and arched eye-brows, sitting upon a plough, and between two bulls, why then you are a happy man, and whether you go to war, or seek for hidden treasures, or turn farmer, good luck will go with you. If you should happen to meet with one of these stones it may be some satisfaction to know to whom you are obliged for it. That most ancient Doctor Chael, who was one of the sons of the children of Israel, made it during the forty years which he and his brethren wandered in the wilderness... He made also a great many others, equally curious, and of no less virtue, of all which an account is given in his own works,.. so at least Rod. Gocl. affirms in his treatise De Magneticâ Vulnerum curatione, citra ullam superstitionem, dolorem,& remedii etiam applicationem. 1613. P. 18. The vermicular philosopher Christianus Franciscus Paullinus, has an example of the conjunction if which is not less curious. He says that a Sicilian physician who commented upon Galen affirmed it was possible to make men immortal, and undertook to breed up children to be so,.. if they were fit for the purpose,. qui ad hoc idonei essent. Little words are sometimes of great import in cases of history as well as of law. Evagrius tells us (L. 2. C. 13), that in the Emperor Leo's reign, Constantinople was set on fire by a malignant and wicked Devil in the shape of a woman,.. or by a poor woman at the instigation of the Devil. λεγεται γαρ επ αμφότερα, says the historian, for it is reported both ways. A thousand instances might be produced, wherein figurative language, as in this case, has been interpreted into a miraculous meaning. I recollect one remarkable instance, on the contrary, in which the words meant what they expressed in the speaker's mouth, and were taken perhaps for less than they were worth by every body else. An English sailor was attacked at the Island of St. Michael's by a fellow who wounded him twice in the arm with a knife, cutting it to the bone above and below. The Englisman however got the better in the fray, and gave this account of his victory to the surgeon of his ship while he was under his hands. "I got the rascal down, and knelt upon his breast with one knee, and I took a case of razors out of my pocket, and opened one of them: The Devil bid me cut his throat, but God would not let me This fine anecdote was ... told me, many years ago, from his own knowledge, by the master of the Prince Adolphus, Lisbon packet, Mr. Fenner, a man whom I often remember as the perfect model of a good old careful seaman. 204. Cap. Thomas James, of Bristol. I transcribe the following poems from the "Strange and dangerous Voyage" of this excellent old seaman, " in his intend ed discovery of the North-West passage into the South Sea, in the years 1631 and 1632." The circumstances under which they were written would alone render them curious, even to those persons who cannot pardon the mannerism of that age. But it is hoped there are many readers who are capable of understanding the strain of fine and manly feeling which is breathed in them. "The 30th of this month of September, says he, we thought would have put an end to our miseries; for now we were driven amongst rocks, shoals, over-falls, and breaches round about us, that which way to turn we knew not, but there rid amongst them in extremity of distress. All these perils made a most hideous and terrible noise in the night season; and I hope it will not be accounted ridicu lous, if I relate with what meditations I was affected, now and then, amongst my ordinary prayers; which I here afford the reader, as I there conceived them, in these few ragged and torn rhymes. Oh my poor soul, why dost thou grieve to see Look to thyself, regard not me; for I Truly in God through Christ, and ever live. When the fierce winds shattered black night asunder, Of saving Grace inspire thy zealous sails. The other and far finer poem was written upon his leaving the dismal island where he had wintered, and which he called Winter's Forest, but which now deservedly bears his |