John Filby, at the Harrow, in dria Digynia. Those in which the Water Lane.' Johnson: "Why, families of the two lovers are at sir, that was because he knew the variance may be called Diœcious. strange colour would attract crowds The Cryptogamia are very numeto gaze at it, and thus they might rous, so are the Polygamia. Where hear of him, and see how well he the lady is in doubt which of her could make a coat even of so absurd lovers to choose, the tale is to be a colour." classed under the Icosandria. Where Johnson: "I remember once the party hesitates between love being with Goldsmith in West- and duty, or avarice and ambition, minster Abbey. While we sur-Didynamia. Many are poisonous, veyed the Poets' Corner, I said to few of any use, and far the greater him, from Ovid, number are annuals. Forsitan et nostrum nomen miscebitur istis. When we got to Temple-bar, he stopped me, pointed to the heads upon it, and slily whispered me, Forsitan et nostrum nomen miscebitur istis." "At the Literary Club," says Boswell, "before Johnson came in, we talked of his Journey to the Western Islands, and of his coming away 'willing to believe the second sight,' which seemed to excite some ridicule. I was then so impressed with the truth of many of the stories which I had been told, that I avowed my conviction, saying, 'He is only willing to believe-I do believe; the evidence is enough for me, though not for his great mind. What will not fill a quart bottle will fill a pint bottle; I am filled with belief.'Are you? said Colman; then cork it up.' ROMAN CALENDAR. Most of those who are acquainted with the Roman manner of computation by Kalends, Ides, and Nones, are ignorant of the reason, which is this: The ancient Romans at first regulated their months according to the course of the moon, and having observed that it presented three remarkable varieties every month,-the first when it is concealed in conjunction with the sun; the second, when it begins to be seen at setting; the third, when opposite to the sun, it is seen fully illuminated by his rays, they called the first day of the month the Kalends, from the Latin word Celare, because for this day the planet was concealed; or, according to Juba, from the Greek word Kalein, because they then assembled the people to announce that the Nones, that is, the fair or market, would take place on the fifth day after. The day when the moon, beginning to re-appear, was in its first quarter, they called the Nones, from the Greek Neos, and the day when it appeared full, the Ides, from the word Eidos, face, because it was then in its beauty, and showed its entire face. From the Ides, till the end of the month, they reckoned 14, 13, 12, &c., before the Kalends Monandria Monogynia is the of the following month; and from usual class, most novels having one the first day of that month till the hero and one heroine. Sir Charles Nones, the 2d, 3d, 4th, &c., after the Grandison belongs to the Monan-Kalends. Being by no means pleased with their inn at Bristol, Boswell said, "Let us see now how we should describe it." Johnson was ready with his raillery. "Describe it, sir? Why, it was so bad, that Boswell wished to be in Scotland!" CLASSIFICATION OF NOVELS. Novels may be arranged according to the botanical system of Linnæus. AN EXTEMPORE DISCOURSE. A young preacher of a prepossessing appearance, and an agreeable voice and manner, having mounted the pulpit, was suddenly seized with loss of memory, and completely forgot his sermon. To have come down again would have been disgraceful. If he tried to preach, he had nothing to say. What was to be done in this extremity? He resolved to stand firm and to make the most of his voice and gestures, without using any but imperfect or unconnected expressions, such as, in fact, but, if, and again, to conclude, and so on. Never did a preacher appear to possess such fire. He bellowed, he uttered pathetic exclamations, he clapped his hands, he stamped with his feet. Everything shook about him, the very vault of the church echoed with his vehemence. The audience remained in profound silence; every one put forward his head, and redoubled his attention, to understand what was perfectly unintelligible. Those who were near the pulpit said, we are too near, we can hear nothing. Those who were farther off, regretted the distance at which they sat, thinking they were losing the finest things in the world. In short, the preacher kept his audience on the stretch for three quarters of an hour; and retired with the applause of the whole audience, each of whom determined next time to choose his seat better, in order not to lose the fruits of such a discourse.-(Melange d'Hist. et de Lit.) HOW TO TURN THE BRAIN. Nothing is so likely to turn the brain as intense application directed to one of six things-the quadrature of the circle; the multiplication of the cube; the perpetual motion; the philosopher's stone; judicial astrology; and magic. In youth, we may exercise our imagination upon them, in order to convince ourselves of their impossibility; but it argues a want of judgment to occupy ourselves with such inquiries at a more advanced age. "Nevertheless," says Fontenelle, "the search has its advantages, for we find many things on the way that we never looked for." JULIUS SCALIGER. Julius Scaliger used to say, that he was ignorant of three things; of the cause of the interval which takes place between the paroxysms of fever; how an idea, once forgotten, may be recalled to the memory; and the cause of the flux and reflux of the sea. Alas! of how many things was he ignorant of which he says nothing. SOCIETY OF PORT-ROYAL. The society of Port-Royal des Champs was so called from a valley near Chartreuse, about six leagues from Paris. In 1637, the celebrated advocate, Le Maitre, abandoned the bar, and resigned his office of Councillor of State, which his extraordinary merit had procured him at the age of twentyeight. His brother, de Sericourt, who had followed the profession of arms, quitted it at the same time. Both resolved henceforth to dedicate themselves to God, and retired to a small mansion near Port-Royal de Paris. Their brothers De Sacy, De St. Elmi, and De Valmont joined them. After the arrest of the Abbe de St. Cyrian, which took place in 1638, Francis de Sondy, Archbishop of Paris, intimated to them by order of the court, that they must leave their house. They did so the next day, and went to reside at Port-Royal des Champs, where they had not remained more than two months, when they were again dislodged by order of the court. Thirteen months after to return. GASSENDI, HALE, ETC. wards, however, they were allowed Several persons of distinguished merit joined these hermits, and from these the Society, which afterwards received the title of Port-Royal, was formed. Among its members were the celebrated Arnauld, M. de Suylin, M. de Sacy, Arnaud d'Andilly, de Luzanzy, De Pomponne, De Beaurepaire, Stes Marthe, Nicole, and Lancelot, who afterwards turned Benedictine. 241 known parody. He was so avaricious, that though he had an income of 13,000 livres, and more than 240,000 in ready money, he used to wipe his hands on a handful of rushes, in order to save towels. His avarice was the cause of his death; he preferred crossing the street, while inundated with water, to paying a liard for the use of a plank which was laid across. He caught a cold and oppression of breathing, of which he died.-(Charpentier.) TALMUD. The Talmud has been composed by certain Jewish doctors of The Society had no rules, no Vows, no constitution, no cells, nor anything of the kind. They employed themselves assiduously in prayer and study, and in the instruction of youth in the sciences and the practice of virtue. Racine the kingdom of Pontus, who had was educated there, and requested to be buried in the cemetery of Port-Royal, at the feet of his old master M. Hamon.—(Matanasiana.) GREGORY VII. We find, in Machiavel and Cardan, that Pope Gregory VII. caused most of the valuable works of the ancients to be burned. It was this Pope who burned the works of the learned Varro, to prevent St. Augustin from being accused of plagiarism, the saint having stolen from him the greater part of his Treatise de Civitate Dei. AN ARACHNOID GARMENT. been summoned for that purpose by their own nation, in order that they might have something to oppose to the Christians. These doctors were descendants of the ten tribes of Israel, who were carried into captivity from Samaria by King Psalmanazar, the father of Sennacherib, in the time of Hosea. The "Talmud" was valued at 100 livres during the time of Joseph Scaliger. This book is a mixture of Syriac, Hebrew, and the Vulgar Hebrew, which was the language of the school of the Rabbis, and which differs as much from the other as the Latin of Bartolus from that of Cicero. OTHERS. Gassendi was accustomed to read, throughout the greater part of the night, by the lamp in the parish church, his parents being too poor to supply him with candles. Chapelain, the author of the Pucelle, was called by the academicians GASSENDI, SIR MATTHEW HALE, AND the Knight of the Order of the Spider, because he wore a coat so patched and pieced, that the stitches exhibited no bad resemblance of the fibres produced by that insect. Being one day present at a large party given by the great Condé, a spider of uncommon size fell from the ceiling upon the floor. The company thought it could not have come from the roof, and all the ladies at once agreed that it must have William Prynne was exceedingly proceeded from Chapelain's wig; diligent; he read or wrote about the wig so celebrated by the well-sixteen hours in the day. To pre Sir Matthew Hale relates, with regard to himself, that he laboured for sixteen hours in the day during the first two years that he spent in the Inns of Court. ૧ vent loss of time, he caused his food to be laid on a table in his study; and when he was hungry, he made a scanty meal. Descartes frequently studied fifteen hours in the day. M. de Buffon studied twelve or fourteen hours. Joseph Scaliger was so exceedingly fond of intellectual engagements, that he would sometimes remain in his study for two or three days without food. John Knox evinced a high opinion of the value of learning, when he said to Queen Mary of Scotland, in his blunt phraseology, "I am here now; yet I cannot tell what other men shall judge of me, that, at this time of day, I am absent from my book, and waiting at court." Carneades was so enamoured with the pursuits of knowledge, that he scarcely allowed himself time to pare his nails or comb his hair. Budæus and Turnebus spent their wedding-days in the study. THE DUTCH. The Dutch may be compared to their own turf, which kindles and burns slowly, but which, when once kindled, retains its fire to the last. ENGLISH AND GERMAN. pot." "Ish understand risht," said the maid, in her Coblentz patois. "It's a thing to eat," said her mistress, "for dinner-for deener— with sauce, soace-sowose. What on earth am I to do?" exclaimed the lady in despair, but still making another attempt. "It's a little creature-a bird-a bard-a beard --a hen-a hone-a fowl-a fool; it's all covered with feathers—fathers-feeders!" "Ha, ha!" cried the delighted German, at last getting hold of a catchword, "Ja, ja! fedders-ja woh!" and away went Grettel, and in half an hour returned triumphantly, with a bundle of stationers' quills. An Englishman talking with a German friend, a man of a remarkably philosophical cast of mind, and fond of clothing his sentiments in the graces of classical allusion, the discourse happened to turn upon the mortifications to which those subject themselves who seek after the vanities of this world. friend was for a stoical independence, and had Diogenes in his eye. "For mine self," he exclaimed, with rising enthusiasm, "I should be quite contentment for to live all my days in a dub, eating nothing else but unicorns!" (acorns.) MENAGE. Our The Queen of Sweden (Christina) said of him, after he published his work on the Origin of the French Language, "Menage is undoubtedly a very learned and excellent person, but he is very unaccommodating; he will never allow a word to pass without its passport: he must always know whence it comes, and where it is going." An English lady resident at Coblentz, one day wishing to order of her German servant (who did not understand English) a boiled fowl for dinner, Grettel was summoned, and the experiment began. It was one of the lady's fancies, that the less her words resembled her native tongue, the more they must be like German. So her first attempt was to tell the maid that she wanted a cheeking, or keeking. The maid opened her eyes and mouth, and shook her head. "It's to cook," said the mistress, "to cook, to put in an iron thing, in a pit-pat-thinking too much about them. WHAT SHOULD BE DONE AT ONCE. Shutting one's self up in a convent, marrying, and throwing one's self over a precipice, are three things which must be done without PRECOCITY OF GUIZOT. KING EDWARD VI. Though considerable talents and attainments have not always been associated with eminent stations, a goodly number of the great are to be found in the list of those who have been richly endowed by their Creator, and have diligently improved his gifts. The young King Edward VI. stands among the most prominent of these examples. This amiable prince was born in 1537, at Hampton Court. His mother was Jane Seymour, the third wife of Henry VIII. At the early age of six years, he was committed to the care of Sir Anthony Cook, and other learned preceptors, who were intent on his improvement in spiritual knowledge, as well as in science and learning. The manner in which these gentlemen performed their duties, and in which the prince improved, may be ascertained from an account written by William Thomas, a learned man, who was afterwards clerk of the council. He says 243 then composed. Curio, the Italian reformer, told his tutors, "that by their united prayers, counsels, and industry, they had formed a king of the highest, even divine hopes." His ardent attachment and reverence to the Holy Scriptures are well known; and Foxe tells us that "he was not wanting in diligence to receive whatever his instructors would teach him. So that, in the midst of all his play and recreation, he would always keep the hours appointed to study, using the same with much attention, till time called him again from his book to pastime. "In this, his study and keeping of his hours, he so profited, that Cranmer, beholding his towardness, his readiness in both tongues, in translating from Greek to Latin, from Latin to Greek again, in declaiming with his schoolfellows, without help of his teachers, and that extempore, wept for joy, declaring to Dr. Cox, his schoolmaster, that he would never have thought it to have been in the prince, except he had seen it himself." He became acquainted with seven languages, and well understood lo PRECOCITY OF GUIZOT. 66 "If ye knew the towardness of that young prince, your hearts would melt to hear him named, and your stomach abhor the malice of them that would him ill. The beautifulest creature that liv-gic and theology. eth under the sun, the wittiest, the most amiable, and the gentlest thing of all the world. Such a Guizot, the distinguished French capacity in learning the things statesman and historian, gave early taught him by his schoolmaster, promise of his great talents. He that it is a wonder to hearsay. is called by a French writer “a And, finally, he hath such a grace child who had no childhood." When of posture, and gesture in gravity, only seven years of age, young when he comes into a presence, that Guizot was placed at the gymnait should seem he were already a sium of Geneva, and devoted his father, and yet passes he not the whole soul to study. His first and age of ten years. A thing, un- only playthings were books; and doubtedly, much rather to be seen at the end of four years the scholar than believed." was able to read, in their respective languages, the works of Thucydides and Demosthenes, of Cicero and Tacitus, of Dante and Alfieri, of Schiller and Goethe, of Gibbon In his ninth year he wrote letters in Latin and French; and in the British Museum are themes and orations in Latin, which he |