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ad vomitum redierunt, iterum superstitionem

tus."-HOR. Od.]

"SINCE, in breeding horses, your skilful jockeys, by their care and choice of the best, both as to temper, mettle, stature, &c. come into a good race of horse-flesh, whether might there not be also a good race of men, (if care were taken as to their generation,) both as to soldiers, gownmen, politicians, mechanics, &c.?"

This question was propounded to the Athenian Mercury. The answer is —

"This is a merry sort of a question at first sight, and not to be despised, neither, for the comparison. It admits of a positive answer, that an unmixt generation of the best soldiers might, in a few ages, set upon a second conquest of the world; and so of the rest for customs and habits have a mighty influence upon human nature. But yet, to be tied up and bound in deeper obligations than God and nature have always limited, would look tyrannical; and man having not free liberty to choose an agreeable converse further than generation, it would argue his mind and better part of little use, and the most that could be pretended would be, a subordination and subjection to that silly thing the body: so that by such an alteration of our liberty, we should, by seeking a perfection of bodies, lose the bravery and nobleness of the mind, which all wise men will conclude a very unhappy exchange."— Ibid. vol. 3, p. 80.

pertinaces, meritas pœnas flammis luerunt." -BARTOLOCCI, vol. 1, p. 21.

[King of Spain's bounty to the Clergy, in New Spain and the Philippines.] "THE King of Spain supplied all the Clergy, regular and secular, in New Spain and the Philippines with oil for the lamps which burnt before the altar of the Sacrament, and with wine for the Communion. This was a considerable expense. Augustinian Province of New Spain received yearly from 6 to 7,000 peros according to the price of wine and oil. That of Mechoacar five thousand. The Dominicans about 12,000, the Franciscans from 25 to 30,000."-FR. JUAN DE CRIJALVA, Hist. de la Ordon de S. Augustin, ff. 38.

The

[Extraordinary Statute of Man relative to Women overlaying their Children.] Ar a Synod held in the Isle of Man, women were forbidden to sleep in the same bed with their infants till the child was three years old. “Inhibemus sub pœnâ excommunicationis, ne aliqua mulier, vel uxores, parvulos suos in lectulis secum collocari permittant antequam ætatis suæ tertium compleverint. Quod statutum ad minus semel in anno, singulis sacerdotibus volumus promulgari.

This statute is entitled De periculo parvulorum. - DUGDALE'S Monasticon, t. 1, p. 713.

[Benefit of the Supremacy of one Person in a Government.]

"THE firmest and most compendious way of government is when the supremacy resides in one person, whom the people ought to trust, by an indispensable necessity, for their own advantage, in steering the great

vessel of the Commonwealth, with the advice of a select Council: and herein a State may be compared to a galley, wherein some are to observe the compass, others to furl the sails, others to handle the ropes, others to tug at the oar, others to be ready in arms: but there is but one pilot to sit at the helm. It is requisite also that this single person should be attended with a visible standing veteran army, to be paid well, (and punished well if there be cause,) to awe as well as to secure the people; it being the greatest solecism that can be in government, to depend merely upon the affections of the people, for there is not such a wavering windy thing, not such an humoursome and cross-grained animal in the world, as the common people: and what author soever, either Greek or Latin, have pretended to policy, affirm so much. There be divers modern writers that busy their brains to prescribe rules of government, but they involve the reader in universals, or rather bring him to a labyrinth of distinctions, whereby they make the art of mastering men to be more difficult and distracted than it is in itself."—Sober Inspections, p.

182.

[Poor Robin's Almanack.]

IN Poor Robin's Almanack, which used to contain " a Two-fold Calendar, viz. The Julian or English Account, and the Roundheads, Fanaticks, Muggletonians, Nonjuristical and Papistical Account, with the Saints on one side, and the Sinners on the other in each month," Will. Goff has a redlettered day on the wrong side, May 19. It is curious enough that in the same page the name of William Hone appears as another worthy.

[Anchieta's supposed Prophecy relative to

the Gold-mines of Brazil.]

THE Investigador Portuguez (t. 17, p. 219,) gives Anchieta credit for a political

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prophecy that Brazil would never be truly rich till her mines of gold were exhausted, and the people should betake themselves to the cultivation of those articles which in his time were so ignorantly and blindly despised. Anchieta might have said this,—if there had been any mines in his time,—but not a grain of gold was discovered in Brazil till long after his death.

[Guarani Grammar.]

"IN the Guarani there are masculine and feminine interjections of complaint. The woman who expresses grief or suffering says Acai or Acai rare; the man Acucocy."Arte de la Lingua Guarani, p. 120.

They have also different exclamations of wonder and admiration; and these male and female modes of speaking are used upon occasions when it is not possible to account for them by any difference of feeling in the two sexes, or any affectation of superiority in the one. Thus in signifying assent, the woman says Hee, the man Ta.

[How Likeness comes out in the Dead.] SPEAKING of the Bust of Oliver Cromwell at Florence, MR. NOBLE Says-"I must observe that I have frequently been surprized at the features of persons when dead, who have more resembled themselves, than they have for a considerable time before their deaths; the only reason for it that I know of is their being released from sickness and pain, the features take their usual serene appearance."-Memoirs of the Protectoral House, p. 303.

[French Lying.]

In the Moniteur of 4 May, 1806, it is asserted that the French Captain Lucas, in the Formidable, boarded the Victory and threw her people into the greatest confu

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sion, and that in the boarding Nelson was killed. Unluckily two other ships just at this time boarded the Formidable,—and more unluckily still the whole story is false, though Bonaparte thought proper to make Capt. Lucas, on his return from prison, a complimentary speech, and to publish the lying statement.

[Tame Fish of the Isle of Java.]

IN confirmation of Oderic of Portenau's assertion that in the seas around Java the fish "present themselves to the natives to be taken or not as they may incline," MR. MURRAY .says, "marvellous as this report may seem, I am assured by a friend who has long resided in the island, not only that these seas abound with fish beyond almost any other in the world, but that the inhabitants have them tamed and trained so as to come in obedience to a call or whistle." -Historical Account of Discoveries in Asia, vol. 1, p. 190.

This L'ENVOY follows the Preface to John Burnyeat's Works.]

"Go, Little Book, speak out the praise Of Him that did thy author raise An eminent Apostle of our days.

May He that blessed him, bless thee too, That thou the way of Truth may shew To the vain Gentile and benighted Jew.

Who spake thro' him, can speak by thee, And make thy readers hear and see The saving Truths of thy Divinity."

[Candles made of the Pine-splints.] "OUR pine-trees that are the most plentiful of all wood, doth allow us plenty of candles, which are very useful in a house. And they are such candles as the Indians commonly use, having no other, and they are nothing else but the wood of the pine

tree cloven in two little slices, something thin, which are so full of the moisture of turpentine and pitch that they burn as clear as a torch.”—HIGGESON, Mass. Hist. Coll. vol. 1, p. 122.

[Dolus, an vertus quis in hoste requirat ?] VIRG. En.

"-SUA granaque (Marte Arripiente manu penetrantia tela) minutis Abdita speluncis tutis, et ab hostibus, hoste Decedente suo subito repetenda reponit. Artibus Hybernus produxit temporis olim Multum, Marte levis, versutus, durus, inermis

Difficile edomitus, donec secreta latebant Judicia atque doli taciti: fit et sæpe superstes Sæpius hac Indus, victoris victor et ingens." Each King stands on his guard, seeks to defend

Himself and his, and therefore hides his grain

In earth's close concaves, to be fetched again
If he survives: thus saving of himself
He acts much mischief and retains his wealth.
By this deep will the Irish long withstood
The English power, whilst they kept their
food,

Their strength of life their corn; that lost, they long

Could not withstand this nation, wise, stout, strong.

By this one art these nations oft survive Their great'st opponents, and in honour thrive.

MORELL, Ibid. vol. 1, 135.

[Saggamores.]

p.

"FOR their governors," says HIGgeson, "they have Kings, which they call Saggamores, some greater and some lesser, according to the number of their subjects. The greatest Saggamores about us cannot make above three hundred men (that is fighting men) and other Saggamores have

not above fifteen subjects, and others near about us but two."-Mass. Hist. Coll. vol. 1, p. 122.

[Indian Training of Children to be War

amaram

riors.]

"NEC prius exercet crudelia parvulus arma Quam patiens armorum ut sit sibi pectus, [dam, Herbis compositam peramaris sorbiat unUsque in sanguineum vertatur lympha colorem,

Undaque sanguinea ex vomitu rebibenda tenellis

Usque valent maribus; sic fit natura parata Omnia dura pati; puer hæc cui potio grata Pectore fit valido cuncta expugnare pericla." And here observe thou how each child is train'd;

To make him fit for arms he is constrain'd To drink a potion made of herbs most bitter Till turned to blood with casting; whence he's fitter,

Induring that, to undergo the worst Of hard attempts, or what may hurt him most.-MORELL, Ibid. vol. 1, p. 133.

[The Proud Man a great Drinker.] "THE proud man is a great drinker. It is not his belly, but his back that is the drunkard. He pincheth the poor, racks out the other fine, enhanceth the rent, spends his own means, and what he can finger besides, upon clothes. If his rent-day make even with his silkman, mercer, taylor, he is well. And his white Madam drinks deeper than he. The walls of the city are kept in reparation with easier cost than a lady's face, and the appurtenances to her head." -ADAMS'S Divine Herbals, p. 26.

[Primitive English Hardihood.] "DION saith, that Englishmen could suffer watching and labour, hunger and thirst,

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and bear of all storms with head and shoulders; they used slender weapons, went naked and were good soldiers; they fed upon roots and barks of trees: they would stand up to the skin many days in marshes without victuals; and they had a kind of sustenance in time of need, of which, if they had taken but the quantity of a bean, or the weight of a pease, they did neither gape after meat, nor long for the cup a great while after."-STEPHEN GossoN. SCOTT'S Somers' Tracts, vol. 3, p. 560.

[No Taming a Wolf.]

"OUR back country settlers generally say that to tame wolves is as impracticable as to civilize Indians."-Hist. Coll. vol. 4, p. 99.

[Napoleon-an old Name for a Devil.]

THE name however occurs in Authentic Catholic history (the fact having been proved before certain notaries and other competent persons) as the name of a Devil. "Monacha de Sirico Garfagnanæ, a populo de

supra, uxor Bonamici, quæ moratur in Arianâ, quæ est propre Siserana, eodem die dixit, quod ipsa a quinque annis citra semper fuit gravata et vexata a duobus dæmonibus. Unus quorum nominatus Nappoleone."—Miracula S. Zita Virg. Lucensis. Acta Sanctorum, Apr. t. 3, p. 519.

[Defined sense of the word Species.]

THE following passage occurs in MURATORI's remarks upon an inscription in the court of the Cathedral at Lucca, containing the oath which the traders who frequented the fair of St. Martin at that city in the twelfth century were required to take. Heic memorantur dumtaxat Cambiatores et Speciarii. Nomine Cambiatorum (nunc Campsores appellamus) designabantur Argentarii. Nummularii, qui aurum et argentum