to have been distorted by her in endeavouring to climb the fence; and has visited the village and bridge, from which his descriptions are accurately taken. The impression of her re-appearance is only _poetically_ assumed, for there is too much of what Coleridge would term "the divinity of nature" around Morton Bridge, to warrant its association with supernatural mysteries.

Oh! sights are seen, and sounds are heard, On Morton Bridge, at night, When to the woods the cheerful birds Have ta'en their silent flight.

When through the mantle of the sky No cheering moonbeams delve, And the far village clock hath told The midnight hour of twelve.

Then o'er the lonely path is heard The sigh of sable trees, With deadly moan of suff'ring strife Borne on the solemn breeze--

For Mary's spirit wanders there, In snowy robe array'd, To tell each trembling villager Where sleeps the murder'd maid.

It was a Sabbath's eve of love, When nature seem'd more holy; And nought in life was dull, but she Whose look was melancholy.

She lean'd her tear-stain'd cheek of health Upon her lily arm, Poor, hapless girl! she could not tell What caus'd her wild alarm.

Around the roses of her face Her flaxen ringlets fell; No lovelier bosom than her own Could guiltless sorrow swell!

The holy book before her lay, That boon to mortals given, To teach the way from weeping earth To ever-glorious heaven;

And Mary read prophetic words, That whisper'd of her doom-- "Oh! they will search for me, but where I am, they cannot come!"

The tears forsook her gentle eyes, And wet the sacred lore; And such a terror shook her frame, She ne'er had known before.

She ceas'd to weep, but deeper gloom Her tearless musing brought; And darker wan'd the evening hour, And darker Mary's thought.

The sun, he set behind the hills, And threw his fading fire On mountain rock and village home, And lit the distant spire.

(Sweet fane of truth and mercy! where The tombs of other years Discourse of virtuous life and hope, And tell of by-gone tears!)

It was a night of nature's calm, For earth and sky were still; And childhood's revelry was o'er, Upon the daisied hill.

The ale-house, with its gilded sign, Hung on the beechen bough, Was mute within, and tranquilly The hamlet stream did flow.

The room where sat this grieving girl Was one of ancient years; Its antique state was well display'd To conjure up her fears;

With massy walls of sable oak, And roof of quaint design, And lattic'd window, darkly hid By rose and eglantine.

The summer moon now sweetly shone All softly and serene; She clos'd the casement tremblingly Upon the beauteous scene.

Above that carved mantle hung, Clad in the garb of gloom, A painting of rich feudal state,-- An old baronial room.

The Norman windows scarcely cast A light upon the wall, Where shone the shields of warrior knights Within the lonely hall.

And, pendent from each rusty nail, Helmet and steely dress, With bright and gilded morion, To grace that dim recess.

Then Mary thought upon each tale Of terrible romance:-- The lady in the lonely tower-- The murd'rer's deadly glance--

And moon-lit groves in pathless woods, Where shadows nightly sped; Her fancy could not leave the realms Of darkness and the dead.

There stood a messenger without, Beside her master's gate, Who, till his thirsty horse had drunk, Would hardly deign to wait.

The mansion rung with Mary's name, For dreadful news he bore-- A dying mother wish'd to look Upon her child once more.

The words were, "Haste, ere life be gone;" Then was she quickly plac'd Behind him on the hurrying steed, Which soon the woods retrac'd.

Now they have pass'd o'er Morton Bridge, While smil'd the moon above Upon the ruffian and his prey-- The hawk and harmless dove.

The towering elms divide their tops; And now a dismal heath Proclaims her "final doom" is near The awful hour of death!

The villain check'd his weary horse, And spoke of trust betray'd; And Mary's heart grew sick with fright, As, answering, thus she said--

"Oh! kill me not until I see My mother's face again! Ride on, in mercy, horseman, ride, And let us reach the lane!

"There slay me by my mother's door, And I will pray for thee-- For she shall find her daughter's corse"-- "No, girl, it cannot be.

"This heath thou shalt not cross, for soon Its earth will hide thy form; That babbling tongue of thine shall make A morsel for the worm!"

She leap'd upon the ling-clad heath, And, nerv'd with phrensied fear, Pursued her slippery way across, Until the wood was near.

But nearer still _two_ fiends appear'd, Like hunters of the fawn, Who cast their cumb'ring cloaks away, Beside that forest lone;

And bounded swifter than the maid, Who nearly 'scap'd their wrath, For well she knew that woody glade, And every hoary path,

Obscur'd by oak and hazel bush, Where milk-maid's merry song Had often charm'd her lover's ear, Who blest her silv'ry tongue.

But Mary miss'd the woodland stile-- The hedge-row was not high; She gain'd its prickly top, and now Her murderers were nigh.

A slender tree her fingers caught-- It bent beneath her weight; 'Twas false as love and Mary's fate! Deceiving as the night!

She fell--and villagers relate No more of Mary's hour, But how she rose with deadly might, And, with a maniac's power,

Fought with her murd'rers till they broke Her slender arm in twain: That none could e'er discover where The maiden's corse was lain.

When wand'ring by that noiseless wood, Forsaken by the bee, Each rev'rend chronicler displays The bent and treach'rous tree.

Pointing the barkless spot to view, Which Mary's hand embrac'd, They shake their hoary locks, and say, "It ne'er can be effac'd!"

* * H.

* * * * *

SPIRIT OF DISCOVERY.

_Tanning_.

The tanner steeps the skin at first in a weak infusion of bark, until it has acquired a nutmeg brown colour, and then he gradually increases the strength of the steeping liquors, and after a time he draws the skin out, and finds that it is converted into leather. A thick piece of hide requires ten, twelve, or fourteen months, to be converted into good leather; and when you consider the length of time consumed in the process, and the great capital necessarily employed, you cannot feel surprised that various plans should have been proposed to lessen both. It was proposed to tan with warm instead of cold liquors; and although the tan appeared to promote the skins in a shorter time, the quality of the leather was so much injured, that it was soon given up. Then it was tried to force the tan through the pores of the skin, by employing great pressure; but this was not found to answer. But you may ask why the tanner does not put the skins at once into a strong liquor? The reason is, that the exterior surface of the skin would soon become tanned, and the central part would remain untanned, which, in a short time, would begin to rot and decay, and the leather so treated would soon fall to pieces. The tanner, therefore, judges of the perfection of the tanning by cutting through the leather; and if he finds it of an uniform brown colour, without any white streak in the centre, he considers that the process has been successfully conducted. It would require much time to describe all the operations of the _tan-yard_, but many of them are interesting, as regards the chemical agents employed. I might have mentioned to you, that the mode of preparing the skin for tanning, is first to soak it in lime-water, by which the hair is easily detached; but the cuticle and under part of the skin, the cellular substance, are scraped off after it has been soaked in the lime water. A great variety of substances have been used for tanning, as the acorn-cup of the oriental bark; catechu and sumach have been also used; but the oak bark is most generally used, as furnishing a large quantity of astringent matter. It is not the business of the chemist to describe the different kinds of leather, but I may just mention, that the upper leather of shoes is called _curried_ leather; the leather having been tanned, is rubbed over with oil before it is dried, and it is then very flexible, pliable, and durable; but if you take a piece of dry leather, and try to rub it over with oil or grease, you cannot make it enter the pores of the leather; the black colour is produced by rubbing it over with a solution of green vitriol, the sulphate of iron. _Russian_ leather is tanned in an infusion of birch bark, and is said to be afterwards mixed with a quantity of birch tar, to give it that odour for which it is peculiar, which renders it valuable for book-binding, on account of preventing it from being attacked by insects. _Tawed_ leather, used for gloves, is made by impregnating the skin with a liquor containing alum and salt, and afterwards washed in a mixture of yolks of eggs and water; the saline and animal matters combine, and give it that peculiar softness, and such leather is afterwards coloured as may be required; having been rolled over wooden rollers, in which are grooves, it is called _Morocco_ leather. These are the principal varieties of leather employed in this country.--_Brande's Lectures--Lancet_.

_Mites_.

An indefatigable naturalist has undertaken the very difficult task of arranging the family of _acarides_, or mites; he divides them into sixty-nine genera, the greater part of them new!

_Electro-Attraction of Leaves_.

The results of a French experimentalist have lately led him to conclude that the leaves, hairs, and thorns of plants tend to maintain in them the requisite proportion of electricity; and, by drawing off from the atmosphere what is superabundant, they also act in some measure as thunder-rods.

_Enormous Whale_.

The skeleton of a whale, 95 feet long by 18 feet high, has lately been deposited in the Cabinet of Natural History at Ghent. In the opinion of many naturalists, among whom is M. Cuvier, this fish could not have been less than 900 or 1,000 years old!

_Fly in Wheat_.

In North America, much damage is done to crops of wheat by the Hessian fly. The female deposits from one to eight or more eggs upon a single plant of wheat, between the vagina or sheath of the inner leaf and the culm nearest the roots; in which situation, with its head towards the root or first joint, the young larva pass the winter. They eat the stem, which thus becomes weak, and breaks; but are checked by another insect, called the destructor, otherwise whole crops of wheat would be annihilated.

_Spiders_.

A correspondent of London's _Magazine of Natural History_ says, that he lately amused himself for more than an hour in observing the proceedings of a little spider, whose bag of eggs had been removed and restored!

_Light of the Sea_.

Its appearance previous to a storm is a very old observation among sailors. It is, however without foundation, as it is to be seen, more or less, all the year round in the Carribean sea, where there are no storms but in the hurricane months. In the hand it has a kind of mucous feel.--_Mag. Nat. Hist_.

_Woodpeckers_.

A specimen of the _least woodpecker_ was lately shot near Newcastle; and another has since been heard and seen near Coventry. Its noise resembles that made by the boring of a large auger through the hardest wood; whence the country people sometimes call the bird "the pump-borer."--_Ibid_.

_The Tea Shrub_

Has been naturalized in Java with complete success; so that, sooner or later, the Chinese monopoly will come to an end.

_Floating Island_.

From the earliest times, there are to be found in authors, notices of the singular geological phenomena of floating islands. Pliny tells us of the floating islands of the Lago de Bassanello, near Rome; in Loch Lomond, in Scotland, there is or was a floating island; and in the Lake of Derwent Water, in Cumberland, such islands appear and disappear at indefinite periods. Mr. A. Pettingal, jun. has recently described a floating island, about a mile southwards of Newbury port, 140 poles in length, and 120 in breadth. It is covered with trees; and in summer, when dry weather is long continued, it descends to the bottom of the lake.--_American, Journal of Science_.

_An immense Medusa_.

A species of sea-serpent, was thrown on shore near Bombay, in 1819. It was about 40 feet long, and must have weighed many tons. A violent gale of wind threw it high above the reach of ordinary tides; in which situation it took nine months to rot; during which process travellers were obliged to change the direction of the road for nearly a quarter of a mile, to avoid the offensive effluvia. It rotted so completely, that not a vestige of bone remained.--(_C. Telfair, Esq. to R. Barclay, Esq. of Bury Hill._)

_Himalaya Mountains_.

Captain Gerard, in exploring these mountains, with a view to measurement, had ascended to the height of 19,600 feet, being 400 feet higher than Humboldt had ascended on the Andes. The latter part of Captain Gerard's ascent, for about two miles, was on an inclined plane of 42°, a nearer approach to the perpendicular than Humboldt conceived it possible to climb for any distance together.--_Heber's India_.

_Hippopotamus_.

The head of a Hippopotamus has recently been brought to England, with all the flesh about it, in a high state of preservation. This amphibious animal was harpooned while in combat with a crocodile, in a lake in the interior of Africa. The head measures near four feet long, and eight feet in circumference; the jaws open two feet wide, and the cutting-teeth of which it has four in each jaw, are above a foot long, and four inches in circumference. Its ears are not bigger than a terrier's, and are much about the same shape. This formidable and terrific creature, when full-grown, measures about 17 feet long from the extremity of the snout to the insertion of the tail, above 16 feet in circumference round the body, and stands above 7 feet high. It runs with astonishing swiftness for its great bulk, at the bottom of lakes and rivers, but not with as much ease on land. When excited, it puts forth its full strength, which is prodigious. "I have seen," says a mariner, as we find it in Dampier, "one of these animals open its jaws, and seizing a boat between its teeth, at once bite and sink it to the bottom. I have seen it on another occasion place itself under one of our boats, and rising under it, overset it, with six men who were in it, but who, however, happily received no other injury." At one time it was not uncommon in the Nile, but now it is no where to be found in that river, except above the cataracts.

* * * * *

THE COSMOPOLITE.

A CHAPTER OF BULLS.

I confess it is what the English call _a bull_, in the expression, though the sense be manifest enough.--POPE.