evil, and attaining to the good, on hand, so that the publisher, much without having perceived how many downcast, informed Defoe he should infant faculties of his being might by lose a considerable sum. “ Don't training be made to assume grand fear !—I'll make the edition go off," proportions, and be endowed with

said Defoe; and sitting down he vast strength. It is a great religious wrote “A True Relation of the Appoem. It is “the drama of solitude," parition of one Mrs. Veal, the next the object of which is to show that day after her death, to one Mrs. Barin the most wretched state of deser- grave, at Canterbury, the 8th of Seption there still remains within the tember, 1705, which apparition rehuman breast a power of life indepen- commends the perusal of Drelindent of external circumstances; and court's book of Consolations against that where man is not, there God es- the fears of Death.'” The ghost story pecially abides.

startled and took captive the silly Why did not Defoe, with such an people the author intended, and knew unexampled capability as a writer of so well how to hoax.

A true, bond fiction, occupy himself earnestly in fide ghost of a respectable Mrs. Veal his art ? Why did he not expend had urged on mankind the study of thought, toil, and long years in ela- Drelincourt. Forthwith the publishborating two such works as “Robin- er's shop was crowded with purson Crusoe,” or the commencement of chasers, and the edition rapidly left “ Colonel Jack," instead of scribbling his shelves. It is strange to me how page after page, without considera- Defoe's biographers and admirers detion enough to avoid dulness, stories light in this story. It may show Dereplete with obscenities he must have foe to advantage in an intellectual disapproved, and nonsense that he point of view, leading a crowd of must have grinned at with contempt John Bulls astray and all the while even while the pen was in his hand ? laughing at them ; but as a proof of Foster, in his graphic and fascinating his mental power such testimony is sketch of Defoe and his times, bids valueless because unnecessary. That us remember, when judging of “Moll Mrs. Veal's apparition was ingeniFlanders” and “Roxana,” the tone of ously told, no one will deny ; but society at the time of their appear- then it was a wilful falsehood, all the ance. Without a doubt, measured same for its cunning construction, by the standard of the vicious litera- and was framed to putf a bad book. ture of the Restoration and the two Such a deed would aid the “Woolly succeeding ages, they do not especially Horse” and “Feejee Mermaid" in sin against purity of morals. But in giving grace to a Barnum's life ; but this we cannot find a valid apology to think that Defoe could tell lies for for Defoe, who, in composing them, a trade purpose, is more than a comput his hand to works that all serious mon pain. men of his own religious views must And here we find the secret of this have regarded with warm disappro- great man's shame.

He was a man val. Defoe was not by profession of somewhat expensive habits, conamongst the frivolous or godless of tinually entering into rash monetary his generation ; he was loud in his speculations, and burdened with debts condemnation of the stage, of gam- which in honour he felt himself bound bling, and of debauchery; he not only to discharge. Of all men he was just knew that voluptuous excess was the one to be called upon for large criminal, but he raised his voice to sums of wealth, and to have little in shame it out of society,--and yet he hand to meet such demands. His pen exercised his talents in depicting was a ready one at earning money ; scenes of sensual enjoyment, which he could turn off any composition no virtuous nature can dwell on with- with facility : and as, just then, tales out pain, no vicious one without (highly seasoned) met with the best pleasure. What was his motive ? prices in the market, he wrote them Money:

as fast as his

pen

could run over the Drelincourt's book of “ Consola- paper, and spiced them up to the tions against the fears of Death,”- palates of his employers. And what one of the heaviest pieces of litera- trash (dishonest quack gibberish to ture religion has given to the world, get pennies from the crowd) poured

unoonging flow from him. it grieves

a

hun

This may

one to reflect. “ The History of the qualities of a novelist he was unacLife and Adventures of Mr. Duncan countably deficient--not even coming Campbell ; a gentleman who, though up to his precursor Mrs. Behn. To deaf and dumb, writes down any the construction or the most vague stranger's name at first sight; with conception of a plot he seems to have their future contingencies of fortune. been quite inadequate. Now living in Exeter-Court, over be accounted for partly by the fact against the Savoy in the Strand.” that, from abstaining on religious Mr. Duncan Campbell was the arch- grounds from the theatres, his mind imposter in the magic line of his day. had not been duly educated in this All that table-turning, hat-spinning, most difficult department of his art; spirit-rapping, and Mormonism are and partly by the rapidity with which to us, was Mr. Duncan Campbell to his "histories" were evolved. Whatthe addled-pates of his generation. ever may be the cause of the fault, At every drum in the fashionable that it exists few will be so rash as world ladies spoke in ecstacies of to question. All Defoe's novels, long “that duck of a Mr. Duncau Camp- as they are, are but a string of sepabell," how he knew every thing, was

rate anecdotes related of one person, a medium, and a gentleman by birth, but having no other connection with and how no one of ordinary sagacity

each other. In no one of them are doubted his powers. Defoe, in his there forces at work that necessitate “Life and Adventures," of course de- the conclusion of the story at a cerclared his belief in the fellow ; a

tain point.

One meets with no book exposing the man's tricks would mystery, no denouement in them. not have sold. Steele mentioned this They go on and on, (usually at a Campbell in the Tatler; and Eliza brisk pace, with abundance of dramaHeywood, (the authoress of “Jemmy tic positions) till it apparently strikes and Jenny Jessamy,” “The Fruitless the author he has written a good Enquiry," and " Betsey Thought

" " Betsey Thought- bookful, and then he winds up with less,") wrote a work similar to Defoe's, a page and a half of “so he lived called. “A Spy on the Conjurer; happily all the rest of his days ;" inMemoirs of the Famous Mr. Duncan termixed with some awkward moraCampbell." Have any of the readers lizing by way of apology for the of these pages perused Eliza Hey- looseness of the bulk of the work. wood's other works-her “Letters For example, “Roxana” might as well on all occasions lately passed between have been twice or half as long as persons of distinction," of which Let- it is. ter IV. is entitled “Sarpedon to the

One feature more of Defoe as a noever-upbraiding Myrtilla," and XI. velist. May he not be regarded as

The repenting Aristus to the cruel, the first English writer of prose-ficbut most adorable Panthea,” and tion who pointed out the field of hisXLIV. “Bellisa to Philemon, on tory to imaginative literature ? His perceiving a decay of his affection ?" “Journal of the Plague Year ;" his It the ladies are ignorant of this lite- “Memoirs of a Cavalier ;” and “The rature, let them be advised and re- Memoirs of an English Officer who main in their ignorance.

served in the Dutch War in 1672, to Smollett pursued a better course the peace of Utrecht in 1713, &c. &c. with regard to the “ famous Mr. By Captain George Carlton," were Campbell,” in making him the object the pioneers of that army of which of laughter and the source of instruc- the Waverley Novels form the main tion to the town under the name of Cad- body. The great Earl of Chatham wallader. But then Smollett was a used, before he discovered it to be a long age posterior to Defoe.

fiction, to speak of the “Memoirs of a Similar to the “Life of Duncan Cavalier" as the best account of the Campbell,” was Defoe's sketch of civil wars extant. And of “ Captain “Dickory Crouke, The Dumb Philo- Carleton" there is the following anecBopher," &c. &c. Alas ! alas! and dote in Boswell's Johnson. “ The it was only for a morsel of bread. best account of Lord Peterborough

We have stated our thanks are due that I have happened to meet with is to Defoe for giving the English novel, in 'Captain Carleton's Memoirs.' graphic descriptions, and quick, Carleton was descended of an officer pointed conversations. In one of the who had distinguished himself ai ?!

71

siege of Derry. He was an officer, was so much pleased with it that he and, what was rare at that time, had sat up till he read it through, and some knowledge of engineering: found in it such an air of truth that Johnson said he had never heard of he could not doubt its authenticity ; the book. Lord Elliot had a copy at adding, with a smile, in allusion to Port Elliot ; but, after a good deal Lord Elliot's having recently been of inquiry, procured a copy in Lon- raised to the peerage, I did not don, and sent it to Johnson, who think a young lord could have mentold Sir Joshua Reynolds that he tioned to me a book in the English was going to bed when it came, but history that was not known to me.'

THE PLANTS OF THE SUPERSTITIONS.

In the early ages men were more but to pluck his object from the face impressed by the productions of the of the ground ; the mineralogist found earth in her vegetable, than in her much more labour in his pursuit. mineral kingdom. They seem to have The qualities of herbs and flowers been more botanists, florists, herbalists, were easily extracted, and needed but than geologists and mineralogists. small appliances and means to The beauty and grace of flowers and boot ;” but to procure medicaments trees attracted and inspired the poet, from metal and mineral required the emblematist, and the lover, who some skill and learning, besides scienfound in leaf and blossom similies, tific apparatus. Solomon, the wisest types, and metaphors, which they of kings, wrote of “ trees, from the did not see in stones or mineral masses. cedar-tree that is in Lebanon, even The writings of the olden times are unto the hyssop that springeth out of more abounding in floral than in the wall :" it is likely that his treageological or metallic allusions: Pliny tise was a pharmacopeia ; in fact such wrote more largely of the vegetable is the opinion of the learned Rabbi, world than of the other portions of Moses Bar Nachman (Nachmanides). inanimate nature: Virgil and Co- Among the rural population in all lumella sang of the green things. As nations we still find extant ungrafor the games, the festivals, the sacri- duated doctors and doctresses) who fices, the marriages, the funerals of practise their leech-craft solely by the ancients, were they not garlanded the means of herbs. In foreign counfrom end to end with flowers and tries, beyond the limits of Europe, sprays, buds and boughs ? *“Sine the 'descendants of the aborigines Cerere et Libero friget Venus ;"-aye,

possess much valuable and recondite and sine Flora too: for did not the in formation with respect to the nabrows and the fane of Venus Ama- tive botany, which would be an acquisithusia look more beautiful entwined tion to various branches of art and with flowers? And the corn of Ceres, science. and the wine of Liber Pater, that Among the children of the vegetable sustained the charms of Venus, they creation, some for their grace and also came from the vegetable realm. beauty, like the myrtle, rose, forget

To this realm, too, was Esculapius me-not, &c., have been dedicated to indebted : the most ancient pharma- the affections ;t others, for their copeias were furnished from plants qualities medicinal or noxious, (qualiand herbs. Men discovered the vir- ties sometimes merely imaginary), betues of herbs that grew on the surface came objects of veneration, or of of the earth before their eyes, far superstitious belief. Herbs thought more readily than they could learn to be beneficial were consecrated by the properties of crude minerals hid- the heathen to their superior diviniden in the earth. The herbalist had ties (and by the early Christians to

Terence. † See “ Flowers of the Affections." -Dublin University Magazine, No. ccxlix., September, 1853

а

the saints). Plants of a baneful na- Druids, who used it in their sacred ture were dedicated to the gloomy ceremonies ; they gathered it with deities, and to witches, and formed solemn rites at the rising of the great necessary ingredients in unholy spells Dog-star, when neither sun nor moon and incantations. Narcotic herbs was above the earth to look inquisithat occasioned trances and strange tively upon their operations. They dreams, and plants that, like the “in- described a circle round it three times, sane root” of Shakespeare, caused and then looking westwards, they delirium, whose ravings superstition dug it up with a sword; and strewed received as oracular, and whose visions honey-combs upon the spot where it as supernatural, were fitting materials had grown, as a compensation to the for sorcery. Even the Laurel, the earth for the treasure they had taken. glossy perennial laurel, the favorite The sun-worshippers in the east also of Apollo for his lost Daphne's sake, held it in their hands during their the crown of the victor and the bard, devotions. saw its bright leaves degraded to dark Among the Greeks and Romans rites on account of its supposed deli- the Vervain was used in religious rium-exciting powers when chewed ceremonies, and in incantations. The by the Pythoness. Theocritus in his Romans called it herba sacra, and second Idyl, “The Incantation,” makes used it in casting lots and drawing of his sorceress say : “Delphis atllicts omens; and also in aspersions and me ; I burn this laurel against Del- lustral rites. It was sent as a gift phis, and as it crackles intlamed, and among the Romans on their New suddenly burns up, so that no cinder Year's day, as emblematic of good of it appears, so may the flesh of wishes and good fortune. The Roman Delphis consume in the flame."* heralds, when they went to offer peace

The plants and herbs of the super- to a city, carried a sprig of Vervain stitions were of two kinds, the good in their hands, both on account of its and the evil; the former held in the being the symbol of peace, and of its veneration of respect, the latter in the supposed peace-making virtues. But veneration of fear.

when a herald was sent to demand In the ancient world the most from the enemy the restitution of esteemed and holy, perhaps, of all things that had been carried away by plants was the VERVAIN (Verbena force, it was thought necessary to officinalis,) the Hierobotane, or holy select for that occasion a sprig of herb of Dioscorides. It was believed Vervain growing within the enclosure to cure no less than thirty maladies, of the capitol ; and the herald was among which were gout, palsy, dropsy, called Verbenarius. jaundice, tertian and quartan argues,

Since the Christian era the Vervain inveterate headaches, &c. ; but that has been venerated from a tradition for which it was most valued was that our Lord once trod upon it, and not its physical, but its supposed that it was thenceforward endowed moral quality of supernaturally dis- with antidotal virtues against the bite posing to peace, of reconciling enemies, of serpents and venomous reptiles. and of causing a favourable feeling The root is still worn in some parts of towards those persons who carried it Europe as a cure for scrofula, and about them, (and surely those who as a charm against ague. The shepwould not avail themselves of such herds in the south of France still bean easy mode of conciliating others, lieve the Vervain endowed with magimust have been strange misanthropes,

cal qualities. and very fond of strife).

It has a square stalk, jagged opIt was highly venerated by the posite leaves, and a spike of pale lilac

Δελφις εμ’ ανιασεν' εγω δ' επι Δελφιδι δαφναν
Αιθω’ χ'ως αυτα κακεει, μεγα καππυρισασα,
Κηξαπινης αφθη κ' ουδε σπoδoν ειδομες αυτας
Ουτω τοι και Δελφις ενι φλογι σαρκ' αμαθυνοι.
† Affer aquam, et molli cinge hæc altaria vittâu,

flow;

:

flowers ; and is commonly found “Freedom and peace !" thus chaunt throughout Europe, especially near your happy voices, habitations : it is said to be never met Ye soaring birds ! and thine, oh wildwith farther than a quarter of a mile

ing bee! from a house-hence, being so easy of At that glad sound e'en the lone rock acquisition, it was called "Simpler's

rejoices, (i.e. Herbalist’s) Joy."

And bids the echoes answer, “peaceSorrowful to say, but easily to be ful ! free !" credited, this plant of peace and goodwill is not indigenous in Ireland ; Scorn comes not there the gentle heart had it but been so, how many faction- to wither; fights it might have saved in the good Nor Malice, forcing bitter tears to old days of the “ Black Hens and Magpies, the Gows and Poleens, and Pride, Jealousy, Injustice climb not the Caravats and Shanavests"-not thither, to speak of the nobler feuds of the Too steep the heights,--their haunts lie O'Briens and O'Flaherties, the Des- far below, monds and the Butlers. But let us take comfort: our florists have in

'Twas on the mountains, safely sped troduced into Irish gardens many of by heaven, the Vervain species, the beautiful The storm-tost ark at length found foreign Verbenas of various colours.

place of rest : Let us hope that these exotics have

To Moses' longing eyes the view was something of the ancient tranquillizing given nature of their great ancestor, the Of promis'd Canaan from a mounsacred Vervain : and truly it seems as tain's crest. though it were so, for the factions have nearly died out, and contested

How beautiful the mountains' verelections are greatly tamed down.

dure pressing Beside the Vervain as the symbol of

The feet of Him who peace, glad tidpeace, we will place the tribute of an

ings, brought*appropriate lay

How dear the Mount where words PEACE UPON THE MOUNTAINS.

replete with blessing

The Prince of Peace to crowding Would'st thou seek Peace ? Up! hie

hearers taught! thee to the mountains, Far above human passions, toil, and Mountains, be glad in your surpassing strife :

glory! Up to the rivers’ springs ! those rock- Before you richest plains their vaunts born fountains,

must cease : Emblems of all that's bright, pure, For oft the pen inspir'd of sacred story free, in life.

Hath writ on your ennobled summits

“ Peace !" Up to the mountains ! there dwells

Peace, united
With Solitude and Freedom, triad

St. Jon's Wort (Hypericum perblest !

foratum)is so handsome a wild flower There morning earliest comes, with

that it finds a place in many gardens, gaze delighted;

where it is very showy with its broad, There linger long the sunbeams of the

glossy, bright green leaves, its starWest.

like bright yellow corolla, and the

inner circle of fine golden threads, Untrampled there are nature's flow'rets like a halo of sun-beams. On account springing;

of the brightness of its hue, and of There flow the streams, unsullied, un- its being sometimes phosphorescent, confin'd;

it was dedicated to St. John the BapNor taint nor din from distant cities tist, because he is called in Scripture bringing,

a burning and a shining light.” It There musically breathes the healthful was gathered on St. John's Eve by wind,

the rustics, and worn, along with

M. E. 3.