The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 14, No. 395, October 24, 1829

Boat-racing, taming wild elephants, and boxing-matches, are said to be the chief amusements of the king and the people. Mr. Crawfurd saw all these, and he tells us that in the last of them the populace formed a ring with as much regularity as if they had been true-born Englishmen, and preserved it with much greater regularity than is usually witnessed here—thanks to the assistance of the constables with their long staves. While these official persons were duly exercising their authority, the same good-natured monarch, who roasted his prime minister in the sun, frequently called out, "Don't hurt them—don't prevent them from looking on."

OPIUM EATING

Mr. Madden, in his recent

Travels in Turkey

, having determined to experience the effects of that pestilent practice of eating opium, which is so common in Turkey, he repaired to the market of Theriaki Tchachissy, where he seated himself among the persons who were in the habit of resorting thither for the purpose of enjoying (?) this fatal pleasure. His description of those victims to sensuality is very striking, and is enough to cure any man of common sense of wishing to become an opium eater.

"Their gestures were frightful; those who were completely under the influence of the opium talked incoherently, their features were flushed, their eyes had an unnatural brilliancy, and the general expression of their countenances was horribly wild. The effect is usually produced in two hours, and lasts four or five; the dose varies from three grains to a drachm. I saw one old man take four pills, of six grains each, in the course of two hours; I was told he had been using opium for five-and-twenty years; but this is a very rare example of an opium eater passing thirty years of age, if he commence the practice early. The debility, both moral and physical, attendant on its excitement, is terrible; the appetite is soon destroyed, every fibre in the body trembles, the nerves of the neck become affected, and the muscles get rigid; several of these I have seen, in this place, at various times, who had wry necks and contracted fingers; but still they cannot abandon the custom; they are miserable till the hour arrives for taking their daily dose; and when its delightful influence begins, they are all fire and animation. Some of them compose excellent verses, and others addressed the bystanders in the most eloquent discourses, imagining themselves to be emperors, and to have all the harems in the world at their command. I commenced with one grain; in the course of an hour and a half it produced no perceptible effect, the coffee-house keeper was very anxious to give me an additional pill of two grains, but I was contented with half a one; and another half hour, feeling nothing of the expected reverie, I took half a grain more, making in all two grains in the course of two hours. After two hours and a half from the first dose, I took two grains more; and shortly after this dose, my spirits became sensibly excited; the pleasure of the sensation seemed to depend on a universal expansion of mind and matter. My faculties appeared enlarged; every thing I looked on seemed increased in volume; I had no longer the same pleasure when I closed my eyes which I had when they were open; it appeared to me as if it was only external objects, which were acted on by the imagination, and magnified into images of pleasure; in short, it was 'the faint exquisite music of a dream' in a waking moment. I made my way home as fast as possible, dreading, at every step, that I should commit some extravagance. In walking, I was hardly sensible of my feet touching the ground, it seemed as if I slid along the street, impelled by some invisible agent, and that my blood was composed of some ethereal fluid, which rendered my body lighter than air. I got to bed the moment I reached home. The most extraordinary visions of delight filled my brain all night. In the morning I rose, pale and dispirited; my head ached; my body was so debilitated that I was obliged to remain on the sofa all the day, dearly paying for my first essay at opium eating."

Old Poets

FRIENDSHIP

I had a friend that lov'd me;

I was his soul; he liv'd not but in me;

We were so close within each other's breast,

The rivets were not found that join'd us first.

That does not reach us yet; we were so mix'd,

As meeting streams, both to ourselves were lost.

We were one mass, we could not give or take,

But from the same: for He was I; I He;

Return my better half, and give me all myself,

For thou art all!

If I have any joy when thou art absent,

I grudge it to myself; methinks I rob

Thee of thy part.

DRYDEN

MARRIAGE

As good and wise; so she be fit for me,

That is, to will, and not to will the same;

My wife is my adopted self, and she

As me, to what I love, to love must frame.

And when by marriage both in one concur,

Woman converts to man, not man to her.

SIR T. OVERBURY

What do you think of marriage?

I take't, as those that deny purgatory;

It locally contains or heaven or hell;

There's no third place in it.

WEBSTER

GENTILITY

Nor stand so much on your gentility,

Which is an airy, and mere borrow'd thing,

From dead men's dust and bones; and none of yours,

Except you make, or hold it.

BEN JONSON

HEAVEN

Heav'n is a great way off, and I shall be

Ten thousand years in travel, yet 'twere happy

If I may find a lodging there at last,

Though my poor soul get thither upon crutches.

SHIRLEY

COURT FAVOUR

Dazzled with the height of place,

While our hopes our wits beguile,

No man marks the narrow space

Between a prison and a smile.

Then since fortune's favours fade,

You that in her arms do sleep,

Learn to swim and not to wade,

For the hearts of kings are deep.

But if greatness be so blind,

As to trust in tow'rs of air,

Let it be with goodness joyn'd,

That at least the fall be fair.

LORD BACON

HONESTY

An honest soul is like a ship at sea,

That sleeps at anchor upon the occasion's calm;

But when it rages, and the wind blows high,

She cuts her way with skill and majesty.

BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER

SOLITUDE

O sweet woods, the delight of solitariness!

O how much do I like your solitariness!

Here nor reason is hid, vailed in innocence,

Nor envy's snaky eye, finds any harbour here.

Nor flatterer's venomous insinuations.

Nor coming humourist's puddled opinions,

Nor courteous ruin of proffer'd usury,

Nor time prattled away, cradle of ignorance,

Nor causeless duty, nor cumber of arrogance,

Nor trifling titles of vanity dazzleth us,

Nor golden manacles stand for a paradise.

Here wrong's name is unheard; slander a monster is,

Keep thy sprite from abuse, here no abuse doth haunt,

W