83. Fashion.-A lady once asked a minister, whether a person might not pay some attention to dress and the fashions without being proud. "Madam,” replied the minister, "whenever you see the tail of the fox out of the hole, you may be sure the fox is there."

84. Duty of a good Husband.-A minister once paid a visit to a lady of his acquaintance who was newly married, and who was attired in the modern indecent fashion. After the usual compliments, he familiarly said, "I hope you have got a good husband, madam." "Yes, sir," replied she, "and a good man, too." "I don't know what to say about his goodness," added the minister, rather bluntly; "for my Bible teaches me that a man good should clothe his wife; but he lets you go half naked."

85. A convenient habit.-Judge Rooke, in going the western circuit, had a great stone thrown at his head; but from the circumstance of his stooping very much, it passed over him. "You see," said he to his friends, "that had I been an upright judge, I might have been killed."

86. Anecdote of Mr. Sheridan.-His father one day descanting on the pedigree of his family, was regretting that they were no longer styled O'Sheridan, as they had been formerly. "Indeed, father," replied the late celebrated character, then a boy, "we have more right to the O than any one else, for we owe every body."

87. The Scold converted.-The Reverend Mr. W. relates the following circumstance, in one of his journals.-Wednesday 9th, I rode over to a neighbouring town, to wait on a justice of the peace, a man of candour and understanding, before whom I was informed their angry neighbours had carried a whole waggon load of these new heretics (the Methodists.) But when he asked what they had done, there was a deep silence, for that was a point their conductors had forgot! At length one said, "Why, they pretend to be better than other people; and, besides, they pray from morning to night." Mr. S. asked, "But have they done nothing besides ?" 66 Yes, sir," said an old man; "an't please your wor◄ ship, they have convarted my wife.

Till she went among them,

she had such a tongue, and now she is as quiet as a lamb!"

"Carry them back, carry them back," replied the justice,

let them convert all the scolds in the town."

" and

88. Veneration for the Bible.-It is recorded of our Edward VI. that, upon a certain occasion, a paper which was called for in the council chamber happened to be out of reach: the person concerned to produce it took a Bible that lay by, and, standing upon it, reached down the paper. The king, observing what was done, ran himself to the place, and, taking the Bible in his hands, kissed it, and laid it up again. This circumstance, though trifling in itself, showed his majesty's great reverence for and affection to that best of all books; and whose example is a striking reproof to those who suffer their Bibles to be covered with dust for months together, or throw them about as if they were of little value, or only a piece of useless lumber.

89. Anecdote of Mr. Bacon. Mr. Cecil observes of the ingenious artist, Bacon, that though he was naturally irritable, yet he was not at all vindictive: he was warm in his attachments, but more disposed to lament his wrongs than to resent them. "I do not recollect," says Mr. C., "any one in whom I have observed so much natural irritability tempered with such meekness and forbearance. The following instance will exemplify this remark. While Mr. Bacon was walking one day in Westminster Abbey, he observed a person standing before his principal work, who seemed to pride himself on his taste and skill in the arts, and who was exuberant in his remarks. "This monument of Chatham," said he to Mr. B. (whom it is evident he took for a stranger,) “is admirable upon the whole, but it has great defects." "I should be greatly obliged," said Mr. B., "if you would be so kind as to point them out to me.” "Why, here," said the critic; "and there do you not see? Bad-very bad!" at the same time employing his stick upon the lower figures with a violence that was likely to injure the work. "But," said Mr. B., "I should be glad to be acquainted why the parts you touched are bad?" He found, however, nothing determinate in the reply, but the same vague assertions repeated, and accompanied with the same violence. "I told Bacon," said he, "repeatedly of this while the monument was forming: I pointed out other defects; but I could not con

vince him." "What, then you are personally acquainted with Bacon?" said Mr. B. "O yes," replied the stranger; "I have been intimate with him for many years." Mr. B., instead of being roused to indignant anger, only said, "It is well for you then," taking his leave of him, "that your friend Bacon is not now at your elbow; for he would not have been pleased at seeing his work so roughly handled."

- 90. Sagacity of dogs.-M. la Valee, in his journey through the Departments of France, published in 1792, gives the following curious account of the manner in which the country people, in the neighbourhood of Peronne and Doulens, had trained their dogs to elude the vigilance of the officers of the revenue. At night these animals were laden, each with a parcel of goods proportioned to its size; except one alone, who was their leader, and went without any burden. A crack of a whip was the signal for them to set out. The leader travelled a little distance before the rest; and, if he perceived the traces of any stranger, he returned to the other dogs; these either took a different way, or, if the danger was pressing, concealed themselves behind the hedges, and lay close till the patrol had passed. When they arrived at the habitation of their master's associate, they hid themselves in the neighbouring fields and hedges, while their leader went to the house, and scratched at the door, or barked, till he was admitted, when he lay quietly down, as at home; by this the smug gler knew that the caravan was come; and, if the coast was clear, he went out, when he gave a loud whistle, and the dogs came running to him from their several hiding-places!

91. Curious Invention.--Petrus Ramus tells us of a wooden eagle and an iron fly, made by Regiomontanus, a famous mathematician of Nuremberg, whereof the first flew forth out of the city, aloft in the air, met the Emperor Maximilian a good way off, coming towards it; and, having saluted him, returned again, waiting on him at the city gates. The second, at a feast, whereto he had invited his familiar friends, flew forth from his hand, and, taking a round, returned thither again, to the great astonishmeist of the beholders.

92. Plagiarism-Mr. Heard having heard Dr. M

preach,

the doctor afterwards asked him how he liked his sermon. “Like

it!" said Mr. H., "why, sir, I have liked it and admired it these twenty years." The doctor stared. "Upon that shelf," added Mr. H., "you will find it verbatim. Mr. Boehm was an excellent preacher." Mr. H. was a bookseller; and booksellers are sometimes dangerous hearers, when a preacher deals in borrowed

sermons.

93. Caledonian Longevity.-In the month of August, 1789, arrived in town, from Inverness in Scotland, one Macleod, an outpensioner of Chelsea Hospital. This extraordinary man, though in the one hundred and first year of his age, had walked from the place of his residence, five hundred and fifty miles distant from London, in nineteen days, without the least relief on the road. His object in coming to town was to solicit some little assistance, through the medium of the colonel in whose regiment he last served, having married a second wife, by whom he has one son, between six and seven years of age. He stated, that in all probability he should soon have a further increase of family, and that his pension would not be sufficient to support them. He is a remarkably stout man, and of a florid complexion. His hair is perfectly white. He first enlisted in the army two years previous to Queen Anne's ascending the throne, and served in Germany under the great Duke of Marlborough, in all that queen's wars.

94. The practical Hearer.-A poor woman in the country went to hear a sermon, wherein, among other evil practices, the use of dishonest weights and measures was exposed. With this discourse she was much affected. The next day, when the minister, according to his custom, went among his hearers, and called upon the woman, he took occasion to ask her what she remembered

of his sermon. The poor woman complained much of her bad memory, and said she had forgotten almost all that he delivered. "But one thing," said she, "I remembered; I remembered to burn my bushel."-A doer of the Word cannot be a forgetful hearer.

95. The punctual Hearer.-A woman who always used to attend public worship with great punctuality, and took care to be always in time, was asked how it was she could always come so early; she answered, very wisely, "That it was part of her religion not to disturb the religion of others."

96. The late Hearer.-A minister, observing that some of his people made a practice of coming in very late, and after a considerable part of the sermon was gone through, was determined that they should feel the force of a public reproof. One day, therefore, as they entered the place of worship at their usual late period, the minister, addressing his congregation, said, "But, my hearers, it is time for us now to conclude, for here are our friends just come to fetch us home." We may easily conjecture what the parties felt at this curious but pointed address.

97. The biter bitten.-Some time ago, a man in the neighbourhood of Leeds, who was weary of his wife, after buying a piece of beef, and rubbing it well over with arsenic, ordered her to roast it for dinner. While it was roasting, the woman was taken so ill, that though he pressed her much, she could not eat a morsel of it: and he making some excuse for not eating of it himself, it was put by for the next day.

But the next day he brought home some fish, and ordered his wife to dress them for his dinner. This being done, he sat down, and ate very heartily. But before he had done, he was taken very ill. On asking his wife what she had fried the fish with, she said, "With the dripping of the beef I roasted yesterday?" On hearing this he cried out, "Then I am a dead man!" Then throwing down his knife and fork, he confessed what he had done, and died in about two hours!

98. Godlike to forgive.-A gentleman once went to Sir Eardley Wilmot, Knt. (when Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas,) under the impression of great wrath and indignation at a real injury he had received from a person high in the political world, and which he was meditating how to resent in the most effectual manner. After relating the particulars, he asked Sir Eardley if he did not think it would be manly to resent it. "Yes," said the knight, "it will be manly to resent it, but it will be Godlike to forgive it." The gentleman declared that this had such an instantaneous effect upon him that he came away quite a different man, and in a very different temper from that in which he went.

99. Account of a Wild Man.-In 1774, a wild man was discovered by the shepherds in the neighbourhood of Yuary. This man, who inhabited the rocks near a forest, was very tall, covered