ever, whimsical. I think I can turn to it. Here it is.

"RIGHT HONOURABLE,.

"I have received a trumpeter of yours, as he tells me, without your pafs (he had forgot it, it seems, and left it behind him upon the table), to render Hume Caftle to the Lord General

Cromwell. Please you, I never faw your general, nor know your general.

Castle, it ftands upon a rock.

1

As for Hume

"Given at Hume Castle, this day before feven o'clock. So refteth, without prejudice. of his native country,

Your moft humble fervant,

JOHN COCKBURN."

Maxim of Writing.

We must speak to the eyes, if we wish to

affect the mind.

Hieroglyphic.

A farmer of the gabelle on falt had built a villa like a palace. Difplaying it to his friends, it was observed, that a ftatue was wanting for a large niche in the vestibule. "I mean to put there," faid the farmer, "fome allegorical ftatue relating to my business."-" You may then put Lot's wife, who was changed to a ftatue of falt," anfwered one of his friends.

Fools by Profeffion.

Our court-fools ceafed with the reign of Charles I. L'Angely was the last in France. He was prefented by the Prince of Conti to Louis XIV. Being afked why he never attended fermon, he answered, "Because I hate noise, and do not understand reafoning."

Elegant Compliment.

A French officer being juft arrived at the court of Vienna, and the empress hearing that he had the day before been in company with a great lady, asked him if it were true that fhe was the most handfome princefs of her time? The officer answered, with great gallantry,, «Madam, I thought so yesterday.”

Algarotti.

Algarotti is a lively and pleasant writer, and fometimes conveys his thoughts in elegant metaphor; for example: "Lo stile di Bacone, uomo di altiffima dottrina, abbonda di viviffimi penfieri. Nella maggior profondita d'acqua, fi trovano le perle piu groffe." "The ftyle of Bacon, a man of the most profound learning, abounds in moft lively thoughts. In the greater depth of water the larger pearls are found."

Romance Tongue.

I find that it was about the ninth century that barbarous Latin began to give place to the modern

modern languages of France, Spain and Italy. The council of Tours, in the year 813, ordered the priests to preach in romance, that they might be understood by the people. We have an odd idea that the clergy did not preach before the reformation. The Roman Catholic clergy always preached, and do preach, in the vulgar tongue.

Riddle.

The French delight to try the efprit of children by a kind of riddles. For example: A man has a little boat, in which he must carry, from one fide of a river to the other, a wolf, a goat, and a cabbage; and must not carry more than one of thefe at once. Which fhall he take firft, without the rifk that, during one of his navigations, the wolf may devour the goat, or the goat the cabbage? Suppofe he carry the wolf, the cabbage is loft-if the cabbage, the goat is devoured-if the goat, the embarraffment is equal; for he muft rifk. his goat, or his cabbage, on the other fide of the river.

The answer is, he must take the goat firft, the wolf will not touch the cabbage; in the fecond paffage he carries the cabbage, and brings back the goat; in the third he tranfports the wolf, which may again be fafely left with the: cabbage.. He concludes with returning for the goat..

Original

I AM much obliged to you for the many ci vil and kind expreffions in your letter, and for the friendly information you give me. Partiality, I fear, dictated the former; but the laft I can only afcribe to the goodness of your heart.

I have published nothing of any fize but the pieces you mention, and one or two fmall tracts, now out of print and forgotten. The reft have been prefaces to fome of my Strawberry editions, and to a few other publications, and fome fugitive pieces, which I reprinted fome years ago in a fmall volume, and which fhall be at your fervice, with the Catalogue of Noble Authors.

With regard to the bookfeller who has taken the pains of collecting my writings for an edition (amongst which I do not doubt but he will generously beftow on me many that I did not write, according to the liberal practice of fuch compilers), and who alfo intends to write my life, to which as I never did any thing worthy of the notice of the public, he muft likewife be a volunteer contributor) it would be vain for me to endeavour to prevent fuch a defign. Whofoever has been fo unadvised as to throw himself on the public, muft pay fuch a tax in a pamphlet or magazine when he dies; but happily the infects that prey on carrion are ftill more fhort-lived than the carcaffes were from which they draw their nutriment. Thofe

momen

momentary abortions live but a day, and are thruft afide by like embryos. Literary characters, when not illuftrious, are known only to a few literary men; and amidst the world of books, few readers can come to my share. Printing, that fecures existence (in libraries) to indifferent authors of any bulk, is like thofe cafes of Egyptian mummies which, in catacombs, preferves bodies of one knows not whom, and which are feribbled over with characters that nobody attempts to read, till nobody understands the language in which they were written.

I believe, therefore, it will be most wife to fwim for a moment on the paffing current, fecure that it will foon hurry me into the ocean where all things are forgotten. To appoint a biographer is to befpeak a panegyric; and I doubt whether they who collect their works for the public, and, like me, are conscious of no intrinfic worth, do but beg mankind to accept of talents (whatever they were) in lieu of vir tues. To anticipate fpurious publications by acomprehenfive and authentic one, is almoft as great an evil; it is giving a body to scattered atoms; and fuch an act in one's old age is declaring a fondnefs for the indifcretions of youth, or for the trifles of an age, which, though more mature, is only the lefs excufeable. It is most true, Sir, that fo far from being pre-: judiced in favour of my own writings, I am perfuaded, that had I thought early as I think now, I fhould never have appeared as an au thor. Age, frequent illness, and pain, have: given me as many hours of reflection in the intervals of the two latter, as the two latter have

drawn