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public expense. One of Solon's laws is directed against the extravagant expense of funerals, at which dirges were sung by regularly-trained chorusses, and splendid exhibitions of games often given. We have a curious account of the honours paid by Pericles to those who had fallen in battle, in the service of their country. The bodies were exposed in cypress-wood coffins, placed beneath a large tent, where their relatives mourned over them, and strewed flowers and herbs. Three days afterwards, being placed on cars, with one empty for those whose bodies were missing, they were carried to the place of interment in procession where games were performed, an oration made in their honour, and monuments erected to their memory, with their names, ages, and the place at which they fell, inscribed on them.

under a tree; Manasseh and Amon in the garden | custom of giving great men splendid funerals at the of Uzza. Amongst the Greeks and Romans the custom seems to have been as various; and the neighbourhood of their temples does not seem, by any means, to have been a favourite spot. The Jews, Greeks, and Romans, always buried their dead without the city walls; it was considered a very high privilege to bury within the walls; the vestal virgins, and some few noble families amongst the Romans, were thus buried. They had both private and public burying-grounds in the neighbourhood of the city. The Turkish burying-grounds are placed near the way-side, with the idea that passengers will pray for the soul of the deceased; they are always very neatly ornamented. Among the primitive Christians, burying in towns was not at first customary, but soon after churches were erected in this country, burials took place in the church-yards, probably about A. D. 800, and persons of rank and eminence were buried inside the churches. The reason for permitting this, given by Pope Gregory the Great, was, that the sight of the tombs of the dead might move the living to say prayers for their souls. The custom of burying in vaults, in chancels, and under the altars, was not introduced for nearly 200 years after that of burying in churches; the first instance in England occurred about A. D. 1075, when Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, rebuilt the cathedral there. The Egyptians generally buried in caves. The Hindoos have no appointed places, generally throwing the remains, after burning, into the Ganges. The Guebres, descendants of the ancient Persians, and the Parsees in the East Indies, supposed to have a common origin, expose their dead in open towers, to be devoured by birds of prey, which the earliest histories mention to have been the custom of their ancestors

We will now consider the different ceremonies with which burial was, and is, accompanied among different nations and religious sects.

The Jews seem to adhere as closely as possible to their ancient funeral ceremonies. All who are present when a person has just expired, still tear their clothes. The dead body is then placed on a sheet spread on the floor, with the thumb turned inward to the hand, and a wax-taper burning at the head or feet. The deceased is washed, and a clean shirt put on, and over the shirt a garment of fine linen, which he wore on the day of solemn expiation; then his taled, which is a piece of square cloth with tufts; lastly, a white cap is put on his head, and the coffin-sheet. The relatives meet to accompany it to the grave. In ancient times they had women hired to cry, and persons who played mournfully on instruments. At the place of burial, the coffin is set down on the ground; then, if the deceased was a person of rank, a speech is made in his honour, after which they walk ten times about the grave, repeating a prayer beginning "God is the rock, his way is perfect, &c." Deut. xxxii. 4. The body is lowered into the grave, the nearest relations throw in earth, and the grave is filled. When they depart, they walk backwards, and pulling up some grass three several times, they throw it behind their backs, repeating, "They shall flourish like the grass of the earth." Ps. lxxii. 16.

The ancient Greeks were very ceremonious in the disposal of their dead, but the customs varied in the different states. The bodies of persons of rank were either burned or buried, and had frequently beautiful monuments erected to them. The earliest specimens of inscriptions on monuments, are found in Grecian history; and they seem first to have introduced the

Among the Romans, persons of rank lay in state after death, with a small coin placed in the mouth, to pay Charon their passage over the Styx. Private funerals were generally at night, which was, in the early times of Rome, the case with all funerals. | Public funerals were conducted with great state; a person called Designator, (whose office corresponded with that of our undertaker,) with lictors in black, marshalled the procession, which was preceded by musicians, and women hired to lament and sing, with buffoons, one of whom (Archemimus, or the chief mimic,) imitated the deceased, and composed of persons carrying the busts of his ancestors, the spoils and rewards gained in war, the family next behind the corpse, troops with inverted arms, magistrates, &c. Sometimes it stopped in the Forum, where a funeral oration was spoken. It was afterwards burnt, the relations lighting the pyre; the bones were carefully collected, and placed in an urn, which was deposited in the sepulchre. In the urn was placed a small phial, supposed to contain tears, and called a lacrymatory. This custom was not confined to the Romans, as we learn from the passage in the Psalms, relating to this subject, "Put my tears into thy bottle;" Ps. lvi. 8. Flowers were used to adorn the bier, and also the tomb, when the body was interred. Sacrifices and ceremonies for purification were performed, and a lamp frequently kept burning.

Amongst the Hindoos, the dying are carried into the open air, and sprinkled with water from the Ganges, when it can be obtained; bits of coral and gold are placed in the mouth, nostrils, eyes, and ears; a cloth is thrown over the body, which, if in a town, is carried out by a particular gate, according to the CASTE of the deceased, to the neighbourhood of a river, where it is burnt, the relatives lighting the pile, and pouring water from the river, from the joined palms of their hands; they then sit down, and recite moral sentences. Offerings are made for ten days, at the end of which the nearest kinsman buries the bones, which are afterwards taken up, and thrown into the sacred stream of the Ganges. The spot where it was burned is frequently commemorated by planting trees, erecting a mound, or making a tank or pond. The custom of the Hindoo widows burning themselves with the bodies of their husbands cannot at present be discussed: suffice it to say, that similar customs have prevailed amongst pagan nations, and are by no means rare at the present day, particularly amongst the African tribes, though it seems doubtful whether it is so completely voluntary, as it is said to be amongst the Hindoos. The same custom prevailed as early as Alexander the Great's expedition. is now on the decline in India, and is forbidden by the Government in the British territories.

It

The Mahometans inter their dead in a very few hours after life has been extinct; their predestinarian opinions prevent their showing much grief, or using much ceremony on these occasions. Passages from the Koran are repeated on the way to the burialground, and as the carrying a dead body is by them supposed to expiate a deadly sin, all who meet the procession generally assist in it. The body is interred lying on the right side, and turned towards Mecca. The Imaum, or priest, repeats a prayer, and calls the deceased three times by his name, and mentions that of his mother. This custom was sometimes observed amongst the Romans; and in Ireland the female mourners frequently interrogate the deceased, as to why he left them, whether he had not all that he wanted, &c. But little lamentation occurs at the Mahometan funerals, though the relatives frequently visit the grave, strew flowers, and plant shrubs and trees near it. Large burying-grounds, outside the walls of Mahometan cities, have thus a very neat appearance.

The Chinese spare no expense in order to have a splendid funeral, for which they make preparations long before death, and the lands of the deceased are frequently sold in order to provide ample funds for the purpose. Large sums are laid out by the living on their coffins, which are often presented to parents or relatives during their lives. They are often adorned with painting, sculpture, and inscriptions. The body lies in state, in several suits of the best clothes, with provisions for the next world. All visiters make obeisance to the corpse and treat it with great respect, frequently complimenting the family on the splendour of the coffin. At all the family meals, food is offered to the corpse. The priests are consulted as to the choice of a place of interment, to which much importance is attached, and the eldest son precedes the body when carried to the grave, and pretends to interrupt its passage.

The Indians of North and South America generally carry the bones of their dead (after the flesh has decomposed or been removed), wrapt in deer skins or hides, to the places where their ancestors may have been interred; frequently, from their wandering habits, at enormous distances. Many tribes destroy all that belonged to the dead, and never mention or allude to them.

The funerals of the African tribes are in general splendid. Those of the chiefs and great men are accompanied by human sacrifices to a horrible amount. Their wives, slaves, captives, and horses, are slain; their arms, clothing, and treasures, are buried with them. These horrible sacrifices are often made by survivors to pacify the shades of their

ancestors.

It were needless to enumerate the ceremonies performed at funerals in this country, with which most of us are but too well acquainted. In Ireland, women are still hired to howl and cry at the head of the procession; and in Wales, graves are strewed or planted with flowers. The funeral feast, or wake, is, in the former country, but too often desecrated by riot and drunkenness.

It is curious to observe, how much the notions entertained by different nations of the future state, have influenced their funeral ceremonies. The more savage tribes, and nations more completely Pagan, conceiving the next world to bear a very intimate resemblance with the present, inter the arms, food, and treasures of the dead; sacrifice their women, horses, and slaves, which they imagine will be useful in another state. The ancient Greeks and Romans, whose Paganism was far less gross, retained

a few forms of this kind (such as placing the coin in the mouth, from habit and superstition), but their public spirit and military character led them to the employment of such ceremonies, as might flatter the vanity and stimulate the exertions of the living, | rather than to any which might have been imagined to affect the future state of the deceased. The simplicity of the earlier Christian funerals was only obliterated by the love of display in all religious ceremonies which was encouraged by the Romish church, and the great anxiety for the performance of masses for the dead, shows, in Catholic countries, the importance attached to them with regard to the future state of the soul.

QUANTITY OF BLOOD IN ANIMALS.-Those who have not considered the subject, must be suprised at the quantity of blood which is propelled through the heart of any moderately-sized animal in the course of twenty-four hours. In man, the quantity of blood existing in the body at any given moment, is probably from thirty to forty pints. Of these an ounce and a half, or about three table into seventy-five (the average rate of the pulse) give eleven spoonfuls, are sent out at every stroke; which multiplied hundred and twenty-five ounces, or seven pints in a minute; i. e., four hundred and twenty pints, or two hundred and fifty-five gallons in an hour; and twelve hundred and sixty gallons, i. e. nearly twenty-four hogsheads in a day. Now if we recollect that the whale is said to send out from his

heart, at each stroke, fifteen gallons, the imagination is overwhelmed with the aggregate of the quantity that must pass through the heart of that Leviathan of the deep in twenty-four hours. It is a general law, that the pulse of the larger animals is slower than that of the smaller; but even if we put the pulse of the whale as low as twenty in a minute, the quantity circulated through the heart, calcuhundred and thirty-two thousand gallons, equal to eight lated at fifteen gallons for each pulsation, will be four thousand hogsheads, in twenty-four hours. The consideration of this amazing quantity is, however, a subject of mere empty wonder, if not accompanied with the reflection, that, in order to produce the aggregate amount, the heart is kept in constant motion; and that, in fact, it is incessantly beating, as it is termed, or throwing out the blood in the arteries, from the first period of our existence to the moment of our death, without any sensation of fatigue, or even without our being conscious of the process, except it be interrupted by corporal or mental agitation.

THE earth on which we tread, was evidently intended by the Creator to support man and other animals, along with their habitations, and to furnish those vegetable productions which are necessary for their subsistence; and, accordingly, he has given it that exact degree of consistency, which is requisite for these purposes. Were it much harder than it now is; were it, for example, as dense as a rock, it would be incapable of cultivation, and vegetables could not be produced from its surface. Were it softer, it would be insufficient to support us, and we should sink at every step, like a person walking in a quagmire. The exact adjustment of the beings which inhabit it, is an instance of divine of the solid parts of our globe, to the nature and necessities

wisdom.-DICK.

CAN any man charge God, that he hath not given him enough to make his life happy? No, doubtless; for nature is content with a little and yet, you shall hardly meet with a man that complains not of some want, even when he seems to be provided with all things; and thus, when we might be happy and quiet, we create trouble to ourselves. -IZAAK WALTON.

Upon

MANNERS are of more importance than laws. them, in a great measure, the laws depend. The law touches us but here and there, now and then. Manners are what vex or soothe, corrupt or purify, exalt or debase, barbarize or refine us, by a constant, steady, uniform, in sensible operation, like that of the air we breathe in. They give their whole form and colour to our lives. According to their quality, they aid morals, they supply them, or they totally destroy them.-BURKE.

THE IDOLS OF THE SAXONS.
III. TUISCO.

"THE next unto the idols after the two most apparent planets was the idol of Tuisco, the most ancient and pecuhar god of all the Germans: here described in his garment of a skin, according to the most ancient manner of the Germans' clothing.

TUISCO.

"This Tuisco was the first and chiefest man of name among the Germans, after whom they do call themselves Tuptshen, that is, Duytsh people: and the day which yet among us retaineth the name of Tuesday was especially dedicated to the adoration and service of this idol."Verstegan.

The Germans regarded this Tuisco, or Tuisto, as the founder of their nation. He is also said to have given them laws, and to have gained so high a degree of honour among that rude people, that after death they placed him among their gods; and, as one of the chief ceremonies of his worship, sang songs to his praise. Who or what Tuisco was, we have no means of knowing; but the mysterious and important tone in which Tacitus mentions his pedigree is rather whimsical; "In all songs' and ballads (the only memorials of antiquity amongst the Germans) the god TUISTO, who was born of the earth, and Mannus his son, are celebrated as the founders of their race." Thus the word MAN is supposed to have been changed by the Roman historian into Mannus, just as EARTH was into Hertha. Of these we like the Saxon names far better than the Latin which have been corrupted from them and we may here state, once for all, that we think the good old Saxon (now really English) words have more muscle than most other words; and that a sentence formed chiefly, if not wholly, of them, has more strength and meaning than it would have when encumbered by terms of Greek and Latin growth.

But to return to the subject of the engraving. It was agreeable to the pride of a bold and ignorant

people, who were making their way in the world, to fancy the earth itself the parent of their founder. Without waiting to show the folly of this idea, we will proceed, as a matter of curious but useful inquiry, to consider who the Anglo-Saxons, on their first finding a footing in this country, really were.

The Saxons, a German people, had extended themselves from the Elbe to the Rhine; and their fierce and warlike conduct had long alarmed the western regions of Europe. When the Romans quitted Britain, and, leaving it defenceless, returned to their own land, in consequence of hostile attacks at home, the Saxons flocked hither, being called in as friends and allies, against the Picts and Scots. Thus, during the fifth and sixth centuries after the Christian era, England continued to be peopled with Saxons but instead of friends they soon became masters, and the ancient inhabitants, and the descendants of the Roman settlers, soon disappeared; and the Saxon tongue, Saxon laws, Saxon government, and manners, gradually overspread the land. people brought much that was good with them; and it has been truly said, that the "British constitution came out of the woods of Germany." But the converted Saxons must have remembered the idolatrous practices of their ancestors with too much disgust, to record them for the notice of after-ages.

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It would be very desirable to give a complete portrait of the Anglo-Saxons, in their religion and customs, during their uncivilized state. On this subject, however, curiosity must expect to be disappointed, as we can only judge by those slight sketches which are scattered here and there, in works which time has spared.

The same degree of uncertainty exists respecting the ancestors of this extraordinary race; but the best and most probable opinion seems to be, that they were SCYTHIAN tribes, who came out of Asia, and made their appearance in Europe, in the seventh or eighth century before the Christian period. They are mentioned by Homer and Herodotus. Besides their situation, and other circumstances which have been brought together to strengthen this theory, the Scythians had certain customs exceedingly like those that prevailed among the Germans. They had seven deities; one of a warlike character, to whom they sacrificed every year, horses, and sheep, and some of their prisoners. Their bows and arrows were famous. In battle, they drank the blood of the first enemy they mastered. They scalped their foe, and offered his head to their king; and they made drinking-cups of the skulls of their greatest enemies or conquered friends. They had diviners, who used rods of willow for prophesying. Homer praises their honesty, and Strabo mentions their indifference about money and trade. Thus the Scythians, and Geta, (a nation of Scythians, whence some have derived the word GоTHS,) may be accounted the early ancestors of our Anglo-Saxon fathers. This is going back further, we suspect, than Tursco, though not quite so far as the Earth, for the parent of the Saxons.

INDUSTRY ANOTHER WORD FOR HAPPINESS." The old man near the Hague, that served my house from his dairy, grew so rich that he gave it over; bought a house, and furnished it at the Hague, resolving to live at ease the rest of his life; grew so weary of being idle, he sold it, and returned again to his dairy."-SIR W. TEMPLE.

LONDON:

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tract extending far west. The manufacture of coarse linen has long flourished here, and the collieries, near Leeds, supply the place with coals.

It first sent members to Parliament in the first of Queen Mary, 1553, and has ever since returned two representatives. Its population, at the last census, was 5296.

The Castle occupied a most elevated situation, and, on the accessible side, was defended by a vast fosse, with strong works on the outside; the scattered ruins which still remain show it to have been a fortress of great extent. Among the ruins are part of the towers, and some semi-round buttresses; but the most perfect portion now remaining, is that represented in the engraving. This Castle was founded by Serlo de Burgh, who came into England with the Conqueror, and he was succeeded in his possession by Eustace Fitz-John, the great favourite of Henry the First. It afterwards came into possession of the crown, for it seems that King John granted it to William de Estoteville, for the ser

vices of the three knight's fees. In the succeeding reign, it was bestowed on the great justiciary, Hubert de Burgh, on payment of 1007. per annum into the Exchequer. In the reign of Edward the Second, it was in the family of the Vaux, or de Vallibus, but bestowed by that prince on his favourite, Piers Gaveston, whom he created Earl of Cornwall. his death it reverted to the Crown, and continued attached thereto till 1371, when the castle, manor, and honour of Knaresborough, were granted by Edward the Third to his fourth son, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster.

On

THE HOUSE SPARROW.

"WHAT between the sparrows and the parson, I see there will be no corn left for me!" said a grumbling old farmer, as he leaned over the gate to view his field of wheat, now nearly ready for the sickle. But I am not going to write an essay on tithes, or to enter upon a defence of the parsons, for taking what is their just and undoubted property. My business at present is with the sparrows.

These birds are accused of eating the corn, and destroying the fruit and the vegetables; and accordingly a reward of so much per dozen, for their heads, is offered and paid by the churchwardens in many parishes. The accusation is perfectly just; the sparrows do eat the corn, and commit depredations in the garden and orchard. I do not mean to deny that. All that I contend for, is, that they also do some good, and make ample compensation for the injury they commit, by the beneficial services they perform for us. They are the destroyers of immense numbers of insects, which would multiply to a prodigious and alarming extent, if their increase were not checked by these and other birds which prey upon them.

It has been calculated, from actual observation by an intelligent naturalist (see Introduction to Bewick's History of Birds), that "a single pair of sparrows, during the time they are feeding their young, will destroy about four thousand caterpillars weekly, they likewise feed their young with butterflies and other winged insects, each of which, if not destroyed in this manner, would be productive of several hundreds of caterpillars."

In 1170, the four knights who murdered Thomas There are people to be found, who will not scruple à Becket, took refuge here, where they remained sometimes to murmur against Providence, and to prisoners many months, but were some time after fancy, that it would have been much better for the pardoned, on condition of their performing a pil-world, if this or that animal, which they in their grimage to Jerusalem. After the base treachery which Richard the Second experienced from the Earl of Northumberland, and his gallant son Hotspur Percy, that unfortunate prince was kept a close prisoner here, in an apartment still called the King's Chamber, till he was removed to Pontefract Castle, and there murdered by order of Henry the Fourth. In 1616, James the First granted this Castle to his son Charles.

It was a strong fortress during the Civil Wars, and made great resistance against the Parliamentary forces. After the battle of Marston Moor, the townsmen most gallantly defended it against Lord Fairfax, and, though at last compelled to surrender, it was on the most honourable terms that the garrison laid down their arms. Not long after this, it was, with many other castles, by order of the House of Commons, rendered untenable. The site of the castle, commands a most beautiful view of the river, church, part of the town, Coghill Hall, droppingwell, bridge, woods, &c. The keep was large, and consisted of three stories. From an east view of it, the dismantled towers, and dilapidated arches, are finely picturesque; but the whole is fast falling into decay. Near the centre, in a part of the ruins, are the court-house and prison for the liberty of the forest of Knaresborough.

J. R.

To prize every thing according to its real use, ought to be the aim of a rational being. There are few things which can much conduce to happiness, and, therefore, few things to be ardently desired. He that looks upon the business and bustle of the world, with the philosophy with which Socrates surveyed the fair at Athens, will turn away at last with his exclamation: "How many things are here which I do not want."-Dr. JOHNSON

ignorance are pleased to consider altogether useless, or even noxious, had never been created. So, probably, thought our friend the farmer, when he saw the sparrows feeding on his wheat. Now, this is, in effect, "charging God foolishly," and presuming, that we ourselves know better, and could have better ordered the world, than the all-wise Creator himself, who has pronounced of all His works, that they were good." It seems to have been an object in the Divine mind, to create a vast multiplicity of different living beings. Hence the earth, the water, and the air, are all furnished with a countless variety of animals. "All nature teems with life."

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And much good, no doubt, upon the whole, results to man, and in many ways, from such a scheme of things as this, which we find around us. But then, to go on as it ought to do, without disturbing the economy of nature, every thing must be kept within its proper limits-nothing either diminished or increased out of due proportion. If, for example, the sparrows (which are a most prolific race), had no enemies to keep down their numbers, but were to multiply a thousand fold, they would, indeed, become a pest and a scourge, by destroying the greater part of our corn and fruits. If, on the other hand, the race were to be utterly destroyed, and there were no sparrows or other like birds left, then the caterpillars and insects would increase upon us, and would injure us to an equal extent, in another way. But as things now are, the proper balance is preserved, one animal is a check against the over-increase of another; the sparrows prey upon the caterpillars, and other of nature is kept in proper order-works well, and animals prey upon the sparrows. Thus the machine as it was meant to do.

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