in the giver of sight. As long, therefore, as it withdrawe it from me altogether, I will cheerfully shall please Him to prolong, however imperfectlie, bid mine eyes keep holiday, and place my hand this precious gift, soe long will I lay up store trustfullie in His, to be led whithersoever He will, agaynst the days of darknesse, which may be through the remainder of life.” many; and whensoever it shall please Him to

a

From the Gentleman's Magazine. On the causes of the increase of insanity both in A Man's Power over Himself to prevent or control France and in this and other countries, the relation Insanity. 2nd edition.

given by the author and his correspondents is worthy

of the deepest and most serious attention. We consider this essay to be correct in physiology, sound in philosophy, and practically of the

BEREAVEMENT. highest importance. We must, however, leave the line of reasoning which conducts the author to his A LONELY, lowly grave,

Far from his native wave, just conclusions to be perused by the reader, and be

Tells me a tale, the saddest ever told satisfied with mentioning that he divides the mor

Since Death grew bold. bid affections of the brain into two classes: and, as

Brother, 't is not for me, regards the first class, the result of inquiry is,

A sinner like to thee, That there is no one of the morbid affections of To judge the errors of thy guilty path, the brain or nerves which necessarily renders the

With scorn and wrath. individual an irresponsible agent. There are too I leave thy sins with Him, many authenticated cases, in which a rational self

Who, though He frowns so grim government has been exercised, even under those

On man's misdeeds, hath to the penitent afflicting circumstances, to leave any doubt of its

His mercy sent. possibility. How much previous mental cultivation may be required to make this possible is another Forgetting all thy crime, question ; it is sufficient here for me to establish this

I think of that sweet time, one great principle, " that diseases of the brain and When we together roamed along the shore pervous system, however distressing, may and do,

Of ocean hoar; when the mind has been duly cultivated, leave the When life had all its life, individual capable of knowing right from wrong, And joys were full and rife, and of seeking exterior aid to counteract the effects And our dear mother made the evening hearth of mental derangement consequent on disease," a Sunny with mirth ; derangement of which he is either conscious at the

When Scotland's heathy hills, time, or has an anticipatory knowledge of, which enables him naturally to provide against its viru

And Scotland's gushing rills, lence. The second class of mental derangement will

Borrowed more glory from our phantasies afford a more melancholy contemplation,

In the

Than from the skies; first we have seen man’s nobler part triumphing over When winter was more bright, all the ills of the body, and vindicating his claim to With all its snows and night, an immortal nature. In the second we shall have to

And howling tempests scarring Nature's brow, look on his degradation, and to note the consequences Than summer now; of neglected education, of ungratified passions, of vice, of misery, and-alas! that it should be so

When we grew learned in duty,

From earth's transcendent beauty, of mismanagement also.

And the warm sunshine in our genial blood The author gives, at p. 75, the result of the whole Taught us the good. inquiry.

Peace to thee, brother ; tears

Darken the mist of That man being a compound of two natures, men

years,

And make it torture on the past to dwell, tal derangement is of two kinds. In the one kind structural disease disorders or distracts the percep

Farewell, -Farewell.

Fraser's Magazine. tions, and, if this extends itself to the organs of all the faculties, the intellectual powers having no long

THE MOUNTAIN PASS. er the means of external action, the individual remains to all appearance a helpless machine. But, as Since the ark rested on the mountain brow, such extensive structural disease is hardly compati- And saved to earth the human family, ble with life, so is it of very rare occurrence; and, if How many a time have, even until now, any part of the organ remain perfect, then there is The mountains been salvation for the free, good reason to hope that a mind thoroughly well When the clouds came, and winds beat vehemently, trained in early years will still continue to make the And all the tyrant storms were raging forth? little that is left available to conduct, if not to the Thank God for these strong towers upon the earth! higher intellectual faculties; as we see the loss of Whereto forever the oppressed may flee. the right hand replaced in some degree by the in- Look round on rocky pass and mountain dell ; creased activity of the left; but, in the other case, no The hand that formed them, formed them with an structural disease exists in the first instance, and aim, the inefficiency of this direction of the intellectual To serve for freedom's keep impregnable ; force is the sole cause of derangement; sometimes And humble though they be unknown to Fameby the violence of the excitement producing disease; Yet they are hers, and one day—who can tell ?sometimes, as I have already noticed, contrary to the She may baptize them with a world-wide name. last, without affecting the bodily organs.

Fraser's Magazine.

a

From the Westminster Review,

dined had some port wine which was free from

that quality of detestable sugar-of-lead sort of A Word or two on Port Wine. By J. J. Forres- sweetness, which is one of the most prominent TER. London : Whittaker and Co.

characteristics of the drug at present in this counWhen a man, with a stomach of average strength try called port wine, and which preëminently and calibre, has the misfortune to swallow even a distinguishes the specimens of that black liquid moderate dose of port wine, or of that which is with which the tables of the halls of some of the now-a-days so called, he is very soon warned by inns of court are favored in spite of the repeated the result that he must have taken a poisonous remonstrances of several of those doomed to drink mixture; and, after a repetition of the experiment it, the butler, in whose department it lies, assuring a few times, he naturally asks himself whether the remonstrants that it is the very best port wine this can be the same wine which was the favorite that can be procured, and that many of the genbeverage of so many eminent men of the last tlemen like it exceedingly, which assertions we generation—whether this is the wine of which leave as we find them, to be taken at what they Pitt and Dundas, and Fox and Sheridan, drank so are worth. On asking our friend where such port freely-upon which Lords Eldon and Stowell as his could be obtained, he said he did not flourished to such a healthy and vigorous old age, know if it could be procured at all; that the wine and of which Sir William Grant, one of the in question was a present from a member of a healthiest as well as clearest-headed of men, and firm of Oporto wine merchants, which firm, howwho lived to an extreme age, drank two bottles ever, only sold their wine to “ the trade.”

Our daily at his ten o'clock dinner, after the evening faith in the excellence of the trade's mode of dealsittings at the Rolls. We ourselves have often ing with the wine not being strong, we had again asked this question, and, at one time, we saw no abandoned all hope of good purt, when our friend clue to its solution, except in the hypothesis that put into our hands a pamphlet, entitled “ A Word the men we have mentioned were of a different or Two on Port Wine,"'* written by one of the bodily constitution from ourselves. Then, recol- partners of the firm from which the pure port lecting the circumstances of the breaking up of wine we had tasted at his table had emanated. Pitt's constitution, the symptoms of horribly-dis- We have thus, in a few words, told the reader our ordered digestive organs, we concluded that his reason for putting faith the authenticity and truth organization, being different from the others, could of this pamphlet, and we think we shall be pernot stand the port-wine regimen on which Dundas' forming a public duty in now placing before him more robust nature throve, and that, had he taken some of the very valuable information which it to claret, he would have lived at least ten years contains. longer. This notion was somewhat aided by our The author of the pamphlet in question, Mr. personal knowledge of some individuals who, when Joseph James Forrester, a partner in the extenyoung, had lived on familiar terms with some of sive firm of Omeys, Webber, Forrester, and the above-named worthies, and who, though “most Cramp, Oporto merchants, thus explains his object potent in potting,” and, indeed, almost as much in the publication of his pamphlet :inclined as Porson “ pergræcari,” by no means confined their libations to port, but, on the contrary, been different at different periods. Sometimes

The qualities of port wine most prized have appeared rather to prefer French wines, of which dryness and astringency, sometimes fruitiness and they were immense drinkers, considering three smoothness; at one time, great delicacy, and at bottles per man a very moderate allowance. It another, fulness, have been sought for. Each of is certain, too, that the large drinking of the times these qualities is consistent with purity ; but natufurther back was claret; of the times, for instance, rally, according to the kind of grape, the soil, when John Foster, of Culloden, wrote to Sir height, and aspect of the vineyard where it is Andrew Mitchell, —"God Almighty bless the grown, will the wine have one or more of these

qualities, in a greater or less degree, as the season King of Prussia and you.

We
pray
for
you,
and

is good or bad. drink for you both every day ;” and when the One would imagine, that from among these custom of Culloden House (and also very probably varieties, the most fastidious might select a pure at the same period “such was the custom of wine to suit his palate, and so no doubt he would Branksome Hall") was to prize off the top of if he were fairly treated ; but unfortunately, for a each successive cask of claret, and place it in the considerable time past, the practice of the wine

merchants has been to disregard all the circumcorner of the hall to be emptied by pailfulls. stances just mentioned, and to try to produce in all Taking all these things into account, we came to seasons, wet or dry, cold or hot, from grapes in the conclusion that, if we intended much longer to enjoy mens sana in corpore sano, we must, as

* "A Word or Two on Port Wine ; addressed to the much as possible, abjure, not this potation, but Memen ; showing how and why it is adulterated, and

British Public generally, but particularly to Private Gen. everything bearing the name, or, indeed, any of affording some means of detecting its adulterations. By the appearances, of that most execrable compound, Joseph James Forrester, author of Map of the Wine

Districts of the Alto-Douro;' 'Survey of the River which has for some years past been sold in this Douro, from the Spanish Frontier to the Atlantic,' &c. &c. country under the name of port wine.

Together with 'Siriciures' op a Word of Truth on Port While in this state of mind on the subject, we By T. Whittaker the Younger. Sixth Thousand. Lon

Wine' (intended to be a reply to the pamphlet so called). observed that a friend with whom we occasionally don, 1848."

sweet."

every variety of situation, and of all qualities, gallons more of brandy per pipe ; and it is then wines of one and the same kind only ; viz., what considered fit to be shipped to England, it being is called by some,“ full, high-colored, and fruity,'

," about nine months old ; and at the time of shipbut by others, more properly, “ black, strong, and ment, one gallon more of brandy is usually added

to each pipe. The wine thus having received at The taste which has gradually led to this state least twenty-six gallons of brandy per pipe, is conof things probably was good, and occasioned by an sidered by the merchant sufficiently strong-an extraordinarily fine vintage, such as that of 1820, opinion which the writer, at least, is not prepared when all the wines were naturally unusually full, to dispute. sweet, and high flavored. The merchants, finding This is one way. Another way is this :- The these wines much sought for, insisted upon having finer sorts of grapes are selected of several kinds, the like at all times; and as such wine could sel- those which are decayed or unripe being removed. dom be obtained, seasons so fine being extremely They are then trodden, as in the preceding case, rare, recourse was had to adulteration (that, after but the fermentation is allowed to proceed three all, is the right phrase) to produce something like fourths of the full time proper for it. The wine is it (for what the purchaser demands, good or bad, then transferred to the tonels, where it receives somebody will always try to furnish ;) and the from six to ten gallons of brandy, of the same struggle among many (the larger number, it is to strength as that before mentioned, per pipe. be feared, if not the most considerable persons) of About two months afterwards it is drawn off into the exporters, was to send wine, each fuller, other tonels, and each pipe receives about six addisweeter, and higher colored than that of his neigh- tional gallons of brandy, and from six to eighteen bor!

gallons of jeropiga.* In this practice they were encouraged by petty The wine is then sent to Oporto, where the innkeepers, retail dealers and others, who found it future treatment proceeds as in the first case, answered their purposes admirably. A portion of except that it receives there, on the whole, five such wine mixed with Benecarlo, or other harsh in- instead of two, gallons more of brandy. ferior red wine, enabled the whole to be passed off as Of the port shipped for the English market as port! In negus, it is plain the use of it would cause vintage wine," that is from nine months to two a saving of all the ingredients except water; and to years old, at least two thirds is made in one or palates hardened by the use of strong or coarse other of the ways just mentioned. liquors, it would probably be more acceptable than It may be well here to observe, that the practice wine of the highest flavor.

of sending these new wines is anything but Persons of these kinds, therefore, continued to advantageous to the consumer. Port wines of this call for black, strong, and sweet, until, at length, age are too astringent to be offered to him pure; the attempt (perhaps excusable at first) to imitate but by the use of sweetening and other ingredients, a really fine wine has degenerated into such a sys- they are rendered softer to the palate, and acquire tem, that, of the 56

port” sent to England, a very a false appearance of maturity ; and thus the inexlarge portion hardly deserves to be called wine at perienced are deceived. all, and still less port wine.-p. 10.

Of the remaining third of the wine which goes

to England, only a very small portion is without a Mr. Forrester then gives the following descrip- considerable admixture of jeropiga. Some is made tion of the process of manufacturing the black from an indiscriminate mixture of grapes, and draught, which has for some years past received some from grapes carefully selected and culled;

but each kind has the advantage of being fully in England the name of port wine.

fermented, and also that of remaining without To produce black, strong, and sweet wine, the jeropiga till that fermentation has ceased.

This is the best kind of the adulterated wines ; following are the expedients resorted to :The grapes being fung into the open stone vat

but still it has not received less than twenty-five indiscriminately, on the stalks, sound and unsound, gallons of strong brandy.—p. 14. are trodden by men till they are completely mashed, By the statute 56 Geo. III., c. 58, the use of and there left to ferment. When the wine is about half fermented, it is transferred from the vat brown malt is prohibited under heavy penalties ;

any coloring for porter other than unground to tonels, and brandy (several degrees above proof) and we believe the results, as regards the condiis thrown in, in the proportion of twelve to twentyfour gallons to the pipe of must, by which the tion in which the beer comes out of the hands of fermentation is greatly checked.

the great brewers, has been most satisfactory ; About two months afterwards, this mixture is though the porter is afterwards adulterated by the colored thus; a quantity of dried elderberries is public-house-keepers in a manner and to an extent put into coarse bags; these are placed in vats, and for which we trust the legislature will soon proa part of the wine to be colored being thrown over vide a punishment and remedy. For we quite them, they are trodden by men, till the whole of the coloring matter is expressed, when the husks concur in the opinion of an old writer, quoted in are thrown away. The dye thus formed is applied the pamphlet before us, who says :--" I cordially according to the fancy of the owner; from twenty- commend that the sophisticator of wine may suffer eight to fifty-six pounds of the dried elderberry punishment above an ordinary thief.” being used to the pipe of wine! Another addition “ The coloring matter of the grapes,” saya of brandy, of from four to six gallons per pipe, is Mr. Forrester, produced by a complete fermentanow made to the mixture, which is then allowed to rest for about two months.

* The most approved receipt of making jeropiga is At the end of this time, it is, if sold, (which it this:- To fifty-six pounds of dried elderberry, and sixty

pounds of coarse brown sugar, or treacle, add seventyis tolerably sure to be, after such judicious treat-Weight gallons of unfermented grape juice, and thirty-nine ment,) transferred to Oporto, where it is racked gallons of the strongest brandý. Mix all thoroughly two or three times, and receives, probably, two together.

tion on the husk, varies in intensity according to the character of the grape, but imparts no smell to the wine. This color varies from a pale rose to a bright purple, (never deeper, except where souzao is used,) is perfectly transparent, and mellows with age; the rose becomes tawny, and the purple ruby-both of which colors are durable." The deepest of the artificial coloring matters, or dyes, at present used, is elderberry. It is employed indiscriminately with any and every quality of grape, and imparts a disagreeable medicine-like smell wherever it is used. It gives, at first, a dull, very dark purple hue, like dirty ink, to the wine; and, in course of time, changes to a brick color, or falls altogether, until the wine assumes its original imperfect tint.

those who take a pint of such port as we have reprobated, may be assured that they take nearly as much alcohol as is contained in the same quan

tity of cherry brandy. Let us examine the matter a little. A pipe of wine contains 21 almudes. We have shown before that the average quantity of brandy in a pipe of the port wine brought to this country is 4 almudes: the pipe, therefore, contains 17 almudes of what is called wine, and 4 almudes of adventitious brandy. We have also seen that 8 pipes of the commonest and weakest wine will yield 1 pipe of brandy: therefore, 17 almudes of fully fermented wine will yield 2 almudes of brandy. But supposing that the fermentation of the 17 almudes having been checked, they are equal in strength to 13 almudes of wine properly so called, then they will yield, if distilled, 1 almudes of brandy. But this brandy is of the strength of It is long since the making and exporting of 10 degrees of Tessa, or 26 per cent. above proof; pure and properly fermented port has been attended whereas the spirit used in making cherry brandy to, except in very small quantities; but some con- is about 17 per cent. below proof, or more than 43 siderable efforts to break through the inveterate per cent. below the strength of the brandy in the and pernicious system of the makers and shippers pipe therefore, the 5g almudes of brandy which of port have been made lately, as the papers which the pipe contains of 10 degrees of Tessa, are equal are given in the appendix [G.] show. It is to be to 71 almudes of the spirit used in making cherry hoped that they will be successful, and that the Eng-brandy, consequently the pipe contains more than lish consumer will afford them the necessary encour- one third of spirit, 17 per cent. below proof! Any agement, by giving the new Wine Company-or gentleman may ascertain from his housekeeper rather the Portuguese government-a practical the proportion of brandy used in making cherry proof, that although it may be convenient for that brandy." country to sell its brandy in any way, it is not in But although there may be so much alcohol in port wine that the spirit ought to be sent, at the rate the wine, we would by no means be understood to of twenty to twenty-five gallons in every pipe; and mean that the spirit native to the wine is as intoxthat elderberries and treacle can be had in England, icating or injurious as the same quantity in cherry without paying five shillings and ninepence per brandy. All experience shows that it is not so. gallon for the liquor with which they are com- What we reprobate is the mixture of imperfectlypounded, otherwise the best designs of the makers fermented wine and adventitious spirit. And this and shippers of the wines may be frustrated; and brings us to notice the astonishing effrontery and the consumer of red wine, with whom the acid or contempt for the sense of the consumer, which the acidulous wines disagree, which pass for claret," Gentleman and British Merchant" again shows (but bear about the same relation to the genuine produce of the Bordelais [Appendix H.] which the adulterated stuff above described does to that of the Douro,) and who resorts to port either for its enlivening or its tonic and digestive qualities, which when genuine, it possesses in an eminent degree, may continue to have put off on him an unwholesome compound.

The paper [Appendix I.] states, fairly enough, the principles upon which the decision of the tasters is supposed to proceed; it shows, also, how small is the quantity of first-rate wine which it is estimated is grown in the Douro; and further, that such first-rate wine is seldom used pure, but is mixed with the inferior wines. The English consumer can, if he thinks proper, speedily put an end to this bad system; and if he will use the information, and the means of knowing good and unadulterated wine from its opposite, which are herein afforded him, he may be assured that he will not long have to complain of the "strong and heady wines of Portugal." [Appendix K.]

at page 28, where he says, that whether the richness of wine depend on the peculiar nature of the grape from which it is made, or upon the mixture of brandy with the wine, "matters not!"-why, upon this depends whether the liquor is a rich wine or a brandied syrup a stomachic or a dram. Medical men well know that, though brandy is an educt of wine, yet in wine the native spirit exists in such combination that, whilst the pure wine may be taken with advantage to the health, the spirit which it contains, if extracted from it, would, whether drank raw or mixed with water, prove highly injurious; and they well know also, that those who drink much of the heavy-brandied stuff, which too often passes for port, suffer from precisely the same diseases as the habitual dramdrinker-that is, dyspepsia and affections of the liver. Such partially-fermented grape-juice and brandy ought not to be called wine; it might more properly be called ratafia of grapes; and who would choose to drink a pint of ratafia of any kind? It should be observed, too, that a ratafia of grapes much as the grape contains in itself a quantity of must be less wholesome than other ratafias, inasyeast or ferment, which other fruits do not; and this ferment, in the mixture of which we are speaking, remains unconverted. But it is manifest that the less the grape is pressed, and the less the neg-the lighter will the color of the wine be; and then must is fermented, and the more brandy is added,

Another extract from the "Strictures" will help to convey a little further insight into a subject very suitable for after-dinner discussion, and of some moment to all lovers of "the festive board;" especially in these times of epidemic, when questions of diet or beverage cannot be lected with impunity.

recourse must be had to that pleasant mixture, We do not wish to "horrify" any one; but jeropiga, before described.-p. 68.

a

Again, as to the word “jeropiga."

And, for aught I could ever discern,

Of rather superfluous length. First, Vieira says,

In truth 't is but selilom one meets “Jeropiga—see Gera."

Such a Titan in human abodes, We turn to “Gera, as directed, and find

And when I stalk over the streets, “Gera," s. f., a composition made chiefly of aloes.

I'm a perfect Colossus of roads. Next, we consult Constancio, where we find,

He is an irresistible wit, and a most inveterato Jeropiga, s. f. (de æarope,)

punster. He has the keenest possible sense of Ajuda, clyster,

the ludicrous, of whatever is out of place, inconBebida, medicinal.

sistent or awry, and describes with most thorough The last term signifies a medicinal draught; effect. It is a mark alike of his conversation and the two other terms have one and the same mean- his poems, however he may be caustic or droll, ing, and require no translation. Nice things to drink all these, are they not? How thankful we that the reverence of things sacred never forsakes ought to be to the Portuguese government for him. His danger lies in the very exuberånce of allowing the liquor named after them to be exported his genius. He performs with too much facility at a nominal duty, when upon wine the export How would the early history of Vermont, the duty is little short of £4 sterling the pipe.—p. 72. almost fabulous period of demigods, glow under

his We need no longer be in any doubt as to the and yet we fear that the application of years,

pen, whether in noble epic or in plainer prose; cause of a pint of " Port” producing dyspepsia which such a subject would require, would find him and headache, when we know that the black

It is, alas, too often draught so called is a compound of elder-berries, impatient under the yoke.

the case that the sons of genius abandon the treacle, and bad brandy. Well may we say, with Mr. Forrester, “ that elder-berries and treacle can with them the opportunities of permanent fame.

severer tasks of literature to inferior minds, and be had in England, without paying five shillings and sixpence per gallon for the liquor with which whole chapter on the literature of the Green

We might very readily hang upon this book a they are compounded.”

Mountain State. We believe that Vermonters

themselves are scarcely aware of the honorable Poems. By John G. Saxe. Boston: Ticknor, contributions to the literature of our country, Reed & Fields. Pp. 130.

which their native state has made. We happen A SATIRICAL poem,

entitled

Progress," de- to know of some inquiries on this point which livered a few years ago before some literary have recently been instituted, and the results of society, and published in the ordinary manner of which, to us at least, are surprising. It is possisuch publications, gave to Mr. Saxe an immediate ble they may at some time be given to the world, rank among the first of our satirical poets. The -certainly they would be if there were a call

for them. poem met the unusual fate of a demand for a new edition, and was everywhere quoted and applauded.

We must part with Mr. Saxe, with one quotaIt stands very properly at the head of this collec- tion from a poem recited by him before the Mertion. Not very long after, “ The Proud Miss cantile Library Association of Boston a few weeks MacBride” made its appearance in Mrs. Kirk-ago.

He had hit the Puritans with some severity, land's Magazine, as keen a satire as one often and at the very seat of their empire :sees, and singularly enough, though drawn at a Here grant the muse one moment to explain, venture, hitting a case. “ The Rhyme of the Lest you accuse her of a mocking strain. Rail,” and “ The Cold Water Man,” the first a I love the Puritan ; and from my youth humorous description, and the last a witty ballad, Was taught to admire his valor and his truth. went the round of all our newspapers from Maine The veriest caviller must acknowledge still to Texas. The poems above named, which are

His honest purpose, and his manly will. universally known, furnish an adequate idea of who valued steeples less than Christian grace,

I own I reverence that peculiar race Mr. Saxe's genius, and of his productions. We Preferred a hut where frost and freedom reigned, thank him for the collection, as will his readers To sumptuous halls at freedom's cost obtained, generally--and readers he will most certainly And proudly scorning all that royal knaves have. It is superfluous to say that the volume is For bartered conscience sold to cringing slaves, beautifully printed.

Gave up their homes for rights respected more In our last summer's wanderings about Lake Than all the allurements of their native shore, Champlain it was our good fortune on several occa- And taught this doctrine to a stariled world :

In stranger lands their tattered flag unfurled, sions to fall in with Mr. Saxe. Vermonters both, « Mitres and thrones are man-created things, we found enough in the literature and history of our We own no master but the King of kings !" native state to make the staple of many hours' cheerful converse. His powers of conversation | 'T is little marvel that their honored name are equal to luis outward frame, and this he has Bears, as it must, some maculæ of shame ; sufficiently described in one of his poems :

'T is only pity that they e'er forgot

The golden lessons their experience taught; Now I am a man, you must learn,

Thought, “ Toieration” due to " saints” alone, Less famous for beauty than strength, And • Rights of Conscience” only meant their own!