presume on his modesty. He never! with one foot in the bed and the obtruded Waterloo unless it was other on the floor, with an air of forced on him, or arose out of the mixed impatience and inspiration. conversation; nor did he shrink if the company seemed to press it. In fact, the Duke was a high bred man. The want of this is never compensated for-never.-(Haydon.)

MISAPPLICATION OF WORDS BY

FOREIGNERS.

"Sir, are you ill?" inquired the servant. "Ill! never better in my life. Leave me the candle, and oblige me with a cup of tea as soon as possible." He then started to his feet, seized the pen, and wrote down the "happy thought," but as he wrote, changed the words "events The misapplication of English to come," into "coming events," as words by foreigners is often very they now stand. Looking to his ludicrous. It is said that Dr. Chal- watch, he observed that it was two mers once entertained a distin- o'clock—the right hour for a poet's guished guest from Switzerland, dream, and over his cup of tea, whom he asked if he would be helped he completed the first sketch of to kippered salmon. The foreign "Lochiel's Warning." divine asked the meaning of the uncouth word kippered, and was SHAKSPEARE AND THE CLIMATE OF told that it meant preserved. The poor man, in a public prayer soon after, offered a petition that the distinguished divine might long be 'kippered to the Free Church of Scotland."

SCOTLAND.

A French writer mentions as a proof of Shakspeare's attention to particulars, his allusion to the climate of Scotland, in the words, Hail, hail, all hail!" "Gréle, gréle, toute grele !"

66

ASININE BISHOPRIC.

It was customary in the time of Henry VIII., when speaking of St. Asaph's, to abbreviate it into St. As's. Standish, the bishop, having irritated Erasmus by an idle sarcasm, the latter retaliated by sometimes calling him Episcopus a Sancto Asino.

THE ROXBURGH CLUB.

Among other follies of the age of paper, which took place in England at the end of the reign of George III, a set of book-fanciers, who had more money than wit, formed themselves into a club, and appropriately designated themselves the Bibliomaniacs. Dr. Dibdin was their organ; and among the club were several noblemen, who, in other respects, were esteemed men of sense. Their rage was, not to estimate books according to their intrinsic worth, but for their rarity. Hence, any

A GOOD SERMON TO A SMALL AUDIENCE.

volume of the vilest trash, which was scarce, merely because it never had any sale, fetched fifty or a hundred pounds; but if it were but one of two or three known copies, no limits could be set to the price. Books altered in the title-page, or in a leaf, or any trivial circumstance which varied a few copies, were bought by these soi-disant maniacs, at one, two, or three hundred pounds, though the copies were not really worth more than threepence per pound. A trumpery edition of Boccaccio, said to be one of two known copies, was thus bought by a noble marquis for £1475, though in two or three years afterwards he resold it for £500. First editions of all authors, and editions by the first clumsy printers, were never sold for less than £50, £100, or £200.

To keep each other in counte-
nance, these persons formed them-
selves into a club, and, after a duke,
one of their fraternity, called them-
selves the Roxburgh Club. To gra-
tify them, facsimile copies of clumsy
editions of trumpery books were
reprinted; and, in some cases, it
became worth the while of more in-
genious persons to play off forgeries
upon them.
This mania after a
while abated; and, in future ages,
it will be ranked with the tulip and
the picture mania, during which,
estates were given for single flowers
and pictures.

A GOOD SERMON TO A SMALL
AUDIENCE.

A story is told of Dr. Beecher, of Cincinnatti, that is worth recording, as illustrating the truth that we can never tell what may result from an apparently insignificant action. The Doctor once engaged to preach for a country minister, on exchange, and the Sabbath proved to be excessively stormy, cold, and uncomfortable. It was in mid-winter, and the snow was piled in heaps all along the

109

roads so as to make the passage very difficult. Still the minister urged his horse through the drifts till he reached the church, put the animal into a shed, and went in. As yet there was no person in the house, and after looking about, the old gentleman, then young, took his seat in the pulpit. Soon the door opened, and a single individual walked up the aisle, looked about, and took a seat. The hour came for commencing service, but no more hearers. Whether to preach to such an audience or not was now the question; and it was one that Lyman Beecher was not long in deciding. He felt that he had a duty to perform, and he had no right to refuse to do it, because only one man could reap the benefit of it; and accordingly he went through all the services, praying, singing, preaching, and the benediction, with only one hearer. And when all was over, he hastened down from the desk to speak to his "congregation,” but he had departed. A circumstance so rare was referred to occasionally, but twenty years after it was brought to the Doctor's mind quite strangely. Travelling somewhere in Ohio, the Doctor alighted from the stage one day, in a pleasant village, when a gentleman stepped up and spoke to him, familiarly calling him by name. "I do not remember you," said the Doctor.

66

I suppose not," said the stranger; "but we spent two hours together in a house alone once, in a storm." "I do not recal it, sir," added the old man; "pray, pray, when was it?" "Do you remember preaching twenty years ago, in such a place, to a single person?" Yes, yes, said the Doctor, grasping his hand, "I do, indeed; and if you are the man, I have been wishing to see you ever since." "I am the man, sir; and that sermon saved my soul, made a minister of me, and yonder is my church. The converts

NOVELS AND NOVELISTS.

LIBERTY A PLANT.

111

the personal malice of every man | Clare. "O," replied Mr. Curran, in Ireland who was the known "I beg a thousand pardons, my enemy of the country. Without lord; I really took it for granted the walls of the court of justice, my that your lordship was employed character was pursued with the in consultation." most persevering slander; and within those walls, though I was too strong to be beaten down by any During the progress of a political judicial malignity, it was not so meeting held in the town of Camwith my clients; and my conse- bridge, it so happened that the late quent losses in professional income Dr. Mansel, then public orator of the have never been estimated at less, University of Cambridge, but afteras you have often heard, than thirty wards master of Trinity College and thousand pounds." The incidents Bishop of Bristol, came to the place attendant upon this disagreement of meeting just as Musgrave, the were at times ludicrous in the ex-well-known political tailor of his treme. One day, when it was day, was in the midst of a most known that Curran was to make pathetic oration, and emphatically an elaborate argument in chancery, repeating “Liberty, liberty, gentleLord Clare (the title of Fitzgibbon) men he paused-"Liberty is brought a large Newfoundland dog a plant- "So is a cabbage!" upon the bench with him; and exclaimed the caustic Mansel, before during the progress of the argu- Musgrave had time to complete his ment, he lent his ear much more to sentence, with so happy an allusion the dog than to the barrister. At to the trade of the tailor, that he last the Chancellor seemed to lose was silenced amid roars of laughter. all regard to decency. He turned himself quite aside, in the most material part of the case, and began Lord Bacon wrote in his will," For in full court to fondle the animal. my name and memory, I leave it to Mr. Curran stopped short. "Go men's charitable speeches, and to on, go on, Mr. Curran," said Lord | foreign nations, and the next ages."

BACON.

NOVELS AND NOVELISTS.

SCOTT'S HABITS OF COMPOSITION.

"To J. G. Lockhart, Esq.

unlikely to pass altogether without notice.

"When, at Sir Walter's request, 'Edinburgh, 16th February, 1833. I waited upon him to be informed "Sir,-Having been for a few of the business in which he needed days employed by Sir Walter Scott, my assistance, after stating it, he when he was finishing his Life of asked me if I was an early riser, Bonaparte, to copy papers con- and added that it would be no great nected with that work, and to write hardship for me, being a young occasionally to his dictation, it may man, to attend him the next mornperhaps be in my power to men- ing at six o'clock. I was punctual, tion some circumstances relative to and found Sir Walter already busy Sir Walter's habits of composition, writing. He appointed my tasks, which could not fall under the ob- and again sat down at his own desk. servation of any one except a per- We continued to write during the son in the same situation with my-regular work hours till six o'clock self, and which are therefore not in the evening, without interrup

tion, except to take breakfast and dinner, which were served in the room beside us, so that no time was lost; we rose from our desks when everything was ready, and resumed our labours when the meals were over. I need not tell you, that during these intervals Sir Walter conversed with me as if I had been on a level of perfect equality with himself.

wholly occupied with the words he was uttering. It soon became apparent to me, however, that he was carrying on two distinct trains of thought, one of which was already arranged, and in the act of being spoken, while at the same time he was in advance considering what was afterwards to be said. This I discovered by his sometimes introducing a word which was wholly "I had no notion it was possible out of place-entertained instead of for any man to undergo the fatigue denied, for example-but which I of composition for so long a time presently found to belong to the at once, and Sir Walter acknow- next sentence, perhaps four or five ledged he did not usually subject lines further on, which he had been himself to so much exertion, though preparing at the very moment that it seemed to be only the manual he gave me the words of the one that part of the operation that occa- preceded it. Extemporaneous orasioned him any inconvenience. Once tors, of course, and no doubt many or twice he desired me to relieve him, and dictated while I wrote with as much rapidity as I was able. I have performed the same service to several other persons, most of whom walked up and down the apartment while excogitating what was to be committed to writing; they sometimes stopped too, and like those who fail in a leap and return upon their course to take the advantage of another race, endeavoured to hit upon something additional by perusing over my shoulder what was already set down -mending a phrase, perhaps, or recasting a sentence, till they should recover their wind. None of these aids were necessary to Sir Walter: Walter Scott was twenty years his thoughts flowed easily and feli- of age when, in 1791, he was adcitously, without any difficulty to mitted to the Speculative Society lay hold of them, or to find appro- of Edinburgh. He was chosen priate language; which was evident librarian, and shortly afterwards by the absence of all solicitude the secretary and treasurer. He (miseria cogitandi) from his coun-kept the accounts and records very tenance. He sat in his chair, from faithfully, and wrote essays and which he rose now and then, took joined in debates on the commona volume from the bookcase, con- place questions usually proposed in sulted it, and restored it to the such clubs. The following, from shelf-all without intermission in the Life of Scott by Lockhart, rethe current of ideas, which con- lates to this part of his life :tinued to be delivered with no less readiness than if his mind had been

writers, think as rapidly as was done by Sir Walter; but the mind is wholly occupied with what the lips are uttering or the pen is tracing. I do not remember any other instance in which it could be said that two threads were kept hold of at once-connected with each other indeed, but grasped at different points. I was, as I have said, two or three days beside Sir Walter, and had repeated opportunities of observing the same thing.-I am, Sir, respectfully your obliged humble servant,

"ROBERT HOGG."

SIR WALTER SCOTT'S EARLY LIFE.

--

"Lord Jeffrey remembers being struck, the first night he spent at