'A Spanish lady gave a large sum of money to found a convent for twelve poor women, whom she chose among pious elderly and necessitous persons. After her death, as the endowment was very liberal, certain gentlemen of the neighbourhood had their young daughters admitted into the foundation, and placed over them a lady-abbess of noble rank: and next they sent away, with a paltry stipend, the old women who remained of the first set, but to whom the bishop of the diocese allotted some other humbler residence. At first, the lady-abbess and her nuns led a very regular life: but, as they had fine and gay relations, who came to see them, and much money to spend, they, after the first year, began to indulge in eating and drinking, in dressing and receiving company, ceased to get up in the night for prayer, and indeed only performed their devotions in the eye of the world.

Thereupon God, remembering the injustice which had been done to his old and faithful servants who had meekly submitted to be dispossessed, called an angel, and said to him, "Go and tell Satan, that I give him leave to tempt the ladies of Villa-nueva, and to expose their evil inclinations." Satan immediately fixed on a trusty messenger, named Rasis, who flew to the place, took the form of an old woman, rang the bell, and inquired for the ladyabbess. When introduced, Rasis said that she was the duenna of three natural daughters of the King of Spain, whom he had by ladies of rank; that she was seeking a place of education for them; and that the King would endow the convent liberally, and would make presents of jewels to all the nuns, if they would take in and be kind to his daughters. The lady-abbess talked with her friends, and agreed to the proposal.

Then Rasis took the form of a young man, and went about the country until he met with three boys of fourteen and fifteen years of age, who were beautiful and fair and girlish in their appearance. Rasis said to them: "I am a rich nobleman, and indeed the King's son, and I am in love with a pretty girl in the convent at Villa-nueva, and I want to get admittance. Now if you three will put on girl's clothes, I will send an old woman with you to place you there as novices; you must have your heads shaved accordingly. If you will go, I will make rich men of you, and stand by you; there will be amusement enough for you in the nunnery; and when you have made friends of the nuns you shall let me in, that I may have my pleasure also." The boys agreed; and he gave them three hundred florins as an earnest, and desired them to follow an old woman whom they would find at such a crucifix.

As soon as they were out of sight, Rasis put on the shape of the duenna again, and went to the lady-abbess, paid her beforehand four thousand dollars, gave rings to the nuns, with other trinkets of great apparent splendour and value, and recommended the young pupils to their benevolence, whom she would now go and bring. Rasis then went for the boys, dressed them in character, told them how to behave, brought them to the convent, desired to have them called by holy names, and that their real condition in the world should not be made known. The

lady

lady-abbess observing that she had not beds enough for her new pensioners, Rasis proposed that they should alternately sleep with one or another of the present inmates, all which was amicably agreed.'

Here we are obliged to omit some details that are adapted only for the simplicity of antient language, and shall merely add that a general pregnancy of the nuns gives occasion to a detection of the fraud; that the people of the neighbourhood rise in a riot of indignation against the convent; that the young men are exposed naked to be stoned; that the bishop interferes; that the lady-abbess is condemned to be burned, and the nuns to be buried alive; and that the foundation is restored to the original proprietors.

In the sixteenth part of the poem, Prudence is one of the interlocutors. We shall extract her speech in the original language:

E ciascheduna, che così comincia,
Porrà imprender, e tenere a mente
Quella dottrina, ch' io Prudenza voglio
Qui dare scritta
lo ben commune ;

per

In altra guisa indarno leggeria
Qualunque donna qui sù lavorasse.
Donna che fatica vuole, ed onor ama,
Con vertù valer brama,

Non con lisciar, o con veste pomposa.
Che ferma cosa

È la prima, se dura,

Ma la seconda ha contraria natura.

La donna, che ben guarda,

Ch'el suo onor non ceda,

È quella ch'è amata dalla gente,
Non quella che sovente

Va gli occhi suo guardando,

E vuol piacere a chi va mal pensando.
Dilettasi la donna, ch'è valente,

In viver nettamente,

E più d'aver la sua anima pura ;
Che parer netta per sua lavatura.
Sta bene a donna d'aver bella veste,
Ed anco tutta la sua ornatura;
Ma non convien, ch' ella passi misura.
S'alcuna donna si desse a savere,

Com'

Com'è gran Donna, Madonna Onestate,
Ben la terria per una dignitate.
Non si conviene alle donne più basse
Usar le veste, e l'altezze, e le spese
Delle maggior, che sono in suo paese.
Poche son quelle, che son conoscenti
Di loro stato, e della grazia, ch'anno ;
Però molte ne vanno

Afflitte, e dolorose, ed anco Iddio
Lor grazia muta, tanto è il vizio rio.
Tal donna crede mal essere avere,
Che se savesse dell' altre lo stato,
Nen piangeria del lato.

Così ancora si crede alcuna

Aver talor nel loco;

poco

Perch'ella non conosce quanto è degna,
Ma di ciò spesso Iddio se ne disdegna.
In ogni donna libertade è ria,

Dunque non dei curare,

Perchè convegni d'altrui ridottare.
Per libertà avere donna non chere,

Sed ella è savia sola dimoranza,
Ch'a gran periglio poi sta la costanza.

La buona donna fa buona magione,
La ria disfa, e distrugge la fatta ;
Così ancor la matta,

Nella cui casa ella vien per isposa.
Ciascuna donna si guardi da quelli,
Che lor parlar comincian da laudarla;
Che fanno ciò per voler ingannarla,
Tu donna godi, se ti lauda alcuno,
Pensa se tu se 'tale,

E puoi conoscer, se ben loda, o male;
Ciò conosciuto possa

Di lui che parla ben saper la mossa.

The reader will be reminded, in this prosing verse, of the drawling allegorical manner of Spenser, which was in a great degree modelled on the diffuse, feeble, mellifluous, all-describing, all-personifying poetry of the Provençal troubadours. Enough and to spare was their motto. Once in a while comes an idle age, a " piping time of peace," and we look back to these writers, not to enjoy them, but only to see which of their performances can now be pared down within readable limits.

Among a variety of writers whose names float no longer on the stream of time, is mentioned at p. 137. Madonna Lisa di Londres. This lady must be some English nun, who wrote in Provençal; and whose compositions, if extant, it would become our antiquaries to examine.

14

Forty

Forty pages of curious, concise, erudite, and well-written notes are appended to the text of this volume, which clear up several of its obscurities and allusions; and from which the antiquary will glean many minute and valuable facts. A history of the Counts of Provence, written by Nostradamus, and printed at Lyons in 1575, also supplies the author with much illustrative matter. Antient usages and manners are often described in the text, and often elucidated in the annotations. A glossary of 111 pages completes the work, and explains with much learned reference the unusual and obsolete words which abound in it. Great praise is due to the unaffected propriety, and to the unassuming soundness, with which the various and difficult duties of an editor have been performed in this publication: it originates, we believe, with one of the librarians at the Vatican.

Perhaps we cannot better and more summarily characterize the poem itself than in the words of Filippo Villani; who, among his lives of illustrious Florentines, has included that of FRANCESCO DA BARBERINO, and thus describes his book:

"Composuit insuper libellum vulgarem perjucundissimum, in quo mulierum mores per earum ordines, gradus et ætates constituit ad doctrinam, qui duæ ætati civilique carum, vel dignitati, secundum verecundiæ modestiam conveniret, ostendit, eique nomen indidit De Regimine Mulierum."

A portrait of the author fronts the title-page :--the letterpress has been carelessly corrected.

ART. VII. Elémens de Mécanique, &c.; i. e. Elements of Mechanics. By J. L. BOUCHARLAT, Professor of transcendental Mathematics in the Military Schools, and Member of the Academical Royal Society of Sciences at Paris. 8vo. pp. 328. Paris. 1815. Imported by De Boffe. Price tos. sewed.

Prior

MECHANICS is a subject which has undergone greater changes than any other of the physical sciences. to the discovery of the fluxional calculus, few problems which related to variable motions, or to forces that did not act in the same plane, could be satisfactorily resolved: but by means of this new instrument, an immediate and important extension was given to the doctrine of mechanics; so that problems, which before resisted the united efforts of all the most celebrated mathematicians, and many others which they dared not consider as falling within the limits of human research, became at once the mere playthings of the experienced analyst and the most simple exercises to the APP. REV. VOL. LXXXI. student.

M m

student. Still, however, every distinct problem rested on its own data, and the solution of it was obtained by a regular concatenation deduced from the first principles of the fluxional analysis; by which means, although the correct result was ultimately obtained, the same steps were to be taken again and again, and the operations were rendered very frequently prolix and embarrassing. It was therefore another very important improvement in this science, when the happy idea suggested itself of putting all the fundamental principles of mechanics into the form of general equations: since thus all the previous processes to which we have above alluded were rendered unnecessary, and the solution of every new problem was obtained by particular substitutions in the general formulæ to which it was related.

This generalization is still but partially adopted in our country; and, as it is always supposed by the most celebrated French authors on this subject to be already known, the English reader of their works finds considerable difficulty in following the steps of these great masters: so that he is often thus induced to relinquish a study which presents so many apparent obstacles to his progress. Yet, if the first principles were but previously understood, or if any elementary treatise could be consulted in which they were clearly and satisfactorily illustrated, all or at least the greater part of these difficulties would vanish, the course of the student would be facilitated, and his ultimate success would be rendered probable if not absolutely certain. M. BOUCHARLAT'S Elémens de Mécanique seem well calculated to convey this preliminary information, as he has omitted no step that is necessary to render all the several processes clear and intelligible; and we think that any student must be very dull, who does not readily and easily comprehend the several investigations and deductions presented to him in the volume before us. It may be considered as a continuation of the same author's " Traité Elémentaire de Calcul Différentiel," of which our report will be found at p. 496. vol. lxxvii. N. S.; the plan is similar; and the execution is nearly in the same style in both treatises.

The work commences, as usual, with preliminary remarks and definitions; after which follows the chapter on the composition and resolution of forces applied to a point; 2dly, of forces applied to the same point, and situated in the same plane; and 3dly, of forces acting on the same point, but not in the same plane. The author's method of demonstrating what is commonly called the parallelogram of forces is due, as he informs us, to M. Duchay; and, as it may probably be new to many of our readers, we will endeavour to explain

the