Prerogative extends to an individual offending against him. It is distinguishable from absolution, a Latin term, in this respect, that the latter refers to some Legal or Ecclesiastical sentence, to which the party for some offence or trespass was subject; and from which he is now set free (absolutus) it being either upon his estate in the way of fine or forfeiture, or upon his person in the way of penance: in which latter case the purse is very commonly made to bear the penalty (to the priest's no small commodity) in the person's stead. Ed.

ART. VI.-FABLES, &C., IN PROSE AND VERSE-CONTINUED, The Ape and the Dolphin. La Fontaine.

Greek sailors, when they made a voyage,

Took dogs and monkeys with their stowage.
A vessel once, with these on deck,

Not far from Athens suffer'd wreck,

And but for Dolphins, which are known
Man to befriend, all had gone down.
'Tis Pliny vouches for the tale,
And thus its truth shall nowise fail;
One of the mimic tribe, he says,
Aware that desp'rate was his case,
Bethought him how he best might save
His carcase from the swallowing wave;
The fish, when hail'd, for man mistook
The creature's grave, half human look,
And, seated on his back, he bore
This new Arion tow'rd the shore.

When near the landing-" Ere we part hence
(Says he) are you from learned Athens ?"-
"Yes (said the other) there I'm known;
"If any business you wish done,

"Command me, for my interest's great,
"First cousins, Judges in the state."-
"Thanks! (said the Dolphin), well I ween
"Piræus too you've often seen."-

66

Daily (said he); my oldest friend.

"If compliments to him you'd send."

Our chatterer thus, of brains prov'd short,
And took for some man's name the port.
How many you and I have known
Who Vaugirard mistake for Rome;
Who, in their ignorance, will boast,

And things unknown' discourse of most.
The Dolphin, smiling, turn'd his head,
At once from what the prater said;

And thinking he might spare, for once,
His pains in saving such a dunce,'

Sous'd him o'er head and ears i' the main,
And to the wreck swam back again.

W.

CHARLES ELCOCK, PRINTER, PONTEFRACT.

CHOIR GAUR (the giants' dance) or STONEHENGE (the stone of Hengist) is justly accounted one of the noblest remains of rude Antiquity. The uncertainty of the design, and the mysteries which some pretend to find in it-the solitude of the site-the singularity of the structurethe prodigious size of the stones composing it, in a country destitute of this material, have so perplexed Antiquaries that there is no end to their discordant opinions. (a) History (among other matter bearing few marks of probability) records a tale which seems to prove that there existed, subsequently to the introduction of Christianity into the Island, a local tradition respecting this monument: but which, in the mouths and on the vellum of those propagators of superstition and absurdity, the monks, was in process of time converted into a heap of marvellous lies! Those who, with the author, have visited and attentively considered this monument, and read what is to be found written on the subject, will best appreciate the following effusion; begun on the spot near thirty years since, and subsequently made the vehicle of a few reflections, applying to the circumstances of our country at the time of its being composed. Ed.

(a) A detail of the systems of different antiquaries and architects may be seen in Choir Gaur, the Grand Orrery of the ancient Druids, commonly called Stonehenge on Salisbury plain; astronomically explained and mathematically proved to be a temple erected in the earliest ages, for observing the motions of the Heavenly bodies.' 3 Plates. Dr. John Smith, Salisbury, 1771.

What art thou, whence and wherefore, huge Choir Gaur,
For worship, council, pomp-of peace, of war?

Those rocky pillars who uprais'd in air,

And placed those rude and frowning imposts there?
Did mere Herculean might, or rather skill
Like his of Syracuse, that task fulfill:
Or was it Merlin (human strength apart)
Prevail'd on th' old arch-fiend by magic art,
Bound in a slender withe, from Erin's shore,
To whip at once th' enormous burthen o'er?
Witness the solitary stone they show

That slipt from 's grasp into the brook below!
Which yet, so found, might make one shrewdly deem
Its carrier not a spirit but the stream.

Howe'er convey'd, what moved a savage race,
From distant unknown quarries, to this place
With toil immense enormous rocks to bring
And build of porches this mysterious ring?

In vain I ask: in vain around I throw
Th' enquiring eye, and seek thy birth to know.
Tradition, silent as the mossy stone

And lost in time's great gulf, response gives none:
Nor History's grave recital, mix'd with lies,
Nor bold conjecture yet its place supplies. (b)

Sure on this spot, entire, the fabric stood
E'er Earth was whelm'd in th' Universal flood,
And these few ruins scaped its wasteful rage
To prove the riddle of each future age;

(b)" Jeffery of Monmouth tells us, that Stonehenge was a monument erected, in the reign of Aurelius Ambrosius, by Ambrose Merlin, to perpetuate the treachery of Hengist, the Saxon General; who having desired a friendly meeting with Vortigern, at the monastery of Ambresbury, assassinated him, with four hundred and sixty of his barons, and consuls; after which, the bodies of the slaughtered Britons were interred in a burying place near the monastery, where they had received their deaths; and Aurelius Ambrosius going to see the sepulchre, soon after he had mounted the British throne, the king not only shed tears at the sight of it, but resolved to perpetuate the memory of that piece of ground, which was honoured with the bodies of so many noble patriots, that died for their country, with some noble monuments.

"In order to this the king, after summoning together several carpenters and masons, commanded them to employ the utmost of their art, in contriving a proper structure; but they, out of diffidence of their own skill, refusing to undertake it, Merlin, who had been the prophet of Vortigern, was sent for to exercise his abilities; and he immediately advised Aurelius to send for the Giant's Dance in Killaraus, a mountain in Ireland: For there is, says he, a structure of stones there, which none of this age could raise, without a profound knowledge of the

Or else the giant-race that rear'd the pile,
By war, by pestilence swept off the isle,
Sudden to endless night departed all,
And left abortive their memorial!

But see where, frequent o'er the champaign round
Rises, emboss'd in green, the taper mound, (c)
Whence oft as curious hands remove the soil

The grave appears, and Death his mould'ring spoil
Resigns, ambiguous, mix'd with relics few,
That scarce declare to whom these rites were due.
Eastward, again, throughout an ample space,
The long protracted Hipprodrome we trace,
With double vallum closed to bound the race;
And laid (so fancy deems) to meet the eye

At once of eager thousands crowding nigh!

Perchance, where yonder village (d) drinks the stream,
(Thro' bordering trees, by fits, the waters gleam)
A city stood of old, with bulwarks closed,
And empire on these waving plains imposed;
Sent forth, like far-famed Troy, her chiefs to war,
Yoking twin coursers to the sythe-wheel'd car,
And made this ground of solemn rites the scene:
Here worship'd, burnt the dead, and on the green

mechanical arts. They are stones of a vast magnitude, and wonderful quality; and if they can be placed here, as they stand there, they will remain for ever.

“ These stones, continues Merlin, are mystical, and of a medicinal virtue. The giants of old brought them from the farthest coasts of Africa, and placed them in Ireland, while they inhabited that country. Their design in this was to make baths in them, when they should be taken with any illness; for their method was, to wash the stones, and put their sick into the water, which infallibly cured them. With the like success they cured wounds also, adding only the application of some herbs; and there is not a stone there, concluded Merlin, which has not some healing virtue. [In all which there is a covert allusion to the Church of Christ; 1 Pet. ii, 5. Ed.]

"Aurelius forthwith sent his brother Uther, attended with fifteen thousand young men, under the direction of Merlin, for these wonderful stones; and at their arrival at the place where they stood, Merlin bade the men try their force, and see whether strength, or art, could do more towards taking them down. The command was no sooner given, than some of the young men, who had prepared cables, others who had provided small ropes, and some who had furnished themselves with ladders for the work, applied those implements to the several parts of the building, and with one accord the whole army attempted the removal of the Giant's Dance; but all to no purpose. Merlin, laughing at their vain efforts, then began his own contrivances; and when he had placed the engines, in their

(c) The Barrows; many of which have been opened, and found to to be Sepulchral monuments.

(d) Amesbury, or Ambresbury.

Expanse her youth to competition drew

In martial sports, and crown'd the conqu'ring few.

So may we guess; nor vainly, for 1 ween

Where the dead lie so thick the living crowd has been.
But many an age of men has roll'd away

Since, here, or martial game or mortal fray
Was acted thou didst find, insatiate War!
A sweep more vast for thy destructive car.
This little isle, once shared by petty kings
With tumult ever in her breast, now rings
Th' alarm to half the world, and calls in vain
On chiefs deposed by Gaul to rise and reign.
While, from Iberia's southern point, that sees
Afric, to where the polar waters freeze,
The long drawn feud at balance is maintain'd,
And shame by Gaul, disgrace by Britain gain'd :
Witness thy captive princes, bleeding Spain,
And thou, much wrong`d and yet resenting Dane!
Yet, here, the lonely shepherd fearless goes
Forth to his flock, and fearless seeks repose;
While not a wolf alarms his tranquil eye,

Far less the prowling band from armies nigh.

proper order, which he thought necessary for the work, he took down the stones, with incredible facility, and withal gave directions for carrying them to MountAmbre. [Persuasion does what force had attempted in vain. Ed.]

"The stones were no sooner brought to this mountain, than the king summoned to it the bishops, the abbots, and the people of all other orders and qualities, from every part of Britain, to celebrate with joy and honour, the setting them up: And when the parties were all assembled, Aurelius with royal pomp, celebrated the feast of Pentecost, the solemnity whereof he continued the three following days. In the mean time, the king having bestowed all places of honour, that were vacant, on his domesticks, as rewards for their good services, he next ordered Merlin to go to work upon the monument, and rear up the stones that were prepared for it, about the sepulchre of the slaughtered Britons; which he forthwith did in the same form, as they stood in the mountain Killaraus; and, as the British historian concludes, thereby gave a manifest proof of the prevalence of art, above strength. [And of the Gospel preached above mere coercion. Ed.]

"Tradition varies from history, in the story touching the removal of this monument from the mountain of Killaraus to that of Ambrius, and delivers it to this brief effect.

"The prophet Merlin, desirous of having a parcel of stones, which grew in an odd sort of form, in a backside belonging to an old woman in Ireland, transported from thence to one of the hills of Salisbury plain, employed the Devil upon the work; who the night after, dressing himself like a gentleman, and taking a large bag of money in his hand, presented himself before the good woman as she was sitting at her table, and acquainted her of the purchase he was come to make; the fiend, at the same time, pouring out his money on the board before her, and offering her as much for the stones as she could reckon while he should be taking them away.