The Naturalist's Diary. MARCH, 1825. [From Time's Telescope.] [Concluded from our last.] Our little modest friend, the Alpine wall-cress (aratis alpins) has not yet forsaken us, and, though in external beauty it must yield the palm to the more gaudy flowers of Flora's train, yet it is endeared to us, from the recollecion that it enlivened our walks in the severity of winter, when the rude blasts of Boreas continued to blow with we must not fail to notice that emblem of virtue in retire- Your gracious odours, which you couched bear Upon the gentle wing of some calm-breathing wind indiminished rigour. The mezereon is putting forth its and the turkey lay; and house pigeons sit. The green- THE PRIMROSE. 1 saw it in my evening walk, A little lonely flower Under a hollow bank it grew, Deep in a mossy bower. An oak's gnarled root, to roof the cave, Whence jewelled fern, and arum leaves, and close beneath came sparkling out, A little rill, that clipt about And there, methought, with bashful pride, No other flower, no rival grew The dwelt alone, a cloistered nun, No sun-beam on that fairy pool Only, methought, some clear cold star No ruffling wind could reach her there... Or the young lambs that came to drink And there was pleasantness to me That slight dear Nature's loveliness Long time I looked and lingered there, My spirits drank deep quietness In with that quiet sight. Blackwood's Magazine. otected from the inclemency of the weather by our -houses, roses, hyacinths, heliotropes, and gera18, are now in full blossom, regaling the senses with varied hues and rich perfumes, and affording to the f contemplation the lively picture of a virtuous mind, sheltered by the walls of a good conscience, is able thstand the keen blasts of affliction, or the more detive blights of slander, and, under the smiles of an wing God, blooms with redoubled freshness, shedits balmy sweets on all around. Yet, amid this tive scene of beauty, will thoughts, like those of the occasionally present themselves to the reflective The flowers of Spring are beautiful, The spirit alters: ne'er again. Will life restore the hours of innocence, when, free from pain, Our day was like the flowers. D. M. MOIR. affodils, yellow auriculas, coltsfoot, with its brilliant en and sometimes pink or silvery stars, and houndsgae, are in blossom about the middle of the month. America we are indebted for a species of cowslip which ers in March, and whose beautiful rose-coloured soms, growing in thick branches in the form of a e, now add greatly to the beauty of our gardens. bilst our attention is attracted by the more gaudy anges which obtrude themselves on our observation, leaving England in September. Those birds which have The Commissioners, however, have not confined their attention to matters of utility only: with a view of ultimately restoring and perpetuating the scenery and enjoyment to the public of the Royal Parks of Richmond, Hampton-Court, Bushy, and Greenwich, they have caused a special survey to be made of these parks; and a great number of the trees being found to be in a state of progressive, and many of them of rapid decay, a competent sum of money is now annually appropriated towards stocking them with young and growing trees. In Windsor Great Park, plantations to a considerable extent had been made by the command and under the direction of his late Majesty, and these have been recently extended under the direction of the Commissioners. In Hyde Park, under the direction of the Lords of the Treasury. also, similar improvements have been made by the Ranger, Among the magnificent ornaments of our metropolis, commenced under the auspices of his present Majesty while Regent, the Regent's Park ranks high in point of utility as well as beauty, and is an invaluable addition to the comforts and the pleasures of those who reside in the north-west quarter of London. It is no small praise to the Commissioners of Woods and Forests to say, that this Park is under their especial direction; and although, from the various difficulties they have necessarily encountered, they have not been enabled to carry into execution every The general or great flow of sap in most trees takes part of their intended plan, they have done enough to enplace in this month; this is preparatory to the expanding title them to the lasting thanks of a grateful public. A of the leaves, and ceases when they are out. The ash park, like a city, is not made in a day; and to posterity now puts forth its grey buds; and the hazel and the wil-it must be left fully to appreciate the merits of those who low exhibit some signs of returning life in their silky en-designed and superintended this delightful metropolitan folded catkins. On the 20th the vernal equinox takes place, and all nature feels her renovating sway, and seems to rejoice at the retreat of winter. Now hazel catkins, and the bursting buds Of the fresh willow, whispered Spring is coming:' With their rich silver voices; and the humming And the germs swelling in the red shoots of the lime: That had been, and again were on their way; Howitt's Forest Minstrel About the middle of the month, the red currant is in leaf. The buds of the red lilac appear, and the leaves of the thornless sose and of the hawthorn are gradually be. coming determinate. The field daisy is now seen scattered over dry pastures. The planting and sowing of FOREST TREES is generally concluded in this month. The mixing of fir-trees with oaks (except in very sheltered situations) is now frequently adopted by the planter. From a variety of experiments made under the direction of the Commissioners of his Majesty's Woods and Forests, and Land Revenues, former have derived so much benefit from the shelter it appears that where oaks have been mixed with firs, the afforded by the latter, that in almost all cases the oaks obviate any objections that might be made to the planthave so far outgrown their neighbours as completely to ing of firs on account of their supposed injury to the tion, however, will be required to thin out the firs, before beauty of the forest scenery. The most watchful attenthey either overgrow the oaks, or draw them up to a height disproportioned to the strength of the stem, and without regard being had to the whole of the produce, such thinnings must be executed in the first instance, which, for a few years, would probably not defray their expenses. We have much pleasure in stating, that in consequence of the very active measures taken by the Commissioners, within the last few years, for the improvement of the Royal Forests, and of the purchase of Freehold Lands applicable to the growth of oak, the whole extent of land belonging to the Crown, now actually in timber or young plantations, amounts to 51,627 acres; and from some new inclosures to be made in New, Dean, and Woolmer Forests, it is expected that 11,000 acres may yet be added to this amount. Such are the beneficial results (as it respects the growth of Navy Timber) of the science and industry displayed by the Commissioners in the execution of the important task committed to their care. Having carefully perused their different triennial Reports, we cheerfully give our humble testimony to their meritorious and unceasing labours for the attainment of this great national object. improvement. In March, trouts begin to rise, and blood worms appear in the water. The clay hair-worm is found at the bottom of drains and ditches, and the water-flea may be seen gliding about upon the surface of sheltered pools. The equinoctial gales are usually most felt, both by sea and land, about this time. The smelt begins to ascend rivers to spawn, when they are taken in great abundance. The gannets or Soland geese resort in March to the Hebrides, and other rocky isles of North Britain, to make their nests and lay their eggs. Black beetles may now be observed flying about in the evening; and bats issue from their places of concealment Roach and dace float near the surface of the water, and sport about in pursuit of insects. Peas appear above ground; the sea-kale (crambe maritima) now begins to sprout. The male blossoms of the yew-tree expand and discharge their farina. Sparrows are busily employed in forming their nests. Young otters are produced, and young lambs are yeaned this month. About the end of March a brimstone-coloured butterfly (papilio rhamni) appears. THE ENFRANCHISED; OR THE BUTTERFLY'S FIRST FRLARIN. From its mansion of care. Thy Arst ardent flight, With tints more divine. Then, tasting new pleasure In Summer's green bower On fresh-opened flowerst Their fragrance, till day Which looks to the west, A crimson velvet pelisse appears to us remarkably gant: the corsage is made tight to the shape, oma he Austrian mantle is also much in favour in carriage The Investigator. prehending Political Economy, Statistics, Jurisprunce, occasional passages from Parliamentary Speeches nts, and other speculative subjects, excluding Party a general nature, occasional Parliamentary Doculities] WARM AND VAPOUR BATH. remember that it is from authority of the most unques- catarrhs, chronic rheumatism, contraction of the muscles, and stiff joints,' yield to the influence of the vapour. calculi were passed, without any of the agony which the Two cases of gout appeared to be cured by it; and small patient had undergone, before the bath was resorted to. Tooth-ache has been dissipated by it in a few minutes.' -Medical Review. "In this apparatus (the vapour bath) the stimulant diffused through the air; and as the elastic vapour, like power of heat is modified and tempered by the moisture air, is a less powerful conductor of heat than a watery fluid, the effect of vapour in raising the temperature of the body is much less than that of the hot bath. Its heating effect is also farther diminished by the copious perspiration which ensues; so that on all accounts the vapour bath is safer, as it is in most cases more effectual than the hot-water bath, and may be employed with success where the hot bath would be attended with danger. Mr. Coglan, to whom the town is, in our opinion, under very great obligations for having established a Floating Bath, greatly and confessedly superior to any similar establishment in the world, has lately written and compiled with great care a most useful little work upon the Subject of Warm and Vapour Bathing, in which he has collected together the opinions of the most eminent men upon this important subject, together with an enumeration of the numerous diseases in which warm and vapour bathing is recommended by professional men of great celebrity. This little treatise, comprised in a pamphlet of twenty-four pages was intended, by Mr. his own baths, in Bold-street,-but on a perusal of its Coglan, principally for the use of those who frequented contents, we found the work so judiciously compiled and so generally interesting, that we solicited permission to appropriate the whole of it for the Kaleidoscope. We now offer our readers a portion of it, reserving the remain-of internal inflammation; it draws a great quantity of der until next week. "The vapour bath may be applied to the whole body, or to any part of it: its immediate effects are to excite or diminished: this increase of circulation at the surface of increase the action of the superficial arteries, by which the determination of blood to the deeper seated parts is the body produces a copious perspiration, which may be continued, as it is excited, at pleasure. It should, however, always cease before debility begins. "The utility of this application is obvious in all cases blood to the surface, and relieves the internal parts by the secretion of the skin, which is the mode.nature takes to nce the introduction of improved baths into Liverpool, Ir. Coglan and the late Mr. Sadler, the wholesome uxurious custom of warm and vapour bathing has Extracts from the Works of the Hon. Basil Cochrane, Dr. resolve inflammations and fevers. Besides an increased Kentish, Sir Arthur Clarke, M. D. &c. to shew the ef- perspiration, other effects are produced on the system; be much more prevalent and general than it formerly ficacy of vapour bathing in the cure of several diseases, equal and due action is restored to the surface, and a and we congratulate the public upon the circum- viz. rheumatism, scrofula, cutaneous eruptions, glandu-highly agreeable sensation is produced, which renders the lar swellings in the neck, gravel, palsy, gout, dropsy, influence of cool air safe and desirable."-Clarke's Essay. , fully convinced, as we are, that the use of the warm xonduces more than almost any other thing to the consumption, fever, inflammation of the bowels, bilious "The moderns seem, until lately, to have had a very and liver complaints, water in the brain, &c. different opinion with regard to warm bathing: it has vation and the restoration of health. We are also as been generally regarded as relaxing, weakening, and ener assured, that, in many cases, arising from obstructed "Every practitioner, who has paid any attention to the vating; and this opinion has descended from the physician ration, and in a variety of diseases to which the na-operation of heat and moisture on the animal economy to the people, so as to be regarded as an axiom. Marour ever-varying climate are particularly liable, teau, Maret, and Macquart, with a host of Continental writers, have looked upon this as a settled point, and pour bath is a most efficatious remedy. te prejudices, however, still exist, upon the subject have reasoned accordingly. But surely the opinion of the m and vapour bathing, which operate against their very small proportion, not merely of the population, but Greeks and Romans, from their extensive and national must have had frequent occasion to lament the difficulty of use of warm or tepid baths, should claim some attention on what they were so capable of forming a judgment. The allegories of the ancients agree perfectly with their extensive use of the warm bath: the warm springs were dedicated to Apollo; and so fat were they from being esteemed debilitating, that some of them were dedicated to Hercules, the god of strength. Suidas, Eustatius, and other ancient writers, make use of the term balnea Herculea, as synonimous with warm baths: not one cold bath ing as general in this country as in many other of the world. It is a prevailing opinion that it gerous to venture into the cold air soon after used the warm baths. Nothing can be more und, or contrary to experience, than this apprehension; fact is, that the human body, after having been subto a high temperature of water or vapour, is better d to endure a very low one than it was previously to mmersion: and, although it is true that a rapid ion from cold to heat is highly dangerous, and often it is a well ascertained fact that the human body thout detriment, or even much inconvenience, pass reat heat to intense cold; and that when inured by it can endure a sudden transition from the tempe- in relieving many morbid conditions of the human body, prejudices, we should cease to regard warm baths as is was dedicated to Hercules; but he is said to have found view of recruiting his exhausted strength after any great a natural warm spring, whither he used to retire, with the exertion, from whence he rose giant refreshed. There existed an altar dedicated to Hercules at the baths of Thermopyla; also, in some Sicilian coins this demi-god represented in the act of bathing. Could we forget our debilitating; for a great and polished people would not have been so absurd as to have dedicated to the god of The vapour bath in use in this country is simple in its strength, that which they thought possessed an opposite construction, and effectual in its application: it is model-quality."-Dr. Kentish. he Finland peasants (says Acerbi, in his Travels in led from one invented by the Hon. Basil Cochrane, who of Eson being restored to youth, by means of the medical was led to the contrivance and use of it in the following of boiling water to that of freezing water. 1, Finland, &c.) pass instantaneously from an at- as well as of its total freedom from those hazardous conse- way: A very protracted residence in India (he says) had "Mr. Cochrane, however, with the utmost liberality, "It has been hinted by Lord Bacon, that the tradition chaldron of Medea, was in fact an allegorical representation of the effects of the warm bath, in retarding the approach of old age; and, in a note to the Loves of the Plants, Dr. Darwin has farther expanded the idea in the following words: cated baths of Medca, seems to have been intended to [To be continued.] Literature, Criticism, &c. ON SATIRE. TO THE EDITOR. SIR-My correspondence with you has been unavoidably suspended for some time, by circumstances over which I had no control. I have now the pleasure of resuming it, and hope that it will not again experience such an interruption. During my silence I have, however, attentively perused your papers, and the discussion on the subject of learned quotations has afforded me much entertainment. In the course of this debate, Mr. Y. Z. has honoured me with some censures, upon my abilities and style, delivered in an assuming self-complacent tone, with which I have been considerably amused. But, as I do not in the least either desire his praise, or heed his disapprobation, I will not consume either your time or my own with any further remarks upon this subject.—I remain, &c. Yet what can satire, whether grave or gay? What vice has it subdued?" Z. Cowper's Task, Book II. In reading over the Task, a poem which (since I read the two volumes lately published, of Cowper's private correspondence) I have reperused with increased interest, I was struck with the dissonance between the passage which I have just quoted and the opinions generally entertained of the powerful influence of satire and ridicule. The lines which I have given from Horace immediately occurred to my remembrance, and I fell into a train of thoughts respecting the ridiculous. Was, then, the poet right in denying that satire and But, after all, it seems by no means clear that he did attached to the selves ridiculous; that this stigma cation of ridicule as a means of influencing others. 7 Let us remember that our prejudices are naturly strong to need any further attempt to darken the titu vision. If we have the least desire to assert our chin that emanation from divinity, which raises our above the brutes, let not our reason, the highest st of our nature, be subjected to the scoffs or seen t man; whatever be his talents, "let us dare to be selves." Though we can scarcely approach, without a feeling of dread, the awful presence of the god Ridiculus, yet, at the risk of arousing his slumbering ire, let us, in this age The attempt to shut out the light of truth, or b of bold and free inquiry, molest "his ancient solitary vert rational principles of thought or action in the mind reign;" and, since the doctrine, that power is a trust to be others, by means of ridicule, can scarcely be suffe exercised for the benefit of those under its influence, seems detested and avoided. To undermine the “palace of the now pretty generally acceded to, we will bring his pre-soul" is an offence which no talent in the execution of dis tension boldly to the bar of truth and utility, and pass plan, no dexterity in the mode of the attack, can pill sentence on them fearlessly and impartially. These circumstances, indeed, only enhance the day, The happiness or misery of the subjects, dwelling under and ought to call forth a proportionate degree of rat the immediate eye of a government, and in the vicinity of the seat of power, seems an obvious test of its merit. In order to decide upon this principle, we must visit the It is universally acknowledged that posthumous fame, capital of this deity, and look around us upon his votaries. however visionary the prospect which it holds out, however But where does he reign" enthroned in highest state ?" inconsistent may be the basis upon which it rests, with the Two shrines, situated in neighbouring countries, seem his utter annihilation of all the joys, hopes, and fears of this most favourite abode :-the Parisian saloons, the dread of world, imposed by death,-has been, is, and, as far as we the raillery of which oppressed Bonaparte in the zenith ean judge of the future from the past, will long continue to of his glory-and the British Reviews, which have, with On those who have the cool malignity, I had almos be the moving principle of a great proportion of mankind. remorseless and unsparing persecution, “tortured even to the desperate wickedness, thus to attempt to poismaid The ways in which men seek this renown may be various: madness" men possessed of the most gigantic talent. source the spring of all that is good or great in m the duration of it, at which they aim, may be different: the From these, the strongholds of his dominion, his power proach and remonstrance would be alike wasted. Th sacrifices which they will make to obtain it may be great or extends, with various degrees of despotism, till its out-are worthy only of the deepest unmingled contempt. small, but the end is in all the same. The incendiary who posts seem fixed in the back settlements of America, or burned the temple at Ephesus, and the conquering gene- some other half-civilized territory, where the colonist, ral who hung his "spolia ossima" on the triumphal tree, careless of appearances, lives in a condition a very few MR. BUTLER'S OBSERVATIONS ON THE REFORMATE -the monarch who inscribed his victories on a pyramid degrees above that of the "beasts that perish:"-and who, formed to last while the world endures, and the thief who in this our land of liberty, can come forward and candidly summons every nerve to the task of dying game upon the say that he bends not more or less beneath his sway? gallows, the philosopher who threw himself into Etna, Who, even in a large assembly, can feel satisfaction, or and the nobleman who spent a large annual sum in erect- even indifference, when "ridetur ab omni conventu ?” ing and beautifying his mausoleum,-would all, if asked Unlimited power bears to an Englishman something wherefore they pursued paths so different, alike answer-repulsive and suspicious in its very name : let us lay aside “memoriam nostri quàm maxumè longane efficere," or this feeling, and view this Colossus with the calmness ne* mit ausgespreitenen Hûgeln zum Tempel deo nach-cessary to form an accurate conclusion. The fear, then, ruhons empor zu fliegen.” of derision operates upon the mind, so as to induce it to If, then, the thirst after the admiration and attention of adopt, or reject, certain habits of thinking, speaking, and mankind be so insatiable as to grasp at an imaginary acting: and this operation will be beneficial, or the coneternity of fame, the dread of their neglect or contempt trary, as the line of conduct encouraged or proscribed be can scarcely be thought a thing which has little or no absurd or rational. But, in the wide circle of the world, influence. Laughter is said, in the Spectator, to arise the things to which ridicule is attached, are as various as from an inward sense of glory; and this appears to be are the customs of its inhabitants. This truth may render most clearly the case with regard to that laughter which the idea of adopting a standard so fluctuating, as the guide wa indulge in at the expense of others: here rests the of our actions, somewhat absurd; but since, let us reason zest of ridicule. Our exuberant mirth arises from an as we will, we shall still in some degree bend to its nod, inward exultation in our freedom from the follies or mis- and since, like most other motives, the extent of its power fortunes of those whom we deride; and here also lies its regulates its utility, we will examine how far we may sting; since holding up its victim as a mark for the reasonably yield to it, and how far it may be reasonably Bioving finger of scorn, and the contemptuous derision employed as a lever to move the minds of others. of mankind, it wounds most acutely those feelings, the strong force of which we have just considered. [Continued from page 283.) TO THE EDITOR SIR, Mr. Butler arrives next at the inqui the conduct of the religious orders justify the tion of the monasteries? I agree with the leang man, that, upon the whole, it did not. At the I would make a distinction between the dissoluist d thi orders, and the seizure and alienation of monarąją The first resolves itself into a nice matter of disc and the nation was certainly as much at liberty this point as the use of the cross, the shaven crown, any other. The second admits a larger field of sion; and perhaps so nice a question should not be esta upon in these limited pages. I will endeavour, howe to be as concise as possible. It is not clear to me Henry VIII. had any more right to seize this particul property, than his present Majesty has to appropria himself the endowments of any modern dissenting i tion. It may, perhaps, be objected, that the same ciple will extend to the regular clergy. I think not there appears to be a great difference between the We cannot keep too constantly in mind, that few, per- The one partook more of public, the other of priva haps accurately speaking, not any, things are in them-perty. By what means, and for what purposes, wata | landed property, would ever have been ready on any com- a very poor opinion of them, though not worse than of the nonasteries founded? A very large portion of their o this, the religious houses were places of refuge to who naturally were inclined to a life of devotion; to who were disgusted with the vanities of the world; a desirous of a quiet and studious life; and to the ger branches of noble families. The property posI by these classes of persons was added to the funds e monastery.+ All this was given for specific pur; for the benefit of future periods, and not for that of esent alone: it was a species of entailed property, to ministered, year by year, by certain persons, and for n purposes. The Monks could not alienate their posns, which pertained as much to their successors as selves; they had only the life enjoyment of them, for 1, in return, they were bound to perform with fidelity e duties the regulations of the institution required. y did not act up to the terms of the trust, they ought emales. Early in the reign of Elizabeth the Speaker of the House present time, would have been at least £100,000, the only accusation the commissioner could bring against it was, that the Abbot was fond of a game at cards or backgamnon, and passed some of his time at his farms and in the occupation of building: "As for the Abbot, we finde nothing to suspect as touching hys livying, but it was detected that he laye moche forth in hys granges; that he delited moche in playing at dice and cards, and therein spent moche money, and in buyldinge for hys pleasure. He did not pche (sin) openly .............. As touching the Convent, we coulde geate litle or no capte (cause of complaint) Their innocence, however, did not avail them: the blameamong thym."-History of St. Edmund's Bury, 1804 less and the guilty alike fell beneath the rapacious hand of Henry, and the crying injustice apparent throughout the dissolution and destruction of these institutions; and the reproach attendant on the proceedings of his ancestors must awaken feelings of regret in the breast of every im partial Englishman and Protestant. "Pudet hac opprobria nobis et dici potuisse et non potuisse refelli." After all, would not institutions, similar to the monastie houses, without their vows and restrictions, but under proper regulations, be of great benefit in Protestant communities? am of opinion they would render the lives of thousands, especially of the female sex, far happier than they are at present. What would be more grateful to a female of family and education, who had been left destitute, or nearly so, instead of becoming the contemned dependent of some rich relation, or entering a strange family as the slave of children, with salary and treatment little better than a nursery maid, or gaining a to enter such an establishment, where she would meet with companions of her own station and refinement; all care lowly and miserable subsistence by her manual efforts, than respecting her present and future prospects removed from her mind; and free to spend her time as she pleased, in the visithim, which was all he was enabled to give, for the dowry, peration and relief of the poor and sick, the instruction of youth, parte di dote. (Let. Pit.) Many of the fine paintings in the mo- in ornamental work in aid of the institution and its objects, nasteries were thus obtained. or in the many offices such an establishment would require. There are, or used to be, in the south of France, several houses A stated sum was refor ladies of birth on a similar plan. quired on entering, no vows were taken, the time of the inmates was employed in a similar way, and they married or left the institution whenever they chose; in the latter case the mu ney at first deposited was retained by the society. Montaigne mentions these convents and circumstances in his travels. The sisters of charity, the Frati della misericordia in Italy, and other orders of a like nature, are productive of the greatest benent and good. [To be continued:] During the twelfth and succeeding centuries, the laity and nobility paid more attention to learning: previously, they were in a miserable state of ignorance; few could write their own names-hence they made use of the sign of the cross, as they confessed from ignorance of letters, pro ignorantia literarum, a practice still continued amongst the lower orders, and for the same reason. The warlike spirit of the times was in great part the cause of this neglect; the nobles thought with their northern ancestors, "that he who had been accustomed to tremble under the rod of a pedagogue, would never look on a sword or spear with an undaunted eye." |