non essem utilis plurimis, modò me salvaret ab hujus mundi periculis. Sit ipsi æterna sanctificatio.

He has, however, informed posterity of the means by which he prolonged the life of a man to extreme old age. This person, whose name was Jan Mass, was in the service of Martin Rythovius, the first Bishop of Ypres, when that prelate, by desire of the illustrious sufferers, assisted at the execution of Counts Egmond and Horn. Mass was then in the twenty-fifth year of his age. When he was fifty-eight, being poor, and having a large family of young children, he came to Van Helmont, and entreated him to prolong his life if he could, for the sake of these children, who would be left destitute in case of his death, and must have to beg their bread from door to door. Van Helmont, then a young man, was moved by such an application, and considering what might be the likeliest means of sustaining life in its decay, he called to mind the fact that wine is preserved from corruption by the fumes of burnt brimstone; it then occurred to him that the acid liquor of sulphur, acidum sulfuris stagma, (it is better so to translate his words than to call it the sulphuric acid,)| must of necessity contain the fumes and odour of sulphur, being, according to his chemistry, nothing but those fumes of sulphur, combined with, or imbibed in, its mercurial salt. The next step in his reasoning was to regard the blood as the wine of life; if this could be kept sound, though longevity might not be the necessary consequence, life would at least be preserved from the many maladies which arose from its corruption, and the sanity, and immunity from such diseases, and from the sufferings consequent thereon, must certainly tend to its prolongation. He gave Mass therefore a stone bottle of the distilled liquor of sulphur, and taught him also how to prepare this oil from burnt sulphur. And he ordered him at every meal to take two drops of it in his first draught of beer; and not lightly to exceed that; two drops, he thought, contained enough of the fumes for a sufficient dose. This was in the year 1600; and now,

says Helmont, in 1641, the old man still walks about the streets of Brussels. And what is still better, (quodque augustius est,) in all these forty years, he has never been confined by any illness, except that by a fall upon the ice he once broke his leg near the knee; and he has constantly been free from fever, remaining a slender and lean man, and always poor.

Jan Mass had nearly reached his hundredth year when this was written, and it is no wonder that Van Helmont, who upon a fantastic analogy had really prescribed an efficient tonic, should have accounted, by the virtue of his prescription, for the health and vigour which a strong constitution had retained to that extraordinary age. There is no reason for doubting the truth of his statement; but if Van Helmont relied upon his theory he must have made further experiments; it is probable therefore that he either distrusted his own hypothesis, or found, upon subsequent trials, that the result disappointed him.

Van Helmont's works were collected and edited by his son Francis Mercurius, who styles himself Philosophus per Unum in quo Omnia Eremita peregrinans, and who dedicated the collection as a holocaust to the ineffable Hebrew Name. The Vita Authoris which he prefixed to it relates to his own life, not to his father's, and little can be learned from it, except that he is the more mystical and least intelligible of the two. The most curious circumstances concerning the father are what he has himself communicated in the treatise entitled his Confession, into which the writer of his life in Aikin's Biography seems not to have looked, nor indeed into any of his works, the articles in that as in our other Biographies, being generally compiled from compilations, so as to present the most superficial information, with the least possible trouble to the writer, and the least possible profit to the reader, — skimming for him not the cream of knowledge but the scum.

Dr. Dove used to say that whoever wrote the life of an author without carefully perusing bis works acted as iniquitously as a

Judge who should pronounce sentence in a cause without hearing the evidence; nay, he maintained, the case was even worse, because there was an even chance that the Judge might deliver a right sentence; but it was impossible that a life so composed should be otherwise than grievously imperfect, if not grossly erroneous. For all the ordinary business of the medical profession he thought it sufficient that a practitioner should thoroughly understand the practice of his art, and proceed empirically: God help the patients, he would say, if it were not so! and indeed without God's help they would fare badly at the best. But he was of opinion that no one could take a lively and at the same time a worthy interest in any art or science without as it were identifying himself with it, and seeking to make himself well acquainted with its history: a Physician therefore, according to his way of thinking, | ought to be as curious concerning the writings of his more eminent predecessors, and as well read in the most illustrious of them, as a general in the wars of Hannibal, Cæsar, the Black Prince, the Prince of Parma, Gustavus Adolphus, and Marlborough. How carefully he had perused Van Helmont was shown by the little landmarks whereby, after an interval of — alas how many years, I have followed him through the volume, haud passibus æquis.

anything which Dr. Aikin has said concerning this once celebrated person, that Van Helmont might as fitly be classed among enthusiasts as among physicians, and with philosophers as with either; and that, like most enthusiasts, it is sometimes not easy to determine whether he was deceived himself, or intended to deceive others.

He was born at Brussels in the year 1577, and of noble family. In his Treatise entitled Tumulus Pestis (to which strange title a stranger* explanation is annexed) he gives a sketch of his own history, saying, imitemini, si quid forte boni in eâ occurrerit. He was a devourer of books, and digested into common places for his own use whatever he thought most remarkable in them, so that few exceeded him in diligence, but most, he says, in judgment. At the age of seventeen he was appointed by the Professors Thomas Fyenus, Gerard de Velleers, and Stornius, to read surgical lectures in the Medical College at Louvain. Eheu, he exclaims, præsumsi docere, quæ ipse nesciebam! and his presumption was increased because the Professors of their own accord appointed him to this Lectureship, attended to hear him, and were the Censors of what he delivered. The writers from whom he compiled his discourses were Holerius, Tagaultius, Guido, Vigo, Egineta, and "the whole tribe of Arabian authors." But then he began, and in good time, to marvel at his own temerity and inconsiderateness in thinking that by mere reading he could be qualified to teach what could be learned only by seeing, and by operating, and by long practice, and by careful observation: and this distrust in himself was increased, when he discovered that the

* Lector, titulus quem legis, terror lugubris, foribus affixus, intus mortem, mortis genus, et hominum nunciat flagrum. Sta, et inquire, quid hoc? Mirare. Quid sibi vult

Tumuli Epigraphe Pestis ?

Sub anatome abii, non obii; quamdiu malesuada invidia Momi, et hominum ignara cupido,

me fovebunt. Ergo heic

Non funus, non cadaver, non mors, non sceleton, non luctus, non contagium.

ETERNO DA GLORIAM

Quod Pestis jam desiit, sub Anatomes proprio supplicio.

Professors could give him no further light than books had done. However, at the age of twenty-two he was created Doctor of Medicine in the same University.

Very soon he began to repent that he, who was by birth noble, should have been the first of his family to choose the medical profession, and this against the will of his mother, and without the knowledge of his other relations. "I lamented," he says, “with tears the sin of my disobedience, and regretted the time and labour which had been thus vainly expended: and often with a sorrowful heart I intreated the Lord that he would be pleased to lead me to a vocation not of my own choice, but in which I might best perform his will; and I made a vow that to whatever way of life he might call me I would follow it, and do my utmost endeavour therein to serve him. Then, as if I had tasted of the forbidden fruit, I discovered my own nakedness. I saw that there was neither truth nor knowledge in my putative learning; and thought it cruel to derive money from the sufferings of others; and unfitting that an art, founded upon charity, and conferred upon the condition of exercising compassion, should be converted into a means of lucre."

These reflections were promoted if not induced by his having caught a disorder which, as it is not mentionable in polite circles, may be described by intimating that the symptom from which it derives its name is alleviated by what Johnson defines tearing or rubbing with the nails. It was communicated to him by a young lady's glove, into which, in an evil minute of sportive gallantry, he had insinuated his hand. The physicians treated him, secundum artem, in entire ignorance of the disease; they bled him to cool the liver, and they purged him to carry off the torrid choler and the salt phlegm; they repeated this clearance again and again, till from a hale strong and active man they had reduced him to extreme leanness and debility without in the slightest degree abating the cutaneous disease. He then persuaded himself that the humours which the Galenists were so triumphantly expelling from

his poor carcase had not pre-existed there in that state, but were produced by the action of their drugs. Some one cured him easily by brimstone, and this is said to have made him feelingly perceive the inefficiency of the scholastic practice which he had hitherto pursued.

In this state of mind he made over his inheritance to a widowed sister, who stood in need of it, gave up his profession, and left his own country with an intention of never returning to it. The world was all before him, and he began his travels with as little fore-knowledge whither he was going, and as little fore-thought of what he should do, as Adam himself when the gate of Paradise was closed upon him; but he went with the hope that God would direct his course by His good pleasure to some good end. It so happened that he who had renounced the profession of medicine, as founded on delusion and imposture, was thrown into the way of practising it, by falling in company with a man who had no learning, but who understood the practical part of chemistry, or pyrotechny, as he calls it. The new world which Columbus discovered did not open a wider or more alluring field to ambition and rapacity than this science presented to Van Helmont's enthusiastic and inquiring mind. "Then," says he, "when by means of fire I beheld the penetrale, the inward or secret part of certain bodies, I comprehended the separations of many, which were not then taught in books, and some of which are still unknown." He pursued his experiments with increasing ardour, and in the course of two years acquired such reputation by the cures which he performed, that because of his reputation he was sent for by the Elector of Cologne. Then indeed he became more ashamed of his late and learned ignorance, and renouncing all books because they sung only the same cuckoo note, perceived that he profited more by fire, and by conceptions acquired in praying. "And then," says he, "I clearly knew that I had missed the entrance of true philosophy. On all sides obstacles and obscurities and difficulties appeared, which neither labour, nor time, nor

But what have I, who am writing in January instead of July, and who am no papist, and who have the happiness of living in a protestant country, and was baptized moreover by a right old English name,-what have I to do with St. Pantaleon? Simply this,

my new pantaloons are just come home, and that they derive their name from the aforesaid Saint is as certain, as that it was high time I should have a new pair.

St. Pantaleon, though the tutelary Saint of Oporto, (which city boasteth of his relics,) was in more especial fashion at Venice: and so many of the grave Venetians were in consequence named after him, that the other Italians called them generally Pantaloni in derision, -as an Irishman is called Pat, and as Sawney is with us synonymous with Scotchman, or Taffy for a son of Cadwallader and votary of St. David and his leek. Now the Venetians wore long small clothes; these as being the national dress were called Pan

Elizabeth's days went out of fashion, we received them from France, with the name of pantaloons.

SANCTE PANTALEON, ORA PRO NOBIS!

This I say to be on the safe side; though between ourselves, reader, Nicephorus, and Usuardus, and Vincentius, and St. Antoninus (notwithstanding his sanctity) have written so many lies concerning him, that it is very doubtful whether there ever was such a person, and still more doubtful whether there be such a Saint. However the body which is venerated under his name is just as venerable as if it had really belonged to him, and works miracles as well.

It is a tradition in Corsica that when St. Pantaleon was beheaded the executioner's sword was converted into a wax taper, and the weapons of all his attendants into snuffers, and that the head rose from the block and sung. In honour of this miracle the Corsicans, as late as the year 1775, used to have their swords consecrated, or charmed,-by laying them on the altar while a mass was performed to St. Pantaleon.

Pantaloons then, as of Venetian and Magnifico parentage, and under the patronage of an eminent Saint, are doubtless an honourable garb. They are also of honourable extraction, being clearly of the Bracca family. For it is this part of our dress by which we are more particularly distinguished from the Oriental and inferior nations, and also from the abominable Romans, whom our ancestors, Heaven be praised! subdued. Under the miserable reign of Honorius and Arcadius, these Lords of the World thought proper to expel the Braccarii, or breechesmakers, from their capitals, and to prohibit the use of this garment, thinking it a thing unworthy that the Romans should wear the habit of Barbarians :—and truly it was not fit that so effeminate a race should wear the breeches.

The Pantaloons are of this good Gothic family. The fashion having been disused for more than a century was re-introduced some five and twenty years ago, and still prevails so much that I who like to go

with the stream, and am therefore content to have fashions thrust upon me, have just received a new pair from London.

The coming of a box from the Great City is an event which is always looked to by the juveniles of this family with some degree of impatience. In the present case there was especial cause for such joyful expectation; for the package was to contain no less a treasure than the story of the Lioness and the Exeter Mail, with appropriate engravings representing the whole of that remarkable history, and those engravings emblazoned in appropriate colours. This adventure had excited an extraordinary degree of interest among us, when it was related in the newspapers and no sooner had a book upon the subject been advertised, than the young ones, one and all, were in an uproar, and tumultuously petitioned that I would send for it, to which, thinking the prayer of the petitioners reasonable, I graciously assented. And moreover there was expected, among other things ejusdem generis, one of those very few perquisites which the all-annihilating hand of Modern Reform has not retrenched in our public offices, -an Almanac or PocketBook for the year, curiously bound and gilt, three only being made up in this magnificent manner for three magnificent personages, from one of whom this was a present to my lawful Governess. Poor Mr. Bankes! the very hairs of his wig will stand erect,

Like quills upon the fretful porcupine, when he reads of this flagrant misapplication of public money; and Mr. Whitbread would have founded a motion upon it, had he survived the battle of Waterloo.

There are few things in which so many vexatious delays are continually occurring, and so many rascally frauds are systematically practised, as in the carriage of parcels. It is indeed much to be wished that Government could take into its hands the conveyance of goods as well as letters; for in this country whatever is done by Government is done punctually and honourably;-what corruption there is lies among the people themselves, among whom honesty is certainly

less general than it was half a century ago. Three or four days elapsed, on each of which the box ought to have arrived. "Will it come to-day, Papa?" was the morning question: "why does not it come?" was the complaint at noon; and "when will it come?" was the query at night. But in childhood the delay of hope is only the prolongation of enjoyment; and through life indeed, hope, if it be of the right kind, is the best food of happiness. "The House of Hope," says Hafiz, "is built upon a weak foundation." If it be so, I say, the fault is in the builder: Build it upon a Rock, and it will stand.

Expectata dies,-long looked for, at length it came. The box was brought into the parlour, the ripping-chisel was produced, the nails were easily forced, the cover was lifted, and the paper which lay beneath it was removed. "There's the pantaloons!" was the first exclamation. The clothes being taken out, there appeared below a paper parcel, secured with a string. As I never encourage any undue impatience, the string was deliberately and carefully untied. Behold, the splendid Pocket-Book, and the history of the Lioness and the Exeter Mail, - had been forgotten!

O St. Peter! St. Peter!

Pray, Sir," says the Reader, " as I perceive you are a person who have a reason for everything you say, may I ask wherefore you call upon St. Peter on this occasion ?"

You may, Sir.

A reason there is, and a valid one. But what that reason is, I shall leave the commentators to discover; observing only, for the sake of lessening their difficulty, that the Peter upon whom I have called is not St. Peter of Verona, he having been an Inquisitor, one of the Devil's Saints, and therefore in no condition at this time to help anybody who invokes him.

"Well, Papa, you must write about them, and they must come in the next parcel," said the children. Job never behaved better, who was a scriptural Epictetus: nor Epictetus, who was a heathen Job.

I kissed the little philosophers; and gave