the muscles, that contorts the spine, protrudes the breast, and entirely unhinges the finest form that has been subjected to this unnatural torture. But the mere injunction, to keep the head up, and the shoulders back, however often it be repeated, is always, in consequence of its being unnatural, obeyed with reluctance, and evaded at every opportunity®. This uniform disobedience soon led to the obvious device of an apparatus of strong ribbon braces, to pinion back the shoulders into the position so much desired by mothers, anxious about the handsome figures of their children. From the facts which we have just stated, the effect of this injurious practice must be to weaken and destroy the tone of two important sets of muscles. It must, in the first place, keep at an unnatural stretch those muscles which never move the arms and shoulders forward, and of course, must reduce the plumpness of the upper part of the chest, so indispensible to the elegance of shape, while it forces, at the same time, the breast bone to protrude below, and press inwards above, impeding the free play of the lungs, tainting the breath, and leading directly to consumption. In the second place, it must keep in a most unnatural contraction the muscles which move the arms and shoulders backwards; and as this contraction is never relaxed so long as the braces are worn, the muscles rapidly diminish in size and strength; and when the braces are laid aside, the shoulders must fall forward for want of support, and the deformity is probably rendered, from the continuance of the practice, almost, if not, altogether incurable. From the want of motion, also, and proper exercise in these muscles, the flow of blood to that part of the chest will be greatly diminished, and the ribs and bones of the chest which, like the other parts of the body, depend on the blood for their nourishment +-must suffer for the want of their natural supply and will become smaller, and from feebleness, will lose the fine arched form that constitutes the beauty of the female bust. In a word, the chicken breast will ensue, with all its threatening consequences of cough and fatal consumption. We hesitate not, therefore, to condemn braces of all kinds, as applied to restrain the motion of the shoulders; for they are certain to act in the way we have pointed out, and will infallibly produce deformity. We caution mothers, most strongly, not to be deceived by the apparent improvement which they produce when first put on, for this is the snare that has allured so many to torture their children into deformity. Follow the example of the elegant Greeks, the ease and beauty of whose forms are so much admired. They put on no unnatural straps on their young ladies: all their garments were easy, loose and floating; and the effects were seen in their every limb, and their every motion. On the contrary, we can at once distinguish among thousands, from their stiff, starched, awkwardness, the poor creatures who have been pinioned and tortured by shoulder braces, and other wicked inventions, to turn beauty into deformity, and the finest figures into ricketty ugliness. Dr. Macartney, of Dublin, says, ❝he has found the fine proportions of the antique statues only in the busts of women who had never worn such restraints on shape." Stays and Corsets. The bad consequences of the pressure of stays, or tight clothes of every kind, has already been pointed out above; but besides the pressure on particular parts, and the injury consequent upon it, stiff stays act in the same manner as the shoulder braces, by preventing the natural and wholesome exercise of the muscles. A recent author has well remarked, that it would be ruin to attempt to dissuade ladies from the use of this pernicious article of dress; but however much they may disregard themselves, they ought certainly to reject for their children whatever shall be hurtful to them. Restraint, and particularly that of stays, is almost certain to distort the body during growth; while freedom of motion in all its members is the only certain preventive of deformity. The unfettered Indian females, and even our own peasant girls, in many parts of the country, are strangers to twists in the shape, and distortions of the spine; and clearly because they are unfettered by unnatural dress during their growth. They are, happily unacquainted with the mechanical methods of producing deformity under the mistaken intention of preventing it. Unfortunately, the idea that the bodies of girls require support during their growth, has, by time and custom, become so firmly rooted in the minds of most mothers, that no persuasion will influence them to give up the practice. The stays which are constructed with whalebone or steel, must strongly prevent the natural bend. ing of the body. A girl, who has her body thus cased in such stiff materials, must suffer much injury from the forced position she is compelled to keep herself in, independant of the uneasiness she often manifests by We agree, shrugging and working her shoulders. therefore, with Dr. Dods, that as the muscles of the spine are kept by stiff stays in a constant state of contraction, and never suffered to relax, they must become disorganized, aud deformity of the spine will be produced; so that, instead of stays being a preventive of distortion, they evidently become a powerful assistant in its production. It is an interesting fact, agreeing closely with the remarks we have made on the effects of exercise, that M. Portal, one of the most learned physicians of France, found the muscles of the back much larger, redder and stronger in women who had not worn stays, than in those who had used them. He observes also, that where women who have worn stays from infancy, leave them off at a certain age, for greater comfort, that they are sure to become distorted; for the muscles have -been so weakened by want of use, that when the artificial props are removed, they are no longer capable of Chinese ladies, who compress their feet till they are supporting the body. We laugh at the folly of the unable to walk; and at the Africans, who flatten their noses as an indispensible requisite of beauty; but we are still further from Nature when we imagine that the female chest is not so elegant as we can make it by the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy for 1817. + DoDs on contorted Spine, p. 135. confinement of stays; and Nature accordingly shews her resentment by rendering so many of our fashionable ladies, who unease themselves with steel or whalebone, deformed, either in the chest, the shoulders, or the spine. Portal, however. allows of stays being occasionally worn by old people who are very feeble, and even in children; and he is supported in this by the great anatomist, Winslow. If stays, however, are worn, and it should be done with great caution, we must altogether prohibit the use of whalebone or steel as decided injurious. The materials should all be elastic. so as to yield to every movement without compressing any part of the body. Dr. Dods recommends stays of fine white woollen stocking web, doubled and cut into forms; instead of whalebone or steel, strips of jean are stitched closely down on both sides, in the places where the whalebones are usually put. "These give," he says, "sufficient firmness, while the elastic web, between them, admits of the free motion of the body in all directions. The bosom part may be made as usual, entirely of jean, for the purpose of supporting the breasts. We should advise the addition of pieces of catgut, sewed within the strips of jean; or perhaps the new invented process of manufacturing Indian rubber may furnish something superior to any elastic material hitherto tried. An-instrument called steel boddice, is one of the most mischievous inventions of the stay kind which ingenuity has yet devised. We sincerely hope that none of our readers will have the temerity to employ such a contrivance, as it will be almost certain to produce defor. mity, or increase it where it has already begun to appear. Those made to lengthen or shorten, which is considered as an improvement, are by far the most dangerous. Back Boards. The multiplicity of novel instruments, of which we have now almost an endless variety, has, fortunately, rendered back boards rather unfashionable. They were employed for a similar purpose to braces and stays, namely, to keep the body both upright and immoveable, with the head elevated, and the shoulders pulled unna. turally backwards. It was also absurdly imagined that they enlarged the chest, and thereby prevented the attacks of consumption: but, from what we have said of the effects of braces, in producing chicken breast and flatness of ribs, it must be evident that the back board must have a still more injurious effect of the same kind, although we leave entirely out of consideration the torture it always inflicts on the poor child that is forced to wear it. There cannot be a doubt but that back boards are powerful instruments also, for promoting distortions and twists of the spine, by weakening the strength of the muscles, by which the upright position of the body is chiefly supported. Collars. Several instruments, differing very considerably from each other, have been constructed under this name, and as they are usually attached to braces, stays, back boards, and similar machines, they fall naturally to be considered in this place, We quite agree with Dr. Dods, in saying, "that of all the contrivances which have been invented to torture children, and to produce or aggravate deformities, none can rank higher in mischievous severity than collars. STANZAS TO SILENCE. What art thou, Silence? who has thee To seek for thee in heaven were vain, Thou wert not at creation's birth; For morning stars together sang, The voice of joy was heard on earth, And Eden's groves in concert rang. Ages have rolled, and Time has pass'd, When thou would'st seek the flowry vale, To chase thee, swains and maidens come; Thou flee'st as from the tainted gale, The city's din, and ceaseless hum. The song of joy breathed soft around, The wail of woe that wrings the soul, Alike are shunned; nor art thou found Companion o'er the reveller's bowl. Thou loath'st the garish blaze of day, Like moping owl that shuns the light; And wing'st away thy viewless way, To court the stillness of the night. Yet thou wilt fly, if tempests roar, And mountain oaks groan in the gale ;If murmuring waves but kiss the shore, And listening echo catch the tale. Though dear to thee the shady grove, When zephyrs on the primrose die, Yet there the whispered tale of love Disturbs, alarms, and makes thee fly. In pathless wilds and deserts drear, It still is thy delight to dwell; Sometimes, with eremite austere Thou'lt linger, in his lonely cell; Unstable still thy dwelling there; Even that is not thy place of rest; For thou wilt vanish at his prayer, Start from the sigh that heaves his brest. Although thou ever fliest afar The trumpets clang and rattling drum; Yet wilt thou seek the seat of war When victory's blood-stained day is come, To hover o'er the gory bed Where valour cold and lifeless lies, Till startled by the plunderer's tread, Or scared by flapping vulture's cries. Where Tadmor's ruins stand sublime, Swept from the earth, her place unknown, Thou hauntest still; but these deny To thee a home, a resting stay; The dragon's hiss, and bittern's cry Combine to chase thee far away. There is a spot where thou can'st reign, In stillness drear and midnight gloom; Where thou can'st undisturb'd remain,The lonely regions of the tomb. Yet shall a voice that mansion shake, And those in thy embrace who lie Shall on their bed of slumber wake, While thou shalt in oblivion die! A RUSSIAN WEDDING, Early one day in November, a kind young friend, the son of Mr. Anderson, the oldest English merchant in St. Petersburgh, whose attentions to me were unremitting, put a finely embossed card into my hands, on which was printed, in Russian characters, the following invitation, literally translated. "Ivan Ivanovitch and Prascovia Constantinovna Ivanoff, humbly request the favour of your attendance to the marriage ceremony of their daughter Anna Ivanowna with Nicholai Demetrivitch Borissow, and to the dinner table, this November the 15th day, in the year 1827, at two o'clock in the afternoon." On the embossed border of the card, delicately edged with rose colour, the emblematic figure of Hymen was represented on the one side standing under a palm tree, between the sleeping dogs of fidelity, and inviting from the other side the figures of the bride and bridegroom. I learned that the parties were wealthy Russian hemp-commission-agents, and most excellent people; and as such an invitation promised to afford me an opportunity of witnessing the church marriage ceremony, of which I had read so many dissimilar accounts; I gladly accepted it. We be At two the friends of the parties assembled from all quarters in the winter church of the Annunciation, in the Vossileiostrew, where a great concourse of people had already collected round the choristers or chanters, who, in the most delightful manner imaginable, and in the fuga style, were singing hymns, mixing with skilful combination the sopranos and bass voices. guiled half an hour in listening to their strains, waiting for the arrival of the bride. In the mean time I surveyed the picturesque groups of people that kept gradually forming in various parts of the church, where the kaftaned Russian, with his well caressed beard; mixed with the throng of young and good-looking fe males. Some of the latter dressed in the fashion of the country, their heads profusely ornamented with gold, and embroidered veils; and others, according to the more attractive garb of the French, presented a striking contrast to many of the assembled men, whom I understood to belong to the class of Russian merchants, but who wore neither the kaftan nor the beard. Their smooth and shaven faces, with the general style of dress common to most of the European nations, scarcely permitted their being distinguished from several English merchants present, who had been invited on the occasion. The officiating priest, decked in his rich church vestments, accompanied by the deacon, advanced from the sanctuary towards the door of entrance into the church, and there received the pair about to be made happy, to whom he delivered a lighted taper, making, at the same time, the sign of the cross thrice on their foreheads, and conducted them to the upper part of the nave. Incense was scattered before them, while maids splendidly attired, walked between the paranymphy, or bridegroom and bride. The Greek church requires not the presence of either of the parents of the bride on such an occasion. Is it to spare them the pain of voluntarily surrendering every authority over their child to one who is a stranger to her blood? I stood by the side of the table on which were deposited the rings, and before which the priest halted at the conclusion of a litany, wherein the choristers assisted, and from which he pronounced, in a loud and impressive voice, the following prayer, his face being turned towards the sanctuary, and the bride and the bridegroom placed immediately behind him, holding their lighted tapers. "O eternal God,-thou who didst collect together the scattered atoms by wondrous union, and didst join them by an indissoluble tie, who didst bless Isaac and Rebecca, and made them heirs of thy promise; give thy blessing unto these thy servants, and guide them in every good work: For thou art the merciful God, the lover of mankind, and to thee we offer up our praise now and for ever even unto ages of ages." The import of this beautiful invocation was, at the time, interpreted to me by a friend well acquainted with the whole service and office of espousals, the language of which he assured me was all equally impressive; of the truth of which assertion I have since had ample opportunity of being convinced by a perusal of Dr. King's excellent work before mentioned, from which I have borrowed the translation of the above prayer. The priest, next turning round to the couple, blessed them, and taking the rings from the table, gave one to each, beginning with the men, and proclaiming aloud that they stood betrothed, "now and for ever, even unto ages of ages," which declaration he repeated thrice to them, while they mutually exchanged the rings an equal number of times. The rings were now again surrendered to the priest, who crossed the forehead of the couple with them, and put them on the fore finger of the right hand of each; and turning to the sanctuary, read another impressive part of the flower, emblematic of innocence, with the rich tresses of the bride, which were farther embellished by a splendid tiare of large diamonds. Her white satin robe, from the hands of Mademoiselle Louise, gracefully pencilling the contours of her bust, was gathered around her waist by a zone, studded with precious stones, which fastened to her side a bouquet of white flowers. The common cup being now brought to the priest, he blessed it, and gave it to the bridegroom, who took a sip from its contents thrice, and transferred it to her who was to be his mate, for a repetition of the same ceremony. After a short pause, and some prayers from the responser, in which the choristers joined with musical notes, the priest took the bride and bridegroom by the hand, the friends holding their crowns, and walked with them round the desk thrice, having both their right hands fast in his, from west to east, saying "Exalt, O Isaiah! for a Virgin has conceived and brought forth a Son; Emanuel, God and man, the East is his name. Him do we magnify, and call the Virgin blessed!" Then taking off the bridegroom's crown, he said— "Be thou magnified, O bridegroom, as Abraham! Be thou blessed as Isaac, and multiplied as Jacob, walking in peace, and performing the commandments of God in righteousness." Be In removing the bride-s crown, he exclaimed"And be thou magnified, O bride, as Sarah ! thou joyful as Rebecca, and multiplied as Rachael; delighting in thine own husband, and observing the bounds of the law, according to the good pleasure of God." The ceremony now drew to its conclusion, the tapers were extinguished, and taken from the bride and bridegroom, who, walking towards the holy screen, were dismissed by the priest, received the congratulations of the company, and saluted each other. We all now hurried to our carriages, the youngest to their sledges, and took the direction of the house of the bride's father, where we were received by that person in his Russian costume, and with a flowing beard, who conducted the company, at the sound of a full band of music, into the banqueting-room, already prepared for about fifty guests, with tables decked with golden plateaux, and vases bearing artificial flowers, mixed with piles of fruit and bonbons. Here a large assemblage of friends had already met, through which we made our way to an inner room, where the bride, seated by the side of her mother, and surrounded by matrons and damsels, received, with becoming modesty, our congratulations. I was surprised at finding in the Gynæceum of a class of society of this description, such agreeable and easy manners, untainted by the least gaucherie or awkward pretensions. My engagements prevented my remaining to dinner; but I returned time enough in the evening to be present at the conclusion of the day's ceremony The dinner had passed off without any remarkable occurrence, and considering the enormons quantity of Champagne consumed (a very favourite beverage on all gala-days with the middle classes of society at St. Petersburgh), I found the party almost philosophical. Toasts to the bride and bridegroom had been repeatedly drank, aud the night was far advanced when the Passajosalatetz took the bride by the hand, and conducted her into the bed-chamber, where he consigned her to the care of all the married ladies present, himself retiring immediately after. Those matrons assisted her in disrobing her of the bridal vestments, and in assuming the garb appropriate to the chamber in which they were. The Passajonalatetz next performed the like office of conducting the bridegroom to the chamber, who put on his schiafreck, or night-gown, the married ladies having previously retired, These operations being concluded, the doors of the bed-chamber were thrown open, and we all walked in in procession, quaffing a goblet of Champagne to the health of the parties, kissing the bride's hands, who returned the salutations on our cheeks, and embracing à la Francaise the cheeks of the bridegroom, who, luckily, in the present instance, had neither the Russian beard, nor the modern English whiskers. With one voice, we then wished the happy pair a hearty blessing and withdrew, when the doors were closed. The company gradually dispersed. Dinners and dancing went on for three successive days. On the first of these I attended for a few minutes, being determined to satisfy my cu XO. XXXVIII-VOL. IV. riosity to the last. I had, however; to pay for the indulgence, having been compelled, by immemorial usage, on entering the room, to drink a bumper of the sparkling juice to the dregs, in honour of the bride, to undergo the same ceremony of bride and bridegroom's salutation. and to whirl half a round of a waltz with the former. But I had made up my mind to bear even worse inconveniences than these, should it have been necessary, rather than forego the advantage of judging for myself of the truth or falsehood of the many exaggerated and fanciful descriptions given by travellers of a Russian wedding. To complete this aceount of what I witnessed, I should add, that on the eighth day, the happy pair attended once more at the church, for the ceremony of dissolving the crowns," which is performed by the priest, with appropriate prayers, in allusion to the rites of matrimony. 66 Granville's Journey to St. Petersburg. ERRORS RESPECTING THE SENSIBILITY OF THE INFERIOR ANIMALS. One of the numerous excellent articles contained in the new edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, contains an able defence of naturalists against the charge of cruelty in the pursuit of their studies. This charge has mainly rested on the assumption that the amount of sensibility to pain is generally equal in every variety of the animal creation. The defence will, at all events, save much of the pain which persons of great nervous sensibility constantly feel at the daily chance medleys which they inevitably commit amongst the animal creation. It is well known (says the writer), that in proportion as we descend in the scale of being, the sensibility of the objects that constitute it diminishes. The tortoise walks about after losing its head; and the polypus, so far from being injured by the application of the knife, thereby acquires an extension of existence. Insensibility almost equally great may be found in the insect world. This, indeed, might be inferred a priori, since Providence seems to have been more prodigal of insect life than of that of any other order of creatures, animalculæ perhaps alone excepted. No part of the creation is exposed to the attack of so many enemies, or subject to so many disasters; so that the few individuals of each kind which enrich the valued museum of the entomologist, many of which are dearer to him than gold or gems, are snatched from the ravenous maw of some bird or fish, or rapacious insect, would have been driven by the winds into the waters and drowned, or trodden under foot by man or beasts; for it is not easy in some parts of the year to set foot to the ground without crushing these minute animals. Can it be believed that the beneficent Creator, whose tender mercies are over all his works, would expose these helpless beings to such innumerable enemies and injuries, were they endued with the same sense of pain and irritability of nerve with the higher order of animals?" Instead, therefore, of believing, and being grieved by the belief, that the insect we tread upon, In corporal sufferance feels a pang as great the very reverse is nearer the truth. Had a giant lost an arm or a leg, or were a sword or spear run through his body, he would feel no great inclination for running about, dancing, or eating. Yet a tipula will leave half its legs in the hands of an unlucky boy who has endeavoured to catch it, and will fly here and there with as much agility and unconcern as if nothing had happened to it; and an insect impaled upon a pin will often devour its prey with as much avidity as when at liberty, Were a giant eviscerated, his body divided in the middle, or his head cut off, it would be all over with him; he would move no more: he would be dead to the calls of hunger, or the emotions of fear, anger or love, Not so our insects: I have seen the common cockchafer walk about with apparent indifference after some bird had nearly emptied its body of its viscera; a humble bee will eat honey with greediness though deprived of its abdomen; and I myself lately saw an ant, which had been brought out of the nest by its comrades, walk, when deprived of its head. The head of a wasp will attempt to bite after it was separated from the rest of the body; and the abdomen, under similar circumstances, if the finger be moved to it, it will attempt to sting." Query, which part felt conscious of being the original wasp? That the acuteness of bodily suffering, even among the higher classes of the brute creation, is in some manner providentially subdued, and rendered so much less acute as not to be a fit subject of comparison with the suffering of the human race, is indeed evident from various phenomena, whatever the cause may be. The writer of this article has seen a turtledove (Columba risoria) which was so severely lacerated by a cat, that the contents of the stomach were torn The painfully excited sympathy of those who had long cherished the gentle creature was, however, in a great measure allayed by seeing the bird immediately afterwards proceed to pick up the fresh grains of barley which (till the aid of the surgeon was called in) continued to fall from its wounded paunch. Considerations of the nature glanced at in the preceding paragraphs can never, of course, be so misconstrued as to afford any palliation to wanton or inconsiderate cruelty to the brute creation. The judges of the Areopagus who condemned to death the child whose amusement it had been to pluck out the eyes of quails, were regulated in their determination by the motives imputed to the young criminal, and which they deemed expressive of so cruel and pernicious a character, that in aftertimes he would assuredly offend the state. But had some great oculist, intent on the structure and physiology of the human eye, and engaged in a difficult course of experimental observation, by means of which the dim suffusion" which often veils the orbs of his fellow-men might be obviated or decreased, found himself uuder the necessity of having recourse to a somewhat similar operation, the case would have assumed another character, and the most sentimental philanthropist must have applauded the practice of the philosopher. out. THE LAST WISH OF THE ILLUSTRIOUS O! bury me deep in the boundless sea, Let my heart have a limitless grave For my spirit in life was as fierce and free As the course of the tempest's wave. And as far from the reach of mortal control Were the depths of my fathomless mind; And the ebbs and flows of my single soul Were tides to the rest of mankind. Then my briny pall shall engirdle the world, That name shall be storied in record sublime, O! bury my heart in the boundless sea, LEGEND OF THE DEEP. A rude captain in the South Seas had murdered his mate, an excellent youth, for pretended disobedience of orders; and for this crime God sent the black-winged overtaking tempest, which beat his ship to pieces, and he was cast alone upon a desert island. It was night when he recovered from his drenched dream, and sat down on a green bank above the sea marge, to reflect on his situation. The storm-racks had fled away; the moon came peering round above the world of seas, and up through the cold, clear wilderness of heaven; the dark tree-tops of the forest, which grew down to the very sands, waved in the silver night. But neither this beauty after the tempest, which should have touched his heart with grateful hope, nor the sense of his deliverance, nor yet the subduing influence of hunger, could soften that mariner's soul; but he sat till morning, unrepentant of his murder, fortifying himself in injustice, hardening his heart, kicking against the pricks. About sunrise he climbed up into a high tree, to look around him. The island, so far as he could see on all sides, seemed one wild and fenceless forest; but there was a high hill, swathed in golden sunlight, perhaps three or four miles inland, which, if he could reach and climb it, would give him a wide prospect, and perhaps show him some inhabited district. To make for this hill, he descended from the tree, and struck into the woods, studious to pursue the straight line of route which he laid down for himself, in order to reach the mountain. The forest was full of enormous old trees, of prodigious growth, bursting into wild gums, and rough all over with parasitical plants and fungi of every colour like monstrous livers; whilst up and down the trunks ran strange painted birds, pecking into the bark with their hard bills, and dotting the still air with their multitudinous little blows. Deeper from the engulfed navel of the wood came the solitary cries of more sequestered birds. Onward went the wicked captain, slowly, and with little caution, because he never doubted that he should easily find the mountain; but rough and impervious thickets turned him so oft, and so far aside, that gradually he forgot his purposed track, and became quite bewildered. In this perplexity he again climbed a high tree, to discover the bearing of the hill; but it was no longer to be seen. Nothing was before him and around him but a boundless ex |