The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, No. 565 by Various
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Various >> The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, No. 565
THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION.
Vol. 20, No. 565.] SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1832. [PRICE 2d.
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[Illustration: PERSIAN BATH.]
* * * * *
The luxurious indulgence of baths in the East is generally known
to the reader of travels, so as to render acceptable the following
details. They are extracted from Mr. Buckingham's Travels,[1] and bear
all the graphic minuteness of his entertaining pen.
[1] Travels in Assyria, Media, and Persia. H. Colburn, 4to.,
1829.
The Bath is one of the principal ones of Kermanshah, an important
frontier town of Persia. "It was entered by a porch, extremely clean,
and neatly ornamented by painting and other devices on its ceiling and
walls. This remarkable contrast to the low, dark, and foul passages
which generally lead to Turkish baths, was a presage, upon the very
threshold, of greater comfort and accommodation within.
"When we reached the undressing-room, this prepossession was still
further strengthened. Here we found a square hall, well lighted
from above, having on three of its sides elevated recesses for the
visiters, and on the fourth, the passage from the outer porch to the
hall, and from this to the inner bath. At the angles of these raised
recesses, and dividing their lower roof, which they supported, from
the higher one of the central square, were, four good marble pillars,
with spirally fluted shafts, and moulded capitals, perfectly uniform
in size and design, and producing the best effect. In the centre of
the square space, which these marked out, and on a lower floor, was a
large marble cistern of cold water; and at each end of this, on wooden
stands, like those used in our arbours and breakfast rooms, were
arranged coloured glass jars, with flowers of various kinds in them,
well watered and perfectly fresh.
"The walls of this outer hall were ornamented all around by designs of
trees, birds, and beasts, in fanciful forms, executed in white upon a
blue ground. We undressed here, and were led from hence into the inner
bath, where all was still free from everything offensive, either to
the sight or smell. This inner room was originally an oblong space
of about fifty feet by twenty-five, but had been since made into two
square divisions. The first, or outer one, was a plain paved hall,
exactly like the undressing-room, except that it had no side recesses,
but its floor was level, close to the walls. There were here also four
pillars; and in the square space which they enclosed in the centre of
the room, was a cistern of water as in the outer one. It was on the
floor of this that the visiters lay, to be washed by the attendants;
for there were no raised seats for this purpose as in Turkish baths,
and the great octagonal one, with its cold fountain, the sides and
tops of which are ornamented with mosaic work of marble in Turkey, was
here replaced by the cistern described.
"The second division to which this room led, consisted of three parts;
the central one was a large and deep bath, filled with warm water,
its bottom being level with the lower floor of the building, and the
ascent to it being by three or four steep steps.
"As few pleasures are entirely perfect, so here, with all its general
apparent superiority to the baths of Turkey, this was inferior to them
in the most essential points. The attendants seemed quite ignorant
of the art of twisting the limbs, moulding the muscles, cracking the
joints, opening the chest, and all that delicious train of operations
in which the Turks are so skilful. The visitors were merely well
though roughly scrubbed, and their impurities then rinsed off in the
large cistern above, from which there was neither a running stream
to carry off the foul water, nor cocks of hot and cold to renew and
temper it at pleasure, as in Turkey.
"In place of the luxurious moulding of the muscles, the use of the
hair-bag, or glove, for removing the dirt, and the profusion of
perfumed soap, with which the Turks end a course of treatment full
of delight, the Persians are occupied in staining the beard and hair
black, the nails of the toes and fingers of a deep red, and the whole
of the feet and hands of a yellow colour, by different preparations of
henna. This operation is the most unpleasant that can be imagined. The
Persians do not shave the whole of the head, as is usual with most of
the Turks and Arabs, but, taking of all the hair from the forehead,
over the crown, and down the neck, for about a hand's breadth,
they leave on each side two large bushy masses depending over their
shoulders. This, then, with a very long and full beard, in which all
the people here take pride, is plastered with a thick paste, of the
consistence of hog's lard, and not less than two pounds weight
of which is sometimes used on one person. It possesses a strongly
astringent and penetrating quality, and requires great skill in the
use of it, to avoid doing considerable mischief. As the eye-brows are
plastered with it, as well as the rest of the hair, and as it softens
by the heat of the room and of the body, it frequently steals into the
eyes, and produces great pain.
"When all is finished, and the visiter leaves the inner bath, he is
furnished with two cloths only, one for the waist, and the other to
throw loosely over the head and shoulders: he then goes into the outer
room into a colder air, thus thinly clad, and without slippers or
pattens; no bed is prepared for him, nor is he again attended to by
any one, unless he demands a nargeel to smoke; but, most generally, he
dresses himself in haste, and departs."
ORIGIN OF PSALMODY.
In D'Israeli's _Curiosities of Literature_, there is an amusing and
instructive account of the _Origin of Psalm-Singing_. It appears
that Psalms in verse were first written by that elegant French poet,
Clement Marot, the favoured court bard of Francis I., who was termed
by his _un-envious_ brother poets, "the poet of princes." They were
published at Paris, and the volume contained fifty Psalms, written in
various measures, and, which, from the beauty of their composition,
(some specimens of which we have seen,) appear to be worthy of the
muse of Marot. This "Holy Song Book," as he entitled it, was "humbly
dedicated to the powerful King of France," and being considered by the
volatile French people as an amusing novelty, it sold faster than
any book of that period. In fact, the printers could not supply
impressions fast enough for the demand; and, as the Psalms were
considered in the light of ballads, they were set by the people to
popular tunes, and were commonly _sung_ as ballads.
This good reception of Marot's Psalms induced the celebrated Theodore
Beza to continue the collection; and another volume was printed,
of which 20,000 were immediately sold: this was a considerable
circulation, when we consider the few readers that then existed, in
comparison with the number of readers in the present age. These had
the advantage over Marot's of being set to tunes of greater spirit.
Beza, in his preface, says, that "these Psalms are admirably suited
for the violin and other musical instruments;" and our readers will
learn, not without surprise, that through the instrumentality of
the gloomy Calvin, these compositions were set to most beautiful and
simple airs. He wisely took advantage of popular feeling to spread his
religious opinions, through the means of melody, and, in furtherance
of this plan, he engaged the most celebrated composers of his time
to furnish tunes to these Psalms. At first, the scheme was not
discovered: for Catholics sang the Psalms as well as Hugonots; but,
when Calvin appointed these Psalms, with their music, to be sung at
his meetings, there was an end to the solace of the dreary hours
of the poor Catholics. Marot himself was compelled to quit Geneva;
Psalm-singing became an open declaration of Lutheranism; and "woe
to the poor wight" who was caught in the _diabolical_ act of singing
these "pernicious Psalms."
The history of Psalm-singing in our own island can be comprised in
very few words. When the enthusiasm of the French in favour of their
Psalms was at its height, one Sternhold, undertook to be _our_
Marot, and wrote a Book of Psalms, which captivated the hearts of
the Puritans, by whom they were practised at their chapels in the
Protectorate of Cromwell, but were more particularly set and sung in
the reign of Elizabeth. Psalms, about this time, were sung at City
and Lord Mayors' feasts, and turtle-eaters delighted to honour
Psalm-singers. Soldiers used them as stimulants to exertion on their
march, and even on parade; and there was scarcely a regiment but could
boast of its Marot. About this time, too, it was customary for the
inhabitants of houses which had windows facing the street, to regale
the passenger with the "holy songs" of Sternhold.
E.J.H.
[By way of an appropriate pendent to our Correspondent's
paper, we quote the following excellent passage on Psalmody,
by the Rev. W.S. Gilly, in his _Memoir of Felix Neff_.]
The effect produced by the words, or by the music, or by the
combination of the two, is such, that the cultivation of psalmody has
ever been earnestly recommended by those who are anxious to excite
true piety. Tradition, history, revelation, and experience, bear
witness to the truth, that there is nothing to which the natural
feelings of man respond more readily. Every nation, whose literary
remains have come down to us, appears to have consecrated the first
efforts of its muse to religion, or rather all the first compositions
in verse seem to have grown out of devotional effusions. We know that
the book of Job, and others, the most ancient of the Old Testament,
contain rhythmical addresses to the Supreme Being. Many of the psalms
were composed centuries before the time of king David, and it is not
extravagant to imagine, that some of them may have been sung even to
Jubal's lyre, and were handed down from patriarch to patriarch by oral
tradition. Nor did the fancy of Milton take too bold a flight when
it pleased itself with the idea that our first parents, taught by
the carols of the birds in the garden of Eden, raised their voices in
tuneful notes of praise to the Creator of all, when they walked forth
in the cool of the day to meet their God before the fall. But this is
certain, that one of our Lord's last acts of social worship on earth
was to sing a hymn with his disciples. Few, therefore, can be slow to
understand, that if Christ and his disciples broke forth in holy song,
immediately after the solemnities of the Last Supper, and just before
the Shepherd was smitten, and the sheep were scattered; and if Paul
and Silas sung praises unto God in their prison-house, congregational
worship may always be the better for such helps. Add to these
examples, the apostolical exhortation to the merry hearted to sing
psalms, and the apostolical descriptions of the choral strains which
resound in the courts of heaven, and we cannot but feel certain, that
the services of the Christian church were cheered from the earliest
times by hymns and psalms. "Those Nazarenes sing hymns to Christ,"
said Pliny, in contempt. We thank him for recording the fact. The
words of the Te Deum were composed by a native of Gaul, (for the use
probably of one of the churches on the Rhone, or of the Alps) about
the third century; and at the same period, men, women, youths of both
sexes, and even children joined in the psalmody of the sanctuaries,
in such cordial and harmonious unison, that a father of the church has
well compared the sound to the loud, but not discordant, noise of many
waves beating against the sea shore.
At the time of the Reformation, sacred music, which had begun to
run wild, was brought back to its first principles. The melodies of
religious worship were rendered more heart-touching, by being set to
words in the vernacular tongues, which every body could understand.
Luther's hymn, "Great God, what do I hear and see," led the way. Henry
VIII. hated the German reformer, and all that he did, but he burned to
rival him in every thing, and he gave a stimulus to the public taste,
by composing words and music for the service of the English church.
In France, soon after the middle of the sixteenth century, when it was
doubtful whether the nation would become Protestant or remain Roman
Catholic, the pathetic tunes and devotional stanzas of the reformers
obtained so great an influence over the minds of men, that the
music of the temples, as the Protestant sanctuaries were called,
to distinguish them from the Roman Catholic churches, became the
fashionable melodies of the day. This taste found its way even to
the court, and to the great alarm of the Romish party, some of the
sweetest and most stirring of the psalms, which had been translated
into French metre by Clement Marot, were set to music by Lewis
Guadimel, and were constantly in the mouths not only of the Protestant
families of the provinces, but of the ornaments of the saloons of
Paris, and of the palace of the Louvre. It is said to have been quite
astonishing how much this pious and simple device found favour for
the Protestant cause, and induced people, who had never read Scripture
before, to search the holy volume out of which those treasures were
drawn, which so charmed their ears and their imagination. It is still
the practice in most of the mountain churches to make sacred music a
part of family devotion, and many of the tunes which Guadimel composed
with such success are still sung to the praise of God. I can bear
witness to the forcible manner in which these strains, rising to
heaven from the lips of parents, children and domestics, quicken
piety, and stir up the best affections of the heart towards God and
man. I have seen and felt the effect produced by them in the humble
dwelling of the village pastor, where none but human voices swelled
the notes; and in the chateau, where the harp and the organ have
mingled their fine sounds with the well modulated tones of an
accomplished family of sons and daughters. My thoughts, at the moment
I am writing this, are at Chateau Blonay, but most of the voices,
which I heard there, are now silent in death! I am thoroughly
convinced that family worship, and congregational worship lose a great
auxiliary to piety, when there is not the power or the inclination to
join in psalmody.
* * * * *
LINES
_Written after reading the Memoir and Poems of Miss Lucretia
Davidson._[2]
Ev'n till thy latest hour, Lucretia! thou
Didst cherish _that_ which but consum'd thy frame.
'Twas _then_ it shone the brightest on thy brow,
Like the last flickerings of an earthly flame--
Yes, thy brain harass'd by deep toil, became
With all its fire, a tenant of the tomb,
And dim is now thine eye, Belov'd of Fame!
Thy cheek is pale--thy lip without perfume--
And there thou liest--the child of Genius--and its doom.
Like the proud eagle soaring to the skies,
Intent "the topmost arch" of heaven to scale,
When heeding naught that would oppose its rise,
It breaks with fearless nerve the tempest-gale--
And spreads its wings like a majestic sail,
Full on the bosom of the raging blast,
Thy spirit soar'd--but ah! too like us frail,
When the same breeze which bore it from the dust
Wing'd home the fatal shaft that tore its bleeding breast.
Would I could sing thy fame with thine own lyre,
Then should I breathe a more deserving lay,
A lay which every spirit would inspire,
And melt each eye to tears of sympathy;
But others at thy shrine, their tributes pay.
Offspring of Beauty! child of native song!
And I, ev'n I, would venture to essay,
To raise my lauding voice amidst the throng
Of those who weep thy loss--and who shall weep it long!--N.C.
[2] See Memoir, and specimens of her Poetry, _Mirror_, vol.
xiv. p. 340.
* * * * *
SPIRIT OF DISCOVERY.
* * * * *
IMPROVED RAW SUGAR.
[We find the following information communicated to the
_Literary Gazette_, apparently by the parties connected with
the improvement.]
Considerable interest has been excited in the market by the
introduction of an improved native raw sugar, which portends very
great advantages to all who are engaged in this so long unprofitable
branch of colonial and commercial intercourse. It is pure raw sugar,
obtained direct from the cane-juice, without any secondary process
of decoloration or solution, and by which all necessity for any
subsequent process of refining is entirely obviated. It is obtained
in perfectly pure, transparent, granular crystals, being entirely free
from any portion of uncrystallisable sugar or colouring matter, and
is prepared by the improved process of effecting the last stages of
concentration in vacuum, and at a temperature insufficient to produce
any changes in its chemical composition; the mode of operation
first proposed by the late Hon. Ed. Charles Howard, and subsequently
introduced, with the most important advantages and complete success,
into the principal sugar-refineries of Great Britain.
By this improved and scientific process of manufacture, the
application of which to the purpose of preparing raw sugar from the
cane-juice has now first been proposed, the most singular advantages
are secured to the planter, in an increased quantity of sugar, the
product of his operation, and in saving from the immense quantity of
deteriorated material, uncrystallisable sugar and molasses, which
were products of the former mode of operation, from the intense and
long-continued degree of heat employed in the processes. The time
and labour of the operation are also greatly decreased; the apparatus
possesses the power to make double the quantity in the same space of
time as the old method, and this is ready for shipment in four days,
in lieu of three weaks, as heretofore. The sugar likewise readily
commands an advanced price in the market to the planter of ten or
twelve shillings per cwt.
This improved sugar readily ensures a preference for all purposes of
manufacture, solution, or domestic economy. It is a purer sweet, and
of a richer mellifluous taste than even the best refined; it is not
apt to become ascescent in solution; and, from its superior quality,
it well answers all purposes of the table. In the manufacture of rum
from the molasses, which are separated during the first process of the
operation, there is no danger of deterioration in the production of
empyreuma, and a far purer spirit is obtained than that made from
ordinary molasses.
This improved process is now in complete and successful operation on
eight estates in Demerara. The general introduction of the process
is considered by the best practical judges to ensure certain means of
revivifying the spoiled fortunes of the planters, and to open a new
era in the prosperity of those portions of the British crown, of which
this forms the principal staple commodity of support.
[According to Dr. Moseley, the art of refining sugar, and what is
called loaf sugar, is a modern European invention, the discovery of a
Venetian, about the end of the fifteenth or beginning of the sixteenth
century. Sugar candy is of much earlier date, for in Marin's _Storia
del Commercio de Veneziani_, there is an account of a shipment made at
Venice for England in 1319, of 100,000 lbs. of sugar, and 10,000
lbs. of sugar candy. Refined, or loaf sugar is mentioned in a roll of
provisions in the reign of Henry VIII.
The process of refining sugar _in vacuo_ is the most useful
application of "the fact that liquids are driven off, or made to boil
at lower degrees of heat when the atmospheric pressure is lessened or
removed."[3] The first part of the process is to dissolve impure sugar
in water, and after clarifying the solution, to boil off or evaporate
the water again, that the dry crystallized mass may remain. Formerly
this evaporation was performed under the atmospheric pressure, and
a heat of 218 deg. or 220 deg. was required to make the syrup boil; by which
degree of heat, however, a portion of the sugar was discoloured and
spoiled, and the whole produce was deteriorated. The valuable thought
occurred to Mr. Howard, that the water might be dissipated by boiling
the syrup in a vacuum or place from which air was _excluded_, and
therefore at a low temperature. This was done accordingly; and the
saving of sugar and the improvement of quality were such as to make
the patent right, which secured the emoluments of the process to
him and other parties, worth many thousand pounds a-year. The syrup,
during this process, is not more heated than it would be in a vessel
merely exposed to a summer sun.
[3] Arnott's Elements of Physics.
Lord Brougham, in his Introduction to the _Library of Useful
Knowledge_, characterizes this as a process, by which more money has
been made in a shorter time, and with less risk and trouble, than was
ever perhaps gained from an invention; and as "the fruit of a long
course of experiments, in the progress of which known philosophical
principles were constantly applied, and one or two new principles
ascertained."[4]
[4] Objects, Advantages, and Pleasures of Science. In the
first edition, the inventer is erroneously stated to be Edward
Howard.
The scene of this discovery was, in all probability, the Deepdene,
near Dorking, the retreat of the late Mr. Thomas Hope, the author
of _Anastasius_. Here the Hon. Mr. Howard, brother of the Duke of
Norfolk, resided at the commencement of the last century, and is
stated to have enjoyed that philosophical retirement which may be
described as the happy haven of a truly great mind. He planted a
portion of the grounds, the greater part of the estate being so
admirably disposed by nature as almost to forbid the fashioning of
men's hands. At Mr. Howard's death, the estate descended to the Duke
of Norfolk, who sold the property, in 1791, to the late Sir William
Burrell, whose lady wrote the following lines, which are on a tablet
in the grounds:
"This votive Tablet is inscribed to the memory of the
Honourable Charles Howard, who built an oratory and laboratory
on this spot: he died at the Deepdene, 1714.
If worth, if learning, should with fame be crown'd,
If to superior talents, fame be due,
Let _Howard's_ virtues consecrate the ground
Where once the fairest flowers of science grew.
Within this calm retreat, th' illustrious sage
Was wont his grateful orisons to pay,
Here he perused the legendary page,
Here gave to chemistry the feeling day.
Cold to ambition, far from courts remov'd,
Though qualified to fill the statesman's part,
He studied nature in the paths he lov'd,
Peace in his thoughts, and virtue in his heart.
Soft may the breeze sigh through the ivy boughs
That shade this humble record of his worth;
Here may the robin undisturbed repose,
And fragrant flowers adorn the hallow'd earth.
January 1792."
The tablet is of plain wood--black letters painted on a white ground.
It is an unostentatious memorial, which has been respected amidst the
extensive alteration and embellishment of the grounds by the late
Mr. Hope. To our minds, neither of the treasures of art which are
assembled within the splendid saloons of the adjoining mansion, or
sculpture gallery, will outvie the interest of this humble tribute to
the memory of departed genius.]
* * * * *
THE LANDERS VOYAGE AND DISCOVERIES ON THE NIGER.
The travellers, in embarking on the Atlantic, had solved the greatest
problem in African, and even in modern geography;--one which had
exercised the ingenuity and conjecture of so many learned inquirers,
and in the efforts to solve which so many brave and distinguished
adventurers had perished. This discovery divested the Niger of that
singular and mysterious character, which had been one chief cause of
the interest that it had excited--when seen rolling its ample flood
_from_ the sea towards vast unknown regions in the interior. The
circuit by which it reaches the Atlantic assimilates its character
to that of ordinary rivers, without any much more remarkable windings
than are found in others of similar length. It displays, however, a
magnitude considerably greater than had been suggested by any former
observation.
We can now trace very distinctly, the entire line of this great river.
Its source, though not actually visited, seems ascertained by Laing
to exist in the high country of Kissi, about 200 miles in the interior
from Sierra Leone. Thence it rolls through Foota Jallo and Kankan,
where Caillie describes himself to have found it already a rapid and
considerable stream. At Bammakoo, having received the tributary from
Sankari in Manding, which Park mistook for the main river, it begins
its course over the fine plain of Bambarra, where it forms a noble
stream; and in passing Sego, the capital, has been considered
as equalling the Thames at Westminster. Thence it pursues a
north-westerly course, and flowing through the lake Dibbie, reaches
Timbuctoo. Its course from that city to Youri has not yet been
delineated; but the fact that Park navigated down from one place to
the other, fully establishes the continuity. During this reach the
Niger makes a great change of direction from north-east to almost
due south. From Youri to the sea, it was navigated by the present
travellers, and was found following generally a southern direction,
though making in one part a rapid bend to the east, whence it
gradually returns. If we measure two distances, one from the source
to Timbuctoo, and the other from that city to the sea, we shall have
nearly 2,000 miles, which may be considered as the direct course;
and the various windings must raise the whole line of the stream to
upwards of 3,000 miles. For several hundred miles of its lower course,
it forms a broad and magnificent expanse, resembling an inland sea.
The Niger must after all yield very considerably to the Missouri and
Orellana, those stupendous rivers of the new world. But it appears at
least as great as any of those which water the old continents. There
can rank with it only the Nile, and the Yangtse-kiang, or Great
River of China. But the upper course of neither is yet very fully
ascertained; and the Nile can compete only in length of course, not in
the magnitude of its stream, or the fertility of the regions which it
waters. There is one feature in which the Niger may defy competition
from any river, either of the old or new world. This is in the
grandeur of its Delta. Along the whole coast, from the river of
Formosa or Benin to that of Old Calabar, about 300 miles in length,
there open into the Atlantic its successive estuaries, which
navigators have scarcely been able to number. Taking this coast as
the base of the triangle or Delta, and its vertex at Kirree, about 170
miles inland, where the Formosa branch separates, we have a space of
upwards of 25,000 square miles, equal to the half of England. Had
this Delta, like that of the Nile, been subject only to temporary
inundations, leaving behind a layer of fertilizing slime, it would
have formed the most fruitful region on earth, and might have been
almost the granary of a continent. But, unfortunately, the Niger rolls
down its waters in such excessive abundance, as to convert the whole
into a huge and dreary swamp, covered with dense forests of mangrove,
and other trees of spreading and luxuriant foliage. The equatorial
sun, with its fiercest rays, cannot penetrate these dark recesses; it
only exhales from them pestilential vapours, which render this coast
the theatre of more fatal epidemic diseases than any other, even of
Western Africa. That human industry will one day level these forests,
drain these swamps, and cover this soil with luxuriant harvests, we
may confidently anticipate; but many ages must probably elapse before
man, in Africa, can achieve such a victory over nature.