castle, and narrowly observed, it was by trial found, that notwithstanding his own confession, he still retained the same shape, atque is fuit exitus fabulæ, says my author." Ogilby, in his notes upon Virgil, says, "Tuthemin's reports of Bacarnus, King of Bulgaria, that he could, when he pleased, transform himself into a wolf, or any other beast. There is a like story to the same effect, of one Stuppater, a German." When Gervas of Tilbury flourished, (which was in the reign of Henry the II. and Richard I., kings of England,) the extirpation of British wolves was very far from being complete, so that strong vestiges of this superstition were then still remaining in that island. "We have frequently seen (he says) men in England transformed into wolves, for the space of a lunar month, and such people are called Gerulphs by the French, and were-wolves by the English." When Camden wrote his Britannia, he does not seem to have known of any such superstition prevailing in England. But, in his notice of Tipperary, a province in Ireland, he says they have a "report of men turned every year into wolves," but adds, that he counts it fabulous. John Brompton, the author of an Old Chronicle, pretends that a certain abbot in the district of Ossory, had obtained from heaven, a decree that two persons of that district (a married couple) should every seven years be compelled to leave the country in the shape of wolves, but, at the end of those years, they might, if yet living, return to their home and native shape, and two other persons were condemned in their place to the like penalty for other seven years. Two Frenchmen or Burgundians, by name Pierre Burgot and Michael Verdun, were convicted in the Archbishopric of Besançon, of having travestied themselves into wolves, by means of an ointment the devil gave them, and of having attacked both men and herds; they were publicly burnt to death in the year 1521. They made confession of their guilt. In like manner the Parliament of Dole, in France, on the 18th of January, 1574, condemned one Giles Garnier to be burnt, for renouncing God, and swearing never to serve any but the devil, and turning himself into a wolf. It was observed that persons of the name of Garnier or Grenier, were usually addicted to these practices. Ce nom (says a French author) est comme fatal. Besides those proceedings, there were condemnations for the same crime at Constance, under the Emperor Sigismund, at Orleans, in 1583, and in the Parliament of Rennes, in 1598, and at Grenoble, in 1603. Blois was remarkable above all other parts of France, for its loup-garoux, as these men turned into wolves are called in French. And it is a remarkable observation, that its Latin name Blisium Castrum, means in Gaulish, City of Wolves, from blis, a wolf. It was supposed that these people, had a deadly enmity to witches; in illustration of which, De Lancre relates the following anecdote.-A certain lycanthrope was convicted of tearing a horse to pieces, upon such clear evidence, that he could not deny the fact, but excused himself by saying that the accident happened as he was endeavoring to kill a witch, who had taken refuge under the horse's belly, in the shape of a butterfly. John Grenier, a young offender, only thirteen years old, and the only wolfish man who was ever pardoned in France, frankly avowed that he delighted in eating children, and especially girls. He declared that he had taken to the woods in obedience to the orders of Monsieur de la Forét, a black man of gigantic stature, whose breath was cold. When asked what he had done with his wolf's skin and pot of ointment, he said they were chez Monsieur de la Forêt, who sent them to him when ever he wanted them. The poor boy even maintained that Monsieur de la Forét had been twice to visit him at the Convent of Franciscans, where he was detained. Gilles Garnier, of Dole, was also in the same story, and said, that he always considered Monsieur de la Forét as his master. That personage is supposed to be the same tall black man, who was sometimes called, Le Grand Veneur, and who crossed the path of the Count de Soissons out a hunting, in the forest of Fontainbleau, in 1559. Nobody can doubt or dispute that people of this description used to commit the most atrocious butcheries. When Peter Stump, who died very penitent, near Cologne, in 1589, confessed himself guilty of the magical self-transformation, we may be inclined to think the culprit as fanatical, as his judges were credulous. But when he confessed to having killed thirteen children, two women, and a man, we cannot call in question a fact of so great notoriety as the violent death of sixteen persons in one district or neighborhood. The madness in question was called lycanthropia, and described under that name by most of the ancient Greek physicians, especially Cribasius and Aetius. The latter says, that such patients leave their homes by night in the month of February, haunts places of sepulture, and imitate wolves in all things. The libraries of Europe would probably furnish a much greater number of curious anecdotes and illustrations, but the above may suffice to excite, and partly to satisfy curiosity. It is evident, upon the whole face of the matter, that there is less in it than the superstition of the 16th century supposed, and more in it than we, in our present state of society, can clearly comprehend. Herodotus describes these things as having been believed or practised in the interior parts of Asia, called Scythia or Tartary, the same from which the tribes of warriors and huntsmen, commonly called Indians, found their way to this continent. It would therefore be desirable, if any one, conversant with their opinions and habits, would make it known to us, whether any, and what, similar ideas are to be found among those savage communities. Any such communication would be gladly inserted. SONNET.-ITALY. FROM THE ITALIAN OF FILICAJA. WHEN the last footsteps of departing day Fade from the mountains, and night's shadows fall, Of midnight leaves the world. But, Italy! E. F. E. Discourses and Addresses on Subjects of American History, Arts, and Literature. By GULIAN C. VERPLANCK. 8vo. pp. 257. New York. J. & J. Harper, 1833. We cannot conceive of a more substantial benefactor to society at large, than is presented by the man who incites by his precepts and encourages by his example, the community by which he is surrounded, to the cultivation of the history of their country, and the adornment of that country by continual acquisitions in the fine arts. And this, not on account of any extrinsic value of such works of art, not on account of the pedantic display which such knowledge may produce, but from far more valuable considerations. The trite, familiar, but always apposite remark, that "history is philosophy teaching by example" should not by any nation be forgotten; more especially should it be kept in vivid remembrance by one which achieved its liberties and its independence, against exorbitant power and all but moral impossibility. The noble assertors of political independence and natural equality, so successfully vindicated the former by their arms, and settled the latter by their jurisprudence, that we should be doing not only injustice to their memories, but to our own interests, if we should permit either their names or their acts to fade in the individual recollections, or the taste for their contemplation to lose any of that raciness of flavor which we at present rejoice to find them possess. It is no unfrequent remark, among the indolent and the ignorant objectors to this species of study, that in America it is limited in its operation by the brevity of its details, naturally ensuing from the newness of the settlement, and the recent era of its independence. Nothing can be more absurd than such a remark, on every ground. For in the first place, in order to see the beauty of our own historical picture, it is necessary to go into the review of that of other nations. "The proper study of mankind is man," says Pope, and this can only be effected by examining him under every variety of circumstances, place, and condition. Human nature we admit is the same under all circumstances; and mankind will generally at all times of the world have the tendency to act in the same manner under the same impulses ;-allowance being made for the differences of education;— but what that mode of action is we can only gather from viewing mankind in various parts of the earth, under various governments and at various periods of time. It is then only that we begin to compare, review, and reflect, it is then that the actions of the dead are lessons to the living ;-it is then that by the comparison of causes with effects,-the consideration of motives to action, with their consequences both to contemporaries and succeeding generations, that we gain those important lessons of experience which history is so admirably calculated to present. On the other hand, though as a nation we are but the people of yesterday, and cannot present a chain of historical events extending through many centuries, yet what we want in antiquity we can amply supply in interest. It is true, we cannot go back with our history into those dim obscurities wherein the fable is so mingled with the fact, that we know not which to believe, and where both are so distorted by time and tradition that we should be glad not to believe either. It is true, we are not able to grace VOL. I. 40 our early annals with accounts of mighty robbers and conquerors roaming over the fair face of creation, and dealing death and destruction over millions of simple hearts, in order to gratify an inordinate ambition for conquest and love of rule. It is true, we cannot boast our country to have been founded by demigods, nor have we heroes going about fighting with "chimeras dire," but we have annals of more recent date, of which contemporary accounts satisfy us of the truth, and which show us that our forefathers left the homes of their ancestors, to enjoy the worship of their God in freedom of conscience; we have progenitors of so short a time back, that we know their exploits to be no fable, who shed their best blood, not for the conquest and enslavement of a peaceful unoffending people, not for the lust of dominion, not for the aggrandizement of a few, at the expense of many, but to acquire for themselves, and to transmit to their children, the rights conferred by God and nature, and having so acquired them, were contented to enjoy them, without molesting the rights of others. We have history enough to inform us, that our warriors, after they had achieved their glorious triumphs over their enemies, could obtain one yet greater, the conquest of themselves, and instead of becoming demagogues, who after all are but tyrants over the minds of their followers, became fellow citizens, and legislators for the public weal. And how did they legislate? They cast from them the mire and filth, the follies and the absurdities of bygone institutions. They allowed experience to work her way, and instead of following the beaten track, only because it was the beaten track, they struck out for themselves a code of laws, having historical example for its basis, and "has the greatest good of the greatest number" for its object. But that we may not take entirely on trust the excellencies of those who have laid the foundations of our laws, and that we may be enabled to mature our judgment, so as to be qualified to propose judicious improvements and expedient alterations, from time to time, according to existing circumstances, the page of history should be frequently turned, and its lessons deeply engraved. Of all the nations of mankind, we are the people who should most attentively study this important branch of education. The civilized world, in the other hemisphere, are ancient nations; placed in close proximity to each other, their manners in a manner amalgamate, their interests frequently unite, and almost as frequently clash;-the experience of past ages, and the improvements of education, have taught them that a species of perpetual and mutual protection, together with an equally perpetual and mutual check, is judicious and even necessary for the safety and harmony of the whole, and under the well known term of the "balance of power," a corrective is continually administered to that evil, which is incipient not only to the most moderate, but even to the weakest of the European governments,-the love of conquest, the desire of increased dominion. Hence it is we find, that powers in Europe, which in their ordinary state, have national prejudices against each other, which are frequently in the way of each other's projects,-which in fact are like snarling dogs, ever ready to show their teeth, and the more paltry the bone of contention, the more eagerly they battle for it-let but another step in, whether under pretence of being a moderator in the dispute, or for the purpose of making certain advantages out of it,-and all the rest of the states in that hemisphere, will immediately be set in close divan to consider the scope and tendency of pending operations, and to calculate how far one nation may possibly be crippled, how far another aggrandized by the measure:-how far, in short, the "balance of power" may be affected, and what step may possibly be given to any one, in a favorable situation, for proceeding towards universal empire. These things are with them matters of every day discussion; they operate on their manners, their politics, their commerce, and even upon their religion; hence, their ideas are always at home; their arms,-as we may term their arguments,—are always ready at hand, and that which in the most remote degree touches upon the finest point of European policy, is discovered and held to view before it is in any condition for action. All this, it is manifest, is the result of history:-the experience of the past, is the guide of the future. The acts of their forefathers, the motives that impelled them, the effects which they produced, are before their eyes. Europe is a great amphitheatre, in which certain individuals act with millions of spectators to view them; and this, not as an uninterested audience, amused with the unravelling of an intrigue, and pleased with the development of a plot, but seeing in all that passes, their own interests deeply involved, and competent and willing to change the course of the performance according to the manner in which they find themselves actuated. We, on the contrary, are very differently situated. We stand aloof from the numberless little particularities by which the bodies-politic of the eastern world are affected. We feel ourselves placed in another hemisphere, the sole nation within it to which the term civilized can fairly be attached, we are, therefore, as it were isolated from the rest of the world, as regards jarring and feud for disputed points of dominion; having nothing to do with the law of hereditary succession, and not being even remotely connected with the thousand royal princes, of domains equal to the county of Westchester, we are not likely to become engaged in squabbles as to whether we are in the forty-seventh or forty-eighth degree removed from the succession to one of those said splendid dominions, and consequently whether we are qualified to match in the greatest and most powerful of the European states, by right divine. But we are equally with them bound to study their history, and that of the nations of old. It is true that our institutions are our own, that our code of civil and moral polity is our own, and that we have unscrupulously rejected, from adoption, every thing that appeared to militate against the national principle which is the pride of our country; but it is necessary to keep in remembrance that we are the descendants of the European nations, that our forefathers imbibed their knowledge and their experience from thence; and that the foundations of what we receive, no less than what we reject, are to be found in the institutions, or are to be deduced from the experience of the older nations; and it must also be considered that as ours is a nation already highly eminent throughout the world for its commercial relations, and daily adding to them both in importance and number, it is important, that we be acquainted with the peculiarities, as well as the general history of those with which we either are or wish to be connected, to the end that our proceedings, whether national or individual, may be conducted with propriety, wisdom, and right feeling. But if general history be a study advantageous to us, how much more so must be that of our own country. The contemplation of the stupendous struggle with one of the most powerful of nations, in order to extricate ourselves-a few colonists-from the trammels and oppressions of a kingdom possessing incalculable resources, to establish a federal union which should |