bishop of Meaux was consulted on the propriety of its publication. He disapproved of it, and was of opinion it ought to be suppresed. With this opinion the king was not quite satisfied, and sent it to the college of Sorbonne for the decision of the faculty there. They pronounced the same sentence upon the sycophantic and blasphemous performance as the bishop had done. It was accordingly suppressed.

-

Gallantry.

Formerly when a lady was bled in Spain, her lover purchased of the surgeon, at a high price, bandages or any cloth on which the blood had fallen.

Intoxication.

In the seventeenth century, intoxication was regarded in so odious a point of light in Spain, that if one person accused another of it, nothing less than the slanderer's life would satisfy the party traduced. And "a man who was proved to have been but once drunk, was for life incapacitated from appearing as a witness in a court of justice."

Beauties of poetry.

There is now before me a work announced in London for sale, so late as 1806, by Longman, Hurst, Rees and Orme, of which the title is "A select collection of epitaphs and monumental inscriptions," from which I venture to make a few extracts for the edification of serious, and amusement of merry readers, not doubting but both descriptions will be struck with admiration at the sublimity of the respective writers, and the very refined taste of the collector.

St. Dunstan's, Stepney.

Here lies the body of Daniel Saul,
Spittlefield's weaver-and that's all.

In St. Giles, in the Fields.

Full south this stone four foot, doth lie,
His father John, and grandsire Henry
Thornton, of Thornton in Yorkshire bred,
Where lives the fame of Thornton being dead.

On Thomas Huddlestone.

Here lies Thomas Huddlestone. Reader, dont smile,
But reflect while this tombstone you view,

That Death, who kill'd him, in a very short while
Will huddle a stone upon you.

In Wrexham Church-yard.

Here lies interr'd beneath these stones,
The beard, the flesh, and eke the bones,
Of Wrexham clerk, old David Jones.

66

In Grantham Church-yard.
John Palfryman, which lieth here,
Was aged twenty-four year;
And near this place his mother lies;
Also his father-when he dies.

In Biddeford Church-yard, Devon.
The wedding-day appointed was,
And wedding clothes provided;
Before the nuptial day, alas!

He sicken'd-and he die did.

If these elegant extracts in verse," do not convince the reader of the utility and excellence of this work, I am fearful I should be totally unsuccessful were I to quote half the book: and therefore I shall close with the sublime lesson conveyed in the last line, on the transitoriness of all sublunary things, so strikingly illustrated in the hasty movements of this young man, who would not wait even till the nuptial day to have the pleasure of putting on his wedding clothes, but “die did," "alas! before," that blissful period arrived.

Improvement of the English language.

The improvements which are daily ushered to the world in our vernacular tongue afford reason to hope that it must soon arrive at the acmé of perfection. With a great many of our wise folk, the old, absurd word forget is given over to oblivion, and the sonorous and elegant word dis-remember has completely taken its place. Ask one of these men any question to which he cannot return a ready answer, and he informs you that he dis-remembers.

Another announces that he has a large track of land for sale, which he will be glad to dispose of on very reasonable terms.

Another states in a gazette, that Mrs. A. B. the relic of Mr. T. B. has been married to Mr. C. D.

There are several, who calculate time as they calculate their cashperhaps in consequence of the adage of Poor Richard-Time is money. One of these persons tells his friend, he has no doubt of returning home in the value of a week, or a month.

A worthy friend of mine, when settling accounts which correspond ed exactly, was accustomed to rejoice that they had clashed so well together.

But the most excellent of the whole list is the word allow. An orator, after expatiating largely upon a subject, with very great confidence, gravely informs his auditors, that it is a subject of which he allows himself to be a competent judge. He deems it quite unnecessary to make any inquiry whether or not other people be willing to allow his claim.

Unexampled liberality.

The whole history of the world cannot, or I am much deceived, produce an instance of liberality which will bear comparison with what I am going to narrate.

By the last treaty of peace between Russia and Turkey, concluded anno 1792, it was stipulated that the Ottoman Porte was to pay Catharine II the enormous sum of twelve millions of piastres, as an indemnification for the expenses of the war. When the ratifications were exchanged, Bezborodko, the Russian plenipotentiary, signified to the Turkish minister, that he had orders from his sovereign to renounce the claim to that payment, which he did accordingly, and directly gave an acquittance in full for this immense sum of money.

When I call this an act of "unexampled liberality," I am well aware that monarchs have sometimes bestowed on their minions, in a sudden fit of what they called generosity, money and estates to perhaps an equal amount. But these cases I do not consider as exceptions. They are merely instances of prodigality and vitious extravagance.

Vanity and folly.

"For every fool finds reason to be proud,

Though hissed and hooted by the pointing crowd."

In regarding human nature attentively, and examining its follies and weaknesses, I know of none more general, more absurd, or more inconvenient in its consequences, than that morbid sensibility, which makes us resent as an affront or insult the slightest hint at any of our defects or imperfections, even when made with the most friendly view. It would appear as if we supposed that those who take the pains to admonish us of any of our follies or vices, actually created them. We every day meet with men highly respectable, who have defects in their manners, in their address, or their conduct, which they have borne with them probably from their early days, and which have grown with their growth, and have constantly subjected them to ridicule even among their friends, and worse than ridicule among others.

Yet from the morbid sensibility I have stated, on the one hand, or a very erroneous idea of politeness on the other, no person dares to draw their attention to the disease, or to point out a remedy.

Let me, reader, draw you a portrait. It is, if I err not, a likeness of a large portion of mankind-probably of you, and full as probably of myself who undertake to write a lecture on the subject. Behold that person, sumptuously attired, proceeding to a ball-room, to display himself to the best advantage. Unfortunately there is upon his arm a piece of ordure, equally offensive to the eye and to the olfactory nerves of those whom he encounters. It is so conspicuously placed, that it cannot escape the attention of the most cursory examiner. A friend perhaps advances, takes off his hat, bows, and is about to advise him to remove the filth. Instead of returning him thanks for his kindness, he flies into a passion-repels his friend-and perhaps repays him with as much undeserved insult, as if, instead of wishing the removal of the offensive matter, he had actually thrown it upon his arm.

This is, you will doubtless say, ridiculous-truly ridiculous. Yet it is man's every day habit. Few of us can boast an exemption. The blemishes which we are all afflicted with, are the ordure-and not on our clothes, but on our characters and conduct, of infinitely more importance. Yet we frighten away every person who would kindly help us to remove the odious incumbrance. What folly! what madness!

Some of the most envenomed animosities that I have ever known, have arisen from friendly advices, obtruded on persons whose follies were a town-talk, and known to all the world but themselves.

A dreary wilderness.

Hearne, who was employed nearly forty years ago to travel in search of a water communication between the English settlements at Baffin's Bay, and the Pacific Ocean, travelled from the sixth of November 1770, till the twenty-second of January 1771, seventy-seven days, and several hundred miles, without meeting a human being! During his journey, he was several times obliged to fast two days and two nightstwice upwards of three days-and once nearly seven days, during which he and his companions tasted nothing but a few cranberries, scraps of old leather, burned bones, and water. When the Indians, he says, are in this extremity, they sacrifice such parts of their leather dress as they can best spare.

A sailor's life's a life of wo.”

In a parish in Norway, on the sea coast, for forty years there did not die above ten grown men. The rest, mostly fishermen and pilots, were drowned.

A magnificent road.

Garcilasso de la Vega, in his royal commentaries, gives an account of the noblest road upon record. He states it as extending the whole length of Peru, not far short of two thousand miles in length, and twenty-five in breadth. It is perfectly straight and level throughout, although its course is over prodigious rocks and mountains, and immense vallies. The two former were cut through, and the latter filled up. It had been executed many hundred years before his time, and was still in an excellent state of preservation.

High prices.

The author to whom I referred in the last passage, says that in 1557, an ass sold in Cuzco, for four hundred ducats-in 1554, a goat for one hundred ducats-and a sow and pig for sixteen hundred pieces of eight. How highly would our farmers be delighted with such markets!

Cogent and benevolent reasons of state.

The civilized parts of the world sometimes believe that in the crooked paths of state policy they have no rivals among the savages. This is a most egregious error. I state a case in full proof. Captain Vancouver, in his voyage round the world, states that the king of Otaheite, meditating the conquest of the neighbouring islands, informed him that it was highly necessary for the comfort and happiness of the people at large, that over the whole group of islands there should be but one soveriegn. How humane, how benevolent! Could Louis XIV, before he ravaged the Palatinate, Catharine II, before the capture of Ismail, or Frederic, previous to the seizure of Silesia, have devised a more unanswerable justification of their conduct!

Another hero-with a sound argument.

Genghiscan, who is said to have destroyed four millions of men, being about to make an irruption into China, published a manifesto, in which he condescended to acquaint the world with his motives. His principal plea was the injuries inflicted upon his ancestors by the Chinese!