circumstances as well as Nebuchad nezzar. The following is an example of an undue limitation of the sense of a passage, which is manifestly intended to be of universal application. "He came unto his own, and his own received him not." (John, i. 11.) in Greek, "E's rà da te, xy of idio αὐτὸν ἐ παρέλαβον.” The common translation of this passage in variably leads the mind of the reader to the belief that all the Evangelist intended to convey was, that Christ came to his countrymen the Jews, and that the Jews "received him not." It is submitted that this is not the meaning of the inspired hagiographer: "He came "—is rà ïdia" to his own territory-his own dominions:" o "do "and his own subjects:"—} raginaßer "did not receive him:" A meaning which involves a striking though melancholy truth, that Chris tianity, though soliciting the attention of men by the highest possible moral motives, is too frequently rejected by those who are under power ful obligations to give it a cordial and honest reception. Every body feels that the vulgate translation does not give to the following verse any tangible meaning: we shall be happy to receive a solution of the obvious difficulty from any of our friends, who have made the Scriptures a subject of critical examination. The verse is this: EyéveTO DE Η ΣΑΒΒΑΤΩ ΔΕΥΤΕΡΟΠΡΩΤΩ διαπορεύεσθαι αὐτὸν διὰ τῶν ςπορίμων ἔτιλλον οἱ μαθηταὶ αὐτῇ τοὺς σάχυας, DIE, TAXONTES TATs xeggi. Luke, 1. Theatre-Miss Dance. lady, as yet "look upon their like again." Such, in hurrying along the North Bridge, were our expectations,-but long ere the curtain fell, they were sorely disappointed. The play was Ve nice Preserved. Recollecting,(as we do, the Belvidera of Mrs Siddons, around whose magic eye all the passions of our nature stood ranged to obey the signals of its portentous flash; and recollecting, as we do, the "all-love, all-tenderness," of Miss O'Neill, and (here comparisons are not odious) of Mrs Henry Siddons in the same cha racter, we must confess, although in the face of female youth and beauty it sounds harshly,that we were disappointed, and that, in Miss Dance's Belvidera, we saw little either to ad mire or to love. To the fair debutante Nature has indeed been somewhat partial. Her form is exquisite, but her attitudes are deficient in grace; her features are lovely, but their tout ensemble lacks the energy of expression adapted to the tragic muse, while the gorgeous encumbrance of her dress, and her apparently-directed appeal to the audience as often as to the beloved Jaffier, stole her attention somewhat too much from " scene undivided." So much for the externals of Miss Dance's appearance. In some of her scenes she surpassed mediocrity. Her "remember twelve" shriek in the mad scene was truly was given with fine effect ;-her appalling;-and, indeed, throughout the whole of that scene she displayed a mellow chasteness and a correct style of acting, which atoned for des fciencies in some of her earlier scenes. She is possessed of the elements of her art, but has still to be tutored as to stage effect. Her acting presents an excellent outline, but it requires some filling up and colouring. She has yet to cultivate a still stronger feeling of sympathy for Jaffier before she can substantiate the claims which interest, or private worth, or a lovely appearance, may have awakened in her behalf. Until these points are attained, we confess, it would afford us more pleasure to spend some hours in a drawing-room with Miss Dance, than with the orchestra interposed betwixt us. She is a lovely woman, and those hints which, with a surly regard to candour and truth, we have now thrown out, are meant in friend ship, which prompts us to say, that, until she has vanquished those obstacles to more perfect fame, her claim to be the legitimate successor of Miss O'Neill is just as deficient as that of the "Doge of Venice" is to rival Otway's unrivalled (in modern times) "Venice Preserv'd." We totally disagree with a contemporary journal in its strictures on Mr Abbot's performance of Jaffier. A richer and more varied expression of features was only required to render the performance perfect. It was at once chaste, mellow, and judicious. We disagree with the same journal in its estimate of Calcraft's powers to supplant Abbot. Mr Calcraft played the part of Pierre; we have seen several in this character, but unfortunately, having neither witnessed Kemble nor Cooke in it, we may say we have never seen a good Pierre. Mr Calcraft, indeed, sometimes overtopped his usual height, but in some of the most impassioned scenes, he was unsufferably tame. In proof of this, we would only instance in the last scene, the words addressed to Jaffier, See'st thou that engine. Is't fit a soldier, who has lived with honour, Fought nations' quarrels, and been crown'd with conquest, Be expos'd a common carcase on a wheel? Speak! is't fitting? These lines were delivered just as if the actor had said, instead, “This rainy weather is unfortunate for the Musselburgh Races, but it will bene fit the corn." Clerical Eccentricities. EARLY in the last century, the minister of Arbroath was Mr Ferguson, a man remarkable for freedom of speech, even in the pulpit, where he sometimes gave great offence, by his plain and apposite illustrations. Many of these are still remembered and repeated in that quarter, among which are the following: Lecturing one Sunday upon Zaccheus climbing the tree to see Jesus, he said, "This Zaccheus, my friends, was a wee bodie, just such another as our carlie of a gauger sitting there," pointing with his finger to the quarter of the kirk where the exciseman was seated. One Sunday forenoon, Hell was the subject of his discourse, in which he indulged in much of that singularity of expression so natural to him on all occasions, concluding thus: "It now only remains to shew the situation of Hell, and this shall be clearly pointed out in our afternoon's discourse." Anxious to hear the local situation of that place of punishment particularised, he had a full attendance in the afternoon; but to the disappointment of his audience he had a new discourse, on the government of the passions; but before concluding, he addressed his congregation thus: “ In the forenoon, I promised to show you where hell is situate-Oh! my friends! it is much nearer than you imagine:-it is at your very door, and I see some here, who are on the very brink of that dreadful pit.-In short, my friends, hell is in the very heart of our town-do not start; for I can prove that hell is in Homer's Wynd, (a lane in the town,) for as I was coming to the kirk this afternoon, I heard such a brulzie in Tam Lindsay's, that I looked in at the door, wher. I saw Tam and his wife fighting, both with tongue and hands; he had riven her mutch off her head, and the napkin from her neck; she had given him a blue eye; and he was bleeding at the nose, like a sheep! Now, sirs, where there is so much mischief at a fireside, I am sure you will all agree with me, that it must be hell upon earth!" His freedom of speech and eccentricity of manner being matters of public notoriety, his discourses were often attended by strangers, from motives of curiosity. One day, when mounting the pulpit, he observed that the front seat of the magistrates' gallery was occupied by a party of gentlemen from Montrose: their faces were not unknown to Mr F. who read out as a subject of his discourse, "Ye are spies; to see the nakedness of the land you are come;" from which he took the opportunity of giving the strangers a sound drubbing, for what he termed idle, profane, and impertinent curiosity. Warmed with his subject, he addressed his congregation in the following peroration: "But my instructions are despised, and my warnings are in vain ye are a wicked people-workers of iniquity, and I know not to whom I can compare you; for you are worse than Sodom; yea, your wickedness is nearly equal to that of Montrose; it has ascended to heaven, and drawn down vengeance on your heads; you have provoked the Almighty to visit you with great and singular judgments, for since your last election, he has cut off your magistracy root and branch; all are carried away captive by death; and there remains not one to bear rule in the city, except that drunken beast Bailie Hr, there where he sits!" patible with the worship and service in which you pretend to join; and not only unworthy of Christians, but most unbecoming in men! Look at that couple of strangers who have honoured our assembly with their presence; just now they are blushing for your conduct. Although I can readily believe that neither of them have been in a kirk for many years before to-day; yet has any one of you heard them whispering, or marked a smile upon their faces ? No! they knew where they werein a word-they are gentlemen! and have behaved accordingly." After pronouncing the benediction, Mr O. called out, "Mr S. you and your friend will take pot luck in the manse." Mr S. was in waiting at the kirk door till Mr O. made his egress, when, after exchanging compliments, Mr S. said, "You were not prepared for strangers to dinner Mr O., you must go and dine with us at Dd." "That is just what I intended," replied Mr O., " but I could not say so before the congregation; and I wished to prevent your departure before I got out." Every one will allow that the language most generally understood, and most expressive of the speaker's ideas, is often very unsuitable for the pul pit, and improper for the illustration of serious or sacred subjects. This is particularly the case when it is the style in vulgar use, and applied to the lower purposes of life, for it then cannot fail of calling up recollections, and of producing associations in the minds of the hearers, incompatible with devout feeling. Of the late Mr Ogilvy, minister of Lunan,situated on the road betweenArbroath and Montrose, many anecdotes are told, some of which are always before the public. The following is less generally known, and is very character istic of his manner. Mr S. of L-d, in the neighbourhood of Lunan, resided much in London; but having come to Ld, accompanied by an English gentleman, they one Sunday went to the kirk of Lunan; most probably induced by the celebrity of Mr Ogilvy's character. Being conspicuously seated, and the kirk very small, they soon attracted Mr O's. observation. Their previous knowledge of the parson's eccentricities might be an inducement to them to infringe upon that decorum due to the service of the day; and they continued to whisper even audibly to their neighbours, and their repeated smiles were sometimes with difficulty suppressed from bursting into a laugh. At the conclusion of his sermon, Mr O. with much earnestness admonished his little flock, concerning their faith and practice, but suddenly changing his tone, said, that he believed it was vain to talk of the principles of Christianity to them who were still ignorant of the rudiments of good behaviour: Then he added, “Indeed, my flock,-for I am doubtful whether I ought to call you friends,-I have often been ashamed of you; but never more so than to-day. Think of your behaviour, since you entered the sanctuary, and blush with shame; instead of listening with devout attention, you have looked around you, gazed on the faces of the modest and bashful maidens, till the glow of shame has mantled on their cheeks; you have whispered one to another, yea, you have even laughed! Although all this was insulting to me, that I forgive, but duty compels me to reprehend such conduct as highly "Those who have made the philooffensive to the Almighty; as incom-sophy of the human mind their pecu 66 About ten or a dozen years ago, the writer of this article heard a sermon from the text, Wherefore laying aside every weight, and the sin which doth most easily beset us, let us run with patience the race set before us. The preacher shewed an intimate acquaintance with his subject; and the doctrines laid down and illustrated were suited to improve the minds and hearts of his hearers, and creditable to himself as a minister of the gospel. But in the application of his discourse he had several strange figures and modes of expression, among which the following, being distinctly remembered, are given verbatim. liar study, have said that every man has his weak side I will go further, for I affirm that there are many men who, if they had as many sides as this house, (it was an octagon,) they would be all weak sides." He then went over many of the prophets and apostles, shewing what might be considered as their weak sides. Of Peter, he said, "Peter, my friends, had two weak sides: one was too much conceit of himself, and the other, a fiery hastiness of temper; speak to him and he was in a blaze only touch him and off he went like gunpowder!" While thus speaking, he stretched out his hand to the Bible before him, as if applying a match to a cannon, and then threw back his arm with a sudden jerk, as it were to intimate that the explosion had taken place. "Every man should know his own weak side best; and so he would, if he would take the trouble to look at himself; but my friends, I must use the freedom to tell you, that many of you are so much occupied in observing your neighbours, that you have MR EDITOR, no leisure to look at yourselves; and for what do you so keenly scrutinize your neighbour? Why, nine times out of ten, for no better purpose, than that you may the more easily pick a hole in his coat; but let me assure you, when this is your occupation, Satan is no less busily employed picking a hole in your heart, and building himself a snug warm nest in it." He concluded thus: "Now, my friends, only one word more. The Christian's life, as we have already observed, is not a life of slothful languor or effeminate repose-you must up and be doing-you must run with patience, but also with unremit ted alacrity, the race set before you. You must fly for your lives; for the avenger of blood is behind you. However, if there are any among you who cannot take this trouble, who prefer their present pleasure to their future safety, and who wish only to doze away their lives in careless indolence; to such I can only say, enjoy your dream-fold your arms-sit down-and be damned!" SONNET BY QUEEN ELIZABETH. THE following Sonnet is a copy of one at present among the papers preserv ed in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, and may not be altogether unacceptable to some of the readers of your agreeable Miscellany, as containing the complaints of one whose heart was at times as susceptible of the tender, as it was at others of the most violent and ungovernable passions. Though there is no date, one may well conceive such to have been the sentiments of the Royal Fair while enduring the torments of separation, after the Earl of Essex, the once ill-fated object of her capricious affections, had quitted her court on his unfortunate expedition to Ireland in 1599. London. I greeve and dare not shewe my discontent, I doe, yet dare not say, I ever meant, Noe meanes I finde to rid him from my breast, Finis. H. A. N. ELIZA REGINA, upon Mounzeur's departure. LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE. Water-Spouts.-(From the Newbury Herald, American paper, of June 19.) Captain Wilson, who lately arrived here, from the West Indies, has furnished us from his journal with the following account of a very dangerous water-spout : "On the 22d of May, in lat. 36° 35' long. 69° 50′, fresh gale from S. S. W. and squally; at 4 P. M. a heavy cloud appeared on our weather-quarter about west, which approached very fast; prepared the vessel for a heavy squall, when the rain began to descend in torrents. All at once we saw five large water-spouts forming under the cloud upon the sea, about one and a half mile from us, going with the cloud nearly in a line N. E. by E. with astonishing swiftness. They appeared about half a mile from each other, at about equal distances, and connecting themselves with the cloud. "The sea, for a considerable space, when the base of the spouts appeared, exhibited the most tremendous commotion; they ap peared in the cloud above to be as large as a tierce. At this time a number more were forming, and appeared to approach us very fast. We now thought ourselves in the utmost danger, for all our efforts to dissipate them in the usual way were unavailing; but the wind hauling north-westerly, and blowing fresh, we let out some of our reefs, trimmed sharp by the wind, and fortunately gained to windward of them. They passed us a little astern, so that we had a fair view of them, and they presented one of the most awfully sublime scenes in nature. We had seamen on board the brig who had followed their profession from ten to thirty years, and none of them had ever before witnessed so dangerous a water-spout, or any of such magnitude. Had we been thirty minutes sail astern, 1 conceive there would have been no possibility of escape from utter destruction. The water was in continual agitation for fifty or sixty minutes, and I am free to confess, I never before had an adequate idea of the horrors of one of these phenomena." Moving Bog.-The account of the moving bog of Kilmaleady has startled many readers, and not a few are somewhat incredulous about it. The phenomenon, however, is well known to geologists, and is not one of rare occurrence in the neighbouring island. It has occasionally happened also in this country, as in the vicinity of Galashiels, and in some parts of Dumfries-shire. It generally takes place when a morass or sloping ground has become indurated and converted into firm soil on its upper sur VOL. IX. face, while its lower stratum remains in its original state of soft mud; here, as soon as the retaining matter, whatever it may be, is by some means or other displaced, the whole incumbent mass is put in motion, and launched into the plain. There are several submarine forests that owe their existence to a circumstance of this nature, the swampy subsoil having burst its barriers, and carried them, with the whole ground on which they grew, into the adjoining ocean. But for farther particulars on this interesting subject, see extracts of a parliamentary report on the bogs of Ireland, which may be found towards the end of Professor Kidd's Geological Essays. Aerostatics. It is a fact interesting to science and important to the progress of aerostation, that the Balloon which ascended from the Green Park, on the day of the Coronation, was filled with ordinary coalgas, or carburetted hydrogen, instead of gas prepared from sulphuric acid and zinc, or iron filings, by the usual tedious and expensive process. A pipe was laid on to the main which supplies the street lamps, and the balloon was filled without solicitude in a shorter time than the same operation was ever performed before, and at the expence of L. 5. Taking the gas at .555, and the diameter at 32 feet, the power of ascension exceeded 7 cwt. Of course the machine acted well, and the ascent was one of the most beautiful ever beheld since the first ascent of Lunardi, in 1785. The varied currents of air in the atmosphere were strikingly exemplified. The wind was nearly east; but, at a certain height, the balloon was wafted northward, then eastward; and it fell at the distance of only thirteen miles, after making traverses of nearly fifty miles in forty-five minutes. Fossil Remains. The following is an extract of a letter from M. Cuvier to the Royal Academy of Sciences at Caen, returning thanks for a well executed model which it had sent that learned anatomist of a fossil crocodile lately discovered in the neighbourhood of that city. "It is now certain that this crocodile is of a species quite peculiar, and different not only from all living crocodiles, but from all fossil crocodiles hitherto discovered. The only one which comes near it is that dug up near Pappenheim, and which is preserved in the Cabinet of the Royal Academy of Bavaria." Geology. An interesting paper, in the American Philosophical Journal, by L. Brin gier, Esq. of Louisiana, contains observations on the regions of the Mississippi, and shows clearly how thousands of square miles X |