the whole, that experience has every where led men to a rude adjustment in kind and quality of the forms of nutritive matter essential to supply their wants; but still more distinct and definite seems the fact of a providential adjustment to the wants of animals in the natural composition of the eatable parts of plants.

If the resort to vegetable food be chiefly for the sake of gluten, the resort to animal subsistence is made for the sake of an analogous substance or principle,-fibrine: the starch of the first-nay, the fat of the second-being of much less importance in nutrition, and, indeed, deriving any importance they possess from processes of chemical conversion, whilst gluten and fibrine directly build up the living frame by assimilation. The unprofitable starch of arrowroot, (maranta arundinacea,) sago, tapioca, and cassava, (both these last from manihot utilissima,) owes its beneficial influence to association with albumen. Starch for its own sake we never but once happen to have heard of any one having consumed; and that was under the spell of delusion, if not of drink; being in the case of a north countryman who had returned home at night steeped in liquor, and had awoke in a raging fever of thirst, some time after having tumbled into bed. Searching for something wherewith to appease his torment, in the dark he stumbled upon a capacious bowl, as he supposed, of milk, exposed upon the kitchen table, and swallowed down its contents at a gulp. Satiated and solaced with this cooling libation, he even essayed luxuriously to anoint his gallant whiskers with what his idle fancy whispered to be the sole remaining relics of the cream. Returning to bed, the unfortunate wight fell comfortably enough asleep; but, alas! in the morning,-O! horror, he awoke with a strange stiffening sensation about the throat. Incautiously raising his hands to the seat of the disorder, terror and dismay appeared to disclose to him the appalling fact that he was lying, in all probability, with his windpipe severed, in a cold, viscous, glary cement of his own blood, the last frail tenure that withheld the vital spark being some mysterious coating of the sanguineous fluid. In this agonizing conviction, he dared not move, convinced that the moment in which he attempted it would prove his last. Relief at length reached him from an unexpected source. The good lady of the house arrived upon the scene full of querulous complaint respecting some over-night depredation committed on a bowl of genuine Glenfield Patent, wherewith the good woman had purposed approving herself the wife of her husband's bosom, by imparting to it that exquisite gloss and elastic finish which we read of in the advertisements, as certified by the laundresses of the Queen and the Lady Lieutenant, and Mrs. William Chambers of Glenormiston. To the intense astonishment of his spouse, the bedrid bacchanal bounded gaily

from his lair, exulting that he "had drunk it." A weight had fallen from his spirit, and, though starched down by the whiskers to the pillow, he contrived to rend his way from this nightmare of capillary attraction. Yet we never learned that his deglutition of starch did him any good whatever.

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With fat it is much the same. "This fat," says Johnston,

to a certain extent, represents and replaces the starch in vegetable food." What is worse, the doctors recommend the one, but Dr. Granville and the water doctors of the Brunnens all forbid the other, to dyspeptics. Still, do not, gentle reader, we beseech thee, do not mistake us: we despise not fat: fat has its uses. Professor Johnston tells us, "that those varieties of animal food are most esteemed, in which a considerable proportion of fat is present:" and this is, indeed, perfectly true. The whole question, we are afraid, will come to the following issue: Are we henceforth to consult our appetites and inclinations, or to take the dicta of chemical science for our future guidance in the economy of human life? Science will, perhaps, tell us to glut ourselves with gluten :—would that be agreeable? Perhaps to build up our bodies systematically with fibrine: would that be genteel? The proverb lays down an injunction against the use of strong meat for babes, which convinces us that the regimen of strict science will not suit an enormous mass of grown-up babies constituting the people of this world. Circumstances and opportunities, strong will and inveterate custom, conspire to prescribe variations of routine; but, happily, although these appear to conflict with the dicta of science, the penetrating eye of inquiry has always, somehow or other, detected the rule of science in almost every seeming exception and deviation; or, rather, so reconcileable are these discrepancies, that the exception literally becomes the rule. Were it not so, it would be difficult, indeed impossible, to conceive why men should resort to the many strange devices of infusing beverages, extracting sweets, and fermenting liquors, indulging in narcotics, and enjoying odours, of all which social phenomena Professor Johnston has treated in sequence due. Viewed singly, or in the tout ensemble, these are really strange singularities in the habitudes of man. One grand and striking feature in them points to a single and justificatory law, the law of adoption; for this feature is their prevalence, their universality. Although research, therefore, may unfold many specialties and details which are peculiar, nay, even facetious, science is yet able to place, for the most whimsical general observance, some satisfactory reason upon record.

We might, it is true, have passed onwards to discuss still more singular items included in Professor Johnston's chapters of Chemical Research. We might have set ourselves to trace, with him, the rule or impulse which leads man, after providing

for his first necessities, to devise the means of indulgence, the processes of refinement, the delights of pleasure. Nay, we might have proceeded to contemplate those strange revolting instances of depraved human habitude, which render custom superior to nature, and enable men to devour earths and women poisons (as in the case of the love-arsenic of Styria) with impunity. Not less amazing should we have found the chemist's revelations regarding narcotics, odours, and even offensive smells, some of which seem to form the most fearful weapons of personal and public malignity; as, a grain of metallic tellurium, administered to a healthy man, will make his neighbourhood intolerable for weeks-nay, months-to come; and as Chinese stink-pots of war, and the boulet asphyxiant, with which we are threatened by the Russians should we attack Cronstadt, and which the French are reported, on one occasion, to have tried experimentally with fearful effect at Sebastopol. Much rather, however, would we, in a discussion "on man, on nature, and on human life," confine ourselves to common things and common concernments. Sitting down with Dr. Bernays, we are best pleased to hear him discourse upon the chemistry of the breakfast-table, commencing with the table-cloth and unfolding its natural history and economy. To us truths appear invariably the most striking, the nearer they are found to the surface, and not to the bottom of the well.

ART. VII.-1. The History of the Protestants of France, from the Commencement of the Reformation to the present Time. Translated from the French of G. DE FELICE, D.D., Professor of Theology at Montauban. In Two Vols. London: Longmans. 1853.

2. The History of the French Protestant Refugees, from the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes to the present Time. By CHARLES WEISS, Professor of History at the Lycée Buonaparte. Edinburgh and London: Blackwood and Sons. 1854.

WE gladly welcome the appearance, in an English dress, of these works on a very interesting period of French history. The scope and intention of their authors are widely different. Dr. Félice's History is an account of the inner life of the Reformed in France; so much only of the political history of the period being introduced, as is necessarily involved in its course. Professor Weiss's Lectures follow the Huguenot Refugees, after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, in their residence among the various States of Europe, and on the

Introduction of Reformed Doctrines into France.

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continent of America. The History is a plain, straightforward narrative of facts; and although it may not throw new light upon the period of which it treats, it is the first work which has professed to contain a continuous history of the Reformed in France, and it has attained great popularity among the author's countrymen. The Lectures have struck out a new path, and give evidence of considerable research and ability, which have been rewarded by the Medal of the Academy of Moral and Political Science, and the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour. Both pre-eminently exhibit the French spirit in their different points of view,-the former being written from the religious, the latter from the political, aspect; and in each something more is demanded by the national vanity than an impartial tribunal would concede. But the one proves that the world is more indebted than is generally known, to his countrymen, for their industry and ability in science and the arts; whilst the other describes a series of unparalleled persecutions borne with unflinching heroism.

From the time of Francis I. to the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV., the history of the Huguenots is almost the history of France, and involves all the intricacies and difficulties of that very complex period. In the intrigues of the Court, in the meetings of the States-General, in the feuds of the great houses, in the various civil wars, religious differences not only form an important item, but were generally the main subject of controversy. They were the occasion of the Catholic League; they were the cause of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew; they influenced the policy of Richelieu, and were mingled in the wars of the Fronde; their leaders negotiated with foreign powers, and the whole policy of Europe was powerfully affected by their position; they waged wars, made treaties, and possessed material guarantees for their accomplishment; while their position was so continually shifting, and their prospects so subject to change, that we need a thread to guide us through the maze of such varied circumstances. Of all modern history, that of France is at once the richest, and in this country the least understood; and of all French history, no period requires more illustration than the times of the wars of religion.

Meaux was the first city in France in which the Reformed doctrines were publicly preached, in 1521, the year in which Luther appeared before the Diet of Worms. The leaders of the movement were Lefèvre and Farel, both eminent for their learning and piety; and in Briçonnet, Bishop of Meaux, they found an important ally. This nobleman had been the Ambassador of Francis I. to the Court of the Holy See; and, disgusted with what he there saw of the Papacy, had endeavoured, on his return, to reduce his diocese to order, and to enforce the

residence of the Clergy. Their reply was a law-suit against him before the Metropolitan. He then collected around him the most eminent of the Reformed, and each in turn preached the new doctrines; and, wishing to base their teaching on the sole authority appealed to by the Reformation, they published the Four Gospels in French. Their effect was at once prodigious; every body took to reading them. There followed a marked improvement in their daily life, and a reformation in manners; and they forsook the intercession of the saints for the alone mediation of the Saviour.

These proceedings attracted first the attention, and then the indignation, of the Sorbonne, which, infuriated by the ridicule of Melanchthon, used all its influence to oppose the new opinions. Their views were furthered by the policy then prevalent at Court; for Louisa of Savoy, the Regent during her son's imprisonment at Madrid, was a bitter opponent of the Reformed; and as the Pope's aid was required in the Italian wars, a violent persecution was resolved on.

Dr. Félice here remarks, that this first and the succeeding persecutions are to be attributed to the Italians rather than to the French. But surely we cannot acknowledge this defence of his countrymen at the expense of their Italian coadjutors. The Doctor's nationality seems to have strangely blinded him to the real state of the case. Neither French Kings, Princes, nor nobles showed any reluctance in planning and carrying out designs for the extirpation of the Calvinists. It is not the spirit of Italy, but of Popery, that must bear the blame.

The reign of Francis I. was not a period of unmixed persecution, and the treatment of the Reformed varied with the caprice of the Monarch. Briçonnet yielded to the first storm, though it is not known how far he abjured. But the party had a steadier and more powerful supporter in the King's sister, Margaret of Valois. But this reign closed darkly with the Crusade against the Vaudois of Provence. The simplicity and industry of this people might have pleaded in their favour; but their prosperity inflamed the cupidity, as their tenets did the anger, of the Priests, through whose influence an edict of extermination was passed against them by the Parliament of Aix; and after some delay the King, in an evil hour, consented to its execution.

The heart sickens at the narration of the cruelties inflicted upon this unhappy people. At Mérindol a poor idiot alone survived, who had promised a soldier two crowns as his ransom : D'Oppède, the General, flung the money to his captor, and then shot him with his own hand. At Chabrières the men surrendered on promise of their lives, and were then murdered as they came out unarmed. The women were confined in a barn, which was set on fire, and they were thrust back upon the flames at the point of the halberts. The churches were stained