sassin-like habits, its shabby tricks, pilfering from every bird's nest in the neighbourhood, and even daring the poultry-yard, and striking at the innocent chickens, I cannot pardon. For shame, Mrs. Mag! Notwithstanding your domestic virtues, which, to confess the truth, are very exemplary, for you are a good wife and mother, you can emblem nothing but mischief; you must learn that one virtue is very far from being enough to form a perfect character.

The owl, in all its varieties, whether "the great horned", "the spectacled ", "the brown", or the sly barn-mouse-catcher, wise in appearance, but woefully stupid in reality, are all particularly disagreeable to me, for I despise pretension. What could the goddess of wisdom have been about when she selected such a fright as her emblem?'

I am afraid that the peacock, with all his beauty, must be set down as a very coxcomb. Vanity personified! Only to be admired for his splendid appearance; for the days are past when he was considered a delicacy; and he has no one amiable quality to recommend him. It is said that Alexander the Great was so much struck with the beauty of these birds when he found them in India flying wild on the banks of the river Hyarotis, that he laid a severe fine and punishment, not only on any one who should kill, but on any one who should dare to disturb them. Certainly a flight of peacocks under the glowing eastern sky must have been a gorgeous object. But splendid appearances often mislead the understanding; and Alexander did not consider, or perhaps know, any thing about the evil and greedy disposition of his beautiful favourite.

Our own domestic hen, in her homely garb, is a more pleasing subject to dwell upon;-fit emblem of maternal tenderness,-careless of her own danger, devoted to her offspring; the most useful little creature in creation; her feathers supply our beds, her eggs our greatest dainties, custards, puddings, froths, and puffs. What a dearth there would be at the pastry-cooks if hens entered into a combination not to supply us with eggs! We had one, I recollect, a fine creature, with a splendid topping and beautiful mottled wings-a thorough Dorking; so tame, yet so courageous; many a hawk has she beat down, and many a gobbling turkey turned out of the poultry-yard, while her little brood cowered and twittered in the distance, astonished, no doubt, at mamma's intrepidity; this bird used to lay two hundred and fifty eggs in the year. We are much indebted to Persia for so valuable a present. How magnificent the cock must look amid the woods on the Malabar coast, in his ancient state of independence; his black and yellow plumage finely contrasting with the deep foliage, and his yellow and purple comb and wattles sparkling in the sun-beams, as he plumes his glossy wing on the bough of some glorious tree! I wonder how the hen manages to bring up her young there here she builds no nests, nor does she need them, for the young birds run and feed themselves as soon as hatched-but that Being who clothes the lily of the field in light and purity, doubtless instructs the wild Indian hen to nurture her brood in safety.' p. 24-33.

:

NOTICES.

Art. X. 1. Potamology: a Tabular Description of the principal Rivers throughout the World,-their Rise, Course, Cities, &c., Tributaries, Length, Navigation, and Outfall into Oceans, Seas, or Lakes. Compiled and printed by George Smallfield. Price 48.; coloured on a sheet, 6s.; folded, 10s. on cloth and roller.

2. The Family Cabinet Atlas, constructed upon an Original Plan, and engraved on Steel by Mr. Thomas Starling. Part 1. containing eight Plates. Foolscap 8vo. London. 1830.

THE Family Cabinet Atlas is offered to the public as a companion to the historical and geographical portions of the Family Library and Cabinet Cyclopedia, to which publications it corresponds in size. The maps are of course upon a very small scale; but, to obviate their being confused and crowded, the names of the principal places only are inserted, while the less important are registered alphabetically in a table on the opposite page, with their latitude and longitude affixed. cannot withhold our commendation of the extreme neatness and good taste with which the specimen before us has been got up. The maps are beautifully engraved; and although, from its scale, this Miniature Atlas approaches somewhat too nearly in appearance to a toy, it is at least an elegant and a useful one. It cannot be designed to supersede the use of maps on a larger scale; but it may sufficiently answer its professed purpose as a table companion to the historical publications referred to; and its portable size will render it convenient for the use intended. The alphabetical list of places would be more serviceable, however, were some distinguishing mark affixed to the chief towns, and were places of inferior note referred to their proper district or province, instead of giving their supposed geographical position. In fact, half of the names in some of the maps might as well be omitted; and a table of the chief divisions would be far more useful. As a gem of art,' the work will not fail to prove attractive. In the specimen Number, there is a very neat comparative view of the principal mountains, and another of the chief rivers, which are really curious for the quantity and ingenious arrangement of the information they comprise.

Mr. Smallfield's Potamological Chart must have cost the Compiler no small pains, and, though not a gem of art,' is a noble sheet-full of printing. The chief rivers of Europe, Asia, Africa, North America and South America, are enumerated separately, each division having its distinct alphabetical arrangement; and the information respecting each river is given under twelve parallel columns, occupying the width of the sheet. We shall take one river as a specimen, although, of course, we cannot exhibit the mode of arrangement. The heads we give in italic.

'Ganges, or Ganga, i. e. The River. Rises in India, south side of the Himalaya Mountains. At or near Gangoutree. About lat. and long. 31° 20′ N. 77° 55′ E. Runs through or divides w. b. s., s.W., W, s.s.w., s.s.E., w., Gurhwall, as the Bhagireti; s.w. b. s., s.s.E., Delhi;

s.E. b. E. Agra from Oude; N.E. b. E., E.S.E., E., Allahabad; s.E., S.E., S.S.E., Bengal-the Hoogly, by Calcutta, runs s.s.w. Cities or Towns on or near. Gangoutree, right, Hurdwar r., Anopsheer r., Furrukhabad r., Manick poor left, Allahabad r., Mirzapoor r., Benares l., Patna r., Monghir r., Rajemal r., Moorshedabad r., Calcutta l. Chief tributary Streams. Alacananda l., Ramgonga l., Kaleenuddy r., Jumna r. 780 with Chumbul r. 450; Goomty l. 400; Gogra l. 720; Soane r. 475; Ganduck l. 450; Bogmutty l.; Coosy l. 300; Mahanady l. 325; Teesta and Attic l. 500; all with many tribs. Length. 1850 (miles), Smith's Riv. 1550, M. Brun. 1500. Edinb. Gaz. Navigable to Hardwar; at 500 miles from mouth, 4 miles broad, and 60 feet deep. Falls into the Bay of Bengal by 30 mouths; joins the Burrampooter. At or 21° 40' N. near Hoogly, Sagor Isle-and, Chara, &c. isles. About

88° 10' E. 90° 45′ E.'

22° 20' N.

This is but a single article of the Table, and there are in all sixtynine. If we have any fault to find, it is with the minuter details, which are not of much obvious use,—can be made clearly intelligible only in the maps,-and often rest upon very uncertain calculation, report, and conjecture; so that our geographical knowledge would appear from this Table to be more advanced and extensive than it really is. Mr. Smallfield has evidently taken all possible pains to be correct, and has consulted the best authorities. With the exception of a few trivial inaccuracies, the information is, indeed, as correct as the present state of our knowledge admits of.

ART. XI. MR. VAUGHAN'S LIFE OF WYCLIFFE. WE have received from the Rev. Mr. Vaughan, the highly respected Author of the "Life of Wycliffe," the following copy of a letter addressed to the Editor of the Times Newspaper, occasioned by a mean and unprovoked attempt to disparage his labours and depreciate the work, by what purports to be a review of his volumes in that Journal. The Editor of the Times having declined to do Mr. Vaughan the justice of inserting his temperate and satisfactory exposure of his critic's incompetency and unfairness, he has been compelled to give it publicity through other channels; and we cheerfully make room for his letter in our pages.

SIR,

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.

In applying myself to produce a Life of Wycliffe, I was not insensible to the labour it would involve, nor to certain hazards that would attend it. Should the book fail to possess any real worth, there was nothing in the name or connections of the author, to secure for it even a transient notice from the public; and should it prove to be a work of value, there were circumstances rendering it probable that its merits would be sifted to the last grain. For this I endeavoured to prepare myself; but against the kind of attack made upon me in your Journal, of the 7th of this month, it was impossible to provide. To say the least, it is evident that the writer of that article has relied more upon a very treacherous memory, than upon that patient attention

to facts which the subject required. This, a mere glance at the few sentences which follow, will, I trust, be sufficient to shew; and I depend upon your honour to give them insertion. Of every statement made, I am prepared to supply my proofs in your columns, or elsewhere, as may be required.

I. I am charged with "sneering" at the labours of my predecessor, Mr. Lewis. I spoke of Mr. Lewis's Life of Wycliffe as the only book deserving that name. I spoke of its author not only as having deserved incomparably more, on this subject, than any other man, but as a gentleman whose industry was bounded only by his opportunities, and whose mind was evidently governed by honourable feeling. More than this, I never knew any man say in praise of Mr. Lewis. It is true, I spoke of his intentions as feebly" executed, and of his volume as one which few persons read. And I must add, that I never knew a man acquainted with that volume, who did not thus speak of it; nor do I believe there to be an intelligent man living who does not so think of it. When I spoke of Mr. Lewis's performance as feeble, I did not mean that the term should refer merely to its style, or the disposition of its materials; (though what my predecessor did in this way, Mr. Gilpin thought required doing over again;) but I meant that obnoxious word to apply to the defectiveness of Mr. Lewis's information respecting many of Wycliffe's opinions, and the dates of his MSS. These defects relate to the larger half of the Reformer's doc. trines, and these mistakes are such as to extend confusion and contradiction through nearly the whole work. In supplying many of these defects, and correcting these mistakes, it is not in one case of twenty that I have mentioned Mr. Lewis. From a wish to avoid invidious comparison, I have thus placed myself on disadvantageous ground, exposing myself to serious injury; and after this, to be described as attempting an ungenerous depreciation of my predecessor's labours, is rather hard measure.

2. The public are given to understand, that the Life of Wycliffe is produced by a free use of the common arts of "book-making." Every man knows the disreputable meaning attached to this sort of language. I may have indulged more in dissertation, or digression, than was desirable. But with respect to the incidents in the Reformer's life, and the doctrines which he taught, I must be allowed to say, that no modern authority has been of any material service to me. I have not only examined every important authority which Mr. Lewis has examined, but have extended my researches to documents which he never saw, and to others of which he never heard. From very limited means, and from a much occupied life, I have spared neither cost nor labour through nearly seven years, that I might become fairly possessed of whatever might be known on the subject before me. My gains will, perhaps, cover my actual expenses. The arts of book making are practised for other ends and upon easier terms.

3. I am charged with "disingenuousness" in my account of Wycliffe's conduct before the delegates at Lambeth and the convocation at Oxford; and this, it seems, is my "main" fault. With respect to the meeting at Lambeth, there is a serious error in Mr. Lewis's manner of introducing it, which had I been less reluctant in noticing, the inaccuracies of my predecessor could hardly have escaped the Re

viewer's attention. Of the several compositions quoted in Mr. Lewis's third chapter as works published by the Reformer before his appearance at Lambeth, there is not one which I have not found to contain proofs of being written several years subsequently to that event*. Were the matter as Mr. Lewis represents it, Wycliffe would be open to the charge of having taught doctrines previously to his appearance before the papal delegates, which were, in some particular, qualified in their presence. But, from the discovery I had made as to the order in which the Reformer's pieces were published, it became evident, that a severity of expression which Wycliffe has been always described as using with regard to Rome, before Rome became his prosecutor, was a manner of expression in which he did not indulge until the strength of the papal power had been employed against him. Hence I came to an examination of the Reformer's " conclusions," as no other man had done; and while contending that an allowance should be made, in judging of them, for the scholastic taste of the writer, and that they must be admitted, when taken as a whole, to bespeak no common discernment and intrepidity, I was greatly influenced in doing this, by the new light in which the whole transaction now stood. A few words will be sufficient to dispose of the question of Wycliffe's consistency before the convocation at Oxford,-at least as far as the thing affects myself and Mr. Lewis. The examination of the Reformer's doctrine at Oxford, was limited to the article of transubstantiation; and to this point accordingly his "confessions "are limited. On the authority of these confessions, and on the authority of Walsingham, a contemporary of Wycliffe, and his bitter adversary, I described the Reformer's statements before the Convocation, as "a re-assertion, instead of a renunciation of his doctrine." The confessions of Wycliffe appeared to me to contain a denial of transubstantiation. But it appeared to me also, that his views as to the presence of the Redeemer's body in the Eucharist, were considerably obscured. Hence it occurred to me as important, to ascertain how far this obscurity was peculiar to the documents submitted to the clergy at Oxford, or how far it might attach to the doctrine as broached by the Reformer at other times and in other places. Upon examination, I found that the degree of uncertainty observable in Wycliffe's confessions, was inseparable from the doctrine of the Eucharist as taught by him up to the time of his appearance at Oxford, and as taught by him ever afterwards. Of this I adduced my proofs, a few only from the many that might have been supplied. Mr. Lewis denies that Wycliffe recanted at Oxford (p. 104). I do the same; and I do it, not only upon the evidence which that writer possessed, but upon very material evidence which he did not possess. Yet, I am to be reproached as "disingenuous," and Mr. Lewis is to have the praise of "perfect fairness." There must be more in this, than lies upon the surface.

KENSINGTON, May 15, 1830.

ROBERT VAUGHAN.

In proof of this, as to the Reformer's great work, intitled Trialogus, see Life of Wycliffe, II. p. 209. The proofs as to the dates of the other pieces, are of the same kind.