Not but that the increment of the nailes is very natural, and the care of these (though small things) is in very nature; nay, the care of these parts is more noble than the care of our nourishment, since the care of them appertaines to reason and to the practick intellect ; and by how much the practick intellect is more noble than the nutrient soule, so much to a more noble order doth the care of the nailes, in conforming them to the law of nature, appertain. Now

the nailes are existent parts which alwaies (almost) grow; and when they incur such an excess of an increased quantity, they do but hinder the operations of the human soule, and when they decline from their proper mode of quantity, and increase further, the deduction and moderation of their excrescency to a just extending, is to the benefit of the intellect that employeth them. Neither are the nailes

extra hominem, unlesse in carcasses and those buried; and their continual increase in man is an argument of a divine nature, a prerogative in which beasts cannot participate, and teacheth us charity to our bodies. The neglect of this charity proves not only an inconve nience, but, as some thinke, long nailes is a sin, to avoid which, Adam, in the estate of innocency in Paradise, before instruments of iron were found, perchance bit his nailes; yet surely in the state of innocency, his abode in Paradise was so short, that no inconvenience could happen unto him this way, nor any necessity enforce him to cut his nailes, although he had too just a cause to bite his nailes afterwards,

and therefore by no worse a law of nature do we cut our nailes than our hairs, lest they should grow into an odious and hooked curvity; unnatural slovens, therefore, are they who never pare theirs. And very little have they to shew themselves gentlemen, who have nothing but long nailes as the crests of idle gentility." P. 296.

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"

That there are Tailed Nations" (Scene XXII) is not to be lightly doubted. Pausanias so reports. Bulwer was informed by an ingenious and honest gentleman of good worth, who professed that he had read it in some Chronicles, or other author, whose name he could not very well recollect, that ༥.ས there is at this day a family in Kent, who have to surname the name of a village very near Rochester, whereof all that are descended have a tail, insomuch that you may know any one to be rightly descended of that family, by having a tail. Delrio says, that tails were entailed (as Bulwer facetiously translates him) as a curse upon the inhabitants of Stroud, by Thomas-aBecket, the tail of whose horse had been wantonly cut off by them,

"And to make it a little more credible that the rump bone among brutish and strong-dockt nations, doth often spread out with such an excrescence or beastly emanation, I am informed by an honest young man of Captain Morris's company, in Lieutenant-General Ireton's regiment, that at Cashell, in the county of Tipperary, in the province of Munster, in Carrick-Patrick church, seated on a hill or rock, stormed by the Lord Inchequine, and where there were neare 700 put to the sword, and none saved but the mayor's wife and his son; there were

found among the slaine of the Irish, when they were stripped, divers that had tailes neare a quarter of a yard long. The relator being very diffident of the truth of this story, after enquiry was ensured of the certainty thereof by forty souldiers that testified upon their oaths that they were eye-witnesses, being present at the action. It is reported also that in Spaine there is another such tailed nation. But that which gives great reputation to the narrative of tailed nations, is a history we have gained by the Coryphæus of anatomy, Dr. Harvey, who, in a learned tract, he lately published (de Generat.) informes us, that a certaine chirurgeon, an honest man, and an acquaintance of his, returning from the East Indies, declared unto him upon his credit, that in the mountainous and remote places from the sea of the island Borneo, at this day, there is a certaine kind of tailed men, of which with some difficulty (for they inhabit the woods) they took a virgin whom he saw with a thick fleshy taile of a span long." P. 411.

We know not what argument can be advanced against such direct visual testimony. Perhaps it may be better to smile than

to reason,

cui non tunc

Eliceret risum citharœdi cauda magistri ?

We pass on to "leg and foot fashions" (Scene XXIII). In India, beyond Ganges, there are a nation called Sciopedes, that have feet of a monstrous bigness, which, when they lie down, serve them for umbrellas. There are also in Asia a certain kind of men called Monosceli, which have but one leg, and yet have a wonderful pernicity in leaping. In a certain valley of Mount Imaus live a people with their feet turned backwards behind their legs, that are of such wonderful swiftness that they will outrun a hare. There is reported also to be another people in some place belonging to the Tartars, who wander about sustained by one only leg and foot, having also but one arm, Two of these men undergo the office of an archer. While one holds the bow the other shoots the arrow; and there is a wonderful nimbleness observed in them, for they run with so great swiftness on their hand and foot, that they even outrun a horse, and when they have tired their arm, then they go on by hopping with their foot. Many legates and nuncios of the Pope sent unto the Tartars, in their relations affirm this to be true.

The last Scene (XXIV) relates to "cruel and fantasticall inventions of men, practised upon their bodies in a supposed way of bravery, and wicked practices both of men and devils, to alter and deforme the humane fabricke." It is, as the title implies, very desultory and miscellaneous. We learn from it, that among the Venetians, the maids, when they are to be coupled in marriage, are kept very daintily, to the end that they may become more fat, well looking, and in good plight. For this purpose, they eat dished wheat with milk, they sleep much, and live

very idly, close cooped up, that at length they may grow fat as crammed capons; therefore they feed upon unctuous and sweet meats, that they may more daintily, and with a more trim grace, be dedicated to their bridegrooms.

We cannot venture to extract Bulwer's researches concerning the non-Adamitical men and equivocal pigmies of Paracelsus. Indeed it is but just to warn any who may have the curiosity to refer to his pages, that there are not a few which they will pass over hastily. Respecting pigmies in general, he is of opinion that they were at first occasioned by some artifice or affectation; for they are plainly within the reach of art and the hand of man's invention.

"And if man's hand were too short, yet the Devil's power can reach to such a conclusion; for even as sometimes dwarfs and giants may be naturally procured, so the Devill with more facility can, by divine permission, promote the decrease or encrease of the human stature, by applying actives to passives, which is the judgment of Jordanus and others. Delrio saies, there is no doubt but the Devill may make pigmies, and prohibit men from ever comming to the just stature of a humane body, as we see by man's artifice, to-wit, by giving them burnt wines, and enclosing them in little pots, those little dogs, wherewith women are so delighted, are procured, and parents greedy of gains, very wickedly, with certaine medicaments, cause their children's growth to be stunted, that they prove dwarfes. But he cannot make a giant of a pigmy; for he thinks that the devill cannot so extend the bones of a little man to make them of a giant-like magnitude." P. 502.

This is a most comfortable assurance; for, in our present condition, an irruption of Brobdignagians is far more to be deprecated than any swarm of Lilliputians which could be poured upon us. The positive evil, in itself, of the second, would not be nearly so great as that occasioned by the first, and assuredly the dignity of our nature would be exposed by it to much less violation and dishonour.

We subjoin a single "Recreation" of such easy process, that almost any reader may determine for himself whether or not it be really effectual.

"To set an horse's or asse's head on a man's neck and shoulders, cut off the head of a horse or an asse (before they be dead, otherwise the virtue or strength thereof will be lesse effectuall) and make an earthen vessell of fit capacity to containe the same, and let it be filled with the oyle and fat thereof, cover it close, and daub it over with lome; let it boile over a soft fire three daies continually, that the flesh boyled may run into oyle, so as the bare bones may be seen; beat the hairs into powder, and mingle the same with the oyle, and anoint the heads of the standers by, and they shall seeme to have horses or asses heads. If beasts heads be annointed with the like oyle made of a man's head, they shall seeme to have men's faces, as divers

authors soberly affirme. If a lamp be annointed therewith, every thing shall seeme most monstrous... If you beat arsenick very fine, and boile it with a little sulphur in a covered pot, and kindle it a few candle, the standers by will seeme to be

T

P.

A brief notice of an unhappy class of beings, liberi suppositi. Changelings, concludes this Scene; beings, by the legerdemain of whom Sir Thomas Browne confesses himself more puzzled, than by any other delusion wherewith the devil deludeth man. Our readers may not perhaps be aware that little more than a century has elapsed since a Changeling was publicly exhibited in London. The following is a transcript of some original printed hand-bills still preserved in the British Museum.

11

叠

"A changling child. To be seen next door to the Black Raven in West Smithfield, during the time of the fair, being a living skeleton, taken by a Venetian Galley, from a Turkish vessel in the Archipelago: this is a fairy child, supposed to be born of Hungarian parents, but changed in the nursery, aged nine years and more, not exceeding a foot and a half high. The legs, thighs, and arms, so very small, that they scarce exceed the bigness of a man's thumb, and the face no bigger than the palm of one's hand; and seems so grave and solid as if it were threescore years old. You may see the whole anatomy of its body, by setting it against the sun or by holding candles behind it. It never speaks, but when passion moves it, t cries like a cat : it has no teeth, but is the most voracious and hungry creature in the world, devouring more victuals than the stoutest man in England. Vivant rex et regina."

"

From the concluding benediction, there can be no doubt that this exhibition took place in the reign of William and Mary; and it is equally clear that the following advertisement relates to the same child.

"To all gentlemen and ladies. There is to be seen at Mr. Hocknes, at the Maremaid, near the King's Bench, in Southwark, during the time of the fair, a changling girl, being a living skeleton, taken by a Venetian galley, in the Turks country, in the Archipelago: this is a fairy girl, supposed to be born of Hungarian parents, but changed in the nursery, aged about nine years, one foot and a half high. The legs, thighs, and arms, so very small, that they scarce exceed the bigness of a man's thumb, and the face no bigger than the palm of one's hand; and seems so grave and solid as if it were threescore years old. She is likewise a mere anatomy. Vivant rex et regina,”ni of

Another, though not absolutely a changeling, has many of the characteristics distinguishing that race, and must assuredly be included in it. The hand-bill is without date.

"Advertisement. In Bridge's-street, in Covent-Garden, over against the Rose tavern, is to be seen a living fairy, supposed to be a hundred and fifty years old, his face being no bigger than a child's of a month; was found sixty years ago; looked as old as he does

now! His head being a great piece of curiosity, having no scall, with several imperfections, worthy your observation.in fou

Bulwer's volume concludes with " An Appendix, exhibiting the pedigrees of the English gallant." In this part of his work he forcibly reminds us of Stubbes, in his Anatomie of Abuses" and each appears to write with a similar bitter, biting spirit of Puritanism. Bulwer's object is to trace the fashions of his times, each in its course, to some of the barbarous costumes which he has described. For this purpose he enumerates the sugar-loaf hats, square caps, city flat caps, women's French hoods, rackets, periwigs, masks, painting, black patches, pendents, auricular bravery, cob-web-lawn-yellow-starched ruffs, bombasted, slashed, pinked and cut doublets, filthy and apish breeches, trunk hose, great vardingales, hip-gallantry, forked shoes, square toes, chioppines, and other pedestral vanity. For all this he ingeniously finds parallels not very creditable to civilization.

From Bulwer's extravagance some illustration is thrown upon one portion of the history of human knowledge. He lived in an age of great learning and of little judgment; at a time when there was a voracious appetite for information, and when fact and fiction were indiscriminately gorged and devoured by all who sought for the reputation of learning. 1

it mord Archeologia, or Miscellaneous Tracts relating to Antiquity, published by the Society of Antiquaries of London. Vol. XXII. Part I. pp. 203.

THE result of the labours of this Society, from the 16th of November, 1826, to the 15th of November, 1827, has just been given to the public, and which may be thus briefly described. Observations upon a Household Book of King James the Fifth of Scotland, by Mr. Ellis; an Account of the Army with which Richard the Second invaded Scotland in 1385, and a Copy of the Instructions given by Henry the Eighth to the Usher and Sewer of his Chamber, to inquire into the Conduct of a suspected Traitor, communicated by Mr. Nicolas; an Account of the Remains of a Roman Bath, near Stoke in Lincolnshire, " by Edmund Turnor, Esq. F. R, and A. S. S.," for such is the designation affixed to his name in two places; Sir Gilbert Talbot's Narrative of the Earl of Sandwich's Attempt upon Berghen in 1665, communicated by Mr. Ellis Observations upon Four Mosaic Pavements discovered in the County of Hants, by Sir Richard Hoare; Observations on Monumental Stones in the North of Scotland, by