Thus whether the custom of salutation is practised by kissing the hands of others from respect, or in bringing one's own to the mouth, it is of all other customs the most universal. Mr. Morin concludes, that this practice is now become too gross a familiarity, and it is considered as a meanness to kiss the hand of those with whom we are in habits of intercourse; and he prettily observes that this custom would be entirely lost, if lovers were not solicitous to preserve it in all its full power.

POPES.

VALOIS observes that the Popes scrupulously followed, in the early ages of the church, the custom of placing their names after that of the person whom they addressed in their letters. This mark of their humility he proves by letters written by various Popes. Thus when the great projects of politics were yet unknown to them, did they adhere to Christian meekness. There came at length the day when one of the Popes, whose name does not occur to me, said that "it was safer to quarrel with a Prince than with a Friar." Henry VI, being at the feet of Pope Celestine, his holiness thought proper to kick the crown off his head; which ludicrous and disgraceful action, Baronius has highly praised. Jortin observes on this great Cardinal, and advocate of the Roman*. See, that he breathes nothing but fire and brim

stone; and accounts kings and emperors to be mere catchpoles and constables, bound to execute with implicit faith all the commands of insolent Ecclesiastics. Bellarmin was made a cardinal for his efforts and devotion to the Papal cause, and maintaining this monstrous paradox,—that if the Pope forbid the exercise of virtue, and command that of vice, the Roman church under pain of a sin, was obliged to abandon, virtue for vice, if it would not sin against conscience!

It was Nicholas I, a bold and enterprising Pope, who, in 858, forgetting the pious modesty of his predecessors, took advantage of the divisions in the royal families of France, and did not hesitate to place his name before that of the kings and emperors of the house of France, to whom he wrote. Since that time he has been imitated by all his successors, and this incroachment on the honours of monarchy has passed into a custom from having been suffered in its commencement.

Concerning the acknowledged infallibility of the Popes, it appears that Gregory VII. in council, decreed that the church of Rome neither had erred, and never should err. It was thus this prerogative of his holiness became received, till 1313, when John XXII. abrogated decrees made by three Popes his predecessors, and declared that what was done amiss by one Pope or Council might be corrected by another; and Gregory XI. 1370, in his will

deprecates, si quid in catholica fide errasset. The University of Vienna protested against it, calling it a contempt of God, and an idolatry, if any one in matters of faith should appeal from a council to the Pope; that is, from God who presides in councils, to Man. But the infallibility was at length established by Leo. X, especially after Luther's opposition, because they despaired of defending their indulgences, bulls, &c. by any other method.

Imagination cannot form a scene more dreadful than when these men were in full power, and to serve their political purposes hurled the thunders of their excommunications over a kingdom. It was a national distress not inferior to a plague or famine, and an excellent lesson for those who seem not to know how far the human mind can be debased with despotic superstition. De Saint Foix, in his Historical Essays, has sketched an animated description of a kingdom under a Papal excommuni

cation.

Philip Augustus being desirous of divorcing Ingelburg, to unite himself to Agnes de Meranie, the Pope put his kingdom under an interdict. The churches were shut during the space of eight months; they said neither mass nor vespers; they did not marry; and even the offspring of the married born at this unhappy period were considered as illicit: and because the king would not sleep with his wife, it was not permitted to any of his

subjects to sleep with their's! In that year France was threatened with an extinction of the ordinary generation. A man under this curse of public penance was divested of all his functions, civil, military, and matrimonial; he was not allowed to dress his hair, to shave, to bathe, nor even change his linen, so that (says Mr. De Saint Foix) upon the whole this made a filthy penitent. The good King Robert (he continues) incurred the censures of the church for having married his cousin. He was immediately abandoned. Two faithful domestics alone remained with him, and these always passed through the fire whatever he touched. In a word, the horror which an excommunication occasioned was such, that a woman of pleasure, with whom one Peletier had passed some moments, having learnt soon afterwards that he had been above six months an excommunicated person fell into a panic, and with great difficulty recovered from her convulsions.

LITERARY COMPOSITION.

To literary composition we may apply the saying of an ancient philosopher; a little thing gives perfection, although perfection is not a little thing.

The great legislator of the Hebrews orders to pull off the fruit for the first three years and not to taste them. Levit. xix. ver. 23. He was not ignorant how it weakens a young tree to bring to

maturity its first fruits. Thus, on literary compositions, our green essays ought to be picked away. Indeed, the word Zamar, by a beautiful metaphor from pruning trees, means in Hebrew, to compose verses. Blotting and correcting was so much Churchill's abhorrence, that he once compared it by energetically saying, that it was like cutting away one's own flesh. This strong figure sufficiently shews his repugnance to a necessary duty. He is now neglected, for posterity only will respect those who

I have heard that this careless bard, after a successful work, usually precipitated the publication of another, relying on its crudeness being past over on the public curiosity excited by its better brother. He called this getting double pay; for thus he secured the sale of a hurried work. But Churchill was a spend-thrift of fame, and enjoyed all his revenue while he lived; posterity owes him little.

Bayle, an experienced observer in literary matters, tells us, that correction is by no means practicable by some authors; this he instances in the case of Ovid. In exile, his compositions were nothing more than spiritless repetitions of what he had formerly written. He confesses both negligence