THE city of Segovia is the capital of the province of that name in the ancient kingdom of Old Castile in Spain. It is the ancient Segovia, a Celtiberian city embellished by Trajan; its name not having been changed: it stands on a hill, of which the Everma waters the base. The Arabic gate, and the Alcazar, an old castle flanked with turrets, and built on a precipitous rock, may still give the stranger some notion of the flourishing state of Segovia under the Moorish domination. But these sink into insignificance when compared, or rather contrasted, with the work of Trajan, the aqueduct with a double range of arcades, by which water has heen conveyed into the town for seventeen hundred years: it consists of 109 arches, the largest nearly 90 feet in height, from the ground to the conduit, and the length of the space which they cover exceeds 2530 feet. If Trajan raised a structure so costly, it may readily be admitted that Segovia, in ancient times, was a much more important place than it is at present. Other works of past days still serve to recall the ancient splendour of the town; but sumptuous temples have given way to time, or the more destructive efforts of ignorance and barbarism. The Cathedral is the finest modern edifice in the city: it was built in the sixteenth century, and its demi-gothic style announces the period of the reVOL. X. generation of art. The styles of different periods are united in the Alcazar, and the interior is not the least curious part of the building. The principal staircase is constructed in the best taste; most of the apartments are adorned with carved work and gilt wood. In the largest hall is contained a collection of wooden statues, representing the kings of Oviedo Leon, and Castille, from Fabila the First, who reigned in the eighth century, to the time of Queen Joan, surnamed the Foolish, the mother of Charles the Fifth. The Cid, and his famous horse Babicio, are also represented: and there is, too, the real or supposed saddle of the same courser, which contributed more than once to the victories of its master. The pupils in the royal school of artillery, founded by Charles the Third, now meet in this ancient edifice. The city was formerly well known for its cloth, and it still possesses a great many looms, four fullers' mills, and three large washing-places for wool. The Cid mentioned above, but whose real name was Rodriguez Diaz de Bivar, was born at Burgos about the year 1040. He attained great distinction in the intestine wars that for a long period desolated the country after the dismemberment of the Moorish empire. At twenty years of age he was admitted to the rank of knighthood, by Ferdinand the First, King of Leon and Castille. After taking part in 298 several intestine wars, he gave offence to Alphonso | history, as I have learned it from himself in different the Fifth, and was banished from the council of the languages. monarch. He then left Castille, taking with him many of his relations and friends, but he continued active in the service of his king. Five Moorish kings (chiefs) having united themselves for the purpose of ravaging the province of Rioja, Rodriguez went out to meet them, accompanied by his friends and followers: having gained a complete victory, he imposed tribute on them, in the name of the king of Castille. Being recalled to the court he received the Moorish deputies in the presence of Alphonso, who saluted him by the title of el Seid, which in the Moorish language means lord: from this circumstance he obtained the name of The Cid. At the siege of Toledo in 1086, he contributed materially to the capture of the city. He was again, however, banished from the court, notwithstanding his services, the king never having forgiven him his first offence. This was a proposal he made to the rest of the nobles, by which Alphonso was obliged, at his coronation, to swear that he had no part in the murder of the last king, his own brother: this ceremony concluded by the Cid calling down the vengeance of heaven upon all perjurers. During this second exile he continued his enterprises against the Moors, and obtained many signal victories over them. After the death of Hiaja, the Moorish king of Toledo, the Cid made himself master of the city, and established himself there along with his companions in arms, in 1094. Here, although he acted with sovereign authority, he refused to take the title of king, and acknowledged himself as tributary to the king of Castille. He died at Valencia in 1099. This, it appears, is the true history of this celebrated man, whose exploits have formed the foundation for many fabulous and romantic tales. A SHORT HISTORY OF BOOKS. THERE is a useful and agreeable acquaintance whom we take up occasionally, and set aside when we are tired. Our eyes are engaged by his narratives, to which our ears are spared the trouble of listening, the which makes him an agreeable companion to the indolent and the dull of hearing. He bears reproaches with apathy, and approbation with indifference; and when he gives advice, which by the by he seldom does unless we look for it, he does it in so general a manner, that we are apt to believe that he means somebody else, and are spared the pain of blushing. After he becomes a favourite, he appears in a soiled and tattered surtout, which in full dress is generally of red, or blue, or brown leather. He never asks for refreshment, nor does he accept of any if offered him. On the other hand, he often dissuades us from eating and drinking to excess. The fire has been fatal to many of his family at Rome, Constantinople, Buda, Peking, Susa, and other cities, as we learn from history; yet he does not like to be too far from it, as his constitution is injured by the damp. He continues with discernment where he is made welcome, whether from congeniality of disposition, or willingness on our part to attend to his admonitions. This is a good symptom, for neither friends nor books are to be always chosen like pieces of music, from their being in harmony with our feelings, but sometimes from their discordance or habit of correcting them. A person is known by his books, is a common remark; and the acquaintance alluded to is a BOOK. Having been accustomed, if I may resume the figure, to pass some hours in the week, I may say most days, in his society, I shall give a short account of his Pausanias relates that a book by Hesiod was written on leaves of lead, and Herodotus mentions the use of skins by the Ionians when papyrus was scarce, which seems to show that he wrote on papyrus, or the manufacture of the paper " reeds of Egypt* which grew by the brooks." Pliny saw, in the house of Pomponius Secundus, a nobleman and poet, the books of the Gracchi, written with their own hands, on papyrus, and adds, that the works of Virgil', Cicero', and Augustus Cæsar were written on the same materials. Pliny mentions linen books, and Virgil alludes to books that were made of the inner rind of the elm. There are authorities for believing that some short epistles were folded up without a roller, and that Homer (who wrote about 900 B.C.,) alludes to a tablet of this kind. I may here also mention the waxen hand-tablets (pugillares) of the ancients, inscribed with the point of the style †, and smoothed with its flat end; their common-place books; their paper of the rind of the papyrus; their ink of the cuttle-fish, or lamp-black, described by Pliny; their pens mentioned by Juvenal®; their reeds for writing; and the pen-knives and scissors of Byzantine writers'. The Roman slaves and freedmen sometimes transcribed the author's writing, or wrote from his inditing, according to Horace 10; "Go boy, and write this quickly in the book." It may be inferred from Cornelius Nepos", that the slaves of Pomponius Atticus had a literary education. 12 15 The Librarius transcribed manuscripts, and I conjecture that he sold them. We read that Nileus 13 sold the libraries of Aristotle, and Theophrastus 13, to Apellicon 16 of Teios. Polybius alludes to the sale of his own works. Perhaps, too, the author might occasionally sell his own writings. The word for bookseller, (bibliopola,) is as old as Martial's 17 Epigrams. 1 Pausanias was the author of a History of Greece; he flourished at Rome, A. D. 170. An old Greek poet, who wrote on agriculture, B. c. 907. 3 Herodotus was the father of Greek history; he flourished B. C. 445. See Saturday Magazine, Vol. IV., p. 208. 4 A celebrated writer on Natural History; he was smothered to death by ashes in an eruption of Mount Vesuvius, &. d. 79. 5 The Gracchi were a celebrated political family of Rome, who lived B.C. 120. Virgil, a great Roman epic poet; wrote in the time of Augustus Caesar, during whose reign Christ was born. of Rome; he died B. c. 43. 7 Cicero was an illustrious orator, statesman, and philosopher + See Saturday Magazine, Vol. V., p. 51. 8 Juvenal was a Roman satirist, who died in the time of Trajan, A. D. 128. The Byzantine historians were writers who flourished at Constantinople, after the seat of government had been removed thither by Constantine the Great, A. D. 328. 10 Horace was a great lyric poet, who first wrote lyric odes in the Latin language in the reign of Augustus Cæsar. 11 Cornelius Nepos wrote his elegant biographies in the reign of Augustus; he was the intimate friend of Cicero and Atticus. 12 Pomponius Atticus was an intimate friend of Cicero. He was a most learned man, and an excellent Greek scholar; his residence at Athens gained him the name of Atticus. 18 A scholar well known for possessing all the writings of Aristotle. 1 Aristotle was a Greek philosopher, who wrote on morals and natural history. He was tutor to Alexander the Great, and died B. c. 322. 15 A pupil of Aristotle; he wrote on some subjects in natural history and morals; he died B. c. 108. 16 A philosopher celebrated for his possession of the works of Aristotle and Theophrastus; he died B. c. 86. 17 Martial was a celebrated writer of epigrams. He was a Spaniard by birth, but resided principally at Rome: he died a. D. 104, in the seventy-fifth year of his age. The word volume came from the rolls of papyrus, which were rolled upon the umbilicus, or rolling-stick. The outer part of the volume, which was exposed to view, (I conclude the back of the papyrus,) was coloured with purple, or perhaps red, as we learn from Ovid 1; if the subject of the work was cheerful, the title was written in red letters, and suspended from the cornua, or ends of the roller, which were occasionally coloured. The volume was polished with the pumice-stone, and anointed with the oil of cedar, and placed in a box of cypress-wood, to preserve it from the moths. Perhaps I may be allowed to conjecture that the volume was scaled, to enable, the property to be ascertained by the author's signet. Some thought, and might have continued to think, that the titles of these volumes were written on leather covers or wrappers, buckled round the volume with thongs; but the existence of these wrappers or thongs cannot be proved from any classical authority. It appears, on the other hand, from a painting discovered at Herculaneum, that the title of the book was written on a label suspended from the ends of the roller. This painting represents a Muse with a box, perhaps of cypress, full of books by her side, placed upright in the box, with the labels exposed to view. This box will give us an idea of the inside of an ancient library, by analogical reasoning, as the size of Hercules was guessed at in ancient times by the length of his foot. For instance, if this and other such boxes were placed on shelves with the mouth outwards, and the labels hanging down, an ancient library was like a registrar's office, in which the rolls of vellum or records are so placed with the title of the records hanging down, and in this case, the librarian of old was a sort of custos rotulorum, or keeper of the rolls. But if the mouth was placed upwards, and the box was placed on a shelf with one of the sides outwards, or facing the room, the library looked something like the tiers of drawers in a common shop, particularly if the contents of the box of volumes were painted on the front. The position may be conjectured but cannot be proved from any classical author, nor from Vopiscus, Lipsius, or Lomeierus, or any other who has written on libraries. The Alexandrian library is said to have contained 700,000 of such rolls or volumes, great and small, which gives an idea of immense labour. But I do not think that the ancient libraries with their rolls, whether in boxes, or lying horizontally with their titles dangling down, looked so handsome as modern libraries, with their rows of well-bound books, and their titles gilt on the backs. It may be inferred from Horace's Art of Poetry, that Roman authors used to read their compositions to their friends, and sometimes to their flatterers; but books approved of by good critics, particularly Tarpa, in the time of Horace, were admitted into the Palatine library founded by Augustus. This library was afterwards struck by lightning, and the remains of the books in later ages are said to have been burned, by order of Pope Gregory the First. The custom of depositing books in temples is of Asiatic origin, and may be traced in Scripture. By the command of Moses, " the Book of the Law was deposited in the ark of the covenant of the Lord;" and, after the building of Solomon's temple, "the Levites brought up the ark and the tabernacle of the congregation to the oracle of the house, to the most holy place, even under the wings of the cherubim." It is probable that all the books of Scripture were deposited in the same holy place. Sanchoniatho, 1A celebrated Roman elegiac writer, in the reign of Augustus, a Phoenician author, is stated to have collected the materials of his history from the registers of the towns and temples of Phoenicia. But all the books placed in such depositories above ground have perished, whilst the oldest rolls in existence have been preserved under ground, viz., in the ruins of Herculaneum, and in the crypts of Thebes and other places where mummies were deposited. Hitherto the oldest rolls were reckoned Justinian's "Chart of Plenary Security," (I believe, in the royal library of Paris,) and a copy of the Bible at Tours, mentioned by Montfaucon, who died before the discovery of the treasures of antiquity at Herculaneum. And now it may be asked, When and why were rolls of papyrus laid aside for the stitched books? It is related, I think, in the life of Homer ascribed to Herodotus, that the Iliad was originally styled a rhapsody. If this word literally means a stitching of odes or poems together, as in modern bookbinding, it would show the date of stitched books, which for the future I shall call books, to be of remote antiquity. In the mean time, the Herculaneum manuscripts on rolls of papyrus, show that the Greeks and Romans of that age preferred papyrus to parchment, though the latter had long been made for writing at Pergamus, and doubtless in other places; sheep being more general than paper-reeds. The Greek Christians of the Lower Empire appear to me to be the first who made books of parchment, instead of rolls of papyrus; whether it was that papyrus could not be got from Alexandria, occupied by the Saracens, or for any other reason. Secondly. A book should "look its part" externally, as well as possess internal merit: it should be large enough to maintain its place upon the shelf by dint of weight, according to Aristotle's principle of dignity for the human form, namely, magnitude without impediment to activity. Books maintain their place in libraries, and sometimes are admitted into them by means of their size, as well as their merit. Books that are too small are liable to be overlooked, or hidden among larger books, or to be swept away with waste paper upon trivial occasions. Thirdly. Books are not so liable as rolls to the humorous objection of the Greeks, that "a great book is a great evil," which there is reason to think was partly owing to the trouble required for unrolling a large volume of papyrus, in order to read it, and for rolling it at the other end as it was read. In this sense the Iliad itself was a great evil or inconvenience, and so was the Odyssey, though not in any other. A good Cyclopædia now-a-days is not considered a great evil. But rolls were not entirely laid aside after books came into use, for we find that the Greeks in the middle ages had rolls of parchment called Kontakia, wrapped upon a stick about a palm in length, like the classical umbilicus. Other manuscripts with two rollers, and made of metal, are still used by the Jewish Rabbins, who used to bring to Cambridge Hebrew manuscripts of the Scriptures, written on such two-fold Kontakia. The writing was elegant, whatever was its accuracy; and the columns or pages were divided by spaces, and were parallel to the rollers. We read that "when Jehudi had read three or four leaves, he cut the roll with a penknife and cast it into the fire until the roll was consumed." The word leaves may mean columns, as a roll has no leaves. The Greeks of the middle age had books of cotton, which they call Bombukine. The Latins call them Charta Bombicæ, and the Italians Bombaccio. Manuscripts were frequently erased for the sake of the parchment, in the twelfth, thirteenth, and four teenth centuries, but the cotton manuscripts generally | labour, by the substitution of small letters for capitals. escaped. Montfaucon found but one instance to the contrary. The lives of illustrious Romans, written by Pomponius, are said to have had their portraits; and a manuscript in Colbert's library, of the date of 1059, had the picture of the Empress Eudocia, standing between the emperor and her son Constantine Porphyrogenitus. So much for the antiquity of pictures in books. Before we mention printed books, it may be summarily observed, that some ages after the Christian era, the work of transcribing was partly transferred to the cloister, and partly, perhaps, conducted without the pale of the church. In short, as ecclesiastics were the most learned order in the middle ages, we find that monks and others, belonging to monasteries and churches, were employed in composing, copying, and even in binding and stitching books. There was a writing-room called Scriptorium in monasteries, and the transcribers were sometimes the feebler monks, who "were considered as to sleep, and refreshments." Such had the privilege of approaching the fire, perhaps in the hall or refectory, to dry their parchments. The transcribers, perhaps not in holy orders, were called Grammateis, or Scribes. The Calligrapher was so called from writing well, the Tachygrapher from writing quickly, the Chrysographer from writing gilt letters, and the Cryptographer from writing secrets. It appears from Suidas", that seven quick writers, and several Calligraphers were sent to Ambrosius, a friend of Origen's 20, to transcribe. When they were employed in another person's house, in writing elegant copies, they sat up till the fourth watch. Their medicine to preserve the eyes, or, perhaps, heal them when injured by writing, was partly made of salt, and from its supposed excellence was called dodecatheon, in allusion to twelve principal heathen deities. The invention of Cryptography, or writing secrets *, is ascribed to Mecænas", but it is probably older; and being serviceable for politicians and intriguers, it was carried to great perfection by Julius Cæsar, by changing the powers of letters, as putting for a, &c. The Tabularius wrote or copied instruments in the Registry, or Tabularium, and the Notaries wrote notes of things which concerned the public, and also authentic copies of instruments. But there are manuscripts of the date of 914, which have the signature of Baanas, Notary to Aretas, of Cæsarea: hence it would appear that Notaries, in time, were employed in more general writing. After the writing was finished, the initials of chapters were ornamented by the Illuminator, perhaps the Chrysographer, or worker in gold, with the figures of men, birds, fishes, flowers, or other fancy-work, in blue, or white, or gold. There are many fine specimens of manuscripts so illuminated, in the libraries of most of the cathedrals, of the universities of Cambridge and Oxford, the British Museum, the King's Library, and in those of many individuals of rank, taste, and fortune. As books increased by time in the different countries of Europe, the labour of transcribing them increased also; and it was attempted to lighten this 19 Suidas, a learned Greek lexicographer, who flourished ▲. D. 1100. 20 A learned Grook author and Christian martyr, who died A. D. 254. *See a paper on Secret Writing, in the Saturday Magazine, Vol. VIII., p. 244. The prime minister of Augustus Caesar, and a great patron of learned men. Such is the difference between Greek and Latin capitals and small letters, that Homer and Horace would find it difficult to read, without instruction, their own books as they are now printed. Another relief was the system of abbreviation, or the junction of two or more letters into one, after the ninth and tenth centuries, which are reckoned the ages of elegant Greek writing. Some words were gutted of their vowels, like oriental writing, and others of their consonants, so that writing was reduced to a kind of short hand, in which the beauty of thought and composition was not displayed in the best light. Politian and Picus of Mirandula used abbreviated characters, which could not be deciphered by their literary executors. The most effectual remedy for all the disadvantages of transcribing was printing, invented, according to some, by Guttemburg, but, according to others, by John Faust, of Mentz, in the year 1450. By this art, thousands of copies can be struck off with far greater facility than formerly a very few could be written. The European monks and ecclesiastics, who had hitherto been the principal guardians and transcribers of sacred and secular literature, during many centuries, were, as may be imagined, the first to patronize printing. Accordingly they introduced it early into their religious houses at Subiaco, Rome, Tours, Paris, Westminster, Oxford, and other cities. The title of the early printed books was generally to be gathered from the subscription at the end, which was similar to the subscriptions to the old monastic manuscripts: but as it was deemed preferable that the title-page should precede the book, rather than the book the title-page, it happened, in time, that the title-page was placed first, and books came to be printed, bound and lettered, in the present manner, which seems to have reached the acme of elegance and convenience, and is therefore not likely to be changed for any other. Nay, such is the beauty of modern books, that rows of wooden forms, cut and painted to resemble books, are not uncommon in the libraries of modern times, a thing unheard of among the ancients. To conclude with oriental books. In Bootan they make good paper of the bark of a tree called Deah: Tibetian books consist of narrow leaves, or slips, of the fibrous root of a small shrub. The letters are printed from blocks of wood, and these leaves are enclosed between two slips of wood, which make the covers. Printing, in Tibet, is confined to sacred subjects and learned compositions, by the influence of the hierarchy. The Chinese print from blocks of wood, and perhaps they introduced the art into Tibet. The books of the Hindoos are made of the dried leaves, called oly, of the tree called Palmyra. The leaves are slips, about two inches broad. The letters are written with an iron style, and are lightly powdered with lamp-black. These leaves are pulled when green, and preserve their verdure, and it is said that insects do not destroy them. The Chinese books are shaped like those of Europe; the covering is of white paper, or straw-coloured silk. books have a slight but elegant appearance. These Thus the style is used in India, and the leaf, as in the time of the Sibyls, is a real leaf, whence the word folio was derived. In China and Tibet, there is a system of printing which differs from that of Europe. G. P. T. * Politian and Picus were two eminent scholars of Rome; they lived in the fifteenth century, in the revival of learning under Leo the Tenth. THE STRANDED BARK AND THE LIFE-BOAT. Or, piecemeal, the sport of the tempest, is torn. There was nothing but breakers and billows of foam; Áre the sighs and the tears that will welcome thee back. Now high o'er the billows majestic she rides, With her twelve noble rowers all lashed to her sides; As half naked, half dead, from the rigging they fell; Are the sighs and the tears that will welcome thee back. The sea-gull flew wildly and mournfully round, As if on the deep shoreless ocean she'd found Some exiles, condemned o'er the wide world to roam; Then, light as the billow, and white as the foam, Winged her way on the breeze to her tempest-rocked home. On the tiptoe of hope and of fear we beheld, As their bark through the billows the rowers impelled; ANON. THE Arab lives on equal terms with his steed. Having no other habitation than a tent, himself, his wife and family, his mare and her foal, rest peacefully together; and little children are often seen to climb, without fear, upon the inoffensive creatures, which permit them to play with and to caress them without injury. An Arab never beats, but speaks to his horse, and seems to hold a friendly intercourse with it; while the faithful servant evinces equal attachment to its master, and is so tractable, as readily to stop at that master's bidding in the midst of its most rapid course.-Domesticated Animals. OLD friends are best. King John used to call for his old shoes; they were easiest for his feet.-SELDEN. THE PHYSIOLOGY OF A LOCOMOTIVE Of all the creations of the mechanist, the nearest approach to an organized living animal is undoubtedly a Locomotive Engine. It is impossible not to be struck with this analogy, when we see the iron limbs of the machine gathering their strength, and hear the suppressed heaving of its breath-the huge pulses of its heart-beating quicker and quicker, until the load hooked to it-a burden for a ship-is borne far out of sight with the velocity of the wind *. On a closer examination, this analogy which it presents of animal to mechanical life, becomes yet more apparent. The spark of life giving to the animal its active being, and extinguishing it in death, has its parallel in the principle of the mechanical life of the machine, the fire lighted in its furnace. As the one must be fed, and from its food renews continually its living energy, so must the other. The only difference is in the diet, the animal is carnivorous or graminivorous,—the machine is carbonivorous; the one lives on the vegetable productions of the earth in a recent, the other in a fossil state. Thus fed continually, the life once given to the animal continues until its joints, and sinews, and nerves; its organs of digestion, deposition, and absorption, are accidentally deranged, or by continual use worn out. And so of the machine: the fire once lighted, and the fuel whence the principle of its active being renovates itself being supplied, it continues its state of mechanical activity until some pipe is accidentally burst, or some wheel or joint broken, or until, by wear and tear, the sides of its furnace, or boiler, or the joints and thews of the engine, are disabled from performing their respective functions. The food of the animal is elaborated in its stomach into the chyle, which contains the principle of its nourishment, and a residuum; whence, as it passes through the intestines, the chyle is separated and absorbed into the lacteals, and thence poured into the blood, and conveyed through the infinite ramifications of the arterial system, until the living principle and the nutritive principle are eventually, by some inscrutable means, assimilated from it into the life and organization. And so the fuel of the machine separates itself in the furnace (its stomach), into the heated air (the chyle of the machine), and a residuum (of cinders); and the heat (the living principle), passing with the air through a system of pipes (its arterial system), is absorbed into the water of the boiler, and made immediately to operate as living power, through the medium of the steam-cylinder and piston (the great muscular organ of the machine), whence, by the crank-rod (the great sinew), it reaches the wheels (the organs of locomotion-the legs), or is carried off by the eccentric to manipulate the slide-valves, and minister to the vital action of the machine; having in both these respects its parallel, in the distribution of the living powers of the animal to its organs of voluntary and involuntary motion. There is here, too, another parallel. The heated air of the furnace is carried through the water of the boiler to which it is to give off its heat, but not in an undivided channel; it is made to pass through it not by one great tube, but by a great number of small tubes; because, that by thus dividing it, the same quantity of air is brought in contact with a much This is no figure of speech: it has been calculated by Smeaton, that a wind such as would be called a high wind, does not travel at the rate of more than 30 or 35 miles an hour, and a storm or tempest at not more than 50 miles |