unconsciously conducts itself by an uniform process; and when this process had been traced, they inferred that what was done by some men, under the influence of fundamental laws which regulate the march of the intellect, must also be in the reach of others who, in the same circumstances, apply themselves to the same study. But these metaphysicians resemble anatomists, under whose knife all men are alike: they know the structure of the bones, the movement of the muscles, and where the connecting ligaments lie; but the invisible principle of life flies from their touch it is the practitioner on the living body who studies in every individual that peculiarity of constitution which forms the idiosyncracy.

(From The Literary Character.)

THE PLAYTHINGS OF PHILOSOPHERS

THE museums, the cabinets, and the inventions of our early virtuosi were the baby-houses of philosophers. Baptista Porta, Bishop Wilkins, and old Ashmole, were they now living, had been enrolled among the quiet members of the Society of Arts, instead of flying in the air, collecting "A wing of the phoenix, as tradition goes": or catching the disjointed syllables of an old doting astrologer. But these early dilettanti had not derived the same pleasure from the useful inventions of the aforesaid Society of Arts, as they received from what Cornelius Agrippa, in a fit of spleen, calls "things vain and superfluous," invented to no other end but for pomp and idle pleasures. Baptista Porta was more skilful in the mysteries of art and nature than any man in his day. Having founded the Academia degli Oziosi, he held an inferior association in his own house called Di Segreti, where none was admitted but those elect who had communicated some secret; for, in the early period of modern art and science, the slightest novelty became a secret not to be confided to the uninitiated. Porta was unquestionably a fine genius, as his works still show; but it was his misfortune that he attributed his own penetrating sagacity to his skill in the art of divination. He considered himself a prognosticator; and, what was more unfortunate, some eminent persons really thought he was. Predictions and secrets are harmless, provided they are not believed; but His Holiness finding Porta's were, warned

him that magical sciences were great hindrances to the study of the Bible, and paid him the compliment to forbid his prophesying. Porta's genius was now limited, to astonish, and sometimes to terrify, the more ingenious part of I Segreti. On entering his cabinet, some phantom of an attendant was sure to be hovering in the air, moving as he who entered moved; or he observed in some mirror that his face was twisted on the wrong side of his shoulders, and did not quite think that all was right when he clapped his hand on it; or passing through a darkened apartment a magical landscape burst on him, with human beings in motion, the boughs of trees bending, and the very clouds passing over the sun; or sometimes banquets, battles, and hunting parties, were in the same apartment. "All these spectacles my friends have witnessed!" exclaimed the selfdelighted Baptista Porta. When his friends drank wine out of the same cup which he had used, they were mortified with wonder; for he drank wine, and they only water! or on a summer's day, when all complained of the sirocco, he would freeze his guests with cold air in the room; or, on a sudden, let off a flying dragon to sail along with a cracker in its tail, and a cat tied on its back; shrill was the sound, and awful the concussion; so that it required strong nerves, in an age of apparitions and devils, to meet this great philosopher when in his best humour. Albertus Magnus entertained the Earl of Holland, as that Earl passed through Cologne, in a severe winter, with a warm summer scene, luxuriant in fruits and flowers. . . . Bishop Wilkin's museum was visited by Evelyn, who describes the sort of curiosities which occupied and amused the children of science. "Here, too, there was a hollow statue, which gave a voice, and uttered words by a long concealed pipe that went to its mouth, whilst one speaks through it at a good distance": a circumstance which, perhaps, they were not then aware revealed the whole mystery of the ancient oracles, which they attributed to demons rather than to tubes, pulleys, and wheels. The learned Charles Patin, in his scientific travels, records, among other valuable productions of art, a cherry stone on which were engraved about a dozen and a half of portraits! Even the greatest of human geniuses, Leonardo da Vinci, to attract the royal patronage, created a lion which ran before the French monarch, dropping fleurs de lis from its shaggy breast. And another philosopher who had a spinet which played and stopped at command, might

have made a revolution in the arts and sciences, had the halfstifled child that was concealed in it not been forced, unluckily, to crawl into daylight, and thus it was proved that a philosopher might be an impostor !

The arts, as well as the sciences, at the first institution of the Royal Society were of the most amusing class. The famous Sir Samuel Moreland had turned his house into an enchanted palace. Everything was full of devices, which showed art and mechanism in perfection: his coach carried a travelling kitchen ; for it had a fireplace and grate, with which he could make a soup, broil cutlets and roast an egg; and he dressed his meat by clockwork. Another of these virtuosi, who is described as “a gentleman of superior order," and whose house was a knickknackatory, valued himself on his multifarious inventions, but most in "sowing salads in the morning, to be cut for dinner." The house of Winstanley, who afterwards raised the first Eddystone lighthouse, must have been the wonder of the age. If you kicked aside an old slipper, purposely lying in your way, up started a ghost before you; or if you sat down in a certain chair, a couple of gigantic arms would immediately clasp you in. There was an arbour in the garden, by the side of a canal; you had scarcely seated yourself when you were sent out afloat to the middle of the canal-from whence you could not escape till this man of art and science wound you up to the arbour. What was passing at the Royal Society was also occurring at the Académie des Sciences at Paris. A great and gouty member of that philosophical body, on the departure of a stranger, would point to his legs to show the impossibility of conducting him to the door; yet the astonished visitor never failed finding the virtuoso waiting for him on the outside, to make his final bow! While the visitor was going downstairs, this inventive genius was descending with great velocity in a machine from the window: so that he proved, that if a man of science cannot force Nature to walk downstairs, he may drive her out at the window!

(From Curiosities of Literature.)

MARIA EDGEWORTH

[Maria Edgeworth was the daughter of Richard Lovell Edgeworth, the representative of an old family of Irish proprietors, and was born in Oxfordshire in 1767. Her education was obtained chiefly in England; and through her father's connections she became early imbued with what were held to be enlightened views on "practical education." These influenced her earliest writings, which began with the Parent's Assistant in 1796, and Practical Education in 1798. Her knowledge of literature was large; her opportunities for intellectual intercourse abundant; and her acquaintance with foreign languages very considerable. The most valuable part of her work was due to her acuteness of observation, her ready perception of national characteristics, especially those of the Irish, amongst whom she spent the largest part of her life, and her liveliness of description. The first book in which these powers were shown was Castle Rackrent (1800) and this was followed by a long list of tales, classified by her father's advice and influence, under various headings-Popular, Moral, Fashionable, etc. most active period of work closed in 1817, when Harrington and Ormond were published; only one other novel, Helen, followed in 1834; but it did not attain the popularity of its predecessors. In later life she enjoyed the warm friendship of Scott, and was an important figure in the literary society of the day. She died in 1849.]

Her

MARIA EDGEWORTH is one of those authors of whom it is difficult to say whether the reputation transcends or falls below the merits. Her name is familiar to all, many of her books are read habitually, and retain their hold on a large audience, some of her characters are household words, and on the whole we of the present generation are fairly well acquainted with her methods and her aims, which were clear and definite. But, on the other hand, those books which are most read are not the books in which she allowed her talents most of free play. She is best known as a writer of children's books, of which the popularity does not show much sign of failing; and in these her common sense and healthy didacticism rouse no opposition. The audience for whom she wrote them is fortunately not supercilious enough,

unless it has been nurtured under morbid conditions, to object to any obtrusiveness of moral teaching; and in spite of all the caprices of fashion, Miss Edgeworth retains a perennial hold upon their sympathy. It may be questioned, indeed, whether that preference will not become stronger, in the reaction against a fashion which strives to please children, and captivate their attention, by books which have some flavour of humour more readily perceived by grown-up people than by healthy-minded children.

On the other hand, it may be doubted whether the books which she wrote for older readers, and in which she must stand comparison with other writers of fiction, have not been injured by the didacticism of her children's books. The influence of her early associations, the impression of her father's theories, and those of his friends, the undue consciousness of a moral purpose which impresses us so strongly, did undoubtedly tend to limit her freedom of fancy, and to give a certain air of formality to most of her pictures of life. The literary partnership between father and daughter is not unpleasing, but the little descriptive prefaces which W. Edgeworth wrote to most of his daughter's works do certainly give them an air of artificiality which his influence constantly impressed upon her. The very superficial views as to what he and his friends called "practical education ”—which even so friendly a critic as Scott shatters in one or two sentences of sound common sense-marred all her views of human nature and of society, and gave to her world too much of the atmosphere of the schoolroom. She harps too much on one string; the moral is unnaturally obtrusive; her characters range themselves too distinctly as bad or good, and their fates are too uniformly regulated upon the principles of retributive justice to be quite true

to nature.

It would be absurd, however, to deny to her the merits of brightness and facility in constructing her stories, the power of life-like description and of vivid portrayal of character, and an observation which grasped with truth and accuracy the salient features of Irish life. Her Castle Rackrent has little of connected story, but it is the most distinctively classical of all her books, and its vitality as a picture of Irish manners is assured. She is never at a loss for incident. If she fails in painting any sustained passion or feeling, she nevertheless gives us true pictures of quick and varied impulses, superficial perhaps, but real so far as they