The vow of Moses refers to his forty days' fast; the four
temperaments--the bile, the atrabile, phlegm, and blood--are
represented in the Arabian system of physics by the four elements,
which are considered to be connected with them; the figures refer to
the numerical power of the _abjad_, or alphabet; and the enigma itself
has been attributed, though on uncertain grounds, to Ali, the
son-in-law of the prophet.'
'THE SUCCESSFUL MERCHANT.'
Under this title has lately been produced a novelty in our literature,
the memoirs of an eminent commercial man.[2] Samuel Budgett died in
May 1851, at the age of fifty-seven. Though starting in life without
capital or credit, he had, by the sheer exercise of his own innate
qualities, risen to the head of one of the most colossal _concerns_ in
England. Had he been merely a clever bargainer, and a skilful
organiser of business arrangements, there might have been some value
in his memoirs, as a guidance to young mercantile aspirants; but
Budgett was something more than all this, and his biography serves the
far higher purpose of shewing how a man may be at once a most adroit
merchandiser, and a man of liberal practice, and a true lover of his
kind.
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