during this soft and seductive season, combine such a mixture of pleasing imagery, moral precept, and ludicrous association, as to render the essays which convey them some of the most interesting in the Spectator. They recal forcibly to my recollection some lines of exquisite beauty and feeling, which the amiable Thomson, on a similar topic, addresses to his lovely country women. Flush'd by the spirit of the genial year, Now from the virgin's cheek a fresher bloom Spring, ver. 960 to 980. In the invention and combination of incident, under the form of vision, tale, or apologue, our author seems little to have indulged. He has introduced, however, one piece of this description in No 301 of the Spectator-The allegory of Youth, Love, and Old Age, and in which the imagery and design are evolved and finished with considerable beauty and dexterity. In his essay also on the duty of communicating our knowledge and discoveries for the benefit of mankind, he avails himself of a little wild, but very appositely illustrative tradition, relative to the sepulchre of Rosicrusius, the founder of a sect which pretended to the possession of perpetual lamps, of the perpetual motion, and the philosopher's stone; and, at the same time, refused to impart their secrets beyond the pale of their own society. It is evidently a fiction of Arabian growth, and founded on their well known propensity to alchemistry and cabalistic philosophy*. A vast number of such romantic stories, * "Many writers," observes Mr. D'Israeli, in a note on this number of the Spectator, "have made mention of these wonderful lamps; and the following observation by Marville, appears to give a satisfactory reason of the nature of these flames, "It has happened, he says, frequently, that inquisitive men, examining with a flambeau ancient sepulchres which had been just opened, the fat and gross vapours, engendered by the corruption of dead bodies, kindled as the flambeau approached them, to the great astonishment of the spectators, who frequently cried out a miracle! This sud which turn upon the unexpected discovery of talismans, enchanted figures, or wonderful pieces of mechanism and art, that had been buried for ages in huge caverns or vaults, will be found current among the common people of Spain, under the title of Cujentos De Viejas, and are most undoubtedly derived from their former intimacy with the magic and science of the Moors of Grenada. Warton has given us a specimen of these den inflammation, although very natural, has given room to believe, that these flames proceeded from perpetual lamps, which some have thought were placed in the tombs of the ancients, and which they said were extinguished at the moment that these tombs opened, and were penetrated by the exterior air. "Carlencas observes on this subject, that the accounts of the perpetual lamps which ancient writers give, has occasioned several ingenious men to search after their composition. Licetus, who possessed more erudition than love of truth, has given two receipts for making this eterual fire, and which consist of certain minerals variously prepared; this opinion is in vogue amongst those who are pleased with the wonderful, or who only examine things superficially. More credible writers maintain, that it is possible to make lamps perpetually burning, and an oil at once inflammable and inconsumeable; but (which solves this strange problem) Boyle, assisted by several experiments which he had made on the air-pump, has found that these lights, which some tell us they have seen in opening tombs, may have proceeded from the collision of new air. This reasonable observation conciliates all, and does not compel us to deny the accounts. "I am obliged to a man of letters, for favouring me with oriental wonders from the RELATION DU VOYAGE 66 Within D'ESPAGNE, by Madamoiselle Danois. the ancient castle of Toledo, they say, there was a vast cavern, whose entrance was strongly barricaded. It was universally believed, that if any person entered this cavern, the most fatal disasters would happen to the Spaniards. Thus it remained closely shut up and unentered for many ages. At length king Roderigo, having less credulity, but more courage and curiosity than his ancestors, commanded this formidable recess to be opened. At entering, he began to suspect the traditions of the people to be true: a terri the following observations, which throw a clearer light on the present topic. The story of the lamp of Rosicrusius, even if it ever had the slightest foundation, only owes its origin to the spirit of party, which at the time would have persuaded the world, that Rosicrusius had, at least, discovered something; but there is nothing certain in this pretty invention. "The reason adduced by Marville is satisfactory for his day; and for the opening of sepulchres with flambeaux. But it was reserved for the modern discoveries made in natural philosophy, as well as those in chemistry, to prove that air was not only necessary for a medium to the existence of the flame, which indeed the air-pump had already shewn; but also as a constituent part of the inflammation, and without which a body, otherwise very inflammable in all its parts, cannot however burn but in its superficies, which alone is in contact with the ambient air." D'Israeli's Curiosities of Literature, vol. ii. p. 483. 1 ble tempest arose, and all the elements seemed united to embarrass him. Nevertheless, he ventured forwards into the cave, where he discerned by the light of his torches certain figures or statues of men, whose habiliments and arms were strange and uncouth. One of them had a sword of shining brass, on which was written in Arabie characters, that the time approached when the Spanish nation should be destroyed; and that it would not be long before the warriors, whose images were placed there, should arrive in Spain *" However erroneous or vicious we may esteem the conduct of Budgell, it is with pleasure that we can mention his contributions to the Spectator and Guardian, as displaying both the cheerfulness and gaiety of an innocent mind, and the best and soundest precepts of morality and religion. At the time of their composition, indeed, he was more directly under the influence and direction of his accomplished relation than at any subsequent period of his life, and he then possessed the laudable ambition of doing all that might render him worthy of his affection and support. His four Letters on Education +, descriptive of the advantages and disadvantages of * Warton's Hist. of English Poetry, vol. i. Dissert. 1. + Spectator, Nos. 307, 313, 337, and 353, |