man-like humour.-C. And yet a lie is ❘ third we left desperately sick at Flomore pardonable than calumny, or rence, and I believe he is in heaven than either doing the office of a pick-long ere this.-C. Was he a very thank, or encouraging it, or lavishing away a man's time and fortune in gaming.-A. I am of your opinion. C. But, then, there's another benefit I reap from my travels. If I should find any friend of mine tainted with this phrenzy, I should advise him to stay at home; as a mariner that has been wrecked himself, bids another have a care of the place where he miscarried.-A. This caution would have done well if it had come in time.-C. Why, are you sick of the same disease too? A. Yes, I have been at Rome myself, and at Compostella.-C. Bless me! How proud I am to play the fool in such company! But what angel put this into thy head?-A. What devil, rather? Especially to leave a handsome young wife, several children, and a family at home, and nothing in the world to maintain them but my daily industry.-C. It must be some mighty matter, sure, that could carry you away from all these obligations; what was it, I pray thee?-A. I am ashamed of it.-C. What, to me, thy friend and thy fellow-sufferer? good man?-A. The best droll in nature.-C. Why should you think he is in heaven, then?-A. Because he had a whole satchel full of large indulgences.-C. I hear you; but it is a huge way to heaven, and a dangerous one, as I am told, there are such a world of thieves in the middle region of the air.-A. That's true; but he was so fortified with bulls.-C. In what language.-A. In Latin.-C. Well, and does that secure him?-A. Yes, unless he should fall upon some spirit that does not understand Latin; and in that case he must come back to Rome, and get a new instrument.-C. Do they sell any bulls there to the dead?A. Yes, yes, as thick as hops.-C. Have a care what you say, for there are spies abroad.-A. I don't speak against indulgences, though I can't but laugh at the freak of my fuddling companion. He was otherwise the vainest trifler that ever was born, and yet chose rather to venture his salvation upon a skin of parchment, than upon the amendment of his life. But when shall we have the trial of skill you told us of?-C. We'll set a time for a little drinking bout; give notice of it to our comrades, and then meet and tell lies in our turns, helter-skelter. THE CAMERA OBSCURA. "Brutus. I say you are not." SHAKSPEARE. I SAT me down, and placed a mirror before me, that I might examine my face. The result of that examination shall be the subject of the present paper. A. There was a knot of neighbourly good fellows of us drinking together; and when we were high-flown, one was for making a visit to St. James; another to St. Peter: if you'll go, I'll go, says one; and I'll go, if you'll go, says another; till at last we concluded upon it, to go all together. I was willing, I confess, to keep up the reputation of a fair drinker; and rather than break company, I e'en past my promise. The next question was, whether we should march for Rome or Compostella? And upon the debate, it was determined, that (God willing) we should begin our journey the very next morning, and visit both.-C. Ă | learned sentence, and fitter to be recorded in wine than upon copper.-A. There were a certain number of After this, a swinging glass was put features:-eyes, ears, nose, mouth, about to the bon voyage; and when These features were capaevery man in his course had done rea-ble of being differently affected by the son to it, the vow was sealed, and be- various passions of the human mind came inviolable.-C. A new religion! which might act upon them. The inBut did you all come safe back again? ternal faculties and capacities of the -A. All but three. One died upon man give a character to, and stamp the way; but gave us in charge to re- certain peculiarities on, his face; the member his humble service to Peter mere unconnected form of that face and James; another at Rome, who is nothing. bade us commend him, when we returned, to his wife and children; the chin, &c. I thought to myself, if pleasure reigned in my heart, as sometimes she does, for I have joyful moments as well as others of my fellow-creatures, then these features would express the pleasure. If the heart laughed, although the mouth need not express the sentiment, the eye might laugh too; the whole face might seem to be cast in a mould of joyfulness, and the characteristics of that mould be impressed every where alike. If some weighty and burdensome care pressed heavily upon me, then the trouble of my face would be but an index to the trouble of my heart; the brows would be bent over the eyes, the lips would be pressed both together, the forehead would be puckered and wrinkled, and the whole countenance would have a thick, gloomy, and heavy expression. If scorn were the ruling passion of the hour, then the nose would be turned upwards, an unjoyful laugh would play upon the mouth, whilst a steady expression of hatred glanced coolly from the eye. It is wonderful, thought I, wonderful, for as I look now upon the face, I can distinguish nothing but the forms of features which have no particular charácter. Man knows not what a day may bring forth. My life is like my face; it is capable of an innumerable variety of changes; and although, as I look at its present condition, I may think I can thoroughly understand it, yet that condition may, in a few days, be entirely altered and destroyed, and all my thoughts respecting it baffled. God may cause events to happen, perhaps unexpectedly, that will produce not only surprise, but also remarkable changes, over which I have no control, and of whose design I have no conception. How necessary, therefore, are the duties of humility and dependence. As we are solicitous always to keep our faces in proper trim, and not to permit deformity to place his dreaded hand upon them, let us also remember so to regulate our lives, that the rectitude of our conduct may correspond with the rectitude of our features. The immorality or instability of a man's heart will not unfrequently indelibly impress its character upon the features of his face. | fulness of man. God has made his various works to perform their funetions in the simplest ways possible, and yet in ways, the principles of which, no human being can understand. In operation they are easy; in original design they are inscrutable. By one and the same simple means we can look a hundred different feelings,-sorrow and joy, pleasure and pain, and what not; and yet simple, and uniform, and easy to be employed; and, often used as these means may be, if we trace them to their source, we shall be completely lost. And man,the perfection of God's plans, he has turned to the Devil's advantage; and the facilities which he had given him for expressing certain ideas without the medium of words, impressing upon his face the thoughts of his soul, he has turned to facilities for spreading the baneful character of his passions. There is something to be learned from a face. A great man has a noble face, and a wicked man a bad face; a drunkard has frequently a red face; and a glutton a bloated one; and although to all rules of this kind there are a multitude of exceptions, yet, with proper restrictions, I think we may go a great way in judging of character from feature. The last observation led me, almost irresistibly, to pay a more particular attention to the form of my features, and I tried to make a system of physiognomy of my own. I tried, as much as possible, to gain an insight into my character, from what I might behold in my examination, and tell what was inside, by what I could find on the outside. I began with the nose, because it was the most prominent object. You must know, then, that my nose always, in my own opinion, resembles the claw of a lobster; and this idea being fixed in my mind, I thus reasoned from it. A lobster's cław is the instrument by which he catches the unwary, and inflicts punishment on those who are so presumptuous as to put their fingers near it. It therefore follows, that my nose denotes justice, vengeance, cunning, or something of the sort, (for I need not be very particular, as, if I come near the mark, it will do ;) so, putting it down that I was either a very just, a very brave, or a very wise man, (I did not care which,) Ï pro It is really strange, that the same things should perform so many different offices. The expression of different passions upon the same face may serve to illustrate two things; the perfection of God's work, and the sin-ceeded to the mouth. 82.-VOL. VII. 3 L Of this I hardly knew what to make, for it was almost hidden by the meeting of the nose with the chin, and, only concluding that the backward fashion in which it was placed expressed depth of thought, I passed on to the forehead. Now, my forehead is rather a singular one. It is as round as if the moon were stuck on the top of my face; and, therefore, as a circle knows neither beginning nor end, I concluded, that it denoted either an interminable extent of knowledge, or, on account of its being destitute of angles or corners, and being also perfectly smooth, a great placidity of temper. | spective districts. I must presume, that in one instance mentioned in my last letter, (col. 718,) the aggregate of the evil has been diminished; but till I hear to the contrary, I must suspect this to be an insulated case; and that in many counties, large sums of money have been expended, with no other result but a greater accumulation of human misery, under the affliction of mental derangement, than there would have been, if no such institution had ever existed. I can, without hesitation, believe, that in a large county before alluded to, the number of incurable lunatics would have been very much reduced within the last seven years, if one-tenth part of the money which has been expended on a large asylum, and its subsequent support, had been judiciously applied to the cure of insanity while in its recent state. Instead of which, the number of that most unfortunate class of our fellow-beings, who have been pronounced to be incurable lunatics, is three times what it was seven years ago. I have lately had an opportunity of My eyes next came under review. They have a peculiar expression, possessing the property of looking three or four ways at the same time, and whilst one points itself to the east, the other may be found sending out its beams towards the west; and I therefore unhesitatingly laid it down, that I was endued with the faculty of comprehending all subjects with equal facility, and that I also possessed a great variety of mental resources. But the expression of my counte-looking into the arcana of a public nance, considered as a whole, com- lunatic asylum, and, Good heavens! pletely puzzled me. There was some- what a retrospect of about ten years thing in it which I could not by any has it afforded. It has disclosed means understand. It looked as if it scenes at which common decency must united in itself the opposite physiog- deeply blush, morality revolt, and hunomies of a pudding and a saw. The manity be horror-struck; and a bold pudding part may mean sociality, and attempt to remove all abuses from it, the other may represent an aptitude at bas met discomfiture from the very separating subjects into their proper party most interested in their removal. divisions; but I heard a loud laugh And yet this institution is fair in apbehind me, and turning quickly round, pearance, internal as well as extersaw my niece, who had crept closely nal; and the managers are, no doubt, to my chair unperceived, while I had all honourable in the common affairs been so intently occupied about my- of life, but unfortunately they must be self; and as I looked her, half asham- totally ignorant of the just claims of ed, in the face, she exclaimed, "Oh! the insane, and only looking upon you vain old fellow!" them as in a state of irreclaimable, degradation, and meriting nothing better than a miserable existence, in close and irksome confinement, where "hope never comes." (To be continued.) ON THE TREATMENT OF THE INSANE. SIR,-Taking it for granted, that the Were I to enter into details, it would only cast a severe censure upon a respectable community, whose greatest fault has been the deputing that care and trust to a junto, which was the interest and duty of the whole. To say nothing of the improper treatment of the inmates of madhouses, to say nothing of vulgar opinions upon insanity, what shall be said upon the sentiments of people of education and rank in society, as it regards this grievous malady? A very worthy clergyman, and much esteemed chaplain to a large public establishment, was lately visited by mental derangement. Without giving time for a chance of recovery, and in opposition, as I am told, to the opinion and anxious wishes of his physician, he was superseded, and, under the authority of allowing him one fourth part of his former income, as a superannuated pension; he was sent to a distant public asylum, where, to him, most assuredly, hope will never come; for, by destroying all his future prospects in life, all hopes of perfect recovery are entirely excluded. consequence than that of giving an indiscreet publicity to what really merited exposure. It was recommended to him to take a few days for the purpose of regaining his former serenity of mind and feeling. This was immediately followed by the information that he was not to be reinstated, and an unjust imputation cast upon him, which will always attach to him and his family, and it may be greatly injurious to his future pros pects in life; and all this without a single act of criminality being imputed to him. Some years ago, a neighbour had an attack of delerium tremens, and was brought to Spring-Vale, from whence he was discharged, recovered, at the end of one week; and he was certainly as well, in his mental capacity, after, as he ever had been before. Several Had this been the act of characters less dignified, less learned, or less honourable, it would be matter of less wonder. But even with them, the act may be referred to an undefinable feel-years after this, he met with very illing of horror and aversion, which a mental disease so generally excites in the breasts of those who are unacquainted with its nature, and of its near alliance to the best qualities of the human heart, and the highest attainments of the human intellect, and from which none can be safe, but with the total absence of those virtues and mental energies which most adorn, and are the most praise-worthy in, the human character. The feeling may be compared to what a firm believer in witchcraft would experience upon seeing a supposed witch. I have seen many turn pale, and become greatly agitated, on being introduced to a lunatic, though previously assured that he was perfectly harmless; and, indeed, I have often observed the same effects from being introduced to a very harm-mitting any offence against law or less mad-doctor. treatment, and he, very properly, applied to the magistrates acting for the district for redress; and they granted him a summons for the offending party to come before them; but upon its being slyly whispered to them, that the complainant had been a patient at Spring-Vale, they refused to hear him, dismissed the case with all costs upon the unfortunate and injured party; and such treatment will frequently await those who have had the imputation of insanity cast upon them. It is a general vulgar notion, that those who have ever been insane cannot take an oath, or buy or sell in a market or fair, or make a will; and that those who have had the care of them might have smothered them, if they had thought fit to do so, without com justice. But it must be well known to the readers of the Imperial Magazine, that the most foolish, the most ignorant and superstitious notions, generally prevail respecting mental complaints, to which all, who possess the power of thought, and are subject to human feelings and human passions, must be liable,—and that it must be the interest and duty of every one to remove, as much as possible, the evils of them; to soften down their asperities; to assuage the sorrows they occasion; and to do the same justice to those afflicted with them, as to others. Since the above-mentioned transaction, I have come to the knowledge of a much more cruel one, though somewhat similar. A man, with a family, had entered, a few months before, upon a very arduous and important situation; he was over-anxious to perform the duties of it; this, and the heat of the weather, and other unfortunate concurring causes, brought on a nervous fever, it never arrived at the character of confirmed insanity; there was no incoherence of language, it only exhibited an over-intensity of feeling and action, in the performance It is well known to be a law of the of what was his line of duty; and it land, that the king is the guardian of all was attended by no other unpleasant | lunatics, and as his ministers are hu | But ere I introduce my readers to this important manuscript, let me first endeavour to collect together a few biographical anecdotes of the writer, since Addison informs us, that it is totally impossible to be pleased with a man's writings, unless you previous manely disposed, I do hope and trust, that, ere long, an enlightened and impartial inspection of all madhouses, and receptacles for the insane, will produce the most important and happy results. Nor can I see any reason why the United Kingdom should not establish as good and as rationally ascertain his height, age, figure, acmeans of cure for the poor who are complishments, defects, &c. &c. which afflicted with mental diseases, gratis, general rule has at least two great exas are to be found in any other part ceptions, in the Wizard of the North, of the world; I cannot see any reason and the author of Junius's Letters, why the United Kingdom cannot fur- not to mention the various "gentlenish as good and as rational means of men who write with ease," in Blackcure for mental disease, as a public wood's, the London, and the New measure, as were furnished two thou- Monthly, and who would as soon cut sand years ago; and there is no their throats as subscribe their plain scheme of a public charity upon the Christian names and sirnames at the face of the globe, that can do so much end of every old joke they cooked good at an equal expense, as a charity anew and amplified for their employers. for the best means of curing insanity-But to the point. Richard Everett would produce; and the party who shall be the means of establishing such a charity upon the best possible principle, for the cure, which the present state of knowledge can afford, will have their names immortalized amongst the first worthies of the huTHOS. BAKEWELL. man race. Spring-Vale, near Stone, 5th Sept. 1825. THE MANUSCRIPTOMANIAC. was, as I am informed by Moseley, in his celebrated treatise, “De Auctoribus Neglectis," born at Hemel-Hempstead, in Hertfordshire, in the year 1566. His family being one of the most ancient in England, and being nearly connected with the celebrated Sir Martin Forbisher, he received a good education, with a view to his becoming a seafaring man. When he was ten years of age, his family removed to Harrow-on-the-Hill, where a curious incident occurred to our hero, which we shall tell in his own words, as he has thought proper to relate it in his "Historie of English Affayres during the reign of our late Most Gracious Soveraigne, the high and mightie Princesse Elizabeth," published A. D. 1610. "The peace of the kingdome was also, about this tyme, much disturbed by the conspiracie of Babingtone, and his wycked companyons, which befell as hereafter followeth, * (Continued from col. 355.) No. IV. The Spanish Armada. AGREEABLY to my promise, I hasten to dip my sharp-nibbed pen in the large standish that is stationed at present on the table before me, and transcribe the curious account of the defeat of the Spanish Armada, which Sir Robert Bradgate justly accounted one of his chief literary treasures. It is written on parchment, and seemingly with a skewer dipped in mud, so that it is with great difficulty and pain I contrive to decipher it. The wretchedness of the hand, combined "Sir Francis Walsinghame, justlie with the antiquated spelling, the suspecting this most wycked and unnumerous flourishes, the occasional | naturall plotte, did comande unto one rents, and the dirtiness of the manu- of his servantes, one Scudamore, to script, on which Sir Robert once un-keepe a strict watche over Babingtone, luckily overturned a new-filled inkstand, oblige me to make a few conjectural emendations, in order that I may not startle my attentive readers with the ghastly apparition of a dozen crosses, and those awful worthies, "Cætera desunt," or " Hiatus maximè deflendus," which, otherwise, I should be compelled to do at least once in every thirty lines. which accordinglie he did. Sir Francis hitherto had kept this matter secret,and as appeares from his letters, thought to conceale it still longer, but the Queene, for private reasones, comanded him to reveale it. Whereupon, he sent a letter to this Scudamore, by a trustie messenger, to comand him to secure Babingtone that night. This messenger (as he hath since informed |