Extracts from the Port-folio of a Man of Letters. BETHLEM-GABOR. HE character of this reflefs and (though trifling when compared with those of more modern times) may have given Tungrateful man has been lately and occafion to this inves), have troduced by Mr. Godwin in his fingular Romance of "The Travels of St. Leon." It is, certainly, one of the happiest efforts in that work; and the reader must now be interested in the real character, with which biftory prefents us. Bethlem-Gabor was a Tranfylvanian, of an ancient but impoverished family, who gained the favour of Gabriel-Battori, Prince of Tranfylvania. Having as a reftlefs adventurer quitted this court for that of Conftantinople, he acquired fuch credit among the Turks, as to induce them to declare war against his first and kindeft benefactor. Battori, loft by intrigue and abandoned by his fubjects and the Emperor, was vanquished in 1613. Bethlem-Gabor took feveral places in Hungary; and, compelling a Pacha to invet him with Tranfylvania, he declared himfelf King of Hungary. In 1620, the Emperor marched fome troops against him; but his General Bucquoi was killed. Bethlem Gaber, though now a conqueror, dreaded the imperial power, and folicited peace, which he obtained on condition of renouncing the title of King of Hungary, and that he should only take that of a Prince of the Empire. The Emperor, who was not on his fide a little troubled by fo reftlefs and intrepid a subject, was willing to acknowledge this rebel as fovereign of Tranfylvania, and to cede to him feven counties, of about 50 leagues in circumference. But nothing could appeafe the fire raging in the wild bofom of this Gabor. -He foon after revived his claims on Hungary. Walftein vanquifhed him; and the war was at length concluded by a treaty which made over Tranfylvania and the adjacent territories to the house of Auftria, after the death of Gabor, which happened in 1629. WIGS. THE Greeks and Romans ufed falfe hair; and had likewife a kind of hairpowder. Hannibal wore fa fe hair.Lampridius gives a defcription of the Emperor Commodus's wig, which was powdered with gold-duft, and anointed with ointments of an agreeable odour, that the duft might adhere to it. It appears not improbable, that, even then, not merely a vain affectation of pomp, but the effects of too active a gallantry information on this fubject, I refer the reader to the learned commentators on the fatyrical exclamation of Cæfar's foldiers, during his triumphal entry into Rome: Urbani, fervate uxorem, machum calvum adducimus!' Henry III. King of France, loft his hair through the then yet newfashioned venereal disease (although, indeed, his grandfather had already been infected with it); he had therefore one of the caps, then ufually worn, covered with falfe hair: but yet he ventured not to take off his hat in the prefence of his queen, or of the foreign ambaffadors, for fear they fhould obferve his lofs. In 1518, John Duke of Saxony, ordered his headbailiff at Cobourg, to procure for him from Nurnberg a handsome falfe head of hair; but fecretly (wrote he), that it may not be known that it is for us; and let it be curled, and fo contrived that it may be put on the head without being obferved.But in the reign of Louis XIV. when polite manners and gallantry had become more general, men more sensibly affected with cold, &c. and the number of bald-heads greater; they were no longer afhamed of the caps covered with falfe hair; many people even, who had not loft their hair, wore them from an affectation of fashionable gallantry, from the effects of which they were really exempt. This gave rife to the idea of weaving hair into a linen cloth, and likewife into fringes, which were ufed for fometime under the name Milan Points. Thefe fringes or laces were fown in rows to the plain caps, which were now made of a thinner theep-fkin; and this head-drefs was called, by the French peruque, by the Germans parucke, by the English periwig, contracted into wig-At laft they invented a kind of three-thread treffes, which were fewed to ribbons or other stuffs; these they then ftretched out, and joined together on blocks cut into the shape of the head. This is the origin of our prefent wigs, the making, repairing, and dreffing of which furnishes employment to fo vaft a number of people. The first who wore a peruque, was an abbé named La Riviere. At one time this ornament of the head was fo thick, fo loaded with hair, and fo long, that it hung down as low as the waift. A perfon who happened to have a lean vifage, was quite hid in this cloud of hair. The forepart of the wig was likewife worn very G 2 high high: in France, this was called devant à la Fontagne, from the marquis of that name, who had brought it into vogue in the time of Louis XIV.-A certain Ervais at last found out the art of frizzing the wigs; by which means, with a fmall quantity of hair they appear fuller than they could be with even a much greater. The bag wigs first came into fashion during the regency of the Duke of Orleans, and thence obtained the name of perruques à la regence. The Emperor Charles VI. would allow no one to be admitted into his prefence without a wig with two tails. Of a more modern date than wigs is our prefent hair-powder. In the reign of Louis XIV. it was not yet in general ule; and that king at fiift difliked the fashion of wearing it. The players are faid to have first powdered their hair: but for a long time after the introduction of that practice, always combed the powder out again, as foon as they returned from the theatre. BURYING THE DEAD IN WOOLLEN STUFFS. THE law which established this practice is generally believed to have been enacted iclely with the view to promote the ftaple manufacture of this country. Another beneficial confequence, however, flows from it, which is of great importance, especially at the prefent time, when the price of paper and of bocks is become fo enormously high. For it appears that, by the prohibition to clothe the bodies of the dead in linen, at least 200,000 pounds of rags are annually faved from untimely corruption in the grave, and in due time pafs into the hands of the manufacturer of paper. BRANDY. THE time of the invention of brandy, or ardent fpirit, which has had to wonderful' an influence on many arts, on commerce, on the habits, health and happiness of the human race, is not exactly known. That the first was made by the Arabians from wine, and thence called vinum ulum; that Arabian phyficians firft employed it in the compofition of medicines; and that fo late as the year 1333 the manner of preparing it was very difficult and tedious, and ftill confidered by chemifts as a fecret art; it appears from the writings of Arnold de Ville Neuve [Arnoldus de Villa Nova] Raymond Lully, and Theophraftus Paracelfus: and it is without fufficient reafon that fome afcribe the invention to Arnold. Alexander Tafloni relates, that the Modenese were the first who, in Europe, on occation of too abundant a vintage, ma 'e and fold brandy in confiderable quantities. The German miners had first acquired the habit of drinking it; and the great confumption of and demand for this liquor foon induced the Venetians to participate with the Modenese in the new lucrative art and branch of commerce. However, it appears, that brandy did not come into general ufe till towards the end of the fitteenth century; and then it was still called burnt wine. The first printed books which make mention of brandy, recommended it as a prefervative against moft difeafes, and as a means to prolong youth and beauty. Similar encomiums have been bestowed on tea and coffee; and people became fo much habituated to thefe liquors, that they at laft daily drank them merely on account of their being pleasant to their palate. In the Reformation of the Archbishopric of Cologne, in the first quarter of the fixteenth century, no mention is made of brandy; although it muft certainly have been named there, if it had then already been used in Weftphalia.William II. Landgrave of Heffe, about the commencement of the fixteenth century, ordered that no feller of brandy should fuffer it to be drunken in his houfe-and that no one should be allowed to offer it for fale before the church doors on holidays. In 1524 Philip Landgrave of Hesse totally prohibited the vending of burnt wine.But in the middle of the fixteenth century, when Baccius wrote his Hiflory of Wine, brandy was everywhere in Italy fold under the name of aqua vitis or vita. Under King Erick it was introduced into Sweden. For a long time this liquer was diflied only from fpoilt wine; afterwards from the dregs, &c. of beer and wine; and when inftead of thefe the distillers einployed rye, wheat, and bailey, it was confidered as a wicked and unpardonable mifufe of corn; it was feared that brandy made from wine would be adulterated with malt fpirits; and an idea prevailed, that the grains were noxious to cattle, but ef pecially to fwine; whence originated among men that loathfome and contagious difcate the leprofy. Expressly for thefe realons, burnt wine was, in January 1595 forbidden to be made in the Electorate of Saxony, except only from wine Jees and the dregs of beer. In 1582 brandy was prohibited at Frankfurt on the Mayne, becaule the barber-furgeons had reprefented, that it was noxious in the then prevalent fatal diforders. From the fame cause, the prohibition was renewed in 1005. With aftonishing rapidity has the love of brandy and ardent fpirit in general fpread over all parts ---- parts of the world; and nations the moft uncultivated and the most ignorant, who can neither reckon nor write, have not only comprehended the method of diftilling it; but even had ingenuity enough to apply to the preparation of it the products furnished by their own country.Malt fpirits and French brandy, which, when both are pure, are however alike in their component parts, may with the great eft certainty be diftinguished by the tafte of what is left after burning them. Of the latter, this watery remainder is fharp, naufeous, and almoft four; but what is left after burning the malt fpirits, excites a taste of burnt, or at leaft roafted, meal. WAX CANDLES. THE reformation of religion greatly diminifhed the confumption of wax candles, and lakwife the practice of keeping bees. In cattle of Wittenberg, and the church there, in which nine hundred maffes were annually performed, 35,730 pounds of wax-lights were burned every year. In the time of the Dominican Flamma, at the commencement of the fourteenth cen tury, wax-lights were unknown, and tal low candles were confidered an extravagant luxury. So late as the clofe of the fourteenth century wax was fo dear in France, that it was held to be very a liberal and princely vow, when Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, who began to govern that duchy in the year 1361, offered to St. Antony of Vienne for the restoration of the health of his fick fon, as much wax as the latter weighed. In the time of Frederick William, King of Pruffia, the confumption of wax-lights at his court was fo great, that a quantity to the value of fix thousand dollars annually was pilfered by fervants, &c, without the depie. dations being obferved. In January 1779, fourteen thousand candles are faid to have been lighted at once at the celebration of a feaft in the electoral palace at Dresden, and in one night fix hundred weight of wax was confumed. A Portrait of ROBESPIERE at the Moment and eight o'clock in the evening,a hackney- ner; nance greatest dejection. The Adminiftrators welcomed him with the ftrongeft demonftrations of friendship. One put his right arm round his waift, and hugged him affectionately; another took him under the arm; and in this way they conducted him towards the Committee, paffing clofe along-fide of the apartments of the mayor. An inferior officer of police, by whom thefe particulars are related, and whe was at a window on the first floor, could only diftinguish the following words, uttered by one of the Administrators: "Do not be alarmed! are you not among your friends ?" An hour after a great trampling of horses was heard in the court-yard. It was HenTrot, who came with two of his aid-decamps, and other adherents, to look for Robefpierre, and to protect his paffage from the Mairie to the Hotel-de-ville. ORIGINAL POETRY. THE HERMIT OF MONT-BLANC." 'MID the dread altitudes of dazzling fnow Unbleffing and unblefs'd. In early youth, (For in his foul the pureft paffions liv'd) Near his fill A little crofs he rear'd; where proftrate low, At day's pale glimpfe, and when the fetting fun Tiffued the western sky with ftreamy gold, His orifons he pour'd, for her, whofe hours LOVE A mild and unpolluted altar rear'd On the white wafte of wonders! From the peak Which mark'd his neighb'ring hut, his tearful eye, Oft wander'd o'er the rich expanfe below; Of tawny fcenes autumnaf. Still was HE years Had the lone HERMIT turn'd the fandy glafs The pilgrim wanderer, or the goat-herd fwain, And nothing loth by pity or by pray'r His melancholy days, an alien MAN From whose bleak altitude the eye looks down, While faft the giddy brain is rock'd by fear. Oft wou'd he ftart from vifionary rest, When roaming wolves their midnight chorus howl'd; . Or blafts tremendous fhattered the white cliffs, Light sweeping o'er the waftes of printless dew, Blacken'd the rufhy dome of his low hut; While the pale lightning Imote the pathlefs top. Of tow'ring CENIS,-fcatt'ring, high and wide, A mift of fleecy fnow. Then would he hear, While mem'ry brought to view his happier days, The trembling torrent, hurting wildly forth With painful agitation. On his cheek Re-echo'd to the valley! As he flew, The Hermit watch'd and pray'd. And now the dawn Broke on the eaftern fummits; the blue light maid The lilys of her bofom,-icy cold! Now afar The wond'ring HERMIT heard the clang of arms Re-echoing from the valley! the white cliffs Trembled, as though an earthquake fhook their bafe With terrible concuffion! thund'ring peals From warfare's brazen throat proclaim'd th' approach Of conq'ring legions. Onward they extend Were fmear'd with gore, and on his daring breaft A golden crofs, fufpended, bore the name Of voice ambrofial; fo divine the skill, My father, god-like Homer: much he ap•pear'd An aged man; yet, was that age most fweet, Difilling richer grace, with beauty mix'd, Venerably-lovely, brightening all his form. Behina hi vending neck a time-worn lock Flow'd from his hair, which from befide each ear Meand'ring ftray'd: beneath extended wide Upon his naked breaft and lovely face. Art labour's much to make it feem to all For the Monthly Magazine. Will only tend to heighten the difeafe; Of fancied blifs, which foon is ever fled; Then weep my dire mistake, and fondly dream, That reafon will refume her rightful sway. For the Monthly Magazine. Amidst the gloom of fome deferted hall; Where defolation frowns and horrors low?r, And length'ned fighs breath flow along the wall, And feem upon the dread-ftruck ear to call Half hears strange voices 'midft the waving trees, And trembling tarts at every diftant found; 'Till Philon.ela, from the dark profound, Wakes from his dream, and by her plaintive |
