1802, it is remarked, that "the ensuing Christmas night was the first he had slept on shore since 1784, a period of eighteen years!" Captain (now Admiral) Hallowell presented Lord Nelson, in May, 1799, with a coffin made from the wreck of the French Admiral's ship, L'Orient, which blew up at the battle of Aboukir. "The astonishment that prevailed amongst the crew of the Vanguard, Lord Nelson's flag ship, when they were actually convinced it was a coffin which had been thus conveyed on board, will be long remembered by their officers: We shall have hot work of it indeed,' said one of the seamen; you see the Admiral intends to fight till he is killed, and there he is to be buried.' Lord Nelson highly appreciated the present, and for some time had it placed upright, with the lid on, against the bulk-head of his cabin, be hind the chair on which he sat at dinner, and viewed it with the undaunted mind of a great warrior. At length, by the tears and entreaties of an old servant, he was prevailed on to allow its being carried below. When his Lordship left the Vanguard, the coffin was removed into the Foudroyant, where it remained for many days on the gratings of the quarter-deck.Whilst his officers were one day looking at it, he came out of the cabin: 'You may look at it, Gentlemen,' said the hero, as long as you please; but depend on it none of you shall have it."" But we must conclude. To literary fame this publication has not much pretension-it is bona fide a seaman's work, and will be found most useful as a dictionary to which to refer for naval biography at the proudest era of our naval glory. Lit. Gaz. YET NOT FOR ME THY CHAPLET WEAVE. For me, oh world! no chaplet weave : Let Beauty, with its eye of fire Let the full cup of Pleasure teem SONG, For thee, love, for thee, love,- Though fair the flow'rs that here entice, Nor weave for me Ambition's wreath, It is the bloody meed of Death; Nor the bright wreath of riches twine, BY HENRY NEELE. And, when her clouds are blackest, nought Nor hear, amidst the tempest, aught For thee, love, for thee, love,- The brightest cup that Pleasure fills, SKETCHES OF SOCIETY. (Lond. Mag.) On the Prejudices and superstitious Ideas of the Peasants of that part of Livonia called Lettland (Lettonia.) In a Letter from Count Bray, Minister from Bavaria at St. Petersburgh. AT the return of spring the Lettoni an peasant takes care not to expose himself to hear the cuckoo for the first time, either when he is fasting or has no money in his pocket. If this should happen to him, he would believe himself in danger of famine and want for the rest of the year. This is what he calls being bewitched by the cuckoo; he therefore is very guarded to have money about him, and to eat something very early in the morning before he leaves his house. He has the same fears, and takes the same precautions, on the first arrival of the lapwing. always take a companion to gather the honey, and they divide the honey and wax with the most scrupulous equality, being convinced that the slightest fraud would cause the bees to emigrate or to die. They ascribe a particular virtue to all plants gathered on Midsummer Eve. for which reason they carefully preserve them, to give to their cattle in case of sickness. Before Midsummer they pluck up all the grass which they give to their cattle in the stable: they are persuaded that if it were cut with a scythe it would make the cows lose their milk. After Midsummer Eve they use the scythe without fear or scruimportant to them than the holiday itself, no family neglects to bring from the garden and the fields a stock of potherbs for the winter. When a hare or a fox crosses his path, he considers it as a bad omen; but if it is a wolf, the omen is favour-ple. On this same Eve, which is more able. When the Lettonian peasant has ta_ken his fowling piece, and on going out of his house the first person he meets is a woman or a girl, it is a bad sign, and he will have no sport; he therefore returns, and does not proceed till, on going out again, the first he meets is a man or a boy. If he goes out fishing alone, he does not communicate his intention to any body, as that would bring him ill luck. It is only when he wants an assistant that another person, besides the latter, may be informed of it without doing any harm. If he is angling, and having laid his line on the ground somebody treads upon it, he is convinced that he shall never catch any thing with that line. The peasant does not allow any person to admire or praise any thing he possesses, especially his flocks, his poultry, his corn, &c.; he is convinced that every thing so praised will perish. If his cattle are affected by any disease, he does not fail to attribute it to the witchcraft and malevolence of some neighbour: he then takes care to perfume his stables with assafœtida. Their hives are usually placed on the largest trees in the forest, or they make holes in those trees where the bees have settled of themselves. They When they happened to find in a field ripe ears of corn crossed in a particular manner, or united in bunches, they ascribe it to the malevolence of some envious person, who has endeavoured to draw some sorcery upon their crop. The reaper takes care not to touch such bewildered ears, and passes without cutting them. A great number of the peasants, unfortunately, still entertain the superstitious notion that fire kindled by lightning is not to be extinguished. When such an accident happens they are discouraged, and do hardly any thing to check the progress of the flames. A funeral must never pass through a tilled field, not even in winter, though it might considerably shorten the way. The peasant is fully persuaded that a field through which a funeral has passed becomes barren. Except on extraordinary occasions, no funerals are allowed on Mondays and Fridays. A peasant who is in search of a wife, never goes, except on a Thursday or Sunday, into the house where he expects to make his choice. The bride and bridegroom are not to give their bare hand to any body, on the day of their marriage, except to each other at the altar; otherwise they are threatened with poverty during the whole course of their union. It is also a very bad sign if, when the bride returns from church, she finds any body on the threshold of her door. When a young girl finds a leaf of trefoil divided into four instead of three parts, it is a sign that she will be married within the year; at all events she carefully preserves this leaf till her wedding-day. If on the 1st of February the sun shines only so long as is necessary to saddle a horse, they expect fine weather for hay-making. On Christmas Eve the countrymen are accustomed to drive about a great deal in sledges: they think that this will cause their hemp to be more abundant, and higher; they do not fail to visit the alehouse, and to drink heartily, the same evening, being convinced that this is a way to make them look well till the following Christmas. In summers when flies are abundant, they expect an ample crop of buck wheat; and if the prunus padus is thickly covered with blossoms, they expect a very rainy summer. The Lettonians never destroy crickets by fire, being persuaded that those which escape will destroy their linen and clothes. When a peasant loses his way in a wood after sunset, he avoids calling any person to show him the way, being convinced that in that case the evil spirit of the forest would cause him to plunge still deeper into its recesses. When the peasants intend to build a house, they carefully observe what species of ant first appears on the spot, or seems to be common in the neighbourhood: if it is the common large ant (formica rufa, Linn.) or the black ant, they build without difficulty; but if it is the little red ant (formica rubra, Linn.) they choose another place. FOREIGN MISSIONS.* (Lit. Gaz.) INVOLVING and discussing a question of the utmost interest, it is with regret we find ourselves compelled to say that the statements and arguments contained in this, apparently candid and honest, volume seem to us to be decisive against the practicability of converting the natives of India to the Christian faith, and hardly less so against the utility of attempting to circulate the scriptures among them. The experience of a great many years, and the extent of information possessed by the author of the "Description of the People of India," would give much weight to the opinions here maintained, even were they more questionable than they are on the score of obvious prejudice, or of leaning towards theory. But a Roman Catholic Missionary can hardly be suspected of Hindooism; and we fear that the friends of Bible Societies and other Institutions, formed to promote the conversion of the heathen, must feel that in this populous por tion of the earth at least their zealous and benevolent efforts are nearly, if not altogether, hopeless. It is with pain we make this confession, but truth compels it; and we must be satisfied with the trust that Providence will in its own good time vindicate its own ways, in respect to the millions of Asia. The present work is in the form of Letters; and though repetitions are not always avoided, there are so many facts disclosed, and so much intelligence communicated, that it must be consider ed a most important book whether by those who are convinced by it, or by those who may doubt its arguments and desire to refute them. For we are free to declare that some answer is absolutely requisite from the supporters of Missionary and Bible Societies, who India; in which the Conversion of the HinBy the Abbe J. A. Dubois, Missionary to Mysore. London, 1923. 5 ATHENEUM VOR. 14. doos is considered as impracticable, &c. &c. direct their attention to the Eastern world; for the Abbé Dubois is not a common opponent, and will not easily be overcome. " His notions on the subject (he tells us) are derived from an experience of thirty-two years of confidential and quite unrestrained intercourse among the natives of India, of all castes, religions, and ranks; during which, in order to win their confidence and remove suspicion, as far as possible, he has constantly lived like them, embracing their manners, customs, and most of their prejudices, in his dress, his diet, their rules of civility and good-breeding, and their mode of intercourse in the world. But the restraints under which he has lived during so long a period of his life, have proved of no advantage to him in promoting the sacred cause in which he was engaged as a religious teacher. During that time he has vainly, in his exertions to promote the cause of Christianity, watered the soil of India with his sweats, and many times with his tears, at the sight of the quite insurmountable obduracy of the people he had to deal with; ready to water it with his blood, if his doing so had been able to overcome the invincible resistance he had to encounter every where, in his endeavours to disseminate some gleams of the evangelical light. Every where the seeds sown by him have fallen upon a naked rock, and have instantly dried away. "At length, entirely disgusted at the total inutility of his pursuits, and warned by his grey hair that it was full time to think of his own concerns, he has returned to Europe, to pass in retirement the few days he may still have to live, and get ready to give in his accounts to his Redeemer." Copying the example of the persevering Jesuits, the first who attempted "* The Jesuits began their work under favourable auspices, and made a great number of converts among all castes of Hindoos, in those countries where they were allowed the free exercise of their religious functions. It appears from authentic lists, made up about seventy years ago, that the number of native Christians in these countries was as follows, viz. in the Marawa about 30,000, in the Madura above 100,000, in the Carnatic 80,000, in Mysore 35,000. present time hardly a third of this to proselytize India, the Abbé adopted the native manners, and conformed to their innocent prejudices. Yet he, number is to be found in these districts respectively." Pope Benedict XIV. having interfered to prevent the Jesuits from conforming too much to Hindoo customs, &c. his "orders were reluctantly complied with: but what the Jesuits had foreseen happened:----2 great number of proselytes preferred renouncing the new religion to abandoning their practices. A stop was put to conversions; and the Christian religion began to become odious to the Hindoos on account of its intolerance. "At that very time happened the European invasion, and the bloody contests for dominion between the English and French. The Europeans, till then almost entirely unknown to the natives in the interior, introduced themselves in several ways and under various denominations into every part of the country. The Hindoos soon found that those missionaries, whom their colour, their talents, and other qualities, ordinary beings, as men coming from another world, were in fact nothing else but disguised Fringy (Europeans ;) and that their country, their religion, and original education, were the same with those of the vile, the contemptible Fringy, who had of late invaded their country. This event proved the last blow to the interests of the Christian religion. No more conversions were made; apostacy became almost general in several quarters; and Christianity became more and more an object of contempt and aversion, in proportion as the European manners became better known had induced them to regard as such extra to the Hindoos. "Nearly at that period the suppression of the order of the Jesuits took place in Europe; and there being no longer a sufficient number of missionaries, a national black clergy was formed, and the attendance on the remaining congregations entrusted to their care. Those native missionaries not having the advantage of a proper education, and many amongst them shewing themselves more attached to their own interests than to those of religion, enjoy but little consideration even among their flocks, and none among the natives of any other description. "Such is the abridged history of the rise, the progress, and the decline of the Christian religion in India. The low state to which it is now reduced, and the contempt in which it is held, cannot be surpassed. There is not at present in the country (as mentioned before) more than a third of the Christians who were to be found in it eighty years ago, and this number diminishes every day by frequent apostacy. It will dwindle to nothing in a short period; and if things continue as they are now going on, within less than fifty years there will, I with all the imposing externals of his religion to boot, and with diligence and assiduity, utterly failed: what then can we expect from the labours of others? We may come to a conclusion as we advance with our Review. "The question to be considered may be reduced to these two points : First, Is there a possibility of making real converts to Christianity among the natives in India? Secondly, Are the means employed for that purpose, and above all, the translation of the Holy Scriptures into the idioms of the country, likely to conduce to this desirable object? "To both interrogatories (says the Abbé) I will answer in the negative: it is my decided opinion, first, that under existing circumstances, there is no human possibility of converting the Hindoos to any sect of Christianity; and secondly, that the translation of the Holy Scriptures circulated among them, so far from conducing to this end, will, on the contrary, increase the prejudices of the natives against the Christian religion, and prove in many respects detrimental to it." Dilating on this judgment, the author in various places asserts : "The Christian religion is at the present time become so odious, that in several parts of the country a Hindoo, who should happen to have friends or connexions among the natives professing this religion, would not dare to own it in public, as he would be exposed to severe reproof for holding a familiar intercourse with (in their opinion) people so degraded. "Such is the state of degradation to which Christianity has been reduced in these latter times; and which must be imputed in a great degree to the immoral and irregular conduct of many Europeans, in every part of the country. among the natives. "Besides the Christians of the Catholic persuasion, there are still existing in some parts of the country small congregations of the Lutheran sect; but they are held, if possible, in a still higher degree of contempt than the former. "The Lutheran mission was established at Tranquebar a little more than a century ago. There were at all times among the missionaries of this sect respectable persons, distinguished by their talents and virtues; but they had only trifling successes in the work of proselytism: it could not be otherwise; the protestant religion being too simple in its worship to attract the attention of the Hindoo: as it has no show, no pomp, no outward ceremonies capable of making a strong impression on the senses, it was of course disliked by a quite sensual people, and has never had any considerable success. "If any of the several modes of Christian worship were calculated to make an impression and gain ground in the country, it is no doubt the Catholic form, which you protestants call an idolatry in disguise: it has a Pooga or sacrifice (the mass is termed by the Hindoos Pooga, literally, sacrifice ;) it has processions, images, statues, tirtan or holy-water, fasts, tittys or feasts, and prayers for the dead, invocation of saints, &c. all which practices bear more or less resemblance to those in use among the Hindoos. Now, if even such a mode of worship is become so objectionable to the natives, can it be reasonably expected that any one of the simple protestant sects will ever prosper among them? The contrary has till now been the case. I have just observed that the Lutheran missionaries have had no sensible success during more than a century. At the present time their congregations are reduced to four or five: the most worthy of notice are, one at Vepery near Ma fear, remain no vestige of Christianity dras, consisting of about five or six hundred souls; another at Trankbar, composed of about twelve hundred; another at Tanjore, of nearly the same number; and a fourth at Tichinopoly, of about three or four hundred. "The Christian religion, which was formerly an object of indifference, or at most of contempt, is at present become, I will venture to say, almost an object of horror. It is certain that during the last sixty years no proselytes, or but a very few, have been made." "There are besides a few protestant Christians dispersed chiefly in the Tin |