CONVERSATION. Arthur, Sir Tristram, and Archbishop Turpin: not because they thought him a fabulous writer, but because they took them all for true and authentic historians; to so little purpose was it in that age for a man to be at the pains of writing truth. 33 wrinkles, and loves all things (as Dutchmen do cheese) the better for being mouldy and worm-eaten. He is of our religion, because we say it is most ancient; and yet a broken statue would almost make him an idolater. A great admirer he is of the rust of old monuments, and reads only those characters, where He is a man strangely thrifty of time hath eaten out the letters. time past, and an enemy indeed to He will go with you forty miles to his maw, whence he fetches out see a saint's well or a ruined abbey ; many things when they are now and there be but a cross or stone all rotten and stinking. He is one footstool in the way, he'll be conthat hath that unnatural disease sidering it so long, till he forget his to be enamoured of old age and journey.—(Bishop Earle.) AN ANTIQUARY. CONVERSATION. DESCARTES, LA FONTAINE, MARMON- | Hudibras, that he caused himself to TEL, CORNEILLE, BUTLER, ADDISON, ROUSSEAU, MILTON, ETC. Descartes, the famous mathematician and philosopher; La Fontaine, celebrated for his witty fables; and Buffon, the great naturalist, were all singularly deficient in the powers of conversation. Marmontel, the novelist, was so dull in society that his friend said of him, after an interview, “I must go and read his tales to recompense myself for the weariness of hearing him." As to Corneille, the greatest dramatist of France, he was completely lost in society-so absent and embarrassed that he wrote of himself a witty couplet, importing that he was never intelligible but through the mouth of another. Wit on paper seems to be something widely different from that play of words in conversation, which, while it sparkles, dies; for Charles II., the wittiest monarch that ever sat on the English throne, was so charmed with the humour of be introduced, in the character of a private gentleman, to Butler, its author. The witty king found the author a very dull companion, and was of opinion, with many others, that so stupid a fellow could never have written so clever a book. Addison, whose classic elegance has long been considered the model of style, was shy and absent in society, preserving, even before a single stranger, stiff and dignified silence. In conversation Dante was taciturn or satirical. Gray and Alfieri seldom talked or smiled. Rousseau was remarkably trite in conversation; not a word of fancy or eloquence warmed him. Milton was unsocial, and even irritable, when much pressed by talk of others. Dryden has very honestly told us, "My conversation is dull and slow, my humour is saturnine and reserved; in short, I am not one of those who endeavour to break jest in company, or make repartees.”(Salad for the Solitary.) C AMANUENSES OF AUTHORS. MILTON'S PARADISE LOST. Milton was blind when he composed that immortal work, the Paradise Lost." His daughters were his amanuenses. Nor did they merely write what he dictated; but they read to him from day to day whatever classical or other authors he might wish to consult in the way of reference, or to relax or invigorate his mind. But reading to their father the Greek and Latin authors must have been very tedious to them, as it is said they were quite ignorant of both those ancient languages. GOLDSMITH'S TRIAL. A voluminous author was one day expatiating on the advantages of employing an amanuensis, and thus saving time and the trouble of writing. "How do you manage it?" said Goldsmith. 66 Why, I walk about the room, and dictate to a clever man, who puts down very correctly all that I tell him, so that I have nothing to do more than just to look over the manuscript, and then send it to the press." Goldsmith was delighted with the information, and desired his friend to send the amanuensis the next morning. The scribe accordingly waited upon the Doctor, with the implements of pens, ink, and paper placed in order before him, ready to catch the oracle. Goldsmith paced the room with great solemnity, several times, for some time; but, after racking his brains to no purpose, he put his hand into his pocket, and, presenting the amanuensis with a guinea, said, "It won't do, my friend, I find that my head and hand must go together." DWIGHT'S THEOLOGY. Dr. Timothy Dwight, of Newhaven, prepared his System of Theology for the press in his old age, when his defective sight no longer enabled him to use the pen. He dictated to an amanuensis that long and eloquent course of sermons on the various doctrines of religion, which will carry down his name through coming time, and spread his influence over the world. WILBERFORCE. The style of Wilberforce's Practical View of the Prevailing Religious System, on the appearance of that elegant essay, was characterized as possessing all the fluency, ease, and grace of an unwritten address, and all the author's skill in debate and Parliamentary tact. It turned out that the work had not been written, but dictated to an amanuensis while the author walked backward and forward in his study. SIR WALTER SCOTT'S AMANUENSIS. William Laidlaw (author of the beautiful song of "Lucy's Flittin'"), and John Ballantyne the printer, were Scott's amanuenses, when, suffering from extreme bodily pain, he was composing the "Bride of Lammermoor. He preferred the latter, says Lockhart, on account of the superior rapidity of his pen; and also because John kept his pen to the paper without interruption, and, though with many an arch twinkle in his eyes, and now and then an audible smack of his lips, had resolution to work on like a well-trained clerk; whereas good Laidlaw entered with such keen zest into the interest of the story as it flowed from the author's lips, that he could not suppress exclamations of surprise and delight— "Gude keep us a'!-the like o' that-eh sirs! eh sirs!" and so forth-which did not promote despatch. I have often, however, in the sequel, heard both these secre 66 MISCELLANEOUS ANECDOTES. 35 taries describe the astonishment | Scott lay, and that though he often with which they were equally af- turned himself on his pillow with fected when Scott began this expe- a groan of torment, he usually conriment. The affectionate Laidlaw tinued the sentence in the same beseeching him to stop dictating, breath. But when dialogue of when his audible suffering filled peculiar animation was in progress, every pause, "Nay, Willie," he an- spirit seemed to triumph altogether swered, only see that the doors over matter-he arose from his are fast. I would fain keep all the couch and walked up and down cry as well as all the wool to our- the room, raising and lowering his selves; but as to giving over work, voice, and as it were acting the that can only be when I am in parts. It was in this fashion that woollen." John Ballantyne told Scott produced the far greater porme, that after the first day, he tion of The Bride of Lammermoor always took care to have a dozen -the whole of the Legend of Monof pens made before he seated him- trose-and almost the whole of self opposite to the sofa on which | Ivanhoe.—(Scott's Life, p. 397.) MISCELLANEOUS ANECDOTES. THOMAS MOORE-HIS SINGING. Thomas Moore sung his songs into popularity. We have this entry in his diary : ingly, all night in his delightful parlour, the seat of so many happy remembrances! We then went and saw a beautiful sunrise. I returned "Dined with the Fieldings: home with him, for I was living in sung in the evening to him, her, his house at the time. He was unMontgomery, and the governess-reserved in all his devoutest feelall four weeping. This is the true tribute to my singing" Similar entries are common in his diary, in which all who shed tears at his singing invariably found a place. "No one believes how much I am sometimes affected in singing, partly from being touched myself, and partly from an anxiety to touch others." JAMES GRAHAME-HIS SINGING. Thomas Campbell preserved the following reminiscence of the devotional feeling of James Grahame, author of The Sabbath, with whom he was on a familiar footing when both were young men residing in Edinburgh:- ings before me; and from the beauty of the morning scenery, and the recent death of his sister, our conversation took a serious turn on the proofs of Infinite Benevolence in the creation,and the goodness of God. As I retired to my own bed I overheard his devotions-not his prayer, but a hymn which he sung, and with a power and inspiration beyond himself, and beyond anything else. At that time he was a strong-voiced, and commanding-looking man. The remembrance of his large expressive features when he climbed the hill, and of his organ-like voice in prais ing God, is yet fresh, and ever pleasing, in my mind." BUTLER'S HUDIBRAS. Hudibras was not a hasty effusion; it was not produced by a sudden tumult of imagination, or a short paroxysm of violent labour. "One of the most endearing circumstances which I remember of Grahame was his singing. I shall never forget one summer evening that we agreed to sit up all night, and go together to Arthur's Seat to accumulate such a mass of sentisee the sun rise. We sat, accord-ments at the call of accidental desire To or of sudden necessity, is beyond | for I like them better plain, having the reach and power of the most a very vulgar stomach." Dr. George active and comprehensive mind. I Fordyce contended that as one am informed by Mr. Thyer of Man-meal a day was enough for a lion, chester, that excellent editor of this it ought to suffice for a man. Acauthor's reliques, that he could show cordingly, for more than twenty something of Hudibras in prose. He years, the Doctor used to eat only has in his possession the common- a dinner in the whole course of the place book, in which Butler repo- day. This solitary meal he took sited, not such events and precepts regularly at four o'clock, at Dolly's as are gathered by reading, but such chop-house. A pound and a-half remarks, similitudes, allusions, as- of rump steak, half a broiled chicken, semblages, or inferences, as occasion a plate of fish, a bottle of port, a prompted, or meditation produced, quarter of a pint of brandy, and a those thoughts that were generated tankard of strong ale, satisfied the in his own mind, and might be use- Doctor's moderate wants till four fully applied to some future purpose. o'clock next day, and regularly enSuch is the labour of those who gaged one hour and a-half of his write for immortality. (Dr. John- time. Dinner over, he returned to son.) his home in Essex Street, Strand, to deliver his six o'clock lecture on anatomy and chemistry. Maseres, who lived nearly to the age of ninety, used to go home one day in every week without any dinner, eating only a round of dry toast at tea. Aristotle, like a true poet, seems to have literally feasted on fancy. Few could live more frugally; in one of his poems, he says of himself, "that he was a fit person to have lived in the world when acorns were the food of men."—(Salad for the Solitary.) FAVOURITE DISHES. MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. Baron Dr. Rondelet, an ancient writer on fishes, was so fond of figs, that he died in 1566, of a surfeit occasioned by eating them to excess. In a letter to a friend, Dr. Parr confesses his love of "hot boiled lobsters, with a profusion of shrimp sauce." Pope, who was an epicure, would lie in bed for days at Lord Bolingbroke's, unless he were told that there were stewed lampreys for dinner, when he arose instantly, and came down to table. A gentleman treated Dr. Johnson to new honey and clouted cream, of which At Paris, you may be sure, we he ate so largely, that his enter- met with entertainment enough: tainer became alarmed. All his at the Scotch Jesuits there, I fancy lifetime Dr. Johnson had a vora- either you or Mr. Baker would cious attachment for a leg of mut-have willingly took a peep with us. ton. "At my aunt Ford's," says he, "I ate so much of a boiled leg of mutton, that she used to talk of it. My mother, who was affected by little things, told me seriously that it would hardly ever be forgotten." Dryden, writing in 1699 to a lady, declining her invitation to a handsome supper, says, "If beggars might be choosers, a chine of honest bacon would please my appetite more than all the marrow puddings, There was a folio volume of letters of Mary Queen of Scots and her husband, and King James I. and his Queen, &c., all originals: but most were Queen Mary's to the Archbishop of Glasgow, who gave the Society this book, and many other papers. At the end of the book was Queen Mary's will in her own writing, the day before her being beheaded; all in French. I read many parts of it; and last of MISCELLANEOUS ANECDOTES. all a sort of a codicil in her own ORIGIN OF THE NAME BLUE STOCKINGS. 37 feared that if we do not form such a permanent attachment, we may be acquiring knowledge while our enervated taste becomes less and less lively. Taste embalms the knowledge which otherwise cannot preserve itself. He who has long been intimate with one great author, will always be found to be a formidable LADY M. W. MONTAGU'S LETTERS FROM THE LEVANT. It is well known that Mrs. Mon-antagonist; he has saturated his tagu's house was at that time (1771) mind with the excellencies of genithe chosen resort of many of those us; he has shaped his faculties, inof both sexes most distinguished sensibly to himself, by his model; for rank, as well as classical taste and he is like a man who ever sleeps and literary talent, in London. This in armour, ready at a moment! society of eminent friends consisted, The old Latin proverb reminds us originally, of Mrs. Montagu, Mrs. of this fact, Cave ab homine unius Vesey, Miss Boscawen, and Mrs. libri-be cautious of the man of one Carter, Lord Lyttelton, Mr. Pul-book.-(D'Israeli in Curiosities of teney, Horace Walpole, and Mr. Literature.) Stillingfleet. To the latter gentleman, a man of great piety and worth, and author of some works in natural history, &c., this constellation of talents owed that whimsical appellation of "Bas Bleu." Mr. Stillingfleet being somewhat of an humorist in his habits and manners, and a little negligent in his dress, literally wore gray stockings; from which circumstance Admiral Boscawen used, by way of pleasantry, to call them "The Blue Stocking Society," as if to intimate that when these brilliant friends met, it was not for the purpose of forming a dressed assembly. A foreigner of distinction hearing the expression, translated it literally "Bas Bleu," by which these meetings came to be afterwards distinguished. (Forbes' Life of Beattie.) A FAVOURITE AUTHOR. The publication of these letters will be an immortal monument to the memory of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, and will show, as long as the English language endures, the sprightliness of her wit, the solidity of her judgment, the elegance of her taste, and the excellence of her real character. These letters are so bewitchingly entertaining, that we defy the most phlegmatic man on earth to read one without going through them, or, after finishing the third volume, not to wish there were twenty more of them.-(Dr. Smollett.) HANDEL'S MESSIAH. When Handel's Messiah was first performed, the audience were exceedingly struck and affected by the A predilection for some great music in general; but when that author, among the vast number chorus struck up, "For the Lord which must transiently occupy our God omnipotent reigneth," they attention, seems to be the happiest were so transported, that they all, preservative for our taste. Ac- together with the king (who hapcustomed to that excellent author pened to be present), started up, and whom we have chosen for our fa- remained standing till the chorus vourite, we may possibly resemble ended: and hence it became the him in this intimacy. It is to bel fashion in England for the audience |