did ring the great bell at Malmsbury Abbey, called St. Adelm's Bell, to drive away thunder and lightning. The like is yet used at the abbey of St. Germain's in Paris where they ring the great bell then." Chaucer in speaking of the "great hostesse" has an allusion, not over delicate, to this custom; and a more modern writer says, "the tongue of the baptized bell made the ears of the affrighted demons ring with, Raphael, sancta Maria, ora pro nobis. These prayers," he adds, are on the bells at St. Michael's Mount in Cornwall."

Fairy Darts.—“What that is, which the Irish call uidad orchd I do not perfectly understand, only that in English we term it a fairy dart, and the one passing by this name, which was shown me not long agoe, was so shaped as in the margent; the matterial of it I

could not ghess, nor could others tell me what it was; but it was extreame hard and something brittle, the colour pale while having some resemblance to flint. It was so curiously wrought that

I could not imagin by what art it might be done, having about the edges of it very small and round studs or prickles much like those that are about a lobster's claws. 'Twas found sticking in turf, and produced by one as a proof of the power fairies have to strike man or beast with some occult wound or distemper. And I have with my own eyes observed in a cow, which was said to be elfshott, that towards her hind-quarter on one side of her the hide flagged inwards, and was sunck into a hole, which the cow-herd, who undertook the cure of her, said was the hole, which the dart made through the flesh and bowells notwithstanding the skin or hide remained sound

Hogg in his "Fabulous History of Cornwall," a most amusing work, but unluckily it is by no means to be trusted, for it not only treats of fables, but is too often fabulous.

and entire without any hole in it; and withall showed ine there was no such hole on the other side opposite, that I might not suppose it to be naturall. The cure he used, as near as I remember, was * * * * * * poured down her throat together with a certain hearb thrust into her jaws after it. This notable cow-chirurgeon was very secret in this other part of the cure and much wary lest I should know it, but a little of it happening to fall after him in the administration was found and shown me, which I perceived to be no other than ragg-wort, whereby the beast recovered.

"And lately I was told of a woman, who, some years agoe having a cow which was said to be elf-shot and died from her, there was found in the flesh of her, (being given to poore people for meat) a piece of a fairy dart, as they supposed it to be, which the woman keeps to this day, and makes use of as an amulett, which hath a medicinall virtue, as for other cows, so especially for the safe and sure bringing to bed of women. I have not yet found this woman, though I sought for her to the end only I might see that piece of dart."-Part of a Letter from Mr. J. K. fol. 24. M.S. Ayscough Catalogue, 4811.

BAYLE AND HIS IMITATORS.*

THE "Historical and Critical Dictionary" of Bayle is more interesting as a magazine of opinions than as a collection of facts, though even in this last respect it is not without very great value. It is a continuation of Moreri, and they who possess the former book on account of its historical matter, ought not to be without the work of his industrious predecessor. Bayle's critical castigations of Moreri are generally passed over by modern readers, as is the case with most personal satires, scarcely even excepting those of Dryden, Pope, or Churchill, the force of the venom dying with the object of it. The spirit of acrimony, thank Heaven, is seldom, if ever, immortal.

No antiquarian ever wasted more time and learning in settling the day and hour, whereon the foundation stone of an obscure parish church was laid, than Bayle has thrown away in correcting the petty chronological errors of Moreri. The most interesting conclusion from this feature of the "Historical and Critical Dictionary" is that patience of investigation and minuteness of knowledge may exist in a mind, which is rich in imagination, and

* It may be necessary to observe that this appeared in a Magazine, of which I was the editor a few years ago.

elegant in taste. But in parts also where he does not at all clash with Moreri, Bayle is exceedingly deficient in narrative matter. He omits, too, the lives of innumerable great characters of other nations; and often introduces people of no importance, merely for the sake of finding a vehicle in which some of his particular opinions may travel from his study into the world. It is not a work of systematic biography. There is for instance a life of Dante, but there are no notices of Petrarca and Ariosto. His omission of the lover of Laura is singular, for he had described with wonderful minuteness the real passion of Abelard and Heloise; and the case of Petrarca was a convenient opportunity for speculating on Platonic affection. The opinions in the dictionary are more numerous and interesting than the facts, for the author was a man of wonderful intellectual powers; he reflected deeply, and like the few men, the homines centenarii, who have done so, he found in his own mind all the germs of thought. Yet his borrowed knowledge was immense; a steady application and a retentive memory soon made him master of the facts, and a mind pliable to every shape readily associated itself with the opinions of former times. There are few of the subjects of religion, philosophy, and conduct that he has not examined, and always as it would seem with a perfect indifference to the issue of the investigation. He has none of those feelings of ardent love for his species, none of those longings after immortality, of which, as parts of the nature of man, no philosopher with all his assumption of impartiality ought to divest himself. No wonder that he is an advocate for unbounded toleration of opinion, for no man tried so severely the patience of society. Jeremy Taylor, in his "Liberty of Prophecying," had professed indulgence to all those who acknowledged the truth of the Apostles' Creed, although they differed on theological subjects not

mentioned in that symbol; John Locke, in his "Treatises on Toleration," excuses all variations of religious opinion except the errors of Popery; but Bayle's liberality of tolerance was without a limit. The circumstances of their lives, and their particular sentiments on some important subjects, naturally enough conducted them all to their respective conclusions on this subject.

But to return to the topic of the Pyrhonism of the Dictionary. No cause of heresy ever falls to the ground for want of ingenious support. The author states with firmness and strength the tenets of the Manicheans and the Spinozists; his replies show the folly of the religion of the one and of the philosophy of the other; but still he gives the mind no opinions to rest upon, for the futility of human reason is the conclusion to which all his arguments lead us. He does not allow himself even to repose on those probabilities, with which the academies of old were satisfied, much less would he acknowledge the wisdom of the school men's practice of deciding as well as discussing. The dread of penal inflictions on himself for his indifference as to religion was obviously on the mind of Bayle, when writing most of his dictionary. He occasionally appeals to the Scriptures as if he were a faithful son of the Church; but his religious quotations are introduced so coldly, and with so little power, that the reader is continually reminded of those brief moral sentences which a novelist often thinks it decent should conclude a glowing description of voluptuousness. Bayle was as intimately acquainted with the historians and poets as with the philosophers of antiquity; and perhaps no author quotes with so much propriety. Horace seems to have been his favourite classic, for there was much similarity of taste between them, both being gay, goodhumoured, witty, and elegant. In spite, however, of his intellectual polish, no man's imagination is more riotous