saints, which are shewn off by a strong light in the back ground; and it has much the appearance of a magic lautern. As the pilgrims advance, they batter their foreheads against the upper step, more or less according to their superstition, or the weight of sin that overwhelms them; and then, as the same method of descent, being as 1 have informed you, upon their knees, might possibly be more ra▾ pid, they go off at the top through two narrow passages or defiles that look like a couple of cracks in the wall; which, I suppose, are intended to answer the purpose of a weighing machine, to ascertain how much they are wasted by fasting and praying.

It was evident that they had not used the same artificial means of reducing themselves, that a Newmarket jockey does, by wearing a dozen flannel waistcoats at a time, for most of them were barely covered with the remnant of a shirt-what fasting might have done I know not, but am apt to give very little credit to the effect of their prayers.--Indeed there was a more natural way of accounting for their leanness, as most of them had walked some hundreds of miles previous to the ceremony; and we may discover a cause for the strange attitude which they used on the occasion, by conjecturing, that being leg-weary, they had recourse to their knees by way of a change.

These narrow passages did well enough for a mortified taper catholic, (one or two of whom I have seen towards the conclusion of Lent, reduced to such a point that one might almost have threaded a bodkin with them) but in nowise answered the purpose of your portly well-fed protestant; so

Abel, as was easy to foresee, stuck fast in the middle several of them endeavoured to pull him through, till at last he was so completely wedged in that he could neither get backwards nor forwardsFinding him in this situation, the pilgrims were suddenly disarmed of sufficient strength to withstand the temptations of their old pilfering system; so one ran away with his hat, another clawed hold of his hair, and had very nearly scalped him, supposing it to be a wig-In short, after a violent exertion, Abel effected his escape, and promised to make no more religious experiments for the present; but is persuaded that he should never have got through, had it not been for the interference of the crucifix and portable saints. Ramble through

Holland, France, and Italy.

"You are always yawning," said a woman to her husband. 66 My dear friend,” replied he, "the husband and wife are one, and when I am alone I grow weary."

THE following curious circumstance took place soon after Foote's marriage. He and his wife were invited by his father to spend a month with him in Cornwall; when, very much to their surprise, on the first night, as they were going to bed, they were entertained with a concert of music, seemingly under their window, executed in a capital style. This lasted about twenty minutes. On relating the circumstance next morning to the father, and complimenting him upon his gallantry, he absolutely denied any knowledge of the affair, and

R

doubted the possibility of its occuring. The young couple, however, were positive as to what they had heard; and our hero was so impressed by it, that he made a memorandum of the time, which afterwards turned out to be the very night of his uncle, sir John Dineley Goodere, being murdered by his unnatural brother.

66

Foote always asserted the fact of this occurrence with a most striking gravity of belief, though he could by no means account for it. One day, being asked whether he ought not to attribute it to a supernatural cause? he replied, No; I never could bring my mind to that: but this I can tell you; it has made such an impression upon me, that if I once thought so, I would not be out of a convent a single day longer."

Foote's Memoirs, v. 2, p. 2.

FENELON was still more beloved in foreign countries than in France. During the war of 1701, prince Eugene and the duke of Marlborough treated him with every kind of homage. They sent detachments to guard his corn and his meadows. They even had his property carried and escorted to Cambray, for fear it should be carried off by plunderers in their army. When any party of the enemy learnt that he wished to take any journey in his diocese, they informed him that he need not have a French escort, and that they would escort him themselves. The hussars, of the imperial troops, even rendered him their service.-Such empire has true virtue over the mind.

Collectanea, v. 2, p. 7

MALHERBE, the father of good taste in French poetry, was a man whose wit was most lively, fertile, and instantaneous. A beggar in the streets of Paris once followed the poet a great way, craving alms in the urgent language of distress, and repeatedly promising to pray to God to reward the charitable deed. "Your wants, indeed," said Malherbe," appear to be pressing, and deserve pity; but as to your prayers, I cannot think that God would pay much regard to them, when he leaves you in such a ragged and wretched condition."

His cotemporaries tell us, that nothing gave him so much pain as the blunders of ignorance, or the effusions of stupid and tasteles vulgarity. Of this, we have strong proof even in his dying moments. A low-bred priest attended him on the occasion, and kept babbling for a long time in miserable jargon about the joys of heaven. "Ah!" exclaimed Malherbe, almost with his last breath, "Ah! for God's sake, say no more of heaven; for your bad style would give me a disgust to it."

Light Reading at Leisure Hours, p. 82.

THERE are heavy hours, in which the mind of a man of letters is unhinged; when the intellectual faculties lose all their elasticity, and when nothing but the simplest actions are adapted to their enfeebled state. At such hours it is recorded of the great Mendelsohn, that he would stand at his window, and count the tiles of his neighbour's house. An anonymous writer has told of Bayle, that he would frequently wrap himself in his cloak, and hasten to public places where mountebanks re

sorted; and that this was one of his chief amusements. He is surprized that so great a philosopher should delight in so trifling an object. This observation is not injurious to the character of Bayle; it only proves that the writer himself was no philosopher. Curiosities of Literature, v. 2.

SWIFT has frequently been charged with impiety. After this very free paraphrase of so solemn an article as the belief, it cannot be said that the charge is entirely without foundation. "I believe in king George the II.; the greatest captain, and the wisest monarch between heaven and earth; and in sir Robert Walpole, his only minister our lord: who was begotton of Barrett the attorney, born of Mrs W. of Houghton, accused of corruption, convicted, expelled, and imprisoned: he went down into Norfolk: the third year he came up again. He ascended into the administration, and sitteth at the head of the treasury, from whence he shall pay all those who vote as they are commanded.

"I believe in Horace's* treaty, the sanctity of the bishops, the independency of the lords, the integrity of the commons, restitution from the Spaniards, resurrection of credit, discharge of the public debts, and peace everlasting. Amen." Swiftiana, v. 1, p. 42.

DIRECTIONS for eating a hot hasty-pudding.The hasty-pudding being spread out equally on a plate while hot, an excavation is made in the middle of it with a spoon, into which excavation a

Horace Walpole, brother to sir Robert. The treaty of Gertruydenberg is alluded to.