vius' drawing-room was offered to my sight. In Ellen's case the scene was indeed brilliant, but it must in some respects have been uniform and unvaried. The assembly was composed of "lovely dames and gay accoutred knights;" but every knight was, in costume, but a prototype of his neighbour, and every lady shone in the selfsame habiliments as her fair companions. In my case, the assembly had all the brilliancy and elegance of the Court scene, and all that delightful effect arising from the varied and contrasted costume of every age and country. The turbaned sages of Arabia, and the rich and flowing dresses of the Persian and other Eastern literati, their jewelled head-dresses and embroidered mantles, contrasted with the white-robed philosophers of ancient Greece; these again with the slashed sleeves and short cloaks of the learned dons of Spain-the ruff and doublet, the hat and plume, the embroidered hose and full-bottomed breeches, of the age of Elizabeth; then the prim starched-looking authoresses in hoops, who kept sideling through the crowd, and walking arm-in-arm, with the graceful figures of the Grecian blue stockings; and these contrasted again with the immense wigs, the peachblossom frocks, the variegated vests, and embroidered sword-belts, of the Kit-cat wits--all these heterogeneous but astonishing materials, thrown into every possible variety of form, and disposed into that picturesque grouping which chance so happily dictates, composed a whole, which, it is not too much to say, was at once the most brilliant, and the most remarkable, that could have entered into the dreams of the fondest votaries of novelty, or been conjured up by the brain of the most inventive and enthusiastic master of ceremonies of any age, or creed, or country.

It was with a mixed feeling of joy and trembling that I made my debût into this astonishing celestial rout. I was introduced by my accompanying Spirit to Paulus, who stood at the door to receive his company; and after having paid my respects, and improved, by a deeper inclination, and a more decided and rectangular sweep of my right leg, my common bow, into one which I conceived due to a celestial assembly, I began to mingle with the company. Here, whether it was that these worthy and gay-looking

ghosts were endowed with a power of discerning a stranger the moment he entered their company, or that it proceeded from any peculiarity in my dress, I soon found that my appearance occasioned as much surprise to them as theirs had given pleasure and astonishment to me. There was an immediate buzz of inquiry and curiosity amongst them; and I could hear, "Who is he?"-" When did he arrive?"-" Where did he come from?" and their answers crossing one another from every corner of the assembly. "A young stranger from the lower world," was all the reply they receiv ed; and this species of general description, it is needless to say, pleased me much more than any more particular, but for that reason less acceptable denomination.

The first circle which I joined afforded me great entertainment. They seemed eagerly and busily engaged in a conversational discussion or criticism on some new work. The Peri, who still walked beside me, whispered, that this circle consisted of very eminent personages, and that I must already, owing to its celebrity, have seen the work which was the subject of their debate, as it was Guy Mannering.As to the circle, one of them on whom I immediately fixed my eyes, there was no need to inform me about. The dress and figure instantly told me it was Shakspeare, whom I had so lately seen. The rest, as I was informed, were Cervantes-Shirley-a singularlooking old man, exactly the figure of a smoke-dried alchemist, or decayed astrologer, whom I found was Baptista Porta, the Neapolitan writer on magic; and Toby Smollett, whose handsome gentleman-like figure I recognised immediately, from being well acquainted with the portraits of him.

"

When I came up, I found Baptista apostrophising to his audience in a high tone," I must assert," said he, "that however excellent in other respects this work may be according to your ideas, gentlemen, to me it is a matter of no small moment, to see the admirable science of judicial astrology treated with such unmerited and idle ridicule. It is a subject on which I have long thought, read, and intensely laboured-for the furtherance of which no worldly goods have been spared, no mental exertion thought grievous; in the investigation of whose recondite truths I have sweated

for years beside a slow furnace, till I became, as you see, of the colour and consistency of a shrivelled mushroom, or watched beneath the winter's moon till I was little less than a moving icicle. When this author sports these opinions, and plays, with his unhallowed ridicule, on so sacred a subject, does he consider whom he is attacking? What will the divine Zoroaster, the illustrious offspring of Oromases, say to this? What will my friend Thespian, the wonder of the Gymnosophistic school? What will the aged Bhudda of the Babylonians, or the Thracian Zamolxis, or the Hyperborean Abaris, or any of those more modern, but not less illustrious sages, which shine in the hemisphere of science, the constellation of astrological discovery ?”*

* And “what will the Quarterly Review say 2" might the inflamed Baptista have added, in completing this climax of astrological indignation; for it seems that the rage of the Neapolitan Magician, and the Thracian Zamolxis, is nothing to the irritated feelings of our Southern critics against the author of Guy Mannering, at the introduction of this supernatural machinery, which they decidedly declare to be either criminal or contemptible.' Where the criminality however will fall, the world will determine, and they who, after having been accustomed to the varied and uncommon excellence of Guy Mannering, to the sublimity and vigorous conception of the character of her whom the Reviewer terms Mrs Meg Merrilies-the masterly rapidity with which the scenes are brought before us-the humour and truth of the lower characters— and the unequalled beauty of the pictures of nature; they who, after having wandered through all this enchanted ground, can bear to enter on a desert, can wade through the heaviness, the ignorance, and the utter want of taste of the criticism, will be best able to determine on whose side this con

tempt will most appropriately recoil. The Quarterly Review has been all along conducted with no common talent; and although, perhaps, too much place is given to the lower parts of Greek literature, to criticisms on quantities, and animadversions on the scholiasts, yet this has been redeemed by many excellencies-by consistency of principle, correctness of information on political subjects, and the insertion of many articles which were ably and eloquently written. But constant exertion, and unremitting care, is required in conducting a periodical journal, and the occurrence of another such piece of criticism as that upon Guy Mannering, would give it a disposition towards the Bathos, or Art of Sinking, which it might not easily recover.

At this grave exordium of the foreign astrologer, the countenances of the whole party, but more particularly of Cervantes and Chaucer, assumed an inimitable expression of humour, which, as it was restrained by politeness from having the usual vent in laughter, contented itself with dancing about their eyes and mouth, and illuminating their striking countenances with all the brilliancy of comic expression.

Humphry, my love," (my name is Humphry) said a shrill-toned female voice, which crackled on my tympanum the moment Shakspeare had addressed himself to speak. Humphry, sir," and the transition, from my love to sir, was given with great effect, as she discovered me asleep, and shook me with a touch not quite so soft as my Peri-"The urn has been hissing, and spitting, and groaning, on the tea-table this half-hour.-Recollect, you bade me try my best Pegou cannister tonight. Mrs Cockit, too, has stepped in to take her rubber.--And you no doubt expect to be allowed to sit dreaming here, an immoveable nonentity-rise, sir, and leave your vagaries." I opened my eyes slowly on the severe and saturnine features of my maiden sister Dorothy--they operated like a spell-Shakspeare and his circle-Jovius and his illustrious company flitted for a moment before me, then faded into air, and restored me to the lower realities of the tea-urn and Mrs Cockit.

ON THE SYMBOLICAL USES OF SALT.

MR EDITOR,

"be

SINCE the publication of The Tales of my Landlord, a considerable degree of attention has been excited in regard to an ancient custom, the memory of which had been almost lost, that of being seated at table "above" or low the salt." Through the channel of your valuable Miscellany, it has been shewn that this custom was by no means peculiar to Scotland, but prevailed also in England, and was

not unknown on the Continent. In proof of this, Bishop Hall, Ben Jonson, and Massinger, as well as Perat among the French, have been summoned as witnesses.-Magazine for May, p. 133.

This mode of distinguishing rank,

or expressing estimation, bears so singular a character, that one can hardly be made acquainted with it without immediately proposing the question, "Whence could it possibly originate?" The query has accordingly been put, by an intelligent correspondent, in your third Number; but, in consequence of the oblivion of former ages, and the indifference which men have generally manifested in regard to the origin of customs with which they were themselves perfectly familiar, there is reason to fear, that from the depths of antiquity no responsive voice shall be heard, none at least that can give a certain or distinct sound.

As in the days of our forefathers the salt-seller was placed in the middle of the table, that it might run no risk of being overturned, it might at first view seem, that, as its position divided the table as it were into two equal parts, the expression, " sitting above,' or sitting below, the salt,' meant nothing more than having a place at the upper, or at the lower, end of the table; and thus, that the relation, which one's seat was said to bear to the salt, was merely accidental, from the circumstance of the vessel which contained it being the central object, in the same manner as one, in our own time, night be said to sit above or below the epargne.

But although it may afterwards appear that, among the ancients, salt was the established symbol of friendship, I do not see that the relative position of individuals, as above or below the vessel which contained it, could be meant of itself to intimate the greater or less degree of respect which their host entertained for them. For, in this case, actual propinquity to the salt-seller, whether the person sat above or below it, must have been the test of estimation.

If, however, it could be supposed, that the salt-vat did not equally divide the table as to its length, but that it was placed nearer the head or bottom, as the less or more honourable guests exceeded in number, this difficulty would be obviated. For thus it must have been understood, that it was not propinquity to this symbol, but the possession of a seat above it, that constituted the peculiar badge of honour. But perhaps all that we can fairly deduce from the custom referred to is, that the choice of this utensil, as

marking the line of distinction, in connexion with the great importance attached to its contents, and the care exercised to prevent its being overturned, may be viewed as an indication that there was a hereditary respect to some more ancient rite or idea, the meaning of which, and even its peculiar character, had been lost in the lapse of ages.

Trivial as the custom under consideration may appear-to those especially who would deem it a degradation were they to waste a thought on the vestiges of popular tradition, who find sufficient occupation for their superior powers in acquainting themselves with the ever-varying minutiae of modern manners-the inquiry leads us much farther back than might at first be imagined, and points to sources of intelligence not unworthy of the investigation of the philosophic mind.

Various proofs have been given of the symbolical use of salt, in connexion with Divine worship, among ancient nations. As salt was invariably used in the sacred rites of the heathen, from whom immediately it was received by the Church of Rome, it has been thought that this custom was borrowed from the Jews. It was one of the laws delivered by Moses, " Every oblation of thy meat-offering shalt thou season with salt." Lev. ii. 13. V. Etymol. Dict. of the Scottish Language, vo. SALT, adj. and SAUT-FAT.

"The great importance attached to salt," says Pliny, " appears especially from the sacred rites of the ancients, who never celebrated any sacrifice sine mola salsa. For so they denominated toasted corn sprinkled with salt; for it, being bruised, was sprinkled on the victim. The fire, the head of the victim, and the sacrificing knives, were indeed all sprinkled with the crumbled cake." Hist. lib. 37. c. 7.To the same purpose is the language of Juvenal:

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Sertaque delubris, et farra imponite cultris." Satyr. ii.

And of Tibullus:

"At vanum in curis hominum genus omnia noctis

Faree pio placant, et saliente sale."

Hence, as has been observed, the term immolatio which was, as it were, the consecration of the victim by the act of sprinkling, or of laying, the

salted cake on its head. The cake it self was called mola a molendo, because it was made of bruised corn, or that which had been ground, mola, in a mill. By means of this cake, also, which, when bruised, they sprinkled on the sacrifice, they used to divine: whence the Greek terms, aλsugoivréa, i. e. "divination by meal;" and οὐλοχυμαντεία, “ divination by the salted cake."

But salt, even as symbolically regarded, was not exclusively appropriated to a religious use. It was also an established symbol of friendship between man and man. We learn from Eustathius, Iliad, A. that among the ancient Greeks salt was presented to guests, before any other food, as a symbol of friendship. Hence Eschines, when describing the sacred rites of hospitality, says, that the Greeks made great account, της πόλεως άλας, "of the salt of the city and the public table.' The language of Pliny, salem et caseum edere, contains a similar allusion; and that of Cicero, Vulgò dicitur, multos modios salis simul edos esse, ut amicitiæ munus expletum esse.'

Eustathius says, that " as salt consists of aqueous and terrene particles mixed together, or is a concretion of several aqueous parts, it was intimated that, in like manner, the stranger and his host, from the time of their tasting salt together, should maintain a constant union of love and friendship." This idea, however, seems by far too metaphorical and refined to have originated a custom received by nations in an early state of society.

Others, with greater plausibility, have observed, that, as salt preserves meat from corruption, the use of it, as a symbol, signified that the friendship, which had its commencement in a mutual participation of it, should be firm and lasting.

It has also been supposed, that this custom respected the purifying quality of salt, which was commonly used in lustrations, and that it intimated that friendship should be free from all artifice, jealousy, and suspicion.

Potter, I find, has in general preferred the same idea that had occurred to me, in regard to the origin of salt as a symbol of friendship. "It may be," he says, "the ground of this custom was only this, that salt was

used at all entertainments, both of the gods and men, whence a particular sanctity was believed to be lodged in it. It is thence called dãos d'as, divine salt, by Homer; and ego ass, holy salt, by others; and salinorum appo situ, by the placing of salt on the table, a sort of holiness was supposed to be derived to them." Antiq. ii. 415.

From the language of Philo Judæus, it has been inferred, with great appearance of truth, that although no mention is made of this circumstance in the Pentateuch, salt was always placed on the table of shew-bread along with the loaves. "The table," says this ancient writer, "has its position towards the south, upon which there are bread and salt. Vit. Moys. lib. 3. Scacchus concludes, that there must have been at least two salt-sellers, because the Greek term (as) is used in the plural. Myrothec. ii. 495.

The figurative connexion between salt and friendship does not appear so close, that this can well be viewed as the primary use of the symbol. It seems necessary to suppose, that before it would be applied in this manner, it had been generally received as an established emblem of what was permanent. Now, this idea was most probably borrowed from the mode of confirming covenants by sacrifice, in which salt was invariably used; and it is well known, that sacrifice was a common rite in confederation, not only where God was the principal party, but between man and man. This is evident, from the account given of the covenant between Jacob and Laban, Gen. xxxi. 44, 45. As an agreement of this kind was called " a covenant by sacrifice; from the use of salt in the oblation, it was also denominated

a covenant of salt," Num. xviii. 19.

That singular phrase, "the salt of the covenant," Lev. ii. 13, obviously contains the same allusion. With this corresponds the German term, salzbund, explained by Wachter in his Glossary, Foedus firmum validumque ratione durationis.

The presenting of salt to a stranger, or the eating of it with him, might thus come to be a common symbol of friendship, as containing a reference to the ancient sacrificial mode of entering into leagues of amity; although those who used this might in general be total strangers to its meaning.

Hence, also, most probably, the idea