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For the Literary Magazine.

VARIETIES.

reliques…. st. peter's scull.

A CERTAIN pope congratulat-
ed himself on his death-bed for the
great integrity and prosperity of
his administration, and all the mi-
nisters and courtiers which sur-
rounded the pontifical couch joined
in the homage: and pray, reader,
what thinkest thou was the chief
proof of this glory and prosperity,
what the principal exploit by which
his short reign had been so eminent-
ly and honourably distinguished in
the eyes of God and man? Per-
haps he drained some bog, by which
some thousands of his subjects had
their lives prolonged, and their
health secured. Perhaps he abo-
lished some iniquitous law, by which
the happiness of tens of thousands
had been molested and impaired.
Perhaps he cleared away a sand
bar, or constructed a mole, by which
trade and commerce were endowed
with new activity and energy. Per-
haps he abrogated or softened some
religious edict, and in consequence
improved, in some slight degree,
the condition of that part of his sub-
jects who dissented from the Ro-
mish ritual. No, reader; these
were frivolous exploits, and un-
worthy of so great a personage….....
His holiness' great and only achieve-
ments had been the performance of
the baptismal ceremony on ten
Jews, and the conversion of half a
million of crowns, collected in five
years from the people by a new tax
on bread, into a casket of gold en-
riched with gems, in which had
been solemnly deposited a scull, sup-
posed to have once belonged to St.
Peter.

a preservative against
earthquake and thunder.

Philip the second of Spain is well
known to have expended enormous
sums in the erection of the convent
and palace of the Escurial. He very

cautiously provided, by the best
means, against all the ordinary ac-
cidents to which such a building
was liable. There were two acci-
dents, however, to which every edi-
fice, constructed partly of wood,
and raised upon the surface of the
earth, are unavoidably exposed:
and these are earthquake and light-
ning. After much reflection on the
best method of averting these evils,
the sagacious monarch and his coun-
sellors at last hit upon expedients
which they deemed infallible. One
of these consisted in enclosing, with
the utmost solemnity, certain small
portions and splinters of the hair,
nails, and bones which formerly be-
longed to St. Laurence, in the urns,
placed along the roof of the build-
ing. This was to serve as a sure
preservative against lightning, while
earthquake was carefully averted
by enclosing certain fragments of
the oaken staff, woolen hose, and
hairy mattrass of the same martyr,
in the cubes and rhombs which
formed the corner stones and but-
tresses of the edifice.

henry iv.

Henry IV of France used to ride
beside his mistresses in the streets
of Paris and Lyons, holding her by
the hand, and occasionally kissing
her. They usually attended mass
together, and fondled and caressed
each other during service. Shows
were sometimes exhibited by the
cities and provinces of France, in
which bishops and priors bowed the
knee, and presented incense to the
picture or emblem of the royal mis-
tresses. When the lady herself
was present, this homage was offer-
ed to the real personage.

stonehenge.

Stonehenge is a double circle,
formed of large oblong stones set on
end, in the midst of a vast plain in
Wiltshire, in England. For several
centuries it was the firm belief of
all classes of the English nation,
that this circle was originally erect-

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ed by St. Patrick in Ireland, but
that Merlin, the great Cambrian
magician, at the earnest request of
a certain British king (I forget his
name), had caused it to be plucked
up and transported across the Irish
channel in one night, by certain de-
mons, the vassals of his power. As
many spirits were engaged in this
task as there were stones, one pillar
being allotted to each, and they were
all placed on Salisbury plain, in ex-
actly their pristine order. I have
often thought that a very fine poeti-
cal use might be made of this tradi-
tion. A genius like Wieland's or
Spencer's might raise a delightful
structure upon such foundations…..
But what must be the state of that
understanding, which could solemn-
ly and implicitly admit the tale as
true!

Some of the strongest and most
enlightened minds have given equal
credit to the similar transportation
of the holy house of Loretto, from
Syria to Italy, while they laugh at
the poor Arabs, who believe, with
infinitely more reason, that the walls
and columns of Palmyra and Balbec
were raised by demons, working un-
er the direction of Solomon.

female beauty.

Why beauty is so much prized by
the sex; why the possession excites
so much exultation, and the want so
much envy and repining, will not be
wondered at when we reflect upon
the distinction which beauty confers
in the eyes of mankind. The epi-
thet celebrated, applied to a man,
instantly suggests some intellectual
quality. Applied to woman we as
naturally imagine that her beauty or
personal accomplishments in sing-
ing, dancing, and the like, are spo-
ken of.

Roderigo, fourth count of Barce-
lona, had an only daughter, whose
beauty made her name familiar
throughout Europe. Several princes
and nobles came from the extremi-
ties of the north and east for the
mere purpose of verifying the re-
ports of fame, and convincing them-

selves, by their own eyes, of her
pre-eminence. Whenever she went
abroad the eyes of every spectator
followed her: on whatever human
countenance she directed her atten-
tion, on public and solemn occasions,
she beheld marks of rapture, devo-
tion, and astonishment. It was no
extraordinary thing for men to fall
on their knees as she passed in the
streets, and utter frantic ejaculations
of delight, and even of adoration. The
archbishop humourously prohibited
her presence at church, because the
congregation were irresistibly im-
pelled to withdraw their homage
from celestial objects, and bestow it
on a mere mortal.

The poets of her country exhausted
all their ingenuity in her praises;
and a fraternity was formed among
the most illustrious youth of the na-
tion, which paid divine honours to
her image or portrait, under the mo-
dest appellation of the Mother of
God. My sober readers must not be
scared at this; for they must know
that the Roman religion enjoins wor-
ship to be paid to the mother of
the Saviour; that is, to any statue
or picture arbitrarily denominated
such. As the votaries of this reli-
gion are at liberty to chuse any set
of features for their Madonna, it is
natural and easy to take for this pur-
pose those, either real or imaginary,
which please them most; and
hence, nothing is more common than
for lovers to worship their mistress-
es under this form.

As the beauty of Clara Isabella
exceeded any thing that the imagi-
nation of painter or statuary could
conceive, her image became the pe-
culiar object of devotion to a select
faternity who called themselves her
knights; but it was at the same time
scattered throughout Europe, by be-
ing copied in the foreign manufac-
tures of this article, so that this ex-
quisite beauty became really a uni-
versal idol, and received the most
solemn testimonies of devotion from
the farthest limits of Scotland, Swe-
den, and Hungary.

Her knights, composed chiefly of
Catalonian and Provençal nobility,

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assumed a great number of vows,
testifying their unlimited devotion
to her, binding themselves to assert
her universal pre-eminence, and ful-
fil her most trivial commands at
the hazard of fortune and life…...
Some of them are said to have given
the most extravagant proofs of their
attachment, by throwing themselves
down precipices, or rushing upon
certain death in battle, at a hint
from her; and the personal love
which numbers contracted for her,
as it could not be gratified in the
ordinary way, displayed itself in the
most outrageous freaks and most
desperate enterprizes.

Instances are mentioned of ac-
complished and illustrious youths
devoting themselves to arduous pil-
grimages, intolerable penances, and
even to evevitable death, in obedi-
ence to commands imposed thought-
lessly or in jest, and extorted from
her by their importunate devotion….
One of her knights assassinated a
caliph's visier; another placed a
crucifix in the principal mosque of
Medina; another, with a band of
followers, brought away a princess
of Grenada, famed for her beauty,
from the midst of her father's ha-
ram, to serve her as a waiting-maid.

Locks of her hair, her cast-off
raiment, a slipper she had worn, a
ribbon which had once encircled her
arm or waist, were besought and
preserved as the most sacred re-
liques. Compliments on her beauty
and costly presents were sent to her,
not only from christian potentates,
but from Arabian emirs and Turk-
ish sultans, from the borders of the
Black sea and the Erythrean gulph.

What human being could fail of
being intoxicated by homage like
this! what portion of wisdom or hu-
mility could preserve Clara from
some degree of vanity and credulity!
and how must the value which the
sex, in general, affix to beauty be
heightened by observing these testi-
monies of devotion paid to it!

It does not appear that this para-
gon possessed a mind of extraordi-
nary force or elegance; that her
moral constitution was distinguished

by any qualities remarkably good or
bad. Her triumph appears to have
been merely the triumph of personal
charms, of a handsome face, and a
graceful form. This triumph had
a short career, and an early termi-
nation, for she died, at the age of
nineteen, of a fever caught while
beholding a show upon the water,
exhibited at Barcelona in honour of
her.

We cannot but indulge our fancy
in imagining the consequences, if na-
ture had combined with all this
beauty, and the sovereignty of Cata-
lonia, one of the most flourishing
principalities at that time in Chris-
tendom, a mind as much endowed
with dignity, energy, and sagacity,
as met together in the character,
for instance, of Elizabeth of Eng-
land. Sovereign power confers up-
on human beings many of the attri-
butes which properly belong only to
superior natures. Intellectual powers
are a still more irresistible claim to
authority and veneration. The his-
tory of modern ages shows us the
force of beauty. Had all these then
been blended in the Catalonian
princess, how much more than mor-
tal would she have been!