SAYINGS OF MY UNCLE.

[Continued from p. 32.]

18. My Uncle loved to touch the master-string of every man's conversation. The crudities of enthusiasm, he said, whether in art or science, should be respected for the sake of the pure metal they might contain, and which posterity never failed to appreciate, to the lasting disgrace of contemporary pride and dullness. Enthusiasm was to be borne with upon every subject excepting religion; our Lord's prayer and his sermon on the mount having left nothing upon which to refine, that would sanctify crudities of either speech or action.

19. Nations, my Uncle often asserted, were more effectually subdued by the arts of civilization, than by the barbarous science of warfare. Henry the Second doubtless accomplished more towards making Dublin, as the soul of Ireland, what it has been, in the Charter given for its possession by his 'Men of Bristol,' than has been effected in the exploits of all the armies sent against that country by his successors.

20. My Uncle good-naturedly referred the devotedness of attachment which alike distinguishes the adherents of monarchy, whether in the beloved person of a Spanish Bourbon or the scarcely less sacred presence of a Dey of Algiers, to that innate feeling of man, in the general, which has procured for him with philosophers the character of a religious animal. As the Jews looked forward to a temporal sovereign in the Messiah, so the majority of Christians in the present day, (said our family cynic,) are scarcely more disposed to render unto God the things that are God's,' seeming determined to give all unto Cæsar. Their views are humbly bounded by

earth: they have no conception, good easy souls! of either place, pension, or sinecure, in Heaven.

21. Talking of the calamities of Authors, my Uncle said he had seldom heard of a poet that died poor, who might not be considered as the chief author of his own poverty, and that simply from neglect of those minor duties and observances which are common ingredients in the characters of great men of all other classes; namely, a love of order and delicacy, indicated by cleanliness of person and residence-honesty and regularity in the discharge of trifling obligations, without which honour cannot exist-decision in the commencement, and perseverance to the close of every transaction, both of business and pleasure; and freedom from the vulgar error, that the highest 'feast of reason and flow of soul' is best promoted by indulgencies of the table. It was an unfortunate mistake with many men, (for women of ability and genius, said he, are happily exempt from this drawback upon their usefulness,) that the assumption of superior intellectual endowments warrants excessive pampering of the corporeal appetite.

22. My Uncle thus illustratingly discoursed as a Spurzheimite. The musical scale is furnished with only seven primary tones; and yet how infinite is the variety produced by their combinations! Craneology points out no less than thirty-three organical compartments of the brain; and this fact, anatomically demonstrated as it is, to me sufficiently accounts for the wonderful diversity of the human character. The Almighty Architect of the Universe created not an atom, nor did he raise a single protuberance in vain. How wise, for instance, is the provision that scarcely two faces or voices should be alike, to prevent the numberless errors of identity that would

otherwise occur! Discords are allowable in harmony, to enhance the delights of their resolving concordances. Man is varied in the formation and degrees of his bodily and mental powers, that his Creator might be glorified in their incessantly active collision, and consequent preservation from the uselessness of torpitude.

22. My Uncle shrewdly hinted, that among the most violent opponents of this infant science, might perhaps be discovered those who had, previously to its promulgation, taken to themselves the credit of qualities, for the outward and visible signs of which they now impatiently scratch their heads in vain. Gall and Spurzheim might hence be considered the Apostles of Humility.

23. By way of enforcing the maxim that a little learning is a dangerous thing,' my Uncle sketched the following dramatic specimen of what he called

OVER-RIGHTEOUS RATIOCINATION.

SCENE, A Grocer's Shop; shutters closed-twilight.

SOLOMON, the Porter, solus.

'It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven! My worldly master is a rich man,' and therefore not worthy to enter the blessed mansions to which I am bound. To do that which might reduce him to poverty, would be to bring him nearer the road to Heaven.- But hold, Solomon!-think of the Law! Well! what of the Law? The Law is the strength of Sin,' says the text, and I'defy the Parent of Sin, and all his works! Besides, Mr. Fig is far from being a charitable man. It is written also, He that giveth unto the Poor lendeth to the Lord.' Now this he won't do,-but he ought to do it. For instance, I am poor-he ought to give unto me; but as he won't, I will for him. So here goes! It will indeed be a charity, thus to snatch his precious soul' as a brand from the burning.'

[Picks the lock of the till—accommodates himself with best gunpowder and double refined, to comfort the sister-lambs of the flock, and ‘goes on his way rejoicing,' i. e. murdering a sacred melody to keep his courage up,' lest the Devil, in the shape of a constable, should smell him out!

Local Communications.

Notices relative to CLAUDIUS JAMES RICH, Esq. Author of a Memoir on the Ruins of Babylon.

CLAUDIUS JAMES RICH, Esq. now Resident for the Honourable East-India Company at the Court of the Pasha of Bagdad, lived in Bristol from his infancy; where he acquired at an early age, considerable knowledge of the Oriental and of several of the European languages without any assistance from a master, having been previously taught the rudiments of Latin and Greek by a relation. He was introduced to Dr. Ryland by Mr. Marshman, then of Bristol, but now a Doctor of the College of Calcutta, and cultivated an acquaintance with several other literary gentlemen of this city. At the age of seventeen, he had become a very considerable proficient in the Hebrew, Greek, Syriac, Arabic, Persic, and Turkish languages. He gave the following account of his first attachment to the study of the oriental languages. "When he was about eight or nine years old, seeing some Arabic MSS. in the library of a gentleman* of Bristol, he was very desirous of making himself acquainted with the language. He had constant access to this library, and by the help of an Arabic Lexicon, which was his only assistant at that time, he soon made himself master of the language. He not only learned to read and write it, but to speak it with

* Mr. Charles Fox. We hope that some of our readers, who were acquainted with this friendly man, will oblige us with an account of him.-ED.

great ease and fluency." When he was about fifteen years old, as he was taking an evening walk on Kingsdown, he met a Turk, and being desirous of ascertaining whether his pronunciation of Arabic was sufficiently correct to be understood by a native, he addressed him in that language. The Turk, after expressing his surprize at being so accosted, told him he was a merchant, but having been shipwrecked on the coast of Ireland, he was then in distress. It is needless to add, that Mr. Rich contributed to his relief.

In the year 1803, when Mr. Rich was seventeen years of age, one of his literary friends in Bristol procured him a cadetship. When his friend informed him of it, and regretted that he could not obtain something better for him, he expressed himself much delighted, exclaiming, 'Let me but get to India: leave the rest to me!' The Rev. Robert Hall gave him a letter of recommendation to Sir James Mackintosh, who was then going to India. When Mr. Rich attended at the IndiaHouse, for an interview with the Directors on the subject of his cadetship, the librarian, Mr. Wilkins, who had been requested by the Chairman to investigate the literary attainments of the young man, was so much struck with his facility in reading Arabic, and with his remarks on some of the books he had read, as to be induced to represent to the Directors the high opinion he entertained of his talents, observing, that he was too extraordinary a young man to be employed in a military capacity. Mr. Rich was immediately appointed a Writer on the Bombay establishment, and was soon after made Oriental Secretary to Mr. Lock, at that time appointed by His Majesty, Ambassador to the Beys of Egypt. Mr. Rich accordingly embarked in the Hindostan store-ship; but in consequence