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rors of the scene worked so strongly on his imagination, that he fancied he beheld strange shapes descending and ascending the steeps of the fiery gulph. He even believed he heard the screams of desolation, and the cries of torment, issuing from the abyss. Such was his terror, that he neglected to turn his eyes on the vast prospects below, and hastening from the edge of the crater, where he had stood petrified for some minutes, returned over the deserts of snow, fainting with his toils, and in despair of ever beholding his master more.

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"As soon as he reached the verge of the woods, he fell on the ground in a deep sleep, from which he was awakened by some peasants, who were collecting sulphur. Of them he eagerly inquired, whether they had seen a man with a long beard and armed with a scymitar? Yes,' answered they, we have seen him: the vile sorcerer has blasted us with his haggard eyes. He passed us just beneath the cliffs which hang over the great chesnut tree, muttering execrations, and talking to the winds. A violent tempest ensued, which has destroyed three of our cottages; and in the midst of the storm we saw the wretch that occasioned it fall from the cliff, wrapped in a blue flame. The Virgin preserve us from his maledictions !'-Benboaro wished to hear no more-

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The History of Blunderbussiana contains portions of striking delineations which, like the forcible descriptions in some of Crabbe's Poems, appear to have been drawn from actual observation.-Blunderbussiana is represented as being the son of a captain of a band of robbers. Like all the painters introduced to us by Mr. Beckford, he displays a native genius for the art; to which he superadds a particular taste for the study of practical anatomy, which he prosecutes as an auxiliary to his favorite pursuit. Accordingly he closely employs himself in dissecting the subjects with which he is supplied by his father's associates, in the course of their professional occupations. At length, his father being killed in an engagement with a band of soldiers, Blunderbussiana escapes from the savage scenes among which he had been brought up. He then devotes himself entirely to painting, as a profession, and, obtaining the instruction of a master of his art, becomes famous for his productions in the style of Salvator Rosa. As an occasional amusement he prompts his convivial companions, when inspired by the juice of the grape, to assist him in despoiling the burying grounds of dead bodies, to enable him to continue those anatomical researches for which he still retained a strong predilection. One of these entertainments proved fatal to Blunderbussiana. Excess in drinking brought on a fever, and being seized with delirium, he

"Began to rave in a frightful manner. Every minute he seemed to behold the mangled limbs of those he had anatomized quivering in his apartment. Haste, give me my instruments,' cried he, that I

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may spoil the gambols of three cursed legs, that are just stalked into the room, and are going to jump upon me. Help! help! or they will kick me out of bed. There again; only see those ugly heads, that do nothing but roll over me! Hark! what a lumbering noise they make now they glide along as smoothly as if on a bowlinggreen. Mercy defend me from those goggling eyes! Open all the windows, set wide the doors,-let those grim cats out that spit fire at me, and lash me with their tails. Ō, how their bones rattle !Help! mercy! O!' The third day released him from his torments; and his body, according to his desire, was delivered, with all his anatomical designs, to the college of surgeons."

The last narrative, or the History of Watersouchy, of Amsterdam, is a satire on the minute and laborious style of painting which characterizes the productions of Gerard Dow, and others of the Dutch school.

This volume is an object of curiosity, as it exhibits the germs of some of the finest passages in the subsequent work of the writer, Vathek. The description of the imaginary hall in the ark of Noah, in the tale of Andrew Guelph, and Og of Basan, possesses much of the wild sublimity and mysterious interest which characterize the account of the hall of Eblis; and the touches of playful satire which frequently occur to relieve the sombre character of the narrative, in some parts of Vathek, are not less visible in these Memoirs.' We conceive, that few persons can read these fictitious biographies, without wishing that the author had oftener favoured the world with his lucubrations. Industry alone seems to have been wanting to have raised him to a level with the greatest novelists of the

age.

END OF VOL. X. PART I.

LONDON:

Printed by D. S. Maurice, Fenchurch-street.

THE

Retrospective Review.

VOL. X. PART II.

ART. I.-The Letany of John Bastwick, Doctor of Physic, being now full of Devotion, as well in respect of the common Calamities of Plague and Pestilence, as also of his own particular Miserie, lying at this instant in Limbo Patrum, set down in a two Letters to Mr. Aquila Wykes, Keeper of the Gatehouse, his good Angell, in which there is an universall challenge to the whole World to prove the parity of Ministers to be jure divino; also a Demonstration that the Bishops are neither Christ's nor the Apostles' successors, but enemies of Christ and his Kingdom, and of the King's most excellent Majesty's prerogative royall, &c.: printed by the special procurement and for the especiall use of our English Prelates, in the year of Remembrance, Anno

1637.

"SHEPHERDS of people," says Lord Bacon, "had need know the calendars of tempests in state, which are commonly greatest when things grow to equality; as natural tempests are greatest about the equinoctial; and as there are certain hollow blasts of wind and secret swellings of seas before a tempest, so are there in states. Libels and licentious discourses against the state, when they are frequent and open; and, in like sort, false news often running up and down to the disadvantage of the state, and hastily embraced, are among the signs of troubles." The sagacity of these remarks is fully evinced by the history of the early part of the reign of King Charles the First. At that period, the secret presses which the discontented had established in the metropolis, teemed with publications which the law officers of the crown, and the judges in the ecclesiastical

VOL. X. PART II.

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courts, could not but deem seditious. The agitation which these publications produced, gradually prepared the mass of the people for resistance to oppressive authority; and the cruelty with which their authors, when discovered, were punished, disgusted the feelings of the public, and mainly enabled the advocates of freedom to raise that banner, before which, after a long and bloody struggle, the royal standard was destined to be lowered to the dust.

The great leaders of the opposition in Charles's parliaments, were influenced in their proceedings by an anxious zeal for the defining of civil rights and the securing of civil liberty; and in their measures they were warmly supported by the people at large. But it may admit of a question, whether they would have experienced the encouragement which they actually met with, had not the minds of a considerable proportion of the nation been exasperated by religious restraints, enforced by the mistaken zeal of bigoted ecclesiastics? The strength of the cause of the opposition lay in the deep resentment and the fiery impatience of the Puritans. No soldiers fight so desperately as those who carry the sword in one hand, and the bible in the other..

The principles of the Puritans were imported into England from the Continent. During the persecutions which took place in the reign of Queen Mary, multitudes of English Protestants took refuge in such of the continental states as professed or tolerated the Protestant religion. Many of these, finding a shelter in the Swiss Cantons, imbibed a love for the ecclesiastical discipline of Calvin, of which they could not divest themselves when the accession of Elizabeth enabled them to return to their native country. Hence originated the schisms which took place in the English Church, and which for so long a period filled the minds of pious people with so much anxiety and distress. The differences between the two parties first took place on the comparatively trifling subjects of dress and ceremonies. To the Puritan, the surplice was an abomination. The true Churchman averred that the wearing of it was a matter of indifference. If, then, said the Puritans, it is a matter of indifference, why do you impose upon our preachers, the donning of this vestment of the vile Lady of Babylon? To this their antagonists rejoined, by a reference to canons and ecclesiastical orders; and by a demand of implicit obedience to those who were endued with spiritual power. This naturally opened a question as to the foundation and extent of ecclesiastical jurisdiction; and the contest was embittered whilst the one party haughtily maintained the jure divino right of bishops to spiritual domination, and the other vindicated their assertion of the parity of presbyters, and the expediency of lay elders in

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