Page:The New Monthly Magazine and Universal Register - Volume 011.djvu/153

1810.] Mr. Harrison, the architect, of Chester, England is indebted for those invaluable remains. The Earl of Elgin candidly stated, that in 1799, that gentleman first suggested to him the idea of obtaining those marbles for this country. It was a sense of their exquisite beauty, which impelled his Lordship to devote so much time and expense to their acquisition. The arrival of the vessel, which contained the first part of them, in an English port, occasioned an enthusiastic sensation among the artists and lovers of the fine arts. And after the opening of the cases, at Lord Elgin's house in Park Lane, in 1806, before Mr. Haydon was taken to view them, in 1808, among the number of painters, sculptors, and amateurs, who crowded to see them, there was only one person, a distinguished amateur, who expressed a doubt of their excellence. Lord Elgin's statement attests this notorious fact, which is in direct contradiction of the impudent falsehood that Mr. Haydon, who did not see the Elgin marbles until 1808, was the first to affirm their excellence. The honour of the British nation, the interests of truth, and the character of the whole body of the British artists, call upon every independent thinker to explode the gross imposture, which, with an unblushing effrontery, would make all England appear tasteless, and barbarously ignorant in the arts, to give an Anti-British, dishonest, and mountebank celebrity to one. Such is the entire and palpable drift of this vulgar and despicable publication. Its impious attempts to convert a reverence for revealed religion into a source of personal contempt and derision; to defame and degrade the Royal Academy, the British School of Science, in revenge for an unsuccessful canvass to obtain admission into that body; to calumniate the (British) Institution, as crushers and calumniators of native genius! and write down the whole of our artists under the scornful description of "the amiable profession," in order to gratify the passions of one professional individual, have now received a merited chastisement: and shall be looked to hereafter.

IT is by no means an uninteresting pursuit, to examine into the causes which have given birth to various customs existing, at the present day, among civilized nations— which excite the attention of the curious, but are become so familiar, from constant habit, to the generality of men, that they seldom trouble themselves to inquire into the sources from whence they sprung. It is thought quite sufficient, by many, to know that these practices exist— the cause of their existence is a matter of perfect indifference. But the mind of the philosopher is not satisfied with this. He seldom dismisses any thing from his observation without informing himself of its nature, and tracing it, if possible, to its origin. Now there are many customs and habits among us, which are in themselves trifling and unimportant; but which, when investigated, frequently give rise to many curious and interesting discoveries. We do not, however, contend, that we should derive any very important knowledge from such studies; but, generally speaking, whatever tends to promote a spirit of inquiry, and to exercise the investigating powers of the mind in its search for truth, is useful.

One of the most singular of these trifling forms, which are in daily use among us, and which we mechanically employ, almost without knowing its meaning, is the practice of saluting people when they sneeze. This custom is generally believed to have originated during the regency of Brunehaut, in France, and the pontificate of Gregory the Great. It is pretended, that at this time (A. D. 613) there was a malignity in the air, so contagious in its nature, that whoever was unfortunate enough to sneeze, expired on the spot: and that, on this account, Gregory ordered all good Christians to offer up prayers, accompanied with vows, for the purpose of averting these evil effects. But this seems evidently to be a fable, formed against all rules of probability.

We find the following account in Grose's Olio:

"The Rabbis say, that, after the Creation, God made a general law, by which it was ordained that every living man should sneeze but once, and that, at the very moment he sneezed, he should resign his soul to the Lord, with-