uncertain whether I think him an | for the purpose of abating a nuisimpostor or not; posture-making, ance. coaxing, and imploring me. 'See what sensibility I have-own now that I'm very clever-do cry now, you can't resist this.' The humour of Swift and Rabelais, whom he pretended to succeed, poured from them as naturally as song does from a bird; they lose no manly dignity with it, but laugh their hearty great laugh out of their broad chests as nature bade them. But this man -who can make you laugh, who can make you cry, too-never lets his reader alone, or will permit his audience repose; when you are quiet, he fancies he must rouse you, and turns over head and heels, or sidles up, and whispers a nasty story. The man is a great jester, not a great humourist. He goes to work systematically and of cold blood; paints his face, puts on his ruff and motley clothes, and lays down his carpet and tumbles on it.' "" GOLDSMITH'S PLAYFULNESS. The younger Colman relates the following anecdote of Goldsmith's playfulness with children :— "At length a generous friend appeared to extricate me from jeopardy, and that generous friend was no other than the man I had so wantonly molested by assault and battery-it was the tender-hearted Doctor himself, with a lighted candle in his hand, and a smile upon his countenance, which was still partially red from the effects of my petulance. I skulked and sobbed as he fondled and soothed, till I began to brighten. Goldsmith seized the propitious moment of returning good-humour, when he put down the candle, and began to conjure. He placed three hats, which happened to be in the room, and a shilling under each. The shillings he told me were England, France, and Spain. 'Hey presto cockalorum!' cried the Doctor, and lo, on uncovering the shillings, which had been dispersed each beneath a separate hat, they were all found congregated under one. I was no politician at five years old, and therefore might not have wondered at the sudden revolution which brought England, France, and Spain all under one crown: but, as also I was no conjuror, it amazed me beyond measure. From that time, whenever the Doctor came to visit my father, 'I plucked his gown to share the good man's smile: a game at romps constantly ensued, and we were always cordial friends and merry playfellows. Our unequal "I was only five years old," he says, "when Goldsmith took me on his knee one evening whilst he was drinking coffee with my father, and began to play with me, which amiable act I returned, with the ingratitude of a peevish brat, by giving him a very smart slap on the face; it must have been a tingler, for it left the marks of my spiteful paw companionship_varied somewhat on his cheek. This infantile out- as to sports as I grew older; but it rage was followed by summary jus- did not last long; my senior playtice, and I was locked up by my in- mate died in his forty-fifth year, dignant father in an adjoining room when I had attained my eleventh. to undergo solitary imprisonment. . . in the dark. Here I began to howl and scream most abominably, which was no bad step towards my liberation, since those who were not inclined to pity me might be likely to set me free In all the numerous accounts of his virtues and foibles, his genius and absurdities, his knowledge of nature and ignorance of the world, his 'compassion for another's woe' was always predominant; and my trivial story of his DECIMALS. but as a feather in the recorded scale of his benevolence." STERNE'S DEATH. 249 humouring a froward child weighs | plied he, "I have just now had the best thing said to me I ever heard. I was complaining in a company, where I spent the morning, that I was very ill-treated by the world, and that the censures put upon me were hard and unreasonable; that I had written many volumes, throughout the whole of which there were but a few pages that contained any reprehensible matter, and yet, that for those few pages I was abused and torn to pieces. You put me in mind,' said an honest fellow in the company, 'of an acquaintance of mine, a notary-public, who, having been condemned to be hanged for forgery, lamented the hardships of his case; that, after having written many thousand inoffensive sheets, he should be hanged for one line." There is one passage in Sterne which the circumstances of his death render pathetic. A believer in the doctrine of presentiment would think it a prop to his theory. It is as striking as Swift's digression on madness, in the Tale of a Tub. "Was I in a condition to stipulate with death, I should certainly declare against submitting to it before my friends; and, therefore, I never seriously think upon the mode and manner of this great catastrophe, which generally takes up and torments my thoughts as much as the catastrophe itself; but I constantly draw the curtain across it with this wish, that the Disposer of all things may so order it, that it happen not to me in my own house but rather in some decent inn. At home-I It being reported that Lady know it-the concern of my friends, Caroline Lamb had, in a moment and the last services of wiping my of passion, knocked down one of brows and smoothing my pillow, her pages with a stool, the poet will so crucify my soul, that I shall Moore, to whom this was told by die of a distemper which my phy- Lord Strangford, observed, "0! sician is not aware of; but in an nothing is more natural for a literinn, the few cold offices I wanted ary lady than to double down a would be purchased with a few page." "I would rather," replied guineas, and paid me with an un-his lordship, "advise Lady Caroline disturbed but punctual attention." to turn over a new leaf." It is known that Sterne died in hired lodgings, and I have been told that his attendants robbed him even of his gold sleeve-buttons while he was expiring. —(Ferriar's Illust.) DAVID HUME. DOUBLING DOWN A PAGE, AND TURN ING OVER A NEW LEAF. DECIMALS. It is at first sight surprising, that in the progression of numbers, and in calculation, the number of ten, and the decimal progression, should have been preferred to all others. The cause of this preferLord Charlemont relates the fol-ence is, that it corresponds with lowing anecdote of Hume, illustrating his generous appreciation of the talent of his opponents:-One day that he visited me in London, he came into my room laughing, and apparently well pleased. "What has put you into this good humour, Hume?" said I. "Why, man," re the number of our fingers, in which all men are accustomed to reckon from their infancy. They count, in the first place, the number of their fingers. When the units exceed the number of their fingers, they pass to a second ten. If the number of tens increases, they count A FAIR EXCHANGE. Brebeuf, when young, had no taste for any author but Horace. One of his friends, named Gautier, on the contrary, liked nothing but Lucan. This preference was the cause of frequent disputes. To put an end to these, at last they agreed that each should read the poem which his companion preferred, examine it, and estimate its merits these also on their fingers; and The Roman ciphers afford a proof of the origin which I have just stated. They express units by the I's, which represent the fingers. Five is represented by a V, which represents the first and last fingers of the hand. Ten is represented by an X, being two V's united at their bases, and expressing the contents of both hands. Fifty is marked by an L, the half of the letter E, which is the same as C, and represents a hundred. Five hundred by a D, the half of the letter O, which is the same as M, and represents a thousand. (Huet.) BOXHORN. A gentleman who had studied under Boxhorn, in Holland, told me that that professor had the most extraordinary passion for smoking and reading. In order to enjoy both at once, he had a hole made in the middle of the brim of his hat, through which he used to stick his lighted pipe when he intended to read or to compose. When it was empty, he refilled it, stuck it into the hole, and smoked away without requiring to put his hand to it; and this was his occupation almost every hour of the day. This was done, and the consequence was, that Gautier, having read Horace, was so delighted with him, that he scarcely ever left him; while Brebeuf, enchanted with Lucan, gave himself so wholly up to the study of his manner, that he carried it to a greater extent than Lucan himself, as is evident from the translation of that poem which he has left us in French verse. ARCHBISHOP LEIGHTON Used often to say that, if he were to choose a place to die in, it should be an inn, it looking like a pilgrim's going home, to whom this world was all as an inn, and who was weary of the noise and confusion in it. He added that the officious tenderness and care of friends was an entanglement to a dying man; and that the unconcerned attendance of those that could be procured in such a place would give less disturbance. (Burnet's History of his Times.) VOLTAIRE AND HIS CUP. Voltaire, when he was in Paris in 1778, lived in the house of the Marquis de Villette. One day the Marquis had invited a large party to dinner. Coming to table, Voltaire did not find in its place before him his own particular cup, which he had marked with his catchet. "Where is my cup?" he inquired, his eye sparkling, of a tall, simple domestic, whose special duty it was to wait 66 66 verse. As it is good to learn to dance; a man may learn his leg, learn to go handsomely; but it is ridiculous for him to dance when he should go. 2. It is ridiculous for a lord to print verses: it is well enough to make them to please himself, but to make them public is foolish. If a man, in a private chamber, twirls his band-strings, or plays with a rush to please himself, it is well enough; but if he should go into Fleet Street, and sit upon a stall, and twirl a band-string, or play with a rush, then all the boys in the street would laugh at him. 3. Verse proves nothing but the quantity of syllables; they are not meant for logic.—(Selden). AKENSIDE AND ROLT. upon him. The poor fellow, quite at a loss, stammered out some words. Enemy of your master!" exclaimed the old man in a fury, “go, seek for my cup; I must have my cup, or I shall not dine to-day." The cup could not be found; and, leaving the table in his passion, he walked off to his apartment and shut himself up. The guests were confounded and disappointed by the scene. At length it was agreed that Mr. Villevielle, to whom he was much attached, should go to him and try to soothe him. He knocked gently at the door. "Who is there?" "It is I, Villevielle." Ah," opening the door, "it is you, my dear Marquis. What is the purpose of this visit ?" "I am here in name of all our friends, who are grieved at your absence, to request you will come down, and to express Akenside's Pleasures of Imathe regret of M. de Villette, who gination attracted much notice on has dismissed the simpleton who the first appearance, from the elewas the cause of your anger." gance of its language, and the "They invite me to come down?" warm colouring of the descrip"Yes, they implore you." My tions. But the Platonic fanaticism friend, I dare not." "And why so?" of the foundation injured the gene"They must laugh at me below." ral beauty of the edifice. Plato is "Can you admit such a thought? indeed the philosopher of imaginahave we not all our notions in such tion; but is not this saying that he matters? has not every one his own is no philosopher at all? I have glass, his own knife, his own pen?" | been told that Rolt, who afterwards I see very well you are anxious to wrote many books, was in Dublin excuse me. Let us rather allow when that poem appeared, and actufrankly that every one has his ally passed a whole year there, weaknesses; I blush at mine. Do very comfortably, by passing for you go down first, and I shall fol- the author.-(Walpole.) low." Voltaire re-appeared a few minutes after, and seated himself at table with the awkward timidity of a child who has been detected in something foolish, and fears to be scolded. POETRY AND PRACTICE. 66 1. It is a fine thing for children to learn to make verse; but when they come to be men, they must speak like other men, or else they will be laughed at. It is ridiculous to speak, or write, or preach in SIR THOMAS MORE. The greatest of men are sometimes seized with strange fancies at the very moment when one would suppose they had ceased to be occupied with the things of this world. Sir Thomas More, at his execution, having laid his head upon the block, and perceiving that his beard was extended in such a manner that it would be cut through by the stroke of the executioner, asked him to adjust it properly upon the block; and when the executioner told him he need not trouble himself about his beard, when his head was about to be cut off, "It is of little consequence to me," said Sir Thomas, "but it is a matter of some importance to you, that you should understand your profession, and not cut through my beard, when you had orders only to cut off my head." ANAGRAMS. The best anagram I have met with, is one which was shown me by the Duchess de la Tremouille. She was the sister of the Duke de Bouillon and of Marshal Turrenne, and her name was Marie de la Tour; in Spanish, Maria de la Torre, which a Spanish anagrammatist found to be exactly Amor de la Tierra.--(Chevreau.) DR. CHALMERS-BUTLER'S "AN- princess, who had felt much curiosity to see him, used to say, after the visit was over, that Corneille ought never to be heard but at the Hotel de Bourgogne.* Nature, which had been so liberal to him in extraordinary gifts, had denied him more common accomplishments. When his friends used to remind him of these defects, he would smile gently, and say, "I am not the less Pierre Corneille." SCEPTICISM. The sceptics, who doubt of everything, and whom Tertullian calls professors of ignorance, do affirm something, when they say we can affirm nothing, and admit that something is certain, when they maintain that nothing can be certainly known.—(Chevreau.) CARMELINE THE DENTIST. Carmeline, the famous toothdrawer, and maker of artificial teeth, had his portrait painted and placed in his chamber window, with a motto taken from Virgil's line on the Golden Bough, in the sixth book of the Eneid. In the memoir of Dr. Chalmers, inserted in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, it is said that, on one occasion, when some person present was animadverting upon the wealth of the "Uno avulso, non deficit alter."† Church of England, and gave as an The application was extremely example of its over-abundance the revenues of the see of Durham, the Doctor exclaimed, with characteristic eagerness : "Sir, if all that has been received for the bishopric of Durham, since the foundation of the see, were set down as payment for Butler's Analogy, I should esteem it as a cheap purchase." P. CORNEILLE. Pierre Corneille, who has given such splendour of expression to the thoughts and sentiments of his heroes, had nothing in his external appearance that gave any indication of his talent, and his conversation was so tiresome, as to weary every one who listened to it. A great happy. HELEN. Every one speaks of the beautiful Helen, but few are aware that she had five husbands, Theseus, Menelaus, Paris, Deiphobus, and Achilles; that she was hanged in the Isle of Rhodes by the servants of Polixo; and that, in the war of which she was the cause, 886,000 Greeks and 670,000 Trojans lost their lives. A QUID PRO QUO. Masson, Regent of Trinity College, had asked one of his friends to lend him a book, which he The theatre. + When one is drawn out, another is never wanting. |