structing rivers, and causing them to overflow: the storms murmur and explode with hideous din, and let loose winds which overturn every thing in their course: the rains, in an instant, produce devastating torrents, and change into a rapid and menacing river the limpid stream, on whose margin, a few moments before, the feeble child fearlessly sported. It is in the mountains, or near the chains which they form, that we contemplate, with the deepest feelings of apprehension, the most majestic and the most formidable of all natural phænomena, that of volcanos,' &c.

The real or fancied horrors of the north pole are thus forcibly pourtrayed:

Who are those that, in the prosecution of this daring enterprize, will venture to brave the rigours of such climates, to arrive at that spot on the globe which knows but one day and one night in the year, and where the guiding needle can no longer point either to the north or the south? Who would be sufficiently intrepid to advance into the midst of those mountains and pyramids of crystal, or to set foot on those lands which the accumulated congelations of winters have rendered undistinguishable from waves consolidated by the cold; where rocks split and displode with a noise like thunder, by the mere force of ice interposed in their crevices? Who would not dread to be exposed to the ob scurity of that zone, where the enduring nights and the dense and gloomy fogs seem to give eternity to darkness? The sombre horrors of the scene are, however, at intervals, enlightened by the moon's silver disk; and the aurora borealis is suddenly spread abroad, like the radiance of a vast conflagration, darting forth in streams, rolling in fiery waves, or whirling in rapid volumes: in the atmosphere all is commotion, and on the ground all is stillness. This meteor sometimes sheds over these frozen solitudes and distant snows a dingy glare, a pale light, a mysterious tint, a magical ambiguity of day; the most absolute silence reigns in space: except that, from some remote recess, mournful and hollow echoes repeat the hoarse and savage descant of aquatic birds, enfeebled by the cold, tormented with hunger, and roaming forlorn in these horrible deserts. But soon a panic-terror seizes on the adventurous traveller; a tremendous crash is heard; mountains of ice break asunder, totter, impinge on one another, present a partial opening, float, and disperse in threatening fragments; a shocking and inevitable death now stares him in the face, as the last term of the perils which he has encountered and of the sufferings which he has endured.'

It is not often, however, that our learned cosmologist has recourse to rhetorical embellishment; which, it must be confessed, is little suited to the compendious and elementary nature of his plan. A plain-dealing critic might, indeed, readily dispense with a few scattered morsels of high-toned eloquence, in exchange for the fulfilment of the fair and ample promises held forth in the preface, but which occasionally

vanish in the fogs of the north or in the smoke of a volcano. Important defects and omissions sometimes occur; and we are seldom distinctly apprized of the characteristic mineral, vegetable, and animal products of the respective portions of territory which pass in review. The writer's accuracy, too, is in a few instances more than questionable. He talks, for example, of the estuaries of the Linne* and Tyne, on the west coast of Scotland; and he would lead us to believe that the Norse is still the prevailing language in Orkney, when in Norway itself its use is limited to the interior districts. Christians who acknowlege no other authority in matters of faith than the Bible, he classes under the three denominations of Trinitarians, Unitarians, and Protestants: - an offence against good order which is scarcely, we fear, intitled to benefit of clergy.- When he represents Puy as synonymous with Pic, we suspect that he labours under a mistake; at least we have been assured, by a very intelligent and well-informed native of Auvergne, that it is an ascertained corruption of the Italian Poggio. In our utmost latitude of charity, we cannot concede to him the position that Geography is the only department of knowlege of which the language has not been rendered sufficiently precise. The moon, he alleges, produces on our atmosphere very marked modifications, though apparently irregular, because we have not yet been able to reduce them to calculation: but, if they be really so irregular as to defy calculation, we should not hastily ascribe them to a cause of which - neither can we the known agency is so steady and uniform:divine how the sun's rays, in traversing the strata of the atmosphere, can give rise to the aurora borealis.

While we thus candidly point to some of the exceptionable passages in this book, we cannot withhold from the author the praise of worthy intention and of much able execution. To those persons, particularly, who are just entering on a course of geographical study, and who are furnished with the best maps of the different quarters of the globe, the work, if deliberately perused, may serve as an useful introduction, or text-book, by exhibiting in a consecutive series the multiplied topics of future investigation. To those, again, who have long since completed such a course, it may prove no unpleasing remembrance, by renewing faded impressions, and enabling memory to re-trace many links in the chain of associations and dependencies.

"Indocti discant, et ament meminisse periti."

* Can he mean the conflux of the Leven with the Clyde?
APP. REV. Vol. LXXX.

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We can scarcely venture, however, to flatter M. WALC KENAER with any thing like an assurance that his Cosmology will be highly prized by the general reader, or that it will even live its day without incurring the imputation of irksome formality.

ART. V. Les Martinales, &c.; i. e. Martinmas Medals; or a Description of a Medal of which the Device is the Goose of St. Martin. By A. L. MILLIN, Member of the Institute, and Knight of the Legion of Honour. 8vo. pp. 36. Paris. 1815. London, De Boffe. Price 38.

IN

the Catholic calendars, the festival of St. Martin of Tours is appointed to be held on the 11th of November. This Bishop was once so popular in France, that his feast had an octave, that is, was celebrated a second time in the week following; and it was a rule among his devotees to roast a goose for the family-dinner on the day of his anniversary. According to M. MILLIN, the medal here described and engraved was struck in commemoration of this custom. On one side is embossed a goose, and on the reverse occurs the word Martinalia.

Many particulars of goose-eating are here compiled. Petronius praises this fowl in the following passage, as a popular dish: "Ales Phasiacis petita Colchis

Atque Afræ volucres placent palato,

Quod non sunt faciles: at albus anser
Et pictis anas enotata pennis
Plebeium sapit."

Diodorus Siculus (ii. 3.) speaks of the goose as a regular and favourite diet of Ægyptian kings; and, on several of the monuments constructed by them, priests are represented offering a goose in sacrifice. Athenæus mentions (xiv. 74-) the fondness of Lacedæmonians for the goose; and the Romans not only valued it as a delicacy, but kept holy geese at the public expense, in honour of those which saved the Capitol. According to Lampridius, Geta gave orders to his cook to serve his dinners in alphabetic order. To-day every dish was to begin with an a, and to-morrow with a b; and thus the anser under him had the honour of ushering in every cyclus of repasts.

Alexander Severus commonly dined on chickens: but he added a goose on solemn occasions, such as the birth-day of those worthies whom he honoured with a select veneration.Horace praises the liver of a goose that has fed on figs; and Pliny describes a method of swelling it, which he hesitates

whether

whether to attribute to Scipio Metellus or to Marcus Seius: but he awards to Messalinus Cotta the indisputable honour of inventing a dish consisting of goose's feet grilled. The words of Pliny (Hist. Nat. x. 22.) are remarkable. "Nec sine causá in quæstione est, quis primus tantum bonum invenerit, Scipio ne Metellus, vir consularis, an Marcus Seius, eádem ætate eques Romanus. Sed quod constat, Messalinus Cotta, Messale oratoris filius, palmas pedum ex his torrere, atque patinis cum gallinaceorum cristis condire reperit."

Now let us ask, how came the goose in modern times to be consecrated to Saint Martin? His festival occurs when geese are in season; and it was always celebrated with a voracity the more eager, as it happens on the eve of the petit carême, when fowls could no longer be presented on the tables of a religious age. A German monk, Martin Schoock, has made it a case of conscience whether, even on the eve of the little Lent, it be allowable to eat goose: "An liceat Martinalibus anserem comedere?" Exerc. xvii, p. 205. After having dived into the weedy pool of the casuist's arguments, the delighted devotee emerges with the permission to roast his goose; and thus the goose came to be a standing dish on the Continent at Martinmas, as in England at Michaelmas.

Charlemagne was fond of geese, and contributed to give them a vogue; and they formed at one time so important an object of rural economy, that the first poulterers were called oyers. Geese are rarely boiled, but usually roasted; and they were stuffed by the Romans with white meats, as by the Germans with chesnuts. The legs are sometimes separated, and salted apart for hams. In England, according to the Laureat's sonnet, which has escaped the notice of M. MILLIN, a goose is reckoned

very fine,

Seasoned with sage and onions and port-wine."

ART. VI. Epoques et Faits Mémorables, &c.; i. e. Epochs and Memorable Events in the History of England, from Alfred the Great to the present Time. Composed for the Purpose of affording Young People an Idea of the most interesting Parts of the Annals of that Country. With Eight Engravings. By R. J. DURDENT.'' 12mo. Paris. 1815. Imported by De Boffe. Price 5s. sewed.

TH

HE compiler of this work has already appeared, not very advantageously, as a labourer in this department of literature, having published a similar abridgement of the history

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of France for the use of schools, intitled Epoques et Faits Mémorables de l'Histoire de France. That production, however, is worthier of being translated into our language than this; because, in the annals of a foreign state, those things which the natives take most pains to impress require to be vigilantly regarded by the stranger, in order to understand, and sometimes to counteract, the bearing and amount of alien prejudices: but this volume contains a view of British rulers and affairs that is too limited for our use and too unfavourable for our welcome.

Chapter i. treats of Alfred the Great: the second, of William the Conqueror: but none of the intervening history is given. Then comes the murder of Becket; the reigns of William Rufus, of Henry I., and of Stephen, being wholly passed over. The crusade of Richard Coeur de Lion is narrated; and the port in Cyprus called by our historians (Rapin and Hume, for instance,) Limisso is here called Limerol. Under the reign of John, no mention is made of Magna Charta: but the crown of England is represented as having been voluntarily conferred by the British peers and parliament on Louis VIII. of France. The murder of

Edward II. is related with all its horrors. Under Edward III. the battle of Crecy is described, but that of Poitiers is wholly omitted. More entire reigns are then skipped, as unworthy of notice; and, in short, the work is rather a selection of libellous anecdotes than a series of historic incidents.

The reign of Henry VIII. relates the successive executions of half-a-dozen wives, which gave rise to the story of Bluebeard, but makes no mention whatever of the Protestant Reformation. The execution of Lady Jane Grey and of Mary Stuart, and all anecdotes of English regicide, are brought out with complacency. The chapter which relates the catastrophe of Charles I. is intitled Assassinat juridique de Charles premier; and the restoration of the Stuarts, effected by the perfidy of General Monk, is narrated with loyal satisfaction, and illustrated by an engraving:-it is every way adapted to be read with interest by subjects of the Bourbons!

Of the Revolution, nothing is told but its military or naval catastrophes. An entire chapter is allotted to Marlborough, on whose peculations the writer dwells with emphasis. The execution of Admiral Byng and the invasion of the Pretender in 1745 are the only incidents selected for notice during a period of great literary eminence. It appears that Admirals Vernon and Anson, and the battle of Dettingen, are known to the author: but between 1745 and 1790 nothing else has attracted the record of his pen. A single concluding chapter dispatches