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bisher returned with wild and wondrous tales of the northern ocean, and its plains of eternal ice; Raleigh and Somers led the willing imagination to spice-breathing islands, rejoicing in cloudless skies, and blest with a year-long summer; while Sir Anthony Shirley, and the East India adventurers, more than realized the fables of romance, in their descriptions of the gorgeous magnificence of Shah Abbas, and Acbar, and the unrivalled scenery of the "land of sunshine and roses." The most indolent was aroused to exertion, the most unimaginative to thought, and in the very springtide of English literature, a harvest was reaped, which in richness and abundance has not since been surpassed. The glories of Elizabeth's reign shed a splendour over the reign of her unworthy succcessor, and the flame which was kindled at the revival of letters continued burning with fitful radiance until the Restoration. The causes which led to the introduction of French criticism have already been stated, and it only remains to compare the general situation of the nation in the reign of Queen Anne, with that period when Spenser peopled the bowers of fairyland, Shakspeare wantoned in the wide regions of invention, and Bacon reared the proudest monument of English glory.

The seventeenth century, after witnessing conflicts in which the crown of England was the prize of the victor, saw at its close the nation enjoying, through the victories and enlightened policy of "great Nassau," a higher degree of prosperity and liberty than had ever before been her lot: but as, in the natural world, a stormy day is mostly succeeded by a tranquil night, and the violent agitation of the sea, by an unruffled calm; so the public, now that all was effected, sunk into apathy. The aged supporters of the commonwealth departed to their rest, and a new generation, cradled in security, and lapped in prosperity, reaping what they had not sown, and enjoying blessings purchased by the blood of their fathers, filled up their places. Riches and abundance filled the city, all classes found that "rest was pleasant," and that gain was more so.

"The sober citizen would knock

His servants up, and rise at five o'clock;
Instruct his family in every rule,

And send his wife to church, his son to school;
To worship like his fathers was his care,
And teach their frugal virtues to his heir;
To prove that luxury could never hold,
And place on good security his gold."*

The landholder smoked his pipe and drank his october in quiet; and while he thanked heaven that he enjoyed his paternal estate unvexed by demands of ship-money, and prosecution in the high-commission courts, felt no gratitude to the memory of those patriots, to whose disinterested exertions he owed his repose. Still the politics of former days were not altogether forgotten: "the good cause," or the "divine right," "liberty of conscience," or "mother church," were yet " familiar in the mouths" of their respective partisans, as "household words," but as unimpressive. The Whig gentlemen toasted the "glorious memory of King William;" and the Whig mob occasionally broke the windows of a Jacobite, or insulted a nonjuror: the Tory gentlemen drank to the health of Sorel, and the Tory mob sometimes pelted a non-conforming minister, or burnt down a meeting-house: but that enthusiastic devotion to what they considered the cause of truth, which equally distinguished "the gay and gallant" cavalier, and the high-minded Puritan, was wholly unknown. The very exercise of strong feeling was indeed proscribed; the term "enthusiasm," was considered of such schismatical import, that its very use, except as a by-word and reproach, was prohibited, and romance was considered as including the seven deadly sins. The tales of the "olden time" had passed from the minds of the peasantry, without any better knowledge filling up the vacancy; and the brutalized populace bore no resemblance to the bold and daring yeomanry, who, during the middle ages, were the terror and admiration of Europe. In private life, the starch and whalebone of their dress seemed admirably suited to their manners, and the stiff bow and formal courtesy, the set compliment and ready-made answer, took place of the unconstrained intercourse of social life. But of what consequence was all this? wealth abounded, pleasures suited to each were within their call: there was mum, and tobacco, and the Daily Courant, for the sober citizen; Burgundy and French criticism, for the "pert Templar;" there was Brussels lace and Mechlin point for the young ladies, and citron waters and Bohea for the matrons;-what more could be wished? And what charms for these matter-of-fact persons, had the enchanted island of Prospero, the musk-rose bowers of Titania, the coral-paved cell of Sabrina, or the gorgeous and appalling

*"Imitations of Horace."- -Pope.

+ King William's horse, that caused his death.

splendours of Pandemonium? What feelings of sympathy or admiration had they, for the commanding loveliness of that "glorious mirror of celestial grace," Belphœbe, the delicate and impalpable beauty of "little dainty Ariel,” for the high imaginations and forbidden daring of Faustus, or the towering grandeur of the fallen archangel? These were the bright and lofty abstractions of minds springing into existence in an earlier and more imaginative age, where, amid all that was exciting, arousing, and romantic, they lived, and moved, and had their being. But in this "Augustan age," when the wild play of a vigorous and brilliant imagination was unknown, and the public mind sunk into comparative apathy, if the poet, by a short tale, or a lively essay, amused an idle hour, or beguiled a tedious evening, it was sufficient. Unused to wander, the mind preferred dwelling on accustomed scenes, and well-known characters, to ranging among ideal beings, too fair or too lofty to be the inhabitants of this world; and light essays, humorous fables, satires which gratified party feeling, and heroic poems which administered to national vanity, were the more congenial literature of a gay and prosperous, but an unimaginative age. Very strongly is the character of these widely dissimilar periods marked in the productions of their respective schools. Whoever is charmed with wit, in all its varied modifications, from the gay and buoyant humour of Addison to the caustic satire of Swift,-whoever delights in viewing common scenes and ordinary occurrences, adorned with every fascination of style and felicity of expression,will find them in the literature of the days of Queen Anne :whoever would call up the master spirits of long past ages, sail to enchanted islands, wander into the wild regions of romance, revel in the bowers of fairyland, dive into the mysteries of the invisible world, or soar into the heaven of heavens, must turn to the golden literature of the age of Elizabeth. Both ages have passed away, but from each the writers of succeeding ones have derived many lessons of wisdom, and none more so than that in which we live; for in its literature we may trace a happy intermixture of the strength, the fancy, and the feeling of the former school, with the wit, the humour, the elegance, and harmony of the latter.

E. H.

28

An Essay on the Agriculture of the Israelites.

PART VI.

Bulls Cows-Oxen-Calves-Wild Ox-Milk-ButterCheese-Horses -Unicorn-Asses-Wild Asses-Mules

Camels-Dromedaries-Camel's Hair.

THERE is some little difficulty in fixing upon a single word to describe those animals with us distinguished by the names of bull, ox, and cow; as the first properly belongs only to the male, the second to the male when deprived of the characteristic of his sex, and the third belongs to the female only, as does the plural term of kine. Of the second, however, as was before observed, in speaking of the sheep, (No. x. Vol. v. p. 271.) the Israelites had none, their oxen, whether used for draught or tillage, being, strictly speaking, bulls. Goldsmith uses the term cow kind, and Bingley, oxtribe. We might use the word bull, as we do man, the male, the principal, or head, to include both; but, as our translators, in Deut. xiv. 5. and other places, have used the word or, it seems altogether the most advisable to adopt that, especially in an essay on the agriculture of the Israelites collected from scripture. The term neat cattle, indeed, does not seem liable to objection, as it includes all the three descriptions, and has been used in our language : "Would I were

A neat-herd's daughter, and my Leonatus,
Our neighbour shepherd's son,'

Cymbeline, act 1.

and the author of "The Complete Grazier" uses it; but, for the above reason, the word or shall be preferred. It will be necessary, however, occasionally to use these terms in their limited senses; and it seems desirable to begin this article with some observations on the use of bulls in agriculture.

The author of "The Complete Grazier," and of a "Treatise on Live Stock," says, "The bull, as well as the cow and ox, generally lives about fourteen years; but the progress of decay is usually perceptible after he has attained the age of ten years. His temper is naturally fierce and ungovernable, which is not a little increased by his being permitted to live quietly in the best pastures, without being applied to any useful purpose, but that of propagating his species. Hence this animal, naturally vicious, often becomes

so mischievous, as to endanger many valuable lives; an evil which, we conceive, might be remedied by training him to labour, for, being the only beast of his size which is thus indulged in idleness, and as he possesses equal strength with the ox, we doubt not, but, if he were moderately worked, and allowed to indulge his desires during the breeding season, he would, by being inured to labour, and attended by mankind, become gradually tame and harmless as the horse, or any other often naturally vicious animal. We understand, indeed, that several experiments have been made for this purpose; and from their successful result, we think the practice of working bulls might be advantageously adopted; especially as these animals are not only broken in with little difficulty, and work well, but also because they recover from fatigue much sooner than any ox, and may generally be procured at easy prices in those places where, oxen being scarce, a young farmer cannot purchase, without involving himself in great expense." (Comp. Grazier, 34. Treatise on Live Stock, p. 22.) The author of "The Experienced Butcher," after quoting this passage, adds in a note, "The writer of this volume has heard of a bull, kept by Mr. Ingle, farmer, of Potton, in Bedfordshire, for purposes of agriculture, that would draw five loads of wheat." p. 116.

P.

It has been before noticed, in speaking of the sheep, that our naturalists suppose our tame breeds to be descended from wild originals; Mr. Bingley says, (Brit. Quad. p. 391.) "There is, I believe, no doubt that the ox is a descendant of the bison, a large and powerful animal, which inhabits the marshy forests and vales of Poland and Lithuania. In the lapse of many centuries, however, its general appearance, as well as its temperament and disposition, have undergone a radical change. The enormous strength of body, great depth of chest and shoulders, the shagginess and length of hair which covers the head, neck, and other foreparts of the bison, as well as his savage and gloomy disposition, are in the present animal so altered, that the mere variety would almost seem to constitute a distinct species." But I have there stated my reasons why I conclude our present race of domestic animals to be derived from domestic originals; and if the present domestic ox, and the bison, and urus, are not distinct species, but merely varieties, I should rather conclude that the bison had, like a prodigal, run away from his kind protector, and "stuffed his shoulders" with his "bunch," than that the bison had been brought from * See Cowper's Task, B. vi. l. 674.

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