proach a corpse, or to visit a woman in her confinement; saying, that it is profitable for him to avoid every pollution. On the fourth and seventh days of the month, he directs mulled wine to be prepared for the family; and going himself to purchase myrtles and frankincense, he returns and spends the day in crowning the statues of Mercury and Venus. As often as he has a dream he runs to the interpreter, the soothsayer, or the augur, to inquire what god or goddess he ought to propitiate. Before he is initiated into the mysteries he attends to receive instruction every month, accompanied by his wife, or by the nurse and his children. 'Whenever he passes a cross-way he bathes his head. For the benefit of a special purification, he invites the priestesses to his house; who, while he stands reverently in the midst of them, bear about him an onion, or a little dog. If he encounters a lunatic or a man in a fit, he shudders horrifically, and spits in his bosom.'-pp. 50—52. These characteristic descriptions, besides the true reflection which they give us of our nature, exhibit here and there little touches of costume and manners, which historians and poets have necessarily overlooked. They also make us more familiarly acquainted, through individual specimens, with the state of society, such as it was in the time of Theophrastus. We shall extract as a proof of this, only one other sketch, that of The Ostentatious.' Doubtless, many persons who read this description, will be able to find a living likeness for it within the circle of their own acquaintance. The absurd vanity of the purse-proud man leads him to make as many false pretensions to wealth, as the veriest knave who lives by seeming to be what he is not. A boaster of this sort frequents the Exchange, and, while he gathers strangers around him, talks of the rich cargoes which he pretends to have upon the seas: then he tells what loans he has abroad; and what is the amount of interest upon them. Or you may see him stalking along the road, while he lolls on the arm of a choice companion, whom he informs, that he was one of those who served in the expedition into Asia under Alexander; and that, in the spoil which fell to his share, there were many costly vessels, studded with gems. This leads him to talk of eastern magnificence; and he stoutly contends, that the artificers of Asia are incomparably superior to those of Europe. He pretends to have received letters from Antipater, stating that the victorious king had just returned to Macedonia. He declares that, although he possesses the costly license for exporting timber, he has forborne to make use of it; lest he should give occasion to the malicious remarks of some who would envy him his privilege. In a company of strangers he recounts, that, during the late scarcity he expended more than five talents in corn, to be distributed among the poorer citizens; and doubting whether he may not have under-rated the sum, he requests one of the company to assist him in going through a calculation, by making a list of those who were the objects of his munificence, and the relief afforded to each; when, pretending to name above six hundred persons, the result proves that, instead of five, he must actually have expended not less then ten talents on the occasion. Nor does he include in this computation the maintenance of his galleys, nor sundry disbursements consequent upon the gratuitous dis charge of public business. He goes to the stalls where the finest horses are exposed for sale; and pretends to bid for them: or, at the shop of the robe-maker, he requests a cloak to be shown to him of the value of two talents and then takes occasion to reprove his attendant for not being furnished with gold. He lives in a hired house; yet he assures his visitor, ignorant of his affairs, that he inherited the house from his father; but that, finding it too small for the entertainment of his friends, he intends to sell it.'-pp. 66-68. The number of these characters which have come down to us from Theophrastus, amounts to thirty, each distinguished by some infirmity or vice. The more we consider them the more we are struck with the uniformity which subsists between human nature, as that philosopher observed it, and as it is still to be seen. It is true, that the same uniformity of character pervades all the inferior races of animals. The lion, the elephant, the horse and the dog, the eagle and the vulture, the dove and the nightingale, of the first years of the world, differ in nothing, that we can discover, from those which we behold in the present day. But while they have remained stationary in the characters originally stamped upon them, how astonishing has been the improvement of man in all that respects the enjoyment of life? Yet, like them, his nature remains unchanged; his heart is the asylum of the same passions, that have continued since his fall to debase or exalt his kind, and so it will be as long as he shall inhabit the earth. So wonderful a unity of system in the reproduction of all living things, can surely proceed only from an omnipotent mind, operating according to laws, which have a relation to a future purpose worthy of so vast and at the same time so harmonious a design! The translation is followed by the original Greek text, which, like the whole work, is beautifully and accurately printed. We have also a considerable body of notes at the end of the volume, which evince much sound sense and close reasoning on the boasted sciences of physiognomy and phrenology. The author seems to be of opinion that the modern theories of Gall and Spurzheim are extravagant, and not altogether harmless, yet he contends that there are some hints in Lavater's system worth pursuing, provided a great body of facts could be brought to bear upon them. ART. X.-The Tré Giuli. NOTICES. Translated from the Italian of G. B. Casti. With a Memoir of the Author, and some account of his other Works. 12mo. pp. 203. 7s. 6d. London. Hatchard. 1826. THIS is a translation of one of the least objectionable and most amusing works of a writer, who has acquired an infamous celebrity by the general depravity of his writings. Casti was born in 1720, but there is no authentic account of his birthplace, of his origin, or his earliest years. He was educated at the collegiate seminary of Montefiascone, and made such rapid progress there in the belles lettres, that at the age of sixteen he was chosen a professor. He next obtained a small canonry in the church, but does not appear to have received any of the orders of priesthood. He soon after, however, assumed the title of Abbate, and in 1762, published as his first work the succession of sonnets, which are translated in the volume before us. Most of his subsequent productions, particularly his Novelle, are unfit to be read by any person of common delicacy, or even to be spoken of. He died in 1804. The translator appears to us to exaggerate, as indeed is generally the case upon such occasions, the merit of his original. It is, however, upon the whole, a droll and eccentric composition. The object of the poet is to express in each of his sonnets, the various feelings which afflict him, in consequence of a debt which he incurred to a merciless creditor, by borrowing from him trè Guili (three groats). These feelings he frequently pours out in a ludicrous strain, sometimes determining to expatriate himself, sometimes to put an end to his life, sometimes to turn hermit, sooner than pay this debt: the mirth of the thing consisting in the disproportion between the sum and the ingenuity and perseverance of his efforts to avoid returning it. He then relates how he contracted this enormous "dead weight." 'I never shall be able to forget The memorable day, to me that bore Advanced me those Tré Giuli I owe him yet: rage so much For grief and The verdant hills, the cool umbrageous vale, The bird that spreads his pinion to the gale, The whispering breeze that speaks in softest breath,— As now almost to necessary be.'-—pp. 35, 36. He then reasons with his creditor on the uselessness of dunning him, and laments that, as of old among the Jews, there is not a periodical extinction of debt. 'Tell me, good Creditor! what is the use To storm and fuss like any crow or crane? Since, long as e'er thou wilt, keep asking still, Since thy entreaties ne'er will work upon To talk of debts until that time unpaid. Then what delightful hope would spring for me- The Giuli Tré's affair would terminate!'-pp. 48, 49. We shall only add two other stanzas. 'Oh my Chrysophilus! from some time past And blight, drought, hail, combine themselves to blast Now every creature weeps and wails, yet thou "That Charity begins at home" is true: In duty, then, and to myself 'tis due To mind myself ere thee or aught alive: So scanty that superfluous is-I doubt it Will be much best to think no more about it.'--pp. 72, 73. It must be at once manifest to any one who has ever perused the Italian work, that this translation affords but a meagre idea of its drollery. In the original, a great portion of the humour depends upon the peculiar construction of the verse, it being written throughout in verse; that is to say, every line, contrary to the usual practice of Italian poetry, ending with a word of which the last syllable is accented. For this defect, indeed, the translator is not accountable, as no version whatever could do justice to such a ludicrous style. He has done as much as could well be expected of him, if he has succeeded, as we think he has done, in enabling the mere English reader to form a general perception of the pleasantry of the Italian poem. ART. XI.--Autobiography. A collection of the most instructive and amusing Lives ever published, written by the Parties themselves. pp. 340. 3s. 6d. London. Hunt and Clarke. 1826. THE idea which gave birth to this collection, seems to have been taken from that of Constable's Miscellany, a work which, we hope, will not be ultimately abandoned; though, from the circumstances of the times it has been so long deferred. Cheap literature, provided only that it be instructive, and calculated to encourage those who are most likely to take advantage of it, in the paths of industry and morality, cannot but prove of inestimable advantage to the community. The life of Colley Cibber, which occupies the whole of this first volume, is calculated indeed rather to amuse than to instruct; but it forms in itself so accurate and entertaining a history of the stage. from the year 1660, down to 1739, and the name of Cibber is besides so imperishably embalmed in the Dunciad, that we know not if the publishers could have made a more judicious commencement, considering the plan upon which they had determined to proceed. They promise in their prospectus to collect into one consecutive publication, genuine materials for a diversified study of the human character, by selecting the most curious and interesting autobiographical memoirs now extant.' They have an ample field, as the number is considerable of distinguished statesmen, soldiers, historians, philosophers, and artists, who have written their own lives; and an economical collection of all these can hardly fail to prove eminently popular. We have only to express an hope that the publishers, or rather their editor, will be careful in his selection, and that he will not defile it by the introduction of any of those obscene memoirs, which, however gratifying to the tastes of the depraved orders of |