MADAME PASTA is, at last, engaged at the Opera House for a few nights. Better late than never.' BOOKS, &c. Religion without Gloom. The In a handsome Volume, price only 4s., cloth. ELIGION WITHOUT GLOOM; Exemplified in a Sermons and Hymns, Original and Selected. whole adapted to the use of Private Families, Schools, and all admirers of Devotional Reading. To which are added, Prayers for every day in the Week. London: J. EAMES, 7, Tavistock Street. HER MOST GRACIOUS MAJESTY has been pleased, (at the earnest solicitation of her confidential advisers), to confine the closing of the various theatres to four evenings altogether; viz. the day of his late Majesty's death, the two days of his lying in state, and the day of his funeral. Not satisfied with this most gracious act of liberality, ALFRED BUNN closed Drury Lane till Friday; being determined to escape the payment of salaries under any, the most pitiful, pretences! SAYINGS WORTH HEARING, and SECRETS Norma is announced (for the ninth time), to be played THIS EVENING,-we shall believe it when we see it, not before! BUNN cannot make dupes of us, again. I prithee send me back my heart, Yet now I think on't, let it lie, For thou'st a thief in either eye Why should two hearts in one breast lie, Oh! love, where is thy sympathy, If thus our breasts thou sever? But love is such a mystery I cannot find it out: For when I think I'm best resolv'd, I then am in most doubt. Then farewell care, and farewell woe, I will no longer pine: For I'll believe I have her heart, SIR J. SUCKLING. COLLECTIVE WISDOM. MISTAKES.-Exemption from mistakes is not the privilege of mortals; but when our mistakes are involuntary, we owe each other every candid consideration; and the man who, on discovering his errors, acknowledges and corrects them, is scarcely less entitled to our esteem than if he had not erred. THE IMMUTABILITY OF NATURE.-There are no vicissitudes for the eternal beauties of nature; and while, amidst blood-stained revolutions, palaces, marble columns, statues of bronze, and even cities themselves disappear, the simple flower of the fields, regardless of the storm, grows into beauty, and multiplies for ever. WORTHY OF NOTICE. He who boldly interposes between a merciless censor and his prey, is a man of vigor; and he who, mildly wise, without wounding, convinces him of his error, commands our veneration. DEVOTION is the last of our amours. ADVERTISEMENTS. AMUSEMENTS OF THE WEEK. JUST OPENED, at the PANORAMA, LEICESTER SQUARE, a beautiful and extensive VIEW of the COUNTY of DUBLIN, including the CITY of DUBLIN, the truly magnificent BAY, bordered by the towns of Clontarf, Bullock, Blackrock, Kingstown, Dalkey, &c., and a vast extent of luxuriant and picturesque country, including a portion of the County of Wicklow. The view of MONT BLANC remains OPEN. Books for the Whole World. WORTH KNOWING; A New Book for the Million, beautifully illustrated. In Two Parts, 1s.6d. each. "A book of wisdom, as original as it is clever. It combines the grave and the gay with the happiest effect."-Observer. "A charming little work, whose very title will cause it to find its way into all parts of her Majesty's dominions. Are there any persons who would have Wit, Wisdom, and Genuine Humor at their fingers' ends, and who would qualify themselves for shining in company, at home or abroad?-If so, let them, without delay, procure 'Sayings worth Hearing, and Secrets worth Knowing.""-Sun. A CENTURY of THOUGHTS on a MULTITUDE of SUBJECTS. By the Author of Sayings worth Hearing, &c. &c. In Two Parts, price ls. 6d. each, beautifully illustrated. "Anything_new from the pen of the Author of Sayings worth Hearing, and Secrets worth Knowing,' is sure to meet with a hearty welcome. ** We are of opinion, that the work before us-being quite as instructive as it is entertaining, and moreover of a highly original character-will find its way into every corner of the globe."-True Sun. STREAMS of KNOWLEDGE from the FOUNTAINS of WISDOM; consisting, chiefly, of Piquant Extracts, selected from the Works of the Immortal Shakspeare; and interspersed with the most valuable Sayings of the Wisest Men since the days of King Solomon. In Two Parts, price 1s. 6d. each, beautifully illustrated. By the same Author. "An excellently chosen title, to a very clever book. It will interest persons of every age, class and condition in life. As a selection, it is, perhaps, unrivalled; nor could a more appropriate gift be conferred on youth."-Standard. "A book that will become as popular as any on record. So cheap and valuable a collection of solid wit and wisdom, is very rarely to be met with, at one and the same time."-Bell's Messenger. GOLDEN RECORDS; a Book of Choice Miscellaneous Extracts, carefully selected from the Works of the most celebrated Writers of every Age and Country. In Two Parts, price 1s. 6d. each, beautifully illustrated. By the Author of "Sayings worth Hearing," &c. &c. "This book would positively not be dear at three times the price charged for it. It contains the wisdom of the last four centuries, arranged under heads, in the convenient form of a pocket dictionary."-Sunday Times. N. B.-The four preceding publications, though apparently belonging to the same class, are, nevertheless, altogether distinct; and form, when bound together, two of the most interesting volumes ever produced. Price only 6s. each volume. London: W. Kidd, 7, Tavistock Street, Covent Printed by J. Eames, 7, Tavistock St., Covent Garden. Published for the Proprietor by GEORGE DENNEY, at the Office, 7, Tavistock St. Covent Garden: sold also by Hetherington, 126, Strand; Strange, 21, and Steill, 20, Paternoster Row; Purkiss, Compton Street; and Cle-** ments, Pulteney Street. A NEW AND FASHIONABLE WEEKLY JOURNAL OF LITERATURE, FINE ARTS, MUSIC, EXHIBITIONS, VARIETIES, SATIRE, AND THE STAGE. VOL. I.-No. 8.] "QUALITY,-NOT QUANTITY."-Common Sense. SATURDAY, JULY 1, 1837. A NIGHT AT AN INN, OR, THE DELIGHTS OF TRAVELLING "PER COACH." Doubtless, the world is full of good inns, and many inns are full of good things;-you may occasionally be lodged therein in better style than may fall to your lot at home-but then you must not travel in a stage-coach; for, so travelling, you may seek the good things in vain. You are as much labelled "Passenger," as your luggage, and treated accordingly -with this difference, that your luggage is insensible to its ignominious treatment-you, the sentient being, perhaps the sensitive, feel it down to your finger's ends. The play begins by ushering you from the common vehicle into the common room! Your foot recoils from the threshold, and you demand a "private room." Very well: "now in glimmer, now in gloom," you follow the waiter up stairs, down passages, across landings, and are shown at last into a parlor parallel with the kitchen, and owning consanguinity with the bar: the table is stained -the carpet is rusty-the chairs have seen better days-and in the grate The brands are white and dying. Amid their own white ashes lying. Presuming on your habits and tastes, you require a better apartment-"one to the front": you might as well ask to be crowned queen; a lady and gentleman have engaged this" a party are dining in the other," &c. There [PRICE TWO-PENCE. is nothing for it but to submit with good humor -order in your servant-hope for a better fate, as regards bed and refreshment and hope in vain. You are offered your choice of a singlebedded one looking over bedded room with a sky-light, or a doublestable-yard. the pig-styes and You demand tea and a cold chicken: you are served with a multifarious assemblage of Staffordshire and queen's ware(alas for royalty!);-the tea-caddy is a custardcup; and your fowl, if forthcoming, appears the saddest-looking biped that ever was disjointed. You descend to your parallelogram of a parlor, to "spend the evening" and wish for morning, The said room either looks into a back street, and you hear and see more of human nature than pleases you, even admitting you to be a professed student thereof;-or your room looks into a court filled with the departed spirits of sun-flowers and marigolds, intersected by a passage leading from no one knows whence, to no one knows where-a thoroughfare, so close to your one window, that you hear all said, and see all done: mothers scolding their children, and the pinafored gentry crying out against their mothers. You see the girls going by for water, the post-boys for orders; and you drink your tea and eat your leathern lady (the chicken), or your any thing you can get, with what zest you may. The meal ended, you look about for amusement. Your own thoughts are miserable com forters-they have flown to the comforts that await you, or those you have left. Your mind is flooded with refined and musical remem brances-every sense has a separate memory: you see the lovely shades you have left-smell the sweet flowers of yesterday-hear the voices that have no echo but in your own heart-hold the hands that you have perhaps held for the last time. In despair, you take up a newspaper, and thence learn the fashions-that ladies' cuffs are now made very deep, and gentlemens' coat collars very long; or you may learn that on Monday a man was made very ill with eating mushrooms, which turned out not to be mushrooms; and that John Hawkins is transported for life; or you may listen to the clatter of the dinner trays, as the waiters carry them up stairs, and wonder what your neighbors above have chosen to dine from; or you may solace your dignity with the remembrance, that a good looking old woman in black, who rode with you five miles, inquired with surprise whether you were accustomed to stage-coaches. Reader, take my word for it, that no airs of state, and no affectation of courtesy, will suffice to get you "good entertainment" iu any inn in his Majesty's dominions, if so be you entered it from a stage-coach. My advice is put your feelings, your fancies, your sentiment, your memory, your dignity, all in your pocket (if you wear one)-bear the noises, see the sights, brook the slights, and go to bed. "To a nunnery, to a nunnery!" To-morrow morning is on its way, and to night is on its wane. REVIEW OF BOOKS. A Narrative of Missionary Enterprises in the South Sea Islands; with Remarks upon the Natural History of the Islands, Origin, Languages, Traditions, and Usages of the Inhabitants. By John Williams, of the London Missionary Society. Snow and Leifchild. for their temerity with their lives. Our friends Mr. and Mrs. Pitman experienced equal inconvenience from these troublesome and disgusting little animals. Some of the trunks were covered with skin, on which the rats commenced very effectual operations, as they had done before upon my unfortunate bellows; and Mrs. Pitman having one night neglected to put her shoes in a place of safety, sought for them the following morning in vain; for these nocturnal ramblers, being in search of a supper, had devoured them; and a pair of shoes in the South Seas is no contemptible loss. This, however, was a serious affair for their fraternity; for our friends complained to the authorities of the station, and a decree of extermination was issued against the whole race of rats; and after school, man, woman, and child, armed themselves with a suitable weapon, and commenced their direful operations. Baskets were made of the cocoa-nut leaves, about five or six feet in length, in which to deposit the bodies of the slain, and in about an hour no less than thirty of these were filled. Notwithstanding this destruction there did not appear the slightest diminution. From this it will be perceived that cats were not the least valuable animal that could be taken to the island. They, however, did not destroy so many rats as the pigs, which were exceedingly voracious, and did much towards ridding the island of the intolerable nuisance." Doveton; or, the Man of many Impulses. By the Author of "Jerningham." 3 vols. Smith, Elder and Co. There are some individuals in the world, who contrive, by finesse, to achieve' a temporary reputation; but who, by some wilful act of folly or madness, kick down the chair that has supported them, and fall to the ground. Such an one is the author of "Doveton," whose first effort in scribbling was tolerably successful; but whose second attempt is a lamentable failure. He is the beau ideal of his second title,-"A Man of many impulses ;" and will live to rue the day when he had an 'impulse' to write a Although we entertain a feeling of great second book, which must destroy the shortrespect for Missionaries, and for all who exert lived reputation of its author. 'Doveton' themselves in a good cause; yet, we cannot say should not have exceeded the size of a small that we approve of more than half-if so much-duodecimo volume; it might then, having less of what they record in their note-books, when pretension, have passed muster with the trifles travelling to convert the Heathen. For in- of the day. stance, this Mr. Williams, (after dinner of course) sits down, and pens the following; which, as a joke, tells well, but being told with a grave face, is " rayther too strong," as Sam Weller would say: "We returned to Rarotonga with a most singular cargo, principally consisting of pigs, cocoa-nuts, and cats; the king having obtained about seventy of the first, and a number of the last. Notwithstanding the singularity of our importation, it was peculiarly valuable to the inhabitants of Rarotonga; for, prior to this, they had no other than a breed of small native pigs, of which there were but few, as they were particularly tender, and difficult to rear; and the cats were so valuable that one was quite a treasure, as the rats were astonishingly numerous; so much so, indeed, that we never sat down to a meal without two or more persons to keep them off the table. When kneeling down at family prayer they would run over us in all directions; and we found much difficulty in keeping them out of our beds. One morning, on hearing our servant scream, while making the bed, we ran into the room, and found that four of these intruders, in search of a snug place, had crept under my pillow; they paid, however, The Wanderer, and other Poems. By James THERE are two worlds (!!)- The Printer of the work calls himself SLATER, but this must be his nom de guerre; his real name is, doubtless, CATNACH, of the Seven Dials. The Pocket English Explanator; or A Dive into Grammar. By Edward Allen. G. Mann, Cornhill. An unpretending, though a very sensible, useful, and instructive little manual,-conveying, in simple language, an accurate conception of the rudiments of English Grammar. We can conscientiously recommend it for adoption in Schools, or private families. The Author's preface is a very modest one, and so much to the point, that we subjoin its few concluding sentences: "I make no pretensions to completeness either in minute details or to philosophical or philological bearings of general details. All I have endeavored is, to remove the film from the eye that my little ray of light may be seen. Then as the pupil becomes more acute in its vision, he will seek to read more copious volumes, (those of Priestley, Lowth, Murray, Blair, Abercrombie, and others) more elaborate treatises, where, instead of the few rays of light that strike the vision here, he will behold light "increasing more and more unto the perfect day." REVIEW OF MUSIC, The Goblin Quadrilles; By Calder Campbell, of the Madras Army. T. E. Purday. A very pleasing collection of spirited Quadrilles, arranged for the piano-forte; to which is added a very pretty Waltz, by Adrian Frederic Zscherpel of Madras. "Oh! the Merry Days when we were Young. Poetry by Miss F. Byron; the Music by Edward J. Loder. Prowse. The words of this song are passable, and the music, by Loder, is as scientific as usual. Melody, however, it has none, the composer's object having evidently been to give effect. The bass accompaniement, too, is in very bad taste, and quite at variance with the laws of harmony. We take this opportunity of informing Authors and publishers of Music, that whenever songs or music, forwarded to our office for the purpose of Review, are written on with a view to disfigure them, they will never be taken notice of in our paper. We observe the same rule with regard to BOOKS. When our honor is doubted, we wish no such compliment. The present is the only exception we shall make, the fault complained of having, apparently, been done through inadvertence. FINE ARTS. NEW PUBLICATIONS. The Bard, by Gray; with Illustrations from Drawings by the Honorable Mrs. John Talbot. -Van Voorst. These twelve engravings, illustrative of Gray's beautiful poem, are no less creditable to the Engravers, than to the fair Artist by whom they were designed. Though engraved on Wood, they are hardly less effective than if they had been done on Steel. Those by Thompson, Williams, and Jackson are particularly striking. The Sale of the Pet Lamb. Painted by W. Collins, R.A.; engraved by S. W. Reynolds. -Boys. A beautiful little rural picture, drawn in Mr. Collins' usual style of excellence, and admirably engraved by Reynolds. It forms a fitting companion to the print of 'Sunday,' by the same Artists. The Abbotsford Family. Painted by Sir David Wilkie, R.A.; engraved by Robert Graves, A.R.A. Hodgson and Graves. The group represented in this beautiful engraving is thus described by Sir Walter Scott:"The idea which our inimitable Wilkie adopted was to represent our family group in the garb of Southcountry peasants, supposed to be concerting a merrymaking, for which some of the preparations are seen. The place is the terrace near Kayside, commanding an extensive view towards the Eildon Hills. The sitting figure, in the dress of the miller, I believe, represents Sir Walter Scott, author of a few scores of volumes, and proprietor of Abbotsford. In front, and presenting, we may suppose, a country wag, somewhat addicted to poaching, stands Sir Adam Ferguson, keeper of the regalia of Scotland. In the back ground is a very handsome old man, upwards of eighty-four years old at the time, painted in his own character of shepherd. He also belonged to the numerous clan of Scott. Of the three female figures, the eldest is the late regretted mother of the family represented. The young persons most forward in the group, are Miss Sophia Charlotte Scott, now Mrs. Lockhart, and her younger sister, Miss Ann Scott. Both are represented as milkers, with their leglins or milk-pails. On the left of the shepherd, holding a fowling-piece, is the son of Sir Walter, now Captain in the Hussars. The boy is the youngest of the family, Charles Scott. The two dogs were distinguished favorites of the family; the large one, a stag-hound of the old Highland breed, called Maida." All who remember the original picture, when exhibited at the Royal Academy, will bear witness to the fidelity of the copy, which is skilfully engraved and very beautifully printed. ELEPHANT SHOOTING.-Extract from a letter from Ceylon, dated 20th of January, 1837, in the Wellasse District. "We had excellent sport, having bagged 106 elephants among four of us in three days, but I had a very narrow escape from shooting my friend G- We had all followed three elephants into a thick bit of jungle, and came up with them at an opening of, perhaps, twenty feet square. G―― and I went at the same bird, which after taking some shots from both of us, and one or two from our companions, got into the cover, but suddenly burst out again abreast upon G- who was close behind it, and who, being unloaded, halted back, and stumbled over the trunk of a dead elephant, sufficiently within reach of the live one. In the mean time a Cooly had put a fresh gun into my hand, and, as I fired, G- in rising from his stumble, brought the top of his cap on the line of sight. I saw the cap jerk and open, and the elephant drop at the same instant. The cap was of wicker-work, covered with blue nankeen, and in shape a hunting-cap, fitting close to the head; the ball had opened full four inches of it: his hair was not cut, but it was a frightfully close shave." ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE. SMOKING IN ST. JAMES'S PARK. To the Editor of the 'IDLER.' My Dear Sir,-Perceiving from the nature of your spirited and valuable Paper, that you have the public weal at heart (more especially when the LADIES are concerned),-permit me, through the medium of your columns, to call the attention of the Ranger of St. James's Park, to an annoyance I and many others are subject to. I reside in the neighborhood of the Park, and frequently wish to enjoy the cool of the evening, in its delightful walks; but am often compelled to return home, to escape the fumes of tobacco, which poison the air, and impregnate the very shrubs and trees with its pestilential odors. As the whole park is open, surely, dear Sir, the gardens within the railings my might be reserved for that portion of the public who seek only air and exercise. They would then be free from the intrusion of pert shopboys, who swagger up and down the walks with a filthy cigar in their mouth, to the great annoyance of, June 28, 1837. My dear Sir, Your devoted admirer, A FEMALE PEDESTRIAN. [We readily insert the epistle of our fair incognita, and shall be happy to give every publicity to her just cause of complaint. These beardless shop-boys are a public pest; and if the police did their duty properly, they would convey them home to their mothers, whenever they were found practising their filthy tricks. By the bye, these young sparks are generally tipsy before they have half smoked their cigar; they therefore become an easy prey to their enemies!] THE ADVANTAGES OF EARLY RISING, ADDRESSED TO YOUNG AND OLD. Without rising with the sun, we cannot experience those inward joys-those sublime and secret sensations and sentiments of gratitude, which result from feeling how life is again renewed within us, and that the whole face of nature is again recovered from the dark veil of night, and all creation animated with new life rejoicing at the return of day. Those infatuated beings, therefore, who turn day into night, and night into day, can have no moral perception of these sensations, and will sooner or later have reason to regret their folly in yielding to the pernicious influence of custom and fashion. They know not that "Weariness Can snore upon the flint, when restless Sloth Finds the down pillow hard."-SHAKSPEARE, One of the mischiefs of sitting up late is that it exhausts the animal spirits by imposing upon them more duty than nature has allotted them to perform, and thus deranges all the functions of the system. Those who flatter themselves with the idea that, from the strength of their constitutions, they may violate nature's established laws with impunity, will find themselves woefully mistaken, for nature never allows any who transgress her laws to escape unpunished. Those in firm health cannot give way to a more destructive habit than indulgence in sleep during the day, it is an absolute perversion of nature, and by anticipating the season of rest, unfits us for sleep in the night, the season appointed for it. How often do we hear persons complain of their only having had the benefit of their first sleep, and of afterwards having lain awake for the remainder of the night. The first sleep as it is termed, terminates with the digestion of the food taken at supper, to secure, therefore, a more lengthened period of sleep, the best method is to take no suppers at all. It is generally acknowledged that suppers, in various ways, prove injurious, but in regard to sleep there can exist no doubt but that they are highly detrimental, and contribute greatly to the unpleasant consequences of perturbed sleep, frightful dreams, and nightmare. To secure, therefore, an uniform sound sleep, rise with the sun and retire at ten o'clock at night. -Probatum est. REMARKS ON DIET. [ No. 1. ] DRINKS.-Of Drinks, the cheapest is the best-plain water. Its varieties are numerous, and much is to be said on each; but we must content ourselves with a very brief notice of them. Distilled water is entirely free from salts and gasses, and consequently no precipitate is caused by adding to it nitrate of silver, oxalate of ammonia, or acetate of lead. Hence it is an excellent solvent for many medicines which would be decomposed by common water, but as a drink it is insipid and disagreeable. Almost the same may be said of rain water ( collected in an open space) and of snow water. The goitres so frequent in the vallies of the Alps have often been ascribed to the use of snow water; but as they occur equally in districts where the drink is different, the supposed cause is unsatisfactory. Boiled water is not so good as fresh, as boiling expels the gasses. Some whimsical people boil water to kill the microscopic insects it contains, and others to take off its rawness, as they call it; but raw water is probably the most wholesome as well as the most natural of drinks. Hard water is that which contains a considerable quantity of salts, especially of sulphate of lime, and makes a bad lather. Heberden calls it impatiens saponis, intolerant of soap. Though pump, or well water, harmless, there is no doubt that water may be so hard which is commonly hard, is very pleasant, and usually as to be injurious. Dr. Prout thinks that it frequently deranges delicate stomachs very considerably, and has a tendency to produce gravel. In such cases where hard water is injurious, and soft water insipid, it might be worth while trying the effect of the latter impregnated with a little carbonic acid gas. Soda-water should properly be a solution of carbonate of soda in water, with a large excess of carbonate acid gas; the carbonate of soda, however, is often omitted, and it is then reduced to the formula we have just recommended. Dr. Paris remarks, that if the carbonic acid is contained in soda-water, as some suppose, in a liquid form, it will abstract heat from the stomach during its conversion into gas; and thence he deduces the unwholesomeness of soda-water immediately after dinner, when the stomach has need of all its heat. We think it likely, however, that after those over-plenteous dinners which soda-water commonly follows, the glowing stomach may require cooling down to its digesting point-a theory which may form an apology even for ices, at least for water-ices. Practice certainly speaks in favor of soda-water, on these occasions. It is not prudent to drink very cold water in very hot weather, when much heated, though it is certainly very pleasant. At Naples every body does it with impunity. In North America it is occasionally fatal. Dr Rush states, that in summer, as many as four or five persons have died in a day from drinking large quantities of cold water. It is probable that in such cases the water acts like a severe blow on the stomach, paralyzing the powers of life, and allowing no time for re-action. Dr. Beck gives references to writers on this subject, and it is remarkable that they are all American. INJURIES.-When we cannot resent an injury, we ought to dissimulate; for, by provoking an enemy, we receive a second. |