The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-05-14 00:00:00

VARIET/ES.

Delirium often takes place in consequence of an accident of
no very momentous kind,—it may occur without fever, or it
may be accompanied with that irritative sympathetic which is
often the "last stage of all, that closes the sad eventful history"
of a compound fracture, Delirium seems to be a very curious
affection ; in this state a man is quite unconscious of his dis-
ease; he will give rational answers to any questions you put to
him, when you rouse him, but he relapses into a state of wan-
dering, and his actions correspond with his dreaming. I re-
member a man with compound fracture in this hospital, whose
leg was in a horrible state of sloughiug. I have roused him,
and said, "'Thomas, what is the matter with you? how do you
H
do ?" e would reply, " Pretty hearty, thank ye; nothing is
the matter with me; huw do you do ?" He would then go on
dreaming of one thing or another; I have listened at his bed-
side, and I am sure his dreams were often of a pleasant kind.
He met old acquaintances in his dreams,—people whom be re-
membered Zany syne, his former companions, his kindred and
relations, and he expressed his delight at seeing them. He would
exclaim every now and then,--"That's a good one; well, I
never heard a better joke," and so on. It is a curious circum-
stance that all consciousness of suffering is thus cut off as it
were, from the body; and it cannot but be regarded as a very
benevolent effect of nature's operations that extremity of suffer-
ing should thus bring with it its antidote. * * * Of the
great number to whom it has been my painful professional duty
to have administered in the last hours of their lives, I have some-
times felt surprised that so few have appeared reluctant to go to
"the undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveller re-
turns." Many, we may easily suppose, have manifested this
willingness to die, from an impatience of suffering, or from that
passive indifference which is sometimes the result of debility and
extreme bodily exhaustion. But I have seen those who have
arrived at a fearless contemplation of the future, from faith in
the doctrine which our religion teaches. Such men were not
only calm and supported, but even cheerful in the hour of death;
and I never quitted such a sick chamber without a wish that
"my last end might be like theirs." Some, indeed, have clung
to life anxiously—painfully; but they were not influenced so
much by a love of life for its own sake, as by the distressing
prospect of leaving children, dependent upon them, to the mercy
of the world, deprived of their parental care. And here you
will forgive me, perhaps, if I presume to state what appears to
use to be the conduct proper to be observed by a physician in
withholding, or making his patient acquainted with, his opinion
of the probable issue of a malady manifesting mortal symptoms.
I own I think it my first duty to protect his life by all practi-
cable means, and to interpose myself between him and every
thing which may possibly aggravate his danger. And unless I
shall have found him averse from doing what was necessary in
aid of my remedies, from a want of a proper sense of his peril-
ous situation, I forbear to step out of the bounds of my province,
in order to offer any advice which is not necessary to promote
his cure. At the same time, I think it indispensible to let his
friends know the danger of his case the instant I discover it.
An arrangement of his worldly affairs, in which the comfort or
unhappiness of those who are to come after him is involved,
may be necessary; and a suggestion of his danger, by which
the accomplishment of this object is to be obtained, naturally
induces a contemplation of his more important spiritual con-
cerns, a careful review of his past life, and such sincere sorrow
and contrition for what he has done amiss, as justifies our hum-
ble hope of his pardon and acceptance hereafter. If friends
can do their good offices at a proper time, and under the sug-
gestions of the physician, it is far better that they should under-
take them than the medical adviser. They do so without de-
stroying his hopes, for the patient will still believe that he has
an appeal to his physician beyond their fears; whereas, if the
physician lay open his danger to him, however delicately he
may do this, he runs a risk of appearing to pronounce a sen-
tence of condemnation to death, against which there is no appeal
via hope; and, on that account, what is most awful to think of,
perhaps the sick man's repentance may be less available. But
friends may be absent, and nobody near the patient in his extre-
mity, of sufficient influence or pretension to inform him of his
dangerous condition. And surely it is lamentable to think that
any human being should leave the world unprepared to meet his
Creator and Judge, "with all his crimes broad blown!" Rather
than so, I have departed from my strict professional duty, done
that which I would have done by myself, and apprized my
patient of the great change he was about to undergo.—Sir
Henry Halfold's Essays and Orations.

Da. JOHN BULL.—The great English church composer, Dr.
John Bull, who flourished in the sixteenth century, going abroad
for the benefit of his health, travelled incognito through France
and Germany. Hearing, while in the former country, of a fa-
mous musician belonging to a certain cathedral at St. Omers,
he applied to him, as a novice, to receive instructions in har-
mony, and to see and admire his compositions. This renowned
master, after some conversation had passed between them, con-
ducted the Doctor to a vestry or music-school adjoining the ca-
thedral, and showed him a vocal production in forty consonant
parts, making a vaunting challenge to any master in the world
to add to them one part more. Dr. Bull perceiving, at the first
glance, that the composition was not quite so full and complete
as vanity had led the French contrapuntist to imagine, re-
quested the use of pen, ink, and paper, and to be locked up in
the school for two or three hours. '1 his, with great disdain, was
immediately granted; and the Doctor, in less time than he had
asked, added to the composition jisrty more parts. The musician
Leing then called in, examined and re-examined it; when, find-
ing the whole of the additions new and correct, he burst into an
ecstasy, and declared that he who had made them must be either
the devil or Dr. John Bull.

QUEEN ELIZABETH AND HER FRACTIOUS ORGANIST.-Dr.
Christopher Tye, organist of Elizabeth's Chapel Royal, was
more correct andi delicate in his ear than in his temper; and
his disposition, as may be supposed, was not iniproved by age.
It once happened, in nis latter days, that the Queen's taste yeas
so little gratified by the peevish old gentleman's performance,
that she sent the verger up to the organ-loft, to tell him that he
played out of tune ; upon which, after uttering the word pooh!
he sent down for answer, that her Majesty's ears were out of
tune.

COLLEGE CUSTOM.—An annual custom is observed at Queen's
College, Oxford, which consists of the serving up a boar's head,
and singing a song and chorus adapted to the occasion. The
boar's head, being boiled or roasted, is laid in a great charger,
covered with a garland of bays or laurels, as broad at bottom as
the brims of the charger. When the first course is served up
in the refectory, on Christmas-day, in the said college, the man-
ciple brings up the said boar's head from the kitchen to the
high table, accompanied by one of the tabarders, who lays his
hand on the charger. The tabarder then sings a song; and
when he comes to the chorus, all the scholars that are in the
refectory, join in its performance :

The boar's head in hand bear I,
Bedeek'd with bays and rosemary,
And I pray join, masters, me►ry be,
Quotquot istis in couvivio.

cuonus.
Caput Apri defero,
Reddens laudes Domino.

The boar's head, as I understand,
Is the bravest dish in the land,
lieinz thus bedeck'd with a gay garland ;
Let us servire convivio.

CHORUS.
Caput Apri defero, •
Reddens 'angles Domino.
Our steward has provided this,
In honour of the King of bliss,
Which on this day to be served is,
In regimendi atrio.

CIIORUS.

Caput Apri defero,
Reddens laudea Domino.

" I regret that I ever engaged in the school. I have been
obliged to expel eight of my scholars. The noise and uproar of
my school had been increasing every day, till at last it reached
so high a pitch, that neither I nor my pupils could be distinctly
heard. I reprimanded such as appeared most riotous, but some
of them told me they would not be restrained by any English
tyrant ; so I visited one of them with a stroke. Hereupon, the
whole school became a scene of anarchy. I was pelted on all
sides with books, and slates, and copies, and obliged to leave
my seat. All the scholars pressed on, and endeavoured to
strike or kick me. I was compelled to take refuge behind a
pillar, against which I placed my back, and protected myself in
front by a chair. Such as approached near enough I knocked
down, and kept the whole rabble of them at bay. At last,
snatching a piece of wood out of the hands of the oldest, I put
my pupils on the defensive ; and when I had completely subdued
every appearance of resistance, I turned the ringleaders out of
doors." * * The Greek plays are hardly read at all in Ame-
rica. Metres are little understood, and versification less. I
speak confidently, when I say that boys in good schools near
London have, at the age of from twelve to fourteen, a more
solid and thorough classical education, than the young men •
who have passed through Columbia college ; and, I believe,
than any persons educated altogether in America. Mathema-
tical knowledge is much upon a par with classical. The pro-
fessors of Columbia college made some attempts to raise the
study of languages to a higher standard. Such elevation of
studies would require additional exertion from pupils, and addi-
tional expenditure from parents, and has been vigorously opposed
by both. Many, even of the supporters of that college, ques-
tion the utility of high literary attainments. They cast their
thoughts and glances upon such as have gained distinction in
collegiate exercises, and find that, when contrasted with others,
they are neither better clerks, better shopmen, nor more thriving
traders. They then begin to ask the advocates of learning,
what are the advantages it is expected to confer? Instead of
rendering its votaries snore attached to business, more eager
for dollars acquired in any manner, more wedded to narrow and
sordid gains, they perceive that it generates a taste for reading,
a love of scientific and rational pleasures, and a freedom from
the coarser manners which distinguished their forefathers.
* * * * The Americans are in general, strangers to the
finer feelings ; and take pleasure iu humbling those whose man-
ners differ from their own. If you retire back from the larger
cities, which have received a tincture from European residents,
you will have ample opportunites of realising this tale, in almost
every particular. Your family, indeed, will keep you from
utter solitude ; but if your children mix at all with those
around them, their conduct towards yourself will be so conta-
minated with republican principles, as will become a source of
hourly vexation. Such places are fitted only for the rudest peo-
ple, and offer no correspondence with minds in the least refined
by good society, or humanised by literature."--Fiddler'e Observ-
ations on the United States.

TRANSLATION FROM THE GULL LANGUAGE.

BY DR. DOWDING

Scripta manet.

'Twas graved on the Stone of Destiny,•
In letters four and letters three ;

And ne'er did the King of the Gulls go by
But those awful letters scared his eye ;
For he knew a Prophet Voice had said,
As long as those words by man were read,
The ancient race of the Gulls should ne'er
One hour of peace or plenty share.
But years on years successive flew,

And the letters still more legible grew,—
At top, a T, an H, an E,

And, underneath, D. E. B. T.

Some thought them Hebrew,—such as Jews,
Who deal more in Scrip than Scripture, use ;
While some surmised 'twas an ancient way
'Of keeping accounts (well known in the day
Of the famed Didlerius Jeremias,
Who had thereto a wonderful bias),

And proved, in books most learn'dly boring,
'Twas call'd the Pontick way of scoring.

Howe'er this be, there never were yet
Seven letters of the alphabet,
That, 'twixt them, formed so grim a spell,
Or scared a Land of Gulls so well,
As did this awful riddle-me-ree
Of T. ii. E. D. E. B. T.

Hark!—it is struggling Freedom's cry,
" Help, help, ye nations, or I die ;
" 'Tis Freedom's fight, and, on the field
" Where I expire, your doom is seed."
The Gull• King hears the awakening call,
He hath summoned his Peers and Patriots all,
And he asks, "Ye noble Gulls, shall we
" Stand basely by at the fall of the Free. ,
" Nor utter a curse, nor deal a blow ?"
And they answer, with voice of thunder, "No."

Out fly their flashing swords in the air
!
But,—why do they rest suspended there?
What sudden blight, what baleful charm,
Hath chill'd each eye, and checked each arm ?
Alas, some withering hand hath thrown
The veil from off that fatal stone,
And pointing now, with sapless finger,
Showeth where dark those letters linger,—
Letters four, and letters three,
T. H. E. D. E. B, T !

At sight thereof, each lifted brand
Powerless falls from every hand ;
In ♦ain the Patriot knits his brow,—
Even talk, his staple, fails him now.
In vain the King like a hero treads,
His Lords of the Treasury shake their heads ;
And to all his talk of " brave and free,"
No answer gettcth His Majesty
But "T.H. E. D. E. B. T."

In short, the whole Gull nation feels
They're fairly spell-bound, neck and heels ;
And so, in face of the laughing world,
Must e'en sit down, with banners fitrl'd,
Adjourning all their dreams sublime
Of glory and war to-some other time.