The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-10-09 00:00:00

LITERARY EXTRACTS.

MOUSTACHE WORN BY CLERGYMEN. —When the
episcopal wig came into fashion, it would seem that
the beard was no longer worn by clergymen. In
looking over a collection of prints, I find Wickliffe,
William Tyndale, Dean Donne, George Herbert,
Robert Herrick, Robert Burton, Bishop Jeremy Tay-
lor, Archbishop Spottiswood, Thomas Fuller, Usher
the Primate, and Robert South, all using the mous-
tache ;as did John Knox and Bunyan. The Jesuits
in India, I believe, still wear it. I have been unable
to trace the latest instance of a clergyman wearing his
gown and cassock in the streets ; the custom appa-
rently died out in the reign of one of the Georges.—
Mackenzie Walcott, 111. A., in Notes and Queries.
THE LIVING AND THE DEAD.—We speak of the
treasures of affection in this world—has the spirit-
land none such Even from the millions of bursten
hearts, who have hence travelled thitherwards, may
not stores of it be gathered, richer, purer, more dis-
interested (inasmuch as lacking the impulse of the
passions), than any this world can bestow P Have we
dear ones dwelling with us above earth are there
not some also beneath it ? and whose affection is the
more unchanging ? Which of them will love us on
still without coldness or fretfulness—without carinc,
for our imperfections—without heeding our .unkind-
ness—without blaming our injustice or wrong ; but
ever, ever looking upon us with the same tender eyes,
taking all wrong, giving none, and watching over us
for good, untired, unwearied, undeparting ! Alas,
alas ! it is the living change, not the dead, in their
affection and natures. I have read of the Arab city,
in which the inhabitants were in one night changed to
stone. Whatever had been the occupation of each at
that particular moment, in that did the cold hand fix
him—in that he remained for ever and ever. So it is
with the departed : in those silent mansions no change
ever cometh ; the condition of the soul, its affections,
its impulses, are all the same—firmly fixed for eternity.
But we ! we who talk of the changes of death, put out
of the way the incalculably greater changes of life.—
Dublin University _Magazine.
CAUSES WHICH LED. TO THE BELIEF IN AL-
CHEMY. The conduct of the scientific alchemists of
the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries pre-
sents a problem of very difficult solution. When we
consider that a gas, a fluid, and a solid may consist of
the very same ingredients in different proportions ;

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and a virulent poison may differ from the most whole-
some food only in the difference of quantity of the
very same elements ; that gold and silver, and lead and
mercury, and, indeed, all the metals, may be extracted
from transparent crystals, which scarcely differ in their
appearance from a piece of common salt, or a piece of
sugar-candy; and that diamond is nothing more than
charcoal,—we need not greatly wonder at the extrava-
gant expectation that the precious metals and the
noblest gems might be produced from the basest ma-
terials. These expectations, too, must ha e been often
excited by the startling results of their daily experi-
ments. The most ignorant compounder of simples
could not fail to witness the magical transformations
of chemical action ; and every new product must have
added to the probability that the tempting doublets of
gold and silver might be thrown from the dice-box
with which he was gambling. But when the precious
metals were found in lead and copper, by the action of
powerful re-agents, it was natural to suppose that
they had been actually formed during the process ;
and men of well-regulated minds even might have
thus been led to embark in new adventures to procure
a more copious supply, without any insult being offered
to sober reason, or any injury inflicted on sound mo-
rality.---Sii. D. Brewster's Martyrs of Science.
CELEBRATED FEMALE POISONERS.—Amid the most
stealthy-footed and domestically benign to this feline
race, were the Widow Zwanziger, and Mrs. Gottfried,
of Germany. They were amongst the most successful,
though not the most distinguished, in this art of
poisoning. They went on their way, slaying all
around them, for years upon years, and yet were too
good and agreeable to be suspected, though death was
but another name for their shadows. Funerals fol-
lowed these fatal sisters as certainly as thunder fol-
lows lightning; and undertakers were the only men who
who flourished in their path. The Zwanziger was an
admirable cook and nurse ; her soups and coffee had a
peculiar strength ; her watchful care by the sick bed
was in all hearts ; she kissed the child she meant to
kill, and pillowed the aching head with such soothing
address that it never ached again. Mrs. Gottfried
was so attractive a person that her ministration was
sought by people of a much higher rank than her
own ; she was so warm a friend, that she was a friend
until death, and one attached soul after another
breathed their last in her arms. Husband after hus-
band departed, and still her hand was sought, and
still it practised its cunning. At length, in her four-
and fiftieth year, she was detected and arrested. In
prison, she walked amid the apparitions of all her vic-
tims, wept tears of tenderness over their memory, and
finished by desiring that her life might be written ; so
that, having lost everything else, she might yet enjoy
her fame. All women of this class have had an ex-
traordinary degree of vanity, and, what is more, they
have had a perfect passion for their art. The Mar-
chioness de Brinvilliers was an enthusiast in the com-
position of the rarest poisons, of which her accomplice
Sante-Croix, was so eminent a compounder. The ad-
miration of her beauty, the distinctions of her rank,
afforded
,her but a feeble satisfaction in comparison
with that of watching the operation of some subtly
lethal essence. She certainly was not the mere
marchioness, but the princess of poisoners ; and yet it
remained for Madame Ursinus to give additional
touches of perfection to this peculiar character. She
was at once a lady of fashion, a pietist, a writer of useful
tracts, a poetess, and a poisoner. Through all the dan-
gers of these various careers, she lived to the good old
age of 76, and died—lamented. Brinvillien, Zwanziger,
and Gottfried confessed that they were conquered by
their crimes ; but Madame I.Trsinus branded in public
opinion, continued to defy it, and conquered even
that, and to the very last gasp persisted in playing
the heroine. Nay, more—without confession, remorse,
or penitence, she strove in her own way, and with no
trifling success, to achieve the reputation of a saint..
Dickens's Household Words.

VAN -UNLUCKY MARRIAGE..-- Scandal, jealousy,
reigning toasts, and withered dowagers notv.vithstand-
ing, Angelica Kauffman continued the fashion. Still
.
the carriages blocked up Golden-square ; she was
courted by the noble and wealthy ; still ardent young
Oxford bachelors and buckish students of the Temple
wrote epistles in heroic verses to her ; still she was
the talk of the coffee-houses and studios ; still from
time to time the favoured few who gained admission
to Lady Mary Veervort's evening concerts were
charmed by Angelica's song—by the grand Italian