Various

“ Potier, generally speaking—and it is the same with our own Liston—has never Actually observed any thing of what he presents to us. It is the spontaneous effusion of his own feelings—the immediate creation of his own mind—frequently arising at the moment at which we see it, and therefore never to be seen a second time—but always generated by the actor himself, and never mixed up with any thing else of an extraneous nature. This is one cause of the extraordinary variety of this actor, and consequently of his extraordinary popularity in his own country. ”

“ If we were, therefore, asked to point out the individual who, in modern times, has proved the greatest benefactor to the community, we should not hesitate to fix upon the ingenious nobleman, whom the wits and courtiers of his own day were pleased to laugh at as "Turnip Townshend." In something less than one hundred years, the agricultural practice which he introduced from Hanover has spread itself throughout this country, and now yields an annual return which, probably, exceeds the interest of our national debt.—Sir Walter Scott—in the Quarterly Review. ”

“ Do you stand on yonder hill, where you may see the battle out of danger, and when I have gained the victory, come to me; I will then own you to be mine, and take care of you. But if I should be so unfortunate as to lose the battle, then shift as well as you can, and take care to let no one know that I am your father; for no mercy will be shown to any one so nearly related to me.' The king then presented me with a purse of gold, and giving me a farewell embrace, dismissed me from his tent. ”

“ Mosaic, though an ancient art, is not merely a revived, but an improved one; for the Romans only used coloured marbles, or natural stones in its composition, which admitted of comparatively little variety; but the invention of smalts has given it a far wider range, and made the imitation of painting far closer. The mosaic work at Florence is totally different to this, being merely inlaying in pietre dure, or natural precious stones, of every variety, which forms beautiful, and very costly imitations of shells, flowers, figures, &c. but bears no similitude to painting. ”

“ The truth is, that Liston's style of acting is too chaste and natural to have been so universally popular as it is, but for the irresistible drollery of his features—which are the finest farce that ever was written. ”

“ All religions are tolerated in Turkey, though none are encouraged but the Mahometan faith. The Christians have churches, which the Turks not unfrequently convert into mosques for their own use; nor will they suffer any new churches, or temples, to be built, without extorting an exorbitant fine from the poor Christians. The high-priest of the Mahometan religion is called the mufti; he is invested with great power, and his seal is necessary to the passing of all acts of state. But any individual, who pleases to take the habit, may be a priest, and may leave the office when he is weary of it ”

“ The depressing effects of the corroding wind of a hot Sirocco can only be conceived by those who have suffered from them; the unwonted dulness with which it overcasts even the most active mind; the deep-drawn sighs it will elicit; and if there be one melancholy feeling which presses on the heart more heavily than another, it is the ample developement which it enjoys during the prevalence of this enervating breeze. It seldom, however, blows with force; it is rather an exhalation than a wind. It scarcely moves the leaves around the traveller, but it sinks heavily and damply in his heart. ”

“ A stranger is at first unaware of the cause of the mental misery he endures; his temper sours as his spirits sink; every person, and every circumstance, annoys him; it affects even his dreams; sleep itself is not a refuge from querulous peevishness, and every motion is an irritating exertion. ”

“ At Rome are many minor fine arts practised, which are wholly unknown in England. The most remarkable of them is the Mosaic Manufactory, carried on at the cost of government: and its fruits are theirs. The workmen are constantly occupied in copying paintings for altarpieces, though the works of the first masters are fast mouldering away on the walls of forgotten churches. ”

“ Every singer imparts, though unconsciously, the colouring of his own individual character to the dramatic character which he sustains. Thus, two singers, the one possessed of a slight and flexible voice, the other of an organ of great volume and power, will give the same composition in a manner widely different. The one will, doubtless, be more animated than the other ”

“ It was Thomas Addas Emmet, the son of the state physician of Ireland—then a young lawyer of great promise, and now the Attorney-General of New York. The handsome and animated Dr. Mackenna, one of the most popular writers of the day, and Oliver Bond, the representative of the most reputable class of merchants, had grouped forward their intelligent heads; while one who brought no personal beauty to the cause (that letter of recommendation to all causes) , James Napper Tandy, stood waiting with a packet of letters, which he had received in his former quality of secretary to the meeting. ”

“ Being men of great taciturnity, they very seldom disturb a stranger with questions; and a person may live in their country a dozen years, without having twenty words addressed to him, except on important business. They seldom travel, and have very little wish to be informed of the state of their own, or any other country; when a minister of state is turned out of his place, or strangled, (which is a frequent custom,) they coldly observe that there will be a new one, without inquiring into the reason of the disgrace of the former. ”

“ If any country gentleman should be so unfortunate in this age as to lie under a suspicion of heresy, where will he find so easy a method of acquitting himself as by the ordeal of plum-porridge?" This alludes to the Puritans, who refused to observe Christmas, or any other festival of the church, either by devotion or merriment. ”

“ To the mere tyro in zoology, shells are attractive as the elegant sports of nature, in the beauty, splendour, and intricacy of their colours and structure; while their scientific arrangement is one of the most delightful pursuits of refined minds. ”

“ There are three colleges in Turkey where the children of distinguished men are educated and fitted for state employments. The children are first approved by the grand signior before they are allowed to enter these seminaries; and none dare come into his majesty's presence who are not handsome and well-made. Silence is first taught them, and a becoming behaviour to their superiors; then they are instructed in the Mahometan faith, the Turkish and Persian languages, and afterwards in the Arabic. ”

“ And the declension appears to me to consist in this,—there is more gastronomy and expanse, but less heartiness and hospitality; and these latter are the only legitimate characteristics of Englishmen. Be they then restored, this very Christmas, to the English character; the opportunity is fast approaching—be it employed. ”

“ Indeed, observes a judicious author, it is well for us that the Turks are such an indolent people, for their situation and vast extent of empire, would enable them to monopolize the trade of the world if they attended to it. They appear to possess very little genius or inclination for the improvement of arts and sciences although they live in countries which were once in the possession of the classic Greeks; but seem to prefer a slothful mode of life to an active one, continually [pg 431] sauntering away their time, either among women, or in taking coffee and smoking. ”

“ The Arabs have always been commended by the ancients for the fidelity of their attachments, and they are still scrupulously exact to their words, and respectful to their kindred; they have been universally celebrated for their quickness of apprehension and penetration, and the vivacity of their wit. ”

“ In proof of this fact, comic actors are quite as often dull and solemn people, as droll ones, in private life. The most remarkable instance of a face being a fortune, in this respect, is our own Liston. If he had not possessed a comic countenance, nothing could have prevented him from being a tragic actor, or have made him a comic one ”

“ If a man pronounce three divorces against a free woman, or two against a slave, he can lawfully wed neither of them again, unless they have been espoused by another, and this second husband dies, or shall divorce them. ”

“ The president was the Honourable Simon Butler: beside him, on a lower seat, sat the secretary. His uncovered head, and unshaded temples received the full light of the suspended lamp. It was one of those finely chiselled heads, which arrest the imagination, and seem to bear incontrovertible evidence of the certainty of physiognomical science. A dress particularly studied, was singularly contrasted with the athletic figure and antique bearing of this interesting looking person. ”

“ There are some persons whose every look, feature, expression, and tone of voice conduce to comic effects; and many an actor has owed his success more to these than to any mental qualities or dispositions corresponding with them ”

“ They are never allowed to stir abroad except when the grand signior removes; and then they are put into close chariots, signals being made at certain distances that no man may approach the road through which the ladies pass, on pain of death. ”

“ The reputation of the county as an agricultural district dates from the vast improvements of heaths, wastes, sheepwalks, and warrens, by enclosure and manuring—the fruit of the zealous exertions of Lord Townshend and a few neighbouring land-owners—which were, ere long, happily imitated by others. Since these improvements were effected, rents have risen in that county from one or two shillings to fifteen or twenty shillings per acre; a country of sheep-walks and rabbit-warrens has been rendered highly productive ”

“ Let each determine to make one convert, himself that one. On Christmas day, let each dine off, or at least have on his table, the good old English fare, roast beef and plum-pudding! and does such beef as our island produces need recommendation? ”

“ Their breeches, or drawers, are united with their stockings, and they have slippers, which they never put off but when they enter a mosque, or the house of a great man. Large shirts are worn, and over them is a vest tied with a sash; the outer garment being a sort of loose gown. Every man, in whatever station he is, carries a dagger in his sash. The women's attire much resembles that of the other sex, only they have a cap on their heads, something like a bishop's mitre, instead of a turban. ”

“ Some of the finest corn-crops in the world are now grown upon lands which, before the introduction of the turnip husbandry, produced a very scanty supply of grass for a few lean and half-starved rabbits. ”

“ A valuable museum of the products of Chinese skill and industry has recently been exhibited at Rome, in which the progress made by a people of whom so little is known, and civilization and the arts, is demonstrated. ”

“ It will be seen that his lordship is no mean artist, nor does he belong to the novel-making tribe, whose hole-and-corner curiosity has made us as familiar with the Corso as we are with our own Bond-street. ”

“ Until the beginning of the eighteenth century, this valuable root was cultivated among us only in gardens or other small spots, for culinary purposes; but Lord Townshend, attending King George the First on one of his excursions to Germany, in the quality of secretary of State, observed the turnip cultivated in open and extensive fields, as fodder for cattle, and spreading fertility over lands naturally barren ”

“ It is not only in mustaches that we have a proof of it, but on the whole surface of the body. The slightest touch of a hair is sufficient in cats, for example, to make them contort their skin and shudder, as they do when they find something light attached to the hair, and that they wish to shake off. ”

“ When it happens that a husband wishes to recover his wife, whom he had divorced in a passion, a convenient husband is sought; but the law forbids a mockery being made of such marriages. They may be short in duration, but the parties must live, during the period they are united, as man and wife. ”

“ And every one now
Is a king in conceit,
But as for curmudgeons
Who will not be free,
I wish they may die
On a two-legged tree!
WILLIAM PALIN.
To the proof that we are not unseasonable, here are in this sheet—Merry Christmas! the Turks, (of a darker hue;) Exhibitions; a Consolatory "Population" Scrap; Hints for Singing after a good master; a Bunch of Facts on Turnips; a column on Liston—that living limner of laughter; and other seasonables.
[pg 430]
MANNERS & CUSTOMS OF ALL NATIONS. No. XVII. THE TURKS. (For the Mirror.)
The Turks have a manly and prepossessing demeanour ”

“ The hens, whether from being frightened off their nests by the rats, which are very numerous and destructive, or from some other cause hitherto prevalent in Sumatra, do not hatch their chickens in the ordinary way, as is seen in almost all other climates. ”

“ The manufacture of bronzes, porcelain, gold work, and casts in copper, has arrived in China at an approach to perfection which the most advanced European nations would find it difficult to surpass. Some of the Chinese vases may really be compared to those of the finest time of Greece. The sculptures and the paintings, even with reference to anatomical precision, are as highly finished as ours. ”