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TO THE EDITOR OF THE UNIVERSAL MAGAZINE.

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On the Conduct of Lady M. W. Montague towards H. Fielding. SIR,

THE sensibility of lady Monta- sibility, like the common world, are gue is generally supposed to have fond, it seems, of a gilded toy. been equal to her wit. A higher en- Throughout every letter in which comium could scarcely be passed, for lady Mary mentions Fielding, she is in wit she certainly was not inferiour entirely silent on the relationship that to any of her sex. It is with reluc- existed between them; and her ladytance that I point to lady Mary's con- ship admired his talents; but then she duct, in regard to Henry Fielding, as knew his poverty. “Since I was a proof that she could be disdainful born,” she observes in a letter to her and unfeeling; but a just appreciation daughter, “no original has appeared, of characters, which are held forth excepting Congreve and Fielding, for publick applause, is so necessary who would, I believe, have approachto the welfare of the moral world, ed nearer to his excellences if not that my presumption in this particu- forced by necessity to publish with. lar must need little apology.

out correction, and throw many proHenry Fielding was second cousin ductions into the world, he would to lady Montague, both being de- have thrown into the fire, if meat scended in the same degree from could have been got without money, George Fielding, earl of Desmond. or money without scribbling. The In addition to his claim on the score greatest virtue, justice, and the most of affinity, Fielding's pretensions, as distinguished prerogative of mana gentleman and a wit, were assured- kind, writing, when duly executed, ly sufficient to entitle him to the do honour to human nature ; but

consideration bestowed when degenerated into trades, are the Pope; but these two writers appear most contemptible way of getting to have been received by her ladyship bread." a very

different manner. Pope was Her ladyship regrets the death of admitted to an extreme of fami. Fielding, but merely as a writer, and liarity, and his letters are written in as a being that relished existence.a correspondent train of confidence. Lady Mary Wortley Montague apFielding waited at her door, as the pears at one period to have been poet attends his patron, and concludes afraid, and at another ashamed, to a letter, which appears expressive of own for cousin the author of Tom his usual manner to lady Mary, in Jones! “ I am sorry," writes lady these words:-" I shall do myselfthe Mary, “ for H. Fielding's death, not honour of calling at your ladyship's only as I shall read no more of his door to morrow, at elever, which, if writings, but I believe he lost more it be an improper hour, I beg to than others; as no man enjoyed life know from your servant what other more than he did, though few had me will be more convenient." The less reason to do so; the highest of Tian thus liable to rejection, and thus his preferment being raking in the distant in mode of address, was her lowest sinks of vice and misery. His é Coisin, and of high rank in letters; happy constitution (even when he but he was necessitous. Pope, whose had with great pains half demolished epistles denote the acknowledged it) made him forget every thing when consequence of the writer, and who he was before a venison pasty, or over could readily appoint the proper a flask of champaigne; and I am perhours for the lady to call on him, was suaded he has known more happy rich. There lay the most important moments than any prince upon earth. d: Forence; for ladies of wit and sen. His natural spirits gave

him

rapture

in

with his cook-maid, and cheerfulness nected with many persons of consewhen he was starving in a garret." quence and power. Through the me

It may be averred that the dissipa. dium of these she might have recomted habits of Fielding rendered him mended her cousin to the notice of ap improper intimate for a lady; but the court, and have given him an opstill he was entitled to the considera- portunity of proving that he was as tion due to a relation and a man of well calculaied to be an honour to his genius. The frequent low pleasures family in point of general demeanour, in which Fielding was accustomed to as from poignancy of wit and fertility indulge may, perhaps, in some part, of imagination. be attributed to the scantiness of his I am, sir, your's, &c. finances. Lady Montague was con

J. N. B.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE MONTHLY MAGAZINE. SIR,

YOUR correspondent, Mr. Ban- “ My beds are all furnished with fleas, nantine's remarks on pastoral poetry, well stocked are my orchards with jays,

Whose bitings invite me to scratch; are very ingenious and entertaining. But I do not exactly agree with him I seldom a pimple have met,

And my pigsties white over with thatch: in his opinion of Theocritus, and Such health does magnesia bestow; other pastoral writers. They deserved, My horse-pond is bordered with wet, I judge, better treatment.

Where the flap-ducks and sting-nettres With respect to Shenstone's cele

grow.

I have found out a gift for my fair, brated ballad, I am one of those few, who think with Mr. B. that a great But let me the plunder forbear,

In my Cheshire some totton I've found; part of it borders upon nonsense; in- Nor give that dear bosom a wound: asmuch as to render the whole ridi. Though oft from her lips I have heard, culous. It is an excellent subject for

That the rotten her palate would please;

Yet he ne'er could be true, she averred ; the burlesque: and I really wonder

Who would rob the poor nite of his that its namby-pamby strain should

cheese.” have received praise from Johnson, and that it was never travestied be. fore “the Devon and Cornwall Po- “I sleep not a wink all the night, ets,” thought proper to make merry Till I see her (O! exquisite sight!)

And my days they do dolefully pass, with it. For the amusement of your

Come tripping it over the grass. readers, I shall insert in this place a

Oh, say can’st thou hear me complain; few stanzas from the parody alluded Nor list to thy shepherd so true? to. After which, I must beg leave to O! come, and give life to the swain: recur to my first position, that Theo

Who now is a dying for you ; critus “ deserved better treatment."

No hurt my sweet Phillis shall ail,

By Venus the goddess I vow, In reading the following “risum For, whilst I am holding the pail, teneatis ?

Why- -She shall be milking her cow."

*

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FROM THE UNIVERSAL MAGAZINE. Some Observations upon the Habits attributed by Herodotus to the Crocodiles of the

Nile. By M. Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire.* THE history of Herodotus is one. it is also, perhaps, the most imporof the most valuable of literary pro- tant, on account of the number and ductions. It is the most ancient, and value of the facts which it contains.

* Translated from the “ Annales du Museum d'Histoire Naturelle."

It has had many detractors, however; also our dual nomenclature, and they especially at that time when the ridi- designate each species by its generick culous question was agitated respect- and specifick appellation. ing the preeminence of the ancients However, I was not wholly without over the moderns. Herodotus can be distrust. I suspected their indolence accused of relating prodigies only of mind and their servility of characwhen he is contemplated by the ter. They do not love much talking; standard of oựr own institutions: and, from the hope of a good reward, but, if we visit Egypt, and view its they have the courtesy of not disancient monuments and catacombs, pleasing any one by contradiction : and consider its numerous and mag- hence, they almost naturally reply nificent remains of social organiza- yes to every question that is put to tion, we shall be convinced that He- them, provided they are not interestrodotus has added nothing to the ed in it. picture of antiquity, which he has Thus forewarned, my readers will delineated.

be enabled to exercise a discretionary Such was the opinion which I judgment. formed while among the ruins of Herodotus, in the translation of M. the famous Thebes and its hundred Larcher, commerces thus upon the gates. I passed the greatest part of subject of the crocodile :the month of October there, in the “Let us now pass to the crocodile and year 1799; and I employed some

its natural qualities.-It never eats during moments of leisure in ascertaining the four most severe months of winter.” the veracity of Herodotus with regard this point : but they did not compre

I interrogated my fishermen upon 10 his observations upon natural history. I shall confine myself, at pre

hend me. Yet, the position of Herosent, to what he has said, respecting character of reptiles. Bartram asserts,

dotus is not contrary to the known the crocodile.

I had only this opportunity of positively, the same thing of the crostudying this celebrated animal. It is

codiles or caymans of North Ameriknown that he is found no where but

ca; but, to be sure, these animals

live in a colder climate, inhabit a in the Thebaid and in the Upper Nile. Not having remained long enough at

younger soil, and are enabled to find, Thebes, to corroborate all the obser

more easily, barren places, where vations of Herodotus, I supplied my they may conceal themselves and deficiencies by inquiries of the fisher's remain torpid during the winter. If men of Luxor, of Carnat, and of Me. crocodiles were still to be found in dinet-Abou.

Lower Egypt, as they were in the It may be necessary to observe, that his observation would be true :

time of Herodotus, it is very probable that these sort of people, in Egypt, that portion of Egypt (especially on have more knowledge of their trade, the shores of the Pelusiack branch and and more acquaintance with the habits of aquatick animals

, than their of lake Menzialeh) being covered by brethren in Europe. The occupation much colder, both from its northern

inaccessible marshes, and being also is hereditary, and descends from father to son: and their knowledge that fall during the winter. Should not

position and from the abundant rains is transmitted with accuracy;

for they dread nothing so much as a

Herodotus, therefore, be considered fruitless expenditure of time and la- in the neighbourhood of the sea ?

as speaking only of these crocodiles bour. They say, in the same sense as naturalists, and almost always with

“ Though it has four feet, yet it is amsingular precision, such an animal is phibious. It passes the greater part of the of such a genus, and such a one is but

day in dry places, and the whole night in

the river; for the water is warmer than the a variety of this genus, They have air and the dew."

These observations are strictly power and ferocity of the crocodile. true. All crocodiles do this, unless It is no uncommon thing to meet, in some local circumstances combine to the Thebaid, countrymen who are render it impossible. They live in deprived of an arm or a leg; and if troops, on the tops of the islands, they are asked to what accident they which are very numerous in the ri- owe their loss, they reply, this misvers. They never leave the spot that fortune happened to me from a crocogave them birth, except to seek for dile. prey ; and they return, at stated pe- " They lay their eggs upon the earth, riods, and repose, in common, upon

and hatch them there." the strand. They never believe

Aristotle says the same of the inthemselves safe. Hence, if they hear

cubation of the female of the crocothe least noise, and, above all, if they dile. The fishermen, however, assure perceive any one coming towards

me that the heat of the sun alone them, they plunge into the water, se

hatches the eggs of the crocodile. parate from each other, and swim

Should Herodotus be understood, in about at hazard.

the expressions which he has used, When any persons come to the

as meaning the care which the moshore which they inhabit, and remain

thers bestow upon their eggs when there a length of time (as I had the they are upon the point of being patience to do for half a day with hatched ? I asked how long a time some friends and my guides) it causes

elapsed between the laying of the them the greatest uneasiness. They eggs and the birth of the young crocannot remain under water more

codile. They always replied a month than ten minutes at a time, and they without being able to specify the do not even wait ten minutes without

exact number of days. raising their heads so that their snout

Two enemies of the crocodile, the is level with the surface of the water.

ichneumon and the tufrinambis*, are - The nasal apertures being in the constantly employed in seeking for middle, they are thus enabled to draw its eggs, of which they are very fond, in the air, which, from the peculiar These animals excited the gratitude organization of the parts, passes into

of the ancient Egyptians, by attackthe tracheal artery, without any of the ing thus, in its very source, the reambient water. But this manner of production of an animal so fatal to breathing while swimming, fatigues Egypt. them after a while. Then they sepa

The tupinambis, which swims very rate into two troops; the smallest well, carries on, besides, a constant go to a distance to find some beach

war with the young crocodiles, and where they may be safe ; but the

continues the pursuit of them till larger ones content themselves with they take shelter amongst larger inapproaching the slope which is pro

dividuals of their species. duced at the head of each island by

The Egyptians imagine that the the deposited sediment of the earth. tupinambis is the crocodile in its first

So much inquietude at the sight of state ; and, though they have often a single man, shows a timidity of had opportunities of correcting themcharacter ; and, in fact, the crocodile

selves in this errour, yet they perseis a fearful animal on land; but he is

vere in it; for that which approaches quite the reverse in the water. It is

to the marvellous, will never want not prudent to bathe near him. The

enthusiasts to relate it, nor the crea cries of terrour that were uttered by

dulous to believe it. the inhabitants of Luxor, at behold.

“Of all known animals, there is not one

which becomes so great after having been ing a Frenchman commit the raşh act, were sufficiently indicative of the

* Ovaran el bar of the Aralis : Lacerla idea which they entertained of the Vilotica of lIasselquist.

VOL. II.

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so little. The eggs are not much larger “ It is the only animal which has no than those of a goose, and the animals that tongue.” issue from them are in proportion to the

Yes, doubtless, which has no apeggs : but they gradually grow and reach to seventeen cubits, and even more." parent tongue. Such is the opinion

Elian relates that there was to be that would be formed from an inseen one of twenty five cubits under spection of the living animal, and Psammeticus, and another of twenty which has been given by Aristotle in six under Amasis ; and the learned two parts of his works, by Seba, Has. have determined that this measure selquist, and all travellers. But, notwas nearly equal to thirty five or withstanding, the tongue has been thirty seven feet. Prosper Alpinus, discovered by Olaus Wormius, GiIlasselquist, and Norden, speak of rard, Borrich, and Blasius. The early crocodiles that were thirty feet in anatomists of the academy of scienlength. M. Lacipierre, an officer of ces have also described it; and they health, and a member of the French suspected the accuracy of Herodotus commission in Egypt, was in posses- in consequence; but surely he may sion of teeth which had belonged to be forgiven that he did not know a crocodile of equal dimensions. Now, what after ages have discovered only we know that a crocodile, when it is by means of anatomical research. sues from the egg, is nine inches “ It does not move the under jaw, and long. It is capable, therefore, of ac- it is the only animal, also, which moves the quiring more than forty times its

upper jaw towards the under one.”

Much has been written for and original length. What Herodotus says of the size of the egg, is also nished that it should have been so

against this position ; but I am asto. perfectly correct. “ It has the eyes of a hog, the teeth are

long questioned. The crocodile is, in projecting, and of a size in proportion to fact, the only known animal, whose that of the body."

upper jaw (between the parts of Pere Fenillée [Observ. tom. 3, p. which the skull is to be found) moves 373] says of the crocodile of St. Do towards the inferiour one, whieh has mingo, that it has the eyes of a hog; scarcely any motion at all. Herodotus, which, doubtless, implies that the however, could not establish this discrocodile has a small prominent eye, tinction. He had, under his eyes, the upper part of which is covered living crocodiles, and he was fully and almost hidden. Its under eye-lid justified in speaking, as he has spomoves in an upward direction. As, ken, of the motion of their jaws. according to the relation of Swam

“ The claws of the crocodile are very merdam, the pupil of the eye is capa. strong, and the skin on the back is so coble of contraction, like that of the cat,

vered with scales, as to be impenetrable.”

It is impossible, in fact, to peneand of becoming perpendicularly long, some learned individuals, and without using iron weapons : leaden

trate the armour of the crocodile, especially M. Camus, who saw a liv- bullets flatten on his sides, but do not ing crocodile at Paris in 1772, have found that its eyes have more resem

enter, unless they happen to strike

him near the ears. blance to those of a cat than of a pig.

“ It cannot see when in the water; but I shall simply observe, that this is a when above the surface its sight is very quality, which it possesses in com- exact." mon with many nocturnal animals, The first proposition can only as also being furnished with a mem- mean that he sees less perfectly under brana nictitans.

water ; but the second is strictly With regard to its teeth, every one true. Procopius has verified this fact. is acquainted with them; and besides, He often endeavoured to approach M. Lacepede, in his interesting arti- near enough to crocodiles to shoot at le of the Crocodile, may be consulted. them, but the moment he was per

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